[FM22] Islanders Challenge - University College Dublin

[Koetzer]

The rules are quite simple, I'm limiting possible signings to the players:

1)      Representing a nation fully located on islands (England, Japan, Madagascar etc.)

2)      Born on any island of the world (so Cristiano Ronaldo or Pedri would be available too) 

3)      From own youth intake.

I chose U.C.D. as the club has great facilities and a very young squad (the oldest player is only 24). In addition, Irish league has no foreigner restrictions, except a minimal wage of 343 euros per week for non-EU players.

The manager is Aron Snær Þorsteinsson, the legendary striker from my Njarðvík youth academy save who joined the team after first season and scored over 400 goals over his career.

Colm Whelan (ST) | Liam Kerrigan (AMR) | Jack Keaney (DM) | Sam Todd (DC) | Evan Osam (DL)

The squad may change during the first season but these players are certainly going to be our leaders for now.

[Koetzer]

Season 2022 – part 1

Before the start I offloaded several lower potential reserve players to free some wage budget (most of these loaned players won’t return with their contract expiring) and made two signings – Ollie O’Neill (loan from Fulham) to strengthen our midfield and Aaron Barry (free) to add some more experience to the defensive line.

I certainly didn’t expect this form at start, especially looking at our schedule – Dundalk, Derry and Shamrock were predicted to take three top places but we defeated them all! Whelan’s four goals gave him a player of the month award.

A free kick from Keaney gave us not only a win over Shamrock, but the sole lead after 6 games, not bad for the team predicted last with odds of 501 This didn’t last long as Derry City ended our unbeaten run, but we are still confidently second.

Third win over Shamrock, this time on their stadium, while none other team could get even a draw from them! Whelan already scored 20 goals (new club record in April!) and was selected as player of the month third time in a row. The problem is his contract expiring after this season and he doesn’t want to extend it, so that can be his only season for us.

I’m not too concerned about a cup loss as it’s the least important competition for us, and the league form is still excellent.

Shamrock Rovers finally dropped points against another team, and we can tie them with winning the postponed game. However, things are unlikely to go so well in remaining months as I have to sell our two best players with expiring contracts – Whelan (23+8, 7.86 average rating) and Kerrigan (12+6, 7.49), both to Scottish premiership sides. Replacing them would be extremely hard, but I guess getting half a million in the bank with 50% future clauses is better than losing them for free. And anyway I hope that we won’t blow this huge lead over third place.

[Koetzer]

Season 2022 – part 2

Two already announced departures, and for some reason Shamrock wanted to buy our reserve goalkeeper.

Alex Bruce – the best striker I could find to replace Whelan, spent all his career in lower American leagues.

Khalon Haysman – a backup option for Keaney with good potential to grow.

Roshaun Mathurin – released from Spurs youth team as well, going to be Kerrigan’s replacement on the right wing.

Will Fish – former Man Utd player, even played for their senior team once. Obviously will be our first choice center-back.

Renaldo Torraj – born in London and started his career in Tottenham, can cover several positions (mostly going to use him as a central midfielder).

George Walters – former Burnley youngster, going to play for reserves so far.

Aaron Maguire and Jacob Knightbridge – two young goalies, from Tottenham and West Ham respectively.

First matchday after a short break brought a really unexpected result – Shamrock lost to Finn Harps (the team which only had one point in 17 games!) after getting early 2-0 lead. Scoring goals is much harder after departure of two best players, but so far we manage to get results we need.

Not the ideal month, but we had a much better form than Shamrock and now lead the table with six points advantage! Nine games yet remaining to play.

Some important late goals let us keep the top spot and advance in the main cup. Shamrock Rovers are seven points behind, but still have a game in hand and will play the remaining head-to-head fixture at home.

Shamrock finally defeated us, but their previous form was so poor that we already were 9 points ahead and this loss only postponed our title until the next game.  That match against Finn Harps (still bottom of the table) couldn’t be easy, we were 0-2 behind on 16th minute (their left winger scored two direct free kicks, and of course these were his two first goals of the season ) but we equalized and celebrated the title! Couldn’t believe in this after we lost two key players in summer and had a mid-table level squad even after incoming transfers.

The first youth intake was quite good in stars, but poor in personalities and skills distribution so I only signed two of them – Latvian DM Klavins and striker Murtagh.

And we also won the cup! The final was very boring, Behan’s goal was actually the only shot on target from both teams

 

I thought our season would end after the cup final, but there was one more trophy to contest with the Northern Irish champions, kind of rehearsal before next year’s Champions League We gave up a two-goal lead in Belfast, but Brennan saved us on the last seconds and so we finished the season with three trophies! 

Well, my Icelandic tactics surely worked well for the first season but I don’t think it would be easy to retain the title. Shamrock and several other teams still have stronger squads, so we'll need to improve.

Colm Whelan remained the league’s top goalscorer despite playing only half a season. Our goalkeeper Healy was selected as the best young player in Ireland, and seven players were included into the team of the year.

Squad stats

Apart from the new signings (mostly successful ones) and players I already mentioned before the season, I’d also highlight Ciaran Behan who became our best goalscorer among the remaining squad (though Whelan and Kerrigan still scored more).

[itsCaasi]

Im going to follow this save, I really like the idea and the loose foreign rules in Ireland definitely makes this more fun!

[Koetzer]

1 hour ago, itsCaasi said:

Im going to follow this save, I really like the idea and the loose foreign rules in Ireland definitely makes this more fun!

Thanks, well for now it's just a simple UK/Ireland career, but hopefully with higher reputation and wider scouting range there will be more nations represented.

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2023

Predicted fifth, which isn’t bad as our reputation is still one of the lowest in the league.

Transfers out

None of them was a first team player last season.

Transfers in

John Lucero – former Brighton youngster, now called up for Philippines.

Carlos Edwards – yes, 44 years old! And of course, he’s not going to play (maybe a single appearance to set the record), I just remember signing him in my previous career as a coach.

Also I extended Ollie O'Neill loan for one more season, so actually our starting eleven won't change for now.

23 new fans after winning the title  

[Koetzer]

Season 2023 – part 1

Could only be better if we defeated Shamrock in the league, but it’s a good start anyway. Will Fish scored twice from corners and was selected as a player of the month.

Our defense is still very solid, but attack struggles with injuries of several key players. We also had a record of ten players called up for national teams, including three English youngsters and our first senior international.

I signed Scottish winger Kyle McAllister to add more depth for our attacking line but so far that doesn't help much. Ciaran Behan returned from injury with two goals, but apart from this our attack is still poor, relying only on long shots and set pieces. Though none of other teams is consistent enough, so we are leading the table with only Derry City able to overtake us with a postponed game.

Our strikers couldn’t score for almost three months before this win against Drogheda, which also ended a losing run of four games. Four teams are now within two points from top, so the title battle is going to be a lot less predictable than last season.

We haven't conceded a single goal in June despite playing all four games away from home and without our first choice goalkeeper Healy, who was called up to the U21 Euro (Ireland lost to France in quarter-final). Mathurin recovered from an unimpressive start, finally scored his first goal along with several assists and won the player of the month award.

So far we are in the race for defending the title, though July is going to be a really hard month – we will play against all other teams in top five and also will make our Champions League debut against Malmo.

[Koetzer]

Season 2023 – part 2

Transfers in

Will Andiyapan – former Spurs defender became our highest paid player but he really was the best available option for the left-back position and still has a lot of potential to develop.

Max McKnight – another player from Tottenham academy, will add depth for the right wing.

Ronny Nelson – we needed another center-back as Barry had a long-term injury.

Arjan Raikhy – an Indian international (born in Wolverhampton) who should replace O’Neill in the next season as we can’t afford to pay his new wage on loan.

Transfers out

Loaned some players who weren’t good enough even for backup.

 

No surprises against the Swedish champions, but we got a favourable draw later in Conference League and secured big win in North Macedonia. The league schedule was tough as announced, we got only one point from away games but won both at home with decisive goals scored in stoppage time (though Derry game was less dramatic actually, we were 2-0 ahead when they scored on 95th minute).

An excellent month, we moved to the top spot in the league and qualified for the European group stage! Being clear underdogs and conceding first in Plzen, we responded with four goals and only needed to keep this advantage at home. This result gave us 3 million euros in the bank, immediately invested into training facilities (downgraded last year), junior coaching and recruitment. With Sevilla, Krasnodar and Flora in the group it’s hard to hope for a top two finish but third place and gaining some more ranking points is a realistic target.

The schedule was very condensed after the international break, but we are doing quite well in all tournaments – reached the cup semi-final (though didn’t face any top tier opposition yet), kept the gap from Shamrock (5 points with 6 games to go) and even the group opener against Sevilla ended with a respectable result after 0-3 at half-time.

Two defeats in a row are likely to cost us the title, with one game remaining we are one point behind Shamrock. Though we still compete for two trophies, the cup final against Bohemians will end our domestic season.

Due to the cup final we played our last league game one day earlier, so needed to wait for Shamrock result… and they lost to St. Pats, giving us the second league title in a row! And it was such a huge boost that we simply destroyed Bohemians in the final (I don’t remember such an impressive first half in any our game before!) and then won another trophy against the Northern Irish champions. The European season ended in a decent way, we defeated Flora to secure third place and avoided heavy losses against the top two.  

Defending the title was much harder than winning it last year, but luck was on our side on the last matchday. So, a chance for another good European run next summer.

Squad stats

Will Fish – totally deserved his player of the season award, solid in defense and a huge threat at set pieces. He also signed a new three-year contract without any release clause.

Roshawn Mathurin – quite an inconsistent player, but really unstoppable when playing at his best.

Alex Bruce – had some long goal droughts during the season, but still became our best goalscorer in the end.

Thomas Lonergan – great result for a backup striker, he scored 20 goals and was selected as the best Irish U21 player.

Lorcan Healy – 28 clean sheets in 51 games and second goalkeeper of the year award in a row.

Eoin Farrell – was selected into the team of the year at right-back position.

The most promising player from the academy is again a central midfielder, and despite not having the best potential Phelan looks much better in key attributes than last year’s top prospect Klavins.

[DavidBeckham]

Great to see Will Fish doing well for you! Man United Academy graduate 

[Koetzer]

4 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

Great to see Will Fish doing well for you! Man United Academy graduate 

Yes, he's a top player for Irish league, only lacking some points in tackling. Also I wanted to sign Romeo Beckham and Harvey Neville who were available but weren't good enough for their wage demands  

 

Pre-season 2024

Shamrock Rovers are still the favourites, but our odds are much better after two titles. Our reputation increased to 2 stars, same as other six top teams.

Transfers in

Our first eleven remains the same, apart from O’Neill returning to Fulham. I only signed two prospects who were on trial with us in July but their wage demands were much higher – central defender Sonny Aljofree and midfielder Jimi Gower.

Transfers out

Barry and Brennan were important players in the first season, but now weren't even second options on their positions.

Colm Whelan’s transfer brought us some big money after two years! This amount equals a potential 5M transfer from Aberdeen (his actual value is 4-6M so think we won’t lose much with selling this clause now).

[Koetzer]

 

Season 2024 – part 1

St. Pats gave us the title last year, now it was time to pay First half was good, but then Andiyapan was sent off and we couldn’t hold even a draw. Apart from this game, we started quite well.

Couldn’t keep the lead against Dundalk and missed a chance to overtake them for the top spot (though still have a game in hand). Shamrock struggled at start with only 7th place so far, but it isn’t even a quarter of season played to count them out.

That was a perfect month until these two disappointing draws which allowed Dundalk to catch us on top. However all other teams are already nine points behind.

Both cups ended with disappointing home defeats, but we are getting needed results in the league (even though some games remained equal until few last minutes).

Seven points advantage over Dundalk and a real struggle for Shamrock and Derry, two teams which were the title contenders last season. They are closer to relegation than to European places now!

Ireland qualified for Euro 2024, no one of our current squad was selected (well, not a big surprise, probably only Lorcan Healy could be there as the third choice keeper behind Kelleher and Bazunu) but two former UCD players were called up – Colm Whelan and Liam Kerrigan.

Ranking update:

League reputation – 74th ( 11)

Club UEFA ranking – 477th ( 108)

League UEFA ranking – 35th ( 8)

Good results from all Irish teams last season (Shamrock, Derry and Dundalk all reached 3rd qualifying round) let us rise in the rankings. Our next European season will start against Qarabag. Last year they reached the Champions League group stage, so getting past first round wouldn’t be easy.

And some facilities improvements are on the way!

[Koetzer]

Season 2024 – part 2

Transfers in

Shane Flynn – before being released from Leicester he played two seasons for Shamrock Rovers on loan. Though now it’s going to be a bit of problem to share playing time between him and Andyapan.

Jarell Quansah – former Liverpool player (born in Warrington) will be a backup central defender, replacing Todd who wanted to leave.

Ajani Burchall – Bermudian winger from Aston Villa, signed mostly because of nationality though has a chance to develop.

Max Anderson – I wasn’t really happy with our playmakers so decided to find an improvement on loan (not too successful actually).

Transfers out

 Made some profit from selling a reserve winger Walters, signed for free two seasons ago and haven't played for a senior team.

 

Well, I certainly overestimated Qarabag after the draw, Montenegrin side Sutjeska also wasn’t a match for us, so we already secured at least a Conference League group now. And our lead in the league already increased to 11 points, so third title in a row should be only a matter of time.

We stopped close from the Champions League group after defeating Panathinaikos, but to be honest that’s surely not the level where we can hope for anything. Even Europa League draw gave us Milan, Valencia and Maccabi Haifa so third place will be our main and only goal. On the domestic stage we increased the lead to eleven points and set the new scoring record with 13-0 win in the cup. 

Our league form wasn’t really impressive in September, but Dundalk’s results were even worse and this away win against them eventually brought us the title, third in a row and certainly the easiest so far. Another important away win happened in Israel, giving us a great chance to continue the European season next February.

Alex Bruce became a hero of this dramatic cup semi-final, scoring a last minute equalizer and two more goals in the replay. This also allowed him to break Whelan’s goalscoring record (who only played half a season for us then )

Winning two more trophies is nice, but defeating Valencia was definitely a highlight of November. Of course, having a man advantage for almost whole second half helped us, but we already were ahead at half-time! This win could actually give us a chance to finish second if we could get a point at San Siro but Milan finally managed to score on 73rd minute and sent us to Conference League where we will face Molde in the first knockout round.

Shamrock Rovers, the team predicted to become champions, only survived with a narrow win over Drogheda in playoffs! Though they had a decent European run, reaching the Conference League playoff round, probably enough to gain some more positions in the rankings.

Squad stats

Will Fish – another great season and deserved MVP award.

Harvey O’Brien – I initially planned to use Nelson as second center-back, but promised to give O’Brien more playing time and he really impressed!

Alex Bruce – our new captain scored 30 goals, setting the new club record.

Roshawn Mathurin – reached the 20 assists mark (also a club record) and scored some important goals as well.

Lorcan Healy – still the best goalkeeper in the league.

Ciaran Behan – his attributes are not so impressive comparing to some new teammates, but he keeps the performance level high, as in previous seasons.

Max McKnight and Will Andiyapan – two full-backs, both selected into the team of the year (though Flynn played more after his signing in summer).

Thomas Lonergan and Adam Lennon – two backup players with some really good stats (mostly scored against lower league sides in cups and European qualifiers though ) 

Our academy keeps producing decent central midfielders, English-born Joe Johnson is the most promising player this time. Also we got two players poached by English teams, a central midfielder and a right-back.

In other news, our former striker Colm Whelan was selected as Irish player of the year with 25 goals in 49 games for Aberdeen!

And we had more improvements after the season (final one for the youth recruitment).

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2025

Finally predicted first, as our reputation is now the highest in Ireland.

Transfers in

Tyrese Fornah and Gary O’Neill – I decided to rely on more experienced players in midfield this year. O’Neill previously played for UCD from 2015 to 2019, then moved to Shamrock Rovers.

Evan Weir – another former UCD player (2018-2021) returns home as McKnight will miss start of the season with injury, Andiyapan will be moved to right-back position so we need a backup for Flynn.

Richard Tipple – an emergency loan after McAllister suffered an injury in pre-season, luckily we had few days before registration window closed.

Transfers out

The only transfer for money was selling Raikhy to the Indian league.

Our scouting range was expanded to the whole world, so we can now find talents everywhere… the only problem is that they simply don’t want to join us. Even a player from Kiribati (obviously the best this nation ever had!) prefers to stay without a club  

[Koetzer]

Season 2025 – part 1

Lost the Supercup in shootout but won all other games in February including our first ever knockout round appearance! The next opposition is Fiorentina, that’s where our European run is most likely going to end.

We shocked Fiorentina with two early goals at home, and this probably could be enough to win this tie… if only Andiyapan wasn’t sent off on 18th minute Still we had a chance to equalize after third goal conceded in extra time, but after Bruce’s shot the ball hit both posts and was stopped on the line by Dragowski. An excellent European season anyway! 

Our winning run snapped in Derry where we only could get a late consolation goal, but it was just a one-time failure. We are confidently leading, despite still played from two to five (!) games less than all other teams, and progressed in both secondary cups.

Perfect result in May, at this point cups can already become a higher priority for us.

The Leinster cup final was tough, but substitute Lonergan (who actually plays better than Bruce in this part of season) won this trophy for us, first time since 1996. The last game in June was surprisingly lost to a 9th placed team, but as I said before our advantage is already so huge that we can allow being complacent sometimes.

 

Ranking update:

League reputation – 60th ( 14)

Club UEFA ranking – 140th ( 337)

League UEFA ranking – 29th ( 6)

We are the most improved club in Europe! The league ranking doesn’t give any preferences for the champions yet, but three other teams will now start from the Conference League second qualifying round.

Adam Lennon was called for the U21 Euro, played two games from the bench and scored the winning goal in a final group game against Italy, which doesn’t help Ireland to qualify though.

The youth preview predicts getting another central midfielder and striker as the best players. And we also had third player poached to England, doesn’t look too promising though.

[Koetzer]

Season 2025 – part 2

Transfers in

Ross Tierney – another rotation option in midfield, previously played for Motherwell.

All other signed players are future prospects released from Premier League academies – GK Hilton (Man Utd), DC Clancy (Tottenham), DC McGregor (Burnley), DR/DM Meite (Chelsea), DM Smith (Chelsea), AM RCL Guilherme (Leeds) and AMC/ST Russell (Burnley).

Transfers out

Three backup players sold and extra 250K received from Kerrigan’s sale clause.

 

July featured two long trips to Caucasus, both won quite easily, and Bulgarian Ludogorets will be our next opposition in the Champions League. A small slump of form on the domestic level didn’t really threaten our overall position, we still have 15 points gap from St. Patrick’s.

We conceded first in both games against Ludogorets, but managed to equalize and everything was decided by a late penalty. Then I expected facing Shakhtar in playoff round but surprisingly they lost to Astana! It didn’t make things much easier, Kazakh champions had players like Sergi Roberto and Gbamin in their squad, but we defeated them on one of the longest possible away trips and qualified for the group stage! There we will play against Benfica, Leipzig and Monaco, hopefully won’t lose all six games. Losing the cup tie on penalties was disappointing but at least it saved our autumn schedule from turning into a real mess  

What a debut, we totally outplayed Leipzig in the first half with two goals from Lonergan (yes, he is now the first choice at front) and three assists from Mathurin! The second half was better for the Germans, but they only could win it 2-1. Four days later Mathurin had another exceptional game, his goal and two assists brought us the only domestic trophy which was missing from our collection. And this last draw against Derry was enough to secure the league title.

So far none of our games in the group stage was one-sided, with some more luck (and better individual skills) we certainly could get points from Benfica and Monaco. And who knows, maybe we even can hope to finish third here.

Really disappointed to drop points against Benfica, we could score several goals more and they literally created nothing from open play, only scoring from a very questionable penalty. This win wouldn’t really helped us at Benfica defeated Monaco in the last game and we were outclassed in Germany, but still finishing our debut group stage with two wins would be an amazing achievement.

We finished the season one point short from the league record (set by Dundalk in 2018), probably could beat it with less rotation. The youth team managed to finish top of their group and will continue the season in spring.

Squad stats

Roshawn Mathurin – new club record in assists and the best average rating. Wycombe offered 3.6 million for him, but he’s happy in Dublin and of course I’m not going to sell.

Thomas Lonergan – became our primary striker during this season and eventually beat Bruce’s record with 32 goals.

Will Fish and Ronny Nelson – our first choice defensive pair (though their backups O’Brien and Quansah also played really well, so we could rotate center-backs quite easily).

Lorcan Healy – still our number one and got some callups for the national team (though unlikely to become a starting goalkeeper).

Gary O’Neill – a good addition for our squad, he became our main set piece taker.

Shane Flynn – played as left defender and winger during the season and was solid in both roles.

The new youth intake wasn’t anywhere near prediction, a lot of poor personalities and unimpressive potentials. Striker Terry McArdle is actually the best player here. 

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2026

Almost no one doubts that we’ll win another title.

Transfers in

Robbie McCourt – signed as a backup from relegated Sligo Rovers after Weir chose to accept Dundalk’s offer.

Josh Connolly – despite Lonergan had an excellent previous season, he’s unlikely to improve anymore so we need a striker who can be much better in the future. Decided to loan him for half a season with an optional fee of 275K.

Also Tipple’s loan was extended for this season, but soon after the deal he suffered a cruciate ligaments injury so won’t be available until summer Though Chelsea decided not to recall him (despite having a clause) and we don’t pay anything while he can’t play  

Transfers out

Keaney was our captain and best defensive midfielder at start, but now became only a fourth option so was sold for a nominal fee.

[Koetzer]

Season 2026 – part 1

Connolly needed less than a minute to get his first goal for us and eventually scored four in our biggest ever league win! February was an excellent month overall, four big wins and this game against Shamrock where FM did its usual things – 16 shots on target, missed penalty, a few goalposts and only a draw saved on last seconds. And yes, we played against own reserve team in the cup  (thought it would be a harder game as they used players from U19 team in previous rounds, but here we faced completely grey squad).

After an exceptional debut in February Connolly missed almost whole March with injury, and our overall goalscoring form wasn’t so impressive. Though after a home defeat from Dundalk we won all the remaining games, including one against St. Patrick’s which haven’t dropped any points before and had a five point advantage over us.

Dropped some points and were knocked from the cup on penalties, but won the most important game in April against St. Patrick’s which finally allowed us to take the lead. Tierney scored twice there and later was selected as the player of the month.

Couldn’t break through Shelbourne defense but won all other games including quite an easy cup semifinal. Fish became a player of the month with impressive four goals.

Good second half performance brought us another trophy after a short summer break.

Finally we got decent opposition in the league, St. Patrick lost all three games against us (including cup) with 0-8 aggregate score but had almost a perfect form elsewhere.

Ranking update:

League reputation – 53rd ( 7) – same level as Scottish Championship

Club UEFA ranking – 102nd ( 38)

League UEFA ranking – 26th ( 3)

The intake preview predicts getting two promising strikers and a wing-back, hopefully that will be a much better class than last year. Meanwhile Rangers poached a center-back from our academy, he doesn't look like a future star though.

[Koetzer]

Season 2026 – part 2

Transfers in

Activated Connolly’s buyout clause after his impressive form in first games and signed some more Premier League rejects, as usual (Graham Rowe from Man City is the most promising of them).

Transfers out

Said goodbye to former captain Alex Bruce, who became only a third option at front with an expiring contract, and broke our transfer record with selling Meite! He had quite a good potential, but looking at his current stats I didn’t believe that he would reach it, so agreed to this offer from Boro (50% of next sale profit included). Not a bad deal a year after signing him for free

Our unbeaten run at home surprisingly ended with two long shots from Bohemians, and the gap was reduced to one point. Early European rounds brought no troubles for us, even some youth team players were given playing time there (and center-back Anestis scored on his debut).

The hardest game against St. Patrick’s so far in this season, we came back after conceding just before half-time and scored the winning goal shorthanded to extend the lead to four points. No big money from the Champions League group this season as Dinamo Zagreb managed to get two narrow wins, but then we easily defeated Heracles (3rd place in Eredivisie last season!) to play in Europa League against Nice, Antwerp and Kobenhavn. And the last game of August was almost the same as the first one, except we needed extra time here.

September was going to be a perfect month – advancing in the cup, a second half comeback against Nice to start the group stage and gaining points over our only title rivals. But two last games weren’t so great – Bohemians were close to defeat us second time in a row (Healy stopped a penalty and made some more important saves) and Waterford punished us for complacency, equalizing from 0-2, only Lennon’s last minute goal saved our three points.

One more tough game against Bohemians, and 17 year-old Joe Johnson saved us with a long shot, the first senior goal for our home-grown youngster! St. Patrick’s finally managed to defeat us from the sixth try, but that was too late – we already celebrated the title after a 7-0 win over Galway, also setting the new league scoring record (91 goals overall). The Europa League runs almost perfectly, we only missed a win in Belgium and have two home games to secure a playoff spot.

Two more trophies and an excellent finish of the group stage! A draw in France was enough to keep the top spot, but we played for the win and got it with a goal and assist from Ross Tierney. So, we’ll start playoffs from the second round.

St. Patrick’s made our fifth straight title more difficult, but they were extremely lucky according to the xG table and need to improve to challenge again next season.

Squad stats

Thomas Lonergan and Josh Connolly – competing for being our first choice at front. Connolly had better stats in the league, but Lonergan scored more in all tournaments (his second straight season with 30+ goals)!

Will Fish – returned to the top on average rating, setting his personal goalscoring record.

Roshaun Mathurin – remained our best assistant despite a few injuries and a period of unhappiness in summer.

Adam Lennon – became our third goalscorer, excellent result for a backup player.

Richard Tipple – only played half a season after his injury but performed really well. Unfortunately we can’t extend the loan now as his contract with Chelsea expired in half a year, but hopefully will be able to sign him for free later.

Ross Tierney – not the greatest stats overall, but scored some very important goals and assists from mezzala position.

Klavs Klavins and Joe Johnson – always glad to see our own youth developing into at least useful backup players. Klavins is also our only senior international at the moment (though Latvia is one of the weakest European teams and haven't won a game for two years).

 

The only good thing about the new intake is more geographical diversity, in previous years around 90% of our youth were from Dublin. The best player is Willie Grimes who can play right wing-back and center-back without any knowledge of right-back position, FM newgen generation at its best   After this I changed our HOYD to the famous Serbian striker Savo Milosevic, hopefully his personality will help to improve our intakes. Also we had the best youngster poached so far – left-back Kennedy to Chelsea.

[Koetzer]

Pre-season 2027

Good last season from St. Patrick’s didn’t improve their title odds, we are the undoubted favourites.

Transfers in

David Toure – will be our backup right defender (though signed for a record fee, decent full-backs are usually hard to find).

Dimos Markou – finally we signed the first player born outside the British Isles (except foreigners from youth intakes). Found him in the Cyprus U21 team, and he looks great for only 17 years old!

Also we tried to sign Tipple for a full contract, but Chelsea activate the extension clause and the transfer was cancelled… however then we could extend his loan for one more season!

Transfers out

We lost Andiyapan who had a year remaining on his contract and wasn’t interested in renewing. With a decent squad depth on a left-back position that shouldn’t be a huge problem.

[Koetzer]

Season 2027 – part 1

Perfect start of the season, featuring a Supercup win and matching the club record (against the same team that we already defeated 13-0 few seasons ago). The Europa League draw put us against Newcastle, currently going 10th in the Premiership but certainly having a much better squad than ours (well, same can be said for almost every team on this stage).

We played an excellent game at St. James Park, took the lead twice despite a red card on 78th minute and only a long shot from Digne in stoppage time saved them from a home defeat. Unfortunately, our finishing wasn’t good enough in the second leg, and we lost an overall equal game. The domestic form is perfect so far, except a draw against Cork City which had a surprisingly good start and sits on 2nd place.

It’s interesting that we have a much better form in away games, zero points dropped against three draws at home (and European games also followed this rule).

Our unbeaten run ended with a huge blow, though I’m not surprised that it happened at home. Probably we just don’t want to play for those who can’t fill the 3000-seated stadium after five straight titles and several good seasons in Europe  

This was an easy route to the trophy, but the 3rd tier side Cabinteely deserves credit for their efforts.

St. Patrick’s are the only team which managed to defeat us, so their 2nd position is fully deserved. Cork City runs for the European places just after promotion, and Shamrock Rovers will have another tough relegation battle (their squad is still good enough to go much higher).

Ranking update:

League reputation – 47th ( 6) – 2.5 stars now, next to 2nd tiers of Portugal and Netherlands

Club UEFA ranking – 54th ( 48)

League UEFA ranking – 21st ( 5)

Connolly was called up for the U20 World Cup, where Scotland finished fourth (lost to England and Brazil in the final games) and Josh himself was awarded the Golden Ball (4+3 and 8.15 average rating)! I hope that he’ll carry this form to the club, as he only scored 6 goals at this point (while Lonergan already has 17).

Toure, Maguire and Anestis played in the U21 Euro, both Ireland and Greece finished bottom of their groups.

[Koetzer]

Season 2027 – part 2

Transfers in

Only free youngsters joined us this summer, right-back Kwabena Ampofo (from Chelsea academy) looks the most promising of them. Soon after signing he became the U19 Euro runner-up, playing 4 of 5 games as a starter.

Transfers out

Made some profit on players previously signed for free (and a lot of loans which I filtered out to save the space).

 

Finally dropped first points in away games but won all the others. The route to the Champions League group will most likely go through Scandinavia, with AGF in the next round and probably Malmo next.

Malmo lost to CSKA Sofia, a bit of surprise but not too much, Bulgarians have quite a strong squad and both games against them weren't easy (especially the first one where they had several good chances to equalize). However we made our second group stage appearance and will play against Liverpool, Napoli and Benfica (two years ago we had a good chance to defeat them, so probably can improve now). The domestic tournaments were played by a fully rotated squad and we lost the cup on penalties, but won all other games.  

Won the title with seven games remaining, and with this form we are going to set the new points record. The Champions League group started with two defeats, but Benfica also has no points so far and two next games will decide who finishes third.

New points and goals record (we became the first team ever to score over 100 goals in a league season), a cup win (again over a lower league side in the final), but the most important game in October was the one against Benfica. And we really outplayed them – before O’Neill fired his long shot past Vlachodimos we already had a goal disallowed for offside and hit the post twice. Connolly secured our win in stoppage time, and now we need at least a point in Lisbon to remain favourites for finishing third.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get points in Portugal, missing too many chances and conceding from a late penalty. Still we kept a head-to-head advantage so Benfica needed more points in remaining two games… and they lost both so we qualified for Europa League playoffs despite actually having a worse result than two years ago! There we got Strasbourg, they are currently 15th in League 1 and we have already defeated the French teams before.

Shamrock Rovers went from being the main title contenders to relegation in five years, and we now should aim for an unbeaten season and 100 points.

Squad stats

Ciaran Behan – an outstanding season from our rotation winger who became the best assistant, joint third goalscorer and had the highest average rating.

Thomas Lonergan – our best goalscorer, but it's going to be his last season for us. After a summer break he wasn’t so productive anymore, and both Connolly and Russell (returned from loan) look much better now.

Will Fish and Jarell Quansah – our first choice defensive pair. Quansah made his debut for Ghana, while Fish gained Irish nationality (along with Mathurin and Haysman) but wasn’t called up yet.

Shane Flynn – after Andiyapan’s departure he only played as a left-back but had the best stats in his career (though 12 of his 13 goals were scored from penalties).

Joe Johnson – our best home-grown prospect so far isn’t too consistent but I’m happy to see his progress. Was selected as the best Irish U21 player.

Another unimpressive intake, the best player is a winger who needs to improve a lot in technical skills.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Koetzer

[Whalix]

I do a League of Ireland save every FM and love it (have done Cobh Ramblers, Limerick, Treaty Utd, Waterford, Bohemians, Longford, Bray and Shelbourne at this stage), so it's great seeing others do the same and how each save differs. You're smashing it considering your signings, keeping it realistic with plenty of domestic deals amongst the foreign signings too. I always found that once I reached regular European competition, loans from Premier League clubs really helped to boost my squad quality which helped in the European runs. Looking forward to seeing if you can break out of the Champions League group hoodoo and get a run in the knockouts. Managed to pull it off only once with Treaty Utd in FM21.

[Koetzer]

On 21/06/2022 at 22:20, Whalix said:

Looking forward to seeing if you can break out of the Champions League group hoodoo and get a run in the knockouts.

Thanks, but sadly I'm losing interest in this career. I was planning to sign prospects from obscure nations and Ireland seemed to be a good place for it with almost no foreigner limits, but there is an issue I couldn't predict. For some reason the players I find outside Europe refuse even to start contract negotiations (and those who agree are 1 star potential at best). I made an experiment adding a manager to a Scottish Championship team, both club and league reputations are lower than ours, and I easily could offer contracts to the same players. It really makes no sense when a player on an amateur contract somewhere in Caribbean doesn't want even talking to a team playing in Champions League group stage