Career Taff Attempts The Germanic Europe Challenge (COMPLETE)

[Taff]

Taff Attempts the "Germanic Europe Challenge"

Season 1

Belgium

Hi guys Taff here and this is my attempt at the third in the trilogy of @BatiGoal's break the record challenges 

Here's the Link to the OP

So we all know the score by now, take over a team and take one player to break the goal scoring record for that country then move on and repeat with a different player in each league

This time round we begin in Belgium, then take a trip to Holland before finishing in Germany

So let's crack on

I have had a little experience in Belgium this year (thanks to one of my earlier saves "Changing the face of modern football")

There I had 3/4 seasons in the league and I chose to go with the same team this time around, ladies and gentleman Hellfor Leather is now the manager of

KAA Gent (or AA Gent seems to change for some reason)

 

Now I have the team but who will I chose to be my main man, well the team has three decent strikers but two were on long term injury and the third has horrible stamina, so I went and brought someone in to have a go, but who did I get for the mighty AA Gent Messi, Lukaku, Costa

No I present to you the next best thing to Neymar...

Neymar's older retarded cousin Nilmar 

Got him on a free transfer due to my lack of funds but for a 32 year old he has some decent stats and the Belgian league isn't the hardest in the world, so I thought I'd give him a shot to beat the current record of 41 (worst case scenario I have a good season and buy someone new next year)

But he had a good season

He was only 10 goals shy buy the time the new year rolled in, so I had high hopes he could smash this, then he went on a semi dry spell scoring here and there rather than the 2 a game I was used to, but come early March he had tied the record (that's right took over two months to score 10 goals)

I then had to rest him up for a game or two but during our second leg Euro Cup game against Celtic he got the 42nd goal 

Spoiler

OK so it was a penalty but he still did it

So with the record in the bag, I rested him a few more games and then set him loose hoping he could bag a load more before the season ended

Here's how he looked at the end of the season

Still pretty decent, his pace took a hit but his shooting, dribbling, movement and technique all look good at 32

He ended the season

52 in 63, not bad by anyones standards but slightly disappointed he seemed to go to sleep after the new year

Here's the full transfer dealings this season

Spoiler

Plenty coming in, but mainly free or loan players.  Apart from Nilmar Alex Menendez (LB) Renan (CM) and Lafita (RW) were all great finds who helped the squad achieve a fantastic season

Two players out this year (neither had amazing stats and granted me some decent cash to inject onto the squad)

The team went on to have a fantastic season

Spoiler

The League

We win the normal league season and then go onto play 10 more games in the Belgium Pro League Championship group (which consists of the top 10 teams)

We end the season as the out and out Champions of Belgium 

We also grabbed the Belgian Cup to add to the cabinet

But this is the main reason I'm so proud of the boys this year

Spoiler

Our European Cup run this year was beyond my wildest dreams in my first season in charge

We begin going through 2 qualifying rounds with ease, then are drawn in the Euro Cup group stages with Debrecen. Feyenoord and MAN "Bloody" U, so I'm hoping for maybe a 2nd place spot if we can hold Feyenoord but I'm not too optimistic, until we beat Man U in our second game, then beat Feyenoord as well, we loose our next game against United but beat Feyenoord for a second time (Debrecen were an easy tie) we end the group stages on top 

Great work from the boys, and good news as were then drawn against Rijeka (???????), but the first leg ends in a 1-1 draw I swallow any negative words I used against them, luckily the second leg goes our way (just)

So we progress to the second knockout round to face the might of Scotland Celtic, the first leg also ends in a tie (0-0) but as any eagle eyed viewers will already be aware we run our 3-2 winners in the second leg and progress to the quarter finals  

Where we come face to face with our group mates Man U, could we get one over on them once again to progress to the semi finals?

YES!!!! we could a 1-0 win at home and a tie game at Old Trafford sees AA Gent through to the semi finals of the Euro Cup, to take on the mighty Roma, I was over the moon with how the team was performing but could they keep it up????

Unbelievably they could after losing the away leg 1-0 we came back to tie the game and sent it to extra time, where my sub striker Perbet grabs the winner in the 99th minute to send us through to the Euro Cup Final

The team has done wondrous things getting this far and only one more game stands between us and European Glory and the team that stands between us and the cup is the Blue side of Manchester

We come in to this game full of confidence having come so far, beating some of the best teams from Scotland, England and Italy could the lowly boys from Belgium overthrow the big boys of the EPL and take the Cup home??????

 

IN A WORD NO

We gave them a fight but in the end it wasn't enough, but the boys did me very proud getting this far  

So a great season, League Champs, Belgian Cup winners and Euro Cup Finalists

Here's the teams full fixtures

Spoiler

A decent season but with Nilmar slowing off towards the end the team struggled to grab the goals, but a few players stepped up to push us over the line in the end

Here's the Team stats

Spoiler

Milicevic was a great player at the AP position and he picked up the slack when Nilmar wasn't performing

He also proved the assist king along with Saief on the LW

And finally the boys did very well in the end of season awards

Spoiler

Nilmar and Milicevic claim the top spots in the POTY

Saief claims the YPOTY

And I grab the MOTY award for good measure 

So a very good season for the team but I think we could do better in the goal challenge so next season I'll see what sort of funds we get and maybe bring in a better striker to try and break 52

Until next time See you on the Flip side

TAFF OUT!!!!!!!!

[mcandrew003]

Mate your killing it already! Nilmar was a great pick, outstanding work!

[Taff]

NILMAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mcandrew003]

[BatiGoal]

Older players getting much love from you @Taff great pick and great start to the challenge. Now let's see how long it'll take you to get to stage 2.

[Taff]

3 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Older players getting much love from you @Taff great pick and great start to the challenge. Now let's see how long it'll take you to get to stage 2.

I think I'm going for another year in Belgium as I'm not happy with 52, I think I can do better

[AndersJ]

Yeah i Think you could Do better too ???

great start mate

[Taff]

45 minutes ago, AndersJ said:

Yeah i Think you could Do better too ???

great start mate

Cheers dude, he was doing so well, but just dropped off the radar come the new year, probably partied to hard at Carnival

[AndersJ]

Haha ohhh yeah! Maybe together with the old Goalmachine from Inter Adriano the monster ?

[Real_Random]

Great job mate, impressive season with a striker who seemed to have felt he had well enough by New Years. KIU

[Ashez]

Solid start mate, that Europa League run was so close to being something magical! 

[Taff]

Sorry for not replying guys, I got this post up and had to go and haven't had a chance to get back on here

On 06/04/2017 at 06:04, Real_Random said:

Great job mate, impressive season with a striker who seemed to have felt he had well enough by New Years. KIU

No more strikers from Brazil they seem to get to New Year and then party too hard at Carnival and then come back with a 6 month hang over

On 06/04/2017 at 10:42, Ashez said:

Solid start mate, that Europa League run was so close to being something magical! 

Very pleased with how the team did, but would be lying if I said not winning after getting all that way wasn't a little heart breaking 

[Taff]

Season 2

Belgium

So after a very good first season for the team, but a slightly disappointing 2nd half run from my striker I decided to remain in Belgium and try to grab a few more goals before moving on

I decided that a new striker might do a better job than my previous striker Nilmar

So I scoured the market and found a player I thought could do the job.

Harnik has some good stats and even though he's 30 his stamina should help him through

I also decided to strengthen the squad as a whole

Spoiler

Harnik was the big buy, Prodl came in January as a defensive backup (and a little experiment as he was Harniks favourite person so I thought it might help him) Bulow was a decent CD/BWM option, Soares and Navaro came in as FB's, Koryan was a good RW backup and Azeez came straight into the midfield along with Medojevic

Managed to raise some good money this year (to get Harnik in) Simao and Esiti both played well for me but neither was happy about, training, contracts etc so I let them go along with a few others who weren't getting the game time they thought they deserved 

So we cracked on and the team had a very good season

Spoiler

We start the season off with a tight game that eventually went our way in the penalty shootout, clinching our first piece of silverware this season

a very comfortable win (don't get this point system how did we go from 80 points after 30 games to 61 points after 40 games??????) but a good amount of goals scored so I don't mind

We cruise to our second Belgian cup title after a great team performance 

We also got to compete in the UCL this season after winning the league 

Spoiler

Were drawn in a pretty tasty looking group with Euro Cup royalty Seville, some big guns (pun intended) from England in Arsenal and the team who seem to want to face me wherever I go Celtic

We manage to get through the group stage thanks to a late winning goal against Arsenal in the last group game.

We progress to the Quarter finals after beating Man U (again) in the knockout round thanks to a huge 4-0 win at home we then got demolished 5-1 away, but that 1 away goal was enough to see us through to face Barcelona who are way to strong for us and we crash out 4-2 on agg after back to back 1-2 losses

So our European dream ends at the Quarter Final stage, but we managed to beat some big opposition to get here so well done boys

 

So the big question is how did Harnik do, could he show my Brazilian how to beat a record

By the new year he was only 2 shy of the original record 

by late February he had matched Nilmars tally of 52

Here's how he looked at the end of the season, and some good improvements in his stats but was it enough or did he also lose his edge

HELL TO THE NO he showed the Brazilian a thing or two netting 68 goals in 47 appearances

So that is what I wanted and am now more than happy to move on to stage two

@BatiGoal I'll see you when I land in Holland

Here's the teams stats

Spoiler

Harnik leading the line, nut Dajaegere is turning in to quite the little player at the AM position 

and thats proved here with him and Milicevic both providing the assists while sharing the AM role

 Here's the season fixtures

Spoiler

April was not a fun month for us!!!!!!

and finally some end of season awards to share

Spoiler

As you'd expect Harnik claims the POTY thanks to his amazing performance this season, but pleased to see Dejaegere clinch the runner up spot

My young RW and RB clinch 1st and 2nd in the YPOTY

And I'm named MOTY (who else could it be)

So very happy with how this season has gone, will start looking for jobs in Holland but am not in any rush to leave if nothing suitable comes up (might bring in a new striker to try and beat Harniks record)

See you all on the flip side

 

[AndersJ]

Great stuff mate!!! Would have loved to see Kalifa Coulibaly though, but crazy good record for you mate!

[Taff]

6 minutes ago, AndersJ said:

Great stuff mate!!! Would have loved to see Kalifa Coulibaly though, but crazy good record for you mate!

I wanted to use him but when ever I put him in he just never really clicked 

[AndersJ]

Okay thats fair, just remember him when i used him as TM in your 4222 from previous seasons :)!

[Taff]

I had him in my team when I played with Gent earlier this year and he is a very good player, but maybe as a partner and not a single striker

[Real_Random]

Great job mate, very impressive total, KIU

[Cockers2505]

Eh @Taff looking really good, having you name in lights on all the leader boards will certainly be a great achievement, good luck, ill be tracking your progress.

[BatiGoal]

Certainly an advantage knowing the team. Smart choice and gorgeous start to the challenge.

[Paul186]

Great start and Keep up the good work, as for the mystery of the second half of the season league points total, your points total from the first part of the season are halved.

[Ashez]

Excellent total that! 

[Taff]

20 hours ago, Real_Random said:

Great job mate, very impressive total, KIU

Cheers RR much better than the first season, and a much happier manager now

19 hours ago, Cockers2505 said:

Eh @Taff looking really good, having you name in lights on all the leader boards will certainly be a great achievement, good luck, ill be tracking your progress.

Thats the plan, maybe not in the top spot but on all three and I'll be one happy bunny

19 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Certainly an advantage knowing the team. Smart choice and gorgeous start to the challenge.

Yeah one of the main reasons I choose them, but also as I had a lot of fun with them in my previous challenge and wanted to give them another go

15 hours ago, Paul186 said:

Great start and Keep up the good work, as for the mystery of the second half of the season league points total, your points total from the first part of the season are halved.

 OH I've played in Belgium a few times this year and it always confused me cheers for clearing that up

8 hours ago, Ashez said:

Excellent total that! 

yeah I'm much much happier with 68, gives me a good cushion going forward

[Taff]

Season 3

Belgium

So having scored a very decent 68 goals in Belgium I was ready to move on to Holland, however there were no jobs at the beginning of the year so I played on and kept a very sharp eye on the job market.

Hoping not to be in Belgium for too long I stuck with the team I had (plus a few free agents I signed at the end of last season) and a new free agent I signed as I couldn't help myself (welcome to Gent Mr. Rooney) and we went about our merry way

Our first competitive game of the year was for the Belgian Supercup against our hated rivals (I think) Club Brugge

 My new free agent showing he still might have the class people always said he had (not a huge fan myself but was a good addition to the team)

To try and boost my rep I also kept an eye on the International Jobs and low and behold I managed to grab one

This could be interesting, never managed any non African nations this year so look forward to seeing how they do

So the season progressed with Gent doing very well, then come October a job in the Eredivisie finally came up (not one of the powerhouses I would have liked but can't wait around forever) 

So Hellfor Leather has taken the reigns of.....

 

Season 3 1/4

Holland

Not a bad little squad but they were sat in 12th place after 10 or so games and I had my work cut out, managed to bring the much debated Keisuke Honda into the team for experience, then had to wait until January to add a few loan players to the mix Ridgewell into the defence and Inglethough for the midfield  

When I joined the team they gave me £3M which i had to immediately put into the wages to keep us in the black, but I would love to know what they did with the money from the sale of one of their star players before I joined

£19M for St. Juste and I get £3M and a red wage budget (how is that fair)

So we cracked on with the season and after a few too many draws on the run till Christmas the team really turned it around come the new year and we finish the season

2nd 2 points off PSV (a few of those early draws really hurt us, but the team did very well to climb there way up and next season the league will be ours (OH YES IT WILL BE OURS!!!!)

The team did have some success this year..

Zahovic (who I considered to be my striker of choice but was so inconsistent) had a rare game of brilliance netting 3 to clinch the Dutch Cup for sc Heerenveen (God that's a lot of E's in one word)

Here's the teams fixtures from when I took over in early October (can't quite remember which was my first game)

Spoiler

Maybe I started earlier, sure I didn't start off that well, but never mind, that 4-1 win over Feyenoord was a great match which saw us (thanks to Ajax losing) jump from 4th with a game to go to 2nd so thank you Ajax and Feyenoord 

Here's the team stats (not sure how many goals/assists they had before I joined but here they are anyway

Spoiler

Zahovic was the top scorer but really not reliable to be honest (and I agreed an £8.5M transfer deal to some Chinese team in the summer so )

Namli was great at the AM position providing 17 assists but also netting 13 as well so he's staying

And just to prove me wrong Zahovic claims both POTY and YPOTY (you didn't impress me son and thats all that matters)

Spoiler

So onto our next season and hopefully find myself a decent striker to try and crack the 56 goals I need to break the record

Columbia

Columbia had played a few friendlies over the year which went well (they have some world class players Rodriguez and Martinez at the top of the list)

Come the summer we competed in the Copa America, so lets see how the team pull together in a more competitive atmosphere 

We're drawn in a group with Peru, Canada and Argentina so a second place spot should be achievable

But a close 1-0 win over Argentina clinches the group

We then go on to face Bolivia in the Quarter Finals

This was a much closer game than the stats show, but we're through to face Chile in the Semi's

No messing this time with my two star men clinching a very good win to see us through to the final where we one again come face to face with Aguero, Messi and co in the Copa America final

Colombia vs Argentina 2 "The Reckoning"

Colombia clinch the Copa America Cup after a thrilling game which went to ET thanks to a 93rd minute equaliser from Tello, then we out score them 2-1 in ET to go home with the crown

So that capped off a pretty decent first season with both teams

Bring on next year

 

 

 

[BatiGoal]

Great rep building. And I think Heerenveen are good enough next season to hit 56. Curious to know if you're giving Zahovic a shot or going for new lad. More of the same, mate!

[Taff]

1 minute ago, BatiGoal said:

Great rep building. And I think Heerenveen are good enough next season to hit 56. Curious to know if you're giving Zahovic a shot or going for new lad. More of the same, mate!

Already sold Zahovic he just wasn't as productive as I'd like, gone with an old favourite to try and crack this update later, doing another season back in N.I. or I'll never get that one done

[Jens]

You deserve some facepalms for your time in Belgium, lad  

Great tallies, but man your knowledge of Belgian football... Who in hell's name lets Rob Schoofs go...

[Taff]

4 minutes ago, Jens said:

You deserve some facepalms for your time in Belgium, lad  

Great tallies, but man your knowledge of Belgian football... Who in hell's name lets Rob Schoofs go...

He was useless played maybe 5 games and never got more than a 6 rating 

 

[Jens]

25 minutes ago, Taff said:

He was useless played maybe 5 games and never got more than a 6 rating 

 

You just weren't a good-enough manager to get the best out of him  

Also: how can you not get the competition system? It's, like, you know, like, very easy to grasp

[AndersJ]

Taff mate! I have to try this challenge out after im done in Spain in a couple of years!

great with Colombia, thats brilliant, going for the WC ?

im curios too, who will you bring in to get the record :)?

championship is surely yours next season with minor upgrades