Bringing Bulgaria Back

[Yeti01]

Season 4 – End of Season Review

Season 4 – End of Season Review

VELICHKOV'S SUMMARY​

Interesting is one way to describe it... Despite a better goal difference we ended up losing out on the Bulgarian First Division title as a result of our inferior head to head record against Levski. If I am honest though it is hard to say we didn't deserve to finish 2nd, our form was up and down all season, but April in particular was brutal, as we struggled mightily after the league split. Whilst indeed there were some key injuries, reviewing with the benefit of hindsight has revealed there are some other, fundamental, issues that we will need to work to change. In my career so far, I have utilized a direct, counter-attacking system. This has been quite successful when the opposition teams have been happy to press on against us and in games where we have also been able to grab an early goal this has lead to some great results as the opposition was then dragged even further out leading to more chances for us on the break.

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Designed to take advantage of the pacey strikers available to me in the early seasons, it's effectiveness has slightly waned as these players have been replaced with younger, more generally talented footballers, but who haven't possessed the same quickness and we haven't been able to create the same amount of clear chances from balls over the top. This also appears to be coupled with an increased respect from our opponents, who now seem happier to sit deeper when playing against us, further reducing our opportunities on the counter. in an effort to be less one-dimensional then, we are looking to establish a new, possession based system. The counter will always be in the back pocket, particular for against much larger opponents in Europe where it has seen it greatest success, but I am expecting a possession system to lead to more success domestically, and be a better solution for the long term for us.

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DOMESTIC ROUNDUP​

At the league split I felt we established ourselves in a good position, leading the way on goal difference.

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By the time the final day rolled around though Levski has taken over top spot and established a 3 point lead. CSKA had already qualified for the Euro Cup by virtue of their Bulgarian cup exploits - more on that later...

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It was the Levski/Lokomotiv showdown to finish the season also, a game that Lokomotiv would win.

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It wasn't enough in the end though. Levski had done enough against Lokomotiv earlier across the year, the series finished 2 wins a piece but Levski had the slightly better goal difference in the head to head matches...

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In Bulgarian Cup action, Lokomotiv fell at the semi final stage against eventual winners CSKA Sofia.

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AWARDS​

As would be expected with 'only' finishing 2nd, Lokomotiv didn't feature has heavily in the end of season awards. Budinov did lead a clean sweep of the young player of the year awards for Lokomotiv and I was able to take out Manager of the Year. Whilst CSKA was rewarded for their resurgence this season with a 1-2 finish in the Player of the Season awards.

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TRANSFERS/YOUTH INTAKE​

No transfer of note during this period but we did get another decent youth intake as our recent investment into facilities continues to pay dividends. With contracts being offered to any players that have shown they may be capable of playing at a first division level.

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INTERNATIONAL
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Not long after the winter break Petar Hubchev was relived of his duties as Bulgaria manager following mini slump that had seen the nations ranking drop to as low as 65. I was quick to send in my resume and was delighted when the role was subsequently offered to me and my first course of action was to assign star Kiril Despodov as captain. At 26, he has time on his side and I will be looking to him to help lead us in the next few rounds of major competition qualification.

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The first competition that I took charge for was European League Division 3 group C matches that took place after the season finished. These also represented an opportunity for me to test out my new possession based tactic and the results were good.

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MISCELLANEOUS​

Another season of supporter base growth for Lokomoticv this season as they again registered a new high for average attendance in the First League. Might be getting close to time for me to have a word in the Board's ear about the stadium.

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Late in the season the club was the subject of a takeover bid that was eventually successful. Pleasingly, they appear committed to the growth of Lokomotiv, although some new philosophies have been set out for me to follow that may affect my recruitment activities.

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Their first action was to approve a massive budget increase and a significant transfer budget increase. Now the shopping begins.

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RANKINGS/COEFFECIENTS​

A big step up the rankings for Lokomotiv as they became the 123rd highest regarded club in Europe.

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Bulgarian clubs generally received a boost this season as they gained an additional Champions League spot, although this will only come into effect for the 2023/24 season and wont help Lokomotiv this season unfortunately.

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This coincided with an improvement of the Bulgarian First Division which is now regarded as the 18th best competition on the continent.

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Our success at a national team level has seen the national team ranking, which was heading in the wrong direction when I took over, turn around and head back up.

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[Yeti01]

Season 5 – Half Year Review

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Season 5 – Half Year Review

VELICHKOV'S SUMMARY​

A somewhat turbulent start to the season then as we sought to bed down a new tactic and style. Our European exploits were cut short this season by Southampton as we feel at the final Euro Cup qualification stage but, if I am honest, I wasn't too disappointed by our performance in that match as, whilst we can challenge the best opposition on our day, over two legs it is likely to be some time before we can really match it and in this tie we dominated possession and general play but Southampton's clinicalness shone through in the end.

DOMESTIC ROUNDUP - LEAGUE​

We have started this season off ok. At the stat we have some poor performances and the new style is sometimes hiccupping when playing away from home but generally we find ourselves being the dominant team in each game which is what we were hoping for. Now that we don't have European commitments to contend with I feel more confident that we will be right up there when the season finishes.

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DOMESTIC ROUNDUP - CUPS​

Playing our youth and reserves in the cup though lead to us crashing out in the 2nd round to Etar, a team we should have dominated. An extremely disappointing result as this remains the one domestic competition that I am yet to win...

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EUROPEAN JOURNEY​

As already mentioned the luck of the draw wasn't with us this season as we got Southampton in the 4th round of qualification for the Euro Cup. It wasn't to be for us this season and meant that we were more conservative with our spending as a result.

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TRANSFERS​

Further transfer requests were received for young national team striker Ventsislav Aleksandrov. Whilst the first few requests were denied as they really weren't for value, but as they grew so to did the obvious determination of those clubs to secure his signature and, seeing that such a move was in the best interests of the young man, we accepted all the offers and Ventsislav eventually signed on with Napoli, moving for a club record fee.

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With the recent takeover the new board have advised that they are looking for higher profile signings. This was something I focused on this offseason and was delighted when I was able to obtain the signature of 34 year old Ivelin Popov who has 100 Bulgarian caps to his name after his contract with Krasnodar ran out.

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Also, once it became clear that he would only feature in reserve team games for Chelsea not being included in either their premier league or european squads a season long loan offer was made for Valentin Antov which was accepted. The Bulgarian national team player immediately becomes a rock at the heart of the Lokomotiv defence.

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UPGRADES​

Further investment continued off the pitch as, once the current upgrades were complete a brand new set were approved. Further, the club is now investigating the purchase of it's current ground to assist with securing it's long term financial future.

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MISCELLANEOUS​

Lokomotiv’s fan base continues to grow as season tickets were slightly up on last season.

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Further, the growth of the club's stature continues and Lokomotiv is now the 4th most reputable club in Bulgaria, almost on par with perennial powerhouses Ludogorets, CSKA and Levski.

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INTERNATIONAL​

Not a bad half year for the national team then, finishing in 2nd place in our European International League Group, unfortunately the home loss to Denmark meant a 2nd place finish... We have also drawn a reasonably tough qualification group for the upcoming Euro Championships.

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[Yeti01]

Season 5 – End of Season Review

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Season 5 – End of Season Review

VELICHKOV'S SUMMARY​

Will look to move to annual updates moving forward focusing on the growth of both Lokomotiv and Bulgaria. Big season though for the Lokomotiv lads as we ended up taking out the Bulgarian First League title although there was times when this wasn't certain. One area that I have found slightly difficult to overcome is my goal to play a fully Bulgarian squad. I am doing this partly for self-serving reasons as I want the best possible Bulgarian squad at my disposal but this is sometimes making things hard as Ludogorets, CSKA and Levski Sofia are all more than comfortable with importing talent and, indeed, the majority of their better players are from other countries.

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DOMESTIC ROUNDUP​

We trailed at the League split this year, as CSKA continued their good form from last season opening a gap.

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But this season we were the ones who improved after the split and we ran out winners for the third time in my tenure whilst CSKA will join us in the Champions League qualification rounds by virtue of our improved nation coefficient.

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INTERNATIONAL​

We made a great start to our European Championship qualification journey, taking a maximum 9 points from our first three games. This sees us equal top of the group at this early stage with Russia, although we are yet to play them and they are shaping up as our main competition.
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FACILITIES​

Further work continued off the field as we seek to establish the long term sustainability of the club. Improvements were completed on the Youth and Training facilities and we also arranged the purchase of the stadium we play in to facilitate future growth. Upgrades were also approved for the Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment capabilities.

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TRANSFERS​

Some big developments on the transfer front in this period. First Ivelin Popov was the subject of an offer from FC Dallas. It wasn't a huge offer but this represents an ideal chance at one last large payday for Popov and we were never going to make things hard for him. Unfortunately, it is going to be undoubtedly difficult to replace the loss of the Bulgarian First League Player's Player of the Year and our fan's player of the season.

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Our youth intake was disappointing this season, so, in an effort to ensure the talent conveyor belt keeps turning, I decided to loosen the purse strings and bring in no less than 4 players, with Georgiev representing a club record fee. They are all young an quite talented. Further, an additional season was negotiated with Chelsea for Velentin Antov to stay with us on loan.

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MISCELLANEOUS​

Further evidence of the growth of Lokomotiv Sokia as a football club was received following the culmination of the season when it was revealed the Lokomotiv, in terms of reputation, are now the 2nd biggest club in Bulgaria.

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[Yeti01]

Season 5 End- How are we going?


In an effort to show more how we are progressing in terms of the overall save I am looking to also include, in addition to the more general annual update, a overall summary update each year that shows the growth of both Lokomotiv and Bulgaria using some graphs I have put together and will update each season.

If you have any feedback on the below I would love to hear it.




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[Yeti01]

Season 6 – End of Season Review

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Season 6 – End of Season Review




VELICHKOV'S SUMMARY

To be honest was probably expecting a little more improvement but it is fair to say I am probably focusing now more on my international responsibilities. I feel we are always going to be at least competing for the title each year now whilst we are still a fair ways off really competing in Europe. As such, I figure I need to focus a little more on the National team in an effort to ensure the talent that is coming through in Bulgaria continues to improve.<



DOMESTIC ROUNDUP

Another good season then as we took out the title again from our nemesis Levski.

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INTERNATIONAL

Was a good season as well on the international front as first we qualified for the European Championships.

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At the European Championships we gave a good account of ourselves, albeit we still didn't progress past the group stages.

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FACILITIES

Again, work continued off the field as we quickly realised that, despite our arranged purchase of the stadium last season, the reality is that that the expansion capacity of that stadium isn't all that much larger than the current capacity we arranged the construction of a new stadium, whilst also arranging further upgrades to the youth and training facilities.

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TRANSFERS

It is fair to say that the best way to ensure the National Team has the best players possible is to ensure that Bulgarian youngsters reach their potential to the maximum possible. To that end, Velichkov's recruiting efforts are now focused on identifying the best youngsters in Bulgaria and purchasing them where possible. The purchase of Ganev for what is a reasonably large fee represents the first such purchase and is expected to, ultimately, benefit both Lokomotiv and Bulgaria.

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On the out side, Telkiyski was the subject of a bid from Porto - again, not wanting to preclude his best players from securing their financial futures, the bid was accepted and, ultimately, they were on their way to Portugal.

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MISCELLANEOUS

The first goal of this story is now complete. We are now the most reputable club in Bulgaria thanks to our exploits. The next step is obtaining success in Europe and with the national team.

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[Yeti01]

Apologies for the crappy formatting and all the edits....

Friday night here in Australia and am having some whiskeys and thought it would be a good idea to post an update - turns out that was wrong...

 

[Yeti01]

[FONT=&quot]Season 6 End- How are we going?[/FONT]


Updated graphs are below. In general most of the upward trends continue. The Coefficient ranking dropped through affecting the amount of European qualification spots Bulgaria will have moving forward.



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[Yeti01]

Season 7 – End of Season Review

VELICHKOV'S SUMMARY​

Not a bad little season then... We were dominant in the league, running our victors with a number of fixtures to spare, meaning I could afford to give some of my young starlets a run out in the first team. They will benefit immensely for that. It was a season in which I started to lay the ground work for future success at the club, with a focus on attracting the best of the best of the young Bulgarian talent to come ply their wares at Lokomotiv. The reason for this is simple, as Bulgarian coach I am now witnessing more and more talents go to waste - this can't continue to happen. I am all for big money moves overseas but I am going to do my utmost moving forward to ensure the best young Bulgarians are spending their formative professional years with me, getting played and developing far more before I let them leave. They will still have plenty of time to earn the big money. To do that though, I have had to loosen my purse strings, both in terms of amount spent on transfer fees, and amount I am paying in wages...

Also, I have noticed that more of more of the best talent coming through are naturals in attacking midfield roles. To that end, I have created a new tactic to ensure I am getting my, and Bulgaria's best on the field, as often as I can.

DOMESTIC ROUNDUP​

League

Throughout the early part of the season we were great. Actually, in general, I can have no complaints with the way we played this season. The trick now is taking a team with only players that are eligible to play for Bulgaria as far as possible. Yes, I know this is somewhat limiting in terms of how far Lokomotiv can go, but it is critical in allowing me to build the best possible pool of players for the national team. At the split though we were travelling well and had already established a sizable lead.

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This lead was only extended too as the season wore on and we dropped out of Europe. Frankly, if I hadn't played such a large number of youth players towards the end of the season we would have won by even more, and likely picked up the record for biggest points haul ever in a season. Oh well though, I will take the extra experience for the young lads and save that record for us to break in the future...

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Cup


The one domestic trophy that has eluded me is the Bulgarian Cup, not sure why we hadn't been able to win it, but that is a thing of the past now as we finally brought it home. I am ecstatic with the result which meant we took out the domestic treble this year, having also taken out the Super Cup in addition to the League and this Cup.

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EUROPEAN ROUNDUP
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In European competition we were less successful this season. We were knocked out by Celtic in the Champions League qualification rounds but then were much, much better in the Euro Cup group stages. We managed to finish first, dismantling West Ham at home after they suffered a red card and being far better than the other members of the group, Basel and APOEL. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough to overcome Marseille in the 1st knockout round.

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Credit must go to Ludogorets though who really flew the Bulgarian flag in Europe this season. They managed to go all the way to the semi finals of the Euro Cup, losing only to AC Milan after having over come Atletico in the previous round. Such a good result is a testament to the improvement in Bulgarian football over the past 7 seasons and we hope to continue that.

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AWARDS​

Our strong form was rewarded as all three of the top vote getters in the player of the year awards were from Lokomotiv. Right back Nikolay Velikov was the winner though. I was also awarded Manager of the year

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INTERNATIONAL
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At international level I was very happy generally with the performances of the National Team - the Belgium result was great however the Austria resutl means we have work to do. As I see it, we have a squad that can still likely qualify for the World Cup but how much further we will go in future tournaments will be determined by the new blood we can bring through.

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I was also pleased to see some of my labour in bringing in young talent start to bear fruit with a number of players selected in the Bulgarian under 21 team. One, Ventsislav Atanosovksi, represents what I see as that future for Bulgaria and can, I hope, legitimately be a world class player.

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TRANSFERS​

Noting that a number of young talents who left Bulgaria early haven't developed exactly as I would have hoped I decided to splash the cash on one such player and bring him home.

Stanislav Shopov really stagnated once his joined Juventus so when i realised I could get him at a marked down price I jumped at the chance - his wages though will be many times higher than what I am paying anyone else and could lead to issues but I feel that, at this juncture of my career, it is a gamble worth taking.

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MISCELLANEOUS​

In terms of other matters we have upgrades to the Training and Youth facilities completed and then further upgrades immediately approved. We also sought out a domestic affiliate as a means to getting our younger players out and playing competitive matches earlier.

 

[Yeti01]

Season 7 End- How are we going?


Overall things are continuing the way we want them to generally, at least they aren't going in the wrong direction. Lokomotiv Sofia's club ranking continues to improve and we are now ranked 53 in Europe.

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The Bulgarian First Division remains the 15th ranked competition in Europe, despite our and Ludogorets' best efforts.

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The Coefficient ranking also remained stagnant at 13, meaning that we dont enjoy the extra Champions League qualification spot and other benefits that come from being 12th - hopefully we can rectify that soon.

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The Bulgarian national team ranking also is unchanged, still sitting at 44 - although a good World Cup qualification campaign will almost certainly see that improve.

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And finally, our average attendance again slightly increased, meaning we are almost averaging the current capacity of the ground (22,000), our new stadium is still in planning phase but we are hopeful that the proposed 31,000 seater will be approved and built without a hitch.

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[Yeti01]

Season 8 – End of Season Review

VELICHKOV'S SUMMARY​

Some ups and downs then this season. On the field we had quite a lot of success, winning the league and going further than ever before in the Euro Cup. Results at a national team were also really good as we managed to qualify for the World Cup! Off the field though there was some disappointment, as matters outside my control have arisen that may, unfortunately, ultimately limit how far Lokomotiv can grow....

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DOMESTIC ROUNDUP​

League


It went down to the wire, as on the last day we faced second placed CSKA Sofia, but we did away with them with ease and took out our fourth successive Bulgarian First league title. We have well and truly achieved my first goal of becoming the dominant side in Bulgaria.

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Cup


By contrast we were woeful in the cup, crashing out in the second round...

EUROPEAN​

In Europe we performed well, finishing 2nd in our Euro Cup Group behind PSV, before beating Valencia in the first knockout round before succumbing to Atletico in the 2nd. Whilst we haven't had any real European 'success', the reality is that will always be difficult with an entirely Bulgarian playing list - establishing ourselves as a perennial knockout round contender is, in my eyes at least, achieving the second goal I set when starting this story.

INTERNATIONAL​

And in international competition we were, quite simply, amazing. We have managed to qualify for the 2026 World cup to be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Everyone was expecting Belgium to be the clear first team in the group but it was Austria that ran out easy winners, as we managed to finish above Belgium and their aging stars.

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A full report on the World Cup will follow.

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MISCELLANEOUS​

So while on the pitch we have been kicking goals, off the pitch we received bad news. 2 and a half years after first receiving approval for a new stadium council has decided to kick us in the guts and refuse planning approval... The reality is we are already filling our 22,000 seat stadium almost every match and need the bigger home to compete more in Europe...

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With only room to expand to 25,000 seats, I fear this will be quite limiting to where we can go from here...

 

[Yeti01]

Season 8 – World Cup Review

Pre-Competition Friendlies​

In preparation for the World Cup we had 2 friendlies organised by my assistant manager. Look, we weren't exactly setting the world on fire during them, but they weren't completely uninspiring either..

The Algeria result was probably the one that worried me the most - our defence had actually been quite solid during qualification so to ship 3 against an opponent ranked much lower than us was somewhat disturbing...

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Game 1 - Senegal​

Ahhhh man.. I know I will look back on this game when I am retired and wonder what if. There are only 3 teams in our group owing the larger amount of teams at this World Cup meaning a result like this is disastrous...

We battered and battered them but to no avail, I feel if this game is played 10 times over we win it 8 or 9 times, unfortunately, this was that one in ten.

Then, to make matters worse, our talisman and captain, Kiril Despodov did his ACL - heartbreaking... I mean I am glad he will be able to tell his grandchildren that he scored at a World Cup, but I was hoping for much more...

Game 2 - Colombia

Sigh - some things are just not meant to be... Another game where we were the better side, but didn't come away witht the points. It is a shame really, we really energised the country just by qualifying but now, after seeing how we have been able to play, we are going to leave North America with a sense of unfinished business...



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And ultimately, that proved to be true. Senegal and Colombia would draw their final match, not that any result save a large Colombian loss would have seen us qualify. I honestly don't expect either to progress too far in the tournament as I genuinely feel we were the best side in the tournament.

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Tournament Summary

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As expected, Colombia lost in the first knockout round, running into a red hot Portugal and being dispatched 6-2 whilst Senegal had an easier draw, winning their all African match against the DR Congo in extra time before being put away by Germany 2 nil in the next round.

In the end, Brazil ran out winners defeating Argentina in the final 0-0 in an all South American final.

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Although we really didn't perform as well as I had hoped I still consider this to achieve my aim of leading Bulgaria on a World Cup run. We realistically are years and years off winning it so, even to make it after only 8 seasons, is a good achievement.

 

[Yeti01]

The End

Epitaph​

I was beginning to feel as though I had taken both Lokomotiv and Bulgaria as far as I could throughout this season. First, with Lokomotiv, I had 17 year olds trying to undermine my authority after refusing offers for them - whilst I understand the impetuous of youth I was very clear with them my reasoning for rejecting those bids and, knowing I wasn't really keen to start again with a fresh batch of youth, was preparing for less success with Lokomotiv. The sealer though came following the World Cup - whilst I kept the job, the feedback I got was nothing short of nonsensical. To tell the person who guided you to your first World Cup in 30+ years that a draw and a one goal loss wasn't 'competitive' and that they needed to do a better job was a complete slap in the face. So that, as they say, is that and I am now retired....

It isn't all bad though - I achieved what I set out to and now new journeys await.






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Graphs

So where did we finish up? This year was the first year we started going backwards - I am not sure if it was the aforementioned discontent within the squad or as a result of my focus being mainly on the national team but, other than the national team's ranking, all the other KPI's stayed stagnant, or went backwards. Time for someone else to step up into the job!!

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[Yeti01]

Hey guys - will be starting a new story soon. Was finding it fun but the last season, with players wanting to leave and no new stadium, made me decide it was time to call it. Hope those that have followed have enjoyed it!!!

 

[HugoCaldeira1234]

Hey Yeti01
I Want You Manage Sporting
They Beat Belenenses By 8-1