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?

The Kids Are Alright -Season 4

“Custer had a plan too…”

Usually when do a more Youth Oriented save, I am at a club I am building up, there’s a decent amount of solid to good older players that will carry us forward, as as my youth progress from raw 15 and 16 year olds to 18 and 19 year olds with potential, they go out on loan or if they are good enough, they go onto the 1st Squad bench.

Here at Timişoara, I don’t have that luxury. While the older players I have are OK, there aren’t enough of them to carry the team forward, which means any youngster with potential not only gets first team playing time, they go right into the Senior Squad. There they not only get the playing time they need, they develop, and some have turned into players who are quite good. Like Darius Niculcea.

He’s easily the first good player we’ve had come thru the Youth Intakes, his first season as a part time starter he had 24(2) stars, with 1 goal, 3 assists, and 1 POM. Last season as the full time starter he 3 goals, 6 assists, and 1 POM, and both years he was selected to the Romanian U21 Squad.

So of course 5 games into the season Napoli offered 400K for him, I didn’t have a release clause on his contract, and he signed with the Italian club. They did offer him on loan back, and I accepted.

That’s how I am going to approach this going forward. If a club comes after one of my players, I am not going to ask for a loan back as part of the deal, but if they offer it to me, I’ll consider it. In this case Nicucea is the best D(R) I have, so I accepted it, an he went on to have 1 goal and 12 assists with us before leaving.

TRANSFER’S

Ursan, Păunescu, and Chivu are all Youth Players that I didn’t think were worth a grade, meaning 2 star potential or less. The fee’s for Ursan and Păunescu are based on future performances, and I doubt I will see them.

Zamfir (pan flute not included) was part of the Youth Intake the year before I took over, a defensive player who could play all 3 positions on the back line. He was decidedly average in all of them, and as a result did not get a lot of playing time. For whatever reason, Dinamo Bucureşti made an offer for him in the Spring Transfer window, and after debating whether or not to file a bug report, I took it. Who am I to stand in the way of a club making a bad financial decision? I’ve my own bad decisions to make. Chindia Târgoviște is a Liga II team, and to be honest if they are spending €100K on a middling winger like William Popoviciu, they aren’t getting promoted anytime soon IMO.

We are starting at least 4, and possibly5 players from the the ’25 Youth Intake. As I mentioned above, I don’t have the luxury of sitting them in the U19’s and waiting for them to develop, so they’re going to be starting. Yes, it’s Boys v Men, but it build character.

That’s the slogan for the next few years: Construiește caracterul!

The goal is to avoid relegation. Acts of God aside, we aren’t finishing above midtable anytime soon, but avoiding relegation is an achievable goal. The question is how close to relegation are we going to be. My mantra has always been I am ‘mostly’ ok with losing, as long as we keep it close. I don’t know how long I can keep repeating that though.

There’s no middle ground. We’re either losing close, usually, or winning. The lack of draws is concerning. The low point was losing to a Liga II side in Hermannstadt in the Cupa României First Stage on penalties. Răzvan Matiş missed a PK in the 20th minute, then scored in the 117th to put as ahead, but the defense fell apart and they scored in the 120th…and then three of my guys missed their PK’s.

The first half opf the season was painful, but there were a couple of bright spots. Marius Marinescu started the season on two and a half stars, and at the midpoint he was up to Four. Along with 8 goals and 3 assists. Vasile Mihăescu, from the ’26 Intake, is starting at DM, and he’s improving, which is good. Goran Simedru, from the ’25 Intake, is also having a solid season at D(C).

As down as I was about some of our performances, at the half way point were were in 12th place with 16 points, and our goal differential was -6. One of the things in our favor was that both Gloria Buzău and Oţelul Galaţi have won 2 and 1 games respectively.

The New Year got off to a good start, as we did not lose until we played a very good FC Argeş squad, and our last loss before the League split was against last years winner Universitatea Craiova

Our Youth Intakes Are Officially Manic…

They are calling it a ‘Golden Generation.’ I’m thinking it’s 14 Karat Gold…

This is a screenshot of the best Youth Intake players to come thru this season:

3 Unambitious
1 Unsporting
1 Low Determination
1 Fairly Loyal
1 Balanced
2 Fairly Professional

This from a HOYD who is Professional. Next years had better be better than this…

Marin Neague is a pest of a winger, in that he’s all of 5′ 2″ and 100 pounds, but Physically speaking is good…except for the Strength. And Work Rate, and Balance. His Attacking and Possession skills are also average, but this is a good foundation to build from, assuming his Unsporting self wants to improve.

Paul Koszma is already pretty good on the Physical and Defending categories, and his Technique is also decent as well, but again, her Personality is going to be the biggest impediment to reaching his potential.

Adrian Vasiliu is our 3rd (or 4th if you count the year I wasn’t here) 5 star potential Keeper. I do not know how much longer Rareş Murariu is going to be the starter, he made some noise about wanting to leave in the January window, but Adrian will be in the race to become the 1st Choice keeper. Of course, of the 5 Youth Keepers I have, 3 are Unambitious…

And I somehow missed 4 and 5 when nicknaming them…I’ll figure out a format, eventually.

Dan Secreteanu can play the left side of the pitch, but I think I am going to make him a D(L), maybe a wingback, as his attributes are already average in those areas. If his strength comes up, and some others as well, he could be a solid contributor for us.

Ilie Formagiu, 6’4″ 170 pounds at 15 YEARS OLD Ilie Formagiu, will start playing next year. Off the bench, unless he just bodies someone out of the way. Physically and Defending wise, he’s Average, but his Good Work Rate and Jumping, and his Excellent Bravery, should be an asset in Set Pieces. I think he has the best potential out of everyone who came in this Intake, now it’s up to me to not screw him up.

Dan Popescu…I am not sure what to think of him. Good Agility, Endurance, Quickness and Determination, average Possession skills, he has the potential to be a solid winger for us. But again, that personality…

I really want to like Armin Caraiman. They have him as a Target Forward, and from a Physical point of view, I can see that. His Attacking and Possession Attributes though…but in his defense, his personality is going to be an asset. If his Positioning and Concentration Improve, he might be a better DLP…

Lucian Ilie already had Good Technique, Fitness and Work Rate, but I am not sure how he would fare on the attack as a Mezzala. The good news is that Attribute wise, his is ‘Meh’ at every position except Roaming Playmaker, where he’s “Bleg!’ We will have to see where is in a couple of years…

Marian Tudor has the making of a solid DLF already, with Good Composure, Flair, Finishing and Technique. Aggressive as well, but I can’t help shake the feeling that what we see is pretty much what we are going to get. This is one time I wish I were wrong, but I am a fan of players with Determination, and the one thing we can stay about him is that he’s not…

Paul Freanţ could be a solid AM(C) if his physicals improve, if they don’t he will most likely be an M(C) in a CM/DLP sort of role. The problem is that’s a crowded position for us, and if he doesn’t stand out right away he might not get the playing time early.

Thats going to be an ongoing theme with the save going forward, with a lot of depth, some of it potentially quality depth, in some roles, finding who is the best performer is going to be hard.

But I didn’t choose this sort of save because it’s Easy. I chose it because I thought it was going to be easy…

We did more than enough to avoid relegation. Marinescu looks like the real deal, he’s been too consistent this year for me to believe otherwise, and we had some very solid performances across the board.

Matis had a solid season for us, but several teams are interested in him, and keeping him might be a detriment to the younger players in his position. Răzvan Teodorescu gives me hope that all my ‘Unambitious’ personality trait players will improve and be good, if not great for this level, of contributors

Oh, and the board has plans of it’s own as well it seems:

We beat the odds again, and I believe we have the makings of several quality younger players ready to step up and take over the next couple of year. The climb to the top is going to have some ups and downs, and a lot of plateaus as well, but I believe we are definitely on the way up. It’s going to be a slow process though, but one I am looking forward too.

I hope you all are looking forward to it as well, thanks for reading!