This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/NumberHunter1 on 2024-05-04 13:52:47.
The season in Bulgaria is almost over, the title is pretty much decided, and ee can now make some pretty informed opinions on how teams did. As such, I thought it would be fun (if a bit painful) to rate every club’s season so far, comparing it to the expectations set out at the beginning of the season:
- Ludogorets 7/10:
The season started off somewhat weak for the soon-to-be champions for the 13th consecutive year. A few defeats and draws to teams they had no business not winning against in the league, and an early elimination from Champions League playoffs. They got to the Conference League knockouts, where they were unexpectedly eliminated by Swiss team Servette. They then went on a seemingly effortlessl 13-game winning streak in the league, and reached a cup final that has bot been played yet. They are 10 points clear at the top, with 4 games left. If this were any other team, this season would be a 10/10. For Ludogorets though, it is somewhat standard. What has been really spectacular this season however, was the transfer business They sold their two best players, Kiril Despodov and Igor Thiago to PAOK and Club Brugge, the latter being now sold to Brentford for a sum of over 30 million euro. From all their transfers, they have made over 20 million euro - for Bulgaria, that is ENORMOUS. Their next star, which will likely be sold in the summer is Polish international Jakub Pitrowski, who will in all likelihood be sold for over 10 million euro.
- CSKA-Sofia 3/10:
Terrible season given the expectations. Last season, they were 1 penalty miss away from securing the title, and now, 2 coaches later, they are 10 points behind first, with the danger of slipping to third and out of the cup. After a 2-0 defeat to Romanian side Sepsi in first match in Europe for the season, they fired their coach, and hired the now very much despised Serbian fraud Nestor El Maestro. With this new mastermind at the helm, they lost 4-0 in the rematch, and lost to almost every side trying to go for Europe (sigh, not us though, we suck…). Their game plan sucked and only worked against bad teams. Their players are not good enough, given what they’ve paid for them, they are developing next to no young players to carry the torch, and have a gigantic wage bill. They need a huge rebuild, which, by all indications is what they will be doing, given their very recent ownership change. They fired El Maestro recently and have a decent interim coach, but sill went out of the cup. Given they are one of the two clubs in the entire league with actual serious financing, who buy expensive players and pay huge salaries, this season is simply not good at all.
- Cheeno More 8/10:
Consistently good, but never really in the top 4, Cherno More have exceeded a lot of expectations. Their squad is cheap and a mix of homegrown players, Levski rejects, with a few quality foreigners and more experienced Bulgarians. Their biggest asset is their exceptionally well-integrated and smart coach - Ilian Iliev, who has been building this project for a long while. They are undefeated at home, with only one draw and play around 8 Bulgarians in their standard 11. Winning so much, with so many Bulgarians is sublime for our league. Recently, Ludogorets and CSKA-Sofia play 0. Unfortunately for Cherno More, Iliev will likely leave the club at the end of the season, as he is the current national team coach as well.
- Lokomotiv Plovdiv 6.5/10:
They started off the season with a 10/10 with one draw, followed by 9 wins in what was admittedly a very good run of fixtures. Their run of form came to a stop however, as issues in how the club is run came to light. I won’t bore you with the details, but it seems like they are not in a good place funancially, leading to them having to sell off a lot of their good players. Now, they have found form again however, and could even play in Europe. They have a very gold coach, and have discovered a real hidden gem of a striker this winter transfer window.
- Levski 3/10:
On the surface, we have the same amount of points as last season at 30 games, and we played good football in Europe, even at times, outplaying Eintracht Frankfurt in Europe. But I fear that this season will likely be pointed out as “the one where it all went downhill again”.
You see, three years ago, we were a nearly dead club with gigantic debt, no players and a depressed fanbase. We as fans had to donate to the club to keep the lights on. Then, Stanimir Stoilov, our greatest coach of this century, the one who qualified us for the Champions League came back. Suddenly, there was hope, we started playing well, it was magic, we made some transfers, getting some seemingly random worthless foreigners, and one by one, he crafted them into some of the best players in the league. It was magic He created something from nothing. Suddenly, we were playing on the level of Ludogorets, and outplaying CSKA-Sofia. In fact, we beat both in the 2021/22 cup. The fans were back at the stadium, due to the work of this geniune Champions League quality coach (he has reached ot with other clubs) who was only there because he was our player and fan.Then, last season, he left. He left because the club was being held back by the owner, and the downright enslaving contract between the club and the sponsor.
We were doing ok for a while, based on sheer inertia, but then some players’ form began to dip and we sold a bunch of players, allowing us to nearly pay out the entirety of our debt to the Bulgarian state. That is amazing, and very difficult to achieve, especially considering the previous severity of the situation. However, a lot of our new areivals have been bad and/or not at the level of what they were replacing, we let go too many players for free, and our manager has not been doing well at all. 4 defeats in the last 5 games, as I am writing this. 5-1 to Ludogorets. 2-0 and 3-1 to the worst CSKA-Sofia side, since they were renamed from Litex, and worse than nearly every side of the old CSKA that went bankrupt. Our defense gives away goals for free, because we run a suicidally high line, and the games are very frustrating and painful to watch. We are very likely to miss Europe, because our owner is a moron.
- Krumovgrad 9/10
This is their FIRST SEASON here. And they are sixth. Their squad was created this year, and consists almost entirely of mid to low table rejects. I have no clue how they are doing so well. They hired a Botev Plovdiv reject coach a few games into the season, and he has been doing wonders for them. Beating every club lower than them in the table, while playing good football with almost entirely Bulgarians. People thought they would throw matches to Botev Plovdiv, since the two clubs are linked, but no - they beat them twice. This type of success just goes to show how quickly and effectively you can progress when you don’t have the pressure of a huge fanbase.
- CSKA 1948 3/10
Really bad. They finished last season comfortably in third and had a lot of top quality players. Now, they have sold or let go nearly all of them and are 8th. Their decline is almost suspiciously steep. It’s like someone just pulled the plug on their financing.
- Botev Plovdiv 6.5/10
Season started off horrendous, a friend even thought they were getting relegated. Well, no, they replaced Krumovgrad’s current coach witj Dusan Kerkez - a manager who seems to really have found the pulse of the team and lead them to good results. They have been one of the more attacking sides, which is commendalble. They have also rediscovered one of the best players in the league - the 36-year old Ivelin Popov, who left Levski a few games into the season, for unknown reasons, which made him unhappy. For Botev, and compared to most of the midfielders in the league, the three time Bulgarian player of the year, has been like Luca Modric. How the fuck did we let him go??? Botev are through to the cup final against Ludogorets, smashing up CSKA-Sofia 3-0 on aggregate. Normally, I’d give them a 5.5 or a 6, but last season was very bad for them, so they get a 6.5, same as their city rivals.
- Arda 4.5/10
Started off well, now they are solidly midtable, with a lot of problems. I don’t have much more to say, except we beat them 4-0 and we suck.
- Slavia 5/10
Season started AWFULLY for them. Barcelona Legend Jose Maria Bakero was leading them straight to relegation. They promptly sacked him after a while and hired back their classic coach, the Serbian Zlatomir Zagorcic. He gave them a lot of fighting spirit and honestly - they don’t play badly. I somewhat dislike the club personally due to their owner, but even I have to admire their commitment to growing young Bulgarian talent. Thet start nearly every game with 11 Bulgarians - bravo. They are resilient, very physical and determined.
11 Beroe ???/10
What the fuck is going on here? Their owner is Argentine, their coach is Argentine, most of their players are from Argentina or other South American countries, they have like 1 or 2 Bulgarians and they barely ever play. They got Sebastian Villa - a genuine star of Boca Juniors on a free transfer, because he was charged for assult on his girlfriend, and he is likely to face jailtime if he goes back. He is genuinely probably the best player in the league, but his team is honestly kind of bad. Very defensive terrorist ball with a lot of fouls. There have been rumors of the players physically fighting th…
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