AK22 Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 As feared, we finished 3rd in our group. Level on points with Milan (who finished 2nd), but we lost out on matches between the teams. We beat them 2-1 at home but the 'swindle' in Milan cost us our place in the last 16. To use a topical word, I am disgusted! We now have to prepare ourselves for a Europa League knockout match against Fenerbache, which is winnable but the prize money and TV revenue is pants in comparison. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 SnakeXe was right. You do have a way with words I do try now and again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
433tom Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Tough luck with the scheduling glitch. Time to win the Europa Cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Tough luck with the scheduling glitch. Time to win the Europa Cup. I would say we're in with a chance, especially after this result First game after installing new patch tonight! Normally I lose when the match engine is tweaked! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
safcrhys Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Well done mate! Interesting that Aberdeen got relegated last season, they're a decent sized club by SPL standards, could've been interesting trying to return them to former glories so to speak. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 Well done mate! Interesting that Aberdeen got relegated last season, they're a decent sized club by SPL standards, could've been interesting trying to return them to former glories so to speak. I was surprised too for a club of their stature to go down. But they only spent the one season in Division 1 as they won promotion back to the SPL at the first time of asking. (And knocked me out in the Scottish Cup too!!!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 9, 2011 Author Share Posted March 9, 2011 Season 16 - 2025/26 Berwick Rangers The construction of the new stadium was completed on schedule so we relocated to Hawke Park on 20th June 2025. A new era begins for Berwick Rangers! Once again, the board wanted us to win the title, even though the media predicted us to finish 2nd behind Rangers. Title odds were favourable at 5-4. The board also wanted us to win the Co-op Cup, get to the final of the Scottish Cup and the reach to group stages of the Champions League (something we were already guaranteed). Season tickets growth was up to 3342 now. Facilities - A shiny new stadium! Finances - Took a bit of a hit due to the loan repayments for the new stadium. Hopefully, should see an improvement with the increased attendances. Wage Budget - No more than last year but still enough to be competitive. Transfer Summary - Over the course of the season, 7 in for £5m and 7 out for £2.7m (including the loss of 3 first-teamers on frees) Key Transfers Shola Shoretire (£2.8m) - Unlucky to find himself transfer listed at Chelsea. Should be an attacking threat from the right hand side of midfield. Matt Rose (£1.8m) - Signed from rivals Dundee Utd to be our new number 1. Champions League - Group Stage Due to 'Milan-Gate' we finished 3rd in our group. 'Nuff said. Europa League - Quarter Final After beating Fenerbahce and Dinamo Moscow in the 1st and 2nd Knockout Rounds, we were beaten 4-2 on aggregrate against Ajax. We were unfortunate to only win 2-1 in the home first leg after doiminating for long periods, however, they completely dominated us in Amsterdam to burst our bubble. Still, Quarter-Finals is impressive for a Scottish team in Europe. SPL - Winner Position Graph If there was one word to describe our league form this season, it would be patchy. Even though we set a new SPL record for the most games in a row undefeated, and the fact that we only lost 3 games, we were nowhere near as dominant as previous years. Gone were the 7-1, 5-0, 4-0 wins that I was enjoying watching. These were replaced with nailbiting 2-1 wins where we would often go 1-0 down and I would have to throw crockery around at half time to get a response. Celtic did well to finish 2nd, whereas the opposite could be said for Rangers who finished 5th, which nearly cost Ally McCoist his job. Co-op Insurance Cup - Winners We beat Celtic 2-1 in the final to win the trophy for the 5th time in a row. We did need extra time to beat Hearts and Rangers in the previous two rounds though. Scottish Cup - 5th Round As briefly mentioned prior to this, we were knocked out by Division 1 side Aberdeen. They beat us handsomely 3-0 and I had no complaints, it was one of those days when my players couldn't be arsed. This cost the majority of them a week's wages! Key Players Domingo - In what would prove to be his last season with us, he chipped in with 27 goals and won the Scottish PFA Player of the Year for the third time. At the age of 32, I wasn't inclined to give in to his pay demands, so he will be a Blackpool player next season. SPL TOTY. Ryan Williams - 21 goals but could, and should, do better. Will need to step up next season in Domingo's absence. Daniel Fransson - Another great season in defence. Starting to peak now at 27. SPL TOTY. Team of the Year Overall Best 11 - No-one added this season. Season Summary Champions League: 3rd in Group E Europa League: Quarter Final (2-4 vs Ajax) SPL: Winner ( 26-9-3 +49 87) Co-op Insurance Cup: Winner (2-1 vs Celtic) Scottish Cup: 5th Round (0-3 vs Aberdeen) Even with the disappointment of the Scottish Cup and the flakiness of our league form, it was still a good first season at Hawke Park. I was most satisfied with our progress in Europe and our Europa League run. This helped to move the SPL up 3 places in the European Rankings (up to 10th) and we increased our coefficient by 1 place too. We also broke the club record for most games won in a row. In our first home match of the season we broke the club record for the highest attendance, now at 22375, and we more than doubled our average attendance up to 20508. Quite amazing this, considering we were only averaging 464 when I took over! Due to the increased support, the board have announced that they will increase the stadium capacity by another 8250 and also improve the youth facilities over the summer too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Very impressive progress since your first day in charge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
433tom Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 "Milan-Gate"... I love it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichG Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Another great season mate. With a 30,000 stadium you are set to move to another level now and dominate Europe Good luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 Losing a legend - Domingo After spending 10 fantastic seasons at Berwick, Domingo has left the club to join Blackpool on a free transfer. He was demanding a big payrise to stay, and at the age of 32, I thought there would be better options available to spend £25k a week on. This was very much a case of my head ruling my heart as he has had a terrific career with the club. I hope I don't regret letting him go! I signed him for a bargain £425k from St Johnstone back on 01/08/2016. He went on to become the clubs leading league goalscorer of all time, scoring 194 goals in 315 league games (0.62 goals per game). A magnificent return in which he used his great pace, strength, agility, off the ball and finishing to terrorise many SPL defenders. In all competitions his record was 261 goals in 439 appearances (0.59 goals per game). In his time with us he won 10 winners medals (5 SPL, 2 Scottish Cup and 3 Co-op Insurance Cup), Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year on 3 occasions, Scottish Football Writers Association Player of the Year, SPL Top Goalscorer on 6 occasions and 7 Player of the Month awards. He is listed as a club legend, and quite rightly so. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 World Cup 2026 Host: Mexico Holders: Spain In a tense 0-0 final, France went on to beat Portugal 4-3 on penalties. England got royally stuffed 5-0 in the third-place play off against Germany. This was the same England who scored 56 goals in 10 qualifying games, including a 10-0 win over Hungary! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Third place playoff is pretty much worthless. Who ever remembers who came third? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 Third place playoff is pretty much worthless. Who ever remembers who came third? Very true, but I would have expected them to have made some effort against the Germans! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevo12345 Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Had the exact same problem in Europe against Milan as well! 4-0 was a fairly good score considering I had 3 back up first teamers and the rest under 18's. Finished second because of it and had Barca in the second round, guess who won... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
433tom Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 Tough losing Domingo. Thats the type of player you like to see stay until he retires. Do you have a replacement in the squad ready to step up... or do you need to bring someone in? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Had the exact same problem in Europe against Milan as well! 4-0 was a fairly good score considering I had 3 back up first teamers and the rest under 18's. Finished second because of it and had Barca in the second round, guess who won... Glad I'm not the only one who's had this bad luck! Tough losing Domingo. Thats the type of player you like to see stay until he retires. Do you have a replacement in the squad ready to step up... or do you need to bring someone in? Ideally I would have kept Domingo until he died! He was a true great! Got 3 other decent strikers so I would hope they would make the step up in his absence, even though I wouldn't rule out making a signing if the right person came along at the right price. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 As you may have seen, I have started my journeyman career game thread today. This does not mean the end for Berwick as I will divide my time between both saves, it will just mean my progress will be a bit slower Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
safcrhys Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Any chance of an update soon? Was enjoying this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raware Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Any chance of an update soon? Was enjoying this. Seconded...hopefully you're still going with this as it's a great read Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 I've done about half a season so far so I reckon I could get an update out later this week all being well...watch this space! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidmonkey Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 unlucky on the SPL is there a reason Celtic are useless? Good work with chilie, and lets hope your stadium doesnt get stuck in planning hell KUTGW! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 28, 2011 Author Share Posted March 28, 2011 Thanks! Stadium's well and truly built now though, just had an increase of capacity up to 30000 Celtic have appointed a few dodgy managers and some shocking transfer deals too but they're making a recovery now. Will be probably top 3 again this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Season 17 - 2026/27 Berwick Rangers So where were we?? ...Ah, that's right! 5 times Champions of Scotland, Berwick Rangers, looking to make inroads into Europe. The board expected us to dominate domestically by winning all 3 Scottish competitions. They would, however, be happy with the Group Stages of the Champions League. The media expected us to finish 1st in the league too, backed-up with title odds of 6-4 favourites. Season tickets increased by 198 to 3540. Facilities - Top facilities, and the board added another 8250 seats to our already new stadium. Finances - Still being affected by the loan but £12m in the bank is comfortable. We're the 4th richest club in Scotland behind the three Glasgow clubs. Wage Budget - A decent amount for our level. Transfer Summary - Spent a net £5.7m on 5 players. Sold 6 to help balance the books. Key Transfers Joao (£2.4m) - A Brazilian with a lot of class for his age. Should do really well if he settles. Senah Diallo (£3m) - A solid all-round striker. This Togo international won't be first choice but will give me options from the bench. Jean-Claude Tanguy (£1.4m) - Unwanted at Barcelona, this chap should do the business on the left of midfield. Champions League - Group Stage Once again a tough draw against Man Utd, Real Madrid and Rennes. We played well in the majority of matches but didn't get that stroke of luck needed to take points off the big teams. We were seeded 3rd and finished 3rd in our group. Europa League - Last 16 Our finest performance of the season was the 5-0 win in Kazan against Rubin. This killed off the tie by half time in the first leg and set us up against Bordeaux in the next round. We fought a close 3-2 defeat in France, then in the return leg we just couldn't find that second goal that would have taken us through. SPL - Winner Position Graph We started poorly by our standards with only 20 points from the first 10 games. This left us 4th behind Celtic, Rangers and Hearts. A SPL record of 13 wins on the bounce catapulted us to the top of the table where we would stay to the end. Even a poor run-in of just 2 wins in the last 8 games left us with a 7 point majority at the end. Co-op Insurance Cup - Semi-Final We couldn't make it 6 trophies in a row as we were knocked out by St Mirren. After leading 2-0, we got complacent and were well beaten on penalties. Scottish Cup - Winner A tough draw saw us have to knockout Rangers and Celtic on the way to the final. A 2-0 win over Hearts in the final was enough to do the double and send our fans home happy for the summer break. Key Players Luke Shepherd - A great season with 30 goals in all competitions. This won him PFA Player of the Year, SPL Topscorer and the Fans Player of the Year. He really made a step up this season to fill the void left by Domingo. SPL TOTY. Ryan Williams - A bit inconsistent at times but still scored 15 goals. Made a habit of scoring in important matches. SPL TOTY. Daniel Fransson - An average rating of 7.30 is incredible for a centre-back. Ever-present in the SPL. SPL TOTY. Team of the Year Overall Best 11 - Thomas Johanessen inducted to the subs-bench. Note that Caputo has now made an incredible 559 appearances for the club! Season Summary Champions League: 3rd in Group C Europa League: Last 16 (3-4 on agg vs Bordeaux) SPL: Winner ( 26-8-4 +55 86) Co-op Insurance Cup: Semi-Final (2-2 AET 3-4 Pens vs St. Mirren) Scottish Cup: Winner (2-0 vs Hearts) A solid season overall in which I was pleased that we had won the double. However, I am growing increasingly frustrated with our performances in Europe. I feel we should be getting to the last 16 of the Champions League on a regular basis now, but seem to get unlucky by drawing a big second seed. We're now up to 20 in club rankings so I'm hoping next season will be more favourable. On a positive note, our average attendance is now up to 23752 which will hopefully give me more money to play with next season. I've signed a 3 year contract extension too. £21500 p/w ooh err. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Well done on the double. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidmonkey Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Congrats on the double and unlucky on the europa league Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 1, 2011 Author Share Posted April 1, 2011 Well done on the double. Congrats on the double and unlucky on the europa league Thanks The league is almost guaranteed now. The biggest challenge is to make the step up in Europe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
safcrhys Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Aberdeen relegated again. :o Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 Aberdeen relegated again. :o Yep, and they're in a tough 1st Division next season where Partick Thistle are favourites for promotion. Not good times at Pittodrie, Fergie would be turning in his grave! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
safcrhys Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 Any chance of another update soon? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 Any chance of another update soon? Middle of next week I reckon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 20, 2011 Author Share Posted April 20, 2011 Season 18 - 2027/28 Berwick Rangers Another season at Berwick to update you on. The board once again expected us to dominate domestically by winning all 3 Scottish competitions, to be fair, we are significantly better on paper than any other team in Scotland so they shouldn't expect anything less. Group Stages for the Champions League is quite a modest expectation though, I'm surprised they don't want more now as we automatically qualify for the group stages as champions of Scotland most seasons now. The media expected us to finish 1st in the league too, backed-up with title odds of 5-4 favourites. Season tickets increased by 227 to 3767. Facilities - Small update to youth facilities but we're looking good across the board. Just wish we could improve youth recruitment, but I suppose that is down to the location of the club. The Scotland/England border isn't a hotbed for footballing talent by all accounts! Finances - There's a bit of cash to play with if I need it. TBH, it's nowhere enough if we are to make significant inroads into European competitions. We're still behind the Old Firm in terms of the richest clubs in Scotland. Wage Budget - Not much flex now as I'm pretty much maxing out the budget. Transfer Summary - Not a lot of activity this summer. 2 in, 3 out. Key Transfers Javier (£700k) - A young Spanish centre-back who may get in the first team straight away. He's got good determination so should reach his potential. Alexandr Tarakanov (£3.3m) - A Moldovan midfielder who I hope will be able to cover for Caputo when he needs a rest. Champions League - Quarter-Final We got a break in this competition this year, as we were lucky to be seeded 2nd in the draw. (We were bottom of the 2nd seeds, 3 coefficient points off the top 3rd seeds.) This meant we only had one bigger team in our group. That being said, a draw of Atletico Madrid, Shakhtar and Koln was tougher than I would have hoped for. We did remarkably well in our group, remaining unbeaten and finishing top. The victories in Madrid and Donetsk were big highlights from this season. We drew Man City in the last 16. And even though we didn't beat them in either match, 2 away goals in Manchester were enough to take us through. We didn't really deserve it, but I am willing to take a little bit of fortune considering our previous bad luck. We faced a much sterner test in the form of Roma in the Quarter-Final. Even though they didn't demolish us, our players were quite lackluster and barely managed a shot at goal over the two legs. Still, a great performance for a team from Scotland. SPL - Winner Position Graph By far this was my best season in the league. We went top after the first game with a 3-0 win over St. Johnstone and remained there for the rest of the season. A record 99 points won, 92 goals scored and a 29 game unbeaten stretch. Our only defeat was away to Celtic in October. DOMINANT! Co-op Insurance Cup - Runner-Up We breezed through to final without any complications. Even in the final, we dominated Rangers completely but just couldn't find a goal and lost 1-0. Perhaps we were over-confident; perhaps we've got bigger fish to fry now. Scottish Cup - Semi-Final Lost 1-0 to Hibs in the semi-final. Should have done better really, so no double this season. The 8-0 win over Keith was fun though! Key Players Luke Shepherd - Fantastic season for my main striker. 35 goals in 50 games, he hit form from day 1. SPL top scorer, he also broke the club record for top league goalscorer in a season. SPL PFA Player of the Year. SPL TOTY. Ryan Williams - Still fairly inconsistent at times, but scored an impressive 26 goals this season. Still can do better though. Daniel Fransson - Another great season in defence to earn him Fans Player of the Year. Might hand him to captaincy next season. Alessandro Caputo - This chap has now made 604 appearance for the club and only needs to play 13 more league games to break the club all-time league appearances record. Even at 33 he still played an instrumental part in our success story, chipping in with 22 assists! What a legend! Team of the Year - 7 of these made the SPL TOTY. As I said, dominant! Overall Best 11 - No change this year. Season Summary Champions League: Quarter-Final (0-3 vs Roma) SPL: Winner ( 31-6-1 +69 99) Co-op Insurance Cup: Runner-Up (0-1 vs Rangers) Scottish Cup: Semi-Final (0-1 vs Hibernian) Even though we only won one trophy this season, I still think we made great progress as a football club this year. Getting to the last 8 in the Champions League really put us on the map as a team going places, so hopefully this will rub off on the other clubs in Scotland and we can get a extra European place soon. ( SPL currently ranked 11th in Europe). I would expect us to be the dominant force in Scotland again next season but we should be aiming to get to the last 16 of the Champions League again to solidify our seeding/ranking. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Very good season and rampant in the SPL. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raware Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Easy Peasy in the league! How many goals has Shepherd got for the club now? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 Very good season and rampant in the SPL. Easy Peasy in the league! How many goals has Shepherd got for the club now? It was definitely the most one-sided league I've seen for a while, winning by 26 points showed the huge difference in class between us and the rest Shepherd's record is pretty impressive so far, 181 goals in 313 games. He needs to score another 71 league goals to beat Domingo's record as all time league topscorer, but he's only 27 now so has a decent chance of doing this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raware Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 That's not a bad return from Shepherd! Sorry, not sure if you mentioned where you got him from...but where did you get him from? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 That's not a bad return from Shepherd! Sorry, not sure if you mentioned where you got him from...but where did you get him from? He was a product from the Chelsea youth academy but he caught my eye when he spent a season on loan at Celtic. £4.2m was a lot of money for us to be spending back in 2021 so it was a bit of a risk. 7 seasons later and he's still my record signing! I'm thrifty to say the least His scoring record speaks for itself, with the only blip coming in 2025/26. I'm surprised he hasn't been capped by England yet, but I suppose that because he's playing in Scotland and not one of the top leagues! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikal Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Good career you've got going here! Will keep a closer eye on how you progress. Is it just Europe you've yet to conquer? Will you look at taking the national team anywhere? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 Good career you've got going here! Will keep a closer eye on how you progress. Is it just Europe you've yet to conquer? Will you look at taking the national team anywhere? Cheers It's certainly been an adventure. I'm still to win a European trophy but I'm not sure that's going to be possible as Scotland is still a minor league in comparison to the other European leagues and I don't have the finance to make a sustainable challenge. We only get £2m for winning the SPL and about £1m in TV revenue, nowhere near what they get in England and Spain. However, I'm still really chuffed with getting to the QF's last season though . I've been manager of Chile and that was a bit of an anti-climax so I'm not that bothered about a national job. I've applied for the Scotland job a few times but they always seem to apply some useless Scottish-regen, I suppose they don't want an Englishman in charge of the national team Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenzar Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 What nationality are most of your regens? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raware Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 He was a product from the Chelsea youth academy but he caught my eye when he spent a season on loan at Celtic. £4.2m was a lot of money for us to be spending back in 2021 so it was a bit of a risk. 7 seasons later and he's still my record signing! I'm thrifty to say the least His scoring record speaks for itself, with the only blip coming in 2025/26. I'm surprised he hasn't been capped by England yet, but I suppose that because he's playing in Scotland and not one of the top leagues! Looks like a great player for you over the years! He'll be having his testimonial soon! This is why I love regens (newgens) and the attachment you get with them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 What nationality are most of your regens? About 85% are Scottish, with the rest being English. I suppose this is about right due to the location of the club. I just wish the quality coming through was better, I don't remember anyone with a rating of more than 1 star! Our youth recruitment is rated as average, I haven't been able to request an improvement for three seasons now Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted April 22, 2011 Author Share Posted April 22, 2011 Looks like a great player for you over the years! He'll be having his testimonial soon! This is why I love regens (newgens) and the attachment you get with them Totally agree with you Once you get into a save and all/most of the original real players have retired, it's really satisfying to unearth and develop decent regens. When you get a good one, it's almost impossible to let go of them! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Season 19 - 2028/29 Berwick Rangers Domestically we were expected to dominate, and really, there is no reason we shouldn't. Our squad is in a league of its own compared to the other teams in Scotland and the only thing that will stop us is if we get too complacent. Group stages for the Champions League is all that the board wanted, but I think we should be aiming to match our QF appearance from last season. We were once again 5-4 favourites for the league, whereas we were long shots of 33-1 for the Champions League. Season tickets sales continue to grow a paltry amount of 239 (up to 3906). Facilities - No improvements but still top facilities. Finances - Sitting pretty with £20m in the bank, over £50m worth of debt but it's nothing really to worry about. Still the 3rd richest club in Scotland. Wage Budget - No change from last season, however, I may move some of the transfer budget into the wages pot. Transfer Summary - A net spend of £2m. Not a lot I know, but the squad is strong and I don't want to unnecessarily unbalance it. Key Transfers Andrea Bertoni (Free) - A classy Italian left winger who joined us after being released by Aston Villa. The combination of his pace and dribbling skills should be a potent threat from wide areas. Ethan Fritsch (Free) - Signed on a free from Marseille. He's only 19 so will be a fringe player for now, hopefully within time, he will become part of the first team. Jose Luis Llorca (£875k) - Signed from Alcorcon in Spain, should be a good left back for us. Champions League - Winner Knockout Stages Tree No, this isn't a typo, we really did win it, even though I'm not too sure how! We've been incredibly lucky at times this season! As second seeds we were drawn alongside Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow and Lech Poznan in Group B. The group was harder than I would have liked but I was still fairly confident we would get 2nd and qualify for the knockout rounds. A tricky first game in Moscow earned us a point; this was then followed by a narrow defeat at home to Inter. Not the best of starts, but we still had both games against bottom seeds Lech Poznan from which I was banking on getting six points. In Poland, to my amazement, we annihilated them 9-0! What a poor poor team they were, both Luke Shepherd and Ryan Williams bagging hat-tricks with Joao running the show in midfield. The return leg in Berwick was near enough a repeat performance of the previous game, with us winning 9-0 again and reserve striker Tony Falcone taking the match ball this time. 18 goals against the 'best team' in Poland certainly proved our quality but it really shouldn't be this easy in the group stages of Europe's premier competition. A home win against CSKA and a fluky point in Milan was enough to see us through in 2nd place, having only conceded one goal in the competition so far. In the last 16 we were drawn against Lyon. I knew our defence was pretty solid, so in the home leg I wanted to play it tight and try and knick a goal to take with us to France. We did exactly that with a 1-0 win, and scraped through to the QFs on away goals courtesy of 90+2mins own goal. Another big slice of luck! Next up were Inter Milan again. We had already faced each other previously in the group stages with only 1 goal scored over the two games. I prepared myself for a tight, nervy affair where goals would be hard to come by. To my disappointment, we were well beaten 2-0 in Milan and had consigned myself to our exit from the competition. However, after a lot of pluck and muster, we pulled off a truly unbelievable result back in Berwick. Berwick Rangers 6-1 Inter Milan. An unbelievable game where we were 5-0 up at half time and strolling towards to semi-finals of the Champions League! Ryan Williams played a blinder, netting four times a match where we scored all our shots on target! In the semi-final we were up against Atletico Madrid, the side that had knocked out Barcelona. We certainly rode our luck at times over the course of tie and probably deserved to be knocked out. We scraped together another lucky 1-1 draw in Madrid to follow it up with a 2-1 win back at Hawke Park, where our goals were scored in the 83rd and 90+2 minutes, after Madrid had missed a penalty and we had been reduced to ten men. Talk about leaving it late again, that's two of our knockout games that have been decided by goals well into injury time, the new 'Fergie Time'! I've even developed a 'Fergie-style celebratory arm shake'! For the first time in 59 years, since 1970 when Celtic lost to Feyenoord, there would be a Scottish team in the final of the European Cup/Champions League. Our opponents were Juventus and the match was being hosted at St. James Park, Newcastle. No matter what happened, history was being made for Berwick Rangers, even though the match being staged in the North-East of England was certainly an advantage to us. We took the lead after three minutes through winger Andrea Bertoni. I hadn't banked on taking such an early lead and did everything possible to park the bus for the rest of the game. The Old Lady equalised ten minutes before half-time and continued to pummel our goal for the rest of the match. My goalkeeper, Matt Rose, played a blinder, and we managed to hang on for the final whistle after being reduced to ten men again. We then continued our 'bus parking' through extra time, I was more than happy to settle for penalties as there was no chance of us getting a winner as my players were running on empty. Rose continued his fantastic form in the shootout, earning himself man of the match in the process. Juventus missed their 1st penalty and their 3rd was saved by Rose. We scored all four of ours to win 4-2, with Jose Luis Lorca (our leftback) finishing things off to win us the trophy and title of 'Champions of Europe'. So lucky, but such an amazing feeling! SPL - Winner Position Graph Not as dominant as last season, but we had things sewn up with two games to go which meant I could rest players going into the Scottish Cup and Champions League finals. Rangers put in a decent effort, finishing six points behind us. Everyone else where pretty poor, we could have (and should have) scored more than the 76 goals we did this season. Co-op Insurance Cup - Runner-Up We didn't show up and were comfortably beaten by Hearts in the final. A disappointing performance, but only a small blemish on what was a great season. Scottish Cup - Winner A nervy final against Hamilton. We dominated from kickoff to the final whistle but had to rely on an 89th minute goal from Luke Shepherd to earn us a fantastic treble. Another late goal! Key Players Luke Shepherd - Missed a fair chunk of the season through injury. Still an important player for us, but it's good to know we can still perform well without him. Ryan Williams - Really stepped up to the plate this season. 35 goals in all competition which included 10 in the Champions League and has finally got him into recognition for the England squad. SPL TOTY Joao - My Brazilian midfielder has settled in Berwick now and his performances have drastically improved. 14 goals and 20 assists all from the centre of the park. Top stuff! SPL TOTY. Daniel Fransson - Missed four months with knee tendonitis, and only recovered just in time to play in the Champions League final (where he got sent off!). A reassuring presence when he does plays. Javier - Since Fransson missed so much time through injury, I'm surprised how well this youngster did in organising the back four. He's only just turned 21 and looks like he'll be a commanding defender for many years to come. Fans Player of the Year and Scottish PFA Young Player of the Year. SPL TOTY. Team of the Year - We really did have a great season with everyone in the best eleven averaging over 7.00. Overall Best 11 - 647 appearances for Caputo now (breaking the club record) but he's not even legend status yet (I am now though ). I reckon he's got one more season left in him as he'll be 35 next year. I'd never sell him, but I hope that he decided to retire reasonably soon and I'll take him on as a coach. Season Summary Champions League: Winner (1-1 AET 4-2 pens vs Juventus) SPL: Winner ( 27-6-5 +51 87) Co-op Insurance Cup: Runner-Up (0-1 vs Hearts) Scottish Cup: Winner (2-1 vs Hamilton) An unbelievable season which show us win the treble. I look forward to us attempting to defend our Champions League trophy next season, and our adventure into the World Club Cup should be fun too. We've had more than our fair share of luck this season, and I anticipate this being evened-out next season by the 'FM gods'. Unfortunately, our European victory was not enough to improve the Scottish co-efficient or improve the reputation of the SPL. Hopefully, another good showing next season will help with this and get the SPL into the top 10 leagues in Europe. (We've improved to 16th in the club rankings.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychonaut Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Fantastic stuff. Well done on your European success, and other career highs thus far! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted May 14, 2011 Author Share Posted May 14, 2011 Fantastic stuff. Well done on your European success, and other career highs thus far! Thanks psychonaut It's amazing to think that 19 seasons ago we were no-hopers in Division 3. It's been a great journey so far! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted May 14, 2011 Author Share Posted May 14, 2011 In my haste to write about our Champions League success, I've omitted to update on how Euro 2028 panned out. Euro 2028 Hosts: England Holders: The Netherlands Hosts England had a bit of a shocker and got knocked out in the 2nd Round by Spain. Michael Laudrup left his position, I applied for the vacant England job, but the FA decided to appoint a regen who was the Under-21's manager. Israel were the surprise package this year, beating Germany and Spain on the way to the semi-finals where they lost out to eventual winners Italy. The final was a pretty one-sided affair which saw Italy lift the trophy. Player of the Tournament was this Italian chap from Chelsea, the Golden Boot going to another Chelsea player too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Another excellent season AK. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShanghaiNugget Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Israel, excellent! This is a great thread, and a great career. What will you do now having won the CL? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackripper Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 Israel, excellent! This is a great thread, and a great career i totally agree well written and enjoyable to read Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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