RS Challenge Prize Announced

Hello there i have decided with the success i have had on FM Style with my challenge its only fair i have a prize for the winner. The person most likely to win at the moment is Armageddonash as he is the current leader with an insane amount of points but its not impossible to catch him!! The prize will be either a brand new Real Sociedad home or away shirt from the 2008/09 season - the winner can choose. The reason i'm not offering the new centenary shirts as a prize is 1) Im a cheapskate and 2) I don't personally like them and think last seasons shirts are much better and 3) None of your mates will know since i have been wearing the 2007/08 season one recently and everyone who has commented think its the latest one!! The closing date for this is 4th September in order to give people plenty time to finish it! I will be taking over the points table and updating it over the weekend. To be able to win the shirt you must update your progress on the official Real Sociedad Challenge thread and keep me up to date with your progress i.e. screenshots of trophy wins etc. Good luck - Aupa Real!!!

Jack Franklin Finishes Challenge

Hi folks, with nearly 2 months gone by and not a peep on this blog i felt it was time to break the silence. Due to a change in my personal circumstances i have had to put the game on hold for a while and as yet i'm still unsure when i will be able to continue with season 3. With this, i also had to step down from my moderator role over at FM Style but coincidentally my absence has also seen the official Real Sociedad Challenge thread dry up also. Hopefully when i return to action the thread will kick off again as i'm looking to improve on the 2,268 post that are already on it!

The only person that has battled on and finished the challenge is Jack Franklin a member of the site admin at Style. He raked in a very impressive 400 points after winning 2 league titles, 1 spanish cup and 2 Super Cup's so congradulations are in order. Unfortunately for Jack, ArmageddonAsh is still in his 5th season and currently on 645 points so is the hot favourite to take the coveted title this year!! Jack has also decided to play on and created a thread to follow his progress from his 6th season and beyond as he battles for European Glory - something that eluded him in the 5 seasons of the challenge.

Well done again to Jack and hopefully i will be making a comeback soon. For anyone who has been converted into die hard Real Sociedad fans as a result of taking on the challenge don't forget you can keep up to date with the latest news and scores at my very own Real Sociedad News!

Adios for now amigos! Aupa Real!

Congradulations To ArmageddonAsh

I would like to say a massive congradulations to FM Style member ArmageddonAsh for winning the Liga BBVA with Real Sociedad in only his 3rd season! This capped an amazing season where he had earlier won the Spanish Super Cup at the start of the season on penalties and also the Spanish Cup at the end of the season so the treble was done! He kindly provided screenshots on the oficial thread of the four tactics he currently uses. Tactic 1 - 4-1-2-1-2, Tactic 2 - 4 - 3 - 3, Tactic 3 - 4 - 4 - 1 - 1, Tactic 4 - 4 - 5 - 1. He has even made them available as a download which is fantastic.

Below is the current trophy haul for the challengers taking part and as you can see Ash is way out front now (click the table to enlarge) -

With 2 seasons left of the challenge for him he still has the chance to rack up many more points and i'm sure his target now will be the European Champions League after getting knocked out by Barcelona last time. For anyone still thinking of doing the challenge i say - go for it!! Its never too late to begin and over the last few days i have had another three people declare an interest so good luck to gavros, Sean and rktmn.

Season 2 Finished And 8th In The League

Well after a break from The Real Sociedad Challenge i'm happy to reveal its back up and running for me. I have just finished season 2 and what a finish it was coming a fantastic 8th in the league!! As you can see from the results i had a very strong finish to the season and had i not lost on the final day of the season i could even have finished 7th but had to settle for finishing a place behing Zaragoza for the 2nd season running. As a result of this i will be in the Euro Cup next season which i'm delighted at.

Without doubt the star of the season was my Brazilian genius Wagner who scored a brilliant 20 goals and got 20 assists! My other great player who contributed alot was Ben Sahar on loan from Chelsea who got 9 very important goals but its unlikely i will be making the move permanent as i have other targets in mind.

In the end of season summary i was voted the "overachievers" of the season which shows how good a season it was and i also got "most improved club".

I have already made two signings on free transfers - Julio Alvarez who was arguably my favourite player on FM2008 and Jack Wilshere who was released from Arsenal. Already these two have made their debuts as i played the first leg of the Euro Cup Qualifying Round 2 and they both played brilliant as i swept Lithuanian side Zalgiris aside 5-0. The first round was a walk in the park as i beat some berry picking team 4-0 in both legs.

Targets for season 3 are to have another strong season and get in the top 6 and bring in some quality players. I definitely need at least 2 strikers and my defence needs strengthened as i have released Van Bronckhorst and Gerardo as they are too old now.

I am delighted to announce the official thread on FM Style is going from strength to strength, with the latest count being 1100 posts which is amazing! We now also have a member called ArmageddonAsh updating his progress on his FM Style Blog which is brilliant and already he has won the Spanish Cup, the Spanish Super Cup twice and the Liga Adelante (the only one so far to manage it) and is currently top of the league in season 3 and doing great in the European Champions League. Another member doing great is YNWALFC as he has won the Euro Cup and the European Super Cup and came 3rd in Liga BBVA. Another sign that FM Style is buzzing with the challenge is Jack Franklin has started a soms on his Real Sociedad game so looking forward to seeing how that works out.

I will update again as usual when i have played my first league game of season 3 where i will reveal what signings i made and hopefully i will still be in the Euro Cup. Adios for now amigos.

Halfway Through Season 2 Update

Well normally i would do my mid-season update at the start of January but this time November and December went so badly for my team i decided to see if January went any better as this post would just be filled with some colourful language and talk of the sack! Thankfully for me January couldn't have went any better and seen me climb up to 8th in the league and an incredible 10 points from the top! This is after a seven game run where i couldn't buy a win!

Key to my change in fortunes was the arrival of strong Czech Republic full back Martin Jiranek and a change of tactics. The bain of my life and the cause of many shakes of the head was Kikin Finseca. I have loaned him out to Napoli with an agreed price of 2.6 million after failing to adapt big style. I lost count of how many times he blazed over the bar from 6 yards out so his stats simply lie!! To bring some firepower to the 2nd half of the season i have brought in 2 loan signings. Ben Sahar from Chelsea and Guto from International in Argentina. Players to leave in January were Aranburu to Wigan for 4 million and Estrada to Malaga for 1.5 million.

My star man by a country mile who has dragged me through many matches all by himself is the Brazillian Wagner. He is the reason i am doing so well at the moment and is fast becoming my favourite player.

As you can see the next 4 matches are gonna tell me if the tactic i have is any good and i'm not expecting much success but my target now is to get into the top 6. This confidence would have been ridiculous at the end of December. I will update agin at the end of the season where hopefully i will have achieved my goal of a top 6 finish.

If you fancy taking on the challenge yourself don't forget you can update me on your progress by commenting on this blog or by posting on the official thread on FM Style.

Start Of Season 2 Update

Well folks thats me done my pre-season duties and my Real Sociedad squad has a completely new feel to it as i have gambled on a mixture of old and young (or experienced and eager to put it another way) to ensure i stay clear of relegation and consolidate my position in La Liga for a higher push up the table for season 3.

The experienced guys i went for were Jorgensen from Fiorentina and Giovanni van Bronckhorst from Feyenoord. I feel these two have at least one more good season in them and have signed 1 year deals. The youngsters are the one's i am really excited about and will hopefully be at the club for a long time. Firstly is Iker Zelaia who came through the youth system at Real Sociedad. Next up is a player i signed on a free transfer from Bordeaux called Jeremy Laval and i will be giving him plenty chances in the first team for obvious reasons. Finally i signed an 18 year old Brazilian youth internationalist called Paulo so all in all the future looks bright.

On to my more serious signings who i hope will make a real impact this season. First up i needed a new first choice striker with the departure of Kovacevic so though long and hard about this one. I finally decided to take a gamble and brought in Kikin Fonseca, a player i have had no experience with whatsoever and only signed him due to his stats. Next up i wanted someone to play in the AMC role behind him so spashed out 6 million to land Brazilian Wagner from Corinthians. I'm hoping he will give my team a creative spark that can hurt Liaga BBVA defenses. Below are my other signings :-
Mikkel Andersen - Danish under 21 internation and backup to Riesgo
Xavi Jimenez - at 30 years of age won't get much game time but back up to Prieto
Ever Banega - On loan for the season and should be a good squad player
Mark Crosas - Signed from Celtic as squad player - will be backup to Banega
Sebastian Leto - Will hopefully make the left wing spot his own
Fran Merida - On loan from Arsenal and will be backup to Wagner

You can see from all the transfers i did i managed to sell and buy the exact same amount so i'm happy with that. Players who left i feel just weren't up to the standard needed for the top league.

As usual i have played my first game of the season and i got hammered 4-2 at home by Valencia. Harsh lessons were learned and its made me -

1) Question whether i should have signed better defenders
2) Wonder why the hell i signed Fonseca cos he had a nightmare
3) Question my tactic for this season. At the moment i play 4-4-1-1 but i'm not sure a lone striker is gonna be best for me as against quality defences he will be outnumbered alot.

Of course i could be reading too much into my first game and hopefully things will improve. Something i am very happy with considering all the changes i made is the squad harmony.

I want to offer my congradulations to a member on FM Style called ArmageddonAsh who has had an amazing first season in charge. He became the first person to win the Liga adelante and even more amazing he reached the final of the Spanish Cup and was unfortunate to lose to Barcelona. This is after beating Valencia and Real Madrid on route. He also picked up his 2nd piece of silverware tonight when he won the Spanish Super Cup beating Barcelona over 2 legs. Keep up the good work Ash! I'm delighted to also announce my thread for The Real Sociedad Challenge won an award on FM Style for "thread of the month" so get yourself over their and get involved!

As usual i will update again at the start of January on the game where hopefully i will be clear of the relegation zone and doing ok. Adios for now amigos.

Halfway Through Season 1 Update

Well folks thats me up to January 1st 2009 in the game so time for an update on my progress. I'm 3rd in the league and quite chuffed with this considering i know a few people were in a similar position at this stage.

My best win so far came in the 4th round of the Spanish Cup against Liga BBVA side Recreativo where i won 4-0! I managed to draw the 2nd leg 2-2 so now face another Liga BBVA team in the 5th round - Racing Santander. My worst defeat came against Albacete away from home. Not only did i lose 3-0 but my team played awful!

My top scorer so far is Necati Ates but despite this i think i will terminate his contract and bring another loan signing in to replace him. He misses too many chances for my liking and his wages are much higher than anyone elses.

Darko Kovacevic has been fantastic for me so far and every time he scores is a "punch the air moment" however unlike on older versions of Football Manager where i would keep him till he retired i think i will release him at the end of his contract in the summer. With so many people doing the challenge this time, (especially on FM Style) i'm getting quite competetive and there is little room for sentiment now.

Another player i am over the moon with is my 34 year old right back Gerardo. He has a very impressive 6 goals already (5 have been penalties) and has the highest rating in the squad.

I still can't decide on a settled tactic but i'm having fun trying to create one. Hopefully if i get promoted i will have a good home and away tactic in my locker for Liga BBVA.

Results so far

Adios for now folks and thanks for reading.

Quality Real Sociedad Goals

One of the guys taking on the challenge at the moment is Jack Franklin. You may remember him as being the co-founder of FM Style and the guy i played on a network game a few weeks back. FM Style currently has a thread for goal of the month and Jack has three belters to choose from as he is only allowed one entry.

Take a look at the goals below then vote on the poll to the right of the blog to help Jack choose which one is best.

*EDIT* Poll has finished and been removed. Goal 1 and 3 received 3 votes and goal 2 won by receiving 4 votes.

Goal 1 - Mikel Aranburu


Goal 2 Necati Ates V1


Goal 3 Necati Ates V2


You can catch up on how Jack is doing with the challenge on his FM Style Blog.

The Pride Of Basque Country

"The Pride of Basque Country" is an exciting new feature i am delighted to be adding to this blog. Its a soms currently featuring on FM Style by one of its members Liam. He goes by the username "The Magik Prat" and is from Cambridge in New Zealand. For those of you who don't know what a soms is it stands for "story of my season" and aswell as taking on the challenge he is doing a story on it. His past efforts have been of very high quality and i am personally very excited he has chosed to do one on Real Sociedad. The first 2 installments are below.

The Pride Of Basque Country Part 1

Sunday 17th June 2006, 5:30pm

Deflation. Pure and simple deflation. I was in despair. My beloved Real Sociedad had been relegated. I didn't think this was possible. I thought we were better than this. Throughout the season there had been flashes that we may be able to stay up. Thoughts came rushing back to me of such games. The thrilling Three all draw with Valencia where there were Three goals in the final ten minutes. Including a stunning last minute equaliser from Nihat. But it just wasn't consistent enough and the club was dragged into the relegation zone for much of the season. It came down to the final day where we needed a win at all costs against Valencia. But we couldn't do it. Again drawing with the Valencians three apiece. By the time the third own goal of the game hit the net I was already out of the stadium. Tears streaking down my face. I couldn't face up to the team when they did their lap of honour, knowing they had let the fans down at having been cosigned to Liga BBVA. It wasn't good enough. The club knew they had to fight back and claim their rightful place in the promised land of the First Division. Promotion is a must for next season I thought. Heads would roll if this wasn't achieved.

The Pride Of Basque Country Part 2

San Sebastian. My House. Later That Night.

I walked in the door. Shocked. Devastated. the whole city seemed to have been plunged into sadness after we exiled to the depths of Liga BBVA. It wasn't only the fact that we were down. it was the fact that Athletic had stayed up. How had they. They employ a Basque only policy and they still stay up. Its amazing how they do it. Heart breaking to know that they can actually produce results from it. We used to be the same, a basque only policy. Now look at us. Exiled to Liga BBVA. I spat. I walked over to my windows and looked out over the neighborhood. There were little kids playing football in the street. One of them was wearing a Kovacevic Number Nine tee shirt. I wonder if they knew that their hero had played his last game for the club. Probably not. looking at the kids faces, the enjoyment etched on their faces, they didn't know that Sociedad had been relegated. I longed for that youthful bliss. Unaware of the troubles our beloved club was going through. I turned my head away from the game on the street and cast a glance around the rest of the neighborhood. Thats when I saw just how much the relegation of the team had hurt the people of San Sebastien. I saw a man of no-more than twenty drinking straight from a bottle of vodka, staring absent-mindedly at the Nihat tee shirt he was holding in his hand. Tears streaking down his face. That was when I realised that the team was much bigger than just an excuse to get away from work, away from reality for ninety minutes. Real Sociedad was a way of life. It meant so much for the fans to be able to say that they had survived the Howard Kendall reign. Or that they had seen John Aldridge play. In the first division. Now we were in the Liga BBVA I didn't know what was going to happen. One thing was definite however. I was going to put everything in my body into turning the fortunes of Real Sociedad around. Whether that be by contributing money. Cleaning boots of the players. I don't know. But I will be there to help the team. In one way or another.

Coming soon - My mid season update, The Pride Of Basque Country Part 3.

Sometimes You Just Fall In Love With FM

Is the name of a blog post on FM Style this month by the co-owner Jack Franklin. The reason its getting a mention on this blog is because of the part i'm currently playing in it. Now I had planned on not updating this again until the challenge starts but recently I started a network game with Jack. With season 1 just finished last night I couldnt believe how dramatic the finale was so felt it was my dutie to update here aswell!!

I am Aston Villa and Jack is Manchester City. With 3 games left before the end of the season he was top by 2 points with Arsenal in second place and I was in 4th chasing a Champions League place for next season. The next game was Aston Villa against Jacks City and with both us needing wins it was Villa that was victorious with a fantastic 3-1 victory although Jack is adamant 2 of the goals were offside!! It was all the sweeter after he beat me earlier in the season 3-2! The next game we both won so going into the final game Jack had Sunderland away and Arsenal had West Ham. To our amazement Arsenal lost so all Jack needed was a draw having superior goal difference. The result - Sunderland 1 Manchester City 0. I demolished Fulham 6 - 0 to consolidate 4th but my eyes were on msn as Jack let rip! Never before had i seen such a painful end to a season on a network game. It was all the more painfull since he had already lost the League Cup Final to Man Utd. To Jacks great relief he got Revenge on Man Utd by beating them in the FA Cup 3-1 so the night wasn't a total disaster.

League Table
Star Player Alvarez (wow!)
Season Summary

You can follow our exploits on Jacks blog he has set up on FM Style. As a member you get your own blog and can tell the world anything you like it doesn't even have to be about FM. The other co-owner Mal has a fantastic blog on his trials and tribulations being a season ticket holder with Stoke City in their debut Premiership season.

If Real Life Is Anything To Go By...

With FM2009 due to be released this month i am now looking forward to taking on The Real Sociedad Challenge again and getting this blog back on track and back to its original purpose. I was delighted by the amount of people that took on the challenge for FM2008 and hope to see many more doing it for FM2009.

If real life is anything to go by its gonna be very difficult and much harder than last time. Below are all the pre-season tranfers comings and goings.

Transfers in: Rivas (Cádiz - loan period ended), Sergio Rodríguez (Alavés), Marquitos (Villarreal - one year loan), Moha (Espanyol), Necati Ates (Galatasaray - one year loan), Boukary Dramé (Sochaux - one year loan), Zubikarai (junior teams).

Transfers out: Delibasic, Víctor (Mallorca - loan period ended), Fran Mérida (Arsenal - loan period ended), Martí (Sevilla - loan period ended), Nacho (Getafe - loan period ended), Garitano (Alavés), Uranga (Castellón), Vaughan (Blackpool), Riesgo (Recreativo - one year loan), Larrea (Levante), Mikel Balenziaga (Athletic Bilbao), Skoubo (Utrecht), Novo, Víctor López (contracts ended).

The signings that have stood out for me are midfielder Mohammed El Yaagoubi (Moha) signed from Espanyol and Turkish Striker Necati Ates who has been brought in from Galatasaray on a 1 year loan deal. Moha is a combative midfielder and Ates is a powerful striker.

Things haven't started well for Txuri-urdin though and after 9 games played they are in a very disappointing 14th place with only 2 victory's in the league so far. Their plight hasn't been helped by the fact their Turkish striker Ates has been injured and only played 1 game so far for the club. Hopefully now though he can form a lethal partnership with Iñigo Díaz de Cerio afer the latter managed a healthy 16 goals last season.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Kenan Kodro is on FM2009 and if he has improved since 2008. If he is half decent i will no doubt have another crack at trying to groom him into becoming a superstar.

Thanks for reading and i hope this has possibly wetted your appetite to take on the challenge for FM 2009. A few of the lads on FM Style including Vincent have already said they will be taking on the challenge so a thread will be started on there if you want to discuss signings, tactics etc and post your progress on there. I have decided i won't be starting the challenge on the demo thats released but will wait for the 14th November official verion instead however for anyone who is starting it on the demo feel free to update me as usual by posting comments on this blog or on FM Style. Adios for now amigos.

*Edit* Screenshots are from the latest FM2009 Demo and can be downloaded by visiting the News Of The Word Website.

FM Style Member Of The Month

Haven't updated this for a while so i thought i'd let you all know what i've been up to in the world of Football Manager. Firstly i'll explain the gold medal to the left. This is the actual (yes actual) gold medal i received from FM Style for winning the member of the month award - click here to see.
On a more disappointing note my attempts to take Newport County from the Blue Square South to the Premiership ended in misery when i was relegated back to the Blue Square South on the last game of the season. I had to beat Burton at home and lost the game 2-0 at home. I also suffered a heartbreaking defeat a few games earlier when i lost the Setanta Shield final 4-3 to Northwich so after the relegation i did the honourable thing and resigned. I have one more game in me before the return of The Real Sociedad Challenge on FM2009 and will fill the gap between now and then by going Fenerbahce. A recent holiday to Turkey for a week has got me in the mood for playing the Turkish league.

If you haven't already get yourself registered on FM Style and see if you can bag yourself the newcomer of the month award! Tell em Kovacevic sent ya! Adios amigos.

FM Style - The Best FM Site On The Scene

Of course that i just an opinion but its my opinion and i believe its true. Let me explain why. In my last post i said i was giving FM2008 a break as my motivation for the game was gone. That was until i stumbled across FM Style - a brand new site on the FM Scene. At first i thought i was gonna be like all the others out there at the moment, i would post a few times then lose interest. I couldn't be more wrong. The guys that run the site Jack and Mal are a great couple of guys and everyone who posts regular are friendly and easy going. My user name on it is Kovacevic after the legend of course.

I have re-kindled my love for the game after taking on a challenge set to take a Blue Square South team to the Premier League. I am Newport County as are a few of the other guys and it won't be long before the banter starts flying as it becomes more competetive. I have 2 games left to play of season one and have just won the league. Click here to see. You can follow me and the guys progress on the BSN/S Discussion Thread.

If you are fan of FM2008 then you owe it to yourself to head over now and get yourself registered. Start of by introducing yourself in the "welcome thread" and remember to post well. Lets make FM Style the most talked about and successful site on the scene and tell e'm Kovacevic sent ya! CLICK HERE to get started and i'll see you in there!