shen

@Dan It's fun reading! What another bizarre season with some incredible highs (that Roma win, phwoar) and that soul-shattering run of defeats and bitter cup exit. Are you already seeing a coefficient effect on club and league? Probably a good thing you didn't leave Vrsac just yet although the U22 restriction is just one of those things that when catching you by surprise could be the push that would make me want to quit.

Does that penalty affect the table though? Celtic would still need a win either way. Motherwell still need to get a point at Hibs. Did I miss something or was that penalty inconsequential? Edit: just seen the BBC match report which explains that it means Celtic no longer have to win by three goals. My brain somehow thought that Celtic's GD was superior.

Diabolical scouting! We really dropped the ball post Pearson/Walsh.

Also only just noticed Jahanbakhsh is playing for Dender! He's been really trash ever since he left AZ...

Are there any players you want to stay? Is Maertens still a fans favourite or would they be OK to see him leave?

Nah, never go back to the ex as they say. I can only recall Dickov and Guppy returning for second spells, and that wasn't exactly a success.

Shearer was the best - in England*. But English football wasn't the best in the world at the time. The leagues in Germany, Italy and arguably Spain were all ahead, so I feel it makes 'best in the world' claim less credible. Batistuta, Vieri, Klinsmann, Weah, Ronaldo, Romario, Shevchenko even Owen, all were equal or better IMO depending on which period/season you're looking at.

Anecdotal doesn't exclude factual. I meant it here in exactly the sense you are exemplifying: that the famous miss was a major cause for our relegation. It just wasn't. It only served as a vivid memory of our failed season. Hence why it's anecdotal. We played 37 other games that season and he assisted Vardy's goal that game. In fact, the king himself missed several chances that if I recall and he had a far less productive season than Maddison and Tielemans. Our messiah had Daka-like numbers for Christ sake. Did he down tools too? Can't say I've heard that leveled at him, I wonder why... While the team underperformed as a collective, it was largely a structural breakdown rather than players 'downing tools'. Barnes', Maddison's and Tielemans' numbers were actually quite decent throughout, even their defensive stats were OK. It's simply a myth that surrounds Maddison and Tielemans, which I personally suspect comes from the perception of the players' personality and/or style. Izzet was never controversial and already had his hero status secured (something Tielemans really should've had with his FA Cup goal as well), so I never felt he faced anywhere near the same kind of scrutiny or criticism as the other two. But this has now completely derailed. Again. My point was initially that I don't believe that a large part of the fans that have been to games over the past ten years will be 'excited' for our Academy prospects in L1. Is that necessarily bad? Probably not if these fans stay away - if it means that the fans that do show up help generate a positive atmosphere to help our young players thrive, then it might be a similar culling of fans as well as the squad.

I don't forget, but if that is held against Maddison then you can't also ignore that Izzet was part of not one but two relegation squads as well. Maddison still had 19 goal contributions that season. He was absolutely not the reason we went down, despite what the anecdotal evidence of the missed Everton penalty would make you believe.

Sure, Izzet might've been a better allrounder but Izzet and Lennon weren't at the level of peak Ndidi, Tielemans and Maddison. I mean, two 5th places, an 8th place and an FA Cup win in a richer, tougher league speak for themselves.

It is absolutely not a long time. It's a fall from grace at record speed. Also, not bad finishing 8th, our fourth best ever PL finish, and being in a European semifinal AFTER our FA Cup win despite being "on the slide". That was just FOUR years ago as well, but I suppose for people with short-term memory loss, that would feel like a long time...

Complete opposite to what Leicester have been doing I wonder if it would be too much of a cheat code in FM if you could spend next year's budget or loan against installments like we've done.

That is bizarre given the cultural proximity of Portugal. Maybe the game mechanics dictate that since he's acclimatised in Eastern Europe, a move to Southern Europe would count against the transfer likelihood? Or maybe your club being champions and in the CL qualifiers (?) made him less willing to move given his presumably high squad status? Still, that's got to be humiliating for Porto

I agree. But we've seen how players come here, wilt, and bloom again when they leave (Edouard? Perez? Tielemans?). That's not to absolve VK in any way. To me, this kind of utterance just also hints at a complete mismatch between player(s) and club. It hints at a toxic workplace where few if any will thrive until something drastic happens.

Yes, I know they were in the squad when we got relegated. But these players were also part of the most consistently good team that most of us have witnessed in our lifetime. All three of those were easily European standard midfielders - and I'd argue you could add Albrighton and Barnes to that list. The class they consistently showed, I would argue, hasn't been bettered by any in my lifetime, not even Izzet or Lennon. Cartwright, Page and Braybrooke may turn out to be great prospects, but they're a far, far cry from what the fans have been treated to in very recent memory.

Yeah? You think after years of European quality midfielders this will excite the masses? I mean, it seems a lot of the fans are happy and satisfied with another relegation judging by the end of the Hull game, so maybe you are right as it wouldn't take a lot to excite them. Give them one or two home games before fans will rip into them on here.

He seemed positive enough when he joined, but things quickly turned sour. There were rumours he didn't get on with the group of players already here? I imagine he feels unfairly treated or promised something else than he got and has been looking for a way out ever since. And to be honest, judging by the body language and all the noises from the club, it's not a happy place to be, so I don't blame people if they are looking to move. Hopefully he gets a move back to Copenhagen, would be best for all parties (bar maybe FC Copenhagen )

My balance is around £2m now after they've invested in the academy (after initial rejection). I got them to increase the wage budget to £65k (also after initial rejection), but I was already over that limit by that point Maybe they'll realise the finances will be ok when I reach January and the ECL money has been ticking in steadily. I think I could improve to the top 4 this season, maybe 2nd at a push as Brugge have had a poor start. USG look miles ahead still and are bulldozing the league, so unless they implode, we won't catch them. This is my first experience with European games in FM26, so I can't say I've noticed a trend yet. I will say that my side is better suited as the underdog, so sitting back and keeping compact, which means I can compete better against teams that play slow and press high. On the flipside, I'm very vulnerable against sides that play fast and direct and counter hard, which Dun Streda did. Maybe that's why it felt much harder. Will be interesting to see how I do against Roma and Molde (I beat APOEL already) and whether I find those games easier than Flora et al.

Those are some fantastic players at that level. All of them would be starters in my Diegem side. Looking at their wages, they're around the same that I would be paying as well. Donno looks really good with a good trait as well. N'Tamon would be a star defender too. What methods did you use to scout them? I imagine you did active scouting as your club probably didn't have a scouting range beyond Serbia? I'm trying to give my youth players a chance in Diegem - they have a decent academy which I've just got the board to invest in again. The quality is obviously not as good as getting established players in, but it feels that much more satisfying when they succeed.

Another flop. Wrong player at the wrong time. Add in the injury problems and it's been a disastrous signing. Good money wasted.

What a spectacular game! The disallowed goal looked on to me. But what a disastrous implosion second half. Westerlo could and probably should have equalised within 10 minutes and should have won the game. What happened? Seems like a very lucky escape that OHL scraped into the Europe playoff judging by their terrible form.

Diegem update! Not been having many sessions lately, but our summer went fine. I managed to sell a backup winger I had signed the summer before from Lierse when Brugge activated his £725k release clause. However, despite being given a negative transfer budget, this transfer did nothing to better my budget, which is highly frustrating. I got rid of a few other youngsters who won't make the grade, scraping in another 150k, while all except one transfer have been free's or loans. That one transfer did break my transfer record though - a whopping £480 for a new goalkeeper One massive surprise however is that somehow, my club signed a player on loan (with optional fee to buy for €350k), that I had no involvement in, from Club Africain in Tunisia. This feels like it's a transfer that was arranged before I took over, because he joined on his 18th birthday, but that would've made him 14-15 at the start of the game. Luckily for me, he is incredible at this level: I had already signed a Douglas Borel on a free from Santa Clara, making him my highest earner, so DR has gone from being probably my weakest position to my strongest overnight. I did start sweating bullets on deadline day as my top scorer Djenairo Daniels, who has a £450k release clause, was wanted by Palermo - and I had nothing lined up. He's my main source of goals and with already going over my ridiculously low wage budget and having 0 transfer budget, I wasn't going to get anyone of similar calibre in. Palermo never bid however, so he's here until at least January. And thank goodness for that, because my squad is really short of depth in quality with the ECL to contend with as well. Speaking of which - I got a terrible draw in the second quali round against Sparta Prague. They were a superior team all over the pitch and they went ahead 2-0 in Prague with some woeful defending on our part and great finishing on theirs. I was trialling a new tactic, copying what Belgian teams had done against me, playing a narrow 3-4-2-1. I stuck to it as it looked solid enough statwise. I tweaked it a bit after the early setbacks and it paid off. I pulled one back before halftime and then leveled on the hour, only to then have my youth prospect centerback send the fans into raptures with a goal to put us 2-3 up with 15 minutes to go. We held on comfortably and what seemed like a game that would end in a heavy defeat, we ended up stealing a win! The return leg followed a similar pattern, but Prague dominated even more. I went ahead, but they leveled on the stroke of HT. Then Daniels became the hero and gave us breathing space in the 67th minute at which point I went full Fort Knox to keep out Prague to finish the job. Delighted with myself and the team, we then drew Dun. Streda from Slovakia in the final playoff round. I thought this tie would be much easier. It wasn't. Their squad was also comfortably better than ours and their tactical setup was much trickier to counter. We drew 1-1 at home in a very balanced match. I was banking on our defensive tactics that got wins against Brugge on the road last season would give us a chance. Streda went ahead mid first half, but we equalised through a great strike from our young right wing prospect. As you were at HT. Then came Daniels again with a superb header, only for Streda to score a beautiful goal to equalise just 7 minutes later. Truth be told, we were completely under the cost and our record signing, Juri Kirchmayer deputising in goal for our injured first-choice Milo Roekarts, was playing a blinder. Save after save after save, the defense barely holding on and we had created nothing bar the two goals. Then up pops Daniels again. I had barely stopped fist-pumping before our DM, who never scores, suddenly pops up two minutes later to put us 2-4 up with 20 minutes to go. Full Fort Knox mode again, and we held on to much delight. We were very fortunate in this tie - the score should really have been the other way around - but I won't complain! This is huge for us financially. The draw sees us play AS Roma, Molde and Apoel as the bigger guns and the more winnable ties against Flora Tallinn, Borac and IFK Göteborg. We started the Jupiler Pro League on fire smashing KAA Gent 3-0 and then squeezed out more modest 1-0 wins against La Louviere and Lokeren. Then fatigue was setting in a we had to rotate some youth players in to save energy for the European games, which led to 0-0 and 1-1 draws against Kortrijk and OHL. Weak results, but acceptable given the circumstances. We then went to Anderlecht, which counts as a local derby, after winning in Slovakia and we stole another fantastic win with two very late goals to finish 0-2 and followed it up with another excellent result at home against Brugge, completely stifling them in a 0-0 draw. That result puts us joint second in the table. Going into the first game of the Conference League Main Phase against APOEL, our last defeat was a 1-3 home reversal to Brugge on April 9 which makes us unbeaten for 5 months! The save will go on hiatus for the next couple of weeks due to having guests over.

LfCFC

You need to let those replays play out fully. It's annoying as f, but you don't need to instant result.

He's got the "Enjoys Big Matches" trait