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[FM11] Éire go deo - An Impossible Dream


Matt123456

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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.

Wexford_Youths_FC.png

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.

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Career Progress

Season    League                                     Position  Achievements                   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010        Airtricity League First Division         3rd     Playoff Finalists, FAI Cup 2nd Round, [b]EA Sports Cup Winners[/b]
2011        Airtricity League First Division         [b]1st[/b]     Setanta Cup First Round, [b]FAI Cup Winners[/b], 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              [b]1st[/b]     Setanta Cup Quarter Finals, [b]FAI Cup Winners[/b], EA Sports Cup Finalists
2014        Airtricity Premier Division              [b]1st[/b]     Setanta Cup Semi Finalists, [b]FAI Cup Winners[/b], EA Sports Cup Semi Finalist, Europa League First Knockout Round
2015        Airtricity Premier Division              [b]1st[/b]     [b]Setanta Cup Winners[/b], [b]FAI Cup Winners[/b], [b]EA Sports Cup Winners[/b], Champions League Group Stage

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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

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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 :D, 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

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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

WexfordYouthsWexford_Fixtures.png

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:

WexfordYouthsWexford_Players.png

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

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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. :eek:

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. :D

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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?

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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.

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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 :)

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Pre-Season Report: 2013

WexfordYouthsPreseasonfixtures.jpg

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Start of the Season Report: 2013 - A Mixed Start

WexfordYouthsFirstThirdFixtures.jpg

Tableafter12games.jpg

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.

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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.

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Mid Season Report: 2013 - Pretentions of Glory

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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.

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

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! :D

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End of Season Report: 2013 - Never Say Die

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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.

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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:

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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

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Pre-Season Report: 2014

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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.

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

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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.

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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 :D. 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 :thup:

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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.

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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 :D. 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!!

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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

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Mid Season Report: 2014 - A European Adventure

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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 :D. 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 :o. 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.

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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.

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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.

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

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!

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