Cardiovascular Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 On 24/08/2017 at 11:05, mjaferrie said: Both of my keepers' vision is still plummeting. Since coming in, James Leighton has gone from 13.8 to 9.2, while Robbie Kelly has gone from 7.8 to 5... Any clues? Glasses? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 26, 2017 Author Share Posted August 26, 2017 Season Review 2023/24 Well it finally happened. After 12 consecutive title wins for Celtic, Rangers have won this year's Premiership by a single point. At one stage in February they were 11 points ahead of us with a game in hand, so we fought back hard in the second half of the season. A victory over Hearts would have set up a title decider at Ibrox on the final day of the season, but we lost 2-1 at Tynecastle and our 3-0 victory over Rangers on the final day meant nothing. Like I said earlier though, it's not a disaster. Rangers qualify straight to the Champions League group stages and will be there for the first time in this save. We will have two qualifying rounds to attend to, but I'm confident that we will brush them aside and join our Glasgow rivals in the group stages. 3rd placed St. Johnstone go to the Europa Groups, their big spending has brought them from perennial relegation contenders to European football via a season in the Championship, while Hearts and Aberdeen will participate in this years' qualifying rounds. Our absolute number one priority next season is to wrestle the title back from the other side of Glasgow, while keeping St. Johnstone and their riches at bay. After spending £400k in the first 5 seasons, they've spent close to £14m in the last three and have achieved their highest league finish since 2012/13. While the league went to Ibrox, the Scottish Cup and League Cup came to Parkhead as we secure a domestic double. A 3-1 win over Rangers in the quarter finals sees us achieve some kind of revenge. And in the lower reaches of the pyramid, we have a new face coming up to the senior set up as East Kilbride take the place of Queen's Park in League Two. It would be brilliant to see them reach the Premiership some day. In the Champions League, Bayern Munich topped our group with 15 points - their only dropped points coming in a 2-1 defeat against us at Celtic Park. In the final match of the groups it was a winner takes all between us and AC Milan - the loser dropping into the Europa League. A 2-1 victory for us in Milan saw us qualify for the first knockout round to face Arsenal again. Thanks to a brace from Tommy Caffrey and a goal from Kundai Benyu, we secured a 3-1 victory at Celtic Park over Pep Guardiola's men and a 1-0 defeat in London wasn't enough for them to take advantage of their away goal. We were through to the Quarter Finals to face Pep's old team Manchester City! A familiar foe for us, but a 1-1 draw at Parkhead meant we looked to be heading out of Europe. Giorgio Ambrosi (City's £60m signing from Juventus) put the Manchester side 2-0 up with two goals in 6 minutes in the second leg, before Jack Aitchison pegged one back to make it 2-1 at half time. Time was running out, but in the 83rd minute up popped Aitchison again to make it 2-2 on the night and we were through on away goals! To face a third English side! This time it was Antonio Conte's Chelsea (amazingly he's been there for eight seasons and not been sacked!). Victory over Chelsea could set up a Final clash with Manchester United if they overcame Bayern Munich in the other semi final - that would mean we would play the entire knockout stage of the Champions League against English opposition. Nir Bitton put us ahead in London, before we fell to a 2-1 defeat in the end, but the away goal was a positive from the first leg. Back in Glasgow, the 32 year old Israeli was the hero again as he put us ahead after only 4 minutes. Unfortunately, an Eden Hazard strike just after half time meant Chelsea go through to face United in the final - the third time they've faced each other at this stage of the competition. So we head into the summer transfer window. Hopefully I can keep the squad together, I didn't sell anyone in January and if we are to win the title back from Rangers next season we will need to be at full strength. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 26, 2017 Author Share Posted August 26, 2017 3 minutes ago, Cardiovascular said: Glasses? Should have gone to Specsavers ref... eh.. goalie? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBox Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 Harsh finish in the end, but a good recovery to put the fight back on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 26, 2017 Author Share Posted August 26, 2017 39 minutes ago, BoxToBox said: Harsh finish in the end, but a good recovery to put the fight back on. Champions League Semi Finals and a domestic double, but we still can't win the league I think I've found the answer to our woes: This is going to be ridiculous. ping @Jupjamie @Cardiovascular Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBox Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 Lovely Jubbly! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardiovascular Posted August 26, 2017 Share Posted August 26, 2017 Bring on the Sammarinese/Italian Glaswegians. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 27, 2017 Author Share Posted August 27, 2017 On 26/08/2017 at 13:30, Cardiovascular said: Bring on the Sammarinese/Italian Glaswegians. On 26/08/2017 at 13:28, BoxToBox said: Lovely Jubbly! Looking forward to some nonsense in the intakes Season Preview 2024/25 Season number nine! And thanks to Rangers' title win, we had European football to contend with this summer. In the Best Placed 3rd Qualifying Round, we were drawn against Turkish side Fenerbahçe, who were pretty much cannon fodder - we put 7 goals past them over the two legs. Our reward was a trip to Amsterdam to face Ajax, and at the very least a place in the Europa League group stage. In the first leg Ajax held us to a 1-1 draw in Glasgow, so I thought Europa League was indeed where we were headed. We went two goals up in Amsterdam though and, despite a late capitulation leading resulting in a 2-2 draw, we were through to the Champions League groups! We are drawn in Group B with Galatasaray, Feyenoord and Hoffenheim, so we have the chance to embarrass the Turkish and Dutch champions too Domestic football has been grand, although we have already lost to Rangers in the league. We also needed extra time to beat Championship side St. Mirren, and incredibly the Crusaders have also reached the quarter final thanks to a 2-1 win over Dundee Utd. We'll face St. Johnstone, while the Crusaders face Raith Rovers. In the transfer window, Gordon Kettings has left us in a £165k move to Sheffield Wednesday, but otherwise the squad is intact. I had to fork out for a number of new contracts to keep big sides at bay - Manchester United were in for James Leighton again as well as recent Scotland cap Steve Rodger. He's only 18, is already one of our best midfielders, and is improving at a rapid pace. Here's how the squad looks for the new season: I'm not sure if it's good or bad that we're starting the ninth season with only seven products from our youth academy (including Scott Bruce, who on intake day didn't impress enough to be tagged). On the plus side, we've managed to keep the squad together and with the likes of Kieran Tierney, Jack Aitchison, Ryan Christie and so on we already had a very young squad to begin with. We'll need to keep the ball rolling though and bring more players through as Nir Bitton, Tom Rogic and even Ryan Christie are getting only a few seasons away from retirement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBox Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 Fair shakes to Scott Bruce for making a go of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 27, 2017 Author Share Posted August 27, 2017 3 hours ago, BoxToBox said: Fair shakes to Scott Bruce for making a go of it. He's only made 4 appearances in the first half of the season, and 16 last year, so he's no more than an absolute backup for us. He had good spells on loan at Aberdeen (twice) and Hearts though so he's good enough for this level. I had to make this signing, he's pretty guff but lol. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 29, 2017 Author Share Posted August 29, 2017 Youth Intake Day! Absolutely rotten. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1967 Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 Nothing worse in this type of save! Thankfully you've had a few good ones. How are the coefficients looking? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 30, 2017 Author Share Posted August 30, 2017 On 29/08/2017 at 15:44, 1967 said: Nothing worse in this type of save! Thankfully you've had a few good ones. How are the coefficients looking? Both Rangers and ourselves have qualified for the First Knockout Round of the Champions League this season, so it could still rise from here this season. We're a long way off Portugal though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjaferrie Posted August 31, 2017 Author Share Posted August 31, 2017 Season Update 2024/25 I think this will be my last season of this save, there's a couple of things I want to do before FM18 comes out! I might come back to this, but for now we end on a high as after Rangers won the title last year we stormed to a 22 point lead in 1st place, and Rangers only managed a third place finish! Not so good news for our reserve side though, as they came 9th in League One and lost out in the playoffs, so they'd be playing in League Two next year. In the Scottish Cup, we got knocked out in the semi finals by Hearts after a 1-0 defeat at Hampden Park. They went on to beat Aberdeen 3-1 in the final so the trophy goes to Edinburgh this season. In the Champions League, we were so close to a 100% record in the group stage! After beating Ajax and Fenerbahçe in the qualifying rounds, we came up against their domestic rivals Feyenoord and Galatasaray in the Group Stage. A 2-1 win in Holland and a 3-2 win in Glasgow saw us take maximum points from the Dutch, and we absolutely annihilated Galatasaray - 4-0 in Turkey and 7-0 at home with Tommy Caffrey scoring 5 goals on the night! The other team in our group were German champions Hoffenheim, who we beat 5-1 at Celtic Park. The last game of the group stage was a chance at securing a 100% record, but a late strike from Miguel Magalhães meant we could only take a 2-2 draw in Germany. Meanwhile Rangers came second in a much tougher group, meaning we had two Scottish teams in the last 16. We were off to Liverpool while Rangers had a trip to Portugal to face Benfica. In the first leg at Anfield, we looked to be heading into the final whistle as 2-0 winners, but an absolutely mental last couple of minutes saw Liverpool score in the 90th minute through Jordan Henderson, before Tommy Caffrey made it 3 for us, before Liverpool scored again in 90+2! 3-2 on the night, but we looked good for the return leg in Glasgow. This time, we held on to our two goal lead and our 5-2 aggregate victory meant we were heading through to the quarter finals to face Chelsea - which means we haven't faced non-English opposition in the Champions League knockout stages since losing to Atletico in the Semi Finals three seasons ago! Rangers were 3-2 aggregate victors over Benfica, so they're also through to the quarters to face Manchester United. In the first leg, Rangers got humiliated in a 6-0 defeat with Manchester United pretty much securing their place in the Semi Final. An 87th minute goal for Chelsea meant we also tasted defeat at Celtic Park after we looked to be holding on for a 1-1 draw. In the second leg in London, we did get a draw after a 90th minute Moussa Dembélé goal to make it 2-2 but it wasn't enough to overturn the first leg defeat. Rangers got a 3-2 win at Ibrox to at least help the coefficient, but both Glasgow sides are knocked out at the Quarter Finals. Here's how the rest of the tournament looked: After beating Manchester United 2-1 in last years' final, Chelsea have the chance to beat City this season. So for now, that's it! Thanks for reading Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1967 Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 That was a fantastic read. Well done for sticking out a save as Celtic for so long! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.