Russian To The Top?

Interesting start at a club no one seems to have heard of! Although i'm sure Europe at least will know of them by the time you're done

Good luck!

Welcome to Irkutsk

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Irkutsk is one of the largest cities in Siberia with a population approaching 600,000. It is the administrative centre of Irkutsk Oblast & lies on the banks of the Angara river,72 kilometres below Lake Baikal, from which I can only imagine the side takes its name.

It is perhaps better known for its "Bandy" sides (A form of Ice hockey from what I can gather) a sport that regularly attracts crowds of 30,000 plus.

The Club

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Baikal Irkutsk is a relatively new club, having been formed in 2009.

The side won its first piece of silverware last year, lifting the Russian Second Division - East title & securing their promotion to the Russian First Division.

Facilities

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The club plays its home games at the epically named, Trud Stadium, which should not be confused with the stadium of the same name, located in Tomsk.

It has a capacity of 10,800, is owned by the council &, in all honesty, appears to be in pretty poor shape, which doesn't exactly come as a shock to me.

So there you go, now you know as much as I do. Not a lot but enough to gat us started. Stay tuned for a squad analysis & League overview.

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You are an awful long way from home mate! Good luck, hopefully the travelling distance can work in your favour

Baikal is the deepest lake in the world which is frozen..... If I am correct....

and you know I will be a follower

2016-04-29 01:58#230200 Live For FM : Baikal is the deepest lake in the world which is frozen..... If I am correct....

and you know I will be a follower

You are correct! In fact, from what i have read, at a depth of over 1,600 metres, it is the deepest lake in the world period & contains a staggering 20% of the worlds total surface fresh water!!!

Interesting stuff! Another FM related learning experience.

2016-04-28 17:28#230207 C.J.Lippo :

2016-04-29 01:58#230200 Live For FM : Baikal is the deepest lake in the world which is frozen..... If I am correct....

and you know I will be a follower

You are correct! In fact, from what i have read, at a depth of over 1,600 metres, it is the deepest lake in the world period & contains a staggering 20% of the worlds total surface fresh water!!!

Interesting stuff! Another FM related learning experience.

Yeah!!! now I have understood that every name has a special feature

As a punishment for losing games, you should have your players dive to the bottom of the lake to collect their football boots

Is there a more depressingly named stadium than trud it sounds like mash up of trash and crud anyway good luck and hopefully your players don't have to go scuba diving after their boots to often

Also the area is known for a big role in the fur trade and is home the Sable which has the most expensive fur in the world so you can top up those earnings and gain some fitness at the same time

You honestly forget just how friggin big Russia is... ha

Comparing to Vatican........ Russia is frickin' big

McGriff - Yeah, hopefully the distance can help us turn Trud into a fortress!

Justice - I like it! Harsh but fair!

Ninja - Oh man, I missed a golden opportunity to call chapter 1 of Kristoph's career "Fur & loathing in Irkutsk"

Griffo - IKR, you kinda of think of Australia as a big place as far as area is concerned but Russia dwarfs it! Unreal!

Live - Everywhere is small compared to Russia mate

Thanks everyone!

Squad Overview

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So, this is the rag-tag collection of players entrusted with Baikal's First division survival. Some of these guys were here when I got here, others were bought in by my D.O.F., Vasily Karelin.

It appears to be a decent mix of promising youngsters & experienced heads. To get a better idea of where we stand, I needed to see how we stacked up against the competition.

Goalkeepers

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Not great reading here as we are dead last in a couple of categories &, in truth, pretty poor throughout, with the exception of the handling & Agility categories.

Best Player -

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Defence

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No better reading here as, once again, we are stone motherless in a couple of area's & not much better in most others. We do appear to be quite a physical team though, so perhaps I can find a way to use that to our advantage?

Best Player -

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Midfield

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Again here, mostly poor. The upside is our vision & decision making. 2 extremely handy traits to have! Hopefully this will help us both to create chances & make the right calls in those crucial moments.

Best Player -

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Attack

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Good pace & acceleration here, & we're not the worst finishers in the world, so that's a plus. Combined with our midfields vision, we should be able to score a few goals which at least gives us the chance to win a game or 2. In all honesty, that's about as much positivity as I can muster!

Best Player -

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So, there you have it. We will face an uphill battle to survive, that's for sure. Especially when you consider that 5 of the 20 sides in the league will be relegated! That means we don't just have to be better than 1 or 2 teams but a quarter of the league!!!

Oh well, no-one said it would be easy!

My next update will be our pre season results, I wont bore you with a league overview. Lets just stuck into the challenge ahead shall we!?

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Five sides get relegated... that is insane!

first of all, your best players are not that good

so buy some great players

but Gonezukuv looks good