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Ajax season has gone downhill very fast. Only lost two league games (Roda away, PSV home) but still sit a massive nine points behind PSV in November. Volendam knocked me out of the second round of the Dutch cup, so I thought I'd throw all of my eggs into the reserve team and manage them for cup games. Took Vitesse to penalties and lost in the third round - though I did beat them in the league with the first team a few games before. Finally, I was handed a killer group in the Champions League (Real Madrid, PSG, and BATE Borisov). I drew away at BATE in the first game, beat PSG at home in the second, lost to Madrid in the Bernabeu, drew with them at home (missed a penalty to win) and just beat BATE at home. I sit second in the group, level on points with PSG and I play them next. Progress has been good in Europe, I am happy that Madrid didn't run riot and I think we'll do enough against PSG to qualify.

I think I can catch PSV, they have to slip up somewhere (at the start of November I was the only unbeaten team in the league) but two consecutive defeats and a number of draws has meant that PSV are pulling away (they only seem to win or lose). I've also been struggling a lot with injuries. Vermeer picked up a knock in the last game and I hope he can play in the next game because my sub goalkeeper, Cillessen, is also injured so Mickey van der Hart would have to be drafted in. Great for his development but not great if we lose another league game.

As far as signings go - I signed Adryan for his minimum release fee of £875k, Royston Drenthe on a free contract (maybe sell him on next season for a few million since he's struggled to match Babel for performance so far) and Viergever for around £3m + add-ons that could see it rise to £6m. I play Viergever as left full-back and he, along with Moisander, Alderweireld, and van Rhijn have been the star performers so far. A very good back four indeed. Off the top of my head, I'd say Alderweireld has the highest average rating in the team so far. Good job I didn't sell him to Dortmund.

Still a long way to go, but they need to step it up if I'm to match your achievements, Bart (though I can't win the cup

)

bartajax

12 years

I found the Dutch league pretty easy to be honest, but that mainly came because of the weak opponents I got (Feyenoord and Twente played a very weak season) PSV came back strong in the second half of the season but that also came because I lost points in a couple games in a row.
The last two games I played were the Cup Final and the last match which decided the league, both of the games were against PSV and I won both titles haha. Also in the 5 matches (League, Cup and 2x Supercup) I played against PSV they always get at least one red card, so that made it easier.

At the end of the season I sold Eriksen, De Jong and Alderweireld and Babel left with a free contract, also some player I didn't needed anymore left. I got Heitinga, Maher and some young talents as replacements. Oh yeah I also got Seedorf back, he didn't cost me anything so I thought I could take the risk. In the lead-up to the second season I also got a lot of injury's. Sucks..... but it gives a chance to let the youth play. boccara, Fischer, Andersen, Meleg, Dijks, Denswil are all good talents.

You still have a good chance to get the league, I think, Ajax always make a catch up in the second half of the season so you must be able to do it too

. Is Viergever really that good on leftback? He is a central defender in real. Also how could you get Drenthe

?? He is a ex Feyenoord player..

iTim

12 years

Yeah, Viergever's natural position on FM is in the centre but Ajax don't really haven't accomplished left back on the game. What they do have though is an abundance of versatile defenders - Blind (RLC), van Rhijn (RC), Moisander (LC) and now Viergever (RLC). Ideally, Viergever would eventually join Alderweireld in the centre as Denswil comes in for first team left back. But that depends on how they develop and how keen I am to buy talent. I'd rather develop the youngsters and have a majority homegrown starting eleven. And keep it as Dutch as possible.

Drenthe is a decent player, seems to play better on the right when he's cutting in on his left. I'm not bothered that he played for Feyenoord (the fans would be if I signed him from them or he was a club legend). But like I said, next season he could be an easy few million in the bank

I will catch PSV. I hate them. Not only do they keep on winning, but Advocaat keeps being negative about me in the press. So I won't rest until I wipe the smile off his face. Speaking of the super cup (I lost 2-1 in extra time), they had a man sent off in my game too. But I had three men sent off and I was fuming because at 11v11 we were 1-0 up and dominating.

bartajax

12 years

Blind, Dijks and Boilesen (He is injured the first couple of months) are all left backs so you could use one of them maybe. Viergever is a good player and since Alderweireld will probably leave in the summer you already have a good replacement (Moisander to the right and Viergever LC) I always try to keep it as ''real'' as possible, so for Ajax I buy Dutch, Belgium and Scandinavian players only there aren't really good players in those country's

So the main focus now is on the youth.

You will catch PSV, don't think they will keep winning. Or at least I dont hope for you.

iTim

12 years

I haven't played the Ajax save for a while, it's a network game so...

However, I got promoted with Santa Clara into the Portuguese Premier League (won second division) and now getting absolutely battered

Just about to reach January when I have Antonio Cassano, Milan Baros, and Ian Harte coming in. Hopefully they will help to gain us a few points.

bartajax

12 years

You still play FM, Tim??

I finished season 2 last week, won the league, lost the final of the cup to Twente and got to the semi finals of the CL (bayern crushed me there) Didn't do any big transfers, only got Elia for a low price. Main focus is to get good youth players and make them play in the first team.

Oh yeah, I got some old players for my staff

Litmanen, Seedorf and Kluivert.

iTim

12 years

I still play, but the Ajax season is no more

My brother was bored of playing with Nordsjaelland so he decided to get rid. I'll start another one on my own soon. We've been playing the Man Utd/Man City network game recently and he left Man City to manage West Ham, got sacked and left for Frankfurt where he played one game before resigning to take the Valencia job until the end of the season when he took over Arsenal after Wenger retired. So now it's the Man Utd/Arsenal save. We're in the seventh season and I am for once destroying it. Currently in January and I've built up a 14-point lead over Tottenham (managed by Guardiola) and Man City, having only conceded four goals in all competitions.

In my own save, I've just finished the third season with Santa Clara. My first in the Portuguese Premier League following promotion. It didn't go well at all because we finished bottom. The board have offered me a new five year contract though, and I've managed to keep some of my top players, including Cassano.

I'll start with Ajax again. I want to last some time in order to see how all of those young players develop. I'm still not confident enough to play a 4-3-3 with them though

Having read the ECA youth report on Ajax, I'll try to implement their goal of "To have three players make it to the first team every three years". Which will probably require a hands on approach with the younger players. Have you had any good players come through with the youth intake around March?

Litmanen is a good player when you start, even though he's 41. I took him on trial at Ajax and he was the best player throughout friendlies. I signed him to tutor young players but when I asked him, he said he wasn't interested. How good are Kluivert and Seedorf as coaching staff?

bartajax

12 years

Wow season 7 already, how the hell do you do that

It the other playing option? The one without all the stuff with media etc?

I had some good players coming through in March in the first season, at least 5 who have the quality to get into the first team soon. In the second season I didn't get really good players out of my youth so I made my scouts discover some young talents at other Dutch clubs and also in other countries and I got some nice players there.

Seedorf and Kluivert are pretty good coaches. I got Kluivert to coach my second team, with Seedorf as his assistent. Litmanen doesn't have great stats, but since he is one of my favourite players off all time I had to get him

He is the assistent of my youth team right now.

Ajax isn't really that hard to coach imo, you start out with a pretty strong team and some cash, while there is a strong youth academy so you will get some good players out of that. The biggest challenge is to reach something in Europe and especially to do that on the ''Ajax - way''

iTim

12 years

We've been playing since early in January, so it's had some time to escalate. It's the full game, not FM Classic if that's what you're referring to. I guess we just like this one save

I suppose the youth intake is really down to luck. I've only had one player come through in all of my seasons that was described as a wonderkid. Having good recruitment and facilities certainly helps though because the players I had through with Santa Clara were terrible.

At a club like Ajax, you could go all-out and dominate domestic football and build a strong team of foreigners, but it would be much sweeter to continue the great history through their own philosophy. Winning the league and cup is an achievement, but as you say, winning in Europe would take some work. You'll know you have a great squad when you do win the Champions League. The key targets for me, whilst following the Ajax way would be:

- Champions League
- World Club Championship (Though this is very easy to win once you get there)
- Contribute a certain amount of players to the national squad (a starting eleven would be insane)
- Help to take the Eredivise up the rankings to break the top five, then top three leagues. But this would depend on the other clubs in Holland too.

bartajax

12 years

I always try to get as many youth players as possible to be good enough to play in the first team now or in the future. Since there aren't that many good Dutch youth players (Or they play at Feyenoord, and I don't buy players from them since that would be strange) I also get foreign youth players at a young age in my youth team.

Winning the Champions League with only youth and Dutch players is a tough challenge but with a lucky draw and some luck in the games it could be possible. I also made it to the last four last season but I played against weak teams (CSKA, Galatassaray) and in the semi final I met Bayern who smashed me with 7-2 over 2 games. So I ain't good enough yet to defeat the real top teams.

iTim

12 years

Yes, it would be tough but it would also be extremely satisfying. Still, the semi-finals is nothing to be sniffed at.

I've just started again, a single player save. Disappointed that Johan Cruyff has been removed in the latest patch because he was amazing! I do have Jaap Stam (_O_) in my coaching staff though (a little ahead of itself).

Guenther

12 years

For PS3 gamers....I've been playing around with making some U2 themes for the PS3 based on the album covers.

EDIT:
I took them down because I was having issues with 4shared.com but I would still appreciate any ideas for the backgrounds...
thanks

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