Football Manager 2021 AS Saint Etienne: La Dernière Danse

Welcome back, For those of you that aren’t fluent in French or have access to google translate apparently that is the correct translation for “The Last Dance” And that’s where we start this blog post.

In the previous post, I said I was going to play two more seasons of FM21. I failed to mention that it was dependent on me qualifying for the Champions League so we start this season with the target of a top 3 finish to qualify for the Champions League.
Our best finish so far?
4th

We start our chase for Champions League football with a 3-0 win at Home vs Rennes, followed by a disappointing loss away at Bordeaux, We easily brushed aside Cluj 6-2 on Agg to qualify for the Europa Conference League. A 2-0 win vs Rivals Lyon was followed by a 4-1 drubbing from PSG. 6 points from a potential 12 is a disappointing start to the season.

3 draws and a 6-2 win only earn us 6 points to add to the disappointing start. We smashed Spurs 4-1 in Europe.

Cyrille Roger is now up to 7 goals so far this season as we win 2 and draw one in the league and secure 4 points in Europe.

7 points in the league again, It’s not looking too good domestically but in Europe we secure passage to the knockout rounds.

Roger finally breaks 10 goals by January, 42million down the drain could be heard in the stands across France. 9 points from 12 sees us shoot up the table.

Defensively we’re not good enough armed with a 100m war chest topped up with the 35m from selling Lein and Soumare meant we bring in Zagadou and Zakaria while making Guerreiro’s loan a permanent one.
Nunez joins on deadline day to help Roger upfront.

BOOM, 3 cup wins and 7 points from 9 in the league only dropping points at PSG.

7 points again this month drops us out of the top 3 and we’re out of the cup, we do progress in Europe though.

FINALLY! 10 points from 12 pull us back into the top 3 and we soar past Molde.

Into the semis of the ECL which we are 1-3 down going into the second leg, 9 from a possible 12 in the league.

Roger finishes on 19 and we secure 3rd place luckily Marseille lost on the final day. We also lost the semi-finals of the Europa Conference too

We go again, we secured 3rd place on the last day by results going our way. We need more from our strikers but we did break 100 league goals this season for the first time.

Yes, that’s who you think it is! Gourna Douath is back! oh, you thought I meant Neymar, yes he’s joined us on a free this summer for the last season. Bajic also rejoins us as a backup keeper, and Cancelo and Dembele join on loan (yes 18m on a one-year loan for a wing-back Tony) We also secured a new number 1 Goalkeeper in Lozano. We’ve added some experience in midfield in Cuisance and De Paul.

A lot of outs, I’m trying to clear out all the deadwood before I leave.

This season we’re going to try and chase PSG as much as we can. we started the season by confirming our Champions League group stage place by beating Basel and Standard and 10 points from a possible 12 in the league. Roger Goal Count – 4

8 points from a possible 12 in the league with a crazy 3-3 with PSG equalising in 90+8! 2 wins in Europe too! Roger – 15 (took until January to score 10 last season)

10 from 12 again in the league and a loss to United in CL. Roger – 20 (beating last season’s 19 by November)

We secure Champions League knockout football and only 4 points from 9 in the league this Month. (Roger – 22)

10 goals in 1 month take Roger up to 32 so far this season. 12 points from 12 see us go top of the league for the winter break.

I should start this by saying Roger has signed for Liverpool and will join at the end of the season on a 80million Euro fee. So Edouard Joins as his replacement, Ecgevarrieta will be .a long term replacement. Dumfries comes in to replace Cancelo whos out for the rest of the season and then his loan will end. Romero comes in as we sold three centre backs and Lenglet provides cover until the summer.

Three centre backs out of the door, All were moaning and asked to be transfer listed so with us playing well I shipped them out. Thuram has been injury prone and is 3rd choice now. Bertin never made the grade.

Look at all that Green, 3 cup wins 3 league wins. Roger adds 9 to go to 41 goals

Is this the month we lost the title? one win from 5 league games sees us drop to second. We are out of the cup and take a 4-3 lead to Anfield in Europe (Roger – 46)

And now its all gone, 1 point from 9 sees us drop to 3rd and a 7-3 smashing by liverpool sees us knocked out of Europe. (Roger 48)

10 points from 12 sees us go 2 points behind 2nd (Roger 55)

56 and he sprained his knee ligaments and his seasons over, What a season for him personally and his 56 goals helped us secure 2nd place. 10 points from 12 this season and we do it on goal difference. 116 goals in the league this season in total.

The man himself

That brings an end to my Football Manager 2021 save, We never really got close to challenging PSG who are the dominated force of French football these days. I’ve enjoyed my time at Saint Etienne and it showed what a difference a world class Newgen striker made.
We developed a lot of players and sold on for good fees, I felt every season we got closer but not close enough.
We will try again on FM22 and hopefully win some trophies.
Thanks to everyone for reading along and my FM22 save reveal will be live on Youtube on the 26th September at 7pm.
It will be a good one i promise.
Make sure you catch me on GrassNGear podcast we are recording one this week.