Career KTS Rinus Michel Challenge attempt.

[kts365]

50 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Fantastic going mate, just caught up as I've fallen behind in my career reading recently. Bring on the CDR! :D. 

Thanks man. Glad you're enjoying it mate and bring on the CDR indeed.

[BatiGoal]

I like to see the so called smaller teams taking on the big boys. Nice steady going, KIU!

[kts365]

Season 9

Time for the second tenure in Spain. This time we must win the Copa del Rey. Before any of that, however, we need a team to manage. Again I could manage a side who have just been promoted, or I could apply to a side if they lose or fire their manager. 

Luckily a manager retired from a very good side and I went for that job, how could I refuse this offer?

That's a lot of cash, and as you can see I had applied to Atletico Madrid too, but I decided to go with this offer.

Transfers

After an appraisal of the squad I saw many areas which needed improving, especially central defence and central midfield. There were also only 2 viable strikers. I therefore made the following acquisitions.

Spoiler

The Season

I moved onto the season, revitalised squad in hand hoping to at least win the Copa del Rey. 

We begin, however, with the league it's self. There are a lot of tough sides in the league and 2 years ago we added one ourselves with Villareal when we won the league. Could our expensive squad get past them? 

Yes we could. A decent title win and rightly so after spending £160m on the team.

Next we will see how we did in the Champions league. We got through the earlier rounds relatively easily then had to face old friends Barcelona in the quarter final.

We dominated our home leg but only managed a draw as they came back with a very late equaliser.

And then the second leg was 1-1 through the 90 minute mark but we lost to 2 goals in extra time to be knocked out.

So for this season's main event, the Copa del Rey. we begin in round 4 when we enter the competition. We face Leganes.

The first leg is a walkover as we win 5-0.

And the second leg is more of the same as we go over with an 8-0 aggregate. Through to round 5 to face Atletico Pamplona (Osasuna)

Ouch, we are stunned 2-0 in the first leg. Hurt more by that late penalty.



Wow. Amazingly the opposition hold out against the attacks on their goal, even with 10 men for the last half hour, and knock us out of the cup. Well done that team.

Career Review

Well a good season but not the way we wanted with the disappointing cup exit.

Holland

• League titles 4/4
• Cup wins 4/3
• Champions leagues 2/1

Spain (1st tenure)

• League title 1/1

Gap Year

• German cup 1
• League titles 1
• International failure 1

Spain (2nd tenure)

• Copa del Rey 0/1

[BatiGoal]

Shame about the Cup exit. Really unlucky all those shots on goal didn't result in goals.

I usually go Attack Ment. once the opponent goes one man down. Or I change formation and add an extra striker (or midfielder, depends on the current formation) in order to boost attack.

[Ashez]

That CDR match sucks! Unlucky mate  

[kts365]

8 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Shame about the Cup exit. Really unlucky all those shots on goal didn't result in goals.

I usually go Attack Ment. once the opponent goes one man down. Or I change formation and add an extra striker (or midfielder, depends on the current formation) in order to boost attack.

I play with an attacking mentality and the current formation is almost as wildly attacking as your 1kc one haha.

9 minutes ago, Ashez said:

That CDR match sucks! Unlucky mate  

I'm sure I'll survive mate. The biggest problem is getting a job with a European nation. They always go to v. insecure but never get sacked.

Edited December 11, 2016 by kts365

[kts365]

Season 10

Another year in Spain attempting to get that Copa del Rey title. Fingers crossed it goes better than last year.

Transfers

Last year Zivkovic was somewhat of a problem so I went out looking for another striker or two. I also wanted a replacement for Alderweireld as he is isn't his mid-thirties.

Spoiler

The Season

This season began with the spanish super cup match against Atletico Madrid

The first leg was a bit of a bust but 2 away goals aren't bad.

We drop the ball in the second leg however and lose out on the super cup.

Next let's see how we did in the league after winning it last season. Back to back league titles perhaps?

Yes, we nab the league title on goal difference alone. Close call this year.

How about the champions league? Could we win that for the first time since Holland?

Ah no. as Juventus took us down quite early on.

Now for the requirement for our challenge. The Copa del Rey. Surely a better showing than last year is in order. Again we enter in the fourth round. We face Lleida

First leg down we have a good lead.

And we trounce them at home to get the 7-0 aggregate win. Next up things get more difficult as we face Atletico Madrid

The first leg goes well. We not only win but we get 3 away goals.

Phew that was close.  Madrid get 3 away goals also but we managed to score 2 to stay ahead on aggregate. We go on to meet the lesser catalan team in the quarter finals.

A nice 3-0 home win gives us a distinct advantage.

Whoa. What is it with second leg comebacks this year? Espanol drive us to an aggregate draw meaning we will be lucky to get through on an away goal but then we score one more late on in injury time to give us the safe win. This brings us to the semi-finals where we face Real Madrid.

They take us down in the first leg 3-1. Not too happy with this. We do, however, secure an away goal.

The pressure was on and my team delivered. The victory is still lucky though as Harry Kane missed a penalty with the chance to make it 4-3 and the advantage would have been right with Real. He did miss though (it wasn't saved) and we scored a late goal to secure the aggregate win and move on to the final. The other finalists? Sevilla. All.the pressure is on now, the chance to get back out of Spain and off to Germany.

The Copa del Rey Final

A close run thing. We go behind only to equalise on the stroke of half time. We then score a second and keep a clean sheet in the second half to win the cup. 

Career Review

A great year with a domestic double seeing the back of Spain. Next up the German cup  (DFB Pokal?) 

Holland

• League titles 4/4
• Cup wins 4/3
• Champions leagues 2/1

Spain (1st tenure)

• League title 1/1

Gap Year

• German cup 1
• League titles 1
• International failure 1

Spain (2nd tenure)

• Copa del Rey 1/1

Goodbye Spain. You were good to us.

[BatiGoal]

Great going! A lot of close calls during the Cup run but that's just what you need sometimes. KIU!

[kts365]

5 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Great going! A lot of close calls during the Cup run but that's just what you need sometimes. KIU!

Thanks man. The cup run was so fun to see unfold with the back and forth results.

[kts365]

Season 11

Back to Germany, only this time in aid of the challenge rather than the gap year. I made an executive decision this year that, as I still hadn't secured a European Nation to manage, I clearly had plenty of time in which to complete the German portion of the challenge. Therefore I decided to pick a newly promoted team instead of waiting for a bigger side to free up the managerial position. With this in mind I played eenie, meenie, minie, mo with the available spots and ended up with.....

Hamburg St Pauli. 

The budget I was given was £5.75m, which is not too bad for a newly promoted team. That is until I saw the squad. All 13 of them and 5 of them were defensive midfielders. Around 3/4 of the squad was nowhere near the right level and there were zero goalkeepers. Sooooo, it's a fixer upper.

Transfers

With the problems listed above I thought it best to concentrate on free transfers first then search the cheapo section of the supermarket. The players would come from the "near use by date" section.

As you can see I got some decent freebies and some very cheap players. Super happy with Amat, Calhnoglu and Fekir on frees.

Spoiler

The Season

So, with the full new team it's time to see if we pull a "moneyball" on this league. We will begin with the Bundesliga then. How did we do?

Amazing performance from my squad to finish second in the league and only losing out due to goal difference too. It's a little disappointing though as we were top until game 31 and were undefeated through to February. I feel like Kevin Keegan bottling the league.

Could we then carry this form through the cup too?

In the first round we met Bayern......

Not Munich fortunately. A dominant display earned us a trip to round 2 to face local rivals Humurg SV. Derby Day!

Another match we dominated but only scored 1 goal. Still that is enough as we move on to face Hertha Berlin in round 3.

The game was a back and forth affair with the winning goal coming in extra time. The quarter finals throw up another team from the capital and it's quite a surprise to see them get this far.

We absolutely dominate them however, and move ahead to the semi-final where we face my gap year club, Wolfsburg.

Another back and forth match which we win with a very late goal in the 94th minute. So we are off to the final. Which giants will be face there? The Mighty Munich? Dortmund perhaps? Nope it's the club currently being bankrolled to success Leipzig.

Another match which we dominate and we take the cup! Moneyball baby! I can't believe the success ourate team had this year. Put together for a pittance and not fancied to win a thing. we even got the  "giant killing" headline for the semi's and the final after our wins. 

Career Review

Unbelievable Jeff! The club portion of our challenge is over but why is it so hard to get a European National job? I lost out on the Portugal vacancy. Not even allowed to apply for the Spain job. This is turning out to be the hardest task.

Holland

• League titles 4/4
• Cup wins 4/3
• Champions leagues 2/1

Spain (1st tenure)

• League title 1/1

Gap Year

• German cup 1
• League titles 1
• International failure 1

Spain (2nd tenure)

• Copa del Rey 1/1

Germany

• DFB Pokal 1/1

International

• European Championship 0/1
• World cup final 0/1

A big year and only the international portion of our challenge left. Still need that elusive job though.

Also guys, do I remain at hamburg to build a legacy (will this make it more difficult to get a National job?) or do I resign and concentrate on the final stages of the challenge?

[Taff]

Great going dude fantastic work, but I honestly believe there is a "bug" when it comes to international jobs but I could be wrong

[kts365]

6 minutes ago, Taff said:

Great going dude fantastic work, but I honestly believe there is a "bug" when it comes to international jobs but I could be wrong

That could make this challenge impossible to complete. I have noticed that nations only tend to select managers of the same nationality. Aside from African nations.

[Taff]

Yeah my double trouble challenge I keep watching the french job and it never goes further than V. Insecure although I have seen a few nations pop up but I know a few people on here have said that International jobs seem impossible to get

[kts365]

P.S. guys here's a look at at former youth player from my time at Roda who I signed to Valencia last year. My assistant thought he had 2.5 star potential.

Yep. Clearly no world beater haha.

1 minute ago, Taff said:

Yeah my double trouble challenge I keep watching the french job and it never goes further than V. Insecure although I have seen a few nations pop up but I know a few people on here have said that International jobs seem impossible to get

Only one I got was Ghana.  and they had no keepers.