From Young Men to World Beaters

[kingjericho]

Stevo Smijnaic looks a good player, has all the right attributes for a poacher, though his antecipation could be better. Do you play two strikers? Comparing his stats to Quansah's he doesn't look worse at all.

[dafuge]

Stevo Smijnaic looks a good player, has all the right attributes for a poacher, though his antecipation could be better. Do you play two strikers? Comparing his stats to Quansah's he doesn't look worse at all.

I do play two strikers, one a poacher and one in a supporting role. The poachers are usually easy to find but the supporting striker is often just a normal striker played in that position.

[scfcbostock]

N.I national team has seen an big rise since you have been there? Is there alot good regens coming through or they just had good results?

Another great game to follow as usual

[dafuge]

N.I national team has seen an big rise since you have been there? Is there alot good regens coming through or they just had good results?

Another great game to follow as usual

This is the squad, it is mostly made up of players playing in England or Scotland. It certainly isn't a great squad, I think the rise is mostly down to this lucky qualification, followed by this lucky World Cup.

It'll be interestting to see where they go from there, they have a chance of making the next Euro's.

[HotChocolate]

This is the squad, it is mostly made up of players playing in England or Scotland. It certainly isn't a great squad, I think the rise is mostly down to this lucky qualification, followed by this lucky World Cup.

It'll be interestting to see where they go from there, they have a chance of making the next Euro's.

That is amazing, I've managed N. Ireland in this game and they play the same formation as me, got to 16th (I got 14th) and got to the knock out rounds of the World Cup.

Do you think they are over-rated? Or just not reached the quality they can under Nigel Worthington?

Great progress so far Daf, read last years and got a lot of inspiration from it

[dafuge]

I'm not sure they are overrated, as the players don't look that great. They just seem to be putting a good run of results together.

[HotChocolate]

I'm not sure they are overrated, as the players don't look that great. They just seem to be putting a good run of results together.

That is true to be fair and they seem to had variations of results, drew against England but drew against Angola. I think it's results like the England one that keeps them in competitions.

[sambos]

Great read dafuge. Im currently managing coleraine in NI Premier division in FM11. Just wondering how you manage to sign these good regens and/or young players from rest of europe (i.e. Czech Rep etc). They seem quality for the standard of league. I assume you have loaded the players from these european areas. Is it easy to attract them?

[dafuge]

Great read dafuge. Im currently managing coleraine in NI Premier division in FM11. Just wondering how you manage to sign these good regens and/or young players from rest of europe (i.e. Czech Rep etc). They seem quality for the standard of league. I assume you have loaded the players from these european areas. Is it easy to attract them?

I'd loaded quite a lot of extra players at the start to try and give myself a decent database for later on, the depth of foreign players has definitely helped me. The nationality of the players I've been able to find/attract has slowly improved, although I was able to get a few from the smaller European nations early on.

Still never managed to get a work permit for a signing though

[sambos]

I'd loaded quite a lot of extra players at the start to try and give myself a decent database for later on, the depth of foreign players has definitely helped me. The nationality of the players I've been able to find/attract has slowly improved, although I was able to get a few from the smaller European nations early on.

Still never managed to get a work permit for a signing though

Ok thanks im only running 6 nations with no extra players loaded on a medium database. Thus, it would be very difficult to find the talent you got early on but ill continue.
By the way, great career so far and good luck this season.

[dafuge]

Bourneview Young Men - Carling Premiership - 2019/20

Domestically things have been going well, but there is a long way to go to become a force in Europe.

League Table

Linfield chased us, but we won it easily.

Mid-Ulster Cup - we won again, while rotating the squad.

Irish League Cup - things were looking good until we blew the final.

Irish Cup - we got our revenge, in extra time.

Setanta Cup - we made a meal of the final.

UEFA Champions League - despite an early shock we cruised through the qualifiers. The group stage was an improvement on last year, with a superb point won at Old Trafford. Just a shame we missed that penalty.

Squad - the squad is strong after the last rebuild, but a number of contracts expire in 2022.

Transfers - big profits were made.


Key Player Profiles:

Nathan Ebbrell - he was the striker we had been missing. Well worth the huge wages.

Nicolas Varano - proving I have more than one great striker now.

André - possibly the best player I've managed at this club.

Barry Milligan - our third striker.

Radim Machacek - a rock in midfield.

Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13   Championship Two         1st         Championship Two, Mid-Ulster and Intermediate Cup winners
2013/14   Championship One         1st         Championship One, Mid-Ulster and Irish Cup winners
2014/15   Carling Premiership      2nd         Irish Cup winners
2015/16   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2016/17   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2017/18   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League and Setanta Cup winners
2018/19   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, League and Setanta Cup winners
2019/20   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners

Next Season

Things are slowly moving along as another stadium expansion takes us up to 2000, but we still have a long way to go to become competitive in the group stages of the Champions League.

[SnakeXe]

Great point at Old Trafford - that must have been gutting when the penalty missed!

[dafuge]

Great point at Old Trafford - that must have been gutting when the penalty missed!

It was awful, I was convinced we were making history

They went on to lose to Barcelona in the final as well.

[HotChocolate]

Missed a penalty in the Setanta Cup final as well, do you actually score any!?

[dafuge]

Missed a penalty in the Setanta Cup final as well, do you actually score any!?

We've scored 10/13, it i sjust when it matters we seem to miss

[dafuge]

Reputations

Northern Ireland - 23rd in FIFA rankings - down 7
Northern Ireland - 19th in UEFA coefficients - up 5
Carling Premiership - 69th in European competitions (2 stars) - up 28
Bourneview - 72nd in UEFA coefficients - up 6

[kingjericho]

The oldest player in the squad is... 24!

[dafuge]

The oldest player in the squad is... 24!

I've always had a habit of buying young players, and with no one staying for more than their five year contract I can't really do a lot about that.

I'm looking forward to the day I can renew the contract of a star player

[Nordan]

another stadium expansion takes us up to 2000.

For some reason I picture you and the chairman with shovels,sand and cement cluttering the countryside with suspicious looking stands.

Otherwise things are going well,97 pts is good in any league.I kinda like that it seems Europe is a bit harder on FM12.

[dafuge]

For some reason I picture you and the chairman with shovels,sand and cement cluttering the countryside with suspicious looking stands.

I love that image

[Woodsman]

Nathan Ebbrell - he was the striker we had been missing. Well worth the huge wages.

What an aerial freak!

[dafuge]

What an aerial freak!

Superb when you play with wingers

[TWFL]

Superb when you play with wingers

6ft 9in is huge..! And he's not skinny either: 16stone!

[kajito99]

May have missed this but who is David Kevan? Managed to get quite a bit for him!

[dafuge]

May have missed this but who is David Kevan? Managed to get quite a bit for him!

David Kevan

He was nothing more than a second choice winger. He was good, but I've got no idea why they paid so much for him.

[viiralx]

Dafuge: where did you get the Kits/logos?

[dafuge]

Dafuge: where did you get the Kits/logos?

They are all from here

[Tactic Master]

Nathan Ebbrell - he was the striker we had been missing. Well worth the huge wages.

He's insane! I have a player like that on my Barcelona save, 6'9" Central Defender...

I read the whole thread I attempted doing something similar on FM11 and I may do this alongside my Barcelona save aswell, or maybe once my defender has finished his career, i'll load up new leagues and do it that way and move away from Spain! It's definately a fun save to do anyway! Always looking forward to the next season to find out how much improved your national standing is in the world.

[Braundjoh]

Great stuff as usual Dafuge. The 2016/17 season was amazing, and it looks like you have a pretty strong squad now.

How do your players compare to those of the next best team in your league (Linfield I'd assume)? When I did a similar thing in Wales on FM11, by the time I got to the CL group stage my team was miles ahead of the rest of the league, so I'd guess the same thing applies here.

[dafuge]

Great stuff as usual Dafuge. The 2016/17 season was amazing, and it looks like you have a pretty strong squad now.

How do your players compare to those of the next best team in your league (Linfield I'd assume)? When I did a similar thing in Wales on FM11, by the time I got to the CL group stage my team was miles ahead of the rest of the league, so I'd guess the same thing applies here.

Linfield have a pretty decent team, they have a few players that would probably get into my first team.

Here's a few of their better players:

Tim Collins

Craig Kirkham

Craig Fotheringham

Brendan Broaders

I'd consider bidding for them but it is in my interests for Linfield to do well.

[Braundjoh]

Thanks for that, Dafuge. They're better than I expected, but you definitely have a much stronger team. Broaders looks pretty good for an 18 year old though.

[dafuge]

Bourneview Young Men - Carling Premiership - 2020/21

Things have slowed down a bit recently as we have dominated domestically but still look a long way off making it out of the Champions League group stage.

League Table

Nearly made the unbeaten season, but there's always that one loss!

Mid-Ulster Cup - once again I rotated the squad and won this trophy.

Irish League Cup - another easy win.

Irish Cup - and another easy win.

Setanta Cup - this wasn't in the script. I'm starting to hate Shamrock Rovers.

UEFA Champions League - the qualifiers were easy this year, and we managed to improve in the group stage by finishing third thanks to a win and a draw over FC Twente.

UEFA Europa League - we had a superb penalty win over Schalke before OM beat us fairly easily.

Squad - probably the strongest squad I've ever had, but with contract expiring I'm going to have to rebuild.

Transfers - the big story was the £8m sale of our star midfielder Mustafa Arikan.


Key Player Profiles:

Nathan Ebbrell - superb once again from the giant striker.

André - technically our best player.

Barry Milligan - not bad for a second choice.

Neil Lunt - a superb season for the winger.

Thomas Culshaw - providing Lunt some great competition for his place.

Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13   Championship Two         1st         Championship Two, Mid-Ulster and Intermediate Cup winners
2013/14   Championship One         1st         Championship One, Mid-Ulster and Irish Cup winners
2014/15   Carling Premiership      2nd         Irish Cup winners
2015/16   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2016/17   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2017/18   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League and Setanta Cup winners
2018/19   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, League and Setanta Cup winners
2019/20   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2020/21   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and League Cup winners

Next Season

Things are still slowly improving, but I have a feeling there will be many more seasons like this one before we get anywhere near the top of a Champions League group. I'll be continuing to sell off my players as they won't sign new deals and replacing them with the best players I can find.

[HotChocolate]

Wonder what the odds on losing 5-1 three times in a row (in the CL) was?

[dafuge]

Wonder what the odds on losing 5-1 three times in a row (in the CL) was?

Probably not that big considering the way the group stage usually goes for us

[snootyjim]

How are the finances going?

[Deisler26]

Wow! That Schalke win was ace!

[dafuge]

How are the finances going?

Finances - we've got a decent amount of cash, but not a lot to do with it. I'll probably be adding to it soon as there are a couple of key players I'll be selling as they won't sign new contracts.

We are fairly reliant on the CL money though, our wage bill has grown to a point where I think we may be dependant on it.

[dafuge]

Reputations

Northern Ireland - 60th in FIFA rankings - down 17
Northern Ireland - 16th in UEFA coefficients - up 3
Carling Premiership - 46th in European competitions (2.5 stars) - up 23 (up 0.5 stars)
Bourneview - 59th in UEFA coefficients - up 13

[Nordan]

we've got a decent amount of cash, but not a lot to do with it.

Building the stands yourself is clearly paying off!

Chairman:"Should we put something up here maybe?"
dafuge:"No,that's what they'd expect us to do."

107 points is fantastic but it seems harder to progress in Europe(which is a good thing I think...)

[dafuge]

Something I haven't mentioned in here yet is my youth player dilemma.

Facilities - no youth facilities/coaching.

Board request - can't upgrade them as they are rented.

Youth candidates - this is what they are like every year, I don't get players better than this.

I'm led to believe that the club is able to build its own youth facilities, but it may be tied in with the building of a new stadium (which doesn't look likely for me at the moment). Such a shame really as the busy fixture list means I could give my youth players a few games each year and I could start doing my bit for the Northern Irish national team.

[deadfncat]

thats wierd. Why wont they let you build a new stadium? youd have to be bringing in the bucks by now right?

[dafuge]

thats wierd. Why wont they let you build a new stadium? youd have to be bringing in the bucks by now right?

They don't think there is the fanbase to warrant it, which may be true. I don't think our attendances have really caught up with our success yet.

[deadfncat]

you cant even cap out that stadium yet? wowsers :s

[dafuge]

you cant even cap out that stadium yet? wowsers :s

We sell out for every European game, but the league attendances are pretty low at around 50% (which is the highest in the league ). I think I'm going to need the standard of the league to improve in order to help my attendances.

[Gramm0]

How about increasing your junior coaching? I'm playing a small to big club challenge in Denmark, and managed to get my monthly youth spending (junior spending?) to 100-200k per month. I actually didn't have a great youth intake since the last rise in junior spending, but I've had some amazing intakes and I sure that 1-2m a year must result in something youth-wise...

Edit: Haven't managed to get any upgrade to other youth or training facilities yet due to allways being in the red from junior spending and poor economy in Danish lower divisions, but have stably been producing top division potential division players (one year I produced 7-8 i think)

[dafuge]

How about increasing your junior coaching? I'm playing a small to big club challenge in Denmark, and managed to get my monthly youth spending (junior spending?) to 100-200k per month. I actually didn't have a great youth intake since the last rise in junior spending, but I've had some amazing intakes and I sure that 1-2m a year must result in something youth-wise...

Edit: Haven't managed to get any upgrade to other youth or training facilities yet due to allways being in the red from junior spending and poor economy in Danish lower divisions, but have stably been producing top division potential division players (one year I produced 7-8 i think)

I've tried doing that multiple times. The board seem happy to increase the junior coaching budget, but when it is increased I get a message about the facilities needing long term investment, then the junior coaching rating stays at 'none'. Last year we spent a total of£6k on the youth setup

[HotChocolate]

They just don't realize how good you are yet daf!

[yugo23]

What I usually do when I want to improve reputation of the league I'm playing in is sell players whose contracts are about to expire to other clubs in the same league. Since money is not the problem to you anymore, why not sell accept offers of other irval clubs, and reject all other offers? In coonection with this, how are other NI clubs doing in Europe?

[dafuge]

What I usually do when I want to improve reputation of the league I'm playing in is sell players whose contracts are about to expire to other clubs in the same league. Since money is not the problem to you anymore, why not sell accept offers of other irval clubs, and reject all other offers? In coonection with this, how are other NI clubs doing in Europe?

I say money isn't a problem, but that's only because I'm selling players for decent prices. If I started selling players off cheaply and missed out on the CL group stage I could be in a bit of trouble.

Linfield are woeful in Europe, no wins in the last four years. The only wins before that were when they entered the qualifying at an earlier stage.

[Gramm0]

Wow I really hope you get a chance to upgrade your facilities/stadium some time soon then. Just checked and I'm spending more that 300 times the amount you're spending ...and I'm nowhere close to getting into europe

[JerseyShoreDave]

without having 90% attendance at league matches he'll never the new stadium regardless of funds

[dafuge]

without having 90% attendance at league matches he'll never the new stadium regardless of funds

That's the problem. I can't attract the fans to the league games to expand my stadium because the reputation of the league is quite low, but to raise the reputation of the league I could do with producing some NI players that could be sold to the other clubs.

Looks like the next few years/decades could be quite similar

[deadfncat]

you need the rest of the league to stop being slackers and pitch in with some ambition

[HotChocolate]

Maybe you should manage the whole of the Northern Ireland league

Have you considered applying for/taking the Northern Ireland national side when it becomes available?

[dafuge]

you need the rest of the league to stop being slackers and pitch in with some ambition

Exactly

I don't really want to interfere though, I'd really like them to be able to do that by themselves.

[dafuge]

Maybe you should manage the whole of the Northern Ireland league

Have you considered applying for/taking the Northern Ireland national side when it becomes available?

I did consider moving around clubs, but I want to stick with just one.

I'd love to take the NI job, but only when I've got some of my own players to call up to the squad. Unfortunately that doesn't look likely to be happening for a while!

[yugo23]

you need the rest of the league to stop being slackers and pitch in with some ambition

From my experience this is never going to happen.

[deadfncat]

From my experience this is never going to happen.

has happened in my game. 2034 and the top 6 clubs have all build new stadiums

[dafuge]

Bourneview Young Men - Carling Premiership - 2021/22

Things have slowed down recently, with the club being too good in NI but not good enough in Europe. This season was just about trying to make a bit more progress.

League Table

The goal difference was different, but the rest was an exact repeat of last season. Surely the unbeaten season isn't far off now?

Mid-Ulster Cup - the fringe players won this yet again.

Irish League Cup - a big win over rivals.

Irish Cup - and another.

Setanta Cup - finally we complete the clean sweep of the cups.

UEFA Champions League - we won all our qualifiers to make it to an interesting looking group. A win, three draws and a loss put us in with a great chance of qualifying going into the final game against already qualified Roma. After 68 minutes, we topped the group, after 90 minutes we had lost and finished bottom.

Squad - the squad is good for another couple of years but I still can't get anyone to renew a contract so I'll have to continue signing and selling players.

Transfers - more decent profits for players who were going to leave.


Key Player Profiles:

Nathan Ebbrell - great stuff as always.

André - he's got maybe another year at the club, but he'll get a good price.

Barry Milligan - another great performance from a striker.

Dragan Ivkovic - a superb debut season.

Bilal Messaoudi - another great debut season.


Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13   Championship Two         1st         Championship Two, Mid-Ulster and Intermediate Cup winners
2013/14   Championship One         1st         Championship One, Mid-Ulster and Irish Cup winners
2014/15   Carling Premiership      2nd         Irish Cup winners
2015/16   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2016/17   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2017/18   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League and Setanta Cup winners
2018/19   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, League and Setanta Cup winners
2019/20   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2020/21   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and League Cup winners
2021/22   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League, Irish and Setanta Cup winners

Next Season

The performance in Europe was encouraging, even if it ended badly. With a kind draw we might find we are able to pick up a few wins and push for a 3rd seeding next time we make the group stage.

[dafuge]

Reputations

Northern Ireland - 50th in FIFA rankings - up 10
Northern Ireland - 16th in UEFA coefficients - no change
Carling Premiership - 33rd in European competitions (2.5 stars) - up 13
Bourneview - 68th in UEFA coefficients - down 9

[abulezz]

The league made a nice jump, up 13 spots! Slowly but surely, you'll manage to put together a competitive team for Europe

[liam bell]

I just get that feeling that this challenge that you've set yourself, Dafuge, is going to prove impossible in a one club career. The only way I can see it happening is if you resign, take over another club and do it all again so to speak.

[kingjericho]

The league's reputation is increasing so I'd expect to see development in the next seasons

[dafuge]

'Will listen to offers'

I'm not expecting anything drastic, but it would be nice to get a chairman who sees the value in investing in the youth setup.

[scfcbostock]

Have you found this game has panned out as you expected it? Or how you wanted it to?

Is your game restricted due to the leagues you have loaded?

[dafuge]

The progress in Europe has been a little faster than I expected, but there's still a long way to go so I'm still hopeful I'll be able to keep making progress for some time yet.

It's restricted in that I can't move abroad, but I'm not planning on doing that anyway. My database was large enough to make sure that the teams I'm playing in Europe have full squads, which was my main concern.

[HotChocolate]

It seems odd that you managed to get into the knock out rounds a few years ago, with the hardest group you've had so far in my opinion.

[dafuge]

It seems odd that you managed to get into the knock out rounds a few years ago, with the hardest group you've had so far in my opinion.

It was very strange. I want to call it a fluke but we actually deserved the results we got.

[slich]

Does your reserve team still play in the intermediate cup? It always amused me that your players get first team experience even when the reserve team is playing it. Can't complain about free experience I suppose. The reason I ask though was because I was wondering if the reserve team winning the cup adds the victory to the team history or not, as I only played a couple seasons there and my reserve team always lost in the early stages. I doubt it since I didn't see Linfield have any Intermediate Cup victories but figured I'll ask if its different for human controlled teams. Great stuff on the thread, and good luck in Europe next season!

[yugo23]

Can you add overview of the results of other NI clubs in Europe in your next season report? Yon really need them to perform well in order to progress more in country ranking.
One of the most interesting things for me when I played 'country push' games was that I actually cheered for the clubs with highest ranking and hoped they will qualify for Europe. When low ranked team qualified it meant that it will get strong opponent and just ruin the country ranking.

[SRL88]

How far are you going to take this save dafuge?

[dafuge]

Does your reserve team still play in the intermediate cup? It always amused me that your players get first team experience even when the reserve team is playing it. Can't complain about free experience I suppose. The reason I ask though was because I was wondering if the reserve team winning the cup adds the victory to the team history or not, as I only played a couple seasons there and my reserve team always lost in the early stages. I doubt it since I didn't see Linfield have any Intermediate Cup victories but figured I'll ask if its different for human controlled teams. Great stuff on the thread, and good luck in Europe next season!

Yes, they do, although I've never really concentrated on letting players play for them as I need a lot of them for first team duties.

Maybe I'll give it a go this year

[dafuge]

Can you add overview of the results of other NI clubs in Europe in your next season report? Yon really need them to perform well in order to progress more in country ranking.
One of the most interesting things for me when I played 'country push' games was that I actually cheered for the clubs with highest ranking and hoped they will qualify for Europe. When low ranked team qualified it meant that it will get strong opponent and just ruin the country ranking.

At the moment they all tend to fall at the first hurdle, but maybe if they start picking up some results it will be worth reporting on.

[dafuge]

How far are you going to take this save dafuge?

I'm planning on playing it until the release of FM13. I was hoping to get to somewhere near 100 seasons, but I've been really busy this year so I'm well behind schedule for that.

[dafuge]

Yes, they do, although I've never really concentrated on letting players play for them as I need a lot of them for first team duties.

Maybe I'll give it a go this year

I dropped a few players into the reserves for a cup game, this was the result

[kingjericho]

And you let the Ass Man take charge? that's what I call dominance

BTW what's your staff like? Do you have many coaches and are they good?

[dafuge]

And you let the Ass Man take charge? that's what I call dominance

BTW what's your staff like? Do you have many coaches and are they good?

We are staffed pretty well, 17 coaches with 4 stars in nearly every area.

[dafuge]

The takeover starts here

[SRL88]

The takeover starts here

Are we expecting a promotion from within or a nice tycoon .

[dafuge]

There is no-one to promote from within, so it has to be someone else.

I'm expecting a local businessman who makes no difference whatsoever.

[dafuge]

I take that back, maybe this chairman will have incredible vision

[dafuge]

He should have seen this coming

Or maybe he did?

Or not

And we are back on

And it's all over

Without any investment

[JerseyShoreDave]

Be happy, my friend got fired when they took his club over lol

[dafuge]

Bourneview Young Men - Carling Premiership - 2022/23

Last season we got a few good results in Europe, so I was hoping to build on that this time around.

League Table

Finally we managed the unbeaten season, just a shame about that draw!

Mid-Ulster Cup - as usual, the fringe players won it.

Irish League Cup - and this one.

Irish Cup - what a crazy score for a final!

Setanta Cup - Linfield gave us a good final, but they couldn't stop our second clean sweep.

UEFA Champions League - Gent gave us a scare in the qualifiers, but we made it through. We kicked off the group stage with a stunning 7-0 win over Sporting CP and went on to top the group, only dropping points to Arsenal. After a tight first leg loss, we managed this superb win over PSG before getting outclassed by Juventus in the quarter finals.

Squad - the squad is superb, and the values of my players really show how far we have come. Sadly it will be downhill from here as a number of key players will not sign new contracts and will have to be sold.

Transfers - I'm starting to get some good prices for my players, so we are able to spend a bit more in the transfer market.


Key Player Profiles:

Dragan Ivkovic - his goalscoring was amazing, but he missed a lot of the season through injury.

Nathan Ebbrell - he led the line once again and scored a record number of goals.

Wilton - a superb season for the winger.

André - another great season, in what could be his last at this club.

Rafael - possibly the replacement for André.


Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13   Championship Two         1st         Championship Two, Mid-Ulster and Intermediate Cup winners
2013/14   Championship One         1st         Championship One, Mid-Ulster and Irish Cup winners
2014/15   Carling Premiership      2nd         Irish Cup winners
2015/16   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2016/17   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2017/18   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League and Setanta Cup winners
2018/19   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, League and Setanta Cup winners
2019/20   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2020/21   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and League Cup winners
2021/22   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2022/23   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League, Irish and Setanta Cup winners

Next Season

This was possibly the most eventful season I've had at the club with miracles in Europe, a board takeover and some fantastic players at the club. Sadly I can only see things going downhill next year as the likes of Ebbrell, Milligan, André and Partridge all have contracts expiring and will not sign new deals. I can't afford to lose them for nothing so I'll be cashing in on the lot of them this summer.

[deadfncat]

Wow nice work in the CL mate

[dafuge]

Reputations

Northern Ireland - 23rd in FIFA rankings - up 27
Northern Ireland - 15th in UEFA coefficients -up 1
Carling Premiership - 29th in European competitions (2.5 stars) - up 4
Bourneview - 40th in UEFA coefficients - up 28

NI has gained a second spot in the CL

[yugo23]

Nice, even if second placed club doesn't qualify they will play in EL.

Strange that Ivkovic hasn't made national debut yet with such amazing scoring stats. How many of those goals were in European competitions?

[dafuge]

He scored 16 goals in 11 games in Europe.

Looking at the Serbian national team, the strikers they have look better than Ivkovic, but he should at least be making the squad.

[DSYoungEsq]

Just read this thread. I'm chuckling as I read it, because so much of what you experience, I've gone through with my FM11 Prestatyn Town FC save. Though I admit I didn't have the joy of your excellent one-off UCL result that first year! But the players wanting to move on, the inability to build a new stadium, the drudgery of going through meaningless domestic efforts just for the joy of the European footie, the money you have that you can't really spend to good effect because the players who you could buy with it don't want to come be with you, etc., they are all familiar ground.

You, however, will take this far beyond where I will take Prestatyn, so it will be interesting to see if your persistence will reap enough benefit down the road to overcome all these obstacles. Good Luck!

[HotChocolate]

Great news with the 2 places for Northern Ireland, slowly, but surely you are getting somewhere!

[dafuge]

We are now seed third for the CL group draw

[dizzyp]

It was awful, I was convinced we were making history

They went on to lose to Barcelona in the final as well.

Same old.........

Great read so far, giving me something to do at work!!

[scfcbostock]

We are now seed third for the CL group draw

Are the squads/players of the other teams getting better? Or is it soley your own success in europe that is causing this?

[dafuge]

I think it is just down to us, none of the other NI clubs even seem capable of winning a qualifier in Europe.

[dafuge]

Bourneview Young Men - Carling Premiership - 2023/24

With a number of key players due to leave, this was set to be a tough season.

League Table

Back to our one defeat!

Mid-Ulster Cup - another win.

Irish League Cup - we won it, just.

Irish Cup - an easy win.

Setanta Cup - it's always nice to get a big win over Shamrock.

UEFA Champions League - the qualifiers were easy enough, but CSKA Moscow had the beating of us in the group stage.

UEFA Europa League - we had a superb run in this competition but Man City easily beat us in the semi final.

Squad - we took a big hit with the expiring contracts, but we've still got a pretty decent team.

Transfers - it wasn't fun, but a large number of players were sold to ensure that they didn't leave for nothing,


Key Player Profiles:

Dragan Ivkovic - superb as ever, but missed a lot through injury. Next season could be his last as his contract expires.

Wilton - another great year from the winger.

Rafael - another superb winger.

Tim Merkel - making a case for a place in the first team, but his refusal to sign a new contract may cost him that.

Scott Powell - he's finally got a chance in the first team, and he's taken it.


Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2012/13   Championship Two         1st         Championship Two, Mid-Ulster and Intermediate Cup winners
2013/14   Championship One         1st         Championship One, Mid-Ulster and Irish Cup winners
2014/15   Carling Premiership      2nd         Irish Cup winners
2015/16   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2016/17   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2017/18   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League and Setanta Cup winners
2018/19   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, League and Setanta Cup winners
2019/20   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and Setanta Cup winners
2020/21   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Irish, Mid-Ulster and League Cup winners
2021/22   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2022/23   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League, Irish and Setanta Cup winners
2023/24   Carling Premiership      1st         Premiership, Mid-Ulster, League, Irish and Setanta Cup winners

Next Season

With a transitional period out of the way, hopefully we can start to move forwards once again. Hopefully the big profits will mean improvements off the field.

[Paolo Willenté]

Congrats on another solid season and great run in the Europa! And that is some serious cash you are sitting on now. How much of it can you spend?

[JerseyShoreDave]

Damn nice run, thats some personnel selling and profit, amazing that you still can't resign players to me. Haven't had that problem in Norway for sure. Amazed that NI is that hard.

[dafuge]

Congrats on another solid season and great run in the Europa! And that is some serious cash you are sitting on now. How much of it can you spend?

We have about £80m sitting in the bank and the board will currently let me spend £60m of it

Not that I could find any players to buy with that sort of money

[dafuge]

Reputations

Northern Ireland - 29th in FIFA rankings - down 6
Northern Ireland - 15th in UEFA coefficients - no change
Carling Premiership - 20th in European competitions (3 stars) - up 9, up half a star
Bourneview - 28th in UEFA coefficients - up 12

[dafuge]

Unfortunately my laptop has been damaged, so there will be no more updates until I can get it fixed. There is no doubt that I will be comtinuing with this save at some point, but it will probably be a week or so until I can get playing it again.