Journey to the Top

Save Premise
For the first time in years i finally got to a point where i just couldn't get into any save at all. No team was keeping my attention for long enough and i had feared FM16 was going to be my last FM. However, the saves from [USER="171"]Ben[/USER] , [USER="134"]Varyy[/USER] and [USER="64"]Robson[/USER] inspired me and opened my eyes up to the task of starting with nothing and building up from there. From that inspiration came some reading about the most celebrated managers out there and how many different top flights they have won. From my research the leader of the pile is Croatian Tomislav Ivic who won 5 different European Top Flights (Yugoslavian, Dutch, Belgian, Greek and Portuguese) and was manager for part of Marseille's triumph in the early 90's. From the current era Mourinho currently leads the way with 4 (Portugal, England, Spain, Italy). All of that has led me to this save.
In this save i have loaded up the top 12 ranked European divisions (Spain, Germany, England, Italy, France, Portugal, Holland, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Belgium and Greece) and made their full league structures playable. I then created myself in the game, a 28 year old englishman with no coaching badges and a sunday league reputation and went off to find a starting point with the overall aim to top Ivic's haul of top flights won with the nirvana state of being to win all 12.
Rupel Boom
So starting unemployed i applied for every job going and in the end i had 8 clubs willing to give me an interview (Kidderminster, Bromley, Chelmsford (All England), Baikal (Russia), 2 Turkish Clubs that i can't remember, 1 Ukranian side and two Belgian sides (Boom and VW Hamme). In the end, Boom were the only ones that came back and offered me the role and so my journey began in Belgium.
Rupel Boom or Koninklijke Rupel Boom FC to give their full name are a club based in Boom in the Antwerp Province. Boom is most famous for the Tomorrowland festival held every year. We are currently playing our trade in the Derde Klasse B. This iteration of the club was founded in 1998 due to the merger of K. Boom FC and Rupel SK and intially started in the Antwerp Division 3 Regional league. One of the original clubs K. Boom FC did briefly have some success in Belgian football even reaching the top flight as recently as the 1992/93 season and have a 2nd Division title to their name which has been passed back down to this newly formed club.
Since 1998 the club has steadily moved up to the leagues reaching a high point in 2010/11 of the Second Division before being relegated and sitting in the current 3rd Division. A fairly unremarkable history but one piece to note, the club currently boasts Romelu Lukaku, Jordan Lukaku and their father Roger Lukaku as club icons. Roger actually played for Boom during their heyday and was part of the team that was promoted to the top flight in 1992 and to this day still lives in Boom. Both Jordan and Romelu were on the books at Boom as kids before being poached by Lierse and then Anderlecht.
The club is expected to finish 8th out of 19 teams and the board want a top half finish with a little run in the Belgian cup to the 5th round to boot. The only problem about finishing 8th this season is that will actually mean we get relegated to the 4th tier. In fact this season in Belgium is a crazy year with the Belgian league structure going through a restructure. Essentially the two 3rd divisions are being merged into one 3rd division with the rest moving to a newly formed 4th division and the current 4th flight becoming a 5th flight.
Essentially i will be happy if Boom are still playing in a playable league at the end of the season!
Transfers
To add to the challenge, we had no transfer budget and no wage budget to do anything with and it was a chance to go scrimp and save for new additions. I added a new parent club in the form of Cercle Brugge and added two new players to help provide cover for the season in the form of Simon Vanderwiele and Sebastien Perquy. A third loan signing was added from Anderlecht with 17 year old Bjorn Schoukens coming on board. All three will be back up's this season but in a 36 game league season with a bunch of part timers they could all come in useful at the end of the season.
There were three permanent signings all on free transfers. Mario Pruna comes in to compete for the striker position. His pace of 15 is rapid for this flight and with decent finishing and composure stats i am pretty confident this guy can easily get into double figures for the season. Veteran Kristof Imschoot has been bought into add more bite to the midfield and will be deployed as a ball winning midfielder as i look to break down the opposition before pumping it forward. The final signing was Angolan teenager Jonathan Mavacala who provides cover for the right wing.
There was one outgoing as i let Sven Herrigers leave for £1.5k
On the Pitch
Now down to what really matters and it is results that matter. We kickstarted the season off with the Cofidis Cup and we entered in the 3rd Round. First up we had Turnhout from the 4th Division and they were smashed 5-1. Next up we took on fellow Derde Klasse side VW Hamme who were also put away with a fine 2-0 victory. Our cup run was ended in the 5th round as 2nd Division side Eupen eventually beat us 3-0.
The League had to be the main priority this season and we got off to a great start to the season with 3 straight victories all by a one goal margin. Confidence was high and it was looking like we had built a compact efficient side that would get the job done. We were soon bought back to earth though as Liege destroyed us 5-1 in a shocking performance that i am still trying to get my head around. We picked up two more victories with Berchem being beaten 1-0 helped by my keeper Otte saving a penalty for us. A 3-1 victory in the next game actually saw me win a league game by more than a goal as we scored 3 compared to their 1.
However, a small shaky spell was due and it came as we picked up just 1 point from the next three with some tight 1-0 losses dropping us down the table before we picked it up again with two more victories. Three defeats in the next four shook the confidence and co-incided with injuries to some key personnel before 7 points from the next three saw us surge back up a tightly contested table. All in all it leaves it looking like this:
Now you see how daunting the relegation places look! It has been a good year and with Overijse slipping in the final few games we are still in the hunt for that top spot and promotion to the second division. However, to be honest at this stage i am concentrating on that points gap between myself and 7th as i do not want to end the season relegated. We need to be a bit more consistent and turn 3 game runs into 6 or 7 game runs but i can live happy with a 5 point gap for now.
Performances
All in all it has been a decent if frustrating spell as manager. We are winning games and doing better than predicted but performance wise we have not been great. Our season has been compounded of a lot of 1-0 wins. We are tough to break down but we also struggle to create chances and quite often we might only have 4 shots on goal all game but somehow come away with a victory. A lot of that has to do with Yannick Put who as the main striker has put the ball in the back of the net 12 times and is the 2nd top scorer in the league. He has missed the last 4 or 5 games with an injury but luckily Pruna has come in and done an okay job.
However the big player we have missed all season is Dirk Mathyssen who has been injured for most of the campaign but did get 6 games in this half of the season and leads the way with an average rating of 7.77 with 3 goals and 4 assists in that time. I need to keep him fit for this second half and if i can he could be the difference between staying in this league or slipping into relegation spots or even pushing into that top spot.
That is all i have to report for now. See you at the end of the season

On the Pitch
There was no further activity in the winter window and it was just a case of trying to keep the season going along and trying to avoid slipping into the relegation places. In the first half of the season we were inconsistent with victories quite often being backed up by a defeat. If we were to push on to take that top spot and possible promotion we needed to get more consistent with our performances.

Well that was the plan anyway but the 2nd half of the season proved to be a slog as we only won 5 of our final 18 league games. To be fair we only lost 4 league games as we went on to draw an incredible 9 times! We just couldn't win matches and i was at a loss to what to do. I tried increasing our attacking mentality to try and kill games off and even looked at tweaking the tactics but nothing seemed to get us out of this draw epidemic. We did though manage to hold on and avoided the automatic relegation spots

I was actually exhausted after that second half of the season and i was ready to call it a season and look at building on the squad for the newly formed Derde Klasse. However, i was wrong as the season wasn't over there. We then entered into the Derde Klasse Semi Final play-off which i presumed would be a promotion play-off and give us a shot of moving up a division. Great news! Oh how i was wrong as it was in fact a relegation play-off where we had to win to give us a shot of staying in this god damn division. It was a one off game and we were going away to Beerschot-Wilrijk. It was simple. We lose and we are relegated.


It was over like that as we went on to lose 3-0 in the final game and with us now not being in a playable division i was given the boot. In the first time in my career i was relegated and to boot sacked. I was gutted but to show you how brutal my chances were of surviving, see the below league table


I was onto a hiding to nothing it seems

Performances and Reflections
It was a tough first season in management and one that ultimately didn't end where i wanted it to. Where could it have gone better? I am still not too sure it would have made a difference. We effectively needed to win the league for me to be certain of keeping my job. The media predicted 8th and the board wanted top half and i delivered over and above that. We certainly lacked goals and only Yannick Put was a regular on the score sheet scoring 24 in 35 appearances.

So where do i go from here? I am currently biding my time and having a think about where to go next. There are a couple of jobs opened up in Belgium with sides that were relegated from the old 2nd division to the 3rd division. I could be tempted to move back to England but at the moment who knows.

However, here is a summary of what happened in the top flights

Premiership: Arsenal won the double and reached a Champions League final. Man City, Tottenham and Man Utd will join them in the Champions League next season
La Liga: Valencia were the surprise champions as Barcelona and Real Madrid finished 3rd and 4th respectively
Bundesliga: Bayern won the league and added the Champions League. Dortmund had another poor year finishing 7th and missing out on Champions League football
Serie A: No surprises as Juventus won the league with Napoli and Lazio following
Liga Nos: Porto won the league with Benfica only getting 4th and missing out on Champions League football
Ligue 1: PSG won the Europa League and racked up 100 points to win the league
Russian Premier Division: Zenit were the champions
Ukrainian Premier Division: Another shock as Dnipro won the league meaning Shakhtar will not be playing Champions League next season
Jupiler League: Gent held on during the Championship Group to win the league
Super Lig: Besiktas won here with Galatasaray missing out on Champions League football
Eredivisie: Twente were relegated as PSV went on to win the league
Superleague: Olympiacos ran out as champions

Euro2016: Italy beat the Czech Republic to become Champions of Europe

Now to find a new job

So i know you have all been waiting with baited breath as to where my save would take me. So this is the story....

After being fired from Rupel Boom, it was a case of scouting for the next job. The league restructure in Belgium certainly caused a lot of jobs to come available as the 2nd Division (Proximus League) also had 10 teams relegated from it to the newly created third tier. Two jobs immediately caught my eye - Lierse and Geel. Lierse have certainly fallen quite hard in recent years and although i applied i was never offered a job interview there. Geel did give me a job interview and immediately i got hit with relegation questions and for not having enough experience. Needless to say Geel passed. A further Belgian job in the form of Helst came out and it was the same story as Geel.

Confidence was hit and it looked like i would have to give up on Belgium, So i went for a job in Turkey and that didnt go anywhere after an interview before i had an interview with Dorchester Town who were just promoted into the Vanarama Conference South. This time they didn't question the relegation and in fact were asking about why i would take the step down. I duly got offered a job and i was close to accepting and nearly hit the button before i had another quick cheeky glance at the job screen. To my delight there were two jobs open in Belgium - both in the 3rd tier. FCV Dender and Hoogstraten, both teams surviving the massacre of last season. I applied for both and I asked Dorchester for some time and i was about to give up hope when i finally got an offer....


Background
Football Club Verbroedering Dender Eendracht Hekelgem of the catchier FCV Dender are a Belgian football club based in Denderleeuw in the province of East Flanders in the Denderstreek. It has a rough population of 20k. Currently in the newly formed Derde Klasse, FCV Dender survived the horror of the Belgian third tier last year but found themselves without a manager after the previous manager decided to jump ship to Beerschot Wilrijk (Who incidently FCV Dender relegated to the new 4th tier!).

Like a lot of Belgian clubs, the club was founded from the formation of KFC Denderleeuw Eendracht Hekelgem and Verbroedering Denderhoutem who merged at the end of the 04/05 season. The club's official founding is in 1943 and they first reached the 4th tier of Belgian football in the 1980s and finally reached the 3rd tier in 98/99 where they remained until their merger. The merger kickstarted a crazy couple of years as in the next season (05/06) the club won the Third Division A title and then the very next season (06/07) won the Second Division title to find themselves in the top flight for 07/08 for the first time in their history. In 07/08 they finished 15th and survived and finished in the same position the very next year but this time they were relegated thanks to the top flight reducing to 16 teams.

Since then the club has slowly dropped back to the 3rd flight where i now find myself.


What did i inherit?
Looking through the squad it is clear that i need to rebuild. There was a mass exodus of players last year on free transfers and virtually everyone still at the club is out of contract and playing on a non-contract basis. All but one of the players is under 21 and we are missing 2 centre halves, any wide midfielders and full backs. Our one star player is central midfielder Julien Pe and right now he is who i am building the team around.

We don't have a transfer budget and our wage budget is set to £5.7k per week. What is helped is that we are only spending £700 of that as everyone on a non-contract does not count towards the allowance. It means i can move this around, create some transfer budget and bring in a new team. Getting them all to gel is now going to be the challenge.

Expectations
The third tier is now just one league of 16 with the bottom two getting relegated and 14th facing a relegation play-off. The top four get promoted (I suspect to help fill the now depleted 2nd tier) in a shorter 30 game season. The Media are predicting a 11th place finish which is not too surprising since the number of former Proximus sides now in the league (I think from memory there were 8 relegated

The board are asking me to not be outclassed in the league and for a 6th round appearance in the Cofidis Cup (meaning two rounds to navigate). That to me is music to my ears as i think that is quite a low expectation. I am going to be looking for a top half performance personally with a view to fighting for promotion next season.

Thoughts
Really happy that i have got to stay in Belgium. I have a feeling of unfinished business and want to salvage my reputation a little over here. For me Dender feels like a club to stay at for 2 to 3 seasons building up enough of a reputation to perhaps make a jump to an established 2nd tier side. However, equally i could stay here for a bit longer.

For now i will leave it and i will come back with a half year review / Sacking report depending on what comes first

Transfer Window
With a half depleted squad it was a case of a busy window to rebuild the team. No less than 4 players joined from Rupel Boom. Koen Gommers, Jeroen Mertens, Yannick Put and Jeff Vogels all came in to boost the squad. Vogels will be first choice centre half with Gommers the right back. Mertens will go on the right flank whilst Put excelled last year for me up top and i will be looking for him to bang in the goals this term as well.

Bram de Rop, Jeremy Voluzulo and Stig Engelen joined on a non contract term to provide cover in the midfield and the defence. Olivier De Groodt and Niels Ringoot have been added to make a whole new backline for the season whilst Mick Michails was added to the midfield from Ciney. 10 new players in total added to the squad.

A very busy window and the first team here now looks a hell of a lot stronger than it did before but it will be a case of trying to get that many players gelling. All in all it looks like 7 new first team starters to gel together. It certainly won't be easy

Cofidis Cup
We got to the 5th round in the end having just about dispatched lower league side Westhoek in the fourth round with a 4-2 victory after extra time. In the fifth round though we were unstuck by fellow Derde Klasse side Roeselare who beat us 2-1


Derde Klasse
When it came to the league it has been largely as expected with a mixture of results as we have shifted formation and tried to blood in new faces. We started the season in a fairly traditional 4-4-2 formation. A 1-0 defeat in the first game against Lierse was upsetting as we didn't quite deserve it as it was only a penalty that cost us the game. We beat Bornem 1-0 in the very next game before we picked up another 4 points in the next two games.

From that point 4 defeats in the next 5 saw us plummet down the table and with that i switched to a 4-5-1 as we looked to bolster midfield numbers to better cope with the other teams in the division. The switch immediately worked as we won the first two games in the new formation 1-0 and were just minutes away from a 3rd straight victory when Sprimont got a late equaliser. Two defeats followed by another draw saw us drop from 5th to 11th where we sit at the half way point.

Thoughts
A rollercoaster of a year to be honest but i am just happy to have a job. The league is incredibly tight with just 5 points between us and 4th and i am hoping we can gel much better in that back 15 and pick up a run of victories. It really is a league where anyone can beat anyone with only Aalst showing any real level of form this season. We are light in the midfield due to the formation change so i will look to add another central midfielder or two to the line up.

Performance wise only Yannick Put has an average rating of over 7 and leads the scoring charts with 8 and the assists chart with 4. We need more goals from the rest of the squad if we are going to get that run of form together

Transfer Window
There was only one new face as i added Luxembourg International Guy Blaise to the team to provide more cover across the midfield

Derde Klasse

An absolute slog but ultimately not a bad season at Dender and its nice to finish in the top half and not get relegated! It was a tight league and it was only after our 29th game that we were guaranteed not to fall into the dreaded Relegation Play-offs. Equally with 2 games to go we were just one point away from being in the promotion play-off but 2 straight defeats to finish the year killed that hope.

Our defence was terrible and our keeper was a flapper and that really explains the terrible goal-difference. We were prone to a thumping if we didn't score first. Our form was patchy although in an 8 game spell we picked up 16 points and rose to the loft heights of 5th and 6th as we switched from a direct play to a more measured approach and that saw us pick up a few more victories.


Thoughts
A tough slog this season as we just couldn't get into a good run of form although the form between Match day 21 and 28 was at least a positive note as we picked up enough victories to have an outside chance of qualifying for the Promotion Play-off. A 6th place finish in a league of 16 having been media predicted 11th and the board hoping not to be outclassed can probably be seen as a triumph. It does though mean two seasons in (Officially my longest FM16 save) that i haven't really progressed and i still sit in the 3rd tier of Belgian football. So much for winning the big leagues.

Frustration has crept in and despite that i have agreed to a new contract to give it a proper go for promotion next season. To do that we will need to look at the defence who were clearly the worst in the league. There were some positives though, Yannick Put did put in a good performance upfront and his 15 goals (virtually a goal every two games) was a highlight. Mick Michiels towards the back half of the season really came into his own and Alessio Virgone was the most consistent provider with 12 assists from the left flank.

The Club is massively in debt (Around £250k) and we have no new transfer budget next season with our wage budget frozen. It will be tough but i can do it... Right?

Holy hell! That wasn't so much of a league table as a culling come the end of the season with Rupel Boom.

I am so confused as to this Belgium structure?! At least things seem more stable now so you can build with Dender...just check under the sofa for some lost change!

After last year's battle i was gearing up for another slog with Dender with minimal budget at my disposal and that was the plan until....

Background
So here i am at my 3rd club of this save at the beginning of just the 3rd season. I certainly was planning on moving around but this frequently is still a surprise. In the end the tiny wage budget of £3.7k per week looked too daunting and when the Lommel job came up due to their relegation from the Proximus League last season i cheekily applied. I was surprised i got the interview but even more surprised to get the role. It was an easy decision and here i find myself.

Lommel United are another Belgian club that was formed through the merger and dissolution of other clubs. The club started life as Koninklijke Football Club Lommelse Sportkring and were founded in 1932 and had two spells in the Belgian top flight between 1992 and 2000 and 2001 to 2003 with a highest ever finish of 5th in 1997. In 2003 the club fell victim to the Commission des Licences newest regulations regarding debt as the club owed several thousand euro to the Belgian FA and were unable to pay on time. The entire playing squad left the club in the face of the impending liquidation so the team attempted to continue playing in the league by playing their youth players but 3 games before the end of the 02/03 season were expelled from the top flight despite not sitting in the relegation places.

The owners contacted local side K.V.V Overpelt Fabriek and allowed them to play at Lommel's 12,500 seater home ground the Gemeentestadion and a new club of K.V.S.K United Overpelt-Lommel was created. Then in 2010 the club merged once again with KFC Racing Mol-Wezel and the club changed its name to the current Lommel United.

In game, during the 15/16 season Lommel finished a respected 4th in the league but last season they were relegated to the Derde Klasse after finishing bottom of the table and this is where i take over. For this season the club has a Media Prediction of 1st and the board are expecting us to win the Derde Klasse.

The club is in debt but after a recent takeover the club has taken out a loan to keep us going. There is no transfer budget but i have a wage budget of £15.5k to play with, with only £5k being used after an exodus of players left following the relegation. The money is there and we have certainly some of the best players i have managed in this save. Progress is now a real possibility.

Transfer Window and Playing Squad
Before i get into the new faces that i bought in, i thought i would show a few i already had at my disposal. Brenden DeVille is the club's best player and will be a great outlet on the right flank. Mehdi Lomma was on loan at the club when i started and is certainly a class above the rest of this division. In goal we also have ">Sven D'Hoest who is way above what i has at both Rupel Boom and FCV Dender and gives me hope.

To help aid the team i looked and concentrated on the loan market. Three new players were bought in from Standard Liege on loan. Allasane Diallo, Francis Marquet and Rochina all join and will certainly mean we have a very strong midfield for the season to come. Parent club Genk also sent us another young midfielder in the form of Dante Vanzier who will get the odd game here or there. Two permanent signings were made as i went back to Dender to bring in keeper Xavier Gies due to an injury in pre-season to first choice D'Hoest. The second was Rwandan International Salomon Narasirike,


Cofidis Cup
Pre-season went very well with 5 very easy victories and we continued that form in the cup. A 4-0 beating of lower league side Molenbeersel was followed up by a 2-0 victory over Zwarte Leeuw. The 5th round saw a bigger challenge as we took on fellow Derde Klasse side Aalst who are predicted to be our main competition in the league. The game went to extra time but we nicked a goal to put us through to the 6th Round and my furthest exploits in the cup to date.

There we will take on Standard Liege

Derde Klasse
4 Games down in the league as the transfer window slammed shut and it has been a mixed affair to say the least but still positive. We lost the opening game to Patro Eisden against the run of play but it was the best 1-0 loss performance i have had this save. We followed that up with a 1-0 win over Eupen who are another one of the stronger sides in the league before just missing out on victory against Aalst just days after we beat them in the Cup. A 92nd minute goal robbed me of another 1-0 victory. Finally we took on Sprimont away and we were shit to be honest going 2-0 and 3-1 down but loan signing Rochina got all 3 goals to give us a 3-3 draw.

5 Points from 4 games isnt great and it will need to improve but if i am being honest we are dominating game and if we can keep doing that than we are going to win more than we lose. This league is tight as i have found out but i am feeling confident i can move to the promotion play-offs and get our 2nd flight status back.

Cofidis Cup
We made it to the 6th Round and the furthest i have achieved in my 3rd season in Belgium and we were paired with Jupiler Bro and Belgian giant Standard Liege. It was my first experience of playing a top tier side and we really held our own. We matched 50% on possession and had 13 shots to their 15 in what was a surprisingly tight game. In fact so tight that the game went all the way to penalties after a hard fought 1-1 draw. It took sudden death to decide the tie and in the end their superior experience and cool heads saw them knock us out of the cup 6-5 on penalties.

A great result in my opinion.

Derde Klasse
The Belgian 3rd tier is certainly the craziest league i have been in. Just look at that league table.

We sit in 4th at the half way point having won just 5 of our 15 games this season! Just two points off the top of the table and we have suffered just one defeat. In fact the highest win rate is 7 wins from 15 games just showing how tight this division is. 6 Points separate the top 10 and only 13 points from top to bottom. Anyone can beat anyone and more often than not matches end in draws. Well that is certainly our case as we have racked up 9 draws from our 15 games. The fact we are on a 14 game undefeated streak is kind of lost when its endless draw after draw.

In 6 of them 9 draws we have been winning by just the one goal to see us pegged back against the run of play and often in the 70th+ minute. A severe lack of killer instinct is the diagnosis as we fail to kill teams off and let them peg us back. We lead the way in possession and passing and often create more than 7 more chances than the opposition but sharing the points is what we like to do.

However, the last two games saw us pick up back to back victories as we beat rivals Geel 2-0 and came back from behind twice to beat Torhout 3-2 with new striker ">Toze Marreco scoring a hat-trick in only his second appearance. Perhaps he will be the man to finally provide that killer instinct for me.


Thoughts
This is the most fun i have had on this save despite the endless draws and in fact might be the most enjoyment i have had for FM16 in what has been quite a torrid year for me with saves dying midway through the 2nd season. We are quite clearly one of the best teams in the division and if we can get that killer instinct there is no reason why we can't just move away from the rest of the pack and put us in a massive lead when it comes to the Championship play-off.

On the field Rochina hit the ground early on and leads the scoring charts with 9 goals and also has 5 assists to his name. Lebanese International Phillipe Paoli has 8 goals to his name and has done quite well upfront and now with extra competition i can see him kicking on. Brandon Deville is the main creative outlet with 8 Assists but with 4 goals is also a threat. To be honest everyone is playing well with only a handful of players averaging less than 7.00.

On a side note i know i need to concentrate on getting some coaching badges as i have none but the board keep saying i am crucial to training so i have taken myself off of training completely which will hopefully allow me to get my badges, build my reputation and allow me to kick on. I can see myself at Lommel for quite awhile which is a nice feeling and i have some quiet confidence that we can get promoted this season. Fingers Crossed!