Reviving sleeping giants: AS Saint-Étienne

Linecoigne1998 said:
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Team introduction and pre-season

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I've undoubtedly arrived at a club with a LOT of history but that hasn't performed in the last couple of decades. Saint-Étienne saw their arch rivals Lyon win the league for 7 years in a row between 2001/02 and 2007/08 and finish above them for the last few decades as well, so there's clearly a lot of room for growth here. I've not been blessed with an incredibly talented side either, and let's just say the board isn't looking like they're going to make my job any easier. Getting Les Verts back on top could take a while.

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In terms of squad depth, it looks like we have a lot in this team but unfortunately, most of the depth isn't exactly quality depth. Some of our top players are only here on loan which could prove to be a problem and with just under 60% of the squad being French, I'm going to have to bring in a couple of French players to at least be able to stay on track with that challenge. Most of the players are still away on holiday and with pre-season not starting for a couple of weeks, I'm going to also have to wait to be able to make any potential signings to strengthen the team or at least build some depth.

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As you can see, I've definitely not been given a lot of room to make any new signings other than free agents, and most of them either want ridiculous wages or just don't want to play for the club. With an 8th place finish in the league last season, we also have no European football which is definitely going to hamper any chances of potential signings we'll have. At least we have quite a few games in pre-season to really evaluate the team and where we need depth or strengthening but this could prove to be a much tougher task than I thought.

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So there it is, 6 games against some lower league French teams and a Belgian team, that's what I'm going to have to base any signings on. On paper, we should smash every single one of these teams at least 3-0 or 4-0 but you never know in football, especially in friendly matches when motivation levels are always low. I'll update you again later with any new signings and at the end of pre-season, when I have a better grasp on where I'll be taking this club.
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skins please ?
 
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January 2023: yet another perfect month?!

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Our last game of 2022 was the Coupe de France 9th round and we were waiting on the other results to see who we'd face and we've got Ajaccio. We've faced them once already this season back in September 2022 and won 4-0 and we'll face them again in the league before this game so it should be an interesting one, but once again a game we should easily be winning.

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It always seemed like it was Lenglet or Maia who would leave, but we suffer a huge blow as Pavard leaves us for our league rivals PSG for at least a nice fee of €90 million. This gives us a lot of money to bring in a great replacement but I'm really sad and disappointed to see him go, he was crucial to our success and arrived at the club pretty early on and became incredible here so it's sad to see him go.

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Pretty terrible news as we lose Combe for the next month and he'll miss some big games like the Coupe de la Ligue semi-final, but at least we've made it there. Thank God the injury isn't as bad as it could've been and he's not out for longer, or he'd miss the clash with Manchester City which is by far our biggest game of the season so far.

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There's Pavard's replacement. It was crucial that he came in as fast as possible and even though I would've loved to wait a little bit and potentially sign someone younger with potential, we get an AC Milan legend who's already in his prime at 28 years old. He doesn't have the French nationality obviously which is a bit of an issue considering the challenge of at least 50% of the squad having the French nationality at the end of the season but we've got a lot of money leftover and definitely will be able to bring in some great French players before the official start of next season. Romagnoli will be a fantastic centre-back next to Upamecano with Lenglet as our left-back and I can't wait to see him perform for us.

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Jesus Christ well that was anti-climactic! I went into this game telling the players to focus, to make sure we closed down the right players and didn't get dragged out of position despite the team instructions to press high and be aggressive on the player with the ball but I guess we didn't need any instructions at all! Salazar was playing up front in Combe's absence and how about that for a performance! This is our second biggest win of the season and I really didn't expect it to be in a cup semi-final against Marseille! We'll face PSG in the final later in April, which should be a big test and an opportunity for us to show Pavard that he was wrong leaving the club for PSG, but we have time to prepare for that.

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**** it!!! We were just one game away from a perfect month without any goals conceded and Ajaccio had to go and ruin that! In the end, we conceded just 1 goal the whole month which is still an incredible achievement but man it's annoying. Just one game away! Anyway, this puts us in the Coupe de France 11th round now, getting us closer and closer to what could potentially be a third domestic treble in a row! I'm not sure what the record is for domestic trebles in France to be completely honest, but surely with 3 in a row we've beaten it, right?

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A fantastic month for us with a perfect record and a total of 24 goals scored in 7 games, meaning we averaged 3 goals a game (wow...) and just conceded the 1! We're still doing well in the league and will definitely be top of the league by the time we played the 2 games in hand we still have over PSG, who are for now the leaders in the league.

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Lyon are getting back on their feet somewhat, jumping up to 7th place with Nantes the surprise package this season so far. They were relegated 2 years ago and now they're in 5th in the league. I've noticed that every season, there's one team in the league who seems to be doing ridiculously well and it makes no sense at all. Strasbourg did that the last couple of seasons, Toulouse did the same and now it's Nantes! Strange. We have a big game in the Champions League against Manchester City which is by far the highlight of February but also some interesting games in the league, the main one being the one at home against Marseille. We beat them 7-0 in their own stadium in the Coupe de la Ligue, surely they'll want revenge at our own stadium in the league?
 
Doing amazing, i can tell your the top club in France now as during January every single game was on the TV! KIU
 
coolmcool said:
Doing amazing, i can tell your the top club in France now as during January every single game was on the TV! KIU
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Cheers mate, definitely unreal how much we've grown as a club, just sucks that the TV money is nowhere near the Premier League kind of money though... would definitely help with the overall club balance if we made as much money as say Arsenal or Liverpool from TV deals!
 
Sammuthegreat said:
Just the attributes page - would love to see all your fantastic regens.
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Will do mate! I'll show you the regens I have in the squad right now:

Our goalkeeper David Stucki:

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Jeroen Verbeek:

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Marcel Ypenburg:

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Yves Bembo-Leta:

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Henri Combe:

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Santiago Pierce:

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Johan Salazar:

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Fair to say I've gotten pretty lucky with the way some of these players have developed...
 
Oooooofff. Stucki, Salazar and Combe are phenomenal - and they're all still so young! Haha. I suppose that's what happens when you play them regularly from a young age.

The physicals on Ypenburg are incredible. Please tell me you use him as a box-to-box midfielder?
 
Sammuthegreat said:
Oooooofff. Stucki, Salazar and Combe are phenomenal - and they're all still so young! Haha. I suppose that's what happens when you play them regularly from a young age.

The physicals on Ypenburg are incredible. Please tell me you use him as a box-to-box midfielder?
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Ypenburg does have incredible stats yes... Unfortunately in my tactic right now he's playing as a Mezzala either Support or Attack but I might consider switching him to a Carrilero which is actually his best role, not B2B surprisingly!

Combe and Salazar I think are the most ridiculous players to be honest. Stucki was playing regularly at Basel before I snatched him up so he had plenty of time to actually develop before I bought him but those 2 really grew with the club and they've become absolutely incredible!
 
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February 2023: a mountain to climb

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We continue to break records in France despite already breaking so many in the last couple of seasons and that last win against Ajaccio on the last day of January writes the history books once again.

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Pierce surprises me once again as he gets the Player of the Month for January, and the reason I say it's surprising is because he's only played a couple of games with Ypenburg or Verbeek were injured or suspended, but it's amazing to see him perform so well regardless.

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An interesting game which will start us off next month as we'll face Red Star in the 11th round of the Coupe de France. A win in that round will of course put us in the quarter-finals, which would be amazing, and we'll continue our way to a potential domestic treble yet again!

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PSG thought they could be the ones setting records this season, but we said no! The record for the most games won in a row used to be set by PSG this season actually, who had set it to 18 I believe, so we've clearly broken the record now and have continued to write the Ligue 1 history books with yet ANOTHER record broken by this team.

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Big blow for us as club legend Malcom is out for at least 3 weeks and will miss our first leg of the Champions League 1st Knockout Round against Manchester City. It really is a big blow because we might have Bembo-Leta who can clearly do a great job in his position, but he's not got that kind of experience yet and well, when Malcom plays well, we play well and the fans are happy.

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Well then, I'm pretty sure we've qualified for the CL this season even faster than last season! We're still unbeaten in the league so far and could potentially break the one record we haven't broken yet, the one for fewest defeats in a season which is currently set at 1 by Nantes a long time ago. The budget the board has set us, as generous as it seems, is all leftover from this seasons' sales and the signings I didn't make so I'm very happy to see the board giving us that money for next season.

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There's the mountain to climb. Going to the Etihad was never going to be easy and I'm very happy we got our 2 away goals, but that could mean nothing considering City's attacking power. Our former player Bakayoko gifted us one of the goals which was kind of ironic, but anyways we'll need to go back home with those 2 away goals in mind and try to not concede any and score as many as possible (inner Michael Owen again...) to go through. PSG won their first leg 5-2 and they're our main competitors in terms of finishing the furthest out of all French clubs in Europe so we can't go out of the CL now, it would be devastating and would delay our completion of the challenge for another 3 years at least.

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Verbeek is another one of those players who's developed immensely since he's joined and he 100% deserves a new contract. His wage has basically doubled which once again, means it's a lot of money to give a 20-year old but considering his performances, it's an absolute bargain.

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It was an incredibly easy month for us other than the Manchester City game, as we came away with 6 wins from 6 games and conceded just one goal, scoring 18. Our goal difference is absolutely through the roof and I think if we keep going at this rate, we might break the record for most goals scored in a season! The current record for best defence in Ligue 1 was set by PSG back in 2015 when they conceded just 19 goals all season, and we're currently sitting on 14 goals conceded just 11 games to go, can we break both the attack and defence records in Ligue 1?

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We're already 4 points clear of PSG with a game in hand, so a 4th consecutive title looks on the cards for us. Our next few games in the league are easy enough and the two games we'll need to really focus on are the Coupe de France 11th round game against Red Star and of course, the Manchester city game at home. A goal down but with 2 away goals, we're in a great position to get a result at our own ground and go through, but I don't think Zidane's Manchester City will give up that easily.
 
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March 2023: an immaculate league record

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We continue to break records and continue our great run in all of our domestic competitions! Combe was superb once again but unfortunately got injured in the process which sees him be out for 2-3 weeks now, which could be a big problem if he doesn't actually get back in that time and ends up missing out on the return leg of the Manchester City game. He very well might miss it which could be a big issue but we'll see, hopefully the medical staff get him back soon.

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We're been a lot luckier this season with injuries that we have been in the last few seasons but Lotomba is another player who's going to be out injured for 3-4 weeks, so we're going to have to pray that Achraf doesn't get injured or suspended otherwise we've not got anyone to play at right-back!

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What a turnaround! I said Zidane's Manchester City wouldn't let us get away with it and they scored a goal to make our life a lot harder but we managed to get 2 at home which added to our 2 away goals is enough to put us in the Champions League quarter-finals! In all my happiness, I travelled to the draw location completely forgetting about teams like Real Madrid, who we could easily face, and sat down waiting for the draw and well, great. We're drawn against the most successful team in Champions League history as we'll play the first game away from home in mid-April. It's going to be by far our toughest game of the season and with PSG playing against Barcelona in their quarter-final, we once again can't lose this tie or we might need another 3 years to complete the challenge if PSG get a good result at home against Barcelona!

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Another fantastic month with a Champions League turnaround and 15 goals scored in 4 league games, with 0 conceded. Our win in the Coupe de France also puts us closer and closer to another cup final. The league game against Nantes is also a great way to kind of predict how we'll do in the Coupe de France and let's just say it's looking good for us!

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This is absolutely going to be our toughest month I think ever since my arrival at the club. A cup final against PSG, a cup quarter-final against Nantes, league games against PSG, Monaco and Lyon AND a Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid. Does it get any tougher than this?! I don't think so... The good news is we have a great lead at the top of the table with 7 games to go and if all goes well, we could wrap up a 4th consecutive league title soon (and also break a couple records in the process) so there'll be motivation for the players to achieve that at least. I'm really excited, but also very nervous. Thankfully, I now have to go away with the French national team for some EUROs qualifiers games.
 
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March 2023: an easy ride to the EUROs 2024

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There were rumours flying around of Maia wanted to go and switch back to Brazil for his national team, so I called him up immediately to make sure that wouldn't happen! Regardless, he's a **** of a player who absolutely deserves a call up and I'm keen to see how he'll do in our two EURO qualifying games.

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A fantastic first game away in Albania as we come away 4-0 winners, thanks to Martial who had the game of his life! Our EURO qualifying group honestly is not a hard one and with the only "tough" team to beat being Sweden, it should be a very easy ride to the 2024 EUROs.

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Another fantastic performance as Combe takes his club form to the international level! Malcom was another Saint-Étienne player who did really well and I feel incredibly proud to be managing these incredible players. We're off to the perfect start with 9 goals scored in 2 games and none conceded, as we sit top of our group quite comfortably. My next duties with France will be the International League in May when we'll face Italy, which will definitely be more competitive than these 2 games...

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April 2023: the ultimate showdown

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Champions! We were playing PSG and it was a great showdown but at the end of the day it's 2 of the players who have been at the club the longest since my arrival who got us the 2 goals to put us over the edge and give us the win! It's a 3rd consecutive Coupe de la Ligue victory for us as we now go into the rest of the month feeling incredibly confident and hoping for more positive results like this one.

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As expected, this Nantes game was an easy one and we get a fantastic 4-0 win in the Coupe de France quarter-final. We'll be facing Monaco in the semi-final, actually postponing our league game against them to later in May. It'll be a tough game and I can easily see us losing this one considering we'll have had some pretty big games before hand, but let's not get carried away and go into it believing we can win!

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We'll have it all to do at home now... Away goals are a huge factor in going through, especially for us, and not being able to get one is a big problem. If we draw 1-1 at home next week, Madrid would be going through. PSG won their first game at home against Barcelona but just 1-0, so there's a chance Barcelona can take something from their home game but I really do believe our rivals will go on and get the win and go through to the semi-finals and if I'm right, that means we HAVE to win our next game against Madrid.

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Incredible!!! We've done it! It's Malcom again who comes up clutch during a tough game to gift us the win with a little bit of help from Combe, who's slowly but surely becoming a club legend. And guess who we'll play in the next round? That's right, it's PSG. The ultimate showdown in my opinion. A win would not only put us in the Champions League final for the second year in a row, it would also mean we finished the furthest out of any French teams for the second year in a row and doing the same thing again next season would complete all the challenges I set myself for this story! It'll be a very tough tie for sure and considering we just beat them in a cup final, they'll probably try to go out and get as many goals as possible away from home, something which we'll have to work hard to to prevent.

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A hugely disappointing result for us as Monaco deny us the chance of potentially going and getting a 3rd consecutive Coupe de France title. I'm personally not too fussed about it considering we won the Coupe de la Ligue and are about to win the league, but this was the one cup the board actually cared about so they'll be disappointed too.

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Unfortunately, we finished the month off pretty badly with defeats against Monaco and PSG. The league defeat against PSG was particularly annoying as it means we have to delay our title celebrations and it also means we won't finish the season unbeaten. We've also conceded 17 goals and with 5 games to go and 6 goals to score and 2 to concede to break at least some Ligue 1 records, it might be hard considering we're playing one of those games against Monaco!

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PSG have definitely done nothing but just delay our title celebrations to be honest, as we're still 3 points clear at the top of the table with 2 games in hand, ones which we should be able to win. We start May off with our home game in the Champions League semi-final which will be very stressful and then have the potential to get even closer to the title if we win against Reims. I believe a win against Monaco would do it actually, which would be incredible considering we won the title for the last 2 years at home with wins against Monaco... As they knocked us out of the Coupe de France, they really do deserve to watch us celebrate a 4th consecutive Ligue 1 title and I'm going to make sure that happens.
 
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May 2023: dreamland

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We've done it! Our second Champions League final in a row! The moment we got our away goal in the 78th minute in the second leg, I knew it was over. A ridiculous performance in the first leg ended up putting us through and I've never been more proud of this team. Manchester United won the other semi-final against Liverpool to get through to the final which will be played at... Old Trafford. We've got a huge disadvantage but this could be a historic moment not only because we'd beat the home team in a Champions League final but also because it would make us the most successful French club in Europe ever!

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Champions again! Our 4th Ligue 1 title in a row and look at the amount of records we've broken! Most goals in a season, most points in a season, most wins in a season and least amount of goals conceded in a season! I'm SO proud of this team, honestly, and I just can't believe how far we've come. Now that the Ligue 1 season is over, we've of course got the Champions League final to worry about which I know the players, the board, the fans and I are definitely excited about.

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To finish off our last couple league games we got some amazing wins against Monaco and Lyon with some amazing scorelines, and what a way to finish the season off at home huh?! A 7-0 win against Sochaux definitely puts us in the history books now as we finish the season with 135 GOALS! That's about 3.5 goals a game which is insane.

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Ypenburg finishes the season off with a bang, and so does Combe who was in a very tight race with Mbappé for the Top Goalscorer in Ligue 1 award and you'll see later that it really was a very tight race.

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This has got to be the end of the greatest ever season by a French club in the history of football!!! A win in the Champions League final makes it 2 Champions Leagues in a row for us and a 5th trophy for the season! This was also our 34th trophy in the club's history, taking us just 5 away from PSG's 39 trophies. We make up most of the Dream Team as well which really is a testament to our success this season and this now means that one season of finishing the furthest out of all French clubs in Europe would complete this story!

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What a season... 57 goals for Combe in 55 games I mean are you kidding me?! And how about Salazar's 43 assists as well? And Stucki's 30 clean sheets? Honestly, this would have been the perfect way to finish this story but it's not over yet and we've got a lot of work to do. I can't wait for next season though to defend our domestic and European titles once again.

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Clearly, we were the best team in France this season yet again. You can enjoy yourself and go through all the awards yourself as I don't think I can really go through them individually, but Salazar breaking the assists record, Ypenburg breaking the average rating record and Combe finishing top goalscorer ahead of Mbappé should all be considered highlights!

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A great signing for us, with Pierre-Emerick coming back to the club after 3 years here already back from 2010 to 2013. It's been 10 years since he left the club and I'm so happy to see him back here as our backup striker and with the French nationality as well! I don't know how much he'll play next season to be honest, but with those wages I'll definitely be looking to play him often!

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After such a successful season, all of our big players were being scouted by some of Europe's biggest teams and despite winning 2 Champions Leagues in a row, some of them were still considering leaving the club and all these new contracts convinced them! We clearly increased their wages by a HUGE amount but with all our recent profits, we'll definitely be able to afford them. Anyways, next update will be my performance with France in the International League and then the start of the 2023/2024 season!
 
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May 2023: a sign of things to come?!
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A great result against the World Cup finalists as Griezmann, despite being over 30 years old now, gets us the winner to put us in the International League final for the first time in France's history! We came 3rd the last 2 years but now we're ready to fight for the title as we'll play Belgium in the final in a couple of days. Malcom is the only Saint-Étienne player who actually played really well today and I'm delighted for him.

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Incredible! Belgium were coming off a fantastic win against England in the semi-final and were going to be a very tough team to beat but we've done it! Tolisso is the unlikely hero as Combe this time, another Saint-Étienne player, scores as well to give us the 3-1 win and make us International League champions! This is a great sign of things to come for us, or at least I hope, as we now have to wait until September for some more international games during which we'll hope to secure qualification for the 2024 EUROs!
 
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June/July 2023: a shocking departure

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With €85 million already in the bank, we're now going to have a lot of money to find a new goalkeeper but this is a huge blow. We signed him for a club record €85 million last summer and he's gone for even less than that, despite getting Goalkeeper of the Year in Ligue 1 and second best goalkeeper in Europe, so that's very disappointing. There's a certain player who's been on the transfer list at their club for a while though and initially I wanted to sign him before I went for Stucki, but he's still available and available for a lot less than his initial €110 million asking price.

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So there we go then, Stucki's replacement is Gianluigi Donnarumma! I never thought in a million years that he'd play for Saint-Étienne one day but he's been on the transfer list for months now and the club's asking price went all the way down to €37.5 million from over €100 million last summer... It's a fantastic signing for us and even though I'm sad to have lost Stucki, I'm also incredibly excited to have such a talented goalkeeper at the club, hopefully for a number of years!

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We had about €80 million left in the bank for one last transfer and I figured, why not invest in the future? We're at a point now in the footballing world where you need to pay some ridiculous prices for talented players and Robert Dupuis, who played for Manchester United (at least the reserves), is reportedly the most promising player in world football right now. After submitting an initial €50 million bid, it was clear I was going to have to pull out my cheque book and there he is at the club now. €60 million up front, €44 million for the next 2 years. It hurts our transfer budget for the next 2 seasons but he's an incredible player who could be really valuable to us. With that transfer fee, you can be sure that he'll start most of our games as Maia is also wanting to leave the club, like Stucki, and he will make for a great replacement as our CDM.

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We had our pre-season of course after the 2 signings we made (and another one actually, a Frenchman called Nathan Blanchard, who we signed from Slavia Praha. He's 18 years old but weirdly has the French nationality and the Czech nationality as well, although I guess it makes sense since he was born in France but spent his youth years at the Slavia Praha academy. Nevertheless, he's an 18 year old left-back who came in on a free as his contract was expiring and he's reportedly a very promising youngster). We started off slow with our 2 draws but then really got into it, scoring 29 goals in 5 games and conceding just one, hopefully a sign of things to come for next season! We have over 50% of the squad with the French nationality, haven't made more than 3 non-EU transfers in any season, won the league at least 3 times in a row and we just need one more season where we finish further than any other French club in Europe and that would conclude this story. We have a tough schedule for the season ahead and let's just say it won't be easy at all, but I think we can do it!

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Our first challenge will be against PSG in the Trophée des Champions, which weirdly enough is the only trophy we haven't won since I took charge! Will this year be the year? We then have league games against Toulouse, Marseille and Caen and our UEFA Super Cup game against last season's Europa League winners Stuttgart. An interest set of games but there's definitely some potential for us to get off to a great start and get some momentum going.
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it's a beautiful career. well, congratulations. France's largest S.Etienne

tactic please?
 
Osman71 said:
it's a beautiful career. well, congratulations. France's largest S.Etienne

tactic please?
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I posted it I think a couple pages ago when someone asked me, it's the 4-1-2-3 one from ChristianEriksen on this website in the tactics section. You should be able to find it easily but if you don't, let me know and I'll find the link for you! :)
 
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