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Post by chaodck on Jul 23, 2020 13:29:36 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. Cheers Stouters mate, thanks for reading. The full-on attacking tactic has been used sporadically really, I rarely start games with it only the ones where I'm heavily favoured, and mid-games is used either when I'm comfortably winning and want to push or when I'm in a pickle. I can't say it's really been effective though, and I even might drop the approach for next season and settle for one attacking tactic, but more balanced than the current full attacking one. I'm finishing the season lads, so expect another update today, hopefully.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 23, 2020 14:24:47 GMT
Lads, lads... WE MADE IT!!!! Details to come, later today.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 23, 2020 22:08:31 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2023-24 Season ReportOverviewFive seasons in lads, and we got our first League Championship. It's been a massive season for the team, where our young players really stepped up, playing as a team and shining as a whole without a particular standout player. We had streaks where we looked amazing defensively, and also streaks where we managed to outscore everybody. I think we can still improve a lot in certain areas, and have more tactical stability, fortunately we're filled with talent and potential in our squad, so the sky is the limit. EredivisieI'd left you at the end of February, where after a fantastic start to the second semester we had only conceded one goal and not lost in the 8 games we played on those months. We kept the good times rolling with a 3-0 win over AZ to start March with goals from Andreas Hansen, Aleksandar Todorovski and Alaa Awad, which allowed us to retake the 1st spot as Ajax lost against PSV. Then in our only other league game in March we beat VVV-Venlo narrowly 1-0 with an 88th minute goal from Lee Min and as Ajax also won, we closed out March with a 2-point gap atop the league.
We had to play Ajax now, in Amsterdam. And again we fell short, losing 0-3 in a game where we never really found our footing. This result put Ajax back in 1st, by a single point. And thus, with 5 games to go, the Title Race entered the final straight.
We had an easier road on paper, but still we had to face two top 7 teams. We recovered the lead on the table right away, as we beat Heerenveen 3-1 with goals from Andile Zondi, Manuel Wiesner and Todorovski and Ajax drew against Utrecht, so we were back atop the league, with a 1 point advantage. We then had to go Rotterdam and face Feyenoord. We started off behind, but turned it around with goals from Zondi and another hugely important goal from Lee Min, to win 2-1 and extend our table lead to 3 points as Ajax drew again. We then beat Twente 2-0 with a goal from Iván Ruiz and an own goal, and Ajax also won. Then, another late win, this time 1-0 against Gronigen with an 83rd minute goal from Aleksander Todorovski, which in the end gave us the title, as Ajax drew once again, making our 5 point lead insurmountable in the last matchday. Talking about that, I rotated heavily in the last game, with 17 senior squad members not even suiting up, and in the end we lost 0-2 against ADO Den Haag. We had a fantastic second half to the season. We only lost against Ajax twice and in the last game that was not important. Our defensive work was amazing, conceding less than a goal per game. Ajax drop in form is explained by their terrific run in the UEFA Champions League, where they eliminated Atlético and Bayern, before falling against Real Madrid in the Semifinals.UEFA Europa LeagueSo, after acing a super hard group, we qualified directly to the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League where we'd face Roma, and again I was fairly negative about our chances. But yet again we kept surprising everyone and eliminated them after a 1-1 draw in Rome with a goal from Zondi and a 4-2 win in Nijmegen with a hattrick from Hansen and a goal from Awad. Lille was our rival in the Quarter-Finals, and I was more confident than against Roma, but still not that confident. We drew 1-1 at home, with a goal from Hansen and I was even more negative, but we dominated them in France and managed to get a 2-1 win with goals from Wiesner and Hansen to sneak into the Semifinals. A familiar foe awaited us there, Sporting Braga who eliminated us in this same stage, but in the UEFA Europa Conference League a couple of seasons back. I was super confident we'd improved enough to beat them, as our team is a lot better now than then. We went to Braga and suffered a tough 0-1 defeat in a game we dominated and lost in a 90th minute goal with 10 men and having missed a penalty earlier. The return leg was played in a packe Goffertstadion and Andreas Hansen put on his big boy pants, carrying us into the Europa League Final, with a goal at 28' which forced the overtime and another at 115' to seal the game. In the Final we had to play Tottenham and well, I knew we were fucked. I wanted us not to do a ridicule and well, we kinda managed to avoid it, losing 0-3 as we clearly were out of our depth despite having a few good moments in the game.Youth IntakeWe were promised a 'Golden Generation' and again it fell way short.Despite that, Michiel Willemse looks like a terrific player at 16 and if he improves his physicals he might be a superstar. Two other good prospects in Peter Bakker (the classic unambitious high PA player) and Bjorn Molenaar.Squad and Performances I said above, that the season was a magnificent, all around team effort. We didn't really had standout players, which is strange seeing as we won the League and got to a Continental Final. Our best player overall was Reza Mousavi, who struggled a bit with injuries on the 2nd half of the season and thus lowered his stats a bit. He played 38 games, scoring 2 goals and had 9 assists with a 7.32 rating. Andile Zondi was close 2nd, despite his limited role. Zondi played 24 games, scoring 19 goals and 1 assist with a 7.37 rating, while on the other hand Andreas Hansen struggled a bit in the league, but shined in the Europa League. In total, the Danish wonderkid (our first labeled that way), played 33 games, scoring 18 goals and had 3 assists with a 7.15 rating (in the Europa League, he scored 13 goals in 12 games, with a 7.62 rating, earning the golden boot in the way). Other good performers were Manuel Wiesner (44 games, 10 goals, 3 assists, 7.16) and Sandro Villani (38 games, 1 goal, 5 assists, 7.09).
I think we've really improved in terms of quality. I'll see the player development comparison and decide whether I do the report on it or not, but we have our first wonderkid now, and I think there are 2-3 players who could get the label if they get enough playing time next year.
Forecast and Future- We're doing better in the finances department, but not great. We have €33M in the bank. - Well, I think we're gonna get a new stadium folks. I plan on asking soon and given the huge success of the season, I think it'll get quickly approved, fingers crossed for it to be over 30k. Regarding the facilities I think we can wait a bit to ask for the top Training and Youth Faciltiies. - The B Team got promoted to the Reserve Eredivisie, after being relegated last season. Meanwhile the U-19's followed their Eredivisie title from last season with a 2nd place finish in this one. Unfortunately we lost manager Nigel Pearson who will now be Southampton's new Senior Team manager. I'm in the look for a replacement.
Great, great progress mates. We're becoming a good, strong squad.
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Post by Marshdweller on Jul 24, 2020 10:23:53 GMT
Congratulations! Winning the Eredivisie after only five seasons is a great achievement.
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stouters
New Member
@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on Jul 24, 2020 10:45:12 GMT
Congratulations! I'm surprised it took you so long....Joking! Is there an issue with Branderhorst? His age sticks out by a mile. Will you be usiing Greco or Tabekou full-time soon?
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Post by chaodck on Jul 24, 2020 20:41:53 GMT
Congratulations! Winning the Eredivisie after only five seasons is a great achievement. Cheers mate, it sure is I'm super happy specially as we still have a lot of room to keep improving. Congratulations! I'm surprised it took you so long....Joking! Is there an issue with Branderhorst? His age sticks out by a mile. Will you be usiing Greco or Tabekou full-time soon? Thanks stouters, hahahaha! I like Branderhorst, he's a solid keeper and starting material for our current level for sure. The big problem is that the younger players behind him still haven't reached that level or end up having his same potential. I had a lot of faith in Greco and Ramy Maher, but both are as good as Branderhorst and thus I'd rather keep waiting for another prospect. Albert Raven seems to be my best bet so far, he's 18 valued at 5 star in PA, and currently sits at 2,5 stars in CA. He'll be in the senior squad for next season and will get his share of games, including all Cup games and a few of the easier League games, hopefully I can get him around 15 games in the season, if he develops nicely maybe more. Regarding Tabekou I don't see him as more than a 3rd GK, he's not that good, but a Model Citizen, so he's a great influence in the team and adds a lot to mentorship groups. So, to answer your question, Branderhorst will still be first choice for next season, Greco will be loaned out to see if he improves and thus fetches a better price down the road and Tabekou will be our third GK. I'm planning on doing a more traditional squad report, rather than the development report I used to do. And thus, I'll do it once the transfer window closes.
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Post by richruzzian on Jul 25, 2020 9:50:27 GMT
Wowie. The title is really amazing. Interesting tot see your boys in de champions League. What is the goal of next season? Champions again?
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Post by chaodck on Jul 29, 2020 5:51:32 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2024-25 Pre-Season and Squad ReportOverviewLast season was the best season in NEC's history. Winning our first Eredivisie title was a massive achievement and we're gonna need to be ready to defend it this season now. Also it's been a nice transition in transfer policy as at last we've settled on a squad we can watch grow while starting to develop our newcomers in the "B" and "U-19" squads with only a few exceptions. This will be a season where the idea is to revalidate the title but without huge expectations as The Board still only wants us to qualify for the Europa League, and also our first foray into the UEFA Champions League where The Board will want us to "Be Competitive" whatever that means. Finally we'll play both the KNVB Beker where The Board is expecting a Semifinals appearance despite us always being a disappointment there and in the Johan Cruijff Schaal, the legend named Dutch Supercup, which isn't deemed important by the brass. Having said that I would like to be competitive in the League hopefully until the end, while getting as far as possible in Europe, which probably means dropping to the UEL and getting into the Quarter-Final at least. I'll keep on playing the youth in the Cup, fuck the Board and its expectations.Transfers It's been a busy summer. We had a lot of exciting young players ready to take the step up and become relevant players for the Senior Squad and that meant making space for them not only on the squad, but mainly regarding playing time. That made me get rid of several past important players at prices far lower than what I expected initially, but in the end I'm not that desperate for cash. I'll go from less to most importance in their legacy on the team. Three players left who either were a limited time backup at some point or never played on the squad, Javier Toledo to Heracles Almelo for €300k (plus €75k in fees), Bas Asllani to Sparta Rotterdam for €58k and Luis Báez also to Sparta Rotterdam for €175k. In a kind of middle ground, japanese Takahito Ōta finally left the club, he was a once highly regarded player but never fullfilled his potential and his high salary made him so hard to move, he ended up leaving to Roda JC for €150k (but they took on all his salary, which was amazing). Now onto the harder part, four starters from last season left as well all tough decisions but needed for the development of the new generation. Vince Duits went to Roda JC for €2.3M, Bart van Rooij went to NAC Breda for €4.2M and two heavyweights also left in former record goalscorer Andile Zondi who went to Al-Ain for €8M and central midfielder Manuel Wiesner to PAOK for €10M. Cas Odenthal is also on the leaving list, and will most surely be loaned out with looks to make it permanent before the end of the window.
Regarding incoming players, we had a bit of movement as well, as I felt we needed a bit of prospect depth in a few positions. Only one of those players will be thrown into the senior squad, and most probably will end up as starter due to injuries to one of the projected starters. He is Bryan Bertrand who came from Monaco for €3.5M (plus €3.5M in clauses), a high price but a terrific player a quick centre back with good ball skills and a ton of potential. From all the other prospects that arrived, the best of the bunch are GK Serge Kanté who came in from Hoffenheim for €240k, (hopefully he'll fight with Albert Raven for our lead keeper in a few years), Santiago Rak an Uruguayan RW Inside Forward from Peñarol for €1M, Gabriel Murillo a Perfectionist Colombian Centre Back from Santa Fe for €1.3M, Alisson Henrique a Brazilian/American complete wingback from NY Red Bulls for €230k and Cristóbal Alanis a Mexican AM from Necaxa for €1M, they'll all play for the "B" team this season. Finally also 3 younger players came in for the U-19 team, Yasunobu Muro from Gamba for €1.1M, David Asante on a free from Albertson SC and 16 year old CWB LB Björn Maier from Sparta for €700k. Squad Report and Youth PipelineSo, new section here. During the first five seasons of this save I yearly updated on the progress of our younger players, but I decided on changing the approach due to the progress not being enough on a player by player basis to guarantee a full dedicated report. So I'll now incorporate a version of this into the pre-season report. I'll detail the senior squad position by position, while mentioning our best youth prospects as well. I'll only post a current pic of the player and I'll comment on the progression briefly if it's considerable.
Goalkeepers A few posts ago I said that the first choice would continue to be Mattijs Branderhorst at least to kickoff the season. He's a solid leader, our only one above 30, and a respected voice, plus he's still got what it takes. This season, behind him will go Albert Raven an academy player who's shined on the lauded U-19 team the last couple of seasons, I want to give him somewhere around 10 league games, plus all the Domestic Cup. Third keeper will be Sébastien Tabékou a Cameroonian whose only job is to provide moral support for the rest of the squad and be a leader with his amazing Model Citizen personality.
In the pipeline for the GK position we have a few interesting players. Atop the line newcomer Serge Kanté will be the starting GK in the "B" team, while talented italians Alessio Greco and Giacomo Faccini, plus Egyptian Ramy Maher will be out on loan at decent teams with good oportunities for them. I have a bit of faith in Faccini of the three on loan, but the fight for the GK of the future is between Raven and Kanté. Right Fullbacks In the senior squad, Iván Ruiz will be promoted to a full time starter, from last season where he alternated with van Rooij, and the backup will be Colombian Elkin Bustos who's also super talented and thus I envision a nice position battle will ensue.The youth pipeline has only one player as of right now, the recently signee brazilian Alisson Henrique, who'll be the starter in the "B" team. Left Fullbacks Sandro Villani has been a regular starter for a few seasons now and is one of our most developed players who also has some room to grow. His backup is Torsten Jendrossek who despite not being all that, has enough versatility to guarantee a spot in the senior squad.
Here we've got a few more players waiting in the youth teams, with Diégo Reynders being the top prospect a fantastic senior squad ready player who'll play in the B team this season, followed by two prospects in the U-19's, classic unambitious high PA Rico Caldwell and newcomer Björn Maier.Centre Backs Three players will fight for the two starting roles, with Arthur leading the charge as the incumbent starter (his former partner will leave us this summer), while Bryan Bertrand and Eryk Pietrzak also in contention. The fourth CB will be Colombian Gabriel Murillo, who'll double for the "B" team as well. In the youth teams, there are a few good prospects, but nothing too groundbreaking. Rogerinho will be on loan in Portugal, while Joao Novais will play in the "B" team and Frans de Vries in the U-19's. I expect all three of them to be starters in their own roles. Central Midfielders Reza Mousavi is arguably our best player and thus he'll man the midfield role in a creative deep playmaker role, alongside Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous as a more defensive oriented central mid. As their backups, Colombian Steeven Sanchez will pair up with former ManU talent Jamie Walker.In the youth pipeline we have a lot of options. I'll only talk about the top four of them in my opinion, but there are a couple more who could be part of this breakdown as well. First comes Mohamed Fathy, a part of our Egyptian legion, who'll be on loan at Perugia for the season, then Diego Fonseca will play in ADO Den Haag, and finally a couple of incredibly talented academy lads in the U-19's in Sandin Blackson and Michiel Willemese. Attacking Midfielders Fabio Cuoco, another longtime starter for us who started off as a central mid before settling for the AM position, his backup will be Bader Al-Enezi.
In the young teams, we have a good amount of prospects as well, with newcomer Cristóbal Alanís in the B team who'll share duties with Djibril Diagne who had a good season last year in the senior squad and I wanted him to go on loan this season but unfortunately broke his foot in the pre-season and thus will have around 3 months to recover. He might go on loan in the second half of the season. In the U-19's, japanese newcomer Yasunobu Muro will be the starter for the team. Right Wingers After starting last season as backup to Vince Duits, Alaa Awad ended up earning his stripes and beccame a full time starter by the end of the title campaign. The Egyptian is a super talented player whom I expect will end the season with 10+ goals and 10+ assists. His backup will be Brazilian Kelvin Pereira also a talented lad with lots of potential as well.
Two more high potential players in the youth pipeline with Saad Al-Juhani out on loan at ADO Den Haag and Uruguayan newcomer Santiago Rak in the "B" team.
Left Wingers Aleksandar Todorovski arrived last summer and after spending a semester in the "B" team was immediately propelled into the Senior Squad as starter when former starter Michael Fürthaler was sold in the winter window. The australian had a wonderful second half of the season, and as with Awad I expect him to score over 10 goals and have over 10 assists. His backup will be Korean Lee Min, who seems like he's been with us forever and still can't break into the starting XI. The Korean is a decent player and his homegrown status helps him survive in the senior squad despite his potential not looking as good as some years ago.
Again, just two players in the youth pipeline, with Albert Kock on loan at MVV and Peruvian Daniel Jack in the "B" team.
Strikers Finally we arrive at the strikers position, where you'll meet (or re-meet) Andreas Hansen, the best youth product to come from NEC since a young GK named Jasper Cillessen came out some years ago. Hansen is a beast, lightning quick, highly technical, mentally ready and with a nose for goal the Dane finished the season strong last season despite sharing the load with Andile Zondi. Our first wonderkid, he carries a €42M minimum release fee and I won't accept any other bids for him (while also looking to renew his contract ASAP), here's hoping we can enjoy him for a long time. His backup will be Raymond van Mierlo another uber talented lad who'll break out soon and maybe force me to change my tactical plans. Also a wonderkid, the Dutch will surely look to make his mark in his first senior squad season after scoring 88 goals in 52 games for the U-19's last season.
Unfortunately, the level decreases quickly after these two beasts. Christopher Bukuru will be in the "B" team, while Nick Verheul will play in the U-19's after helping last season our former affiliate club Top Oss in their promotion from Eerste Divisie. Full Senior Squad I'm quite happy with the current look of the team. We have a good all around squad, and a lot of good prospects behind them either on loan on our youth teams. I'm solely concentrating on bringing in players who are at most 18 years old and I might even shift further to only bringing players who are playable for the U-19's on that season (even if they end up on the "B" team).Pre-SeasonWell, it was an eventful pre-season. Having such a young team is troublesome every four years when the Olympics are played. We had 7 players on the tournament and thus they missed most of the pre-season training and games, here's hoping they don't suffer during the season. As we played on the JC Schaal, we only played 5 pre-season friendlies, with great performances from the team, winning all games, with a terrific performance from Andreas Hansen.
Andreas Hansen also kept the fantastic level in the season debut against Utrecht where we won our first JC Schaal with a brace from the Danish Wonderkid and a goal from Kelvin Pereira.Forecast and Future - The finances are looking quite good after a lot of income from players sales this summer. We currently have €54M in the bank. - The Board decided on their own to build a new stadium for the Club. Currently it's on planning stage "searching for the site" and the planned capacity is 34,620 which is amazing. - The Eredivisie again jumped higher on the coefficients table, overlapping the French Ligue 1. The upgrade allowed another team to go directly into the Europa League Group Stage, while losing a team in Europa Conference League. Top 3 teams will qualify for the UCL (two directly in the group stage, one in the Third Qualifying Round), 4th and 5th will go into the UEL Group Stage (depending on the KNVB Beker winner), and the European Places Playoff winner (disputed between the 5th or 6th placed and the 8th or 9th placed teams) will go into the UECL Playoff. - We signed four new sponsorship deals in the offseason. Our new kit sponsor will pay €3.4M per season until 2026, a continental sponsor will pay €2.2M per season until 2025, a training kit sponsor pays €1.2M per season until 2029 and a general sponsor paying €250k per season until 2028.
Another long update mates, I might keep the squad report format but do it every a couple of seasons and separated from the pre-season haha. I'm still deciding!!!
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Post by Nick on Jul 30, 2020 12:20:57 GMT
Finally managed to catch up Chaodck, what an 18 months it's been for you. Your recruitment plan seems to be paying off hugely, both in terms of results on the pitch and money in the bank. It's not easy to beat Ajax (state the obvious, Nick) so to do that whilst also balancing a run to the Europa League final is is pretty amazing. The final was just one of those things. It would have been a minor miracle had you beaten Tottenham, such is the quality of the English teams. There'll be other opportunities, I'm sure.
I'll stick my neck out now and say that Michiel Willemse will be an absolute star for you and go on to win international caps in the future.
Some big transfers too. Zondi was a funny player. When he first came into the team he was the main man, but he didn't grow with the club. Looking at him now he really is just a speedster with good movement. You've done brilliantly to get that much for him. Wiesner is also a good player, but it's telling that he went to POAK and Greece, and not one of the bigger European nations.
Albert Raven looks like my kind of player. We know it's tough developing goalkeepers, but he's good enough across the board to give as much game time to as possible. Kante is one to watch too. What are both their personalities?
Your squad is looking much more complete now compared to a couple of seasons ago. The rough edges have been polished. Keep it up mate.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 30, 2020 16:50:56 GMT
Finally managed to catch up Chaodck, what an 18 months it's been for you. Your recruitment plan seems to be paying off hugely, both in terms of results on the pitch and money in the bank. It's not easy to beat Ajax (state the obvious, Nick) so to do that whilst also balancing a run to the Europa League final is is pretty amazing. The final was just one of those things. It would have been a minor miracle had you beaten Tottenham, such is the quality of the English teams. There'll be other opportunities, I'm sure. I'll stick my neck out now and say that Michiel Willemse will be an absolute star for you and go on to win international caps in the future. Some big transfers too. Zondi was a funny player. When he first came into the team he was the main man, but he didn't grow with the club. Looking at him now he really is just a speedster with good movement. You've done brilliantly to get that much for him. Wiesner is also a good player, but it's telling that he went to POAK and Greece, and not one of the bigger European nations. Albert Raven looks like my kind of player. We know it's tough developing goalkeepers, but he's good enough across the board to give as much game time to as possible. Kante is one to watch too. What are both their personalities? Your squad is looking much more complete now compared to a couple of seasons ago. The rough edges have been polished. Keep it up mate. Cheers mate, thanks for reading. Yeah it's been a rollercoaster, last season we didn't start well, but after we kicked into gear we were unstoppable. It did help though that Ajax went all the way into the UCL Semifinals with a hell of a schedule (Atlético, Bayern and Real Madrid) and thus dropped in the league a bit, meanwhile we had some easier ties in the UEL (Lille and Braga), after the Roma one in the knockouts. Ajax was so burned out at the end of the season, that Feyenoord beat them 7-1 at De Kuip in the last game of the league. Regarding the UEL Final, well we were outmatched totally. Besides, the Eredivisie ends up 3 weeks before the Final, we had an 18 day gap between our last game of the league and the UEL Final, I had to schedule a friendly in between to keep match fitness up (I only played the starters for 30 minutes though to avoid injuries). I guess this will be an issue throughout the save and I'll have to deal with it. Yeah, Willemse looks like a great prospect, I expect him to be somewhere along top academy prospects Andreas Hansen, Albert Raven and Diégo Reynders all of whom are highly regarded not only by me, but also sought by other clubs, specially the bigger Dutch sides. I think that I could've sold Zondi for more if I had pulled the trigger earlier. Hansen was good enough to start last season, but after Zondi scored 41 goals the season before I felt I needed to give him another year in the squad. Wiesner was solid, but I have a lot of CM's who have a higher PA assessment and similar CA assessment so he was an easy sell, last season I had a deal in place for around 7.5M (which he rejected), so getting more this summer was a solid win for us. Raven and Kanté are both solid options down the road. I want to keep Branderhorst around as he's a mature player, a good mentor and a leading voice in the dressing room, which might mean that Raven will go on loan next season and Kanté gets promoted to the Senior Squad (I don't want to loan Kanté in order to have him be club homegrown). Raven is Fairly Determined and Kanté is Driven. I agree with your evaluation of the squad, as I said in the report I'm super happy with the amount of talent and potential. I think we're ready to enforce a rule of only signing players who are 18 or younger (down from 21 or younger), and elegible for the U-19 squad (meaning they must be 18 or younger by January 1st of the second year of each season). I'm at least considering it.
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Post by chaodck on Jul 30, 2020 17:42:19 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2024-25 Summer Window ReportOverviewAs always I'll do a short update with the start of the Eredivisie, the closing of the transfer window and the draw of our first UEFA Champions League experience.Transfers Not much to report here really as only one player left, and on loan as no teams wanted to buy Cas Odenthal. He left to Hannover with a nice deal that brings around 25k per month, and has a 2.5M optional fee which I expect they make use of.EredivisieAgain we had a super hard schedule to start the Eredivisie season, two easy games, followed by the Gelderse Derby and then Ajax and PSV. We kicked things off beating former affiliate club Top Oss 5-2, with goals from Arthur, Aleksandar Todorovski, Lee Min and a brace from Andreas Hansen, we followed with a 3-1 win over Heracles Almelo, with a brace from Santiago Rak (who was forced into the senior squad from his B team spot due to injuries and performed amazingly), and a goal from Todorovski, then extended our streak over rivals Vitesse with a 3-1 win with goals from Steeven Sánchez, Todorovski and another goal from "B team loanee" Rak. Then, onto the two harder games, we drew 1-1 with Ajax with a goal from Hansen, then lost 1-2 against PSV, with a goal from Arthur.
Not too crazy about how the table looks, but 10 points in the first 5 games including a derby and two of the three top teams isn't half bad. Here's hoping Feyenoord's form drops.UEFA Champions LeagueWe qualified directly to the UCL as League Champions, and we were handed a tough group draw. We'll face Sevilla, Benfica and Shakhtar, none of them are powerhouse teams, but all of them can give us problems. Last season I expected to fall out in our UEL group into the Conference League and I ended up dominating the group, so I might overcome my expectations. But I think it's safe to think of finishing 3rd and drop into the UEFA Europa League.Forecast and Future - With the great summer sales and the UCL money we're amazing on the financial front. We have €66M in the bank. - We've looked a bit leaky defensively as of the start of the season. We've conceded 7 goals in the first 6 competitive games (including the JC Schaal) and it's a bit of a worry. - After a long period of negotiation and fencing off interest from other clubs, Andreas Hansen has renewed his contract with us, sealing a deal until 2029. His salary goes up to €80k per month (from €15k per month) and he's by far our top earner (2nd highest salary is €36k per month), but Hansen is worth it. The contract includes a minimum fee release clause for foreign clubs of €96M, upping his former €42M clause that didn't include any restrictions before.
We're heading into a tough season in terms of competition, but here's to a good one!
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Post by chaodck on Aug 5, 2020 0:29:27 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2024-25 Midseason ReportOverviewBack again onto the updates, I've had a bit of a hectic week or so work-wise and thus I've played less and even found myself spending my free time playing other less concentration demanding games haha. But hey, here I am and doing the update, so let's get on with it. It's been a hard semester, with our first stint on the big leagues in european football in the UEFA Champions League, where we drew a tough group obviously.
Transfers No news on this front we haven't seen any players sold, despite a lot of interest from some bigger clubs specially on Reza Mousavi and Andreas Hansen. Regarding incoming transfers, I secured a couple of 18 year olds whose transfers had been arranged before, nothing too much if they develop I might show them later on on a squad report.Eredivisie We had a decent start to the league, with 3 wins, a draw and a loss in a tough schedule, then followed with a great 3 win run, a 1-0 win over FC Utrecht with a goal from Lee Min, then a 2-1 win over Willem II with goals from Hansen and Alaa Awad, then a 3-0 win over MVV with goals from Steeven Sanchez, Awad and Sandro Villani. We then stopped the run with a 1-1 against Gronigen, with a goal from Aleksandar Todorovski, then followed with a couple of narrow wins a 1-0 over Roda with a goal from Hansen, then a 3-2 win over AZ with goals from Lee Min and a brace from Hansen, before again we drew, this time a 1-1 against Fortuna Sittard with a goal from Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous. We then suffered our second loss of the semester, with a 0-1 tight loss against Feyenoord. We then recovered and got off to a great run, beating Heerenveen 3-0 with goals from Awad, Villani and van Mierlo, drawing against VVV-Venlo 2-2 with goals from Bryan Bertrand and Hansen, a 2-0 win over Twente, with goals from Awad and Min, another 2-0 win this time over Gronigen with goals from Awad and van Mierlo and a 1-0 win over ADO Den Haag, with a goal from van Mierlo. Unfortunately we ended up the semester on a bad note, losing 0-1 against Roda in the last game before the break.Things aren't looking good really in terms of a successful title defence. Ajax returned to their un-fucking-beatable form and we've relinquished too many points. I think we might even endanger our chances of getting into the UCL or even the UEL if we don't pick it up in the second half of the season.UEFA Champions League We drew a tough group, Benfica has a terrific young core, Sevilla are a big team accustomed to playing in Europe and Shakhtar bring in big bucks and (albeit old) names (Szczesny, Danilo, Vrsaljko, Bartra, Agüero, Ramsey and Sigurðsson) so not really an easy feat to kickstart our Champions League campaigns. We kicked off action with a narrow 1-2 loss in Portugal with a goal from Hansen, which really gave me hope of a good performance in the group, which was even more encouraged by a 2-2 draw against Sevilla at home with goals from Fabio Cuoco and Todorovski, in a game we should have won, but conceded a late goal. We then managed to win back-to-back games against Shakhtar, with a 5-0 win at home, with goals from Iván Ruiz, Cuoco and a hattrick from Hansen, and a 3-0 win in Ukraine, with goals from Awad and a brace from van Mierlo. But it all ended up going down the drain as Benfica beat us 0-2 at home, in a game where we played down a man all second half. That meant we needed a win over Sevilla in Andalucia to qualify for the Knockouts, and a draw or loss slipped us into the UEFA Europa League. Well, we managed to not lose in Spain, but a 1-1 draw was insufficient and we finished 3rd in the group.
It was a good showing. I expected finishing 3rd despite at times before playing Shakhtar I was scared of their big names. We'll play Napoli in the First Knockout Round of the Europa League, another tough draw.KNVB TOTO Beker For a change, we've made it past the second round of the Cup! We managed to get a couple of good wins, a 2-0 over Telstar in the First Round with goals from Cuoco and Sánchez, then a massive 7-1 over Scheveningen (a place I only knew because of Van Gogh's painting), with four goals from van Mierlo and a hattrick from Kelvin Pereira. We'll play Willem II in the Third Round early in the second semester.
Youth Intake Preview Not really the best preview. I don't use a defensive midfielder so he'll have to either be re-trained as a ball playing defender if he's physical enough or into a defensive minded CM. Here's hoping he's good though. Not much else around supposedly.Player Performances Again Reza Mousavi has been our top performer, despite not scoring once and with a very limited number of assists. He just bosses midfield and has more MotM awards than goals+assists, which is weird. Andreas Hansen is our top goalscorer, with 15 goals in 24 games, while Raymond van Mierlo has scored 9 in 18 games. Steeven Sánchez and Alaa Awad share the top passer recognition with 6 each, but followed in closely by Villani and Todorovski with 5 each and Kelvin Pereira with 4. Not much to gloat about really as it's been a solid yet unspectacular season outside of a few outbursts of good football here and there.
Forecast and Future - We're great on the money front, with €62M in the treasure chest. - There hasn't been any news on the stadium front, with the "Future Stadium Plans" still reading "Stage: Searching for site; Planned Capacity: 34,260 (34,260 seated)". It isn't listed on the Board projects' list, so I just don't know if I should get nervous or not. - We're upgrading the Training Facilities and they should be finished by the start of next season.
A quick update, here's hoping on a good second half of the season.
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Post by richruzzian on Aug 5, 2020 18:45:40 GMT
Back to back titles is not going to happen or the others should really collaps. With this squad qualifying for Europe should be "normal". Hoping that the newgen dmc can play as a ball playing defender or maybe you can sell him for a nice value.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 6, 2020 5:16:52 GMT
Back to back titles is not going to happen or the others should really collaps. With this squad qualifying for Europe should be "normal". Hoping that the newgen dmc can play as a ball playing defender or maybe you can sell him for a nice value. Cheers Rich, as you say we really need a collapse for us to retain, second half of the season has started very well for us though. As you say we're enough quality to be in europe normally I think we can comfortably sneak into the UCL given the rise in the ranks the league has had. Fingers crossed for the DM lad, no news as of yet.
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Post by Nick on Aug 6, 2020 11:53:02 GMT
Ajax doing Ajax things. In truth, this is what should have happened a couple of years back. If you can cement yourself as the best of the rest and push them hard, even if it's for the next year or two, you should be happy with how you're performing, especially if it allows you to improve everything away from the pitch too.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 6, 2020 14:41:10 GMT
Ajax doing Ajax things. In truth, this is what should have happened a couple of years back. If you can cement yourself as the best of the rest and push them hard, even if it's for the next year or two, you should be happy with how you're performing, especially if it allows you to improve everything away from the pitch too. Cheers Nick. Yeah I'm totally with you, let's not forget that Ajax is coming from a semifinals appearance in the Champions League, beating Bayern and Atlético before falling narrowly against Real Madrid. They are an European powerhouse team so in order to consistently beat them we need to become one as well or have them shoot on their own feet. I think we have the squad quality to become the 'best of the rest' and being cheeky I think we're already above AZ and Utrecht, maybe on par with Feyenoord and PSV. The club still needs to grow in some places, specially the stadium front (which still bears no news) and establish ourselves as a solid producer of National Team calibre talent. The Board at least is content with the pace so far, but last season's title did make them a bit more ambitious thant what I'd wanted, and thus more critical of certain things. My job status is still "Very Secure" though.
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Post by dalenichol on Aug 6, 2020 20:15:14 GMT
Slow and steady wins the race. This is a solid long term save and I really wouldn't be too upset if we're not toppling Ajax consistently just yet, they are Ajax after all and FM definitely has a soft spot for certain teams in leagues like this. You'll get there though and it'll be all the more sweet when you do!
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Post by chaodck on Aug 6, 2020 21:40:00 GMT
Slow and steady wins the race. This is a solid long term save and I really wouldn't be too upset if we're not toppling Ajax consistently just yet, they are Ajax after all and FM definitely has a soft spot for certain teams in leagues like this. You'll get there though and it'll be all the more sweet when you do! Right as you say my friend, wise words. I think we're far from Ajax's level, they spent over €130M this year on transfers, including a €33M Brazilian wonderkid CB. They had a hard draw in the UCL facing Liverpool on the Knockouts and are already eliminated in the Cup so I'd guess the will get somewhere near 100 points in the league. We've had a fantastic start to the second half of the season, with 8 straight wins in the League and Cup (I now face Napoli in the UEL, here's me thinking I might have jinxed the run).
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Post by chaodck on Aug 7, 2020 23:12:26 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2024-25 Season ReportOverviewAfter our first Eredivisie title last season I expected us to build from that and try to retain the title while being competitive on all other fronts. But the first semester ended up proving that we were still a long way far from Ajax's level and that it would either need for us to improve a lot or for them to basically shit the bed in order to win another League title. The second semester was much better than the first one though, we had a few moments that made us unbeatable and gave me hopes of a re-peat, more on that after the break. EredivisieBefore the winter break (sorry for no March update, I only just realised as I'm writing this I went on through with the save haha) we were in 3rd place, 15 points behind Ajax and 7 points behind Feyenoord (who also had a game in hand). I even toyed with the idea of us not getting into the Champions League again as PSV was close behind us in 4th and had two games in hand. But we kicked into gear in the second half of the season, with a magnificent run in the league and quickly closed out on that gap, sticking ourselves into the Championship Battle. We started off the second half of the league with a 3-1 win over Heracles Almelo with goals from Bryan Bertrand, Kelvin Pereira and Sandro Villani, then beat TOP Oss 2-0 with a brace from Andreas Hansen. The run continued with a magnificent 5-1 win over ADO Den Haag, with goals from Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous, Raymond van Mierlo, Aleksandar Todorovski, Pereira and an own goal. At the start of February, we had a couple lucky breaks, with Kelvin Pereira bailing out of two games, a 1-0 win over Feyenoord and a come from behind 2-1 win over Willem II with the other goal coming from Iván Ruiz. We closed out February with 2 more wins, a 3-0 win over Heerenveen with goals from Steeven Sanchez and a brace from van Mierlo and a 4-1 win over MVV with a hattrick from Hansen and a goal from Pereira. March was a short month, only playing 2 league games, and got another couple of wins extending the streak, with a 2-1 over Utrecht with goals from Hansen and Lee Min, plus a 4-1 win over AZ with goals from Todorovski, van Mierlo and a brace from Hansen. In April, we were full on contenders mode, shrinking Ajax's lead to 5 points and 3 points above Feyenoord who were in 2nd place. We had a tough 6 games to go, but the streak lived on, as we beat Vitesse 3-0 in the derby with goals from Reza Mousavi, Todorovski and Ben Dahnous then beat Fortuna Sittard 1-0 with a goal from Hansen. The Final stretch included 2 tough as hell games in a single week, hosting PSV and then going to Amsterdam and face Ajax. Our re-peat hopes lied in wait as we needed help from elsewhere, besides beating Ajax ourselves. But well, we fucking bottled it, as the marvelous 11 win run stopped short against PSV, who came from behind two goals to draw 2-2 against us with a last minute goal, with a brace from Pereira for us and then Ajax obliterated us in Johan Cruijff ArenA with a beastly 2-6 loss with our goals coming from Todorovski and Hansen. To make matters worse Ajax was crowned champions in that game, but we still were 3 points above Feyenoord in 2nd place meaning direct qualification for the UCL Group Phase. But as I said, we pissed our pants really, as we drew our next game a 1-1 against VVV with a goal from Villani, before finishing the campaign with a 1-2 loss against FC Twente with a goal from van Mierlo.
We still managed to make the UEFA Champions League next season, but we'll enter in the 3rd Qualifying Round, meaning we'll get to play in August again. We never were close of winning the league as Ajax was always in control, but losing the 2nd place so late in the season, in a woeful 4-game final stretch made it a tough pill to swallow.UEFA Europa LeagueNot much to say here really, we dropped from the Champions League to the Europa League after finishing 3rd in a tough group alongside Benfica, Sevilla and Shakhtar, then drew Napoli in the First Knockout Round. At home we played decently and at times dominated but ended up losing 1-2 with our goal coming from Villani, then went to Italy and sealed our fate with a 0-2 loss in a game where nothing worked. We could've had a better draw in both continental competitions, but heck if we want to improve, we need to beat everybody. KNVB BekerFor all the bad things that happened in Europe we did have a brilliant season in the Domestic Cups, we won our first JC Schaal in the first game of the season, then followed with a perfect Cup run to win our first KNVB Beker. We beat Telstar 2-0 with goals from Fabio Cuoco and Sánchez, then Scheveningen 7-1 with 4 goals from van Mierlo and 3 from Kelvin Pereira, then massacred Willem II 6-2 (a.e.t. 1-1 f.t.) with goals from Bertrand, Elkin Bustos and braces from Nick Verheui (in his club debut) and Hansen. In the Quarter-Finals we again demolished a team, this time rivals Vitesse, with goals from Ben Dahnous, Villani, Todorovski and a brace from van Mierlo, before narrowly beating PSV 1-0 in the semifinals with a great goal from Hansen. In the Final, we faced FC Twente, and again riding the wonderful Andreas Hansen wave, we beat them 3-2 with a brace from the Danish lad and a goal from Cuoco.Youth IntakeAfter a few seasons with rather disappointing intakes regarding the preview (despite getting a few good players on all intakes), this one was better than expected.
Not only the top 4 players have decent personalities, but Mihran Nalbandyan might be a star player and suited somewhat perfectly to either be re-trained as a BPD or as a defensive minded CM. Other decent players were Adis Mesanovic, Bram de Man (these names dude... like they come from The Office) and David Schiphorst.Squad and Performances Andreas Hansen finally exploded into a marvellous gem of a player. He led our team for stretches and won games on his own, the Danish forward is already reckoned as a World Class Player and justifies his hefty price tag. He played 42 games, scoring 30 goals and 6 assists, with a 7.37 rating performances which awarded him the Bravo Award. Despite a much less flashy year, Reza Mousavi was our second best player, a steady (some might say) boring centre playmaker, the Iranian hasn't improved as much of lately (if you compare him to Hansen who's a standout), but is still a solid player for our club. Mousavi played 45 games, scoring 1 goal and had 3 assists, with a 88% pass completion ratio and a 7.31 average rating. Colombian Super Sub Steeven Sanchez was our third best player despite playing 55 minutes per game in average and starting exactly half of the 38 games he played where he scored 4 goals and had 9 assists, with a 7.28 rating. Other notable performances came from: Sandro Villani (47 games, 6 goals, 13 assists, 7.28 rating), Raymond van Mierlo (37 games, 16 goals, 5 assists, 7.17 rating), Arthur (46 games, 2 goals, 1 assist, 7.12 rating), Bryan Bertrand (45 games, 3 goals, 7.11 rating), Aleksandar Todorovski (43 games, 10 goals, 14 assists, 7.10 rating) and Kelvin Pereira (41 games, 11 goals, 9 assists, 7.02 rating).
It's worth mentioning that both Kelvin Pereira and Albert Raven won over the starting positions with stellar play during our 11 game league unbeaten run and the Cup run, leaving initial starters Mattijs Branderhorst and Alaa Awad on the bench.
Youth Team News We had a fantastic season both on the "B" Team and the U-19 Squad. Both of them won their respective Eredivisie Championships, both the top division of their level of play (there are a few "B" teams that play in the Eerste Divisie, don't know if this will qualify my "B" Team to it, doubt it).
Forecast and Future- We had a fantastic year on the financial front, improving our income on sponsorship, broadcast revenues and competition prize money, while also setting records for gate receipts. We still don't have a lot in the bank though, with €42M in our account. Why that? More to follow. - At last, The Board decided on our future stadium. It'll be an all-seater 38,979 stadium with grass pitch and undersoil heating (no roof, sadly), to be inaugurated in 2028. It will cost us €110M, which was set off with a big lump sum that lowered our balance by a bit, then a few million from selling the current stadium, a nice €29M 5-year stadium sponsorship deal and a big €68M 10-year loan that will mean we'll see around €600k per month deducted on payments.
This has been a great season, specially off the pitch, with a lot of development for the players and the great news of growth off the pitch.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 10, 2020 4:11:35 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2025-26 Pre-Season ReportOverviewSo, last season was another fantastic season for NEC as we managed to win our first KNVB Beker ever and despite a shameful four games of the league, we managed to put up a super decent fight against an Ajax team that looked unbeatable at times. This offseason was a strange one due to a mistake on my end with the mods I put up for this save but I think it was a good one overall #FingersCrossed. Taking a look on the squad makeup for the season, there are a few super interesting players coming into the senior squad, who were key on the title campaigns of our B side or of the U-19's last season, and the recruitment side of things saw us dip for the first time into only bringing players who are deemed elegible for the U-19's this season. Finally, I decided against of doing a full squad and youth pipeline report like I did last season and I'll only highlight a few players who have developed into either our current stars or deemed to become stars during this season or next one at most.
Transfers Little to no activity on the departures side of things, with a few players leaving on free deals, and the definitive sale of Cas Odenthal who went to RKC for €2.5M (plust €500k on fees), a decent price for a player I was hoping to get more of last season, but as he only managed to leave on loan I'd thought he'd leave for less money this season. Where we did have a lot of activity was on incoming deals, as we spent €20M in future players. Four of them might become stars (I'd say some of them are potential wonderkids) and will most probably be a part of the Senior Squad as early as next season and will get some games in this season, at least in the early rounds of the cup. They are Omar Firpo from River Plate (URU) for €2.5M, Édgar Villa from Atlas for €4.5M (plus €1.5M in clauses), Joaquim Lisboa from Porto for €2.5M and Sebastián Noce from Newell's for €3.5M (plus €2.5M in clauses). Just a step below but also boasting terrific potential are, Matteo Viggiano who came from Fiorentina for €2.3M and Baldo García from Valencia for €1M. Finally and way afar, I brought in a couple of the best available Dutch lads from last season's intake, Fintan Yeatman from AZ for €2M and Murat Arslan from Fortuna Sittard for €1.9M. There are also a couple of players who'll arrive before the window closes with deals finalised for them and just waiting on them turning 18, and I'm on the hunt for another player for the youth side. I'll report that after the window closes.Player Development and Squad MakeupAs I said above, no full squad report for now as there isn't that much changes since last season. But I do want to talk about a few of my current standout players and also the ones I think will become standouts soon.
The Club's Spine Andreas Hansen: Well the team starts and ends with him. Hansen is truly a world class player at 20 (and scarily still has "significant room" to keep growing), a fantastic lightning-quick striker but also intelligent in his movements and a great finisher/header despite not being a physically imposing player. Last season was his best so far and he was our top player, scoring 30 goals in 44 games and winning the Bravo Award. He's currently happy and under contract until 2029 with a release fee of €94 for foreign clubs which has so far scared away the 12 teams that want him as none have made an offer. I expect him to be our best player again, leading the scoring charts. Reza Mousavi: Once our top prospect Mousavi had a quiet season last year, despite having a great average rating. He's settled into the playmaker role and at 22 won't improve much more on his ability and looking back, the €40M offer we accepted and he rejected a few years ago might have been the best we'd got for him. There are some great CM prospects in the youth squads and I expect Mousavi to have a bounce back season this year or else he will probably be let go of soon. Aleksandar Todorovski: Another one of our top performers from last season, the Australian lad has improved a lot and still has a lot of room to keep improving. A good leader off the pitch, he's one to follow in the future regarding the captaincy of the squad. Last season he nabbed a "double double", with 10 goals and 14 assists and this season I expect him to be closer to a 20-20 if he can keep himself on the pitch as he's fairly injury prone. Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous: An underdog, the Tunisian has been a steady contributor to our team in the past couple of seasons, including last year where he was a full time starter for the first time. He's a defensive minded central mid, with terrific physical skills and a fantastic mental framework, and also a lot of room to keep improving. Bryan Bertrand: The frenchman had a great debut season last year, where he was quickly deployed into the starting lineup due to injuries to other starters and he never let go of the role. Possessing a great mixture of height, ability and quickness, Bertrand has the frame to develop into a terrific all-around centre back who can also handle himself decently with the ball on his feet.
Senior Squad Prospects Raymond van Mierlo: There's one reason why, despite really hating the moment when it'll happen, I won't be that disheartened when a team lifts Hansen from us is this kid. Raymond van Mierlo is also touted a wonderkid at 20 and despite being a step below Hansen he's still a fantastic prospect. Built in a similar mould as the Dane, van Mierlo has less potential according to our coaches though and might improve slightly according to his report. Last season he was a great understudy and also made me develop a two attacker tactic to play them alongside Hansen, which worked out decently. I'm hoping to get him the same playing time this season in order for him to keep improving. Albert Raven: More than a prospect at this moment, but still not a part of the backbone of the team, our best academy GK so far won over the starting job last season during a big injury to former starter Branderhorst. He will keep the job for this season without doubt and will probably only cede the spot in the first few rounds of the cup, and I expect him to improve significantly during the season as he's stated in his assistant report. Diégo Reynders: Another academy prospect, the Icelandic lad is a decent player with a bright future ahead of him who can become a good all-around fullback. He was pushed to the senior squad at the end of last season, after a stellar year in the B team partly as well as I was somewhat disappointed with the performances of Torsten Jendrossek who as a jack of all trades truly is a master of none. Reynders is still a bit raw, but bags a lot of potential and I've got a lot of faith in him. Yasunobu Muro: Muro was the best player in the U-19's last season, with 18 goals and 32 assists in the almost 70 games they played throughout the season. He was promoted to the senior squad during this summer and I expect the small japanese lad to end the season as the starter as team captain Fabio Cuoco isn't improving at the same rate he used to. Muro is a fantastic prospect, with a fantastic mindset, decent physical skills and a nice array of technical ability, if he keeps getting better he will be a star.
Future Prospects Serge Kanté: The German keeper will still need to await his chance. At least he's not moaning and he's getting good football in the B team. I expected to send Raven on loan this season and play Branderhorst and Kanté, but the emergence of Raven as the starting GK put this on hold. Kanté is a solid player and at par with Raven but I'm going with the homegrown lad and the German will have to wait. Nick Verheul: Another standout from the U-19's last season, where he scored 36 goals in 51 games (28 started), Verheul is the third wheel in my triumvirate of uber talented forwards. Clearly one step below van Mierlo (and a couple off Hansen), he's a year younger and thus will surely get his chance to shine in the senior squad in a few years. If I played with a two forward tactic, Verheul would be in the senior squad, but again, he's not complaining and still getting ample playing time in the youth teams. Michiel Willemse: The best player from the 2023-24 intake, Willemse hasn't improved as much as I'd wanted in his first year in the U-19's. He still is a terrific all around midfielder and 17 years old, but I expected a bit more to come from him in terms of development. If he doesn't improve much further this year he might have to go on loan to a club where he'll play at a higher level. Mihran Nalbandyan: Our top lad from last year's intake, Nalbandyan is a natural defensive midfielder whom I'm converting into a ball playing defender. His physical skills let him down a bit, but I'm sure that he can develop into an interesting prospect in that position if he managed to have a good season in terms of his growth. Also on this list are a lot of the new faces that arrived this summer, Omar Firpo, Sebastián Noce who'll be on the B team this season and Matteo Viggiano, Joaquim Lisboa, Baldo García and Édgar Villa who'll play in the U-19's.Senior SquadB Squad U-19's
Away on Loan
Pre-SeasonI said in the intro it was a strange pre-season. Well when I started off the save I decided it'd be a great idea to add a few "summer tournaments" to add some real life flavor to the save. There was a file floating around in the SI forums and I went for it, adding around 8-9 real life tournaments. I don't know if they aren't good or if they just interfere with the normal summertime of the save, but for the first time we were chosen to play in two of them, The Challenge international du Nord and The Uhrencup. That meant we had to start pre-season around 2-3 weeks earlier than usual (which was fine if you ask me, but don't ask my players) and also that we had to schedule around the draws of the tournaments which are played on phases and delayed by each of the team's fixtures and calendars. We beat Stade Reims in the first game of the Challenge du Nord 3-0, before falling to Everton on the Quarter-Finals 0-2, we then beat Brondby 5-1 in our only non competitive game of the pre-season, to finish the summer winning the Uhrencup, after beating Osasuna 5-2 on aggregate, Newcastle 5-1 on aggregate and Freiburg 3-1 on aggregate. We'll see if this extended pre-season cost us during the season in terms of fitness or if it helps. Micromanaging the training alongside this fixtures every two days was tough, but I rotated heavily and that allowed us to get to the start of the season with almost all senior squad players around 95% match fitness. As I cannot delete this tournaments from the save (and seemingly cannot uninvite myself) if I find them to be an issue I'll just play with youth players and get eliminated quickly in the future. Talking about the start of the season, Ajax manhandled us in the JC Schaal and beat us 0-2, meaning we couldn't revalidate our title from last season. Forecast and Future - We had a summer of big spending, not only due to transfers but also for the stadium and facilities. We have €20M in the bank. - The Stadium is nicely progressing and we're set for a change in 3 year's time. - We drew Zenit in the Third Qualifying Round of the UEFA Champions League I think we're good enough to beat them easily and advance into the Playoff. The Board expects us to get into the UCL Group Stage, but I'm fearing that a tough draw might mean we'll qualify for the UEFA Europa League instead, we'll have to see.
Thanks for reading, heres' hoping for a good season!
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Aug 10, 2020 7:50:23 GMT
Damn, you have so much talent in all those squads! Hansen looks fantastic. Good luck trying to overcome Ajax again in the upcoming season.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 11, 2020 21:01:08 GMT
Damn, you have so much talent in all those squads! Hansen looks fantastic. Good luck trying to overcome Ajax again in the upcoming season. Cheers Dirk! I'm super happy with the quality of the teams and this will allow to us pick the most developed ones to the senior squad and the rest either sold if by 22 they aren't good enough. I'll detail my youth pipeline "philosophy" in the next post. On other news, finally we got a good one over Ajax.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 11, 2020 21:12:05 GMT
That must have been very satisfying.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 12, 2020 4:47:47 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2025-26 October ReportOverviewI decided to push a bit from the typical summer window report as I'm having a ton of fun and couldn't stop playing. So yeah I went for an update at the start of October.Transfers We managed to keep ahold of all our players and didn't sell anyone else. I feared one of the several big teams that are trailing Hansen might try and put up an offer as the Danish lad wanted to move to a bigger club, but none came and I managed to calm Hansen down by saying that he'll be left to go when a team pays his release fee. We did manage a few more players in, nothing big as all three were slightly disappointing compared to what I assessed when scouted, but at least they were cheap and all three for the U-19's. Marco Scansetti came in from Rosario Central for €600k, Richard Lescano from Independiente del Valle for €160k and James Kuoh on a free from Impact Academy. With these, the transfer for the summer window ended up looking like this EredivisieWe started off our Eredivisie campaign with a fantastic 5-0 win over Willem II, with 4 goals from Andreas Hansen and a goal from Aleksandar Todorovski, then lost the derby against Vitesse, with a 1-2 tough loss with our goal froming from Raymond van Mierlo. But after that tough loss we really hit the ground going beating ADO Den Haag 3-0 with goals from Todorovski, Hansen and Reza Mousavi, then beat Feyenooord 1-0 with a goal from Hansen, followed by a 4-0 win over Roda JC with goals from Elkin Bustos, Gabriel Murillo, Yasunobu Muro and van Mierlo, then kept the good times rolling, with the fantastic 6-0 beating of Ajax I showed in the post above. We closed out September with two more wins, a 4-1 over NAC Breda with goals from van Mierlo, Steeven Sánchez, Fabio Cuoco and an own goal, and a 2-0 over Gronigen with goals from Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous and Todorovski.We've been amazing so far, but fuck that loss against Vitesse hurts, it'd been a perfect campaign.UEFA Champions LeagueWe drew Zenit in the Third Qualifying Round and brilliantly beat them, with a 6-0 in St. Petersburg with goals from Cuoco, Todorovski, van Mierlo and a hattrick from Hansen, then sealed the deal with a 2-0 win at Nijmegen with a brace from Hansen. Unfortunately we drew Monaco in the Playoff, and despite bringing our "A Game" and putting up a stellar performance ended up eliminated on away goals after a 0-0 draw in Montecarlo and a 2-2 draw at Nijmegen with goals from Hansen and Villani.Tough luck in the Champions League, but I think the Europa League will be best suited for us to have a long run.UEFA Europa LeagueWe landed on a fairly easy group, with Rangers from Scotland, Zulte Waregem from Belgium and FK Astana from Kazakhstan. We managed to get two nice wins to start off the group, with a 4-0 over the Belgians at Waregem, with goals from Hansen, Bryan Bertrand and a brace from Kelvin Pereira, then a 5-1 over Astana at home, with goals from Pereira, Todorovski, Sánchez and a brace from Hansen.Forecast and Future - We are decently placed in terms of money, with €16M in the bank. Not too much really, but it's just a matter of selling any of our top lads (which will happen eventually) to secure our financial position. - Hansen has been amazing so far, with 19 goals in 20 games played while other top performers have been Reza Mousavi, Steeven Sánchez, Aleksandar Todorovski, Gabriel Murillo, Bryan Bertrand and Kelvin Pereira (all over 7.30 rating).
This has been a wonderful start, albeit the two tough disappointments, losing the Vitesse derby and the UCL elimination.
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Post by Dirk Nowitzki on Aug 12, 2020 7:03:45 GMT
Always love to see Ajax get thumped!
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Post by chaodck on Aug 13, 2020 20:24:15 GMT
NEC Nijmegen2025-26 Midseason ReportOverviewThe start of the season was incredibly promising, as other than the early elimination in the UEFA Champions League preliminary rounds and a tough loss against rivals Vitesse in the league, we cruised in the rest of the games we played, smashing opponents left and right including a magnificent 6-0 win over mighty Ajax.
Transfers We had a bit of transfer news with 4 kids arriving in January, most of them pre-arranged transfers who were waiting to turn the minimum age for transfers of young players. The new faces are Ricardo Rojas from Real Cartagena for €800k, Stephan Bachmann from Leverkusen for €2.2M (plus €500k in fees), Lucas Rojas from Universidad de Chile for €2.7M and finally Carlos César from Internacional for €2.6M. Of the group, Lucas Rojas seems like the best of them, Bachmann might be an interesting player if he develops well, but both Ricardo Rojas and Carlos César are a bit disappointing and less than what I expected from scouting. All players will be slotted on the U-19's and go through the youth pipeline process.
I'm afraid that we won't be able to keep all of my current senior squad players. Twelve players are currently wanted by teams for transfer with Andreas Hansen being the top prize as he's wanted by 11 clubs including Ajax, Atlético, Inter, Liverpool, Roma and Bayern, with the rest of the list including Reza Mousavi (mainly from China), Aleksandar Todorovski (Ajax, PSV, Wolfsburg), Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous (Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, Roma, Juventus), Sandro Villani (Monaco, Lille, Roma, Napoli), Steeven Sánchez (Ajax, Wolfsburg), Bryan Bertrand (Altético, Bologna, Porto), Kelvin Pereira (Crystal Palace, Burnley), Elkin Bustos (Stuttgart), plus younger backups Sebastián Rak, Yasunobu Muro and Daniel Jack. There have been a few offers at the start of the winter window, but nothing to worry about yet. Hansen is the only player with an active release fee (€94M for foreign clubs), so I'm not too worried about a forced exit from anyone.Eredivisie With 7 wins and 1 loss in the first 8 games, our start to the Eredivisie was fantastic and we kept it going with a 3-1 win over Almere City with goals from Elkin Murillo, Sandro Villani and Steeven Sánchez, then we had a 4-0 win over VVV-Venlo, ith goals from Murillo, Fabio Cuoco and a brace from Andreas Hansen. November was a mediocre month as we managed to get two wins to start, a 2-0 win over AZ with two goals from Hansen, then a 4-0 win over PEC Zwolle with goals from Hansen, Bryan Bertrand, Nick Verheul and Albert Kock, but then drew the two remaining games of the month, a 1-1 draw against Heracles Almelo and a 0-0 draw against FC Twente, two games we should've won. December was back on the right track though, as we bagged 4 wins, a 3-1 over VVV-Venlo with goals from Fabio Cuoco, Villani and Todorovski, a 3-0 over Heerenveen with goals from Cuoco, Villani and an own goal, a 5-1 over Almere City with goals from Cuoco, Todorovski, Verheul and a brace from Hansen, then closed out the league with a 4-0 win over NAC Breda with goals Murillo, Rak and another brace from Hansen. We've been fantastic overall. The goals scored and conceded is just a showing of how dominant we've been in the league. The tactical setup clicked and the players have performed at a high level.UEFA Europa League So, we fell in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League. I'm saddened about it, but I think it's for the best as we have a real shot of doing a fantastic Europa League campaign and try and revalidate that Final appearance from a couple years ago. We landed in a good group and dominated it, I'd left you right before a trip to Scotland and we fell in that, losing 0-1 against Rangers, then beat them 1-0 in Nijmegen with a goal from Ben Dahnous. We finally closed out the group with two more wins, a 5-1 over Zulte Waregem with 4 goals from van Mierlo and one from Villani, then a 1-0 win over Astana, with a goal from Daniel Jack.As we won our group, we still don't have a rival for the Knockouts, as we'll play in the 2nd Knockout Round in March.KNVB TOTO Beker Another good start in the Cup, where we are defending champions. We beat AFC in the First Round, 5-0, with goals from Santiago Rak, Yasunobu Muro and a hattrick from van Mierlo then beat FC Utrecht in the 2nd Round, 2-0 with goals from Mousavi and Jack. We'll face PSV in the Third Round, a tough ask.
Youth Intake Preview I'm trying to moderate my hopes here, but this might be the best intake preview I've ever seen in this game. I expect a lot of high PA players, with at least a GK, CM, a Winger and a Striker being touted as good prospects. We'll see later on if the promise is fullfilled.Player Performances Andreas Hansen has been truly amazing, with 28 goals and 4 assists in 32 games, with a 7.54 rating and he followed up his Bravo Award from June, with the Kopa Trophy and the UEFA Golden Boy awards, meanwhile Reza Mousavi has still been our most regular player, with 2 goals and 6 assists in 27 games with a 7.56 rating. Fullback Sandro Villani has been terrific as well, with 7 goals and 6 assists in 34 games, with a 7.45 rating. Other great performances have come from Gabriel Murillo (4 goals in 30 games, 7.43), Steeven "Super Sub" Sánchez (4 goals and 6 assists in 29 games, 7.40), Bryan Bertrand (2 goals, 3 assists, 29 games, 7.38), Aleksandar Todorovski (9 goals, 11 assists, 30 games, 7.38) and Kelvin Pereira (3 goals, 9 assists, 27 games, 7.30) among others.
Forecast and Future - Financially things look pretty bad as we've fallen in the red, with a negative balance of around -(€1M). The high spending of the player and staff wages, plus the loans taken to fund the stadium have hit us hard. I'm not that worried about it though as we'll surely have to sell someone this window or at most next window. We'll have to rely on that and prize money at least for 3 seasons more when we'll move into the new stadium. - Without money, there's no upgrades on the horizon.
We were terrific in this half of the season, hopefully we can keep up the level and mount another title laden season.
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Post by Marshdweller on Aug 13, 2020 20:46:49 GMT
I am continually envious of your save! It was you who inspired me to go back to the Netherlands and I hope to emulate your success at some point.
You must be pleased to be a point clear with two games in hand?! And your players look like they're absolutely smashing it. Best of luck for the second half of the season, let's hope the prize money helps the bank balance too.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 13, 2020 21:15:24 GMT
I am continually envious of your save! It was you who inspired me to go back to the Netherlands and I hope to emulate your success at some point. You must be pleased to be a point clear with two games in hand?! And your players look like they're absolutely smashing it. Best of luck for the second half of the season, let's hope the prize money helps the bank balance too. Cheers mate! I've been lucky, finding quickly something that worked and then shaping the team around that tactical setup. Slow and steady wins the race so don't be disheartened and keep at it. I'm stoked about the league standings, but it's still super tight and any slight loss of form might cost us the title.
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Post by chaodck on Aug 16, 2020 5:28:00 GMT
NEC NijmegenMarch 2026 ReportOverviewIt's been a couple of seasons since I'd done a report in March, but somehow I found myself remembering I did it a few seasons back and as I'm needing a break from Marvel's Avengers Beta, I decided to make a small writeup and then continue playing some FM for the night.
Transfers So, it was a super busy Winter Window, specially after the January update as we had around 15 wanted players in the senior squad. We managed to keep Hansen, who wasn't offered anything, but he's still wanting to go to a bigger club and decided to give me more time to fullfill the promise of him leaving once a team makes use of his release clause. He's now valued at €81M and thus his €96M release clause is looking like a bad business deal, but as he's currently unhappy due to wanting to go to a bigger club he's not interested in renewing his contract. My best bet is that we get a big upgrade in rep after this season and he's willing to renew the contract before the next transfer window. Having said that, we did sell a player, as Real Madrid came knocking for Mohamed Ali Ben Dahnous and despite me talking to the player to try and keep him, the Tunisian was set on going to Madrid and we settled for a terrific €54M offer (€39 up front and €15 on installments). We bought the lad for around €300k so this was a huge deal for the team and will solve our immediate financial issues, despite us losing one of our good players. I also ended up accepting a €42M offer for Sandro Villani, both from Bayern and RB Leipzig, but the Italian decided to reject both contracts and stay with us. Eredivisie We ended up the first semester on a terrific position, one point above Ajax in the table, but with two games in hand. We returned from the break on the same terrific form, beating AZ 3-1 with goals from Raymond van Mierlo and a brace from Andreas Hansen, then beat Utrecht 5-0 to close our January with goals from Daniel Jack and braces from Reza Mousavi and Andreas Hasnsen. We started February with a 2-0 win over PEC Zwolle, with goals from Elkin Murillo and Diogo Fonseca before Ajax beat us narrowly 0-1 with a goal in the 5th minute of stoppage time. We beat Heracles Almelo 4-2 in the next weekend, with goals from Mousavi, Aleksandar Todorovski, van Mierlo and Hansen, and then lost 1-2 against PSV with a lone goal from Sandro Villani, before another quick recovery a 2-1 win over Gronigen with goals from Villani and Todorovski then closed out February with a 2-0 win over Willem II with goals from Steeven Sánchez and Hansen.Ajax has won all six league games after the re-start, so we basically lost all our advantage in the table. There's only one point between me and Ajax now and the league will go down to the wire.UEFA Europa League Not much news here as we won our group and will play in the 2nd Knockout Round. The draw was pretty good and we'll face Borussia Mönchengladbach at the start of March.
KNVB Beker We beat PSV 2-0 in the Third Round, with goals from Villani and Hansen, and all the good luck from the draw in the Europa League didn't join us here because we ended up losing 0-2 against Ajax in the Quarter-Final. Forecast and Future - After selling Ben Dahnous we've improved in the financial side of things, with €31M in the bank. We're still losing some money monthly because of the loans, but it'll offset with the prize money at the end of the year. I don't think we'll have a lot of money to spend in the summer, but we're set pretty decently regarding the squad and talent, and we'll only need quick improving if we sell some players and if we do, we'll have money. - Not much news regarding facilities and things. The intake preview was super promising, so I'm eagerly waiting that.
Short, quick update. Thanks for reading mates.
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stouters
New Member
@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on Aug 16, 2020 18:14:21 GMT
Can I join the I hate Ajax club? I'm sure having them breathing down your neck keeps you and the save on its toes. Your team looks like it can score goals i'm sure you'll be celebrating at the end of the season. Would You consider Borussia Monchengladach your equal in terms of ability?
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