[FM 23] Queen's Park - The Birthplace of Tiki Taka

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Why Queen's Park F.C.?

Having already been aware that Queen's Park were we're one of the oldest clubs in the UK & the oldest club in Scotland, I finally got around to reading Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid (if you can count listening to an audiobook as reading) & discovered just how influential Queen's Park were in the development of modern football.

With the English style of play at the time being focussed around running with the ball & individual displays of skill, passes were relatively few and far between in comparison to the modern game, with player generally only opting to pass the ball as a last resort. However the players of Queen's Park F.C. opted to play a passing game & as a result dominated their English counterparts in the first international football match which was held between England & Scotland, who's entire starting 11 was made up of players from Queen's Park.

Queen's Park were an entirely amateur club for the first 152 years of their existence, hence their motto: 'Ludere Causa Ludendi' – To Play for the Sake of Playing. This however changed in 2019 when 91% of the clubs members voted to end it's amateur status, part of the motivation for this was that several good players had been lost without the club receiving any compensation due to it being an amateur club. 

 

Expectations

With the club being promoted from League 1 to the Scottish Championship (level 2 in the Scottish pyramid) by way of the play-off's, the season preview has me finishing 9th out of 10 teams meaning that I would find myself in a relegation play-off. However, in real life, Queen's Park find themselves at the top of the Scottish Championship by 4 points with 23 games played. So here is to hoping that I can somewhat emulate their success! 

 

 

 

Whilst the board expect me to avoid relegation & "be competitive" in the domestic cups, the supporters expect me to become an established Championship team & to get the better of Clyde, who are in the division below should we play them. As well as this, the fans expect me to play attacking football (reasonable, given that the club pioneered the passing game) & to develop players using the youth system, which as I'm sure we can all agree is our preferred method of managing anyway!

 

Objectives

Other than the obvious ones such as becoming the biggest team in Scotland & winning the Champions League, I want to focus on doing things "the right way" (or at least how I perceive that to be!) as a result, I will be focussing on the below throughout the save:

• Play Tiki Taka football - whilst this will be difficult, particularly in the early stages this is something that I will be implementing from the very beginning of the journey. Even if it does prove detrimental at times!
• Develop Scottish players - whilst I wont be limiting myself to exclusively signing Scottish players, I do want to place emphasis on using them. As a result, if there if there are 2 suitable players for a specific position/role that I require, I will go for the Scottish one (providing that the difference in quality isn't immense) 
• An all Queen's Park Scottish 11 - As mentioned previously, the first international between Scotland & England featured a full Queen's Park starting 11 for the Scottish side. This was the first & only time that this happened so I'm keen to emulate this albeit, without managing  the national team myself!

Edited February 6, 2023 by Swaban

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The Squad

The squad looks bare & in need of reinforcements, with a total of 19 senior players at the club 4 of which are Right Back's! whilst there is only 1 Left Back 3 Centre Back's (one of which looks to be a better RB than a CB) & a distinct lack of Central Midfielders. 

 

Ideally, I am looking for 2 Centre Backs, 1-2 Left Back & 2-3 Central Midfielders to reinforce this threadbare squad. However that may well be easier said than done given the £80,000 transfer budget & more importantly, only £1500 available within the wage budget!

 

This budget has however since been bolstered by the sale of Jake Davidson for £35,000 to Dundee United. Jake was likely our best Right Back option, however given we have 3 other players than can play there & are severely lacking in other areas it was a necessary sale & also freed up an additional £600 per week in the wage budget meaning that we can now spend up to an additional £2100 per week on new arrivals. 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Swaban

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Reinforcements

We have managed to bring in a total of 6 players, for a combined total wage of £2150 per week, £236 per week over budget. Which is definitely worth it to bulk out a bare squad which was looking reliant on loan players (hopefully the board see it this way too!)

Left Back Callum Crane, comes in for a fee of £2,000 from League 1 side FC Edinburgh, who will not only be a back up, but provide decent competition to Tommy Robson.

 

Centre Backs Tom Lang & Thomas O'Ware arrive from Raith (£6,000) & Kelty Hearts (£9,000) respectively. The left footed O'Ware will partner Stephen Eze as our first choice Centre Backs, with Lang providing competition for places as well as being a strong rotation option.

 

Central Midfielders Mark Whatley (£6,000 from Montrose) & Aaron Splaine (free agent, albeit formerly of rival club Clyde) are looking like being our 2 first choice Central Midfielders with the versatile Aiden Nesbitt (£6,000 from Falkirk providing a rotational option as a more progressive Midfielder, who is also capable of playing on either wing, should we find ourselves in need of cover there. 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Swaban

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Tactics

As mentioned above, I will be implementing a tiki taka style of play from the very beginning which may well be a struggle for the first couple of seasons given the standard of football & some of the players that I've inherited. Based upon this, I've gone with the below setup initially. This will almost definitely be tweaked throughout the first season or two as I get to know the existing players better & am able to bring in more players that fit the style of play I am looking for (plus I'm always open to suggestions).

Ideally, I wanted to start out with a Deep Lying Forward, however Simon Murray who is arguably our best player looks to well suited to being a Pressing Forward with his 17 natural fitness & 16 stamina. As with everything else, this may well change throughout the season.

 

Top Players

Striker Simon Murray is probably our best player at the club, followed by Wingers Dom Thomas & Grant Savoury with my assistant also rating our new Centre Back partners Tom Lang & Thomas O'Ware highly 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Swaban

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First Competitive Matches - Premier Sports Cup

We are drawn in Group H. alongside League 2 outfits Stranraer & Dumbarton, fellow Championship side Hamilton (predicted to finish 6th) & Premier League Kilmarnock (who won the Championship last season).

With the top 2 sides from each group advancing to the second round, a result against Hamilton should all but guarantee us getting through. Barring any disasters of course.

We coast past both of the League 2 teams as was expected, with Simon Murray bagging 5 goals in the process! even if 3 of them were penalties.

 

Next up, Hamilton. A win here guarantees us a place in the second round of the cup, with a loss meaning we are knocked out of our first cup competition of the journey before the league season has even began.

We don't just beat Hamilton, we absolutely batter them 6-0! with another 3 goals from Simon Murray, taking his tally so far to 8 goals in 3 games. Taking a look at the match stats below shows that not only did we beat them emphatically, we had far more possession & far higher pass completion both in terms of raw number of passes as well as a percentage of attempted passes completed.

 

Next up is Premier League side Kilmarnock & a chance to see how we compare to a better class of opposition. Will our attempt at playing Tiki Taka football see us come unstuck?

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Kilmarnock Away

With both Queen's Park & Kilmarnock guaranteed qualification to the second round of the cup, the battle is for top spot in the group & more importantly for us, a chance to see how we compare to an SPL team (albeit one that is predicted to 11th out of 12 teams)

We manage to beat Kilmarnock 2-0, with Simon Murray grabbing 2 more goals. Taking his tally so far to 10 goals in 4 games! with an average rating of 8.77. Without overreacting, I gleefully told the journalists that I wouldn't even swap him for Erling Haaland. 

 

Further Transfer Business 

Out

Having noticed that we are paying Celtic loanee Johnny Kenny £1500 per week despite him being worse that Simon Murray & no better than back up striker Scott Williamson, who in comparison is paid £300 per week. As a result, I have terminated his loan, bringing us back below our wage budget. 

In looking at our loanee's, It seems that we are also paying Crystal Palace's Malachi Boateng a whopping £6,000 per week! equivalent to 25% of the clubs entire wage budget! His loan has also been terminated & as a result, we are now looking at the market again for a CM & DM. Or ideally somebody that can play both positions well!

 

In

Liam Brown, the second highest rated player so far in the Premier Sports Cup is a Queen's Park player who is on loan at Stenhousemuir. Having seen him performing well in those games, I decided to recall him as I feel he can do a job for us as a creative midfielder or as a Number 10 should we decide to alter the formation. 

In order to replace Malachi Boateng, we manage to secure Dylan Mcgeouch on a free! he looks a great player & may well displace Mark Whatley in the starting line up, although the scout report says he is injury prone I couldn't turn down a player of his quality on a free transfer & for £700 per week in wages. 

We also bring in Ray Grant for a fee of £2,000 from rivals Clyde (the second such signing from them after Aaron Splaine). He will very much be a back up for Jack Thomson in Defensive Midfield but at £350 per week, we have managed to save £4950 per week in the wage budget having terminated Malachi Boateng's loan & replacing him with both Dylan Mcgeouch & Ray Grant.

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Swaban

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August 2022 - The League Begins!

After an exceptional start to the season, we somehow find ourselves top of the League! 2 points ahead of Dundee who were overwhelming favourites to win the league at 1-91. However it is still very early days yet & next up we have a double header against Dundee, playing them in both the Premier Sports Cup & the League within 3 days which may well see us put back in our place. But before we get to that, we win our first award! Manager of the month for August!

 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Swaban

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September 2022

 

We kicked off the double header against runaway favourites to win the league Dundee with a 1-0 loss, a score line which flattered us thanks to a stellar performance from Goalkeeper Calum Ferrie. However, we fared much better in the second (and probably more important) game where we played them at home in the league. Simon Murray grabbed a first minute goal, after which neither team created much of anything. A boring game all things considered, but I'm more than happy to take that given the result! 

A draw at home to Morton & an away win at Hamilton see's us retain top spot in the league, 3 points ahead of second place Dundee & 4 points ahead of Arbroath & Inverness CT, so far so good!

We rotated a few players, in what had been a very steady starting 11 against League 1 side Dunfermline, expecting that we could do a job against them given our strong form thus far. However either we underestimated them, or the gulf in class between our starting 11 & our rotation players is larger than I thought. Either way, we crash out of the SPFL Trust Trophy in our first match.

October could prove to be a big month for us, with 5 league games. Two of which come against second place Dundee & third place Arbroath 

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October 2022

10 points from a possible 15 see's us extend our lead at the top of the table to 4 points over now second play Arbroath. Dundee see themselves slip to 4th place in the table managing to secure only 3 points from a possible 12 in October.

With 4 goals in 5 games for Simon Murray in October, he find's himself joint top goal scorer in the league. We look great in the individual stats with Grant Savoury having the highest average rating in the league, second most assists (behind Dom Thomas) & also the joint most MOTM awards. Additionally, goalkeeper Calum Ferrie finds himself joint top in the race for the golden glove.

 

With only 3 league games in each of November & December, plus our entrance into the Scottish Cup where we play 9th place Partick Thistle the next update will likely be January & hopefully some transfer business!

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November - December 2022

Our good early season form is waning with a couple of tough months. It looks as though teams have got over the shock of us trying to play tiki taka football in the Scottish Championship. Rather than them standing in the middle of the pitch laughing at us as we try to pass the ball around them, it looks as though they've started playing & games are becoming more difficult with fewer results going our way. 

With only 4 points from a possible 9 in November & 1 points from a possible 9 in December we find that we've slipped off the top of the table. Somehow, we still manage to cling on to second place with only 2 points behind top of the table Arbroath. Thankfully, it looks as though everyone else has been as poor as we have. 

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January 2023

Our first intake of the save has top marks & has potential to be a "Golden Generation". Once I'd got over the initial excitement, I wondered if this may be due to our staff not having the best stats in judging ability/potential & the fact that our current youth players are terrible. I guess we will see in a couple of months time!

 

Another poor month, with only 3 points from 12 see's us slip to 5th in the table. Our early season form is disappearing fast.

 

Transfer Business

Our poor form left me needing reinforcements, particularly in midfield. As a result we signed 3 players in Jan. 

Robbie Crawford comes in from Morton for a fee of £10k. He will likely be in our starting 11 before long.

Michael Mckenna is brought in for £21k from league leaders Arbroath. Capable of playing as either a midfielder or striker.
 

Andrew Steeves for £20k from League 1 Montrose definitely looks to be our strongest left back now & immediately slots into the starting 11. This will likely see either Tommy Robson or Callum Crane being moved on at the end of the season. Ideally this will be Robson who is paid almost double that of Crane, despite them being of similar ability.

Lewis Moore was making noise about wanting to leave due to lack of playing time & with his contract up at the end of the season I decided to offer him out to clubs in a hope of squeezing a bit of cash out of him. SPL side Livingston initially offered £4000 although I managed to push them up to £10,000 with most of the fee being paid in installments. 

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February 2023

Wow! what a month, what a turnaround! 4 league wins & a win in the Scottish Cup see's us not only return to the top of the table, but also see's us advance to the quarter final of the Scottish Cup! We couldn't have done it without huge performances from Simon Murray who bags 7 goals in Feb, new Left Back Steeves who chips in with 3 assists & our new midfield pairing of Crawford & Mckenna.

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Youth Intake

The day we've all been waiting for having seen the preview in January which predicted a possible golden generation. 

I have mixed feelings here, the star ratings look good, but based upon the stats I feel that they have been overinflated by my staff's judging abilities. This highlights to me that we need to improve our staff & also upgrade our facilities at the earliest possible opportunity.

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March 2023

An unbeaten month in March, with 8 points from a possible 12 & we also manage to find away past Ross County in the Scottish Cup quarter final thanks to a 93rd minute equaliser from Grant Savoury & we managed to do the business in the penalty shootout!

These results see us top the table with 5 matches left to play, giving us a strong chance of a play-off spot providing we can avoid a repeat of Januarys form!

A key component of our success has been a solid defence The now cemented CB pairing of Thomas O'Ware & Stephen Eze, along with Jack Thomson sat in front of them as a DM have meant that Calum Ferrie has got one hand on this seasons golden glove trophy.

[johnloch]

I like your writing style - neat and clear. KUTGW and eager to share your joy of promotion shortly!

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On 12/02/2023 at 19:53, johnloch said:

I like your writing style - neat and clear. KUTGW and eager to share your joy of promotion shortly!

Thanks mate, I appreciate it! 

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April 2023

Another unbeaten month in the league see's us not only secure a play-off spot but we also find ourselves top of the league by 2 points going into the final day of the season! we face 4th place Dundee, who not only knocked us out of the Premier Sports Cup at the beginning of the season but also beat us last time out. Second place Inverness CT, play 8th place Ayr. 

 

 

Scottish Cup Semi Final

Having scraped past Ross County in the quarter final, thanks to a 93rd minute equaliser from Grant Savoury & beating them in the shootout we come up against a Motherwell side who have won only 1 in their last 6 league games & 2 in their last 15. With us being in good form, there's a very real chance we could nick a result here!

 

We are through to the Scottish Cup Final! Our first season in charge is set for a dramatic finish with only the last day of the season & the Cup Final to go, we could see ourselves promoted to the SPL as Scottish Cup Champions, or we could find ourselves still in the Championship next season & losing the final. It is still all to play for!

The Scottish Cup has only been won by a team outside of the top division twice, most recently by Hibernian in 2016 & once way back in 1893, by none other than Queen's Park

However, to have any hope of repeating this we have to somehow find a way past defending champions Rangers, who also sit at the top of the SPL table & haven't lost a game since 30/10/22 in any competition. Its going to be a tall order, but the dream is still just about alive.

 

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May & June 2023

Last Day of the season:

A resounding victory against Dundee means that we've done it! Queen's Park win the Championship in a dream first season despite the season preview predicting us to finish 9th.

 

Simon Murray's 19 goals see's him finish as the leagues second top scorer, with Billy Mckay & Daniel MacKay of Inverness CT combining for a total of 37 goals not quite proving to be enough for them to win the league.

January signing Andrew Steeves finishes the season as the leagues highest rated player, making the £20,000 transfer fee from Montrose look like a bargain!

Dom Thomas finishes the season with the most assists in the league with 10 & Calum Ferrie manages to secure the golden glove with 19 clean sheets having played all 36 league games.

 

The Scottish Cup Final!

Next up, we face Rangers who have been dominant in Scotland this year, winning the SPL with only 2 loses all season & thrashing Aberdeen 5-0 in the Premier Sports Cup Final means that they are looking to do the domestic treble by beating us. On the other hand, we were surprise victors in the Championship & are looking to accomplish the historical feat of winning the Scottish Cup whilst being outside of the top division. Something which has only been done twice before, the first of which was way back in 1893 by us! 

 

Unfortunately, It just wasn't meant to be. Rangers were every bit as dominant as we expected them to be, continuing the form they've been in since they last lost a game 30/10/22 which at this point is now 7 months ago!

 

All in all, I am delighted with how the first season has gone & it has by far exceeded any expectations I had going into it. With wins against SPL sides Ross County (6th) & Motherwell (7th) there are some hopeful signs for us not just being the whipping boys of the league next season & we will be looking to improve the squad with signings once the window opens as well as moving on some players to free up room in our wage budget in order to give us every possible chance of survival. initially, my goal will be to ideally finish top 10 meaning that we avoid the relegation play off. However this season has proved that anything can happen, so who knows, we may find ourselves playing Champions League football by our third season! (just in case anyone from the board is reading, I want to make it 100% clear that this is a joke)

[Blarney]

Excellent read. I've always had an affinity toward Scottish Football with the Celtics being one of my favorite clubs in the world.

[SixPointer]

Queen’s Park back in the big time 👏🏻👏🏻

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July 2023

Looking at our best 11, the only surprise is seeing Robson at Left Back, despite him barely starting a game since January when we brought in Andrew Steeves (who finished the season with the highest average rating in the league)

 

Our players great performances are recognised with 7 of them making it into the team of the season! although strangely, O'Ware is at Left Back despite not playing there & finishing the season with a rating of 6.97 which is lower than both Robson (7.12) & Steeves (7.44)

 

Having asked the board to improve our facilities at every possible opportunities, they finally gave in. Probably in part to shut me up but I'm more than happy with this, Queen's Park are building for the future.

 

Our managerial performance hasn't gone unnoticed, we receive 2 interview requests from Hibernian, who finished 8th in the SPL & FC Nordsjaelland who finished 9th in the Danish Superliga. I politely declined on both occasions

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We have another interview request, this time from Aalborg, who finished 4th in the Danish Superliga with their manager resigning at the end of the season. just like the previous 2 offers, we quickly rejected this one too.

 

Transfer Business

Out

In our quest to strengthen the squad for the upcoming season in the SPL, we needed to move a few players on in order to free up money in our wage budget & bolster our meagre transfer budget. 

First off, we let Callum Crane go, who by now is our third choice left back with both Andrew Steeves & Tommy Robson above him. We offered him out for transfer & Kilmarnock came in with an offer of £4,000 which we managed to get them to up it to £5,000. A profit of £3,000 on what we signed him for last season.

Next up, we see the departure of first choice right back Jason Naismith who was arguably the weakest member of our starting line up, I wanted to keep him as a backup option once we managed to sign a better right back, however a 25% wage increase for promotion meant that he now was among our top earners at £1,000 per week. Which is to much for a rotational option. He moves on to Championship team Arbroath for a fee of £12,000, all of which is profit having signed him on a free transfer last season.

Unfortunately, goalkeeper Calum Ferrie also leaves us. After winning the golden glove last season, its no wonder that some of the bigger clubs started to look at him. Hibernian came in for him, which I initially rejected. Ferrie then kicked up a fuss about it & I was forced to let him leave. Hibernian then came back in for him again & between them offering £150,000 (almost double our current transfer budget) & him wanting to leave I was forced into accepting it.

We let Liam Brown leave to Ayr for a fee of £5,000, he isnt up to our standards & at 24, he's to old to be considered a prospect.

Backup striker Scott Williamson moves to Raith Rovers for £8,000. He was almost never used last season outside of substitute appearances once we were wining in order to rest Simon Murray's legs due to him not being the right kind of player to fit our system,

 

Edited February 17, 2023 by Swaban

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On 16/02/2023 at 03:15, Blarney said:

Excellent read. I've always had an affinity toward Scottish Football with the Celtics being one of my favorite clubs in the world.

Thanks mate! with a bit of luck we will be able to give Celtic a run for their money in the not to distant future

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2 more interview requests, this time from Nimes & FC Metz. If things keep going the way that they are, we will have to put together an email template so that we can save some time in politely declining all of these offers & letting the clubs know that if they want to make use of our services then they should have been more organised & invented the passing game all those years ago!

 

Transfer Business

In

based upon our outgoings, our absolute priority is a first choice keeper & right back. Scott Taggart comes in at right back on a free transfer, having decided against signing a new contract with league 1 side Alloa Athletic. It will be interesting to see how he copes in making the jump from League 1 straight to the SPL however he certainly looks to be an upgrade on Naismith, whilst costing us half the amount in wages.

I was gutted to see Calum Ferrie leave after his performances last season as I felt he could still do a job for us in the SPL but I didnt want to keep a player that didnt want to be here, no matter how good they are & £150,000 was just to much money to turn down given the circumstances. However, looking at his replacement Jamie Sneddon who comes in on a free transfer having decided against renewing his contract with Partick Thistle the sadness of losing Ferrie is fading & we already find ourselves asking "who was that lad we had in goal again last season?"

Next up, we have Joe McGlyn. I hadn't planned on signing another striker, having planned to keep goal machine Simon Murray as our first choice striker & using January signing Michael McKenna as our backup option once we had managed to bring in another midfielder. However when I noticed that McGlyn was available on a free transfer after being released by Burnley I jumped at the chance to sign him. He looks about as good as Simon Murray but at 20 years old, he is 11 years younger. My initial thoughts are that Murray will remain our first choice for this season, after which he will then become backup to McGlyn if all goes well. However, it's possible that this change may occur sooner depending upon how they both get on.

Now that we have strengthened at Right Back, I think our weakest position is now Thomas O'Ware at Centre Back. After sifting through scout reports, I stumbled upon Callum Fordyce who looks a decent player and is fairly good on the ball for a centre back at our current level & on a free transfer it seems stupid not to sign him having left League 1 side Airdrie. Much like Taggart, he's likely to be a fairly short term option being in our starting 11 for the coming season then either becoming a backup for a stronger player or being shipped out elsewhere.

Our final signing thus far is holding midfielder Stuart Bannigan, yet another free transfer having been at Partick Thistle for 10 years he decided to move on to a new challenge. He looks to be a good player & I'm hoping that playing him at DM rather than as a box to box midfielder we will 2-3 seasons out of the 30 year old. Jack Thomson will be his rotational option.

 

Im very impressed with our transfer business so far. We manage to bring in 5 new players, without spending a penny on transfer fee's. 4 of which will be definite starters, with Joe McGlyn looking like being Simon Murray's understudy for this season before stepping up himself

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Further Transfer Business

We are fairly thin out wide, so decided to dip into the market to find a winger who can compete for places with Savoury & Thomas. We managed to bring in 32 year old Gary Mackay-Steven, probably the biggest name currently at the club on a free transfer having been released by Hearts at the end of last season.

Whilst looking for a winger, I also found Frank Ross at League 1 side Dunfermline who can play on either wing & is good with both feet. He had a release clause of £37,500 & after a couple of rejected bids it became clear that Dunfermline wouldn't take a penny less so we activated it.

In what can only be described as a nightmare scenario, new signing Gary Mackay-Steven picked up an injury in his first preseason game having come off the bench at half time. He's out for 9-12 weeks! Meaning we have had to look for a replacement for the new signing already, before the season has even begun. Calumn Morrison comes in for a fee of £15,000 from League 1 side Falkirk. He looks to be a decent option & at 24 years old, we'll hopefully get a few years out of him if he performs

 

 

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The season preview makes for grim reading, with us being overwhelming favourites to finish bottom of the league even after we've strengthened the squad significantly.

 

July 2023

We get off to a strong start in the Premier Sports Cup, winning all 4 games in the group stage & easily advancing to the second round, where we face fellow SPL side Hibernian.

Throughout these 4 games, I rotated between Simon Murray & Joe McGlynn up front & both players staked their claim for the starting spot, scoring 2 & 4 goals respectively in the 2 games that they each played, making it a tough decision. Unfortunately, Simon Murray picked up an injury on the eve of our first league game against Rangers, who have battered us on every occasion so far. This means he will also miss our Premier Sports Cup fixture against Hibernian as well as our league match against Hearts at the end of August. This presents a huge chance to the young Joe McGlynn to displace Murray earlier than initially planned.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Swaban

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August 2023

The first game of the season, which happens to be our first game in the top division since 1958 pits us against Rangers in what can only be described as a baptism of fire! If ever there was a stat to sum up the gulf in quality between ourselves & Rangers, it would be this: our entire wage weekly wage bill is £26,564 per week & Rangers have 5 players all paid £30,000+ per week & a further 10 paid £20,000+

With the excuses now out of the way, I genuinely feel that we gave a great account of ourselves in a 1-0 away defeat to Rangers. Whilst we were behind in XG. We dominated possession against a vastly superior side & were equal on both shots & shots on target

Throughout August, we managed to beat both Motherwell (predicted to finish 6th) & Hearts (predicted to finish 3rd) in the league. Meaning we currently find ourselves 3rd in the league, with 6 points from a possible 9. It'll come as no surprise to know that both Celtic & Rangers find themselves at the top of the table with a perfect record of 9 points from a possible 9.

Between the Motherwell & Hearts wins, we were knocked out of the Premier Sports Cup by  Hibernian. If im honest, Im not at all bothered by this & will probably see it as a blessing so that we can concentrate on the league & keep our players as fresh as possible.

A couple of days after the Hibernian game, first choice Left Back Andrew Steeves got a hip injury in training. Meaning he wont play for 4-8 months!

This left us in dire need of a new Left Back, with only Tommy Robson being a half decent option there. Thankfully we still had a decent bit of transfer budget left having mostly brought in free transfers & as a result we managed to bring in 24 year old Tony Gallacher for £33,000 from St. Johnstone who were relegated from the SPL last season. Gallacher looks to be as good as Steeves, if not arguably better as well as having two fully functional hips, which is something that I look for in a player. Thank god this happened whilst the transfer window was still open!

Edited May 12, 2023 by Swaban

[Blarney]

4 hours ago, Swaban said:

The season preview makes for grim reading, with us being overwhelming favourites to finish bottom of the league even after we've strengthened the squad significantly.

 

July 2023

We get off to a strong start in the Premier Sports Cup, winning all 4 games in the group stage & easily advancing to the second round, where we face fellow SPL side Livingston.

Throughout these 4 games, I rotated between Simon Murray & Joe McGlynn up front & both players staked their claim for the starting spot, scoring 4 & 3 goals respectively in the 2 games that they each played, making it a very tough decision. Unfortunately, Simon Murray picked up an injury on the eve of our first league game against Hearts, who are predicted to finish third, behind the big boys. This means he will also miss our Premier Sports Cup fixture against Livingston as well as our league match against Rangers at the end of August. This presents a huge chance to the young Joe McGlynn to displace Murray

Ouch... 900-1.  Not great odds there, mate.

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September 2023

A good month in the league, picking up 6 points from a possible 9, with our only lose coming against Aberdeen even if they did demolish us 5-1, with our only goal coming from what looked like a rather soft penalty. We find ourselves in 3rd place at the end of the month, 6 points behind league leaders Rangers & 3 points behind second place Celtic who suffered a 4-1 defeat to Rangers there are some promising signs at Queen's Park.

 

 

October 2023

A tough month, 3 points from a possible 12 in the league with our only win coming against Livingston. Defeats to both Celtic &  Hibernian were to be expected, however we should have done better against Inverness CT, who were also promoted last season.

These results see us slip to 5th in the table, a position I would be more than happy with if we could somehow maintain it throughout the season!

 

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

After a longer than expected hiatus, we are back! having refreshed my memory of the save, we are hoping to to finish in the top 10 this season, thereby avoiding the dreaded relegation play off & with us sat in 5th place with 10 games played its not impossible. We will however have to improve on our recent form having picked up a mere 3 points from our past 5 league games.

November 2023

November saw us pick up a possible 4 points from 9, losing our first match against Dundee United who leapfrog us in the table, before picking up 3 points against 9th place Ross County & then rounding out the month with a 0-0 draw against Hearts who somehow find themselves 9th in the table. A decent month all in all, 4 points from 9 isn't going to win us any titles, but it'll certainly keep us safe from relegation which for now, is something that'd im more than happy with.

 

December 2023

A busy month, with 6 league games see's us face off against 2 of the top 3 in Rangers & Aberdeen as well as both Motherwell & St. Mirren who at the beginning of December find themselves propping up the table on 8 points a piece. Wins against the latter 2 teams would go a decent way towards keeping us safe from the threat of relegation, despite it still being early in the season.

An undefeated month in the SPL! made even more impressive by the fact that we managed  0-0 draws against both Rangers & Aberdeen. We pick up an massive 14 points, including a 6-0 thumping of St. Mirren which see's us increase the gap between ourselves & the relegation playoff spot to 20 points & we are now on an 8 game unbeaten run, not bad for a newly promoted side!

With our excellent run of form coinciding with our training facilities upgrades being completed, I decided to ask the board to further improve the training facilities, increase youth recruitment & increase junior coaching budget. Whilst they laughed me out of the room for asking for further upgrades to the training facilities, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they agreed to increase our youth recruitment to "good" & our junior coaching budget to "excellent academy coaching". Its nice to know that the board are behind me & share my vision of producing our own talent, rather than having to rely on the market.

So far, we have sold out every single home game this season, barring our Premier Sports Cup fixtures against League 1 sides FC Edinburgh & Annan. Im hoping that once we have a bit of money in the bank having established ourselves in the SPL, the board will agree to expand the stadium.

Next up, we have January & with it the transfer window opens! I've spent the past few month scouting players fairly heavily which has allowed me to draw up a short list of targets in order to improve the squad however with only £1200 available in the wage budget, players are going to have to leave if we are to bring in reinforcements.
 

 

[SixPointer]

Nice to have you back!

Straight into an unbeaten run and dishing out a 6-0 along the way 

[Swaban]

Transfers

Out

Backup CB Charlie Fox has been kicking up a fuss for a couple of months, saying he wants to leave to secure first team football. I offered him out to clubs & Championship side Hamilton offered £5,000 for him which I snapped their hand off for as not only was Fox no longer good enough to play a part at the club, outside of being a backup option. He was also collecting a wage of £800 per week which means that we now have £2,000 available in the wage budget in order to strengthen the squad.

Midfielder Aaron Splaine is another player who isn't good enough to play a part any longer. Brought in on a free last season, he only featured in 10 games, half of which were substitute appearances & this year, he is yet to even make the bench. As a result, he moves on to Championship side Ayr for a fee of £5,000 & more importantly, freeing up another £475 per week in wages for a player that was just being played to train.

Tommy Robson, who by now has become our third choice left back, behind both Tony Gallacher &  Andrew Steeves was starting to complain about game time and asked to leave. He moves on to Championship side Dundee for a fee of £7,000
https://gyazo.com/ecac645731f255529a7e0169685162f0

Right Back Scott Taggart also leaves the club. As our starting Right Back, he is not a player that I planned to sell. Particularly as we only signed him 6 months ago, after he decided against renewing his contract at League 1 side Alloa I was uncertain as to how he would deal with the step up to the SPL & he has been solid yet unspectacular in the first half of the season with an average rating of 6.95. When fellow SPL side Inverness CT bid £40,000 for him, I countered with £80,00 before we eventually settled on a fee of £55,000 for the 32 year old, who was signed on a free transfer at the beginning of the season. 

In

Just the 1 arrival so far, 26 year old Right Back Aaron Comrie comes in from Championship side Dunfermline for a fee of £32,500. He's a player that I had scouted earlier in the season & as soon as we received a bid for Scott Taggart, I decided that I would only allow him to leave if we could talk Aaron Comrie into replacing him. At 26, he is 6 years younger than Taggart with one of our aims being to reduce the average age of the squad, this is a step in the right direction.

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

1 hour ago, SixPointer said:

Nice to have you back!

Straight into an unbeaten run and dishing out a 6-0 along the way 

Thanks mate, glad to be back!

I couldn't have asked for more upon returning, whilst I don't expect it to last much longer I'm more than happy with the position we find ourselves in at the moment.

[Swaban]

January

We head into the new year on a fantastic run of form, unbeaten in our last 8. We do however face 4th place Hibernian & league leaders Celtic, who find themselves 5 points clear of Rangers at the top of the table with 19 games played. We will have to somehow find a result against both of these teams if we are to extend our unbeaten run to 10 games.

Against Hibernian we find ourselves 2-0 down inside the first 25 minutes, with our unbeaten run crashing down around us. Joe Mcglynn decides to take matters into his own hands, grabbing 2 first half goals to level the score going into half time. We then cling on for dear life in the second half & manage to keep the score level, securing an important point & extending the unbeaten run to 9! A result we were lucky to get as we spent the majority of the game in our own half under pressure.

Next up, Celtic convincingly beat us 3-0 to end our unbeaten run of 9 games. This result could have easily been 6-0, 7-0 & its only thanks to a heroic performance by Jamie Sneddon, who made a ridiculous 12 saves!

The Celtic result looks to have dashed our confidence, and with it our form which capitulated. We lose every remaining game in January including being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Championship side Dundee. Yet somehow, we still find ourselves sat in 5th place with the gap between us and the relegation playoff remaining at 20 points.

On a more positive note, the Youth Intake Preview suggests a golden generation. I wont get too excited after being told the same about last years intake & ultimately being underwhelmed by it, only time will tell.

[Swaban]

February 2024

After a disappointing January, picking up 1 point from a possible 12 & being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by a Championship team, we need to bounce back quickly as the longer a poor run of form lasts, the more difficult it is to turn things around.

We manage to do exactly that, picking up 7 points from a possible 12, with our only defeat coming against Rangers. A 1-1 draw against Hearts who are languishing in 8th place, despite the season preview predicting a 3rd place finish for them. Wins against bottom sides Inverness CT & St. Mirren round off a strong month. Hopefully we've steadied the ship, we remain in 5th place which is where we've been since October, currently sat 3 points above Dundee United in 6th, there's a slim chance we can finish in the championship group with 6 games to go before the split. With that said, I'd still be more than happy to enter the relegation group

[Swaban]

March 2024

Another month where we are able to grind out results. We are starting to look fairly solid in defence & as a result are becoming difficult for teams to breakdown (with the exception of Celtic & Rangers) 5 points from a possible 12, with our only defeat coming in the form of a 2-1 loss against league leaders Celtic. A 0-0 draw against Livingston was as boring as it looks on paper, thanks to an early red card for Dylan McGeouch which meant that I took the decision to slow the game down as much as possible whilst trying to hang on to the ball.

The tally of 5 points, see's us retain 5th place in the table for the 6th month in a row, stretching all the way back to October! It also means that we now need only a single point to mathematically ensure that we finish in the top 10, avoiding the dreaded relegation play off.

 

We also received our first 2 interview offers of the season in March, first of all from Famalicao, who find themselves in 8th place in the Portuguese league. The season preview has them as predicted to finish 6th, which seems a little harsh to sack the manager, as with the previous interview offers, we reject it out of hand.

A week or so later, we are approached by Silvio Berlusconi's Monza, who are currently sat 18th in Serie A, 1 points from safety with 9 games left to play. Despite being tempted by Silvio's infamous "bunga bunga" parties, we reject this offer too.

Youth Intake Day!

Now, onto the most exciting day of the season, youth intake day. With the suggestion of a possible "golden generation" both this year & last year, my expectations have been somewhat tempered due to a very underwhelming intake last year. 

Looking through the players of this years intake, I'm over the moon. We have a number of class players, with midfielders Edin Hayes & Scott O'Kane looking like being the standout players, both are already 2 start current ability. O'Kane does however have an unambitious personality, which we will have to train out of him. With us being 12 points behind 4th place Hibernian with 7 games to go in the season, It is likely that both Hayes & O'Kane will get some game time in the final matches of the season.

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

NXGN 2024: The 50 best wonderkids in football

Normally, I dont pay too much attention to this when it comes through, as I'm unable to sign these kinds of players. However I spotted that Jamie Donley currently on loan at Hibernian, finished in 3rd place! Moving forwards, I think I will continue to document the NXGN each year & If anyone is interested in the stats & attributes of of anyone in the list, I can post them.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by Swaban

[Swaban]

April 2024

With 3 points from our final 2 league games before the split into championship/relegation groups, we ensure qualification into the championship group. We remain in 5th position, 4 points above 6th place Dundee United who we are competing against for entry into the Europa Conference League Qualifying Rounds.

We suffer a 1-0 loss to Aberdeen in our first Championship Group match, however Dundee United are beaten 2-0 by Rangers to preserve our 2 point lead over them in the table & with it, our European dream lives on.

We are also offered an interview by Montpellier, who find themselves in 16th place in Ligue 1. 1 point from safety, again we reject it as we have done so with the others.

[karanhsingh]

Nice idea for a save, love the history of the club and hope you can emulate it!

[Swaban]

On 15/05/2023 at 19:21, karanhsingh said:

Nice idea for a save, love the history of the club and hope you can emulate it!

Thanks mate!

[Swaban]

May 2024

With 4 games to play, we sit 2 points above Dundee United in the battle for Europa Conference League qualification & we still have to play them in what will be a vital match in deciding who qualifies.

We pick up a point against Dundee United, in the first game of the month which had me worried, given that our final 3 games come against Hibernian, Celtic & Rangers where we could very realistically pick up 0 points.

A draw against Hibernian & defeats to both Celtic & Rangers see's up pick up only 2 points in the final month of the season, from a possible 12.  Thankfully Dundee United had just as poor an end to the season as we did, meaning that we've done it! Europa Conference League qualification in our first season back in the Premiership!

The board set our initial season budgets at £28.500 per week wages, a mere £3000 per week more than we a currently spending & a transfer budget of £1,690,000. We are going to have to be smart in our summer recruitment to strengthen the squad with these budgets. 

When you compare our wage budget to the rest of the teams in the division, it becomes very clear that we overachieved this season. We have the lowest budget in the league at £1.21mio per year despite finishing 5th. When you compare that to the teams around us, I think we can be very proud of our efforts for the season. I am however worried that once the transfer window opens, other teams in the league may come calling for our players, some of which we may struggle to replace given the wage budget we have.

[Swaban]

23/34 stats

A look through some of the stats for the season shows that our self-imposed tiki-taka style is working well, with us having the 3rd highest Pass Completion, Pass Completion % & possession in the league. It goes without saying that Celtic &  Rangers are the 2 teams ahead of us in all of these stats.

As mentioned previously, we have the smallest stadium in the league, with a capacity of 2,000 (the next smallest is relegated Inverness CT at 7,750). We sold this out for every home games this season, with an average attendance of 100%. With a current bank balance of £1,355,842 I haven't bothered asking the board to expand the stadium. Hopefully we can earn a bit of money through playing in Europe & then convince the board to expand.