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FM 20 Dungannon Swifts


DrChristopher
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So I am starting a career with the Dungannon Swifts.

Semi-pro club in Northern Ireland's top division, Danske Bank Premiership.

Media Prediction 9th.

Club Vision

- Avoid relegation. (So 10th or 11th and win the relegation playoff at least.)

- 6th Round Northern Irish Cup 

 

First things first...

We have nothing left moneywise as I added regens to teams from the start to by checking the box upon setup.

 

We have one 4.5 star 27 year old striker that is a leading player at this division. Daniel Hughes. Immediate extended his contract through his 29/30 season on the same wage of $525/week. That is double the wage of anyone else at the club.

Was able to sign only two players. One is 17 years old left winger. 1.5 star with 5 star potential. (Eamonn Mullen) One plus is he is determination 14.

The other is Jim Parker a 16 year old right winger. 20 determination. 2.5 stars and 5 stars potential.

Let's see if I can stay in the premiership and continue to collect the lofty 30k to 25k prize money from finishing in 8 to 10th place.

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First four premiership games are in the bag.

We have been thriving and currently sit in 2nd on 8 points. We have only played team predicted higher than us so far. However 3 of the top four have yet to be played.

Shane McGinty our 25 year old Carrilero has been playing out of his mind. Scoring 3 from 4 starts. These have all been screamers from outside the box. He is currently averaging a 7.90.

The Bet McLean Cup 2nd Round draw is against Queens University, from the 2nd Division in Northern Ireland. That should be played later in August.

 

Jim Parker the 16 year old is averaging a 6.87 rating in the U19s. He is making a strong case to be moved up to the Reserves. No other big standouts in the Development Center yet.

My big conundrum is go big in the cups and get the prize money available if I make it to the quarter finals. Or go all out in the league because if we finish top 3 we are in for European football.

Its roughly a 100k or so for a few quarter finals and a top 6 finish.

Its roughly 240k for a one round appearance in the euro cup.

...I guess I just answered my question.

Board are at a C+. Really a C+ for currently sitting in Europe spots?!?!

Anyway see you guys again soon.

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11 games into Season 1. Slaying it in the league. 2nd place and 26 points in 11 games. Shockingly I only lost to one team. It was the crusaders, when they had slipped to last place in the league... of course.

Had a first in FM where my keeper got an assist. (I play mostly route one.) It was a nail-biter with Linfield and we hit them on the counter like pros. Also it was one of those cringy center back jumping too early leading to a keeper one on one that Daniel Hughes tucked away. Winning us the game 3-2.

Speaking of which Hughes is leading the team and the league with 7 goals from 9 starts. Unfortunately he twisted his ankle and is out for 4 weeks. He still is leading the league with a rating of 7.51.

There is only one senior team change since the last update. Gary Wilson a 2 star, 17 year old keeper with 5 star potential has pushed himself into the backup keeper role. (Determination 17) We will see how he does in the cup games.

We have so much potential at right attacking winger we are having a little congestion.

17 year old Steve Leonard has made himself the second highest rating on the team averaging a 7.20. (2 goals and 2 assists from 4 starts and 1 sub appearance.)

With a quarter of the season in the bag I am almost convinced we will survive relegation lol.

 

 

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October we took the foot off the gas a little bit.

Not many fixtures. 5 games. 1 win, 1 draw, 3 loses. Ok, so I lied we were trash this month. Hughes is back but hasn't got back to fighting weight yet. 

We slipped to 3rd in the league on 30 points. 4 points clear of 4th.

Steve Leonard has progressed to 3 stars and signed a professional contract after turning 17. He is a little more tame but still averaging a 6.93.

We were also officially bounced out of the Bet McLean League Cup in the 3rd round by Institute.

Hopefully our next fixture against bottom of the table Carrick can get us back into some good form. 

I think my revised goals have to be to try to stay in the top half until the league splits for the last 5 games of the season.

Upside, board approval is at an A+. Downside, club is 85 grand in debt and over on wage budget with 5 starters yet to be resigned for next year. 

Man we need money.

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Well November was awful. 4 games, 4 losses. 3 games were against bottom of the table opposition. Worst form in the league on 5 straight losses now.

We need a spark.

Steve Leonard and Jim Parker are still growing like crazy. We are most likely gonna have to sell one of them as the team is $126,000 in debt.

Our biggest silver lining is we have easy draw for the first two rounds of the Mid Ulster Cup. Unforunately you only get paid if you win the whole thing.

Our next match is against Coagh United who are outside the playable leagues in Northern Ireland. Hopefully that will get us back in form.

Shockingly we are still hanging on to 4th in the league 6 points clear of 7th and the relegation group. 17 points clear of relegation spots. We have 19 games played on 30 points. Ballymoney United are cruising in the top spot with 39 points.

Hughes is the only one still averaging above a 7. However he has drifted out of the top goalscorer in the league.

14 more games till the split i think if we win half we will stay above the fold.

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December is in the books. 7 games, 4 straight wins followed by 2 losses and a draw. This was a good bounce back month.

We are holding on to 4th in the league on 40 points from 25 games. 1 point back from Coleraine in 3rd. 6 points clear of Warrenpoint in 7th.

8 games left till the split. If I can win 3 I think I secure a place in the championship group.

I have being shopping Rhyss Campbell my starting right winger (20 years old, 3.5 stars). He had a bid accepted for 50 grand from Larne but they didn't ever get a contract agreed upon. God that is annoying!!

I can't find anyone else willing to buy even down to 30 grand.

Both Leonard and Parker have a better star rating than half of my starting line-up at this point and both can only play right winger. 

We are slated to play Dergview from the second division in the 5th round of the Northern Irish Cup. We also drew Dollingstown from the 3rd tier of Northern Irish football in the quarter finals of the Northern Irish Mid Ulster Cup.

Hughes is still leading the team with 10 goals and 4 assists from 19 starts. He is tied for second all goalscorers in the league.

Club debt is $144,000 and counting. 

We are gonna have to win a serious amount of prize money and sell a player or two to brake even this year. 

If we could just nab a euro spot...

 

 

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January down and we have slipped to 6th in the league. Our last win in the league occurring on December 14th. 

We are 2 points back from 3rd and 4 points above 7th. We are still looking for our 3 wins to keep us in the championship group.

I managed to sell a back up full back (19 year old, 2 star current ability) to Coleraine for $3,100. It gave us some clearance to resign a few guys before others started snapping them up.

A new striker named Marito Marcal has broken into the backup striker role and managed a Hattrick on his debut in the mid Ulster cup. We will see if he can continue to give us any presence off the bench.

3 of the best 6 players on my team are right wingers. That is the only position they play. We will see which we manage to sell to help stem the bleeding of funds. 

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February finally has us getting back to winning ways. We go undefeated in the league for the whole month and even winning manager of the month. Board approval rating is up to an A+ again. Unfortunate we lose to crusaders in the 6th round of the Northern Irish Cup. It was our board minimum requirement, but it is unfortunate we couldn't have won any prize or appearance money.

We currently sit in 3rd place. 3 points above our rivals Glenavon in 4th. There is one more game slated until the league splits. We our 10 points behind 2nd Linfield so we really only have a shot at staying in 3rd and hoping Ballymena United win the Northern Irish Cup so we get the 3rd Euro spot. (However since they are fighting for a champions league place I doubt the cup is a priority.) The Prize money ranges from $40,000 to $36,000 from 3rd to 6th place.

This Championship group will make it hard to get points during the last 5 games.

We still can't manage to find a buyer for Rhyss Champbell. Steve Leonard has become a 3 star player. Someone is getting sold in the off season. So we can start playing Jim Parker who just hit 3 star current ability as well. (However we really only have playing time available for him in the reserves until someone is sold.)

Elsewhere Paul Lynch has pushed his way into the starting line-up as Carrilero at 16 years old.

Daniel Hughes is leading the league with 14 goals from 27 starts.

Meanwhile our starting keeper Sam Johnston is leading the league with 141 saves held. The second best in the league is 95.

Also managed to sign a 2.5 star ability 5 star potential left full back off Dergview for free. He will be arriving in June.

Our next game is against Warrenpoint in the Mid Ulster Cup Semi Final. If we can win and then win again against either Newry CIty AFC or our rivals Glenavon. We will claim the $12,000 prize money.

The overall balance for the club is roughly $180,000 in debt. Despite which the projected next season wages are being raised $40 per week.

European football already looks like it is out of our hands.

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March was rather odd scheduling-wise. With us mostly bounced out of the cups, we only played two games this month.

First was a Semi Final Mid Ulster Cup fixture against Warrenpoint. Sadly, they were able to net a late winner and steal the tie. Fortunately they made us look a little better by winning the cup.

The last game of the month was an away game against Coleraine to see if we would move back up to third before the split. However they also silenced us with a 0-1 scoreline. Leaving us win-less for the month.

Our Championship group is Linfield, Bellymena, Crusaders, Us, Glenavon, and Coleraine. We drew 3 home games which is good. They are against some winnable teams. However, Glenavon and Linfield are both away and I got to steal a win off one of them preferably Glenavon. It would be a cruical april 6-pointer.

In squad news Steve Leonard is now the starting right winger. He turned 3.5 current ability mid month and my assistant said if he didn't get more playing time he may not reach his potential which some reports are saying is the highest on the team.

Jim Parker some how has picked up some awkward minutes at center-back which we have no depth in. We will temporarily try to train him there until some senior squad positions become available. 

Both teenagers are top 4 on the team based on star ratings.

We also got a youth intake which was proclaimed to be a "golden generation". So far there have only been three standouts. Two defenders Andrew Hassan and Darren Thomas. As well as a Midfielder Owen Teague. All three have potential to be 5 stars. Reports stating "better than.. [any of the starters at those positions]".

Ballymena barely scraped by the Institute in extra time in the North Ireland Cup quarter finals. Which keeps our third place dreams alive of making it to Europe.

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So April continued to be disappointing. We stayed win less throughout the end of the season. The last game we won was February 29th. We managed to draw all home games in the championship group, but lost in the dying minutes of both away games. Sealing our fate of a fifth place finish and only $37,500 across all competitions this year in prize money. 

Our rivals Glenavon finished 3rd, but await a Ballymena v. Crusaders (N. Irish Cup Final) to see if the Crusaders will knock them out of Europe qualification.

Hughes missed out of league top scorer by one goal. He did however lead the team in goals with 14 and average rating with a 6.98. We had one of the worst records away from home (10th) the only teams worst were relegated. We did have the most tackles won however, I think that was more due to that we didn't retain possession often. So take that for what you will.

The entire team is now in the core social group. I can't tell if that is a good or bad thing. Final team meeting for the year went something like this...

Me: "Hey guys lets go for top half again next year."

Team: "Are you high?!?!? NO way, we could never reach those heights."

Me: "Just kidding, i meant to say mid-table."

Team: 7 guys say "Maybe" 16 other guys say "Have you ever managed before?!?! We will be lucky if we stay out of relegation."

The board was also extremely lax saying, "attempt to stay in the league again next year. BTW, your grade is a B."

Also Larne fired their boss mid-year. I wish I wouldn't have been so blind. That professional money sounds tantalizing. 

My contract is for one more year. So we will see if I can get us European football next year, or if I end up jumping ship.

With $177,000 in debt some of these guys better sell.

 

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So May was financial review time. Amazingly despite being $200,000 in debt the board booasted our weekly wages from $4,600 to $4,900. Which gives us $1,700 of wage clearance to work with in this transfer window with 3 young players already scheduled to arrive mid June.

We cut around 10 players at the end of may the only one I was nervous about was a 24 year old midfielder named Corey McMullan. He was a Mezzela backup for most of last season. He was signed by Larne despite it being late april. I guess I'll have to resign everyone a little sooner in the year. He is 4.5 star potential but last yer he hasn't moved from 2.5 current ability.

For anyone that is a IRL Dungannon fan. Our Director of Football Joe McAree retired from football. He was apparently a club legend who served as staff for the last 19 years.

Furthermore Stuart Addis retired as a player after a 25 year career. However, he will stay on as our goalkeeping coach for another season.

Last but not least, Jim Parker is officially in the starting squad. We don't have a spot for him yet, but he just reached 4 stars of current potential.

Lets home we can fill some gaps with some free transfers in June.

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June was a bit up and down. Rhyss Campbell finally sold for $20,000. We had an offer accepted for our star striker for $100,000 unfortunately they did not settle on wages.

3 players came into the squad for free. Ben McDermott a striker for the future (2.5 CA and 4.5 PA). Backup center-back Neil McAuley who is 2 star CA and 4 star PA. Adrian Forsythe a 2.5 CA/ 5 PA starting left-back. All of which are still teenagers.

We still haven't found a good spot for Jim Parker, but it sounds like the best way to work him into the line-up is at striker. As he has become "unconvincing" at that position.

Our weakest area is definitely right back. Hopefully we can address it before the season starts.

The board has pushed our season expectations to Mid-table for this season.

Also, we are demanded to achieve a sixth round Northern Irish Cup appearance at minimum.

To compensate for these ambitions they have raised our wage another hundred a week. However, there is just not that many good players available.

Furthermore my players value doesn't really go up unless they are starting regularly. Which means some players that are two or three stars, but aren't starting could probably go for 10 to 30 grand. Unfortunately their reputation holds them back from any clubs agreeing to that kind of fee. Guess I got to get more players out of loans to showcase their ability.

Overall it sounds like we are in for a harder battle this season. As most of the league has gotten even stronger. Where as we have mostly stayed the same.

 

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July is passed and we are about where we were last year. The Euro 2 competition has changed things drastically. There are 4 European spots now. 1 in the champions league and 3 in the euro 2 cup. The top 3 automatically get in but it appears 4th thru 7th have a euro spot playoff. That depends if the spot isn't already taken by the Northern Irish Cup winner. So positively that gives teams in the relegation group a playoff spot to fight for. Which is awesome, but it also sound like all that hard work may not mean anything.

Media Prediction has us in 9th again.

Jim Parker is already among the leagues top talents, but not in the dream 11 yet.

A few more transfers came in...

Tiarnan McAuley 2.5/3.5 right back that was mostly just for cover until we got another signing.

Johnny Campbell 1.5/4 centerback for the future. He will go out on loan ASAP.

Barney McKeown 3/5 center-back that is jumping right into the starting lineup at 19 years old.

Mohamed Hamidi 3.5/5 versatile 18 year old defender who can play anywhere across the back.

None of these picks moved the media prediction. My transfer grade is at a C+ with the board and a C with the fans. So hopefully these guys can give us a decent return.

I think our goal, if we have any, is to try for a top half finish, and make it to the championship group split then throw all our eggs into trying to win the playoff or the Northern Irish Cup.

Crusaders came in with a $19,000 bid for Marito Marcal. We countered, just before Larne came in with a $30,000 bid and accepted. Hopefully contract negotiations will go well and we will start making inroads in this debt.

Best things we can do going forward is attempt to get as many guys in the reserves loaned out to boost their rep and get their wages off our backs. Although we still have $600 a week to play with.

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August is in the books. Our first game was against a newly promoted Dundela. We won 1-0 behind a debut goal from our new starting striker Jim Parker after 5 minutes.

The rest of the month went pretty down hill from there. A draw followed by 3 losses that knocked us out of the Bet McLean Cup at the hands of our affiliate team Ballinamallard United. (If they don't get promoted this year out of the Championship I would be shocked.)

This is leading to a tactical change. We are keeping the 4-2-4, but moving from a route one to a MDT 4-2-4 created by The Reckonist. I know this is not always a liked thing to do. Honestly though I have never been able to make successful tactics. So I am excited to adopt this style and work to build my team around it.

This leaves us in 7th in the league. With our lowest board confidence at a B-. We are back up to $213,000 in debt. Despite selling Marito Marcal to Larne for 30k. Larne have officially bough 210k worth of player this window alone. They are media predicted to be 2nd. Looks like there is a new sheriff in town.

Last but not least Steve Leonard threw a fit being that he was still on $60 a week. So we got him to sign a 3 year deal unfortunately it was at a $300 a week markup. Which brings us around $360 a week left to resign or sign other players in January. 

Its time to start winning stuff or the board may start selling players whether we like it or not.

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September 2020

8 games in, 11 points, 6th place.

We started off the month getting thrashed by Larne 1-4. The rest of the month was a slow creep to get back in form. We managed a draw against Glenavon. Then two wins back to back against Cliftonville and Institute.

Paul Lynch is leading the team in average rating with a 7.03. He has become a great box to box midfielder with 4 stars current ability and 5 star potential ability. All while just being 17 years old.

We have drifted down to $233,000 in debt. Unfortunately our once $100,000 striker (Hughes) is now only worth a value estimate of $39,000.

Our next player to sell is most likely our oldest at the club. 29 year old backup striker Guillaume Keke. However I doubt I will be able to get much more than 10-15 grand for him. I think this year we have to make it to Europe or the board may start selling players without our permission.

As for prospects making waves is Gavin Devine. A 16 year old Striker that is already 3 star CA and 5 star PA. Has developed into 16 first touch and 16 finishing which is mental at this level. He is taking over the 4th striker role in our 2 striker system.

The next best players in our academy are both strikers as well. So I am torn on selling our two oldest players in Keke and Hughes. Just so you have an idea, the average age of our squad is 21. Without those players its easily 20 years or less.

On the positive side we have the 3rd smallest wage budget in the league and are still regularly competing for a top half spot.

We still only have two professional teams in the league with Larne and Crusaders, but if Linfield win the league again I can't see them staying semi-pro for much longer. Especially since they always usually transfer at a profit.

The status of the league has also moved from 117th to 113th. Now between the Gibraltar National League and the French Division 3. For reference if we gain 8 more spots we pass from a 1 star league to a 1.5 star league.

Last but not least we are number one in possession. So i think if we keep up those number the results should come.

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October 2020

Good month for the team. We have managed to stay undefeated since September 19th. We are in the 7 point gap between 3rd and 5th. Glenavon, Larne, and Crusaders don't look to be dropping any points anytime soon though.

This has pushed our form to 1st in the league and a streak of 7 games without a loss. We also have the best defense in the league conceding 11 goals in 12 matches.

We are still looking for someone to buy some of our players. Unfortunately most teams in Northern Ireland are only buying players on a free.

Our star keeper Sam Johnston has officially become a team leader. I'm hoping one of the young bloods like Paul Lynch or Jim Parker will push to become an influential player soon as I think we could use some fresh blood climbing the hierarchy.

Board is back up to a B grade-wise. I pushed for a contract extension while we are on such great form. They have extended my contract for a $100 pay cut for 2 more years.

So I guess I'll get to see how those young bloods grow after all.

 

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November 2020

Only three games were played in November. We remained undefeated trouncing both Crusaders and Larne. The later of which was a 5-0 drubbing in which Daniel Hughes scored 4 goals. These few performances rocketed Hughes to first in the league in goals scored with 12 from 15 starts.

We flew up to 2nd place in the league and have the best goal differential. We are still 18 games away from the group split, but this is a great height to hopeful stick around for the championship group and a hopeful euro 2 spot.

No movement in the transfer market, but hopefully Hughes value will sky rocket and we can make some money off him when we sell him. Meanwhile Jim Parker has become the single best player in the club. Unfortunately the board doesn't grade based on last years transfers.

Jim Parker is now an accomplished striker with 4.5 CA and 5 PA. All while being only 17 years of age. He is still on $35 a week so I'm hoping he will let us wait till the off-season before we have to resign him to a more reasonable deal for him.

A+ board confidence grade. They officially said they, "have nothing of particular interest to criticize at this stage". 

As for next month we play 8 games in December. So with our depth being largely untested at this point. We will see if we can really hold up under the Northern Irish schedule.

Most satisfying is the sales i made in June/July are mostly on installments so we should have the balance nicely supplemented by those payment of every 6 months.

Another impressive thing is that my development center has two candidates at striker that it claims are at first division level already, but which we don't have room for in the first team.

(It is really impressive we went from a team that our backups were mostly leading championship quality last year. To players in our reserve already playing at premiership levels this year.)

This is starting to get good. I'm excited to see where the next month will illuminate our weaknesses.

 

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December 2020

8 games down. 4 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses. Passed on to the Mid Ulster Cup 2nd Round, but unfortunately we drew Warrenpoint, a fellow premiership side in 5th round of the Northern Irish Cup. (Board demanding 6th round minimum appearance)

We are sitting in 2nd in the league on 39 points from 22 games, unfortunately only 2 points out of 4th. We have about 11 more games to give ourselves a gap as our team really wilted last year against the championship group competition.

We have a few players on the market, but no one is biting. Hoping the transfer window will shake out a few buyers in January. We made a profitable income for the first month ever this month. However, without the nearly 28k in fundraising we would have been woefully short.

Jim Parker and Steve Leonard are now the one two punch on the team. Regardless Hughes is still getting the bulk of the scoring opportunities with 15 goals in 21 starts.

The board offered me a $100 a week increase in wage for players to go up to expectations of "achieve European football". I said no as our collapse at the end of last year has me legitimately scared.

One to watch for is Gary Wilson. He is a 18 year old keeper that broke into the squad last season and has been playing cup games for the last season and a half. He is sitting at 2.5 CA and 5 PA. This is up from 2 stars at the beginning of the year. 

Last but not least our team is dominating possession. We are siting on a 55% in the league the next highest is 51%.

If we can hold on to equal wages next year and European football we may have a real shot of seeing Parker and Leonard stay long-term.

P.S. Both Parker and Lynch refused leadership courses. SO we will see who develops into a leader the old fashioned way.

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January 2021

This was another big month with 9 fixtures. 4 wins, 2 draws, and 3 losses. Luckily only one of those losses was in the league. Unfortunately that means that we are bounced out of both the Northern Irish Cup and the Mid Ulster Cup. The board was less than excited as we only made it to the 5th round of the Northern Irish Cup. 

Luckily, we have made up for it by claiming manager of the month and 1st place in the league. We are 3 points ahead of Crusaders in 2nd. However they have a game in hand. Furthermore we are 7 points above 4th. So it is still quite close at the top. 

We have become the highest scoring team in the league with 57 goals in our 29 games. With Hughes getting 22 of them and leading the league in goals by a player.

9 games left to go in the league and 4 until the split. Amazingly enough we are not even mathematically clear of the relegation group yet. The league table is that close.

As for transfers, it is a frustrating window. As many good deals were struck just to have them shot down by contract negotiations stalling out.

Kris Lowe extra backup midfielder/fullback was sold for $8,000. McGinley and Keke were both surplus as well and unfortunately both were only able to be sold on a free.

However, that has cleared a good amount of wage budget. Hughes is unwilling the resign and no one would buy him even going down to a quarter of his value. So he will unfortunately be walking away at the end of the season and taking his 20k estimated value with him. Con is he is a team leader. Pro is we phased him out of the captaincy at the beginning of the year so we should be able to mitigate significant discontent in the squad.

Positively we signed two great young players. Andy Hunter 17 year old left fullback (2 star CA, 4.5 star PA). Hugo Greaves a 17 year old midfielder (2 star CA and 4.5 star PA).

Both are in the U18s until next year at least.

Lets see if we can hang on to top 2 before the split.

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February 2021

A short month with only three games. 2 wins and a draw. All three games were real nail-bitters. We have one last game prior to the split. It is against Ballymena United mid march.

We have unfortunately slipped to $297,000 in debt. Amazingly the board aren't concerns and still classify our financial status as "Okay".

We won Manager of the Month again in February as well. 

The most likely Championship Group is consists of us, Crusaders, Coleraine. Then its a toss up on which three of these four we will be joined by. Cliftonville, Bellymena United, Larne, and Linfield. 

Also on another great note our best player Jim Parker has re-signed with us for another season and a half on a nice $190 a week contract. Furthermore, Chris Hassan has been elevated to "influential player" in the squad hierarchy. So we might try to get him in the vice captain picture as early as next year.

Daniel Hughes is still leading the team with an average ratings of 7.46.

For anyone interested our wage and attendance are both still the 3rd lowest in the league. 

6 games to go in the season. Lets see if we can staying the euro spots. We are currently sitting 4 points above Crusaders in 2nd.

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March 2021

The fixtures are pretty scarce with us knocked out of all other competitions. So we only had one match in march against Ballymena United, which we drew 1-1.

We got our youth intake. It claimed to be a golden generation, but we really only found a few prospects we though would do well with us. The first is Kevin Clarke a 17 year old striker who is 2.5 star CA and 5 star PA. The other is Eddie Mullan a 16 year old attacking Midfielder with 1.5 CA and 5 PA. Both will sit in the under 18's until next year at least.

So unfortunately we drew only 2 home games and the other 3 are away games. Furthermore both 2nd and 3rd place are both away matches. So, we really have an uphill battle to stay in first place despite being 2 points ahead of 2nd place.

Chris Hassan unfortunately didn't play regularly enough this month and was pushed out of the influential players and back into the "other players" category.

Luckily the board agreed to send Hassan on a leadership course. So hopefully we can get him back into the leadership circles.

Keep your fingers crossed.

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April 2021

We won the Danske Bank Premiership! It started out with a 3-0 win against Ballymena United who's manager hates my guts. We then had several games postponed due to water logged pitches.

The final run in was actually pretty terrible with getting only 4 points from 4 games. Luckily everyone else was struggling as well. Also due to us playing our 38th game a few days after everyone else, we already knew we had won due to Crusaders losing to Linfield on the last day of the season. We finished on 19 wins, 11 draws, and 8 losses totaling 68 points. Two points clear of Crusaders.

We also have the leagues top goal scorer in Daniel Hughes who scored 24 goals in the league. He also got best rating and most player of the match awards. The $64,500 prize money was awesome and brought us back to 276k in debt. The board approved 105k in transfer budget next season and $5,250 a week wage. $200 more than we had. Although right now we are only spending $3,000 a week. I'm hoping to shift things around and go find some prospect outside of Northern Ireland to avoid continually passing the same players throughout the league.

The club updated its vision too...

Possession Football

Most out of set pieces

Entertaining football

High tempo

Top half finish next year

Reach First Qualifying round of Champions league. (This part scares me as it will be a first year in Europe and it will require the team wins the first two rounds.)

Perhaps on upgrade at midfielder or defender would give us a more secure feeling. 

We are looking for some day 1 starters to splash the cash on.

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May 2021

So we released a few aging veterans including Daniel Hughes who unfortunately wouldn't come down from requesting $600+ a week in wages. More than the board would allow and almost double the next highest at the club.

So unfortunately the league's top scorer is on the open market. (If he signs for less somewhere else, I'd hold a grudge.)

After we got our 65k prize money last month the next week we had to payout 30k in collective win bonuses so... the pains of winning I guess.

We have almost no team leaders in our team other than our captain and vice captain. I'm not sure how else to get players to start climbing the team ladder. Or if we have just been not signing the right kind of players.

Last but not least we have 4 players signed to join us on June 9th. 3 are young kids. 1 is a squad player midfielder. We will see how they look once they join the squad next month.

Our player average age is 19 years old in the senior team. I hope these young kids can get us a few rounds in the Champions league. 

Or perhaps we need some more help before the season starts.

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June 2021

We got out first two draws in the Champions League. The first qualifying round is being played at home against Zalgiris. They are a professional Lithuanian team that is frankly way better than us. I hate to get bounced right away but it seems inevitable. If we somehow win we will face Celtic in the second qualifying round.

A few of the signings we have made include...

Adam Cairns signed on free after being released by Larne. He is a 2.5 CA/ 5 PA Striker.

Steven Davis a 36 year old 5 star CA midfielder the was released by Rangers. He has already said he plans to retire at the end of the season. He is definitely someone who can help tutor some leaders as he has 133 caps for Northern Ireland.

Danny Finlayson a 20 year old 4.5 CA and 5 PA central defender released from Rangers he will be the anchor at the back he were looking for.

Ciaran O'Connor a 25 year old back up midfielder that is (3 star CA, 3 star PA). 

That wage budget was eaten up quickly. Unfortunately we are still only predicted 4th in the league among the media.

For anyone interested...

Our team moved from 1 star to 1.5 stars reputation, as did the Danske Bank Premiership.

Also some of our board asks have changed.

Our board expects...

To be competitive in the Champions Cup

Top Half finish in the Danske Bank Premiership

Semi Final finish in the Northern Irish Cup

To be competitive in the Tunnock Wafer Cup.

and to be challenging for the Premiership title by next year.

I don't know how to game plan this season. I guess we will continue to do our best and see where things fall.

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July 2021

Our money troubles are over. We have gotten $693,000 in prize money this month and well as $136,000 in gate receipts. Coming to a profit of $814,000 this month. Sitting on an overall balance of $496,000 in the positive for the club.

As for how European football went, we got knocked out right away against Zalgiris in the Champions League. They knocked us down to the Euro 2 in which we played an even better side in APOEL. They stomped us and we are offically out of europe before the Premiership even begins. 

One thing is for sure, we have got to get back to the Champions league next year again as this money was so so worth it.

That means everyone from Northern Ireland is officially knocked out of Europe.

Two more signs have been able to come in with that extra money...

Jack Thomson a 21 year old 3 star CA and 4.5 star PA defensive midfielder comes in on loan from Rangers for only $140 a week.

Brian Easton comes in on a free after being released by Hamilton. He is 33 year old 3.5 star left back that will definitely help us in the leadership department already coming in as a influential player.

Hopefully we might be able to snag another loanee or two, but I believe that is it for transfers. Unless the board releases some more funds to us in January. 

Media Prediction is 4th so it appears everyone else has also improved. 

Last bit of news is that we have 3 professional teams now. Larne, Linfield, and Crusaders. We hope to be the next, but I guess that depends on how we do this season.

Edited by DrChristopher
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August 2021

God damn Larne. They finished in 7th both of the last two seasons. Spending over $300,000 on transfer fees on players last season. What did they do you might ask? Surely spending that much money in this division would be untenable? No they only went and spent over a half a million dollars on player transfers this window alone. Easily eclipsing 1st in media predictions. We on the other hands have slid up to 3rd. 

We managed to get about half of our reserves loaned out this year. Which is great as those guys really needed playing time.

Gary Wilson our backup keeper ended up getting a loan to Warrenpoint in our division, and is their immediate starter. He will be giving Johnston a run for his money next year.

Why is Johnston on the bench I hear you ask. Well that is because we nabbed Ryan Mullen a 20 year old keeper loaned from Celtic. He is 4.5 CA and 5 star PA. He immediately was in the media dream 11. 

We have also made Jim Parker our vice captain and he has made the jump to influential player at the young age of 18 years old. I still can't believe he hasn't got a start in the U19 or U21 NT. I personally think he could be a reserve for the senior NT already. He manged to score a hattrick in the season opener.

Won manager of the month in August. Sitting in 1st place on 10 points from 4 games.

Also passed by Knockbreda in the Bet McLean Cup and will play Coleraine in the next round. 

Next up is TNS in the Tunnock Challenge Cup. My goals for this season is to hopefully fight off Larne and repeat. Or get some silverware from the 6 different cups we are involved in this year.

Still 9th in the league in wage and attendance. I swear if we could just get one more run at some Champions League and Euro money we could become a force in the Danske Bank Premiership.

Board Grade is a B. Wish me luck...

Edited by DrChristopher
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  • 2 months later...

September 2021

5 games, 3 wins, and 2 losses. I started playing again after a long hiatus. I was feeling like the tactic was stale. So against better judgement I moved to a different 4-2-4 tactic and initially had two wins.

The first was a 4-1 win against TNS, but that was mostly due to being a man up since the 27th minute.

We play Hearts Reserves next round.

We then began to stumble losing to bottom half of the table Ballinamallard United and Portadown. So I pulled the rip cord again and moved to a 4-3-2-1. Wide midfield three and double AMC with a striker up top. Christmas tree-ish I suppose.

We managed to claim the last game of the month in a win against Cliftonville. Keeping tied with Larne in 1st on points.

As for players. Steven Davis the retiring midfielder has been flying high at 7.45 average rating. Contributing 1 goal and 2 assists across 9 starts and 2 sub appearances.

Luckily for me almost all of the strikers in our 2 strikers system as well our attacking wingers could play either AMC or midfielders on the wing (ML or MR). 

My one concern is I got to settle down in the tactical department so I can analyse what we can sell as we are almost $250/week over our wage budget. So, we may need to clear some room to resign any players.

By some miracle the board still has me at a B grade.

Unfortunately, our captain Doug Wilson is languishing in the senior team. His report now measures him as a leading Bluefin Sport Championship player. I may have to throw him in during some garbage time to keep him happy.

Let's go Swifts!

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October 2021

Mixed Form. 7 games, 3 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses. 

Luckily both losses were in cup competitions that the board wanted us to "be competitive" in.

The first a penalty shootout loss to Hearts Reserves in the 4th round of the Tunnock's Wafer Cup. The second a Extra time loss to Linfield in the Bet McLean Cup Quarter Finals.

We are heading into a short month with only 3 games. 2 in the league and one in the Mid Ulster Cup 1st round.

Finances are still sitting good with positive 350k dollars in the bank balance. Also upon inspection of the 8 players leaving the club at the end of the season. Only 1 maybe 2 are being resigned. So we don't need to clear a lot of space. However as we all know there will probably be a player or two that demands a new contract with a pay bump.

Crazy enough we are still 4th bottom in team salary.

Unfortunately we have slipped to 2 points back of Larne in first this month. 5 points clear of Crusaders and Coleraine in 3rd and 4th respectively. We need to make sure Larne don't pull away without us.

Of the 7 competitions we are participating in this season we are officially down to 3. The Nothern Irish Cup, The Mid Ulster Cup, and the Danske Bank Premiership. 

We are right on track to hit all board expectations in each. 

As for squad we have a surplus of strikers and depth at striker due to adopting a one striker formation. Half of that lot are trying to make the transition to AMC. 

The only one I see mostly likely not being part of the furniture is Alex Dawson. A home-grown striker that is 19 years old. He is currently 2.5 stars CA and 3 or 4 stars PA depending on who you ask. Unfortunately he could not secure a loan last window. We have him on the books for another 2.5 seasons. However, his value has gone up to $36,000. If anyone is willing to bite on that I think I would jump at the offer.

Meanwhile, Jim Parker and Steven Davis are leading the team. Parker has 7 goals to Davis's 4. The team is really playing well, besting the league in possession.

See you in November...

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November 2021

This month sucked. A loss to Warrenpoint sees us drop to 11 points behind 1st place Larne.

I didn't even realize. Due to our premiership win last season we were entered into a 8th competition, the Irish Champions Cup. We faced Dundalk ending in a 2 legged defeat 1-4.  

Luckily, this was a nice boost to our finances. Our bank balance is now sitting at $385,000. Unfortunately the board won't even give us the option to go professional yet.

Next month is gonna be crazy 9 games in December, 8 of which are in the Premiership.

On the squad front Jim Parker has raised to 4.5 stars CA leading the team alongside Steven Davis and Ryan Mullen for stars.

Meanwhile Alex Dawson is not getting much interest from the transfer market. No one has been interested as far down as $30,000. Hopefully we can get an offer soon.

December will define our season i think...

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December 2021

Won the Premiership Manager of the Month award for December. Overall we played 9 games winning 8 and drawing one.

The transfer market has officially opened. We parted ways with a 2 star goal keeper that topped out at 2.5 PA. He leaves us for $1,900 to Linfield.

Alex Dawson meanwhile looks to have two suitors Newry CIty AFC and Crusaders. Both are willing to pay us $15,000 over 3 years. We will see if anyone can agree to contract terms with him.

Furthermore the board offered me to take a 4k/week team wage increase if I accept expectations of "Qualify for the Euro Cup 2". Being that we are past the half way mark and are 8 points ahead of Crusaders in 3rd . I jumped at the chance to givee us some financial breathing room.

We have an interesting dilemma at keeper. Sam Johnston our starting that last 2 seasons. Was passed over for our star player Ryan Mullen on loan from Celtic. Johnston is out of contract at the end of the year alongside Mullen. I don't want to commit another $400 plus a week to Johnston if I can eventually get Mullen. However, Gary Wilson our 3rd string keeper on loan at Warrenpoint has raised to the same CA as Johnston. So do I fire sale my stalwart keeper maybe banking a couple grand? Hoping I don't have to settle for the young upstart or play chicken until the end of his contract?

January is another 9 game month. I hope we can keep this run of form going as it has allowed us to come just 2 points shy of 1st place Larne. Larne by the way were in talks with Brighton over a striker for the amount of $625,000. Basically doubling our current bank balance on one player alone.

We are really swimming in rich waters between Larne and Crusaders. Also the board now has the option to ask to go professional. However if we miss out of Champions League football. We may not have money to really pay staff and players at that kind of price point.

SO in summary, these next 9 games may really see us launch our assault on first place or gamble with the Euro Cup playoff. At least we are the highest scoring team in the league. 

Here is to hoping we keep tucking goals away.

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January 2022

9 games, 6 wins, and 3 losses. 

We have unfortunately dropped to 8 points behind Larne in 1st while Larne are a game in hand on the rest of the premiership.

Furthermore Larne spent another 250k on a central defender from Southhampton. Bringing the total to 800k spent by larne on players this season alone.

Without a serious fall from Larne during the Championship Group we don't have a shot at the title this season. 

Larne have regularly been putting in bids for Jim Parker all transfer window long going as high as 125k. However, due to Jim Parker leading the league in goals, I am in no hurry to sell him.

On the plus side, Reegan Mimnaugh the solid midfield loanee from Hamilton who currently leads our team in assists has agreed to join us permanently after this season on a free. However, Mullen our star keeper is refusing despite no team wanting to sign him after this season.

With 5 games left to go before the split I hope to put our team as far away from 3rd place and the unpredictable euro cup playoff as possible.

Last but not least Dawson was eventually sold to Newry City AFC for 15k. Where as Ben McDermott. I free transfer from Ballinamallard United a year and a half ago has finally made the push up to the senior squad. He has had fairly decent ratings in garbage time thus far.

Meanwhile Gary Wilson is killing it on loan to Warrenpoint having only given up 34 goals in 29 games for their side. He also has 9 clean sheets to his name, Warrenpoint currently sit in 6th. Which I think is due to Wilson's strong impact as they have never amassed higher than an 8th place finish since the save began.

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February 2022

No matter how well we play we are not catching up to Larne who haven't dropped a point since December.

The board's only complains thus far is that I have lost to Larne and Crusaders. (1st and 3rd respectively.) 

So, 5 games this month all wins expect one draw in a fluke against Cliftonville. Everything else has been a 3, 4, or 5 goal drubbing.

Larne have moved to 13 points ahead of us. While Crusaders are lurking 5 points behind, waiting for us to slip up.

On happy news the old strike partnership is leading the league. Daniel Hughes our former number 9 is leading the league with 22 goals for Crusaders. Where as Jim Parker our star 18 year old phenom has 21. (5 goals ahead of 3rd place.)

We have one last game before the break and it is away at Larne.

Currently it looks like our Championship Group counterparts are... in place order...

Larne, Us, Crusaders, Linfield, Coleraine, and Warrenpoint.

Coleraine and Warrenpoint have been easy wins thus far. However, the top four have been stealing points from each other all season. I think we can secure 2nd if we steal 11 more points this year.

The craziest part is we are already at our points total that won us the league last season. On the upside we are topping the league in goal differential so if it comes down to it we will undoubtedly be best in that category.

Another positive is that the board have approved an upgrade to the data analysis facilities. So, say goodbye to 30k there. Also the board is looking into a senior affiliate. I'm not too hopefully as the last time we tried they came back with no suitors. 

I have decided against forcing the issue of going pro. However, I think I will push for a junior affiliate if no senior club is found. As with wages not going up much. We will need to be diligent in cultivating youth.

This will be a lean summer if we can't win silverware or prize money. As Champions League is gone. We thankfully still remain in the Quarter Finals of the Northern Irish Cup and the Semi Finals of the Mid Ulster Cup.

Lastly, Alex Robinson, our purchase from Crusaders, has made strides to learn left back but unfortunately due to an injury has yet to get enough play time there to be able to be trusted playing there for the first team. Disconcertingly he has spent more time on the injured list then any other player in the reserves. Perhaps we were sold potential with ankle problems.

Please let me know if these "longer perspectives" are better than the short summaries. If so I'll include more like this.

See you all in March...

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March 2022

First we narrowly defeated Glenavon in penalties to make it to the Mid Ulster Cup Final. 

Next we slid by Newry CIty AFC 1-0 in the Irish Cup Quarter Finals.

Then we played Larne. In a great nil-nil away clash. Warrenpoint ended up in the Relegation Group and Cliftonville made it into the Championship group. Which is a little worrisome for us as they were our stumbling block in February.

Then we played our first Cup Final! The Mid Ulster Cup Final against Portadown. Crushing them 5-1.

As expected our prize money barely kept us level with all the incentives paid out. Furthermore the board failed to find a suitable senior affiliate. SO we had to demand a junior affiliate. We are now linked to Annagh United, a Bluefin Sport side who will be able to utilize our prospects next season.

Steven Davis our star elderly midfielder, who is retiring this season. Might be interested in taking over the assistant manager job here. I would be thrilled to have him aboard.

In the mid-month we got our youth intake. Despite being called a "Golden Generation". The best player we got was a (1 star CA, 3.5 star PA) American left winger named Miguel Angel Velazquez. 

Unfortunately we drew Larne in the Irish Cup Semis as well as in our first Championship Group game next month. Meaning we will be playing Larne 3 times in 4 games. Luckily the new coach there, Quinton Fortune,  is rather friendly so the press has been thankfully merciful.

In the meantime, 1.5 star permanent reverse and club captain Dougie Wilson is getting a lot of interest to be taken off our hands next season by teams in the Vanarama National. (Maybe the quality of our league is growing.)

Also upon further analysis Ciaran O'Connor, our 25 year old back up center mid, appears to be out of the senior squad next season ability-wise. He currently sits at $49,000 value. With another year on his contract perhaps we can sell him for a decent sum to aid next season's transfer budget.

The Crusaders are now within 3 points due to our draw with Larne. We are in trouble as Crusader have already beat Larne twice. If we can't steal some wins from the top 4. We could very easily be stuck in the Euro Cup 2 playoff.

So our plan? Push to beat Larne in either of the next two games at all costs.

If we beat them in the Cup we could win European football. If we beat them in the league we may fend off Crusaders in these last 5 games of the season.

Also, humble brag, I am now the 9th greatest manager in Northern Irish Domestic history with only 2 pieces of silverware to my name. We have surpassed Alan McDonald of Glentoran. Right above us is John Colrain also of Glentoran.

Looks like next time we talk will be a season wrap-up. 

Wish us luck.

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April 2022

What an incredible month. We started off with two back to back games against Larne. Winning both and moving on to the Northern Irish Cup Final!

We then had a truly disappointing loss against Cliftonville after suffering an inexplicable second yellow on Danny Finlayson seconds before being subbed off.

This put us in 3rd points behind crusaders who were a game ahead. We faced Crusaders next. 

It was an all out war! We went up 4-1 and then horrifically we proceeded to let them back into the game. Managing to clinch a draw from the jaws of a victory, 4-4.

Half our starters were suspended due to card accumulation and injury for the last home game against Coleraine. We magically managed to win in injury time with a strike from our loanee attacking mid who will be returning next year as a permanent player, Reegan Mimnaugh.

That put us a point ahead in 2nd with one game to go away against Linfield. We managed to sneak in a early header from a corner and stall them the rest of the game winning 1-0 and clinching 2nd place.

We finished the season therefore on 79 points. Ten behind Champions Larne.

Heading down to the Championship are Ballymena United and possibly Glenavon depending on weather they loss against Dundela in the demotion playoff.

Jim Parker ended in 2nd in goals with 22. Daniel Hughes was first with 26. Reegan Mimnaugh was 2nd in assists with 13. Ryan Mullen, our stalwart keeper, lead the league with 19 clean sheets, and as usual we cleaned up in the yellow card department getting first, second, and third. 

Funny enough the board were adamant that we needed a semi-final finish in the Northern Irish Cup. However, now that we are in the finals. The boards expectation is that it is "not important". 

B grades all around for the board. So it looks like we are year for another season.

Our last game of the season is next month against Linfield in the Cup Final. They will be looking for revenge so I'm grateful all players are back from injury or suspension.

Steven Davis has refused a position here once his playing career ends against Linfield.

I'll have a full transfer and board expectations recap in the May update.

Hopefully we can win a double this year!

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May 2022

We have won the double. Evenhandedly beating Linfield 2-0 in the Northern Irish Cup Final. Mohamed Hamidi our versatile defender got us off the mark with a goal in the first half and assisted in our second half goal to put the tie away.

Jim Parker missed out on Danske Bank Premiership Player of the year to Daniel Hughes. He did win the player of the year for our team however.

The board have reiterated at nausea that they don't care that I won the Northern Irish Cup competition. (Kinda heavy handed if you ask me.)

After reviewing next year's expectations. They are setting the bar at qualifying for the Euro Cup 2 again. As well as reaching the 2nd qualifying round of the Euro Cup 2 this coming year. So at least a 2nd place finish again next year or win the championship group playoff.

That is a high bar especially since Larne don't seem to be slowing down. They currently sit on secure finances despite tripling any other team in spending. (For example, they spend 4.4 mil a year on player salaries compared to our $350,000.

Our new budget is raised $500/week up to a heady 8k/week. Meanwhile our transfer fund is set at $66,000. This could be manipulated to boost the wage budget to 9k/week, but I am not sure how all in we need to go.

Right now we are looking at getting defenders. We have great young depth in attack and many attackers pushing back into mid to try to find playing time. Thus we are a little scant at great prospects in defense or solid starters at right back or center back.

My contract ends after this next season. So we will have to see if we get any more board support to keep us stuck in here, or perhaps watch to see if Larne might have an opening at manager.

On the bright side Ryan Mullen was resigned at Celtic so we managed to get him on loan for another season. Therefore we might be able to sell a player at keeper this window.

We also managed to sign Niall Harvey. He is a 20 year old 2 star CA 4 star PA right back from Distillery, who is arriving on a free.

On the dynamics front I think I will be upgrading Jim Parker to Captain at the tender age of 19 as he is already our star player. Then I'll be mostly likely promoting our influential 21 year old 4.5 star central defender to vice captain.

Unfortunately, no tycoon takeovers in Northern Ireland thus far. Crossing our fingers for some cash injections to this league.

Hope to have a fair few signings for you next update. Thanks for reading!

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June 2022

We have a lot of transfers so far. 

We have 3 new signees...

Charlie Owens a 16 year old, 2 star CA, 5 star PA backup right midfielder.

Jim McDowell a 17 year old, 1.5 star CA, 4 star PA defender and midfielder. He will sit in the U18s for a year.

Mark Coyle a 17 year old, 2.5 star CA, 3.5 star PA goalkeeper who will also sit in the U18s as well.

We got 2 Loanees...

Aiden McMillian a 4 star right back from Motherwell.

Sean Ward a 3 star left midfielder from Hearts.

So far our only outgoing transfer is Ashley McGlone a young central defender who was topping out at 2.5 star PA. Luckily we tricked Linfield into paying 22.5k outright for him.

All in all our transfer business has pushed us up to 2nd position in the premiership's media prediction.

Our Euro Cup 2 Best Place 1st Qualifying round draw is against Vikingur Gota the Semi-Professional Faroe Islands squad. I think we have a real shot of making it to the next round. Therefore hopefully claiming the 2nd Round's $90,000 appearance money.

The board unfortunately turned us down in an appeal to go professional. 

In other news, Jim Parker and I have both made the the club favorite personal list.

We may have one or two more signings after the majority of leagues release free agents in July. However, I hope to hold on to a fair amount of money in order to Resign the 17 players whose contracts end this season.

See you all after our Euro Cup 2 tie.

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July 2022

We have picked up two more players.

Martin Grogan a 16 year old, 1 star CA, 4.5 Star PA left back from Glenavon for $1,500. 

Mark McKenzie a 23 year old defender that is 4.5 star CA on loan from Minnesota United FC.

Outgoing we have last year's right midfielder Adam Cairns on his way to Linfield for 18K. As well as our backup central midfielder Ciaran O'Connor to Larne for 12K.

On the other side of the coin. We played our first round tie in the Euro Cup 2. Beating Vikingur Gota over two legs 8-0. We then got drawn against professional Lithuanian side FK Suduva. We managed to hold them to a draw 2-2 in the first away match. Securing some clutch away goals. We then hosted them at home and held them to a 1-1 draw scrapping by to the 3rd qualifying round. I believe we have hit the end of the road however as we have been drawn against AZ Alkmaar of the Eredivisie.

Our finances are booming as our overall bank balance is up to $521,000. The board still refuse to give the option to go professional though.

Meanwhile the Danske Bank Premiership has risen to the 98th Reputation-ed competition in Europe. All the way from the 117th ranking at the beginning of the save.

I thought I would give a brief club depth profile on one position every month.

This month I'd like to start with Keeper.

Currently we have 7 players at that position.

The 1st being our Celtic loanee Ryan Mullen. The 21 year old is currently 4 star CA , 5 star PA. He is our first choice and also has been part of the Premiership dream 11 the last two seasons.

Our backup is Gary Wilson. The 2.5 star CA 4.5 star PA home grown talent did amazing at Warrenpoint last season. We hope to ease him into the line-up in case Celtic recall Mullen at any time.

Next up is our most disposable keeper Sam Johnston. Despite a great first season with the club two seasons ago he has drifted to 2 star CA 2.5 star PA. He didn't manage to get any buyers despite having a 23.5k valuation. So he has gone out to Glenavon for the season on loan. The media predicts him to already be their clear number 1. (His contract ends this season. So we will have to resign him or let him go on a free.)

Next up is a really thrilling prospect in Mark Coyle. The 17 year old 2.5 star CA 4 star PA keeper is currently playing in the under 18s. However, he already grades out as a current Danske Bank Premier level talent.

5th is our Nathan Grainger currently on loan to Ebbsfleet in the Vanarama National. Grainger comes in as their number 1. He currently grades as 1.5 star CA and 5 star PA. The 18 year old may have a tough season out on loan as Ebbsfleet are predicted relegation favorites.

Followed by Jose Costa this dual nationality 16 year old is currently 1 star CA and 3.5 star PA. At 6'6" we hope he can become something in the future.

Lastly is Connor Slater the 17 year old is really not have any shot with our club and has been put out for sale on a free.

Wish us luck against Cliftonville away in our first game of the new season.

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August 2022

No more transfers for the rest of the window for our team.

7 games. 6 wins and 1 loss this month.

Firstly, we started with playing our backups in our first leg against AZ in the Euro Cup 2, and we only went and WON IT! So we doubled down and played the starters. We went up 1-0 in the first half of the second leg. Dreams of the 4th round were flying high. We then proceeded to throw it away in truly impressive fashion. Getting two of our players tossed for red cards. We ended barely missing out due to an injury time winner by AZ. 

We have played 4 league games thus far. Absolutely dominating! Winning manager of the month. We have played both Larne and Crusaders and crushed them both, 4-0 and 2-0 respectively. Shocking, I know.

We are currently leading the league still having yet conceded a single goal in the league thus far. The only team that seems to be rivaling us right now is Linfield also undefeated.

Larne spent another 900k on transfers this window. Larne are predicted 1st place but currently sit in 9th. Already with two losses, I think this could be our year.

We currently sit in 8th for salary only spending 307k annually compared to Larne with 4.2 million and Linfield with 991k.

 Our bank balance is up to 633k after our Euro Cup 2 run. Hopefully the board will allow us to go professional soon.

This week I'll be reviewing our right back club depth chart. (I will try not to repeat names, but some versatile players may get shout outs in different positions.)

Our first-teamer is Aiden McMillan on loan from Motherwell. He is a 18 year old 3.5 star CA 5 star PA Scotsmen. He is a great stop-gap, but we are unlikely to be able to get a hold of him permanently. (Hopefully we can re-loan him again after this season if needed.)

Our backup is Niall Harvey. A 20 year old 2 star CA 3 star PA fullback, Harvey can play on either side of the pitch. According to reports someday he may get as good as Aiden is now. Right now he adds some much needed depth and versatility, but I doubt he'll be here for more than two or three seasons.

Third and our most tantalizing prospect is Andrew Hassan. This 19 year old is sitting at 1.5 stars CA and 4.5 stars PA. He is currently at loan to Institute in our own division. He comes in as their first string right back. So far he has averaged a 6.78 rating across the first 4 games of the season for them. His determination of 4 is the biggest thing holding him back. As soon as he is first team ready. He will be mentored to death.

Fourth is Gareth Boyd. The 18 year old 1.5 star CA 3.5 star PA player is currently out on loan to our affiliate Annagh United in the Bluefin Sport. He comes in as their key player. He is a nice piece, but with the climbing quality of our first team I don't see him being anything other than a role player at best.

Next is Tiarnan McAuley. Shocking that this guy used to be our second string fullback last season. This 1.5 star CA 2 star PA 24 year old could not find a team that wanted him this window so we secured a loan to Newry City AFC for him to play in the Bluefin Championship. Thank god Newry are paying all his wages before we release him at the end of the year.

Last but not least is Johnny Campbell. This 20 year old can play across the back three. He is currently 1 star CA 2.5 star PA. He was originally a little higher in potential however it seems his 6 determination is gonna keep him from any long stint with the first team.

All in all I would love to find a day one permanent starter for this position, but until then we are eagerly awaiting the day Andrew Hassan rises to lead us down the right.

Our next match is against Alloa of Ladbrokes League 1 in the Tunnock's Wafer Cup 3rd Round.

Thank for reading.

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September 2022

Nothing but wins all month. Winning another manager of the month award.

We had some unexpected costs this month. Therefore, the bank balance has dropped to around 550k. 

We have three 7 goal contributors to our team. Our Captain Jim Parker, backup striker Chris Hassan, and starting attacking midfielder Kevin Clarke.

I am debating trying to make a more defensive tactic. I want to build this team into an iron curtain at the back. Not sure where to start as we are in such great form. I don't want to shake things up if there is no need.

Going into detail with squad depth this month, I want to look at our central defenders. 

Our star is our loanee from Minnesota, 23 year old American, Mark McKenzie. He has 4 star CA and 4.5 star PA. Unfortunately, they will only loan him out to us until January. Hopefully we can resign him to continue through the season if Minnesota are willing.

The other partner in crime is Danny Finlayson. He is a 21 year old Scottish 4 star CA 4 star PA no-nonsense back we got from Rangers on a free. He has been part of the Danske Bank Premiership dream 11 for the last 2 seasons. He is a trusted name in our defense. I hope to have him in the senior squad for another 2 or 3 years.

Third is Barney McKeown, a 21 year old northern Irish lad. He is a former Everton youth product. Currently 2 star CA and 4 star PA. He has been part of the rotation for the last 3 years averaging around 30 league games a season. He seems like he is able to grow with the team, but maybe never more than a rotational player. 

Tied for 4th is Neil McAuley and Paul Wallace. Paul is currently our backup center back and home grown. Both are 20 years old, 2 star CA, and 3 star PA. Neil McAuley is currently on loan at Institute. As their first choice center back, he has started in 6 games played so far this season. Both are peripheral players in the club. Depending on how they play, they may be in or out of the senior team in the coming years. 

Next is Darren Thornton, a 19 year old 1.5 star CA 3.5 star PA home grown player. He has been on loan at Carrick the last two seasons in the Bluefin Championship. Last season playing back up minutes, but this year he has become a starter.

The last three will be a bit brief...

Zach Murray- 17 year old 1.5 star/3 star.

Martin Grogan- 16 year old 1 star/3.5 star who can also play anywhere across the back 3.

Johnny Campbell- 20 year old 1 star/2.5 star on loan at Banbridge of which he is a starting centerback in the Bluefin Championship.

All three could make the leap. My money is on Grogan, but none will be playing for the club senior team for probably the next 2 years. Perhaps Campbell will be on the outs if he can't make some big strides while out on loan.

As you can see we have a lot of depth, but not a lot of lightning prospects.

Thanks for reading. Next up is a home game against Institute in the league.

Go Swifts!

Edited by DrChristopher
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October 2022

So we tried briefly to change tactics and managed to get knocked out of both the Bet McLean Cup and the Tunnock's Wafer Cup. So, we went back to the 4-3-1-2. Luckily we only suffered a draw getting back to winning ways in the league.

We still are sitting in 1st place 6 points ahead of 2nd Place Coleraine.  

We had some great news. We have 4 players of ours were called up for the U19s Northern Irish side. 4 players also got called up to the U21s Northern Irish side. 

The board shut us down again in our attempt to go professional. They also turned us down in improving our training facilities. I think if we push for the Champions League we could force the board make us go professional. Luckily we have maintained a manager performance review of B+.

This month we'll review our club's left backs. 

First is Mohamed Hamidi our starting left back. He is a 20 year old 2.5 star CA 3 star PA player. He is natural anywhere across the back 3. He agreed to resign through 2025, but hasn't finalized the deal yet. His utility will keep him in the team across the next 2 seasons I have no doubt.

Second is Richard McGinn, he is our backup left back. He was our starting left midfielder last year. He is a 20 year old 2.5 star CA 4 star PA player. He may push his way into the starting 11 this season. Amazingly he has above average pace and acceleration for this league despite being the tallest player on the team at 6'4".

Third is Andy Hunter a 19 year old 2 star CA 3.5 star PA player. He was unable to secure a loan away from the club and is currently playing in the reserve team. Not sure if we will resign him long term or just for another season or two to resale him.

Lastly is Adrian Forsythe a 20 year old 2 star CA 3.5 star PA player. He has played back up minutes the last two seasons for the senior squad, but has fallen out of the team as of late. He used to have a lot more potential. He may have to make some real strides in this season to remain at the club.

Thanks for reading. Next up is an away match against 2nd place Coleraine in the league.

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November 2022

The board are starting to take back "transfer profit retained for transfer budgets" they gifted us with earlier in the year. I don't know if dropping below 500k is that barometer, but it makes me think that any rise in budgets or spontaneous improvements to the club will not be happening before the January window. Despite remaining in 1st position, on 32 points from 12 games, 7 points ahead of 2nd.

David Jeffrey Ballymena United's former manager was fired after consecutive loses to us last season. Following that he bad mouthed me in the press so I have proceeded to make him my mortal enemy. He was hired at Portadown as Manager this season after they managed to stay up in the premiership. After having a terrible start to this season that sees them getting only 2 points from 12 games; Portadown has decided to severe ties with him. As expected, I have figuratively danced on his grave in the media at any opportunity during his bad run of form and dismissal.

Larne are in 6th, so creeping up the table, but with next month being a big month with 7 league games. We will know if they have what it takes to catch us or not. The start of January will officially mark the mid-way point of the season.

Of the numerous players ending their contracts this season we have resigned all, but 4. Only one of which is a senior squad player. (Andy Hunter who has squeezed his way into being the 3rd string left back.) The others are out on loan so perhaps we will see how they fair before final resigns.

Minnesota absolutely refused to allow Mark McKenzie (our oldest player in the side at 23 years old) to come back on loan to us after January 13th. So we could be recalling Neil McAuley from Institute if Paul Wallace can't make waves in the reserves. Wallace has been relegated there after October's sparse form.

This month we'll be going over the right midfielder depth at the club.

We have 7 players at this position.

1st our star Steve Leonard, he is 100% home grown at 20 years old and has been virtually ever present since the save started. He is 4 star CA 5 star PA with me as his favorite personnel. He already has 7 goals and 10 assists in 16 appearances for the team this season averaging a 7.57. He is signed through 2025 and we will continue to keep him here at all costs.

2nd Charlie Owens at 17 years old and a 2 star CA 5 star PA player. Charlie has the highest ceiling I believe at the club. He is also natural at center midfielder which will will make him a real threat to join the starting 11 in the near future.

3rd is Conor Glasgow, a 20 year old homegrown talent. He has had a slow development. He has played rare minutes for the first team this year, but that could change if we have any injuries at this position or striker. He currently sits in the reserves. He is at 2 stars CA and 3.5 stars PA. 

The next 3 are all on loan...

Hugo Greaves- 18 years old, 2 star CA, 4.5 star PA. Currently at newly promoted Glentoran. Appears to be a squad rotational player for them this year.

Bakery Ceesay- 18 years old, 2 star CA, 4.5 star PA. Home grown currently at Institute playing impact sub minutes it seems. (For reference I just realized Institute have only 4 loanees all of which are from us.)

Callum Campbell- 18 year old, 2 star CA, 4 star PA. Currently at Limavady United in the Bluefin Championship. As their key player and every present starter.

Last and least is peripheral player 17 year old David O'hare. He is currently in the U18s at 1 star CA 2.5 star PA. He has 3 years left on his contract. We will be loaning and eventually selling him over the next two seasons.

As you can see we are absolutely swimming with talent on this part of the pitch. So we may have a prospect or two to sell for big money while still having spares in the pipeline. Perhaps some of these players will be loaned out cheaply or sold for cheap if we end up trying to make this save into a "building a nation" save.

With the transfer window open next month. Perhaps we'll splash the cash and use all 40k remaining transfer budget and $800/week wage budget on one player.

Candidates would most likely be a attacking midfielder or a left back.

One such candidate is Robbie Deas a 22 year old 4 star CA 4 star PA defender who can play anywhere across the back 3. Celtic have approved a opening bid of 20k. However, he is currently making 3.5k/week though. So it might be difficult to keep him on planet earth in the contract department.

Thanks for reading. Next up is our first and only TV game of the year away against Crusaders in the league.

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December 2022

What a month. 7 games. 5 wins, 1 draw, and our first loss in the league. Against none other than Larne. We are still holding on to 1st, but Coleraine are showing impressive form only 4 points behind us in 2nd. Larne is up to 3rd, but they are 9 points behind Coleraine.

We are flying high with the league's top average rating player. Our starting attacking midfielder, Kevin Clarke, who is averaging a 7.99 in league play. We are also keeping a 58% possession in the league, way ahead of Warrenpoint in 2nd on 53%. Lastly, we surpassed the league's all time "Most Matches without a Loss" record of 16 consecutive league games, prior to our lose to Larne.

Weirdly, we are still only averaging 900 or so people in attendance at our home games in the league. With Stangmore Park's capacity at 5000. I think we wont have to be worried about expanding the stadium for a while. 

We have had a really tough time keeping guys in the line-up. Our current run of form is directly related to losing our star man Jim Parker for 3 months. He will hopefully he back in March. On top of that our last league game had 4 other people facing 1 match bans due to either a red or yellow card accumulations.

On the bright side this has made the reserves all super happy with the extra playing time. It also helps they are a stellar side all their own. 

We have had two transfers to speak of this month. First we managed to resign Jack Thomson the ball playing defender we loaned in from Rangers last year. No one signed him and we were able to sign him on a great deal for the next 2 years. He comes in as our squad rotational central defender.

The other is a loan spell for Alex Robinson who will we discuss more in today's central midfielder depth review.

Speaking of which we have 6 players at the club that make up our central midfielder pipeline. 

First has just made the push to the starting 11. Jonathan O'Neill is only 17 years old and already looking like the next big thing at the club. He is currently 2.5 star CA 5 star PA. He was a great steal from Glentoran 18 months ago for only $2,000. He is already valued at 40k, having yet to play starting minutes.

2nd Paul Lynch is only 19 years old. He was and still remains the club youngest ever player to play in a senior squad game. He has grown steadily, but may be reaching the top of his potential. He is currently 2.5 star CA and 3 star PA. He is signed through next season. Perhaps we will sell him next summer as his value is already up to 64k.

Alex Robinson is third. At 19 years old he was just loaned out to Barrow in the Vanarama National League. He comes in as their starting central midfielder. He has a lot of versatility so he may find himself back at the club soon. He currently sits at 2.5 star CA and 3.5 star PA.

Fourth is 19 year old Owen Teague. A home grown player who can play 4 outfield positions. Teague is currently 2 star CA and 3.5 star PA. On loan at Ballinamallard United in the Danske Bank Premiership, he is part of their starting 11. He has achieve middling ratings in 16 league starts for the club out of a possible 19.

The last 2 are very different...

Jim McDonald- 17 years old, 1.5 star CA and 3.5 star PA. He is currently in the U18s, but with unambitious personality he will need some hand holding to get there.

Lee Webb- 18 years old, 1 star CA and 2 star PA. He is set to be released. Until then we will try to loan him out at all costs. Hopefully he can be a sterling example of our youth academy in the Bluefin Championship later in his career. Might try to pawn him off on Annagh United our affiliate in Northern Ireland's 3rd tier.

As for transfer targets this window every day 1 first-team target available has shot us down. So we will probably settle for a loan or youth prospect with the remaining 20k transfer and 1.3k/week wage budget we have left at our disposal.

One target may be 17 year old 1.5 star CA 4.5 star PA striker James Rose from Glenavon. Either way we will have to see how this coming month shakes out with 9 games. 

The next one is against 9th place Ballinamallard United at home in the league.

Thanks for reading. Go Swifts!

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January 2023

We had a decent transfer window. Sam Johnston was officially sold to Glenavon for $15,000 over 3 years. Tiarnan McAuley was also sold to Newry City AFC on a free.

In-comings were James Rose a 17 year old 1 star CA 3.5 star PA striker from Glenavon for $4,200.

As well as Barry Hepburn a 20 year old Scottish attacking midfielder with 4 star CA and 5 star PA. On loan for around $850/week from Celtic. He comes in as a starter.

All in all 9 games this month. 9 wins from those games. Which means we are squarely in the driver's seat in the Danske Bank Premiership. 13 points ahead of 2nd place Coleraine and 21 points ahead of 3rd place Linfield. Larne has slipped to 4th on 47 points, a point behind Linfield. We have 7 more games until the split. The biggest gap aside from us at the top is between 5th place Crusaders on 43 points and 6th place Cliftonville on 32 points.

The craziest statistic I think from these run of games is we currently sit on a 66 goal differential. Way ahead of 2nd highest GD with 28.

We also have our first "team leader" in about a year in vice captain Danny Finlayson. We have drifted down to $400,000 bank balance. There is the option to ask the board to go professional again. However, I think I'll wait until the end of year prize money before I ask again.

The board have us officially graded as an A-. I think we are untouchable at this point.

We have had a bit of a tough time keeping guys healthy. Which highlights our biggest flaw. We have only 22 players or so in the senior squad. I'm hesitant to raise it to 33, but we have had both strikers get injured. I don't want to horde all our talent. As most of our loanees are starting at other Danske Bank Premiership sides. Not only that, many of them need to play first team minutes to continue developing. However, the Northern Irish season is roughly 60 games over 10 months, with all the cups. That is roughly a game every 5 days. As we all know the fixture congestion is a lot crazier than that. I think we are gonna have to be very vigilant of happiness and playing time promises if we go to a 33 man roster as I would like to. 

This month we will be highlight our club depth at left midfielder. We have 5 players currently at this position. 

First is Sean Ward, our starter, a Scottish 20 year old loanee from Hearts. Currently at 3 star CA and 4 star PA. Sean is only with us this season and he on a long term deal with Hearts so it is unlike to get him on a free anytime soon.

Second is our backup senior squad player, Pat King. King is a 20 year old 2.5 star and 3 star PA home grown talent. He made the break into the first team this year after a spectacular loan out to Warrenpoint last season collecting 8 assists in 13 games as well as 2 goals. Pat is really pacey, and will definitely compete for rotational minutes again next year.

Third is one of my favorites, Eamonn Mullen. He was one of my first signings. Got him on a free from Institute he has been on loan at Newry City AFC last year and Warrenpoint this year making the step up to the Premiership. He is their starting left midfielder and key player. He is a 20 year old 2 star CA and 4.5 star PA player.

Fourth is our 20 year old 2 star CA 4 star PA player Aidan Doyle. We signed Doyle on a free last season and played him as a rotational player, but he fell out of the team this year. He went back on loan to the club we bought him from Coleraine. He is a starter for them currently.

Last is our American youth product. Miguel Angel Velazquez he is 17 years old with 1 star CA and 3 star PA. He currently plays for Donegal Celtic in the Bluefin Championship. Unfortunately he has suffered two injuries already in his young career. A damaged knee cap that kept him out for 4 weeks and a Broken Wrist that will keep him out for roughly 7 weeks. Once back he will most likely return to the first team. (Holy hell! I just looked at his Information page and he is contemplating retirement due to injury.)

In summary, we have a decent few talents at left midfielder, but maybe only 1 that could reach the heady heights we want. If we do address this position in the transfer market it will undoubtedly be only for youth prospects to cultivate.

Next game is an away match against Linfield in the league as part of a 7 game February.

Thanks for reading. Go Swifts!

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February 2023

7 games. 6 wins and 1 draw. We win our second manager of the month award in a row. We surpassed our own "Most matches without a Loss" record we set earlier in the season with 17 consecutive matches. We also qualified for the Euro Cup 2 place despite being at the 31st match day. We are currently in 1st on 82 points. 16 points ahead of 2nd place Coleraine.

We have been continually needing to rotate the squad. We worked it out next season we will have a roughly 26-29 player senior squad. (Depending on the versatility of the 3rd string players.) It will have an interesting effect on the rest of the premiership as we will be hording more talent.

On another note Steven Davis our star attacking mid last season has been given a contract to manage Cliftonville in 7th place of the Premiership, but has yet to sign despite the bid being in. It would be a dream to play against him. Hopefully we can sell or loan him some stars to help him out in next year's campaign.

Our affiliate team is looking like a competitor for the Bluefin Sport PIL playoff. For our own self interest. I hope they stay in the 3rd tier as they have been the only team willing to have our players on loan from us in that division. (Side note, the Northern Irish 3rd tier has been raised from 302nd reputation to 261st since the save began.)

Our budget has really been eaten away over the course of the year. Whittling us down to 360k in the bank.

Despite this the board appear to be have an estimate player wage of similar for next year. Chris Hassan is back in action. Jim Parker is still 2 weeks away at least. Amazingly Hassan has scored 26 goals in 22 appearances this season. Which really shows how we are outclassing most of the the domestic competition.

This month we will go over our attacking midfielder depth. We play a 4-3-2-1 with 2 AMCs so these players will not play on the wing at all. We have 6 players in the AMC pipeline.

1st is Barry Hepburn. He is the 20 year old Scottish loanee from Celtic. He is our current starter at 4 star CA 5 star PA. He will only be here through this season.

Second and his partner is crime in Kevin Clarke our 4 star CA 4 star PA 18 year old home grown player. He currently averaging a 7.94 in the league with 15 goals and 13 assists in 26 appearances. I wish he had more upside, but he is doing really well with what he has got.

3rd is Donal Byrne purchased from Coleraine for 3k back in 2021. He is 18 years old with 3 star CA and 5 star PA. He will definitely be starting alongside Clarke next year in the starting 11.

4th is Ben McDermott, our 20 year old 3 star CA 4 star PA player. He has been a fringe player the last 3 seasons, but had a great run with the strikers being injured collecting 8 goals in 12 appearances in the league so far this season.He will remain in the team next year as the squad expands.

5th and definitely the most helped by the expanding senior squad next year in Reegan Mimnaugh. This 21 year old Scottish 2 star CA 3.5 star PA was on loan from Hearts to us last year. He did really well and got transferred here last summer, but has since slowed down while Byrne and Clarke have pushed their way into the team. He can play at attacking mid or central mid. So he will be another fringe player next season.

Lastly is Eddie Mullen. This home grown player is 18 years old with 1.5 stars CA and 3 star PA. He is currently on loan at our affiliate Annagh United where he is apart of their starting 11. He will most likely be going out on loan to a 2nd tier side next season.

We have 4 games next month, including a Mid Ulster Cup Final against Glenavon. This will be the 5th matchup against Glenavon this season. We are currently on a 9 games winning streak against them. Also with two more wins in the league we could seal it as champions before the split even occurs.

Wish us luck! Cheers!

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March 2023

We have won the Mid Ulster Cup for the second year in a row. We beat Glenavon and our former goalkeeper Sam Johston 8-1. We are clearly the best team in this competition. So going forward we will most likely have this be a 3rd string or reserves competition.

We managed to lose our first game since December 14th. Coleraine prevented us from lifting the trophy on their home field during match day 32. Funny enough the next opportunity to lift the trophy is against Coleraine as the first match at home in the Championship group.

The Premiership Championship group is made up of, in order...

Us, Coleraine, Larne, Linfield, Crusaders, and Cliftonville. (Awesomely Cliftonville now managed by our former player Steven Davis secured them the last place in the championship group once he took over.) 

This month I would like to change things up. I would like to review our incoming youth intake day signings as well as perhaps the top U18s players we got on the horizon.

First is dual Ireland nationality 16 year old striker, Ciaran Duffy. He is 1.5 star CA and 4.5 star PA. He is far and away the best talent from the intake and is "Iron Willed" personality. He will probably be in the U18s till he ages out and then may have a half season on loan before getting a look into the senior side.

Second is Lee Nicholl another 1 star CA 3.5 CA striker. Interestingly his personality is "mercenary". He is 17 years old and probably won't see the senior squad until age 20. He may be the victim of our magnificent depth and find himself on the transfer list once he can showcase his talents out on loan.

The last two are practically the same guy...

Steven Hegarty- Dungannon born 16 year old, 3 silver star CA 2 star PA.

Alex Cunningham- English 3 silver star CA 2 star PA.

Both lads are 6'2" and central defenders. They boost our central defender pipeline numbers to the double digits so both will most likely follow Nicholl out on loan and then transferred.

As for the stars of the U18s I have 2 standouts.

Firstly, Martin Grogan still 16 years old and currently 2 star CA and 4.5 star PA. I would not be surprised to find him forcing himself into the senior team at the tail end of next year as our 3rd string left back .

Second, Zach Murray, at 6'7" this man is a monster at merely 17 years old. He currently is 1.5 star CA and 3.5 star PA. He looks like he will probably get a senior debut in the last meaningless games of the league season this year. Then get the opportunity to stun the world out on loan next season. I don't know if I can sell such a behemoth. So he may find his way into the bottom of the central defender senior squad depth chart 2024/25.

Overall this was obviously not the "golden generation" it was characterized as. Our depth in the club is really starting to impress me though. I'm excited to see the few transfers we may be able to secure in the next year with our myriad of talent. We have 19 players out on loan. So, many of those players have drastically improved their transfer value. Hopefully we can raise the quality of Northern Irish football slowly but surely.

Also side note our senior coach Ian Campbell who had been with us since 2020 was hired as manager of Bluefin Sport PIL side Ballyclare Comrades. Really excited to see how he does. Perhaps he will be another transfer and loan destination. The biggest worry is that Ballyclare 6 points away from safety from being relegated with 3 games to go in the season.

Either way it goes. It is great to see our coaches and players thriving through Northern Irish Football. 

Last but not least we had our first ever playing time complaint. From peripheral attacking midfielder Reegan Mimnaugh. We had to promise him fair increase in play time within the next 6 months. So, he will be starting the meaningless league games for the rest of the season. 

6 games next month will see us finish off the league. Next match is against Coleraine at home. Wish us luck as we hope to settle the score and claim the league title.

Cheers!

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April 2023

7 games played. 5 wins, 2 draws. We officially win the league against Coleraine. We also set the points and goals record in a season. We finish 30 wins 6 draws and 2 losses on 86 goal-differential and 96 points. Having scored 110 goals in the 38 game season. I don't see us breaking that next year as we will most likely be rotating more.

The two draws were matches in which we played the players with fringe or future playing time. They managed draws against Linfield and Crusaders so, I think its safe to say we are superior in the league. Despite being 8th in the league in salary.

We move on to the Northern Irish Cup Final against big pockets Larne. We have a 14 day gap before the final so I played the Reserves a week out to maintain sharpness.

Chris Hassan our backup striker secures the golden boat with 20 goals in 19 appearances in the league. Kevin Clarke our starting attacking mid led the league with a 7.83 average rating. He had 16 goals and 13 assists in 30 appearances. Ryan Mullen our loanee keeper led the league in clean sheets with 17.

We are back up to around 500k bank balance. The board are also thrilled as it was a 3 year plan to challenge for the title and we achieved it a year early. I'm curious to see if the board stays reasonable with all this winning.

This month we will cover the 6 strikers at the club. We play a one striker formation so the senior squad will only have 3 strikers next season.

First is 19 year old club captain, Jim Parker. He is currently 4.5 star CA 4.5 star PA. He managed 15 goals and 10 assists in 32 appearances across all competitions this year. Maintaining a 7.38 average rating. We will have to see if that injury this season has any affects next season.

Second is Chris Hassan our home grown 21 year old 3.5 star CA 3.5 star PA back up striker. He had an incredible season with Parker out managing 30 goals in 29 appearances across all competitions. Its good to know that we can withstand any attacker injury crisis.

Third is home grown 19 year old Gavin Devine. He is currently 2 star CA and 3 star PA. He was on loan at Institute all season where he was the starting striker managing 36 appearances and 12 goals across all competitions. Not a great total but still is a likely shoe-in at the bottom on the senior depth chart at striker.

Fourth is Ciaran Duffy our new 16 year old striker prospect. He hasn't grown since last month. I expect him to stay in the U18s until he ages out.

The final two are similar...

James Rose- 17 year old 1.5 star CA 3.5 star PA.

Lee Nicholl- 17 year old 1 star CA 3.5 star PA.

Both will be in the U18s till they age out. Either of which may find themselves listed if they fail to reach their potential.

The board will give us a final budget and awards after the Northern Irish Cup Final.

We play Larne in 6 days for the Cup final. 

Wish us luck claiming the Treble!

Go Swifts!

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May 2023

We have won the Treble! 

We managed to win against Larne 5-1 in a blowout. All in front of a sold out crowd of 8,000 people at The Oval. 

Shockingly AZ Alkmaar the team that knocked us out of the Euro Cup 2 went on to win the entire competition. Which makes me feel better about our loss to them.

The board are now demanding a league title every year going forward. As well a Champions League 2nd Round Qualifying appearance next year. (In other words win at least a game in the Champions League.)

These seem like awfully high bars to set, but the board have not left us stranded. They have boosted this year's transfer budget to 278k and our wage budget to 9.5k/week. Which is 1k/week more than we had last season. Unfortunately, our scouting budget is just as poor. With us having the most obvious talent in Northern Ireland we may have to supplement that transfer budget to get us some eyes into the UK scouting market.

So far no one of first team quality will sign with us without demanding 1.7k/week wages. The max we can offer is $825/week. So we may have to go for more youngsters scouted from the UK. (We are currently trying to sign an English ex-Chesterfield player Joe Riley as a coach to help get some scouting knowledge.)

Club Culture also seems to be inflated we now must...

Play possession football

Make the most of set pieces 

Play entertaining football

Play high tempo pressing football

Play attacking football

Larne and Coleraine both fired their managers. Steven Davis made it through the end of the year and will be managing Cliftonville again next season. 

Shockingly the board have turned us down in our pitch to go professional. We will hopefully be able to claim some European money and try again next season.

So, if anyone cares, I have worked out the playing time agreements and games played targets for the senior squad. We will have...

2- Star Players (40 appearances)

3- Important Players (35 appearances)

4- Regular Starter (30 appearances)

5- Squad Rotational Players (25 appearances)

6- Fringe/Breakthrough Players (20 appearances)

13- Backup/Future Players (15 appearances)

Appearances include starts and sub appearances. These aren't definite just outlines. We may promise more players squad or fringe time as needed. We will also be playing out of shape players in the reserves whenever needed.

Like I said before the Northern Irish season is roughly 60 games. So for example, star players may start every champions cup game (~8) and then a majority of League matches (~32). Where as backup/future players will mostly have appearances starting (~3) games due to injury and subbing the other matches in any competition (~12) most likely unimportant cups.

Furthermore, I don't intend on loaning any players this season. Unless there is a clear hole in the squad that is keeping us from winning the league.

Next month we will resume the in-depth reviews with a look at the entire senior squad.

Thanks for reading!

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June 2023

We were able to move our budgets around so we have 129k scouting 100k transfers and 10.7k/week wages. This gives us about 1k space in wages to resign players as needed.

Interestingly Larne has come in for Finlayson hard. He is our star central defender and is worth 70k. They offered four times for him topping out at 235k outright for him. We turned them down as he is 22 years old with room to grow and our vice captain. Plus he has no interest to leave so I don't want to try to push him out and make him angry.

Furthermore, I don't want to give Larne that kind of advantage in the league. As we would have a big hole in defense.

We have not found any transfers yet, but with England now open to us we have so many 18 and 19 year-old players to choose from. (They all seems to be youngsters that didn't get professional contracts from premier or championship clubs.) Luckily for Champions Cup registration we have roughly 16 home-grown club players and 30 home-grown nation players.

We unfortunately drew Astana a 3.5 star reputation professional squad from Kazakhstan in the first round. They are clear favorites with a gigantic 30,000 seater stadium. We will undoubtedly lose to them. We have two games in the run up to that first competitive fixture. Aston Villa and Newcastle both at home in Stangmore Park.

We played Aston Villa first beating them 4-2. Newcastle we play next month. Neither appear to be playing full strength squads.

As of now we are predicted in the media to finish first place, but we will see after the transfers start coming in where we end up.

This month we will do a overview of our senior squad.

In the agreed playing time categories we have...

1- Star Player (Jim Parker) His contract is up this year.

2- Important Players (Danny Finlayson and Kevin Clarke)

1- Regular Starter (Steve Leonard)

3- Squad Players (Jack Thomson, Reegan Mimnaugh, and Chris Hassan) Thomson is our 2nd central defender. We will probably need to sell Mimnaugh who is our 5th string attacking mid if he doesn't quiet down about playing time because he is nearly at his ceiling.

19- Fringe/Breakthrough Players (We may need to loan out any youngsters that get upset about playing time. Hopefully these players won't get upset with 20 or so appearances. Most didn't seem to mind that amount last season.)

7- Future Prospects (Most exciting Eamonn Mullen 2 star CA 5 star PA goes right into the starting lineup.)

Highest wage is starting attacking midfielder Kevin Clarke on $725/week, but Jim Parker will probably demand more.

Lowest is starting central midfielder Jonathan O'Neill on $25/week. He will no doubt want a pay raise before the season is out.

There is no one lower than 2 star CA in the senior team and only one player with less than 3.5 stars PA in the senior squad. (Barry McKeown 22 year old 4th string central defender 2 star CA 3 star PA.) So as you can imagine we have so much potential. Our side will only get better as the season goes along. 

The oldest guy on the team is Jack Thomson at 23 years old. Our average age is 20 years old with an average wage of $217/week. We are highest in the league in first tough and passing so our high possession style is sure to thrive again.  

Most likely to be sold is Barry McKeown or Reegan Mimnaugh. Barry is worth 35k and Reegan worth 70k. Both of which I could live with other league sides having, but until we start dominating the league I would prefer is sell to foreign sides.

Wish us luck as we try to wrangle a player or two out of the transfer market.

Go Swifts!

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July 2023

Newcastle was up first and we won 2-1. Again, not versus a full strength side, but still encouraging.

We immediately go into our first and only TV game of the year at home in the 1st leg of the Champions 1st round qualifier against Kazakhstan's FK Astana. Losing is a pretty foregone conclusion, but we play our best 11 anyway. 

We manage to hold them to only 1 goal in a 0-1 defeat. We get Jim Parker sent off however. So the 2nd leg will be without our star striker. We travel to their away 30,000 seater stadium. Getting a magic own goal and pushing them to extra time despite being down a man at the 62 minute mark. We only go and have the unthinkable happen. Last year's star Kevin Clarke gets a penalty in the 102nd minute. He scores it and we manage to hold them off for the next 18 minutes to go through to the 2nd round.

We are riding high, but find ourselves matched with 3 star rep polish giants Legia Warszawa. We, assuming the fm gods our on our side, put out another best 11 lineup. The first game is away in Poland with 23,537 fans turning up. We play like a team possessed scoring 5 goal from 5 different players. Parker has a hat-trick of assists. We manage a 5-2 victory stunning Legia on their home field.

That brought the month to a close our very next game at home to Legia in the second leg. If we lose by more than 3 goals we are out. Less and we are on to face Swiss BSC Young Boys in the 3rd round.

On to the transfers...

First is Sebastian Wassell, a 19 year old 2 star CA 3.5 star PA Englishman. Sebastian comes in as our 3rd string central midfielder. Not exactly a position of need, but he was free depth that has good potential.

Second is James Karamousis a Welsh 3 star CA and 5 star PA right back. He comes in as our day one starter at right back. He is also a Manchester United youth product. He unfortunately is also our new highest earner on $925/week.

Last is Haydn Haley. This english 19 year old Everton player is on loan to us for the season. He is 3.5 star CA and 5 star PA. He comes in as the starting left midfielder and we only have to pay $425/week of his wages.

We had no outgoing transfers. Just loans for the reserves. Which means our transfer budget is down to 107k transfer and $750/week wage room.  We probably won't go out to get any more players this window, but if we do it would most likely be a goal keeper and perhaps another loanee if needed.

The bank balance is at 432k. Unfortunately there is no appearance money so far in the Champions League. The board currently are grading me as a B. Regardless I am thrilled to have made it this far the Champions League.

Next month we will start the Premiership season and we will be able to start playing the 2nd-teamers and really see how our depth does.

This month we will be reviewing the goalkeeping pipeline and you will be able to see why we would like another keeper talent. As we only have 4 players in that position at the club.

First is Mark Coyle. "What?" I hear you ask. "Wasn't he like 4th on the depth chart last year?" Yes, he was, but after a stellar half season loan to Crusaders he really got better and now sits at 2.5 star CA 4.5 star PA and just 18 years old.

Second is last year's backup and will remain our backup for now, Gary Wilson. He is 21 years old with 2.5 star CA and 3.5 star PA. He managed 13 stars and only 9 goals conceded in all competitions last year for the senior squad. He is roughly the same as Coyle, but the age made starting Coyle too tantalizing.

Third is Nathan Grainger, who did fair as Ebbsfleet's starting keeper last season. He managed 66 goals conceded in 46 games. However, as the Danske Bank Premiership has raised in reputation over the Vanarama National we wanted his 2 star CA and 4.5 star PA form to have another season of development as our 3rd string/reserve keeper.

Last is Jose Costa our Portuguese born and Northern Ireland U19 capped 1.5 star CA 3 star PA keeper. He is still in the U18s, but will most likely head out on loan when he ages out in October.

As you can see if any player demands a move away or refuses to resign we will have to spend big on a replacement. So I think I would like a very young prospect that will help perhaps give us the room to sell anyone if they become a detriment to the squad.

Wish us luck as we take on Legia in already our 2nd TV game of the season!

Go Swifts!

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August 2023

I am manically giggling to myself. I seriously can't believe it.


We somehow lucked our way past Astana, Legia, Young Boys, and loss to Shaktar in the Champions League Playoff. We had an incredible run of away matches. 2-0 against Astana, 5-2 against Legia, and 3-1 against Young Boys. We were dealing with red cards right and left, but our 33 man depth was really paying dividends. Since the implementation of the Euro Cup 2 the rules screen doesn't say if losing teams ever get put in the Euro Cups or just fall out of continental competitions completely. So I was just pinching myself being that we got this far.

When out of nowhere we get 3.4 MILLION dollars for getting into the Europa League Group Stage! I was dumb founded. Absolutely stunned!

I continue just to make sure this is real and not April fools or something.

No joke, we get drawn to a group with Bastiktas, Schalke 04, and Athletic Bilbao.

I was seriously upset because before this as I had suffered through no appearance money in the Champions League and a small stadium that only earned us barely 200k through 4 Champions League Rounds. (That is barely comparable to the Euro Cup 2 appearance money alone last year, so it felt like we were being robbed.)

All I can say is man do we need that 33 man squad now.

As far as the league goes we have gone 2 wins and 1 loss. So the 2nd and 3rd teamers have been pretty pedestrian. Hopefully once the Europa League ends we will have the first team back in the saddle and taking the league by storm. 

In other good news. The board have agreed to officially go professional, the team will switch over at the beginning of June. So, next off-season. We will be the 3rd team to go professional as surprisingly Crusaders went back to semi-professional last off-season.

We have 7 games next month so hopefully we can get to see the 3rd teamers get some opportunities in the Bet McLean and Mid Ulster cups.

This month we are back to looking at our right back depth. We only have 3 players available at that position. So they are all in the senior squad.

First is James Karamousis, a Welsh 19 year old 3.5 star CA 5 star PA player. He is still gelling with the team, but I'm thrilled we were able to bring in the former Manchester United youth product.

Second is Niall Harvey. This full back is someone who can play on either side and has been a must have off the bench. He is 2 stars CA and 3.5 stars PA at just 21 years old. We picked him up from Distillery in the 2022 summer window after he did well for them in the Bluefin Championship.

Last is 20 year old 3rd teamer Andrew Hassan. He is our very own home grown talent. Hassan has been on loan the last two seasons at Limavady United in the Championship in 2021/22 and then Insititue in the Premiership last season. His 2 star CA and 4.5 star PA have me really on the edge of my seat to see what he could become.

As you can see we have plenty of young quality in this position so there is no immediate need to get another player. However with all this incoming money it wouldn't be appalling to get another prospect.

Next up is a match-up against our old player turned manager Steven Davis and his Cliftonville side at home in the league.

Thanks for reading. I love football manager!

Go Swifts!

Edited by DrChristopher
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