Avant De Guingamp - Rise of a feeder club

[davegutt0512]

Avant De Guingamp - Rise of a feeder club

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So after my pretty successful save with 1860 Munich comes to an end I have decided to continue with the European theme, and we begin with Avant De Guingamp.

We start in Ligue 1 and Europa League however the bookies favourite to be relegated.
They won the Coupe de Ligue in their first season in the top flight in France against all expectations.

Recent history has had Guingamp very much as a feeder club for the rest of Europe, with their academy producing players like, Laurent Koscielny, Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda and many more....

My aim for this save is to become a big enough club in Europe that when we have produced this bright talent we are not forced to sell them on, we start with some hot prospects in the youth but a fairly poor 1st team and European football certainly hasn't flooded us with cash either.

and so it begins.........​

 

[davegutt0512]

Pre-Season

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So Pre-seasons results went pretty well however playing some weaker sides, I mainly focused on rotation as I don't have a huge squad of players and wanted them all fit and ready for the new season, I couldn't play any new signings as they were signed after training camp began, all these games were away on camp, so they will however start the season lacking match fitness so I might need to integrate them slowly.

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So the main players I let go were youngsters on loan and a few players that don't fit in to my current system, although they weren't up to much anyway.

I am happy with the players that i managed to sign, I brought in Beausejour who will play WB for me, the other two are young players with already good stats and they should slot nicely into the first team in areas that needed strengthening.
Unfortunately they are not fit after having no pre-season and with August putting up no fewer than 7 Games, with Champions trophy and Europa League quals our small squad may already be stretched.​

 

[davegutt0512]

August

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Overall a pretty pleasing month, however results in the league definitely left something to be desired, we had a month packed full of matches and player fitness definitely played havoc on my small squad especially in the league matches.
We started the month with european ties either side of the Champions trophy match against PSG, We breezed past Minsk with ease winning 6-0 on aggregate. It didn't take long to win the first trophy of my reign, we dominated against PSG and were unlucky really when it went to the lottery of penalties however we managed to win and pick up some silverware, a long time before i expected any.
As far as league games go, I was plead to pick up a win on day 1 with a tight 1-0 win, however this was short-lived as we then went on to concede 10 goals in the next 2 games, admittidly against 2 of the better teams in the league, but I hope to have a much better showing against them next time.
We managed to easily get past St Gallen winning 11-2 on aggregate and qualifying for the group phase of the Europa League however the group we have been drawn in to is difficult.

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So with only 3 games gone we are hovering above the relegation places, the board will be happy if the season finished now however i expect more than just a fight against the drop.

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This guy wasn't even on the bench as i entered the first game of the season however after a few injuries and the fixture congestion forcing me to rotate he scored 7 in 5 games and has certainly given me something to think about.​