Career Probably The Best League In The World - Poland?! S13

[Mr Tree]

Thanks @LostHorizons, the legend @Paul186, @Meowand @DIRECTFX- sorry, i missed your question last time didn't i? But no, polish clubs don't generally make much of an impression in Europe, unfortunately - we'll need to make some big changes over the next 30 years! 

I've got through to the end of Season 2... we only lost 2 more league games, both of which would have been a score of 12 on the "Being FMMed Challenge" - still some sharpening needed for my attack! 

But we clawed back all of Legia's advantage, finally taking over top spot with a Friday night win in the 32nd game...

Considering that only two teams could possibly win it at this stage, this was not the boldest of proclamations! 

Alas, the mathematicians among you may have spotted that I'm due another loss, which promptly arrived in Game 33. Legia won games 32 and 33 too to seal the title. Which i think means I'll be in the Europa League next year (maybe even the Conference League?), which is a bummer but maybe with the silver lining of a chance to go far...

I retained the Polish Cup too...

But unfortunately, Bayern understandably smashed me in Munchen, and despite a very impressive performance in the second leg, we just couldn't knock them over...

(my Chelsea loanee with the goal)

I think Bayern have gone on to the final, but i haven't got there yet - I'll let you know (maybe)

I went back and checked how my colleagues got on in Europe this season - all knocked out in Conference League qualifiers. Ugh...

Quick look at my squad in order of appearances:

Plizzarri was on loan from Milan and was very decent. Paciencia was a good recruit up front. Stolarski is my reserve RWB and certainly did not play that much, bugged. Kozlowski is my potential wonderkid, he had a "development plateau" sort of a season...

But player of the year has to be free transfer recruit Wallace, who starts the game in Turkey i believe:

An absolute beast

I never know how to finish these posts....

[Meow]

11 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

But player of the year has to be free transfer recruit Wallace, who starts the game in Turkey i believe:

An absolute beast

I never know how to finish these posts....

He became a free agent on my save as well. Probably really valuable information for many to know that he pretty willing to join most clubs (considering he moved to Poland).

[Paul186]

Another good season, perhaps you need to spend 3 to 4 seasons only at each tem and move to other top polish teams t improve them so they do better in Europe.

[Mr Tree]

Bayern did go on to win the Champs League, so i was knocked out by the eventual winners - not bad!

However that doesn't seem to have helped my ranking at all - the 3.8 is from season 22/23 (last season Pogon in CL last 16), the 5.5 refers to season 21/22 when i was knocked out in the Conference League first qualifiers and didn't check what the other Polish teams did... god knows how these points are calculated!!

@Paul186i think the plan is to get each club to State of the Art training facilities asap, then move on - leaving them well equipped to succeed further, in theory. It's going pretty well, we've upgraded at least 3 times so far

Started the next season nicely - signed Ross Barkley on a free, he's a bit decent for the Polish league 😮

Beat Slovenian opponents to qualify for the Conference League group stages, and i think Jagellonia made it too, plus Legia are in the Europa League groups. Btw i checked the real-life standings and Legia are second-bottom! 😮

[Mr Tree]

Won my Conference League group...

And I'm one of THREE Polish teams who will be continuing their European campaigns in February! 

Good signs

I've weathered a ton of injuries too to be top domestically as we approach Christmas, but Legia are pretty dominant too so they're keeping pace. 

[Paul186]

Good season for Poland if you can get Ireland near the top, getting there Poland there should be easy.

[LostHorizons]

1 hour ago, Mr Tree said:

Won my Conference League group...

And I'm one of THREE Polish teams who will be continuing their European campaigns in February! 

Good signs

I've weathered a ton of injuries too to be top domestically as we approach Christmas, but Legia are pretty dominant too so they're keeping pace. 

Well done. Glad I could provide you something of a template. You did very well with whatever changes you need to make.

[Mr Tree]

On 20/11/2021 at 21:55, LostHorizons said:

Well done. Glad I could provide you something of a template. You did very well with whatever changes you need to make.

Ha, don't speak too soon! (You too @Paul186!)

We coasted to the league title, won our 3rd Polish Cup and reached the Conference League final...

...but look closer and you may spot an issue that was building... we won the Polish league comfortably, not losing a game domestically after September and getting our best points and goals output yet... but we only ended 1pt clear after a dramatic slump at the end, where six of seven games ended 0-0 (after 90mins)...

Leading to this(!!)

To no avail! 

Yep, we had more shots. Yep, every shot on target went in.

So despite a domestic treble and a good run in Europe...

Major! It was in the red!

God knows what that was about then, but hopefully the offseason will help them snap out of it. It had been a fun season until then - here's the top performers:

I had Reinier on loan too for the 10 role, but he had some injuries and got fewer than 10 goals overall... Paciencia had a great season until contributing to the late slump to match last season's goal total... Kucharczyk's retiring (i don't care enough to ask him to stay)... Dwight McNeil is a LWB regen, not the current Burnley winger oh, i sold Kozlowski for 80m zloty or so to Real Madrid, didn't think we'd miss him and it makes us pretty rich. Invested in a few young talents with the proceeds. 

Anyway player of the season has to be Barkley, an outrageous signing for this league - I'd rather showcase an up-and-coming youngster but didn't have anyone who's quite contributing enough, yet... hopefully next season

Training facilities didn't get any upgrade this year, and Legia and Jagellonia both got knocked out in the first knockout round of their respective European adventures - but respect to both for making it to February! Oh i should check the impact on the coefficient / ranking...

[Mr Tree]

Some little updates from Season 4... yes, the offseason got us out of the slump, plus we have some exciting new signings to take us forward

so we coasted through 4 CL qualifiers to reach the group stage, but quite a brutal group:

Keen readers may remember that my first game of the career was against Feyenoord, and we lost 4-0, so this felt goooood:

Unfortunately we have gone on to lose in Rome and Barcelona to leave qualification looking a little dicey...

Btw, despite fewer points last season apparently (although I'm not sure this is displaying "real" information, just gibberish), we have gone flying up to 20th:

We need to become a 2-1-2 country though, rather than a 1-0-3... 

[Mr Tree]

The squad is starting to come together (slow start), but this is gonna be a bad year for our rankings...

Not only me:

But the others didn't even manage to play beyond August

Rakow lost at the first opportunity, not even worth a screenshot! 

[Mr Tree]

Just ripped off the second half of Season 4 because the team has finally clicked and launched to the next level...

We were unbeaten for so long...

Before finally bizarrely dropping Game 32, at home, to Lechia (who, you'll note, are not in the top half of the league!)

But i think that was almost the only black spot on an 15-1-1 second half to the season after a 11-6-0 first half

We just about retained the Cup too, with our immense loanee goalkeeper saving all 4 of the enemy's attempts:

Summer signing Brandt made a great impression:

And probably could've / should've been Player of the Season:

Lovely spread of goals there... Paciencia barely played in the second half of the season, with Thuram overtaking him for the main "striker" role...

But i went for Idir for Player of the Season honours:

And then i, er, sold him for 200m zl to Liverpool, reasoning he probably wouldn't get much better and i have others waiting in the wings (get it?)

Anyway, on to the new season - last year's European campaigns did cost us (one place), but reaching the group stage seems to have been enough to make us a 2-1-2 country, which is BIG! Not sure when we'll enter the CL now but we'll soon find out...

[Paul186]

Well done @Mr Tree  on getting the extra place in Europe by doing worse, the allocation looks wrong, but doesn't mater you have the places

[StuartM]

That guy looks pretty good to let go... who do you have in reserve?!

Is your plan still to max out the facilities and move on or are you setting your sights on the Champions League?

[Mr Tree]

Thanks @Paul186- i don't understand the ranking points at all, i just have to trust that there's some logic behind them and that i can get to the top! 

@StuartMI'd love to get all the way but i won't hang around waiting for it - i think the best thing is to get them rich and with the best facilities, then go on to the next club...

I'm at that tricky stage with squad development where my good players are attracting a lot of interest and it's hard to keep them here (and happy). I resisted some other bids after losing Idir, cos i had more money than i could really do much with (i can't get expensive players, they're not interested!). But then i tend to search for Frees, Loans or transfer-listed players, so then i started getting very fussy with my player searches and settled on upgrading my problematic DM position with an awesome lad from Legia for 120m zl. He's been excellent, so that was money well-spent.

The squad got a bit stretched by all the qualifying, and eventually it fell down in the Cup, our first ever defeat in the Polish Cup 😮

Hm it cut off the goals (sure i checked that when i did the screenshot) - i finally got the goal i deserved in extra time, but i left us bombing forward and they equalised moments later 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, Europe was fine - we lost in Germany and Turkey but got a vital point in Paris. P$G were laughably long-ball - i battered them in both games but with my high line, they released Mbappe a couple of times and he scored of course... but we survived. 

Inter coming in the first knockout round. 

My colleagues were useless of course - at least Legia made it to December:

[Mr Tree]

Damn, Inter too strong for me some dude called Satriano scored two goals early in the first leg, never heard of him, anyone? @Scratch? ...and we came out flying in the second leg, Barkley scored a screamer in the 3rd minute, but they got a sucker-punch in and it was just about enough...

 

[Scratch]

2 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

Damn, Inter too strong for me some dude called Satriano scored two goals early in the first leg, never heard of him, anyone? @Scratch? ...and we came out flying in the second leg, Barkley scored a screamer in the 3rd minute, but they got a sucker-punch in and it was just about enough...

Satri-who? Never heard of him... 😜 

Looks like you're doing pretty well here. This is one hard challenge and I just read through and you're doing great! And judging by the players you're willing to sell, I think you're going to push deeper into Europe soon (if you stay at Pogon). You're "in reserve" players must be pretty alright!

[Paul186]

Unlucky @Mr Treewith Inter, but I'm certain you soon be winning the trophy.

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks @Scratchand @Paul186!

Season 5 in the books, and my magnificence has been recognised:

After we stomped imperiously to the title:

Sealed with a good six games to go i believe... after the Inter defeat, i started using youngsters a bit more, particularly up front where Paciencia was demanding silly money/status for a new contract. He's been an ace signing but I've got a couple of crackers coming through...

Sold my reserve left back for 25m zl (about £5m), picked up Pellegrini on a free, but he can only back up this kid, who's blossoming fantastically and gets my Player of the Season nomination:

Points still don't make much sense, and I'm still just 20th for now - but reckon there's a lot of scope for jumping soon:

They refuse to upgrade Training (or Stadium, still just 17k!), but I've maxed out the Youth facilities now, so that's something at least. 

[Mr Tree]

Only needed to get through two rounds of qualifiers, but a right pig of a group this time - Dortmund, Juve and Man U!

Edited November 30, 2021 by Mr Tree

[Paul186]

Unlucky with the group, but I'm certain you will get through and keep improving Poland's ranking

[Mr Tree]

Unfortunately not @Paul186!

Actually played well in all, but maybe the high line vs quality strikers was a bad idea. We were already out after 4 games, so my young talents played in Turin and Dortmund for the sake of experience

This was in stark contrast to my dominant domestic form:

Although a slight bummer just turned up, with former Player of the Year McNeil getting a long-term injury:

Fortunately i have Pellegrini as his back-up, but no young talent so i went out and picked up Brandon Williams on a free to cover McNeil's absence. 

Btw the World Cup happened, with an extraordinary final:

It's gonna be a rough year for our coefficient:

 

(Arka won the cup and got relegated, the twats)

Per above, the squad is actually building nicely, think i was just unlucky with the CL... but a rough year for the challenge! 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Mr Tree

[Paul186]

Unlucky, @Mr Tree but I'm certain when you win the Champion League next season will recover the lost points of this season.

[Mr Tree]

Thanks Paul. We are dominant now domestically:

(Legia miss out on Europe!)

Unfortunately, you CAN see an L in there, because i got FMMed (a joint PB) in the Polish Cup Final:

But 3-0 in CCC implies that we didn't play that well...

I used youngsters a lot after we were knocked out of Europe, so the most-used players were:

Malen was an immense recruit - scored so many from AML that i had to move him central, and he kept going. Clear Player of the Season:

Unsurprisingly, our ranking still hasn't moved much. Apologies - a very slow start to this challenge

So... maybe the board are waiting for some Euro success before i can upgrade training facilities - maybe i shouldn't wait around for that... but we've got a much nicer CL group this year, Porto, Dinamo and St Gallen, so I'll give it another year or two before panicking...

[Myfanwy365]

Think I might take on this challenge, when I've got Wrexham to the top

Starting in Denmark, in Division 2 as either Vendsyssel or Jammerbugt as they're the nearest to where my grandparents lived. Going with home grown only maybe

Would taking on the DK job be cheating, assume it'd give me a bump in my own fame?

[Mr Tree]

7 hours ago, Myfanwy365 said:

Think I might take on this challenge, when I've got Wrexham to the top

Starting in Denmark, in Division 2 as either Vendsyssel or Jammerbugt as they're the nearest to where my grandparents lived. Going with home grown only maybe

Would taking on the DK job be cheating, assume it'd give me a bump in my own fame?

Nothing against it in the original challenge (linked in the first post). Good luck! 2nd division and homegrown-only might waste precious time though, but you'll see, it's not like i know what I'm doing

i won my CL group though, P$G in the next round. Most importantly, the board were finally happy to give me State of the Art training facilities! So i think once i get knocked out this year, I'll look for a new home.....

[Myfanwy365]

Fair, might go with Aalborg instead, the nearest Superliga team. Homegrown would be in an attempt to get DK world Cup winners maybe

[Mr Tree]

Scheisse

On the plus side, a new 30k stadium...

[Paul186]

Unlucky but a good run this season, like the stadium name.

[StuartM]

Still progressing well Mr Tree, it seems like the step up into Europe is still a big one though.

I just wondered whether you might have left a series of tree based stadium names as you move around, Sycamore Stadium here Beech Stadium there... 😋

Good luck!

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks @Paul186and @StuartM- my plan (hope) was to get a variety of "Mr Tree Stadiums" around the country, we'll see how we get on with that! 

I decided that I'd stay on until the new stadium was unveiled - missed the chance to get revenge on Juve (assistant managed the game) :

That meant i finished the previous season, our second unbeaten campaign in a row:

Part of our eventual demise in Europe was the influential Benkovic picking up a badly-timed injury. So again, top performers in order of appearances - shows just how small the actual "core" was:

Our Italian-Chinese striker (inside-left) Sun broke through emphatically this year to take player of the season:

As for the challenge, one other Polish team joined me in playing beyond Christmas:

And Lech played until December too, but they drew one of the world's true super clubs in their group, which was a bit unlucky:

The other two bowed out early:

But we made some small progress, at least:

So, in time-honoured fashion, i put everyone possible on the Loan List and i fired all my scouts before joining the first available top-flight team...

Hopefully, loaning in a few of my old mates will help me get my head above water quickly, and from there..... we shall see!