Martin Valois: A story of Blood and Gold

Promotion is beckoning man

@mrgriffin2012 I can smell it too



"The Battle for Brestois", as it was called in the media, ended with nine yellows and victory for the attackers. It may have not been the prettiest win, but all that counts are the points at the end.



SCENES!!! A magnificent comeback, against the second placed in the league and now we only need to hold the lead. Dramatic overtime winner from Clemente sent the 30000 crowd in raptures.



Strategic draw against another promotion contender in good form. A win here could have sealed the promotion at almost 100%, but considering the bigger picture, the draw is good and fair result.



Jose Mourinho, you can take a lesson or two from mr. Fabien Mercadal. It was not a bus, but a whole train compositon infront of their goal line, and it worked. We wasted chance after chance and at the end, the logical happened.



Still, the month was good and with every step we are getting closer to the goal. Three or four good results more, and we can plan the battle in League 1 next season.

Hooe the draws at the end dont suggest complacency man, sure you'll turn them into wins soon!

@mrgriffin2012 Don't think it's complacency, more likely teams are getting used to the tactics and the guys are tired. But I will seal it, I think. The other favorites make mistakes too.



One of the worst games in the season so far, and officially we are in crysis. A very bad time for this to happen, but I hope we can turn things around and seal the promotion.

!!!DISCLAIMER!!!

My electricity went off after this game and I had to replay it. It ended 5:2 in the replay, but I preffer leaving it like this, because of the last second goal and the emotion that went with it.



One of the most vital wins of the season came much harder than expected . Even though the game was one way traffic from start to finish, it took deflected last moment shot, to set us back on winning tracks.



The second derby of the season is a game, which can actually send us up there, if the results go in our favor. Is there a better motivation to win it?
Alas, nothing went as planned. The constant attacks were friuitless, instead they scorred from a corner and won the game. No three points, no promotion today.



One of the best performances of the season was left for this day. We dominated the game from start to finish, scorred 3 goals, and sealed both the promotion and the title.




Not the most convincing month, but at the end, the mistakes made by Sochaux and Strasbourg proved to be enough to achieve our goal.



Money in the bank-bank



Since I am spending around 100k on wages at the moment, this is really a nice boost.

With three games left and nothing to play for, I decided to give some youngsters and fringe players a chance. They failed to impress and need to show me something else, if they want a taste of League 1 football next season.



Like us, Auxerre have nothing to play for in their last two games. This lead to one of the most borring games in the season. We finished with terrible away form, but thankfully, it wasn't costly.



Tipped as one of the promotion contenders at the start of the season, Gazelec Ajacio are at the end of really dissappointing campaign. And they were welcomed by 30000 celebrating fans and a team, eager to deliver one last show to the crowd. Fortune was the hero with a hat-trick, Dore added two and an own goal by the keeper completed their misery. Fantastic end to a fantastic season.



At the end of the day, Red Star followed us into League 1. They had amazing second half of the season, losing only two of their last 15 games. Sochaux got the playoff spot and Strasbourg lost all the advantage they had and will stay in the division for one more season.



My team of the season would have been slightly diferent, but at the end, the fans decide. Kevin is the undisputed player of the season, forgetting his terrible debut versus Amiens and proved to be a real asset on the left back, adding some goals and asists aswell.

Now, on to a bussy summer with squad improvments on the horizon.

Good luck mate, busy summer ahead and some key signings will be needed to keep you in Ligue 1 but you can do it! And congrats on winning the title and promotion!

@mrgriffin2012 Thanks, mate. I will see what I can do, mainly want to strengthen the midfield and attack, defence is solid. But I will go after any classy and available player.

As mentioned, it is a bussy transfer summer.



On the goal, we brought Alban Lafont. The youngster is coming from Chelsea on a season long loan. I was eager to take him for 2 seasons, but they didn't even wanted to discuss such transfer. Anyway, since our keeper Duchez is 37 years old and the reserves are not so viable, Lafont may just be the starter this season.



Coming from relegated Italian side Genoa is the argentinian defender Lucas Orban. He desperately wanted to leave his club and my scouts were in such awe of him, no way I could have missed the chance.



William Remy returns from Montpelier on a bargain deal. His ability to play on 3 different positions and the facts that he already knows the club and the league were key for his signing.



Mark Diemers comes from the Dutch side De Graafschap on a free transfer. He was the first to join, as his transfer was negotiated back in january. He seems solid enough option for the midfield as the majority of the players already at the club don't seem to be good enough for regular Ligue 1 starters.



Tom Carroll was transfer listed by Tottenham and choose (much for my surprise) our offer. At only 25, he brings some Premier League expirience and class, on a decent price.



The most expensive deal of the summer so far, coming from Nancy, is Vincent Marchetti. A gifted youngster, who can give us 2-3 good seasons in his development and maybe a solid profit from his future transfer.



Another highly recommended by the scouts player is Ismail Aissati. Once a teen prodigy of PSV, he failed to grow on his full potential and eventually, after spells in Russia and Turkey, returns to one of the top European leagues, looking for a chance to revive his career. Joining on free, so if he fails, at least there will be some profit from the deal.



What is a transfer window, without some Latino flavour? Ours comes from Gonzalo Maroni, young Argentinian playmaker, joining from Boca Juniors. He will be Aissati's main competitor for the starting place in the team. I hope he, like Marchetti, to be sold with massive profit in the future.



And last, but not least, the badly needed striker. Anatole N'Gamukol joins from Red Star on free. He was the top scored in Ligue 2 last season, bagging 18 goals in 34 games. If he scores half of these for us this season, I will be a happy manager.

I think this will be pretty much all the new players. The only thing, which may change that is massive offer for someone, and the need of replacement, or heavy injury. Anyway, I will post the whole transfer history at the end of the window.

Some good signings there mate, think youll be able to do some damage there!

Yea, I hope that they will fit in the club fast and well.




This time around, we start with a win. Two first half goals set up the tone, but the second part was dull. Since we are still building on fitness, I will not complain for the way of playing.



Solid first half, the second started badly, but after the equaliser, the guys reacted well and showed superiority.



We open our Swiss tour with a game with Lugano. We didn't really deserved to win this one, but somehow managed to turn it around, mainly thanks to our young playmaker Ait-Malek.





Those two were purely for fitness and confidence. We scored for fun in both, but more importantly, all the guys got some playing time and used it well.



Last of the Swiss tour is a game with Belinzona. Another easy win, before the real test, which is coming at the end of the month.



A massive change of pace, as we meet an European giant for our last friendly game. And I can say, I am pretty happy from what I saw. The game was even, we had more shots and possession, but Milan made use of their chances and we didn't. Piece of magic from Bacca, who set up Suso for the only goal.

Good looking pre-season and certainly not lacking for goals, also a tad late but great job getting promoted

@ninjaskill Thank you, mate And I hope that we can continue with the fair amount of goals in the league too.

First of all, one last signing, as I felt the right back is our poorest position:



And the whole transfer summer:





We opened our season against another former European Champion. And despite the early sent off, the boys never gave up, and eventually we managed to strike on the counter and grab the three points.



Last season, we got a vital win in the promotion battle against Sochaux, in the last seconds of the game. This time, they took a revenge, scoring with their only shots on goal, while we had 11 for nothing.



Just 3 days later, we host a side, which is aiming towards European qualification at the end of the season. And again, an early red card changed the game plan completely. The boys fought bravely, but this time the luck wasn't at our side.



In a game that saw 3 players facing their former teams, we emerged victorious, after a high-fought battle. it was looking like another defeat coming, but going on full attack worked and we managed to make impressive comeback.



Monaco are a team, with which we just can't compete at the moment. Maybe it wasn't as bad, as the scoreline suggests, but still, they outclassed us in each and every aspect.



At the end of the month, we stood 13th. If someone offers me this place as final at the end of the season, I will accept without hesitation. But for now it's temporary and we will have to work harder in the months to come.

Not the worst start mate and i think you can achieve a pretty solid season man!

Oof the game is tryna screw you with these red cards mate

Bumpy start to the year but I have a feeling you will have a major rebound. That win against OM is huge!

@mgriffin2012 ye, it's mixed, but still some points on the board and that's what matters

@Atoobie the guys are just too eager to prove themselves, I guess

@MJK46 yea,it feels like a bumpy season is on the line, hopefully it will end decently



Another game, in which we are considered outsiders. But instead of just giving up the three points, we caught them twice on the break and managed to safely close the game.



Our mixed performances continue in the visit of Saint Etienne. Unlike the previous game, we weren't competitive at all and the result is justified.



No time to rest, as the last in the league Montpelier come to our home in attempt to push themselves from the bottom. But the boys weren't in the mood for gifts and we smashed 3 past them.



We just can't keep any consistency at the moment. The visit to Lyon was a thriller, in which we lost at the end. We still proved to be tough opposition and if we clear the defensive problems, will be far more stable.



We just don't draw games. Never. Ever. Thankfully, this time we got three points and a clean sheet to go with it. 5-0-5 well, well.



At the end of the month, it's a midtable position, which isn't that bad. After all, we played against 4 of the top 7 sides and if we keep winning the games with teams around and under us, I will be happy.