Aiming to rage at press saying "the next Klopette". Ms Ackerman's journeyman career.

[Death Ball]

The wins in a row in the league lasted only four matches, after which there was never a consistent run of form, though it was not poor. Very annoying was the 3-4 loss against affiliate Leixões, in which Chaves was 3-0 up in half time to then see how the players refused to defend any set piece. A pity was not being able to reflect the dominance against Oriental and losing the goal advantage against Freamunde. But in the end, good campaign to comply with the board expectations of above mid table finish.

Player performances has been very pleasing, with Fixe making it among the top goalscorers, Jean in the charts for assists, average rating, player of the match awards and making it into the Segunda Liga's team of the year. Fixe, João Mario and Jean leading in goals. Jean, João Mario and Patrão in assists. Centrebacks leading in interceptions with anchor man Luciano Teixeira, and tackles for fullbacks and Teixeira, with loanee Magalhães high in tackles attempted. regarding team, Chaves is one of the teams who's scored more goals. And with the least bookings, has earned the fair play award.

In a bit of other news, the youth intake only had one decent player: Pierre Muller. Viktoria has learned Portuguese and has improved in a few things, specially her defense and tactical coaching.

At the end of the season, the board offered Viktoria a new contract, much better than she had ever had; but due to the financial situation, she took it down to 1K p/w from the original 1.7 and gave up on the avoiding relegation clause to save money. The board had injected 120K twice, once in march and again in May. The more than half a million prize for finishing eightth, minus the over one hundred thousand bonus payouts, was just shy to get the club in positive balance. It will be a small budget for next season, which will have a five week preseason length, which Viktoria has taken already all to the wages. The board is just content with her ((overall dropped from 53% to 51% with no change)).

Not shown with screens, there were a number of players, more than a few important, whose contracts were ending this season. Viktoria offered contracts with less wages and less bonuses, managing to convince most of the important players: Patrão, Teixeira, João Mario, Tarcísio. Failing with two: Fixe, who then she just activated the one year extension during final year clause, and Carraça, who is to abandon the team.

The rest will be let go, which includes the left back who was unregistered when she arrived and I barely remember being named João Vicente, who was on a whooping 600p/w wages.

Part of the plan is that, despite his good performances, if there's a chance to unload Copa, on 1400p/w, she will. If Arnold, who recovered from injury three weeks before the end of the season, not September, who is on 1300p/w can be unloaded then he will. Otherwise, her plan is first to search for loan players who can come without paying a penny, if not, loaned players who can be on low wages, then free transfer and she's willing to even use youth players. A risky thing if it comes to that, but needed if Chaves is to become a financially healthy club and have funds to pay for more coaching courses. She's even considering taking advantage of interest in Jean and Patrão and sell them if it gives the team a positive balance, though that's a big decision.

Now it would be the time when Viktoria would have considered other jobs. There's a top division vacancy, the B teams of Porto and Benfica. But she's not going to apply to them no matter how tempting: the first is in worse debt than Chaves and may well be too much a jump in reputation, the other two are B teams who would bar promotion. And she had made the purpose of not moving from Chaves like that, she wants to stay a few seasons.

On curious notes: Colomiers were relegated past season, the next after her departure; Woluwe survived barely and this has been relegated, Coruxo has achieved a mid table finish after struggling near the relegation zone in the middle of the season.

 

[Death Ball]

Back with a small update of the between seasons bits of news and some important ones.

Starting with the usual end of seasons awards and the like, there is no surprise regarding the fan's player of the season being Jean and there is neither surprises in the best eleven.

The pitch has been relaid up to perfect condition, which is good considering the injuries the team suffered towards the end of the season. Luckily the worse were bad estimation of length by physios: Fixe was said to be out for four months but he was back after three weeks.

The fixtures for the new season have been announced and it looks good enough, with fixtures not piling up any patch of hard games that I recognize. For it the promised expectation is the minimum of top half finish demanded by the board.

Financially I already talked about the situation. In the next update you'll see Chaves went up to almost positive balance, but not quite. It is good news that the TV money will be respectable.

Regarding contracts of staff and players, most of the staff finished their contracts after refusing reduced salaries. All coaches left and I only kept one physio, the U19 manager and two scouts. I had to hire a new assistant manager, chief scout, head of youth development and two coaches: one for fitness and one for goalkeepers. In the end I think we're better in terms of coaching ability.

On the side of the squad, the two big moves that were thought have been made, one including one not planned. Viktoria got rid of the big contracts of Copa (€1.300 p/w) and Arnold (€1.200 p/w). Copa was exchanged for central midfielder Bruno Alves, while Arnold was exchanged along some steep bonuses that are either not that likely to happen or if they happen Chaves'll still win for young goalkeeper Rafael Lopes. Since Lopes was largely a risk, Viktoria chose to try renew Ribeiro's contract with lesser wages and bonuses, which he accepted, so it's guaranteed a goalkeeper who's good enough, if not as good as she'd wish.

_____

And on OOC note, I'm thinking on loading more leagues. At the moment the only I can load to start active this season is the Serbian league, which I'll activate. Then I'm thinking on Norway and perhaps Croatia, Russia and maybe either Czech Republic, Hungary or Austria.I think my PC can handle them well. I accept suggestions.

 

[Death Ball]

After the end of the 16/17 season, there was the time for delving into the transfer window, as a series of players had left the club. Before the window even opened, two deals had been agreed to diminish the wage bill, with two player exchanges that saw Rafael Lopes and Bruno Alves in and big earners Copa and Arnold out. After that the most blatant weakness was the centreback position, in which Chaves had been left with only Eduardo Enrique as good centreback. Neither Silas or Magalhães accepted to return on loan. No potential loaness of enough quality were found so Viktoria had to sign players. She chose João Lima for starter and then Philipe backup. The final signings were right back Oto'o to have some back up in fullback position and André Fontes for midfield.

I don't have screens of the other two. Philipe is faster but not great in the air. André Fontes is a balanced midfielder who can be used at any position, many 10-11 attributes.

The news of transfer fees received though the clauses at the sale of a player sold before her time lightened Viktoria's mood... until she reached the amount paid... over a year. Financially the situation barely improved, after seeing the balance go up to only ten thousand euros in the red, the club has begun to incur in losses that see the club needing success in the coming season.

For the league, the board wants Viktoria to repeat past season and achieve an above mid table finish, which bookies think is not unlikely. In the cups the expectations are basically to not embarrass the team. According to the scouts, the squad's quality should be enough to do the job, with the goalkeepers as the weak point. The worse thing is that Jean picked a four months injury at the start of the preseason. Pierre Muller, centreback, was promoted from the U19 to the first team, his main weakness is minimum bravery.

After a good preseason, the cup placed Chaves in the four team group along Beira-Mar (touch), AC Viseu (challenging) and Oliveirense (possibly easy). The group matches are played before the start of the season. It began with a defeat to Beira-Mar but then was followed by two wins that qualify Chaves for the next round.

Then the league started and saw two wins followed by two defeats. The tactics employed are a tweak of the past season's tactic, a defensive 4-1-3-2. Despite de heavy defeat to Varzim, signs aren't bad for Viktoria's team, though things could go any way at this point, when Chaves is just twelfth. Not to forget two goals by Varzim were when Chaves was chasing the game and because Lopes seemed to think he was just to witness the ball move across the area under his nose and then be tapped into goal.

Regarding the team performances, they're satisfactory, other than Lopes' match against Varzim. A few players averaging above 7 rating. Baldé, the starting left fullback, having almost as many key passes as the main creator, Patrão. Key tackles are much fewer than key passes or key aerial challenges. Tackles aren't lead by the centrebacks, who put a good share of interceptions, where the defensive midfielder, Luciano Teixeira, is the leader. Strikers look good getting goals and giving assists to each other, with Patrão joining from the midfield. The only worrisome sign is the low pass completion at the back.

 

[Lippo255]

Loving the detail you're putting into this, had never occurred to me to cover player stats so comprehensively!

Here's hoping for another good year for Chaves & Ms Ackerman.

 

[Death Ball]

Having completed the first third of the season, things look to have gone very well for Ms Ackerman. Her team is at the top of the table with three points advantage over the second, qualified for the cups in phases Chaves wasn't expected to reach. It is the season of the records for Chaves: highest attendance, unbeaten run, consecutive wins... Ackerman received the manager of the month award for October and may well be looking to be the manager of the season, with Chaves the overachieving team.

The winning record in any competition was stopped at ten, once União da Madeira got a draw in the League Cup, where Chaves was the only Segunda Liga team to beat the Liga NOS team and reach the third phase of the Taça da Liga.

The player performances have been very good as well. Fixe second in the goalscorer list, Bacar Baldé the highest rated player and with most man of the match awards, Paulo Ribeiro the second with the most clean sheets.

The strikers are continuing the great run of form of the last season, with Djibril Sidibé finally setting up in the team, scoring five and assisting five times. The other outstanding name is Bacar Baldé, another Ackerman signing, who's scored four goals (three penalties, one in play) and given five assists as the leftback of a 4-1-3-2, to become the top rated player of the team. Joint second in the assists for the team with the strikers. Sagna just behind with four assist from the other flank. Despite the narrow formation, many of the goals are headers from crosses. Chaves may be using a narrow formation, but the assists come from the flanks or the strikers themselves.

Key passes seem to be balanced to appearances across the board, with nobody standing above the rest. Interceptions and tackles begin to show the pattern desired: players around centrebacks put the tackles in, centerbacks intercept. Ribeiro seems the better goalkeeper, with the better ratio of goals conceded per appearances and the most clean sheets, double than Lopes playing less than double. Pass completion at the back still as poor as the start of the season, then again Ackerman isn't asking them to keep it short or avoid low precission, long passes.

Sidibé, having got to start his better performances now, gives me an idea to change the usual way in which business is made: keep the transfer budget in summer and make the signings in January. Let the players have the second half of the season to adapt and then they'll be ready for the next. The problem with that now is we're a Segunda Liga team and we're not going to attract the same quality we could get in summer after promotion. That leaves me with the dilemma: sign now for a tough first season in the top flight, assuming we don't crash before, or go normally and test the idea once the team is established, but I think I will go with it. One can't innovate with fear to do so. Now it is the moment to think about January then.

It has been a temptation to look for a better goalkeeper, since the scouts tell me that's the weakest position. A look at the market offers nothing better or with enough improvement to justify a signing, so we'll surely go on with Ribeiro and Lopes.

The second problem to think in terms of transfers now is Jean. Past season he was our key man. So far this season, he's not shown anything of that in his ten appearances. It probably is a matter of his lengthy injury, almost three months, and in time he should recover and give us a jump of quality that can be crucial for promotion. On the other hand, to the possibility he doesn't quite recover or that the small tweaks of the tactic from past season are the culprit, there is the financial situation of the club and the interest in him. I could try to get some ten of thousands euros for him, ease the finances, increase likelihood of getting a new coaching course and find a replacement who's cheaper but not worse than he's being so far. Against is the feeling after Francisco Delgado's injury that we're a bit short in midfield so losing him could be a bad idea. With the cups we've had big problems with rotation, having to play half the squad tired. Then with the finances as they are, I'm reluctant to sign new players.

The third and final market consideration comes from Oto'o. He's been okay when I used it, but he's got an injury every time within ten minutes. He's only played till the end once. That's not acceptable. I need to find a way to swap him.

Financially, Chaves keeps losing money each month and again it is projected to finish the season with around a million euros in the red. Despite that, all the records and the amazing performance in the league and cups, have the board very pleased with Ackerman.

On more anecdotic notes, Viktoria had a day of fame in Portugal after the third round match of the Taça da Portugal match against Pampilhosa. Playing with a heavily rotated - and tired - team against lower division Pampilhosa, she joined the player celebration on the picth after the first goal scored by Luciano Teixeira in the 94th minute that saved the team from the extra effort of playing over time. «I was so worried with the fitness for the league that I would have preferred to lose than to have extra time and win, that goal took a lot of weight off» she declared in the post match interview.

I was thinking the players would be so exhausted for the next match a big injury crisis might be coming to ruin the season, in the end no such thing happened. The prize money for the two rounds won was a combined €4K. Also two very late goals, that must be recorded.

 

[JamesScott2908]

Love the effort and detail that goes into this! Hopefully Chavez can get the promotion and the coaching courses can commence with bigger riches!

 

[Death Ball]

Unbeaten run in the league was finally over after thirteen matches. A shorter run happened after, but not so long, though enough to get Viktoria another manager of the month award, with the problem of the Taça da Liga adding four matches against top teams in the second group phase that can only cause drop in morale, injuries and fitness trouble, though so far there's been luck with injuries. And for what? After the second match Chaves was already eliminated, only worth if in the end the prize money to reach is good to help finances.

At least, the home match of the Taça da Liga helped a little with a record high attendance and high receipt. The board also offered Viktoria a new deal, but she didn't want to talk about new contract just yet. They also offered to change the aim of the season, but she didn't change it. Also was the not so good record of highest goals conceded in the Taça da Liga.

In the league, Chaves remain at the top, with four points advantage over Belenenses and seven above Boavista, after the last defeat against Trofense, who won in the first half of the league.

During December I was thinking on Jean, how he had not returned to his form from last season and I though a part was after the touches to the system, with Baldé joining the attack, he was now more worried for covering his back. After offering him for eighty thousand, Panthrakikos offered around thirty. Not bad. I looked for players of his type and then I found Chidi, one very similar but clearly better, who was expected to ask for less. After dealing with him and getting him to sign a contract slightly cheaper than Jean's, I accepted Panthrakikos' offer so Jean was out. In the end, it's barely saving money but team should be improved.

Oto'o came to me asking for more first team time, which I wouldn't give to him as he gets so many knocks, so he's out and I found Jorge Silva to be the back up.

And finally, though the strikers have been very good, in recent times it seems as if Fixe and Sidibé are running out. Sidibé has just come back from an eleven hour goal drought. And since there's a chance of top division football, I decided to forget financial worries and bring Simy, hoping he'll help while he settles this half of the season and have some improvement in the striker position, specially in regards to aerial play, where Fixe is very poor and considering how many goals come from headers. Best of all is he accepted a rotation role.

Since Lima was not all that convincing and he's not great in the air, I also brought young Kaiser to fill the centreback position.

 

[Death Ball]

«Closing to the end of the season, Viktoria hasn't been happy at all in a long while. Some say it's the rot of form, but many have pointed her lack of enthusiasm in celebrating Chaves' goals since January ended. It's said that's rubbing on to the squad and the team is in a phase of depressed game.»

[color="#5F00000"]I don't know who's the idiot who writes articles like that. Though one thing is true: I knew this rot was coming since well November. The strikers lost their sharpness and we had been very lucky to win many of those games. In January it become clear to me promotion would be beyond out ability, even if I did some things thinking on the jump and even after I did, like hiring Norinho, hoping his speed may give that edge we're lacking this season. Things haven't been made any easier by injuries preventing making rotations or giving time to keep match fitness levels.[/color]

Despite all, Chaves is still in the fight for the second promotion place, after Belenenses ran away with the league, ensuring the win with five matches to end the season. The most annoying thing of that is I miss on the manager of the season award.

The four next games include a hard fight against Belenenses, while third placed plays them in the closing fixture. Even so, anything that's not winning the other three is losing the promotion tace, and that's exactly what will happen, I'm sure of it. I hope the prize money will allow to pay my coaching course, at least. For now I'm declining any talks to renew my contract, though I will renew as the season finishes as sure as we'll stay here.

And that may not happen, as she's spending 50K plus 200K over 18 months in Luis Norinho. Also she's bringing to Chaves a few youngsters who had no contracts to add to the three youth candidates she approved.

In other notes, Fixe broke two records: goals and assists, mostly thanks to his pre December form. Gonçalo Gomes gets a small wage increase and a few bonuses are paid for guaranteeing survival in Segunda Liga quite late despite being so high in the table, to have the club at a negative balance of over six hundred thousand euros.

Finally, the team stats show that Fixe and Sidibé are the key players up top, with Baldé the most important of the others. João Mario could have been there but injuries made him miss a good deal of matches.

 

[Death Ball]

As Ackerman expected, the other three games than Belenenses weren't won. But Beira-Mar had an unexpected slip! Chaves is up to Liga Nos finishing second thanks to their head to head record against Beira-Mar with 85 points.

Because of invisible scroll bar I didn't realize it returned up and the screenie I took doesn't show the two wins, 0-2 loss in the last match and the 3-3 draw against Belenenses

In the way to the end of the season, Viktoria calmed the fans and board accepting a new contract. With the end of the season came the awards and prizes. Not enough yet to get a positive bank balance. Baldé got the most PoM award and Ms. Ackerman the manager of the year. The promotion was complimented with the U19 win of their league.

Also, Fixe gets a bonus for reaching twenty goals, which is also the goalscoring record in league for him.

Best fan player, season and ever best elevens are chosen. The only surprise I see is that of Gonçalo Gomes in the best ever XI.

There's not been long enough to have a significative change regarding stats, but there they go.

Next season I'll use a cleaner view, or so I think it will be.

With the arrival of the commercial summary, with new deals of sponsorhips and TV, the finances have a little bump...

... that is enough to pay for Ackerman's coaching course to get the Continental B license! And to have a considerable raise in wage budgets, which covers much more than the wage raises triggered by promotion.

Finally the preseason is set to last the maximum possible seven weeks, where Ms Ackerman will work on signings and tactics. It is thought she won't be using the same tactics used this season. Some fans are unhappy with her, though, as it's been spread the idea she's planning on signing some oriental player just for the shirts income.

((Also, I decided to load two new countries and unload two divisions and one country

))

 

[Lippo255]

Wow, what a year for Chaves & Viktoria!

Well done on promotion & M.O.Y. interested to see how Chaves cope with the step up next year.

 

[xJamieWilliams]

Wow, what a year for Chaves & Viktoria!

Well done on promotion & M.O.Y. interested to see how Chaves cope with the step up next year.

Lippo are you flirting?

 

[Lippo255]

Lippo are you flirting?

Jealous Jamie?

 

[xJamieWilliams]

Jealous Jamie?

You've been ignored, Lippo..

 

[Lippo255]

You've been ignored, Lippo..

Story of my life :'(

 

[Death Ball]

Near the start of the transfer window, two news to mention happen: the link with Leixões ends because Chaves is a division above and the board presents Viktoria with the final choice of a parent club. Finally! She chose Genoa because it's the one paying more, double than the rest.

For the first time, FFP will be a factor Viktoria will need to consider, though not really of importance, considering the financial position of her clubs have forced her to look out not to overspend. With the new season there are other good news: TV deals that will bring more money to Chaves, extended scouting range, new coaches and, with the first match of the season, a new record attendance and gate receipt. Little change to budgets as expectation is kept at try to avoid relegation and cup prize money is kept to the minimum.

The odds say the expectations set to the board are realistic: Chaves can't hope for anything more than staying up if things go really well.

The transfers made lead to decide upon making the Chaves pitch not as narrow and a tad less long.

In transfers, the youngsters came first July as did Norinho, the only transfer with a fee and João Amorim, a fullback who's not too fast nor too great in the air but will provide good backup. Other than them, only three players have been added to the squad by Viktoria: Leonardo Mancuso, picked by his versatility and chosen to play in the wing opposite to Fixe, who will return to his natural right wing, and two loans from Genoa, using the new link: Youssef Maleh to have a back up for the left wing and Rolando Mandragora, a defensive midfielder to give an alternative to Luciani Teixeira.

Near the end of the window, however, a player has been brought to attention: Mano, quality right back who could be the Baldé of the right, who Viktoria would sign without a second thought but with Amorim already in will most likely not be bought.

The preseason has gone well, starting poorly but with little adjustments tot he 4-3-3/4-5-1 the performances improved, including a great win against Deportivo de La Coruña. Apparently confirmed with the season, started with a win and seeing Chaves twelfth with three points after two matches, with good positives from the defeat, which was less comfortable for Académica than it may seem. The stats of the players show also that the defence is well protected.

 

[xJamieWilliams]

This story needs more updates! It's good!

 

[Death Ball]

Thanks, I've thought a few times on increasing frequency of updates, but for laziness or being so close to the next important point I keep not doing it.

 

[Death Ball]

I made new deals before the end of the season because they were needed and I had found something we needed. Paulo Ribeiro came to me asking to let him go to Paços Ferreira and when I asked my staff for similar players they showed me Jefferson, who is much better. So I offered Ribeiro to Paços and signed Jefferson. Then found young Pedro Eira to have the other centreback with good jumping reach. I wanted to be nice to Ribeiro as he's done better than I expected when I took over and despite playing him constantly being a backup player he shocked me being a jerk. As if I was really going to want him back. Idiot.

Jefferson has proved to be a very good signing by Ms. Ackerman, becoming the first Chaves player to be in the Team of the Week in the top tier. Shortly after, Baldé and Eira did just that in the same week. Unfortunately, Baldé picked a long injury, five to six months, after the first week of October. Despite that, Chaves reach the first third of the league in thirteenth position, though just three points off relegation.

It's a mixed feeling regarding this start. We've got three wins, two against teams around, one against a team above, drew against one of the bottom teams and then were very close in a couple of other matches. Against Académica we paid the bad start, otherwise we'd have won; against Guimarães things were looking good and two defensive errors cost us the match. Sporting defeated us 5-2, but we were there, 2-2, with a serious chance to go up, but then when they took theirs my team crumbled. The best and worst has been the last league match against Benfica, though. We scored early, then held them very nicely. Then some luck made their 2 vs 6 end in goal at the end of the first half and a unlucky rebound in the second gave them a win they didn't deserve no matter what they say. In the cups we lost badly, but then I don't mind them and I used them for match fitness and minutes for the young.

Goals seem more shared among players than past year, with Fixe and Norinho seeming to be the ones who will come ahead and I hope they do. We are around middle in the goals scored ranking. There are players with good average rating, which is pleasing to see. Jéferson, Lima, Sagna, Baldé, Maleh and Fixe are rated above 7. Assists seem to come mainly from the left wing. Centrebacks seem protected well enough. A bit worrying to see Enrique trying dribbles. I would add Philippe if I didn't use him as a full back to cover an injury in a cup game. If Norinho could be more careful with the offside we may be a bit better, his pace has got a few goals, though not more than two come from pace.

On other miscellaneous items and news, Ackerman increased her reputation and it's now national (71% from 57% past season). The board has increased the portion of transfer income to be kept as transfer budget. Ackerman applied for the USA U23 manager position and it was given.

((Since I found after looking how to scout with U23 NT staff for players U23 play only Oympics and that's still three years away, I'm considering whether or not it's worth staying. For: resigning may have consequences. Against: Kind of cheap way to learn English.))

 

[CantGetEnoughOfJelavic]

Good read, smashed my way through it so didn't really keep up with all the details you are putting into it but busy and just trying to catch up with stories on here.

What I did notice, however, was the fact you completely disregarded poor Lippo!!

 

[Lippo255]

What I did notice, however, was the fact you completely disregarded poor Lippo!!

Oh well, Viktoria gets added to the list of women who give me the cold shoulder

That list is getting quite long now! :'(

In all seriousness though mate, great read. I'm with Jamie, more updates!!!