Oud-Heverlee Leuven

[FM_TNSSO]

Oud-Heverlee Leuven

I've been away for a few weeks, but have now identified a new long term save for FM26. The team I have chosen to take over is Belgian side Oud-Heverlee Leuven, or OH Leuven for short. The club are one of the youngest to be playing top flight football anywhere in the world, formed as recently as 2002. Although their origins do stretch back a lot further as they were actually created via the merger of three sides - F.C Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee, Daring Club Leuven and Stade Leuven. And that's where the club's simple but effective logo comes from - the green, black and red colours from the three clubs that merged together.

OH Leuven's new club colours were chosen as predominantly white, but the home shirt has always carried a decoration of red and green (usually in the form of stripes or sleeves).

One of the appeals of taking over at OH Leuven is the fact they have never won the top flight of Belgian football, nor have they won the Belgian Cup either. In fact, they have never even finished in the top half of the Jupiler Pro League.

In line with the board and supporters vision for the club, my focus will be on the following areas during my time here...
* Sign young players under the age of 22 to be developed by the club.
* Play an attacking style of football.
* Play an entertaining brand of football.
* Develop the best youth academy in the country.
* Win our first ever Jupiler League title.
* Win the Croky Cup for the first time in the club's history.
* Establish ourselves as a top European side.

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[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 1
First Day On The Job
Monday 23rd June 2025

The first thing to do in my new role is get to grips with the club's finances and see that we are stable. For now, we are, with a bank balance of £4 million and a small amount of money available in both the transfer and wage budgets. However, the future projection with the club's debt does look worrying and this is something I may need to manage very carefully over the coming years.

Next, I check the facilities that will be available to me. Officially, they're good, if not fantastic. Enough to get by with for now, but we will need to look to improve these if we are going to compete with the top sides in the country.

The stadium is nothing too special either and it would be a great achievement to lead the club into a new home at some point during my career. For now though, the King Power Den Dreef stadium with it's 10,020 capacity will have to do.

King Power might sound familiar to some of you and so it should. OH Leuven are owned by the King Power Group and that is the same ownership as Leicester City Football Club in England. There is an affiliation between the two clubs and we may be able to take advantage of that.

As I look over my squad for the first time, there are a few observations I can quickly make...
* We have a couple of average goalkeepers.
* We lack cover at centre back and left back.
* We have lots of central midfielders, with a couple of stand out players.
* Decent depth in the wide attacking positions and some strong talent there too.
* Two very good strikers in our team.
* A good base of Belgian players.
* Most of the squad are currently in their prime years, but we lack youth in the team with just a single teenager.
* The two loanees at the club are probably only squad players rather than being brought in to improve the first 11.

With the players at my disposal, the most logical formation is the trusty 4-2-3-1 with two holding midfielders sitting behind an attacking four and two bombing on full backs. Both the wingers have more of a support function rather than an out and out goalscoring threat with the idea this is a fluid system where goals should come from all over the pitch without the reliance on one or two players to put the ball in the back of the net. I have set up that one of the DMs will get high up the pitch to support the attacks as well and should be playing through balls from deeper positions to the front 4, who can all find their own space in this formation. The other DM will rarely stray from his position as he protects the back 2. It's heavy on a high press and high line as we look to peg our opponents back in their own half and turn over the play high up the pitch for effective counter attacks. As part of that plan, out of possession I will ask my CAM to step up into the front line and put pressure on the opposition defenders alongside our striker.​

As I review my three key players, the first and best player in the team is Japanese centre back, Takuma Ominami. He is the epitomy of a ball playing centre back, with excellent technique and passing ability, as well as having the basic attributes to be able to defend as well. He will be at the heart of the defence and will likely be our most important player this season.

We do have a few attacking midfielders that could have made my top three players right now, but the one I have opted for is Moroccan Youssef Maziz. I think he is the most exciting of the lot and carries both the biggest creative and attacking threat. Definitely has the ability to hit double figures in both assists and goals in the Belgian league I reckon.

Finally, with two highly rated strikers in the team, I had to pick one. Chukwubuikem Ikwuemesi might have a name that is a commentator's nightmare, but the 6ft 5" Nigerian can carry a literally massive goal threat for us.

Now considering OH Leuven have never finished inside the top half, the bookies actually rate our chances of doing so this season, with a predicted 8th place for us. Club Brugge are the hot favourites for the title but the Belgian league is incredibly competitive and any one of about 5-6 clubs could win it.

One thing that will make things more challenging throughout this career is that in Belgium, you must name at least 6 players in the match day squad that have been developed in the country for 3 years before their 23rd birthday...however, that has to be a positive for the national team as it ensures a constant flow of young Belgians coming through the ranks at the top clubs.

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[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 2
Pre-Season
Sunday 20th July 2025

New Signing: Rodrigo Ayala
From: Ferro Carril Oeste
Fee: Free Transfer

My first signing for the club addresses an immediate issue we had at left back. I only had one recognised player in the first team squad for this position, so had to bring someone in and sharpesh. The player I have signed is Rodrigo Ayala on a free transfer, but there is a slight hitch - he can't sign until January from current club Ferro Carril Oeste in his native Argentina. A good addition, but I might need a short term loan in the meantime.

I have officially selected my first captain and vice captain for my first season in charge. Both guys are senior Belgians within the side and highly respected amongst their peers. Mathieu Maertens was the most obvious choice with his leadership and teamwork attributes being the best amongst the whole side.

Pre-season saw us play 6 friendlies and only one of them resulted in defeat against Austrian side, Sturm Graz - a game we actually should have won on the balance of play and chances created. All other matches were against lower league opposition, so we won't get too carried away, but it was good to hammer home a lot of goals and that can only build confidence.

The standout player through pre season was central midfielder, Lukasz Lakomy, who featured in 6 of the games and bagged 3 assists and a goal from his box to box playmaker role. That position could be absolutely key to the way we play based on the evidence we've seen so far and Lakomy has already cemented himself as one of the first names on my teamsheet.

Our opening fixture of the league campaign has given us an opportunity to pick up early points as we face a Cercle Brugge side that are expected to battle relegation this year. It would be good to get something from that game too as Union Saint-Gilloise in our second match are one of the title favourites and will present a very tough challenge.

Throughout pre-season, I did work on rebuilding the backroom staff as well. I have kept a small number of people on, but there have been wholesale changes across the staffing side of the club. With our high intensity football approach on the field, one of the key areas was to hire a couple of really good fitness coaches, so one of the most important new staff members to introduce is Swiss fitness coach, Martin Fryand.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 3
A Very Good Start
Thursday 21st August 2025

We kicked off our season in perfect style and I get my first win as Leuven boss under my belt at the first opportunity. Things didn't start in the best fashion as Cercle took an early lead in the 12th minute, but that turned out to be their best moment of the whole game as we had turned the game on its head inside 25 minutes. Ikwuemesi up front proved key in the turn around as he scored the first and set up the second. We took firm hold of the fixture inside 2 minutes of the second half when captain Mathieu Maertens grabbed our third and we never looked back from there.

Well, well...what a result this was for our first home game. USG are one of the title favourites this season, predicted to only be beaten to it by Club Brugge, so this was definitely a statement victory for us early on in the campaign. We were sensational from start to finish and thoroughly deserved the points which we duly took. The player that shone so brightly in pre season, Lukasz Lakomy was the star of the show as he was involved in all of our first three goals and picks up the man of the match award.

Off the field, this might be where we start to see the club's bank balance diminish month by month as we start paying back large chunks towards the debts.

We taste defeat for the first time under my management away at Charleroi. It's a disappointing result after the dominant win against USG, but proof that we can't take anything for granted in this ultra competitive league. Tough to take as we were in control for large periods of the game, but our keeper had a nightmare and we didn't take as many chances of our chances as we should have done.

It was Mechelen that we faced in our next fixture and my first opportunity to see how my lads would react to a defeat. The answer was a positive one as we win 2-0 and keep our first clean sheet of the season, which might have been an inspired decision from myself to bring Tobe Leysen in between the sticks for the first time. It was also the first start of the season for left winger, Henok Teklab, who also impressed as he scored our first goal - a neat tap in at the back post from a low cross.

And then came our most impressive win of the season so far as we thrash Standard Liege on their own turf. It was a 10/10 performance from hat trick hero, Thibaud Verlinden, from the right wing as he was at the heart of virtually every key attack we had in the game.

Verlinden's start to the season has been excellent. He has 6 goals and 2 assists to his name already and four match ratings above 8.3!

However, just as he is in peak form, Verlinden has picked up an injury that will keep him out for up to 5 weeks. A massive blow after our positive start to the season.

And he's not the only one. First choice centre back, Takuma Ominami, could also be out for 5 weeks too! How much this will disrupt the team remains to be seen.

The good news is that even if it does, we have worked our way to the top of the Jupiler Pro League after the opening 5 games, so we have a bit of a buffer if we were to lose a couple over the next few weeks.

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[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 4
A Quiet Transfer Window...But Then Do We Need Anyone!
Tuesday 7th October 2025

We went into our game with Genk, as a top of the table clash between 1st and 2nd, both securing 12 points from our opening 5 matches. With home advantage on our side, I was hoping we might have the edge in what was sure to be a very tough fixture. And what a game it proved to be as we come back from 2-0 down to win the game with an amazing second half performance. Granted, Genk did us a favour by going down to ten men just before half time, but we still had it all to do and did it really well. A massive win against a top side.

Zulte Waregem would present a much easier task for us and we disposed of them with relative ease. I'd like to have seen us dominate a bit more than we did, but we still managed to cruise to a 2-0 victory without really getting out of 2nd gear. Right back, Thibault Vlietinck, popped up with a rare goal as he slotted in a powerful shot into the bottom corner from just inside the 18 yard box.

The transfer window is now closed and I didn't move to bring anyone else to the club. Now that we have some hefty loan repayments to make, I can only see the financial situation at the club getting worse, and more signings would have heaped more pressure on that. So for now I am playing a sensible game.

That didn't mean the rest of the league went on hold though and the Belgian top tier clubs generated an impressive £147 million in player sales, although only reinvested £3 million of that back into their recruitment.

Here's the biggest transfers across Europe this window (over £8 million).
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Back to the action on field now and we chalked up another win at home to RAAL La Louviere. After racing to a 3-0 lead inside 28 minutes, with our attacking play spearheaded by our captain, Mathieu Maertens, we did do our best to allow our opponents to turn things around as they clawed a couple back...it left us holding on in the end, but we just about managed it and take all 3 points.

Our next match would be against the hot title favourites and arguably the best team in the country. However, with the way we have started the season, hopes are high amongst supporters and the board alike that we can get a result against them.

The biggest surprise of all wasn't the fact we won the game...it was how little of a contest Club Brugge put up...virtually no challenge whatsoever. We were firmly in control of this fixture from start to finish and the star of the show was winger, Nachon Nsingi who turned in a man of the match performance with 2 assists and a goal.

A win over the best team in the country was the perfect platform to go up against the most decorated club in the country. The confidence is certainly flowing as we record another impressive win as Nsingi picked up where he left off against Brugge with another goal here.

And that's seven straight wins now!

Which means that we have an incredible 9 point lead at the top of the table after the opening 10 games of the season. We are bang in form and I never could have dreamed we'd be here at this stage of my first season! Things are good in Leuven.

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