Congratulations mate! A rather comfortable league title victory in the end.
The points margin is magnificent, congratulations on a comprehensive league-winning season!
21/22 Summer window
Transfers
Here we are. Season 4 is upon us and we are back in the Champions League and for the first time in this save, the vultures were circling. All of our top players were linked to moves (mainly to England) and it was a case of trying to keep the team together. I should have expected it but it did change pre-season plans.
The first to leave was South American Yefferson Soteldo who i sold to Middlesbrough for £2.5m. This one i was most comfortable with as his first season was pretty lacklustre and it was a nice little profit from last year. The 2nd to leave was Manu Garcia in a £5m deal to Newcastle. I couldn't do much on this one as it was his minimum release fee and they were offering a lot more money on his wages so the Spaniard was back in English football. Towards the end of the last season, Garcia was controlling everything for us so it was a massive blow.
Middlesbrough came back in for Branimir Hrgota and his £5m release fee was met and i was fearing losing my only striker but somehow the FM gods heard my tears because the Swede rejected the deal and opted to stay. The 4th player targeted was Keeper Osman Hadzikic whose £5m release fee was met by Atlanta United of the MLS and the Austrian will be leaving in February.
Back up keeper Musiminovic was a little whingey and so he was sold on for a small profit as well as 4th choice centre half Helik and a few youngsters as well as we managed to shift on quite a bit and raise some money for some new signings which we clearly needed.
First of all, as expected we couldn't get Nwakali back on loan as Arsenal were only looking for a permanent sale and we were no where near to having the money to splash out on one player. Winger Grandsir though is staying for his 4th loan spell in Poland whilst youngster Adli was allowed to go back to PSG. So we needed an inside forward for each side and at least 1 AMC for the season so that was our number 1 priority. The Loan market was kind to us as we bought in Ademola Lookman for his 2nd loan spell at the club as well as Brahim Diaz from Man City. Two potential superstars for this league and giving us great options for their spots. For the right winger, i wanted to bring in a Pole and so i signed Przemyslaw Frankowski from Jagellonia for £1.5m. He will likely be a back up to Grandsir but it means we finally have an AMR of our own having relied on loans for the last 3 seasons.
Boosting the Attacking midfield options i signed 22 year old Croatian Luka Ivanusec for just over £500k. He has something about him that i like and if he can adapt to the league he could be a little gem for us. He will rotate with Diaz and i will play who ever performs best. With Garcia leaving we needed a new CM so i signed Norwegian Anders Trondsen from Rosenborg for £1.4m to become my new Mezzala with Ukrainian Orest Silyuk signed on a free to be a player for the future. With the goalkeeping situation looking troublesome when Hadzikic leaves in February, i needed a new man to take the No.1 spot in the future and Sergio Mora of Colombia was the man i have chosen. A snip at £300k, he will go on an intense language course to get him ready for the step up in the 2nd half of the season.
On the Pitch
Europe dominates the early fixtures as we juggle our European ambitions with the start of the league campaign and it was tough going. I think the number of new faces i needed to integrate was a problem as i really didnt expect to get picked apart like i did.
We got through the first two rounds in the Champions League with relative ease beating RFS of Latvia (7-1 on aggregate) and then beating Rijeka (2-0 on aggregate) to set up a tough 3rd qualifying round tie against AEK Athens. Ill discipline crept in as we blew two leads at home whilst going down to 10 men to draw 2-2 in Krakow before going to Athens and getting comfortably beaten 2-0 to send us into the Europa League.
Qarabag were the opponents and my confidence was high having played them 2 years ago and getting past them. We once again went down to 10 men in the first leg at home and the 2-1 loss meant we had a hard job in Baku and it was just too much as we could only muster a 0-0 draw away from home. A very bitter blow as European success is really the next major task for me having won the domestic title twice already.
Our League campaign has been Ok with our only defeat being against bitter rivals Wisla who are seemingly back to being a force in the league. We did in the meantime win the Superpuchar beating Zaglebie Lubin 3-0 in a comfortable little showing to give me my 4th Trophy.
With Europe a distant dream it will now need to be a League and Cup double for me to be satisfied with this fourth season. I am demanding Domestic Dominance and anything less will see this season as an abject failure for me.
Such a harsh way to crash out of all European competition. This season is now an extremely important one domestically.
Unlucky in Europe, hopefully you can turn the season around to be another successful one domestically!
September & October 2021
On the Pitch
A quick little update from me. With no European football to keep me occupied we had to make sure we did the business in Poland. This included finally making some progress in the Polish Cup where we have been woeful over the last 3 years. So far i am pleased to announce things are going well as we remained undefeated over the last 2 months
As you can see we even progressed to the 3rd round of the Polish Cup meaning the double is still a possibility. In the league we have a game in hand but already sit 3 points clear but a title fight might still be on the cards with Legia finally having a decent season.
So far so good and we have 2 more months before the winter break where we should have built ourselves a nice little lead
One loss in thirteen games, you can't complain at that. Over the next two months, hopefully you can form the gap you speak of - in order to have some security. If you can sustain this type of form, there will be no reason as to why that can't happen.
November & December 2021
On the Pitch
Win after Win in Poland as we have the perfect 2 months with 7 wins from 7 taking our winning streak to 10 in all competitions. We now have a quarter final to look forward to in the Polish Cup against Lechia and dominate the league domestically.
We are 6 points better off than this time last year and last year we ran away with the title. If we can not repeat the trick i will be absolutely shocked as no one domestically looks ready to even compete at any level. For example here are the stats from one game
It is absolute domination at its best yet i still think we need to do more. The spine of the team has been excellent with Hack, Trondsen, Ivanusec and Hrgota being excellent with the two new signings in particular excelling. We have some work to do on the wings as they are underperforming again whilst Brahim Diaz has been disappointing so far as well.
We are losing Hadzikic in February so we are going to need a new keeper in the window to compete with Colombian Sergio Mora for the back end of the season. In fact the keeper situation might be the only thing that could derail our season
Just got through all of this, and it's been excellent reading. Well done on all your success thus far. And running away with the league already it seems.
A strong hold of first place now, fantastic. The stats against Zabrze, despite them sitting bottom, show the dominance you are starting to have.
Winter Break & February 2022
Transfers
Another quiet mid season transfer window as we saw one keeper leave and one join, as well as the sale of an original Cracovia player. SO the pre-arranged transfer of Osman Hadzikic went through and the Austrian was off to Atlanta in the MLS for £5m. Considering he cost nothing and was my first signing, he has had a great 3 1/2 years in goal.
To replace him, i signed Belgian Arnauld Bodart from Standard Liege for £1.4m. He is slightly better than Mora but the Colombian has more potential so they will likely rotate for the rest of the season until i can pick a winner.
The only other major news was Jakub Serafin left for just oer £500k. He was brilliant for the last 2 seasons, way outperforming his stats but with Trondsen now in the side and the emergence of Kanuch and Kuscek he wasn't getting any games and we have to keep building for the future.
On the Pitch
It has been pretty easy street in the league as we picked up 10 points from 12 to extend our lead at the top to an impressive 11 points. There really should be no stopping us now and a 3rd League title in 4 years is a formality. There will though be no double as we lost on Penalties to Lechia in the Quarter final.
A massively bitter blow as the one thing we are missing domestically is that double.
Youth Intake & Facilities
For the 4th straight season it has been poor on the youth front and so i went straight to the board and got the Youth and Training facilities upgraded.
Progressing very well on the pitch and steady developments are now taking place off it too. Some great business conducted, with Hadzikic departing for a tidy fee and a suitable replacement being found with just a fraction of that money. Good work.
You are reading "Having a Crac Ovia here in Poland".
