[FM 20] Turtle Race Journeyman (COMPLETE)

[TerminalPortugal]

We played them in the group stage now we will play them again in the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round, as we get Lille of France.

[TerminalPortugal]

We reach a significant milestone in football as we approach managing our 1,000th game in football.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (March, April & May 2041)

Well it just all fell apart really, we ended the season in really bad form, losing to the cross town rivals 4-1. I think injuries and probably too many games in the legs had the biggest impact for us. We probably need depth for next season more than anything else, but the way I like to build depth, is buy a starter and keep the guy who is already at the club. Most of the new signings did well. Suzuki I thought was a bit disappointing but elsewhere everyone is being linked with call-ups for their country and the players at least seem to have bedded in. We did not catch Rangers, but the positive is Celtic did not catch us, so we break up the 1-2 hegemony of the Old Firm. No silverware this season perhaps we can achieve it next season, but for a first season it has been pretty decent work.

This is how the league ended up. Rangers finished on 91 points, 11 more than Celtic last season. Seems like the standard has been improved. If this was last season we would have missed on the league title by a point. So if we can become better and Rangers or Celtic are not as dominant perhaps we could do it.

[TerminalPortugal]

Looks like Celtic have parted with their manager after a pretty indifferent season by their standards. We decide that we are going to stay at Hibernian. I don't think we are very far off their standard.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (Pre-Season 2041)

It's our 2nd full season in charge of Hibernian and pre-season is a lot shorter this year with just four friendlies, but four wins for us against French and Spanish opposition. I hope we can improve this season and make a real fist for the title.

Now 41 years old.

Not too much business just players that would improve us. Gron is more of a depth player to give me options in central midfield. He will give me more flexibility to change where players can play instead of needing guys to fill in because the backups are not good enough. Mortensen is a better right fullback and would also be the best centre back at the club. I think we will deploy him at right back. Darwisho, our Syrian right back spent a lot of last season injured as did Scrivner at left back and it caused havoc, so I hope he can strengthen us there. de Graaf is a veteran defensive midfielder and he is marginally better than Gjelle. I think they will rotate with each other, although de Graaf did pick up a nasty injury in pre-season so hopefully that is not a sign of things to come with him. There are two major players leaving us this season. Tomic, whom I can't fit in for registration reasons moves to Partizan where hopefully he will play well and improve. Torok was a depth player who I am happy to let go, he leaves for Preston North End for just over £3m.

The updated depth attribute chart is above

The positional depth chart is above. We are beginning to see a lot of green which means that they are a player than in theory is above what I consider to be the positional average.

[TerminalPortugal]

The Champions League group looks pretty tough.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (August, September, October & November 2041)

Well it has been a very solid start to the campaign for us. Despite the fact that we are going all out attack every game, somehow we have managed to become a team that tends to win games by the odd goal. In the league we have been able to always seemingly squeak past the opponent. I am unsure if this is good sign or a bad one at this stage. In the Champions League, we did about as much as were ever going to and that was to secure third place in the group. Although I will say we were not outclassed by either of Barcelona or PSG, so I am pretty happy with that. Rangers did us out of the League Cup at the semi final stage which was a bit of sour note for us.

Currently we top the table by 3 points from Rangers and 6 ahead of Celtic. Rangers have a game in hand and have goal difference on their side so they will go ahead of us with a win in the game in hand, but we are definately challenging them. There is still a long way to go this season, and we will see what we can achieve.

With a game left to play, we are confirmed into 3rd place and Europa League football in the new year.

[TerminalPortugal]

We get Fenerbahce in the Europa League First Knockout Round.

[TerminalPortugal]

As if I would ever consider taking this job...

[Fudal]

13 minutes ago, TerminalPortugal said:

As if I would ever consider taking this job...

The cheating bastards 

[TerminalPortugal]

27 minutes ago, Fudal said:

The cheating bastards 

I know it is irrational as FM is only a game, but I genuinely do not like Valerenga now.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (December, January & February 2042)

You know this could actually happen. We have been in incredible form this season. With the added depth and thankfully not too many injuries we have been rotating the team and playing players in positions where they can add value and it had been working very well. Very few positions are we not rotating and the dividends are paying off with more energy in the second half of the season. The only loss of the whole period came against Rangers, and actually that game did happen around the time of mini injury crisis for a week or so. In the Scottish Cup we got through Kilmarnock in the 5th Round. They have beaten us a fair few times since we have been Hibs manager so glad to get one over on them. In the Europa League we have done well, as we just dispatched Turkish giants Fenerbahce over two legs. We will be playing Lyon in the next round, which should be hard one.

There is still a way to go, let's not get the champagne out just yet, but with a 9 point lead, although it will be reduced to six if Rangers win their game in hand, you know we could end up doing this. I may not get a better chance of winning the league the whole decade I am in Scotland, so we need to take our chances to be perfectly honest. In the case of Hibs they have been waiting for 90 years to win another title, so we may not get another chance so soon.

[TerminalPortugal]

We sign a new four year deal with Hibernian, they left it until my contract had a month or two to run to give me an extension. Nice salary though, that's £1.3m a year.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (March, April & May 2042)

We were not perfect down the stretch, we had some absolutely horrible results, like a 5-3 loss to Hearts, 5-0 to Celtic and 4-1 to Aberdeen, but elsewhere we were great, and most importantly we were good enough to bring home the title for the first time in 90 years for Hibernian. In the end I always said I was confident we could continue to amass the same number of points from the season before, it was a question of whether Rangers and Celtic could go beyond that and have the stellar year that Rangers had last season and this season they could not. In the end our league win was very comfortable. In the cup we managed to get past Celtic in the semi final to set up a final against the dangerous Aberdeen, whom we had lost to 4-1 just a week before. We set up the training for a big game practiced all the elements of the game, including penalties in case we needed them. We almost did but young Oudin found the net in extra time and that was enough to bring home the Scottish Cup for an amazing double for us. In Europe we faced Lyon and looked great after the first leg 2-0 win, but we travelled to France and Lyon were outstanding on the night and managed to turn it around to win 3-0 on the nigh and 3-2 on aggregate. An amazing season, in just our second full season in charge we have brought the glory back to Easter Road.

This is how the league table finished we romped to the league title in the end with a 10 point gap to 2nd placed Rangers. Scottish has improved enough that we get 4 places in the Champions League as the league is now the 6th best in Europe, so our cross town rivals will also get a taste of Champions League football this season.

[TerminalPortugal]

Looks like the board want to capitalise on the success on the field with a new stadium.

[TerminalPortugal]

Takeover has occured at Hibernian

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (Pre-Season 2042)

The lads have done well in pre-season, we went to Spain for a tour, where we played Forest and Sheffield Wednesday. Wednesday provided us our only loss but I am not too concerned. We look decent for the coming season as we look to retain our league crown.

We are now 42 years old.

Not much in the transfer department, certainly no one into the club. We did try and make a bit of money with our loans. Last season Tomic went to Partizan Belgrade without a monthly fee, this year after we decided that he would still be the player out on loan, we get £100k a month from Partizan for the benefit and we did the same with George Black, Milne and Glover, who not only get experience out on loan playing at Scottish Premiership and English Championship level which should improvement, but a bit of money which I will never say no to. I think there is a good little side play on the finance side to squeeze a few million out of clubs each season for guys that are just not first team ready.

The attribute analysis of the players is above. A few small regressions but nothing major. Canchilla our Colombian winger has really come on leaps and bounds. 

The depth chart is above. Similar team I think to last year apart from Rodriguez has now improved beyond Valencia and will get the starting berth in central defence and Kleyr and Canchilla will start on the wings this season which was already partly happening last season anyway. Suzuki will be a very good substitute to bring on in games. Tomic did improve on loan at Partizan, but he is still not close to other players at the club so he is the guy to go out on loan, again going to Partizan Belgrade, this time for £100k a month.

[TerminalPortugal]

The Champions League draw has been made, and it is an interesting group. I think we have an outside chance of getting through it. We have proven we can beat Lille previously. Benfica and Inter Milan will be tough tests for us though.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (August, September, October & November 2042)

The early part of the season is in the books and what was a very good start to season, went a little off the rails towards the latter months. Injuries played a big part in it, as we lost key players such as Kleyr for over a month. We did struggle to rotate the team around a bit, and that probably led to more injuries. Still in November we recovered a bit and had a great result against Rangers. In the League Cup, Hearts put us out which was hugely disappointing, the game was around the time we were in bad form and struggling on the injury front, so I knew it was going to be a possibility. In the Champions League we have held our own very well, and do not look overawed playing these titans of European football, and in fact look good money to make the First Knockout Round.

Celtic lead the league, 1 point ahead of us, they also started the league season on fire but have been pegged back a bit. All three of Scotland's big three (yes I am including us in that now), are within the touching distance, it could go either way.

We sit in 2nd place with a game to go. We host Lille, who have been poor in the group and are already eliminated. Benfica have to go to Milan and win to have any chance of progressing. If I was a betting man, I would make us very much favourites to advance with Inter Milan to the next round.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (December, January and February 2043)

It has been pretty patchy for us. We have had more injuries and we just seem a little bit off the boil at the moment. Arias got himself injured during this period and we suffered a bit without him in the team. Still we have managed to get plenty of wins along the way and we are still in the title race albeit we are definitely not favourites. Celtic have put together an impressive run of results and really they are big favourites foe the title this season, but the run in will have a big effect and stranger things have happened. Rangers are also there or there abouts, so I think it is still just about a three horse race for the title. In Europe we have played the first leg of the Champions League First Round against Chelsea, and unfortunately it ended in a loss at home by 3-2. So you would think our chances of getting a result in London is very slim.

We are equal on points with Celtic but crucially they have a couple of games in hand. Rangers are three points further back. We do still play Celtic before the split in the league so realistically if Celtic win that, then the title will be more or less sealed up, however if we can get the win, then it will be all to play for.

 

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (March, April & May 2043)

The first thing to say is that Celtic absolutely choked the title this year and we here to take advantage. The first game of March was absolutely crucial. If Celtic had won, or probably even drawn, we could forget any chance of catching them, but Kleyr got the only goal of the game and the wheels started coming off Celtic as they began dropping points on almost a weekly basis. They did get a revenge win against us, to keep them in it, but a win against Rangers set up the situation for us. We would have to go to rival Hearts and get a point. A loss would hand very much the advantage to Celtic and any kind of win at Aberdeen would give them the title. Well we got a draw which was enough regardless of what Celtic did, but they only managed a 0-0 draw anyway so the title would be coming to Easter Road anyway. In Europe it ended with Chelsea, we were already behind and we could pull no rabbits out of hats in London as they got past us 2-0 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate. It's been an incredible season again for us, it looked to all the world that opportunity to win a second title had gone but Celtic gifted it to us and we will gladly take it.

We take the league by 3 points from Celtic. Rangers finish 8 points behind us. Hearts again secure the last Champions League place. Both Hearts and Aberdeen were going for the last spot, with Aberdeen needing to better the result Hearts got against us. In the end two draws put Hearts into the Champions League.

[TerminalPortugal]

The board announce that we will be moving that planning permission has been given for a new 31,121 seater stadium in Edinburgh, to be completed at the end of the 2046 season.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (Pre-Season 2043)

We began our fourth full season in charge of Hibernian looking to see if we could make it three Scottish titles in a row. First things first, we had a pre-season to complete, and we decided to invite some formidable opposition to a tournament in Edinburgh to celebrate our repeat of the Scottish title win. Well tournament went very well for us, as we won it, against the likes of PSG, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. So things look pretty good for the new season.]

We are now 43 years old.

My transfer business is not quite over, because I am now looking to actively bolster my youth recruiting, as we have had a couple of poorer classes, and I would like to get some prospects into the club. For the first team de Graaf retired, and to be honest that was probably a season to late as his legs had gone, despite the season before being given the PFA Player of the Year award. So we bring in Malian Modibo Diabate, ostensibly as a defensive midfielder but to be honest that would be wasting him. I think he might slot in central midfield this season and just add to the versatile competition for places we have right across the side at the moment. We are continuing to put some of the reserves out on loan and actually it is nice little way of getting some cash into the club. Last season we had some major success with our loanee. Milne who went on loan to Championship Nottingham Forest absolutely tore up the league and came back with 24 goals in the league and the Young Player of the Season award. His value went from £500k to £6m over this process. Strangely we have not been able to get anyone to bite on him in terms of taking him on loan, but if not we will develop him. Tomic improved again last season at Partizan, but this season Partizan were not interested and so he will be going to Atalanta in Italy who have great facilities and play at a higher level. If we does well for them he should improve again. He is very close to overtaking Suzuki in certain areas and then we may have to think who should go out on loan but for now we put Tomic out on loan for the equivalent of £1.7m for the season to Atalanta. I expect there to still be some business especially loans out of the club and potentially some young prospects signed but apart from that not much else to report.

The attributes for the team are above, the squad has grown in size, probably due to me doing the analysis just before some of the dross of the reserves and youth team left. There have been a few key regressions in the team which has not made me happy. Oudin seems to have regressed a little bit at least on the model. Arias has fractionally regressed but he has won the Scottish Top Goalscorer award three seasons in a row so I don't expect it will affect him much. Canchilla is coming on a treat, and there were improvements for Valencia and Scrivner. Kleyr continues to be the man at the club in my opinion. Arias gets the goals but occassionally Kleyr is unplayable. He continues to smash the model and can pretty much play anywhere to a great standard.

Depth chart looks like this. Starting line up in my head is GK: Fireau DL: Scrivner DR: Mortensen DC: Zurapovic DC: Valencia DMC: Gjelle MEZ: Gron CM: Diabate ILF: Canchila ILR: Kleyr AF: Arias

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (August, September, October & November 2043)

We have been nothing short of brilliant this season, we look untouchable at the moment. A solitary draw at home to Celtic the only bleamish on perfection. Last season we were squeaking past in a lot of games, that is not happening this season as we blow past teams 3-0, 4-0 often. In Europe is has been a similar story, apart from Chelsea who beat us pretty convincingly at our place, but it does not matter as in Europe we have already booked out place in the knockout rounds in 2nd place, with a dead rubber remaining between us and Chelsea to come in the group stages. The League Cup continues to be a difficult nut to crack for us, we were dumped out by Celtic at the Quarter Final stage, although there is no shame in losing to Celtic at Celtic Park at the end of the day.

This season we have been working on youth development as much as possible, it is not normally something that is my top priority because I tend to move clubs so don't get much benefit from it, secondly I am not comfortable playing players that lack the necessary skills in games, unless it is absolutely required, but I want to do it more often, and I see the benefits of doing it. I would say I am okay at developing youth but not spectacular, but I have been reading advice and so far the results look decent enough so far, although it is early days. In the pre-season update I said we were in the market for youth prospects and we picked up a few.

Luis Ferreira looks like a great little player and is in our reserves at the moment and advancing nicely. Chris Goldman I sent out on loan to Championship Dundee, but I think I regret that decision at the moment, and am thinking of recalling him so I can tailor his training. Belec again comes in with lots of potential and is progressing well. The reason we have had this change in heart when it comes to youth development, beyond wanting to get better at it and incorporate it into our management style is that at Hibernian we are kind of stuck with the registration. I need homegrown players but have very few in the first team squad, certainly no starters, so at the moment it really is a policy of one player out one replacement in and that will only take us so far especially if we want to compete in Europe. For this reason I want to get prospects in young and develop them into first teamers who are homegrown. Or at least that is the plan anyway.

We are looking dominant and have already opened up a 7 point lead at the top of the Premiership with Celtic in 2nd. Rangers are having an awful season so far and we have opened up a 19 point lead on them. Can't see any way they come back to win the league this season.

Confirmation of the Champions League group and 2nd place for us.

[TerminalPortugal]

Looks like we will be going to London again as we draw Arsenal in the Champions League First Knockout Round.

[TerminalPortugal]

Man United want to have a word and it is bit early for that.

[TerminalPortugal]

A big sale occurs Morten Gron, was unsettled by me rejecting a bid from Liverpool and we could not agree on a decent sale price for him. So when Liverpool came back in I got as much as I could. He goes for £41.5m + 45% of the next sale (which could be big money). We already have our replacement lined up. Shame to see him go, he has been so good but we make about a £35m profit on him + 45% of whatever Liverpool might end up selling him for.

[TerminalPortugal]

The new man joins, meet Panu Sukchai, sigend from Anderlecht for £17m to replace Morten Gron who leaves for Liverpool

I think Sukchai is a better Mezalla, but Gron did have a lot to offer, I am happy with the move as we made an immense profit on the transfer even including the Sukchai replacement.

 

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (December, January & February 2044)

It appears we are in no mood to give anyone much of a chance of getting back into this, we continue to set a pace that no one can live with. The only loss of the season so far has come against Aberdeen, but apart from that we have been barely if ever stoppable as we just pass teams off the park. The Hibernian revolution does not appear to be disappating, at least not this season. In the Scottish Cup we got past Aberdeen in Quarter Final, where we played them off the park. In Europe we received Arsenal to Edinburgh and have a narrow 1-0 lead going into the away leg, importantly we gave away no away goals, so hopefully we can keep things tight and nick a goal at the Emirates, and hopefully that will see us through.

It was not too long ago when Celtic would have this kind of advantage int he league but now it is us with a 15 point lead in the league. We have a 25 point lead over Rangers this season which is sensational. They are not having the best of seasons.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (March, April & May 2044)

The last three months of the season we were quite frankly utter ****, to put it as nicely as possible. I think some of it had to do with really bad injuries we suffered during this period, Mortensen broke his leg and will be out for 8 months or so and there were 4 week stints for several of the wingers and midfielders. That's probably not the full story, some element of complacency crept into our game. But having said all this it did not matter as far as the league was concerned we were already to far ahead to be caught and we made it three Scottish league titles in three years. In the Champions League we ran Arsenal close, but we were our own worst enemies we needed to keep it tight with a slender lead, yet we were 3-0 down at half time. We did win the 2nd half and got a goal, which put us one away from eliminating Arsenal, but we never found that elusive goal. In the Scottish Cup Final I was assuming we were going to lose, with how we had performaned over the past few months and I was proved right as we lost it 1-0. A bit of a bitter sweet end to the season to be honest, pretty angry that we let our foot of the gas, there were records to be broken and we kind of just coasted to the finish.

We still won the league by 7 points despite, the awful end to the season, we did all the hard work in the first two thirds of the season and I guess we can be proud to make it three in a row.

A little update on transfers, we picked up young Ben Garrett from Cliftonville. He has a lot of potential. This season we have made some good progress with the likes of Ferreira and Belec. Belec could probably play for us next season, if he wasn't on too low a wage to qualify for the first team with the new post Brexit rules.I think I will keep him around one more season in the reserves and try and improve him and see where we are up to then.

[TerminalPortugal]

It has been a lot of years since we last managed a national side. We get offers from Holland, Italy and Portugal and we decide to take the side at this time best equipped to win something which is Portugal

To date in game this is what Portugal have won, so clearly still a powerhouse of international football if not more so now.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (Pre-Season 2044)

As we enter our 5th season in charge of Hibernian, we had a pretty mundane pre-season. I must admit I let the assistant manager handle most things as I prepared for the new season. Still we won all our games, but he certainly spread out minutes across the whole squad including some of the youngsters.

We are now 44 years old.

Barely any transfer activity, only Guillaume Ahissan and young Ivorian joins, he is a right full back with bags of potential we will look to develop him.

The attribute tracker is above, seems like some of the players such as youngster Belec made huge strides, he is almost good enough to play for the first team, but he is on a contract that only allows him to play Under 23 football, so I might give him a few cup games.

This is how the depth chart looks for this season. Modibo Diabate, really suffered with the broken leg and he falls down the pecking order. Mortensen similarly he is still recovering from a broken leg and has regressed as well.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Holland (Nations League Group 2)

We went into our first game as Portugal manager against a formidable opponent in Holland, who we turned down to be their manager. Well they did not get any revenge on us as we were superb and got a 3-1 win.

Group 2 also has Norway and the Republic of Ireland in it. Norway beat Ireland to go level on points with us.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Norway (Nations League A Group 2)

Norway gave us one hell of a game but we came through at home with an 80th minute winner to take the game 3-2.

We are now solely in the lead of the group. In the other game Holland beat Ireland.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Republic of Ireland (Nations League A Group 2)

We struck a blank against the Republic of Ireland, the headline says the Irish were frustrated, but I would say it was the other way around. Anyway it's not the best result ever, but also not the end of the world, provided we beat them at home, we should still be in control of the group.

Holland beat Norway to put a bit of pressure on us.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Holland (Nations League A Group 2)

We seem to have the Dutch's number as we get another win against them to really take full command of the group now. We should really now go on to win it and book our place for the finals. In this game we had to rest a few of the superstars as they were not fit to play, but we came through anyway showing the excellent depth we have.

We now take a commanding 4 point lead in the group, as Norway beat Ireland on the same night. One more win and we are the final.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Republic of Ireland (Nations League A Group 2)

A very disappointing result. Still not sure how we did not manage to beat Ireland but they seem to have the hoodoo over us at least in making it difficult for us to break them down. We did not defend well however and we paid the price. The group just got complicated with that result, and we will need to probably get something in Oslo to make it through the group unless the Irish help us when they play the Dutch.

Holland are not just two points behind with the final round of the group stages to come.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Norway (Nations League A Group 2)

Well it was better late than never as we got the only goal of the game with 15 minutes to go. We could not predict the future so it was an important goal, but in the end it would not have mattered as Holland failed to beat Ireland at home, their game finishing 1-1. This all means we make it the semi finals of the Nations League.

We win the group with 14 points and undefeated, although the two draws against Ireland do cause me some concern if I am completely honest.

[TerminalPortugal]

The draw for the Nations League semi final has been completed and we will face a tough Croatia side.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (July, August, September, October & November 2044)

The season started super early this season with the first games of the season at the end of July. I think the picture above says 1,000 words when it comes to describing the kind of form we have been in. We once again have seemingly found the nerve and steel of the start of last season and repeating it again. At this time we are unbeaten in all competitions. In the League Cup, I decided I was going to give some game time to some of the youngsters that we have been working on, I will do the same in Scottish Cup as well, and it seems to have worked wonders as we advanced all the way to the final where we will play Celtic. I think I will give the youngsters the final too. They helped us get there, they may as well see if they can get a medal around their neck. In the Champions League we have been brilliant, and have already qualified for the next round as group winners, in a group that contains both Real Madrid and Ajax both former winners of the trophy, and the other team being French giant Lyon. We can hold our own in Europe. Our record is pretty good against Spanish sides, it's English sides that seem to be able to beat us handsomely at times. One of the main reasons I think we have been so dominant is the complete lack of goals we are conceding. I know at one point we broke some sort of defensive record and it was something like 8 games without conceding. Teams just can't seem to score past us. A big reason for that might be Modibo Diabate, whom we bought last season to replace the retiring de Graaf, but then he suffered a devastating broken leg that really set him back completely. Well he is now recovering his abilities and although when I signed him I expected him to end up playing further up the field, he has been undroppable at defensive midfield. Can't fault the boys, we look good, but we need to guard against complacency.

Confirmation that we are 8 points clear of Rangers in 2nd place after 15 games.

Confirmation that we have won Group B in the Champions League. We play Real Madrid in the next game so we could put them out of the Champions League if results between Lyon and Ajax go the right way.

[TerminalPortugal]

We draw German opposition in the First Knockout Round.

[TerminalPortugal]

The World Cup will take place in 2046 in Japan and the Qualification Groups for Europe have been drawn. We get Poland, Slovenia, Ukraine and Cyprus.

[TerminalPortugal]

Gron lasted 1 season at Liverpool, more money for us.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (December, January & February 2045)

Well we gave the youngsters the chance in the League Cup Final, and we lost. I am happy though with the performance and that they got us there. I decided to continue giving youth a chance in the Scottish Cup and they have done a good job for me getting to the semi final, including beating Celtic, so again the new policy is to play the youth in the cups as they seem to grasp the opportunity well. In the league we have been pretty good, two losses in 3 months, but Rangers are really good this season and have put us in tricky position, leaving us 7 points behind with 2 games in hand. It is in their hands and we might need to beat them when the league splits and keep as perfect a record as we can. In the Champions League the tie is delicately poised as we went to Germany to play Bayer Leverkisen and got a 0-0 draw. I think 0-0 is not as good an away result for the away team as people sometimes think, it puts you under immense pressure to stop the other team scoring, since in the Champions League especially in the later stages we seem to allow more goals against us, I am going to go all out for the win.

The league shows us in 2nd place and with 2 games in hand, if we indeed win them, we will be a point behind Rangers.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Cyprus (World Cup 2046 Qualifying Group 9)

A routine win for us against the minnows of the group by 4-0.

That win puts us top but there is still a long way to go. Slovenia beat Ukraine in the other game in the group.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Ukraine (World Cup 2046 Qualifying Group 9)

It's not the best result in the world, the early goal was a sucker punch. We dominated the game and got level but just could not find the net to win the game. Leaves us with work to do for the up coming group games.

Poland beat Cyprus in the other group game. At the moment we are top of the group.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (March, April & May 2045)

It was quite a season to remember for us. In the league in our last update Rangers were in the drivers seat, but that all changed as we beat them in the middle of March and they went on a bit of a tailspin before recovering a bit. When we met again once the league had split in the middle of April, the situation was clearer, they needed to win and then hope we would drop points in our remaining games, unfortunately for them it was us who got the win with a first half goal, and for all intents and purposes the league season was over there and then. We would go on to make it our 4th straight league title secured with the draw against Kilmarnock.

In the Scottish Cup at the end of the season we decided to play a rotated squad with the youngsters, since they had helped to get us to both cup finals this season, and this time around the boys came through as we beat Dunfermiline 2-0 with young Belac, who is giving me a selection and registration nightmare got both goals to give us the trophy.

In the Champions League we had a fairytale run, as we beat Bayer Leverkusen to get through the first round. Then in one of our best performances both home and away we pretty much battered Atletico Madrid. I don't know what is between us and Spanish sides but we seem to find a way to get at them and often beat them. The dream would end at the semi final stage against arguably the best team in the world, certainly the most succesful team since this save began in Liverpool. In fairness they absolutely battered us home and away, I have no complaints we were probably lucky to lose 1-0 at home and there would be no such luck at Anfield.

We have some real dilemmas for next season. The first one is the youngsters who are knocking on the door. We have two Ivorian's in the reserves improving at a rapid pace, we have young Paraguayan striker that again is there or there abouts when it comes to the first team, and probably the most significant is young Belec, who at the start of the season was pretty much ready and now while I haven't done my analysis of the positions. I get the feeling that he could now be the best left winger at the club. So that means one of our trusty starters may need to leave to accomodate him and it will either be Suzuki or Conchilla. Suzuki is now in his thirties, but does offer great versatility. I can slot him in anywhere and he does a job in the attacking positions. Conchilla is a left winger, but younger and been one of the best players at the club for the last few seasons. Unless I can find another solution this will have to be enacted.

Then we have Marko Tomic, who I have sent on loan for the past four season picking up £1.5 a season. He is very much at his maximum talent level and I can't see him ever really playing for us, so the question is do I continue with this loan scam, or do I cash in on him. The loan moves have helped his value to climb to around £9m, from about £3.75m, so it has definately been worth it so to speak.

The next issue is Arias. The man has been a goalscoring machine for every season up until this one. He regularly hits 20 goals in the league and last season hit 28. This season he got 9 in 36 games in the league and 11 in 49 appearances in all competitions. His morale his good, his stats remain the same. All I can think is a PPM that seemed to help him last season may be contributing this season to him not being in the right places in "moves into channels". I suspect this is the main cause, however it actually fits my tactics instructions for his role, so perhaps he is just doing to much of a good thing. We will have to monitor him very carefully. He has scored 97 league goals in 176 games (was a lot better stats last season), so I think he has earned a little bit of loyalty from me.

Finally we do need to potentially start thinking about replacing some players, while they have any value. For some reason around January all my players values plumetted, Arias who was worth almost £30m is now worth just over £5m, and it's not just because he is in bad form I think most players have seen a drop, which is not ideal if I am looking to offload. However we do have youngsters waiting in the wings.

In the end as you can see it was comfortable in the league, an 8 point gap to Rangers in the end, and 26 to Celtic who imploded this season with draw after draw after draw.

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Croatia (Nations League Semi Final)

We were in Sochi, Russia for the Nations League semi final against Croatia. Eventually we were going to turn and smash someone and unfortunately if you are Croatian, it happened today as we smash our way into the final. Croatia did not have an answer for us and it ended in a rout as we ran out 6-0 winners. We await the winner of the other semi final between England and Russia.

 

[TerminalPortugal]

Portuguese National Team vs Russia (Nations League Final)

Russia somewhat unexpectedly beat England to reach the final, but still we were playing them in their own backyard and we had to guard against any complacency that it would be an easy game. When we went 1-0 down I feared the worst and we were still losing at the break. However the team talk got through to the players and we turned it around expertly in the second half with right back Jorge Carreira of Bayern Munich making it all safe with a 92nd minute goal to secure the win and make it 3-1.

That Nations League propels us above Sven Goran Eriksson as the most decorated Swedish manager of all time.

[TerminalPortugal]

Hibernian FC (Pre-Season 2045)

We are entering our 6th season in charge of Hibernian and so far things could not have gone much better, we have captured 4 league titles and 2 Scottish Cups. This is I believe is the crucial season for us, as we move on some of the guys that made it all happen to us and put some trust in the youth that is rising through the U18's and the Reserves. In terms of the actual games in pre-season we did pretty handily winning all our games.

45 years old now.

So a big transfer window in terms of players departing. Yoshi Suzuki has been a stalwart for the club, extremely dependable and a great servant to the club. He was one of our first signings when we came and he leaves for Standard Liege for £6.25m. He was now over 30 and we needed to make room for Belac. Oudin another early signing, made a career coming off the bench for Arias and picked up important goals. He is now 25 years old and ready to move on, he leaves for £12.75m to Anderlecht and Ferreira our Paraguayan frontman will deputise or potentially even start for Arias. George Black was a bit part player who was mostly in the reserves for the latter few seasons. The same goes for Glover. They both leave for just over £1m to Preston North End and Dunfermline respectively. Chris Goldsmith has not really panned out since we signed him from Southampton. He was already older and he was not as good as first thought, he goes on loan to Birmingham City. There was meant to be a £5m fee mandatory fee, but Goldsmith and Birmingham couldn't agree terms so it is just a loan move. I expect he might leave on free at the end of the season. Marko Tomic who we loaned out to Partizan Belgrade twice, Atalanta and Hamburg, because we could never register him and he never improved enough to replace Suzuki or anyone else leaves to Crystal Palace for £7m, his loan days are over, unless they decide to loan him out. Frank Milne had an amazing season a few years ago on loan at Forest in the Championship where he scored 24 goals and the hype around him began, but he does not possess the qualities to ever get a starting spot, plus he is a Target Man and he does not really fit the system, he moves to Huddersfield Town. Finally starting goalie Fieraru, was beginning to agitate for a move, and to be honest we were on the same wavelength as I was looking to replace him with a younger keeper. I have seen players when they get to 32 or so just dive of the cliff, less likely in keepers, but we already had a replacement lined up so we let him leave to fellow Scottish Premiership outfit Aberdeen. His replacement is our only signing this season in Walter Vasquez, an Argentinean goalkeeper from San Lorenzo. He looks a better keeper than Fieraru so it looks like a good move for me.

This is the attribute chart before all the players left, but with Vazquez added

This is the depth chart this season, might look like we became a bit weaker but we have to bring through the youth.