Going Dutch with Sparta Rotterdam

[Hampus Silverholt]

A 4-2 win against Heerenveen was a perfect way to prepare for the cup final, particularly as a 4 point gap opened up between us and PSV

One of the best decisions I made this season was to re-train Sankoh as an inside forward on the left. He has 18 goals and 11 assists so far this season and isn’t done there.

I wasn’t expecting much from the cup final against Ajax but with the form we were in there was some slight hope that we could pull off an upset and win the trophy for the first time since 1966.

The starting XI was 100% Dutch and contained 3 players that have been with me since the start of the save (Harrouri, Mijnans and Emegha)

And those players made history

I seriously did not expect us to win that… what a result!

It was quite fitting the goal was scored by Maysonnave, who came through the youth intake in our first season.

After worrying about finishing 5th for the majority of the season, winning the cup meant that we qualified for the Europa League playoff… but we just kept on winning in the league.

So, with one game remaining in the Eredivisie, we were 2 points behind Feyenoord.

We just so happened to be playing them in the final game of the season. A win would mean we finished in 2nd place and qualified for the Champions League playoffs.

Wow. We cap off an incredible season by qualifying for the Champions League again!

We have seriously overperformed yet again and looked like we could beat any team in the world in April and May.

There’s a lot of players that need to be praised in the season recap!​

 

[leckuno]

What an end to the season. Cant wait to see what you do in the summer and who your able to attract to the club

 

[Klippybo]

What a season!!!! Couldn't believe your champions league group draw - so tough but to bounce back and finish 2nd again and win the cup is a fair achievement!!!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What an end to the season. Cant wait to see what you do in the summer and who your able to attract to the club

Might be difficult to get some quality into the side, everybody is just too expensive! It's still crazy to think that we made it to the group stage of the Champions League with 0 Dutch internationals.

What a season!!!! Couldn't believe your champions league group draw - so tough but to bounce back and finish 2nd again and win the cup is a fair achievement!!!

Yeah I thought that it would be the last time we made it to the Champions League for a while given the strength of PSV, AZ, Feyenoord and Utrecht. But to be honest I wouldn't mind it if we only made the Europa League group stage next season as we might actually have a chance of winning some games!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We finish the 2023/24 season as runners up in the Eredivisie for the 2nd season in a row.

We also managed to make it to the Champions League group stage in our first season in the competition, where we got 2 draws against Bayern Munich and Lyon

And we unexpectedly won the cup, beating Ajax 1-0 in the final.

All that was achieved despite us still having only the 10th highest wage budget in the Eredivisie..

Our achievements this season have been incredible considering that we have an almost 100% Dutch squad, yet do not have any players in the Dutch national team!

That all changed momentarily when striker Emanuel Emegha was named in the preliminary squad for EURO 24... but did not get named in the final 23-man squad.

I’m pretty sure he’s been second top scorer in the Eredivisie in all 4 seasons of this save. This year he got 29 in all competitions - including 3 in the Champions League group stage.

Another standout player that has been here since day 1 is Sven Mijnans. He capped off another impressive season with 5 goals and 13 assists in all competitions.

Behind the scenes we are building a very impressive Dutch youth squad.

Our under 18s are so good that they won the UEFA Youth League this season! It’s mainly because I made Haddadi available for all fixtures after he was promoted to the first team and he scored 19 goals in 10 matches overall!

He’s firmly part of the first-team picture and Bram van den Berg, who along with Haddadi got a hattrick in the final, looks like he’ll be a special player for us.

The Dutch league is also improving and if we finish 2nd next season, that would mean direct qualification to the Champions League group stage

The money generated from the Champions League this season means we have £37m in the bank, although the board only gave us £10m to spend in the summer.

Despite the healthy budgets, It’s going to be hard to bring in Dutch players who will take us to the next level. Any player that would improve us either would cost £20m+ or would want extortionate wages.

Realistically the only way we’ll be able to topple Ajax is to develop talented youngsters at the club rather than buying the finished product so it’s going to be interesting to see if we can finish in the top 2 again next season.​

 

[iamalex44]

I just want to let you know that I love your save! I only check your updates when I'm going to bed but it's one of the most intriguing stuff I'm reading. I really love how you've built a competitive squad while only using Dutch players .

Maybe you can do a Rapid Bucharest save in the future...We're struggling in real life and as a fan FM would be the only thing close to success for our club.
Looking forward for the transfer window :O

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I just want to let you know that I love your save! I only check your updates when I'm going to bed but it's one of the most intriguing stuff I'm reading. I really love how you've built a competitive squad while only using Dutch players .

Maybe you can do a Rapid Bucharest save in the future...We're struggling in real life and as a fan FM would be the only thing close to success for our club.
Looking forward for the transfer window :O

Thanks and glad you're enjoying the save! It's funny that you mention Rapid Bucharest as I have thought about doing a save in Romania before but never actually done so... it might be one I look at in FM22!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

As I feared, it’s been a fairly mediocre transfer window and we’ve struggled to really add any quality Dutch players to our squad.

There were a few transfers out, notably Thomas Poll who we sold to PEC Zwolle for £1.5m. To get that money for our backup left-back, who we signed for free 12 months ago, seemed a wise decision.

Delano Vianello was also sold to Vitesse for £750,000. He’s worth more than double that now but I’d prefer to give his place in the squad to our youngsters.

Transfers In

We have spent exactly £5m this transfer window…

The most expensive acquisition was Million Manhoef for £3.7m from Vitesse. He was brought in as cover at left-back but can play on the left-wing or as a midfielder if needed.

Goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen also joins for £1.3m from Ajax to give Rody de Boer some competition. He was first choice at Ajax last season and will definitely be complaining about lack of game time at some point this season

I also made a pre-arranged deal to get Xavier Mbuyamba on a free from Chelsea. We didn’t really need him but I’m a sucker for a 6’5” centre back...

Midfielder Xavi Simons arrives on season-long loan from Juventus. He’s spent the last 2 seasons on loan at PSV and Feyenoord and adds some depth to our midfield.

I’ve desperately tried to find an affordable Dutch right-winger this transfer window but have not been successful. I was close to spending £8m on Thomas Buitink from Vitesse but instead chose to extend the loans of Joel Ideho from Arsenal and Dillon Hoogewerf from Man Utd.

So that leaves our squad very similar to what it was last season although a few youngsters have been promoted to the first team including promising teenagers Kacar and Bresser

Despite finishing 2nd in the last two seasons, we are once again predicted to finish 6th in the Eredivisie.

And we will face Porto in the Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round. After beating Dynamo Kyiv at the same stage last season, I’m a bit more worried about our opponents this time around.

We face them immediately after our first league game which is at home to PSV. It’s going to be a tough start to the campaign with the fact we face them and Ajax in our first 3 Eredivisie matches.

So it looks like it’s going to be another season of us finishing between 2nd and 5th but I’m looking forward to it. Our young Dutch squad is only going to improve as we get deeper into the save and I’m sure we’re not too far away from competing with Ajax.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We started the 2024/25 season as we ended the last one by winning our opening game 4-1 against PSV, with the main-man Maysonnave scoring a hattrick.

Next up for us was Porto in the Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round. Despite having 25 shots, we lost the first leg to them at home.

However, the disappointment of that result was soon forgotten as we overturned the first leg deficit by scoring 3 goals in Portugal.

We’re on a mission to get to the group stage again!

We did come crashing back down to earth though, losing 2-1 to Ajax courtesy of their wonderkid striker Joel Sarpong. He’s already the best striker in the league despite only being 18.

So after 3 matches, the top 5 already has a familiar feel to it, with Utrecht down in 11th position.

Despite getting to the Champions League group stage last season, we’re still financially miles apart from other clubs in Holland. AZ, PSV and Feyenoord are all spending 3x as much on wages as us even though we’ve finished above all of them for 2 successive seasons.

And some of the transfer business going on was ridiculous, with PSV selling defenders for nearly £20m and Ajax breaking their transfer record on Paes from Utrecht, who isn’t even first choice for Holland!

It shows just how incredible we are doing to be in the Champions League, where we will face Rangers in the Playoff Round next.

Once again we are just 2 games away from the group stage!​

 

[ID901]

Great work! Love a Sparta save.
I do feel the need to point out that the facepack you're using has mixed up Ideho's face with Daniel Oyegoke!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Great work! Love a Sparta save.
I do feel the need to point out that the facepack you're using has mixed up Ideho's face with Daniel Oyegoke!

Great spot mate, I would have never known! Actually inspired me to go in and change it myself...

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Going into the Rangers tie, I was pretty confident of progressing to the group stage of the Champions League… especially after a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Ibrox.

All we needed to do was keep a clean sheet and we were through to the group stage. I was expecting a routine win in the second leg... but we had a bit of a surprising result.

The game was even throughout and went to penalties, where Rangers kept their cool and progressed to the group stage at our expense. It was a really underwhelming result and felt like it came out of nowhere.

It meant that we entered the Europa League group stage where we were still seeded 4th anyway.

After knocking out Porto in the Champions League qualifying rounds, we’ll face them again this season! We’ll face them, Young Boys and Genk in the Europa League.

We’ve also passed transfer deadline day. The lack of interest in our players has been a bit strange and a bid from Heerenveen for Mijnans, which we rejected, was the only kind of transfer activity we had.

I mentioned it in the last post, but I was so close to getting Thomas Buitink from Vitesse for around £8m. The scouts really like him but I’d use him as a right winger and it just didn’t feel right to spend our entire budget on him.

It wasn’t just him i was close to buying though. I’m closely watching Nick Bos from Vitesse and Mohammed Koroma from N.A.C as both players have release clauses of £7.75m.

It’s highly likely that we’ll come back in for one of them in January… I have no idea which player to put my faith in though!

But for now we have to concentrate on the Eredivisie and Europa League. Scheduling means we have 4 away games in a row in September.

Hopefully we can do better in the Europa League group stage than we did in the Champions League last season and make it to the knockout rounds.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I haven’t really mentioned the facilities much in the last few seasons but we now have exceptional academy coaching.

And with the youth and training facilities due to be upgraded in December, things are looking very promising off the field.

Back on the pitch, our first ever game in the Europa League group stage was a boring 0-0 away against Genk.

Next up for us was Porto. After outplaying them twice already this season in the Champions League I had a feeling that they were bound to get one over us in the Europa League... Turns out I was wrong.

We were simply awesome and they could not contain hattrick hero Emanuel Emegha.

Our next 2 matches are against Young Boys and I’m hoping we can win both to seal an early qualification to the knockout rounds.

We seem to be hitting our top form already this season and have won 4 in a row in the Eredivisie.

You might’ve noticed that we beat Utrecht 6-2 straight after the Porto game, what are the chances of us winning 6-2 twice in a row?

Dominique Maysonnave got a hat-trick this time and the scoreline was more remarkable given the fact that they actually had more xG than us.

We’re only 8 games into the season but our good form means we are top of the Eredivisie on goal difference!

Maysonnave and Emegha are singlehandedly carrying us this season - both have 9 goals in 8 Eredivisie games.

Emegha is on 93 Eredivisie goals for the club in just 135 matches and has hit the potential he showed as a 17-year-old when we first took over at the club.

And just look how good Maysonnave is becoming!

Things could not be going better for us right now as we head into the October international break...

At the time of writing, I have just updated to the latest version of FM so I am praying that my reliable tactic does not turn to rubbish.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The finest achievement yet of the save was winning the Dutch Cup last year. In our defence of the competition this season, we could’ve been drawn against a number of part-time clubs… instead, we’ll face Utrecht!

Our third Europa League game was a comfortable 3-1 victory against Young Boys thanks to another Emegha hattrick who, even by his standards, is in simply ridiculous form.

We also beat them in the return fixture to all but seal qualification to the knockout rounds.

Things were also going really well in the league but we have drawn our 2 most recent matches against weaker opposition.

It was an especially poor draw at home to Vitesse, which was made worse by the fact that Buitink scored when we were so close to buying him in the summer.

Dilion Hoogewerf also picked up a 6 week injury in the game meaning we are very light on wide players.

Those results mean that Ajax are back on the top of the Eredivisie… but it is so close with just 1 point separating the top 4.

Emegha has 15 goals in his last 8 matches. I’ve never known anything like it!

Yet he still isn't the top scorer in the league because of the ridiculous form of 19 year old Sarpong.

Hopefully, his goals can fire us to the top of our Europa League group and maybe even to the top of the Eredivisie this season.​

 

[Damejames11]

Loving and following this save great binge read at 2 clock in the morning

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Loving and following this save great binge read at 2 clock in the morning

Haha the perfect time to read it... glad you're enjoying it!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Despite being well in the title race, the mediocre results just kept on coming with a 0-0 away against N.E.C our 3rd draw in a row.

It looked like it would be 4 draws in a row in all competitions until Emegha popped up in the last minute with a winner versus Genk.

That win sealed top spot and our qualification with a game to go in the Europa League.

But it was doom and gloom in our next two games, as we got an abysmal draw at home to lowly NAC Breda followed by draw number 5 in a row against RKC Waalwijk.

I don’t know what went wrong, but we looked terrible and can’t afford to drop points against inferior opposition if we want to challenge for the league this season.

The only silver lining is that we’re not losing matches and we ironically set a club record of 18 games unbeaten.

The most annoying thing was that we actually weren’t playing too badly and finally put an end to the drawing streak against ADO Den Haag.

The unbeaten run ended when our backup side lost to Porto in the final group stage game where we had nothing to play for. They were actually unlucky to lose considering the Porto goalkeeper was the man of the match.

I did not realise that finishing in 1st place means that we skip the first knockout round and go straight to the second knockout round in the Europa League in February!

So things looked like they were picking up for us after a blip in our form. That was confirmed when we thumped Utrecht 7-1 in the second round of the cup.

Our defence of the cup could not have started any better! It’s crazy how we go from struggling to score against inferior teams to then putting 7 past Utrecht!

However, our reward was an even tougher game in the 3rd round against PSV. Great!

2024 ended with an impressive win over city rivals Feyenoord, which put us right back in title contention.

I mention him nearly every post, but Emanuel Emegha has been world-class for us this season.

He has 30 goals in all competitions. 30! It’s not even Christmas!

He’s joint top scorer in the Eredivisie and leads the Europa League charts with 8 in 5 matches. Utter madness.

The winter break gives us time to look for transfer target. Hopefully, we can find a quality Dutch right-winger I’ve been so desperate to purchase for the last year or so.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The January transfer window has been and gone, and it’s been a bit of a mental one...

Firstly, our very own Emanuel Emegha won the 2024 Golden Boy after an incredible year for us. He scored 39 in 45 appearances so it’s no surprise that he won it and he joins decent company in the past winners.

We’re halfway through the season and he is just 2 goals away from breaking the Sparta record of most goals in a season. I wonder how many he’ll end up with at the end of the season!

Then the transfer weirdness started...

First up a £36m bid came in from China for Maysonnave. We’d never received any kind of bid like it before and it seemed as though the recent update had made Chinese club interested in our players.

Thankfully he wasn’t interested in joining, but when Hebei China Fortune put in a bid for midfielder Sven Mijnans, he did want to go.

And when he wanted me to promise him that we could win the league this season (and I declined) he handed in a transfer request.

What made it worse is that we had a ready made replacement in Xavi Simons… who I’d just agreed to let go back to Juventus because of his lack of playing time!

And so, that was it. Mijnans was off to China for £13m - which was almost £10m more than the previous record sale at the club.

He’s been brilliant since the start of the save but if I’m being honest, he wasn’t a leading player in the Eredivisie which is the type of player that we need in order to topple Ajax.

We needed an instant replacement and I think I’ve found the perfect player for now…

That’s because 31-year-old Davy Klaassen has joined Sparta.

His contract at Ajax was up at the end of the season so we paid £1.8m to bring him to the club early.

Another player whose contract was nearly up at Ajax was Quincy Promes, so he too has joined the club in the weirdest transfer I’ve ever made in FM.

That’s because he comes in as a Player/Director of Football!

I don’t use a DoF so I didn't really care about that. What I do care about is that he is a quality, Dutch winger which we desperately needed.

He was injured for a few weeks initially, meaning that he missed out on the monumental victory over PSV in the cup.

We faced Utrecht at home in Round 2 and PSV away in round 3… the only way we could get a tougher game was to get Ajax in the quarter final. So of course we did.

I suppose if we’re going to defend the cup we’ll have to beat Ajax at some point. They’ll be out for revenge after we beat them in the final of the competition last season.

We have 6 Eredivisie games and that quarter final against Ajax before we even find out who our opponents will be in the Europa League Second Knockout Round.

The league table is also getting interesting as we sit in 3rd with a game in hand of the other teams around us.

A second place finish gets us direct qualification to the group stage of the Champions League, whereas 3rd would see us go into the Champions League Playoff Round.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first game of February was a 4-2 victory against PSV which blew the title race open.

Quincy Promes scored on his debut with the assist coming from Klaassen - they’re turning out to be 2 astute signings already!

The two of them were at it again in the next game against Willem, both picking up assists and Promes getting man of the match in a routine win.

Unfortunately we were unable to defend the KNVB Beker this season after losing 6-2 against Ajax in the quarter-final. But that scoreline only tells half of the story!

We equalised in the last minute to send things to extra time, only for 2 players to get injured when we had used all our subs, which led to Ajax scoring 4 goals in extra time!

It’s taken 3 months to find out who we’ll get in the Europa League but finally we found out that we’ll face Rangers in the Second Knockout Round.

They’re the team that knocked us out of the Champions League earlier in the season so it’d be nice to get one over them. There are some decent teams left in the competition including Man Utd, Roma and Arsenal.

We go into that tie in incredible form, having won our last 10 matches in the Eredivisie.

It means we are top of the Eredivisie by one point but still have to face Ajax away from home in March, so I’m still not considering us favourites for the league title... yet.

Emanuel Emegha is now on 40 goals in all competitions, not bad for £11,000 a week! He could quite easily hit 50 goals this year.

Another player to pick out is Million Manhoef who is having a great first season at the club. I genuinely didn't realise he was 6’6” so all corner kicks are aimed at him and he’s picked up 5 goals so far.

And we’ve managed to tie down key player Maysonnave to a new contract that contains a £150m release clause!

So now we enter the business end of the season. We’re in with a serious shout of winning the Eredivisie but I also want to go as far as possible in the Europa League!​

 

[Froug]

And we’ve managed to tie down key player Maysonnave to a new contract that contains a £150m release clause!
​

PSG: "Don't mind if I do."

Anyways good stuff mate! Always enjoy reading your work.