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

[Mr Tree]

Right, frantic few days in FMM world, trying to scrabble together a squad - got at least 10 players from Pogon, including two excellent young midfielders which I'm very happy about. 

Also loving Fate throwing me this fantastic club to manage. Amazing colour scheme plus nicknames of "The Elephants" or "The Crazy Villagers", the latter referring to the fact that the village of Nieciecza, where the team is based, has a population of fewer than 800 and is the smallest village ever to host a European top-division team (as of 2015, when BBT first got promoted).

I said i would test out Vibe's most popular tactic when i change club, so let's see how we get on with @scrpn's 4-3-2-1 - a classic, but with a few instructions i don't normally use, so let's hope i can do it justice!

 

[Mr Tree]

Apologies, bit slow updating here, had a few busy days personally and it was tough to get my teeth into the new team. Really hard to recruit any quality, but slowly getting there - reached the winter break 7pts off Europe and 6pts off the drop, firmly in midtable, but for a tiny club i think that's acceptable. Pogon were 16pts clear and still unbeaten - i haven't checked yet how anyone got on in Europe...

Got this amusing (bugged) message after winning my first game - i guess the game thought i was on an unbeaten run (including my time at Pogon).

And yes i quite randomly have French international Lucas Hernandez. The Polish league is starting to gain clout - Scott McTominay scored the winner for a relegation-threatened club against me although to be fair, battling relegation in Poland in 2028 might well be Scott's actual destiny......

[Mr Tree]

Really enjoyed that second half of the season - ended up finishing past 1am last night, suffering a bit for that now (it's tough getting old!)

Got a right kick in the balls just at the end though! 

Did my best in the winter transfer window and felt quite good about the team, despite the difficulties in attracting players. We won our first game back 5-0 away (to the team who finished bottom, but still), with our new right-winger (signed for a mill) scoring two on his debut. 

Meanwhile my young African striker, signed for 220k a few months ago, lit up the ACON, scoring in the QF, SF and Final on the way to this:

Value has exploded, too! I'll probably have to cash in on him, but maybe I'll get another season out of him first...

Back at home, the game showed off its sometimes ridiculous bias towards the user:

He did well, no doubt, but i don't think some midtable 30yo no-mark should be getting that award

We finished the season very strongly...

But, of course, especially with all the loan players i have from them, it was hard to beat mighty Pogon. Fortunately the teams in 6th and 7th played each other and finished 0-0 - a goal for either would've overtaken me. But no, we held on for 5th place! 

...yeah. I celebrated wildly and then thought "wait why don't i have a silver thingy though?". And it's because the cup winner takes priority, and a bloody second division team won the cup, so they'll be in europe next year and i won't

Mind you, I've still got to put a team together. My Pogon loanees were a huge part of our success:

Cyfert (corner taker), Grzesik and Jakubowski were my 3 centre-mids - jakubowski is just 18 but huge potential, could be a beast. Cyfert is the weakest, but only cos the other two are very good, likely poland internationals - i played Grzesik a fair bit for Pogon last year and was glad to get him on loan, he can take POTY honours:

Half-decent year in Europe for my colleagues - starting to build some momentum, perhaps...

[Mr Tree]

Got Jakubowski back again, plus a few others - it's all a bit frantic so we'll see how it works out. 

Bit of progress in the rankings...

[Paul186]

unlucky on Euro qualification but hope the other teams have another good season in europe

[RiverToad]

I am playing in North Irish league, but I don't know how to improve the league reputation, other N,Irish teames are so weak...

It doesn't like Scottish teams, I bring them from 25th to 7th easily in fmm16 or 17 (I forgot). While these N.Irish teams always are eliminated in Euro cup II QR1 or QR2, I have no idea to improve their and the league's reputation.

[Chelseaplchamps2022]

How do you get to the league standards in this years game, because the addition of a 5th league seems to have taken the spot of it for me?

Edited December 17, 2021 by Chelseaplchamps2022

[Mr Tree]

Thanks as always @Paul186!

@Chelseaplchamps2022i only have one league loaded, so it's in the usual place for me. I guess they missed updating that menu for 5 leagues. 

@RiverToadyou might like the career i linked in the original post, in Ireland last year. I tried staying at one club but yeah, your colleagues are just hopeless. This year, I'm trying to improve each club i manage and get them to maximum training facilities asap - hopefully that will help them to keep or get better players and produce better results. We'll see! 

Here I'm looking forward to a good session this evening to polish off (sorry) Season 9. Got a thrilling title race on the go:

We started 3-1-1 and i thought yes, here we go... then we lost 4 in a row! To Legia, Jagiellonia, Lech and Gornik, a tough run...

But 1 defeat in 18 (to Pogon of course) has seen us catch back up with the pack. Unfortunately I'm not steaming up on the rail - we've drawn a couple of winnable games which could've put us right in the mix. 

Still going in the Cup too, next game is the semifinal i think...

My colleagues did pretty well with Europe - all five played until December, with Pogon making the CL Last 16 before losing to Chelsea. Legia were the closest to making it through otherwise, but they bottled it on the last day

[DLC]

I just read all this mate and I am loving it. Keep it up!

[Mr Tree]

Thanks @DLC - much appreciated! 

Well we've qualified for Europe, at least:

The cup final was ludicrously on a Monday after a weekend round of league fixtures, so my reserves played, and a loanee winger from Pogon scored 3 of his 5 goals for the season at a vital time

Alas in the league, we got to 3rd at one point, 2pts off the top, but then we blew up and limped home...

Clean sweep of the young player of the season, although i only own one of them...

Squad in order of appearances... less reliance on loan players this year, although they're still very important:

Player of the Year, maybe a gettable one from Pogon...

My young African striker struggled in the first half of the season, so didn't have an impressive haul overall, but he's won the fans over and he's improving nicely by the end of the season...

Wouldn't mind selling him though and buying a few upgrades with the profit!!

[Mr Tree]

Legia bid 55m zl for Konki, so i told them to get stuffed and noone else came in for him

Won my first 5 games of the new league season, but I'm a bit pissed off... my own fault but, i had a qualifier for the Europa League, went 2-0 down early to AEK Athens but recovered for a 2-2 draw at home, then scored 4 at theirs... but my phone ran out of battery before the end of the match! Compound of domestic issues had left me sitting up helping my daughter to sleep and playing the game, thought i was alright so played one more (battery at 5%), and the last part drained super-quick

So of course, when i came to re-play the match:

Not only defeat, but also two star man crocked (konki just 10 days, but wilson for a month hurt).

I made it through the Conference League playoff thankfully, but my group has a familiar name....

Anyway, World Cup 2030 happened in the offseason:

Fatty ftw, with one of my ex-Pogon (now Real Madrid) players going off injured...

Also last season's results had a good impact on our ranking:

Long way to go though...

[Paul186]

Good progress but next step look like a large jump and might a couple of seasons.

[Mr Tree]

Thanks Paul! 

Very happy with that first half of the season, leading into the 6-week Xmas break:

It's been tough juggling the squad with Euro commitments and injuries - but we survived a nervy final group game...

Pretty sure it was 13-2 on shots at one point - we survived a barrage, AND THEN did a classic bad backpass but somehow, the keeper got there to deny them. Great effort after losing THREE key players in the days before to minor injuries! 

It was actually our 3rd 0-0 in a row as we qualified in style

We made it, that's the important thing!!

Our colleagues didn't do too badly either, with Legia reaching the CL group stage:

And Pogon qualifying (in the EL) for more post-Xmas continental action! 

They lost to Galatasaray in the CL qualifiers, but Legia beat Besiktas... Poland 1-1 Turkey

The other two teams didn't totally disgrace themselves either...

Now for the transfer window, and then we'll see if we can hold on to that big lead for BBT's first domestic title...

[Mr Tree]

Alas we lost in the next round of Europe - a tough tie with Atalanta, and we lost the second leg 1-2 after an entertaining first leg in Italy:

I noticed Pogon made the Europa League quarter-final, but lost 5-1 in the first leg - I'll check back at the end of the season...

They couldn't hold on to me in the league though - i mean, they did beat me in the 29th game of the season, but i beat Wisla 4-0 in the next match and Pogon only drew, securing our first league title with four games to play! 

Celebrating deep into the night, i merrily put my arm around the chairman...

"You know, this is just the first step... we need better training facilities to get any further..."

"No"

"...and then you want to be sure you're bringing the best of the best local talent through, so an upgrade in youth facilities would be vital..."

"No"

"Oh... well, never mind..." (Tree sighs, drinks in the evening, looks around) "...we did it eh. What a night for this old stadium... imagine, it was totally packed tonight and there's all that space there behind the South Stand... this could be a 25k ground one day i reckon - wouldn't that look crazy in this small village!"

"No"

"Cheer up ya twat. Have you even thought about getting us an affiliate team who can help work on our young talent, like i was telling you about the other week?"

"No"

"Can i at least get a pay-rise?"

"No"

Evidently they were still sour on me later that week, when they reminded me that the 5th choice free transfer centre back i grabbed because i literally had noone else, was a bit shit. He's a Bosnian international but anyway who cares, he barely plays?!

Then my coaching staff joined in - i got this "update" on a young winger who i quite like...

1) i have heard nothing about "cuts being encouraged"?!

2) it is vital we START giving our youth players experience... yeah, sure, we need to play youngsters more... this is my 1st xi:

To be fair, i can't fit them all one screen, and the keeper and right-back are both around 27... and obviously at the top there, the ledge Lucas Hernandez in his mid-30s... but otherwise, that's a youthful team

[Myfanwy365]

Yeah I had that about cuts encouraged, not heard a thing beforehand

[Mr Tree]

Confirmation of the final league table - i played a lot of youth talents in the last few games, so i think i lost one, but still finished 12pts clear...

Clean sweep here - Arndt is mine but ex-Pogon, the other two are on loan from Pogon (Cyfert has come to me on loan 3yrs in a row, played 91 games for me now!)

Squad in order of appearances - the loans really help but I'm trying to ensure i have a solid foundation of players that i actually own, too:

Lots of options for Player of the Season, but bizarrely i had 3 Chile internationals after picking up this kid in the summer. Bought for 3.6m, now worth 65m - nice! I'd been struggling to find good centre mids for ages, so he was a perfect fit...

New season, no movement in the rankings, but i think we're getting closer to the countries above... Pogon did get knocked out though, and a bloody Czech team beat my conquerors Atalanta in the Conf League final

[StuartM]

You definitely know how to build a squad, well done Mr Tree!

[Mr Tree]

Thanks Stu!

Just one qualifying round for the Champions League, and we beat PAOK 4-0 to make the second leg a formality... Tough group though...

Cyfert has returned for a 4th year in a row on loan Konki has picked up a two-month injury though he nearly went to the Bundesliga in the summer, but i wanted more than 111m (zloty) +25%... so he was in a bit of a mood, but hopefully this injury layoff will sort him out...

[Mr Tree]

Gah, gutted with how the CL went - no euro football for me after Christmas, losing my last group game 3-2 to Dortmund while Ajax grabbed a draw at Chelsea (after beating Dortmund at home but losing 4-1 in Poland)

Pogon will at least keep the flag flying for Polska:

The others didn't get far:

Not been quite so dominant domestically this year - some injuries, some bad form...

Sold Konki for 140m (zloty ) in January, plus centre-back Zoladz for 80m, so finally we have some financial muscle. And 3 successful upgrades so Training facilities are 4.5 star now - nearly time to move on...

[Mr Tree]

Gah, lost my title. Didn't recruit very well really - got a bit of cash now so will try and target some weak links in the team this summer. Was a bit unlucky with injuries too - i meant to mention above, a highlight was definitely having none of my 4 strikers available at one point so compared to last year, scored a few less and turned a few wins into draws. Rizla Crackwhore nabbed a 0-0 draw at my place in the run-in and that proved vital:

Squad in order of appearances, obv not including two big mid-season losses...

Not many Poles there at the mo

Player of the season was Django:

Coming along nicely...

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks btw to @Titjesfor liking multiple posts, and @geordiekrispy for liking this morning's! 

Not a great year for the ranking, but overall we're catching up nicely with the countries above...

Big news too with one of my juniors showing immediate signs of improvement...

Hold on to your hats! 

🤦‍♂️

[StuartM]

Well, he doesn't have any reds!

[Titjes]

I silently enjoy your posts mate 😁 keep it up 😉

[Mr Tree]

5 hours ago, StuartM said:

Well, he doesn't have any reds!

Sure, but I'm not sure i need to be disturbed about a slight uptick in a 16yo's throwing ability, and surely calling it "exciting development" is stretching it a little

I'm also not sure this rollercoaster of emotion for my backup keeper needed to cross my desk...

Otherwise, pretty happy with where the squad is right now, feel like i recruited pretty well this summer... we got through 11 games in 5 weeks to qualify for the CL group stages...

But our reward was German, French and Italian opposition! Could've been worse but could've been better!!

Just played the first group game and my ex-Pogon star Yue Sun scored a hat-trick for RBL to beat me 4-1 (in Poland) - gonna be tough to qualify from this! 

We've lost our first compatriot:

And Pogon lost their Europa League playoff, to AEK! But there will be 4 Polish teams playing to December, at least...

Edited December 25, 2021 by Mr Tree

[Mr Tree]

Lost my next CL game to two late Mbappe goals, then this happened:

We were attacking! Long clearance, straight through on goal, heartbreak. We still have a chance, but we need to beat Lazio at home and hope they don't pick up other points

[Albionic]

Just catching up on this, very entertaining read! Putting the money in zloty is a great touch. Lets hope Lazio crumble, i reckon putting that 16 year old keeper with the incredible development in goal😝

[Paul186]

unlucky in Europe last couple of seasons, nice to see Poland climbing up the rankings, but they jump to 9th is big, so you might need a CL win.

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks for the comments,  @Albionicand @Paul186!

I didn't get round to a mid-season update in the last few days, so here's a data dump

We swiftly went 2-0 down at home to Lazio... but then recovered to 2-2... then got a penalty! Which we missed of course

And despite a gallant effort in the last group game:

We weren't able to continue into the new year:

Neither did two of our colleagues:

But Pogon marched on:

They were unbeaten in the league too at the winter break:

I went for some specific squad upgrades in January, but then we drew 0-0 with Koronavirus before needing a late winner against relegation-threatened Odra Opole... but from there we took off:

The pundits weren't having it...

It was a bit of a shame to lose the cup final, but I'll happily take it in exchange for winning our last 14, and i ended up securing the title with 2 games to spare! 

It was much easier to manage my squad without regular midweek games, of course, while Pogon were distracted:

They went on to win Euro Cup II, beating Dinamo Zagreb in the final

The league table ended like this:

And my squad, this year sorted by goals:

So an easy win for Mina as player of the season, but Belem and Herrera are worth a look too:

I checked out the Scouting Agency for the first time in a while, and i have 8 of the top 9 prospects in Poland (2 out on loan) :

Ebenezer Frimpong obviously gets extra credit for the best name ever. The top two (Fernandez is only 18) are in the world top 10 too

Edited December 29, 2021 by Mr Tree

[Albionic]

You certainly left Pogon in a good place, that’s for sure! Some quality looking players being developed there, not long until euro glory comes.

[Mr Tree]

Cheers @Albionic! A couple of big news items - 1) We're on the top page of the rankings:

2) the board agreed to max out my youth facilities, so my work here is done. No jobs available for now though