Trent71 Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 Didn't see a thread about them, nor Northern Irish football, and I think this team deserves a topic of their own. Ever wanted to take real minnows to the heights of the Champions League? Ever felt like walking over a league? With Larne, a team in the 2nd tier of Northern Irish football, now is your chance. Starting up with a balance of 4M Euro, a douzen players that are already considered top-tier level for the nation and a host of English Premiership/Championship rejects that want to make a name for themselves by joining Larne, you have the world at your palm. Read the story and be hooked! https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45930266 I have put together the English, Scottish and N. Irish leagues running, and made these transfer dealings. Splashing out the "record" 24K for Ben Paton might not seem like the greatest of ideas, but I wanted to sign the Blackburn youngster, as he can literally play anywhere - such versatility can come really handy in the event of an injury crisis. I will be using the same tactics as I did on my Bayern save, TFF's Punisher produces great and dominating football, which is what I will be aiming for, considering the gulf in class between me and everyone else. Will you help Larne hear Champions League music? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lblanc Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 (edited) The only good thing about Larne is the boat out of the place to Cairnryan. I joke of course nice place. Best of luck , I'm trying the to get Shelbourne myself into the Champions League from League of Ireland. Edited March 15, 2019 by lblanc 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukasZ_VCF Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 1 hour ago, Trent71 said: Didn't see a thread about them, nor Northern Irish football, and I think this team deserves a topic of their own. Ever wanted to take real minnows to the heights of the Champions League? Ever felt like walking over a league? With Larne, a team in the 2nd tier of Northern Irish football, now is your chance. Starting up with a balance of 4M Euro, a douzen players that are already considered top-tier level for the nation and a host of English Premiership/Championship rejects that want to make a name for themselves by joining Larne, you have the world at your palm. Read the story and be hooked! https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45930266 I have put together the English, Scottish and N. Irish leagues running, and made these transfer dealings. Splashing out the "record" 24K for Ben Paton might not seem like the greatest of ideas, but I wanted to sign the Blackburn youngster, as he can literally play anywhere - such versatility can come really handy in the event of an injury crisis. I will be using the same tactics as I did on my Bayern save, TFF's Punisher produces great and dominating football, which is what I will be aiming for, considering the gulf in class between me and everyone else. Will you help Larne hear Champions League music? I am wondering how it is playing with foreground sugar daddy with so small club after few seasons Is 4 mln Euro much more than the rest of the teams have in the league ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lblanc Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 1 hour ago, LukasZ_VCF said: I am wondering how it is playing with foreground sugar daddy with so small club after few seasons Is 4 mln Euro much more than the rest of the teams have in the league ? It would be more then the whole of the island of Ireland combined I'd say. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 15, 2019 Author Share Posted March 15, 2019 47 minutes ago, lblanc said: It would be more then the whole of the island of Ireland combined I'd say. Haha, very true! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 15, 2019 Author Share Posted March 15, 2019 And in October, the chairman gave us a hefty 1.4M Euro to spend! Then again, our team seems pretty decent as it is, as we're on the right track of running away with the league. We're still in 3 of the 4 cups, we only got knocked out from the County Antrim Shield by Crusaders after 2:2 in regular time and a loss in the penalties. In the following two transfer windows I'm going to look for 17/18yo talents, so that they can grow to be "homegrown" at the club after 3 years. So, as we are reaching the halfway mark of the season, it's time to dig deep and figure who we want in the team when we challenge for the title next season - Lee Lynch has been the first name on the team sheet, a remarkable player, who was 9 assists and 11 goals in 18 starts. Luckily, he's the only one with a 2-year contract, so I won't have to think about that! David McDaid has also been instrumental, whether he's up on the right side of the pitch or up front - 14 goals and 8 assists in 12 starts and 5 sub appearances. Fuad Sule has been a great hard-worker in midfield, so these are the three players I'm going to build the team around. Graham Kelly has been averaging a 8.09 in 14 apps, so he's the first player to get a contract offer. Looking around the other players...I honestly don't see many of them making the cut for next season. Maybe I'll try signing loanee Alex Reid from Stevenage permanently, but aside from that, the others don't stand out that much. Results have been pretty one-sided... With 1.4M to spend, I can really bolster the team everywhere else...but I'll also have to tread carefully not to disrupt the team. The month of December began with a few additions - Lewis McCann arrives from Dunfermline for 5K, as Bennie Agbehion is relegated to the reserves to free space for the 17yo. Tiernan Parker joins from Luton, Boyd-Munce signs from Birmingham and Rory McKeown will joins us in the end of the season on a free - then again I might look to buy him out in January. Oh, and this is probably my favorite news piece each week! And to end the report for the night - what a turnaround! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenevo Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 I'm having to challenge with them in my journeyman save! I didn't understand how they became professional status when they're only a 1 star club that I'd never heard of before, but now it makes sense! They stormed the Bluefin Sport Championship and then I joined Ballymena United this season and thanks to my heroics against the bigger teams like Linfield, Crusaders and Glentoran, they were able to overtake and win the league, so they're straight into the Champions League after two seasons! I really thought Linfield would be the ones to beat, but looks like I've got a much tougher cookie to crack! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 16, 2019 Author Share Posted March 16, 2019 @mikenevo I'd love to see how you battle it out with them! It would be interesting at what course the AI takes them. As my own story develops, Shane McEleney and Conor Devlin signed new deals, as the team that will challenge for next season is being shaped midway through our first season! By the end of January, the signings started to become more and more class - Paul Kalambayi joined from AFC Wimbledon on loan, with a 150K option to buy. Afie Beestin also was loaned from Doncaster (again with option to buy), and last, we arranged a pre-contract with Jordan Lee from Bornemouth, but bought him out for 31.5K to play for us straight away. Competitions-wise, we run riot in the league with 20 points above the 2nd placed, while we also won the Steel & Sons Cup. Two of the other cups are still for the taking, as we're only out from the Antrim Shield. The league table itself is a thing of beauty to behold! The chairman, the lovely man that he is, has decided to pump additional 1.7M Euro to the balance, making our balance looking like this. The longevity of the season seems tiring! I feel like I've already played 48 games in the English Championship! I also had a look through the top tier players and decided to sign Ross Glendinning - a keeper who's currently a regular for Ballymena Utd doubles his wage and agrees to come at Larne to be backup! During the summer I'll likely get another 2-3 bigger class players, but aside from that, the team seems very well put together and ready to challenge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenevo Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 40 minutes ago, Trent71 said: @mikenevo I'd love to see how you battle it out with them! It would be interesting at what course the AI takes them. As my own story develops, Shane McEleney and Conor Devlin signed new deals, as the team that will challenge for next season is being shaped midway through our first season! By the end of January, the signings started to become more and more class - Paul Kalambayi joined from AFC Wimbledon on loan, with a 150K option to buy. Afie Beestin also was loaned from Doncaster (again with option to buy), and last, we arranged a pre-contract with Jordan Lee from Bornemouth, but bought him out for 31.5K to play for us straight away. Competitions-wise, we run riot in the league with 20 points above the 2nd placed, while we also won the Steel & Sons Cup. Two of the other cups are still for the taking, as we're only out from the Antrim Shield. The league table itself is a thing of beauty to behold! The chairman, the lovely man that he is, has decided to pump additional 1.7M Euro to the balance, making our balance looking like this. The longevity of the season seems tiring! I feel like I've already played 48 games in the English Championship! I also had a look through the top tier players and decided to sign Ross Glendinning - a keeper who's currently a regular for Ballymena Utd doubles his wage and agrees to come at Larne to be backup! During the summer I'll likely get another 2-3 bigger class players, but aside from that, the team seems very well put together and ready to challenge. I only played them once last season because I joined the club in January with only 7 games left before the league split. We came 7th, so we didn't face them after the split of course. However, we did absolutely destroy them 3-0 in their own back yard. This season we've played them twice already at the start. We lost 4-2 in the NIFL Charity Shield which was humiliating, but then we destroyed them in their own back yard again 4-0 in the league. Funny old game Sounds like you're having fun! That money will definitely come in handy. Do they start with a professional status or do you have to ask for it? Ross Glendinning is my second choice keeper 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 Yeah, they start pro straight away Obviously the cups weren't over, as we also played in an "Intermediate Cup" - which brings our total trophy count for the season to five. The real pinnacle was the dramatic Northern Irish Cup final - the win means that we'll play in Europe next year! Our record runs were something for the books, as we haven't registered a loss since October! The budgets for next season are plenty more than I can even ask for. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenevo Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 (edited) What tactic are you using? You just simply couldn't spend all that money... surely??? Close one in that final! You should have put the stats up This was my cup final... Edited March 17, 2019 by mikenevo 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukasZ_VCF Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 22 hours ago, Trent71 said: Yeah, they start pro straight away Obviously the cups weren't over, as we also played in an "Intermediate Cup" - which brings our total trophy count for the season to five. The real pinnacle was the dramatic Northern Irish Cup final - the win means that we'll play in Europe next year! Our record runs were something for the books, as we haven't registered a loss since October! The budgets for next season are plenty more than I can even ask for. So how many CUP's there is ? and with good or weak opponents? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 18, 2019 Author Share Posted March 18, 2019 5 hours ago, LukasZ_VCF said: So how many CUP's there is ? and with good or weak opponents? I counted about 5 and I think in most of them I played against top-tier opponents. We'll see if there are any new cups for just top-tier teams next season or they'll be exactly the same. Will be fun to win all possible 6 trophies in the upcoming campaign! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukasZ_VCF Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 42 minutes ago, Trent71 said: I counted about 5 and I think in most of them I played against top-tier opponents. We'll see if there are any new cups for just top-tier teams next season or they'll be exactly the same. Will be fun to win all possible 6 trophies in the upcoming campaign! Is it custom database or normal ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 18, 2019 Author Share Posted March 18, 2019 1 hour ago, LukasZ_VCF said: Is it custom database or normal ? No, I rarely do custom databases - only when I want to play in a league or level not included in the original DB. So this one's all original - was surprised to see that number of cups and games played every 3-4 days! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenevo Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 3 hours ago, Trent71 said: No, I rarely do custom databases - only when I want to play in a league or level not included in the original DB. So this one's all original - was surprised to see that number of cups and games played every 3-4 days! You haven't seen anything yet, I had to play 13 games from the 30th July until 29th August! I literally had to use youth players in half the matches, just so I could rest my key players for the Europa league. I reckon that is was cost me against Larne! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 @mikenevo Fantastic results in the Europa League! Very impressive! I'm just starting my 2nd season with Larne and will be doing a write-up of the many transfer dealings over the summer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 Okay then... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenevo Posted March 19, 2019 Share Posted March 19, 2019 15 hours ago, Trent71 said: @mikenevo Fantastic results in the Europa League! Very impressive! I'm just starting my 2nd season with Larne and will be doing a write-up of the many transfer dealings over the summer. Thanks, I was actually really surprised by the 2nd leg against Bilbao, I was expecting another bad defeat, but they just seemed to fall to pieces and then get lucky with their late goal. 3 hours ago, Trent71 said: Okay then... That's just crazy for a Northern Irish club! I wish I had that kind of money haha! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 20, 2019 Author Share Posted March 20, 2019 I wonder, why do these things always happen to me? In the summer, we made many deals... For Larne: Jack Bridge (Northampton, free), Ross Glendinning (Ballymena Utd, free), Jake Bennett (Sheff Utd, free), Ronan Hale (Birmingham, free), Philip McIntyre (Institute, 30K), Ryan Porteous (Hibernian, 36K), Mark McGuiness (Arsenal, free), Rory McKeown (Morton, free), Mark Sykes (Oxford, loan), Jack Evans (Blackburn, 115K), John Buckley (Blackburn, 22.5K), For Larne Olympic (our reserve team): Dean Ward (Dundela, 36.5K), Paul McGlynn (Cliftonville, 77K), Aidan Walsh (Glenavon, 63K), Steven Thompson (Dungannon, 54K), Stuart Taggart (Coleraine, 91K), Mark Shaw (Queen's University, free), Ryan Smith (Glentoran, 71K), Kevin Dickson (Limavady Utd, 21K) We loaned out Jeff Hughes, who's no longer cut out for the level and had too many injuries, also sold Graham Kelly to Cheltenham - figured we had enough players in his position anyway and loaned out keeper Billy O'Brien to Crusaders. Thomas Steward, the experienced striker, joined Crusaders on a free. Jake Bennett was the first player to be rated 100 by the scouts, closely followed by Ryan Porteous, the Scottish defender who's going to be a legend for this level! I wanted to start with the Arsenal prodigee McGuiness in defense, but he missed the pre-season during training, so he'll have a slower introduction to the first team. Taggart is probably one of the biggest talents to watch, along with Trevor Bickerstaff, who we signed on a free at the beginning of the game - still can't quite believe what a talent was generated! We also extended the loan deals for Eoin Toal (Derry City), Cameron Palmer (Rangers), Paul Kamabayi (AFC Wimbledon), Alex Reid (Stevenage) and Omari Patrick (Bradford City), though the latter two disappointed massively at the start of the season and they probably will have their deals terminated at one point. After our defeat in the Europa League, we obviously took it out on our Northern Irish opponents... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 On 17/03/2019 at 16:44, mikenevo said: What tactic are you using? One of TFF's https://gyazo.com/4b621ba7c267b282c54dbaf95ec23476 I find it to be nice as it dominates the play and it's sensible to use for a team that's class apart from everyone else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenevo Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 11 hours ago, Trent71 said: One of TFF's https://gyazo.com/4b621ba7c267b282c54dbaf95ec23476 I find it to be nice as it dominates the play and it's sensible to use for a team that's class apart from everyone else. Nice! I use one of TFF's as well, the "Conqueror" one at the top of the post (v2). It's very good all round really, extremely good as an under-dog, which you could see from my Europa League matches. Unfortunately Larne seem to be the exception, they've beaten me in another final... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truegunner Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 Good to see people playing as these, I started a save with them before the 19.3 patch and well it's been quite a ride, since being promoted in the first season I have won trophy after trophy in Northern Ireland, developed the facilities and youth setup to the absolute max and have even managed to get a new stadium built, all the while being fortunate enough to keep the sugar daddy. In terms of Europe we had a strong record progressing year on year, then we had a breakthrough year reaching the Europa league final in 2025, however years later we did one better... And if anyone wants to know my best player in the team is actually from our youth academy and he is listed as world class: It is however getting very difficult to progress as the league is now up to three star reputation, but the rest of the league is far off the standard we are at, only five other teams are professional and pretty much every win we now win every game in the league, I may be hitting a glass ceiling soon. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 22, 2019 Author Share Posted March 22, 2019 @Truegunner that's fantastic! It's basically what I strive for Do you have many one-sided results and how many seasons you went undefeated? I'm interested to see if I can brake the engine and go on for 3-4 seasons undefeated in N. Ireland Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukasZ_VCF Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 19 hours ago, Truegunner said: Good to see people playing as these, I started a save with them before the 19.3 patch and well it's been quite a ride, since being promoted in the first season I have won trophy after trophy in Northern Ireland, developed the facilities and youth setup to the absolute max and have even managed to get a new stadium built, all the while being fortunate enough to keep the sugar daddy. In terms of Europe we had a strong record progressing year on year, then we had a breakthrough year reaching the Europa league final in 2025, however years later we did one better... And if anyone wants to know my best player in the team is actually from our youth academy and he is listed as world class: It is however getting very difficult to progress as the league is now up to three star reputation, but the rest of the league is far off the standard we are at, only five other teams are professional and pretty much every win we now win every game in the league, I may be hitting a glass ceiling soon. So basically in country like that your best players value will not go much higher? 3mln pounds for player like that is like nothing... ;/ Are top clubs trying to buy them ? or because they are not well known and they don't scout you often they don't see them ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truegunner Posted March 23, 2019 Share Posted March 23, 2019 (edited) 19 hours ago, Trent71 said: @Truegunner that's fantastic! It's basically what I strive for Do you have many one-sided results and how many seasons you went undefeated? I'm interested to see if I can brake the engine and go on for 3-4 seasons undefeated in N. Ireland Quite a lot, my record win was 15-0 against Carrick in the league and I haven't lost a league game in over six seasons, it's gotten to the point where I have tried to help the other teams by loaning them players and releasing some reasonable players in hope they will sign them. I don't see much point in giving the other teams money as even when they do get money they don't seem to spend it. 16 hours ago, LukasZ_VCF said: So basically in country like that your best players value will not go much higher? 3mln pounds for player like that is like nothing... ;/ Are top clubs trying to buy them ? or because they are not well known and they don't scout you often they don't see them ? The values are very flawed I think the game can't handle the reputation increase at the rate I am doing it at. The top clubs have been showing interest in a great deal of my top players, but I've found that when you either list a players value very high you don't get many offers, however if it's very low (ie £0-1) clubs offer but you can reject and most of the time the players don't get too upset (doesn't always work though, in which case if I have given them a long enough contract then I just ride it out until they drop it. Quite an exploit I know but it stops players like the player in the screenshot leaving for very low valuations). Edited March 23, 2019 by Truegunner 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 23, 2019 Author Share Posted March 23, 2019 Hmm...James Wilson. We didn't sign him, but it was funny - he "wanted" to join while he was on a free, but didn't believe we have the financial power for his salary! Maybe he can give Connor Washington a call and compare who's better payed after James moved to Aberdeen? Come the end of January, we're looking at another busy transfer window, as a 2:3 loss to Linfield struck a nerve and I felt a lot of the team started to drop steam (20 points ahead of everyone else) and they're not cut for the level I'm looking for. First we started with internal changes - Jake Bennett was pretty average as AMR, hence why I reverted him to his original role of RB. Midfielder Mark Sykes took on the role of left back, as I figured his dribbling skills will be amazing there! The clearout began with Ronan Hale, as the forward scored 11 in 15 games, but was largely unimpressive overall, and didn't justify his 2.7K salary. Burton came in for Fuad Sule and I figured why not - he was sold for 115K, as we further improved the team. Ross Glendinning, Omari Patrick, Cameron Palmer, Alex Reid, Jordan Lee, Jack Evans, Ben Tilney and Caolan Boyd-Munce were all relegated to the reserves. Lee wanted a new deal for about 4K per week, which, for the average player he is, was never going to happen, so he'll rot away until his contract runs out. In goal, we got Alex Bass (Pompey, loan) and Liam Bossin (free). Kalambayi will become permanently ours in the summer. Tom Field was the big name that deserved 4k per week, as he signed from Brentford for 110K. Ben Close was our first January deal, as also he cost the most - 300K! Andy Cannon was another Pompey loanee, while newgen Keith Matthews was signed with an eye for the future. Scott Tiffoney can be a great winger if he adapts well, and Keith Asare was loaned in to fill the gap left by Sule. Dwight Pascal is also a defender with potential and the final deal, Connor McKendry was loaned in from Ipswich. Oh, almost forgot about Washington - he was on a free for 6 months and obviously started to get desperate to kick a ball. Enter Larne and our spending power to swoop him in! Regardless of the many new signings, our results were boosted as the new kids on the block make their mark early on! I also wonder how early we can win the title... At the end of the transfer window, we signed another 2.8M sponsorship deal, which continues to boost our finances! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 Pretty abysmal way to end the season...I really have no explanation to why we lost the damn cup! The budgets for the new season are pretty good and hopefully we can continue improving the squad with a few right additions. We obviously won the league before even the league split, but we must do better in the N. Irish cup next season, even though we got a total of four trophies this campaign. The player stats can be seen here and there. Now to next season and Champions League football...or not Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukasZ_VCF Posted March 25, 2019 Share Posted March 25, 2019 15 hours ago, Trent71 said: Pretty abysmal way to end the season...I really have no explanation to why we lost the damn cup! The budgets for the new season are pretty good and hopefully we can continue improving the squad with a few right additions. We obviously won the league before even the league split, but we must do better in the N. Irish cup next season, even though we got a total of four trophies this campaign. The player stats can be seen here and there. Now to next season and Champions League football...or not how the value of your players looks like now? is it increasing? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted March 25, 2019 Author Share Posted March 25, 2019 4 hours ago, LukasZ_VCF said: how the value of your players looks like now? is it increasing? Too early for something like this to improve atm, only difference is in the player class that I'm bringing in, hence why they're valued at 200k-300k (Tayo Edun, Otis Khan, Will Norris and a few others). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted April 12, 2019 Author Share Posted April 12, 2019 Starting the 2021/2022 season, we signalled our ambitions by completing a 3.8M Euro signing of this guy... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 So, I had a nightmare start to one of the games and by the 39th minute, we were down 1:4... Can you guess the end result? Spoiler Yeah, *THIS* happened... :D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestbrother Posted April 27, 2019 Share Posted April 27, 2019 (edited) Got a Larne save, its crazy the amount of money you get, but really cant spend in fairness as the player interest in coming to N.Ireland isnt there. Season League Irish Cup Irish League Cup County Antrim Shield NIFL Charity Shield Steel and Sons Cup Intermediate Cup Champions League Europa League 18/19 Championship WINNERS (Promoted) Semi Finals Semi Finals 1st Round - WINNERS WINNERS - - 19/20 CHAMPIONS WINNERS Runners Up 1st Round - - - - - 20/21 CHAMPIONS WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS - - 2nd Qualifying 3rd Qualifying 21/22 CHAMPIONS Runners Up Quarter Finals WINNERS WINNERS - - Group Stage (4th) - 22/23 CHAMPIONS (unbeaten) WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS WINNERS - - Group Stage (4th) - Got a budget of just under £500,000 per week to spend on wages But so far only spending like £150,000 per week... biggest signing completed was Timothy Weah for 2.5m. Europe was the last thing to crack, but its hard to find players that want to sign. I dont use scouts, so I rely on the list that pops up when you go for the default search and on there its very slim pickings. Cant get that list to line up. Good fun at the time for a save, good luck in yours. Edited April 27, 2019 by bestbrother 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 17 hours ago, bestbrother said: Europe was the last thing to crack, but its hard to find players that want to sign. I dont use scouts, so I rely on the list that pops up when you go for the default search and on there its very slim pickings. You're literally dying without scouts. Basically I mooch off all the best N.Ireland talent from the local teams and I also sign players like Kovacevic and Janssen from Dutch 2nd league (the defender is already tracked by Blackburn and Birmingham), Moraru from Romania, Pedro Alonso from Spain...basically, all the newgens don't have the high requirements that existing players have (no idea why is that!), so without scouting Europe, you'll be pretty much lost! I also love how Gribbin slotted in the first team - 11 games, 5 goals and 11 assists! Mental! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 Any bets on us to make it 200 goals scored next season? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coyote of the sea Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Just finished my 2nd season with Larne, walking the league (shocker) though towards the end it got a bit frustrating as we really struggled to break teams down, relying mostly on set pieces. Still on a 40+ something game unbeaten run, so I can't complain too much! First season we cake walked the league, going undefeated and winning the Irish Cup, getting us Europa League football the next season. Our big, spending size anyways, transfer that year was bringing in Callum Hulme from Bury for 240k USD, kid was an amazing IF for me, ending up with 14 goals, 10 assists, and a 7.67 rating. Added Veira who did well, Grace NDomba (a DC) ended up being a good find, playing well both that year and this last year. Bought Duarte though, being young and more fitting the style I wanted to play, which he did but wanted to leave to join Peterborough towards the end of the season =(. 2nd season my best signings were Adam Chicksen, who was brought in to be a back-up to Tilney but ended up becoming our first choice after Tilney got hurt for a bit. Abobaker Eisa was another free I picked up after he was released by Dover and he ended up being our top goalscorer this year. Great dribbling and long shots, great flair, would kill the league if he wasn't so inconsistent. Bought Ridge Duah-Adusei, who was supposed to be the starter in Eisa's spot but he went down after 3 games and still hasn't really recovered from it. Looked like he'd be amazing in the league before the injury too. Also added Ethan Hamilton who did alright but always does well in training and Keyendrah Simmonds who worked his way into the rotation with some great cup performances and likewise is a training beast. Hulme left in January though for a record 775k from Norwich, secretly hoping they'll end up upsetting him at some point so we can get him back. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Anyone got experience of this fella? Looks immense for 2nd season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted April 30, 2019 Author Share Posted April 30, 2019 @coyote of the sea nice! I always followed Ethan, but never actually got to signing him, how's he developing for you? @Geordieboy52 nice one there, definitely,but be advised that time moves very fast for Larne - I started making 1-2m euro bids on players around the 2-3rd season and it drastically changed the perspective of "what's good around here" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted May 1, 2019 Share Posted May 1, 2019 9 hours ago, Trent71 said: @Geordieboy52 nice one there, definitely,but be advised that time moves very fast for Larne - I started making 1-2m euro bids on players around the 2-3rd season and it drastically changed the perspective of "what's good around here" Haha - I will bear that in mind. Got an amazing DC (relatively speaking) for what I thought was a crazy amount £100k but the chairman pumps millions in each month. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 (edited) So close for what would have been the biggest history in my tenure and possibly the club's history. Edited May 5, 2019 by Geordieboy52 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted May 5, 2019 Author Share Posted May 5, 2019 @Geordieboy52 ooh, bad luck! I decided to make some extra money, figured this offer was too good to refuse and Niels was sold We were good anyway, as we got those nice 15M from getting in the CL groups (overall at about 30M balance). I started playing with a 4-5-1 tactic, lost all 4 games (Man Utd, Barcelona and Dinamo Kiev), then switched to my usual 4-3-3 and blasted Dinamo in Kiev by 0:3, later lost the last game against Barcelona 2:3, with the Barca winner going in injury time. The table looks quite tasty, I'm pretty happy we're doing a good job of breaking the game! The best talents in the team currently are newgens Pospisil, Brian O'Ware and Adrian Connelly. From the already existing players, Peacock-Farrell (Leeds), Liam Millar (formerly Liverpool), Emanuele Torrasi (Milan), Callum Gribbin (Man Utd), Vitaly Zhironkin (CSKA Moscow) and Christos Giousis (AEK). Hopefully next year we'll get in the CL group stages again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 This reminds me of one of my fave ever saves when I took TNS to the very top (in about 50 years!) that easy part is dominating the league and cups domestically but europe is a totally different animal because of the financial differences. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted May 5, 2019 Share Posted May 5, 2019 This kid was excellent for me this season after joining on a free. Great bi d for Sheff U came in of £1m + incentives, others followed and now I've just accepted £3m straight up from West Brom with 14 teams still interested... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted May 6, 2019 Author Share Posted May 6, 2019 It came down to the final day of the season....a 2:2 draw with Coleraine ruined everything! I chuckled when this news piece came to light Move over Messi, Gribbin's in town! Hopefully now that we've signed the best HoyD in the game, we'll start seeing some real prospects! The board also invested 21M in training and youth facilities, so crossing fingers we'll be at "State of the Art" by December! Currently we're at this levels. We're also doing great on the market, selling a few players for around 15-20M profit, so the team looks more and more self sustainable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted May 6, 2019 Share Posted May 6, 2019 (edited) Massive moment for the club - beat FH 5-1 on aggregate to reach the group stages of the Europa League - that should raise our stature and that of the league too. Not a horrendous draw with Sociedad, Young Boys and Slavia Prague but got smashed at home 1-4 of Sociedad in opening group game. Big signing of the season was Rushian Hepburn-Murphy for £300k from Villa, in October he's currently got 24 in 27 games. Edited May 6, 2019 by Geordieboy52 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted May 7, 2019 Author Share Posted May 7, 2019 If once we can get into a CL group that isn't the group of death, that would be great, thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mogzilla86 Posted May 7, 2019 Share Posted May 7, 2019 this looks fun will try it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted May 8, 2019 Share Posted May 8, 2019 Reached the 3rd qualifying round of CL to agonisingly fall short 1-2 over two legs against a far stronger Olympiakos side - but went straight into the groups stages of Europa League, only to fall into a group with Nice, PSV and Anderlecht. Unlike the season before, we were able to score a lot of goals 14 in 6 games but our defence wasn't a match for the more clinical forwards we met and we were beaten 3-6 and 2-4 a couple of times. We did manage to beat Anderlecht at home for our first group stage scalp and finished with a creditable 3 points. Domestically we dominated again our facilities are now excellent for training and youth so I'm expecting us to progress quicker now on a development POV. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trent71 Posted May 8, 2019 Author Share Posted May 8, 2019 Not a bad way to start my CL campaign, I guess! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordieboy52 Posted May 8, 2019 Share Posted May 8, 2019 (edited) Wow, youve progressed quickly - im at the end of that season and not CL ready let alone competitive. What's your youth intake been like? I am still struggling to attract anyone lower championship quality. Edited May 8, 2019 by Geordieboy52 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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