Allez Les Verts

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@CO88LER5 wrote:
No. Almost everything (probably 75% minimum) is straight into the box

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Strange. In my save I would say that 60% of corners - give or take - are taken short.

Table Toppers In September

Apart from the Bordeaux score-fest draw which saw Charlie McNeill’s thrilling debut, Les Verts played two other matches in September, which saw Marcel Ruiz break his duck in the match against against Troyes, and then follow that with a brace in the demolition of Paris FC.  It seems the Mexican midfielder has finally found his stride at the top of the diamond, as he also made two of the other goals in that match.

As a result, St Etienne lead the table at the end of September on goal difference, with Troyes only one point further behind in third.

Ibrahim Sissoko continues to lead the golden boot chase, his brace against Paris FC taking him to 10, which is double that of his nearest competitor.

It all seems to be going to plan for Gasquet at this point, with the club in a far better position at this time of the year than they were last season.

Slip-Up at St-Etienne

Les Verts’ stay at the top of Ligue 2 BKT came to a halt during October, as their first defeat of the season – at PAU FC – gave AC Ajaccio the chance to take over.

Les Verts felt they should have won that game, as they had more possession, more shots and more passes than their rivals, but Pau were more clinical.  Strangely, Louis Mouton was allowed to play against his parent club and actually opened the scoring, which did not go down well with the travelling fans.  St-Etienne remain incapable of defending corners, as two of Pau’s goals came from that source.  “It’s something we are working on, trust me,” said Manager Gasquet.

Routine victories against Dunkerque, Concarneau and Grenoble completed the results in October, which was notable for the goal contributions of Marcel Ruiz, including a hat-trick against Grenoble.  The Mexican midfielder seems to have found his scoring boots, after breaking his duck in September. 

Ruiz scored a total of 5 in the month, making up for the suddenly barren Ibrahim Sissoko.

St-Etienne are therefore second in the table, one point behind Ajaccio and a comfortable six ahead of Troyes in third.

Despite his barren spell, Sissoko continues to lead the scoring charts, both nationally and for St-Etienne.  Ruiz now sits third in the national list, and Charlie McNeill 6th.

Looming Exodus from St-Etienne Threatens Promotion Push

Leaked emails have revealed that at least two of the experienced loanees are likely to leave the club in January.  FC Lorient have threatened to recall midfielder Stephane Diarra and Augsburg have issued similar threats in respect of striker Nathanael Mbuku.  Diarra hasn't played much so far, but Mbuku has featured in 8 of the 13 fixtures played to date, scoring three goals.  It is not known whether Irvin Cardona will face recall from his club, yet, although the striker is currently out injured with a broken toe and therefore his lasck of game time recently can be explained.  Prior to his injury, he started every match alongside top scorer Ibrahim Sissoko.

The leaked emails

When coupled with the three departures already announced in September, that represents a significant reduction in squad size, especially in terms of experience for the second half of the season.  The club has already said it does not have much money to fund incoming players, so how it is expected to maintain a promotion push is a question left unanswered.

Added to the sense of looming crisis, it is believed that a number of senior players are becoming unsettled at the lack of progress with new contracts.  The agents of goalkeeper Gautier Larsonneur, centre-back Dylan Batubinsika and midfielder Florian Tardieu have all leaked comments to the Press recently at their frustration with the lack of engagement on the subject from manager Bleua Gasquet.

Manager Under Fire

Despite the encouraging start to the season, compared to last, it seems that the good ship ASSE is sailing into suddenly choppy waters.

Same old story with loan players, needing 95% of games - give or take - to avoid being recalled prematurely. A broken toe, and that's pretty much it.

St-Etienne Slip Further Behind

The end of November saw St-Etienne slip further behind in the championship race, together with their first double defeat this season.

First up was the top-of-the-table clash with Ajaccio, which the team lost at home by 1-2.  They were not helped by two red cards in the first half, for bad tackles.  The remaining players tired visibly in the latter stages, which is when Ajaccio struck twice to win the crucial battle.

Further frustration followed, with a defeat to Guingamp at the Stade de Roudourou, in a limp display from which only the goalscorer, Charlie McNeill, came out with any credit.

Irvin Cardona returned from injury for the home match against Annecy, and he hit a hat-trick to announce that he was fully fit.  We wait to see what his future holds, as the January window approaches.

Cardona collects the match ball

As a result, St-Etienne are now four points behind Ajaccio albeit with a match in hand.  More pointedly, the chasing pack have closed the gap and now Les Verts find themselves looking over their shoulder.

Ibrahim Sissoko continues to struggle in front of goal, having failed to find the net for two months, now.  Accordingly, his leadership of the Golden Boot race has now disappeared and he now finds himself joint second, still on 10 goals for the season.

Mbuku: I Want to Stay

Nathanael Mbuku has told the Press that he would prefer to stay at St-Etienne, rather than go back to the reserves at Augsburg in January.

Mbuku after scoring in October

The 22-year-old striker has featured in 10 of the 16 matches for St-Etienne this season, some of them from the bench, and he is “quite pleased” at the game time he is getting.

“I know that, back at Augsburg, I will be in the reserves, so I don’t really understand why they want to recall me.

“At the end of the day, they are the club I’m contracted to, so I’ll have to go along with their demands, but fans here should know that I would like to see out my loan.  It’s looking like an exciting season for us and I’d like to be part of that.”

We shall have to wait and see, but it’s currently not looking good, according to sources in Germany.

Whoa, two red cards in one game. These two certainly sold you out, starting a two game loss streak. Still in a pretty good position though.

Regrettably, my XBox has decided it cannot now find the file for this career.  

It was perfectly fine when I signed out a couple of days ago, but now it simply isn't available.  I have no means to recover it, although I am still trying.   I don't know if this is a fault in EAFC24, or some kind of hiccup in the XBox/the file saving process in 'the cloud', but I have yet to find any information that lets me know how I can try and find it.  The XBox is remarkably bad at letting you see saved game files (as opposed to the game software).

It's a pity, because it was starting to develop into a fine career.  I just lost a thriller 4-3 against PSG in Round 32 of the cup, which was therefore going to develop into a nail-biting chase to see whether I made it to the end of the season without getting fired - in the space of just one month, my approval rating plummeted from 94 to 70!  I was planning on reporting on this as a crisis of confidence arising from the departure of the 3 players sold and the three loanees leaving, coupled with player unrest about contracts, but I obviously can't do that now.

I might start a new ASSE career, but at the moment this has annoyed me enough to wait for a bit.

Awful news. The amount of time and consideration that one puts into a save - only for the game/the console to destroy the effort with a blink of an eye. Sorry to hear that mate.