Latest Poll Results


Welcome Back!

Sorry for the fact that I haven’t posted recently, but I have exams this week, and haven’t been able to post. However, I will post my preseason and my tri-monthly updates with Caen soon. Please ask if you have any questions about Caen.

As the title suggests, my last poll has been closed and here are the results of it:

“Which National Team Would Be Easier To Bring Back Success?”

So, Croatia were the favourite with the majority of the vote, but Chile and Czech Republic were more popular than the others.

A new poll is up, so get voting in this one. I will reveal the results on 22/5/11.

See you soon and don’t forget to request any screenshots or ask any questions or just comment

Hwyl Fawr!

Record 2012 Summer Transfers!


Welcome Back!

First of all can I thank everyone who has visited my blog and read my posts, and voted for my blog in top blogs. I have now reached 3000 views on my site, and am joint 10th for the top blogs. Thanks guys! :D

This is a detailed post solely on all the huge transfers which give Caen a record transfer income and outcome. Many will be surprised…

I chose Title Challenge, because if I’ve already won, then I’m obviosuly going to do Continental Qualification Through League Finish, because that means top 6 finish, and even the media think I can do that. Title Challenge basically means top 3, or only a few points off 1st. European Champions Cup Qualification means top 3, which is what it said when I said title challenge. £40M is more than a big enough budget, but I’ll probably spend more than that, and I only need £200K of wages a week, because I always sign low wage players. My rule is also to never give anyone above £50K a week of wages.

First up is my transfers at the start of the transfer window, but still in last season:

2 players my scouts highly recommended were signed. Kovacic, an attacking midfielder, and Serderov a Striker.

He is one of the best players at my club and will rotate with Yaisien unless one player plays much better than the other. He was the cheapest out of all the attacking midfielders who would come to me, and was any good at all, and he is better than any other of the attacking midfielders who would come to me, so I’m delighted with this player and he will feature regularly.

My 3rd or 4th striker at the moment, he was only cheap, but two better strikers were signed who were better, and more expensive, as a matter of fact. He will gain some first team experience during the season, but probably not much, unless I have some injuries.

Now here are the 3 players who were signed and then sold during the same transfer window:


Bryan Dabo was a very good defensive midfielder, who was bought cheaply, but he wouldn’t have featured in my first team plans and there was a lot of teams interested in him, eventually we had an acceptable offer from Twente, and I excepted and he went for £7M, to give us a profit of £6.575M.


A good solid centre back who would only be classed as average with the quality centre backs I’ve got in my squad. He also attracted some interest, and Villa’s £4.3M was good enough to lure him away, to give us another good profit, of £4.3M.


Our star centre defender last year has deserted us after a fabulous last season, he signed for only £1.2M, but obviously stole the attention of many big clubs, but Hoffenheim (!), yes Hoffenheim (!) signed him for £20M. I wouldn’t have accepted any lower offers because he is too good. A staggering profit of £18.8M from him.

Now, here are all our June transfers In:

Nico Klein, a very cheap Austrian left winger:

He won’t play too often, because of better left wingers in the squad, but he will play as many matches that I deem unimportant or easy. He will also cover injuries and suspensions, so he will prove key for my squad.

Kyle Ebecilio, a cheap Dutch centre midfielder:

He will be my back-up centre midfielder and will also cover for injuries and suspensions. He is also going to play many cup matches, and easy league games, to keep him happy.

And here are all our June transfers Out:

I can’t believe Burnley had £8M to spend on Dirk Marcellis, who was used in a rotation squad for me, I accepted because he is worth about £5M to the club and I could get replacements for way less than that. All of the other desertees were free transfers because they weren’t good enough for even the reserve team.

Here are the free transfers In:

One was sold straight away, because of a reasonable offer, Kitambala to Villa for £4.3M, and the other is Bihmoutine, a left defender and winger, who will play reserve for any left sided player who is injured, he will not figure much for me.

Now for all of the surplus players who left:




£26.8M made from surplus players is fantastic. All of these were either reserve, back up players or just weren’t of good enough standard for the squad. Hatchi, Etari and Yatabare all went for £5M each, but this is because they were all needed as back up on the rare occasion, and played their part well. The rest just weren’t of good quality, and any money made from them is a bonus.

Here are all of the July transfers In:

3 superb players signed, totaling £16.9M, not a large sum for such great players.

Danny da Costa:

Danny da Costa is an amazing right back who can also play as centre back. He will be my main right back, and will feature regularly. He cost the club £3.4M and I’m certain he will be a great player for us.

Alex Chamberlain:

I’m sure that everyone is aware of Alex Chamberlain and I’m sure he will be a phenomenal player for us. He cost us £7.75M and is the biggest wage-eater at £30K a week. He is definitely going to be my first team right winger for this season because he is always absolutely amazing on FM11, and he was already playing for Chelsea, so he is obviously very good. I am delighted at this signing.

Yaya Sanogo:

I’m elated that I can sign Yaya Sanogo now. I tried time and time again to sign him over the last few transfer windows, however, he either failed a medical or wouldn’t come to me. Now though, he has decided to join us, and he will be a great buy hopefully. He should start many matches and I am hoping he will also score many goals and have a high average rating.

Here are all the July transfers Out:

That is the huge shock! I mean, look how much we got, we basically traded our old squad and upgraded it, for much less money, if every club did this, then every club would be rich, like Caen are now. The first big transfer was Stanescu, He was great for me, but I felt the £15M Barca bid was big enough to lure him away, especially as he isn’t as good as Kovacic and Stanescu’s transfer gave us a profit of £12.4M over Kovacic.

Next was Marcq, who was one of our only homegrown players who made it into the first 11 regularly, week in week out. He was very good, but I felt that I could spend much less money on a better DMC, and £16.5M was a fantastic bid from Man City, so he went, and he gave us some extra dosh.

Then Real, the big spenders, (Kaka, Ronaldo, Benzema and Xabi Alonso are examples of this), came in with an offer of £30M for Van La Parra, I thought that this was also too good to be true, so I accepted, without any regrets, even if he was our best player.

Next was Napoli who signed Rui Patricio for £10M, I didn’t wait before accepting the offer because I knew he would be unhappy at being a second choice goalkeeper to the amazing Goran Maric. He was also our main wage-eater, but I don’t care about the wages at the moment, because my budget is completely empty.

The next big transfer out was Labyad, who was another of our players to go to Barca, I said I would sell him because of poor performances, and £10M is enough for me, so he is gone, and I have found someone better.

The last of our big transfers out from July was Idriss Saadi, who was bought by Shakhtar for £20M. He was superb for Caen, but you have already seen 2 replacements for him; Yaya Sanogo, he cost less at £5.75M, and Serder Serderov, he cost way less at £600K.

Here are all the August transfers In:

6 great players, 5 of which are regens.

Adam Jennings:

Here is my main replacement for Idriss Saadi. He will start all the imprortant matches and he is my most costly buy at £10.5M, but he and my other 2 strikers, still cost less than Saadi did. He is a supreme regen, and I’m sure he will be my leading scorer, or one of my best players this season.

Luca Barigelli:

A fantastic regenerated left midfielder who I will train to be perfect at left winger too. He will be my starting left winger for all the matches where I need my key players available. He will be great for £2.4M.

Lorenzo Crisetig:

Yes! I’ve landed him, possibly the best young defensive midfielder on the game, and he cost £3.8M. He will start often for Caen and should become a key player in my squad.

Bruno Neves:

£725K for a quality player who will clearly be worth at least £15M in the future. He is my best centre midfielder, and one of my joint best attacking midfielders, he will play quite regularly, but I will prbably use defensive midfielders and other attacking midfielders more regularly in my starting formation.

Borge Torp:

Borge Torp will play centre back alongside Darnel Situ and Dennis Appiah rotationally. those 3 players will all have their chance to play, and each one will most likely play at least 30 matches each this season, unless injuries occur. He was another cheap regen and cost only £1.6M, so he can’t disappoint for the price tag.

Roman Ramon:

Roman Ramon is a 17 year old Spanish Regen who signed for only £2.5M and will be my second choice right winger behind Alex Chamberlain. He was only cheap and takes up hardly any wages, so i couldn’t resist to sign him. He will probably feature every now and then in some league matches or cup matches.

Here are all the August transfers Out:

The board accepted the £5M offer for Nangis, so he left us, but he wasn’t as good as he should’ve been.

D’Alessandro wasn’t as good as Barigelli and he was the player in my Caen squad who my assistant said had not improved, and his potential ability has gone down a whole star, from 4.5* to 3.5*. I thought £12.5M was a more than respectable offer, so he has gone to Siciliy in southern Italy to join up with Palermo in the Sun, I hope he enjoys playing in his home country.

I have spoke about the other transfers, but just look at amount of money we raked in. £181 MILLION!!! That must be by far the highest I’ve ever raked in. I think Caen are definitely a very rich club now.

This is what my budget is now:

That is a lot of money! However, the board still won’t expand our stadium at all.

See you soon for my Preseason-August Caen update, hopefully by Saturday,

Don’t be afraid to comment or ask any questions about anything or for any screenshots,

Hwyl Fawr!

Other Leagues + My prediction


Welcome Back!

In this post I am showing how other leagues around me went and how bad my predictions at the start of the season were.

Argentina:

Almost expected table, except River should be 2nd.

Brazil:

A few teams should be higher including Sao Paulo, Internacional and Cruzeiro.

England:

Sunderland, Fulham, Birmingham, Wolves should all be lower and Man U, Bolton, Everton, Tottenham should all be higher.

France:

The left is my prediction, right the actual:

Lyon: 1 2

Marseille: 2 3

Auxerre: 3 8

Caen: 4 1

Rennais: 5 7

Saint-Etienne: 6 11

Toulouse: 7 9

Lille: 8 5

Bordeaux: 9 6

PSG: 10 4

Montpellier: 11 14

Monaco: 12 18

Lens: 13 13

Sedan Ardennes:14 15

Nice: 15 16

Sochaux: 16 10

Havre: 17 19

Valenciennes: 18 17

Brestois: 19 12

Ajaccio: 20 20

So I got 2 right Lens 13 and Ajaccio 20, Brestois went up 7, Sochaux and PSG up 6, those 3 were the main overachievers.

Monaco down 6, Saint-Etienne and Auxerre down 5, those 3 were the main underachievers.

Shocked to see all the newly relegated teams doing poor, especially Lorient who have gone down again.

Don’t know much about this league, but the table is pretty much spot on.

Germany:

Freiburg are high flying and HSV are low flying, Dortmund with their squad should be higher also.

Holland:

Nice too see a RL champion winning unlike when Goringen won last year, PSV, AZ should be higher and Roda and Heerenveen are did very well.

Italy:

Fiorentina, Udinese, Lazio should be higher, Catania, Leece should be much lower.

Portugal:

Braga and Martimo should switch, and top 3 should have more points, 70 at least.

Russia:

Spartak and Krylia should be higher, Terek should be much lower.

Spain:

Sevilla are too low and Almeria are too high, nice to see the top 2 being the top 2 again.

Ukraine:

Shakhtar are much better than Dynamo Kyiv, they should switch positions.

There you have it, the leagues,

See you soon for hopefully my preseason and Transfers, and from then on my tri-monthly updates during my 2 weeks of exams and revision.

Hwyl Fawr!

Season Summary 2011/12


Welcome Back!

This is just a post summarizing Caen’s season last year.

First of all, here are some screenshots showing the awards our players have appeared in.

I’m delighted with all the players who have won any kind of award and am thrilled that they’ve helped me to win the manager of the season, along with the treble with EL instead of CL. I have nothing more to say about each individual award because they all deserve them.

Rajiv Van La Parra wasn’t as good as last season, but the fans love for him still hasn’t gone, he has won this twice in a row now, but he was spectacular once again this season, with many assists.

My Best Eleven for this season was basically my first 11 for the season, the only difference was Stanescu who was a January signing and was injured for the rest of the season at the end of March, played in AMC not MC, and Labyad was my MC, but he was my worst player this season and will be sold.

Look at how we progressed during the season. Once we peaked and reached first, we stayed there until the end, only once were we down to second because we had a game in hand over Marseille, who were 1 point ahead at the time. I’ve also highlighted Ajaccio to show how awful their season was, they were last all through the season, with only 2 wins, both in the last 5 games of the season.

Caen had the second highest coefficients for the 2011/12 season after a shock win in the EL. We are also 45th now, whereas before we were 92nd.

Here are how my finances are after 2 seasons of football at Stade Malherbe Caen:

Keeping the Board and fans happy is obviously important, and here is my board/fan confidence in me:

If any of you are wondering, I had 90% overall confidence, which went up to 93% the day after the season finished, but this was taken at the beginning of June after the awards. I think its fair to say my job is safe.

And Finally,

I am now manager of Poland and will try and help them get into the World Cup 2014.

See you soon for my preseason, feel free to ask for any screenshots, or if you have any questions

Hwyl Fawr!

May 2012

Posted on April 30th, 2011 in Football Manager 2011,Stade Malherbe Caen by Hazza  Tagged ,


Welcome Back!

Here is the last month of football for the 2011/2012 season with Caen and here are the fixtures that I face:

Hopefully I can win all these to give me the minor treble with El instead of CL. I would like to stay unbeaten, as I have done for the majority of this season.

A few players were rested, but we still managed to steal a win from their noses. Montpellier were better, however we got the two goals that counted. Resting players may prove vital if we land a treble because this will mean they will be fit for the key matches, and we still won this match without our best team, so I’m delighted. Marseille lost their match too, so we are ahead and have a game in hand over them.

We were all over Toulouse in this match, reacting well from the poor performance against Montpellier. 3 great goals from our players and a sturdy performance at the back of defence to keep us from conceding any other goals. Fantastic result.

What a result! This is my biggest win with Caen and it comes against my hardest opponent whom I find hard to master. We did absolutely phenomenal against them, with just as many chances as in other matches but we took them in this match to land us a huge 6-0 victory over our title rivals. The title is definitely Caen’s now. I still can’t believe that we had 5 different goalscorers and Saadi wasn’t one of them, it doesn’t matter though, I’m still delighted at this win.

Is this the first we’ve heared of Rajiv Van La Parra since his amazing last season? He is in the Team of the Week for a reason. He is showing the skill he showed last year and has done very well recently to deserve this appearance.

Another nice win by Caen. 3 late goals to land us the comfortable victory. The scoreline justified our performance because we were truly outstanding once again against Lens, and had we taken all our chances, we could’ve won like how we beat Marseille.

We missed many clear chances during this match, but still managed to score 3 goals. I was gutted we conceded, but it was only 1 and I think we are champions so conceding won’t matter. I am happy with the domination anyway.

Appiah, Marcellis, Moualek and Williams all played their part in the win against Nice, and were good enough to deserve themselves their part in the Team of the Week.

Here is the table:

Yes! We won the French Ligue 1 and were 8 points clear in the end, and Lyon were 2nd, not Marseille, who dropped many points towards the end.

Now, onto the Euro Cup Final!

Both of our familiar formations, and Lyon have their strongest squad out, I will do my all to stop them and will go out with a very attacking mentality because it works against the top French teams, especially with my strudy defence.

So, what was the result?

Attacking obviously works, as Stade Malherbe Caen have pulled off the minor treble! I’m elated! Their performance was sensational and they fully deserved the victory. We went behind early on from a corner and responded with two great team goals to give us another title! This was thrilling to watch.

Wow! Our player ratings were superb, they all played their part in the victory and can be proud of their performances.

Our brilliant results to finish the season!

We have a brilliant squad and I’m amazed at how well they have all done. All but 2 players 7 and above for average rating is great.

To finish off I have the player of the month award, and I’m thrilled we’ve entered this again to finish off our spectacular month.

See you soon for my season summaries with Caen

Hwyl Fawr!

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