[FM 18][Closed] Chip chip chip away in Lithuania

[rodesire]

20 hours ago, BoxToBox said:

Urbys looks pretty handy, but starting a bit older than the rest, maybe they'll be equal when they're at his age.

Yeah, agree.  My current back-up GK has been awful, so I may give Urbys cup games to bring him up to speed.  The rest of the intake is awful though  

[noikeee]

Woah, really making progress here now, this club is now a force in Europe! Keep pushing.

[rodesire]

1 hour ago, noikeee said:

Woah, really making progress here now, this club is now a force in Europe! Keep pushing.

Thanks buddy, taking a bit of a break from the game though.

It's interesting you find us making progress, I must be watching the team too much as the progress seems glacial  

[rodesire]

February 2032

Guess, who's back!  I am finishing my move at last, so there's time for the best procrastination method of all times.

Anyway, February is the last month of the winter break in Lithuania, however, Europa league ties begin before the league restarts.  This can only mean more meaningless friendlies.  We did well there, even managed to steal a win at home against Sevilla but got destroyed away  6 more points in the league to keep the momentum going.

This really is becoming a tight league.  We're just behind Stumbras who keep on motoring and are very much in line for a domestic double.  Their strikers are awesome and the loanees seem to have blended perfectly to create a devastating recipe.

[Sheriff7]

Welcome back mate.Yeah Stumbras looks very strong  (they won IRL too in their EL game) good try against Sevilla..

[Timetxu]

Where the heck do Stumbras come from all of a sudden?

[rodesire]

Shout out to Suduva for beating APOEL on aggregate in Champions League, a classic FM performance there

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2019/matches/round=2000976/match=2024611/index.html?iv=true

[Sheriff7]

44 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Shout out to Suduva for beating APOEL on aggregate in Champions League, a classic FM performance there

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2019/matches/round=2000976/match=2024611/index.html?iv=true

I saw it mate.Apoel played very good and add huge press on them (especially in second half) but somehow they hold 1-0.First 20 minutes in Lithuania gave Suduva this huge quilification..

[noikeee]

On 14/07/2018 at 13:38, rodesire said:

Guess, who's back!  I am finishing my move at last, so there's time for the best procrastination method of all times.

Hey, get your priorities in life sorted, FM first, house moves second. 

Beating Sevilla even if just in one match is a huge result, nice.

[rodesire]

On 16/07/2018 at 08:39, Timetxu said:

Where the heck do Stumbras come from all of a sudden?

Well, they've been a top division side since the beginning of the save. The team has done alright, almost always in the mix for Europa League places and they won a couple cups.  Their chairman is Brazilian, which means they have a slightly advantageous position when it comes to scouting South America.  Let's have a look at their squad

Loanies, loanies everywhere!

Most of these kids come from South American giants and those kids are quite good for this division.  Stumbras also have a couple decent local players and together it's quite a squad.

 

So, overall, I think they'll finish in european places and if they can get good loans for next season, they could start becoming a problem sooner rather than later.

[rodesire]

17 hours ago, noikeee said:

Hey, get your priorities in life sorted, FM first, house moves second. 

Beating Sevilla even if just in one match is a huge result, nice.

Thanks, noikeee.  The whole two-legged affair was a lot closer than I expected.  We should have won by more at home and we held okay away until it went to 1-3 and I switched to overload hoping for the decisive away goal.

 

March 2032

First things first, the impossibly complicated Euro 2032 playoffs for the Nations League.  Lithuania somehow qualified for them despite finishing second or third in their Nations League division C. Anyway, they had Croatia in the semi-final and the result was fairly obvious.

A much closer game and suddenly Lithuania is just a match away from going to back-to-back Euros!  Swiss were the last obstacle..

Of course, Lithuania did a Tottenham and bottled it in the last 5 minutes of the game    On the bright side, one of my kids has been capped and to be fair, he's pretty good!

He's developed really well recently and I can only hope the rest of the youngsters will get inspired a little bit.  They won their fifth youth league in a row, once again invincible season so far.

Back with the seniors we were facing all the tough teams in the leagues and we kinda swatted most of them away.  Except for that Atlantas game, that was close.

We went down 0-3 in the first half and were 1-4 down after an hour away in Klaipeda.  Something clicked then and we proceeded to steal the victory with a few late goals.

Anyway, all this winning means we're top of the league by quite a margin.  Stumbras were a few seconds away from defeating Zalgiris in their last match and cementing that second place.  And I am so glad Atlantas are in European contention, this is truly great.

[Sheriff7]

Still they didn't offer you national team job?! 

[rodesire]

Just now, Sheriff7 said:

Still they didn't offer you national team job?! 

nah, current manager (formerly of Zalgiris) has led them to first ever Euros and hasn't been relegated from Nations League once, so I don't see an opening at the moment  

[rodesire]

April 2032

So, probably the biggest news of the month was our U21 team losing first domestic game since 2029 in the youth cup  Bit annoyed about that as it was a really winnable competition.

In other news, the stadium expansion is complete, up to 1400 seats from 900 (737 during expansion).  Still not enough to host European games of any sorts but a step in the right direction.  I am flummoxed what to think of the expansion capacity.  It is good that we can expand to 5k seats but I am also worried that could mean the next stadium would not be named after me  

Anyway, domestically our form has dropped a bit, I think the players are holidaying in the minds a bit.  We're not as sharp and even lost to outsiders at home :/

Overall, we're still atop the league and with a goal advantage in the cup before second leg at home, so set for a first ever domestic clean sweep.

[Sheriff7]

Good work mate,anothe league title is yours.

[rodesire]

45 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said:

Good work mate,anothe league title is yours.

Yes, sir, yes

May-ish 2032

The continental competitions are done for the season in Europe, Everton won the Thursday Cup with Bayern taking the big ears back home.  We did okay too, grabbing the overperformer tag in both.

Some of you may notice that Bayern's striker has 21 goals to his name in CL.  Here's the beast, definitely the best striker and probably the greatest player in this save so far

Back in scrubland, our team got the title home without too much fuss and then bottled it in the cup against Zalgiris 

This means we've finished the season only with a Super Cup and League titles.

[rodesire]

Sorry for the irregular updates, guys.

I have been on holiday recently and not playing a whole lot.

A couple of updates are ready to go, just need to find time to get them out nicely.  This save is not finished yet. 

[rodesire]

End of season 2031/32 awards

It's been a rather successful season for us having captured A Lyga and Super Cup whilst the FA Cup slipped away in the final.  I, myself, won the manager of the year again (surprisingly, Stumbras manager didn't even make the shortlist).  Vasiliauskas was the player of the season in the league, Paulauskas got the U21 equivalent whilst Krapikas, an elderly Watford goalie stopped my guys from winning Lithuanian player of the year.

At the club level, Vasiliauskas swept the awards for both fans' and young player of the season.  There the biggest surprise was Panka not getting into top3 despite leading the team in both goals and assists.  Yet, the fans love the old boys that much more.

Best elevens are getting stronger yet again.  There were some really strong performances and I hope the team can grow further with better facilities and coaches next season.

[Sheriff7]

I'm impressed from your motivation mate.After fm19 release date anouncement i can't even look fm18...

[rodesire]

15 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said:

I'm impressed from your motivation mate.After fm19 release date anouncement i can't even look fm18...

yeah, it's a bit of a struggle to pick it up after a month away.  But it's my longest save ever and I do want to see it bear some fruit

[rodesire]

End of season 2031/32

Just a quick reminder, we've completed 14 seasons now and last season Kretingos Grudai won the top division and the Super Cup whilst reaching the FA Cup final.

We have also reached the knockout rounds in the Europa League having navigated a slightly tricky group stage in the Thursday Cup.  All in all a reasonable journey and once again a tonne of supporters went 120 miles to Kaunas to watch us play in the continental competitions.

As you can see, our coefficient has skyrocketed yet again and we are dragging the league up together.  Still only 4 spots in total but that second CL spot is getting closer and closer.

[rodesire]

Pre-season 2032/33

So the pre-season started with the stadium expansion/purchase.  The board promised both but the purchase was scrapped and then reinstalled for the following off-season.  The expansion is huge though, more than doubling our cosy home to 2.9k

All the Euro cash also means we're getting yet another facilities upgrade, they should operational around new year.  Surprisingly, we are still not the top facilities team in the country, that's our beloved Zalgiris.  One thing we are best at is youth coaching.  It is now maxed out as is youth recruitment.

Our money situation is way too good as we keep getting hit by tax bills and paying directors for existing. The league TV money has increased yet again but it's nowhere near European equivalent, so the teams should not be splurging just yet. We're getting more plastics too, with better sale shirts and our first million-pound sponsorship deal.

The board helpfully do not have high expectations yet again, so we should comfortably cruise to European places in the league and hopefully, retain the title for the fourth season in a row.

Randomly, Bobby Manc is now the best manager of all times, so here's his impressive bio. 3 Champions leagues and a lot of domestic trophies all across Europe.

[rodesire]

June 2032 (Pre-season)

it's been a really odd pre-season.  I am starting to get to a point where 70% of my squad is 1.5 or 2* rated with no further potential, which makes culling the team that much harder.  With no resigning of former players I am definitely starting to overthink who to grant the contracts to.

Anyway,  the pre-season has started in a familiar fashion, beating a couple of Europa League bound sides.

That's when the unexpected happened.  PSG want a friendly with us.  In bloody Kretinga.  Of course, I accepted that, but it defo feels improper.

All in all, not much has happened yet, we're about to meet a lowly side in the first round of UCL qualifying, so we should breeze through that.

[rodesire]

JULY 2032

I was browsing the teams around the league looking for any sort of improvement in bot teams.  There was only one team, Zalgiris.  Not only they are well on the way to max out their training facilities but they're also building a new massive stadium 20 years after rebuilding their current one.

In terms of fixtures we got walloped by PSG in a friendly, the other non-competitive matches also didn't go particularly well for our second squad.  Meanwhile, first 11 got through a couple rounds of Champions league qualifiers and, yes, I did go easy on Balzan  @Sheriff7 

We'll now be facing Croatian champions (Zrinjski!!!) in the next round of UCL and Zalgiris in the Super Cup to start the domestic season.

[rodesire]

PSA

I was getting a bit bored with the game with us leading the pack, Zalgiris really close in second when they should really be top of the league and the rest of the league far behind.  So, I decided to start investing in local clubs.  I have picked 5 local clubs in top2 divisions, then signed and fired a crap player from each of these teams.  Top division teams got half a mil, second division squads received 250k each,

Here's a proof of what I did and the evidence that none of them even played for me.

I really hope this money will help local teams grow organically and slowly challenge at least for Europe in 5 years time.

[Sheriff7]

Yeah they aren't in good form since I left them.. 

[rodesire]

On 03/09/2018 at 22:34, Sheriff7 said:

Yeah they aren't in good form since I left them.. 

Well, they have done okay, considering CPU is in charge.  2020s were harsh on them as they only went to Europe 4 times that decade but it's been more of a recovery recently and they even had 8 qualifying matches this season.  With a bit of luck they may qualify for the group stages soon enough.

 

August 2032

As we continue to rack up the titles, the board expectations are starting to go up, especially in the Cup.  Anything less than a final is not good enough, I wonder what's on Zalgiris' plate.  Winning everything domestically?  Media seems to agree that we should challenge for the title and there are sub-divisions within the league.

The other big change is a recent increase in our fanbase.  I am not sure whether it's our rep or stadium expansions but more and more people tend to come to our games and get season tickets.

In terms of fixtures, we had a mixed month.  Almost lost the league opener before stealing an undeserved win in injury time whilst in the CL qualifiers I won too much, despite my best attempts, so we're going to the UCL group stages!

We're still only among 4th seeds, so our group was a bit horrific...  I would have taken group B or F in a heartbeat, but at least I'll get some decent facility money again.  The media is obvs correct in predicting we'll be getting smashed every week too.  Surprised to see Bayern as such strong favourite to win it all.

And this leaves us still in all the competitions we have entered this year, albeit we're not starting the cup for another month or two.

[rodesire]

September 2032

It's been a fairly steady month for us.  A couple unavoidable defeats in the UCL with their every starter earning more in a week than my entire squad in a month.  Domestically, a couple solid wins but then Zalgiris caught a lucky break after our UCL trip and stole an undeserved point.

Our youth system is now a leading one in Lithuania and here's the latest proof, us providing as many national senior and junior team players as the next four teams combined.

Overall, we're already leading the league with a 6 point gap to Zalgiris. Local teams are bottom at the moment but hopefully, they turn it around before too long.  We're almost down and out of UCL already and Trakai will entertain us in the first Cup tie next month.

[rodesire]

October 2032

Yet again, it is a case of beating everyone domestically and getting thrashed in Europe.  There isn't much more to say except Suduva looks like a real deal this year and will probably get a European place if their key players remain.  Zalgiris have just renewed contracts for their biggest players, paying 3-6k pw each, so if Zalgiris were to fail to get through a couple qualifying rounds, they may well be in trouble in 2034.

Overall, we're topping the league, just.   Zalgiris is still lagging behind, the gap is six points and we have a game in hand.  We're out of Europe before Christmas since the other teams all beat us and shared points between each other.  In the cup we'll be facing a fourth division team, so that will be fun for our younger kids.

[rodesire]

I have seen the future, I don't like it.

That's my main keeper out for the season.  Got injured in winter break training session, FML

[rodesire]

Looks like there are more expansions going on in Lithuania.  Not a massive one but bringing 1k stadium to 2k is pretty significant in top division.

Meanwhile I have reached 600 games in management.  I had a brief fling with national U21 team but really couldn't be bothered, so I resigned after a couple days T_T

[rodesire]

It's November 2032, just weeks until the transfer window reopens and a bunch of clubs were interested in me this time round.

I foolishly declared interest in the Lille job and almost got fired from being untouchable 

Having thought a bit, I asked for a contract extension to show my loyalty, yada yada but that was rejected too.  I reckon the board is having a case of major beef against me now  

[rodesire]

November 2032

It has not been a happy month for us.  Both senior and junior squads got dumped out of the Champions league before the final group matches and it wasn't close.  At least kids showed some spirit and kept goal difference to single digits for the campaign.  The seniors were less fortunate, no points so far and lots of thrashings along the way.

Even domestically we didn't do great, dropping silly points against Trakai and then barely escaping against 10-men Zalgiris.  Looks the kids are still growing and unable to stay consistent whole season yet.

Still, we got through to the quarterfinals of the cup and Zalgiris has lost to Suduva in the fourth round. We're also 6 points clear of the nearest team in the league, so that's reassuring. Out of Europe.

[rodesire]

December 2032

This month started ominously as our kids lost very early in the cup.  In fact the last time they did not reach semifinals was 6 years ago.

We did marginally better in the senior side.  Dropping points to rock bottom Tauras but then scoring a couple past PSG and going on to spank the rest of the league.

Domestically, it looks like normality has been restored with Zalgiris second just ahead of Stumbras and Suduva.  We're 9 points clear, so I might sell/loan out everyone without potential and start a rebuild.  We should still win the league this season but we'll need a lot more firepower to stay ahead.

[rodesire]

January 2033

This year kicked off with our training facilities being upgraded.  I asked for more and got promises for both senior and junior facilities too.

This brings our training facilities to average/good (second best in Lithuania behind Zalgiris). I have been asking the board to max out our youth recruitment but every time they deny it, saying we don't need it

January 1 is also the Ballon d'Or day.  This year top3 were all strikers for Bayern Munich, that's right, a single club with 3 out-of-this world strikers on the books in peak form.

Nothing else happened the whole month except for the last week when Bournemouth decided to test my resolve keeping Panka, my star striker.  Their 3 lousy bids were rejected, so now I have a sad superstar.

 

[rodesire]

February 2033

This month was even more quiet, nothing much happened, we ended up loaning out a bunch of mediocre kids and restarting the league games.

9 points out of 9 and having beaten our nearest foes we have really stretched the lead atop of the table.  It's up to 14 points with just 16 games to go.  I reckon, I'll focus mostly on Cup now to bring home sweet domestic treble.  Interestingly, neither Atlantas nor Tauras are doing very well having received half a mil from me last summer.

[rodesire]

Youth intake 2033

Back to a golden generation this year, though it is the leanest one in recent memory.

I quite like Paukste, he's got great finishing and reasonable physicals for a 15yo.  He should take the third/fourth striker spot late this or early next season.

Jasaitis has a nice personality and decent physicals for Lithuanian league.  He needs a lot of work on the technical side but hopefully we can teach him a few tricks.

Last but not least, I got a son!  I have been waiting for a while now and finally I have someone to take care of at the club.  He's decent too, so he's bound to play a bunch of games for us.

[noikeee]

13 hours ago, rodesire said:

I quite like Paukste, he's got great finishing and reasonable physicals for a 15yo.  He should take the third/fourth striker spot late this or early next season.

And "professional", that makes all the difference, he'll go a long way!

[rodesire]

4 hours ago, noikeee said:

And "professional", that makes all the difference, he'll go a long way!

Thanks @noikeee!  Indeed, this year's intake has some very good personalities.  Do you tutor your U21s extensively and set their training manually by any chance?

 I might in fact release my awful tutors who have been sitting on amateur contracts tutoring kids for half a decade without getting any game-time.

[ToMexico!!]

Congrats on getting a son, that's something that has never happened in any FM save for me. Despite having gone deep into 2030's in a fair few saves over the years even into the 2040's a few times. 

I hope the plan is to play him no matter what. 

[rodesire]

13 minutes ago, ToMexico!! said:

Congrats on getting a son, that's something that has never happened in any FM save for me. Despite having gone deep into 2030's in a fair few saves over the years even into the 2040's a few times. 

I hope the plan is to play him no matter what. 

Thanks buddy, he got a good personality and has potential, so should crack 300-400 appearances if he stays injury free for me  

obviously finishing the champions/europa league final if we ever to get there  

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, rodesire said:

Thanks @noikeee!  Indeed, this year's intake has some very good personalities.  Do you tutor your U21s extensively and set their training manually by any chance?

 I might in fact release my awful tutors who have been sitting on amateur contracts tutoring kids for half a decade without getting any game-time.

I try to tutor whenever I can to improve their personalities, but tbh I rarely have good tutors (good personalities over the age of 23) so end up not doing it that often. I absolutely train them manually from day 1 though.

[rodesire]

thanks for the tip @noikeee  I will switch to manual control of everyone's training.

March 2033

Just got a massive **** you from the game in the form of my son rupturing his achiles two weeks into his pro career.  He's out until August at least, but hopefully will come back as a back-up for next season's less important games.

Other than that we had a bit of a tough start to the month taking a while to get our groove back after the winter break but we only dropped two points all month

This means we're miles away from anyone in the league and should really wrap up the title mid-April if everything goes well. Winning the cup is probably the highest remaining priority now. Our likely path is Stumbras -> Atlantas -> Suduva, so it should be reasonably tough.

[rodesire]

April 2033

It's been a very mixed month.  The good things were the stadium expansion (doubling in size to 2.8k) and a new contract my board gave to me to appreciate this team's greatness.  The contract is basically the same but gives me an extra year, whilst the stadium also looks the same, maybe with a couple more rows in every section.  Still, only single tier sections so far.  Maybe, Zalgiris' new stadium next year will become first Lithuanian stadium to feature multi-tier seating.

The bad.  We had 2 first choice keepers get injured, so having sold my second choice in winter I was stuck with my fourth choice GK for all of the month including 70 minutes with the rightback in the opening game.

The ugly.  The team is barely winning and the start of the month was poor yet again.  We crashed out of cup on pens and then kept getting out of jail thanks for refs.  We also missed 7 penalties this month  

Overall, the fun season is over.  We have won our fourth title on the trot, fitfh in six years.  We can't win the cup, so there isn't really much to play for in the remaining fixtures.

[rodesire]

May 2033

We finished the season very comfortably, swatting aside every single team in top6 without too much effort.

This obviously put quite a gloss on the final standings but I am still proud how far we managed to run away from the chasing pack. Hopefully, the rest of the league can pick it up a bit next year.

As you can see Atlantas managed to win the FA Cup this year, so they're going to Europe in place of hapless Suduva. Also note Stumbras, who finished third despite conceding most goals in the league.

This unfortunate turn of events with Suduva losing out on the final matchday and then losing the final of the Cup meant their manager is gone.  I am curious to see how the new guy does, though he does have two lower league wins to his name so far.

[rodesire]

End of season 2032/3

The season is over, we have lifted the Super Cup and the League, while progressing to QF in the FA Cup and finishing dead last in CL group.  A lot of players got minutes due to injury this year but there were a few standout performers.

Our dependable left winger Vasiliauskas has continued delivering excellence from the left wing.  He topped team goalscoring charts in the Champions league and finished the season with 9 goals and 7 assists despite being injured for a couple months.

Panka is a very special player for me.  He's probably our first legitimately good player who seems to be fulfilling his potential.  He's probably the best player based in Lithuania right now and his goalscoring rate proves that. 25 goals and 15 assists from 28 starts is a pretty special return.

Butkus is a curious midfielder.  Usually, the top midfielder is said to Paukste, but Butkus has cemented AP spot as his own.  He's got great basic technicals and despite only scoring once and assisting 6 times he has really been controlling the games.

I'd mentioned before that we had a bit of a goalkeeping crisis since Butkus broke his leg just before Christmas.  Urbys came through with flying colours and claimed the number 1 jersey as his own.  Even if he's back to a reserve keeper role with Butkus recovering, his potential is splendid and I feel safe with him in goal already.

We have also had a fantastic award season with Panka winning Player of the Year, U21 Player of the Year and Nation's player of the year. I got a manager of the season title which is always nice.

Inhouse awards were dominated by Panka too!  This guy really is on fire and I can only hope I can keep him for a couple more years.

[rodesire]

Holidays June 2033

I have now been at the club for 15 seasons. The club rose through the ranks and have established ourselves as the second best club in Lithuania behind Zalgiris. We now have almost 50 million euros in the bank, whilst upgrading the facilities all around.  All the coaching areas have at least 3.5* coaches with half at 4* or better.  Now I just need to trim down my squad from 60-odd players to 40-45 that get plenty of attention and game time to develop into stars that bring us to the next level.

The Lithuanian football community has experienced terrific growth too.  The national team qualified for Euros in 2028 and U21 team has been to Euros in 2023 and 2031.  The leagues are now more prestigious too jumping from ~70th place to 32nd this season just between Spanish Segunda and League One in terms of rep.

In terms of facilities, we're getting youth and training facilities upgraded and yet another 700 seat expansion for the stadium that will be ready in September. Zalgiris will be moving into their brand new 11425 capacity stadium next summer whilst Trakai keep expanding their new stadium too, up to 2.1k seats now.

As a pet project to make local teams better I have once again spent some money on local teams in top division - Dziugas, Atlantas and newly promoted Koralas.  Dziugas and Atlantas each received 500k whilst Koralas were awarded 1.5mil to try and build a team that can survive the drop.

 

[rodesire]

July 2033

The club board is finally catching up to my success and the expectations have been raised once more! We have to win everything domestically now just to match them  

In the meantime, a short pre-season is a good opportunity to visit our feeder clubs and build some fitness.  We did just that and also passed the first barrier in the Champions League via a trip to Finnish champions HJK.  Both legs were slightly tougher than I expected but it may have something to do with me selling my backups for peanuts.

Anyway, the league is still yet to start, we'll be entertaining Atlantas in the Super Cup and meeting Levski in third Q round of the Champions League.  I fancy our chances to get through to playoff at least.

[rodesire]

August 2033

National media is finally recognising us as a big team as Panka has become the most reputable player based in Lithuania.  That makes it even more surprising that we're not predicted to finish top of the table.

Anyway, the Super Cup went well as our second string defeated Atlantas 3-0 at the LFF stadium.  Never in doubt as Cup winners were quite toothless in the end.

We only played a single league game, just about winning against Trakai and went all the way to UCL playoffs just to fall short on away goals.  Into Europa League we go.. as second seeds!

All in all, a fantastic group with only Wolfsburg representing the top 5 leagues. Heerenveen is going to be tough but beatable and we should really be taking full points off PAOK if we're to progress.

[rodesire]

September 2033 | Kretingos Grudai

Our stadium expansion is already complete, so a slightly newer shinier stadium is ready for even more rivalries with Zalgiris and others..

This month went really well.  We have not conceded in any competitive matches and should have won every single one of them, the Dutch oldies were lucky to escape with a draw.

The refs almost cost us Atlantas game, so I made sure my voice was heard and got a one-week fine in process.  Not that I am too bothered by it.

All the league tables look fantastic at the moment.  We're top domestically with a decent buffer already.  Second in Europa League with a double header against Wolfsburg to come.

 

New stadium alert

Once the old stadium has finished its most recent refurbishment I decided to ask the board for a new stadium and kept pressing until they actually agreed.  Shoutout to @Sheriff7 for inspiring this thread back in the day.

Looks like we'll be getting a 7k seater that should be ready for the 2037/8 season.  If the expansion capacity is anywhere around 10k that should be enough to start playing all the European matches at home at long long last.