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#108125 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
#108122 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
#108099 New New Forum
Eric Portapotty
On the Careers page.
#108097 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
Good old Mr. Murphy letting his Law go all out on me this time round - 2 senior DMs out for the season, Valek struck down as well, a spastic injuring both senior GKs, my best defender getting himself sent off, and stupidly letting 3 kay players leave for youth international duty.
Don't really want to talk about the penultimate matches, just note that we didn't manage to get promoted.
Though as a whole, with the bitter comes the sweet - we didn't get relegated.
Key Players
Ariel Parrado
I don't quite know where we would be without him, our most important player by a country mile.
Biggest challenge next season will be to find a team who can adequately replace his 16 goals.
Andriy Ivanov
The most pleasant surprise in my time here - playing out of position the whole season, Ivanov showed grit as he worked the right flank to great effect, playing at a level higher than his attributes suggested.
I was delighted when he eventually decided to renew his deal, as he showed resistance to sign a new contract previously.
Ilja Kalashnikov
A reliable DM, his role as a deep-lying playmaker enabled him to contribute offensively whilst still imposing himself in defence.
The only peeve I have is his lack of determination as captain, which proved to be a real issue when he started losing focus towards the end of our winning run.
Transfers
Eugene's a signing for the future, with coaches and scouts alike rating him highly.
He's clearly not good enough to contribute to the team consistently - and far too aggressive for my liking - but as I've mentioned before, there's a distinct lack of orthodox left wingers in Ukraine, and coupled with our financial troubles, he had to suffice.
#107878 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
(With a wee bit of March)
--------------------------
We resumed from the break all guns blazing, with 10 goals from 2 matches, both against promotion contenders.
A couple of tight wins followed by another 2 easy points meant that we could end this month with a perfect record against Stal Dnipropetrovsk.
But is wasn't to be - 1st starts to new arrivals Sumaila and Leyrielton backfired terribly as we found ourselves 2 down before the interval, and never recovered.
We could have been in the promotion spots had we won that last match, but we're very, very much in the promotion race, having been relegation fodder at one point.
We're also the league's top scorers, which is nice.
#107804 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
(or: 5 months of utter boredom and a transfer window)
------------
Clearly there was a winter break in the league and the players were supposed to go on holiday, but that didn't happen.
Instead we played 5 months of friendlies.
Most of the opponents were lower-league unknowns, with the highest-profile match being a narrow loss too Metalist Kharkiv.
------------
Then the winter transfer came along:
Leyrielton's a flamboyant, experienced rightback who has come to the club to provide much-needed quality to the right of our defence.
Except 1. He's foreign (and only 3 foreigners can be in the starting 11), 2. I didn't sign him (previous manager did), and 3. he's our highest earner.
I'm looking to convert him into a playmaker, but he can't stay fit for long enough to train in that position.
Sumaila's one of my old boys from Eleven Wise, who left for Uruguay on a Bosman right after I left.
Rather bizarrely, he's already been transfer listed and available for a pre-contract deal.
And yes he's foreign as well, but due to the shocking lack of left width in Ukraine I decided to bring him in on loan (with a 10k fee too).
Nifty player, offering cover for 3 positions.
-------------
During this time I've also become China's Under-19s manager:
Not an encouraging start, I know.
#107630 Transfer Rumours 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
#107555 The Night Thread Mk. IX
Eric Portapotty
#107485 The Night Thread Mk. IX
Eric Portapotty
The good news is that any abnormality might mean that I'll be enlisted into a less taxing job, which is nice.
#107274 The Night Thread Mk. IX
Eric Portapotty
#107141 Champions League 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
It's nice seeing us play like this, especially considering the negativity around when we were drawn into this difficult group, they are responding magnificently.
#107086 Susie Fantasy Football
Eric Portapotty
And it'll probably get worse, too.
#107073 The Armoury
Eric Portapotty
#106909 Transfer Rumours 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
#106905 What's the last thing you bought thread
Eric Portapotty
#106884 The Night Thread Mk. IX
Eric Portapotty
#106846 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
A short month as we head into what seems to be a winter break, but what a month it was. First defeating promotion challengers Goverla on our turf, we then snatched a last-gasp win for my first away victory.
Incredibly tight situation there, far too close for comfort.
#106811 What's the last thing you bought thread
Eric Portapotty
I've got a friend who's just erm, bought it, and he's passing it to me once he's finished buying it.
#106710 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
But I do have legend status in Eleven Wise, so I'll still have my safe haven should things go awry abroad.
#106699 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
A scrappy start to my time here, then 2 unadventurous losses.
The next win was enough to raise spirits through the roof, but we were then dealt a reality check, no thanks to the monster that was (apparently) ex-Kotoko striker Emmanuel Acquah, who also doubled his goal tally for the season in the process.
We're still there, and the gap has widened every so slightly...
#106660 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
1. There are no senior left-footed left wingers, inside forwards it is.
2. This was the formation they were apparently playing in previously:
A catenaccio system, with a youth player as the libero - you can't make this up.
3. This is a graph of their goings-on in the league pyramid these past few years:
From Premier League also-rans to lower-division strugglers, fingers crossed I can bring them back to the big time.
Where they were when I arrived, it's still quite tight at this point.
#106583 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
#106566 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
1st time managing in Ukraine, with an underachieving side.
Probably my designated playmaker, will look to build the team around him.
#106563 Susie Fantasy Football
Eric Portapotty
#106562 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
#106557 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
2 unlucky reversals to start the group stage, followed by a mad game against Zamalek.
The Sahel game brought us back down to Earth, before another crazy win.
So it came down to the last matchday, where we had to win and hope that the other match was a draw.
We didn't fulfill what was needed of us, so we bow out on goal difference.
Top Four Cup
1st match featured a 2nd-string side, which struggled to breakdown a St.Mirren side with that unorthodox 3-4-2-1 formation.
2nd leg was a whitewash, thanks to the brilliance of Benjamin Diallo, playing only because of his suspension in the CL.
Diallo was the star yet again in the 1st leg, and we more or less kept them out of sight.
2nd leg again featured the 2nd-stringers, who still managed to eke out a victory.
-------------------------------------------
With a failure to progress from the Champions League, I decided to seek pastures new and end my tenure at the club:
My most successful time my a country mile (thought it was bolstered my the meaningless end-of-season (top Four) cups, and the domestic FA cup.
At least I have that going for me, which is nice.
Senegal in the Olympics
We had another friendly before the competiition started, a match against the Syrians:
-----
And on to the main event - we were grouped with Korea, Uruguay and the Belarussians:
A relatively straightforward win against Belarus, engeging in a footballing feast with Korea, and a goalkeeping horror show which gifted the South Americans a 3-goal cushion.
As a result of our collapse in the Uruguay game, we faced heavy favourites Spain in the quarter-finals.
(Well it was a lose-lose either way, Uruguay got Brazil)
Was a tight match, we gave a good account of ourselves, but just couldn't cut t when it came to the lottery of penalties.
I was sacked afterwards obviously, such is the high regard SI gives to Under-23 competitions.
(The Brazillians ended up winning the whole thing, by the way.)
#106525 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
A decent dummy run and suddenly the central defence doesn't exist.
#106501 Barclays Premier League 2013/14
Eric Portapotty
#106390 The Night Thread Mk. IX
Eric Portapotty
#106281 [FM12] Pentagon
Eric Portapotty
Went about as good as it could have, fingers crossed it sets us up nicely for a dream ending.
League
Stormed to a 3rd consecutive title, scoring 88 goals (a record apparently) though the winning margin has been reduced.
Cup
A walk in the park, as we showed our clinical edge.
Took quite a while for them to budge, but when they did there was no looking back.
It's the 5th in a row, and the 6th overall.
CAF Champions League
(now this was some proper nailbiting shit)
We could have so nearly thrown it away, but to seal the win so late in the game... Best piece of action in this section of the campaign, by a country mile.
This is our group:
Proper African giants here - Zamalek is the most recognised in these parts, but Etoile aren't to be sniffed at, either. Same goes for Alger, compared to us.
And a slight surprise...
While looking for another potential opening I chanced upon the opportunity to lead a couple of African national sides in the Olympics -
I eventually opted for the Senegal U23s.
1st up, a friendly against Zimbabwe:
If I'm honest this didn't do much help; due to injuries and the apparently ineligibility of the over-23 players in this friendly I only had 2 players on the bench, in addition to having to play one of my CMs in central defence.
Furthermore, 4-goal hero Malick Dia was struck down with an injury and will miss entirety of the tournament.
Happy days.