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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Jul 6, 2020 17:12:09 GMT
Some great players there! Villani seems like a candidate to retrain as a DC to me, which suits his physicality and lack of attacking technical skills. Mousavi looks like a fantastic playmaker! The drop-off in form at the end of the season is a shame, but I'm sure you'll be back stronger and challenge Ajax for the title next season.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 6, 2020 17:50:46 GMT
Some great players there! Villani seems like a candidate to retrain as a DC to me, which suits his physicality and lack of attacking technical skills. Mousavi looks like a fantastic playmaker! The drop-off in form at the end of the season is a shame, but I'm sure you'll be back stronger and challenge Ajax for the title next season. Good pointers there mate, I do like Villani in the flank though, 9 dribbling 10 crossing isn't Cafu or Roberto Carlos surely but it isn't bad. I'm in the hunt for offensive fullbacks, which are unfortunately lacking in the game (one would say in football really, but specially in FM), so I'm gonna have to content with what I've got so far. I'm gonna tweak the roles a bit in the tactic, specially as without Proper I'll play a defensive minded CM alongside Mousavi as playmaker, then Cuoco in the hole as AM. We'll see how it goes.
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Jul 6, 2020 18:13:18 GMT
Yeah decent full backs are very difficult to find, but I agree with you that this probably reflects real life well. I tend to sometimes just retrain box-to-box type midfielders to play there when I can't find any backs I like. The full backs on both sides have also been a weak area of the Dutch national team, there is simply not much quality there unfortunately.
I happened to come across the NEC team bus on the highway twice this weekend by the way! Had never seen it before so I thought it was a funny coincidence.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 7, 2020 18:09:53 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2022-23 Pre-Season and Summer Window ReportOverviewAgain, as NEC qualified for the early early stages of the UEFA Europa Conference League, I'm forced to skip the initial pre-season update and just do one at the window closing to report both the limited pre-season and the results of said early stages of the UECL. Last season was a great season for the team as we established as a low key title contender, being on the tail of Ajax for most of the season, only to suffer a huge dropoff in form in the last couple of months and end up in 4th position. This offseason I wanted to focus on how to move on after Dirk Proper's exit, while trying to keep the rest of the team somewhat the same, and bleed in our more talented youngsters onto the senior squad. Well, that just didn't work out like it should have, details after the break.Transfers and Squad I'll start with the exits as they are a bit shocking. As I've repeated a lot, Dirk Proper finally left the team, having been bought by PSV last summer and loaned back to us for the season. I could've tried and ask for his loan again but I doubt it would've been successful, as he's starting at PSV, and one of their best performers. Also, Rens van Eijden retired leaving a gap to fill in the back 4. I had decided to sell Keiichi Mori as his development was underwhelming in the 2 years he was with us, and in the end he went to Den Bosch for €500k, I thought we'd get more in return, but at least we made a tiny profit. Pablo Sabak also left, having lost the starting AM spot last season and he left to Sint Truden for €2.4M (plus €500k in clauses). Despite being a good player for us in the last two seasons, Jonas Clein was let go after PEC Zwolle came in with a €1.4M (plus €300k in clauses) offer for him, I had decided against selling him but I have two interesting young players to cover the position both with way more potential than Clein and I also decided to pull the trigger on a deal for Syb van Ottele to Roda JC for €750k despite him being a capable player and a good van Eijden replacement he was a bad locker room influence and complained a lot. At the start of August, Alavés activated Ekanit Panya's release clause of €3.6M and the Thai decided to jump ship changing European football for a lower mid table La Liga side. There wasn't much to do really, I wanted to renew his contract a few times to try and get rid of the clause or make it higher, but he wanted just too much money that it was non-viable. Finally, Nkosi Ngcobo also left as FC Twente offered €15M (plus €5M in installments) and I decided to sell him despite him being probably our best player, as the money was just too good. In terms of incoming transfers I really struggled on the market as before the deadline (and Ngcobo's transfer) we had little to no money and all teams wanted big money for the good prospects I found. In the end, I bought Ernesto Mujica, for €1.3M from Racing Club as a defensive CM prospect who'll be on the first team, he ain't top quality tough I expected more from the price paid. Also, Alaa Awad came in from Pyramids for €300k and he'll be a great alternative for the departure of Ngcobo, despite at first being bought for the B side, he will join the senior squad sometime during the season as he's recovering from a broken ankle. Finally I loaned Clint Muscat from Leeds for little money and a €4M buy clause, but I decided against keeping him and if possible would've cancelled the loan (which I can't). He'll be in the B team, until Leeds decide to call him back, unless Zondi injures. The rest of the buys where prospects who'll be placed either on the B team, loaned out or on the U-19's, Luis Miguel Gama, Torsten Jendrossek, Davide Basso, Mohamed Fathy, Luis Báez, Henrique Mota and João Novais.
The squad makeup for next season is somewhat a bit worrying. I think we've lost a bit of quality, with the departures of Ngcobo, Panya and Proper arguably our 3 best players and we've also lost a bit of experience being a much more younger squad this year (as van Eijden reitred and Overtoom was demoted to the B team). But on the other hand we're a much better side in terms of potential, and the growth of Andile Zondi makes us much more dangerous up front thant last season where we just couldn't find a reliable #9. In terms of the starting XI, Mattijs Branderhorst will be the starting GK, Arthur and Cas Odenthaal (back from a loan season at Heracles Almelo) will be the starting pairing in the back, leaving Josef Kvida on the bench while Bart van Rooij and Sandro Villani will be the fullbacks. In the middle, Reza Mousavi and Manuel Wiesner will share midfield duties, and Fabio Cuoco will be pushed to the #10 role, with Vince Duits and Michael Fürthaler as the Inside Forwards, leaving Andile Zondi up top. From the bench, our top alternatives will be the mentioned Kvida, Caleb Taiwah and Javier Toledo in defence, Ernesto Mujica, Takahito Ōta, Lee Min in midfield and Andreas Hansen as ST. Competitions, Facilities and FinancesThe same as last season, we'll be competing on three fronts, the League, the Cup and the UEFA Europa Conference League where we'll start on the Second Qualifying Round. The Board expectations are to finish mid table in Eredivisie, to reach Third Round on the KNVB Beker and to reach the Group Stage on the UEFA Europa Conference League. I think we'll do right by all three as long as we can keep our form in the Cup which is where we failed last season. The media expects us to finish 12th, with 300-1 odds of winning the title. Regarding facilities, we're in a very good position, having upgraded all 4 during last season. We currently stand at Good Training Facilities, Great Youth Facilities (both of them being upgraded again, ready in January 2023), Exceptional Academy Coaching and Excellent Youth Recruitment. Also the Stadium is being upgraded for a 22,500 all-seater capacity, which will be ready in November 2022.Finally, after the Ncgobo sell, we're great in the finances department, with €39M in the bank account. The current transfer budget sits at €25M, with us using around just one third of our €950k per month wage budget. There's a ton of room for improvement and I'll delve into the scouting and transfer market to try and find those great young prospects that will develop into wonderkids and then world class players.UEFA Europa Conference LeagueWe drew Northern Irish side Linfield in the Second Qualifying Round and we dispatched them home with a 10-0 aggregate win (7-0 and 3-0) with goals from Cuoco x2, Fürthaler x2, Hansen x2, Panya x2, Odenthal and Mousavi. In the Third Round, we drew St. Gallen from Switzerland and they gave us a bit of a challenge, but eventually we went through with a 4-2 aggregate win (3-1 and 1-1) with goals from Ngcobo, Duits, Zondi and Fürthaler. Finally in the Fourth Round, we faced Ukranian side Vorskla who really gave us a scare in the home leg with a 2-2 draw but we managed to get a decent 3-2 win in Ukraine to narrowly advance, Odenthal, Fürthaler Ngcobo, Wiesner and Cuoco scored for us. We got a great group draw, and we'll face Partizan from Croatia, APOEL from Cyprus and Zulte Waregem from Belgium. It's not a walk in the park and certainly harden than last season, but we should win the group without much trouble.
EredivisieWe had a fantastic start to our Eredivisie campaign, with a terrific 5 wins in our first 5 games, including a few of the toughest teams in the league. We kicked off beating Roda JC 2-0, with goals from Panya and Duits, then a hard earned 1-0 win over FC Twente with a single goal from Zondi. The South African carried us against Ajax, scoring a hat-trick that allowed us to win 3-2, and then scored again in a 5-1 beating of Utrecht, where other goals were scored by Mousavi, Ngcobo, Ōta and Fürthaler. Finally, we beat AZ 3-1 with a brace from Ngcobo (who would sign for them just 2 days later) and another goal from Zondi. Forecast and Future - We signed a new shirt sponsor, upping from €1.2M per year to €1.7M, signing a 2-year deal. - A bit about player performances, Zondi has been amazing in the start of the season, bagging an astonishing 7 goals and 7 assists in 11 games, with a 7.81 rating. Other good performers have been Mousavi, van Rooij, Wiesner, Villani and Cuoco. Regarding the overall performance from the team, I'm just a bit worried about defensive consistency as we have conceded too much goals, specially in the UECL and also against Ajax who managed to turn a comfortable 3-0 from us into a 3-2 after a bad second half effort from us. 3 of the 5 players defence are new, and I guess it'll take a bit of time to adjust to the midfield change as well. Here's hoping it's just a matter of work.
Great start, I'm super happy despite losing some important players.
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Post by Nick on Jul 7, 2020 20:17:11 GMT
You've done fantastically well to get twenty million for Ngcobo, Chaodck, he's worth about ten times less than that. You definitely seem to be getting the best out of the players which is great to see. Looking at the starting XI, you seem to be punching above your weight and could definitely do with some more quality in the centre of defence, not that you'd know from your results. Another European finish and you should be chuffed.
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Post by dalenichol on Jul 7, 2020 20:20:46 GMT
Mate, if you dont win the league with an undefeated season, you may as well just uninstall the game. Also, well done so far
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Post by chaodck on Jul 7, 2020 20:32:12 GMT
You've done fantastically well to get twenty million for Ngcobo, Chaodck, he's worth about ten times less than that. You definitely seem to be getting the best out of the players which is great to see. Looking at the starting XI, you seem to be punching above your weight and could definitely do with some more quality in the centre of defence, not that you'd know from your results. Another European finish and you should be chuffed. Absolutely Nick, during the summer an English club I can't remember was sniffing around Ngcobo and offered something around 7M, which I refused and there I upped his asking price to 20M, thinking it'd be enough to deter teams from asking. Then out of the blue came AZ with that offer and before blinking I had already accepted it. I'm with you on the quality of our defence, van Eijden was good, and his retirement hurt us, specially as Kvida is solid but unspectacular. I needed to get the development going quickly with Arthur and Taiwah, and thus I decided to play the better one of them as starter, alongside Kvida but eventually in the pre-season Odenthal won the spot over Kvida and also has some more potential (at least on my AM's opinion). With the money I've got I will go searching for a top prospect for the backbone of the team, as I think we need desperately more quality at CB and GK to say the least, but I think moreover we do need at least a good prospect per position. Mate, if you dont win the league with an undefeated season, you may as well just uninstall the game. Also, well done so far Thanks for reading mate. I don't think I'll be able to do what you ask though.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 13, 2020 18:16:04 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2022-23 Midseason ReportOverviewShorter midseason update this year, as the Fall World Cup in Qatar cuts everything short. We won't have a winter break and as thus had to arrange a lot of friendlies during the World Cup period, which on hindsight will be good as we'll have more training weeks than in a regular year. I will do the winter transfer window update in March, as the first game of the second semester will be before the window opens. Eredivisie We kept our amazing start of the season for a couple more games, beating Heracles 2-0 with goals from Wiesner and Duits, then Fortuna Sittard 4-1 with four goals from Zondi. Feyenoord ended up cutting our streak at 7 games straight as we lost 0-1 against them. We then beat PEC Zwolle 2-1 with a goal from Odenthal and a last minute goal from Andreas Hansen before we lost our second game of the season against SC Cambuur 0-1. We finished the first half of the season with a 1-0 win over ADO Den Haag with a goal from Cuoco and a 2-2 draw in the derby against Vitesse with a brace from Zondi. We tend to struggle somehow against Vitesse with only 1 win in 5 games against them.Again we're on the hunt for the title, this time leading the pack after 12 games. We have a decent 2 point advantage over Willem II with a game in hand and a 3 point gap to Feyenoord. Everything's congested with just 8 points between the top 9 placed teams.UEFA Europa Conference League After going through the qualifying rounds, where we beat Linfield, St. Gallen and Vorskla, we drew a group against APOEL, Partizan and Zulte Waregem. We ended up dominating the group with 16 points, from 5 wins and a draw. We started off beating APOEL in Cyprus 5-0 with goals from Musavi, van Rooij, Cuoco and a brace from Zondi, then beat Partizan 6-1 at home with goals from Fürthaler, Mousavi, Duits, Mujica and another brace from Zondi, then we drew 0-0 against Zulte Waregem in Belgium and beat the Belgians 3-1 at home with goals from Zondi and a brace from Lee Min, before finishing the group stage with wins over APOEL 5-1 with goals from Duits, Arthur and a hattrick from Zondi, and 2-0 over Partizan with goals from Cuoco and Lee Min.
Zondi fueled us in a terrific group phase performance, where he scored 8 goals in 6 games. As a 1st placed team we will qualify directly into the Second Knockout Round and thus don't know who we'll face yet.KNVB TOTO Beker Due to the shortened calendar, we've only played the First Round of the Cup, where we beat ONS Sneek 1-0 with a goal from Andreas Hansen. We'll face Excelsior Maassluis from the Tweede Divisie (third tier) in the 2nd Round. Youth Intake Preview Again a 'Golden Generation' promise, even though this time I don't see it as the wording of the preview seems pretty shitty.Player Performances The big piece of news this season has been Andile Zondi. Last season we struggled in the #9 spot and this has been a fantastic turnaround mainly by the South African kid. He's scored 21 goals and has also 8 assists in 21 games (19 starts), with an amazing 7.88 rating. He's been named among the candidates for the Kopa Trophy, finished Third in the CAF Young Player of the Year award and 2nd in the CAF Striker of the Year awards. He's been linked with Brighton, Leicester, Werder Bremen, AZ Alkmaar, Levante, Hoffenheim, PSV and Feyenoord and I doubt we will be able to hold on to him after this season which will net us big bucks as he doesn't have a minimum fee clause. Our other exceptional performer has been debuting playmaker Reza Mousavi who in 23 games, has scored 4 goals and 6 assists, with a 7.74 rating. The best of the bunch have been Bart van Rooij (22 games, 1 goal, 4 assists, 7.35), Sandro Villani (23 games, 8 assists, 7.27), Fabio Cuoco (25 games, 6 goals, 6 assists, 7.23) and our CB pairing Odenthal and Arthur with 7.18 ratings.
Forecast and Future - We're great on the money front with €35M in the bank. - We moved onto the new stadium that now boosts a capacity of 22,500 seats. I'll see whether we can use our money to upgrade the facilities. - Not much more news, I'll delve deeper on some staff issues in the March report and in the season update.
Can we win our first title? I'm hopeful.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 14, 2020 4:07:05 GMT
NEC NijmegenMarch 2023 ReportOverviewAgain, super quick updates as I've been flying through this save lately, even playing when I was playing the Depor succession save as well (I just couldn't keep my hands off this save, so I kinda alternated them during the weekend, leaving them ready for consecutive updates today, then plowed through this couple of months today afternoon). This update covers January and February 2023, a couple of super busy months as we played almost every three days on average to make up for the time lost in November-December due to the Qatar World Cup.
Transfers I brought in a few new faces, taking a few gambles on freebies and a few cash deals. First all, I brought in a couple of Ghanians on a free as Mohammed Baidoo and Frederick Adams joined us from Hearts of Oak. None of them are really good and are scouting flukes, they won't overcome the B team most probably and end up released sometime down the road, at least they're cheap. US American Pedro Gorman also joined us on a free, as his Long Island Rough Riders contract ended, he's a decent alternative at ST and might develop into something interesting, even though I'm seeing him as a better LW IF, so he's started his retraining. Djibril Diagne is the first Senegalese of our African contiengent and he might be a hidden gem for the future, ticking the right attributes (except the physicals) and a ton of room to grow, he came from Generation Foot for €275k. Another african prospect joining our Egyptian corps, Ramy Maher is a solid GK future player who will most probably end up challenging for a spot here in NEC and being the starting GK for his national team. Maher cost us €325k and came from Zamalek. Finally, the gem of the window was Belgian ball playing defender Eryk Pietrzak another lad with the right starting attributes and some room to improve, he came from Gent for €500k (plus €1M in clauses).
We lost a couple of prospects in Jelle Bank and Rodney Smit to Utrecht on compensation deals, both interesting players, but not better than what we have on the B team, so not much fussed about them really.
Eredivisie It's been a busy pair of months with 12 league games in the time that normally has around 7-8 games at most. We suffered a bit towards the end of the stretch with some tired legs but we managed to have a great couple of months overall. We started off with a 2-1 from behind win over Willem II with a brace from Andile Zondi, then beat Gronigen 3-1 with goals from Zondi, Labriola and Villani. A narrow 1-0 win over Heerenveen ensued with a goal from Zondi, who continued his majestic form with a brace against VVV Venlo in a 2-1 win. We lost 1-2 against PEC Zwolle with yet another goal from Zondi, then drew 1-1 against Feyenoord with a goal from, you must get the gist already. Zondi finished his wonderful January with his 9th and 10th goal in less than 30 days, with a brace against Roda JC in a 3-0 win with the other goal from Fabio Cuoco. We kicked off February with a 2-1 win over FC Twente, with goals from Wiesner and Arthur, thus breaking Zondi's streak of 7 games in a row scoring. We then drew 0-0 against ADO Den Haag, beat PSV 1-0 with a goal from Fürthaler, then 2-1 against Willem II with a brace from Zondi, before finally falling in the last game of February 2-3 against Heracles Almelo with goals from Arthur and Lee Min.
After leading the table almost all season we're practically in need of a miracle to beat Ajax, as they need to lose points twice more than us, because they have a game in hand. Mounting a title challenge is amazing at this stage of the save, but I was super excited for the title. Here's hoping we can pull it off.
KNVB Beker Another short-lived Cup run as we got to the Third Round, beating ONS Sneek and Excelsior Maassluis, before PSV cut our run short via penalties after a 1-1 draw.
Forecast and Future - We keep our strong financial status with €33M in the bank. - We will play against Rapid Wien in the Second Knockout Round of the UEFA Europa Conference League, which will somehow be played in a one leg in Nijmegen (don't know if this is due to the World Cup and short scheduling, the UEL also plays their Knockout Rounds in one leg formats).
We need a bit of luck to take the title home, come oooooonnnnn!!!!
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Post by Marshdweller on Jul 14, 2020 11:07:17 GMT
Ajax's form must have been incredible, they've take 8 points more than you in 13 matches! I'd be quietly confident that they can't sustain that form though so some dropped points will be just around the corner.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 14, 2020 21:25:41 GMT
Ajax's form must have been incredible, they've take 8 points more than you in 13 matches! I'd be quietly confident that they can't sustain that form though so some dropped points will be just around the corner. Well yeah, fucking Ajax finshed 4th in their Champions League group, and thus have only played the Eredivisie and their form is astonishing which led to them cutting the distance and eventually taken over the lead from us. Our form didn't help as we had a rough March and we've lost 3 games and drew 4 since the break. We beat Ajax and broke their streak in our last game, and there's still 5 games left in the season, but we're 8 points behind them so it's pretty much impossible to win the title.
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Post by richruzzian on Jul 15, 2020 11:45:31 GMT
Without Ajax you would be no1. To bad the are out of Europe so they will fully focus on the National competition. How is there team looking? Playerwise.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 16, 2020 0:26:32 GMT
Without Ajax you would be no1. To bad the are out of Europe so they will fully focus on the National competition. How is there team looking? Playerwise. Cheers Rich, thanks for reading mate and welcome to the forum. Sorry to speak so bluntly about Ajax (which by your pic, could be your fave team), but I just hate the guts of them. I've just finished the season and will write the report soon. After that I'll do a bit of a squad report and player evolution where you can see the development. Hopefully all is up either late tonight or tomorrow morning.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 16, 2020 3:30:34 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2022-23 Season ReportOverviewSeason 4 has just finished in Nijmegen and I just have a strange feeling. I think I've already lived this season.
Again, we suffered a drop in form during the last months of the season. I know we're still not ready for the title, but I was hopeful you know? We were dominant in the shortened first semester and managed to keep our ground through the congested January and February, but the restart of the UEFA Europa Conference League left us without gas in the tank, and thus we sank. EredivisieSo, we had relinquished what was at times a 9 point lead over Ajax and I'd left you a point behind them with a game more in the table in February and 10 games left in the league. We kicked off March with a 1-1 draw against Gronigen, with a goal from Andreas Hansen, then we had a narrow 1-0 win over Fortuna Sittard, with a goal from Cas Odenthal, before finishing the month with a 1-3 loss against PSV with a goal from Andile Zondi and a 1-1 draw SC Cambuur with another goal from Zondi. But hey, the bad March was toppled by an even worse April. We beat Ajax first, 2-0 with a brace from Zondi, and then wheeled 4 games without a win, drawing 2-2 against Vitesse (we cannot beat them), with another brace from Zondi, a 0-0 draw against Utrecht, a terrible 2-5 loss against AZ with goals from van Rooij and Wiesner and a 1-1 draw against Heerenveen with a goal from Fürthaler. We were third at that moment, with just one game left. Ajax was already crowned champions, and Utrecht had almost secured the 2nd place as we needed a big goal difference turnaround to get in 2nd. On the other side, Feyenoord was 4th, two points behind us. So we needed to win our last game, as a loss or draw might end relegating us onto the UEFA Europa Conference League for a third year in a row (this time without the playoffs, as Ajax won the Cup as well). But, we pulled through with a 2-1 from behind win over VVV Venlo in the last day, with goals from Ōta and Zondi, meaning we'll get to play in the UEFA Europa League next season.
3rd place is one better than last season, but the 68 points is two less than last season. Our drop in form was abysmal, I think we need a deeper squad.UEFA Europa Conference LeagueAfter cruising the group phase of the Conference League, we had to face Rapid Wien in a single game 2nd Knockout Round, which we won 2-0 with goals from Reza Mousavi and Lee Min, then we had to face AZ in the Quarter-Finals, and we narrowly beat them on away goals, after a 1-0 win at home with a goal from Taiwah, and a 2-3 loss in Alkmaar, with goals from Cuoco and Kvida. So we were again We then went on to Liverpool and faced Everton in the Semifinals and lost 2-3 in England with two late goals from Vince Duits and Hansen which had the game at 2-2 before a later goal from Everton won them the game. Back in Nijmegen, we lost again, this time 1-2 with a goal from Fürthaler. Again we exited in the semifinals, a good performance but aganist Everton we never really were at the races, we were lucky to get two goals at Liverpool and then in Holland we scored early, but then Everton dominated us and ended up beating us fair and square.
Youth IntakeWe were promised what I expected was a shit intake and I was surprised to receive something better than what I expected, despite the personalities being all over the place. Three solid potential players Diégo Reynders an icelandic left fullback with a balanced personality might end up becoming a good player for us down the road if he develops. Sandin Blackson (don't make jokes Alfonso for fuck's sake), is a typical shitty unambitious newgen with high potential. He looks quite good, but he'll need a tutoring miracle for him to end up fulfilling his potential. Finally, Rico Caldwell seems like a good player as well, but is also unambitious and plays in the same position as Reynders. I signed a lot more players, even some 2.5* PA but nothing else noteworthy for now.Squad and PerformancesWe had one superb performance in Andile Zondi. The young south african was absolutely unplayable at times and we struggled in the few games he didn't show up. Zondi is just a terrific feel good story as he struggled last season before the playoffs and since then he just didn't stop. He played 46 games (43 starts), scoring 41 goals and 9 assists with a 7.66 rating. He's currently valued at €9M and I doubt we can keep him past the summer, fortunately we have Andreas Hansen lined up closely behind him and we should be ok if we sell Zondi (more on that on the development report). Our second best player was Reza Mousavi, who in his first season in the senior squad showed that he's capable of becoming a terrific player, he played 37 games (36 starts), with 5 goals and 7 assists with a 7.52 rating. Other good performances came from Sandro Villani (48 games, 1 goal, 10 assists, 7.10 rating), Bart van Rooij (50 games, 2 goals, 10 assists, 7.09 rating), Arthur (52 games, 3 goals, 7.08 rating) and Fabio Cuoco (51 games, 9 goals, 10 assists, 7.07 rating).
Forecast and Future- We're terrific on the money front, with €43M in the bank. The transfer budget for next season stands at €28M and we have around €300k per month available on the wage budget. Having money, I might try to lure a few good brazilian prospects by paying their minimum fees. - We upgraded the stadium, now boasting 22,500 fans per game. It was opened in December, and we averaged around 19k fans per season. I expect we'll fill it come next season and need a new upgrade or finally a new stadium. We're also improving the Training Facilities currently. - The U-19 team won the Eredivisie this season, with a fantastic performance from them, which is a great piece of news.
It was a bad second half of the season really. I think it might be due to us being a short squad, with little depth and abuse of our key players. There are a few decent prospects in the the youth teams that might end up adding quality to the senior squad, but I think I'm gonna need to improve a bit as well, specially for the Europa League.
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Post by hokster on Jul 16, 2020 3:36:18 GMT
An Icelandic/Belgian named "Diego" is pretty funny! That's a decent intake, aside from the horrible personalities. And the U-19 performance bodes really well for the future.
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stouters
New Member
@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on Jul 16, 2020 6:35:56 GMT
Only a matter of time before you get that title. Do you think that the squad just needs time to mature rather than more players added?
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Post by richruzzian on Jul 16, 2020 8:02:55 GMT
to bad for the personalities. But who knows maybe a miracle will happen, they are stil young. I can understand why you hte the guts of Ajax. Hopefully you can keep the title run with them next season more closer to the end.
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Post by Marshdweller on Jul 16, 2020 8:52:38 GMT
Get Tom Overtoom back in the team, that's where you're going wrong.
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Jul 16, 2020 10:04:09 GMT
Missing out on the CL qualification is a bitter ending to the season. I'm sure you'll be back stronger next season though, when your youngsters have developed for another year! It's a shame how those dreadful personalities can ruin a perfectly fine intake, given your young squad probably it will probably also be difficult to mentor them.
Dutch teams always seem to do well in continental competitions in my safe, how are they ranked in yours? Does Ajax go straight into the group stage?
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Post by chaodck on Jul 16, 2020 17:27:05 GMT
Cheers for reading and the comments Gents. An Icelandic/Belgian named "Diego" is pretty funny! That's a decent intake, aside from the horrible personalities. And the U-19 performance bodes really well for the future. Hilarious mate, but what surprised me most is the accent the name carries Diégo is a spelling i've never seen before and you know we spanish speakers are the kings of accents (well, maybe alongside the french). Only a matter of time before you get that title. Do you think that the squad just needs time to mature rather than more players added? Yeah absolutely that might be the case, the main problem with that is that it's hard to maintain the core of great young players constantly improving, and keeping them patient. If good teams start snooping around them, I will be kind of powerless and thus I'd rather try and improve a bit quicker (we've been solidly improving our league position each season, despite finishing with less points this year). Still, the save restrictions won't allow me to make too big a changes. We'll see what the summer brings. to bad for the personalities. But who knows maybe a miracle will happen, they are stil young. I can understand why you hte the guts of Ajax. Hopefully you can keep the title run with them next season more closer to the end. We've discussed it a ton on a general forum topic, but I guess is just the game trying to balance things in a poor way. I'm happy with Reynders and he might become a good player for us. Regarding Ajax, well at least they allowed us to get into the Europa League while dropping to 3rd place as they won the Cup, so yeah I hate them a tad less for now. Get Tom Overtoom back in the team, that's where you're going wrong. Hahahahahaha maaate!!! He's old, I renewed him for this season only to not upsed the team and he spent the year in the B team acting as a decent mentor for some of the low determination players. He announced he'll retire at the end of the season. Missing out on the CL qualification is a bitter ending to the season. I'm sure you'll be back stronger next season though, when your youngsters have developed for another year! It's a shame how those dreadful personalities can ruin a perfectly fine intake, given your young squad probably it will probably also be difficult to mentor them. Dutch teams always seem to do well in continental competitions in my safe, how are they ranked in yours? Does Ajax go straight into the group stage? Ajax, the 1st placed team in the Eredivisie, goes directly into the Champions League Group Stage, the 2nd goes into the Best Placed Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League, the 3rd (us this seaon), into the Playoff of the Europa League, the 4th goes into the Conference League Third Qualifying Round and the Playoff winner goes to the Second Qualifying Round of the Conference League. I think we aren't yet cut out for the UCL, in the Best Placed Third Qualifying Round we would've faced the likes of Rangers/Celtic, Shakhtar/Dynamo, Genk/Anderlecht, Zenit/CSKA/Krasnodar, Braga/Sporting and/or Fenerbahce/Besiktas/Gala. With luck we could've overcame that and made the Playoff where most probably the toughest of those teams would've eliminated us and thus we'd dropped to the Europa League Group Stage. In the UEFA Europa League Playoff, we'll face a good team, but I'm confident we can sneak into the Group Stage (if not, we'll drop into the Group Stage of the Conference League). Last season wasn't a good one for Dutch teams in Europe. In the Champions League, Ajax got eliminated in the Group Stage finishing 4th so no UEL as well, and Feyenoord lost in the Third Qualifying Round. In the Europa League, AZ finished third in their group, dropping to the UECL, and Feyenoord lost in the Second Knockout Round. In the Conference League, Utrecht lost in the Fourth Qualifying Round, AZ was eliminated in the Quarter-Finals (by us), and we were eliminated in the Semifinals. As I've said above, it's shitty about the personalities, but it is what it is and we'll have to work with it. One good player per intake isn't bad though and we're doint that every year with Andreas Hansen leading the pack and already a first team calibre player.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 16, 2020 17:30:30 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2022-23 Player Development ReportOverviewIt was a great season for the squad in terms of playing time and development, at least in paper and before looking at the photos specifically. Here's hoping I don't have to eat my foot. I'll divide the squad into tiers as always and present the players there. I'll show 21 players on this post, with a few of them coming to the end of their early development cycle and thus will be ceased to be monitored.StartersZondi was our top player last season, scoring over 40 goals in the season. He didn't improve much though, even losing a point in finishing. He has shifted his CA/PA assessment, but all my coaches have him with still a bit of room to keep growing.Mousavi was also one of our key players and he had a terrific season, both on the pitch and in improvement. He lost a few points on some attributes, but earned a lot of points elsewhere as well. He solidified a spot in the Iranian NT, his value jumped through the roof and he still has a lot of room to keep improving. He's one of the unsellables of the team, despite generating interest in some midtable German clubs.
Another solid season for van Rooij who's slowly becoming one of our best players. He hasn't attracted attention of bigger clubs so far, but he still might find himself out of the team as I'm on the look for a RB prospect for this summer, and if he's somewhere near va Rooij's level I will sell him without a doubt. Some solid improvement for van Rooij in this season and he's become a good player who at 22 won't improve much more.
Another good solid season for Cuoco in development, despite him not being as good in his new AM position. I solved his release fee problem and will probably stay with us next season.
In his first full season as a starter, Duits improved a lot on his attributes, and had a decent season where he scored 6 goals, and had 10 assists. He's playing close to his potential, and won't improve much more.
Fürthaler is a solid starter, yet he didn't improve much during the season despite getting ample playing time. If I find the right player in the market he might be replaced (and sent on loan) despite a decent showing.
Wiesner didn't improve much during the season despite playing 50 games in the season. I don't think he has more room to grow and his positional shift consumed a bit of the PA he had left. I've got a few decent alternatives to replace Wiesner and I even might bring someone new.
Arthur has a lot of potential, but this season didn't improve much, and he just missed 1 game, playing over 90 minutes per game in average. I'm a bit swamped about him, but most probably he'll keep being a starter next season.
A solid player, Odenthal improved a bit in the season despite him being already 22 and having just a small bit of room to grow. He is one of our bigger prices and if a good offer comes, he might go.
Villani is a solid fullback who's most suited to a center back role. He has some PA left to improve and I might try and convert him to a CB next season. He had some improvement in the season and had 10 assists despite his more defensive nature.Key BackupsSolid backup season for the Argentinean in his first year in Nijmegen. He played 36 games, starting 19 of them and improved decently throught the season. I don't think he's ready to step into the starting role and might leave on loan for next season.Min was stated to go out on loan and when we sold Panya he was recalled and ended up being a decent sub appearing in 23 games, with 2 starts. Not much improvement but still a lot of PA to improve. He might go on loan again next season as he isn't ready to replace Fürthaler.
Awad is an interesting case, he arrived at the start of the season suited for a B team role and injured himself early and missed 3 months. After we sold Ngcobo I though of him to replace him in the squad as the backup RW and when he overcame the injury he was promoted. He played 23 games, with 3 starts and improved a lot after the injury.Fringe PlayersHansen is a fantastic prospect. After his first season in the senior squad he kept his pace improving and is already at starter level, despite how good Zondi was this season. If Zondi isn't sold I might have to establish a timeshare in order to keep this lad playing. Hansen played 22 games last season, starting 11.
Ōta is a good squad player, but his salary is high and I had a lot of expectations when I brought him in a few years ago. He's one of the candidates for the chopping block as there's some good prospects near his ability on the pipeline. He just played 19 games last season.
Disappointing season for Taiwah in terms of development and with not much playing time as Odenthal and Arthur were consistent. He's potentially good and has a great personality, don't know what we'll do with him.
Toledo is more of the same as Taiwah, with small ability changes, his PA assessment also fell and he didn't play much, appearing in just 15 games. His status is the same as Taiwah.Conclusion We have a few good players in the team, and some have developed quite nicely but there are a few that haven't developed as I expected as well, specially with playing time. There are a lot of interesting prospects down the line as well and I'll show them in later updates. I didn't know whether to do this update and in the end decided for it. This season idea, puts emphasis on player development, and I spend al ot of time tweaking training and stuff, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to show it, both for the reader and also for me, haha. I'll think about it for next season and see if I change something.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 16, 2020 20:37:00 GMT
A bit of a development during the offseason as Holland moved to 6th place in the UEFA Coefficients table, meaning we get an extra Champions League spot, from 2024-25 so yeah I'll still be playing in the Europa League next season haha. With this, the new Eredivisie table should look like this: 1.- UEFA Champions League Group Stage 2.- UEFA Champions League Group Stage 3.- UEFA Champions League Best Placed Third Qualifying Round 4.- UEFA Europa League Group Stage (depending on the KNVB Beker winner) 5.- UEFA Europa Conference League Third Qualifying Round 6.- European Places Playoff (winner of the Playoff gets into the UECL Second Qualifying Round) 7.- European Places Playoff (winner of the Playoff gets into the UECL Second Qualifying Round) 8.- European Places Playoff (winner of the Playoff gets into the UECL Second Qualifying Round) 9.- European Places Playoff (winner of the Playoff gets into the UECL Second Qualifying Round)
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Jul 16, 2020 20:57:34 GMT
That's massive, if only we were that good in Europe in real life!
Some nice talent you have there too!
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Post by chaodck on Jul 18, 2020 23:37:14 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2023-24 Pre-Season ReportOverviewFinally, after two seasons with interrupted pre-seasons due to our participation on the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa Conference League, this summer will be a lot calmer with us getting directly into the Playoff of the UEFA Europa League, which will be played at the end of August. This allowed us to have a good 4-week pre-season, playing some friendlies to install the new tactical adjustments for the season and prepare the players for the rigurous season to come, where we'll face our biggest challenges yet in trying to win our first Eredivisie while playing a big boy step higher on Europe. This year won't have the World Cup in November and thus I expect the scheduling to be friendlier with us and help us achieve our goals.Transfers and Squad So, for the first time I went out to the market and decided to splash some cash. In the end, despite of what I described on my squad report, I only went out to find a few players and none for the projected first XI. We haven't lost any important players yet (the window closes in a month) so I'll skip that and go directly onto the newcomers.
The most important arrival was Iván Ruiz, an Argentinean attacking wingback that fills what I need for that role perfectly, he cost us €5.5M from Atlético Tucumán, but fits the bill nicely and has some room to grow. Our current starter on that position is Bart van Rooij a good player, but both injury prone and a bit low on stamina, so Ruiz will be used a lot and most probably will be one of our top used bench players. Also for the senior squad I decided to bring in a couple of central midfielders, in the looks of Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous (Ali bomaye, Ali bomaye, Ali bomaye!) a fantastic looking defensive minded CM who cost us €325k from ES Sahel, and also Jamie Walker, a more offensive looking CM who came on a free from Manchester United. Then I brought several players for the youth teams. I made a youth pipeline in Excel, dividing all players in the club by positions, and making sort of a pathway to the senior squad and thus detecting where we needed better prospects. Bader Al-Enezi came in from Sanat Naft for €105k (plus €45k on clauses), an interesting Iranian AM for the future, Christopher Bukuru an Australian ST, from Perth Glory for €575k, Rogerinho a Brazilian CB in the mold of a BPD from San José for €2.6M, Giacomo Faccini an Italian GK from Roma for €30k, Nick Verheul a frantastic looking Dutch ST from Sparta for €2M, and finally 2 more CM's (you can never have enough of them), in Diogo Fonseca from Sporting Braga for €1.5M and Steeven Sanchez, from Atlético Nacional for €700k. A lot of money spent so far, and there are still a couple of players on their way here, plus several more that will arrive on future windows once they turn 18.
The 23-man squad for the season is already decided, with few changes from the great lads that played last season. Promoted from the youth teams come into the senior squad, Alessio Greco, Sébastien Tabékou, Eryk Pietrzak, Torsten Jendrossek and Djibril Diagne. Plus the three new incorporations I mentioned above.Regarding the starting XI, I have a team in mind, but for the first time, there are a few key position battles in the squad that will ensure I rotate players. At goal, Vice Captain Mattijs Branderhorst is the starter, but Alessio Greco will get the Domestic Cup games, and also a few of the less important Eredivisie games as I want to give him more first team football to see if he can become the starter. The 4-man defence will feature Bart van Rooij (with Iván Ruiz as a good alternative), Arthur, Cas Odenthal (Eryk Pietrzak will get some games here) and Sandro Villani. In the middle, Manuel Wiesner and Reza Mousavi get the starting nod and Fabio Cuoco will be the #10. Up front on the wings, Vince Duits and Michael Fürthaler will start, but be on the look for both Ala Awaad and Lee Min who can surpass them. Up front it'll be a straight timeshare between Andile Zondi and Andreas Hansen. The South African scored 41 goals last season, but Hansen has improved a ton in the offseason and in my view is better on numbers at least, Zondi also missed the pre-season being with his NT.
I also devised another more attacking tactic, with higher pressure and tempo, mostly to be used in certain moments within a game.Competitions, Facilities and FinancesWe'll play in three competitions again, Eredivisie, the UEFA Europa League and the KNVB Beker. Hopefully we can maintain the challenge in the Eredivisie for longer and Ajax goes as far as possible in Europe so that they can let go later on. In the Europa League, we had a lucky draw, and we will face either Shakhter Soligorsk from Belarus or PAOK from Greece in the Playoffs, which will most probably mean that we get into the Group Stage.
We now play on our 22,500 all-seater stadium and hopefully we can fill it up this season in order to get another upgrade or a new stadium in the near future. The facilities currently stand at Great Training Facilities (currently being upgraded), Excellent Youth Facilities, Exceptional Academy Coaching and Exceptional Youth Recruitment. I'm on the look for an affiliate club to try and recruit prospects from other systems, but the Board isn't as keen on the idea.
Financially we've spent a lot of money, but we're still cool with €22M in the bank. I think we will soon sell one of our best players. I expected some activity during the summer and as of yet no one has come knocking. No one is irreplaceable currently and the pipeline is quite filled with good players. Also, the club paid fully a couple of the loans taken, and we only have 1 current that sets us back €77k per month until 2032.
We had a good, solid pre-season facing some good teams and playing well. I only lost one game, against our foes from last season in Europe, Everton who beat us 2-0 with both goals coming when I had the backups in.Forecast and Future - No new sponsors coming in this season, there are a few that will run up this season. - I'll see if I change the development report for the end of this season, including the info I've been registering on my Excel file.
We've had a good pre-season and I hope we can carry it onto the season.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 19, 2020 23:44:04 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2023-24 Summer Window ReportOverviewShorter updates in succession as the summer window closed, and the UEFA Europa League Playoffs has been played, so I'll do a small update and throw in the first 5 games of the Eredivisie as wel.Transfers As I said, I was looking for a few more prospects to close out what I'm calling the "youth pipeline". My idea is to have an under 19 player high potential player for each position we use, at least. We brought in Aleksandar Todorovski another Australian good prospect who came in from Western Sydney Wanderers for €550k and a big contract, then came two RW, first Brazilian Kelvin Pereira Surcin from Fluminense for €100k and also a further down prospect, Egyptian Saad Al-Juhani from El Gouna for €245k. Finally I brought in a player I had in my shortlist for a while now and he wasn't in my plans, as he's too good to be kept in the reserves, but Ajax offered for him and I went through and pulled the trigger on Raymond van Mierlo from Sparta, to whom I paid €4.5M (plus another €4.5M in clauses) for him. He's a terrific striker, already at first team level (maybe even better than Zondi and Hansen), but faithful to my policies (and as he didn't complain), he'll play in the U-19 team for this season or at least until one of our two senior squad strikers is sold.
Regarding outgoing transfers we had a deadline day development, as Josef Kvida left the team to Fortuna Sittard for €375k (plus €100k in clauses). He was a team leader and I wanted to keep him, despite him probably not playing during the whole season (even if injuries had struck I would've promoted a young player). But the offer came, it was decent and he wanted out so I let him. GK Branderhorst was upset, but backed out before I talked about it. Brazilian BPD Rogerinho will occupy his spot on the senior squad.
Our future transfers are also quite busy, with 6 more players joining us sometime down the road, with 2 coming in January 2024, 1 in July 2024, 1 in August 2025 and 2 in January 2025.EredivisieWe started off the League with a narrow 1-0 win over recently promoted RKC with a penalty goal from Jamie Walker, then beat Fortuna Sittard 2-0 with goals from Andile Zondi and Manuel Wiesner. Ajax stopped our decent start with a 1-4 tough loss where our only goal was scored by Michael Fürthaler. Ajax truly made a mess of ourselves as after we got an early lead they pushed us to the ground and beat us mercilessly. We managed to recover the next week against FC Twente, netting a 2-1 win with goals from Reza Mousavi and Manuel Wiesner, before we suffered again in the 5th game, this time against AZ, where we turned a nice two goal lead into a 2-2 draw with goals from Reza Mousavi and Michael Fürthaler. Not a terrific start, but we're just 3 points away from the leaders.UEFA Europa Conference LeagueWe had a good Playoff draw, facing Belarusian side Shakhter Soligorsk (with a team full of non players). We promptly beat them with two solid 2-0 wins, in Belarus with a brace from Andile Zondi and in Nijmegen with goals from Jamie Walker and Andreas Hansen (who finally found his scoring boots). The luck of the draw ended right there as we fell into a nightmare group alongside Napoli, Villarreal and AEK Athens. I think we can top the Greeks and aiming for 3rd place is good enough as we'll fall into the more familiar territory of the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Forecast and Future - After a big summer of spending, our bank balance reads €17M which isn't half bad, specially as next summer I should be able to sell a few players in the senior squad in order to make room for the terrific youngsters acquired on this window. - I'm a bit worried for performances as the team has struggled a bit. We've had a super tough calendar to start the season, already facing Ajax, AZ, FC Twente plus Feyenoord (on our next game) in the first 6 games. The timeshare between Zondi and Hansen has the scales tipping to the South African early as Hansen has struggled to score while Zondi already has 3 goals. Our best player so far has been Reza Mousavi, with 2 goals and an assist. The rest of the team has rotated a bit, playing a few of the youngsters in the Europa League Playoff. I'm debating whether to play youngsters in the UEL against Napoli and Villarreal, while using the starters against AEK, but I think with a bit of luck we can sneak into 2nd place and get a bit more prize money so I'll probably go full strength on all games.
I think we've already lost a bit of footing in the title race, but fortunately there's no unbeatable team so far, but Ajax, Feyenoord and Utrecht look strong. Here's to a successful season!
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Post by chaodck on Jul 21, 2020 19:08:15 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2023-23 Midseason ReportOverviewHalf season already gone and it's nice to come back to a more regular scheduling after the Winter World Cup made it for a hectic second semester last season. This time around, a decent 2-week winter break allowed players to enjoy some physical relief, and after a solid 1-week pre-season we're ready to keep the good times rolling. The start of the winter window has brought a few developments, as the crane teams have forced our hand a bit.
Transfers So, yeah there's been a bit of movement in terms of senior squad players, as we let go of two important starting players. First offer came for Michael Fürthaler from AZ for €10.25M. He was having a great season (8 goals, 5 assists and a 7.29 rating over 24 games) and I though I'd ask for a bit more but AZ forced the negotiation at that price and I decided to agree with it as it still is a terrific sum for a player we got on a free and to whom we have an interesting player lined up behind in Aleksandar Todorovski. Then the next week, PSV came in for Reza Mousavi with a fantastic €35M offer which we accepted right away, but Mousai rejected the contract from PSV and thus he's still our player. I would've sold him without problem for that price (we paid €17k for him back in 2022) and I expect he won't last much longer here, at least I know the negotiation floor for him now. Also, AZ came in knocking for captain Fabio Cuoco with a decent offer of around €10M, but I rejected it due to him being our top influencer in the team, the current captain and also the reason why I almost have to not deal with players problems (he's got a magic touch to convince his teammates of anything).
We also confirmed a couple of new players coming in as their transfer was arranged before they turned 18. In came Colombian Elkin Bustos from Atlético Nacional for €1.3M who'll be a decent alternative in the RB spot to backup Iván Ruiz in the future (if we sell van Rooij) and also came Peruvian Daniel Jack from Sporting Cristal for €350k, a good prospect for the LW inside forward role who can step up into the senior squad as early as next season due to the sale of Fürthaler.Eredivisie We didn't have a great start in the first 5 games I already reported, with a big loss against Ajax and a draw against AZ after wasting a 2 goal lead. We followed with a great 3-1 win over Feyenoord with a brace from Cuoco and a goal from Fürthaler, then we beat Heracles Almelo 1-0 with a late goal from Lee Min and then a good 3-0 win over PEC Zwolle with goals from Cuoco, Vince Duits and Fürthaler. After that terrific 3 win small streak we struggled a bit, with 4 straight draws, including a 1-1 against NAC with a goal from Steeven Sánchez, then a 2-2 against PSV with goals from Manuel Wiesner and Jamie Walker, followed by a 2-2 against FC Utrecht with goals from Andreas Hansen and Wiesner, wasting another two goal lead, before ending the 4 draw streak with a 0-0 borefest against Willem II. We managed to break the streak in a fantastic 3-0 win over Vitesse in the Gelderse Derby with a brace from Zondi and a goal from Ala Awaad, and after that we just never looked back, kicking into gear and finishing the semester with a fantastic 6 game win streak, a 4-0 over Gronigen with goals from Duits, Cuoco, Cas Odenthal and Zondi, then a 1-0 over Heerenveen with a goal from Sandro Villani, a 3-1 over ADO Den Haag with goals from Wiesner, Odenthal and Iván Ruiz, a terrific 3-1 over PSV with a hattrick from Zondi and finally a 1-0 over NAC Breda with a goal from Cuoco.We've drawn a lot, but the final surge led us to a good 2nd place on the table, the problem? Fucking Ajax who has played like if their life depended on it with an average of 3+ goals for per game and less than half a goal conceded. Unbeatable.UEFA Europa League In our first showing in the Europa League we were handed a nice Playoff draw as we beat Shakhter Soligorsk from Belarus 4-0 on aggregate, but then landed on a nightmarish group alongside Villarreal, Napoli and AEK Athens. I was happy with a solid performance and a 3rd place finish that would've qualified us for the UEFA Europa Conference League, and boy was I wrong. We smashed the group, playing our best football of the season en route to a 1st place finish and direct qualification to the Second Knockout Round. We started off beating Villarreal in Spain 5-1 with a hattrick from Fürthaler and a brace from Hansen, then followed with a 4-2 win over Napoli at Nijmegen, with goals from Djibril Diagne and a hattrick from Zondi. We then beat AEK in Greece, 2-0 with goals from Zondi and Hansen, then at Nijmegen we beat the Greeks 3-0 with goals from Fürthaler and a brace from Awad. We finished the group off with a 1-0 win over Villarreal at home with a goal from Hansen and a 1-1 draw playing with backups in Napoli with another goal from Hansen.
As we'll get into the Second Knockout Round to be played in March, I don't know our rivals yet. This has been a fantastic performance so far and, if we keep it and have a bit of luck, I think we can sneak into the Quarter-Final and then who knows.KNVB TOTO Beker Another short-lived Cup run as we managed to just advance one round, beating Sparta Nijkerk 3-0 with a brace from Hansen and a goal from Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous, before we suffered a tough 0-2 defeat against 2nd tier side Helmond in the Second Round, playing with a young/reserve squad. The Board ain't happy, but I'm keeping my choice of playing with backups as we needed the breather. Youth Intake Preview Yet another Golden Generation promise. I'm pretty excited with the central mid and the striker prospect though. If one of them is a 5 star potential and with a decent/good personality I'd be happy with the intake.Player Performances As told above, Reza Mousavi has been by far our best player. He's become a terrific midfield maestro and dictates play from the middle of the pitch, shininig even when he doesn't score or assist. His 7 assists is a team high and is in the Eredivisie top 10 for both rating and assists. Our striker battle between Zondi and Hansen has proved decent so far, with both sharing all games, and only Hansen having a bit more of playing time due to appearing as a backup more. Zondi has kept his amazing streak of play and at times he just can't miss, scoring a team high 13 goals in 15 games, while Hansen has 9 in 17 games. I'm gonna keep the timeshare going forward, as it'll help Hansen to keep developing forward and despite the stats he's a better player than the south african. Other great performances came from Fabio Cuoco, Sandro Villani, Manuel Wiesner and backup Jamie Walker who has shined in his limited play time.
Forecast and Future - We're on a solid spot on the finances, with €22M in the bank. - Regarding the new stadium, we're currently playing at an average of around 22,000 fans per game which is a 97% capacity. I'm not going to ask for another upgrade before the end of the season, as I believe the Board will do it on its own, either a new expansion or straight out a new stadium. - I'll give out a report on the facilities and staff in the March update, to come maybe tomorrow at this rate.
Thanks for reading mates.
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Post by richruzzian on Jul 22, 2020 14:55:12 GMT
4 draws thats not bad. It is such a shame Ajax is to good. Do they have a real strong team? How does their selection look like? In Europe yopu are dong reaally great. Would be nice if you can hold on to the second place in the competition. And go into the Champions League with your boys.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 22, 2020 15:11:56 GMT
4 draws thats not bad. It is such a shame Ajax is to good. Do they have a real strong team? How does their selection look like? In Europe yopu are dong reaally great. Would be nice if you can hold on to the second place in the competition. And go into the Champions League with your boys. Thanks for reading Rich. They are a strong squad but not unbeatable. Their highest valued players are David Neres, Edson Álvarez and they brought in Owen Winjdal, Davy Klaassen and Santiago Cáseres. They drew a super tough UCL group alongside ManU and Lyon and qualified as 2nd placed, so they're facing Atlético in the First Knockout Round, where they drew 0-0 in Amsterdam, so I guess an away goal might see them through into the Quarter-Final, which would be amazing not only for the league's reputation, but also for NEC as they'll keep playing in Europe longer. Regarding our league progression, I'm at the start of March and I won't spoil anything as I'm writing the report as I write this as well. We drew Roma in the Second Knockout Round of the UEL, so I guess we're gonna need a bit of luck to get into the Quarter-Final.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 22, 2020 16:55:43 GMT
NEC NijmegenMarch 2024 ReportOverviewTime flies on this save I know, and that leads to have the readers playing catch-up, #SorryNotSorry as I'm really having a lot of fun and thus playing a lot. I tought about not doing this update as there wasn't any more action on the transfers front, but heck it won't take long to post and even less time to read so I went for it.
Transfers As I said, there was no activity after last report on the transfers front. I thought Feyenoord might come knocking again for Mousavi or Porto and Leicester who are also interested, but no we ended the window without a single offer for another player, and thus everything remained calm on that front. I secured the future transfers of a couple fantastic CB prospects, who'll arrive in June and thus I'll show them when they arrive. I paid a bit, but they were a position of need in the pipeline.
Eredivisie So, I was 5 points behind Ajax at the winter break, and the 2nd place was up for grabs with Feyenoord, PSV and Utrecht close behind us. We kicked off January with a 3-0 win over Fortuna Sittard, with a brace from Manuel Wiesner and a goal from Andreas Hansen, then beat RKC 2-0 with a goal from Jamie Walker and one from Iván Ruiz, before we closed out a perfect month with a 2-1 win over Utrecht with a goal from Wiesner and an own goal. We kept it rolling in February in a month that while it wasn't perfect, we managed to keep our goal at 0. The first game was a 1-0 win over Willem II, with a goal from Aleksandar Todorovski, then a boring 0-0 draw against Heracles Almelo. We managed to beat Vitesse in the Gelderse Derby again (first time we beat them twice in the season), with a 2-0 win with an own goal and one from Todorovski, then a 4-0 win over VVV-Venlo, with a hattrick from Andile Zondi and a goal from Todorovski. Finally, we closed out February with a 0-0 draw against PEC Zwolle.
So, yeah!!!!! We managed to reduce the gap to a single point, and even for a couple of games we were atop the league and lost it in the last draw against PEC Zwolle (a game we should have won). Things look good and the league most probably will be decided in the game we have to play against Ajax the first week of April. The good news is that it's 10 days after the return leg of the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round, and a week before the first leg of the Quarter Final, so even if we advance in Europe, we'll have a long week to prepare for the game. The bad news is that it'll be played at Johan Cruijff ArenA.
Forecast and Future - We're still good on finances, despite splashing a bit of money on the incoming transfers for July, with €19M in the bank. - As I said in the post above, the Second Knockout Round of the UEFA Europa League will be played against Roma, the second and third week of March, the first leg in Rome and the second at home. We don't play in the league that weekend so it'll be two straight games against La Lupa. - I said I'd talk a bit about staff and faciliies, and I'll keep it brief and do it here. If anyone wants a more detailed explaining, I'm happy to expand. - Our facilities are in a superb status at this moment, with Excellent Training and Youth Facilities and Exceptional Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. The first two are still up for upgrading at least once more and I'll probably do it in the summer if it isn't automatic, and I think the latter two are maxed out as I haven't been able to ask for upgrades for a while now. - Our Senior Squad coaching is the best of the league in terms of all coaching averages shown in the Staff screen. We employ 15 coaching staff between the Senior Squad and the B Team as they share training duties, and all the coaches who aren't specialists on one particular subject handle all sessions and all of them are either Model Citizens, Model Professionals or Perfectionists in terms of personality. Of the specialists, a few of them also fall into this "good personality" filter, with Kolo Touré (Model Citizen, 4.5 stars Defending Technical), Steven Gerrard (Model Citizen, 4.5 stars Attacking Technical), Jorge Andrade (Model Citizen, 4.5 stars Defending Tactical) and Vic Bettinelli (Model Citizen, 4.5 stars GK - Handling & Distribution) falling into this category. All categories have a 4.5 star coach in charge (except for the one coached by me that's 5 stars), and Light workload. - The U-19 coaching is among the best of the U-19 Eredivisie, with only a few categories falling into a 2nd or 3rd position. We employ 20 coaching staff between the B Team and the U-19's plus a few of the Senior Squad (the Manager, the HoyD and the GK and Fitness Coaches) which share training duties. Here as there is a lot of personnel, the non specialists are divided and not all do everything. Here I've preferred to get coaches with the same three personalities as above, prioritizing that over training performance and thus there are 2 categories still "only" at 4 stars, while all the rest are 4.5 (and one 5 stars, the one coached by me). The U-19 coaching staff is, Nigel Pearson (Perfectionist, Manager), Rafael Alkorta (Perfectionist, AM), Franco Tancredi (Model Professional, GK Coach), Sam Hutchinson (Perfectionist, Fitness Coach), Thomas Helveg (Model Professional, Coach), Daniel Isăilă (Model Citizen, Coach), Rene Eijer (Perfectionist, Coach), Patrice Evra (Perfectionist, Coach) and Gonzalo de los Santos (Perfectionist, Coach). Our Head of Youth Development, Dinko Jelicic is a Perfectionist and our Director of Football, Philippe Gaillot is a Model Citizen.
So, we're closer to the real start of the journey, to first make our mark in Holland, to then try and take over Europe and finally the World.
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stouters
New Member
@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on Jul 23, 2020 9:30:04 GMT
Wow i see you've really gone all-out for the positive mentalities throughout the club. Are you noticing the effects of this approach? In my save NEC had a tycoon takeover in 2034, reduced funding in 2038 and then moved into a new stadium less than a year later which was named after him.
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