Career The Journey of Ianis Hagi - Season 22

[Scratch]

Yeah, that's a great (half) season given the limited amount of squad transformation you had. Can't wait to see what he can achieve with a full preseason under the belt...

If you're going to go to Turkey, it'd better be soon. If you win the CL with Villarreal (or even the league), even a move to Galatasaray will seem like a backward step... 

[Elawnika]

On 01/08/2021 at 15:53, Ian said:

Season 1

Here we go then with the season one update.

 

We went into this season obviously hoping Hagi would get himself off to a decent start but as we’re managing Rangers we were also expecting the team to do well domestically. Europe would be treated as a bit of a bonus if I’m being honest, especially given the rough schedule in the opening season so just getting through the group stage would be considered a success for me.

I had a system in mind, looked at the squad and decided that we were pretty strong so there wasn’t much transfer action really with just one player coming in before the season began. I felt we needed a better first choice striker to play alongside Morelos so went pretty big for this Austrian guy who often appears in my searches. The other transfer Foulon was brought in after the season ended, he is a left wing back and is expected to be a rotation option next year.

  Hide contents

 

This is the system I went with below. I’d done the striker peak years challenge a few months back with three forward players who were positioned the same way with Bruno Fernandes very much being the main man in the T position. We were at Real Madrid and it was dream team stuff as we had the resources to buy practically anyone we wanted to. Anyway, that went well and the 2-5-1-2 system worked a treat in terms of both team results and the challengers doing their stuff. This was before the winter update though and I just haven’t been able to get the tactic quite right since then. Don’t get me wrong, the tactic as it was still works in terms of the three players and the T guy in particular doing well but the team results are just not there. I felt as though it’s the obvious weakness down the flanks that may well be causing the issues so decided to make a slight change to hopefully somewhat combat that in going with two inverted wingbacks along the back line with just one central defender and just four in the midfield line. Of course, we’re now weak in central defence with just one defender there so no doubt we’ll pay for that at times but hopefully we’ll still have a strong enough output at the other end to come out on top more times than not.

 

I felt we were drawn into a decent UEFA Cup group with two less than great teams and the fairly decent Feyenoord. It went well as we ended up finishing top and scored a good amount of goals too.

 

Leipzig were drawn against us in the first knockout round and that’s where our run ended. It’s not like they were just too much for us as both games were tight and Scott Arfield getting himself sent off in the return home leg certainly didn’t help our cause. Still, we’re happy enough as we at least made it through the group stage.

 

We won the League Cup, beating Raith Rovers in the final with Hagi netting two of our three goals. We managed to avoid Celtic throughout which helped.

 

The Scottish Cup was also won as we came out on top against Aberdeen in a high scoring final. Again, we managed to avoid Celtic to aid our cause.

 

Celtic were there right until the end in the league but we managed to come out on top. They beat us in three of the four games we played them though, our only league defeats as it turned out so we still have plenty of work to do as we’re clearly not strong enough to fend off the stronger teams.

 

It was very much the front three and Hagi in particular who were our main attacking threat as they made up the bulk of our goals and assists. Morelos also managed to avoid getting himself sent off, although that was actually a bit of a disappointment in truth. A very nice start for Hagi anyway with 55 goals and 43 assists which was better than I was expecting really.

 

He really improved during the season until he suffered a little three week injury in March which knocked back some of his attributes and they haven’t quite come back up yet. I’m sure he was at green level at a good few of those with red downward arrows and really looked the part so hopefully those come back up next year.

 

Not much to say regarding my manager profile. Discipline is down a bit which probably means I’ve forgotten to fine someone after a red card which isn’t at all uncommon for me.

 

Decent start all in all and we just need to keep going. In an ideal world we’d be looking at moving to a decent team in either Spain or Italy within the first few years so all we can do try to remain successful and keep an eye on the job market and hope the right job comes up at the right time.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

 

Thank you for reading.

Insane, mon

[StuartM]

Top work Ian, I'm really going to have to try a Trequartista tactic soon!

[Ian]

9 hours ago, Scratch said:

Yeah, that's a great (half) season given the limited amount of squad transformation you had. Can't wait to see what he can achieve with a full preseason under the belt...

If you're going to go to Turkey, it'd better be soon. If you win the CL with Villarreal (or even the league), even a move to Galatasaray will seem like a backward step... 

Thank you Scratch, we started well and just seemed to keep going with hardly any dips. Couldn’t have gone much better really and Hagi certainly proved himself.

I feel like Turkey has to be Galatasaray or no one else and it’s kind of looking like the only way we could manage it would be to move there when Hagi starts to decline. I just can’t see any other way as they just wouldn’t be able to afford the transfer fee otherwise. It’ll surely require a lot of luck to get the timing right but finishing up there would be ideal. Just see how it goes I guess.

Season four is quite eventful actually and I may be back later today with that update.

4 hours ago, Elawnika said:

Insane, mon

Thanks Elawnika.

3 hours ago, StuartM said:

Top work Ian, I'm really going to have to try a Trequartista tactic soon!

Thank you Stuart, it seems to be a very nice role.

[Ian]

Season 4

Last season was pretty eventful with the both of us starting the season at Rangers and finishing up at Villarreal. It was very much a success too as we basically won everything we realistically could, cleaning up both domestic cups and bringing home our first piece of European silverware. We were 19th in the league when we arrived so there wasn’t any real chance we could triumph there but we certainly produced title winning form from then on in, ending up in fifth place.

 

Things were looking good going into season four, so we were just hoping to further strengthen the squad to give us a good chance of winning the league and going far in Europe.

 

I felt we needed a quality central midfielder and ended up going big for Guendouzi who seemed like the best option from what was available. We couldn’t seem to get much done back in January in terms of wide players so we needed to address that and I felt we did just that with some decent players arriving. First up was Sottil who came in from Italy, he looked very good and can play on both sides so a nice player to have. Adjapong was next to predominantly play at right wing back but can also play further forward if required. John Ontiveros was very much our first choice for the left of midfield and I had no intention of letting him go until he openly stated that he wanted a new challenge. I couldn’t get him to sign a new deal so in the end after quite a bit of scouring the market we ended up part exchanging him for Reiss Nelson. I also brought Scott McKenna along for the journey, he would very much be third choice at centre back and with only playing one, I wasn’t expecting him to feature much. A couple of youngsters also came through the academy, one being a goalie and the other being a striker and that was the end of our business.

 

The squad was ready and we had a good early opportunity to see how strong we were as the first match of the season was the European Super Cup against PSG. It didn’t go very well as they literally scored from everything they hit in the first half. Hagi also had to come off with an injury so I was a little bit annoyed to say the least.

 

The injury turned out to be just a minor one which kind of cheered me up.

 

He wasn’t long back and then suffered another one. Not a major one again but his attributes had dropped after the first one and still hadn’t come back up so the timing wasn’t the best.

 

Not long back again and another one. His attributes were still down and it was clearly affecting his performances as he just wasn’t producing. He actually had in his coaching report that he was “affected by recent injury”, and I can vouch for that as he was somewhat stinking the place out compared to what we’ve come to expect from him. He’s got “inconsistent player” in his report too and this is the first time I’ve really felt that with him and it was all very frustrating.

 

We played Atletico in the semis of both the Spanish Cup and UEFA Cup last season and very much got the better of them in winning both ties. They were obviously out for revenge and got it as they beat us 4-0 in the Super Cup.

 

Fati scored a last minute winner for Barca as they dumped us out of the Spanish Cup.

 

We did manage to win the league though which meant we’d won everything possible with Villarreal in terms of domestic trophies.

 

I felt we were pretty lucky to make it to the European Cup final as we seemed to fluke every round so I wasn’t overly confident going into the final against Chelsea. They won 1-0 and to be perfectly honest we just never looked like scoring.

 

I wasn’t joking earlier when I mentioned Hagi not producing as he ended the season with just 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games which is pretty awful compared to his previous returns.

 

His attributes are right back up now and I think his dribbling has improved on last year so hopefully this season was just a blip and he can get himself back firing next year.

 

At the end of the season I checked the job market and noticed the Inter Milan job was available. I thought I’d apply and a few days later they made me an offer. Seems they’d had a poor season, only managing to finish in sixth place and all their expectations were for the new manager to improve the club’s squad. A decent £90m transfer budget would be available and they’d be playing in the easier European competition so it was a nice looking offer. Again, like last time I had to think about whether Hagi would follow me, we’d just won the league here and finished runners up in the European Cup but you’d still think Inter would be considered a step up from Villarreal. The money should be there to be able to afford him and this season wasn’t the best so a change of scenery may be just what the doctor ordered for the both of us.

 

I went for it.

 

and Hagi will follow later.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Grand Total: 183 goals and 159 assists in 198 games

 

Thank you for reading.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Ian

[Woody]

That certainly was eventful mate 😆

Looking good again after the injuries and just in time for his big move 👍

[Rob]

Eventful season and somewhat frustrating, but still great returns and it shows what high standards you have!

I’ve found injuries seem to take ages for players to get over, even though they may be at 100% condition. It’s like the game requires a few games for them to click back in, or at least feels like it.

Good to see you use Schick. I have almost used him as he is excellent in the right areas, especially on front post headers from Hagi corners for you no doubt!

And you signed McKenna, which I bet you did for giggles!

Great stuff Ian and it’s wonderful having you back.

[hhooo]

Those injury pileups can just ruin saves, glad to see you've gotten him to recover. I player through a year at spurs to try to create the squad for next season and give it a go, but Kane had three back to back injuries and ended up losing like 4-5 points in lots of attributes. On top of that, Lloris had a skull fracture that forced him into early retirement, so I just gave up there. 

 

I want to see you get to Turkey at some point! 

[Ian]

On 08/08/2021 at 18:22, Woody said:

That certainly was eventful mate 😆

Looking good again after the injuries and just in time for his big move 👍

Thank you Woody, yes hopefully he will excel in Italy.

On 08/08/2021 at 21:19, Rob said:

Eventful season and somewhat frustrating, but still great returns and it shows what high standards you have!

I’ve found injuries seem to take ages for players to get over, even though they may be at 100% condition. It’s like the game requires a few games for them to click back in, or at least feels like it.

Good to see you use Schick. I have almost used him as he is excellent in the right areas, especially on front post headers from Hagi corners for you no doubt!

And you signed McKenna, which I bet you did for giggles!

Great stuff Ian and it’s wonderful having you back.

Thanks Rob, yes it was highly frustrating. It wasn’t like he was out for that long in total but I think I’d probably have preferred just one longer injury as he just couldn’t seem to get going.

It certainly feels like it’s worse this year with the way injuries affect players. Its not just the time out but the time it takes for them to get back to form. I mean top top players can probably come back quicker but then that limits you too as it probably sort of pushes you to just stick with the elite players.

I was happy to get Schick as I don’t think I’ve used him for a couple of years. I think I used him quite a bit as an inside forward on the 19 game but he seems more rounded now and a very good centre forward. He has been the target for our corners and gets a good few but I slightly changed things with the routine at Inter in the next season.

It was like that with Scott. Just felt like we probably needed a cheap third choice centre back and when he came up in my search i knew it just had to be him. I’m not even sure if he played a single game in the end to be honest.😂

On 09/08/2021 at 02:48, hhooo said:

Those injury pileups can just ruin saves, glad to see you've gotten him to recover. I player through a year at spurs to try to create the squad for next season and give it a go, but Kane had three back to back injuries and ended up losing like 4-5 points in lots of attributes. On top of that, Lloris had a skull fracture that forced him into early retirement, so I just gave up there. 

 

I want to see you get to Turkey at some point! 

Thank you Hhooo, the injuries are frustrating and it seems to be the time it often takes them to get back to form that is the most annoying. Hopefully it won’t totally ruin things here, I feel like we can still do the 500 of each but can’t be having many more poor seasons.

Finishing up at Galatasaray would be ideal and it would be a good place for Hagi to be at when he’s really declining I’d say as the league isn’t the strongest. Just have to hope the job comes up at the right time I suppose.

[Ian]

Season 5

Last season was a bit of a disaster really as Hagi just couldn’t get himself going having picked up a few injuries, the team clearly wasn’t quite as strong as I had thought so it was a bit of a struggle at times even though we did end up winning the league. At the end of the season the Inter Milan job came up and after the frustrating season we had just had I felt I had to take it and just hope Hagi would follow suit. He did and eventually joined a few days into season five.

 

I’d had a good look at the Inter squad just before taking over and was pretty happy with what I saw. They had Berella (albeit not the best version I’ve seen of him), a decent centre back in Bastoni, some quality forwards and some vibe royalty in Esposito, Martínez and Pinamonti, decent wing backs in Gayà, Digne and Hakimi and Cristian Eriksen was still there which I though was a nice touch so there was plenty there to work with.

As impressed as I was with the squad I still felt we needed to improve in a number of areas, so a hefty £246m was spent in hopefully doing just that. The centre of midfield was the main priority as I felt we needed better first choice players in both the CM and AP positions, Olmo was the chosen player for the AP role coming in from Leipzig and Bentancur was the man for the CM role arriving from Juve for £55m. I was very happy with the Bentancur deal as he is very good on this save and much better than Barella so the price was decent, especially with it being with Juve too as it would surely weaken them losing him. I went with a tried and tested option for the wide right position with Saelemaekers coming in who is very nice to have as he can play in either the WM position or at IWB. It was similar on the left too with Miranda coming in offering the same versatility but unlike Saelemaekers he’s new to me, so a more interesting one. Guedes was brought in to cover us in loads of positions as he can play on either flank and any position in the final third including up front so another nice player to have. Zortea was brought in as another one who could play both wide positions on the right, so in the end we ended up with three decent options going into two positions on either side and a couple of floaters in Eriksen and Guedes who would fill in on either midfield flank when needed as well as a load of other positions. I wasn’t totally sold on Bastoni as the first choice centre back and felt he was too good to be second choice, not that we could afford to have him as reserve anyway so it would need to be more or less a straight swap. I looked at Romero at Arsenal who had a similar value and I thought looked slightly better so the swap occurred with Bastoni moving too London and Romero going to Milan. I would’ve also preferred to have upgraded our first choice goalie, couldn’t quite manage it this time but overall we were pretty happy with the squad we’d built.

Spoiler

 

Things started very well in Europe as we were formidable in the group stage in winning six from six and not even conceding a single goal. We weren’t really high scoring though with only 15 goals but you can’t have everything.

 

If I felt there was a slight lack of goals in the group stage, we certainly made up for it in the knockout stages and in particular in this game away to Shaktar as we hit eight with Hagi contributing to six of them.

 

We made the final where we’d play Juve and it went well with us winning fairly comfortably.

 

The Italian Cup went to plan up until the final where our city rivals Milan kind of hammered us.

 

The league was won and convincingly in the end. Roma were up there with us all the way until new year, then suffered a few poor results and fell away.

 

The main man had a good season too as he got himself back up to the higher numbers with 40 goals and 48 assists in 49 games. It’s a return that keeps him in the hunt for our 500 goals and 500 assists target, a target that still looks doable but not sure we can afford many or even any more poor seasons like the previous year at Villarreal. No real injury problems with just one minor 10 day one coming fairly early into the season and it never really impacted him in terms of affecting his form. I did change the target for our corners to be the CB as opposed to previously being one of the CF’s. I made the decision purely because not all of our strikers are really high in aerial so I thought going the CB route would mean that we’re always targeting someone good in the air. The routine is basically Hagi aiming for the penalty spot and the target player marking the opposition goalie and it seems to work pretty well. A good few corner goals seem to go to other players but that isn’t really a concern here as long as Hagi is getting the bulk of the assists. Thinking along the lines of it not mattering who scores the goals, I may go with a more balanced routine and perhaps next season as I do have a routine somewhat tested but will need to think about it as it went well enough this season so not sure I can justify changing things too much. I am thinking of putting Hagi on pens as he isnt getting the assists there that I hoped he would and we do get a lot of pens so doing that may boost his goal return slightly.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Inter Milan

Season 05: 40 goals and 48 assists in 49 games

 

Grand Total: 223 goals and 207 assists in 247 games

 

Thank you for reading.

[Ian]

Season 6

Our first season in Italy went pretty well last time out, we’d done some good work on the squad, Hagi got himself back up to the slightly bigger numbers, we’d won the league and the UEFA Cup, so we certainly went into season six in happy spirits.

The squad seemed pretty good so there wasn’t a great deal of transfer business. We tried to upgrade our first choice goalie with Costa coming in from Portugal. I’ve used him before, can’t remember exactly when at the moment but I do remember he was decent so hopefully he’ll be fine here too. We went big on a left sided player with Calafiori coming in from Roma, he’s new to me but has all of the right attributes to play at either inverted wing back or the wide midfielder role and he’s just in his early 20’s so hopefully a good bit of business. Musah is a decent central midfielder and Ademi is a forward who was brought in as our cheap fourth choice striker, he had to be cheap as that’s all the money we had left after the previous big signings. A graduate and a few youngsters on loan to offer cover and we were done.

Spoiler

 

Things started well as we won our first European Super Cup, albeit we needed a penalty shootout to topple Barca.

 

Hagi started the season in fine form with five goals and eight assists in his first four games but then that dreaded red injury icon appeared during our 4-1 victory over Juve. You’re just hoping that there’s nothing there in your inbox post game but no such luck here as we were greeted with a one month one as he had suffered a groin strain. It was the first game after the international break too so he was about to miss a good few games.

 

He came back and was just about getting himself back to his best, then rather unfortunately a day before our Italian Super Cup game he pulled his groin again during training to my utter disgust. This was starting to look like season four again and these recurring groin strains were certainly worrying.

 

We managed to win the Super Cup against Milan without him as his replacement scored the winning goal.

 

The Italian Cup was also won as Juve were beaten comfortably and that meant we’d won all of the available domestic competition at Inter in Italy.

 

We got all the way to the semi finals in the European Cup where we’d meet Barca. After narrowly winning the away leg we were very confident of getting through to the final. Perhaps too confident as we failed to show up to the return leg and were dumped out.

 

The league was won comfortably, which was probably to be expected.

 

 

Hagi ended up with 38 goals and 32 assists in 37 games, which I’m pretty happy with taking the injuries into account. I suppose his assists are down a bit which I could moan about but he’d started really well in that regard before his first injury so perhaps the injuries had more more impact on those than the goals. I did tweak the corner routine this season to something more varied, so I will need to keep an eye on that next year and see how he does on them but can’t make anything of it at the moment.

 

All in all, a bit of a set back and it’s getting to the stage where we’re very unsure as to whether we can get him to both 500 goals and assists but we just keep going.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Inter Milan

Season 05: 40 goals and 48 assists in 49 games

Season 06: 38 goals and 32 assists in 37 games

Inter Milan Total: 78 goals and 80 assists in 86 games
 

Grand Total: 261 goals and 239 assists in 284 games

 

Thank you for reading.

Edited August 17, 2021 by Ian

[Rob]

Lovely season Ian regardless of availability 

[Ian]

10 hours ago, Rob said:

Lovely season Ian regardless of availability 

Thank you Rob, I agree he’s doing well. He might not be hitting massive numbers in either goals or assists but he is getting good consistent numbers in both and he should still have a few good years left in him. Just have to keep going and see where it takes us I guess as I can’t see any sense in changing much with the system. 

[Woody]

Those injuries are a nightmare for sure.

Still a great season though and im sure without those injuries you would of beaten last seasons tally.

[Ian]

3 hours ago, Woody said:

Those injuries are a nightmare for sure.

Still a great season though and im sure without those injuries you would of beaten last seasons tally.

Thank you Woody, he’s doing well and just have to hope he has a few more good years left in him.

[Ian]

Season 7

Last season was a little frustrating with the Hagi injuries and the European semi disappointment but upon further inspection I’m not sure it was all that bad. I mean, Hagi still produced a reasonable return and the team was still pretty dominant so plenty to be optimistic about going forward.

Our first choice playmaker Olmo suffered a bad injury in the off season that would keep him out for at least half of this season, so we needed a replacement. Foden was chosen to replace him for a hefty fee. A fairly good offer came in for Pinamonti in early January, which we ended up accepting and then brought Josh Sargent in as his replacement. Woodman was brought in to be our backup goalie, Cesar is a young right wing back and then there were a few promising graduates and we were done. Esposito spent most of the season unhappy as he wants a new challenge, so it’s looking highly likely that we won’t be able to keep him much longer. Also, Olmo and Gayà both left at the end of the season so we’ll need replacements for those two next year. Gayà’s deal was up and at his age I felt it’d be best to let him go and although Olmo had come back okay from his injury, he was about to hit 30 so the massive offer was too good to turn down.

 

Some nice assist action going on for Ianis in this game against Atalanta with Martinez benefitting.

 

Goal action this time for the main man in the Super Cup against Juve.

 

A very one sided Italian Cup final against Roma.

 

It was finally our year to win the big one too as we beat Real in the final.

 

The title was won again and with a nice little jump up in goals scored.

 

A nice new stadium.

 

A steady return of 42 goals and 44 assists this year for Ianis. He suffered a twisted knee fairly early on in the season which kept him out for three weeks but it struck literally just before the international break so he didn’t miss many games. He’s looking really good now and very much in his prime so we just have to hope he can keep it together for the next few years without too many injury problems. Just the two years left on his deal though so I’m going to have to keep an eye on that as I don’t want to mess up and risk losing him. It’s a tricky one as unless he goes to pieces, it’s surely only going to be one of about three or four teams that could possibly sign him at this stage so I may be better off trying to extend his deal here by a year or two rather than leaving to try and sign him at a different club. I’ll probably leave it until after this next season and see if any suitable jobs come and if not, try to extend his deal here then.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Inter Milan

Season 05: 40 goals and 48 assists in 49 games

Season 06: 38 goals and 32 assists in 37 games

Season 07: 42 goals and 44 assists in 53 games

Inter Milan Total: 120 goals and 124 assists in 139 games

 

Grand Total: 303 goals and 283 assists in 337 games

 

Thank you for reading.

[smoggy90]

Love Hagi in some of the test saves I’ve played with rangers and great to see this career. Great numbers as always mate and interesting to see you moving clubs and how Hagi adapts etc. 

[Ian]

7 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Love Hagi in some of the test saves I’ve played with rangers and great to see this career. Great numbers as always mate and interesting to see you moving clubs and how Hagi adapts etc. 

Thanks Smog, I’ve been desperate to use him for something and this seemed like the best bet as he’s well equipped to both score and assist. The moving clubs thing has worked out pretty well so far and has made the save a little different to play as I’ve never done anything like this before.

[Ian]

Season 8

I felt last season was a success as Hagi went more or less injury free and produced a decent return and the team finally won the European Cup which was a relief as it was beginning to look like we’d never win it. Going into this season Hagi had just two years left on his deal and at 28 years old it felt like a pivotal time as if he’s going to have one more big move then you’d feel it’s going to have to be pretty much now. The plan was to play through this season while keeping an eye on the job market and take it from there. We’re probably only looking at Barca, Real and perhaps Atletico as the only viable options as I can’t say I fancy another team in Italy and it’s far too early for Galatasaray. If nothing were to come up then we’d just try and extend his deal here.

We had a very efficient transfer window with a few older players leaving and being replaced with younger versions. Pedri replaced Olmo as one of our two advanced playmakers, Wijndal came in for Gayà for the left, Hajdradinovic replaced forward Esposito who was desperate to move, Piccoli came in as our cheap fourth choice forward in place of the departing Ademi and Jude Bellingham was brought in as our new first choice central midfielder after we felt we just couldn’t decline the nice offer for Bentancur. It was all very much a smooth operation.

 

On the field, it was a less than great start as Roma defeated us in the European Super Cup in a game where we basically fired blanks.

 

We also faced off against Roma in the Italian Super Cup and this time it was our turn for glory.

 

Hagi had a standout game against Verona in the league where he scored a brace of goals and set up a further five.

 

Atalanta failed to show up to the Italian Cup final and we very much took advantage.

 

We made the European Cup final again and eventually came out on top to retain the trophy but it certainly wasn’t easy. Our opponents Man Utd raced away with two early goals and I thought that that was that but we fought back to pick up the win in a very close game.

 

Another pretty much uninterrupted season for Ianis with 48 goals and 43 assists which keeps the 50/50 1k split dream alive. There weren’t any decent jobs available throughout so I tried to offer him a new deal here after the season had ended but we couldn’t meet his demands. Our budget was low though so the hope is that we can get him to sign once our budget replenishes after moving over to the new season. If not, then it’ll be squeaky bum time going into the last year of his deal. The corner routine I switched to a couple of years back seems to be decent, it’s just a balanced routine really as it’s only the assists we’re going for here but it works pretty well. If we’re successful here I’ll do a post on that and the tactic but for now we’re very much just focusing on trying to reach our target.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Inter Milan

Season 05: 40 goals and 48 assists in 49 games

Season 06: 38 goals and 32 assists in 37 games

Season 07: 42 goals and 44 assists in 53 games

Season 08: 48 goals and 43 assists in 52 games

Inter Milan Total: 168 goals and 167 assists in 191 games

 

Grand Total: 351 goals and 326 assists in 389 games

 

Thank you for reading.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Ian

[Ian]

8 hours ago, Graim said:

mate how do you manage to score so many goals a season. I hardly mange to score 70 a season

It’s a tactic set up to hopefully allow us to bulk score. You can see the formation on one of the earlier posts and notice how it’s slightly unusual with just one center back as an example. The idea is that we’ll be the strongest team in the league so can go get away with going more attacking without it hindering us too much in terms of results.

[Rob]

I’ve missed a few of these - real life took over - but you are still nailing it. He looks a God too. Love the squad rebuilds in this as I’m sure it makes it a lot more fun.

[Schwantz34]

On 08/08/2021 at 17:41, Ian said:

Season 4

Last season was pretty eventful with the both of us starting the season at Rangers and finishing up at Villarreal. It was very much a success too as we basically won everything we realistically could, cleaning up both domestic cups and bringing home our first piece of European silverware. We were 19th in the league when we arrived so there wasn’t any real chance we could triumph there but we certainly produced title winning form from then on in, ending up in fifth place.

 

Things were looking good going into season four, so we were just hoping to further strengthen the squad to give us a good chance of winning the league and going far in Europe.

 

I felt we needed a quality central midfielder and ended up going big for Guendouzi who seemed like the best option from what was available. We couldn’t seem to get much done back in January in terms of wide players so we needed to address that and I felt we did just that with some decent players arriving. First up was Sottil who came in from Italy, he looked very good and can play on both sides so a nice player to have. Adjapong was next to predominantly play at right wing back but can also play further forward if required. John Ontiveros was very much our first choice for the left of midfield and I had no intention of letting him go until he openly stated that he wanted a new challenge. I couldn’t get him to sign a new deal so in the end after quite a bit of scouring the market we ended up part exchanging him for Reiss Nelson. I also brought Scott McKenna along for the journey, he would very much be third choice at centre back and with only playing one, I wasn’t expecting him to feature much. A couple of youngsters also came through the academy, one being a goalie and the other being a striker and that was the end of our business.

 

The squad was ready and we had a good early opportunity to see how strong we were as the first match of the season was the European Super Cup against PSG. It didn’t go very well as they literally scored from everything they hit in the first half. Hagi also had to come off with an injury so I was a little bit annoyed to say the least.

 

The injury turned out to be just a minor one which kind of cheered me up.

 

He wasn’t long back and then suffered another one. Not a major one again but his attributes had dropped after the first one and still hadn’t come back up so the timing wasn’t the best.

 

Not long back again and another one. His attributes were still down and it was clearly affecting his performances as he just wasn’t producing. He actually had in his coaching report that he was “affected by recent injury”, and I can vouch for that as he was somewhat stinking the place out compared to what we’ve come to expect from him. He’s got “inconsistent player” in his report too and this is the first time I’ve really felt that with him and it was all very frustrating.

 

We played Atletico in the semis of both the Spanish Cup and UEFA Cup last season and very much got the better of them in winning both ties. They were obviously out for revenge and got it as they beat us 4-0 in the Super Cup.

 

Fati scored a last minute winner for Barca as they dumped us out of the Spanish Cup.

 

We did manage to win the league though which meant we’d won everything possible with Villarreal in terms of domestic trophies.

 

I felt we were pretty lucky to make it to the European Cup final as we seemed to fluke every round so I wasn’t overly confident going into the final against Chelsea. They won 1-0 and to be perfectly honest we just never looked like scoring.

 

I wasn’t joking earlier when I mentioned Hagi not producing as he ended the season with just 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games which is pretty awful compared to his previous returns.

 

His attributes are right back up now and I think his dribbling has improved on last year so hopefully this season was just a blip and he can get himself back firing next year.

 

At the end of the season I checked the job market and noticed the Inter Milan job was available. I thought I’d apply and a few days later they made me an offer. Seems they’d had a poor season, only managing to finish in sixth place and all their expectations were for the new manager to improve the club’s squad. A decent £90m transfer budget would be available and they’d be playing in the easier European competition so it was a nice looking offer. Again, like last time I had to think about whether Hagi would follow me, we’d just won the league here and finished runners up in the European Cup but you’d still think Inter would be considered a step up from Villarreal. The money should be there to be able to afford him and this season wasn’t the best so a change of scenery may be just what the doctor ordered for the both of us.

 

I went for it.

 

and Hagi will follow later.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Grand Total: 183 goals and 159 assists in 198 games

 

Thank you for reading.

Cracking season that.

Always impressed at how some of you here can get so many assists and goals for players and score over 100 in your leagues 👏

Edited August 25, 2021 by Schwantz34

[Scratch]

I just caught up on this mate and there's been another team change since I last checked in! But great team, great league, great players you've got there, all going great. He's had a few injuries though, but apart from that it's a steady march to 500/500. 

[Albionic]

Just caught up on this whole career, loving the idea of moving about while trying to complete the challenge! Hagi is a beast, putting up huge numbers for you!

[Rich]

Just catching up now Ian, you are smashing this mate and it’s a great read to boot😁

[Ian]

On 22/08/2021 at 13:55, Graim said:

keep up the good work mate!

 

 

On 25/08/2021 at 08:38, Rob said:

I’ve missed a few of these - real life took over - but you are still nailing it. He looks a God too. Love the squad rebuilds in this as I’m sure it makes it a lot more fun.

 

On 25/08/2021 at 13:25, Schwantz34 said:

Cracking season that.

Always impressed at how some of you here can get so many assists and goals for players and score over 100 in your leagues 👏

 

On 25/08/2021 at 14:23, Scratch said:

I just caught up on this mate and there's been another team change since I last checked in! But great team, great league, great players you've got there, all going great. He's had a few injuries though, but apart from that it's a steady march to 500/500. 

 

On 25/08/2021 at 20:39, Albionic said:

Just caught up on this whole career, loving the idea of moving about while trying to complete the challenge! Hagi is a beast, putting up huge numbers for you!

 

On 26/08/2021 at 18:57, Rich said:

Just catching up now Ian, you are smashing this mate and it’s a great read to boot😁

Thank you all, need to catch up on this now I think. 

[Ian]

Good evening,

I’ve fallen behind on this, well in terms of posting anyway as it’s not like I haven’t played on any more. In fact, I think I may be finished the save one way or another so I’m here to somewhat catch up. I failed to make any notes as I was playing along which has meant things are a little vague, so based on that and how things panned out I feel it’d be best that I save a bit on screenshots and do a multi season update with a brief summary of each season.

Season 9

I mentioned on the last update that Hagi would be going into the last year of his deal this season and the plan was to try and renew it as soon as we moved over as we’d have a full transfer budget to help with things. I did that and managed to get him signed up on a three year deal, I chose the three years rather than five just in case of good opportunity to move would come along at some point. The team had a dominant season and Hagi produced a steady return of 42 goals and 47 assists. You may notice Haaland here too who was our main transfer as he came in to replace the outgoing Martinez. A massive offer came in for Martinez and I felt I couldn’t turn it down as he was getting on a bit. Haaland was a couple of years younger at this stage and very similar in quality so it was a nice deal. 

Spoiler

 

Season 10

A similar return again for Ianis this year albeit with a different makeup as his assisting was better. Another strong season for the team but I wouldn’t say this tactic is particularly great as there’s always a few poor results thrown in but just glad that we are at least more or less winning everything. Haaland had a very nice season with 82 goals and at one point I thought he may well hit the ton as there just seemed no stopping him.  My corner routine is somewhat normal with one of our three biggest threats attacking the near post, another one attacking the far post, the other marking the keeper and Hagi just choosing himself where to send the corner. I have another player lurking outside the box, another attacking the ball from outside the area, two staying back and the rest just going forward. It works pretty well and it’s usually the guy marking the keeper that gets the majority of the goals and that was largely Haaland this year. My old routine was somewhat similar in that the target guy was marking the keeper and the delivery was set to be directed to the penalty spot but in that one I tried to keep everyone else away. I just thought to switch to this as it doesn’t matter who scores the goals so long as Hagi is getting the assist and he is a good taker so felt we could go with a more balanced routine with threats everywhere. He was 31 at this point and still looked good.

It was a more or less a full season for Hagi looking at the numbers but he did suffer a month long injury. It came in mid March and the layoff would include the international break, so probably the perfect injury to be honest as he would get a rest before the busy run in and wouldn’t get overplayed by his country.

Spoiler

 

Season 11

Another similar season again both in terms of player and club. This was partly the reason I decided to do a multi season update as it’s all very similar, if I wasn’t so far ahead then things would be different but I am so here we are. I signed him up for another five years as there weren’t any good options there for us to move. 

Spoiler

 

Season 12

There was a very good chance that Ianis could hit our target of both 500 goals and assists this season but unfortunately he couldn’t quite manage it. He got the assists but ended up five short on the goals so we’ll need to wait a bit longer before we can celebrate, although it would be a complete and utter disaster if he failed from here. He suffered a couple of month long injuries this season and the second of which meant he missed almost all of the run in as he only just came back in time to play the CL final in which he’d need to score six goals to hit our target. It was pretty much impossible and that proved to be the case but he did score one goal and the last gasp winner to boot to show that he can still do it at the highest level.

Spoiler

Summary

Four steady seasons which leaves us within a whisker of completing our challenge. You always want more and I did here from season to season as it would’ve been nice to break the ton barrier in combined goals and assists over a season but we just couldn’t quite manage it. I was left in a position where I just couldn’t see any sense in making changes as both his goals and assists were always good. I mean, I could easily have made changes and messed things up completely or even if the changes worked I could’ve ended up going too far one way.

Anyway, we go on and hopefully we’ll hit the goal target next year.

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Inter Milan

Season 05: 40 goals and 48 assists in 49 games

Season 06: 38 goals and 32 assists in 37 games

Season 07: 42 goals and 44 assists in 53 games

Season 08: 48 goals and 43 assists in 52 games

Season 09: 42 goals and 47 assists in 54 games

Season 10: 36 goals and 51 assists in 51 games

Season 11: 39 goals and 48 assists in 54 games

Season 12: 27 goals and 43 assists in 38 games

Inter Milan Total: 312 goals and 356 assists in 388 games

 

Grand Total: 495 goals and 515 assists in 586 games

 

Thank you.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Ian

[Rich]

Brilliant as usual Ian, you’re killing this👍

[Ian]

8 hours ago, Rich said:

Brilliant as usual Ian, you’re killing this👍

Thank you Richard.

[Ian]

Season 13

He got his five goals early on and ended up with 50 goals and 26 assists. Now it’s probably just a matter of finishing things up I feel. I’ve been into his contract negotiation page and he won’t even enter talks which is no problem as playing out the final two years left on his deal seems like a decent way to end thing. Barca or Real were probably the only options we had in terms of potentially moving over the last few years but neither of those would even tempt me now. Going back to Villarreal or Rangers would get me thinking but if he won’t even enter contract discussions here then I’m not all confident he would do for any other club. Galatasaray is the dream move I guess so I’ll have to keep an eye on that but I do quite like the idea of just playing out the final two seasons here and calling it a day as it’d be a clean way to finish.

Spoiler

 

Score

 

Ianis Hagi

 

Rangers

Season 01: 55 goals and 43 assists in 50 games

Season 02: 46 goals and 45 assists in 51 games

Season 03: 17 goals and 20 assists in 21 games

Rangers Total: 118 goals and 108 assists in 122 games

 

Villarreal

Season 03: 31 goals and 29 assists in 32 games

Season 04: 34 goals and 22 assists in 44 games

Villarreal Total: 65 goals and 51 assists in 76 games

 

Inter Milan

Season 05: 40 goals and 48 assists in 49 games

Season 06: 38 goals and 32 assists in 37 games

Season 07: 42 goals and 44 assists in 53 games

Season 08: 48 goals and 43 assists in 52 games

Season 09: 42 goals and 47 assists in 54 games

Season 10: 36 goals and 51 assists in 51 games

Season 11: 39 goals and 48 assists in 54 games

Season 12: 27 goals and 43 assists in 38 games

Season 13: 50 goals and 26 assists in 55 games

Inter Milan Total: 362 goals and 382 assists in 443 games

 

Grand Total: 545 goals and 541 assists in 641 games

 

Thank you.

Edited September 4, 2021 by Ian