MFK Skalica - A Slovakian Adventure

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2016/17 End of Season Review

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Squad Overview

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Manager’s Player of the Year

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Davide Campanella (Midfielder)
Wow, what a season Davide had! He was named as the Fans’ Young Player of the Year and he certainly deserved the Manager’s Player of the Year with an average rating of 7.46 in 41 appearances. He’s been a revelation since his arrival from Triestina and it’s amazing how good he is at just 17 years old!

Fans’ Player of the Year

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Mario Kurak (Midfielder)
Mario was named as the winner of this award for the second year in a row after making 36 appearances in the 2016/17 season. He didn’t reach his heights of last year, but still managed to add 9 goals and get 8 assists with an average rating of 7.30.

End of Season awards

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Fans’ Player of the Season voting
1st – Mario Kurak (45%)
2nd – Martin Vrablec (28%)
3rd – Davide Campanella (17%)

Goal of the Season
Josh Bull versus APOEL (27 July 2016)

Signing of the Season
Davide Campanella – Free (Triestina)

Young Player of the Season
Davide Campanella

Team of the Season

GK – L.Hajduch
RB – D.Ivanov
CB – D.Dudka
CB – L.Fialka
LB – M.Vrablec
DM – D.Campanella
RM – M.Kurak
CM – S.Drewniak
LM – P.Balaz
AM – M.Kochan
ST – L.Ulrich

League Awards

Team of the Year

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GK – Borges (Kosice)
RB – A.Kadlec (Zilina)
CB – A.Szekeres (Zilina)
CB – N.Gorosito (Slovan Bratislava)
LB – M.Vrablec (MFK Skalica)
RM – F.Concas (Trencin)
CM – M.Mikovic (Trnava)
CM – D.Skolnik (Zlate Moravce)
LM – P.Balaz (MFK Skalica)
ST – A.Ploj (Zlate Moravce)
ST – Yoo Byung-Soo (Zilina)

Top Goalscorer

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1 – Alen Ploj (Zlate Moravce) – 18 goals
2 – David Depetris (Trnava) – 17 goals
3 – Yoo Byung-Soo (Zilina) – 16 goals

Goal of the Year

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1st – Adrian Kopicar – Zilina (versus Slovan Bratislava)
2nd – Alen Ploj – Zlate Moravce (versus Ruzomberok)
3rd – Akaki Khubutia – Michalovce (versus Trencin)

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2nd

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Second Round

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Play-Offs

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Group Stage

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Slovakian teams in Europe

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Slovan Bratislava (First Qualifying Round)
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Trencin (Second Qualifying Round)
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Zlate Moravce (Second Qualifying Round)
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In other news…

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The initial budgets have been set for next season with the board more than doubling our wage budget to £23,500 per week and giving me a mammoth transfer budget of £3.85million!

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English youngster Josh Bull has extended his contract with us for another three years to keep him at the club until June 2020. He’s been a decent acquisition so far and is now labelled as the next Michael Owen.

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My Player of the Year Davide Campanella has been rewarded with a three-year contract worth £85,000 after his impressive displays over the past season. He’s only 17 but will now be one of our highest earners as we attempt to keep him at the Club, just so we can get a big fee when the big boys come calling.

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League champions Trencin have remain the most reputable club in Slovakia, while we grew to a 3* reputation but remain in 4th​ spot.

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Our success in the Champions League and Europa League this season means that we have moved up 91 places to 344th​ in the European club rankings for the 2017/18 – the highest rise out of any club.

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Our commercial activity received a great boost this past season due to our European participation, which is great news. Our shirt sales have increased as well with nearly 5,000 shirts being flogged – Matej Kochan being the most popular name printed on the back of them.

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Despite the positives of the 2016/17 season, our league ranking dropped four places and the league is now the 39th​ best league in Europe. That could be a problem in terms of getting players to sign for us, but we’ll see how that develops.​
 
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BREAKING NEWS

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We got a massive boost from the Chairman as we started to look towards the 2017/18 after he announced that we will be building a new stadium for MFK Skalica.

Skalica Stadium will have a capacity of just over 8,000, which means it will meet the minimum requirements for the Champions League and the Europa League - meaning we won't have to play our games away from Skalica like we have been doing this season.

The board have been able to pay for the stadium without having to secure any additional funding after £2.5million of the Champions League and Europa League money was spent on the stadium. They've also managed to secure a sponsorship deal for the stadium for £1.26million.

Construction of the stadium is already underway with it expected to be open on the 29 June 2019, a few weeks ahead of the 2019/2020 season.

Fantastic news all round!​
 
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2017/18 Europa League First Qualifying Round draw

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So our season starts a lot earlier this season with us failing to win the league, let's find out who we'll get in the First Qualifying Round...

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We'll take on Irish side Dundalk in the First Qualifying Round of the 2017/18 Europa League. There were harder teams in the draw so it's a good one to have as I believe we should qualify easy for the next round without too many problems!​
 
It's been a busy working weekend so updates to follow shortly...
 
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2017/18 Pre-Season update

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We could only play a small number of friendlies this season due to our participation in the early rounds of the Europa League, which was disappointing as we didn’t get a chance to get the new players to gel as they could only play one friendly before the season kick started. A positive is that we didn’t lose in any of the friendlies, mainly because we played lower league opposition.

Transfers

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In

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Joe Riley – Free (Bury)
I went back to my home-town club for this signing after having success with him on previous FM games. He joins on a free transfer after the expiration of his contract, but will miss the first month or so of the season after picking up an injury prior to joining.

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Viktor Luptak - £300,000 (Nitra)
We splashed the cash to sign this 17-year old from Second Division side Nitra. He’s already got amazing attributes and looks set to be one of the best finishers around. We’ve nabbed him at a good time as scouts were starting to flock to see him and it’s a miniscule fee for what he could go on to achieve. A breakdown of the bid can be seen below…
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Felix Pascual - £75,000 (Barakaldo)
Spanish youngster who joins for a small-ish fee from a lower league Spanish club. He’s mainly a left winger, which was great for my old tactic (more on that later) so he’ll now be retrained to play as a striker. He’s got decent pace already so will no doubt be more than a handful in Slovakia.

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Miroslav Atanasov - £52,000 (Pomorie)
Bulgarian youngster that will play in my U19s side for a couple of years to see how he progresses. I had been scouting him for a while and noticed some bigger teams were watching him so decided to make a move. We’ve got a big transfer budget, for this season anyway, so it didn’t take that much out of it.

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Rami Makela – Free (OLS)
Somehow managed to steal this little gem from OLS in Finland. The 17-year old is on a small wage as well, but promises big things. I needed someone like him for the U19s and he fits the bill, so will also be playing in the Slovakian Cup as well.

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Tobias Blaschke - £30,000 (SC Austria Lustenau)
He’s only rated two-and-a-half stars by my scout but I think he will turn into a decent player for us due to his high determination. It’s only a small fee as well, plus he doesn’t need to be retrained as he can play centre midfield or as a striker.

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Paul May - £8,750 (Harrogate)
A deal that was agreed at the same time as the Josh Bull one, Paul arrives at the Club from the English non-league system. Again, he’ll be playing for the U19s for the foreseeable future to see how he develops. Looks like he’s got the potential to be successful.

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Jan Durica – Free (Unattached)
An experienced defender with 74 caps for Slovakia, Jan arrives at the Club on a free transfer after finding himself without a club over the summer period. He’s going to be used as a rotation player as his experience will add a lot to a young-ish back line.

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Tomas Kosicky – Free (Unattached)
Our new number one at the Club to replace the outgoing Lubos Hajduch. He’s been capped by Slovakia and is currently in his prime of his career so is set to be a good addition. I was going to head into the season with Hilal Kounate at my number one but couldn’t turn the chance to sign him down.

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Eidur Gudjohnsen – Free (Unattached)
The once Chelsea and Barcelona striker arrives in Slovakia as Player/U19s manager for the remainder of the season. He’ll mainly be used as a squad player, tutoring some of the younger players due to his high mental attributes. He’s on a big wage but I think it will be worth it in the long run.

Out

Only one departure from the Club in the off-season and it was Alex Nimely who left on a free transfer. He’s hardly played for us and didn’t live up to his potential so made sense to let him go.

In other news…

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I’ve told the board that we’ll be able to secure a place in the Europa League via the league as a minimum for the upcoming season. They are trusting me with a lot of money so I think I’ve done okay transfer wise and hopefully they will do the business out on the pitch.

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Two players retired over pre-season with our number one Lubos Hajduch and centre back Pavol Majernik hanging up their boots for one final time. Hajduch had been a key part of my success over the past two years with his consistent performances and has now been replaced by Tomas Kosicky, while Majernik played a key part in the first season before taking a back seat role for the 2016/17 campaign.

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Kalin Todorov signed a new deal with the Club until June 2020, an extension of two years on his current deal. He’s stepped up his game over the past six months and is pushing for a place in the starting eleven now.

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Left back Lukas Skovajsa has extended his deal with MFK Skalica for another three years, just a year after signing from Trencin. He’s been a quality addition to the squad and is set for a bright future at just 23-years old.

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Another key player extended their contract at the Club, this time it was attacking midfielder Matej Kochan. Again, the deal will see him remain at the Club until 2020 and the supporters see it as a positive move as they rank him as one of our better players.

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The Slovakian Super Cup is a weird competition as it doesn’t run if the domestic champions win the Slovakian FA Cup. We’ve been waiting a while for it to come around and we made the most of it by beating Zlate Moravce 5-3 to pick up the second trophy of my career.

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We’ve got the shortest odds for the league since I took over as we drop down for fourth favourite at 16/1, compared to our previous odds of 40/1 and 100/1. Trencin are the favourites as they look to retain the title, whilst Zilina (5/1) and Slovan Bratislava (6/1) take up second and third spot.


And finally…

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As most people have seen on their game, the 2002 World Cup was moved from Qatar and will now be hosted by China.​
 
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2017/18 Europa League First Qualifying Round

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First Leg

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Our first game of the season was a success as we picked up a 2-1 win against Dundalk in the home leg of the qualifier. Davide Campanella opened the scoring in the first half before Pavol Safranko doubled our lead in the 51st minute. Dundalk replied immediately through Scott Holland but we managed to hold on to a 2-1 win ahead of the second leg in Ireland...

Second Leg

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We're through the First Qualifying Round! It was a repeat score line from the first leg as we progressed 4-2 on aggregate. Things didn't start too well for us as we went behind thanks to a Michael Hunt goal, but we rallied round and found a way back into the game through Pavol Safranko. The scoring was complete midway through the second half when Kalin Todorov popped up to seal the victory.
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2017/18 Europa League Second Qualifying Round draw

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So it was another trip to Monaco to find out who we would be facing in the next round of the Europa League qualifiers. Some bigger teams were entering the competition at this stage...

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We face a trip to Romania for this round as we were drawn away to AFC Botosani. They have a decent reputation in their native country so will be a difficult tie. The good thing is that we're away in the first leg so a couple of away goals should see us through.​
 
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2017/18 Europa League Second Qualifying Round

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First Leg

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I was expecting a tough game as we had to travel to Romania first, as well as squeeze the trip in around our opening league fixtures. Unfortunately, we came out on the wrong side of a 3-2 result but I was pleased with the team getting two away goals as it puts us in a fairly strong position. Botosani flew into a two goal lead before Pavol Safranko reduced the deficit. A further goal from Dan Roman saw us go 3-1 behind and then Kalin Todorov stepped up late to set up a tense second leg.

Second Leg

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We certainly don't do things easily! It looked like we were heading out at one stage but, luckily, we managed to scrape through. Record signing Viktor Luptak gave us an early lead until his strike was cancelled out by Gonzalo Cabrera just eight minutes later. Luptak put us in the lead again early in the second half but Botosani reacted well again and levelled shortly after. The score stayed like that until the final seven minutes when veteran midfielder Mario Kurak popped up with two late goals to see us progress to the Third Round of qualifying!​
 
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2017/18 Europa League Third Qualifying Round draw

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With our fixtures coming thick and fast, only the Chairman attended the draw. Probably for the best, as you can see below...

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So we've been drawn against the toughest opponent possible in the shape of La Liga side Espanyol. I can't see us getting anything from this, similar to Celtic last year, so don't think I'll be playing all my key players with the league taking priority.​
 
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2017/18 Europa League Third Qualifying Round

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First Leg

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Well, it was better than I expected! We only lost 3-1 in Spain, taking an important away goal back to Slovakia for the first leg. I think it helped that Espanyol are yet to start their season yet so they're still in pre-season mode. Gerard Moreno opened the scoring in the 13th minute before their lead was doubled by Vegard Forren. 2-0 turned to 3-0 in the second half as Felipe Caicedo notched in the 62nd minute before Matej Kochan scored that vital away goal late on.

Second Leg

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I hate last minute goals! One cost us the league title in May and it's cost us progression in the Europa League now! Kochan had put us 1-0 up in the 20th minute before youngster Felix Pascual doubled their lead and it looked like we were heading through on away goals. That was until the 93rd minute when Nikola Kalinic struck to send Espanyol through 4-3 on aggregate - heartbreaking stuff! Ahh well, time on concentrate on the league!

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In other news...

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A big landmark for us as two of our players were called up to the Slovakia squad for the first time. The two players are defender Martin Vrablec and new signing and hot prospect Viktor Luptak. Here's to many more international call-ups!​
 
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2017/18 Winter Break

Squad Overview

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Key Players

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Lukas Skovajsa (Defender)
There was doubts at the start of the season over who I’d play as my first choice left back, but Lukas has made that position his own so far. He’s been flying up the left wing and putting some good crosses in for Viktor Luptak to latch onto, which is why he’s got eight assists already. Also has an average rating of 7.20.

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Kalin Todorov (Midfielder)
The 18-year old Bulgarian has been great so far this season, having made the switch to right midfield instead of his usual attacking midfield position. He’s featured in 25 games so far this season, scoring six and getting four assists, and has gained an average rating of 7.36.

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Viktor Luptak (Striker)

What a signing he has been, well worth the £300,000! The 17-year old has been in scintillating form since his arrival from Nitra and has scored 15 goals in 22 games in all competitions, all while maintaining an average rating of 7.38. I’m predicting he’ll have 25 goals by the end of the season, but that could be a problem as the bigger clubs could come sniffing.

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A very disappointing start to the season, we’ve already lost seven times! We’ve been quite inconsistent over the past five months, which is extremely disappointing as it is a big blow to our title chances. One of the main reasons is that I’ve changed my tactic twice, due to it not working in our league and we’ve reverted to something that is quite simple and should do the trick with it becoming fluid over the winter break.

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I hate this competition…

In other news…

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Over the past few months I reached 100 games in charge of MFK Skalica when we took on Myjava in the league. It’s been a mixed bag of results during my tenure but hopefully there will be plenty of success in the years to come!

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As well as securing 100 games in management under my belt, I’ve signed a new four-year contract with the Club to extend my stay until June 2022. I only had six months left on my current contract so glad the board trust me by giving me a long-term deal!

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Davide Campanella was voted the third best player in the First Division in the calendar year of 2017. He’s been great since his arrival from Italy, averaging 781 over the past year and will no doubt be starting to appear on the scouting list of the big clubs in Europe.

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Viktor Luptak was voted as the Slovakian Young Player of the Year for 2017, beating Jakub Kromada and Andrej Kadlec to the award. He’s scored 30 goals in 50 games in the calendar year and has been in excellent form since his arrival from Nitra.

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Two-time fans’ Player of the Year Mario Kurak has announced he will retire at the end of the current season. He’s hardly played this year due to his stats taking a massive hit so it’s probably for the best before I released him.​
 
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2017/18 Winter Transfer Window

Three in, one out was the story of the transfer window but there was plenty more activity at MFK Skalica!

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Well, what a frustrating transfer window! Here's how it went...

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After rejecting 61 (yes, you read that correctly!) bids for our Italian starlet Davide Campanella, including a bid from Real Madrid that totalled £5,000,000 that you can see below, our board decided to accept an offer on my behalf after an awful offer from Arsenal.

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Time to protest the transfer...

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At the last moment, the board finally listened to me and decided against the transfer. The transfer saga was over, or was it?!

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Of course it wasn't! Olympiakos came in with a decent offer for centre back Danail Ivanov, another player I had been rejecting bids for, and the board decided to accept it on my behalf again! I was fuming as he had been my best defender this season and he was off for what I believed to be a small amount. I couldn't protest the transfer either as I had already managed to get them to change their minds on Campanella. :'(

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The departure of Ivanov was one that hit deep as it took part of the spine of my team out, but on the other hand it gave me some funds to re-invest into the squad. I did a bit of scouting and managed to find David Berezny in the Slovakian Second Division and pick him up for £100,000.

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Two other players joined in the Winter Transfer Window, one on a permanent deal and the other on a loan deal. The first was young midfielder Jonas Lindstrom, who arrived on a free transfer from Gnistan. He looks to be a decent prospect and will play for my U19s for the next season or two to see how he develops.

January was a bad month for us in terms of injuries as Martin Vrablec and Joe Riley picked up knocks, which forced me to bring in a right back on loan as no one else could play there. It took a while but we were able to bring in Simon Palermo from Genk until the end of the season to fill the void and then act as back up.

In other news...

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Similar to the Lech link, we've signed up to a partnership with Ukrainian side Shahktar in order to get some decent players in on loan. There was other options with a slighter higher fee, but Shahktar had the best facilities out of the choices so should be producing the better players.

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A positive for the Club in the midst of all the transfer news. 19-year old midfielder Alan Black has signed a new deal with us to remain at MFK Skalica until 2021 after impressing in the opening part to the season.​
 
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2017/18 Youth Intake

Squad Overview

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As you can see above, the intake isn't very good again. I don't think we'll get a good intake until at least 2020 when money can be put into the youth coaching and facilities to produce a hot prospect. Peter Mihalik is the best out of the bunch and you can see his attributes below. Once again, we'll be looking abroad in the summer for young players to come in and improve my U19s.

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2017/18 End of Season review

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Squad Overview

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Manager’s Season of the Year

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Viktor Luptak (Striker)
The £300,000 man from Nitra has been in fine form all year round and deserves the award for the goals he has scored alone. He finished as the top goalscorer at the Club with 19 goals in 32 appearances, all while maintaining an average rating of 7.54. He certainly has a bright future ahead of him!

Fans’ Player of the Season

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Joseph Cudjoe (Midfielder)
It’s the third season that the Ghanaian has spent some time on loan at MFK Skalica and his performances over the past season have earned him this award. He had nearly half of the votes after achieving an average rating of 7.54 in his 35 appearances this season, an award he thoroughly deserves!

End of Season awards

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Fans’ Player of the Season voting
1st – Joseph Cudjoe (48%)
2nd – Viktor Luptak (32%)
3rd – Lukas Skovajsa (13%)

Goal of the Season
Joseph Cudjoe v Dun. Streda (5 November 2017)

Signing of the Season
Simon Palermo – Loan (Genk)

Young Player of the Season
Joseph Cudjoe

Team of the Season
GK – T.Kosicky
LB – L.Skovajsa
CB – D.Ivanov
CB – A.Solli
RB – M.Vrablec
DM – D.Campanella
LM – P.Balaz
CM – S.Benicassa
CM – J.Cudjoe
RM – K.Todorov
ST – V.Luptak

League Awards

Team of the Year

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GK – T.Kosicky (MFK Skalica)
LB – L.Skovajsa (MFK Skalica)
CB – K.Salata (Slovan Bratislava)
CB – A.Solli (MFK Skalica)
RB – V.Kukol (Trencin)
LM – P.Balaz (MFK Skalica)
CM – S.Zivec (Zilina)
CM – V.Savicevic (Slovan Bratislava)
RM – M.Avdic (Dun. Streda)
ST – V.Luptak (MFK Skalica)
ST – T.Priskin (Slovan Bratislava)

Top Goalscorer

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1st – Tamas Priskin (Slovan Bratislava) – 19 goals
2nd – Mauricio (Myjava) – 16 goals
3rd – Roman Sabier (Dun. Streda) – 14 goals

Goal of the Year

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1st – Vukan Savicevic – Slovan Bratislava (v Poprad)
2nd – David Lopez – Trencin (v Ruzomberok)
3rd – Eriend Segberg – Myjava (v Ruzomberok)

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Champions

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Second Round

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Slovakian Teams in Europe

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Trencin (Second Qualifying Round)

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Zilina (Second Qualifying Round)

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Michalovce (First Qualifying Round)

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In other news…

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Mario Kurak has announced his retirement from football after three years at MFK Skalica. He rarely featured over the past 18 months or so due to his declining attributes and will now be looking to secure a coaching role at the Club.

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Left midfielder Pavol Balaz has announced he will retire at the end of next season. He’s slowly moved down the pecking order due to the form of Felix Pascual and has decided to leave the game in June 2019.

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Young midfielder Davide Campanella has set a new league record for average rating over the season. Due to injury, he only made 17 appearances but managed to average 7.70 over the appearances to beat a three-year old record.

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Over the final part of the season, we set a new defensive record for not conceding for six games between mid-March and mid-April – mainly due to the impressive Tomas Kosicky.

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Our performance in the league and in Europe have seen us move up nearly 50 places in the European club rankings to 304th position. There is still a long way to go to where I want to be, but it’s good progress so far!

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Our rise in the club rankings also means a rise in our reputation in Slovakia as we move up to the second most reputable team in the country. Trencin are leading the way but hopefully I’ll be to overtake them in the next two seasons.

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With the teams improving on the pitch, the league’s ranking has increased by one to move up to 38th position in Europe. It’s still a drop from where we first started so I’ll be looking to improve that again in the coming years.

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It’s been a good season both on and off the pitch as we had some great success on the commercial front. We now have a brand new main kit sponsor which bumps up our annual revenue in terms of sponsorship to £717,000! Shirt sales were fantastic this season with striker Viktor Luptak the most popular player in that market.

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Over the past six months, I decided in order to keep the Club moving forward that we should have a feeder club to try and find some good young players in foreign countries. The options that came back weren’t the best but I decided to go with Romanian side FCM Baia Mare.

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Despite hardly playing for us since joining, goalkeeper Hillel Konate was called up to the Ivory Coast squad for the World Cup…

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After suffering defeat in the final last year, our U19s went one step further this season by picking up the trophy after a 13-goal thriller. They also finished second in the league, which is good to see.

And finally…

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I was entered into the Slovakia Hall of Fame as a manager after picking up my second Slovakian First Division title. A nice honour to have, now for the #1 spot!​
 
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2018/19 Club Statement

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BREAKING: MFK SKALICA SIGN MARTIN SKRTEL

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MFK Skalica are delighted to announce the signing of defender Martin Skrtel on a free transfer after the defender left Liverpool following the expiration of his contract.

The former Slovakian international, who was capped 96 times for his country before retiring last year, joins on a two-year deal and will remain at the Club until June 2020.

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The signing of the former Liverpool defender will send shockwaves around Slovakia as it will be the first time he has played for a team based in Slovakia since his departure from Trencin in 2004 after signing for Zenit.

The deal will see the Club make him the highest paid player in the history of MFK Skalica and we have no doubts that he will lead us to success during his time here.

Speaking about the move, our manager said: "I believe the signing of Martin is a real coup, not just for Skalica but Slovakian football in general.

"It shows how the game here is progressing as a player is willing to drop down from the lucrative heights of the Premier League to return to his homeland to play football.

"His experience in the English top flight, plus the European competitions, will be a huge boost to us and he will be able to pass on his experience to the younger players at the Club - as well as helping us seek out a third Slovakian First Division title to gain qualification into the Champions League.

"I have no doubts that Martin will be a success here and I can't wait to see him in action against Zilina in the Slovakian Super Cup in what will be the curtain raiser ahead of a big season in green and white."

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Congratulations on winning the league mate. What's your finances like? Skrtel is abreast signing, are their any other big names interested?
 
AndySams10 said:
Congratulations on winning the league mate. What's your finances like? Skrtel is abreast signing, are their any other big names interested?
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Cheers mate, he's probably the biggest name I'll sign for a few years! He had two other offers, one from Romania and one from Italy, but it said on the signing screen he joined to be closer to his roots.

Finances are around the £3million mark heading into the new season. Expecting that to rise slightly depending on how we get on in European qualification and if anyone is sold during the transfer window!
 
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2018/19 Champions League Second Qualifying Round draw

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After last year's title win, we're back in the Champions League for only the second time in our history. We reached the Play-Off last time around, can we do one step further this season? Here's who we face first...

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So we start our second Champions League campaign with a trip to Israel to take on Maccabi Tel Aviv. It's probably one of the tougher teams we could have been drawn against but I'm confident of getting a result, despite them knocking out Trencin at the same stage last season!​
 
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