[FM11] Éire go deo - An Impossible Dream

[Matt123456]

This save will be chronicling my (hopefully) long and fruitful career in Ireland as I attempt to achieve the impossible and win the Champions League with an Irish Club and the World Cup with Ireland. It will not be easy and it will not be pretty. But being part Irish myself I want to give Ireland the place they deserve on the world stage, and avenge "The Hand of Gaul"! So here begins the meteoric rise of Irish Football.

Name:Wexford Youths
Nickname:Youths/Warriors
Founded:2007
Stadium:2500 (1200 seated)

From Wikipedia:

Wexford Youths Football Club are an Irish football club from Wexford who compete in the Airtricity League First Division. The club joined the league after being awarded a First Division licence for the 2007 season. The opportunity to join the League of Ireland arose as Dublin City became bankrupt before the end of the 2006 season, leaving an uneven number of clubs. The 2007 season coincided with the takeover of the running of the league by the FAI and all existing clubs had to apply for entry into what was effectively a new league. Limerick was the only existing club refused a licence and so Wexford Youths and Limerick 37 were admitted to the new league. The club alternate their colours between plain black and pink and black.

Due to the inclusion of dynamic league representation I thought i would start a save in either Ireland, Wales or Northern Ireland and try and make my team and the country worldbeaters. I decided to stay true to my Irish blood and start and save in the mighty Emerald Isles. So begins the managerial career of my alter-ego Richard Drake with the Airtricity League First Divison Club Wexford Youths.

Wexford Youths have the potential to be a great club, and although they are a new club and have no history, I want to create a history for them to be proud of. Because Wexford is a new club they have state of the art training facilities and a decent enough sized stadium for the Irish leagues. However, their squad is not particularly strong, with no players that really stand out for me, and their financial situation is poor, starting off with debts of over £150 000 and the club is already over it's £1 400 a year wage budget. I honestly don't know how this will go, having never managed outside the "strong" English/Spanish/Italian leagues before, so this should be a fun experience, and hopefully I can take Wexford Youths and conquer the Emerald Isles, and maybe beyond.


The Aims

• Win promotion to the Airtricity League of Island Premier Division DONE
• Win the Airtricity League of Island Premier Division DONE
• Win the EA Sports Cup DONE
• Win the FAI Cup DONE
• Qualify for the Europa League Group Stages DONE
• Win the Europa League
• Qualify for the Champion's League Group Stages DONE
• Win the Champion's League
• Qualify for the European Championship with Ireland
• Win the European Championship with Ireland
• Qualify for the World Cup with Ireland
• Win the World Cup with Ireland

EDIT: I'm now including the initial World Ranking, Nation Coefficient and League Reputation so I can chart it's increase over the next few years.

World Ranking - 33rd. Apparently Ireland's ranked two places below Gabon, and only six ahead of Burkina Faso. Something about that doesn't seem right, though not Qualifying for the World Cup obviously didn't help.

European Coefficients Ranking - 30th. Ireland is very, very average in Europe at the moment. We're just above the Latvian, Slovenian and Belarussian leagues. Yeah....

Irish Premier Division Ranking - The IPD is not very popular indeed. We have a reputation just above the Croation Third Divisions. The only way is up really.

[Matt123456]

Career Progress

Season    League                                     Position  Achievements                   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010        Airtricity League First Division         3rd     Playoff Finalists, FAI Cup 2nd Round, EA Sports Cup Winners
2011        Airtricity League First Division         1st     Setanta Cup First Round, FAI Cup Winners, EA Sports Cup Second Round
2012        Airtricity Premier Division              4th     Setanta Cup Quarter Finals, FAI Cup Third Round, EA Sports Cup Finalists, Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round
2013        Airtricity Premier Division              1st     Setanta Cup Quarter Finals, FAI Cup Winners, EA Sports Cup Finalists
2014        Airtricity Premier Division              1st     Setanta Cup Semi Finalists, FAI Cup Winners, EA Sports Cup Semi Finalist, Europa League First Knockout Round
2015        Airtricity Premier Division              1st     Setanta Cup Winners, FAI Cup Winners, EA Sports Cup Winners, Champions League Group Stage

[DSYoungEsq]

Heh, Ireland, piece o'cake.

Good Luck!

[Matt123456]

Just realised that there's only 3 professional teams in Ireland! Can't wait to put a half-decent team together and watch the records fall . And thanks very much!

[Matt123456]

Wexford Youths - Airtricity League First Division: 2010

Wexford Transfers

Despite already being over my wage budget i brought in 15 players on a free transfer and only got rid of three, putting me over £1000 over my wage budget. However, it was worth it despite the anger of my board because I managed to vastly improve the team with players off a standard with this league, and a few who were rated star players for the league above!

End of season League Table

Wexford Youths Position Graph

In many ways this was an extremely succesful season, despite the heartbreak at the end. After a dodgy start of the season we were sitting in mid table, but the team started to gel and an unbelievable mid season where I put together win after win put me 3rd by 4 points with 4 games to go and very good goal difference. Derry City was way too strong for the rest of the league, with Shelbourne also had too much class. I was never going to catch them up so I just had to take 8 points from my final 4 games to guarantee a playoff place. Unfortunately my team decided to do everything possible to throw away a playoff place, and we took only one point from our last four games! Fortunately Limerick F.C., the challenger for fourth place, faired just as badly and we managed to scrape through.

Of course we still had to go through the playoffs, against a very strong Shelbourne team. And we were robbed. I am absolutetly gutted! At 2-1 I thought we'd had it, and we only had to hold out for 30 minutes in extra time and we would be through. Unfortunately with 7 minutes ago one of my players decided to get himself sent off and with only four minutes to go we give away a penalty. With only seconds remaining, and in almost farcical circumstances, Shelbourne scored a winner to leave me cursing the FM Gods!! This is very encouraging for next season though. With the extremely strong Derry City gone I think I will be able to challenge for automatic promotion with a few choice players brought it on a free transfer.

FAI Cup - Our performance was a bit disappointing. We were against fellow First Division team Watergate and I was hoping to progress. A 0-0 draw at home meant I had to win at Watergate, and we got absolutely thumped, undeservedly. We deserved at least a draw, as you can see by the match stats, but the defence just decided to not turn up. It's a shame but what can you do.

EA Sports Cup - I am absolutely ecstatic with this totally unexpected result. We beat 4 teams in the division above, which apart from telling me the difference between the two leagues are minimal, gives me a lot of hope for when I do get promoted. And with the 2-2 penalty win against Shelbourne in the semis (they equalised in the last minute of extra time to send it to penalties, apparently they have a habit of scoring heart-breaking last minute goals) at least I can say I have a consolation for the playoff final lost.

I won manager of the year which completely surprised me but I'm very happy with it, and my striker Gary Sheehan won young player of the year.

Star Players:
Danny Murphy - Got him on a free transfer and he was my only defender who performed consistently with a rating above 7.0. He is way too good for this division, and would be a star player for any team in Ireland.

Gifton Noel-Williams - The big target man had a habit of popping up with important goals and his strength and aerial presence gave me a great target man to play off and created havoc in the opponent's box.

Gary Sheehan - He was my only first team player that was already at the squad, and performed very well this season, outperforming Noel-Williams on occasions and winning the Young Player of the Year. The only annoying thing was his awful penalty taking! He completed less than 50% which is totally unacceptable. Apart from that I'm happy with him.

Aims for Next Season

• Win promotion to the Airtricity League of Ireland Premier Division
• Get to at least the Quarter Final of the FAI Cup
• Get to at least the Quarter Final of the EA Sports Cup

[Matt123456]

Wexford Youths - Airtricity League First Division: 2011

Wexford Transfers

Fortunately this season my wage budget was increased, and I didn't have my board screaming their disappointment at my poor fiscal management at every opportunity. It also enabled me to offer larger wages and lure in better players, and I took advantage of that. This year, instead of the "any player will do" strategy employed last season I looked to bring in the best possible players of their position and it really helped.

End of Season League Table

League Positions Graph

I am almost speechless at how well this season went. At the beginning I was hoping for an automatic promotion, but the manner in which we won it was incredible. The team was unstoppable, crushing almost every obstacle placed before it and by far the most consistent performers in the league. We did not dominate every game, but the team showed a ruthless streak in front of goal and relatively solid defending (although there were a few farcical goals let in) to pick up the performance when it mattered, so we seemed to win many games that perhaps we didn't deserve to win.

All credit has to go to the players, who were excellent, and I am absolutely delighted that we will be playing in the Irish Premier League next season. The absolute icing on the cake was the last game of the season against Shelbourne. They may have beaten us in the playoffs last season, but they were hopelessly disappointing this season and finished a lowly 9th. I like to think it's karmic payback.

FAI Cup - Our inexorable march to the final was similar to the EA Sports Cup last year, although I have to admit that the draws we got were nearly always in our favour. But I'm not going to take anything away from the team's achievement; they worked hard to earn their place in the final. But in the final we weren't given a snowball's chance in hell. So we gave them a match and a half.

The team deserved their win, and although I started to think it wasn't going to be our day after Gary Sheehan missed (another) penalty, the team game together in the end and won a pulsating game. Before this save I've never been very good in cup competitions. My teams have always been very consistent over a full season, but normally goes out in the cups. But with Wexford it seems like I'm becoming a cup specialist. Long may this success continue!! Apparently winning the FAI Cup also gives you a place in the Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round!! Wexford Youths is going to Europe. I dream of success, although realistically we are going to get destroyed. Hopefully we can get an easy draw and rake in the money from winning.

EA Sports Cup - Apparently my team can only be succesful in one cup per season and must exit the other one as soon as possible. To be fair we had a difficult draw against University College Dublin, and we matched them for the entire game. But in the end penalties are a lottery, and we had our chance to win but missed the decisive penalty, so we probably deserved to lose. It's a shame, but in the end I don't think this cup is as important as the FAI Cup.

Setanta Cup - I wasn't sure what this cup was actually about, but apparently it's between the winners and runners-up of various leagues and cups of Ireland and Northern Ireland. I was up against fellow Irish team University College Dublin, who we also played in the EA Sports Cup. It was very close as usual and I think we probably deserved to go through, but these things happen in football, and the team gave it their all.

Wexford players dominated the Irish Player of the Year Awards. Danny Murphy came first, Gifton Noel-Williams second and Gary Sheehan brought up the rear in third. James Kavanagh was pipped at the post for Irish Young Player of the Year and Gerard Doherty won Goalkeeper of the Year. I won Manager of the Year for the second season running , although it was less of a surprise this time.

Wexford also finally have a bank balance in the black now, after some tidy profits made from prize money this season. At the moment we're sitting with around £200K and I'm hoping the Europa League next season can bring it to over a million so I can start upgrading my youth facilities and training facilities, which were rated 5* when I took over, but at the beginning of the season were downgraded due to "technological upgrades in other facilities" or something similar.

Star Players:

Danny Murphy - What can I say about him? 19 assists in the league. Irish First Division Player of the Year. My highest average rating and highest average rating in the league. He is way too good for this level, and will be fantastic in the Irish Premier Division as well. I'm delighted that he hasn't wanted to move to a bigger club yet.

Gifton Noel-Williams - Another great season for the big target man. He was the second highest scorer in the league and bagged over 20 in all competitions, lots of them coming when I needed them most. But apart from his goals, having a big strong target man who can beat most defenders in the air is such an important thing to have in a team at this level. It really helped me build loads of attacks. Unfortunately Gifton's getting old now, and soon I'll have to try and find a replacement.

Gerard Doherty - I needed a good keeper and Doherty was the perfect choice. He has good stats in all the right places except for aerial ability, and is the best keeper in the league by a huge margin, as reflect by him winning the Goalkeeper of the Year. Although he didn't perform that well, 11 clean sheets in a season isn't too shabby, and that would be significantly higher if my defence wasn't so suspect.

John Paul Kelly - Sure I only bought him recently, but in the four games he played he really impressed, and his technical stats are great for a player at this level. From what I've seen of him he can slice through defences for assists and the two goals he scored this season were absolutely magical. He will play a big part in the team next season.

James Kavanagh - He's the star youth player in the team. He's rated as having four and a half star potential, and has had the greatest improvement in attributes throughout the season of all my players. He walked straight in the team at the beginning of the season despite being so young, and performed so well that he was nominated for Irish First Division Player and Young Player of the Year Awards. He didn't win either of them, but that was a reflection of his performances over the season. Unfortunately with John Kelly now in the team he has strong competition for his place, so won't be getting as many games next season. Hopefully he improves regardless.

Aims for Next Season :

• Languish in mid-table obscurity in the Irish Premier Division
• Reach the semi-finals of the EA Sports Cup
• Reach the semi-finals of the FAI Cup
• Try not to get too humiliated in the Europa League

[DSYoungEsq]

Great result!!!! Enjoy Europe!

[Matt123456]

Enjoy may be too strong a word. I'll go for "try not to get too humiliated" and build from there

[Matt123456]

Wexford Youths - Airtricity Premier Division: 2012

Wexford Transfers

My squad was strong enough to survive in the Premier Division but I decided to be ambitious, and to aspire to greater things and only brought in players who were significantly better than the ones I was already playing in their position. This paid off, but I was still stretching my wage budget, even though it had been doubled from the previous year, because my squad was so large. My reserve squad alone was larger than any other squad in the league, and with my first team I probably had twice as many players as any other team, and at least half of them just weren't good enough for what I wanted to achieve.

End of Season League Table

League Positions Graph



When you go on a bad run, you don't half go on a bad run. The start of the season was hit and miss. We won our first three games, then lost our next four. But in the middle season we started to put a great run together, and went unbeaten for 13 games, winning most of them. Here we looked like a top four team. Hell, at some points we even looked like title challengers. But that all went away towards the end of the season. With the European Games and the cup games we had fixture congestion. Our players were tired and the games started to go against us. And when you're on a bad run....It was incredibly frustrating.

Out of the 13 games we lost this season we were leading by at least 1 goal in 10 of them. We were leading by two goals in 4 of them. It was a similar stories in the draws. The team just couldn't close out games. I tried everything. I tried going to defensive tactics, I tried wasting time, but we still managed to let in those late goals. The team was just unable to close out the match. And that was what led us to winning only 1 out of our last 11 games. Fortunately the other teams fared quite poorly as well, and I thought we has secured a Europa League spot for next year. Unfortunately Bohemians won both the FAI Cup and the League, meaning our Europa League spot went to Monaghan United in the division below. To say I'm gutted is an understatement. But it is the story of our season. I could never quite work out whether we were a mid table team playing above ourselves or a title challenger on a poor run of form, because on our day we could beat anyone, but when it wasn't our day we could also get thumped by anyone. I'm hoping it's the latter, so next season we can challenge Bohemians.

FAI Cup - It was an unlucky draw. Derry City were our bogey team in the first season, and they proved the same this season. The scoreline could have been significantly worse if I'm being brutally honest, so I'm not too disappointed, although we do seem hopelessly unable to defend a cup we won in the previous season.

EA Sports Cup - Derry City again. It was a similar story here to the FAI Cup, and Derry City really should have won before penalties. But the team fought hard and scrapped their way to the penalty lottery, and promptly choked. I'm disappointed of course, and that defeat means that weirdly this is the first season that we haven't won silverware, but if we had won on penalties it wouldn't really have been deserved.

Europa League - I wanted to not get too humiliated and I'm not really sure if we succeeded or not. For some reason the team was entered into the Third Qualifying Round instead of the First like I thought we should have done, and from that moment on I knew we weren't going to win. We were up against Litex of Bulgaria, and although all their players were greyed out they trounced us. Not for a second in the match did the team look like winning. Litex were the best team throughout. The Wexford strikeforce was ominously impotent and we never looked like scoring a goal in either leg, and the defence seemed to get carved open almost at will. It's only poor finishing and some heroic goalkeeping that kept the scorelines relatively low.

This was the first season that I didn't win Manager of the Year, although I did finish a close second, and bizarrely it has been the least succesful year of my managerial career. No silverware, no players getting awards and no Europa League place. However, I think we should be able to build on this finish this season and go even higher next with the increase in club reputation that should come withh this success.

Star Players:



As you can see Danny Murphy has again been by far the most consistenty player in the team. The downside is, he wants to leave. He's approached me numerous times about wanting to move to a bigger club but I've managed to persuade him to stay. I'm not sure how long it can last, though. The strikers also performed well, although their wastefulness of good chances was at times astounding. I think that if i managed to get a striker who can finish I will be able to win the league. The midfield is creating large numbers of chances but the strikers just don't finish them.

Byron Anthony - He has been a defensive rock, and probably the only defender I can count on not to make costly mistakes. He may not be great in the air, but his all round ability and consistency makes him very important for the club.

Nikola Saric - Nikola is a Liverpool reject with quite outstanding potential. He is rated as having a potential of 5 stars, and an ability of 4 stars, and I think would be able absolutely rip up the league if it wasn't for one little problem. He is injury prone to Michael Owen/Owen Hargreaves standard. He picks up a knock every single game, almost without fail. He gets an injury nearly every other game. If he manages to stay injury free for most of the season I think his goals could help fire me to the title. But as it is I'm not so sure.

James Kavanagh - His development has been almost metronomical. When most of my other youth players haven't really improved, James gets better month after month, almost without fail. He was relegated to second choice playmaker at the start of this season, but he's improved so much that he's caught up with my starting player and looks ready to overtake him and regain his place in the starting line up. He's still rated as having a potential of 4 and a half stars, so I'm very excited in seeing just how much he improves in the coming seasons.

Aims for Next Season:

• Qualify for the Europa League
• Reach the semi-finals of the FAI Cup
• Reach the semi-finals of the EA Sports Cup
• Reach the Quarter Finals of the Setanta Cup

[Matt123456]

From this point I'm not going to do yearly updates but post three every year: pre season, mid season, end of season.

[DSYoungEsq]

Good luck next season! Keep an eye on finances; you won't be getting that nice $250K to $500K bonus from qualifying for Europe! Your wage bill must be astronomical as it stands.

The quality difference between your Wexford and my Prestatyn is obvious; for me Byron Anthony is clearly the class of the team, and Billy Bodin didn't even answer my phone calls inquiring about availability.

[Matt123456]

Surprisingly finances haven't been a problem with me. I'm getting 1000 people watching regularly so with prize money I'm at least breaking even every year! I'm surprised that the difference between the leagues is so great. How many professional teams are there in Wales?

[DSYoungEsq]

Without editing in the lower divisions in the Welsh pyramid, all you have are the 12 Welsh Premier League teams. I find that a WPL team is roughly equivalent to a good BSN/BSS or bad BSP team. Even a well-attended WPL team pulls in at best 500 or so on average in real life, and in the game, the highest average attendance is about 350. If a team like, say, The New Saints were to try and play in League Two in England, they'd be unceremoniously shown the door within a single year, and probably plummet through the Conference's top division as well.

[Matt123456]

I've found something similar in Ireland, although the attendances are much greater. Shamrock Rovers are getting over 6000 hardcore fans regularly!! What I've found is that whilst Bohemians, Derry City and Shamrock Rovers would probably survive in League One, the rest of the teams probably wouldn't cut it in League Two either. I'm looking forward to seeing how dynamic league reputation works to raise the standard of the leagues

[Matt123456]

Pre-Season Report: 2013



As you can see the pre-season has started well, and although the opponents were not illustrious, I'm happy with the performances that went with the wins. The performance against home farm was nothing short of a domination. We really could have had 10, or even 15 goals. The performance against Galway, who have been recently promoted to the IPD, was also excellent as they never really looked like scoring against us.

This season will be about building upon the success of last season and building a team to put together a real title challenge. Bohemians, Derry City and Shamrock Rovers are my main challengers, although I think my team is slightly stronger than that of Shamrock Rovers. The board was being very optimistic and wanted to me to avoid relegation this season. I pushed the boat out and went for Continental Qualification to get a larger wage budget. I'm sure I will be able to achieve that, but realistically I am gunning for the title this season. I think with a good run of results it is a possibility.

This transfer season has been incredibly frustrating. Sure Wexford is increasing in reputation, but the media is still predicting us to finish stone cold last, and the amount of quality players I can find on a free transfers is almost non-existent. There is a worrying lack of strikers especially, and I do need a new one for when Nikola Saric is inevitaby injured. My problem position at the moment is left wing. Billy Bodin is a class act when fit, but his low stamina means that he can't play two games in a week. My back up left winger is sub-standard, but I can't for the life of me find a new one.

The two signings I made that can slot right into my first team are:

Paddy Kavanagh - He's certainly not the greatest player I've ever signed, but he is better than my next strongest right winger and his decent mental and physical attributes mean that for this level he is a good player. Not as good as the type of players I want to be signing, but he is good enough at the moment.

Ryan McEvoy - I actually have an abundance of good central midfielders, but I couldn't pass up on this guy. He's a good all rounder and will lend some great depth to the midfield.

I'm honestly not sure how this season will go. It looks to me from the transfers that the other top teams haven't been strenthening themselves with the best players, and that they aren't stronger than last season. It will all depend on whether I can put a good run of form together. If so, I don't see why we can't challenge for the title.

[deadfncat]

Nice career so far As you said, it should be interesting to see how the League improves as you bring in some class. Should include the league ranking update as it comes in through the year
Its odd though I always though the Irish and Welsh leagues would be higher than you guys have said. Though I'm from Australia and can't watch the games to judge I guess.

[Matt123456]

deadfncat - I knew there was something I'd forgotten. Thanks for reminding me.

These are the various coefficients and ranking of the Welsh League as of March 2013. I don't think there's been a significant change since the start of the game, but I will start a new one and look that up later just to make sure.

World Ranking - 18th!! If you compare that to the rankings of the Irish League it is extroadinarily high. To be fair Ireland have a pretty good national team, but there are no current Irish internationals playing in the IPD. That is something I will be looking to change. +15!! The Irish national team obviously don't need me as a manager, they're doing well enough as it is.

European Coefficients Ranking - 33rd. That's a bit higher than I expected, but I think that's mainly due to us having two teams in the Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round this European season. I think next season, with IFD side Monaghan United stealing our place in Europe, that will fall. -3. I honestly thought Ireland was rated lower than this, but actually doing some research shows that the performance of Irish teams in the game has actually been worse than in the last few years IRL. Go figure.

Irish Premier Division Ranking - 95th. I'm honestly not sure how this is calculated as there are vast fluctuations in the reputation of the leagues. +58!! It seems strange to me that the European Coefficients have gone down, yet the reputation of the IPD has risen. I have no idea how it's calculated, but something does seem wrong there. Still, I'm not complaining.

Wexford European Ranking - 396th. That's about as expected. It will only take a small bit of success in Europe to absolutely shoot up the rankings. Obviously Wexford Youths weren't even in the rankings to start off with, so we've moved pretty far up in the world.

Edit: I've looked up the stats at the beginning of the game and included the change here.

[deadfncat]

No Australia in the top 32 either? lame :P
btw you may have shown it already and im blind, but which leagues did you load?

[Matt123456]

Probably another thing I've forgotten :P.
I've loaded: England league two and above, Italy Serie B and above, Ireland First Division and above and Spain Liga Adelante and above. I wanted to load the top European Leagues so they have some progression as well, and to get a larger player count as well. Unfortunately my computer wouldn't let me load anymore without being mind-bogglingly slow.

[DSYoungEsq]

Matt12..., don't be surprised at the in-game reputation and coefficient situation. I've already determined, while compiling a 5-year retrospective of my Welsh save, that the coefficients are improperly calculated for the clubs (but properly for the nations); if they have anything to do with League Rep, it's got issues. In my save, the WPL is plummeting in reputation despite my increasingly good results in Europe.

[Matt123456]

DSYoungEsq - That's a massive disappointment. I think that once the success becomes more pronounced (e.g. qualifying for the Europa League/Champions League group stages) the league rep will definitely rise, but it seems to me that it will take a lot longer than expected to raise the reputation. Although to be fair, on my save the reputation of the IPD has risen by over 50 places, so I can't really complain.

[Matt123456]

Start of the Season Report: 2013 - A Mixed Start






It has been a patchy start of the season for us, but fortunately it's the same for every other team except, perhaps, Bohemians, who are again showing that they're the strongest team in the League. They were on an unbeaten streak of over 20 games in the League, carrying on from their fantastic end of last season, until their shock loss against perennial relegation favourites Sligo Rovers, and even though they lost they've still opened up a lead already.

Up first was the Setanta Cup. It is a bit of advertisement gimmick really, pitting the winners and runners up of the various leagues and cups in Ireland and Northern Ireland against each other. So far this is the third year that I've been entered in it, and I have yet to draw a team from Northern Ireland, which is unfortunate because on this game at least they are weaker than their Irish counterparts. We started off against Drogheda United who we pipped to fourth place last season, although it was ultimately in vain. This was a game I knew we could win, and we went to Drogheda and beat them 1-0, dominating the game. There were a few hairy moments in the return leg, namely when they pulled ahead 2-1 and were winning on away goals, but in the end the team pulled through. Unfortunately we got drawn against Bohemians.

They were very strong as always but we could've, and should've won it in the second leg. First we were 2-0 up, then they pulled it back to 2-1 but conceded a penalty and got a man sent off doing so. It was Danny Murphy, for reasons which I cannot fathom, who decided to take the penalty and he skewed it wide. At that point the team pressed and pressed for a winner, but Bohemians play a dangerous counter-attacking style very similar to United and an open attacking game suited them more than us. They scored a second to make it 2-2 in the 90th minute, but by then it didn't matter what the score was as they were winning anyway. It was disappointing, but we banked a massive £250 000 for getting to the quarter finals and that sure helped the bank balance.

Our form in the league wasn't as good as I wanted as you can see from the fixtures, but I can't fault the way the team played. The only time we deserved to lose was the 0-2 loss against Bohemians in the league, and we haven't allowed ourselves to slip to two defeats in a row which is very encouraging, especially after the disastrous end to last season. Gifton Noel-Williams seems to be really feeling his age, and his finishing at times has been comedically bad. The only reason I keep him in the team is because of his aerial advantage against the vast majority of defenders, but his finishing is really starting to get on my nerves. With Saric injured again, this time for 2 months, the only alternative is Sheehan, who is just as bad at finishing, and McGurk, who gets injured nearly as often as Saric. One good thing that's come from this season is the midfield, who are creating chance after chance. I just need a striker to be able to finish the chances.

Our best result all season was the 3-0 destruction of Bohemians in the EA Sports Cup. Sure they didn't play their strongest team, but we absolutely punished them for it and with them out of the cup we have a much greater chance of winning some silverware again this season.

Talking of strikers, take a look at this young striker who has been repeatedly refused a work permit to come and play for me. My scouts rate him as 4 and a half star potential, and he seems to have high attributes in all the right places. I especially like the look of his finishing and work rate. Unfortunately, he has been refused a work permit three times and it looks like he won't get one. At the moment though, I'm taking the mentality of keep trying and hope that he eventually gets a work permit.

Another signing for the future is this lad who also has 4 and a half star potential. Although his mental stats are somewhat suspect, that high jumping and excellent goalkeeping stats means that he is a great back up to Gerard Doherty, and will probably be a star goalkeeper in the future.

[DSYoungEsq]

Yeah, that striker looks like he could put the biscuit in the basket! Too bad he's not able to get the permit.

[Matt123456]

I know, I've spent my days cursing the Irish government, feeling like a proper Irishman, although I don't blame them not granting a work permit to a 15 year old Cameroonian kid. It's a crying shame, because all I need to win the league is a good striker, and he looks like he'll be able to fit the bill.

[Matt123456]

Mid Season Report: 2013 - Pretentions of Glory






A team's season is made or broken on the smallest of margins, and never have I understood that more than this season. The team has been oustanding for this second third of the season. We've looked like title challengers, dished out my biggest league win this save in the 6-0 thrashing of Drogheda and generally scored for fun. If my strikers were a little bit more clinical we would have more goals than we know what to do with. But in those four games where we dropped points, simply put, we shouldn't have. The match against Shamrock Rovers should've been at least a draw, at it very easy could've been a win for us. But our annoying habit of letting in late goals, a habit that I thought we'd kicked, surfaced once again, and it could cost us second place.

The 0-0 draw against Galway United could've very easily been a repeat of the 6-0 demoliton of Drogheda. They only had three shots in the whole match, one on target. We had over twenty. How we didn't score I still don't know. But it is the 3-1 loss against Drogheda that hurts the most. This season Bohemians haven't dropped points. They've been a machine, and at some points I wonder if they're being managed by Jose Mourinho in disguise. Before we beat them 2-0 they'd only let in 7 goals all season. But the match where we lost against Drogheda, they too lost. It was our chance to claw back some points, but we blew it. We lost 3-1 but the score could've very easily been reversed with a bit of luck, and I just have a sinking feeling that the game too could cost us.

Bohemians have again been doing quite well in Europe, this time getting to the second qualifying round of the champions league, and this means that the scheduling of the league games has left us in a better position that we should be, papering over the cracks in our title bid caused by those losses. When Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians have played their games in hand our Title Pretentions will be dealt a harsh blow, I think, and really now all the team can do is win all the remaining games and hope Shamrock and Bohemians drop points. All I know is, this title race is going to be a close one, and if I think with optimism, we might not be out of it just yet.

On the plus side, we're still in both cups and have an easy draw for the semi-final of the EA Sports Cup. Honestly I would much rather win the FAI Cup, but silverware is silverware. Of course winning both would be the dream scenario and I'm still hopeful that it could happen, but so far when I've done well in one I haven't done well in the other.

With the new transfer window comes new signings for me. Unfortunately the young striker I showed in the previous post has been rejected a work permit for the 5th time, and I have finally given up. Fortunately I've snapped this creative dynamo up on a free transfer. His creativity, passing ability, and most importantly his preferred moves (plays killer balls often and dictates tempo) means I've finally got a proper playmaker in the team. I'm hoping he can spur the team on for the final stretch of the season.

[DSYoungEsq]

Tight at the top, there! Good luck!

[Jason the Yank]

EA Sports Cup.

For some reason that made think of the Mr. Clutch Cup from "Mike Bassett: England Manager."

[Matt123456]

For some reason that made think of the Mr. Clutch Cup from "Mike Bassett: England Manager."

To be fair it's actually the Irish League Cup but I've got a pack downloaded that adds the proper names to all leagues and cups etc. And it's probably worth quite a bit less than the Mr. Clutch Cup!

[Matt123456]

End of Season Report: 2013 - Never Say Die






Well we didn't go and do the double!! In the last post we were top of the League by 1 point, but Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers had 2 and 1 games in hand respectively. We were mixing it up on the track with the big boys, giving just as good as we got and setting the pace, but as we all know the league is a marathon not a sprint, and it didn't look like we would last the full distance. But in the end it wasn't us that faded but the vastly more experienced sides of Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians, with Derry City, left for dead in the early rounds, finishing very, very strongly. Maybe it was our youthful exuberance shining through, but with our first League Title in our short 7 year history within our grasp, the team found the fortitude to strengthen their legs and hold of a stuttering Bohemians who just couldn't find the legs to pass us.

Our finish to the season was almost perfect. The home loss to Shamrock Rovers was a huge disappointment, but after that win they seemed to choke, and from a point ahead of us with a game in hand they dropped cheap points to end 4 points off the pace. Away draws at Bohemians and Galway United were more hard-earned draws than dropped points, but going into the last 5 games, Bohemians were 4 points ahead and needed to win 4 out of that 5 to retain the Championship. When we dropped points in the away draw at Derry City, a game that we probably should have won, I thought our title challenge was over. But Bohemains choked magnificently, as you can see from their last 5 games in the screenshot below.



Okay so we won the title by the grace of Derry City, and to thank them i sent their team a nice box of flowers and a "sorry you didn't make Europe we know how you feel" card. Their first win put the title in our hands, and we went into the final game with a one point lead over Bohemians. Of course we then proceeded to try as hard as possible to throw the title away with the 2-0 loss against Sligo Rovers. It was one of those matches that just doesn't go your way. The Rovers scored from two set piece and had us reeling at 2-0 down. Four woodwork bound shots later and it was still 2-0 and there was nothing we could do to score. Fortunately for us, Bohemians threw the title right back at us, losing again to Derry City and we have our first Championship. Honestly I can't say if we deserved to win it or not, but Bohemians had the title in the bag and they threw it away. We kept plugging away and in the end none of the teams seemed to want the title, we just happened to not want it the least. I also won the Manager of the Year Award again to recognise this achievement. That's three years out of four now, and I was runner up the other year. Delusions of glory have already started.

FAI Cup - Ahh a good ol' cup final replay. The first game was a 3-3 draw that wasn't nearly as close as it sounded. I was furious that we didn't close out the game, a game that we should've won by very clear daylight, and proceeded to ask the squad, as politely as could've been expected in the situation, whether they had some strange aversion to winning things. In the reply the team looked like it had finally sorted out its act with a well worked early goal in the replay. Then, as if to spit in my face, Nikola Saric, the only player who seemed to be able to score on a consistent basis, decided it would be a could idea to hack down their central defender with two feet in a pointless challenge in the centre circle, on the stroke half time. Needless to say that made the match a bit more difficult. So we parked the bus. It was more like multiple buses, or a large tank if I'm being honest. 5 defenders, 2 anchormen and 2 defensive wingers with an ultra-defensive mentality. If they scored the most we could hope for was a penalty win with no strikers on the field. And of course the inevitable happened. They scored, leaving us trying to hold out for the rest of the game, and holding our nerves for penalties. And we did just that. The penalty shootout was as one sided as the first match should've been, and the team scored all their penalties to win their second FAI Cup in three years, and the double!!

EA Sports Cup - This was probably the unluckiest final ever. We had nine first team players out, either injured, suspended or out on U21 international duty so the team that played was makeshift with the majority either reserves or part of my devoid of talent U20 squad. It was a dire game. We didn't look like scoring and were unsurprisingly average in every way, because the squad we were playing was average. I am disappointed, but the EA Sports Cup in the end certainly isn't the most important, either to the board or the supporters, so I wasn't too angry.

The Setanta Cup - Why did it have to be Bohemians? It was a difficult draw against aguarbly the strongest team in the competition (i would still say that the Bohemians team is slightly stronger than ours) and it was a very, very close game that we probably should've won. But Danny Murphy showed that whilst he may be our most consistent performer under my management, he shouldn't be taking penalties. In the end though, this cup is only an advertisement gimmick the earns us a very tidy £250K for playing a few games of football.

Wexford Transfers

I've highlighted all the transfers in the previous posts, but what I wanted to point out is how I'm finally reducing the immense size of my squad. Many more players contracts have run out this year as well, and getting rid of the dead wood will give me more space in my wage budget to use on useful players.

Star Players:



Nikola Saric finally came good this season. If he hadn't been injured for half the season I think his goals would've made winning the title significantly easier. He was excellent, winning the IPD Young Player of the Year award, Scoring the Goal of the Season and being chosen as one of the strikers in the IPD Team of the Year, in which we had four other players.

(Note the keeper, I think it might be a bug in how the best keepers are calculated. I think it might have something to do with percentage cleansheets. Craig Lee only made two appearances, and kept one cleansheet, yet he was chosen in team of the year and as IPD Goalkeeper of the Year. It's gotta be a bug.)

Billy Bodin also had a great season. He scored a great number of goals from the wing, oddly enough quite a few of them were from corners, and generally was very difficult to play against with his strength and direct running. He was chosen as the Fan's Player of the Year, and was the IPD Young Player runner up after Saric. There seems to be a complete lack of talent in wingers that I'm able to find so hanging on to Bodin will be very important for my success in the next seasons.

The most improved player of the season, and the young player to really come through for Wexford has been Michael Keane. He's a reject of the Manchester United football academy, and we got him at the beginning of the previous season on a free transfer. His attributes weren't great, but he was decently physically and I played him in rotation at right back. But he's improved vastly, and this season became my first choice right back, and cemented it with some excellent performance. I can see why he got released by United, but at the level I'm in at the moment he is a top, top player and his pace down the right has offered a new threat in attack. He is a player that may improve even more in the next few seasons, although my assistant does say he is playing at his full potential. Recognising his fantastic performances, he was runner up in the Irish U21 Young Player of the Year Award.

One thing I'd like to show is the highlight of my season. Definitely the greatest performance from Wexford under my management and the domination shown was definitely up there with my best performances ever on FM, especially considering that their team is not significantly worse than mine. Another thing that made my season was Shelbourne getting relegated. I've never forgiven them for beating me in the most agonising way in the Playoff Final in the first season, so seeing them fail is absolutely delightful. The karmic payback just keeps on going!!

I'd like to finish with the amount I recieved for winning the league. £556 000. That has increased exponentially since the first season. It has increased significantly since last season. This must be down to the IPD's increase in reputation, and shows Dynamic League Reputation is working!! The more money that comes in the better teams get, and the better teams get the more money comes in. I'm hoping this is the start of a very beautiful cycle

[brFM2011]

Going good! keep it up

[Matt123456]

Pre-Season Report: 2014




Pre-Season has been a mixed back. The two thrashings of Cobh Ramblers and Kilkenny City were fantastic performances of attacking play, but the other performances were unimpressive, more because of the lack of clinical finishing than the total performance. If we can perform as well as we did against Cobh and Kilkenny consistently then I think we can retain the league title, but I still think it'll be a close run thing with Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers naturally being our main challengers, and to make the league more of a certainty I will need to strengthen the team.

Unfortunately all my forays into the transfer market have been rebuffed by the stringent Irish work permit rules. There simply is not enough quality in Great Britain at this level for me to bring in with the reputation I have and I've had to look abroad. And because the reputation of the Irish leagues are so low, that the only place I can look in to buy players of a good standard, cheaply, is Africa. And it seems even that isn't possible. I've had work permits rejected for these gems: Dominic Ali, Franck Outtara. Both of them would fight for first team places in my team, and both of them had 5 star potential according to my scouts. With the work permit rules this strict I think that I might really struggle to improve the team in the near future.

On the up side, I have finally found a good striker to lead the attacking line. Tom is the replacement for Gifton Noel-Williams that I've been looking for, and his aerial presence and finishing ability will really give this league some trouble. If I'm being picky, I would want his strength and composure to rise, but he is young and still has time to develop and he is the perfect ying to Saric's speedy, poacher-like yang. Their strike partnership should really rip up the league, if Saric can go without being injured that is. His signing has really given me some hope for the future, and even if he doesn't improve that much, he still is excellent compared to the standard of the rest of the league.

This season we recieved 74K in TV rights, which is a 44K increase from last season. Although it'll not make a significant difference for us at the top of the table, it will help raise the standards of the entire league, and if that 74K doubles or triples in the next few season, then we'll be getting a significant income.

[Matt123456]

Start of Season Report: 2014 - Symptoms of Champion's Syndrome






To be fair to the team, 7 wins out of 12 is not a bad result by anyone's standard, and if you compare the start of this season to the start of our maiden Championship season, we have 4 more points. But our main rivals have all had even better starts to the season and we are just not keeping up with the leaders at the moment. This season the points are less spread out than last season, with the "Big Four" taking the lion's share.

For the first few games of the season the team veered from amazing performances to dire performances, with that unbelievable 9-1 win against Linfield the absolute peak, and the 0-3 loss against Derry City the next game the dark depths. That win against Linfield was an absolutely unbelievable performance from the lads. It was an away game against Northern Ireland's strongest, most prestigious team and we absolutely blew them away. I'm running out of superlatives to describe the result, but it was my biggest win since FM06 and definitely the greatest performance from my side so far. In such a huge contrast, the less said about the Derry City game the better. I think the team was still a little hung over from the Linfield Win and it was a really poor showing.

But aside from that loss, and a few scraped wins, namely the proceeding games against St. Pats and Fingal that we really didn't deserve to win, the team has performed quite well. The 3-1 losses against Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers were the most disappointing results, simply because they were so close, and we really should've got points from them, and although it is early in the season, those are the type of games that we'll have to win if we want to retain our title. Hopefully the team will learn from the results and win the return fixtures later in the season.

This season we haven't been particularly active in the transfer window, probably to our detriment, but that was simply because I couldn't really find anyone half-decent to improve the team. But after the signing of Wattimury in the pre-season we have made one more signing. Owain Tudur-Jones. Owain is a solid all-rounder who has replaced Paul Shields as the ball winning midfielder in the team. His aerial ability has been a great asset in winning headers in the centre of the park, and he has scored a few absolute screamers.

[DSYoungEsq]

Ah, you snatched Owain. He'll do you mighty good for a long while, I predict.

Hopefully, your results are starting to look better...

[Matt123456]

I certainly did. He's already looking like an inspired signing!!

Mhmm, I'm looking to quickly establish Wexford in the kind of position you've acheived with Prestatyn, although I've probably still got a few seasons left until I can do that.

[turkey_duck08]

You've just convinced me to manage my local side wexford hopefully i get on as good as you did il keep you posted

[Matt123456]

You've just convinced me to manage my local side wexford hopefully i get on as good as you did il keep you posted

I'm glad to see an actual Wexford fan on here . I was beginning to think there weren't any! And that's a great idea, I've definitely had a lot of fun with this save

[AndrewFM]

Looks a great thread man, being Irish myself I know that league can be a right pain the ass :P And after reading this I have been tempted to start my own one seeing as nobody is paying attention to my career thread :P Looks like you're doing well enough, I'd love to see you do well in Europe. Good luck man.

[Matt123456]

Looks a great thread man, being Irish myself I know that league can be a right pain the ass :P And after reading this I have been tempted to start my own one seeing as nobody is paying attention to my career thread :P Looks like you're doing well enough, I'd love to see you do well in Europe. Good luck man.

Cheers, it can be a little frustrating sometimes but it is really ejoyable. And I've had a little European adventure that I will be posting up a bit later, I could barely believe the results as they happened . I wouldn't recommend it unless you are very patient. It can be incredibly frustrating having all these incredible players out there but not having a reputation anywhere near high enough to buy them!!

[AndrewFM]

I know I had a save in last years game as well, but I think you have inspired me now because I have to end my current game as it keeps on crashing so going to start a fresh, and screw it I'll throw in the Irish league as well to a journeyman or something :P

Actually think I'm just gonna pick a team from the First Division and go ahead and copy your career :P

[Flamers]

I know your pain Matt I have Brazil and the Ukrain active on mine who seem to give more than enough players who are amazing and will sign though

Flamers

[Matt123456]

Unfortunately I simply can't find any quality players for the team at the moment, but hopefully if I win the League again and with my European run, the reputation of the club will rise and I'll be able to attract that next tier of quality players.

[Flamers]

Whats your reputation now?

Flamers

[Matt123456]

Mid Season Report: 2014 - A European Adventure





After a slightly patchy start to the season the team has really come together and put together a quite remarkable set of results. In the last 12 games in the league the team has put together its most succesful run of form in the top flight, with a record of 11-0-1. It really should've been 12-0-0, but a loss against Sligo Rovers in a match the team completely dominated stopped me absolutely shattering the league and club record for wins in a row.

As you can see from the League table, the top four teams are showing their absolute superiority over the rest of the league, with 5th place being 17 points behind 4th, having played 5 games more!! In fact the scheduling of the League has been thrown completely into disarray this year, with two other teams, Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers, having decent European runs (which bodes well for the European coefficients of next year.) This has put us in the driving seat, and although we haven't been setting the league alight, 24 goals scored and only 7 conceded in 12 games has been more than enough to let us open up a 3 point lead, and the title is well and truly ours to loose.

EDIT: Apologies for the length of the post, but I got rather caught up in describing in vivid detail our European dreams. If anyone managed to fight their way through this essay, thanks a lot and my proceeding posts will be shorter. Hopefully.

In the cups, we've had the hardest draw possible in both cups. Bohemians in the Semi Final of the League Cup and Bohemians in the Quarter Final of the FAI Cup. It could not have been worse, with Bohemians as always being the most difficult game for us. Two dire 1-0 wins for me in the League, and a 3-1 loss that was much closer than it seemed, had left the spoils pretty even, although the matches themselves had been boring as hell. So an exciting game between us was due. The League Cup semi-final was a fantastic match. Unfortunately for us it didn't end like we wanted, conceding a last minute equaliser, then going behind very early into extra time, which left us chasing the game. Sadly, the team couldn't muster another goal in extra time and the scoreline stayed 3-4. Disappointing of course, but on the bright side it is only the League Cup, and the board and fans don't seemed to mind one jot. My next problem will be trying to reverse this results in the FAI Cup.

Now onto what we've all been waiting for, our European Dream. Our first Champions League campaign began in the worst possible way, being drawn against former Champions Red Star Belgrade. Although they had fallen far since their heady 1991 heyday, they still were a very strong team who we had no right to get even a point against. The First Leg was was quite an astounding game. Red Star self-destructed quite brilliantly, deciding that instead of playing football they were goint to kick the s*** out of my team. The referee duly handed out yellow cards, then later red cards, and for most of the game we played with at least one man up. For part of the game we played with two men up. The fact that the game was still incredibly even, and we were lucky to get a win, shows how much of a class above Red Star are. But Tom Wattimury grabbed a cheeky early goal and with the man up holding on was realtively comfortable.

In the second leg I even created a new tactic, which I like to call "parking the tank". The formation was 5-2-2-1, with 2 anchormen and 2 defensive wingers. The strategy was to stick as many men behind the ball as possible and frustrate the life out of Red Star. It worked. As the match statistics show, we were completely dominated. But the most important stat is CCC's. 1-1. In fact Nikola Saric had the best chance, and our only chance, of the match, spuring a glorious one-on-one oppurtunity. Simply put, we restricted Red Star to shoot from range, and most of the time they missed. It was an unbelievable result, and I gnawed my fingernails to the bone as Red Star threw men forward in a bid to get the equaliser. But the team hung on to record one of the greatest results in the history of Irish football (results that we willl later go on to better.)

In the third round we were drawn against Czech giants Slavia Prague. Unlike Red Star, their team didn't consist of soley greyed-out players, and they were another huge test. In the first leg we went all the way to the Czech Republic and pulled off the greatest result of my managerial career at Wexford Youths. I was aiming for perhaps a scoring draw, but the team blew away all expectations and had the better of the game, fully deserving their win. That put us in the incredible position that just a draw would put us into the Champion's Playoff Round, meaning Europa League Qualification at the minimum was a certainty. So in the second leg we set up shop again, playing out another dire 0-0 with our 5-2-2-1 tactics. But I couldn't care less about the actual match, as in the case, the result was definitely all the mattered. And we pulled it off. This definitely was one of the greatest results in the history of Irish football, with us being the first Irish team to reach the Champion's League that I know of, or at least in its new format. This is a massive step torwards bringing the club forward (my god, the payoff is huge) and hopefully the Irish League as well.

Unfortunately we were given a difficult draw for the playoff round, and our opponents were Israeli Giants Maccabi Haifa. Although we had played above ourselves to beat two teams better than us in the previous round, Maccabi Haifa were in a different league and I didn't entertain particularly high hopes to win. In fact, I knew we would be the whipping boys in the Europa League, let alone the whipping boys in the Champion's League, were I don't think we would even get a point. My fears were conifmred in the first leg, a daunting away trip to Israel. The journey was over 1000 miles, and the team did seem a little jet-lagged and almost overawed by the occasion. The truth is, we were well and truly taught a lesson in football and we were lucky to restrict our illustrious opponents to 2 goals. I was disappointed to not score, but we didn't even have a shot on target, and truth be told a goal would've flattered us.

The second leg was a similar story, although it was more equal. When Tom Wattimury went off injured (unfortunately for 2 months, which was a huge setback) we were always on the back foot. A 2-1 was probably a fair reflection of the results, although the European magic could've seen as sneaking a draw or even a win. In the end, with 2 away goals scored against us, we needed something special to win and we just didn't have it in the tank, so we missed out on the £7 million pay off for qualifying for the Champion's League Group Stage. Fortunately, we got payed £1.8 million just for losing (nearly tripling our bank balance), and we qualified for the Europa League. Job well and truly done. Now it was time to see if we could make it on the European Stage.

I decided to give this report after 24/36 league games as I normally do, but it has meant that I've already started by Europa League Group Stage campaign, so it'll be a bit of a cliffhanger until the next post . We kicked off the group stage with this great result. I admit, it was a dire game, but it was a fantastic feeling to get one over an Israeli club after the loss to Maccabi Haifa, and Hapoel Tel Aviv are a very strong team who we have no right to win against. But we did, and that is three hard-fought, hard-earned points. At this point I'm entertaining thoughts of actually qualifying from the group, if we keep this up. Only Olympiacos and Schalke to beat. In fact they played out to an entertaining 2-2 draw, so at this point we lead our group by 2 points!!

Since all the European Coefficients come out in July it doesn't really match up with the Irish season, but I did remember to take note of them as they came up in the news box.

World Ranking - How a year can change things. Last year Ireland had reached the heady heights of 18th in the world, but now they've plummeted through the rankings and languish down in 44th.

European Coefficients Ranking - Last year was a bit of a poor year for Ireland in Europe, and their European coefficients went from 33rd, to 35th, just above Georgia and Azerbaijan . But the success in Europe this year should give this a great boost.

Irish Premier Division Ranking - I have no idea how this is calculated. As Ireland's European Coefficient drops, this ranking rises again!! We really are in unknown territory now, hitting the heady heights of 57th!! Compared that to 153rd at the beginning of the game, yet there has been little success to correlate with this rise. I'm not complaining though. This should help attract better players, although I haven't seen much evidence of it so far.

Wexford European Ranking - This drop isn't unsurprising as we didn't participate in Europe last year. But luckily we're still clinging on in the top 500, and again this should rise dramatically next year.

One thing I want to show is a promising young regen that I've found. With all our main central defenders the wrong side of 30 he was a very important signing. He's even knocked the towering centre back Paul McGuinnes from the starting line up and is showing signs of improvement already, although they are in the wrong attributes. After an ignominious debut against where he got sent off, he's been putting in some really encouraging performances, scoring his first goal for the club, and he just doesn't get beaten in the air. And, even better, he's Jamaican. My Ass Man rates him as having the potential to be better than Byron Anthony, and physically he is a more imposing presence, so I have high hopes for this lad. Hilariously, his 80k was the largest signing of the season by quite some way.

[Matt123456]

Reputation is still national Flamers, and I think it'll probably stay that way for quite some time. Of course it all depends on our European exploits.

[Flamers]

I have regional and I have loads of targets..

Flamers

[Matt123456]

It all depends what your aim is I guess. I could probably buy lots of players who are average for the team, but I'm looking to sign players who would be star players for the league, and I simply can't find them. The good thing is, I'm guessing that after this season I'll probably be the biggest team in Ireland, which will help with recruiting players, especially Irish players I hope.

[Flamers]

The lowest player in my staring 11 has 3 stars for the league.. It's possible you just need time, it has taken me 5 seasons to scout Brazil properly but it has paid of big time!

Flamers

[Matt123456]

Maybe, but I have quite a few good scouts, especially for my club size, and they just aren't identifying any good people, or if they are the players just have good potential and not ability, and since young players will not really improve at the club that isn't what I want. But I soldier on.

[Flamers]

I'm sure you will find some great players!

Flamers

[DSYoungEsq]

Matt, your results parallel mine sooooo eerily! Congrats on landing the Europa League spot! You'll find the payoff more than adequate.

You'll also see a significant coefficient rise for Wexford next year. Basically, the European club coefficient is calculated by all teams from a nation sharing whatever points are garnered during qualifying rounds (at half rate, no less). But once you make the groups, the points you earn are all yours!

And I'm jealous of your league. The WPL is sitting about 250th in my game, one spot behind the FA Trophy, fer goshsakes! I've got a bit of ground to go to catch up to you Irish lads!

[Matt123456]

I thought exactly that when we drew M. Haifa . It's great to see that both our leagues are starting to climb up in the rankings, albeit rather slowly. That puts my being just behind the Swedish and Belarussian leagues into perspective, although we did have a bit of a headstart :P. The odd thing is, looking at the players you've bought your team looks at least as good as mine, and probably a bit better, despite the massive discrepancies between the reputations of our two leagues.

[AndrewFM]

Good to see you in Europe Matt, haven't checked in on your thread in a while, been busy setting up my one :P Sacked by Athlone in season 1 but I'm doing alright with Waterford United at the moment and hopefully can do what you've done and be successful in the Premiership, if I get promoted that is, then try my hand in Europe

[Matt123456]

Well anything is possible!! There is not a huge difference between the first division and the IPD, apart from the duoply of Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians, so if you get promoted I think you'll definitely be able to stay up.

[Matt123456]

Before I post the end of year summary I just want to show a few spoilers....okay I want to boast, but by god I think I've earned it.



Wexford youths have qualified for the Europa League First Knockout Round after winning 3 out of their 6 group games. Two close, tense 1-0 wins over Hapoel Tel Aviv and a gem of a performance against Olympiacos, where we secured qualification with a 93rd minute winner, were enough to send us through to the first knockout round against Stuttgart of Germany. And if we manage to negotiate our way past them, a potential tie against english giants.....Nottingham Forest () is on the cards. There's one word that can accurately describe my reaction when I realised we'd qualified from the group. OMGWTFHOWTHEHELLDIDWEMANAGETHATYEEEEEEEEEEEESWEARE GOINGTOTHEFINALANDTHENWINNINGTHEWORLDCLUBCUP!!!!! Okay, I might've been getting a bit ahead of myself, but after that result I do feel like I can accomplish anything with the Youths.



EDIT: To show how much of an achievement this, this is how Dynamo Tirana, a similar strength team to us, faired in their group. 35 goals against and 0 scored in 6 matches. Ouch!

[DSYoungEsq]

Awesome result, Matt!! How dare you out-do me!

[Matt123456]

I can't apologize enough for upstaging you (he says with a huge grin on his face)! Next step, get into the Champions League and get a point

[jod123]

Well done on how you are going so far. I have been wanting to try this too as I usually have a game in the League of Ireland and with the dynamic reputation, I certainly want to do it on this game.

I probably wouldn't do as good as you have though.

[Matt123456]

End of Season Report - 2014: The Dream Season





League Position Graph

In the end it was relatively comfortable, but for a while I thought Shamrock Rovers were going to pip us to the post. The squad is not deep, a problem that I will need to address in the future, and with European games we suffered from fixture congestion that we really struggled to cope with. The first 11 is probably the strongest squad in the league, but with injuries, suspensions and simple lack of fitness, I could not play the first 11 every game. And the second team wasn't up to scratch. 4 draws in 5 games quickly ate up our 3 point lead, and as you can see from the League Position Graph above, we left it late to regain the lead. Only 7 wins from our last 7 games would guarantee us the league, and in a few of the games we didn't look like winning. The turning point for me was the 4-2 win over Galway United. Galways led 2-0 until the 81st minute, but 4 late goals gave us the win we needed. After that it seemed almost like fate. The team just didn't want to lose!.

FAI Cup - Although it took two penalties from Nikola Saric to secure the win, and the scorelines only differed by one goal, we controlled the match against our closest title rivals with a confidence that makes me look at next season with glee. The highlight of the campaign was not the final, but the 4-3 quarter final win over Bohemians, reversing the 3-4 loss in the EA Sports Cup in another pulsating, unbelievable match that left me gnawing my nails to nothing.

EA Sports Cup - Not much to say about this. It isn't particularly high on my agenda, and in the future it will be the arena where I blood my youngsters before introducing them into the league. The loss against Bohemians was disappointing, but it was a festival of beautiful football and we reversed the result in the more important much in the FAI Cup. The worst thing was conceding the late goal, but so is life sometimes.

Setanta Cup - I've said it in previous posts, but I do believe the Setanta Cup is a bit of a waste of time. It doesn't even appear on the Board's agenda, and it will be another place where I blood my youngsters. The pay-off, while good in the first few seasons, pales in comparison to the Europa League, let alone the Champions League, so I can't help but think it is all a bit pointless. Still, it would be nice to win it. It is the only domestic (ish) competition that we haven't won yet, so next season I will be setting my sights on it.

Europa League - Due to the odd timing of the Irish season compared to the European Leagues I haven't finished my Europa League campaign, so at the time of writing the squad is preparing for the first knockout round game against Stuttgart. Once the match has been played I'll add a screenshot and an edit to show the result. Apart from the unbelievable result of qualifying from the group, it was also quite humbling in some ways. Both Stuttgart and Olympiacos are champions league teams, Stuttgart especially, and we were handed three very eye-opening lessons about playing real football. Lesson one, Lesson two, Lesson three.

Schalke our a world class team, and was our first experiences of playing against world class players. Rakitic, Adler and N'Kolou especially wouldn't look out of place in any team of the world. I was happy with only losing 2-0 and 1-0 in both games, and that was through playing incredibly, unbelievably defensively and defending our hearts out. But it was a wake-up call that we had a long way to go before we could tussle with the giants. The Olympiacos game seemed like the least close of the three, and we were completely and utterly ripped to shreds. However, I played a very weak team against them, including 3 of the, if i'm being honest utterly useless, members of the under 18 squad, and tried to play for the draw. We were unsuccesful, but who had the last laugh?

With the league win, the players won a number of different awards. The team had three players in the IPD Team of the Year, which I think was a fair enough reflection on the team's peformance. The fans player of the year was Nikola Saric, who also won the IPD Player of the Year, deservedly so. His average rating was an incredible 7.63, and if he hadn't been out injured so many times and ended up playing more games than his 23, he would've almost definitely won the golden boot, and smashed the IPD scoring records as well. James Kavanagh was pipped to the post for the IPD Young Player of the Year Award, and I think he really did deserve to win it. He fought for a first team place as the team playmaker with John Russel, and was always worth an assist or two when he played. Michael Keane again won the Irish U-21 Player of the Year but in my opinion he's had a disappointing season. He's been pestering me to allow him to move to a bigger club, each time he was met with a stoney face and shown the door of course, and his peformances dropped as a result. His attributes have also not improved all season, so it looks to me like he's unfortunately hit his peak a little early.

On a side note, there have been a number of things going on with the club that I've forgotten to mention. Wexford is a feeder club to both Stoke City and West Brom, which is so odd for me since we're in the First Knockout Round of the Europa League and they aren't even taking part in any European Competition. Unfortunately neither of these have given me any worthwhile players on loan, and I'm trying to build up to the point where I can become a feeder club of a team like Chelsea or United. The board have also announced, after persistent nagging from me I'll admit, plans to build a youth academy. I honestly have no idea how this effects the intake of regens, but it can only be a good thing. Unfortunately it won't be finished until after this years youth intake, so hopefully next year will be the year.

EDIT: I forgot to put this in originally, but with the European results Wexford has finally gone professional. This should be a big bonus in attracting players, and shows that we are now serious as a football club.

[Matt123456]

jod123 - Cheers, I've been totally surprised myself about the success. I definitely recommend giving it a go.

[DSYoungEsq]

Can't wait to hear what Stuttgart do to yo.... er, that is, how you fare in the knockout phase.

Don't count on the Academy to do too much right away.

[Matt123456]

I really really hope that we will prove you wrong, but being totally honest......we're probably gonna get thumped.

That is a crying shame about the youth academy, but I think it could only be a good thing to do with youth recruitment.

[Matt123456]

Pre Season Report: 2015



This pre season was more about my frantic scrabbling to buy good players to take the club to the next level, and my success, albeit limited, in that field, then the actual friendly games. Apart from the absolute domination of Guangzhou, the games were riddled with poor peformances against weaker teams we should be knocking in 4 or 5 goals against. The matche against Tralee Dynamos was especially disappointing. However, these limp performances were more than made up for the new signings.

There were three main signings that have strengthened the squad this seasons: David Edwards, Zeli Ismail and Dean McAuley. David Edwards is probably the most talented player to play in the IPD for a long while, and has all the attributes to make a perfect, hardworking box-to-box midfielder. My only disappointment is that he doesn't have a higher creativity attribute, so he isn't particularly suitable for the playmaker role, but that's made up for by his excellent mental attributes and stamina. Zeli Ismail and Dean McAuley were both loan signings from Chelsea, but both have loan-to-buy options for £2.5 million and £1 million respectively. I'm seriously considering using that option, but I don't really want to spent £3.5 million on two players unless I can make sure they will fill their potential (both are rated 5 stars my both scouts and the Ass Man.) But if they do, I'm pretty sure that they will be fixtures in the team for years to come.

[Matt123456]

And it was soooooooo close





The dream is over, and in the most geniunely heart-breaking way. I could've faced being stuffed. If Stuttgart had knocked 4 or 5 goals past us in each leg it would've been less painful than the actual result. They probably should've knocked at least 3 or 4 past us in each game. But the lads defended incredibly, and the young Irish goalkeeper Joe Coll played out of his skin, getting man of the match in both matches. I almost feel guilty about the lengths I've gone (unsuccesfully unfortunately) in trying to replace him.

The first leg was quite simply unbelievable. It was one of those games when it just seemed like things were going to work out for us. If I was the Stuttgart manager I would've been apopletically angry that they lost. We scored with our only goal on target, and although the possesion was relatively even, Stuttgart, at times, seemed to be able to carve our defense open at will. But somehow they didn't score. And I truly believed that we could salvage something in the second leg. I even shunned the usual super defensive tactic to play our normal controlling, possession game, and if you look at the possesion split that worked. But the team couldn't carry the possession into the right areas, and Stuttgart could, and that told in the end. The most frustrating thing was conceding a goal from a corner.

Then of course came the sending off. Byron Anthony was the last man and brought down one of their strikers, who was through on goal, with a clinical challenge. I think it was what had to be done in the situation. It prevented an almost certain goal and gave the team the oppurtunity of holding on with 10 men. And hold on we did. In fact for a lot of extra time it was actually Stuttgart who were on the back foot against the plucky, under-paid, under-appreciated underdogs from Ireland, who, despite being a man down, put their heart and soul into the game. Once Stuttgart had Papadopoulos for a second yellow I started to believe we could get a late goal. Unfortunately, this time, fate was against us and it got taken to penalties. Tom Wattimury's miss was not a great start, but a great save by Joe Coll levelled up the proceeding. Then it was substitute, debutant, Dean McAuley's time to shine and immediately endear himself to his new fans by scoring the penalty. He missed, leaving Stuttgart needed only one more penalty to qualify. They duly converted. Not a particularly auspicious debut, but at least it's not as bad as Wayne Bridge's for West Ham at the weekend .

[AndrewFM]

Hard luck man, very close indeed. penalties are always a hard way to be knocked out in any cup, never mind in Europe. At least it should improve the rep a bit and bring a bit of cash for some world class transfers

[Matt123456]

It actually wasn't very close at all, and really the game should've been beyond our grasp by the end of the first game, but you're right, it always feels bad to lose on penalties. I am banking on the rep increase, although it still seems to be annoyingly slowly - you'd think the fact we were playing in Europe would attract more players, but apparently not. It definitely does bring in cash though!

[Matt123456]

Start of Season Report: 2015 - Flashes of Brilliance





The start of the season has been marked by frustratingly inconsistent performances. Against the top teams we have been imperious, putting in the best few performances of my Wexford reign. In particular, most of the performances against Bohemians have been nothing short of incredible, and the 3-0 away win against Shamrock Rovers wasn't too shabby either. But then those matches would be followed by performances against the teams towards the bottom of the table, who would just park the tank, and despite dominating the game we would struggle to score. The two 0-0 draws against Shelbourne were particularly disappointing, as we could and should have had 5 or 6 in both matches, and the 2-1 loss against Derry City, which brought our 26 match unbeaten run in the league to an end, had me shutting down my laptop with disgust. They scored with their only two shots in the match.

Looking at the positives, we have by far the strongest team in the League, and despite not leading the table, no team can live with us on our day. I can't get over the 3 thrashings of Bohemians. They've been our bane in so many other seasons, beating us when we most needed a win and generally being incredibly difficult to beat. Yet we managed to beat them 4-1, 5-1 and 7-1! That last performances had me staring at the screen with slack-jawed disbelief as I put one less goal past them as they let in in the entire first third of last season! It also led to this Team of the Week, which has never happened to me on FM before. It shows how well the team performed! Yet the team can't continue these performances against the weaker teams, who simply set up shop. I think I'll need to create a tactic to rip open these defences, but I can't really think of one. Any ideas?

On another positive note, we've finally won the Setanta Cup. And what a way to win it. It was the kind of performance that Chelsea would put in towards the end of last season. We didn't play particularly well - we've played better, dominated the much more and lost - yet we just couldn't stop scoring, and I really wouldn't have wanted to be a Sligo Rovers supporter there.

The three players I showed in the pre-season report have all played out of their skins. David Edwards especially has been on inspired form. He is waaaaay too good for this level, and is the beating heart of everything the team does. Unfortunately he's 29, so will only have 2 or 3 more years before he gets too old to play in the team. If he was three or four years younger, I could see him becoming a club icon or even a legend, such are the level of his performances. Zeli Ismail and Dean McAuley have also been on excellent form. Although they are both liable to the odd poor game here and there, they are young and will continue to improve. Ismail has been a right handful with his pace and skill, and has managed to be the team's top scorer despite only having 8 for finishing and 7 for composure (stats that I am desperately, and unsuccesfuly, trying to raise) and Dean McAuley, despite naturally being a wing back, has been as much of a handful as Ismail on the wing, and with his more rounded metal stats he has performed more consistently. I think I will use both of their loan-to-buy clauses towards the end of the seaon.

[FeargalSharkey2010]

Good to see a Irish team do well in Europe

[DSYoungEsq]

I suspect it may be a complacency issue with the lesser teams. Try challenging your players in the team talk, and in the news conference beforehand.

Sad that you went out to Stuttgart on PKs. Rips your heart out, those do.

[AK22]

Good progress in Ireland. Bad luck with the penalty defeat in Stuttgart- done well to get to knockout rounds though

[Matt123456]

DSYoungEsquire - I hadn't thought of that, but I think you might be right. I've thrown in a bit of "oooh it could be a hard game for us, we may not win" in here and there and it's worked wonders. The stuttgart result was such a killer though, even though we got absolutely battered in both games, even though we didn't deserve to do as well as we did, I let myself hope going into the penalty kicks, which was a mistake.

AK22 - Cheers, but it hasn't been particularly hard. The difference in class between the leagues is practically non existent apart from the top two seasons, and the other teams are so hopeless on the transfer market that it hasn't been difficult to assemble the best team in the League. I was delighted about getting to the knockout rounds, but really if we had beaten Stuttgart it would've been a travesty.

[sparkysrovers]

Good to see someone attempting to bring an Irish club to such high heights. On a previous game, I managed to turn limerick FC into a european super club, did well (with some edits to reputation of league etc) but I always start every career game with Limerick and work my way on - instead of taking over my fav club. It certainly adds to the game I find

[Matt123456]

Thanks, I think it is a hard but ultimately fulfilling task that I've attempted and I'm getting slightly closer season by season! Unfortunately Limerick FC are still languishing in the First Division, and the closest they got to promotion was when we pipped them to the playoff spots in the very first season .

[AndrewFM]

So Matt, how goes the European dream? I'm still lingering down in the Belgian Division 3 :P No Irish clubs have come back in for me yet, but I'm determined to be back there one day.

[Matt123456]

Mid Season Report: 2015 - Champions League here we come!





What is it about the middle third of the season that spurs the team on to perform well? Last year we went 11-0-1 in the league for the middle 12 games. This year we equalled that, and with wins in the Champions League and cups we put together a quite outstanding run of form in all competitions, smashing the previous club records, and league records. We won 20 games in a row in all competitions, which is a quite outstanding sequence of wins, and 12 in a row in the League. In all competitions we went 25 games unbeaten - 16 games in the league, which didn't actually break the IPD unbeaten record because we already held it, with a run of 26 games from the end of last season to the beginning of this season. Unfortunately both those runs were ended with the dire loss to Derry City, where the midweek Champions League game forced me to play a severely weakened team. It previous matches the reserves had done an excellent job in holding the fought, but here the performance was simply lacklustre and Derry deserved their win. They're the only Irish team to have beaten us all season.

I know I ruined the surprise with the title, but Champions League qualifying was not as much of a challenge as I expected. High scoring defeats of Häcken and Dinamo brought us to the Champions Playoff Round without breaking sweat. Due to our performances in last year's Europa League we were seeded for the draw, which gave me hope for qualifying. With this seeding we were giving what, on paper, seemed like a relatively easy match against the Cypriot team Anorthosi. I was quietly confident preparing for the first leg, which was at home, but the confidence was shattered when Anorthosi almost immediately bagged an away goal. The match then turned into a goal bonanza as we pulled ahead into a 2-1 lead, got pegged back to 2-2, finally took the lead again to make it 3-2 before 2 late goals from Anorthosi gave them a value away win and 4 away goals. It was a poor result, but I wasn't panicking. A two goal win could still get us through. But we left it late. That scoreline does flatter us a little. Over the two legs both teams were evenly matched, and it could've very well been Anorthosi that got through. They were leading on away goals right up to the 85th minute, but two very late goals from Jake Cassidy put a gloss on the scoreline, and made Irish footballing history. Wexford Youths have become the first Irish team in history to reach the group stages of the Champions League!!

Groups A-D
Groups E-H

It wasn't the hardest group that we could've drawn, but it wasn't the easiest either. I just thank the FM Gods that we weren't drawn in the group with Benfica, Fiorentina and Barcelona. It could've gotten very embarassing. As it is, I'm still struggling to think where we could get points from. We might be able to get a draw from Celtic in Ireland, and possibly Genoa as well if we play out of our skins, but I could see Athletico knocking quite a few past us over both legs. I have the spanish leagues playable, and Athletico have been in the top 5 every single year, and finished a very respectable third last year, albeit light years behind Real Madrid and Barcelona. I'm genuinely worried that their world class players, Aguero and Hamsik in particular, could have far too much quality to handle. We've also been given 5000-1 odds to win it. That reflects how little chance we have in the competition, but I would say it's worth a cheeky tenner just in case.

This July transfer window I may have gone a bit overboard on the signings. It has significantly strengthened the squad, and the new signings were part of the impressive Champions League performances, but it has come at a price. The wage budget has over double, and is now £50 000 per week. This has really caused our profits to take a tumble, and along with agent fees and signing on fees, the finances dropped from a healthy £5 million in the black to nearer to £2 million. Fortunately the Champions League qualification has made money a moot point for us now, as we have far more than we need, but for a second I thought I'd spent too much.

I've strengthened the team with no less than 10 signings, 2 of which will join in the next few years. Jon Daly, Dominic Vose, Pablo Donnet, Jake Cassidy, Frederic Veseli, Ben Marshall, David Martin and David Stockdale are all great additions of the team, and they are some of the best players in their position in the whole division. Two players have as a result of this left - James Kavanagh for £110 000 and Michael Keane for £210 000.

Jon Daly was signed as a short term target man - because of his age and rapidly declining physical attributes he will be our target man for the next year or so until I can find someone better. Yet he hasn't performed well. His stats are better than Wattimury's in just about every way, yet Wattimury is scoring more, and performing better. Daly has only 2 league goals in 12 games, which is a shocking return for a striker, and although he has 5 assists he'll have to improve or he'll be quickly on the way out. Dominic Vose was our big money signing. He cost £1.3 million from Arsenal, although most of it will be paid over 48 months, and has the ability to walk straight into the team. I'm also hoping he'll improve even more in the future and become one of our star playes. Pablo Donnet is a young fullback who I prefer over Michael Keane because of his more rounded ability. He has 5 star potential, and I competed with Barcelona (!) for his signature. Why he chose us I'll never know. Jake Cassidy is another Welsh star, who's all round ability should give us a reliable goalscorer to have when Saric is injured. Frederic Veseli is a young defender with very similar attributes to Byron Anthony, and he still has time to improve. He adds depth to our central defenders and allows me to relegate the unreliable Jack Mills to the reserves. Ben Marshall was signed simply because of his versatility, and because he is better than Billy Bodin. David Martin was my answer to the goalkeeper problem the team has. He's a lot better than Joe Coll, and under 30 as well. After I'd signed him my assistant alerted me to David Stockdale. Stockdale was even bettter than Martin, so I signed him as well. At least my goalkeeper problem is now over.

The 2 future signings I've made are two very talented Brazilians, with incredible amounts of potential. Digão is another goalkeeper, and he has the potential to far surpass both Martin and Stockdale. Léo is a very talented looking young midfielder, who, once developed, should become a fantastic deep-lying playmaker.

I wanted to do a quick update on a young player I signed a while back who has really come into his own. Paul Murray has improved incredibly if you compare to when we first bought him. I'm having to fight off bids from titans such as Valencia and Porto, and it seems only a matter of a time before he leaves. I'm quite astounded about hwo much he's come along. He's now surpassed Byron Anthony's ability in the eyes of the Ass Man, having blossomed under his tutouring, and shows no signs of stopping developing. On top of the development, he is an absolute monster from corners or indirect freekicks. His 10 goals this season so far is way too many, and I think his towering height and jumping means he's exploiting the fact that it is way too easy to score from corners on this patch. I've actually had to change my tactics so he scores less goals, and even then he still pops up with an important goal every so often. I can see him becoming the defensive rock at the heart of my team for years to come.

European Coefficients and Rankings Update:

World Ranking - Ireland's world ranking has plummeted even further since last year to 62nd. It serves them right for choosing Owen Coyle as manager instead me. Yet now my reputation is Continental, which should bode well for my choice when Owen Coyle gets sacked.

European Coefficients Ranking - As this table shows, the Republic of Ireland's reputation has risen back to 30th. With my success in Europe this season, this should rise even further, giving Ireland more qualification places.

Irish Premier Division Ranking - I've given up trying to work out how this is calculated, but the IPD is still rated as 2 stars so it shouldn't make that much of a difference.

Wexford European Ranking - The Europa League achievements last season have really sent our Club ranking through the roof, and this is why we were seeded for the Champions League Playoff draw, which enabled us to qualify. However, this massive rise hasn't been reflected in a massive rise in our club reputation. We're still not the most reputeable club in Ireland yet, which is incredibly annoying. IRL we would be by far the biggest team in Ireland if the same events had transpired.

EDIT: I forgot to add my "other news section." In other news, Byron Anthony gets his first Welsh international cap at the ripe old age of 30. I'm happy for the guy, and I'd like to think I had something to do with it, coaxing the best performances out of and what not. Unfortunately for him, it has preceeded him losing his place in my starting 11. You win some you lose some. Also, being a feeder club has finally paid dividends. I think I've forgotten to mention it earlier in the thread, but I've had links with Stoke and West Brom established for the past two years, yet they have been as good as useless, sending no loanees over, having no loanees available. Yet this transfer window I find that I'm getting two players, one from each club, on loan. I have no say in it. We don't have to pay anything. We're essentially getting free players. And they're not half bad either. Most other Irish clubs would kill for players like Karl Gough and Jordan Harvey in their team. They're both very able deputies, and I'll never turn my nose up at free players.

[rferry]

Congrats on the groups!

We might be able to get a draw from Celtic in Ireland

You can't possibly be expecting much home field advantage in that match-up!

[AndrewFM]

Leo and Digao look like too very promising youngins there Matt, congrats on Champions League. Who knows, a couple sneaky wins at home and you could push for a 2nd spot, or even the Europa League, could come down to yourself and Celtic.

[deltablue]

Celtic could be managable. Who knows the other 2 aren't the strongest either so maybe you could nick a point or 2.

[EdSB]

How did I not discover this sooner? Great thread, great career. Just read through the whole thing, and has the makings of an absolute classic. I can't believe how quickly you've progressed! Best of luck going forward!

[DSYoungEsq]

Heh, as usual, you seem to be tracking along with me, but probably just a bit ahead of where Prestatyn are. Best of luck with the coming group games!

[Matt123456]

rferry - I expect a home advantage when Waterford United pop over to play from about 20 miles away, so we definitely have one over Celtic! Or at least in my opinion.

AndrewFM - I have high hopes for those too, they already look good enough for the rest of the league and they'll only improve. That prediction certainly is optimistic, but I think we're going to come stone cold last. Celtic have just stuffed as 4-1 in Scotland and I think I'll be lucky to pick up a point really.

deltablue - I think you may be estimating the strength of my Wexford side. Although I'll admit that I'm just as guilty on that front. Unfortunately Celtic taught us a bit of a lesson when we travelled to them, and so did Genoa. Oddly enough Athletico Madrid were oddly underwhelming, but then again we did play them at home and they still won relatively comfortably.

EdSB - That's high praise , thanks a lot. I can't believe how fast I've progressed either, but then again the Irish League isn't the hardest league. The Premiership it is not!

DSYoungEsq - I know, our two saves parallel each other so eerily. When we drew a cypriot team in the playoff round I had a premonition of losing similarly to Prestatyn, but luckily we fought through . I think Wexford are probably a bit ahead, but we did have a head start . Thanks. I'm half way through atm and have the sweet total of played 3 lost 3, scored 1, conceded 7. But two of those games were away.

[Matt123456]

End of Season Report: 2015 - Triple Threat





League Position Graph

2015 was a unbelievable year for Wexford Youths. We won a famous treble, breaking numerous records, including points and number of goals scored, and became the first Irish team to ever reach the Champions League group stages. The League ended in a comfortable win. We hit first place at the half way mark in the season and never relinquished it, opening up a very healthy lead that enabled us to win the Championship with 5 games to spare. This was the season where our superiority really showed, and I hope we'll be able to build on that for next season. Towards the end of the season I had my 300th game in charge of Wexford against our great rivals, Bohemians. At this point the title was already secured, but I played a strong team, hoping I would have a 300th game in charge to remember. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a horror show. Not only was this our first home loss in the league this season, but it stopped us improving on our "games won in a row record" that we set earlier this season. I was so gutted at the end of the game, and although it meant nothing - we had already won the league by this point - never have i been more tempted to play a game again.

FAI Cup - Like last season, the FAI Cup was taken to a replay. Whilst the stats make the game look even, we hit the woodwork 4 times in this match, and could've had 3 or 4 on a different day. As it is, a 89th minute penalty gave Bohemians the equaliser they didn't deserve (you should've seen my reaction, I'm glad there was nothing breakable close). The replay was so one sided that I don't have much to say about it, an efficient, consumately professional performance giving us our third FAI Cup in a row, and 4th in 5 years. With this win, I'm now a club Icon, surpassing Danny Murphy, Wexford's longest serving and most consistent player with 271 appearances, 194 of them in the League, and Nikola Saric.

EA Sports Cup - Another cup final, another easy match that we made more difficult than it actually was. We dominated the whole match but somehow only managed to score one goal, meaning that the tie went to penalties. I as much as anyone know how much of a lottery that can be, but the team held their nerve and scored all their penalties to win our first EA Sports Cup since the first season in 2010, having lost in the final in 2012 and 2013.

Setanta Cup - I've already shown this screen shot, but I'm quite proud of the result. It was an emphatic way to win our first Setanta Cup, and the £1 million pay off afterwards wasn't too bad either.

Champions League - In the end we only got one point, but I'm proud of the boys for even getting the point. They performed admirably, despite the two disappointing defeats to Celtic, the team I thought we had the biggest chance of beating, and pulled of some excellent performances. There were two close loses, against Athletico Madrid and Genoa at home, where I thought we might hold out for a point. The Genoa match especially was disappointing, as the outmatched their illustrious opponents in every category apart from the score. Two very comprehensive beatings, against Genoa and Celtic away, was followed by another home loss against Celtic which was a lot closer than the scoreline suggested.

The two performances against Celtic were the big disappointments here. They simply showed us how to finish, especially in the second match. In fact this was the big lesson of the campaign. Class strikers are the difference between winning and losing, or winning and drawing, or drawing and losing in some cases. Time and time again we made chances but just couldn't finish them, whilst our opponents scored the chances they got. I'll be looking for a good young striker next season, but unfortunately I don't think our reputation has risen enough that we can buy one of the quality I want. Lastly, in our only point scoring game, we played Athletico Madrid in Madrid itself. It was a marvellous game, and by far the greatest performances by my Wexford side so far. Athletico Madrid won every other game they played, yet we completely outplayed them on their home turf, dominating both possession and chances. Pulling off a win here would've been one of the European upsets, but I am incredibly happy with a draw, and I hope this result will inspire the team next season.

With this record breaking season came numerous awards. We had 4 players in the IPD Team of the Year, and there are strong arguments to suggest that Zeli Ismail and Jake Cassidy should've been included at MR and ST respectively. David Edwards won Player of the Year, Paul Murray won Young Player of the Year and Danny Murphy won the Irish IPD Player of the Year. If you look at the Goalkeeper of the Year, we won first second and third. Again this is really bugged, and I hope it's worked out in the next patch. Last but not least, Danny Murphy won Wexford's Player of the Year. It was a deserved win by someone who's been a fixture in our team for the last 5 years or so.

Last but not least, the improvement to our Youth and Training Facilities has finally been announced. My only worry is that it cost so much money, £4.9 million to be exact, which negates nearly all of the winnings from qualifying for the Champions League Last season. With me making huge losses every month because of the £55K pw wage budget, I really need to qualify for the Champions League again this season, or debt will start to mount up. However, the improvement to the training facilities, youth facilities especially, is absolutely priceless and should help us develop our young players that are coming through, especially Paul Murray, Pablo Donnet and Léo.

[AK22]

Another great season, you are making good progress with Wexford.

When you're bottom seeds, all the Champions League groups are difficult! A point in Madrid is not to be sniffed at and you didn't take any serious hidings either. KUTGW!

[DSYoungEsq]

I think you should be quite proud of the lads, with an away draw against Madrid, and a very strong result in the League. Next year can only be better.

[Matt123456]

Pre Season Report: 2016



Due to the lack of depth in the squad and lack of youth players coming through friendlies have become simply ways of regaining match practice for my best players now. We never reached the heights of our best performances of last season, namely the 7-1 destruction of Bohemians, and the Salthill performances was simply dire, but that was mainly because we'd lost two of our best attackign players - Zeli Ismail and Dean McAuley. I wasn't able to buy any of them, or extend any of their loans, and that means I now have no quality wingers, and at the moment I am desperately trying to bring some in, if only on loan. This is the problem with how slow the reputation of my team rises. I am only predicted to finish second in the League by the media, meaning I'm not even the biggest team in Ireland and am finding it difficult to find good players, yet IRL any team that's got to the Europa League first knockout round and Champions League group stage in the past two seasons will be able to attract players of decent standard.

Our first youth intake with a youth academy was not encouraging. I am thinking that having a youth academy will have less of an effect that I hoped, but hopefully as the reputation of the team rises it will help bring in excellent youth players at some point in the future. Also on the youth development front, the improvement to the training and youth facilities have been finalised. We now have top training facilities and average youth facilities, and immediately after they were completed I succesfully petitioned the board for even better youth facilities, which are scheduled to start being built at the beginning of next season. This should all help us bring through youth players, which I think is the main way I'm going to make Wexford a European force.

For the first time our board seem to view us as much of a title contender as I have for the past view seasons, and have insisted that we win the title season, giving us a not too shabby transfer budget and wage budget to do it with. Looking at our backroom advice we really should be winning the league as our players are simply a lot better than the rest of the league. Apart from being slightly slow and having the oldest squad (ironic given our name is Wexford Youths), we are the best or nearly the best in every other attribute and that gives me confident as we try to win the league for the 4th time in a row.

We haven't been particularly active during this transfer window, although we will be more active towards the end of the window I hope, and have only brought in one player, and him as a backup on loan, Craig Elá. I think he's slightly worse than Pablo Donnet, but in case of injury or tiredness he'll do a more than able job of replacing him. The brazilian defensive midfielder Léo has also arrived, after turning 18, and didn't have a half bad debut, getting 4 assists in the 6-0 win over UCD. He looks absolutely fantastic, and if he can continue to develop he will be at the heart of the team for many years to come. Nikola Saric was the only player to leave not on a free, and for the princely sum of £2.2 million!! It was an incredible sum to secure for him, given that he only played nine league games last season, scoring only two goals, he is incredibly injury prone and that his attributes have declined. The fans weren't happy, but the sum has gone quite a way to paying for the training facilities, and Saric was too injury prone, which made him a liability.

I'm less confident this season than last season, due to our lack of strong wingers. It will be same old same old. We want to do well in Europe, increasing the club rep and league rep as we do. On the domestic front it is simply win everything we can. Hopefully Léo, Paul Murray and Pablo Donnet can continue to improve, which should give us top class players in three positions at least.

[AndrewFM]

Congrats on the draw with Atletico, great result. Would have been nice to get one win and maybe get a sneaky pass into the Euro Cup but nonetheless another good season! Keep it up

[Matt123456]

The draw with Athletico was one of the highlights of my career so far. Of course coming last in the group was disappointing but I am relatively happy with it so far!

[Matt123456]

Start of Season Report: 2016 - A Solid Start





Our frantic scrabbling in the transfer window to try and sign left wingers ended up with us signing two slightly below par left wingers. Pete Wisdom and Mauro are fighting for their place on the left wing, but they don't have a patch on Dean McAuley's performances last season. Fortunately the performances from other players have more than made up for it. Léo has been an absolute revelation, and at the time of writing has 19 assists in 17 games, and both Wattimury and Jake Cassidy have found a rich vein of form and are scoring for fun. Paul Murray has been a titan, and has scored an incredible amount of goals from corners. He is completely unstoppable and has a ridiculous highest rating. All these performances have led to only two defeats so far, both of them undeserved.

The 4-2 loss against Glenavon in a match that we were overwhelming favourites for was a huge shock, especially since it was in a semi final, but they simply finished better than us and on the day deserved to win. The 3-0 reverse in the home fixture showed that we had more class than them, and helped us get through to our second Setanta Cup final. The result wasn't bad either. I was slightly worried when Bohemians managed to get through. Despite us destroying them in three games last season, they still are in my opinion the second strongest team in Ireland, and could give us a tough game. Fortunately it wasn't a tough game. We were always in control and ran out deserved 2-0 wins to win Wexford's second Setanta Cup final. Hopefully the first trophy of many to come this season.

We have only lost one game in the league this season, against the perennial title contenders Shamrock Rovers. Normally I would hate giving away points to a team so close to me in the league, but with Shamrock Rovers languishing just above the relegation zone I won't begrudge them a few points. As usual Bohemians are hot on our heels, and their manager is promising to break our domination of the Irish leagues and re-establish Bohemians as the best team in Ireland. However, Shelbourne and Athlone Town are in 3rd and 4th are the surprise packages of the season so far. Shelbourne are looking to regain their place at the top of the Irish football league - a pedestal they occupied as short a time ago as 2007 - after being relegated for bankruptcy, but Athlone's Town success is completely unexpected. I'm glad to see another team who started with us in the Irish First Division managing to stay in the league, and actually create a challenge for the European places. I really do hope they succeed. It would be fantastic to have a team with the suffix "Town" playing in Europe.

We haven't quite hit the heights we reached on occasions in last season, but it's great to see that we're still leading the league and progressing in all the cups without playing our best. I'm hoping when we hit our best form we'll be able to completely run away with the league again. Maybe finally Wexford will be the biggest team in Ireland. Apparently it only takes 4 league wins in a row.

[Matt123456]

I've decided that I'll start putting up videos if a really special or important goal is scored by team. This goal isn't a bad one to start off with. It's 0-0 in the EA Sports Cup semi-final against Bohemians, and getting dangerously close to the last 10 minutes. Pablo Donnet decides it's time to score his first ever goal for the club. And just look at it.

[AndrewFM]

Not a bad first goal at all at all, decent start to the season as well I suppose

[Matt123456]

I was quite pleased with it . It seems a relatively average start considering how much more quality we have than the rest of the League, but it is the first time that we've ever been leading after 12 games so it is an improvement of sorts.

[Matt123456]

Mid Season Report: 2016 - Everything On Track





Well we're on track-ish in the league this season. Because of our European campaign, we are so many games behind the rest of the league it is getting ridiculous. I normally post the table after we've played 24 games but since some of the other teams have already played 29 I thought I'd put this up now. It also coincides with the start of our Champions League group campaign. I don't want to leave with you with a cliffhanger :P. If we win all our games in hand then we'll have a slender two point lead over Bohemians. Whilst we've got 11-0-1 in the middle part of the previous seasons, this season are record has been marred by one loss and two draws. Not the end of the world by any means, but it is disappointing two drop points. Two of those games came after a European, midweek game, so they could be attributed to a midweek hangover, and the Monaghan United game came after a nearly two month lay off due to the European games, so that can be attributed to lack of match practice. Okay I'm making excuses, but I think they're valid one. The only surprise this season is Shamrock Rovers awful performances. Although they have a few games on hands on their fellows, they're still in the playoff relegation zone with less than a third of the season to go. It's almost unthinkable that they get relegated, but it is still a possibility!!

Qualification to the Champions League Group Stages has been assured, but it wasn't all easy going. The second qualifying round game against the Kazakh team Atyrau was a clinical destruction of a weaker team, and I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get into double figures over the two legs. The third qualifying round game was where it all nearly went oh so wrong. Crashing out there would've left us out of all European Competitions, and it would've been catastrophic for our finances. After a tense, 2-1 win in the home leg where we didn't play well at all, we trekked to Bosnia and got promptly outplayed. With the game equal at 3-3, and only 20 minutes left, we contrived to give away a penalty. Letting it in would be sending us out. Fortunately Stockdale made a fantastic save to keep us in the game. It promptly went to extra time, where a penalty of our own and 2 towering headers from Paul Murray gave us a comfortable win that was not comfortable at all. We went into the Champions Playoff Round as overwhelming underdogs, but I thought our team had the quality to beat the Bulgarian Champions and in the end it was relatively simple. Two wonder goals from Mikhail Lisovskiy at the beginning of either legs put our position under pressure but a brace in each leg from loanee Mauro made it comfortable.

The group we were given was actually relatively easy, probably the easiest group there, and it is one that I could see us coming third in, when all goes to plan. If all goes to plan. And it is quite a big iff.
Champions League Groups
Also have a look at the odds to win the Champions League. I'm thinking a cheeky pound on Wexford winning could do the trick.

You might not have noticed yet, but I like to manage a la Arsene Wenger, buying young players and developing them. On top of Pablo Donnet, Léo and Paul Murray I've brought in three more players: Nathan Berkeley, a titanic centre back who I think will be our captain once Danny Murphy retires, Julio Guajardo , another centre back who I bought before Nathan Berkeley. It looks like I don't really need him now, but he's rated as having 4 and a half star potential and has attributes in all the right places bar jumping, and Diego. The young left back may not have great starting attributes, but he's rated 5 stars by my scouts (!) and it looks like he could become a beast physically if I develop him properly.

Performances this season have been on average absolutely brilliant. Léo has already become one of my greatest ever signings, and his 30 assists in 31 games is absolutely outstanding. The two titanic central defensive partnership of Paul Murray and Nathan Berkeley, with an average height of 195 cm, have also performed brilliantly. Unfortunately this is not necessarily because of their defensive abilities but rather their abilities to score from corners. Defensively they've been okay, but can be exposed by pace since they're both rather slow. On the European stage this has been a marked problem, especially against such strikers such as Sergio Aguero. The two surprises this season have been that David Edwards has not kept up his level of performance, and that Tom Wattimury has refound his goalscoring form. He's barely improved since I first bought him, but with good players around him he's finally managed to score. I think learning English has helped, although I still want to find a replacement for him. David Edwards has been mostly relegated to the wing this season, and that might be why his performances have dropped. 7.28 is not a bad average rating by any means though, but I would like it if he can find the form that had him average over 7.5 per match.

European Coefficients and Rankings Update:

World Ranking - Well we're up to 56th again. It is quite shocking. Why oh why did they appoint Owen Coyle instead of me? My reputation is world class now though, so I hope that I'll be the favourite to take over the job once Owen Coyle finally leaves.

European Coefficients Ranking - The seeding is exactly the same as last year except we're up to 28th now. If you look at the points the last two seasons we've been getting around 3.000, just from our success in Europe. If we continue that over a five year period our ranking will jump right up to into the top 20, and I can see us doing a lot better than that and getting into the top 15 if we do well.

Irish Premier Division Ranking - We're right back up to 57th, exactly where we were two seasons ago. It still isn't enough to attract the players I want, but it is an improvement of sorts. Also note that it is La Liga not the Premiership that is the topped rank team. That's what the Barcelona effect will do for you.

Wexford European Ranking - We'll be breaking the top one hundred next season. I'm hoping for the top ten at some point.

[DSYoungEsq]

Wonderful result in Europe, and yes, I think that's a soft group, you might sneak into third, which means you get seeded into the EURO Cup knockouts.

Just so you know, if you lose your tie in the Third Qualifying Round of the UCL, you don't crash out of Europe: you get put into the Fourth Qualifying Round of the EURO Cup. A win there sees you safely into the EURO Cup groups. It's not up, yet, but that's what happened to Prestatyn this season (my 11th in the save).

Good luck on the rest of the season!

[Matt123456]

A little sneak peak into our Champions League Campaign. We've finally claimed a proper scalp, and it's just revenge for our humiliation at their hands last year.

[Matt123456]

DSYoungEsquire - It is indeed, it is the kind of group I was hoping to get, although Porto were very, very good when we played them.

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought that we almost flirted with disaster against Zeljeznicar.

Cheers, I'm hoping that this will be the season that we break through in Europe.

[Matt123456]

Loanee Mohammed Demoulin scores his first hattrick for the club to send us through to our 5th final in 6 years. The video above is his hattrick goal, and what a goal it is too!

[Matt123456]

I've been on holiday for a while so I haven't been able to update this. I've already finished the season and will be putting up the end of season summary in the next day or two.



This is the goal which won us the Irish Premier Division for the 4th time in a row. It wasn't the best goal he's ever scored, but certainly one of the most important.

[Matt123456]

Another beautiful goal here for you all to salivate over, and it is David Edwards again, and it is another important goal.



It was the winning goal to record our second Champions League win ever, against Celtic, and maintain our chances of qualifying for the Knock-out Rounds.

[DSYoungEsq]

Ah, see, you are doing it again, going where Prestatyn are already ... er, that is, excelling at playing European footie!

[Matt123456]

I do love bravely going where you've gone before me!

[Flamers]

Keep at it