Reviving sleeping giants: AS Saint-Étienne

[Linecoigne1998]

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March 2022: defence is the best attack

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Well, we battered them once again. It wasn't as bad for them as the 5-0 in the league but we're through to the quarter-finals, quite easily, where we'll face Reims. The last time we played them, it was away from home in the league and we won 4-1. At home, I really think we'll be able to beat them easily to be honest.

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Dijon's campaign at the bottom of the league isn't getting any better and despite playing with one more man for 40 minutes, they couldn't do anything against us as we smash them 4-0. Salazar gets yet another injury (it's really not his season this year....) but thankfully Bembo-Leta has really turned up when he's been called upon and it's amazing to see. Combe continues to score whenever he wants and those 2 goals could really be important in the race for Ligue 1 top goalscorer.

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This was supposed to be our toughest game this month but it turns out it wasn't any harder than the Dijon game! Strasbourg didn't have a single shot all game as Nikolic came up clutch and scored half of our goals tonight. Combe scored yet again and we just continue our little stroll at the top of the league.

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I mean wow, look at that for a result! I knew Zenit would struggle against us at home but I wasn't expect that! A 6-0 win gives us a 9-1 win on aggregate as we go through to the Champions League quarter-finals for the 2nd time in 3 years where we'll face Arsenal. It's a very interesting team to face to be honest, as I didn't think of them as one of the best teams in the competition but they definitely have some good players to be wary of. Having the first leg at home could be a bit annoying for us as we've done so well when we started away from home, but we'll have to wait until after the Coupe de la Ligue final to find out if this season really is our season in Europe.

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ANOTHER easy win as we grab 3 goals and concede 0, with Lenglet now back in the team and getting the player of the match award quite comfortably. That's now 5 league games in a row without conceding and getting us all 15 points possible, really making the saying "defence is the best attack" seem true now.

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Pierce has been playing regularly this season and has been incredible and I have to say, he definitely deserved this new contract. I've also been training him to be able to play as a defensive midfielder should Thiago Maia want to leave for example, and he's played very well there when he has.

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I don't know why, but I have a feeling that one of our better youngsters is going to want to leave in the summer which is why we used up most of our budget to sign Ypenburg. He was being scouted by the likes of PSG, Manchester United, Barcelona and some other big clubs which clearly meant he was very good and stats wise, he was tearing it up in the Eredivisie so when I saw he had a release clause of just over €30 million, I jumped at the chance to sign him and he'll now be joining us on the 1st of July 2022. Very exciting times to be a Saint-Étienne fan!

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Our last game of the month was against Reims and as expected, we smashed them and go through to the Coupe de France semi-final! The draw hasn't taken place yet so I'm not sure who we'll face but I have a feeling the French FA is going to do something to get us and PSG to play against each other for a more entertaining semi-final. For our sake, I hope we don't play them now and wait till the final if we get there but we'll have to wait and see I guess!

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Nikolic has been incredible all season and he now gets some recognition with the player of the month award. Lenglet comes in second, which is great to see after some injury problems he had earlier this year and it's yet another award for the club. Great stuff!

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Ever since we got our first place back in late 2021, we've been impeccable and this month was no different. Whether it was in the league or the domestic cups, we didn't concede a single goal and absolutely smashed it. We're now 11 points clear of PSG at the top of the league with just 6 games left, 3 of them next month against teams in the top half, one of them being Monaco. Considering how easily we beat Monaco in the last couple games, I expect us to get a win again then and really set up for the title for May, maybe even this month if PSG mess up! We also have our Champions League quarter-final tie though against Arsenal which will be tough and of course, the Coupe de la Ligue final against our arch rivals Lyon! Should be a fantastic month (or could be a disaster if we lose in the CL, Coupe de la Ligue final, lose points in the league and lose in the Coupe de France semi-final....)!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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April 2022: Saint-Étienne history month

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How about that for a cup final! Well, I say that not because it was a really tight game or anything, but because what a game it was for us! A 4-1 win against our biggest rivals to win the Coupe de la Ligue for the second year in a row is just incredible, and our era of domestic domination really is just starting now.

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Hmmmmm am I reading this right?! Did we just win against Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-final?! Did we just win 4-0 on top of that?! That is absolutely incredible! We'll be going to London is a little under a week now to play the second leg with a 4 GOAL advantage. I can't believe my eyes. Salazar was incredible, Pavard scored a rare goal, so did Süle and Malcom, of course, had to get in on it as well. What a result this is!

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I kind of called it but there it is. As if April couldn't be any tougher for us, we'll have to play PSG in the Coupe de France semi-final. The board's expectation is that we win the whole thing so let's hope for a better result than the last time PSG came to our stadium Geoffroy-Guichard and won 2-0.

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We've now got 6 league wins in a row and haven't conceded since the 19th of February 2022 when we played Nice and won 6-0. What an insane run we're on, most likely because the players know now that if we keep winning our games, we'll be the Ligue 1 champions once again! André Gomes, who hasn't performed as well as last year so far, scored the only goal of the game to give us the win which is awesome and we carry on. Salazar getting injured is bad though, as our hero from the CL quarter-final won't be able to play for 2-3 weeks...

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We're through to the semi-finals!!! A 3-1 win in London makes it 7-1 to us on aggregate and we go through to the next round! The team, the board, the fans and I were all incredibly happy to have gone through and felt so proud until we saw who we were facing next. Manchester United... They've been in the Champions League final for the last 3 years and won twice, so let's just say this is the toughest opponents we could've been drawn against. The other semi-final is Chelsea against PSG, meaning that in order to complete at least one part of the "finishing further than any other French team in Europe" challenge we need to go through to the final and we need PSG to lose. This is going to be very, very tough. Oh and as if April couldn't get any tougher as well, we'll be playing Manchester United away from home just after Monaco... The good thing is that the PSG Coupe de France semi-final has now been moved to mid-May.

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We played with 10 men for over 70 minutes but got the win anyway. Pierce, who's become a crucial part of the team, is now out for 3-4 weeks meaning we'll have to play without him for the Champions League semi-final tie, which is a huge blow. A 4-0 win against Ajaccio is a great result though and we now have to play against Monaco before we travel to Manchester for said semi-final.

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CHALLENGE COMPLETED!!! We complete the "Les Verts back on top" challenge after about 5 seasons in charge of Saint-Étienne, which I never ever thought we'd be able to do! What an incredible season this has been and to win the title at home against Monaco of all teams makes it so much better. We can now focus on the Champions League and Coupe de France 100% and make sure we give it our best there. We're also closer and closer to becoming the most successful French team in football history now, with 13 league titles and even more cup titles as well. What a season, what a story this has been and now onto the next "achievement" related challenge, "A new French powerhouse in Europe" which requires us to finish further than any other French side in Europe for 3 seasons in a row.

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In our Ligue 1 title winning excitement, we went to Manchester full of confidence and look at that! Another incredible European away result! We somehow win 4-1 at Old Trafford which now means that for the second leg in May, we go back home with a 3-away goal advantage. Can we make it to the Champions League final for the second time in the club's history and the first time in 46 years???

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We finally concede after 8 games without conceding, actually taking Lunin from way down in the "clean sheets" ranking in Ligue 1 to third! A 3-1 win against Marseille at the Vélodrome is always great to bring back home and today was no different. A fantastic result which doesn't actually impact us at all anymore since we've won the league already!

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With just 2 games left in the league, we won't be able to break our record-breaking 107 points from last season but can make it to 105 points if we win both our remaining games, which would be great. We have our Champions League semi-final second to play against Manchester United at home before 2 tough games against Reims and Lyon and of course, the Coupe de France semi-final as well against PSG on the 11th. Again, this is going to be a tough month!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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May 2022: the English teams slayer

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Unbelievable! We've not only come back home and not conceded a goal but we also scored 2 meaning we win 2-0 on the night and 6-1 on aggregate! 9-1, 7-1, 6-1. Those have been our aggregate scorelines for the last 3 rounds in the Champions League. Absolutely incredible. Combe continues to perform, whether it's in the CL, the league or domestic cups and now definitely has a shout for best player in the Champions League after the final. Speaking of the final, we'll be playing against Chelsea who beat PSG in their semi-final! That means for one year now we've finished further than any other French club in Europe, so we need to do that for 2 more seasons now and then the story will be complete!

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Another 1-0 win but who cares! We've won the league already and this was an opportunity for some backup players to get a run out and Reims did make it hard for us to get all 3 points but we did it in the 92nd minute, thanks to Bembo-Leta.

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Okay now THAT'S what I'm talking about! We already have a domestic double, can we make it a treble now?! We're playing Nantes in the final who are 1st in Ligue 2 and will be promoted for next season so it could be a very easy final but let's not get complacent. How about that semi-final though seriously! 4-1 against PSG?! Absolutely incredible stuff especially from Bembo-Leta who scored a hat-trick and deservedly won the player of the match award. Our last league game of the season is against Lyon and I'm definitely fielding the youngsters in that one. It's a derby yes, but we've won the league by a mile and also already beat Lyon when it mattered in the league and Coupe de la Ligue, so I don't really care if we lose.

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Pavard gets a new contract after an amazing season and you know what, his wage is now quite high but I believe our net spend on salary per year now is just over €100 million, so still basically way behind Monaco who are spending twice as much, and PSG who are spending 3 and a half times as much!

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Definitely a disappointing way to end the season with a defeat against our rivals but as I said, the youngsters were playing and the result didn't matter. It's just a way to end the season well with all the youngsters being able to play together! We'll see Lyon next season in Ligue 1 again, which is something that might not have happened if they hadn't pulled it together in the last couple games, and we'll show them who the better Rhône side is then.

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So here's the final league table. We say goodbye to Montpellier and Dijon, who definitely didn't have the best of seasons and we could potentially say goodbye to Rennes as well if they lose their relegation playoff. Lyon finish in 15th, which is the lowest I think I've ever seen them finish, while we finish 1st, 8 points clear of PSG. Monaco struggled in the later stages of the season and finish 10 points behind PSG whilst Bordeaux grab the last remaining CL spot, definitely a surprise (much like last year with Toulouse). Lille, Strasbourg and Reims will go to the Europa League which is probably the most random French teams to play in Europe ever. By the way, I don't know if anyone had noticed, but last season we also won the title after a 2-0 win against Monaco at home! How random is that? Anyways, the domestic season isn't over yet with a Coupe de France final against Nantes now and then the biggest match in this club's history and probably any of these players' careers, the Champions League final.

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Ohhhh YES!!! Another domestic treble, the second one since, well, last season and what a year it's been! Records broken as well with most wins in a row in the Coupe de France and most assists for Malcom. We 100% deserved to win the whole thing after knocking out both Monaco and PSG very convincingly as we get yet another trophy, taking the club's total to 26 now, which I believe still keeps us in 3rd in the most successful French clubs rankings behind Marseille and PSG.

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As if we didn't already have enough good news, we got even more as Bembo-Leta agreed to a new contract keeping him at the club for another 4 years, which is absolutely amazing. He mostly comes off the bench during games to play but this season, he's had to cover for Salazar really often and never disappointed when he played. He's one **** of a player and I can't wait to see him grow more and more as the years go by. Now then, to the Champions League final!

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Um hello?!?! Is this real life?! Have we seriously just completed a quadruple and won the UEFA Champions League?! OMG! Two quick-fire goals from Pavard and Combe, firstly put them in the club legends for sure, but also gave us a 2-0 lead just 3 minutes into the game which in the end was enough for us to clinch the title, the biggest title of them all (apart from the World Cup probably) and gives us the title of English teams slayer as well as we knocked out Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea to win the whole thing. This has been a historic season to say the least and to end it on a Champions League trophy win is the most ridiculous and crazy way it could have ended but we've done it. Against all odds, here we are, Champions of Europe.

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Best goalkeeper in Europe, best defender in Europe, best midfielder in Europe, best striker in Europe. I think that sums up our season! Combe gets 3rd in the Golden Boot race as well after a 19 goal contribution in 13 games and 6 of our players appear in the Champions League Dream Team. I honestly still cannot believe we've just won the Champions League. This now also means that expectations of us from the board and the fans are going to be gigantic, so we better not disappoint next season!

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Nikolic gets the signing of the season award, deservedly so, after coming in on a free. Combe gets the young player of the season and fan's player of the season as well, which again is not surprising after a ridiculous year from him which saw him actually destroy the previous most goals in a season record we had! He played a total of 61 games last season (as a 20-year old mind you) and scored 46 goals, whilst also making 24 assists which gives him a 70-goal contribution in 61 games. Mad. Malcom deserves a shout out as well with a 55 goal contribution (26 goals, 29 assists) in 60 games, earning him the "club legend" status as well. Absolutely incredible. What a season. Let's just end our club season now with the season overview screenshot and the Ligue 1 awards.

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I would go through every single award individually, but I think you get the gist of how they went. That last one probably showcases how incredible of a team we have here. Oh and if you thought we were going to go on to next season now, wait a second because we have the World Cup with Spain coming up!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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FIFA World Cup 2022

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Probably unsurprisingly considering his lack of appearances for Saint-Étienne this season, I dropped Llorente from the preliminary squad, as well as Mata and Mayoral. Mayoral has actually been decent for Real Madrid in the last couple of seasons but I have a lot of better options up front, same goes for Mata, who's also becoming older now and it doesn't help his case.

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When we return from the World Cup, we'll be in a group with Bosnia, who are in our World Cup group, as well as the 2nd best team in the world according to the world rankings! It'll be a tough group for sure but we won the European International League last time round so it makes sense. That said, I'm not 100% sure I will be with Spain after the World Cup. As I said many times in the past, my dream is to be the France manager and if Wenger gets sacked after the World Cup, I'll definitely be going for that job.

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My dream job France, Germany and my current job Spain are the favourites to win the World Cup. Portugal, following their Euro 2020 win, might be a controversial pick with odds of 4-1 but they could definitely do some damage with the team they have.

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In more miscellaneous news, I finally won Manager of the Season! After 5 years with Les Verts, I constantly just lost out because of some over performing teams like Toulouse, Strasbourg, etc but this season we were incredible, our whole was the Team of the Year so I guess it was only fitting that I received Manager of the Season as well.

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The Saint-Étienne business never stops even though I'm now away on international duty but Maia and Achraf both sign new big contracts, with their wages increased massively. To be honest, Maia is only 25 and in his prime and Achraf is just 23 and can become even better than he is now, so I have no issue extending the contracts of two players who are the future of this club!

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We only had 3 preparation games for the World Cup and it's fair to say they all went pretty well! We could've done better against Colombia and Israel but we smashed England so that was a great result.

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So we'll be playing Bosnia first, then Chile and finish off our group with Japan then. An interesting schedule with probably the best team right in the middle and the weakest team last. That could definitely play in our favour!

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A great way to start our World Cup off with a 4-2 win against Bosnia! They were probably the trickiest team we were going to play against and to get that win out of the way is definitely great news. I think Chile won against Japan 4-0 which means they'd be top of the group right now and we face them next, so we have to just focus right away again and get ready for this big game.

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We interrupt the World Cup again for some big Saint-Étienne news since both Llorente and Smith are now gone. It wasn't an easy decision to let them both go but Llorente wasn't playing anymore and Smith was going to become our 3rd choice full back behind Gayà so it's a good move for both of them. Considering Llorente was signed on a free and Smith for €500,000, we've made a €40 million and €17,5 million profit on them respectively, so that's not too bad. With €58 million now added to our €37 million budget, we have close to €100 million to spend on players for next season.

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A disappointing result to say the least against a poor Chile side but it's a point and it means a good result against Japan would see us through to the next round, which is good news. Bosnia obviously beat Japan in their game but since Chile and us have 4 points each, we're still in the top 2 spots in the group.

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We wanted a good result against Japan and 80,000 people came to witness that good result as we go through to the next round finishing top of our group! It'll be interesting to see who we face in that round but I'm hoping it's a team who can we easily beat.

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Some of the much bigger teams in the competition have obviously gone through, and we've been drawn against one of the favourites to win the whole competition, Portugal. Should be an interesting game, although I really feel like we can get a good result here.

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Well how about that for a way to go out of the World Cup... I thought we could do well against Portugal, and we go and end up getting smashed 4-0. After that result, I walked out of the stadium, called the Spanish FA and told them I couldn't continue anymore. The pressure from the Spanish fans (also due to the fact that I'm French but Spain manager) and the FA just didn't make this an enjoyable experience for me and regardless, I really can't see this Spanish team getting anywhere, there's too many players who are just old and can't perform anymore. I anxiously watched the rest of the World Cup at home back in Saint-Étienne, hoping (as much as it hurts to say it) to see France get knocked out early so Wenger could get sacked and I would go for that job. As I now get ready for next season with Saint-Étienne and hope to complete yet another part of the challenge of the story, I was still waiting for that awful France performance and surprise, surprise, it happened the next day when they lost in the Second Round to Germany, 2-0. Wenger was sacked once the World Cup ended and Germany won the tournament in the end, 1-0 in the final against Italy. With the France job now free, I applied and went back to work for my Saint-Étienne duties, hoping I'd get a positive response from the French FA soon.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

The French job has to be yours....surely?! I mean, you've taken St Etienne to complete domination in France and won the Champions League in just 5 seasons! That's incredible my friend!!!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

The French job has to be yours....surely?! I mean, you've taken St Etienne to complete domination in France and won the Champions League in just 5 seasons! That's incredible my friend!!!

Cheers mate, since I had that super long flight yesterday and went through that whole second half of the season plus post-World Cup I already know the answer to that question but you'll have to wait till the next update to find out

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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July 2022: an eventful pre-season

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Before going through the usual pre-season fixtures and results, we of course have to go through some transfer news! First news of the new season though, is Combe extending his contract and also increasing his wage by €55,000 a week to €135,000 a week. A bargain for a player of his quality.

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In one of the previous updates I mentioned we had €100 million to spend, that was wrong since we spent €31 million on Ypenburg. We actually had about €10 million to spend from our initial budget after adjusting some expectations and this sale now brings the budget to €65 million. It's really disappointing to lose Touré as he was a great backup right back but he said he wanted to leave and there was nothing I could do to keep him. What I'm asking myself is we win the league consistently, just won the Champions League and are the best team in France, so why would players want to leave?!

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After Combe's ridiculous rise from when we signed him from Auxerre to how he is now, I sent another scout every year to Auxerre to see if they could supply us with another gem and I think we've found it. Atsou is just 14 years old but has the French nationality and is apparently a very promising striker. At 14 of course, the scouts don't think much of him yet but the initial reports from my scouts said he would be a quality signing so let's see how he develops!

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With Llorente gone and with, as I mentioned in a previous update, my instinct telling me that someone else is going to come to me and want to leave after such an amazing season, we went and picked up another Eredivise gem by the name of Verbeek who can slide right in the first team. What a midfield that is, Pierce, Ypenburg and Verbeek. At 19 years old, he probably won't start for some time with Maia already such a key player in the side but who knows, Manchester City have been wanting him for the last 3 years so he might be the one to leave.

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Well, my instinct was right. Nikolic, who was one of our best players last season, made a huge fuss about wanting to leave to go to Manchester City and the rest of the squad started being unhappy as a result so I had to let him go. We get a nice €87 million fee for him though at least and with Verbeek and Ypenburg looking so promising, it is a big loss but I'm confident we'll be a good side without him anyway! Our transfer total right now is up at €148 million after €122 million of transfer profit plus about €20 million from our initial budget that the board gave us. I'm not a finance expert so don't ask me how that works but we have a whopping €150 million to spend and to be honest there's no one who's transfer list who looks good enough and there's no one in general who I would want to bring in! Our team looks amazing as it is already.

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With Touré gone, we needed a backup right back for Achraf and my scouts in Brazil told me about this youngster who apparently was a must-buy. Cristiano is a young Brazilian full-back who will definitely be a backup but of course, as with any backup, I wanted them to be a little more established so we got someone else to be the direct backup for Achraf and Cristiano can play maybe in the cup games, something like that.

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Lotomba is a Swiss international who was playing for Schalke and I guess they didn't want anymore. A lot of the fans were confused about this signing but I can see something in Lotomba and my scouts seemed to think the same as they told me he could grow to Touré's level if played often enough, so I'll take their word for it. After all this shopping, we're now left with €130 million still to spend and I guess we'll just hold on to it unless a crazy player gets put on the transfer list, who knows!

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There's the news I was waiting for! After such a horrendous time with the Spanish national team, at least in the World Cup, I said my dream job was the France job and I've got it! I can't wait to be able to call up some of the Saint-Étienne youngsters and even the more established players like Malcom and Combe. It feels incredible to be the France manager and I can't wait for the European International League, the EUROs and the World Cup.

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Speaking of France, Maia got the French nationality earlier in the summer after officially spending 5 years in France (2 with Lille, 3 with us) and he's decided to become a French international as well! This is amazing news as France will lack a proper defensive midfielder when the likes of Kanté and Pogba retire and for Maia to choose to go with France over Brazil is huge. I still don't understand how Maia was never called up for Brazil considering how good he's been for us in the last 3 years but I won't complain if we can get him for my French side!

View attachment 53584View attachment 53583A pretty stacked pre-season in the sense that we have so many games over a short amount of time. The Manchester United game is a testimonial for De Gea and for some reason they chose us as the team to play against? I guess they wanted to try and redeem themselves after their horrendous display against us in the Champions League semi-finals last season. Regardless, we have a good pre-season ahead of us during which I'll use some of the younger players that we just signed and some of the first team players as well to really build up some fitness, which will be good in the long-term.

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I'm very satisfied with our pre-season performance, even the draw against Manchester United as it was just a friendly and away from home as well. Our wins against Tottenham and Gladbach were impressive as well and this all makes up for what should be another great season ahead. For the sake of the story, I won't go into as much detail for the league as I did since it now doesn't really matter and I'll focus more on the Champions League and give screenshots for each performance in there. This also means more updates and shorter ones to read for you guys which should make it better I hope! The schedule for August is looking more than alright, with some pretty easy league games and some exciting cup games as well and of course, the Champions League draw for this season!

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[dporter8999]

Great season, especially knocking out the English contingent in the CL. Bet a lot of managers in the Prem would love to be able to lose players and yet still be stronger year after year!

Got to ask with after seeing Arsenal, United & Chelsea in the CL, was England's strangehold on the Europa League ended?

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Great season, especially knocking out the English contingent in the CL. Bet a lot of managers in the Prem would love to be able to lose players and yet still be stronger year after year!

Got to ask with after seeing Arsenal, United & Chelsea in the CL, was England's strangehold on the Europa League ended?

Hahaha yes for sure, to be honest there are also a lot of English clubs trying to ****** up my players now, you wouldn't believe the amount of offers I've had to reject for Lenglet and Süle... Speaking of the Europa League, the last 2 have been won by English teams (Tottenham 2 years ago, won against us in the final, and Liverpool last season) so I don't know if that answers your question or not but clearly English football is doing well in one European competition!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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August 2022: Europe Sellers Club

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I did say the updates would be shorter now since we're not focusing on the league anymore, but August will always be a longer update due to transfers and unfortunately for us, a LOT of our big players have decided they want to leave. Süle was one of them and it's a huge loss for us to lose one of the best centre-backs in Europe right now but thankfully, I've got a certain Leipzig defender in my sights who's already as good as Niklas, is only 23 years old, and can become a lot better than Niklas. We're making a LOT of money from all these sales which is a huge positive though and I'm really happy with the amount of profit we're making on all these sales.

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After some interest from the likes of Bordeaux and Atletico Madrid, Scuffet wanted a new contract and he's got it. Again, he's 100% just our backup goalkeeper but he's done a great job when he was called upon and it's great to have him at the club for a bit longer.

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So there's Süle's replacement! After selling Niklas, we had €200 million in the bank and this takes us back down to €125 million but we've signed one of the best centre-backs in Europe and he's a lot younger as well, and can improve even more. Signing a Frenchman is also great news as it's another player I could bring in to the France setup for the international games if needed.

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Another absolutely massive loss for us as we lose the 3-time winner Star Goalkeeper of the Season to Real Madrid. Again, getting €70 million for him when we signed him for €20 million is great profit but he was worth a lot more playing at the club. Regardless, we're now going to need to look for a goalkeeper as good as him or better to make sure we're not stuck with Scuffet for the whole season!

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Lunin's replacement is looking fantastic. The story behind it is a little interesting. I had my eye on Stucki for a while when he played for Basel since he was looking like such an amazing goalkeeper for the future, he then moved to Brentford for €10 million this summer and had a €86 million release clause, which I activated thinking David would reject since he just signed but no! He was keen to talk with us and there he is now, looking as good as Lunin (after comparing stats) and can become even better and is just 21 years old. It's a very exciting signing and our budget is now down to about €100 million, which I think I'll keep now for the January transfer window if we need it. We've made a total of €348 million from player sales this summer which is absolutely insane and bought €244 million worth of players as well. That would leave us with about €120 million left but we had to move the budget around to afford some of the big contracts needed for those new players and we're now left with €100 million. Lenglet is another player who said he wanted to leave this summer but I'm determined to keep him at the club and hopefully he'll be willing to sign a new contract later this year if he stays.

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So there's this year's focus, the Champions League! We'll be playing against Basel, Bayern and Milan in our group stage games and I think I'm happy with that. Bayern are a big team but we need to play and win against the best to prove ourselves. Milan and Basel should be much easier although with Donnarumma in goal for Milan, it could be very tough to score against them.

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Big blow for us as Malcom got injured in one of our games this month, but Bembo-Leta is keen to start the next few games which will be great for him and the club since he performs so well.

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Well there we go then! We lost in the Trophée des Champions AGAIN but won in the UEFA Super Cup really easily and our league start has been incredible. Sucki's first game in goal was against Angers and he couldn't keep a clean sheet unfortunately but he performed well regardless. Combe and Ypenburg have been our best players by far to this point and I hope they can keep contributing as much as they have.

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A crazy start to the season as every team in the top 5 won all their games so far, which should make for an interesting encounter against Marseille next month. Our first game in the Champions League is a big game against Bayern away from home before we play our second game at home against Basel, which is a nice overall start to the campaign. Playing Ajaccio first will be tough considering their amazing start to the season, and next month in the league should really be an interesting month for us as we prepare for ANOTHER title defence to make it 4 league titles in a row. The record for that right now is Lyon with 7 titles in a row so it'd be pretty incredible if we could beat that record. Now then, I have to travel to Clairefontaine for my games with the French national team so watch out for that update!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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September 2022: my second European International League title?
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A disappointing first game in charge of France, as we draw 0-0 in our first match in the EIL Division A. De Ligt was impressive to say the least and as long as we get a good result against Russia and the next time we face the Netherlands, we should go through to the semi-finals to hopefully go on and win the whole thing.

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Perfect! One more good result against the Netherlands should definitely see us go through to the next round now after this amazing victory away from home against Russia. Théo Hernández is a player I've wanted to sign for a while but he's become really good for Real Madrid and they've set his release clause over €300 million, so it's fair to say the most I'll enjoy playing him will be with France!

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It could be very easy for Holland to get a good result against Russia, whether or not they'll win more than 4-0 will be the question. Later in October we also have a friendly against Argentina which should be a good way to test ourselves out against a big team outside of Europe. Now that I have the France job, my dream is to win the EUROs, the World Cup and the European International League. The next World Cup will be in 4 years though, so unless we don't finish further than PSG or any other French team in Europe this season, we could potentially be done with this story in 2 years so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Anyways, back to Saint-Étienne for some Ligue 1 and Champions League action now!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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September 2022: a tough start in the CL

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Ypenburg confirms his amazing start to the season and really shows France and Europe how much of a bargain he is for just €31 million. It's nice to see Salazar on the podium as well after some difficulties with injury last season. Mbappé continues to rule France as well with 6 goals in 3 games.

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Speaking of Salazar, he got himself a huge wage increase after a great first month of the season and just an overall great performance with the club so far. We had some more great news when Lenglet decided he didn't want to leave anymore and was open to starting contract negotiations, which we started straight away and there is with his new contract! Our yearly wage bill now comes to €107 million, still way off the likes of PSG and Monaco. To give you an idea by the way, Neymar is now getting paid €825,000 a week in the game, that's €43 million a year or basically almost half of our ENTIRE wage bill for over 20 players. That is absolutely insane...

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The Champions League odds are clearly in our favour as we're the 3rd favourite team to win the whole competition, and I guess that kind of got to our heads as we played Bayern in our first game. A 3-2 loss at the Allianz Arena is definitely not a bad result but it's one that hinders our chances at topping the group. Again, that's not such a big deal if we manage to play well in the other games and get wins then, but it's just disappointing and hopefully it means we'll be hyped up for any games against huge teams in the First Knockout Round if we make it there.

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A fantastic victory in our second game with a clean sheet for Sucki on his return to his old club Basel and a good performance from André Gomes as well! I played a rotated squad with Cristiano at right-back, Gayá in the lineup at left-back and Nunes at centre-back with a couple of changes in midfield as well and that didn't prevent us from getting a big win which is great. Our next game in the Champions League now is against Milan which will be an interesting game as they drew with both Bayern and Basel and we'll have to play well to get a result against them. Oh, and this Basel victory was actually pretty bad for us despite the result with the amount of injuries we got. We only got 2, but it's 2 injuries to 2 key players in the team which will keep them out for a while...

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In the league, we did really well against the likes of Marseille and Ajaccio to keep our perfect start to Ligue 1 going, with Monaco and PSG the only teams actually keeping up with us at this point. We have some tough games next month but with a start to the season like that, I can only hope that we carry our league momentum into the Champions League.

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Just the one CL game next month against Milan at the San Siro, as I also have some duties with the French national team and a lot of league games to play, some of which could be tricky. If we want to keep our 1st place in Ligue 1, we're definitely going to need to get good results in these games and hope that PSG and Monaco drop some points along the way. A win against Milan would put us in a great position to qualify from our CL group as well, whether we finish 2nd or 1st it doesn't really matter at this point.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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October 2022: on our way to the final?

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I've not actually selected the likes of Kanté or Mendy much purely because I feel like we have better players available right now. The game against Argentina will be a great way to test ourselves with a team in the top 10 in the world and the game against Holland could potentially be a great game for us if we win it and make it to the next round of the EIA.

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An absolutely incredible victory against Argentina as we walk away with a clean sheet and 3 goals. What a game! This should give us some great momentum going into the game against Holland as we prepare for a potential qualification to the next round! Martial was outstanding and Tolisso also joined in on the goals with his 5th international goal in 59 games.

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A close result in the end but no less than we deserved and we make it through to the semi-final of the EIA with a game to spare! Whether I'm managing France or Saint-Étienne, Combe seems to be saving me constantly as he scored a brace to get us the 3 points and put us through. Absolutely amazing performance from him which now means we can relax during our next game against Russia at home to really end the EIA group stage campaign on a high note.

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A nice schedule for us to end 2022 on before we get ready for the semi-final of the EIA later on in June next year and prepare for EUROs qualifying as well.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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October 2022: 1st Knockout Round here we come?

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During the international break, we suffered a big blow with Maia getting injured during training. With him likely to be out for almost a month, it means we'll be without him for our game against Milan in the Champions League but he'll be back for the second game against Milan, which is probably the more important one of the two anyway!

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Huge losses with Verbeek and Salazar out injured for at least 2 weeks each, but we did get a huge win against Milan which puts us in a great position to qualify for the next round at the end of the next game! Upamecano has been absolutely immense since he's joined, arguably even better than Süle, and I can't wait to see him develop with the club over the next couple of years.

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In terms of the rest of the month, we unfortunately dropped points against Bordeaux but did well in the rest of our games, which is nice to see. We keep conceding goals though, which is a bit worrying as that never happened that much when Lunin was our keeper but oh well, we have to give Sucki some time to fit into the team and learn how to communicate with the team!

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Our first game next month is against Milan, which would put us in the next round of the Champions League if we win! We also have a big game against Lyon who are doing considerably better this season than they were next season. Our second to last Champions League game is against Bayern which will determine whether we finish 1st or 2nd in the group and to be honest with you, I don't mind either. We've had luck when finishing 1st and luck when finishing 2nd so let's see where we end up.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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November 2022: preparation for the EIA semi-final!

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Many people in France were outraged at my decision to leave out Varane from the squad and pick Zouma ahead of him but I stand by it as I believe he can do a better job than Varane has in the last couple of games. A huge loss for us is Griezmann who's out due to injury and as the screenshot says, many people wanted me to include some of my Saint-Étienne players like Pléa and Malcom but I've decided against it for now.

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A great result for us against Russia which allows us to finish our EIA group stage campaign on a high, with Combe scoring a hat-trick as well. Russia were very average today and we took advantage of that and definitely enjoy smashing them like we did. Up next is Uruguay for our final match of 2022 before our actual preparations for the EIA semi-final.

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Another great victory to end the year with the French national team. In front of our own fans, it was great to be able to give them an enjoyable performance to watch as we win 3-0 against Uruguay, who aren't exactly a top team but still a team that we should be happy about beating 3-0. The draw for the EIA semi-final should be soon where we'll know who we'll be facing which is fantastic and I can't wait to see who we get.

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We get the World Cup finalists Italy! They narrowly missed out on the title to Germany in 2022 and we now have to wait until May 2023 for our next official competitive game. A couple of friendlies should help us really prepare for this game which could be a very tough one. The goal is to get to the final and win the whole competition but Italy are a great side and it'll be tough to get past them.

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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November 2022: the perfect month

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An absolutely fantastic victory to ensure our qualification for the 1st Knockout Round in the Champions League as we smash Milan 4-0 and put ourselves in a great position to finish 1st in our group with a good result against Bayern. Two big losses again for us though with Gomes and Verbeek getting injured and staying out for a long time. It's a shame but again, that's why we signed backup players!

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Just like last season, the board doesn't really care about the Coupe de la Ligue but I'd like to win it for the sake of getting a trophy! Angers are in 16th in Ligue 1 so aren't doing too well but we'll have to be wary of them considering the couple of good results they've gotten against us in the past.

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Now that's a result I didn't expect! After losing 3-2 at the Allianz Arena, I really thought we'd struggle against them today but a 4-0 win is absolutely incredible against such a strong side, especially considering we restricted them to just one shot all game. Salazar, Combe and Pierce all performed really well today and put us in a superb place to finish 1st in our group now with just one good result against Basel!

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When I said it was a perfect month, I wasn't kidding! We scored at least 4 goals in every single game we had this month and didn't concede a single one. We even beat Lyon 5-0 in the process, which is incredible! Ypenburg, Combe and Upamecano continue their incredible form in the league and Europe, as we now get ready for a very tough month in December.

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With just a point against Basel, we'll be able to finish 1st in our group. On top of that, we're 1st in Ligue 1 just ahead of PSG on goal difference which is great considering we were behind them a couple of games ago. Next month looks very tough for us, with 2 unknown games as well as two league games against PSG and Monaco and a Champions League game which will determine if we finish 1st or 2nd in the group. Let's hope we finish 1st in the group and win both those Ligue 1 games to create a lead at the top of the table!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Tough months have the potential to make or break an entire season....however, I'm confident you will sail through and come out stronger at the other side!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

Tough months have the potential to make or break an entire season....however, I'm confident you will sail through and come out stronger at the other side!

Cheers mate, pretty happy with how last month ended to be honest, scoring 4 goals a game at least and not conceding in any of the games either, so I think that should make for some great momentum for next month!

 

[Linecoigne1998]

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December 2022: youngest Ballon d'Or winner ever?!

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We start off the December update with Bembo-Leta's player of the month win for November. He's been playing most of the season as a right-winger, starting ahead of club legend Malcom, and definitely deserves it. He's been incredible when he's played and I hope it continues.

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Upamecano has been a crucial part of this team and it's a big loss, especially for 2-3 weeks considering the kind of games we have to play next month, but I'm still confident that we can do well without him in the team. This is why we bought a backup left-back and centre-back, etc!

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A very easy first game for us in the Coupe de France to say the least. I don't even know what division they're in but definitely lower than the 4th division, which obviously isn't known for quality teams so we should be able to get through very easily.

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A great win for our last game in the group stages, which puts us through VERY easily into the next round and in 1st place of our group as well! A great way to finish off our group stage campaign as we'll now have to anxiously wait to see who we'll face in the next round.

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Well, well, well! Manchester City have stolen Touré and Nikolic off us during the summer and there we are now having to play against them in the First Knockout Round for our title defence. Let's just say it won't be easy, but we've not been called the "English teams slayer" for nothing! We knocked out Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United last season, I don't see why we wouldn't be able to do it with the other Manchester club this season.

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Another exciting opportunity we had during December was the FIFA Club World Cup, during which the European club is always the favourite but I was definitely looking to get a good result against Pumas. We smashed them in Mexico in front of over 100,000 people, which was by far the most impressive crowd and stadium I've ever seen, as we move through to the final where we'll play against Flamengo.

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We've done it! All three of our players are nominated for best player of the competition and Salazar is the one who runs away with it. Combe and Malcom were fantastic in the 2 games that we played and it's a great title win for us, the club's first ever.

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Quick France update, with our group for the EUROs qualifiers being drawn as we'll be playing against Macedonia, Moldova, Albania and Sweden. The latter are definitely the better team in the group and the one we'll be competing with for 1st place but I'm pretty sure we will be coming out of this group winners quite easily.

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Wow! This is not only my biggest win as Saint-Étienne manager but also the biggest win in the history of the Coupe de la Ligue! We demolished Angers and whatever I was saying about them frustrating us in the past sure looks stupid now! We'll be playing Nantes in the next game, who got to the Coupe de France final last season and actually gave us a bit of trouble so it could be an interesting game.

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As expected, an easy win in the Coupe de France 9th round as we go through to the next game. Ypenburg continues his absolutely ridiculous form this season as we hopefully are cruising to yet another Coupe de France title!

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Combe wins the Ballon D'Or! For whoever said Ligue 1 was a "farmer's league", look at us now! All three players on the podium are from Ligue 1 as Combe becomes the youngest ever Ballon D'Or winner, level with Ronaldo in 1996 when he won it at 20 years old. His stats really do show why he deserves this award more than anyone, with 57 goals and 27 assists (so am 84-goal contribution) in 60 games. Absolutely insane stuff from him.

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Ypenburg and Combe are just running away with awards! The Dutch wonderkid who joined us this summer wins football of the year and dethrones Hazard, who won it last season. I honestly can't believe the amount of awards we're winning right now, it feels so satisfying to see my own players do so well!

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No Süle, no problem! We had just one player in the Team of the Year for the last 2 seasons, and now there we are with 3, plus another one on the bench! Lenglet, Ypenburg and Combe have been fantastic so far this season and Upamecano has a great future at the club. Amazing stuff!

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Combe is absolutely drowning in awards! The France Football Ballon D'Or, FIFA World Player of the Year, and European Golden Boy! It's his 3rd time winning it in a row so absolutely incredible stuff from him, I can only hope he'll get better or keep this kind of form up!

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I don't know what to say right now, Combe is by far the best player in the world right now and I'm so proud that we're the ones who managed to develop him and become that kind of player.

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Ypenburg has been insane this season and it definitely shows as he won the Football of the Year and the Foreign Player of the Year. Absolutely great stuff from him, hopefully he'll keep his form up.

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Some incredible results for us this month with our 2 wins against Monaco and PSG. This would put us 3 points clear at the top of the table, but PSG have played 2 games while we were away in Mexico for the Club World Cup so it would be nice to get our 2 wins and go back to the top of the league when we do get those wins.

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Lyon continue their bang average season as Marseille are now slowly establishing themselves back as one of France's best teams, overtaking Monaco in the last couple games. We have our Coupe de la Ligue quarter-final against Nantes to think about when we come back from our winter break and then a lot of Ligue 1 games to catch up on the ones we missed and it should be a great way to build some momentum in the league and look to break the most wins in a row record in the league, which PSG beat when they equalled our record this season with 18 wins a row. We're at 8 right now I believe, so we're quite far off but I definitely think we can do it!

 

[Sammuthegreat]

Definitely need some screenshots of all your players. Getting some insane numbers!