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Conquering Europe


oneteaminglasgow

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I'm off to Slovenia and Tabor Sezana.

The club were founded in 1923 by a man named Ivan Regent, who appears to have been a Slovenian communist revolutionary, and looks exactly like I'd expect a Slovenian communist revolutionary to look like...

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Anyway, because of this, and the fact that Sezana was in Italy at the time, they were banned in 1927 by Musollini's government, and ceased playing until 1945 when they came back to play almost exclusively in the Slovenian lower league sections of the Yugoslav system. Since Slovene independence, they have bounced around the divisions a lot, reaching as high as sixth place in the top flight while also spending numerous seasons in the fourth tier. In game, they're a pretty firmly established top flight club, usually in the bottom half although they did win the cup in 2080.

Sezana itself is a small town of 6000 odd people, but everything in Slovenia is dwarfed by Ljubljana and, to a much lesser extent, Maribor. It looks very nice from what I can find, and seems to be a bit of a tourist destination so that's nice.

The big club in Slovenia just now appear to be Celje, while Maribor - the traditional big boys - are having a tough time just now. My immediate priority is to avoid a relegation battle, and I'd like to hope we can do that but we shall see.

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Tabor Sezana - Meet the team

3.5 stars is "currently operating at Slovene top flight level", 3 stars is "leading player for Slovene second tier level"

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A shite start. Marmat my best option, but he's not good enough. Immediate attention required.

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Same as above. I have one ok winger on either side, but my attacking midfield is atrocious. Work needed.

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This is a running theme.

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I have the makings of an ok defence, but I do need some reinforcements as well to make it an actually good defence.

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And I need a better goalkeeper as well. 

Loads of improvements required.

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Transfers 2091

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None of these are a loss to the team.

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And it's been fairly tough to find players of the necessary quality, so I've not made as many changes to my squad as I would have liked.

Still, first up is Kristjan Baranja - a central midfielder/attacking midfielder/striker. He's a good technical player, although he's getting on a bit so definitely isn't a long term solution for us. Should do a job for the season though.

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Vid Babic is a goalkeeper and he'll be my number one. He's not a particular upgrade on my pre-existing keepers, but he has much more potential to improve.

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Razvan Dragan is a centre half/centre midfielder on loan from Universistatea Craiova, who are our parent club, and he's a pretty limited player but very solid defensively so that's all good. A really strong physical player as well.

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My other loanee is young striker Adrian Nicola. He looks like he should be very good. Lacking a wee bit of pace, but other than that he's got a lot of very good attributes.

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Kenny Slaven joins us as my back up striker, and he looks pretty decent. Very strong in the air. 

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September 2091

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It's been a challenging start to my time in Slovenia.

We were pretty unlucky not to get our first league win against Domzale, but we're going to really, really need to find a way to win some matches soon. A couple of draws have got us a few points but it's not really good enough.

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We're not bottom though, and there seem to be a fair few dogshit sides in the league which is helpful.

Olimpija have done well to get up to third given they took a 7-0 loss on the opening day of the season.

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October 2091

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Well, we got our first league win of the season which was absolutely delightful. And we beat the same opposition again to continue in the cup for now, although I don't think we have much chance at actually winning it.

Other than those, we had a decent enough run of not losing before our visit to Maribor, where we played well but they're by far the best side in the division so were just very clinical.

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We're a bit away from bottom now, which is nice.

As I said, Maribor are pishing the league, and there's already absolutely no chance of us doing much this season. Just staying in the division is the aim. 

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November 2091

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That's more like it, with some genuinely incredible results. Celje have won the last two league titles. so beating them was delightful and us dishing out a 3-0 to anyone is unexpected, but wonderful nonetheless.

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We're up to fifth, and I'd really like to stay around here in the table if at all possible. I think going much further up is beyond us, but I'd like to hope that we won't be dragged into the relegation battle. 

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December 2091

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I'll start with the negative - Gorica are shite and we should never have been losing to them. Just didn't turn up at all, and they deservedly beat us.

Other than that though, another very good month. We had a spectacular five minute or so spell against Olympija where we battered them and got our three goals, and then spent the rest of the game limiting them pretty effectively. Aljaz Cerar is also proving himself an invaluable player, 19 year old right winger in his first season as a proper first team regular, and he's got 7 goals and 3 assists. No bad going.

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And with that we've snuck into fourth, and a possible european spot, with a nice wee cushion over the sides below us. Delightful.

That's us now until February for a winter break - I'm hoping to bring in a couple of new faces during that time. 

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Transfers - January 2092

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Right, outgoing players first - and I'm trying to overhaul the squad a fair bit by getting rid of some dross. The only one I didn't want to lose was Staric, my best centre half, but Udinese met his release clause so fair fucks to them.

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And the incoming players.

Uros Kastelic is a central attacking midfielder, and he's a guy who's won this division three times in the past. He's pretty much solid in every aspect you'd want him to be - the only major downside is that it seems that he's quite injury prone. That's a concern, but I've got a decent enough understudy that I think it'll be worth it.

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My third loan from Universitatea Craiova is right back Sorin Armaselu. He's a good defensive player, and not too bad going forward, and is a pretty clear upgrade on what I had before. Not a long term solution but will do for the season.

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Aljaz Horvat joins as a central midfielder, and he looks very good at taking the ball in and picking a pass. Ideally, I'd have liked him to be better defensively than he is, but I should be able to have someone next to him who can do that stuff. Another decent signing, albeit an expensive one.

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Last up, Sandi Gubljan. I'll be honest, this is a bit of a punt. He's not quite there, but I think he has the makings of a very solid defender at this level, and if I can improve a couple of attributes - mast notably his positioning and marking - then he'll be good. However, it's certainly a gamble.

Spoiler

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February 2092

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Mixed league form, but we did have both of the top two this month. Celje was a disappointing collapse, we competed well until their first goal and then were utterly shite from there. Good point at home to Maribor though.

Through to the cup semi final though, which is nice. We're playing Maribor, which is less nice.

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Very much in the fight for a European spot, and with both the top two still in the cup it looks like fourth will be enough.

It's been a good season so far. 

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March 2092

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A good month overall. Three really decent wins, a good draw against Aluminij, but disappointments against Mura and Olimpija - admittedly, we were down to ten men within 8 minutes against Olimpija, so there's not much we could really do about it.

Still, 11 points from 18 isn't bad.

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And it sees us go into the final quarter of the season in third place, with a two point cushion over the teams behind.

We also still have the cup semi final to look forward to. If we could reach the final and also secure European football, that has to be considered a success.

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April 2092

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Put out of the cup pretty convincingly by Maribor, but we were really good in the league, which is wonderful. Means there will be no medals for is this season, but we should be in a very good position to play in Europe next season.

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Four games left, and we're eight points ahead of fifth place. Celje and Maribor will compete in the final, so fourth will get us in as well, I think.

We should really be securing this comfortably. 

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May 2092

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Two shite games to start off, but then we very decent in the final two. Last minute winner to secure European football on the final day of the season would be scenes as well.

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Out highest finish since 2039, so a frankly outstanding effort.

I need to rebuild some of my squad for next season due to the amount of loanees I was relying on, but it's a good start. 

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Europa Conference League - First Qualifying Round - 2092

So, we're facing Petrovac from Montenegro. I vaguely remember them beating me in a cup semi final when I was managing there, and they're generally one of the better sides, but we still should definitely be coming through this tie.

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That's... that's not what I was looking for. New signing Maucec scored a belter to kick us off, and I was thinking we'd be good from there, but after that it just fell apart. Frankly we were quite lucky that they didn't get more goals.

My one thing I'll say in my defence is I haven't been able to register a few of my new players, who would make my side better, but we still should have been better than them.

All to do in the second leg.

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Much better. Dominant throughout, and their goal was really their only chance.

That's pretty much what I was expecting from this tie, so pleased to get through.

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That'll be difficult though. Half their youth team would waltz in and be my best player, so aye. I don't think we'll be going any further. 

 

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Europa Conference League - Second Qualifying Round - 2092

Spoiler

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Aye, as expected. They're a considerably better team than we are, so fair enough. 

To illustrate the gulf, the boy Nicola who we had on loan last season is now their seventh choice striker.

Spoiler

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And our journey in Europe ends.

We kept it pretty respectable, but at the same time I always got the sense that they could raise it and fire in a few more if they needed to. Oh well, back to domestic business. 

 

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Transfers 2092

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No losses there whatsoever, but that's my outgoing players.

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And the incoming players.

Matej Maucec is an attacking midfielder who joins us on a free transfer. He's a good technical player, and a good bit of flair and vision as well. I'm pleased with him.

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Bernard Horvat is a striker, and won't be my main striker but is good enough for depth. He'll be good in the box, but I'm not expecting much else out of him.

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Renato Iskric is a centre half. I tried to sign him before, but his club were wanting too much, so it's good that he was on a free. He's pretty good at everything I need him to be good at defensively, but with nothing special. That said, I'm playing in Slovenia so I can't really expect anything special.

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Sebastjan Grilc is my main striker, on loan from Celje, and he's another good technical player. A bit on the slow side for my liking really, but he'll do the job.

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Jan Cipot is a left back - a position I was absolutely desperate to fill. Physically strong, not the best at other aspects but he's the best I could find, and should be fine.

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Joze Kapun is a right back, although he can fill in along the back, and he's similar to Cipot in that he's physically good, but not great at other aspects. Young enough to improve though.

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Ionut Rosca is a goalkeeper on loan, and a very clear upgrade on what we had before. Only 19 and the makings of a very decent keeper.

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