TheLutterworthFox

Club Decision - Welcome to Barry Town When looking about to see what club I wanted to start with there was only one place and that’s Barry Town, a club I managed in an offline save on FM19 and enjoyed taking TNS on, this time though Barry Town are not as good as they were then. For the 2023/24 season they have just returned to the top tier of Welsh football after a brief foray into the Cymru South. The did have a dip in 2012/13 but rose back up quite quickly, spending 5 season back in the Welsh Premier before relegation in 2021/22, last season they eased to promotion in the Cymru South losing only twice. The club are clearly in a good place, the season preview has them nowhere near relegation for the 2023/24 season. A nice mid-table expectation! They also have a decent base of facilities for a starter club in this save, they are no TNS but they have probably the 3rd or 4th best rated facilities in the league. It needs some work though if we are to start bringing through good enough players who can get into the national side. Jenner Park has a decent capacity for this level, it’s the 7th highest capacity ground in the League but has an expansion capacity of 5k. Financially the club are looking OK but the projected balance for the end of the next three seasons looks worrying, I’d presume though that most clubs that aren’t in Europe have the same issue. Once we start getting into the European qualifiers this should start to level out, we need that income if we are to start improving the facilities and to also bring in better players. Squad-wise we have a large enough group of players but, as you can see, there are some highly rated players and some no so much! I have ticked “add players to playable sides” so we do have an extra group of intake players which have been added. 31-year old Chris Hugh is one of our better players, at 31 though he doesn’t have many years ahead of him. For the next season or two though he will be a key player. On the other end of the age scale is Striker Ollie Hulbert, I have to say this lad looks really good for this level and I expect him to score a bag full of goals. Evan Press is a player I had with me on my FM19 save with Barry Town, he doesn’t look amazing but he will do a good job for the first couple of seasons. We also have a couple of decent youth players who got added at the start, one of them is Full Back Gwion Jones, I like the fact he has good leadership. Winger Gordon Roberts also looks decent for a 16-year old but needs some work on his technicals. Overall a decent base to work with, clearly it needs improving but we have very little money to spend, £0 transfer budget and about £400 of spare wages, we could maybe bring in one, two max before the season starts. When it comes to squad depth and quality we do have decent number in each area, I always tend to start with a 41221 formation but that may change as we move through pre-season. The only position we don’t have sufficient depth is in defensive midfield and when you look at the average ability it is the clear area for improvement. Our best DM is also out best CM hence the ?. So a DM is the position we will look to improve this Summer, as we only have 3 natural CBs I’ll also look to bring another player in to play there, IF we have the wages to do that.

Since quitting the FM blogging and FM community scene I’ve had a really good 3-4 week break and now my mental state is in a much much better place I really want to get back into FM with a new save to go alongside my new positive outlook. I said I’d never return to blogging and I stand by that but I cannot play FM and enjoy it without telling people about my saves, so I have decided to venture onto the forum. I've been trying to work out something interesting but also something I know I’d enjoy, so I looked back through my old saves and one save stood out. That was the “Build a Nation” save which I did in Gibraltar. I really enjoyed how tough it was initially but how much joy it brought me when I saw progression, not only in the club I managed but also the other clubs in the league. After all that I went away and looked at what nation I could do a new “Build a Nation” save in, after some researching and trawling I noticed something in the European rankings, if you look at each playable European nation and compare their FIFA World Ranking to their UEFA Nation Coefficient most clubs are pretty similar, for example England are ranked 2 in the World and in the co-efficient are ranked 1st but there is one team that stands outs when you look at the difference. The table above shows each playable nation, their rank in Europe from the FIFA Ranking and where the nation is ranked in the coefficient. The one nation that stands out is Wales, ranked as the 18th best European nation, at one point they were up inside the top 10 in the World but have slipped. Their nation co-efficient though is a shambles, they sit 49th with only 5 nations below them. How can a nation do so well internationally but awful continentally? Well the answer is simple, the biggest clubs in Wales don’t play in Wales! Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Newport, all of these play in the top four tiers of England leaving Wales with the likes of TNS and Connah’s Quay. If we look at the reputations of the “Welsh clubs in England” it shows how much better these are than their Welsh domestic counterparts. Cardiff 3* Swansea 3* Wrexham 2.5* Newport 2* TNS 1.5* Connah’s Quay 1* Colwyn Bay 1* The Welsh league only has one professional club and that’s TNS, they are by far the best team in the Welsh system, winning 10 of the previous 12 league titles with Connah’s Quay winning the other two. The reason why Wales is so far down the co-efficient system is clear, the clubs in the Welsh system are not good enough, as far as I’m aware a club that plays in the Welsh pyramid has never got to the group stage of a European competition, that needs to change! So it’s time now to head to Wales and build it up to a superpower of European and Worldwide football! This will obviously take time so I need to set myself some goals which I can tick off along the way. Aim One Get a club in the Welsh football system into the League Phase of European competition. With the change in the way the European competitions work from 24/25 this should be easy, in the saves I’ve played TNS have got to that stage with ease so it may not even be myself that does it! - COMPLETED - TNS QUALIFIED FOR CONFERENCE LEAGUE PROPER 2024, BARRY QUALIFIED FOR EUROPA LEAGUE 2026 Aim Two Get a clubs reputation higher than Cardiff and Swansea (3*). With most clubs at 1* or less this could take time Aim Three Become the dominant force in the Welsh Premier Aim Four Once we have become the dominant force and are making money in Europe, filter this money down to other clubs in the Welsh leagues to help them improve their facilities, become professional and bring in better players, whether that’s signings or from the academy Aim Five Get the Wales National job In most “Build a Nation” saves people start with club and country but I want to concentrate on the club side of it first, the Welsh national side are pretty good so I want to earn the job and also have a bulk of players in the Welsh system that are good enough to play for Wales before taking the job. Aim Six Take a club to European glory Aim Seven "Attempt" to get Wales to No. 1 in the UEFA Coefficient rankings I know how hard this is, especially with how good England are so this may be impossible, hence why I’ve said “attempt”! Aim Eight Top the Wales, European and Worldwide Hall of Fame Aim Nine This goes alongside Aim Four, build a group of Welsh players from the academy who are good enough to play for the national side. The plan to start this save is to take over a club in the Welsh Premier, not one of the better teams but a club where I know I can be challenging within a couple of seasons, I could start in the level below but I don’t want to spend years trying to get promotion and then establish ourselves in the top tier, let’s start there straight the way and see how quick we can overtake TNS! Also, this isn’t a one club save, I do plan on staying at one club for the foreseeable, preferably until I win a European competition, after that we shall see what happens. Can it be done? I see no reason why not but I know it will take time! Now to decide what club to be, that will be the next post.

2038/39 Season Welcome back to what it likely to be the final season in the save. We've won the Champions League, been sacked as Scotland manager way too early in the save and the co-efficient ranking with the aim to top it is, well let's be frank, truly impossible! So now there's two things left I want to do, firstly, win the Premiership for an unprecedented 10th time in a row and secondly, end the league season unbeaten. Firstly though lets discuss transfers, as ever it was a busy Summer and Winter window as we lost a couple of key players. In the Summer both forward Ledesma and Winger Tapia left, Tapia especially was a key man in the first XI, then in the Winter defenders Pintos and Gutierrez left, both asking to leave after falling out of favour and the bids were too good to say no to. The Winter sales didn't affect us and I signed no one in that window, I did however bring a few players in over the Summer, I won't go through all of them as there were a lot but here are the key ones. Ben Doak - Winger - £12.75m from Liverpool Homegrown and quality even at 32. A stunning signing! Ekaitz Clemente - Midfielder - £39m from Eibar A good option to add to my midfield ranks, Clemente can also play LB which is a position were slightly light in. Giorgio Scalvini - Defender - Free from Liverpool A huge, big name signing, Scalvini had been on my radar for a while and when I saw him on a free he had to come in, good experience as well to add to a young back-line. Kiechi Takahashi - Right Back - Free from Al-Ittihad A former player returns and it's a big one, sold for £15m, signed for nothing. I lost Yeremenko in the Summer after he didn't renew his contract, what a signing! Fynn Barz - Left Back- £55m from Leipzig A late Summer signing to add some depth to Left Back, Barz can also play LW and RB, good versatility! Some really good signings and now we're set for a run at all competitions this season! So the first aim was, can we end the Premiership season unbeaten? Well no we didn't, we did go 28 games of the season without loss before a ridiculous 1-0 defeat away to Hibs, a game in which we absolutely dominated and couldn't hit the target, gutting! So, after failing the first aim, can we win a 10th Premiership title in a row? OF COURSE WE DID!! In fact it was so easy we'd wrapped it up with 5 games to go, we did lose 4 games but in those last few games I played the kids to see what they're made of, we lost 3 of the final games to end up with 4 losses! Not the unbeaten season I hoped for but 10 IN A ROW!!! We also dominated the domestic cup comps winning both and beating Celtic in both finals! Another domestic treble! So that caps off a pretty good final season, we did the 10 in a row which was amazing! Now we come to Europe, I would have loved to have claimed a second Champions League title but unfortunately we fell WELL short! Once again we did well in the League Phase, ending unbeaten with 18 points and ending in the top 8, if you look down though you can see how terribly the Scottish teams did, I'll say no more! So we'd made it into the Last 16 and we were handed a rather ironic draw, we were given Dortmund, the team that had beaten us in last seasons Champions League final, was revenge on the cards? Well no, it wasn't, we were truly awful, losing the first leg 1-0 and then failing to score in the second leg which ended 0-0! A rather drab way to end our final European campaign!! So that's it! The save is over, it's been an amazing journey, 16 seasons, 10 league titles and funnily enough the final game of the save, the Scottish Cup win over Celtic marked my 1,000th game of the save, surely that's the right place to end it?! What an amazing 1,000 games it's been! In 16 seasons we've managed all that! 10 title, 1 Champions league, 1 Super Cup, 8 League Cups, 10 Scottish Cups and 1 Scottish Championship!! Incredible!!!! Before I show some more screenshots of the save, here is the seasons Best XI and the whole squad. Some names I'll never forget!!! I just want to thank everyone for following along, it's been a great journey but I know deep down this is the right place to end, the save was becoming a drag and frustrating due to the co-efficient rankings and the other Scottish teams failing at every turn (Scotland actually dropped to 5th after this seasons disaster show!). Another save is in the pipeline which will be on the blog that I do. I hope everyone follows along, but for now here are a couple of excel sheets of the journey! Thanks for following along!

2037/38 Season Another season down, this season we need a good run in the Champions League again BUT we also need the other Scottish teams to join the party, it's going to take a miracle to catch England!! Scottish Teams In Europe St Johnstone - Europa Conference League A decent run for our only participant in the ECL, they ended 5th in the League Phase bypassing the playoff round and got all the way to the Quarters before being knocked out by Lazio Dundee - Europa League A good run for the Dundee boys as they made it in the playoff spots in the League Phase…..just before losing to Newcastle in the Quarters. Falkirk - Europa League Rubbish, knocked out in the League Phase Dundee United - Champions League Even more rubbish, ended 32nd! Rangers - Champions League Not as rubbish as Dundee United but rubbish enough to end 25th and go out Celtic - Champions League INCREDIBLE!!!! Celtic ended in the playoff spots and went on a crazy run beating Monaco, Chelsea and Juventus before losing in the semi's to Dortmund, they won the first leg but fell apart in the away leg in extra time. Queen's Park in Europe Now to us and as expected it went very well, we did amazingly in the League Phase winning all 8 games ending top of the pile And we did just as well in the knockouts, beating Arsenal in the Last 16 before two amazing wins over Real Madrid in the Quarters. We then faced Bayern in the Semi Final and put in one of the best performances of the save so far to beat them 6-0 in the first leg! Into our second every final, it was so close though to a Queen's Park v Celtic final!! And in the final we faced Dortmund, we were hot favourites but for the first time in a long while we didn't show up, we were really poor but defended well, that was until extra time when we failed to deal with a corner and Dortmund scored. We couldn't come back and we lost. Absolutely gutting especially with how poorly we played. Domestic Action A very brief show of the Premiership table. We're now up to 9 titles in a row, one more for that elusive 10 in a row!!! Key Men Here is the Best XI for the season. The star man this season was Jon-Paul Tait's replacement Emil Markovic who dominated the awards and everything else. He ends with 30 goals in 40 starts, a stunning camapign for the lad, he also won the clubs player of the season and the Premiership player of the season. Iran Tapia ended with the most assists, he benefited most to our switch to 41221 mid-way through the season and did really well on the right hand side. And here is the whole squad. What Next? That's the big question isn't it. I think you can all tell by the update and my lack of words I'm struggling to keep my motivation up with this save. The big aim, after winning the Champions League a few seasons back was to try and overtake England at the top of the co-efficient and as you can see below that is going to be near-on impossible. Even with Celtic getting to the CL semis and ourselves ending runners-up we have our worst co-efficient season for a long while. Only 16 points and we drop even further behind England and down to 4th in the total rankings from next season. England still managed all those points even though all their teams went out in the Last 16 of the Champions League. We really need the other Scottish clubs to step up and unfortunately that isn't going to happen without a miracle. So next season will more than likely be my last in the save, I think ending with 10 titles in a row will be a brilliant way to end the save and hopefully we can add a second Champions League title as well. I have another save up my sleeve which maybe, just maybe include a return to blogging! We will see though!

2037/38 - Summer Transfers Well it's been a very busy Summer, we haven't lost too many players but we have brought in a shed load of players, this season we are taking this club to a new level!! Transfers Out As you can see there is one huge out and it was the expected one. We say goodbye to superstar Striker, academy graduate and goal machine Jon-Paul Tait. I'm gutted to see him go but he deserved the move and I've got a good amount of money for him. A great career here where he's scored 110 League goals. Transfers In We may have spent rather a lot of money!!!! Aitor Gutierrez - Central Defender - £55m from Real Sociedad There was talk about Berger leaving so I brought this lad in as his replacement, well Berger and now my defence is stacked with quality! Fabricio Ledesma - Attacking Midfield/Striker - £13m from Racing Club We really needed to improve our AM options and with Tait leaving we needed more Striking possibilities, well Ledesma is one of those to come and full those areas. Top quality! Cristian Obregon - Midfield - £24m from Boca Juniors Another midifeld option comes in, he can play anywhere in that area so good versatility. Julien Lucas - Defender - £45.5m from Lille Another new defensive option which was much needed, he can also play as a DM. Mariano Pintos - Left Back - £11m from Talleres We only have really have one player who can naturally play LWB so Pintos comes in to add a bit more depth. Nico Lohkemper - Midfield - £56m from FC Koln Another huge signing and I really like this lad, again he can play any midfield area and can play up top. Top top quality! Emil Markovic - Attacking Midfield/Striker - £24.5m from Columbus Crew My Tait replacement and my word he look so good! I have high hopes he can slot straight in and be that goal scoring machine we need. Niklas Hedl - Goalkeeper - Free Transfer I really struggled to find a decent keeper that actually wanted to join me that improved what I already had, with Ilharco leaving I needed a new GK, Hedl is a short-term replacement until I find that proper No. 1 for the right amount of money! So what a window! We had a lot of money to spend and boy did we do that! £228m of players in with around £80m recouped, now we are properly set for a real crack at another Champions League run, the big question now is can the other Scottish teams also start to do better in Europe? I'm not confident!!!

2036/37 Season Once again we'll gloss over the domestic stuff, yes we won the League, that's now 8 in a row, 2 short of the elusive 10 in a row!!!! We lost the League Cup final to Celtic and beat Rangers to win the Scottish Cup, another season of dominance! We did amazingly in the League, another 100 point season and 24 clear of Celtic! But in this save it's all about Europe and this season we are reigning European champs!!! The big question is, can we retain it? Before I say how we've done let's look at the other Scottish teams, we really need the others teams to start doing better if we are to catch England at the top of the co-efficient ranking but it's not gone well! Celtic - Champions League They did really well claiming a playoff spot in the League Phase, they beat Feyenoord in the playoff round before losing to Bayern 3-2 in the Last 16 Rangers - Champions League A really poor campaign for Rangers as they only gained 8 points from their 8 games and ended 26th, missing out on a playoff spot. Dundee United - Champions League 9 points from their 8 games meant they scraped a playoff round spot where the lost to PSG Ross County - Europa League A really good run once again for Ross as they ended 5th in the League Phase meaning automatic qualification to the Last 16, in that round they bear Pacos de Ferreira, they then beat Atalanta in the Quarters before losing to Lyon in the Semis. Hibernian - Europa League Hibs ended 14th in the League Phase with 13 points, they then had an awful playoff round, losing to Dinamo Zagreb Falkirk - Conference League Terrible! So only Ross County really getting deep into a European competition, co-efficient wise it was the nations worst performance for six season but could we salvage some pride? We certainly did!!! A 100% record in the League Phase with some memorable wins against some big English teams! Chelsea, Spurs and Man United all beaten as we ended top of the League Phase! Straight into the Last 16 we go where we were drawn against Porto, we got a solid draw in the away leg before battering them 4-0 at home, that win set a new Champions League record of 26 games unbeaten!!! Into the Quarters where we faced AC Milan and we eventually lost a game, 2-1 away, we did play well but didn't have our shooting boots on, a narrow defeat though and I knew we could turn it around in the home leg. And we did exactly that as we smashed them 3-0 sealing a semi final spot. Bayern Munich stood in our way of a place in the final, a tough ask but I had hope. The first leg was once again away and Bayern played very well, it was an open match, lots and lots of chance but two first half Bayern goals and a goal for Yeremenko meant Bayern won the game 2-1. Like Milan though it was a narrow loss and I knew we could beat them at home. The game was terrible, there were very few highlights but I felt we had the better of it, we took the lead in the second half courtesy of MacLeod but after that we struggled to break Bayern down, the game ended and went to extra time and in that 30 minutes there wasn't a single highlight, the game went to penalties. And we failed, missed from Miley and Palmer meant Bayern sealed a 4-3 win and we were out. Another really good run though but we just didn't do enough this time around to retain our title. As I mentioned before, the poor performances from most of the teams this season means our co-efficient has been damaged, luckily we're still in second. Just look how far England are ahead!! Now to the players and firstly I did make two signings in the Winter, two big signings in defensive midfield!! Santiago Suarez - Defensive Midfield - £14m from Boca Juniors What an incredible signing for such a low fee and already 5* rated!! This is the lad, he is going be huge going forward BUT I need to remove his £31.5m release clause! Cesare Casadei - Defensive Midfield - £12m from Aston Villa Yes he's getting on in age but he still looks absolutely incredible. The DM area I was really short in after the losses in the Summer so to get two amazing looking players is massive and really pushed us on during the second half of the season. Now to our key men for the season, here is our Best XI There really is only one place to start and that's Jon-Paul Tait, he still wants to leave but if this is how he plays when he's unhappy he'll be unplayable if he ever cheers up! Another great season in front of goal with 41 scored in 46 start, 29 in the Premiership, will he be here next season? I'm not so sure! Summer signing Iran Tapia ended with the clubs most assists, I said in the transfer update I planned to move to 424 but I actually stuck with the 532, Tapia has been retrained as an AM and has done really well. 13 goals and 20 assists from 35 starts. The other player I want to speak about is CB Liall Coult, I was surprised to see him not in our best XI as I feel he was a key man throughout the season, this was his breakthrough campaign after coming through the 2033 intake. He made 38 starts and average over 7 and also made his Scotland debut! And here is the whole squad. So another good season, we now go again trying to make it 9 Premiership titles in a row, we want that 10!!! When I started this save I set myself two domestic goals, the first was to win the Champions League and that is now done, the second was to top the co-efficient rankings. I have to admit I never ever though it would be this tough to topple England but it's looking near on impossible, we are going to need all seven Scottish clubs to win all their League Phase games and go deep deep into the competitions BUT we also need the English clubs to capitulate and not win any games……for five seasons!!! Then we may have a chance, we all know though that is not going to happen, FM will not let it happen, the AI will not let it happen. So I'm going to attempt this 10 in a row in the League and try and win the Champions League again, if we do it in two seasons I will re-assess how we're going co-efficient wise, but it may be that the save ends there. I've had an amazing time but there's no point flogging a dead horse!! So this Summer is huge, I'm expecting once again to have bids for all my key men meaning there may be big changes, I have been heavily backed by the board though who have given me insane budgets!! A £700k per week rise in the wage budget and nearly £230m to spend on transfers! Let's get this squad ready for a Champions League challenge once again!

Wow what an amazing start and you avoided the big two in the semi final of the cup! Surely a trip to Hampden is on the cards!

2036//37 - Summer Transfers There is one bad thing that comes about winning the Champions League in shock fashion and that's the fact that all your players decide their too good for you!! This Summer has been really really hard, so many players have wanted to leave, we've managed to hold on to a few but unfortunately we say goodbye to some big players Our squad has been absolutely hammered!!! Some big names leave including Stojanovic (CB), Medel (ST), Colonna (LWB) and Gudevang (DM), all four were key men in our success last season, unfortunately the fees were their release clauses and I couldn't entice them to stay. We also lose young star Hansen (CB) and Gaghan (RB). Every single one has been sold for a huge profit, I think I paid around £55m for the six lads so we've quadrupled our money! A lot of money in though but now some gaping holes! I couldn't replace them all, I do have a large squad and felt it was time to let some of youngsters get their chance. I also decided to move away from the 352 for this season and go back to the 424 meaning I needed to look at Wide men! Gustavo Malheiro - Left Back - £25m from Sporting Lisbon My replacement for Colonna at Left Back, he is just as good as his predecessor and I am excited to see how he will do. Mark Palmer - Winger/Striker - £20m from Rangers I have had my eye on this lad for a while and decided this Summer was the time to bring him in, a quality young player, he also helps with the homegrown rule and can play in a multitude of positions. Iran Tapia - Right Wing - £17m from CF Pachuca Another player I'd had my eye on a few seasons ago, as I'd moved away from wide-men I decided against bringing him in, now I'm going back to the 424 he was first port of call, an absolutely amazing looking player. Only three players in, I did want another defensive midfielder but there was no one good enough for a low enough fee to bring in. The Summer could've been worse, we had bids for Ilharco (GK), Macorro (DM), Wark (CB) and the biggest one, a £60m+ bid from Spurs for Jon-Paul Tait, this one came with 5 hours of the window shutting and I just couldn't let him go that late. Me and Tait have now fallen out which has annoyed me as he is my favourite player, hopefully we can turn our relationship around and he can continue to smash the goals in! Here is the squad for the upcoming season. Have we improved? No, we have lost way too many key men but I've done my best to bolster the ranks and also give myself more options, now is the time for some of the academy lads to step-up, I am going to be giving Lowry and Coult, both centre backs more game-time and I also play on playing RB Hodge more often, he is one of my star kids and after a few seasons away on loan and a Scotland debut I feel he deserves his chance. Finally, co-efficient news, we have been confirmed as 2nd in the rankings now but you can see how far behind England we are. They're also ahead of us in every single season moving forward so trying to overtake them will be virtually impossible!

Thanks mate, really appreciate you following along and commenting. The interaction makes it all the more worthwhile So the Scotland job is insecure and I declared interest but when I did the Queen's Park board went mad and called me to a meeting, luckily they saw how well I'm doing and I kept my job!! Seems FM this year doesn't like you dual running a club and international job at the same time!

2035/36 - Europe Review This is going to focus solely on the Champions League and the other teams in Europe, as expected we dominated domestically and it's Europe that matters in this save!! Scottish Clubs In Europe Celtic - Champions League They had a brilliant season overall, they qualified for the playoff round ending 17th in the League Phase, they then beat AC Milan in a crazy 2-legged game to reach the Last 16 where they beat Atletico Madrid before losing the Spurs in the Quarters St Mirren - Champions League As expected they struggled in parts but did just enough in the League Phase to scrape the final playoff spot where they lost a tight 2-legged game to Dortmund Rangers - Europa League What an absolutely incredible run it was for Rangers, they had to win the playoff game to get into the League Phase where they did enough for a knockout playoff spot, from there they went mad beating Genk, Arsenal, Wolves and Nice to get to the final but unfortunately they lost to Benfica. Aberdeen - Europa League The did enough to claim a playoff spot but lost to fellow Scottish side Ross County. A repeat of last season Conference League final! Ross County - Europa League After beating Aberdeen in the playoff round they then lost to Wolves in the Last 16. Kilmarnock - Europa Conference League A really good run for Kilmarnock, they had to get through two qualifying round to seal a spot in the League Phase where they ended 5th, bypassing the playoff round. They then beat APOEL in the Last 16 before losing to Lyon in the Quarters. Overall a really good season for all the Scottish teams but now we have to see how I did, strap yourselves in!!!! Queen's Park in the Champions League We had our best League Phase yet, ending unbeaten, winning 6 and drawing 2, some great wins along the way as well including smashing Leipzig and beating AC Milan Top of the pile as well!!!! This meant we bypassed the playoff round and went straight into the Last 16 and this is where it went crazy!!! Last 16 v Liverpool A tough ask but we came out the first leg at Anfield with a solid 1-1 draw even if they utterly dominated the game, our goal was scored by winter signing, defender Barry Rai grabbing the goal meaning we went back to our place with high hopes of getting through. Liverpool once again has most of the chances but their shooting was way off, academy star Jay MacLeod scored twice in the first half to seal a stunning 2-0 win and a place in the Quarters. Quarter Final v Manchester City Another English side and this was probably the toughest!!! The first leg was at home, Man City played well and took a deserved lead on the hour mark, we made a few changes and the game turned, Kier Hamilton, our longest serving player after coming through the 2024 intake scored with 15 minutes to go, then with nearly the last kick of the game pounced after a shot was saved to smash home and seal a stunning 2-1 win! We still had to go to the Etihad though and see the tie out, we really didn't play well, we struggled to keep hold of the ball and our defending at times was farcical, Man City took the lead mid-way through the first half but we immediately levelled courtesy of Tait, Haaland then scored before we levelled again in first half injury time. Man City took the lead for a third time and the game looked to be heading to extra time, that was until the 85 minute when Jon-Paul Tait nodded home to make it 3-3 and 5-4 on aggregate, we're into the semi's!!! Semi Final v Chelsea ANOTHER ENGLISH TEAM!!! Chelsea stood in our way for a first ever Champions League final and I had high hopes, the first leg was at home and we absolutely dominated, Chelsea never got going, we absolutely battered them, the forward line of Medel and Tait proving the difference as we smashed them 4-0!!!! We went to Stamford Bridge in the second leg knowing we just had to see the game out, Chelsea scored just before the half hour mark but we never looked in danger of capitulating. Then in the second half the academy boys did what they do, Tait and MacLeod scoring to seal a 2-1 win, 6-1 on aggregate and a spot in the final!!!! Final v Tottenham Yes ANOTHER ENGLISH TEAM!!! Four round, four teams from South of the border! Spurs had ended the Premier league season in 5th but has put Manchester United out the semi's on penalties. It was going to be a tough game but they boys had been given a good rest prior to the match as the League was wrapped up weeks ago! The first half was cagey, very few chances and hardly any highlights, at half time it was 0-0, we were doing OK though, restricting Spurs to only a few half chances. The game then went crazy in a bonkers 4 minutes, firstly, we took the lead in the 52nd minute, a corner by Hamilton was flicked on by MacLeod and Tait was at the back post to tap home!! We then went for the kill and scored a second goal two minutes later, Machorro and Yeremenko combined down the right, Machorros cross came in and was met my MacLeod to put us two up! Spurs had to come out and they scored two minutes after our second goal, de Jong hitting a lovely shot from the edge of the box. Now we had to stem the tide! As Spurs pushed forward we held firm and tried to hit them on the break and we scored a third goal with just under a quarter of an hour to go, a Spurs corner was cleared, Colonna ran down the left, he played it to Tait, Tait layed it back to Colonna who smashes it home! 3-1!!! NOW JUST SEE IT OUT!!! Time ticked on, the fans were biting their nails, I was pacing my kitchen, then the whistle blew. QUEEN'S PARK ARE CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely incredible, I have no more words, this is my greatest achievement on any FM ever!! What a crazy journey!! Co-efficient Update And that win, combined with how well the other Scottish teams cements Scotland place near the top of the rankings, we are currently in the 4th but the forecast is for us to move up to 2nd!!! The big issue is how far England are ahead!!! I don't think we'll ever be able to catch them! They sit 30 points clear of us, there is no way we can catch them alone, we have to hope for either a) the English teams to capitulate or b) the AI to make the Scottish teams better and win competitions. I don't see either happening unfortunately! I'm not stopping though, I'll at least see how close we can get to them and review it in a few seasons time. Key Men Below is the Best XI for the season, it's great to see 4 academy players in there. There really is only one player to start with and that Jon-Paul Tait, he had his best season so far and dominated the awards, not only at the club but in Scotland and in the Champions League. He won nearly every award!! 45 goals scored in 38 starts, this guy is an absolute superstar! Summer signing Alessandro Colonna was one of the big reasons why we did so well, when I lost Craig Wiles in the Summer I was worried but this lad has stepped in and been incredible. An assist machine from LWB, he's also chipped in with 9 goals including the final goal in the Champions League final. Julio Medel, signed last season had a great season, he had to rotate with Jay MacLeod but always performed when called upon, he ends with 27 goals in 30 starts. Incredible! Another academy star impressed this season, RWB Michael McKinlay didn't play loads, he was used in domestic action more than anything but when he played he was brilliant and ended as the Premiership Young Player of the Season. Finally is my favourite player and that Kier Hamilton, he came through the 2024 intake and is now our longest serving player, he isn't highly rated but this lad is solid, playing as the AM behind the front two he is a constant threat, whether that's from his set pieces or his shots from the edge of the box. He had his best season to date scoring 10 goals and grabbing 14 assists in 29 starts. And here is the whole CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNING squad!! What an absolutely incredible season it's been, we are European Champions!!!! How on earth do I top this? I honestly don't know but we will dust ourselves down and go again for another Champions League win next season! What we need now though is the other Scottish clubs to use our win as motivation to start progressing in Europe as well, it's the only way we're going to take down the English!!!

Looking forward to following along with this!

2035/26 - Summer Transfers + Co-efficient News Transfers Out I expected a quiet Summer and all in all it was relatively peaceful. We did however lose a few players, one of those was a big loss! I'm sure you can pick the big one out and that's academy star, Left Back Craig Wiles who moves to Manchester City for an initial fee of £36.5m, rising to £47.5m with add-ons, a big loss but he clearly wanted the move. The other notable loss was defender Barrientos who got his head turned by Saudi Arabia! The other players to leave were all back-ups. Transfers In Alessandro Colonna - Left Back - £24m from Stuttgart My replacement for Wiles, he's just about as good and at only 21 he has time to improve. Stian Gudevang - Defensive Midfield - £10m from Molde I didn't exactly need this lad but there's no way I could not bring him in once he got recommended to me, he looks an absolute superstar and is only 19! Denis Yeremenko - Right Back - £21.5m from Shakhtar With Barrientos and MacArthur leaving I was light on players who could play RWB so I went big and got this lad in. Another incredible player. Marius Hansen - Central Defence - £8.5m from Bodo/Glimt I needed an extra resource to play at CB, another young lad who will only improve and can play anywhere along the back-line Co-efficient News I said in the previous post I expected us to move up to 4th in the co-efficient rankings and now we've had it confirmed. This is huge! A guaranteed 4 Champions League proper spots for next season and 2 in the Europa League!

2034/35 Season Review Welcome back, I've decided seeing as I'm playing quite quickly, to shrink to one post a season (with a possible Summer transfer update on the side), this means the posts will be less frequent. Also I'm going to focus the posts more on Europe and the players, less on the domestic side, mainly because it's pretty obvious, bar a miracle, that we won't dominate in the League at least. Europe is the main goal, not only for us, but also the other Scottish Teams Firstly, transfers and in the Winter I sold and signed two players…. We say goodbye to two stalwarts of the save, both have fell out of favour and wanted a move, it's good money for players who I saw as back-up at best. Now the two in's Firstly is Defensive Midfielder Roger Machorro, we were really short in this area due to the late departure of Alcaraz in the Summer window. He joins for £8.25m from Monterray. A top quality player who is a huge upgrade on anyone we have at the club Secondly is a player I didn't really need but when I saw him and the fact he had a £2.5m release clause it was a no-brainer, Julio Medel is an absolutely incredible talent and will fit seamlessly into our team as an AM behind the two striker. I said I wouldn't speak too much about domestic stuff so here are screenshots of how it went and as expected we dominated! Easy as ever! We had the title wrapped up with six games to go and lost three of our matches towards the end when I played rotated sides. Now to Europe and what a season it's been, not just for us but also for some of the other Scottish Clubs! Let's start with ourselves and we had a decent run in the League Phase ending with 14 points, we went into that final match against Leverksuen knowing a win would seal a top 8 spot, we lost and did not play well meaning a spot in the playoffs. Where we faced Villarreal and we eased past them with a 2-0 away win followed by a 2-1 win at home. Medel with 3 of those goals It then got tougher as we faced Arsenal in the Last 16, I had no expectations of winning the game but we ended up winning the first leg at home 2-0 in a fantastic display. We then went to The Emirates and played our flat back 5 defensive formation which worked a treat as we drew 0-0 sealing a spot in the Quarter finals! We managed to miss the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea and AC Milan, all whom had won it in the previous few seasons, instead we faced Inter Milan. We went to their place in the first leg, deployed the 5 at the back tactic and came from 1-0 down to seal a 2-1 victory courtesy of a late Pajoy goal. We had the advantage going into the home leg but Inter scored mid-way through the second half which sent the game to extra-time. Usually in previous season we have ran out of legs in this period of the game but it was total opposite, Inter fell apart, we scored twice, both goal by Jon-Paul Tait, a 4-2 win on aggregate and for the second time in two season we were into the semi's! Where we faced Barcelona, once again the first leg was away and Barca grabbed an early goal, MacLeod then drew the game level just before half-time and after that it looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw, that was until the 93rd minute when Roque scored his second of the game and gave Barca a 2-1 win. I still felt we had a chance though going into the home leg, our form at The Malkay MacKay Stadium had been really good this season so I expected us to push for a win. Kier Hamilton scored mid-way through the first half to level the tie on aggregate but Yamal scored for Barca only 8 minutes later, we immediately went for a second goal and grabbed it courtesy of Medel and at half-time the tie was level at 3-3. As we pushed for the winner we were caught on the break and Barca grabbed what was to be the decisive goal, we couldn't find a way back and as the whistle blew we had lost the tie 4-3. Another incredible run though and I really feel we are challenging the big boys much more than we were in the previous couple of seasons. We need to go that one step further now and reach a final! As for the other Scottish team well it went pretty well.. Celtic - They qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League by beating Anderlecht and Ajax, they then gained 12 points in the League Phase to end 22nd and seal a playoff spot where they lost to Barcelona Rangers - Automatically qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League and gained 12 points ending 21st. They beat Rennes in the play off before losing to Liverpool in the Last 16 3-0 on aggregate Dundee United - Automatically qualified for the League Phase of the Europa League and ended 11th gaining 16 points sealing a playoff spot, they lost in that round Hoffenheim 3-2 on aggregate Aberdeen - Won two round of Europa League Qualifying before losing to Kairat in the 3rd round. They then beat Pafos in the Conference League final qualifying round sealing a League Phase spot. They did amazingly to end 5th in the table gaining 13 points from 6 games meaning they bypassed the playoff round. They then beat Steaua Bucharest on the Last 16 and Vitoria de Guimaraes in the Quarters. They then beat Austria Wien in the Semi sealing a spot in the final! Ross County- They beat Dnipro, Sligo Rovers and CSKA Sofia in qualifying to seal a spot in the League Phase of the Conference League where they got 11 points from their 6 games ending 11th in the table meaning a playoff spot. They then beat Levski Sofia in that round before beating Konyaspor in the Last 16, Servette in the Quarters and Nice in the Semis Meaning………… A Ross County v Aberdeen Conference League final!!!!!!! Absolutely mental Aberdeen win the Conference League AND get relegated to the Scottish Championship! This gives them a Europa League spot next season and that means we'll have 7 teams in the Europe next season! Now for the even bigger news! These good performances this season means we are projected to jump from 6th in the co-efficient rankings to 4th and this is huge!! 4th gives us 4 automatic League Phase Champions League spots and 2 automatic League Phase Europa League spots, so for the 36/37 season we'll have 6 guaranteed teams in the League Phases, this is going to massively bump up our co-efficient in the coming season, more than already is! If you look on the far right column our co-efficient for next seaosn is 96.467, the 4th highest and only 5 points behind Italy in the 3rd! Amazing! I'll keep you updated when the ranking for next season comes out as to if we have claimed 4th spot. Key Men The only place to start is with Jay MacLeod, this lad is just so good. He ends as the clubs players of the season and the Premiership player of the season. 43 starts, 17 goals and 14 assists. Amazing! Jon-Paul Tait also had an incredible season, he ends as the club young player of the season and the top scorer at the club with 27 goals in 30 starts. He had a few niggle injuries through the season which kept him out but when he played he was incredible. Finally I want to speak about Goalkeeper Efraim Ilharco, he nearly left in the Summer but I turned down £40m for him, I was so glad I could keep him about as he had an amazing season playing 54 times and keeping 26 clean sheets with an average rating of 7.28 Here is the Best XI And here is the whole squad. As you can see the tactic has changed from what I've been using in the previous couple of season, the 424 has gone, we no longer play Wingers, instead we're rocking a 352 formation and it's working a treat! The roles suit the players and do change dependant on who's playing there. I've also kept a Libero! It's the first time as well that I've kept automatic duties on my Wingbacks, this just helps when changing mentality throughout the games. So another brilliant season down, we are getting closer to that elusive Champions League title and it was brilliant to see another Scottish team lift European silverware, especially against another Scottish team! Getting to 4th in the ranking is an amazing feat but we can't stop there, we have to keep improving, not only ourselves but also the other Scottish sides. Next season we go again, I don't foresee many changes, it really depends who leaves the club. We have £112m to spend if we need it so I may go big on one, maybe two players if the right option comes up. The bank balance is only at £72m so I really can't go spending all that money!

2034/35 - Summer Transfers This will be just a transfer update, no results, will just go through who's left and who's come in as there is a lot of business! Transfers Out Bloody release clauses have done us again, we say goodbye to both Tsunoi and Alcaraz who's clauses got activated, Alcaraz was the most gutting one, Liverpool came in with literally 2 hours of the window left, I had no time to find a replacement. We also say goodbye to Lygaard (RW), Takahashi (RB), Buksrud (GK) and Jashari (DM), all were on the fringes and with the academy players doing so well I could sell them, most for a decent profit and still not lose any quality in the squad. So £97m of out's, let's see who came in! Transfers In Firstly is two signing I made last season who went straight out on loan, for this season they're back and they're going into the first-team Ecio Hasicic - Goalkeeper - £3.4m from Rijeka An amazing looking young keeper who, with Buksrud leaving, with provide back-up to Ilharco. He'll be getting game-time in the cup competitions. Da Silva - Centre Back - £6.75m from Flamengo Another top quality looking young lad, he'll provide back-up in defence this season but will get his chance in the cup games. Kelby Neilson - Right Back - £3.9m from St Mirren The first of two signings for the future, I wanted to a) send some money to other Scottish teams and b) build for the seasons ahead. Neilson is a quality, young RB and will spend this season on loan to our parent club Raith Rovers Danny Kiely - Left Back - £4.2m from Falkirk And here is the second of those “for the future" signings, another decent looking full back, Kiely will also spend the season on loan at Raith. Sol Wark - Left Back/Centre Back - £10.75m from Celtic A lad I'd looked at a few seasons ago, I decided against a bid and he went to Celtic, I needed a player to provide back-up to Wiles at LWB and also Murillo as LCB, Wark can do both and looks really good. Ognjen Stojanovic - Centre Back/Defensive Midfield - £7m from Crvena zvezda I took a bit of a punt on this lad, he looks absolutely amazing but for a defender he is short, can he fit into a back three as a Libero? That's my hope and if not he can play as my DM instead. Titouan Berger - Central Defender - £23m from Monaco The biggest deal of the Summer and what a player! With Ben White retiring I needed a new right-footed CB, this lad can play either BPD on the right or the Libero in the middle with ease, I am so excited as to how he will fit in and think he can take this side to a new level. Roosevelt - Right Wing/Central Midfield - £5m from Sao Paulo A last minute signing due to Lygaard leaving, offers versatility as he can play naturally in three different positions, another young signing who I think can be a superstar in the coming years. Dwayne Keizer - Left Wing - £6.25m from Aston Villa Another punt, he looks really good attribute wise to me but he isn't rated very highly, he won't get his chance this season as he'll spend the season on loan at Huddersfield, an exciting prospect in my eyes. Ryan McArthur - Right Wing-back/Central Midfield - Free Transfer Remember this lad? Yes he was the academy star who wanted to move to Man United, well three seasons later he hasn't played a game and left on a free!! So I brought him back! He will provide back-up in either midfield or at right wing-back. Let's hope he's learnt his lesson and won't leave again! Ferran Torres - Winger/Striker - Free Transfer We needed a bit of experience in our squad and Torres fits the bill, a top quality forward who can play anywhere along the forward line. A very busy Summer, I do feel the squad is a lot better now, the loss of Alcaraz though has really hurt our midfield and we will now have to rely on the kids to fill the gap, at least until the Winter window.

2033/34 - End of Season Review 700 Up This save has been utterly incredible and towards the end of the season I managed by 700th game over my time at Queen's Park and my brief stint as the Scotland Manager. Some amazing stats, a 69% win percentage and a whopping 1,681 goals!!! That's 11 seasons at Queen's Park and we've managed to win all that! Champions League We had to play in the playoff round and were handed a winnable tie against FC Porto, we went to their place in the first leg and sealed a stunning 3-1 win. Then in the home leg we did not defend well but managed a 3-3 draw to go through 6-4 on aggregate. Then we got the last 16 draw and as an un-seeded team we always knew we were going to get a tough tie and we got exactly that as we faced PSG! The first leg was at home and we didn't show up, PSG did what they had to do and won the game 2-0. We then went to the Parc de Princes and came away with a stunning win, unfortunately it wasn't enough and we went out 3-2 on aggregate. It was nice though to see us go toe-to-toe with such a big team. So an early exit from the Champions League and with us out of the Scottish Cup all we had to focus on was the Premiership. Premiership When I left you from the last update we were once again miles clear at the top of the League, so it will come as no surprise that we won the League AGAIN! The one thing I wanted was the unbeaten season but we failed at that as we lost to Celtic away, this game was sandwiched in-between the two PSG games so I had to rest players, I'll put that down to why we lost. We won the League with 6 games to spare and after that I mixed the team around a lot and played some of the kids, results did suffer slightly but it was a good experiment to see who were up for the task! Another dominant season! Key Players Fans Player of the Season goes to wide-man Connor Smith, he was by far our best and most consistent player this season, scoring 16 and getting 19 assists in 38 starts, he also ends as the young player of the season and with the most assists, most POTMs and highest average rating at the club! Academy star Jay MacLeod ends as the clubs top goal scorer with 17 goals in 43 starts, a solid season for him but for him to be our top scorer is pretty poor, what it does show though is we shared the goals around a lot more! Another academy star Craig Wiles had an amazing season, he's only 18 and already has 25 Ireland caps and 91 league appearances for us. This lad is going to an absolute superstar and I fully expect the big clubs to come calling soon. He also won the NxGN award, the third straight season a Queen's Park academy player won the award. And here is our Best XI for the season. Scottish Clubs in Europe It wasn't as good as last season I'll be honest. Both us and Celtic were knocked out of the Champions League in the Last 16 with Celtic losing to Liverpool In the Europa League Dundee United were knocked out in the playoff round to Villarreal, Rangers got to the Quarter finals beating Fiorentina in the Last 16 before losing to Spurs. Falkirk got to the Quarter final of the Conference League, they beat Fehervar in the playoff round, then AEK in the Last 16 but lost to Man United in the Last 8. Still a solid season overall and we end on 19.400 points, this keeps us in 6th place but we are catching Germany up in fifth! Another good run next season and we could well be over-taking Germany to fifth, that would give us a seventh European spot and a fourth in the Champions League! Youth Intake For the first time in a while we had a pretty average intake with no elite talents and four top talents, two of which look relatively decent, are they world-beaters? No, but they could do a decent job in the years to come with the right training, mentoring and game-time out on loan. Both look pretty decent but only time will tell if they improve enough for a first-team spot. Next Season Now we look forward to another season and we have to contunue to try and improve to get further in the Champions League, the one thing that screwed us this season was the sales in the Winter window, losing Nando, Vergara and Ilie without really replacing them meant we had to blood some of the kids, especially with so many injuries and fitness issues. I need to improve the squad overall and look to replace those players we lost in the Winter. We will also be losing Chilwell and White, both signed in the Winter and have decided to retire. As you can we have some whopping budgets!! A bit odd seeing as our bank balance is only £65m! There's no way I'm going to spend so much that we go into the red so my budget will be my bank balance, players will be sold, players will join, my aim this Summer is to improve the options at Wingback and also in defence whilst bring in players to replacement Ilie (LW) and Nando (RW). It should be a busy Summer!

2033/34 - Mid-Season Update Transfers I was really hoping for a quiet Winter window and it looked to be heading that way, I decided to left LW Ilie leave, he is now 30 and has fallen down the pecking order, £15.75m is a good deal, for me that was it, then came the last week of the window!!! Both CB Vergara and ST Nando has their release clauses activated (yes I forgot about them!) and it was too late to entice them to stay, two huge losses and with Nando it was even too late to find a replacement. I decided to bring two players in, both experienced England internationals. Ben Chilwell - Left Back - £1.6m from Galatasaray With me only really having Wiles as a decent LWB I needed to bring a new player in, I struggled to find someone to be happy to be back-up so went for Chilwell, a cheap fee and good experience. Ben White - Central Defender - £1.5m from Wolves My short-term replacement for Vergara, it was a real struggle to find a decent CB for a cheap fee and with me having a couple of decent players out on loan who could come in next season I went for another experienced player to plug the gap. League Cup Once again it was a good campaign in the League Cup I did mix the team about and we struggled to break teams down, both Motherwell and Dundee United were beaten in extra time. To the final and we faced Celtic where we absolutely hammered them! A 5-1 win in a game we utterly dominated, we certainly have the number of Celtic at the moment. Scottish Cup We faced Rangers at Ibrox in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup and with a raft of injuries and the fact the game was in-between a couple of huge Champions League games I had to play a rotated side, we took a late lead but the legs tired and Rangers scored twice late on to knock us out. Not happy! Premiership As you'd expect we have absolutely dominated the league with some insane wins! Loads of goals and if you look above you will see we have beaten Celtic 6-0!!!! Still unbeaten and with 14 games to go we sit 16 points clear. A fifth straight title is pretty much tied up. Champions League We had a decent set of fixtures in the League Phase and did OK but we fell to a couple of defeats against the bigger teams. I can take those defeats, we did play but they were too good. The big one was the win over Barca, a stunning 3-0 win. We did go into the game against Crvena zvezda knowing a win would see us into the Last 16, bypassing the playoff round but we drew the match and did not play well. This means we go into the playoff round where we face Porto. Scottish Teams in Europe As you'll see above Celtic also managed to seal a playoff spot, they will face Napoli In the Europe League Rangers ended 5th sealing a Last 16 spot, Dundee United got a playoff spot and will face Villarreal. In the Conference League Falkirk got a playoff spot and will face Fehervar. So all 5 teams that got into the League Phases of their respective competitions have qualified for at least the playoffs, that's pretty good. Our co-efficient for this season currently sits at 16.000, the joint third highest, it keeps us in 6th in the overall ranking a couple of points ahead of Portugal and 2 points behind Germany. Other News A couple of pieces of awards news for my boys! Jon-Paul Tait, who has just come back from his broken leg, won the FIFA Best U21 Mens Player award. And Jay MacLeod ended the year as the European Golden Boy, these lads are good!

Skin is called SAS and logopack is TCM megapack

2033/34 - Opening Games and European News What a start it's been! As you can see it's getting a bit too easy domestically, I'm mixing the team around a lot to keep playing some of the kids and we're still battering most of the teams. I would love this season to end unbeaten! But it's Europe where we need to continue improving, we got to the semi's of the Champions League last season and it is my aim to go one step further! As ever we automatically qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League and we have a decent set of fixtures. We should be able to get enough points in those games to be challenging for a top 8 spot. As for the other Scottish teams in Europe, well it's gone well with both Falkirk and Rangers getting through their qualifying rounds to get into the League Phase. That means we have two teams in the Champions League (Us and Celtic), two in the Europa League (Rangers and Dundee United) and Falkirk in the Conference League. Let's hope all five of us have good run in their respective competitions. Finally, a bit of transfer news, there is good and bad news, firstly the good, Jon-Paul Tait stays but there is a bad side to that, he broke his leg in training and is out for 4-5 months. A huge loss. Another piece of bad news is we have lost one of our highest rated youngsters and left back Dolcek moves to Liverpool after the activated his £20m release clause. A big loss but I will not be replacing him. It was nice to get all business done early in this window and not go frantically rushing about as we got towards deadline day. Now for a big push in the Champions League!

I do a bit of everything when it comes to scouting Always make sure I have scouts looking all over the World and a variety of nationalities and scouting knowledge I use the player search a lot. Have different filters set up to find certain players, I have filters for each positions based on the attribute comparison page, using the average for each attribute I have different shortlists for different types of players, i.e youths, out of contracts, main targets, etc. I make a lot of use of the scouting recommendations as well

2033/34 - Transfer Update and Club World Cup Just a quick update to look over the transfer business so far and how the Club World Cup went. We had what looked like a tough group and after losing the opening game to Bayern 3-2 we needed 2 good wins to get out the group. In those 2 games we were incredible. We hammered both Al-Ahly and Boca to seal 2nd spot in the group In the Last 16 we faced Dortmund and scored twice late on the seal at 2-0 win. Then, in the Quarters, we faced this seasons Champions League runners-up Chelsea and it was a step too far as lost the tie 3-1. A decent run though overall. Transfers Out I said this Summer would be a busy one and it's been just that. We've had bids for so many players, Man United came in for Tait for just over £15m, I said no and then fell out with him, I've said he can go for £33.5m. Newcastle then activated Left Back Craig Wiles' release clause of £23.5m, luckily I managed to tie him down to a new bumper deal with the release clause now set at £80m. I kept those two but lost a few first-team players Out go Goalkeeper Hasegawa who wanted the move, a decent profit as I signed him for £3.9m last Summer. Isak also moves on after falling down the pecking order, he was signed on a free so another good profit. The one that annoyed me was Winger Montalto, one of our best players but he had already said he wouldn't sign a new deal which runs out next Summer, a big loss but Connor Smith is so good on the RW that Montalto won't be missed. The other players to leave were all back-ups or kids that were never going to make it. We also lost Ajer and Tierney who both retired and Jashiri who asked for a move but I couldn't the deal right, he goes to Leicester on loan for the season with a future fee (mandatory) of £9.25m Transfers In So I needed some new recruits and I really feel I've done very well with my business. Lewis Miley - Attacking Midfield - £8m from Aston Villa I watched him play yesterday on MOTD and thought he looked amazing, so I looked at him on FM and my word he's good. A solid player who can play anywhere along the line behind the striker and also in central midfield. Flemming Lygaard - Winger/Striker - £5m from Toronto FC My replacement for Isak, he can also play on either wing. He looks really good and will do a great job as back-up to Pajoy, Tait and MacLeod. Emmanuel Barrientos - Central Defender - £28m from Newcastle With Ajer leaving I needed a new right-side CB and I went big! A club record fee, a cracking looking player who will slot in defence alongside Murillo. Nando - Striker - £12.25m from Sao Paulo With the rumours swirling about Tait leaving I went in for this lad to replace him when he eventually leaves, currently there have been no more bids for Tait but I expect him to go. Even so this lad is incredible! Efraim Ilharco - Goalkeeper - £12m from Sporting Lisbon My replacement for Hasegawa, in comparison Ilharco is actually better and he cost me half as much. A top quality keeper! So some really good business but we have spent a lot!!! Nearly £65m spent with around £35m of player sales. It's pretty much decimated our bank balance so there will no more in's for now unless someone leaves. I do have a really healthy squad now with a good mix and youth and experience.

2032-33 - End of Season Review Welcome back! This may be a long update, it's been a busy final few months! Youth Intake Once again we have another really good-looking player in the latest intake. I say good-looking, clearly that his attributes and not that shocking photo of him! Please welcome Jake Falconer, a second awesome looking left back in the past three intakes. He's going to have to improve if he's going to take that LB spot off Craig Wiles! We also welcome this lad, central defender Liall Coult, he looks solid and will do a decent job in the years to come Scottish Cup It was another brilliant campaign in the Scottish Cup, we eased into the final with wins over Raith, Hearts, a lucky win over Ross County and then a hammering of Kilmarnock in the semi final. In the final we faced Celtic, a tough, tight games which went to extra time after the 90 minutes ended 1-1. It was settled by one of our own, Right Back Michael McKinlay stealing in at the back post to win the game and our fifth Scottish cup win in six seasons. Premiership As you will expect, we smashed it in the League, we lead from the front and never ever looked in danger. We had some great wins but did lose a couple towards the end, mainly because I rested players for much bigger matches. Lots of green though, some amazing wins along the way! One point less than last season, still 100+ points in successive seasons is amazing. Champions League Now to the big one, I wanted to get past the Last 16 this season after falling at that point in the last three seasons. In that round we faced Hoffenheim, we got a solid 0-0 draw away and then went crazy in the home leg scoring 6 goals! An amazing win against a decent team but it was about to get much tougher! Barcelona were our opponents in the Quarters, we went to the Nou Camp in the first leg and played well, it looked to be heading to an amazing 0-0 draw until, in the last minute of injury time, Vitor Roque scored and they would take a 1-0 lead with them for when they come to the Malkay McKay Stadium. I had hope, I knew we were good enough if we got it right and my word did we!!! We went mad in the first half scoring three times, Barca got one back just before half time but we managed to see out a famous victory against one of Europe's elite and we're into the semis!!!! Where we faced another Spanish giant Real Madrid, again the first leg was away and Real were just too good, they ended 3-1 winners with a couple of second half goals. We still had a chance though, we knew we could match then and just like the Barca game we had an amazing first half, three goals scored putting us ahead on aggregate but this is where we fell apart, Jude Bellingham ran the show, we ran out of legs and Real scored mid-way through the second half, levelling the tie and taking it to extra time. The players were shot and Real dominated, Bellingham again running the game and set up Thuram to score the goal that would knock us out. What a brilliant run though, we were so close to another amazing shock, we got to the semis of Europe's premiere competition and mixed it with the big boys! Player Awards/Key Performers I could talk about so many players but I'll try and keep it short! Firstly is academy star Jon-Paul Tait, he ends as the clubs player of the season and also dominates the Premiership awards with player, players player and young player of the year! He also ends as the Premiership top scorer with 23 goals in 25 starts, overall he scored 29 goals and got 17 assists from 33 starts, this lad is absolutely incredible! Jean Carlos Pajoy ended as the clubs young player of the season, he didn't make as many appearances as normal, mainly due to Tait and MacLeod doing so well but still managed 26 goals in 29 starts! Talking of MacLeod, he had another solid season, he does seem to like to go numerous games without scoring and then bangs a shed load in. He ends with 19 goals and 9 assists in 40 starts Wonderkid academy star Craig Wiles had a really good season, an ever-present at Left Back he was solid in defence and really good going forward. He made 32 starts, scoring 3 goals and getting 3 assists. He is an absolute superstar! I said before the season started I wanted to give some of my academy players more game-time and that was the case for Right Back Michael McKinlay, he isn't the best but overall he had a solid season. He made 33 starts scoring 3 goals including the winner in the Scottish Cup final! Now to a player who isn't at the club as the moment and that's Midfielder Ray Horne, will he ever play for us when he comes back from his loan art Stenhousemuir? Probably not but he had a stunning season in League Two ending as the player of the season with 15 goals and 10 assists from 36 games, all from midfield! And here is the clubs Best XI for the season. And the whole squad. Scottish Clubs in Europe A quick word on this as it was a brilliant season for most of the Scottish Clubs. Alongside us getting to the Champions League Semi's, Celtic got to the Last 16 but lost to Chelsea In the Europe League St Mirren lost in the playoff round to Roma, Hearts got all the way to the Quarters before losing to Newcastle, Rangers went one better than that, getting to the Semi's before also losing to Newcastle Aberdeen were the sole team in the Conference League, they got to the Last 16 before getting absolutely smashed by Brighton. So another great season and it's been Scotland best co-efficient wise. We dropped to 7th this season meaning next season we lost a European spot but, as you can see, we have done so well this time around that we go back above Netherlands into sixth for next season. The bigger news is, we have ended with the second highest co-efficient for the season, so unless something goes horribly wrong, we should get an extra Champions League spot as the two highest co-efficient scorers get extra spots! That is massive news! In Other News And finally, some bits of news. Firstly is the budgets for next season and my word it's a whopper! £72m and a £200k per week in wage budgets. I will be spending some of it that's for sure! We also had some of the academy lads in the NxGN award and for the second season Jay MacLeod won the award. The future is bright! And the final piece of news is that, for some reason, we're in the Club World Cup!!! We were seeded fourth and were handed a really tough group! Can we get out of that group? It's going to be tough. So another brilliant season down, another treble and a brilliant run in Europe, now we need to kick on, there is going to be some movement in the squad this Summer. Both Ajer and Tierney are retiring and it's likely that certain players will leave, Montalto, Isak, Ilie have all asked to move and with some of the kids doing really well I can afford to sell some of these lads, bring some of the kids in and then buy two or three top quality players to get this squad ready for another push at the Champions League. I expect it to be a busy Summer!

2032-33 - Mid-Season Review Winter Transfers I had no plans for any business this window but I've decided to be proactive and not wait, the reason for this is there are quite a few unhappy players at the moment, mainly because I'm blooding the kids in the domestic, thats means I have a lot of my key men asking for more game time! Both Ajer and Tierney have had enough and are retiring at the end of the season so I need to replace them and then there is talk of both Montalto (RW) and Jashiri (DM) wanting to go. Neither have left but in the Summer they will more than likely leave. So I decided to bring in a couple of players to get them bedded in. Tomislaw Dolcek - Left Back - £15m from Dinamo Zagreb A player I looked at in the Summer but felt it was worth waiting, with Tierney heading towards retirement now was the time to get him in, a big fee but a quality looking player. Nikola Mance - Defensive Midfield - £3.3m from Rijeka A player I actually signed in the Summer but I sent him back to Rijeka on-loan, with Jashiri wanting a move I decided to recall him to get him into the first-team squad for some game-time. League Cup Once again it was another successful campaign in the League Cup, Hibs and Falkirk were beaten to get us in the final. Where we faced Rangers, I decided to stick to starting my kids and did an OK job, the game only really kicked into life in the second half, MacLeod scoring just after the second 45 started. Rangers then pegged us back but sub Pajoy scored within minutes of their leveller and that's how it ended. Another League Cup win! Premiership What an incredible run it's been! 24 games in and we're still unbeaten! The kids have been incredible so far, I have had to bring in a few of my key men just to try and keep the likes of Isak, Pajoy, Connor Smith, etc happy but the main bulk of the youth players have been given their chance and have been so good. Miles clear!!!!!! Champions League Now to the big one, I kept my key men back for this and my god did they repay me!!!! Just look at that!!! 8 games, only a single defeat and that was against Man City, we even went to Anfield and won an absolute thriller 5-4!!! Napoli and Porto were also beaten away, sensational!!! That meant, for the first time, we had a sealed a top 8 spot, bypassing the playoff round!! Scottish Teams in Europe But it wasn't just us who's had a good season in Europe, as you can see above Celtic were so close to a top 8 spot, they played Arsenal away in the final, all they had to do was avoid defeat for a top 8 place, unfortunately they lost 2-0 but what a run they had, they even went to Juve and won! In fact all six teams made it out of the League Phases with Aberdeen sealing a playoff spot in the Conference League, Hearts got a top 8 spot in the Europa League with Rangers and St Mirren ending in the playoff spots!! It's been by far the best season for the Scottish clubs in Europe and it's reflected in our current co-efficient score. We currently have the second highest score behind England for this season, if we keep that up we get another Champions League spot for next season, what it does mean though is it looks like we will go back above the Netherlands into 6th next season meaning we get back the Champions League spot we lost by dropping down to 7th for qualifying this season. Things really are looking up but we really need one of us to go on and win something now! In Other News One big piece of news is wonderkid Striker Jon-Paul Tait, who has been sensational this season, was awarded the Golden Boy for 2032. What a year he's had, 23 goals and 17 assists in 35 starts, this lad, along side MacLeod are going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come, what I have to do now if hang on to them! The vultures are circling!!

I have employed a Japanese scout and we have an affiliation with Sapporo, I'm not sure if that helped but we've found some gems!

2032-33 Season - Summer Transfers and Opening Games So I had this great plan for the Summer, the kids are going to play the domestic games but I wanted to upgrade my key men with better players, my choice, if I find someone better for relatively low cost then I'll bring them in and sell the player they're replacing on, what I didn't envisage was clubs unsettling my key men before I even started!!! It's been a big Summer, lots of outs but I really feel I've majorly improved this squad and I feel we are well set for a run at the Champions League this season. Transfers Out As I said, it's been a tough Summer as you can see by these out's 9 players sold, all from the first-team, we lose our first choice RB Larossa, Our No. 1 Henderson, Arismendi, one of our key DMs, James Hill, a CB who started most games last season, LW Boyer who went to Newcastle after they activated his release clause and then the big one, we lost Striker and save legend Rodrigo Muniz. The good news is, for most of these, I brought in better players for less money. Nearly £80m brought in as well and pretty much all of those sold were for a profit on what I paid for them. Transfers In Nahuel Alcaraz - Defensive Midfield - £12m from Racing Club With Arismendi leaving and Anguissa retiring I needed a new DM and this lad is a huge upgrade on both those players, a big fee but well worth it. Shuichi Hasegawa - Goalkeeper - £3.9m from Yokohoma Compared to Henderson this lad is head and shoulders above him, a stupidly cheap fee and only 24, this lad is going to be a superstar for us. Juan Vergara - Central Defender - £2.5m from Millonarios My replacement for James Hill and like the others, a huge upgrade, only 19 as well, this lad is incredible and will only get better! Alexander Isak - Striker - Free Transfer My short-term replacement for Muniz and what a signing, Isak is still amazing at 32 and will provide great experience to MacLeod and Tait whilst providing Champions League experience in those big games. Keiichi Takahashi - Right Back - £5m from Kashima Antlers With Larossa going I needed a new RB, this lad isn't as good as Larossa but I really struggled to balance quality with price, Takahashi is only 22 so has time to improve and will provide great attacking impetus on that right-hand side. Takeharu Tsunoi - Defensive Midfield - £4.3m from Yokohoma My third Japanese signing of the Summer and this was a last minute signing, he can play in both defence and midfield and will provide good options when needed. Another young signing who also looks first-team ready. An absolutely brilliant window, we have some incredible talents coming in, we've lost some big players but I do feel this squad is more than ready for another amazing season, and all with a profit of nearly £45m!!!! Opening Games We've started really well this season, I've stuck with what I said, I've played the kids in the domestic games and filled in when we've had injuries or fitness problems with my big game players. 5 games, 5 wins, amazing! Jon-Paul Tait has had an amazing start with 6 goals! Already top, can we stay there?! Champions League Fixtures We have what looks like a solid set of games to play in the Champions League. We face Liverpool and Man City which will be tough but in the other games I fully expect to be challenging, a playoff spot is well and truly on but can we sneak top 8? Scottish Teams in Europe Finally, it's been a brilliant Summer for our fellow Scottish teams. In the Champions League we have ourselves and Celtic who both automatically qualified Rangers lost in the Champions League playoff on penalties to Sporting Lisbon but that means they drop down to the Europa League They will join Hearts, who automatically qualified and St. Mirren who got through four rounds of qualifying to get into the League Phase In the Conference League will be Aberdeen who got through three qualifying rounds to seal a League Phase spot. Six teams in Europe this season, a massive boost and it should help our co-efficient rise. Qualifying for next seasons European spots has been dented by the fact we've dropped down to 7th in the co-efficient rankings, Netherland went above us and this means we lost an automatic League Phase spot in the Champions League, it should be a one season blip though as I fully expect us to do enough this season to overtake Netherlands.

Great job!! Well done, you've inspired me to do this for my next save