In this next installment of Perishing Partizan, we look at how the AI did in its first season in charge, result-wise. We also have a peek at their financial status and the transfers they conducted at the start of the second season.

The previous accomplishments

Partizan had a decent season, by AI standards anyway. The title was pretty much in the bag from day 1, as the squad is miles ahead of the competition in terms of overal quality.

The league table reflects that. 20 points clear of the number two, the best offence and best defence in the league. Yep, Partizan are the convincing champions. However, the main body of the squad is still mine, all the AI added into that mix are some actual strikers and a change of tactics. With the squad I left behind, Partizan were expected to perform like this.

Their true litmus test came on the European stage. Partizan had won a Champions League and reached the final in the season where I departed a few days prior to the final (they lost that one and dammit FM, I wish you could tell AI clubs to wait a few days until after such big finals before approaching you!), so how will the AI do with a squad clearly capable of performing well in Europe?

Apparently, not very well. Third place in a group with Everton, Monaco and Zenit is a poor performance from such a talented group of players. Their Europa League run is much more decent, being brought to a halt by Man Utd in the semi-finals. I still feel that not progressing into the knock-out stages of the Champions League can be deemed a failure.

To add some more insult to injury, the team failed to retain its Serbian Cup title, losing to local rivals OFK in the final. It sums up a sub-par overal performance. The team invested a lot of money in three expensive strikers, but seemed to lack firepower on the critical moments in its most important matches. If there are still people wondering why I play strikerless…

The financial status

As I mentioned last time, I need FMRTE to view the financial status, due to not actively being in charge of Partizan. This is what their financial status looks like as we wrap up the first transfer window of season 2.

Compared to the previous updates, there have been some changes.

The team is hemorrhaging money left, right and centre. Over the course of a wee bit more than a full season, they managed to spend just under 100 million on a team that clearly cannot compete in Europe. With that kind of spending power, you should be able to compete in Europe. With the kind of players you have, some smart selling and signing should ensure you never lose that kind of cash to begin with…

At the end of the third transfer window, this being the August window of season 2, the team has a little under 400k left in terms of transfer budget, starting out with a 37 million transfer budget. If we add the nearly 37 million spent on new players to the 39 million left in the bank, we can account for all of the money that went missing, but it’s poor business regardless.

The transfers

Which brings us to the actual transfers. These are the transfers Partizan did, a full season into the tenure of a new manager. We’ll look at the deals in more detail soon.

We’ll look into the players the AI signed first, before examining the players departing for money.

Makan Tangara. A French defender. Signed for a little over 12 million. Primarily a central defender. Worth a wee bit more than 12 million. That about covers the positive angles of this deal. Whenever you sign a player for this kind of money, you expect him to be an instant impact player. Clearly, Tangara isn’t that. He’s been demoted to Teleoptik, the reserve squad. You now have a player whose net worth is 15 million sitting in the reserve squad, presumably because he couldn’t be registered amongst the 25 players in first team. That’s poor squad management and a waste of money. Regardless of his potential ability, the club clearly didn’t need this player and dropped him to a lower team almost instantly, which is quite probably detrimental to his development.

Guido’s rating of this transfer: 4/10

Julian Oesterhelweg. The club probably overspent a little bit on this guy, but he’s solid. A good wing-back, even when he is a bit old. I tend to stay away from older players because they lack re-sale potential, but this isn’t a bad deal. He offers defensive stability and some nice offensive movement down that right flank. His versatility even makes him a nice utility player. Did they really need him with Yoshimura and Owusu (and all the other young talents we previously mentioned…) still on the books? Quite probably not, but hey ho, here he is… He wasn’t expensive and he’s a utility player, which means the deal wasn’t a complete disaster.

Guido’s rating of this transfer: 7/10

Oscar Mestdagh. A wonderkid. I get it. He’s good. He’s really good. He’s probably worth what they paid for him. He is however another right wing-back. That wasn’t the team’s weak spot. There were several competent defenders present. Players who had played exceptionally well in the previous season. Still, on its own, this is a good deal.

Guido’s rating of this transfer: 9/10

I am going to bitch about the deal though. I can understand the need to replace players with better alternatives. Always being on the lookout for better players should be second nature for any manager worth his salt. However, you are able to register a mere 25 players to the Jelen Superliga, with exceptions being made for Serbian players U20. With Owusu and Yoshimura being in first team, the squad now boasts four right wing-backs. Granted, Oesterhelweg can play in several other positions, as can Owusu and Mestdagh, but their primary positions are similar. If you really insisted on signing two new wing-backs, sign at least one of the current players to make room and compensate financially. Seriously, this is bad business… With so much fierce competition, players will get unhappy, performances will suffer, values will drop or players will leave on Bosman deals. Seriously poor squad management here by the AI.

Guido’s rating of the squad management surrounding this transfer: 3/10

I also want to look at some of the departing players.

Fabio Renteria. The man with the Real Madrid pedigree did get a chance to fight his way into the starting line-up. He failed. A consequence of failure is being sold by the manager. So far, the deal makes perfect sense. Selling a player worth 15 million for around 20% of this value however makes no sense at all. Negotiate dammit. Try and get some more cash, even when it’s in installments or clauses. You could’ve used that money to compensate for some of the other expensive signings, softened the financial blow a bit. It’s a smart and logical deal, conducted poorly.

Guido’s rating of this transfer: 5/10

Srdjan Maksimovic. Four successive loan spells to other Jelen Liga clubs have seen Maksimovic establish himself as a competent, but not spectacular midfielder for the Serbian league. Selling him would make sense, as he was obviously not going to cut it at Partizan, especially not when the team’s ambitions lie in the top segment of European football. However, much like the Renteria deal, the AI is really poor at assessing value. A player worth 3.7 million should never ever be sold for a little over half a million. It’s just poor business.

Guido’s rating of this transfer: 5/10

Guido

Guido is the founding father of Strikerless and main nutjob running the show.