FM14 - Susie On Tour #4: Fenerbahçe S.K.

Why are Eskisehirspor so fucking good?

Why not haha?

There are some absolute random teams in that league, one week they are amazing ... the next ... rubbish.

So starting my 2nd season now, but just noticed Gaziantepspor have a 2 point deduction, and Karsiyaka have a whopping 14 point deduction! No idea what they are for though.

What's the finances like?

If they're fine then it's unknown why they've been given points deductions.

I'm also averaging a red card every other match ffs

Me too. The left back Caner (who is amazing) picked up 5 or 6 red cards last season - still he felt it was totally unfair that I fined him...

Finished season 1.

Cup winners = 30pts



2nd place = 15pts



Beat Galatasaray x2 = 10pts
Beat Beşiktaş x1 - 5pts
Beat Trabzonspor x1 = 5pts

Total Points = 65pts

Great start VP. League was almost there for you.

Should have won it, beat the winners home and away quite easily too.

Getting rid of the big earners and trying to make the squad a lot younger as well now as may carry this on after the challenge is over.

The Susie tour managed to pick up a hitch-hiker whilst it was in Turkey in the form of MCMXC.

He took the rains of Fenerbahçe S.K. and had a roller coaster of a first season in charge.

It started out with some horrible friendly results and a Extra time defeat to a rival in the Super Cup. The League seemed to be going pretty well until a awful win less 30 days which produced 3 defeats and 2 draws, and at the halfway stage in the Group of death in the Turkish Cup, the table was looking bleak!!

2014 picked up again and the league title looked like it was virtually in our grasp and a high possibility of breaking the 100 goals mark, but 3 defeats in a row in April nearly threw it away.

But we held on to win the title.

The process of making this ageing foreign side both younger and more Turkish has began with the signing 2 younger Turks for total fee of 8.35 Million

So I make that a disappointing 42 points for the hitch-hiker

Finished my 3rd season! Very happy to again win the cup! Shame I didn't win the league and only just held on to 2nd. But we won the super cup this year! Champions league was disappointing as we were just outclassed in a very tough group. Mehmet Ekici was brilliant well worth the £6 million!

League Finish = 2nd = 15 points



Rivalries = Besiktas = 10 points Trabzonspor = 5 points Galatasaray = 5 points Total = 20 points






Ziraat Turkiye Kupasi = 30 points





Champions League = 2 points





Transfers



Total = 15 + 20 + 30 + 2 = 67 points

Total points over the 3 seasons = 53 + 70 + 67 = 190 points

Yeah both teams had poor finances, but the disparity in point deductions was surprising. I haven't really had time to sit down and bash through the last 2 seasons yet, although im around 8 or so games into the second season with a pretty poor start of a few losses and draws already.

hope i finish in time, here is my first season:


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league - winner - 25p
cup - winner - 30p
rivalry - BJK (x4) - 20p
rivalry - GS (x5) - 25p
rivalry - TS (x1) - 5p
total - 105p

Season 2 was littered with inconsistent performances for the rest of 2014, but the turn of the year saw an improvement

Just like last year we started out with some horrible friendly results and a Penalty shoot out defeat to a rival in the Super Cup. The League was slightly disappointing but results improved to finish the season as Runners Up and a place in the Champions League following the end of the European ban. But as defending champion we didnt even spend an hour in top spot .

The team looked determined to make amends for the horror show of finishing bottom of the group last season and lifted the Cup in April and also made amends of the Penalty defeat to Beşiktaş in the Super Cup by not only beating them in the final, but also by winning 2 shoot outs on the road to the Final.

2014 picked up again and the league title looked like it was virtually in our grasp and a high possibility of breaking the 100 goals mark, but 3 defeats in a row in April nearly threw it away.

We also picked up more victories over our rivals this season, but that was helped by Trabzonspor having a shocker and finishing bottom of our Cup group, but also by them narrowly avoiding relegation from the Super League with only a couple matches to go.


So I make that a slightly better 70 points for the hitch-hiker, giving a total of 112 points with the final season still to play. My target is to get at least 88 points in year 3 so I can complete my first leg of the tour with 200 points

Second season didn't go anywhere near as well as the first, still got a cup win though.






Süper Lig: 15 points
Ziraat Türkiye Kupası: 30 points

Rivalries
Besiktas x0: 0 points
Galatasaray x1: 5 points
Trabzonspor x2: 10 points

First Season: 105 points
Second Season: 60 points
Total: 165 points

Season 3 was just a disaster for both myself and the rest of the so called big 4!

We won the Super Cup at the 3rd time of asking but was pretty much the only joy of the season.

Our first foray in Europe after the ban started alright as we made the Group Stages with wins over Olympiacos & Napoli, buthen no points picked up in our Group.

As defending Champions of the Turkish Cup, i would have liked to have done better then we did, Sadly going out in the fifth round, Only Galatasaray & Beşiktaş of the Big 4 made it to the Groups and with only the latter getting out of it.

The poor season for the top teams continued in the league, where we only managed to finish 5th, thankfully qualifying for Europe but it was looking so much worse around Christmas. None of 4 big teams managed to make it into the top 2 at any point in the season and only 6 match-days ended with one of us in 3rd!

Thankfully i can make my exit from the team after the poor season and hopefully will have a better time on the next leg.

So I ended my 3rd year in charge with only 22 Points giving my a final total of a shocking 134 points

I reckon it be nice to take a trip over to Wales or N Ireland in the next leg, before continuing west to one of the American continents after that.

Started tonight, June 2nd, I probably won't finished the 2nd season let alone the 3rd, but I find the scale of the interest in this challenge compelling to try it.

I'll save screen shots for end of season confirmation, but currently at the end of Sept, lost the Super Cup on Pens, but beat Gala 3-1 next game, and just beat Besiktas away 2-1 to move 2nd in the league, 1 point behind top and undefeated.

I've settled on a 4-4-2 as too many of the foreign players are strikers, and strangely, Sow has scored 10 in 7, while Emineke has 0 in 5(2).

Knowing its only a 3 season max give a certain amount of relief as you know you dont have to plan for the future, but seeing some of the posts, its clear that you have to find progressive players for season 2 and 3 as you cannot attract the players you need, and dont have the money to buy. I've sold two players - and have brought in three on loan, all young Turkish players. I hope to sell a couple more, and hopefully buy a couple of Turks for next season.

Good to see alot of people getting involved with this

Season 1 complete.

It's definitely been one of the quickest seasons I've done, and I wouldn't say I've rushed it. I echo BOT Brad when he says about watching games on quickest. I found too often the things I was seeing on the match engine would drive me mental, so I've been on 'only commentary' for a while now.

As seasons go, its been full of interest and twists and turns for me. I've generally struggled to hold interest in solo games since me and a friend began playing duel games a few years ago. I think I lack the self motivation to keep plugging on so have this sort of challenge pushes my competitive side.

The first thing I did at Fener was a massive coaching overhaul. The dross that was already there was probably bringing the players down. Which isn't easy too do as you can still ruin what tiny budget you have sacking and bringing in bad staff.

2nd; always have been, always will be a transfer hound. I love buying/bringing in players, gotta do it. However, I hadn't planned on spending money, found some youth players, some loans, but after an early bid from Ajax for Caner Erkin was rejected he became unhappy, I then saw his contract was expiring and that he would be leaving one way or the other. CE was sold for 6m.



I'm fairly pleased with my overall transfer dealings, with only one true target choosing Galatasaray over me.

The aforementioned Gala held me to penalties in the Super cup, while we managed to beat them 3-1 the very next game in the league.



I played a total of 3 different formations, with varying degrees of success, and with different players make an impact. At one point Moussa Sow had 21 goals in 21 games, while Emenike didn't score until his 8start I believe, then bagged a brace. Dirk Diggler Kuyt didn't suit anywhere bar up top for me, but at points in the season all three were our shining stars.



In terms of competitions, I suppose I got lucky having an easy cup group, then getting Trabzonspor and Besiktas in the final to wrack up some rivalry points. Defeat on pens to Gala was hard to swollow, and was the only thing to stop us making a clean sweep as we won the league with relative comfort over unheard of Kasimpasa.


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So, I think, if I'm following this right, and you're still following my post, I work my 1st season score to be:

League WON = 25
Cup WON = 30
Galatasaray WDL = 5
Besiktas WWL = 10
Trabzonspor WWWL = 15
Total: 85

After losing to Gala at the start and falling 12 points behind in the league I'm really pleased with how we picked up. Very happy with 85 and will kick on to get pre-season completed quickly.

Cheers, GDT.

Third season

League 25 p


Cup 30 p


Europe 12 p




Knocked out from the CL group, but progressed to the Europa League, and lost in the semi final against the to be cup winners Schalke. A bit dispointed after we knocked out Dortmund.

Rivals 50 p


Boodly hell, we played Galatasaray every other week! 30 p


20 p

And then we lost both matches against Besiktas.

25+30+12+50=117 points

Total: 80+90+117 = 287 POINTS

Third season back to winning ways in the league, although the cups were a massive disappointment.







Süper Lig: 25 points
Ziraat Türkiye Kupası: 2 points
Champions League: 0 points
Europa League: 0 points

Rivalries
Besiktas x2: 10 points
Galatasaray x1: 5 points
Trabzonspor x1: 5 points

First Season: 105 points
Second Season: 60 points
Third Season: 47 points
Total: 232 points

You didn't count you rivalry points. That should be another 20 for you!

Hopefully I can get the final season done by the weekend or so, as I definitely need to rethink a few aspects following my miserable second season. I think I may have tried to reshape the squad too quickly, as I offloaded probably 1/2 of the playing squad and brought in a younger, more Turkish based squad. The two best youngsters (both regens IIRC) were ultimately Cengiz Yilmazer, a 19 year-old signed from Turgutluspor, who actually ended up as my top scorer, which says more about the rest of my squad probably. The second was Nurullah Yardimci, a 20 year-old who had the highest average rating of all my players with 7.14 over the season. He was signed from Giresunspor for £3m. He is now worth £9m, and has developed at an astonishing rate. When I signed him, he was a 1.5* CA and a 5* PA. He is now a 4* CA!

Pretty much the only other signing I made who turned out to be decent was Yunuz Malli from Mainz, but he kept picking up little injuries and missed about 14 games.

I'm slightly behind Brad and not yet completed season two with bed time fast approaching... any chance of an extension till Sunday night around 11pm UK?

It's either that or gambling on long spells of holidays to make up the time

The offseason lasted a short 70 days, and was over in a flash. My goal in that time was to decrease the number of foreign key members of the team. Whilst I’m not sure I did this well enough, I was very pleased with our summer activity.



Gabriel Barbosa is a player that becomes a monster later in the game, and despite his age, lack of Turkish diction and foreign status, felt the chance to sign him, be able to play him 1st team and give him a shot at either becoming a Bahce legend (or sell him for a huge sum of money) was too good to pass up. I also finally got my man Kaan Ayhan, albeit on loan.


Our new season started hideously, winning only one friendly, losing the Super Cup (again) and losing our opening two league games, one of which was an easy home tie. By the third I was on to my fourth formation/tactic with Fener.



Seven wins followed including six in the league to take us top. And 23 goals in those games boosted moral to an excellent level.



The teams goal scoring has never been a one man job, and lasts seasons Sow, followed by Emenike with a hint of Kuyt was not mimicked this season. Barbosa has been far from prolific, grabbing just 6 in 23 starts. Moussa Sow has 9 in 14(6) and Emenike has 12 in 16(2). But its been largely the fitness and consistence of renaissance man Dirk Diggler Kuyt that has kept us flying high, the Dutchman bagging 16 in 20(4) to date.


(Image taken after the stats above were quoted as this has been a work in progress)

However, we suffered a draught of sorts, and partly my fault, I forgot all about the Cup of African Nations. We lost Sow and Emenike for almost all of the Cup groups and first league games of the new year. A huge loss. It was left to misfiring Barbosa, Kuyt, father time Sanli Tuncay and youngster Muhmmet Damir (6 in 15(8)) to rotate and keep us plodding forward.



We survived, and put in not only some important results, but some very pleasing performances. The fixtures piled up thick and fast with two Rival games of huge importance lumped in the busiest period. Sadly, due to rotation, and seemingly more important games, not to mention the cursing of “unbeatable Fenerbahce’s 12 games unbeaten is a new record” we succumbed to a 1-0 away defeat to at the time 2nd place Eskisehirspor. Delightfully, the rotation helped us punish Besiktas 4-0 away. The boys followed that, with a 1-0 over Gala in the league to push us four points clear.

It's gone past 2am, and with a brutal cup 2nd leg resulting on pens, I've gotta call it a night. Season two is at the business end and hopefully we can see it through! We're 8 clear a top of the league, and the other leg of the Cup is Besiktas vs Galatasaray, with Gala winning 4-1 on agg.



Good night from Istanbul.

Season Two Complete.


League Winners: 25points



Turkish cup Winners: 30 points



No Europe.

Rivals:



Galatasaray: WWW = 15
Besiktas:WWWDL = 15
Trabzonspor: WW = 10

Total for Season Two: 25 + 30 + 15 +15 +10 = 95
(Total for Season One: 85 + Season Two = 180)

*Originally put incorrect scores for season 1 and total.

Started this challenge last night after seeing it on here and noticing that it looks amazing fun, thankfully got 3 days of work now to smash it, gonna have great fun, will post screen shots after every season, start climbing that leader board!

for the third time, the Super Cup has eluded me. Lacking match fitness despite 6 friendlies and a lot of fitness training.

Yeah I lost both Supercup games in the first 2 seasons, and now won't get another crack as it seeing as I didn't win the league or cup. Oh well, got the Europa League to focus on this time around.