Romanian FM 2012 Story — Another Summer With No Money

Hello folks and welcome back on the shores of the Black Sea for the start of my third season in charge of Viitorul Constanta! As you remember we ended our first ever season in the top flight in 10th place, we all agreed that it wasn’t too bad but I was eager to take the club to a new level. However, the lack of money was surely going to be a problem…

On June 17th the board announced the initial budgets and I have to tell you that the news wasn’t good at all: just a few pennies for transfers and only 300 pounds in extra wage money!

The situation improved slightly after we received the TV rights money for the new season, we received just over 1 million pounds. That wasn’t enough to bring the financial balance on a plus but it was a lifeline…

That money changed the situation but not by much. I promised the board a top half finish and they gave me a weekly wage budget of 21,500 pounds. However, with contract renewals and some wage increases that budget was not even covering the current expenses at that point.

Despite that our odds improved dramatically compared to last season when we had 2000 to 1. The media prediction is that we would finish 11th, it’s good that we are no longer seen as prime relegation contenders…

Back to business: I had to sell players, that was the only way out! I’m pleased to report that between loan fees and sales I managed to get over half a million pounds into the club’s coffers. That gave me a bit of space in the wage budget and a bit of transfer money…

… which I spent on 12 players, 11 on free transfers and just one real buy. Just six of these players will join the first team squad right away though, all the details are coming up…

So, here is the new squad with short descriptions for every player (you can also see their profiles by clicking the names):

Goalkeepers

Dragos Balauru, Octavian Ormenisan — (Both are new players, Balauru is slightly more experienced but they seem to be at a similar level. I am going to keep both for now and probably sell one of them for a profit during the winter break. Both are better than my previous keeper though and I expect a vast improvement in our «goals conceded» column.)

Right backs

Ionut Peteleu, Miroslav Sedlak — (Both are confirmed players, Peteleu did a good job last season while he still has room for improvement and Sedlak is a talented youngster that might step up this year.)

Left backs

Lucian Filip, Florin Krajcar — (Filip was the target of many transfer rumours and offers this summer but I decided to keep him at the club because there’s a shortage of good left backs on the market. Krajcar is a new player, he’s just 17 years old and I hope that he will make some progress this season because he will surely get quite a bit of playing time.)

Centre backs

Chakib Benzoukane, Alvaro Casanova, Ionut Putanu, Zarko Markovic — (The first three are confirmed players, you all know them from last season. Benzoukane is a reliable player while Casanova and Putanu seem to be making very good progress. Markovic is our last and probably most important transfer of the summer, he joined the club on the very last day of pre-season for 26,000 pounds. He is not considered a foreign player because he has spent over 5 years in Romania and I think he will become a very important player because he’s a giant with pretty good speed for his stature.)

Central midfielders

Mihai Onicas, Alexandru Lazar, Georgian Marcu, Corado Carstoiu, Nenad Grumic, Dejan Danicic — (There aren’t many changes here, just one new player and that is Danicic — a young Serbian midfielder with bags of potential. Onicas, Lazar and Marcu already are established players while Carstoiu and Grumic should further improve their skills.)

Strikers

Vlad Rusu, Valentin Simion, Joabe, Marius Albu, Zdenek Cervenka, Santiago Vazquez — (I admit that I would have wanted at least one more new striker but that disappointment fades when I look at Vazquez’ profile. This Argentinian youngster joined on a free from Boca Juniors and I think he is by far the best player I ever had at this club. You should be familiar with the other names from last season, all I can say is that I expect a bit more especially from Simion and Joabe while Cervenka will feature mostly in the under 19s games.)

The friendlies went well this time, we won all bar one but what’s most pleasing is that we kept things tidy at the back opposed to last season when we conceded quite a few goals.

A few players impressed me during pre-season, especially Joabe who bagged four goals. New lad Santiago Vazquez was unavailable for some of the friendlies because he was on international duty with the Argentina Under 20s but he still put in some nice performances and provided 4 assists. The most surprising name on this list is young defender Ionut Putanu, a Viitorul trainee that seems to be maturing into a very good player.

The season will start with a cracking match against FC Vaslui, the team that we defeated so surprisingly last season to ease our relegation concerns. Then we’ll have a pair of easier matches before meeting reigning champions Steaua…

Normally this is where the post would end but not this time, I have a bonus for you! I was just too eager to start the season and I played the game against FC Vaslui! This team finished second last season and that was mostly because of us, it was quite clear that the defeat against us cost them the title. I was sure that they had revenge on their mind but I was also extremely curious to see my new team in action. Let’s see what happened…

Viitorul vs FC Vaslui (Liga 1)

Starting Line Up: Dragos Balauru — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Zarko Markovic, Lucian Filip — Dejan Danicic, Mihai Onicas, Georgian Marcu — Joabe, Vlad Rusu, Valentin Simion

Unfortunately my South American youngsters (Alvaro Casanova and Santiago Vazquez) were unavailable due to international duty at the Under 20s World Cup so I fielded just three new players in the starting eleven. The game didn’t seem to start well for us as it were the visitors who had the first chance on 10 minutes, I admit that we were quite lucky to get out of that play without conceding a goal. Moreover, we got the ball and sprinted on a counter attack, Joabe took it down the right flank before crossing at the back post where Valentin Simion headed home! Bad luck struck four minutes later when Benzoukane had to leave the field due to an injury and I replaced him with Ionut Putanu. But that didn’t affect our game, the lads continued to play well and we made it 2-0 on the half hour when Georgian Marcu fired in low to wrap up a good move. I admit I was jumping up and down on my seat at that point! :) My joy cooled off due to another injury though, Zarko Markovic was unable to continue so I was forced to send in Miroslav Sedlak as a makeshift centre back. I was worried but that was just for three minutes, the smile came back on my face as substitute Ionut Putanu headed home on a corner kick! The first half ended 3-0 and what was even more impressing was that Vaslui didn’t have any shots on target!

I decided to switch to the counter version of my tactic at half time because I was fearing a reaction for Vaslui. However, it was us who could have scored again on 49 minutes when a cracking effort from distance by Mihai Onicas was sensationally diverted behind by the goalkeeper. We managed to keep things safely under control but we couldn’t prevent Vaslui from scoring a superb free kick goal from more than 30 yards. That didn’t change the game though, we held out easily and started the season with a bang! By the way, the two injuries were not serious: Benzoukane out two weeks and Markovic just a few days.

Match highlights: click here to watch

That’s where this post ends, on a quite optimistic note :) Thanks a lot for reading and I’m looking forward to hearing your predictions for the season.