Ana, FM 2012 : Season 3 Slow And Steady

Hi everyone!!

I really hope you are enjoying all the European games on at the moment and well done to my team (Spain) for a nice 4-0 victory over Ireland. We watched the game in the pub and sat with some really nice Irish people who bought us drinks all night and refused when we offered to buy them some even at four zero down, very lovely people.

So back to my story and we are back to Belarus as my dynasty starts to take shape, ok not really we are a poor side and I except that having steered the team through two very tricky relegation battles with a level of player just not good enough at the moment.

However a new season always bring new optimism so lets have a look at how season three went.

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So a new contract with a one year extension and the same wages, my board are actually delighted with me as their confidence in me is full!

I guess any progress is good progress. :)

Wow!!

So I asked my board for a parent club mostly to help boost are finances and I was hoping to get a few free players on loan but I never expected anyone as good as this!

I cant tell you just how good he is compered to our team, in fact you have seen if you read my last post with Kononov that this player is just miles better and although he doesn’t posses much pace he will be a starter for my team, this season.

Club Information and Club Finances Start of the Season

So already Vadim Zhukuv has been removed from our favoured personal list seems our fans are quite demanding!

Instead they have deemed Artem Tarasenko our amazing center back to join that prestigious list!

Our overall value has dropped by almost £10k pounds which isnt great and once again we are predicted to finish bottom so am prepared for another long season. ;)

Confusing that our club’s value went down yet our finances actually went up from last year!

Almost £11k pounds was added into our account and am pretty pleased we are not fighting with our finances as that money can last for five or six seasons which is really good to know.

Transfers In and Out — First Window

So I managed to attract some players!!

In all honesty these players are far better than what we had but are still not up to this leagues level just yet, pretty much every name you see here will be first choice and as you can see I started to sell and release my former players who are far from good enough.

My biggest and best signing was Maxim Khlebnikov who is my only player that I would say can play at this level so here he is :

League Results — First Half of the Season

Hmmm…..

Well we started well enough with a draw then a very good win over Smorgon then this horrendous run of six straight defeats which I cant say was deserved, odd goal here and there and games we could have possibly won but well my team is so poor they turned to defeats until a fantastic victory over Granit!

Three penalties in that game and we managed to score two of them!

Then a decent run of wins where we started to play pretty well then we met Pinsk who really beat us, funny as we led that game by two goals to zero so a real shame.

Good reaction though winning our final two games though.

January Transfer Window — A Star Is Born!!

What a player!!! :)

His agent brought him to my attention and I couldn’t believe that he wanted to join us! In fact I actually had to smash our record transfer fee and pay a whopping £10k pounds for him which is pretty massive amount at this level.

Considering we only have £70k in the bank its a risk but he is young and his stats are amazing compared to my team, an obvious starter on our right hand side.

Final League Results and Table of the Season

What a season!

So much improved we actually went into some games with a view of actually winning it!

Admittedly set plays continued to be a huge weapon if you like for my team, in fact any goal by Khlebnikov was probably a result of a corner or free kick played into the box.

But eighth! I was delighted to be finally be out of a relegation battle and ensuring our best ever finish in the club’s history!

Final Player Ratings of the Season

So Khlebnikov was outstanding far and away our stand out player and Gerasimovich (Mr Set Pieces!) proved his quality of delivery time and time again.

Zhdanovich who looked average at best had a pretty impressive season in our left midfield and Kuznetsov playing just off the front man Savinsky was pretty impressive as well.

Koval’ had a decent start but struggled to gel with the team in so few games, so am hoping for a little better from him next season.

Star Man of the Season — Maxim Khlebnikov

End of Season Finances and Livadia Player and Team Records

So finances did take a hit of sorts after the signing of Koval’, but am still pretty pleased with how they look.

Most of the money lost was on Koval’ but I did get a very talented player and am finally be able to sign some players good enough for the league I am in!

Team Records

Player Records

So I will post my team records after each season to show you how we are progressing!

As you can see Kuznetsov is our record goal scorer with 74 goals and he is a one club player after coming through the ranks here at Livadia!

* Just a quick note I took these before the season actually ended! So they are not up to date as our best finish was this season of 8th not 13th and our fans player of the year was Maxim Khlebnikov not Artem Tarasenko.

End of Season Round-Up

So that’s that!

I see a really encouraging season and although my squad is still pretty poor at least I am able to sign players that are now good enough for the league I am in. Khlebnikov is a real star so reliable at the back and such a threat going forward for corners etc shame that the players around him are much poorer!

Midfield wise and still not that great although we have two decent enough wingers one of them being Koval’ who I hope will shine next season but going forward we need some new front men. Savinsky will be returning to his parent club so I dont think he will be coming back and Kuznetsov and Kononev dont fill me with much optimism so I will desperately looking for a goal scorer.

But we did make progress at least, for once we were not in a relegation battle just these desperate runs we can get into in losing time after time so am confident going into next season that we wont be relegated and another mid table finish is what I am aiming for.

Promotion still a few years away I feel but at least we are attracting a better quality standard of player now so like the title said slow and steady!

I really hope you have enjoyed this post and as always I look forward to reading your comments and thoughts as always, again thanks for taking time to read it and I hope that you are enjoying the European championships whoever you are supporting. :)

Next post will be a little longer I think due to a busy couple of weeks ahead but I will try and bring it you as soon as I can, so until then bye for now!