Return of the Reds - CSKA Sofia

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Young Mourinho

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Radukanov sacked:​

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After only a couple of games as caretaker manager - Milen Radukanov, was released from his position. He was also not offered a contract as Assistant Manager as he was acused of talking behind other managers back, while taking that position in the past. Iliya Gruev from Chernomorets Burgas is going to replace him as he appears to be one of the best on this position available to the team.​


After chaning 3 coaches in only a few months the owners of the club have decided that there is not time to experiment and have offered a 1+1 contract to one of the legends of the club - Stoycho Mladenov.​



Stoycho Mladenov's back​

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Mladenov does have an impressive football experience behind him both as a played and coach! Bulgarian top goalscorer in 1978, Bulgarian footballer of the year - 1983, Sportsman of the 1982 are the most valuable personal achievments as player. Mladenov have won the Championship in Bulgaria 6 times - 4 times as player and 2 times as a manager and all of them with CSKA Sofia! He is the last to have won the "A Group" with Armeytsite - in 2008 he finished 16 points clear at the top. Also he is the last manager to have qualified Bulgaria to World Cup - South Korea and Japan 2002!​




You arrive at the club after some disastrous seasons, which didn't provide anything expected. Do you believe you are the right person to take the hot seat?​


I believe in the past I have provided what was expected from me and I hope I will deliver what is expected from me.​



Do you expect to bring many players in to the squad?​


I believe the squad is strong enough, but still I expect a few new signings. One thing is sure - on the long run I will try to use as many players from the youth academy and will definetely finish the poor tradition to use people from abroad who really just dont deliever!​



You have joined CSKA Sofia at a time when the club seems little short-staffed. Is this something you will be looking to address. ​


Yes, I definetely think that we could use some new faces.​



You have taken charge when it is widely expect captaion Todor Yanchev to leave the club. Can you hold onto him? Do you want to?​


Yes, I will do everything I am capable of in ensuring he continues playing for the club! He is one of the playing legends of the club and even at the age of 34 he is one of the most valuable players in the squad. We will definetely need his experience when looking for the title!​


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CSKA Sofia​



CSKA Sofia is most probably the best ever to have existed in Bulgaria. They have won the impressive 31 championship titles in only 62 years, combining them with 10 cup titles, 13 cups of the soviet army and 3 Bulgarian Super Cup wins. Armeytsite also have some impressive records in the European competitions:

During the 1966-1967 season, CSKA reached the semi finals of the European Cup, where after two 1:1 draws with Inter Milano, a third match was played which CSKA lost 0:1.

From 1971 to 1973, CSKA won three consecutive titles and eliminated three-times European champion AFC Ajax 2:1 on aggregate (0:1 and 2:0) in the 1973-1974 European Cup. In the 1/4 finals, the Army Men lost 1:4 to Bayern Munich in the first leg in Germany and bowed out of the competition after winning 2:1 at home.

Season 1980-1981 was again a memorable one for CSKA Sofia, winning the Bulgarian championship once more and twice beating European champion Nottingham Forest, both times with 1:0, before being stopped by the future European Champion Liverpool FC with a 6:1 on aggregate in the quarter finals of the European Cup. The very next season, CSKA reached their second European Cup semi final in a row, eliminating Spanish champions Real Sociedad, Glentoran FC and reigning European Champion Liverpool after losing 0:1 in England and wining 2:0 at home with two goals by Stoycho Mladenov. In the semi final, the Reds again faced Bayern Munich. The first leg was held in Sofia and started with a full dominance over Bayern, as by the 18th minute CSKA were leading 3:0 in front of 85 000 spectators who saw the European final in their dreams. But the final result was 4:3 for CSKA. In Munich, the club suffered a 4:0 defeat and left the competition.

The mentioned wins above earned CSKA Sofia the nickname "The Giants' Killer" as it eliminated 3 acting (at the time) European Champions' Cup holders.

Most recent success of the club came in 2005-2006 Champions League, after eliminating KF Tirana in the second preliminary round, CSKA were paired against reigning European champions Liverpool. The club lost 1:3 in the first match in Sofia, but surprisingly won the second leg by 1:0 at Anfield Road. For the UEFA Cup, the Reds eliminated Bayer Leverkusen (with Dimitar Berbatov in the team) with two 1:0 wins and entered the group stage.
 
Young, smart and beautiful - we march! We march to our season objectives which this season will be pretty hard to achieve as CSKA really didnt have the best transfer politic... As we have get used to - Armeytsite have bought a dozen of unknown players, which are expected to blend in a few weeks and win the championship in the end. It is true that there are good transfers, but still most of them worthless... Anyway - we are here to do miracles - leterally!​

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Surprising or not - even being a top team in Bulgaria - CSKA didnt have a lot to spend. Only 8 850 on wages and 300k on transfers. The team has a pretty long bench and I trying to get rid of some useless players in my opinion. Unfortunately almost noone left and the ones that did left - I felt like a was robbed but anyway... ​

The transfer history looks like this:​


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Top 3 new signings made by Mladenov:​

#3 Dzmitry Rekish​


I really needed a left winger and somehow I was recomended that guy. He looked decent and IMO he is hot prospect for the future. As easily seen he had some good games in Europe, but later on about that... :)​


#2 Moussa Ouattara​


I got him because didnt really have some back up for the first team. Actually he ended being a first team choice because of some mistakes by the other central defenders. Great bargain - got him on a free transfer.​


#1 Julio Cruz​


What can I say? Julio Cruz in CSKA Sofia - impossible in real life! Even at the age of 35 he does have what to give more. As seen ot the screen he even scored twice. Also you can see that he is even getting better with time :) ​

Pre Season:​


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We didn't enjoy our best Pre Season, but the moral really go boosted by the win over Benfica, even if we were host. 2:0 win is a 2:0 win especially after you see the screenshot! May be we didn't deserve it, but it still tastes good!​


Uploaded with ImageShack.us​

That was definetely the sublime points of the preparation for the season. In my opinion this win had a great influence on the team and it was founder of the decent start of the season....​

---------- Post added at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 AM ----------

And here we go again - conquering Europe - or least hoping to do so. We have been handed a tough draw - facing decent team from Israel - Macabi Tel-Aviv who are also hoping to make it to the groups. Intersting fact is that bulgarian striker Dimitar Rangelov plays there as a loan transfer from Borussia Dortmund! He is one of the key player, but we still hope not to make a wrong step on the path of glory.​

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First game was pretty even but we used our chances and score 2 goals at the start. According to the journalists we were awarded a controversial penalty, which was convertet to a goal by Gregory Nelson - one of the good signings before I was in charge of the team. After the first game everything looks like we are through to the next phase!​

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The second leg we were awarded a penalty which was converted by another new signing, which I used because I like to rotate a lot... meaning he is not good enough to be a first team regular... After the 1:0 lead we conceded a stupid own goal, but in the end everything went well as we again took the lead to finish 2:1 the game and make 4:1 the final result from the two games!​

Lucky enough for us we were seeded in the draw for the next phase of the tournament. I say lucky as Montpellier SC won 4:1 against Stuttgart and we the team with the smallest coefficient from the seeded teams. Despite that we got ourselves a tough team - Vaslui from Romania. Interesting enough they also had some bulgarians in the squad - freshly bought from Litex - Petar Zanev and Stanislav Genchev, who also used to play for Litex in the past.​

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As you can see the stats we should have won the game but I decided not to risk as 0:0 was a good enough for me result. We could have been already qualified in Romania, but too many chances missed...​

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In Bulgaria everything happened as expected - early goal for the hosts and another one in the middle of the first half to make it 2:0! After that two players from Vaslui were sent off which reminds me to ask - how use the advantage of the opponent being a player or two down... After about 10 seasons with Valencia, Leverkusen and Newcastle I still can't think of a way.​

Well this time Dimitar Penev (our lucky charm - the person who is believed to bring luck to the club at draws) didnt have the best time while we handed the toughest group or may be one of the toughest - I will upload the whole draw in order for you to decide​

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It seems that our European road is over, but still manager Stoycho Mladenov and his boys havent said their last word about that. There are 6 games in front of them and all to play for!​

Between the European battles there some games in the bulgarian championship, but as expected the team had his attention elsewhere. Anyway we took off to a good start by winning the derby against Lokomotiv Plovdid in Plovdiv by 1:0 with Tomislav Kostadinov scoring the only goal!
After that Marquinhos and Julio Cruz scored for the 2:0 win against Minyor Pernik.
The last game was against so-called feeder club Sliven 2000, which is actually not a feeder. I believe it is mistake and the reason is that Sliven have sold a couple of players to CSKA last 2 seasons, which in fact doesnt make them a feeder club. Anyway we took that game again 2:0 with Marquinhos and Julio Cruz again scoring the winning goals.​

In between all of the mentioned games - the biggest game of the season for 99% of the bulgarian football fans have taken place Vasil Levski stadium - The National Stadium. 15941 people watched the game live to notice how Armeytsite march to their best season in the last few years. ​

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It's true we didnt won, but I saw something in the boys for the first time in years. May be since the last time I managed the club. The team was 1:0 down and they really started playing better and better with every minute. They equalized before half time which was good and was giving the great opportunity to win as guests to the Fierce Rival from Sofia! CSKA Sofia never looked back when equlized and were searching for the winning goal till the end which is pretty uncommon for that games - at least for the past years when if a team equalises the result - tries to hold on to it! We could have easily won it, but let's face it - 8 games in a period as a month is too much as the stamina of the players in the league is almost comparable to the semi-pro's in England. ​



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With such good games I believe that even if now we are some points behind - we will be topping the table soon. The season has just started, but I think we are pretty close to reaching the full potential of the team. Bulgarian team hardly achieve away wins in Europe and the results the team has already achieved make me believe I do my job well enough to stay at the hot seat. ​

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TOP 3 Players of the period:​


#1 Gregory Nelson​

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#2 Spas Delev​

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#3 Kostadin Stoyanov​

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It was a tough call to make and perhaps it is because there are to many games to judge. From now on there will be just one Player of the Period, but still draws are possible!​

---------- Post added at 09:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 AM ----------

I will start with the first game of the period as it was good enough to mention. It's the local derby versus Akademik Sofia, who are one of the newcommers. It's not like City vs United derby, more like Valencia vs Levante and even I am exaggerating a little. We succeded in converting more than half of our chances into goals which is normal for the quality difference, but still I rate this as one of our best games so far and that's why I am uploading the screenshot.​

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We than go to our European way to the final :D We were visiting Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park and we did have our chances, but still ended up with nothing.​

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With a lost in the first game of the group we were hoping to surprise Palermo at Vasil Levski stadium, but still we failed to to so, as they managed to come from behind. IMO this was pretty equal game, which in the worst case we should have drawn. Actually I believe it is my fault as on HT I encouraged my players, which I think was a total mistake leading to that devastating result.​

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So far we are looking without a way out of the groups. Even the 3rd spot seems like a dream at the moment. I really regret my decision in the Palermo game and will definetely not do the same mistake again.
My main aim with CSKA was to eastablish a compatative team for the G
group in League Europe and attack the Champions League groups as only Levski has so far succeded in taking part in that stage of the tournament. Looks like we will have to aim for the Championship. This was my second aim - to secure team that is good enough to win the championship for decades in row meanwhile trying to bring European success back to the club. ​


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With such standings I believe we don't stand a chance and I my aim is now winning 4 points, which seems possible, but not as easy as it sounds.​

In the meantime we continued our good form in the league winning all of the games, except one - another local derby versus Slavia Sofia, who actually in the past were easy to beat. ​

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This is the first major slip-up this season for me, but still when you look at the standings - not a great deal - at least so far.​


Standings after the Slavia game:​


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All the games that took place in the period we followed:​


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Player of the period:​

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Terziev acted above all expectations and even if he didnt took part in the European games I believe he is the player of the period. The main reason I am voting for two players of the period is that Delev participated in both European games and played pretty well. Also both have won the Young Player of the Month in August and September. ​

---------- Post added at 11:51 PM ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 09:37 PM ----------

anyone interested? :)
 
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I say continue it. Bulgaria league is not one that is done a lot. There was a couple people who did stories last year with them and it died off pretty quickly. I did a story with them last year as well so I will be following. Spas he is a beast.

Also why are you loading your pictures up on image shack? Think it would be easier just to do it here.
 
We continue our journey in the middle of October as there were some international games. It is definetely easier when playing with clubs from the Balkans, as there are really not many international players and I did have all of my good players available on 100%! The first game was the local derby versus Lokomotiv Sofia, who are pretty decent side.​


It was really a nice game to watch. I really didn't have anything to worry, because my guys were giving the best of them. Yeah I conceded but again I am convinced it is my mistake, because very often I do something pretty stupid. It is an old habit to make 3 substitutions about the 60th minute. I just want to give some play time to some players and rest a bit some of the key players for the upcoming important game. It's not once and twice I concede, once I have even lost a game which I was leading 3:0 at home, but that's another story.​

Well again we go to the most interesting part of the season - European games. In my opinion this home game against Sporting was the only chance of some point/s and we actually managed to do something. We were a bit lucky - I guess we deserved it as playing in a group with Sporting Lisboa, Palermo and Borussia Dortmund was a pretty tough draw.​


We managed to win all of the games this period, but it wasn't such a big deal as there were only 4 games!​

All the games that took place in the period we followed:​


Player of the period:​

View attachment 124126
#32 MICHEL PLATINI​

I rarely use players in more than 3 games in row, but this time I used Platini in 4 and that paid off, scoring 4 goals in all 4 games - 2 of them vital for the wins. ​
 
After the great last month fans raised their expectations with 3 games to go in the Europe League. We we at the bottom with 3 points, Sporting also 3 points, Dortmund and Palermo both winning 6 so far. Taking into consideration the results so far the away game versus Sporting was the most important game if we were to continue in the tournament. It was an away game, which is always pretty tough at Estadio Jose Alvalade. ​


Yup, we lost it... I was really hoping of something, but taking into consideration the difference in quality I didn't have the right to! Yeah my team blended well through the season so far, but we didnt have what it takes to beat Sporting at an even game. That's why are a big team, and we aren't... yet!​

We were out of the tournament for sure and that of course did affected our game...​


Yes, we went through that phase of the tournament, but still Vihren are 2nd Division team and the worst part is that we didn't even play well enough... for me! That was just the start of the bad serie - yes I did sence that back than.​


What can I say. It looks like I am a bad manager, but I really ain't! If not anything else - I possess experience. Well at least I thought so... For the first time in my career I so something like this - I was leading 2:0 and from the nothing my team stopped playing and the other scored 3 goals from the nothing. IMO all of this **** came from the stupid penalty... Nevermind - the worst part is that we lost the point in the 93rd minute while the additional time was only 2 minutes...!​

And again - back to the European games, which this time hopefully will help me improve the moral of the squad as in the meantime I have drawn with title holders from Litex Lovech!​


But noooooo.... I was humiliated on the National Stadium in front of 21974 spectators. I can't say a thing. We were completely outplayed and again I seek the mistake in myself, but unfortunately I didn't find it there this time...​

And here comes the last game of our European experience this season. Palermo were already qualified as they've won both games with Sporting and this was a nice chance to take something from the italian side. Well only Pastore and Hernandez are twice the value of my first 11, so not very optimistic especially away from home.​


And yeah - we succeded in Italy. We took the point and this time I can praise only myself as I took the risk to loose by bigger difference, but it turned out to be the key to equalizing. We had even chances of winning the game, but Platini did miss a one-on-one situation. Nevermind this proved to be enough to help my players improve their moral.​

All the games that took place in the period we followed:​



Player of the period:​

View attachment 124138
#7 Spas Delev​

He scored twice and added a few assists. He equalised against Palermo, and did pass the ball to Platini to make it 2:1 against them, but he missed it. Platini scored 3 goals, but added just a single assist and MISSED A WINNER! :'(​
 
I didn't use to opportunity to "boost my bankroll" with friendlies but It was pretty tough schedule for January. ​


Player of the period:

#15 Dzmitry Rekish
View attachment 124158

With 4 goals and 2 assists in 3 of the friendly games I believed he was now a real thread to Delev's place at the left wing. Unfortunately he was got injured - back strain - 4 weeks out! And it is his second time with that kind of injury...​

In the meantime I was very active on the transfer market - as always. This time I wasn't happy enough with how it closed. First I will start with the fact that my first choice GK finished his loan and returned to Slavia. His contract was expiring but still he didnt signed with me - he didnt signed with a dozen other team, which in fact are a lot better than me. That did **** me off a bit, but the worst part was that Zdravko Chavdarov and Ivan Karadzhov were on loan - they are in fact the 2nd and the 3rd option, but I was hoping to buy M'bolhi and I was looking to sell them - that is why I loaned them with a buy option and used my reserve GK for a substitution. Well now that substitution was injured for the first games and I had to buy someone really fast! I couldn't afford to buy any good GK, couldn't even loan such! I did try to buy Vladislav Stoyanov who played for Sheriff but Dinamo Zagreb signed him just in front of my eyes...​

This was my only option and as you can see - I bought him for 40 000$​

#1 Blagoy Makendzhiev
View attachment 124152​

In the mean time I decided to minimize the squad size as I had two full line-ups! I decided to get rid of some of the unperspective footballers and the ones that didn't deserve their salary!​

Julio Cruz - dropped form and turned 36....
Moussa Ouattara - also dropped form and was one of the 5 CD...
William Tiero - played bad the whole time I used him and sold him right after he regained fitness from torn hamstring.
Marco Esposito - as noone wanted to buy him - I decided to let him on free transfer as he was 31 years old, played a few bad games and had the biggest salary in the squad!
Manchev and Saidhodzha were from the Reserve team and I let them go as soon as I could.
Michel Platini - my main striker. Well Litex offered me 500k and 1 million in 24 months - I negotiated with 1,5m direct and 500k in 12 months and they accepted. I realized I wont take much more and didn't want to dissapoint the player if reject the offer. I offered him to clubs for 2,5m and Sion, Lokomotiv Moscow offered me 2,3m but still he chose Litex. And do you know what the worst part was - in his contract there was a 60% clause for Chernomorets Burgas and I ended up with almost nothing. My best striker and GK left, while my captain Todor Yanchev was snapped from Hannover on free transfer... ​

I ended up with a single striker, which was yet to score a goal:​

#10 Mohammed Al Tijani
View attachment 124154​

As you can see from the PrtSc in the start of April he still hasnt scored for the first team....​

Delev was a good option for attacker, but still I prefered him playing on the left wing as he was at his best there! That is why I had to search someone from the reserves and it was Cillian Sheridan, who I really forgot. When the idea of taking over CSKA came to me I was considering him a first team player, but he did look a bit pathethic and even if he had pretty decent games in real life - looked like FM didnt take them into consideration. ​

#26 Cillian Sheridan
View attachment 124155​

To be honest there were some money left I considered taking Tsvetomir Todorov as I always buy him when I manage some average teams. He is very versatille player and hot-prospect for the future I thought that it would be a good bargain while he is still cheap.​

#17 Tsvetomir Todorov
View attachment 124157​

And as you can see after a few games he also got himself injured in training alongside a couple of others. Interesting enough to mention is that all of them injured in training right after I decided to lower the level of training.​

I managed to keep a good squad for the Bulgarian Championship and IMO it is going to be pretty successful in the future as there are only 5 players above the age of 25 and the oldest just turned 28.
To keep the thrill I will just mention that I was very active on the transfer market for the summer as I captured few good signings on free transfer, but I plan to mention them later. Also I have signed 2 players with a fee, but will keep the secret till the end. Just will hint you with some facts - one of them is an Argentinian winger, who is part of the U20 squad and the other is the vice-captain of the Paraguay U20 Squad.​

The transfer history looks like this:​

 
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The second part of the season was on the verge ot begging and I was pretty confident with my team. We had great line-up, but with not so much options from the bench like the first half of the season.With Rekish in great form I trusted him and started using Delev as Poacher.​


It proved to be winning the rivalry game against Lokomotiv Plovdiv, but Rekish got injured and decided to use Cillian Sheridan as my starting striker. This proved to be one of the decisions which I won't regret. He proved to be a great player despite his average Finishing, Heading, First, Touch, Composure...​

The highlight of the period was the one against our fierce rivals from Levski Sofia. I was pretty confident in the win - don't know why, but I believe because I didn't have much decision for the squad as there rarely was a question who to start the game. ​


After that we had some easy games and as you will see this turned out to be the best period so far. ​


We did won all of the games. Sheridan scored 4 goals in all the games he played as a starter. Delev on the other hand did score 5 goals in all of the games mentioned above. They proved to be a great duo when using two strikers. Also as you can see we were pretty stable at the back. With the new GK and Terziev in the back we conceded only 3 goals in 7 games! Terziev won both February and March Young Player of the Month, while Delev was twice 3rd in that award, but he also finished 3rd in the March Player of the Month!
They all sound great and perspective, but one player drag all the attention. He was great all the way in the second half of the season! He won the Player of the Month award in February, he scored 5 goals and added 3 assists in 7 games. Ladies and gentlemen I present you Gregory Nelson!​

Player of the period:​

#29 Gregory Nelson
View attachment 124174​

What can I say. Doesn't he look great? He is a top player and IMO he can easily play in Premiership in the near future. May be not so easy as I won't let him go like that. Definetely won't let him go for less than 3 000 000 $!
Wish me luck cause here goes the Bulgarian Cup Qtr Final...​
 
No more European games, but still there is some thrill. Before the start of April we were clear leaders with 7 points clear. 7 points are a lot, but during that month we were going to visit Pirin at Blagoevgrad which is always far from hostile place. Also there were two local derbies in April - against Lokomotiv and Slavia.​

With some hard work in the center of the field we managed to win against Pirin, but still I believe there was a place to improve - as always!​

Than We had a game for the Cup which we easily as Al Tijani scoring his first goal ever for CSKA Sofia​


Than came the derby against Slavia, who were of course with my ex-GK... He is great, but still didn't manage to save his team. We did come from behind to win 3:1 at Vasil Levski Stadium!​


In a week we were facing one of the most promising squads in the league. They have been a bit far from us with about 20 points behind, but still we can use of their decent young players in the future. They did give us a great fight and may be that is why we won just a point, or may be I should say lost 2... :mad:​


After that slip we were only 5 points ahead of Chernomorets Burgas and I was a bit worried, but when I looked at the schedule I saw home game versus Montana and I was very happy with that. I was expecting to win it without any real problems. That was my mistake - I started with too attacking tactics and I told the guys I was expecting a win. They were all over the guests, but still couldn't score till HT... Than I dropped my nerves and told the players I was dissapointed and I was hoping this would encoure them to win even with difference as Montana are a few points from regalation zone. But noOoOoOooo - in the middle of second half I conceded... Than I decided to put Cillian Sheridan in, because I did dropped him from the first eleven, as he was in poor form... He scored twice winning three vital points for the team!​


All the games that took place in the period we followed:​


Player of the period:​

#28 Marquinhos
View attachment 124293​

#26 Cillian Sheridan
View attachment 124292​

To be honest - noone deserved that award as noone was that impressive, but as I must reward someone - I will split it between Marquinhos and Sheridan, as both did something special in April. Marquinhos actually won the game against Slavia and scored the penalty against Lokomotiv Sofia! Also won the Goal of the Month award! Cillian on the other hand by him self won the three points against Montana. I think both deserved it equally.​


As you can see CSKA Sofia is only 2 points clear on top. Even if we have a game in hand it is going to be very hard to win the championship as Tsvetomir Todorov is still injured and will be till the end of the season, my first choice GK is also injured and will miss next two games. But the worst part is that my best right wing - Gregory Nelson will miss the rest of the season... You remember him from the post above... He is great and I am a bit worried as there is no good replacement for his position. May be I will try Delev on the right wing, as he is right legged, and Rekish on the left... But still will think a lot about that.​


The only good news is that I am most probably at the final ot the Cup as I am up against Second Divison club. Well there are a few bad ones - last round I will be hosting Chernomorets Burgas, who are second at the moment - may be 1st by then.... The round before the last one - will be visiting current champions from Litex Lovech... I relly thought it would be easy, but now - I am not so certain. ​

Wish me luck and stay tuned! :)​
 
Well here we facing the end of the season. Expectations are high and the team seems pretty up for the challenge.​

It looked like we were facing pretty easy opponents in the first three games but I was pretty afraid of some stupid slip up as we were having a good lead in the League and we had good draw in the Cup with a second division club. That is why I used more definsive approach in the first 3 games winning them all. Yeah - two of them were with a single goal difference but still I believe I used the right approach as in the end all remember the winners, but not the teams that played well :)​

After that came the cup game against Cheromorets Burgas. It was definetely going to be a tough one as it seemed that they were the only team that can question my double... We were facing them for the Cup of Bulgaria and also in the last round we were hosting a title winning games. But now for the Cup:​


IMO we totally outplayed them in that game but it was a matter of chance in the end of the day. I felt pretty bad by winning it on penalties - firstly because we deserved to win it i regular time and secondly because I was trying to place myself into their coach's shoes... Nevermind - good game and thanks for the Cup - we deserved it!​

In only 3 days we had a very tough away game against Litex Lovech who were still the Champions! Well lucky enough Tomislav Kostadinov brought us the win in the last seconds of the game with a long shot. I still smile when I remember that goal as it brought us the League also. In two games we ensured the cup and the title which seems pretty easy but was a great pleasure for me to bring back success to my favourite team!​


Last round game against Chernomorets was no more than consolation as we were already champions and Litex were too far from them to take their second spot. May be that is the reason why did let go a winning position twice...​


Well after achieving a double we pretty much achieved MY expectations, but still there was a lot to do as I want to establish my team as a main force in the Bulgarian league and win games as easy as possible. Well t will definetely take some time... :)​

All the games that took place in the period we followed:
View attachment 125292​

The end of the season came pretty fast and we found ourselves as champions:​


There will be no player of the period as almost anyone deserved that praise, but still I expected some of my players to be rewarded for their great play throughtout the season:​

Gregory Nelson - foreigner of the season
View attachment 125301​

Spas Delev - Players' player of the season
View attachment 125297​

Gregory Nelson - fans player of the season
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Spas Delev - Midfielder of the season
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Stoycho Mladenov - Players' manager of the season
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Gregoy Nelson - fans' player of the year
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Overall best eleven for CSKA Sofia
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We did pretty much of an amazing season and I am very satisfied with my manager decisions and with the overall performance of the team. We did won a bit more than expected but everything seemed easier than expected. Of course there is a lot to do for the next season as for example we were struggling with goals from corners:​


I will try to do something about that, but believe me with players that are are no higher than 1,80 m will be pretty harsh to score at least 10 per season. We'll see about that - this is the first challenge for me and the team for the next season and sincerely hope to progress.​

P.S. I have been away for a while, but will be posting regulary in the next few days, so stay tuned as I expect a lot from the second season! :)​
 
New season has arrived and as my expectations raised - I needed to get a couple of decent and experienced guys alongside some good perspectives. As I announced before - I already have bought the vice-captain of the U20 Paraguay team:​


And a winger from the U20 Argentinian team:​


I bought a lot of people but mostly on free transfer:​



But paid a lot for:​


Also sold a few players as expected:​


After some great preparation for the season all expectations were to qualify in the groups of the Champions League, but still I was hoping for a good draw as my squad wasnt first class as you may suggest.​


Of course as you may suggest the highlight of the period was the game against Polonia​


As you may image it was great success for CSKA to reach to group stage of the Champions League, as we have never done that before. The group was pretty **** tough - AS Roma, Livepool and ... Rubin Kazan!! God I had problems with Rubin when I managed Valencia - guess what happens with CSKA :)​

Interesting part of this part was also the tactics of a team I faced at home. I have never seen something like it and as you can see I pretty much killed them :)​


Next period:
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As you may suggest I was ****** for loosing the Super Cup to Chernomorets Burgas, but nevermind - the Board didnt consider it important at all! ​


On the other hand I had some impressive results in Champions League from which I should highlight the win against AS Roma!​


Also I had the opportunity to get it back to Chernomorets for taking my Super Cup with a pretty good result IMO:​


After the two wins and the lose against Liverpool in the Champions League the standing in the group seemed pretty good for us. Even we had a chance for qualifying to the next stage. ​


We were visiting both AS Roma and Rubin and in the last round hosting Pool who were already qualified so may be the could have given up some points. All in all we had our chanes....​


Well till loosing against Roma, which was pretty expected... After that with a lucky goal from offside Rubin managed to equalise and take the **** point. If we had won all the points in Russia - we would have qualified even if we loose to Liverpool in the last round, which in fact was the result. Only without the qualifying :) Okay League Europe was a good competition to participate. ​


All of the players I bought and the ones that were in CSKA before were playing great and I can't decide which was the best in the first half of the season. Actually Arthuro did play great scoring more than a goal per game. There was long time till the end of the season and a goalscorer like him was a great advantage. Even if Anicet was my main goalscorer in Europe - Arthuro kept me without a loss in the first half of the season(14 wins in 15 games!) in the local championship leading the goalscorer chart with almost twice the goals scored by the second.​

I was glad we managed to continue playing in Europe even after New Year, but that meant that I should save all the players and even get some few fresh faces in! Than happened something pretty great which you can evaluate on the next picture:​


Than I realised that I wasn't following some of my main instructions - buying mostly bulgarian players as I want the national team to prospect in the future.But there isn't enough talanted players to cover my whole squad and that is why I was buying mostly some foreigners. Than I decided that the best thing to do is to let good players go to better teams in order to continue their development. ​

What happened - just follow if interested of course :)​
 
Well I don't see anyone interested so I will just use this message to say I am going to make just one more update for the second half of the season in order to make things look like finished.

I will also use this message to ask a few questions in order to improve my gameplay... I saw many of you recommending playing with Shakhtar Donetsk and I would like to ask what have they done in order to boost their wage budget and their ranking so they can attract better players as f.e. at the start of the third season I can't sign any player from Greece, Romania, Serbia etc. even if I had some decent results in Europe and I'm constantly winning the championship. IMO the answer is that it will take much longer and in the future I will attract good players.

Also a little bit of offtopic, but noone answered me in the right place where I`ve asked - when I install the newest patch - will it affect my old saves?

Thank you in advance and I really hope for some answers. If the unbelievable happens - many of you want me to continue - I will do it, as I still will be seeking European glory with CSKA and wont stop till I win some major European trophey!​
 
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