With last season going quite well and the club actually being financially secure for the first time ever this next preseason would be crucial in moving the club forward. I would be looking to develop from a club that scraps in midtable to one that (hopefully) would be looking to qualify for Europe on a regular basis and perhaps even challenge for trophies. I had plans for how to do this but first, I’ll run through the progress made on my challenge.
F.C Europa Challenge Progress
Tier 1: Have a play from each UEFA nation in my squad
I’m almost over the line on completing this first level! I only need to sign a player from each of Belarus, Georgia, Greece, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine. With luck I can cross all of these off over the course of the next three transfer windows as I can, at the very least, sign an absolute donkey of a regen from each of them if nothing else.
Tier 2: A player from each UEFA nation plays a game
Basically the same except my Czech loan goalie never played a game for me so I’ll not bother posting another image!
Tier 3: A player from each UEFA nation scores a goal
Now we’re onto the tougher challenge.
Tier 4: A player from each UEFA nation gets Man of the Match
As you can see for tiers 3 and 4 we are over half way there but they are both going to be very tough to complete. I am considering signing some talented young regens from the incomplete countries in the hope that when they develop they should be able to get me over the line.
Oh and for anyone curious here are the leading countries in terms of goals as of December 2023. Serbia leads the way by a mile with 86 goals but it is quite a scrap behind the leader with Azerbaijan currently in second place.
Looking to the future I needed to grow my squad if I wanted to meet my long term objective of challenging for trophies and European places and I have three categories of players targeted to help me move towards this goal these are as follows.
Youth Prospects
With the club now being in its 5th season, we were finally ready to promote some of the better academy graduates into the first team. In particular, I was ready to give three of them significant game time next season…..depending on how they adapt to top flight football of course. These could be crucial in providing great squad depth without dipping into our minimal transfer budget and its always good fun to push academy graduates into the first team.
Maxime Geiger
From the second season youth intake and probably our best regen so far I anticipate him being our starting GK for this season so I don’t antagonise him too much as he blossoms. This will be tough for me as our existing GK Benedettini has only missed 8 league games in five seasons so far but Geiger has developed into a complete monster in goal. He has no significant weakness and he isn’t even 20 probably my greatest challenge will be keeping him beyond his existing contract after I triggered the three-year extension. Loan spells in the French Ligue 2 and Belgian Pro League have spurred on his development even if his average ratings were nothing to shout about.
Ali Goncalves
One of the best players from our first ever youth intake is finally in a position to make the step up. Despite a significant dip in his determination, he has kicked on so well with great physical attributes and with technical and mental attributes that have the potential to develop he could be a valuable asset at LB. I have struggled to find a team to take him on loan so he has only played half a season in the French third tier where he did ok so this opening season will be a huge test for him. Fortunately, his weight has increased from a measly 8 stone 8 or he would have been knocked around quite a bit!
Eloy Mur
The third intake player making a step up as he has developed at an astounding rate. Not as pacey as I would normally like for a winger but dear me he is an astoundingly gifted technical player for a 17-year-old! Hasn’t been sent on loan anywhere as he is too young and talented but has dabbled in the first team since he was 17. His Spanish nationality gives me more flexibility to keep him in the side so he will hopefully be a fixture in the first team for some time to come.
Returning Loanees
Partnered with the injection of youth into the first team there are a couple of significant players returning to F.C Europa especially in the striking department. These will, like our youth players, provide us with a fresh set of new faces having had time away to develop.
Potentially the most significant of these returning players is Dadasov. One of the few original players remaining at the club and one that I have some sympathy for. After suffering a horrific injury in our first season and with Joveljic being by far and away our leading striker when fit Dadsov has been limited to more of a backup role for large parts of his career making more sub appearances than starts. He has, however, totally failed to take his chance when given a run in the first team and has never managed to reach double figures in goals at any point in his career. A loan spell in Portugal’s top flight finally gave him a chance to start regularly where he still onky managed a career-best 9 goals.
An absolute bargain basement signing from Africa Sports in the Ivory Coast who managed a solid 6 months on loan in Spain. This convinced me to give him a chance as a first team back up at least until the January transfer window depending on how he coped with the step up. Based on his height and attributes it isn’t a stretch to compare him to Drogba so hopefully he could have a similar impact on F.C Europa as Drogba did on Chelsea way back when!
New Signings
The final piece of the jigsaw I hope to bring in using our modest transfer budget of £2.6 million which I would try and boost through a few player sales. Bas Dost was moved on for a solid £475k before I took a huge risk. Silvan Hefti, probably our best CB and one who gained me the achievement for record signing was now attracting several decent bids. Eventually, Sampdoria made an offer too good to refuse and Hefti was gone for £6 million rising to £8. Another achievement gained and another Hefti fee for Hefti.
With boosted transfer funds I managed to bring in some potentially crucial signings to have both a short and long term impact.
First up was a crucial attacking signing from Dinamo who was Macedon………shit. Since I agreed on the signing he had declared himself for Croatia which was going to seriously hamper my plans. I now had three Croatian players who could all become potentially crucial players. What was already a difficult choice could become impossible if all three players kicked on!
Another crucial signing was one I could only secure on loan but I hoped he would fill the hefty hole that Hefti left in the centre of defence……I’ll stop with these puns soon I promise. In all seriousness, the 19-year-old was some prospect, already being our best rated CB according to my coaches. The only shame is that I had no chance of being able to prise him away from Dortmund.
Off The Pitch
One of the main things holding back our growth at the top level was our stadium. For two whole seasons, we had now sold out every home game in our fairly pathetic 4999 seater stadium. Despite numerous attempts to get a new stadium out of the owners, they hadn’t relented until…..
It seems the steady income from TV money and player sales finally gave us enough of a bank balance to justify building it! Quadrupling our capacity would provide a massive boost to our matchday income. Theon ly downside was the several years we need to wait for it to be built. Still, its something to look forward to!
Positive Start
With all this growth and development off the pitch, things had to be right on it if we truly wanted to move forward in the long term. Still employing the positive tactics from last season we had a very positive preseason.
Not only did we win every game but we hammered our opposition every time. Ok, they weren’t exactly world beaters but still, the tightest game we had was a 3-1 win against a Europa League side from last season!
This momentum carried on into the start of the league season as we scored 8 goals in our opening two matches and only dropped two points in the opening month! This strong start put us firmly inside the European places for the first time ever and we had the tools at our disposal to maintain this league position! Which was a good thing as Morina would be on his way at the end of the season if we didn’t!
Our only defeat in the opening two months came against Marseille as we seemed destined to make a concentrated effort to qualify for European competition for the first time! It had been a long and time-consuming process of improvement in pre-season but so far it was all totally worth it.
Thank you for reading the latest part, I will review the rest of the season next time where we can hopefully maintain this very positive and successful start to the season!
Alex
StratMan Gaming 
1 Comments