What a win against Ajax! If only that result had come a little earlier in the season and you could've had a better chance at the title! Buitink has had a superb season, that should go without saying. Interesting to see that the board have not done much to back you in terms of finances after the success of this season but I suppose the link with Chelsea provides enough quality on the cheap anyway.
A New Era in Dutch Football - Vitesse
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An incredible season! 81 points is a magnificent tally! The win against Ajax must have been sweet, and now you have some interesting European fixtures next season. Hopefully that should generate the income needed to really give you a transfer budget worth talking about.
You pushed Ajax all the way. That's very encouraging. Next season will be interesting to follow but there shouldn't be too much expectation for you to replicate this season again. Champions League football being a possibility next season if you can get through the qualifying round is a great accomplishment!
Really going to have to stretch that budget, expecting some free transfers on their way
Thats not the best of budgets at all, but I am sure you can work some sort of magic with it. The main goal of the window surely has to be keeping Buitink.
Transfers out
Well its been a busy transfer window with players leaving the club as we looked to bring in cash to stregnthen the squad so we can challenge Ajax in the league. We have done this but it may have also stregnthened Ajax in the process with Bazoer leaving. For £30 million £20 million of it will be paid upfront and we also got a 30% of next transfer in there as well. With most of the players leaving the club we have a similar sort of deal with us getting a % of their next transfer to help keep money coming in even it is us selling the clause. So far we have managed to hold onto Buitink but he has had his head turned by PSG after they maid an offer that I rejected so he has submitted a transfer request but has 3 years left on his contract so looking for at least £80 million for me to consider selling.
Transfers In
With the players leaving the club it was important to spend the money wisely as I really feel we have down with bringing in a number of young and exciting players such as Gomes from Dortmund and Perez from Barcelona. Another great piece of business in my eyes is bringing back Marco van Ginkel back to the club and if we can keep him fit he can lead the team from the middle of the park. We still have money to spend and there are still 1 or 2 positions such as RB if we want to get a squad capable of challenging and qualifing for the Champions League or Europa League.
Expectations
The league should be easy enough to get hopefully but the Champions League and Cup will all depend on the draws that we get as we have the potential to get some tough draws.
Preseason
We got off to a good start against the smaller teams but Inter really hammered us and I like to blame us missing players for the Olympics and others being on holiday after featuring in the Euro's.
We also played Ajax in the Dutch curtain raiser the Johan Cruijff Schaal and they just proved too strong as were still missing a number of first team players so hopefully it isn't a sign of things to come over this season.
August
Everyone it was a great end to the season and now the hard work begins to show how good this club can be
You have picked up two players I failed to develop in Schiappacasse (FM19) and Bulka (FM20), interested to see if they make an impact for you at all.
A lot of money brought in and spent rather sensibly. I'm a huge advocate for bringing Marco van Ginkel back to the club. Gomez's quality is well-known and he will be a great marquee signing for you. Benfica will be a tricky obstacle to overcome in the Champions League... Good luck.
Will be interesting to see if Buitink continues to impress following last year, despite being clearly disgruntled. The signing of Gomez is a great one and I think we can look forward to more pressure being put on Ajax this season.
August
I don't think I've ever had a busier month before where we're needing to squeeze 9 games into a month but we managed it and we've come out the other side of it as a much closer team.
We start our season off with travelling to face PSV. The only way this could of been more difficult would of been if it was Ajax. Things didn't go to plan at all as Ronald Araujo got his marching orders in the 10th minute and after that we were chasing our tails as PSV were able to make the extra man count and got the deserved win. Of course with the league we had the added trouble of having to face Benfica in the champions League Qualifiers and what a game it was. It had a bit of everything in it as we took the lead in the 2nd minute through Perez and Urzi doubled it a minute later. Urzi then added a 2nd to his tally in the 49th minute before our Rb Bouah put us 4-0 ahead in the 62nd minute and we thought that was us through with 4 away goals but Benfica weren't done as they managed to pull 3 goals back in the final 10 minutes to try and resuce the tie.
In the league we then narrowly passed Fortuna Sittard as Schiappacasse got the only goal of the game as we rested players for Benfica. It was another game for the neutrals as we wen't ahead in the 26th minute through Buitink before Benfica equalized on the stroke of half time. Gilmour got our second in the 64th minute before Benfica pegged us back 6 minutes later. Buitink and Tarin then got a quick fire double to leave us looking good for the win but Benfica score 2 goals in the final 2 minutes to rescue a draw but luckily it was enough to see us through. We rested some players for the next round and a final minute goal from Bella-Kotchap was enough to see us pass Heracles.
CSKA Moscow were all who stood in our path between us getting place in the Champions League and our defence were able to cope this time as 4 2nd half goals from Majer, Van Grinkel x2 and Buitink should see us make the group stages now. The game before the next tie deemed to be too much as Willem II were able to snatch a 1-0 win against us. Against CSKA we were able to rescue a very late goal thanks to a darting run off the wing by Unuvar to make sure we didn't lose at home. The final game of the month saw Gomez get his first goal for the club to see us past VVV-Venlo.
League
Champions League
Safe to saw its going to be difficult to progress from this group and 3rd spot will be probably be the best we can do here.
September
Transfers
August saw Eli Dasa leave to joining US Sassuolo for £3.6 million leaving us really short in the Rb position so we looked to the transfer list and snapped up French international Djibril Sidibe from Monaco for £6 million and they will be paying £15,000 of his wages as well. We also finally signed Mustafa Kapi who we had signed on a pre-contract deal in January.
Griffo They will both play as backups but will get their chances over the course of the season
Eoin97 ScottT We had to spend our money smartly in the transfer window and hopefully we've done well enough to not go back a step.
TheLFCFan Sadly he's been struggling for form in the league so far but hopefully it picks up now we're out of the transfer window.
September
A much shorter month which means our players might actually manage to get a break inbetween games. We start with a much more convincing win against Heerenveen. Urzi gets us off to a quick start with the opening goal in the 8th minute. We hold on until Heerenveen pull a goal back in the 55th minute. WE leave it very late as Araujo gets us back in front with just 6 minutes remaining but Majer decides to add another from the penalty spot with the last kick of the ball. Our first game in the Champions League and Hermoso puts Athletico ahead in only the 2nd minute which means I need to tear up my match plans and Urzi scores a cracker in the 24th minute and we look good value for taking a point from the game but Joao Felix pops up in the 89th minute to win the game.
Back to league action and we bounce back with a good win Schappacasse gets the opening goal before young Tom Cohen comes on as a sub to score his first goal for the club and hopefully it will be the first of many. Pinas pulls a goal back with just a couple of minutes to go as its too little too late. Utrecht has always made us work for results in the league and it was no different here. Van Ginkel scored the opener after 11 minutes and Majer doubled the lead in the 32nd minute but Utrecht kept coming at us for the rest of the game and finally got the goal they deserved in the 88th minute luckily for us there wasn't much time left.
we round the month off with a trip to Munich in what will be one of our hardest games all season. We have a first half to remember as Urzi and Buitink get a goal each to put us in the lead going into half time. Bayern come out fighting and Lewandwski gets a goal in the 50th minute to make us very nervous. Things got worse as Araujo get his second yellow in the 74th minute. We went really defensive and it paid off as we pulled off a massive upset to claim our first win in the group stages.
League
October
A better month there. A fantastic victory against Bayern Munich too. It was tough on you to be paired with both Bayern and Atletico but you're certainly not backing down.
Nice to see Cohen grabbing a goal early into his senior-team career.
Nice to see Cohen grabbing a goal early into his senior-team career.
What a stunning victory vs Bayern! The league has gotten off to a decent start but with the entrance of the UCL into your season I feel it may scupper your league position moving forward.
At the end of last season you were given no funds. You generated your own budget, spent it well, and now you are benefiting from some good management on your part. Forget some of the league results - your progress in Europe has been first-rate! Every point you pick up in Europe is golden. The league form will come when the fixture list settles down.
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