As some of you know, I tried an experiment in the Dutch league where I hopped from club to club, pimping the club with young players in the mean time. The result of this experiment is that the Dutch league is very strong, and a difficult one for human managers. I’ll give some examples of the strength of the league. I’ll use the average stats: while that doesn’t say anything, it does give a good indication.

One of the team I pimped is Den Bosch. The average of the first team is 88. This team finished last in the Eredivisie… we have a manager at risk here, and he made mistakes, but still.

My team (PSV) is the highest human managed team, only at the 12th place. After two championships in a row the league turned out too tough for me this season. It won’t be easier in the coming seasons.

Now down to the second league, called the Eerste Divisie. Here we see at the eight place Emmen, which is the new team of Gabriel Cesario. A good choice, a young team of 87.3 average.

The other human managed team is De Graafschap. After rebuilding the team the manager is waiting a few seasons already for the results to get better, but his 82.3 average only gave a 19th place. And while his team is improving (in average stats), so are the other teams…

So the current state of affairs is that the computer managed teams are beating the humans. This might happen next season also. Or will Gabriel manage to become champion?

Indeed, now the key is for some humans to take on those teams. The Dutch league is full of above average teams, with each of them having a solid base of players to compete or to use them to improve the teams further.

Come on, people, Holland needs to be added to the list of great European countries out there.

PS: Good job, Dimitri. :)

True, a great job there Dimiter, but as I said to you the game hasn’t enough managers to have more competitive leagues… And without human managers no matter how good the teams are, CPU managers are no match for the teams playing international competitions… They can make it to 6th in the ranking maybe as Portugal is going to the same desertification Holland is, but to compete against teams from almost full human leagues like France, Spain or England you need human managers, they can even make something in Europa Legue but only counts half the points CL does, in CL the competition is too much for CPU teams to handle.

I hope to get promotion this season and qualify for an international competition in the next. First goal seems to be easier, even the board expects that. Not sure about the second, too many strong teams out there, even though most are not currently managed.

When I joined Colombia I barely avoided relegation but then won two league titles in a row. Not a big deal given the weakness of the league there. My greatest accomplishment was the 4 points scored in Libertadores group stage, beating São Caetano in the first match and holding Boca Juniors to a 2-2 draw in the second.

See you next season, Dimitri :-)

Unless PSV relegates :)
But it should be possible to get your team to 88 average, though you miss some veterans for away games.

It is a strange competition. Last year PSV only ended at the twelfth place, now my team made 34 points in the first 12 games… I have no explanation for that apart from luck/coincidence.

And the four Dutch teams that will compete in the Europa League are at places 14, 15, 17 and 20.

I wonder if there is a secret ‘in form’ factor.

no there isn’t. This isn’t Managersim :)

An easy championship for PSV it was. Last year 12th place with 53 points, now ending on 97 points… while last years champion AGOVV ended 14th this time. Strange, isn’t it?

Maybe it has to do with European football. The four teams that played Europa League ended 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th! While the number 2 of last year ended 11th this time. Their European performance wasn’t really well either unfortunately.

Now I’m kind of rebuilding, but I guess I have to try to do well in Europe next season.

Gabriel’s Emmen managed to win the Eerste Divisie, while Den Bosch with the 88 average first team was only 15th. I suspect an other manager would do better with the team.

It has to do with that but mostly I think the changes of the CPU behaviour had much impact on the Dutch league. I saw many good players not fully improved in the free transfer list just because they had 23-24 y.o. the CPU teams dont want to improve this players even thou they had potential (most of them bought by you)… So I guess that lowered the average quality of the teams, they still have potential but it is based on younger players.

Dont think it will be hard for any of the human managers to win the league next season.

Eerste Divisie was a piece of cake (it didn’t look like it would be at the beginning). I wish I could have won the cup against you, Dimitri. Eredivisie will be fun next season :-)

Good point Filipe. I saw AZ not renewing a contract of a 25 yr 88 average player… I wonder if that’s a bug or really supposed to work that way.

Gabriel, can you stop winning?

Well, thank you. I didn’t mean to stop winning myself also though :(

I thank you for having stopped your winning streak as well, let’s see how long I can hold the top spot ;-)

Yeah, me and my big mouth :( I lost just as many points in my last six matches as in the 24 before.

Don’t worry, my turn to lose points now :P

PSV was long on top in the Eredivisie in season 62, but then I had a losing streak and Gabriel’s Emmen took over. Then it was his turn to spoil points and he needed to win our match in round 37… he lost though, so PSV champion again!

No luck for me in the CL though: 9 points was not enough to qualify for the next round. VVV Venlo did better, reaching the semifinals of the EL. Alas they won’t play in Europe in the coming season.

In de Eerste Divisie De Graafschap was unlucky. After trying for a long time, it looked like they would go up finally, but a loss in the last round meant fourth place, 2 points behind the number two.

Groningen and AGOVV, both teams with big stadiums, got new managers. There teams are not so strong yet but I expect that to change. A good financial situation will help.

Finally promoted!! Together with AGOVV.
I think/hope we will be able to compete for the EL spots next year :D

Grats! And Emmen, last year second, is now going back to the Eerste Divisie.

The top 3 this year was the same as last year, PSV, Groningen and VVV. Henk with De Graafschap debuted with a good 4th place. Unfortunately Feyenoord will have to play a level lower next season after selling their best players, but I think they will be back on the highest level soon. Not sure what to think of Den Bosch: the players are too strong for the Eerste Divisie, but the team doesn’t win enough…

Nice also that more and more human managers are coming to The Netherlands.

It was a nice battle this year (S64) even for the last teams. I was a very lucky man with AGOVV, for not going back to the 2nd division ^^. I ’am sorry for stealing it from Feyenoord.

It’s pretty hard to re build a team with a lot of young players ^^, but in 2 years I hope to compete for the 1 first place in Netherlands.
Even with my huge stadium I only have 200 000 – 250 000 tickets at home match’s, so it’s hard for the moment, but with a good winning strike it should go up :)

And good job Dimitri with Psv :D

Yeah I hoped you would both make it, but alas. But the feyenoord-manager wasn’t too disappointed, it was a calculated risk.

And I see you have some good youngsters, not sure if they’re good enough in 2 seasons to compete for the top, but I’m sure they will be one day :)

Congrats Dimitri on the championship and seb with the last minute wins!
As for my own team i am a little disappointed for not reaching the 2nd place, but somehow i wasn`t able to take 5 points in the last 4 matches..

Next year i hope to improve in all competitions!

Good luck all dutchies!

Season 65 was a strange one, with a lot of clubs having winning and losing streaks. Defending champion PSV had a bad season and only just managed to qualify for European football. The number 17 of two seasons ago, Haarlem, managed to win both the league and the cup this year. Computer teams took place two and three while De Graafschap took the important sixth place just before AGOVV.

But next season everything might be totally different..

And that was season 66, de Graafschap managed to become champion!! First half of the season was very good with some unexpected away victories. 2nd half was less also due to the European obligations.
AGOVV did a really good job competing me untill 3 matches before the season ending, but they will get there.
I am looking forward to compete in the CL next year along with PSV!

Welled played Henk :)

When I saw that I couldn’t be first I put my young teams to lose the 2nd place, so that i could be in the European league.

I don’t have yet a could enough team for the CL, PSV has a better chance to do something then me (I don’t want to face Cardiff and be swashed like a bug :D)

I did say that I will try to compete for the first place in 2 seasons :) and it was 2 seasons after.

But to but honest I was 1-2, because i was out of the cup quick, and didn’t play the CL or EL.

i got a full load of new young very talented players (but i have to wait 4-5 seasons ^^ to see how good they will be)

And Netherlands has gained 3 places, passing Turkey, Germany and Italy. Netherlands is now the 7th country :) :) :) :) :)

Well done guys !!!

Well done Henk, it took some time, but you finally made it to the top :)

And it’s nice we gained some places in the ranking, though the differences are very small.

Season 67 gave another convincing title for De Graafschap. With 16 points ahead they were clearly the strongest team. Not many human managers made the top 6 unfortunately: with a 5th place PSV was the only other one. Ajax even relegated, hopefully they will be back soon.

In Europe there was a decent showing by the Dutch teams, enough to stay 7th in the rankings. A bit frustrating for me though that (not for the first time) 10 points was not enough for PSV to get through the group phase of the CL…

Finally The Netherlands managed to surpass France in the rankings. To be fair, the main reason is France doing badly, but still, 6th place is good for a small country.

Holland is doing well. 10 Managers in the Eredivisie, all of them in the top 100 of the managers ranking. In the country ranking Netherlands is fifth, probably the highest ever.

Interesting is that last season the top 5 teams scored 623 goals! Are the computer teams that weak?

The last four seasons PSV won the title, but the competion is getting tougher…