[FM13] C.D. Constància: Trading places (Page 9)

Northwood

12 years

LJO200 : Dang it, well at least MK Dons are stuttering and they got into League One. Nice update

Milton Keynes have finished 22nd and just clear of relegation in the npower League 2 the last three seasons.

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Northwood

12 years

LJO200 : I"d like to see how Polish teams are doing in Europe.

I’m going to pass on the Polish update as there is not much to tell.

No Polish teams have made an impact in Europe.

A few teams have made it to the group stage in the Europa League but they have all finished last in there group.

In the Champions League Lech Poznan have made the group stage three times but have still never won a game. Wisla Krakow beat Leverkusen in a group stage game (goal by Jan Erlich) in the 2019-2020 season for the first ever Polish Champions League win.

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Northwood

12 years

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/CDC_zpsfd0594e5.jpg

House of cards

There was also turmoil in Danish football. After being relegated from the top division in 2015/16 AaB from Ålborg moved right back up the year after and in their first season back in the top division they won the Danish Championship for the first time since 2008.
FC Copenhagen who had won the league the previous four years finished in a disappointing fourth place and FC Nordsjælland who won the league as recent as in 2012 was relegated.

In Mallorca and in the LIGA adelante it all came down to the last game of the season and incredibly enough we had the upper hand as we held the sixth place before the last round kicked off. Right behind us Cádiz CF and CA Osasuna both had the chance to overtake us if we made the slightest mistake.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/40A_zps4f3da4bd.jpg

In the final game of the regular season we were to go up against SD Ponferradina who was already secured a spot amongst the top six but we had the advantage of playing at home in Nou Camp d'Inca.
Cádiz CF and CA Osasuna also in the hunt for the sixth and final spot in the playoffs were both playing weaker teams with nothing to play for, so a win looked to be absolutely necessary for us. We had to play the game without Eloy Alvarez who was sitting out a suspension for too many yellow cards. His replacement was Andrea Orlandi who was playing his last league game before he was going to retire after the season.

The first hour we were cruising. We not only took the lead on a great header by Jesus on a perfect cross from Andrea Orlandi, but both the teams behind us were also struggling.

You know the feeling you have in your stomach when you know that everything is not right. Everything might be looking fine on the outside but you still have that feeling that everything might start to crack up and come down like a house of cards around you any minute. That was the feeling I had going inn to the halftime. I did my best not to show my worries to the team and gave a passionate speech trying to inspire them to go out and produce another forty-five minutes of great football for the fans.

But I was not the slightest surprised when it all started to come apart shortly after the break.

Both Cádiz CF and CA Osasuna had turned their games around and were now winning their games.

We were now in a must-win situation.

The news quickly spread around the stadium like a wildfire. The 2796 fans were no longs singing with the same confidence in their voices and on the pitch the players were no longer playing with the same poise they had displayed in the first half.
I could only stand on the sideline and watch as the house of cards started to crumple.

S.D. Ponferradina scored the equalizer after 60 minutes and just a few minutes later we had to replace both Andrea Orlandi and DR Marcos Garcia due to injury.

The last thirty minutes I used all the tricks I had learned as a manager during the last six seasons but it was just not to be.

Sending everybody forward in the dying minutes in a desperate attempt to get the goal we needed only resulted in a S.D. Ponferradina goal on a perfectly executed counter attack and just like that our season was over.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/40B_zps6ee3ebb1.jpg

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Jer

12 years

You were so close mate. So damn close. Next season I'm confident will be your season!

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Northwood

12 years

PaukerJ : You were so close mate. So damn close. Next season I'm confident will be your season!

Thanks for the support.

Looking at the final league table it’s easy to see that we allow way too many goals and that we need to turn some of all the draws in to wins next year.

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Louis O.

12 years

So close Northwood, so nearly made it to the promised land!

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Northwood

12 years

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/CDC_zpsfd0594e5.jpg

Deal or no deal?

To start the season we added two well-known faces to the growing group of staffs working in Nou Camp d'Inca. Striker Igarki Mayor had finally admitted defeat to father-time and had retired after the 2018 season. We decided to keep him around and make him our new fitness coach.

The other familiar face we added was our new Head of youth development. At first it started out as a joke around the office. He had just retired and had decided to stay in football, but why on earth would he even consider coming to Inca. Even when we contacted his agent and arranged a meeting, nobody believed he would ever sign a contract. But already after the first meeting a deal worth €600 per week was done and the next day we could present Xavi as the new C.D. Constància Head of youth development.
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/41a_zps301516dc.jpg

My biggest concern going inn to the new season was Eloy Àlvarez. The now 20-year old players’ contract would expire in a year. We hoped to start early and get a new long term deal done with him before he got even close to free agency.
But already at the first meeting with his agent the problems started. Eloy and his agent made it clear that they were looking for €5.000 a week in base salary. On top of that he had excessive demands for bonuses and appearance fees.
If we made it to the LIGA BBVA the demands was not outrages, but for now the demands was €1.300 more than what my board would allow and there was no way I could talk Eloy back down from his lofty demands.

We walked away from the negotiation table without a new deal. Instead we seriously had to consider selling our best player during the season to recuperate some of the €750.000 he was now valued. If we didn’t sell him we might had to let him leave Nou Camp d'Inca for free after the season.

I felt that we had now established ourselves as a LIGA adelante team. Now it was no longer just a question of fighting for our survival in every game but now it was time to go on offense. The plan was to play 4-2-3-1 when playing at home or against weak opponents. For the strong opponents and difficult road games I would be switching between the classic 4-4-2 and 4-1-2-2-1.

The pre-season friendlies were a mixed bag. From the sublime in the 0-0 draw at home in front of a full (sixty-one empty seats) Nou Camp d'Inca against Spanish champions Real Madrid. They were tricked to come to Mallorca under the assumption that they would be part of a mini-tournament with us, R.C.D Mallorca and At. Balarares. Our game was played but the other semifinal never took place (bug?).

It was Real Madrid’s first game without Christian Ronaldo who was let go on a free transfer after he had helped the team to there first division title since the 2013/14 season and there 35th BBVA title overall. After his release Christian Ronaldo signed a two year deal with Sporting, the team that gave him his debut on the world football scene back in 2000 – 2003.
Even with the shots statistic being lopsided in favor of the Madrid team (1-15 shots on goal) we held on for the draw.

We dominated the Sparta Prague B team that visited Mallorca for the second time in three years but then we were humiliated by local armature team A.E. Prat just a few days later.

The last pre-season game before the start of the season was against another low league team in U.D. Alcudia. They came out in a funky 5-3-2 formation and we struggled to find open chances. After being held to a 0-0 draw for eighty-three minutes we finally scored and the final result was a 3-0 win.
But the win should have been a LOT bigger. If we needed 33 shots (fifteen on goal) to score three goals when the season started we would not win a lot of games this year.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/41b_zps17035870.jpg

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AlexSonwild

12 years

Really good story so far. I enjoy reading each updates! Keep it up

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Northwood

12 years

Sonalexwild : Really good story so far. I enjoy reading each updates! Keep it up

Thanks for staying with it Sonalexwild.

Have played and done the bullet point writing for another 1 ½ season. Will get there eventually.

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Northwood

12 years

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/CDC_zpsfd0594e5.jpg

Trouble in paradise

For the first time since I took over as manager in Inca I had player conflicts to deal with, as several players were upset before the start of the new season. The two young strikers Jesus and Muriel Menestrina Dorigatti were both upset they were not the number one choice as striker, even if they struggled to score on all the chances we created when they got there chances in the pre-season games.

Our young attacking midfielder Juan Antonio wanted to leave Mallorca on loan. I still preferred Francesc Fullana as the creator behind our striker but all the staff absolutely loved Juan Antonio so I had decided to give him a chance. He played well in the pre-season and he looked to be the starter on opening day. Still he was upset and told the press that he wanted to leave Mallorca on a loan deal.

And then there was Eloy Àlvarez.

He was upset because I had not selected him as a captain this year.
But why would I select a player, who refused to sign a new contract and wanted to leave the club, as captain?

Eloy and his agent still demanded more then €5.000 per week to sign the new deal well knowing that the board would not allow salaries above €3.200 and that our current top earner only made €2.2500 per week.

After several meetings with the board I had decided to keep Eloy Àlvarez for the year and let him go on a free transfer after the season. The logic behind was that 40% of the transfer fee (300K of the expected 700k) would go to his previous club (C.E Hospitalet) anyway. Of the €400K remaining only 10% would be channeled back inn to the transfer budget. I was willing to take the gamble that Eloy Àlvarez would be worth more if we kept him on the team for the rest of the season.

That was before the season started.
When the regular season kicked off Eloy Àlvarez played horrible. And not only that, but he was firmly outplayed by the backup we had brought inn to cover for him. Jorge Prado was originally a patch to the problem and not thought of as a permanent solution. But as it turned out he was a more natural winger then Eloy who was playing out of position in the new 4-2-3-1 system. Prado’s 7.6 rating and two goals in the first four games made me rethink the entire plan.

We started the season with a long travel to the Canary Islands for a game against Tenerife. We might only have scored three goals on 33 chances in the last pre-season game against Alcudia but we still created thirty-three chances.
I decided to keep going with the 4-2-3-1 formation even on the road against a quality opponent and it paid off as we won the season opener on the road creating plenty of chances.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/42B_zps710b4bef.jpg

We easily ran off three wins to open the season and in week four we were in first place in the league tied with Deportivo de La Coruña who was coming to town. This would be the first real test for our new system.

Still in the 4-2-3-1 formation and in front of 2339 Inca fans we came away with a 1-1 result. What was especially pleasing was that we managed to dominate the game. We had the ball the most and had the most chances and shots on goal.
It was a very positive start to the new season.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q173/Nordskov_dk/CD%20Constancia/42A_zps7df14a50.jpg

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Toon

12 years

Lovely lengthy updates mate, keep going.

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Justice

12 years

A very good set of results to kick off the campaign, good luck for the season!

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Louis O.

12 years

Very nice results, I reckon you should get rid of Eloy Alvares!

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Northwood

12 years

Toon :
Lovely lengthy updates mate, keep going.

Thanks for reading Toon.

I was not aware that “The Chronicles of Danilo Santana” was a Tenerife story. Will absolutely be following that.

Justice96 :
A very good set of results to kick off the campaign, good luck for the season!

Thanks Justice96 and congratulation on the SotM nomination.

Well deserved.

I was happy that we finally got some convincing wins and scoring on some of all our chances.

LJO200 :
Very nice results, I reckon you should get rid of Eloy Alvares!

The soap opera story of Eloy Àlvarez is just getting started.

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k1rups

12 years

Love this story and dedication and effort you put in to writing it and actually not giving up! Rooting for you to get in to Liga BBVA. Do you have a long term goal or are you just going along with it while you stay interested in it?

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[FM13] C.D. Constància: Trading places

House of cards

Deal or no deal?

Trouble in paradise

FMS Chat–