Ok guys I have decided to give this another go after I really enjoyed the save last year. For those who don't know what this is, here is a little run down of my aims...
- Start out as unemployed with Automatic rep
- Try to win the top division in each nation
- Try to win all available cups, domestic & continental
- maybe top the hall of fame for each country/continent
Last year I opened it up to everyone to decide where I was going to start, but instead I chose it myself this year and I ended up choosing Africa again due to really enjoying my journey there on last years FM.
Entente Sportive Setifienne
(E S Setif)
So Algeria is my first port of call, on this hopefully epic journey across the world. I'm really pleased to have managed to get this job, as Setif are one of the top clubs in Algeria so it gives me the chance to win trophies straight from the off.
The main thing that jumps out from this screenshot has to be the fact that we're in the African Champions League. This is down to the club winning the league last season. It just goes to show how lucky I have been getting this job at the start. A little thing worth mentioning is our estimated value, ?2m may not sound a lot, but from previous experience in Africa suggests that we are actually pretty well off.
As you can see the finances are looking fairly rosy, we have a great transfer budget for this level should we need to strengthen the squad. The % of the transfers gained is low, however I don't expect to be selling anyone just yet or if I do, it wont be anybody of great value so we wont lose out on too much.
There we have the squad, from first looks it seems we have a fairly decent all round team. Plenty of players in each position will come in handy as I figure out my first 11. As I haven't yet decided on a tactic I don't know if we need to sign any players yet. I will most likely just keep the squad how it is until the next transfer window.
So there we have it, my start to World Domination. Hope you all will follow and leave plenty of feedback...
Cheers..
One thing I didn't notice to start with was that the Algerian start date is in June/July with the league starting in August. However due to partaking in the Champions League, our season actually starts in February. After realising this after the fact the board was unhappy at our performances in the champions league (not with me as manager), I decided to re-start the game to a date that enable me to play the champions league games. So here is a little update on our progress so far through our 6 month long pre-season.
Board Expectations
African Champions League - Group stages
Algerian League 1 - Challenge for the title
Algerian Cup - Reach the final
We started off our Champions League campaign with an away tie against Centre Chiefs FC from Botswana, We came through it with relative ease as most would probably expect of us.
We then drew MA Tetouan from Morocco, for both legs the Moroccan side were seen as favorites which made me a little nervous as our squad looked much more stronger than theirs. We were held to a draw in the first leg with the away side grabbing their self's an all important away goal. Unfortunately for us, it seems the away goal rule doesn't count as we drew 2-2 in the away leg which would normally see us through to the next round. Instead we were forced to suffer the nerve wrecking penalty shoot-out. Our guys managed to keep their heads as we managed to convert all 5 of our spot kicks to move onto the 2nd round.
We faced another Moroccan side by the name of FUS Rabat in the 2nd round, We fell 2-0 behind and our chances of reaching the group stages looked slim, but a 89th minute penalty ensured we left the game with an away goal which gave us hope in the return leg. The 4-1 win came as quite a shock as we failed in controlling the possession, the away side ended up walking away with 67% of the possession despite being hammered 4-1.
Into the groups we go.
I'm not sure if this is correct or not but there only seems to be 2 groups and no drop down into the confederations cup if you come 3rd. However, I'm not aiming for 3rd, I believe we should be able to get through to the next round (the semi finals). Obviously Al - Ahly are going to be our biggest rivals for that top spot but if we compete the way we're capable of then anything can happen.
I believe that pre-season is all about building the fitness and not the results, ok if we lose every game then the morale isn't going to be great. But as you can see, we are only in May so we still have 3 months before the start of the proper season. You may notice we play the same teams a few times, that is for one reason and one reason only, MONEY. For each game against the European teams, we receive between ?200k - ?350k. This money has really helped me to provide the board with a great bank balance at the end of each month.
Here are the finances.
Finances are looking much stronger than they were at the start of the game and they're only going to get better as we've still got 3 months to play friendlies and gain some income from them. We have managed to increase our % of transfer revenue from 15% to 55% which is great as we are receiving a lot of offers from other clubs for our more valued players. Speaking of transfers lets have a look at what we've done so far...
I haven't sold anybody as of yet due to me getting to know the players and finding out which one's are no-hopers and which one's could offer the team something. The incoming players weren't essential but will provide some great back-up. Loic feudjou was brought in as a younger choice in the goalkeeping area, he won't be first choice but may feature in the cup games. Next up is another keeper who I spotted straight after finalising the Feudjou deal. Unfortunately though I have only just noticed that Faouzi Chaouchi has actually got a global ban untill 30th May 2015. Finally is the big name signing, a former FA Cup winner, Papa Bouba Diop. he's no spring chicken I know but his experience is going to be vital for some of our younger players and should be a real coup for this quality of football.
So, there is part 1 of our pre-season & Champions League campaign. Hope you enjoyed the read, any feedback is greatly welcomed.
