It's the end of the world as we know it

After my journeyman save crash dumped I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do so I thought I’d give my Welsh challenge from last season another go. This basically involves a few basic objectives:

Become the dominant team within Wales

Make the Welsh league one of the top 10 leagues in Europe

Win the Champions League

Develop players for the Welsh national team

Win all International tournaments as Wales manager

Last time around I managed to become the dominant team in Wales fairly easily and won the Champions league twice in a row at the very end of a 40 year(roughly) career before stopping. I did manage to get my youths into the National team and managed them on 2 occasions but I never had any success in getting them to championship finals so this time around this is what I really want to do.

For this career I’ve got a starting database of around 18,000 players, this includes a large database of all available league in English and the Welsh premier division, i’ve also included all players based in Wales so that teams who do get promoted have a better chance of competing rather than getting stuffed and relegated again!

Like last year I will be managing Carmarthen Town who are now one of my favourite teams following last years career. I’ll be starting on my standard managers profile who has Sunday league rep.

Carmarthen Town A.F.C.

(From Wikipedia)

Carmarthen Town Association Football Club is a Welsh semi-professional football club based in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, who play in the Welsh Premier League. The club was founded in 1948 and have played at their current home ground, Richmond Park, since 1952.

Carmarthen Town (also known as The Town or Old Gold) have yet to win the Welsh Premier League title, despite being in the top tier of Welsh football since 1996–97. In 2000–01 Carmarthen Town had their highest-ever finish, coming 3rd, which qualified them for European competition for the first time. Carmarthen’s first and only major honour came in 2006–07 when the club won the Welsh Cup. In the 2011/12 season they finished 11th out of 12 teams.

The team's first choice strip is old gold shirts, black shorts and socks. The second choice strip is red shirts and shorts and black socks.

Richmond Park

The ground has been redeveloped over recent years into a small, modern and compact football stadium with a capacity of 3,000. The club's new Clay Shaw Butler Stand has a 1000 seat capacity which enabled Carmarthen Town to host the club's first ever home European fixture at the ground in July 2007 when they entertained Norwegian side SK Brann.

In the 2010–11 season Carmarthen's average attendance was 363, placing them third out of twelve teams in the Welsh Premier League in the new format league.

General Club Information - Nice to see we have 3 rivals although Haverfordwest aren't in the Welsh premier league yet. We're predicted 6th in the league which would involve getting into the top half before the league splits after 22 games so thats a good challenge.

Squad - On first viewing the squad really doesn't look very strong, even at this level. Our best areas seem to be goalkeeper and striker but i'm sure it won't be too difficult to bring in some players on frees that will strengthen the team.

Staff - All the basic staff in place, fortunately most of them are on month to month contracts which saves a bit of money, i might look to add in one or two different staff members depending on finance.

Facilities - As expected these are are fairly basic and minimal, in time i obviously intend to improve these as the club grows but for the time being they are not a main priority.

Finances - We've got a little bit in the bank but at this level that will soon go, i don't think i'll be seeing the club in the black again for a few years until we can establish ourselves in Wales and Europe. We're only £100 under our wage budget so i'd expect that i have to get rid of a few player so i have some room to maneuver in the transfer window.

Pre-season

A mixed bag of results in the friendlies, we beat our reserves and Inter Cardiff but had disappointing performances against Merthyl T and Caersws. We put in a good shift against Tottenham reserves despite the defeat, unfortunately we suffered to big injuries to Liam Thomas and Casey Thomas who are 2 of our most important attacking player so i'm hopeful this doesn't affect us too much.

Transfers - Not a huge amount of activity, got rid of a few reserves whose contract was up and weren't good enough. Added a few players into defense and midfield but i struggled to find any wingers good enough for the team, whether they be free transfer or loans so i can see us struggling in that respect.

Kyle Edwards

Steven Kehoe

Shaun Galsworthy

Deryn Brace

August/September

We're certainly not an entertaining team to watch, you'd be lucky to see more than 1 goal! After we lost the first game of the season i switched to 4-5-1 just to that bit more defensively solid, this took us on a decent unbeaten run where we got some good results against the likes of Bangor. I am becoming slightly concerned by our inability to score though so i may try changing back to a more attacking formation.

October/November

We've only suffered one defeat in the league in the last 2 months but we've also only picked up 3 wins as we are drawing far too many games. The 1-1 draw against TNS is a good result but it was a match we should have won as we conceded an own goal in the 93rd minute, the draws to Aberystwyth and Afan Lido were both disappointing. Nonetheless we are still on course to make the top 6 when the league splits but we need a good run of form to get near the top of the table.

We lost on pens to Afan Lido in the League Cup, it wasn't a competition i was bothered about and i fielded a weakened team in order to avoid injury and rest key players.

The Welsh Cup is a slightly more prestigious competition so i put out a faily strong side who were able to overcome Airbus in the 3rd round. I'm hopeful we can get to the latter stages in this.

December/January

Not a great couple of months with 3 wins 4 defeats and 2 draws putting us down to 7th for the league split meaning this is the highest position we can achieve now. Hopefully we can do well in the Welsh cup or finish 7th and qualify for Europe through the playoff's but both are doubtful which is disappointing. I'm finding it hard to be competitive with the squad i've got as most of the players aren't good enough and i only have 1 player who can play out wide which leaves me with very few options.

February/March 2013

We lost in the Welsh Cup 4th round to a lower league side which made me quite angry as i put a full strength side out, at the time morale was at rock bottom so i think it can be put down to that.

In the league we haven't been doing too badly with 3 wins 3 draws and a loss. We're still in 7th and 2 points ahead of Aberystwyth, its between us and them as to who gets 7th place and theres 3 games left this season, with the final match being a home game against Aberystwyth which could be very important.

April/May 2013

A change to 4-3-3 with 3 strikers saw us hit a great bit of late season form as we took 7th place on the final day after beating Aberystwyth. We then beat them again in the European playoff and beat Bala in the semi final but unfortunately we lost 2-1 to Airbus in the final in extra time due mostly to a superb performance by their keeper.

Carmarthen 2012/13

League

Predicted: 6th

Finished: 7th

Overall we didn’t have a bad season considering it was my 1^st here. The team I inherited wasn’t that great and we took a long time adapting to tactics, with morale all over the place at times. I was hoping for a top 6 finish but we just missed out on that when the league split, we did however make 7^th place and went on to the European playoff final where we lost in extra time to Airbus.

League Table

European teams for next season

ECC - TNS

EC – Bangor City, Prestatyn, Airbus, Llandudno

Cups

Welsh Cup – We lost in the 4^th round of this to lower league side Llandudno, who amazingly went on to win it.

League Cup – Wasn’t bothered about this competition this season and fielded a weak reserve team and lost in the 1^st round.

Transfers

Kyle Edwards CB – Proved to be one of my key players, certainly in defense, playing almost every game. At 21 he’s still got room to improve and achieved a 7.13 rating this season.

Steven Kehoe CM – Though he’d be a backup but he was a first teamer for most of the season, managed 4 goals 5 assists in 32 games which doesn’t sound that great but it was better than most. Signed a years contract extention.

Shaun Galsworthy CM – Another midfield first teamer although slightly less impressive, I made him my captain but he fell out of the side after I switched to 4-3-3 after some poor performances. Got 2 assists in 32 games.

Deryn Brace RB, CB: Was a first teamer for the first half of the season but an injury hit him hard at 37 years old and he never got back in the team.

Simon Gordon CB – Young defender who arrived near the end of the season, wont be an immediate first teamer but he has the potential to be in a few years.

Transfers

Finances

As expected we went into the red straight away and lost around 7k per month, without European football I should expect this to continue which is why its so important for us to make it next season.

Finances

Wales

The national team have begun qualification for the 2014 World Cup and are currently in 3^rd place after 3 games with 4 points.

None of the teams who were in Europe this season got past their entering stage. I’ll give more detailed descriptions next season.

WPL Rank – 162^nd, Down 4 places

Carmarthen Rank – 480^th, Up 17 places

Co-efficient – 1.175 Lost our place in the 2^nd qualifying round of the Champions League, teams will now have to enter at the 1^st round.

Welsh footballer of the year: Gareth Bale (Tottenham)

Welsh young player of the year: Adam Matthews (Celtic)

WPL Player of the year: Jason Price (Prestatyn)

WPL Young Player of the year: George Taft (TNS)

Pre-season

Not a great pre season results wise, only managed 2 wins a drawn and a defeat against fairly weak opposition apart from Mainz. The fact we only scored 3 times is of some concern given our form last season but im hopeful that won't carry on in to the league.

Transfers - Let a few of the poorer players go on frees at the end of last season in the hope i could replace them with better players but i've really struggled in that department. I've had to mostly rely on youngsters who have high potential but aren't that great at the moment which could really damage our hopes this season.

Amazingly we're 1k under our wage budget so theres still the chance of me getting some good players in but the fact i can't scout outside of Wales is making it really hard to find players.

Graeme Orchard

Josh Doyle

Jordan Marks

Chris Henry

Graham Allardyce

Aaron Kreamalmayer

August/September 2013

We started off the season fairly well, picking up 8 points in our first 4 games but we've dropped off a bit recently. We lost to Bangor away which is perhaps understandable but we were awful against Haverforwest and we found ourselves having to come back from 4-1 down at half time which we couldn't manage in the end. The good news for us is that Thomas is scoring a lot of goals but i think this is almost all down to the fact he has a 30 goal bonus in his contract.

October/November 2013

We had a bad start to October, losing badly to both TNS and Port Talbot, we put that behind us with a great win over Newton but we fell to our 3rd defeat in 4 games against Aberystwyth. We then also lost to Prestatyn which made is just 1 win in 5, with morale at rock bottom we only managed a draw against Connah' s Quay. A penalty win over Haverfordwest in the Welsh cup helped to boost morale slightly which then helped us to win 2 on the trot at the end of November, taking up to 6th place, well off the pace of the top 2.

December/January

We had a poor start to December, picking up just 1 points from 3 games and suffering disappointing defeats to Porthmadog and Haverfordwest. However since then we've been on a 6 match unbeaten run which included wins over the likes of Bangor City and Prestatyn, this win has seen us climb back up to 6th place on goal difference in time for the league split which means we have a better chance of getting a European place next season. That said, we still remain quite far behind the top 3 teams so it'll take something special to get there.

February/March 2014

What an awful couple of months, we haven't won in the league since the split, picking up just 2 points in 7 games. Morale is at an all time low which doesn't help but we're just awful. The one good thing we have going at the moment is the fact we are in the semi final of the Welsh cup and have a decent chance of making the final.

April/May 2014

And so ends the least enjoyable season i think i've ever played. We'd have been better off finishing 7th and playing in the lower part of the table as we only managed to pick up 1 more point before the seasons end, making that a magnificent 3 points from 10 games. We lost the semi final of the cup to lower league Caersws which was another kick in the teeth, although they went on to beat TNS on pens in the final.

Carmarthen 2013/14

League

Predicted: 6th

Finished: 6th

We managed to finish in the top 6 as we just about made it in for the league split on goal difference. After that it was a nightmare and we picked up just 3 points from 10 games, not winning a single match. We’d have been better off coming 7^th, the only positive thing I can say about this season is that we were 1 place above last season.

League Table

European teams for next season

ECC - TNS

EC – Bangor City, Caersws, Airbus

Cups

Welsh Cup – We had an easy run to the semi-finals where we lost to Caersws in a poor 1-0 defeat.

League Cup – Again, not too fussed about this competition, we lost in the 1^st round to Port Talbot.

Transfers

Graham Orchard CDM: 16 years old, didn’t play.

Josh Doyle RB: Our only capable right back, more of a desperation buy after I couldn’t find anyone, didn’t do great.

Jordan Marks RM, LM: Decent young player who done ok when he played, far too inconsistent to ever be a first teamer.

Chris Henry RB: 16 year old backup, done alright when played but nowhere near good enough yet.

Graham Allardyce ST: 16 years old, never played, not needed.

Aaron Kremalmeyer AML: only 16, played a few times but never impressed.

Ross Frame ST: signed as a backup striker, scored 1 in 7. Again, not really needed.

Mark Jones ST: similar to Ross Frame, scored 1 in 6. Not good enough for the team.

Kai Edwards CB: Promising young defender, struggled for games as that’s our strongest position.

Aaron Cole LM: An average winger, far superior to anyone else that can play in that position but never really played great.

Jason Lampkin RM: A very good player, took us a long time to get him to come, wasn’t great mainly due to the fact we were struggling when he arrived.

Leon Knight ST: a desperation buy when we were doing really badly, scored 2 in 8, will release in the summer.

Transfers

Finances

We are now 70k in the red which really isn’t that bad compared to last season, some months we were even able to make a profit.

A board takeover is believed to be close so I doubt we’ll have any money invested but my main concern is expanding our scouting to outside of Wales as this is whats holding us back.

We have a new kit sponsor worth 16k per year, 1k more than before.

Finances

Wales

The national team finished 3^rd in World Cup qualifying, missing out on 2^nd on goals scored. They are currently ranked 20^th in the world.

None of the teams who were in Europe this season got past their entering stage.

TNS lost in the 2^nd Qualifying round to CSKA Sofia.

Bangor City lost to Trans in the 1^st Qualifying round of the Euro Cup.

Prestatyn lost to Borac in the 1^st Qualifying round of the Euro Cup.

Llandudno lost to Skenderbeu in the 1^st Qualifying round of the Euro Cup.

WPL Rank – 168th, Down 6 places

Carmarthen Rank – 501st, down 21 places

Co-efficient – 2.375 Qualification places remain the same.

Welsh footballer of the year: Gareth Bale (Tottenham)

Welsh young player of the year: Adam Matthews (Celtic/Wigan)

WPL Player of the year: Josh Knight (Aberystwyth)

WPL Young Player of the year: Kirk Millar (TNS)

Manager of the year: Johnson Hippolyte (TNS)

Think this is as big a tycoon as your gonna get at this level . A whole 28k's worth of investment!!!

Pre-season

Our first 2 matches of the pre season weren't great but then again, thats mostly about building fitness. in the last 2 matches we managed to great wins which will have helped the squad morale enormously so im hopeful for a good start to the season.

Transfers - I've stretched our budget this summer, as we are around £300 a week over but im not too worried about that. I haven't bought in a huge number of players, and some of them aren't that great but i feel as though we are in a better situation that last season. We certainly have a stronger squad depth and im hopeful that the likes of Howard can really perform.

Daniel Sheehan

Kristian Forest

Kyle Cockings

Keiran Howard

Shaun Reynolds

Jamie Crowther

August/September 2014

We've had a solid start to the season having adjusted well to my tactical overhaul just before the start of the season. We threw away a 2-0 lead against Port Talbot which was disappointing then nearly done the same with a 3-0 lead against Airbus, however we were able to hang on for the win. This kick started a good run of form for us as we went on to thrash Haverfordwest and Aberystwyth. Unfortunately we became a bit complacent against Llanelli and dropped from 1st to 3rd but its still early days and very close, that said i'm feeling quite positive about this season.

Takeover complete. It wasn't the consortium that i posted about before but it was another supposed tycoon. He's straightaway wiped out our debt with a loan which i suppose isnt too bad, was hoping for more though!

October/November 2014

We've managed to keep our good early season form going for more of less the whole of the last 2 months. We did hit a poor patch mid way through October where we only got 1 point from 3 games but there were some tough teams in that run. Our recent defeat to Airbus was very disappointing but that is just a blip in our recent form as we've won 3 out of our last 4 games although we are struggling with injuries at the moment.

We haven't done badly in the cups either, our youths/reserves managed to get to the Quarter finals of the League Cup whilst we've also progressed to the 4th round of the Welsh cup once again where we will face Rhyl.

December/January 2014/15

The last couple of months have been a bit patchy. We had a run of 3 defeats in late December when we should have at least picked up 1 or 2 wins, however, we were able to end that run and go a few games unbeaten and managed wins against Bangor City and TNS which helped us close the gap on the top few teams. We're in 4th place and the league has now split, its pretty close between the 2nd-5th place with Bangor City having pulled ahead, that said, anything can happen in the last 10 games and i'd say that any team can still win it.

In the Welsh cup we had a late comeback against Rhyl to put us into the next round, hopefully we can get far in this competition as it offers another avenue into Europe.

February/March 2015

We've been on a good run since the split, drawing the first 2 games but then going on a 4 match win streak with some impressive wins. We eventually lost to Bala which was a combination of complacency and missing Lampkins who was sold for 250k at the beginning of march, and Casey Thomas who has a long term injury. We're in 4th place, just 1 point off 2nd which is still a real possibility, but i have a feeling it's going to be very tough.

April/May 2015

We had a great end of season, losing only to Llanelli and beat Bangor City on the final day to secure 3rd place. We also made it to the Welsh Cup final where we faced Bangor just 3 days after beating them in the league, it was the same result and a very similar performance, one that secured us European football next season which i'm very happy about. Hopefully next season we can win the league!

Carmarthen 2014/15

League

Predicted: 7th

Finished: 3rd

I had a complete overhaul of my tactics for this season and it seemed to work brilliantly as we overachieved and finished 3^rd. We were 6 points off the top in the end which is not bad compared to last season! The only thing that held us back was 2 short spells of poor form in December and January, hopefully next season we can avoid these and win the league. It’s definitely achievable given we have around 200k in the bank from transfers so I can strengthen this summer.

League Table

European teams for next season

ECC – Bangor City

EC – TNS, Carmarthen, Aberystwyth

Cups

Welsh Cup – Went all the way to the final where we beat Bangor City 2-1 to qualify for Europe and claim my 1^st piece of silverware.

League Cup – Played a reserve team who managed to get to the quarter finals before losing 4-2.

Transfers

Daniel Sheehan RB: Signed as a backup RB and he was exactly that, done ok when played but will be getting rid this summer.

Kristian Forest CM: only 16 with great potential, had a few rare appearances but obviously nothing special yet. Was making noises about moving so may leave this summer.

Kyle Cockings LB: only rated 5 silver stars but he was better than what I had otherwise. Done ok but I’d prefer to avoid playing him.

Keiran Howard CM: A consistent performer this season with an average rating of 7.02, got 6 assists and 4 goals.

Shaun Reynolds ST AML: my backup striker at the age of 17, got decent pace and some flair, never played brilliantly but managed 5 goals off the bench in 25 games.

Jamie Crowther RB: Waste of a wage this season, played twice in the cup and that’s it, will get rid in the summer.

Sam Hodge LB: An upgrade of Cockings but still not up to standard, that said he done very well in the half a season he was here. Average rating of 6.78.

Connor Hughes RM LM: versatile midfielder who arrived mid way through the season, had a shaky start but done well when he replaced the outgoing Lampkin on the right wing. Average rating of 6.84.

Broke a club record for fee received for Lampkins, the 250k has secured club finances and im hoping to use it to strengthen the squad over the summer.

Transfers

Finances

We’ve got 195k in the bank thanks to the sale of Lampkin, this allows us a much bigger transfer and wage budget which is very useful for us as we go into our first season of European competition, which should also boost the finances a little should we win a few games.

Finances

Wales

The national team is 1^st in Euro qualification having played a game more. They won the 4 nation tournament and are ranked 19^th in the world.

Cardiff have had some minor success in the Premier league, finishing 6^th and qualifying for Europe, obviously good for Welsh football in general.

TNS lost in the 2^nd Qualifying round to Zeljeznicar.

Bangor City beat NSI in the 1^st qualifying round of the Euro cup but lost to Hearts in the next.

Airbus lost to Senica in the 1^st Qualifying round of the Euro Cup.

Caersws lost to Velerenga in the 1^st Qualifying round of the Euro Cup.

WPL Rank – 167th, Up 1 place

Carmarthen Rank – 520th, down 19 places

Co-efficient – 2.375 Qualification places remain the same.

Welsh footballer of the year: Gareth Bale (Tottenham)

Welsh young player of the year: Tony Hoult (Pretatyn)

WPL Player of the year: Les Davies (Bangor City)

WPL Young Player of the year: Joe Sharrocks (Prestatyn)

Manager of the year: Steve O’Shaughnessy (TNS)

Euro Cup

We were a bit unlucky in the draw in my opinion as Molde are a pretty good side for this round. We put up a good fight in the first round, it was 2-1 in the 89th minute when we had a goal disallowed, they then went and scored an equalizer 2 minutes later. The second leg was Molde domination as expected, despite being absolutely exhausted we managed 2 late goals to make it a respectable 6-4 aggregate defeat.