Reviving sleeping giants: AS Saint-Étienne

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June 2021: season 2020/21 review and random news

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After PSG's reported interest in Lunin, I just had to give him a new contract to make sure he would stay with us! He agreed to stay with us for the next 5 years which is amazing news and it definitely threw PSG off, who are now looking to sign Jan Oblak.

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As if Malcom hadn't seemingly had enough of a great season, the now Frenchman breaks even more records! Our club records for most player of the match awards and assists both were set by Cabella, which should really tell you how good he was when he played for us, but Malcom has just gone and smashed both of those records! With 30 assists this season, he broke the record by 10 assists and just one player of the match award. I'd be surprised if we didn't get bids from Real Madrid, Barcelona, and both Manchester clubs this summer...

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In more "random news", our very own Marcos Llorente got the player of the month award in May with Pierce also coming in 2nd right after coming back from his injury. We have too many ridiculously good midfielders, it's honestly insane...

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Speaking of Pierce, we've given him a new contract after an amazing first season at the club. With Nikolic's arrival later on as well, I think he wanted a confirmation that we were thinking of keeping him at the club in the long-term and that's exactly what we'll be doing.

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Well, Malcom got injured in his second game for France in the 3rd place playoff for the International league which means he'll be coming to the Ligue 1 2020/21 awards ceremony crutches! Thank God the season is over now, because what a loss he would be for us if this was the middle of the season. I've just realised by the way, can you imagine France's front 3 now with Combe and Malcom in their lineup? Wow this makes me want to get Wenger's job off of him even more now.

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First of many (and I mean MANY) awards for us this year is the Star of the Season which goes to Malcom and coincidently, all three nominees were Saint-Étienne players with Salazar coming in 2nd and Llorente coming in 3rd! Again, we've had such a good season that I don't think anyone could really get any awards other than us...

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With Salazar coming in 2nd for Star of the Season, he was bound to win the Most Promising Player award and he did. 14 goals and 12 assists in 33 games for his first season in Europe is pretty incredible, especially at 19 years old and I'm so proud of him for his work at the club this season and can't wait to see how well he'll play next season as well!

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Lunin had a slow start to the season, which saw him lose his startling lineup spot to Scuffet but what a season he ended up having. This is the second year in a row he wins the Star Goalkeeper award and it's very much deserved as well. In 70 games with the club since his arrival last season, he's conceded just 43 goals and kept 44 clean sheets, which is absolutely incredible for a 22-year old. Who knows how well he'll perform next season now!

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Both the Stars Team of the Season and the Ligue 1 Conforama XI of the Season are absolutely filled with Saint-Étienne players, in fact out of 22 players, just 3 aren't players from our club. We've had the best season any French club has ever had in the history of Ligue 1 to be fair so it's only normal that we get this many awards but what pleases me is how well the likes of Salazar, Jonny, Süle and André Gomes do so well in their first season with the club. I can't even imagine how well we'll do next season now!

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These last 2 awards both went to Malcom with him winning the Ligue 1 Conforama Best Player and Ligue 1 Conforama Most Assists of the Competition awards. I literally have no words to describe how good he's been and just can't wait for next season now to see him continue performing this well.

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Llorente, after finishing 3rd in the Star of the Season award, deserved a new contract and got one, as his wage increased by just under €20,000 a week to €100,000 now. We're still not spending anywhere near what PSG and Monaco are spending for their players' wages to be honest but at the same time, we've not got the same kind of financial backing so thank God we're performing this well! Anyways, that's it for the 2020/21 season now, next update will be the first few transfers and pre-season for the 2021/22 season, which could see us complete part 1 of this challenge (which was winning the league 3 years in a row!).
 
Think you need to sign Mbappe then you will almost have a clean sweep!
 
Absolutely storming it! Malcolm is outrageous too! How Brazil never called him up I do not know! The way your regens are playing, No reason why you cant make it 3 out of 3 and have a good crack at the CL! Good luck!
 
Sammuthegreat said:
All getting a bit easy now isn't it...!
Click to expand...

JamesScott2908 said:
Absolutely storming it! Malcolm is outrageous too! How Brazil never called him up I do not know! The way your regens are playing, No reason why you cant make it 3 out of 3 and have a good crack at the CL! Good luck!
Click to expand...
Cheers guys, really appreciate the support. It is getting a little bit easy lol, I really wasn't expecting it. The main challenge is going to be going further than PSG in the Champions League now, which could take a while even if we destroy the league every year!

And yes James, I was thinking the same thing... It literally took Malcom 5 years or something to get the French nationality, throughout which he was performing really well but they never called him up and now plays for France! Pretty weird story...
 
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July 2021: CL preparation pre-season

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With Nikolic's arrival, Fuchs was never going to play any games and I didn't want to keep paying wages for someone who would never play so he's gone for €4.5 million. It's a decent amount for a player like him who's never really shown any huge promise and this also gives us a bit more money to spend as well.

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Promising centre-back Nélson Nunes is our first signing this summer as a backup to Süle, Pavard and Subotic. At 18 years old, we know he can clearly play very well (as we've seen through Salazar, Combe and Pierce) but I think I definitely want the give the big boys some more game time before he becomes a key figure in the side. Who knows, maybe I'll play him during cup competitions!

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After some incredible success in the last few seasons, I'm the one who finally gets a new contract! The wage is not very impressive but I don't care how much I'm getting paid, as long as I can help this club become successful I'm enjoying it!

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Some big games against some big European teams in our pre-season with a nice little trip to Spain to finish off our pre-season and enjoy the hot Spanish summer. We play PSG on the 31st of July in the Trophée des Champions in Thailand so it'll be a long trip and it's nice to be able to get some rest in Spain before we go. Manchester United went all the way to the Champions League final last season after winning it 3 years ago and 2 years ago as well, so they'll be by far the toughest fixture we have in this pre-season. Let's see what this team can do with just 2 arrivals in total!
 
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July 2021: pre-season results

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A great first game in our pre-season as we smash Ružomberok 5-1 away from home and now fly to England to face Manchester United and Liverpool, who will definitely be tougher to beat.

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Wow! What a performance away at Old Trafford! We limited United to just 2 shots in the whole game and got 3 goals against the 3-time consecutive Champions League finalists! A fantastic victory and some great goals from Combe who is already looking like an incredible player and the season hasn't even started! Could this be our year in the Champions League?!

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Another great win away from home! A 3-1 win at Anfield is just as impressive as the Old Trafford game and Malcom this time was the one who came up and put in an incredible performance, but what a performance from the whole team! I can't wait for the Salazar, Malcom and Combe trio to tear it up in France and Europe this season!

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There's nothing better than to win so convincingly in front of your own fans and come away with 4 wins from 4 wins from pre-season so far. Jonny, yet another different player, gets the player of the match as Lenglet scored to get the whole team clearly on a high for our last pre-season game before travelling for Thailand for our big game against PSG.

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Losing Lenglet is a big blow, especially because getting injuries in pre-season is the worst thing that can happen... Thankfully, I hired some new physiotherapists who will get Lenglet back on the pitch in less than 2 weeks. Malcom continues his absolutely ridiculous run of form with us and I can only hope now that he carries it over to this coming season. Here are the fixtures for August below, along with our Trophée des Champions. See you next month for the results update!

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August 2021: a kick in the teeth from one of our best players

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It's been played out on penalties between the two of us in our last few encounters, and despite winning some of those shootouts, it wasn't to be tonight. Congratulations to PSG, who win effectively one of the most worthless trophies ever but congratulations regardless. Jonny getting the player of the match award was nice to see but it's a shame to lose out to our now rivals PSG for a trophy.

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For the second time in our last 3 seasons, we started our campaign with a game against Lyon in the Rhône derby and won 2-0! It was a great victory and Salazar looks like he's going to have an incredible season! Malcom missed a penalty and got injured which could be a bit of an issue, but thankfully our medical team said they can get him back before the end of the month, phew!

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A fantastic victory in our second game of the season which puts us top of the league despite Monaco's insane start to the season! André Gomes was going to be sold during the summer at first, but I decided to keep him considering his amazing performances last season and am I glad I kept him! A perfect start to our Ligue 1 season.

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It was an expected victory for us and Lenglet, who's still playing for us despite numerous offers from Chelsea, Manchester City, Barcelona and PSG over the summer, got the player of the match which is good to see considering how unsettled he must've felt with all these offers during the summer. A 2-0 win means we stay top of the league and keep yet another clean sheet. Our last game of the month is against newly-promoted Nancy but before that, we of course have the Champions League group stage draw!

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Hmmm, so Leverkusen, who effectively knocked us out of the Champions League last season, and Tottenham, who won in the Europa League final against us last season as well! This seems like the perfect time to get revenge and smash the group and go through doesn't it?!

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A very disappointing result for us which sees us drop down to 2nd behind Monaco, but still a very positive start overall. We're yet to concede a goal which is great and we're scoring a couple as well. Malcom gets another injury, but thankfully it's a very short term one and the international break should allow him to rest a little bit. Now then, before we look at the table and next month's fixtures, the moment you've read until here for: who betrayed us and "kicked us in the teeth"?

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Iiiiit's Jonny! The Spanish full-back leaves us after one full season with us, thinking that playing for PSG is better for his career, even though we won the league two years in a row... I tried to convince him to stay, but he said I couldn't do anything to keep him here and he's on his way. Now then, with him gone, we needed a new starting lineup right-back and the question is, who did we go for? I can tell you he was expensive but didn't cost anywhere near our total transfer budget which was now €105 million with Jonny's sale and also that I wanted to go for him before we ended up signing Jonny last season, so it's almost a win-win.

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Achraf! The Moroccan right back joins us from Real Madrid for a staggering €70 million. He was a backup to Carvajal in the Real Madrid lineup and when I compared him to Jonny, seemed basically as good as him but 5 years younger! In addition, my scouts seemed to say that he would definitely be a good signing so we went for him and there we go, we've got our right-back for the next couple of years settled!

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A big, BIG month for us in September. The two Champions League group stage games that we've been looking forward to since the draw, as well as a league game against PSG and more games against Rennes, Lille and Bordeaux. It's most likely that our run of not conceding any goals will come to an end against PSG but we can be hopeful and look forward to a great contest regardless. I'm also looking forward to seeing how Achraf will perform in his first few games with us. First though, the international break with Spain!
 
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September 2021: momentum is on our side!

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Bartra, despite being dropped initially, had to be brought back in the squad after an injury to one of our centre-backs. Not much to say about the team selection other than that to be honest, it's a strong team and I'm fully expecting some good performances against Azerbaijan and Ireland in our group.

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Yes! Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. From 38 shots, I really do feel we should've won like 10-0 or something but fair play to Azerbaijan's defence and goalkeeper, they only suffered 4 goals which is quite impressive. We move on to Ireland now as we're going to need a good performance against them to catch up with Scotland who are top of the group right now, with 4 wins and a draw (against us). We do have a game in hand so I'm confident we'll finish top of the group for the World Cup qualifiers.

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Well then, this game was almost easier than the Azerbaijan one! A 2-0 win against Ireland is once again a good result but considering we had a staggering 33 shots, we could've and should've won by more. Nevertheless, with a game in hand, we can overtake Scotland at the top of the group if we win it and it would be a great way to approach the last few games of the qualifiers and qualify for the 2022 World Cup!

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Coincidently, our next two games are against Montenegro and Scotland, the two teams we struggled against when we played them a couple of months back. It's definitely time for revenge and I'm determined to get it and smash this group and finish top!
 
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September 2021: revenge is a dish best served cold

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Disappointing to concede 3 goals, but very satisfied to be winning the game regardless. Malcom is carrying over his form from last season into this season, which will be much needed as PSG and Monaco seem to be playing a lot better than they were last season.

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A huge win in the Champions League for us, and it really seems like we'll walk our group for the first time since we first qualified for the Champions League a couple years back. Nikolic had to come out injured and the medical report isn't looking good at all, with the 19-year old out for 3 months... He was huge for us in this start of the season and to be without him now will be a big blow. Thankfully, we do have Pierce who can come in and do a job. Combe is also becoming one of the best strikers in the world as he continues his great form so far this season. With Tottenham winning 4-0 against Poznan in their first game, we're tied at the top of the group with our next game coming up against them. Should be an interesting one!

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A very disappointing defeat, especially at home. I feel like we should've gotten at least a draw from this game but PSG are just such a strong team, it was always going to be hard. Jonny will savour tonight for sure as he got a win against his former side but let's hope we'll recover and get some easy wins in our next few games to defend our title.

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Another goal conceded but a fantastic victory. Combe continues his great form as we get this 5-1 win away from home and keep the pressure on PSG and Monaco to not slip up and stay at the top of the table. Up next is Lille, before we face Tottenham to end the month, hopefully, on a good note.

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With PSG drawing their last game, we climb above them and go top of the league waiting on Monaco to play their game in hand against Dijon. We'll probably drop back down to 2nd but it's a great response from the lads after the PSG defeat and good to see us back very close to the top of the league again. Lille were in 6th and had a pretty decent season so far but were no match for Salazar, who continues to improve and become a very impressive player.

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Speaking of Salazar, his wage was tripled with this new contract after such an incredible season last season and such a good start to this season as well. This contract will keep him with us for the next 5 years as well, provided he doesn't leave before then, which is just fantastic news.

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A great way to end the month and as the title says, "revenge is a dish best served cold". Both the teams who really messed up our season last year were destroyed by us this year, and this win also puts us in a fantastic position to qualify top of our group, with our next 2 games in the group against Poznan who shouldn't cause us any problems... Having said that, they did draw against Leverkusen 0-0 in their last game but we also smashed Leverkusen 4-0, so that doesn't say much.

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We've had a great start to the Ligue 1 campaign, sitting just behind Monaco who are top, and a great start to the Champions League as well, already 5 points clear of 3rd place. Next month starts off against fellow Champions League competitors Toulouse, who have also had a decent start to the season, before we go away for the international break and come back to face Nice in 11th, Poznań in the CL, Montpellier in 16th and Dijon at the bottom of the league. Let's just say this month is ours for the taking and we could go back to the top of the league if everything goes to plan.
 
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October 2021: en route to Australia for WC 2022?

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Thiago and Munian were left out of the squad due to their poor performances in previous international games and anyways I wanted to give some other players some playing time. Thiago being on the transfer list at Bayern didn't help his case either. Ramos' experience will be crucial as the next 2 games, mostly the one against Scotland, will basically decide if we make it directly to the World Cup by finishing 1st in our group or not.

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It seems like this team has finally learned to play together as 6 or 7 months ago, we were only winning against Montenegro 1-0. There we are now putting 6 past them! Incredible result for us which gives us a lot of positive momentum to go into this game against Scotland.

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A fantastic victory which sees us go top of the group now! Scotland had a great run but we definitely deserve to finish top of the group and go on to the World Cup without any further hassle. Koke is definitely becoming a key player in this side despite his age, same with Azpilicueta and I have a feeling that experience will be key for us at the 2022 World Cup in Australia next summer.

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With 2 games left to play and a game in hand over Scotland, who will play Ireland in their last game, we're in a great position to finish 1st in the group. One good result against Azerbaijan in our next game will see us qualify for the WC, which is what was expected of this team so thank God we're achieving that easily...
 
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October 2021: a very close title race!

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After an impressive month, Malcom just continues his amazing form! He's only 24, so if he decides to stay with us for the next few years to come I can't even imagine the amount of player of the month awards he'll have! Salazar is also looking really good and has actually been one of our best players this season along his 2 teammates up front in Malcom and Combe.

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This was the game we played just before the international break and it was a great one, with Combe scoring another 2 goals and Pierce getting the man of the match in Nikolic's absence. This is what I wanted to see from this team, some quality depth so that if, sorry let me rephrase, WHEN we get injuries, because we will, some quality players can come in and replace them.

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Süle's wage from his previous contract stays the exact same but he has his contract extended! It's clearly a good sign when a player is okay to sign a new deal even if it means not increasing his wage. Niklas arrived at the club last year and was so good he even got a spot in the FIFA Team of the Year, so clearly he's doing something right and I'm glad to be able to keep him at the club for a little bit longer.

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And another headline which announces Combe sending us top of the league! Of course, that's only temporary as Monaco have a game in hand but what a start to the season he's having! Winning 4-1 against Nice is a great result and we continue our fantastic form to keep putting the pressure on Monaco in 1st place.

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I think it's fair to say we'll be winning our Champions League group! After so many seasons of struggle in the Champions League, it's absolutely amazing to see us performing so well and basically almost qualify for the next round! Our next game will be away against Poznań and if we play as well as we played tonight, we'll definitely be going through. Salazar will be out injured which is a big BIG blow, but Bembo-Leta is on the bench eager to show me how good he is and he should be able to do well in Johan's absence!

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And yet another great win as Malcom scores twice to give us the 3 points away in Montpellier. Once again, we played before Monaco so we go top but I have a feeling the side from the south of France will go on and win their game in hand and overtake us again. What a title race this is going to be!

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Another game which sees us "go top of Ligue 1" once again. A 4-1 win against the bottom of the league is great and Pierce, once again, performs really well. Monaco will definitely overtake us again, PSG stay close. For our third league title in a row, this is going to be one **** of a title defence and we'll feel very proud if we end up winning it.

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Salazar got a new contract last month, Süle got one earlier this month, and now it's Bembo-Leta's turn, who's asked for one as a result of his good performances in Salazar's absence. When he's played, Yves has definitely been really good and I can see him becoming as good as Salazar if he gets as much playing time soon enough and it would be great to see.

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With our next game on the calendar being the Poznań game away from home, we should be able to secure qualification for the next round with that game, and if not with the Leverkusen game. Strasbourg, Metz and Angers will be interesting games, during which we'll have to stay focus to keep our lead as yes, Monaco have dropped points against Ajaccio! It's pretty incredible and it actually now gives us a 2-point lead in the league! Lyon and Marseille are still struggling in the bottom half of the table after over 10 games as well, which is pretty insane.
 
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November 2021: Australia here we come!

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Somewhat controversial decisions to not include Sergi Roberto and Diego Costa and replace Roberto with Aleñá but I'm confident this is the team that can get us to officially qualify for the 2022 World Cup!

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Well, we've done it! We will be going to the World Cup in Australia next summer after winning our group thanks to an easy win against Azerbaijan, which we should've probably won 20-0! Look at that, 42 shots to 0! Pretty ridiculous stuff but it's a great win which sees us officially qualify for the 2022 World Cup. It's definitely nothing less than what we expected but it's nice to see the news being official.

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A very disappointing result to end our Qualifiers group stage campaign but we win the group and go through to the World Cup group stages so it doesn't really matter at this point. The draw for said group stage will be in early December which is very exciting and I can't wait to see who we'll be up against!

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In the end, it's not as much of a thrashing as I thought it would be, but we win the group by 3 points which is what we wanted anyway. Not losing a single game was expected and we did just that as well. It's now up to the men responsible for the World Cup draw to see how we'll do then.
 
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November 2021: unbeaten in the CL?

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Combe and Malcom's amazing forms continue as the former Brazilian winger gets player of the month for October, his second award in a row, ahead of PSG's Pulisic. We've been in great form in the league lately and definitely deserve to be getting as many awards as we have.

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What a disappointing result but what a great result at the same time! Even before our game against Leverkusen, we have qualified for the next round! Whether we finish top of the group or 2nd now is up to us, and we'll need good results against both Leverkusen and Tottenham for that 1st place to happen. Despite the disappointing result on the night, I'm very happy with our Champions League campaign so far.

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Our defence has been a lot worse this season than it was last season and it's continuing to show. Another goal conceded against Strasbourg is disappointing but the fact that our attack is so effective makes it even in the end. A 4-1 win away from home is always a great result regardless of the opponent, and this keeps up ahead of Monaco in the league as a result.

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Our first cup game of the season will be against Nancy and the last time we faced them, it was in the league and we drew 0-0. They're in 14th in the league and based on our previous game against them, can definitely surprise us so we'll need to be at 100% if we want to play well. The board doesn't consider the Coupe de la Ligue important anymore and wants us to focus on the Coupe de France but still, we want to do well in all our competitions.

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Metz aren't one of the best sides in the league and it showed here. With 8 wins in a row in the league, we continue our title defence in first place after the PSG slip up earlier this season, with André Gomes scoring his first few league goals of the season.

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Combe with another great performance, our first goal conceded in the CL this season and Salazar getting injured for another month right after coming back from his previous injury. More negatives than positives to take away from this game but at least we're more likely to finish top of our group now.

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We drop 2 points against Angers who, to be fair, have had a great season so far. Llorente is out injured for about 2 weeks which is a bit of an issue but he's been playing less and less lately and I am actually considering selling him during the January transfer window if he comes to me and complains, purely because I have Nikolic and Pierce who are coming up and playing really well this season. Monaco will be level with us if or when they win their game in hand, which will make for an even tighter title race especially because our first game of the month in December is against Monaco.

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A nice 4-1 win at home to end the month on a high note. We completely dominated and absolutely deserved the 3 points in the end, which keeps up ahead of Monaco, who we're playing next.

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A Saint-Étienne trio nominated for the player of the month, with André Gomes just barely stealing it in the end. Bembo-Leta has had to play a lot in Salazar's absence and has clearly been playing really well as a result! It's nice to see that our backup winger is playing so well and hopefully he can carry that form on in the latter stages of the season.

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With a game in hand, Monaco are 3 points behind us but play at home against us in their next game. That will by far be our toughest game of the month although the Tottenham CL game in London could be tough too, as they'll be looking for a win to overtake Leverkusen. We're guaranteed to win our group and hopefully we can do so without a loss! The Marseille, Troyes and Guingamp games will all be interesting too but I believe we can win those quite easily if we play well.
 
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December 2021: CL First Knockout Round draw and WC group stage draw

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The group stage draw is looking an exciting one as we're set to play against Bosnia, Chile and Japan in our group! The group of death this time is probably Group G with Egypt (Mo Salah mostly), England and Germany in the same group. I have to say though, overall, there aren't that many incredible groups. Group H with the holders France is probably the best group in terms of all-round quality so that might be a tough one!

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Oh yes! A fantastic victory for us against one of the best teams in the league this season as we win 3-1 away from home and increase our lead! Are we seriously on our way to 3 consecutive league titles?! Pierce had to come out injured unfortunately, but we will be okay with André Gomes commanding the midfield like he has been lately.

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Our first game of 2022 will be against 4th division side Grenoble, which should be a very, very easy win and I'll definitely be looking to put out a weaker team to give those backup players some playing time.

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A terrible defeat to finish off our Champions League group stage campaign, but I probably put out our weakest team against Spurs tonight. The Barcelona screenshot is there because I've never, ever seen a result like that in club football, even in international football! A 14-0 win for Barcelona obviously was enough to get them to go through, but only second behind Lyon! We'll be facing Zenit in the next round, which I have to say could be a blessing in disguise. They're a good team, obviously, but I definitely think we're better and we could get a great victory to go through to the quarter-finals!

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We keep conceding goals but we keep winning so I don't think I really care! With Salazar still out injured, Bembo-Leta was starting once again and what a performance he put in! A 4-2 win sees us continue our good form and increase that lead we already have at the top of the table and will definitely be a huge step towards a great end to 2021.

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Bagayoko, who's not had much playing time because of Malcom's ridiculous form, but he's a very promising talent who's come straight from the academy and it's great to see him extend his contract at the club!

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This game definitely wasn't as close as I thought it would be, but this puts us in the Coupe de la Ligue quarter-finals which we'll play early in 2022 against Monaco! After just beating them in the league, they'll definitely be looking for some revenge and it could be a very tough game, but we have a short break after this cup game so trust me, we'll also be going all out.

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This Guingamp win is a huge one and Malcom once again performed incredibly well. We did lose Maia, who'll be out for 2-3 weeks, but thankfully we have our winter break now which means he won't miss too many games. Combe has been the best he's ever been this season and is the second top goalscorer in the league I believe behind Mbappé, so not too bad for an 18-year old!

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Not a bad way to end the year on a clean sheet and a win, with Salazar coming back from his injury and scoring the winning goal late in the 2nd half as well! We've been fantastic this first half of the season and I'm very happy with our start in the league, Champions League and domestic cups as well!

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Marseille and Lyon have been absolutely abysmal this season and I hope for their sake that they can better, for the sake of having some competition in the league! To think Lyon finished 3rd last season and now find themselves in 18th is absolutely crazy, and they're going to need all the help they can get to finish higher up the table. We have our two cup games early on before having to face Nancy (15th), Reims (5th), Bordeaux (4th) and PSG (3rd). Overall, it's a very tough month with just one game against a bottom-half team and the other 3 against teams in the top 5, so we'll need to be at our best on our return from our winter break to win all these games!
 
Going very well in the league and CL! Should be a relatively easy group for Spain in the WC too!! Could you put a screen shot up of Facundo Ferrerya too, Noticed he was 3rd in player of the month, Played for Newcastle 15/16 season and never made an appearance!
 
JamesScott2908 said:
Going very well in the league and CL! Should be a relatively easy group for Spain in the WC too!! Could you put a screen shot up of Facundo Ferrerya too, Noticed he was 3rd in player of the month, Played for Newcastle 15/16 season and never made an appearance!
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Definitely going well, I just had a really long flight as well and managed to get through the whole second half of the season so lots of updates coming in the next day or so! Here's his stats:

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January 2022: Combe for Ballon D'Or please!

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Awards galore to start this update off, with Ronaldo and Messi's reign in the Ballon D'Or finally over! Neymar won it a couple years back but it's his PSG teammate who wins it this time and fair play to him, he's been pretty incredible. Hazard wins Footballer of the Year yet again with De Bruyne and Mbappé on the podium. De Gea continues his reign as the best goalkeeper in the world and our only player in the team of the year this year is Süle, just like last season. You'd think after the season Malcom had last year, he's have a spot in there but apparently he wasn't good enough compared to Ronaldo and Suárez... Combe wins the Golden Boy award for the second year in a row, with the next individual award on his radar surely the Ballon D'Or now! Salazar wins Foreign Player of the Year in Ligue 1 as well, which really is a testament to his development at the club and despite a couple of injuries this season already, I can only hope he'll keep growing! Touré also gets a shout out with the African Defender of the year ahead of PSG's Eric Bailly and Manchester United's Kalidou Koulibaly.

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Scuffet has been our backup goalkeeper ever since Lunin's arrival and he's played well when he's been called upon to be fair, which is why he's been given a new contract! It's nice to have a goalkeeper who doesn't mind being a backup goalkeeper and knows it would be hard for him to get in the starting 11. He hardly complains and it's great to extent the contract of such a professional man.

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Our first game of 2022 was an easy win against Grenobles, as expected, which allowed me to field a bit of a weaker team and let some of the more senior players enjoy themselves. Maia for example got a rare goal and Combe scored yet again this season. At this rate, he'll smash the most goals in a season club record we have! (36 goals in 2017/18 from Beric). We'll play Troyes in the next round, which should just like this game be a walk in the park.

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Incredible stuff! We've not only knocked out one of the best teams in the competition and given ourselves a huge chance of winning the whole thing but we smashed them! Süle, who actually scores quite often for a centre-back, joined in on the party by scoring the first goal of the game and Salazar and Malcom completed the rout. What a game this was! We'll face Dijon in the semi-final, which no disrespect intended basically gives us a place in the final for the 3rd year in a row. We won last season on penalties against PSG in the final and we'll have to wait and see who we do face in the final if we get there but it should be a great opportunity for some silverware this season.

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As we're now really looking to compete in the Champions League, I really wanted to get a better backup left-back than Brad Smith. The Australian has been incredible for us to be fair to him, but he's not got enough quality anymore to really smash it in the Champions League and with Lenglet quite often out injured or suspended, we need someone who can come in and do a great job at left-back. Gayà, who's been playing at Manchester City for the last couple years, is a great fit and will come in on a free in the summer.

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That was a lot closer than I would've wanted and that wasn't helped by Maia's red card inside the first 25 minutes. Thankfully, we do have the quality to win with 10 men against a team like Nancy and Nikolic was the one who came out on top and scored us the winner a couple minutes after our red card. Great stuff from the youngster who we signed on a free last summer and I hope we can see him develop even more with us in the next couple of years!

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Reims have been incredible this year and I was worried about this game but we smashed them and continue our amazing run at the top of the league. Matuidi, who wanted some game time, was excellent today and even though we won't be renewing his contract at the end of the season, he's giving it all and it's good to see. Combe continues his great form as well as he is in a very intense race with Kylian Mbappé for top goalscorer in Ligue 1 and I have to say, for a 20-year old, is doing very well! Lenglet being out injured for a month is a bit of an issue but at least Smith will get some game time to impress me and potentially drive his value up as well.

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Nikolic has been amazing all season which is why he deserved a new contract and got it. For €30,000 a week, I have to say it's an absolute bargain and I'm so happy he's playing so well despite his young age.

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Bordeaux, just like Reims, were one of the teams who have been overperforming this season and who I was a bit worried about but we get a 1-0 win thanks to Henri Combe, who was the sole goalscorer for us tonight. A great result which keeps us well in the lead at the top of the table.

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Another tight win for us, thanks to Combe who scored the only goal of the game AGAIN but would you look at that! No PSG anywhere in the final as Lyon actually knocked them out in the semi-final which means it'll be a Rhöne derby in the final of the Coupe de la Ligue! Considering their horrendous form, I have to say it looks like an easy game, but it'll probably be very tough since Lyon will want silverware.

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Our last game of the month was a big test against PSG and we've beaten them! They beat us 2-0 earlier this season at our ground even though we didn't deserve to lose the game, and we've just gone and done the same thing to them! Combe is honestly the greatest player I think I've ever seen, as he once again scores all of our goals and we get a 2-1 win away from home, increasing our lead at the top of the league and now making it 9 wins in a row in the league!

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I think it's fair to say we've had a pretty incredible month and to be rewarded for that, here we are 1st in Ligue 1 10 points clear, on our way to a 3rd consecutive Ligue 1 title. What a title defence this has been! It's going to be a very intense second half of the season for sure and next month looks pretty good for us, with games against 17th place Rennes, 10th place Lille, 12th place Toulouse and 9th place Nice. It's a couple of games against some teams who could definitely do well against us but at the same time clearly haven't been that amazing throughout the season, so let's see. We also have our Coupe de France 10th round and the first leg of our Champions League First Knockout round against Zenit, which should be very exciting.
 
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February 2022: invincible?

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On transfer deadline day, we did decide to go for Lucas Hernandez who's current deal with Atletico was running out at the end of the season. With Nelson Nunes already one of our backup options at centre-back, we also needed a more established backup as well. Subotic is retiring at the end of the season so the Frenchman by the name of Lucas is a perfect replacement, and he'll also come in on a free to be one of our backup centre-backs!

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In another tight affair, we managed to score the winning goal in the second half to win our 10th round Coupe de France game and go through to play against Montpellier, which should be an interesting game. We play them in the league just before this game in the cup, so it could be a very interesting 2 games. Smith is playing well replacing Lenglet at left-back which is nice to see considering I'm planning on selling him at the end of the season and this will be a good way to increase his value.

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This season it's either we score a lot of goals and concede, or we don't score many and don't concede! Another 3 points on the board for us with Salazar this time giving us the only goal of the game as we get another win and continue our incredible title defence. Backup right-back Touré played in this game to rest Achraf for some more important games coming up and he did very well.

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Another 1-0 victory, this time against Lille and another goal from Combe. His race with Mbappé is definitely getting tighter and tighter, as the top goalscorer in the league is currently changing basically every other week at this rate! Another 3 easy points and we move on to the next game!

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After getting 11 wins in a row in the league, we're finally frustrated by Toulouse who decided to turn up today and look who ended up scoring their second equaliser, it's our former hot prospect Bamba! A bit annoying to concede that equaliser to him but a point is better than nothing and we stay in 1st place, by quite a margin.

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Poor Nice were the ones who had to take our frustration from the Toulouse game right in the face as we smashed them 6-0 at their own stadium and actually qualified for next season's Champions League as a result! We're only in mid-February and have already secured a top 4 finish in the league, what a season! Due to our many instalments we still owe some clubs, our budget once again is quite low at just €37 million but there are a couple of players who are definitely leaving in the summer which will help us increase those funds.

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I said it in the Europa League last season, starting a tie away from home has always helped us and it did once again tonight! A 3-1 win in Russia is a huge result for us as we'll be going back home to play the second with 2 away goals to spare and honestly, I don't see the Russian side coming back from such a bad result for them.

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Well, I said it would be interesting to play Montpellier back to back in the league and the cup and I guess they're going to have some built-up anger in our cup game! We smash them 5-0 at Le Chaudron to continue our ridiculous form and that actually makes it 11 goals scored in the last 2 league games we've had.... Just ridiculous.

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Monaco have dropped a couple of points meaning PSG are now second, and our dropped points against Toulouse now mean we're "just" 9 points clear at the top of the league. Montpellier went all the way down to 18th after that battering and we continue our title defence, just strolling through everyone to an eventual 3rd league title in a row at this rate! Montpellier is our first game in March in the Coupe de France, a win in that game wold put us in the Coupe de France quarter-final which is still way off the expectation set by the board to win the whole thing, so let's hope we do that. We also have games against bottom of the league Dijon, 17th place Metz and 6th place Strasbourg, so a nice contrast of easy and tougher games in the league in March. Finally, our second leg First Knockout round game against Zenit, which if we win will put us in the Champions League quarter-finals! We've not done better than that in the CL since we got knocked out by Barcelona in the quarter-finals 2 years ago, but I'm determined for us to go further this season, it just feels like our year!
 
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