AS Monaco ---- The Next Man City??

Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club commonly referred to as AS Monaco or simply Monaco) are a French football club based in Fontvieille, Monaco. The club was founded in 1924 and currently play in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football. The team plays its home matches at the Stade Louis II located within Fontvieille. Monaco is managed by Claudio Ranieri and captained by Andreas Wolf.

Though based in Monaco, the club is regarded as a French club, as the club plays in the French football league system, and because the principality of Monaco is not a member of UEFA.Monaco is one of the most successful clubs in France, having won seven league titles and five Coupe de France trophies. The club has also regularly competed in European football having been runners-up in both the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Champions League in 1992 and 2004, respectively.

Monaco enjoyed success in the 1970s and late 1980s during the managerial tenures of Lucien Leduc and Arsène Wenger, during which the club was amongst the leading lights of European football. Monaco's traditional colours are red and white, and the club is known as Les Rouge et Blanc (English: The Red and White). Monaco is also a member of the European Club Association.

Billionaire Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev has bought a majority stake in AS Monaco.

The seven-time French champions are in the second division but Rybolovlev has pledged to invest at least 100m euros (£84m) over the next four years.

"I am a passionate football fan," said the 45-year-old.

"I think this club has enormous potential. I hope it can now realise this potential, both domestically and in Europe."

The Russian, who is ranked 93rd on the Forbes list of billionaires, has acquired 66.67% of Monaco.

He sold his stake in fertiliser producer Uralkali for $6.5bn (£4.1bn) in June 2010, his net worth is estimated at $9.5bn (£6.1bn), and he bought American businessman Donald Trump's Palm Beach mansion for $100m (£64m) in 2008.

The new owner faces a huge task to revive Monaco's fortunes. The club won the last of their French league titles in 2000 and were Champions League runners-up in 2004 , losing to Jose Mourinho's Porto.

An 18th-place finish last season saw the club lose their place in the top flight and Rybolovlev may have to start spending immediately with Monaco now in danger of a second successive relegation. They are bottom of Ligue 2 with 13 points from 18 games.

Rybolovlev, who has been elected president of the board of directors, added: "Having lived long enough in Monaco, I realise the club is not just one of the principality's sports teams but also represents one of the main symbols of the principality, its pride and traditions."

Prince Albert II, Monaco's head of state, welcomed the deal. He said: "The agreement opens a new page in the history of the football team so dear to the principality.

"I hope the club can rediscover its former prestige which made it one of the jewels of Monaco's sporting life."

Rybolovlev is one of the small group of Russians such as Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich who became fabulously wealthy during the post-Soviet privatisation of the economy and are known as oligarchs.

It is the second time this season there has been a high-profile, big-money takeover of a French club after Qatari investors bought Paris St Germain in August.

Ever since he bought a majority stake in Monaco, Dymitry Rybolovlev has been ringing in the changes as well. He bought with him, a novice French manager, going by the name Shubhayan Sengupta.
We have tried to scour the net all over for this character but we just got a solitary Facebook profile the contents of which were unfortunately blocked by privacy settings.
Shubhayan Sengupta, who turns 32 next birthday has pledged to redeem Monaco's lost reputation and take them to the pinnacles of French and world football. Whether he would be successful remains to be seen. Due to his owner's mega-millions, his career will be under deep scrutiny, and Rybolovlev has pledged atleast 13 million pounds to help get Monaco back to the top flight which is a princely sum for a club in the second division of French football. All we know for sure is that this rookie would have to pull something big out of the transfer market for Monaco to qualify for promotion.

Good luck with this matey! another different idea!

Good luck with this. Monaco in my FM 11 save were actually being taken over by billionaire.

Thanks Dan! I hope to do with Monaco what Wenger did many years back. Will be posting up in a minute.

I was really busy in the transfer market because this was a team which had lots of useless players eating up wages which I could really use elsewhere. I released most of them because they were so bad that no club would ever buy them. I released players like Czech legend Jan Koller also as they were really old and wouldn't really fit into my aim of playing fast counter-attacking football (Borussia Dortmund anybody?)


But on the other hand, it would be the "in's" that would interest you more:-

1) I needed 2 players in central midfield who would be able to pass the ball along well and also would be able to contribute defensively.

The first player I signed as Monaco manager was Andrea Poli for 8 million pounds. Obviously, he wasn't very interest so I had to lure him in with a "match highest wage" clause. But hopefully when I do sell him for a profit later, it should pay off.


The second major signing was Ademilson from Sao Paolo for 5.5 million. I am pretty sure I will be courting interest for him in 2 or 3 seasons so I hope to recoup money from him as well.


The other signings are in detail here:-


Here is my completed squad report:-



I have tried buying players with the aim that I will be able to sell them later at 2 or maybe even 3 times they price a few seasons down the line.
The next post will be where I reveal my tactics.
So what do you think of my signings? Do you think I made a mistake in buying a player? Or do you think it is money well spent? Write a reply!!

Cheers!

Glad to see you didn't spend crazy money! your squad is looking rather impressive now chap

very nice

Good luck mate nice signings

Thanks for all the support everybody!!
I'm sorry but since this was my first story on fm13, I became too eager and already finished a whole season. LOL
Anyways, here's a screenshot.
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We won with a 10 point lead in hand and a huge goal difference of 33. We also scored the most goals, 76, which is 15 more than the next team. What really disappointed me was our defence. I mean, we shipped in 43 goals! That sort of defence would get me KILLED in the Ligue 1. So this summer, I would have to reorganise my tactics and/or buy better defenders.

But our league win wasn't the only thing we won.
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We won the Coupe de France which is the French equivalent of the FA Cup! Against PSG! Which is one of THE most scariest sides I have ever seen.
I mean TAKE A LOOK AT THEIR SQUAD!

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They bought Falcao, Fellaini, Clichy, Cabaye, Sissoko and others. Add to that the fact that they already have Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Pastore, van der Wiel and Lavezzi, they have one of the THE strongest sides in the world. Damn.........

I'll have to really look into the transfer market for the next season if I have a chance of getting a mid-table position that I want to.

P.S, winning the Coupe de France got me into the Europa League. That is great because that means more money.


AIMS FOR THE NEXT SEASON 2013-14
1) Get into top 10
2) Get past group stage in Europa League
3) Get past quarter finals of both the domestic cups.
4) Earn a profit this year.


Pretty achievable aims right? What do you think?

This thread will also try and cover some real life football events too


So viewer question:-
What do you think will happen to Torres once Falcao comes to Chelsea?


Cheers,
superfootballmanager

I'm not sure about the Europa aim, group stages is definitely a possibility but beyond that I would think depends on the luck of the draw! Top ten is definitely pretty achievable considering you were able to draw PSG in a cup final (and beat on extra time). Looks good for the cups and profit though!

Personally I'm an admirer of Torres I think Chelsea should keep him but I think Torres might be exchanged with Falcao if a deal happens though.

Thanks mate!
We won against PSG by the skin of our teeth though. But now with Falcao, Ibra and Lavezzi along with the playmakers Pastore and Cabaye, I have a lot more men to put on "tight marking" instructions.....

I'm thinking of changing my FINAL aims though. Because I have a sugar daddy as my owner, it will be too easy.....

Now, I have already set up my aims for this season, however, note that I haven't set up any LONG term aims per se.
So I have come up with some long term aims that should make this a LITTLE more exciting.

My squad at the moment
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As you can see, I have just 5 players from a total squad of 24 players. The worst thing is out of these five, none of them are in my first XI and are not serious contenders for a spot in the starting XI until one of the players does really bad.
Also, I am not a big fan of spending more than 15 million for a player unless he really deserves it

AIMS


1) Buy only French players from the 2014-15 season with ONE extra player from any other nationality. Established or youth prospects doesn't matter.
2) You can only spend big on French players. For foreign players there is a 20 million cap which you CANNOT exceed. For French players however, there is no such cap.
3) Try and adopt Wenger's technique of grooming players. Buy them young and later, sell them big.

That is all for the moment. Next post will be on transfers and the initial matches in Ligue 1.

Cheers,
superfootballmanager

PS, can you tell me why I am getting duplicates of every picture? I have copied and recopied the same link again and again and its really making me angry..

Its annoying seeing double images but we can bare with it fantastic first season buddy

I'm not too sure about the double images, but check out the codes. The links to put on forums are usually done with square brackets like this [img] instead of <img>. Maybe thats the problem?

I think it would be more to build a dynasty with Monaco, CL titles to beat Real Madrid's all time record? Generally I find French regens to be one of the best so building an Arsene-esque dynasty should not be a problem~!

yes you should go for the top when you are in at club like this