That time of year again...time to roll up the sleeves, ignore the real world, and micro-manage the hell out of some obscure part timers from a less than glamorous league. The Beta is here and in less than a week the full release will be out so it's time to get going again.
My last updates sort of tailed off...the last time I updated I was at Hearts. I took a bit of an FM break because of work etc. but then came back and played about 5 more seasons but never got round to updating. I left the SPL to save Villa from relegation. I kept them up and then spent a couple of seasons flirting with Europe but never quite hit the big time. My career stats/path can be found at the bottom of this post.
Then...I just stopped playing. Work picked up again and I got to that point where I could see FM14 on the Horizon - investing too much time in FM13 seemed like it might be a bit of a waste. There have been versions of FM where I've been so invested in it, and loved it so much that I'd still be playing now if I could. FM05 and FM07 spring to mind. I've enjoyed all the ones in between, and loved FM13 but I wasn't at the point where I'd carrying it on once FM14 was here. So I uninstalled it and went FM cold turkey.
FM14 is here now though and I have to say, bar the occasional bug, I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm no good at it and I've been blundering my way from one game to the next but that's to be expected at the start of a new version I guess. I'll be updating my FM14 career from now on.
I'm going to keep things short to begin with just in case there is a bug that stops me continuing the beta save into the full game (though it is unlikely). I won't go into too much detail just yet but basically I'm in 2015 and I'm on my third club, in my second country. I've not been sacked but that's mainly because I have jumped before being pushed. I've also not one anything of note.
I've got England, Spain, France, Italy, N.Ireland, Sweden, S.Africa, China and Peru loaded to various levels. I did have Germany and Portugal loaded as well but I swapped them for S.A, China and Peru. Gives me a pretty big pool of players to choose from (60K~) across several continents and gives me a range of levels to play at. Also means I can play in every continental Champions league as well (apart from N.America I think?). It seems like a nice trade off between breadth and depth, and importantly speed. My computer is old and chugs away. I've replaced parts of it so many times that I'm not convinced it has any original parts bar the power source in it. But...it seems to be doing fine. I've got about the same amount of leagues and nations loaded as 13 and it seems to be running just as fast.
I have similar aims to the last game. I want to dominate a small domestic league and develop it. I want to take a club from nothing to the top. I've been inspired by my fave save game (FM05 St.Johnstone) and various threads, challenges (Gundo's, Dafugres, Razor's) and career's (Nep's Knockbreda's) on the SI forum.
Anyways, back to the game. I shall update after the update/release :D
FM13 save Career
2012 - Oskarshamn 4th - Swedish 2nd EG
2013 - Oskjarshamn - Sacked :( 10th
2013 - Eskilstuna City 8th - Swedish 2nd SS
2014 - Eskilstuna City 1st - Swedish 2nd SS
2015 - Eskilstuna City 3rd - Swedish 1st N
2016 - Eskilstuna City 1st - Swedish 1st N
2017 - Eskilstuna City 9th - Swedish Elite
2018 - Eskilstuna City 9th - Swedish Elite (left with 3 games to go)
2018/19 - Leeds United 12th - Championship (17th when joined)
2019/20 - Aberdeen 1st - Scottish 1st Div
2020/21 - Aberdeen 8th - SPL
2021 - Houston Dynamo 8th - Con. East
2022 - Morocco 4th - World Cup Group Stage
2022/23 - Boavista (Left) - Portuguese Premier
2023 - Degerfors 3rd - Swedish 1st N
2024 - Vasteras SK 3rd - Swedish 1st N
2025 - Vasteras SK 1st - Swedish 1st N
2026 - Vasteras SK 3rd - Swedish Elite
2027 - Vasteras SK 3rd - Swedish Elite
2028 - Vasteras SK 13th - Swedish Premier (Left after 7 games)
2028/29 - Platanias 10th - Greek Superleague
2029/30 - Platanias 6th - Greek Superleague
2030/31 - Platanias 2nd - Greek Superleague
2031/32 - Platanias SACKED - 9th
2031/32 - Hearts 2nd - SPL
2032/33 - Hearts 3rd - SPL
2033/34 - Aston Villa 14th - BPL
2034/35 - Aston Villa 7th - BPL
Summary: 11clubs, 8 nations
FM13 save Trophy Cabinet
Swedish 2nd Division SS Title [2014] - Eskilstuna City
Swedish 1st Division North Title [2016] Eskilstuna City
Scottish Challenge Cup Winners [2019/20] Aberdeen
Scottish 1st Division Title [2019/20] Aberdeen
Swedish 1st Division North Title [2025] Vasteras SK
SPL Runner Up [2031/32] Hearts
Scottish FA Cup Runner Up [2032/33] Hearts
Scottish League Cup Winner [2032/33] Hearts
Summary: 4 titles, 2 cups
Sunday 27 October 2013
Friday 26 July 2013
Nothing left in the tank [2032/33]
Not a thing left in the tank at the end of this season. I don't think I've ever had a team look so knackered for so long. Now the season's over they've perked up a bit but even with rotation I think my squad hit their limit. We had a fair few games to play but not so many that we should be this tired. I think it was due to the scheduling of some that meant we struggled to recover. There was a period where we had 3 SPL games and two important cup games in a fortnight...and then one of the cup games had to be replayed....3 of these games (4 with the replay) were against Celtic.
League Cup
At the start of the season I would have picked this as the cup we could forget about. Little kudos and no European qualification attached to it. But it was the one we did the best in. Mainly because of Dean Dalziel. We scored 10 goals, of those he got 6. In the semi finals we were 2-0 down with 10 mins to go. He scored a hat trick.
That took us to a final against Celtic. I rested some players in the SPL game before hand. You can't turn your nose up at a cup. Celtic put us under pressure for about 30 mins and then we turned it around completely. The rest of the game was ours and we completely schooled them. Dalziel popped up with a fine goal, and then Snodden got a scrappy but important one to send us two clear.
First cup with Hearts! First cup in a long time!
FA Cup
We had another good run here. And I was more excited about this as it was a better rep cup with some reward in terms of Europe. Again Dalziel did the work. Of the 11 goals we scored he got 5. We made heavy work of the cup progression in the quarter finals as had to face Celtic twice because of a replay. When we were at our most tired. In the replay we played some fantastic counter attacking football, buoyed by the League Cup win against them the game before.
Inverness in the semi-finals were a breeze and we set up a final against Rangers. They were on form in the league and slowly but surely becoming more of a force in the SPL. Could we beat the Old Firm in both cup finals?
No. And this was perhaps the most frustrating cup final I've ever seen. We out shot them, three to one when it came to on target shots, but they grabbed the goal, defended and we ran out of steam. It was absolutely gutting. So close to a cup double.
SPL
Were things better in the league? Not really. We were tired because of the sheer amount of injuries. I had to check to see if anything was wrong with the training but I was just unlucky. Players were getting injured, coming back and then when they were finally match fit they be back in the physio room or someone else would take their place. I think in the course of the season I played my first choice 11 together ten times.
It sounds like a bit of a weak excuse (for what's coming) but it's relevant. It's difficult to make progress when injuries pull the rug from under you.
Compared to the first half of the season our form got worse. We dropped embarrassing points and still struggled against the likes of Celtic. Aberdeen were close behind us and they capitalised on pretty much every mistake. When the league split Celtic were one game away from the title and we had dropped into 3rd place.
This is where we picked up a bit. We beat Rangers and Kilmarnock, and drew with surprise package Ross County and then champions Celtic. Our last game was against Aberdeen. A real show down against my former team!
They were 2nd, but only on goal difference. A win against them would put us 2nd and into the Champions League rather than the Europa. It wasn't to be though. They beat us 2-1 and the scoreline if anything flattered us.
End of Season Review
Well we'd met board expectations but we'd missed out on the Champions League. But there's always next season. Scotland went up the coefficients so next season the title winner will go straight into the group stage and general seeding/stage of entry will improve. 2nd place next season will be worth even more.
And I think we can do it. I've learnt a couple of things.
1) MORE PLAYERS! I NEED MORE! We had a horrible run of injuries that meant we couldn't hit a good run of form. Players went out, moved position, and weren't fully fit. More players should fix that and if we keep fitter I think 2nd should be ours.
2) No matter how good I think I am Celtic won't agree and they'll attack. So I need to go to counter attacking against them. Late in the season we did better against them by going to counter attack rather than the control I favour. I need to do this from the off.
3) One man teams are bad. We weren't quite a one man team but pretty much all the goals were coming from Dalziel. And he's not getting any younger. Also when he wasn't doing well we were noticeably toothless.
The team in general did well though.
Everyone played. Even back up keeper O'Dea when McCluskey went out injured. All of the squad is straying apart from Zander Coyne who's jumping ship to Motherwell. When he announced that I benched him and started to rotate Quirke and Forde in. They both did well so we'll not miss Zander despite the cool name.
Warren might go next season but we'll be reinforcing the middle of the team anyway.
I've got lost of screenshots for players but I won't stick them all here. I will mention one player though. Bobby Scoular. I promoted him to the senior team with the aim of giving him a few games. Slowly introducing him. But before the season started he said he wanted to go on loan so I sent him to Championship Derby. Before he left he was worth about £16k and looked like a promising though not developed rightback.
Things changed...
He's a beast. I owe Derby one. He even got capped for Scotland with them. Next season he can fight with Simpson for a start. I might try sending Derby a few more players...
Another honourable mention should go to Simpson and Kearney.
2nd and 3rd place isn't bad.
I seem to be attracting attention too....
I was slightly tempted but I'm with Hearts for the long haul. And I've a plan to satisfy my wanderlust...more on that later.
Next season should be good.
League Cup
At the start of the season I would have picked this as the cup we could forget about. Little kudos and no European qualification attached to it. But it was the one we did the best in. Mainly because of Dean Dalziel. We scored 10 goals, of those he got 6. In the semi finals we were 2-0 down with 10 mins to go. He scored a hat trick.
That took us to a final against Celtic. I rested some players in the SPL game before hand. You can't turn your nose up at a cup. Celtic put us under pressure for about 30 mins and then we turned it around completely. The rest of the game was ours and we completely schooled them. Dalziel popped up with a fine goal, and then Snodden got a scrappy but important one to send us two clear.
First cup with Hearts! First cup in a long time!
FA Cup
We had another good run here. And I was more excited about this as it was a better rep cup with some reward in terms of Europe. Again Dalziel did the work. Of the 11 goals we scored he got 5. We made heavy work of the cup progression in the quarter finals as had to face Celtic twice because of a replay. When we were at our most tired. In the replay we played some fantastic counter attacking football, buoyed by the League Cup win against them the game before.
Inverness in the semi-finals were a breeze and we set up a final against Rangers. They were on form in the league and slowly but surely becoming more of a force in the SPL. Could we beat the Old Firm in both cup finals?
No. And this was perhaps the most frustrating cup final I've ever seen. We out shot them, three to one when it came to on target shots, but they grabbed the goal, defended and we ran out of steam. It was absolutely gutting. So close to a cup double.
SPL
Were things better in the league? Not really. We were tired because of the sheer amount of injuries. I had to check to see if anything was wrong with the training but I was just unlucky. Players were getting injured, coming back and then when they were finally match fit they be back in the physio room or someone else would take their place. I think in the course of the season I played my first choice 11 together ten times.
It sounds like a bit of a weak excuse (for what's coming) but it's relevant. It's difficult to make progress when injuries pull the rug from under you.
Compared to the first half of the season our form got worse. We dropped embarrassing points and still struggled against the likes of Celtic. Aberdeen were close behind us and they capitalised on pretty much every mistake. When the league split Celtic were one game away from the title and we had dropped into 3rd place.
This is where we picked up a bit. We beat Rangers and Kilmarnock, and drew with surprise package Ross County and then champions Celtic. Our last game was against Aberdeen. A real show down against my former team!
They were 2nd, but only on goal difference. A win against them would put us 2nd and into the Champions League rather than the Europa. It wasn't to be though. They beat us 2-1 and the scoreline if anything flattered us.
End of Season Review
Well we'd met board expectations but we'd missed out on the Champions League. But there's always next season. Scotland went up the coefficients so next season the title winner will go straight into the group stage and general seeding/stage of entry will improve. 2nd place next season will be worth even more.
And I think we can do it. I've learnt a couple of things.
1) MORE PLAYERS! I NEED MORE! We had a horrible run of injuries that meant we couldn't hit a good run of form. Players went out, moved position, and weren't fully fit. More players should fix that and if we keep fitter I think 2nd should be ours.
2) No matter how good I think I am Celtic won't agree and they'll attack. So I need to go to counter attacking against them. Late in the season we did better against them by going to counter attack rather than the control I favour. I need to do this from the off.
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| 39 goals in 50 apps for Dangerous Dean |
3) One man teams are bad. We weren't quite a one man team but pretty much all the goals were coming from Dalziel. And he's not getting any younger. Also when he wasn't doing well we were noticeably toothless.
The team in general did well though.
Everyone played. Even back up keeper O'Dea when McCluskey went out injured. All of the squad is straying apart from Zander Coyne who's jumping ship to Motherwell. When he announced that I benched him and started to rotate Quirke and Forde in. They both did well so we'll not miss Zander despite the cool name.
Warren might go next season but we'll be reinforcing the middle of the team anyway.
I've got lost of screenshots for players but I won't stick them all here. I will mention one player though. Bobby Scoular. I promoted him to the senior team with the aim of giving him a few games. Slowly introducing him. But before the season started he said he wanted to go on loan so I sent him to Championship Derby. Before he left he was worth about £16k and looked like a promising though not developed rightback.
Things changed...
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| Thanks Derby for adding over £3.5m to his value |
He's a beast. I owe Derby one. He even got capped for Scotland with them. Next season he can fight with Simpson for a start. I might try sending Derby a few more players...
Another honourable mention should go to Simpson and Kearney.
2nd and 3rd place isn't bad.
I seem to be attracting attention too....
I was slightly tempted but I'm with Hearts for the long haul. And I've a plan to satisfy my wanderlust...more on that later.
Next season should be good.
Would everyone please stop getting injured? [2032/33]
A slightly shorter post as most of the transfers were covered in the last one! Basically I was feeling fairly happy when I started the season. I'd reinforced the team, sent young players out on loan and set up tutoring and training for my stars.
I was a little unhappy initially as we found that we'd missed out on the champions league by a year. Next season 2nd place would earn a berth in the playoffs. It just meant there was more to play for this season.
Europa League
So we were in Europe! Not for very long though. We drew Trnava in the 3rd qualifying round and breezed past them but then came up against the stronger AZ side. They beat us twice but I was left fuming. We outplayed them in both legs but didn't finish it off.
We dropped out of Europe and sudden our financial forecast looked a little lighter.
SPL
We started fairly well but we hit a bit of a hiccup. Last season we had done really well against the big sides like Celtic but we just couldn't take points of them this time, and we dropped points against Rangers as well.
We were still in a good position but I already felt like Celtic were getting away.
We might have been able to take points off them if the team had been fit and ready but we've had some terrible luck injury wise. My dream midfield of Magill, Snodden and Kearney only managed about four games before Snodden and Magill got injured for several weeks. The Simpson got injured too. They gradually came back but they're not fit...and Magill picked up another injury! Every time the team settles and clicks someone keels over.
One player who doesn't seem to care who's playing around him though is Dalziel. He's bagged 21 goals in 22 games so far. He's 32 and he's terrorising defences. He's approaching his 50th goal in two seasons (or a season and a half I guess).
Transfers
I had a lot of players on my shortlist that I was following but I wasn't in a rush to buy them...until other clubs started coming in for them. I didn't want to lose out so they forced my hand I went in for two players, Gillan and Ferguson.
I'd been unsettling Ferguson at Hamilton for some time but considering I'd already poached Simpson from them they held firm a little longer. I think he'll be a good left back in the future and I can rotate him with Lowry.
Gillan from...yes, Linfield. Soon they wouldn't have a single player left. A little older than I'd like for the money spent (£500k) but the scouts raved about him, he fits in with the other N.Irish players and I need to think about replacing Dalziel at some point.
I was a little unhappy initially as we found that we'd missed out on the champions league by a year. Next season 2nd place would earn a berth in the playoffs. It just meant there was more to play for this season.
Europa League
So we were in Europe! Not for very long though. We drew Trnava in the 3rd qualifying round and breezed past them but then came up against the stronger AZ side. They beat us twice but I was left fuming. We outplayed them in both legs but didn't finish it off.
We dropped out of Europe and sudden our financial forecast looked a little lighter.
SPL
We started fairly well but we hit a bit of a hiccup. Last season we had done really well against the big sides like Celtic but we just couldn't take points of them this time, and we dropped points against Rangers as well.
We were still in a good position but I already felt like Celtic were getting away.
We might have been able to take points off them if the team had been fit and ready but we've had some terrible luck injury wise. My dream midfield of Magill, Snodden and Kearney only managed about four games before Snodden and Magill got injured for several weeks. The Simpson got injured too. They gradually came back but they're not fit...and Magill picked up another injury! Every time the team settles and clicks someone keels over.
One player who doesn't seem to care who's playing around him though is Dalziel. He's bagged 21 goals in 22 games so far. He's 32 and he's terrorising defences. He's approaching his 50th goal in two seasons (or a season and a half I guess).
Transfers
I had a lot of players on my shortlist that I was following but I wasn't in a rush to buy them...until other clubs started coming in for them. I didn't want to lose out so they forced my hand I went in for two players, Gillan and Ferguson.
Gillan from...yes, Linfield. Soon they wouldn't have a single player left. A little older than I'd like for the money spent (£500k) but the scouts raved about him, he fits in with the other N.Irish players and I need to think about replacing Dalziel at some point.
Friday 19 July 2013
Starting to take shape [2031/32]
The first three games hadn't gone well so I was dreading taking on Hibs, rivals, in the next game. Especially seeing as I had changed tactics around a bit from the previous games now I had the players for a 352. They were a long way off being familiar with it. I needn't have worried though. It was a bit of a scrap but we gradually started to out play them and by the end of the game we were all over them.The pressure paid off and we got a well deserved win against our arch rivals, away from home to boot.
It gave us a great boost, peaking with us beating league leaders Celtic a few games later. In fact against the big teams and rivals we did well. In the open season we played Celtic twice, Hibs twice and Rangers once. We won every game against them. If only we'd kept that going...
For some reason we kept slipping to silly losses and the smaller teams and it hurt us. Before the split we were still in second but we were left with a lot to do if we wanted to overhaul Celtic. 7 points wasn't a huge gap, it would drop to 4 if we beat them but Celtic still had the upper hand. We'd have to win pretty much all of them and they'd have to drop points.
We were in a good position though otherwise. We only needed a win really to secure a European place which meant no matter what we had at least met board expectations.
We started well. We breezed past Kilmarnock, beat Celtic for the 3rd time in a row and brought the gap down to 4 points. A thrashing of Hamiliton brought us even closer as it was paired with a loss from Celtic...and then things went a bit wrong. I was screwed by my old team, Aberdeen. The Dons had been on red hot form and were really pushing me for 2nd place. We couldn't break them down and to be fair they probably should have won. But even scraping a draw didn't help - we dropped points, Celtic won and then by the time the Rangers match came around the title was theirs.
In a similar fashion to last season with Plantanias I shouldn't feel disappointed with 2nd, we've vastly overachieved, but we have missed out on a golden opportunity. The title could have been ours. We beat Celtic three times! We had the quality but we lost it against the lower table teams. We need to be able to finish games off.
End of Season Review
We'd more than met our aims. We'd qualified and qualified well.
The squad was shaping up and the players that had been brought in had done well.
We needed to build on this next season and get the squad exactly where we needed it. At this point we had a lot of players leaving, and still plenty that needed to leave (an £11k a week player for example). I wanted to cut the wage bill, balance the squad size/make up, get in line with my new transfer policy of mainly home nation players. And I wanted to do all this and improve the team. I wanted to make sure that when we played next season that we had the players to beat the likes of Falkirk and Celtic. I didn't want to waste points like we had here.
Despite point wasting we had some good players in the team. Many doing very well.
Dean fired the team forward almost single handed. He made good use of all the good service he got and was lethal in front of goal. He's getting on and I'm normally against older players but you can't argue with his performances. I've no good reason to replace him so he'll be key next season.
Dougie was originally a bench warmer of sorts when I arrived but I gave him a chance and he got better as the season went on. There were one or two games where the defense was shaky but that was usually despite his best efforts.
I thought Harding might be a risk but he settled in well. Admittedly he didn't grab the same volume of goals as he had in league 2 but I was playing him more as a DLF, and he was sending plenty of dangerous balls through. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do over an entire season.
A bit like Dougie. I brought him in to the starting 11 due to an injury and he pretty much stayed there until the end of the season. Defensively better than his stats suggest and he offers something going forwards.
He didn't play much so I'm not including him here as a key player. I'm just showing off how much he's improved through training. Going full time has made a big difference and I'm going to give him and Lifbom some cup time next season.
Kearney started playing straight away and set about ruining players. Strong in the tackle and he constantly close people down. Even though he spent most of the time just as a MC-s he controlled the midfield from top to bottom.
Like Karlssson Lifbom's stats have shot up. He actually grabbed a winning goal against Celtic! Again he's going to be rotated in and given cup runs but I can see him becoming a good striker very quickly. He just needs the opportunity.
Initially McCluskey worried me. In the first 3 games he was at fault for a lot of the goals but he picked up and over the course of the season ended with the most clean sheets. He still got some years left in him and his experience at the back should really help.
Bought at the same time as Kearney he ended up in the Physio room from day 1. Once he'd recovered though he started and there was never any doubt as to why. He picks out some amazing passes and is very compose in midfield.
At this point I'd normally end but I thought I'd put the transfers on here for the start of next season, seeing as most of them were completed before the season ended.
Transfers
A lot of players were shipped out. I finally managed to get rid of the players on the stupid wages and the over all wage costs dropped like a stone, even with all the players below recruited. At the start of the new season we were only spending £85k a week on wages. Below our £110k limit, and a lot of teams around us. We didn't need to be so frugal but in the long run it would only help.
Magill arrived and would now be the AP in between Kearney and Snodden. I can't wait to see them playing together. Magill is creative and dangerous. I'm expecting him to be involved in a lot of goals. Especially seeing as he cost the club, overall, £3.4m!
Coyne and Donald only have a year on their contracts and they aren't playing nice in contract negotiations so I started to recruit defenders just in case. Guy is young and doesn't look like the finished article yet but the scouts and coaches think that he'll make it in time. I've sent him on loan for a season to see how he does. If it doesn't work out then I can happily write off the £60k fee for him.
I had been chasing a Scottish left back but Hamilton wanted an obscene amount for them so I just got Lowry for £300k instead. He looks well rounded and when you consider his age I think he's only going to get better. I'm very happy that he's actually a WBL as well rather than a defender I have to train.
Forde was bought as part of the defensive replacement drive. It helps that he can also cover midfield. He'll be back up and will rotate into the squad.
Like wise for Quirke. He'll be cover this year with a view towards being a long term replacement. And if it doesn't work out? Then he and Forde only cost about £150k in total.
Buying strikers is fun. Signing ones released by Arsenal is just as fun. They let Raymond go so I decided I would snap him up and send him to Raith, our feeder club, the league below to see how he does.
Bought Vickers for the cheap sum of £80k during the season. He then torn a muscle and spent the rest of it recovering. He might not be the player he was or could potentially be, when I signed him. He's still injured and I think I'll keep him at the club when he's able to play so I can build his fitness up.
Simpson is going to be great I think. He has what it takes to terrorise teams down that right hand side whilst helping keep clean sheets. I bullied Hamilton until they let me sign Simpson for the cheap price of £575k. He had been a SPL regular for a good team (Hamilton and Aberdeen are top 5 teams now) and he is a regular international. With him, Lowry, Snodden, Kearney and Magill I have a huge N.Irish contingent. They form the backbone of the starting 11.
And here's Erwan the back up to Simpson. Got him on a free and although he is not a WBR I think he can be shaped into one well enough.
And that was it really for signings. I had plenty left in the wage budget, and about £800k left to spend. I also had a watch list of about 5 or 6 good young (ish, younger than 25) 'local' players. I didn't want to splash the cash on them though as I thought I had a nice balance to the squad.
Good players for each position. Plenty of promising cover and depth. I also got two players sent to me on loan by Spurs as well; a German defender and an English striker dubbed the new Rooney! I was sticking to my transfer policy too and I only have, discounting the loan player, 3 non-British or Irish players in the first team.
I'm hopeful for the coming season. We have a good team, money to spend in January if need be and wages to spare. We're in the black and we have Europe to look forward to.
It gave us a great boost, peaking with us beating league leaders Celtic a few games later. In fact against the big teams and rivals we did well. In the open season we played Celtic twice, Hibs twice and Rangers once. We won every game against them. If only we'd kept that going...
For some reason we kept slipping to silly losses and the smaller teams and it hurt us. Before the split we were still in second but we were left with a lot to do if we wanted to overhaul Celtic. 7 points wasn't a huge gap, it would drop to 4 if we beat them but Celtic still had the upper hand. We'd have to win pretty much all of them and they'd have to drop points.
 |
| Almost there... |
We were in a good position though otherwise. We only needed a win really to secure a European place which meant no matter what we had at least met board expectations.
 |
| Nice run of form at the end but it wasn't enough |
We started well. We breezed past Kilmarnock, beat Celtic for the 3rd time in a row and brought the gap down to 4 points. A thrashing of Hamiliton brought us even closer as it was paired with a loss from Celtic...and then things went a bit wrong. I was screwed by my old team, Aberdeen. The Dons had been on red hot form and were really pushing me for 2nd place. We couldn't break them down and to be fair they probably should have won. But even scraping a draw didn't help - we dropped points, Celtic won and then by the time the Rangers match came around the title was theirs.
 |
| It'll do... |
In a similar fashion to last season with Plantanias I shouldn't feel disappointed with 2nd, we've vastly overachieved, but we have missed out on a golden opportunity. The title could have been ours. We beat Celtic three times! We had the quality but we lost it against the lower table teams. We need to be able to finish games off.
End of Season Review
We'd more than met our aims. We'd qualified and qualified well.
 |
| Everyone loves playing on a Thursday |
The squad was shaping up and the players that had been brought in had done well.
We needed to build on this next season and get the squad exactly where we needed it. At this point we had a lot of players leaving, and still plenty that needed to leave (an £11k a week player for example). I wanted to cut the wage bill, balance the squad size/make up, get in line with my new transfer policy of mainly home nation players. And I wanted to do all this and improve the team. I wanted to make sure that when we played next season that we had the players to beat the likes of Falkirk and Celtic. I didn't want to waste points like we had here.
Despite point wasting we had some good players in the team. Many doing very well.
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| Dean 'Dead Eye' Dalziel |
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| Dougie 'I have a more Scottish name than you' Donald |
Dougie was originally a bench warmer of sorts when I arrived but I gave him a chance and he got better as the season went on. There were one or two games where the defense was shaky but that was usually despite his best efforts.
 |
| 'Unbelievable!' Geoff Harding |
I thought Harding might be a risk but he settled in well. Admittedly he didn't grab the same volume of goals as he had in league 2 but I was playing him more as a DLF, and he was sending plenty of dangerous balls through. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do over an entire season.
 |
| Gareth Howells |
A bit like Dougie. I brought him in to the starting 11 due to an injury and he pretty much stayed there until the end of the season. Defensively better than his stats suggest and he offers something going forwards.
 |
| Jon Karlsson |
He didn't play much so I'm not including him here as a key player. I'm just showing off how much he's improved through training. Going full time has made a big difference and I'm going to give him and Lifbom some cup time next season.
 |
| Eddie 'Leg Breaker' Kearney |
Kearney started playing straight away and set about ruining players. Strong in the tackle and he constantly close people down. Even though he spent most of the time just as a MC-s he controlled the midfield from top to bottom.
 |
| Philip Lifbom |
Like Karlssson Lifbom's stats have shot up. He actually grabbed a winning goal against Celtic! Again he's going to be rotated in and given cup runs but I can see him becoming a good striker very quickly. He just needs the opportunity.
 |
| Stuart McCluskey |
Initially McCluskey worried me. In the first 3 games he was at fault for a lot of the goals but he picked up and over the course of the season ended with the most clean sheets. He still got some years left in him and his experience at the back should really help.
 |
| 'Mickey 'Sick Note' Snodden |
Bought at the same time as Kearney he ended up in the Physio room from day 1. Once he'd recovered though he started and there was never any doubt as to why. He picks out some amazing passes and is very compose in midfield.
At this point I'd normally end but I thought I'd put the transfers on here for the start of next season, seeing as most of them were completed before the season ended.
Transfers
A lot of players were shipped out. I finally managed to get rid of the players on the stupid wages and the over all wage costs dropped like a stone, even with all the players below recruited. At the start of the new season we were only spending £85k a week on wages. Below our £110k limit, and a lot of teams around us. We didn't need to be so frugal but in the long run it would only help.
 |
| Chris 'Magic' Magill |
 |
| Gavin Guy |
Coyne and Donald only have a year on their contracts and they aren't playing nice in contract negotiations so I started to recruit defenders just in case. Guy is young and doesn't look like the finished article yet but the scouts and coaches think that he'll make it in time. I've sent him on loan for a season to see how he does. If it doesn't work out then I can happily write off the £60k fee for him.
 |
| Matt Lowry |
I had been chasing a Scottish left back but Hamilton wanted an obscene amount for them so I just got Lowry for £300k instead. He looks well rounded and when you consider his age I think he's only going to get better. I'm very happy that he's actually a WBL as well rather than a defender I have to train.
 |
| Neil Forde |
Forde was bought as part of the defensive replacement drive. It helps that he can also cover midfield. He'll be back up and will rotate into the squad.
 |
| Pat Quirke |
Like wise for Quirke. He'll be cover this year with a view towards being a long term replacement. And if it doesn't work out? Then he and Forde only cost about £150k in total.
 |
| Raymond Neil |
Buying strikers is fun. Signing ones released by Arsenal is just as fun. They let Raymond go so I decided I would snap him up and send him to Raith, our feeder club, the league below to see how he does.
 |
| Richie Vickers |
Bought Vickers for the cheap sum of £80k during the season. He then torn a muscle and spent the rest of it recovering. He might not be the player he was or could potentially be, when I signed him. He's still injured and I think I'll keep him at the club when he's able to play so I can build his fitness up.
 |
| 'Rocket' Rory Simpson |
Simpson is going to be great I think. He has what it takes to terrorise teams down that right hand side whilst helping keep clean sheets. I bullied Hamilton until they let me sign Simpson for the cheap price of £575k. He had been a SPL regular for a good team (Hamilton and Aberdeen are top 5 teams now) and he is a regular international. With him, Lowry, Snodden, Kearney and Magill I have a huge N.Irish contingent. They form the backbone of the starting 11.
 |
| Erwan Robert |
And here's Erwan the back up to Simpson. Got him on a free and although he is not a WBR I think he can be shaped into one well enough.
And that was it really for signings. I had plenty left in the wage budget, and about £800k left to spend. I also had a watch list of about 5 or 6 good young (ish, younger than 25) 'local' players. I didn't want to splash the cash on them though as I thought I had a nice balance to the squad.
Good players for each position. Plenty of promising cover and depth. I also got two players sent to me on loan by Spurs as well; a German defender and an English striker dubbed the new Rooney! I was sticking to my transfer policy too and I only have, discounting the loan player, 3 non-British or Irish players in the first team.
I'm hopeful for the coming season. We have a good team, money to spend in January if need be and wages to spare. We're in the black and we have Europe to look forward to.
de la Vega Hearts the SPL [2031/32]
It didn't take long to get back on the horse. A horse heading for sunny Scotland and the SPL. The last time I had managed there in the game had been 10 years ago, with Aberdeen. I was going to be returning to manage a different team though. My relative success with Platanias meant a slightly bigger club came calling for me - Hearts.
They were 2nd in the table and managerless after the former coach had moved to 1st placed Celtic. Traitor. Good for me though as it put me in a great position. Mid way through the season I would be taking over a team that was still challenging for the title but was only expecting European qualification.
What added to the appeal was the fact they had money to spend. I could have a bit of a flutter and because of the relative size of the the club I could do so without breaking the bank completely. I could
move away slightly from the all youth all the time approach I had started to favour at Platanias. I would still be a selling club in the long run as the SPL was quite low rep, and had dropped down to about 24th in the European Competition rankings, below even the Romanian top tier. Even the Greek Superleague was technically above them by a few places though they both only rate 3 stars. Eventually big clubs from big leagues would come calling for my stars and I would probably have to sell.
That would be in the future though. I had the more immediate and pressing concern of trying to break Celtics strangle hold on the title. Every title since 2013 had been won by Celtic. Every. Title. They had clocked up almost 20 years/seasons of dominance. At least in the Superleage Olympiakos and Panathinaikos had swapped it occasionally. Some had challenged here but not consistently with only the likes of Rangers, Aberdeen (after I got them promoted back to the top!), Hearts and Hamilton having any sort of sustained presence in the top 3.
This should be fun then. I eagerly took a look at my team and got a bit confused. I think they were over performing by being in 2nd place. I also couldn't work out what tactic they had been using before. They had a lot of players that were Inside Forwards but had been set up to play 4-4-2. They had a few pretty good players but they also had some ageing over paid players. One in particular, X, was on £11.5k a week! I had an ageing winger or two on about 6-7k each, a disgruntled old midfielder who'd never really been used on about another 8k as well. I think in total almost £40k of the £105k wage budget was taken up by some quite old and very average players.
The plan was initially to keep hold of them as it would be a few games until the transfer window. Then I would start shaping the team. To begin with I didn't want to be too sweeping with my changes, especially as it was mid season and the team had clearly been doing well. I didn't want to disrupt that. But at the same time I couldn't be content with the players I had. If I was going to use wingers then I wanted better ones. If I wasn't going to use them I wanted to get rid of them. Either way their days were numbered unless they performed well in the 3 games they had.
And they didn't. I got thumped twice and managed a draw. Not the start I'd wanted so I decided they would be going and I would re-shape the squad into my currently preferred 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 (3 CB's, 2 WB's, 3 MC's and 2 ST's). We might suffer but at least I could claim responsibility for that suffering.
There were some good players present. We had good keepers, good central defenders, and a good but old striker (Dalziel). We did have a lot of players on loan though, and plenty who would leave at the end of the season too so I had another justification for trying to get some recruits.
Transfers
So we needed some fresh blood. As it stood the team probably didn't have enough MC's to effectively cover the formation and any wingers we had wouldn't be close to useful in the formation. So I needed to shift wingers for MC's. I had the money just to buy players but the wingers were eating into the wage budget.
I shifted quite a few on free's or low amounts, and got some loans to cover the wages of some of the higher played wingers I couldn't shift (whilst putting them in the shop window and getting them out of my hair).
At first my head was turned by two strikers. Karlsson and Lifbom, both Scandinavian, both cheap. I'd followed them both since being at Platanias but they had always laughed off my interest. Not so now.
Lifbom could play in a variety of positions but it would be upfront that he would get used. Promisingly he wasn't on full time training before he joined so I'm expecting a big boost initially to his stats.
Karlsson was in a similar position of becoming full time so I held out hope I could shape his stats into a good poacher. For both of them I had the feeling that I could possibly rotate them into the squad and play from the bench. They already looked better than some of the backup/youth strikers I had and looked like they would be better in the long term than some of the half decent strikers already at the club (who would soon be getting the boot). I needed midfielders though.
I had a look through my not so short short list and found two gems for midfield, N.Irish youngsters Snodden and Kearney.
I felt a bit guilty about raiding Linfield but they were good. Good enough to do well immediately, young enough and with promising enough scout reports. They had a good spread of mental stats already and I could see them slotting into the MC-d and MC-support roles I had, either side of an advance playmaker.
It was at this point I had something of an epiphany. Who would be perfect for the AP role in the middle? Magill from Platanias is who.
Also young, also N.Irish. This in turned made me hatch a new plan, a new transfer policy. Looking around the squad I had some good Scottish youth players coming through. Also once I discounted players who would be leaving either in this transfer window or summer the majority of the squad was British or Irish (bar my recent striker signings). Why not build a squad around British and Irish players?
I normally don't like to restrict myself but I wasn't going to completely rid the squad of other nationalities. I could just make sure there was a core of players from the British Isles. This would combat all sorts of issues - homegrown restrictions, language barriers effecting play, homesickness, price tags, scouting costs and transfer efficiency. I threw the last one in their because I spent and had in the past an awful lot of time scouting players and making offers only for them to turn me down. I'd had a much better success rate with 'local' players and could do here. As a result I could focus my limited scouting network on a couple of regions, a handful of competitions and the relevant youth leagues. There's no point sending a scout to find the next Pele if they won't sign for you.
And as I said I didn't have to tie my hands and say no players from abroad. I could just limit myself so that only a few were brought in at a time, so I could better integrate them into the actual team. Maybe this had been my downfall with Platanias? I'd signed quite a few players last season, most of them from outside Greece and they came into a squad with lots of different nationalities.
I also had the romantic, sort of, dream of having Magill play in midfield with Snodden and Kearney both for Hearts and N.Ireland. Magill had his first cap and I would bet that Snodden and Kearney wouldn't be far off. With none of them topping 21 yet they could play together for years and form an amazingly cohesive midfield unit. More players would be added from N.Ireland at the end of the season too and I could always trawl for more talent to give a N.Irish backbone to the club. When I decided on this I also decided to add Wales to the game to so I could then picked from Scotland, N.Ireland, England and Wales. If all goes well next season I'll then add the Irish leagues too and cut back on a league elsewhere - maybe Portugal, Greece or Sweden.
So I went after Magill and comprehensively failed to get him during the transfer window. Although his value only showed up as £100k, and I'd got him for £160k before, they valued him at around £6m. They lowest I could get them to negotiate to was £5m. More than my wage budget, more than I could save up from transfers and more than I wanted to pay for even Magill.
I wasn't going to give up though. I went to the press...I praised him, I said I would do everything I could to buy him. He made positive noises back and I kept making transfer bids. When his agent approached me and then confirmed he would be open to a move I ramped it up a bid and endorsed him. If you've not used this option before in the talk to press module it's awesome. You basically state they should show some ambition and move to a good club, like yours. It pissed the current Platanias manager off no end but Magill agreed he should move and got upset that my transfer offers were being rejected. In my next offer Platanias suddenly dropped to £3m. Still a bit too much for me but with some clauses and instalments I managed to get them to agree to a paltry £1m up front. I had won. Magill would be playing for Hearts next season at the heart of a youthful and improved N.Irish midfield.
I also managed to confirm a few more signings. Only one was to join during the transfer window though (sorry I know I've jumped from closed to open). Still with my 'local' transfer policy I had my scouts look at League 1 and 2 in England. I don't mean to be horribly about Scottish football but if a player was doing really well at that level I was willing to take a punt at them doing pretty well in the SPL too. I managed to get, at the time, League 2 top goal scorer Geoff Harding.
He had 24 goals in 34 games for Plymouth and he looked good. Better than all but maybe one of my first team strikers and all for the reasonably price of £500k. I perhaps overpaid a little considering his could still be a risk but I was confident enough that he'd repay that outlay this very season.
Back to the future transfers (sorry I know it's back and forth)...I knew that in summer I would be losing the two WBR's I had, one of the DL's I play as WBL and would be shifting more useless strikers (even with the two youth players and Harding I wanted a little more). So I looked around a little more and decided that after bullying Linfield and Platanias I would make a start on Hamilton. They have/had a WBR who plays for N.Ireland and is great. Only 25 and easily one of top WBR's in the SPL. He would also fit in with the N.Ireland core. I bullied and I got. He'll be coming to Tynecastle next season.
Hamilton also have a young Scottish DL who I think I can shape into a WBL. Only valued at £55k but they want a lot more. The bullying has commenced. It worked for his team mate it might work for him.
Elsewhere I had an Irish ST coming in, youth again, and a French DR, youth too. Still in line with my transfer policy as I don't mind a few signings from overseas so long as I don't over do it. Off the top of my head if all goes to plan transfer wise only 3 players next season will be from outside of Britain and Ireland. They're young too so maybe in time they'll be tempted by the crown Jewel of any players career - turning out for the Tartan Army ;)
Phew...big post. But I'm excited and lots happened. I'll leave the season update till the next.
 |
| An interesting offer... |
 |
| 2nd already |
They were 2nd in the table and managerless after the former coach had moved to 1st placed Celtic. Traitor. Good for me though as it put me in a great position. Mid way through the season I would be taking over a team that was still challenging for the title but was only expecting European qualification.What added to the appeal was the fact they had money to spend. I could have a bit of a flutter and because of the relative size of the the club I could do so without breaking the bank completely. I could
move away slightly from the all youth all the time approach I had started to favour at Platanias. I would still be a selling club in the long run as the SPL was quite low rep, and had dropped down to about 24th in the European Competition rankings, below even the Romanian top tier. Even the Greek Superleague was technically above them by a few places though they both only rate 3 stars. Eventually big clubs from big leagues would come calling for my stars and I would probably have to sell.
That would be in the future though. I had the more immediate and pressing concern of trying to break Celtics strangle hold on the title. Every title since 2013 had been won by Celtic. Every. Title. They had clocked up almost 20 years/seasons of dominance. At least in the Superleage Olympiakos and Panathinaikos had swapped it occasionally. Some had challenged here but not consistently with only the likes of Rangers, Aberdeen (after I got them promoted back to the top!), Hearts and Hamilton having any sort of sustained presence in the top 3.This should be fun then. I eagerly took a look at my team and got a bit confused. I think they were over performing by being in 2nd place. I also couldn't work out what tactic they had been using before. They had a lot of players that were Inside Forwards but had been set up to play 4-4-2. They had a few pretty good players but they also had some ageing over paid players. One in particular, X, was on £11.5k a week! I had an ageing winger or two on about 6-7k each, a disgruntled old midfielder who'd never really been used on about another 8k as well. I think in total almost £40k of the £105k wage budget was taken up by some quite old and very average players.
The plan was initially to keep hold of them as it would be a few games until the transfer window. Then I would start shaping the team. To begin with I didn't want to be too sweeping with my changes, especially as it was mid season and the team had clearly been doing well. I didn't want to disrupt that. But at the same time I couldn't be content with the players I had. If I was going to use wingers then I wanted better ones. If I wasn't going to use them I wanted to get rid of them. Either way their days were numbered unless they performed well in the 3 games they had.
And they didn't. I got thumped twice and managed a draw. Not the start I'd wanted so I decided they would be going and I would re-shape the squad into my currently preferred 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 (3 CB's, 2 WB's, 3 MC's and 2 ST's). We might suffer but at least I could claim responsibility for that suffering.
There were some good players present. We had good keepers, good central defenders, and a good but old striker (Dalziel). We did have a lot of players on loan though, and plenty who would leave at the end of the season too so I had another justification for trying to get some recruits.
Transfers
So we needed some fresh blood. As it stood the team probably didn't have enough MC's to effectively cover the formation and any wingers we had wouldn't be close to useful in the formation. So I needed to shift wingers for MC's. I had the money just to buy players but the wingers were eating into the wage budget.
I shifted quite a few on free's or low amounts, and got some loans to cover the wages of some of the higher played wingers I couldn't shift (whilst putting them in the shop window and getting them out of my hair).
At first my head was turned by two strikers. Karlsson and Lifbom, both Scandinavian, both cheap. I'd followed them both since being at Platanias but they had always laughed off my interest. Not so now.
 |
| Lifbom |
 |
| Karlsson |
Lifbom could play in a variety of positions but it would be upfront that he would get used. Promisingly he wasn't on full time training before he joined so I'm expecting a big boost initially to his stats.
Karlsson was in a similar position of becoming full time so I held out hope I could shape his stats into a good poacher. For both of them I had the feeling that I could possibly rotate them into the squad and play from the bench. They already looked better than some of the backup/youth strikers I had and looked like they would be better in the long term than some of the half decent strikers already at the club (who would soon be getting the boot). I needed midfielders though.
I had a look through my not so short short list and found two gems for midfield, N.Irish youngsters Snodden and Kearney.
 |
| Kearney |
 |
| Snodden |
I felt a bit guilty about raiding Linfield but they were good. Good enough to do well immediately, young enough and with promising enough scout reports. They had a good spread of mental stats already and I could see them slotting into the MC-d and MC-support roles I had, either side of an advance playmaker.
It was at this point I had something of an epiphany. Who would be perfect for the AP role in the middle? Magill from Platanias is who.
Also young, also N.Irish. This in turned made me hatch a new plan, a new transfer policy. Looking around the squad I had some good Scottish youth players coming through. Also once I discounted players who would be leaving either in this transfer window or summer the majority of the squad was British or Irish (bar my recent striker signings). Why not build a squad around British and Irish players?
I normally don't like to restrict myself but I wasn't going to completely rid the squad of other nationalities. I could just make sure there was a core of players from the British Isles. This would combat all sorts of issues - homegrown restrictions, language barriers effecting play, homesickness, price tags, scouting costs and transfer efficiency. I threw the last one in their because I spent and had in the past an awful lot of time scouting players and making offers only for them to turn me down. I'd had a much better success rate with 'local' players and could do here. As a result I could focus my limited scouting network on a couple of regions, a handful of competitions and the relevant youth leagues. There's no point sending a scout to find the next Pele if they won't sign for you.
And as I said I didn't have to tie my hands and say no players from abroad. I could just limit myself so that only a few were brought in at a time, so I could better integrate them into the actual team. Maybe this had been my downfall with Platanias? I'd signed quite a few players last season, most of them from outside Greece and they came into a squad with lots of different nationalities.
I also had the romantic, sort of, dream of having Magill play in midfield with Snodden and Kearney both for Hearts and N.Ireland. Magill had his first cap and I would bet that Snodden and Kearney wouldn't be far off. With none of them topping 21 yet they could play together for years and form an amazingly cohesive midfield unit. More players would be added from N.Ireland at the end of the season too and I could always trawl for more talent to give a N.Irish backbone to the club. When I decided on this I also decided to add Wales to the game to so I could then picked from Scotland, N.Ireland, England and Wales. If all goes well next season I'll then add the Irish leagues too and cut back on a league elsewhere - maybe Portugal, Greece or Sweden.
So I went after Magill and comprehensively failed to get him during the transfer window. Although his value only showed up as £100k, and I'd got him for £160k before, they valued him at around £6m. They lowest I could get them to negotiate to was £5m. More than my wage budget, more than I could save up from transfers and more than I wanted to pay for even Magill.
I wasn't going to give up though. I went to the press...I praised him, I said I would do everything I could to buy him. He made positive noises back and I kept making transfer bids. When his agent approached me and then confirmed he would be open to a move I ramped it up a bid and endorsed him. If you've not used this option before in the talk to press module it's awesome. You basically state they should show some ambition and move to a good club, like yours. It pissed the current Platanias manager off no end but Magill agreed he should move and got upset that my transfer offers were being rejected. In my next offer Platanias suddenly dropped to £3m. Still a bit too much for me but with some clauses and instalments I managed to get them to agree to a paltry £1m up front. I had won. Magill would be playing for Hearts next season at the heart of a youthful and improved N.Irish midfield.
I also managed to confirm a few more signings. Only one was to join during the transfer window though (sorry I know I've jumped from closed to open). Still with my 'local' transfer policy I had my scouts look at League 1 and 2 in England. I don't mean to be horribly about Scottish football but if a player was doing really well at that level I was willing to take a punt at them doing pretty well in the SPL too. I managed to get, at the time, League 2 top goal scorer Geoff Harding.
 |
| Harding |
He had 24 goals in 34 games for Plymouth and he looked good. Better than all but maybe one of my first team strikers and all for the reasonably price of £500k. I perhaps overpaid a little considering his could still be a risk but I was confident enough that he'd repay that outlay this very season.
Back to the future transfers (sorry I know it's back and forth)...I knew that in summer I would be losing the two WBR's I had, one of the DL's I play as WBL and would be shifting more useless strikers (even with the two youth players and Harding I wanted a little more). So I looked around a little more and decided that after bullying Linfield and Platanias I would make a start on Hamilton. They have/had a WBR who plays for N.Ireland and is great. Only 25 and easily one of top WBR's in the SPL. He would also fit in with the N.Ireland core. I bullied and I got. He'll be coming to Tynecastle next season.
Hamilton also have a young Scottish DL who I think I can shape into a WBL. Only valued at £55k but they want a lot more. The bullying has commenced. It worked for his team mate it might work for him.
Elsewhere I had an Irish ST coming in, youth again, and a French DR, youth too. Still in line with my transfer policy as I don't mind a few signings from overseas so long as I don't over do it. Off the top of my head if all goes to plan transfer wise only 3 players next season will be from outside of Britain and Ireland. They're young too so maybe in time they'll be tempted by the crown Jewel of any players career - turning out for the Tartan Army ;)
Phew...big post. But I'm excited and lots happened. I'll leave the season update till the next.
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