An Andorran Adventure

[Hampus Silverholt]

Andorran wonderkids and a title challenge, it's not going too bad!

 

[zacram]

So as the curtain comes down on another successful season (without silverware), it's time to have a quick reflection. The addition of Champions League football has done wonders to our Annual Revenue, seeing a boost in every department.

That has also meant that we now have Continental reputation and are the 10th most reputable club in Spanish football.

Our best XI of the season is pretty much spot on to what I'd have chosen with perhaps Theo in for Burak Ince. When we can field our strongest side it's very good, but the squad depth is lacking and the massive increase in fixtures this season really did takes it toll.

Mariano picks up the Golden Boot award for the second successive year - Not bad for a 34 year-old.

He has entered the final year of his contract which will sadly be his last with F.C Andorra. In 3 seasons he has scored 80 goals in 107 appearances for us and essentially taken this club to the Champions League. It's crazy to think how he struggled so much at other big European sides when you see what he has done for us.

I also managed to pick up Manager of the Year award once again for overachieving with F.C Andorra.

Which also led to me signing a new 4 year contract.

So with quite minimal budgets I set out to see what I could do to strengthen the squad and it has been an extremely frustrating transfer window to date. I have struggled to find players within our budgets that can really improve the squad so is has just been free transfers and a loan deal really thus far...

Our first signing was to bring in Polish CB, Piatkowski. He is essentially replacing Michael Keane as a backup option in the squad to help add some depth at a minimal cost. In truth he doesn't look too bad on paper so am rather pleased.

I then brought in Turkish midfielder, Kahveci to strengthen the midfield. His attributes look very strong on paper and am sure we'll see some very exciting performances from him over the next 2 years.

I spent ages trying to find a decent LWB and couldn't for the life of me get anyone descent for under about £20 Million, which we simply don't have. I therefore brought in Lucas Digne on a season loan. He is 35, but his physical attributes still look very good and is by far our best option in that position. This hopefully buys me some time to get a proper signing.

So as we head into the opening day of the season, here is our squad.

I'd say its marginally been improved on last season, but hopefully another decent season will result in a big budget next summer.

We have also been drawn with an identical Super Cup meeting with Barcelona in January.

I also had this during pre-season which is something I haven't seen on this year's game.... but apparently we are popular in Italy.

​

 

[zacram]

Andorran wonderkids and a title challenge, it's not going too bad!

Signings have proven to be major challenge this Summer though unfortunately. Struggling to improve the squad, but I may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[leckuno]

A disappointing budget for this season after the champions league money. How is your bank balance looking now?

 

[zacram]

A disappointing budget for this season after the champions league money. How is your bank balance looking now?

I was hoping for a bit more as well, but we do seem to be haemorrhaging money with our wage bill etc. until we finally get an injection of prize money/tv revenue. So things are currently looking rather healthy after receiving £12M for the CL but come January I imagine the balance will have dropped significantly.

 

[zacram]

So after a quiet summer of transfers, we headed into the opening day of the season with a very familiar starting XI. I was therefore a little disappointed to see us stumble against both Almeria and Real Hispalis. Both sides finished in the bottom half of the table last season and teams I now believe we should be beating. However, the big win against Villarreal did give me some confidence.

We were seeded 4th once again for the Champions League draw and will once again be aiming for a Europa League spot most likely. I cant see us getting anything off Bayern and both Monaco and Salzburg will be difficult opposition to overcome.

Up first we hosted Monaco who have been living in PSG's shadow in Ligue 1. They did win the title in the 22/23 season but have been finishing runners-up ever since.

They have considerably more European experience than ourselves but we put in a really strong performance against the French side and had a couple of chances to sneak the win. I'll take the point but will be up against it in the away fixture.

Just 3 days later and we had we managed to pull off an extremely rare victory over Barca. This is only my second ever victory over the Catalan Giants and we mostly have our Goalkeeper to thank. Audero pulled off 12 saves with a rating of 9.3, which is pretty incredible considering he didn't even save a penalty. Despite the result the match stats show we are still a way behind.

We followed that up with a couple of exhilarating victories over both Real Sociedad and Huesca. Some questions over our defensive efforts but am glad to see us finding the back of the net. We did actually go 2 goals down against Huesca who are bottom of the table so is am glad we managed to avoid a shock result.

I did rest a number of key players against Huesca to save them for our trip to Munich. I'm not really expecting a result but I want to give us the best possible chance of coming away with something.

​

 

[zacram]

Our first European visit to Germany wasn't a very pleasant one. We conceded a goal inside the first minute of the game and then had to play the last 20 minutes with 10-men as Cambier went off injured after I'd used all 3 subs. Not really many positives to draw from the game to be honest, just a reminder of how far we still have to go to become an elite European side.

Fortunately the majority of our League opposition aren't playing to the same standard as Bayern, although we did still manage to drop points at home to Valladolid, a side that look set to be in relegation contention.

In arguably our most crucial game of the Champions League group stage we managed to get the win over Salzburg as we look to sure up a Europa League spot at minimum. It was one of our best performances of the season in truth, marred only by the sending off of Mariano in the 83rd minute.

So as we hit the half way stage in the Group we are looking in a very strong position. We will travel to Austria next to play Salzburg in the return fixture and should we manage to avoid defeat we should be guaranteed knockout football come February (although which competition is yet unknown).

Back to the League and we managed to pick up on our good form against Salzburg, notching up another 3 wins in the League to put us just a point behind Madrid. Although we aren't even a third of the way through the season, Barcelona seem to be in a shambles as we look to try and keep pace at the top.

 

[zacram]

We completed the double over Salzburg to essentially clinch us a Europa League knockout place as a minimum although could still continue in the Champions League. Our veteran Nigerian striker, Onuachu stole the headlines and it was mostly his finishing that proved to be the difference.

Returning to the League and we suffered our first defeat of the Season away to Celta Vigo. They are performing very well in the League so far, as this victory temporarily moves them into 2nd place.

That was also our first loss in 21 games in the League. Granted we have had a lot of draws in that run but is still a very impressive feat.

However, another loss quickly followed as we were comprehensively outplayed at the Bernabéu. It was a closer contest than some of our other visits, but the gulf in class is still massively evident and can't envisage us beating them to the title anytime soon.

The visit of Bayern quickly made it 3 losses in a row. Once Digne got himself sent off inside the first minute we really didn't stand a chance. So considering we played the entire game with 10-men it wasn't a bad performance, but any chance of us claiming a famous result vanished inside that opening minute.

On the plus side we did set new gate reciepts record!

We finally got ourselves back to winning ways in the League, although had to find a stoppage time equaliser against Espanyol at home to prevent it being 4 consecutive losses.

So Monaco slipped up against Salzburg which meant that we only needed a draw to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages going into out final game.

Unfortunately that just wasn't to be, as Monaco edged us out in a relatively close encounter. Jack Grealish opened the scoring for them as we failed to convert the chances that came our way.

So whilst our Champions League campaign ends at the Group stages for the second season in a row we will be dropping into the Europa League knockout stages. The money would have been good in the CL but realistically we have a much better chance of progressing further in the Europa League and possibly ending with silverware.

Our first opponents will be Ukrainian champions, Shakhtar. It will be tough, but if we perform like we know we can then I think we can edge it.

Our final game before the winter break was then a loss to Valencia, as we slip out of the Top 4. It's beginning to look very competitive at the top of the table but I know Madrid will soon run away with it as they always do. For us we need to pick up our performances and get back into the CL places.

The youth intake preview is much better than last year but I'm still not expecting any Andorran wonderkids to come through the system.

As for the National side, they have had a very good year!

They managed to beat Estonia in the playoffs to remain in the European League Division C and then finished 2nd in their group, beating both Armenia and Georgia.

That has actually seen them soar up to 138th in the World Rankings! I cant even declare interest in the Andorran National position, such is the good work the Manager is doing so.

​

 

[Tongey]

I absolutely love saves like this! FC Andorra are the perfect team for it as well! You're doing a top job, now just to keep those Andorran players coming and developing nicely! Is a league title on the horizon?

 

[zacram]

I absolutely love saves like this! FC Andorra are the perfect team for it as well! You're doing a top job, now just to keep those Andorran players coming and developing nicely! Is a league title on the horizon?

Thank you! - Glad you're enjoying it!

We came so close to the title last season but still along way off the strength of Madrid. We seem to have cracked the Top 4, but getting that League Title seems to be just out of reach at the moment. Hopefully soon though!

 

[zacram]

We returned from the winter break with a rather routine victory over Granada to round off 2028 in style. It was a good performance particularly as I rested some players for the Super Cup Semi Final.

The resting certainly paid off as we got our revenge on Barcelona in an identical fixture to last season. It has been a troubled season for Barca and this sort of sums up their season as they failed to capitalise on their dominance. This does mean that we will be in another Cup final.

And of course our opponents would be Real Madrid....

Which unfortunately ended in a rather similar result, with us missing out on a chance of some silverware. They absolutely battered us from the first minute just to reemphasise the gulf in class between our 2 sides. I am really starting to hate Madrid!

We did respond with a win in both the League and the Cup

Before I received a £650k offer for our 34 year-old veteran striker Onuachu.

He has been our top goalscorer this season and looked really dangerous, but I felt I couldn't turn the offer down. I wasn't going to renew his contract in the summer and it frees up some funds, which has actually enabled me to secure 2 very good strikers on pre-contracts for next year. We got him on a free transfer 18 months ago so this is pretty good business in my eyes, although it does leave us a bit short on strikers for the remainder of the season.

Then in the very next game our key striker, Guerrero tears his hamstring - Typical!

At least we got the win over Villarreal, but now we really need Mariano to lead the line like he has the past few seasons.

We got a win over Real Hispalis before crashing out of the Cup in a shock defeat to Cadiz who are in the second division. Going all the way to penalties made it even more painful as I now have some extremely tired players. It's disappointing but it does reduce our fixtures which can hopefully help us in the League and Europe.

We had some very tired legs for the trip to A. Madrid and it really showed. A poor performance that means they leapfrog us into 2nd in the League. Real are already 8 points clear so is just going to be a case of trying to finish Runner Up again this year and hopefully progress further in the Europa League.

No players have joined in January as the window closes!​

 

[zacram]

We completed the double over Barcelona (actually treble with the Super Cup), before narrowly losing out against Sociedad.

Next up we hosted Shakhtar in the Europa League and by the the 73rd minute I was already starting to think the job was done as we went 5-1 up. Unfortunately that seemed to transfer onto the pitch, as we conceded 2 very late goals to give Shakhtar some hope going into the second leg. We're in a strong position but will need another good performance in Ukraine.

Fortunately we played bottom of the League, Huesca between the two legs, so was able to rest some players in preparation for the trip to Ukraine and still get the 3 points.

The rest certainly paid off, as we put in a very strong performance in the second leg to progress through to the last 16 with a 7 - 4 aggregate victory.

Our next opponent is Feyenoord and I actually think they are marginally weaker than Shakhtar after a look at the two sides so fancy our chances.

Back to the League and we secured another 3 points over Getafe.

We then hosted Feyenoord in the last 16 and despite going a goal down, we bounced back to take a 3-1 lead into the second leg. It was another very good European performance from us and puts us one foot into the Quarter-Finals.

Again, we had another League game to get through and this time we stumbled up against Levante to leave us 3rd in the table with 10 games left to play in the season. We still have a lot of work to do in the League to secure a top 4 finish and the fact that Madrid are dropping points at the top means that we have the smallest opportunity of a title challenge.

4 days later and we travelled to Holland for what turned out to be an extremely dull game, which actually suited me just fine. Our victory in the first leg meant that we progressed through to the Quarter Finals with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Our opponents will be Lille.

Four Spanish sides are still in the Quarters, but I'd imagine regardless how far we get, Liverpool will be emerging as winners.

​

 

[zacram]

After a poor youth intake last season we appear to have bounced back with another 'golden generation' which is a phase that is definitely over used in FM.

The top prospect is Ricardo Gonzalez, who can hopefully break into our starting XI in the coming years, but will undoubtably receive many international caps I'm sure.

Alarcon remains on the NxGn 2029 list, coming in at 42. I've slowly been giving him senior football this season and am going to try an increase that over the next year or so to really see if he flourishes.

Back to the football and we continue to get the points ticking over in the League as we look to secure Champions League football. That included a very big win over Celta Vigo who are a side that are also hunting a Top 4 finish, so opens a bit of daylight.

I also then received the message that the board are pleased with our top-half finish a year ahead of schedule even though we have finished runners-up for the past 2 seasons.... Think they need to start watching our games.

Unfortunately in the build up to our Europa League Quarter-Final our best CB, Pechacek picked up a groin strain, ruling him out of both legs. A big loss to us and our preparations.

It didn't really matter as we produced an incredible performance in France, particularly in the first half. Mariano then got sent off for a stupid tackle to leave us playing the second half with 10-men. We continues to play well but they did get a goal back meaning we take just a slender lead into our home game.

Perhaps it was tired legs, but we got absolutely demolished by Sevilla in a rather woeful performance. I was forced into a bit of rotation but still expected better on the back of that Lille performance.

Then we somehow put in another incredible home European performance, smashing Lille 4-0 in the home leg!

A 6-1 aggregate victory over one of the top French sides is a pretty uplifting result.

That sets up an all Spanish Semi-Final, going up against Real Sociedad. They have a big advantage in our H2H meetings but the tide has started to change in recent seasons, so we do have a chance of making another final.

Back to the League and we carried on our impressive form with victories over both Espanyol and Real Madrid. We fully deserved the result over Madrid and shows that they are beatable.

That has also closed the gap to just 4 points ta the top of the table with 4 to play. It's incredibly unlikely we can close the gap even if we win every game, but FM has a way of making you think you have a chance...even when realistically you don't.

So here is our season run in.

Some big games still to play, but the Europa League is now our main focus as we have essentially already made Top 4 and aren't going to get the Title.

​

 

[zacram]

We managed to take a slight advantage into the second leg of our Europa League semi-final thanks to a thundering header from our Czech CB. It was a bit of a smash and grab in the end but that is exactly what we needed.

Despite resting a number of key players we still got the result over Bilbao in the League to keep our slender title challenge alive.

We then had to go all the way to penalties, but we are in the Europa League Final! Not our best performance by a long way and when Neco Williams missed in the shootout I thought we were done for but our keeper emerged the hero once again!

As predicted that means we will be facing Liverpool in the final. They are far too good to be in the Europa League so is going to take a miracle for us get our hands on that trophy.

The victory did come at a cost as we lose our top goalscorer Mariano. An injury that will all but end his career with Andorra, as we is not expected to be back fit in time for the final - A very sad way for his career with us to end.

We then also lost our Turkish playmaker to the transfer market.

Al-Hilal came in with a £8 Million offer out of the blue, which was an offer I simply couldn't refuse for a 33 year-old that we picked up on a free less than a year ago. I mean he has been an important player for us this season and I'd delayed the transfer 2 weeks to get as much use out of him as possible, but the finances were just too good to turn down.

It was actually our record transfer fee received as well.

A couple of dropped points handed Madrid the title, but as anticipated we wouldn't have won it even if we won all our remaining games. We did manage to finish 2nd for a 3rd season in a row though and surely that first La Liga Title cant be too far away now.... If only we could get rid of Mardrid!

That left us with one final game to play - The Europa League Final.

As expected we were massive underdogs going into the game.

Here is how the 2 teams lined up.

Always good to see some familiar faces still knocking about in the Liverpool side.

Despite all the odds we somehow managed to make the break through in the 60th minute. Our goal has been under a barrage of attacks since kick-off but somehow we managed to convert our only attempt on target.

If only we had that Referee from the AFCON to blow the final whistle now...

Because we then conceded 3 goals!

I never expected us to win this game but after we scored I couldn't help get a little excited. However, that now makes it yet another cup final that I have now lost, taking my tally up to 3 now I believe.

Please let me win a trophy FM!

Even after all that and our £8 Million sale just a few weeks ago the board have only given me a £8.5 M to spend. A little frustrating to say the least and may need to go for a big signing and whack it on future instalments as we need to get to the next level and win something.

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[leckuno]

Another great season it's just a shame the league and a trophy isnjust out of reach. Have youbdone a lot of other transfers over installments as this could be affecting your budget at the moment as well. Hopefully pick up another bargain or two as free transfers

 

[zacram]

Another great season it's just a shame the league and a trophy isnjust out of reach. Have youbdone a lot of other transfers over installments as this could be affecting your budget at the moment as well. Hopefully pick up another bargain or two as free transfers

Strangely not - I did make a few transfers with instalments a few seasons ago, but that has pretty much all been paid off now. I currently have £42 Million in the bank and that is actually after I have just finalised a big signing with most of my current budget (Also had to put some big instalments on this though taking it to £15M transfer debt, but only on about £1M before that).

 

[zacram]

Another successful season has seen increases across the board with regards to Annual Revenue, with the exception of Broadcasting which is a bit of a shock considering we reached the Europa League final.

That has also seen us soar to being the 6th most reputable side in Spain, as well as the No. 46 in Europe. Surely that will start to encourage more reputable players.

Then that second place finish resulted in me picking up Manager of the Year for the 3rd consecutive year. Clearly a 2nd place finish with F.C Andorra is a much greater achievement than winning the Domestic Treble with Real Madrid!

Mariano was our superstar yet again and top goalscorer even in his late years. He didn't get the golden boot award in La Liga this year but has still been a massive presence for us.

I then decided to cut some players from the squad including Mariano. I just couldn't justify giving him a contract extension at 35. I also had to cut Neco Williams to free up a Foreign Player position in our squad registration even though he has been a really useful player for us over the past few years,

Mariano scored more goals in his 4 seasons with us than he had in his previous 13 years as a football - Crazy stuff!

Definitely some big boots to fill for his replacement.

I managed to pick up some really good players on free transfers, including 2 top quality strikers.

The first of which is Frederico Seoane. He is a young Argentinian U23 international that looks incredibly exciting on paper. I'm amazed we managed to ****** him up on a free transfer but I can already envisage him being our main striker for years to come as we hunt down some trophies.

I also nabbed another exciting striker in Florian Morel off Sporting. Again he looks like a really useful addition to the squad and we now have a very exciting strike force with plenty of depth.

I then splashed the cash going in for Vascos Dias. I think I put like £17M in instalments but I just wanted to make a big signing and this young lad looks absolutely world class. He will hopefully be pulling the strings for us in midfield but can also be used as a striker should we suffer a number of injuries in that department.

I then stumbled across another bargain in Cesar Verdi. Another Argentine U23 international dubbed as a wonderkid to help sure up our defence. The best thing is he has Italian second nationality so doesn't count as a foreign player in the squad registration! So £6.5 Million is a brilliant deal in my eyes.

I did actually make a number of other deals for some free agents, but were mostly just to help add some depth to the squad so wont bother showing their profiles, but in total 8 new faces have joined the club. It definitely seems much better balanced this season with a much improved starting XI so am very excited to see how we fair.

I've actually trimmed the wage expenditure despite all the dealings so financially it hasn't been a burden on the club (with the exception of one very large transfer fee).

So with all that said and done the bookies have us down for a 9th place finish, but we are now a Top 4 team in my eyes, so wouldn't be happy with anything less.

Our first 3 games went pretty well, with our new star striker bagging a brace on his debut. We unfortunately conceded a late equaliser against Valladolid but a big home win over Atletico has given me much more confidence moving forwards.

We were also a 3rd seeded side for a nice change and actually have our best chance of progressing beyond the group stages in the Champions League. Obviously Juventus will be favourites but we did knock Lille out of the Europa League last season.

​

 

[zacram]

We travelled to Turin to kick off our 3rd Champions League season and it's fair to say things didn't go to plan...

They absolutely battered us as we struggled to even keep hold of the ball. Not exactly the start I was looking for and am going to need some tactical tweaking if we're to be competing with the European elites.

Things didn't then get much better in the League. Granted we did get a couple of draws away to both Bilbao and Barca but the performance still didn't look convincing.

We then hosted Lille and whilst the performance was good, we still failed to take maximum points from the game. We really needed to take 3 points in this game as it will likely be Lille we are battling for 2nd place with, so may now need to win the return game in France.

A little more tactical tweaking which mostly involved dropping the wingbacks back seems to have proven dividends as we notched up a couple of 4-0 victories in the League.

The free scoring football continued when we hosted Olympiacos, putting 4 goals on the board for a third consecutive match. In truth we really could of had a couple more but maybe i'm getting greedy.

So at the halfway stage it all looks as expected. Juventus out in front and us and Lille battling for 2nd. I mean we have to try reach the Champions League knockouts but entering the Europa League is definitely a better opportunity of winning a trophy.

Three more victories makes in six on the bounce in La Liga as we open up a 9 point gap on Barcelona in 5th. Annoyingly it looks like Madrid are back to their dominant best and have only dropped 2 points all season. Not much room for error now if we are to challeneg them for the title.

Frederico Seoane has been an absolute superstar as anticipated. He has had an injury ruling him out for a number of weeks but he has 10 goals in 8 appearances for us already this season. Hopefully he stays fit as he is set to score over 30 goals for us this season!

​

 

[zacram]

Our chance of reaching the Champions League knockout stage was dealt a massive blow as we failed to make our dominance count in Greece. We had plenty of chances to win the game but our strikers were having a poor day in front of goal as it even took our CB to get us the equaliser. We will now most likely need to beat Lille.

Just a few days after our disappointing result in the Champions League, Real Madrid severely dented our chance of a title challenge. It was a much closer game than some of our previous trips to the Bernabeu but again poor finish cost us dearly, leaving us 7 points behind already.

We then hammered Sociedad who were right on our heals in the League, before turning out a dismal performance against Lille to effectively end our chance of remaining in the Champions League. We will now need to beat Juventus in the final fixture and hope that Olympiacos can beat Lille... very unlikely.

Focusing on the League again and we've managed to keep the points ticking over despite the large amount of squad rotation i'm being forced in to.

Before we managed to pull off a massive European triumph over Juventus, doing exactly what we needed to do in our final game.

Unfortunately Olympiacos couldn't pull off the same upset and we drop into the Europa League for the third year in a row. Hopefully we can go one step further and win it this time though!

Our first opponents are Turkish side, Fenerbache. A side we really should be getting past rather comfortably I'd like to think.

We then ended 2029 with a win to leave us 5 points behind Real Madrid as we near the half way point in the season. At least we are looking much more assured at a Top 4 finish this season as a minimum.

Unfortunately I have been hit with the news of another terrible Youth intake. Not entirely sure how this is happing considering our facilities and youth recruitment are supposedly exceptional.

Although I don't think this is the reasoning behind the poor youth intake the board have finally caved to my nagging of upgrading our junior coaching. They have been incredibly reluctant to do this for some reason despite our strong financial position, but i guess 50th time of asking is the charm!

Our new wonderkid striker, Federico Seoane then picked up all the junior accolades, including the European Golden Boy award. He has an incredibly bright future and still cant believe we got him on a free transfer.

After last year's relative success it was a winless 2029 for the Andorran National side.

However, they still remain in a good World Ranking (for them anyway). I still cant even declare interest in the position so the board are clearly happy with the progress they are seeing from the National manager.

​

 

[zacram]

We started 2030 by welcoming Argentinian defensive midfielder, Mauricio Acosta to the club on a free transfer.

In all honesty I completely forgot I'd agreed to sign him but he looks a very promising prospect, but does now leave me an issue with registration as all 3 of my non-EU slots are occupied.

Our first game of the new year didn't start very well, losing away to Levante.

I then received a very enticing offer from Almeria to sign our Colombian striker, Guerrero. I negotiated it up to £32.5 Million and then gladly accepted, especially as he has dropped down the pecking order with some of our new arrivals.

It also allows me to register Acosta as another bonus!

He has been a very good player for us over his 3.5 years at the club and formed a great partnership with Mariano, but the offer was just too appealing - Especially as we only signed him for £5M

That deal also smashes our record transfer fee received.

As I was working busily behind the scenes we found ourselves comprehensively knocked out of the Spanish Super Cup by the usual culprits in Real Madrid.

With some money to spend I decided to activate Bobinec's £10 Million release clause. I've desperately been searching for a solid LB and finally with cash available I could get the deal done.

We then put a run of 5 consecutive wins together between La Liga and the Copa del Rey. Madrid have also started to drop points as we are now only 3 points behind them in the League and an opportunity of a title challenge has re-emerged.

I have now passed my 400th game landmark, although with a rather bare trophy cabinet still.

So as the transfer window closes we are looking very strong financially. The Guerrero sale which included instalments has essentially written off our transfer debt and left us with nearly £40 Million in the bank.

A big transfer budget is surely coming my way next season!

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