The spartak revival

After seeing VPs thread about reviving teams I thought ill have a go at it myself.I don't usually do this myself as I usually go for my own team Newcastle united (though it was a revival mission in the 09/10 season) unless its a network game where i could be anyone really.So with the going for something new in terms of the revival concept I would also go for not only a new league but also a new country.This is where I come up with spartak moskow.

I know they are still in the top division but I certainly think they are by no means anything to what they were just over a decade ago.I think this backs me up with that claim...



After near domination for nigh on a decade they have gone downhill in a pretty bad way.In fact the red whites haven't won a thing for 11 years.If people think taking over man utd these days is a revival job then this is for sure.Anyway more about the club.



The media are predicting a 3rd place finish which I think I should be able to obtain if things go smoothly especially with no European football to be distracted by.They have had a lot of good players playing for them.Welliton is someone I bought regularly around 5 years ago and obviously the standout player nemanja vidic went on to do great things at man utd.Hopefully I can have a few in that mould that I can keep.All 3 icons were great midfielders in their own right.All the rivals are all pretty obvious ones and im more looking forward to my clashes with zenit more than any of them.The ticket prices and expected season ticket sales show I cant expect too much in terms of revenue from matches.Though they do have a nice new stadium.



And some good facilities...



The one thing im not too happy about is the junior coaching as I like doing a lot with youth.In time that will get better im sure of that.

In terms of goals I am basing the on short and long term.

Short term 2-5 years - To win the Russian premier league and establish myself as top dog again.This wont be easy as zenit has a far better squad and much more financial power.Then theres CSKA,dinamo moskow and rubin Kazan who are all blessed with very decent squads.

Long term 5-10 years - To win the champions league.This has a good chance of not happening.As I said though I like to do a lot with youth so ill be aiming to spot the regens early,develop and keep them till they are in their prime.

This wont make my start any easier.So many out for so long means ill have to get a few players in just to keep everyone fairly fit.Also got like 5 players who would all be in and around my first team out on loan.



Anyway hope anyone who takes the time to read my story enjoys it as much as ill hopefully enjoy playing it.Ill be doing an update just before the league season starts with signings and pre season on show.

Good luck with this, sure itll be a great journey!

Good luck with Spartak Moscow

Cheers guys.Update will be coming soon.Made some quality transfers.

Well its the eve of my first league game.Again I have been predicted by the media to finish 3rd.Honestly don't mind as there isn't much pressure on me and im fair confident of a top 2 place.



I decided to go for broke a bit with 2 big transfers.Or big compared to what could make my team much stronger in the next couple of seasons.I did have to offer various addons to complete both transfers as my 10m overall budget would no way cover them.





As you can see both fees can rise much much higher.Reason for me going for them aswell as the obvious quality in both of them and potential sell on value should I decide to cash in but I have this sponsorship coming in.Have to say I do hope it renews itself.



And the rest of the transfers...



Decided get 2 of the rising stars on the game in Tariq and savitskiy.Both very young and will play some role in the first team this seasonbut overall will be great for my club in the long run.The free transfers were just to keep my club Russian.My outgoings were mostly to save on wages and can see them both as expendable.



Pre season wasn't amazing.Didnt win a home game but unbeaten in the last 3 makes me a little more confidant.Artem dyzuba will probably be my 2nd choice striker so im happy with his pre season return.

Brilliant signings Lucas Romero is brilliant for me.

As Johno said a great signing in Romero!

Before I start off on the update for august I just want show the tactics I have chose to use.





Top one is my standard formation which I use the majority of the time.Its my most used formation since around 2005.The cdm is usually a ball winning midfielder but I feel romero can do a good job as a free roaming playmaker especially in this division.I have always played with 2 box to box midfielders.I like the idea of 2 cms helping in defence and attack.

The 2nd one is my attacking one.2 wingers are my most creatively usually with the trequartista helping out on goals.Usually only employ this against weaker teams or if im needing a goal in last 20 mins or so.If its a cup final and im desperate for a goal ill go 2 up top and sacrifice the amc.

Bottom is the defensive one as you can probably tell.A half back and ball winning midfielder in cdm can offer a lot of protection to the defence aswell as a box to box midfielder and 2 defensive wingers can offer a fair bit defensively aswell as help on the counter which is how I play.

Now for the results



Very happy with my results so far.Pavel savitskiy would get all the plaudits and rightly so with 6 goals and 2 assists but lucas romero has been brilliant just as I knew he would.He only has one goal but its a shame he hasn't got at least 5 assists as hes made the pass before the assist on a number of occasions.Also Im going to make a mention of balanta and bochetti.5 games and 5 clean sheets and them2 have proved a formidable partnership and with aranzubia behind them I can look forward to a lot more clean sheets this season.Im sure of that.Not going to go through each match just say I enjoyed the dynamo and lokomotiv moskow matches as I was expecting tough games but my lads did great.



Starting to run away with it but im not getting ahead of myself.Got 2 of my toughest games on the calendar out the way in 2 local derbies but still plenty of time to go.Im happy zenith and CSKA have dropped points so a 5 point cushion on my 2 biggest rivals for the league can only be a good thing no matter what stage of the season im at.



Team of the month looks good for us.Bit gutted bochetti didn't make it but cant be too upset.

And the player of the month...



100k this lad cost.Only 20 year old too.Hes keeping the more experienced jose manuel jurado out the team with his great performances and 6 goals.

Overall im very happy with how its going so far.After the very average pre season I didn't expect this.I do have zenit very soon but im not as wary of them.A loss will bring me right back down to earth.

Hope your all enjoying this story and hope it carries on the way it is going.

Awesome start Not surprised to see Romero playing great for you

Can I see screenshot of Savitskiy?

Thought id go full screenshot for it.All the attributes for a top young winger are there.Got high hopes for him.Romero just made his debut for argentina andgot himself a goal and man of match against iran.

Fantastic start man

Cheers dan.Yeah had a great month.Enjoying this save more than expected.Maybe its the results influencing that a bit though.

Now onto the next update.



Another 4 games another 4 wins.Not all that happy by all accounts though.Urai caused me a lot of problems but we got the win.Then came the match that did me in a bit.We got the win needed against our toughest rival and we were lucky to do so but zenit (purposely?) injured 3 players,all Russian in that match including my starting rb and 2nd choice lb who came on to replace him.and the shortest of these injuries is 6 weeks.In a league where I need 4 Russians on the pitch at every minute of the match its going to be a struggle.Then came a match I should of won by 4-5 and I snaked it with a last minute extra time goal but these guys then injured a fb from my u21s team.A win against amkar rounded off the month.Happy about this one though.We got away with that.



League tables looking great.Got a solid lead and only conceded 1 goal.Going well so far though next match is CSKA away.Biggest match of the season with the fans and I would hate to lose my win streak record let alone my unbeaten record against them.



Heres another table I have been top on all season.Not too happy about it but that's football manager.Take the rough with the smooth.

And finally...



2 new signings in the team of the month again.Svitskiys goals have dried up but he has assisted a couple.Balanta has been a rock.

Continuing to do well despite the injuries!

Dan mate these injuries have been ridiculous.Ive been having to play some pretty poor rbs from the youth team and while they haven't been performing well the rest of the team have been carrying them.



Started off the month away to CSKA.Went behind twice and in the closing stages I was thinking this will be my first defeat until costa come up with an equaliser from 25 yards.Stunning goal and it was deserved.Got another hard fixture out the way and avoided defeat.Starting to thinki may be able to come through the season unbeaten in my first season but don't want get too ahaead of myself.

Mordovia never caused us problems.A 2-0 win made them look better than they were.

Rubin Kazan away.My first defeat but I did play a much weakened team.Ideally we would of gone through but im not too fussed as it was always just about the league this season.Still we played poor and were lucky to keep it down so much.

Kuban at home and a 4-1 win flattered us.Went in at half time 1 down and I gave the team the hairdryer treatment and saw a completely different team.Was a matter of us taking our chances and them not though as they did trouble us but im happy with the result more than the performance.

Terek away I thought was going to be tricky and it proved to be.Come away with a win and I couldn't be happier as they should of got about 4 but for rebrov (coming in for aranzubia to make up the Russian numbers in xi).



That tables looking better and better every time I see it.Sure both zenit and CSKA have a game in hand on me but it is against each other in a couple of weeks.Opening up a bit of a lead though.Im now very confident of a league win in my first season.



Team of the month time and again savitskiy and balanta are in in.Thats 3 times ina row for the pair.Dont like to blow my own trumpet but with them both being signings just makes it that bit better.

With a massive 4 month break ahead of me I wanted to capitalise on it and not rotate as much.I have dropped a couple of points and got knocked out of the Russian cup thinking of the next fixture.I don't really like the idea of 4 months without competitive football but that's Russian football for you.



Not the best month.Squad not performing as well as the last few months but still unbeaten.

The ufa match should of been so much more comfortable than it was.Needing a 91st minute winner from yakovlev isn't what I was expecting before the match.

A bore draw and I mean this was bad against torpedo moskow.Think there was one highlight and that went to them.

Again another late winner against a Rostov team who have the 2nd worst defence record.Also had to come from behind in that match with my rb scoring one of them fluke goals you see throughout the season.

Home to lokomotiv moskow and this is the only match I can be happy with in this update.Battered them from start to finish and 2-0 could of been 6-0 easily.

Another very disappointing game.Had to come from behind twice and another late goal saved our blushes.

Overall it wasn't pretty.4 of my 8 goals scored in the 88th minute or later.Dont know whether to be positive about it and think we play to the final whistle or feel that its not good leaving it so late to score as sooner or later ill need a late goal and it wont come.Right now im thinking the latter.



Still got a decent 8 point lead over zenit,Could of been higher but could easily of been lower also.Just over halfway through the season and were in a better position than I could of hoped for but still I find myself feeling less happier than I did just over a month ago.Now its time for the long hibernation.

Running away from Zenit, surprised as I thought they'd really compete with you

Surprised to see you so comfortably at the top, having a great season!

Signings have really come through for me especially romero and balanta.Another 13 games and if we play like we did in that last update its going to be close.

Great month Shame you didn't beat Dinamo Moscow.

That was a long long wait.4 months and no games but for a few friendlies.Hate pre season and here in Russia it comes twice.

Anyway admittedly I did go on holiday for about 4 week of it.Just too long to wait.But I did manage to get a few things done.Made a few more signings.First off this lad come in...



Not a bad player and can play all across the back and with my injuries last year he could come in very handy.Also another Russian to help with them numbers.



Think everyone knows this guy.I have always rated him and ill be getting him on a free so that's always a bonus.58k a week is a lot of cash but I think ill be getting rid of jurado and have him and savitskiy fighting it out for the lw spot

Then the big one in my opionion...



This guy along with lucas romero in 5 -10 years time could be running the midfield for any team in world football and wouldn't look out of place and I cant wait pair them together.Again just like most of my transfers about 65% of the overall fee is clauses.Could bite me in the arse but just getting them in surely ensures cl football each year and maybe progression to knockout stages in a couple of years.



Another one for the future.He wont be a starter right away but will be 2nd choice and play in cl and the cup.

So those are the transfers I have made.3 to arrive in the summer and one in now.Ill have to keep an eye on the finances and my Russian/foreigner ratio.The amount of clauses im going to be paying out is pretty insane but you sometimes have to pay for success.Just look at PSG and city.Neither team might not be in the division they are in let alone winning it.

Now for the friendlies.Not going to go into them too much as Im anxious to get back to playing and want play a couple before I get off to bed.



Started off with what I think is a decent draw again Plzen.The went on a little tour of UAE and got 2 wins and a draw.All matches could of been landslide wins but im happy with them.Then a trip to my commercial feeder club in china and a great 6-1 win.

Now onto some serious matches and the hope I can continue the overall form of last year.

.

Massive signings you have made Hope Tielemans becomes good.

As do i.Like I said if I can keep him and romero as a cm partnership for a few years then im sure I can win the league title more often than not.With the 7 foreigners max on the pitch at one time rule im going to be replacing foreign players in my team for improvements.Like tielemans for Romulo and giovinco for jurado.Thats the plan anyway.

Sounds a good plan there Has there any interest in Romero?

Not as of yet no but I am expecting a lot in the summer.He has a 35m release clause in his contract for cl clubs and whoever comes in for him will have to pay all of that minimum.No point me making this grand plan and then selling him for a profit.Hes here to bring me success not for cash.I did go for gil romero in the break but he didn't want to come.If I did sell him I might go for him again.Or might go for him anyway.

Yeah, he's wanted by Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd, Barcelona and Real Madrid on mine and Barca came in with 29M offer which I turned down but he never complained about it. But I managed to tie him down to new contract with minimum release clause of 39M (previous was 33M)

Last night got me thinking.I need to secure my best player more than what he is.So I signed romero up to a new contract.



A lot of bonuses I know but I have him for another year and managed to get an extra 10m in that minimum fee release.10% of the profit of his next transfer will be going to velez so I wanted to get that higher and was offering contracts with 65m as the release clause but he wouldn't accept anything more than 45m.I know ill be paying a lot of money but I really don't mind.The lads been quality.

Now for the months results...



A 4-0 win was a great result.I knew I had to hit the ground running as a defeat or poor draw could easily of dented morale which then could set the tone for the remainder of the season.

The next game was always going to be a tricky one.Krasnodar away isn't one of the easy fixtures and I was happy to comeaway with a point especially after getting mauled throughout the game.

Ural at home should of been easy but we made hard work of it with 2 late goals.Humam tariqs goal was a beauty from 25 yards out.His first for spartak.

Looking at that tablei should really be winning the league for sure.As I said the next 2 fixtures are key even if rubin are down in 11th.Pretty surprised at that but I know it will be a tough one.I think top 2 is secured so I will be playing cl football next season.CSKA are just too far away.Zenit I am very wary of.

On the whole it was very decent month.Next 2 league games are both losable.Rubin away (The same fixture I lost in the cup) and zenit away.If I come through these undefeated then ill win the league I think.



Looking at that table i should really be winning the league for sure.As I said the next 2 fixtures are key even if rubin are down in 11th.Pretty surprised at that but I know it will be a tough one.I think top 2 is secured so I will be playing cl football next season.CSKA are just too far away.Zenit I am very wary of.I did also try to get one more free transfer at the end of the season.Carlos Fierro would of been a great addition and I would of had my attack sorted for years but I couldn't afford the signing on fees and had to cancel.

A decent start to this month but a very worrying end.



First off a drawn away to rubin.Good result by any means.Very boring draw which only offered one highlight but a good point.

Then came the big one.A draw away to zenit and people would think it was a good result.I unfortunately cant agree.heres why...

An early goal from artem dzyuba set us on our way and more chances came from both sides but the goalkeepers were on top.Then lucas romero deservedly got sent off for 6 fouls and we couldn't cope with the zenit attack only artem rebrov was stopping them.Then came the 3rd minute of added time and an equaliser.Heartbreaking for me but salomon rondon smashed in from 20 yards.Will that goal cost us come the end of the season?Only time will tell.

Then came a very reassuring 3-0 win over amkar 2 free kicks and an own goal settled it but artem dzyuba picked up an injury that will rule him out for the rest of the season and now I only have 20 year old denis davydov for st.

Another good win away to mordovia.With my striker shortage it was important for the other positions to do the job and they did.Romulo scored from 25 yards before pavel yakovlev put an end to a fair amount of pressure with a late goal.

Then came my first league defeat of the season away to Kuban and it was a bad one.I only had one highlight and they destroyed me 4-0.I have no idea where that result come from but im not happy about it.Balanta had a poor game by anyones standards.Now I need to pick the team up for the rest of the season



The gap has closed to 4 points and though I don't have particularly hard games left im a little worried by that last month especially that last result.To say its knocked the wind out of my sails would be an understatement.

The unbeaten run was ended in dramatic fashion! Great revival so far though SBR and hopefully it can be held onto for the remaining games this season. Great signings at the start of the season, I also signed Balanta, Savitskiy and Lucas Romero for Shakhtar in my career.

Nice one dp. I'm pretty happy overall. At start of season I ideally wanted top 3 and to win the league in a couple of years so I'm ahead of that but with way it's gone so far I'd be gutted if I don't win. my signings have cone through mostly and with the lads I'm bringing in in the summer I should be formidable next year.

Some brilliant signings mate, I'm a big fan of Tielemans and he'll be a big profit earner in the future!