A SWARM OF BEES - BRENTFORD FC

Good to see Isak finally starting to show a bit of form in front of goal. You need consistency this season if you are to push on into Europe.

Tottenham are clearly going to be the big test next month, with their incredible start. It is great to see you scoring goals now though. Assuming this continues, I can't see you dropping off as much as you did last season.

After 11 matches we are still on track with our goal - continental football as we are sitting in the 5th position! We finished last month with frustrating defeat to Blackburn and need to pick ourselves up and start winning again (we are scoreless in 3 matches). Although we didn't get the right results, we dominate our opponents and sooner rather than later the points will start coming again.

We are without Pedro Chirivella and will be for a long time. Also Thilo Kehrer will miss the most of the month and maybe won't play in it.


Oh my, we didn't need another match like this! 3 of the last 4 goals that were scored against us comes after a direct free kick, come ooooon! 11 minutes after the start of the second half - another cold shower! Crystal Palace scored 2 goals out of 3 shots on target for the whole game and on the other end we missed everything that can be missed! We threw everything that we had in the end and attacked with 4 people! Said Benrahma provides another great pass to Ollie Watkins and we get glimpse of hope. In the final minute we have a free kick and just cross the ball, VAR comes to save us with a penalty decision in our favor. Lovro Majer puts the ball in the net and steals 1 point for us, even though we deserved more than that!

2 match in a row where we are the better team, but the luck is against us. We need to win these matches if we want the place in the top six!

We receive massive blow as 4 of our players are injured between this match and the next one. Lovro Majer is out for a month, Bryan Mbeumo & Oskar Buur will probably miss this month (November). Dominick Thompson is out for just 1 game, but this means 6 people in the medical center (not including the ones that are out for a day or two)

Pontus Jansson will miss the next game as he reached 5 yellow cards for the season.

So, 7 people from the squad are out before the match against Southampton.



This time the match was pretty even as we meet the Saints for the first time. Mathias Jensen put a masterclass performance as he scored beautiful goal to give us the lead. The Danish midfielder also won Player of the Match. The home team answered quickly and then the match calmed down until the end where both team missed sitters to split the points. Because of the problems with the selection I'm not so disappointed with the result as I was with the last two matches (vs. Blackburn & Palace). We struggle for a third match away from home so this may become a problem soon.


Luckily our next opponent are our favorite one, that we beat two times last year. We continue the tradition thanks to the goals by Ollie Watkins & Alexander Isak! Another great display by Mathias Jensen who stepped again in the shoes of the team leader. Totally domination for the Bees over the Hornets! Dominick Thompson returns with an assist! In the end our opponents scored great volley goal but they didn't have the ability for something more.

Finally a win after 4 matches in the league (one more in the cup)!


Massive result against a top 4 team! After pretty even first half in which both team had their chances we needed a little push - and that push came again from the man in form - Ollie Watkins! Once again his great partnership with Said Benrahma showed the world what they can do as the Algerian eliminated a couple of defenders before giving the perfect pass to our goalscorer! We didn't stopped there as Benrahma did the exercise once again this time shooting from distance and young Amine Gouiri, tapped the rebound in the net! From this point forward Spurs tried attacking us, but failed. In the final minutes Max Aarons tried a cross, our keeper David Raya wasn't concentrated at all and failed to catch to ball, which went in our net, ugly thing. This gave our opponents new life and they pushed again, however Raya repaid for his earlier sin and saved the day!


Ollie Watkins scored his 8th goal for the season, which is the same number that he scored last year for the WHOLE season. It's end of November! He scored in 3 times of our 4 matches this month and once again proved that he is THE man in the team. No matter if he plays on the left wing or as a striker he is always big threat for opponents goalkeepers! Great performance!

Mathias Jensen was the other guy who was having a great November! 1 assist, 1 goal and leading the team for a great month once again! Never expected him to have so much effect on the squad!



We had and undefeated month, which is always a good accomplishment! We dropped to 7th only thanks to our worse goal difference, however we are only 3 points away from the 3rd position which is great, we should not let the gap to get bigger! Although the month was a good one, it could have been ever better if we didn't lost 2 points against Palace & Southampton. A lot of injuries hit us hard and the next month we will continue without some of the players in the squad. We are performing really well, but let's not forget that we were predicted to finish 17th, we must fight against the odds!

Because of the good result we tend not to rotate the squad so much and maybe a couple of people will vow their concerns about it (Jeong Woo, Baptiste, Semedo). We are closing to the transfer window and we have more than €50M in the bank. I really want to keep the same strategy and don't pay big transfer sums, however I want that little push that will help us get us the position in the league that we want. I will look for somebody who can provide that little push and maybe, just maybe we will break our transfer record (€13M for Isak).

Manchester United are 5 points clear at the top after November chased by last year champions. Norwich is having great season and are only 3 points behind us. At the bottom Leicester finally got up and secured some points.

December will be key to our campaign, also was the month that our troubles started last year, hopefully we can miss that part this time. We have 5 matches - Man City (A), Norwich (H), Burnley (A), Everton (A), Man United (H).

Before that update we will take a look at the other team managed by me - Bulgaria and more specific about the World Cup 2022 Qualifications.

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

COMMENTS

ScottT - Both Watkins & Isak are lethal infront of goal this year, really happy with the situation. Gouiri also contributes and Benrahma is having superb season as well.

TheLFCFan - Spurs are down, now we must continue our good form!

A crucial victory against Spurs that really helps your bid for European football for next season. You're performing well and these hard fought points you're earning when you're experiencing a high volume of injuries will be very important.

A massive two results to end the month there, in particular the Spurs one, following two tough draws. Three points off third is a great start and maybe we see some Champions League next season if this form continues.

Watkins single-handedly getting you in Europe I see

We are looking back at the other team that I manage and where the things aren't bright as the season at Brentford FC and is really difficult to maneuver. After brilliant start of my Bulgaria career as we won our Nations League C, got promoted into League B and qualified for Euro 2020 for the first time in 16 years, things got ugly as we made our worst performance at the finals. After that we got relegated back into Nations League C after really unlucky campaign finishing with the same points as the team ahead of us and just 3 points behind the winner of the group.

After all we play good football and the nation is happy that we are competitive once again. We might not be winning and dominating over teams, however we found our game and can trouble every team in the world.

The qualifications for the strange winter World Cup 2022 put us in awful group for us. Also the rules state that only the first team in the group will reach the finals (and the best 3 teams finished in second place). Unfair to my view as Europe gets way too small amount of teams in the final compared to other continents. (South America has 10 teams, 5 qualify?). Of course teams from Africa & Asia should also get bigger numbers and maybe the forum needs some rebuilding getting more teams. Small nations almost has no chance of even qualifying.

Again we look way more to the young players in the nation, however it's still early and not many talents emerged through the last year. Slow and steady - this is our strategy. We try to introduce as many youngster to the first team and still be competitive and try to win games. Bulgaria will use 3 defender systems against the bigger teams and 4-3-2-1 against the weaker sides and when we trail in the score in the final minutes.

The group that are we are handled is giving us maybe 1% of qualifying for the World Cup as we will face - Spain, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria, Latvia & Moldova.

Last time the teams played at big forum:

Spain - Euro 2020 Quarter-final (3 times winner), World Cup 2018 round of 16 (1 time winner)
Bosnia & Herzegovina - never qualified in Euros, World Cup 2014 group stage.
Austria - Euro 2016 group stage, World Cup 1998 group stage (3rd place in 1954).
Bulgaria - Euro 2020 group stage, World Cup 1998 group stage (4th place in 1994).
Latvia - Euro 2004 group stage, never qualified for World Cup.
Moldova - Never qualified for both Euros nor World Cup.

Even though Bosnia & Austria doesn't have so many achievements, both teams are young and hungry for wins with great talents in them. However we will be up for the challenge and try our best!


We start our campaign against the lowest ranked team in the group and everything looks like a nightmare as we are down 0-1 after just 18'. Until the end of the first half we had some chances but nothing more. We are out of this competition before even playing a couple of matches? However our players woke up in the second half and tuned my half time fury speech into 4 goals and demolishing Moldova. Stade Brestois's Strahil Popov made a performance to remember after blasting two great goals, making one assist and winning POTM! Young talent Stanislav Ivanov (playing at Middlesbrough on loan from Watford) got one more. In the final minutes of the game for the first time in 3 years (!!!) one of our strikers score a goal. (Last time this happened in 2019 in the last match for Euros Qualifications), oh my lord...

In other matches:
Austria - Bosnia & Herzegovina 1:2
Spain - Latvia 3:0


We deserved a lot more than that! Although we were down from the 9 minute of the game after a direct free kick goal, we had a lot of opportunities to equalize the score, but missed our chances. We pushed our opponents to their limit as the second half we were far more dangerous from them. However we fail to score, turned our attention just to the attack and Bosnia hit us hard with a counter attacking goal. 2-0.

Latvia - Austria 0:4
Moldova - Spain 0:1

So after the first March 2021 matches everything is going according to plan for Spain & Bosnia. Both teams with 6pts, Bulgaria and Austria with 3 pts., Moldova & Latvia without any.


We enter June fixture with a really laud bang! 3 goals in the first 13 minutes and the supporters are not believing their eyes! And two of these goals came from our striker Stanislav Kostov (playing in the local league in Levski) - MIRACLE! Again we are brought really fast to the ground as Latvia scores 2 goals inside 3 minutes and are back in the game! The away team even had a chance to make the result 3-3 but our keeper kept away the ball from the net. The Player Of the Match and biggest star in our team Kiril Despodov calmed down the burning fire with a nice solo goal and after just 31' the supporters saw 6 goals! The game really calms down as Latvia don't have the power for another push and our players playing safe.

Nice win, maybe this is the first time in history that we score 4 goals in second straight home win!

Moldova - Bosnia & Herzegovina 1:3
Spain - Austria 1:0

And next up is the really important match against Austria.


The fans were pumped up that we can actually achieve something, but Das Team crushed our dreams. Again as the match with Bosnia we were trailing for the most of the match. In the final 20 minutes we changed our system and tried to attack a lot powerful than us team and simply got punished with pacey counter attacks that we could not defend. The match again was pretty even but our final push failed giving the home team 2 more goals in the end of the match so it look like they were the dominating team - not exactly like that. However the points are given for wins and we didn't win - so back to the mediocrity!

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Spain 2:4
Latvia - Moldova - 1:2

We knew this will be tough and our task is to finish above or equal to the expectations of 4th place! Everything more will be bonus and I'll be happy about it.


September started with away match against Moldova and we don't disappoint after 2 goals in the end of each half. I'm happy with finding good playmaker in the last year in the face of Antoni Ivanov (who plays in the Romanian League). Great all round player who is the most constant guy in our team - always giving his all for the team. He was one of the stars of the night - winning POTM. Georgi Milanov who replaced Kiril Despodov (injury) for September matches provided 2 assist and Stanislav Kostov scored his 4th goal in the campaign!

It's vital that we don't slip against weaker sides!

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Austria 0:0
Latvia - Spain 1:3


Pure magic moment! We faced La Furia Roja which was destroying everything on his way to the World Cup. We parked the bus and give 110% of ourselves. Our keeper Plamen Iliev who returned as number one choice after great performances for the club team made 10 saves and logically won POTM. As the game was coming to an end I was pretty happy that we will win a point against such great team, but then Antoni Ivanov saw our left wingback Ivan Goranov running like wild and completely free on the wing, gave him a perfect pass and Goranov scored crazy volley goal in the top far corner! 40 000 mad man at the standings erupted like a volcano! AMAZING WIN FOR US!

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Latvia 3:0
Moldova - Austria 2:1

Great news came from Moldova which unexpectedly won against Austria. Small glimpse of hope was sneaking among the fans, can we make the miracle and finish 2nd and pray to be among the best 3 2nd placed teams.

After September 2021 the standing was - Spain 15 pts., Bosnia 13 pts., Bulgaria 12pts., Austria 7 pts., Moldova 6 pts., Latvia 0 pts.



We had a great opportunity at home to attack the second position in direct clash against Bosnia! Missed opportunity - this is the best words for the match. We had great opportunities to go ahead in the score but were wasted by our players. This time we were the better team through the whole of the match, however Bosnia got the point that they wanted by great defensive display. Defender Stefan Velkov (playing at Swedish Djurgardens) won POTM with some great work on the second floor and delivering the ball to the midfield. We beat the away team on every stat, but not on the most important one - goals.

It's vital that we don't slip against weaker sides!

Austria - Latvia 4:0
Spain - Moldova 4:0


Exactly the same score as the first game, this time the win didn't came so fast. Most of our players performed greatly and showed their quality. Right wingback Ivan Turitsov (playing at Kortrjik) scored his first international goal to give us the lead. Todor Nedelev & Stanislav Ivanov both added one more to their account to lead us to comfortable scoreline 0-3. Again as the first match we were troubled by two quick goals by Latvia to pressure us. Kristian Malinov with his trademark - long distance goal put the end of their hopes!

As our main man Kiril Despodov was still injured Georgi Milanov once again provided! 2 more assist and POTM award for him!

With this win we go on a 4 match unbeaten run!

Austria - Spain 0:1
Bosnia & Herzegovina - Moldova 3:1

October 2021 standings - Spain 21 pts., Bosnia 17 pts., Bulgaria 16pts., Austria 10 pts., Moldova 6 pts., Latvia 0 pts.

Okay, the thing that we can possibly secure qualification and we are still in the game with only 2 games left are giving us hope that we are in the right direction! Of course this will be magical because our next 2 games are against Spain & Austria, but just imagine what a results these can be!
Fans are dreaming once again and this is our win for this qualifications. Probably we won't achieve something but we are in the game, not accepting the mentality of a losers!



The whole wrath of Spain fell on us! It's my mistake that I tried a little bit more attacking scheme against this mighty team, but never expected such beating. They had almost the same numbers of shots or target - 12 (10 in the first game), this time almost all of them went in. We could not did anything. Ansu Fati with a hattrick, they purely crushed our hopes. Young Tonislav Yordanov (playing at CSKA-Sofia) scored his first goal for the team and that was the only good news.

The scores from the other matches came - Bosnia have won against Latvia and we don't have chance for the second place no more.

Austria - Moldova 3:0
Latvia - Bosnia & Herzegovina 0:4


After the results in the previous match we have nothing to play. The match against Austria was for the 3rd place in the group that gives nothing and I gave the chance of the players that are not selected so often to impress me, also the other guys were shattered after the match against Spain. We were better in the first half and scored superb goal by Nedelev (his 3rd for the campaign). In the second half our boys were lacking concentration and fell behind after two good goals by our opponents. Unlucky defeat, however I'm proud that even my reserves gave hard time to our opponents.

Moldova - Latvia 0:2
Spain - Bosnia & Herzegovina 5:1



We finished where we were predicted to finish - 4th (only on goal difference).Even that we end the journey with 2 defeats I'm happy with the team, we achieved what we wanted for these qualifications. There were no illusion that we can qualify in this kind of group, we just want to give the fans some hope that we CAN beat big teams and can fight and be competitive! We achieved that!

It's some kind of relief that the 2nd team in our group didn't qualify and even if we had won against Spain & Austria in November we wouldn't qualify. Also it is important for me that we didn't have troubles with the lower ranked teams and beat them in all 4 matches. After this competition we moved up to 64th position in the World.

The players that made good impression in this campaign were - Stanislav Kostov - scoring 4 goals, Todor Nedelev - scoring 3 and assisting 1, Georgi Milanov - with 4 assists and 1 POTM and Antoni Ivanov - with 4 assist to his account.

Another hard to swallow pill for my Bulgaria adventure, but I'm used to it. We should look at the bright side of it and search for the positive, maybe next time it will be a lot better. Next stop for the national team - Nations League 2022 which will be held through the summer.

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

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COMMENTS:

ScottT - We are on our way, but I'm afraid that we can have some kind of crisis in the most important months which will be awful for our dreams.

TheLFCFan - We are very close and it will be remarkable if we can pull this off in our only second season in PL.

Jack - He is on fire, no doubt about that, but all the players are performing well better than last year.

You gave it a good go but unfortunately just lack the quality that the likes of Spain, Bosnia and Austria have. There will be a time when you can catch up to the quality of both Bosnia and Austria and there's definitely signs of that. What a great result you got against Spain in the first game!

Sadly it was always going to be. It seems as though Bulgaria are missing Dimitar Berbatov up front with their lack of potency on the front line. If only Watkins was Bulgarian!

Unfortunate to not see qualification but it's much better than when you first took over. You also manage to create a historic win over Spain that nobody can take away. Great work there.

After the undefeated month Brentford is looking in great shape and we are ready to answer the challenge! We have some tough opposition and the schedule is pretty packed so we will need everybody to be on good level and show their quality. All the teams in top 7 (we're 7th) seems to move with identical pace, the teams change their position every matchday and looks like the battle for the top 4 will be severe! We will face 3 teams from the top six plus Norwich (which is one of our boogie teams) and Burnley.

We will miss Pedro Chirivella & Lovro Majer for this month. The first one is out from October and hopefully next month will finally come back. The Croatian can play in the final fixures of the month.


Started the match really well and we open the score with beauty by Jensen, who curves the ball in the top corner, no chance for the goalkeeper. City answered pretty quickly with great solo effort from their new signing - Macias and the teams went for a break. And then all hell broke loose. After just a couple of minutes De Bruyne scores from absurd range, and just after that Dominic Thompson was sent off. Nightmare! In the 67' minute they got a penalty, but Raya once again shows what he is made of and saves it! We defend bravely but the 1 man advantage was too much to handle in the end and we receive two more goals, one of which is from ANOTHER penalty.

Terrible loss for our confidence, 2 penalties, 1 red card and performance to forget. Thompson will miss next 2 games.


After the heavy loss in the last match didn't expect us to answer like this when we went down in the score in the first half against the team that we always fail to perform against (1 draw with a goal in the final minute and 1 loss last season). It looked as the same story again, but we made brave changes in our final push and two of the subs combined to score the equalizing goal. Ayoze Perez to Mbeumo and 1-1! In the final minute of the game our captain saved the team once again in an important moment! Brilliant cross from the Player of the Match winner Mathias Jensen to Pontus and the Swedish magician puts in the goal to send the supporters in delirium!

Important win, mainly because we responded so well against the result against City.


Second match in a row in which we steal the win in the final minute of the game! We dominate the whole game and the home team are trailing after just 22' after another great goal by Jensen! In the second half they get a goal which is quickly denied by another goal for us, Baptiste blasting cannon in the goal of Burnley! The match was going pretty smoothly for our team, but then suddenly David Raya gives the ball away with unsuccessful pass and Barnes scores out of nowhere! For our happiness this was not the final move in the game and we put the pressure on them, Isak was brought down by a defender and then he scored the penalty to give us the lead for a third time! In the last event in the match Rico Henry scored his first goal for the campaign after an assist from the POTM winner Shandon Baptiste!

Raya makes second mistake (after the one vs Spurs), maybe we should give Fruchtl some starts outside the cup competition to remind the team nobody has a guaranteed place in the starting team.


We meet the Toffees for a second time this season after they eliminated us in the EFL Cup, we didn't manage to beat the last season too so our record against them is awful - 2 draws (both 0-0) and one loss (0-1). It looks like all these matches against them are tactical clash between the managers and for the first time I emerge as the winner. Our defense performance was great, not leaving any spaces for the the opposition. Our captain Pontus Jannson was POTM after bullying all Everton players on the pitch and giving them no chance! As always the matches against them are without a lot of goals, but our Algerian sub Said Benrahma gave us the win in the final quarter of the game! First win against Everton comes on Boxing Day!

In the final game of the year we meet the same team that we met in the last year's final game - the league leaders Manchester United!


We changed our approach to the game and surprised the Red Devils with different formation - 3-5-2 and it was a game changer! We took the control of the most important area of the field - the midfield as Lovro Majer was bossing there (Dasilva & Jensen also played great). As the clock was ticking away, United got frustrated with their lack of chances and forgot to defend and that was the perfect time to strike! The young Croatian Majer opened up their defense with 2 great assist to our attacking duo - Isak & Watkins both scoring counter attacking goals to shock the league leaders!

Superb final of the year and the fans can't wait to see what we will bring in the next one!


In one of the most intense months for us once again our Danish midfielder Mathias Jensen was the best player in the team! For the two years and a half that I'm here he never disappointed us! Superb player!
This month he scored 2 goals, gave 1 assist and played main part in all of our wins! The bad news about that is that he is now target of Arsenal and it's almost time for the winter transfer window, we won't sell them for any price, however he may get upset, really hoping they won't go for it!

Pontus Jannson was another player that stood out from the rest as he scored the winning goal against Norwich and then won POTM against Everton!



Another almost perfect month, excluding the ugly defeat against Manchester City. The things are starting to look really frustrating as all the teams in the top six are just not letting it go! We are up just 1 position to 6th from the last month even though we won 4 matches! We are on just 4 points from the second place, but still we are not in the top 4! We are performing really well, but we are not there yet. I'm pissed that all teams are having a great season too.

Our attack again is on fire as all of our players continue to impress - Watkins (9 goals), Isak (7 goals), Benrahma (6 goals). Watkins is the third league goalscorer.

Manchester United are first, but all 5 teams behind them can reach them with just a couple of bad results. Arsenal & Everton are just around the corner and also are hoping for a top 4 finish. This time I don't see how Leicester will pull this off, they and Blackburn are going down almost for sure. The battle will be for the last relegation place.

The transfer window is close and in order to get some players we need to free some space. Our team performs really well so I don't think we need major changes, just a couple of the right players! I don't think we need to sell anybody also except some of the younger players which are in the second team and their contracts are expiring.

Next month we have 6 matches, but all of them are looking as winnable. We need to push so we end up in a better position, also we are injury free except Pedro Chirivella who I expect will return in mid-January.

So next month we will meet: Huddersfield (FA Cup A), West Ham (H), Sheffield United (A), Bournemouth (A), Everton (H) & Brighton (A).

Thanks for reading once again & hope you enjoy it.

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COMMENTS:

ScottT - That's one of the hardest challenges in FM, to develop a good nation, this can happen only by developing the younger players which is not my job, but clubs coaches so I depend on them. We will see, we are lurking in the same positions for now.

Jack - Berbatov is missed, however most of the Bulgarians criticized him for not playing good against the strongest oppositions, that's way he left so early the national team. We will find our striker, one of them you should know well - Kun Temenuzhkov playing in Leeds.

TheLFCFan - It was never on the board to qualify, as IRL it's almost impossible for a small nation to reach the World Cup.

Some very important goals late on seal some absolutely huge victories for you this month. The ability to dig deep late on to get a result will serve you well.

Glad to see Isak performing much better this season.

Following a tough loss to City, you responded very well with a good win against a side in Norwich who you have previously struggled against, as well as a massive win over United which shows you can compete with these top sides now. The top seven is close, but that is to be expected in a very competitive league like the Premier League.

That Jansson goal could really change the facts of the season come the end of this year! A really huge goal to take all 3 points. As for the national team, great to see Kun involved although I imagined he would've been at this point regardless, a class act.