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Post by jt on May 20, 2020 21:55:25 GMT
Panthira who? Panthiraikos F.C are a Greek Fourth Division side from the town of Fira in Santorini. Formed in 1970, the team has pretty much spent it's whole existence in the Greek Lowerleagues (Mainly the 5th tier - Or otherwise known as the Cyclades Football League). They have won that league 3 times (although only once in game) as well as the Cyclades Cup. The club did grace the 3rd tier of Greek football a few years ago but as we start the save we will be in the 4th Tier (Delta Ethniki 5os Omilos). More on that later Panthira why?I guess the next obvious question is why the hell this team. In a million years, none of you would have guessed this side. Maybe you were expecting a bigger side. Well the reason is quite simple. The current situation with Covid has meant that my wife and I are now unlikely to go on a holiday this year and the place we did have booked was Greece. To be exact it was a couple of Greek Islands with you guessed it Santorini being the first stop. The town of Thira was going to be the perfect start to what would have been our last holiday before we become parents for the first time. Therefore, if i cant be there in real life, i might as well try and be there for my FM life. Aims of the SaveSo what do i aim for? The Champions League is the obvious end goal but that is a million miles away and might even be impossibe. Im well aware the island of Santorini might severely impact my ability to grow a club big enough to win the top trophy in Europe. In fact winning the Greek league against the relative powerhouses of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos is going to be hard enough and will probably be the crowning achievement to finish the save. However they are dream scenarios that i can't even comprehend right now. To start with here are my initial goals - Turn Professional (Currently semi pro) - Get promoted into the 2nd tier - Get £1m in the bank (currently £980) Once these have been knocked off... then we can set the bar a little higher. Next Update: A closer look at the team
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Post by jt on May 21, 2020 7:57:27 GMT
Panthiraikos Takeover- Part 2 The Manager So let's get into some detail. From a manager perspective i have created myself as a Greek manager hailing from Santorini with no coaching badges and a Sunday league reputation. So essentially starting with absolutely nothing bar a few 1s and 2's across the stats. As the club grows, i will hopefully grow too. You can see the profile here. The SquadMore importantly what do i have to play with. As im starting soo low down in Greece, i decided to select the option to add players to playable teams so we do have a few regens at my disposal. These though all sit in the U19's as in reality Panthiraikos had a fairly well formed squad of real players in the database which is a nice surprise. What i was given is below All in all, it is a fairly strong side with some areas in particular very well covered. In Goal our only real option is Panagiotis Ntounis. A 13 for reflexes is an encouraging sign whilst 10's for handling and shot stopping can not be sniffed at and he should be able to distribute from his hands with another 11 for that. A 14 for eccentricity i can't remember if that is a good thing or a bad thing but either way we are going to see some howlers i am sure. He certainly seems serviceable for this level. Defensively we are pretty well stocked for starters with the only draw back being we dont really have back ups at left back or centre back. It may be a case of promoting some of the U19 regens in to cover whilst budgets are tight but the starters do give me hope. Giannis Tsopelas is a solid right back with some good mentals and physical stats. The technical ones could do with some work but i think if a few of them were 10's rather than 9's it would look a lot better instantly. On the other side we have our highest paid player (£140 p/w) Antonis Fouasis who is not as mentally strong as Tsopelas but he has equally as good if not better physicals whilst having the coveted double figure technical skills with a 10 for crossing showing we should have an attacking threat as well as a solid defender. In the heart of the defence we have Giorgios Labropoulos who i think has the strongest mentals out of the squad whilst also having good marking (12) and serviceable physicals. He will need a new partner to go alongside him as the ageing Albanian Birbili might not be strong enough. Moving onto midfield we have a plethora of defensive midfielders. In fact prety much all of our central midfielders are DM's by trade and ball winning ones at that. It means we shouldn't lose the battle of midfield but could be a little one note. For example we have Pantelis Antoniadis, Andrea Hysa and Antonis Papasavvas to name a few. Papasavvas is the only one that could offer something a little different with an 11 for Passing and 12 for vision meaning he could become a makeshift playmaker. We also have another 4* central midfielder Giorgios Paligeorgos who again is really similar to Antoniadis and Hysa so we should never go wanting in midfield. On the wings we lack a natural left footer but we do have our star man in Giannis Koreta. His 14 for pace will mean he is going to be quick for this league and an 11 for finishing means he might even be used up top from time to time. Quite often in the lower leagues i find good physical stats as the biggest difference maker anad Koreta might just have that in his locker. On the other side is another Giannis this time in the shape of Giannis Kontis. One of the veterans of the team, he still has good pace and can cross but his right footed preference on the left doesnt quite fit how i think im going to play this season so we might need to get a left footer to test against Kontis but either way Kontis would make a good right winger if we do indeed move Koreta up top. Talking of strikers, that is another area where we have options but none of them at first glance are getting me too excited. Youngster Alexandros Georgantis could be good. His strong finishing of 12 is a good starting point and if we can move some mentals in the right direction along with with a little more pace we might have a tidy little player on our hands. TacticsSo my experience of lower league management always tells me to keep it simple. The simpler the better in fact and i need to use what is at my disposal and that is defensive midfielders and attack minded wingers so i have come up with the below A slightly revamped 4-4-2 with the two central midfielders playing in their preferred DM slots which then allows me to put the wingers up high in the attacking wing slots. It should mean we have a strong defensive core in the middle should we get countered. Papasavvas will take on a playmaker role as i couldn't have two ball winners in the middle so the idea being he can lay it off to the wings and they throw in crosses early to the top two. Koreta i think will need to start up top and i have decided to go with Manariotis as the other striker as he is a natural target man to aim for. If he can't get the ball in the net himself, at least he might make some space for Koreta to bag a few himself. I think the biggest worry is the space behind the strikers, as there is going to be a large gap between the strikers and the central midfield duo, so that is meant i am going to try and make Koreta a pressing forward on the defensive duty which i believe will mean he will be press any defensive midfielders from the opposition and drop into that space a little more. Luckily i have a very long pre-season consisting of 11 games to tinker with this formation before the season starts. ExpectationsSo the Greek league system is a little bit of a minefield especially lower down with lots of various groups and leagues but from what i can tell the 4th tier is made up of 8 leagues of 14 teams. The 8 individual league winners then meet in a play-off round where 4 get promoted into the Single league 3rd tier. Relegation means going into one of a plethora of regional leagues, which of course we will not have to worry about as we are only going to be looking upwards. That is something the board feel as well as the media. The media have us finishing in 4th and the Board are expecting a top half finish with promotion coming next season. Other than that it is pretty straight forward and i just need to stay in the wage budget. Which out of interest is a grand £1700 per week of which we are spending around £1600. No trnasfer budget to speak off and a bank balance of just £980 means we are going to have to be very prudent in our investments. Of course we have our gate receipts but the catchily named Municipal ground of Fira has a capacity of just 600! As you would expect all other facilities are basic / non existent. Welcome to Greece Next update: Pre-season and transfers
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Post by Nick on May 21, 2020 9:33:41 GMT
I don't think I've seen anyone manage this far down in Greece, jt, so I'm looking forward to this. I have to admit, your players are twice as good as I was expecting them to be. I think you're right to look at physical attributes, but by the looks of things, you can also be fairly confident that they'll have more to their game than just being a speed merchant.
Interested to see your start and how the tactic is bedding in. The gap in midfield is the obvious weakness, but can be negated by the right team instructions/player roles. Good luck mate.
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Post by jt on May 21, 2020 12:49:48 GMT
Panthiraikos 2019/20 Preseason TransfersSo pre-season is now done and i have wrapped up all of the transfers i have planned before the season has started. The window is in fact open still and i think this is one of the leagues where you can buy and sell whenever so very much like the English lower leagues. With very little money, there was always going to be only a small amount of business as we didnt have the wriggle room in the wage budget to allow anything different. A couple of youngsters (all regens) were approached by some lower league sides as they didnt have a contract with us and left. None of which i was particularly bothered about as they didnt really have the ability to make a difference this season and with budgets this tight you have to think short term all the way. We did though bring in two new faces both on non contract terms. Spaniard Pep Canals was the first man in having played on trial here for a few weeks. He is young, left footed and gives me a natural winger for the left hand side. Not a game changer but 11 in dribbling, crossing, agility and pace means he has the core aspects to do a rinse and repeat role. Essentially get the ball on the left, run with it and cross it into the middle of the park. The other new face is Nikos Loubakis who comes into give me more options at the heart of the defence. Again solid, without being spectacular and happy to be here on a non contract basis. He will likely rotate around with Birbili the Albanian who is technically better but is starting to lose his legs a little. The real challenge, was i could find a decent player to go into the first team but they wanted a wage and we just couldn't afford to go way over the wage budget. We are already £70 per week over and i'm feeling a strain. I have tried to sell for £0 the one player who can play in an AMC role but he keeps rejecting the contract despite lots of interest. I am conscious we should be getting under the wage budget in these lower league sides and so if an offer comes in for any of my players who dont start i am inclined to sell just to keep things in check. I have also added in some staff to fill out the basics (scout and a physio) but in reality i am trying to keep things as trimmed down as possible. The financial situation was looking to be dire but a £21.5k new kit sponsorship has lifted us back in the black for the short term at least. Pre-seasonAs you can see i have been a busy boy with 12 pre-season friendlies (almost the equivalent of half a season) and it has been a great way of getting to know the player and the individual roles and as you can see it has largely been positive with some very nice big victories. The 4-2 win over Giouchtsas and the 2-0 win over Apol Larisas being particular highlights as we beat opposition playing a few levels above us. When we did play a Superleague side in current Greek Champions PAOK we even kept the score down to just 2-0. Tactically we have kept to the 4-4-2 / 4-2-4 depending on your feelings and it seems to work. Our full backs have beeen crucial to our success with right back Tsopelos creating 10 chances alone whilst Fouasis created 4. The number of assists wasn't quite there but they are certainly a main outlet for the goals. The real star was target man was Vasilis Manariotis who bagged 11 goals from his 11 appearances in pre-season. It was a superb showing and he is now the main attacking focal point. The experiement with Koreta up top also proved to be ineffective so i have moved him back to his right wing spot where he is contributing much more for the team. Next update: 2019/20 Season kicks off
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Post by jt on May 21, 2020 22:25:43 GMT
Panthiraikos 2019/20 Mid season update On the pitchWell the season is flying by as we hit the half way mark of the league campaign but when you only have 26 league games and no cup competition, it is going to do that. As you can see, life in Santorini has been pretty good so far. In fact it could have been even better bar a slightly rough patch of form in recent games that has seen us surrender what was an 8 point lead at the top. Things couldn't have started better as we won our first 6 league matches including a win over League favourites and former Superleague side Ethnikos. The tactic and the match plans were working brilliantly, the wide areas were producing assists whilst our defence was largely holding strong. At this point i must admit i thought i was a tactical genius and already had my sights on an unbeaten season. This Greek lower league stuff was easy right? Well the wheels havent exactly fallen off since then but things are becoming a little bit more of a chore. The first problem came in New signing Pep Canal buggering off after just a few months. The dangers of a non contract player coming true. He hadn't set the world alight but he was providing a nice balance to our play. Recently i have settled on Albanian Xhoi Seiti on the left wing. He can't cross or dribble but he has picked up 4 goals in as many starts including a hat trick in my last game against Mochatou and right now form is going to trump attributes. With our first 6 games racking us up 18 points, the next 7 have seen us pick up just 10. We lost our 7th game against Ano Mera in a terrible 1-0 defeat where it was obvious we dont have a plan B. Which has sort of been the story of the 2nd stretch of games. We just cant stop drawing bar a comfortable win against a struggling Ermis Korydallu and a battling 4-3 over Agios Anargyroi. In pretty much all of the other games we have been on the backfoot, unable to really turn a game. Perhaps i need more rotation but i think in reality i have hit a slight flaw tactically. If a team can nullify our wide men then we just dont have enough in the middle to turn a game. Antonis Papasavvas has done an admirable job in the middle of the park and has probably been our most consistent performer but the core stats of 0 goals and 0 assists tells the story of his limitations. Both the full backs have probably been the highlight. Giannis Tsopelas has managed to turn his high chance creation from pre-season into actual assists and leads the team in this area and is 2nd in the league's stats as well. Antonis Fouasis on the other side hasn't quite been as successful but 2 goals and 2 assists but has created more chances per game than Tsopelas so he could be just the victim of bad luck so far. Weirdly we have the best defence in the league despite shipping 7 in just 2 games but largely we have limited teams to at most 1 goal whilst always having the ability to find the net. Manriotis isn't quite as prolific with 6 goals from 13 starts but considering that them 6 goals have come from just 3 matches, there is a problem that we need a consistent goalscorer rather than a batchy one we have now. Lots to think about but we need to turn a corner quickly as right now Ethnikos have all of the momentum on their side. The transfer window did indeed shut so we cant bring reinforcements in for another month but we are going to have to sell / release if we can afford it. Financially we are in the red, it was always going to happen when you only get 140 or so on average to your home games but I knew that coming into this save. I have tried to get a parent club to get some extra income but the board outright refused which i was quite surprised about. Either way, our Plan B is going to need to come cheap Next Update: Youth Intake
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Post by jt on May 21, 2020 22:28:14 GMT
I don't think I've seen anyone manage this far down in Greece, jt, so I'm looking forward to this. I have to admit, your players are twice as good as I was expecting them to be. I think you're right to look at physical attributes, but by the looks of things, you can also be fairly confident that they'll have more to their game than just being a speed merchant. Interested to see your start and how the tactic is bedding in. The gap in midfield is the obvious weakness, but can be negated by the right team instructions/player roles. Good luck mate. Thanks Nick. I dont think i have seen one this far down either which was another attraction. I was also quite surprised by some of the players and also the amount of players in the database. Very few of the teams i have faced have had to rely on regens, maybe just 1 or 2 at most in their starting line ups. It will be interesting to see how the youth intake goes for sure!
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Post by jt on May 22, 2020 12:56:58 GMT
Not sure what to make of that. Seems like we might have a good intake next year with a defensive midfielder being the star. Not that i need any more to be honest! Couple of questions. Do you find these previews accurate? Im guessing it is linked to the stats of whom is giving the report but if anyone has any insight that would be good What level of highlights do you guys put the games on. I have been doing key since i got FM20 on launch but starting to think that isnt enough to get an idea of what is working and what isnt? Should i move to extended? Has anyone found that makes a difference?
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Post by jt on May 22, 2020 21:45:20 GMT
Panthiraikos 2019/20 Game Weeks 14- 20 TransfersSo i would normally wait to the end of the season for an update but things have got a little interesting in the league and also the 2nd transfer window has now shut so it feels like a natural place to update you all. So we actually sold a player for money, as Spanish lower league side Toledo paid a whopping £425 for Andrea Hysa. Its a record sale for the club and not bad for a man who wasn't getting on the pitch. Stat wise he is good and there was an argument to play him but the right back Tsopelas is playing well and Papasavvas is doing a good job despite not having the level of attributes. We also managed to finally sell Peralis as he finally agreed a contract elsewhere having rejected at least 12 offers throughout the whole season. He is in game at least the clubs record appearance maker so i am guessing he liked it here in Santorini but he didnt fit our tactic and i needed the wages. We also lost back up left back Tony Kennel who was on a non contract and was poached by a lower league side with the promise of more game time. I tried to shift on a few more as i battle the wage budget challenges but that was it for exits. We did bring in two new faces to the club to help bolster some numbers. Thomas Garas joins on loan from Platanias as a back up centre half for the season. No wages are being paid so it was a freebie but my lack of scouting ability meant i had to go a little blind on this one. He is serviceable and with one of my other centre halves on a non-contract i thought it would be prudent to bring someone in just in case. The other is a 17 year old Regen in Giorgios Tsakalis who has had an incredible season in the tier below scoring 8 and assisting 12 in just 21 games and comes in on a non contract and give us another option on the wing On the pitchOn the field we might have just about restabalized the ship after a rocky few games before the half way mark where we were struggling to draws. However, it hasn't been all plain sailing as we have lost two more league games and crucially one against Promotion rivals Ethnikos in our first and home defeat of the season of the season so far. However, we have won the last three matches and we are in a dog fight for the title. Right now, i couldnt call it but over the last two game weeks we have managed to pull away from both Kallithea and Fostiras leaving us in a straight 6 game shoot out with Ethnikos. To be honest it is a shootout i am not sure i can back myself to win and that is leaving me with a small dilemma. As with all lower league sides, all of our players contracts end this season and there is a good team here that i want to largely keep together but if we dont get promoted i can't see how we are going to be able to increase our wage budget expenditure without bankrupting the club. So far my attempts at renewing contracts with ideally no or a small uplift in wage have been met with contract stalemates and i could be losing all but 4 members of the team. On one hand i could just break the wage budget and go for it but that would feel a little irresponsible and if we dont get promoted we could be in some real trouble. However, if i am too cautious i risk losing a big part of this squad and that could set me back a few years. Next Update: Youth Intake... I promise
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Post by jt on May 23, 2020 7:11:08 GMT
Panthiraikos 2019/20 - Youth Intake The Youth intake is in and with finances tight, there is an increased importance on youth intakes in being able to not only bulk out our squad on the cheap but also possibly find a gem that we could turn into some money further down the line. As it goes, this intake hasn't given us a star man who can go straight into the starting 11 but there are a couple of players we can use over the next year or so. This is especially important as our wage budget is starting to get out of control as i have had to renew at least some of the squad's contracts otherwise we wouldn't have had a team to compete with at any point. So who did we get Stelios AntipariotisThe cream of the crop from this year's intake, he is another ball winning midfielder in a team that has plenty. However, I am likely to not renew at least one contract in that area so Stelios will get a chance next year. At 6"4 he is a man mountain but he needs work as his pace is awful. As a back up he should be good enough next season. The biggest challenge is his awful personality and low determination which will hold him back so i have ordered some intensive mentoring to try and sort it out. Asterios DogimasAsterios is in a similar position to Antipariotis and will be a good back up at the back. Strong tackling is a good start and he does at least have some determination behind him which hopefully means he can improve a little bit more. He needs to work on his strength and positioning but he will prevent me needing a back up centre half over the next few years. Sotiris IliadisSotiris is another centre half that came through who isnt quite as good as Dogimas but again could do a job if we really needed him to. As an intake it will do but it hasn't really set Santorini alight just yet.
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Post by dalenichol on May 23, 2020 19:55:11 GMT
Great stuff so far JT and nice to see you back posting again.
Really nice and interesting choice for a save and like Nick says, it really isn't something I've really seen anybody do before. It's the sort of that I read and think "shit, I wish I'd thought of that". Your issue with contracts is one that really puts me off managing at lower league level, especially in some of the smaller countries throughout Europe, as even 3 or 4 tiers down, players continually ask for double or triple wages when renegotiating. So hopefully that's something you can find a decent balance with.
Hopefully you can win the title, it'd cap a great first season but understandably, and as you've said yourself, Ethnikos will be tough to topple.
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Post by jt on May 24, 2020 13:38:00 GMT
Panthiraikos 2019/20 - End of Season On the PitchA six game shootout to see if we can earn the right to Promotion is someway to end the season and we needed a run of form like the one we had to start the season if we were going to have any chance of toppling a strong Ethnikos side. First up on our run we had bottom of the League Ermis Korydallou who had been woeful up until this point and if any game was a guaranteed 3 points this was the one. Back up right back Gikas got us off to a flying start scoring the opener but after that we seemed to be stuck a little and eventually they equalised just before half time. It took 17 year old debutant Tsakalis to give us the winning goal in the 71st minute as he got onto the end of a cross and turned the ball home and win us the game 2-1. Ethnikos routinely won their match 3-0. Kallithea were up next and they were in 3rd place at the time and this was always going to be a tough game as against the better sides in the league we have faltered. Papasavvas opened the scoring with another thunderbolt on the 44th minute to give us the lead but just two minutes later it was all square as they equalised. A 1-1 draw is how it stayed and Ethnikos won their game against fellow Santorini side Kamirou 3-2 meaning we were 3 points behind them with just 4 to go. Their goal difference superiority now meant we needed them to slip up twice if we were going to have any chance of winning this league. Luckily their final 4 games meant they had games against 3rd, 4th and 5th whilst we were mainly playing against teams in the bottom half of the season. Our one game against 4th place Fostiras on paper the only banana skin of a tie. We had another battle on our hands againt Agoi Anargyoi who always seem to cause a high scoring game against us and again we prevailed with a 3-2 victory which was even sweeter when Fostiras managed to hold Ethnikos to a 0-0 draw putting us just 1 point behind. Game week 24 saw a Santorini derby and this time we got the victory winning comfortably 2-0 whilst Ethnikos were also back to winning ways winning 1-0. Two games to go and we still needed a slip up. Things were not looking good for us. With Fostiras up next i was conscious we could slip up and effectively hand the title to Ethnikos and i think the boys knew it as well as we played our best game so far as we smashed Fostiras 4-1 with Manariotis scoring a hat trick. A great result but it was even better as Ethnikos lost 5-1 to Moschatou. I couldnt believe it. We were now top of the table by 2 points and the goal difference had swung in our favour. The title could now be ours. Our final game was against Ilysiakos and we knew a victory would give us the title and put us in the play-offs. However, we just couldn't win and we went behind in the 1st half, Centre half Loubakis managed to get an equaliser and Koreta had a goal disallowed in the 88th minute but all we could muster was a 1-1 draw. I was convinced we had lost the title on the last day but... Ethnikos won 1-0 meaning our goal difference was level. I still havent worked out the maths as our results against each other were the same (We both won 2-0 at each others places) and although our goal difference was equal they had scored more goals than us. Normally that would be enough to win them the League but for some reason we were gifted the Title and now had the chance to go on on and win promotion. Standing in our way were Almopos who won their league with ease and for me looked to be one of the strongest sides at this tier. It was everything i thought it was going to be as we were on the backfoot for the first half as Almopos dominated possession and deservedly went into the lead just before half time with Semedo breaking the deadlock. A little pep talk at half time saw a small response but things started turning in our favour when Pettas got sent off for them just after the hour mark. Suddenly we could push forward but time was running out fast and it looked like we lost the tie until they gave away a Penalty in the 90th minute. Manariotis stepped up and kept his 100% record from 12 yard to send the tie into extra time. By that point both teams were dead and the game went to Penalties without too much incident. A penalty shoot out to determine how this save pans out. A penalty shoot out that we won 7-6 to send us to the Greek 3rd tier! Season Review and AwardsWhat a season and one that i could only hope for when i started this save. Promotion from the 4th tier looked to be the hardest because no matter how well you did through the regular season it was always going to come down to 1 game against another side on good form. Luckily we did it on our first go and we now go into the 3rd tier. That is also a 14 team league with 2 getting promoted and 4 going straight back down. All in all it was a good first year and i have already got a great feeling about this save. No part of that season was a slog and it honestly flew by. The team is and was much better than i had expected and with a few improvements i am hopeful i can make the step up next year. We were the defensively best team in the league but i dont think that is saying much as most teams seemed to concede a fair few. Attacking wise Vasilis Manariotis finished top scorer with 15 in 27 games which looks pretty good but i think 9 of them goals came in just 4 games so we have to be careful not to read too much into it. The Fan's voted him player of the season for his efforts. Although he was good, for me he wasn't the player of the season. He was probably in the top three but for me Antonis Papasavvas was the player of the season. I didn't expect too much from him if i am honest playing in a slightly unfamiliar role as a deep lying playmaker but he led the leagues key passses by a long way and he was the most consistent performer, regularly scoring over a 7.0 and he seemed to keep things ticker. He also always seemed to score an important long range shot and although his output of 3 goals and 2 assists is low, he rarely put a foot wrong. The other man in the top 3 i think has to go to Antonis Fouasis who at left back was not only a goal threat but an assist threat. The right back Tsopelas may have got more assists but for me there was a little bit more about Fouasis and like Papasavvas he was more consistent. So onto next season. Well the Board injected £120k into the coffers and we got another £30k for getting promoted so it easily moved us into the black for the first time this season. Some of the commercial deals have come in and have increased by roughly 50% so we are looking pretty good. It was nice of the board as so far they have been a right pain to deal with, I have asked 4 times for a parent club and they are having none of it, either thinking it would produce no income or by saying they dont want to rely on loan players. With limited budgets though it would make a massive difference. Talking of budgets, they have come in I am pleasantly surprised as that is a real jump on wage budget especially. We currently spend around £2.1k (£400 per week over) and to more than triple the budget was quite a surprise. How we could afford it with a stadium capacity of just 600 (Average attendance is less than 200) i have no idea. I am not likely to go anywhere near that top end of the budget and buying players for money seems a long way off right now. Off to the 3rd Tier we go!
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Post by chaodck on May 24, 2020 17:45:30 GMT
Terrific first season JT, and as Dale says great to have you back here! The ending was a bit too tight I guess, how's your heart doing mate, in normal times I'd say have it checked, but these Covid times are different, so here's hoping for a more calm second season. Nice kits as well, the Santorini outline on the home one is an, amazingly beautiful detail.
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Post by jt on May 24, 2020 22:32:05 GMT
Panthiraikos 2020/21 - Pre-season TransfersIt seemed like a much shorter pre-season for some reason but we still managed to get quite a bit of business done despite it. Firstly lets look at the outgoings in which we released 12 players from the club. Many of them were youngsters who just didnt have the potential to make a difference over the next year or two but there were 5 that featured in the first team to varying degrees last year. Albanian veteran Ervin Birbili retired once he knew i was letting him go, whilst Koletsis and Seiti were two wingers that failed for most of last season. Baouris was our back up keeper and i have improved in that area with my signings whilst Zarpas was a youngster who came in at left back when Fouasis was injured for a brief time last season. So onto the incomings. Well first in was a loan deal as we signed centre half Manolis Perdikis for the season from OFI Crete. Stat wise he is much better than Garas who was here for the back half of last season and he should play quite a bit this season. In Goal this season I have added veteran Giannis Arabatzis who will compete with Ntounis for the Number 1 spot. Technically Arabatzis is much better and his experience from his days at AEK will be very useful. I have a few worries about his physicals so if it doesnt quite work out then i will revert back to Ntounis who did Ok last year. The final defensive addition comes in the form of a left back. Meet Sotires Zelios who will be the back up to Fouasis this year. Decent enough physicals and he can tackle which means defensively he will be fine. We will lose some of our attacking threat playing him but as a back up, i think he does the job. The star signing definitely in terms of star ratings and attributes is defensive midfielder Alexis Seliniotakis. Lots of double figure stats across all three streams and he should be a good upgrade on our ball winning midfielder role. He can also pass meaning i have an alternative if Papasavvas struggles for some reason. We also added Marios Papadopolous as an attacking midfielder. Last year we didnt play with an AMC at any point and sometimes we lacked variety in our play so Papadopolous has come in as we start to experiment with formations and shapes. Technically he looks great and although his physicals are low he could be a difference maker for us. Finally i added another striker with ex-Panathinaikos youngster Sotiris Pispas joining on a free. Decent finishing and composure and with 13 pace he is pretty quick for this level. He will go into the Poacher role alongside Manariotis and hopefully help us in this relegation fight. Tactics & Pre-season feiendliesSo our trusted 4-2-4 formation is still in play and we will likely start the season with it. Pispas is an upgrade on Valavanopolous and i think he can form a nice partnership with Manariotis with the target man - Poacher dynamic. The left wing is still a slight problem with no natural there so we have the youngster Tsakalis there for the time being but that could be somewhere we improve on. Equally we have trained a new tactic during pre-season which involves dropping one of the strikers back to an AM slot. It looks a bit like this It allows Popadopolous to get into the team and will help close the gap between the central midfielder and the loan striker. Right now i am not sure if Pispas as the Poacher or Manariotis as the target man should be the man up top. Pispas is a better player but i think the target man could work better as that focal point. Other than that, the formation works in a similar way to our main tactic with the idea to get the ball to the wings. We have maxed out our pitch size (although league rules means it has to be smaller than last years enormous pitch) so so hopefully we can find the space we need to play to our strengths. On the field, our pre-season was a lot shorter with just 6 friendlies. Four of which were against lower league opposition who we beat in a less comfortable fashion than i had hoped but we picked up the wins anyway. We drew with League favourites Kalamata 0-0 whilst getting handsomely beaten by Greek Champions AEK 5-1. Thoughts and PredictionsSo it was a little bit of a weird pre-season as i dont think we are fully fit or fully settled on a starting shape or line up. I suspect it will mean a lot of swapping around for the first few games as we find our feet. Can we afford to do that for too long? Not really. Four teams get relegated in a league of just 14 and we are predicted to come 10th. Admittedly the odds are tight and we could easily find ourselves higher up the table should we get going. Right now the board are asking for us to fight relegation whilst progressing a couple of rounds in the Greek Cup which we enter this year. All of this to be done whilst using set pieces and counter attacking our way to success. I think we can survive as i dont think the step up is as big as it looks. We also have two teams in the league (Apollon Volou and Kerkyra) who were relegated last year after financial irregularities and can only sign players under the age of 23. Their squads are paperthin and full of teenagers. That gives me enough hope we can survive this year. On a side tangent the board have agreed to upgrade our youth facilities using the money they injected into the club last season. We are still £50k in the black so it hasnt wiped us out and at least means we can set ourselves up for the future.
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Post by jt on May 24, 2020 22:33:36 GMT
Terrific first season JT, and as Dale says great to have you back here! The ending was a bit too tight I guess, how's your heart doing mate, in normal times I'd say have it checked, but these Covid times are different, so here's hoping for a more calm second season. Nice kits as well, the Santorini outline on the home one is an, amazingly beautiful detail. Cheers Mate. The heart was not doing too good after either of the last two games. I genuinely thought we had messed up winning the league and when we couldnt score against 10 men i was resigned to facing another year in tier 4. We even missed the first penalty in the shootout. I love the detail on the kit too. Full credit to Dale for that
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Post by jt on May 27, 2020 15:38:40 GMT
Panthiraikos 2020/21 - Mid Season update On the pitchThe main question this season, was could we survive the step up in League and in competition. At the half way mark the answer is yes we can, are we perfect, No. However, as it stands i think we have had a fairly decent first half of the campaign in this new league and at times we have looked like a good side. Where we finish is going to be anyones guess. Currently this is how it sits The one good thing is we are still pretty tough to beat. Only two defeats this season show we are not a bad side. We seem to hold off pressure quite well and we do have a good fighting spirit as a number of times we have had to come back to get a point or a victory. We do though lack some quality and at the heart of the defence we have some real problems. None of the three centre halves are looking good and Club Captain Labropoulos knows it, declaring he will be moving down a division at the end of the season. If we can find a star man to shore up that part of the spine of the team we will be in a much better position to kick on. At the other end of the pitch, Sotiris Pispas has been a machine scoring 12 goals in 13 league games as he leads the scoring charts in the League. He has been excellent and alongside Manariotis they have formed a decent strike partnership scoring 18 goals between them in 14 matches. It has been the 4-2-4 formation from last year that we have seen the most success from and it has meant new signing Papadopolous has found himself on the bench but i cant drop either Pispas or Manariotis at this stage. The left wing spot is still a problem and neither Kontis or young Tsakalis is doing the job well and so alongside a centre half i am going to be on the lookout for a winger to try and even out our play somewhat. Right now if we can stay in the top half of the table come the end of the season, i think it will be a great first year that we can build off of. We have to keep the momentum going as a bad patch of form is going to lead to a relegation dog fight. Outside of the league, we did get drawn in the Greek Cup but our 3rd round exit (1st round we enter) to Kallithea on penalties despite dominating the match from start to finish means we just have the league to play for. Behind the scenesOff the field the club is still in some problems. Our average attendance of 239 means the stadium is just 40% full on average for matches and therefore our finances are taking a beating. I am way under the wage budget with £4k to spare on a budget of £7.2k and i am being as careful as i can but we are going to need another bail out by the board at some point. The same board that keep refusing to allow a parent club who would help us out. The finances and the unique location of the club were always going to make this save a challenge as i will need to keep afloat by selling players on a regular basis for a profit. The youth facilities are due next month so at the moment i am just praying they dont get cancelled due to this financial mess.
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Post by jt on May 28, 2020 21:04:54 GMT
Panthiraikos 2020/21 - Gameweeks 14 - 20 TransfersI had intended this save to have just three updates per season but i have weirdly found myself updating a little more frequently as i having so much fun. Who knew lower league Greek football was going to be my bag. I said we needed a centre half and a left winger when the transfer window opened and instead we got two new centre halves who will now form my first choice pairing at the back. Both came and approached me as they were available on a free. First in was Nikos Pantidos who had just been released from Platanias in the league above. A strong all rounder with double digits in the three key technical areas whilst having good overal mental and physicals. I did get played a litle on the wages and he is our highest paid player at £725 per week. Which is nearly double the next nearest man. We are way inside our wage budget so i am not too concerned but when you see we bought in Christos Gromitaris who isnt far off Pantidos and and paying him just £190 per week, you can see my slight seconds thoughts. Either way both are a clear upgrade on what we had and it should mean we are much better in that position. I did even sell a player as Peligeorgios who was a good back up central midfielder was sold to Doxa Dramos for £1k (breaking our record sale again!). He was a good player on paper but wasnt getting any game time and had started complaining. I have preferred young Antipariotis to come on as i look to develop him even though he isnt as good on paper right now. Talking of youth, the youth facility upgrade did go through despite us being way in the red. It can't come soon enough as the preview of our next batch sounds atrociousOn the pitchOn the field, we came alive in Gameweek 14 as we smashed Peirikos 7-1 in our best match of the save so far. That was followed up by a 4-3 win over Ionikos who are near the top of the table with us. We were 4-1 up and coasting but it started to look a little nervy late doors as we started to lose our bottle. Our bottle was back for the next game as unsung hero Papasavvas scored a 90th minute winner against Aspropyrgos. Our tail was up and Kerkyra were then put away with a 2-0 win as we won 4 games on the bounce for the first time this season and we were 9 games unbeaten. However, league leaders Diagoras were unstoppable as we really looked like a poor team. They comfortably and i mean comfortably beat us 2-0 in what i can only call a schooling. We were lucky to keep the score down but it really showed that gap in ability we have from the very best sides. Against Olympiakos Porou it was a similar story but we had luck on our side as we FM'ed them and somehow won 3-1 with what was our only 3 shots. Then finally Veria who beat us 4-0 earlier in the season, once again showed their superioty as they beat us again. This time by only 1 goal but again it was a 3rd game we were largely outplayed. That being said with 6 games to go, we are probably safe and that is the main thing. Bar a massive collapse we are going to be fine and although promotion is not entirely out of the question it is unlikely. Some of you will look at me and go you are crazy, of course you can get promoted, you still have a chance and technically you are correct but i dont think we have enough in us to go and win the remaining 6 games and also have the teams above us drop enough points. Am i upset about it? Not really. Another year at this level will do us good on the pitch although the bank balance is going to carry on taking a hit.
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Post by jt on May 29, 2020 16:40:03 GMT
Panthiraikos 2020/21 - Youth Intake I was expecting a weak intake and i got what i expected. Another round of horrid personalities to go with a lot of players who dont have a lot of potential. To be fair i havent got a head of youth development and i havent had the ability to invest in anything other than youth facilities. Things are going to be garbage for awhile but it won't hurt to keep wishing for a rough diamond. Each year i am going to try and take at least one of these players and stick them with the first team to get some game time and with some mentoring i might get lucky and find someone who can over achieve. From this intake the best 3 players are Odysseas MantikosMantikos has the highest potential or so my team tells me. We do only have two keepers at the club so his arrival does at least give me some cover if we get an injury. Can he make it and become a 4* player. I am not so sure because of that terrible personality and what is still quite a gap in his stats. With Arabatzis being 36 i could see Mantikos becoming the number 2 in a year or so and maybe with a little bit of time he could become a useful player. Giannis SpartalisSpartalis is an interesting one. A pretty good personality with at least some willingness to want to play football. However he is a left footed right back which is the polar opposite of what we play with. So he is going to need some retraining to be a left back and then he might be a serviceble backup. He doesnt have an area where he really excels and that is the major challenge so it might be a jack of all trades type. Alexandros MakrydimitrisSo this kid, i weirdly like and he will be the man from this years intake i am going to promote early into the first team. I think i might just be getting dazzled by multiple double figures and do let me know if i am. He is definitely on the more attacking side of things as he can't tackle for shit and like Mantikos he has a terrible personality but we are probably going to let go of the back up right back and this guy could do a job sitting on the bench and coming on when we are looking home and dry. Progress reportSo one of the things i want to do is to look back each year at the intakes from previous years and to see how they are developing. I am only going to look at the one player and that was last year's best player in Stelios Antipariotis. Here is how he looked on intake day last year. This is what he looks like 1 year on There has been some improvement and it looks like some of the things we have been doing are working. I instantly put him on a mentoring group with some players with higher determination and his personality has improved to low determination. The fact that is an improvement is a worry. However, attribute wise he has made some good progress. Technically it has been slow with just his marking and long throwing improving. Mentally we hve seen a 6 point attribute jump with determination being the big winner moving up two places. Physically another 5 points added as well as he has not only beefed up by 4kg he has become a little quicker and stronger. On the field he has done a great job playing for the U19's and still gets to play with them most weeks where he has scored 5 goals and got 6 assists in 30 matches. For the first team he is now the back up ball winner where i rotate him in on games we are looking comfortable. He scored his first goal for the club and he is proving useful for us.
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Post by jt on May 30, 2020 8:11:15 GMT
Panthiraikos 2020/21 - End of Season On the pitchSo so close. Heartbroken right now. I know i said in my last update that i didnt think we would get promoted, so i shouldn't care but we really could have been promoted and knowing that hurts so much. The boys did everything right leading up to the last game of the season. Sotiris Pispas scoring back to back hat tricks against Zakynthos and Kalamata in 4-1 and 3-0 victories. Ierapetras were then put away 2-0 before an annoying slip against Rodos where they scored a 90th minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw that looking back cost us. Still at this point we were 3rd and we had Niki Volou the team in 2nd in the penultimate game of the season. A victory would see us leapfrog them into 2nd and put us in the driving seat going into the final game. It was a tense game and a draw was looking likely but then new centre half Gromitaris scored an 83rd minute winner and we won the game 1-0. So going into the final game of the season we were 1 point ahead of Niki Volou and we had Pierikos in the final game. The team we beat 7-1 earlier in the season and who were struggling to battle relegation. I was confident. Possibly too confident and i thought we were going to get an easy win and get back to back promotions. Oh how i was wrong. We had some good chances but they all fell to out of form Manariotis rather than Pispas. We were then struggling to hold on but for some herioics by goalkeeper Ntounis who saved an 87th minute penalty to keep us in the game. Even Pispas missed a late chance that could have won us the match. A 0-0 draw that cost us promotion and broke my heart. Season Review & AwardsOnce the disappointment clears i will look back at this season and think it was a damn good year. We were expected to be in a relegation battle and we were no where near one at any point. We missed out on promotion by 1 point and i think this league is actually a lot tighter than the pundits make it out to be. We have a good squad, we need a few players here or there but i can see us putting up a good season next year. We need one as financially the club is in ruins. The board injected more money into the club coffers but we still end the season £120k in the red. I dont think anything i do is going to make a difference. Our lack of fans means our income is tiny from gate receipts and prize money is non existent so our only real hope of getting out of the red is to get promoted and to do that we are going to need a few new players. I will be sensible though and i'm coming around to the thinking of anyone who sits on the bench and isnt a starter needs to be on a non contract or paid nothing and to leave all of our wage budget for the first 11. Injuries are just not a problem at the moment and across the two seasons we have had only 2 injuries and because games are so infrequent (Every 2 weeks at times) we can cope. The fans voted for their player of the year and unsurprisingly it was Sotiris Pispas who got the award. 23 goals in 26 starts was phenomenal work not surprisingly he won the league's golden boot. In fact the next highest scorer in the league scored just 11 so Pispas was head and shoulders above the rest. With him in the side we can genuinely compete. I will give another shout out to Antonis Papasavvas who was also superb all year. He isn't flashy in terms of goals or assists but he is Mr. Consistent and is quickly becoming my favourite player at the club. Although the fans voted Manariotis in at number 3, i disagree. He had a good start to the season but completely tailed off and i think Giannis Koreta was the 3rd best player. 11 assists was a club record and he was often a threat. However, the fact he averaged under a 7.0 shows where we had a problem and that was consistency with far too many players being hot or cold. So where do i go from here? Well the main focus is a left winger. We have gone two years without a left footed winger and it is time we get one and i am going to let veteran Kontis move on meaning i have extra pressure to sort that role out. Other than that i dont think i am going to really change anything. We can't afford to in all honesty and if anything i am going to try and get the wage bill a little lower by allowing a few fringe players to leave and to promote some kids to fill out the first team squad. Budget wise the board have increased the wage budget again whilst maintaining a transfer budget but it would be foolish to touch it. I think if anything it will be changes in the backroom staff area where we will see the most action.
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Post by jt on Jun 1, 2020 13:15:54 GMT
Panthiraikos 2021/22 - Pre-season TransfersSo i wanted to keep the pre-season a little quieter to try and keep a stable team and with a few improvements i was hopeful we could get ourselves back in contention for a promotion spot. There were 6 players released who all were seen as surplus to requirements. The biggest of whom was Club Captain Giorgios Labropoulos who had declared he wanted to step down a division last season. We also released back up right back Gikas, back up midfielder Antoniadis and makeshift left winger Kontis. Whilst two youngsters were also allowed to leave who were too old for the U19's and not good enough to play here. There was one other out that wasn't planned as back up left back Zelios who was poached by Episkopi having been on a rolling contract for us. So i said i needed a left winger and we got two during the summer. Albanian Arines Baculi was loaned in from Panionios for the season with us picking up nothing on the wage front. He has decent pace and more importantly a left foot. His crossing and dribbing are Ok at this level and ideally would have been double figures but he isnt far off being a decent player. The other new man was 20 year old Nikos Fytourakis who signed on a free transfer from Ieropetra. He is a little quicker and has better crossing. I just cant ask him to run with the ball but again he was signed on a non-contract meaning we dont pay any wages. At the back we resigned Manolis Perdikis to give us more cover at center half. I have been trying to offload highest earner Pantidos to free up his wages but he keeps rejecting everyone elses contract. Perdikis played ok last year and i think he has the ability if we can get him to perform on a regular basis but i suspect he will be a starter this year as i continue my pursuit of getting my £725 per week back off Pantidos. Finally at left back we added another loan signing with Panathinaikos sending us Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos joining. Again we are paying nothing for his wages but he looks to be a good player for this league and an improvement on Gikas. Pre-season feiendliesTactically we are keeping with our tried and tested 4-2-4 with the back up of option of dropping a striker back to the AM spot. It has worked for us for the last two years and i dont think we need to change anything just yet. On the field it has seemingly worked as we had a very impressive pre-season We beat two teams in the league above us (Panionios and Levadeiakos) in a great test for us whilst we also held Superleague Side Aris to a 2-2 draw as we kept an unbeaten pre-season in what was a tough run up. Episkopi are in fact a higher reputation side than us and we still beat them. Thoughts and PredictionsI am feeling pretty good. It took me a little while to get over losing promotion like we did but i think we have a slightly stronger squad and also more importantly a cheaper squad in terms of wages. I am looking to get at least one more player on loan with another kid from Panathinaikos being the likely candidate. The board still dont want to sanction a parent club (or anything to be honest) but i think Loan players with no wages could be the smartest way to try and make that final jump into the 2nd tier. From there i think the money is going to be much better and we might be able to start getting ourselves out of the debt hole we find ourselves in. A little cup run wouldn't go amiss either.
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Post by jt on Jun 2, 2020 15:53:49 GMT
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Post by Nick on Jun 2, 2020 20:11:16 GMT
Don't be too disappointed jt, that was still an excellent season, finishing way above expectations. In the long run, it'll probably be what's best for the club. You want to get in the strongest position possible before going up again.
As for Defoe, looking at the quality you've brought in, and using that as a measure of quality for the rest of the league, if you can afford his wages, get him in. Even at 38 he should still bang in goals.
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Post by jawzy on Jun 3, 2020 0:11:31 GMT
Defoe should be a great impact sub I imagine.
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Post by jt on Jun 20, 2020 9:18:03 GMT
Panthiraikos 2021/22 - Mid season update TransfersSorry for the short hiatus guys. Life got in the way and i havent had a chance to write an update. It has been a little while since i picked up the save but there were a few more transfers as the season rolled on. Just after the first game of the season i confirmed another loan signing from Panathinaikos with winger Dionysis Samaras joining for the season. Again no wages being paid makes it a no brainer and he has decent crossing and pace which fits our system perfectly and he would be able to rotate with young Tsakalis on the right wing. Well that was the plan until Platanias snatched Tsakalis away as he was on a non-contract meaning i needed another right winger. Enter Nikos Vretos who joins on a free transfer. Slightly more rounded than Samaras but without some of the exceptional skills he provides a more experience option on the right wing. The final transfer was one i hinted at earlier as England International Jermain Defoe joins for his final year in football. His technical and mental stats are off the charts for this level and hopefully that makes up for some declining physicals. Did i need him no? Can we afford him? Technically yes as we stay well within our wage budget but i couldnt resist having the man at the club in a fantasy signing. On the fieldIt has been another largely satisfying first half of the season but we do seem to be missing a little from the year before. The left wing is still a problem with neither Baculi or Fytourakis performing and Jermain Defoe has hardly set the world alight as i try and partner him with Pispas. He started well enough scoring two goals in his first two games giving me hope that his signature was going to be the catalyst for promotion but since then has has offered nothing. In fact when you look at the average ratings of the squad you can see a problem as we have just 4 players averaging over a 7.00 as we lack the consistency that will get us promoted. There will be no magical cup run again this year as we did get past one round before losing to Xanthi 3-1 in what has been my best cup performance to date. The only real highlight was Defoe getting his opening goal for the club having signed just a few hours previously. Still we sit in 3rd just outside of the promotion spots and if we can get some form together we will have another shot of getting into the 2nd tier for the first time. Pipas is still the leading man with 8 goals from 15 appearances which is a good return albeit a long way off what he was doing for us last year. Part of the problem is the signing of Defoe has meant i have had to try and change his role to accomodate both which certainly impacted him a little without seeing the desired impact from Defoe. It means Jermain is currently the most expensive bench warmer in League history as i try and turn him into an impact sub whilst partnering Koreta with Pispas. The move has certainly helped benefit Koreta from the goal scoring front (7) but we have massively lost his creativity as he has gone from the top assister last season to getting 0 assists. All in all it means we are not quite clicking and we are going to have to keep tinkering into the second half of the season to try and find a winning formula. Im sure when the window opens, ill try and offload a few players not getting any game time to further ease the financial situation.The board have had to put in another cash injection to keep us afloat. What we really need is a promotion.
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Post by jt on Jun 20, 2020 15:50:34 GMT
Panthiraikos 2021/22 - Gameweeks 14 - 20 On the fieldA short little update as we get ourselves to 3/4 of the way through the season with another 7 league games down. It was an undefeated streak as well as we pick up 4 victories and 3 draws including a 4-1 thumping of League leaders Doxas Dramas with Pispas bagging a hat trick and Defoe even getting a goal. The team are looking a little better and in particular Pispas is starting to get among the goals whilst Defoe has contributed two goals and three assists in an improved run of form. And so it has left us in a very good position with just 6 games to go. We are 5 points and 4 places better off than last year and we have a real shout to get ourselves promoted. We need to keep our focus and if we can keep Pispas in the goals we should have enough about us to make it a reality
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Post by chaodck on Jun 21, 2020 18:53:21 GMT
Good work JT mate, that 3rd place last season is pretty impressive and allowed you to establish a bit, rushing up the ladder isn't that good always. Shame to hear the economic troubles, how's the prize money looking up in the top two tiers (you're currently on the third tier, omega level? Divisions there sound like tiers of a Cult)? I assume not much and you'll have to rely on selling players almost all the time? Keep up the great work mate, I'm rooting for promotion.
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Post by jt on Jun 23, 2020 13:21:20 GMT
Good work JT mate, that 3rd place last season is pretty impressive and allowed you to establish a bit, rushing up the ladder isn't that good always. Shame to hear the economic troubles, how's the prize money looking up in the top two tiers (you're currently on the third tier, omega level? Divisions there sound like tiers of a Cult)? I assume not much and you'll have to rely on selling players almost all the time? Keep up the great work mate, I'm rooting for promotion. Thanks mate. Really enjoying this save despite the financial struggles. Short seasons are really helping it zip along. Yeah you are right currently in the third tier and I don't think there is much money in the 2nd tier. We are always going to be a selling club and essentially I think the strategy will be to pick up young players releases from the big Greek clubs on free transfers and hopefully form a good team from there. That tactic has worked with Pispas who has been sensational for me so far
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Post by jt on Jun 24, 2020 20:17:16 GMT
Panthiraikos 2021/22 - Youth Intake Another intake and another disappointment as we probably got our worst intake from a star potential level over the three years. Whether Jermain Defoe's presence is causing them to be rated lower i dont know until he retires at the end of the season. However, I am not particularly excited by anyone. Tasos Paraskevopoulos is probably the best of the bunch and he could be a squad player at some point but is going to lack the all round skills we will need to go to the next level. Progress reportSo one of the things i want to do is to look back each year at the intakes from previous years and to see how they are developing. Now in my 3rd season i can see the problem. Semi professional status is not going to allow enough development. For example lets have a look at the two players i picked out from the last two intakes. Here is Stelios Antipariotis from last year. At this point he had improved by 13 attribute points and his personality had moved from unambitious to low determination. It was an OK improvement i thought. Now forward one more year, you can see the problem So the good news is his personality has improved again to balanced so the tutoring has worked in that sense. However attribute wise we have a problem. He has got worse technically dropping 1 attribute point, improved by just two points mentally (Determination increasing by 2) and an increase of just 1 attribute point physically. It isnt enough to be honest. Secondly, here is Alexandros Makrydimitris from when he came through. Again fast forward a year and we have this Who has actually got worse. I think we need to give up the ghost of player development for awhile
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Post by Nick on Jun 24, 2020 20:35:34 GMT
I think you're fighting a losing battle trying to develop young players with a semi professional status mate. Personally, I'd concentrate on the here and now, getting players in that are good enough to improve you straight away and get you to that next level. It may take five years, but you'll get there. You'll be waiting forever, and eventually lose interest, if you try and improve this lot. Your facilities aren't good enough and they aren't good enough.
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Post by jt on Jun 24, 2020 20:52:14 GMT
Panthiraikos 2021/22 - End of Season On the pitchLast year we had heartache but ths year we had utter joy as the 2nd tier beckons. Was it pretty... Not really but we did enough to get the job done despite losing to Promotion rivals Olympiacos Volou in a game that i thought was going to be our downfall. However, we held our nerve and once again Sotiris Pispas took us by the scruff of the neck to score 5 goals in the final 4 games of the season to win the golden boot for the 2nd year on the trot and to become the Clubs record goal-scorer. Pispas was also rightly voted the player of the year and without him we would have struggled. Defoe was an able partner but it was Pispas's goals that got us to where we are. He has been a cracking pick up and is a testament to what i want to try and do in our next few years. Club Original Antonis Papasavvas was also excellent in the middle of the park and considering when i joined he was rated 4th choice central midfielder he has been excellent since getting into the first team. Never lets me down and had his best contribution so far. Finally an honourable mention to Christos Gromitsaris who was excellent in the first 3/4 of the season before hitting a dip at the end he was an ever present in the back for us. Looking ForwardI am ecstatic as i cant believe we have gotten this far so far. At the beginning of the save i set out three short/mid term goals for myself to keep myself focused. Getting to the 2nd tier was one of them and one of the others was to turn professional. Well that promotion secured that one as well as we enter the big time. Now the 3rd goal of a £1m in the bank seems a little ambitious as i think we have been in the red pretty much my whole time and as the season ends we sit £180k in the red. Hopefully we can start fighting back to making a profit but with an average attendance of 350 ish we need a lot more fans paying a lot more money to come see us play. I also need some new challenges - Turn Professional (Currently semi pro) - Get promoted into the 2nd tier - Get £1m in the bank (currently £980) - Survive in the 2nd tier - Get a player called up to an International youth side - Knock out a top tier side in the Cup - I think they are a suitable aim for now. We need to survive at this level first and foremost and i want to start building to being a stable 2nd tier side. My aim and expectation is to spend at least 3 seasons at this level. Our budgets have been set It is a big jump on wage budget which is to cover the larger wages needed to cover the move to full time but i am going to have to be sitting around half of that for awhile otherwise we will completely collapse under debt as a club. The transfer strategy is going to be three pronged. - Sign released young players from the top Greek clubs - Sign veterans in their last year or two for Mentoring purposes - Loan signings We are going to have some outgoings with Defoe retiring and we will ship out any players who didnt play much this season. I have already started the scouting work for future players to be released from the likes of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos as well as moving everyone to full time contracts. A staff overhaul is also going to be needed. A nice busy summer for me
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 24, 2020 21:01:42 GMT
Brilliant stuff JT and well done on promotion, thoroughly deserved. I've not commented as much due to time constraints, but I'm following and really enjoying what you're doing here. Greece is such an underappreciated choice to manage in, and starting so low and building up is a fantastic thing to achieve, fair play to you!
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