The Saratoga Spur Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Everybody loves rooting for the little guy! I've loved reading everyone's stories of their careers taking a club from one of Europe's tiniest countries and making them a European powerhouse! I've seen some amazing stories around San Marino, Gibraltar, the Faroes and Luxembourg and decided to go for something similar. I'm a massive fan of @Jupjamies amazing San Marino save and the insane amount of patience that takes... My aim is simple, though stupidly hard, take a team from each of the smallest nations: Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Luxembourg & the Faroe Islands and complete the following steps: Get to and win their top domestic division! Turn Professional! (& hopefully bring some other clubs with me) Win Multiple Domestic Cups! Qualify for the Champs League Group Stages! Only Use Players of that nationality! (Little different from other saves, I have no issue signing other prospects from each country, as long as they're under 20 at the time). Once each nation is established and the national team is up to the top 50 in the world I must move onto the next country! This is going to have to be a passion project because it's going to take AGES! I did a Maltese only save before and got beyond frustrated after 12 years in FM 16. Fingers crossed we can keep it going this time! The plan is to post a pre/post season entry, a youth intake entry and any other major achievements/announcements. SOOOOOO.....where to begin.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 We begin in Malta, the 2nd division to be precise! Where money and facilities are but a dream and each season is a struggle not to lose all your players... I am delighted to announce I will be coaching at... St. George's are a mid-table team with a 7th place prediction for the season. That's the positive. The struggles are: No money ($241.00 in the bank, yay!), No Staff and no Facilities! All to be expected but a building job to come to be sure! Here's where the club stands when I come in on day one! Year Club Nation Division Position Club Status Capacity Youth Facilities Training Facilities Youth Recruitment Junior Coaching Club Rep. Club Ranking League Rep Finances TV Money Transfer Income Record Transfer Avg. Att. Highest Att. Continental Comp. Nat. Team Rank 6/2016 (Start) St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division N/A Semi-Pro 800 all-seater Basic Poor Basic Basic 0.5 * N/A 300th $214.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 174th Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 Style of Play I like to think of myself as a soccer purist in terms of wanting to play a high tempo possession game with wingers - I'm sure these amatuer Maltese players will have no issue with that.. We set up as below with the aim of pressing our opponents into mistakes and then keeping the ball with quick shorter passes. I'll be aiming to get all my teams to use the width of the full-backs too and look to work it wide for lots of crosses! I'm going to have to build in a big pre-season to help them adapt to the style but fortunately since the Maltese leagues only seem to run from mid-September until late April I should have plenty of time for games in there! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 So I hired myself an assistant coach and now we're off to work. First thing was to check out what we have as a squad. The answer is plenty numbers, limited talent. No pure striker and one of my best 3 players out for 9 months The Squad: Our best 3 players: Borg will play in the AM role for us, at least until I can find a younger option. He should be more than capable to run that role at this level tho Wisdom is pretty quick and can dribble. I'll take it! Bonello would be great for this season, though with his injury we won't see him for 7-9 months.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 FIRST EVER SIGNING! St George's are delighted to announce their first signing under new head coach Andrew McRobbie! 16 year old left back Gary Camilleri joins on a free from Balzan. Aiming to be a long term left-back at the club Gary is expected to slot straight into the team for the upcoming pre-season game against Kercem. Solid physical stats, decent leadership and tackling. Hardly screams wing-back tho... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Good luck! I'll be following Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 NEW CONTRACT SIGNED! Andrew McRobbie is delighted to sign a brand new 2-year extension to his contract with St George's. While taking a small pay-cut McRobbie said he was willing to buy into the long-term project of the club and development of the young players coming through! The board have asked me to get promoted this season and at present we're in mid-table. Each game can be hit or miss especially with the squads being pretty random at this level. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 YOUTH INTAKE DAY! 2016/17 I would assume the potentials mean just about nothing but.... in comparison to what we're got at the club just now this is a great intake! Here's the current pick of the bunch: We'll sign them all up on youth contracts and see what happens! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 Whoop! The first of many (hopefully) improvements to the club! Promotion is no longer possible so this combined with the new 2 year contract should help set us up long term. I've also got a top HoYD for the club! Same structure as me! Fantastic youngster stats, low coaching badges and amazing personality! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 SEASON 2016/17 Review Overall a disappointing first season at the club. The board wanted promotion despite the club being expected to finish 8th and the squad struggled in stretches. Positives: Good youth income, good staff set for next year, upgraded junior coaching and got a new 2 year contract! Lots of time to turn this round! Negatives: Minimal cup run (though we did lose to Premier league opposition), conceded way too many goals & missed out on play-offs. Overall Grade: C- The biggest positive however came in our U21 team! Surely this is a great sign for the future! I scouted the Valetta youth team and 3/4 of it would start for our first team! Our HoYD is doing a great job! Club Status Year Club Nation Division Position Cup Club Status Capacity Season Tickets Youth Facilities Training Facilities Youth Recruitment Junior Coaching Club Rep. Club Ranking League Rep Finances Prize Money TV Money Transfer Income Record Transfer Avg. Att. Highest Att. Continental Comp. Nat. Team Rank 6/2016 (Start) St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division N/A N/A Semi-Pro 801 all-seater N/A Basic Poor Basic Basic 0.5 * N/A 300th $214 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 174th 6/2017 St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division 9th Lost 5-1 in 3rd Round @ Mosta Semi-Pro 801 all-seater 35 Basic Poor Basic Adequate 0.5 * N/A 300th ($12,796) N/A $12,278 N/A N/A 118 300 N/A 169th Finally my profile after one season see's a little improvement: No coaching badges yet due to finances, a cup run next year will let me hopefully upgrade to National C license! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 Season 17/18 Preview So we head into our second season and it turns out the board have SERIOUSLY dropped their expectations... They may well have good reason though.... The squad will need some serious work before the season starts. There's also this slightly frustrating aspect to the Maltese league: Nice biggggg gap before the season starts. Time to arrange a fair few pre-season scrimmages! TARGETS: League - I want to challenge for a play-off spot this season. I know it seems a long shot but if we can use our youth team and recruitment well we could have a chance. Cup - 3rd or 4th round would be ideal! A big away tie vs Valetta would be a financial help! Roster - We need numbers quick! Width is desperately missing from this team at the moment. Excited by the quick development of Farrugia tho, be a miracle if we can keep him for a season!: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 Season Update: So we were suppose to attempt to avoid relegation but we've pushed on big time and this is the current state of play in the 2nd division: We're in with a good shout and with these upcoming fixtures we should really be aiming for that play-off spot or 2nd place! In the cup as well we gave it a really good go. We lost 2-1 to Mosta from the Premier League after leading 1-0, though they'd beaten us 6-1 the season before in the cup so very happy with the improvement! We also managed to get through the transfer window only losing 1 squad player, we had numerous bids for the spine of our team but they all fortunately said no. Next Update - 17/18 Youth Intake! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 Youth Intake 2017/18 Another great intake of players at the club in terms of potential though obviously that's still a lot to do with our current level rather than their actual ability. Our best 2 players are: Another decent center midfielder, our current 4-1-2-2-1 relies on the numbers and depth so he'll help. Our best pick for the intake is a left back. He's a better wing-back than what we've got though his pace and acceleration need work. 5 games left this season! Fingers crossed we can push through and get promoted! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 Season 2017/18 Review A massive improvement second time around resulting in..... The team were promoted at the second time of asking! We cruised the play-off and never looked like losing! Season Grades League: 3rd Place, Promoted via Play-Offs (A-) We were asked to avoid relegation and somehow turned it into a promotion! The play-offs are never ideal but we got the job done! It'll be a big step up next year but I've got a good young core to the team of 100% Maltese players and if I can keep them together we should do well enough to stay up. Cup: 4th Round, Lost 2-1 to Monsa (B+) We knocked out 2 higher level teams and then only narrowly lost to another Premier league level team. Targeting one round further this coming year as we continue our development. Club Overview Year Club Nation Division Position Cup Club Status Capacity Season Tickets Youth Facilities Training Facilities Youth Recruitment Junior Coaching Club Rep. Club Ranking League Rep Finances Prize Money TV Money Transfer Income Record Transfer Avg. Att. Highest Att. Continental Comp. Nat. Team Rank 6/2016 (Start) St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division N/A N/A Semi-Pro 801 all-seater N/A Basic Poor Basic Basic 0.5 * N/A 300th $214.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 174th 6/2017 St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division 9th Lost 5-1 in 3rd Round @ Mosta Semi-Pro 801 all-seater 35 Basic Poor Basic Adequate 0.5 * N/A 300th -$12,796 N/A $12,278 N/A N/A 118 300 N/A 169th 6/2018 St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division 3rd Lost 2-1 in 4th round @ Mosta Semi-Pro 801 all-seater 34 Basic Poor Basic Adequate 0.5 * N/A 300th -$12,726 $1.5k $12,920 N/A N/A 135 324 N/A 144th My Development Still no coaching badges due to budget but another improvement this year.Seemingly becoming a technical coach which will be helpful hopefully for our youngsters development! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 Season 18/19 Preview Aims: League - The club want mid-table and I'd take that. The aim really is to avoid relegation and anything beyond that would be a bonus! Cup - They want 3rd round, I want 5th round. We've improved year on year here and with a slightly nicer draw I don't see why we can't get that far. Current Roster The team's in better balance than the season before. We're very solid in goal! Our first choice keeper from last year is now 3rd choice. Center Mid is over-blessed with talent too. Ideally we can add wingers and maybe one more young center-back to finish us off. Well that and not losing all our players since they're all on non-contracts.... Best Player: Our young CAM will be a difference maker this season! Hopefully he can chip in with both goals and assists! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 Youth Intake Day! 2018/19 My first 'disappointing' youth intake, 2 strong potential players but nobody who could come into our first team. Those 2 are: Will train him into a left winger and see if he can be of use. A new center back. We've got a decent amount of cover now in that position and if he doesn't work out then it's no big deal. A little update on our season so far: The league is going INSANELY well! We're flying and have won 6 of our last 7 games with only a couple of our remaining 6 games against higher level opposition. If we can win 4 of 6 I think we'll get promotion! We also just knocked Valetta out in extra time of the 4th round, we had 2 shots and scored both of them! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 18, 2017 Author Share Posted July 18, 2017 St. George's Promoted! We're on our way to the Premier League! With 4 games to go we've secured a top 2 spot and will play in the top division next year! We really shouldn't have been anywhere near the top of the table and fingers crossed we can finish the season winning the league before we head up next season! I also made a request to upgrade our youth training but no luck due to lack of finances... Onwards and upwards go St. George's! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 Contract Renewed! After consecutive promotions St. George's have signed head Coach Andrew McRobbie to a 2-year extension! The club will be hoping they can consolidate in the Premier League next season and with 4 league games and a cup 1/4 final coming up before the Summer break there may yet be more good news this season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 Season 18/19 Review What an awesome season for the club! League winners and cup quarter finalists! We managed to get goals from all directions Season Grades Maltese First Division - Champions! - Well we went above and beyond the expectations this season! We were targeting mid-table but went on 2 excellent runs and managed to win the league with 2 games to go! - GRADE: A+++! Maltese Cup - 1/4 Finals - We set the target of getting past the 4th round and did just that losing in the 1/4 finals. I'm more proud that we also managed to eliminate 2 Premier League teams in the process too, including Premier League Champs Valetta in the 4th round! - GRADE: B+ Club Improvements With our promotion I was able to make a request to improve our junior coaching as well which was accepted! We followed this up with a new sponsor worth double what we had before. It'll last 2 years and hopefully by then we can look to grow again. Club Status Year Club Nation Division Position Cup Club Status Capacity Season Tickets Youth Facilities Training Facilities Youth Recruitment Junior Coaching Club Rep. Club Ranking League Rep Finances Prize Money TV Money Transfer Income Record Transfer Avg. Att. Highest Att. Continental Comp. Nat. Team Rank 6/2016 (Start) St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division N/A N/A Semi-Pro 801 all-seater N/A Basic Poor Basic Basic 0.5 * N/A 300th $214.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 174th 6/2017 St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division 9th Lost 5-1 in 3rd Round @ Mosta Semi-Pro 801 all-seater 35 Basic Poor Basic Adequate 0.5 * N/A 300th -$12,796 N/A $12,278 N/A N/A 118 300 N/A 169th 6/2018 St George's Malta Maltese 2nd Division 3rd Lost 2-1 in 4th round @ Mosta Semi-Pro 801 all-seater 34 Basic Poor Basic Adequate 0.5 * N/A 300th -$12,726 $1.5k $12,920 N/A N/A 135 324 N/A 144th 6/2019 St George's Malta Maltese 1st Division 1st! Lost 3-0 1/4 Final vs Balzan Semi-Pro 801 all-seater 34 Basic Poor Basic Average 0.5 * N/A 235th $18,250 $12,750 $34,250 N/A N/A 136 257 N/A 159th Personal Development Still no new certifications but a little improvement in my stats. I think we have the finances now to justify my national C license! Exciting times! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 Time for my National C license! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 Our reputation's on the rise! Still only half a star but we can make a strong showing in the cups and league and we can aim for 1 star within a couple seasons Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Saratoga Spur Posted July 19, 2017 Author Share Posted July 19, 2017 Season 2019/20 Preview! Aims: Maltese Premier League - Simple. Avoid Relegation and go from there. We've got the smallest budget by far and will have to work just to survive! Maltese Cup - I aimed for the quarter finals with the board but in keeping with our year-on-year improvement we want to reach the semi-finals! Hopefully we get a kinder draw in the early rounds too in order to keep progressing. Current Roster: Another improvement on the balance front and an even younger team than last year, hopefully with the higher level of play and better player retention it can start to get a little older and more experienced helping to settle the team across the next 2 or 3 years. Best Player - David Grech (Signed for Free from Marsa) He's been the heartbeat of our midfield and on a part-time contract can't be stolen away like a number of our non-contract players! His stats last season weren't spectacular however I swear all 4 of his goals were 35-yard 88th minute winners vs top of the table teams! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 I think you'll be fine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Encatuse Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Nice progress. Looking forward to see your results in the premier league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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