Cherno Samba into management

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ninjaskill

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I was a legend back in 2002 with the world at my feet according to championship manager and the press unfortunately it didn't work out and I spent the next few years touring the second divisions of Europe. I also got 4 caps from the Gambia so it was a good career just not as good as everyone though that I would have. A knee injury forced me to retire at 29 after a spell in the Norwegian second division. I decided that it was time to turn my hand to management hopefully my fame from championship manager will help as well. Hopefully I can hit the heights in my management career that I never managed to in my playing career. I had earned coaching badges over my career and I had a continental B license. I applied for every job I could and had twenty one responses asking me to attend job interviews. A few I turned down due to their quality compared to those who accepted me. The interviews must have gone well as I was offered quite a few jobs AFC Astra and FC Viitorul from Romania, Kilmarnock in Scotland, SV Grodig in Austria, a couple SA premier division sides, RMP from Belgium and Chonquing from China all offered me jobs and after delaying for two weeks to try and decide which to go with I made my decision. View attachment 240891
 
The days of Cherno are upon us. Good luck to the CM legend.
 
hahah I just knew someone was going to do a story on this legend.
 
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I finally made my mine up I would be continuing my tour of Europe after becoming the manager of AFC Astra a team that had flown up the leagues recently having been in the third division in 2007-2008 to title challengers and cup winners, putting us into the Europa League. They moved from Polesti to Giurgui, on the Romania Bulgaria border, in 2012 and now play in 8,500 seater Stadionul Marin Anastasovici.View attachment 240861I want to make them the best team in Romania and signed a two year deal worth 15000 Leu a week around 2,500 pounds a week and flew out to Guirgui to take on my first job as manager. I met with the board and after adjustments have 5000 pounds of wage budget and 65k for transfers. They also told me what was expected of me.View attachment 240855I met with the players and took a risk and told them I expected us to win the league fortunately they all agreed with me and seemed pleased I was going to be ambitious with them. None of them knew about championship manager but I'm sure they will find out eventually. I then met with my staff and they gave me an overview of the squad it looks good and has depth so I won't need to do much work in the transfer market.View attachment 240854I planned to go for a 4-2-3-1 to play passing attacking football I would try it out against the second team tomorrow, who apparently had no players of great potential neither did the u-19 team, so I expected a convincing win.View attachment 240853The players delivered 5 up at half time Kehinde Fatai scored 4 and assisted 1 William got three assists so they impressed. We added three more in the second half for a pleasing win and the players took the chance to make me think of them as starters but the second team were a disappointment I don't think any of them will make the step up to the first team.
 
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dilakh2 said:
hahah I just knew someone was going to do a story on this legend.
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Yeah had to thought if when I read he was retiring he mentioned going into coaching but had never played CM or FM
 
hahaha Bowing to this legend!

Soo many great stories have been started recently, hard to keep up.
 
Pre season I set about trying to add a bit more depth to the side and picked up a couple of free agents I took a ton of players on trials one of which was Rodrigo Possebon who I empathized with thinking you'd be one of the best players in the world and then without a team. I wanted to get him but, his wages were to high for us to be able to. We signed two players one to provide cover on the defense side and one attacking. Both are older experienced players who can provide depth and help lead by example.View attachment 240806Reginaldo adds depth mainly to the right wing but can play any of the attacking midfield positions. He has played around Italy in the Serie B mainly with spells in the Serie A and two in Brazil so has experiences in better leagues and should add experience. View attachment 240804Cristian Munteanu has played for lots of teams in the Romanian first division and will cover at centre and left back.

Kehinde Fatai and Ben Youssef signed new deals and will be key parts of the team this year. I tried to sell a couple of players but their was no interest in them so they will stay which I am fine with as they can still add something.

We had some great pre season results that give me hope of a good season but they were all lower quality teams that we were expected to beat.View attachment 240803 Five games 25 goals scored 0 conceded could not ask for better from the team as we get ready to take on Steaua in the Super Cup tomorrow in a real test of our abilities as they are expected to win the league by a mile over us.
 
View attachment 240799The 2014 Romanian Super Cup will see AFC Astra Cup winners face League winners Steaua Bucharest.

Steaua will look for AMC Stanciu to dominate the match while Astra will hope that star striker Fatai can have a large impact on the match both are players to watch out for.

We started well and won a corner in the sixth minute a it was cleared to Fatai on the edge of the box and he shot deflected back out to Junior Maranhao who crossed it in again Gaman flicked it on and Fatai hit a looping header that went in at the near post 1-0 AFC Astra the underdogs lead.

Two minutes later Steau had a throw in deep in our territory a one two gave their left back enough room to cross but it was cleared by Ben Youssef, Budescu squared it to Reginaldo who took the ball to the halfway line and played it to Yahaya who pushed it across to William on the left wing he beat his man and crossed it in Yahaya had made up great ground and volleyed it across his body past they keeper and in 2-0 up inside ten minutes. I was feeling increasingly confident.

We had another corner after 15 minutes Maranhao hit it deep bu Steau half cleared and the ball got back to Maranhao who crossed it and was cleared up field William got it and played it to Ben Youssef who squared it to Yahaya who played it up to the edge of the box to Budescu who played in Fatai after a great run behind their centre back Fatai slammed it across the keeper and in 3-0 up after 15 minutes. What a great manager I am it has to be said surely game over now despite only being 15 minutes in.

Budescu took a free kick in Steaua's half jsut ahead of the centre circle squared it to Gaman he played it up to Budescu who squared it to Yahaya he played it up to Fatai who left the centre back chasing shadows to get into the box and slotted home a low shot at the near post. 4-0 up in twenty one minutes managing is a bit easier than I thought it would be if I am being honest.

After a good spell of possession in Steaua's half Budescu played in Fatai but he hit it just past the near post in almost a carbon copy of last goal. Steaua had still not managed a shot and looked absolutely awful and we were taking advantage.

At half time I told the players how pleased I was and they looked as thrilled as I was Fatai was immense a 15 minute hat trick completed by the 22nd minute. Steaua changed from a 4-2-3-1 with two DM's at half time to a 4-4-2 to try and get back into the game.

In the fiftieth minute they had their first shot a long range effort straight at Lung.

On 55 minutes disaster struck their centre back injured the legend that is Fatai with a bad tackle and got away with it as well. Alibec replaced Fatai and I pulled a tired looking William for Chitu.

Alibec played in Budescu after we countered from a Steaua counter but Budescu fired just wide of the corner just before the hour mark as we continued to dominate the match.

Around 80 minutes Ben Youssef hit an open header straight at Steauas goalie from a great Maranhao corner.

That was the last chance and after a Lung goal kick the ref blew his whistle we had won the Super Cup and shown that we had more than enough to challenge Steaua for the title.
View attachment 240788Celebrating the super cup and my first trophy as a manger. Fatai obviously won the man of the match award and far more importantly the physio said that he would be fine to train the next day so wouldn't miss any league games. In other news regarding Fatai he is getting the paperwork required to become a Romanian citizen so wouldn't be counted as a foreigner in the league.View attachment 240787
 
I thought I had found the perfect back up striker a Bahrain international, unfortunately he had played for oil money in the middle east and expected the same wages here so that broke down.View attachment 240784Annoyingly our need for a backup striker was made more important we Fatai strained his back in training he will miss 4-5 weeks.

We also beat Metalurg ZP 2-1 in a friendly with a backup squad which was encouraging.

The Romanian League cup drew us against ASA Tirgu Mures who I expected us to beat easily.View attachment 240780

The match day squad rules were the same as the Romanian league maximum 5 non EU players in the starting eleven and at least 5 players developed in Romania in the 18 player match squad. View attachment 240778Alibec came in for the injured Fatai while Seto came in at CM for the only changes from the super sup win.

We created tons of chances against ASA but were missing the finish without Fatai we finally took the lead when Williams cross was turned in by their goal keeper. The progression was assured when Reginaldo's header hit the cross bar and hit a defender running back to try and clear it in the chest before rolling across the line. Budescu then hit a great header into the top corner to add some gloss to the scoreline but our poor finishing is a concern that I will be addressing in training.
View attachment 240776

I think that we have a great chance of winning as upsets knocked out Steaua and Dinamo Bucharest our biggest challengers for the cup View attachment 240777

We also got about the worst draw possible in the Europa League qualifying so with Real Sociedad so don't think we will make the group stages unfortunately.View attachment 240775
Up next is Dinamo Bucharest in our opening game of the league.

EDIT: I got confused between Rapid and Dinamo Bucharest Rapid are out Dinamo are still in
 
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Ouch! Real Sociedad in a Qualifying round...unlucky isn't the word!

I have faith though, good luck.
 
Disclaimer89 said:
Ouch! Real Sociedad in a Qualifying round...unlucky isn't the word!

I have faith though, good luck.
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Yeah wanted anyone else if we had fatai maybe but without him we will struggle hopefully real don't play well after being whacked by a Romanian centre back. We do have the advantage of having played competitive matches first while theyve just had friendlies
 
Well not only were Dinamo Bucharest still in the league cup they were are next opponents in it in a tie that would be played in December.View attachment 240707

I'd also found a back up striker Marius Bilasco who has played around the Romanian Leagues and adds depth. View attachment 240706I also picked up a young Brazilian right back who could become a decent player for Astra.View attachment 240705
The day before we played Steaua continued there poor form as they lost to the ASA side we beat in the cup 3-2

The match against Dinamo didn't start well as Dorin Rotariu volleyed home a corner after one of our defenders miss judged the ball. 1-0 down after 3 minutes.

Some nice passing saw William get the ball on the left wing but he lost it and Dinamo played the ball around the defence. They got it up the pitch and kept passing it around until Budescu slammed into their CM to win it back the ball fell to Seto who played it to Enache who replaced Reginaldo his deep cross was beautiful in the perfect spot and Alibec slammed his header into the top corner. 1-1 after eight minutes

A Pinto corner just before the half hour was cleared but he got the ball back and his second cross was met by Budescu's forehead to slam it past the keeper. 2-1 Astra.

Just before half time Dinamo had a corner and after a scramble the ball fell to Rotariu six yards out but Lung managed to push his shot away in an amazing save before someone sent it into the stands.

Just after half time Dinamo had a free kick on the wing in our half the ball was cleared and the defence moved up their left back smashed the ball forwards and Rotariu got to it and slammed it past Lung to make it 2-2. Which was I result that I would take given Steaua loss and Dinamos quality.

Pinto and Willam played a one two after a throw deep in Dinamos half but Pinto cross was poor and their keeper gathered easily. Their CAM headed the ball to Seto who played it to Budescu who knocked it up to Alibec who beat a man then played it to William who slammed it in at the near post. 3-2 Astra after 63 minutes.

I subbed on Yahaya for Laban in central midfield and Reginaldo came on for Enache. From kick off Dinamo had a good move going but Yahaya stopped it with a great slide tackle. But the ball rolled to their left back who whipped in a cross it was cleared and their centre back came up to play it but Budescu dispossessed him played a one two with Reginaldo before hitting a low shot past their keeper from just inside the box to double are lead. 4-2 after 65 minutes.

Following a corner 2 minutes later we had three shots inside the box but none of them could get past all the bodies in the box.

Pinto intercepted a pass and played it up to William he played it inside to Alibec who knocked it back outside to Pinto who had continued his run. He crossed it to the far post from the edge of the box where Reginaldo fired a volley into the opposite corner to make it 5-2. But, what a goal it was. 3 goals in five minutes would surely be enough to win so I pulled off William for Chitu to give him a rest.

We had beat Dinamo 5-2 what was also encouraging was that we had beat the two best teams other than us by 7 goals combined so I felt that the league was more than realistic.View attachment 240701And here is the full table, which if you're new to Romanian football six teams get relegated out of 18 so mid table is still in with a chance of getting relegated. We are also where we plan on being at the end of the season.View attachment 240700Next we face the might of Real Sociedad for the first leg.
 
Annoyingly Astra have no players that they have produced from their youth academy so I had to leave four spaces in our registered squad which was annoying.

View attachment 240699Welcome to Gazeta's coverage of the Astra versus Real Sociedad match. Carlos Vela, Rueben Pardo, and De La Bella all issout through injury for Sociedad while Ingio Martinez will face a late fitness test after a foot injury.

Astra's only injury is to their striker Fatai. We should have the lineups soon.View attachment 240696So Reginaldo and Maranhao come in for an Astra side that beat Dinamo 5-2 while Ingio Martinez must have failed his fitness test.

Sociedad get the game underway here they pass it round well and Agireetxe is in on goal and Ben Youssef gets a great slide tackle to dispossess him just as he was about to shoot if he got that wrong it was a penalty and a red card inside a minute. Reginaldo clears the corner.

4th minute: Maranhao is booked for a cynical trip.

6th minute: Castro gets a warning for a similar foul fans and manager not happy.

11th minute Lung with the goal kick Sociedad win it but as they try and play it up to Agrieetxe a shoulder slams into him the ref waves play on and Astra get the ball out to William he beats his man and fires in a cross Alibec wins the header. Off the post so close for Astra as Sociedad clear it.

20 Astra have had 55% possession but only one shot while Sociedad have had seven

24th minute: Markel will have to go off for treatment after Seto accidentally kicked him in the shin.

40th minute: Canales will need some treatment after Seto accidently kicked him in the shin as well.

HT just before half time Seto accidently caught Martinez and he may need treatment. Astra will have the happier manager of the two. Enache will also be coming on for William we hear.

47th minute: Alibec scores after a good spell of Astra pressure but he was called offside and he was. MArtinez is looking in a bit of pain still after his run in with Seto

60th minute: GGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! 1-0 Astra lead through Alibec. After a Lung goal kick Enache gets the ball cuts inside past Martinez plays it to Laban Granero makes a geat tackle but the ball kept going forwards Alibec wins the race and scores from a tight angle. Pandemonium in the stands as Astra celebrate in the corner. Sociedad look shocked they were expecting a walkover but they no they are in a game now.

65: Zurutusa replaces Canales for Sociedad Canales took quite a few knocks.

67th minute: Gaman booked for a hard tackle into Zurutusa who looks in a bit of pain.

68th minute: Yahya replaces Budescu who has been disappointing as Astra go for a three man midfield it looks.

75th minute: Markel leaves the pitch for Elustondo. Markel has also taken a whack or two today.

82nd minute: Granero is off for Hervias as Sociedad look for an away goal. Astra though are stll dominating the match.

88th minute. Sociedad on the attack. Rus smashes into Hervias the ball fall Sociedads way and they push forward with Prieto. Zurutusa knocks it out to Castro back into Zurtusa who hits it just wide despite being wide open ten yards from goal that was Sociedads chance.

90th minute: From that goal kick Lung hits it up it flicked on to Alibec he beats his man but his shot is tipped over by Rulli

93rd minute. Agrritxe was almost in but a great tackle from Maranhao stops the danger.

Full Time

AFC Astra 1 Real Sociedad 0 Astra win their first match in Europe and David moyes loses his first match in charge of Sociedad. Astra also don't allow an away goal which could be key.
View attachment 240689
View attachment 240688
 
Astra beat Brazov to reclaim top spot in Romania

What the game will be remembered for is ex Real Betis man Nacho's debut it ended 14 seconds after the match began with a two footed horror tackle on Enache after that it was one way traffic William scored after Enache had a shot well saved but the rebound went straight to William who tapped it in. Budescu scored a beautiful header to make it 2-0 after 36 minutes. Astra then made some subs and slowed the game down in preparation for their match against Real Sociedad. In other football news Steaua scraped a 3-2 win over Otelul. Then there was the small matter of the Bucharest derby Rapid against Dinamo. Underdogs Rapid secured a famous 5-0 win ]. Rapid have now conceded ten goals in two games.

Here is a picture of NachoView attachment 240658
A review and player ratings for the matchView attachment 240655And finally the table with Astra top so far while Dinamo surprisingly are in last place.View attachment 240654 Astra travel to San Sebastian on Thursday to take on Real Solciedad in the second leg of Europa League qualifying with a 1-0 lead
 
View attachment 240648Florescu has decided that he wants more first team football and I could not convince him to be a backupView attachment 240647But, I could stop Oros from wanting more football and he will happily stay as a backup for a while.

View attachment 240641Welcome to the second leg of the Astra Real Sociedad Europa League tie Astra have the one goal lead courtesy of an Alibec strike.

Here are the line ups:
View attachment 240638Astra are unchanged from the first leg with Martinez coming in a CB for Sociedad.


1st minute: Real Sociedad get the game underway

3rd minute: A long ball plays Agrritxe in but, he shoots straight at Lung who palms it away for a corner.

10th minute: Darlan slides into Budescu and injures him he will have to go off. Yahya replaces him.

12th minute: Astra get some passes in the box but neither Reginaldo or Alibec could get a shot off. Sociedad clear Yahya slams into Agttitxe to regain posession. Seto plays it out wide to Alibec who with a bit of luck gets past two defenders and hits in a cross that William volleys past Rulli. GGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL 2-0 Astra on aggregate with an away goal Solciedad need three goal to win.

17th minute: Castro fires in a cross well cleared by Ben Youssef. Prieto goes on a run that is stopped by William forcefully but Sociedad retain possesion Agirrtxe plays it to Hervias who is past the last man and he slides a shot past Lung. 1-1 on the night 2-1 on aggregate.

Half Time not a lot of action after Sociedads goal. Seto is coming off for Astra replaced by Munteanu

47th minute: Castro was dispossessed Laban played it up and Alibec beat Martinez to a header and played himself in his shot was right at Rulli the rebound fell to William and he slotted home from a tight angle.
GGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL Astra 2-1 on the day and 3-1 on aggregate with two away goals.
The Stadium has fallen silent except the small group of Astra fans.

56th minute: Castro crossed it to Prieto who squared it to Darlan who slotted it into the bottom corner. 2-2 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate Sociedad need two more goals in just over half an hour.

67th minute: Elusundo is on for Sociedad replacing Martinez

69th minute: Willaim dispossess Elusundo goes on a run but his shot is blocked a bit. It is then cleared a few yards before the line.

72nd minute: Hervias finishes nice Sociedad move it is 3-3 on aggregate.

74th minute: Hervias heads a great ball onto the bar what a chance for Sociedad.

80th minute: William disposses Elusundo and goes on a great run ended Elusundo when he pulled down William in the box. Astra appeals given penalty. Maranhao steps up to take it. A goal surely knocking out Sociedad who would have to score twice. Rulli dives to his right while Maranhaos penalty goes the other way and flies into the corner. GGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL 3-3 and 4-3 on aggregate Astra are favourites to go through.

93rd minute: Referee blows his whistle Astra go through Sociedad are out Cherna Samba has masterminded a victory over Sociedad for Astra.
Bad news from the physio Budescu tore his calf and will be out for 4-5 months.View attachment 240627In better news we got 75k which will help the finances.

The draw is tomorrow for the next round can Astra advance into the group stages.View attachment 240626APOEL are a much better draw than we could have had and far easier than Sociedad I feel so I expect us to get through
 
We faced Botosani who are only kept off of the bottom of the table by Dinamo Bucharest.

In the 18th minute Ben Youssef headed home a corner after the keeper had come to collect it missed it and Ben Youssef headed into an empty net. The only other chance was when their striker was in on goal and he fired wide. It was a poor match but we got 3 points after a big away match in Europe and I was pleased.

View attachment 240576

Steaua won again but, Dinamo Bucharest lost again and their title bid may be over before it began as they are already nine points back.View attachment 240575Dinamo are surprisingly the only team without a point. Next week we face Steaua in an away game in the league it will be a serious examination of our title credentials.
 
Before the Steaua match we had great news Fatai was fit and now was a Romanian citizen so counts as home grown for us.View attachment 240567Match number two against Steaua I would take half as good a win as last time.

My gamble with Fatai didn't pay off as he went off injured after 30 minutes.

The first half was a cagey affair with no great efforts for either side.

The second was the same we dominated but we couldn't create one good chance.View attachment 240566
Fatai will be out for 8-11 days with a bruised thigh. This meant that he would probably miss both matches against APOEL.

Dinamo finally won while Rapid Bucharest knocked us off top spot.View attachment 240564 Florescu is leaving on loan to Lorient and they can buy him for 300k at any point.View attachment 240562
 
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