2016- The dawn of a frugal era

As I mentioned in my introduction we are £50m in debt so we are going to focus on developing our own players but sometimes we will dip into the market if we need too.

Debt
The board have restructured the debt & sold the training ground so its down to £40m with a monthly repayment of £173,000 a month until 2041. which doesn’t sound like much but our monthly income is on average £150,000 that doesn’t cover the repayment even before we pay wages etc.
The aim will be to reduce wage build & sell players for a fee to keep the balance topped up to reduce chances of any more debt.

Pre-season

Only a short pre-season due to the lack of time before the season starts and the game start date. 3 games at least I found out which formation I want to play(for now!)

This is the formation we started the season with it would go on to change 4 more times to due player sales. My Assistant manager tells me my best 4 players are Flores, Gutierrez, Ruidiaz & Guarderas, so the team is built around them for the time being.

Copa Libertadores

My 2016 Libertadores challenge finished before it even started, Barcelona(ECU) were far stronger than us & with the team not used to playing in this formation yet we struggled.

Fun Fact
My 4* CA 5* PA left back is currently on loan in Chile & not back until july so my 0* CA 2* PA 17 year old will end up playing Left back until then because hes the only player at the club that can in the role. I rather play him than waste time re-training someone who could be sold at the moment while I still figure out my squad.

Torneo del Inca

Imagine turning up somewhere where they have won 26 titles & thinking not with bunch they never!
We started with 2 score draws unbeaten I suppose, then I moved Ruidiaz upfront and put Polo on the wing as Ruidiaz looked like the only player who can score goals! we actually ended up on a 6 game unbeaten streak and with 2 games left we needed a point to qualify for the semi finals!
Obviously we lost those two games but luckily we were the best of an awful bunch & nobody took advantage and into the semi finals we went.
Now usually a semi final has 2 of the best 4 teams in the competition well we must of been 3rd best & Leon de Huanuco 4th best because over the 2 legs there were 0 goals & 0 entertainment only 5 shots in 2 games summed it up but we scraped through on pens!

A final in my first season wow this is a short season I thought to myself!
Showing my lack of Peru football knowledge this is their cup which they seem to play before the actual season but a finals a final.
Quick google of Cesar Vallejo FC (because Cesar Vallejo is a Peruvian Poet who died in 1938!) they were only formed in 1996 & never won the title vs the mighty Universitario with our 26 titles! It was surely a formality.
We lost 1-0 & we were dreadful & a few more players were added to my not needed list.

Opening Stage

Right this is the actual league now its split into two, opening stage & closing stage the winner of both get a semi final spot in the Copa Movistar with 2 other teams from somewhere, got it? no me neither! I’ll just try my best.

After losing in the final the board gave me £10 million to launch an assault on the title. Yeah right we haven’t got a pot to piss in!
I did get two experienced strikers in though 35 year old Colombian Sergio Herrera who hasn’t had a club for 2 years signed on a free. 34 year old Uruguayan (building for the future obviously with 2 34+) striker Sergio Blanco joined for £80,000.
Both were suited to the lone role I wanted to play or so I thought & due to their age I thought I could complement one with the other on a rotation scheme.
To be honest they were both shit, Blanco joined with a record of 150 goals in 350 games he scored 9 for me & Herrera had 120 goals in 250 games & he scored 1!!!
Yes it might be my tactics but they were both out of the door again by the end of the season.
We never got going in the opening stage and we finished 7th not brilliant for us

Closing Stage

We changed our formation for the closing stage due to a few player sales

Flores went to Anderlecht for £575,000, Ruidiaz went to Gent for £400,000 which was our best two players in form gone so I had to change it to a 4-1-1-2-2 for you hipsters still 4-4-2 to me.
The funds did allow me to sign Monteseirin on loan from Lanus for 6 months to help shore up our defence. Little did I know I had let two good defenders out on loan my previous assistant told me they were crap, can see why I got rid of him now.

Well the closing stage was totally different to the opening we had an 9 game unbeaten run & during that we didn’t concede for 8 of them.
We romped home to the closing stages title with Olascunga being promoted from the reserves & tearing left backs apart.

Now the two stages are added together to create an Aggregate table the winners of both stages go through to the semi finals (& 2 other teams not got a clue how they got there! I could ask @DMendoza1969 but his Mrs has already told me off for calling him at 3am to ask his opinion on a 18 year old Peruvian left back. Only Joking :/ )

We were drawn vs Cristal we won the first leg 2-1 then we were 2-0 up in the 2nd leg (4-1agg) and we threw it away and scraped through on pens.
Then came the final or shall I say finals they love their 2 legs here in Peru & quick google tells me they are the most famous & best supported team in Peru but they have ONLY won 22 league titles. Best make that 23! we were awful from start to finish they deserved it.

So my first season ended as runners up we have qualified for the Copa Libertadoras straight through to the groups this time so that’s something at least.
A few players will be shipped out I have a lot of kids on the fringes so I have decided next season might aswell try & win something with kids and hopefully over the next few years I will reap the benefits.

I’m sorry for the shit jokes they sounded great in my head honest! If anyone does read this I hope you enjoy it.
Now I’ve caught up with where I am currently in the save I might do more frequent updates depending on my free time.

Any questions feel free to ask on twitter @DGear86

Thanks Dan