forameuss Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 Love this thread. Where in Gibraltar would they build all these stadiums though? in the sea? Well there's Europa Point (http://europapointstadium.com). Has this been included in the game? And are Gibraltar national team playing here? If so, then they must have reclaimed some other land to make Spiteri stadium. But if not, maybe that is in the location formeuss' stadium is. It's something I did consider back in FM14 when planning permission kept getting refused. Seems they have no such problems in FM15 though, as there's now 3 sides with their own stadiums, plus Europa Point, plus the old Victoria Stadium. I wouldn't mind if they built in the sea though... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tullem Posted March 15, 2015 Share Posted March 15, 2015 5 stadiums? In Gibraltar?! Un-possible. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 5 stadiums? In Gibraltar?! Un-possible. The crazy world of FM! When I looked last time, I saw some land towards the South you could maybe build on. The North is far too packed in, and I've no real idea of scale as to how you would fit in the extra stadiums. I'm still going to go with floating stadiums though. That'd be awesome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tullem Posted March 16, 2015 Share Posted March 16, 2015 Sky Stadiums!! Suspended with a huge hot air balloon. Sounds about the only explanation here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 December Results A pretty much unblemished month, only slightly spoiled by the fact that we couldn't beat Barcelona at home. When that's your only worry, you can say it's been a pretty good month. However, the draw does mean that we finish 2nd in the group, and face a difficult tie in the 1st knockout round. "But who did you draw?" I hear you cry... It's only multi-time winners Porto! Easy! Back on domestic duty, you can see we absolutely strolled our league and Premier Cup games by a distance. Next Month A break from the really tough stuff as we have a rare month with no continental football. We do face Gibraltar United though, as well as Consortium-owned Gibraltar Pheonix for a place in the Premier Cup final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 January Another spot for VDD in the FIFPro World XI, which I'm delighted about. For the top striker in World Football to come from a Gibraltarian club is just testament to what we've done over the years. But in other striker news, we're losing one. Rabotti will leave us for Dortmund, but for a considerable sum, potentially a £14 million profit in around a year. Lovely. He wasn't the only one going, with Phillip Fontaine finally finding a new club after doing nothing but bitch for months that he wasn't getting a game. Never mind the fact that he was nowhere near good enough, let's just blame me. All good? Good. He leaves for a tidy sum. Craig Edwards, our backup keeper also left after complaints of no playing time, and Michael White joined Red Imps on loan. He's a promising youngster, so will be good to see how he gets on with regular game-time. That meant that we needed to bring in another striker, so in came one that my Director of Football had spotted. Jon Boxhill joins from Sheffield United, and it's fair to say that he's a good enough replacement for Rabotti. Check dem physicals. Dench. I then took a wild punt on Horacio Ramirez from South America. A lot of money down on a player in a crowded position, but we can never seem to have enough central midfielders these days. Can also deputise on the left in a crisis. Finally, a backup keeper, which my Director of Football sorted out. Not much outlay, happy enough for him to be on the books. Elsewhere at the club, it finally happened. The board have finally agreed to expand the stadium, after I told them for the millionth time that we would be left behind our rivals, which we demonstrably are being. It's not quite the expansion I had hoped for, but I assumed it would put us above Gibraltar United to our rightful place at the top. Naaaah...they'll remain with around 200 more seats than us. ********. Results The cat has been introduced to the pigeons, and he's just doing his stretches in preparation for getting right in amongst them. Gibraltar United have halted any prospect of a procession to the league title by bringing the gap down to just a single point a little past half way. We still need to play them once more, so looks like we've got another title battle on our hands. We recovered well to smash a poor Angels side, and then strolled into the Premier Cup final against an equally disappointing Pheonix side. Next Month February is traditionally an extremely busy month, and this year is no different. Four league games, an early cup game, a cup final, and the small matter of a Champions League 1st Knockout Round 1st leg. Ooft. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 February Results And it was all going so well. I'll gloss over the domestic football by just saying that we cleaned up. Another trophy in the bag, on course in the league and Rock Cup. Standard, really. Gibraltar United dropped two points this month, which means that a win against us in our final match won't necessarily get them ahead. We need to drop points elsewhere, and that's looking unlikely. Stranger things have happened though. But then Europe...that was agonising against Porto. We took the lead in what was a very tight game, but Porto showed their class to elbow their way in front in the tie with an extremely quick reply, and then a second minutes later. We never seemed able to cope with the attacking 4-3-3 they put out, so will need to think hard on what to do in that regard in the second leg. Pretty much worst case scenario going over to Portugal in a few weeks time. Next Month An absolutely massive match against Porto, and then just two other matches in a quiet month. Hopefully a Champions League Quarter Final tie is added to the schedule. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 March This is why you don't put these kinds of clauses in deals - it really hurts when they come in. As you'll see in the results, both of these clauses activated after the same match, making it a pretty expensive ninety minutes for us! Also, Borrelli is now a Gibraltarian citizen, and intends to play for us once his five years are up. Fantastic news, and if we can keep picking up these middling stars who are just outside their own countries squads, then we could build a team that could compete. Results Sweet Mother of the Baby Jesus...we only went and did it! Ivan Barrionuevo gave us the perfect start nine minutes in, which left the match finely poised. Porto were still ahead, but one goal would change that. I reluctantly stuck with my 4-1-4-1 formation, afraid that 4-4-2 would see Porto blitz our fragile midfield, but this time we didn't suffer from the maladies of the first leg. Porto still controlled the game, but two minutes into the second half, VDD scored another penalty to send us into the quarter finals. It was backs to the wall for the remainder of the game, but Porto couldn't unlock the stubborn back five. Wonderful, wonderful win. We qualified for the Champions League again with our sole league win this month... Time is running out for Gibraltar United. Three games to go, and they have to beat us in one of them. They could very well do that, and if we have other matters distracting us, they could just nick it. Ball is well and truly in our court though. Next Month So after Porto, who awaited us in the quarters? Looking at the 7 possibles, who do you think we'd like to avoid? Well, probably all of them, but I absolutely don't want to face PSG again after they broke our hearts last season. You already know what's coming next, don't you? No prizes for guessing where the key matches are next month. We welcome PSG and hope to get revenge for the final last year, before travelling to Paris eight days later. By then we should have all but wrapped up the league with (hopefully) a win against Angels. Then we'll play Lions in the Rock Cup for a place in the final - but will we be going into that game buoyant or depressed? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 April Results How important could that 91st minute penalty be? Surprisingly, we absolutely battered them in terms of shots on home ground, but possession was pretty even. It started to look like a familiar pattern though when you think back to last year, and when they took the lead it seemed like one of those days. But somehow we were handed a lifeline as VDD was felled in the box. He picked himself up, dusted himself down, and smashed home the resulting penalty. Game on in Paris. So what do you do when you need a goal in a must-win Champions League tie? You throw caution to the wind, and go 4-4-2. And that's how you do that. Once again, we're totally indebted to VDD as he strikes the only goal, sends the French out of the competition, and gets some measure of revenge for denying us in Rome last year. A much tighter game this time, and the fact that our center back Walter Villarreal was the man of the match tells you most of what you need to know. It was backs to the walls at times, but we did it. We're going to the semi finals. And now that we've beat PSG - the holders remember - who can stand in our way? Put it this way, West Ham are the only side left ranked above us in the competition. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid are beatable in my eyes, so I want to draw one of them. Of course, you all know how this works by now... The same side we faced at this stage last season. In the other matches, we took a huge step towards the title with a brutal 8-0 win against Angels, and then moved into the Rock Cup Final with little fuss against Lions. As a bonus for this month (because I forgot and played it anyway), we beat feeder club Red Imps in a neutral's dream to clinch the title after Gibraltar United dropped points to Gibraltar Pheonix. The final day title decider is now off of course, which is good given it'll fall pretty close to the Champions League final (if we get there). I also want to share exactly how dominant we've been both in this save, and previously. If you count this save alone, we've won every single one of the last thirty-six titles. If you extend that out beyond when I took over, it's forty-one. If you also included when Lincoln (GIB) were named Newcastle United FC (no idea either), then it's a massive forty-six titles in a row, since Gibraltar United won it back in 2002. Dominant doesn't quite cover it. Next Month Ignore the Red Imps game, as you've already seen it, but you couldn't get much more of a packed month. Two Champions League semi-finals, sandwiching two matches against our bitter rivals. The league one does not matter in the slightest, but I want to win that Rock Cup again for the financial windfall if nothing else. And bragging rights. Obvs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 May An absolutely huge month in our history. Last year was obviously fantastic, making it to the Champions League Final, but it almost feels like this one is bigger now, despite being "old news". We're better prepared this time around, with fewer injuries, and if we do beat West Ham, we're up against one of two sides, both of which I'd fancy my chances of beating. Things are looking good, but of course we still need to go to London and get a result. Results Charge your glasses, boys, we're almost there... An astounding performance, that left me absolutely speechless. I have no idea where that came from, and I don't think West Ham have either. It did take us a while to get there though, even after a perfect start in going a goal up. West Ham probed for an equaliser, but perhaps as we moved into the closing stages they believed that 1-0 wouldn't be the end of the World. For them though, 3-0 very well could be. Garribia and then the man who replaced him minutes later Michael Klose got the crucial goals, and now we go back home knowing that we really, really should be in the final. Surely we can't screw it up, can we? We very well could, as one of our most influential players will miss the game. Not a major injury, but enough to miss out due to the eight day turnaround between fixtures. Again though, surely even without Camilo, we still have enough about us. A quick diversion to the Rock Cup, which fell between the two legs (oo-er). We weren't pretty, but we were effective, besting our rivals 2-1 and clinching the cup once again. And then we found out the prize pot... This is getting silly now... To be honest, that's got me a little subdued. Getting £10 million was quite enough, but to increase that 8-fold is a bit of a ****-take really. It's certainly going to make subsequent years easier, but feels a bit cheap, you know? At least this has come quite late in the game for me. But anyway, back to more important matters - West Ham. If the first leg had me speechless, this one had me muttering incoherently in a darkened room. West Ham came out fighting, as I expected them to. They once again matched our 4-4-2, but from the first minute they looked like they were up for it. But that was fleeting, and by the half hour mark VDD had put us 2-0 up, and we were absolutely strolling into the final. To their credit, West Ham pushed still to try and find a way back into the game, and make inroads into the 6 goals that they had to score. But we waited, and pressed, and hit them on the break again and again. They just dismantled in the closing period, and I have honestly never seen a side look so bereft after a good start. An 8-0 aggregate scoreline for the underdogs in a Champions League semi final? Feels like fate, doesn't it? Que sera, sera...whatever will be, will be, we're going to Wem-be-ley, que sera, sera... It'll be Spain vs Gibraltar in a match we know we can win. I'm so ready... Finally, we rounded off our football prior to the final by rubbing salt into Gibraltar United wounds. Next Month The Big 'un. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmybabynothing Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 The crazy world of FM! When I looked last time, I saw some land towards the South you could maybe build on. The North is far too packed in, and I've no real idea of scale as to how you would fit in the extra stadiums. I'm still going to go with floating stadiums though. That'd be awesome. That land in the south is where the new Europa stadium is going to be built. Maybe Gibraltar invaded Spain and took some land or parts of Northern Africa... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynaboyj Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Crazy how Gibraltar United looks like more formidable opposition than Champions League semifinalists with those scores. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Crazy how Gibraltar United looks like more formidable opposition than Champions League semifinalists with those scores. Interesting way of looking at it actually! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggiana Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Incredible semi final, well done! How did Gibraltar United fare in Europe? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Incredible semi final, well done!How did Gibraltar United fare in Europe? I'll update that at the end of the season, along with all the other clubs. I used to be able to update a lot more during the day, but things are pretty busy, so updates will be slower. However, I should have time soon to post up the outcome of our Champions League final... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 Champions League Final Wembley Stadium, London Head to Head Believe it or not, we're ahead of Barcelona on head-to-head over the eight times we've met. Six group stage meetings and one knockout tie, and four of those eight matches have gone our way. However, you should probably point to the most recent results, and in the last two years we've played four and won only one. It's the final two matches that really matter though, as they came in this very season in the group stage. If you told me on the evening that we fell 2-1 at the Nou Camp earlier this season - or even as played out a winner-takes-the-group match that finished 2-2 - that we'd meet again in the final, I woul've been skeptical to say the least. Injury News It wouldn't be a Lincoln final without some injury worries, and this time around it's Omar Garribia that has fallen. However, I did something that I never really considered. I asked him to take the injections. Will that backfire? Barcelona Analysis Comparison How They Got Here The Line-ups It was a big decision, but in the end I decided to go for the 4-4-2 we've used most of the time. In Europe we usually stick to 4-1-4-1 to try and nullify any attacking midfielders, but after last year's debacle, I'm going to just go for it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 Champions League Final Wembley Stadium, London Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 Congratulations. Just the World Club Cup to go for a full house! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 Champions League Final Wembley Stadium, London We did it, but it was not the game I'd really hoped for. Great for the neutrals! Like I said prior to the game, I decided to just go for it, but that meant playing two strikers, and of course, the player I would have liked to have included - Jon Boxhill - was ineligible, which meant playing Jose Cabrita, who was on loan from Benfica and pretty annoyed at not getting much football. Well you can see how that went. He opened the scoring early on, but we got literally one minute of celebrations in before Barcelona reminded us they were still here. The half finished like that, and it took until just before the hour mark for anything more to really happen. Jose Cabrita was sent through, and executed a wonderful slotted finish just inside the post, past the despairing Travaini in the Barcelona goal. Now we had something to protect. I went a little more cautious, although took care not to completely concede territory. They had chances - big chances at that - but as the clock ticked down it looked like we might just about make it. Then in the 85th minute, Barcelona's dangerman Emre Senturk equalised, tieing the match up at 2-2 and mirroring the scoreline from when we last met. It finished like that, so extra-time beckoned. The way I play my matches requires a high level of fitness from my players. Most of the time it works out, but that's probably because 90 minutes of high-pressure, high-tempo football is probably manageable for an athlete. Another half an hour though? That's pushing it. I needed a hero, a Bonnie Tyler style hero. He's got to be strong, and he's got to be tough, and apparently he's also got to be fresh from the fight. Step forward Sir Vic Seven minutes into extra-time, his quiet game suddenly got louder as he put us ahead for the third - and hopefully final - time. Barcelona threw everything at us for the rest of the game, but it wasn't enough. Old Big Ears is ours. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2048/49 Awards His assists in the final pushed him to a record 11 overall. A wonderful stat for a player who will probably be considered as more a finisher than a creator. Strangely though, it wasn't enough to put him in the Dream Team. McAusland made it in, despite not doing much when we pumped them in the semi finals. A lot of our players did make it in though, and it shows what a great season we had on the continent. Post-Season While we were still coming down from that success, I decided to strike the board while my iron was hot. Seemed a reasonable enough suggestion - we're now the best side in Europe, and I think we should start building up a list of affiliates that shows we mean business. What I didn't expect, was to be offered the choice of clubs. I was going to just choose a club close to my heart, but in the end head ruled heart, and I decided to choose the most reputable club I could - Boca Juniors. After the fun I've had picking up Argentinian players, I think this could be a very fruitful partnership. This was quite unexpected. I had asked for an expansion, but this seems to be an expansion on the expansion at this stage. Or they could just have changed their mind on how many seats now they've reached the build phase. Who knows? The big news though is that we'll have to move out of Spiteri Stadium for the time being, to the Europa Point. I'd have preferred to have sullied Gibraltar United's stadium instead, but hey ho. The work will finish at the tail end of the season, so if my sums are right, we could be playing a potential European semi-final as the first game in our newly enlarged stadi Stats and Key Players Everton - Where would we be without our talismanic keeper? He'll no doubt have his head turned by other clubs, but this is one player I'm not just going to let go if I get a good bid. He's staying with us, no matter what I have to do. 24 clean-sheets in 44 games, and I know a lot of them came in the league, but 10 of them were in Europe. That's amazing. Vic Vandendriessche - I don't really have words for the guy anymore. I just hope we can keep him at the club, at least until I finally hang up the coat. Walter Villarreal - Part of the Argentinian contingent that prompted me to sign up with Boca, and probably the most important cog in that machine. A rock at the back, and again, just 24. Finances End of Season Confidence and Review Fans Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Season | Team | Status | Club Rep | Value | Balance | Ticket | Season | Tickets | Avg. Attendance | | 2014/15 | Lincoln (GIB) | Semi-Pro | N/A | 425000 | 3460 | 6 | 36 | 195 | 1579 | | 2015/16 | Lincoln (GIB) | Semi-Pro | 486th | 1400000 | 621878 | 6 | 36 | 214 | 1643 | | 2016/17 | Lincoln (GIB) | Semi-Pro | 458th | 1300000 | 859963 | 6 | 36 | 223 | 1511 | | 2017/18 | Lincoln (GIB) | Semi-Pro | 399th | 1200000 | 654607 | 7 | 38 | 248 | 1829 | | 2018/19 | Lincoln (GIB) | Semi-Pro | 327th | 1900000 | 1281903 | 7 | 38 | 262 | 2271 | | 2019/20 | Lincoln (GIB) | Semi-Pro | 291st | 925000 | 1054837 | 8 | 42 | 276 | 2634 | | 2020/21 | Lincoln (GIB) | Semi-Pro | 261st | 2700000 | 1489911 | 8 | 44 | 291 | 2520 | | 2021/22 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 260th | 1800000 | 1210883 | 9 | 49 | 325 | 3483 | | 2022/23 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 242nd | 3000000 | 1884212 | 9 | 51 | 338 | 3282 | | 2023/24 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 226th | 2500000 | 1956055 | 10 | 54 | 369 | 3617 | | 2024/25 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 220th | 2300000 | 1774685 | 10 | 57 | 382 | 3772 | | 2025/26 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 215th | 2900000 | 2137812 | 11 | 62 | 424 | 3967 | | 2026/27 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 214th | 1900000 | 1652393 | 12 | 65 | 441 | 3664 | | 2027/28 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 229th | 0 | 481782 | 12 | 67 | 459 | 4297 | | 2028/29 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 230th | 1800000 | 832164 | 12 | 66 | 473 | 5495 | | 2029/30 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | - | | | | | | 4713 | | 2030/31 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | - | | | | | | 4804 | | 2031/32 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | - | | | | | | 5866 | | 2032/33 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 142nd | 18000000 | 9262141 | | | 577 | 4716 | | 2033/34 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 144th | £7250000 (£7500000 debt) | 3561853 | 15 | 83 | 593 | 4731 | | 2034/35 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 108th | £18750000 (£7250000 debt) | 11336957 | 16 | 84 | 603 | 7209 | | 2035/36 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 76th | £25500000 (£6250000 debt) | 15165596 | 16 | 90 | 656 | 6962 | | 2036/37 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 72nd | £23500000 (£5500000 debt) | 16069571 | 17 | 93 | 704 | 7435 | | 2037/38 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 74th | £3700000 (£4800000 debt) | 4225166 | 17 | 94 | 732 | 7727 | | 2038/39 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 52nd | £8250000 (£6000000 debt) | 4970539 | 17 | 96 | 747 | 8156 | | 2039/40 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 32nd | £39000000 (£5250000 debt) | 18707089 | 23 | 172 | 879 | 87777 | | 2040/41 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 31st | £40000000 (£4000000 debt) | 23747801 | 23 | 172 | 896 | 8897 | | 2041/42 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 31st | 23500000 | 19069983 | 24 | 177 | 959 | 9322 | | 2042/43 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 32nd | 35500000 | 23756987 | 24 | 181 | 959 | 9564 | | 2043/44 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 37th | 148000000 | 72266388 | 24 | 181 | 1014 | 9731 | | 2044/45 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 28th | 201000000 | 97253483 | 26 | 192 | 1044 | 9738 | | 2045/46 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 21st | 236000000 | 125283613 | 26 | 196 | 1074 | 9762 | | 2046/47 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 18th | 257000000 | 139303729 | 27 | 199 | 1090 | 9905 | | 2047/48 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 13th | 234000000 | 130947374 | 27 | 202 | 1170 | 9950 | | 2048/49 | Lincoln (GIB) | Professional | 6th | 325000000 | 145189689 | 30 | 228 | 1234 | 9950 | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| We're bordering on untouchable in terms of finance now, and with the inflated TV and Prize Money deals, there's not a chance in hell of us ever hitting financial ruin anymore. Remember the days where a couple of misses in the Champions League would've spelt disaster? We're also now the 6th best club in Europe, and that's based on our finals appearance last year, not our win this year...where will we end up? |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Season | League | League Rep | Position | League Cup | Rock Cup | Pepe Reyes Cup | Champions League | Europa League | Super Cup | Club World Cup | | 2014/15 | Premier Division | 210th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | 2nd Qual | - | - | - | | 2015/16 | Premier Division | 205th | 1st | WINNER | Quarters | WINNER | 1st Qual | - | - | - | | 2016/17 | Premier Division | 194th | 1st | Semi Final | WINNER | Runner Up | 2nd Qual | - | - | - | | 2017/18 | Premier Division | 179th | 1st | WINNER | Runner Up | WINNER | 2nd Qual | - | - | - | | 2018/19 | Premier Division | 137th | 1st | WINNER | Runner Up | WINNER | 2nd Qual | - | - | - | | 2019/20 | Premier Division | 128th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | Runner Up | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2020/21 | Premier Division | 118th | 1st | WINNER | Semis | Runner Up | 2nd Qual | - | - | - | | 2021/22 | Premier Division | 106th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2022/23 | Premier Division | 107th | 1st | Semi Final | Runner Up | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2023/24 | Premier Division | 104th | 1st | WINNER | Semis | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2024/25 | Premier Division | 100th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | Runner Up | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2025/26 | Premier Division | 91st | 1st | WINNER | Semis | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2026/27 | Premier Division | 93rd | 1st | WINNER | Runner Up | WINNER | 2nd Qual | - | - | - | | 2027/28 | Premier Division | 89th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2028/29 | Premier Division | 103rd | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Group Stage (3rd) | - | - | | 2029/30 | Premier Division | - | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | Runner Up | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2030/31 | Premier Division | - | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2031/32 | Premier Division | - | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (3rd) | 1st Knockout Round | - | - | | 2032/33 | Premier Division | 66th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | 3rd Qual | Playoff | - | - | | 2033/34 | Premier Division | 68th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (4th) | - | - | - | | 2034/35 | Premier Division | 67th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (3rd) | 1st Knockout Round | - | - | | 2035/36 | Premier Division | 64th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (4th) | - | - | - | | 2036/37 | Premier Division | 65th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Playoff | Group Stage (3rd) | - | - | | 2037/38 | Premier Division | 64th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Playoff | Quarter Final | - | - | | 2038/39 | Premier Division | 59th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (3rd) | WINNER | - | - | | 2039/40 | Premier Division | 52nd | 1st | WINNER | Quarters | WINNER | Group Stage (3rd) | 1st Knockout Round | Runner-up | - | | 2040/41 | Premier Division | 48th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (4th) | - | - | - | | 2041/42 | Premier Division | 42nd | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (4th) | - | - | - | | 2042/43 | Premier Division | 34th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (3rd) | 1st Knockout Round | - | - | | 2043/44 | Premier Division | 29th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Group Stage (3rd) | Runner-up | - | - | | 2044/45 | Premier Division | 26th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Semi Finals | - | - | - | | 2045/46 | Premier Division | 25th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Quarter Finals | - | - | - | | 2046/47 | Premier Division | 19th | 1st | WINNER | Quarters | WINNER | 1st Knockout Round | - | - | - | | 2047/48 | Premier Division | 14th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | Runner-up | - | - | - | | 2048/49 | Premier Division | 13th | 1st | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | WINNER | - | - | - | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| A quadruple, and the league is now bordering on the top ten in Europe. Two new columns now - the Super Cup, which we'll be looking to win in the Autumn and the Club World Cup, which we absolutely have to win in my opinion. |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Season | Stadium | Capacity | Stadium Condition | Pitch Condition | Corporate | Training | Youth | Junior Coaching | Youth Recruitment | | Start | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Average | Below Average | Average | Fairly Basic | | 2014/15 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Average | Below Average | Average | Fairly Basic | | 2015/16 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Average | Below Average | Average | Fairly Basic | | 2016/17 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Average | Fairly Basic | | 2017/18 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Average | Fairly Basic | | 2018/19 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | OK | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Excellent | Fairly Basic | | 2019/20 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | OK | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2020/21 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Poor | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2021/22 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Poor | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2022/23 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Very Good | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2023/24 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Very Good | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2024/25 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Very Good | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2025/26 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Very Good | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2026/27 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Very Good | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2027/28 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Very Good | Basic | Adequate | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2028/29 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2029/30 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2030/31 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2031/32 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2032/33 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Perfect | Basic | Adequate | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2033/34 | Victoria Stadium | 5000 (2000 seated) | Good | Very Good | Basic | Average | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2034/35 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Perfect | Average | Average | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2035/36 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Perfect | Average | Average | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2036/37 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Perfect | Average | Good | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2037/38 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Perfect | Average | Good | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2038/39 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Very Good | Average | Good | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2039/40 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Very Good | Average | Good | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2040/41 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Good | Average | Good | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2041/42 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Good | Average | Good | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2042/43 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Good | Average | Good | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2043/44 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Very Good | Average | Average | Below Average | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2044/45 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Good | Average | Average | Adequate | Exceptional | Fairly Basic | | 2045/46 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Good | Average | Good | Average | Exceptional | Average | | 2046/47 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | OK | Average | Good | Average | Exceptional | Average | | 2047/48 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Perfect | Average | Good | Average | Exceptional | Average | | 2048/49 | Spiteri Stadium | 9950 all-seater | Very Good | Very Good | Average | Good | Average | Exceptional | Average | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| One more season before we get the extra windfall at the ticket office, but at least we'll get 50 more fans in the door playing at the Europa Point... |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Season | Rank | Points | CL Places | Notes | EL Places | Notes | | 2014/15 | 54th | - | 1 | 1st Rd | 1 | 1st Rd | | 2015/16 | 54th | - | 1 | 1st Rd | 1 | 1st Rd | | 2016/17 | 52nd | - | 1 | 1st Rd | 2 | 1st Rd | | 2017/18 | 52nd | - | 1 | 1st Rd | 2 | 1st Rd | | 2018/19 | 52nd | - | 1 | 1st Rd | 2 | 1st Rd | | 2019/20 | 47th | 2.667 | 1 | 1st Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2020/21 | 46th | 2.333 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2021/22 | 46th | 2.083 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2022/23 | 47th | 1.75 | 1 | 1st Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2023/24 | 46th | 1.292 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2024/25 | 46th | 1.432 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2025/26 | 47th | 1.875 | 1 | 1st Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2026/27 | 46th | 2.5 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2027/28 | 45th | 2.667 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2028/29 | 44th | 1.625 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2029/30 | 48th | 1.75 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2033/34 | 34th | 6 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2034/35 | 32nd | 7.785 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2035/36 | 32nd | 8.4 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2036/37 | 32nd | 11.5 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2037/38 | 31st | 11.125 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2038/39 | 31st | 11.125 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2039/40 | 27th | 14.5 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 1st Rd | | 2040/41 | 21st | 18.125 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 2nd Rd (1), 1st Rd (2) | | 2041/42 | 17th | 21.625 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 3rd Rd, 2nd Rd, 1st Rd | | 2042/43 | 16th | 22.43 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 3rd Rd, 2nd Rd, 1st Rd | | 2043/44 | 15th | 19.375 | 2 | 3rd Rd, 2nd Rd | 3 | 3rd Rd (2), 2nd Rd (1) | | 2044/45 | 16th | 17.125 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 3rd Rd, 2nd Rd, 1st Rd | | 2045/46 | 21st | 18.125 | 1 | 2nd Rd | 3 | 2nd Rd (1), 1st Rd (2) | | 2046/47 | 14th | 22.25 | 2 | C 3rd, BP 3rd | 3 | 3rd Rd (2), 2nd Rd (1) | | 2047/48 | 14th | 26.5 | 2 | C 3rd, BP 3rd | 3 | 3rd Rd (2), 2nd Rd (1) | | 2048/49 | 14th | 26.4 | 2 | C 3rd, BP 3rd | 3 | 3rd Rd (2), 2nd Rd (1) | | 2049/50 | 10th | 28.9 | 2 | GS, BP 3rd | 3 | GS, 3rd Rd, 2nd Rd | |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| As of next season we'll have a team in the group stages of both the Europa League and the Champions League, now that we've reached 10th place. Massive news. I'll update on how the other sides have done in a separate post, once I get back to the game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmious7 Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 forameuss this Career is so much fun to read, congrats! And double congrats for the epic CL win!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 Hangovers (partially) cured, and senior team players who should know better scraped off the floor of the stadium, we're back for another season. But I find myself at a crossroads. I said at the start that my aim was to turn the club into the best in the World. This was something I never quite managed on FM14, with my three Champions League trophies eventually giving way to crushing failure as I struggled to refresh my team to a good enough degree to win again. The money into the game became an albatross around our necks, meaning we paid more for less, and couldn't take that final step to be properly dominant. Now I'm not saying that time has come here, in fact we're probably much better suited for the ascent than before. But I'm starting to wonder where the remaining goals really are for this save. The money has gone even more stupid than FM14, with over £80 million being handed out for the Rock Cup. I could keep going, and amass a fortune in the coffers, but it would start to seem easy, and I'd end up being less the underdog, and more like the sides I came up against in Europe. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're entering the closing stages of the save. I've no idea how long that stage will last, but if I cross off the Super Cup and the Club World Cup, then I've got all the competitions, so I'd be just achieving personal goals. If I could retain the Champions League, I'd consider going at the end of this season, although that's unlikely. I will win it once more at least though - once can be considered lucky, twice is more like it. Three would certainly see me pretty much done, as it matches what I achieved last time. Anyway, that's a while off, on with the show. Transfers Before the season even began, I decided to hand Jose Cabrita another season with us if he wanted it. I hadn't been totally impressed with him in his time here, but he did score a brace in the Champions League Final. That's not bad I suppose. Our transfers ended up being driven pretty much by one departure early on. Mattias Borelli left for Norwich in a pretty good deal I must say. That meant that we needed to bring in at least one midfielder to cover the gap, and it turned out we had just the man in mind. First up though, Eric Mille joined for a hefty fee. It's a risk, as currently I don't really play with attacking midfielders, but he has the potential to really be something. I'm unlikely to make much of a profit on him unless he gets REALLY good, but we'll see how he goes. I'll use him sparingly this season, then ramp it up as the years go on. As backup, I brought in Martin Bradley from Man City on a free transfer. Absolutely nothing wrong with him, he's just not as good as what we already have. If the dreaded injury crisis hits though, he'll be good to have. Joaquin Garcia is another versatile wide player who can play at full back or in midfield, which I'm always on the lookout for. Plus we got him from Gibraltar United, so I get extra points for weakening a rival - win win! And now, the return of the Boy King. Nicao re-joins the club just five years after leaving for Russia and becoming European Golden Boy. I had to pay for the privilege, but looking at his attributes, I think I made the right decision. Especially so when I got this nice news item just after I signed him, telling me that the 30% profit clause I had put on him when he joined Zenit meant I was refunded £8 million. Nice. Results No Champions League qualifiers this time around, so it was straight into the Group Stage draw. We're now the 4th best team in the draw, and obviously the holders. I fully expect a dreadful draw though, with Arsenal, Schalke and Partizan the ones to avoid. Big shout out for Gibraltar United, who make it into the Group Stage for the first time in pot 4. I'll be watching their progress with interest. (Victoria Plzen were the missing side) An awkward draw. Bayern will be the favourites other than ourselves, but I hate getting low ranked English sides, as they're always dangerous. Roma may well be the ones that miss out and finish last. Our first match of the season ended up being the Super Cup, and boy did it show. We were listless against Tottenham, and put up little fight in the defeat. Have to hold my hands up, we absolutely didn't deserve to win it, and so my hunt for the trophy goes on. We then followed that up by needing extra time to beat Gibraltar United. The team aren't exactly filling me with hope for the upcoming season... We recovered somewhat with two batterings in the league to round out August. Next Month The big games come thick and fast next month, with two huge Champions League games, as well as our first test against Gibraltar United. Once again, we start out with a game we absolutely must win at home to Chelsea. I suspect we'll struggle in Munich, so I don't want to be playing Roma on matchday 3 without at least three points. Ideally, we want 6...we are Champions of course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 September The board are remarkably compliant these days, but I guess it helps when you're an extremely rich club. More improvements to facilities, which should come into play in around a year's time. Michael Klose will now be called up to the Gibraltarian national side, as I'm sure even in his advancing years, he's better than what they have currently. Results A tale of two competitions. In the league, it's absolutely business as usual. An expected battering of Angels was followed by a dominant win over nearest challengers Gibraltar United, who appear to not be taking to fighting on two fronts particularly well. But then the European games...we were pegged back against Chelsea and finished level, which wouldn't be a terrible result had we gone to Munich and got something. We didn't, and now we're left with a single point. Perhaps not representative until the next round of games, but it's already not looking good for Roma and ourselves. If we don't beat the Italians, we're out, but even if we do it's looking tough to overhaul the sides above us. We will have to go to London and get at least a high-scoring draw, and hope we can match whatever else they do in the group. Next Month Just the one Champions League game in Rome, which is a must-win as I've already said, and three leagues games alongside it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 October Results Just what we needed as we complete a 100% month. We took the lead in Rome, before being pegged back soon after, and it started to look depressingly familiar. Luckily though we showed our class and drove the advantage home, winning 4-1 in the end. Puts our European campaign well and truly back on track. Bayern beat Chelsea in the other game meaning that they go clear at the top. Chelsea stay above us though thanks to their away goal, which we'll hopefully wipe out come the match against them. Another win against Roma would hopefully put us into second going into that one. Three clean sheets and three wins puts us free and easy at the top. Unlikely we'll be caught. I just want to share one more thing... Yes. That's Gibraltar United. In with a chance of a knockout place. I said they weren't handling two fronts well, but they're certainly handling one of them. Next Month Huge European games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 November Results We **** the bed. Roma were dispatched pretty easily, even better than we managed in Rome, which set us up well for going to London. We battered Lynx in preparation, but we were just woeful against Chelsea. A penalty from VDD made us think we were going to stroll it, but the remaining 84 minutes ended up being a problem. Dreadful. Awful. Spiteful. If I had a thesaurus I could go on. It's not quite over, but the fat lady is tuning up. Chelsea now just need to beat Roma to guarantee their spot. Realistically though, they could probably draw and still go through. From our perspective, we have to beat Bayern. No other result will do, as a draw will leave us just behind Chelsea on head to head best case. How the mighty fall. Next Month Our Champions League campaign probably ends next month at home to Bayern, but we do have the Club World Cup to look forward to. A full league and Premier Cup card means we'll be earning our Christmas dinner this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 December Results We'll start with the Champions League, as there isn't much to say. We gave it a good go, and believe it or not, Roma were ahead for an hour before Chelsea equalised the very minute Bayern took the lead. From then on, it was a trudge towards the inevitable. Chelsea go through with Bayern, and we take the Europa League spot. Not what we wanted, not at all. However, across the land... They've only gone and done it. While we laboured to defeat, Gibraltar United have proved particularly difficult to beat. Only one of those - away to Madrid - and four draws. While we have to make do with Europa League football, our bitter rivals are going to be in Champions League action. Still, no use dwelling on it, as I put us as one of the big favourites for the Europa League title. Partizan are first up, a team we beat way back in our infancy in the Champions League qualifiers decades ago. We should have enough to beat them. And look what awaits in the next round...the possibility of a Gibraltar derby in Europe. How far we've come... Gibraltar United face Porto in their tie. I fully expect (and hope) that they get absolutely battered. As you'll already have seen, we managed to negotiate the often tricky Club World Cup to lift the trophy. Independiente were no match for us in the end, and we blew them away with a Jon Boxhill brace in the first ten minutes, and an own goal soon after. It was a procession from then on, but almost didn't get that far, as we were less than impressive against LA Galaxy. Still, that's another trophy in the cabinet. We remain six points ahead of Gibraltar United, but there's still a long way to go, and crucially six points left to play between us. They'll have their eyes on that European tie in February though, so I get the feeling we'll have little trouble in the league this season. Next Month We play catch-up in the league with a busy January, including a game against United on New Years Day. Two cup competitions too, before February gets Europe back in gear. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 January A spot on the sub bench for Ivan Barrionuevo and VDD this year in the FIFPro World XI. Transfers Outgoing Incoming Luis Mendoza Remco van der Putten Jose Ribolhos A backup signing in Luis Mendoza, and probably Jose Ribolhos actually. Jose Cabrita wanted to terminate his loan, which I agreed to. Disappointing after his Champions League heroics, but understandable. Strangely, despite the Benfica boss not happy at my treatment of Cabrita, they were happy enough for Ribolhos to join us. Remco van der Putten...well it's obvious why I've signed him. Had my eye on him for a while now, and finally bit the bullet. Fantastic young player, and should do a job for us now and in future. Results Easy month. Just a single goal conceded, and twenty-eight scored. Rampant. Gibraltar United are nowhere near us this year, in any competition. Next Month Hard to get really excited by February when we really should be in the Champions League, but that should get better as we progress. Because we absolutely have to progress. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 February Results Another unbeaten month, and one that puts one trophy in the cabinet, and a good step closer to another three. Partizan were no match for us, and nor were any of the other sides we came up against really. But it was all about who we'd face in the next round of the Europa League - did AZ beat the Pheonix, or is it going to be an unprecedented Gibraltar derby? It's ON! Six points ahead with a game in hand, it's hard to see us slip up now. Next Month All joking aside, we really should get into the quarter finals of the Europa League. Gibraltar Pheonix have been battered by us for the most part over the past few years, and I fail to see how this will be any different. We'll need to guard against complacency though, or at least my players will. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy. We could also take a huge step towards the title if we beat Gibraltar United, and go a potential twelve points ahead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 March That's awfully good of you pal... Really bad news as one of our midfield lynchpins end up a casualty in the Gibraltar Pheonix match. His season is over. Results Another unbeaten month, but a worrying result against Southampton. The Europa League derby went just about as expected. We finished them off for all intents and purposes in the first leg, leaving the second leg all but academic. Still, proud of my players for keeping up that level of performance when the pressure was on. We were then rewarded with Southampton in the draw, who we could only draw with at home. That's an away goal for them as we travel to the South Coast in early April, and that could make all the difference. In the league we won our match with Gibraltar United to move 9 ahead, with a game in hand. They were also punted out of Europe, but they'll still look on this season as a success even as we stroll to the title. We'll win the league with a point in our next game, but I'll be aiming for full points as always to really drive home the advantage. Next Month Southampton up first, and we'll have to score over there. The winner gets a tricky tie against either Betis or Juventus in the semis... Our league campaign ends with the final three games, but some of them may end up moved through Europa League participation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 April Results What a month. Southampton couldn't keep up the performance they managed in Gibraltar and got absolutely battered in the return. We took the lead in the 2nd minute, and although they equalised, we smashed another three past them to stroll into the semi finals, against Juventus who managed to see off Betis. Then we secured the league with a thoroughly professional performance against Red Imps. This meant we could really calm down in our final two games and rest a few players, as our squad was starting to look pretty threadbare. We kept our eyes on the Rock Cup with a crushing win over Man 62, before performance of the season against Juventus as we left the Old Lady battered and bruised (not literally in either sense...) They took the lead, but we quickly equalised, locking the game just like we were against Southampton in the previous round. It took until the 71st minute for anything to happen, but happen it did. Three goals in eight minutes, and then one more added in the closing stages left the men from Turin shell-shocked. Only a complete collapse would see us lose out now, and of course, we decided we'd test that out. 3-1 still gave us a comfortable buffer with our away goal, but it was not as comfortable as it looked. We sneaked through though. Just. Next Month Yay! Boooooo. The very day VDD gets back in training, Jon Boxhill goes the other way. I had hoped to ease VDD back in after such a big injury, but looks like that won't be an option. A busy month as we close out the season. We can rest a lot of players in the remaining league games, but we have the £80 million cup final against Gibraltar United just four days before the Europa League final against West Ham, so that'll be quite the challenge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 May Results That's what happens when you play an important game just days before a more important one. Two right-sided players now out of the Europa League final, and although they weren't first-choicers, it's still tough to lose them from a depth perspective. Anyway, it's off to Gothenburg, for only our third Europa League Final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2049/50 Europa League Final Smashed it. In truth, West Ham were never really in it. It was tight until VDD scored, but after that we never really looked like losing with Ledesma's deflected free-kick giving us clear space. The rest of the match was a procession as we allowed West Ham to have the ball and do very little with it. Six trophies this season, but of course it wasn't the six we wanted. Replace the Europa League with the Champions League, and add the Super Cup and you've got yourself a perfect season You may remember even after all the excitement that we still had other games this month. We wrapped things up against the Lions in some style, but then put in an insipid performance against the Pheonix to kill our unbeaten record. We had bigger fish to fry of course, and fry them we did as we beat Gibraltar United in the Rock Cup Final. Just the £87 million for winning it this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenbroncitis Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Liking the way your career is going. Any thoughts of going to another team? I see Dumbarton were in the Champions League!! That SPL must be crazy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 Liking the way your career is going. Any thoughts of going to another team? I see Dumbarton were in the Champions League!! That SPL must be crazy. I'm turning my thoughts towards what next, but I'm not quite sure yet. At the moment it's probably one of a few... 1) Stay in the save, but retire Spiteri and start another journeyman 2) Keep the save on file for a possible return, but start a new save doing... 2.1) A purely international journeyman 2.2) A Scottish journeyman 2.3) A one-club save with the mighty Jags Still can't really decide though, and to be honest I don't really know when my time with Lincoln will end. Scotland does look pretty mental - Ross County were doing very well, and Dumbarton as you've said are pretty regular in the Champions League. In previous versions it was always Hearts that broke the dominance of the ugly sisters, but very few others. This save has just gone mental in that regard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dynaboyj Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 At this point the most engaging part of this is seeing the other Gibraltarian teams make advances and progress throughout Europe. I love reading their advances, but I doubt that's what you're focused on when you're playing this and writing these up, so you could want to end this soon. Of course there will probably never be any good regens born in Gibraltar, but it would be cool to see if any of your team's other stars claim that nationality and if the national team could have any moderate success. I'm assuming they're still finishing bottom of their Euro qualification groups, even with three club teams making moderate waves in Europe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickenbroncitis Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 You could have a stab at trying to improve the Gibraltar national team. Should be a good challenge to get players a Gibraltar citizenship while hoping they are not so good that they play for their birth nation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dexter_Morgan Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Absolutely mental career so far well done Looking forward to seeing your next move. Another question is how old is Joe Jones now? Must be tempting to see if you can get him to 1000 goals Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkC1984 Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Read this through the afternoon. Really enjoying it. Out of interest, where are you in the overall Hall of Fame? Just wondering if you are anywhere near Alex Ferguson. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 At this point the most engaging part of this is seeing the other Gibraltarian teams make advances and progress throughout Europe. I love reading their advances, but I doubt that's what you're focused on when you're playing this and writing these up, so you could want to end this soon.Of course there will probably never be any good regens born in Gibraltar, but it would be cool to see if any of your team's other stars claim that nationality and if the national team could have any moderate success. I'm assuming they're still finishing bottom of their Euro qualification groups, even with three club teams making moderate waves in Europe. I'll give an update on how the other teams fared up to now hopefully in its own post, maybe later tonight, although with a few interviews looming next week, I really should be doing some studying. So I fully expect you to get a post later on when I procrastinate wildly. As for the national team... You could have a stab at trying to improve the Gibraltar national team. Should be a good challenge to get players a Gibraltar citizenship while hoping they are not so good that they play for their birth nation. The national team is one bit that will probably always be "the one that got away". I think you could do it with enough dedication and work, but I haven't really set myself up to be able to achieve that. My youth academy fell by the wayside somewhat early on, because I was producing absolute dross and had the money to really push forward and buy outside of the country. I've ended up not managing to naturalise many players at all really, far less than I did in FM14. Believe it or not though, they're now 39th out of 55 in the UEFA Coefficient table, so are - I think - high in the second bottom pot. I can't view the actual seedings, and I'm currently about halfway through a qualifying campaign, but from the looks of their group, they're a pot 5 team, with Moldova ranked below them. Again, I think I might dedicate a post to the national team and show how they're doing. Absolutely mental career so far well done Looking forward to seeing your next move. Another question is how old is Joe Jones now? Must be tempting to see if you can get him to 1000 goals Interesting you should ask that - I'd not looked for him in a while. Joe is 39 now, and retired from football a couple of seasons ago. He's now a coach, unattached, but with pretty dreadful stats so probably won't make it with me. Jesus, just noticed he was born in 2012...I feel so old. As for his record, he finished with 113 caps for Ireland, and 44 goals. He left us for Celtic in 2041 and spent 5 seasons there, scoring 57 goals. Then he had a few seasons of hot potato, moving to Newcastle for a season - 10 goals - St Mirren for a season - 10 goals - and then finally to Dunfermline, where he saw out his career, scoring sixteen and leading them to successive promotions back to the Premiership. Quite a career for the man from Londonderry (Northern Ireland of course, but represented the Republic). That puts him at 607 career goals. Top boy. Unfortunately, he won't make it any further, but he remains in my Best Eleven to this day, despite the strikers we've had after him. Read this through the afternoon. Really enjoying it. Out of interest, where are you in the overall Hall of Fame? Just wondering if you are anywhere near Alex Ferguson. Good question - I hadn't actually checked. The answer is....nooooo. Gibraltar competitions are absolutely nothing in terms of the overall rankings, and count about 2 points or something. So even though I've won - according to the Hall of Fame - 37 domestic divisions, 62 cups, and 7 other club trophies, I'm still only on 1749 points, about 1000 below the first entry in the worldwide table, Giovanni Trapattoni. I doubt I'll catch him in the time I have left unfortunately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bestbrother Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Do all the other Gibralter teams get 100m TV cash? Or is it like the Spanish league, you get weighted more as you are the dominant factor? If they do, are they spending silly sums on players? I see the league is getting tougher, so im assuming a couple of the clubs are shelling out more on better players? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonavich Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Interesting info on the hall of fame.... It would be nice to see this become dynamic, as a league's reputation rises, so too does the value of their trophies and the points in the hall of fame. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Do all the other Gibralter teams get 100m TV cash? Or is it like the Spanish league, you get weighted more as you are the dominant factor?If they do, are they spending silly sums on players? I see the league is getting tougher, so im assuming a couple of the clubs are shelling out more on better players? Nothing complex about the deal - just a straight Premier League style split. Every team - I assume anyway - gets the £100 million. Pretty sure they do, as around that team a few of the higher sides ended up on the World rich list, so suspect we're all getting an equal share. The other teams are bringing in decent players - I've picked up a couple from Gibraltar United, and they're always sniffing around the players I might be letting go. I've not looked in enough detail to see exactly how sensible they are in their purchases, but given the Pheonix and United's European runs, they must be doing pretty well in that regard. Interesting info on the hall of fame.... It would be nice to see this become dynamic, as a league's reputation rises, so too does the value of their trophies and the points in the hall of fame. Yeah, would be nice. I'm not sure how much winning the Premier League is, but I'd imagine if we got even half the points English sides did for the league and cups, I'd be absolutely out of sight at the top given the sustained success. Not too much of a problem though - I knew at the start of the save that the Hall of Fame was probably well out of my reach unless I won the Champions League a ridiculous number of times. If I even make it onto the list, even in 20th, I'd be happy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 23, 2015 Author Share Posted March 23, 2015 Also, as a little real life aside to this story, I will be at Hampden on Sunday for Scotland v Gibraltar...that's right, I shall be seeing the leading lights from the early days of my save up close as (hopefully) Scotland pump the life out of them. Goalkeepers: Jamie Robba (College Europa), Jordan Perez (Lions Gibraltar), Dayle Coleing (Lincoln Red Imps) Defenders: Jack Sergeant (Manchester 62), Scott Wiseman (Preston North End), Joseph Chipolina (Lincoln Red Imps), David Artell (Bala Town), Jean Carlos Garcia (Lincoln Red Imps), Roy Chipolina (Lincoln Red Imps), Ryan Casciaro (Lincoln Red Imps), Ethan Jolley (Lincoln Red Imps) Midfielders: Jamie Bosio (College Europa), Jake Gosling (Bristol Rovers), Aaron Payas (Manchester 62), Liam Walker (Lincoln Red Imps), Brian Perez (Lincoln Red Imps), Jeremy Lopez (Manchester 62), Daniel Duarte (Lincoln Red Imps), Anthony Bardon (Lincoln Red Imps) Forwards: Lee Casciaro (Lincoln Red Imps), Kyle Casciaro (Lincoln Red Imps), Adam Priestley (Farsley), John Paul Duarte (Lincoln Red Imps) I've bolded the players that have played for me over the length of this save...only seven of the squad haven't. I'll try and get close to the bench and see how Anthony Bardon likes the fact that he's a club legend now I'll also be booing Liam Walker after he left me at the end of the first season for "bigger things", and then ended up retiring. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2050/51 Pre-season and August A bit of news from the World Cup as VDD wins the Golden Shoe. Belgium didn't have a great tournament either, but that didn't stop him. Proud of him. He also made the team of the tournament, along with Walter Villarreal. Transfers Jose Augusto - Becomes far and away the best player at the club currently, and it's no wonder. In a team that often gets talked about for their tricky midfielders or deadly strikers, it's good to shine a light on the less glamorous positions, and Jose will achieve that. He'll also cause a slight change to our play, as I plan on having him as an attacking full-back to benefit from his skills. Domingo Camino - Keeps us ticking over at the back and gives us some depth, which is something our tiny squad has historically struggled with. Milan Nesic - Took a lot of money, but I think Milan is worth it. He will stroll straight into the team as our right midfielder, and hopefully chip in with all the goals that our strikers miss. MR is always a fruitful position for us the way we play. Dario Llonello - a backup keeper, nothing more glamorous than that Daniel Mendoza - a bit of a punt, but domestically he'll be more than enough, and could do a job in Europe as backup. Champions League You know the drill, Inter, Schalke and Galatasaray no doubt in store for us. That's...not too bad actually. Schalke will of course be tough opposition, but we shouldn't struggle against Plzen, and Zenit are one of the better 2nd seeds. Tough away trip though. Results A great start to the season, and we even managed to grab the one trophy that's eluded us so far. It could've been a bit more comfortable, but we decided to make things difficult for ourselves by going 3-0 up, then letting Malaga almost catch up. We managed to just about close the game out though, and lifted the Super Cup in Poland. An easy enough start, but the table is essentially worthless until at least the first time we play Gibraltar United. Next Month We travel to Germany to face Schalke, then play two home games against Gibraltar United and then Zenit. Big month. There's also another couple of games I'll be involved in, thanks to a decision I made over the Summer... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2050/51 Belgian Buns After Belgium's poor World Cup showing, I had noticed the job was available, but decided against applying. Not that I was against taking over, just that at that point, it didn't seem right. However, actually being offered the job makes things a little different. The chance to manage VDD to glory in international competition? Aye, ok then. No expectations yet, but we do have the UEFA Nations League coming up, where we play Italy and Spain. That'll be a tough introduction, even though they're glorified friendlies. No staff as of yet - I'll be looking to bring in at least an assistant to help me run things. The top player in the country is of course familiar, but he has a decent supporting cast too. Vic Vandendriessche Fred Kiaku Arnaud Rousseau Robin Roosen Phllipe Bertrand Elias Vandenbroucke Not much in the way of honours, just one European Championships and one Olympic games - I've got my eye on the World Cup in four years time, as well as the Euros in 2. Hopefully we can improve on that runner-up spot they got in 2038. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2050/51 September Never thought I'd see that. After we marched to a fairly easy Europa League title last year, we've been installed as clear favourites this time around. A completely different kind of pressure now - I'd say we were up there, but favourites? I'm not convinced. Another upgrade on our facilities, which is always good news, but at this stage all I'm doing is building a legacy for the next manager. Our youth facilities will still be pointless, as the graduates are dreadful. Still, this is a nice touch in the game as we await our stadium renovations completing. Wouldn't like to be a ball boy working on that side! Lincoln Results We got one of our toughest away games in the Champions League group out of the way, and I'm happy enough with a point. Still though, if we'd just hung on for 60 seconds more, it would've been three. Schalke were given all the time in the world in injury time, and one of their strikers picked his spot from 25 yards and stroked it into the corner. Hopefully we don't end up regretting that. We recovered to beat Zenit comfortably at home to round out the month, a week or so after absolutely routing our nearest rivals 7-1. A wonderful result, and one that puts us in a good position even at this early stage. Gibraltar United have conceded nine so far...seven of them to us. Yass. Two matches against Plzen to come - six points in those while Schalke and Zenit battle it out should put us in a great position. Belgium Results Somewhere in Belgium, Vincent Kompany just shivered. The Nations League is a new concept for us in real life, with no-one really knowing how it's going to turn out. If it turns out like this, it'll be a cracking watch. 16 goals served up over two games, but from the perspective of any of the three managers involved, it's an absolute horrorshow. I started out using a 4-1-2-2-1 formation with wingers, which was often my go-to formation in previous FMs. We had decent wingers, a top striker, and talent in midfield. What could possibly go wrong? Well, Spain showed us what could go wrong. They raced into a 2-0 lead, and when we managed to claw one back in stoppage time, they responded by going 4-1 up in the second half. 4-3 actually flatters us to be honest, Spain were pretty much untouchable. I went into the match with Italy knowing that we had to avoid a repeat, so I set up in my favoured Lincoln 4-4-2, built on high tempo, high pressure game. And it was only marginally better. We served up a bona-fide classic, but we should not be conceding eight goals in two games. We face both sides once more each before the final table is decided. The bottom team gets kicked down a division, and at present form, it looks like it may be us. Have I bitten off more than I can chew with Belgium? Next Month Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2050/51 October This board just love throwing money out... Lincoln Results A very disappointing result away in Plzen blows the group wide open. Domestically we were imperious, but we're certainly making heavy weather of our European games. Belgium Results We faced Japan in a friendly in the gap while Spain and Italy duked it out, and served up a pretty turgid affair. We created more chances, but had much less of the ball, and neither of us could muster a goal. We certainly don't look like a top 5 nation... And yet 4th we remain. Curious. Next Month Two home European nights at the Spiteri, Plzen and then Schalke. We must get full points from those ahead of our trip to deepest, darkest Russia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2050/51 November And there it is, the newly improved Spiteri Stadium open for business. Roughly 4000 more seats, an increase of around 8000 on when it was originally built. Finally we're starting to play our football in a stadium more befitting our success. We were drifting past the 20 year mark though since it was built...could we soon be able to request another one? For now, we're the biggest in the country, but I suspect Gibraltar United will be chasing expansions of their own the dirty charlatans. Lincoln Results We didn't get those six points I craved, once again throwing away the lead against Plzen to hand - no, gift - them another point. Bafflingly, we then followed that up by comfortably beating a better side in Schalke. This team really confuses me sometimes. Just the nineteen goals scored in our two league games too. Slacking. The win at Schalke meant we had qualified for the next round, despite three draws in five. Plzen kept the shocks coming by getting a point against Schalke earlier in the group, meaning that if they can beat the Germans in the final round of fixtures, they'll be in the Europa League. We face a straight shootout with Zenit for the top spot, but if they lose, they'll need to rely on Schalke not winning to keep their spot. Gibraltar United have bitten back following their humiliation early in the season - just three points behind as we chase into the 2nd third of the season. Belgium Results And with that, we're relegated from our group. Another terrible result, and another defensive horror-show. I love that we're scoring freely, and I especially love that VDD is chipping in, but we should not be conceding thirteen goals in just three "competitive" games. That's madness. We rounded our November fixtures off by throwing in the towel against Colombia. European qualifiers start in the Spring, but at this rate I'm wondering if I'll even be around for them. Next Month Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2050/51 December Awards season, and three of our players get a mention in the FIFPro World XI. Villarreal deserves his spot, but I'd have VDD over Boxhill, but that's just favouritism. Having them both involved is wonderful. Lincoln Results And that's the sound of our bottle crashing. We just had to get a point in Russia to clinch top spot, but our lousy group stage performance continued with a last-gasp defeat. When Jon Boxhill equalised in the 86th minute, we looked safe, but they went up the other end and won it, grabbing top spot, and consigning us to a difficult draw come February. Plzen almost did it, achieving a fourth draw, and second against Schalke, but only a win would've been enough to take them above the Germans. Looking at that table, we just did not deserve to go through. Lions also took the first points of the season off of us in the league, getting United's tails up...until we beat them in an absolute war of a game to close out 2050. A big result in the title race, and should mean that we take yet another league title come May. A win against Lions would've put us in an even better position, but I'm happy to accept where we are now. Four points is a big gap to close when there's only one more match between us before the end of the season. Next Month Not quite the section for it, but we got our draw, and it's Juventus. At home in the first leg, which is actually the way I like it. We'll aim to keep them from scoring in the first, then go for the jugular in the second. Which means that what will actually happen, is the complete opposite. Roll on February. Quiet January ahead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux James Spiteri Relives a Past Life Season 2050/51 January January often begins quietly, but with our players in high demand it rarely ends that way. Four players left the club, two for a lot of money. Michael White and Horacio Ramirez never quite burst into the side the way they had hoped to, so happy to let them move on and further their careers elsewhere. Eric Mille still has hope for the future, so he left on loan to Red Imps - hopefully we get a better player back once he's had some first team football. Backup keeper Luis Mendoza also left, but to be honest I was barely aware he was even here in the first place. Lincoln Results A perfect month that advances us in two cups and keeps our stranglehold on the league. Next Month A huge match against Juventus coming up, but not before a Cup final. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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