Antwerp - Welkom In De Hel Van Deurne-noord

Belgian Cup Final

Today we faced KV Kortrijk, with our only striker in form, Mombongo, injured so I knew this was going to be a tough game. We got off to a great with Viane scoring a header from another corner in the 7th minute, as soon as that ball went into the back of the net I thought we had a chance to win, and we probably would of if it weren't for a great performance from Joseph-Monrose, grabbing an equaliser in the 64th minute. I immediately brought on Diouck for some fresh legs upfront and a chance for us to grab a winner - but it wasn't to be. Joseph-Monrose was on hand again to score a simple header in the 84th with our defence caught napping. I couldn't grab a late equaliser despite how hard my boys tried, they were just too tired.

2011-12 End Of Season Summary

The League & Cup

I feel we did well in the league, not raising any eyebrows by securing promotion with a great record of 21 wins, 11 draws and 2 losses. The majority of draws coming from my assistant manager taking charge and the losses weren't important as they were the last few games of the season so I saw it as an opportunity to trial some of the younger players in the squad.

I'm also impressed at how far we got in the Belgian cup, it was disappointing to lose in the final, but credit to the lads for getting there in the first place, it was also possible I could of played Beerschot which would of made it more entertaining due to the fierce rivalry, however they lost in the semi-final.



Performances

Now this is an area that definitely did concern me at the start of the season with my strikers literally scoring very little, however once I began to leave games to my assistant he could get Mombongo scoring using the exact same tactic, but Dosunmu was still lacking in goals. One area of the squad that performed particularly well was the defence, especially with Viane managing 9 goals and Chergui managing 18 assists, arguably my defence played worse towards the end of the season considering that's when we lost our 2 games.
The midfield was decent, some games they would perform very well, scoring the goals when the strikers weren't and others they would just do their job.

Chergui got the most assists in the league and the most MoMs, he's my LB, he was also along with Blay, my RB, in the highest average rating table.



Future Plans - I have already discussed my main future plans, to make sure the club stay in the Pro League, build a good youth and rid the old, however that may not happen in the next season as I'm unsure what the wage budget is yet, hopefully much higher so I can bring some decent players in to do the job of the loanees we had. I'm also looking to get rid of this debt, after that I can definitely bring talent in.

General Comments

Ryan Baynon had a good debut, scoring 1 and grabbing an assist, however due to leaving games to my assistant, who didn't feel Baynon was good enough he was left out of regular first team football, and has requested to leave, I will probably allow it.

Dosunmu has signed a contract elsewhere, probably for the best as he had no future here after that appalling season for someone like him, my assistant also said he has declined as a footballer over the year, the same goes with Phibel, who may also be sold.

I will be looking to see if I can get Chergui on a permanent basis as he was a key player for the club, and fits in very well.

All these plans about transfer will probably only be possible if the board give a decent budget, which I'm beginning to doubt.

When are you doing next season?:)

why did your assistant manager take charge of games ??

@CFC As soon as I can most likely, I'll try and get some today

@Shaneo I decided to go on holiday for easy games/games that didn't matter to speed up the season, I wasn't really thinking when I left him managing a cup game but he won it haha

Update

My board decided to install under soil heating, which I didn't ask for certainly. I definitely would of preferred the 2m to be better spent either on facilities or in the budgets.



I also applied for GB U23's, if they accept, that will be an interesting twist to the story I think - I would still manage Antwerp, don't forget that.

Team Of The Season

Proof of our great defensive record this season, conceding the least goals. Somehow Chergui wasn't in there, not too sure about that one



I also didn't win manager of the season, nor come 2nd or 3rd. I imagine this is due to the finance problems.

Update

New budgets, better than the 3K wage budget you get in the first season, still £0 transfer budget, but we are Antwerp and we will manage! More good news, we signed a new 2 year sponsorship deal, giving us £550K per annum compared to the previous £347K.



Oh and Slovakia won in the Quarter Final, beating Italy

Great story! Gonna follow it all the way! Great to see someone manage in Belgium

Pre-Season 2012-13 Review

I'll start off with the transfers, the problems that we faced last year were major, the highest wages could go up to was £240 meaning I couldn't renew the contracts of the majority of the first team players. However, after the successful season the board increased the wage budget up to 30K allowing me to keep onto some players, especially fan-favourite Denis Viane, unfortunately though some players had already signed contracts elsewhere so I didn't bother even trying to keep them, such as Mombongo and Dosunmu. On the bright side, with the 30K allocated wage budget I could shift it around, which I did, allowing me to secure Chergui who was a very key individual last season, notching up 18 assists. Overall, the club has been re-shaped, not fully, but quite a lot, I've kept some of the original squad and I brought in some experienced players to tutor the young I brought in which I hope will shine at Antwerp.

Here's the transfer history, a total of 9 players left, and I brought in a total of 8.



Screenshots of the 8 players:










Georgiev and Yao look like promising talent for the future, if I had good enough facilities, which the board won't give me unfortunately.

Results

I don't even want to talk about the results they were that bad, I was there for the last 2, to see how things went, other than that the assistant took them. I chose larger reputation clubs, just to get some extra cash in the bank for the club but that came with the price of losses, hopefully that wont affect our league form were we will shine, I hope

Tactics

I didn't want to change the tactics too much as the squad has already seen a lot of new faces and making a new tactic would just add to the confusion, so I decided to stick to the same formation, tactics etc apart from adopting a more counter-attacking and defensive approach due to being in a higher league. I will of course be keeping the set pieces the same as they worked rather well last season, allowing Viane to get an impressive 10 goals.



General Comments

The board have given me the task of reaching the mid-table this season, which I would say is a fair request, as Antwerp do hold the quality of a decent Pro League side so that is what I will be aiming to do, for the Belgian Cup I will be seeking revenge, I want to win it this time round, I certainly think that it would be possible to accomplish. I will be keeping an eye on Yao, Brnas and Georgiev as they look promising players for the future and I hope they can bring success to the club. Also, there is some financial safety this season which is great, I won't have the board constantly saying the wages need to be addressed with, but I will still lose 111K every month for another 8 years to repay the loan the chairman took out, which is around 9.5M. In addition, I brought in some extra backroom staff, including 3 scouts, applying 1 to Central Europe, 1 to Holland and another to East Europe, in the future I'm hoping the board will see sense and allow me to expand my scouting area, as I want scouts in South America as soon as possible. Along with scouts I also brought a Youth Coach to help with the new in take of young players and a goalkeeping coach as I was lacking one last season. Annoyingly Wamfor is injured, which is annoying as he was my main midfielder, so we will be at a disadvantage at the start of the season.

#58909 Atreidas : Great story! Gonna follow it all the way! Great to see someone manage in Belgium

i have such amazing ideas...

Update

We're currently doing well in the Pro League, we lie in 3rd with 10 points. The point of this post was to inform you of a new signing, making that 9 transfers. We signed Finnbogason for a fee of 66K from Lokeren, he will become the regular AMC, allowing Ionescu a rest, but he's also an idol for the younger players.



Also, the young forward Brnas has been performing exceptionally, managing a very impressive 7 goals in 5 games. He scored 4 of these in his previous game, however in the same game he got injured and is thought to be out for 6-7 weeks.

Mid Season Summary 2012-13

League & Cup

I'm pleased at were we stand in the league, we're certainly overachieving but I'm not complaining. If we manage to keep were we are we stand a chance at European football next season which will be interesting to see how we do. In the cup we go into the second leg of the Quarter Final against Club Brugge, a side which are considered to be better, with a 4 goal advantage, the result most likely came from me playing attack from the first minute as I saw they had drawn their last 3 games so I knew their strikers weren't up to scratch and didn't have to worry about them.



New Tactics

I wanted to introduce a couple more tactics to the lads to see if they could make any significant improvements upfront as before I was lacking so I decided to go with a 4-4-2 Attacking formation, I also tweaked team instructions slightly to fit the formation.




Also, next season I'm looking to try out a new tactic, I'm unsure if it will work or not though, will have to wait and see.


Transfers

To make sure I had the correct players for the first formation shown I had to bring in a couple of extra players to fill the roles, I managed to come across these two players on free transfer who have had a good start to their game here at Antwerp.




I'm also looking to get rid of Rony Baynon as he isn't needed any longer, but it looks as if he's going to be released on a free as no one wants to buy him. Also, Sporting(POR) have offered a contract to Brnas worth £1.4K a week, which is more than I can afford to offer so I fear he may accept it, especially with Sporting being a better club overall.

If he does decide to go I'm certain the Antwerp fans will remember him for how well he has done this season for us, he's been a great contribution to our success.

Update



Also, Baynon has been given a free transfer.

P.S - Would I be better off selling Brnas at the start of next season? This would earn some money instead of us trying to keep him, as Antwerp can't afford much more than they are already spending.

#59300 YoungOwl : Update



Also, Baynon has been given a free transfer.

P.S - Would I be better off selling Brnas at the start of next season? This would earn some money instead of us trying to keep him, as Antwerp can't afford much more than they are already spending.

No you shouldn't sell him it's the same as i would ask if i should sell Vergara with the shrews
keep your key players