Hello friends and welcome to the latest episode of my Football Manager 2012 story! After a fairly successful pre-season in which I managed to sign a few good players despite the usual lack of money and after an exciting opening match in which we defeated last season’s runners-up FC Vaslui my Viitorul Constanta seemed to be prepared for an interesting season far away from the relegation worries. This update will cover the whole first half of the season so it will be pretty long but hopefully not too boring. Let’s see…
After the pleasing win against Vaslui the lads delivered another exciting performance against FCM Tg Mures, we won that game 5-0! Young centre back Ionut Putanu was on fire as he bagged the first hat-trick of his career with the help of a penalty kick but the other two goals were equally interesting: Joabe scored to wrap up a textbook team move and Mihai Onicas scored what was going to become the goal of the month! (click here to watch the highlights). The two thrilling displays were followed by a not so pleasing performance against newly-promoted Sageata Navodari but we still managed to clinch the three points courtesy of another goal from Brazilian striker Joabe.
Those last two games were fairly easy but the one to follow was going to be a test for my high-flying team: we were travelling to meet reigning champions Steaua Bucharest!
Steaua vs Viitorul (Liga 1)
Starting Line Up: Dragos Balauru — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Zarko Markovic, Lucian Filip — Dejan Danicic, Alexandru Lazar, Mihai Onicas — Joabe, Vlad Rusu, Marius Albu
It’s worth mentioning that my two young South American players (Alvaro Casanova and Santiago Vazquez) were still unavailable since they were with their national teams at the Under 20’s World Cup while striker Valentin Simion was out due to a slight injury. The game was fairly quiet until the 22nd minute when a good counter attack move from my lads saw Albu picking Joabe with a fine pass and the Brazilian striker found the back of the net with some help from a deflection. Then we started playing our regular possession game, there was no threat from Steaua until half time but we didn’t create any danger upfront either.
Steaua started the second half with a bit more impetus and they came close to making it all square on a corner kick after just two minutes. Four minutes later it was our turn to waste a good opportunity but I wasn’t too worried as my lads were holding their ground very well. Our good display was rewarded by a touch of fortune again shortly after the hour mark, Steaua‘s goalkeeper fumbled a free kick cross into the path of Zoran Markovic and the Serbian giant tucked it in! Steaua were unable to do much mostly because our almost perfect defence and things got even tougher for them on 84 minutes when one of their players picked up a second yellow for diving. The game was wrapped up for good after two minutes when another good counter attack move saw Joabe squaring for substitute Corado Carstoiu who coolly slotted home. We could have added insult to injury during added time but substitute striker Zdenek Cervenka wasted a very good chance. It still was a huge result though :)
Match Highlights: click here to watch
We confirmed our good form in the following match as we calmly defeated newly-promoted CSMS Iasi courtesy of another great display from Joabe but our winning streak ended in the last game of the month as we fought hard to clinch a point at Astra.
Joabe was deservedly elected Player of the Month, he finally seemed to show the kind of performances I was hoping he would. I received an award myself, Manager of the Month, but that’s not too important.
The important thing was that we were top of the table at the end of August and we had a healthy 4-point cushion over champions Steaua! It’s also worth noting that we were one of the two unbeaten teams at that point, the other was FC Timisoara but they had a few draws too many to their name.
After such a delightful opening month it was hard to keep the players with their feet on the ground. They were enthusiastic but I knew that a defeat was bound to come sooner or later. Needless to say I was hoping for later… The first match of September saw us receiving the visit of strong 8th placed Rapid Bucharest, one of the biggest clubs in the country.
Viitorul vs Rapid (Liga 1)
Starting Line Up: Dragos Balauru — Ionut Peteleu, Zarko Markovic, Ionut Putanu, Lucian Filip — Dejan Danicic, Alexandru Lazar, Mihai Onicas — Santiago Vazquez, Valentin Simion, Joabe
The first few minutes of the game were a total nightmare, Rapid squandered a huge chance after just 40 seconds and then broke the deadlock four minutes into the game. Luckily we got back on level terms in the 10th minute when a good free kick cross from Santiago Vazquez was headed home by young defender Ionut Putanu! We dominated the game after the equaliser but there was a worrying lack of inspiration in our game. We were punished for that during stoppage time, a quick counter attack from Rapid and we were one goal behind at the interval.
The second half started in a better fashion for us, Mihai Onicas had a pretty good chance on 52 minutes but his effort was saved by the goalkeeper. The goal that we deserved did come on 74 minutes, a fine team move was beautifully finished by Joabe and it seemed that our unbeaten run was going to continue. Sadly that wasn’t the case, we made a total disaster out of a corner kick five minutes from time and Rapid won the game thanks to a bizarre own goal…
Match Highlights: click here to watch
That first defeat surely affected the lads and they were unrecognisable in the next game: we got beaten 3-0 at CFR Cluj at the end of a game in which I saw countless errors from my boys all over the pitch. Luckily we returned to good football just in time to advance in the Romanian Cup, the team played very well against Dinamo and grabbed a well-deserved 2-1 win. The month ended with a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Pandurii, Santiago Vazquez finally scored his first goal for the club it that match but we conceded a late equaliser…
It was a winless month for us in the league and our position in the table suffered as a result, we were down in third place at the end of September.
Fortunately we had two easier matches at the beginning of October and we made the most out of them, mostly thanks to Santiago Vazquez who finally seemed to have adapted to life in Romania. As you can notice there is a new name in the goal scorers section: Denis Alibec (click the name to view his profile). Yes, he’s a new signing and quite a surprising one. He was one of the hottest prospects in Romanian football a few years back and he was signed by Internazionale Milano at the age of 18. Sadly he failed to adapt there and now, at the age of 22, his contract ran out and was not renewed. I didn’t have any wage money left but I kindly asked the chairman for some and, to my delight, he agreed! Alibec made his debut against Ceahlaul and he scored!
The next game was going to be a lot tougher as we were going to visit strong FC Timisoara, the team that was leading the Liga 1 table at the end of September.
FC Timisoara vs Viitorul (Liga 1)
Starting Line Up: Dragos Balauru — Ionut Peteleu, Chakib Benzoukane, Zarko Markovic, Lucian Filip — Dejan Danicic, Alexandru Lazar, Mihai Onicas — Santiago Vazquez, Valentin Simion, Joabe
We got off to a pretty good start this time but unfortunately we didn’t capitalize on that as Vazquez squandered a big chance seven minutes into the game. Then things got worse as we handed Timisoara the lead on 20 minutes as Markovic played a poor pass inside our penalty area, it was intercepted and it led to a stupid goal. The lads regrouped quickly and we made it all square two minutes before the break when striker Valentin Simion powered one in from the edge of the area.
We were in control of the match after half time, the ball was mostly in our possession and Timisoara didn’t seem to have the strength to create danger. That proved false on 65 minutes when we got caught on an unlikely counter and found ourselves one goal down again… The match became a lot more intense after that, we were pushing forward with more determination and the reward finally came five minutes before the final whistle when Joabe volleyed home on a pinpoint cross from Santiago Vazquez. I guess it was an even game overall but I felt that we conceded those two goals much too easily…
Match highlights: click here to watch
We remained in 3rd place at the end of October but the situation was still pretty uncertain in the upper half of the table.
The month ended with a Romanian Cup clash, we met fellow Liga 1 side Sportul. I decided to rest a few players but eventually I had to send in Santiago Vazquez at half time and the Argentinian ace solved the game and saw us through to the quarter finals.
We still have November and December to worry about, please move to the next page to see what happened in the last two months before the winter break.
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
junior
27 ноября, 2011 at 12:08
wooow nice..i guess the stronger ur team becomes the less hard it’ll be..bcuz the top 5 are so closely packed..
i hope u dnt mind me sharing this..i finally was able to buy fm12 my aunt from uk brought it to me…
the game was different at first…but better compard to fm11…in fm11 you could win the league without taking time to look at ur squad..just pressing space bar and going past days…
i ddnt play my friendlies i let my assistant take care of that..and the season went horrible…IM USING LIVERPOOL FC…i went online checked a few guides (AGAIN)..and after getting sacked i started a new one wiiith liverpool…taking my time to analyse every single detail…ive improved..not doing very good but i guess im starting to get the hang of it…!!lol!!
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 14:52
I guess you’re right but I’ve never just cruised through the game like you have described, not in FM 11 or any previous version. I wouldn’t say that FM 12 is more difficult but that’s just my point of view.
CsAtlantis
27 ноября, 2011 at 12:51
Wow Johnny your team is doing very well this season, they deserve an European spot, achieve that and combined with player sales you should easily get out of your red balance in no time
Vasquez and Manoel (a Santos regular!) up front next year will leave defences quaking in fear
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 14:53
I surely agree mate, I’m looking forward to a lethal South American partnership upfront ;)
Lye
27 ноября, 2011 at 13:41
You are certainly well equipped to win the title this season though that require plenty of effort from the team. Overall you are doing well and high hope on a European place. That would write into the history of this young club. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 14:53
Thanks Lye, the title would be amazing but a top four finish would be very good too.
George Dobson
27 ноября, 2011 at 13:45
your doing great Johnny I hope you can countinue your form after the winter break your plan sounds good as well good luck !!!! :D
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 14:54
Thanks George, I hope that the plan will go well.
vaibhavc
27 ноября, 2011 at 15:01
A very good season so far, and to top that up, you have the cup to win as well. It is good that Vasquez is living up to his stats. And do players need work permits in Romania?
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 15:36
Thanks mate. No work permits are required here, the only rule is to have at most five non-EU players in the first eleven.
Laxeyman
27 ноября, 2011 at 16:01
Excellent start Johnny, your team is vastly improved from last year, probably due to the experience gained last season :) Manoel looks like he’ll be a fantastic player for you, and with him, Vazquez and Alibec you will surely score lots of goals, and hopefully challenge for the title. Good luck!
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 17:52
Thanks mate, the future does look good but there still are lots of things that can go wrong…
Alex
27 ноября, 2011 at 16:53
Fantastic first half of the season, as the season comes to a close your squad should get stronger as they’ll have had time to gel. The title is definitely a distinct possibility. I hope you manage to resolve the financial situation.
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 17:52
Thanks Alex, I agree that the team should be stronger in the second half of the season.
Kevin
27 ноября, 2011 at 17:45
Hi Johnny
Great job my friend. You have certainly developed this team into strong contenders and are right in the thick of things. Putanu is simply brilliant this season and Vazquez finding his feet has helped too. Looking forward to see how Manoel performs!
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 17:53
Thanks Kevin, I’m quite pleased to see a Viitorul trainee like Putanu stepping up but I still have a soft spot for the South American players ;)
Darren Smith
27 ноября, 2011 at 19:00
Wow, I was waiting for a great run leading to your title challenge but wasn’t so sure this would be your season….fantastic to see you are challenging so soon and I hope to see you get minimum top four finish. Great work.
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 21:32
Thanks Darren, I don’t know if we’ll win it but being in the race is quite pleasing.
Sw1fT
27 ноября, 2011 at 19:11
Great job johnny.
I can’t wait for your next update
Johnny Karp
27 ноября, 2011 at 21:32
Thanks mate.
Stromson
27 ноября, 2011 at 22:26
Now that’s more like it! I think you probably have two best named Keepers in the history of football — Dragos and Octavian! That Brazilian lad looks quite exciting, and I’m eager to see how he adapts to Romania (though the Brazilians seem to be an adaptable lot in general).
Bummer about the finances, but there don’t seem to be too many «real» consequences to operating the red, and it’s nothing a solid European tour wouldn’t wipe out.
Johnny Karp
28 ноября, 2011 at 06:36
Well, the finances do affect my activity since I can’t expand the stadium or sign some players that I feel we really need. But I can’t complain, I’ll just have to make things work.
Mikulas Nemeth
28 ноября, 2011 at 12:00
Johny have tried to play some friendly cups during the off season? That generates me a lot of cash…
+ I made to it to the CL and I have balance around 8mil EUR but my owner is still refusing to give me a cent from that cash… :(
Johnny Karp
28 ноября, 2011 at 13:36
I do try to play as many away friendlies as possible but the most I’ve got was 18,000 pounds for a game. How much do you get for those cups and are they at home or away?
Mikulas Nemeth
28 ноября, 2011 at 14:38
Always at home. My ground has capacity 11.000..I ussualy invite larger foreign team like PSG, Marseilles, Sevilla etc, one similar or with slightly higher reputation like Ajax, Twente, Stoke etc and the 3rd is ussualy somebody from my league ..top team..in your case Cluj or Steaua..
and now..the income — depends on opponents but it’s from 80 to 150+k EUR per cup, also the merchadising sales raised so I was able to balance the books where I was 800k in red numbers with 3 friendly home cups during the pre-season and at the start of the season I was only some 30k in red…
Johnny Karp
28 ноября, 2011 at 14:40
OK, thanks for the info. It might not work with my reduced ground capacity but I will surely keep this in mind.
Mikulas Nemeth
28 ноября, 2011 at 14:56
I’m currently on winter break so I’ll let you know the exact figures as I planned 4 cups during that time.
Calin
28 ноября, 2011 at 08:32
Some really amazing results there, managing to get past Steaua and Dinamo is always great and your team always performed great. Although the table is still tight, as it usually happens in Romanian football, I am sure that you can keep up the great work and at least grab an Europa League spot.
Too bad that your finances are looking that bad… but hopefully after you sell the players, things will look better.
Johnny Karp
28 ноября, 2011 at 10:39
Thanks mate, I am satisfied with the results so far. Hopefully the financial side will be OK once we reach Europe but I will surely have to sell some players to keep the deficit under control.
Sears
28 ноября, 2011 at 17:25
Brilliant start Johnny, keep it up!!
Johnny Karp
28 ноября, 2011 at 18:13
Thanks Sears.
Bhargav
28 ноября, 2011 at 18:39
I have a question about how you build your squad. I know this is probably a little hard to answer but could you tell me how you balance having youngsters with high potential and already solid players? I have a tough time maintaining that balance. I either have too many high potential youngsters but then I suffer in the present or too many currently average/solid players so I don’t leave myself enough room for growth in the future and become mired in mediocrity.
Johnny Karp
28 ноября, 2011 at 18:45
I don’t have balance in mind when building the squad, I focus on youngsters but when I don’t have or can’t find good enough youngsters for a certain role I sign more experienced players as a short-term solution. In FM 2011 I won everything with Vauxhall with a squad average age around 22 so I don’t think that having a young squad is a problem.
Ana Garcia
28 ноября, 2011 at 18:58
A very encouraging first of the season Johnny,
Seems like this season you wont be looking down at the teams struggling but rather looking up to a top six finish and maybe even a european place which would be a dream for your finances. :)
It seems the harder you try the further you fall into debt, I had the same problem in South Africa on last years game until I got extra revenue from the champions league then had no more money troubles.
I have my fingers crossed that you can maybe get there soon, good luck! :)
Johnny Karp
28 ноября, 2011 at 19:03
Thanks Ana, Europe is like the promised land for us at this point :) I hope we’ll reach it at the end of this season, that would surely speed up the progress of the club.
Dan Ireland
29 ноября, 2011 at 17:52
Hello Johnny big fan followed all of your but can you give me some advice about the best way to watch my matches like should i watch them all ?
Johnny Karp
30 ноября, 2011 at 05:55
I watch all the matches, including friendlies, in extended highlights mode. I definitely think that you should watch them all but that’s just my opinion.
Mariano
7 декабря, 2011 at 17:42
Now it looks like it´s going to be downhill for you in the Romanian league as your youngsters will get better and better!
Johnny Karp
7 декабря, 2011 at 21:51
It did get better but it wasn’t easy at all ;)
Mariano
30 декабря, 2011 at 00:17
Manoel is going to be amaqzing with Vazquez, plus he got amazing determination ,finishing and free kick attributes!
I remember you already managed Alibec on a previous story, mayby Notts CO?
Cheers and well done!
Johnny Karp
30 декабря, 2011 at 10:13
You are right, I had Alibec on loan from Inter at Notts Co but then was unable to buy him.