Gundo's FM13 European Adventure Challenge™

[Thebaker]

Newington 2036/37

Squad|Table|Cupfixtures|Transfers

Once again easily qualified for the group stages. Once there started badly with a 5-1 trashing by Man Utd. Came back with wins over Anderlecht and Leverkusen before a home defeat to Anderlecht left qualification in the balance. A surprise 3-1 win over Man U allowed the team to qualify with a game to spare. In the KO rd i faced Man city. In the first leg at home the team drew 1-1 in spite of being on the back foot for most of the game. In the away leg the team was 2-0 up at half time but city scored 4 times and missed a penalty in the 2nd half to end CL hopes for this season.

In the league Linfield pushed for a lot of the season before falling away, Newington got a record points total and record number of goals, they scored at least 5 goals 13 times and racked up 8-1 and 10-0 wins in the league. The team also won the Irish and League cups.

On the squad front there was a fair bit of change within the team as a lot of players left the club, these included Palencia (164, 18 apps), and Dodd (378 apps, 31 apps) on bosmans and Sylla (122 apps, 1 goal) on a free in spite of establishing himself as my first choice LB. Dibra (124 apps, 6 goals) hadn't proved as good as i hoped and was sold. Jimenez's (158 apps, 36 goals) contact was running out and he didn't look like signing a new one so i cashed in on him for 7.5 million. I sold Enyeama (71 apps, 58 goals) as he wanted to leave and i had signed a better striker on a free, this then fell down as he was refused a wp 2 days later.

I let Halliday (590 apps, 42 goals) leave as he had slipped down the pecking order after many years of decent backup.

Serazidinov didn't play much in spite of being an experienced uzbecki international. I bought Perez on the cheap which looks like being a fantastic bargain, Central America is proving a rich ground for my team.

Had some more good youths through with this the most promising one.

Prenter set a record for the most assists with 44 and Waterworth beat McAlindens record for most goals in a season with 48. Dickson was the outstanding player although Mannerings came a close second with easily his best season, unfortunate since he is likely to be 2nd choice for 37/38 as Kolak has arrived.

Season            League          Position       N.Irish Cup                         Europe                         Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2032/33       Premier              1st            Winners                       EC - 1st KO Rd                     League Title, IC winners
2033/34       Premier              1st            5th Rd                        CL Group, EC - Qtr-final           League Title, CAS winners
2034/35       Premier              1st            Semi-final                    CL Qtr-final                       League Title, CAS, AIC winners
2035/36       Premier              1st            Winners                       CL Group, EC - Qtr-final           League Title, LC,IC,AIC winners
2036/37       Premier              1st            Winners                       CL 1st KO Rd                       League Title, LC,IC winners

N Ireland                                Newington
-------------------------------------------------------

32/33 (19th -18.000) 2.0 stars (63)      31.100  (65th)
33/34 (19th -18.050) 2.5 stars (44)      29.550  (59th)
34/35 (15th -21.625) 2.5 stars (31)      48.824  (42nd)
35/36 (14th -26.500) 3.0 stars (19)      71.298  (30th)
36/37 (13th -26.475) 3.0 stars (17)      78.293  (23th)
37/38 (13th -26.400) 3.0 stars (16)      89.278  (22nd)

[Thebaker]

The ingame club badges are the metallic logo pack from sortitoutsi.net which seems to have pretty much every club you could dream of. The one on my update is from the clubs official site.

Cheers, realised i still had that pack on my computer from last year

Well done on promotion, you certainly are progressing quickly

[Icelander83]

Thinking of giving this a go to kickstart my FM13 enthusiasm which has been non-existant for a good couple of months.

I've decided to start in my native Iceland, seeing as how that seems to be where all the fun is being had Living in Kópavogur made the choice really simple when I saw HK pop up. Although I was a bit miffed to see the reset date seemingly doesn't fit in with the OP at all. Has anyone posted the correct one? I holidayed to January 1st and the league was already reset.

Anyhow, I had a choice between HK and dirty, disgusting Grótta so the choice was even easier.

I'll likely be trying to find a way of incorporating videos into my updates, not quite sure how as of yet.

But anyway, to kick things off here's my manager profile on the day I took over

[Thebaker]

Just wondering how many tycoon takeovers people have seen for other teams, since im in 2038 and so far i haven't seen one.

[Gundo]

Thinking of giving this a go to kickstart my FM13 enthusiasm which has been non-existant for a good couple of months.

I've decided to start in my native Iceland, seeing as how that seems to be where all the fun is being had Living in Kópavogur made the choice really simple when I saw HK pop up. Although I was a bit miffed to see the reset date seemingly doesn't fit in with the OP at all. Has anyone posted the correct one? I holidayed to January 1st and the league was already reset.

Anyhow, I had a choice between HK and dirty, disgusting Grótta so the choice was even easier.

I'll likely be trying to find a way of incorporating videos into my updates, not quite sure how as of yet.

But anyway, to kick things off here's my manager profile on the day I took over

Good in Iceland Icelander83. I will remove the date from the opening post for Iceland, at least until we know what it is.

[Gundo]

Just wondering how many tycoon takeovers people have seen for other teams, since im in 2038 and so far i haven't seen one.

Not noticed any yet in FM13, only two seasons in though.

In my attempt at this challenge with Sola Fotball last year, Brann got taken over by a Tycoon and dominated domestically for years and did well in CL too. They spent ridiculous amounts every season, something like £50 odd million each time!

[Icelander83]

Good in Iceland Icelander83. I will remove the date from the opening post for Iceland, at least until we know what it is.

I'm hoping it goes better than my last proper go at this, which was before they added dynamic league reputation. Also hoping this time the board will not decide to build a brand new 11k all-seater stadium after our first promotion!

That attempt, for anyone (and I think there might be just about one) interested was with the mighty Njarðvík

[Icelander83]

We were supposed to start with world class reputation, right? :o

Second shot at my profile Linky

As you may see from that screenie the reset date is a lot earlier than previous versions. I didn't have an autosave that went back farther than that so I still don't have a definitive date for it. At least it's before the end of November

[Gundo]

Gundo - Klepp IL - Norway - 2. div - 2014

Really happy with our second season and it always felt as though we had enough to survive after a last terms dramas. A final position of 7th place delighted the board and fans alike. Only other thing of note is that our youth intakes(2) have been relatively poor so far.

No cup run this year, an early exit to Tippeliga outfit Odd Grenland 1-2 at Klepp Stadion.

Players of mention

Per Krister Bjørlo

Christoffer Folland

Frank Gram

Next Season

Aim to make a push for the top four in 2015, I thinks it's a realistic aim.

Season  |      League     | Position  |    Cup     |   Europe    |     Achievement    | Top Scorer (Lge)        
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
2013    | Second Division |    10th   |   4th Rnd  |     -       |          -         | Ole Thomas Herrem (7)
2014    | Second Division |    7th    |   1st Rnd  |     -       |          -         | Christoffer Folland (10)

[RocheBag]

We were supposed to start with world class reputation, right? :o

Second shot at my profile Linky

As you may see from that screenie the reset date is a lot earlier than previous versions. I didn't have an autosave that went back farther than that so I still don't have a definitive date for it. At least it's before the end of November

Good luck in Iceland! HK were doing pretty well in my save until my computer decided to die.

[fcunitedfan]

Barry Town F.C.

Today, manager Jim Wheato took over as Barry Town manager. Little is known about Jim, other than his statement that "I'm going to make Barry Town the biggest team in European" is a massive one to make about such a small team. Jim is definitely ambitious, but has the young mustachio'ed manager bitten off more than he can chew with a Welsh team who've falllen from grace since their European Champions League and multiple Welsh league winning days?

[Gundo]

Good luck, Wales sounds fun.

[fcunitedfan]

Thanks. Hopefully I can do well with this terrible team

[larxus]

My updates will come in quite slow this month as exams are coming up.. Haiz..

[Andrew Haines]

Ballycastle United

Season 2016/17 - Carling Premiership - 2nd

Overview

A solid first season. The team has improved with the inclusion of a number of quality young Northern Ireland players. I have increased the coaching staff as I was seeing the stats of a lot of my players slide, the best young players now seem to be improving. Hopefully European football next season will bring in some revenue and if I can strengthen in a few departments (a center-back is a must) then I think the title is an achievable objective next season.

Carling Premiership

A valiant effort to win the Premiership in our first season. We were top for most of the first half of the season until injuries around the New Year saw our form stutter. From the end of February we improved and set off to catch up Coleraine at the top of the table. We briefly went top again in March but a 2-1 home defeat to the leaders in a game we dominated dented our hopes. Three wins from four games in the run in wasn't enough and Coleraine took the title by two points.

http://imageshack.us/a/img43/5151/2017leaguetable.jpg

Players

I have a crop of youngsters who hopefully will be the building blocks of the team. Graham Alexander has been in the team for two seasons now but the other guys were signed at the start of last season.

http://imageshack.us/a/img801/4922/2017magill.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img577/632/2017kelly.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img33/954/2017alexander.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img109/2369/2016mcallister.jpg

Other

Northern Ireland stayed in 49th place in Europe. They are perilously close to losing their automatic place in the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League.

http://imageshack.us/a/img69/5913/2017europeancoeficients.jpg

[gotlandskommun]

no one thats have the swedish save game to download ??

[Neutronen]

Make one yourself gotland it does not take long at all.

Currently giving Barry Town a go in Wales. Lets get some competetion going FCunitedfan

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Just wondering how many tycoon takeovers people have seen for other teams, since im in 2038 and so far i haven't seen one.

Just noticed Sturm Graz got one in my game (right at the start of the game aswell Sept 2012) - which explains where all their money came from and why it took so long to beat their reputation . There have been 21 takeovers in Austria (from 20 league teams) in 14.5 seasons so far, a few teams have had two takeovers within a couple of years of each other.

[fcunitedfan]

Make one yourself gotland it does not take long at all.

Currently giving Barry Town a go in Wales. Lets get some competetion going FCunitedfan

Good luck old chap.

[MShing]

Hi all. I am looking to start this challenge but have not been able to decide which country to try. Been looking through the leagues for an hour now and just don't know which to choose. Can anyone suggest a good league to try, anyone had and good experiences in a particular country? I would like to play as a club with either an unusual name or unusual colour kit. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

[fcunitedfan]

I just got sacked! I had just lost against Newtown and was on a three loss streak, and they sacked me! I was sitting 9th, and the media prediction was 11th. I don't get it...

[fcunitedfan]

I'm going to start again in the Bulgarian leagues, seeing as my Welsh attempt went bad quickly. I had a great game in FM11 as Litex, but haven't played in Bulgaria since. I think this is a good time to have another crack at Bulgaria.

I plumped for Asenovets 2005, simply because they're the first team I clicked on that was newly promoted. So here's Jim Wheatov, Asenovets new manager. The Club Information isn't too bad, and the Facilities are OK for a newly promoted team. In terms of Players, there's enough to cover all positions with backups when needed, but quality is a bit lacking in some positions. I'll need to bring in a lot of Staff, as we currently only have myself and a player/U19's manager.

It's going to take a season or two to get this club established, then I'll push for promotion when I've got the staff and the quality of players needed to do so.

[Gundo]

Hi all. I am looking to start this challenge but have not been able to decide which country to try. Been looking through the leagues for an hour now and just don't know which to choose. Can anyone suggest a good league to try, anyone had and good experiences in a particular country? I would like to play as a club with either an unusual name or unusual colour kit. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

Not tried any other nation than Norway, but it is great fun to manage in. And I'm sure you'll find a colourful kit too.

[Thebaker]

Good Luck in Bulgaria fcunitedfan, thats tough being sacked.

AndrewHaines, so close to the title, surprised Linfield were not better as they are way above the other Irish teams in support, infostructure and money, they will get better as the seasons pass, they get crowds of 24000 in my game.

Even though i have supplanted them in my game i still have to win every game. Just finished another season where they got 98 points, i had to beat them with 3 games to go to win the title

[fcunitedfan]

Thanks Thebaker. I think the sacking was a bit harsh, but I'm sure I'll do better in Bulgaria.

Had a good start to my first pre-season. The board have already allowed me to increase the junior coaching budget, upgrade the scouting range to Europe, and they're looking for a parent club.

[Andrew Haines]

AndrewHaines, so close to the title, surprised Linfield were not better as they are way above the other Irish teams in support, infostructure and money, they will get better as the seasons pass, they get crowds of 24000 in my game.

Even though i have supplanted them in my game i still have to win every game. Just finished another season where they got 98 points, i had to beat them with 3 games to go to win the title

I think last season must have been an aberration for Linfield as they have finished top three of the four other seasons. They have by far the best side around.

I wasn't too disappointed not to win the title in the end as I was expecting to have a hard fight just to stay up. Battling at the top of the table was a surprise really.

[Thebaker]

I think last season must have been an aberration for Linfield as they have finished top three of the four other seasons. They have by far the best side around.

I wasn't too disappointed not to win the title in the end as I was expecting to have a hard fight just to stay up. Battling at the top of the table was a surprise really.

The leagues are very close so its no surprise, i finished 2nd in my first season although 20 points behind.

Linfield have never finished less than 2nd, one year Glenavon won it, other than that its been Linfield and now Newington for years.

[mag man]

Having got a bit bored of my current career game I have decided to have a crack at this in Switzerland, I fancied a game in Iceland but have had success there in previous versions of the game so went for something different.

I have taken over at Yverdon-Sport FC and here is my manager profile. Hopefully I can keep enough interest up in this game to challenge the bigger Swiss clubs.

[Icelander83]

I swear I have never seen anything like my teams defending before, not in any FM version ever. I wish I could say that's a good thing but it's really not Thankfully I've got the hero that is Tomy Ameobi up front

4 games into the league season now and things are going better than I expected Won't be getting promoted, that's for damn sure though!

[Dexter_Morgan]

Boldklubben Skjold

Me

Positions

Club Overview

Facilities

After a break from FM completely for a while and then struggling to get past the first month of any save i've decided to do what I usually do in that situation and come back to this challenge

As you can see i've taken on Boldklubben Skjold a club from the Danish capital. I've never completed this challenge in Scandinavia before and have only ever won 2 European trophies with any any Scandinavian club (Tromso on FM 12) so this is going to be an interesting little challenge for me. Got no big targets in mind really bar have and hopefully still have a mostly Danish side within 5 years. I'm only a few games in at the minute so major updates as i'm hoping to get 3-4 more players in as this was the squad I inherited

[Icelander83]

Jari Litmanen has just taken over the managerial reigns at one of my divisional rivals I would have thought his name alone would guarantee him a bit better starting position than that!

[Icelander83]

Alrighty, first season is done and I'm working on a write-up of some sort. But since I've just found this and it's kind of important I'll post this while I remember it:

GUNDO: The reset date for the Icelandic league is November 25th (at least according to what just happened)

[Gundo]

Amended cheers.

[Icelander83]

Aghghghgh! Just tried to do my update and I'm getting error messages from the forums Now I won't have time to do it before I go home from work

[Andrew Haines]

Ballycastle United

Season 2017/18 - Carling Premiership - 7th

Overview

An odd season, fantastic (relatively) in European competition but underwhelming in the league. My squad was just too thin to compete on all fronts. The cash returned from a run to the Europa League playoff was about 650k, this will go a long way towards developing the team. So long as the board give me an expansion in my wage budget. I am still building the team around a nucleus of good young players. I desperately need to bring in a center-back and expand the depth of the squad.

Carling Premiership

http://imageshack.us/a/img836/9449/2018leaguetable.jpg

Europa League

I fully did not really expect to get past the first qualifying round so I was rather happy to turn over first Flora of Estonia, then IA of Iceland. I really could not have dreamed of getting anything from a 3rd qualifying round tie against Dinamo Moscow. A stunning 3-1 home victory was followed up with a 1-0 victory in Moscow. In truth I was outplayed in the first leg and was lucky with the victory. The away victory was solidly deserved though. A 6-1 aggregate hammering by Lazio in the playoff was not too disappointing in the event.

Europa League 1st Qual. Rnd. Leg 1 - Ballycastle 2-0 Flora (Estonia)

Europa League 1st Qual. Rnd. Leg 2 - Flora (Estonia) 0-2 Ballycastle

Europa League 2nd Qual. Rnd. Leg 1 - Ballycastle 1-0 IA (Iceland)

Europa League 2nd Qual. Rnd. Leg 2 - IA (Iceland) 0-1 Ballycastle

Europa League 3rd Qual. Rnd. Leg 1 - Ballycastle 3-1 Dinamo Moscow

Europa League 3rd Qual. Rnd. Leg 2 - Dinamo Moscow 0-1 Ballycastle

Europa League Playoff Leg 1 - Ballycastle 0-2 Lazio (Italy)

Europa League Playoff Leg 2 - Lazio (Italy) 4-1 Ballycastle

http://imageshack.us/a/img202/6992/2018europaleagueplayoff.jpg

Players

The four young players I highlighted last season are still the mainstays of the team

http://imageshack.us/a/img14/1395/2018kelly.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img811/2642/2018bradley.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/4982/2018magill.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img838/5848/2018alexander.jpg

They will be joined for next season by Cliftonville's talented young right winger Gary Magee

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/4020/2018magee.jpg

Other

Northern Ireland moved up a place to 48th in European competition. Hopefully my exploits in Europe could have an effect, not sure whether this would be accounted for this season or next.

http://imageshack.us/a/img14/2650/2018europeancoeficients.jpg

[Icelander83]

Icelander83's Gundo Adventure

Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs

Season 1 - 2014

The staff meeting on day one was short and sweet. I was alone with the head physio. Ads sent out for any and all staff! A few days later we have an assistant manager, a couple of coaches and a couple of scouts. We are now officially a football club!

We are soon under a transfer embargo as takeover talks begin with a Brazilian consortium. This means some very nice free transfers pass us by as we can't attempt to sign them. This lasts until the league season starts when the bid falls through. Brilliant.

Our performance in the league cup was far from good. Only one win and two draws in seven matches. Our performances got better with each game though as I tweak the tactics a bit.

Transfers

For obvious monetary reasons I'll be hunting for players who are out of contract. There are some very decent players to be had without paying over the odds.

Arnar Gunnlaugsson - A living legend in Icelandic football. Even at 89 he'll still be an asset to us as he's very much a Premier League standard player.

Rúnar Daníelsson - Pretty much on par with our current keeper. With the season being so short I'm not willing to take the chance that our keeper will stay injury free. One injury could wreck the entire season

Jesper Jensen - A midfielder who can do a bit of everything, which will hopefully suit us well over the course of the season

Birgir Birgisson - A midfielder of apparent Premier League quality, although I'm struggling to see it. At least he should provide a decent pairing with Jensen

Joe Tillen - A proven Premier League winger, will be first choice down the left wing without a shadow of a doubt

Tomi Ameobi - Our very own Heskey! No idea what to do with a football but strong and menacing!

Aran Nganpanya - A left back with big potential. Not too good at the moment but will hopefully improve soon enough

Guðmundur Hannesson - Third choice center back, nothing more, nothing less. Decent cover if nothing else.

First Division

When all was said and done it was a disappointing league campaign. 7th place means bottom half of the league and our form in the second half of the season was very poor. We were never going to threaten the top spots as we never went higher than 4th place but that really looked to be where we'd end up until the last 8 games of the season. They saw us lose 6 and win only 2. A change in formation for the last 4 games was what brought around the 2 wins, swapping from a 4-4-1-1 to a Mourinho-esque 4-3-3.

Icelandic Cup

A decent run, all things considered. A win against a lower league club in the 2nd round saw us earn a home game against a Premier League team. A win there meant a repeat in the 4th round, Premier League club at home. We lost that one despite probably edging the game, their finishing was simply better.

Youth Players

The group of players that came through our youth intake seems very good and very well balanced in terms of the better players

Stefán Garðarsson - The best of the bunch, 1.5* ca and 5* pa. Looking at his attributes I'll most likely be using him as a center back rather than at left back.

Stefán Örn Stefánsson - A quality dm when our tactic didn't use a dm. Facilitated the change in tactics near the end of the season. 4.5* pa

Pétur Tryggvason - Another 4.5* pa midfielder, will probably end up as a jack of all trades as there's nothign about him really standing out at the moment.

Fannar Björnsson - 4.5* pa, decent quickness already and okay dribbling. Will start working on his crossing and he might soon replace Tillen in the first XI

Apart from those four there are no players who'll be so much as decent Premier League players. A few get signed on though as we need numbers in the u19's.

End Of Season

Bogi Einarsson was chosen the player of the season

The best XI was chosen

Quickly following a takeover (featuring no money - boooo!) the new chairman announced a parent club link with FH. This should hopefully mean we get some decent loan players from them.

That's pretty much it for this season. I'm really out of practice when it comes to keeping notes for these updates, nevermind writing them! This season was not a success in my opinion, still finding my feet in lower league management after not touching it for years.

[Andrew Haines]

Icelander83 - Glad you signed up Gunnlaugsson, as a Leicester fan I always liked Arnie. He was unlucky not to get more of an opportunity with us. I'll never forget the goal he scored in a 3-1 win over Charlton back in 2001.

[Icelander83]

He never really got going for me, unfortunately But the mere fact I signed him made me all giddy and warm inside :*) Watching the twins play football is an absolute privilige

[Dexter_Morgan]

Boldklubben Skjold 2013/14

The season wasn't as satisfying as it may look at first glance, in the first 15 games we scored a total of 14 goals. I tried tweaks in the winter break in the friendlies which didn't do us any good at all and it was only an injury to one of our CM's after 20 games or so that forced my hand in to a 4-4-2 that got us up and running. From that point our form was unquestionable to be fair and the draws were being turned in to wins.

I'm doing a more in depth story of this over in the career forum (link) and will only be posting end of season updates in here mostly.

[Icelander83]

Icelander83's Gundo Adventure

Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs

Season 2 - 2015

Transfers

Again I stuck to free transfers and made a bit of a mistake, I didn't sign a back up keeper!

Hróar Sigurðsson - A solid left back who took that position into his own hands from day one. Was really good for most of the season

Höskuldur Hilmarsson - A back up striker as we only had Ameobi to start the season. Decent pace and finishing and quite a bit of pa to grow into. Didn't play much but did okay

Hilmar Eiðsson - Was signed as a stop-gap for our right wing, really blossomed in that position and grabbed 8 goals in 28 appearances. Earned a new contract

League Cup

Not a lot to say about this, as usual. We did a lot better than last season though, winning 2 and drawing 3. We played well throughout, culminating in a 4-0 away win against divisional rivals Keflavík.

Icelandic Cup

Only one game this season. Our keeper was injured the our backup gave away two easy goals

First Division

We had some amazing form in the first half of the season, even leading the league for a few rounds. Then came the inevitable crumble, results got worse, our keeper got injured and we slid down the table. Going into the penultimate game of the season we'd fallen to 7th and sat 6th before the last game. That doesn't tell the whole story as we were only 2 points off first place. We needed a lot of results to go our way while we played the 5th place team away from home.

Unfortunately we didn't show up for our match, losing without so much as a whimper. It wouldn't have made any difference if we'd won as the teams above us did what they needed to do so promotion was not to be. In a cruel twist of fate we ended up 7th again. Not having a decent back up keeper really hurt us.

Youth Players

The youth intake was okay but not awe inspiring by any stretch of the imagination.

Alexander Jóhannsson - 4.5* pa which means he should become quite good.

Haukur Georgsson - 5* pa, already called up to the u19's and with a bit of luck he could become very good

Árni Sigmundsson - 4* pa, could become a useful squad player if nothing else

Davíð Björgvinsson - 5* pa and the player that excites me most. If I get his composure up and improve his quickness a bit he could be lethal (at our level at least)

So, that's it for another season! Having quite a bit of fun with this despite making seemingly no progress between seasons

[Icelander83]

Safe to say I had a bit of a problem with the font in that post the forums just don't want to work with me on this

[Icelander83]

Icelander83's Gundo Adventure

Handknattleiksfélag Kópavogs

Season 3 - 2016

Transfers

Emil Pálsson - Arrived on loan from FH, apparently very good for our level. Did okay but not amazing by any stretch of the imagination. Out of contract at the end of the season, demanded ridiculous wages so I didn't sign him.

Sigmar Sigurðarson - First paid purchase of the save, arriving for €2k. I felt I needed an upgrade in goal and he certainly provided it, keeping the most clean sheets in the league.

League Cup

Similar to last season, a 2-2-3 record with a big win in our last match. As usual some tactical tweaks went on during these games and we looked better in the last match than the first one, as per usual.

Icelandic Cup

Worst showing yet, losing to a lower league team with a pathetic performance.

First Division

A season of ups and downs. We didn't get off to a good start, then flew to the top of the table, dropped to midtable, worked our way up to second place and then fell away in the last part of the season to finish fourth. That said there are very promising signs for next season. We conceded by far the fewest goals in the league so if we can add a bit more threat up front we'll certainly be pushing for promotion come next season.

End of Season

Jesper Jensen was chosen as our Player of the Year

Our best XI was chosen

Youth Players

Not overly impressive this year. I've finally come to realise the high pa means nothing when we are part time with awful facilities.

Kristinn Arnarson - A decent full back but will probably not make our team as I don't see him developing well enough. 4.5* pa

Björn Björnsson - A very decent looking dm, 4.5* pa and I hope he'll develope well enough. Went on loan to a PL club for next season so clearly worth something

Valtýr Hallgrímsson - Not the worst looking striker ever, that's for sure. 4.5* pa and could become very useful

In other news for the end of this update, I let Ameobi go! A near enough 1 in 2 record but he's on relatively high wages and we have another striker who's banging them in at a better rate when he plays.

Is this thread completely dead now btw?

[johnnyquest409]

Definitely not!

Sounds like you're making good steady progress Icelander, hopefully promotion isn't too far away. As for high PAs not meaning much, I find it's more they mean nothing when your current first team isn't particularly great. The youth products might eventually become better players than them, but in the several years it takes for them to reach their prime, you'll have improved your first team greatly anyway, and by that time the youth products won't be good enough.

I haven't really had much gametime over the past couple of weeks, and unfortunately that looks like continuing at the moment for a little while, though I might get a chance to play a bit tonight/this weekend. In the meantime though I'm enjoying reading other people's progress, so keep up the good work

[Icelander83]

Yeah, that's sounds about right for the PA. With bad facilities/staff and being part time it will obviously take them a lot longer to improve so even if they eventually reach that pa (and that pa tends to drop considerably) we'll have (hopefully!) outgrown them. That being said, the overhaul of my team for next season is a bit insane as I am going to rely on our youth players as much as I can. I'd be surprised if the total amount of CA stars will be over 30 in the first XI :o

[larxus]

Season 2024 Review

FK Linköping

Season Review: A great season for us, as we went undefeated in the league. There were a few close shaves though, but a few last minute goals helped us through. In addition, for the first time ever, we got through to the First Knockout Round of the UEFA CL (which will continue next season), after placing 2nd in a group made up of Rangers, Chelsea and Inter.

Board expectations:

Allsvenskan: Champions

Media prediction: 1st

UEFA Champions League: Third Qualifying Phase

Svenska Cupen: Not important

Svenska Supercupen: Not important

Results:

Allsvenskan: 1st | League Table | Positions Graph

UEFA Champions League: 2nd in Group Stage

Svenska Cupen: Runner-up (Season 2023/24)

Svenska Supercupen: Winner

Season Summary:

Transfers

Finances

Key Performers:

Ole Christian Schultz: Awarded the 2024 Swedish Premier Division Player of the Year and named in the 2024 Swedish Premier Division Team of the Year. I seriously feel that he's one of, if not already, the best player playing in Sweden.

Jerome Delmas: Awarded the 2024 Swedish Player of the year! He was scoring for fun in our CL qualifying rounds, but not as prolific in the league this time round.

Stefan Jurgensen: Had the most number of assists and was named in the 2024 Swedish Premier Division Team of the Year.

Youth Prospect:

Batch 2024

Pablo Nilsson Year 1 | Year 2: A year after loaning him out. Now he's out on loan again, but I feel he might not have what it takes to be more than just a cover.

Next Season's Goals:

1) Get past CL Group Stage again.

2) Youth Development.

3) Improve the youth recruitment level and other facilities.

Year   Division                         Position      Champions League      Svenska Cupen      Supercupen         Notes
2013   Division 2 Ostra Gotaland          1st               -                     -                 -             Promoted
2014   Division 1 Sodraettan              2nd               -                 2nd Round             -             Promoted
2015   Superettan                         5th               -                Group Stage            -             Avoided relegation
2016   Superettan                         1st               -                Semi-Finals            -             Promoted
2017   Allsvenskan                        5th               -               Quarter-Finals          -                -
2018   Allsvenskan                        1st               -                Group Stage            -             Champions
2019   Allsvenskan                        1st           Group Stage            Winner            Winner           Back to Pro Status
2020   Allsvenskan                        1st           Group Stage            Winner            Winner              -
2021   Allsvenskan                        1st           Group Stage         Quarter-Finals       Winner              -
2022   Allsvenskan                        1st           Group Stage            Winner            Winner              -
2023   Allsvenskan                        1st           Group Stage            Winner            Winner           EL 1st Knockout
2024   Allsvenskan                        1st           Group Stage(Q)         Runner-up         Winner           Undefeated

[Andrew Haines]

Ballycastle United

Season 2018/19 - Carling Premiership - 5th

Overview

An improved season this year. We finished 5th although we were level on points with 4th placed Crusaders. Annoyingly 4th place would have been enough for a place in Europe next season as the top two teams are competing the cup final. We did pick up some silverware in the shape of the league cup, defeating Glentoran 3-0 in the final. The 650k that we earnt from Europe last season has mainly gone now, between increased wages and 350k spent to improve training and youth facilities plus the 100k capture of center-back Keith McVea from Cliftonville. I uncovered a bit of a gem in striker Colin White signed on a free from Ballinamallard in pre-season, he was on an amateur contract hence no fee. The club is looking in better shape but I need regular european competition to bring in the revenues for us to push on.

Carling Premiership

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/2482/2019leaguetablei.jpg

Players

The star, as mentioned is Colin White who scored 17 goals during the season.

http://imageshack.us/a/img849/2325/2019white.jpg

McVea will join from Cliftonville in the summer for a hefty £100k fee to sort out my troublesome centre-back position.

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/5001/2019mcvea.jpg

Other good players are Conor Kelly and George Bradley.

http://imageshack.us/a/img607/9488/2019kelly.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img822/9849/2019bradley.jpg

Other

Northern Ireland moved up three places to 45th in European competition. I suspect this was due to my run to the Europa League Playoff last season

http://imageshack.us/a/img16/3510/2019europeancoeficients.jpg

[Thebaker]

Newington 2037/38

Table|Squad|Cupfixtures|Transfers

This season was the best showing yet by the team and yet it felt like an opportunity missed. The team went straight into the group stages and in a tough group drew the first match away to Barcelona. That was the only dropped points as the team won the next 4 games to qualify. The reserves even beat Liverpool in the final game.

In the KO round the first leg away ended up 1-3 to Athletico Madrid. In the home leg an early goal to Madrid made the tie very difficult but 3 goals by half time leveled it before a winner 20 minutes from time. In the QF the team faced Leverkusen who were possibly the weakest team left. A 1-0 away loss left a lot to make up but after the last round i was confident that even without the injured Dickson it was possible. By halftime the match was over with Leverkusen 3-0 up, the game finished 4-1 .

The league was the closest for years as Linfield kept up the pressure by winning nearly every game. In fact i needed to beat Linfield in the 3rd to last game to overtake them.

The team also won the all-ireland and irish cups and CA shield.

Finances dropped slightly due to the major tranfer purchases and the shareholders robbed me again for 9.5 million. The training and youth facilities were given a slight increase from top to top but are still not at maximum as the option has appeared again to increase.

For the first time i made some major purchases as in came 2 river players in Abrigo and Kolak, both could become worldclass if i can keep hold of them. Out went Blazquez (339 apps, 193 goals) on a bosman and McCarthy (305 apps, 5 goals) was sold in order to give Coulter a chance in the team.

All the team did well without there being one standout player, Dickson was injured for a while and Waterworth had started the season on fire before a 5 month injury.

Weber and Prenter were possibly the best players.

Season            League          Position       N.Irish Cup                         Europe                         Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2033/34       Premier              1st            5th Rd                        CL Group, EC - Qtr-final           League Title, CAS winners
2034/35       Premier              1st            Semi-final                    CL Qtr-final                       League Title, CAS, AIC winners
2035/36       Premier              1st            Winners                       CL Group, EC - Qtr-final           League Title, LC,IC,AIC winners
2036/37       Premier              1st            Winners                       CL 1st KO Rd                       League Title, LC,IC winners
2037/38       Premier              1st            Winners                       CL Qtr-final                       League Title, CAS,IC,AIC winners

Newington's efforts are keeping the coefficients up as no other teams have progressed through a round in years, the margins are defeat to decent teams are not much so some progress is being made.

N Ireland                                Newington
-------------------------------------------------------

34/35 (15th -21.625) 2.5 stars (31)      48.824  (42nd)
35/36 (14th -26.500) 3.0 stars (19)      71.298  (30th)
36/37 (13th -26.475) 3.0 stars (17)      78.293  (23th)
37/38 (13th -26.400) 3.0 stars (16)      89.278  (22nd)
38/39 (13th -27.200) 3.0 stars (16)     104.438  (16th)

[Thebaker]

My players have really increased in value and bids seem to be coming in for them even though they have big asking prices, turned down 6.5 million for Coulter (value 2.2) and 14.25 million for Kolak (value 5.25) which i was surprised my board didn't accept. 6 of my players are worth 4-5.25 million including Perez at 5 million who i bought 2 years ago for 1K

[Britrock]

Decided to give this a go, had a good time in Hungary last year but this time I'm going for a slightly easier (in the long run anyway...) challenge with Holland. Just holidaying at the moment.

After a few reloads to see what was out there, I've gone with the brilliantly named vv IJsselmeervogels.

Club

Profile

Should be good fun

[Andrew Haines]

Ballycastle United

Season 2019/20 - Carling Premiership - 2nd

Overview

A much improved season and we finished 2nd. Linfield were a long, long way ahead however finishing with 93 points to our 70. They were strengthened by purchasing George Bradley and Aaron Alexander from us in pre-season for 190k and 130k respectively. These funds covered our losses during the season but we dearly need a run in Europe next season to bolster our funds.

Carling Premiership

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/38/2020leaguetable.jpg/

Players

Colin White is developing rapidly and is by far the best player in the team now. He scored 30 goals during the season.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/2020white.jpg/

Keith McVea had an excellent first season at the club.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/221/2020mcvea.jpg/

Other good players in the team are below.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/18/2020magee.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/401/2020kelly.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/20/2020harris.jpg/

Other

Northern Ireland moved up another places to 44th in European competition.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/515/2020europeancoeficients.jpg/