The Kids Are Alright -Season 10

A TIPPING POINT?

Ten seasons in, and I would be hard pressed to argue were aren’t exactly where we want to be. In addition to moving up 134 places to the 132nd position in European club ranking, we have improved behind the scenes, with secure finances, State of the Art Training Facilities, Excellent Youth Facilities, the best coaching group in Liga I…the only thing really holding us back is our reputation as a club, which currently sits at 2 1/2 National. That means we are still missing out on some of the better coaching options out there, especially at the youth level, because they do not want to come here. Don’t get me wrong, what we have is pretty good, but I know there are better out there. But we have a good, young, capable roster, and even though the pundits don’t believe in us (Again, the predicted a bottom half finish, this time 11th), I think we are poised to start doing some good things.

Selling one of our better youth prospects was not part of the plan though.

Vasile Ion (Class of ’30) is probably the first legitimate wonderkid (140+PA) player we’ve had come thru the ranks.

If I am being honest, I don’t think it’s his play for us that caught everyone’s attention, but his International and Continental play. 7 appearances as a 17 year old, 11 as an 18 year old, he’s easily the best young Romanian DM in the game. A few of the local clubs started asking about him last season, then some of the neighboring clubs, but in this years winter transfer window, a lot of big clubs started getting involved, when Napoli came and made an offer that I couldn’t refuse. Could I have gotten more money for him? At the time, probably not. And they offered him on a loan back until the end of the season which came in handy. I suspect the 40% sell on will as well…or it would, if we were buying players. A lot of the extra money is tied to international appearances, and I don’t think we will see a problem in getting them.

Transfer wise, the only real surprise was Rareş Florea going to Chindia for as much money as he did. I don’t think he worth anything nearing that amount, but never interrupt another club when they are making financial decision that are in your best interest. The only other ‘Out’ of any consequence was Rareş Florea, but Voluntarii can afford to eat the fee should he not pan out. Given the recent injury rating he’s picked up and his underwhelming loan spell last year, I don’t think he’s going to get much better.

Schedule wise, I think we actually did ourselves a favor by not qualifying for Continental football this season, as it means fewer games, and lets us concentrate on League play. And Holy Hell, did we get off to a really good start:

We played horribly at Arad, so a draw was not an unexpected result. The draw at Craiova was expected as well, the loss against FCSB not so much, but everyone in a Politehnica kit had a bad day that day. Our victories though, 4-1 against U Craiova, 2-0 against Rapid, 3-0 against Cluj, these are all solid to very good teams, and we handled them quite well. We are still using the 4-1-4-1 DM WB Asymmetrical, everyone knows it, is comfortable and familiar with it, and teams are still having issues dealing with it. I wanted to do well in the Cupa României this season, the board wanted us to get to the latter stages, and being in a somewhat weaker group certainly helped. It allowed me to rotate for some of the matches, and start some very promising youngsters.

Other than the loss against Craiova, at home no less, we kept up our winning way. Hlinca in particular is having a very good season as the DLF, well on his way to another 20+ goal season. Voicu (Class of ’26) has settled into the AM(C) role quite well, and Alexandru is having an excellent season between the sticks, well on his way to averaging less than a goal a game. Wins against Dinamo and Cluj, shutting out Arad in the return match, and a Quarter Final win in the Cupa României, we went into the winner break on a high.

That high continued until the League split. If not for the fact Universitatea Craivoa had an even better first half of the season (13/2/0 to our 10/4/1) we would have been in first place. But this is Liga I, and sometimes, the are strange things afoot.

THE YEWT

I think this Intake has the potential to be the best one of the save so far, not in terms of how many players we recruited, but how many of them are better than 120PA

Rocky Jivan

The only reason(s) Jivan might not get some starts next year are because he’s 16, and he’s 127 pounds soaking wet. After that, whats not to love? A left footed BBM DM/M(C), with Good Balance, Work Rate, Flair, Technique, Finishing, and a Bravery (17 minimum) that speaks of a Napoleon complex of “I don’t care I am 5’7″ I’ll kick you ass every day of the week and twice on Game day” attitude. And he’s got a Professional Personality. The question isn’t how good a player will Rocky be, the question is considering what we see is the basement, how high cam we go, and how long can we keep him before other teams come calling?

If Vasile Oprea‘s Possession and Physicals can catch up to his Attacking skills, he’d will be a very good attacking option. As it stands, at the moment he’s one of several in a somewhat large pond looking to take over if/when Hlincu leaves. Being Fairly Professional will certainly help.

I am not sure how to pronounce Mădălin Mif. If he and Oprea were combined into one player we would have a very good AM(C) on out hands, as it stands Mif has DLP written all over, Decent Attacking skills, Good Possession skills, and not that mobile. If his Defending skills were any better, or at least had the potential to be much better, he would be a great D(C). However, the lack of defending skills, his physical deficits, and the Unambitious personality mean he probably wont reach his potential, no matter what positions he’s playing.

As If Cristian Vieru joining the large pond that is our striker depth, the Low Determination is an additional anchor around his neck. Which is a shame, because I think after Jivan, he has the best base in terms of starting skills. I think if he does develop, it will probably be at an AM(C) sort of player. Cosmin Croitoru is in the same boat, but something tells me that the difference between Croitoru’s CA and PA is not that great. That said, other than Jivan he’s probably the one player from this intake who’s going to get first team playing time sooner rather than later.

Rocky Merişanu will probably forever be known as “The Other Rocky” from this years intake. He has a solid foundation to build off of, the question is how high. His personality says “Not as High as it Could be.” I suspect he will be a squad player at best, but the potential to be more IS there. Vasile Mihai is a player I think is undervalued by my scouts and coaches, even with the Unambitious personality. His Good Defending skills, Good Physical skills, Technique and Passing are intriguing, at least to me. Part of me suspects that he’s rated as low as he is because they believe the areas he’s already low then are not going get much better than they are now. Tudor Ungureanu is a decidedly average player at the moment. That is not a bad thing, as I suspect all of his Orange skills are on the low end, but should his Fairly Sporting personality not be a hindrance, he could be a serviceable squad player.

I’ll be honest, I am not sure whats going on when it comes to the League phase. Craiova went in 1st place, lost two games, drew one and won the rest, while we drew 4 and lost 1, while winning the others. That put them 5 points ahead in the Playoffs, yet somehow, in the League table, we pipped them by 2 points to win 1st place and a UCL spot, but Craiova are the Champions(?)

Granted, we needed some luck to win/not lose a couple of these matches:

But the good news in all of this was not winning the League (possibly), or qualifying for Champions League Football again, it was winning out first Domestic Trophy by beat Craiova in the Cup Final! Woohoo, something tangible to hang our scarf on!

Dumitru Hlinca has a fabulous season, Player of the year, new average rating record, 35 goals across all competitions, he’s really hit his stride, and he’s not the only one.

Răzvan Teodorescu set a new record with 24 assists across all competitions, Voicu had a solid season with 19 goals and 7 assists, Neagu and Alexandru had fine seasons as well, and I really think we’ve turned the corner with regards to where we can finish. Admittedly, finishing top third is good, but as we have seen in the past, so is finishing top of the relegation group. Going forward, European football has to be the goal, no matter what competition it ends up being, no matter how we qualify for it. The other thing I am interested in seeing is how well our next few Youth Intakes go. If they are the same…quality as this one, I think we will be very happy. These “lower” personality profiles are still disturbing though. Although we have seen some players grow out of them, the fact they are showing up with them, especially in the number of players that have them, is still disturbing. Until we can bring in a better HOYD though, we are stuck with the one we have.

Thanks for Reading!

‘Icarus’ Clubs

We’ve known about “Fallen Giants”, clubs that were once big but have now fallen back, such as Saint Etienne in Spain, Buraspor in Turkey, Parma in Italy, Coruna in Spain, but what about those clubs who spent a long time climbing their way to the top, only to stay for a couple of seasons or less before crashing back down. Or what about those clubs that have always come close, but have never managed to get promoted to the top flight?

I’ve never seen posts about them before, but the word that comes to mind is in the title: “Icarus”. Given a pair of wings made by Daedalus, Icarus was warned first of complacency, then hubris. Instructed to fly not to high or too low, Icarus ignored Daedalus. He flew too close to the Sun, the wax holding his wings together melted, and he plunged to his death in the sea below.

Icarus flew “Too close to the Sun”, which I believe is an apt metaphor for these teams. All these teams can be found in the base version of the game, but the list of Icarus Clubs across all countries is quite large. This post is going to focus on European Clubs.

GERMAN CLUBS

Fortuna Düsseldorf won the Bundesliga in 1933, then fell all the way to the RegionalLiga levels. The made the Bundesliga in the 2012/13 season, and again in the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons, before being relegated back down to the 2. Bundesliga. They are probably the easiest Icarus team to take to the top.

SSV Ulm 1846 won the RegionalLiga Sudwest in 1998, and then finished 3rd in the 2. Bundesliga in 1999 and promotion to the Bundesliga. Despite a scrappy fight, they could not avoid relegation on the last day, and were relegated back to 2. Bundesliga. Their 2000-01 campaign was a disaster, they finished in 16th place and were relegated to the Regionalliga Sud, but the chaotic state of their finances led to the DFB denying them a license, which sent them all the way down to the 5th Tier Verbandsliga Württermberg. In the two decades since the club has weathered a betting scandal, insolvency issues, administration, but finally clawed their way back to the 3. Liga in the 2023 season.

SC Preußen Münster was a founding member of the Bundesliga, but were relegated after the inaugural season. In the mid 70’s the club’s board took a lot of chances to try and get the club promoted back to the top flight, that effort ended up with most of the board resigning because of the financial difficulties and tax fraud accusations. In 2006 the club again invested significant financial resources to try and climb the German pyramid, but again fell short. They finally made it to the 3.Liga in 2011, and finished 4th the following season, but ensuing seasons saw a variety of changes at the top for no return, and the club crashed back into the RegionalLiga. They earned promotion back to the 3. Liga in the 2021-22 season.

ENGLISH CLUBS

Yeovil Town F.C. is one of the true “Icarus Clubs” on this list, in that they have never played in the EPL or First Division. After spending most of it’s existence in the lower leagues of the English Pyramid, they finally reached the League in 2001. Two seasons later they were promoted to League 2, and in 2007 were promoted to League 1 via the playoffs after a 5th Place finish. The next few seasons despite lacking the financial muscle of other teams in the league, judicious scouting and loan signings helped the team get promoted to the Championship, but despite wins over Forest, Watford and Sheffield Wednesday, they were relegated. Their finances did not get any better, and they were relegated again the next season back down to League 2. In the 18-19 season the club dropped out of the EFL, and since then a variety of management changes have occurred, while the team has fallen down to the National League South.

I will admit this is a sentimental choice for me, I saw a video on YouTube (Probably by HITC Sevens) about the club, and the story resonated with me. A Small club, lacking financial stability, thru good coaching, good scouting, and overachieving players manages to get to the 2nd highest level of competition in the EPL, only to fall short. If that’s not an Icarus Club, what is?

Swindon Town F.C. made it to the Premier League in 1993-94 season, but were relegated after just a year. Their time in the Premier League was notable for two things:

One of their 5 wins was against League Champions Manchester City
They conceded 100 goals during the season, a record that still stands.

The club also earned the dubious distinction of being the first team in the Premier League to have been relegated to League Two in 2006, but a couple of years later missed out on promotion back to the Championship by losing in the playoffs to Millwall on penalties. After that the club made several appearances in the tile game, losing each time, but again were releagted to League 2 in 2021. Since then financial issue have plagued the team, to the point where the EFL deducted 3 points from them in 2021. Since then a variety of head coaching changes, and CEO changes, have led to the current instability at the club, with the club falling back down into League 2. Can you get the back to the promised land?

Barnsley F.C. finished 2nd in the First Division in 1997, which led to their only appearance in the Premier League in the 97-98 season. In 2002 The fell to League 1, and won promotion back to the ECL, where they stayed for 8 seasons. Relegation and Promotion followed, and again the club was promoted to the ECL in 2019, but relegated again in 2022. Barnsley holds the distinction of having played more games and spent more seasons in the second division of English Football than any other team. Are you the coach to get them back to the top flight and beyond?

Millwall F.C. spent two seasons in the top flight of English football, from 1988 to 1990. The club has been in existence for 97 years, in that time 90 of those years have been spent yo-yoing between the 2nd and 3rd Tiers of the EFL. The FA Cup Giant Killers made it back to the Championship in the 2017-2018 season, and have come close to making the playoffs several times. What separates a club like Millwall from Swindon in this case is good ownership. Under the stewardship of Chairman John Berylson, the club remained financially sound, and the money the won in their various FA Cup upsets certainly helped as well. However, in the summer of 2023, Berylson was killed in a car accident, with his son taking over as chairman. Since then the clubs performance on the field has been less than stellar, and they currently sit in the bottom half of the table. As head coach, can you bring stability to the squad, get them promoted, and help fulfill the previous chairman’s dreams?

Northampton Town F.C. were promoted three times in five years once. Starting in 1960 in the then Fourth Division, they made it all the way to the First Division, where they relegated after just one season. They then had the dubious distinction of being relegated back to the Fourth Division over the next five years, and since 1967 have bounced back and forth between the 3rd and 4th Tiers of the EFL. The last day of the 2023 season, they defeated Tranmere to get promoted to League One. Its quite possible that very few people outside of Northampton remember they played in the top flight once. Can you get them there again?

Leyton Orient F.C. is the second oldest club in London to play in the EFL. Like Northampton they spent just one year in the First Division, 1963-1964, and since then have bounced back and forth between the various EFL tiers. The new century has not been kind to the club, new ownership in 2006 saw two relegation’s and eleven managers over the next three years, ending the 112 years the club had spent in the EFL as they dropped to non conference for the first time in their history. Nigel Travis took over the running of the club in 2017, and since then there has been slow but steady improvement, the O’s won the National League in 2019, then promotion to League One in 2023 after finishing 1st. Slow and Steady may win the race, but fast climbs to dizzying heights make Headlines, can you put Leyton Orient on the front page again?

Carlisle United F.C. spent one year in the First Division, the 1974-1975 season, but then suffered thru back to back relegation’s, starting a journey that saw them go as high as the 2nd Division in 1982, then out of the EFL altogether in 2004 when relegated from League 2. They returned the following year, winning the League two title in 2006, relegated back down in 2014, then back up in 2023. To be honest, they might be more well known to casual fans because they’ve played in the League Trophy final Six times, winning it twice. The club was just purchased by new ownership, can they provide the financial muscle to not only help the club get promoted, but maybe rebuild a stadium that 114 years old and needs some flood barriers, at a minimum?

FRENCH CLUBS

Chamois Niortais FC was a regional club for most of it’s existence, until the mid 80’s when it achieved promotion to Ligue 2. This allowed the club to become professional, and they finished a respectable 10th place in their first season. The next season saw them go on a 17 game unbeaten streak all the way to 1st place, and promotion to Ligue 1. Despite a promising start, the team just did not have the caliber of players required to compete in the top flight, and were relegated after just one year. The club remained a Ligue 2 mainstay for most of the following years, with short stays in the 3rd Division. In 2008 the wheels fell off, with the club going winless in three months of football, and relegation to the Amateur Levels. This also meant they lost their professional status, owing to DNCG rules on the issue. Despite this, the club returned to the 4th tier the following year, and then back to the 3rd tier in 2011. In 20013, after again winning promotion to Ligue 2, they became a professional club again, however they were relegated back to the 3rd tier at the end of the 2023 season. The club has always had a small, regional fan base, but the right coach can lead them to bigger and better things, possibly even unseating PSG at the top of Ligue 1. Are you that coach?

LB Châteauroux, or La Berrichonne de Châteauroux, played one season in Ligue 1, the 1997-1998 season, but they are probably more well known for reaching the 2004 Coupe de France and losing to PSG 1-0. However, because PSG finished 2nd that season, Châteauroux played in the UEFA Cup the following year. The club spent the next few seasons between the 2nd and 3rd Divisions, and has spent the last 10 years in Ligue 2, avoiding relegation the past few seasons.Financially stable, the team doesn’t play in the most populous reason of France, but a good coach taking the team to the top of Ligue 1 and beyond would certainly bring himself, the club and the region quite a lot of honor and attention.

ITALIAN CLUBS

Ternana Calcio reached Serie A twice in the 70’s, staying in the top flight for just one season each time. The first go they only won 3 games out of 30, and the second time was not that much better. Despite a brilliant semi final run to the Coppa Italia in 1980, the club was relegated back to Serie B, then began bouncing between the C1 and C2 divisions of Serie C. Winning Serie C and returning to Serie B in 1993 proved costly, as the team was forced into bankruptcy. After re-entering the Italian pyramid in Serie D, the club again won promotions to Serie B, staying there until 2006. The closest they came to promotion again was in 2004, when they missed promotion by 4 points. A series of relegation’s back down to Serie D, and then Promotions back up to Serie B again in 2021 sees them in the second tier again, trying to break thru back into Serie A. Their fierce rivalry with Perugia is somewhat hampered by the fact that I Grifoni have spent 13 seasons in Serie A at various points in their history, can you take over at Ternana, dethrone the King’s of Umbria, then Italy, and then the world?

AC Trento 1921 is a phoenix club of Società Sportiva Dilettantistica Trento Calcio 1921 S.r.l, which went bankrupt in 2014. The club title was transferred to the current entity, which has been on both sides of the regional leagues and lower tiers of the Italian pyramid. The days of playing in Serie B are long past, as the club has bounced back and forth between Serie D and Eccellenz leagues. Recently though, the club has been on an upward tick, winning the Girone C title, resuming its Professional status, and staying midtable in its Serie C Division since 2021. North of the Trento Autonomous Region is South Tyrol, where FC Südtirol has been climbing the pyramid to the top of Serie B. A Fierce rivalry between the two teams has developed, can you put it to rest by reaching and winning Serie A before they can?

Potenza Calcio is another phoenix club, formed by two amateur squads who claimed the name after reaching professional status in 2018. The original club, Potenza FC, had been founded in 1920 before being de-registered by the Italian Football Federation in 2012. The clubs best years were from 1963 to 1968, when it spent 5 seasons in Serie B. A long decline soon followed, culminating in the 2010 match fixing scandal. Financial problems followed, leading to the clubs de-listing in 2012. The 2018 promotion to Serie C has helped it stabilize, and becoming professional has certainly helped as well. The club and it’s fanbase are looking to reclaim the glories of days gone by. Can you lead them to that glory, while kicking their Campanian rivals (Benevento and Salernitana) along the way?

SPANISH CLUBS

SD Huesca has had some recent success lately, but I am including them in this because the team that should have been here had I done this post two years ago is currently 7 points out of first place in La Liga. Huesca started the century in the Tercera Division, and since then has been gradually climbing it’s way to the top of the Spanish pyramid. 1 year stints in La Liga in 2018-2019 and 2020-2021 have given it a taste of what top flight football is like, and after Fortuna Dusseldorf they would probably be the easiest team to take over. Until recently, they’ve always been second in the region to Real Zaragoza, but that club has not seen top flight football since 2013. Climbing to the top of La Liga won’t be easy (Despite what Girona is doing in real life), but taking over this Huesca squad will certainly help.

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa has a long history and an interesting future. They reached the top flight once, in 1955, but were relegated after that season, and spent most of the decades following in the Segunda Division, with periodic stints in the 3rd and 4th divisions. In 2011 the club was relegated due to financial issues, but since then it has worked it’s way back up to the Segunda until relegation back to the third division in 2021. What makes this club interesting is that it’s almost entirely owned by the ASPIRE group, a Qatari company that also owns Eupen in Belgium, a partnership with Leeds, and an Academy in Senegal. This gives the club an interesting network to work with, in particular the Senegal link IMO. A deft hand is going to be required to pull everything together and get this club back to La Liga, are you the coach who can do that?

AD Ceuta FC is on the list because it was founded as a merger between Sociedad Deportiva Ceuta and Atlético Tetuán. Tetuán played in la Liga for one season, 1951-52, and was relegated, then the merger occurred in 1956. The current club came into being when the original AD Ceuta club was dissolved in 2012 due to high debts. Since then the club has slowly climbed its way back up to the 3rd tier, with a Round of 16 appearance in the Copa del Rey. To make this save even more interesting, the club itself is not in Europe. Ceuta is an Autonomous city on the North Coast of Morocco, and its membership in the RFEF means that not only can you win La Liga, but the Conference, Europa, and Champions Leagues if you desire.

PORTUGUESE CLUBS

AD Fafe had a 30th anniversary to remember, as they won promotion to the First Division. That they were promptly relegated the next season is probably not as well remembered, especially as only a few years after that they were back down in the 4th Division. Since then it has bounced back and forth between the 3rd and 4th Divisions. Getting back to Liga NOS and breaking the stranglehold the Top Three have on the that league will be tough, but doing so with Fafe would be very rewarding.

C.D. Trofense climb to the First Division was one for the ages. After winning their group in 2006, they advanced to the playoff to determine who would be promoted to the Second Division. Regular time, Extra time, and 20(!) Penalty Kicks later, Trofense achieved promotion. After a solid midtable finish the following year, the finished top of the league and won promotion to Liga NOS. Despite some very good games, beating Benfica and drawing against Porto as an example, they could not avoid the drop, and in the years since have fallen back down to the Third Tier. Only 18km away from Porto, can you be the manager that takes them out of the Portuguese giants shadow and to the top?

UD Oliveirense last visit to the First Division was the 1946-46 season, but I am including the in this list because since 2001 they have spent of their time in the 3rd Tier, but in 2008 gained promotion to the Second Tier, and since then they have been trying unsuccessfully to gain promotion to the First Tier. The closest they came was a 4th place finish in 2000-2011, and since then they have avoided a relegation battle. The club is owned by the same group that owns Yokohama FC, and while at the moment the affiliate agreement does not include players, dipping into the talent pool that is Japan could help push the club back into the 1st Tier, and this time keep them there for longer than a year.

OTHER CLUBS IN EUROPE

HOLLAND: Emmen, Helmond Sport

DENMARK: BK Fremand Amager, B93, FC Helsingor, Koge BK, Vendyssel FF

SERBIA: Mladost Novi Sad

CROATIA: NK Dubrava, HNK Orijent

GREECE: Makedonikos FC

POLAND: Miedź Legnica

All of the teams listed in this article should be playable without any downloads. Any errors in the details are mine.

I hope those of you reading can find a team/save you like. I will try an do a South American one in the future as well.

Thanks for reading!

The Kids Are Alright -Season 6

I am not too worried about this…yet…

One of the thoughts lingering in the back of my mind since the start of the save is “What if we become to successful to soon?” In many saves this isn’t something to worry about, but in a Youth Save (for many teams anyways), it is because if you are at a smaller club, when you get good Youth players who perform very well early in their careers, teams with more, be it reputation, money, and the like, will come calling for them. And they will leave, because despite the fact you are a brilliant Head Coach, the clubs has good facilities, good finances, and a growing reputation, you do not have the name, brand, continental or worldwide recognition and reputation to keep those players local. Case in point: Darius Niculcea. Perhaps the best player from the ’25 Youth Intake, he was forced into the starting XI for a variety of reasons, and he performed very well. So well that Napoli came and offered us €500K. And since he’s left, he sat on the bench for a year, and then went on loan for half a season to Bari, where he was OK. Would he have been better of staying here for another year or two? Maybe.

But my point, and I swear I am getting to it, is that really good young players who leave early hurt the club more than they help. We need to be winning, we need Continental competition games not for the money, financially we are on very solid ground:

but we need the to increase our stature in the game. This leads to a cycle of good youth players coming in, helping the team to succeed, then leaving while their replacements may not be as good as they are. As a result, a short, rapid rise to small success becomes a long, slow gradual increase to modest success, and then glacial progress to great success.

This is going to be a long save I think, unless the FM Gods smile upon us and gift us not only with great Intakes, but great success as well. I don’t believe we have had a ‘Great” Intake yet (I don’t care what the game says) but we have had some good ones, and some good, solid players have started to shine. Like Marin Neagu, Class of ’28.

The one thing that has worked in our favor is that our success has allowed us to recruit better domestic based coaches, and our success, and lack of player related expenditures, has left us with healthy finances and a board willing to spend some of that money on things we need. Like a new stadium, which we should be moving into the summer of ’30. And Facilities Improvements:

My goal this season was to finish around 8th. There are a couple of reasons for this:

It avoids a Relegation Fight.
It outs us near the top of the Relegation Group.

Why is this important? Because in Liga I 7th thru 16th go into the Relegation Group. In that 10 team group, 9th and 10th are automatically relegated. 7th and 8th go to a Liga I/Liga II Playoff.

And 1st and 2nd Play for European Football:

The winner qualifies for the Final:

And because of the whole “Half Points, then Full Points, etc rules, you end up with tables like this:

It’s possible to finish 1st in ‘Overall’ points, but now ‘Win’ the League.

Yes, it makes my head hurt too…But the goal is “Mid Table”, in that we finish high enough in the relegation group to challenge for European Football. I Can just hear my first talk of the locker room.

“OK, we want to be good, but not too good, and by that I also mean we can’t be too bad either. OK? Sparkling Mediocrity, that’s what we are aiming for this season, got it?”

I think they listened a little bit too well.

I don’t know that I could get those results again if I tried. And it’s not like we were playing for the draw either, a few of those games we had to come back from a deficit. Răzvan Matiş is turning into quite a good AM(C) in the Asymmetrical formation we are playing, despite the fact he hates big games.

The two biggest surprises so far are Dumitru Hlinca (Class of ’27) and Răzvan Teodorescu.

Hlinca’s Attacking Attributes have all improved to at least 13+, as has his First Touch. And I suspect that those attributes that haven’t changed were most likely on the low end when he arrived, and are now at least a point higher. World Class? No. World of ‘Good for this level of Football’? Yes.

Răzvan Teodorescu was part of the Class of ’24, right before I took over. Attribute wise, for this level of football, he’s Bril. But…

That UNAMBITIOUS personality just….gah…The thing is, he had had close to double digit goals and assists the last couple of seasons (9/4, 9/9, and 8/7), and I bet if he were to be, I don’t know a little more DRIVEN, he’d be 12+ in each category. As it is, a lof of his passes are either the 1st or 2nd in the route to the goal.

So, we weren’t exactly flying high, but slow and steady. Ahead of us lay the dread days of October, and did we let them get to us.

82nd Minute goal for Botosani and their win. 83rd minute goal by Rapid Bucharesti for their win. Arad, 3 goals up after 25 minutes played. With our earlier result, there was a 3 way tie for our Cupa României Betano Group Stage:

This was not the midtable finish I was looking for….

The year ended, and then began again, about the way I expected. Unexpected was beating Farul, expected was Arad scoring in the 1st minute then parking the bus. The Loss at Bucharesti ensured we would not make top 6, and it was a big sigh of relief when we thumped Sepsi to finish in 7th place.

Meet the New Youth, almost the same as the Old…

Only six player from this years Intake Worth Talking about I think. And their personalities were all over the place again as well…

Mercenary isn’t a bad personality to have. It’s not a good one, either, but if we show our loyalty to and provide Costi Popescu with opportunities, we increase the changes he will stay with us long term. His lack of Fitness and Strength is glaring, but he is Quick, Agile, his Attacking Skills are pretty solid, as is his Technique. I don’t think he will be a Striker for us though.

Being Unambitious on the other hand, almost certainly guarantees Andrei Laszlo will never be as good as his PA. The same can be said for Răzvan Teodorescu, who despite his already good attributes could be even better if he were just Balanced. Andrei will be given opportunities though. How long and how many are up to him though.

Branimir Feti continues our streak of players with Low Determination. And that’s a shame, because he’s a very solid player even with a DET that is <7, and could be a very good DLP/Carrilero type of player. For the time being he’s merely “Meh”…I hope he can see what Răzvan Teodorescu is doing and act accordingly, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Vasile Ion has the best opportunity to be the best player out of this group. Not because he has the highest PA, or because he has a ‘Fairly Professional’ personality, but because he can play 3 positions we have a need at. He will probably be the first to get a decent amount of playing time out of this group.

I think whatever hopes I put in Alex Tănase, he will fall short of them. I am pretty sure that all of his attributes are on the lower end of the scale and he lost a star from when he came in to when we signed him. His versatility might save him, his injury proneness and horrible Possession attributes probably won’t.

Doru Vancea actually gained a star from the Intake to when we signed him. He’s probably got the best CA of all the Youth players from this year, but that could mean his ceiling is not the much higher (comes in at 80, tops out at 100 sort of thing). He has DLP written all over him, whether he wants to believe it or not. I think he has the best long term potential at the club, maybe not as a full time starter, but definitely as a back up/ squad player off the bench.

Our relegation Group battle went almost exactly to plan.

We beat up the teams at the bottom, beat most of the teams we were supposed to beat, and didn’t have a lot of “unexpected results”. The game at Csíkszereda was a draw until the 89th minute (blast and damn), and I knew we were in for a long day at Rapid Bucharesti when the first goal was an own goal by Ilie Formagiu…that loss hurt us, but beating Sepsi put us at the top of the group, meaning we got to play Universitatea Cluj in the first Playoff Game.

While the Shot’s and On Target are similar, we were clearly the better team. It was frustrating not to get more than the one goal we had, although the 2nd goal looked like a winner until the woodwork jumped up and saved it. Four days later we played against Farul Constanţa at their house for the right to go the Conference League.

The bossed us, as much as any team can in a 1-0 Extra time goal victory. All of our Attackers were sub 6.7, and it was Vasiliu (Class of ’28) in goal that stopped it from being a route. How he ended up on a 7.1 is a bit mind boggling, seeing what he faced and stopped I think it should have been higher. But if we are being honest, Farul Constanţa is simply a better team. I have mentioned it before, but if this wasn’t a Youth Only save, we would be the New Farul, bringing in Youth Players from across the region, training them up at our impressive facilities, and moving them on for profit. Heck, they are loaning players in From places like West Ham to fill positions, we can’t do that. We made them earn it, and as trite as that sounds now, I’ll take it.

The League Table ended up thusly:

FCSB won the Cupa României, which is why they are going to the Europa League. But I will take a 9th place finish, now and for the next couple of seasons.

We had some very good performances this seasons as well, quite a few players I was hoping would take it up to the next level did, some more than just one.

Matiş getting 23 goals as an AP on Attack is quite good, but it’s Teodorescu’s 12 goals and 18 assists that stand out for me.

There were several good performances from the rest of the squad:

Hlinca is becoming the player we thought he could be, in fact he was a big reason Matiş was able to score as much as he did, Dumitru was constantly getting doubled teamed and drawing defenders away from Matiş. Voicu had a good season off the bench, Vago had 2 goals and 10 assists from the M(C) position, Purcea was solid at D(R). The only position I had real concerns about was at Keeper. We let Rareş Murariu go at the beginning of the season and he retired. Our best options for replacing him were Nicolae Rotariu (Class of ’23, before I arrived), Tiberiu Alexandru (Class of ’25), Ciprian “Low Self Belief” Şandru, (Class of ’27) and Adrian Vasiliu, Class of ’28.

For some reason, Rotariu has never grown above two stars. There could be reasons for that, the best is that as the club has gotten better, so has he, but as star rating are based on the players at your club, he’s grown with the rest of the squad but not gotten better. He started 15 games for us, and ended up with a 7.21 rating. The good news is we didn’t hear a lot about him doing bad things. The Bad news is we heard nothing about him doing good things. Alexandru went on loan to a Liga II Club, started 18 games and allowed 18 goals, and the club he went to was relegated…Sandru and Vasiliu are the same age, and while on paper Sandru is the better keeper now, I think Vasiliu will be the better overall keeper, which is why I gave him starts this season. Next season the job is his to lose.

I just hope my faith isn’t misplaced.

All in all, a good season. I think the days of relegation worries are behind us, and there are very few players from the original squad left. The question now is can we fend of those teams coming after a Matis or Dumitru, can our youth players develop accordingly, and can we possibly, maybe just do enough to get European Football?