[FM11] Cymru fo am byth! (Prestatyn)

[Flamers]

Stay with Sweden You'll get over it and come back better in Europe I'm sure!

[DSYoungEsq]

Headed to Portugal! - 2027/8 Mid-Season Sweden Report

The results of Qualifying Group I.

The Squad when all are healthy.

Swedish U-21 players. Still not much there.

We did the job, in style. We were drawn twice, both times a bit of a reminder that playing away games against even mid-level teams can be tough asks. The draw away to Romania did mean we had to get a result in the last game against the Swiss to hold them off for 1st place; we did so without too much trouble, though we certainly are not a goal-scoring machine.

The only real blot on the year has been the home loss to Croatia in a friendly scheduled to keep us fresh. Fortunately, we proceeded to blow the eastern Germans out of the water after that, which picked morale back up. And in fairness, Croatia played a very good match that day, and we were competitive, so I don't feel too badly about it all.

The draw for Portugal is a real challenge: Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey. I'm not afraid of the Swiss, for obvious reasons, but the Turks, well, let's just say that I've already had my fill of losing to Turkish squads this season! Fortunately, four of the six third-place teams now qualify for the knockouts, so the pressure to be second to Spain is not so great, but I'd prefer the safety of a guaranteed place in the second stage of the tournament.

I've scheduled another tough friendly to prepare us for the Tournament, with a date against Holland in March. No other dates are available. So bring on the sunny climes of SW Iberia!

PS: Notice that despite having done well, the confidence meter is barely off the mid-point mark. I have a feeling it's because I'm not Swedish.

[DSYoungEsq]

A House Cleaning - The 2027-8 End of Season Report

The Welsh Cup (last four rounds)

The League Cup

The Squad.

The Squad's stats (combined).

The Reserves. For a change, not people on the way out.

The Youth Rated.

The Youth Stats

Transfers This Season.

As I said, the PTFC at the end of the season is not the team we started the year with. I shed 7 players for about $3.3M in fees in January, and of those, five were definite starters in the squad. As a result, the squad is now filled with young players who show future potential, guided in their search for excellence by a very few select accomplished players. And with them, we won Wales again.

Europe

Nothing to report, here. We didn't get to play Spring Euro Footie. Made the period from January to May a bit boring.

Wales

We did what we set out to do, and in reasonable style, too. We were 27 points clear of the next team, we scored over 100 goals (more than 3 per game), and we gave up the fewest goals in the league (though we allowed almost a goal a game, poor by recent PTFC standards). Indeed, if it hadn't been for the unbelievable loss to Afan Lido where we finished with only 8 men, we would have won in all competitions 22 straight. The young players really began to gel when they got playing time together.

We smashed our way to the League Cup, but Saints pushed us deep into extra time before we could score and avoid the penalty lottery in the Welsh Cup final. The fact that that goal was scored by this year's outstanding recruit, Gareth Collins Y17 says much about his ability and growth with the team.

Individually, we did fairly well again. Though we weren't as dominant as in past seasons, several of the young players are showing up on the short list for various stats. Clearly, even after we have sold off a solid portion of our best players, we are still the cream of Welsh footie.

And sell them off we did. Out the door in January we sent David Barron - MR and Matteo Esposito - AMC for $600K each, Jordan Stamp - DL, Ollie Watts - GK, and Miroslav Novak - DL for between $150K and $250K apiece, and Thomas Andersen - DR for $300K. Then, at the very end of the month, I got an offer I didn't think I could refuse in fairness to the individual: $1.2M for striker Tom Rogers. Since I'm keeping Jamie Kirton, and since no one was going to bid on Didier Habimana (whose contract was expiring in June), Rogers remained the extra man who, while we could use, we didn't need. And when a Premier League side come asking, you really should have a good reason to say "no" to them, other than selfishly just wanting a whole bunch of really good players (who cost a lot of money salary-wise).

I did borrow one DR/L from Hajduk of Split for the second half of the season, for a nominal fee: Milan Maric. I hoped he might develop into a good future purchase for a versatile back-up outside back, who could play both sides. I love having someone like that in the team; it makes it easy to plug holes with fewer men on the bench. However, I have my eye on someone who might be an even better find for that concept, so I may offer the job to that person, and send Milan home at the end of the loan spell.

I must have done some good picking in my young players brought into the squad these last 12 months. Already, several of them are attracting interest from larger teams around Europe, including Simunac, who is likely to be the subject of some intense interest from the Premier League. But I'm intent on trying to hang onto this team for a good three years, and see where they can take us. I've almost completed the transformation (Hayward is leaving on Jul. 1, Turner is out of contract at the end of the year, and I'm putting Hall up for sale to a number of interested parties in the Championship). Thus, I anticipate that next year's starting lineup will consist of 11 players under the age of 25, and only 3 over the age of 21. We'll see what you can win with youth!

In summary, this year did NOT go according to plan at all. We intended to entice some "big" names to

PTFC, and wanted to improve our UCL result significantly. Instead, we managed to bring in only a number of young players with potential, and had to sell off most of our experienced players to limit our wage bill, when the payday of Spring Football in Europe went up in a puff of smoke. Now, we are a team in transition, building for the future. We'll ride our young bucks into the thick of the battle next year, and see where they take us.

The WPL Player Statistics.

Manager Overview.

Finances.

Phil Morris - Y7 is making the Welsh Footier of the Year Award all his, lately.

And in very interesting news, Wrexham are relegated from the Championship. What makes this news to me is that they were even IN the Championship!

[DSYoungEsq]

The Year of Reality: The Year End Summary - 2027/8

Results:

WPL: 1st 27 pts. ahead of Llanelli (P36 W31 D3 L2 F106 A25 GD+81 Pts84)

WC: Won 1-0 aet v. The New Saints

LC: Won 2-0 v. Llanelli

Europe: Won 1st tie v. Brøndby IF (DEN) 6-0 3rd Qual Phase UCL (Champions)

Won 2nd tie v. PFC Cherno More (Varna) (BUL) 6-3 Playoff UCL (Champions)

Finished 4th UCL Cup Group F W1 D0 L5 Pts 3

1-1-0 v Besiktas (TUR) 1-2 A, 0-3 H

0-2-0 v FC Barcelona (SPA) 0-4 H, 1-5 A

2-0-0 v Dinamo Moskva (RUS) 3-1 H, 1-2 A

Prestatyn Town FC Honors

WPL Player of the Year:

Jamie Kirton Still the class of the League, even in a down year.

WPL Young Player of the Year:

Orlando Bianchini Definitely improved on the left; has left his Italian ML partner Raimondo in the dust when it comes to improvement.

WPL Team of the Season: Only eight of the eleven this year: – Luca Costantini, Radomir Krstic, Héctor González Soriano, Ivan Simunac, Orlando Bianchini, Sam Johnson, Jamie Kirton, Tom Rogers. Have no doubt that at least two of the missing spaces will be filled with PTFC players next season (likely Milovanovich and Burton).

Fan's Player of the Year: Jamie Kirton. Probably his award as long as he plays for us.

WPL Manager of the Year:

I get chosen again. I'll take it; frankly, it might have been a year that Robbie Savage deserved it, as Llanelli squeezed into 2nd place in the League and made the Welsh Cup Final.

Records by PTFC and/or its Players:

No Records this season.

News for Prestatyn Town FC:

Prestatyn dropped to 24th. We collected our fewest points in Europe in several seasons.

The Wales Season Summary. Notice that Phil Morris Y7 is still winning the Welsh Footballer of the Year award.

We had a loss of $3.1M on turnover of $20M. It could have been worse, if I hadn't shed so much in wages during January.

Jamie Kirton joins the PTFC All-time Best 11. A given.

News about Wales and the World:

Wales have really dropped in the world, down now to 124th! Wales are now truly terrible. And they wouldn't make me the manager. The FA are idiots.

The WPL makes a move up in Europe to 17th. Slow haul to 3.5 stars of reputation. Gonna take a really good year from PTFC, along with some other Europen wins, I'm thinking.

Wales don't change in Europe placings. We are down to 15th place, which luckily means the seedings stayed the same.

The top five WPL teams head to Europe next season. No surprise teams.

In other news of the world:

Nothing.

[DSYoungEsq]

Portugal 2028

Group A results in detail.

The 2028 European Championship Finals Squad.

Swedish National Team matches for 2028.

Well, we managed quite a result at Portugal, '28! As you will recall, I was handed the job of managing Sweden after the '26 World Cup when Sweden didn't get out of its group. Since then, my goal as defined by the FA has been to get Sweden into the European Championship Finals, and qualify for the knockout rounds. In short, I needed to do what my predecessor couldn't. I can fairly say I've manged to outdo him; I can easily say I've managed to exceed even the FA's expectations.

Sadly, we weren't able to solve the Spanish side, even with two bites at that apple. Still, I won't feel too badly about that, since they are ranked in the top two teams in the world. It isn't like they blew us off the pitch; indeed, they had to fight to win the whole shebang. As the 11th ranked side in the world going in, I think we did quite well.

Coming into the Championship, I was not feeling confident. The Dutch pretty thoroughly trashed us back in March, in our home; the 0-2 scoreline flatters us. We managed only 6 shots in that game, none on target. As is often the case with the Swedes, their confidence began to desert them mid-game, and they couldn't rescue anything. Further, going into the Championship Finals three months later, confidence was still pretty poor. And the pundits didn't rate our chances highly, either, at 18-1.

Nor was our opening game likely to be easy, as we were paired against the Turks. But amazingly, we hung tough for a half, and then I put in a scrappy little fast kid to replace our "star" striker, and he netted a goal almost instantly after his arrival. From there, we got ourselves going and won comfortably.

Next up were the Spanish, and they manhandled us, though we limited the damage to 0-2. Both goals were scored by their wunderkind, who plays for Manchester United, and who has made life difficult in the past for PTFC, Iorin Moritz. Fortunately, the squad took the result in stride, and it didn't result in long faces when we prepared for the Swiss.

We made hard work of the game against Switzerland, who desperately tried to grab the second spot in the group. They grabbed an early lead off an own goal when the ball rebounded from the crossbar onto the back of our 'keeper and into the net. But we worked hard to rectify the situation, and with three second-half goals, had the situation in hand. Their injury time goal did nothing but cause a moment of nerves, as the referee blew the whistle to end the game shortly after. As it turns out, all the victory did was re-arrange the order of who faced whom in the knockouts, since the Swiss qualified as one of the four best third-placed teams (and so would we had we lost).

The only real surprise in the other groups came in Group D, where the French failed to win a game, and all three other teams (Cyprus included!) got through to the knockouts. The Germans held the English to second place in Group F, winning 2-0 in a bad-tempered affair that saw the team from fair Alba's shores finish with only 10 on the pitch. The class of the groups were the Spanish and the Italians, both of whom went through on perfect records with nary a goal allowed and seven scored. The Scots pipped the Poles and the Czechs for second in their group; in a thematic oddity, the Serbs and the Romanians also got nosed out of their group, though in their case to fellow Slavs in the Russians (in a group that also held the Croats, for a pan-Slavic group).

Going into the knockouts, our stay looked to be short-lived. While I was confident about beating the Bulgarians, the likely next opponents were the Italians, and that didn't bode well for us. Early betting was on semi-finals between Spain v. Holland, and Germany v. Italy; likely to be Spain v. Italy with my money on the Spanish. Thankfully, I don't bet much on these things!

We ran into a slight stumbling block in the Bulgarians. An early exchange of goals was followed by a sold defensive effort on the part of our opponents; several shots on our part were blocked by their defenders. We were forced into extra time, at which point my little super sub, Ismail Öztürk smashed home a curled shot from the top of the D. I was beginning to like my little super sub. And good news followed the win: the Italians were sent crashing out of the tournament by the Belgians, easily the shock of the event.

The Belgians, it turned out, had the ability to play to their result. We were never able to get a solid grip on the game, and it was the Lowlanders who peppered OUR goal with shots we had to deal with. Fortunately, they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with many of their kicked efforts; 11 out of 21 shots missed the target and of the saves made, almost all were from close-range headers on corner kicks or crosses. Still, it wasn't looking good for us late. Super sub Öztürk had been on the pitch since the 52nd minute with no effect. In desperation, I subbed a third ST for the AMC, and told them to go all kamikaze on the Belgians. It worked, at least enough to get us to extra time. Of course, once there, we continued our effort to make things hard on us, by getting a fullback sent off. Eventually, of course, Super Sub did his thing, and we were into the Semi-finals, and the Belgians could enjoy their flight back to Brussels.

I began to think the world was totally gone mad as we waited for the semi-final against the Germans. This was the team that had beaten the English (#1 in the world). After eking by the Cypriots, they demolished the Croats 6-1. We know how it works with Germany: 90 min. of running around on the pitch and in the end, they win. Yet, according to the press, we were the clear favorites! This flabbergasted me until I took a look at the German squad: they are entirely a "grey" team. At this point, I got thoroughly scared. My experience with such teams is that they can WAY over-achieve, and for the Germans, that had already been demonstrated. Which side, then, would show up against us?

Fortunately for us, not the over-achieving squad. We smashed one home early, they got one German sent off in the first half, and we grimly hung on til the death of the game. With this result, we were into the Final!

In the other half of the draw, things expected and unexpected were going on. The Spanish spanked the Russians, but then had an epic fight with the English, which the English should have won. It was the Manchester United star who sank them. Meanwhile, my fellow Scandinavians were doing quite well, as the Norwegians slaughtered the Dutch, while the Danes proved to the Scots they had reached their limit. Denmark then closely squeezed by the Norse, setting up a match with the Spanish. After grabbing a first half goal, the Danes defended for dear life. It took a 94th minute golazo from Spain (a beautiful putback from 30m after a cleared corner kick) to keep the Spaniards alive. The penalties result was almost anti-climactic, as Spain ran out bare winners.

Sadly, we weren't as fortunate against the Iberians. We were a bit hard-done by to lose on an own goal, but the stats don't lie, and we never really were much of a threat to the Spanish goal. I played a 5-1-3-1 setup, similar to my strongly defensive setup with PTFC, and it just wasn't enough. By the time I turned them loose to play more offensively, they lacked the needed morale and impetus, and the Spaniards saw the game out efficiently.

So we go home with our heads held high. Or, at least, we SHOULD. As you can see, the FA barely acknowledges I did anything good, and the squad aren't exactly filled with good feelings after the tournament. It's almost like I didn't manage anything decent at all. Ingrates.

As it stands, I intend to stick through the World Cup in '30, held in Germany. We got a decent qualifying group; I expect to be able to beat the Portuguese and the Cypriots; the rest are flotsam on the sea of European international soccer. Wales, as you will notice, has no chance of qualifying; they're in a group with England, and it's a stub group of five teams, which makes a best-placed second-place finish unlikely (to say nothing of getting by the Ukrainians and the Byelorussians). I have no intention of taking on the Wales job at this time, but I expect it is likely it will be up for grabs in 2030, after Wales finish last in their group and don't win a game. By then, with luck, I'll have been the manager of a World Cup Finals semi-finalist team!

[DSYoungEsq]

Youth Will Be Served - 2028/9 Initial Report

The 2028/9 Season Squad.

The "reserves." All are headed out.

Another halfway decent intake. I could get used to this!

This year is about one thing, and one thing only: develop the youth into the best in Europe, or at least, as close to it as we can get. I'll be playing them almost exclusively. The only members of the squad over 24 are two subs: Michal Bortnik - MR and Simon Connolly - ST. I'm not even really trying to bring in top-quality players; rather, any added members to the squad will be players who have future quality.

Already, I've had to fend off interest in my young bucks. Indeed, Ivan Simunac has been the recipient of the highest bid I've ever received: $3M from Liverpool. I've turned them down, but at some point, the lad is going to want to move on, I'm betting.

I've already added some depth in the back, currently lacking:

Oliver Platt - DC:

With Burda and Soriano, this young lad will make a good trio of center backs. We'll have a rotation for the heavy parts of the schedule, and some cover if one of them gets injured. He did quite well for Llanelli last season, catching my eye. Most importantly, he's got stamina to spare, so he'll be good during the busy parts of the schedule.

Jiri Vachal - DR/C:

Vachal will be joining us on 1 July; his job is to be a substitute DR/L. He'll have to be trained to play on the left, but he's got a decent left foot, so it shouldn't be too much trouble. When that's done, he'll be rated as a DR/C/L, always a nice person to have on your bench!

This year's recruitment class while not quite as good as last season's, is better than we've been getting:

Mal Davies Y18 - DM/MC:

This is a nice find for us. It means I can let Scott Hall go without any qualms; we'll have cover if Milovanovic is injured. Won't ever be a starter for us, but might well start in the WPL later for someone else.

Mark Jones Y18a = ST:

Decent enough he'll get hooked onto another WPL team after he gets let go by me in two or three seasons. Won't see much time for me other than in the Reserves, unless we have a striker crisis.

It's all about the youth this season. Let's see what they can accomplish.

Manager Overview.

Finances.

Boardroom overview.

Oh, and check out my new fitness coach: Giambattista Venturati. His motivating and discipline are low, but with a name like that, and the abilities he has, how could I say no?

[Flamers]

Youth intake screeny

[Raware]

Great Euros with the Swede's! Shame you couldn't go the full distance, but hey, there's no real shame in losing to the Spanish. World Cup '30 qualification looks fairly straight forward...maybe you can go that extra mile in 2 years?

[BaritoneTrouble]

I find this thread utterly compelling. It's everything I wish I could do with FM, but for various reasons, not least my lack of aptitude, I simply never could. At least by following this I can succeed vicariously.*

*Not really.

[Vizrahen]

I find this thread utterly compelling. It's everything I wish I could do with FM, but for various reasons, not least my lack of aptitude, I simply never could. At least by following this I can succeed vicariously.*

*Not really.

I agree, I've found myself unable to wait for the next updates on this save and also the youth intake only save with hrb, who has just restarted his save after his finals. And dafuge just took over fc united of manchester as a world class manager. I'm also having fun with my own save having brought my favorite team fleetwood to the premier, still working on my first european competition though. I'm not as quick as some of the people here, took me 26 seasons to reach the premier, and 4 more seasons to be able to hold my own.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Cyprus helped knock out France.

[Vizrahen]

Cyprus helped knock out France.

I noticed that too, Cyprus' only win had to be against France, since France didn't win any and Cyprus didn't draw any.

[DSYoungEsq]

Youth intake screeny

It's been a while, hasn't it, since I did that.

[DSYoungEsq]

Cyprus helped knock out France.

I noticed that too, Cyprus' only win had to be against France, since France didn't win any and Cyprus didn't draw any.

Yes, they did, and they did it in the first match of the group.

In this save, the Cypriots consistently outperform what you would expect of them. Sweden already have been held to a draw by them in the current WC qualifying tournament. And, as you'll recall, early on PTFC ran into a couple Cypriot teams in the qualifying stages of the UCL and had troubles with them. What was best about the last European Championship is that France were co-favs to win with England and Spain.

[DSYoungEsq]

Great Euros with the Swede's! Shame you couldn't go the full distance, but hey, there's no real shame in losing to the Spanish. World Cup '30 qualification looks fairly straight forward...maybe you can go that extra mile in 2 years?

I doubt the Swedes will ever win the WC. That's a tall order, because you have to get past not only the usual European suspects, but Brazil and Argentina (among others) as well. Since I don't manage in Sweden, I can't use my club team to develop good talent for the national team.

I find this thread utterly compelling. It's everything I wish I could do with FM, but for various reasons, not least my lack of aptitude, I simply never could. At least by following this I can succeed vicariously.*

*Not really.

I agree, I've found myself unable to wait for the next updates on this save and also the youth intake only save with hrb, who has just restarted his save after his finals. And dafuge just took over fc united of manchester as a world class manager. I'm also having fun with my own save having brought my favorite team fleetwood to the premier, still working on my first european competition though. I'm not as quick as some of the people here, took me 26 seasons to reach the premier, and 4 more seasons to be able to hold my own.

Thank-you, both of you. And Viz, don't despair. Keep in mind that Prestatyn are currently BARELY good enough to handle Premier League teams in more than one-off situations. I don't think we'd stay up if we were in the Prem, though I think we'd probably get promoted most years from the Championship. And that's 18 years in, in a save in which relegation back down a step is never an issue.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Cyprus knocked out France then. Even better.

[RavingLibDem]

Am I right in saying that even when you have the german leagues loaded the german team always seems to be greyed out? Certainly that's what I've found on my files.

[DSYoungEsq]

Weirdly Wonderful – Europe Group report - 2028/9

Prestatyn Town match results, all competitions.

My squad. Positions shown are for European matches.

Transfers this season to date.

Author's Note: With this update, I've switched to updating the season only after group play in Europe is done. As we can expect at most two European ties before the start of group play, and as we hope soon to be seeded directly into the groups, it seems silly to continue to update in late August, with only a few games under the belt.

We've righted the ship, as I predicted we would. The youth are really taking it upon themselves to excel this season. But this will probably end up being remembered as the Year of the Kirton.

Europe:

Europe got off to a very weird start this year. For reasons I do not comprehend, we were not entered into the Champion's League at the proper point. We should have been put into the competition at the Third Qualifying Phase of the Champions track. Instead, we were inserted into the Playoffs for the Best-Placed non-champions. This was not optimal, for two reasons: it reduced our number of European ties by one (costing us a home game with a big, for us, gate), and it forced us to sweat out the draw, since the best countries in Europe are represented at that point by a team.

Fortunately for us, we drew Austrian side LASK Linz, the weakest of the possible teams available. We went into Linzer Stadion and blew the Austrians off the pitch. The return affair at Bastion Gardens was exceedingly dull from a scoring standpoint, as their 'keeper managed a man-of-the-match display keeping us scoreless. Still, we were easily through and I didn't care.

An investigation was begun by me into the strange seeding. After considerable efforts to winnow away the chaff (and UEFA is filled with plenty of that!), we discovered that, inexplicably, four Spanish sides were seeded directly into the group stages, and we were placed in the slot that the fourth-placed Spanish side should have been given (probably Sevilla or Valencia; since La Liga isn't loaded, there's no way to tell). More on this amazing result in a later post.

Our draw for the Champions League was kind: At. Madrid, Benfica, Københaven. I was reasonably certain we could dispatch the Danish side twice. Given our good success against Portuguese sides in the past, I also felt fairly confident about getting at least one win off of Benfica. Madrid, of course (either club!) are not likely to lose to us unless they have a disaster of a day, but you only need to be in the top-two in the UCL; second place is just as good as first in the group stages.

And the results vindicated my thoughts. We stormed into the Estádio da Luz and smashed through the Eagles without any trouble. Two weeks later, we hosted Atlético Madrid and held them to a very creditable 0-1 scoreline. After that came back-to-back matches with the Danes, who were no better at keeping up with us than the Portuguese were. After our 5-0 demolition job at the Parken, I began to wonder if we were better off playing away matches!

At this point, the possibility of actually finishing first began to raise itself. Wins in our last two matches could see it happening, as we had a healthy goal differential advantage over the Spaniards. So when Sport Lisboa e Benfica came to town, I implored the team not to let the fact we had already qualified for the next stage color their play. It was well I did, because the Benfiquistas were primed to try and take home the laurels, and had Kirton not scored twice, Darren Burton in goal would certainly have taken the MoM honors (8.4!).

Which left it up to a visit to Madrid and the Vicente Calderón Stadium to see if we could edge the group. Although level on points with Los Colchoneros (I love that nickname: the Mattress Makers), who got caught napping on their visit to Lisbon, a tie wasn't enough to win the group, since the first tie-break appears to be head-to-head results (we went into the game in second place, despite an advantageous goal differential). Sadly, my pre-game speech didn't rouse the troops, who went behind to the Spanish early, then gave up a 44th min. strike just when I was thinking we could see ourselves into the interval down just the one goal. I tried to raise the spirits and fire the imaginations of my team, and we did play much better in the second half, managing a goal five minutes after the break, and forcing Madrid's defense to work up quite a sweat. Sadly, Jamie Kirton simply had one of his worst days as our only man up top, and Didier Habimana was not able to break through for us when I sent him on in replacement. Final result: 1-2 to the Spanish side, and a second-place result in Group C for us.

Sadly, that's likely as far as it will go. The . Not that there were a lot of better choices; this year the really good teams seemed to make it through the group stages. Here are the results in Groups A-D, and here are the results in Groups E-H. I will note that our odds were estimated at 100-1 by the media at the start of the UCL. I think that's a pretty good improvement for us!

Home Front:

The European screw-up meant that we had a very weird start to the domestic season. The friendlies were totally out-of-sorts. We normally have four friendlies warming up for Europe: three away on a mini-holiday to some nice, sunny clime (I rotate between Portugal, Spain, France and Italy), followed by a home match which we should win, to set us up with good team morale for the start of the European campaign. But this season, having already scheduled the friendlies (France this year), I found out later that we weren't starting in Europe until AFTER the WPL had started. Rather than cancel and re-schedule, I simply added a friendly one week before the League, and hoped for the best.

Fortunately, the weirdness hasn't taken a toll on our League efforts. We are comfortably in the lead, though the three draws have let Llanelli stay in touch. But we've stormed through some of our opposition: notice that we have 62 goals in 16 games! Most of that is due to one person: Jamie Kirton.

Jamie has been unstoppable in the WPL this season. After only 16 games, he has 30 goals! Add in his 16 in European matches, and he is easily going to have the best year anyone ever has had for Prestatyn Town. Already he scored 7 goals against Barry Town (press report here), a WPL record for goals in a game (as well as the PTFC record for the same). He's also already set a new WPL record for goals in a season, and in the process set the PTFC record for League goals in a season. He's going to be WPL Player of the Year, WPL Golden Boot winner, have a record number of MoMs in the WPL, set a new average rating record, etc. But most amazing: if we can keep the run going somehow in the UCL, he could end up being the person who scores the most UCL goals this season; he currently has 13.

Jamie's example has infected the rest of the team as well. We smashed 10 past Barry Town the next time we played them (I wasn't really sure what to say in the half-time team talk!). A number of our other players are prominent on the individual stats page for the WPL. We've scored 4 goals or more an amazing 14 times in all competitions; we've got 17 clean sheets to go with that, and only once have we let more than one goal in: the game in Madrid. We are firing on all cylinders most of the time.

I've been committed to letting my current team have three years unmolested as a group to see what they can do. Thus, I'm not super-active in the transfer market at this point. I spend most of my time beating off the significant offers for my players. I can't believe what Rangers offered to Darren Burton; I almost wish I'd taken it because I'll never get that offer again. I did add two players prior to the start of the League, and added a loaned player when one of my back-up strikers picked up a serious injury:

Jiri Vachal - D R/C:

Needed a back-up for the outside backs. I prefer to have one person who can substitute both sides, and then I can train one or more of the DCs to sub on the outside if a real injury crunch happens. This guy isn't a DL, yet, but he has all the makings of one, and I'll simply train him into it and he'll fit the bill to cover for Costantini or Krstic as needed.

Palle Eriksen - AM/M M/R:

Simply couldn't pass this opportunity up. At 15 when he arrived, he already had the ability to play both AMC and AMR equally well. He's got great potential, if we can develop it. I'll use him on the Reserves, have him fill in in League games from time to time, then loan him out at 17 to some place he can play regularly. Eventually, he'll replace Ivan Simunac, who regularly makes noises about leaving for a bigger club. As it is, he's setting records for playing so young.

David - ST:

Simon Connolly got injured in our June 20th friendly against Brighton, a torn calf muscle which was going to keep him out of at least 3 months of the season. So I brought this guy in on loan from Elche for the season. He's better than Connolly is on paper (though Connolly always seems to outperform his paper abilities). He's got five goals and three assists in 17 appearances as mostly a sub, so he's worth the money so far. If he keeps doing well, I might see if Elche will let me have him for a decent price at the end of the year, allowing me to let Connolly go.

Going forward, then, the goal will be to avoid complacency in the WPL, while focusing on our upcoming date with Liverpool FC. I'm not expecting to survive that encounter; given the way we're playing I almost wish we had dumped down into the EURO Cup this season, where I think we might have made a good showing, possibly even getting to the final. But I've never yet thrown a game we could win, and I'm not doing it anytime soon. So it is what it is.

Meanwhile, we continue, I hope, to draw a Kirton across the WPL.

Manager overview.

Financials.

Boardroom overview. Notice that we are planning expansion to the stadium again, and another upgrade to the training facilities. I've learned to put European money to use right away.

In other news, I've signed a new contract with the club. I generally don't report this: it's a given that I'm here until/unless they sack me.

[DSYoungEsq]

And now, a note about the UCL seedings and the craziness we experienced:

It turns out that FM'11 doesn't have the seedings for the UCL correct in its table. According to the table, the top 12 nations in Europe by coefficient get at least one place in the group stages of the Champion's League, seeded directly there. Of these twelve, three are entitled to three places, and three are entitled to two places. In addition to the seeded group members, five teams are placed into the group stage by having survived the Champions' qualifying tournament (four rounds long), and five teams are seeded into the group stages by having survived the shorter "Best Placed" qualifying tournament (two rounds only).

If you are playing along with me, and are doing as I did, taking off your shoes and socks to keep track of how many that is, you will figure out that that only accounts for 31 spots (12 champions + 6 2nd place + 3 3rd place + 5 Champions quals + 5 BP quals). There are, of course, 32 group participants. SI got it wrong (I'm guessing that it happened when the previous champion stopped being seeded to the groups), and as a result, they are a team short for the groups.

In reality, UEFA seeds at least one team from the top 13 nations, thus giving them 22 seeds, plus the 10 qualifiers.

Now, of course, the tournament needs 32 group teams. So what it did in my 2028-9 season was grab an extra Spanish side for the groups, seeding four Spanish teams (Spain top the nations right now in coefficient). But that left a hole in the Best Placed Playoff round, since the 4th place Spanish team seeds directly into that round. So it grabbed Prestatyn Town and shoved us into that spot.

I was curious what it had done other years, so I started checking. In 2027-8, it took the Champion from the 13th best nation (Romania or the Ukraine, can't recall which) and seeded them into the tournament, just like UEFA does, but NOT like the FM'11 seedings table says will happen. The same thing happened in 2026-7. In short, in a normal year, the game does what it is supposed to do: seed the champion of the 13th-best nation in Europe by coefficient.

Why, then, didn't it do that in 2028-9? Well, go back to my entry from the end of the 2026-7 season. You'll notice I pointed out Wales were 13th in Europe, by coefficient. That placing affects the seedings not in 2027-8, but in 2028-9 (I've commented on this discrepancy before). So Prestatyn Town SHOULD have been seeded into the Group Stage. For some unknown reason, the game didn't do that. Instead, it stuck us into the slot reserved for the #1 nation's Best Placed qualifier, and bumped that team up into the seeded spot. Thanks a LOT, SI.

I will be very interested to see what happens after we finally grab 12th spot as a nation, and justify a seeded group place even by the table FM'11 shows. I'm hoping that this aberration is solely applicable to the limited case we were in: champion of the 13th-ranked nation as a played club. We'll see.

[Raware]

A nice in depth summary . It's a shame about the whole seeding thing . I hope it's not ruined this great save too much. On a positive note; 30 goals in 16 games the new Smylie?

[fatski]

Quick question? How good is the best player in the WPL who's not from your club?

As Ajax I'm trying to build up the Eredivise rep (although obviously it's easier than Wales!) and after about 9 seasons my rivals are seriously good

[DSYoungEsq]

That is hard to say, fatski. I would have to say your choices are limited to one of these fine fellows: player 1, player 2, player 3, player 4, player 5. In compliling that list, I've excluded players on loan from other leagues, like the Prem. You'll note that none of them is good enough to merit inclusion even on our Reserves team.

Raware: it will only ruin it if I end up having to have it happen again, especially if it happens multiple more times.

[Ceirdiff]

Nice going. What I want to know is whether that kid is English or Welsh...

[Nobby_McDonald]

Regardless of the in game **** up, well done on the progress in Europe.

[DSYoungEsq]

Nice going. What I want to know is whether that kid is English or Welsh...

He persistently says he'd only play for England.

Regardless of the in game **** up, well done on the progress in Europe.

Thanks, Nobby! I told the lads before the tie with Linz that we had to win, because Nobby would NEVER accept as an excuse for a loss the fact it was a ****-up.

[DSYoungEsq]

Speed bumps - 2028/9 Mid-Season Sweden Report

.

The upcoming year's games.

The Squad.

Swedish U-21 players. Still not much there. Notice the goalkeeper.

You would think that, having done so well in Portugal this last summer, we'd be full of vim, vigor and vitality, ready to take on the world, or at least European Qualifying Tournament Group 4's members. I certainly expected things to be easier as a result of our win. I was, as I often am regarding this Swedish squad, wrong.

We have persistently struggled as a team, and this fall was no exception. We only defeated Finland 1-0, and they should never be able to hold us that close. Then, the Cypriots held us 0-0. I'm less upset about this than I might be, given that they kicked the French out of Euro '28 at the group stage (much to Nobby's glee). However, we need to avoid such glitches, as we have no easy group. Portugal took us down in Lisbon, in a really good game. We had a 2-1 lead going into halftime, but they scored right on the stroke of the interval, and added another for good measure shortly after they came out of the tunnel. That leaves us in third behind the team from Northern Ireland, whom we have yet to play. I was really hoping for a result from the Portuguese, to help ensure a 1st place finish; now it looks much more likely we'll have to win a playoff to make the tournament in Germany.

I do want to brag about one last aspect of the European Championship run. We managed to place two members on the Dream Team for Euro '28: Anton Nilsson - DC and Sebastian Lindgren - MR. I was proudest of Lindgren, who I found in the Pool and promoted to the first team. I'll note, too, that Ismail Öztürk - ST was another player promoted into the squad by me, and he finished on the Dream Team sub bench.

I will also note that we jumped up from 11th to 7th in world rank after the tournament. Though we've slipped one place since, that's the highest we've been in the last two years.

The main trouble is that we don't have much depth to compete against the top nations. As you can see, our National Pool of players not currently being used in the lineup doesn't have much in it to drag into the squad. The only player on that list who hasn't been tried at some point is Robert Soderlind, who I think I will be giving a trial at right back, since my two players on the team, Dohlsten and Feinestam are both in their 30s and petering out.

The goal going forward is to maximize our results against the "minnows." I believe that, to win the group, we must win out, and certainly we must win the string of four straight home matches in the middle of the year. Dropping points in those matches could mean we would not qualify from the group for the playoffs, let alone in first.

The Sweden Overview.

Oh, by the way, notice what the new Wales National Team manager has managed to get Wales to do!. Makes me wish I had been given that job.

[AK22]

I'm impressed that you can count up to 31 on your fingers and toes, any more than 20 and I'm done for

Is there something in the water in Wales that encourages 'extra digit growth'?

Still, impressive progress in Europe Can't see you beating the 'Mighty Reds' though I'm afraid

[DSYoungEsq]

Kirton - The 2028-9 End of Season Report

The Welsh Cup (last four rounds)

The League Cup

The Squad.

The Squad's stats (combined).

The Reserves. Fairly small group; the non-'keeper is on his way out.

The Youth Rated.

The Youth Stats

Transfers This Season.

Well, Season 1 of the three-year experiment with youth is in the bag, and it's been a respectable start for them. Although they let a trophy get away, they did admirably well in Europe, and they did carry through and win the WPL and the League Cup. Further, they've all developed in the process; there's not a one of my starting squad who isn't on the radar for some bigger club in Europe. But for all their efforts this season, they will remain anonymous faces due to one man: Jamie Kirton.

Europe

As expected in the last report, Liverpool were a bit more of a bite than we could chew, swallow and digest. I was proud of the lads, though, for showing fight. The Reds, however, dominated the games and were not in real danger of losing the tie.

Our only real hope was to shut up shop at Bastion Gardens in the first game, possibly nicking a goal in the process, but most importantly, not letting the Merseysiders put a biscuit in our basket. Sadly, as you can see, that hope was dashed after just over half-an-hour. After that, we scrapped as best we could, but the physical footie Liverpool played took its toll, as we suffered three injuries. Simunac was the last to hobble off, and that put us down to ten men, which invited the already rampant, but to that point quite profligate Reds to double down, and so they did with five minutes. As a result, we knew that the only way to rescue the tie was to storm into Anfield. I don't think many teams walk through the gates there planning to "storm" in.

In reality then, we were simply looking to rescue some pride, and in that we finally managed success. Unfortunately, it took two goals from their star striker to wake us up to the reality that something HAD to be done. I was busting with pride when, ten minutes later, we had the game level and were pressing to see if we could nick a win, which would have left us short on total goals, but certainly would have salvaged some considerable pride. Unfortunately, a rash challenge late in our box by Radomir Krstic left us watching in despair as their star calmly slotted home his hat-trick completing winner. Still, at least we made them fight for it. When the combined shot total of two games runs something like 60-10 against you, you take what solace you can!

Well, you take that, and the $4M+ that they hand out to you for competing in that round of the UCL. TYVM and we'll see you next season!

Wales

Domestically, we were weaker than we've been in the past, but that's due in part to my efforts to blood some real youngsters in the League, and especially the cups. As you will recall, the last couple of recruiting classes have been decent, and I've wanted to get the youngsters out on the pitch in meaningful games. I've also wanted to make sure that the substitutes don't languish all season on the bench, limited to playing in the reserves, so I liberally utilized players like Raimondo, Zinkunegi, and Vachal with the youngsters. The result may not have been impressive by our recent standards, but we were never in danger of losing the League, and we did score 116 goals, with a differential of +99! Not too shabby.

Of course, for most of that, we have Jamie Kirton to thank. Here are his numbers in the WPL:

P27(1) G51 A14 AvgRtg8.36 MoM12

He is, quite simply, a cut above the rest of my players. Frankly, I think he's Premier League quality, if not for a top team, certainly for someone mid-table. Aston Villa and West Ham certainly seem to agree with me, and even top-of-the-table Tottenham have been making offers. After this season, those are going to multiply, I have to believe. 51 goals, can you imagine!?

You will notice something else from that profile I just linked: Kirton finally decided to play for Wales. And Wales got a score out of him in the first game (Belarus), though admittedly from the spot. I can only believe that he'll star for Wales. His decision also meant that he got named Welsh Footballer of the Year 2028; and I'll note that the runner-up for Welsh Young Player of the Year 2028 was Gareth Collins Y17. Finally, I'm making an impact on Wales with my Welsh players.

Of course, Kirton set some records this year, in addition to those I mentioned he'd already bagged by mid-season: most MoMs in a season WPL (and PTFC); most goals for a season, all competitions, PTFC (67!). I believe he'll also set a record for highest avg. rating for the WPL, but the League's not quite done (playoffs), so I'll report that in the End-of-Season Summary.

One bit of sad news from the season: Carmarthen were relegated. They are one of the "starting 12" from the 2010 season, and only the third of them to go out in the 18 seasons since that inaugural year (one team obviously had to get relegated the first season). Port Talbot have made it back, but there is no sign of Bangor City, relegated 10 years ago. Which will Carmarthen emulate?

(Special condolences here for Bala Town, the first team relegated, who haven't been seen or heard from, since)

In summary, the team is gelling nicely. Having Kirton helps (I hope we don't become too reliant upon him!). I'm going to continue with more of the same next season, and see if the maturity process produces better results. I've got a good group of kids; I'd best go find my biggest stick to beat down the European teams who want to pluck them from the Seaside.

The WPL Player Statistics. Notice all the assists.

The WPL Team Statistics. Notice our average attendance. And another stadium expansion coming!

Manager Overview.

Finances.

Boardroom Overview.

[Goodtouchforabiglad]

I think your seeding problem must be because At. Madrid won the Champions League (winners are automatically 1st seeds in the group stages) and must have finished 4th in the unloaded La Liga.

[DSYoungEsq]

The Years of Youth Part I: The Year End Summary - 2028/9

Results:

WPL: 1st 18 pts. ahead of The New Saints (P36 W24 D7 L1 F116 A17 GD+99 Pts79)

WC: QF 2-2p v. The New Saints (won by TNS 1-0 over Bettws)

LC: Won 2-0 v. Newtown

Europe: Won 1st tie v. LASK Linz (AUT) 8-0 Playoff Round UCL (Best Placed)

Finished 2nd UCL Group C W4 D0 L2 Pts 12

2-0-0 v Benfica (POR) 4-1 A, 2-0 H

0-2-0 v Atlético Madrid (SPA) 0-1 H, 1-2 A

2-0-0 v FC Københaven (DEN) 3-1 H, 5-0 A

Lost UCL 1st Knockout Round tie v. Liverpool FC (ENG) 0-2 H, 2-3 A

Prestatyn Town FC Honors

European Golden Boot:

Jamie Kirton. Amazing result! Can't find enough superlatives for him! Kirton does credit me for some of his success.

WPL Player of the Year:

Jamie Kirton. As if there was doubt.

WPL Young Player of the Year:

Ryszard Burda Starting to be a solid presence in the middle of our back.

WPL Team of the Season: Eight of the eleven this year: – Darren Burton, Luca Costantini, Radomir Krstic, Héctor González Soriano, Ryszard Burda, Sam Johnson, Jamie Kirton, Didier Habimana. Was right last year about Burton, wrong about Milovanovic, and we lost Simunac's spot.

Fan's Player of the Year: Jamie Kirton.

WPL Manager of the Year:

Owain Tudur-Jones. Yes, that's my former player, now heading the squad at Newtown </beaming with pride>.

Records by PTFC and/or its Players:

WPL:

Goals per season - Jamie Kirton (51)

MoMs per season - Jamie Kirton (12)

AvgRtg season - Jamie Kirton (8.36)

Goals in a match - Jamie Kirton (7)

Youngest Player - Palle Eriksen (15y 237d)

PTFC:

Goals per season - Jamie Kirton (67)

Goals (League) season - Jamie Kirton (51)

Goals match - Jamie Kirton (7)

MoMs per season - Jamie Kirton (18)

Avg Rtg season - Jamie Kirton (8.31)

Youngest Player - Palle Eriksen (15y 237d)

News for Prestatyn Town FC:

Prestatyn dropped to 25th. We had a good year, but Valencia had a better one, and passed us.

The Wales Season Summary.

We had a profit of $3.3M on turnover of $25M. Spring Footie was worth $5M.

Sam Johnson joins the PTFC All-time Best 11. Not sure this is warranted. Tomas Lopes da Silva remains, in my opinion, the best AMC we've ever had.

News about Wales and the World:

Wales have begun a resurgance, up to 86th! Wales still have a long way to come back. We'll see if they can progress past 60th.

The WPL drops in European reputation ranking to 19th. Still doing well, but further way from 3.5 stars.

Wales don't change in Europe placings. We are up to 14th place, which means the seedings stayed the same. Remember, the table is off: Austria in 13th get a group seed and Greece at 16th get a third round seed.

The top four WPL teams head to Europe next season. Not shown are Welsh Cup finalists Bettws, who will be the fifth Welsh entry into Europe (at the 2nd Round Qualifying for the EURO Cup).

In other news of the world:

Nothing.

[DSYoungEsq]

I think your seeding problem must be because At. Madrid won the Champions League (winners are automatically 1st seeds in the group stages) and must have finished 4th in the unloaded La Liga.

Possibly. I'll have to go back and see if there were ever any other examples of this happening. If it's related to that issue, it's certainly possible it happened sometime else in almost 20 years. Thanks for the thought!

I also noticed in looking at the Wales Season Summary from last season that the team from Wales that SHOULD have been seeded into the Best Placed Qualifying Round (the round before the "playoff" got put into the spot we should have had in the 3rd Qualifying Round (Champions). Weirdness.

[Raware]

What?! You lost a WPL game?!?! I still can't get over how many goals Kirton scored i've never had anyone ever come close to scoring that for me .

[Nobby_McDonald]

Excuses are for wimps.

Not a bad attempt v Liverpool.

[Flamers]

67 goals. I expect better

[DSYoungEsq]

What?! You lost a WPL game?!?! I still can't get over how many goals Kirton scored i've never had anyone ever come close to scoring that for me .

67 goals. I expect better

Heh. I did play him a lot with the hopes of seeing how well he could do. The scary thing is that he could have done much better, but he simply petered out late in the season with the WPL games, as the squad went into their usual late-season, already-wrapped-up-the-title malaise. I wasn't complaining about it, mind.

Speaking of which, I always chuckle when my Monday Morning Staff meetings contain some piece of advice from one of my coaches on how Kirton could be better "if he would stop ..." As if I'm gonna advise someone who scores like he does on how to score more?? <lol>

Excuses are for wimps.

Not a bad attempt v Liverpool.

Thanks! I'd be happier if we had had more of an effort in the first game, say 1-2 or 1-1, but there is always next year.

[Flamers]

If I can get 80+ in my shorter season then you should be able to get 100, easy! No excuses! You need to keep them motivated

[DSYoungEsq]

Well, nice to have this back up and running. As it is, they managed to be down right during what would have been the most productive part of my summer break (a visit to my dad in California). Now, I'm going to have to hit the road tomorrow to head back home, so updating the 2.5 seasons I've played since will have to wait until next week sometime.

I will note that I had one very good season, the results of which will astonish!

[Nobby_McDonald]

You won a match?

[ultimation]

Epic story, been lurking and following for a while now, don't know why I haven't posted... but I have now - KUTGW

[DSYoungEsq]

Year Two: Steady as she goes - 2029/30 Initial Report

The 2029/30 Season Squad.

The "reserves." David's loan ends soon.

Bonanza. Three players of some quality, one of whom could easily stick with the team.

This is the second year of the three-year experiment with youth. The intention remains to develop the first team of players to the maximum extent possible at our facilities, with our staff, in our league and European competitions. Eventually, we'll be forced to sell most of the players, when they reach the point they won't re-negotiate their contracts for a reasonable weekly wage. Until then, the sky is the limit.

I'll be adding very little to the squad this year. Any player added will either be an emergency replacement for injury issues, or a young player with substantial down-the-road potential to develop (much like Palle Eriksen). I'm also going to be a little light in depth, especially at the back, to help save money. I want to eventually transform to a team that has 6 backs (one reserve DC and one reserve DL/R), 6 midfielders (three up the middle, and three wide, including one who can play both sides), and 3 forwards. Add in the two 'keepers, and that would be a squad of 17; add one additional versatile player for 18 and I would have a good size squad for when the salaries eventually have to be ramped up to the $30K+/wk range.

I've added one replacement, coming on July 1; he'll bump Scott Hall out of the squad:

Nicolas Elissalde - DM, AM/M L/C:

This Everton cast-off will do well on my team. He's going to be a very good DM, but he's also going to be a very good AMC, and he can substitute on the left and hold his own quite well. I love players that have potential AND versatility. Scott Hall is a nice young man, but his days are numbered.

This year's recruitment class was superb:

Marc Wilkins Y19 - WBR/DM, MC/R:

Technically gifted, and quite versatile. His only negative is that his best play is in the WB spot, a position I almost never use tactically. But I'm hopeful he can be developed into a good bench player, saving me the need to go find/buy one.

Ryan Griffiths Y19a = MC:

A nice young player. Will try to add some positional options for him. He'll eventually make his way to some other team in the WPL, and do quite well.

Nicky Edwards Y19b = ST:

IF he can develop some pace, he'll be a decent striker. Otherwise, he's just going to be a lower-level all-around attacking player. He'd probably have done better learning the AMC position.

So, steady as she goes. Let the youth do what they can.

Manager Overview.

Finances.

Boardroom overview.

[DSYoungEsq]

Well, the story finally continues! Thank-you all who have posted for the kind words, especially the "lurkers" like ultimation. I appreciate your patience regarding the Great Black-Out.

[pezza1]

Just wanna say what an incredible career this has been and an entertaining read to boot!

really impressed with how you've dragged the Welsh league with towards being a competitive nation in Europe, at least in terms of club football!

[DSYoungEsq]

Acceptable - 2029/30 Initial Sweden Report

The 2029 Squad.

Swedish National Team matches for 2029

Acceptable is the word that best describes our performances so far this calendar year. Not great, but enough to do the deed. It would be really nice if this squad could take fire and do something outstanding. I really thought our effort in Portugal '28 would spur us on, but it hasn't seemed to do so.

The match in September against the Portuguese is crucial. If we can win it, and win out, we might manage to sneak into first place, and avoid a two-legged playoff. But we are not in control of our own destiny, as the Iberians have yet to lose or tie a game, and we have that pesky tied result against the Cypriots, which drained us of two vital points. I'm already pretty resigned to a playoff, and just hope it's against someone we don't have too much trouble dispatching.

The goal will be to do what we can against the Portuguese at home, then blitz the rest of the group to gain momentum for the playoff, assuming we have to participate in one. You will notice that the FA are not particularly impressed with me right now, but it's helpful that they only require that we make and win a playoff spot to the World Cup. That much, I think I can deliver.

Sweden Overview.

[DSYoungEsq]

Just wanna say what an incredible career this has been and an entertaining read to boot!

really impressed with how you've dragged the Welsh league with towards being a competitive nation in Europe, at least in terms of club football!

pezza1, thanks! It's been a very interesting ride. I had no idea how invested I'd become in this. I will definitely see it through to completion, if it kills me!

[DSYoungEsq]

A Step Back – Europe Group report - 2029/30

Prestatyn Town match results, all competitions.

My squad. Positions shown are for European matches.

Transfers this season to date.

It's one step back this year, sadly. Spring football in Europe will be of the lesser variety, with the EURO Cup crown the goal.

Europe:

The European competition qualification process righted itself this season. The lads in the squad began to show their improved quality during the qualifying matches. The Allmänna Idrottsklubben from Solna were no trouble at all, going down on a 9-2 aggregate score. They were followed by PFC Litex Lovech, as the Bulgarians were dispatched 9-3. The only disappointment in these efforts was the continued lax defending at home, where we shipped all 5 of the goals. Still, it's a young defense, and unlike past years, they don't have one strong leader to solidify them. I think they are beginning to rely a bit too much on the admittedly excellent efforts of 'keeper Darren Burton.

Sadly, our excellent effort was not rewarded by Lady Luck when it came to the UCL Group draw. We are now ranked high enough in Europe to maintain a #2 seed, but there are some strong third-seed teams out there, and Besiktas is one of them. And of the fourth seeds, the worst possible choice was the Italian side, whose low seeding is not due to poor quality, but rather to the fact that they rarely manage to beat aside all the other excellent Italian squads for a European place.

I was rather pleased with the UCL title odds offered on us. I know 66-1 doesn't sound like much, but given that we used to be 1000-1 shots in this competition, it's clear that the continent is recognizing our improved quality. One of these years, perhaps we will be able to demonstrate just how improved it is.

Sadly, it wasn't this year. The very first group game saw us at home against the Turks, and a very even match ended with the scoreline tipped the wrong way. Giving up the losing goal so late in the game was disheartening, but even more disheartening was the continued failure of Jamie Kirton to turn up when needed in a big match. I've never preferred relying on one striker in crunch time, but when you have someone who is as dominant overall as Kirton can be, you really would like him to be able to produce the goods when no one else can. We went away next to Cagliari and took the match 3-2, which was a good result, but the home loss to Besiktas meant we were always going to be chasing them for second place.

I will credit the team with gutsy performances in the back-to-back games against Real. In both games, we came from behind to knot the score at 1-1. The second time, at Bastion Gardens, it was not until the 90th min. that we were able to engage in a pretty bit of combination play to obtain the tying goal. Sadly, these wonderful performances were followed by another subpar effort against Besiktas, who didn't quite park the bus on us. We needed to get the victory against Besiktas to be able to finish second, since head-to-head is the first tiebreak these days in group play.

Sadly, this left us with only the task of not losing to the Italian side at home by more than 2 goals in the final game, to ensure Spring footie. The men from Cagliari made a strong effort to deny us, but we managed the tie that ensured third place without resorting to clumsy tie-breakers. I guess we should be happy to be playing in the Spring (wasn't that long ago we had the disaster of missing out entirely on it!). Still, I can't help feeling that we left this one there on the table.

Now, we have quite the meal in front of us. I've talked for years about how I half-wished we would end up in the EURO Cup so we could see if we could get farther than we usually do in the Champions League. The first knockout round draw has us facing Saturn of Russia. Then, if we win, it will likely be FC Bayern, who are tasked with seeing off CSKA Moskva. Saturn don't scare me; the Russian teams are always at a disadvantage in February, having been on break. The real question will be: can we get past the Germans.

One last piece if interesting news in Europe: Llanelli made a EURO Cup Group! And it wasn't an easy task: their 4th round tie was against Juventus. They took the Italians 4-3 on aggregate, and got handed a group with Internazionale of Milan for their trouble. Not daunted in the least, they proceeded to draw against the Italians in a very credible home display. Of course, from that point forward, the group teams played them according to form until their last game against the Viennese, when there was nothing at stake but pride, which Robbie Savage's men covered themselves with. It's quite fun to see other Welsh teams accomplishing things on the European stage. Just so long as we are accomplishing more, it's all good.

Home Front:

Domestically, things are about as good as they can get. Our League efforts are almost perfect, with only one setback, a 2-3 loss to Llanelli, which I don't begrudge them because a) we need to be reminded we're not perfect and b) we whomped their butts the first time we met them this season. Indeed, we've had a very impressive domestic display, with a number of smashing victories. With just under half a season done, we're +50 in the goal differential, and have only allowed 5, three in the one game against Llanelli. Cup results have been equally impressive.

Part of our success has been due to a pre-season pick-up: Enrico Donnarumma - ST. I signed him simply as cover for the Kirton-Habimana duo, mostly because Javier Zinkunegi hasn't panned out as well as I thought he would. Donnarumma is one of those strikers, it turns out, who when asked, scores. In his 16 appearances domestically (starting and subbing), he's scored 15 goals. He has the knack of scoring off the bench, which is always appreciated by a manager (it makes the manager look oh-so-wise when his tactical move "works"). Donnarumma's success, combined with the high praise he's getting from the coaching staff in terms of potential, makes me think he may be the eventual replacement for Jamie Kirton, when that worthy finally gets his just reward and moves on to bigger and better things.

The lads as a whole have done well in the League. The individual stats page for the League has plenty of Prestatyn players on it, often in dominating positions. I cannot complain at all about our Welsh efforts. I just hope they can be the strong, stable base for a really good European run.

Other than Donnarumma, I've not tinkered much with the squad. Leeds did take one of my young recruits away for $100K, which shows that my youth recruitment classes have decidedly improved. I also let Scott Hall go on a free transfer, as his contract demands were too high to keep him, especially after we obtained the services of Nicolas Elissalde. He got picked-up by Crystal Palace in the Championship, so I'm happy for him. I'm also a bit smug that the Championship teams are picking up my cast-offs, now. So far we are from where we started!

There's not much else of import to discuss. I managed my 1000th game early in the season. Our most recent stadium expansion was completed; now we'll top out at 3375! Everyone's goat/sheep/fav farm animal gets in! Jamie Kirton was the Welsh Footballer of the Year for 2029; notice that the runners up were former youth recruits from PTFC. Even more interestingly, Gareth Collins Y17 was named Welsh Young Player of the Year for 2029. That's the first time that's happened, I believe. Sadly, I think it has more to do with the poor quality of new Welsh players than the increased quality of my recruits. Still, it's a feather in the cap, no doubt.

So the rest of the season will be focused on a run at the EURO Cup, I hope. In the process, we'll see how well my boys can do in their second year of togetherness.

Manager overview.

Financials.

Boardroom overviewGetting another Youth Facilities upgrade, the only thing the Board would allow me to do with the money this year.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Well done to Llanelli. AI Welshies finally getting somewhere in Europe.

[AK22]

What Nobby said

It's encouraging to see another Welsh team making progress in Europe. If they can do this regularly, it will help get the league rating/coefficient higher, which will enhance your club's reputation further. Let's just hope it's not a one-off, and they don't return to being abysmal next season!

[DSYoungEsq]

Speed bumps - 2029/30 Mid-Season Sweden Report

.

Final Table for Qualifying Group 4

The upcoming year's games.

The Squad.

Swedish U-21 players. Still not much there.

Well, we made Germany '30, so that goal is behind us. Of course, it's not like this made the FA overly happy with me. You'll notice that we now are expected to make it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup this summer. Best of luck to us, cause I have a feeling that isn't going to happen.

We did have a good year, I will admit. We tried very hard to avoid the playoffs, but Portugal simply were too strong. Our return engagement in Sweden was pretty well dominated by them until they had a man sent off, whereupon we promptly knotted the game up, but couldn't break through with the win. We were never in danger in any of the other group games, and finished clear second. But failing to compete with Portugal puts our efforts into perspective, since they are not exactly crème de la crème among the world's teams (11th ranked at the moment). To be able to compete with the elite, we have to be able to win games against second-tier teams like the Portuguese.

The playoffs were a formality, once we got drawn against the Swiss, who we won three-straight against during the Portugal '28 qualifiers and tournament. But, as you can see from the report of the first game, we struggled more than we should have against 10 men. I think I pretty forcefully made my displeasure at that effort known, and the return engagement in Bern was a comfortable thrashing of the home side.

Sadly, the draw for the Finals did us no favors: Argentina, México and Uzbekistan. I have no doubt we can see off the Uzbekis, but Argentina is likely a team too far, and I have grave misgivings about the Mexicans being pushovers. And we will know right away what our destiny will be, since we play the Mexicans first thing. It's a bit of bad luck; I'd have taken any of the other pot 3 teams except Chile in place of Mexico gladly.

I know it sounds like I'm poor-mouthing my team again, which IS ranked #4 in the world right now. But I believe that ranking is highly inflated. While we certainly CAN do well at times (see Portugal '28), we never give off the vibe that we believe in ourselves. It's too hit or miss with this squad. Perhaps I've just never managed to find the right tactics for them to succeed. If we get past the Group phase, it looks like the Germans will be the next opponent, who we did beat 1-0 in the semis in Portugal. If we can get out of the group, and beat the Germans, or whomever we get for the first knockout, I can see us going on a tear. To me, those are huge "ifs".

The Sweden Overview.

Interesting fact #1: Wales were in the playoffs for WC spots, losing 0-1 to the Czechs. I had sooooo hoped to be drawn against them!

Interesting fact #2: Portugal were apparently unhappy with qualifying top of the group, as they immediately advertised an opening for the manager job. I came VERY close to applying. But I didn't; I am simply unable to quit on a team mid-stream. I'll probably regret that...

European Qualifying Groups 1-3

European Qualifying Groups 4-6

European Qualifying Groups 7-9

[Ceirdiff]

I tried this, season 1: 2 wins, season 2 so far 0 wins. How do you manage it with Prestatyn because I can't :/

Anyways, this makes me even more amazed at what you've done, KUTGW!

[DSYoungEsq]

Prestatyn aren't that hard to work with at the beginning, which reflects the fact they actually did better than I did with them in '10-'11, finishing in 5th this year. But you have to be very defensively minded at first, because you have to get out of the lose a game = lose morale = lose the next game = ... rut. Once you are out of that rut, you can start to pick on the weak teams in the League, like Barry Town and the replacement team each season. Just accept that you'll have trouble matching up with the top of the table at first, because The New Saints and Llanelli and some of the others have massively bigger budgets than you do.

Also, be REALLY aggressive about looking for free transfer candidates in late April. The game seems to generate them regularly about mid-April, and if you pay attention to the "rumors" available as a tab in the "News" tab for the WPL, you can often find them, even with limited scout help.