Graz Doz Trez - Comments

Season 3 over.

2nd in the League, (all three seasons) = 15 points



Won the Dutch Cup = 30 points



Losing Semi-finalist of the Europa League (Didn't make the Champions League Groups) = 10 points



Rivalries:
Ajax WWW = 30points
PSV DL



Season Three Total: 85
Season Two: 65
Season One: 43

TOTAL: 193

Whilst being pleased with my overall performance, the ability of others to win the league and Europa league leave me with sour taste. #GreenEyedMonster.


If it helps the official adjudicator, I also scored 193 on the Fenerbahce challenge.

Overall Score: 386

after being drawn against Tottenham in the qualifiers, it doesn't even look like we'll make the groups!

Managed to bring in 1 very good GK, 2 defenders, 4 midfielders. Delighted with the business done, and got a lot of it done early. Massimo Brunos deal took a long time, and as you can see only completed a day before the Super Cup vs Twente.

I managed to replace all the key outgoings, although its hard to say if Donk will fill BMI's shoes. Stefan De Vrij actually got fans player of the year despite The Wolf scoring 29 in 29(10). Hopefully the young former captain will continue to prove me wrong.

van der Vaart on a free based on one season's output is very pleasing.

Hopefully we can go one or two better and win the league and cup and maybe get past the first knockout of the Champions League.

The club gave me 100% transfer revenue... I'm nearly at the start of the season so I'll post my transfer history.

Director of football taking matters into his own hands.

hopefully I can spread the 20m around to really bolster the team.

Points for turning down 'bigger' clubs?

Season two finally finished, seemed a long time coming, with a lot of stuttering and shocking defending.

Second in the league (again ) = 15 points



Won the Dutch cup = 30 points



and lost to Man Utd in the first knockout round of the Champions League = 5 points (Surely qualifying from the Champions league group is better than say getting to the Dutch cup semis and perhaps a few other things on offer? I had to get past Lyon, Sporting, Juventus, Benfica and Copenhagen to get 5 points!! That's more than enough to win the Europa League!



Rivals:
PSV: WL = 5 points
Ajax: WL = 10 points



Season Two Total: 65
Season One total: 43
Total: 108


I'm quite pleased with the season, but I think the score I got doesn't really reflect how good it was.

I wouldn't have believed it possible to keep any player fit for 49 games in Holland - let alone Pelle! no wonder you did so well. What's the secret of your fitness training?

Yeah get cracking, I think it only lasts till 29th

With only 2 wins, and 4 goals scored, we managed to sneak into the knockout stages of the Champions League! Benficas bizzare from and performances left them bottom!



Hopefully we get a kind draw!


*** No such luck as we get top of the Prem Man Utd. - although to be fair, there wasn't really any easy teams.

A remarkable season!! Well done! - Who did you sign along the way?

FINALLY!!!



A great performance a midst some hard times in Europe.

It's all gone a bit quiet in here? World Cup Fever?


I lost my way bit on this one. I went crazy on loan signings, I thought the idea of lots of great players without the entirety of their massive contract would be a great way to try and sneak into the Champions League latter stages. It was a horrible failure.



Having sold Clasie for £20m the money went to my head and I wasn't thinking properly about the players I was bringing in.



Despite managing to beat Lyon over two legs, a horrific 5-1 home defeat to ADO Den Haag spelled the end of the loan experiment. Wallace, Sanogo, Sevinic, Douglas Santos and Angelo Henriquez were all sent home. But I decided to keep van Ginkel, Hofmann, Afellay (although he's on borrowed time) and van der Wiel (needed as desperate cover for the loss of Janmaat)

With a whopping £31.5m coming in, we did splash some cash, and went heavy on Wolfswinkel to help out Pelle, and kept some back to see how we fair in the UCL and Ere. Johnny Heitinga has also proven to be a poor acquisition, his attributes have diminished swiftly since moving to Holland (he wasnt exactly a world beater, but would stand out in Holland)

The defeat to ADH would be our last for a while, and two massive results over Sporting came as a huge shock and got us into the Champions League proper. Drawn against Benfica, Juventus and Copenhagen we're certainly far from favoured to qualify, and optimistically aiming for 3rd. We managed to defend for our lives in Portugal for a 0-0 and despite a drubbing performance by Juventus only conceded 1, however, Copenhagen managed a win against Benfica and they may prove to be a huge 3 points for them.



After being winless after 3 Ere games, we bounced back well, winning all bar an away draw to AZ where they scored in the 88th minute.



We sit happily towards the top, only behind two of the better teams in Holland. With the wind in our sails, injuries mounting up and the UCL in full swing we push on to the winter break to see if we can keep pace before the big push in 2015.

So there are the team we'd have to beat to qualify for the Champions League.... bearing in mind we already had to get past Lyon...



Absolute joke!


*** Got drawn against Sporting, so probably the easiest of the 5.

In other news, I bought Ricky Van Wolfswinkle, but stupidly forgot about Johnny Heitingas 'match highest earner clause, so now they're both on £40k p/w. Bad management on my part.

I'm writing my season as I go, with an early update coming soon... I've had an offer of £20m for Clasie from PSG, but classically, he's picked up a minor injury that has put Monaco off, and I fear the deal is in jeopardy!

*** It was Monaco that bid PSG lost interest, and the deal's gone through, I now have a changeable budget of £400k p/w and £15m. Dutch fantasy football!

Second season's betting for the league



This is possibly the most bizarre book I've ever seen. As co-second favourites of four, in the eyes of the bookies finishing 5th is a fair result, and I wouldn't necessarily rule it out at the moment!

After a fairly inconsistent start to life at Feyenoord, it began to feel like a race to the Winter break hoping nothing fell apart.



Two home defeats to teams respectfully well beneath us were very disappointing, a drubbing by PSV and out gunned by Utrecht showed a distinct difference in class. Dropping as low as 7th, and peaking to third and just slipped to 4th at the start of the break gave us hope, as well as a very pleasing Europa league group victory,



We ended December with a feeling we just needed maybe two or three quality players to keep pace.

January brought no such luck.



I personally was unable to bring in any of the players I wanted, a maximum of 10k was allowed for wages, and with most clubs demanding 50% this was a real limitation to our approaches. Layvin Kurzawa has been a large help to support Nelom, and has overtaken him with his performances. My Head of youth brought in Virgil Misidjan has been a surprising starter with 6(2) 3 goals and 2 assists. Director of football brought in Shawn Parker as a badly needed option up front, but an injury 5 mins in to his debut kept him out for 4 weeks and I think I made a school boy error by going on Holiday and missing the Europa League registration so he can’t play!

After the winter break, a new formation in place and almost a new desire to kick was quickly blunted as a plethora of injuries to key personnel threatened to derail the season. Defeat in our opening two games of 2014 was a blow to morale, and having to battle from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Heerenveen at home capped a winless spell of four league games spanning a month and a half. A favourable Dutch Cup run has helped to get some rest into our tired players, but the Leagues collaboration with the Europa League has dropped us in some tight spots:



From beating Braga away having been 1-0 down, and battling to a 1-0 win over PSV with injuries boosted moral back to a pre Christmas level, however, a crushing away defeat to Ajax serves as a reminder that sometimes you can’t fight fate, a TTdV goal disallowed in the 43rd, quickly followed a goal from a corner for Ajax in the 45th, and they doubled their lead in the 90th. Classic FM. Having already played Swansea in the groups producing a 3-2 and 4-0 over the Welsh team, our fatigued squad fought bravely to not concede and another disallowed effort meant the score stayed 0-0. The business end is not shaping kindly so far. The 2nd league was a tight and nervy affair, injury to Janmaat forced an early change, 0-0 at half time and Feye looking slightly on top. The breakthrough came in the 67th minute with TTdV scoring a big goal. Sadly, and not for the first time, Joris Mathijson and Stefan De Vrij show that are incapable of working together and manager Schteevs McClarens announced after the game that JM would not be playing for the club again this season, if ever. SDV would be stood down until he can prove in the reserves that he can handle first team football.



Pelle finally scored his 3rd goal in 2014 his first since Jan 22nd, but another capitulation from 2-0 to 2-2 and four players leaving the park through injury adds to a horrific March with no wins in 4. We go into our Dutch Cup Semi with 5 first XI players injured. Made it past Dordrecht into the final to play PSV.



Another game where we couldn’t hold on, and a week before were 5-1 up at Vitesse, and conceded 3, but managed to hold on 5-4. Our defence is terrible. Anther rival defeat too.

I think Feyenoord are quite a brittle team, team morale is vital, and I learned the hard way that being too harsh just doesn’t work, and will bring the team down for a while… I think the team lacks true leadership, work rate and determination especially in the ‘senior’ players. Hopefully this is something I can change in the summer.



Very pleased with the season all in all.

League; 2nd = 15 points
Dutch Cup Finalists = 20 points.
Europa league 2nd round = 3 points.
PSV LWD = 5
Ajax LD = 0
Sparta Rott = 0

Season 1 total: 43

I agree... I've had masses of injuries...

Had Scheiber on loan, cancelled loan after a 4 month injury.
Pelle's missed 6 weeks though two different injuries
TTdV 2 x 2 weeks
Clasie: 4 weeks, 2 weeks, 2 weeks
Janmaat: 3 weeks, 3 weeks...
Loaned Shawn Parker, came off after 5 mins of his first start for 4 weeks.

Its a constant battle. Sacked 4 of my physios, and trying to bring in new and better fitness coaches, but already have 14 out of 9 staff allowed.

The Winter window was largely a blow out, despite the board allowing more money (didn't ask) it still wasnt enough to get any decent loans.

I felt Fenerbahce was a little easy due to Galatasary and perhaps Besiktas not turning up, this is certainly a harder change of pace!

At the start of the winter break...

We missed a huge chance to move within 4 of Vitesse (having been 10 behind, but beat them 5-1) and move up to 2nd but blew a home game vs Hercules. On the up side we were 2-0 down to their 3 shots in total and managed to bombard them to equalise in the last minutes.

We're still in the cup, after beating some non-leaguers that knocked out Vitesse.

Qualified top of Europa league and face Braga.

Pleasing start, January ins and outs will be key to push on.

I'm finding it tough, small squad, too many players on loan, wages are quite prohibitive...

Our form's been very hit and miss - beat Swansea away 4-0 and currently 3/3 in the Europa league (Lyon 2-0 and Genk 3-1 A) but lost at home to NEC and Groningen.

Smashed by PSV, and managed a draw against Ajax.

Approaching Xmas so will be trying some serious wheeling and dealing...

I miss Istanbul

Season three not done well…

Smashed the cash in the off season to bolster the ranks with the UCL entry, the team didn’t gel, didn’t get fitness and started slower than Smart Car.
We lost the Super Cup, again.



We got knocked out of the Champions League, but would have made it into the Europa League 1st round. - does that count for 2 + 5 ?



We lagged behind in the league, but some adjustments helped there and we were climbing. (I think we'd have won the league and cup )




Rivals:
Gala LW = 5
Besiktas D = 0
Trabz W = 5

Season 3 score: 17?


Season 1 85 points
Season 2 90 points
Season 3 17 Points
Total: 193

Shame to have not completed the challenge, but enjoyed it and will continue with the next one.

can/do we still get awarded points if we haven't completed the whole season? European participation and Rival results?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.