FM:13 From topdogs to underdogs, Rangers Football Club

[SteveUK]

Is McCulloch worth keeping at the ned of season 1?. He still has good attributes but kepp getting coach reports that he is past his best.

I used him as a first team member for first season and half of the second season, then he usually sat on the bench and provided vital cover for the next two seasons when i finally got to the SPL.

Decided to start again, as my game was started in Beta, and ive got my eye on some different signings this time around.

[DougyMarshall]

Just wrapped up the 1st season since the game officially came out.

Finished Div 3 with 101 points, was on something like 26 wins 1 loss when i won the league and holidayed the rest with kenny taking over (drew 2 and won the rest).

Won the Challenge cup against Raith.

Put out of the league Cup by Celtic on penalties.

Won the Scottish Cup against Morton, beating Hearts and Motherwell along the way (with replays needed before beating them at Ibrox).

Unfortunately no European football since the ban seems to be in place (morton got that for their runners up spot in scottish cup).

Hilariously Celtic imploded all season long apart from a League Cup win, being 5th in the SPL for practically 90% of the season including not winning a single game from Early october to mid december. They eventually found form at the end of the season but could not catch Motherwell who won the SPL with 5 points spare.

Formation: a 3-2-3-1-1 which has resulted in my midfield and fullbacks being my best scorers on a very regular basis.

Top 5 players:

1. Lee McCulloch (MC) 38 games, 11 goals, 14 assists, 7 MotM, 7.56 rating.

2. Anestis Argyriou (WBR) 40 games, 9 goals, 14 assists, 5 MotM, 7.48 rating.

3. Lee Wallace (WBL) 41(7) games, 14 goals, 17 assists, 4 MotM, 7.43 rating.

4. Cristiano Zanetti, (MC) 36(1) games, 14 goals, 13 assists, 6 MotM, 7.42 rating.

5. Kyle Hutton, (MC) 33(6) games, 10 goals, 16 assists, 4 MotM, 7.36 rating.

I had signed Jari Litmanen on a free at the start of the season but he tore his cruciate ligament in his 2nd friendly game and was out for 10 months of his 12 month contract so i terminated his contract to the cost of £100k.

Was not happy with my strikers all season, Mpenza was on a streak at the start but ended up injured too often (8 goals). Sandaza would score 3-4 in quick succession then have a barren spell for months (15 goals), Little was good but other than his speed he was very much inconsistent in goal threat (7 goals).

Got a good prospect through the youth ranks with 4 star potential, signed a young regen stiker from Linfield too who was 5 star potential. Seeing as my strikers end up being distractions anyway rather than out and out goal scorers i reckon i play the two of them regularly and not suffer goal wise since its my fullbacks and 3 man midfield plus the AMC who chip in with 80% of my goals.

Selling Goian to raise some cash, my defence is solid with Cribari, Faure and Balde (yeah that Balde) but given that Boca from other peoples saves seems impossible to sell im going to use him instead.

McCulloch is sticking around and so too is Alexander. Wallace cried a bit at the end of the season and i told him i would grow the club by getting promoted (which i had achieved the week before).

Lost a lot of staff though so im on the hunt for a new assistant, fitness coach, a bunch of scouts, coaches, and physios. I was not going to renew a bunch of useless staff... i mean the Adam Owen only had 6 fitness and hes the fitness coach ffs (he only had 1 in my mates save).

[FrazT]

Also just finished season 1-

Won the league with 96 points, 6 draws only. Tight defence with only 11 goals conceded but hardly prolific up front. Lost to Aberdeen, Hearts and Elgin in the 3 cups, so final season tally was p49 w39 d7 l3, f106 a20

Players In-

D Webber- free- average goalscorer who got and missed a bucketload of chances

J Koumas- free- reasonable season as MC /AMC but getting reports that he is past it

R Brittain- 75K- good season either in midfield or right wing

B Douglas- 90K- good backup for Wallace who is away a lot and was injured as well

C Herd- 2 year free loan- regular in the team- played usually as DM or MC

C Martin- 1 year free loan- high ratings playing as AMC- can be a bit apathetic at times though- might try and sign him as a free agent after the embargo is lifted.

Team report

Aleaxnader solid- will give him another 2 years- Currie was terrific as backup

Cole better than Agyriou at DR, Faure and Gasparotto settled as DCs, Wallace very good when playing- Cribari, Perry and Hegarty as backups

Black was steady as was Hutton, McCulloch average in midfield

Shiels and Templeton were a bit erratic- terrific one week then invisible the next- player instructions are important to get the best out of them

Naismith, Aird and McKay played OK as backup- gave Stella a chance at the end and he performed well- not decided yet whether to give him a new contract as he is on 2K a week?

Strikers were a problem, Webber top scored with 22, but nobody else above 12- Sandaza was enigmatic and Kyle a joke ( gave him 9 reserve games and he still didnt score, so he will be off )

Eventually settled on a version of the Asymetirc tactic

Contracts- cant afford Goian and Boca so they will be off soon hopefully-swithering about McCulloch and Stella- have renewed most of the young guys but be warned that the promotion clause that most players have will kick in in mid June so all the contracts I negotiated early in June have had 25% added to them

Attendances were erratic- 37 K from August to Feb for league games then 3 or 4 at 45K, then back to 37K till the last game which was 48K?

Another tip- watch McDowalls opposition instructions if you ask him- his only contribution seemed to be to tackle eveybody hard and so got 6 red cards in the first half of the season- did the instructions myself after that and there were no more

On to season 2

[kane_richards]

Is McCulloch worth keeping at the ned of season 1?. He still has good attributes but kepp getting coach reports that he is past his best.

Yeah, he was a rock for me getting back to the SPL. 7.5 avg in SFL3, 7.54 in SFL2 and 7.07 in SFL1 before he retired

[kane_richards]

6 games into SPL1. Currently second, 3 behind Celtic but I have a game in hand.

Changed the team about quite a bit. Clearing out all manner of dead wood (Sandaza, Black, Sheils, Hemmings left for free or next to nothing, McCulloch retired).

With the money I had I brought in Théo Defourny to replace the aging Alexander (1.5m), John Verhoek (nout) and Griffiths (190k) to replace Sandaza and Hemmings, Keith Watson (nout) because I never replaced Argyriou, Kris Commons (nout) to replace McCulloch and Black. Was also able to get Bocanegra on a free as backup for Wallace. He's retiring at the end of the season and is on pennies so it's nice to have some cover. I did like the fact that Wolves wanted about 700k for Griffiths but as the summer went on they just took anything.

Missed out on a huge amount of possible free signings because I can't seem to offer wages over 15k or so which makes sense although frustrating

Changed the team around somewhat from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 to try and take advantage of my striking options. My defence is a huge problem for me, not because I'm having issues, but because I have too many options. In the centre I have Hegarty, Faure, Gasparotto and Hammer and all 4 will average a 7.2 if played. Hammer is an absolute rock so he's getting played but as for the other position I've no idea. I sometimes play hegarty in midfield but he's not fantastic there.

GK Defourny

DL Wallace, Boca

DC Hammer

DC Faure, Hegarty, Gasparotto

DR Watson, Évora (youngster from Porto, not bad)

MC Max Power (have to say his full name)

MC Kyle Hutton

MC McLeod, Commons,

FW Eamon Hutton

FW Verhoek

FW Griffiths, Little.

Griffiths, Power, Verhoek and Hammer have been stand out in preseason and in the SPL so far. I would highly recommend all of them.

[kane_richards]

Has anyone else noticed that players seem to retire really early? Craig Gordon retired at 31 and some Argentinian lad I was trying to sign retired at 28 because he wasn't with a club.

[kane_richards]

Uuuh, I don't think this is so much a bug as.... odd.

Swansea come in and offer me a contract, think it'll be nice to have a change and apply. Rangers are now looking for a new manager but it seems that the board have appointed a Director of Football who I'm guessing will now oversee the appointment of a manager, the problem is the DoF is Carlos Bocanegra who now takes on a dual Player / DoF role.... that can't be right...... can it?

[andebro]

1st season is over, 32-4-0 and 100p Its quite odd how Rangers struggle in third division in real life...(FM need to put in an "effort scale", meaning that when lower teams get the possibility to play for instance Rangers, they give it a 110%. must be the reason for Rangers' trouble this season - leading the table, but just 6p down to team #9! )

A big treble in my first season, concluded by taking home the Scottish Cup (e.t. against Celtic) and the League Cup. But no Europe League for winning the Scottish cup?? It says so in the Rules written in SPL!! Anyone? Rangers banned from Europe?

I am kind of rich now (£10m) after selling/releasing a lot of expensive players. Only kept Lee Wallace from those having high wages. However, I'm in trouble due to the transfer embargo. I read that this would/could happen, but when is it removed? It is tiresome to have a squad of 8 players accompanied by 16/17 years old kids.... I won the first game 2-0 away to Alloa though My 8 players under contract/loan: Benvegnu GK, Samson GK, Grimmer DR, McGregor DC, Wallace DL, Brittain MC, Bruins MC, Le Fondre ST. Regret not giving Kostal DC a new contract. He banged in 13 goals in 23 league games, but where getting "past his peak". Le Fondre was my best player, scoring a goal per game. I LOVE the two-year loan deal!

Peace

[FrazT]

Rangers have a 3 year European ban as well as the transfer embargo which stops on 3/9/13, after which you can sign free agents till the transfer window opens on 1/1/14.

[andebro]

Thanks mate. Such a shame, would have been great playing a SD2 team in the Europe League! Loaned a bunch of players from PL again (for instance Demel, Wheater, Vaz Te, Best, Goodwill, M edu, and McLaughlin), no costs and almost everybody exceeds the SD2 level.

Have someone found bargains and/or wonderkids from Scotland? And is it free to loan players from PL in SD1 as well?

[Hoarau]

Uuuh, I don't think this is so much a bug as.... odd.

Swansea come in and offer me a contract, think it'll be nice to have a change and apply. Rangers are now looking for a new manager but it seems that the board have appointed a Director of Football who I'm guessing will now oversee the appointment of a manager, the problem is the DoF is Carlos Bocanegra who now takes on a dual Player / DoF role.... that can't be right...... can it?

Yeah it does happen in real life from time to time, im sure Makalele at PSG did it before they brought in Leonardo and im sure Roberto Carlos did something similiar at Anji.

[kane_richards]

Oh yes of course, I never thought of Roberto Carlos. Oh well, just struct me as bizarre

[exacerbating]

FIrst season:

Won Div 3 - could have done that with my eyes shut.

Final of Challenge Cup (beat 3-2 by Raith Rovers AET).

Knocked out in first round of League Cup.

Final of Scottish Cup (Beat 4-3 by Celtic, conceded in 87th minute)

Best players:

Templeton

McCulloch

Black

Sandaza

Best Youngsters:

Gasparatto - first team next season

McKay - gets a run of games now and then and was banging them in at one point.

Strange happenings:

News item after Scottish Cup final loss - "The defeat only serves to confirm the disappointment that the team only reached the final of the Scottish Cup".

News item before Scottish Cup final loss - "Rangers favourites for Old Firm derby clash"

Disappointed I only signed Herd on a one year loan. Next season I'll have to play Argyriou.

[FrazT]

At the end of the first season and was undecided whether to offer McCulloch a new deal- decided to try a bit of brinkmanship and wait till the last few days of his contract. Unforuneately the game hadnt read my script and ran through the end of June without stopping and McCulloch walked because his contract wasnt renewed. I thought about offering him a deal but, of course, the embargo kicked in so no McCulloch for me.

[Whatawaster95]

Finished 1st season.

Won the 3rd divison quite easily

Won the Scottish Cup final against the knewco after an easy run to the final

Won the Challenge Cup

Lost in the 3rd round of the League cup to the knewco

2m in the red before the start of season 2.

Good first season and i'm really enjoying the game. Best signings have been Craig Sibbald, Mansare, Mauricio Alves and Adryan. Everyone should really do whatever it takes to sign Adryan, turns out to be fantastic and i'm hoping once im back in the SPL, I can sell him on for a massive profit. Also Faure and Gasparotto really become good players! Signed this newgen Robertson from Cowdenbeath at the start of the game for 85k and he has been brilliant all season with his stats dramatically improving. Ass man says he has 5 star potential. Also had this newgen come through the youth intake, looks to be quite good. Signed a few decent newgens from SPL sides aswell in prep for next season.

[exacerbating]

Just signed Super Ally as my assistant hehe.

[DougyMarshall]

I think everybody is getting Ally in as assistant, makes a pleasant change from previous years when you could never get a manager you replaced to take a job under you. Tried so many times to get Walter Smith in with no luck.

Noticed something odd with my regen striker who came through the actual youth ranks (in 14 seasons with Rangers in FM12 i never once had a good kid come through)... he is playing much much better than Sandaza, Kyle, Little or Mpenza ever did...

Despite being quite a bit lower in stats, he has good jumping and speed for his age but his technical and mental stats are all below the other strikers... yet he is banging them in.

He is a local lad too which is always nice, usually end up with 95% of my squad being foreign in FM.

[8arry]

Guys, I have a very very shameful admission to make.

In season 2 I didn't win the league. Queen of the south beat me to it and gave me a 7-2 drubbing on the way :o

So season 2 started pretty badly. Loosing my opening match and struggling with the asymmetrical system I had used in the third, so I had to shuffle the pack a bit and went for a variant of a 4-4-2 before deciding to go with a 5-4-1. I'll get back to the squad in a moment.

The race for the title was a 3 way battle with me, Queen of the South and Airdrie. In the final weeks Airdrie fell away and as we drew silly games Queen of the South pulled out a lead that we couldnt peg back, eventually winning the league on the penultimate weekend.

The final table looked like this:

Queen of the South (77)

Rangers (74)

Airdrie (66)

Dumbarton (57)

Stenhousemuir (53)

Alloa (48)

Brechin (48)

Berwick (29)

Stranraer (28)

East Fife (24)

My transfers for the second window were:

Players In

Michael Johnston - FREE - yes, that Michael Johnstone, ex of Man City. He had no pre season and was struggling for fitness all year. signed for 4 years so should improve next year.

Giancarlo Gallifuoco - FREE - DM released by Spurs, only 20 and already pushing the first team.

Saulius Mikoliunas - LOAN - Aresenal Kyiv - 29yo ex Hearts man was a star down the right wing.

Players Out

Jason Banton - FREE - Bad attitude and was complaining alot more than his skills merited, contract terminated.

Carolos Boccanegra - FREE - Wage drain that I needed to bring in Mikoliunas, contract terminated.

So fairly quiet on the transfer front, I want to sign Mikoliunas on a permanant deal but his wage demands are rediculous so that looks like its not going anywhere.

My team on the final day of the season looked like this:

GK - Alexander

DR - Argyriou

DC - Perry

DC - Faure

DC - Gasparotto

DL - Wallace

MR - Mikoliunas

MC - MacLeod

ML - Templeton

AMC - Hutton

ST - McKay

SUB - McCulloch

SUB - Douglas

SUB - Sheils

SUB - Gallifuoco

SUB - Little

The playoffs drew us against Airdrie first of all which was put to bed with a 2-0 win at New Broomfield followed by a 4-0 thumping at Ibrox.

The play off final saw us against Falkirk which was an altogether more tense affair, a 0-0 at the Falkirk Stadium led into a 2-0 win at Ibrox thanks to a MacLeod double.

So promotion was achieved, the hard way, but so far I have kept my job.

The top performers this season were:

Average Rating

Wallace - 7.22

Templeton - 7.22

Faure - 7.15

Argyriou - 7.15

McKay - 7.14

Most Assists

Wallace - 14

McKay - 12

Templeton - 10

Aird - 8

Hutton - 8

Top Goalscorer

McKay - 22

Templeton - 15

Hutton - 11

McCulloch - 10

Sheils - 8

Overall a disapointing season and im hoping that next year in the First division we can turn a corner and walk through the league.

[kingofscotland]

8arry - The bonus for me would be the 22 goals for McKay which is a great return from the youngster. I am at end of October in Div 2 and 5 pts clear after a busy last day of transfer window activity bringing in McCabe, Edu (loan), Verhoek, Earnshaw as well as a few young promising players brought in by Cantona (Dir of Football).

Had a wobbly in the league losing my 1st game swiftly followed by a draw, then I had Celtic in the cup at Parkhead and put them out 3-0 on pens (Alexander saved all 3 from them). So back on track now.

[8arry]

8arry - The bonus for me would be the 22 goals for McKay which is a great return from the youngster.

Yeah, McKay has been a top performer. Playing him as a poacher with creative freedom turned all the way up and closing down all the way down, he just floats about finding space.

[lovenkrands01]

Well thats the first and last time I'm leaving Jim sinclair to youth contracts. For some absurd reason we let this lad go.

[Whatawaster95]

Well thats the first and last time I'm leaving Jim sinclair to youth contracts. For some absurd reason we let this lad go.

Had that happen to me too, I just deal with youth player contracts myself now.

[tomadeira08]

Yeah, McKay has been a top performer. Playing him as a poacher with creative freedom turned all the way up and closing down all the way down, he just floats about finding space.

I will have to try this, I am playing McKay at the moment as a backup for Leo Aro and Andy Little, I have a poacher in my system and love to see how this works with McKay. It could even work with Leo as he is pretty intelligent guy.

Well thats the first and last time I'm leaving Jim sinclair to youth contracts. For some absurd reason we let this lad go.

I think Jim Sinclair is terrible, looking for someone to come in and replace him, think I might have to wait till my time in the SPL to get a decent replacement. I have made sure it is me who is signing all the contracts.

[gary_a]

I just got promoted to division 1 murray put the club up for sale been bought by a local businessman and now im £6mill in debt paying 30k a month til 2039. **** lol

[Whatawaster95]

Now well into September in my second season. Top of the league, still in all the cups so far, things going well. Finally brought in some decent coaches and now every category is at least 3 stars. Balance is only 4.7M and I'm losing about 2.8M a month

Got rid of a few big earners in the apart from Bocanegra as no one seemed to want him, just kept him and now he's the captain. Jig, Sandaza, Goian, Cribari, Stella and Kyle as well as a load of under 19's and reserves are all gone now. Mainly to compensate for the stupid idea i had of put having 20% promotion bonuses in the contracts of nearly all the players i signed in season one. So I managed to bring the wage bill down to £88.5kp/w.

Signed 5 newgens this transfer window for a total of 2.1M, all 15 or 16 so the embargo didn't block it obviously.

Dominic McKinnon being the best one, cost 1.3M which is mainly in installments. 4.5 star potential, Just need to improve his strength and his mental stats and he will be brilliant not that he already isn't!

Robertson who i got from Cowdenbeath last season for only 75k is coming along nicely too, cant get him to score this season though, think he's a bit inconsistent. Adryan isn't performing as well as he did last season either, still early days though. Mick Barlow who i got in the first season's youth intake looks to be a fantastic player too, did have 4.5 star potential but its went down to 4 now for some reason.

[brento]

any suggestions who to sign for director of football and head of youth development?

[exacerbating]

Thanks for the tip on McKay regarding creative freedom and pressing. He scored 2 and set 2 up in the first game I changed him.

[FrazT]

In season 2 and my scouts are land locked in Britain- can anyone advise if and when they can start looking abroad please?

Is there any way on controlling the reserves, even for a short time, as the current manager ( Wilson?) refuses to play some of the young players I have acquired and plays others out of position ( sounds familiar eh?)

[8arry]

In season 2 and my scouts are land locked in Britain- can anyone advise if and when they can start looking abroad please?

Is there any way on controlling the reserves, even for a short time, as the current manager ( Wilson?) refuses to play some of the young players I have acquired and plays others out of position ( sounds familiar eh?)

Mine got the freedom to scout Europe in the close season before the first division campaign.

Thanks for the tip on McKay regarding creative freedom and pressing. He scored 2 and set 2 up in the first game I changed him.

Great to hear its working for you, he will go through dry patches but he is still young and learning his trade.

[Whatawaster95]

In season 2 and my scouts are land locked in Britain- can anyone advise if and when they can start looking abroad please?

Is there any way on controlling the reserves, even for a short time, as the current manager ( Wilson?) refuses to play some of the young players I have acquired and plays others out of position ( sounds familiar eh?)

In the reserves section of staff responsibilities you can set yourself as manager of the reserve team.

[FrazT]

In the reserves section of staff responsibilities you can set yourself as manager of the reserve team.

I found that screen before and the drop down box for the reserve manager is greyed out, so cant change it.

[slipknot67]

I found that screen before and the drop down box for the reserve manager is greyed out, so cant change it.

I read in GD you have to sack your reserves manager to take control of the reserves team, haven't tried it myself though so not certain if that'll definitely work or not.

[DougyMarshall]

Having a nightmare with Wallace in Division 2, he moaned at the very end of the 1st season about needing to move to a bigger club and i told him the club would grow to meet his expectations by getting promoted.

He was fairly quiet for the summer then 3 days after the window closed he demanded a transfer, ever since then he has come back with the same request every other week.

He wont even talk to me now if i try to have a conversation with him. So it looks like ill be getting rid of him in winter for as much as possible, hopefully over £3m. I sold Wilsons contract clauses with Liverpool for £1.5m combined which has left me with a decent budget for winter with or without Wallace's cash.

Also had a little injury/international spell that has left the team with a few poor results. Lost in the 3rd round of the Scottish cup to Dundee Utd on penalties and then drew two Div 2 games 2-2 and 0-0. Shockingly managed to get passed Falkirk 1-0 in extra time despite having 8 1st team/sub players out.

[sajidt]

Jus started my third season, upto div 1 and unbeaten so far....signed makombo eboma (young striker) from Alloa in first season and has been a revelation....scored 26 goals in div 2 season and him and mckay have started well in div 1....

[DougyMarshall]

Season 2

Just won Div 2 after 26 games, 23 wins and 3 draws leaves me 32 points ahead of Forfar with only 30 points remaining to play for. (pretty much the same basic jist as my progress in Div 3).

Happy with my team, the tactics and everything else for the most part.

Won the Challenge cup for the 2nd time in a row (against Raith again) which is nice.

Got put out of the League Cup on penalties against Dundee United which was a travesty considering the stats of the game but meh.

Still in the Scottish Cup after putting out Morton, East Fife and Killie, Got Falkirk in the Quarters.

Transfers in:

Jim Lowry, 17, ST, Newgen, Linfield £525k

Conor Grant, 18, MC, Everton Free

Daryl Finlay, 16 DC, Newgen Glentoran £100k

-January-

Aaron Sinclair, 22, WBL, Hibernian £400k

Alan Rafferty, 16, ST, Newgen, Dundee United, £3.5m (1.5 up front, 2 over 4 years)

Total: £4.5m

Transfers out:

Veterans (Mpenza, Kyle etc.)

Tons of kids (Cole, Stella etc.)

Gorin Doian to Burnley £350k

Fracisco Sandaza to Tenerife £210k

-January-

Lee Wallace to Reading £4.2m

Total: £4.8m

Formtation:

-----------Alexander

-----Perry-Bocanegra-Cribari

Faure---------------------Sinclair

-----McCulloch-Zanetti-Black

----------Templeton

-----------McNamee

Top 5 players:

1. Cristiano Zanetti, MC, 15(2) games, 6 goals, 9 assists, 7.58

2. David Templeton, AMC, 33(2) games, 9 goals, 17 assists, 7.53

3. Sebastien Faure, WBR, 34 games, 3 goals, 3 assists, 7.45

4. Ian Black, MC, 30(2) games, 10 goals, 17 assists, 7.42

5. Stephen McNamee, ST, 32(1) games, 23 goals, 5 assists, 7.42 (Newgen who came through the youth system)

Pic of the kid i got from Dundee Utd, have high hopes for him, work on his pace and see if his aerial abilities perk up a bit more too... could turn into quite the poacher which my tactic requires.

[tmason122]

Originally Posted by andebro I am thinking "Why waste money on players not good enough for the top division?". It seems possible to climb the divisions in Scotland with loanees (added with FREE players from each summer-window. Finally a overall lower wage-budget will enabled me to buy talented players for the future (and now). There are no rules (at least in 3rd divison) against # of loanees in squad or in match. The taught was to cut down drastically on the clubs wages. A plan not working as well as hoped, considering my extremely good reserve team atm However, I may use the players in the cups. Won against Celtic recently, only knocked out of the "unimportant" challenge cup.

I must say, players like Lappin, Stalteri, Le Fondre and Lita are tearing up the 3rd division. The quality of the league is maybe comparable to the English non-league?

To be fair, pretty good reasons there. I usually slowly but surely build up a squad, so I haven't made any drastic changes with my Ranger squad. No loanees, harldy any new players and hardly any old ones have left. the squad is doing fine in division two. Will start doing some major work on it and the end of division 2, getting it prepared for premier league standard a season in advance so some of the players will have a chance to gell.

[Whatawaster95]

Anyone been using Darren Ramsey? He's turned out quite good in my game! 4 star potential!

[ReaLisM--]

Walking through division 3 here..

[kingofscotland]

Div 2, end of October and 5pts clear still in all competitions and have put out Celtic & Dundee United in League Cup and have ICT in semis now.

McCulloch has returned to being a striker whilst Little has been injured and scored the winner against Dundee Utd and then against Peterhead in the same week in the League showing he still has it.

Best youngsters for me have been Aird, McKay & Gasparato with the latter now pushing for a starting slot

[8arry]

Just a quick transfer update at the end of the summer window in division 1.

Players In

Ryan Gauld - Dundee Utd - £575,000 - Great young winger

Colin Button - Llanelli - FREE - 16yo regen defender who can play right across the back line

Leigh Griffiths - Wolves - LOAN - striker on a 2 year load deal with the option to buy for £500,000

Mark Beevers - Sheffield Wednesday - FREE - decent center half

Moshan Karami - FREE - 18yo regen DC/DL great looking stats for his age

Michael Owen - FREE - Signed to provide experience and cover, also doubles up as DoF

Guido Wittek - FREE - 19yo SC regen with a bit of pace and some tidy finishing

Gerhard Schmidt - FREE - 18yo regen AMC, quality player, straight into the first team

Chris Kirkland - FREE - Experienced GK to provide cover

Guillaume Simon - FREE - 19yo French regen GK. Will be my first choice keeper for a long long time

Jochen Kotysch - FREE - 18to regen SC, defo one for the future

Players Out

Kyle McAusland - £140,000 - TNS

Ian Black - £110,000 - Notts County

Alex Kitchen - LOAN - Tranmere

Kristian Gibson - FREE

Francisco Sandaza - FREE - Huesca

Stuart Urquhart - LOAN - Bristol City

Andy Little - £65,000 - Ipswitch

Lee McCulloch - FREE - Southend

Connor Grant - LOAN - St Mirren

Neil Alexander - FREE - Blackpool

Dean Sheils - FREE - MK Dons

A bunch of youth out on loan as well.

Overall it was a busy window, have cut down on wages though, the top earners are now:

Templeton - 9k

Wallace - 8k

Simon - 7.5k

Argyriou - 5k

Faure - 4.7k

The total amount spent on wages is 96k a week which is a pretty good level for now.

Won the first 4 games on the bounce before loosing to Ross County in division 1 so thats a decent start.

[MichaelBrown]

Just into September after the first transfer window and I'm really enjoying FM this year as Rangers. Won every game so far quite comfortably apart from St.Mirren who i was lucky to beat on penalties in the league cup, drawn against Savco at the Big Jock Nou camp in the next round too. Signed a **** load of players, i'm a fan of rotation haha but I'm praying i wont be losing money every month with my wage bill at 107k p/w just now.

Suazo in the third division is something I never thought I'd see ha.

[Hoarau]

Signed up this young lad on a really good contract and his report says he has the potential to be a leading SPL midfielder, have really high hopes for him and im gonna throw him in right from the off in Division 2 so he can mature and gain experince within the lower leagues, hopefully we'll see some development.

[Whatawaster95]

Just starting 3rd season in the first divison and seen the SPL is 57th in the competition rankings, could be quite hard to attract decent players by the time i get there next season.

[DougyMarshall]

Just starting 3rd season in the first divison and seen the SPL is 57th in the competition rankings, could be quite hard to attract decent players by the time i get there next season.

Ive noticed that as well, though i think the SPL is something like 80 ish in mine.

Motherwell won it in 2013 and Dundee United in 2014 with Celtic coming 2nd both times after a terrible mid season then a strong late push to claw back up the league.

It is as if the AI controlling Celtic just cannot handle the morale drops they get from getting pumped in Europe, they end up going 10+ game runs without back to back wins of any form and its only when they exit europe and luck into a run of wins that they get their expected form back.

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As for my plans for Division 1, ive just seen practically all of the old guard retire or leave for free. Alexander, McCulloch, Zanetti, Cribari, Bocanegra etc.

The thing is that i am not really tempted to sign anybody bar maybe a keeper, a lot of the kids i have nurtured since the start of the game are ready to step up imo (Macleod, Ramsay, Perry, etc.) and i still have the likes of Faure, Hutton, Templeton etc. who are the back bone of the team.

I got a good young GK prospect through the youth ranks and i am wondering if i should just play him in the senior team despite his age, all the keepers i have scouted are going to cost me 500k+ and not be a whole lot better than him.

[Whatawaster95]

Finished season 2 winning the 2nd division, league cup and scottish cup but losing out on the challenge cup against Morton which pissed me off.

Best players being Ivor Robertson (wonderkid newgen), Craig Sibbald, Adryan, Mick Barlow (newgen) and McKinnon (newgen).

Also seen Robertson, Keith Watson, Barry Douglas, Craig Sibbald and McKinnon getting called up for the Scotland team.

Ended the season with the balance being nearly 4M in the red which meant for the new season in division one the board gave me no transfer budget at all and set the wage bill at 91kp/w when it was 107kp/w before that, so i had a bit of downsizing to do in the summer.

Main players that went were Faure for 250k then with Hutton, Salif Diao, Scott Morrison and other reserves and youngsters leaving on free transfers. Then managed to get Templeton, Black and Bocanegra to take wage cuts but with higher loyalty bonuses which brought the wage bill down to 88kp/w. Also sent 4 of the newgens i bought last season out on loan in the hope they come back ready for the SPL next season.

Signed Darren McGregor on a bosman then Steve Sidwell, Sylvain Marveaux and Jem Karacan on loan for the season, paying nothing towards the wages which was brilliant considering they are all EPL players!

Had a lot of intrest in Robertson who is the best newgen i've ever signed and developed as Rangers in any FM. Towards the end of last season he was saying he wanted to move to a bigger club but i persuaded him to stay saying the team would grow by winning promotion this season and he agreed to stay if we achieved that which we did. Liverpool, Bolton, and West Ham were making offers of around 6m in the summer but i rejected all of them and managed to get him to sign a new contract.

McKinnon and Barlow are coming along nicely too. Quality of Scottish newgens this year might be a bit too good? Not that i'm complaining

So this is my first team for Division one. Barry Wallace is a newgen keeper who was backup to Mikkel Anderson last season who's loan finished and is away back to reading so i decided to just play Wallace as first choice keeper

[@Mike_THFC]

What do you boys do for training? I'll admit, I used to download a training schedule.

[andebro]

I am close to finishing my 3rd season, what an exiting game! I am cruising through Divison 1 as well, with the majority of my players being free loan players. For the next year I have contracts on GK Samson, LB Wallace, DC McGregor, MC Brittain, MC Scott Allan, and a free loan deal for DC Margreitter.

BUT, there are a lot of exiting players from the Scottish Premier League becoming bosman in the third season, and due to my almost non-existing wages (28,000) I was able to sign quite a few: GK Craig Gordon, DR Tom Hateley, DR Van Zanten, DC Paul Hanlon, MC/MR/MR/AMC! Nicky Law, MC Nick Ross, ST Johnny Russel

Did not have enough wages for Le Fondre though, that guy went on with the goalscoring in Divison 1. In total he has scored 84 goals, and still 15games++ left in the 3rd season.

[Whatawaster95]

Absolutely gutted. I went 5 months without saving the game then had a crash dump. Think I'll start another save with a different team and play as Rangers once i get bored of that.

[simplythebest92]

Absolutely gutted. I went 5 months without saving the game then had a crash dump. Think I'll start another save with a different team and play as Rangers once i get bored of that.

I have been thinking myself of starting another Rangers save this time only using youth products for the whole time in charge (similar to the tord thread in the careers section). could be an idea instead of using another team.

[DougyMarshall]

in all fairness to the OP Im sure he would have wanted to create a thread title like you suggested etc. However it would have probably just have attracted the great unwashed into this thread for them to troll endlessly about new club, no history etc. zzzzzzz

As some of you know there is an obsessed group of them in the football forum convincing themselves that Rangers are dead:rolleyes:

Case in point the fool right below your post.

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Screenshot of one of the lads i got through in season 1's youth intake. Very impressed with him so far and hes still got bags of potential left to keep working away on his technical and mental stats.

He got his first cap recently too, edging out Steven Fletcher who is at Arsenal now (though not getting a game despite them paying £9m for him).

Heres a direct link since it looks like the forum is constricting the image size (to me anyway) http://i.imgur.com/0QbNa.png