DrChristopher Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 September 2023 8 games played. 6 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss. Unfortunately that loss is against Linfield in the league. Which plants us in 2nd on 18 points, 4 points behind Linfield in 1st. That does mean however that we draw to Besiktas at home 2-2. 230k gate receipts this month was a nice sight to see. 19 games played across all competitions. No one has played more than 14 games. So the side is very pleased with our rotation. None have complained about playing time despite having a 33 man senior squad. Our top 3 players in this run up so far are... Alex Robinson our 3rd/4th best attacking midfielder contributing 3 goals and 1 assist in 7 appearances with 7.37 avg rating. Charlie Owens our backup right midfielder who has 6 goals and 2 assists in 11 appearances with 7.35 avg rating. Steve Leonard our starting right midfielder who has had some little injuries these last two months. He has put in 2 goals in 7 appearances and averaged 7.33 rating. Great news! The board have agreed to increase the training facilities. However the price tag is 2.3 million. There goes all our hard earned money. Oddly nothing has been deducted from our bank balance yet. So I'm not sure when that will happen. This month we will be reviewing our central defender depth. We have 11 players at this positions. Six of which grace the senior squad. Danny Finlayson- (22 year old, 3.5 star CA, 3.5 star PA) Vice captain and starting centerback. He has played in 11 games and scored 2 goals from corners so far. Maintaining a 7.23 avg rating. Mohamed Hamidi- (21 year old, 2.5 star CA, 4 star PA) Is natural anywhere across the back 3 and will remain part of our squad undoubtedly for the next few seasons. Jack Thomson- (23 year old, Scottish, 2 star CA, 3 star PA) He has made 8 appearances so far with a 6.71 average rating. He isn't having a great start, but he fits best as a ball playing defender, which we prefer. Making him the first center back off the bench. Neil McAuley- (21 year old, 2 star CA, 3 star PA) He rounds out the second-teamers, but certainly has not setting the league on fire. Barney McKeown- (22 year old, 2 star CA, 3 star PA) Both Barney and Paul make up the 3rd team center backs. Paul Wallace- (21 year old, 1.5 star CA, 3 star PA) Both Barney and Paul are at risk of being sold as we really would like to buy a new starting defender with the Europa League money. Zach Murray- (18 year old, 2 star CA, 3.5 star PA) Currently on loan at Warrenpoint in the Premiership. He comes in as their starting center back. I'm desperate to put him in the senior squad. Darren Thornton- (20 year old, 1.5 star CA, 3.5 star PA) On loan at Carrick for the third straight season. He is a key player in the Bluefin Championship according to the media. Johnny Campbell- (21 year old, 1 star CA, 2 star PA) We attempted to sell him, but had no buyers. He is on loan at Limavady United in the Championship, but he does not start. I will be letting him go when his contract ends. Thank god they are paying his wages. Steven Hegarty- (17 year old, 1 star CA, 3 star PA) He may be a 3rd teamer one day, but right now he needs lots of development. Alex Cunningham- (16 year old, 3 silver star CA, 2 star PA) Need to sell, the earlier the better. We could really use a new shiny central defender to start selling these scrubs. Hopefully Murray can work his way into the lineup as we are really looking forward to him. Our next match is against Schalke 04 away in the Europa League. Thanks for reading! Go Swifts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 16, 2020 Author Share Posted August 16, 2020 October 2023 6 games played. 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss. We have finally managed to go back up to 1st in the league, 1 point ahead of Linfield in 2nd. We have resigned nearly a dozen players pushing out our budget to the absolute limit. We have moved from 8th in wage to 3rd in the league. We now are spending 14.2k/week in wages and only have 6k left in transfer money. Amazingly we were able to draw Schalke 04 away 1-1, but loss to Athletic Bilbao 1-0 at home. Putting us squarely in 4th place in Group D for the Europa League. With playing a 33 man senior squad, we have finally had our first playing time complain from James Karamousis. He is an "important player" and our starting right back. We have 3 other players that are "Concerned" with playing time so we will have to double down on playing those guys whenever possible. It appears we have 7 games, 9 games, and 9 games in the next three months. After that though, it falls off to 4-5 games a month. Which means I will probably be loaning out the third-teamers as best I can in the second half of the season. We will be going over left backs this month. We have 4 players in this position at the club. Richard McGinn- (21 year old, 2.5 star CA, 4 star PA) Home grown and our starting left back. This man is only here for his stunning physicality. Made 14 appearances so far this season. Averaging a 6.92 rating. Andy Hunter- (20 year old, 2 star CA, 3 star PA) As our second team left back he is has playing great in his 12 appearances while averaging a 6.98 rating. Not quite as talented as McGinn, nor does he have a lot of potential. He may be a consummate 3rd teamer going forward. Martin Grogan- (17 year old, 2 star CA, 5 star PA) He is discontent sitting in the U18s. I think we have to give him a run with the 3rd team or 2nd team as he so much potential. Unfortunately that will make Forsythe really unhappy. Adrian Forsythe- (21 year old, 2 star CA, 3.5 star PA) He was our 3rd string left back for most of the run up this season. However, he used to have higher potential, and has not made the kind of strides that would keep him ahead of Grogan. He or Andy may find themselves on the transfer list come January. Probably whoever we can get more for while not aiding our league rivals too much. Next up we face Larne who have free-fallen down the league table and in 7th on 14 points from 10 games. Wish us luck as we attempt to hold this squad together until the transfer window opens again. Go Swifts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 November 2023 7 games. 3 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses. All in all we were bound to fall out of some cups, but its unfortunate that they coincided. Luckily our only hiccup in the league was a 3-3 draw versus Crusaders. This puts us in 2nd on 31 points behind Linfield with 32 points. The next closest is Crusaders on 21 points. So I think its safe to say if will most likely be a 2-horse race this year. We have struggled to pick up any points in the Euro Cup group stage. Sitting in 4th on 2 points. We are mathematically locked into 4th despite playing our last game against Schalke mid-December. On the upside our playing time concerns have gone down to just Jim Parker. Which is a lot easier to manage then 3-4 players. Speaking of Parker he has set the team on fire scoring 10 goals and contributing 10 assists in his 20 appearances so far this season. He has really brought his play-making ability to starting 11 in the last month or so. Shockingly next month has expanded to 11 games. January has also expanded to include 10 games. We intend on letting a few players go out on loan, but I think we may go from 33 man squad to 30. As if we don't have a few injury concerns after these next two months, I would be surprised. We have officially become the most represented team in terms of youth products currently starting for Danske Bank Premiership sides with 33 players across the 12 teams. As for the board performance our grade has slipped to a B. We have two major hurdles left this season. A) Win the League. B) Win the Northern Irish Cup. So for this month we will be reviewing the right midfielder players at the club, of which we have 6. Steve Leonard- (21 year old, 3 star CA, 4.5 star PA) Is our starting right midfielder and has been for the last 4 and half seasons. However, his 7.17 average rating is a bit of a drop off from the 7.62 he was averaging last year. That previous rating earned him runner-up "player of the year" in the premiership last season. Charlie Owens- (18 year old, 3 star CA, 4.5 star PA) Backup right midfielder has been really pushing Leonard for a place in the starting 11. Owens has contributed 6 goals and 2 assists in 8 appearances in the league so far. I think by year's end one or the other will really seal the starting spot for years to come. Hugo Greaves- (19 year old, 2 star CA, 4 star PA) Is our 3rd-teamer with 17 free-kick taking. I would really like to get Greaves more playing time, but with his potential not as high as the other two he really needs to anchor himself as our free-kick taking specialist to get time. Conor Glasgow- (21 year old, 2 star CA, 3.5 star PA) Glasgow is homegrown with the ability to play on either wing. He is currently on loan at Ballymena United in the Premiership. There he has become a starter and helped them to a 6th place position way above media expectations of 10th. He may be the first to be transfer-listed if there is no room for him on the left. Bakary Ceesay- (19 year old, 2 star CA, 4 star PA) At 6'5" he is an ideal wide target man currently on loan to Institute in the Premiership. Unfortunately he has not been able to supplant their star winger in Ben Evans and is currently playing squad rotational minutes as they languish in 12th place. David O'Hare- (18 year old, 1 star CA, 2.5 star PA) Home grown and currently available for a loan spell. I think a starting role in the Bluefin Championship could really boost his value to be ready to be sold next summer. Perhaps 3rd tier Portstewart could use him in their title campaign this year, or their bid to stay in the 2nd tier next season. He would undoubtedly come in as their star player. In conclusion, we have two star right midfielders vying for starts with 1 or 2 able-bodied 3rd-teamers waiting for playing time and perhaps a nugget or two ready to sell. If only there was more money in the Northern Irish pyramid so we could make a profit. Next up we face Ballymena United at home in the league. Wish us luck as we face our former 2021/22 central midfielder, Ciaran O'Connor. Sold to Larne for 12k, he was quickly moved to Ballymena United after having failed to make his way into the 1st team with Larne. Luckily he seems to really fit in nicely at Ballymena as their starting attacking midfielder. Leading their team with 7 goals this season and ranking 8th in goals in the Premiership. Lets go Swifts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 18, 2020 Author Share Posted August 18, 2020 December 2023 11 games played this month. 6 wins, 1 draw, and 4 losses. Luckily two of those losses were against Dundalk in the Irish Champions Cup. Unfortunately the others were a loss against Rival Glenavon in the league and a loss against our own affiliate Annagh United in the Mid Ulster 1st round. In which our own former player and youth product right back Gareth Boyd scored the equalizer. With 9 games to play next month we have whittled our team down to a 29 man roster. Everyone else will hopefully be finding loan spells for the remainder of the season. In other news Martin Grogan has continued to grow exponentially as well as gained the trait "marks opponent tightly". So he will be getting a run of games in the first team at either center back or left back depending on need. Meanwhile our starting central midfielder and attacking midfielder, Jonathan O'Neill and Donal Byrne respectively, have really made strides to cement their place in the first teams over the last month. Both rising to 3.5 star CA. Both are touted by back staff as future stars that will drive the team forward. I'm glad to have them both in form as we cross the half way mark of the season. We currently sit in 1st on 46 points from 19 games. A game in hand on the rest of the top six. Linfield are in 2nd on 44 points from 20 games. It has indeed become a two horse race as Crusaders remain in 3rd on 31 points. This month's in-depth look will assess our talent as central midfielder. We have 6 players we consider part of the central midfielder pipeline. Jonathan O'Neill- (18 year old, 3.5 star CA, 5 star PA) Our starting midfielder, O'neill won both the NIFL Premiership Development League and the NIFL U18 Academy League while growing at our club. He then had a great start in aiding our side in all our success last year as a backup. This year he has not slowed down at all sealing the starting 11 spot. Appearing in 24 matches so far this season he has averaged a 7.12 rating while keeping a 81% pass completion record. Many of staff already view him as a 4 or 4.5 star current ability player. Thankfully he is signed through 2026. Paul Lynch- (20 year old, 2.5 star CA, 3 star PA) A home grown talent, Lynch was part of the team from day one upon starting this save. He unfortunately has been held back by his development. He has been an incredible servant, but with the extra depth we have I think I will move him on this summer. Especially since his value his soared to 78k. Sebastian Wassell- (19 year old, 2 star CA, 4.5 star PA) New arrival from Matlock in England. Wassell has played auxiliary minutes as a 3rd teamer, but still needs some seasoning to become the technical high work rate midfielder he is projected to be. Hugo Greaves- (20 year old, 2 star CA, 4 star PA) He did play 3rd-teamer minutes for us earlier in the year, but is the victim of playing time cuts and will be going out on loan for the remainder of the year. Jim McDowell- (18 year old, 1.5 star CA, 3.5 star PA) McDowell went out on loan to Annagh United earlier in the season and did well. However, he refused to extend his stay past a few months. He is far short of the senior squad and will therefore being going back out on loan for the rest of the season. Lee Webb- (19 year old, 1 star CA, 2 star PA) Webb also went on loan to Annagh United briefly. However, he failed to get much of a look-in at the 3rd tier side. Therefore he will be shopped this window and sold. His contract in up this season. We have a few players that will be out on loan spells for the rest of the year. Hopefully they can net us some money to put towards the transfer market soon. Lastly, Daniel Hughes our former striker is without a club. He is 31 years old and far below first team level. However he is considering becoming a director of football when he decides to hang up his boots. Perhaps we will get him in as part of the backroom staff before too long. Our next game is home against Larne in the league. In a shocking turn of events, Steven Davis has been given the job at Larne within the last two weeks. Making the jump from Cliftonville. Who he had continued to manage to solid mid-table results. It appears the board have brought him in to right the ship and get them out of 5th and back into Euro Cup 2 contention. Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 19, 2020 Author Share Posted August 19, 2020 January 2024 9 games played this month. Nothing but wins. We have all but sealed the league title. We currently sit in 1st on 70 points while Linfield sit in 2nd on 54 points. We have moved down to a 25 man senior squad with 5 reserve players also failing to find a loan spell. So they can come in to do a job if need be. In total we now have 18 players out on loan. We have one incoming and two outgoing transfers to speak of. First the outgoing. Larne with Steven Davis at the helm have come in for half our starters, but have only picked up 2 of our backups. First of which was backup central midfielder Paul Lynch. Sold to Larne for 90k. He will be replaced by fourth string attacking midfielder Alex Robinson. Second is perennial backup and versatile defender Mohamed Hamidi sold to Larne for 100k. Both sales were 2 star CA 3 star PA and in their early 20s. We have better younger prospects at both positions. So I decided to capitalize on their current values. Replacing Hamidi is our incoming Model Citizen Alexandru Epureanu. This Moldovan international is 37 years old with 3.5 star CA. He plans on retiring at the end of this season, but he has a great personality and is a good stop gap in the meantime. He comes in as our best center back. As for the competitions we are left in... We face Linfield this month in the Bet McLean League Cup Final. We also face Limavady United in the Northern Irish Cup 6th round. With 11 games left in the league and it mostly in the bag. We will be seeing a lot of rotation in the coming weeks. In other news the media have placed 6 of our players in the media dream 11. Chris Hassan is currently leading the league in with average rating of 8.09 and 20 goals. All within his 13 starts and 5 sub appearances. This month we will be going over the left midfielder talent at the club. We have 6 players in the pipeline at the club. Haydn Haley- (20 year old, 4 star CA, 5 star PA) Our starting left winger on loan from Everton. He is only able to be here for this season. However, he has been excellent with 15 goals and 7 assists in 29 appearances. Eamonn Mullen- (21 year old, 2 star CA, 4 star PA) Backup left midfielder, he has been labeled as injury prone. Although he has only experienced slight and minor injuries. He has been playing well in the league with 6 assists in 17 appearances. Pat King- (21 year old, 2 star CA, 2.5 star PA) Currently on loan at Institute. He was our third string left midfielder, but was sent out to get more playing time for the rest of the season. He comes in as Institute's starting left midfielder. Aidan Doyle- (21 year old, 1.5 star CA, 3.5 star PA) In my eyes an equal quality talent to Mullen. He was unable to find any loans all season long. Which has unfortunately put him behind in development at this stage. Callum Campbell- (19 year old, 1.5 star CA, 3 star PA) Unfortunately this young player is also injury prone. He was on at Limavady United in the Championship last year where he played decently. He is currently valued at 30k so hopefully he can net us a decent profit this summer or next. Miguel Angel Velazguez- (18 year old, 1 star CA, 2.5 star PA) As our american youth product, he is back on loan with Annagh United for the remainder of the season. He has had two major injuries in the last 18 months. Both were major, but in total he was only out for 3 months. He hasn't even gotten sick otherwise. So the jury is still out on if he is injury prone or unlucky. He definitely has the possibility to become a 3rd teamer for us, but that may be a few years off. Next up is our match against Warrenpoint at home. They currently sit in 11th in the premiership. They also are the destination where our gigantic defender Zach Murray is on loan as their starting center back. He will be ineligible to play against us, but Connor Byrne our former Developmental league winning goalkeeper will be between the sticks for them. Thanks for reading. Go Swifts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 20, 2020 Author Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) February 2024 Trying to add pictures. Please forgive any technology mistakes. As you can see continued to win and then had a frustrating penalty shootout loss to Linfield in the Bet McLean Cup Final. The form led to another odd draw against 6th place Ballinamallard United. Therefore we remain top of the league, 15 points ahead of Linfield. Already sealing European football for next year. As you can see Hassan is still doing well in the league tied for 1st on 23 goals. As you can see we have made almost 5 million dollars this season and the board have officially marked us as secure financially. Hopefully we will get a decent budget next year. It appears the board may double our wage budget. This month we will go over our attacking central midfielders. Byrne and Clark have the positions locked for the foreseeable future. Our backups McDermott and Devine both are young any fairly close to being maxed out yet happy with their playing time. The third teamers are Teague and Mullan both are younger versions of McDermott and Devine. SO we will have to see if any of these players make any waves in the dressing room. As of right now we have no plans to part ways or move on any players. Next up we are playing against bottom of the league Glentoran at home in the League. Wish us luck! P.S. Any suggestions anyone has that would help improve this journal please let me know. Cheers! Edited August 20, 2020 by DrChristopher Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 20, 2020 Author Share Posted August 20, 2020 (edited) March 2024 3 games this month. Mostly good. However the pressure got to us against Larne. We could have sealed the league championship in that game, but our backup full back had a howler of a back pass in injury time to lose us the game. As you can see we are comfortably ahead in the league. Hopefully our second teamers can manage the rest of the season while we get ready for the Northern Irish Cup Semi Finals against Coleraine. Then the final against either Larne or Glenavon. This month we will look over our youth intake. Of which we has only 3 players that signed youth contracts. None of these new-gens are looking like they will likely make the team. Nonetheless they will be part of the pipeline to sell. Possibly making their marks lower down in the Northern Irish Pyramid. As a treat, here is a snapshot of our team report page. This will give you an idea of the formation, starting 11. As well as the strengths and weaknesses we have. Wish us luck as we attempt to finish off the season on match day 34 against Linfield at home. Thanks for reading! Edited August 20, 2020 by DrChristopher Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 29, 2020 Author Share Posted August 29, 2020 April 2024 Please forgive the lack of uploads. My laptop crashed, but I was able to salvage the save. Unfortunately the pictures for players were not recovered so the regens will have their original animated faces back. I may get new pictures, but I haven't found the time yet. We win back to back Danske Bank Premiership titles, unfortunately Hassan was not able to seal the golden boot award this year. Which means all in all the board is pleased and I am "very secure" in my job. With us going pro this off-season, I think we can begin to dominate the competition domestically despite losing to Larne on the final day. Our finances are looking great with another 100k in sales yet to come in due to installment payments from buying clubs. As you can see it appears the board intend to double our wages budget. Which will give us a great ability to bring in still greater players. This month we will be briefly reviewing our striker pipeline, of which we have 7 players. First is the Captain Jim Parker. Unfortunately we have finally started to see that Jim Parker is starting to slow developmentally. He will still most likely be a starter for another season or 2, but I think we should plan for him to be replaced in the hierarchy within 3 seasons. Second is Hassan, he is continuing to over-perform in the league, but as the rest of the domestic scene improves I think he will slowly began to look obsolete. Maybe as early as the end of next season. Third is James Rose who in my option I think might be higher than Jim Parker in potential as he is sky rocketing up the ranks. He has been on loan to Ballinamallard United in the Premiership since January. He has made 14 appearances with 6 goals 3 assists and averaging a 6.99 rating for their side. He will definitely be challenging for 2nd fiddle next season. 4th is Owen Teague the attacking utility man. He will most likely be a 3rd teamer at the start of next season. Probably heading out on loan next January. 5th is Lee Nicholl who looks like he could also make a case for 3rd team, but may go out on loan all of next season to see if he is ready for the senior squad. 6th is Eddie Mullan. This home grown kid will most likely never get in with the strikers and will have to continue to try to find appearances with the attacking midfielders. 7th is Jonah Buchanan, he looks more and more average the longer the scouts get to assess him. So he will most likely be sold upon aging out of the U18s. We have one final game this season against Glenavon in the Northern Irish Cup Final. Next month we will do a in-depth review of our top players and or key prospects as we look to identify new transfers for the summer window. Thanks for reading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 29, 2020 Author Share Posted August 29, 2020 (edited) May 2024 Firstly... We won the double and are back to back Northern Irish Cup Winners. Jim Parker was amazing and even earned Champions League highest assists with 6. I guess I got a little spend happy after being given 24k wage budget and 2mil transfer budget. We have confirmed 9 total transfers in. 3 are U18 and will thus need to wait a year or two before traveling to Northern Ireland. 4 are here already and 1 will arrive on July 1st. The ones to come are... We might have overspent on these youngsters, but they are the best foreigners money could buy. I won't review them now, I will do that once they arrive. As for the already arrived... First is by far our best signing in Chijioke Saraki. We got him for a cool 30k from Welsh/English side The New Saints. He comes in as our best defender having averaged mid sevens in average rating the last 3 years with TNS. The next 3 were all free releases from Northern Irish sides. We are now the 2nd most reputable Northern Irish team so these league stars were more than happy to sign with us as regular or squad roles. Brendan Boyle has been haunting us every year for Coleraine. He has amassed 41 goals in 81appearances for them before signing for us on a free. Parker will most likely be moved to his boyhood position right midfielder. As his assist numbers as still a big asset there. Next is Matty Doran. Who has been a terror at Crusaders throughout this save. He will slot in as rotational starter at AMC. Despite only demanding fringe player minutes. Danny Zoetebier this Dutch Glenavon stalwart can play MC, AMC, or ST. However he was agreed to a breakthrough prospect contract. So we will most likely use him as a 2nd-teamer for any of those positions. Which brings us to our tentative starting XI until our last signing comes in this window. We were unfortunately drawn against NK Maribor the 3 star reputation Slovenian side in the Champions 1st Round Qualifier. We are clearly outmatched by them. The board had originally demanded a 2nd round appearance, but it appears they may have rethought that due to our draw. The last bit of news is Reegan Mimnaugh. Ballymena United were so impressed with his loan spell they immediate resigned him for this season. He has drifted ever further down the depth chart due to the new signings. So we will look to sell him with his transfer evaluation at 46k. Unfortunately his contract ends this year. So either we resign now and sell in January or give him up on a free. That is all for this month. Thanks for reading! Edited August 29, 2020 by DrChristopher 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 (edited) June 2024 & Pre-Season So we have brought in our last signee for the window and we have had a outgoing transfer. Todd Miller signed on a free from Brighton. We really got a steal as he will come in as our starting left midfielder. Outgoing was home-grown prospect David O'Hare. He was grading out as 1 star CA and 2.5 star PA. He ended up going on a free to Larne who will hopefully be able to make something of him. I wanted to also post my most recent pick to take over the vice captain role in the side. Charlie Owens... Owens is one of the best young talents at the club if not thee best. He currently has been pushed to second team central midfielder, but I doubt he will stay out of the first team for long with that potential. Not sure how to train around his low passing which may hold him back when he really hits his prime. This month I though I'd also give some news coverage of our goalkeeper depth. Our 2nd string keeper is Nathan Grainger. Who had a great loan spell with Barrow in the Vanarama National last season, having only conceded 15 goals in 17 games. 3rd is home grown Gary Wilson. He will be out on loan during the second half of the season if he doesn't reclaim the backup spot. He managed 20 goals conceded in 19 appearances for us last year in the Premiership. He just doesn't have the high potential and youth the other men show. 4th is Jose Costa. Dungannon born, Portuguese home grown talent. Costa was loaned out to newly promoted top tier side Portadown. He comes in as their number 1 between the sticks. And our best keeper at the club is... Mark Coyle. Nabbed from Newington on a free two years ago. He has cemented himself as our first-choice keeper. Making 43 starts for us last season conceding only 54 and keeping 14 clean-sheets. You have to remember half of those starts were in the Champions League and Europa League against far superior competition. Here is the last squad report. The starters selected are actually our 2nd string squad and the subs make up our 3rd-teamers or reserves. This might help you get a real grasp of the talent we have accumulated at the club so far. Next up we play Maribor in the Champions Cup. Wish us luck as we unfortunately have 5 first team players suspended for the first leg (James Karamousis, Danny Finlayson, Richard McGinn, Jim Parker, and Jonathan O'Neill). Thanks for Reading. Go Swifts! Edited August 30, 2020 by DrChristopher Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 July 2024 Schedule We were knocked out as expected in the Champions Cup. The board was actually sympathetic to our draw. So we weren't pentalized too harshly. We were put into the Euro Cup 2 Champions bracket 2nd Round Qualifier. Luckily we got paired with Gibraltarian side Europa FC who we offhandedly beat over two legs 21-0 on aggregate. That's right 21-0!!! Next up is KF Shkupi of Northern Macedonia in the third qualifying round. I think we could really have an outside chance of making the Euro Cup 2 group stages. Media Predictions Our team has amassed 5 players in the Danske Bank Premiership Media's Dream 11. We are also given a 33% chance to win the league. We play our first league game against Institute. We also play both newly promoted sides during the first month of the season. Dynamics Jim Parker has moved into the team leader role. Which is great and will help him pass along his 16 determination on to still others. Jonathan O'Neill O'Neill has become the highest star player at the club. Natural at both striker and central midfielder he is currently our starting deep lying play-maker. He averaged a 7.27 rating across all 43 appearances last season. Stats Jim Parker is continuing to prove he should wear the captain's armband. Right-Backs We have 3 players that are currently in the pipline. James Karamousis is our starting right-back. Second is dual sided fullback Niall Harvey. Third is our home grown defender Andrew Hassan. Andrew Hassan Hassan had a decent season with Institute last year and they quickly opted to get him back on loan this season. Most of our staff postulates that Hassan could be equal to or better than Karamousis. Thanks for reading. If this format or another is better suit to reading please let me know. Go Swifts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 1, 2020 Author Share Posted September 1, 2020 (edited) August 2024 Schedule No losses through August. Unfortunately the second team stumbled early in a draw to Institute. However we breezed by Shkupi and now face Icelandic team Breidablik Ungmennafelag (They must have a nickname. "Blikar?") in the the fourth round qualifier that if we win will get us into our second European group stage in two years. Unfortunately we are the only Northern Irish team left in continental competitions. Steve Leonard We faced a myriad of transfer inquires and the only one that got away before the window closed was Steve Leonard. Leonard was sold to Larne for 925k. Which was 10 times his evaluation. He still had a lot of upside, but I think we found an even better replacement. Rachid Aribi Signed on free. He already graded out as equal to Leonard who was our backup right midfielder. With the potential to be even better. If only Larne knew this guy was practically begging to be signed. Those two were the last transfers of the window. We will see how the team shakes out over the next 4 months. Domestic Midfield Comparison Just to give you an idea of how dominate our new look midfield is we currently lead the league in 4 skills. Our lowest skill tackling is only 4th in the league. We are a force in the middle of the park domestically. Danske Bank Premiership Which brings us to league standings of which we are in 2nd. Hopefully the second teamers can keep us in the top 2 while we make a push for the group stages of the Euro Cup 2. Glad to see Parker already flying high in assists after the position change. Northern Ireland National Team Which brings us to our own national team. We currently have 3 players in the senior team nationally. None are starting, but I think Boyle in particular is likely to be the next man up at striker for the Green and White Army. Competitions So to break it down the first team will be mainly playing in the Euro Cup 2, Northern Irish Cup, and Tunnock Challenge Cup. As the board have made those a priority. The 2nd team will be our consistent Premiership squad. Where as the 3rd teamers will fill in the gaps in sub appearances. Even perhaps start a game or two in the Bet McLean League Cup and the Mid Ulster Cup. Youth Recruitment & Youth Facilities We got the board to really make pushes with our youth setup. Hopefully this will help to improve our intakes. My dream is to eventually become the best producer of talent in Northern Ireland. Centerbacks This month we are covering the centerbacks of which we have 10. Saraki is far and away our best. With Grogan quickly pushing out FInlayson for the starting minutes. He is not as polished at finlayson, but his potential will get him starts. We lucky no longer have FInlayson as a vice captain so hopefully he won't be able to make the team atmosphere suffer too much if he doesn't get starts. McKeown is likely going to be sold in the next year, but he will get a lot of league starts this season. McAuley is better than Thomson in my option, but Thomson was unable to be sold or loaned. Also I wanted one of them to be getting first team minutes. Therefore McAuley is with Crusaders. Thomson will hopefully have a few good performances so we can sell him within the year. Murray, Hegarty, and Cunningham round out the pipeline. Cunningham looks to be the best of the bunch. However even Cunningham will never make the first team. Zach Murray Which brings us to one of my favorite youth products Zach Murray. He is on loan at Coleraine, but due to a last moment signing it looks like he will be a super sub or squad rotational player for them this year, barring injury. He is a mammoth at 6'7". However, he will likely never even make the second string for our senior side. He will be sold next summer. I look forward to facing him domestically. That is all for this monthly update. Thanks for reading! Edited September 1, 2020 by DrChristopher Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 1, 2020 Author Share Posted September 1, 2020 September 2024 Schedule Euro Cup 2 group stage is secured! Our group consists of Young Boys, Basaksehir, and Ludogorets. We have been doing well in the league hanging on to an undefeated start. Currently sitting in 2nd. Competitions Amazingly we beat Basaksehir 4-0 in our first group stage game. Giving us the tiniest hope that we might might make it to the knockout stages. Our only concern right now is Kevin Clarke who is kicking up a fuss about not being in the first team. Finances We got 3 million for making the group stage. So our bank balance is back up to a healthy 7 million with 220k more still yet to arrive from installments from clubs who bought our players. Players Stats We have had some beautiful run of form in the senior squad. McDermott had a blinder in a rare league start. Meanwhile Parker and Boyle have become absolute monsters in attack. Jim Parker I would be remiss if I did not show you... El Captain! Parker was one of my very first signings and he has been a great servant of the club. Nothing is more exciting than watching him accelerate past defenders. Leftbacks This month we will review our leftbacks. Starting is McGinn, who is a well rounded physical player. Still yet to be capped by the national side despite a few call-ups. This has long been the position of need. So if we find a player in the winter window McGinn may find himself on the second team as he is undoubtedly the weakest link of our starting 11. Second is Andy Hunter. Another great defensive fullback Hunter is nearly reached his potential therefore if we do address this position in the transfer market he is most likely the first to be sold. Third is Adrian Forsythe, our either sided 3rd teamer. Despite being the oldest and so far down the depth chart, he has made 7 appearances for the club already this season. His versatility makes him a real resource on the bench. Despite our assistant's appraisal many of our staff grade his potential ability at 3.5 stars. He has also grown in determination (due to mentoring) so hopefully he can reach his potential before gets too old. Perhaps the 3rd team chances the last two seasons have done the damage to his development as he only played in 10 competitive games over the last 2 seasons. Lastly is Thornton who is really a center-back, but I think i missed him in that review. He could really play either position well, but he needs game time. Therefore he is on loan to Cliftonville, where he slots in as their starting center-back. Team Records We have really had a marvelous run, breaking records left and right in this save. Here is a list of records if anyone would like to see them. If anyone wants to get a profile view of any of these legends let me know and I will do my best to post it. I am just now starting to get the urge to move to a different Northern Irish side. It would definitely be someone in the Premiership, but I'm not in love with the idea of taking over any of those sides at the moment. Perhaps I would want to try to take over Annagh United if they manage to make it up here. However with them currently fighting to stay out of relegation in the second tier, that day seems a ways off. We are signed on for 3 more season anyway. So perhaps we will job hunt after our contract is up. As it would cost a team 95k to sign us away from Dungannon. Thanks for reading! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 2, 2020 Author Share Posted September 2, 2020 October 2024 Schedule 9 games this month. 6 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss. Amazingly we are still 1st in the Euro Cup 2- Group A. I think 4 more points could seal our qualification to the knockout stages. Competitions We also have pushed into the top spot in the league. Meanwhile the third teamers got us knocked out of the Bet McLean League Cup in the 3rd round. Kevin Clarke Clarke is fairly well maxed in terms of potential. He keeps getting "concerned" about playing time despite getting more game time than promised. His value is one of the highest in the squad. I think we will try to capitalize on that and sell him during the winter window. Euro Cup 2 We have set the record for most goals all time by a team in the Euro Cup 2 competition. We also have both the golden boot and highest average rating leader-boards in this competition filled with our players. Right Midfielders This month we will review the 5 players in our right midfielder pipeline. Parker currently leads the way as our captain and starter. Aribi is in 2nd, equal in potential to Parker. He isn't the quickest but I look forward to see how he develops. 3rd is Glasgow, who can play on either side. He is currently back on loan at Ballymena United. Averaging a 7.07 in 10 starts in the league. The last two are fairly even. They are Bakary Ceesay and Callum Campbell. Campbell hasn't been able to find a loan the last two years. He sits in the reserves until he can find a loan or a buyer. Bakary Ceesay Our Gambian home-grown youth product is Bakary Ceesay. He is a monster at 6'5". He is currently on loan at Portadown where he is averaging 6.93 in 7 starts in the Premiership. He unfortunately will never be good enough for the first team. Not sure what to do with him yet, but he could be a real star on another Danske Bank Premiership team. Thanks for reading. Go Swifts! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 2, 2020 Author Share Posted September 2, 2020 November 2024 Schedule 5 games all month with 5 wins. We are officially on to the knockouts of the Euro Cup 2. Mostly likely getting a bye to the 2nd round due to finishing top of our group. We face Dundalk next in two legs in the All-Ireland Champions Cup. Competitions In other competitions we are in semi-finals of the Tunnock Challenge Cup facing league side Linfield. Meanwhile in the league they trail us by 2 points in 2nd place. Despite us having a game in hand. Injury Crisis The trouble is we are facing an injury crisis. We have 3 starters out and a 2 or 3 facing match suspensions due to card accumulation. Luckily they are all short term problems. Unfortunately we have a back to back big games coming up that we would like a full-strength squad for. Central Midfielders This month is the review of our central midfielder depth... Jonathan O'Neill- Our starting number 6. Cruising and averaging a 7.74 rating in all competitions. Charlie Owens- Our vice captain and first name off the bench. He is doing well with 3 goals and 7 assists in 21 appearances across all competitions. Alex Robinson- One of my favorite young English midfielders. He was the biggest victim of the attacking midfield players we brought in. He still has some upside, but unfortunately has found himself getting only 7 appearances with the 3rd team. Owen Teague- Starting on loan for Ballinamallard United. Helping them fly high in the premiership at 4th place. Reegan Mimnaugh- On his 3rd spell at Ballymena United. He is dominate with 9 assists in 19 games for their side. He is worth 57k, but I wonder if I can gift him to their side in the winter window. Hugo Greaves- I like him a bit more as a right midfielder, but we are packed at both positions. Amazingly he is starting for Crusaders on loan and averaging 7.41 in 20 appearances for their team. Paul Wallace- On loan at Crusaders and is not doing more than average. He will most likely be sold in the next two windows as he is only 2 stars of potential ability. Jim McDowell- Can play throughout the spine of the team. Although he has had only decent showings on loan at Glenavon. Hopefully he can achieve his full potential of 3 stars and get into the senior team before too long. Ryan Glackin- 17 years old, very low ability and potential. We had a very poor intake last year and he was one of only 2 or 3 we signed. He will likely we released or sold soon. Alex Robinson I wanted to give you all a quick look at one of my favorites. He scored on his debut for the senior team last year and I have been eagerly watching his progression since. He has the "dictates tempo" player preferred move. Which I like as he is mostly in easy match-ups. So I like that he gives patience to our high tempo tactics against weaker opposition. Giving his teammates time to work on their craft. We have a big month next month with 11 competitive games. Hopefully we can finally prove our Irish supremacy over Dundalk next. Thanks for reading! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 December 2024 Schedule We had a great run to end the year. Unfortunately losing to Young Boys put us in the 1st knockouts of the Euro Cup 2. However, we are still thrilled to be in the running. Player Stats Jim Parker and Brendan Boyle are still tearing it up in the starting 11. Thankfully the playing time concerns have also gone by the wayside for the most part. Competitions Still cruising at the top of the league. Life is getting a little too easy for us. I think we need a change. So who do I see at the bottom of table trying to keep their head out of the relegation battle? Glenavon, a local rival. However my release clause is 90k. Glenavon refuse to pay it. However after a month of trying to talk to the board they final agree to a 30k release fee, that Glenavon are happy to pay. Glenavon The league is shocked... Crusaders face us next and their manager belittles my decision. Saying he will easily beat me now without the money behind me. Money I earned btw. Background We haven't had many glory years since the 50s. Its time to dethrone Dungannon! Also now that Linfield, Larne, and Dungannon are regular euro contenders I want to add another horse to the coefficient contenders. Board Vision Avoiding relegation is everything. The other things can be put on hold, but that is a must for me or I'm leaving in the off-season. Finances The board opens their pockets a lot giving me transfer and wage budget the previous manager did not get. Unfortunate, alongside my signing, we are in some financial trouble. I can't wait to start another factory of talent and turning this around. New Schedule Crusaders are all talk before the game and with 1 day of prep and a terrible atmosphere we hand it to them. Their manager is in my sights for the rest of this save with Glenavon. 8 games and a transfer window next month will really test our mettle. New Competition Outlook We look to be pulling away from the bottom, but if we can make a run towards 6th in the league. We might be able to claim the last Euro Cup 2 playoff place. New Youth Intake Overview New Youth Intake assessment. Not sure what to make of it. We will see how it gels with our 4-4-1-1. New Squad Nice to have familiar faces in Sam Johnston and Jim McDowell. Ross Hunter has been scoring on us for a few years. It will be nice to manage him. We have found another young talent in Malcolm Bath that we have instantly made vice captain. Hopefully he can lead us forward here. Hope you guys are as excited about this new leg as I am. Thanks for Reading! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 3, 2020 Author Share Posted September 3, 2020 January 2025 Danske Bank Premiership: Transfer Window That was a crazy month. As you can see Larne raided Dungannon now that were gone. As did we. Larne spend almost 1.5 million on Dungannon players alone. Where as we hit them up for every loan imaginable all while having to pay zero in wages. Glenavon Transfers Our transfers are highlighted. 4 loans in, all from Dungannon. 5 signs all free except Hoare for 2.6K from Cliftonville. Alan McCabe First is our former youth product that never was good enough at Dungannon. He may not set the world on fire here, but he can definitely be sold on for a nice profit. Daryl Glendinning Our star signing. Stolen from Cliftonville, as they inexplicably released him in the summer. He has already manage 30 goals in 83 appearances in the top tier of Northern Irish football. He comes in as our immediate number 9. David Hoare Meanwhile David is a dream of a youth player. He has absolutely loads of potential. Hopefully we can get him mentored up as soon as he hits the first team to remedy that. Kyle Edgar Kyle Edgar was signed as cover at right midfielder. He doesn't appear like much however most of the staff disagree with my assistant manager and rate his potential as 3.5 stars. Hopefully that speed and make him a super sub. Luan Lika Where as on the other side, Lika comes in as a day one starter at left midfielder. He is Albanian and a great locker room guy. Tony Marshall Our only outgoing of any impact was a better than average talent in Tony Marshall. Lanre came in for his evaluation at 30K. We refused and he kicked up a fuss. So Larne came in again and we demanded 3 times his value as his potential was 4 stars. That is what I saw other 4 star players going for. Larne said yes immediately which greatly helps our financial outlook. Squad View This is our new look squad. We are looking very healthy with depth. The media changed our prediction from 9th to 5th. Now that is way too far away to be reasonable, but you can see how well the rest of the league thought our signings were. Schedule We had mixed form as expected, but we progress in both cups which is great. Hopefully we can get some more prize money. Competitions As you can see it really is just Cliftonville and us fighting to stay in the league. I think that is all we can ask for the rest of the season. 10th and 11th both have 80K roughly in prize money. Daniel Hughes We finally managed to do it and got old faithful in as our director of football! I'm dreaming of legendary director/manager duos... Dollingstown Lastly we got a new affiliate. Dollingstown will be available to send our reserves out on loan at. Hopefully we can help them make their way to the 2nd tier of Northern Irish football. Join us next time as we have 7 games before the split in the league. Fingers crossed, we get a good fixture draw in the relegation group and hopefully stay up. Thanks for reading! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 8, 2020 Author Share Posted September 8, 2020 February 2025 Schedule Rough month, despite only 6 games played. 2 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss. Amazingly we managed to finish in a nil-nil draw against our old side Dungannon. Dungannon have already qualified for Europe. Competitions We have two games left before the league split. We have managed to pull within a point of Cliftonville in 10th. A few more good results and we could be safe from relegation and the treacherous Promotion/Relegation Playoff of 11th place. Finances We still have some room for new signings for next year. If I had my choice I would like a new right midfielder and center-back. Squad Stats Meanwhile we are getting used to this side not being as high scoring. Our primary goal scorer, Ross Hunter leads the team with 8. Where as Dungannon loanee McDowell has a team high 6 assists from center-back. Jamie McKeown I wanted to post another player profile. Today is Jamie McKeown. He is a homegrown Glenavon talent. He can play at either center or right-back. He is our starting right back at the moment. His ability to "mark opponents tightly" has greatly helped trap players trying to create from the left wing. We face two hard cup ties next month. Dungannon in the MidUlster Cup Semis and our fierce rival Portadown in the Northern Irish Cup Quarter Finals. Wish us luck! Go Lurgan Blues! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 8, 2020 Author Share Posted September 8, 2020 March 2025 Schedule I actually kept playing a little into April I was so engaged in this save. I think that means I made the best call for myself in switching sides. We had a great run to end the month ending in 10th by time the league split. Unfortunately Crusaders made us pay when we played them in a revenge match away. Luckily we are still in 10th 2 points ahead of Cliftonville. Larne and Dungannon were also too much for us knocking us out in the Northern Irish Cup and Mid Ulster Cup respectively. Happy to say Dungannon lost out on at least one trophy without me however. Failing to overcome Warrenpoint in the Mid Ulster Cup Final. We also got our first Glenavon youth intake. Signing four potential players for the future. Daniel Wright He comes in as our second highest potential player in our U18s behind Hoare. He also is our only non-Northern Irish youth product, hailing from Crewe and England. Many other staffers give Wright a 4.5 star rating for potential. His determination is the biggest thing we need to fix and fast. Luke Woods A central midfielder with great natural fitness. However he could really go in any direction. Perhaps he could become our next ball winning midfielder. Glen Foster A nice either sided prospect. I don't expect him to be a first-teamer, but his versatility will most likely find him sub minutes in the future. James O'Donovan Our last signing can play anywhere across the midfield. I fell in love with his teamwork and work rate, but I see him as more of a potential sell-on in 3 years time. Competitions We aren't out of the woods yet. However, Glendinning is single-handedly dragging us out of relegation with 9 goals in 11 apps in the league. Our run out is gracious with us playing both 11th and 12th at home. If we can win both. I think we will seal our aim to stay up. Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 8, 2020 Author Share Posted September 8, 2020 April 2025 Schedule 7 points from a possible 12 to end the season. We save ourselves from relegation. Unfortunately we narrowly miss out on a 9th place finish losing to Institute on the last day. Danske Bank Premiership Glendinning led our team in goals with 12 in 20 appearances. Ross Hunter was close behind with 10 goals from 31 appearances. Player Stats Meanwhile McDowell and Lika led the team in assists with 6 and 5 respectively. Luan Lika has been a great addition making a terrific impact at left midfielder despite only able to participate in 16 matches. Board Vision The board have apparently been more impressed with my transfers than I though because they already expect us to jump up 4 places next season. Securing a top half finish. I would love to possibly get into Europe in my 3rd season with Glenavon, but we haven't been given any more than we already had finance-wise. Finances It looks like we will have to sell another key player or two just to stay afloat. So the real demands are achieve the best finish in the last several year while selling a gem or two. Luckily he were able to extend some loans from the Dungannon player factory. All on zero wages or fees. Gary Wilson First is our starting keeper Gary Wilson. He will be back with us next season. Hopefully he can be a solid wall at the back. Niall Harvey Second is a versatile Niall Harvey. We really need more depth in both fullback positions. So having Harvey to start on either side is a real blessing. Sebastian Wassell Lastly, is Englishman Sebastian Wassell. He will start at central midfielder for us next season. I am really thrilled to see if his potential can help us march up the league table. The other bonus is all three players contracts end next season. Hopefully at that time we may manage to sign one or two on a free transfer. Thanks for reading. Join us next month as we scrounge for deals heading into the 7th season of this save. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 May 2025 New Squad I waited a week past may until the window opened back up so we could go over all of our pre-arranged transfers. The Media is even boosted our expected finish in the league to 4th. Andy Youle This man has been an assist machine with Crusaders averaging over a 7 in rating and at least 12 assists a season the last 3 years. With great speed I know he will be a terror to our opponents. Even better we got him for free. Christopher Magee As a solid right midfield backup we have Christopher Magee. He has been on the edge of the Linfield team for 6 seasons. Hopefully he can contribute a bit more in our side. Stephen Woods Signed for 2K from Dergview in the Bluefin Championship. He unfortunately is also a right midfielder. However his potential and mentals really made him a prospect I thought could take us to the next level someday. Steven Hegarty Had to bring in one Dungannon youth product. Hegarty isn't blinding with his speed, but has fairly good physicals. He is really best at centerback. So that is where he will start for us this year pending any future transfer as we are still weakest at centerback. Stevie Downey Signed for just $925 from Glentoran in the league below. He also seemed like a midfield prospect that could really be something great. Plus I really feel better with higher determination youth players. Michael Traynor Our last player that we are trying to bring in is Michael Traynor. He is a little out of our price range. However he has been ever present for Crusaders the last 5 seasons, but despite his small stature would really add to our defense. No fixtures yet for next season. Cliftonville won the relegation playoff and will stay up. Portadown goes to the Championship. Warrenpoint will take their place. Meanwhile Donegal Celtic head down to the Bluefin Sport Premier Intermediate League, the 3rd tier of Northern Irish football. H&W Welders moves up to the Championship where as Malachians fall out of the pyramid all together. Unsure who will take their place. Thanks for reading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 June 2025 League Rankings We are finally a two star reputation league! Now we got to get the Bluefin Championship up to 1 star. Unfortunately we only have 3 professional teams in the top flight, highest rep side Dungannon, Linfield, and Larne. Northern Ireland National Team We also have 6 players from the national team playing in the Northern Irish top flight. Coyle has been capped for the national team as well as Grogan and Boyle. Boyle actually got his first goal for the national side. Really proud of all of these former players. Media Predictions The media formally had our newest signing Traynor in the media dream 11, but was displaced by a Dungannon player. As you can see our former team dominates the league. Hopefully we can make it to Europe next season. That has to be our goal. Fixtures Fixtures have generated. It will be a hard season as the board expect us to make deep runs in almost every competition we take part in. Michael Traynor Traynor comes in displacing Hegarty for the starting centerback role. We did see a few more loanees we liked, but we really need to give game time to maximize the value of our own talent that we are hoping to sell on to keep us afloat. Daryl Glendinning Glendinning is doing very well while Batth is not climbing the dynamic's hierarchy like we hoped. I think we will swap the two this season, and have Glendinning as our new vice captain. Hopefully making him our captain by next season. We will try to recap how the Northern Irish sides do in Europe next month. Join us then as we head into our final friendly match against our affiliate Dollingstown. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 9, 2020 Author Share Posted September 9, 2020 July 2025 Schedule First game of the season is a tough start away against Linfield. Hopefully we can stay in the top 6 while our team grows during the first half of the season. European Cup As for the Northern Irish European sides. They did not do well. Larne is the only one that made it to the second round of the Euro Cup 2. Dungannon loss in the Champions Cup 2nd round and was relegated to the Euro Cup 3rd round where they play Botev Plovdiv of Bulgaria. We were just about to reach the next echelon of qualification spots. This will probably set the nation back a bit unless Dungannon can make a run. Goalkeepers This month we will go over our keeper pipeline. We have 5 players right now at that position. Gary Wilson- I am hopeful we can sign Wilson permanently when his contract ends at the end of the season. He is currently the 6th best keeper in the top flight. Sam Johnston- He is a faithful backup, but won't get any better. I think he will stay with us until Hoare pushes him out of the team. David Hoare- Our star prospect at keeper. He will undoubtedly be better than Wilson if he keeps progressing well. I'm interested to see who caps him nationally as Ireland and Northern Ireland both have claims... If he can reach that level. Harry Willis- He will likely never be good enough for the top flight, but may play well for a 2nd tier side. William McAllister- Same can be said for William as he is not likely to ever play for a top flight side. Overall I think we need competition for places here. Hoare will be great, but he is at least 3 years off the first team. We need someone now. Hopefully the intake in March will have a prospect for us at keeper. David Hoare I wanted to post Hoare's progress. Hopefully he doesn't end up like Wilson at Dungannon where we outgrew his potential despite really liking him as a player. I am glad I got to manage more of Wilson's career, but even Wilson will be second team if we are hoping to one day overtake Dungannon. Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 10, 2020 Author Share Posted September 10, 2020 August 2025 Schedule Great month to start. Our only loss was to 2nd place Linfield. Shockingly Dungannon have already doubled their loss total from last season. Competitions We also flew by Bangor in the Bet McLean Cup 5-1 to proceed to the 3rd round. Two more wins to achieve board expectations of a semi-final finish. Premiership Transfer Window An interesting transfer window. We have not done anymore business. Dungannon let Saraki go to Nottingham Forest for 700k. That will hurt their team. A team that already looks weaker at the back this year. Meanwhile Hugo Fontes, the Portuguese center-back we prearranged a deal with for Dungannon, finally arrived at Dungannon from Vit. Setubal for 325k. He will be a great addition to the league. If he stays for 5 years he could even gain Northern Irish nationality. Media Predictions On the other hand, we remain in 4th place in the media predictions. Furthermore Traynor and Glendinning have both made the Media Dream 11. Making us the second most represented team in that dream eleven. Salary We also checked and we are 4th in salary in the league despite having the lowest sponsorship. Which means we are in for a season of losing a lot of money if we don't sell a player or make some deep cup runs. Rightbacks This month we are reviewing our rightback depth. we have 4 players in our team that play the position. Jamie McKeown- Our starting right back, youth product, and more of a center-back. He has the highest upside in this position. He has also been a great stop gap, but probably won't help us surpass the top 3 of Larne, Linfield, and Dungannon. Nathan Kerr- Our backup rightback and former captain. Kerr can play anywhere in the bottom half of the pitch. Unfortunately he is in the twilight of his career. Therefore he will most likely be sold as soon as we can find a replacement. John Gordan- Third with the trifecta of mentals in determination, work rate, and teamwork is John Gordan. He has deceptive potential, but most of the staff agree he has already reached his ceiling. Right now he is an atmosphere guy in the U18s, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him sold once he ages out. Glen Foster- A right back that may be a backup in the top flight one day, but if we keep improving the side. We may have to move him on as well. Overall, we need a new caliber of player at rightback to eclipse the likes of Larne and Linfield. Then another player to challenge Dungannon. All in all I would say this makes rightback one of our greatest areas of need. Jamie McKeown Wanted to give an up close view of McKeown. I think his player traits are pretty spot on. We love his ability to mark tightly. Plus he is not a passer in any sense of the word. So having him geared towards making "short simple passes" is a relief. Next month we have 4 games, starting off away at Stangmore Park, against our old side Dungannon. To give you an idea of how much better Dungannon is then the league. Glendinning is the 6th best striker in the league star-wise. However, Dungannon have 4 of the 5 ahead of Glendinning. Luckily not all of them can play so we get some reprieve. However, that fire power will be tough to stop next match. Wish us luck. Go Lurgan Blues! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 (edited) September 2025 Schedule This month was great. Taking us from outside the automatic European spots in 4th to 2nd place in the league behind Linfield. The highlight of the month was a 3-1 win against our former side Dungannon. Danske Bank Premiership Glenndinning is having an awesome start with 6 goals from 8 games in the league. Ranking second in the league among goal scorers. Meanwhile Sebastian Wassell and Andy Youle are setting the league on fire being 4th and 1st in the league in average rating. Finances Meanwhile the team has been sliding back financially. The team balance now sits 318k in the red. We still have 44k in player sold money yet to coming in. We need to make it into Europe or else we may start having to wholesale some players. If the board doesn't sell players without our permission. Centerbacks This month we will review our centerback pipeline. We have 11 players at that position. Michael Traynor- First name on the team sheet. He is averaging a 7.28 in the 9 games he has played so far this season. Mehdi Benrabah- Our 6'5" centerback partner is a quality Glenavon youth product. Most of my scouts agree despite his youth and good performances he is close to reaching his potential of 3 stars. Steven Hegarty- Our 3rd best centerback, Hegarty, will most likely be a backup for the next few season if we upgrade at centerback, or a starter if he surpasses Benrabah. David McDowell- Another youth product and our last centerback in the senior squad is McDowell. He is roughly equivalent to Hegarty, but just a year behind him in development. Daljit Abas- Abas has the highest upside at centerback. He is currently on loan to Bangor in the Bluefin Sport Championship, where he is their current starting right back. Sean Frawley- Currently in the reserve squad after being unable to find a loan. Frawley will most likely be sold within the next year as he likely never play much above backup minutes in the premiership. Stefan Carville- Likely the second best centerback prospect at the club. Carville is on loan to Newington Y.C. in the Bluefin Championship playing as their starting centerback. The last 4 remaining players Stephen Addis, Ross Spence, Daniel Wright, and Daniel Bell are all 17 year old 3rd tier quality players. All of whom have 2nd tier or at most backup premiership level potential. We will have to see if any of them can make waves once they age out of the U18s squad. Daljit Abas A dual citizenship Singaporean and Northern Irish youth product. He is able to play anywhere across the back line. Part of me hopes he get capped by the Singapore National Team as he is already good enough to be a backup for them. Competitions Next up we have a match against 7th place Institute away in the league. Then away again versus Portstewart in the BetMcLean Cup 3rd round. Wish us luck as we continue our quest to get into Europe. Go Lurgan Blues! Edited September 24, 2020 by DrChristopher Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 October 2025 Schedule A single hiccup early in the month was followed by great form. Including back to back wins against big spenders Larne. We have also managed to achieve board objectives of a semi-final appearance in the Bet McLean Cup. Player Stats This great form the last two month has been due to great performances from the first team lead by the stars of Youle, Wassell, and Glendinning. Competitions We also have been able to push our gap between us and Larne in 3rd to 5 points. Dungannon have been abysmal so far resting in 4th on 17 points. The one positive is that Dungannon have made the Europa League Group stages again. Medical Centre Our biggest concern is small nagging injuries. Especially to Youle who has been out nearly two months with unrelated injuries. No scouts are seeing injury prone signs with him yet, but this is 6 injuries within the last 12 months, all minor/moderate. Leftbacks This month we will review our small 3 player pipeline at left back. As you saw last month. Some of those centerbacks may find there way playing minute across the back three. However, these lads this month are the ones born to play left back. Niall Harvey- Our starter on loan from Dungannon is by far our best and highest potential player at this position. Josh Gourley- Our backup and starter the previous 3 seasons. Gourley is decent but not exceptional and is likely to never surpass Harvey even if Harvey never improved. Which goes to show that even our best player at a position is worse than Dungannon's reserves. Alan McCabe- A 18 year old reserve that will likely go out on loan to be sold within a year. As he is likely to never surpass the Bluefin Sport Championship in potential. Too be frank we could really use a solid youth intake to replenish the ranks. Or perhaps spend all of next year's budget on youngsters with high potential. With January around the corner here are two potential targets if we can get them on the cheap. Ronan McCann First McCann a free agent that refused to sign with us in the summer. We are still trying to soften up. He would be a great day one starter on the other side of the field from Youle. Gabriel Aranda Meanwhile Aranda is a peripheral character for MLS's Colorado Rapids. Thus they have put him up for loan. We would love to get him in for free. However with the high wages he is on. I doubt the Rapids will lease him to us out of the goodness of their hearts. He would be a instant starter at centerback pushing Benrabah to the bench. I hope you guys have enjoyed the new skin and graphics from Laura (Chilled Moose). Next up we face crestfallen former giants Crusaders in 10th place in the Premiership. Hopefully we can continue to put points between us and the pack before the fixture laden months of December and January. Months where we are bound to loss points. Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 November 2025 Schedule All green this month. Winning us a manager of the month award for our performances. With 8 matches next month will be need the extra points we've banked. Competitions Unfortunately despite beating Linfield we have yet to unseat them as they haven't dropped points to anyone else. Although it is nice to have 8 points of room between us and Larne in 3rd, despite them having a game in hand. Job Security: Very Secure The board agree with our good form earning me a very secure position with the club. We have also managed to trim the wage budget from 5% over budget to 1-2% over budget. Hopefully a few loans and a sale or two in the winter window will help get us back to figures we can work with. Club Overview I really enjoy this skin's club overview page. Its incredible to think how well we are achieving this season. I feel good that we could really stay in contention for an European place this year. Right Midfielders We have 7 players in the right midfielder pipeline. I think it is most likely our best depth position judging by talent. Andy Youle- Our starter and blockbuster signing from Crusaders this season. Youle came back from injury with back to back 8.2 and 8.3 rating performances. If he can stay healthy he will undoubtedly be in the team of the year discussion for this division. Christopher Magee- Our backup who is a little older and a little behind in development. He will be in the team likely for the next two seasons. Before perhaps being sold for a pretty penny. As for now his depth and quality have been a godsend with Youle's injuries. Stefan McMahon- Currently on loan at Glentoran in the Championship. He also has the ability to play on the left side. I am debating bringing him back early in the winter window to backup the senior team at left midfielder. As right now he is tearing up the 2nd tier with 4 goals and 3 assists from 12 appearances. No doubt the reason Glentoran are leading the Championship and favorites to promote. Danny Smith- Unable to get a loan. We unfortunately have Smith on the books for 3 seasons. Despite our assistant manager's hype of this player the rest of the staff deem him to be 2-2.5 star potential at best. Therefore I think we could sell him in the next year and capitalize on that inflated potential value. Stephen Woods- One of if not the best prospect at the club. He is perhaps a year from being a candidate for the senior squad. Still can't believe we were able to snag him for $2,000 from Dergview. Stefan Edgar- A 17 year old youth product that will most likely be loaned out and sold once he ages out of the U18s. Daniel Fitzpatrick- On loan at Glebe Rangers in the Bluefin Sport Premier Intermediate League. Unfortunately he doesn't even start for the 3rd tier side who sits at the bottom of the division. He will be released at the end of the season as no one is willing to pay for him. Stephen Woods Woods is a really bright star in the U18s averaging a 7.6 rating with 9 goals and 10 assists across 26 appearances. He could really take the team to new highs in 5 years time. Thanks for reading! Wish us luck as we face Linfield next in a Bet McLean Cup Semi Final match. Go Lurgan Blues! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 25, 2020 Author Share Posted September 25, 2020 December 2025 Schedule 8 games, 6 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss. Can't believe we loss to then 10th place Cliftonville. There is a 14 point gulf between Larne in 3rd and Dungannon in 4th. Competitions We are still managing to stay in every competition we were put in this season. Most important we are facing our old team Dungannon in the Bet McLean League Cup Final. We could use that 27k prize money for winning. Expectations The board offered an increase in transfer and wage budget if we promised an European finish. However, with Dungannon just having been knocked out of their Euro Group H. I don't know if we can keep hold of the top 3 if they devote all resources to the domestic front. Central Midfielders We have 12 players in the central midfielder pipeline. I will give small analyses on the top 8 and a brief summary of the bottom 4. Sebastian Wassell- Our starting ball winning midfielder on loan from Dungannon. His contract is up at the end of the year. Hopefully we can get him on a free in June. Malcolm Batth- Our starting deep lying playmaker averaging a 7.12 rating across 22 appearances so far this season. Luckily the 20 year old has just agreed a 2 year extension. Tony McClean- Our backup deep lying playmaker. McClean is a young player that unfortunately has already reached his prime. He is signed on for one more year. He will most likely be sold in that window. He appears is be only decent in the premiership or leading for the league below. Stevie Downey- He the other star prospect at the club. Only 17 years old, he is already averaging a 7.52 for the U18s. With 5 goals and 10 assists in 26 appearances. Greg Wilson- A 18 year old with stunning 15 technique. He has been playing 4th central midfielder for the senior squad. However, I think I may send him out on loan for the remainder of the year. Tim Dempster- On loan at Dundela in the championship where he is their starting central midfielder. He is likely to never make the jump to the top tier. Hopefully we can find a buyer for him over the next year. Luke Woods- A good ball winning prospect. Woods unfortunately doesn't have the potential to be much more than a backup to the first team. We will see how he fares once he ages out of the U18s. Rhys Harrison- Old man Harrison is 21 and still playing at 3rd tier level for Limavady United on loan. The scouts say he will one day be premiership level, but his slow development has me doubtful that he will ever get there. Hopefully he can boost his value over the next year so we can sell him. The last four are Marty Coyle, James O'Donovan, Karl Murray, and Paddy Henry. All of which are 3rd tier level players. None of whom are likely to grow much past the championship level. They will all most likely be sold within the next year or released. Stevie Downey He is playing lights out for the U18s. Therefore I have opted to promote him to the senior team. Here he will be playing 4th central midfielder minutes. I suspect by next year he will be pressuring the starters for playing time. In 3 years he may be leading the team in Europe. Tyler Mealor We have found a player that has agreed to join us on loan, but the terms have yet to be finalized. Mealor is a central defender who plays for Chelsea. The hope is that he signs for us following this loan spell as he is likely to grow to be better than anyone else at the club. His contract with Chelsea is slated to end in July. We face two tough away games next against Larne and Linfield. Hopefully we can hold our own and remain in the top three throughout this 9 game January. Wish us luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 26, 2020 Author Share Posted September 26, 2020 January 2026 Schedule An incredible month that bags us yet another manager of the month award. Alongside claiming top spot in the league. Linfield finally slipped up, losing 3 games this month alone. Competitions We are flying high on our way to a final, semi final, and a sixth round tie for a quarter final berth. However, the window was a interesting one with a few loan outs, no sales, but we did have two incoming players. Premiership Transfers The most interesting transfers outside of our team was that of Dungannon. Nelson Kamga came in for 200k from Union Berlin (a transfer we had previous arranged). Meanwhile Danny Zoetebier left them for Larne for 110k. Larne and Dungannon have all the money in the league so they really control the influx of talent that might trickle in from abroad. Tyler Mealor Chelsea's own has joined us slotting in well in the starting lineup at centerback. Unfortunately he got here pretty tired. Plus our fixture congestion didn't help. So perhaps he may fair a little better after the split. Maurice Byrne Meanwhile Byrne comes in on a free from Crusaders where he has been a first-teamer for the last 5 years. He also comes in with the most gangster mug shot I have ever seen. I'm thilled to have this man on our team as he has scored against us many times throughout the years. Luan Lika Lets start off our review of the 5 players in our left midfielder pipeline with our best. Our starter and captain Luan Lika. Surprisingly we are his 4th side in 5 years. Despite that the Albanian has great mentals. On top of averaging over a 7 rating in his 26 appearances for the senior squad this season. Left Midfielders 2. Stefan McMahon- Not natural at left wing his good performances off the bench have earned him substitute minutes behind our captain. 3. Kyle Edgar- Our former backup is currently in the reserves after failing to find a loan. He and McMahon are equal caliber however Kyle is 5 years older. Thus he has been resigned to the reserves. It may be best to sell him next year if he can't retake the backup job. 4. Darren Patton- Our only prospect at this position in the U18s. He hasn't shown much yet except his exciting determination. He will be loaned out at the beginning of next season. Hopefully he can show us the talent he has used leading the U18 side to top spot in the NIFL U18 Academy League. 5. Aaron McDonald- Last in every category is McDonald. Unable to secure a loan or sale this last window he will be released at the end of this season. As even the staff consider him only good enough for the 4th tier, which is outside the playable league structure. I am fairly happy with this position as I like Lika, but we could use a really star for the future. Perhaps a young 16 or 17 year old brought in this next window. Next month is an interesting one with only 6 fixtures. However, we have two big cup ties. The most important is the Northern Irish Cup and the league. It is really hard to pass up on silverware this early though despite already meeting board objectives. Wish us luck in our back to back matches against Crusaders up next. Thanks for reading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 26, 2020 Author Share Posted September 26, 2020 February 2026 Schedule Awful slide in form this month, losing 3 games. One of which was the Bet McLean Cup Final. The other two dragged us out of the top position in the league. Competitions Next up we face back to back cup ties against Warrenpoint. The most important of which is the quarter final tie as the board are demanding a semi final appearance in the Northern Irish Cup. Danske Bank Premiership We are one game away from the split. We face Cliftonville next in the league. It will be tough as they beat us earlier in the year. So far we have 5 losses. 1 to first place, 1 to 8th place, 2 to 9th place and 1 to 11th place. We really got to improve our form if we are to hold on to any dreams of the Champions League. Impressively Glendinning has closed a 7 goal gap in the golden boot award to 2. Hopefully we can give him the opportunity to surpass Smyth by the end of the season. Attacking Midfielders We only have 2 real players in the attacking midfielder pipeline. First is Maurice Byrne he has been very average in his 6 starts so far for the side. I am hopeful he can pick things up to end the season. Shockingly he has had 20 U21 caps for Northern Ireland and no senior caps yet. Ross Hunter Second is backup Ross Hunter. He has been a starter at Glenavon for 5 years. He has been a backup for most of this season despite making 24 appearances. He will likely remain a substitute going forward especially without a replacement on the horizon. Luckily I have drifted to "untouchable" job security-wise. However, being so close to some really silverware is tantalizing. Linfield have been unable to win the league since 2020. Plus part of me hates their manager David Healy. Mainly because he is the only manager with more tenure then me in the top flight. Plus his comments have been increasingly aggressive lately. Wish us luck as we try to swing for the fences on all fronts. Thanks for reading. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 27, 2020 Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 March 2026 Schedule Double victories against Warrenpoint were unfortunately capped off by a loss to Cliftonville. We have had a terrible time staying out of foul trouble. Even experiencing 3 red cards alone in our game against Cliftonville. Competitions This has caused us to most likely drift out of contention for a Champions League berth. We need to keep a tight grip on 2nd as it involves a difference of 18k in prize money if we were to fall down the league table. Top 3 Final Fixtures As for the run in. We have the worst schedule having only 2 home games whereas 1st and 3rd both have 3 home games. Youth Intake We also had the youth intake, which was a very weak pool. Only 4 players made the final grade and were signed. Unfortunately he had to pass on a American with dual Trinidadian & Tobagian citizenship that came through. Conor Campbell The best youth product was undoubtedly Conor Campbell. He is still likely to only be a backup at striker someday, but hopefully he can help supplement our depth as we head towards Europe. Next up is the Mid Ulster Cup Final against Dungannon. Go Lurgan Blues! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 27, 2020 Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 April 2026 Schedule Absolutely heart breaking end to the season. Missing out on every piece of hardware imaginable. Competitions Larne appears like a dark horse handedly beating Linfield and us while we were worrying about each other. Danske Bank Premiership The only silver lining is that Glendinning managed to get the golden boot on 29 goals from 35 appearances. Player Stats Youle was our main quality in the side. Hopefully he can stay healthier next year. Also Gary Wilson agreed to sign for us next year in a free from Dungannon. Glad to have a stable keeper for next year. He was second is clean sheets, and 1st in fewest goals conceded with 31 goals conceded from 34 appearances. Daryl Glendinning I wish Boyle wasn't stealing all the caps as I think Glendinning would get a senior national team cap if that were the case. Hopefully he can continue his good form in the Euro 2 Cup next season. Finances Finally back under 300k in debt. We also were given a 2k boost in weekly wage budget for next year. We may be able to sign two players max... we will have to be very picky with who we decide to bring in. Still going through the gambit of emotions. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel up to trolling through the transfer lists for the next star, but the 90k lost in prize money in finishing in 3rd rather than 1st was painful. Anyways thanks for sticking with us. Time to get fleece some managers for some wonder-kids. Cheers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 27, 2020 Author Share Posted September 27, 2020 May & June 2026 Board Vision The board have been rather easy going with their demands for the season. Schedule The matches up next is our Euro 2 Cup first qualifying round tie against Luxembourg side FC Progres. FC Progres Niederkorn The board expect a minimum of making it to the next round. We face much stiffer competition in the next round so this will likely we our only romp in the continental competition. Transfers We brought in 5 players this off-season. Unfortunately no team has players available that would be good enough for our first team that we could loan in. Jonah Buchanan Buchanan was one of our last youth intakes that came through at Dungannon. He also is likely to only be a backup striker at best one day. He will have a chance to prove himself out on loan at Carrick in the Championship. Adrian Forsythe Forsythe comes in as our backup left back. He has been stifled the last 4 years only getting minor backup minutes with Dungannon. Hopefully he can make good on his 4.5 star potential. Ruairi McCartney McCartney was the rock-star of this transfer window. Managed to snag him on a free from Dergview right before Dungannon got their hands on him. Unbelievably not only is he likely to be one of the best at the club someday he comes in as a day one starter at right back. Eamonn Mullen Mullen was one of the first signings we made at Dungannon alongside Jim Parker. He will be our starting central midfielder or left midfielder next season. Hopefully regular minutes will help him make up the remaining 2 stars of potential he still has despite being 24 years old. Gary Wilson Last but not least is Wilson our starting keeper returns this time permanently. He is roughly the 5th best keeper in the division. However two keepers better than him both play for Larne. Wish us luck as we attempt to bolster Northern Ireland's European qualification places. Go Lurgan Blues! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 28, 2020 Author Share Posted September 28, 2020 July 2026 Schedule A good start and surprising win against superior talent in Saburtalo Tbilisi of Georgia. We loss the first away match (0-1), but managed a solid win at home (2-0) scoring a goal in the closing minutes to clinch a third round berth. Next up is a surprisingly even match-up against FK Tobol Kostanai of Kazakhstan. Finances Our finances are doing way way better. We are very close to finally being in the positive for the first time. If we could make it to the 4th round we would have a real leg up financially next season. Prize Money The Danske Bank Premiership has risen 11 spots to a 2 star reputation league. The crazy part is that the prize money has sky rocketed. I'm pissed now because the hard earned money we won for a 3rd place finish is now the amount of money one gets for finishing in 10th. Squad View This is our 22 man roster. This will likely be the last season we can tolerate such a small senior squad. Next season we will likely push to 28 to 30 players strong. Squad Hierarchy Glendinning is our first team leader is two seasons. Hopefully Lika well promote to team leader this season as well. Our first league game is against Warrenpoint at home. Hopefully we can hold on to good results in the league while already starting with 7 matches in August. I missed having 60 games or more a year. This small squad will love the playing time. Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 August 2026 Schedule An incredible 8 games in August. We not only managed a 4-0 aggregate 3rd round win against Tobol. Then we went and took it to Jablonec of Czech Republic. We hammered them 8-0 at home cleanly sealing the deal and a Euro 2 group stage berth. Incoming Finances This leads to an insane 3 million dollars worth of prize money. Not including the great gate receipts from this run. We also had one sale that was forced on us and one purchase we made. Andy Youle First, the sale, was last year's star Andy Youle. We saw him looking a little injury prone last year and with Larne coming in for over double his transfer evaluation. We gladly took the 350k they offered. Danny Amos We lucky had plenty of depth behind Youle so we opted to spend the remaining budget for a stop-gap at left back. Our scouting turned up Danny Amos released from Cheltenham in league two. He is fairly decent all around and will start for us right away. Competitions We got a fairly tough group that will hopefully glean us some decent gate receipts. Our side and Larne are the only two Northern Ireland teams still in Europe. Both of us are in the Euro Cup 2 group stage. Larne face the likes of Young Boys, Malmo, and Asteras Tripolis. I don't think either of us will advance but it is an unprecedented level of success in Europe for Northern Ireland. Daljit Abas With that said the club need more bodies with 6 extra fixtures. So we have promoted a few lads. The best of which are Abas, McDowell, and Woods. Abas was seriously tempted to leave for Larne, but we shut that down. He is deeply unhappy with us right now. Hopefully with some games under his belt he will feel differently next transfer window. David McDowell McDowell is a decent young defender. He got a few chances last year. I look forward to seeing if he can continue to show well this season. Stephen Woods Where the sun rises and sets is Stephen Woods. Woods is really the lad we hope will claim Youle's empty throne, and that starts with him making good showings this season. Stephen Moan I can't tell you how freeing it is to have money to finally send staff on coaching courses. Like our invaluable assistant manager Moan. Most importantly of all this success is that the board have agreed to go professional at the beginning of next season. Meaning we can finally start to grind away at these great young lads potential. I certainly home we can convince the board for some more budget for the January window. All this worldliness aside our next match is against our own affiliate Dollingstown in the 2nd round of the Bet McLean Cup. Wish us luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 September 2026 Schedule Solid month. Dungannon ended up playing our second string side and won 0-2. Luckily they have dropped points elsewhere since allowing us to hang on to first. Competitions The shocking part is we are much weaker than we were last year. Also with our strength being divided due to European competitions we are having to field weaker sides in the league. On top of that everyone but Larne and ourselves are knocked out so they should be making us pay, but surprisingly both Larne and ourselves are top of the table. Predictions Dungannon are still the side to beat though as they now have 9 of the media dream 11. Surprisingly our new left back Amos has made the media dream 11. Strikers This month we will finally pick up from where we left off showing our striker depth. We have 6 players currently at the position. Daryl Glendinning- Vice captain, starter, and last year's golden boot winner. Glendinning is only 22 with a lot left in the tank. Hopefully going professional next year will help take his game up a notch in Europe. Ross Hunter- Our backup, versatile attacking midfielder and striker. Hunter is 24 with the next year or two likely being his last bit of growth. His next league match will mark his 200th for the club. Rhys Emerson- Our reserve/third string striker. Emerson is 23 and likely to only become backup quality at best. 4 goals in 4 appearances so far this season so he may be second string before too long. Kyle Uprichard- On loan at Dollingstown where he plays as a starting striker in the Championship. He could surpass both backups ahead of him, but will have to show it on loan. Jonah Buchanan- Of a similar potential to Uprichard. Buchanan is on loan with Carrick where he starters at striker also in the Championship. We may sell both Emerson and Hunter and let the kids backup in a year or two's time. Conor Campbell- last is our very own Conor Campbell. He can play at striker or left midfielder. However he is only a 3rd tier player at the moment. He could be a step behind Glendinning in the future, but for now he will remain in the U18s till he ages out. Youth Facilities The board have agreed to two more requests that were very much needed. Training Facilities Just like that a million dollars is spent, but as a worthy investment in the club. Unfortunately we won't see those improves happen until next fall. Next up is our first home game in the group stage against PAOK. The attendance was expected to be beyond what we could manage at Mourneview Park so we have been given Windsor Park to play at for the rest of the European competition. Wish us luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 29, 2020 Author Share Posted September 29, 2020 October 2026 Schedule Two draws in the Euro Cup 2 have added another 140k in prize money. Hopefully we can win a game before being knocked out, but probably not. Competitions By some miracle we have hung on to the top spot in the league, but only due to goals scored. The top 4 came to play this season and all of us are looking to win the league. I think we may have to abandon any further cup runs past board minimums if we hope to stay afloat in the league. Resigning Players The other problem is resigning players. We currently have 13 more players that need a new contract and no wage budget left. The board have refused any increase. Maybe we can negotiate again in January. However, that means we run the risk of other teams signing our players. Vision & Budgets We are doing well to meet board requirements. Plus we have officially gone from insecure/okay all the way to secure financially. Which makes us part of only 3 clubs (Dungannon, Larne, and us) who have secure finances. There are no rich teams in Northern Ireland. Danny Smith One interesting player of ours in Danny Smith. He is certainly never getting into the side. Nonetheless Cefn Druids were willing to pay 1k to have him on loan on top of paying his wages. Also his evaluation has rocketed to 48.5k which would be a handsome sum to sell him for next summer. Larne - Euro Cup 2 Lastly is Larne. They are killing it in the group stage. Andy Youle is their best player in the competition. They will almost certainly make the next round. Northern Ireland is 2 qualification places from our teams being upgraded to a better starting place in the Euro Cup 2. With both us and Larne doing well I think we could really make it to that threshold next season. Which would help even more sides possibly make a group stage in the Euro Cup 2. Next match we have what is probably our last shot at a win in Europe for the season. We face Partizani away at the 19k seater Qemel Stafa in Albania. Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted September 30, 2020 Author Share Posted September 30, 2020 November 2026 Schedule Back to back amazing wins in the Euro Cup 2. Racked up another 420k in prize money as well 250k in gate receipts. Pushing our team balance to over 4 million. Competitions We are mostly holding true in the league. With us only needing to meet board expectations in the Northern Irish Cup. Therefore the league will be taking the forefront for the first team from here on out. Goalkeepers This month I want to review the goalkeeping depth at the club. Gary Wilson- Our starter and clear number 1 is Wilson. He is also incredibly determined which is helping to shape a lot of young players through mentoring. Sam Johnston- Second is Johnson. He is the backup that has been doing fair in his share of starts this season. However his contract is up at the end of the season. So if the board don't give us more money we will have to make a decision on him. David Hoare- The anointed second coming is unfortunately still severely handicapped by bad determination. I mistakenly send him on loan to Annagh United in the Championship. There he is second in clean sheets. However, he will probably have to be kept at the club going forward to maximize mentoring. William McAllister- McAllister is currently our reserves keeper. He is likely to only ever be as good as Johnston. He will go out on loan most likely in the second half of the season. Then be sold next summer. Sam Johnston In the bottom corner is the coach report. The staff feel Johnston is only 2nd tier quality now. Which makes us very thin at keeper unless we find a stud in the January window. In terms of club-wide culture... If I had my way I would want to buy 5 5-star potential 16-18 year olds every season going forward. That was part of why Dungannon were good is we had surplus to sell. Here we only have maybe 1 player to sell a year rather than 2 or 3. I also will implore the board to give us a bigger transfer budget and turn it to scouting budget as there just aren't any good prospects left in the divisions we can scout. Next match is against Dungannon back to back at home in the Bet McLean Cup semi-finals and the league. Wish us luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 December 2026 Schedule Ten games this month. We won all but one to Dungannon in the Bet McLean Cup semi final. Competitions That's right we made it through to the group stage. Beating PAOK on the last day 2-0. Which means we play Shakhtar in the 1st round knockouts. Euro Cup 2 Larne meanwhile won their group so they will get a bye to the 2nd round of the knockout stage. Danske Bank Premiership We have done incredibly well fending off the other 3 professional sides in the Premiership. Managing a 5 point gap at the moment. We will face all three professional sides again before the league split. We are in store for a busy 8-game month in January. Liam Casupanan What is this? A new player? Correct. The board finally gave us access to a hefty 2 million dollar transfer budget. We converted that to wage and scouting. After re-signing all players who needed new contracts we had some left over for 3 players. First is Canadian international Liam Casupanan. He comes in as our starting centerback. Caoimhin Kelleher Second is our goal keeper help. Caoimhin Kelleher, a free signing that was released from Fulham will be our new number 1 between the sticks. Pierre Mallet The latest but perhaps not our finally signing of the winter window is Pierre Mallet signed on a free from france. He will come in as our backup striker. However, with his potential he could overtake Glendinning in a few years time. We have 6 league games this coming month starting off against Warrenpoint away. Wish us luck as we try to secure our foothold on the title. Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 1, 2020 Author Share Posted October 1, 2020 January 2027 Schedule Greens all month long. With some new signings our second team has become a lot more dependable. Competitions We have also stretched our lead to 6 points in the league. We face all 3 professional sides this month. So if we can win all 3 of those games. We will have stretched this lead to at least 9 points going into the league split and final 5 games of the season. Premiership Transfer Window No huge buys for other sides this transfer window, but unfortunately Dungannon and Larne are selling players to foreign sides. This is not what we want when trying to improve the Northern Irish leagues. The biggest problem is that Dungannon and Larne have big budgets and there are no other teams in Northern Ireland willing to spend money on players. Fresnel Ngoy We will start off by showing you the last two players brought in permanently. Beginning with Ngoy. A Congolese left midfielder and former PSG youth product. Ngoy joined us on free and will start at left midfielder. Nando Rapagna Second is Rapagna. This Italian striker was signed on a free having previously played at Napoli. He and Glendinning will be fighting for starts at striker. Vitaliy Salyvon Next two players were brought in on loan for free on zero wages. First is starting right midfielder Vitaliy Salyvon. The Ukrainian is on loan to us from Dynamo Kyiv for the remainder of the season. He will fill the hole left by Youle's departure. Fridrik Orn Adalsteinsson Last but not least is Adalsteinsson from Arsenal. He will start as our new deep lying playmaker in central midfielder for the remainder of the season. Danske Bank Premiership Which brings us to our last fixtures before the split. Next up we play Dungannon away in the league. Wish us luck as we attempt to fend off the chasing pack. Cheers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 February 2027 Schedule It was a tough month. We really struggled for points against the professional 3 away from home. We lost to Linfield and Dungannon. We need to cross our fingers we get drawn home match-ups against them after the split. Competitions Unfortunately we are officially knocked out of the Euro Cup 2. The board needs one more win in the Northern Irish Cup to be satisfied. After that we can devote all resources to the league. Ruairi McCartney I want to start this month reviewing our 4 right backs in the pipeline. Number one, our starter, and best player at that position is McCartney. He has 7 assists on 35 appearances for the first team so far this year. Hopefully the professional training will be great for his development beginning next year. As if we keep buying up talent at this rate he will drift into the second team. Right Backs 2. Jamie McKeown- Our backup and youth product is McKeown. He is likely to never retake the starting spot. He may find himself on the selling block if he can't realize his potential next year. 3. Glen Foster- Our third string right back is currently out on loan to Carrick in the Championship. He has been a squad player there as they make a push to promote to the top flight. 4. John Gordon- Our prospect and youth product. Gordon is currently on loan at Gateshead. He has fallen out of the starting team there. Hopefully he can boost his prospects as he will be released at the end of the year. Premiership We have one last league game before the split against bottom of the table Glentoran. If we can get 12 points from the last 6 games I think we will win the league due to our healthy goal differential. Next up we play Newry City AFC in the Mid-Ulster Cup semi-final. They have our former players Alex Dawson (from Dungannon) and Tim Dempster (from Glenavon). The second team will have their work cut out for them in that competition. Thanks for reading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 March 2027 Schedule A shorty but a goodie. Interestingly Ngoy has been caught drinking the night before a game twice these last two months. Lets hope he can hold it together leading up to our title challenge. Competitions This next month will start off with a Mid-Ulster Cup Final against Loughall of the Bluefin Sport Premier Intermediate League (Tier 3 of Northern Ireland). This could be our first piece of silverware as Glenavon manager. Under-18 Squad The youth intake came in and it had the makings of a golden generation. The only downside is that it may very well become outpaced by our imported talent. However we signed 8 players that go straight into the U18s. Harry Ewart The best of the lot is Harry Ewart. We love to see that great determination and work-rate. He could really be our ball-winning midfielder of the future. Top 3 League Fixtures This is the fixture list for the top 3 sides competing for the Danske Bank Premiership title. As you can see we could the worse draw possible. facing all 3 professional sides away. We need 9 points to claim the title in my eyes. We will have to win our two home games to have a shot. Wish us luck! P.S. Larne was knocked out in the 2nd knockout round of the Euro Cup 2 by Celtic (2-5 on aggregate). If our qualification coefficients hold we will rise almost 11 spots in Europe. Thus all 3 teams in the Euro Cup 2 will start in the 2nd round qualifier. This is really starting to feel like a building a nation save. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 2, 2020 Author Share Posted October 2, 2020 April 2027 Schedule We won the league! It was magic. First a win against Larne gave us hope, but the loss to Linfield left us with just a one point gap between us and Dungannon. With us playing Dungannon on the final day away. We had an early goal which boded well. Then just before the half Dungannon had a send off of the American Miguel Angel Velazquez. Which allowed us to stall out the rest of the game winning 1-0. Danske bank Premiership With the heavy rotating this year we have no golden boot candidates, but I'm impressed by Rapagna and Kelleher making their way into the leader board despite all getting here in the winter window. Player Stats Here are the player stats for the year. Rapagna really was on fire with 18 goals and 5 assists from 16 matches. Takeover Our chairman retired thus we had a takeover from a local businessman. Cash Injection He was kind enough to inject 500k into the club. Which will keep us above 4 million in overall balance. However, the club has drifted to "okay" financial status. I don't know if that is a sign of things to come or just natural during a takeover. New Contract The board have also resigned me to 4 year deal which I am happy to sign. James Devlin We have two pre-contracts already penned. Both lads are on their way from Dungannon on a free. First is central midfielder James Devlin. He will most likely be a squad player next season. James Rose The second is a former youth product that I bought from Glenavon while at Dungannon before I left. He is happy to come back home. James Rose is yet another striker prospect. We really don't need anymore though. Hopefully we can start to sell some of the surplus talent at a few positions. See you next month. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 May & June 2027 Schedule Champions League 1st Round Qualifier starts us off this season against Luxembourg side Dudelange. The board at least expects making it to the second round. Transfers 4 more free transfers come in so far this window. However it doesn't raise our projected finish any higher than 3rd. Dean Cook First is former Cheltenham player Dean Cook. He will come in as our starting left back with gobs of potential. Craig Cooke Meanwhile Craig Cooke joins us as our starting right midfielder after leaving Swindon at the end of his contract. This was a much needed boost since Youle left. Matty Doran Next I was able to snag former player from Dungannon Matty Doran. He is in his prime now and will be our starting attacking midfielder. However, my biggest goal is to move him on to another team perhaps outside the top 4 sides in Northern Ireland on a free at the end of his contract. Trying to grow the league. Connor McGlinchey Lastly is McGlinchey from France. We signed him back in January on a free and unfortunately he didn't grow at all the final 6 months he was in France. So he is outside our top 3 in terms of strikers. He will be one of the best down the line, but for now we are trying to find a loan so he can continue to grow. (Which he is not happy about.) Squad View Which brings us to our squad, with the best 2 players at each position picked in this photo. Some much better potential-wise compared to just a year ago. Club Vision The board are demanding an European finish in the league. Which we absolutely agree on. Everything else is a fairly easy mark to reach. Aside from maybe a semi final appearance in the Northern Irish Cup. All in all, happy with our signings. It is still a few years away from being on par with Dungannon talent-wise. However, we have money to play with for another signing or two. Maybe a loanee or two as well. Then we will see how much money we can claim in Europe. Thanks for reading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 July 2027 Schedule 9-0 aggregate win to Dudelange. Then a tough draw against FC Kobenhavn where we unfortunately lost 5-6 on aggregate. Which bounced us to the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League. Competitions The board have also started to up to ask with high expectations of two more competitions. First a quarter final appearance in the Tunnock Wafer Challenge Cup. Then a final appearance in the Bet McLean League Cup. I guess we did make it to the finals two years ago, but that feels like one tough draw against a top 3 side could knock us out. Dynamics On the dynamics front Luan Lika last year's captain is already striped of the captaincy after 1 season. After less than a year of European money and incoming transfers Lika is flirting with the reserve squad due to no marked improvement in ability. He is upset with the minimal faith from me to keep him in the role. Glendinning will take over captaincy for the time being. We may have to sell Lika if he forces the issue. Which brings us to our next topic. Josh Gourley We have started to really pair down our prospects as we had roughly 75 players at the club. Meaning we are selling them to other Northern Irish sides for peanuts. Starting with Gourley. Gourley was roughly worth 15k and we decided to sell him for free as well as pay for his entire contract at his next club for a season. So a less wealthy team could sign him. So he was signed by recent relegated side Glentoran as a squad player to help them make the push back up into the top flight. Thanasis Poutakidis We also decided to go for a loanee this year. We have had our eye on this guy for a while and with a percent covered of his wages we acquired Poutakidis for the season. We will be calling him Thanos from now on. He comes in as our best player, but incredibly still short of the Premiership media dream eleven. The other top sides are really still that good. Which makes us feel like we really lucked out winning the league last year. Finances As you can see we still have healthy finances to share the love in Northern Ireland. I hope we can hopefully raise some fresh faces from the 2nd or 3rd tier of NIR football via free loans or gifted transfers to on the rise teams. Next up we play against Rosenburg of Norway in the Europa League 3rd round. This is another really tough draw. I was hoping to make a group stage but I think this may be our last continental tie. Unless the loser of this round gets a second life in the Euro Cup 2. (The rules don't give a description of what happens to the losing team.) Thanks for reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 5, 2020 Author Share Posted October 5, 2020 August 2027 Schedule A great surprising win against Rosenburg earned us a tie against Levski Sofia of Bulgaria in the Euro Cup Playoff. We loss there and were relegated to the Euro Cup 2 group stage. Which earned us another 3 million in prize money. Competitions Luckily we achieved the bare minimum in both the Champions Cup and Euro Cup. So it is just a bonus from here on out. We are grouped in group c with Panathinaikos, FC Groningen, and Stabaek. I think we could likely finish 3rd. However, we will have to wait to see if any magic can take us to 2nd in the group. Unfortunately nobody else from Northern Ireland made the group stage. Which is a bit of a let down from last year. Finances We now have a very healthy bank balance. We most likely continue our endeavor to supply the other Northern Irish sides with talent. Dungannon Stadium Of course once I left, Dungannon got a new stadium. It is a joke though as it has a minuscule capacity. William McAllister McAllister is now officially at Institute. Hopefully he can be backup keeper for them. However, that is still likely a few years away. He was transferred on a free. Kyle Uprichard Another interest for other clubs was Uprichard. Larne being the most persistent. So we managed to con them out of 60k to have him permanently. Which is a great deal for a player who will never really challenge our side even in his prime. Next match is our first game in the Bet McLean Cup in the 2nd round versus Moyola Park. Wish us luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 6, 2020 Author Share Posted October 6, 2020 September 2027 Schedule A decent month. Crawling our way back up into 1st in the league as well as earning our first win in the Euro Cup 2 group. Competitions Amazingly we have had 21 injuries so far this season. We even had to bring in a few reserves despite having a 28 man squad. Hopefully this is the only injury crisis we will have this season. However, I am truly impressed with how well we have played in spite of it. Centerbacks This month I want to review our centerback pipeline. Which currently has 14 players at that position. I would really like to get that down to 6-7 at most. I think if I begin selling off everyone lower than 3 star potential we could get there. Our starters are Michael Traynor and Liam Casupanan. Both are 24 and likely to be in our side for the next year or two. However, they will not get much better. And only Casupanan is currently in the Premiership dream 11. Our backups are Stefan Carville and Steven Hegarty both of which could be as good as our starters some day at best. Both are 21 so they may be in a backup or reserve role for the next few years, but likely will be passed along to other Northern Irish squads after that. Our reserves are Mehdi Benrabah and Stephen Addis. Benrabah had formerly been a starter but he has drifted out of the top 4 at his position. Addis is 19 and could be as good as our backups someday, but will likely find a loan in the next window. The other 8 players are likely to never be much better than 2 star potential except 3. Ross Spence, Daljit Abas, and Daniel Wright. The best of which is Abas. He is currently on loan at Newry City AFC in the Championship where he is their starting centerback. He still has dishearteningly low determination which is holding him back. My hope is that he can make strides in his development quickly as he is already 20 and off the pace to achieve his 4 stars of potential. Stefan Carville I wanted to give closer examination of our best prospect outside our starters in Stefan Carville. He has done well on loan in the 3rd, 2nd, and 1st tier of Northern Irish football. In other words he is our Jamie Vardy. If we stay at our level of talent he will likely be a starter someday, but if we continue to get better he will likely never surpass backup quality. Our next match is against Institute at home in the league. Which will culminate in the 7 game October. Hopefully we can rotate effectively to stay well rested across these fixtures. Wish us luck as we try to do it all this season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lodi Lemmer Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 Really enjoying following your career. I like how you reviewed different position areas each month. I might be inspired to attempt something similar with my thread. Best of luck in your next season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 On 05/10/2020 at 20:51, Lodi Lemmer said: Really enjoying following your career. I like how you reviewed different position areas each month. I might be inspired to attempt something similar with my thread. Best of luck in your next season! Thank you for reading. I never really got attached to a save until I started writing it down. Hopefully it helps you feel connected to your save as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrChristopher Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 October 2027 Schedule Solid month with a wonky finish. We won every game except the last game of the month where we played Warrenpoint away. The second string was on the field for that match, but should have closed things out. Making it a little tighter points-wise at the top. Competitions The top 3 is all within a game of each other. Surprisingly Dungannon is already having another down year falling 8 points behind in the first 12 games of the season. Hopefully we can hold on to this lead during our 7-game November. Dynamics Concerns We have two current promises involving dynamics that are concerning. Both of which involve very prominent members of the team. My compulsive buying of strikers has finally come back to bite me. As Glendinning is demanding more playing time. As our second string striker, in a 1 striker formation he is reasonably upset. Added, he is in the top 5 in current ability at the club. On top of that he is our captain so he could really destabilize things if he doesn't get his way. Second is Luan Lika. He has dropped out of the senior squad, and has demanded a loan move just as the window closed. He is maybe 60 days from being irate about it. Which is just shy of the winter window. So hopefully we can get him a loan ASAP, but if not he will likely cause major fractures as a core social group member and highly influential. Player Stats Here our stats among the senior squad by average ratings. Rapagna is really making it impossible to play Glendinning consistently. Leftbacks This month will will be reviewing our left back pipeline. Of which we have 6 players available. Dean Cook- Our starter with 4 star potential ability. The Englishman is thriving in his first 15 appearances after arriving from Cheltenham, averaging a 6.95 rating as a defender. Danny Amos- Second our backup and last years starter. Amos also of Cheltenham, is currently in the twilight of his career. (More on this in his prospect profile below.) Adrian Forsythe- 25 years old and still with good potential despite most the staff downgrading him to 3 star potential. He is now the versatile fullback that supplies coverage to either side that needs it. He has mostly played at left back so far that season however. Alan McCabe- A Dungannon youth product. McCabe is currently on loan at Dundela for the second season in a row as their starting leftback. He definitely has the potential to reach the senior team, but likely never will eclipse the backup or reserve roles. Stuart Buchanan- A hometown hero who helped the U18s win the NIFL U18 Academy League. As well as aided the reserve squad in coming runners-up in the Northern Irish Intermediate Cup. Buchanan is currently on loan at affiliate Dollingstown in the Championship. He will likely be another victim of overcrowding and be sold off or gifted. Dave Hume- The Gibraltarian, who is currently still in the U18s. He is likely never to be good enough for the first team. He was a unique signing, but has failed to show great improvement. The staff assess that he might be a good starter in the 3rd tier someday. Danny Amos Amos is the perfect age, and most likely already surpassed his most profitable time to be sold. I think after this season we will look to move him on despite his service to the club. I just hope that we can find some young replacements to fill the gap in the next window. All in all we are at a plateau similar to what the other teams in top 3 are hitting. To get better players and grow the country we must pay bigger sums. However, to attract those players someone needs to spend the money scouting-wise to go find them. We hope to pay for "world" scouting beginning this next window or during the summer. So we can go find the talent that will take us to the next level. As for the immediate future. We face FC Groningen of the Eredivisie away in group C of the Euro Cup 2. They are the 2nd best team in the group and narrowly loss to us at home last month. If we can win or draw another game against them. I think it will seal our knockout round qualification. Wish us luck as we try for just a little more prize money, to make our world scouting dreams a reality. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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