TheLutterworthFox

April 2024 We have two games left to make sure we secure a European place next season, what I've found out is that 2nd place guarantees a Europa Conference Spot, 3rd would do but it depends on the winner of the Welsh Cup, the final is between Cardiff Met and Haverfordwest, both outside of the European spaces, this means we have to end 2nd! The first game of the month was away to 5th placed Bala Town, we deserved to win, they scored early and that was their only shot on goal, we managed to grab an equaliser but failed to make our dominance pay and ended with a 1-1 draw, this meant, with Connah's Quay winning, we went into the final game in 2nd but only on goal difference. Into the final match, we had an away tie against Pontypridd, Connah's Quay were away to Bala Town, all we had to do was match their result to end in 2nd. Well we put in one of our best displays in recent months to win the game 4-1 making sure of that runners-up finish! Fantastic! A really pleasing end to the season.

March 2024 Two huge games, win them both and we're in a title challenge, lose them both and we're hanging on to a European spot. Well the first game was away to Connah's Quay, we played really well but we lost 1-0, we had two goals disallowed for offside and did not deserve to lose! We then faced TNS at home and put in a brilliant performance, they dominated possession but we put our chances away and came out with a 2-0 win. That made up for the Connah's Quay defeat and cemented ourselves in 2nd place. The final game of the month was at home to Penybont, our final match at Jenner Park this season, a win would guarantee top three and seal a European spot but we decided to not turn up and lost the match 1-0. Three games, only one win, we now have two away games left, the title is gone but luckily a European place is pretty much guaranteed.

2024 Youth Intake The rating were really poor but the overall intake was previewed as "excellent", so which way did it go? Well it looks excellent to me!!! Three elite talents and two top talents! Not bad for an intake which was had a preview of "C" rated players at best! So are they actually any good or is it because our squad isn't that great?! Jamie Roberts - Attacking Midfield Flair, Bravery, First Touch, not bad at all! He needs work but then everyone does at this level! Chris Perkins - Attacking Midfield Another attacking midfielder, I may have to look at changing formation! Overall he looks decent, he has good determination and natural fitness, he can also take a free kick. Luke Humphreys - Striker No not the darts player, a half decent looking Striker, he has decent pace for this level, good determination, finishing and work rate. I like this lad! Matthew Walker - Left Back When I look for a player I look for four base attributes, determination, work rate, natural fitness and bravey. Walker has three of them way above the league average, he just need to improve his bravery, a solid, young player but he does need some serious work. All four of these will come straight into the first-team squad and will be there as back-ups for the next few season, I personally prefer keeping my better youth players about, get them mentored by the older players rather than packing them out on loan

February 2024 Firstly MORE injury news as Winger Tobias Hurlock, who has played really well over the past few months has broken his ankle is going to be out for 8-10 months. The good news is McLaggon is now fully fit and Hulbert is a week away from a return. And just when I thought the wheels were falling off we came back with an absolutely brilliant win to end the month, I just wish we'd have kept the clean sheet, once again we conceded a consolation goal late on. It was a much needed win after whimpering out of the Welsh Cup and scraping 2 draws in the previous league games. Interestingly enough TNS have also started dropping points, a defeat and a draw in their past two league games and they went out of the Welsh Cup in the Quarters. We're still six behind them and also six ahead of Connah's Quay in 3rd. 2nd looks the most likely but we need to keep winning games. Here is out run-in, the next game is huge, if we come out without losing then 2nd is all but done, if we win and then beat TNS then we could be on for a late title challenge!

I've never seen it sway that much between awful rating but a really high description. Only about 6 weeks to wait to see how good it actually is!

January 2024 A quiet month with one great win and an amazing 3-3 draw away to TNS! It was nice to see McLaggon score twice in his comeback match after a 6 week layoff. That TNS game though was bonkers, especially I deployed the park the bus tactic! 8 games left and we are still solidly in 2nd place. Transfer-wise nothing has happened, we lost one player after defender Oscar Halls was recalled from his loan spell, we are over wage budget and over £100k in the red so I cannot do any business, we just have to deal with what we have, get that European spot and then look at sorting the squad out in the Summer. We already have numerous players who have said they won't be renewing their contracts at the end of the season, these include LB Hugh, CM Press and ST Hulbert, 3 key players we'll be losing for next season.

December 2023 After a shaky start we've ended with some really good results putting us well in the European places hunt One game of the regular season to go, we have cemented our second place spot Now for some more bad injury news, we have lost Striker Hulbert for 3 months. This leaves us with just one first-team Striker meaning I'll need to somehow need to bring another Striker in That is going to be hard seeing as we're well in the red and are overspending in wages, I need to try and ship out some of the poorer players who I don't want, that's easier said than done though! The annual youth intake preview has also come through and although it says it's an "excellent" intake the rating don't tell that story! Yeah not great. I have got two new players coming in though, both on free loans to bolster the ranks Ryan Lowe - Central Midfeld Marlee Francois - Winger Both add much needed depth, especially with the injuries we have

November 2023 A really good month with some cracking wins We have five games of the regular season left before the league split and we are comfortably in second place, surely we can't challenge TNS for the title? The big news is our star man Kayne McLaggon got injured in the last game and is out for at least 6 weeks, a huge loss.

October 2023 The month started so well but a few defeats has set us back. We did however produce one of our best displays to beat TNS at home in the league! Six points from four games though, even with the TNS win means we slip further behind them at the top of the table, the gap is now seven I still have to be happy though, we are overperforming where we should be, we just need to stop these silly defeats, the defence needs a serious improvement over the Winter. The tactic seems to be working well in the main, the players have taken to the gegenpress style and we look really dangerous going forward, just defensively we lack a bit of quality.

September 2023 Another fantastic month, I can take a couple of defeats because even in those games we didn't play that badly, we just faced a team that took their chances. What has been nice is the games where we've gone behind and won, both Haverfordwest and Bala Town we went 1-0 down and came back in the second half, mainly helped by the substitutions. It shows the side have grit and determination. As expected TNS are top and unbeaten, to be 2nd is really pleasing, now we just need to continue our good form, European qualification this season is a must to help out with the ever decreasing finances. Once again we made a big loss, around £28k which puts the bank balance in the red for the first time. There really isn't much I can do about it at the moment, we don't have anyone to sell to make money on, we could reduce the wage bill but that will only have a small effect on the losses, we need to get into Europe, just playing in one qualification round gives us around £80k. For the second month in a row one of our players won the leagues player of the month, this time Winger Kyle McClaggon He's not rated very highly but has been a massive source of goals from the right wing

August 2023 What an amazing start, I expected us to do well but some of these results have been really good. An unbeaten start, a couple of draws but even in those games we played well. And we sit top of the league after 4 games! Tactics wise I always tend to start with a 41221 and this save is exactly the same, in all the games bar the TNS match with a gegenpress style with a few tweaks to the players roles. Pretty basic but as you can see by the results it's working well. In the TNS match we went with "park the bus" and my god did it work, we actually had the better of the chances and, bar a late goal, completely nullified them. This gives me huge hope, when we're at home we won't be so negative but it worked a treat against a team much better than us Our good month was capped off with midfielder Evan Press winning the League Player of the Month, just a shame he has just told me he doesn't want to stay after his contract expires at the end of the season! He will be a big miss if I can't keep him about

2023/24 Season - Summer Transfers and Squad Update It's been a busy Summer, I managed to get rid of three players who were nowhere near good enough, this free'd up around £700 a week in wages giving me a bit more to spend. The squad needed improving, I mentioned in the last update we needed a new DM and a new CB, I also realised we needed a new GK and ST if I could find one decent enough on a low wage. All-in-all six players joined and the squad now looks much more solid and rounded. Kris Owen - Left/Centre Back Signed to add a bit of depth to the squad, the good thing is he's on an amateur contract so no wage, he just gets paid when he plays Cianole Nguepissi - Centre Back A big chunk of the wage budget taken up but this guy looks amazing for this level. Tobian Hurlock - Winger Another player on an amateur contract, he adds some depth to the wide areas. Henry Sandat - Striker Signed on a season loan from Hull City, Sandat adds competition to Hulbert up front and is as good, if not better Callum Hiddleston - Goalkeeper A massive upgrade on what we had when I joined. Oscar Halls - Central Defender Another season long loan signing, this time from Plymouth, he adds good competition in defence. As you can see we didn't sign a defensive midfield, I went in for loads of players but they wanted way too much money, even though the squad planner claims we have nothing when you look at ability we do have a couple of options to play there, if we struggle I'll look a changing formation, either to a flat-three in midfield or three at the back. The ability ratings haven't really changed from how it looked prior to the signings but we have much more depth in all areas. We are relying a lot on our best XI but overall we have enough depth and ability in the squad to be meeting expectations which is currently a top half finish. I'm really happy with how the squad looks now and so far the results have been pretty solid. I made sure we had easily winnable game in the pre-season friendlies and we managed to win most with ease, in the games we didn't I played a massively rotated team to see if any of the fringe/youth players were up to the task. And what those signings and good pre-season form has done is push our media prediction in the league up to 4th place! Here's hoping for a good start competitively

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!