pheelf Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2046 / 2047 The board would be happy with a top half finish but I have loftier ambitions in mind for the season. I'd quite like to put in another challenge for 2nd and attempt to qualify from our Europa League group as I don't feel we have the squad to get through the Champions League qualifiers. League Table - We started the season brightly but as we began to get bogged down with our European commitments we really started to struggle and handed the initiative to Larne in the battle for 2nd. There was a period where we managed only 3 points out of a possible 18 which really damaged our chances and led me to make some tactical changes. It improved things and we were much better post-November but the lead proved insurmountable. Even though there is an EC icon next to Glenavon they didn't qualify as Ballymena United won the Europa League Playoff. Lisburn Distillery survived again which was good although I thought they would be a lot more established in the top flight by now. UEFA Champions League - As expected we drew a very tough opponent which gave us little chance of getting through. We managed a creditable draw in the 2nd leg but the harsh reality is that they outclassed us and we were lucky to keep the scoreline down in Portugal. UEFA Europa League - An excellent campaign which saw us go further than ever before. The highlights were the win over Lazio and the draw we managed away at Anfield. More of the same would be welcome next season. Domestic Cups - Another season where we ended up trophyless thanks to Glentoran who knocked us out of every competition. The Irish Cup final shows with most clarity the massive gap we have to make up to be competitive for the DBP. We were never in that game and they beat us easily. Reserves - A much better performance from them but they are still way behind the best sides. They finished 27 points behind league winners Larne Olympic in a 22 games season, that's a massive deficit. Under 18s - If their performances are indicative of the quality we have in the youth team I wouldn't expect to see anything coming out of the youth department for a long time. Squad - I tried to make improvements where I could but we still have a lot of work to do. Thankfully, a lot of the players that I need to move on have contracts that are expiring at the end of this season or the end of next season which should free up some wages and afford me some flexibility when bringing in new players. The average age of the 1st team is 25.41 years which is too old for my liking as the majority of players at that age are fully developed and can no longer improve. At least I managed to increase the number of talented youngsters in the squad and I have my eye on a number of others that I'd like to bring in. Transfers - I think I did relatively well in the transfer market. It was a bit annoying to lose Meer DR but as he had a release clause of £900K and he didn't want to negotiate a new deal I felt it better to move him on for slightly lower than the release clause so that I could add some clauses to the deal. I'm pleased with his replacement Unsal DR as he looks a bright prospect. The other players I brought in all came for a reasonable fee which I'm hoping will lead to big profits when it comes time for them to leave. I'm very much trying to build a selling club but unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be much interest in our players which is understandable given the age profile of the squad. Hopefully, as I begin to incorporate more young players into the squad and develop them with game time we should see an increased interest from other clubs. This should start to generate profit from the transfer market and begin a virtuous circle with the money generated being invested into better players who in turn are sold on for ever greater profits. Anthony De Jonge - MR Average Rating: 7.27 A good player who had a very productive season by laying on the most assists in the team. I don't feel his attributes are very good to be an attacking winger. In my opinion, to be a great winger you either need to be lightning quick or technically brilliant he's neither and is unlikely to improve significantly. As a result, he is unlikely to have a long term future at the club but will have to stay until I can identify someone better who is affordable. Noah Zehle - ML Average Rating: 7.17 He had a very good debut season for us which has seen him establish himself as our first choice left midfielder. He is very talented and I'll be interested to see how much progress he can make next season. Finances - The takeover went smoothly and even though my job status reduced to 'Precarious' they decided to allow me to stay. Our income was better than ever before but as you can see it didn't have much of an impact on the overall balance. As a result, I am unable to invest in building the infrastructure of the club. The only way I'm going to be able to do that and build the balance is if we become a selling club but as I stated earlier we have very little interest in our players which is making that process exceedingly difficult. Facilities - I managed to convince the new board to upgrade the youth recruitment and junior coaching but no other improvements were possible. It's a pretty bad sign that the average attendance in the league is falling but I feel the only way we can build the fan base is by winning the league which we are miles off at the moment. We have to be patient and slowly build the club. Youth Intake - A decent crop of players with a couple of players which could develop into useful first team players if all goes well. League Reputation - The nation managed to recover 2 places in the nations coefficient table which pushed us back up to where we were last season. Overall, it was the best season ever for the N. Irish football teams in Europe. Us and Larne made the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League. Glentoran also qualified from their Champions League group although they came unstuck again Bayern Munich in the 1st Knockout Round. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come and the teams can continue their improvement. Club Domestic Reputation - The reputation table isn't a fair reflection of where all the teams are in the league. Larne is still ahead of us by a considerable margin so we need to work on closing that gap. Club European Reputation - A vast improvement in position with a record-breaking coefficient haul this season, still got a long way to go before we have a decent coefficient but we're doing well for this early stage of my time at the club. Spoiler Spoiler Edited March 25, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted March 27, 2019 Author Share Posted March 27, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2047 / 2048 We were excellent in the Europa League last season so I'd quite like a repeat of that and to try and push for 2nd and Champions League qualification in the DBP. The board would once again be satisfied with a top half finish. League Table - It seems we are slipping back further rather than closing the gap at this point. Glentoran was unstoppable but I'm disappointed that we scored fewer points and lost 11 times this season. I think I'm going to go back to the first tactic which served me so well at Glentoran. I sense I will be better served by focusing on improving the quality of the players rather than trying to tinker my way to success with constant tactical changes. UEFA Europa League - This was a very poor performance in comparison to last season. We started badly throwing away a lead in Dundee and although we improved to give ourselves a chance of qualifying if we could win on the final matchday it was a tall task to win in Germany which we couldn't muster. We need to improve our away form if we want to make further progress in the competition as our home form is actually fairly good. Domestic Cups - Well at least we didn't end the season empty-handed as we won the Irish Cup which is the first trophy of my tenure. It was a cracking final, just a shame there was nobody in the 'Unknown Stadium' to witness it. Reserves - Another poor season in the cups but at least they are maintaining their position in the league. Under 18s - They're just not very good and it looks like remaining this way until I can get enough money together to start investing in the youth department. Squad - Slowly but surely I'm transforming this squad into a young and vibrant team but the rate of progress is akin to a glacial pace at the moment. The lack of fluidity in the transfer market is playing a huge role as few teams appear to be interested in buying our players although Rajkovic DC will be leaving for Dunfermline for £2.9M in the summer. Another factor is the strength of Larne who have exceeded all my expectations by keeping together a strong and functioning team making it hard to get into the Champions League qualifiers. The makeup of the squad in places doesn't suit the style of play I want to adopt either which is making it difficult for us to be consistent in the league. We don't score anywhere near enough goals and when we have to rotate we are significantly weaker so I will need to work on bringing in quality and having sufficient depth to maintain as strong a challenge as possible on all fronts. Transfers - I spent a bit of money and overall I'm satisfied with the signings although Valentini ST was overpriced. I am dismayed by the lack of profit in this area though as that is the lifeblood of this club. If we can't get into the Champions League then there is more pressure on this area to provide the income the club needs to invest off the field and improve the standard of the first team. It's not all bad news though as I feel that we could be at a turning point given the money we will raise from the sale of Rajkovic, it could mark the beginning of turning the club into a selling one. Manny Dixon - MC Average Rating: 7.40 A player which has done everything that I've asked of him by providing a good amount of assists and scoring a fair amount of goals from central midfield. The issue I have is that he is the only decent passer of the ball I have in the central midfield and when I had to rotate him out of the squad to give him rest his absence was noticeable. That is an issue that definitely needs to be addressed next season as the 2 central midfielders in the 4-4-2 are critical to the success of playing the formation. If the team can't transition the ball from the back to the front line effectively it really hampers our attacking potency which goes some way to explaining why we don't score enough goals. Noah Zehle - ML Average Rating: 7.48 The fact that he is our top scorer is deeply concerning to me. I do like his contributing on the scoresheet but I'd much prefer if he was providing more assists instead. Finances - The balance gives me very little room to manoeuvre which has meant that I've been unable to build the club. I'm hoping that the transfer market starts to generate some funds so I can start improving the infrastructure of the club. We need to do everything in our power to get into the Champions League as that is the only way we are going to be able to accelerate the growth of the club. The falling attendances are a bit concerning so I'm hoping that the Irish Cup win might just encourage more fans to turn up. Everything seems to be flatlining or declining at the moment which we need to reverse as soon as possible. Facilities - I did ask to improve the junior coaching but the request was rejected citing the clubs poor financial state which is understandable. Youth Intake - As good as Lynch MC and Bickerstaff AMC looks I have no confidence that we are going to be able to develop them to fulfil their full potential or even close to it. The facilities and staff aren't good enough and their personalities aren't exactly great with Bickerstaff being Balanced and Lynch being Fickle. I'll try my best with them but I can't see them having a long term future here. League Reputation - We actually fell a couple of places which is a little discouraging but at least we maintained our position in the nations coefficient table. Larne had a good season in the Europa League finally getting knocked out in the 2nd Knockout Round by Hoffenheim. Glentoran also did well to get through their Champions League group although Manchester United soundly beat them in the next round. Club Domestic Reputation - It does seem right that we should fall behind Larne given their stranglehold on 2nd place for the last couple of seasons. Club European Reputation - Still rising and we should be able to rise even higher once the remaining 2 poor seasons drop off the coefficient calculation. Spoiler Spoiler Edited March 27, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted March 28, 2019 Author Share Posted March 28, 2019 Linfield F.C. SEASON 2048 / 2049 There isn't much I can do to dramatically change our fortunes given the financial constraints I'm forced to operate within. We have to keep plugging away and trying our best to make progress in the Europa League while trying to fight for Champions League qualification in the DBP. League Table - A much-improved performance from the team although the gap between us and Glentoran is immense as they became invincibles. I decided to get rid of the Advanced Forward role in the tactic and change it to a Poacher and it really helped us to score more goals. I think having both strikers 'Move Into Channels' is too detrimental to our scoring ability. I need the Deep Lying Forward (Support) to be an offensive pivot by positioning himself deeper off the ball as it is critical to our system. As a result, I decided that it would be best if I allowed the DLF(S) to be the one that does the lateral movements while restricting the lateral movements of his strike partner. The early signs are promising so I'm hoping with better players we'll score even more goals. UEFA Europa League - A decent group stage which saw us scrape through in 2nd but once we drew EPL opposition in the next round I knew the writing was on the wall. Domestic Cups - Another first for me at the club as we won the Co. Antrim Shield. Everything else was won by Glentoran which shows how dominant they are. Reserves - They had a reasonable season given the players in the squad. Under 18s - A fantastic job from them to clinch the league title and perhaps the investment in junior coaching is beginning to pay off. Squad - All the players highlighted in red will probably be leaving at the end of the season which should free up some wages for me to go into the transfer market. I think I need a fresh approach to bringing in players as we simply aren't in a position to spend money on players given the limited interest from other clubs in buying our players. I'm going to have to be more willing to go into the free transfer market as I have been mainly buying players 23 or younger who have value in excess of £100K. That strategy can only work and generate profit if you can sell on those players which we can't. The central midfield is in need of strengthening along with the attack and wide midfield so I will be prioritizing those areas. Transfers - The transfer market is practically dead at the moment which is preventing me from turning the club into a selling one. This is a huge problem as there is no other way I can really build this club. Spacek DC was an excellent signing and more than an adequate replacement for Rajkovic who wasn't missed as much as I thought he would be. As we qualified for the Champions League I will be trying my utmost to strengthen enough to challenge for a spot in the group stage as only that influx of money is going to enable us to really become a significant player in the transfer market. Marc Lynch - ML Average Rating: 7.17 He had a decent season although I would have liked a few more assists from him. In FM18 my wide midfielders were king of assists but in FM19 they aren't nearly as effective. I'll have to see what I can do to get them firing. Emrah Unsal - DR Average Rating: 7.16 A player that has developed quite well given the increased exposure to first-team football. Sometimes he can be a bit unreliable and makes some costly mistakes but overall I am satisfied with his performances this season but I feel he will need competition to keep him on his toes. Finances - This is a major obstacle we need to overcome. The only way I can see us building the balance enough to start investing into the club is by getting Champions League money. All the other avenues for boosting our income appear to be closed. Glentoran is too powerful for us to really challenge them for the DBP for the foreseeable future which would increase our fanbase and improve our income domestically. The other alternative of using player sales to bring in significant income also appears to be a dead end as teams aren't even interested in our best young players which I don't really understand. Signing high profile players like the board want is too expensive given our wage structure and any impact on attendances and income would be minimal. As a result, I'm left with the one option, so we need to be doing everything we can to get into the Champions League group stage as without that money we are going to really struggle to make any progress. Facilities - Junior Coaching has improved again and after the screenshot was taken I managed to upgrade it to the highest level. Youth Intake - Another decent crop of players in my opinion. I don't think these players will be good enough to contribute to the first team but I would like if we could sell them on in future for decent money. League Reputation - We recovered the 2 places we fell last season which was pleasing. It was another stellar year for the N. Irish clubs with Larne making it to the 1st Knockout Round of the Europa League along with us and Glentoran managing to make it to the final of the Europa League after finishing 3rd in their Champions League group. They were beaten by Bayer Leverkusen in the final but that's the best they have performed since I left which is very pleasing. It would be such a game changer if we could just scape through the Champions League qualifiers and have two N. Irish representatives in the group stages. Club Domestic Reputation - No changes is a little surprising given that Larne finished 4th in the DBP. Hopefully, their relatively high coefficient might help them navigate the Europa League qualifiers next season with some easier ties which would mean 4 N. Irish teams with group stage action, a first for the country. Club European Reputation - We won't be seeded for the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Champions League but there are a couple of teams which I wouldn't mind drawing which should give us a chance of making the playoff which we would be seeded for. We just have to hope for a bit of luck. Spoiler Spoiler Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 1, 2019 Author Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2049 / 2050 Getting into the Champions League group stage is the game changer that is needed to start growing the club so the focus will be on achieving that. I'd also like to grab Champions League qualification for next season by finishing 2nd but would rule out a title challenge as we are too inconsistent to compete with Glentoran for the moment although it would be nice to start closing the gap. League Table - This was a tough battle all the way with Larne as they showed a massive improvement on last season where they slumped to 4th. We had a slow start as I put all my efforts into the Champions League and we were playing catchup for the majority of the season but we just about did enough with Glentoran doing us a massive favour by drawing with Larne in their final fixture which for some reason was played a week after all the other final day games. The fact that we have qualified for the Champions League two seasons in a row could be a massive turning point in our battle with Larne. It was also pleasing to inflict upon Glentoran one of only 2 defeats they suffered all season as it shows the gap is shrinking. UEFA Champions League - The only thing that mattered was getting to the group stage and we did it thanks to a pair of narrow aggregate wins. I knew keeping a clean sheet at home would be key to winning the ties and the players did exactly that which gave us a great foundation to build upon. I didn't hold much hope of getting through the group stage. We performed largely as I expected although we did manage a win and a draw which meant we held hopes of finishing 3rd if we could beat Glasgow Celtic on the final matchday but it just wasn't to be. A great season in Europe from my perspective and the prize money we generated is going to be exceedingly helpful in getting us in the group stages on a regular basis. The attendances were a bit low though, I would have expected a far higher attendance against Dundee in the playoff given the importance of the game and the opportunity for the club to make history. Domestic Cups - No trophies to lift this season but I wasn't too bothered by it. Reserves - A very good season in the cups but still miles behind in the league. Under 18s - They had an excellent debut season in the UEFA Youth League and managed to retain the U18s League which was pleasing. Squad - We were very unlucky with injuries this season with Okoro GK suffering a pre-season injury which meant he missed the majority of the season. I didn't have any headroom on the wage budget so had to bring in a loan to cover his position. Generously, AS Monaco decided to allow us to have Minatchy at the club for no wage contribution which was critical for us as without him we would have had to depend on a youth player all season which would have been hugely detrimental to our performances. Dixon MC broke his leg and El Hamdaoui MC also suffered damage to his cruciate ligaments which really has ruined him as a player. I decided to go back to the Advanced Forward instead of the Poacher as the Poacher wasn't contributing enough for my taste. I sense the problems with us scoring enough goals are deeper than the roles we have upfront and are likely not tactical in nature at all and probably stem from the personnel we have in the team. There are a number of areas where we need to improve the squad so that we can start to consolidate our position as regular group stage participants. I will be releasing all the players whose contracts expire at the end of the season and look to replace them with young talent. We will need a GK, DR (Lengyel had his release clause triggered), possibly a DC if a decent offer comes in for Palatella, a defend duty MC, a support duty MC, a pair of wide midfielders and a couple of strikers. Basically, a rebuild is required although the run to the Champions League group stage should allow me to do it, expect a very different squad this time next season. Transfers - The vast majority of our action was done in the free transfer market and I'm very pleased with the players we managed to pick up. Clegg ST was a bit expensive but he did chip in with 8 goals which in a tight race for 2nd could have been critical in getting us over the line. I decided to get rid of Zehle ML as he never really got over not being registered for the Champions League and I had Garnier who was more than adequate as a replacement. Alfredo Palatella - DC Average Rating: 7.32 A remarkably good player who cost us nothing to bring into the club. If a good enough offer were to come in I wouldn't have any problems in selling him but if he remains here I wouldn't be too disappointed. Loic Minatchy - GK Average Rating: 6.95 He really pulled us out of the fire and played an instrumental role in getting us into the group stage of the Champions League. I tend not to want to bring in loan players as I loathe developing players for other clubs but in his case, I had to make an exception given the grave situation that we were in. He kept 23 clean sheets which no doubt contributed heavily to us performing as well as we did. Finances - It feels really good to have this as the balance after investments were made into the infrastructure of the club. The wage and transfer budget have become huge and I will be utilizing them as much as possible to bring in the quality of player needed to get to the group stage once again. I think that we are a few seasons off from competing with Glentoran for the title but we have taken significant strides forward this season. Winning the DBP would enable us to build the fan base size quickly but as that looks beyond us the focus now has to be to pull away from Larne and the rest and consolidate 2nd every season. If we can manage to get into the group stage of the Champions League for a few years in a row that should be enough to establish a huge gap and secure the club financially. Facilities - All the facilities were upgraded and progress toward improving into a Champions League standard club has started. Our lack of ability to fill Windsor Park remains a concern as it is the one area where we already have an advantage but as our fan base is so small we can't exploit it. As a result, we are missing out on a huge amount of income. Youth Intake - A couple of decent strikers but not much depth outside of that although I have been impressed with the performances of the youth team of late so maybe they are a lot better than my assistant thinks. League Reputation - New ground was broken for the first time as 2 teams from N. Ireland competed in the group stage of the Champions League (us and Glentoran) and 2 teams competed in the group stage of the Europa League (Larne and Ballymena United). As a result, the gap between us and Scotland has reduced significantly although it still remains rather large. Club Domestic Reputation - We deserve to be there in 2nd given we have managed to finish 2nd for two seasons in a row. Club European Reputation - The club is flying up this table although it won't be enough to give us seeding for the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Best Placed route so we are likely to have to beat a European giant to get through. Spoiler Spoiler Edited April 1, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) Great update! Maybe you can add another section every year and tell us a bit more about how Glentoran fared? To achieve your goals, it will be vital that Glentoran keeps its strong stature internationally, right? What you need is two (or better even three) clubs who can compete regularily at the hightest level, so if Glentoran commits any stupid mistakes in the transfer market, that could be bad for Northern Ireland as a whole. What happened to Scotland being in 6th place? Are they as good at the Uefa Coefficient as well? How come? Edited April 1, 2019 by Jean-Luc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carambau Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) Cork City on 31st position? How did that happen? And what about the N. Ireland national team? How are they doing? Edited April 1, 2019 by Carambau Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 1, 2019 Author Share Posted April 1, 2019 30 minutes ago, Jean-Luc said: Great update! Maybe you can add another section every year and tell us a bit more about how Glentoran fared? To achieve your goals, it will be vital that Glentoran keeps its strong stature internationally, right? What you need is two (or better even three) clubs who can compete regularily at the hightest level, so if Glentoran commits any stupid mistakes in the transfer market, that could be bad for Northern Ireland as a whole. What happened to Scotland being in 6th place? Are they as good at the Uefa Coefficient as well? How come? Cheers Not a bad idea, perhaps I can add a little more information in the league reputation section every season. Since I've left the club they have sold players worth £609M and spent £373.685M on bringing in players leaving a net income of £235.315M. Interestingly, their finances are only considered Secure which shows how unsustainable they are having to work with the income from a 30,170 capacity stadium while servicing an astronomical wage bill of nearly £60Mp/a. In comparison, Larne have a wage bill of just over £7.25Mp/a while we have a wage bill of just over £4Mp/a (although I expect that to increase dramatically over the coming years). Below is their record in Europe since I left, 2045/46 - Finished 3rd in Champions League group and knocked out in 1st Knockout Round of Europa League 2046/47 - Beaten in 1st Knockout Round of Champions League 2047/48 - Beaten in 1st Knockout Round of Champions League 2048/49 - Finished 3rd in Champions League group and were runners up in Europa League 2049/50 - Beaten in 1st Knockout Round of Champions League Overall, they have declined significantly from the position I left them in but not too badly as they do contribute a reasonable amount of coefficient points every year. They haven't really done anything too reckless in the transfer market although they have opted to focus on the older side when it comes to bringing in players and as a result, no longer have any wonderkids in their squad at all. I think the interesting period for them will be the next few seasons when they can no longer generate as much money from player sales. I don't wish for them to decline but if we could emerge as the dominant force in the country and dominate domestically I think it will ultimately be for the best as there is still a lot of room for growth at Linfield whereas Glentoran has peaked until they can build a new ground and increase their revenues. The Scottish teams aren't great in Europe as the only Scottish team to win a European trophy was Glasgow Celtic in 2043 with the Europa League. What they are good at is maintaining their position and investing the money they get from Europe wisely into the infrastructure of their clubs which they can do more easily as the money they generate domestically is quite good. That is why I feel it's going to be incredibly difficult to overtake them. As Scotland gets 3 Champions League places and 3 Europa League places they have a much greater opportunity to gain coefficient points. I'd really like to be in the situation that I could help the other N. Irish teams competing in Europe by supplying them with players but we are way off that being a possibility at the moment. The current nations coefficient table is as follows, 6th Scotland 52.250 7th Portugal 47.800 8th Northern Ireland 38.000 9th Russia 33.575 10th Switzerland 30.025 As you can see the gap is still large although it is shrinking. If I can draw Dundee again in the Playoff next season and knock them out that will be incredibly helpful in reducing the gap even further. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 1, 2019 Author Share Posted April 1, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Carambau said: Cork City on 31st position? How did that happen? And what about the N. Ireland national team? How are they doing? Cork City have been excellent in this save. They got floated on the stock exchange and built a new stadium in 2038. What impresses me the most about them is that they have managed to rise so high based on hard work and haven't had a tycoon or any assistance to get them there. They have won the IPL all bar 5 times since the save began and have currently strung together a run of 16 in a row. They regularly compete in the group stages of the Champions League and overall are a very well run club which benefits from being in the R.O.I. where the work permit rules are a breeze so they can recruit from far and wide which they have done. The N. Irish national team have been rather disappointing. They haven't qualified for a World Cup at all in the save which is surprising given that qualification should be a lot easier given the increase in the number of spots available. Since 2036 they have however qualified for every European Championship which is good. They have made the 2nd Round twice but have progressed no further. They have become a yo-yo team in the Nations League constantly flipping between Group A & B. All the best Edited April 1, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carambau Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 Between group A & B sounds quite impressive tbh Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 8, 2019 Author Share Posted April 8, 2019 On 01/04/2019 at 13:23, Carambau said: Between group A & B sounds quite impressive tbh It's just a shame they can't seem to translate that into qualifying for a World Cup where I think they could be decent with the squad they have. I have previously been offered the N. Ireland manager job but didn't take it as I'm struggling with the volume of fixtures I'm currently playing, adding more per season would be too much for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 8, 2019 Author Share Posted April 8, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2050 / 2051 We managed a first for the club last season by qualifying for the group stages of the Champions League. I would like to repeat that and finish 2nd in the DBP so I can keep the money flowing in as I strive to build the club both on and off the pitch. League Table - We managed to secure 2nd but only just as Larne gave us a real challenge. It's interesting to note that we scored far fewer goals this season than last but managed to gain 4 more points. It probably is a result of me fielding a 4-4-1-1 for the majority of the season but I will be reverting back to the 4-4-2 for next season. It was a shame to see Distillery get relegated but the money they have gained from being in the top flight for so long should enable them to bounce back easily. The gap to Glentoran is still enormous and is going to take a lot of work to overcome. UEFA Champions League - It was a real struggle but for the 2nd consecutive season, we managed to get into the group stages. Once we got there we were only really competitive with Legia Warsaw which was enough to see us finish in 3rd and gave us a crack at the Europa League knockout stages. UEFA Europa League - We could have drawn a far easier tie in the 2nd Knockout Round but instead we got Arsenal which pretty much killed our chances of making history by getting to the quarter-final for the first time. We did well to hold them to a draw at Windsor Park but once we went onto their turf the difference in class between the two teams was clear to see and we were resoundingly beaten. Domestic Cups - Felt good to beat Glentoran in the Irish Cup on the way to lifting the trophy. Reserves - A massive step backwards after the progress shown in recent seasons. Under 18s - Another team in decline it would seem. Squad - The team is improving but we are miles away from where we need to be in order to start really challenging Glentoran for domestic supremacy. We don't score enough goals and didn't have a single player break the 20 goal mark this year and only had one get double figures. If we compare our record with Glentoran we scored 29 fewer goals and conceded 11 more which is a huge deficit to make up. If we are serious about competing we need to be more ruthless in front of goal and our midfield needs to provide an awful lot more in terms of assists. On both fronts, I think the players we have aren't up to the standard and we are going to need to look into the transfer market to bring in the quality we need. Transfers - I was very active in the transfer market this season given the increased financial resources available and overall I think the net result has had a positive effect on the ability of the squad. The signing of the season was probably Carson GK as I had to depend on him for the entire season and he didn't let me down. Monkhouse ML was a bit of a let down given his hefty price tag so I'm hoping that he manages to make a dramatic improvement next season. I didn't really want to sell Garnier ML but he wanted to leave as did Lengyel DR but at least I managed to bring in a quality replacement for him. Sutton ST left as he was becoming a pain after I didn't select him for the Champions League squad, £1.5M was decent money so I shipped him out. Alfredo Palatella - DC Average Rating: 7.36 Another solid season from the central defender. I think he is the prototype for the kind of player I should be looking to build around. He's a good age, has reasonable wages, a decent personality and is consistent. If I can continue to add that sort of player into the squad we should start to improve at a quicker rate. Markus Ehlers - MR Average Rating: 7.20 A decent player although he suffers from the same problem that the rest of my midfielders have and that is a lack of assists. I expect a lot more from him and he should really be tearing up the DBP. I'm hoping that next season will see Svenningsen start to exert some pressure on him for his spot in the team which might have the effect of pushing him on to perform better. Finances - This was the balance after all the investments in the facilities were taken out but before the Champions League coefficient ranking pool money came in which was around £6M. The club is in a very good financial situation and I'll be looking to take advantage of this to bring in the quality of player we need to move forward. I am getting really concerned about the shrinking of the size of the fan base. The average league attendance fell by over 30% which is huge and deeply troubling when you consider that ticket prices have remained rather stagnant. We really need to start challenging for the DBP soon as it's beginning to feel like we are declining as a club rather than growing. Facilities - Both the youth and training facilities will be getting upgraded. I did request to expand the stadium but given the situation that has developed with the fans staying away, that seems pointless at the moment as we look to be moving further away from being able to fill Windsor Park. Youth Intake - Beckett ST looks a real star in the making and I'll be interested to see how he develops. Tumelty AMC looks decent although his position will need to be retrained. Outside of those two, the rest aren't great and the majority were released once their trials ended. League Reputation - Holding steady is all I want for the foreseeable future as we need to keep our 2nd Champions League spot for as long as possible. Glentoran reached the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League where they lost 4-1 on aggregate to Fiorentina, Larne were beaten by PSV in the 4th Qualifying Round of the Europa League, Ballymena United finished 4th in their Europa League group and finally Coleraine were understandably beaten by Newcastle United in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Europa League. Overall, an average season for the N. Irish clubs in Europe which helps maintain the nation's position. Club Domestic Reputation - Very little movement with Glentoran retaining their 5* reputation status even though they haven't won a European trophy for a while. To elucidate the extent of the mountain we have to climb, Glentoran sold £232M worth of players this season and brought players in for £128M. We sold £7.75M worth of players and brought in players for £14M. We are literally worlds apart although if we look at Europe as a whole that isn't enough to have Glentoran competing in the later stages of the Champions League. Club European Reputation - Even with this high coefficient I still don't feel it will be enough to get us seeded at any point during the qualifiers. Spoiler Spoiler Edited April 8, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 11, 2019 Author Share Posted April 11, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2051 / 2052 Continue to qualify for the Champions League, make the group stages and try to close the enormous gap to Glentoran. League Table - This has to go down in history as one of the most compelling seasons I have ever experienced in FM which had me captivated from beginning to end. We started brilliantly and led the season up until late December where a few poor results allowed surprise title challengers Larne to gain the initiative and by the time we had reached the split they held a 3 point advantage over us although we had a significant edge on goal difference. Our first game of the split was away to Glentoran which saw us get beaten 3-0 which had me concerned that we might have thrown away our shot at winning the title but then a few days later my hopes were reignited as Larne suffered a shock 1-0 reversal at Coleraine. We then played Glenavon at home where we recovered well from going down a goal to hold a 2-1 lead late in the game only for them to grab a late equalizer which was another set back but then came some great news from Ballymena United as once again Larne slipped up suffering another 1-0 defeat which reduced their lead to 2 points. At this point, given our terrible form, I wasn't convinced that we could genuinely win the title so I was just hoping that we could take it to the final day where we played Larne at home. I knew that they still had to play Glentoran so I was targeting that game as the one where they could possibly drop points and in the end, my instincts proved right as they drew that game whereas we won the next 2 which handed us the advantage going into the title showdown. Owing to our vastly superior goal difference, all we needed was a draw and when we took the lead early it looked promising for us but then a late equalizer from them made for a nervy end to the game given that another goal would hand them the title but we showed great character and held on to claim our first DBP trophy in 35 years. Hopefully, we won't have to wait as long for our next although I can't see Glentoran remaining this weak again next season as they had a shocking season. UEFA Champions League - If winning the DBP was impressive this was even better as we not only qualified from our group for the first time we actually managed to win a knockout tie which was an extraordinary achievement given the gulf in class between us and the teams we beat. We really had some appalling attendances in this competition which was worrying, only 157 people could be bothered to turn up and see us get through to the quarter-final and they only had to travel across the Irish Sea. A great campaign which I hope can be replicated next season. Domestic Cups - The board don't particularly care about these competitions so neither did I as I fielded a hybrid of youth and reserve players. I am actually pleasantly surprised that they managed to go so far and keep the scorelines respectable against Glentoran as it gives me encouragement about the quality of player that is emerging through the clubs youth system. Reserves - A decent season for the backup players given how many members of the squad were put out on loan. Under 18s - For all the good they may have done in the senior domestic cups they were fairly poor in the youth competitions. Squad - I would be lying if I told you that I expected this team to bring home the title and go as far as they did in the Champions League but nevertheless here we are. I think there were a few factors which contributed aside from the obvious one with Glentoran having a stinker of a season. The first being the addition of a quality GK which really helped us given how many clean sheets he kept, another being the switch back to a 4-4-2 which had a very positive impact on players like Clegg ST who managed a far better haul of goals this season compared to the last. Additionally, the spine of the team was significantly strengthened with players like Cavaco DC & Vasey MC having great debut seasons alongside the more established members of the squad who also had very good seasons. Finally, I was more sparing with the amount of rotation I did which really helped us to get into a rhythm and become more consistent. In previous seasons, I would rotate the entire squad after mid-week games or during busy periods which disrupted our flow so in future I'll keep starting players provided their condition is >90% which I think is reasonable as well as continuing to field a hybrid of reserve and youth team players in the domestic cups. Transfers - The transfer business carried out this season was excellent as I feel the team has been strengthened and all at a price which didn't break the bank. I was a little bit disappointed to lose Baherle DR but he wanted to leave and the price we received was brilliant as it netted the club a nice profit. Given the resources we have at the club now I'd quite like to start to invest in the wonderkid market next season and start really building for the future. Rosic ST and Unsal DR will both be leaving at the end of the season so my first priority will be finding another quality right back to compete with Becker. Joao Cavaco - DC Average Rating: 7.24 He is just what we were looking for from a central defender in a 4-4-2. Strong, brave and a good reader of the game. The only concern I have with him is the amount of interest from other clubs but hopefully, we can fend them off and hold onto him. Lee Vasey - MC Average Rating: 7.12 He was exceptional in his debut season in the league. I'll never forget the screamer he scored from 25 yards out late in the game when we looked like dropping points against Coleraine in the penultimate game of the season. That goal was priceless as it turned the tide in our favour for the title showdown, for that and his consistency throughout the year he more than merits this accolade. Finances - LOADZA MONEY!!! I'm really hoping that now we've pulled off the miracle of winning the DBP that we can begin to see an improvement in our attendances. A good early sign would be increased season ticket sales next season as we need to increase the size of the fan base if we are ever to build this club into a European giant. Facilities - It's great to be able to continue investing in the training and youth facilities while simultaneously investing in the first team. Youth Intake - This intake was a lot worse than last season but I suppose it's unrealistic to expect a potential star to emerge every year. Having said that Eggleston MR could be decent if he can develop well. League Reputation - No changes in position although it wasn't a great year for the N. Irish clubs in Europe. Glentoran finished bottom of their Champions League group which was largely in keeping with their terrible season. More concerning was the deterioration of Glentoran's financial status to just 'Okay' which is an ominous sign given they aren't going to get any Champions League money next season either. They need a rebuild as their squad is aging with a number of overpaid players they need to get rid of otherwise this blip could turn into a serious downturn which would be potentially damaging in the long term although it would make our life easier in gaining domestic dominance in the short term. Larne also didn't qualify from their Europa League group which meant that without us flying the flag this season we might have dropped a few places. Club Domestic Reputation - It's good to have improved our reputation which I'm hoping will have a positive impact on attendances and also on the quality of player we can attract to the club. I'm happy to see Glentoran retain their 5* status although I do wonder how much longer that is going to last if they don't start to improve in Europe. Club European Reputation - We did actually manage to get seeded for the 3rd Qualifying Round this season but thankfully we won't have to worry about that this time around as we go straight into the group stage. I'm seriously doubtful that Larne is going to make it through the best-placed route so we may only have the one representative in the Champions League group stage next season. Spoiler Spoiler Edited April 11, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2052 / 2053 A giant leap forward was taken last season with the club lifting its first DBP trophy in 35 years and getting to the Champions League quarter-final. I'd like to continue that forward momentum and retain the title if possible. I sense we are going to have a tough battle on our hands as I can see a Glentoran resurgence after last seasons poor performance while Larne is still punching well above their weight and are a force to be reckoned with too. League Table - Another nailbiter of a season with it once again going right down to the wire after a three-way tussle for the title. It took until the 29th match for us to hit the summit but once we reached it we showed great resilience to retain the lead with us losing only once the whole season to Glentoran. The destination of the title was still undecided going into the final day showdown at home to Glentoran which put us in the same position as last season with a draw being enough to clinch the title. In the end, we managed to surpass that by getting a 3-2 win in the final game which made us champions to the delight of our supporters and to the dismay of the Glentoran fans who significantly outnumbered us at Windsor Park. Could this season be the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to competition for the DBP? Only time will tell. UEFA Champions League - This was a massive let down after the exploits of last season. It started brightly with a hard-fought draw against top seeds Chelsea at home but then went downhill badly with two defeats. Thankfully, we managed to salvage 3rd thanks to a late goal for us on the final matchday against Valencia which allowed us to overtake Porto after they suffered defeat to Chelsea. Perhaps in hindsight, this is a fairer reflection of where we are as a club and last season was an aberration. UEFA Europa League - This was the perfect antidote to getting dumped out of the Champions League as we managed against all the odds to pull off an incredible victory. The first game of the Knockout Rounds was an all Irish affair and saw a number of our former players return such as Baherle and Garnier. It proved to be a tough tie for us with the lead we took into the 2nd leg proving pivotal. The next game came against Mainz who I expected to be a lot stronger than Cork City but to our credit, we managed to get past them rather easily winning both legs. Now into the business end with a powerful Watford side our opponents in the quarter-final. I would have been happy if we left England with a score draw so was ecstatic when we managed to score 3 times and go into the 2nd leg with a lead. It was hard going in the 2nd leg and with the scoreline at 2-2 late into the game I was concerned that we were going to bottle it and they might force the game into extra time. Therefore I reacted and parked the bus which killed off the game and we managed to sneak through into the semi-final. Now the nerves are really starting to fray as we could be drawn against Juventus, Newcastle United or Glasgow Celtic. Thankfully we managed to get the draw I wanted and faced Celtic in the semi-final which probably makes our run in the Europa League one of the easiest for traveling away supporters in the history of the competition although it didn't have that much of an impact on the attendances against Cork City and Watford. The ties against Celtic were a lot more tricky than I anticipated and we really struggled but we managed to prevail through the lottery of penalties thanks to a brilliant save from Tapia after a spotless sequence of penalties from both teams. Going into the final I wasn't holding out much hope of us winning the competition as our surprise opponents Newcastle United just looked a different class altogether given the way they sailed past Juventus. I wanted us to give a good account of ourselves but owing to some injuries and a lack of match fitness from some players I knew that we were going to be up against it and I fully expected Newcastle to attack us relentlessly and have us pinned back in our own half where it would just a matter of time before they broke us down. Then the formations came up before the game and I saw them fielding a flat 4-1-4-1 which had me rather puzzled. Could they be playing defensively? Well, I had to know the answer and switched up the level of detail for highlights and started the match. Needless to say, after the first half an hour the answer was a resounding no as they launched attack after attack and we were fortunate to avoid conceding. I did, however, spot something interesting while watching the game and that was the high press they were adopting. Then I decided to try something and made some tactical changes. The first was adding the TI to 'Pass Into Space' with the thinking being that when they are vacating their defensive shape while pressing that we could exploit that space. I also decided to add the TI to play more direct passes as I wanted to try and play over the press. Finally, I added Counter to the in transition instructions again with the view of getting forward quickly and exploiting the space in behind the press. After that point, the game completely changed. Where we were losing the ball in dangerous areas because of the pressure beforehand now we were managing to hold onto the ball better and their press was bring nullified. The result was brilliant, we scored shortly after the changes and after that point, they were unable to regain control of the game. They changed their formation halfway through the 2nd half to a 5-2-1-2 with wingbacks but if anything that worked into our hands as we managed to get the 2nd on a blistering counter-attack which practically killed the game. For the final 10 minutes, I shut it down not wanting to give them any encouragement to get back into the game and it worked. A remarkable season which sees the club lift its first European trophy, incredible. Domestic Cups - I stuck to my guns of playing a hybrid of youth and reserves in the cups and it worked out well in my opinion. They did exceptionally well to go all the way to the Irish Cup final and I was tempted to field a strengthened team in order to try and win the double but I decided against it and stuck with the players that had played throughout the tournament. It didn't work out this time but they didn't embarrass themselves by any stretch of the imagination and they can look back fondly at some brilliant results on their great run. Reserves - They managed their first of what I'm hoping is many cup wins by lifting the Steel and Sons Cup. Under 18s - A brilliant season from the youth team which saw them win the domestic double. I felt they were unlucky not to progress in the UEFA Youth League as 9 points are usually enough to get through the group but a defeat on the final matchday pushed them down to 3rd which was witnessed by 22 people. I think it's fair to say that the youth team hasn't quite caught the imagination of the locals yet. Squad - Speaking frankly, this team shouldn't be anywhere near winning the Europa League given the lack of depth and weaknesses in the team. There are some encouraging signs, however. For the first time ever there are wonderkids in the squad which should be good for the future. Another positive is the massive increase in the market values of the players which should mean that any sales we make should be lucrative for the club. It appears that finally, my intention of turning the club into a selling one is potentially coming to fruition which is great. I will not be resting on my laurels though and will be looking to strengthen once again in the summer as I seek to get us back into the knockout rounds of the Champions League. Transfers - There was some excellent business done this year with the free transfers brought into the team probably being the best signings of the bunch. It is also great to see the club generate some decent money through sales although I was gutted to lose Cavaco for his release fee as I don't think I have adequately replaced him. In July next season another free transfer GK will be joining who looks good which should provide some healthy competition to Tapia who was great in between the sticks in his debut season. We definitely need to look to strengthen next season although funds are tight so we may have to sell before we can invest. Derek Clegg - ST Average Rating: 7.30 The top scorer once again who proved his value to the squad. The only problem I have with him is that he doesn't like playing in big matches and it showed with his lackluster performances in Europe even though he did manage a reasonable amount of goals. The vultures are circling but I don't see him as being irreplaceable especially with wonderkid Gueye waiting in the wings. Lee Vasey - MC Average Rating: 7.01 Another good season from the central midfielder although his average rating did drop a bit. His preferred duty keeps flipping between Defend and Support which is pretty much in keeping with the type of player he is. The problem with that is I need to have players that are exceptional at one facet of the game rather than all rounders who can do both decently if we are to make progress as a squad. As a result, his days could be numbered, additionally, I didn't like the stink he kicked up when I refused to let him leave during the January transfer window and perhaps the sooner we are shot of him the better. Finances - This doesn't look too healthy but it was after the facilities money was taken out but before the CL coefficient money came in which was £7.95M which pushed us up to around the £10M mark. As a result, we are going to need to be very astute in our transfer dealings next season so that I can continue the investment in the facilities. Facilities - Another pair of upgrades which gets us closer to the state of the art facilities. After last seasons DBP title the average attendance rose significantly alongside the season ticket sales, I'll be interested to see how much further it can increase now that we managed to retain the title and win the Europa League. As it stands we are at around 35% of the capacity of Windsor Park, I'd quite like to be pushing 50% next season which is optimistic but we need to really start to see the growth of our fan base if we are to become a major force in European football. We need to at least be selling out all our homes games in the Champions League. Youth Intake - We've had a lot of decent strikers come through in recent times but not much of anything else. Hopefully, Beckett ST and his promotion into the first team at 18 might act as an inspiration for the youth players by showing there is a pathway into the first team from the youth team provided you are good enough. We also need to cultivate more HG players as European registration has become really problematic. League Reputation - Another flat season for the other N. Irish clubs although there were some bright spots. Larne defied expectations by getting into the Champions League group stage although they finished bottom of their group so hopefully, the money they earned will help them given they won't be getting any CL money next season. Glentoran had a reasonable season reaching the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League but got hammered by Celtic which was disappointing. They also seem to be playing managerial musical chairs which don't help given the constant upheaval. The rest didn't even make it through the qualifiers. The gap to the nations above shrunk a bit but we are still miles behind. Club Domestic Reputation - Up to 4* which is great for us, not so great to see Glentoran lose their 5* status but it has been a long time coming. Hopefully, we can get that extra 0.5* which might just cancel the affiliation with Rangers as I really want us to move away from being a junior club in any respect. Club European Reputation - We are really high in the rankings which is great and have almost overtaken Glentoran. I really hope that Glentoran can navigate their way into the group stage of the Champions League next season as if Larne can do I see no good reason why they can't and we need them alongside us earning coefficient points. Spoiler Spoiler Edited April 16, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Posted April 23, 2019 Share Posted April 23, 2019 No Easter update here? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 On 23/04/2019 at 11:07, Jean-Luc said: No Easter update here? Unfortunately, I've been experiencing a lot of graphics card crashes. I suspect it's a software issue (not FM related) rather than hardware but I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that I get random hard lockups during the game which forces me to restart my computer. If it happens to crash at the moment where I'm saving the game then the save gets corrupted and I have to go back to an earlier version of the rolling save which is problematic as I don't want to be replaying games especially when the results often come out differently. As a temporary workaround I'm therefore running two savefiles concurrently where I save before and after each game but this isn't ideal at this stage of the career when the savefile is large and takes at least a minute to save each time. Having to constantly save the game and the extra time it's taking has sapped the motivation I have to play even though I was enjoying it before this started to happen. So, for the time being, I would expect far fewer updates than usual. Hopefully, I can find a resolution soon especially since I'm at such an exciting point in the building of Linfield. Thanks for the comment. Best Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Posted April 27, 2019 Share Posted April 27, 2019 That sounds awful. Wishing you all the best for solving that problem. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted May 8, 2019 Author Share Posted May 8, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2053 / 2054 After a bit of a hiatus, I have another seasons progress to report. Last season was incredible with us lifting the Europa League and retaining the DBP title. This season I would like to make the knockout stages of the Champions League once again and try to claim a hat-trick of DBP wins. League Table - We had some sticky moments early on in the season where we were not in control of the title race and were playing catch up but once we got into our stride and hit some impressive form in December and January we built a lead and maintained it. I think my prediction that last season was the end of the really competitive title races could be coming to pass as Glentoran and Larne were really off the pace this time around. The ability gap between us and the chasing pack also appears to be widening rather than shrinking given that neither team seems particularly interested in investing in youth and improving their squads. It was a fitting way to claim our 60th top-flight title but in the long term, I don't want a non-competitive league when you consider the likely ramifications for our teams' performances in Europe. For the short term, I suppose it's a necessity to ease the building of Linfield and its fanbase which only seems to grow well with domestic success. It was nice to see Distillery improve although their 'Insecure' financial status is concerning. UEFA Champions League - What an incredible way for the club to lift its first Champions League trophy. This unbelievable run had it all and captivated me from start to finish. We didn't start all that well in the group stage having only 4 points after 3 games which had us languishing in 3rd but we recovered well and going into the final matchday our destiny was in our own hands with us only needing to match Real Madrid's result against Lazio in order to claim 2nd. It was a nervy affair but we got what we wanted with a 1-0 win that put us through to the 1st Knockout Round where we faced surprise group winners Dundee which I was quite happy with considering some of the other teams we could have drawn. I knew that Dundee was going to be a difficult team to beat given the massive investments they have made into their clubs infrastructure and squad. After the 1-1 draw at home, I felt they held the advantage. We would have to play well in Scotland and had the added pressure of having to score at least once to level the tie on away goals. Well, to my surprise not only did we manage to score in the 2nd leg we scored 4 times which made our passage into the next round far more straightforward than I was anticipating. Next up was Benfica who once again I felt was the best draw we could have gotten and made me feel optimistic that we could at least give them a competitive game. After the 2-1 victory away in Portugal, my confidence was boosted even further and it looked likely we would make history by getting to our first semi-final. I think the significance of what we could achieve played on our minds a bit as we put in a really poor performance in the 2nd leg. Thankfully, our GK managed to pull us out of the hole we dug ourselves pulling off a couple of saves in the penalty shootout to set up a semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur. Of the teams remaining in the hat, I probably would have liked to have drawn Lazio rather Tottenham or Manchester City but at this point, I was just satisfied to be in the running and potentially 180 minutes away from the Champions League final. I knew to stand any chance of beating Tottenham we would have to come away from London with a decent result. Well, we didn't just get a decent result we got an excellent result that was no doubt helped by the Tottenham players tiredness but I was delighted to have put ourselves in the position where we could get to the final with just a draw in the 2nd leg which is all I could really hope for. I knew that we couldn't afford to rest on our laurels however and demanded that we started the game with the right intensity and tried to score to put further pressure on our guests. Unfortunately, that approach didn't really work all that well as a well-rested Tottenham was a far harder nut to crack this time with a goal from them in the first half putting us under tremendous pressure to keep them from scoring again. Thankfully, we managed to do that and take the game into extra time. Extra time was a dull and uninspiring affair with both teams looking terrified to make any mistakes with what was at stake. Towards the end, I was preparing for penalties once again. Then something amazing happened, we scored in the 120th minute with substitute Beckett ST putting in the rebound after he had his shot parried back to his feet. Such a late goal they couldn't respond to and we booked our place in the final. The other semi-final was also quite remarkable with Lazio winning the 1st leg 2-0 at home which I thought would have booked their place in the final only for Manchester City to win the 2nd leg at home 4-0 to knock them out (spooky). The Champions League final was to be played in Austria at the Ernst Happel Stadium and we went into the game as heavy underdogs. Knowing this I decided that to stand a chance I would have to prepare the team well so I read the team report produced by the data analysis department to see if I could spot any weaknesses that I could exploit. The standout for me was the lack of aggression from the Man City players, therefore I decided to tell my players to 'Get Stuck In' in the hope that I could use our advantage of being more aggressive to stifle their players. It seemed to work quite well as we scored an early goal but then sloppily conceded the equalizer shortly after from a defensive mistake. We did get a few cards at which point I gave PIs to ease off tackles but the harder tackling was very effective at disrupting their rhythm and in a sense made up for the clear gap in ability between the two sides. If I'm being honest the rest of the game wasn't all that exciting, they didn't really threaten as we bullied them with our physicality and neither did we as we seemed content to just hang on in there which made for a poor spectacle overall. I was fully expecting that the game would go to extra time and possibly penalties then a late highlight came up. Miskimmin MR is a player I brought on as a substitute for a poorly performing and not fully fit Trabelsi. He is 17 years old and is only supposed to be a standby for domestic cup games. Well, he only came on and won it putting in a rebound deep into stoppage time. It's incredible to think that the two heroes of our Champions League run are both HG prospects with both scoring late goals to give us the victories. It's an incredible achievement to win the Champions League with this team considering what we were up against in terms of the competitors' financial resources. I'm delighted for the players who played out of their skin for this club and thoroughly deserve their success, if there was ever a vindication of the statement that money isn't everything in sport then our campaign would be a testament to it, absolutely brilliant. UEFA Super Cup - If you start any game by conceding 2 goals within the first 10 minutes you are going to be in for a tough time let alone against a team with the quality of players Chelsea have at their disposal. This was a bitter defeat but at least we get another chance to win it next season. Domestic Cups - The youth and reserve team players did an excellent job and did exceptionally well to get to the final of the League Cup. Going into the final I was torn between keeping faith with them or putting out a strong team, in the end, I decided to field a stronger team which paid off as it enabled us to claim our only domestic cup of the season. Reserves - A really poor season from them, I'd like to get into a situation where I could bolster their ranks and start loaning players out to other domestic teams to strengthen them but I think we are quite a few years away from making that a reality. Although there as some players loaned out from the reserves that are doing well at other teams the quality of those players isn't all that great. Under 18s - They won the league but were fairly hopeless in the cup and in Europe. I think I'm going to need to try and sign some youth affiliations in order to try and improve the players coming into the team. Squad - This team on paper isn't good enough to have achieved what they did this season but what they lack in ability they make up for in spirit and determination. To a man, they were truly exceptional and more importantly played as a team and worked hard. That is the key ingredient which I will be hoping to nurture as even after winning the Champions League we can't just splash the cash and buy our way to success. I'll need to continue working to improve the quality in the squad by offering young talented youngsters the opportunity to showcase their skills and develop them if I can do that I can see a very bright future ahead for the club and more success to come. Transfers - I have to say that this was one of the most annoying pair of transfer windows I've had during the career. First, the good. Soares GK and Frimpong DC were brilliant in their debut seasons with the former pulling off some incredible saves to keep us in games while the latter was very consistent and has shown good development. I was also pleased to offload Bocek MC for a profit along with Monkhouse ML and Krejci DL who all wanted to leave. As for the bad, well, Rudi DC and Martinez ML were expensive and didn't contribute much to the team while Emerson MC took a while to get up to speed in terms of fitness and again didn't stand out given his record price tag for the club. I was rather disappointed to lose Clegg ST who had been excellent for us over the last few seasons but he didn't want to sign a new contract on terms I would have been satisfied with and he signed a pre-contract agreement with Southampton. Not wanting to lose him for nothing I then decided to activate the sell now clause as I felt we had sufficient cover for the ST position. Tapia GK was another player I didn't want to lose but I was happy with his replacement. Finally, the ugly. The Svenningsen debacle, this really infuriated me. There was no interest in him at all throughout the whole January transfer window but then out of the blue in comes Amiens (newly flushed after an £11M injection of cash from us) after the window is closed with a bid which matches his release clause. I can do nothing about it and can't even bring in a replacement so have to depend on youth players for the remainder of the season. In retrospect, it didn't affect us too badly but it could have which has led me to refuse to offer release clauses in all contract negotiations from now on. Maxime Rolland - ML Average Rating: 7.58 The best season he's had at the club without a doubt. He is going to need to have better competition for his position though as I don't think Martinez is good enough. Predrag Zivanovic - DL Average Rating: 7.38 A good breakout season from the Serbian as he took advantage of Krejci leaving the club. I don't think he is the long term answer for the left-back position but he should enjoy his moment in the sun while it lasts. Finances - The Champions League win has done wonders for the financial stability of the club and this is the balance after all the facilities money was taken out. The board also feel that club is in great health financially as they helped themselves to £10.5M in dividends after the screenshot was taken which I feel is a rather misguided move as I could have put that money to good use in improving the squad. We are still nowhere near being a self-sustaining model and the board doesn't seem to understand that. Facilities - I was actually surprised when it was granted but early in the season I asked for the stadium to be expanded and they were more than happy to grant it after some persuasion which is remarkable considering that we aren't even filling half the capacity of Windsor Park on average. I don't know why they have allocated us New Grosvenor Stadium rather than Glentoran's stadium but I suppose we will just have to suffer it for one season so it's not too bad in terms of a short term pain for a long term gain. I do find it strange that we will be forced to play our domestic games at Distillery's home ground while we will be able to play at Windsor Park in Europe, why can't we just play there for both? The training and youth facilities are both being upgraded and the data analysis facilities will be getting upgraded again as soon as the option becomes available. Things are moving along nicely and I'm hoping that the newly expanded stadium will start to have positive effects on the size of our fanbase and increase our revenues as we prepare to build up the bank balance for the next stage which is to build a new stadium. Youth Intake - I don't anticipate any of these players making it into the first team but the majority will be given a chance to show what they are capable of. League Reputation - We are pretty much at the limit of how far we can go without any help from the other N. Irish clubs. Glentoran bombed out of the Champions League qualifiers but did manage to top their Europa League group although might have better off finishing 2nd given they drew Real Madrid who dismantled them in the 1st Knockout Round. Both Larne and Ballymena United finished 3rd in their Europa League groups while Coleraine was hammered 3-0 by Slovan Bratislava in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Europa League. The other teams really need to invest in better players as they are going nowhere at the moment. Glentoran's decline has been particularly disappointing and they need to start investing in youth rather than paying extortionate amounts of money on established players which they don't have the financial backing to support. We really need another tycoon to invest in the country as that could really help. Club Domestic Reputation - We have taken the crown as the most reputable team in the country and hopefully during next season we should get elevated to 5* status. It's painful to watch Glentoran fail to capitalize on their reputation and restrict the scope of their transfer dealings as there is so much talent they are missing out on that would improve their squad. Club European Reputation - A long way to go to hit the summit but at least we are still climbing. Spoiler Spoiler Edited May 8, 2019 by pheelf 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted May 17, 2019 Author Share Posted May 17, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2054 / 2055 The previous campaign was exceptional and far exceeded my expectations with the team lifting both the DBP and Champions League. I'd like to repeat that feat although it does appear a daunting task given how much of an overachievement it was. It'll be interesting to see how we cope with being exiled from Windsor Park for a season. League Table - Our best season yet with us breaking our record points total and clinching the title. I must give credit to Glentoran who pushed us a lot harder than last season and managed a high points total of their own which without us in the league would have likely won them the title. It's nice to see Distillery establish themselves in the top division, it was looking like they might make the top 6 at one point but a collapse ended their hopes and they got knocked out of the first stage of the Europa League playoff. UEFA Champions League - This was another great performance from the team which allowed us to remarkably retain the trophy. After the first 4 games of the group stage, it was beginning to look like we would top our group easily but then a couple of really poor results pushed us down to 2nd. The manner of those defeats really concerned me and I knew that we would need to step up our game dramatically otherwise we would get knocked out by Valencia. It was then that I decided to alter my approach slightly. I decided to start reading the pre-match reports from my data analysis team and scouts and utilize them to identify weaknesses in the opposition to try and exploit. This proved to be an astute decision with the best example of its success being the quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich didn't have many weaknesses but one which my scouts identified in their report was that Bayern's AMC had a propensity to get red cards. I made the decision to put on the opposition instruction to rough him up and tackle hard. The result, halfway through the 1st half he gets a red card which completely swung the game in our favour after they took an early lead. I then exploited their man disadvantage by attacking with width and pushing back our defensive line to make the pitch as large as possible, the result was spectacular with us scoring 4 goals away in Germany which practically booked our place in the semi-final. If I said that I was expecting us to win the trophy 2 seasons in a row I would be being disingenuous but once again we showed great resilience to overcome the odds and injuries to pull it off. I'll be interested to see whether we can pull off the hat-trick next time. I know it will be exceptionally difficult as the European elite won't be resting but with some improvements to the playing squad I wouldn't rule it out. FIFA Club World Cup - It was going so well after we easily dispatched the OFC Champions League winners in the semi-final. Then we just seemed to freeze in the final with our strikers having uncharacteristically poor games. I thought we might have gotten away with it when we scored in the last minute of extra time to take the game to penalties but a couple of terrible spot kicks handed Flamengo the title of world champions. At least we get another shot at it next season. UEFA Super Cup - Another game in which we flattered to deceive. Barcelona were worthy winners as we didn't turn up and rarely threatened their goal. Domestic Cups - A competent season from the backup players although the loss on penalties to P.S.N.I. was humiliating. Until we have a stadium that we can fill that is large enough to give away teams a decent payday then I think I'll keep on playing the reserves and youth players. Reserves - A good effort from them to win the Intermediate Cup although they weren't great in the Steel & Sons Cup. Under 18s - I felt they were unlucky not to qualify from their UEFA Youth League group with 8 points but they more than made up for that with a dominant domestic campaign. Their star striker will be getting promoted into the first team next season so it'll be interesting to see how that affects their performances. Squad - It has taken some time but we are slowly getting to the point where we can be considered among the teams which are serious contenders for the Champions League. What I need to work on now is the depth of the squad as when we had certain players missing such as Gueye ST and Ibarra DC you could definitely detect their absence. We need more wonderkids and to start to ship out a few of the older players who have peaked ability-wise that aren't good enough to play in the Champions League. I also need to start bringing in players which can be loaned to other N. Irish clubs to improve them as the majority of teams in the top flight don't have any money to spend and have great difficulty improving the quality of their squads. The idea being that by loaning players out it improves their squads enough to help them to be more competitive in Europe which should give them prize money which they can invest into improving their squad without the need for loans. Transfers - Surprisingly, we had a quiet pair of transfer windows with the club making no sales. That wasn't however for the want of trying from other clubs who persistently put in bids for our star players but I decided to stand firm and reject the offers even though it caused disharmony in the dressing room. I feel we are in the position where we need to hold onto our best players and add rather than sell players who we can't replace. The signings we did make were impactful but not to the point where they seriously threatened to dislodge the first choice players for their positions. I think I'll loosen the reigns a bit more next season as I feel there are some players that do need to be moved on. Maxime Rolland - ML Average Rating: 7.68 Just when you think he can't get any better he goes and has a season like this. He provided the most assists in the clubs history breaking the record he set. He is a player I really want to keep so Nantes will have to look elsewhere as I feel getting a replacement with an attribute profile and PPMs similar to Rolland will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Bakary Gueye - ST Average Rating: 7.28 He was our top scorer and had a very consistent season. My only concern with him is the number of injuries he has suffered during the season, he isn't considered injury prone but he missed some really important games for us during the season such as the Super Cup and Champions League final. I feel he has a lot of quality but if I were to get an exceptional offer for him I would not be opposed to selling him considering I have a great HG talent who will be graduating from the youth team next season who I need to offer first team football to in order to develop him. Finances - The club is very comfortable financially and after a season stuck in a 7,000 capacity stadium I didn't expect us to be in such good shape but Champions League money has really helped us. It allowed the board to take a £4.4M dividend and enabled us to continue investing in the clubs infrastructure which left a balance of around £60M which gives us plenty of room to invest in the squad. The next stage in improving the revenue of the club is saving enough money to get the club into a new stadium but I feel that is quite some distance into the future as we still have some way to go in building the size of our fanbase. I was however encouraged to see the huge rise in season ticket sales and if we can keep that level of increase and close the gap to Glentoran we can start to build the conditions under which a new bigger ground becomes a feasible option. Facilities - We managed to get upgrades to both the youth and training facilities. It's good to be back home again and hopefully, we will see our record attendance broken at some point next season against Glentoran. The key for me will be how well we are able to fill the ground for the likes of Ards and Dungannon. If we can end up with an average attendance ~50% of Windsor Park's capacity then I think that will be a good sign that the rate of growth in our fanbase has accelerated. I'm also quite pleased that other teams will benefit from playing at the expanded ground in cup finals (which we don't play in) and in Europe as hopefully, that should make those games more lucrative for them, the more revenue they are able to generate the better. Youth Intake - There are three decent looking players, Morgan GK, Young MC & Allen AMC. The rest look rubbish although I will be signing the majority in order to keep the numbers in the youth team steady. League Reputation - Even though we are producing wonders the rest of the teams are poor which is why we are cemented in place. Glentoran got knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Rapid Vienna which was the first disappointment of the season. They looked like recovering it by topping their Europa League group only to get smashed 5-2 by Borussia Dortmund in the 1st Knockout Round. They did try to show some ambition by going into the transfer market and spending £29M but they also sold £70M worth of talent and are just getting weaker and weaker as a squad. Coleraine was beaten 5-0 on aggregate by Celta Vigo in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Europa League which while expected was still poor. Ballymena United also lost 5-0 on aggregate this time to CSKA Moscow in the 4th Qualifying Round of the Europa League. Larne finished bottom of their Europa League group and spent £6.25M on a 30-year-old which encapsulates precisely what's wrong with the other N. Irish clubs. The clubs which haven't got any money can't spend to improve their squad so just stagnate and find it impossible to compete for a place in Europe which would give them money and the clubs which do have money from Europe spend it frivolously. What is needed is an injection of reality into some of these clubs to stop thinking they are big clubs just because their reputation has been artificially raised by playing in the DBP. Spending that sort of money on a player which is at most going to give you 3-4 years tops all the while depreciating in value is criminal. I would be looking to bring in 3-4 young players to develop for that sort of money and would willingly make that investment in the knowledge that there is a chance I could make my money back or make a profit. All the clubs in N. Ireland have to take the philosophy of being selling clubs and be willing to look further afield than the UK & Ireland when looking for new players as you get very poor value shopping in that market as prices are so inflated. The fundamentals of a club like Larne without huge financial backing are poor. They can't generate huge sums from their stadium as it only holds just over 6,000 and they don't make enough money from Europe because of their poor performances so the money just keeps them ticking over rather than improving as a club. I'm really not in a position to be able to influence things as there is still a lot of work to be done in building Linfield as a club but I'm going to try and make a start, if other teams are unwilling to bring in the talent into the country that will improve the level of football then I'm going to have to do it. Club Domestic Reputation - We are officially a 5* reputation team although I'm wondering why the Glasgow Rangers affiliation hasn't been cancelled or renegotiated so that we are the senior partner. Club European Reputation - Nearly at the summit although it's rather disheartening to see Glentoran's decline as they have almost fallen out of the screenshot. Spoiler Spoiler Edited May 17, 2019 by pheelf 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
duesouth Posted May 17, 2019 Share Posted May 17, 2019 Really well done on two counts - an amazing save and a cracking read! *Follow*! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted May 21, 2019 Author Share Posted May 21, 2019 On 17/05/2019 at 14:13, duesouth said: Really well done on two counts - an amazing save and a cracking read! *Follow*! Thanks for the comment, much appreciated. Good luck in San Marino. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted May 29, 2019 Author Share Posted May 29, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2055 / 2056 It would be a magnificent achievement if we could claim a hat-trick of Champions League titles. I would also like to become champions of the world while hoping that the third time is the charm in the UEFA Super Cup. League Table - We won it but once again Glentoran pushed us the majority of the way. The reduction in points scored has been noted with a few too many draws during the season for my liking. I feel we should be doing better when you compare our squad to the rest of the teams in the league, perhaps some tactical tinkering will be required. UEFA Champions League - The hat-trick of wins has been secured but only just. We found this campaign a lot harder going than last season although it started a lot better with us managing to top our group. Once we reached the knockout rounds we had to depend on winning through away goals all the way to the final which showed just how difficult we found it. I think we are going to need serious reinforcements if we are to stand any chance of making it 4 in a row. FIFA Club World Cup - A great result for us as we beat a team playing in their home country in the semi-final and exorcised the ghosts of last season by thumping Flamengo to lift the trophy. Finally, we can claim the title of being the best club side in the world. UEFA Super Cup - A truly shocking performance from us in this game. The scoreline was harsh as they tore us apart on the break scoring 3 in the last 10 minutes as we pushed forward in an attempt to grab an equalizer. We never really looked like competing in this game and I am annoyed with the result given that we had a number of our best players unavailable as they were on international duty for the game which put us at a significant disadvantage. Domestic Cups - It was nice to claim a domestic double (treble if you count the Charity Shield) although I would have liked to have played more games at home so that visiting teams could have earned a bit more money. Reserves - Could have been better but not too bad considering that I decimated their ranks with loans to other clubs. Under 18s - Things were looking good after an impressive group stage in the UEFA Youth League but a red card against Partizan's youth team ruined our chances of going any further. Domestically, they were mediocre when you compare it with the dominance they enjoyed last season. Squad - You would think that after such a great season that saw us become world champions for the first time that I wouldn't have much reason to complain but I do. The end result of the season could have been very different and I felt we rode our luck a lot in order to achieve what we did. The majority of our wins in the Champions League were narrow and we seem to have developed a knack of failing to kill teams off when given the opportunity. We don't score enough goals and struggled at times to break down some really poor sides. At this point, we should be churning out wins easily in domestic games with the exception of Glentoran or perhaps Larne on a good day. I think it is both a tactical and personnel issue that needs to be addressed and I will be looking to bring in some fresh young talent to revitalize the squad. It was a shame to see Rosa DL suffer a lower leg break in training as he was having a good season up to that point, hopefully, he can come back strong next season. Transfers - This was a record-breaking season as we shipped out goalkeeper Soares for a king's ransom to Swansea. I almost regretted allowing Amato DL to leave for Lille given Rosa's injury but Zivanovic managed to cope well with the reduced rotation. Of the players we brought in, I think the best was Buurmeijer GK who became our hero in the Champions League final. Rosa was good as was Augenthaler MC and Bermond MR when they played but Pena GK and Durand DC were disappointing for the price tag maybe once Frimpong DC leaves that will open the door for Durand to prove himself. Kljajic DR was another unfortunate soul that broke his leg while out on loan but at least it didn't affect his potential adversely. Bakary Gueye - ST Average Rating: 7.35 The clubs top scorer had a great season and improved significantly on last season. As fantastic as that is I feel a player of his quality should be getting a goal per game domestically fairly easily. Even though my coaches feel he is consistent I don't believe that is accurate. He is very streaky in my opinion, he'll score 5 goals in a game then he'll go missing for the next 2 and then score a brace in the next game. Thankfully, it hasn't cost us yet but sometimes it feels like playing Russian roulette with his performance in the Champions League final being testament to that. I haven't seen the best of him yet and I'm going to have to figure out a way to get him playing to his full potential. Gary Beckett - ST Average Rating: 7.16 The youth team graduate had a decent season but not a spectacular one. Possibly a consequence of him playing the majority of games in the DLF(S) role but for me a return of 8 goals from 26 league starts is poor. I definitely feel that tactical alterations are needed as he should be scoring for fun in the DBP. Finances - The financial situation is very good as the board decided after the screenshot was taken to take out ~£11M in dividends. The balance will enable me to invest wholesale in the squad as no big expenditures off the field are required for the foreseeable future. It was also nice to see sponsorship revenues and ticket sales increase significantly. Now comes the task of striking the right balance of investing enough in the squad to maintain the level of success we've been enjoying while also building up the balance in preparation for a new stadium. Facilities - All of the facilities are now considered state of the art which is great as it means I can redirect money toward squad building. I was actually pleased that in our first season at the expanded Windsor Park we managed to get an average league attendance which exceeds 60% of the capacity. If we can build the fanbase enough to push that figure up to say 80% next season we will be well on track to have enough fans to build a new ground within the next 5 years which would be excellent. I think that is possible given how little ticket prices have been rising recently. Youth Intake - Nothing to get excited about really except maybe Jones DL who could be decent. A bit disappointing to see nobody from our youth affiliate Penarol, maybe next year. League Reputation - Not a bad season overall for the N. Irish clubs although there is still a massive mountain to climb if we are to improve our position. Glentoran managed to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League where they finished 3rd. They got battered 6-1 on aggregate in the 1st Knockout Round of the Europa League but I'm not going to be too harsh as it still was an improvement. Larne didn't qualify from their Europa League group and the other teams didn't make the Europa League group stage. Club Domestic Reputation - The gap between the top teams and the rest is massive which is making the league uncompetitive. I had a go at Larne last season for failing to invest in their infrastructure and buying frivolously but I eat humble pie as they actually expanded their ground this season pushing the capacity up to almost 10,000. Perhaps the additional money they generate will allow them to buy some better players. Club European Reputation - We reach the top which is nice, also pleasing to see Glentoran cling on in the screenshot. Spoiler Spoiler Edited May 29, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted June 16, 2019 Author Share Posted June 16, 2019 Another season down so I will be adding another update but thought the following message was noteworthy enough for its own separate post. This is terrible news both for the objective of the save and for Glentoran. I had no indication that this was going to happen as their finances seemed okay. This is a big blow and given they are going to miss out on a season of their only major source of income I hope that it's not the beginning of a trend of them repeatedly failing the FFP as we need them in Europe given they are one of the only clubs who contribute a reasonable amount of points to the coefficient. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted June 16, 2019 Author Share Posted June 16, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2056 / 2057 We just have to keep on trying to win as much as we can as we look to build the fanbase enough for a new stadium. There is also the matter of some unfinished business in the UEFA Super Cup which is the only trophy to elude us so far. League Table - Close but no cigar for Glentoran who had to relinquish their Champions League spot which was given to Larne. Bitterly disappointing to see Distillery relegated but at least a switch back to my original 4-4-2 resulted in a few more goals being scored and better still far less conceded. UEFA Champions League - We started our title defence in the worst possible way by taking a hammering at home to PSG but improved to finish 2nd in the group. We hit our stride in the knockout rounds and never looked overly troubled although needed to depend on some truly shocking penalties from the opposition in the final to make it four in a row. FIFA Club World Cup - A comfortable semi-final followed by a real battle in the final. Credit to Boca Juniors as it really could have gone either way but thankfully Balle bailed us out with a late winner. UEFA Super Cup - AT LAST!!... When Zivanovic messed up his penalty I was thinking 'here we go again' but two brilliant saves by Buurmeijer allowed us to claim our first trophy. Domestic Cups - I was beginning to think that we might just be able to do the unthinkable and win the lot but had to prioritize the Champions League and as a result had to sacrifice the Irish Cup, so tantalizingly close. Reserves - A decent double for them although they should have done a lot better against Glebe. Under 18s - Looked promising in the UEFA Youth League until they flopped in the quarter-final, at least they won the league. Squad - The squad is looking quite balanced as we have a good mixture of talented youth and experience. I've decided to go back to the original 4-4-2 and instead chosen to focus on getting the right players in for the roles I want them to play in the team hence the addition of players like Mayor ST who I expect to be my DLF(S). Transfers - Not a huge amount of activity but the business conducted looks quite good. All incoming transfers bar Carlos MR who went back on loan as part of the deal played a significant role in the team. It was annoying to lose Rosa DL but Jimenez proved an excellent replacement. Moving forward, I probably need to reduce the squad size a bit with players like Mosch and Berisha looking expendable. On the shopping list will be a DR and ML. Edison Jimenez - DL Average Rating: 7.58 A brilliant debut season and I will certainly be looking for more of same next season. Mateo Bermond - MR Average Rating: 7.40 Provided the most assists in the team and overall had a very good season. It'll be interesting to see how he copes with all the competition when Carlos comes back. Finances - Very comfortable financially but it is very apparent to me how dependent we are on Champions League money given how little revenue we are generating from other areas. Facilities - Given how ticket prices have now stagnated it is quite disappointing how little growth we seem to have had to the size of our fanbase. At the moment we seem a million miles away from fulfilling the criteria needed to build a new stadium, hopefully, our exploits this season can attract a few new fans to the club. Youth Intake - A reasonable looking striker in Johns but that is about it. We seem to be well stocked when it comes to talented HG strikers but don't seem to be producing much else at the moment. League Reputation - I do wonder how this will fare with the absence of Glentoran next season especially given how poor the N. Irish teams did this year. The only team that made it to the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League was Glentoran only to get beaten convincingly. Club Domestic Reputation - Poor Glentoran are just fading away :(. Club European Reputation - We must have been 2nd last season but we are definitely top now as the bug which hides the top team has us off the list. Spoiler Spoiler Edited June 16, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted June 26, 2019 Author Share Posted June 26, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2057 / 2058 Now that we have won every trophy available to us we need to look to maintain our status at the top as we seek to build the club for the long term. League Table - It's amazing what a difference a season makes to your closest rival when they miss out on money from Europe. We sauntered to a comfortable win and broke the number of wins and point scored records while doing it. Donegal Celtic came so close to getting promoted to the big time but lost out 6-2 on aggregate in the relegation playoff but we will be joined once again by Distillery who stormed to the Championship title. UEFA Champions League - The group stage was awful as we managed only the solitary victory, threw away 2 goal leads three times and had to depend on the head to head record and favours from FC Porto to get through. Bizarrely enough we managed to top the group on 8 points. I knew we had to step it up dramatically in the knockout stages if we were to stand any chance of defending our title and made some changes to the tactic. I took off the Be More Expressive team instruction which I felt was hampering our attacking play and added the Dribble More player instruction to the Advanced Forward to take advantage of the exceptional dribbling skills of our strikers. It seemed to make a great difference as we went on and won all but one game in the knockout stages to make it an incredible 5 in a row. FIFA Club World Cup - Another final where a late goal allowed us to lift the trophy, we weren't at our best but all that mattered was winning. UEFA Super Cup - When we conceded a goal within the first 5 minutes I was fearing the worst but we showed great tenacity to fight back and win. Domestic Cups - Not the best of seasons in the cups but at least we gave a couple of lower league clubs a decent payday. Reserves - Good in the league but pants in the cups. Under 18s - They did well in the domestic competitions but were dreadful against Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Youth League. Squad - I couldn't quite fit everybody in the screenshot as Mayor ST is missing. I'm quite pleased with the squad and I am encouraged by the development of the young players and the number of wonderkids in the team. I'll perhaps need to move some players on as the squad is looking a little bloated in size but the future definitely looks bright. Very seldom do I have such a balanced squad with a group of quality experienced players such as Ibarra DC and Rolland ML spurring on the youngsters. Transfers - A lot more activity than last season but we managed to make a good profit. I'm most pleased about Dimitrijevic MC who was excellent in his debut season although I was a little disappointed in Tuting ST who on reflection doesn't look quite the player I thought he might be. I couldn't get a work permit for Gil DR so had to sign a work permit affiliation with Irish club Sligo Rovers where he will be placed on loan until it gets granted. I don't think we really missed any of the players that left to be honest and I'm very comfortable going forward with their replacements. I've already arranged a couple of signings for next season which I'm excited about who are both considered wonderkids. Manuel Ibarra - DC Average Rating: 7.45 He is quite simply irreplaceable in the squad. He is a leader both on and off the pitch and has just been excellent when it comes to instilling the sort of mentality I want in the team especially in the youngsters. I'm fairly confident I can get another 3-4 good years out of him injuries permitting but I will need to use that time productively to identify a replacement. I'll also need to allow some time for the replacement to integrate into the squad as when Ibarra's time is up I need to have someone ready to fill his boots. Sam Jones - DL Average Rating: 7.46 I'm delighted with the progress shown by the HG player and I feel he has benefited enormously from Jimenez DL leaving the club and the first team opportunities that has afforded him. I'd like to see him develop the attacking aspect of his attributes more next season. I'm willing to give him more game time but it'll be interesting to see how he reacts to all the interest being shown in him especially from Man Utd. Finances - I don't know why it is showing that we would fail the FFP given that we have made over £110M profit over the period as in the end we passed. I was getting really concerned about Glentoran once again failing the FFP as towards the end of the season their financial status was listed as 'In Debt'. Thankfully, they had a takeover which put them back to 'Okay' which probably saved them. The level of financial mismanagement at my old club is staggering and they need to stop spending money recklessly on overpriced players on eye watering wages and get back to signing youth with good resale value, they simply don't have the revenue to sustain their spending even with the largest stadium in the country. We are also in the midst of a takeover bid ourselves with an offer from a London-based consortium who want to pump nearly £40M into the club should their bid be accepted which would be very welcome. Facilities - The training facilities downgraded so I has to spend £2.5M getting those back up to state of the art. Before the takeover bid was launched I ask the board for a new stadium which they agreed to but then got the following message. Very annoying indeed and it looks like we might have to wait a bit longer to start the process of building a new ground. When you consider that we are only filling just over 80% of the capacity of Windsor Park on average it doesn't surprise me that it was rejected but if we are to really turn Linfield into a powerful engine for growth in the nation we need a new ground sooner rather than later. Hopefully, the new board will be more capable of greasing the wheels down at Belfast city council for them to grant planning permission, *cough* bribe *cough*, we desperately need it given that ticket prices have stagnated and a bigger capacity looks the only way to increase ticket revenue. Youth Intake - At least we got our first youth player from our affiliate but nothing too special in this intake although Gray MC might develop well. League Reputation - What a pleasant surprise, we actually moved up a place for the first time in a long while. If only we could get a bit more support from the other N. Irish clubs then we could catch Scotland's coefficient and claim 6th which would give us an additional Champions League spot which would be huge for the country. Instead our teams keep under performing which doesn't allow us to eat into their lead. This season the results of the other teams were as follows: Ballymena United knocked out of Europa League group stage Crusaders knocked out of 3rd Qualifying Round of Europa League by Sion 4-0 on aggregate Glenavon knocked out of 4th Qualifying Round of Europa League by Legia Warsaw 3-2 on aggregate Larne knocked out of 1st Knockout Round of Europe League by Man City 7-1 on aggregate Of all the teams Larne and Glenavon are probably the only ones which did well, the others were poor. Hopefully, next season Glentoran might be able to scrape into the group stage of the Champions League which would be very helpful. Club Domestic Reputation - The domestic game has definitely developed well with all but one team (Distillery) in next seasons DBP operating at professional status. The problem we have is that the domestic income is very poor and teams struggle to maintain good finances. I would love to be in the position to help the other teams but we aren't there yet and need a new stadium and the increased revenue that brings to start that process. We really would be helped massively with a tycoon coming in and buying one of the other teams as since Kenny Bruce left we haven't had one in N. Irish football. Club European Reputation - We're still top but Glentoran can no longer be seen. Spoiler Spoiler Edited June 26, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted July 11, 2019 Author Share Posted July 11, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2058 / 2059 Continue to dominate on the field in the hope it grants us the opportunity to overcome the final obstacle in building the club off the field with a new stadium. League Table - Before the new year it was looking like we were going to have a real challenge for the title but one by one we knocked our closest contenders out of the title race with victories over them and ended with a massive lead in the end. It was gutting to see Glentoran miss out on the 2nd Champions League spot after bottling it on the final day by losing and dropping to 3rd after a victory for Larne. I expected better from Distillery and even tried to help them by loaning them some players but in the end it proved futile as once again they were relegated. UEFA Champions League - The joy of six!! It proved to be an interesting campaign with some shaky form in the group stage only good enough to finish 2nd. After seeing that I decided that some tactical alterations were required for the knockout stages or we would struggle to go much further. I decided that the team needed to be more aggressive off the ball as teams in the group stage were dominating possession. As a result, the line of engagement was pushed up along with the defensive line. I hoped that this would compress the pitch when defending and allow the strikers to contribute more defensively which is critical for a 4-4-2. I also increased the intensity of the pressing in the hope that we might more easily force turnovers in possession. The changes worked well and best of all it didn't make us any more vulnerable defensively which was a great bonus. The final was a little bit sketchy but 3 world class saves in the penalty shootout from Pena handed us another title. FIFA Club World Cup - We had a warning in the semi-final with our unconvincing win but we didn't heed it. The arrogant attitude displayed by some of the players was a disgrace with some believing that we only had to turn up and that our superior class would be enough to beat River Plate, well that proved to be our downfall and we deserved to lose. A very, very poor performance from the team with an uncharacteristic error from Pena handing them a late winner. UEFA Super Cup - This game had me seething with rage with the sheer incompetence of the performance. Once we fell behind for the 2nd time we never looked like coming back and we were quite fortunate to avoid getting an early season mauling. Domestic Cups - A reasonable season in the cups with another 2 trophies added to the cabinet although I don't know why we allowed Championship team Institute to take us to extra time in the league cup final. Thankfully, we managed to score during extra time and avoided the lottery of a penalty shootout and a potentially embarrassing upset. Reserves - I can't really ask for more than that as the heavily depleted reserve team managed an incredible treble with the youth team graduates really shining brightly. Under 18s - They showed brilliant form in the group stages of the UEFA Youth League only for it to collapse when it mattered against Inter in the quarter final. It was nice to win the youth league again but I'm sure they will be disappointed with their loss to their deadly rivals in the cup. Squad - The squad remains solid with a good mix of young talent and quality experience. There are however some cracks which are beginning to appear which will need to be dealt with. The first of which is that the defensive line is aging. I'm beginning to question how many more years I can actually get out of Ibarra DC. I had worked on getting a replacement who was a wonderkid and I agreed a fee with his club and we agreed to terms for a contract only for the deal to get hijacked at the last minute by Leeds United. It's proving a real struggle to find a long term replacement who is affordable and available but I'll keep trying. Becker DR wants to leave for a new challenge so I might lose him next season. I'm also concerned with the distribution of our goal scorers, there is way to much pressure on Gueye ST and I'm finding it a real struggle to give HG talent Beckett ST and Patterson ST enough game to develop them which I feel has been very detrimental to their development. As much as it pains me to acknowledge it, I'm coming to the conclusion that either Beckett or Patterson has to leave in order to give the player I want to keep more game time to develop. Another problem I'm having is with Craggs-Earl ML who certainly seems to enjoy the nightlife having been seen stumbling out of clubs at least 8 times during the season. I just don't need that hassle I'm getting from him and his slack personality is really hampering his ability to improve given his poor attitude towards training and missing of match days. The sooner he's out the club the better as I wouldn't want his renegade ways rubbing off on our impressionable youngsters. Transfers - A huge profit in the transfer market this time and I'm fairly satisfied with the business done. Kazakov DL was expensive but worth it for the contribution he made this season. Ivancsics DC wasn't meant to be a replacement for the outgoing Rudi DC but he did a decent enough job in the domestic games he played. Boahene ML was decent cover for the departing Martinez and Rolland although unfortunately suffered a training injury which has him out for between 3-4 months. In retrospect, I probably should have kept Martinez given the shenanigans of Craggs-Earl. Ciric DR proved an inspired piece of business. He wasn't fully scouted so I had to take a bit of a risk on him but he exceeded all my expectations and somewhat cushioned the blow of losing Klajic who forced a move to SL Benfica. Losing Rolando MC was disappointing but at least I got a decent fee for him. I was quite happy to keep Bermond MR around as a backup but then looked at how little he had developed and decided it was the right time for him to move on. Manuel Ibarra - DC Average Rating: 7.43 Another consistent season from the captain but he will need to be replaced within the next couple of seasons. I had hoped that I'd have his replacement in the squad by now and be giving him game time alongside him but that hasn't materialized as yet. This season coming has to the one in which I get it done otherwise I could be forced into paring the replacement with a player in decline which wouldn't be ideal. Alexey Kazakov - DL Average Rating: 7.25 A very good season for the clubs record fee signing. I'd like to see him develop his crossing and technique to make him a more rounded player and able to contribute better to the attacking side of the game. I'm hoping that when Jones returns from his loan that he might be able to provide some more competition for his place than Zivanovic so that he has someone driving him on to improve. Finances - Very comfortable financially and the following messages explain why. Not bad at all and while I don't think this development allows to compete financially with the very best elite clubs of European football, what it does do is get us a seat at the table. It took 3 different takeover attempts to arrive at this successful one. I think this changes everything with respect to the long term financial stability although I would have expected at least one fan to have shown an interest in buying shares in the club. I don't feel this is the time for the club to go on a spending spree and would like to keep the balance around this level in the hope of encouraging the club to build a new stadium so will only be spending money on replacements. Facilities - The new board seem ambitious and on the day they took over the club I asked for a new stadium which they agreed to only to be met with this message. This is hugely disappointing but not really unexpected given that our average attendance actually went down for some inexplicable reason and we still hover around the 80% mark when it comes to filling Windsor Park on average. I don't really know what more I can do to encourage a new build given the on the pitch success and I'm mystified why the fan base instead of growing is actually shrinking with only the season ticket sales rising. I've just got to keep plugging away in the hope that the council sees sense and allows us to start seeking planning permission to start the ball rolling. I don't think I'll make another board request for a new stadium again and just wait and see what happens at the end of next season. Youth Intake - One of the worst intakes we've ever had and I can't see any of these players even when fully developed getting anywhere near the first team. League Reputation - After last seasons bump we once again fall back into 8th. To elucidate the extent of the problem we are facing. Even though I have won the Champions League for 6 seasons in a row, not once in any of those seasons did our combined nation coefficient surpass Scotland which means that the gap remains stubbornly consistent. The other N. Irish teams are really performing badly in Europe and I can sense that Glentoran missing out on the Champions League next season pretty much guarantees we'll once again be the sole representative in the Champions League group stages as I can't see Larne getting through the best placed route. This season Glentoran and Glenavon reached the group stage of the Europa League and finished 3rd and 4th in their group respectively. The other teams all got knocked out in the qualifiers. We just aren't in the position to help them with players until we get our new ground sorted. Club Domestic Reputation - In more positive news, it appears that the DBP has now become a fully professional division as teams getting promoted into it automatically become professional clubs. This is a bit of a double edged sword, as while it is great for the quality of the league as a whole to have only players which train full time, the clubs don't have the financial resources to sustain it and some are just plunging into debt. They also don't seem to have the nous to become the selling clubs which they need to be in order to build. I decided to sign an affiliation with Dollingstown to pay homage to my FM18 career while also hoping they get promoted into the playable leagues. The new board cancelled the one that had been established with Chimney Corner and I cancelled the one with Albert Foundry. For some reason I can't cancel the one with Glasgow Rangers which is a bit frustrating. Club European Reputation - A little help would be nice, hopefully Glentoran find the Europa League more agreeable next season and can earn some decent coefficient points. Spoiler Spoiler Edited July 11, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted July 19, 2019 Author Share Posted July 19, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2059 / 2060 I don't mean to sound like a broken record but the only thing preventing us from really pushing on and developing the club is the stadium. We have to continue winning as much as possible in the hope it builds the fan base enough to justify the building of a new ground. League Table - Overall, a much better season not only for us but for the progress of the country as a whole. Glentoran put in a decent challenge this season and were still in contention until a few games before the split but then they hit a patch of inconsistent form which scuppered any thoughts of a serious title bid. Distillery romped to the Championship title which was unsurprising given they remained a professional club in an otherwise entirely semi-professional league and will be a good replacement for Ballyclare. It was nice to go unbeaten although we drew a lot more games and scored less goals than last season. UEFA Champions League - We managed to lift the trophy for the 7th time in a row which I'm pleased about but the campaign wasn't very convincing in my view. I don't expect to romp to the title every season but it appears to me that rather than getting easier it's becoming more difficult. We have to become more consistent otherwise we are going to suffer a premature exit before too long. FIFA Club World Cup - A pair of surprising opponents but we did our job well in India to become world champions for the 4th time. UEFA Super Cup - A very close game which really could have gone either way but I was glad it went our way in Israel. Domestic Cups - Our clean sweep in the domestic cups means that for the first time ever we have won every single senior trophy available in one season. An absolutely incredible achievement to lift 8 pieces of silverware but now that I've achieved it I think I'll return to playing weakened sides in the domestic cups in order to focus on the more significant Champions League and DBP games while offering an opportunity for the smaller clubs to earn some decent money. Reserves - If we could have won the Intermediate Cup that would have meant 10 pieces of silverware but I'm not too fussed. In fact, I think it would be more beneficial in the long run for us to get knocked out of both cup competitions early. Looking at how the prize money has risen, that could be a good way to distribute money to the lower league clubs. In the Intermediate Cup, you receive £33K for losing in the quarter final, £77K for losing in the semi final, £242K for finishing runners up and £351K for winning the trophy. In the Steel & Sons Cup you get £220K for lifting the trophy. While those sums aren't particularly significant for a club in the DBP they are huge for a team in the Championship or Intermediate League. Under 18s - The group stage of the UEFA Youth League was comfortable as they easily topped their group but once again we fall at the quarter final stage. This time aided by a red card from one of our players which allowed a far weaker team to narrowly beat us. At least they managed to win the domestic double as a consolation prize. Squad - I was determined to strengthen and I think that was done with the acquisition of a wonderkid goalkeeper and central defender. I didn't expect the decline of Ibarra DC to be so drastic but some injuries he suffered have really hampered him. I am concerned that the wage bill has been creeping up as players constantly pester me for wage rises so I will need to keep an eye on that and be willing to say no at times. The reduction in the amount of goals we scored in the league has not gone unnoticed either and I'm not happy with the distribution of assists among the team. I've been putting it off but next season I'm going to need to bite the bullet and decide to sell one of our attack duty strikers to free up more opportunities of game time for the remaining pair as the constant requests for first team football have become tiresome. Transfers - A massive loss this time around in the transfer market but I'm satisfied with what has been achieved. I managed to get rid of Becker DR for a decent price after he made it very clear he wanted a new challenge while also managing to ship out Craggs-Earl ML after feeling exasperated with his antics. We made a big loss on the deal but he was proving a toxic influence within the dressing room and weighing it up I decided to take the hit. That loss was somewhat offset by the moving on of an aging Trabelsi MR who netted the club £25M in profit. As for the players brought in, Kraemer GK was excellent in between the sticks showing great development, Facciuto DR was very solid and has also shown good improvement during the season, Diallo DC was a good buy and has a bright future while Figl ML was a panic buy to replace the departing Craggs-Earl who did a decent job on arrival. Jose Carlos - MR Average Rating: 7.51 I couldn't really ask for more from the guy to be honest. The teams top provider of assists by a significant margin while also chipping in with the most goals of all the midfielders in the team. His stats are probably padded as a result of him being one of the clubs set piece takers but if he can replicate that level of consistency every season I'll be more than happy to keep him at the club. Santiago Facciuto - DR Average Rating: 7.39 I'm really excited about his potential ability. If everything falls into place for him we really could have a world class right back on our hands. He's defensively sound and if he could just eliminate some the little mistakes he occasionally makes he is going to improve dramatically. Finances - On the face of it the balance looks very comfortable sitting at nearly £120M but I have my concerns especially as the board felt it necessary to inject nearly £22.5M into the club and the clubs financial status has reduced to 'Secure'. The wage bill has spiraled out of control in my view sitting at nearly £68M per season and that is before bonuses not to mention the staff wage bill which has also rocketed. After all is tallied up we are more than likely spending in excess of £100M per season. If we now compare that to our income which is mainly made up of Champions League money we can begin to see the problem. If we were to fall short in the Champions League which was easily possible this season we would find ourselves very quickly in financial trouble. We made a loss of nearly £15M which is huge for a club playing in N. Ireland, what would the figure have been without winning the Champions League? I think there has to be a re-thinking of the way I'm managing the clubs finances. The wage bill needs to be cut significantly and really shouldn't be above £1Mp/w and even that is a stretch for a club with our income streams. I've got to be more willing to sell players and get rid of some of the sentimentality I seem to have in holding onto players for so long. I think I have lost sight of the fact that we still very much need to be a selling club. I think the success we've been having on the pitch may have created a false impression of where we are as a club and I will seeking to return to those principles of buying young talent to develop and selling for profit. Given that I have aspirations of building a huge new stadium I need to start building the balance up as the prospect of a new ground is coming closer to reality. For the first time we managed to top the table of season ticket sales ahead of Glentoran and our average attendance is now ~89% of capacity so we are getting close. Facilities - I had to upgrade the youth facilities back up to state of the art. The magic number for next season is 24300. If the average attendance is above that figure then we will fulfill the criteria for being able to build a new ground. I hope that the success we've had this season should add enough numbers to the fan base to put us over the top for next season and that this time next season I have something to announce. Even if we do meet the criteria I wont be asking the board and hopefully they will take the initiative and seek planning permission without prompting. Youth Intake - A lot better than last season with two promising strikers coming through. As nice as that is I feel we are lacking in other positions and we are currently over stacked with talented young strikers so it'd like to see that being catered for in future intakes. League Reputation - Neither Glentoran or Larne could make it out of their Europa League group while Ballymena United and Coleraine didn't get through the qualifiers. That pretty much sums up why we are finding it so difficult to make any further progress. On a more positive note, Glentoran have become 'Rich' after selling ~£40M worth of talent which enabled them to make a huge profit in the transfer market. I'm hoping that will help them to secure financial stability and eliminate the possibility of them failing the FFP again which was hugely damaging. If they can remain focused on developing young talent and being a selling club I can see them being competitive in the DBP for the long term which I feel was started this season. Hopefully, they will have learned from their past experiences and continue to spend money wisely. Club Domestic Reputation - As the top flight is now entirely professional the concern is that we end up with a yo-yo situation at a club like Distillery which I feel would be detrimental. We need fresh new blood in the top flight and to relegate out some of the smaller clubs like Ards and Institute and replace them with the likes of Donegal Celtic who would offer another local derby and potentially better attendances. Club European Reputation - A tad jarring that we have no idea what our coefficient is only that is the highest but if I were to guess I'd say we have a good cushion over 2nd place. Spoiler Spoiler Edited July 19, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevhamster Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Linfield v Watford Champions League final - awesome stuff! Amazing stuff so far, it's fair to say I'd never be able to get a Northern Irish club to do well in Europe, let alone dominate it! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 (edited) On 19/07/2019 at 11:28, kevhamster said: Linfield v Watford Champions League final - awesome stuff! Amazing stuff so far, it's fair to say I'd never be able to get a Northern Irish club to do well in Europe, let alone dominate it! Watford have become a major force in Europe after a tycoon takeover a few seasons ago (although he has since scaled back funding) and they won the EPL in season 2058/2059. The next season review sees us once again go into battle against them. Thanks for the comment, I think playing in such a weak league helps the team to perform better in Europe given that I can fully rotate and generally win the 3 points in the DBP which means I have rested players for the European nights whereas the other big teams in Europe have to play their best sides constantly which gives us a slight edge. Edited July 25, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 Linfield F.C. SEASON 2060 / 2061 Keep the good times rolling as we seek to build the clubs fan base enough for a new stadium. League Table - I decided to go back to the original tactic I posted in the thread and it seemed to have a positive impact on our performances as we scored a lot more goals than last season. It was pleasing to see Distillery survive so easily and I feel they will be able to comfortably stay up next season and hopefully establish themselves given we will be joined by top flight debutantes Tobermore United and Newington who will be the only two semi-professional clubs in the league. UEFA Champions League - A mixed bag of a campaign with the team repeatedly coming close to getting knocked out. I have to give it to the lads with the spirit they showed to be able to turn around first leg deficits in both the quarter final and semi final. In the final, we faced our new nemesis Watford but the result was the same only this time we won more convincingly. 8 in a row is a stunning achievement and given the young talent within the squad I see no reason why we can't go for 9 next time around. FIFA Club World Cup - Our return to India was a great one as we managed to become world champions for the 5th time after two comfortable victories. UEFA Super Cup - We couldn't go full strength thanks to international call-ups which might have made the difference but then again Everton were probably missing a few players also. Bitterly disappointing that it was our striker Tuting that missed the decisive penalty. Domestic Cups - The defeat to Glenavon in the league cup was poor but aside from that a very positive season in the cups. Reserves - To be expected given the number of loans out of the club, still managed to win the league though, if only narrowly. Under 18s - I really am at a loss to explain what happens to us in the UEFA Youth League knockout rounds. We cruised through the group stage managing to top the group only to get knocked out by 10 men, utterly bizarre. Not much home comfort either as we slipped to 3rd in the league. Squad - I'm fairly satisfied with the balance of the team and the spine looks especially strong. It might be time for some of the elder members of the squad to be moved on but I'm very pleased that I have managed to lock down our best young players on new long term contracts as I seek to build around them. Transfers - This season I managed to bring in a good profit with the transfer dealings which I'm pleased about. Guesnon DC suffered a bad injury which kept him out for months which I'm hoping hasn't ruined what looked a promising player. El Ainin MC and Terzic MC were brought in as replacements for the departing Duzel MC and they both look more than capable of filling his shoes. I think I committed daylight robbery on Atletico Madrid given the princely sum they paid for what was only a rotation option at best. Ross MR and Young MC were pure profit after joining the club for free so I'll be looking for more of that sort of deal in future. I also signed a few players for free which I couldn't get work permits for so they went out on loan to Sligo Rovers and are helping them in their battle to wrest control south of the border from Cork City. Marty Miskimmin - MR Average Rating: 7.55 The guy has electric speed and must terrify opposition fullbacks that have to come up against him. A very productive season from the HG talent. Serge Diallo - DC Average Rating: 7.45 Forget about a replacement for Ibarra DC this guy is going to surpass him and at only 19 he has huge amount of room for further growth. It was imperative that I tied him down to a new contract which after some wrangling by his greedy agent was agreed to and puts him on £93Kp/w. Unless I get some ridiculous offer (£150M+) he will be staying here for the foreseeable future. I don't think I have ever seen a player this young have such exceptional ability to read the game. If I could get another player anywhere near as good as him to partner him in the central defence I can't see us conceding many goals. Finances - It was my intention to try and cut the wage bill but given the profit we made in the transfer market and the lack of activity when it comes to a new stadium I decided to keep up the level of spending. Provided we can keep up the level of success and win the Champions League season after season we should be fine for now. The board even paid out £9.25M in dividends so we must be doing alright considering last season they felt the need to pump money into the club. Facilities - The training facilities downgraded so I had to spend money on bringing them back up to state of the art. I don't really know what this board are playing at to be honest. I have done everything I can to prompt the building of a new stadium. Masses of money in the clubs bank account...check Average attendance >90% of Windsor Park capacity...check Most reputable club team in the world...check Highest number of season ticket sales in the country...check Unprecedented success on the pitch...check Even with all of that they still don't feel we have the fan base to support the building of a new ground. The mind boggles quite frankly and I'm beginning to wonder what it's going to take for it to happen, especially since they agreed to it with a smaller fan base only for it to be blocked by the council. I never had this trouble with Glentoran, my only solace is that perhaps this delaying might result in an increased capacity for the new ground when we finally get around to building it which could be a good thing I suppose. Youth Intake - Absolute garbage, which probably goes some way to explaining why the youth team is declining domestically. I only signed 2 players from this intake as I didn't see the point of wasting resources on a bunch of players which if fully developed will only be Championship standard at best. League Reputation - A much better season for the N. Irish clubs with both Larne and Glentoran getting though their Europa League groups. Ultimately, Glentoran lost 5-2 on aggregate to Tottenham Hotspur in the 1st knockout round and Larne lost 3-2 on aggregate to Girondins de Bordeaux in the 2nd knockout round but all progress is welcome and I'll be hoping for more the same next season. The other participants didn't qualify for the group stage of the Europa League. Club Domestic Reputation - Be careful what you wish for I guess. I said I wanted some fresh new blood in the DBP and I've got precisely that although I wasn't expecting it to be Tobermore United and Newington that got promoted. It'll be interesting to see how they both cope being the only semi-professional clubs in the league, my guess will be badly but who knows maybe we'll see a shock. I'm not going to be too harsh on Newington however as it has been great to see their rise from non league and they are another local derby for us. Club European Reputation - Is there any point in posting this screenshot anymore? Spoiler Spoiler 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stouters Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Loving this save of yours and admire your perseverance with both Glentoran and Linfield. Could you answer a couple of questions for me out of experience and opinion? I started with Glentoran hoping to emulate what you have achieved. My question is this. Is it worth the money spent on reaching 10,000 seats at The Oval considering the initial size of the new one? I thinking of just saving up for a new stadium as we can play at Windsor Park for European matches. My other question is have you thought about managing 2 teams at the same time? Thanks in advance. I hope you achieve the objective of the save. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 (edited) On 27/07/2019 at 21:18, Stouters said: Loving this save of yours and admire your perseverance with both Glentoran and Linfield. Could you answer a couple of questions for me out of experience and opinion? I started with Glentoran hoping to emulate what you have achieved. My question is this. Is it worth the money spent on reaching 10,000 seats at The Oval considering the initial size of the new one? I thinking of just saving up for a new stadium as we can play at Windsor Park for European matches. My other question is have you thought about managing 2 teams at the same time? Thanks in advance. I hope you achieve the objective of the save. Thanks for kind comments, it's much appreciated. As for your questions, I would recommend that you first expand the ground to the maximum 10,000 capacity before trying to get a new stadium. The reason for this is that I believe the size of the old ground is taken into account when it comes to deciding the potential capacity of the new stadium. I'd also want to ensure the fan base is of an adequate size before embarking on building a new ground especially given that The Oval has limited capacity unless you expand it. I'd much rather have the confidence of knowing I'm selling out 10,000 rather than 5,056. Although I can see the merits of managing 2 teams simultaneously I want to try and make the process as organic as possible so that the AI opponents improve without my input which I'm hoping will be more sustainable. Besides, the amount of fixtures I'm having to play per season is already quite high if I were to double that I think my motivation to continue the save would diminish. I'd quite like to achieve the objective of the save by building one club as much as I can then moving onto the next. I'm not sure whether it's even possible to break into the top 5 leagues let alone reach the top given the wealth gap but the more N. Irish clubs I can build up the better our chances of being able to have teams compete in Europe. Talking about building up clubs, in September of the season I'm about to report on I decided to go to the board and ask for a new stadium. It was done rather flippantly and I fully expected another resounding rejection with guff about how the fan base wasn't big enough. To my surprise I got the following pair of messages. This is great news and now I can prepare the club for the new build by trying to increase the bank balance. All the best Edited July 31, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted July 31, 2019 Author Share Posted July 31, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2061 / 2062 A new stadium is in the pipeline and now we await the granting of planning permission which should hopefully be done at the end of next season. In the meantime, the focus has to be on maintaining our success on the pitch. League Table - Another very comfortable win which was pleasing alongside the increase in goals scored. Very gutting to see Larne miss out on playing in Europe as I feel that is going to prove very damaging for them. I was surprised to see Newington survive although I can't see that happening next season when they will be the sole semi-professional club in the top division. I am however growing concerned with the huge gap that exists between the top 2 and the rest. On the plus side, at least it means that the nations two biggest clubs will be competing in the Champions League. UEFA Champions League - We had our wobbles along the way such as the opening day loss in the group stage and the first leg loss in the 1st Knockout Round but overall we had a very convincing campaign and are more than worthy European champions which gives us an extraordinary 9th title in a row. Can we claim la decima next season? Those are words I never thought I'd ever write but given our consistency I see no reason why not. FIFA Club World Cup - Off to Morocco this time but the result was the same although we found it tougher. UEFA Super Cup - This was the perfect start to a great campaign. Domestic Cups - Another clean sweep of trophies which is fantastic. Non league Riada had a torrid time against us but I'd quite like to continue drawing lower league clubs at home to provide a nice payday for them. Reserves - Not bad although it probably would have been a better idea to get knocked out early in the Intermediate Cup in order to give other teams a chance to earn some decent money. Under 18s - Very strong domestically but absolutely dreadful in Europe. Our youth department has really let us down in recent times. Squad - The goalkeeper Pena isn't shown in the screenshot but did feature in the first team. I'm very pleased with the squad and we might have even managed to bring in the quality central defender to partner Diallo I was looking for but that deal was hijacked at the last minute by Valencia. There will definitely be some outgoing transfers and players released but I wouldn't expect any major surgery as I seek to hold on to the strong core that has been established while keeping players like Ibarra DC around for tutoring and the leadership qualities they bring to the table. Transfers - It was a case of go big or go home in my book as I needed to replace the players that were leaving. Even though I broke the clubs record transfer fee I still managed to keep the cost to a minimum and only had a net spend of £5M. Boahene ML and Emerson MC weren't interested in playing for us anymore so I allowed them to move on while the others that left were surplus to requirements. Clarke MC, Dia ST & Roganovic DL were all fantastic acquisitions and performed brilliantly. I can't wait to see how Roganovic and Dia develop as they look to have a very bright future. Max Benham - DC Average Rating: 7.50 A consistent performer who struck up a good partnership with Diallo. Can't really ask for more than that really and is a good option to bring in given the decline of Ibarra. Much like Ibarra he will need replacing sooner rather than later but while he is in his peak and performing like he is there is no rush. Serge Diallo - DC Average Rating: 7.48 The guy is sheer class and has been developing brilliantly. He's fast, intelligent, has all the right traits and is improving technically all the time. He is the sort of player you build a defense around, simply irreplaceable and at 20 years old is already world class having established himself in the French national team. One of the best central defenders I have ever seen at his age and provided he can stay injury free I sense he is destined for greatness. Finances - The balance took a serious dent as we got planning permission granted a year early. I'm very pleased that we were able to pay for the new ground without taking on any debt (although we did take out a loan for £8M which was paid back within the month for some reason). The board pumped in £22.5M and it looks like I will be able to continue to invest in the squad even though the transfer and wage budgets have been understandably slashed. We were in no danger of passing the FFP so the red bar can be ignored having made £90M in profit over the period. Facilities - Things have really changed forever at the club and the last obstacle has now been surmounted with the following message. It's a great starting point in terms of capacity and hopefully we are looking at a ground which has the potential to have a capacity which is double it's original size much like at Glentoran. If we could have a club in N. Ireland with a stadium which has a capacity of 77,500 that would be transformative to N. Irish football and mean than teams playing us in the domestic cups would be earning a small fortune. Now we begin the countdown. Youth Intake - With each new intake I become increasingly disillusioned with our youth department. I understand that the comparisons are being made with world class players but even still the lack of potential stars is worrying. I might need to sign another youth affiliation although Penarol didn't send us any real quality. League Reputation - We are pretty much cemented in place and will remain so until we see an improvement from the other N. Irish clubs. This season, Glentoran - Knocked out 6-2 on aggregate by FC Porto in 1st Knockout Round of the Europa League Glenavon - Finished 3rd in Europa League group Larne - Knocked out 2-1 on aggregate by Partizan Belgrade in 4th Qualifying Round of the Europa League Coleraine - Knocked out on away goals after 2-2 draw on aggregate by Randers FC in 2nd Qualifying Round of the Europa League I don't expect miracles but they really should be doing a lot better especially Glentoran who are in a financially comfortable position. Club Domestic Reputation - We really need the chasing pack to step up their game and compete. Club European Reputation - Still top but no other N. Irish club anywhere to be seen. Spoiler Spoiler Edited August 1, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stouters Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 I think you may be on to something with regards to getting a new stadium and the size of a new one. I have been unable to expand the stadium but the option to ask for a new stadium was there, so I asked simply because I could and they said yes! It is at the planning stage and it is likely to be a 6,250 seater. As you maxed out the oval first, the new stadium started out larger? I can't remember. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 6, 2019 Author Share Posted August 6, 2019 On 04/08/2019 at 10:52, Stouters said: I think you may be on to something with regards to getting a new stadium and the size of a new one. I have been unable to expand the stadium but the option to ask for a new stadium was there, so I asked simply because I could and they said yes! It is at the planning stage and it is likely to be a 6,250 seater. As you maxed out the oval first, the new stadium started out larger? I can't remember. The new stadium that was built with Glentoran had a starting capacity of 15,085 and was expanded to 30,170. I think you may have pulled the trigger a bit too early on asking to build a new ground. I haven't seen a new stadium have potential expansion capacity more than double its starting capacity so if my theory is correct the largest your new ground is ever going to reach is 12,500. This can be a problem as you can't build another new ground for 25 years so you are going to be stuck at a rather limited capacity until then. If you are in for the long haul then I guess it's not that big a deal as if you can be successful the ground you build after is likely to be huge but you will need to manage the finances well as 12,500 doesn't really give you much clout financially. Considering that gate receipts are your only major source of income domestically you might find it difficult to maintain a higher wage bill so you are going to need to be good in the transfer market to make up the shortfall. Why was it that you couldn't request to expand the stadium? Best Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stouters Posted August 6, 2019 Share Posted August 6, 2019 36 minutes ago, pheelf said: The new stadium that was built with Glentoran had a starting capacity of 15,085 and was expanded to 30,170. I think you may have pulled the trigger a bit too early on asking to build a new ground. I haven't seen a new stadium have potential expansion capacity more than double its starting capacity so if my theory is correct the largest your new ground is ever going to reach is 12,500. This can be a problem as you can't build another new ground for 25 years so you are going to be stuck at a rather limited capacity until then. If you are in for the long haul then I guess it's not that big a deal as if you can be successful the ground you build after is likely to be huge but you will need to manage the finances well as 12,500 doesn't really give you much clout financially. Considering that gate receipts are your only major source of income domestically you might find it difficult to maintain a higher wage bill so you are going to need to be good in the transfer market to make up the shortfall. Why was it that you couldn't request to expand the stadium? Best Regards Oh, dear. The board would expand because we didn't have enough fans (or however they put it). Then they surprise me with agreeing to the new stadium. I guess there will be a lot of ground sharing with Linfield for a while. I seem to do ok with selling players for big money, doesn't happen very often but usually it is for big money. Got £5m plus add-ons for a ST that had only been at the club for a season and a half and I only bought him for £28k. Bought him in Jan 2027, sold July 2028. We've qualified for the Champions League a couple of times and have £25m in the balance, as long as we keep doing that then we'll keep ahead of any potential money related issues Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 6, 2019 Author Share Posted August 6, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2062 / 2063 The new stadium is being built and should be ready by the end of next season. The objective for this season will be to remain invincible both domestically and in Europe. League Table - Another great season with us only shipping 7 goals and almost going unbeaten until a final day loss to Glentoran with a heavily rotated side. Next season the league will be rejoined by Ballyclare Comrades as Newington bowed out. Nice to see Larne back in Europe with Ballymena United clinching a spot which is vital for them considering their financial status has become insecure. Both Larne and Lisburn Distillery had boardroom takeovers which I'm hoping will help them to become more competitive. UEFA Champions League - La decima has been secured and what an unbelievable achievement to win the Champions League every year for a whole decade. The only teams to give us problems were Nantes who beat us twice to claim top spot in our group and AS Monaco who took us all the way in the final. Thankfully for us, our goalkeeper was in heroic form and saved every penalty to give us the win. We show no signs of slowing down and Real Madrid's record is looking attainable at this point which would be incredible given that we would have done it in a fraction of the time. FIFA Club World Cup - Our return to Morocco proved to be a lot trickier than I thought it would be but we got the win and in the end that's all that matters. UEFA Super Cup - A nice comfortable win which started the season on a good note. Domestic Cups - Once again we won the lot to complete the set which is all the more impressive given that it was done with our backup players. It was nice to draw some of the lower league clubs at home in the cups to give them some good income. Reserves - They won the league which was good and the attendances in the cups appear to be on the rise. Would like to see them use our new stadium once it is built as they are selling out the majority of the cup games and it would be nice to see them generate good income for lower league clubs also. Under 18s - The team is getting further away from being successful rather than closer. They can't even get out of their UEFA Youth League group anymore and domestically they are struggling. Squad - A superb collection of players which I feel can remain dominant for years to come provided I can keep the spine of the team intact. That is however easier said than done given the massive interest in some of the wonderkids. I am pleased that my key players have shown no interest to leave though as keeping them makes it so much easier to keep the squad together. Ibarra DC is looking a spent force although he did play a decent amount of games. I was in two minds as to whether to keep him but given that he agreed to reduce his contract demands I decided it was worth having him around given his personality and position in the club hierarchy. Looking ahead, I think the wide midfield positions are looking a bit weak and hopefully I'll be able to identify some players with good potential to bring in. Transfers - A very good profit was made which was all the more pleasing given how much money was spent and the quality of player that was brought in. I had intended to sell either one of Patterson ST or Beckett ST but there was some good interest being shown in Gueye ST and as I needed to give Dia ST more game time to develop him I decided to accept West Ham's offer. In January, Ciric DR started to kick up a stink about wanting to leave so I decided to ship him out and I'm delighted with his replacement Biro Biro DR who looks a brilliant prospect. The other players that left were surplus to requirements and I'm pleased to have gotten as much money as I did for them except Gil DR who I made a slight loss on. I'm not too disappointed though as I could never get a work permit for him and the 5 seasons he spent on loan at Sligo Rovers didn't really make him develop the way I thought he could have so felt it best for him to move on. As for the players that were brought in I'm pleased with all of them and the majority are considered wonderkids. I think Konate DC looks a good partner for Diallo DC in the central defence while Yacaruso GK looks a brilliant stand in for Kraemer GK. Overall, a very productive pair of transfer windows. Marty Miskimmin - MR Average Rating: 7.80 A consistent and highly productive season for the HG right winger. I'd like an upgrade but more of the same is welcome next season, his turn of pace must be terrifying for opposition fullbacks. Gaetan Guesnon - DC Average Rating: 7.57 You may ask why him but he managed the highest average rating in the squad for players 21 and younger. He didn't really feature at all in Europe which probably accounts for a slight inflation in his rating but I have no reservations in giving him this award. He was solid, dependable and allowed us to maintain a challenge on all fronts. It is reassuring to have the confidence to put him in the team and know he won't let me down. Finances - I have to say that I wasn't expecting the club to be in such a comfortable financial position given last seasons massive expenditure on the new stadium but here we are. We even had enough to pay out £9.75M in dividends to shareholders whilst we managed nearly £300M in turnover over the season. As we are in such a good financial condition I feel that I can still invest in the playing squad which is very helpful even though I don't see us needing to make many changes. The plan going forward must be to maintain this level of bank balance then for the season after next increase it so that I can begin the process of expanding the stadium immediately. Facilities - One more season and we get the keys to our new ground to begin a new chapter and phase in the building of the club. Youth Intake - I don't have any optimism any more when it comes to intake day. League Reputation - Unfortunately, another poor season from the other N. Irish clubs in Europe. Glentoran - Finished 3rd in Europa League group Glenavon - Knocked out 3-0 on aggregate by Hertha Berlin in 4th Qualifying Round of the Europa League Ballymena United - Knocked out 4-1 on aggregate in 3rd Qualifying Round of the Europa League Coleraine - Finished 4th in Europa League group The other teams just aren't performing well enough in Europe to even make a dent in the coefficient gap between us and the league above us. I'm hoping that will change once I've fully expanded the new stadium and can start bringing in more talent to loan out to the N. Irish teams, we should hopefully arrive at that point within the next few years. Club Domestic Reputation - Not much changes to see here. Club European Reputation - Even if we were to fail to win the Champions League we should at least remain top for a while. Spoiler Spoiler Edited August 6, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 6, 2019 Author Share Posted August 6, 2019 (edited) Finally, after our latest Champions League triumph this happened. Edited August 6, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 6, 2019 Author Share Posted August 6, 2019 25 minutes ago, Stouters said: Oh, dear. The board would expand because we didn't have enough fans (or however they put it). Then they surprise me with agreeing to the new stadium. I guess there will be a lot of ground sharing with Linfield for a while. I seem to do ok with selling players for big money, doesn't happen very often but usually it is for big money. Got £5m plus add-ons for a ST that had only been at the club for a season and a half and I only bought him for £28k. Bought him in Jan 2027, sold July 2028. We've qualified for the Champions League a couple of times and have £25m in the balance, as long as we keep doing that then we'll keep ahead of any potential money related issues The situation you find yourself in reminds me a lot of my FM17 save with Chimney Corner where I had to scrimp and scrape for years in a small ground but it all worked out well in the end as I ended up with a 65,000 capacity stadium at the finish (it did take a while though). I think you'll be fine as long as you keep selling players for good money and as the money in Champions League is much better in FM19 provided you can be successful in Europe you should be good. You might want to keep the capacity of your new ground below 8,000 for as long as possible though as anything over that and you won't get assigned Windsor Park in the Champions League anymore. All the best Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 8, 2019 Author Share Posted August 8, 2019 (edited) LEAVING WINDSOR PARK A stadium that has been the home of Linfield since 1905 will host its final game in the 2063/2064 Champions League semi final against Inter Milan as the Belfast side seek to overturn a first leg deficit and claim a spot in what would be their 11th Champions League final in a row. The old ground has undergone serious renovations throughout its history with the latest being the addition of a further 9,000 seats to bring it up to its current capacity of 27,000. Even with the 2nd largest stadium in the country it has become abundantly clear that such a small stadium is no longer a fitting venue for a team which has become a global brand and aspires to establish itself among the giants of European football. As a result, it has become necessary for the club to move on in order to be able to generate more revenue in order to compete financially on a more level playing field with the elite. Here are some shots from the final game to be played at the stadium. The Main Grandstand - As part of the renovations that took place with the final expansion the upper tier was extended while the roof struts were painted blue. The David Jeffrey Stand - A look toward the stand dedicated to the clubs legendary manager who won an incredible 9 league titles with the club, 7 Irish Cups, 6 League Cups, 6 Co. Antrim Shields and the All-Ireland Cup. Much like the main grandstand it has also been renovated with the addition of another tier. The Away end - Filled to brim with Inter supporters hoping that their team can spoil the party and knock the hosts out. This stand has also seen the addition of an extra tier. An eagle eye view of the ground showing its uniform look and the removal of seating in the corners. The final whistle is blown which calls time on football at Windsor Park for Linfield forever. This was followed by a special dedication ceremony and farewell concert to give a fitting send off to the famous old ground. The Linfield faithful will be hoping that as they close the book on this chapter of their history that an equally successful era is ahead in their new ground. Edited August 8, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 8, 2019 Author Share Posted August 8, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2063 / 2064 In our final season at Windsor Park the aim has to be to maintain our dominance and close the gap to Real Madrid who hold the record for most Champions League titles won. League Table - The 5 point margin most definitely flatters us and for the first time in a while we had a serious title challenge. Going into the split we were 3 points behind but thankfully we managed to pull it back with a perfect record in the final 5 games. We have most definitely had our warning though and I would be remiss to ignore it. We really need to stop dropping points needlessly against the smaller teams and be more effective in breaking down teams. Gutted to see Cliftonville get relegated as they are a local rival but at least Newington will be coming back up to replace them. UEFA Champions League - We showed great resilience this time around to claim the 11th title in a row putting the club within 2 wins of equaling Real Madrid. I think we may have dodged a bullet this time but I wouldn't want to get into the habit of having to recover from first leg defeats every knockout tie as without our strong home form we would have been knocked out. FIFA Club World Cup - Off to the Middle East this time for another coronation but we are finding it much harder than I would like. UEFA Super Cup - 1-0 seems to be our new favourite scoreline in the cups. A nice way to start the season. Domestic Cups - Yikes!! To be fair, I played a mixture of reserve and youth team players but perhaps we should have done a little better. I'll take these more seriously next season and play rotated sides instead of reserve and youth players as I'd like to start helping lower league clubs with increased gate receipts. Reserves - Not too bad, I would have liked to see them win the league but a cup win is okay. Under 18s - They seem to have hit a wall in Europe but at least they reclaimed the youth league title and came within a penalty shootout of the domestic double. Squad - Defensively we seem really solid but the potency of our attacks could do with some improvement. When teams set up in a defensive way against us we sometimes find it difficult to break through them and I'm beginning to suspect that our wide play could be contributing to why. I feel we need more contribution from the wide midfielders when we come up against defensive sides to break through them and perhaps we need to be looking at a new ML to help in that regard. I don't sense I will be renewing any of the players contracts that end in June and instead will be looking for some new faces to freshen things up a bit. Transfers - I decided to do a bit of business given the window of opportunity I had with the new stadium being built and not needing to build the bank balance for expansions. As for the players which were brought in. Marianinho MC was a steal for a wonderkid and has developed exceptionally well which I'm pleased about. Jungblut MR was another wonderkid who done well and is attracting interest from the likes of Nantes after a great debut season. Magani ST was also a wonderkid who I saw being the player to replace Tuting or Mayor in the supporting striker role but he didn't really hit the ground running this season so I will be hoping for a vast improvement next season. The rest were signings for the reserve team who I hoped would be loaned out to other N. Irish clubs which for the most part they were as I went about trying to bring in players for the other N. Irish teams to build the league as a whole. For the players that left, Patterson ST went for a fantastic price given that he never really shone here. Beckett ST also left for a good fee but as I had another HG talent in Byrne ST (who is now considered a wonderkid) waiting in the wings for game time I felt comfortable in letting both strikers leave. I didn't really want Figl ML to depart but he had his heart set on leaving for Dortmund and I felt the fee was reasonable enough to enable him to go. I had intended to keep Ibarra DC and even held a testimonial for him but he wanted a new challenge and I felt after weighing it up that it made sense to move him on rather than keep a player on high wages around who wasn't going to play very much while continuing to decline. Victor Ojo - DC Average Rating: 7.42 Perhaps a surprising choice but one I feel is merited. He was unhappy during the season with a lack of first team football so I promised to offer him some opportunities to prove himself and he didn't let me down. He is not half the player Diallo is but is a very capable rotation option and for domestic games he is more than good enough. Daniel Jungblut - MR Average Rating: 7.42 He managed a very good average rating but he gets the award from me based on the way he has developed. He has come on leaps and bounds and if he could just become a bit more determined then I feel he would develop into an exceptional player. I may have difficulty holding onto him given the interest in him from abroad but every player has their price and any bid over £70M would need serious consideration. Finances - The club is in good health financially although the board did feel it necessary to pump in £8.5M. There is definitely room to make moves in the transfer market if required but I am mindful of the need to now build the bank balance so that I can begin the process of stadium expansion as soon as possible. I wouldn't want the club to take on any debt in order to start the process and I feel if I could end next season with a balance around the £100M mark I should be able to pay for a hefty expansion without taking out a loan. It'll be interesting to see the impact of the new stadium on our revenues and season ticket sales. Facilities - The youth facilities downgraded so money was spent on bringing them back up to state of the art. A few more weeks and we will be in our new home which hopefully has a lot of potential for expansion. Youth Intake - A slight improvement in quality with Creasman DL looking the pick of the bunch, hopefully, in time he might develop enough to grace the first team. League Reputation - Seemingly out of nowhere we climb two places up to 6th. I find it difficult to explain given that the other N. Irish teams didn't do very much in Europe but at this point I'll take anything I can get although it didn't impact the coefficients. Glentoran - Knocked out 7-1 on aggregate by Bayern Munich in 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League (a decent run for them after topping their Europa League group) Larne - Knocked out 4-3 on aggregate by Borussia Monchengladbach in 4th Qualifying Round of the Europa League (I felt they were unlucky to draw such a difficult team and they gave a good fight) Ballymena United - Knocked out 6-1 on aggregate by En Avant De Guingamp in 3rd Qualifying Round of the Europa League (Too large a gap in class for them to overcome) Glenavon - Finished 4th in Europa League group managing a grand total of 0 points Both Ballymena United and Glenavon play their European games at the new Larne Stadium which has a capacity of just over 9,000 which is a bit of a shame as they could earn a lot more going to Windsor Park but that's where they get assigned and Larne doesn't appear to be showing any signs of expanding their ground again. Club Domestic Reputation - I would like to see teams like Glenavon and Larne make more of their relatively high reputations as they should be an attractive destination for quality players which could help them in Europe but they seem to struggle to bring in the players needed to take them to the next level. Club European Reputation - If we could just see one or two more N. Irish teams on the list we would be in great shape for getting a 3rd Champions League spot which would really help. Spoiler Spoiler Edited August 9, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 9, 2019 Author Share Posted August 9, 2019 (edited) A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME It has been a remarkably quick process and we have gone from seeking planning permission to completion all within the space of 3 years. The most important figure on the above screenshot was the potential expansion capacity and I'm fairly satisfied with 65,000 although that only allows us to expand by a further 26,250 seats. I think this is more than adequate to turn the club into a powerful engine for growth in N. Ireland as even after I have departed the income generated once at full capacity should help maintain a higher wage budget while also providing good income for domestic clubs when playing against Linfield in the cups. I'm very pleased with the top corporate facilities at the ground, the retractable roof and under soil heating which is more in keeping with a club that is considered the most reputable in the world. Our first visitors will be Ballymena United which should give us a strong attendance although it won't be a sell out and that will have to wait until we face a local rival. So what does the new ground look like? This is a shot of the main grandstand and if I'm being honest I'm rather underwhelmed. The whole ground is very uniform looking with 4 rather boring 3 tiered stands on each side. Each stand features a cantilevered sheet metal roof which looks rather poor quality and I really hope that on expansion that gets replaced. Each stand also features roof mounted floodlights and there are ground floodlights in each of the empty corners. The view facing the new David Jeffrey stand with the facing grandstand on the right. Unlike the main grandstand both of these stands have a row of boxes at the top of the 2nd tier with picnic tables and assorted bric-a-brac in the corners (whose idea was it to include this in the game, it looks completely out of place. The standard of the stadiums in FM seems to be getting worse with each new version). A view toward the away end which also features a row of boxes. There looks to be a lot more than 800 away fans there but perhaps some are Linfield supporters donning the Ballymena United kit in order to watch the game. We have a video screen to the right which is an upgrade on Windsor Park where we had none. A top down view of the new ground. It's not pretty and the build quality doesn't look particularly good given the sheet metal roofing and painted roof struts. I hope that when expanded there might be some improvement such as filling in the corners and getting rid of the ridiculous picnic tables while installing a glass roof but somehow I doubt that will happen. Glad to see the record tumble as we set a new benchmark for a domestic game played in N. Ireland which we should surpass during the season when we manage a sell out. I'm a little bit disappointed that the reserve team haven't been assigned the new stadium as their home ground but I am pleased that we managed to generate over £300K in gate receipts in our first home game. In fact, I was so impressed that I immediately went to the board and asked for an expansion. The board duly obliged but I'm hoping for a more meatier expansion than suggested come the end of the season and will be looking after the bank balance in preparation for that. It was a fine start to life in our new home as we thrashed Ballymena United 6-0 and hopefully we can turn the ground into an intimidating fortress for visiting teams. Edited August 9, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 12, 2019 Author Share Posted August 12, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2064 / 2065 The stadium move has been completed, so now begins the task of expanding it to its maximum size. A task which should be made easier if we can continue to build the fan base with the level of success we've been having. Therefore the objective will be to maintain our dominance on the pitch. League Table - No messing about this time as we stormed to another title win. It was looking bleak for Crusaders who propped up the table for the majority of the season. Thankfully for them they pulled together some impressive post split form which condemned newly professional Newington to relegation and then went on to beat Donegal Celtic in the relegation playoff. Gutting once again to see Larne miss out on European football entirely. UEFA Champions League - We had some close shaves this time but still managed to lift the trophy to bring the club within one win of equaling the record. We really are treading a thin line though and really need to be careful as our home form seems to be suffering. FIFA Club World Cup - Back to Qatar for a rather more comfortable victory than in recent seasons. UEFA Super Cup - A fairly convincing win which started the season on a positive note. Domestic Cups - Almost another clean sweep but a very dominant performance overall. Reserves - No cups but did manage to win the league. Under 18s - I felt they were slightly unlucky not to qualify out of their UEFA Youth League group but at least they won the league. Squad - A lot of changes to the playing staff but the core still remains fairly solid. There definitely was a lot of dissent within the dressing room this season. Our star goalkeeper Kraemer wanted to leave and when I denied him the opportunity he made life very difficult for me. In the end, I had to sell him in January to avoid losing him for nothing at the end of the season as he refused to sign a new contract. I also had similar issues with Diallo DC who was sold and Jungblut MR but thankfully I managed to turn him around. As I hadn't had this issue of players wanting to leave for a while I was beginning to think that I was over it but that was a rather complacent view in retrospect. Players are always going to want to play in better leagues and I should be happy to let them go provided the money is good as we still need to be a selling club. I need to keep focusing on bringing in wonderkids and developing them. Transfers - A necessary profit was made given that the balance at one point during the season dipped into the red. I'm a bit disappointed in my transfer dealings this season as I could have got a lot more for Diallo DC than I ended up with. I received offers for nearly £100M but foolishly perhaps I tried to hold onto him and rejected it. He didn't appreciate my effort to retain him and in the end he forced a move for a much lower price. Tuting ST wanted a new challenge so I was happy to let him go as I needed to give Magani ST game time. I'm very pleased with the players brought in as they look like solid signings with a lot of potential. Hopefully, I can make a lot of profit on the players. Momcilo Terzic - MC Average Rating: 7.40 A quality season for the central midfielder who chipped in with some vitally important goals. Daniel Jungblut - MR Average Rating: 7.62 On the pitch you couldn't ask for more as he was the top provider of assists in the team and had a great season. Off the pitch is a different story with the constant whining about wanting to leave but I'm hoping that should all have settled down given that the team he wanted to move to have withdrawn their interest. Finances - Big expenditures in the ground maintenance section can only mean one thing and that is a hefty stadium expansion. We had to unfortunately take out a loan to help fund it and will now be saddled with a £29.5M loan which we will be repaying until 2075 at a rate of £300K per month. It is not ideal but I wanted to get started as soon as possible and the loan facilitates that. What is strange is that the board decided to pump in £22.5M after the screenshot was taken. Why they just didn't pump the money in themselves and forget about the loan I will never know. We may need to be careful with the bank balance going forward as I would like to pay for any future expansions without loans if possible. Facilities - The training facilities has to be upgraded for £2.5M to bring them back up to state of the art. Not bad at all in terms of size of expansion but a little pricey considering that the new stadium cost less than £2,500 per seat where as the expansion costs over £3,500 per seat. Youth Intake - Nobody there to get excited about unfortunately. League Reputation - Some truly excellent news about the coefficients although the position in the reputation table remained the same. This could be game changing but only if the other teams N. Irish teams can take advantage otherwise it could be very short lived. It follows on from what was actually a decent season for the other N. Irish clubs in Europe. Glentoran - Finished 4th in Champions League group (They managed 4 points and perhaps should have finished above Slovan Bratislava but having 2 N.I. teams in the CL groups is always good for the objective of the save) Larne - Knocked out on away goals rule after a 1-1 draw on aggregate with Young Boys in 4th Qualifying Round of the Europa League (I was gutted to see them come so close and fail) Ballymena United - Finished 4th in Europa League group (They had a really difficult group which they couldn't cope with, at least they managed a win which might have been enough to put us over the top in the coefficients battle) Glenavon - Knocked out 6-4 on aggregate to Leeds United in 4th Qualifying Round of the Europa League (Another team who came tantalizingly close to the group stage) Ideally, next season I want to see us, Glentoran and Larne qualify for the Champions League so that we can have the strongest representation possible. Club Domestic Reputation - At last we start to see more investment in infrastructure from the other clubs as Ballyclare Comrades search for a site for a new 4,525 all seater capacity stadium. Hopefully, as we begin to see more money in the N. Irish game we see more improvements. Only a couple more seasons and I think Glentoran can begin to think about building a new ground. Club European Reputation - It was a decent enough haul of coefficient points to overtake Portugal but the lead is wafer thin so we need another good season to begin to create a gap. Spoiler Spoiler Edited August 13, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 Ah, Pheelf smashing European football for decades with Irish/Northern Irish sides, where have I seen this before, got a slight sense of deja vu 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stouters Posted August 30, 2019 Share Posted August 30, 2019 Would you still consider the save to be organic if you deliberately paid £1m for a player worth £100k from a Bluefin Sport Championship division. I'm only in 2032 but we're the only full-time club in the DBP. I was considering using a fraction of my club's £80m to encourage some sort of growth, hoping that another club will go professional. I know its a case of play my save the way I want to, but I want a clear conscience if I get even close to the objective. Would you have done something similar if you had the funds or would you feel like you're affecting the outcome too much? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 31, 2019 Author Share Posted August 31, 2019 On 16/08/2019 at 01:34, noikeee said: Ah, Pheelf smashing European football for decades with Irish/Northern Irish sides, where have I seen this before, got a slight sense of deja vu I had intended to shake things up a bit by doing a save in India but in the end a bug with league reputations prevented that. It's been surprisingly consistent so far having almost caught Real Madrid in CL wins. The next phase of the save could be very interesting as the impact of having 3 CL spots starts to influence the finances of the other teams in the league. Best Regards Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted August 31, 2019 Author Share Posted August 31, 2019 23 hours ago, Stouters said: Would you still consider the save to be organic if you deliberately paid £1m for a player worth £100k from a Bluefin Sport Championship division. I'm only in 2032 but we're the only full-time club in the DBP. I was considering using a fraction of my club's £80m to encourage some sort of growth, hoping that another club will go professional. I know its a case of play my save the way I want to, but I want a clear conscience if I get even close to the objective. Would you have done something similar if you had the funds or would you feel like you're affecting the outcome too much? I have found that reputation is king when it comes to developing a club. I once had AI controlled Dergview in a previous FM get taken over by a tycoon but even with unlimited amounts of money and professional status they still couldn't get promoted into the top division because they simply couldn't attract the quality of player needed to the club because their reputation was so poor. They paid bang average players fortunes which couldn't get them where they needed to be, mind you that was a few FMs ago so it might have changed a bit since then. I'm surprised that you are the only full time club in the DBP though in 2032, what happened to Larne? Hasn't Linfield and the other Belfast clubs developed at all alongside you? If you are seeking to make use of your money to help build the league as a whole I would work from the top down rather than the bottom up. Giving £1m to a 2nd division side doesn't do much to improve the quality of the league as a whole as they don't have the reputation to attract quality players. That money in the hands of one the better DBP sides that is likely to compete in Europe on the other hand could make a huge difference. You could easily set up a virtuous circle by doing that. If they have money they can bring in better players, those better players can help them to improve in Europe which brings in more prize money which they can use to improve the squad further. All the while having the passive effects of increasing coefficient points which boost league and club reputation putting even better players on their radar to bring into the country. I see no problem in helping other clubs out, all it does it accelerate the rate of progress and since you are without any other professional sides in the league at this point in your save it could really help things along. It'd be great to see the N. Irish league 1st in the reputation table if only to prove that it's possible. All the best 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stouters Posted August 31, 2019 Share Posted August 31, 2019 In 2023 Larne's Kenny Bruce scaled down funding, the club turned semi-professional in 2026 and in 2032 Kenny Bruce leaves with a consortium taking over. Linfield suffered 2 relegations in 2022 and 2025. Cliftonville have been good at being 2nd doing so 5 times with 3 3rd places and a title win. I thought they should have gone pro by now. I might leave it for another season or two before using the money to encourage growth. I think we'll get the 2nd CL place along with the 3 EL places at the end of 2032/33. Hopefully Cliftonville can use that to build on. I realise this is like 30yrs behind you, so I appreciate the replies. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 (edited) On 31/08/2019 at 21:04, Stouters said: In 2023 Larne's Kenny Bruce scaled down funding, the club turned semi-professional in 2026 and in 2032 Kenny Bruce leaves with a consortium taking over. Linfield suffered 2 relegations in 2022 and 2025. Cliftonville have been good at being 2nd doing so 5 times with 3 3rd places and a title win. I thought they should have gone pro by now. I might leave it for another season or two before using the money to encourage growth. I think we'll get the 2nd CL place along with the 3 EL places at the end of 2032/33. Hopefully Cliftonville can use that to build on. I realise this is like 30yrs behind you, so I appreciate the replies. That's awful from Linfield, I think I may have been fortunate as in my save they developed alongside us pretty well and have never been relegated. The turning point for them was making a big player sale for £7M which gave them enough money to start competing at the upper end of the table and once that happened it completely transformed them. If you could provide something similar for them it could make all the difference. As much as Cliftonville turning professional would be good I think Linfield should be the priority as they will have more ability to sustain it. Getting that 2nd CL place and holding onto it for the long term will be hugely beneficial. Shame about Larne, did they manage to win much before Bruce left? Best Regards Edited September 3, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheelf Posted September 3, 2019 Author Share Posted September 3, 2019 (edited) Linfield F.C. SEASON 2065 / 2066 We are a Champions League win from equaling the record held by Real Madrid so that will be the objective going into the season while we wait for the stadium expansion to be completed. League Table - We had to wait until the post split fixtures but we managed to clinch the title with a draw away at our deadly rivals. There was no Europa League playoff this season and instead a top 6 place guaranteed European football of some description next season (the EC icon next to Ballymena United is a bug). Disappointing to see Crusaders go down and I was dreading both north Belfast clubs going down but thankfully Cliftonville managed to stay up with a 4-2 aggregate win over Ards in the relegation playoff. I would have liked to see Larne claim the 3rd Champions League spot given they have a better European pedigree but I must give immense credit to Glenavon who thanks to some loans from us managed to comfortably claim the final spot. UEFA Champions League - The main objective of the season was achieved but it wasn't plain sailing at all. We started the group stage appallingly by scraping a draw away at the 4th seeds Slavia Prague. After the two home victories in the following matches I felt we had taken control of the group but a shocking 2 nil loss opened the group up again. We managed to secure 2nd with a trouncing of Slavia Prague in the reverse fixture but then suffered a bad defeat in Spain which ensured we finished as runners up and set alarm bells ringing with the manner of the performance. The games against Tottenham Hotspur were surprisingly straight forward especially given they were group winners and had Glentoran, Celtic and PSG in their group so I expected a harder time. At that point my confidence had been restored but then came a real struggle against Real Madrid which we only managed to get through thanks to a late equalizer after falling 2-0 behind in Madrid. The Watford games were also tough and could have gone either way if I'm being honest but thankfully it went our way and we managed to squeeze through to another final. It was a satisfactory win in the final against Manchester United but when I look at the campaign I feel we had more than our fair share of luck. If we are to break Real Madrid's record next season we are going to need to improve. FIFA Club World Cup - A comfortable win in Egypt against a pair of unexpected opponents. UEFA Super Cup - This was a fantastic way to start the season and with the win the club became the most decorated team in the history of the tournament. Our win was probably assisted by the game taking place during an international break meaning that Spurs had a few players missing but then again we had players missing also so it balances out, I suppose. Domestic Cups - Glenavon certainly had the measure of us this season in the cups and without our loan players available to them which makes it all the more impressive. Great to give Malachians a big payday which no doubt helped them on their way to the 3rd division title. Reserves - Won the league but were fairly ineffective in the cups. They were however weakened as a number of their better players went out on loan. Under 18s - Not the best of seasons from the youth team, the 7-1 home defeat in the UEFA Youth League was a shocking result. Squad - The core remains solid and there have been some impressive developments made by the wonderkid players during the season. I will be needing to dip into the transfer market with gusto next season though as we had a bit of weird situation develop with Konate DC. He was concerned that he wouldn't get a work permit so he was reluctant to sign a new contract. This was strange as he had been working toward citizenship which was granted in January so I didn't really understand why he was so concerned and he even went as far as asking to go on loan to Sligo Rovers because of the work permit issue. Well, in January I finally managed to get him around the table to negotiate a new contract which he agreed to only for him to then sign for PSG on a bosman. To say I wasn't best pleased would an understatement as I'm now forced into looking for a top central defender to replace him. I'm also looking around the roster of players and the DL, ML and MC positions aren't looking too strong either and I will looking for some players there also. It's also really disappointing to see how poor our strikers were this season with all of them being outscored by a MC and MR. I know that the strength of league has improved but even still a total of 53 goals from our strikers is pretty lousy. I'm hoping that next season with some better supply from midfield we will see better. Dia ST in the Champions League was especially disappointing and I'm beginning to warm to the idea of moving him on if we can get a good price. Transfers - Perhaps it was misguided to sell two of our best central defenders to Real Madrid in consecutive seasons as it improved them greatly as they went on win La Liga at a canter but I thought the price was good and he wanted to leave anyway, thankfully, it didn't cost us in the Champions League but it could have. Miskimmin MR left for a new challenge and for the price I was happy to oblige. I think I may have made a mistake getting rid of Dmitrijevic MC as I felt we lacked that creative spark in the central midfield which may explain why we struggled for goals. I tried to address this by bringing in Fall but he hasn't really settled at the club yet and he's best suited to play as an AMC which we don't use. Canizares ST and Lorbek ST were exceptional buys and did well on loan at Glenavon although I was gutted to see Canizares break his leg toward the end of the season meaning he will miss the opening months of next season. The Belgian right back from AS Monaco was a good deputy for Biro-Biro although slightly expensive. Moreno DC and Junior DC were my attempt to replace Diallo and Anichini but I don't think they are quite the same level. I sense it's going to take a lot of money and extensive scouting to find a similar quality of player to those two. Jacinto ST went back out on loan to Deportivo and he did okay although nothing special. Ivan Roganovic - DL Average Rating: 7.48 He definitely has the highest average rating for an over 21 player in the squad but I'm not sure what to make of this. When he's playing well he is excellent and an asset but then there are those games when he's really not on his form and he becomes a liability. Those games are infrequent but they can happen at the worst possible times. I think it's maybe a result of him not really being suited to the attack duty, I'll have to keep monitoring him to see if there is any trend when it comes to his bad performances. Daniel Jungblut - MR Average Rating: 7.49 He settled down this season and seems content with his future being at the club. He assisted plenty and scored the most goals in the squad (along with Clarke MC but his figures are massaged as he is a designated penalty and free kick taker) which is pretty much all you can ask for from a wide midfielder. He does frustrate at times though taking shots from wide angles when I would prefer him to pass into a striker in a better position. Finances - A decent balance but the board did feel it necessary to pump in £22.5M after the screenshot was taken to give us a far more comfortable balance approaching £90M. I would like to end next season with a balance of at least £120M as I would like to complete the expansion of the stadium to its potential as soon as possible without incurring any further debt. The wage budget has gotten a little out of control but manageable and hopefully I should be able to raise some decent funds from transfers to help with the building of the balance. Facilities - Just under 5 months until the expansion is finished and not a moment too soon in my view. I'm hoping that the next expansion won't take as long to complete as this one. Youth Intake - I don't think any of them will become first team players but unlike previous intakes I've decided to sign everyone as the numbers in the youth team were looking a bit low. They may not be good enough for us but if we can develop them well they should have a future somewhere in N. Ireland. Signing everyone also gives me more freedom to loan youth players out to lower league clubs which I haven't been doing for a while. League Reputation - The country fell in the league reputation ranking but at least we managed to hold onto our 3rd Champions League spot (if only just). We are only 0.595 coefficient points ahead of both Scotland and Portugal who are putting us under immense pressure for 6th place. That is why I can't really afford to drop points against the 4th seeds in a group considering that it was only thanks to us winning the Champions League which allowed the country to overtake Scotland and retain our spot. Looking forward, the picture doesn't get an rosier either given that both Scotland and Portugal will be losing a poor year off their calculation of the coefficient while N. Ireland will lose one of the better years off ours. It is also ominous seeing Scotland who have had two very decent coefficient earning years in 2064/2065 and 2065/2066. I think the only hope we have of holding on is if the other N. Irish teams have a great year in Europe which seems unlikely given that this season wasn't great. Glentoran finished 4th in the their Champions League group managing a measly 2 points. Coleraine also finished rock bottom of their Europa League group and the rest were knocked out in the qualifiers. If Glenavon could somehow get to the Champions League group stage that would give me some confidence that we could start to build a cushion but that looks an incredibly tough ask at this point and I'm bracing myself for being overtaken next season regardless of whether I can win the Champions League or not. Club Domestic Reputation - Ballyclare Comrades are seeking planning permission for their new ground I announced last season which is great news. Our affiliate Dollingstown managed to get promoted into the 3rd division but a final day loss to Newry City saw them get relegated back into the non-playable divisions much to my dismay. Newington will be rejoining the top flight next season so at least we didn't lose a Belfast club. I really feel Glentoran could be doing a lot better and have kind of settled into this malaise of doing the bare minimum without showing much ambition with regards to player recruitment. Club European Reputation - We are going to have to fight for every coefficient point we can as we have no margin for error at this point. Spoiler Spoiler Edited September 5, 2019 by pheelf Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stouters Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 14 hours ago, pheelf said: That's awful from Linfield, I think I may have been fortunate as in my save they developed alongside us pretty well and have never been relegated. The turning point for them was making a big player sale for £7M which gave them enough money to start competing at the upper end of the table and once that happened it completely transformed them. If you could provide something similar for them it could make all the difference. As much as Cliftonville turning professional would be good I think Linfield should be the priority as they will have more ability to sustain it. Getting that 2nd CL place and holding onto it for the long term will be hugely beneficial. Shame about Larne, did they manage to win much before Bruce left? Best Regards Larne won the league at the first attempt in 2019/20 and runner-up 4 times in 21/22, 23/24, 24/25 26/27, Irish Cup winners in 22/23, League Cup winners in 26/27 with 2 runners-up in 18/19 and 27/28, Co. Antrim Shield winners 23/24 & 25/16 with 4 runners up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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