Racing Club de Lens

Introduction
Some of you may have read my Schalke story, which sadly ended due to the save becoming corrupt. I was enjoying writing that story so I was keen to get straight back into another story but I couldn't find a save which I was enjoying enough to write about. After going through pre-season with RC Lens I found myself very much enjoying the save and decided to write about my progress with the French club.

Why RC Lens?
Lens are a club with a fair amount of history, although they currently sit in Ligue 2, the second tier of French football, they were crowned Ligue 1 champions in 1998 and finished 2nd place no less than 4 times, most recently in 2002. However, despite being relegated in the 08/09 season - they managed to return to the top tier at the first time of asking and then went on to secure a mid-table finish in the 09/10 season. They were relegated again the next season and in the past two seasons have finished 12th in Ligue 2. My goal is to get them back up to the top of French football and more importantly stay there. Furthermore, Racing Club de Lens can pride themselves on both their top training and likewise youth facilities, which has led to the club regularly producing fantastic young talents, most notably in recent years Serge Aurier and Mehdi Abeid who now play for Toulouse and Newcastle, respectively. Oh, and lets not forget Raphael Varane.

The Task

As you can see, the media have us down to finish 5th. Having assessed the squad, I feel that the media have vastly underestimated us and that we should be aiming to gain promotion fairly easily. The way promotion works in the French leagues is the same structure to that in the Greek leagues:So, basically, in order to gain promotion we need to finish 3rd at least. Given that the media have us down to finish 5th, with the right results and the right performances, we should secure promotion with no problem.

The Squad
The squad at RC Lens is very decent indeed, with a number of players more than capable of plying their trade in the top tier of French football. Add to this the numerous youth prospects at the club then the future looks very bright for RC Lens, providing they are taken in the right direction by yours truly, their coach.

~ Key Players
- Pierrick Valdivia: A tireless box-to-box midfielder. Excellent work rate and stamina alike which I will be looking to utilise in a defensive midfield role. He is probably the best player at the club, tipified by the fact numerous Ligue 1 clubs are pursuing his signature. That being said, he is happy at the club and I will be looking to fufill his ambition by gaining promotion to Ligue 1.
- Danijel Ljuboja: The man we will be looking towards for most of our goals I imagine. He has had a fairly good career, playing for big teams such as PSG. Wolfsburg and Stuttgart. Although he is 34 now he still has some good stats and Ligue 2 is certainly well below what he is capable of so I think he has a good season in store. His versatility will come in handy also, especially the fact he is an accomplished AMC.
- Ludovic Baal: Another player that a few Ligue 1 clubs are after. Very versatile player, can play anywhere up the left of the pitch and he can also do a job in the middle of the park too. Very solid, consistent stats which make him a great player to have at the club. He has already spoken to me about his desire to move to a bigger club, but I've promised him he can achieve his ambitions here, so here's hoping.
- Jérôme Le Moigne: A very solid holding midfield man. The captain of the football club, pretty much the man who will give that 10% extra when the going gets tough. At 30 years old he is heading towards the tail-end of his career so I'm hoping to give him a good run in Ligue 1 as he is very capable of playing at that level. Despite his ability he has only ever had 1 season at the top level of the french game.

~ Hot Prospects
- Wylan Cyprien: The future of this football club. Already capable of playing in Ligue 1 despite being only 18 years of age. He has 5-star potential and looks set to be the latest young sensation to emerge from RC Lens. Very excited to watch his development as he will definitely be getting the first-team football required to speed up his development.
- Taylor Moore: Ladies and gentleman we have an Englishman on board. Taylor Moore is a great prospect at the club, an up and coming box-to-box midfielder that most certainly has a future at the club. He has the potential to become a leading Ligue 1 player and, as the only English player at the club, I will definitely be looking to help him have a future for his country. With that being said, he's being chased by Monaco so I will have to be wary of that.
- Bilel Aït-Malek: A 16 year old attacking midfielder who already has very decent attributes to do as an attacking advanced playmaker. At only 16 he has years of development in him, with the 5-star training and youth facilities at RC Lens I am very confident of turning this lad into a star. Definitely of the more technical players at the club and I look forward to playing him alongside Wylan Cyprien.
- Christoffer Mafoumbi: This lad is going to be a fantastic goalkeeper, he stands at 6ft4 and is therefore a giant in goal. He does face competition from another young goalkeeper at the club but I am hoping that this is healthy competition and they both try to better each other for the benefit of the football club.

I will be posting a pre-season update soon.

Pre-season Results

We had an excellent pre-season, as you can see. In 8 games, we shipped only 1 goal. Granted, we were not playing Barcelona or Real Madrid every game, but I felt that trouncing teams was a good way to set the squad's morale high for the start of the season. The matches worth mentioning from the pre-season catalogue are the 0-0 draw at Verl and the 1-1 draw at home to Valenciennes. Verl are a semi-professional German side and to be quite honest I expected us to absolutely turn them over. With that 0-0 draw I though we were in for an awful pre-season against bang average teams, that wasn't the case - we bounced back well and notched an impressive 26 goals in 5 games prior to our match against Ligue 1 Valenciennes. The game against the Ligue 1 outfit saw us absolutely dominate the game but only emerge with a draw. However, 1-1 against a Ligue 1 side is not a bad result at all.

Transfer Activity

We completed 2 signings this window - costing us under 100k together, some very shrewd business you might say. The board set me a transfer budget of 600k, so you might be wondering why I only spent 88k of this. Well, I didn't, I spent it all, 450k was spent on a player who, due to restrictions in his league, cannot join us until the beginning of next season, so I am going to keep that a surprise for the time being. Anyhow, onto the players:

~ Transfers In.
- Jordan Gaubey: We managed to secure the signature of 19-year old Jordan Gaubey from FC Bourg-Péronnas for a measly 12.5k, which, when you look at the fact he has the potential to be a leading attacking midfielder, is a complete steal. He already has some solid attributes and hopefully he can develop into a solid first-team player for us.
- Joselito Vaca: I very much like the look of this player. Some very nice attributes and a set-piece specialist, too. He will be a vital player for us this year and will certainly make a very big contribution to our promotion bid. We payed Blooming, a Bolivian side, 75k for his services.

Good Luck With This Mate Shame About Your Other Career Enjoyed Following It.

Good luck with Lens mate, I'm currently managing Lyon, my first ever crack at playing in France which I'm really enjoying so far. Not sure about Ligue 2 but Ligue 1 seems really open in terms of anyone being able to beat anyone.

Thanks Jamie. Yeah it's unfortunate, I was enjoying writing it.


Cheers Rick. Yeah this is my first shot at France too so hopefully it goes well for us both. Well hopefully I can get to Ligue 1 at the first time of asking and sample it.

Monthly Results

The month of August saw my first competitive month in charge of Racing Club de Lens; and it was a good one. It began with a 1-0 win over CA Bastia, a game I thought was going to peter out to a draw until the 93rd minute when our 32-year old centre back Ahmed Kantari nodded home from a corner, a good start to my career. However, the good start was to come to an abrupt end - a brace from Joselito Vaca was enough to secure us a 2-2 draw in normal time, only for Istres to take the victory in extra time. Disappointed to lose my first cup game with Lens. On a much more pleasing note, however, we went on to win our next 4 games in the league without conceding a single goal. Although we only managed 5 goals in 4 games, you don't need to score more than 1 goal if you're keeping clean sheets - which we are. In summary, a very good start to my career in France and one I hope will carry on in the coming months.

League Standings

Very pleased to see that no other club in the league has managed to match our 100% winning start in the league which has allowed us to already open up a gap at the top of the league. It is no surprise to me that Troyes are the club hot on our tail as they were the media's pick to win the league, hopefully we can prove the media wrong come the end of the season. A surprise start to the season for US Créteil-Lusitanos has saw them secure 3rd place at the end of the 1st month despite them being one of the favourites to be relegated this season.

Monthly Results

September and October marked my first and second unbeaten months at the club. We fell behind to Havre in the opening 10 minutes and left it until the 68th minute where it was captain Le Moigne who stepped up and scored a true captain's goal to get us back on level terms. Our on loan full-back Marcel Tisserand secured the 3 points with a good goal 6 minutes later. The match against Créteil-Lusitanos again saw us leave it late with new arrival Joselito Vaca continuing his great start at the club with an 85th minute free-kick which proved enough to take the 3 points.The next 2 games against Tours FC and Metz, respectively, saw us finally start notching some goals - a good job too as we conceded 4 goals across the 2 games. With our excellent form, 9 wins out of 9 in the league, we played 2 of the weaker teams in the league and....... drew 0-0. I expected us to use the momentum and trounce these 2 teams, sadly it wasn't to be and our 100% record ended. A 3-1 victory at Clermont Foot with goals from Vaca and 2 of our defenders who have been in excellent scoring form since the start of the season.

League Standings

The league table is largely unchanged from August and thankfully we are still top and still the only undefeated team in the league, despite conceding our 100% winning start. We have opened up a 6 point gap over ESTAC Troyes which leaves us sitting nicely at the top of the table, exactly where I wanted, and expected us to be. ASNL have managed to get 3rd spot at the end of October which shows the promotion favourites starting to get in and amongst the top of the table. Our solid defensive start in the league sees us at the top having only conceded 6 goals in twice as many games, which is very encouraging. However, in an ideal world, I would like us to start scoring more goals in case this defensive record slips, which you would think it eventually will.

Monthly Results

Goals! Goals! Goals! As the 2 strikers I was rotating between were not delivering the goods, I decided to give 18-year old RC Lens youth player - Baptiste Guillaume the nod and, alas, we have goals. He began his scoring spree with a goal in a 3-2 victory over Stade Malherbe Caen, along with another 2 goals from Joselito Vaca. What is it with us drawing 0-0 with poor teams in this league? Oh well. Once again we followed up a 0-0 draw with impressive victories. Guillaume notched a hat-trick against semi-professional side RSC Montreuil. He then bagged a brace in an easy 4-0 victory over La Berrichonne in the league. The last game of the month saw us head to joint 2nd placed Nancy, a game which was a true epic. We went into the half-time interval 2-0 up, an own goal and a Joselito Vaca free-kick gave us a well-deserved lead. We managed to maintain this 2 goal lead until the 83rd minute in which AS Nancy scored the first goal of their 3-minute comeback. So, in 3 minutes we managed to flog a 2 goal lead against the club in second place. However, the drama was not finished... an absolute wonder strike from midfield sensation Wylan Cyprien saw him cap off a good month personally by securing a late win for us.

League Standings

Joyous times at Racing Club de Lens, just shy of the half-way mark in the season and we find ourselves 9 points clear of the second placed ESTAC Troyes, who seem to be well up for the challenge of pursuing us all season. We now find ourselves well among the top scorers in the league thanks to a good month from our young Belgian Baptiste Guillaume. We maintain both our unbeaten record and the best defensive record in the league. Only 2 league fixtures in the month of December so hopefully despite the fact we aren't overly active in the league, we can maintain some consistency and carry on picking up points.

Monthly Results

Not a great deal to mention about December. With only 3 games I wasn't expecting the month to be packed with action - and I was right. We started the month with a French Cup match vs. Orléans Loriet Football, beating them 2-0 thanks to to the in-form Guillaume and sought after full-back Ludovic Baal. We went on to play Angers in our first league match of the month and, you guessed it, drew 0-0. A game in which we managed 20 shots... 1 on target. We then played FC Istres for the first time since they knocked us out of the Coupe de la Ligue. We duly avenged that loss with goals from Vaca and Pierrick Valdivia.

League Standings

Due to a poor 0-0 draw against Angers, we allowed Troyes to close the cap from 9 points to 7. This doesn't phase me largely as 7 points is still a very nice advantage for us to have. Being 1 point ahead is great let alone 7, so I am still very happy with our performance in the league. I really didn't envisage us being undefeated after 18 games so I am absolutely thrilled by our performances in terms of the defensive aspect. On an attacking note, there are mid-table teams notching as many goals as us which is food for thought, but as with our fantastic defensive performances, we don't need to score 9 every game.

Monthly Results

After starting my career at Racing Club de Lens without losing a league game in 2013, we started the turn of the year against Amiens SC Football in the 9th round of the French Cup. This promised to be a fairly easy game and that was definitely the case as we overcame them 2-0. Then it was set, 2-0 was to be the score for the opening 3 games of 2014 at Lens. Goals from Yahia, Tisserand, Cyprien and Vaca across the 2 games earned us 6 more points in our title challenge. Next, was Ligue 1 outfit Guingamp. We fell behind early up to a goal from their striker Djordjevic who is having a great season in Ligue 1. Credit to the lads though they rallied and another goal from AS Monaco loanee Tisserand got us back on level terms. The game ended 1-1 and even extra time couldn't separate the 2 sides, and so it was the good old lottery of penalties that would decide this match. It was a relatively clinical penalty shootout and we managed to win 6-5 in the shooutout, a cupset! What did the victory against a Ligue 1 side earn us? Another game against another Ligue 1 side, PSG, infact! Uh oh. Anyway, momentum was on our side, we had knocked out a top-tier side in the cup, bring on Auxerre! Oh... we lost. Granted it was only 3 days after a 120 minute match but I felt I had rotated the side enough and maintained enough quality to see off Auxerre, but clearly not. Our undefeated record in the league is over, drat. We responded in style though, our young Belgian star Baptiste Guillaume ended somewhat of a goal drought matching Joselito Vaca's brace to overcome Stade Lavallois 4-0 in the league.

Transfer Activity

As you can see, we have managed to secure a player from FK Austria Wien on a free. Obviously as we have agreed to sign the player under the Bosman ruling, he cannot join us until the end of the season, which actually works out quite nicely. Our current goalkeeper, Alphonse Areola, is a player we have on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, so he is only with us until the end of the season (which is sad as he is a wonderkid who has been performing excellently for us thus far), which means I would have to find a suitable replacement for him. So, just who is his replacement?

~ Transfers In
- Osman Hadzikic: What a steal this is. A young goalkeeper who my scouts regard as 'decent' for a Ligue 1 side. At only 17-years old he has plenty of time for development, years upon years infact. His 5-star potential combined with the 5-star training facilities at the club make this young fellow a very exciting prospect. I'm very pleased to pick him up on a free as it saves the club millions which will help my transfer budget next season.

League Standings

So our first league defeat has saw the gap between us and 2nd place reduced to only 6 points. This gap has (albeit very gradually) been getting smaller each month so I'm very much hoping for a positive February in which we can open up the gap again and really show ourselves as the favourites to lift the Ligue 2 title. We have the best defensive record in the league by furlongs which is very encouraging as I love my teams to be solid at the back. That being said we still aren't setting the league alight with goals which I would like to add to our game, but I find myself saying that every month now even though we are constantly top of the league. You can't have everything I suppose. Onwards and upwards.

Very quick updates, but the detail and unique layout is fab keep it up!

Thanks Dan I appreciate that. I had a 3 hour train journey today so I had a lot of game time but obviously couldn't access the internet to update the story hence the quickfire updates there!

Monthly Results

Look at that! Look at it! We managed to, not just beat PSG, but beat them fairly comfortably (I will upload a photo of the match stats in a spoiler below). Baptiste Guillaume got us off to a flyer before Marco Veratti scored a lovely free-kick to bring PSG level. Remember in the original post in which I stated that Danijel Ljuboja would be our main goalscorer? Well this was his first goal of the season due to injuries and being played out of position, but what a time to get his first goal of the season! In terms of the other games this month, we managed to secure 7 points from a possible 9 in the league. Again we had a difficult time against one of the weaker teams in the league, but at least it wasn't 0-0 this time! A great month for us. PSG match stats below:

League Standings

As I much desired last month, we have managed to extend the gap at the top of table back to a hefty 9 points. With 13 games remaining this season we look to be in very good shape to go on and make this title ours. We are now the 3rd highest scorers in the league and our defensive record is still astounding which means this month has probably been my most satisfying in my time at the club. In terms of the other teams in the league, Troyes and Nancy are still the 2 teams pursuing us, although ASNL are firmly out of the equation now as they find themselves a solid 18 points behind us. Some news from Ligue 1, Montpeillier have been in the relegation zone all season, which excited me as I was looking forward to poaching some players from them, however they now sit 3 points above the relegation zone, so it is still largely a possibility for them to go down. Here's hoping.

Massive win against PSG! League title just games away it seems!

Monthly Results

Another good month for us. I am so thrilled with how well we are playing this season. Granted, Ligue 2 is a bit of a stroll in the park for a well-established team with some very capable players so I am not getting ahead of myself. That being said, we have managed to beat 2 Ligue 1 teams on our way this season, including PSG - the biggest of them all. As you can see, we had another good string of results in the league, with our customary struggles against weak teams. As we earned a place in the French Cup quarter finals, the draw was very, very fortunate to us. Of the 8 teams remaining, 2 were from Ligue 2 - ourselves and Angers SCO. It was the perfect draw for us, avoiding all the big dogs. I felt we deserved this draw after being so brave and attacking from the off against PSG. We went into this match very optimistic about our chances of progressing; and in the end it was a terrific hat-trick from Guillaume that secured the victory. The month ended well with us beating Clermont Foot 4-1 thanks to Vaca and Guillaume once again.

League Standings

We are now 10 points clear at the top of Ligue 2 and only a few points away from securing our much desired promotion back to the top tier. This has been our best scoring month for a long time, we are finally finding the net of a consistent basis which is very pleasing to see. Not only are we finding the goal, but we are creating plenty of chances which makes me very happy indeed. We shipped 6 goals this month, however, which is certainly more than I have become accustomed to.

Thanks for the comment again Dan. Yep it was a huge victory for us, I couldn't believe how much we went at them. Hoping to at least secure promotion fairly soon in order to rest players for the French cup!

What a run your on in the Cup! Lets go all the way!

Here's hoping, Dan! Next update later on today!

Great progress made, you are flying! CUPSET against PSG and now you can go on to win it

Monthly Results

Well it's fair to say we are doing our best to make a meal of this league campaign. Up until the penultimate month we found ourselves sitting nicely with 1 loss for the season, and then we go and quadruple that figure in just over 2 weeks. No idea what happened in these 3 losses, especially considering they were against teams we should've, and have already, turned over. BUT! We did manage to triumph over yet ANOTHER French giant in the semi finals of the French Cup. This time Marseille were put to the sword by Joselito Vaca and his crew. What a great win for us. Unlike the PSG game Marseille did have the better of us for large parts of the game, but we showed a great resilience and hit them on the counter-attack very late on, I was absolutely buzzing with this result! The task that awaits us in the final is of course another Ligue 1 side, in the form of season underperformers Montpeillier. AND, as we make it into the final, I have only just realised that a victory over Montpellier would see us secure a Europa League spot. I will definitely be rallying the troops for this game, bring it on!

League Standings

~ PROMOTED ~ Despite the euphoria of potential cup success - we have royally made a meal of the league this month, swiftly turning a 10 point gap into a mere point gap. No idea how we managed to do that but fair play to ESTAC Troyes as they capitalised totally on our slip-ups and secured a win each time we found ourselves on the losing end. That being said, we have secured promotion this month, and in terms of the title it is still in our hands going into the final 3 games of the season, which is the best position to be in as we don't want to find ourselves relying on other results. Hopefully we can finish the season with a cup triumph over Montpellier and a league title, too. A double in my first season at the club would be quite a feat. A spot among Europe's big boys in a continental competition would be magical too.


Thanks Kez, it's been a great season thus far. Just one step away from winning it now after another cupset!

Monthly Results

A very solid final month in the league. The month began with a 4-1 win over Istres, which we managed to replicate in the following game against Stade Brestois. Our superb pre-season signing Joselito Vaca finished off what has been an absolutely unbelievable season in the league for him scoring his 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th goals across these 2 games. The season finished with a game against already relegated CA Bastia. The circumstances surrounding this game were very simple - win and the title is ours no matter what ESTAC Troyes do in their final 3 games. As you can see we failed to manage a single goal despite being in prolific goal scoring form. So, would this be enough to win the title? Look toward the league table below this to find out. You'll also notice there is a game missing from these fixtures - the French Cup final. Well that gets a write up of its own for the occasion.

League Standings

We won the league. Better still, we won it with relative ease in the end, 6 points clear of the pre-season favourites Troyes, which just goes to show what the media know! A huge achievement for me in my first season with Lens. Havre will join ourselves and Troyes in Ligue 1 having enjoyed a very successful season in which they were tipped as relative outsiders for promotion to the top tier. FC Istres, FC Metz and CA Bastia make up the 3 unfortunate teams who will not be playing their football in Ligue 2 next season. Despite a pretty strong start to the season, AS Nancy fell away and ended up 7 points adrift of a promotion spot. Very disappointing seasons for Auxerre and Stade Brestois saw them finish 9th and 11th, respectively, despite being among the pre-season favourites for promotion.

Well Done Finishing Champions And Great Win Over Montpellier. Good Luck In The Europa League

Thanks Jamie. The real work starts now as we work toward success in Ligue 1.

Transfer Activity

As you can well see, I have dipped my toes into the water this transfer window, very much so. The board were very generous to me this season, giving me a budget of £8 million to experiment in the market. Compare this to last season where we spent a mere £87k in the same window - you an see how far we've come in such a short period of time. With a total spend of £7.77 million we managed to secure the services of 8 players. You will notice that Osman Hadzikic is on the list of dealings too, as you will know from the January '13 update (haven't seen it? It's here). So, who are the rest?

~ Transfers In
- Humam Tariq: Iraq's very own football prodigy. We finally get this young man after agreeing to sign him at this stage last year. The move was delayed due to restrictions not allowing him to join us at the time. A very technical lad with some attributes which already suffice for the top flight and at 18-years of age, plenty room for development. He is already a qualified on the international level having represented his country 20 times. He also has fantastic leadership skills which could see him rise to become a club icon as the future captain of the club.
- Samson Taiwo: We managed to get this young Nigerian on-board for a measly £25k. When you look at his stats and consider he is only 14-years of age, this is a crazy steal. His stats are by no means world-class, but they will save us a lot of development time. I feel that by the time this lad is 20 he will be the main striker at this football club. A very exciting prospect indeed.
- Nicuşor Stanciu: I'm sure a large number of you are familiar with this little sensation. We managed to fend off Dortmund and PSG for the signature of Stanciu. Just look at those stats for a 21-year old, phenomenal. My backroom staff and coaching team already rate him as a star of Ligue 1 and he has been touted to develop even further. Very happy to capture him for only £4.5 million.
- Willian José: I do feel slightly guilty about this. After the miracles Baptiste Guillaume worked for us last season, I've had to find someone more capable of delivering the goods in Ligue 1. I do promise Guillaume a future at the club and he has been loaned to a Ligue 2 side for developmental purposes. Willian José joins us from Real Madrid on a free transfer after they did not act quick enough to renew his contract. Very solid stats all-round and has a nice amount of room for development. Confident about him performing at this level and thrilled to save a few million by securing him on a free.
- Ljubomir Fejsa: With our captain Le Moigne aging, I felt he couldn't play the amount of games this campaign would demand from him (especially with us being in the Europa League), so I set out to find a back-up for him. I stumbled across Fejsa who wasn't getting the game time at Benfica and was listed by request, I managed to sign him for £2.2 million which is considerably less than Benfica paid for him initially. He isn't a world-beater by any means, but a solid, quality player to have at the club.
- Wilder Cartagena: Another potential star. I found this young Peruvian breaking into Vitoria's first team at the age of 19. I have to say I did not expect his stats to be as good as they were at such a tender age. I found myself very much lusting for the signature of this player and was expecting to have to shell out millions for him. To my surprise, we came to an agreement for a mere £425,000, a steal for such a great prospect. Young Wilder definitely has a future at this club.
- Alessio Romagnoli: A back-up to Touré and Yahia. Romagnoli joins us on a season-long long with a clause enabling me to purchase him at any time for £5.5 million. This was initially a loan purely for rotation, and it largely still is, however should he perform, I will definitely be looking to tie him up on a permanent deal as he has great potential and could, very much so, become our first-choice center-half.

Monthly Results

Our pre-season results speak for themselves really. Again, I wanted to get my squad's morale sky-high before the Cup match against PSG. Naturally, I started us off against the reserves, who were overcame with ease. Next, we encountered a very surprising defeat at the hands off US Créteil-Lusitanos, a team we are familiar with because of the league last year. Despite that defeat, we went on and secured some very strong victories, as you can see. Although they are very easy games it is nice to see new signings Willian José, Stanciu, Taiwo and Cartagena getting among the goals so early in their careers here at Racing Club de Lens. So that concludes our 2014 pre-season, and here's to a successful first season back in the top flight of French football with our new arrivals on board!

Apologies for falling behind on updates, should have one today.

I've got really fond memories of Lens from the older games... Vladimir Smicer was a bit of a legend for them on one of the earlier versions!

Great work on the promotion, and good luck in the top division!

Just caught up with this, fantastic double you have ended up with now!