European Journeyman

[NashBigginss]

January
View attachment 12185Willem ll - We start the month with a testimonial game for one of their players which ended in a 2-0 win with Maria getting a rare start these days and goal!
NAC Breda - I don't know how we didn't come away with all 3 points, Minacori missing a host of great chances.
Ajax - What a win! Raveloson scored an absolute screamer before Oliver Bias rounded off an impressive win!
FC Twente - We went into half time 2-0 up and I decided to go cautious which backfired with them scoring 2 goals. Up steps Max Tschauner to win us the game after he came into the first team to replace the misfiring Minacori.
Ajax - Played Ajax twice in 10 days and managed to beat them twice to progress to the semi finals of the Dutch Cup! Duverne scored from a free kick before a 92nd minute winner from Lucas Rosa sealed a dramatic comeback and win!

View attachment 12184We finish the month in a respectable 6th place. We have a game in hand on most teams around us and a win could see us rise to 4th!

Transfers
View attachment 12181It was disappointing to see 19 year old Jordan Monteil leave. A few bids of £500,000 came in which we swiftly rejected. He did however have a £1.5million release clause in his contract which Porto met and there was no way he was gonna stay around with them coming in for him. Mark Spenkelink was a 3rd choice goalkeeper who has rarely featured throughout my tenure and has joined FC Eindhoven on a free.

It was time to find a replacement for Jordan Monteil...
View attachment 12180Mathis Louiserre - A centre back who came through at Lyon arrives in for £170,000 from Bochum. A great bit of business. He is better on the ball than Monteil with good positioning and decision making. A left footed ball playing centre back should fit in nicely alongside Duverne.
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[NashBigginss]

February

We've been lucky with injuries this year... until now

First choice left back, Melvin Bard has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with damages achilles tendons.

Central midfielder, Idris El Mizouni, is also out for the month after twisting his ankle.

Feyenoord - A good point against a strong side. Max Tschauner scoring a brace however a 93rd minute equaliser means we share the spoils.
Vitesse - A big win away from home thanks to a well worked corner finished off by Rayan Raveloson.
FC Utrecht - A game we dominated however failed to get anything out of again losing points in the last few minutes of the game.
Vitesse - A very very dull game with very few highlights.
sc Heerenveen - Read the match review from the FC Utrecht game. Dominate and concede late on to lose.
N.E.C - We really weren't at the races as we fall to 3 defeats in 4 games and 4 games without a goal!

A really poor end of the month has cost us in the race for Europe. We are only 2 points off of FC Twente however in 5th so with a good run of form hopefully we can climb the table again.

More bad news greeted me in February with Torino laughing off my job application.
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[NashBigginss]

March

Ajax - A convincing defeat to carry on our horrendous form. Minacori did grab a brace however.
ADO Den Haag - Another disappointing defeat this time at home to a weaker side.
Feyenoord - Our dutch cup semi final also ends in defeat however we took them to extra time and then penalties. Youngster Youness Aarab was the only player to miss as we narrowly miss out on a place in the final despite probably shading the game.
Excelsior - Whats this!? A win!? I forgot what it felt like as we finally win a game and keep a clean sheet! Oliver Bias scored the only goal, he has had a superb season.

Another poor month sees us in 7th however level on points with Heerenveen and only one point above of Willem ll. We have a game in hand on most the teams around us which I believe is against league leaders PSV so I cant see us closing the gap on 6th place which is currently 6 points.

We had a good youth intake though! We have 3 players come in with at least 4 stars potential and one potential 5 star player. I offered everyone a contract from James Mensah and above.

Wales

We also had one international friendly away at Malta. We comfortably won 4-0 despite having a few key players out. Experienced players Ramsey, Allen and Vokes scored alongside a Ben Woodburn goal.

Wasn't even given an interview!
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[NashBigginss]

April

PSV - What a win away from home! Probably my best win of my career, win away from home against the league leaders! Oliver Bias and Enzo Millot with the goals!
PEC Zwolle - How did we draw this game!? We dominated them and created great chances but couldn't convert them as we share the spoils.
Willem ll - Back to back draws and dropped points as we again dominated the game. Minacori getting on the scoresheet for the first time in a while.
Roda JC - Back away from home and back to an impressive win. Bias, Manneh and Raveloson with the goals.
VVV-Venlo - We finish the season with a great win at home. Duverne got us on our way with an early header before they then pegged us back. Alasana Manneh then made it 2 in 2 for him before substitute Jesse Panhuis rounded the keeper and cemented the 3 points.

We finish the month in an impressive 6th place finish, one place higher than we finished last season. We finished 5 points behind 5th placed Ajax which I would have taken at the start of the season. Our bad form in February cost us a spot in Europe unfortunately.

More rejection despite a promotion and two top half finishes despite the board and media predicting us to go down!

Some disappointing news is that loanees Lucas Rosa and Oliver Bias will not be returning to the club as their contracts are up in the summer and have already agreed to join Catania and Mainz retrospectively


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[NashBigginss]

Play off Semi Final

As you can see from the match stats, we were much the better side however wayward shooting let us down. In recent weeks I have started Max Tschauner on the left wing cutting inside and he opened the scoring with a lovely finish. Straight after half time however we were back on level terms as they converted a free kick.

Another game I felt we shaded despite them having more shots on target. We dominated possession with 68% away from home and took the lead through Tschauner again! 28 minutes later and we were back all square after a Gokhan Gul header. With neither side creating any clear cut chances the game ended and after extra time, it was to be decided by penalties. Only Minacori missed for us and thankfully 2 Heerenveen players missed to mean we are through to the final!

In the final we will face FC Twente over two legs, they finished one place below us in the league table this year.

We will be without first choice right back Lucas Rosa for the first leg though as he picked up 5 yellow cards.

I was given a job interview at Parma however they chose to appoint Eduardo Imbimbo instead.
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[NashBigginss]

Play Off Final

We started the game on fire and took the lead in the 6th minute through Minacori. They then got a player sent off after a second yellow card however equalised through Ryan Pengel! We then made a few subs and went more attacking which resulted in a second goal for Minacori and a decent 2-1 lead to take into the second leg.

We will be without a left back for the final however with first choice Melvin Bard still injured and back up Yoel Armougom suspended after picking up his 5th booking of the campaign. 3rd choice winger Michael Maria is the only other player in the squad who could feel comfortable to play there.

Disaster! We started the better side and created 2 great chances early on and however after that point we were far inferior. We went a goal down and with 20 minutes left I went attacking and within 5 minutes of that switch, it was game over despite them getting a late sending off, we fell to a 4-2 aggregate defeat.

Rayan Raveloson has won player of the year for the second season running. I would have given my vote to runner up Oliver Bias though however after he finished top goal scorer for the season from left wing. Makes it even more gutting that he is leaving the club. Signing of the season was young left back Melvin Bard who picked up a long term injury in the season with another new signing, Alasana Manneh winning goal of the season.

Oliver Bias claims top goal scorer and highest average rating. Our right hand side proved a deadly form of attack with 18 assists shared out evenly by Millot and Rosa. Academy graduate Youness Aarab also got the highest pass completion rate despite not featuring that often.
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[NashBigginss]

Wales

Ecuador - We absolutely blitzed them! They had one shot the whole game which was in the 86th minute which they scored from. Thankfully we had the game wrapped up by then with goals from Tom Lawrence and Harry Wilson.
Kosovo - An emphatic comfortable win and performance with Tom Lawrence scoring again after a howler from their goalkeeper. Ben Woodburn scored a minute later and then Jarrod Bowen rounded off the win late on.

This is our group for the upcoming Euros. We have Belgium that are clearly favourite to top the group! Switzerland are then second favourite followed by ourselves and then Macedonia. I'm aiming to beat Macedonia, scrape a win/draw against Switzerland and expecting a thumping from Belgium.

This is the tactic that I will/have been using. Surprisingly despite being in 2024, I have no regens in my starting 11. I have a few good up and coming defenders that have made the 23. Apart from that the ones coming through aren't going to cut the mustard apart from Kien White, that is with the squad and a young 17 year old that was unlucky to miss out.
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[Hampus Silverholt]

Not sure if it's my laptop but the images won't load for me and are not showing on the last 3 or 4 posts you've made. I think it's an FM Base issue because for about a week or so trying to upload images to the site has been horrendous!

 

[NashBigginss]

Hampus Silverholt -Really sorry to hear that mate! Hope everyone else hasn't had the same problem. I think I can rectify this problem in future posts!

Euros

Switzerland - Probably our worst performance of the group stage, we were lucky to come away with a point however a point that I would have taken at the start of the game!
Belgium - WOW! Our best performance since taking over as Wales manager, we were superb and battered Belgium and in the end were unfortunate to come away with just a point!
Macedonia - A must win game and we delivered the win thanks to well taken goals by David Brooks and Harry Wilson.

I thought id attach the match stats from the Belgium game to show just how dominant we were!

We finish in 2nd place behind Belgium who won against both Switzerland and Macedonia. We were the only team in the group to not concede in the group stage! Switzerland also qualified despite finishing in 3rd place.

We will face Ireland in the next round of the Euros who finished 2nd in their group behind Spain.

We will be without influential first team attacking midfielder, David Brooks, after he collected 2 yellow cards.

I wasn't even interviewed for the Cagliari job despite them being relegated from Serie A.
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[NashBigginss]

Wales

Gutted as I didn't feel we deserved to lose this game considering we had nearly double the amount of shots than they did however we did look absolutely shattered going into extra time and they capitalised through a Troy Parratt goal.

Portugal end up winning the Euros with a 2-0 win against Denmark. Had we beaten Ireland we would have faced Denmark and then Spain so the likelihood of success was low! The Wales Football Association were happy with a 2nd round finish though.
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[NashBigginss]

Preseason & Transfers

As you know already, Lucas Rosa and Oliver Bias joined new clubs in the window. We also released 3 players however they were all youngsters and didn't feature under me. Right winger, Enzo Millet has rejoined the club on a season long loan from Monaco.

3 departures so far! Yoel Armougom has joined newly promoted Sparta Rotterdam after a year with the club. He was back up and was on a hefty wage for someone who is behind Bard in the pecking order so I felt it was time to cash in on him. Youth product Mert Ozdogan has joined De Treffers on a season long loan to see if he could cut the mustard. The main departure was Rayan Raveloson. He had a clause in his contract meaning he could go to a club in a European competition which meant we had to accept the £2.1million offer from FC Groningen. Chievo came in with a £3.2m offer however we agreed terms with Groningen.

Now the arrivals...

Michael Mabiala - Brought in for cover alongside Feser. He is young and has potential with some already impressive attributes. The ex Marseille player is on a low wage and could be sold for profit in the future if he doesn't cut it here with us.

Cesar Garro - Another young defender comes in as back up. He replaces Armougom at left back and at 18 the ex Atletico Madrid full back has some impressive attributes.

Yannis N'Gakoutou - A right back comes in to offer competition to Fred Werner Radchul following Rosa's departure. Yannis looks solid all round however we will aim to improve his tackling as that is a weakness of his.

El Hadj Coly - A £120,000 signing from Lyon. He has some pace alongside decent decision making, composure, finishing and movement so should be a handful of the bench and give competition to our strikers already at the club.

Alessio Miceli - A 24 year old comes in to challenge Youness Aarab for the defensive midfielder spot vacated by Raveloson. He arrives for £40,500 and has some useful player traits alongside good passing and long shots attributes.

Pre season sees us start off shockingly with 2 defeats and 0 goals scored. We quickly turned that around with 3 wins and 1 draw to finish off preseason as I can see us finishing lower than we have in the previous 2 seasons.

New month, still no job interview.
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[NashBigginss]

leckuno - I currently have a continental A licence and nearly secured my continental pro licence.

August

Excelsior - We start the season with a 1-1 draw, slightly disappointing considering how well we played and an early goal from Enzo Millot.
FC Groningen - We play against Rayan Raveloson on his away debut for his new club but we spoiled the party! Minacori scored early on before they flipped the game on its head with 2 quick goals. El Mizouni equalised with a lovely strike before a later winner from Minacori sealed our first win of the season.
AZ - A decent point against a strong AZ side consisting of Sven Van Beek, Allan and Victor Wanyama. Minacori scoring a brace to continue his fine start to the season.
ADO Den Haag - We played well but had to grind out an impressive 1-0 win thanks to a goal from Nicholas Pierini who has started in the left wing role left by Oliver Bias.

We finish the month where we finished last season, 6th. We are currently undefeated with 2 wins and 2 draws however face Feyenoord in our next game.

In our last game, Calogero Minacori injured himself sprinting and will miss the whole of September.

Melvin Bard will also see most of September from the side-lines after twisting his ankle in the same game!

Transfer news...

Benedikt Kirsch has left the club to join Excelsior for a fee of £2million. He was a back up option and I felt at the age of 28, this was the highest fee I would receive for him.

Sasa Lukic - In comes Lukic, a former Serbian U21 star arrives on a season long loan from Torino and offers much needed height and strength in midfield but he also offers a great range of passing alongside strong mental attributes.
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[NashBigginss]

Leckuno - Yeah fingers crossed.

September

Feyenoord - What a performance and win! We thoroughly deserved the 3 points as we were the better side. Duverne and Miceli scoring the vital goals.
Willem ll - Another comfortable win and another goal from Raveloson's replacement in Alessio Miceli.
De Graafschap - A good win in the first round of the Dutch Cup with Duverne scoring again and a first goal for the club for Sasa Lukic.
VVV-Venlo - We round off a fantastic month with a 4-0 drubbing. El Hadj Coly finally scores his first for the club, the same game as Cesar Garro gets his first from left back as he is filling in for Melvin Bard. Enzo Millet scored a brace to round off the win.

A superb month sees us climb to 2nd a place and point behind current leaders Vitesse.
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