TNSSO - Comments

2nd January 2023

Award: I picked up on just how good Calvin Stengs has been for us in the last update, but that has now been backed up further by the fact he has picked up the Player of the Month award for October.

Our next fixture would be the big one. 1st vs 2nd as we faced off against Club Brugge!

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 16

We can feel a little hard done by here. We scored twice in the first 20 minutes and both goals were ruled out by VAR...if those two goals stand or even one of them does, then this is probably a very different scoreline. As it was, it's Brugge who take the points and bring our 9 game unbeaten streak to an end.

 

Croky Cup
Sixth Round

I rotated the team quite heavily for this one against our lower league opposition but 21 year old left back, Laurit Krasniqi let me down immediately with a 2 footed lunge that saw him sent off in the opening 60 seconds. I had to shuffle the positions a bit and player roles, and in the end we came through in extra time. Yanis Rahmani was one of the few players to keep his place in the starting lineup and he bagged all 4 goals as he enjoyed his first experience of the Belgian Cup.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 17

Standard Liege are having a really bad season so far and look a shadow of their former selves. Despite going down to 10 men here in the first half, we still went on to win the game easily and the result never looked in any doubt.

We then had a break from domestic action for over a month, whilst the Winter World Cup in Qatar went on. It was Germany that triumphed, beating Spain in the final. Belgium were knocked out in the second round, as were England.

Whilst the World Cup was going on, we did play a couple of friendlies at home to two North London rivals, in order to keep fitness up and bring in some gate receipt money.

Croky Cup
Seventh Round

There are only 3 teams from the division below left in the competition and we were lucky enough to draw one of them. Despite that, we still made ****** hard work of it to get through and with 3 minutes to go we were staring defeat in the face. However, we finished with a flourish and go through to the next round...just!

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Matchday 18

A really nice win away from home on Boxing Day.

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Matchday 19

A statement victory over 3rd placed Genk. Our attackers were in top form but it was an excellent defensive display that was the foundation of this win.

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League Table

We've opened up a little 4 point lead for ourselves at the top of the table now and possibly more importantly than that we have a 13 point lead over 4th placed Mechelen! At the other end, are Anderlecht and Standard Liege involved in the relegation battle?!​

31st October 2022

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 11

An easy win away at Charleroi in which Ricardo Gomes picked up another brace. He now has 6 goals in his opening 4 games for the club!

Facilities: With the new board taking over, I decided to test their commitment to the club by asking for an upgrade to the youth facilities. I'm pleased to say they didn't take much convincing.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 12

Mechelen were the early leaders this year after a solid start, but they have fallen by the wayside a little over the last few weeks and we made relatively light work of them here too. Janssen came off the bench to score a late second goal to give us a more comfortable scoreline that our play throughout the 90 minutes deserved.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 13

Considering Eupen are down in 15th place, they gave us a really competitive game here and it's hard to see why they are so far down the table. Apart from putting the ball in the back of the net, they were decent and made us work very hard for this win. Yanis Rahmani scored both the goals, but was Sam Vines who bagged the man of the match for a stellar performance at left back!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 14

The referee certainly wanted to have his impact on the game today as he gave 3 penalties. Only one looked dubious though and that was theirs as we cruise to a comfortable victory over the side at the bottom of the table still on single figure points. Calvin Stengs was sensational today as he scored one and set up 2!

In fact, Stengs has been pretty unreal all season so far, contributing to 12 goals in his 8 league appearances so far! It's so gutting that he is only here on loan!

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Matchday 15​

This is one of those games you look out for on the fixtures calendar and this was my first experience of taking on the most successful club in Belgian football. So it was great to come away with all 3 points. We weren't great in central midfield here to be honest, but our wide men were fantastic and as the game went on I encouraged us to spread it into the wider areas more and more. Yanis Rahmani was sensational, scoring the first two and then setting up Calvin Stengs for our 3rd!

Focusing on our wide men, they have been extremely effective in the way we play so far this year, with both Rahmani and Stengs right up there in the division's leaders for assists and chances created.

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That Anderlecht result now makes it 7 wins in a row in the league for us! It's fair to say that we have picked up momentum after a slow start.

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League Table

Our recent run has seen us move to the head of the table with a 2 point lead over defending champions, Club Brugge. Genk are the only other club near the two of us at the moment. It's been really disappointing for both Anderlecht and Standard Liege so far, who both find themselves in the bottom half of the table!

3rd October 2022

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 6

For the third game in a row, we dominate proceedings but fail to score and this time we are punished by our opponents as we lose for the first time in the league.

We've got real issues in terms of our finishing. The creativity is there as only Genk have had more shots in the league than us this year, but we have the worst expected goals underperformance in the division!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 7

This was a must win game, so I'm pleased that we got the job done in convincing fashion and hopefully we can push on from here. Janssen bagged a hat trick but I was happier to see 19 year old Anthony Valencia on the scoresheet after I promoted him from the U23 side!

Transfer News:

 As deadline day came around, I needed additions to the squad. The main thing I needed was a goalscorer. Despite Janssen's hat trick in the last game, I had no confidence he was going to be the man to lead my front line this season and score 20 goals in a season. However, my new man is a proven scorer and got 29 goals in 55 games for Partizan last year and I've invested £2.5 million to bring him to the club in the hope Ricardo Gomes brings his shooting boots with him!

Transfer News:

 I also needed a new right back. With Jelle Bataille being injured, I've been asking De Laet to fill in there and although he's done a job, he is better at centre back. The new right back I've brought in is ex Brighton player, Martin Montoya who signs from Real Betis for £1 million.

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Matchday 8

Gomes had a great debut up front, scoring one and getting an assist, but overall this was a disappointing result against the side that props up the league table.

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Matchday 9

We absolutely blew them away in the first 27 minutes of the game!! 2 in 2 for new striker, Gomes, and he is already looking like a fantastic signing!

Takeover:

 Well, the club has had a much needed takeover and the new board have cleared all the old debts and brought some level of financial stability back to the club. There is a £58 million bank loan that needs repaying but at £500k per month, it should prove affordable!

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Matchday 10

A good result although it should have been by a wider margin based on the match stats. I can see me falling a little bit in love with Ricardo Gomes this season if the goals keep coming the way they are in the early stage of his career with us.

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League Table

We've hit a run of good form of late, winning 3 of our last 4 games and that has lifted us up to 2nd place in the league, with only the current champions above us. After being so poor in front of goal at the start too, it's good to see my signings coming good as we've turned things right around and have now scored more than anyone else.

Talking of new signings, Yanis Rahmani is looking like he has been an excellent addition as he leads the way in the league's assist charts!

20th August 2022

My first competitive game in charge wouldn't be a domestic one. In fact, it would be a qualifier for the Europa Conference League and if I am to fulfil the board's expectations, it's one I must win to get us into the group stages of the competition.

Europa Conference League

League Path 2nd Qualifying Round 1st Leg

Well my career couldn't have got off to a worse start. A lack of decent finishers is definitely going to cost us if I don't bring new faces in quick - we had 19 shots here and could only get 3 on target!

Transfer News: 

My first signing for the club is 27 year old Yanis Rahmani who comes in from Eibar for £3.2 million! Hopefully, he's going to add a bit of firepower to a pretty poor front line!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 1

Much better in front of goal to ensure we get off to a winning start in domestic football at least! Rahmani went straight into the starting lineup and bagged the assist for the 2nd goal on a good debut!

Transfer News: 

A further boost to the attacking setup as Ellis Simms comes into the club on loan for the season from Everton!

Europa Conference League

League Path 2nd Qualifying Round 2nd Leg

There will be no European football for us this year after this embarrassing result! We only have ourselves to blame after having 39 shots at their goal across the two legs whilst they only managed 14 at ours!!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 2

Ellis Simms comes off the bench to score an injury time winner on his debut! A fantastic win away from home against one of the only 2 sides predicted to finish above us this season!

Finances:

 Oh ****! I didn't realise the club was in such a dreadful financial state!!

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Matchday 3

Oostende clearly came with a very negative game plan, looking for a draw, and we weren't good enough to stop them getting it. We created more chances and even had 2 one on ones which we missed!

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Matchday 4

Another poor day in front of goal costs us points. We had 15 shots here (only one of which was classed as a long shot) and only managed to get 3 on target! In comparison, it's a great point for USG who had 34% possession and 5 shots!

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Matchday 5

Another dominant display of football. Another terrible day of shooting!

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League Table

I feel like we could definitely be top of this division with a 100% record right now if we could actually put the ball in the back of the net. Still, we are unbeaten I suppose and can at least take something from that!

In these early stages, we are easily the most physical team in the division with more fouls than anyone else! Luckily, other sides have not taken advantage of the set pieces we give away, but it might be something I need to keep an eye on.

Squad & Tactics

I have two goalkeepers in my team and neither of them are fantastic. They're not bad, but not great either. When you compare the two, there really isn't much to split them, but I am probably just about leaning towards Ortin De Wolf as my first choice, although the position is very much up for grabs. Both will get their opportunity in pre season to show what they can do.

In defence, we have a Belgian legend to build around. Toby Alderweireld has returned to his homeland with 121 international caps under his belt and will be our new captain and lead us to glory for a season at least (33 years old now). His pace is a slight concern, but he has every attribute still of a very, very good centre back.

His importance to us can't be underestimated as well, with him being the bookies favourite to be the best player in the entire division this season!

Alderweireld may be getting on a bit, but we do also have a youngster good enough to hold down a first team spot as well. William Pacho is only 20 years old and I'd love to be able to say we could build our defence around him for years to come, but unfortunately that's not the case as he will be joining Eintracht Frankfurt in January in a deal worth £10.25 million! Gutted to be losing him even before he's played a game for me!

Another player that will be recognisable to English football fans is Ritchie De Laet who played more than 100 times for Leicester, amongst a whole load of other spells with numerous English sides. Again, he is 33 so we might only get 1 season out of him, but his attributes suggest he still has something to offer for now.

In central midfield, my workhorse is Alhassan Yusuf. His reading of the game, work rate and tackling ability will be vital in us winning the ball back from the opposition before starting our own counter attacks and Yusuf is likely to be right at the heart of that! At only 21 years old, he'll only get better too!

Yusuf will likely be partnered in central midfield by Pieter Gerkens. He's not quite the same player in terms of defensive ability, but might be able to offer more as the link up player between defence and attack.

In terms of creativity through the centre of the park, we will look to Jurgen Ekkelenkamp. The 22 year old Dutch attacking midfielder is our more exciting player with more ability to pick those passes to open up opposition defences.

Out wide, our key threat will be the on loan Calvin Stengs. He's a good dribbler of the ball and has great passing ability with the vision to pick out the strikers too. I'll be encouraging these strengths by getting him running at the opposition defence, wreaking havoc, before playing those passes that create goalscoring opportunities. It would not surprise me if Stengs is our top assister this year!

In terms of putting the ball in the back of the net, I'll be looking to Vincent Janssen as our main threat. The ex Tottenham striker had his best season in an AZ shirt back in 2015/16 when he scored 27 goals in 34 gmaes and I'd love to get those sort of numbers out of him again!

Now pre season didn't exactly go to plan, losing 3 of our 5 games, although it can be argued that Rennes and RB Salzburg are bigger clubs than we are at this stage. The win over Marseille was a highlight though.

The tactic I am going to be using to kick off the season is as below. It's what is best suited to the players I have available...my main concern is the goalscoring ability I currently have in the team as the goals haven't exactly been free flowing in our friendlies but with a few tweaks over the opening matches and one or two signings, I'm hoping I can get it right.

Injury: One thing that wasn't ideal during pre-season was losing my only out and out right wing back for the first 3 months of the season.

Injury: And then to make matters worse, I lost one of my centre backs for majority of the season as well!!

Royal Antwerp F.C

So it would seem that my new football club have some history in Belgium. Established around 1880 as Antwerp Cricket Club by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years before the creation of the Royal Belgium Football Association, they are recognised as the oldest club in Belgium! At first there were no football members though, but only 7 years later in 1887, that came when the football division was founded.

Despite going for such a long time though, Antwerp have not experienced huge amounts of success and only have five Belgian league titles to their name and four Belgian Cups. They've also never won a European trophy, so there is definitely opportunity for me to build my own legacy here over the longer term.

As far as domestic success in Belgium is concerned, Antwerp have been hugely overshadowed by the likes of Club Brugge, Anderlecht and Standard Liege and these will be the teams we are looking to overthrow.

The Belgian Cup though (or the Croky Cup), doesn't have any real dominance from one club at all and could possibly be one of the most widely spread cup competitions amongst different winners in world football!!

Despite the club living in the shadows of some of the above mentioned clubs, none of them are seen as major rivals to Antwerp. In fact, our most fiercest rivalry is with Beerschot (who we are unlikely to play in the near future as they are in the division below). When the clubs meet, there is usually fan violence and seems to be some genuine hatred there between the two. Antwerp are often seen as a culture club with a diverse, cross-class support across the city, where as Beerschot supporters are eitherly heavily working class or heavily upper class with not much in between. Beerschot fans refer to Antwerp fans as 'The Jews' based on the fact our supporters pass through the Jewish district to get to the stadium...in return, Antwerp fans commonly refer to Beerschot supporters as 'The Rats'. It's no wonder the club's supporter profile demands good results if we come up against them and it should make for a fiery affair if and when I get the opportunity to manage Antwerp in one of these games.

In terms of the board expectations, I am expected to finish in the top 3 in the league this season and qualify from our group in the Europa Conference League too. Longer term, my board have ambitions for Antwerp to have the best youth system and be the most reputable team in the country...I'm fully on board with this!

As it currently stands, the club's facilities are not bad, but there is definite room for improvement.

The Bosuilstadion has a capacity of 16,144 which is only the 7th biggest in the Belgian top tier.

The squad I have inherited looks to have a couple of stand out names in it that I will likely build the team around and on the whole looks solid enough just based on my assisstant manager's star ratings (which can of course be taken with a pinch of salt). In my next update, we'll delve a little more into the team, key players and put a tactic together from those I have available.

The Not So Special One - The Wheel Of Fortune

After my Swansea save came to an end, I had no idea where to start my new game, so I thought the best people to ask would be the FM community. On the Football Manager Facebook group, I posted the below asking for suggestions of where to go next.

I got an incredible amount of responses to my post and rather than limit it to the first 20 as I said, I thought why not go through and add every single team that was suggested. So I weeded through the comments and picked out all those that met my criteria (as there were a fair few suggestions that didn't) and here is the wheel of fortune that has been created to decide my fate. I will spin and eliminate each club until we are down to 1! For now though, let's just get it down to 15!

With 15 teams remaining on the wheel, there is still a real mix of clubs left where I could end up. With 4 clubs from Italy and 3 from Scotland remaining, they are currently favourites as my final destination. Let's lose 7 more teams!

We've now got 8 clubs left and 7 nations still represented! I really have no clue at this stage what country I'm likely to end up in!

Down to just 4 sides now and it's Scotland, Belgium, Italy or Holland!

Roma are out of the running! Either way now, I won't be taking over a huge European club.

And I won't be going to Scotland either. Antwerp in Belgium or RKC Waalwijk in Holland await my managerial expertise...who's it gonna be!

Belgium, here I come!

It's fair to say that Antwerp is a club I never would have thought of to take over, so this has been a really fun and interesting way of deciding on a save and I'm really looking forward to it!

So I have arrived in Toulouse, the capital of France's Southern Occitanie region, to take over the managerial role at the Ligue 1 football club that sits close to the Spanish border and just west of Montpellier. Toulouse is known as La Ville Rose (The Pink City) due to the terra cotta bricks used in many of it's buildings. But the football team I am now in charge of are more well known for their distinguished purple colour, although this season's shirt is predominantly white.

I take over at a time when the club have returned to the top tier of French football and the fanbase will have high hopes of once again becoming a regular fixture in Ligue 1, although my arrival as an entirely unexperienced manager has caused a stir amongst the Toulouse faithful. After 17 straight seasons in Ligue 1, finishing as high as 3rd all the way back in the 2006/07 season, the club dropped down to Ligue 2 three seasons ago. After a 3rd placed finish in 2020/21, the team won the league the following season and we now grace the highest level of French football once again.

For my first season in charge, the board and fans are realistic and simply staying in the division will be enough to keep everyone happy.  Beyond that, we have domination of French football and then on to Europe in our sights…or in my sights at least. It's lucky not much is expected in my early reign as although the squad is not an awful one, it isn't anywhere near the quality to be challenging the likes of Marseille, Lyon, Monaco and the mighty PSG! One thing I do notice with the squad right away is that it's extremely multinational with only 3 French players in the first team…that's something I'll be looking to change over the years as I look to build more of a French core.

In my next update, I'll work to create a tactic from the crop available to me above. We will take a look at our key players that I'm going to look to build the team around as well and see how that all goes in some pre season friendlies. This should allow me to identify weaknesses in the squad to focus on strengthening ready for the season ahead, although I don't have the biggest transfer budget to work with and the wage budget is completely maxed out.

December 2022

A preview of this season's youth intake suggests is will be a good one.

There have been a few teams sniffing around my best player (Hellas Verona and Lille), Joao Teixeira for the past couple of weeks and with the Janauary transfer window coming up, I was getting nervous. So I'm pleased to have tied him down to a new contract which should hopefully put off any clubs who were preparing a mid season bid.

We would only have two matches to play in December due to the World Cup, which was won by England!! Portugal made it to the quarter final stage and were knocked out by Croatia.

The first of our two fixtures would be the Allianz Cup quarter final, but unfortunately we won't be progressing any further after a tight game against Boavista went to the lottery of a penalty shootout and on this occasion it wasn't our lucky day.

Before we played our 1 league fixture of the month, we had some bad news on the injury front. Centre back, Matthieu Saunier, who has become a first team regular since his arrival, will miss up to 7 weeks of action!

That league game was against Vizela who had beaten us in the cup last month, but we got a nice bit of revenge for that! Good to see Hector back on the scoresheet as he banged one in from the bench.

The win would mean we would finish the year 2022 firmly in the mix for European qualification in my first season in charge. However, with more than half the season still to go, we certainly won't get ahead of ourselves just yet.

My performance thus far definitely had the board and supporters very, very happy!

October/November 2022

The first match of October saw us make it 3 wins in a row in the league as we beat Estoril. It was also our 3rd clean sheet in a row as well! We then made it 5 games unbeaten as we get a point away at Boavista...another side that is predicted to finish in the top half so this again was a good result.

However, we won't be progressing in the Taca de Portugal this year after a disappointing performance saw us knocked out by lower league opposition from the division below.

Our next 4 league games threw up a mix of results starting with an expected defeat against Braga. However, there would be no better way to follow up that defeat than by beating the league leaders at the time - they were dominant in possession but we created plenty of chances and defended well to pick up an amazing result.

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After 13 games, we are defying all the odds and exceeding every expectation in the league and sit 5th in the table. Before the season kicked off, we were targeting 35 points as the benchmark to secure safety, but right now it looks like we're cruising to and beyond that tally.

Then, before the break for the World Cup, we would play all three group games of the Allianz Cup in the space of 9 days. I wanted us to perform better in this competition than we had in the other domestic cup, but things started in the worst possible way as we were beaten by Vizela! I was starting to think we weren't much of a cup team, but the lads proved me wrong as we pulled off a shock win over Braga in the next fixture which kept us in with a chance to qualify for the knockout stages, although only the group winners go through.

We got the job done against Leixoes in pretty comfortable fashion and Braga did us the favour we needed in the other game, so we do go through to the quarter final of the competition.

Other than Braga finishing bottom of our group, the biggest surprise of the group stage was probably Sporting Lisbon not qualifying as Maritimo won their group. The quarter final draw pits us against Boavista and the draw scheduled the fixture that every other team left in the competition wanted to see...Porto vs Benfica!

We've had a bit of a change in dynamics up front over the past couple of months. Although Hector had started the season in sensational form and won Player of the Month for August and September, Jo has worked his way into the side and is now keeping our first choice striker out of the side after he has scored 5 in his last 5!

August/September 2022

Pre Season...

Joao Teixeira will be my first ever captain at the club. He's the best player in the team and has decent leadership attributes, so he was the most logical choice.

My first and only permanent signing for the club is Matthieu Saunier. The experience French centre back has been without a club for over a year after being released by Lorient and should be grateful for the opportunity we have given him to play again. We needed a centre back, he was available for nothing, he's as good as any other centre back at the club, it's a good deal all round.

The odds for my first season in charge naturally have the big 4 well out in front of the rest, with Porto edging the bookies pick over Benfica, although any of the top 4 could lift the title in all honesty. Our odds of 600/1 means we should be gearing up for a long, hard campaign.

It's fair to say our first few fixtures hadn't exactly been kind to us as we were handed games against the likes of Porto, Benfica and Vitoria de Guimaraes all within our first 5! Despite that though, the first couple of months have seen us make an impressive start winning 4 of our opening 7 games with the most recent two being by nice 3-0 and 4-0 margins!

The pick of the bunch was most definitely that 2-1 win over Porto! Despite going 1-0 down relatively early on, the team fought back valiantly and took a massive 3 points. We were dominant in possession and although Porto had 30 shots at our goal we held on for dear life for the victory.

And it's fair to say we were unlucky not to beat Benfica as well, with their equalizer coming as late as the 93rd minute!

When I saw the fixture list, I could have only dreamed of being 5th after 7 matches!

When I first came here, I was quite open about my concerns that Hector wouldn't be good enough to lead the front line that effectively. But my main man up front proved me wrong in the first month of the season at least, with his form even being good enough to land both the first and second Player of the Month awards of the year.

And he's actually leading the early race for the golden boot as well! Keep proving me wrong Hector, keep proving me wrong son!

JULY 2022

The squad I have available to me isn't the worst in the world, considering we are predicted to 16th of 18 in the league this season. Well not according to my assistant manager's star ratings anyway, which sometimes leave plenty to be desired.

My most creative player in the squad is attacking midfielder Joao Teixeira and going forward I will be looking to build our attacking play around him. He should be the focal point for most of our moves going forward and I'll be looking to his artistry to make plenty of chances.

Backing him up in central midfield as the workhorse of the team is Joao Pedro. He's recently joined the club from Tondela where he made 106 league appearances and becomes one of our best players upon his arrival.

At the heart of our defence, my best available centre back is not one of our own. With what is going on in Ukraine at the moment, Nelson Monte has returned to Portugal on loan from Dnipro for the season. We're glad to have him here as without him, my defence would be pretty poor.

I have to admit I am initially worried about my attacking options. We don't have many and what we do have doesn't look fantastic. Hector is the best striker in the side, but he doesn't strike me as a man that will net 20 goals a season which is really what you have to be looking for from your main striker. Hopefully he will surprise me.

To a certain extent, I have got to make do with what I've got as there's not exactly an abundance of funds available for me to spend. The club is stable enough but the transfer budget is tiny and the wage budget only has £5k spare too.

So working with what I have, this is the tactic I have come up with. It focuses on the core strengths of the team and ensures my best players are playing in their preferred roles, whilst fitting the mediocre players around them to compliment the stars. I want us to attack teams with a high press and when we have it, move the ball around quickly and efficiently to get it to the front players to create opportunities and take shots. I have a keeper with a kicking attribute of 17/20 so I'm looking to exploit that by asking him to distribute it wide to the flanks and quickly when he has the ball to instigate counter attacks and hopefully catch our opponents off guard. I've given the team as much expressive freedom as possible and the wing backs will be expected to get forward and support the play out wide, with the two centre mids dropping in as a box to box and ball winner to cover them when they push. It's an intense tactic, so the likelihood is I won't want to play like this for 90 minutes every game, but I have a plan for that.

That plan is to go to something not quite so intensive. It's a bit more defensive, has us controlling and passing the ball around a bit more, whilst wasting some time when we have the opportunity too. It shouldn't all of a sudden invite loads of pressure, but it should allow the players just to step off the gas a little and have a bit of a breather. I'll almost always move to this if we are winning by 1 or 2 goals towards the last 10 minutes of each half.

Now the squad and tactics are done, it was time to sit down with the board and see what they want from me. The 5 year plan is in line with my own to be fair. This season, become established in the top tier and from there become recognised as the best of the rest within 4-5 seasons.

New Manager At Chaves

I've arrived in Portugal to take over as the new manager of Grupo Desportivo de Chaves, or GD Chaves for short, or just Chaves for even shorter. I will be the club's first ever English manager and only the second manager that isn't Portuguese to take over at the club since 1984 (at least - getting my information from Wikipedia as I take over here). 

So what's the aim of the save. Number 1 Objective: Establish Chaves as a top tier regular. Chaves are back in the top division of Portuguese football for the first time in three years and didn't come up as champions, so we have a task on our hands in the first season just to keep them up. The first job as manager is to do just that and then start to establish ourselves as competitors at this level.

Objective Number 2: End The Domestic Dominance Of The Top 4 - Portuguese football has one of the most dominant top 4s in European and possibly even world football. Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Porto and Braga generally fill all top 4 spots in the league every season, just in different orders. No other side has won the league since Boavista in 2000/01 and only 6 seasons out of the last 30 have seen a different side enter the top 3. No other side has finished in the top 3 since Pacos de Ferreira in 2012/13. Our aim will be to break this dominance and become a regular top 3 finisher.

Objective Number 3: Win Some Stuff - Chaves have never won any of the top Portuguese domestic trophies so I'm going to be looking to lead them to all of them during my time at the club. The domestic trophies to tick off will be Liga Portugal BWin, Taca de Portugal Placard and the Allianz Cup. It would be great to complete a league and cup double or maybe even a treble at some point too.

Objective Number 4: Win A European Trophy - I could go all out and say win the Champions League here, but the fact that Chaves are nowhere near qualifying for any sort of European trophy as I take over, if I could lift silverware in any of Europe's major three tournaments, it would be a solid achievement!

Objective Number 5: Match The Top Setups In The Country - Portuguese football is renowned across the world for clubs having some of the best youth setups and academies out there. They constantly churn out wonderkids for fun and during my career at Chaves, I'll be looking to encourage the club to continually invest in the club's facilities so we can match the likes of Benfica, Sporting and Porto for producing some of the world's best. At the moment, we are some way off!

Objective Number 6: Lead Portugal To A World Cup Win - At some point in the save, I'd like to bag the Portugal national job with the aim of winning the World Cup with them. Hopefully, by the time that comes around, we would have 1 or 2 Chaves players in that national side too.

So let's get this on the road! I'm looking forward to this!

Episode 8

The season continues to go strongly for us at Cadiz and is it beyond the realms of possibility that we might just qualify for Europe?!

Episode 7

In this episode, I update you on our recent run of fixtures...which have been really tough, but hopefully the arrival of Moukoko is going to rejuvenize the side!

Episode 6

Our unbeaten start to the season has come to an end, which isn't ideal going into a match with league leaders, Real Madrid!

Episode 5

There's no denying that we have made an absolute flyer of a start to my first season in charge and some of the football we are playing is sensational to watch! But in this episode, we have a tough fixture against Valencia to play!

Thanks mate :-)

Here's the three squad views I set up for my saves on Football Manager 2023. The three views focus on: * Squad selection * Transfers and Contracts * Key attributes

You can download these views here.... https://www.mediafire.com/file/07jwbvkmwp8xh62/Views.rar/file

Episode 4

It's transfer deadline day in Spain and as one central midfielder leaves the club, another comes in. It's been a good start to the season and Real Betis await us in our next game!

Episode 3

In episode 3, we officially start our first season in charge and we've been handed one of the toughest opening day fixtures as well.

Episode 2

In episode 2 of I'm So Cadizzy, I have a tactic special for you. After careful analysis of the squad, I set up the tactic that I think best suits the players I have available to me and explain my decisions and thinking behind my choices.

Episode 1

Welcome to episode 1 of I'm So Cadizzy...a one club, long term save where I'm going to look to grow Cadiz into one of Spain's top clubs alongside Barcelona and Real Madrid! Here, we are welcomed to Cadiz, take a look at our new home, stadium and club, discuss the board's vision and meet the squad for the first time.

Dulwich Hamlet are one of the bigger clubs in this division and more cash rich than most, with some talented players. So going away to them, I expected a really tough game. What I didn’t expect was to give them a footballing lesson as we cruised to our biggest win of the season so far! We were awesome in every department!

Our first venture into this season’s FA Cup saw us take on lower league club, Lancing, in the 2nd Qualifying Round. We got off to a flying start with Noel-Williams handing us the lead as early as the 9th minute, when he slotted past an onrushing keeper after being put through on goal by Kylian Kouassi. Gianni Crichlow bagged his first goal for the club just before half time to double our lead with a headed effort from a corner, before scoring again with a powerful effort after the break. Then a double from striker, Elliott Andrew, off the bench sealed an easy win.

Back in the league, two set piece goals in the first 8 minutes (one pen and one free kick) from Alfie Payne put us in charge of the game against Welling early on. They didn’t offer much after that and their goal was even against the run of play.

Our flying start to the season has continued and through October it was good enough to earn me my first ever Manager of the Month award.

The Manager of the Month award is notorious for cursing a manager and his team in their next match and we hoped that wouldn’t be the case as we found ourselves back in FA Cup action against more lower league opposition, this time in the form of Kingstonian. But that’s exactly what happened as we suffer a very disappointing defeat and there will be no dream FA Cup run for us this season.

However, we quickly recovered from that defeat as we went on to record 4 wins in a row in the league, conceding only a single goal in the process.

It is a run of form that has taken us to the top of the division!

And also wins me back to back Manager of the Month awards too!

Our defence is proving to be extremely solid so far this season and at the heart of that is Kyran Clements, who is proving to be an absolute beast for us with an average rating of 7.69 in all comps so far this year!

Only our very own Alfie Payne has a better average rating in the league than him!

In amongst all that action, there was another new arrival at the club. We are only allowed 6 long term loans (over 3 months) per season, but needed additional cover on the wings. I have therefore moved to bring in 20 year old Harvey Grice from Alfreton on a loan deal for just 3 months. We won’t contribute anything financially and I’m not sure how much he will play, but it is another body in the squad.

The tactic I have come up with that best suits my players and the style I want to play down at this level is a 4-2-4 wide. The aim here is to keep a solid back 4, without leaving ourselves too open, have two solid central mids to win and keep the ball. Get the ball, get it wide, whip in the crosses and the strikers score…it’s a simple theory for a team that is devoid of individual outstanding talent. We will kick off the season with a cautious approach based on who we are playing, but I will change the mentality throughout the campaign depending our opponents game by game. With such a weak side though, I predict I’ll mostly be using cautious and balanced to start games off.

We were handed the toughest possible fixture to kick off our league campaign as we took on the title favourites. When we went 2-0 down inside the opening 15 minutes, I have to admit I feared the worst and thought we might get an opening day thrashing! However, my lads grew into the game and we slowly started to take control of things in the possession department and were quickly creating chance after chances. We were back in the game on 54 minutes when Dejon Noel-Williams headed in from an Alfie Payne free kick. Alfie Payne was the provider again for centre back Kyran Clements to level things up for us with 16 minutes to go. We thought we’d actually won the game at the death when Noel-Williams hammered home with just seconds remaining, only for the linesman to rule the goal out for offside.

After the Ebbsfleet game, I was able to announce a new signing. It is another season long loan deal which won’t cost us anything as we add 18 year old striker, Kylian Kouassi to the side. He joins from Sutton United and will come here with a point to prove, having not yet made a senior career experience. His signing was essential as before he joined, I only had two recognised strikers in the side.

Our second league game provided our first victory of the campaign as came away from Hungerford with all 3 points. Dejon Noel-Williams picked up where he left off against Ebbsfleet, bagging another two goals here, and his form already looks like it will be crucial for us this season.

And we made it back to back wins as we beat Havant & Waterlooville in our next game. We were largely outclassed for long periods of this game and our opponents managed 22 shots at our goal. However, our cautious, counter attacking approach worked down to a tee and we took our chances well to steal a victory. It was good to see Kouassi getting on the scoresheet on his first start for the club.

It took 4 games for us to taste defeat for the first time this season, but if I’m being honest then I expected it to have come a lot quicker. Our game against Billericay was close though and either team could have walked with the points on the day…we certainly didn’t disgrace ourselves here.

It’s always a good test of the squad’s mental strength to see how they react after our first defeat and to be fair my lads reacted extremely well here. We dominated proceedings against Oxford and can count ourselves very unlucky not to come away with all 3 points…only a last minute worldie from our opponents denied us the victory.

Still, I don’t think anyone expected us to be in the playoff spots after the opening 5 games! A fantastic start!

We know we're not going to get the best players to sign for this club. After a few free transfer attempts of what I'd class to be 'good' players at this level, it was clear to see that most don't want to play for me as an inexperienced manager or don't want to play for Braintree as a club that is apparently destined for the drop! So instead, we will have to turn our attention to players that are not so great (to make up the numbers) and the hope our best players can shine, or maybe some youngsters on loan that won't be getting regular football at their own club...

Kai Lissimore fits that latter bill perfectly. At 17, Kidderminster clearly don't have any plans for him this season, but he can add something to our squad and will get his chance to show what he can do for us. He has decent passing ability and the vision to pick out a half decent pass and when he plays, we'll look to him to get those through balls out wide or up to the strikers to create chances. Kai comes in on loan for the season and we won't pay anything towards his deal or wages.

Another youngster that joins on loan for the season ahead is Joe Rabbetts. He comes in from Aldershot in the National League and likely to be our number one left back. He has some decent pace to get up and down the left wing and I’ll be looking for him to whip in plenty of crosses for the front men. We won’t pay anything towards Joe’s wages for the duration of this deal.

A second youngster joined us on loan for the season from Aldershot in the form of winger, Dan Jones. The 19 year old should provide a threat down the right side and I expect him to provide a little flair to the team, getting beyond his man and whipping plenty of crosses into the box. He has the potential to get more assists than anyone this season if he can establish himself as a first team regular. As with our other loan deals, we won’t have to contribute any financials to this deal.

My next signing was my first permanent one for the club. Elliott Andrew has come through the youth at a much higher level with Nottingham Forest, but the 19 year old striker was released by them at the end of last season. I have happily snapped him up and made him the highest paid player at the club on £300 per week, hoping he will be able to be our main goalscoring this season.

Back to the loan market and our next season long loan is 19 year old full back, Huseyin Biler, who joins from AFC Wimbledon. We needed cover in the full back position and Biler was the best available on the loan market who would actually join us.

Another area we needed to improve and find cover was at centre back and we have an experienced head through the door on a free transfer in amongst all the youngsters. Michael McGrath is a good addition and will surely play a big part in our season, providing his age doesn’t catch up with him and he stays relatively injury free.

In amongst all the transfer business, we have so far played three friendlies and recorded three wins. However, I wouldn’t have expected anything less as all our opponents have been from lower divisions.

Great first half of the season there mate! Hopefully you can keep that momentum going

The Iron - A Braintree Town Story

35 year old Chris Ball is hired as the new manager of Braintree Town. It's a statement I am proud to hear as I take over at the Essex club, in what I hope will be a long term career taking them up through the English pyramid with the aim to eventually reach the promised land of the Premier League.

The club has been established for well over 100 years, but only have three trophies to their name in their entire history. Four regional league titles and a single National League South win coming in 2011. I'll be looking to change that! Our fiercest rivals are Chelmsford City, due to the close proximity of the two clubs and we will get the chance to play them in the league in my first season in charge. With regards to the club's facilities, they're not the greatest which is to be expected down at this level. I'll be looking to upgrade these as we progress the club throughout the years ahead.

Just as I'll be looking to upgrade myself as, at the moment, I only have a National A License and my previous playing experience as a local pro footballer leaves me with plenty to learn.

Luckily, expectations of the board are not high, with a brave fight against relegation expected this season, and for the next 5 years the board will be happy if we simply stay in the league. Basically, as long as I stay within the wage budget, I should keep the bosses happy.

It's no wonder the board are so lenient with their expectations, as with my appointment as the most inexperienced manager in the league, the club are predicted to finish well adrift of the rest and be relegated. Looks like I'll have my work cut out.

Although I don't think it's just down to my appointment. As I meet my squad, it's clear to see that we are seriously lacking in numbers and my first task is going to be to add some new recruits ASAP before the competitive season gets underwar. With only £500 spare in the wage budget, it's not going to be an easy task to attract any major talent to the club and I will have to be a very shrewd operator in the transfer market for sure.

Any success we will have is likely to be heavily dependent on the performances of central midfielder Alfie Payne. He is easily our best player and I'll be looking to build our team around the 21 year old!

Cullen Joins Yeovil

I quickly moved to utilize the affiliation we have with Swansea City by bringing in 21 year old striker, Liam Cullen, on loan for the season!

Cullen is a bit of an unknown quantity, having made only 6 senior appearances for The Swans. They all came last season and he managed to bag one goal for the club. His loan move to us will be the first time in his career he has been away from Swansea, but with such strong attributes for a player down at our level, he was well worth the punt. And he isn't costing us anything in wages anyway, due to Swansea being our parent club, so there really is very little risk and it was a no brainer to bring him in.

Cullen has a determined personality and is a tidy finisher, with a good work rate as well. He'll play alongside a target man for us and will hang on the shoulders of the defenders for those telling through balls and knock ons. He has decent heading ability too for when those crosses come in from the wide areas. 

Liam Cullen could well turn out to be a 20 goal a season striker at National League level....we hope!

Ball Promises Fans Long Term Success

New Yeovil manager, Chris Ball, faced the media for the first time today as he undertook his first press conference since taking over in his new role. The common theme throughout was the future of the club as Ball promised he would bring long term success.

Ball said that he'd sat down with the board to discuss the club's vision and they'd come up with a 5 year plan together. “In the first instance, it's important that we compete this year. We don't belong in the National League and anything short of a playoff spot must be regarded as failure", Ball said.

The new boss went on to explain that he was targeting 2 promotions in the next 4 seasons as he felt League One is the minimum level the club belongs at, whilst strongly hinting that he will put an emphasis on the youth coming through the club and look to develop their best talent for the first team as much as he can. The conference left majority of Yeovil fans feeling upbeat and there was an air of excitement around the ground afterwards. Not everyone shared the same views though as one fan was reported as saying “This fella is a dreamer. Nothing but a dreamer".

There's no shying away from Yeovil's rapid decline through the English football pyramid over recent years.  Having spent 8 seasons in League One from 2005, finishing in the bottom half in 6 of those, they eventually recorded a 4th place finish and a shock playoff win to see them promoted to the Championship during the 2012/13 campaign. They only managed one season in the second tier though, with only 8 wins from their 46 games and were immediately relegated finishing bottom of the division. A disastrous campaign in League One followed, where they again finished bottom of the table to record successive relegations. Despite being one of the favoured sides to go back up, 4 seasons in League Two followed in which the club struggled in all of them finishing between 19th and eventually 24th to suffer heartbreak and drop out of the football league in 2018/19.  Again, they failed to gain an immediate promotion, finishing 4th during the 2019/20 campaign. It's fair to say that the Yeovil fans really haven't had much to celebrate over the past few years and will certainly be hoping for a change in fortunes.