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Fitzaay

Fitzaay

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Albert Foundry - Northern Irish Premier Division - 11/12 (Season 4)

Media Prediction: 8th

My Prediction: 2nd

Final Position: 2nd

Via beating Linfield on the last day we have qualified for europe for the first time in the club's history.We also announced a 57 seat expansion to Paisley Park and a sponsorship deal worth 30k per year was announced. No trophies this season although we did finish runners-up in the Antrim Trophy, going down 3-2 to Glentoran who also ran away with the league.

I hope that next season I can put an end to their dominance and hopefully raise some income via a UEFA Cup run.

Final Table

One to watch: Micheal Watson

Missed 10 games again through injury but managed to hit 11 league goals in 20. His ratio has always been at least 1 in every 2 games and he is now Albert Foundry captain.

Wish me luck next season :) Albert Foundry in europe!

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DodgeeD

DodgeeD

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Chmel Blsany, Czech 1st Division, 2023-24 Season

Pressure was on a bit this year as I had to regain the board's confidence by reclaiming the league title. I was also looking for progress in Europe having not made it out of the Champion League group stage last year. Pre-season, I let the last couple of 'I want to go to a 'bigger club' moaners go. If they really think Charlton and FC Twente are bigger clubs, they obviously need to work on their mental stats. :D A couple of promising youngsters aside, there were no significant additions to the first team squad so I would be relying on improved team morale and young players taking a step up to meet targets.

Domestic Season

We eventually won the league with a seemingly comfortable 9 point margin but it was touch and go for most of the season as the top teams all beat each other. In the end, it was more of a case of Slavia Prague and Sparta Prague losing the title than us winning it as they both suffered from poor form in the latter stages of the season. Still, we held our nerve and won when it really mattered and I was glad just to get the title back and get the board off my back.

Final Table

We had a fairly easy run to the cup final with the other big teams going out in the early rounds. Our opponents were Kladno, a side who had been relegated just days before the final. The 1-0 scoreline didn't reflect our superiority but was enough to secure the double for the 4th time.

Cup Final

Europe

Due to our 2nd placed finish last season in the league, we entered in the 2nd qualifying round. AIK of Sweden were our opponents. A 4-1 away win in the away leg pretty much wrapped up the tie. I then took it a bit too easy for the home game, fielding a second string side and losing 2-1. Nevertheless, we went through 5-3 on aggregate. Seeded for the 3rd round, we were paired with Slovakian champions Zilina. A 3-1 win at home was followed by a 0-0 draw away, sending us into the group stages.

For the second year running, we were seeded 2nd and ended up in a group with Liverpool, Zenit St Peterburg and Standard Liege. I was fairly confident of securing at least second and that's what happened, although we made it tough on ourselves:

[font=Courier New]Blsany    3,  Zenit     1[/font]
[font=Courier New]Standard  2,  Blsany    2[/font]
[font=Courier New]Liverpool 3,  Blsany    0[/font]
[font=Courier New]Blsany    1,  Liverpool 1[/font]
[font=Courier New]Zenit     1,  Blsany    1[/font]
[font=Courier New]Blsany    5,  Standard  0[/font]

Group D Table

So we finished the group in style but we really should have secured our qualification before then but we were let down by poor finishing in our games away to Standard and Zenit.

In the New Year, we faced Bayern Munich in the knockout round. By this point, we had turned a corner in our seaon and started playing better football. We were unluckly in the first leg, conceding late as it finished 2-2. With those 2 away goals against us, we had to go out to score in the return leg. It was one of those frustrating games where we had all the play and they scored with their first rel chance. We pulled the game level but could not get that crucial second goal despite our best efforts, meaning it was 1-1 on the night, 3-3 on aggregate with Bayern advancing on away goals. :(

A strange season then as we did well without really playing well. I'm optomistic for next season though as I have a few fast improving youngsters who should make a difference. The breakthrough player this season was Zdenek Ondrusek. He's been in my youth team for a couple of seasons and I was forced to throw him in at the deep end this year after my first choice right midfielders left. He did really well and has a knack for scoring screamers from distance. ;)

My two first choice strikers were key as well as will be central to any sucess we have next season. Christian Schneider had another great season and won the Czech League Best Player Award and was voted the Fan's Player Of The Year. Mario Machado also did well especially after recovering from a disloctaed shoulder in the first half of the season. If he stays fit next season, and they both stay at the club, we should do very well indeed.

Best XI 2023-24

No. of League Titles: 7

Club Coefficient: 85.796 (19th)

Nation Coefficient: 32.725 (11th)

Oh, and the club is now valued at 121mil, 8th in the rich list! :eek:

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DodgeeD

DodgeeD

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Following a summer of constant bids on my best players, my two main strikers (Schneider and Machado) both want to leave as do my first choice centre backs. :mad: Everton (still managed by a now 61 year old David Moyes!) are really getting on my nerves as they have bid for each player at least twice. I'll just have to offer new contracts with ridiculously high wages and see if they accept...

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Truegunner

Truegunner

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My final attempt before FM09:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s254/Gitos/ObilicBelgradeProfile.jpg

Obilic Belgrade(Season 1)

Media Prediction: 14th

My Prediction: 7th

Final Position: 2nd

When I first started I thought who were they, have a look on wikipedia I found out they used to be in the Serbia SUPERLEAGUE! they once were poised to stop the belgrade dominance and shocked everyone by winning promotion then winning the Superleague the following season! it then went downhill hence why they came up. Well anyway I took over and the squad was pretty good, Partizan were a good parent club giving me players who would be invincible for the Superleague! I told the board that I could get a top half finish seeing the system in Serbia it is a LLMAS dream! 6 up and 4 playoff places, I knew this would probably last only a season so I had to do very well, by the winter break we were 10th and I was very worried I told the lads to get some spirit they played a frendliy against Partizan which despite losing 2-3 it gave us some confidence and by the 23rd game had pushed orselves to 3rd, we then didn't look back and despite slipping to 5th twice we came and thanks to the last two games finished a creditable 2nd, board however being sadsacks told me the were unhappy with the balance, I couldn't see why we were in the red we were 18k under wage budget! tbh I think this year was a fluke and I will not be over-optimistic, key for next season Consisitency! :D

Fans Player of The Year: Marian Jugovic

Most Promising Player: Dragolijub Stevanovic

My Player of The Year: Marian Jugovic

Aim for Next Year:

*Survival!

*If in Serbia Cup do well

*Get into The Black

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Truegunner

Truegunner

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Obilic Belgrade(Season 2) - 2009-10

Media Prediction: 16th

My Prediction: 10th

Final Position: 3rd:eek:

Serbia Cup: 2nd Round(Matched the board)

I thought this year wopuld be difficult but I never thought I would be challnging for europe! We had a rocky start, but we gradually picked up and were around 6th in the winter break and still had a chance for a european place, we lost to Smederevo(The top team) in the serbian Cup, coming back we went a good run of form and before we knew it we were 4th, the last game of the season was a showdown for the euro cup place(4th is Intertoto) Against Mladost we managed a 2-0 win! OFK(who were third) had an easy game yet they lost 1-2! which meant 3rd, Euro Cup football! however having a look at the cofficents I saw a shocking think Serbia had 3 Champions League Spots! this meant instead of Uefa Cup we were going to the champions League :thup:, however not everything ended happily Jugovic my topscorer wanted to move on I sold him for 1.2million to Naperdak, the money saved the club from getting into serious debt, but we still remained 400k in the red :mad:.

Fans Player of The Year: Marian Jugovic(Again)

Most Promising Player: Sasa Djeric

My Player of The Year: Hristo Stoitchkov(Amazing Bulgarian Regen!)

Aims for Next Year

(Only one aim was met last year):

*Try and get into Europe again

*Get further in the Serbia Cup

*Reach the Champions League Group Stages

History

Cofficent:

Nation Cofficent 5th 50.375

Club Cofficent 151st 16.621

Domestic:

2008-09 Serbia First Division: 2nd - Cup: Not entered

2009-10 Serbia Superleague: 3rd - Cup: 2nd round

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DodgeeD

DodgeeD

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Chmel Blsany, Czech 1st Division, 2024-25 Season

(Brace yourselves; this may be a long one :p)

Pre-Season

All seemed to be going well over the summer as I was able to reject most transfer offers without upsetting my players. All started to go wrong though when offers came late in August for my two top strikers, Machado and Schneider, and my two first choice centre backs, Kotas and Darmond, together with that dreaded 'wants to discuss terms' message. I tried all the tricks - waiting to the deadline, stalling, offering the players new deals... In the end, I got Darmond to resign for a club record 24k a week. However, Kotas and Schneider were unhappy and, worst of all, Machado requested a transfer. That meant I spent the last couple of days of the transfer window searching for new players. I managed to get a new striker, Ferro - a 23 year-old Italian, who was at Fiorentina - for a club record 4.5mil. That signing renewed my optimism as he was playing regularly at a 'big' club participating in the Champions League but he swopped that for Blsany.

Domestic Season

The arrival of Ferro proved to be a revelation as he scored in each of his first 8 league games and we built up an early lead. Just as well as Schneider's unhappiness saw him turn in a series of woeful performances. By the halfway stage we had a lead of 14 points and were looking good. I was particularly impressed with my youngsters in midfield and Ptacek, a homegrown central defender, who was keeping the sulking Kotas on the sidelines. Towards the end of December, our season got even better as Machado asked to be taken off the transfer list. I promptly offered a new contract and he signed! :) It cost the club 33k a week but was defintely worth it. Right before the transfer window opened too. Schneider was to go in January. His 'bigger club'? West Brom.... Whatever, we got 7mil for him.

When the league resumed, our form continued and with Machado back in the good books, we were unstoppable wrapping up the title with 6 games to go. We suffered a couple of defeats late in the season as I gave some squad and youth players a run in the first team. In the end this was my most comfortable season in the league to date as we won the title at a canter.

Final Table

We had a great run to the cup final too, scoring 23 goals in 5 games on the way. The best was saved to the final though as we completely destroyed Sparta Prague 7-0.

Champions League

Seeded once more for the third qualifying round, we faced AaB of Denmark. An easy 4-0 away in the first game made me a bit over confident for the home leg and I fielded a team of youngsters. I soon regretted my decision as we quickly went 3 goals down. A dubious penalty got us a goal back but we were made to sweat as the Danes scored again late on for a 4-1 win but we got through 5-4 on aggregate.

Lesson learned we went into the group stage, where we would face Man Utd, Besiktas and Olympiakos. I was confident of getting second but managed to exceed expectations by taking top spot. We only dropped points with away draws to Man Utd and Olympiakos. A 5-0 home win against Olympiakos and a 5-1 away victory over Besiktas were impressive but the 3-0 win at home against reigning European Champions Man Utd was my personal favourite. :)

In the knockout rounds, we faced Benfica first and snatched a 1-0 win away and followed it up with a 3-2 win at home. Galatasaray were up next. In the first leg in Istanbul, we were unlucky to concede in the last minute, leaving us with a 2-2 draw instead of a win. In the return leg, we established a comfortable lead, meaning this time the late goal was irrelevant as we won 3-1, 5-3 on aggregate.

That put us into the semi finals for the second time with Porto our opponents. As the league title was already sewn up, my players were well rested coming into the game and blew Porto away to get a 3-0 win and put us in touching distance of a first ever Champions League final. Porto put us under real pressure and had a two goal lead at halftime. We held our nerve though and a second half strike from Argentine Fernandez Garcia was enough to kill off the home side's challenge. Although we lost 2-1 on the night, we went through 4-2 on aggregate.

Onto the final then: Man Utd would provide familiar opposition. They had the better of the head-to-head record but we had hope following our exploits in the group stages. Man Utd were all over us in the early stages and there was an air of inevitability about their goal on 13 minutes. I resisted the temptation to fiddle with tactics as I knew my team would create chances. Sure enough, 5 minutes later a cross from deep by Jankovic was headed in by Machado and we were level. We conceded a penalty on the half hour but my keeper, Svensson had saved 6 out of 9 penalties this season and he calmly made it 7 out of 10 to keep us in it. We suffered a blow in the second half as Machado took a knock. He didn't have to go off but his condition dropped to 40% so I put Ferro on in his place. We held on to force extra time. Both sides had chances to win, with Ferro going agonisingly close when he hit the post with just two minutes to go. So, it all went down to the lottery of penalties. I would have to put my faith in Svensson as of the players on the pitch at the end of the game, the highest penalty taking attribute was 7! Svensson managed to save one but unfortunately we missed two meaning Man Utd won 4-3 in the shoot-out. :( Gutted to have got so close to completing the challenge and losing in that way...

The Players

Despite the loss in the final, it was a great season for the club as we dominated domestically and did better than ever in Europe. Naturally, my players collected several of the end of season awards.

4 players (Machado, Darmon, Ondrusek and Jankovic) made the Champions League Dream Team. Machado also won the Best Player and Top Scorer awards.

Blsany also had 8 players in the Czech 1st Division Team of the Year. Machado and Ondrusek came 1st and 2nd respectively in the Czech 1st Division Player of the Year poll. Chvojka, in his first full season in the first team, won the Young Player of the Year award with Ptacek 3rd.

Here's a closer look at the players:

Mario Machado - in fantastic form in Europe and in the league (would have been better if he hadn't been asking to leave earlier in the season). He seems happy enough to stay now and will be a vital part of our push for Champions League glory next season.

Zdenek Ondrusek - in great form again, setting up several goals and scoring some great goals from long range. Also named as Fans' Player of the Year. Shame he wasn't fit for the Champions League final.

Sladjan Jankovic - approaching the end of his career now but still a vital part of the team. Likes to hit crosses in from deep as evidenced by his 21 assists.

Arnaud Darmon - after agreeing to stay played a vital role at the back in Europe. Injury made him miss a lot of the league campaign but if he's fit next season, he'll be a key meber of the team again.

Pavel Chvojka - I put my faith in him after losing Alonso at the end of last season and he didn't disappoint. Hopefully he'll stick around for a few seasons.

Michael Ferro - a great signing. Started really well but lost his place when Machado returned to the fold. For some reason, they don't play well together but I'll be tweaking my tactics to try and change that.

The Best XI looked like this.

Here's to going one better next season!

No. of League Titles: 8

Club Coefficient: 99.110 (13th)

Nation Coefficient: 33.675 (10th)

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Truegunner

Truegunner

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Obilic Belgrade(Season 3) - 2010-11

Media Prediction: 8th

My Prediction: 5th

Final Position: 2nd

Serbia Cup: Final(Winners)

Ater my computer was restarted by accident I lost my last update, I'm too lazy to type another summary, I finished Second in the League due to some good performances towards the end of the season and won the cup after beating OFK Beograd on penalties.

Champions League

We had to Play Shakter after a nervy first Leg we went through 5-5 on aggerate by away goals this meant we got 3million for going to the group stages!

Group Stages

The Results:

Celtic V Obilic 3-0 L

Obilic V Porto 1-3 L

Chelsea V Obilic 5-2 L

Obilic V Chelsea 2-3 L

Obilic V Celtic 1-1 D

Porto V Obilic 2-2 D

After the first three dreadful matches we found ourselves three-nil down to chelsea at halftime after telling-off the players we found two goals in the second half but couldn't come back and lost 2-3, we managed to gain two points in the last to end up not getting an unwanted record

Fans Player of The Year: Hristo Stoitchkov

Most Promising Player: Bosko Bobolokic

My Player of The Year: Hristo Stoitchkov(Again!)

Aims for Next Year

(All Three aims were met):

*Get atleast third in the group stages

*Retain Serbia Cup

*Challenge Partizan for the title

*Get The Stadium Expanded

History

Cofficent:

Nation Cofficent 5th 50.375

Club Cofficent 129th 21.586

Domestic:

2008-09 Serbia First Division: 2nd - Cup: Not entered

2009-10 Serbia Superleague: 3rd - Cup: 2nd round

2010-11 Serbia Superleague: 2nd - Cup: Winners

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Fitzaay

Fitzaay

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Albert Foundry - Northern Irish Premier Division - 2012/13 (Season 5)

Media Prediction: 5th

My Prediction: 1st

Final Position: 1st

Domestic

We did it! In 5 years Albert Foundry have gone from the NI non-league abyss to the summit of NI football, oh joy! We won our first 10 games but Cliftonville made it very hard for us, they fell away towards the end and to my surprise the extra Setanta Cup games didn't do us any harm whatsoever. We lost just once the whole season.

Final Table

UEFA Cup

We fell quite poorly at the first hurdle here, Slavia of Bulgaria proving too strong for us, scoring twice late on at home and then hitting us on the break back at Paisley Park.. Rome wasn't built in a day though!

[i]
[u]UEFA Cup First Qualifying Round[/u]
Slavia (Sofia)   2-0 Albert Foundry
Albert Foundry 1-1 Slavia (Sofia)
[/i]

Club News

Michael Watson won player of the year and finished top of the scoring charts, somehow managed to keep him injury free, much to my joy! The board has announced a 237 seat expansio which will take the capacity of Paisley Park to 796. Constantly turning down SPL and Championship bids for a number of players, thankfully none are threatening to leave yet. To my disappointment though the club still has no favoured personnel :( It's not like I've done anything for them though! We also have no rivals haha. As well as this we have announced a link with Charlton Athletic! Quite surprised at this as I didn't apply for a Parent Club.

Upwards and onwards for next season, we did poorly enough in the cups so I'd love to life the Irish Cup as well as retaining the league next season. WE ARE ALBERT FOUNDRY

No. of League Titles: 1

Nation Coefficient: 0.00 - 53rd

Club Coefficient: 0.00 - 519th

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Truegunner

Truegunner

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Obilic Belgrade(Season 4) - 2011-12

Media Prediction: 5th

My Prediction: 2nd

Final Position: 1st:cool:

Serbia Cup: Final(Winners):thup:

Super Cup: Final(Losers):(

As usual I had a rocky start to the season, losing the super Cup to Red Star, but after a few games we picked up, by the winter break we were 7 points clear at the top, after this we went on an unbeaten run until Red Star beat us, desipte the loss we powered are way to the title winning by 12 points clear!

Champions League

Due to finishing second we automatically went into the group stages!

Group Stages

The Results:

Milan V Obilic 0-0 D

Obilic V Galatasary 4-2 W

Obilic V Ajax 1-1 D

Ajax V Obilic 2-1 L

Obilic V Milan 2-1 W

Galatasay V Obilic 3-3 D

Compared to some groups this was very easy, the first game to Milan I nearly fell off my chair when we got an impresive draw, then next game against Gala was entertaining it was 2-2 after 88 minutes then Feschuck scored two important goals to give us a priceless win and are first in the Champions League, the next two games in Ajax were a draw and loss which left us third we had to play Milan again, first we were 1-0 up then it was 1-1 just before half-time Feschuck scored another proving what would be a memorable goal as it lead to victory! the table after this meant Obilic sat in 2nd, all we needed was a draw to Gala which we did in a hard thought 3-3 draw.

Knockout Round Leg 1 - Obilic V FC Bayern 0-0

Knockout Round Leg 2 - FC Bayern V Obilic 1-1

We Went through on away goals!

Quater-finals Leg 1 - Arsenal V Obilic 2-0

Quater-finals Leg 2 - Obilic V Arsenal 1-1

We went as far as we could but Arsenal put a stop at us still I am impressed with how far we went and pleased about getting a draw against them in the second leg.

Fans Player of The Year: Hristo Stoitchkov

Most Promising Player: Molomir Todorovic

My Player of The Year: Hristo Stoitchkov(Again!)

Aims for Next Year

(Three aims out of four were met(stupid council blocked the stadium expansion):

*Reach at least knockout stages of Champions league

*Retain Serbia Cup (x2)

*Retain Title

*Get The Stadium Expanded

History

Cofficent:

Nation Coefficient 6th 52.226

Club Coefficient 73rd 37.232

Domestic:

2008-09 Serbia First Division: 2nd - Cup: Not entered

2009-10 Serbia Superleague: 3rd - Cup: 2nd round

2010-11 Serbia Superleague: 2nd - Cup: Winners

2011-12 Serbia Superleague: 1st - Cup: Winners

Oh and have a look at my quality regen:

hristostoitchkovns4.jpg

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DodgeeD

DodgeeD

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Nice work in Serbia there TrueGunner. :thup: You've certainly risen to the top fast. Looks like ~Ian~ has got a tough act to follow. ;)

Congrats on the first league title Fitzaay. If the other players takig on the challenge in N.I. are anything to go by, that should be the start of domestic domination for you!

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~Ian~

~Ian~

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It looked crazy, half of the league is either promoted or relegated. :D I need some sort of consistency, then I think I'll be okay.

This is also my first game with FootMan 08, so it's alearning experience as much as anything.

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Guest roberto922

Guest roberto922

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After many attempts at this challenge in the weaker leagues like N. Ireland I've decided to go to Russia and see if I actuallly stay there this time :D

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~Ian~

~Ian~

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FK Indjija (Serbian First League, 2008/09)

At the halfway point of the season this is how things are looking.

League

Not particularly impressive, but I've just sold a player for around 50k so hopefully can grab a deent player or two in the transfer window to try and improve matters. (Edit - They've only given me 3k of it to spend as it's not all cash upfront. :mad:)

As an aside, after playing FootMan 08 for a few days now, it has nothing on the 07 version. It has a few nice new features, but the match engine is appalling.

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daemonic

daemonic

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Shorter updates now that the good stuff is done. Don't want to clog up the thread too much :)

Sporting Fingal - Irish Premier Division 2022

Transfers

The Domestic Season

All-Ireland Cup:Winners

League:Winners - 2 draws was disappointing, but our revised All-Out-Attack domestic tactic did yield 172 goals.

Irish Senior Challenge Cup:Winners

Europe

Champions League First Knockout Round Season 2021/22

Galatasaray 2-2 Sporting Fingal

Sporting Fingal 4-0 Galatasaray

Champions League Quarter Final Season 2021/22

Sporting Fingal 3-3 Manchester Utd

Manchester Utd 2-1 Sporting Fingal

So our defence of the Champions League ended at the Quarter Final stage.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Champions League Third Qualifying Round Season 2022/23

Back to having to qualify again...not impressed.

Artmedia 3-4 Sporting Fingal

Sporting Fingal 2-0 Artmedia

Champions League Group Stage Season 2022/23

Qualified

Manchester Utd  3-1 Sporting Fingal
Sporting Fingal 4-3 AZ Alkmaar
Sporting Fingal 2-0 Dortmund
Dortmund        1-3 Sporting Fingal
Sporting Fingal 1-0 Manchester Utd
AZ Alkmaar      1-5 Sporting Fingal

Other News

Star of the year was Liam Taylor with 129 goals in 58 games. His career total is now 364 in 239 games including International goals and goals scored on loan at Chester and Limerick 37.

The club continues to grow as we reach 36th on the rich list and the board announce a 5852 seat expansion to the stadium.

Ireland also have a new manager.

Best Eleven: Season | Overall

European Co-efficients

Fingal - 92.247 (15th up from 16th)

Ireland - 27.000 (12th no change)

Sporting Fingal Trophy Room

Champions League x 1 - 2020/21

European Super Cup x 1 - 2021

World Club Championship x 1 - 2021

Irish Premier Division x 11 - 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

All-Ireland Cup x 11 - 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

Irish Senior Challenge Cup x 11 - 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022

Irish First Division - 2008

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Fitzaay

Fitzaay

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Albert Foundry - Northern Irish Premier Division - 2013/14 (Season 6)

Media Prediction: 3rd

My Prediction: 1st

Final Position: 1st

Domestic

Phew.. The closest one yet, winning it on goal difference on the last day, Portadown did me a huge favour in beating Glentoran, I sneaked a 1-0 against Linfield to retain it. To rub salt in their wounds we stole the Irish Cup from them in the 92nd minute :D. Lost in the final of the Antrim Cup to Cliftonville, they're my bloody bogey team and I dispise them!

Final Table

UEFA Champions League

Once again foreign oppostion proved too strong for us, MyPa of Finland beating us at the earliest stage. After a spirited away performance we were lucky to get nil at home.

[i]
[u]UEFA Champions League First Qualifying Round[/u]
MyPa 0-0 Albert Foundry
Albert Foundry 0-1 MyPa
[/i]

Club News

I won manager of the year, good buzz! The link with Charlton proved no use, they wont even be paying me :( Paisley Park's capacity is going up another 81 seats, bit surprised it's not more... Top scorer was ScotNeil Hutchison. Michael Watson had a poor enough season, media pressure apparently at him for the entire year. Gavin Edwards left for QPR, messed me up mid season badly but it landed me a million plus the oul 50% of next purchase clause.

No. of League Titles: 2

Nation Coefficient: 0.00 - 53rd

Club Coefficient: 0.384 - 495th (up 25 places)

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DodgeeD

DodgeeD

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Chmel Blsany, 2025-26 Season Review

Pre-Season

After coming so close last season, I was determined to hang onto my best players and have another crack at the Champions League while the squad was still strong. There was, as usual, plenty of interest in my players over the summer but nobody asked to leave. The only departure was centre back Kotas, who had been asking to leave most of last season. I had plenty of cover so it was no great loss.

Domestic Season

Something of a bizarre season as, despite going unbeaten, we were chasing Sparta Prague at the top for most of the season. A few draws too many early in the season saw us 4 points back going into the winter break with the board 'disappointed'. :rolleyes: Over the winter, we suddenly lost centre back Darmond, a star from last season's run to the CL final, who demanded a transfer. When I let him go, my keeper Svensson announced he felt it was a sign the club lacked ambition and asked to leave too. I had youngsters who I felt were ready to step up though so he was left to rot in the reserves. ;) We started the second half of the season with a win over Sparta Prague and set about catching them at the top. Both sides then went on a 10 game winning streak and I began to think we wouldn't be able to overtake them. However, their form slipped in the last few games and I finally went top with 4 games left. We then wrapped up the title with one game to spare. Credit to Sparta though who gave us a good challenge.

Czech First Division Final Table

We made it to the final of the Czech Cup again. We nearly went out in the 4th Round when our match with Brno went to penalties. We missed three but Brno missed 4 giving us a bizarre 2-1 shoot-out win. In the final, we faced Sparta Prague for the second year in a row. There was to be no repeat of last year's 7-0 walkover though as Sparta came from behind to beat us 2-1 with an injury time winner.

My players were dominant in the domestic awards again with 9 players making the Team Of The Year.

Mario Machado was in great form again and won the Player Of The Year award and finished Top Goalscorer in the league.

My youngsters took the top 3 spots in the Young Player of the Year poll. The presence of Ptacek and Vaclavik was particularly pleasing as they are products of the Blsany youth system.

Champions League

Starting again seeded in the 3rd qualifying round, we drew Rosenborg and easily overcame them 3-1 away and 1-0 at home to advance to the group stages.

We were placed into Group C along with Arsenal, Rangers and Schalke. I was confident of getting through and only felt more confident after the first game, in which we beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates despite having a man sent off. We also beat Schalke home and away, Arsenal 1-0 and Rangers 4-0 both at home. The only defeat came at Ibrox when Rangers scored a last minute offside goal to win, with UEFA silent despite my Kinnear-esque post-match comments. :D

Group C Final Table

In the first knockout round, we were paired with Sevilla. In the first leg, we were 3 goals behind after 20 minutes but rallied to get two away goals and finish the match 3-2 down. Back in Blsany, we got the result we wanted, winning 3-1, 5-4 on aggregate.

In the quarters, we faced Rangers again. Looking to avenge that Group Stage defeat, we returned to Glasgow with an attacking game plan and it worked as we eased to a 4-1 win. In the home game, we had a man sent off early on but it didn't affect the game plan as we won 4-1 again, securing an emphatic 8-2 aggregate win.

The semis saw a rematch of last year's final as we faced Manchester United. We got off to a great start at Old Trafford, scoring before our opponents had even touched the ball. Man U soon took control though and took a 3-1 lead. An injury time goal from Machado put us back in it and it seemed like we'd snatched a draw when Machado scored again on 84 mins. United scored in injury time to beat us 4-3 though. In the home leg, we played a pressing possession game and it paid off as we won 3-1 to go through to the final for the second year running, 6-5 on aggregate.

In the final, we faced Barcelona with ex-Blsany startlet Gottwald in their side. Time to make him regret leaving Blsany for a 'bigger club' (he went to Portmouth initially). We took the lead on 37 minutes with Machado doing the business again. Barcelona hit back immediately though and the half finished 1-1. The second half was ven with both sides having chances to take the lead. I was starting to think about extra time when we got a free kick 25 yards out. Danish winger Thomas Vingaard curled the ball over the wall and beyond the keeper into the net. 2-1 wih only 5 minutes to go! Barcelona threw everything at us after that but to no avail. We held on to win the Champions League and complete the challenge!!! :D

Awards wise, we had three players in the Dream Team and Machado won the Best Player and Topscorer awards for the second year running.

Here's this year's Best XI and, seeing as the challenge is finally over, the overall Best XI too - good to see that 4 of the players who played in the final are in there (would have been 5 if Jankovic hadn't got sent off against Rangers).

That's all from me for this year's challenge (although I will probably continue the save to see if I can defend my title). It's been great fun and I'll be back for another crack in FM09 (hopefully the Turkish leagues will be bug free next time).

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Fitzaay

Fitzaay

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Albert Foundry - Northern Irish Premier Division - 2014/15 (Season 7)

Media Prediction: 2nd

My Prediction: 1st

Final Position: 2ndt

Domestic

A step back? perhaps, fair play to Glentoran, they've given me a kick in the arse and made me realize I can't expect to completely dominate just yet. I guess with all the extra games we had over them we just ran out of steam.. any advice?

We did however do a clean sweep of the Irish Cup, Antrim Trophy and League Cup. We also had a fantastic run in the Setanta Cup, losing 2-0 to Cork in the final. All in all I'm disappointed that we wont be in the CL next year but hopefully we can improve our coefficient anyway.

Final Table

UEFA Champions League

We almost qualified for 2nd Q round, almost. After a great win at home to Bohs we just came up short away from home. Can someone tell em if that win adds to coefficient points anyway?

[i]
[u]UEFA Champions League First Qualifying Round[/u]
Albert Foundry 2-1 Bohemians
Bohemians 2-0 Albert Foundry
[/i]

Club News

The link with Charlton has still proved no use, :( Paisley Park's capacity is going up another 75 seats, again, bit surprised it's not more... Top scorer was again Neil Hutchison but this time only managed 18, goals were more widespread throughout the team.

I guess for next season, reclaiming the title is a must. I'll absolutely be reviewing my tactics whilst keeping an eye on releases from PL and Championship clubs. Wish me well =/

No. of League Titles: 2

Nation Coefficient: 1.167 - 46th

Club Coefficient: 0.549 - 478th (up 17 places)

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daemonic

daemonic

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UEFA Champions League

We almost qualified for 2nd Q round, almost. After a great win at home to Bohs we just came up short away from home. Can someone tell em if that win adds to coefficient points anyway?

[i]
[u]UEFA Champions League First Qualifying Round[/u]
Albert Foundry 2-1 Bohemians
Bohemians 2-0 Albert Foundry
[/i]

Don't think so. Coefficient points are only awarded for the round you reach so individual games don't accumulate points.

In my game we had a link with Aston Villa and it too proved useless. I think unless a league is active the number of players at a club is very much reduced so they don't have surplus players to send on loan. In the first couple of seasons a couple of players they sent were good backups but as we progressed I usually refused the loan or stuck them in the u-21's as they were no where near the quality of players I already had.

The link was cancelled when we started to make the later qualifying rounds of the Champions League as the board felt we shouldn't be a feeder club.

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Fitzaay

Fitzaay

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Albert Foundry - Northern Irish Premier Division - 2015/16 (Season 8)

Media Prediction: 2nd

My Prediction: 1st

Final Position: 1st

Domestic

With relative ease we have returned to the summit of Northern Irish soccer. Cliftonville envied us for half the season but fell away horribly afterwards. We were beaten comfortably by Drogheda and Rovers in the Setanta Cup so that didn;t improve, we also lost on pens to Glentoran in the Irish Cup final. We won the Antrim Cup, that was the only other highlight domestically. Neil Hutchison returned to the top of the scoring charts hitting 25 goals in 28 games.

Final Table

UEFA Cup

We beat foreign opposition over two legs for the first time ever, Siroci of Bosnia were clear favourites and we stunned them. however we were too weak to progress into the first round proper.

[i]
[u]UEFA Cup First Qualifying Round[/u]
Albert Foundry 2-0 Siroki Brijeg
Siroki Brijeg 2-2 Albert Foundry

[u]UEFA Cup Second Qualifying Round[/u]
Dnipro 4-0 Albert Foundry
Albert Foundry 1-4 Dnipro
[/i]

Club News

Paisley Park's capacity is getting an expansion to see it go above 1600. I would have thought our UEFA Cup progress would have jumped us above our NI counterparts at least but no, we're the exact same as the ones who didn't qualify for europe at all, even though we did all the work =/.

No. of League Titles: 3

Nation Coefficient: 1.667 - 43rd

Club Coefficient: 0.769 - 479th (down 1 place)

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Fitzaay

Fitzaay

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I just had the most amazing result ever.. Panathinikos await in the 3rd Qualifying Round. I actually can't get over this, I thought the 4-3 at home was amazing, I still would've given us no chance of progressing.. in disbelief here guys. wt7e9y.jpg

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Jimbokav1971

Jimbokav1971

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Great result Fitzaay :thup:

You'll definetly get coefficient points now :)

It certainly was a great result:thup:, but don't be so sure about the coefficient points.

The real rules are that you get 50% of points for wins in the qualifying stages, but in my experience, (playing as Mosside in N.Ireland), you don't get anything.

Sorry:(.

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daemonic

daemonic

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Sporting Fingal - Irish Premier Division 2023

Transfers

The Domestic Season

All-Ireland Cup:Winners

League:Winners and finally the perfect season.

Irish Senior Challenge Cup:Winners

Europe

Champions League First Knockout Round Season 2022/23

Liverpool 3-3 Sporting Fingal

Sporting Fingal 2-2 Liverpool

Champions League Quarter-Final Season 2022/23

Sporting Fingal 2-1 CSKA Moscow

CSKA Moscow 1-7 Sporting Fingal

Champions League Semi-Final Season 2022/23

Chelsea 4-2 Sporting Fingal

Sporting Fingal 1-0 Chelsea

So one step closer than last year but still no 2nd appearance in the Champions League final.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Champions League Third Qualifying Round Season 2023/24

Sporting Fingal 4-0 Beitar Jerusalem

Beitar Jerusalem 2-5 Sporting Fingal

Champions League Group Stage Season 2022/23

Qualified

HSV             1-3 Sporting Fingal
Sporting Fingal 2-3 Valencia
Sporting Fingal 2-1 Sporting CP
Sporting CP     2-5 Sporting Fingal
Sporting Fingal 4-2 HSV
Valencia        5-3 Sporting Fingal

Other News

Liam Taylor again shone brightest with 128 goals in 59 games. His career total is now 479 club goals in 283 games. Add 21 International goals in 22 games and he has an overall total of 500. His awards included the Champions League top scorer and best player.

Creative forces were 2 new players, Dumitru with 15 goals and 29 assists in 58 appearances and Barragan who was devastating since arriving on a Bosman from Deportivo in June, scoring 15 and creating 21 goals in 28 appearances. Barragan in particular looks like one of the classiest midfielders ever to play for the club.

The club continues to grow as we reach 15th on the rich list. No increase to the stadium capacity, however the board are installing undersoil heating which considering we play in a Summer league is a bit of a waste.

EDIT: Stadium is actually being expanded by 6230 seats...the news item only mentioned the undersoil heating so I only noticed now when I was checking the Information screen.

Best Eleven: Season | Overall

European Co-efficients

Fingal - 109.030 (11th up from 15th)

Ireland - 25.000 (14th down from 12th)

Sporting Fingal Trophy Room

Champions League x 1 - 2020/21

European Super Cup x 1 - 2021

World Club Championship x 1 - 2021

Irish Premier Division x 12 - 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

All-Ireland Cup x 12 - 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

Irish Senior Challenge Cup x 12 - 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023

Irish First Division - 2008

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DodgeeD

DodgeeD

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Still going strong there daemonic.

How is it going on the international scene? I wanted to get the Czech Republic job once I'd done the challenge with Blsany so I was secretly wishing for them to bomb out in the 2026 World Cup. Alas, they made the semis so the current manager is safe in his psot for the time being... :( My own fault really as the current national team is has 7 or 8 regular starters who were nurtured by me at Blsany early in their careers, then sold for a hefty profit :D

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daemonic

daemonic

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It's all about nurturing Taylor to 1000 goals now so enjoying the save still.

International management is not too bad so far. Qualified for Euro 2024. Main problem is the team is ancient and there are very few good youngsters coming through. 3 of the 4 youngest in the squad are Fingal players.

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Gundo

Gundo

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It always seems an impossible task when you start off, especially if you have no players or few players to start with. Hang in there, better players will become available and players from other clubs in your division will become interested in signing for you also.

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