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No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt Chapter 2: An Embalassment of Riches A nice message to get, but although this team is great, I think we've probably hit a ceiling. We could spend another few years building them up, dominating Wales, and maybe making inroads to the Champions League, but with the new format it's going to be incredibly difficult to have much in the way of success. That isn't what this save is about either, so I'm afraid, it's goodbye. But in something I've never seen before, sharply moustachioed director Matty Sharp begged me not to go. I did suggest something he could do that would make me reconsider, but I can't remember what it was, and it didn't really matter anyway. I stood by my decision, and off I went. So it was back to looking for jobs, and now I could do so from a position of strength. I could also afford to be picky, and hopefully get a job at a side that was already set up to knock off some extra trophies. I might have to wait a few months until one came available, but that was fine. So I settled in. Then this came up. I didn't really want to go to England at all, let alone this early, but this is an intriguing option. They have just been relegated from the Championship on the final day, so should be in a good position to go straight back up again this season. There may be some financial issues, but surely they're not insurmountable, right? I've spent nothing but time in Wales you absolute loon! (Yes, yes, I know Swansea are technically in England, but still) But even ridiculous questions like that weren't too off-putting, and with trepidation, I got back on the train, and tried to see if my old return ticket from a few years ago would still work. I'm going back to Swansea.

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt Chapter 2: An Embalassment of Riches What a crazy year. We go from the rags of Swansea University to the riches of Bala, and end up playing in the Nou Camp in a Champions League knockout tie. Still not exactly sure how it was achieved, especially given that we only just managed to retain the title. But still, with regards to the actual aims of the save, we're now five trophies down with one more possible. Ah, the Welsh Cup. Absolutely gutted that we didn't manage to tie that one up after how well we had been doing elsewhere. There will be absolutely no complacency this time around, and if it means we sacrifice other competitions, we are bringing home that Cup. Bringing it home so I can disappear in a puff of smoke. Transfers were a bit more ambitious this year, but we're still pretty hamstrung by the league selection rules, and to a lesser extent those for the Champions League. We have massive gaps where we could be registering players that need to be left blank because of home-grown rules, so although we have an insane amount of money thanks to our Champions League run, we'll struggle to spend it given a) the really expensive signings won't be interested, and b) we wouldn't be able to register as many players as we could afford to buy otherwise. The strategy will be to pick up as many highly rated youngsters as we can in the hope they can do a job and not need to be registered, but that will always prove difficult. The worst news came when Jamie Neal ended up leaving for St Mirren. A paltry 500k was a bit of a kick in the teeth to lose a highly rated youngster like him, particularly one I've taken with me to two clubs now (future guy here, because I'll forget otherwise, I've just checked, and after only appearing 8 times for St Mirren that season, he was sold to Man City for 195k, where he's yet to make an appearance. Raging.). He also left right in the middle of the Champions League qualifiers, on the eve of the domestic campaign. Which is less than ideal. I brought in a replacement who wasn't quite as good, but them's the breaks. We definitely have a squad capable of achieving our goals this season. First up, the Champions League, and against all odds we've done it again. We almost didn't though, with Linfield taking us oh so close in the 2nd Qualifying Round before we eventually won on penalties. A big sigh of relief there, although it might have ended up being better for our domestic campaign had we crashed out. We were rarely troubled after that, putting in absolutely massive home performances against Ferencvaros and Kairat to take our place in the Group Stage once again. This team continues to surprise me. Unbeaten after playing half of our group games is ridiculous, even if it all comes crashing down to Earth when you meet the big boys. We went into the playoff round again, this time a bit more comfortably, but predictably came unstuck as PSG beat us to death in both legs. Still, it's another stupid amount of money into the coffers (£2.8m per group stage win...), and it wasn't even a priority this year. If last year was tough in the league, this year was the complete opposite. A couple of poor results - another to the ****ing Met - but outside of that we were imperious. As we went into the split, we hadn't secured anything, given there's still 30 points to play for there. But it would have taken quite a collapse. A collapse that was just never on the cards. Unbeaten in the Championship Conference and we sewed up the league nice and early. With Europe gone, and the league comfortable, we could now turn our attentions to the cup competitions and making absolutely sure we got over the line there. And over the line we well and truly got. I couldn't have cared any less about the Challenge Cup, so put out a team made up of the tea lady, a few Salvation Army band members, and some tourists that got lost, and we still almost conspired to get through. Ayr beat us on penalties though. We're so bad at penalties. But that was the one single blemish on an absolutely impeccable cup record this year. The league cup was secured in mid-January, but it was the Welsh Cup we were interested in. We weren't at our best in the Semi, despite having a fresh, rested squad, but we still made it through. Then we topped it all off with probably the quintessential Bala Town performance in my time with them. There were a lot of nerves going into it, knowing that one insipid performance could mean a whole season needed to make up for it, but safe to say I needn't have worried. We were 2-0 up in 15 minutes, at which point I decided that, since it was probably my last game, I'd bring in the probably departing Jack Davies to play a 4-2-4 and really embarrass our opponents. Because I'm petty like that. By half-time it was 5-0, with Lee Jackson scoring 4. We added two more after the break, but it was all academic. A Rolls Royce performance from a Rolls Royce team, and that's the final Welsh trophy secured.

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt Chapter 2: An Embalassment of Riches I arrived in the far North of the country at Maes Tegid, a quaint wee stadium that sees Bala play all their domestic games. They travel 132 miles down the road to Cardiff City Stadium for their European games (what little they get). Wiki seems to disagree, saying they use the nearer Bellevue stadium in Rhyl, but guess things have changed over the time the save's been running. Anyway, I arrived fairly quickly to make sure they didn't have time to take it back. This is a massive opportunity to cross off the three remaining trophies in Wales, and potentially move on after just one season. That'll take a perfect record though, so I'm planning for two seasons. Anything more than that would be a failure. But this first communication from my new employers is...interesting. They expect a league and cup double, which is fair enough. They want to be competitive in the Challenge Cup, which is also fair enough. That's technically a Scottish competition by the way, to which a few select clubs from around the UK are invited. So we could end up crossing off another one with luck. The real interesting part is the Champions League expectation. "Be competitive" is pretty vague, particularly when you look at the club's history in Europe. As far as I can tell, in the life of the save, they are yet to win a Champions League tie, falling at the first round on all three previous occasions. They've also seemingly never won a Conference League tie, and have never participated in the Europa League. To me, that doesn't scream competitive, that screams "just go and play the game, you're getting pumped, the fans'll get a tan, it's all good". And given that a few days later we were given odds of 10000-1 for the Champions League, and described as "one of the weakest teams in the competition", I'm not really sure what to think. In terms of transfers, my first point of order was to go back to Swansea Uni and steal the goalkeeper I brought to the club. Jamie Neal was an absolute star, and really deserved to be playing at a higher level. He was better than anyone I had, so a total no-brainer. But outside of that, there wasn't really a whole lot that needed to be done. We had a decent budget, but there wasn't a lot that needed to be done with it. We are the best side in Wales without any signings, so as long as we keep hold of our best players for a couple of seasons, we should be good. I don't even know what to think. RFS was a good start for us. A side from a lowly footballing country just like us, and one we could gauge ourselves against. I was barely in the door, hadn't had a chance to make many signings other than Jamie Neal, so I had no idea how it would go. I needn't have worried, as we put on not one but two absolutely imperious performances to take a clear aggregate victory and head into the next round. Up next was Dynamo Kyiv, so surely that was where our journey ended. Nope. That 3-3 was a crazy game, we took the lead on all three occasions but just couldn't hold on. Immensely proud of the team, but I fully expected that we'd run out of steam in the second leg. But as we headed for extra time with the score locked at 2-2, Jack Davies pounced to score the winner and send what home fans we did have into delirium. So surely Maccabi Haifa would be the ones that took us down now. Again, no. We looked even more comfortable there, keeping two clean sheets and breezing through with a mature and assured performance to put us one tie from the Group Stages of the Champions League. Young Boys stood in our way, easily the best side we had faced so far, but they could not stop the Bala wave as we rolled over them in the first leg, winning 3-0. Scarcely believable, but we would be in the Champions League group stages as long as we could avoid a heavy defeat. We couldn't avoid the defeat, but a 2-1 was not enough to stop us. We're in the Champions League Group Stage. Oh and at the same time, we started off our league campaign by absolutely battering our nearest challengers The New Saints 4-0. Yass. And this is our reward. I don't really care, to be honest. There's very little chance we'll get anywhere near winning any of them, but the money it'll bring in will be astounding. Only slight worry is whether these added games might see us have a bit of a hangover domestically... That hangover hit earlier than expected, with Connah's Quay beating us 3 days after our triumph in Bern. However, after that we went on a great run at both ends of the pitch, progressing in the league and all three cup competitions. Unfortunately, the competition that I expected would give us the least trouble did indeed give us some as we moved into Winter. Cardiff Met Uni put in their now regular humbling of McHamish, before The New Saints got some measure of revenge for opening day. Cefn Druids then wrapped up the first round of fixtures with a 2-1 win to put us in an awkward position. I expected the cup competitions might be a bit awkward but the league would be fine, but there's now potential for everything but the Champions League to be a bit awkward. The second round of fixtures went about as well as the first did. We looked comfortable most of the time, imperious sometimes, but lapses of concentration still really cost us. Those two defeats leave us further adrift for the title, and given the standard of opposition, we really should be doing better. But one big problem is that the Champions League games are really starting to bite us in terms of fitness. A game every 3 or so days is a tough ask on a small squad, and our rotation is only doing so much. If we do lose the league, that will be why. Outside of that, cup competitions are going well, as we book a spot in the Challenge Cup Semi Finals and finally secure another trophy in the Welsh League Cup. We'll resume our quest for the Welsh Cup soon, so if we can secure that one, we'll be in a great position with just the league needed. So I said the Champions League was starting to bite, but I'm sure that's just because it's no fun chasing teams around the pitch when you're getting pumped. Right? RIGHT?! Wrong. Granted, we hardly set the place on fire, but I expected to get absolutely nothing from this competition. Instead, we got seven points, including two famous victories against sides that really should be battering us. Even in the matches we did lose, I don't think we were embarrassed, and we could be forgiven for thinking that we could have done better. But as it stood when the full-time whistle blew against Rangers, we had somehow managed to qualify for the Knockout Playoff by finishing 24th. We got absolutely destroyed by Barcelona when we got there, but what a fantastic run it was. We've probably netted around 30 million in prize money and broadcasting for it, and no matter when I leave Bala, I've set them up for some time to come. The future's bright. After all that, it's back to domestic football, and the focus needs to be sharp. We're still in three competitions, and every single one of them is crucial. Unfortunately, after starting off brilliantly in one by beating Queen of the South in the Challenge Cup Semi Final, we crashed out of the Welsh Cup to Taff's Well. An absolutely sickening result which means that no matter what we'll have to be here at least one more season. Especially galling as it was against a side we'd only just beaten 5-0 in the league. What it perhaps does mean is that the league isn't quite as important. It'll **** off the board, but if we do miss out we know we'll be here next year anyway. But it was hard to think like that, even whilst that league was slipping away. Another bruising result to that most hated of teams, Cardiff Met Uni, and then a draw with Connah's Quay left us seven points adrift of The New Saints. We still had to play them twice, but at this stage if we slipped up anywhere, we probably handed them the title. We beat them 2-1 away from home, then followed it up with vengeance against both Taff's well and the Met. Queen's Park proved to be no match for the Bala Machine as we went onto foreign turf and lifted the Challenge Cup. Another crossed off, and with three games to go, we could still get the league. An absolutely massive 3-0 win against The New Saints put things back into our hands, cemented by the sort of win you crave against Connah's Quay. If we won our final game away against the Druids, we'd be Champions. As you can see, we drew... But The New Saints lost. Champions.

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt Chapter 1: University Challenged Last year was a bit of a body blow, but it felt like going on was the right thing to do. This year...is it really? I think we could probably improve to become a bit more stodgy and tough to beat, but is the talent really out there to be allow us to do that? Is it possible to put together enough of a good run of form to grab the cups we're missing? Will we even manage to keep up the form that's left us clinging onto the edge of the Championship Conference? All valid questions, but none that I really had any answer to. It felt like there still weren't many opportunities out there, certainly for a manager with so little experience. I applied for a few jobs, and got laughed away from almost as many. For those that didn't, I attended interviews, but none seemed interested in taking things any further. So I grudgingly started to prepare myself for another season in Port Talbot, and started making some signings. But then something quite strange happened. I almost gave it a double take. Bala Town, who were fresh off of a second successive title, and a domestic treble, were without a manager. Phil Fletcher - the beloved Phil Fletcher - had left the club for Blackpool (the club, not on holiday) and they sought me out. I'm not sure why, certainly their talk of my "high-tempo pressing game", given I've been throwing strategies at the wall for years with Swansea. But this became an all-encompassing need. I just had to get this job, and if I didn't, I'm not sure I could recover. I certainly couldn't go back to that leaky-roofed office in the bowels of Port Talbot's "stadium", sifting through report cards of 3.8 million amateur footballers to find the one that might make the grade. So I made a decision. I've no idea if this will make any difference to my prospects with Bala, but to me an unemployed manager is a better prospect than one already attached (even though it's probably pretty easy to buy out an amateur contract presumably written on a napkin). If Bala said no, I'd find somewhere else, as I'm almost certain we've hit a wall there. Bala-bound. Fire up the local transport networks - I'm going North.

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt Chapter 1: University Challenged So taking a step back, removed from the awfulness that was that end to the season, it's time to take stock. A 6th placed finish with a side like Swansea University is a good thing, and the board agreed. It's not like there's other clubs battering down my door desperate to hire me, so makes sense to keep plugging away here and try and build up a reputation. I still think there's an outside shot of another cup trophy, and in the meantime I'll just keep my eye out for any job openings that would represent a significant step up. Signings were once again difficult. With amateur clubs, you can pretty much assemble an absolute army of a squad with no financial outlay, but in the days of transfer windows and squad registrations, that has become more difficult. Wales in particular have a very stringent rule that you can only register 25 players for the league. And four of those 25 have to be basically home-grown prospects. For us, who seem to only produce absolute jobbers, and who wouldn't be able to keep anyone around who was actually any good, that's going to be difficult. You don't have to register U19s, but again, the chances of getting anyone that's in that lovely area between being good enough to make a difference for us, but not good enough to make a difference for a better side, and under 19 are extremely slim. So we're essentially going into each season with a 21 man squad, making it a case of desperately trying to find a player who is better than an option we already have, and then releasing that worse option once he signs. Just no space for anyone else. As such, another lean summer with a few good additions, but probably not enough to repeat our good season. First round of fixtures, and we're doing...ok. In the league at least, as the cups remain an unmitigated disaster. We'll start there, as Haverfordwest ended our League Cup run pretty quickly after a dour 0-0 draw led to penalties. We did get through to the 4th round of the Welsh Cup, but again another penalty shootout defeat. We're really bad at penalties. The League has been fairly solid. Mid-table form again. With our cup runs over, it's basically a pointless season now. Second round of fixtures, and our mid-table form is proved. We once again make it to the Championship Conference, but once again it looks like it'll be another minging procession when we get there. Near enough a carbon copy of last season, with one decent win, and then a parade of absolute misery after. We did manage to keep a bit of a tighter defence though, with the crushing hammerings of last season being replaced by apathetic surrender. Progress. But don't worry, there's still the European Playoff to attend to! And that's us been attended to.

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt Chapter 1: University Challenged But was it job done yet? No, of course it wasn't. I wasn't going to leave a club after what seemed like five minutes, when I doubt two very low-ranking trophies would turn too many heads. I would give it at least another season and see what this side could do when the quality stepped up. However, that was going to be difficult. In case you weren't aware, Swansea University are one of those rare clubs set to be eternally amateur. There's not so much a glass ceiling with this club, more a three-feet thick bank vault one. It would be a massive ask to overhaul even the semi-professional sides in the league, let alone the professional ones. But it's worth a shot, at the very least. I don't have records of my transfers or anything, but I'll be able to sum them up. A whole lot of meh, to be honest. There's some good prospects in there, but anyone of real quality isn't going to want to accept an amateur contract when they could probably pick up a semi-professional one somewhere better. And any good players we did have could easily be taken away from us without much of a fight. Not a great place to be in when you're trying to build a side that could survive, let alone push for trophies. I scrimped and saved, while sadly watching our finances (that I can't touch) tick on past comfortable and into secure, and managed to put together a team that I thought could compete. So how did we do? The Welsh league splits in two once 22 games are played, so these are the games leading up to that point. It couldn't really have gotten off to a worse start with a bruising introduction to a top league side. Cardiff Met Uni battered us in the Valleys University Derby (not a real thing) in the sort of performance that left me pretty worried going into the season. They're probably the sort of side that will sit around mid-table, and they looked significantly better. It's also an early exit from the League Cup, which is one of the trophies we probably stood some chance of winning. However, it ended up being an unfounded fear, as we took to life in the Premier League quite well. After an opening day defeat to Llandudno, only the New Saints and Cefn Druids managed to lay a real glove on us for well over half the season. We could have turned some of those draws into victories, but the one against Bala in particular was very much a point gained rather than two lost. We also did very well in the Cup, albeit against lower league opposition. However, it all went to hell as soon as we faced the New Saints in December. A comfortable 3-0 defeat led to an absolute collapse of form, and we only managed to pick up a single point in five games. Before then we were riding high, probably looking at a comfortable top-half finish and participation in the Championship conference (the fancy name for the top six after the split). Now we were hanging on by a thread. Luckily, we focused when it really mattered, rounding out December with a 3-1 win against Airbus, and then getting a 91st minute winner against Connah's Quay to jump into 6th and secure a top-half finish. This is what peak performance looks like. Now, granted, we were going to now have two rounds of games against sides with actual, meaningful budgets, and much better players than us, but the absolute collapse here was quite something. In our first round of games we picked up a great three points against Aberystwyth, but it's kind of offset slightly by conceding twenty goals in four games. Amongst them was a bruising 4-0 defeat to our cup nemesis Cardiff Met Uni. Despite being unbeaten against them in the league after that 4-1 League Cup defeat at the start of the season, we completely capitulated and sadly crossed off another potential trophy. March saw us slightly right the ship, shoring up the defence slightly and getting three creditable draws in a row against tough opposition. But the horse had already bolted, been chased down, and murdered in a layby. But don't worry everyone, because there's a slight quirk to the structure here. The top three get a chance at European football, but the teams in 4th to 7th get put into a playoff to determine the 4th European qualifier. It wasn't really going to mean much to us given we can't benefit from the increased finances, but finishing off the season by securing a spot would be a great end.

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt Chapter 1: University Challenged As I said in the opening post, I've already charged through a few seasons so unfortunately these early ones are going to be a bit sparse with content. I've taken some screenshots and still have a few of the saves so hopefully I can fill in some gaps, but it is what it is. Normal service will resume once I catch up. So when I arrived, you've already seen what a good position I was in. But I had no idea just how good. This was our very limited fixture list going into the end of the season. It was a stretch, but it was possible that we could secure four trophies in what could end up being nineteen games, should we progress in all the cups. Absolutely mad. Of course, that would be a bit of a shock, particularly in the case of the Welsh Cup where we were going to be up against the big boys, starting with Connah's Quay. The League Cup would probably also be a stretch, with newly invigorated Bala Town waiting for us in just my second match in charge. However, that Tier 2 League Cup is an absolute must-win, as we're easily the best side left. Two trophies would be a brilliant start to things. But what about after that? Obviously early days, as I could still screw it up (if I lose that Tier 2 League Cup, I'll need to return to get it later) but I'd need to make a decision on whether to stick with the club for a tilt at the top league - in what could be a very difficult season, or resign and try to look again after what would be less than 6 months in charge. One vote for the latter would be cast because of this Safe to say I'm not going to be doing a youth-only save here. Job well and truly done, although I can't really say comfortably. That first game was a bit of an eye-opener. Still new to the job, we put in a pretty shaky performance, going 2-0 down before roaring back for the win. We gave a spirited but ultimately unsuccessful performance against Bala Town to cross off the chance of one trophy, and then followed it up with a very unconvincing 1-0 win at home to Llanelli Town. Then just your standard defeat for a side that had battered everyone before I arrived. Gulp. I changed some stuff around as a result and had some success, looking a lot better in the three games that followed, and then came so very close to an upset in the cup. And how do you follow up pushing a better side all the way in the cup? By losing heavily to the hilariously named Mumbles, who were easily the worst side in the league. **** sake. Luckily that didn't become a pattern, and we put together good form to stay unbeaten for the rest of the season, and eased our way to a double. But was it job done yet?

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt So before we kick off, I want to cover a bit about my aims for this career. Obviously the overall aim I've already gone through, but the journey towards that is where the variation can come in. I'm not going to aim for some development club and bring them up through the leagues to try and win everything with as few clubs as possible. I am going to take jobs to give me the best possible chance of winning a trophy as quickly as possible. If there's an opportunity to switch to a club for a few months just to grab a single trophy, I'll do it. But I expect that kind of thing might change a little if I get attached to a club. We'll see. I expect I'll probably start in one of the smaller countries, and I'll almost certainly avoid England as long as I possibly can, because I find managing there utterly soul-destroying. I guess this is some masochistic attempt at seeing whether I was right or not. So where is Archie going to go first? There were plenty of jobs out there, fair few in the lower Vanarama leagues, few dotted around Scotland, but there's nothing that really jumped out. Although I guess at this stage there's probably not going to be too many that are that attractive. But then... Ok, this doesn't look too exciting, but it is with context. The Cefn Druids - well established in the Cymru Premier - job came up, and when I applied, I was laughed out of the building. However, Eddie Odhiambo wasn't, and was given the chance to take a step up to a bigger club in a higher league. Because where were Swansea Uni right now? Well, isn't that interesting? With just twelve games to go, Swansea University were basically already Champions, but crucially weren't just yet. With a twenty-two point gap and only thirty-six left to play for, there is surely absolutely no way of being caught, so the prospective boss was almost guaranteed a trophy. So... So from Denny, the place of his birth, to Swansea (via Port Talbot), Archie's off and running.

Reserved post for stuff and things

No Passports Needed A British and Irish Steel Attempt My, my...it's been a while. I used to frequent this board a fair bit, usually starting up a new story for each game, but recently it's been...difficult. I just haven't felt much of a connection with an FM title for a long time, and the depths of this board are littered with threads started but abandoned, or sometimes just theorised and never started. It's disappointing, as I do love the writing part, but no save ever felt worth it. But now...now I'm going to subject you all to my ramblings, and there's nothing you can do about it. You may (but probably won't) remember my most popular thread I made here, with the adventures of Hamish Glengarrie, his son Archie, and one of their favourite players Bobby Nicol. A sprawling epic of a save that I absolutely adored, so hopefully this one can go some way to emulating that. But enough about me, what's the story here? The Story It should be fairly obvious to those well versed by challenges, but this will be an attempt at the "British (and Irish) Steel Challenge". To those that aren't, this is basically an attempt to win every possible trophy there is to win in every nation within Great Britain and Ireland. There are, by my counts, 40 of them, spread across the five countries, so a fair whack at all kinds of different levels. However, I'm often fond of adding in wrinkles to each challenge, so I'll be adding a number of competitions. I intend to win the UEFA competitions with any club from these countries. Not all of them, mind, I'm not mental, although it would be nice to win them at a club that isn't someone like Man City, or really any English club. And to top it off, I want to win the available international tournaments with one of them too. Again, with at least one, although preferably Scotland given my history with FM. So that makes us up to a round 47. And I'll say now, I am not going to be adhering too tightly to any of the other "rules" for these kinds of challenges. I just don't care enough. If people want to claim it's not a real attempt at the challenge, fire in. It's not really about that. It's about standing on a box on a provincial high street and making everyone listen to your inane ramblings because they've no other choice. Or something. The Manager So I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you. Hamish Glengarrie will not be returning. He had his time in the sun and to be honest, he was a failure. Always remember that Archie was the one that had the real success in that save, not big, bald Hamish. So in a fit of wild imagination, meet... Archie McHamish Yeah, he really does look like that. Ooft. The Apprentice Season 23 Winner The main difference in challenges is in the badges/experience area. I just have no interest in a proper start from the bottom tale, so this is how he'll begin. A retired local footballer who went and did some of his badges. Should give an early boost to keep my interest. And don't worry, there will still be a massive amount of failure despite this, as I'm utterly terrible at the game. The World The other wrinkle in this story is that I am not starting in 2022. I fancied something a little different, and not having the same old players kicking around, even though I'd be managing at a level where that wouldn't really matter. So I set all the leagues I'm interested in as playable - and nothing else - and set things off on holiday. Breezing straight past Archie's childhood and formative years and into the future. And where did I stop? The far-off land of November 2044... So what's happened in the decades since? England looks much as you'd expect with all the dirty, dirty money swilling around. Man City and Liverpool shared out early trophies, following on from roughly where we are at game start. Arsenal started to mount a challenge as we moved into a new decade, at which point the Saudis finally got their wish with Newcastle really throwing their weight around. 2030 was the decade of the Geordie advance, and it looks like the 2040s are going to be them here to stay, with the North (Middle) Eastern side holding off the North London clubs. And since we're on the subject, here's an illustration of what only loading these leagues does. A near domination of the Champions League from English clubs, and particularly from Newcastle. They may have only just started to close their hands around the throat of the English leagues, but they're now well-established on the continent. Man City, the perennial chasers of that elusive trophy finally won one in 2031, but Newcastle saw that, shrugged, and have rattled off six in a row. Obscene. The Europa League has given a little more variety, although you can still see just how strong the English sides are with the extra detail (*cough cough* and money *cough cough*). But nice to see a range of clubs winning. A few clubs have won it twice in the 20 some years, Spurs three, but outside of that there's been a nice range. And in the ultimate diddy cup it's the same story. Spurs with another two trophies (they get around a bit, don't they?) and to be honest, some regular appearances from the likes of Liverpool and Man Utd too. The fact that winners don't get to participate the season after is always going to throw up some new winners, but nice to see the likes of AEK, Anderlecht, Austria Wien and Mainz getting trophies. I'd say it was also nice seeing Rangers get one, but I'd be lying. And rounding out the major tournaments, here's the internationals. And it's grim, grim reading for a Scotsman. However, as an avid FM player, it's also completely unsurprising. What is absolutely brutal to see though is the 2040 Euros. England beating Scotland in their own back-yard in the final. I don't think I'd ever recover from that. Three European Championships for the English, including a retention in 2044, and then finally getting that elusive second star on their shirts in 2038. Beating Ireland though. Them active leagues doing quite a service again. But big leagues are for losers. The diddy leagues are where it's really at. The leagues where I'll be plying my trade soon, and the ones that are unashamedly dominated by a handful of clubs. First up, Ireland, and St Pat's world. They've not had it totally their own way, but out of 22 attempts, they've won 14. And those 14 trophies came in the previous 17 years. Maybe Shelbourne's win in 2044 will kickstart a bit of a revival for other clubs, but I have my doubts. I'll be keeping my eye on leagues like this, because given the punishing amount of trophies I'll need to win, getting a job at a club like St Pats is going to be an aim. Knocking out 3 or 4 trophies in one glory-filled season is always going to trump getting that many over 5 seasons of building. And speaking of big bully clubs I'd like to manage... Fair to say Northern Ireland is Linfield's territory. Glentoran are another big name in the country, but after they managed three titles on the bounce, Linfield have absolutely battered them every year since. They are absolutely a team that's on my radar. Meanwhile, in the land of the valleys, they're bucking the trend by letting two sides dominate rather than one. There isn't much to cheer about if you're not a fan of either The New Saints or Connah's Quay. And even then, putting the Nomads (at least that's that Connah's Quay used to be called, they came to Firhill once and stunk the place out, but I digress) up there seems a bit of a stretch with just three titles. It's really New Saints title that they lend out every so often. In recent years there does look to be a bit of a power shift though, with Bala Town getting one title and four second places. One to keep an eye on. And now we come to Scotland, perhaps the most shocking one of all, because that Old Firm duopoly has finally been broken. In 2035, Scotland saw something they had never, ever expected. The League splits in two at 33 games, and at that point Celtic looked like they would cruise to an unprecedented thirteen in a row. They beat Rangers in the opening game of the split to close the gap on league leaders Hibs, who could only draw with Aberdeen. Looked like the bottle was very much about to crash. Four games to go, and presumably winnable ones, and Hibs up next. A draw. Surely not? Nah, Celtic would cruise their remaining games against sides ranked lower than them, and Hibs have an Edinburgh derby next, no way they can do it. Turned out neither of them really could, Hibs drew with Hearts while Celtic lost to Aberdeen. Celtic beat St Mirren (just) while Hibs lost to Rangers. That win for Celtic put them back on top by a single point, so all they had to do was at least match Hibs result. Hibs beat St Mirren 1-0, and Celtic lost to Hearts. I can only imagine the Sophie's choice for Hearts in denying the Old Firm a title, but also handing it to their most bitter rivals. After that, the league went into a state of crazy flux with no one team managing to retain until Celtic wrestled back control in the last two years. Hearts got a title, Hibs got another, Aberdeen got two, Rangers got one. Quite a decade for the Scottish Leagues. But I've rambled on long enough. I've played through a few seasons already, so I'll give updates on those, then once I catch up I'll probably return to something more regular. On we go...

I don't see how anyone could possibly write anything here that would be simultaneously fine by the moderators, but deeply offensive to a player. And that's assuming they would actually ever see it. I don't think you've anything to worry about.

I'm not sure anyone really wants the game to turn into Top Trumps where biggest number always wins. Football isn't like that, and if it was there would be little to no point in playing as anything other than the strongest side.

League sorting rules in-game look pretty standard for the CL, but still have results between teams as the top. Given the format isn't really about that anymore, I wonder if it is bugged in some way. Did anyone in those 4 teams play each other?

But how exactly do you expect other people's opinions to be able to "replicate your tactical ideas"? With these reasons, there's even less reason to take those opinions with so much weight.

Just because it's easy enough nowadays to show all games at the same time, doesn't mean it's a good idea. Half the beauty of a World Cup is that each game is given a chance to breathe and have attention, and a lot of that magic starts to get lost once you hit round 3 of the group stage and you have to start making choices about which match to watch, or how much attention to give each one. They should be making sure they keep that aspect as much as possible. Otherwise we may as well just have a league style fixture list and have the group stage done in 7 days with everyone playing on the same day. I know we're going to America for most of the tournament, but jeezo... The 3rd placed sides qualifying isn't an ideal solution by any means, but putting this convoluted mess in place of it isn't going to be much of an improvement.

If only there was a completely free piece of software that allowed you to form your own opinion, rather than trust those of (often biased) strangers. Not one single person's opinion on the ME is going to be a substitute for your own. 100 people could tell you it's brilliant with no faults, and you could hate it, or everyone says how terrible it is, but you don't see it.

I'm sure I read that 2 died in Brazil, but no source on that or anything. I don't imagine it's hugely unusual, although it would depend on each case. You're all gathered in one place, presumably a fairly stressful schedule, climate you're potentially not used to. Tragic, obviously.

That is an interesting take, but the way Kane hits them - which in my eyes is how penalties should be hit, and that's hard - if a keeper does go the right way, he's still got a massive job on to save it. From 12 yards, you, as a keeper, probably have to move really early to save a well-struck penalty going into the corner. And that's always going to be a big risk, as you're still just guessing. It is interesting though. I can see why someone would be facing that second penalty and have those doubts. But you'd like to think your best finisher would have the confidence given his usual penalty style to stick to his convictions. Put it this way, if he rattles it in the exact same place, and Lloris saves it, it looks a lot better than going all Johnny Wilkinson.

The 4 team groups just have to be the plan. It's going to add logistical problems, but those 3 team groups are just going to be a bit **** at best, and a complete competitive disaster at worst. FIFA get a lot more games, therefore a lot more broadcasting revenue, and I'm not sure it throws up any logistical issues that are insurmountable. For 2026, you've already got three countries and all three of those have venues to spare should you need them. If you start entertaining more joint bids (as long as they're sensible) then you'll still have a decent pool of available hosts going forward.

The free-text would be potentially more interesting, although all depends on the implementation. It is also limiting, like Cobblers said. I don't think you should necessarily have to have a spotless grasp of the English (or any other language if supported) to be able to get the most out of a game. But having said that, there's probably no way you can really stop a lot of these implementations from becoming repetitive. More combinations just means it'll take longer to get repetitive. Offering some kind of free-text option might boost those options massively, but you still need to translate that into something that actually means something to the game, and if there's (number completely imagined) a million different ways you can say something, but only 10 datapoints coming out of that, then you don't have a million different ways to say it.

Yeah, I'm really struggling to see what is so revolutionary or even useful about this when purely relating to FM. It's cool tech. Obviously. And it's probably the tip of what's possible but at this stage it doesn't seem particularly interesting in an FM sense. The company I work for is taking Google Street View data and uses AI models to take those photos and determine all kinds of property data about what it sees. That's a clear business case that's going to add a huge amount of value. This? I'm yet to see anything that would. I'd far rather they went after the glaring AI problems the game has rather than chase cool shiny tech before it had time to find a clear case.

To me these just seem like, at best, they remove the need for SI to personally write the articles that appear. That could lead to not seeing the same phrases and sentences over and over again, but it's not exactly going to lead to particularly interesting ones. They seem no more human than the stilted FM ones, and variety doesn't really affect that. Models can improve to change that, but I don't think it necessarily adds much as things stand.

It's almost like looking at two numbers you aren't even meant to see isn't anywhere near enough to base outrage on.

Scenes if this whole 3-team-group stuff was just a means to get the tournament up to 64 instead.

Yeah, they're set to Always Amateur. Unless you change that prior to the save, you won't see any changes on that front.