S02 – Lowering the bar

Welcome back to Sandy Sabotage – the destruction of Barcelona

Intro, S1, Christmas?, Part 3, Season 1 Closing

The end of season review.

I’ve entered season two after finishing 3rd in my debut year as Barça coach. This campaign is going to be all about bringing the bar lower and hopefully missing out on UCL football altogether.

The summer is all about rules 2 & 3. Spending the entire transfer budget and maxing the wage budget on some average, older players.

In comes big money signings Charlie Austin, Alex Telles and full time shithouse, Mario Balotelli.

Now this is a long term project, so getting the sack isn’t on the agenda. It’s how can I slowly turn the knife on Barcelona until it becomes too much and they can’t recover.

Lower coefficient points will do something towards that and by not winning trophies, I’m achieving.

Let’s dig into the season. Classic 5-3-2-1 formation.

September and October go annoyingly well. Not winning is tough with this team, and so even starting Austin over Suarez doesn’t get me the losses I’m looking for.

To be continued….

See you next time

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FM17 Pentagon Challenge  ||  FM18 – Benevento  ||  FM19

S1 – Closing It Out

Welcome back to Sandy Sabotage – the destruction of Barcelona

Intro, S1, The Opening Salvo, Part 3

Welcome back to the destruction of Barcelona.

April is a disaster (stroke excellent). We pick up just four points from a possible 18 using our ultra defensive strikerless 5-2-1-2-0 formation.

Now for an #ElClásico that I must try to win. Playing a fairly regular 4-2-3-1 we go down 2-1 and the board are distinctly unhappy. As per the guidelines – #6 – I am trying to miss out on Champions League football. Currently in 3rd, the board are not happy with me. I’m officially ‘under fire’.

I need a couple of wins in the final two games to even have a hope of season 2.

We shake aside Eibar 4-0 and then lose to Valencia! This could be it. Just 7 points from the final 27 available.

P49-W25-D10-L14.

3rd place – which fails my 6th guideline, and gets me into the Champions League. But overall I’d say that the season has been a success vs the guidelines. Hopefully I have reduced the reputation of the club, and I’ve definitely put a dent in financially.

The results in Europe. Getting knocked out in the first knockout rounds would have been damaging to finances – excellent.

What have I learned?

Luis Suarez ends the season top goal scorer, with 17 in 46 games, Messi with 16 goals and 10 assists – getting the leagues Player of the Year. Ter-Stegen wins Goalkeeper of the Year with 30 clean sheets. He came on as a sub 18 times and only conceded 12 goals!

Looking at the squad, over the summer I need another centre back, a left back to cover Jordi Alba and a centre forward to challenge Suarez.

An awful deal comes in for Rafinha from Burnley. He played just 3 games last season so off he goes. In return, I bring in Charlie Austin from Southampton for big money to put some pressure / take Suarez’s place.

Somehow I seem to have made it through season 1. The board are roundly disappointed to finish 3rd, and with 28% support I think I’m clinging on.

Join me next time for the summer transfer merry-go-round and season 2.

Cheers

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FM17 Pentagon Challenge  ||  FM18 – Benevento  ||  FM19

S1 – Part 3

Welcome back to Sandy Sabotage – the destruction of Barcelona

Intro, S1, The Opening Salvo

Welcome back.

A quick reminder of the guidelines that I set myself to destroy Barcelona, long term.

1. Get to Christmas
2. Spend the entire transfer budget
3. Max the wage budget – on some average squad players
4. Offload a few first teamers – hopefully to La Liga or UCL rivals
5. Always try to win the #ElClásico
6. Miss out on the Champions League
7. Come 4th in La Liga

Unfortunately, I keep winning. Tricky to lose with Messi, Suarez and Coutinho.

January’s games are off to a flyer, including a spanking of Real Madrid, gaining my first win in the #ElClásico. I’m still not conceding many which is a concern when I’m not actually trying to win the league.

My search for a talented, eccentric central defender in the January Transfer Window results in a successful signing of David Luiz. Big name, big cash, big wages. Just what I want.

Finances are taking a battering.

Seeing as thought I have made it to Christmas and had an awful transfer window, February kicks off with a couple of wins. Playing five at the back with a holding midfielder gets me clean sheets, but I keep scoring (with Messi et al I guess that’s not a surprise). Let’s have a formation switch up, and have Xavi starting more.

I swap the striker for another holding anchor midfielder. 5-2-1-2-0

A few loses in the month is just what the doctor ordered. We lose a bit of pace and move below Real Madrid in the table. Surprisingly, on the back of that, the Board have given me a new 3 year contract! Excellent news that hopefully means that its harder to sack me. Hopefully.

March actually is the sort of month I want to consistently have. Inconsistency. Two wins, a draw and a loss. That’s beautiful mid-table form.

Somewhat disappointingly though, I’m level on points at the top.

My end of March form is actually pretty poor, but I can’t seem to get below Real Madrid. Only 5 loses in the league. Not bad enough.

Join for the last two months and 9 games of the season where ideally, Celta Vigo gain 9 points on me. Plus, one more #ElClásico.

See you next time

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FM17 Pentagon Challenge  ||  FM18 – Benevento  ||  FM19

S1 – Can I Make Christmas?

Welcome back to Sandy Sabotage – the destruction of Barcelona

Intro, S1

Please check out the previous episode for some of the ‘guidelines’ to this project.

The aim to stay in the job for as long as possible means that I have to keep up ‘there or there abouts’. Current scene is P7-W2-D3-L2 at the end of September.

October comes and goes. My very defensive 5-1-1-2-1 formation seems to be working vs the poorer teams, but as you see, Real Madrid took us apart. 

Failed on rule #5 – Always try to win the #ElClásico at the first attempt. Hopefully not my last.

Although even when trying to lose, I seem to be winning – a definite problem.

The slow burning of expectations is not going to plan as the next two months show in their positive results.

November …

The board think I’m doing OK. This is perfect. Maybe I will make Christmas!

Due to the maximising of rule #2 – Spend the entire transfer budget, with signing Xavi and a load of coaches named Tom, the board give me another £70m to bolster the squad. Balls.

December follows suit – four wins in the league. My formation is so defensive, I just can’t concede. I think  its time to give my new goalkeeper, José Mourinho, a one star prospect a few runs in the team.

The #ElClásico challenge again gets away from me. Although we are very unlucky to lose as we miss chance after chance. The stats say the same. Not being in the league means out of the cup nice and early – just as we would like.

I’ve easily made it to Christmas though so I’m please with that. Lots of big contracts are signed up, maximising the wage budget and a January transfer window approaches with £73m in the kitty. The squad wants to see me strengthen the defence so I go searching for an experienced centre back.

Join me next time for the next installment of the destruction of Barcelona.

 

S1 – The Opening Salvo

Welcome back to Sandy Sabotage – the destruction of Barcelona

Intro,

In this episode, I will share the setup, introduce my plan for the season, how the club is shaping up, and the first friendly matches under my leadership.

So a few initial ideas as to what I need to ‘achieve’ in season one.

1. Get to Christmas
2. Spend the entire transfer budget
3. Max the wage budget – on some average squad players
4. Offload a few first teamers – hopefully to La Liga or UCL rivals
5. Always try to win the #ElClásico
6. Miss out on the Champions League
7. Come 4th in La Liga

I’ve loaded up the top tier leagues from England, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Portugal, so that the Champions League clubs have all the resources to get ahead of me.

So here we go.

I have joined up with the Barça squad for preseason and at every turn, I am looking to spend a load of money.

What I don’t need, is loads of coaches. Well, good coaches. Crap expensive ones on huge contracts are where it’s at. Paying off the current batch should kill some cash too with payouts. They’re already paying me £150,000 p/w so a few coaches on £15,000 should be ok.

In come 3 fitness coaches, 1 goalkeeping coach and an Assistant Manager, all under 26.

I also bring in 9 scouts, 4 physios, 3 data analysts and 3 sports scientists, all called Tom.

And then a goalkeeper called José Mourinho. He’s going to start a fair few games.

One thing I can’t do is sell Lionel Messi. So lets give him a huge long contract. Woah! He’s on £1.2m per week already!! Even the board won’t let me extend that!

Straight away, I can see that I have a couple of lads who are keen to leave – lets try to move them on. Malcolm, Alena, Arthur are all offered out on loans for two seasons.

The plan is to keep the players I transfer out within La Liga so that my rivals become stronger quicker, hopefully pushing Barça further and further behind.

Now to spend some budget – an offer for Xavi and Fabregas go in – lets get the old band back together. I wonder whether Pedro and Dani Alves fancy it?

Up come the board expectations – I lower them as much as I can:

• Semis of the UCL
• Win the La Liga
• Final of the Copa del Rey

Not easy to keep them happy I feel.

My preferred formation is going to be 5-2-2-1, hopefully leaving Messi out in the cold up front on his own. Yes he might bend a few free kicks into the top bins, but that’s ok. The board have asked me to play attacking football, so I’ll go all out, and somehow try to  keep possession too. Because of that, I’ll add add to my ‘guidelines’ that all players must have passing of 10+.

In comes Xavi! 38 years old, and past his best, but what a reunion. He’ll start in the middle. £5m and £350,000 a week on a 5 year deal. Bargain. Neither Alex Song, nor Dani Alves fancy it the gits.

Let the friendlies commence.

Not a great start. Now for September.

 

Well that kind of went to plan. Lost the Super Cup, lost the opener and ended the month on a high.

Even Xavi got in on the action.

See you next time

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FM17 Pentagon Challenge  ||  FM18 – Benevento  ||  FM19

S1 – Sandy Sabotage – An Introduction

Hi FMers

After a year hiatus from blogging my FM17 Pentagon Challenge (5/6!), a long Benevento save, and a solid 10 seasons on FM18 with Hampton & Richmond, I stumbled across an interesting post on the SI forums that I thought might make a bit of a different series.

The name might give it away, but the aim is to sabotage Futbol Club Barcelona.

Not just a quick fire sale of key players, huge signings of old non-league players, but a systematic destruction from the ground up.

Without getting the sack.

Suggestions are welcomed for the ‘guidelines’ I should adopt, and I have a few ideas which I’ll discuss in the next post. Get me here or on twitter: @ajaxU19s

See you soon

#WeAreTheCommunity

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FM17 Pentagon Challenge  ||  FM18 – Benevento  ||  FM19