GRAZER AK 1902 – An attempt to Revive

[juninho123]

GRAZER AK 1902 – An attempt to Revive

I have been searching for a save where I can enjoy trying to progress a club outside one of the major leagues. I haven’t managed in Austria before, so after having a look at the clubs one of the sides in the second tier stood out.

Grazer AK formed in 1902 and playing at the Merkur-Arena, were apparently back in the day one of the more popular Austrian footballing sides. But they eventually folded during the 2012-13 season.

This was due to financial problems, which had initially occurred back in 2006/07 year, going into administration and docked 28 points. They were then no longer allowed to compete in the top tiers, and were relegated to a division outside the professional game.

However they were reborn only 6 years late in 2019, where they currently only have a semi-professional football status.

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As a club, they before had a fierce derby rivalry with the side Sturm Graz, one of the top sides currently in Austria.

My aim of this save is to try and bring the club back to the top tier, and create a footballing team to start to compete for supremacy of the Graz derby. I am hoping that the club will be allowed to go back to professional status – otherwise I will be doomed!

If things go well, in time, maybe we can start to give Austrian giants Salzburg a run for their money and venture into competing in Europe.

 

[juninho123]

Season 1 Review – Going to Plan

Board Objectives:
-Finish in top two places
-Be competitive in OB Cup
-Media Prediction Third

Squad / Transfers
Not really knowing what to expect from the team this year, it’s hard to evaluate the side. But what we most certainly did need was someone that would be of first XI quality in both the CB and AMR positions.

So both on frees came in Corti and AMR, a 23 year old Italian that can actually play both sides and up front too, along with Cummings a 31 year old Panamian International.

With these two additions, I feel we now have a first team to have a good first season at the club. With our media prediction for 3rd​ place, I’m hoping with these additions we can try and push for promotion – but only one team it seems can get promoted to the Admiral Bundesliga.

League (Winners)
We had a great first season, starting off strongly and remaining highly consistent throughout the year, losing just the one league game. Our aim to get a quick promotion has worked well and looking forward to getting involved in the Graz derby next year.

Cup (Quarters)
Reached the quarter finals this year, losing on penalties to a team in the same division, which was disappointing – though they made it to the final and lost to Salzburg.

But it was a nice run this year, with the extra games handy after a light league schedule with game count.

Finances (Professional Status)
This was initially good during the year, and that was after failed attempts at moving the club to a professional status.

Once we got promoted, the club then made their own decision to move us from semi to pro, which clearly meant we incurred some costs in doing so.

We are now currently in the red, which I’ll have to keep a close eye on going forward. This in addition to our long term debt due to be repaid, which still equates to a bit over 1mil GBP.

So in the Summer, all my dealings in the market I intend to be unattached / bosman players to keep this in check.