November started with a tough match as we were travelling to meet Dinamo Bucharest, a big team that was in trouble (down in 8th place) but certainly looking to make amends.
Dinamo 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 witnessed an even game in the first half but we could have taken the lead on 28 minutes when Joabe smashed one against the upright with the goal at his mercy. That was just about all that had happened before the break…
Unfortunately one of Dinamo‘s top class players made his value count shortly after the break when he scored a sensational goal from 20 yards out. At that point I switched to the attacking version of my tactic and the move nearly paid off moments later but Mihai Onicas was denied by the woodwork. Things got trickier on 76 minutes when Joabe left the pitch due to an injury and we found our numbers reduced to 10 as I had no more substitutions available. We kept pushing forward though and the sweet reward came five minutes from time when Santiago Vazquez took advantage of a terrible blunder in Dinamo‘s defence to make it all square. We had to withstand heavy pressure during the final minutes but we pulled it off courtesy of some heroic defending, it was a very good result given the circumstances.
Match Highlights: click here to watch
Santiago Vazquez was definitely becoming a household name in Romania and he confirmed that by scoring a top class winning goal against Otelul Galati, a beautiful lob (click here to watch). Then it was Denis Alibec‘s turn to step into the spotlight, he bagged a brace against Petrolul to extend our unbeaten run to seven games. The month ended with another solid performance and a win, 2-0 against Petrolul with Alibec finding the back of the net again at the end of a beautiful team move (click here to watch).
The unbeaten run improved our position in the league table, we were back in the driving seat at the end of November!
Sadly that good streak came to an end after the first match of December, FC Vaslui finally got their revenge as they beat us 2-0 at the end of a largely wasteful performance from my boys in which we were punished by a penalty kick goal and an own goal… Luckily things went a lot better in the Romanian Cup quarter final match against Gloria Bistrita, defender Ionut Putanu bagged another hat-trick to see us advance to the semi finals!
There was just one more game to play but it was by far the most important: we were travelling to meet Liga 1 leaders Universitatea Cluj! They were just one point ahead of us before that game so we had a chance to go into the winter break as Liga 1 leaders!
U Cluj vs Viitorul (Liga 1)
Starting Line Up: Dragos Balauru — Ionut Peteleu, Alvaro Casanova, Zarko Markovic, Lucian Filip — Dejan Danicic, Alexandru Lazar, Nenad Grumic — Santiago Vazquez, Joabe, Denis Alibec
Unfortunately we had some medical problems and three important players were missing: defenders Chakib Benzoukane and Ionut Putanu plus midfielder Mihai Onicas. However, the game started well for us, we were dominating but there was no real sense of danger for the home side’s defence. Unfortunately the hosts scored on their very first threatening attack, Zoran Markovic was poorly positioned there and we let in the opening goal. That seemed to have thrown my lads a bit off-balance and we paid the price five minutes before the break when we conceded a rather stupid goal following a throw-in…
Luckily we managed to get back into the game just seven minutes after the restart, Joabe was tripped inside the penalty area and then converted the spot kick. We started to pile on the pressure but the opposition defence was very strong, they kept cool and clinched the three points. I wouldn’t say that we played badly but we should have done a lot more to get a result there…
Match Highlights: click here to watch
That defeat relegates us into third place but I am happy with the situation overall, if we manage to finish inside the top four we could play Europa League football next season. We still have a chance to win the title but the table is incredibly tight at the top, any of the top six could win the title in my view.
Defenders Zarko Markovic and Ionut Putanu are our best players so far but Denis Alibec has done very well after joining the club, five goals in eight appearances is not too shabby. Joabe and Santiago Vazquez have done a good job in attack so far but I know there’s more to come from them, especially from Vazquez. As far as the goalkeepers are concerned, Dragos Balauru was the man who played more but that was only because Octavian Ormenisan had some injury problems.
All is well at our small club except… the finances! We are over 2 million in red and that has got to change. I even have a plan now :) You see, we will have another exciting striker joining us for free from South America in January: Brazilian youth international Manoel! (click the name to view his profile). That creates a problem because we’d have too many non-EU players but it’s also an opportunity to sell one of the non-EU players in the current squad. Joabe is attracting some interest, a Mexican club is willing to pay around half a million, but I think that I will sell defender Chakib Benzoukane because I want to give Alvaro Casanova and Ionut Putanu a lot more playing time. I will also sell one or two of my current strikers, the top candidates are Valentin Simion and Vlad Rusu and I guess I can get some good money for them.
The post finally ends now folks, thanks for having the patience to read it. Who will win the title this season is anybody’s guess at this point, we do have a chance but we’ll have to be a lot more consistent in the second part of the season if we want to win it. However, I think that an Europa League spot is definitely on the cards since we also have the Romanian Cup route, we’re into the semi finals and we don’t have a tough opponent there (Second Division club FC Brasov). I guess we’ll have a busy winter break, I want to play quite a few friendlies to prepare the lads for a tough second half of the season ;)
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.