Career A Gentleman’s Journey - Season 5

[L_Dotz]

Hello Fellow Managers👋🏽

I would like to welcome you to join me on my ventures and follow my progress as we embark on a long, 30 year journey of joy, heartbreak, love, betrayal and so much more.

This is my first ever thread or post of this kind so please feel free to provide me with criticisms and feedback - it’s all much appreciated😁

Having never completed a full career and often losing motivation after 6/7 seasons, I’ve decided to use this community as a way to keep me, and hopefully yourself, entertained and engaged with the save.

Season 1 - Tottenham Hotspur (COYS!!!)

I loaded up the top 2 divisions in your typical 4 leagues: England, France, Germany and Italy. The ‘random team’ function in the game previously provided me with some teams whom I never thought I would see myself manage so I decided to once again put my faith in its hands and it provided me with Spurs, my beloved team. Enough of the giff-gaff, let’s get into the breakdowns.

Transfers IN:

Nikola Milenković (Fiorentina) £40m

If any of you watch the Premier League, you’ll know Tottenham for being absolutely shambolic in the back line, therefore that’s where the main investment was. A solid centre-back with good stats and plenty of room to improve.

Marcel Sabitzer (RB Leipzig) £27m

Needed a starting AP since I used Dele in my B team. Kept it realistic and signed a player who I’d love to see play for the team in real life.

Colin Dagba (PSG) £24.5m

Saw him play for PSG in the Champions League and it was my main inspiration for this signing. Young and already skilled, was a perfect investment and worth every penny after top performances as my starting RB.

Transfers OUT:

Danny Rose (Bournemouth) £3.4m

Surplus to requirements and could definitely be useful for another team. Bournemouth cashed in and got themselves a decent full-back for a bargain price.

However that’s not all. My Golden Child, the man whose smile can fix all the world’s problems betrayed me. He came into my office  in November and sat down with me to tell me how he’s bossed the Prem for too long and is looking for a new challenge. Livid. I cried(not really, but you know what I mean). Whenever I play the game, I will never stand in the way of a player who wants to move on, so he went on the transfer list but no club came in for him in January. Expecting bids at the start of next season and I have a few replacements in mind.

Manager’s Profile & Achievements:

My first season in charge went rather well, knowing that anything better than Europa League at the end of the season makes me a better manager than The Chosen One anyway. Ended up winning the Head Coach of the Year award for the 2020/21 season and only the one Head Coach of the Month award, in February.

Team Performance & Achievements:

Did we manage to break the wretched curse of the empty trophy cupboard? Of course we did! It came in the Carabao Cup final against Swansea and it was already more than enough for me to consider this season a success. 13 long years without a sniff of silverware and we managed to collect some in our first chapter. It gets better however, because we managed to win the league title on the final day! It was unnerving, but Man City crumbled and lost to Sheffield United, which meant that in our match against Arsenal, a draw was all we needed. Our game finished 1-1 and we wrapped white ribbons around the Premier League Trophy🥳

Individual Achievements:

A few usual suspects performed superbly and earned themselves a well-deserved reward as a token of recognition for their sublime form. Harry Kane won the POTM award for November and the England POTY at the end of the season. Sonny was also shining and scooped up the Asian POTY award.

Team Stats:

I rotate my team accordingly to the fitness levels and also the team we're up against, in hope that everyone gets a run out and doesn’t feel too unhappy about being in the squad. Here’s how the boys cracked on:

Expect to see a few names missing and some new ones pop up next season 😉.

🌟 Player:

Harry Kane

I'm sure this will come at no surprise but it had to be his Highness himself: Sir Harold Edward Kane MBE. If you looked at the team stats he was miles above everyone else and got 41 goal contributions in 39 games. Couldn’t have asked much more of him to be perfectly honest. One of world’s best. Oh, and he also considers me his mentor so we’re basically best pals.

Honourable mentions:

Dele Alli

He was the core of my B team and managed 9 goals and 9 assists in 31 appearances. Earned himself a spot in the starting CAM role of the A team for next season as he has more room to improve that Sabitzer.

Tanguy Ndombele

When you look at his stats, it’s not overly impressive: 2 goals, 7 assists in 39 appearances. It’s his impact on the match and consistency throughout the season which made him a very important player and one for the future of this football club.

Erik Lamela:

Totally unbiased. I love him so he needs to be mentioned at some point in this. Every since his rabona shenanigans at Roma, I’ve been fully in awe of this man and although he was mainly used as a sub in my B team, he did perform well in times where he was needed most. 26 games, 5 goals, 6 assists.

Game of the Season:

Matchday 15: Spurs 4 - 2 Chelsea

After a match against City 2 days prior to this game and a few injuries, we had to field out a heavily rotated side and I mean, Tanganga at LB kinda rotated side. It was only a league match but it was such a great performance from the lads! 2-1 down and Werner stepped up for a penalty, I thought that was the game done and dusted. However, in typical Werner fashion, he missed and that was the turning point. Vinicius went on to grab a hat trick in the last 20 minutes of the game and completed a fantastic comeback.

Honourable mentions:

Matchday 33: Spurs 2 - 1 Man City 

Quite possibly the match that decided the title winners, great result for us, especially after losing in the reverse fixture.

Matchday 19: Spurs 6 - 2 Leeds

8 goals in a match. Who doesn’t like a high scoring game? A great, dominant performance against a good side.

Carabao Cup Final: Spurs 4 - 0 Swansea

First trophy in 13 years meant an end to the dry spell and prevented us from being taunted by any rival fans. It’s only the Carabao Cup, but did your team win? No, so suck on those lemons😂

Bottle job of the Season:

FA Cup Third Round: Cardiff 1 - 1 Spurs (p4-2)

I feel like we wouldn’t be Tottenham if we didn’t have a few slip-ups along the way but this was probably the most embarrassing one. Blowing out of the competition at an early stage against a side we are light years ahead of, even with our B team. It wasn’t to be on the day and we ended up leaving the ground with our heads hung in shame.

Dishonourable Mentions:

Europa League Second Knockout Round 2nd Leg: Atletico Madrid 3 - 1 Spurs

This was our exit point of the competition. After a 0-0 at home and our sides looking well matched, we headed to Madrid and aimed to surprise our enemy on their home soil. It wasn’t meant to be and they came out at full speed, providing me with a very humbling experience and made me realise that we’re still a long way away from the Promised Land.

Europa League Group H: Qarabag 2 - 2 Spurs

A genuine poor performance in a match where we were clear favourites against the Azeri team. However, their home stadium must’ve been rather intimidating and earned them a well-deserved draw. They didn’t make it through to the knockouts unfortunately.

Matchday 26: Newcastle 4 - 1 Spurs

I hate Callum Wilson. Scored a hat-trick. That’s all.

Bizarre News:

I’ll try my best to make this a yearly instalment, just to humour yourself and myself alike, in this strange universe that is Football Manager. 

Crystal Palace relegated to the Championship after finishing rock bottom in the league.

James Milner is now an Everton player.

In France, Angers ended up as Runner-ups to PSG after a heated battle for the title. Who would’ve thought?

Conclusion:

That is that for Season 1, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed reading and will join me as we venture ahead on a quest to become Europe’s best. A very successful season indeed and we will hope to perform well in the Champions League next year. Who will leave? Who will arrive? Find out soon.

Please feel free to provide any feedback on how I could make this more interesting. Any other stats you’d like to see? I’m open for suggestions to try and make this as much of a pleasant read for you guys as I can. Cheers😄

Take it easy and try to smile at someone today.

LR ❤️

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by L_Dotz
Spelling

[FuddledFox]

Great start.

[Rich]

Great write up mate and a very good first season 😁

[JamesVilla]

Cracking write up that mate. Will be keeping an eye on this 👍

[L_Dotz]

1 hour ago, FuddledFox said:

Great start.

 

45 minutes ago, Rich said:

Great write up mate and a very good first season 😁

 

3 minutes ago, JamesVilla said:

Cracking write up that mate. Will be keeping an eye on this 👍

Thank you very much chaps!

[broodje kip]

Great start there. Since this journey is for gentlemen, I’m afraid @Rich can no longer follow this 😂

[L_Dotz]

4 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Great start there. Since this journey is for gentlemen, I’m afraid @Rich can no longer follow this 😂

I’m sure we can make an exception this once 😂

[broodje kip]

20 minutes ago, L_Dotz said:

I’m sure we can make an exception this once 😂

Yeah! We need someone to carry our luggage 😂

[Albionic]

Great first season mate, very good write up! Good to see my boys stayed up, that doesn't usually happen, could have been on bizarre news 😁

[L_Dotz]

35 minutes ago, Albionic said:

Great first season mate, very good write up! Good to see my boys stayed up, that doesn't usually happen, could have been on bizarre news 😁

They did really well to stay up! Made some decent signings in Season 2, but I won’t spoil anything. You’ll have to find out tomorrow😉

[L_Dotz]

Hello again Gents!🎩

Season 2 - Tottenham Hotspur

We’re back and I can’t wait for you all to read this because Season 2 has been a bit of a crazy one, however it is one I think you’ll all enjoy. Let’s get straight to it!

Transfers OUT:

I thought it would make much more sense to show you who has left before the signings as it won’t spoil anything with regards to the outgoings.

Harry Kane (Atletico Madrid) £218m

This shocked me as much as it will shock you. Atletico, Barcelona and Real Madrid all submitted the same bid for him right before the start of the January transfer window. I’m a man of my word, so I had to accept them as he wanted to be able to speak to the teams. You know how I mentioned betrayal in Season 1? Well we got our taste of it pretty early on. I was devastated and questioned my own morals because I didn’t want to see him go, but I couldn’t go against what I said.

Heung-Min Son (Atletico Madrid) £114m

Expected bids for him in the summer and I was already prepared for him to leave. Had offers from Bayern and Dortmund but chose to go to Madrid where he would be joined by Kane 6 months after. Atletico were on a mission to seriously get under my skin this season and trust me, it worked.

Juan Foyth (Villarreal) £15.75m

Was previously loaned out to them and they submitted a bid to bring him back on a permanent basis. He wasn’t going to play for me anyways so it made sense to let him go and enjoy his football back in Spain.

Ben Davies (Liverpool) £15m

Ryan Sessegnon came back from Hoffenheim and looked incredible. Considered a ‘wonder kid’ so he took the starting LB spot, meaning that Reguilon dropped to the B team. No space for Ben in the rotation and Liverpool thought he’s good enough for their team. Fair enough🤷🏽‍♂️

Matt Doherty (Real Sociedad) £11.75m

Barely used him in the first season and a particular arrival meant that he wouldn’t get a sniff in the first team. Had to go and followed Trippier’s footsteps to go and make a name for himself in Spain. Did it work? I highly doubt it.

Toby Alderweireld (Aston Villa) £9m

Was sad to see him go but he was getting on a bit and just wasn’t really good enough for the first team. Villa submitted and offer and he actually had a good spell with them, so I don’t think there was any hard feelings between us.

Paulo Gazzaniga (Napoli) £7.75m

I actually wanted to use Paulo in my B team as he looked really decent but Napoli ruined my plans and he decided that he’d rather sit on the bench in Naples, rather than play against the likes of Norwich. Can’t blame him to be fair.

Serge Aurier (RB Leipzig) £6.75m

Similar to Doherty. Fell down the pecking order behind Dagba, who took his place in the B team after a pre-contract arrival slotted into the main line-up.

Eric Dier (Southampton) £6m

FINALLY! Jesus Christ, it has taken me since day 1 to get rid of him but he’s finally out the club. I have a deep hatred towards Eric Dier in real life and even though he’s pretty damn good on the game, my dislike for him just doesn’t allow me to see him anywhere near the line-up. Southampton sent in a very low bid but I accepted it regardless, he just had to go.

Joe Hart (Huddersfield) £850k

He was pretty woeful for the B team in Season 1 and I had a replacement lined up in Gazza, so Hart was destined to be heading out the club. Paulo left so I brought in someone else to take his spot.

Transfers IN:

Ousmane Dembélé (Barcelona) £103m

Was always going to be him. Since Sonny put in a transfer request I instantly knew that the Frenchman would be the man for the job, especially since we already had a very strong core of French lads. It also inspired me to make this:

Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea) £75m

Needed someone to take Toby’s place and Tomori came back from his loan at AC Milan hungry for a new adventure. I overpaid massively for him but his stats looked incredible and he made a great partnership with Milenković. Rio to my Vidić.

Mikel Oyarzábal (Real Sociedad) £69m

I had so much money left in January due to the sales of Kane and Sonny that I really didn’t know what to do with it. I looked at my team and determined that Bergwijn was probably the worst player in the A team and he wouldn’t be so offended if he got dropped to play in the reserve side. Mikel was valued at £108m but his release clause meant we got him on the cheap and he performed superbly down the left-hand side.

Musa Barrow (Bologna) £68m

We all know about Musa. He was my Harry Kane replacement in January. I wanted Haaland but Dortmund didn’t want to hear none of it. I wanted Lautaro Martinez but he wanted the kind of money that the stingy Tottenham board weren’t willing to pay him. So we settled on Barrow who was on fire in the Serie A. He announced himself rather well with a goal on his debut.

Odsonne Edouard (Celtic) £60m

Since Vinicius went back to Benfica after his loan, I needed to secure a reserve ST. Edouard was scoring for fun in Scotland, and even though the £60m sum was quite large for someone who didn’t even go to the A team, he performed well and did what was asked of him.

Dominik Livaković (Liverpool) £11.5m

As you now know, Gazza went to Italy so we needed a B team goalkeeper. Dominik was listed by Liverpool after he didn’t play a single match for them. He came to us and was outstanding in goal. I did consider him to be the replacement for when Lloris retires next season, but I have someone else in mind.

Valentin Rosier (Sporting) £7.75m

A backup wing-back who can play on the right, as well as the left side of the defensive line. After the departures of Davies, Aurier and Doherty, I needed someone who would be happy to purely be a backup and Valentin did well. Didn’t complain and got a few games in due to rotation and cup draws.

Elseid Hysaj (Napoli) Pre-Contract Arrival

Agreed to come to us last season and I initially planned to play him in the B team, however his stats looked better than Dagba’s and he became the first-choice RB. An outstanding bit of business, as he performed to an exquisite standard.

Manager’s Profile & Achievements:

Second season in charge Tottenham saw us drop 2 places in the rankings but the Win/Loss ratio looks outstanding. We received a fair few awards:

Head Coach of the Month: October 2021, January 2022 and April 2022.

Head Coach of the Year: 2021/22 Season. This means back-to-back seasons in which we won this award. Buzzing about it!

 

Team Performance & Achievements:

THE CHAMPIOOOOOONS!! We bloody well did it boys! We won the Champions League in our 2nd season! Against Atletico of all teams! I couldn’t have wished for a better result and I actually cheered when we managed to get a result against the team who pinched our two best players. Such a satisfying end to the season, but it’s bitter-sweet, as it means we won’t be at Tottenham next year. Back to back Premier League champions too so that’s not too bad either!😁🥳

Individual Achievements:

I think it’ll make most sense to divide these into players and show what they won, make it nice and quick for you to look through. So here goes:

Harry Kane:

World Best XI 2021 - England’s POTY 2021 - Premier League POTM December 2021

Lucas Moura: 

Premier League POTM October 2021

Steven Bergwijn:

Premier League Team of the Year 2021/22

Dane Scarlett: (on loan at Fulham)

Championship Young POTM: October 2021, November 2021 and December 2021

EFL Young POTY 2022

Team Stats:

With the departure of Harry Kane, the whole team played a part and shared the goals amongst themselves a bit more than they did last season. A few players impressed me and a few didn’t quite do as well as I would’ve hoped but they are all Champions League winners so can’t knock them for that😄

🌟 Player:

Lucas Moura

This man is absolutely different gravy. Never complains about being in the B team, and featured a lot in the main squad due to Dembélé’s injuries. 45 games, 11 goals and 7 assists made him a valuable asses to the team and he never disappointed when called down upon. Class player and one of my favourites in real life.

 

Honourable Mentions:

Musa Barrow

Joined us in January as the replacement for Harry Kane. Scored on his debut and even after a minor injury set-back, he still managed 10 goals in 15 games - a great return.

Steven Bergwijn

Fully deserved his inclusion in the Team of the Year. Although he spent the second half of the season in the B team, he still performed each time he played and came up with some clutch goals.

Game of the Season:

Champions League Final: Tottenham 3 - 2 Atletico Madrid

It had to be this game. It had me on the edge of my seat the whole time and I couldn’t believe it when we actually managed to bring it home in extra time. Seeing Kane bag against us did hurt me, quite a bit actually. We ended up victorious regardless of his brace and left him looking embarrassed after he realised what could’ve been. COYS!!!

Notable Matches:

Champions League Round of 16 1st Leg: Bayern Munich 0 - 5 Tottenham

This was the game in which I realised that we could actually go all the way this year. An absolute domination on enemy soil pretty much guaranteed us a spot in the quarter-finals. Musa Barrow also bagged a hat-trick in this game.

Champions League Semi-Final 2nd Leg: Tottenham 2 - 0 Man United (2-2 agg) (3-0 pen)

After a 2 - 0 loss at Old Trafford, we welcomed the Manchester hopeful in London for what would turn out to be an evening to remember. Lucas Moura scored the equaliser in the 4th minute of added time in the second half and after an uneventful extra time, we went to penalties. The Devils missed 2 and then Greenwood failed to convert his after a save by Hugo took us to the Final. Absolute limbs commenced after!

Premier League: Tottenham 1 - 0 Liverpool

We met our title contenders on Matchday 36 knowing that a win here would guarantee us the title and complete our defence of it. We won the two main competitions we were fighting for this year and I couldn’t be happier!

Bottle Job of the Season:

Carabao Cup Final: Man City 2 - 1 Tottenham

We played City three times in the space of a week. In the fifth round of the FA cup before this match, lost 1-0, and in the league after this game, lost 1-0 again. 3 back-to-back defeats against City really had me questioning the quality of my tactics but we fought through it and returned to form right after our humbling by City.

Dishonourable Mentions:

Premier League: Tottenham 2 - 2 Man United

Really should’ve won this game, especially since we had 23 shots(11 on target) and they only had 2 and scored both. Couldn’t hit a barn door on that day and a point was a measly result from a match we dominated.

Premier League: Newcastle 1 - 0 Tottenham

We went to Newcastle hoping that we do better than last year (a 4 - 1 defeat). We played much better but still couldn’t manage a result against the Georgie lads. I’m starting to think this might be my bogey team🤔

FA Cup Fourth Round: Reading 1 - 1 Tottenham

We should really be beating Reading, let’s be honest. An overall poor display from the B team added an unnecessary fixture to our already congested schedule. We beat the 3 - 0 at home only to be knocked out by City in the next round.

Bizarre News: 

Barcelona and Juventus failed to qualify from their Champions League groups.

Blackburn and Birmingham return to the Premier League after an extensive absence.

Lazio have been relegated to Serie B after a shambolic season.

Wayne Rooney is leading Leeds now. Strange one, but judging by this he won’t be there much longer.

Conclusion:

So there it is. Loads happened in Season 2 and we’ve completed our goal which means that we will be moving on at the end of the season. I’m excited but also sad about leaving because I’ll be leaving a great bunch of lads behind and I can only hope to meet them again in the near future. Whoever the next manager is - I wish him luck. I already know where we’re going, but I’ll let you wonder by showing you the Job Sheet. No spoilers😉

I shall see you soon Gentlemen.

Don’t forget to smile at someone today.

LR❤️

Edited April 17, 2021 by L_Dotz
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[FuddledFox]

Another great season for you and Spurs. I’m looking forward to seeing who you manage next.

Note: I have merged the two threads together as you should keep the updates on this career all in one thread so we can follow easier.

[L_Dotz]

4 minutes ago, FuddledFox said:

Another great season for you and Spurs. I’m looking forward to seeing who you manage next.

Note: I have merged the two threads together as you should keep the updates on this career all in one thread so we can follow easier.

Thank you Fox! I appreciate it😄

Edited April 17, 2021 by L_Dotz

[Rich]

Another cracking write up mate and you don’t well to win the league with losing Kane and his Son. Looking forward to next season 😁

[L_Dotz]

5 minutes ago, Rich said:

Another cracking write up mate and you don’t well to win the league with losing Kane and his Son. Looking forward to next season 😁

Thanks Rich! I genuinely didn’t think we’d be able to do so well after losing those two but the boys smashed it 😄

[L_Dotz]

Happy Monday fellas!

We’re back again with Season 3. If you read about our 2nd season then you’ll know that (spoiler alert) we managed to win the Champions League with Tottenham. That meant that we had to part ways with the Lilywhites. Did you manage to guess where we’re going from the Job Centre? Well here it is.

Season 3 - Lazio

I’ll be very surprised if any of you actually managed to guess this, especially since there were some sides that were much better than the recently relegated Lazio. Yeah that’s correct, Lazio are a Serie B side in the 2022/23 season. It was between these lads and the Fiorentina boys but I thought that Lazio would be a bit more interesting, a bit more drama. The board were expecting nothing less than promotion straight back up to the 1st division and I agreed with them. So how did we get on? See for yourselves.

Transfers OUT: 

Having just been relegated, I did expect to lose half of my team so I won’t talk about them in detail as the reason for their departure is more-or-less the same.

SMS and Anderson are probably the most notable names on there and they both moved to France.

Transfers IN:

One marquee signing really and that was Daniel Podence from Wolves. Not many A-listers were keen on joining a freshly demoted side and Podence was probably the pick of the bunch. A decent winger who can definitely carry over his good form into the 1st division. All the other fellas were signed as backup players and a few of them might be gone next year seeing as we saved a good amount of money for our rebuild.

Manager’s Profile & Achievements:

Our inaugural season in Italy didn’t consist of us fighting for the Champions League spots or battling through its group stages. Instead, we battled against the lesser sides in the country in a hope to be promoted at the end of the season. We managed to scoop up just one award this season but ‘t was the big one:

Serie B Head Coach of the Year 2023

Team Performance & Achievements:

Anything other than a breeze right past everyone in the 2nd division would’ve been a disappointment. I might’ve been overly-confident going into this season and as you can see below, even though we won the title, it wasn’t as easy as I expected. 11 draws and 4 losses showed that even though we’re a titan compared to, let’s say Pisa, we could still get caught out and beaten. This was much more interesting to play than I anticipated. Crashed out the cup against Roma in extra time but I wasn’t too sad about that.

Individual Achievements: 

Just the one player who was deemed good enough for end-of-season recognition. Signed from Napoli for £2.6m he performed really well through the season and surprised me on one or two occasions. Well-deserved.

Alessio Zerbin: 

Serie B Team of the Year

Team Stats:

Now let me explain something before we go over this. Immobile has only 14 games. That’s because I sent all of the players who wanted to get gone into the Reserves. I let my emotions take the better of me and it wasn’t until January when they were reinstated back into the First Team. Big mistake by me but it didn’t seem to matter much by the end anyways.😅 

🌟 Player:

Manuel Allegretta

My annual youth intake provided me with this absolute gem of a keeper. Played a large part in the first team as a rotation keeper and only conceded 7 goals in 18 matches. Really impressed me and will probably remain my backup goalkeeper for the rest of my time in Rome.

Game of the Season:

Serie B: Lazio 6 - 0 Pro Vercelli

Me being me, I expected us to absolutely steamroll past every single team in this division. That really wasn’t the case and the teams were much more competent than I expected. This was our biggest win of the season and my idea of what all the 38 games should’ve looked like.

Bottle Job of the Season:

Serie B: Empoli 3 - 1 Lazio

Our biggest defeat of the season came from Empoli. Should’ve really put our chances away and maybe go for a draw but the boys didn’t fancy it that day and it left us red-faced after a spanking away from home. Just wasn’t good enough.

Bizarre News:

Germany and France both saw an introduction of a new champion in their leagues. RB Leipzig managed to dethrone big, bad Bayern Munich, while Lyon took the crown from PSG. What a time we live in.

Inter win the Europa League after a great showing against ... Southampton. You ever see something and wonder, how in the hell did it get there?

Everton relegated to the Championship

‘T was the year of the World Cup, in which Italy and Brazil didn’t make it through the group stages and Argentina prevailed against the Dutch in the final.

Conclusion:

There you have it for Season 3 then. A great adventure in a battle for promotion and now it’s time to take a really good look around and try to avoid that happening again. I didn’t think we’ll be challenging for Europe just yet so the upcoming season will be about rebuilding and maintaining the core of the team. Thanks so much for reading and I’ll let you know how we got on Season 4 as soon as possible. Cheers.

Smile a bit, it won’t hurt ya. 😄

LR ❤️ 

Edited April 19, 2021 by L_Dotz

[Rob]

Having just caught up with this I want to say what a great read it is. Wonderful fun! 

[Rich]

Awesome season there mate, was gutted to see you lose Savic, but you didn’t need him in the end. Loved the write up again 😁

[L_Dotz]

54 minutes ago, Rob said:

Having just caught up with this I want to say what a great read it is. Wonderful fun! 

Cheers @Rob! Glad you’ve enjoyed it😄

 

23 minutes ago, Rich said:

Awesome season there mate, was gutted to see you lose Savic, but you didn’t need him in the end. Loved the write up again 😁

He wasn’t actually asking for a transfer and was quite happy to stay but Lyon came in and he changed his mind😅 They did go on to win the title so fair play to him😁

[broodje kip]

Brilliant season there but I would have liked to see Newcastle getting relegated 😂

[L_Dotz]

20 hours ago, broodje kip said:

Brilliant season there but I would have liked to see Newcastle getting relegated 😂

Barely made it to be fair! I didn’t really realise how close it was😅

[L_Dotz]

Hello again gentlemen!🎩

We’ll get straight to the business in Season 4, where a bit of an interesting twist means that it will be separated into 2 parts.

Season 4 (Part 1) - Lazio

After having won the title in Serie B, we bounced straight back up to the First Division with one aim in sight: rebuild and become competitive again.

Transfers OUT:

In a similar fashion to the previous season the majority of the departures were due to the fact that the players were unhappy with the relegation, and even though we were back in the A league, they still wanted to move on. Most notably Joaquin Correa and Amine Adli whom I had plans for in the upcoming season.

Transfers IN:

Having lost a lot of key figures from the team the season prior we needed to strengthen all across the board and we did just that with a large intake of players from all over the place, as well as some very cheeky free transfers.

(Also, if someone would be so helpful and let me know how I can ‘hide’ the photos It'd be much appreciated, then I can show you the player profiles, etc.)

Team Performance:

Feels a bit of a strange one showing you this after just 15 league games played this season but the reasoning behind this, if you haven’t guessed yet, is because that’s all the games we will be playing with Lazio this season👀. A very good return, with only 2 losses in the entire campaign, had us sitting pretty in 2nd and the prospect of European football became a bit more real.

Team Stats & Individual Awards:

Martial proved to be the right man for the job. 16 goal contributions in 11 games showed me that he still has a lot to offer, maybe not in England, but he was definitely making the Serie A his own. This was further justified as he became our only player to secure an individual award as he was named the Player of the Month for October 2023. It was also enough for me to name him the 🌟 Player for the first half of the season.

Game of the Season:

Serie A: Lazio 2 - 0 Inter

This was a very competent display against a side who should be challenging for the title. Moro did pick up an injury which meant he would be sidelined for about a month, but Zirkzee did well to score a second and calm my nerves as we topped one of Italy’s biggest teams.

Bottle Job of the Season:

Italian Cup Third Qualifying Round: Lazio 0 - 1 Reggina  

An early exit out of the cup this year. Definitely hoped we could have a good run and challenge some of the top sides but Reggina had different plans and capitalised on our lack of finishing. Quite a surprising result in a match I thought we were almost guaranteed a win.

Conclusion:

No Bizarre News just yet as the season hasn’t come to an end, however this might be worth an inclusion in itself: we are leaving Lazio after a season and a half and will be moving on to a different team. What will make this much more intense is the fact that it’s another Italian team who have approached me for the job and better yet, it’s the current champions.

An unexpected end to our Lazio chapter but one that I will remember fondly and I look forward to battling against them in the seasons to come. Here’s a look at the table and you’ll soon notice, that it might be a rather heated battle against our former side as we battle to become back-to-back champions with Napoli. How exciting!😄

Thanks for reading! I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far and i’ll be seeing you in the near future to update you on how we got on in Naples.

Take it easy!

LR❤️

[Rich]

Great start to the season at Lazio mate and hopefully you can carry it on at Napoli. Good luck 😁

[L_Dotz]

3 minutes ago, Rich said:

Great start to the season at Lazio mate and hopefully you can carry it on at Napoli. Good luck 😁

Thanks @Rich!

[L_Dotz]

Double upload🥳

1 season. 2 different teams. Let’s see how we got on in our second half of the season begind the wheel of Napoli.

Season 4 (Part 2) - Napoli

We’re taking over the team at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium toward the end of December 2023 with the aim of defending the title and maybe a bit of silverware on our way.

Transfers OUT:

Out of the transfers below the deals that were made by me were: Gazzaniga to Vigo (That’s the second time he’s left me in this save, he must really dislike me😅), Lobotka to Benfica and Lozano to Spurs. The rest were already done during the summer.

Transfers IN:

A lot of business in the arrivals department which was much needed due to a general lack of squad depth. Only player on this list who I didn’t sign myself was Tommaso Mancini - he went out on loan straight away. I will attach the player profiles below so you can have a closer look at the players - I feel like this will come in handy once we get signing regens or lesser known players.

The Team:

I forgot to do this in the previous parts but I feel like it is necessary for you guys to be able to know what kind of starting XI we’re playing with.

Manager’s Profile & Achievements:

Surprised to see a 19 next to Loyalty since we’re already at our 3rd club in the space of 4 seasons. Just the one award this season as we are named the Head Coach of the Year 2024.

Team Performance, Stats & Competitions:

An outstanding season! We won everything we could, apart from the Champions League. As we didn’t join until December, all the group fixtures were already played and Napoli were poor and finished rock bottom of their group. I didn’t mind that, imagine if we had won it and had to change clubs again. I’ve only just started getting used to these lot😅. You may recall that we left Lazio sitting pretty in 2nd place back around Christmas. Unfortunately they didn’t do so well in the second half of the season and ended up finishing 8th. Still not bad for a promoted side - Sheffield United vibes🤷🏽‍♂️.

Individual Achievements:

Player of the Month March 2024: Antony

U18 Player of the Month March & April 2024: Gianluca Matarangolo

Serie A Team of the Year inclusions: Piotr Zieliński, Jeremie Boga, Eljif Elmas and Victor Osimhen

🌟 Player:

Eljif Elmas - Was brilliant through the whole season and racked up 22 goal contributions in 39 matches. Very good numbers for a AMC and will play a crucial part in the hunt for Champo.

Notable Matches:

Slight change to these as well. I will just show you the match reports from the games so you can see in detail how it all went down.

Bottle Jobs:

Bizarre News:

Your wish is my command @broodje kip. Newcastle drop down to the Championship after a measly total of 20 points. Ouch.

Rennes continue the French revolution and win the title as PSG come third.

Dortmund win the league in Germany but the shocker here is Bayern only making it as far as 6th and missing out on the Champions League.

Serge Aurier at Blackburn. It just looks... odd.

Conclusion:

There we are for Season 4. It started with our freshly promoted Lazio and it finished with us retaining the crown with Napoli. I really enjoyed it and I’m sorry to any Lazio fans but rules are rules😅 We’ll be back in the Champions League next season after a 2 year absence and I think challenging might be difficult unless we get some big names in the Summer transfer window but who knows, stranger things have happened.

Looking forward to your comments and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading - let me know if you prefer the more ‘straight to it’ format or if I should get back to waffling😅

Take care and see you soon!

LR❤️

[L_Dotz]

8 minutes ago, L_Dotz said:

Double upload🥳

1 season. 2 different teams. Let’s see how we got on in our second half of the season begind the wheel of Napoli.

Season 4 (Part 2) - Napoli

We’re taking over the team at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium toward the end of December 2023 with the aim of defending the title and maybe a bit of silverware on our way.

Transfers OUT:

Out of the transfers below the deals that were made by me were: Gazzaniga to Vigo (That’s the second time he’s left me in this save, he must really dislike me😅), Lobotka to Benfica and Lozano to Spurs. The rest were already done during the summer.

Transfers IN:

A lot of business in the arrivals department which was much needed due to a general lack of squad depth. Only player on this list who I didn’t sign myself was Tommaso Mancini - he went out on loan straight away. I will attach the player profiles below so you can have a closer look at the players - I feel like this will come in handy once we get signing regens or lesser known players.

The Team:

I forgot to do this in the previous parts but I feel like it is necessary for you guys to be able to know what kind of starting XI we’re playing with.

Manager’s Profile & Achievements:

Surprised to see a 19 next to Loyalty since we’re already at our 3rd club in the space of 4 seasons. Just the one award this season as we are named the Head Coach of the Year 2024.

Team Performance, Stats & Competitions:

An outstanding season! We won everything we could, apart from the Champions League. As we didn’t join until December, all the group fixtures were already played and Napoli were poor and finished rock bottom of their group. I didn’t mind that, imagine if we had won it and had to change clubs again. I’ve only just started getting used to these lot😅. You may recall that we left Lazio sitting pretty in 2nd place back around Christmas. Unfortunately they didn’t do so well in the second half of the season and ended up finishing 8th. Still not bad for a promoted side - Sheffield United vibes🤷🏽‍♂️.

Individual Achievements:

Player of the Month March 2024: Antony

U18 Player of the Month March & April 2024: Gianluca Matarangolo

Serie A Team of the Year inclusions: Piotr Zieliński, Jeremie Boga, Eljif Elmas and Victor Osimhen

🌟 Player:

Eljif Elmas - Was brilliant through the whole season and racked up 22 goal contributions in 39 matches. Very good numbers for a AMC and will play a crucial part in the hunt for Champo.

Notable Matches:

Slight change to these as well. I will just show you the match reports from the games so you can see in detail how it all went down.

Bottle Jobs:

Bizarre News:

Your wish is my command @broodje kip. Newcastle drop down to the Championship after a measly total of 20 points. Ouch.

Rennes continue the French revolution and win the title as PSG come third.

Dortmund win the league in Germany but the shocker here is Bayern only making it as far as 6th and missing out on the Champions League.

Serge Aurier at Blackburn. It just looks... odd.

Conclusion:

There we are for Season 4. It started with our freshly promoted Lazio and it finished with us retaining the crown with Napoli. I really enjoyed it and I’m sorry to any Lazio fans but rules are rules😅 We’ll be back in the Champions League next season after a 2 year absence and I think challenging might be difficult unless we get some big names in the Summer transfer window but who knows, stranger things have happened.

Looking forward to your comments and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading - let me know if you prefer the more ‘straight to it’ format or if I should get back to waffling😅

Take care and see you soon!

LR❤️

Completely forgot that the final hasn’t been yet but here’s the Champions League final result:

Sheesh.😅

[broodje kip]

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant especially that relegation 👏👏.

Keep up the good work. Enjoying the career si far.

[L_Dotz]

6 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant especially that relegation 👏👏.

Keep up the good work. Enjoying the career si far.

Haha I thought you might’ve done😂. Thanks mate!

[Rich]

Great season for you mate, I am not surprised to see the mighty Newcastle go down, it happens on all my careers unfortunately 😂

[L_Dotz]

32 minutes ago, Rich said:

Great season for you mate, I am not surprised to see the mighty Newcastle go down, it happens on all my careers unfortunately 😂

Might have to see if we can get a job there at some point and do them some justice 😂