Conquering Europe

[oneteaminglasgow]

Europa Conference League 2037/38 - First Qualifying Round, First Leg

Early start to the competitive season for us, and we face Montenegrin side Iskra Daniolvgrad. While at the start of the save, Kosovo was rated a better league, as things stand in game Montenegro have the 34th best league in Europe, while Kosovo are 45th, so it'll be a tough game. Not helping is the fact that our transfer window doesn't open until the 1st of August, this game is at the start of July so I'm still playing with last season's squad, minus a few guys who left, and none of the players I'm trying to bring in. Still, we'll see how it goes. 

Spoiler

It did not go well. Given ourselves a really, really tough job in the second leg if we're to get through.

I tried to make the team more solid defensively, thinking that we could maybe hold out and then get one on the break, but the plan just didn't work. We didn't get going at all, and only managed our first shot in the 81st minute, highlighting just how dominant they were. They're a decent side, and I'll be stunned if we can get through from here.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Europa Conference League 2037/38 - First Qualifying Round, Second Leg

Spoiler

We were slightly better in this leg, and should have scored (had one disallowed as well) but ultimately, they're just a much better side than we are. 

Main focus for this season will be some domestic silverware anyway.

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Transfer Window - 2037/38

Starting with my extensive list of outgoings. For some reason, there was an absolutely huge amount of utter dross hanging around the club, too old for the youth team and not good enough for the first team, so I punted the lot of them. Also sent two guys out on loan, Coleman is pretty good and might be useful next season (assuming I'm still here). Lluca probably won't, but I'm not quite ready to give up on him yet so will see how he does on loan.

Anyway, onto the incoming players...

Genuinely, very pleased with all of them. We'll start with Richard Claridge, who I'm going to shoehorn into every team I can. His attributes aren't that great, but I know what he can do, and I trust him. I know that sounds weird to say about a regen in a computer game, but still. Think being full time for the first time in his career will help him develop too, and he's got a minimum fee release clause for future use should it be needed.

Spoiler

Next up, Fahri Cerkini. He's a pretty good player to have, will play a fair bit in centre midfield, and he also provides some cover for right wing, which was a position I struggled with last season. My most expensive signing, though he's certainly not the best, I'm pleased with him. 

Spoiler

Indrit Koci joins on a free to be one of my main centre midfielders. He's a good technical player, and should do the job for me. Very fit as well, which is always nice. 

Spoiler

Davide Leone is a centre half, and I'm delighted to get him. I tried to sign him last season, but he said no and went on loan to Balkani instead, but he's a defender who can actually defend, a fucking rarity in my squad. Hopefully I can stick him beside one of my two who are decent on the ball, and they'll balance each other out into a competent defence.

Spoiler

Dejan Oblak is, by an absolute mile, the pick of the bunch. He's quick, outstanding technically, and has a bit of flair. I expect big things from him, and, as with Claridge, I will be trying to bring him with me when I'm done in Kosovo.

Spoiler

Last, but not least, we have striker Predrag Zivanovic on loan from Montenegrin side Buducnost for the season. His finishing is really poor, but apart from that he has everything to excel as a striker for me, and I've seen guys with finishing far worse than his score plenty this save, so high hopes. I had him on trial, but he rejected my contract offer so pleasing to get him on loan.

Spoiler

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

August 2037

Bit of a baptism of fire for the season with games against two of last season's top four, but we've came through it pretty well, and hopefully this is a barometer of how the rest of the season will go. Pleasing to see a couple of goals for new players as welll, and Oblak has assisted all bar one of my goals so far, so that's encouraging.

Dropped points already for all of the title challengers. Obviously it's much too early to read anything into this. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

September 2037

Perfect month, can't ask for more than that.  Got a helping hand against Llapi as they went down to 10 men at 2-1 them, which really handed us the game, but everything else was fairly straightforward. Dejan Oblak continues his ridiculous form - he's now at 7 goals and 5 assists in 6 games.

Top of the table, but again at this stage we just need to focus on picking up as many points as we can. Next up is Trepca, and if we can win that I'll be very optimistic about how the season will go.

[oneteaminglasgow]

October 2037

We should have beaten Trepca. They had most of the ball and plenty of shots, but they never really created a chance you'd expect to score, whereas we missed an absolute sitter with about a minute left. A draw isn't the worst result, but it should have been a win.

Rest of the month was good, Besa have been a good side this season so good to get a win there, and then a fairly straightforward win against newly promoted Ulpiana.

Almost a third of the way through the season - we've only got bottom side Drenica to play from our first third, so I'm really happy with how we're doing. Problem is Prishtina are matching us every step of the way.

[oneteaminglasgow]

November 2037

Had a tough period in the middle of the month, but we seem to have come through it now, so ideal. We also managed to get through in the cup despite losing the first leg, and we held on against Prishtina.

Couple of poor results sees us drop of top, but we're very much still in the title race. Trepca face us and Prishtina next month, so should be some dropped points there.

[oneteaminglasgow]

December 2037

Pretty decent month, albeit we're almost definitely going out of the cup fairly early. The draw with Balkani was really disappointing, and Dejan Oblak got injured for 8 weeks in the Prishtina match. His last injury coincided with our dodgy run of form, so that's a worry, but we'll see how we get on. Draw with Trepca is ok though, and unbeaten in the league is something.

Despite dropping points, a 95th minute winner for Feronikeli against Prishtina puts us back to the top.

The table is very tight at the top, so won't take anything for granted. It's still nice to be top at this stage, hopefully we can stay here. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

January 2038

Couple of signings in the January window, hopefully add some strength to see us to the title.

First up, Indonesian international striker Achmad Sukarta. He's a bit on the slow side, but he's comfortably the best finisher I have, and his first touch and dribbling are pretty good. He's also strong, so that's helpful too.

Spoiler

Next, Arnold Markaj who I've signed from Llapi. Centre midfielder, looks pretty good all round to be honest, so very pleased with him. He's won the title a couple of times before, so that should be helpful.

Spoiler

Erwan Peltier joins to play centre half, and finally means I should have a defensive partnership good enough for the league I'm in. He's good defensively, but bad at playing football. That should be fine though.

Spoiler

A good month, although we (as expected) got punted out the cup. Still, 9 points in the league, and a great start to his Gjilan career for Sukarta. 6 goals already isn't bad.

Still top of the table, still neck and neck with Prishtina. We play them next, that's a huge game.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Spoiler

 Massive. We got pretty lucky, but took our goals well and, while they wasted some good chances, we defended ok.

Gives us a 3 point lead, and means we have a superior head to head record which is essentially another point. For the first time, I make us favourites for the title. 7 games to go, only one more against one of the top 4. 

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

February 2038

Aside from the huge win against Prishtina, we scraped a draw against Vushtrria. We performed really poorly in that game, but didn't lose so that's something.

Prishtina game was fucking great though, still buzzing to be honest.

We're 4 clear, but head to head makes it essentially 5 on both Prishtina (who lost both their games this month) .

We have Llapi and Trepca coming up next. 

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Can ye colour this in as ye go? Thanks

[oneteaminglasgow]

6 hours ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Can ye colour this in as ye go? Thanks

Have updated the OP. 

[oneteaminglasgow]

March 2038

Not really what I was looking for. We threw it away against Llapi, two goals within a minute had us firmly in control but we shat. However, that point against Trepca was among the most undeserved points I've gained throughout the save. Comprehensively outplayed, scored in the last minute. Delightful.

We should be out of sight already, but it's looking like it's between us and Feronikeli - who've come from nowhere.

I'd make us favourites, as we have the head-to-head advantage, and a slightly easier run in, on paper. We'll see though.

[oneteaminglasgow]

April 2038

Back to winning ways, although two very different games. We went 1-0 down against Balkani, but we were 4-1 up by half time. Second half was pretty unconvincing, but held on in the end.

Against Besa, we were 2-0 down, brought it back to 2-2, conceded again before scrambling to a winner via an own goal with 5 minutes left. They then had a last minute equaliser disallowed.

Still, got the two wins, that's all that matters at this stage.

Two games left. We're playing Ulpiana and Drenica. 

We should be winning those both, very comfortably and taking the title.

[Miguel Sanchez]

If you can't beat shite like that you should resign in shame.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Spoiler

We scraped by a bit, but they didn't really create any chances so we were never in any danger of not winning. Oblak has been the absolute boy this season, and he pretty much single handedly dragged us through this game. Feronikeli  beat Prishtina to take it to the final day.

We now play Ulpiana, a side who've every single game that wasn't against Drenica, and have conceded 82 goals while only scoring 12. 

Surely to f**k we're going to beat them. 

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

Spoiler

This was the scout report I received just before the Ulpiana game,. Their recent form being a lot worse than ours is a fairly polite way of saying they haven't won a league game for 6 months. But is that how it turned out?

Spoiler

Aye, won at a canter. Didn't really bother with defending at all on this game, hence their two goals despite having 10 men, but the win was obviously happening by half time, and we really stopped going for it in the second half, but job done, and I'm finished with Kosovo.

Final table looks like this, title won on head-to-head record. I'm not fussed how we won it, we won it.

That makes it 3 titles in my last 4 full seasons. I've gotten lucky in that I've been able to get jobs at clubs who were among the best in the league. We'll see how long that can last. Next on the list: Moldova.

 

 

 

[oneteaminglasgow]

FM hits out with some absolute fucking nonsense sometimes. I've said no, basically because I think clubs get upset if you manage a country as well, so want to avoid that.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Before heading to Kosovo, I held out for ages waiting on a top flight job coming up in Iceland but it didn't happen. This time I was hoping for the same, and again it didn't happen, so for the first time in the save, I'll be managing outwith a country's highest division. 

Leiknir are a Reykjavik based side, and while a number of the Reykjavik teams have won the title plenty of times, we've spent our history dicking about in the lower leagues.

In any case, the Icelandic season has just finished, and they came 7th, despite being predicted to win the league. Anyway, it's now November 2038, and our first game won't be until February, if we're in the League Cup.