AZ Alkmaar - A Shift In Dutch Dominance

[FM_TNSSO]

AZ Alkmaar - A Shift In Dutch Dominance

Following my recent poll on who to start a new save with, you (the FM Base community) have spoken and AZ Alkmaar came out on top! So this journey is all about one thing, becoming the most dominant club in Dutch football!

It's no secret that Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord are far and away the biggest clubs in Dutch football, with a rich history between them! In fact, since the Eredivisie was formed in 1956, the top 3 clubs have won the division 57 times between them with Ajax leading the way with 26 league titles!

AZ Alkmaar have lifted the top tier trophy twice in their history, with their most recent triumph coming in the 2008-09 season! Steve McLaren's FC Twente side went on to win the Eredivisie the season after, but the big three have dominated again since! AZ have finished anywhere between 3rd and 10th over the past 9 campaigns!

Their other honours include 4x winners of the TOTO KNVB Beker Cup (the main cup competition in Holland), with their most recent success coming in 2013! European success has never been achieved, with their best performance being runners up in the Europa League back in 1981!

So the aim of this save for me is to displace Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord as the renowned top clubs in Holland and bring some trophies to AZ as I look to make them first of all compete with the big three, but then surpass and become the dominant force in the country! From there, I'll look to venture into Europe and hopefully bring the club it's first ever European trophy, with the ultimate goal to be winning the Champions League! It should be a long term save (providing I am not sacked) and I hope it will be my last save of FM2019 taking me through the next few months! AZ sit just outside the top 60 clubs in Europe based on reputation at the start of my career with them, so we have a lot of ground to make up!

Also during the save, if the Holland job becomes available I would like to lead the national team to European Championship/World Cup success as well. This should be a good part of the save if and when it eventually comes with the Dutch national side possibly being the biggest underachievers in history at International level considering the immense talent they have had at their disposal over the years! The Dutch national side are currently ranked 17th in the world!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Saturday 7th July 2018

Saturday 7th July 2018

My new home is the AFAS Stadion in the city of Alkmaar! With only a 17,000 capacity, it's a relatively small stadium in comparison to the 50,000+ grounds of Ajax and Feyenoord! In fact, there are 8 teams in the top tier who have bigger grounds than us and in time this is something I'd like to change!

Current Squad Pros

- I have a young team with around half the squad being under the age of 24.
- A lot of the younger players have a good potential rating of 3.5-4 stars, which bodes well for the future.
- I have good core of Dutch players in my side!
- A lot of my players have good versatility with the ability to play in mutliple positions.
- Morale amongst the side is good and majority of the side share the same personality traight.

Current Squad Cons

- My highest valued player is only £5.25 million, with the rest of the side valued at under £4 million.
- The current ability of my current squad is mostly only 3 stars, meaning we might lack some immediate quality in the first season or two until some of these youngsters start to realise their potential.
- A few of my players are wanted by other (bigger) clubs which means I might struggle to keep them here.
- Lack of good quality wide midfielders/wingers.
- Bjorn Johnsen is my only option of an out and out striker!

My best couple of players are in fact both Norwegian! 25 year old right back, Jonas Svensson is also our highest valued player and I might have a fight on my hands to keep him with FC Porto sniffing around! Fredrik Midtsjo will be our work horse in the middle of the park!

Our best prospect at the club is 17 year old keeper, Jasper Schendelaar! He looks to have the potential to grow into a future star for the national side if I can nurture him the right way!

After a good 40-45 minutes of tinkering, this is the tactic I have finally settled on to work with through pre season! We have a huge amount of defensive midfielders and some very good attacking full backs, so it made sense to play with two DMs who can provide cover for the wide defenders who will be bombing on down the wings! However, with deep lying playmaker and segundo volante roles, they should pick and choose their own moments to support the attack as well, although won't bomb on all the time and leave us exposed at the back! I've decided to work with both an inside forward and a winger so that we can attack from all angles with crosses coming in from one side and a good pacey dribbler cutting in and wreaking havoc on the other! The AM role will change depending on who is playing in this position...Maher has the enganche role as his work rate is poor and he is unlikely to put in the effort to effectively play some of the other roles. Up front, I'll be utilizing a pressing forward as we look to defend from the front and put pressure on the opposition's defence and hopefully stop them playing out from the back! Things will likely be tinkered after I have played a few games and see what is and isn't working!

The club seems to be in a stable financial position with £13 million in the bank and the board have made £4 million available for me to improve the squad! However, if I sign anyone I'll have to do a bit of balancing as there is only very little money available in the wage budget!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Saturday 11th August 2018

Saturday 11th August 2018

My first signing for the club is 25 year old centre back, Jores Okore, who joins from AaB for a fee of £1 million, which is a bargain considering he is immediately worth £3 million upon joining! Okore is a big, strong defender with some great defensive stats and will compete with our current crop of defenders for a spot in the starting lineup! I think he's a great addition and at 25 years old, we should be able to keep him at the club for his prime years in the game!

My second signing won't actually join us for a whole year, as I wrap up a deal for 17 year old hot prospect, Thiago Almada! He is going to cost us £1.7 million, but has the potential to become worth 10 times that value so I think it's going to be money well spent! The attacking midfielder already has some great attributes and it's probably not a bad thing that he stays at Velez and hopefully continues to develop with a certain amount of first team football before he comes here next season!

We headed off out to Kazakhstan for my first competitive game in charge as we looked to qualify for the Europa League Group Stage! The first leg of our Best Placed 2nd Qualifying Round tie ended in a rather disappointing draw as we simply couldn't find the back of the net despite having creating 21 chances! Based on the balance of play, I would certainly expect us to get the job done at home though in the 2nd leg!

And sure enough, we did get the job done in the home leg, but although the scoreline was comfortable, a couple of those goals were from the penalty spot and I'm still slightly concerned at this stage that we are not finishing our chances! However, I can't complain with our playmaking efforts as we have had nearly 50 shots on goal in my first two competitive games in charge.

It was Serbian opposition up next and our passage through to the 4th qualifying round is all but secured after the first leg as we smashed them 4-0 at home! Another couple of penalties helped us along the way as these weaker sides seem to be struggling with the skill of our attackers once they enter their 18 yard box! If it keeps going like this, centre back Ron Vlaar could end up top goalscorer in the competition lol!

Stijn Wuytens is possibly my best centre back at the club, so when this piece of news flashed up that he'd miss the entire season through injury, to say I was gutted is an understatement!! A massive loss for us!!

Ex Aston Villa defender, Ron Vlaar was handed the captaincy for the upcoming season! In all honesty, I'd have liked to have had Wuytens with the armband, but there doesn't seem much point with him injured for the entire season!

A perfect pre season campaign was rounded off with a big 8-0 win!

With the domestic season about to get underway, the board remind me of their expectations. To be fair, I think they've been pretty lenient here and a top half finish in the league should be easily achievable!

The season preview has us at 4-1 to win the title and to be honest I expected to see Ajax at much shorter odds as I feel they easily have the best side in the league this year! It's no surprise to see the media dream 11 made up completely of Ajax and PSV players!
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[WeArePalace]

Good luck with this one mate, Jores Okore seems to be a common signing for these kind of saves - I did it myself with Nordsjaelland. Good start and will follow!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Good luck with this one mate, Jores Okore seems to be a common signing for these kind of saves - I did it myself with Nordsjaelland. Good start and will follow!

Very good defender with great attributes for such a value price! Be interesting to watch his progress across the different saves!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Sunday 2nd September 2018

Myron Boadu

Sunday 2nd September 2018

Season ticket sales came in at 11,000 which is about 2/3 of our entire capacity! Definitely shows that we have the fanbase to expand the stadium further down the line!

On transfer deadline day, I moved to add another youngster to the squad! 16 year old Dutch midfielder, Dirk Proper, comes in for a minimal fee of only £73,000 from N.E.C, and I've moved him into our B Team where he should get a few games under his belt this year to assist with his development!

Ajax wonderkid, Matthijs de Ligt, moved to Real Madrid for nearly £30 million in the biggest deal of the window! Feyenoord's squad was also weakened with the loss of winger, Steven Berghuis, who joined Real Sociedad!

VAR had a very early role to play as it disallowed a goal for both sides inside the opening 6 minutes of the game - it was the correct call on both occasions! Then, in the 9th minutes VAR was called upon again and this time it awarded us a penalty for a push in the box, and Ron Vlaar duly slotted it home to give us the lead! We always looked in control from that moment, but it wasn't until the 76th minute that we put the game to bed courtesy of an own goal from Christian ***! Great to kick off the season with a win!

As comfortable as a home victory can ever be...although with our total dominance, the scoreline could and maybe should have been a ridiculous one here!

There was a bit of fatigue amongst the squad for this one, having played 3 games in 7 days, so a little rotation was necessary! It didn't disrupt the flow of the team and we still managed to control things from the outset. However, we left it relatively late to take the lead and Sittard will feel slightly disappointed they couldn't hold on for a draw!

It's fair to say that this was an easy home win! Marko Vejinovic scored the pick of the bunch as he curled a beautiful effort from 25 yards into the top corner!

Four games played and four wins chalked up as we make a perfect start to the league campaign! We are yet to concede a goal in the league as my formation with the 2 DMs seems to be working a treat! We haven't come up against any of the big clubs in the league yet though, so we certainly won't get carried away just yet!

Our opponents in the first round of the TOTO KNVB Beker will be Almere City FC from the 2nd tier! They have started their campaign with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss from their opening 4 games!

With a 4-0 win in the first leg already under our belts, I decided to rotate the squad a little (but not too much). Jeremy Helmer was one of the players that came into the starting lineup and it only took 5 minutes for him to put us in front with a tidy finish from close range! We went on to win the game and it was great to see 17 year old striker, Myron Boadu, bag his first senior goal for the club!

Myron Boadu is one of the brightest prospects, not just at this club, but in Holland altogether! The youngster looks to have a very bright future ahead of him and it's no surprise to see interest from Man City, Liverpool, PSG and Spurs....I really don't want to sell him but if it comes down to the fact I have no choice, I'll obviously be looking to negotiate the best possible deal I can!

Scottish side, Rangers, were all that now stood in our way of the Europa League Group Stage! Playing the home leg first, I was keen for us to take the advantage in the tie, so I'm pleased to have got the win here! However, what I'm absolutely ecstatic about is my team's response in the 2nd half as we went into the break 2-0 down and looking in real trouble! The job ain't done yet, but we've put ourselves in a decent position and if we could go to Scotland and score first, it would be very hard for Steven Gerrard's men to come back!

I said if we scored first, it would be tough for Rangers, and I was proved spot on! Right back, Ricardo van Rhijn, scored the opener on the half hour mark and Rangers looked deflated from that point on! We'll be playing in the group stages of the Europa League this season!

We were down as 2nd seeds for the group stage draw, but despite that I think we have landed a pretty difficult group where it would be hard to call which two teams will make it through, with all of us being capable!

Player Watch

Marko Vejinovic has made an excellent start to the season and seems to be thriving in the formation I am playing! He is creating goals and already has 3 assists to his name and scored an absolute cracker in the league game against ADO as well!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Tuesday 30th October 2018

Marco Bizot

Tuesday 30th October 2018

Our first defeat of the season and I'm still not quite sure how it happened! They had 4 shots, we had 24!! However, it's how many times you find the back of the net that counts and today we failed to do that and were punished!

Zwolle had made a good start to the season having won 4 of their opening 6 games, but they were no match for us here! We were 2-0 up and a man to the good at the break and the second half was simply routine if I'm honest, but the lads kept their wits about them and completed a professional job!

A nice away win where everyone put a shift in! I was forced to make 7 changes to the starting lineup due to tiredness in the squad, so it's good to get such a comfortable win which shows me the strength in depth in the squad!

It was great to give some game time to 19 year old Calvin Stengs who made his first appearance for me after returning from an injury that had kept him out for 15 months!! Hopefully the youngster can kick on from here as he looks like a very decent player for such a young age!

Our first encounter with one of the 'big three' ends in a draw! An entertaining and tightly fought game and a point a piece is probably a fair result!

Eight games into the season and we sit 4th in the table, but some of the sides above us have played 3 games more! Feyenoord and PSV sit a point above us, but it's nice to have the 3 point and game in hand buffer over Ajax who have made a pretty mediocre start by their standards!

Some rotation was applied, as expected when playing a side from the division below, and the lads did what was required although the result wasn't the most convincing!

The biggest shock of the round was Ajax being knocked out by non league HHC!! Ajax had dominated the match, having 26 shots on goal, but HHC made the most of their mere 6 chances and claimed the scalp of the biggest club in the country!

We took on another side from the division below in the 2nd round, and again we made ****** hard work of it! Although the scoreline suggests an easy win, we actually had to come back from 2-0 down...yes they went 2-0 up with their only 2 shots of the entire game!! Mats Seuntjens fully deserved the match ball after his hat trick from the left inside forward role!

Right back Jonas Svensson will miss a couple of months through an injury picked up in training after the cup game!

Another away draw awaits us in the 3rd round of the competition, this time against fellow Eredivisie side, VVV!

We kicked off the group stage with a solid 1-0 home win over Bordeaux! We had a couple of nervy moments in the final few minutes but managed to hold on for all 3 points!

Our second game of the group was probably our toughest on paper so I'm pleased to come away from Germany with a draw! Just a shame Vlaar missed a late penalty that might have nicked the win for us!

Another solid home performance produced an important win against Spartak! Ron Vlaar got us on our way from the penalty spot, before Mats Seuntjens secured the victory with his 8th goal of the season. Mees Hoedemakers picked up our first red card of the season for a rash challenge late on!

Half way through the group stage and we look good for qualification at this point. One more win should be enough to get us over the line!

Player Watch

Mats Seuntjens has found his scoring boots of late and now has 6 goals in his last 4 appearances in all competitions! It takes his tally for the season to 9 and he is currently our top goalscorer!

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[FM_TNSSO]

Friday 14th December 2018

Bjorn Johnsen

Friday 14th December 2018

A sterling effort from my lads, but PSV were just too strong defensively and we couldn't find the back of their net to get that equalizing goal that I felt we so badly deserved!

Heerenveen were above us at kick off, but we leapfrog them in the league with victory here! After taking the lead just after the half hour mark, it always looked like a matter of time before the 2nd goal came....but it never did! Luckily for us, a single goal was enough to take the 3 points though as we defended superbly!

FC Emmen are one of the weakest teams in the division, so I'm really annoyed that we only take a point from this game! We had multiple chances to put the game to bed and were punished late on for not taking any of them!

A narrow victory over NAC Breda gets us back on winning terms! Ron Vlaar scored the winner with a powerful header from a corner...makes a change for him to score a goal that isn't a penalty!

Bjorn Johnsen just can't stop scoring at the moment and he bagged another two here to take his tally for the season to 11. We ran out comfortable winners in a game that we dominated and the 3 points was well deserved!

A disappointing draw away at Groningen and definitely a case of two point dropped! I really thought we was going to grab a big win when we scored in just 15 seconds from the kick off, but that was the only thing our fans had to cheer all game unfortunately!

Young striker Myron Boadu came off the bench to bag an equalizer and earn us a point! We seem to be struggling to score goals at the moment and 1 per game is proving to be only enough to pick up draws and single points as clean sheets also seem to be going amiss at the moment too!

As we approach the half way stage of the season, we are right in amongst the league leaders! It's tight at the top with only 5 points seperating 1st to 6th and it would be tough to call who will still be up there at the end of the season...Naturally, everyone will expect the big three to be right involved, but it will be interested to see who lasts the pace out of us, Utrecht and Heerenveen.

Russia is one of the most intimidating places to go and play away, but you'd never have guessed it based on the performance my lads gave here! We were exceptional in every department, lethal in attack and solid in defence! A proud day for me as manager as we record one of our most impressive results under my management so far!

We suffered our first defeat in the group stages of the competition! Bordeaux got off to a flyer scoring within a couple of minutes and then when Guus Til saw red as early as the 15th minute, we were always going to struggle!

Both sides came into this game knowing that a draw saw us both qualify from the group. Almost as if it was written in the script, that's exactly what happened...although Leverkusen nearly upset the applecart until Myron Boadu came off the bench to score a last minute equalizer! This 17 year old hasn't scored a lot of goals so far this season, but he has scored some big ones!

We finished top of the group in the end, whilst Bordeaux just missed out on goal difference to Leverkusen!

Good news on my personal front as I bag a new 3 year deal with the club worth £10k per week.

Player Watch

21 year old Albert Gudmundsson has had limited opportunities to play for me so far this year, but the young winger has managed to bag his first senior goal for Iceland since my last update!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Sunday 20th January 2019

Ron Vlaar

Sunday 20th January 2019

VVV are struggling this year and find themselves deep in the relegation battle after winning only 1 of their 17 games so far! So it was no real surprise to see us pile on the misery here and record an easy home win! Jeremy Helmer was the star of the show as he completely ran the show!

We finish off 2018 with a nice little away win at Heracles just before Xmas. We'll now have a month's break before our next fixture!

Just before we kick off the competitive stuff again in January, Idrissi picks up an injury that will keep him out for around a month!

Only a couple of games played since the last update, but another two wins chalked up keeps us right in the title race! Ajax have regained form and now sit at the top of the division, although we are only a couple of points back with 2 games in hand!

We'd only played VVV 4 days ago in the league and beaten them 3-0 so we came into this game with plenty of confidence. And our confidence was not misplaced as we ran out winners again here to advance to the next round of the cup! I gave debuts to 18 year old keeper, Jasper Schendelaar, 16 year old winger Caine Cairo, and 18 year old centre back Justin de Haas.

We managed to avoid Feyenoord and PSV in the quarter finals and will instead take on Fortuna Sittard who we beat in the league 2-0 earlier in the season!

We will take on Villarreal in the Europa League 1st Knockout Round with the away leg up first! Feyenoord, PSV and Ajax are all in the competition as well after qualifying from their groups and dropping down from the Champions League respectively. Feyenoord have a very winnable tie against Atalanta, whilst Ajax will fancy their chances against Hoffenheim. PSV have landed the toughest draw of the round as they play Chelsea!

January window has landed and there has been plenty of business already....mostly players leaving the club!!

Adam Maher has left the club for a fee of £1.2 million to join Greek club, Olympiakos. He had become disillusioned with his lack of opportunities and I was happy to move him on, as we have a surplus of players who can play his position.

LA Galaxy came in with an offer of nearly £5 million for keeper, Marco Bizot, but I'm keen to hold onto him as he's been pretty solid between the sticks this season, so I quickly rejected the offer. It would take double this for me to allow him to leave!

However, I was willing to let my backup keeper leave the club and he joins Cypriot side APOEL for a small fee of £140k. Velthuizen is 32 years old and we have a couple of very promising young goalkeepers I am happy to give a shot at the number 2 spot!

The next player I sold was not one I expected to be selling anytime soon! Guus Til, the 21 year old attacking midfielder, has been a regular for me this season, making 24 appearances (scoring 3 goals and getting 3 assists in the process), so he wasn't on my list of players to offload. However, Southampton came in with a bid and after some negotiation, I managed to get them to agree to a fee worth £20 million and I couldn't refuse the sort of money that would more than double our bank balance overnight! They will pay £15 million up front, with £5 million coming in installments over the next 3 years. I also managed to get a 40% of profit sell on clause in there, just in case he turns into a world class player and makes a big money move later in his career.

The transfer of Guus Til becomes a club record sale.

Ron Vlaar's contract is up at the end of the season and I tried to convince my captain to stay on for another year, but he has opted to accept a contract offer from New York Red Bulls instead and will leave us at the end of the season. Not the end of the world considering his age, but it is another player that will need replacing!

So after selling a load of players, I thought I better prove to the fans that we're not just a selling club and I had to make a bit of a statement! It was key that I replaced Guus Til, so an attacking midfielder with strong creativity was what I was looking for! The man that I have brought in is 23 year old German, Hany Mukhtar, who joins us from Brondby IF! He had a minimum fee release clause of £7.25 million which was a steal and he immediately becomes our highest valued player at over £9 million. Now I just have to hope he lives up to expectations as I've also made him the highest paid player at the club, on more than double the wages of anyone else in the squad!

In the same window, I have now broken the clubs selling and buying transfer records.

Player Watch

Jeremy Helmer has by no means been a regular starter for me in the league this season, but he has a goals to games ratio of 1 in 2, which is mighty impressive considering I primarily play him in a DM role!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Friday 22nd February 2019

Owen Wijnal

Friday 22nd February 2019

After a month off, we returned to competitive action with a win! Defensively we had our dodgy moments, but going forward we were great and new signing Hany Mukhtar immediately showed some justification for his £7 million+ fee by scoring a debut goal!

My first encounter with the mighty Ajax results in defeat! They were just too good for us and I can't have any complaints. They are one of the only teams this season to have completely outplayed us!

Although we won this game, it was a bit of a discouraging performance as we really should have been beating a side that only has 11 points at this stage of the season by a much bigger margin! Still, a win's a win!

I know it's PSV, the current champions and one of the best teams in the league, but I'm still a bit ****** to have lost this game. Mainly due to the fact we came into the game 2nd in the form table, whilst they came in at 15th after a run of bad results! However, again we have bottled it a bit against one of the big three!

FC Utrecht are no mugs and have already recorded wins over PSV and Feyenoord this season, so I was expecting at tough game. And in the first half, they literally ran rings around us and took a 1-0 lead into the break...however, after a firm kick up the **** from me at half time, my lads went out and turned it right around in the second half smashing 4 past them! Although the result suggests an easy win, it definitely wasn't!

Willem II had beaten us earlier in the season so it was nice to gain a bit of revenge for that defeat here! Bjorn Johnsen bagged another couple of goals as he closes in on 20 for the season and he now leads the race for the golden boot with 15 goals in the league!

De Graafschap find themselves deep in the relegation battle, so I expected a win here, and my boys delivered! We looked a bit fatigued in the first half, but the 2nd half was much better and we scored the couple of goals required to take all 3 points!

With 10 games remaining, we top the table, but only on goal difference from Ajax! It looks like it could be a battle between us two as we've opened up a 5 point lead to the rest now! Fair play to Heerenveen who are keeping up their challenge, whilst Feyenoord will be bitterly disappointed to be 11 points off the pace and down in 7th!

Hany Mukhtar was bought for his creative ability and he really showed it off here as got the assists for both our 2nd and 3rd goals, with some pinpoint passes! It was good to see young Calvin Stengs coming off the bench to score as well as we romped to a big victory and march on to the semis!

Well, from the 3 other teams left in the competition, we got the draw we wanted! The other semi will be contested by Feyenoord and PSV!

A Jeremy Helmer penalty nicks us a cheeky 1-0 away win in Spain to give us the advantage going into the 2nd leg! We were absolutely solid at the back restricting Villarreal to only 3 shots on goal and that was the difference today!

Myron Boadu popped up with an early strike to settle our nerves and relieve some pressure! From there, it was pretty plain sailing as we dominated the match, and when Boadu added his 2nd goal of the game on 76 minutes, it was game over! Boadu completed his first hat trick for the club 5 minutes later and deservedly takes the match ball!

We are the last remaining Dutch club in the competition after Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord were all beaten in their 1st knockout round ties!

And we'll now take on Lyon in the next round!

Player Watch

Ricardo van Rhijn was viewed as a backup player at the start of the season, with me expecting to play Jonas Svensson in the right back role. However, van Rhijn has really made this position his own this year and has actually become one of my first names on the teamsheet week in, week out! In the Europa League especially, he has been phenomenal turning in 4 man of the match performances in 13 games!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Thursday 4th April 2019

Calvin Stengs

Thursday 4th April 2019

I said the Utrecht result (4-1 win) in my last update wasn't necessarily a true reflection of the game, and this proved it! We were well beaten and although the stats show us having double the amount of shots as them, we never actually came close to scoring!

What a response to the defeat against Ultrecht! We came out the blocks fast and by half time we were 5-0 up!! We slacked off in the 2nd half, but I'm not going to crucify the lads for that after such a mental first 45 minutes in which we were awesome! Ondrej Mihalik had only scored 3 league goals all season before this game, and doubled that tally in just 37 minutes here!

A top of the table clash that might just give the winner the upper hand...and we've only gone and done it! We've beaten one of the 'big three' for the first time in my managerial career and what a massive result this could turn out to be come the end of the season! We were ****** good value for it as well and fully deserved the 3 points!

Another game that would have huge implications on the title race as we took on 3rd placed Heerenveen! And again, my lads stepped up and gave me a sterling performance when it really mattered! These wins against Heerenveen and Ajax could well be the ones that lead us to the Eredivisie title in my first season...obviously we aren't counting our chickens just yet, but these two wins really are massive!

I'll take this point! Although Feyenoord are probably the biggest underachievers in the division this season, they are still a very good side, and this is a good result away from home!

With five games of the season to go, we sit at the top of the table 3 points clear! It's all in our hands now and we know that winning all of our remaining games will see us finish champions! Looking at the goal difference advantage we have over Ajax too (+10), we can probably afford to lose a game as well, so we'll only have ourselves to blame if we don't win it from here!

Lyon proved to be very tough opposition here and even though we raced into a 1-0 lead inside 5 minutes, they were 3-1 up by half time and we looked dead and buried! However, a glimmer of hope for us when they went down to 10 men early in the 2nd half and we quickly got a goal back! The score remained 3-2 and we have a big ask ahead of us to qualify now as we will need to win in France, by a couple of goals!

When Bjorn Johnsen put us in front in this leg, I thought we might just do it! However, Moussa Dembele quickly quashed any hopes I had and put Lyon firmly back in control of the tie with his two goals. We gave it our best shot and created a couple more good chances, but Lyon have proven too strong for us over the two legs!

There's no doubt that this had been the worst week of our season so far. Only days after going out of the Europa League to Lyon, we were beaten in the semi finals of the Dutch Cup by Willem II! I was gutted as we'd avoided PSV and Feyenoord who contended the other semi and this was the favourable draw and we really should have been looking at making the final!

One thing I was really excited about with a Dutch save was the prospect of great youth intakes, especially as we are a club with great youth facilities! So this was an incredibly disappointing intake this year, with not one player looking like they are a future squad player, let alone a future star!

Player Watch

Ron Vlaar has rolled back the years this season and has the highest average rating of the whole squad for the season to date. He is averaging 7.30 from 36 appearances in all competitions and I'll be sad to see him leave for New York Red Bulls at the end of the season!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Sunday 2nd June 2019

Mats Seuntjens

Sunday 2nd June 2019

FC Emmen have been one of the 'feel good stories' of Dutch football this year as they sit 13th in the table, having been hotly tipped for relegation at the start of the campaign! However, they were no match for us here and we absolutely battered their goal for 90 minutes and should really have won by a much bigger scoreline in all honesty!

Ajax and Heerenveen both failing to win is a right turn up for the books as well!

Which leaves us 6 points clear now with just 4 games to go....surely we won't throw it from here!!

Myron Boadu popped up with another big goal as he bagged a 91st minute winner for us here and we march on a bit closer to that title! We deserved to win the game so I'm glad we did, but to give credit to NAC they were resolute and tough to break down!

And again, Ajax fail to win as they seem to be bottling it at the business end of the season! It means we only need to win one of our final 3 games and the Eredivisie title is ours!!

Crunch time and the boys did me proud, didn't let their nerves get the better of them and recorded a solid 1-0 win over Groningen! Bjorn Johnsen with the winning strike, a nice effort from just inside the box which found the bottom corner!

WE ARE CHAMPIONS!!! I have delivered the Eredivisie title in my first season at the club and I'm absolutely over the moon!

17 year old Dirk Proper was handed his debut and it didn't take long for the youngster to have an impact as he set up Calvin Stengs for our first goal on 12 minutes! We went on to win the game 3-0 as we celebrated our recent title win in front of our fans and Proper was absolutely immense as he added a goal to his assist, completed 78 of 91 passes and got the man of the match on his debut....what a player I could have on my hands here with the youngster I brought to the club at the start of the season!

We didn't manage to finish the season on a high, but I'm not going to let that ruin our fantastic achievement this season! We were just unlucky here after dominating the game!

The final league table shows that we were deserved winners of the Eredivisie! We scored more than anyone else, conceeded less than anyone else, won the most games and lost the least! All round tip top performance all year! Quality stuff!

We receive nearly £7 million for winning the league. Hopefully it will all go towards next year's transfer budget!

In the Eredvisie, 4th-7th place play out playoffs to see who will take the final Europa League spot for next year and it was PSV who came out on top!

Our junior coaching will soon reach an exceptional level after the board agree to my request to invest some more money into this area!

My B Team have won the second tier of Dutch football! They can't be promoted but this is a great achievement and bodes well for the future with some good youngsters in the B team!

It's a clean sweep across all of my teams as the U19s also lift their league title! What a future we could have ahead of us as we look to become the most dominant club in Dutch football for years to come!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

End of Season 2018/19

End of Season 2018/19

Eredivisie; AZ Alkmaar
TOTO KNVB Beker; Feyenoord
Johan Cruijff Schaal; PSV Eindhoven
Champions League; Barcelona
Europa League; RB Leipzig

What a season I've had in my first year in charge! Lifting the Eredivisie title was more than I could possibly have hoped for! We'd been in the mix throughout the season, but when it came down to the business end, we proved that we were made of sterner stuff than some of our rivals! I fully expect the likes of Ajax and PSV to make their mark on the Summer transfer window and come back stronger next year, but for now we are going to enjoy this moment! In the cup, we were semi finalists and I can't help but feel we missed an opportunity to complete a domestic double as we crashed out to Willem II, who may prove to be a bit of a bogey team as they beat us in the league this year as well! We gave a decent account of ourselves in the Europa League as well, winning our group and knocking Villarreal out in the knockout stage. Lyon proved to strong and showed me that we still have a way to go to become one of the powerhouses of European football, but it's something we are aiming for long term!

My Player of the Season; Ron Vlaar
My Young Player of the Season (U23); Jeremy Helmer

Bjorn Johnsen finished up as top goalscorer in the Eredivisie this year. A fine effort and an award I didn't expect one of our players to win, especially with the quality of strikers in some of the other teams!

20 year old striker, Jelle Duin, finished a stop scorer for our B Team in the league below with 26 goals in 36 games....might be worth giving him some gametime in the senior side next season!

And it was a Manager of the Year award for me in my first season!! Get in!!

Goalkeepers; Marco Bizot was the mainstay between the sticks throughout the season, playing nearly every game and turning in a decent average rating. Jasper Schendelaar looks like a good prospect and gave a good account of himself in the 5 games he was handed towards the end of the season!

Defenders; Ron Vlaar has been immense considering he is now 34 years old and will be a big player to replace this Summer as he leave for the US! Jores Okore turned out to be a fantastic signing for just £1 million and formed a brilliant partnership with Vlaar at the back. Ricardo van Rhijn made the right back position his own, over Jonas Svensson who was originally tipped as one of the best players at the club when I arrived here a year ago. At left back, I struggled to decide throughout the season who my number 1 was, with both Ouwejan and Wijndal getting plenty of games each and with them both being under 23 years old, that could be the case for years to come!

Midfielders; Marko Vejinovic was absolutely awesome all season and finished top of the assist charts with 13, which is amazing for a DM. He was our most consistent performer throughout the season for sure! Frefrik Midtsjo and Jeremy Helmer also got plenty of games under their belt in the DM roles and both performed admirably as well, with Helmer really coming through at the age of 21 and showing me he could become a key player for us over the next few years! The attacking midfield roles saw a large number of players all get game time through the year, but the ones that really stood out for me were Mats Seuntjens who bagged 15 goals and Hany Mukhtar who proved to be a wonderful addition to the squad mid way through the season!

Strikers; Bjorn Johnsen was so much better than I ever expected him to be this year and his tally of 25 goals was a good 10 more than I thought he would get! 18 year old Myron Boadu really came good and got better as the season went on and also managed to get 13 goals under his belt during his first proper campaign in the senior team! Another player who could be massive for the club during the years ahead!

Squad Plans; The biggest thing I think I might struggle with over this Summer is keeping players at the club. Obviously, our wage budgets are relatively limited, whilst our club stature in Europe is still not very big! With clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and PSV all sniffing round some of our best youngsters, I'm sure I'll face major uphill battles to keep them here! If I do have to let them go, it'll be important to ensure I replace them well whilst also negotiating the absolute best deals I can for the club financially! As far as my own targets go, I'd like to add a couple more attacking midfielders to the team as I am likely to offload some of the players who failed to score an average rating about 7.0 this season! I'll definitely be in the market for a good centre back to replace Ron Vlaar and that will likely take immediate priority!

The commercial summary makes for good reading with everything on the up! And just look at that new TV deal which is worth nearly three times the amount of our previous one!

The budgets for next season have been set and I'm actually disappointed to only get £7 million considering we have £26 million in the bank. However, there is an extra £100k in the wage budget to play with!​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Thursday 11th July 2019

Thursday 11th July 2019

I was surprised to see us drop 14 places in the European rankings after such a good season!

In the Dutch rankings, only the 'big three' sit above us! One of the aims of this save is to reach the top of this list!

This year's champions will go straight into the group stages of the Champions League after Holland moved up the coefficient rankings!

Players Out

Albert Gudmundsson was the first player to leave the club this Summer and I'm pleased to have raked in £2.1 million for a player who only played 13 times for me last season! Gudmundsson is still young and can improve, but I felt we had much better young players at the club that play the same position/s who can progress a lot further than him!

Southampton came in with an offer worth around £11 million for Myron Boadu, which was quickly rejected!!

When I took over here last year, I identified Jonas Svensson as one of the best players at the club, but throughout the season, he really never was a first choice player for my starting 11! So when Bournemouth came in with an offer of £11.25 million + add ons which might take the deal to £12 million, I couldn't help but cash in on the Norwegian! That's over £30 million I've made in a year from clubs on the English south coast now!

I tried to sell of Fred Friday after he returned from his loan spell last season, but nobody seemed to want him! So instead, he goes back out on loan to FC Utrecht for the upcoming year. They'll pay us £5k a month for the priviledge and cover all of his wages!

Players In

My first item of business as far as incoming transfers went this Summer was to find a replacement for Ron Vlaar. And I have replaced one old boy with another as I snap up Gary Cahill from Chelsea on a free transfer! Cahill still has plenty to offer and his experience will be invaluable for some of our young players, as that was the main thing I was worried about with losing Vlaar!

I then had one of last year's Summer signings finally join the club...please welcome Thiago Almada, who has the pedigree to become a future world star!

Even though I now have £18 million in the transfer kitty from player sales, my next signing again only took a very small chunk out of it! South African winger, Phakamani Mahlambi, joins the club from Mamelodi Sundowns for a fee of only £750,000. He offers us a ridiculous amount of pace down the wing, is an exciting young player who is a brilliant dribbler and full of flair! I'm sure the fans are going to enjoy watching him play!

German defensive midfielder, Jonas Meffert, is the next player through the door and he signs from German side, Holstein Kiel, for a fee of just £1 million as I continue to search for bargains! It was Meffert's work rate and teamwork attributes that really caught my eye, but he is a decent tackler and passer of the ball as well and provide adequate cover in my two DM roles! He's a great addition to the squad as a rotation player, for a cheap price!

Now it's time to announce my marquee signing of the Summer so far! I was keen to add some more experience to the squad as I have a very young team...in fact, my title winning side of last season had an average age of only 23! There were a few matches last year where I felt we should have scored more goals too and missed a lot of opportunities, so I went striker hunting, and I'm delighted to add 30 year old Spanish striker, Sergio Leon, to the team! He joins from Real Betis for a fee of £4.6 million and fits the bill perfectly for my lone striker role...I play with a pressing forward and Leon has a fantastic work rate to press the ball, but he also has plenty of flair on the ball and his finishing is awesome! He scored 12 goals in La Liga last year, which is a much tougher league than the Eredivisie, so he has the potential to get 20+ a season for us!

And another big signing, albeit on a season long loan rather than a permanent deal, as Manuel Lanzini joins from West Ham for the season! I had agreed a permanent fee of £12 million for him, but I couldn't afford to meet his wage demands of £60k per week, so I went back in for him on loan and West Ham have only insisted we pay £21k per week towards his salary, so we went with the loan deal! Lanzini is a very good player for this league and a fine addition to the squad! If he has a great season here and enjoys himself, I might be able to make the deal permanent and convince him to take a lesser salary next Summer (wishful thinking I know).

We'll take on last year's cup winners, Feyenoord, in the Johan Cruijff Schaal....effectively the equivalent to the English Community Shield.

The fixtures for the new season are released and we have a tough start to the campaign, playing two of the big three in our opening few matches!

But before we get to that, we have a few friendlies to get out of the way and check out some of my new additions to the team!

​

 

[WeArePalace]

Some brilliant signings there mate, Lanzini and Leon should be top class for this division. Also congratulations on an amazing achievement to win the title in your first season! Best of luck next season.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Saturday 10th August 2019

Hany Mukhtar

Saturday 10th August 2019

Gary Cahill is a born leader and been there and done it all, so it was a no brainer to make him my captain for the upcoming season!

Players Out

Guillermo Gauna is a 19 year old winger, who just doesn't seem to have the same potential as some of our other youngsters, so I was happy for him to leave and join Heerenveen when they came in with an offer of £900,000 for him!

Iliass Bel Hassani was considered dead wood and I've offloaded him to Blackburn for a fee of £1.3 million.

With some of the new players that have come in this Summer, it left little room in my squad for 22 year old Onrej Mihalik, so I stuck him up for sale and managed to get £1.5 million for him as he returns to the Czech Republic to join Slavia Praha.

Players In

After Jonas Svensson left the club, it left me only 1 recognised right back in the first team squad, so I needed a replacement! Karavaev is perfect as he has all the attributes I look for in a full back (pace, tackling, crossing, determination, work rate, decisions) and I nicked him for a relatively cheap fee of just £3.7 million as he had a minimum release clause in his contract with Vitesse! He had a good season with them last year, getting 9 assists in the Eredivisie and if he can repeat that for us this year I'll be more than happy!

This was a great little poach from one of our main rivals, PSV Eindhoven, as we convince one of their most promising youngsters to join us! At 17 years old, Dutch prospect, Mohammed Ihattaren, already has some great attributes and looks like he could turn into a great player! We had to pay £2.6 million to get him, but that could be pennies compared to what he could be worth in the future! Also, the fact that we are able to convince youngsters to come here from the 'big three' is a statement in it's own right!

I know it's only a mickey mouse cup, but it's still great to kick off the season with a win and a trophy! We were so close to getting the win inside regular time, but Feyenoord grabbed a late equalizer with one of the final kicks of the game! Then in the penalty shootout, neither side flattered themselves and there were some awful penalties taken, but it was us that just got over the line in the end!

We drew FC Kobenhavn in our first qualifier for the Champions League and with the home leg up first, it was important we got the win! And we did exactly that and take a healthy advantage into the 2nd leg! Two of my new boys got us on our way, with Sergio Leon's strike being an absolute cracker from outside the box!

We started off our pre season campaign in the worst way possible, with a 4-0 loss to Porto! Hopefully, that isn't a sign of things to come if we make the group stages of the Champions League this year! It picked up from there and we managed a massive win against a lower league Dutch side, and finished on a high with a good result against Gent!

With the Eredivise about to kick off, we are second favourites to win the title this year and retain the trophy, with only Ajax at shorter odds. We also have a player in the media dream 11 this season as new signing, Vyacheslav Karavaev makes the team at right back!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 2nd September 2019

Sergio Leon

Monday 2nd September 2019

I'm stunned to see that the board are only expecting a top half finish from me again this season, despite us winning the league last year! This has to be one of the most lenient board of directors I've ever worked for!

We sold an extra couple of thousand season tickets this season!

We kicked off our title defence in the worst possible way with a home defeat to Feyenoord! Jores Okore wasn't at the races early on and was subbed off as early as the 36th minute, by which time Feyenoord had already scored 3 goals! We tightened up from then and managed to close the gap to a single goal by the end of the game, but it's still a defeat on the opening day!

Bloodyhell we made hard work of that! 1-0 down until the 87th minute and then we quickly turn the game around to nick all 3 points from newly promoted Sparta! Lanzini came off the bench to get our first with a low effort into the bottom corner!

WOW!! Now the wow isn't for the pretty standard 1-0 win that we recorded over PSV here, but for the fact that we limited them to only 3 shots in the entire game - a great achievement against one of the best attacks in the league! Manuel Lanzini did have a 2nd goal disallowed late on for a very tight offside...bit harsh in my opinion.

PSV have actually made a pretty awful start to the campaign, failing to win any of their opening 3 games!

Manuel Lanzini picked up an injury in training that will see him miss the next 2-3 months! Luckily, we have plenty of cover for him, but it's still a big loss!

A bore draw and a disappointing result! It didn't help that we had to play nearly an hour with only 10 men after Sergio Leon's straight red for a pretty awful challenge!

Four games into the new season and it's been a steady, if unspectacular, start! Ajax have made an early statement and lead the way with a 100% record, whilst PSV have made a dreadful start and their fans will be rightfully ****** off!

For the second season in a row, we are drawn against Almere City in the first round of the Dutch Cup!

We lost the 2nd leg out in Denmark, but thanks to our excellent performance in the home leg, we are through to the final Playoff in the Champions League as we bid to make the group stage of the competition!

All that now stood in our way of the Champions League Group Stage was Qarabag FK of Azerbaijan, and you could be forgiven for thinking our previous tie against Kobenhavn was tougher on paper! And again we record a solid home win in the first leg that sets us up nicely for the away leg...an early goal in the second leg will surely see us through!

Qarabag are minnows in terms of European clubs, but to be fair to them they had a good go at us here and on another day if their finishing had been better, it might have been a much tighter result! The early goal from Myron Boadu was a massive boost for us though and pretty much put the game out of our opponents reach from the outset!

Despite winning their home leg, 4-1, Ajax failed to make the group stages after being knocked out by Benfica on away goals.

The riches the Champions League brings are unmatched in any competition worldwide as we bag nearly £14 million just for making the group stage!

We were down as 4th seeds for the group draw, so we knew we were likely to get a very tough group! As the draw was taking place and the 4th seeds were about to be drawn, there were a couple of groups I really, really didn't fancy! Group A already had Real Madrid, Liverpool and RB Salzburg in, Group D already had Barcelona, Man City and Lyon, and Group H contained no less than Atletico Madrid, Man Utd and Inter Milan!! So when you look at what we could have got, I think we have to be grateful for the draw we have received with any one of us, Villarreal or Benfica having a chance to join PSG in the knockout stages!

Celta Vigo came in with a hefty bid of £14 million for my left back, Owen Wijndal, but I rejected it as I think this lad has a big future ahead of him and I'd really like to keep him here if I can!

With a big chunk of money coming into the club from Champions League qualification, I decided to go out and spend a bit more money! In fact, I only went and smashed the club's record transfer fee for the 2nd time in 2 seasons! Pontus Jansson comes in from Leeds to bolster the defence for a total fee of £9 million (with £5.75 million paid up front and £3.3 million in installments over 2 years)! Jansson immediately becomes my strongest player in the centre back position, with some fantastic attributes! He is big, powerful and strong and is a really good addition to an already solid back 4!

With Jansson joining the club, I was able to send 22 year old Pantelis Hatzidiakos out on loan for the season and he joins Nantes where he should get plenty of first team football at a decent level! I didn't want to sell him as he could well improve into a very good player, so I will assess the situation again on his return and see how well he has performed in France before deciding what to do with him!

Not hard to see why PSV are struggling after they sold off both their first choice wingers during this window. Ajax also received that massive payday for Frenkie De Jong from Barcelona...I wonder if any of my players will ever command such a mental transfer fee!
​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Morning guys....Bit of bad news I'm afraid! Work had my laptop in this week (hence the lack of Football Manager activity from me over the last few days) and the IT department were doing updates/adding and removing software etc....and it seems that the b*stards have removed FM19 from my computer and so I have lost not only my AZ save, but the Hartlepool one I was one day planning to pick up again! I'm actually a little devastated in all honesty as I was really enjoying the AZ one and was experiencing some great success early on in the game!

Anyway, I have reinstalled the game this morning and am up and ready to go again, but I've got to start a new save/story! Not sure where yet, but I may look at another lower league side in either England or Scotland as the Hartlepool journey was a **** of a lot of fun!