Just caught up on this and it's been an excellent read! Great to see you manage to win the league on a consistent basis with another one seemingly on it's way. The Champions League group stage in season two is another great achievement and on top of the sales the club balance is in a very good position. So far so good again this year with a lot of movement in the transfer window, but you are finding some good players and developing the youngsters well. Qualifying from the Europa League group is a great job and I am interested to see how far you can go.
First of all I wanted to say thank you for the comments coming in. It means a lot to me!
So I’ve decided to do this update a bit differently than the others since I’ve been able to play a bit more than usual during my christmas holiday from work.
By the way - A merry christmas and happy new year to all of you who read this update. Let’s hope for a better 2021 than what 2020 could manage!
So! This time I’ll include the summer transfer window in this update as nothing happened during the january window other than us selling one player. A large number of the players that I decided to bring in were brought in during the latter stages of the third season so I might as well pool them all together.
I’ll be going through the following:
Domestic League
Europa League
Magyar Kupa
Overall team performance
Player performances
Transfers (in and out)
Expectations for the upcoming season
Misc.
OTP Bank Liga
Three in a row for Puskás Akadémia FC!
Given how well the first half of the season it comes as no surprise that we ended up as Champions this season as well. I don’t know if it’s our tactical setup, our squad cohesion or player quality which have led us to three consecutive league titles, but we seem to be above and beyond the rest of the teams in the league - with the exception of Ferencvarosi TC. The fact that we’ve been so much better than the rest of the teams this season has meant that I’ve been able to rotate a lot in the squad and given game time to a host of different players. Everyone has been fit for most of the season with the exception of a couple of injuries to key players (I’ll discuss this later in the update.
I will mention that both Videoton FC and Ujpest FC have been very good this season as well and did cause a few problems for us. I hope that they’ll end up challenging us much more these coming seasons. As I’ve stated before we want to increase the leagues competitiveness in Europe so for other hungarian teams to be able to compete we also need the league to be more domestically competitive down the line.
Europa League
As shown in the previous update we won our group. This meant that we entered the knockout stages in the second round where we drew SS Lazio at home.
They won the match 3-0 in a very one sided affair. We never really got going and they were just a lot better than us. I’m proud about us even getting a point from the group let alone winning the bloody thing - a good sign of the club moving forward at a steady pace.
If I think about it a bit I’m not really sure whether I would want Europa League or Champions League in the near future. The Champions League is obviously good for the club’s bank balance, but on a personal level I’d like us to be competitive. If we qualify for the group stages in the Champions League we’ll just get hammered in the next few seasons and won’t be able to challenge for anything. I feel like Europa League (for the time being) would be better for us on a “sporting” level. So it basically comes down to a choice between money and results. The money will obviously be able to work for the club in the long run and we’ll be able to reinvest it in the facilities.
Right now - given our bank balance and how much of our transfer budget we can realistically spend - all that matters is improving the OTP Bank Liga in the League Ratings so hungarian clubs will be able to attract better players.
I've included the current league status in the update:
Magyar Kupa
The Board expected us to reach the final which we did. We faced off against Ferencvarosi TC and it was a coin flip for the result really. The match finished 1-1 in both ordinary and extra time and a penalty shootout would be the deciding factor.
We won the shootout, but it could’ve as easily gone to them. In all fairness they should’ve won it as they were the better team on the day. None of us were able to finish the game off so… yeah… a coin flip.
Overall Team Performance
I’ve been elated with the team’s performance this season. We never seemed to underperform in any match and we more or less set it in cruise control from the winter break and onwards.
A lot of players chipped in with goals this season so we weren’t relying on Antonio Mance to get all our goals. Ibrahim Sissoko had a resurgence in the second half of the season and hopefully he’ll step up in our next campaign and show himself as our first choice striker.
Jakub Plsek actually managed to be our top scorer for this season. He’s been used as an attacking mezzala getting involved in the latter stages of our attacking plays. having that extra player attacking the box from outside the box with a striker and an inverted winger applying constant pressure on the opposition’s defence. We switched between Favorov and Plsek in the second half of the season as Favorov was out injured for the first half.
Unfortunately Both Kiss and Baluta got injured near the end of the season and were ruled out for 4 months each. A huge blow to us even though we were cruising at this point. They were both integral players to us and since Baluta has turned 29 his stats do not like those types of long term injuries. He’s now on the decline as a footballer.
Player Performances
I’ve already mentioned Plsek and Sissoko, but I also want to mention Van Nieff, Deutsch, Slagveer, Halkett and Meißner who’ve all performed above and beyond this season.
My only problem now is that some of those players who’ve grown integral to our success are approaching the later stages of their careers and we’ll have to start lining up replacements.
Martin Vantruba has also shown that he was exactly what we needed in a goalkeeper. He’s been consistently amazing throughout the entire season.
Transfers
Given how well the team has performed this season I didn’t really see the need to strengthen the team too much for the coming season. We’ve had a lot of young players go out on loan and some of them have performed well. Sergiu Ion was loaned out to Vasas SC in the hungarian second division where he ended up with the most clean sheets in the league plus a promotion to the top flight. We have Martin Vantruba who’s our no. 1, but Sergiu Ion will be a good backup option for this coming season. I can see him getting game time both in the league as well as in the Cup.
Sorin Veres has also been out on loan for the season getting regular first team football in the slovakian top flight. His match ratings have been a bit lacklustre, but he’s developed well and I see him as our future advanced playmaker in the attacking midfield spot. How much game time he’ll get for us this coming season depends entirely on Baluta’s injury and how long he’s actually out for. As of now we already know that Baluta will be out for the first couple of months so it’ll come down to form between Fülöp and Veres.
Let’s look at the transfers for this season and the coming season. We’ll start with the “outs”
First of all we’ve thinned the squad across all three levels (first team, second team and u19’s). A lot of players who just weren’t good enough for first team football have been released on a free transfer.
We’ve sold Malick Sanogo. He was brought in as a future striker option. For his first (and last) season for us he was on loan at Budafok in the hungarian second division where he managed to be top goalscorer in the league. During the summer transfer window a bid came in from an MLS club for £ 125,000 which I rejected. He kicked up a fuzz and I promised him that if a bid of £ 250,000 or more came in then I’d let him go. He ended up with Austin FC who paid £ 325,000.
Kamen Hadzhiev was released on a free transfer. His contract expired at the end of the season. He wanted to be an “important player”, but I didn’t want to give him more than a squad player status. At the end of the day we just couldn’t come to terms. He’s now playing for Dunejska Streda.
We also sold Jacob Christensen whom we paid £ 75,000 for in the first season. He’s now gone to Birmingham for £ 600,000. I didn’t really want to let him go and it wasn’t like he was trying to force a move either, but I felt like it was a good deal for us in the long term.
The last big “out” in the summer window was Roland Szolnoki, our captain. I wasn’t too happy with letting our captain go due to squad dynamics, but he was never going to play for us and both him and I agreed that it was the right time to move on for both parties. In the end he ended up going to Austria Lustenau for £ 245,000 up front with an additional £ 55,000 in various clauses. We departed on good terms. I thanked him for his loyalty and services for the club and that was the end of that.
Now for the really fun part!
I decided to bring in a whole host of young players for the future so let’s begin with them.
Szabolcs Koronczai
Koronczai looks to be a talented hungarian centre back with good physicals. He was mainly brought in because the u19’s was missing a centre back and by being hungarian he looked like a good option. We paid £ 60,000 for him from Budafok.
Stefan Pesa
A talented slovenian CM who looks like he could be a great deep lying playmaker. My scouts and coaches all rated him to be a OTP Bank Liga player already at the age of 18. He’s been getting some first team football here and there, but will mainly play with the reserves for the time being. We paid £ 210,000 for him from NK Maribor.
Miklos Baranyi
I was scouring the market for a young hungariam DM and came across this guy. He’s still only 16 so there’s a lot of room to grow. I liked his physical stats, work rate and bravery. He’s also considered to be consistent which I also quite liked. Again… One for the future so we’ll keep a close eye on him. We paid (too much) £ 200,000 for him from Diósgyor VTK. I don’t mind paying that sum of money as it was to another hungarian club and it was for a hungarian player. Keep it in the family!
Karlo Halilovic
A talented 18 year old left winger (inside forward) with great pace and dribbling. The media is calling him a promising winger and he seems to have a lot of potential. He’s already had a few games for the first team and scored a couple of goals. I’m excited about this guy and can’t wait to see him develop over the coming seasons. We paid £350,000 from Lokomotiva.
Patrik Gula
An attacking midfielder from Slovakia with a lot of potential.I like his technique, flair, off the ball movement and balance. A similar type of player as Veres (although Veres is a lot better), but let’s see what this guy can become in a couple of seasons. We paid £ 95,000 for him from Sport Podbrezova.
Peter Begala
A great looking young left back. We already have two talented left backs out on loan (Safar and Ciurea), but they are more defensively minded. Begala possesses good crossing and great pace and he’s only 17! Really excited by this prospect! We paid £ 130,000 for him from Zemplin Michalovce.
Mark Hegedus
Fantastic physicals, good dribbling and technique and a perfectionist. An 18 year old from Hungary who’s stats just don’t stop going up at the moment. Again… really excited about this prospect whom I expect to take over from Kiss at some point on the left wing vying for the spot with Halilovic. We paid (too much) £375,000 for him from Szolnoki MAV.
Franjo Razum
A croatian attacking midfielder with good technique, first touch and determination. Being a realist as well I just liked the look of him. We got him on a free transfer after he was released by Dinamo Zagreb
Nikola Galic
We brought him in late in the transfer window. He looks like a decent CB with good potential. We mainly bought him because we need possible CBs for the future. He’s out on loan to Zalaegerszegi Torna Egylet FC who play in the hungarian top flight with us (and getting game time too). We paid £ 350,000 for him from Dinamo Zagreb.
For first team players we brought in the following.
Awer Mabil
Great pace, dribbling and technique. He can play naturally on both wings. He was brought in on a free from FC Midtjylland.
Milos Vucic
A RB backup option for Bartolec. He’s a left footer (Which I failed to see), but has a reasonable right foot. I’m trying to see if I can train him to be a LB as well to provide cover for both fullback positions. He was brought in on a free from Sutjeska Niksic.
Benedikt Gimber
Straight in as first choice CB with Halkett or Meißner. He’s brought in to take over from Meißner as he’s started to get homesick so he might leave us in the near future. We paid £ 925,000 for him from Hoffenheim.
Oh and don’t mind some of the dates on the screen shot! I forgot to take a couple of them before I started writing so I had to go back. As you can see we may have played a bit of Champions League ;-)
Misc.
As a side note I’m happy to announce that the board has decided to expand the stadium capacity by a little over 1,000 seats. This means that we’re now able to fit in a little over 4,000 fans when we’re playing at home. It’s still not enough though for us to meet the criterias from UEFA and we’re forced to use Budapest Honved’s stadium when playing “at home” in the Champions League.
I also enquired the board on the opportunity to improve the “Junior Coaching” bumping us up from “adequate” to “good”. I did enquire about increased wage budget for u19 staff, but my request was denied.
Before I wrap up I quickly want to mention that a takeover rumor has been going for nearly a season now. Under Club Info it says that the owner “Loves the club” so I’m not expecting anything, but you never know. I’ve never tried a takeover before so that could be fun!
See you in half a season!
