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.

Season 1 Finished and Promotion Secured

Well here is my long awaited update for the end of season 1 and what a finish to the season it was! I came 2nd in the league but finished on the same amount of points as Real Zaragoza only losing the Liga Adelante Championship on goal difference. This final push came as i managed to win 7 out of my final 8 league games but i was left to reflect on some very poor defeats which cost me dear. In my final game i knew a victory for me would mean Zaragoza would have to beat Xerez away from home but they did 2-0. I beat Castellon also by 2 goals to nil but wasnt enough to win. In reflection though my disappointment has gone and i'm now just delighted i got promoted!

My top scorer for the season was Darko Kovacevic and had a fitting send off scoring in his farewell game. I haven't renewed his contract as i feel at his age now he wouldn't make the required impact needed in the Liga BBVA. The player with the highest rating over the season was Xabi Prieto and will be trying to keep him with interest already from other clubs.

One thing i am absolutely delighted about is one of the players thats been promoted from the youth team - Iker Zelaia. At 16 years of age he looks like he will be a superb player so will be looking to play him next season to give him experience.

On the Kenan Kodro front i forgot to register him in the January window so he never played a first team game but next season i will definitely be giving him some chances.

I will update again once pre-season is over as i am planning to have a mass-clearout as most of my squad are not up to standard. Don't forget you can post your progress on the official Real Sociedad Thread over on FM Style. At the last count it has 569 posts and many people taking part so head over and get yourself registered.

Thanks for reading and adios for now.

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.

Season 1 With Real Sociedad Started!!

Yesterday i officially started the FM2009 Real Sociedad Challenge so here is an update on how i got on.

After being really disappointed by the demo that was released i was more than a little nervous about how the main game would be but i have to admit - I LOVE IT!!!
I considered having a game first with another team to get used to it but then thought "what the hell" and jumped straight into the hotseat of Real Sociedad.

The first thing i checked before anything else was the transfer budget - 80k!! Not good so i immediately analysed the squad to see who i could sell for a quick buck as my assistant said the squad needed strengthened if we were to challenge for the title. I was then thrust into my first press conference which was much more enjoyable than i thought it would be.

I immediatley established i was lacking in the left back department so brought in a loan signing - Ravzan Rat from Shaktar. Next target was a striker as i felt if any of my current strikers got an injury, the backup was very poor and not ready for the big time yet. Out of curiosity i typed "Kovacevic" in the search box not really expecting Darko to be available from Olympiakos. To my amazement he was and for a knockdown 300k! Having sold one of my deadwood Markel to Reading for 1.4 million i snapped up Darko Kovacevic and had my first punch the air moment on FM2009! He has been by far my favourite player on the Football Manager/Championship Manager series of games and to have him again will make the game even more enjoyable - especially since he is still really good!! We have already had a minor disagreement however when i suggested he should try and place his shots in future (just wanted to see what he would say).

For my first friendly i chose to watch the 3D action and was really impressed! We won 7-0 and every goal was completely different. It did slow my computer down slightly so will watch in 2D from now on but watch the goal replays in 3D i think. The highlight of the friendlies was an 11-0 victory!

I played the first league game of the season at home to Huelga and managed a 1-0 victory although we created plenty chances and should have scored more.

As usual i will be trying my hardest to turn (the now 16 year old) Kenan Kodro into a superstar and will post my progress on that throughout the challenge.

Overall i'm quietly confident i can steer the club to promotion and i've decided i'm not gonna play any elaborate tactics, just a simple 4-4-2 just now.

Results
Transfers