Glass ceiling for small countries?

I've built up my Irish team so I've been in the Champions League every year for the past decade, but can never get past quarter finals, when the big teams with the grade A players demolish me. I have tons of cash I can't spend 'cos players just won't move to Ireland. Anyone had a similar problem? Feel like I'm stuck and the profile of my league isn't going up anymore. Anyone had Euro success with teams from small countries?

To increase your league reputation you'll need support from other teams from your country, they need to improve and achieve something in Europe.

Cheers; I figured that might have something to do with it, and started to wonder if I could get in some eastern european players, which are often good and cheap/free, and then basically give them out free to other teams in my league in the hope of boosting their quality. Crazy?

Thats one hell of challenge! You'd be a hero of Ireland.

You could use your "tons of cash" to buy bad players from the other Irish teams so they have money to spend. Of course, they might just waste it so it may not work at all.

Head over to the Career Updates forum for help on this. This guy managed to get really far in the Champions League with a club from San Marino and of course, Dafuge is managing in Northern Ireland.

From Young Men to World Beaters

This is my thread where I have tried something similar in Northern Ireland. Success in Europe actually came quite easily, it just took a while. The problem I currently have is hoping that the other NI clubs try and catch up.

Wow. Just read it. Wow. Maybe what Galway United needs is dafuge!

Did you start after the last data update? Because I managed Galway Utd as a buncha amateurs for two years trying to go professional and having my squad poached from under me every transfer window until I gave up.

Now I'm getting Shelbourne back to the top playing a 4-6-0!

I am currently playing with SD Galway. I have won the last two Champions Leagues. League reputations are very slow to change (not sure if they do!) but the best advise is to save as much Champ League money in order to spend it on facilities. Another tip is to buy players cheaply with good potential. Play them constantly in the Lg of Irl for experience. Five seasons ago I got a guy from guatamala for free. He is now 21 and playing brilliantly. I am getting offers of 10mill from German and Dutch clubs. I am going to sell him at 27 and hopefully for at least 20mill.

@shake --- I can't remember, tbh. When I started they were definitely all amateurs. Key to my success in the first 5 seasons or so International U21s from eastern european countries, who were EU citizens and could move for free. They quickly brought me titles and cash, which I used to move up the ladder of players, staff and facilities.

@LFC - twice?! I'm jealous. Why was facilities so important for you?

@shake -- one other thing, I used to take in pretty much any half decent young player for free when I started and then let them go out fairly quickly for free - key is that i stick on at least 40% sell-on; when they join larger teams, usually in England or Scotland, I've made tons through sell-ons.

Ahhh. If you could sell them, they weren't amateurs: you were semi-pro and could put them on part-time contracts.

I suspect it was only the last update changed Galway Utd to amateur (in real life they sold off all their players), which means when you start the game they only have grey players, and you can't actually sign anyone, only take them on part-time, uncontracted. Which means every transfer window your entire team leaves for teams that can actually pay them wages. It was fun managing to stay up like this (I even came fourth the first season), but after two years and no sign of us turning semi-pro like every other side in the league, I walked.

It will be years before you can compete for top class players. Currently I'm only able to buy players at English Championship level. For that reason buying youth players is the best approach. The facilities (including staff and anything else in the boardroom requests) are important for developing the youth players.

My biggest problem is trying to expand my stadium. It is around 1000 seater but the council have blocked an expansion 5 times.

@Shake - No, it was definitely amateur at the start. I remember it took a good few seasons before all my players were on some non-amateur contracts. I do remember when I started my whole squad was greyed out and I had to start with youngsters who were all crap. My club history page says I turned semi-pro after 3 years in charge. Turned pro 4 years after that.

@LFC - Stadium expansion going well for me. At 30k now. Expansion hasn't been a problem. Ireland's collapsed property market no doubt helped make expansion cheap.

Fair play to you then for staying in that environment for three seasons, and for saving poor Galway. I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel myself. Secretly I wanted the Bohs job but they gave it to Iain Dowie.

dowie, you aul charmer

I did it! After winning the Irish league 15 times in a row, and after getting knocked out of the Champs League in either the group stage or quarter final 14 times in a row (!), I somehow managed a good run that saw me beat Roma, AC Milan, Barcelona, and Porto along the road to glory! Since I'm managing in Ireland I could never spend my cash on big names, which I was assuming would be the path. Instead I started to buy up 4/4.5 rated youngsters, even when very expensive, and then do my best to keep them for as long as possible so they'd be playing for me as they near their prime. Of course many refuse to extend contracts, but where I could get players to extend (huge signing bonuses helped) I would extend their contracts every year, no matter how far the contracts were from expiring. This all meant that the basic model at the club was a small squad of good players on huge wages, since most good players were constantly being offered new contracts (with fat buyout clauses). Its only been in the last season or two that I've managed to keep the spine of my team in tact. It's meant a huge wage bill, but also a big shiney trophy :-)

I managed to do this in Football Manager 2011. I play with St Patrick Athletic. My team is the most successful side ever in the Champions League, Club World Championship and European Super Cup. However I got bored from winning so starting again. I beat all the best teams but it took patience and good team planning with facilities. It also helped I had a club takeover in my first year and they pumped serious money into the club. After losing out to Inter Milan on away goals I never lost in Europe again and 11 years later still European Champions.

I did it without superstars. I had brilliant youngsters that I sold when they demanded too much money.

Dayum! - well there comes a point, I suppose, where I throw my hands up and say I'm just not good enough to dominate Europe without superstars! Who knows, maybe having won the Champs League will set me on a virtuous circle.