Representing A Continent

It's going to be a big off-season ahead for Luke. Back-to-back league wins have surely seen his stock rise, so could it be a summer where he strengthens even further, or a summer where he flirts with leaving..? It'd be super intriguing as to where you could land if you decide to leave, but there's an attachment to CSKA that can't be severed imo. Zenit need to spend big this off-season if they want to have any hope of catching up to CSKA

Last time on Chasing CSKA, the confirmation of CSKA's second title in as many years was confirmed with victory over Spartak Moscow. The win meant Luke Hendricks has become recognised as the second best South African manager in history, whilst becoming the seventh most successful manager in Russia.

Today in the final episode of the season, Luke Hendricks and CSKA Moscow chairman Evgeny Giner sit down to discuss the last season as well as the future of the club. Interest also rises in a number of the CSKA title winning squad members.


Evgeny Giner is the man that almost all of CSKA’s success can be attributed to, with his influence and financial power being pushed into the club for over two decades. He has seen many of the clubs greatest moments whilst also seeing times of struggles and is now considered by many at the club as a legend.

“I’ve been here now for twenty-one years, taking over in 2001. It’s been a very memorable two decades with the last two title wins only adding to that. We had an exceptional start to my time here, winning nine trophies, including the Europa League, in my first five years.”

“At times we were up and down admittedly that could be down to a lack of investment at times from myself and one of our longest barren spells came between 2016 and the past few seasons. Since hiring Luke, we haven’t looked back. He has helped to build a team that is continually challenging and more often than not winning titles. He has even taken us to the knockout rounds of the Champions League for the first time in over a decade this season.”

“I believe we have a long way to go still, and with the group of players we have here, there is no challenge that is too much for us. I am very proud of this club and look forward to continuing to be successful here.” said Evengy Giner.

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This season was another successful one for CSKA Moscow and despite two losses in their final four games, the title was already secured. At the end of the day, the Russian champions finished with a clear thirteen point gap between them and second place Spartak Moscow. It is yet another season to be proud of for Giner, something he was keen to relay to Luke Hendricks in their end of season meeting.

“Luke, firstly, congratulations on another fantastic season and on a personal note, on winning the manager of the year award. It is very well deserved, you have proven yourself to be the best manager in this league and we are very grateful to have you here.” began Evengy Giner.

“Thank you sir. It is a great place to be and I am still very thankful for all you have done for me over these years. You gave me a second chance and I have worked to repay that every day since. This is simply a token of my appreciation for you and what you have given me” Luke replied.

“It’s a two way street Luke. On to the more important stuff though. In light of our very strong financial position, I think it is only fair I allow you to go out and really strengthen the squad. I know you have had to lose a few key players in recent years and had to be smart in replacing them, so this year you’ll have 100% of any player sales plus a total of £82,100,000 in transfer budget, and £1,168,127 in wages. That should tally out to be around £500,000 in space for the wages with the squads current bill. Will that be sufficient?” asked Giner.

“That’ll be perfect. We should be able to get our number one target, Omar Lieshout with that amount and have a good amount spare. I want to strengthen in the depth this summer and hopefully we don’t lose any key members of the team. Though that might be tough with the likes of Ivan Oblyakov once again linked to Barcelona and Fedor Chalov to Manchester United. But with those funds we should be more than able to replace them if it comes to it.” answered Luke.

“Very good. Obviously the aim is to win the league once more. I know it becomes tougher and tougher to do that with everyone aiming to knock you off the top but we believe you have it in you and with the money behind you, it is certainly what we expect. In terms of Europe, we know it’ll be tough to replicate last year, but we will be happy with being competitive in the group stages. The results you have been getting have really helped the club’s reputation of late and we are considered the biggest team in Russia now.”

“Brilliant news. I understand the goals and I have set similar for myself and the team already. We also want to win the Kubok Rossii next season as this year wasn’t good enough on that front. The improvement in reputation, has that been seen in the sponsorship money by any chance?” Luke questioned.

“It has, we are up by almost £4,000,000 in sponsorship since last season, rising to £23,250,000 in total. We hope to see that rise again next year with our kit deal being up for negotiation once more next season.” responded Giner.

With the pairs meeting coming to its conclusion, it is clear, both believe the future is bright for CSKA Moscow.

Replies

Jack:Who knows, it seems as though the club are giving Luke the funds that implies a long term future is being considered.
Tango:
Scott:Another massive season for CSKA and I am sure those at Zenit aren't best pleased with the success Luke is having here!
James:Zenit haven't stopped spending since Luke arrived, it is who they are spending on. It'll be interesting to see if any offers come in for Luke with his stock certainly at it's highest.

A very good start to the new season already with the news of that budget. I look forward to seeing Lieshout and how good he is considering he is the #1 target. Great work all around the club!

That budget will certainly boost any hopes Luke has in looking to compete further in Europe. Players must be aware of the magic he is working in Russia now. The restrictions that were once there must slowly be weakening.

Waheyyyyyyy, plenty of money to bring in Omar! I expected an unbeaten season domestically next season tbh, as I know you're going to do some wheeling in dealing in the off-season to make your squad even more amazing for Russian football. I feel like you're in a position to sell Chalov for maximum money, and replace him, with someone way better! Where are you in terms of your foreign quota? Full?

20th May 2022

Another season had come to an end and for Luke Hendricks, it was another successful one, with his CSKA Moscow side reclaiming the Rosgosstrakh Chempionat Rossii. With the season before seeing a number of records broken, it was always going to be tough to follow, but Luke’s side continued to impress. Despite losing key man Arnór Sigurðsson (who had recently been sold to Chelsea for £101,000,000), to Inter Milan for almost £80,000,000, CSKA won the league title for the second year running. They also managed to qualify for the Champions League Round of Sixteen for the first time in over a decade and only the third time in the club’s history.

It had been a long year for Luke, one he had worked hard in and was proud of his work showing in CSKA’s performances. However, it had been a relatively quiet year in comparison to the previous few in the South Africans life.

In the past few years, Luke had been married, seen the birth of his first, and so far only child, lost both of his parents in a double murder, in a robbery gone wrong, whilst also being given a note suggesting his parents murder was planned. That was just away from the game of football. Since Luke had received that note, to meet someone he didn’t know on the bridge with the promise of information about his parents' death, with nobody showing up, Luke’s life had seemingly quietened down.

Of course, it had taken a while for Luke to get over the idea of someone knowing something about the death of his parents, but he had come to the conclusion it was just a chancer who had re-thought what he was doing. It had been refreshing as such for Luke to not have all these off the pitch distractions. It had allowed him more time to focus on not just CSKA but also his family.

His daughter, Anastasia, was about to turn four and the less time focused on issues such as his parents passing, had allowed him more time with her. She was a smart child for her age, preparing to enter preschool in September. Luke loved every second he spent with her and he and his wife Lada were proud of the young women she was growing into.

The only notable change in Luke’s life had been the introduction of SportsNet. A company based in Luke’s home nation of South Africa, were a new streaming service similar to Netflix, but with a focus on sports documentaries. The company had contacted the Russian club due to the South African connection with Luke and everyone at the club was more than happy to let them in for a ‘fly on the wall’ style documentary.

It had been a strange adaptation initially with a slight sense of awkwardness around the place when the cameras first arrived. However, the camera crew did a great job of ensuring the players and staff weren’t impacted by their presence. Soon enough everyone had got used to them and it was almost as if they weren’t there.

The final product had seemingly come out incredibly well, with SportsNet already contacting Luke with a view of a second season, with a slightly larger focus on his role of representing Africa as one of the only South Africans to manage outside of Africa and one of a very select group of Africans as a whole outside the continent itself.

It had struck Luke as strange initially that they had contacted him personally, but the club's confirmation that they had agreed eased Lukes thoughts. For now, he could enjoy his week's break on the Cape Town beach.

Replies

Jack:Lieshout is certainly the number one target. His quality at such a young age is crazy and considering he qualifies as a Russian quota it is certainly a great target to have.
Scott:You'd imagine so, but it also seems as though players realize the club has a lot more money now, with the likes of Rashford after 200k a week. It'll be interesting to see how and where the club improve.
James:The foreign player spots are full yes. However, the likes of Lucas Santos could be moved on depending on if someone with quality comes available. Omar is certainly the number one target it'll all be down to whether Dynamo play ball!

Hosting a streaming show about a football club is dangerous, just look at Sunderland

23rd May 2022

May is generally the time of the year where the temperature in South Africa drops, with the summer highs of mid thirty degree weather subsiding to the lows of seven to ten degrees. However, today felt like one of those summer days, with the weather app displayed on the computer in the largest office in Sandton showing 32°C.

A single person was in the office, with the man standing at his window observing the busy morning traffic coming in and out of the financial district. The Monday morning traffic is always the worst with nobody excited about starting a new week of work having enjoyed a weekend with their families. It meant many were late to the office, but that was never an issue for the man who stood watching over everyone.

Punctuality and discipline had been something he had learnt was important early on in his working life. If you weren’t punctual, you couldn’t be trusted. It was a sign of respect and respect and loyalty is a massively important thing to anyone in his line of work.

With the man still watching from his window the busy monday morning traffic, a knock came at the door.

“Umholi, the SportsNet people are here.” said a beautiful young lady who was the man’s secretary.

“Thank you, Minenhle,” responded the man known as Umholi, a Zulu word that translates in English to leader, “You can let them in.”

“Good morning Umholi” said to the man as he entered the room “I have the reports for the first season of the Moscow documentary for you.” he finished.

“Good Morning Peter, please take a seat” came Umholi’s response as he made his way over to the couches and coffee table to the left of his room.

The pair had known each other for a number of years now, with Peter one of Umholi’s most trusted associates. Peter had grown up in Johannesburg, in the coloured neighborhood of Eldorado Park. It was In that neighborhood where he met Umholi for the first time. Eldo’s as it is commonly known is known to be a rough area to grow up in. However, that never effected Peter who was gifted with a large level of intelligence and used it to his advantage managing to attend the University of Johannesburg in 1990 receiving a degree in business management. That intelligence and business acumen was the reason in which Umholi used Peter’s services whenever a new opportunity arose.

SportsNet was one of the latest moves that Umholi had made, with the streaming service taking a similar model to that of Netflix and Amazon Prime. However, it’s main focus was on the world of sport and sports documentaries. It was no coincidence however, that the first target of Umholi’s new project was CSKA Moscow and Luke Hendricks. It was the perfect way of managing to follow Luke and have a further insight into everything he was doing, without arousing suspicions. Following the murder inflicted on previous informant Sergei Titov, after the former CSKA Armiya presenter attempted to alert Luke to what was going on, SportsNet gave Umholi an even closer look a what Luke was getting up to with cameras following almost every move he made.

“Umholi, it is working perfectly. The first episode went live last night and it is doing incredibly well, the viewers are loving it and they are behind Luke. We believe we can get that second season out of it and have contacted him already. He clearly has no idea what is going on and seems to be on board with us taking a closer look at him personally as long as the club agrees.” explained Peter.

The news brought a smile to the usually emotionless man.

“That Peter, that is excellent news.” replied Umholi before standing up and walking over to his window once more.

Replies

Tango:It doesn't have the best reps, but it hasn't hurt the club so far!

The conspiracy continues! It's always interesting to see how successful men never like to see people who have come from barely anything succeed in life. The rich and powerful have an unhealthy obsession to disturb Luke at every corner and in this unsuspecting way I imagine it will be hard for Luke to process what is actually going on with the SportsNet crew.

Gripping stuff! I had a sense that the cameras may have been linked to this particular cult. Scary stuff for Luke. I wonder how much longer he will be blissfully unaware of all of this?

First - congrats on the title as I just read the last few updates.

Also really interesting side stuff to add to to FM part of the story.

28th May 2022

“In sport now, CSKA Moscow manager, Luke Hendricks is being heavily linked with the vacant role at German side Borussia Dortmund following the sacking of former manager Lucien Favre.” the news anchor reported.

Luke knew the news would break soon enough. It always did, nothing in football was secret and with today’s media linking anyone with everyone, Luke’s name was unsurprisingly being linked to some of the largest jobs in Europe. Following his success at CSKA Moscow, with a second league title recently secured, Luke's reputation was sky high. His clubs Champions League performance was another major contributing factor to that rise, with many across the continent impressed by the way in which his side had competed in the competition.

Beating Benfica and København twice, whilst taking a point of Chelsea, Luke’s side reached the Round of Sixteen in the Champions League for the first time in a decade. There, they faced Juventus, with many expecting the Russian club to be on the other side of a large beating. However, CSKA were the much better side in the first leg and were unfortunate to be held to a goalless draw. Unable to capitalize on their chances in the first leg cost CSKA in the end, with Juve taking a two goal win.

Losing didn’t matter though, with Luke’s reputation for attacking football causing many to take a look at the manager. Dortmund were one of those sides. The German club had struggled this season, with a 4th place finish all they could muster. That along with finishing bottom of their champions league group of Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Celtic, saw Lucien Favre sacked.

Eight days following the Swiss manager being sacked, Luke had been contacted by the German side with the opportunity to attend an interview for the vacant role. Clearly, that had been leaked to the media and they were now all over the story. The role would be an incredible opportunity for any manager. A club whose reputation is massive and despite being seen as a second to Bayern Munich in recent years, have a great history themselves.That history includes a famous UEFA Champions League win in 1997.

But recent years hadn’t been so enjoyable at Dortmund, failing to win the Bundesliga in ten years, with Bayern taking hime every title since the 2011/12 campaign. Despite the lack of success the move would be massive for Luke. It would welcome a wealth of resources for him. The experience of managing week in week out at the Signal Iduna Park with the world famous ‘Yellow Wall’ behind him and his side every week was certainly attractive.

Attractive enough to attend the interview that had been offered to him, with Luke on his way to the airport. However, his stop in Germany wouldn’t just be for the interview, with the Champions League final taking place just a couple of hours later.

Attending that game would allow Luke to view the side he’d much prefer to take over, with their manager expected to leave following the game.

Replies

Jack:It seems whenever you are at the top someone is trying to pull you down. Hopefully for Luke that isn't the case and whoever is behind this, fails.
Scott:It is the perfect in for the people behind it all. Something seemingly so innocent, yet it could be putting Luke's life in danger.
OneMoreGame:Thank you very much! Was massive and could be setting Luke up for something even bigger perhaps?

It's gonna be sad to leave all that you built behind, but this is a golden opportunity

That is, if the powers that be allow you to leave Russia unscathed...

Me whenever Luke is linked with another club.