Agin ilka Sair Fecht There's a Bonnie Fechter - (A Hibs and Scotland National Challenge)

[vikeologist]

Challenge Summary

I started this as a challenge on the CSE part of the forum, but nobody else is doing it.

 

The name of the game is essentially to win the league and Champions League using only players from the nation in question, and also win the World Cup with that nation.

As I’ve decided to do this with Hibernian and Scotland, the chances of me completing each part are respectively good, unlikely and praying for a miracle. When the new version of the game came out I thought that the nation’s dynamic rating would improve, but it seems that new feature is, to put it mildly, underdeveloped.

I do have the IGE, and use it to monitor the Dynamic Youth Rating. You’ll just have to trust that I’m not using it to cheat. I do look at the DYRs and reputations of clubs and nations, and to see the numbers for other clubs’ facilities rather than the descriptions so that I can feed into the discussions about the feature, such as it is.

The exact rules are here. Honestly, I’ve already broken one of them since I signed a foreign born player before he’d actually played his first competitive match for Scotland.

Anyway, a brief summary of my progress so far.

Hibs

Season 1 – Qualified for the Europa League despite only finishing 4^th by winning the Scottish Cup

Season 2 – Qualified for the Europa League again by finishing 3^rd

Season 3 – Qualified for the Europa League by winning the Scottish Cup

Season 4 – Broke the Old Firm stranglehold by finishing 2^nd and qualifying for the (albeit preliminary stages) of the Champions League.

 

Scotland

Season 1 – Qualified for the World Cup and rocketed up thr rankings to the top 20.

Season 2 – Promoted to Nations League top division and reached the 2^nd round of the World Cup

Season 3 – Qualified for the Euros and reached the Q/F

Season 4 – 2^nd in Nations League group.

In order to succeed at the challenge, especially the World Cup part, there’s a few things that probably need to happen.

Improve the national Dynamic Youth Rating – 4 seasons in this hasn’t changed, and it’s not going to significantly, if at all, ever.

Generate good Scottish regens without the DYR – I’ll soon have pretty much maxxed out Hib’s facilities, but of course this is only a small percentage of the Scottish regens who will come through.

Improve the Scottish clubs’ coefficients so that more clubs play continental footie and hopefully become richer. – Obviously there’s only so much I can do managing one club, but it’s going fine. We’re in 8^th, behind the big 5, Portugal and Holland, and honestly it’s going to be hard just staying there.

Don’t get sacked as Scotland manager – I’ve done very well the first 4 seasons, but there’s no good young players coming through and the national team are getting older and going gradually downhill. Hopefully I can slow the decline enough to keep my job long enough to wait for better players to come along.

Have the best Scottish players at Hibs. –We only have 1 player from the national first XI at the club, the goalie, but we have a few players who make the squad. At the moment having the 4^th or 5^th best players in any position is probably as much as I can hope for.

So that’s you all up to date.

I’m going to update here from now on, hopefully at least a few times a season and with amusing details and interesting facts.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Lost in Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26								8th

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Champions League Prelims

I thought that qualifying for the Champions League at the end of last season was a real breakthrough moment, but it wouldn’t count for much unless I could get to the group stage proper, and that would be really difficult to do.

Honestly I thought we’d get a lot of money even for the prelims, but that is so not the case.

Nonetheless I spent big trying to take what might be our one opportunity to reap the reward of reaching the group stage. Speculate to accumulate and all that.

I bought a central defender, Lewis Neilson, last season for £6.25 million, and I overpaid, although he’s just about scraping into the first team. Maybe the trouble is that he’s better as a right back.

My outlay was in overspending on wages.

Chris Mochrie- An attacking midfielder. Actually he can play in a number of positions, but I had to promise when I signed him to play him there, and in fact I’m having to play him in a different role than I’d like to keep him happy. I’m paying him more than twice the wages of any other player permanently on our books.

Calvin Ramsay – At the start of the game, he’s the one Scottish wonderkid, but his potential has gone unrealised because he was sold to Chelsea, and then played one league match in 3 seasons. I’m paying a fortune to have him on loan for the season, but hopefully he will develop, and he is an upgrade to our own right back, who I’ve moved to the right wing.

League Path 3^rd Qualifying Round

Spoiler

Quite a big deal as we were against one of the top Belgian teams, and it’s Belgium that threaten our 8^th spot in the coefficients.

Standard     0-1    Hibs

Hibs             3-0    Standard

League Path Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Monaco       0-1    Hibs

Hibs             0-0    Monaco

And just like that I’m into the group stage, where there finally is loadsamoney. 

We’re in a group with Real Madrid, Juventus and Wolfsburg, so things are getting real. My aims are basically to lick up some points and money and finish at least 3^rd sending us back to the Europa League.

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by vikeologist

[Johnny-Trotter]

Great job making it into the Champions League! Hibs are a good one to go with based on strong facilities and you can easily 'over-achieve' by passing one of the Old Firm. I have played with Hibs a few times and they will have good youth coming through over time.

 

I will be following along.

[vikeologist]

2026 World Cup Qualifying Report

We won the group and qualified for our third successive major tournament, maintaining my perfect record.

The table may look like it was comfortable, but it was anything but.

As the top seeds, when the group was drawn I was somewhat confident. Here’s what I posted at the time.

 

I thought we’d win all our matches easily, but we lost the first time we faced Turkey and nearly lost the second. They had a last minute winner ruled out, and we went straight up the other end and snatched a winner of our own. Northern Ireland and Israel threatened upsets against both of us as well.

We are not playing as well as in the first couple of years of the save. I only have 4 players in the first XI over 30, (plus there was another player who retired after getting badly injured), but they are / were all pretty key, and there’s nobody coming through to replace them.

On 03/01/2022 at 18:48, Johnny-Trotter said:

Great job making it into the Champions League! Hibs are a good one to go with based on strong facilities and you can easily 'over-achieve' by passing one of the Old Firm. I have played with Hibs a few times and they will have good youth coming through over time.

 

I will be following along.

Thanks for your interest. 4 years in I've maxxed out my facilities with Hibs (apart from Youth Recruitment), but no really great players so far, and the best player in my last intake isn't Scottish. I would say no great Scottish regens have come through from anywhere at all yet, or at least I haven't spotted them. The best 2 have come through at Celtic.

However, it will take a few seasons, and of course luck, for my regen fortunes to change.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Lost in Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26								8th			Qualified for World Cup

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by vikeologist

[Johnny-Trotter]

6 hours ago, vikeologist said:

 

Thanks for your interest. 4 years in I've maxxed out my facilities with Hibs (apart from Youth Recruitment), but no really great players so far, and the best player in my last intake isn't Scottish. I would say no great Scottish regens have come through from anywhere at all yet, or at least I haven't spotted them. The best 2 have come through at Celtic.

However, it will take a few seasons, and of course luck, for my regen fortunes to change.

 

I have found that staff, as well as strong facilities, can be a factor in both the intake of youth and their development. Obviously the HOYD is important, but I would suggest to bug the board to get as many coaches as you can and with the stronger personalities. After that, indeed - you're left with luck.

[vikeologist]

4 minutes ago, Johnny-Trotter said:

I have found that staff, as well as strong facilities, can be a factor in both the intake of youth and their development. Obviously the HOYD is important, but I would suggest to bug the board to get as many coaches as you can and with the stronger personalities. After that, indeed - you're left with luck.

Yeah, my coaching staff are.... not great. And not that numerous.

Hopefully this is something I'll be able to address once we're a bit richer. With maxxed out facilities, the board should have spare money, although expanding the stadium, and even more so building a new one, is definitely on my to-do list.

Overall things have improved a lot in 4 and a bit years, but a lot depends on regularly qualifying for the champions League group stage and all that sweet. sweet cash, which unfortunately involves the tricky task of overtaking Celtic as the dominant team.

Being limited to only Scottish players is definitely slowing that down.

I would say that we have 6 (or 7 if you count on-loan Calvin Ramsay) of the 25  best Scottish players so far. Any of the other 18 are totally out of our reach at the moment.

[vikeologist]

The 50 best wonderkids report came out, and 4 of them are plying their trade in Scotland. Unfortunately, only 2 of them are actually Scottish. The third could play for us, but he’s Belgian so it’s very unlikely he’ll switch, and the 4^th will have to keep playing in Scotland a long time before he’d become eligible.

The rules of my challenge are that they must either be born in Scotland or have been fully capped for Scotland.

It’s safe to say I can’t afford any of these wonderkids at the moment, and my rules would only allow me to sign the first 2 anyway.

Still, it’s good for the future of the national team to have 2 wonderkids. I just hope they get first team football and develop.

Ex-wonderkid Calvin Ramsay at the age of 22 has been on loan with us this season, and he’s a good player, but he’s not improved and probably won’t ever realise his potential because of lack of opportunities in his formative years.

[The Malazan Empire]

Good challenge Vikeologist I will be following. Pity about the DYR not functioning correctly. Did you complete the Ultimate challenge already?

[vikeologist]

5 minutes ago, The Malazan Empire said:

Good challenge Vikeologist I will be following. Pity about the DYR not functioning correctly. Did you complete the Ultimate challenge already?

It's not clear how SI actually wanted the DYR to work. It does change; just very slowly, and not in the direction everybody thought it would.

I've completed the Ultimate Challenge twice, and come up against challenge ending bugs twice.

My recent updates may make it wound like everything in this challenge is going swimmingly, but I'm saving all the bad club news for the end of the season, so there is a possibility that I will alternate seasons between the 2 challenges.

This challenge is a bit of a grind with 60+ club games and then all the international matches. Ok, it's that many matches because I'm surreally successful in the cups, (7 of 8 domestic cup finals so far, and the other was a semifinal penalty shoot off) .

Being limited to only Scottish players is proving to be quite tough.

[vikeologist]

A tough Nations League group, although Italy are very inconsistent either really good or really bad. Unfortunately up to now it's been the former against us.

 

Also, for all my complaints about my lack of great youth players so far.

We're about to win the U18 league for the 4th time in a row as well. Also we're in the semi-final of the U19 Champions League.

Edited January 10, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2025/26 Hibernian Season Report

My updates thus far have covered the good things that happened this season. Reaching the Group Stage of the Champions League, and the national team reaching the upcoming World Cup.

However, a lot has gone wrong.

·       We finished 3^rd in our Champions League group, but went out in the 2^nd Knockout round of the Europa League.

·       We only finished 4^th in the league with a big drop in points.

·       We could have reached the Europa League by winning the Scottish Cup for the 3rd time in a row, but lost in the final on penalties.

·       Scotland dropped from 8th to 10th in the European coefficients, being overtaken by Belgium and Russia. We still have 5 clubs qualify for Europe, but some will have to enter the competitions later.

·       We still have a foreigner in our team. I’ve had to renew his contract for another 4 years, because I have no-one to replace him. We actually have  foreigners because my top regen from 2025 is Northern Irish. My rules say I’m allowed foreigners. It just won’t count towards winning the league or Champions League, and honestly, I don’t see that happening in the next 4 seasons anyway.

So, we’re going to be in the Euro Cup II next season. The shame! Yes, we might still do well and even win it. Frankly that’s where Russia and Belgium picked up most of their coefficient points, but it is a real pain, because I want all the Scottish clubs to do well, improve their facilities and the reputation of the league to help the nation develop.

It was a big decline in league performance, and we don’t have a lot of money to bring in new players. We spent it on facilities, but also on bringing in right back Calvin Ramsay on loan for the season. Maybe Calvin was worth it because of reaching the CL group stage, but it did cost us about £1.5 million to have him. Actually that seems like a good deal, but I’m still not going to renew his loan, even though Chelsea are asking for slightly less. My top regen last year was a right back, and I want to develop my own players. Also, we’re going to have a lot less income next season.

 

 

Top Goalscorer – Kevin Nisbet – 33

This is a tough one. I play a lone striker, and Nisbet has scored 189 goals in 5 seasons. 117 minutes per goal, but that’s across all competitions. There’s a big difference between different levels of competition. Given our attacking tactics and his lone striker role, his tallies the last 3 seasons haven’t been enough.

He’s not our best striker though. That would be someone I use as an attacking midfielder. There is a strong argument for making him my lead striker, especially since we have a lot of depth and promising youngsters who are attacking midfielders. The problem is that Nisbet might become upset, and he is a regular in the Scotland squad. Honestly I’d love for a team to make a huge bid for him. I'm not sure he's even really my 2nd best striker any more.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Kyle Magennis – 7.39

Was badly injured a couple of seasons ago, but he’s regained a lot of his ability.

Man of The Match – Kevin Nisbet / Kyle Magennis – 7

 

Most Valuable Player– Kyle Magennis

Is he our best player? Maybe not according to our coaches, and the Scotland national team scouts rate him 12^th best in the depth chart for his position, but he’s the very embodiment of an invaluable player, and I’ve rated him as such 4 out of my 5 seasons.

---------

So next up, the World Cup. Meeting the minimum requirements tokeep my job by reaching the 2nd round - At least 90% because our group is so easy.

Winning the World Cup - Erm, less than 90%.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
25/26		4th		Kyle Magennis						League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Lost in Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26		17th		10th				8th			Qualified for World Cup

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

2026 World Cup Report

The 2022 World Cup and 2024 Euros saw us go out because of sending offs when potentially we could have gone further, so this time I just want to change that history.

Group Stage

Scotland     6-1    Canada

Scotland     4-0    Japan

As easy a stage as expected. The problem is that Chile stomped away with their group, so next we face the 2^nd place team from Group G. So, world ranked #3 France. Fantastic!

 

2^nd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

Scotland     0-1    France

We lost to a Pogba free-kick, but honestly France were running rings around us in the second half.

3^rd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

 

3^rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

After The Tournament

Spoiler

Disappointing to go out so early, but at least we didn’t have anyone sent off this time.

14 of the 23 players are 29 or over, so I definitely need to find whatever younger replacements there are. I’m not sure there are many.

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

2026 Nations League Report

This doesn't look great, but staying in Division A is an achievement. We drew 4 matches and lost the other 2 by a single goal.

I took the opportunity to blood a few new players since the squad is aged and on the decline. 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2026/27 Hibernian Near End of Season Report

One season end report isn’t going to cut it for this season. I mean, I could do one, but it would be quite long.

Last season did not finish great. 4^th in the league, (from 2^nd the season before), reduced to the rubbish Europa Conference, Scotland’s coefficient had fallen from 7^th to 9^th.

We needed a comeback season, not just for us, but for all Scottish clubs, and that’s what we’ve had.

With 4 matches to go, we’re in our first title battle, just a point behind Celtic.

We’re in our 6^th Scottish Cup final in a row. In fact it’s almost 4 years since we’ve even lost a match in the competition, if you don’t count last season’s final penalty shootout. Not that I give a toss about the domestic cups anymore. We’re beyond that.

Even better we’re almost certainly in the final of the Europa Conference, with a 5-0 first leg semi-final defeat of Aberdeen.

Celtic are in the semi-final of the Europa League, and this is all part of a super season for Scottish clubs in Europe.

Scotland are currently 0.95 coefficient points from nabbing 6^th place from Portugal, which would be a big deal, because that means the top 2 clubs, Celtic and ourselves, would go straight through to the Champions League group stage, and there’d be 6 Scottish clubs in Europe instead of 5.

I don’t know how coefficients work, but we might make it. (There are no Portuguese sides still in any of the competitions).

Bear in mind that the objective is to develop Scotland, not just  Hibs. I’d say things are going well.

With regard to the league, if we do win, it won’t count towards the challenge, because I still have 2 non-Scottish players that I’ve used, (one of whom was my top regen from last year's intake). It would be nice though.

Oh, and I've just realised, our final league match of the season; away to Celtic.

Edited January 26, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

And with our second string ensuring we reached the Conference final and Celtic making it to the Europa League final, it's official.

We're going to have 2 teams in the Champions League group stage next season.

Which is good, because we're now 3 points behind Celtic in the league.

Good news for 6th placed Dundee Utd as well. They're rubbish, but perhaps being in Europe will help them be a little less rubbish.

Of course if either Celtic or ourselves can win our finals, that will be even more lovely coefficient points, and money coming into Scottish football. Also we're going to need all the points we can get to hold onto our 6th place and those 2 group stage spots.

 

[karanhsingh]

Very good progress on this challenge. And that youth player looks excellent. 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2026/27 Hibernian End of Season Report

3 draws in a row meant that the final match against Celtic was meaningless, as they had already secured the title.

No matter. A Champions League group stage qualification, and 2 cup finals, only one of which I really cared about.

First up was the Scottish Cup final, which I played my first team in, apart from giving experience to my promising young goalie, and it’s that which probably cost us the cup, although our wonderkid left winger being sent off probably didn’t help either.

However with the Conference final only 4 days later, I didn’t care as long as it didn’t go to extra time, and 1-0 down late I prayed we wouldn’t equalise, which we didn’t.

The promising young goalie in question, Craig King, has actually started 13 matches this season. He has the potential to far surpass our starter, Liam Kelly, and since Kelly is the best Scottish goalie, King’s development is a big deal. King’s only 18 though, and still has a way to catch up.

So, next the big  final against Mainz, for our first European silverware.

A close match, but in the 77^th minute at 0-0, Mainz had a player sent off, and shortly afterwards we took the lead, and a second goal in the 88^th minute secured the Europa Conference.

Celtic won the Europa League, beating Arsenal, which is excellent for the coefficients, and shows that Scottish football is in very good shape; at club level anyway.

For the 2^nd or maybe 3^rd time, we’ve had to cancel a stadium expansion because the council won’t allow it. There’s a bug where the board agree to a new stadium, and then don’t follow through, but maybe that’s because they have agreed to an expansion at the same time.

Top Goalscorer – Kevin Nisbet – 36

Kevin has been my starting lone striker since I started, but at the start of this season I dropped him and put an attacking forward in his place, because his productivity had been declining over the last few seasons. However, he managed to regain his place and had a good season. He’s 30 now, and I certainly will replace him if a better option becomes available. My latest top regen is a striker, although it will take him a few years to be ready to start.

 

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Kyle Magennis – 7.57

All records this season are inflated by the fact that we were in the Europa Conference but my MVP for 4 of the last 5 seasons does post good ratings. My 2 best players according to my coaches play in his position (attacking midfield), but are they really better than him?

Man of The Match – Kevin Nisbet / Kyle Magennis – 11

 

Most Valuable Player– Josh Doig

I went back and forth on this a lot. There were 7 candidates, but honestly, apart from me, who cares about this award. Doig has been our left back starter throughout the challenge. He rarely even makes it into the national squad, because we’re incredibly blessed at the position but at the moment he’s by far our best option at the position at Hibs.

 

Wonderkid / Youth Watch

We have our first wonderkid (as in top 50 wonderkids news item). Conor Mulligan who I bought at he start of the season for a bargain £2 million. He’s my backup left winger, although I don’t tell him he’s the backup.

Honestly our regens are a bit of a disappointment, but out top notch facilities aren’t going to necessarily produce great players straight away. There’s also the problem that our regens aren’t necessarily going to be Scottish, and indeed our 2025a and 2027b are not, despite both being 5 star potential, (initially at least). For the moment it doesn’t matter as we still have a legacy foreigner, Jake Doyle-Hayes, starting, but now that we are league contenders, I need to consider selling him and not using my 25a as a sub, so that any league (or who knows Champions League) win counts towards the challenge.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
25/26		4th		Kyle Magennis						League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League
26/27		2nd		Josh Doig						Europa Conference Winners
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Lost in Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26		17th		10th				8th			Qualified for World Cup
26/27		20th		6th				9th			Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 

 

[vikeologist]

2028 Euros Qualifying Report

I am a bit shocked going into our 2 final matches of the season that we’ve gone 9 matches without a win.

It’s not as bad as it sounds.  Losing 1-0 to France in the World Cup. 6 tough Nations league matches where we stayed up and then our opening 2 matches of Euro Qualifying against Italy and Bulgaria.

I was disappointed to not be the top seeds for qualifying. We must have just missed out, and losing to France and a draw against Bulgaria were not great results, but no need to panic yet.

However, those final 2 matches were against Estonia. If we didn’t win them both, then it will indeed be time to panic.

 

Well, we did win twice against Estonia, but Bulgaria are a danger to our finishing 2^nd in the group.

It’s going to be a battle for a while to stay in the top 20, keep qualifying for finals, and for me to stay in my job.

[vikeologist]

Incidentally, I don't know what the culture of 'FM Stories' is, but anybody is welcome to offer me advice, or generally discuss my approach to this challenge / save.

I don't know that I have any real problems to contend with, other than the fact that I avoid problems by micro-managing everything and thus make such slow progress.

My one problem might be what to do with my foreign starter. (I have foreign kids, but I could quite easily avoid using them).

I haven't tried to sell him (Jake Doyle-Hayes), because it might annoy him, and there simply aren't any better Scottish replacements willing to join us, for any money. I do have a player I rotate him with and I could move an attacking midfielder to his position; defensive midfield, but I think I might as well just wait until I win the league for the first (and hopefully not final) time, and then move him on. However, winning the league next season is a real possibility.

UPDATE: I'd no sooner written that than I get the following message;

We're in the Champions League, you numpty. We actually qualified for the Europa League 3 times this season; league, Scottish Cup and winning the Europa Conference. We literally could not have qualified for it any more than we did.

My best central defender has the same issue, and neither of them will back down. They both want to leave.

God, the bugs in this game are exhausting. I can't move anyone to my U21 side, including signing coaches. The board agrees to a new stadium and then it doesn't appear. And now this.

And another bug! We should be straight through to the Champions League group stage, but the game / Scottish season report says we're starting in the 3rd Qualifying Round.

Edited January 27, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2027/8 Hibernian Bug Surmounting Champions League Qualifying and Transfer Report

We should be starting the Champions League at the group stage, but thanks to the bug discussed above, we have to go through 2 qualifying rounds, and 4 unwelcome matches, to get our just deserts.

First some transfer news.

We’ve signed Charlie McArthur for the second time. We initially bought him in 2023 for 325k. We sold him the next season to Man Utd for £14 million, and now a couple of years later we’ve bought him back for just £1.8 million. Yes, he’s on a very high wage, but it’s good to have him back. He didn’t make a single appearance for Man Utd, and his career stagnated. He’ll be starting most matches, but subject to rotation. Hopefully he can realise the potential that Man Utd paid so much for.

I have also signed a couple of promising 18 year olds; left back Shaun Lindsay, who unfortunately has had to become the starter for the first couple of months due to my starter getting injured, (but great for his development), and striker Ian Mantecon, who at £5.5 million was expensive, and is only our 3^rd string striker, though I will probably start putting him on the sub’s bench soon.

Anyway; Champions League

3^rd Qualifying Round – Spartak Moscow

We drew away 2-2, and nearly lost, but won our home leg 5-1 to go comfortably through.

4^th Qualifying Round – PSV Eindhoven

We were 2-0 down in the away leg, but ended up winning 3-2, and then, as in the last round, crushed it at home 3-0 to safely navigate our way to the group stage place that is rightfully ours.

If we’d been robbed of that place by the bug, it would have been very tough to take. You have to take both the fortunes and misfortunes that bugs cause, so I had already decided that I wouldn’t reload if we’d lost, but it’s easy to say that beforehand. Cheating would have ruined the save for me, but so would having been cheated out of something so big. It’s not the competition itself. It’s the money. Last season when we won the Euro Conference, our prize money was still way down.

Getting to the group stage doesn't make everything alright. We've had to play 4 extra matches, and Dundee Utd, who finished 6th last season, were robbed on continental football, and Scotland was robbed of the money that would have come into the league, but it's only for one season. (I ran a test).

The last 3 seasons, the same 5 clubs (Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen) have secured the 5 Euro spots, so it's in danger of becoming the haves and have nots, (including financially),but we should be able to hold on to our 6th place in the coefficients, which will mean a 6th team in Europe.

Edited January 29, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

I mean, I'm willing to hazard a guess where we'll finish in this group.

That said, Inter are the team we should hold out hope of getting something against.

Last year, all the finalists for World Player of the Year came from Real Madrid and Man City.

[vikeologist]

2028 Euros Qualifying Report

Given our ranking, I was disappointed to be a 2^nd seed and get such a tough group.

When we lost to Italy and only just managed to snatch a draw against Bulgaria in our first 2 matches, I was concerned.

However we won our remaining 6 matches (including finally a win against Italy, which was tough, even though they had a player sent off).

We only finished 2^nd in the group, but that was enough to top the second place table and qualify comfortably.

Despite bring some new players into the squad, the first eleven hasn’t changed much at all during my more than 6 years in charge. Eventually some new players are going to have to supplant my old faithfuls. In fact we might have mass retirements after the Euros next summer.

[vikeologist]

On 29/01/2022 at 12:11, vikeologist said:

I mean, I'm willing to hazard a guess where we'll finish in this group.

 

I was wrong. We didn't finish 3rd.

So our first time through to the the CL Knockout rounds. It's going to be a brief visit this time as Man City, pretty much the best side in the world apart from Real Madrid, are currently half-way through comprehensively kicking our butts, but it will be helpful to be able to concentrate on the league anyway. We're not going to win the league, Celtic are running away with it, but we're in a battle for the 2nd Champions League place, which we have to win.

A few other updates that will probably only be of interest to me.

One player in, one player out.

We’re finally saying goodbye (in the summer) to my remaining legacy foreigner Jake Doyle-Hayes. According to my rules for the challenge, winning the league or Champions League doesn’t count towards the challenge if I use any foreigners. Jake has been wonderful, but he’s 29, he wanted to leave and £8.5 million was pretty much the best I’d ever get for him.

We finished runners up in the league last year, and did OK in the Champions League. It’s time to make this team Scots only.

It’s not that simple, because I still have foreigners come through in my youth intake, and since up to now the good ones have been British, they’re never going to become Scottish.

The other foreigner I’ve been using is my top guy from a few intakes ago, Sean Brennan 25a, who is Northern Irish. He’s not good enough to be a starter, unless I have a lot of injuries and suspensions, but I’ll have to either sell him or loan him out at the end of the season when Doyle-Hayes leaves.

My 27b is also very promising.

I hopefully have a replacement for Doyle-Hayes signing in the summer; 22 year old Brandon Hunter is Scotland’s best central midfielder. The trouble is I don’t use central midfielders in my formation. Hunter has been a part of my national squad for a while, and I bring him on in place of attacking or defensive midfielders depending on the score. His performances in central midfield haven’t been anything special.

Anyway his contract was up, and I managed to persuade him to sign for us.  I will try to turn him into a defensive midfielder to replace Doyle-Hayes, which hopefully will pay dividends for the national team as well.

Edited February 2, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Now that's a last minute comeback; and needed.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2027/8 Season Report

An awful end to the season saw us only finish 3^rd. In theory that should be enough to still qualify for the Champions League. 

So, who knows what competition I’ll be playing in next season. It would have been nice to finish 2^nd so I could have some assurance.

We should have finished 2^nd, but our results in the final 5 Championship group matches didn’t reflect what we deserved.

All the Scottish sides are improving along with us. It’s trickier for us to improve though as the pool of Scottish players leaves us with very few options to improve the side.

To finish the season, we were in our 8^th consecutive Scottish Cup final. (I’m only responsible for the last 7). This time we won. It doesn’t mean much, but I suppose it’s nice.

Scotland solidified its 6^th place in the club coefficients, but next season will be key.

We have 9 players in the 30 man Euro squad, which of course I pick, though some of them will miss the cut. It is possible that some of them will need to replace my aging starters after the Euros.

Top Goalscorer – Kevin Nisbet – 27

A reasonably solid season from Nisbet, given he was injured for a month, but his lack of goals at the end of the season was a big part of only finishing 3^rd.

31 now, but none of my promising strikers, including the guy I spent £5.5 million on at the start of the season, are ready to replace him. He’s not my best striker. That would be an attacking midfielder, Chris Mochrie, who had a very mediocre season as an attacking midfielder. Relacing Nisbet with him next season is an option, but would leave me short of AMs.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Luke McCormick – 7.46

Attacking midfielder.

Man of The Match – Luke McCormick - 9

 

Most Valuable Player– Luke McCormick

Why not?

Wonderkid / Youth Watch

Well, I’ll have to stop playing two of our most promising players in the league and CL from next season because I’m finally going to implement a no foreigners policy.

However, we do have a lot of promising youngsters.

Conor Mulligan, my backup left winger was something like 3^rd in the last top 50 wonderkids list. He may well become the starter next season.

I have a lot of other promising kids. I just need to take the plunge and risk giving them more matches.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
25/26		4th		Kyle Magennis						League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League
26/27		2nd		Josh Doig						Europa Conference Winners
27/28		3rd		Chris Mochrie						Scottish Cup winners
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Lost in Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26		17th		10th				8th			Qualified for World Cup
26/27		20th		6th				9th			Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 
27/28		18th		6th				7th			Qualified for Euros.

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

2028 Euros Report

This really, really must be the last tournament for this generation of Scottish footballers.

Actually only 9 of the 23 man squad are 30 or over, so the switch to younger players must have started, even though it feels as though I’ve been starting the same players for all 7 years of this challenge.

I’ve looked at my best XI for 2021, and 8 of the starters are in this squad. (7 of them are still starters).

There’s a good chance that a lot of my Hibs players will become starters in the next few years, with 6 of my players in the squad for this tourney, and another 3 cut from the initial 30.

Anyway, my 4^th finals, and we’ve met expectations, nothing more, nothing less in the previous 3. It would be nice to pick up at least one big scalp this time around.

We have a reasonably easy group. Let’s be honest, as easy as it was possible to get at this stage, but Poland are ranked slightly above us.

Group Stage

Spoiler

 

 

Scotland          1-0       Israel

Scotland          0-0       Serbia

Scotland          0-2       Poland

We were really poor in every match. We qualified as a 3^rd place team, but this is not going well.

Next up is Italy who we’ve played so many time the last few years. Good news, we beat them last time. Bad news, they had a man sent off and we still only just managed to win.

Honestly, despite the coach ratings and the past, I’d be crazy to play the same team against Italy.

2^nd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

Scotland          4-3       Italy

No sending offs this time, but it was crazy match.

We were 2-0 up within 6 minutes.

4 minutes later it was 2-2.

It was mostly the same starters as the group stage, but I switched them around to make us defensively stronger on the wings.

I haven’t even bothered to look to see who else I in our half of the draw, so who’s next?

Oh, fantastic! Spain, but if we get past them we’ll avoid all the big tams in the semi-final.

We played Spain the quarterfinals 4 years ago. It did not go well.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Scotland          1-2       Spain

We had chances to win and it was a close game.

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

3^rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

After The Tournament

Spoiler

The group stage demonstrated the overhaul needed in this squad. This was the end of the great group of players I inherited. The future is largely going to be the group I’ve been trying to develop at Hibs.

Next up the Nations League with Belgium, Portugal and Ukraine; the last of which are the team we’d hope would be relegated instead of us.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
25/26		4th		Kyle Magennis						League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League
26/27		2nd		Josh Doig						Europa Conference Winners
27/28		3rd		Chris Mochrie						Scottish Cup winners
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Reached Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26		17th		10th				8th			Qualified for World Cup
26/27		20th		6th				9th			Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 
27/28		18th		6th				7th			Qualified for Euros. Reached Euros Q/F
28/29		16th	

 

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2028/9 Midseason Splashing Out Report

In the midseason break I’ve made 2 signings, both players who are in the national squad. Honestly, both signings took into account Hibs and the national team.

The big one, and a Scottish national record, is striker Ethan Wilson for £24 million.

He’s a wonderkid with Model Citizen personality. The personality is all the more relevant because my previous backup striker is Mark Hamilton 27a who has a slack personality. To put that in context, it means that Hamilton has been with the club for almost 2 years, with fantastic mentors and I’d suspect a professional squad personality behind the very determined one, and his professionalism must still be only 1.

Wilson was wasting away in Man Utd’s reserves. With his personality he should develop quickly. I certainly hope so, because his wonderkid tag really only says how good he is now, not his potential, but whatever his potential is, he should reach it now. He won’t be our immediate starter. 31 year old Kevin Nisbet is having his most productive season for a while, but I will definitely put Wilson in against the weaker sides.

The other big signing was Jamie Finlayson. He’s one of the two most promising Scottish left wingers. The problem is that we already have the other one, so it will be a challenge to get him enough matches, but at £1.5 million, even with a fairly big wage, it was a bargain and opportunity I couldn’t turn down. The left wing is a problem with the national team. Finlayson hasn’t really played well at international level. Maybe that’s because he can’t fit into my tactics, but at least now I’ll be training him to do that.

We’re top of the league table, 18 points clear of 3^rd placed Hearts, but only 3 ahead of Celtic. We reached the CL group stage again, and topped it, but now have a tough tie against Porto.

This is both the good news and the bad news. The aim of the challenge was to improve Scottish football as a whole, but now Celtic are one of the best sides in Europe, (as hopefully are we).

We have a lot of money, but the board won’t spend it on a new stadium. Our capacity is 20,421and the local council always turns down planning permission for an extension. The board are generally miserly in all areas. I’d be glad to see a takeover, frankly.

Also, my two new signings have used up a lot of our money. Wilson is on twice the salary as the next best paid player.

However, both signings are worth a lot more than what we paid for them.

Still, top of the table and still in the Champions League, there’s still an outside chance of achieving both our club objectives this season, and I haven’t played any non-Scottish players.

 

 

[vikeologist]

Really annoyingly, my new Model Citizen signing's personality has changed. I didn't have anybody welcome him. He's in charge of his own mentoring group where none of the others can affect him.

But the squad personality has reduced his pressure attribute by 1, which demotes him from Model Citizen to just Professional. Given how much more highly the first personality is valued compared to the other, it's crazy that such a small thing can cause such a big difference. (His ambition has also fallen by 1).

[vikeologist]

Frustratingly our new signings are really not turning out well so far.

I basically tossed everything I had at a young promising Model Citizen striker called Ethan Wilson. Our current striker, Kevin Nisbet, has scored a fair few goals over the first seven and a bit seasons of the challenge, but honestly, every striker I've played there in my system has done ok. 

Every striker except Wilson. He has scored the occasional goal, and it's early days and still a relatively small sample size, but it's just not happening. 2 goals in 644 minutes, and a lot of that against teams that we should have been scoring a lot against.

I knew he was a different type of player to Nisbet. Shorter and not going to take the penalties, but a bit faster, technically superior and of course the wonderful personality, which as discussed in my last post became ostensibly much less wonderful almost straight away.

Wilson is reckoned by all my coaches and scouts (both club and national) to actually be better than Nisbet now. That was the whole idea; to replace Nisbet.

Then there's my new left winger Jamie Finlayson. He'd previously had the odd appearance for the national team where he hadn't done well. I figured one of three things would happen. 

a) his apparent bad performances for the national team would turn out to be too small a sample size, and he'd play well for me.

b) his bad performances were due to not being familiar with the tactics, and once accustomed to them, he'd do well.

c) He'd just continue to screw the pooch.

I expect you can guess what's happened so far.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2028/9 Hibernian Champions League  Report

These CL reports used to be about the crazy dream of just reaching the Group stage. From now on they're going to be about the crazy dream of actually winning the thing.

Having finished 3rd last season, we did still need to beat a couple of teams to reach the group stage again, including PSV. However we succeeded.

 

Group Stage 

Spoiler

Topped our group so into the knockout rounds for the second year in a row.

1^st Knockout Round (If applicable)

Spoiler

FC Porto         2-5                   Hibs

Hibs                 2-0                   FC Porto

Convincing win against a side that reached the semi-final last year.

 

Quarterfinal (if applicable)

Spoiler

Hibs                 2-1                   PSG

PSG                1-2                   Hibs

Even better pair of results against last year’s finalists.

 

Semi-final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Hibs                 1-3                   Chelsea

We were 1-0 up when we had a player issued a straight red. After that was damage limitation, even more so when we had a second player issued a straight red. We reduced Chelsea to 10 men with what the ref believed was a fair challenge, but conceded a third deep in injury time. There was about 10 minutes of injury time, but then again, we did seem to be intent on causing a lot of injuries.

Really frustrating to lose our heads at this stage.

Chelsea           3-2                   Hibs

We scored 2 late goals against the run of play to take it to extra time, where Chelsea punished our insolence with 3 of their own, plus the obligatory sending off for us. (Our 41 yellow cards and 6 sendings off are a competition record).

The last thing we needed at this stage of the season was extra time 3 days before we face Celtic, but for a moment at the end of 90 minutes I dared to dream.

Who knows what might have come to pass without those 2 straight reds in the first leg.

 

Final (if applicable)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

T

That's not a message you want to get regarding your out on-loan striker.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2028/9 Season Report - Part I - Domestic Competitions

We were battling Celtic for the league title throughout the season.

It might not look like that as we lost our 4 last league matches, but the least 2 were outings for mostly youth players.

Celtic and us are both good sides. Celtic reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

It is frustrating not to be able to win the league, but with the top 2 teams going straight into the CL group stage, it’s not make or break. I have to be confident that we will win it at some point.

When we reached the CL semi-final, I did wonder whether we might win the CL before the league, which would be unusual for these types of challenges. We’re not far away from success in either the league or CL.

The season finished with our 9^th (and my 8^th) successive Scottish Cup final. I pretty much only play my reserves most of the way through this competition now.

We played Dunfermline, who’d finished 8^th in the league, in the final, but I wanted to ensure we won, because I’d rather have 6^th placed Aberdeen in Europe next season, because they’re more likely to progress.

It was pretty close. Old boy Scott Wright who played 80 matches for us (but who I barely remember) fired in a free kick to put us 1-0 down at the break, but we made our dominance show to win 3-1 and lift my 5^th Scottish Cup.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
25/26		4th		Kyle Magennis						League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League
26/27		2nd		Josh Doig						Europa Conference Winners
27/28		3rd		Chris Mochrie						Scottish Cup winners
28/29		2nd		Chris Mochrie						Scottish Cup winners (again) and CL S/F
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Reached Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26		17th		10th				8th			Qualified for World Cup
26/27		20th		6th				9th			Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 
27/28		18th		6th				7th			Qualified for Euros. Reached Euros Q/F
28/29		16th		6th								
							

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2028/9 Season Report - Part II - Coefficients and other geeky stuff

Sorry, Dunfermline, but coefficients are vital. Germany pipped us by the narrowest of margins this year to stay in 5^th because of the number of their teams making it to the latter stages of the Europa Conference. We should have no problem becoming a top 5 nation in a year’s time, which will make a big difference to where our lesser teams start in European competitions. We even have half an eye on France in 4^th which would give us 4 teams in the Champions League group stage. It’s doable, and would obviously be a gamechanger.

Next season Germany and France will have to do well to maintain their coefficient from 5 seasons ago. Scottish teams will probably pick up our 6.6just for turning up to the group stages.

But obviously getting into the top 5 will be one thing. Staying there will be quite another.

Facilities

All Scottish clubs, including ours, saw our Training Facilities downgraded last season, and we seem to be the only club that's upgraded back straight away, despite all the money coming into the nation. Hearts have improved their Youth Recruitment, but that seems to be it for all the other clubs. Really frustrating.

My board won't agree to a new stadium (despite having a capacity of only 20,421, and the council have turned down expansion so many times. Hopefully the bug will be fixed in the big update.

There's a figure in the editor for maximum attendance which went up for a while, but seems to be plateaued now.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2028/9 Season Report - Part III - Squad 

Top Goalscorer – Kevin Nisbet – 28

Nisbet has been my lone starting striker for all 8 seasons, but I will be making a change next season.

I spent £24million on his replacement, so I better be able to make that change, and despite a really unproductive start, as moaned about above, Ethan Wilson did start scoring at the end of the season.

It was a good final season from Nisbet though. I mean, he’ll still be at the club. He has 2 seasons left on his contract, but if someone comes in with an offer for him, I’ll let him go. He’s 32 now.

There’s a possibility that my reserve striker will become Mark Hamilton 27a. He has loads of potential, but a slack personality, which means that his professionalism must still be just 1. I’ve stopped criticising his training performances in case annoying him that way is what is preventing mentoring and squad personality improve this attribute, but really it’s a lost cause. If his professionalism jumps to 2, it won’t really solve the problem.

I need for Hamilton to play in tough matches so he performs badly so I can fine him so his determination and work rate (the latter of which is quite good actually) to increase.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Chris Mochrie – 7.36

Attacking midfielder who’s pretty much a starter for the national team now.

Man of The Match – Chris Mochrie - 9

 

Most Valuable Player– Chris Mochrie

According to my coaches, my best player is Brandon Hunter. Hunter is a fantastic central midfielder that I’d had in the national team squad for a year or two, because he’s too good not to be there. Unfortunately, I don’t use central midfielders in my tactics. So I bought him te for Hibs on a free transfer, and have made him into a defensive midfielder. Honestly his ratings for the season aren’t great, but it’s taken him the whole season to adjust. He’s the starter in that position for the national team now, and has done well.

Hunter has a £16.5 million release clause, and a few English teams have bid close to that, so it’s possible he may leave at some point.

Wonderkid / Youth Watch

We have the top wonderkid in the world according to the last top 50 wonderkids report, Conor Mulligan who has been our starting left winger for most of the season, (although he is now in a battle with the disappointing at first signing, Jamie Finlayson who is maybe slightly better atm.

Ethan Wilson, my striker I discussed above is also an ex top 50 wonderkid.

It would be nice to generate a wonderkid from our own academy, although I do realise the wonderkid tag is based on current not potential ability.

Two of our most promising players are our own graduates.

Todd Kay 29a, our most recent top prospect is a goalie. I’m not sure we have the coaches or spare match opportunities to develop him.

Solomon Zenke 27b is English, so I’m in the process of selling him, admittedly for quite a tidy sum.

Then there’s Mark ‘Slack’ Hamilton 27a who probably won’t develop.

[vikeologist]

2028/9 Scotland National Team Report

We comfortably stayed in the Nations League top division.

We actually went into our last 2 matches against Belgium and Portugal with a chance to top the group, but a loss to Belgium ended our chances, so I rested all my Hibs players for the Portugal match which brough an even heavier loss.

We were seeded top for our World Cup qualifying group, but it’s been tough sledding so far. Greece beat us and are proving to be quite the team. We should still be ok, but there’s always a danger of not qualifying and being sacked.

I currently have 10 Hibs players in the squad, which is prompting media messages prompting me of bias but as you can see quite a few of our best players are at Hibs, and most of the ones who aren’t are long in the tooth.

[Johnny-Trotter]

On 21/02/2022 at 19:19, vikeologist said:

 

My board won't agree to a new stadium (despite having a capacity of only 20,421, and the council have turned down expansion so many times. Hopefully the bug will be fixed in the big update.

There's a figure in the editor for maximum attendance which went up for a while, but seems to be plateaued now.

I remember taking the capacity of Easter Road to 25,00, which i believe is the max possible. It won't go more above that - if you take a look at maps online, you'll see how they are quite restricted by the surrounding streets of Leith. 

I think I did once get a new stadium built with Hibs, but it took about 20 seasons for the board to finally agree.

[vikeologist]

1 hour ago, Johnny-Trotter said:

I remember taking the capacity of Easter Road to 25,00, which i believe is the max possible. It won't go more above that - if you take a look at maps online, you'll see how they are quite restricted by the surrounding streets of Leith. 

I think I did once get a new stadium built with Hibs, but it took about 20 seasons for the board to finally agree.

Thanks for your post.

The update is out today, and apparently this has been fixed. Unfortunately I'm at the start of the season, and it will be the end of the season before the council decide again, (and I micromanage a lot,plus manage the international team meaning it's something like 70 competitive matches a year) so it will take a while.

Up to now no extension to the ground at all has been agreed.

Of course, the 'fix' doesn't and shouldn't necessarily mean that councils will agree o extensions, and Hibs may well be an example of where they shouldn't, but the problem was that the board wouldn't agree to a new stadium while there was room for expansion to Easter Rd.

The maximum attendance figure did eventually go up though. It's clearly done by big leaps rather than incrementally.

Similarly our rivalry with Celtic was quite a low attribute, (I looked in the IGE) and suddenly leaped up, which was good because Celtic are our rivals far more so in the game than Rangers. 

Edited February 24, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Do I sell, or keep trying?

This is the promising striker with the Slack (i.e. professionalism = 1) personality. 

I did get a decent offer for him recently.

[Johnny-Trotter]

Sell! Slack would tell me that he is probably not going to develop and improve much, so take the best offer you can get

[vikeologist]

2 hours ago, Johnny-Trotter said:

Sell! Slack would tell me that he is probably not going to develop and improve much, so take the best offer you can get

I just want to get his professionalism to 2, but yes, I've been trying to sell him. It's amazing that mentoring and squad personality don't even move the needle a little bit on professionalism. Quite sobering actually.

[vikeologist]

2030 World Cup Scotland Qualifying Report

The campaign started badly, and was in real danger of ending badly too.

It was a 3 way race, with only two going through, and we made it in 2^nd place on goal difference. Not good considering that we were seeded first and by far the highest ranked team.

On a more positive note, Che Adams, who has been my starting striker for the national team for the entire save, picked up his 100^th cap in the final match. He has 88 goals. If it wasn’t for his lack of caps before the start of the save, (he was capped for the first time at 24, I think) he’d have more.

My Hibs striker, Ethan Wilson is considered to be as good as 33 year old Adams, but it’s in Che I trust.

21 year old Wilson will take over soon though, as has from my long time Hibs starter.

Adams isn't my most capped player by the way. Andrew Robertson, turning 36 later this season, is on 136 caps, and still pretty much the best Scottish footballer. I'd sign him for Hibs if I could afford his wages. There's a  good chance I'll try next summer if he doesn't retire.

Hibs
Season		Position	MVP							Notes										
21/22		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish / League Cup double.
22/23		3rd		Kevin Nisbet						No trophies, but massive progression.
23/24		4th		Kyle Magennis						Scottish Cup Winners
24/25		2nd		Kyle Magennis						Another domestic cup double and first CL qualification.
25/26		4th		Kyle Magennis						League Cup and reached the group stage of the Champions League
26/27		2nd		Josh Doig						Europa Conference Winners
27/28		3rd		Chris Mochrie						Scottish Cup winners
28/29		2nd		Chris Mochrie						Scottish Cup winners (again) and CL S/F
			
Scotland
Season		World Ranking	Next Year's Euro Coefficient	Prem League Ranking
21/22		41st		10th				11th			Qualified for the World Cup
22/23		18th		8th							Promoted from Euro League Div B after winning all 6 matches. World Cup R2
23/24		19th		8th				9th			Topped Euro Championship Qualifiying. Reached Euros Q/F
24/25		16th		8th				8th			2nd in Euro League group.
25/26		17th		10th				8th			Qualified for World Cup
26/27		20th		6th				9th			Eliminnated in WC R2. Stayed in NL Dision A. 
27/28		18th		6th				7th			Qualified for Euros. Reached Euros Q/F
28/29		16th		6th				7th			3rd in Nations League group
29/30		18th									Qualified for World Cup (on goal difference, in 2nd place).	

 

[vikeologist]

A few random updates and observations.

First can I say that those horse's asses Celtic managed to finish bottom of their Champions League group, not even dropping into the Europa League. Bad because it affects Scotland’s coefficients, but also it means that they can target their full resources into retaining the league. We currently have a small lead over Celtic and a surprisingly resurgent Rangers at nearly the halfway point of the season, but our team is showing signs of tiredness. I don’t like to keep a huge squad at the club without being able to give the backups matches.

About to have the draw for the World Cup. We’re seeded in the top pot.

El Salvador and Iran. Hopefully we won’t have any problems with them.

The thing about only signing Scottish players is that one’s options for transfers are very limited.

In other national saves, people speak about the types of players that they try to sign, their preferences for type of player, personality etc.

I have 2 criteria. Is he good? Will he sign? It doesn’t matter if he plays in completely the wrong position, is the wrong build or we already have loads of good players in that position. I have money and just need to find someone to spend it on.

Look at my current top options based on current ability.

Andrew Robertson is 35 and currently on 165k a week.

Sorenson isn’t Scottish, as in committed to national team or born in Scotland.

Che Adams would cost a fortune, and wouldn’t be my starter.

All the other top options apart from John McGinn aren’t Scottish, and McGinn at 33 is another who would demand a fortune in wages and probably not play much.

If we group by potential.

McKay will cost between 29 and 49 million, which is honestly more than he’s worth. He’d compete for a starting spot at right back with one other player. I am tempted, but even 29 would be a massive overpayment.

Keith Miller would be slightly cheaper, butt my scouts seem really unsure about him.

The fact is that I have promising players in that position. In fact I spent £7 million on a player last summer and allowed Motherwell to take him back on loan for the whole season in the hope he’d develop.

So basically I have £76 million in the bank and a £45 million transfer kitty, and it doesn’t make any sense to spend any of it. I already have the best Scottish players in 6 of the 11 starting positions.

I know, first world problems.

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2029/30 Hibernian Champions League  Report

Group Stage

 

Qualified ok, but could only manage 2^nd place. Opened the risk of a tough draw in the next round, and hey presto, it's Barcelona

1^st Knockout Round (If applicable)

Spoiler

Hibs                             0-2       Barcelona

Barcelona                    2-1       Hibs

Barcelona haven’t actually ben very successful in recent years. Real Madrid are very much the Kings of Spain, if not the globe.

Unfortunately, it seems that Barca are good this season. With Celtic finishing bottom of the group stages, we are now depending on the other Scottish sides to do well in the other competitions to salvage our coefficients.

 

Quarterfinal (if applicable)

 

Spoiler

 

Semi-final (if applicable)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Final (if applicable)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

With just the final 5 Championship Group matches to go, we're engaged in a horrible 3-way battle for the title.

Celtic have won the last 6 titles, but they're now 5 points off the pace thanks to an Old Firm defeat immediately before the break.

Everything can, and does, change in these final 5 matches though, where everyone plays each other.

We are not playing well, and honestly, if you offered me 2nd place right now, and a berth straight through to the Champions League group stage, I'd take it. Even if we finish 3rd, we'll still be in the CL prelims, but they're always a lottery albeit one we've always managed to succeed in previously.

[vikeologist]

Oh, come on! That's not fair!

We've never met Holland before, who as you can see have been in decline, both internationally and domestically. They're now 10th in the Euro club coefficients.

But you know what hasn't changed. Their DYR. It has stayed exactly where it was at the start of the save. Admittedly we haven't had a year rollover since the big update, so it will be interesting to see what happens to their's (and everybody's) DYRs this Summer.

[vikeologist]

We won the first 3 matches of the Championship group, and with 2 matches to go we were top of the table ahead of Rangers on goal difference, (who we’d just beaten in a match we dominated and where they had a player sent off, but we still only managed to win 1-0). Celtic completely out of it.

Rangers still had to be the favourites though, as they have easier remaining matches, and we’re piling up injuries in defence.

(In the midst of this I have to decide my World Cup squad. I have other things on my mind at the moment!

15 Hibs players in the prelim 30 man squad though. Not surprising really, though not all of them will make it to the final 23).

Penultimate match

Spoiler

Celtic   0-2       Hibs

It’s on! We win the more difficult of our last 2 matches. Again dominated in a way that the score line didn’t reflect. Even better, Rangers only drew against Aberdeen. We only need a draw in our last match against Hearts to be champions.

Final match

Spoiler

Hibs     1-2       Hearts

Heart-breaking. Rangers won their easy match. We had an equaliser ruled out in extra time for the narrowest of offsides.

I know in the wider scheme of things it doesn’t matter. We will win the league at some point, probably next season, but to lose it like this is tough.

 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2029/30 Season Report - Part I - Squad 

Top Goalscorer – Ethan Wilson – 42

I made changes at 3 positions this season.

My goalkeeper and left back are being phased out for younger players with more potential.

However as discussed a season ago, I made the change at my lone striker position at the start of the season.

In the national team, Wilson is basically neck and neck with national goal scoring legend Che Adams, but Wilson’s missed opportunities in the final match of the season are still painfully fresh in my mind.

As far as the Hibs team, Wilson has the spot all to himself.

A backup striker is a bit of a need for us. 33 year old Kevin Nisbet, who was our starting striker before this season is leaving the club in the summer. I sold my Slack striker Mark Hamilton to Man Utd, where he almost instantly changed his personality to Casual indicating that they’d achieved what I failed to in 3 years and moved his professionalism attribute from 1 to 2.

Hamilton seemingly has the potential to be a world class striker. It’s really annoying.

We had an on loan striker for the season, who’s committed to England, but was born in Scotland, making him eligible for me to use according to my rules. He’s not going to join us though, unless I promise him first team football, but the only way anybody’s getting any first team football for the next 10 years probably is if Ethan Wilson is injured or resting.

I really do need to find a backup, but if I sign a promising youngster, he won’t get the opportunities.

I do have some fairly promising strikers in my youth team, but what I really need is to find a veteran who’ll be happy on the sub’s bench, because there’s a huge gap between Wilson and everyone else for next season. There isn’t anyone though. Just a few past it players who’d expect to be starting and would demand a huge salary.

Technically Wilson isn’t our best striker. That’s Chris Mochrie, who’s our best pretty much everything.

 

 

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Chris Mochrie – 7.63

Speak of the devil. Our best player, (since we lost Brendan Hunter for his unfortunate 16.5 million release clause at the start of the season). One of the best Scottish players full stop.

Unfortunately Mochrie has a £23 million release clause for foreign clubs, which would be a bargain for them, and won’t sign a new contract before the World Cup. Should have taken care of that before.

Man of The Match – Ethan Wilson / Luke McCormack – 6

Bit of a surprise here. McCormack is Mochrie’s shadow striker partner and was injured for much of the season.

 

Most Valuable Player– Chris Mochrie

Not even close

Wonderkid / Youth Watch

We had 2 players in the top 50 wonderkids list.

One was right winger Michael Gray, who was out on loan for the whole season. This was really frustrating because the backup right winger I kept at the club, Stefan McInnes, went severely backwards. At the start of the season Steffan was close to becoming the starter for the national team, but his ability just collapsed. I could really have done with Gray at the club.

For the first time we had one of our own products in the 50 wonderkids list, but Marc Turnbull 28a hardly plays. He’s an attacking midfielder, and his league appearances were limited to one start and 3 appearances from the bench.

Both Gray and Turnbull will feature more next season.

We had a couple of very promising players come through in the youth intake this season, but it will be a season or two before they’re ready for the first team. One of them is an attacking midfielder, so even though it will be gutting if Mochrie leaves, I won’t really need to buy anybody.

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Coefficients and general Scottish league Report

We will go from 6^th to 5th in the coefficients,but we had a shot at the 4^th spot, which would have meant having 4 teams straight into the Champions League group stage.

Unfortunately we lost ground to France for 4^th, but we might be able to hold on to 5^th going forward against Germany. 5^th spot will really only mean the lesser teams (4^th and 5^th) both being in the Europa League and the 6^th team going straight to the Europa Conference group stage.

Obviously though, it is important that all 6 teams develop. The top 6 teams (and thus European qualifiers) have been the same for the last 2 seasons, and honestly it would be better if the 6^th team was Dundee Utd rather than St Johnstone.

(The top 5 are Celtic, Rangers, us, Hearts and Aberdeen).

Oh actually Kilmarnock are in the Scottish Cup final, so if they beat Celtic, they’ll be in Europe instead.

I felt bad for Dunfermline who lost in the cup final to us a year ago, thus depriving them on continental footie. I have a soft spot for them because a lot of my ancestors were born there, and also they’ve signed a lot of spare Hibs players. Maybe they shouldn’t have done that because they finished rock bottom and were relegated this season.

I wish that the other Scottish clubs would spend more on improving their facilities.

Celtic, Rangers and ourselves are all spending more money on salaries. Hopefully Rangers can develop their facilities now.

The fix suggested by the update has worked, and the council have finally agreed to an expansion of Easter Rd.

Every previous time the council have blocked it. It will increase the capacity by nearly 5,000, and we should have no problem selling that out every match.

We have over £53 million in the bank, (even after paying for the expansion) so a new stadium wouldn’t be a huge problem financially. There’s really not any suitable players to spend that money on.

All of this is really in service to Scotland’s Dynamic Youth rating, which is another thing that I’m waiting to see if it really has been fixed in the update.

Scotland’s DYR is currently 85 it was 83 at the start of the save). To put that in context, Poland where someone else is slaving away on a national save has a much higher DYR.

Hibs have the best possible facilities, but we’re always going to be limited by that DYR, which I’m pretty sure will never be able to approach the likes of Portugal, Holland and Belgium, all of which leagues and teams are massively inferior to our own now.

Edited March 8, 2022 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Found my backup striker.

Ian Mantecon. Signed him 3 years ago for £5.5 million. Sold him to Arsenal a year ago for £10.25 million, and have just signed him back for £1.8 million, except it's not even that because we had a sell on clause which means that we get back £350k.

Basically at this point we're being paid to have a potentially world class striker on our roster.

He's not the only player like this. Our extremely good right back Charlie McArthur has so far cost us minus £8 million in transfer fees.

Edited March 8, 2022 by vikeologist