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Post by chaodck on Aug 17, 2020 17:09:51 GMT
Can I join the I hate Ajax club? I'm sure having them breathing down your neck keeps you and the save on its toes. Your team looks like it can score goals i'm sure you'll be celebrating at the end of the season. Would You consider Borussia Monchengladach your equal in terms of ability? Cheers mate, wait 'til you hear what happened this season. Regarding your Mgladbach question, I think we're better than them on paper at least. I've just finished the season and am waiting until Eredivisie Playoffs end to do the writeup. Incoming tears, that's all I'll say.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 17, 2020 19:25:30 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2025-26 Season ReportOverviewWe've been absolutely brilliant so far. Scoring by the bunches, winning games left and right and leading the league for long. It all boils down to the last couple of months though as Ajax haven't let go and if we hadn't had such a brilliant season they'd been crowned champions at least before the last month of play. Were we able to hold on to our slim lead in the table and crown ourselves champions for a 2nd time? More on that below. EredivisieI'd left you with NEC 1 point above Ajax, both with 8 games left to play. We started off beating Roda JC 3-1 with goals from Andreas Hansen, Raymond van Mierlo and Santiago Rak, then smashed rivals Vitesse in the Gelderse Derby with a magnificent 6-0 with 4 goals from Hansen (including a 2-minute hattrick, is that a record?) plus goals from Steeven Sánchez and Kelvin Pereira. We beat PSV 2-1 in our next game, a fantastic result, with goals from Hanen and Daniel Jack. Ajax had won their two games as well, so by the start of April, everything was the same, us a point above them. It was a two-horse race at that point, and the press reported it like this.
We had definitely a tougher schedule than them as we had to face 4 top 10 teams in Utrecht, Feyenoord, ADO Den Haag and Twente, while them had three bottom 5 teams. This is how it went down: - Yes, we bottled it right in the first game as we drew 2-2 against Utrecht with goals from Jack and a last-minute goal from Hansen while Ajax beat Willem II 2-1. Two points down with 4 games left. - Next week we recovered completely, coming from behind to beat Feyenoord 4-1 with goals from Pereira, Hansen and a brace from van Mierlo. Ajax managed to win their game as well, smashing AZ 5-0. Two points down. - We comfortably beat ADO Den Haag, 2-0 with goals from Hansen and Elkin Bustos, while Ajax beat Heerenveen narrowly 1-0. Two points down. - We narrowly beat Heerenveen, 1-0 with a single goal from Sánchez. Feyenoord granted us a lifeline, with a last-minute 1-1 draw against Ajax. We recovered the lead, 1-point above Ajax. One game to go...
By 10 minutes of the final games, we were down 0-1 against Twente, but the live table hadn't moved. I went to the results page, and Ajax was 0-2 DOWN against the last placed team in the table! I went off to celebrate even more when Fabio Cuoco scored the equaliser by '26 and I stopped looking at the table and concentrated on the game. By the time the first half finished, and the score was still 1-1, I looked again and saw Ajax had equalised their game. So, at halftime things were the same, us a point above. Well, Ajax turned their game over, beating Almere 6-2. And we just couldn't score again against Twente. A tough 1-1 draw and we lost the title on the last day.
We had a brilliant season. 85 points and 95 goals scored is just amazing, specially considering just 20 conceded. It was horrible to lose the title in the last game, but fair play to Ajax who had a 13W-1D-0L record in the second half of the League.UEFA Europa LeagueAfter qualifying easily from our UEFA Europa League group, we had to face germans Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Second Knockout Round and despite I feeling we were a far better side than them it was a struggle at times and we narrowly went trhough after a 1-1 draw in Germany with a goal from Pereira and a 1-0 win at Nijmegen with a goal from Aleksandar Todorovski. In a fun turn of events, we drew Monaco who had eliminated us early this season from the UEFA Champions League Playoff. We exacted our revenge and the team duly delivered eliminating the French with a 2-1 win in Nijmegen with goals from Gabriel Murillo and Rak, then closed out the deal in Montecarlo with a fantastic 3-1 win with goals from Hansen, Sánchez and Jack. The UEFA Europa League revenge tour continued, as we drew Tottenham in the Semifinals, the same side that beat us in the Europa League Final a couple of years back. I felt we were writing our own fairy tale story. But again, it wasn't meant to be as we were in a whole complete different level than the English. We drew the first leg, 2-2 at Nijmegen, with goals from Hansen and Arthur, but in London we were brought back to our reality, with a solid 1-5 loss with our goal coming from Sánchez.
I think we're good enough to have decent runs in the UEFA Europa League and plant ourselves against bigger sides like Monaco, but still away from doing it consistently as the Tottenham series showed. Unfortunately, the heavy loss against the English came just three days before our finale against Twente and surely hit us animically.KNVB BekerNothing to report here as we had already lost against Ajax in the Quarter-Final. Yes, Ajax eliminated us from all domestic competitions, winning the JC Schaal, eliminating us from the Cup and winning the league over us.
Youth IntakeSo yeah. I was excited about this intake...
The preview feature is so fucking broken mate. Still a couple of the prospects are quite decent, with Brahim Abdellaoui being the top of the bunch in my opinion, a super balanced central midfielder, with Mees Oukes and Rene de Zeeuw looking quite handy as well. I also signed Marcel Konings who might develop into a decent squad player.Squad and PerformancesIt was an amazing season in terms of individual performances. Andreas Hansen had a career year, exploding as a global superstar and attracting the interest of at least three of the biggest clubs in the world, Barcelona, Manchester City and Inter, I've said this a few times now, but I doubt we can hold on to him past this summer window. Hansen played 56 games, scoring 45 goals and 10 assists, with a 7.49 rating. Reza Mousavi was a tad more consistent and earned our best average rating for the season, the Iranian playmaker played 51 games, scoring 5 goals with 8 assists and a 7.51 rating. Other great performers were: Gabriel Murillo (51 games, 6 goals, 7.31 rating), Steeven Sánchez (51 games, 9 goals, 8 assists, 7.30), Elkin Bustos (47 games, 2 goals, 8 assists, 7.30), Sandro Villani (57 games, 10 goals, 10 assists, 7.30), Ryan Bertrand (52 games, 2 goals, 3 assists, 7.26) and Aleksandar Todorovski (46 games, 12 goals, 12 assists, 7.22).
Regarding development, I'm super happy with some of the players status changes. Besides Hansen and Raymond van Mierlo (both of whom now lost the description), GK Albert Raven and CB Ryan Bertrand earned the "wonderkid" monicker. Another terrific piece of news comes from Raven and van Mierlo earning their first Netherlands caps with the GK earning two caps and getting called up to the World Cup to be played in the summer, and the striker winning 4 caps (and scoring 4 goals), but missing out on the World Cup Squad. Other senior squad players in the World Cup are Aleksandar Todorovski (Australia), Steeven Sánchez (Colombia) and Reza Mousavi (Iran), with Christopher Bukuru from the B side (on loan at VVV-Venlo) also in the Australia squad.
Youth Team News Again, the same as last season, both the "B" Team and the U-19 squad won their respective leagues with fantastic performances. There are a lot of good players in these teams who will become key players for the Senior Squad down the road.
Forecast and Future- We had a good season financially, fueled by the sale of Mohamed Ben Dahnous to Real Madrid in the winter window. We finished the season with €44M in the bank, having paid one of the smaller loans as well, so we just have one huge stadium loan that sets us back
€600k per month. - We signed a couple of new sponsors, a €4.3M main kit sponsor for two years and a €2.8M Continental Sponsor for 1 year.
Heartbreaking year overall. I know I shouldn't complain as we were amazing at times, but the last day drama was tough.
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Post by richruzzian on Aug 19, 2020 13:36:50 GMT
Ouch, painful to lose the title in the last game . Future looks bright with all the talents coming trough.
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stouters
New Member
@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on Aug 19, 2020 14:30:20 GMT
So unlucky! Do you think there is much more you can do to deny Ajax another title? How would you feel about Ajax if they had won all but one title since the game starting and it was 2044 like my save?
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 19, 2020 17:33:56 GMT
So unlucky! Do you think there is much more you can do to deny Ajax another title? How would you feel about Ajax if they had won all but one title since the game starting and it was 2044 like my save? That's what I call domestic dominance...! 😧 It looks like you've got some really good processes in place, so sustained success can't be far away.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 28, 2020 21:19:47 GMT
Ouch, painful to lose the title in the last game . Future looks bright with all the talents coming trough. So unlucky! Do you think there is much more you can do to deny Ajax another title? How would you feel about Ajax if they had won all but one title since the game starting and it was 2044 like my save? So unlucky! Do you think there is much more you can do to deny Ajax another title? How would you feel about Ajax if they had won all but one title since the game starting and it was 2044 like my save? That's what I call domestic dominance...! 😧 It looks like you've got some really good processes in place, so sustained success can't be far away. Cheers for the comments gents. I'm writing up the pre-season report now.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 28, 2020 23:39:32 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2026-27 Pre-Season ReportOverviewLast season seems like a long time ago as I've been playing other games a lot lately and also it's been my turn on the Depor succession save so I've been away from this save. 2025-26 was a heartbreaking season, where despite leading the whole first semester and into the last day of the league, Ajax managed to snatch the title from our grasp as the season ended, meanwhile we lost in the Europa League semifinal (after being eliminated in the Champions League Playoff) and Ajax eliminated us in the Cup on Quarter-Finals and beat us on the JC Schaal at the start of the season. After two seasons where we won a title (the League in 2023-24 and the Cup in 2024-25), last season left us empty handed but with a handful of amazing players developed in our system and hopes for a brighter future.
Transfers A good bit of activity in the transfers this summer, as a few senior squad members left the team after their cycle ended and we outgrew them, it's surely hard to let this guys go, but when the prospects are pushing as hard as this kids are, you need to make room for them. Arthur was the first one to leave, last season he had lost his starting job to Bryan Bertrand and Elkin Murillo who had a great season, and thus at 24 he wanted out to a team where he'd play more. AZ came in knocking and we let him go for €6M. Argentinean Iván Ruiz had a similar case as he never really lived up to the potential he boasted at some point, and lost his starting job to Elkin Bustos, so when Brest offered €3.2M (plus €800k in clauses) I gladly accepted, despite it not being a great offer. Kelvin Pereira also left, the Brazilian had evolved into a decent starting RW for the team, with over 20 goals and 20 assists combined in the last two seasons, but his potential ability declined and thus I decided to cash in on him letting him leave to Getafe for €6M (plus €1.25M in clauses). Three other non established players left, Lee Min being the top of the bunch who went on a free to Ulsan, Saad Al-Juhani to Heerenveen for €1.6M (plus €400k in clauses) and Pedro Gorman to RKC for €1.8M (plus €300k in clauses).
Incoming transfers saw us once again get U-19 elegible players only, boosting our U-19 squad in order for them to push for a fourth title in five years. Dejan Ilic came in from Crvena Zvezda €2.5M (plus €1M in clauses), a good CB prospect with good all round stats and terrific 5 star potential he can become a top top player down the road. Nicolas Martinet was bought from Lyon, for €1.5M a leftie RW inside forward with fantastic finishing ability and 4.5 star PA, he needs work in a lot of areas, but being just 16 and fairly professional, might become a great player as well. Spaniard Felipe came in from Betis, for €1.2M a left back with decent skill and 4 star PA, Felipe isn't a world beater, but if he develops decently enough he will be a serviceable squad player. Kevin Diot came in from Dijon, for €3.5M (plus €1.5M in clauses), an AM playmaker with already +10's all around at 17 I'm high on him, anticipating he'll become a bright star with his 5 star PA. Víctor Madruga was bought from Peñarol for €1.1M a RM/RB who will be used in a back 4 mostly, he's a good complete wingback prospect, with great offensive skills (but lacking defensive ones) and 4.5 star PA. We managed to steal one from PSV, Chima Kampmann came in from Eindhoven for €4M (plus €2M) in clauses, I know I overpaid as he's not as good as Diot and will fight for the same playing spot, but he's a good player as well and is a good safety net in case something happens with the frenchie and best case scenario, Diot can play as a striker. Another frenchie and yet another duplicate position, Josep Muñoz came in from Sochaux for €1.6M, he's the worst of this window, but still could become a decent squad member as well.
We have one more player incoming (and a good one...) who'll arrive when he turns 18, at the start of August. I'll show him in the next update.Player Development and Squad MakeupAgain, I'll do a bit of a summary of the squad makeup, listing our top players, other senior squad players who I expect to shine, and my top players from the Youth Teams.
Squad Standouts Andreas Hansen: Again, the team starts and ends with Hansen. I've been incredibly lucky to keep holding on to him, as no teams have made an offer for him, despite being interested. Only three big big clubs remain on his list, Manchester City (minor interest), Inter and Borussia Dortmund (major interest). He followed his 30-goal season from 2024-25 with 45 goals last season and nearing 7.50 in average rating. He's a world-class player, with still a bit of room to improve and one of my missions this year is to try and get him to renew his contract (whatever it costs) to remove the minimum release fee he currenly has. Reza Mousavi: Despite not ending up being a world class player, Mousavi has played above his abilities for a good 4 seasons now, averaging 7.45 in that span as a starter. The Iranian is a midfield playmaker and despite being average physically, his vision, decisions and passing make him elite. He's also our team captain. Aleksandar Todorovski: Another shining star, the Aussie Arrow is a terrific inside forward who exploded last season with 12 goals and 12 assists in the year. Lightning quick with the ball on his feet and an amazing crosser, Todorovski is a key piece in our set piece routines, and also leads our counter attacks from corners/free kicks. Albert Raven: The second best player from NEC's academy, Raven has had a terrific improvement in the last couple of seasons, that have seen him go from the "B" side a couple of seasons ago into the Netherlands National Team last season where he played 3 games. He was labeled a wonderkid for a while last season, and the scariest thing is that he still has a lot of room to keep improving, he's also level-headed and hasn't yet asked to leave the club. The idea is to try and renew his contract again this season putting him in a high salary and signing him for 5 more years.
Potential Breakouts Raymond van Mierlo: Seemingly always on this list, van Mierlo is unlucky that Hansen is the starter at his position. The Dutch former wonderkid also made his NT debut last season playing 4 games and bagging 4 goals, starting off his international career amazingly. He's a fantastic player and humble as well as he's not complaining about his playing time. He's played around 30-35 games in the last couple of seasons, scoring 16 and 18 goals respectively. He still has room to improve and will surely force me to play two strikers at least during a few spots in the season. Lucas Rojas: A former Universidad de Chile player, Rojas is the first Chilean we sign, and he arrived in the winter window last season, and after shining for the "B" team on the second half of last season he's primed as a potential starter for the senior squad this year after the sale of Kelvin Pereira. He still needs improving but boasts a fantastic 5-star PA and I'm expecting he'll improve a lot during the season. Omar Firpo: Firpo is a lefty CB from Uruguay, who spent a couple of seasons in the youth teams being promoted to the senior squad this season. He's a solid player, with good ball skills and a fierce defender as well and he might sneak into the starting XI if Gabriel Murillo stagnates a bit. Yasunobu Muro: Another one of our great prospects who has come through the youth pipeline after being bought a few seasons ago. Muro spent last season as a backup for Fabio Cuoco and I expect him to challenge for a starting job during this season, despite losing a bit of playing time as the AM spot is the sacrificed position when I play with 2 up above.
Youth Prospects Sebastián Noce: Argentinean AM who came in last season and spent his time at the "B" team where he'll be this season as well. Some might say he's better than Muro, but I prefer the Japanese lad a bit and as he's player ok for the senior squad I didn't think of changing that. Besides Noce isn't complaining yet due to him not playing at all in the senior squad. With 5 star PA, Noce can improve a lot and become a fantastic player for us. Édgar Villa: Another top prospect, Villa is a terrific ST already at 19 and can keep improving. Built in a similar mould as Andreas Hansen and Raymond van Mierlo, Villa can sneak into the senior squad if needed and probably get right on scoring goals. Mihran Nalbandyan: The third best player from our Youth Academy, the dutch/armenian CB is already an amazing player, but needs more experience playing at CB in order for him to be promoted to the senior squad. If he manages to become a natural Ball Playing Defender, I'm guessing this kid might become a wonderkid and a good Dutch NT player. Matteo Viggiano: A former Fiorentina kid who came into the team at 16, having spent last season as one of the good players for the U-19 squad. Another fantastic all-round CM, who will get +10's all over the field and become a fantastic box to box midfielder or central playmaker.
Senior Squad
"B" Team
U-19's
Out on Loan Pre-SeasonWe had a fantastic pre-season. Regular this time without any summer cups played. We won all 5 games and conceded no goals. We also managed to win the JC Schaal, with a fantastic 2-1 win over Ajax with goals from Sánchez and Todorovski.Forecast and Future - We currently have €43M in the bank, a fantastic amount given we had a summer of spending some money in prospects and didn't sell any big names. - The Stadium project is still getting on forward and we will move in a couple season's time. - Not much more news yet. I'll do a staff check-up soon and see if we can improve the facilities as well.
It'll be a tough season, without a doubt, but I think we're ready to get into the UCL Knockouts. Here's hoping we can get a good League as well.
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Post by chaodck on Sept 8, 2020 23:56:32 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2026-27 Summer Window ReportOverviewShort update with the start of the league, the closing of the summer window and the UCL draw.Transfers In the end we added two more players, one pre-arranged and one deadline day buy. Ukranian Vladyslav Pavlov looks like an amazing CB prospect, good physical skillset, decent mentals for an 18 year-old and a fantastic set of technical skills, that might put him above or around 10 at everything (but flair maybe), he came in from Dynamo Kyiv for €6M (plus €4M on clauses). Surely expensive but he looks terrific. On deadline day came in Mexican Jonathan Barrón, as I loaned a CB who was intended for the B team and I needed a replacement. Barrón is a BPD who needs to improve defensively and he can become a quality player as well, he was bought from Monterrey for €1.8M.
Yes! We survived another transfer window without losing Andreas Hansen. More on that to follow...EredivisieWe kicked off against Utrecht, with a 2-0 win with goals from Steeven Sánchez and Andreas Hansen, then exacted our revenge against Twente who broke our hearts last season denying us the title on the last day, with a 4-1 win with goals from Aleksandar Todorovski, Lucas Rojas and a brace from Andreas Hansen. Heerenveen gave us our first tough game of the season as we managed to only draw 1-1 with our goal coming from Raymond van Mierlo, but then closed out August with two good wins, a 3-0 over Gronigen with goals from Hansen, Rojas and Santiago Rak and a 2-1 win over Vitesse at the Gelderse Derby with a brace from Hansen.With 13 out of 15 points we lead the league, tied with Feyenoord. We only had one bad game against Heerenveen.UEFA Champions LeagueWe were seeded 2nd so I expected an easier draw, but in the end we were fucked again. Real Madrid, Porto and Standard will be our rivals. I think we have enough to make a run for 2nd, but dropping to the UEL as a 3rd place isn't bad.Forecast and Future - After a season where we struggled a bit financially, we're great on that side now, with €49M in the bank account. - After months of being unhappy and wanting out due to the interest shown in him, Hansen said that he is happy to stay at the club having realised no one would pay his release fee. He's willing to negotiate a contract extension with us, upping a bit the release clause, but on a super high salary. I'm pondering on whether to do it or not.
Good start to the season, and great news on Hansen being happy with us.
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Post by chaodck on Sept 14, 2020 16:53:42 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2026-27 Midseason ReportOverviewQuick midseason update here as I've reached the winter break. It's been a great season overall, with great performances on the pitch and also growth off the pitch, specially on the issue of being able to retain my best players or at least sell them whenever I feel like it or a good offer comes for them.
Transfers A couple of players arrived on January 1st but nothing of note really as both of them were low cost players for the youth teams with not much effort put on scouting and both turned out to be ok players who might become a squad member at best, and probably will not become anything really. Regarding outgoing transfers we did lose a key player to our direct rival Ajax. It's not ideal I know, but Reza Mousavi, despite being a super consistent performer isn't a player that woos anyone on the pitch. He's a terrific passer, but not one to make a lot of assists or even key passes and I've always thought that his high ratings were due only to his high pass completion rating more than anything else. Well, he's off to Ajax for €45M up front a great sell if you ask me (we paid €16.5k for him back in 2021). His replacement is lined up, and will be academy lad Mihran Nalbandyan, whose quite ready to step up right into the midfield playmaker role.Eredivisie We had a fantastic start to the league, with 13 points in our first 5 games, but really nothing foresaw what happened in the rest of the first semester. We outplayed everyone, with a terrific level of football, scoring goals left and right while also keeping a great defensive level. We started off September with a 3-0 win over VVV-Venlo with goals from Daniel Jack, Reza Mousavi and Andreas Hansen, then beat PEC Zwolle 1-0 with a last minute goal from Steeven Sánchez and Ajax 1-0 with another late goal from Bryan Bertrand. Unbeaten September without conceding was great, but two last minute wins weren't what I expected, specially against PEC Zwolle. October was again a great month, we beat ADO Den Haag 3-1 with a hattrick from Hansen, then beat NAC Breda 3-0 with goals from Gabriel Murillo, Bertrand and Raymond van Mierlo, finally beat Feyenoord 2-0 with goals from Hansen and van Mierlo. We got to November with a 5-2 win over AZ, with goals from Fabio Cuoco, and braces by Hansen and van Mierlo before Heracles Almelo stopped our run with a 3-3 draw where we had a 2-0 overturned to a 2-3 and finally tied, with goals from Aleksandar Todorovski and another brace from Hansen. We bounced back quickly with a fantastic 6-0 win over Willem II in the next game with goals from Cuoco, a brace from Lucas Rojas and a hattrick from Hansen, then closed out November with a great 4-2 win over PSV with goals from Santiago Rak, Rojas and yet another brace from Hansen who scored 9 goals in 4 games in November. December kicked off again on a high note, with a 4-0 win over SC Cambuur with goals from Todorovski, Mousavi, Sánchez and Hansen, then beat NAC Breda 1-0 with a goal from van Mierlo, beat RKC 3-0 with goals from Todorovski and a brace from Hansen, then narrowly beat ADO Den Haag 2-1 from behind with goals from Hansen and van Mierlo, before ending the first half of the season with a 2-2 draw against Utrecht with goals from van Mierlo and Hansen.
With such an amazing league performance, I'd expected to have a big advantage, but Feyenoord has had a great season as well and we are only 4 points above them. UEFA Champions/Europa League We drew an awful group, despite being a 2nd seed. We started off losing 2-4 against Real Madrid in Spain in a big effort with goals from Rojas and Mousavi, then beat Standard 4-1 at home with goals from Rojas, Murillo and a brace from Hansen. Porto narrowly beat us 0-1 in Portugal which practically sealed our fate, but we came back with a fantastic 4-0 against them at home with goals from van Mierlo, Sandro Villani and a brace from Daniel Jack. At home, against Real Madrid I thought we could get a point, but ended up losing 1-2 with a goal from Todorovski, which ended up sealing our 3rd place finish as Porto had beat Real Madrid in Portugal. We finished our Champions League participation with a fantastic 5-0 win against Standard in Liège, with goals from van Mierlo, Todorovski, Cuoco, Hansen and Rak.
With 9 points, we ended up 3rd in the group and was demoted to the UEFA Europa League, where we'll face Lokomotiv Moskow in the First Knockout Round. Here's hoping for a deep UEL run.KNVB TOTO Beker We started off the year with a great win over Ajax at the JC Schaal, then managed to get a good couple of wins in the KNVB Beker, beating Roda JC 3-1 in the first round with goals from van Mierlo, Jack and Diogo Fonseca, then beating Sparta 2-0 with a brace from Rak.
Youth Intake Preview By far, the worst intake preview we've had. I've been super lucky so far, with terrific players coming out of our academy, and almost always one decent prospect at least. Until now and this dreadful, all-yellow preview. Player Performances Again, Andreas Hansen has been his amazing world-class self. The 22 year old Dane has dominated the opposition, winning points on his own. He has played 27 games, scoring 28 goals with 3 assists and a 7.82 rating. Reza Mousavi was our second best player, with 3 goals and 6 assists in 24 games, and a 7.64 rating. His midfield partner, Steeven Sánchez was third with 4 goals and 4 assists in 26 games and a 7.35 rating. Other great performances came from Elkin Bustos (25 games, 7 assists, 7.29 rating), Sandro Villani (27 games, 1 goal, 5 assists, 7.27 rating), Bryan Bertrand (23 games, 2 goals, 7.27 rating), Gabriel Murillo (27 games, 2 goals, 7.26 rating), Aleksandar Todorovski (25 games, 7 goals, 7 assists, 7.16 rating) and Raymond van Mierlo (27 games (11 starts), 11 goals, 3 assists, 7.11 rating). I want to reserve this space to highlight Lucas Rojas. We've had our share of issues with the RW position and this kid was promoted from the U-19 directly to the senior squad starting job and the 19 year old wonderkid has excelled so far, with 27 games, 7 goals and 13 assists, with a 7.24 rating.
Forecast and Future- Obviously, the finances look amazing. Having sold Mousavi boosted our already good finances with €87M in the bank. We have a €57M stadium loan debt remaining and I expect The Board to try and pay out a big part during the rest of the season. - I want to try and ask for a full facilities upgrade during the year. I think this will put us in the maximum tier for everything. - After a long negotiation, I renewed Andreas Hansen's contract. He was our biggest earner with €80k per month, and we had to more than triple his salary to €250k per month until 2031. We didn't manage to up the minimum fee release clause, as it still stands at €96M, but now is only restricted to "Clubs in the Champions League". Still I fear we might lose him for that in the next summer, but the clause was imposed by his agent and non removable or raiseable. His non-clause current press speculation value is of around €220M so yeah we'd be losing a ton of money, but here's hoping we manage to renew him again (at what will be a huge cost) before a Champions League team comes knocking for him.
This looks like a fanstastic season so far. Hopefully we manage to get far in the Europa League and keep the league form.
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Post by dalenichol on Sept 15, 2020 17:10:30 GMT
Aye, you can complain about your intake preview when you've had 9 of those in a bloody row!
That aside though, that's some cracking progress so far buddy, you're doing really well. Can I see an updated screenshot of Andreas Hansen? I don't think I've ever actually come across too many players with 5* CA in a league as high as Eredivisie
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Post by chaodck on Sept 15, 2020 18:56:22 GMT
Aye, you can complain about your intake preview when you've had 9 of those in a bloody row! That aside though, that's some cracking progress so far buddy, you're doing really well. Can I see an updated screenshot of Andreas Hansen? I don't think I've ever actually come across too many players with 5* CA in a league as high as Eredivisie Hahahahaha, yeah I've been lucky I acknowledge that. I'll take a minute to showcase the best academy lads so far. All ages are at the winter break point of 2026-27 season. - Andreas Hansen (22 years, 86 days old, Fairly Determined) is by far the best, world-class player at 22. For at least two seasons I've thought I'd lose him, and unfortunately I still have that fear with a super low €96M clause for clubs in Champions League. Here's hoping his high salary will deter them to sign him and we can renew him in a year or so and remove the clause completely. - Albert Raven (21 years, 201 days old, Resolute) is close second, despite not near being in the same level as Hansen, Raven is a constant nominee to the Dutch National Team (despite he's a sub) at 21 and still has a lot of room to keep improving. He's been the starter for almost 3 seasons now and I expect him to be our long time GK. - Mihran Nalbandyan (18 years, 314 days old, Realist) a youth product from two years ago who just got promoted to the senior squad after we sold Reza Mousavi and has quickly become the starter. I first expected Nalbandyan (a natural DM) to be converted to a Ball Playing Defender, but he naturally developed the CM position and is perfect for a DLP-D role. - Diégo Reynders (20 years, 262 days old, Balanced) is a strange case. A couple of seasons ago I promoted him to the senior squad, and he played around 40 games or so in both seasons mostly as a backup. But he stagnated a bit and didn't develop as much as I expected him to. We've got a strong starter in his LB position and Diégo hasn't outgrown him so I sent him on loan this season in order for him to play more. He's been a good player at ADO Den Haag, so I expect him to come back at a near starter level for us and challenge for the job. - Sandin Blackson (20 years, 75 days old, Unambitious) never really looked up for the part as he's Unambitious, but his PA is solid enough and hasn't decreased at least. He's spent a few years in our "B" side and at 20 I think he can still become a useful squad member. He'll probably get his chance next season in the senior squad. - Albert Kock (21 years, 348 days, Spirited) is another case of a player who has never really cracked the senior squad but mainly because he's an out-and-out winger and I don't use them, and he hasn't learned the other side IF position well. He spent a couple of seasons at loan (which didn't help with the position learning I know...), but as we have a lot of apt players in that role, he'll most probably end up released or sold. - Michiel Willemse (19 years, 126 days old, Fairly Loyal) was one of the brightest potential stars at his intake point. Nick even mentioned that he though he might be a Dutch international. But despite a great starting CA, his PA never lived up to that. He looks a solid player right now, but is most probably maxed out at 19. He will leave the club on Bosman at the end of the season. - Adis Mesanovic (18 years, 191 days old, Fairly Determined) is our top academy player currently in the U-19's. He's not that young at 18, but has a solid foundation and good PA assessment. With the departure of Mousavi and some of our current senior squad backups at the CM role wanting out, he might find himself in the senior squad next season.
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Post by dalenichol on Sept 15, 2020 20:24:18 GMT
Sweet jesus, Chaodck. Some of those players are ridiculous. I remember on an old Slask Wroclaw save around FM13/14 yes genned a world class Polish striker and I just dream of the day it happens again here. Andreas Hansen is particularly insane, but I'd kill to have a few of those in my side!
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Post by chaodck on Sept 18, 2020 22:33:25 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2026-27 Season ReportOverviewWe had started off as maybe the best season we've had so far, with an unbeaten domestic first semester and despite falling from the UCL to the UEL we did put up a great fight in a tough group. Andreas Hansen was tied down until 2031 (albeit with an affordable release clause for clubs in the UCL) and some of our terrific young players had found their way into the senior squad. Oh and we also made a €44.98M profit in the transfer market after selling a player who cost us €16,500 for €45,000,000. By all means a fantastic start to the year, and wait as there's more to it in the second half.TransfersA small bit of transfer news as I didn't do an update between January and the end of the season. My backup fullback tore his ACL and as thus I was forced to spend a bit as none of the younger players in the position were up to the standard. I know this goes a bit against the save policies but it was neccesary. I brought in Matías Galeza from Belgrano for €5.75M, actually Galeza had almost joined us in the summer, to play in the U-19's but I decided against him as I found his release fee was a bit too high. But he surely was a great transfer as the kid not only developed quickly into a wonderkid, but might become a starter next season as he had a great semester here.EredivisieWith 20 games played, I'd left you with NEC in the lead of the Eredivisie table, with a comfortable 4 point lead over Feyenoord who were having a fantastic season of their own. The second half of the season started off with a 5-1 win over FC Twente, with goals from Lucas Rojas, Aleksandar Todorovski Sandro Villani, Yasunobu Muro and Santiago Rak, then followed with a 4-1 win over AZ, with goals from Muro, Omar Firpo, Daniel Jack and Andreas Hansen and then we finished January off with a 2-0 win over Heracles Almelo with goals from Steeven Sánchez and Todorovski. February started off with a 1-1 draw against PEC Zwolle with a last minute goal from Rojas, then a narrow 1-0 win over Willem II with a goal from Sánchez, then another narrow 2-1 win this time over Ajax with a brace from Hansen. March was a strange month as we only played one league game, a 3-2 win over rivals Vitesse in the Gelderse derby, with goals from Rojas and a brace from Hansen. April was a busy league month with four games, but after the first, a 4-2 win over Heerenveen with goals from Muro and a hattrick from Hansen we got the "title race" news item.
As we were 7 points ahead of Feyenoord, this was put out with 6 games to go. We had a tough schedule but I was hoping our early advantage would grant us our second league title. We beat RKC on thte first game, our easiest on paper, 2-0 with a brace from Raymond van Mierlo, then beat VVV-Venlo 3-0 with goals from Sanchez and a brace from Rojas then beat Gronigen 3-2 with goals from van Mierlo, Santiago Rak and Hansen. Feyenoord had won all their games as well, so with 3 games left, we still had a 7 point advantage. We only needed one more win to secure the title. But the hardest part of the schedule, including the potential "Final" against Feyenoord was amidst our most hectic week of the year. Without revealing much, I'll say this: We played Thursday (Europa League), Sunday (PSV), Monday (Feyenoord), Thursday (Europa League) and Monday (SC Cambuur). 5 games in 10 days is just crazy, specially considering 4 of those 5 games were high level games, including two key continental games. So yeah, I decided to rest most of the starters against PSV and we paid for it, with our first loss of the season a tough to swallow 0-2. Feyenoord won their match and they cut the distance to 4 points. Now we just needed a draw in either of the last two games to secure the title. Two days before a key continental game, I went (almost) all-in against Feyenoord in the Eredivisie "Final", and we got what we needed as with a 0-0 draw we sealed the title. In the last game, we beat SC Cambuur 3-0 with a hattrick from Hansen.
We had a fantastic league season. Tied 1997-98 Ajax in the record for high points in the Eredivisie as well.UEFA Europa LeagueWe dropped from the UEFA Champions League as we finished third in our group, behind Real Madrid and Porto, and ahead of Standard. We drew Lokomotiv Moscow in the First Knockout Round and we dispatched them easily with a 6-0 win at home with goals from Sanchez, Villani, Hansen, Rak and a brace from Rojas, then 2-0 in Moscow with goals from Hansen and Muro. In the Second Knockout Round we drew Sampdoria and I feared it'd be a much tougher draw, but in the end it was fairly easy as well, as we won 4-1 at home with goals from Villani and a hattrick from Hansen, then won 3-0 in Italy, with goals from Hansen and a brace from Rojas. But now came our true test. A test of strength really as we had to play Atlético in the Quarter-Finals. We lost 1-2 in Madrid where a goal from Hansen gave us a lifeline for the second leg. And we surely took advantage of it as we won 2-0 in Nijmegen with a fantastic brace from Daniel Jack to seal our passage into the Semifinals. We played Juventus there a match I saw as easier as the previous one. We played well in Turin, but ended up losing 0-1 in a game where we could've needed a bit more luck. This was the first game in that hectic week that saw us play 5 games in 10 days. In the return leg, played just three days after securing the Eredivisie title, we just couldn't manage to score, despite generating 3 clear chances, and with a 0-0 we ended up losing the tie and being eliminated of the Europa League semifinals. Still, the Final would've been played against our European henchmen, Tottenham. KNVB BekerI said this was a fantastic year, and it surely was as besides winning the JC Schaal and the Eredivisie, we cleaned house domestically with a treble including the KNVB Beker. We beat Roda JC and Sparta in the first semester. In the third round we beat SC Cambuur by penalties, after a 0-0 draw (a.e.t.), then beat Utrecht in the Quarter-Finals 2-1 with goals from Hansen and Jack. In the semifinals we faced Feyenoord, winning 1-0 with a single goal from centre back Gabriel Murillo. Then came the Final, against our nemesis, Ajax. It was a tense game, and no team dared to hurt the other one. After 90 minutes it was 0-0 but in the extra time we decided we wanted it more and ended up winning 2-0 with goals from van Mierlo and Hansen.
Youth IntakeI knew it'd be a shit intake...
We signed the top two players, but I don't expect much from them really.Squad and PerformancesAnother fantastic season for our individual performances. Andreas Hansen had an even better season than last year, playing 50 games, scoring 49 goals with 7 assists and a 7.72 rating. Steeven Sánchez was our second best player with 45 games, 8 goals, 8 assists and a 7.36 rating, while Chilean wonderkid Lucas Rojas was our top creative force with 51 games, 16 goals, 18 assists and a 7.26 rating. Other great performances include: Sandro Villani (48 games, 4 goals, 9 assists, 7.24 rating), Mihran Nalbandyan (23 games, 1 assist, 7.23 rating), Gabriel Murillo (45 games, 3 goals, 7.22 rating), Bryan Bertrand (46 games, 2 goals, 1 assist, 7.21 rating) and Aleksandar Todorovski (35 games, 9 goals, 12 assists, 7.19 rating).
Youth Team News We couldn't manage to again sweep the youth divisions as our "B" side lost the league by one point. The U-19's though won their third straight U-19 Eredivisie.Forecast and Future- We're fantastic in the finances department. In our best position surely with €105M in the bank. I hope The Board decides to liquidate part of the stadium loan at least. - Speaking about the stadium, next season will be our last in old Stadion de Goffert as we'll move into our brand new 38,979 creatively named NEC Stadium in July 2028. - We signed a couple of new sponsors, a €4.8M main kit sponsor and a €3.1M Continental Sponsor, both valid for 1 year. - Regarding the squad for next season I plan on a bit of upheaval. There are a few great young players asking for more playing time and I plan on a bit of a renewal. Here's hoping we can hold on to Hansen for another season.
A bit of a revenge year after the heartbreak from last season.
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Post by chaodck on Sept 22, 2020 20:08:18 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2027-28 Pre-Season ReportOverviewSo, this is gonna be the 9th season of this save and after sweeping all local competitions last season I'm feeling like we're ready to take the next step and start to challenge on an European level. In order to accomplish that I moved around a few players, letting go of two starters in order to play our wonderkids. Yes, I'm saying wonderkids in plural, as 5 players labeled as such will feature in our starting 11. I also bolstered the ranks of our U-19 side, signinig 11 players as for right now and securing 4 transfers more for the future. It was a busy summer in Nijmegen, and it isn't over, as despite having to reject just one offer (and thus making the player unhappy), Andreas Hansen is still a NEC player, but I fear he'll leave before the window closes.
Transfers As I said above it was a busy summer in Eastern Holland as we sold 5 players, including 3 former first teamers and 2 starters from last season. Mattijs Branderhorst was the first to leave, as the veteran keeper wanted out at the end of last season. Branderhorst was the only player that had been with the team since the start of the save and was a fantastic starter and captain for over 5 seasons, before age got to him and we found our gem in Albert Raven. He had only played a single game in the last two seasons and while I expected him to see out his career as our third keeper he wanted to leave and I obliged. Aston Villa came knocking for him and took him for €1.4M. The two starters from last season to leave were both our fullbacks, with Colombian Elkin Bustos going to Montpellier for €20.5M (plus €5M in clauses) and Sandro Villani to Dinamo Zagreb for €16.5M (plus €4M in clauses). Both players were extremely serviceable with the Italian with 7 years at the club, being a 5 season starter, meanwhile Bustos spent 4 years at the club, with the last 2 being a full time starter. Two more players also left, with Rogerinho going to Cruzeiro for €2.4M (plus €600k in clauses) and Christopher Bukuru to AZ for €3.7M, both of them were youth projects that didn't work out, wit the Brazilian only appearing 12 games for us before spending 3 years on loan and the Australian not managing to appear ever for us spending 4 seasons on loan. A few players left on free deals or were released as well, including a few of note, Eryk Pietrzak, Michiel Williemse, Torsten Jendrossek, Rico Caldwell, Ramy Maher, Frans de Vries Alaa Awad and Bader Al-Enezi.
On the incoming front, I brought in 11 players, all of them for the U-19 squad as it was dwindling in numbers due to the last two intakes not being great (signed only 6 players between both years). I needed two goalkeepers and they arrived in the form of Argentinean Jorge Capalbo (Fairly Professional) from Velez for €5.25M, an 18 year old GK with a decent all around play and 4 star PA and Robin Dürholtz (Fairly Determined) from Dortmund for €5.25M, a terrific looking 16 year old kid with 5 star PA who will probably become our keeper of the future in a few years. At the back, I needed a fullback per each side and I settled for Chilean Juan Arguinarena (Fairly Determined) on the right side from Universidad de Chile for €1.3M a good solid option as of now who with 4.5 star PA can become a good senior squad player and on the left side with Argentinean Alan Ramos (Driven) from Boca for €6.5M who seems a bit better than the Chilean and also boosts 4.5 star PA. In the middle of the defence we needed even more work, and I brought in 3 players, two brazilians one from each Porto Alegre rival, Jorge Luis (Light-Hearted) from Internacional for €7.75M and Paulo César (Balanced) from Gremio for €4.5M. Both are fantastic players as of right now, capable of playing alongside each other as one's a leftie and one a rightie, and both boost 4.5 star PA. For the long term I brough in French lad Unai Serrano from Toulouse for €800k, who at 16 has a long way to go and 5 star PA, but needs serious help in the personality deparment to try and improve that Unambitious. Finally from the middle and up I brought in 4 players, a central mid in the looks of Tobias Larson (Fairly Loyal) from Zob-Ahan for €125k, a low risk Iranian/Swedish lad who has a lower 3.5 star PA but still might become a useful player, one winger Brazilian César Augusto (Balanced) from Sao Paulo for €2.5M another fantastic looking player with a bright future at 4.5 start PA and two strikers, Brazilian Jajá (Fairly Determined) from Sao Paulo for €6.5M one we overpaid a bit for as he looked better on the scouting report, but is quite good right now and has 4 star PA, and Belgian Mohamed Nsabimana (Fairly Professional) from Sparta Rotterdam (our supplier of young strikers, as we signed van Mierlo and Verheul from there as well) for €3.8M, a 16 year old lad who will surely lead our team to glory down the road as he seems like a fantastic player already and has 5 star PA.
Squad and Tactics I settled agaisnt doing a squad overview in this report as I plan on doing a big squad report as we've added a few great players to the senior squad and they deserve their own space. Hopefully I'll have that at the end of this season. I did want to talk a bit about the tactics I plan on employing this season though, as I'm shifting a bit towards a more aggressive attacking tactic, inspired by the one Guido developed in the Depor Succession save. As the shape and general roles is somewhat the same from what we used on the other save, I took it and made small adjustments to fit what I want to happen. My idea is to play in a modern variant of Totaalvoetbal, the famous Dutch style from Ajax and the Mechanical Orange of the 70's commanded by Rinus Michels off the pitch and by Johan Cruijff on the pitch. I know this is fairly impossible to do in FM as interchangeable roles is not possible to be replicated, but the idea is a fluid offensive tactic, that attacks with 8 men and defends with 8 men as well. We'll see if that's even possible.
I'm quite happy with both the starting 11 and the reserves for the senior squad. The 5 wonderkids are Matías Galeza, Omar Firpo, Mihran Nalbandyan, Lucas Rojas and Sebastián Noce.Pre-SeasonAgain, as a few seasons back we were invited to play in the Summer Tournament "Challenge du Nord", so I needed to prepare for an early pre-season and to adjust my calendar according to the cup's draw. We got to the Final of the Cup, beating Lille, Hoffenheim and Monaco, eventually losing against Ajax on penalties. We also beat Racing and AC Milan in friendly games. It was disappointing to lose the cup against Ajax, as we came from two super dominating wins over two strong sides Milan and Monaco. But as the game treats the Challenge du Nord as a real Cup (instead of a friendly), I guess nerves were a part and we just lost it.
We also managed to get a great win over Feyenoord in the JC Schaal, to start the year with a title win.Forecast and Future - Regarding finances we're at an amazing position with €93M in the bank. Here's hoping The Board pays some (or all) of the remaining €54M debt from the stadium loan so that we can be a fully sustained club again. - Talking about the stadium, this will be our last season playing at Stadion de Goffert, and we'll move to the new NEC Stadium in July 2028. - I plan on doing a full facilities overhaul during this season. I'll let you know how it goes.
I'm super excited. I think this can be a fantastic season. It's not everyday you find yourself with 5 wonderkids on your starting 11.
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Post by dalenichol on Sept 23, 2020 7:47:48 GMT
I feel like this could be a pretty huge year for you, buddy. After winning the league last season and doing so well in the Europa League, you're only a few good results away from getting that European title and asserting your dominance in the league. I know you've had a busy summer as you mentioned, but how are you not just getting utterly overwhelmed by bids for your wonderkids? 5 in a starting XI is incredible and I'm more than a little bit jealous, not gonna lie
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Post by chaodck on Sept 23, 2020 14:31:27 GMT
I feel like this could be a pretty huge year for you, buddy. After winning the league last season and doing so well in the Europa League, you're only a few good results away from getting that European title and asserting your dominance in the league. I know you've had a busy summer as you mentioned, but how are you not just getting utterly overwhelmed by bids for your wonderkids? 5 in a starting XI is incredible and I'm more than a little bit jealous, not gonna lie Thanks mate. You know, you'd really think this would be the case, with other teams bidding crazily over my young stars. But it isn't. More often than not I get a ton of loan offers for the ones in the B Team or even in the U-19's during the transfer windows, which I normally reject as part of the philosophy of the save is to have the kids be homegrown so I'd rather have them here, unless they are in dire need of first team football or higher level football in order to boost their development further. I've just finished the summer window, with not a single offer for one of our Senior Squad wonderkids. Lucas Rojas was attracting a lot of attention, even from big clubs but no offer as of yet, same as Nalbandyan who had a laughable offer early in the summer from a smaller club in a bigger league (Hoffenheim I think) so it was promtply rejected and the player didn't complain. The other 3, Noce, Firpo and Galeza aren't even "wanted". We had a few teams poking around for Albert Raven our starting GK in the deadline day, but offers were low and I rejected them all and again, the player didn't complain. I'm preparing the transfer window update right now. Andreas Hansen requested a transfer the day before the deadline, but no offers came for him and he's still a NEC player. He's missed 2 games and 2 more training sessions this season due to him being AWOL and I'm super pissed at him, but I cannot afford to not play him when available.
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Post by chaodck on Sept 23, 2020 15:54:30 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2027-28 Summer Window ReportOverviewAnother shorty short update, the start of the league the closing of the window and a bit of small talk and news.Transfers As I said on my last post responding to Dale, we didn't have much activity at the closing of the transfer window. There are a few disgruntled players who wanted to go out on loan, but nothing out of my control. We did sell one player as youth prospect Bram de Man left to PEC Zwolle for €2.9M (plus €1.3M in clauses, and 20% of the profit made in the next transfer). It's not too much and he's a good youth prospect, but I took the deal as I felt he was one of the lesser rated kids in my team and most probably would've ended not realising his potential and let go on a free. Regarding incoming transfers we did no more deals as I'm pretty happy with the 3 squads as of right now. We spent a record high of €44.5M securing a lot of great prospects for the (not so far...) future.
EredivisieWe had a fan-tas-tic start in the title defense effort. We beat PSV in the first game, narrowly 2-1 with a brace from Aleksandar Todorovski, then smashed Fortuna Sittard 7-1 with goals from Mihran Nalbandyan, Steeven Sánchez, Lucas Rojas and a poker from Andreas Hansen. In our next game we demolished Ajax in the first half, putting us ahead 3-0 with goals from Sebastián Noce, Baldo García and Hansen, but suffered a bit of a second half collapse and ended up narrowly winning 3-2. We closed out August not conceding any more goals, beating VVV-Venlo 4-0 with goals from Rojas, Noce, Sebastián Cuoco and Raymond van Mierlo (Hansen missed this game) and Heracles Almelo 2-0 with goals from Hansen and García.We sit atop the league alongside Feyenoord who seem to keep at the same level of last season and will surely try and give us a fight in our quest for a re-peat. Surprisingly, Ajax has struggled a bit and PSV even more (both have lost against me though).UEFA Champions LeagueIn our first time as 1st seeds (surprisingly), we had a better draw than last season, but still a super tough group. We drew Chelsea, Gladbach and Dinamo Zagreb. I think we can comfortably take 2nd place and even gave Chelsea a fight for the 1st, but I wouldn't be surprised we struggle a bit and fall to the Europa League again.Forecast and Future - The money situation keeps improving and after closing the window we stand at €101M in the bank. - The Hansen situation is worrysome obviously. He's not happy and will surely miss more trainings and games during the season so I'll be pretty happy to sell him, but I would also like a big offer for him. His understudy, Raymond van Mierlo (a fantastic player as well) has his contract run up at the end of the season and I haven't renewed him as I expected to sell him if Hansen decided to stay. As the Danish will probably leave I'll get to renewing van Mierlo soon as I want him to be our next starting forward. Regarding his complaints, the majority of the squad is against Hansen and his antics, so I'm pretty happy with that and I won't take a hit on dynamics when he leaves. - I asked for a full facilities upgrade and managed to convince The Board to improve the Youth Facilities costing €6.25M and ready by October 2028 and the Data Analysis Facilities costing €2.8M and ready by October 2027. The Training Facilities upgrade was rejected and I'll try again during the season.
Re-peat! Re-peat! Re-peat!
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Post by chaodck on Sept 26, 2020 6:48:22 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2027-28 Midseason ReportOverviewUpdates keep rolling over in this save as I've already reached the midseason point and the winter break. It's been a fantastic semester on the pitch with terrific results and a consolidation of our stature within both Dutch and European football. The Hansen situation has kept playing itself out and after he had a big scoring semester as usual, well offers arrived for him.
Transfers Two players arrived on pre-arranged deals at January 1st. Both are young Attacking Midfielders, with potential. Jamelao joined us from Internacional for a club record €10.25M big fee but he's already a good player and has 5 star PA evaluation, meanwhile Sergey Pavlov joined us from Zenit for €1.7M a much cheaper alternative, maybe a bit better right now, but boosting 1 star less PA. Both will play for the U-19's for the rest of the year.
Well, and as I said above, the soap opera of Andreas Hansen finally came up to an end during this winter window. The Danish had been an arse all season long, missing several games and even more training sessions and at least lost two or maybe three months of his salary on fines. When available, he was his usual fantastic self though, appearing in 24 games, scoring 21 goals and 4 assists with a 7.55 rating. In the end it was the big bucks of Manchester City who came for him, with a final offer of €145M to take his talents to the port city in northern England. Hansen has been by far our top player of the save so far, his NEC career spanned five and a half seasons in the senior squad, after being promoted in 2022-23, appearing in 231 matches, scoring 172 goals with an average rating of 7.36. He left the club as a "Club Icon".Eredivisie We had our best start to the Eredivisie so far in this save. We torched teams left and right with the new more offensive tactic and the growth of our young core rendering unplayable for defences at times. We kept the strong start from August, beating rivals Vitesse 3-0 with goals from Bryan Betrand, Andreas Hansen and Raymond van Mierlo, then beat Willem II 2-1 with goals from Hansen and Bertrand. Then we massacred Top Oss 7-0 (our second 7-goal performance from the season), with goals from Bertrand and braces from Hansen, Lucas Rojas and Aleksandar Todorovski. October rolled in the same fashion, as we beat Gronigen 2-1 with a brace from Rojas, ADO Den Haag 4-0 with goals from Raymond van Mierlo, Sebastián Noce and a brace from Todorovski and finally Twente 5-0 with goals from Rojas, Mihran Nalbandyan, Noce and a brace from van Mierlo. November saw us drop our first points, as we just couldn't manage to overcome AZ's defence and ended up with a 0-0 draw. We then beat NAC Breda 2-0 with a brace from Hansen and Feyenoord 3-1 with goals from Todorovski, Diégo Reynders and Hansen. December finally had us a bit more busy with 5 league games, which cause a lot of fixture congestion and even some tiredness. We beat Gronigen 3-1 with goals from Rojas, Anouar Trabelsi and Daniel Jack, then beat Heerenveen 4-2 with goals from Nalbandyan, van Mierlo and a brace from Hansen, then beat Utrecht 3-1 with a goal from Adis Mesanovic and a brace from Hansen, and ADO Den Haag 1-0 with a goal from Noce. Finally, in the last game of the semester, a few days before Christmas, we lost our first game of the season, a tough narrow 1-2 loss against Ajax with a goal from Hansen.
The 5 point gap over Ajax is good but not great. If only we hadn't lost to them in the last match of the first half. The gap with the rest of the league is quite big though and that has me super happy. UEFA Champions League We drew a good group. A tough good group. I expected it to be easier as we were 1st seeds, but we drew Chelsea, Gladbach and Dinamo Zagreb. I felt we had a good chance of qualifying and even a decent chance of topping the group. Well, we did the latter. We started off with a fantastic 1-1 draw against Chelsea in London, with a goal from Hansen, then followed suit with a 2-0 win over Dinamo in Nijmegen with a brace from Rojas. We then beat Gladbach in Germany 2-0 with goals from Sanchez and Hansen, and again in Nijmegen 2-1 with goals from Todorovski and Fabio Cuoco. Another 1-1 draw with Chelsea at home with a goal from Sanchez, set us up in the frontrunner seat as Chelsea had drawn with Dinamo early, so a win from us guaranteed us the first place finish. And we delivered with a fantastic 5-0 win with goals from Rojas, Jack, Hansen and a brace from Cuoco.
Unfortunately, the luck of the draw kept being a bitch with us and we'll face Bayern in the Knockouts. Fairwell Europe for this season...KNVB TOTO Beker We're set up for yet another good cup run, winning easily with the backup team in the first two rounds, beating PEC Zwolle 3-1 with goals from Santiago Rak, Gabriel Murillo and Trabelsi, and then Roda JC 3-1 as well, with goals from Rak and a brace from van Mierlo. We'll play Feyenoord in the Third Round early January.
Youth Intake Preview Seems like a decent intake, but again this could be anything really.
Player Performances With Hansen out, our top player has been Chilean Lucas Rojas, who started off the season amazingly then lowered his performance a bit. He's played 27 games, scoring 13 goals with 6 assists and a 7.47 rating. Steeven Sánchez has been amazing in the middle with 26 games, 3 goals and 6 assists with a 7.38 rating. Argentinean Sebastián Noce has had a great debut season as well, leading the team in assists with 28 games, 6 goals, 12 assists and a 7.35 rating. The rest of the team has also played pretty well. I expect Raymond van Mierlo to explode and be our top goalscorer now that he's the sole owner of the starting #9 spot.
Forecast and Future- Financially we're obviously in 7th heaven after the record-sale of Hansen. We have €220M in the bank. - We're currently upgrading the Youth Facilities and will be finished by October next season. Also the new stadium is almost finished. - Regarding the squad, I see little to improve. Obviously it'll hurt losing a world class player like Hansen, but I'm sure that Raymond van Mierlo is good enough to fill his shoes at our current level.
Here's hoping for a good second half of the season and our first re-peat.
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Post by Marshdweller on Sept 27, 2020 10:40:27 GMT
Fingers crossed you can hold Ajax off for the rest of the season! I also think you've managed the Hansen situation really well, so kudos for that.
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Post by chaodck on Sept 28, 2020 14:53:10 GMT
Fingers crossed you can hold Ajax off for the rest of the season! I also think you've managed the Hansen situation really well, so kudos for that. Cheers mate, it's incredibly frustrating to have had a brilliant season, where we only lost 5 total points and still have the title be very much "in dispute". I think we can hold off them though, van Mierlo has been amazing in replacing Hansen (something around 8 goals in his first 4-5 games as a starter including 2 hat tricks) and we've managed to extend our league lead by a few points. We're a better team, even having lost Hansen. Regarding the danish, well I think I handled it out nicely as well. He had without a doubt outgrown us and was way too expensive (his salary was around 3 times higher than the next high earner), we surely could afford him, but if he wanted out and was being an arse about it, you just gotta let him go, and we funded the club for years to come with that.
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Post by chaodck on Oct 1, 2020 15:13:23 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2027-28 Season ReportOverviewWe had our best start to the season yet, only losing one game in the whole first semester including the League, the Cup and the UEFA Champions League. The second half of the season brought a few new things to the table, our first foray into the knockout round of the UCL, and a title defense that saw us in a good position above Ajax, but with nothing secured. All of this, after losing a world class player, as Hansen left us for the easy money of Manchester City. EredivisieSo, we had a nice but not great 5 point lead over Ajax, our only true chaser in the league. We started off January with a good run, beating PSV 1-0 with a goal from Raymond van Mierlo, then also beat AZ 1-0 with a goal from Aleksandar Todorovski, then sealed the month with another great 4-0 win over Twente with goals from Anouar Trabelsi and a hattrick from van Mierlo. February started off great as well, with a 5-0 win over Willem II with goals from Todorovski, Bryan Bertrand and another hattrick from van Mierlo, then struggled a bit and drew 3-3 from behind, with another hattrick from van Mierlo. We recovered quickly and finished the month with two more wins, a 2-0 over Den Bosch with goals from Mihran Nalbandyan and Lucas Rojas, and a 2-0 win over Top Oss with goals from van Mierlo and Rojas. March was a short month with only two games and we got two wins, a 3-0 win over Vitesse in the Gelderse Derby with goals from Diégo Reynders and a brace from Sebastián Noce, and a 5-0 win over Fortuna Sittard with goals from Rojas, Noce, Todorovski, van Mierlo and Steeven Sánchez. We had a more sizeable league advantage right now, as we had a fantastic run in the first three months of the 2028 year. We managed to seal the title with 3 wins in April, beating Den Bosch 4-0 with goals from Lucas Rojas and a hatrrick from van Mierlo, a 2-1 win over Utrecht with goals from youngster Nicolas Martinet (a "loan" from the U-19 squad due to injuries) and Daniel Jack and finally won the title with a 3-1 win over VVV-Venlo with goals from Jack and a brace from van Mierlo. With 3 games to go, we had sealed our second title in a row. This allowed us to play the remaining games with a "C" team, comprised of mostly players from the U-19's and the B team. We played two games with that squad, which had less than 100 senior appearances for NEC in total for all the 23 squad players. We drew 0-0 with Heracles Almelo and in a magnificent showing of how dominant we are, we beat Feyenoord 3-0 with goals from Jorge Luis and a brace from Nicolas Martinet. For the last game of the season I reverted to my usual starting XI, beating Heerenveen 4-0 with goals from Reynders, Noce, Todoorvski and Rojas.
Record points, record goals and a fantastic 18 conceded show how great we were.UEFA Champions LeagueWe drew a tough group, but somehow with terrific play ended up winning it, beating Dinamo and Gladbach twice and drawing twice against Chelsea. We drew Bayern in the Knockouts and while I was fearful, I also had a bit of confidence because they had struggled in their group and also in the Bundesliga (they were 7th at that moment, but ended up third, 23 points behind Hertha BSC who won the title). We went to Munich with a lot of hope and ended up losing 1-2 with our goal coming from van Mierlo at the last minute. At home, in the return leg we managed to get to the extra time, after a 2-1 win with a brace from van Mierlo, and in the extra time managed to score again twice with goals from Edgar Villa and Sánchez and with a 4-1 win managed to advance to the Quarter-Finals. We drew PSG in the Quarter-Finals round, and I thought our run had ended. Went to Paris and again lost, 1-2 with our goal coming from Rojas. Back home, we were great and ended up advancing after a 3-1 win with goals from van Mierlo and a brace from Rojas. In the semifinals we drew Chelsea and this time I had faith. Despite not getting a win against them in the Group Phase, we dominated both games and I felt sure they were less of a team than both PSG and Bayern. In London we drew 0-0 in a very tight game, but back in Nijmegen we showed our credentials with a fantastic 3-0 win to pave our way into our first UEFA Champions League Final, with goals from Todorovski, Sánchez and Rojas. Again, we had three weeks between the finalisation of the league and the Champions League Final, something not desirable at all. We played a friendly in between to keep match fitness up and arrived to the big day with a full squad (albeit wonderkid Mihran Nalbandyan was infiltrated to allow him to play through injury). Our rival was Liverpool and we absolutely dominated them, outshooting them 20-9, with 62% possession, 3 clear chances to their 2 and 6 half chances to their 1. Raymond van Mierlo put us ahead early at '19, but they tied the game at '27. Just before halftime, a fluke by dutch Justin Kluivert put them ahead 2-1 and we took it in the teeth. Despite a good second half of dominance, we never really recovered and they found the third goal at '73 with a precise counter attack. A tough 1-3 loss in the end.
We had a fantastic run, Lucas Rojas was amazing and ended up being one of the top goalscorers in the competition. We could've won it, we had bad luck.KNVB BekerWe had an easy way in the Cup, beating PEC Zwolle and Roda JC in the first half of the season, then smashing Feyenoord 6-1 with goals from Nalbandyan, Rojas, Todorovski, Reynders and a brace from Yasunobu Muro, then beat RKC in the Quarter-Finals 3-1 with goals from Adis Mesanovic, Tobias Larsson and Muro and AZ 3-0 in the semifinals with goals from Rojas, Fabio Cuoco and van Mierlo. This set us up in a Final against Ajax, which we lost 1-2 with our goal coming from Noce. We played good, but in the end we were too focused on the Champions League and the Eredivisie and played the Final with some backups due to fatigue.
Youth IntakeWe had a decent intake, but nothing too crazy. At least I managed to sign around 5-6 players which will bolster our U-19's for a while unless I find better youngsters in the market for low prices.
Fahri Akin is the pick of the bunch and I plan to convert him to a IF AML, with Eliseu Borges being a decent second as well. I don't really expect them to become first teamers, but with some luck they might end up being decent squad players.Squad and PerformancesIt was a fantastic season. The tactical shift to play a more aggressive and offensive football worked like a charm and we dominated almost all teams we played against, even against big sides in the Champions League. Regarding our player performances Raymond van Mierlo didn't shy away from the challenge of replacing Andreas Hansen at all, and we didn't really miss a beat as the Dutch was fantastic in the second half of the season. Van Mierlo played 42 games (with only 29 starts), scoring 31 goals with 4 assists and a 7.48 rating. With Hansen out of the picture though, our best player award must go to Lucas Rojas. The Chilean wonderkid (I would've loved to have a player like him on my C&C save) was fantastic during the year, playing in 48 games, scoring 24 goals with 11 assists and a 7.49 rating. Close third comes Steeven Sánchez, our Colombian midfield maestro who played 48 games scoring 6 goals and 10 assists with a 7.41 rating. Other great performers were Aleksandar Todorovski (46 games, 15 goals, 11 assists, 7.37 rating), Bryan Bertrand (45 games, 5 goals, 2 assists, 7.32 rating), Sebastián Noce (48 games, 11 goals, 15 assists, 7.30 rating), Omar Firpo (43 games, 1 assist, 7.22 rating), Mihran Nalbandyan (44 games, 5 goals, 6 assists, 7.22 rating), Matías Galeza (40 games, 1 goal, 6 assists, 7.15 rating) and Diégo Reynders (47 games, 4 goals, 10 assists, 7.11 rating). Our GK, Albert Raven also had a fantastic season, with 28 clean sheets in 51 games, and only conceding 33 goals.
Youth Team News We won both leagues, the Reserve League with the B team (third title overall, after last season where they ended 2nd) and the U-19's winning their fourth Youth Eredivisie in a row.
Forecast and Future- We've secured the financial stability of the club after last season. The fantastic sale of Hansen plus our deep run in the UCL has our bank account brimming with cash, at €271M. - We secured a couple of new sponsorship deals, a €425k per season General Sponsor, a €525k per season General Sponsor, a €4.6M per season Continental Competition Sponsor and finally a €7M per season kit sponsor. In total, we're making €19.8M per season on sponsors, including the €5.75M deal we get for the stadium sponsor. - Talking about the stadium, we're just a month away from the move to our brand new 39k all-seater stadium.
FAN-TAS-TIC season. I felt we were a bit lucky here and there, specially in the UCL. But this tactic is the way to go for the style of squad building I'm doing. So yeah, I'm uber happy.
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Post by dalenichol on Oct 1, 2020 23:32:19 GMT
Jesus H Christ, my friend. There really isn't much I can add other than that is an incredible season to have. A champions league victory would've been the absolute icing on the cake, but runners up is nothing to laugh at, fair play to you. League domination could be secured from here on out though, and with that sort of money in the bank I don't think you're going to have any trouble securing any targets going forward. Having somenody like Rojas there to get the goals after Hansen left is a definite bonus too.
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Post by jawzy on Oct 2, 2020 14:31:05 GMT
plus liverpool, are cheaters in fm20
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Post by chaodck on Oct 8, 2020 16:25:00 GMT
Well, this happened... I really didn't want this to be a C&C, at least not in the genesis of the save as while it's a youth save, it's focused on acquiring talent from other sources (besides the youth academy) and developing it, rather than only relying on our youth setup. But, I'm a C&Cer at heart and just couldn't refuse this oportunity. Besides, as I said when I started this save, I fell in love with football in the nineties watching the terrific Netherlands side of that decade. I'm not sure how much I'll feature the NT setup in these posts, probably not that much, not even an update per year only focusing in the competitions.
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Post by Marshdweller on Oct 8, 2020 18:55:53 GMT
Well, this happened... I really didn't want this to be a C&C, at least not in the genesis of the save as while it's a youth save, it's focused on acquiring talent from other sources (besides the youth academy) and developing it, rather than only relying on our youth setup. But, I'm a C&Cer at heart and just couldn't refuse this oportunity. Besides, as I said when I started this save, I fell in love with football in the nineties watching the terrific Netherlands side of that decade. I'm not sure how much I'll feature the NT setup in these posts, probably not that much, not even an update per year only focusing in the competitions.
Congratulations!
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Post by chaodck on Oct 8, 2020 21:45:29 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2028-29 Pre-Season ReportOverviewLong time without an update but I've been kinda busy lately and haven't got around to playing much. But here it is, ther pre-season report for our '28-'29 season, a few months after the best season overall for NEC as we won our second straight Eredivisie and got all the way into the Final of the UEFA Champions League (our second continental Final as we reached the final of the Europa League a few years back). I don't think we're in a position to top that fantastic season we had last year, as we were incredibly dominant on the domestic front and with a bit of luck (albeit a hard draw), advanced deep into Europe. We've got a fantastic squad, with a ton of development in the last year and despite losing Andreas Hansen we haven't really felt his absence so far.
Transfers In terms of outgoing transfers, we had a bit of activity, but nothing major. Three senior squad members from last season left the team, Yasunobu Muro went to Southampton for €50M, the Japanese is a great player, but never really took the starting job, first struggling to surpass Fabio Cuoco and then being replaced by Sebastián Noce. Daniel Jack left to West Brom for €22M (plus €2.5M in clauses), the Peruvian was a great backup player, but I decided to let him go. Anouar Trabelsi went to Olympiacos for €4.8M, our former backup left back the Tunisian had a few solid seasons but nothing of note really. Other former senior squad members who left were Alisson Henrique to RKC for €2.4M (plus €500k in clauses), Giacomo Faccini on a free to Ajax and Diogo Fonseca on a free to Willem II.
Regarding newcomers, we've brought in a few new faces, but there's still a lot of activity around and I feel somewhere near 5-7 more players will arrive. José Manuel Escobedo (Fairly Professional) arrived from Monterrey for €6.5M a big price for an 18-year old but he's already looking like a terrific player in a position where we needed a bit of depth for the future. Nigerian Collins Joseph (Unambitious) came in from Porto for €1.4M, a fantastic target man prospect despite his terrible personality. Daniel Marie (Driven) came in from Monaco, for €1.1M and he just might be the best player of this bunch, a 17-year old CB prospect with fantastic potential. Another expensive transfer was Alexandros Koutsoures (Fairly Loyal) who came in from Bayern for €8.5M, a left-footed RW who has a lot of potential and a nice skill set at 16. Brazilian Caique (Realist), came in from Vasco da Gama for €6M, another senior squad ready player who'll feast at the U19 and even at B level with great potential as well. Manuel Franchi (Determined), came in from Parma for €1.1M, a bit of a rush buy, he'll be taught to play in the other flank and see if he can make the change without much sacrifice to his ability. João Faria (Jovial) arrived from Atalanta for €2.8M a good GK long term prospect who has a nice future ahead of him. All the mentioned will play in the U-19 squad, with maybe the best ones being promoted to the B side if they perform good. For the B side, a couple of players arrived, Jürgen Benkert (Fairly Determined) is a decent GK who has some potential to improve and cost us only €71k to take him away from Köln. Founéké Traoré (Balanced) arrived from Lille for €1.5M a decent all-around fullback prospect who might end up becoming a nice squad player down the road.
Squad and Tactics With the fantastic success of last season's tactics, I decided to not modify anything about it, keeping both the setup and the starting 11 from the second semester intact. We promoted a few players into the senior squd though and they'll be backups for now. I expect both César Augusto, Dejan Ilic and Adis Mesanovic to fight for a starting job, pushing Aleksandar Todorovski, Bryan Bertrand and Steeven Sánchez.
From last season, Omar Firpo and Sebastián Noce lost their "wonderkid" status as they turned 21. Lucas Rojas, Mihran Nalbandyan and Matías Galeza keep theirs, meanwhile we added Dejan Ilic, Adis Mesanovic, Alan Ramos and César Augusto who as soon as they got a few games with the Senior Squad got the wonderkid tag, raising our total to 7 players.Pre-SeasonWe had a big pre-season, as we played both in the Challenge du Nord and in the Uhrencup. In the first we lost to Tottenham on penalties in the Quarter-Final, a game which we could've won against a team that has been our "Bestia Negra". We then won the Uhrencup, beating Mainz, Newcastle and Stoke. We started our official season with a fantastic 5-0 win over Ajax in the JC Schaal. It also was the first official game played in our new NEC Stadium.
Forecast and Future - We currently have €317M in the bank, a fantastic position to be in. We have around €50M left in our stadium loan, which I hope it's liquidated this season. - NEC Stadium is officially open, as we destroyed Ajax 5-0 in the ground debut and won the JC Schaal. We also have a Youth Facilities upgrade coming in the way which will be ready by December.
We are a better side than last season, which was already historic. With the new stadium, I'm super excited for the year!
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Post by richruzzian on Oct 10, 2020 13:36:10 GMT
Just Read all the missed updates. Hope you can go to the Final again of the cl. And hopely winning it. I have my fingers crossed
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Post by mrcool on Oct 12, 2020 10:34:49 GMT
Nice work
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Post by chaodck on Oct 12, 2020 17:15:44 GMT
Thanks for reading richruzzian and mrcool. It's taken me a bit longer to play, as I've been playing FIFA 21 non stop haha. But I should have a transfer window update and squad report, sometime today or maybe early tomorrow.
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Post by chaodck on Oct 21, 2020 22:17:52 GMT
Don't know if anyone's still following this, and yes I know it's been a long time since the update promised on the last post. But I've been toying aroudn with the Print Screen feature of the game and devising a way to make graphics and compare players and their progression on Excel. And I'm happy finally with what I did. I should have an update tomorrow, with the new graphics and player comparisons.
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