FM18 - The Rise of Sepsi: Romania Strong - FINISHED!!!
 

Hello folks!

I’m not sure where my love of playing teams in lesser European divisions and bringing them to the top came from.

When I began playing FM back when it was still CM, I had two stints with lesser lower profile clubs in the EPL – Ipswich first, and then Bolton. I spent a few years at each, and really tried to learn the game. Then after I had learned the systems, I dove down into lower level English football and invested a lot of time trying to bring teams like Yeovil Town, Wrexham and Carlisle up top.

It was deep into one of my final campaigns as Carlisle when I had just finished a season where they were a few spots short of the promotion playoffs for the EPL, and I got an unusual job offer for Kaiserslautern in Germany. They were offering a large kitty, and wanted to move up. I took the job, and secured one Bundesliga win during my time there, as well as really enjoyed myself.

Next dynasty, I remember this, and I decided to head somewhere hard and far away from England. I chose Ukraine. I took over FC Metalurh Zaporizhya in the Ukrainian top league and took them high.

And I was bitten.

Over the next few years I would play in Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece and such and have a lot of fun doing so. I finally decided to come home and rebuild Crewe Alexandria in England to a EPL club, and then I did Nacional da Madeira at a top flight club in Portugal, built up UD Melillia in Spain, and then took La Liga club Athletic Bilbao to the Champions cup win in its 6th year.

Now it’s time to return to basics and head back east. I want to build a club in a new Eastern European nation that isn’t exactly at the top of the football scrapheap, and turn it into a regional powerhouse.

Welcome to Romania!

Now, why Romania?

Great question!

The one constant in Romanian club football is change. For example, since 1960, no nation has sent more teams to play in European football than Romania, with more than 40 teams making it. There is a constant roil of teams as old teams fade and new teams are made.

For example, take the Top League: Liga One Betano. 23 teams have won the Liga One Betano. (I am going to be nicknaming it the Betano to distinguish it from other leagues with the name “Liga One”).

The winningest club is FC SB, with more than 20 titles, and they are known locally as Steaua. It and Dinamo București have really been the best two teams and have never been relegated. The rest? 99 teams have played in the Betano.

Many teams had early success in pre-WW2 and then were folded during the Iron Curtain days. Many teams were refounded in their image or changed their name.

For example, take Venus București. It was founded in 1914. It won the Liga 8 times before it folded in the last 40s. Then it was refounded in 2014. Now it’s a current team down in Liga V.

FC Petrolul Ploiesti is a bizarre case. Founded in ’24, it had 4 wins and 3 Romanian Cup victories during it’s pre WW2 era. Then it was forcibly relocated during early communism in 52 to Ploesti. In 2014 it fell to massive debt and financial issues, and was refounded by local stars and former players and currently plays in Liga II after winning very quickly. It fact, this was almost a dynasty about Ploiesti!


FC Rapid București is even weirder. It was found in 23. Won 3 times and notched 13 cups. They made it to the quarter finals of the Euro Cup in 2006. In 2016 they went bankrupt, and a lesser team, Academia Rapid purchased the rights and history of the club, and I 2018, rebranded themselves FC Rapid București. That’s bizarre.

That’s Romania.

99 teams have made it to Liga I Betano.

Modern Liga I is basically CFR Cluj and various teams from Bucharest. Cluj was lifted from obscurity with a ton of money from a new owner in the early 2000s, and has since won the Liga I four times (including the year we are about to play in FM2018.) Meanwhile, teams like Steaua, Dinamo, and others are all from Bucharest.

8 teams from Bucharest have won 61 titles. Only 38 titles have been won by the rest of the nation.

This year we have two new teams that were promoted to the Betano that have never been there. Juventus from Bucharest and ACS Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe. (Sepsi). In real life, Juve falls but Sepsi remains, and hit 12th (out of 14).

The Meteoric Rise of Sepsi


After a popular local team folded in the city of Sfântu Gheorghe (St. George), called Oltul Sfântu Gheorghe, due to financial difficulties, this team was founded, with the name of the old one as OSK in it’s name as the continuation of the previous team in spirit. Like a legacy team.

The best that Oltul had ever gotten was 2nd in Liga II and it missed the playoff to make it to the top.


Sepsi was founded in 2011.

Sepsi played in 2011-12 in Liga V and they won and made it out in 2012

In 2012-3, Sepsi played in Liga IV. They notched 2nd place, but lost in the playoffs.

In the 2013-14 season, Sepsi won the Liga IV outright and made it to Liga III (the winner of a lower level league just gets the #1 seed in the promotion playoffs – they made it to the final game and won in extra time penalty kicks.

In 2014-15, they finished Liga III in 3rd place, and were continuing to push themselves to greatness, expanded their stadium and such. They did not win their play-up games.

In 2015-16, they won Liga III and made it to Liga II and this was huge news for the new regional team.

In 2016-17, continuing the drive to succeed, they got 2nd place in their first year in the penultimate league, and then won promotion.

This is the first time any team from St. George will make it to top flight play.


After getting Sepsi from Liga V to I in 6 years, winning their respective division three of those times, manager Valentin Suciu was a hot commodity.

(I am editing the real life history of the club after the 2017 season to make the manager change realistic – this is all made up from here).

He was selected to replace the manager of Lviv in Ukraine’s top league, with a big wallet.


Sepsi’s board made a bold decision.

They didn’t just want to fight bravely against relegation. They didn’t want to just spin their wheels, get some financial stability, and then take their parachute payments and head back down. They had overachieved by any measure. But they made it here because they were lean and hungry. They wanted a manager who was as well.


That was Dr. Maximillian Surubaru, Ph.D....

Dr. Maximillian Surubaru, Ph.D.


Born in the unofficial capital of Transylvania, Cluj, Maxi was born of a blue-collar mining family here in the mountains of Transylvania. Before his earliest memory, they moved to Covasna County, a very rural part of the Carpathian Mountains. Covasna County is the second least populous county in Romania. Like most mountain peoples, they mostly lived in the valleys, and thus they lived jam-packed closer together along rivers and valleys, rather than spread out.

They lived in a small hollow up a mountain about 25 minutes from the county capital of St. George, where his father secured work at the Căpeni Coal Mine, the largest in Romania, in Baraolt.



Unlike his father, grandfather, and uncles, Maxi didn’t take to coal mining. He displayed a strong and keen sense of sporting, as well as a love of gaming. From video gaming to sports, he was drawn to the intellectual side of games. He would outthink people twice his age at board games, was the local winner of a chess tournament in St. George at 14, and more. All of the people of the hollow where he grew up were suitably proud of him and his accomplishments, and Maxi was the pride of them. Maxi played the game quite well, and was brought in at the U17 level for Romanian National team after doing well at the local club, Oltul.

At the age of 16, Maxi was offered a hot prospect contract by two Liga I clubs, Cluj and Concordia. Maxi chose to remain close to home, and went to Cluj. He played in the Cluj youth system for three years, was loaned out to lower level Romanian clubs, and was never really caught on. His greatest achievement was helping a club in Liga III get to promotion playoffs and barely losing on PKs in extra time as a loaner. He did make the U19 squad for Romania during this run.

When his contract finished, Maxi had offers from five clubs, all Liga III or IV. He didn’t want to be playing at that level as one of those “Where is Maxi now” type stories, of someone who was once on the U19 Youth Team for Romania, but never made it higher. Plus, Maxi had always been more intellectually challenged by the game, specifically tactically.

Maxi decided to leave football behind as a career, and enrolled in Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University, one of the highest rated universities in Eastern Europe, and historically a major central house of knowledge for the region, with multiple Nobel winners, and one of the great chess clubs in Europe.

Maxi’s enrollment in the major university was a big day and a holiday of sorts was declared in his small hollow as everyone gathered to see the 19 year old Maxi off.

Maxi arrived, and embraced St. Petersburg as his new home for eight years. He studied chess under former chessmaster David Bronstein who now taught there, as well as has major, Environmental Studies. He enjoyed it so much that he stayed after getting a lower level degree, and defended his dissertation and was a doctor by 25, the sixth youngest doctorate that year of the few hundred or so to get their terminal degrees.

While in the city, Maxi developed a passion for local club, Dynamo St. Petersburg, in the 2nd division of the nation. While there, Maxi’s own history for Romanian came into play, and he was welcomed into the youth development of the city’s football programs as a scout for Dynamo and Zenit, the bigger club in St. Petersburg.

Two years later, Maxi has developed into a youth coach on the side to develop skills of those here in the city, and he was really well known for teaching people the tactics and mental side of the game. Seeing his success, Zenit approached him to be a youth coach for them, teaching tactics.

Maxi’s teaching and research has reached a natural end, as the research dollars were not there for environmental studies in Eastern Europe. He moved to teach part-time and took the full-time youth couch gig for Zenit.

Three years later, Maxi was considered the best tactics coach in Russia and he was teaching the senior squad. He had stopped teaching as the money from coaching had outpaced the others, and he was the tactics coach for the senior squad at Zenit. He was involved in planning tactics for Zenit, and helped to push them to a EURO win in 2010. In 2011, Maxi was successful moving to an Assistant Manager role for another club in Russia - FC Anzhi Makhachkala. Anzhi had just been purchased by a mega-billionaire, and he was invested in heavily upgrading the staff, personnel, and infrastructure. Maxi Surubaru was one of the folks who came into a new Anzhi. In 2011/12 it finished at 5th in the Russian Premier League, then 3d in 12/13. However, serious financial issues and scandals arose, and it was relegated next year for 13/14. After that, big names and staff were let out of jobs, and Maxi lost the Assistant Manager job three years after getting it.


Maxi had been a bright rising star of Russian tactical football, but was not making any short lists for selection for another AM role.

Then Maxi saw a job open back home. And he applied for it instead. Based on his success with youth in Zenit Russia, in 2014, Maxi took over as the U19 Youth Manager for Romania. He takes over the U21 after the coach there left for Saudi Arabia.

Its 2017, and at 41, Maxi is now the manager of the U21 squad at Romania. He won qualification to the 2017, U21 Euro Championships in Poland, but lost early. But it was just the 2nd time in Romanian history that they even had made it to the final 12. He also used these years to finish his qualifications.

After winning qualification, Maxi’s name and history became a big name in Romanian football. He was the old kid come home and take the U21 national squad to success. Maxi agreed to take over newly promoted Sepsi and to push their push. After the U21 Euro Championships finished, Maxi took over the newly promoted team.

And the board looked back and smiled. They had gotten their man. He was born and lived here in the county growing up, played for their spiritual predecessor in St. George, and had been successful managing at the national club level in Romania. Dr. Maximillian Surubaru was their guy.

Dr. Maximillian Surubaru
Romanian/Russian
Age: 41, born in Cluj
Favorite Teams – Dinamo St. Petersburg; Zenit
Can also speak Russian, English and Ukrainian
Tactical Head Coach Style
Continental Pro License,





Active:

All Eastern European Leagues, all major other European leagues, and Brazil/Argentina


I have not played FM 17 or Fm 18, so this is a newer experience for me. Ready?

The Rules of Romania:

Liga I Betano:

14 clubs, 26 games.

Match Rules:

Must be one U22 Romanian in Top 11

Match Squad Must have at least four players trained in Romania

Squad Registration –

Maximum 25 players

No more than 5 EU players

EU includes both EU nations and Cotonou signees

At least four players training at Sepsi

At least eight players trained in Romania


Quals:

Top six teams are placed in playoffs for Champion play. Two make it to the Champions Cup; 3 make it to the Euro Cup.

Cluj is suspended for Euro qualifications this year

Here is Sepsi and St. George










Sepsi:











The Fans are known as the Székely Légió, or Szekler Legion.





JOIN THE LEGION!!!








Ready?

This looks like fun! Love the pics can't wait for you to get the preseason underway.

I'm glad you like it! Join the Legion!

I meet with the Board:

No specific philosophies


My Assist Man:

Sebastian Moga –

His report:





As you can see, we have some serious weaknesses. We are good in defense and weak in loads of other places, and we also lack things like passing, leadership, teamwork, and such.

This is another reason that Maxi was a good choice for the squad. He brings strengths to these weaknesses

Moga will set up friendlies, and I’ll run them


We are currently 6k/week under our budget of 35k Euros.


Several players were already brought in for the new campaign, including DC Viera.

We have almost no scouts, so I look for some to bring in to the team.

I fire a bad coach

I offer scout roles to a Serbian, Portuguese, Argentinean, and Polish; Spaniard for my Chief Scout


I actually find an AssMan I like a TON more than Mora. I send Mora off on a First Day release and make an offer to:

Goran Saula, 46 year old Serbian, professional AssMan who has been the AssMan of Serbian National team, Vojvodina and others. He’ll be coming here. He’s been out of football for almost 2 years, so he is happy to come to us, and he is taking a below market deal to do so. Goran, a former Serbian international, was a whole lot better that anyone else available who was willing to come work for us.

He has a 4 star defending training, and we’re good to go there.

Okay, time for a deep dive into looking at muh squad

I ask the board for permission and finances to increases our scouting database to eastern Europe from Romania. They agree.

Squad:






GK Victor Rimniceanu – This is our most valuable player at 600k. 27 years old. Romanian – best stuff is aerial 15, jump 14, and such. 13 reflexes and handling, 12 1:1s, command of area, and kicking. 1 footed and not very good at technique. He’s pretty good for this level. He stated the last two years for Viitorul, and they won the Betano (Liga I) last year.

We have 3 backup GKs, none of which are big deals. My 4th string GK is 27 year old Bogdan Miron, and I might look to move him soon.



Defenders:



DC Viera, 30 years old, Ivorian, new addition to the team, str of 15; 14, 13, and 12 are the key defensive stats. 16 fitness, and his mental stats are all strong, with stuff like 16 bravery, 14 aggression, composure, 13 at concentration, determination, etc. Poor first touch.




DC Ionut Ursu, 28 year old rotation player, not great, not that fast, savvy, good on the ball, or high jumping, just average at everything. Our coaches thing Ursa is good for the next level down, and poor degermation is a problem.

DC Constantin Dima, 17 years old, came through other youth ranks, youth deal, our coaches love his potential, he’s also got good mental stats such as 12s in determination, work rate, aggression, and such. Physically he’s 13/12/12 on the main D stats, and then 12 jump, 14 fitness, 11 acc, 12 str. On loan from another Bucharest club.

I like Dima and where he might go. I hand him a shortlist.



DR Albert Damau, Spain – 25 years old, rotation player, our coaches don’t like him at all. He’s not suited for this league of play, weak in air. He has two thing we like – speed and mental stuff – determined and such.



DC/DMC Sebastian Ghinga – 30 years, old, rotation, again, he’s a Liga II player, not Liga I, he is a leader on the team. He’s not going to win any awards, but his mentals are strong. But he’s not good elsewhere.

DC/DMC / MC – Marius Burlacu, 31 year old, he has 12s for his DC stats (these are marking, tackling, and heading, btw) , low passing, not good. He has a backup role, and I congree.





Someone is happy to join Sepsi!!! (Jure!)


DC/DR, DMC, MC Jure Obsivac, Croatia, 27 years old, key player role, stamina and fitness are 16 each, and then 12s in mark, pass, and tack (10 heading), 14 determination, 15 work rate, etc. Our coaches feel that Obsivac’s major issue is finding as role on the pitch and aerial ability. He is good, according to them, at bravery and is considered a physical player





DL Daisuke Sato, 22 years old, first team, already been capped 32 times by the Philippines, our coaches think that he’s not good for this level of play, but could be. He’s technically good – 11/11 pass/cross, 12 tack, 11 technique, 12 dribbling, etc. His 15/14 speed makes him one of the fastest players we have and he has solid stamina. He has no heading, jumping, strength, and such. His work rate is 15, 14 aggression, 12s in brave, and off the ball (OTB) and 11s in position, decisions, concentration, etc.



DL Florin Dumbrava – Backup role, 22 years old, his technical stats are better than Sato’s by far. 13/12 cross/pass, 13 mark, etc. He’s also my first solid set-piece person with 15 long throws. He’s also a bit savvier than Sato as well. He doesn’t have any 15s or 14s, but he’s at at least 10 almost everywhere. But Florin is not a physically gifted footballer. 9/10 speed, 6 agi, 11 fitness, 13 stamina, 9 jumping, you get the idea.



That’s our defense. I am sure that the ream probably had, in mind for defense, Damau, Sato, Viera and then Obsivac and rotating in Ursa, Dima, Dumbrava or Ghinga in and out. I don’t like that. Only Viera owns his role, and Obsivac marks me more as a DMC than a DC. Neither of these fullbacks have crossing or passing or magic like you want out there. I just don’t see it.

What about my midfield?


Midfield:


DMC/MC Miloslovan Petrovic, Macedonia, 27 years old, on loan, First Team role, weak technical stats – 11 pass, 12 mark, 14 tack, nothing else of value is in double digits. 14/12 speed, 15/14 fit/stam, and no mental stat, save for leadership, that’s useful for him is below 10. Not bad for this level of play.






He’s also happy to join Sepsi!


MC Alejandro Rodriguez, Spain, 23 years old, First Team role, our coaches like him for Liga II, not good in the air or first touch, but great in other places. Technique - I like his 13 passing, 12 mark and tackling, and 11 technique, 10 first touch. Mental? I like his 13 decisions, team work, positioning, OTB, and 12 work rate, determination, aggress, anticipation, etc. For physical, he’s 11/9 fast, so yuck. He has nothing special. His highest stat is 13 fitness. I do like that he has some solid physical and technical skills defensively. He can be more of a ball control middle sort of for me.


M/AM RLC Nick Ross, Scotland,25 yeas old, backup, ummm……yuck. Wow is he not good. The best our coaches can say is that he fits in and is versatile on the pitch, playing a lot of positions. Next?






M/AM RL – Patrick Petre, First team, 20 years old, on loan, I add him to my shortlist, and such. I don’t like his lack of passing and crossing, but he’s good with other things like speed at 14/14 and 13 technique, 14 flair, determination, and such. He’s interesting.






Welcome to Sepsi, Felipe!

M/AL RL – Felipe Olivera, Portugal,33 years old, rotation, he is, technically speaking, my best middle ( I think) that I’ve seen thus far). 13/13 cross/pass, 13s in dribbling, first touch, long shots, corners. 12 technique. Just 10/9 speed, 13/13 fitness and stamina, mentally he’s good in places although not aggressive or brave. From 14 work rate and flair down to 8 brave. Not bad. I do like that he’s set piecing it up.



AMC Alexandru Chirita – 20 years old, broke his foot, hot prospect, he’s very, very green, but our coaches like his potential, but he’s the worst of the folks I’ve seen thus far. And he’s injured




He’s the best player to come through our youth ranks…

AM RLC Yasin Hamed – 17 years old, hot prospect, he is much better now and looks to be better than Chirita. He’s our best prospect. 12/13 speed, 12 agi, that’s it of note for physical, and then 11 technique and 10s in lots of other places, 12 work rate, 11 determination, flair, 12 brave, and that’s it for mentals. I might give him a few starts or subs here and there, but I’ll look to loan Chirita.






AM RLC Ibrahima Tandia, 23 years old, Mali, key player. He’s probably our third best player after Viera
and GK Rimniceanu.


Tech – 11/12 cross pass; 13 drib, 12 1st touch and technique; 11 free kick and pks,
Mentals – 14 flair, 11 off the ball, anticip, work rate, 10s in composure and concentration
Physical – 15 in acceleration, 14 in pace, agility, 12 baalne, str, fitness,

So he’s weak mentally but fine elsewhere.

Alright, now….


Attackers:


AMC, ST – Benjamin Kuku, Nigeria, 22 years old, on loan, first team (why?),

Phy – Everything is an 13 or 14 save for jump at 11

Tech – Finishing is 8, 11 dribb is the highest stat, four are at 10.

Mental? 14 work rate, 12 OTB, flair, determination, 11 brave, teamwork, 10 vision, decisions, composure

Yuck. Not a starter.

AM RL , ST – Istvan Fulop 27 years old, on loan, first team, every physical stats is 11 save for 12 speed. Tech – 13 free kick, long shots, 12 cross, dribb, first touch, technique; 11 finish and pass; mentals – 13 OTB, 12 & 11 have eight other stats.

Now Fulop is not a bad option. Better than Kuku




Yes Sir! I do have the best name in football. I’m…

AM L, ST Attila Hadnagy, 36 years old, captain, rotation rule, 14 pk, 13 tech and head, 12 finish, pass, 11 first touch, dribb; 11/12 speed, 13 jump, 12 fitness, just an 8 stamina; 18 leadership, 15 wok rate, 14 vision, deter, 13 team, concent; 12s everything else save for 8 flair.

Attila is still a monster. I see him starting over Kuku all day long.

Here’s our last first team player:






ST Marko Simonovski, 25 Macedonia, First Team, no physical stat lower than 11 or higher than 13, mentals – 14 brave, concentr, 13 aggress, decisions; 12 flair,otb, 10 vision; 14 heading, 12 PKs, technique, 11 first touch and dribbling10 finish, long, shots.

Not that great really. Why did my predecessor have three strikers with first team roles and another with rotation who’s actually the best? That makes no sense

DC - Viera, Obsivac
D R, L – Sato, Dalmau

ML – Tandia

MR – Oliviera

MC – Petrovic, Rodriguez

ST - Hadnagy, Fulop


And then look to rotate in players like Simonovski, Hamed, Petre, Ghinga, and such.

We brought in too many loaners that aren’t good. Like Kuku.

I’d rather sign and develop my youth than another’s.

I need savvier players, better set pieces, and more.

Now a 4-4-2 tosses Damau out there, and he ain’t that good.

I name Viera my Vice-Captain

What tactics should I use?

Let’s take a quick look at the rest of Liga I.

4-5-1 – 6

4-2-3-1 – 5 (with 2 DMCs)

4-4-2 - 2

That’s weird.

I am going to be using a 3-5-2. It’s my favorite formation. I use it all day long. And 3-5-2 works very well against various types of 4-5-1, as I have three DCs against your lone striker. I also have doubling the attack power as you, and I match your 5 middies with my 5 middies. It makes sense. You can move the ball out wider more easily, so I run my 3-5-2 with more well-rounded wingers that can play well, but a 3-5-2 should prove very useful in a world of 4-5-1.

4-5-1’s lack offensive creativity. So a 3 DC defense is arguably harder to penetrate than a 2 DC, 2 Fullback set up.

Who am I running in a 3-5-2?

DC - Viera, Obsivac, Ursu

ML – Sato

MR – Oliviera

MC – Petrovic, Rodriguez, Tandia

ST - Hadnagy, Simonovsky

That’s better. I like Sato much better at the ML spot here given how well rounded he is. Tandia moves in to an MC role that I am probably going to break out to more of an AMC one. And then we add in Ursu at DC.

I gave Rodriguez a Deep Lying Playmaker role which suits his skill set. Actually, no I think Petre is better at MR in this set up than Oliviera.

I order around 60 scouting assignments to begin.

I offer to extend three decent youthers I have on my youth team. No wordbreakers or anything out there though.


As you saw above, we don’t have a lot of transfer cash to chase folks.

What would I want?

A ST who can finish. A DC that’s good for a 3-5-2. An authentic AMC (all of my AMs aren’t good here.) And talent everywhere

I make an enquiry for Petre. I like him enough to develop him. Are Dinamo interested in moving him?


I can see you are making promises for folks now before signing them.

I reach out to:

18 year old Romanian ST Gabriel Dodoi, hot prospect
18 year old Romanian ST Andrei Dumiter, hot prospect
30 year old Bulgarian DC Borislav Stoychev, first team

I hit the continue button for the first time in this dynasty….

Despite the low value of the player, the team wants more than 2.4 mill for Petre. So I cancel it


Two days later, Dumiter arrives. He’s rawer, and more of a hot prospect.

I offer my 3rd string youther Gk for loan, actually I go ahead and do the 2nd one as well. I also loan Chiritia.


I make an offer to MC Mahamane Traoure of Mali, a capped Mali player.

Two days later, Borislav joins us





DC Borislav Stoychev – My first major signing. 2.3k/week, first team, Bulgarian:

Technique – 14 mark, heading, 13 tack, 11 first touch, 10 passing, PK, technique

Mentals – 14 work rate, positioning, bravery, 13 aggress, determination, decisions, etc

Phys – 10/10 speed, 15 jump, 16 fitness, 14 str and stamina, 9 agility

He is exactly what I want in an DC in a 3-5-2. Faster than your typical 7/7 guys, powerful in the air to shut down crosses, and good on tackling and marking, keys to not getting scored on. He’s muh guy.

I cancel the loan on DC Lima.

Ursu is concerned about being replaced but the captain talks to him and he’s fine.

My Spanish scout knows of a nasty potential DC languishing on Sevilla’s C team. We approach.

I make offers so some other youthers. I’ll let you know if they sign.

I still covet ST Dodoi and MC Mahamane.

Youth agreements:

ST Krysten Popiela, Polish, 18 years old, hot prospect.

AM RLC Emil Abaz, Macedonian, 18 years old, hot prospect

Traore joins us!



Hush Now, and join the legion!



A/MC Mahamane Traoré – 28 years old, first team, 3.7k/week, 30 caps

Physical – 14 agility, 13 pace, accel, 12 balance, stam, 10 fitness

Tech – 14 1st touch, dribb; 13 passing, technique; 12 tack, long shots, cross, 11 corners, long throws, marking, PK

Mental – 15 flair; 13 vision, 12 work rate, team, determinnation, composure; 11 OTB, anticip, 10 decisions, concentration


What’s not to like for this level? He’ll start for loanee Petrovic in the center, and I cancel his loan and send him back. I even have another Mali player, so they can connect and such.

I meet with my squad. We’re going to do well, and avoid relegation!

A day later, we got him:





ST Gabriel Sodoi – Romanian, on the U19 squad nationally and was known to new manager Maxi, he is pretty good as a future star. Hot prospect. 550/k week, three year deal.

Phys – 13 pace, balance, 12 agility, accel, stamina, 11 jump, 10 str, fitness

Tech – 12 finish, 11 heading, PK, 10 first touch, technique, dribbling, passing

Mental – 13 off the ball, 12 work rate, determ, 11 flair, composure, decisions, aggression, 10 bravey


I hook up Sodoi and our captain ST Attila.


He’s a good prospect for us. I cancel Kuku’s loan.

I convince my board to get more coaches, but I fail to convince them to do a Trial Day.

I hire a Romanian Coach who’s good at teaching shooting. He signs and will give us 3.5 star training there.

My Seven Goals for Sepsi:


1. Create a powerful U19 squad. At the beginning of this game, we didn’t have a youth squad, just three players of note and value. Youth are the lifeblood of any team. I need to go out and sign out and jumpstart a new squad.
2. To do well enough this year to not get relegated.
3. Ideally, to do well enough this year to have a winning record.
4. Next year, to move Sepsi up to the Top 6, to qualify for the Romanian Champions Playoffs.
5. In following years to increase Sepsi’s chances to make it out of Romania
6. To turn Sepsi into an Eastern European Powerhouse like Dynamo Kiev, Sparta Prague, and such
7. So secure financial footing to cement Sepsi into that role after I leave, so that Sepsi will not fade but will remain strong.

In training, Petre is lightly injured for a week.


I make an offer to transfer in Petre. He works well, he’s young, he can develop more, and he has a minimum release clause of 40k. I go to my board and the agree to make an offer for Petre.


I link up my two Gks for tutoring.



We sign Petre officially for 2.5k/week first team deal for three years

Uh oh. Romania just dropped their 2nd Champion slot!

We sign Petre officially for 2.5k/week first team deal for three years

We get the season expectations. For, Steer Clear of Relegation, I am offered:


Transfer Budget – 650k
Salary – 48500k

That ain’t bad. Especially if I like where my squad is at

I go to my board and ask for upgrades to training and youth facilities. They say yes to training, but not to youth. I let it slip, and a day later they announce they are expanding both.


With my cash flush situation, anyone I want to look at now I can sign folks on contracts?

I hand out about 10 trials to unsigned youth from outside of my scouting radius, like South America and Africa.

I make a few offers for depth for my U19 squad.

I sign

ML Gianmarco Grimaldi, Italy
AM RL< ST Gabriel Morbeck, Brazil
M/AM C Aron Dobos, Hungary
ST Edi Koff, Croatia
D/M R Viveros, Brazil
MC Jean Patric, Brazil (France)
MR Jones Asare, Ghana
AM/M RC Morlaye Sylla, Guinea

I’ll let you know if they ever matter


Our first friendly arrives, and we are hosting it vs Dacia. I won’t go into too many details. It’s a friendly after all. 1-1 tie.


I secure a feeder club with my board.

I sign a Russian young player who looks good for 75k. Kirill Kolenchenko. He will join us in January.


June 27 arrives and with it the home friendly vs Slavia Prague. We lose 3-1. (Sato scored)

Yasin Hamed is injured for a week from an injury from the game.

Due to club protests the 2022 World Cup is moved to Australia

We have the highest odds for relegation

Welcome to July!

July


1 July – Friendly vs Zrinjski
7 July – Friendly vs Austria Wien
17 July – Away vs Voluntari, Liga I
22 July – Home vs Botonsani
28 July – Away vs Viitorul
I am given the potential 4 clubs the board narrowed it to:

Sacele – Romania Liga IV
Rasnov – Romania Liga IV
Papuati = Romania Liga IV
Ozun – Romania Liga IV

Hmmmm


My choice would be Rasnov. It’s the only one that’s not a amateur club

The board agrees and Rasnov is our new affiliate

The transfer window rises

I transfer list DL Florin Dumbrava.

Friendly? We win 1-0 (score by Tandia).

We’ve sold a mighty 500 season tix and expect another 100 ish.


Final Friendly? We lose 2-1. (Traore to Simonovski for the score) I was hoping to strengthen them for higher level play. We’ll see if that worked.

This year is likely to be the first year in the history of our club that it’s going to have a losing season!


Their record each year:

(I can’t easily find results anywhere in English for years 1 and 3, in real life they would finish 5-4-17 for this first year in Liga I, I’m confident we’ll do better with our influx of talent. My guess is we’ll be around 7-7-10 and finish with 31 points over their 19 points. That would be enough to get you to 9 from 12.)

2012 –
2013 – 22-4-4
2014 -
2015 – 14-4-4
2016 – 22-2-2
2017 – 21-8-5






Let’s move off from the pre-season, and kick this thang off!

By the way, like most of this region of the Carpathian mountains, St. George is, considerably, more Hungarian than Romanian. It was founded in the early 1300s, used to be Hungarian, and still have more than 70% Hungarian folk living here.


I linkup Traore and Aron Dobos.

Game #1 – Voluntari – We aren’t expecting loads of wins this year. So starting off with one would be awesome. We are in counter for my base strategy this year, and we’ll begin that way today as well. In the first 25 minutes, we both exchange solid chances. Then off a wonderful move where six players pass the ball back and forth quickly, Hadnagy finds Simonsvski for a score in the 38th minute. They get a yellow, then another. Half. Don’t get complacent. Sato injures their winger in the 55th and he heads off. The second half, thus far, is all Voluntari. We had even shots early, and now they are 12 total to our 5. I pull Tandia for Hamed. I send in Ursu for Rodriguez and swap him and the DC Jure. I want some fresh legs. They score in the 73rd, but it’s offsides. Burlacu for Traore. A third yellow for our foes follows. Obsivac gest a yellow in extra time and….we win 1-0. We had 8 shots to their 22. We’ll take it. DC Viera was MOM. That was great lads!


Because we need a powerful youth squad, anytime someone is coming to me and saying, “Hey I’m unsigned and would love to play for you” if they are young enough, I have been offering them Trials.


I make an offer to retain:

MR Andre Franco, Portugal


Florin Dumbrava is injured for a few weeks,

Game #2 – Home vs Botosani. It’s downpouring rain, by the way. They score in the 6th minute. Uh oh. But we crawl back. Sato hits goal in the 15th minute. Assist by Tandia. Then they score again in the 26th, and it’s 2-1 them at the half. I send in Dodoi, who scores in the 54th minute off a Attila assist,. In goes Ursu. They grab a goal in the 78th, and we can hit again, and we lose 3-2.


Today, we were out played. We had 18 shots to their 11, and such. So, you win and lose in the same way. Still, two games in and we have 3 points. I can’t fault the results thus far.


Chiritu is aback from his broken foot. I have placed him on loan

I sign, for my youth squad:

Gk Vittorio Antonio, Italy
M RLC Hanson Boakai, Canada
D RLC, DMC Petr Rys, Czech Republic
MR Sergey Boglaevskiy (15 years old), Russia/Romania
DC Martin Kubik, Czech, 15 years old
M RLC Kick de Geode, Dutch



Game #3 – Viitorul is the current champion, so this is a dangerous game. Away at the previous champ. This spells woodshed time for Sepsi. We have a boring 0-0 first half. Although they are getting frustrated and card. At the 55 mark I send in Ursu for Tandia and pull that position to a DMC one to help with defense. At the 65 minute mark they have had 22 shots to our 7. At some point in time, they are going to crack our goal. Oliveira for Sato. They score in the 73rd. I send in my best corner, loanee Fulop. Maybe we can magically produce one on set pieces. Nope. We lose 1-0. Close. So close….


4 of my staff aer working on various coaching licenses, by the way

Best.Soccername.Ever.

August


6th – Home vs Astra Giurgiu
11th – Home vs Medias
19th - Away vs Dinamo Bucharest
26th – Away vs IASI


We loved the training that Sato did this month

MC Rodriguez is injured and out for a few days He’ll miss the Astra Giurgiu match.

WHOA!

I just found a youther DC who’s pretty solid. One of the issues I’ve been having defensively is that while one of my best DCs by talent is not bad, he’s just not a DC, and that’s Jure. He’s not good aerially or stuff, but he’s not bad, he’s just playing in the wrong place on the pitch. I found a 16 year old Slovakian youth player who’s really, really strong, and I just made him an offer to come join us.



Game 4 – Astra Giurgiu. I am starting Ursu and moving Jure to Rodriguez’s middie position. I drop him to DMC Ball winning playmaker with support role, where he is best. In the 16th minute we score a nice goal. Sato takes a nice long shot, deflects off the keeper after he makes a great diving save to defect it, and then Simonsvski sinks it. Then they score one back in the 27th. Yuck. It’s even at the half. You can still win this! I pull out a disappointing Attilla Hadnagy for Istvan Fulop. Then in the 65th minute I pull an underwhelming Stoychev for Marius Burlacu. A goal of thiers is called off sides in the 72nd minute. Simonsvski is banged up, and I send in Gabriel Dodoi in the 81st minute. Then in the 87th minute, it happens. We score. Traore feeds a nasty ball to Fulop on an attacking run, Fulop is double marked, and he finds Dodoi. Dodoi is marked as well, and unselfishly heads the ball to an unmarked Tandia instead of trying it himself. Tandia finishes. 5 minutes of injury time ebb off the clock. Jure with a yellow We win 2-1. MOM is Patrick Petre.

Marko tore his shin and is out for a week. He’ll miss the Medias game

I know! How could I now sign him?


Also we had someone in our league who's name is Helio Baptista, but because the font makes "i" and "l" look very similar, it looks like his name is Hello Baptista. It's like his name is a sentence, and I shout out Hello Baptista every time I see him name.

I really want to get back into FM, but Eastwood folded. I'm not sure who I'd play with now!

You could hit random team!

Good start! 6 points out of your first 4 games is excellent. Would love to see a screen shot of your young Slovakian DC find as well.

Sure thing! As soon as I lock him down....


Hey if you told me we’d be at 6 points in four games, I would have taken it too.


In champions play, one of our teams took out CSKA Moscow in quals. Another lost to Plzen. Now our remaining club has to face Dinamo Kiev to get to the Group Stage.

My board refuse to increase our scouting range.

Initially I was seeing Sepsi as this great beacon of Eastern European folks, but many of them aren’t EU, like Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Macedonia, etc. So it’s been weird to make these scouting things.


I think Africa is the key to unlock success. Most sub-Saharan nations count as Contonou signees, and thus are EU for our purposes. I want to great that next great Nigerian footballer or South African hope. Plus, I won’t need the same potential to succeed as someone like AS Monaco or Celta would need for their leagues.

YES!

I got him. Jakub joins us.

Now, I couldn’t get him for a hot prospect deal, we had to sign him to First Team 2.5k, but you’ll see in a moment that was okay. Oh, and I had to spend some cash to the lower division team that had him on a youth deal to sign him off them directly.



I’ll try to give you a screenshot of any new-gen characters come across. He comes in already smashing people (he has a youth contract until later in August when he is 17 and signs his full time deal). He is, already, my best DC. His defensive stats are strong at 13/14/15. Sure, I’d like a better passing, but I’m okay with that. His jump is okay at 13, I’d like more like 14-15 or more here, but that’s fine. 12/11 speed is good for DC. Stamina? Strength? He’s fine. And he’s got a powerful bravery, as ell as good teamwork, work rate, determination, decisions, and positioning. Normally someone develops their mentals later, but he’s already good. Shoot, he might be a wonderkid that was available for cheap, although I suspect a bigger club would have grabbed him. I suspect he might be more of an “early bloomer” who’s almost as good as he’ll get, given our scout reports. But he ain’t bad, and I’ll look to move him into my rotation soon.

For 16 Jakub is stellar. And while he might be that early bloomer he looks good enough now and with a little improvement potentially for a long time in Sepsi's back line.

The Legion welcomes him along with all the other newcomers!

Speaking of which, now that I have him here, I want to talk about three disappointments on my team thus far:

AMC – Tandia – He scored and had an assist, but he has not looked the part. I would be willing to try it out a little longer, but…..

I am puling Tandia’s AMC spot. I don’t have a good AMC. I have good AMR and AML, but not AMCs.

Instead I am moving the AMC role to DMC, where I have a ton of talent.

DC Stoychev – He had a 6.30 rating last game, and has been the lowest rated of my DCs, and often of my entire team, in every game and friendly he has started. Urzu has been fine, so I am moving Urzu into the starting role for a bit. And then I’ll slide Jure to DMC. Expect me to give Jakub a start for the Medias game, so I can give him some match play, before moving him for the tougher away games vs heavies in the Liga I.

ST Attila Hadnagy – Sad face.

Awesome! I like him too, he th'e first signing that feels like it to could push us, you now?

Game #5 – Medias – I am starting back Rodriguez, Sato is benched for Felipe Oliviera, and new signee is out here as well as Urzu and not Tandia. Medias is 13th right now in the league. Sodoi is getting his first start for an injured Simonsvski.

HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP.

I’m playing against my Rondon!



Mario Rondon was my starting striker over at Nacional da Madeira when I took over, and he was, again, one of my older, strong strikers that I find I can unlock well after arriving, and he was muh guy. I didn’t realize that, in real life, he came to Romania! In fact he had the most goals in a season for me for all of European top flights for Portugal’s top flight.




Here's my old dynasty if you want to check out just how awesome Rondon was for me:

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...ad.php?t=88678


After retirement, he joined my staff, worked his way up to AssMan, and then took over the team after I retired. RONDON!!!!

I am going to do everything to beat you. And then I’ll apologize afterward. I know how to stop you. I move to tackle hard, keep possession, and countering. We are going to punch Rondon in the face. Metaphorically (I hope).


Back to our normal match already underway, and Petre is knocked in the 8th minute. I decide to pull him for Tandia. It’s raining heavily. We injure two of their non-Rondon players. They collect a yellow. Half, 0-0. We have 3 shots, 2 on target, they have 3 and 0. We have 9 fouls to their 5. Beat RONDON!!!! I pull Rodriguez for Nick Ross, to see what he can do. In the 67th, Hadnagy has a perfect shot he can’t keep on target. Traore intercepts a pass dangerously, feeds Hadnagy in the box, misses. We have to get shots on target to score. I pull Hadnagy for Fulop. Game. 0-0 tie. Unlucky!



Our injury wasn’t enough to stop Petre from coming back next game. Hadnagy comes to me for a new deal. He’s on 150/week and I extend Hadnagy’s deal by a year with just a backup role for 1k/week and he accepts.

Morbeck arrives today on the 20th. He’s a Brazilian & Sao Tome player we signed. I give him a jersey.


Game #6 – Away vs Dinamo – This is a rough game, Dinanmo is usually one of the best teams in the league. I get my folks ready to rock. I have Stoychev back and most of my normal folks are rocking the block. Let’s just say we are not exactly favored here. They score in the 5th minute off a DFk. Yuck. Don’t want to give up set piece goals to Dinamo. We stabilize and things slow down. In the 31st, Simovsky hits Attila Hadnagy for a goal to claw us back to even. We injure one of their players and they head out. Hadnagy collects a yellow before the half and it’s all knotted 1-1 at the half. At the half, stats are even matched – 51% possession for them, 6 shots, 4 on goal for us to their 6 and 3. Keep it up! I pull us off nasty tackling. I pull an underperforming Stoychev for Jakub Palenik. Ross in for Rod. They have a strong offensive push in the 70s. We hold and they got a yellow. Then it happens. On a counter, Ross finds Simonsvski for a goal in the 84th minute. I pull to defend. I send in Dodoi for Hadnagy. Here comes Dinamo. We win 2-1! Great comeback!

In a win, Stoychev was 6.4. It’s time to rethink Stoyvchev.

I have sent folks out on loan,, inc some GKs.

For anyone I have loaned out from a non EU place, such as Brazil, I kept them in Romania to speed up their Romaniazation.

Hadnagy has begun studying for his coaching license.

Game #7 – Away vs Iasi - I move Palenik to start for Stoychev. I give Ross a start over Rodriguez. It’s been all us in the first 15 minutes, but no scores to show for it. It looks like a boring first half, but they slip in and score in extra time, 0-1 them at the half. Show me something else! Petre hits Simonsvski for goal in the 50th and we have tied it. Alright then lads, keep it up! Iasi is coming at us hard. I send in Burlacu for Jure Ob at DMC. Before that happens, they score. In goes Fulop for hopefully a set piece goal or something, cause we have only had one shot this half. In a minute he gets a yellow card. In the 87th, Fulop finds Simonsvski, who puts it away. I pull back to defend. Hard. Here comes five minutes of fun injury time to watch Iasi try to get that 3rd goal and…………………………………….. that’s it. 2-2 draw. MOM is Simonsvski. Nicely done to come back and draw!


On the 31st, I spend it getting folks loaned out. I also loan out Florin Dombrova who was on my transfer list. I have handed out 13 folks, which shows the strengthening of my youth squad!

September


Sept 9th – Away vs Cluj
Sept 17th – Home vs FCSB
Sept 23rd – Home vs Craiova
Sept 30th – Away vs Concordia

The two biggest teams to open things up, and the current #1 team to follow. This might be the toughest slate of games on the schedule. This is not going to be easy. Good training reports on Petre, ,Dodoi and Traore.




Game #8 – I start Tandia at ML tonight. Sato is very tired from international play. They score in the 12th from a rebounded shot off the crossbar. Viera booked. We calm things down and things move to a boring push and pull for the half. Unlucky! They notch another goal in the 51st. 76 seconds later another score arrives. Tandia hits Simonovski for goal in the 58th. Jakub Palenik for a 5.9 Stoychev. Burlacu in next. Palenik a yellow card. They score in the 77th. I pull Viera. No sense keeping in someone with a card. We lose 4-1. Im not happy with that!

At some point in time, you knew we were going to get shell shocked, and it just happened. To be fair, we were not dominated in terms of stats. They had 14 shots to our 12. We had 52% possession. They just scored.

I am moving Stoychev to rotation. Jakob is permanently moving in front of him, not Ursu.


So the book on Jakob Palenik from my coaches is that “he lacks composure and he can be hot on the pitch…” That’s probably code for some hidden stats. However he “steps up to the competition” which may also key into a hidden stat. Stoychev? “Enjoys big matches” and “is a consistent performer”. Nothing in there to key in to what it happening. He should be working.

Our U19 squad is just dominating all other Romanian youth squads. We just crushed one 7-2, and then 4-2, 3-0, 4-1, etc. We haven’t lost a game.


Game #9 – We host the team that dropped CSKA Moscow from the Champions Cup and took Dynamo Kiev to away goal tie before losing. Sato is rested and ready. Alright, let’s get this thang moving. They score quickly in the 2nd minute, but we push back hard and in a few minutes later, Jure slides the ball to Simonovski for a tying goal in the 9th. Alright. We push back and then are pushed back. In the 41st, they score again, and we go down 1-2 at the half. You gotta show me something else! They do! I sub in Tandia at ML for a struggling Petre, and then In the 58th minute, Hadnagy hits Traore for a nice breakaway goal that slides away from the defenders. Now it’s all tied up! In send in Stoychev and Dodoi replaces an injured Hadnagy. In the 89th, they score again, off a long shot blasted into the upper corner of our goal. Uh oh. I push forward. 4 extra minutes tick off…..one, two, three. At 93:06, Tandia finds Sato on the other side for a lethal attack run across all of their defenders that are marking our attacks, and Sato slips in a tying goal. We tie 3-3. MOM is Traore.

WHEW! That was a good game. I wish we got 3 points, but I’ll take 1 point against FCSB.

We have given away too many goals early.

I offered trials to 9 people who came to me this week about being unsigned.

Game #10 – Going into today’s match, we are tied with another team for 12 points and at 7th on the table. Craiova is here. Today I am starting Dodoi at ST for Hadnagy and Felipe Oliviera at MR for Petre. Craiova have won 6 matches in a row and are currently 1st. The plaudits are already coming out. The manager for Craiova was very very warm for Sepsi’s new manager for his early success. I start defending and then will open up later. They push hard against us in the first 8 minutes or so. No score, and then I send us to counter around the 18 minute mark. They score in the 33rd. We hold. Half. Oliviera has been playing lousy, so I send in Tandia for him to push our foes. They come hard, but we hold them off. In goes Burlacu and Fulop, but we aren’t scoring. Game. The stats were worse than the 1-0 scoreline, they had like 25 shots to our 7, for example.

I would have hoped to have gotten more than 1 point against that nasty gauntlet of teams, but we did well in games 2 and 3 of that, so we’ll be fine, I hope.

Our youth squad won 4-0 though, so hey!

Training injury by Fulop. He’ll be out for a week.

Game #11 – We face Concordia today. Concordia won a few match and are on a high note and are now sitting at 3rd. I have Hadnagy and Petre back in lights. We have an early push and Simonovski hits goal in the 3rd minute. , but then things calm down for 30 minutes. In the 38th Somonovski again hits the net for another score and then they gather one back and we are up 2-1 t the half. After, we injure one of their players and they have to come out. They get two cards. They score in the 49th, and its 2-2 tie. Petre leaps on a loose ball and scores in the 56th. On the 67th, they penalize us, and Hadnagy sinks the PK. I sub in defenders expecting Concordia is going to come after us, so I move back and prepare. They get a 3rd, and then a 4th yellow card. I move to tackle hard. We have no cards, and maybe I can get them hot. Tandia in for Sato after he gets a yellow. Game, we win 4-2. That was our first definitive win, a strong 4-2 game we dominated from beginning to end.

Tandia was injured a bit. He was knocked around a bit after sending him in. He’s out for 10 days to two weeks with a badly gashed stomach.

October


14 Oct – Home vs Timisoara
21 Oct -Home vs Voluntari
25 Oct – Home vs Juventus
28 Oct – Away vs Botosani

Daisuke Sato can now get forward better and more reliably after learning that in training.

Good training notes? Sato, Petre, and Dodoi.

Traore’s goal against FCSB was the Goal of the Month for the Liga.


Game #12 – We face Timisoara today. Our youth club has continued dominance. They won 6-1 earlier today. The rain is driving today, as is Sato towards goal and we score in the 21st minute after the initial and expected push by each team. Traore found Hadnagy on an attack run and he slid it to Sato for the for the goal. For the rest of the half, Timisoara only have one shot from a corner kick and we push ahead strongly. Half. 1-0 us. Don’t get complacent lads. I send in Stoychev for Palenik. Simonovski hits Hadnagy for goal in the 69th. They played back and forth music for a bit before sinking the note. Dalmau in for Ursu. Ross for a tired Sato. They get two yellows late in the 80s, clearly frustrated. We win 2-0. MOM is Traore.

Two victories with two goal differential in back to back games? Hello Romania!

18 points in 12 games. Really playing well in the last 4 or so with 7 points to show for it. All that and the last win was at home. The Legion rejoices!

And the Abe is happy to boot!

One of the things I am enjoying about FM18 a lot (and it might have been added in FM17, the last I played was a few dynasties in FM16) are the social media Twitter-ish responses to the various news items. I love it. I love seeing the reaction - "Why did we sign Jakub Palenik from abroad instead of one of our own?" Stuff like that is awesome.

Our coaches are raving about Dodoi’s improvements under Hadnagy’s tutelage, and with the good training and game play he is getting.

It feels weird that my youth squad just won a game 1-0. It’s like they were replaced with changelings or something.

My best signing so far has probably been Traore. He has been running that midfield. After Marko Simonovski, who, in my opinion, came out of nowhere, he is my most in-form player with a 7.23 rating. Marko has 9 goals and 2 assists in 11 gams and has been my primary goal-maker. And if you had told me that a guy with 10 finishing was going to be my lead striker…?



Game #13 – Home vs Voluntari. Tandia’s injury keeps him from playing. His injury is done, but he’s in the low 80s in condition, so I wanted to keep him away from playing. After this game, we will have played each team once in the Basano. I will start Burlacu today for Palenik. I don’t trust Stoychecv right now. Their stud player is out for a month with a damage knee, so he is not playing today. Early in the game, DMC Jure intercepts the ball, finds Sato deep on the flank, and Sato crosses to Simonovski for goal. Here comes Voluntari. They push, and we hold for the half, but they finish ahead of us statistically. Don’t get complacent! This is a team with the same number of points this year as us on the league table. Ursu with a card in the 55th. They score an equalizer in the 59th. Simonovski lofted an amazing ball to Hadnagy with a one:one shot with the keeper and he just love tapped it over. That was a killer ball. I send in Dodai for Hadnagy and Stoychev for Marius Burlacu. We have three more strong attack s leading to nice shots on goal, nothing. Palenik for Viera. He’s been my worst defender today. There it is!!! 89:49 mark, on a corner, Traore hits Ursu ‘s head for goal. 4 minutes of stoppage time added and…………..We hold and win 2-1. Great jorb lads!

Liga:

1. Craiova, 32 points
2. Cruj, 25
3. Botosani, 23
4. Concordia, 22
5. Us, Sepsi, 21
6. Dinamo, 20

That three game winning streak took us from 10th to 5th.

I think we’ll return to the ground soon, but other than against Cluj, I haven’t felt the talent difference between top and bottom here like I have with other teams. We have been pretty solid, not losing by much, and not winning by much either.

I am shocked at how well Simonovski is playing and how poorly Stoychev has done thus far. Simonovski now has 10 goals. He is tied with the league lead.


Game #14, Cup – Tandia is back for today’s away match against Medias. This is a Romanian Cup match that was added to our schedule. I give Ghinga a start for today’s match at DC along with Viera and Urzu. This is not a game that should match equals. We are on a 3 game winning streak, they on a 5 game losing streak. They are currently the 14th team in the league, and, well, we aren’t. So we should be able to make this one work. We know how that goes in footy though, right? Rain is cascading in droves across the stadium. It’s not a nice warm rain, but a cold one that’s the sign of winter. We are playing in their place, and the first 25 minutes melt as very little happens. At the 30:35 mark, Sate dribbles, is free of a defender, crosses to Simonovski who heads it in, but their GK jump and stops it, it lands at Hadnagy’s feet, and he puts it away. Goal. Medias….isn’t coming forward. I was expecting it. But nope. Half. I think they are playing defensive to my counter. At the half, I have 8 shots and 3 on target to their 5 and 1. Guard against complacency. They claw one back in the 47th. I send in Jakub and Ross. Tandia next. They are really having a second half awakening. I am doing everything I can to keep them out of goal again. And there it is. Mario Rondon scores in the 83rd. DAMMIT RONDON!!! Do we have another late goal magic going for us? ATTACK THAT GOAL. Nope. We lose 1-2. I’m not happy with losing to the lowest team in the league, even in a Cup match.

I sign off trials 18 year old DM/MC Noa Benniniga, Dutch. Our scouts said (he could be a little better than our best middie, Traore). I send him to muh U19 squad to continue to blow people out.

After losing to Botosano in the Cup, FCSB fired their manager. My AssMan has finished his Romanian language course.

Game #15 – Away vs Botosano is next. (The Juve match was pushed back due to Euro play). I give Ross a start for Rodroguez and Jakub is back in the lineup. Vengeance! Meh. I’m not going to bother with the play by play for this incredibly boring 0-0 game. I’ll take the point and move on. There was a 5-4 match elsewhere in Bosano. But nope, we have to yawn our way through a tie.

November

Nov 4 – Away vs Astra
Nov 8 – Home vs Juvenus
Nov 18 – Home vs Viitorul
Nov 25 – Home vs Dinamo

Two of the tough teams and last year’s division winner, as well as the current #7 (Astra). No easy games this month sav for Juventus, the recent promotion candidate along with us last year! Although we’d likely just lose them anyway…

Dodoi had a great training report from last month.


Game #16 – Astra time. Rodriguez and Stoychev start. They get a goal in the 9th minute, then we claw one back in the 16th. Simonovski is set up by Hadnagy. Then they score back in the 17th. And then….nothing Half. We are down 1-2. Show me something else. They have two yellows already in the first half. I try some stuff to disrupt their rhythm, get us back into the game. I pull Stoychev. Stoychev is my Lucy. I pull Rodriguez.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAA. That was an amazing strike by Traore. Best goal anyone sunk this year so far. Long, strong, proud, in the 77th minute, and brings us back to even. I suspect Astra is about to send it. Here it comes! They come, we had an amazing break option but Hadnagy couldn’t finish it off. Ghinga has a horrible back pass to the GKm, lazy, that is intercepted and on target, but our GK stops it. I send in Jakub Palenik right now for him. That was stupid. Another wasted counter in the 86th that was set up by Simonovski. 4 minutes added. We survive with a 2-2 tie. Not bad.

I hand out some rests to key players. But Hadnagy is too tired. I move Istvan Fulop to the starting spot for the next game.

Game #17 – Juventus is here. Sato and Palenik are out on international duty. I start Oliveira and Dalmau. We have things under control, so at the 15th, I move to control. We have a goal called offsides in the 21st by Rodriguez. A goal by Simonovski in the 33rd is called off as well. And then we can’t score. Half. Get out there! We can’t score. We can’t; score. We can’t score. 0-0 tie. Oliviera was injured and we had to pull him out.

He’s out for 4-5 weeks with a hamstring injury

Everyone is saying that the offisdes goal for Simonovski wasn’t, by the by. It was a bad call.

Our U19 team….tied…2-2. Weird.

Tandia is not happy about the lack of play, and I agree. I have moved him from key player to first team but I am playing him as a rotation player. I’ll give him some starts for Rodriguez.

On the other hand, Borislav Stoyvhev. wants to talk, and we do, and I tell him, in no uncertain terms, that the last time I gave him some starts he wasn’t good. Because he wasn’t good. I get four other players in my office upset at not letting him play. We did! I gave him 7 starts and 3 subs. In that time he is my worst DC with 6.52 rating. Meanwhile Viera is 6.74, Jakub Palenik 6.67, Urzu is 6.81 and even Jure was 6.70 in his four games there to start the season. HE HASN’T EARNED IT. Knock it off.

Game #18 – Viitorul is here, and with it a chance to knock this crap off. We have been underperforming for a long amount of time, so I want to grab a win before the next two tougher games. Revenge! In the 13th minute, Ursu is set off for a red card. Ouch. One goal. Two goals. Three goals. Half. Ouch. Well I sent in Stoychev, so there you are. Four goals. Yellow to Jure. We lose 4-0. And of course the media will likely blame it on Stoychev or something.

Most of my team is happy with Stoychev’s treatment – Palenik, Viera, Hadnagy, etc. He went to the press of course, and I said, in no uncertain terms, that he’s not getting first team play, and that’s that.

Much of our competition has not been doing well, and we are still 6th going into this next match


Game #19 – Dinamo Time! It’s a quiet ten minutes, and then everything explodes and goals rain down. Rodriguez hits Simonovski for goal to get started at the 12th minute, and then they score, and then again by the 21st minute. Finally, Rodriguez hits hay and scores off an IFK. And then…….nothing. No goals, no push, nothing. 2-2 tie, MOM is Rodriguez.

Again, a failed opportunity.

We are now in a 6-game winless streak.

December

Dec 2 – Away vs Medias
Dec 11 – Home vs Iasi
Dec 16 – Home vs Cluj


Traore’s goal was 2nd in the month for the league and we had good training by Petre.


Game #20 – Medias arrives. Ursu is back in the lineup. Can we beat Rondon? Palenik with an early yellow. We injure one of their players around the 19th. We injure one of their players. Then they score an OG for us after trying to head away a cross. 1-0 us at the half. I send out Palenik as he can sometimes get hot, and then I send out Stoychev, and then Dodoi for a tired Hadnagy and Jure Obv is pulled after he gets another yellow. We hold and win 1-0. I will take any win right now, even that mess.

Traore was injured for a few days, he’ll still play against Iasi. Jure is banned for next match for having too many yellows.

I extend GK Rimnicenu for a year and raise his salary to 3k.


Game #21 – Iasi – I start Burlacu at DMC. I give Fulop the start at ST for Hadnagy. Viera with an early card. I will pull him first. Tons of time just evaporated. Patrick Petre with a goal in extra time before the half. Cards by Burlacu as well, so I send in Rodriguez at DMC and Stoychev at DC. Then eventually Dodoi, but nothing. We hold and win 1-0, and Petre is MOM.


We’ll be heading to Turkey for January Training Camp.


Game #22 – We finish the year with the Cluj match, the only game where we just weren’t in it at all this season. Right now we have climbed to #4 after those two wins. I am starting Jure again at DMC. Rodriguez and Hadnagy are back as well, as I want my normal Best 11 out there. Revenge! We have the benefit of playing in St. George. I still begin my counter strategy for this year though. We get pressure early, and then a few counters, then more pressure. Then it’s the half, 0-0. Vengeance is still on the cards folks! They get a break away score in the 55th after a set piece from us failed. Four minutes later, they score again. I send in Ross, Stoychev, they score in the 78th, Sato to Hadnagy for a goal in the 83rd. Ross is injured, in heads Tandia. We lose 3-1. They didn’t dominate us. 12 shots each, we had 6 on target to their 5. They had 52% possession, 5 fouls to our 8, etc.

Ross pulled his hammy and is out for 10 days or so.

Oh, and by the way, with 21 games in, we are having a winning season:

8 wins
7 ties
6 defeats


Here’s the table:






As you can see, we are currently in 5th place with 5 games left before the league divides into playoffs. We finish with a five game streak that includes four away games, and games vs FCSB, Craiova, Timisoara, Concordia and Juventus. The top 6 teams play each other, and the bottom 8 play each other. We’re about to see how that works in real life for one of these sides!

Is there anyone on my team who I like to retain? Here are the folks with deals expiring in July, 2018

Tandia
Viera
Ross
Backup GK Beja Fejer
Ghinga
Burlacu

Ghinga is 30, Viera is 31, Fejer is 22, Burlacu is 32, and Ross 26. I am comfortable losing Ross, Fejer, Ghinga, and Burlacu without question.

I make an offer to extend Viera by one year.

I offer Tandia a squad rotation deal.

We have entered our midseason break

I plead with the board for more coaching, and after not letting them say “no” they eventually relent. I can hire another coach.

As of right now, we have low coaching for attacking, ball control, as well as just one fitness coach splitting those training sessions.


I hire Austrian fitness coach Wolfgang Striebel for 2 years. He’ll allow us to divide the aerobic and strength coaching into two sections. He has a 4 star rating in aerobic, and is just the third person at the club for offer at least a 4 star rating training (Dr. Maxi Surubaru is 4.5 stars in tactics)

Viera extends his contract.

Tandia also agrees to a squad rotation extension as well, and appears to have our previous differences behind him. His deal finishes in 2020, and extended his contract by two years.

Hadnagy finishes his first coaching course.

I go to the board and they agree to fund his next course.

I extend GK Fejer by two years.

Dec 29 is here. Time to get to work. Anyone worth making offers to?

One guy I like a lot, 26 year old ST Martin Giminez, but is only Argentinian. He looks better than any of my other STs and could be more permanent starter alongside Simonovski while I finish developing Dodoi.

Yeah, I make him an offer. He is worth one of my precious non-EU roster spots. Anyone else to bring in for free?

Wait…

The end of their contract year is in a few days. I can bring in Giminez now, and he can give me that ST push to finish strong, and fix my team a bit at the same time.

No one else strikes me as feasible.

Alright, let’s move this thang forward a bit.

Antoine Griezmann wins some serious awards this year

Gimenez will be joining us soon.

January

Jan 13 -Friendly vs Turkish Team
Jan 17 – Friendly vs Turkish Team
Jan 20 – Friendly vs Turkish Team
Jan 27 – Friendly vs Turkish Team

We get back to real football in February

We have updated our expectations to mid-table and the board have given me some more cash to work with



I just got signed to Sepsi!!!

Yes you did my friend. Yes you did.


ST Martin Giminez, 26 years old, Argentinian – So the bad stuff up front. He is not good, at all, with jumping and heading – 7s in each. He is not versatile, according to muh coaches. He just plays ST. I’m paying him 4.4k/week on a key player role. This is his first time playing outside of Argentina. Our coaches think he can get a little hot under the collar at times, but they love his “consistency” and how big he shows up for big matches. So, hopefully, they see some strong stuff there from various hidden stats.

Here’s the good stuff:

Physical stats – 15 acceleration, 14 agi, 13 pace, strength, stamina, balance, 12 fitness

Mental – 14 flair,13 vision, off the ball, anticip, devisions; 12 aggression,, concentration, determination, 11 work rate,

Tech stats – 14 dribbling, finishing, technique, 13 passing, first touch, 12 long shots, 11 PK, 10 cross, free kicks


Now that is a Striker who can compete at this level. I will work him into my lineup right now. I cancel Fulop’s loan.

I have an offer of 450k for my GK from Cardiff. No thanks

My current value of my players:

Traore – 1 mill
GK Rimniceanu – 650k
Tandia – 425 k
Jure – 425k
Viera 275k
Gimenez – 275k
Rodriguez – 275k
Sato – 275k


That’s everyone over 250k

Again, hello Traore!

Gimenez should prove to be a strong signing for us.


Martin has been a bit of a traveler, and we are his 5th club. I hope he’ll have a landing party here for a few years.

The board offer to extend my deal. I force them to improve the facilities as part of the new deal. I extend my contract by one year..

I select my Turkish training camp squad.

I reject another offer for Rimniceanu, this time 100k more. He’s good. He’s not amazing. He’s not someone I’ll never replace. But he works. He’s a 27 year old guy who’ll do well for you.

We have statisticians giving us analyses like our injuries from training are the lowest in the Liga right now and such.

Several of my tutoring links are coming back as successful.

I accept an offer from Fiortina for one of my unsigned youth that I brought in from Italy for 400k plus 50% of next sale. This is for Gianmarco Grimaldi, whom we like and think he’s one of the better prospects out there, but I am happy to get cash now that I can harness later. He’s not going to be happy if I reject a good offer to head back home with a big time club. Bologna and a couple of others jump and I negotiate the same deal with two, and the others bow out.


Turkish Friendly #1 – I start Hadnagy for the first game and will rotate in Martin Gimenez. I sub in a ton of players after going up 2-0 by half time. We win 2-1.

Grimaldi heads to Fioritina, and that was his favorite team growing up so…. There you are. Good luck!

Turkish Friendly #2 – We win 3-1.

Moving forward I am going to start Gimenez. What role? He is best at False Nine. Now I have been running Simonovski at Target Man, support, this season, and we’re happy with the result. Hadnagy was Deep Lying Forward, Attack. He was a little old and his stats have atrophied. When I subbed him in, the best role for Dodoi was Advanced Forward, so I gave him that role. The best for Gimenez is False Nine, but that’s not really a role for a 2 man striker squad, that feels more 1 ST styling.

After that, his next best roles are poacher and trequarista. Given his passing is solid, let’s do Trequarista first and see how that goes for a bit.

Cardiff have given another offer for Rimniceanu with a base offer of 550k plus 200k in incentives. Nope. I’m not moving on for that low of an amount of money for my best GK. That’s not happening, and it’s not like Rimniceanu has gotten upset that I have been turning down Cardiff. It’s not a real team or anything.


Turkish Friendly #3 – We win 5-1. All four of my strikers scored one goal, and even Stoychev scored. For them. An Own-Goal. That guy is just….

Simonovski has perfected the 1-2 pass.

Training Camp ends.

Turkish Friendly #4 - We win 3-2.


I offer a youther in Spain who’s deal is expiring soon a chance to come to Romania and play for Sepsi. Who would turn us down?

He agrees. DC Pepe Castellano, at Villareal that never broke through. He’ll join us in July. I reach out to Villareal and they offer to sell him now for 7k. We do.

Pepe Casteno, 19, Spain




Here. His stats aren’t nearly as good as Jakub, but he’s got potential, he’s not as good now, but maybe…

I want to link him up. If I can get that determination up I think we might have someone I want to push.

He’s a project I might want to push later as I lose my DC depth with two of my DMC/DC backups heading out.

One of my previous signees arrived, Russian/Polish 18 year old Kirill Kolesnichenko, this is the one we signed for 55k.



Here’s Kirill. Again, he’s not a bad prospect, but I wish his mentals were more on task for what I am looking for with a prospect, his low work rate isn’t what I want. But his Determination is much better.


Oh, training reports on Jakub Palenik say he hasn’t gotten better in the few months he’s been with us, but that’s okay. Again, our scouts seem to think he didn’t have a lot of room for growth.

I loan out a few more of my youthers.

February


Feb 4 – Away vs FCSB
Feb 7 – Away vs Craiova
Feb 12 – Away vs Timoaroa
Feb 16 – Home vs Concordia
Feb 25 – Away vs Juventus

This will conclude the regular season, and then playoffs from there. So we have a rough final five. These include:


• Away at a heavy hitter


• Away at #1, a team that hasn’t lost all year long

• Home vs #4

• Four away matches

And then we finish with Juventus at 13th to finish the season. So we need to show up.


Good training reports for Petre, Rimniceanu


Game #23 – Away vs FCSB – They have had a down season and find themselves in 7th. The cut for the continental playoffs is 6th. So right now, they are on the outside looking in, and they are going to do everything they can to ensure they rise on the league table. I am starting ST Gimenez at the Trequarista role and Tandia is not in the middle for Rod, I want the defensive minded Rodriguez in there. They score in the 17th minute, with a nasty cross to their star striker. Then in the 21st, Simonovski hits goal after Gimenez drives and shoots, and the ball is stopped by a DC and Simonovski pounces on the pass and puts to goal. Back and forth. Each team is playing well. Nasty shot by Gimenez turned aside, and them as well. They score again in the 35th. Then these idiots score a fluke bad cross that winds up in goal. They score in the 45th. Half. We are down 4-1. My attack is playing well, flowing, fluid, but my defense is just a sieve out there. They have just FIVE SHOTS ON TARGET. This is not a 4-1 scoreline statistically. I have 12 shots and 6 on target myself. Gimenez finds Simonovski for a goal in the 49th. He took a knock and I send in Dodoi. Petre finds Dodoi for goal in the 62nd, and now we are just one goal back. This could be about to get seriously unbelievable. I send in Stoychev for Palenik. I know. They score on a corner in the 65th. Tandia for Sato. We lose majestically 5-3. I have strikers and forwards with high 7.0s and 8.1 and no defender with a score more than 6.4. That’s just weird.

Gimenez is just out for a day. He got an assist in his debut

That loss dropped us to 8th

Next up is the juggernaut of the league this year

I accept an offer to loan out Kirill for the rest of the season

Game #24 – We would need a miracle to walk away with a result today. Away vs Craiova. 19 wins, 3 draws, no losses. After handing out rests we should keep the same group of players. Ready to try to crack the Craiova Castle? Let’s head out. We are playing in a snowstorm. Welcome to Romania. Sato finds Gimenez for goal in at the 0:51 mark! Here comes a wave of Craiova, and we survive, but around the 12th minute I move to defending and such from my normal countering. They collect two early yellows. More onslaught follows but then lightens up around the 25th. We are getting the occasional counter, and Petre fed a lethal ball to Simonovski that he missed on his header, so we are getting some shots to push to two goals. We are controlling possession 54%. In the 43rd minute Simonovski had been free on goal and is moving towards in, and the man he juked around does a professional foul to stop the goal scoring opportunity. It’s a red card for our foes. Do I move to our normal 10 man attack? Against this team with just a +1 GD? But do I risk holding off and letting them hit us? I move to counter, and up my tempo heavily. Rodriguez’s DFK is on target but pushed aside by the GK. Half. We are up 11-10 for players and 1-0 on the scoreboard. Don’t. Get. Complacent. Be. Professional. Am I about to get the Upset on the Road? Let’s find out! My foe has used their last sub the 55th minute. Let’s push them. Tempo up. Petre and Simonovski are banged up badly and I send in Godoi and Tandia. A quiet 15 minutes rolls off. Our foe has a amazing counter opportunity in the early 70s but we stop it. Stoychev for Ursu. I know. Four minutes of extra time. Here comes their GK to help them score. We win 1-0. MOM is Sato. WHEW!!!!

Luckily Petre and Simonovski were just banged a bit and will start next game. That win moved us ack up to 6th.

I sign trialist AM/ST English Jake Picard to a hot prospect deal.

Our scouts found a sexy young Brazilian ST. I am trying to bring him in now.

Huge result against Craiova! Giving them their first loss of the year on their pitch! I know I can speak for the rest of the traveling Legion when I tell you we were still partying when the buses rolled back into St. George.

Luckily Petre and Simonovski were just banged a bit and will start next game. That win moved us back up to 6th.

I sign trialist AM/ST English Jake Picard to a hot prospect deal.

Our scouts found a sexy young Brazilian ST. I am trying to bring him in now.


Game #25 – The Timisoara match has arrived. I am starting Tandia in the middle for Rod. I also have DC Pepe on my bench in case there is a spot to send him in. Good luck! They have a nice shot on goal in the 33rd second of the game, but we stop it. Petre finds Simonovski in the 5th minute for goal, so they are clearly back and healthy! They score twice and it’s a 2-1 down, and then in the 26th minute Simovski is injured badly. In heads Dodoi. WHEWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Gimenez feeds Dodoi and the ball rolls off his leg for a long shot into the goal perfectly. Wow that looked pretty. He fed that thing threw like three defenders and a GK. They get a card. Timisoara move hard but the half sees 2-2 tie. Half. You can still win this! Go get this game! Another yellow their way early. Then a third. Troare picks up a knock, I send in Rod and flip him and Tandia on the match. A quiet second half sees time just drip. Oliviera for a tired Sato. Game, 2-2 tie. MOM is Dodoi.

Simonovski is out for 6 weeks to 2 months with an ankle injury.

We agree to a deal with the Brazilian youth club. We are spending 400k, which is the money we made earlier this year. Luckily he;s a striker, and he could come in to help out now.

GK Miron doesn’t like his lack of first team football but Hadnagy talks him down.

We sign him – we’ll look at him post match



Game #26 – Concordia arrive. I am staring Hadnagy and Gimenez. Early on, Tandia collects a goal after getting helped by Traore. Goal. Half. Don’t get complacent. Our foes score in the 51st, and then Viera is injured and I send in Dalmau for him. Dalmau assists Gimenez for goal on a corner when he gets Troare’s CK and then heads it over for their score. I send in Oliviera. They foul in the box, and Hadnagy sinks the PK in the 83rd, and we win 3-1. MOM is actually Dalmau!

Any win in the storm.

That bumps us to 6th with one game left. With 5 points separating us and the #7 team, we are guaranteed a Top 6 finish and the playoffs

Yeah we were gifted that win by teh football gods. :)

Euro Playoffs **Clap Clap Clapclapclap**
Euro Playoffs **Clap Clap Clapclapclap**
WHOOOOOOO!!!!

Just stopping by to let you know I've been following along. Congratulations on the big win away to Craiova and the berth in the playoffs!

It's fun to see more Football Manager stories on the board again.

Awesome, thanks, thanks! Let's get out there and see what we can do!

Our new guy:

ST Luiz Scholocobiert, Brazil, 18 years old, our scouts loved him and raved about him all day long. He played in some international stuff and did well.

Here



I’m sure you can see what I saw with my 425k investment into him. He’s already in the rotation for quality. His technical development is strong and enticing. Where will his finishing or technique or first touch or dribbling and such wind up? His physical stats aren’t amazing, and he needs some mental development, but he’s moving there. You can see it, and I am happy to bring him here. I can see him getting Romanian nationality! Play for Romania oh Loco Bert!



Dalmau has used this year to learn the winger position and DC ones well, and now he’s a lot more flexible that the WB/DR I inherited. I am going to move him as a sub more on the wing and such. I offer my 27 year old GK for sale. I have better options on my club if my leader went down with injury.

Marius Burlacu was injured for a few weeks in training.

Game #27 – The last game of the regular season is here. Juventus. Ready? Let’s do it! Holy crap? They score twice in the first ten minutes! Holy crap! I move back and castle up and we hold on. Half, 0-2. We can’t do that! I send in Dalmau for Sato and swap him with Petre. Then I send in Sodoi fo a woeful Hadnagy. Dalmau crosses to Gimenez for goal in the 69th minute. Then in the 73rd, Dalmau and Gimenez connect. Well alright then. I send in Pepe Castellano for an underperforming Ursu. Game, we tie 2-2. MOM is Gimenez.

We finish in 6th place with a 10-9-7 record, so we recorded a winning record and 39 points. Playoff time!

Here let me show you how it works:




Here is the Championship Playoffs. You begin with 50% of your points from the regular season, so we will begin in 6th place with 20 points. Then we each play each other twice in a home and home round robin, like a Group Stage, with the winners after that making it in. So we are playing against the class of the division twice more. Because it rewards regular play, that makes it pertinent, but at just 50% of the results, that gives you something to play for here, meaning these ten matches in this group are basically counting for double points.

Now normally you would get two Champions slots here, but our ranking fell, so there is only one Champions spot. Then EURO for spots 2-3. We would have had 4 spots here, but that’s the break. I don’t see it mentioned Cluj’s ban, so that may have been for last year when we started and it may have ended, so we would be playing against the heavy as well.

I do like the idea of this in theory. You can’t qualify by losing to the best clubs but doing well against the rest of the league. You have to run this gauntlet.

Let’s get this thang started!

There were times when we played up this year to teams on this list, such as beating FCSB, Craiova, and such. But that was not consistent, and we laid eggs to Cluj.

Sato has finished learning how to be a threat on the wing.

March

March 3 – Home vs Botosani
March 9 – Away vs Viitorul
March 17 – Home vs Craiova
March 31 – Away vs Cluj


Good training by Dalmau and Dodoi.


Continental Qualifier - Game #1 – Home vs Botosani – Despite them getting 2nd, I never felt like Botosani was this powerhouse when I played them. This could be one of our best chances to start out good. Remember we begin in 6th place with 20 points, but 5th is 20 and 4th is 21, and Botosani in 3rd is 22. We have the chance to really do something dangerous with a win. We’ll certainly leap over Botosani. I am starting countering, but I may move off soon. They score in the 9th minute off a counter, but then back off and I move to control. They get two yellows and I have Ursu and Sato not playing well. Hadnagy steals the ball and scores in the 24th and ties us back. In the extra time of the first half, they score again and it’s 2-1 them at the half. We can still win this one! In the 53rd minute, Gimenez finds Hadnagy for goal. I send in Dalmau and Stoycheck for Sato and Ursu and I switch my flankers and move Petre to the left flank. At the 69th minute, Dalmau finds Attila Hadnagy for his hat trick, and now we are up 3-2. Can we stay in front? They are moving forward hard, and I pull back to counter. They equalize in the 78th. One minute later, Dalmau finds Gimenez for goal. We are pushing forward hard ourselves over the next 8 minutes or so. I send in Rod. Five minutes of injury time. We win 4-3, MOM is clearly Hadnagy!


That was a classic, epic, back and forth match. That we won.

I am going to move Dalmau to start at MR and move Petre to ML for a bit to give the clear hot leg some starts.

After the first round of matches was over, we are now in 3rd. That means we have moved out of the hole in 6th place and into EURO qualification. Now, we have a gauntlet of stuff coming. I doubt we finish there, but that’s not bad for right now.


Continental Qualifier - Game #2 – Away vs Viitorul. The next match is here. Can Dalmau continue his form at the MR spot? Here we go! If I can steal points here, I’m going to be happy. Wow. In the 8th minute DC Jakub Palenik fired a 25 yard shot into goal. That just feels lucky. I don’t want my DCs taking shots at goal. It was a corner, and they headed the ball out, it fell to Petre outside of the box, he slid to Jakub who shot. So there you are folks. Even your DC can get a goal outside of a header on a set piece! They come at us hard but fail to pop the cherry. Wow are they not going to be happy. Here’s Tandia with another long shot that sinks. 20th minute, assist by Ursu, on another corner kick, we popped the ball out and he shot it. They have just given up two set piece long shots. They have two cards injured Viera’s jaw, and it’s half time. Don’t get complacent out there. We have three shots on target, both of our goals are from set pieces and they have been outplaying us. Don’t get seduced into looking at the scoreboard. They score in the 57th, fittingly, on a IFK. Live by the set piece, die by the set piece. I pull 6.20 Hadnagy for Dodoi. In the 65th, Petre hits Dodoi for a nice shot, and it rebounds off the crossbar – Traore finishes. Goal for us. I pull Viera for Stoychev. I know that’s funny. Oliviera for a tired Dalmau. We win 3-1 - MOM is Traore.


Well that’s not bad. Again, we got two set pieces, so it feels artificial, but still, it aint bad.

Cluj lost to Craiova 1-4, we remain in 3rd, but are now just one point behind 2nd.

But now we have the juggernaut of Craiova. Sure, we are the only team to beat them this year! But it was luck and a red card.


Slovakia’s Senior Squad is calling us Jakub now, btw

Our new youth squad arrives but I don’t see any new folks that excite me.

Continental Qualifier - Game #3 – Home vs Craiova. Cluj just tied 0-0 to FCSB so that opens us up. If we win today, and we certainly won’t, then we move to 2nd. Simonovski is back from injury but not match ready yet. He’ll be on the bench with the idea of subbing him in. They score off a PK given to them by a foul by Viera early, he gets a yellow card. Then they gather another goal from a long, lethal strike in the 27th. In extra time, Tandia hits home with a shot, assisted by Traore for goal and it’s 1-2 them at the half. Show me something else! In the 2nd half, I send in Simonovski and pull Viera for Stoychev early. Stoychev finds Tandia for another score in the 53d and it’s all knotted. Then they answer back in the 59th, and they are ahead 3-2 And they are coming hard. We weather the storm. I send in Sato. But remember, fans of Sepsi. Remember. We have the chosen one back. In the 88th minute, DMC Jure Obsivac finds Simonovski on an attack run. We finish that minute tied 3-3. Can we hold? Can we score and win? In the 91st minute, Dalmau is injured, and we are out of subs. We tie 3-3. Good comeback lads!


One of the things I like to after youth input is to heavily scout the league. Who got lucky?

Craiova did. They got a qualified mega-star, wonderkid of awesome potential - Robert Lupu. Cluj and FCSB have good ones as well that are better than most of the rest. I am scouting some potential additions to our squad from lower level leagues.



The Romanian Messi Craiova just got:

I make an offer to these two Romanian youth

ML Adrian Prodan, 16, Romanian, from Victoria 2010
GK Daniel Muntean, 16, Academia Farul
AMR Alexandru Dimitru, 15, ProTeam

My wages have gotten a little high, and I remove much of my transfer money to help out. I have 40k in transfer left but bumped my salary to 59k. This also included the injection of cash we got from our renewed mid-table push in January.

Anyone else I like enough to bring in from nearby nations that our high scouting knowledge knows?

Yes, and I make some offers to youth on lower level clubs and such. If they sign, I’ll let you know. I am also doing scouting of folks on better clubs I can’t just poach.

I sign:

GK Henri Staelens, Belgium, 15 (not on any teams)
DC Pasqualano Pagano, Italy, 15 not on any teams
ST Petr Adam, Czech, 14, not on any teams

We rate Pagano very, very low right but but with high upside. Adam is the same. Staelens is a little better now but appears to have a much weaker future. But they were free!

I make Marko Simonovski a new contract. If anyone has earned it…. He signs and extends his stay a year and we bump his salary from 475/week to 2000.

I sign DC Carlos Badal from Valenica, he’ll join us at the end of that deal, he’s another youther they didn’t retain.

Jakub Palenik just earned his first cap.



Continental Qualifier - Game #4 – Away vs Cluj. That tie keeps us one point behind Cluj. Dalmau has a concussion and I swap in Sato again and go back to my normal set up. Cluj are on a losing streak and have just two points in three games. This might be the one good time to play Cluj. I begin defensive, and will hopefully open up like a beautiful flower. Marko is back in the starting role. Here we go! They collect two yellows in the first 15 minutes, and then they score in the 19th. I move to counter in the 30th. We injure one of their players and they have to get pulled. Half. We are down 1-0. Sato is injured in the 55th and Oliveira heads in. I also send in Stoychev and Ghinga. They score in the 84th, and we lose 0-2. I’m not happy with that.

April


April 7 – Home vs FSCB
April 14 – Away vs Botosani
April 21 – Home vs Viitorul
April 28 – Away vs Craiova


Good training reports from Petre and Dodoi.

Jakub Palenik’s long range strike was the league’s goal of the month!


Dalmau is back from his concussion



Continental Qualifier - Game #5 – Home vs FCSB = Our foes are currently in 6ths out of 6 after losing some early matches. Hopefully their bad form will be our win. After the loss to Cluj, we are down to 4th. I start Dalmau again after his return from concussion. For today’s match I am going to do something counter to my normal process. Rather than beginning slow, I am going to start attacking. Not control. Attacking. I’ll start and we’ll see how things go. My guess is I’ll move back around 15 or 20 minutes in, but I want to keep folks guessing. Here’s Sepsi, and here’s their counter-game. I’m at home against a team that has two points in four games. Let’s hit them hard. 12 minutes in I slide to control. Gimenez with a goal in the 27th. Petre crossed to Simonovski, and the ball was headed away and Gimenez grabbed it and scored. Yellow card to Jure. They grab goal back in the 43rd. Then in the 46th in extra time, Petre crosses to Simonovski for goal. Yellow for Viera. We are up 2-1 at the half. Don’t; get complaint. Or complacent. Gimenez finds Tandia for goal in the 49th. A few minutes, because of the fouls, I pull Jure for Rodriguez. I don’t want double yellows to ruin our momentum. Gimenez finds Simonovski for goal in the 55th minute. I pull Viera for Stoychev. I ease back to standard mentality. They score in the 77th. Oliviera for Dalmau. We win 4-2. MOM is Gimenez. I am definitely leaving him in the Trequarista role.

Nicely done. I honestly don’t think they were expected me to come at them for 60ish minutes and four goals.




Here are the standings at the half-way point. We are still at 4th, but we are in a solid place. Just a point separates 2 and 4. But Viitorul and FCSB aren’t in the conversation right now.

Craiova beats FCSB and have won the Liga.


Continental Qualifier - Game #6 – Away vs Botosani – If we win today, then we will flip over them on the table. As I Need my best players out there, no changes to my roster. I begin countering. Lots of waves of moves, but….it’s kind of slow. Quiet. Halftime 0-0. Hmmmm. Can we hold out? Nope. They hit goal in the 56th. I send in Stoychev, Dodoi, Rodriguez. Dalmau gets a red card in the 83rd. We lose 1-0. Ah well…

Continental Qualifier - Game #7 – Home vs Viitriul. I have Sato starting again. If we can hold our serve and win here, then there is still a chance. Although at #4 we’ll need some good results here. We are four points behind #4 and 7 behind #2. I begin controlling. Traore finds Sato for goal in the 9th minute. It was corner where the defense headed it back near the line, and Traore dropped it, and kicked over all of the mess of players and defenders to an open Sato on the other side, so good vision and quality by Traore there. 20 minutes pass quickly, and they are pushing hard. Can they sink that equalizer? Petre drives, crosses to Simonovski, goal, in the 39th minute. Half. We are up 2-0. Don’t get complacent. They have had 9 shots, 7 on target. That’s lethal stuff, but we have 17 and 10. They score on back in the 52nd. Petre dribbles down the flank, jukes a defender, finds Simonovski, who is double covered, he flicks it on to Gimenez, and he scores. In he 59th. I ease back to standard. I send in Rodriguez for Tandia. I move to counter, they are coming hard. They score in the 72nd. I hope they don’t tie this! Simonovski to Gimenez for goal in the 76th. Nevermind. I send in Stoychev and Ghinga. Sato finds Simonovski in the box for a goal in the 87th. We win 5-2, and MOM is Simonovski with his two goals and two assists.


Whew. Man. When Simonovski and Gimenez are clicking, I don’t envy anyone. They had almost twice as many goals on target as us on the day. But we still notched five goals.

Hadnagy finishes his next coaching quals. I convince the board to send him on another.

Continental Qualifier - Game #8 – Away vs Craiova. Dalmau is not coming back to start this year. What are our foes playing for today? They’ve already won. Can we beat a team that ain’t playing for anything? Well, let’s hope so! They are having lots of early pressure. We hold. Half. 0-0. Alright. Not bad. They finally pop our cherry in the 59th. I send in Stoychev, Rodriguez, Hadnagy and they score in the 77th. We lose 2-0. Well, what is this team playing for? Pride!


To be fair, they are also a 3-5-2 with a DMC like us, so we use similar tactics. We’ll discuss that later actually.


And at least we can say we were the only team to beat Craiova this year!

Botosani has also lost twice to Viitural and FCSB and thus is still just one point above us at #3 with two game left. So we are still in shouting distance of #3 and EURO play…. But we have two tough teams to face to do so….

May

May 6 – Home vs Cluj
May 12 – Away vs FCSB

Yes. Cluj, whom we never come close to beating, and FCSB.

Simonovski won Romanian Player of the Month for the Liga I Basano.

I get some good training reports on Pepe Castano, but several players like Hadnagy are dwindling.


Continental Qualifier - Game #9 – Home vs Cluj. Today Craiova are playing Botosani and we have Cluj. If we beat Cluj, and then Botosani either tie or lose, then we jump over. If we even manage a point today, then we are likely to gain ground against thee Botosani vs Craiova match. Which means, of course, we’ll actually beat Cluj, but Botosani will also win too, right? I decide to do something that’s probably stupid. I open up controlling. We are controlling the match, but in the 29th, they steal the ball from Viera in the box and score. Then they injure Traore and I send in Rodriguez. They score in the 42nd minute. They fire a lethal long shot on target in the 47th. Half. We are down 3-0. They have four shots on target. We are winning everywhere but the scoreboard. Which is a theme this year. We lose 3-0.


Now, the good news, I suppose, is that Craiova won. So there is still just a single point between us and Botosani. Traore gashed his leg and he’ll miss the final game. DMC Jure is banned with too many yellows.

Continental Qualifier - Game #10 -Away vs FCSB – Alright, here we go. Starting are Rodriguez and Ghinga. Let’s do this! Can we upend FCSB? Can we move past Botosani? Just 90 minutes are standing between the question and the answer. Let’s get started!!!!!!!!! Alons-y! By the way, Cluj are against Botosani, so there is still a chance that we’ll slide past them as our form has been equally woeful. Boring. Nothing. They move to assault us before half but nothing. Half, 0-0. We injure their key DC in the 53rd. Is that the answer? I move forward hard. Head in Dodoi, Dalmau and Stoychev. Nothing. This boring 0-0 tie keeps us in 4th.




We came that close to EURO play in the final stage, and if we had just gotten a single win in that 4-5 game strength. Ah well. Happens.


Hadnagy announces he is retiring at the end of the season next month. I offer him my U19 Assist Man role.

What a kick in the teeth. I'd be hurling obscenities.

Yeah, I hear ya, but we also dropped a lot of games late.


And also, we'd would have made it out at 4th in the league when I started this dynasty, but Romania dropped it's coefficient. 's ok!

So let’s break this down,.

Here are my goals:


My Seven Goals for Sepsi:


1. Create a powerful U19 squad. At the beginning of this game, we didn’t have a youth squad, just three players of note and value. Youth are the lifeblood of any team. I need to go out and sign out and jumpstart a new squad. CHECK
2. To do well enough this year to not get relegated. CHECK
3. Ideally, to do well enough this year to have a winning record. CHECK
4. Next year, to move Sepsi up to the Top 6, to qualify for the Romanian Champions Playoffs. CHECK ONE YEAR EARLY
5. In following years to increase Sepsi’s chances to make it out of Romania
6. To turn Sepsi into an Eastern European Powerhouse like Dynamo Kiev, Sparta Prague, and such
7. So secure financial footing to cement Sepsi into that role after I leave, so that Sepsi will not fade but will remain strong.


Now, why did this happen this quickly?

Here are my thoughts, in order.

1. Tactics. Our 3-5-2 was good against the many 4-5-1s. We struggled against Cluj’s 4-4-2, and Craiova, the class of the year, was the only other 3-5-2. Both over-achieving clubs used the 3-5-2 with 1 DMC and 4 middies.
2. The System. Romania has more teams than any other hitting continental play because of this system. It’s a whole lot easier to get hot (or cold) and punch above or below your expected place on the table in 26 games, rather than a normal 36 or 38 or something.
a. One of the keys of the system is the low umber of teams Romania has. Getting Top 6 for this cool playoff set was easier in a league with 14 teams, let’s be honest. In fact, we are not the first to do this well this quickly.
b. If I had told you that, in real life, our club hit 14th on a table of 20, but we took it to 8th in the same year, you might not think much. We did the same, just going from 12th to 6th.
3. Talent. We added many new players after taking over that were lifebloods of the team. Traore? Jakub Palenik? Martin Gimenez? Gabriel Dodoi? Even DC Stoychev. We brought in a good amount of talent to push the team more, and not settle for 12th. I also don’t feel that the talent level difference on the pitch was that different after this influx of talent, save for Cluj, and maybe Craiova.


Now, moving forward, I know that I can’t get out of this place until I can, reliably, beat Cluj.

In normal season, I would aim for a consistent roster that won’t embarrass you. Take a 20 team division with 38 games in it. I can finish above a better team that I lose to if I am more consistent with the lower teams. I don’t need to be better than the best club in the league, I just need to be better than the rest.

And you would often be able to secure promotion to a higher level or to European play. By coming in 2nd or 3rd. That’s fine. But here? I am playing Cluj not just two times, but four times. And I am doing do with just 13 other teams. Those two games against Cluj matter more in a 26 game season to set rankings than they so for a next season. And then I have two more that count even more.

I can’t get to EURO without pushing. I can’t get to Champions without winning the final ten-game playoff and coming in first because we dropped in our co-efficients.

So I have to build a different team. My new sub-goal is to build a roster to beat Cluj.




My EIGHT Goals for Sepsi:


1. Create a powerful U19 squad. At the beginning of this game, we didn’t have a youth squad, just three players of note and value. Youth are the lifeblood of any team. I need to go out and sign out and jumpstart a new squad. CHECK
2. To do well enough this year to not get relegated. CHECK
3. Ideally, to do well enough this year to have a winning record. CHECK
4. Next year, to move Sepsi up to the Top 6, to qualify for the Romanian Champions Playoffs. CHECK ONE YEAR EARLY
5. In following years to increase Sepsi’s chances to make it out of Romania
6. Build a roster that can reliably defeat Cluj.
7. To turn Sepsi into an Eastern European Powerhouse like Dynamo Kiev, Sparta Prague, and such
8. So secure financial footing to cement Sepsi into that role after I leave, so that Sepsi will not fade but will remain strong.

Stats Time!


Patrick Petre led everyone with the most distance covered. Traore came in 2nd. Jure 11th.

Simonovski had the 3rd highest average rating with 7.32

Viera was 1st with the most headers won and 2nd in most key headers

Marko’s 20 goals were 2nd in the league.

Gimenez was 3rd best in shots on target as a percentage of shots with 60%.

Traore was 2nd in key passes

Jure was 7th with most tackles/game

Rodriguez was 4th with most mistakes leading to goals

Jakub Palenik was 8th with the most key tackles

Viera was 11th with most key tackles

Viera was 1st with the most interceptions

Viera was 1st with the most shots blocked

GK Rimniceanu conceded the 12th most goals

GK Rimniceanu was 1st in saves held, and in saves parried.

We scored 56 goals and conceded 59 goals.

Ratings –

Going into next year –

I don’t like Ursu remaining at DC for me. He was a stopgap rotation guy who played more reliably that Stoychev. I am not sure that my youth will be ready though.

All three DCs were 6.72
Jure was 6.93
Gk was 6.77
Traore was 7.17
Tandia was 6.93
Petre – 6.99
Sato – 7.01
Rodriguez – 6.74
Dalmau – 7.10
Hadnagy – 6.89
Simonovski – 7.32
Gimenez – 7.39
Dodoi – 6.80
Stoychev – 6.53


Leaving this year are Felipe Oliviera, GK Miron, Marius Burlacu and Sebastian Ghinga, as well as Hadnagy’s retirement and I have transfer listed Stoychev.

I do think I can upgrade in a few places. But here is the thing. How many of these players are better than their counterpart on Cluj?

None. I do think that my GK, Jakub and Gimenez are, roughly, as good as three random starters on Cluj, but that’s it. I need a team of Gimenezs. Alright, let’s snap muh fingers sand make that happen!

But seriously, I have to be mercenary here. None of these players aren’t replaceable. I have to grow up across the board. Tandia? Traore? Simonovski? Viera? If you find someone better, send them over!


Craiova wins the Romanian Cup.

Our scouting network is now worldwide!

I plead and get permission for another coach.

I sign 60 year old Serbian Dusan Dragovich. He’s giving me a four-star ball control training effort.



Uh oh, shit...............

Are you ready?



ARE YOU READY LEGION??????????????



ARE YOU REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYY?????????????????????????????????





(no you are not........)

I'm about to head out for game night. I'll be aback tamarrow.


In the meantime, relax and have a Sepsi on me.

Craiova’s win in the Cup means that the Cup Qualification drops.

To #4 on the league table……..


Welcome to the EURO St. George!

Sepsi rejoices




Oh, and thanks Craiova!

June 1st arrives

I am waiting to see my budget for next year first.


Sepsi Awards:

Fan’s Players of the Season – Simonovski

Goal of the Season – Palenik

Signing of the Season – Gimenez

Young Player of the Season – Sato




What jersey did you order last year? (And why didn't Simonovski hit higher? Was his name too long for the jersey?)

GOT IT!

Our initial budget is 7.5 mill and 130k. We are in money now, and I know exactly where I am spend it.

I call up Craiova!

Last year after HE came to Romanian football, I called them just to see what it would take. I know what they want….


We agree to a 4.5 mill deal for no cash for Robert Lupu.

He is initially hesitant to come to us, but I offer him first team play rather than youth.

He agrees.

He come to us in June 15th (Internal transfer date for Romanian leagues is two weeks earlier).

Alright, we just signed Lupu!

Who else do I want?


The reason I wanted Lupu is simple, but yet complex. Here are squad registration rules again:


Match Rules:

Must be one U22 Romanian in Top 11

Match Squad Must have at least four players trained in Romania

Squad Registration –

Maximum 25 players

No more than 5 EU players

EU includes both EU nations and Cotonou signees

At least four players training at Sepsi

At least eight players trained in Romania



Now, only Dodoi and Petre really met the first last year. You have to have a starter that’s U22 Romanian. That means you need a few youth that either you rotate in, or you have a rock that will work.

My match squad has to have four trained as well. Now my GK counts, as do players like Petre, Dodoi, Ursu, etc. But others don’t This counts subs though, not the top 11.

I can’t have more than 5 EU on my squad, but I have to have a lot of players trained here and trained at Sepsi, as you can see.

So I need to bring in some strong Romanians who will carry the badge moving forward. Lupu does that perfectly.

I have 3 Mill left, which will be more than enough to enhance the rest of my squad.

I make an offer to a great DC from Peru who is finishing up his deal, in his mid-20s. He’s the Gimenez of DCs for me, and will start with Palenik and Viera if he signs.

I offer a Trial to unsigned vet DC Bogden Mitra, Romania, 31 years old. He refuses. He’ll sign for me, but not come to me on trial.


None of my wingers sold me last year, although I’d be fine keeping Petre, Sato, Dalmau out of the wings if I needed to, I’d rather run Lupu in the middle, and put Tandia or someone else there. The wingers from last year played okay, but they are all outclassed by others. I need quality wingers in a 3-5-2 when they are the only ones out there, so I am looking for a nice MR or ML who can put us into a strong set of quality there.


Let’s look at my anticipated roster right now and show you what I am talking about:


Keeper - GK Rimniceanu, backups – Fejer and Nizhuly


DC – Palenik, Viera, OPEN SPOT, Ursu, Youther Pepe Castano,

DMC – OPEN? Jure Obsivac

MR – Petre, Dalmau

ML – Petre, Sato

MC - Traore, Tandia, Lupu, Rodriguez

ST – Martin Gimenez, Marko Simonovski

Backups - Gabriel Dodoi, youther Luiz Schlocobert

Cluj vs Sepsi

This next section is going to be dense but I think it'll prove really helpful to see where we need to be. Get ready for picture overload!

Now let’s give you a couple of screen shots of current Cluj starters:



This is the best player on Cluj’s roster that isn’t a loanee. Now he’s 32 and will likely soon drop in quality, but you get the idea. Deac is a creative force for footballing good.

My best midfielder is Traore




Their player is a lot better mentally, and mine is about the same, physically, as theirs, save for the big STR of Deac, and then they have about the same technique for the key stuff I care about (pass, 1st touch, cross, tech) but you can see how much more well rounded Deac is with stuff like his finishing.


Now, here is Cluj’s worst midfielder




This is Rafa Sousa, a backup guy they are trying to sell. He’s still good enough to make the cut on my squad, and perhaps even push for starts. He doesn’t even start for them.

Here is one of my own middies that I started.




This is Sato. Note that Sato is worse than Sousa. One of my first team starters is worse than their worst player! Now Sato is fast, and and, uh, ….. Well, you san see. His mentals aren’t there, he doesn’t have good pass or cross, etc.

Here is Dalmau





This is Dalmau after a year. Now he has gotten better at the positions he plays, we taught him flexibility. But a 10/10 in cross/pass or 12/11 speed or 10 technique ain;t going to get it done, right? I need more stuff.

Here are some other Cluj middies, just to push this point home;





These are two other examples of folks better than my best.

And this is true for other players as well



This is one of Cluj’s strikers. George is very strong, with good physical stats, and such. You have to like him.

This was my best striker on the pitch




Now this was my most in-form player and goal leader. He’s not anywhere near the quality of George. 10 finishing? 12/11 tech and first touch? He’s not even outpacing George at heading. Simonovski isn’t someone with heft.

But Gimenez? He can go toe to toe with them:




This Is Gimenez and his physical, technical, and mental stats will allow him to dominate.

Now, here was my best DC on the pitch, Viera



He was the best non-GK on the team I inherited. But he still wasn’t strong. Here is the best Cluj D (that they own and didn’t have on loan).




Now this isn’t a DC, but their DL, and yet, you can get the points, I think. His mental, physical, and such are just better.

Here is our worst starting DC by comparison




This is Ursu. Yeah, exactly. But he played better than Stoychev, so there’s that. You’ve seen how good Palenik was to bring in.

We need to upgrade our talent.



Here’s Jure Obsivac. He’s another full-time starter I had who locked in the DMC role for me. Again, he’s not bad. If I had to I could run him out there for me, but there’s no magic here. No zest. There’s nothing to hang my hat on.

Others vs Sepsi

For example, I decide to grab a non-Cluj team by comparison.

This is Viitorul



This is their best player not from a loaner on their roster. I decided to scout him for you.



Their best DC



Another good Mid




Another young powerhouse

And of course, Viitorul aren't one of the powerhouses of the league. They came in 6th. Out of 14.

How about Astra? They won the relegation group and essentially were 7th.



Astra’s best player not on loan or their Gk



2nd best




3rd best




4th best

And they are on the same level as a Tandia, Viera, or Traore, right? But they aren’t on a Cluj level either.

And yet you can see where they can win games. I mean, take Bus. 13/12 cross pass can someone do some damage, right? I mean Bus is better than my Sato/Dalmau options at ML by tons.

I need to beat Cluj.

And now you have seen how I need to upgrade my entire squad to Gimenez or Palenik level quality player. My Traore, Sato, Petre, Dalmau, Tandia, Rodriguez, midfield isn’t going to cut it.

EDIT - I think you saw this in the final half of the continental quals when we could't get wins and points despite having a good form for the first part. Both us and Batason lost a ton of games in a row. We could easily have been third. But we didn't have this level of quality and consistency.

Now I do have some other options.

This is Emil:



Emil is on my youth squad, and is someone that joined me after reaching out and telling me he wanted to play for my club after being put on a free transfer. We were working on his ability to play ML and then loaned him. He has a 7.01 rating in U19 international play in the U19 Euro this year. He has room to grow, but he’s already better than Sato/Dalmau. A 13/12 cross/pass and 15/14 speed ain’t nothing. I could run him out there if I needed to.

Here’s another good youther I have



This is Gabriel Morbeck, and he’s another youther guy we brought in. He’s developed and is now ready to promote and give some internal development to. Our scouts think Morbeck has a bigger ceiling than Abaz, but you can see he’s ready to look good. Now, Morbeck is Brazilian, so there is that issue, but still, he ain;t bad. He’s better than my current squad and will improve.

I decide to transfer list Rodriguez and Dalmau. By doing so I can open up roster spots for others to promote.

I need Gimenez’s

I make an offer to the old DC that won’t take a trial but it good and local. I am seeing him as my Ursu. Local, Romanian, solid. Having a quality 4th option for when I need to sub in someone or give some games here and there.

Let me show you how scouting works in this game, as I really like it:



This is a report that my scouts bring me and I can choose what to do with it. I just got this report. Here is South African young star Grant Margeman, and my scout has told me that they think he’s really good and would be interested in playing for us, as well as the cost of around 425k-1.1 Mill, which is feasible now. They also give him a 4.5 current rating and 4.45 future, so he looks developed. Let’s look at him, as this report seems like something I might want to follow up on.



And here is Grant’s profile. As you can see, we need more scouting numbers, but there is a lot to hang your hat on here. He basically plays the same role as Traore on my club, and could be a better Traore and nine years younger. 20 year old, capped, South African who would be willing to come to Romania? That’s something to follow up on. I’ll scout him out, and then look at him. He was a 7.26 rating starting for Ajax CT (In South Africa) last year in 30 games. So that’s something.

If I could secure him for, say, 500 or 600k, then it seems like a wise play. I can bring in competition for Traore, and then see who wins out.

I prefer to chase prospects like this. My scout found him. I also will look at youth squads for nearby teas, or U21/19 national squads and such myself to see who I like, which is something I am sure scouts do in real life as well.

This is how I found some of the better wonderkids (from real life) in the game. I found Alexis Sanchez and brought him into my Kaiserslautern team in Germany. I didn’t look him up. I found Kim Kallestrom. I found Sebastian Driussi for Nacional da Madeira. I found Thibou Courtois at GK for Slavia Prague. Etc. These are my people.

Is Grant the next on my list? I guess we’ll see, but he looks like a strong option for pushing us past Cluj.

I scout him, and make an offer for 775k. A little higher than I wanted, but still, he looks the part.

Next, I need to look at ML and DMC. Well, I could sign a strong MR and then move Petre to ML. Petre is still getting better, but Sato/Dalmau aren’t. And I can break out Tandia to the wing and see how he plays out there after spending a year learning the MC/ML/MR spots better. But my preference is to delve down and unpack a high quality class player for us. I scout some folks to see what I can do. I have two strong, young, Argentinian players who would be happy to come play for us on the wing, but that’s yet another squad spot to a non-EU person. Do I want that?


For DMC?

There is this good Peruvian DMC my scouts like as well, but again, non-EU. Both him and my current offer for DC are on the Peru squad together. That’s cool.

There is a 30 year old Spanish guy approaching the end of his contract who’ll come play for me happily. Now he’s free. That’s nice. And his Mentals are strong, but physically and technically I’m not seeing a powerhouse. But he is a EU National, which helps.


Our first target agrees to come to Sepsi after his deal finishes:

DC Hansell Riojas, Peru, Free Transfer




Here he is:



Now he’s fully developed and he should be doing a strong job for us. See how some of his key things I want are still fine – 14 head, mark, tack etc, but there is also stuff here like technique, passing, first touch, even set pieces with throws and PKs? And then you have a very consistent slate of mental and physical stats? There is nothing here to dislike! Welcome to Romania!

Now that he’s confirmed, I may chase the other Peruvian on my radar for my DMC spot

Riojas and Lupu clearly push my squad closer to Cluj

Who’s next?

I have set up friendlies with nearby strong teams – Craiova, Slavia Prague, Salzberg, and Fenerbache.

Salzberg is the big one. They have won the Austrian Premier Division 8 out of the last 10 years. Fenerbache is always one of the giants of Turkish football and just won their Super League last year. This will help to measure our growth. Can we hang with them?


Alright, my next signee has been locked in – Grant Margeman. After he arrives, I’ll show you his skill set.

Welcome to Sepsi!



I love you too buddy!

My players have returned from break.

Lupu arrives. He has a first team deal, 1.2k/week. My three youthers I signed back in April from lesser Romanian clubs are here as well.

I have around 2 mill left after these deals

I get a first team loan offer for Dodoi. Hmmm. With Hadnagy retired, I have four ST that I want for this year, and Dodoi and potentially Schlocobiert. If this were an offer for Schlocobiert from a fellow Liga team? I might take it. But Dodoi is my 3rd guy, and he’s not available for loan anyway. I say no

I am getting pushback in the media for the Lupu deal. I overspent. That Craiova made out massively.

We’ll see what they say in a few years….

This year’s training camp is Slovenia

The awards for last year’s season were handed out:

Liga I Basano Goal of the Year: Jakub Palenik vs Viitorul

Simonovski was named the Team of the Year

Romania dropped more on the Euro charts to 21st.


Three teams are getting relegated – Iasi, Juventus, and Medias. The worst two are relegated and then the 3rd worst is in a playoff with the 3rd best below to see, and in this case, Iasi lost 3-1.


But Sepsi ain’t one of them!

We come to a 775k deal for the Peruvian DMC. Offer time. We finalize a deal and they are mulling it over. Their next transfer window won’t be for a while though, in January.

I accept an offer for Stoychev

Felipe Oliviera has announced his retirement later this month.

I headed to the board and they are super happy to keep Oliviera on the staff here and support his coaching quals. I offer Oliviera a spot here.

I convince my club to upgrade our youth facilities. Again.

We draw Norweigan team Sarpsborg in EURO play.

He accepts the deal. We are going to be welcoming DMC Wilder Cartagena, 23 years old, in January. We can run Jure for now.

The Austrian Super Cup conflicts with our friendly so Salzberg cancel their friendly.

Stoychev is sold

I make an offer to a nice older Romanian midfielder out in Italy right now to come back and be a rotation and option on the wing.


I sign that DC off the street:


DC Bogdan Mitrea, 30, Romanian




Who’s ready to come back to Romania?



Here he is. He’s quality and good. He’s much better as an option than Ursu. We won a bidding war with 10 or so other clubs, and I’ll give him some starts early to see who are my top three, but my guess is he’ll come in at #4 behind Viera, Palenik, and Riojas, although Viera is the worst on paper.

Ursu is concerned that I brought in Mitrea to replace him, and frankly, he should be. Look, Ursu was signed to a three-year deal when we entered Liga II for rotation. We got out in one year, which is a good problem to have, but he was my 4th DC last year, but started due to Stoychev blowing chunks everywhere. And he was…okay…in that role. But he is playing way above his talent level. So yes, this is a replacement, but that context shouldn’t concern him.

I tell Ursu that, frankly, he’s right, and I will look to move him. He tells me he doesn’t want to leave, and that he overacted.

So here is what I’ll do for Ursu. I don’t dislike him. He’s experienced, savvy, etc. I will loan my hot prospect DC Pepe Castano and give him some first team experience elsewhere. Then you can be my 5th DC on my squad, and on a squad with 3 DCs, that means you’ll always dress and be one of my 7 subs.

Mitrea joins our camp in Slovenia.

I move Sato to rotation from first team.


I sign 27 year old Romanian Adrian Stoian for 200k, and he will be on a rotation deal




Someone is excited to join the Sepsi Juggernaut!!!!!!

(In real life, he just signed with Craiova)



You can see why I liked him here and there. He is cheap, depth, and won’t push the better players better-y.

This gets me some needed squad depth at

Welcome to June 30th

I confirm our board’s expectations of getting top half, QF of Romanian Cup, and reaching 3rd Qual Round for EURO. The board offer to expand the potential budgets of my coaches. After arranging games, my other two heavies pull out with various commitments. Grrr.

We sign Oliviera as a U19 coach. I also confirm our pitch size

Goodbye:

S. Ghinga
M. Berlacu
Florin Dumbrava
Nick Ross
GK Bogdan Miron


I sign a new GK Coach (Hungary) and an Argentinian coach

I offer to extend Dodoi by two years.

Do I believe in Simonovski enough not to pursue anyone else at ST?

With these changes, my current starting 11 is Rimniceanu, Jure Ob at DMC (for now), Simonovski, Gimenez, Tandia, Petre, Traore/, Lupu, and Three of the DCs. Does my push for excellence mean that I am fine with Dodoi and Locoschubiert?

June 30th, is the best day to chase people, as folks that have previously thought they were too big for you suddenly find themselves without a job. Let’s advance a day and bring in my new folks and see a bit better what muh squad looks like

July 1 –

New folks:

ST Andrei Dumiter, signed last year

MC Grant Margeman

M RL Adrian Stoian

DC Carlos Badal

They all join camp

They one you’ll want to see, Margeman:




This is how you beat Cluj. You bring in a guy for around 800k with bonuses to him and his agent, and bring him from South Africa to Romania after he’s mostly developed and good. This is Grant. For comparison, this is Traore:




Traore is older, savvier. For example, better Flair or Teamwork. But Margeman is the fastest player on my squad, and has good agility, fitness, and such. Now, I could beat him in an arm wrestling contest, and probably beat him in a standing high jump coemption ever after spotting him 6 inches. But those aren’t as valuable for a silky midfielder. He’s already better at passing, determination, decisions, 1st touch, finishing by 4, etc. Traore has some stuff going for him, but Margeman is just better, younger, and a 4.5 star guy vs Traore 4 star. I have to be cutthroat like this. I will start Traore early and then move to Margeman.

Now I have a thought for my last 1 mill or so.

GK.


My current Gk – Rimniceanu, is the 4th best Romanian GK and the best of those still playing in Romania – they others are elsewhere. I like that. And you saw last year that Rimniceanu had a lot of goals given up. But he also stopped a ton of shots too. He was one of my best players, and I’d say he’s still my 6th or so after various influxes of talent. But I want to see if I can find a youth prospect I can groom to replace Rimniceanu. My two backups are youthers who don’t have the class for this level of footy, although they aren’t bad.

So what would make sense? Ideally I’d unearth a great Romanian GK hopeful.

Nope.

Alright, any young players I can bring in, groom, give them Romanian, homegrown, roots to after a few years?

I send scouts to five prospects

While doing that I also bring in a Romanian youth Gk, Zoltan Toth, that’s not as good, just in case. He signs an hour later. Kid is happy.

The first of my youth trialists arrive. I’ll let you know if I sign anyone permanently.

On July 5th, in training camp, Viera is injured and will be out for 4-5 months with a hip injury.

That’s not good ☹

The title odds come out and we are 5th best in the league for winning


Our first friendly is here. We are in Ukraine. I have moved Lupu to an AMC role, have Traore in the middle, and have Ursu in for Viera. Tandia on the ML. We lose 3-2.

I hand out some rests because in a few days, we’ll have our first EURO game.

I name Viera as captain and Mitrea as Vice.


Away vs Sarpborg, Leg #1 – Ready? Time for our first EURO match!!! They get a red card at the 3:44 mark for a nasty foul on Petre. I slide from counter to standard up my tempo, and such. We have 35 minutes move off quickly. Jure with a yellow. Half. We have 11 shots, 1 on target, and I have tried to up that. I am on control. 2nd half underway. Tandia hits Gimenez for goal And that’s it. We finish with 22 shots and 2 on target. I sent in Dodoi and Sato. Good win. MOM is Tandia but frankly, he wasted like 6 shots on the wing from outside the box. I need to tell him to knock that off. He isn’t s shooter.

We extend GK Rimniceanu by a year.