Reviving sleeping giants: AS Saint-Étienne

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January 2018: not so happy New Year (HUGE update)

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To end 2017 on a high note, we managed to get Kévin to sign a new contract, and as our starting right-back, that's fantastic news. He wasn't so demanding in terms of wages so I was definitely happy to get him to sign a new contract, especially considering Debuchy is most likely leaving on a free at the end of the season, leaving room for a backup right-back to come in and potentially be Kévin's successor!

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Now, I'm very sorry to disappoint, but in terms of permanent arrivals, Mandi was the only one of the window. For €1.3 million, it was a steal and I just couldn't not sign him up. He'll be a great backup to Subotic and Perrin if they get injured or suspended, and he's also a natural at right-back and for now can also play that role of Théophile-Catherine's backup as well. We're left with €3.5 million that I'll now be saving up for next season's summer transfer window.

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I realised I was doing a good job at Saint-Étienne, but this is just bizarre. It probably has to do with the reputation I set for myself at the start of the save but Stoke and Brighton aren't actually the first teams to approach me. A couple of teams after them actually did as well and Villareal earlier in the season were also looking to sign me. Of course, this isn't the point of this story and rejecting interest from these clubs delighted the Saint-Étienne board, who keep supporting me and agreeing to all my requests!

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So for our first official game of 2018, we smashed Bastia. I expected it to say the least, but it felt good to see it on the scoreboard at the end of the match. Cabella, as always, performed and even scored a goal, which was great to see. We start off the new year with a win and I can only hope now that we carry this over to the league. One small issue with this win is Bamba's injury, as he'll be out for over a month. Thankfully, he'll be back before our big February games start and we'll have our main team out for those. Bourg-Péronnas, just like Bastia, look like an easy win but they knocked out Marseille of the competition so we'll have to be wary when we face them as our last game of the month!

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This might be a little bit of a surprise but when I saw that he was interested in a loan and that Bournemouth wanted just €10,000 a week for him, I figured we absolutely need to go for him! Our defence has been weak for sure but Mandi's arrival has helped already, and of course the midfield is just above the defence so why not go and reinforce that as well? There's not optional fee involved, as you'd expect considering our resources, and despite him being English we still look on track to have at least 50% of the squad with the French nationality at the end of the season. A great signing for us who I think can help us get to the Champions League if we work hard enough.

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Our incredible cup run continues! Mandi already showing great signs in this game as we scrape through by the skin of our teeth and go through to the semi-finals! We did draw Monaco though, which was the second worst thing that could happen to use other than drawing PSG of course. On top of that, after beating them 4-0 in the league, they'll be coming at us roaring and looking for revenge so yeah, great... Incredible stuff from us. Of course though, in this team, with good news also come bad ones and Ntep is done for the season. He had about 6 months left on his loan contract with us and with him now out for 7-8 months, I saw no reason to keep him at the club and keep paying his wages, when Wolfsburg can probably take better care of him in Germany. After 21 appearances for the club, 3 goals and 7 assists, I can safely say he was one of our top players this season and having to play the rest of Ligue 1 without him will be tough, but we have some great players who can come in and get their chance now.

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First game without Ntep and a 1-1 draw with Toulouse. Don't get me wrong, they're not that bad of a side at all, but when we're fighting for Champions League football, these are the kinds of games we need to be winning. We dominated the match as well, which just makes this worse. Cook showed his class though and makes me very happy to have signed him, hopefully he can keep providing for the team and play this well week in week out until the end of the season!

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This was our 4th game of the month, so we were basically at the halfway point of the month since we played 8 games. Cook scored his first goal for the club, amazingly enough, and Cabella continues his goalscoring form, taking his tally to 12 in the league for the season. God we're going to miss him next year, whether we're in the Europa League or Champions League. We were definitely expecting to win this game and we did so with ease, so onto the next one!

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Still unbeaten in the league in 2018! A very positive thing for us, especially considering Nice are a good team and have been on the up recently, so we could've easily lost that game. With Ntep now gone back to Wolfsburg, Hamouma has the opportunity to step up and he's done just that. He's taken advantage of both Ntep's departure and Bamba's injury to become our star winger and if he keeps playing well like this, I don't see why he wouldn't stay in the team long-term. He'll have to be wary of our goalscoring hero for tonight though, Monnet-Paquet! He was injured for a while and has recently been put back in the team because of Ntep's early departure and he's been great! A winning goal in Ligue 1 to mark one of his first games back is definitely a great way to set himself in the starting 11 for the next games to come.

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So that's it then. Our cup dream is over. Experience ended up overcoming football magic today and it was deserved for Monaco. Two red cards in the space of 8 minutes sealed our fate and despite the game overall being quite a close one, Monaco deserved to go through. They knocked out PSG in the previous round, so I guess in a way we'll be rooting for them to win the whole thing now, then it'll take the sting out of that defeat. They'll play Dijon in the final, who'll be hoping to win their first Coupe de la Ligue ever.

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Despite some sadness and disappointment from the Monaco semi-final game, it was good to see that our spirits didn't drop down too low as we smashed Caen 3-0 to keep our great form going in the league and stay in 4th place. I don't know if it's because we're playing weaker opposition or because Mandi has brought in defensive quality but keeping 2 clean sheets in our last 4 games is definitely an achievement for us and I hope we can keep it going! Our captain Perrin is going to be out for a while as well, so Mandi can come in and step up for the team now but what worries me the most is the fact that he's going to miss some key games in February; hopefully he recovers quicker than the medical team is anticipating.

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Monnet-Paquet continues his great form and scores 3 goals against Péronnas to put us through to the 11th round where we'll face ... PSG. Just as one cup run dream gets shattered by Monaco, PSG smash the other without having even played us. We all know how it ended when we last faced PSG and let's just say I didn't want cup embarrassment now as well. Oh well, at least it'll be a big challenge for us and who knows, maybe we'll come away with a result? The fact that a win against the best team in France will get us a spot in the quarter-finals of this competition might give us some nice incentive to go out and perform.

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We're obviously still looking strong in the league, sitting in 4th now just one point behind Monaco and 3 ahead of Angers. The reason why I think January was a not so happy New Year is because of our cup competitions to be honest. And injuries, dear God the injuries. Oh and also because February is going to be yet another ridiculous month. We're doing really well in the league and whether we finish 3rd, 4th or 5th, it'll be well above the media and board expectations so I'll be happy regardless but getting knocked out in the semi-final of the Coupe de la Ligue and basically already knowing we'll be out of the Coupe de France as well really stings and puts even more pressure on a successful Ligue 1 campaign, so it's just not exactly the start to 2018 we would've wanted.

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This is what I meant by ridiculous month... A cup game against PSG, two away games against Angers right behind us in the league and our arch rivals Lyon, on top of a game against Marseille as well, who are looking better than they have all season so far. Our only nice game is against Amiens who haven't been great this season, let's be honest, and even that just isn't so easy considering the losses we've suffered against weaker teams in the past. This just feels like a clutch Champions League month if we were one of the big European teams, and I guess that's how we're going to build up some experience in high pressure situations if we want to compete with PSG for the title in the next few years. In the next update, this MEGA month of February and all the results!
 
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February 2018: one derby to rule them all

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This was supposed to be our easy game of the month and that it was. A 4-1 win against Amiens is very satisfying and with Cabella scoring yet again, we're on a great run of form and can hope for the best for our next few games. We still have Marseille, Angers and Lyon in the league on top of PSG in the cup. This is how we build experience and quality though and we'll have to do this week in week out if we qualify for Europe.

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Another narrow win against Marseille! After a 2-1 win away from home the first time we faced them, we get a 1-0 win at home and I couldn't be happier! Beric scores the only goal of the game as Cabella gets man of the match against his own club who's loaned him out to us which must be a real kick in the teeth for them. That win against Marseille put us in 2nd temporarily before Lyon and Monaco played their games in hand and we're now on 5 league wins in a row, which is definitely league title winning form!

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Well, so much for our great form... We were already 6 points clear of Angers so this brings them 3 points closer and we're still ahead but barely. With some huge games coming up as well, we couldn't afford to drop points against them and we have, which is hugely disappointing. I'm not too mad because Angers have had an incredible season but it's 2 wins in 2 games against us this season for them, which is just bad. Up next is Lyon though, so we can't let our spirits drop too much.

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What a win! Lyon beat us at home in the first derby and we come right back and beat them at their own home as well! An incredible win which not only sees us beat our rivals at their own ground but also sees us move up to 3rd in the league, a point above Lyon in the Champions League places! Our away form has definitely picked up in the last month or so and our defence has also been so much better, which makes me so happy since our main signing in January was Mandi and he's come in and done an incredible job!

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We unfortunately come crashing out of the Coupe de France in the round of 16, but I'm so proud of how we played today. PSG lined up one of their better teams and we fought hard and only lost 2-1. Mbappé showed his class late in the game to get them the winner and despite our overall domination during the game, it just wasn't to be. This gives us the opportunity to focus on the league now and our last 2 big games against PSG and Monaco, while they'll both have to focus on cup games on top of that.

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With just 11 games left in the league for my first season in charge, we sit in 3rd! We're just 2 points behind Monaco and a point above Lyon, and it looks like we're definitely getting European football for next season. Whether we get the Europa or Champions League though, that's all up to us now!

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We've got just 3 games next month due to the international break and whilst the one against Rennes should be an easy 3 points, the games against Dijon and Guingamp will be tougher. We lost against both of them in the first half of the season and I'm determined to not let that happen again. We need points now, and a lot of them if we want to hold on to this 3rd place! March results coming up next!
 
Wow, Rennes propping up the table? That's a surprise. Cracking season so far though, keep it up! Shame there's no agreed fee in Cabella's loan agreement...
 
Sammuthegreat said:
Wow, Rennes propping up the table? That's a surprise. Cracking season so far though, keep it up! Shame there's no agreed fee in Cabella's loan agreement...
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Incredible season for sure, some of the players are performing ridiculously well! Cabella will definitely be missed but I'm hoping he won't want to stay at Marseille since they most likely won't get European football... And Rennes have been doing awful all season yeah, bit of a weird one. Marseille were 18th for the longest time as well, so maybe we're just lucky to be in 3rd!
 
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March 2018: getting ready for the final stretch

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That's exactly why I was worried about these games. Drawing with Dijon means Lyon have now overtaken us again and we sit in 4th. We completely dominated this game and should've really come away with the 3 points but what can we do now? We just need to keep fighting and hope that we get better results in our next 2 games and that at some point before the last few games of the season Lyon messes up.

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I sent my scout to Brazil for an assignment and he came back telling me that this 19-year old right here could become a quality player. Our scouting team isn't the best and he might be completely wrong, but with him having a €110,000 release clause, I decided to go for it. He's young and can develop with us and hopefully stay with us for a number of years, who knows?

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Some more good news as one of our best players this season extends his contract until 2022. I had to include a 15% wage rise clause in the contract which I tend to avoid but our finances weren't good enough to satisfy his initial demands so this is the best I could do. Regardless, he's agreed to stay a little while longer and he performs very well so it's a great thing for us. If he ever decides to leave in the next couple months anyway, his value will rise tremendously after a great season and new contract.

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A great win to prepare for the Guingamp game in style. Rennes are bottom of the league so I absolutely expected a walk in the park and that's what I got. A fantastic result though which keeps us in the running for Champions League football! We sit in 3rd as Lyon have a game in hand and keep putting pressure on them, which is what we need to do!

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Our final game of the month, on my birthday, and another 3-0 win! A fantastic victory for us which once again keeps us putting pressure on Lyon and looking to get further away from Angers in 5th place. Beric continues his outstanding season as well with another 2 goals, taking his tally for the season after 30 games to 23 goals! Let's just on the attacking front, we don't need any help there. We now get a well deserved 2-week break until the final stretch of the season. Just 8 games left to make history and get Champions League football for the first time since 1981.

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Just one point away from history. Just one! We still have Monaco and PSG to play in the next 8 games but what an achievement it would be to get Champions League football next season, I mean imagine that! We're 3 points clear of Angers which is good to see and hopefully we stay clear of them and they don't steal our 4th place spot at least. Below you'll see an alternate table for just the second half of the season and also our fixtures for April. It's looking like it's going to really be war between us, Monaco, Lyon and Angers for those European spots. Up next, April! Also, can we just talk about how we have the 2nd best defence for the second part of the season and also one of the best attacks? Definitely a positive!

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April 2018: no money, no problem!
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There are a couple reasons why April's update is titled "no money, no problem!". One of them is the fact that we somehow managed to make some signings on a free transfer! Carneiro will be a great backup to Beric for next season and to be able to get a promising striker like him on a free is definitely a great thing for us, especially given our lack of finances to invest in new players. Diony will come back from his loan with Bristol but I'm more inclined to sell him and take the money after a decent season in the Championship.

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Oh and about the Coupe de la Ligue? Where we lost in the semi-finals to Monaco? I was expecting a walk in the park for them against Dijon in the final but they went and lost 1-0! Fair play to Dijon, they've been very decent in Ligue 1 and have won their first ever Coupe de la Ligue in the same season as well, so honestly great job from them. It's good to see the bigger teams in France get shaken up a bit and have to work harder for their results.

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Our first of 5 games in Ligue 1 this month was against Nantes, who like Dijon have also been incredible all season and have actually won the second most Ligue 1 titles in the history of the competition. Ranieri has done a great job with them and even though he's not won the league like he did with Leicester, he'll still be proud of his team. We came away 3-1 winners which is the best result we could've asked for and we were actually leading 3-0 up until the 90th minute as well, so we're looking good for our next game against the French giants PSG, who actually have a Champions League quarter-final second leg against Atletico right after our game against them. It finished 0-0 in the first leg, so they have it all to do and we might have a chance if Emery decides to rest a few players.

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Before the PSG game though, the real coup. No money, no problem indeed! The now former Real Madrid man Marcos Llorente will come in on a free and join us in the summer, rejecting Marseille in the process. With Cook leaving the club at the end of the season, I figured we needed a big player to replace him and Llorente is just that. He's also got a lot of potential and being only 23, has a lot of time to get to his peak. With M'Vila also looking like he might be tempted to leave the club (even though he signed a new contract... sigh...), Llorente will be great to have if M'Vila does leave. Now then, onto the PSG game.

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Well talk about no money no problem! PSG humiliated us at their own ground back in August and knocked us out of the Coupe de France earlier this year but now it's our turn and we've absolutely smashed them! Beric grabs a hat-trick and takes his tally to 32 for the season, with Cabella also performing incredibly well today. What a win! My goal is to one day compete with PSG but I was expecting to lose every game against them before that! I can't believe it, what a win it is not only for the club but also for this season! I was calculating the points needed and the performances we'd need to maybe qualify for the Champions League and ruled this game as a guaranteed loss, so to win it gives us a lot of momentum and means that we really do look like strong contenders for the Champions League!

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I can't really fault the lads for that. Strasbourg are fighting for survival and it's clear we had nothing left in the locker after the amount of work we put in against PSG... It's 2 points dropped that now put us 3 points behind Lyon, which is not a good thing at all with so few games left in the league but who knows, we still have 5 games to go and get close to our rivals and maybe knock them down from the podium!

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An easy 3-0 win against a Troyes team who did really well and drew 0-0 with Marseille in their last game (which is impressive given Marseille are actually in the Europa League semi-finals!). A fantastic win and Bamba, who we hadn't heard a lot about recently, rises up and scores one of the three goals to give us even more momentum. Dioussé was sent off late in the game which was just unnecessary but there's nothing that can be done about that now. We have one last game against Montpellier before our final 3 games in the league, so let's just focus on that.

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The drama continues! Our top goalscorer this season Beric was the season as he scored a 95th minute winner and we stay in the race for Champions League football! What a huge win for us and what a moment for the club as well! We're not only still in the running for the Champions League, but we've also actually broke the club points record in a single season! It might seem odd considering Saint-Étienne have won 10 league titles in the past, but they won their last one in 1980 with just 57 points! I don't know if that means the league was a lot more competitive then or if you just needed a couple of wins to win the title but to break the points record for my first season in charge is incredible. One problem though, our starting centre-back Subotic is now out for the rest of the season, which could be a huge problem for sure. Mandi thankfully is in the team of course and will come in and do a job but if him or Perrin get injured or suspended, we could be in big trouble.

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We have 3 games left, just 3 games to make up 3 points and try to overtake Lyon for Champions League football. It's going to be incredibly tough and at this point, I'm not expecting much anymore but I know we have the potential to do it. Our last 3 games are incredibly tough, one against Monaco who are also in the Coupe de France final, one against Lille who could surprise us if we're not careful, but also one against Europa League quarter-finalists Bordeaux, who have Danny Ings of all people on loan at the club (funny story, I tried to get him on loan too but the restrictions of 5 loan signings per season ended up costing us his signature...). It's going to be very, very tough and there will be drama up until the very last minute of the 38th game of the season but we'll see. It all comes down to this.
 
Fingers firmly crossed. Stunning first season whether you come 4th, 3rd or - dare I say it - 2nd?!
 
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May 2018: the race is on!

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After a very successful month in April, Cabella wins the player of the month for the second time this season. It was incredibly well-deserved to be fair to him but at this point in the season, individual achievements won't get us Champions League football so it's now or never that we need to perform and beat Bordeaux and Monaco before the final matchday against Lille.

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Some bad news with our backup midfielder Pajot injured until the end of the season but considering the quality of the players already playing, it's not that big of a blow and we can expect a very good team lined up regardless.

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What a win again!!! Against Europa League quarter-finalists, I was expecting a really tough game but once again Cabella rose to the challenge and was the man of the match! We keep putting pressure on Lyon and Monaco as we now have to face the latter, who will be determined to keep their place in the Champions League of course. Cabella is doing nothing to make me not miss him once he leaves at the end of the season, and this is making this incredibly intense finale even sadder and more intense than I thought. Up next Monaco, away from home as well, which at this point could be the Champions League decider. Oh and also, PSG won the title, nothing surprising there.

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Who said Ligue 1 was a farmer's league and not competitive? Huh?! Because I'd like to hear them now! A 9th minute goal agains Monaco at the Stade Louis II now puts us in 3rd and onto the podium in Ligue 1, just above Lyon before the final matchday! What an incredible season it's been and what a final matchday it's going to be. I can't believe what I'm seeing here. We played with 10 men for over 20 minutes and still somehow held on and clinched the 3 points which could make this team history makers for the club. My God this is incredible!
 
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May 15th 2018, 8pm CET: history makers, or nah

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The stage is set. Last match day of the 2017/18 season. We sit in 3rd, just one point ahead of Lyon and one point behind Monaco. We play 14th place Lille, Monaco play 12th place Troyes and Lyon play 17th place Nice, who need a good result otherwise they could go into a relegation playoff. This is the most tense and stressful game of the season, and it's just a domestic match! We've already made history with this team equalling the record for most wins in a season for the club and breaking the points record as well, can we now break yet another record and qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 37 years? You'll spend the next 2 hours with me to see if we did that.
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Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, 19th of May 2018, 35,487 fans present


View attachment 57029We're lining up with our 4-2-3-1 we've used all season long, getting us one of the best defences and attacks in the league

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KICK OFF!

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0' After giving the lads the team talk of their lives, we walk onto the pitch with our fans roaring and wanting a good result here today. We've been very good at home, having the third best record in the league behind Monaco and PSG whilst Lille have the 9th best away record, so they're doing a little bit better than I thought. Their players look ready, but we have Champions League football on the line. They're a little too far goal difference wise from the relegation playoffs to really be worried but that defensive approach makes me think they might be a little scared of us. Good. We get the kickoff as well as the referee blows the whistle and we're underway!

10' We've been the better side by far and as of right now, we would stay in the Champions League spots. Lyon and Monaco both haven't scored either, the only game with a goal being the Caen-PSG one and what a surprise it's the league champions leading of course. We've not created many chances but we're keeping the ball well, as we move the ball around well and Cabella ends up with it about 30 yards out, and sees the run from Bamba inside the box, Jonathan takes a touch and shoots and he makes it 1-0!!! Jonathan Bamba the hot prospect from the start of the season with the goal which sees us overtake Monaco and get into 2nd place!!! What a way to start the game off!!!

AS Saint-Étienne [1] - 0 Lille OSC
Jonathan Bamba

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27' Not much has happened since our opener, but in other games Lyon are winning against Nice 1-0 with a Cyprien own goal! This doesn't change much for us since we're still above them in the table but it means Lyon overtake Monaco themselves now and AS Monaco go from Champions League group stage football to Europa League football next season! What a ridiculous season this has been and what a finale!

28' Lille are literally doing nothing but I'm getting a little bit worried now as they're getting forward and Bissouma is through and isn't offside apparently even though he looks about 50 yards offside and he crosses it in for Benzia! And oh no... it's 1-1 and that puts us right back down to 4th... The Champions League dream lasted just under 20 minutes. We still have a lot of the game to go but this is a big, big problem now...

AS Saint-Étienne 1 - [1] Lille OSC
Yassine Benzia

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45' HALF-TIME. It's 1-1 at the break despite our complete and utter domination. I don't think I can take the stress right now! Lyon still 1-0 up against Nice and Monaco still drawing 0-0 against Troyes. We really have a chance to make history and even though 4th would be a great position for us, we've just worked way too hard to not get a podium finish. I told the lads how it was, that I wasn't happy at all with the performance. We should be crushing Lille and drawing 1-1 just isn't good enough. I put Théophile-Catherine at centre-back to replace Mendy, who comes off for Mathieu Debuchy, the wild card. We have it all to do in the second half and a win, any kind of win, would get us Champions League football and that's what we want today. Let's do this!

KICK OFF!

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63' Nothing in the first 20 minutes of this half, other than Lyon scoring yet again against Nice to make it 2-0 and set themselves up nicely for 2nd place. Monaco still drawing and we're still just not performing. Cook is coming off this time for M'Vila who's been a star all season, maybe he can do something for us tonight.

70' Speaking of M'Vila he does incredibly to steal the ball deep in Lille's half as they were trying to get us on the counter and he passes it to Cabella! Who wiggles around defenders but UGH. Gets tackled as it slowly goes back towards the keeper but wait Beric is still running for it and he takes it around the keeper and puts it in the back of the net!!! It's 2-1!!! We go right back up into 2nd with just 20 minutes left in the game as our Slovenian hero Beric scores his 31st goal of the season in Ligue 1! What a man!!!

AS Saint-Étienne [2] - 1 Lille OSC
Robert Beric

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78' Hamouma hasn't played very well today and as we try to finish this game off and get the 3 points for second place, I'm going to bring on Selnæs, who's been back from injury for quite some time now but wasn't performing well enough to be in the team. He'll go in as the centre attacking midfielder and Cabella will go on the left, with Bamba coming back on the right side of the pitch. Come on lads let's do this! Just about 15 minutes left and Monaco still haven't scored!

90' The referee's given 5 minutes of stoppage time. FIVE! Monaco, still not scored yet it's still 0-0 in Troyes whilst Nice are mounting a come back now, with the score being 3-2 to Lyon. That scoreline doesn't matter if we win though and it's looking closer and closer now!!!

90+8' There was another injury for Lille which caused even more extra time but as Lille lose the ball on a counter attack we clear it and... THAT'S IT!!! WE'VE DONE IT!!! CHAMPIONS LEAGUE HERE WE COME!!! Lyon held on to their lead and overtake Monaco for 3rd place and Monaco, who were in 2nd for such a big part of the season, come crashing down in 4th in the final match day as they couldn't beat Troyes and will play in the Europa League next season! What a moment! Beric and Bamba the two heroes today and we finish off the season with an absolutely incredible result!

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One season in charge, just one and we already get Champions League football! The only decent signings we actually made were Cook on loan and Mandi for just over €1 million and look where that took us. Belief and hard work really does pay off more than money. That said, I was really looking forward to a nice big budget for next season considering we'll be playing in the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE but the board just gave us €8.5 million. It definitely is a lot more than what I had last summer and is a decent amount to bring in some good players but probably nothing compared to even Lyon's budget for next season. I am so incredibly proud of this team and this was the absolute best way to finish off an absolutely incredible season. I can't wait now for our summer arrivals on free transfers and the start of the new season, with CHAMPIONS LEAGUE football. In Saint-Étienne! I can't believe what I'm hearing myself... Below you'll see the league table, and in the next update soon I'll do a little season review to really take in the success we just had this season.

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2017/18 season review

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So there's the final league table for the 2017/18 season! I would've absolutely never expected such a great season for my first one in charge and we've somehow come second, just a point above Lyon and Monaco. I really do feel like we got lucky considering Marseille had such a bad season and they would've been the ones probably in our place if they had played better. They had a reason for their bad season though, as you'll see later. Coming in 13 points behind the champions though really does show how much of a gap there is between PSG and the rest of the league though. I have to say however, it feels incredible to see 2 losses for PSG knowing we were the ones who got them one of those defeats.

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So there it is then. Our goal of the season was Bamba's opener against Lille in our final game of the season and Cabella easily wins fan's player of the year, with 76% of the votes! Bamba also wins young player of the season and Mendy gets signing of the season. If it was up to me, I would've probably given it to Mandi but Mendy was at the club for a little longer and did very well so, fair enough. With a total of 20 assists and 22 goals in 39 games and an average rating of 7.85, Cabella definitely deserved the fan's player of the season award. M'Vila had the best passing of everyone this season and Beric, what a wonderful man. He scored 36 goals and made 9 assists in 45 games, meaning a 45 goal-contribution in 45 games so just, wow. What a season for those two and how much we're going to miss Cabella.

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So there we go! After such an incredible season, you would've expected us to win a lot of awards but we won almost everything! Dioussé surprisingly wins most promising player (surprising because he's just gone under the radar compared to Beric and Cabella's performances!) and Cabella denies Neymar the star of the season award for his debut season in Ligue 1. I mean that says it all really, even NEYMAR couldn't take that award away from Cabella. Cavani tops the scoring charts with 39 goals which is just ridiculous but Beric is close behind on 31 goals. M'Bengué also got the left-back position in the team of the year which is also quite surprising but I'm not complaining! It's great to see some players who didn't really get the chance to be talked about so much throughout the season get recognised for their good work. Ruffier had a rough start to the season as well but has come back and done really well in the second half of the season and gets 3rd best goalkeeper of the year, which is amazing to see. Now then, one of the requirements of this story is to have at least 50% of the squad have the French nationality at the end of every season, so let's take a look at how many players we have in the squad in total and how many of them have the French nationality. Keep in mind they don't need to have the French nationality as their main one, as long as they have it under "other nationalities" then they count for the challenge! We have a total of 25 players in the squad right now, and 15 of them are French or at least have the nationality, which is 60% of the total squad so we're good and we can move on to season 2!

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Oh and of course before I forget! I figured you would want to see how the Europa League and Champions League went overall and let's just say the Europa League was amazing for French football, the Champions League however, not so much. PSG got to the quarter-finals where they were knocked out by Atletico who eventually lost in the final and Monaco were also knocked out by Atletico in the round of 16. Lyon, Bordeaux and Marseille all made it to the round of 16 in the Europa League and whilst Lyon got knocked out by Marseille, both Marseille and Bordeaux made it through to the quarter-finals, where Bordeaux were knocked out by Lazio and Marseille made it through yet again to the semi-finals! They ended up winning the whole competition which actually means that PSG, Olympique Lyonnais, AS Saint-Étienne and Olympique de Marseille will all be in the Champions League next season, with Monaco and Dijon playing in the Europa League. My one chance to get Cabella to come play for us again was the Champions League football but now Marseille have got that as well, so that's disappointing...

As a little side note and putting on my Linecoigne hat right now instead of the Saint-Étienne manager hat, I just wanted to say thank you guys so much for the support you've shown on this story so far. I was a little hesitant to come back and write a story considering how long I'd been away and I didn't know the response yet another story would get but a lot of you seem to enjoy it and enjoy reading the long paragraphs as well so again, thank you so much and I can't wait to start the season 2 updates, I hope you're all excited as well! In terms of how the updates will look, I'm thinking about making some minor design changes for them just to make the posts look nicer so let me know what you think of those when I start season 2!
 
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July 2018: a busy summer

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Despite my graphics not looking the most beautiful and professional, this is what our pre-season is looking like. The games against Rostov and Liège are testimonials for Moulin and Perrin respectively and at least we're not travelling too far from home throughout the month. From the squad going on the tour you can probably see a couple of names that weren't here last year and it might've spoiled some of the signings I've made but I'll introduce them more properly now.

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The first good news from back in June that I have to tell you is that Monnet-Paquet, who came third for assists last season in Ligue 1, will be with us for another couple years! His contract was expiring at the end of the season and despite having some youngsters I wanted to bring through and play instead of him, I felt like he deserved a new contract and a couple of chances in the team before I made up my mind.

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If you remember, I gave M'Vila a new contract a couple months back which had a 15% wage rise clause in there. As I wanted to get rid of it since he was already on €38k a week following the start of the new season, I just offered him a little bit more money and got rid of the clause! Job done.

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Our first signing of the transfer window was Hatem Ben Arfa. Now, I've been trying to sign him since last year but his wage demands back when he was at PSG were just ridiculous and now that they've released him, he's decided he'll take anything and we got him for just €8,500 a week, which is an absolute steal. My assistant reckons he's still in his prime years and would be an important player for the team and I think I agree, I've brought him in to replace Cabella so I'm glad my assistant thinks he's a good choice.

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Our second signing of the window was Lo Celso. Now to be honest with you, this was more of an impulse signing than anything. I saw that PSG wanted to loan him out and I know he has a huge amount of potential so I figured, why not sign some players to build some depth since we'll be playing in the Champions League? As much as I want Ben Arfa to play every game, his fitness levels will have dropped massively in the last year and having a young lad like Lo Celso who can come in and replace him is ideal.

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Our THIRD signing of the window was Jordan Lukaku on loan! In terms of wage demands, Lazio weren't too harsh and only wanted us to pay 90% of his wages, which I'll happily do as it's only €32,000 a week. Lukaku can come in and be either M'Bengue's back up or the starter if M'Bengue doesn't play very well and with some Europa League experience from last season, he'll be perfect for what we need in the Champions League this season.

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With all these arrivals, we needed at least one departure and Janko unfortunately is one of them. He didn't really play for us last season and despite him being the only backup we had for Theéophile-Catherine after Debuchy's contract expired, I just feel like we can spend some money and get a better right-back in as a backup instead of holding onto Janko who was just never going to play.

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Money-wise, we made 2 big signings and this was one of them. Karsdorp, who played just 7 games for Roma last season despite moving there for €14 million, has now signed for us for under half of that price tag. Some Russian clubs were already in advanced talks with him when we approached him but I guess he starter place in the team on top of Champions League football convinced him. As we didn't quite have the funds for him as well yet, I decided to get Roma a couple of instalments in the next couple of months which will cover his full €6.5 million fee. He's a great signing for us and I can't wait to see him play with a Saint-Étienne kit on!

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Another loan signing who can be a backup to Ben Arfa and Lo Celso down the middle and Monnet-Paquet and Hamouma on the wings. He's a very versatile player who, just like Lo Celso, has got a lot of potential and that's why I really wanted to get him in when I saw that he was on the loan list. Having to pay just under €17,000 a week as well was a definite positive from the signing as well. Of course, as there is no restriction for us on loan signings, we could keep signing non-French players to have in the team but that's not what we're about! In terms of permanent transfers, we're allowed just 3 foreign (non-French) players to come in and with Szymonek and Llorente as well as Karsdorp already maxing us up on our allowance, we now need to find French players to sign if we want to sign anyone else!

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We have about €3 million in the bank still but Lacroix wasn't going to be used and we already have enough depth at the back so I figured he could leave and get more game time, better for him, better for us, and we get a nice fee as well which takes our total to be able to spend now to €5.5 million.

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Gabriel Silva's departure takes our budget to just over €6 million now and the reason for his departure is mostly because he wasn't playing even last season and with Lukaku and M'Bengue now in the side, there was no chance for him to play and I have no use for a 27-year old in my team who's never going to play.

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Diony had a decent season out on loan in Bristol last season but not good enough to impress me and certainly not good enough to knock Beric out of the starting 11, so I figured it would be better for him and for us if he left and he's gone and signed for Angers, who did really well last season. We also get just over €2 million to add to our budget as well taking us to a nice €8 million to spend potentially on one our more new players!

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The final departure of the window is Selnæs, who was out injured most of last season and despite playing 15 games, just wasn't so impressive. Bordeaux seemed to really want him so I pushed them all the way up to a €3 million offer, which now gives us over €10 million to spend and a more balanced squad as well. We had way too many central midfielders and I just couldn't see him getting in the team over M'Vila, Dioussé, Fuchs the youngster and others.

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So there it is! Our big money signing! We already have Gonzalo Carneiro (which if you count him for this season's transfers would actually mean we broke the transfer rule, but since his deal was agreed last season early on, he's counting for last season's transfers) coming in the first week of August as a backup for Beric, but I was looking for a younger, more explosive striker who was also somewhat experienced already. Pléa fits all those categories and he's just 25 years old. He's been consistently good over the last couple of seasons and last year averaged 7.07 in 21 matches, with 6 goals and 5 assists. It might not seem like a great record, but when taking into consideration the fact that Nice finished 17th, that was impressive enough for me. He comes in and will be a great addition to the team, especially because he's still got some potential left in him. Now then, how did we do in pre-season and what is August looking like for us?

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As you can see, it was a pretty straightforward pre-season for us as we get 3 wins from 4 games. As the Rostov and Liège games were testimonials, we also got to play with some former Saint-Étienne players in the side and it was great! Gomis got a hat-trick in our last game to get us a 5-1 win and I can only wish I could bring him back to Le Chaudron. He was much better when he played for our rivals Lyon of course and I actually did try to sign him but he just wanted way too much money. Regardless, this is a very successful pre-season in my eyes and we now have to get ready for the Trophée des Champions game against PSG in the first week of August! Oh and you'll also get to see in the next image who our opening game in Ligue 1 is against and let me tell you, it's a big one.

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So a first official game of the season against PSG and then a derby to start off our Ligue 1 campaign! What a season this is going to be! One thing to note here is that Lyon have actually lost the likes of N'Koulou, Depay and Fékir who have all left the club and not really been replaced by quality players yet, other than Çalhanoglu for just over €15 million, so if Lyon hold off any more transfers until after our game against them, we could potentially get a great result to kickstart our season! Nice will be a tough game too as they'll want to prove that they don't need Balotelli and Pléa to succeed as well. Up next, August!
 
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August 2018: the group of death?
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Not a bad way to start the season huh?! We win our first ever Trophée des Champions at PSG's expense, with our two goals coming from former PSG player Ben Arfa and current PSG player Lo Celso! Lukaku also got the player of the match and Lo Celso ended up winning the best player award for the match as well, so that's an incredible start to our 2018/19 season to say the least. Up next we have Lyon in Ligue 1, and that could be a different story...

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I'll take that. We conceded late on to just get one point from the game but at least we didn't lose and a Rhône derby away from home was never going to be easy. so a point is definitely good enough. We actually controlled most of the game and had the most chances but hey, Lyon were clinical with the one good chance they got and that us lose 2 points, fair enough. We have Nice to play next, before our Champions League group is revealed and well, that's what's been in the back of my mind since this season started...

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Beric has carried his form from last season into this season it seems! 2 goals in 2 games for the Slovenian as we get a 2-0 win against Nice! Ben Arfa scored against his former club and he also continues his great start to the season. At the end of the day, we deserved nothing but a win in this game and it would've been criminal if we had gotten anything else. This start puts us in 4th in the league ahead of our upcoming Ligue 1 fixtures in early September before the international break which is more than good enough to me but we know we'll have to work incredibly hard if we want to even attempt to get Champions League football next season.

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A huge loss for us for the next month will definitely be Lo Celso. He wasn't overly impressive in the two league games we played but did so well against PSG that it definitely makes me sad to see him injured for a month. We have plenty of depth so it's not that big of a deal but we would've needed the quality for the start of the Champions League. Speaking of, here's our group...

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They couldn't have been a little nicer to the first-timers? We get Barcelona, one of the most successful teams in European football's history, Besitkas who are also a very good team and Leipzig, who have been on the rise with their huge finances in the last couple of years. It's clearly going to be a very, VERY hard group to get out of and what I'm at least hoping for is to finish 3rd and move down to the Europa League if we can't get out of the group stages of this competition.

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So there we go, our first Champions League game will be away against Leipzig, in between games against Monaco and Bordeaux. I guess that's how it is when you play in Europe. Intense games all year round. With 6 games all month as well, it's going to be a very tough month but we'll have to do our best and hope that our form doesn't come crashing down. Up next, September!
 
Just a heads up, I've adjusted the rules slightly.
I changed the the transfer rule as I felt it was a little too restrictive on top of the other challenges I have to complete, so the rule now states that I can't permanently sign more than 3 non-Europeans per season, meaning our tally for this summer would be up to 2 non-European signings with Szymonek and Carneiro, with room for one more before the window comes to an end.
This rule was mostly changed because I had the opportunity to make a surprise signing who I think will make this story a lot more entertaining and after all, I'm playing this game to have fun and write an entertaining story as well!

Hope you all understand, September update will come out a bit later than usual as I'm swamped with work for the next couple of days.
 
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September 2018: too predictable...

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After a decent start to the season, we had to face Amiens away and whilst we can away with the win, we also conceded 3 goals. Doing that against one of the weaker teams in the league makes me somewhat worried, especially ahead of our Champions League group stage games. It seems to me that we've become a little too predictable now with the way we play in that 4-2-3-1 system and maybe it's the amount of new signings in the team as well, but I might make some tweaks to the team and hope for some luck.

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For those of you who don't know, there's a "joker" transfer window in France, which allows clubs to make one domestic transfer and that's it. With about €5 million left in the budget and a look through the transfer list for French clubs, I saw an opportunity I just had to take. The Brazilian wonderkid Malcom wanted out in Bordeaux! With our Champions League football, this was the perfect opportunity to go and try to sign him and somehow, Bordeaux agreed to a €5 million up front and €11.5 million over the next 2 years deal! His wage demands were high of course, but it was such a great chance to get a hugely talented youngster in the team and I just had to take it. That takes our tally now to 3 non-Europeans signed this season, which means no new foreign signings for us until next year! Realistically, I should've kept one spot aside for the January transfer window but come on, it's Malcom!

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Our finances were in the red after the Malcom signing and to be honest, Monnet-Paquet only got a new contract because of his performances last season but with a player like Malcom now in the side and Andreas Pereira also here on loan, there was no way he'd get in the team again. We got a decent fee for him considering we could've lost him for free last summer and we've now made a little over €13 million in player sales this season. Our spendings outweigh the sales by €19 million but with our opening budget of €9 million and some objectives and bonus adjustments, our finances are looking good.

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Our first big game of the month was against Bordeaux and we narrowly lost, not deserving to lose at all either. Malcom's first game against Bordeaux won't have been such a happy one but he got a standing ovation when the fans first saw him out on the pitch so I guess it's not too bad. As I said after the Amiens game though, we've become too predictable and we clearly need to change something. I don't know if I want to experience with new tactics for the Leipzig and Monaco games though... I'll see what I can do.

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After all the hard work we put in Bordeaux, I wasn't expecting much away in Leipzig and well, that's the Champions League for you. To be fair, they have a fantastic goalscorer in Timo Werner but they were just too good for us today. Leipzig would've potentially looked at how we did last season as well and maybe looking at game highlights or something, so that didn't help. I think I'm going to make changes for the Monaco game now, we need to otherwise we could start losing constantly and we all know what that kind of stuff can lead to. Our next game is in October against Besiktas, let's hope I find a better system then.

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Well how about that for a response! Our heroics last season got Jardim sacked from Monaco and Dijon's former manager went and took over and if we keep playing like that, we might just get him sacked too! What a performance away from home, 5-1 doesn't really look like a fair scoreline to be fair to them, but we played incredibly well and I'm so happy with the win. This brings us back up to 5th now after a bad result against Bordeaux and we can keep pushing on!

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Wow, okay. I've clearly found a new system that works now. We don't keep possession as much anymore but we're better defensively and we're so quick on the counter-attack and look at us, we're just scoring so many goals! Our former club record signing Diony (who was signed for €10 million before my arrival and sold for just €2 million...) did nothing against us and new signing Pléa did incredibly well, as he's starting to pick up some form in the league. We now move up to 2nd temporarily with a game against Metz next. This could be the start of a great run!

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And another great result! Malcom scores his first 2 goals for us in his 3rd game with the club and what a performance again. We dominated the match and deserved nothing less than a win and to get another clean sheet is great too. Ruffier and the defence did very well and we have some great momentum going into our next match, which is against Beskitas. They won against Barcelona in their first group stage game so they're clearly not a side to mess with. Lukaku getting injured doesn't help either, especially because he'll be out for a month and he's been so crucial to our team so far. Thankfully, we have M'Bengue on the bench and he did win left-back of the year last season so we have a decent backup.

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We sit in 2nd and are clearly doing well in the league. We're 4th in our Champions League group and have to face Besiktas in our first game of the month and Barcelona later on at the Camp Nou as well, so it's going to be a tough one. Marseille, once again, are just playing badly and we have a chance at a decent amount of points overall from the month. Dijon and Ajaccio will clearly be tough games as they're both doing incredibly well so it's going to be an interesting month. Up next then, you guessed it, October results!
 
Good start to the season and Malcom looks like a great signing, Champions League looks like it will be a challenge though
 
ninjaskill said:
Good start to the season and Malcom looks like a great signing, Champions League looks like it will be a challenge though
Click to expand...
Definitely happy with how we're doing domestically, Malcom should help make it even better (also 2nd is probably the best we can do right now...)! I agree with the Champions League, but I can't say I didn't expect it... ****, I wasn't even expecting to be in there for my second season in this story hahaha
 
Enjoying the read so far, I used to like doing Lorient back in the days of Lauren Koscielny
 
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