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September/October 2016 update
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September started with a tough win that was won only with a penalty against newly promoted Pirin. They are actually doing quite well, in fairness.
An expected loss against top half side Botev Plovdiv, Borghello bagging his second goal. Really shouldn't have conceded 3 but hey, sometimes you get unlucky.
Now the cup win ****** me off
If you've been reading carefully you'll know I love to tank the cup so we can focus on the league as the financial benefits are minuscule. However, my reserves and youth players actually played really well so what the ****, i'll let them off. We draw "B" Group side Vereya in the next round so it's quite likely we could progress further. If that's the case I may try to win the cup as, although you get barely any money throughout, the prize is a Europa League qualifying place so...
A poor loss at home to Slavia Sofia had me raging. Really should be taking advantage of these opportunities to get 3 points! Borghello still showing why he got 14 goals in the Argentine Premier Division last season.
It says own goal but it should've been giving to Borghello as a goal... oh well, still again, we should've got the 3 points here as Beroe are a weaker team but we just didn't show up.
Next was the second derby day of the season and we managed yet another draw
It was boring this time with no side the clear deserved winners.
CSKA Sofia next and we grab a great point against the league leaders. No clue how we managed it but I'm not complaining!
Lastly, we somehow, amazingly, beat 2nd at the time Litex at home. No clue how we managed to keep them out, and our goal was a swiftly executed counter attack with a great assist from Borghello leading to the neatest of finishes from on-loan winger Trifkovic.
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What a difference a transfer window makes, eh? Last season Ludogorets were untouchable and now they have two close rivals for the title in Litex and CSKA Sofia. I expect Ludogorets' performances to pick up after they inevitably exit the Champions League. We're sitting in my targeted 6th. It's very close though and two losses on the bounce could put us in the relegation zone. However, with just 8 left until the league splits into two, if i can just maintain 6th place, then I can use youth players for the rest of the season to develop them without being able to go lower down than 6th. As well as keeping the prize money of sixth place! (£108k)
Lots of activity happened with the club during these two months!
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Early in the month the board accepted my proposals for junior coaching upgrading! This now puts us with good junior coaching level which is only rivaled by 3 other clubs in the whole of Bulgaria! (Pirin have good, Levski have good and Litex have excellent standards)
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After the game against Pirin, first choice LW Ognyanov goes down for probably the remainder of the season by the time he's fully rehabbed. Bollocks.
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Early in September I get this message. :O
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Zakov is unhappy and old so when he asked to leave I said okay. Straight after that Apollon came in with an offer even though I didn't transfer list him? Spooky.
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Thought this would be interesting for some of you. Georgiev and Sabkov have been regular features in the U21s but I'm focusing on Kanchev and Ognyanov here as they are both youth products of our academy!
Filipov also gets his first U19s call up. Joel Cunha gets his first Brazil U20s call up since joining, he has been capped twice at U20s level in the past.
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So, this wasn't as exciting as I thought it might be, he's come in and send he has no plans to invest so that's pretty boring but I guess realistic. He may however, be more strict when it comes to improving facilities, etc, as the last chairman was pretty lenient when it came to that sort of stuff.
