[FM15] Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

Max Harvey Relives a Past Life

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

Max Harvey Relives a Past Life

After a bit of a think, I've decided to put my other thread on hiatus. I still have the save, so it will return, but in the meantime, I'm going to try and revive easily my most enjoyable FM14 save, and head to somewhere I've grown very fond of recently. Gibraltar.

The History

Some of you may remember this thread, where I made a few false starts in my dream of success in Gibraltar. To save you reading it (although you really should...come on, why are you here if not to read careers?! Come on...do it. Go on, I'll wait. Fine...) I started out as just the national manager. We were predictably laughable, and a few issues with the DB caused that to die. I started again, away from the thread, with Lincoln (GIB), deciding to finally start updating many years down the line. I went from strength to strength from there, and although it took me an awful long time I made it to within one club of the top of Europe. With three Champions League wins, I almost overhauled Barcelona, but in the end I pretty much reached critical mass. I finished off with the now customary Scotland World Cup win, and that was that.

The Present

So with that in mind, I'm back, this time with an updated database thanks to SI. I'll notice things a lot more as I travel through the save, but there are a few headline changes that will change the landscape slightly.

The Aims

You'll see two logos up at the top, but for those that haven't twigged, I'll be undertaking dual management once again. Firstly, I'll be in charge of the Gibraltar National Team. I thought long and hard over this, but decided to bite the bullet and go ahead. I'm hoping the FA are loyal enough to not care how terrible we are for the first few years to give me a chance to settle in and bring the quality up. Ideally, I'm here for the duration, just as long as I'll be at the helm at my club side.

But then you already know what club side I'll be at...it just has to be Lincoln. I tried, I really did. I tried to move down to the second tier and pick a side with potential - and more importantly with a logo and kits - but after using newly formed Gibraltar United as a test, I couldn't stop looking longingly over at my old side. Sure they're the best side in the land, and some may complain that this makes it easy, but I'm cool with that. The real battle is not on Gibraltar itself - it's in Europe, and in Europe I'm sure we'll still be reassuringly guff.

My aims are fairly simple, and can be split into two sections

Let's face it, outside of the first two, we're unlikely to manage them. I added the two specific mentions to England and Spain due to the rivalry, but the former don't really matter. If we could beat Spain though, that would really mean something. Late in my Gibraltar save last year, they had reached the stage where they were rank outsiders for the play-offs. I think they just about managed a 4th placed finish in a couple of campaigns. It's possible we could qualify, but it'll be very, very difficult. We'll see. The key is getting above-average players qualified for Gibraltar, as I did last time, but obviously there's a ceiling to the strength of players you can attract - once they're good enough, they'll declare for their parent nation. Could I naturalise a young player early enough? Probably not, but worth a try.

A laundry list of predictable aims really. The second one is the most telling, and gives you a window into how I'm going to approach this. In the beginning, it doesn't take much for a youth player to become a first team player. In fact, in the early years you can throw them in at 15 and things will usually be alright. As you improve facilities, the players get better, but usually when you improve facilities, it's because you've been more successful, and have better players, so the youths are less important. It's a bit of a vicious circle. So my intent is to spend the first ten years building a formidable home-grown contingent. They should be able to destroy teams domestically, but I know I probably won't be able to get them to do the same on the continent. There will come a tipping point when we'll turn to signings from abroad, but I'll put that off as long as possible. Every other objective on the list I achieved previously, so they're an absolute must.

Anything Else?

Not really. Season 1 is already complete, so I'll be looking to nail down the format I'll use to update, then I'll get it posted. After that, progress should be a little quicker thanks to the short seasons.

Shall we?

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

The Setup

Running pretty light in terms of setup initially, with just England and Scotland loaded.

EDIT: Should say that this screenshot appears to be out of date. On checking the actual game, only Gibraltar was loaded. I've added England and Scotland again, so they'll arrive at the end of the first season.

The Manager

Meet James Spiteri

I did some research (alright, Wikipedia) on Gibraltarian names, and found that there's a bit of Maltese heritage there. So what better avenue to go down for my struggling international manager than adding a second nationality of another diddy of the international game! James is a Maltese-born football fanatic who moved to Gibraltar with his Gibraltarian father and English mother when he was three. He grew up getting the benefit of both Premier League and Spanish football, and was delighted when Gibraltarian teams were finally admitted to UEFA. He had always been a fan of the league, but had his head turned by the glamour of Real Madrid. Now that Lincoln have a shot of glory, however, he decided to forego his football playing career - totally not because he was dreadful - and forge his way into management. After impressing at several amateur clubs around the island, he put in an application for the vacant jobs at Lincoln and Gibraltar. Thinking they couldn't really do much better, they offered him an interview, and the rest as they say is history.

I've tried to capture how I would rate myself (if I was being extremely generous). No idea how much these attributes will affect anything - guess I'll find out.

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

The Club

The board's expectations are unsurprising. There is no way we're going into any competitions as anything other than favourites. The only concession is that some of the cup competitions are expendable. Not to me they're not - I'll be going to win the domestic quadruple each and every season - if I drop a few cups, I won't be devastated, but if I drop a league...I'll be absolutely furious.

I'm fairly happy with the squad - as I should be given it's arguably the best in the country - but there are gaps. I think that's more down to us having players who are very, very good being compared to those that are just average for the league. Navas and Walker are the key players, especially the latter who is an absolute beast for this level.

In terms of youth, there's probably only one promising player. I'll promote Leon Clinton up to the first team and hopefully give him a few games domestically to see if he can make the grade.

Staff-wise, we need a few additions. We definitely have enough to get by now though. Fun fact - Charles Polson isn't just a real person (I expected him to be just generated), he's also the man who formed the club. Adds a little bit more to the story for me.

The Nation

I know saying "be competitive" is just a "please don't embarrass us", but even that might be a stretch. I'll be happy to better some of the results they've managed in real life up to now, so that's an aggregate score of -18 over three games...

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

Season 2014/15

Expectations

Board

Argus Insurance Premier Division: Win it

Rock Cup: Win it

Pepe Reyes Cup: Not Important

Premier Cup: Not Important

Me

Argus Insurance Premier Division: Win it

Rock Cup: Win it

Pepe Reyes Cup: Win it

Premier Cup: Win it

Transfers

None. I decided to rest on my laurels slightly and keep th e squad we had. To be honest, there isn't really much value out there for a club like us, so I'm happy to rely on youth players to fill in any gaps. We should have enough. Should.

Youth Intake

My first youth intake, and one I can get pretty excited about. I mislaid a screen of all our players, but I managed to pick out three in particular that I'll be tracking.

Jack Peachman (YP15a) - The Peacher (as approximately no-one will be calling him) is my most exciting prospect. Maybe it's because he's a striker, or maybe it's that 14 for finishing, but if I can nurture him well, he will become absolutely deadly at this level. I signed him immediately, and even found time to give him a few games towards the end of the season. Just you wait til you see how he did...

Louis McCoy (YP15b) - Always good to get a 'keeper in your ranks, and although he's nowhere near the quality of current number 1 Navas (and probably never will be), I'm happy to see how he goes.

Andrew Baker (YP15c) - We're a little light on the flanks, and although I usually use advanced wingers, my current tactic will have a nice gap for this guy to get a couple of games towards the end of the season. A decent prospect.

Results

Europe up first, as we took our bow in the competition. Now 2014/15 saw the entrance of Gibraltarian sides into European competition for the first time, so I expected to start early. What I didn't expect was that the day I took over was the day of the second leg of our first qualifying round tie. What was also a surprise - but a nicer one - was that we were already 2-0 up after the first leg.

We closed out the tie well, and moved into the second round with surprising ease. Bear in mind that my early years in FM14 involved getting absolutely pummeled by everyone we came up against, so to only go out 3-1 on aggregate to Maccabi Tel Aviv was a nice surprise. I'm not sure whether we just set up well, or if they were having a bad day, or a bit of both, but I'm not going to complain. Very encouraging signs for next season.

An early season trophy for us as we passed our first domestic test with aplomb. It probably should have been easier, but I'll take a 2-1 at this stage. It's not quite the domination I was expecting, but to be honest, I'm still getting to grips with how to play with this team.

Even better news in the league cup. We had a couple of small scares, but remained unbeaten all the way through. College Europa pushed us close in the semi, almost pipping us on penalties, but Brittania couldn't live with us in the final, and that's trophy number two.

Closely followed by trophy number three. Only one goal conceded and thirteen scored in our four national cup games. Barely troubled, and it's starting to look ominous for the rest of the country. Has our strangehold begun?

And finally, the new, improved league. Seven more games to play, but it still ended up a procession. I was not happy with our form at all in the early season. Although starting strongly, we were leaking goals, taking until the 7th game to manage a clean sheet. It was that 5-4 loss to Brittania that really annoyed me though. We were behind for long periods of the game, but finally nosed ahead at 4-3 before collapsing once again. We need to be much better than that, and luckily we were for the rest of the season, finishing well clear of the opposition.

You may also notice that there's a flurry of youth scorers in the latter games. More on that later...

Thirteen points clear, a clean sweep of trophies, but still just that second qualifying round in Europe. Obvious where we need to improve then.

Stats and Key Players

Stats 1 | Stats 2

Liam Walker - What can I say about the man? I built my formation around having him just behind the striker, and he repaid me with twenty-four goals in thirty-two games. A wonderful return from a wonderful player. Unfortunately, there's also negatives to the story. I think his CA and rep have been boosted to the point that he realises he's too good for Lincoln. His contract is up, and he has no intention of sticking around. I'll try and persuade him, but looks like he will be a star that burns out rather than fades away. To be honest, I'm not really sure where he could go that would give him Champions League football. He's probably good enough for League Two clubs, possibly League One. So very annoying that he doesn't want to stay. If he retires without a club, I'll be raging.

Roy Chipolina - Captain Fantastic has been a rock at the back for us. While all around us there were injuries and lack of fitness, Chipolina strode through the season fantastically. He'll remain our captain next time out, and hopefully we can add some more trophies to his list of achievements before he retires in a few years time.

Kyle Casciaro - One of the three Casciaro brothers in the squad, but this season definitely the most important one. Liam Walker was great behind the striker, but I often struggled to get a forward that could match him. When Casciaro played - he was injured a lot - he stepped up to the plate with fourteen goals. He's one of the many players out of contract at the end of the year, but hopefully I'll have a better chance of keeping him than I did Walker.

Youth Round-up

I'll hopefully keep this section each update to give a run-down of how the youth players I've brought in have done. I didn't expect to be doing it this early, but two players in particular have impressed me so much that I was compelled to.

Jack Peachman was thrown in for the last handful of games once we had pretty much wrapped up the league. This was made easier thanks to our strikers struggling to score. In his first couple of games he was pretty unremarkable coming off the bench. But then I started him...and he grabbed three goals in three games. A wonderful return from the fifteen year old, and I'm so happy for him. I'm even happier that I may have found a hometown hero this early in the save. I could be premature with that, but if he spends the next ten or so seasons scoring goal after goal before passing on to more talented strikers, I'll be happy.

Of course, anything the Peach can do, our lesser known youth signing can do better. Andrew Baker started a similar number of games to the Peach, but he managed four goals. From right midfield. An amazing return from what I hope is someone with an amazing future ahead.

New Contract

Towards the end of the season, my success led me to be offered a new contract. Happy to accept on the current terms and vision, and I'll be here for another year.

End of Season Review

The board are very happy, as am I. I didn't expect to be quite as dominant just yet, especially when my form dipped slightly early in the season. My European performance was even pretty good. However, there are storm clouds on the horizon. As I've already said, there are a number of important players with their contracts running out. I'll be trying to renew as many as possible, but I expect several will leave. My challenge will then become trying to keep up this form with what could be a decimated team. It'll be an interesting challenge.

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

Season 2015/16

Expectations

Board

Argus Insurance Premier Division: Win it

Rock Cup: Win it

Pepe Reyes Cup: Not Important

Premier Cup: Not Important

Me

Argus Insurance Premier Division: Retain, as we should every year

Rock Cup: Win it

Pepe Reyes Cup: Win it

Premier Cup: Win it

Transfers

This was going to be a big summer for us. Why? See below.

A mass exodus of players from the squad as contracts came to an end and players decided that they'd rather go and stagnate rather than stick with a league-winning side. Me? Bitter? Naaah...Liam Walker isn't pictured there, but he ended up leaving, and to be honest if I'd kept him and lost the rest, I wouldn't be worried.

We brought in a few players, but nowhere near as many as were let go. Quality was also pretty tough to replace.

Ibrahim Kallon | Liam Clarke | Robert Gulling

George Cabrera | Jean Carlos Garcia | Jamie Robba

Will they be enough? I have my doubts.

Youth Intake

Another fairly decent youth intake, and this time around we'll have four players graduate

Andy Keen (YP16b) | Josh Miller (YP16c) | Derwayne Carr (YP16a) | Fraser Willis (YP16d)

A bit annoying that probably our best prospect is a MR, exactly the same as one of our best from last year. My assistants seem to think that Derwayne Carr is the best though, and also a bit annoying that he's a keeper - the same as another graduate from last year. However, the other two - being a CM and a DC - are spread out better. Quite happy with these four, and I'll be monitoring their progress.

Results

Absolutely gutting.

A terrible first leg gave way to a truly battling performance in the second, and at one point we were heading to extra-time. It took a late goal from TNS to shatter our dreams, and set things back to more like how we expected. I actually think I would've rather gone through the regular six or seven goal defeats than something like this - we should really be through.

Another trophy early on. It was pretty much all wrapped up in the first half, and although we conceded a late goal, we deserved our win.

Unbeaten once again in the Premier Cup, although once again there was a disappointing draw in the group stage. Can't really complain though as we pick up a second trophy.

*record scratch*

But here's where things go a bit awry. Knocked out of the cup in the quarter final, and I can't say that we didn't deserve it. St Joseph's appear to be our nearest rivals at the moment, and a ding-dong battle of a match ended 1-1. It looked like we would head for a penalties, b ut a 118th minute goal for the opposition sent them through at our expense. Disappointing, but we'll get over it. We'll walk the league instead, right?

Oh deary me...

Last year we were impervious and won the league at a canter. This time around we really struggled. We started off just as good as we always were, but as injuries piled up due to low fitness, our squad looked worryingly thin and short on quality. The losses kept coming and the gap we'd opened up narrowed considerably. We were lucky that the teams around us - particularly St Joseph's - failed to take the initiative. If they had won some of their games, they would've been out of set by Spring. Fortunately, they didn't, and we went into our final two games knowing that two wins would hand us the title. One of those matches was against St Joseph's, who were a point ahead. A strong 3-1 win put us in pole position, and fate in our own hands, and we closed it out with a hard-fought 2-0 win on final day against almost relegated Europa Point. So hard-fought, in fact, that it took until the 88th minute to make the breakthrough. A draw would have been enough in the end thanks to St Joseph's drawing in their final game, but it was great to win it on our own terms.

Only eighteen points separating top and bottom...last year it was 40. That tells you how badly we did this season. Still though, we won it, and we'll be in the Champions League next year.

Stats and Key Players

Kyle Casciaro | Brian Perez

Joseph | Roy Chipolina

Extra kudos to Chipolina who managed to pack in being a captain, our starting center back, and then later in the season, also our first choice striker. He even got a few goals. Hero.

Youth Round-up

I'll post up the attributes of last year's youth players currently, and you've seen their stats above, but I'll hopefully redo this one to be able to track how they're doing a bit better.

Jack Peachman (YP15a) - Had a bit of an injury-hit season and didn't make too many appearances, but when he did he scored. Still have high hopes for him.

Louis McCoy - Didn't really get much of a game thanks to the arrival of Jamie Robba. Unfortunate, but not sure if he'll make too many appearances - maybe in the cups.

Andrew Baker - The Peach may have caught my eye, but it's Baker who has definitely been the pick of the bunch. Not sure if it's my tactics, but he's really thriving whenever he gets a game, netting a few more goals in the process. It'll be interesting to see how he fares now that we have a potentially higher rated youth coming in to the squad next year. I'll try and rotate between the two.

New Contract

Another new contract, and another year.

End of Season Review

I can't say I'm exactly delighted with the season, but we did what we needed to do. I was probably premature in thinking that this would be easier than FM14, as the increase in quality of our players has led to them leaving the club en masse. We've got a real job on trying to keep ahead of the competition, let alone getting good enough to progress in Europe. In other news, almost a year to the day after he left us, Liam Walker retired. It's a sobering reminder of what we could have had, and I've got to say it's pretty frustrating. Can't be helped though.

Next year, the league is an absolute must, and I'd like to get to at least the second qualifying round of Europe. Beyond that, anything else is a bonus.

Gibraltar Update

Two years have passed, so I guess I better update you on how we blew away the competition in the European Championship qualifiers.

Nailed it.

What can I say really? We were dreadful, and we still haven't won a game. Four goals in sixteen games, and...well, too many conceded. Absolute rock bottom, and it's probably a good thing that we can't be FIFA ranked. We now have two years of friendlies before qualifying starts again, so hopefully by then we can improve slightly.

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

Season 2016/17

Expectations

Let's face it, until we progress in the Champions League, this section will always be the same. The board will ALWAYS expect us to win the league and the Rock Cup, and not care about the other two competitions. And I'll always want to win everything. So yeah...let's just win.

Transfers

Tyson Ruiz | Kevin Martinez Rodriguez | Ivan Lobato

Estiven | Francisco Tamayo Pacheco

Youth Intake

Earlier in the season, I managed to persaude the board to increase our junior coaching. This usually means that the standard of youths increases, so did it do the job?

Andy Jones (YP17a)

Jamie Peace (YP17b)

Sort of. Only two players deemed worthy of tracking, but both should work out pretty well. Jamie Peace will go straight into the side, but unfortunately Andy Jones is yet another right midfielder - could we please just hold off on producing them for a few years? We have enough.

Results

We started out, as is traditional, with our absolute lifeblood - the Champions League qualifiers. We faced TNS for the second time in as many years, and managed to exact some measure of revenge on them. It was a very tight first leg, but a 1-0 defeat away was pretty much the nightmare result. Luckily we completely turned it around back on the rock with a comfortable 3-0 win. Unfortunately, that was about as good as it got. A torrid first leg performance against Dinamo meant that we welcomed them back home knowing we were, to all intents and purposes, absolutely out. We gave a very good performance though, only losing 2-1, and that gives us hope for next year.

This was not so good. It's only a glorified friendly, but any chance of a trophy should be taken with both hands. It was a storming game for the neutrals, but we slipped badly in the final period of the game, and paid for it. Well done to St Joseph's, but we have to improve.

This wasn't much better. We got to the last four, but our now traditional mid-season slump intersected with that semi final, and Man 62 totally deserved their win. Captain Fantastic Chipolina chipped in a consolation, but the game was gone by then. Two trophies down, two left.

That's more like it. When the Lynx game went on, and on, and on, I expected us to end up on the losing side and leave us with no cup trophies. Pacheco - who was having a fantastic first season - popped up and got a late, late winner. From then on our form picked up, and although Boca put up a good fight in the final, we never really looked like losing. If we were going to win a trophy, this was the one we wanted.

I've talked about tradition a lot in this post, and here's another - the Lincoln mid-season league travesty. And that was joined later on by the Lincoln Late Season Crisis. Our mid-season form dipped, but early in January we were well ahead of the pack. They closed the gap, but we were far enough ahead to stay on top. That all changed in April, when three terrible results threatened to send us into a tail-spin.

Gibraltar United and Britannia got the best of us by the odd goal in two absolute classics (for the neutral), but don't worry guys, we're still ahead. And we get to play bottom of the table Lions next! Yay!

I won't say much about this game, but what I will say is that if we won, we would've been Champions, and that we were 3-0 up at half-time. We had a man sent off early in the second half, and I stupidly decided to keep things the way they were. I may well have gone and looked at something else, because when I came back it was 3-3. I tried to stop the rot, but then they got a 4th. Absolutely terrible.

Luckily the squad reacted to my bollocking well enough to stroll out 5-0 winners in our final league game to take the title. And with that, a huge sigh of relief.

Stats and Key Players

George Cabrera | Francisco Tamayo Pacheco | Brian Perez

Three players made our season, and unsurprisingly two of them were strikers. Pacheco had a wonderful first season with the club, scoring twelve and assisting six. Thanks to our new and extremely basic 4-4-2 formation, there's a chance for two strikers to grab the limelight. So George Cabrera takes another spot amongst the pat-on-the-back crew. His twenty goals pretty in twenty-one starts pretty much got us the title. Brian Perez was one of the more unsung heroes, but one I massively appreciate. He was the leading assist maker with nine, but also completed a ridiculous 1916 passes in the season, attempting 2424. I'd have liked his percentage (79%) to be higher, but when you're completing an average of around 58 passes a match, I can't really complain. Hopefully he keeps it up next season.

Youth Round-up

More from what will end up being a pretty huge section in future.

2015

Jack Peachman (YP15a) - He featured in 20 games this season, with 14 starts, and managed 11 goals. Not a bad return for the Peach. He's only 17, but I'd have hoped for more improvement in his attributes by now. Hopefully he picks up slightly in the coming seasons, and I imagine with me now playing two strikers, he should get more game time.

Andrew Baker (YP15c) - Started a few games, but struggled to hold down his place. Looks like he's been usurped by later graduates, but maybe a loan deal can be sorted out.

2016

Derwayne Carr (YP16a) - My assistant believed Derwayne to be the most talented out of 2016s graduates, but he's struggled for time this season. I'm always reluctant to throw a youth goalkeeper in, and Jamie Robba has played very well. But when he's been called upon, he's been good.

Andy Keen (YP16b) - Another man who suffered from the emergence of Andy Jones. He looks very talented, but didn't manage a single appearance in his first full season. I'll go with him as second choice next season, and give him some time to show what he can do.

Josh Miller (YP16c) - A very promising start in his first full season at the club. An impressive level of passing accuracy, and a good average rating, and I'm pretty excited to see how he turns out.

Fraser Willis (YP16d) - Not too many chances in the side, and doesn't look like he'll be up to much. Remains to be seen whether I'll keep him around in the coming seasons.

2017

Andy Jones (YP17a) - One of our many MR prospects, but went straight into the side ahead of his older youth buddies. Four assists in his seven games so far is a great record for someone so young, and I'd imagine he'll be given the starting berth on the right when he's fit. I'll try and rotate slightly though.

Jamie Peace (YP17b) - Only arrived a few months ago, but he's been pretty much ever-present. Eight starts, and a very good level of performance throughout. Interesting to see how he progresses when he gets a clear run at the first time for an entire season next year.

New Contract

And again, as is tradition, it's new contract time. Thank you very much.

End of Season Review

Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Fans Player of the Year

The club are happy with the season, as am I. Although it would have been nicer to pick up the cup trophies too, we achieved our objective - as long as we win the league every year, then we're good.

Another bit of news came out of the blue late in the season when our chairman decided that it was time to move on.

A pretty smooth transition, and my job isn't under threat, but no real investment mentioned. Our financial state is pretty good at the moment, so not too worried about his talk of restructuring finances.

Next season, I'm just desperate for some stability. I want to go back to the first season where we strolled through domestically, rather than worry about getting pipped to the title. Over that, I want to progress in Europe. The second qualifying round should be our absolute minimum, with a stretch objective of the third and beyond. We're maybe not quite there yet, but we have to progress if we want to start picking up the cash to really improve the side.

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

Season 2017/18

Expectations

The board expectations are the same as always. As are mine.

Squad

In a new section, I'll outline my squad for the coming season. I've decided to do this thanks to trimming things down - I spent the last Gibraltar save I had struggling to keep the squad down what with having no reserve team, and only being able to register 35 players. Now that we have reserves and that registration rule is gone, I can use the reserves as a feeder team, and keep my first team squad as small as possible.

Robba will be the first choice obviously, but hopefully I can give Derwayne Carr a few games as the season goes on.

Two left-backs, two right-backs, five center-backs...pretty much sorted in terms of squad depth barring injuries. What I really want though is to start adding to the numbers of youth players we're including. Some of our big players - Chipolina and Casciaro in particular - are getting on a bit, so we'll be hoping for getting some youth graduates in for those positions in the coming seasons. Joseph, Chipolina, Casciaro and Garcia will be our starting line, but there's some nice backup in there. Jamie Peace will feature heavily.

This is where things get a bit tentative. We really struggle to bolster our numbers for midfield, so it's lucky we're only using four there. We're well served on the right, thanks to our youth academy churning out nothing but right midfielders. We're weak on the left though, and although our first choice centers are strong, we're pretty thin on the ground.

Four strikers, the perfect number, but I'd be amazed - not to mention worried - if Duarte is playing too many games. I'll rotate between the other three, and hopefully give the Peach a good few games.

Transfers

Just the one signing, but one that is greatly needed. Scott Ballantine will fill a gap we have on the left of midfield, and at 21 he's got plenty of room to improve.

Youth Intake

(YP18A) Simon Foster | (YP18B) Luke Walker | (YP18C) Tom Wilson

(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson | (YP18E) Lee Ward

(YP18F) Tony Grainger | (YP18G) Dylan Alman

Results

A wonderful start to our season as we served up a goal-feast for our fans at the Victoria Stadium. We were already 2-0 up from the first leg, but the second we just blew Tre Penne out of the water. Ten goals, and just one in return. A burial.

We were then up against Slovan Bratislava in the 2nd round, for our usual battling performance that ultimately ends in defeat. We played fantastically for about an hour in the first leg before Bratislava broke our resolve. We couldn't stop them adding another two soon after, putting us in a very tough position when we travelled to Slovakia. I went all out, and played very well going forward. We got the three goals we needed, but unfortunately conceded six, getting picked off every time it looked like we might have mounted a comeback. Disappointing, but there were definitely shoots of hope in there.

That's better - we win our trophy back after last season's disappointment.

And another trophy won back. We disappointed in our final group game, but by that time it was already all over. We strolled through our semi-final with St Josephs, and then destroyed Britannia in the final to take the title.

But this wasn't so good. We'd had a great season, so I'm not sure what it was that ruined this one. Maybe we were too cocky, or maybe the squad was just too tired, but we absolutely did not turn up against Gibraltar United. They went 2-0 up, and we got a goal back, but from that moment on we failed to start any kind of comeback beyond that. They got a third, and that was that.

Last season we struggled in the league at times. Not this time though.

We had a wonderful league season, finally settling into a tactic that suits us, and we were very close to having a perfect season. I expect a few bad results, but outside of those occurrences, I want our team to be utterly dominant. Think it's safe to say we were. Job done.

Fourteen points clear, three trophies, just gutting that we threw away the Rock Cup.

Stats and Key Players

Francisco Tamayo Pacheco | Anthony Bardon | Jean-Carlos Garcia

It was quite tough to pick just three players for this section. To be honest, a few youth players would've made it in here usually, but they get their own section, so **** 'em

Pacheco once again gets a spot thanks to his goalscoring exploits, but I want to give special props to Anthony Bardon. Eleven goals, thirteen assists, and an 84% pass accuracy. Just a wonderful season for him. He's only 25, so coming into his prime. Unless we get some good youths in at center mid, then he's going to there for a while yet. Jean-Carlos Garcia deserves credit too, going about his business quietly and confidently. He started whenever fit, managing 29 starts and was constantly solid.

Youth Round-up

2015

(YP15A) Jack Peachman - Earlier in the season, we made a lot of substitute appearances, usually coming on at half time once our first choice two had done some damage. Later on he got a few more starts, but all the way through the season, he did what he does best. Scoring goals. Eighteen this time around, including two international goals in three appearances. Delighted with him so far.

(YP15B) Louis McCoy - He was on loan last year and did well, but unfortunately he's fallen behind Derwayne Carr in the pecking order. He'll be made available for loan again, but I imagine he'll get released before long.

(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Suffered from being good, but not quite as good as others who have graduated to our right wing. He's still a good option though, impressing on his three appearances. However, he may well end up on the released list before long.

2016

(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - He made his breakthrough this season, and was thrown a few starting spots. He certainly didn't let us down. 9 appearances and 9 conceded, which doesn't sound particularly great, but he didn't cost us any games, and I was fairly happy with how he did. He will remain behind Jamie Robba in the queue for game-time though.

(YP16B) Andy Keen - Didn't get too much time, but a pretty much ever-present on the bench. When he came on, he made an impression, so will be interesting to see if he can build himself up enough to push for a more regular place.

(YP16C) Josh Miller - A central midfielder at this club is like Gold dust. It also helps that the guy is very, very good. Stepped in alongside Bardon mostly, and played very well. Hoping to use him a bit more next season.

(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Unfortunately, not a single appearance for Fraser, and he'll be released soon enough I think.

2017

(YP17A) Andy Jones - Wonderful. He started on the right the majority of our games, and was a constant thorn in the oppositions side. And he's only 16...can't wait to see how he improves.

(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Joseph was our top left back, but given he can play on the left of midfield where we're particularly weak, Jamie got a good few chances to impress. And impress he did. A future legend of the club thanks to being in a position we're light in.

2018

(YP18A) Simon Forster - Didn't have too long to impress after just graduating a few months ago, but he did net a single goal. My assistants think he is the best prospect of the bunch, so high hopes for him.

(YP18B) Luke Walker - As is so often the case, my youth intake contained a few players that I thought were better than the "best" prospect. Luke Walker is indeed one of these. Slotted straight in, and impressed massively in his five games.

(YP18C) Tom Wilson - No games yet, but I'm already dreaming of a future defensive partnership of Walker and Wilson. How good would that be?

(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - A brief substitute appearance, nothing special shown. Early days.

(YP18E) Lee Ward - *sigh* can we PLEASE stop getting right midfielders? No games yet, but will he be able to replace Andy Jones? I have my doubts, but stats-wise, he looks a prospect.

(YP18F) Tony Grainger - He'll become an understudy to Jean-Carlos Garcia, but he's far from being good enough to be anything more than that, at least at the moment. Will keep an eye on him.

(YP18G) Dylan Alman - Jamie Peace may be our big prospect on the left, but Dylan could well displace him if his first appearance is anything to go by.

End of Season Review

Fans Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven

Well, that was quite a promising season. Our strangehold on the league has resumed, but at the moment it's just a light grasping of the throat. We could well regress back next season, but hopefully not. We haven't really gone much further in Europe, but the main positive is that our youth academy is paying dividends. There was a game late in the season when eight of my graduates started, and we won. The dream is to totally fill the team with youths, so we'll see how that goes.

As a quick Gibraltar update, we're now starting to see the first raft of naturalised Gibraltarians come into our National Pool. Ibrahim Kallon and Francisco Tamayo Pacheco are both available for selection now, which is a big boost.

History and Stats

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

Season 2018/19

A good start to the season as the board approved step 1 of our masterplan to be self-sufficient. Our youth facilities look to be approved to "adequate" (pfft) and our junior coaching gets ever better. Already looking forward to the next intake, although our youth facilities won't be finished for a while.

Expectations

The usual expectations, and the usual replies from me. I'll be going all out to win all four competitions.

Squad

Youth continues to pervade our first team squad, and in the next few years I hope the numbers will increase. I'll be starting to let go a few of the older players to replace them with better youths, with a view to playing with line-ups fully comprised of youth products. That's probably a while away yet though.

Further to that, I've managed to persuade them to give us a parent club. I'm not actually sure why to be honest. It'll be of decent financial benefit, but as you'll see by the clubs returned, I'm not sure we'll get much benefit in terms of players on loan. Not even sure we could sign any given our scouting range. But hey, we've now got links out into Europe, which hopefully paves the way for our scouting range getting upgraded before long. Rizespor were eventually chosen as the only top-flight side returned. I'm all a bit meh about it.

Youth Intake

(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson | (YP19B) Ross Donnachie | (YP19C) Ryan Lawton

(YP19D) Ian Smith | (YP19E) Darren Chambers |

Results

We navigated the first qualifying round well enough, thanks to a brilliant first leg performance, but I wasn't exactly happy with our second leg. The less said about BATE the better - we set up badly for the first leg, and once again we headed into the second knowing we had pretty much no chance. We really need to start setting ourselves up to make us hard to beat, otherwise this will keep happening.

Routine win, but one that comes against our bogey team. A good start to the season.

Another routine performance, unbeaten throughout the competition, ending up with a very comfortable performance in the final.

But we couldn't quite close out that third cup.

There's a bit of a story behind this though. After a great youth intake, I decided to accelerate my plans slightly. If I want to rely on youth, I'm going to need to start believing in them. I've been giving a lot of them starts and sub appearances in the league, but where's the pressure in that? Lose and we'll probably still be Champions. So I played 9 youth graduates in my starting line-up in the final of the Rock Cup.

Have to say, it backfired. Probably harsh to say so on Leo FC - who are in the 2nd tier - as they matched us every step of the way, but to be honest, even our youth players should have enough to beat them. It was a classic battle for the neutrals, and - to their credit - twice our youngsters fought from behind to draw level. First from 2-0, then from 3-2. Unfortunately, we ended up losing on penalties. A missed opportunity, but I don't regret it.

A much more assured performance in the league as we strolled towards the title, taking it by a massive margin.

Stats and Key Players

Jean-Carlos Garcia - Another appearance for our stalwart right back. Completely deserved, and he's one of the players who hasn't been threatened with being replaced by a youth player. Can't last forever, and I'm not going to lose sleep over it given how good he's been.

Anthony Bardon - Fan favourite, absolutely fantastic in the middle of the pitch...he's crucial to how we play. Again, he's not been replaced as of yet, and again, who cares with this form?

Francisco Tamayo Pacheco - The Spanaltarian striker gets a spot on this list for two reasons. One, because he's been fantastic. Eighteen goals and nine assists, but that's come to be expected of him. Second though, because his time at the club has come to an end. With so many young strikers coming through, I made the difficult decision to let him go. As expected, the board are raging, but I stand by the decision. Jack Peachman outscored him, and we have a few more coming through. So it's thank you and goodnight for him.

Youth Round-up

2015

(YP15A) Jack Peachman - Just keeps getting better and better. Nineteen goals, ten assists, and our absolute first choice striker. I've also started to dabble in playing an AML instead of an ML, so he has started to feature out wide too. He's even awesome at that. The only worry on the horizon is not playing him in future if we get better players in, this guy deserves better than that.

(YP15B) Louis McCoy - It was always going to one players misfortune to be the first released, and unfortunately, it was Louis. Being a goalkeeper, he would've had to have been exceptional to stand out, and with Robba as number 1 and Derwayne Carr as number 2, I released him for the good of his career. Thankfully, he was picked up by Britannia soon after, and is now their number 1. Fantastic news for the guy.

(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Only two pretty unimpressive substitute appearances for Andrew, and unfortunately it looks like it's over for him.

2016

(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Regressed slightly and didn't get as much time to play, but he remains our number 2, and hopefully he gets more time next year.

(YP16B) Andy Keen - An impressive season as he featured heavily on the right. Twelve assists, but I would have hoped for a few more goals from him. If he adds that to his game, he has the chance to get even better.

(YP16C) Josh Miller - We were short in the middle of the pitch recently. Fortunately, we have Josh. We don't play with AMCs, but he seems happy enough in a slightly advanced MC role, and he's been fantastic when playing alongside the more experienced Bardon. Do want him to add more assists though.

(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Still well outside of contention for starts. One sub appearance probably isn't enough for development.

2017

(YP17A) Andy Jones - Andy Keen started more games than him this season, but when he did play, Jones impressed. I think he has fallen behind slightly though after a very good season last time out.

(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Still struggling to displace Joseph permanently, but he played a good few games again this time around, and hasn't done much wrong. Hasn't set the world alight either though.

2018

(YP18A) Simon Forster - First full season, twelve goals in twelve games. And you wonder why I'm releasing Pacheco?

(YP18B) Luke Walker - Played less than I thought he would when I updated you last season, and it's making me think I was perhaps too hasty in my effusive praise. Still one to watch though.

(YP18C) Tom Wilson - I said last time I was dreaming of a Wilson/Walker partnership. Wilson did not play a single game this season. Oops.

(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - Another upcoming striker, but only one substitute appearance. Next year should be his year though.

(YP18E) Lee Ward - Another player that hasn't played a single game thanks to the queue being extremely long.

(YP18F) Tony Grainger - Again, no games.

(YP18G) Dylan Alman - Appeared twice, and got one goal. Not a bad return, but he is in quite a long queue, so not sure if he'll make it here.

2019

(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson - Great to have another midfielder in the ranks. Managed seven appearances, and looked great in the process.

(YP19B) Ross Donnachie - A more defensively minded player, but another center mid. Beautiful! No games yet though, but that'll change.

(YP19C) Ryan Lowton - A pretty awkward start in the couple of games he featured in, but plenty of time for him yet.

(YP19D) Ian Smith - No games yet, but given how oversubscribed we are on strikers at the moment, it's not a surprise.

(YP19E) Darren Chambers - The curse of the right midfielders...you guessed it, no games.

End of Season Review

Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven

Another new contract awarded, with a £25 pay rise. Yay! That was a compromise after the board refused to offer me more than a year extension. A bit annoying, but I don't think I'm in any danger of being let go, so not too much of a problem.

I remember during my run on FM14 that employment-wise, I was pretty much toxic to anyone outside of Gibraltar. It seems that in FM15, the increase in reputation of clubs here has made quite a difference, as I'm getting job offers all over the place. Raith Rovers, Hyde, Dagenham and Redbridge, Altrincham, Eastbourne Borough and Colwyn Bay all offered me an itnerview, and all of them were turned down. Nothing against them personally, but its decades before I even think about moving on.

Perhaps some interesting news elsewhere is that Gibraltar United have received a consortium takeover. Not sure how much benefit they'll get from it - could this mean a bit of competition? Maybe that's why the board refused to allow me to go on another coaching course...

Next season I want to start seriously thinking about improving youth. I'll look to play entire youth teams in the cups and see if we can improve them that way. Might lose a few we should win, but them's the breaks.

History and Stats

Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux

James Spiteri Relives a Past Life

Gibraltar Bonus Update

Gibraltar Update

An eventful few years I suppose, given that we managed our first win against Singapore. However, the rest of the results were a mix of lucky draws and absolute hidings. It also saw the advent of the Nations League that UEFA have set up. Surely our best chance of results, right? Naaaah...we were pumped in all six matches, and ended with nothing.

The draw for the European Championship Qualifiers came around, and it was one we couldn't really get up for. In the end, we received a better draw than we could have perhaps hoped for, with a lot of sides low in their pots. However, it's still going to be a massive task to get anything.

But then...

I was already feeling pretty down about managing Gibraltar, as despite being able to mould my players for Lincoln into a decent outfit, we're absolutely miles away for Gibraltar. And if there's one thing I am, it's massively flaky. The first question in said press conference asked why I kept picking most of my Lincoln players. So I stormed out. You're seriously asking me why I pick mostly Lincoln players? Players from the side who are absolutely dominating most domestic competitions? Seriously?

Promptly resigned. Let someone else deal with them. I may be back once the nation gets bigger, but for now I'll be concentrating on Lincoln.