[FM 13] The two manager brothers story...

Ok, it’s difficult to find different words to say from “I am delighted!”, “I am proud of my guys!”, “What we are doing is a sport miracle!”, and so on, so forth… What I can say that marks a change in our season is that now we can aim to something different from avoiding relegation, as this objective has been already achieved.You may say “Ok, now you can start to aim to the first half of the table…”, but no, that’s not what I want, I am ambitious… I WANT EUROPE!




I don’t speak without a reason, I am not used to. I am simply looking at the table: we are 3rd, with ten points more than Villarreal, the last team being out of the European football for next season. There are still 9 matches to be played, but we can handle them and manage not to lose these points on our way, I am confident!


Two events are worthy of being remarked. The first regards our Captain, that great man named Diego Cervero, that played against Valencia his 225th match with Oviedo’s shirt, and marked it as he knows: scoring a goal! Despite the defeat, we had something to celebrate that day!


The second is that Issa Yameogo entered the history of the club during the match against Osasuna, scoring the fastest goal in Los Carbayones’ history after 30 seconds in the match.


In general, these two months followed a rule: victory at home, defeat away. Without any exception…




Issa is back! And he is my man of the month. He scored 6 goals in the month, reaching the 16 in the season. After an average start, the English guy has come back to see the goal as in the past seasons, and to score 1 goal every 2 matches at the age of 18 is something reserved to champions…


Another particular mention is deserved by Mateo: since he has arrived less than three months ago on loan, he played 9 times being a rock in the heart of my defense, with a 7.46 average rating. He is making me think about buying him at the end of the season…

The last mention goes to Marcinho Guerreiro. He announced me one month ago, in a very sad day, that he was planning to retire from football at the end of the season. Even if he is not a regular at the moment in the team, he has always been a professional player, one of those that never complains about the decisions of the manager and that gives everything when he goes on the pitch. I’m going to miss that guy, as well as all the players in the dressing room, where he was one of the favorites.




Few days ago I went to the training ground for the usual training session of the youth candidates for the next season. As always happened in the past years, I went with no hope on finding a champion within the young guys attending the trial. I signed 4 of those who were there, just to fill some positions that were weak in the U19 squad. The unique decent player seems to be a certain José Diego Escalera, a left wing born in Oviedo 15 years ago. Not a future champion, but maybe a future good player.


Given the poor situation of our intakes, I decided to have a look around to see if I could buy some youth to add to my U19 team for the next season. I came into the report about a 15yo French guy named Cheick Diomandè, a midfielder that was having his first trainings with Auxerre, in France. Well, I got really impressed by the videos sent me by my scouts and I decided to contact him, agreeing a 3 years contract starting next season.


In the meantime, I had a look at what Spanish youth teams proposed, and decided to sign 6 under 17 players to add to the team next year, for a total of about 2.3M€ for the whole signings (together with the one of Diomandè). Particularly interesting might become the center back Jorge Miranda (arriving from Las Palmas) and the striker Juan Gabriel Ramon (from Deportivo).





A tricky calendar for the next months in our road to European football. The matches to be highlighted are for sure the one against Real Madrid, that is going to come at Nuevo Carlos Tartiere in 20 days, and the Spanish Cup Final against Barcelona in the middle of May: we are underdogs in both of them, but well, the league match against the Blaugrana is the proof that football is a really strange matter…

The season ended two days ago with the Champions League final, that we unluckily lost against Man City. This remains the only trophy we lost on the 6 we participated in: we added a Scudetto, an Italian Cup, an Italian Super Cup, a Uefa Super Cup and a World Club Championship to our Palmares this season. Not bad I think! But now, let me examine what happened in the last two months…




The perfect end to the Serie A season: eight matches played, eight victories! The first to be highlighted is the one in the Derby: maybe one of the most difficult derby I have played till now, but a goal by El Shaarawy was enough to defeat the hatred cousins and came out with other three important points.


The Scudetto arrived 12 days later and two matches later: at Olimpico in Roma we defeated Lazio in a very thrilling match, fearing to be leveled after having led 3-0 at the half time. We came out with a 3-2 victory and the contemporary draw of Juventus in the derby against Torino gave us the third Scudetto in three years together!



This let some of the guys who played less during the season having some time on the pitch in the last three Serie A matches, with great results as we obtained 9 pointsfor a total of 100 in the season, establishing the new Serie A record of seasonal points.






The unique trophy we failed to lift… The quarterfinals were quite easy, with an aggregate 5-2 victory against Zenit, made easier but our amazing 3-2 victory in St. Petersburg after having been 0-2 at the half-time.


Then, we had a great time in the semifinals. We were drawn against Man Utd and in the first leg we came out with a stunning 3-0 home victory thanks to Falcao and El Shaarawy, with the first one failing the penalty that would have given us the fourth goal.


This match represented also our new record of attendance, with 77,925 people in the San Siro’s stands, and the new gate receipts record, with 4.5M€ taken.


The second leg was quite easy, with Jovetic scoring after 19 minutes and the match ending 1-1 at Old Trafford.

The final would have been against Man City, who destroyed Bayer Munich with a 5-1 in the second home leg, after having been defeated 1-0 in Munich. I was confident about our possibilities to win also this trophy, completing the perfect season, but I didn’t take into account the stunning form of Sergio ‘El Kun’ Aguero, who scored a double that gave them the final victory.




The Italian Cup’s final was easier than I expected. Juventus arrived really tired to that and we destroyed them with a 3-0 that left them no possible reply. Falcao was undoubtedly the man of the match, with a double that let him reach 37 seasonal goals.





I want to award the young French my man of the period prize, as after a difficult season in the first months, he scored 4 goals with two doubles, one in the match against Lazio that gave us the Scudetto.

I want also to mention Luca Antonini, who in the last days of the season communicated me the decision of quitting with football at the relatively young age of 32. I would like to thank him for his loyalty and for having given everything of himself anytime I sent him on the pitch.

I could realize only this morning what has happened… The day after the end of the season… When I opened the El Asturian newspaper and I read in the first page the title


We ended the league in the third place… How could we do that… well… I don’t really know! The will of these young players of being important in the maximal Spanish division has lead them to achieve something no one, even ourselves, thought to be possible…




We had 10 matches to play in these two months and we obtained 5 victories, 4 draws and only 1 defeat, even if very bad because happened in the derby against Sporting Gijon…

The most important result is undoubtedly the one against Real Madrid: despite our underdog status, we managed to somehow draw against them! After a fantastic first half ended 3-2 for Los Merengues, with Adrian scoring a magic double for us, we obtained the draw with a penalty scored by the Captain, very complained by Real’s players, so much that it cost two red cards to them.



Three days later we obtained the largest victory of the period, with a 4-1 to Deportivo at home that had Goran Crnigoj as its protagonist, with his first ever double.


After the next defeat against Sporting, we obtained 8 points in 4 matches, that were enough to let us qualify to the Champions League, ending the year with a total of 68 points, the first ‘terrestrial’ team beyond the two ‘extra-terrestrial’ ones: Real and Barcelona (with the second that won the league).




The only match played out of the Liga was the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, in Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Before entering the ground I was aware of one thing: I would have been proud of my guys even if they had lost 7-0! But what happened made me even more proud of them! Because we lost the final, but with a tough and unlucky 1-2, really unlucky just because a Cervero’s strike hit the post three minutes before the final whistle.





The Captain deserves the award of man of the period. He scored 8 goals in the last 11 matches, and 4 of them were in the last 3 matches that were fundamental for obtaining the 3rd place. He ended the year with 19 seasonal goals, something very special for the man that had led the team in this three years from the third division to the Champions League qualification!


I want to give a mention also to this young Swiss guy. He played very well during the whole season, but the last matches he did great, scoring also 3 out of his 4 seasonal goals. Now, I have to convince him to be a Real Oviedo’s player also in the following years…

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The 2014/2015 ended all over the world few days ago and it’s time to resume what happened in the main leagues and international competitions.

ENGLAND

The four main English competitions were won by four different teams. Man City won with a 8 points lead the Premier League, but was defeated in the Capital One Cup final by Fulham, that won the trophy after a mid-table league season. Liverpool defeated Newcastle in the FA Cup final at the extra time, while Man Utd dominated the Community Shield final against the just relegated West Ham. No great surprises arrived from the Premier League table, with Brighton going back to Championship after one year of Premier League. The main surprise for the next year will be the presence of Huddersfield in the main English league.

FRANCE

PSG won the French league, fighting till the end against a surprising opponent such as Nancy Lorraine. Other surprises came from the 4th position obtained by Lorient, and by the disappointing 6th place of Olympique Lyonnais. Next season will be interesting to see what Clermont Foot, newly promoted in the first division, could do. Dealing with the cups, OL released themselves winning both the French Cup and the Coupe de la Ligue, defeating in both the case the surprising Nacy Lorraine, while PSG won the Trophèe des Champions against Monaco.

GERMANY

A stunning surprise came from Germany, where Shalke 04 managed to overcome both Bayern and Dortmund, winning the Meisterschale. The two main German teams released themselves by winning the German Cup (Dortmund) and the German Super Cup (Bayern), both defeating Schalke 04 in the finals. A really great season for the Gelsenkirchen’s team.

ITALY

A.C. Milan completely dominated Italy, winning all the three main competitions: Serie A, Italian Cup and Super Cup. Great surprises came both from the European and relegation zones, with Cagliari qualifying for the Champions League playoffs after having obtained the 3rd place in the league table, Parma and Cesena qualifying for the Europa League after their 4th and 6th positions, respectively, and Catania being relegated after 9 seasons in the first division and the Coppa Italia’s victory of the last year. No surprises came from the promotion fight for the Serie A, with Roma and Bologna coming back to the main league after just one year of suffering.

SPAIN

If Milan dominated in Italy, Barcelona did it in Spain, winning La Liga and the Spanish Cup and Super Cup. The first and the third were won fighting against Real Madrid, while in the Spanish Cup the Blaugrana defeated Real Oviedo, the real surprise of the season. Los Carbayones not only arrived in the Spanish Cup final and fought against Barcelona for the trophy, but also qualified for the Champions League with a stunning 3rd position! Other surprises came out from the Europa League positions, where we find Mallorca and Deportivo.

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS

The international competitions of the year saw A.C. Milan reaching the final in all the three ones in which the side was involved, with the Rossoneri being World Champions after dominating the Club World Championship and super-European champions after winning against Montpellier a crazy UEFA Super Cup final. On the other hand, Gagliardo’s team couldn’t avoid a bad and surprising defeat against Man City in the UEFA Champions League final. While PSV won the Europa League in an unexpected final against Parma.

I’m really guessing what’s happening in the football world… This morning, after having had my breakfast together with my family, I received a call from the Spanish Football Association that complimented with me for having been awarded of the Manager of the Year prize. They also told me that my side was awarded of the Spanish Most Improved Team of the Year prize. I was really glad of those achievements, that I think were deserved to us for the great job we did this season!


Few hours later, just after lunch, I received an e-mail that made me forgetting my happiness and became angry! The Director of Football of FC Augsburg, a second division German team, was contacting me to know if I was interested in taking charge of his side’s bench.


But what the hell?!? Six days ago Castilla, and now Augsburg?!? I am the Spanish Manager of the Year, I just made my team qualify for the Champions League, and you think I am interested in sitting on a second division’s team bench?!? Sometimes football people are really strange…

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