stouters
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Post by stouters on May 5, 2020 18:04:57 GMT
Making Northern Ireland The ‘Best'. A nod to the late, great George Best.
The aim of this save has been to make the Danske Bank Premiership number 1 in the League rankings, currently it is sitting 27th. The best way to make this happen is for all NI teams to do well in European competitions. I have been the manager of Glentoran for the last 15 seasons and now i’m calling it a day with them. Why? I feel like i’m hitting a wall with them and the league needs more successful teams in Europe. This sounds more like the end of a save and not a continuation of it, that in not the case here. I’ll be looking for a new NI team to share the responsibility of making progress in Europe. In Europe we have had our fair share of progress. Qualifying from the earliest stages on a regular basis, making it to the group stages where not only the best teams await us, but £13m for making the group stage. In 2030 we even managed to win the Europa League! Not having to qualify for the group stage the following season was a little strange. Generally, qualifying from the group stage has been difficult and not something that i have been able to do often. Most of the time we 4th with the occasional 3rd place. In the last few years qualifying has been getting almost too easy, to the point that i decided to holiday some of the fixtures. I have been holidaying the domestic cups since i did the domestic clean sweep, and now i had started to do that with the first 3 qualifying rounds of the Champions League. I take care of the playoff matches, just in case the assman screws it up. That would harm the co-efficient a lot. Some of the ‘Qualities’ needed for a save like this - - To achieve the goal of the save you will need patience. 15 titles in a row from the off and the league is still only ranked 27th. That’s a fair rise from what ever it starts from...105th? I can’t remember. You probably need another 30 years to make it.
There will come a time when your player will be getting chased by 15+ clubs. You will also have to surender that player who you believe will lead your team to european glory. The silver lining in that is you will probably end up in a bidding war. For example: Team 1 bids £XXm, Team 2 bids something similar, so you up it a little. If they accept, go back and reject the offer from the other team. Rinse and repeat until a bid sticks and the player agrees a contract. In the short term you won’t have that much control over the player’s desire to leave. I’ve noticed lately that if a player isn’t bothered about moving to the likes of Borussia Dortmund, if they are the only team then i’ve no problem rejecting.
I’ll admit that going unbeaten several seasons in a row, qualifying for the Champion’s League group stage only to finish 4th and STs scoring for fun, i have found my interests wandering at times. I hit a wall quite a few times, but the one thing that has helped me through is setting a target. Winning the league was obviously the first target, but as the job got easier i need more little challenges. Qualifying for the Champions League group stage, getting a player to win the European Golden Boot. Winning a European trophy, maaking massive profit on players bought, breaking points and goals scored in the league and the ultimate one...a new stadium. Seeing the league’s rep only going up 3 places is really demoralising. I know it will get harder as we climb higher, but doing so well as club in europe, but not as a group of clubs is not going to help. I say that commitment to the club is important, but there comes a time when a manager has to move. The commitment is also to the aim of the save. Getting the league to the top. PlayersI’d like to post a few players, if possible, to show the quality we needed to get Glentoran where they are. Harry Philips - Bought from Institute for £500. I’m not 100% sure on this, but i think i bought their best youth prospect for beating me. No games for 2 seasons, started playing a half season scoring 24 goals in 40 games in all competitions. He then became the main goalscorer. In his first season he finished 3rd in the Golden Boot with 44 league goals, but won it in the following season with 37 league goals. The joys of improved league rep. He was then caught up in a bidding war and sold for £35.5m to Aston Villa. He has since gone on to be a expensive flop with 6 goals in 49 appearances. Lasse Jensen - Bought from AGF for £200k in 22/23. Quite an expensive transfer at the time, but became one of the best strikers at the club. His 45 goals in the 26/27 season got him 3rd place in the Golden Boot. His goal tally is still a record at the end of 33/34. Two seasons later his head gets turned by Konyaspor and we lose him on the cheap for £600k. Kike - Bought for £1.5m from Espanyol in 29/30 and eventually sold to Koln for £16m at the beginning of 33/34. I wanted to hold onto him as getting his sort of talent on the cheap was getting harder. His head got turn 2 seasons ago and could easily have lost him for £4m. I held on despite his protests and got a decent sale. I struggled to cater for him in the middle of a 4-4-2 and eventually put him to good use on the left as an inside forward. 27 goals in 56 appearances in all comps finally made him desirable to other clubs. Luis Silva - Yes, another striker. I was a bit surprised to get him from Universitatea Craiova and for £1.5m. He went straight to the reserves for a season. Harry Phillips and a player on loan kept him out. When they left i had a quick look in the reserves and completely forgot he was sitting there in all of 4* glory. His first season got him the Golden Boot with 39 goals. It was a great surprise as it was the first time we get are told we play in a 2nd-tier division, i think that’s the phrase used. I haven’t sold him, but could have if i wanted. Last season we were attracting offers around £30m. The player doesn’t want to go and he is on course to win a consecutive Golden Boot. Sam Stubbs - Arrived in the 3rd season on a free from Hamilton. Easily one of the best centre backs i could ask for in the early years. Somehow he prolonged his stay to 9 seasons. He retired after he left. Check him out as he is a real player. There are probably loads more that i could post, but i think this update is getting big. TransfersProbably the part of this save that i both love and hate. This season alone i reluctantly managed to raise over £100m in transfers, potentially rising to £130m. The one player i really could have done with not selling was my best RB. Bought from Olympija for £1.5m and sold a season and a half later for £46.5m. At this point money wasn’t a concern, but when a bidding war kicks off and Man Utd are involved, it’s only a matter of time. Another was a CM bought for £775k from Partizan Belgrade, sold for £35m with not even 50 games for us in all competitions. OtherI wanted to get a new stadium and after a few delays we got there. It started off as 11,917 and within 11 months it was a 24,174 seater. That was all i was really waiting for before i could allow myself to move on. I decided to wait until it was maxed out as i’m pretty sure the AI wouldn’t bother. I’ve heard plenty of times that the AI is terrible at buying players, especially when they have £180m sitting in the bank. What i have done to try and maintain the club’s success after i’m gone is buy high PA youth as future arrivals. As they aren’t yet 18, they will arrive at the club within 2yrs. Not all of them are cheap, some at least look good. The only thing bugging me about Glentoran is their training facilities. They have been stuck on good and i haven’t been able to upgrade them in nearly 10yrs. Just before i get news that Glentoran have climbed up 6 places to 17th in the European club rankings, the league is up 5 places to 22nd in the Competitions ranking list and Northern Ireland (as a whole) is up to 14th in the nation’s co-efficient table. This means that Northern Ireland will have a team in the Best Placed 2nd Qualifying round and a team in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League in 2035/36. There will also be a team in the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League (previously 0) and 2 teams in the 2nd qualifying round of the Europe Conference League (previously 3). This is the progress i’m looking for. Late addition to the post. A few seasons ago I decided to try to help the league help itself. When the club had £100m I gave 8 or 9 clubs £5m each by buying a player and gave them short-term contracts. A Linfield player refused to come to Glentoran. One of the first things I do as a manager is check out the finances, its the capitalist in me. To my disappointment, this team doesn't have £5m anymore, not even £1m . Finally. The best thing i have achieved on FM in years has to be winning the Europa League. Putting out the likes of Liverpool, Monaco, Bayer Leverkusen and then beating Lazio 1-0 in the final was epic. I didn’t do to well with Glentoran in the Champions League with Glentoran, but at least i can say i’ve won the Europa League. Picture of the Stadium <-
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stouters
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@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on May 5, 2020 19:22:41 GMT
Sorry about the poor quality of the layout out. I'm a bit rusty. I've got another club to manage, but I'll try to get a post us as soon as possible.
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Post by jawzy on May 6, 2020 0:52:53 GMT
I am shocked, that you leaving your club especially after what seems two FMs at almost exclusively playing as them I assume Larne dont have the loaded owner still? are the teams that finish 2nd and 3rd in the league consistantly finishiong in those positions, or did it chmp and chamge behind you? Also have domestic attendences actually increased for all clubs or just yours?
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stouters
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@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on May 6, 2020 1:13:50 GMT
I am shocked, that you leaving your club especially after what seems two FMs at almost exclusively playing as them I assume Larne dont have the loaded owner still? are the teams that finish 2nd and 3rd in the league consistantly finishiong in those positions, or did it chmp and chamge behind you? Also have domestic attendences actually increased for all clubs or just yours? For the sake of the league up a bit more it's probably best that I left the club. There's enough quality and money to maintain it while I get a new club into the position to get through a couple of round in the Europa League or Conference. It will definitely be a shock to the system. Larne have gone through one consortium and now have a local business man in charge, their original chairman scaled down funding in 2026 and left in 2032. Larne have finish 2nd for something like 8 out of the last 9 seasons and did nothing with it in Europe. Good question about the attendance. The attendances seem to have remained at a similar level. which is disappointing. There has been next to no upgrades in anyone's training facilities.
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Post by Nick on May 7, 2020 9:37:38 GMT
This is something I've set out to do a couple of times in the past, but I've always grown too attached to the club that I build up and it's fallen on it's arse, so kudos for lasting this long and wanting to see the next part of the save through. Winning the Europa League is a pretty remarkable achievement it has to be said. Who is the new team?
(p.s none of your hyperlinks are working mate - they just link back to this thread)
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stouters
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@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on May 7, 2020 10:38:43 GMT
Thanks. The league is quite poor in performance and finances, so in a way it is needed. If anyone has read the thread where I got this idea from on SI, creating-a-northern-irish-footballing-revolution, you'll see it is necessary. Last year he did this save winning the Champions League 10 times in a row and I still don't think it made as much of a difference to the league rep as moving clubs did. With his save other clubs were pulling their weight, in mine they are not. It's definitely a challenge that is time consuming. As Jawzy mentions, last year I was managing Glentoran for this type of save but started far too late in the year, this time I think I started at the end of November. The new team is! PortadownAlso, hyperlinks...oops. Will fix them now.
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Post by chaodck on May 7, 2020 14:39:07 GMT
Wow this surely is a different take on a FM save. I don't think I could ever do this, I get too invested in my teams haha. Good luck Stouters, here's to Norn Iron being the best in Europe!
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stouters
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@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on May 7, 2020 15:02:16 GMT
Wow this surely is a different take on a FM save. I don't think I could ever do this, I get too invested in my teams haha. Good luck Stouters, here's to Norn Iron being the best in Europe! By the time I finish either this save or FM20 i'll be sick of Glentoran and Northern Ireland. Definitely not doing this next year. There wasn't much more I could do with Glentoran. It was basically just waiting to see how we get on in the CL group stage. Either try to finish 2nd and consider that as progress or slip into the Europa and hope to win it (again ). The only thing to aim for domestically was the 38-0-0. Things are off to a flying start with Portadown. Slim chance of making the European spots. Anyone that says Norn Iron always puts a smile on my face.
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stouters
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Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on May 14, 2020 14:27:09 GMT
Portadown 2034/35
A new beginning
Considering how far into the game i am, there hasn’t been a great deal happening at the club. Apart from a couple of local businessman takeovers, a £5m transfer from Glentoran in 2032 and a couple of parent clubs, Empoli (no annual fee) and Lechia of Poland (£42k) . There’s been no upgrading of the basic training and youth facilities or the poor data analyst facilities. The youth recruitment is adequate and the junior coaching has an excellent academy coaching. The stadium is polar opposite of what i left at Glentoran. The capacity is 3,940 all-seater and we’re only getting just over 1,000 through the gates. The recent league history is pretty uneventful. 2 relegation/2 promotions then 4 3rd place spots in a row. In the last 10yrs the club has played in Europe 7 times. Despite the £5m from Glentoran in 2032, the club is poor and is struggling with it’s £1.3m wage bill. I’m thinking it is going to be a case of back to basics again as far as transfers are concerned. The club started off with a debt of £800k, but with the win of the Mid-Ulster Cup, were we got £429k, and a £600k boost from the chairman, we barely got back out of debt in the 2nd half of the season. The money (£392k) we got for finishing 5th is pretty much swallowed up straight away by wages. LeagueNaturally, i’m disappointed with missing out on any European football as we had more than a good enough chance to do so, but it feels like this season doesn’t belong to me. Maybe i can do a bit better and put some work in with getting players. If we fail to qualify for Europe it will be more annoying and more costly. Here are the fixtures as well as the cups. You can probably tell when I took over. Losing to Glentoran, Larne and Institute was probably a given. I'm just really disappointed to have lost to Ballymena and Dungannon. In the cups I wasn't around for the first 3, but lost only once and it was to Ballymena. I wasn't overly bothered about the Irish Cup. We would've faced Glentoran anyway. Youth Intake
The youth intake is never kind to me at first glance, it's only when desperation strikes that they are better than what I give them credit for. Dean Maguire is looking ok. Other Players
I'll do well to hang onto these players. If I haven't lost someone by the start of the season ill be surprised. Connolly, McCann, Elia and Wright.
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stouters
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@stouters79
Posts: 117
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Post by stouters on May 17, 2020 14:23:49 GMT
Friendlies
I don’t do friendlies. Pre-season takes long enough. The League has moved up 5 places to 17th sitting 1 place behind the Championship, but the European Nations coefficients has changed for 36/37. Northern Ireland has dropped a place to 15th, being replaced by Ukraine. We keep the best placed 2nd qualifying round slot in the Champions League but the 3rd qualifying round in the Europa League is replaced by the 2nd qualifying round. Did i leave too early? TransfersWe were nowhere near as busy as i hoped we would be in the summer transfer window. This was probably more down to lack of funds to buy players or even pay their wage demands. Even free transfers were to costly for us. If anything, we had to let one of our best players, Dailly, go out on loan to Partick Thistle. The silver lining from that is £100k pm played/unplayed and his wages paid for. This is a lot more than i expected and we were probably able to command this due to the league rep. A couple of other players were brought in on frees ( Muirhead and Matthews), and Molinas was brought in on loan from QPR to add numbers to the attack. Stasiak was a late arrival and has been brought in to cover as an inverted winger on the left. We got a much needed GK in the shape of Gault, a free from Larne. A youth player leaves for Dundalk next season. They pestered me with poor offers for him and eventually got him on compensation which will be £190k. This suits me just fine. Even though he is a 4.5pa, he was never going to get into my team anytime soon. His physicals aren’t the best apart from Balance and Jumping 15 and Natural Fitness at 14, the rest are under 10. His leadership puts me off a lot with it being 1. We just don’t have the facilities to develop him and he was never going to get the game time. My Hopes For The Season AheadIf we assume that we will get beat by the likes of Glentoran, Larne and Institute in each match then we’ll get at least 9 defeats this season. I honestly would like to keep the losses no more than 12. Unless we get that 2nd Champions League spot, it won’t really matter. The European playoffs are torture and it’s almost a lottery to get through. The National Coefficient is 1 season away from losing a poor year and should hopefully climb in the coefficient and qualification to 12th. I just need someone to keep that 2nd Champions League seat warm for me. As well as the national coefficient and league rep, one of the other important things is to be financially secure. FinancesWe start the season around £120k in the red and i won’t be surprised if we are at least £1m in debt at the end of the season. There’s already been a takeover attempt, but it fell through after a while. There’s a chance that i will have to make a step towards using the youth over immediate quality to lower the wage bill. We're spending £28k pw, just £2k up from last season. Other
Nothing more than I little boast, a found this from my career.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on May 19, 2020 13:58:47 GMT
Portadown Mid-Season Update 2035/36League
I have every right to be optimistic given our current position. I didn’t expect only 4 defeats after 20 games. We’ve taken 6 points of Larne, 4 from Dungannon and managed a 1-1 with Institute. The league is so unpredictable with regards to who will get into Europe. Larne have been the bridesmaids for so long and are now slipping, Institute are trying to make 2nd theirs after missing out by 4pts last season. I don’t expect 2nd place, but i would love 3rd. I can’t remember if it is an automatic slot for the Europa League. Ashley McKinney has been doing well for us with. The 33yr old has chipped in with 6 goals and 6 assists in 17 league matches and Wright has 10 goals in 20 in the league. I wouldn't mind if he scored a few more. Fixtures
A 5 match clean sheet and 12 match unbeaten run in the league should be coming to an end, or at least i expect it to as we play Glentoran next. I decided to do the cup games as it would be nice to get the League Cup in the bag. I’ll try to take care of the Mid-Ulster Cup as well until the prize money from it is no longer important. The Irish Cup isn’t too important to me even though it’s a path to European football. I think at this stage it is too much of a lottery. OtherThere have been a few grumbles with players looking a bit more playing time. So far nobody is really unhappy. Even though we are now £370k in the red i decided to renew a couple of contracts. I didn’t want to wait until January or even later incase we really couldn’t afford it, or the player got snapped up by another club. The Chairman has failed a few times with club takeovers and is still willing to listen to offers. The team is starting to feel like it's mine, I just need to make more of a mark on the line-up. We're performing well quite often, sometimes I think its the lack of quality in the team that stops us winning with the scoreline that justifies the dominance. NI Club’s European Performance
Glentoran - Made it to the group stage of the Champions League and have been knocked out already. Ballymena - They had a raw deal being drawn against Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) in the Europa League Best Placed 3rd Qualifying Round losing 7-0agg. They manged to beat Stjarnan (Iceland) 3-2agg and qualify alongside Larne for a place in the Euro Conference group stage. They’re up against Red Star (Serbia), Zorya (Ukraine) and APOEL (Cyprus). Institute - Beat Brondby (Denmark) in the Euro Conference in the Best Place 3rd Qualifying Round on penalties after a 3-3. They unfortunately couldn’t get past Ujpest (Hungary) in the Best Placed 4th Qualifying Round losing 3-1agg. Larne - Lost to Genk (Belgium) in the Champions League Best Place Qualifying round so they slipped into the Europa League Best Place Qualifying round. Galatasaray (Turkey) beat them in that round so they qualified for the Euro Conference Group Stage. They play Barry (Wales), Rijeka (Croatia) and Esbjerg (Sweden). Ballinamallard - Managed a 1-0 win away to Shakhtar Soligorsk (Belarus) but lost 2-0 at home in the Euro Conference Best Place 2nd Qualifying round.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on May 26, 2020 13:38:17 GMT
Portadown End of Season Update 2035/36 League
I am delighted to have qualified for the Europa League, but a little disappointed with the downing of tools in the last 6 games. We had an outside chance of catching Institute pre-split, but they maintained their form and beat us pre-split and post-split, both at home too. The league splits into 2 after 33 games with the top half teams playing each other one more time and the same for the bottom half. As we have more teams qualifying than at the start of the save, the playoffs now includes teams in 7th place. If we didn’t at least draw with Dungannon then we probably would’ve failed to qualify based on form. I didn’t realise that we had lost 7 matches at home yet only lost 3 times away. Surely, this has to change. At least i met my target of not losing more than 12 matches. A little credit has to go to Institute. While they didn’t score a great deal, they did really well to concede the least in the league. Fixtures
I thought that we kept a good number of clean sheets with Gault getting 16. Unfortunately, he managed to concede 41 in the 22 other games. At the other end of the pitch, Wright did a decent job scoring 17 goals finishing 3rd. I’m used to so much more, but i imagine this will be the norm for a while. I’m also disappointed with the amount of goals scored by the team. 57 just isn’t good enough. Hopefully, i can strengthen the team over te summer to fix this. I can’t be happy with 2 defeats and a draw with Institute, losing 3/4 against Cliftonvillle and dropping 14 points to opposition in the lower half of the table. One positive i find hard to believe - In December we kept 7 clean sheets in 8 games and that other game was against Glentoran. Here are the fixtures of the Irish Cup, Mid-Ulster Cup and the League Cup. Youth Intake
It’s nice to be able to sign several players from the intake this season for a change. One or 2 players might be promoted to the senior squad. Gibson, McKinney, Morrison, Harrison, Grieve and Carson all got signed.
Other£458k for league position and a total of £352k for Irish Cup Runner-up. £230k losing and £122k for the appearance. £455k for the Mid-Ulster Cup. Considering the club is sitting with £900k in the bank, we have been very lucky to have it. £1m came from sending Dailly out on loan for £100k played/unplayed and you can see the prize money from the cups. The wage bill is covered by the player loan deal. The club has had a failed takeover from a consortium and the chairman is ‘looking to leave’. Here is my tactic if anyone wants a look NI Club’s European Performance
Ballymena - They never made it past the Europa Conference group stage and failed miserably. I’m glad they qualified for Europe again this year. Larne - Unlucky to have missed out on qualifying for Europe and more so for not getting out of the Europa Conference group. The were beat to 2nd place by Barry. If i am right about the co-efficient then we will climb up a spot in the National Coefficients. A decent effort by those that qualfied. What would be really beneficial would be Glentoran winning matches in the group stages again.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on May 30, 2020 21:59:31 GMT
Portadown Pre-Season Update 2036/37 Friendlies We also have the Europa League to deal with just before the start of the season. We will play Zorya of Ukraine. Serial 3rd place winners simply because of Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev. We also start in the Best place Playoff, I thought we would enter a round earlier. Did finishing runners-up in the Irish Cup do this or finishing 3rd place? I don't remember seeing the message. FinancesWe start the season with £800k. Or wage bill has risen to £34k pw, up from £28k pw. Our tv money continues to rise as we will get £95k pa. Transfers Bridges - Duncan Bridges moved for £100k from Crewe after being there for 7yrs. Originally generated at Man Utd. He is definitely an improvement on Gault and that is the only reason why I decided to actually pay for him. Gibson - Barely been with us and now he has left. I rejected a couple of poor bids from them and they went away. A few days later Glentoran comeback and I get informed that they will just pay the compensation. Suits me fine. £450k will go nicely in our pocket.
Eddie Lindsay - I needed a little boost to the CB slot and snapped him up for £14k from Sunderland. Scott Burns - An improvement for the strike force. A free transfer from Celtic. Liam Barratt - Another big improvement this time on the right. He's been in the game for about 10yrs now and has only played 8 times. He arrived on a free from Portsmouth. Kevin Deakin - Needed to offer a bit of competition on the left. He arrives from Blackburn after originally appearing at Everton. Another one of those players. he's only played 3 games in 8yrs. James Black - Another CB to rotate. Arrived on a free from Nottingham Forrest. OtherI got properly trolled by FM. Basicsally, the chairman has been looking to leave for a while now and potential takeovers are becoming more frequent. However, FM decided to stick with one for a bit. Click on takeover 1, message takeover 2 , Collapse. Taking one step at a time -
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 5, 2020 17:55:11 GMT
Portadown Mid-Season Update 2036/37 Table
I’m very happy to be occupying a Champion League slot. The team’s goals scored tally is slightly inflated. We scored 7 against Linfield and 8 against Crusaders and 11 against Coleraine. 8 of the 11 goals against Coleraine cme in one match. By the end of the game they had 3 players sent off. The new GK has done wonders for us as we keep the goals conceded to less than a goal per game. Despite sitting 2nd we have suffered 2 defeats in the last 5 matches and the wheels feel like they’re coming off. Saying that, I’m fairly confident of securing 2nd at the end of the season. [/spoiler] [/div] I wasn’t going to manage the League Cup games but i hit continue a few times too many and had to. I was a little bit disappointed to lose the semi-final especially on penalties. We’re starting to wobble a little in the last lot of games, but that is probably down to me relying heavily on Wright and Burns. Other
The club is in the middle of another takeover. I believe it is to be a local investor looking to buy the club for £1m. I buckled and asked the board for a training facility upgrade at the beginning of the season and he accepted. It will cost us £400k. I’m surprised the investor is trying to buy for that amount as we now have £3.3m in the balance. We have another player, Dave Hollywood coming in at the end of his contract. He arrives from Dundalk on Jan 1st. I didn’t see his low determination, so i’m not too impressed with that. Wright and Burns are getting tired of carrying the team. He’ll be a weight of their backs for a while. Northern Ireland In Europe Portadown - We made it to the group stage of the Europa League and were given £2.5m for doing so. We started off with a 5-3 agg win at home and progressed to the group stage after drawing 1-1. It was never going to be easy when up against Arsenal, Galatasaray and Dundalk. Playing Dundalk was always going to be a benchmark of some sort to see where we were against the Irish champions. Unfortunately we came up short both home and away. The 2-2 draw against them and a 3-0 win over Galatasaray earned us around £500k. As we finished 3rd, we slip into the Europa Conference League 1st ko. round were we play Vitesse. I’m not expecting much, but it would be great for us and the coefficient if we beat them. Glentoran - Having a team like Club Brugge in the group proved to be helpful. They finished 3rd allowing them to slip into the Europa League were they play AZ Alkmaar. Hopefully a team that even the AI should beat. Institute - Finished bottom of their Europa Conference League group with 1pt. They were up against Fenerbahce, Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Locomotiv Moscow. Cliftonville - Already out early doors due to a 8-0agg defeat to Partizan Belgrade in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd qualifying round.. Ballymena - Lost 3-1agg to Nitra in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd qualifying round. A little bit disappointing. As of now. i’m expecting to be told that the National Coefficient will drop 1 spot at the end of season. If ourselves or Glentoran can beat our Dutch opponents, then we might hang onto our current place of 14th in the National Cofficient. The league rep is 16th.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 6, 2020 8:59:01 GMT
It only took Portadown 65 games!
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 9, 2020 11:04:45 GMT
Portadown End of Season Update 2036/37 League
Pretty pleased with finishing 2nd and with the season overall. Where do you start? 8-1 destruction of Crusaders as they got 3 men sent-off? A 7-1 hammering of Coleraine or taking 8pts out of 12 from Glentoran? I knew last season that we needed to score more goals and hopefully concede fewer goals as well. We absolutely smashed it. 96 scored and 31 conceded. Sure, there were a couple of inflated scores, but they all count. Qualification for the Champions League had been confirmed when we beat Cliftonville just before the split. As there was no chance of catching Glentoran, i decided to save time and holiday each of the last 5 league games. I dealt with everything before and after, i just let the assman to deal with the matches. I don’t think i’ve cheated and i don’t think i gained anything other than time. I imagine it will be another 2 seasons before we see if we can topple Glentoran. 15 points is a lot, but more than catchable. In between the last 5 matches were the Irish Cup games. I carried on as normal even beating Glentoran in extra-time. Fixtures
I've just realised that we only won two matches in all of our European games.
Transfers
At least 3 of the players transferred in are first team regularrs. The rest operate in rotation with other like-minded players. I think that’s what made the difference. Wright was constantly tired coming up to the January transfer window and Hollyood offered some relief. The money is there to spend if i want it, but as always it’s the wage allowance. While we can afford it, we just can’t offer it. Something that bugs me a lot. I couldn’t resist the chance to buy * Toby Matthews from Liverpool for £350k. Contracts negotiations were tough and had to throw a few competition winning bonuses at him. He has a £4.1m release fee. I can only hope that someone would match it. Quite pleased with myself that we beat Lyon to the transfer of * Ricardo Pires. I was originally going to wait until the end of the season before getting him, but i checked out the buy now option and discovered Aresnal only wanted £20k. I thought that’s a bargain and got him straight away. Bought 19yr old * Tom Chambers for possibly an inflated price of £400k. We needed a more adequate cover on the right and as he is 19, he won’t need to be registered for the league. Players aged 20 or younger and home-grown players don’t need to be registered. - Chapman - You can never have too many GKs in the squad.
- Carey - Happy enough to get a CB through.
- McNally - Decent enough to hang onto. Very pleased with his leadership.
Other
£541k for 2nd. £391k for Europa League revenue. £137k for coefficient ranking pool for the Europa League. Glentoran seem to be hiring managers that use the club as a stepping stone. They’ve just hired their 3rd manager since i left. The 2 managers before have won the league and some cups then left. NI Club’s European Performance.
- Portadown - Couldn’t match Vitesse’s quality and lost both legs in the Europa Conference League 4-2 and 3-1.
- Glentoran - Absolutely robbed against AZ. A 93rd min equaliser sent Glentoran out on aggregate. Otherwise, they were through on away goals.
Both of us knocked out by Dutch teams.
- Institute - Made it to the Europa Conference League group stage were they finished last.
- Cliftonville - Knocked out in the Europa Conference League Best Place 2nd round qualifier.
- Ballymena - Also knocked out with Cliftonville.
The Danske Bank Premiership has moved up 1 to 15th in the rankings, but the national Coefficient has dropped 1 place to 15th. I can’t say i’m surprised, but i am disappointed.
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Post by Nick on Jun 10, 2020 20:30:51 GMT
Mad that you've managed to attract a player of Toby Matthews' quality, stouters. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. What sort of impact would selling him for his release clause have on your finances? I assume that's big money for you, even with European prize money boosting your coffers?
Good performance in the league too. Realistically, how long do you think it'll be before you catch Glentoran? How has their reputation fared since you left?
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 11, 2020 12:05:45 GMT
Mad that you've managed to attract a player of Toby Matthews' quality, stouters. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. What sort of impact would selling him for his release clause have on your finances? I assume that's big money for you, even with European prize money boosting your coffers? Good performance in the league too. Realistically, how long do you think it'll be before you catch Glentoran? How has their reputation fared since you left? Thanks, Nick. I really pushed the boat out to get him. I think he was listed which made it a bit easier. 4.5*ca means he goes straight into the starting 11. Activating the release clause would double the balance straight away. Although, it would do more harm selling than not getting the money. The money would be huge, but we can get that with a run in the Europa League. The handicap is in the wage allowance. There's plenty of room with the budget, its just we can't offer the wages to get the players we can afford to buy. I think it will be 2-3 seasons before we overtake Glentoran, but that will be more down to how much they can destroy the squad I built. Winning the league is the easy part, getting past teams as an unseeded team is the tricky part. We really need to push on with doing better in Europe even if it is the Europa. The coefficient is brutal if it isn't maintained. Their 3.5* rep hasn't changed since I left, but it will drop over the next few seasons. I'm starting to think that I should've won the Champions League before leaving. Maybe give them a team that can't fail for a long time.
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Post by stouters on Jun 11, 2020 18:08:54 GMT
Portadown Pre-Season Update 2037/38
Friendlies
Transfers It’s been a pretty quiet window for us. The Danske Bank Premiership rule limit us to 20 players that aren’t u20 or homegrown, so i have had to resist splashing out on players. I’ve tried to sign young players that won’t moan about playing time and have a bit or room to grow. I would have liked to sign more players, but the wages that we can offer is holding us back. Klasniqi - Kosovan born with a Welsh 2nd nationality. He was created in Wales with TNS. Managed to get him on a free from Barry. Not long after arriving clubs were looking into loaning him. I decided to buckle and let him go to Cliftonville. I’m not in a big hurry to use him, but if i do then there’s the option to recall him. Dowie - A product of the Celtic youth, he also arrives on a free. Morten Fischer - The 18yr old is the 2nd player i’ve got from Aab over the years. The other player went on to win the Golden Boot with Glentoran. Currently 2.5ca/5*pa, he will arrive in the January transfer window at the end of his contract. Shane Logue - I always had a couple of unwritten rules with this save. Nothing set in stone, but little rules. The first one was don't buy anyone from Glentoran and don't buy the young players from other local clubs. As I am on a mission with this save I have changed my tune. I bought Logue from Dungannon for £150k. I think my scout recommended him and I was immediately impressed. I wouldn’t normally do staff transfers in an update, but i couldn’t resist this one - Marko Arnautovic. He had good intentions of being a manager. Other
I thought it might be an idea to show what our coefficient is compared to the teams above. Should've included a couple below too. It's been 3 seasons since I left Glentoran and it shows. NI Club’s European Performance. Portadown - We started off with a potentially tricky tie against Sion of Switzerland in the Champions League Best Placed qualifying 2nd round. We won the first leg 5-0 at home, totally blowing away any fear of being kicked out. That fear was re-installed when Sion went 2 goals up inside 10mins in Switzerland. They also got a 3rd and with 10mins to go i was watching the clock. Thankfully, we pulled 2 back to make the defeat a bit more respectable. We played Lyon in the Best Placed 3rd round next. Lyon were too much for us and it showed a little in the 1st leg. While we only lost 1-0, we did play well. We more than held our own in France, but ultimately quality shone through and we went on to lose 2-0. I’d be lying if i wasn’t a little optimistic about finishing 2nd in a group of Club Brugge, Besiktas and Valencia. We get another £2.5m for playing in the group stage. Glentoran - They beat Legia of Poland in the Champions League 3rd qualifying round but lost 2-2 on away goals to Slavia Prague in the Playoff. This is really poor. They should’ve walked those matches. Sadly, they are now in the Europa League and they are up against AZ, Watford and Atalanta. Tricky enough for the Glens. Institute - They played Glenclerbirligi of Turkey in the Europa League 3rd qualifying round and beat them 4-3agg. In the Europ League Playoff they played Aris Salonika of Greece and beat them 3-1agg. I’m a bit impressed with them and i hope they do well as they have also reached the group stage. They are up against Zenit, Rijeka and Chelsea. It was nice to see them get there. Cliftonville - They played Motherwell in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 3rd qualifying round. They got kicked out 4-2agg. Coleraine - They played AA Gent of Belgium in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd qualifying tound. They are also out losing 4-1agg. If clubs in Northern Ireland don’t try to sort themselves out with European football, The Nation Coefficient will drop like a brick. There are 2 more good seasons before something bad happens, if it doesn’t happen at the end of this season. I imagine it will be losing the 2nd Champions League slot.
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Post by stouters on Jun 14, 2020 19:20:16 GMT
Portadown Mid-Season Update 2037/38 League We got off to such a perfect start that i was wondering if we could go and win every match. I think the knowledge of how difficult it is to do softened the blow of drawing with Dungannon and Ballymena. Institute are the first team to beat us in the league. It took a few minutes to decide that i wasn’t going to steal another talented youth player from then for it. I know i should be delighted with our performance in the league, but i can’t help but think that i would rather have Glentoran up there ahead of us. I need them for their coefficient points. I’m confident that we can improve to do things the hard way, but we can’t do it on our own. Larne have returned to reclaim their 2nd place status. They’ve slipped down for the last 2 seasons to 5th and 6th. It looks like they will slug it out with Institute and Glentoran for the Champions League slot. Fixtures The sooner we start qualifying for the Champions League on the regular, the better. The one thing i don’t like about managing in Northern Ireland is there seems to be a hardcoded rule of not playing on Sundays. So, the fixtures are usually playing on Thursday and again on Saturday. Transfers There’s only one transfer to mention and he doesn’t arrive until the end of the season. Shaun Devine* is the 3rd GK i’ve bought in 3yrs. Slightly better than Bridges, but arriving on a free. Other
Title Specialist The board quietly got into club takeover negotiations but nothing came of it and there was no mention of talks breaking down. The board seem to be getting their rocks off to our performance in the league, so I asked for more wages to get scouts, more for junior recruitment and a higher wage budget. They granted all 3 wishes. I’m not going to bother with getting the facilities upgraded. I would rather concentrate on getting the players that will get us to the Champions League group stage. Once that £13m comes in then i’ll request as much as possible. I’ll hold off for as long as i can with the stadium as well. The current capacity is 3,940 and when we get to play European matches, we end up playing in Windsor Park’s 18,000 stadium. There are now a few players complaining about lack of playing time. I’m not surprised that they are coming to me, maybe more surprised it took them so long to do so. The balance is sitting pretty with £4.5m and a weekly wage bill of £42k. I imagine that at the end of the season we’ll get a transfer budget and a wage budget that will allow me to push on improving the squad. NI Club’s European Performance.
[/font][li] Portadown - I had every right to be optimistic about finishing 2nd. We were unlucky not to get 6pts againnst Club Brugge. They scored in the 78th min as we were beating them 1-0 at their place and we couldn’t break them at home, but we denied them any shots on goal at all in that match. The final match against Valencia ended in a 2-2 draw, but really it should’ve been 2-0 or 2-1. Pires thought it qould be a good idea to get sent off when 2-0 up. For the 4 draws, the win and the unallocated money, we made another £1.1m approx. As we qualified for the 1st ko round, we play Inter Milan. I’d be happy if we actually score never mind anything else.
[/li][/ul] [/font][li] Glentoran - Another disappointing season in Europe for the Glens. The group was tricky enough, but a bit of effort would’ve seen them through. They finished 4th. [/li][/ul] [/font][li] Institute - Did well to get 4pts in a group of Chelsea, Zenit and Rijeka. Rijeka also finished on 4pts but Institute finished higher in 3rd place and drop into the Europa Conference League ko round. [/li][/ul] [/font][li] Cliftonville - Knocked out in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 3rd round 4-2agg to Motherwell. [/li][/ul] - Coleraine - Knocked out in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd round to 4-1 AA Gent.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 18, 2020 11:01:26 GMT
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Post by stouters on Jun 19, 2020 14:25:07 GMT
Portadown End of Season Update 2037/38 League What an amazing win this was. When we had a 10pt lead at the top, i thought we could win at a canter, This was definitely not the case. Glentoran took back their 6pts and were the only team to beat us after the last update. One of their STs has scored something like 15 goals in 15 games against us. There wasn’t much i else i could do to stop them from catching us. The draws started to creep in and come the league split we were only 5 pts clear. The split itself was torture. As you can see we drew 3 as well as the defeat to Glentoran, this allowed Glentoran at one point to take the lead at the top. This was turning into a bottle job that Kevin Keegan would’ve been proud of. Even in the last match, at home, to Larne, we were lucky. Elia (RB) conveniently got sent-off for 2 yellows and in the first half too. My heart dropped and i did my best not to panic. To my surprise, we took the lead, but as time went on we never looked like staying in front. As expected and feared, Larne equalised. It looked like another goal could come from either side, but thankfully, it didn’t happen against us and we held our nerve to win our first title since 2001/02. The points total is the 5th highest needed to win the league and also a club record. At the beginning of the season i really didn’t expect to win the league so soon. I would’ve been quite happy chasing Glentoran’s tail. Unfortunately, the natural downward slide by AI managed teams has begun already and they sacked their manager despite winning the Irish Cup. They still have some decent players and i think at the very least they will be able to hang onto 2nd place. It remains to be seen if they can fight their way through the qualifiers. The league depends on it. It will take a lot to get that Champions League place back. Transfers and Youth Intake [/b][/a] [/div][/ul][/ul] [/b][/b][/a][/u][/ul] [/b][/a][/ul] [/a]a[/font][/u][/b] [/ul] [/b] McCarron[/ul] [/b][/a][/ul] Merola* - Signed for £100k. Plenty of PA on him and I thought it wouldn't hurt to have some back-up. I signed a few players just because of the scout’s rating of the players and to bulk up the reserve/U18s. I‘m not expecting big things from them, but if they can come in handy then i’ll be happy. Other We received £430k for playing in the Europa League 1st Ko round We also get an additional £383k for tv money in the Europa League and coefficient.£510k for winning the Mid-Ulster Cup. £807k for winning the league. We were labelled the biggest overachievers in the Europa League were we lost to Inter. Recent signing, Robert Pires, is injured with a hip injury and is expected to be out for 4 months. Toby Matthews wins both the Player and Young Player of the Year award. It was also a good year for the strikers. Burns win top goalscorer with 26 goals in 36 games and Wright was 3rd with 22 goals in 31 games. Burns also finished runner-up in the Player of the Year award. NI Club’s European Performance. Portadown - We finished 2nd in the group and got a really tricky team in the shape of Inter Milan. We never looked like we stood a chance and barely had a shot on goal. Glentoran - Another disappointing season in Europe for the Glens. The group was tricky enough, but a bit of effort would’ve seen them through. They finished 4th. Institute - Did well to get 4pts in a group of Chelsea, Zenit and Rijeka. Rijeka also finished on 4pts but Institute finished higher in 3rd place and drop into the Europa Conference League ko round. Cliftonville - Knocked out in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 3rd round 4-2agg to Motherwell. Coleraine - Knocked out in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd round to 4-1 AA Gent. I’m not sure what is going to happen to the coefficient. If it goes down then we lose that Champions League spot, but nothing changes if we go up one. [/ul][/li][/ul]
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 19, 2020 16:10:42 GMT
Gutted. It's going to take a run in the Champions League to make this up. The only glimmer of light in this shit storm of bad news is we have jumped 192 places in the European club rankings.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 20, 2020 12:39:48 GMT
That's really tough losing the CL spot, as like you say, it's going to take a whole lot of work to claw it back. Still though, I guess that gives another incentive to keep going.
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Post by stouters on Jun 20, 2020 18:13:21 GMT
That's really tough losing the CL spot, as like you say, it's going to take a whole lot of work to claw it back. Still though, I guess that gives another incentive to keep going. Absolutely. I have a totally different feeling about this save and Portadown at the minute compared to everything with Glentoran. With Glentoran, everything was about pushing the boundaries. It was all about winning against the odds against the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk to get to the CL group stage, more points in the league, lifting the league rep and getting more European spots for Europe, and overall it was more enjoyable. I think at the minute i'm trying to force it in a fraction of the time I took to do it with Glentoran and almost not enjoying it. The incentive is still there, just need to play the long game a bit better.
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Post by dalenichol on Jun 20, 2020 18:14:23 GMT
Yeah, I absolutely get where you're coming from. It's a long term thing though buddy, you'll get there.
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Post by stouters on Jun 20, 2020 23:44:58 GMT
Portadown Pre-Season Update 2038/39 Friendies
Transfers
Despite my best efforts i just couldn’t really get anyone to improve the starting 11. Apart from the Devine* and possibly Blazevski*, anyone worth looking at were either too expensive to buy or looking too much in wages. I’m pretty certain that making the Champions League group stage will change that. Everyone else is more about back-up. Other
I’ve been approached by Man City, Arsenal and Leeds. I’ve no real desire to go anywhere else at the minute. Portadown is a real long time project. They are also something i would like to concentrate on 100%, this is why i turned down the Ukraine and Turkey jobs too. I had been tempted to go for the Brazil job, but like i said, i wanted to concentrate on Portadown. I’ve completely washed my hands of the domestic cups as i try to maximise my time to get through the season as quick as possible. If i really wanted to i could make sure the younger players get game time, but i’ll pass. As we have £4.3m in the balance, i asked the board to improve the recruiment. They did it even if it was through gritted teeth. I haven’t asked for any upgrades to the facilities as i would rather keep the money for getting players. I think i need to just concentrating on improving the team slowly. I’ve been pushing my luck with the homegrown rules when selecting needing to select a squad as i have been buying players regardless of nationality. If we look to be doing well in the league, i might enforce some sort of rule on myself to play a young player. It’s too easy to just play the strongest team. NI Teams In Europe
- I’m still annoyed with not qualifying for the Champions League group stage. In what could be described as an easy run, we fell short. Maybe my expectations are a little high for this team, maybe we actually should have done better. We got past Partizan Belgrade 4-1agg after losing the first leg 1-0. With that result i could be forgiven in thinking that we could get past Rijeka. We were robbed at home after a more than convincing performance, but i remained optimistic for the 2nd leg. Once again a good performance wasn’t rewarded with a win, and to add insult to injury. they scored a second goal. Our Europa League group is a lot harder than i would like. We are up against Olympiakos, Celtic and Anderlecht. Even 3rd would be an achievement. - Absolutely fuming at their performance in the Champions League. They managed to beat LASK 4-3 agg in the Champions League Best Placed 2nd qualifying round. They managed to lose to Dundee Utd 2-1agg in the 3rd qualifying round. So, this result sees them drop down to the Europa group stage where they play Real Sociedad, West Ham and Qarabag. They could win that group if they pulled the finger out. For a moment i thought maybe i should’ve extended the contracts of the best players by 5yrs and had extensions on the young players, maybe their success wouldn’t have died so quickly. But their transfer history in selling most of their better players would’ve made that effort pointless. - Knocked out in the Europa Conference League Best Placed qualifying round by Panathanaikos 5-1agg. - Knocked out of the Europa League Best Placed 3rd qualifying round by Trabzonspor 4-0agg and then beat 3-0 away by Club Brugge in the Europa Conference League 4th qualifying round. I don’t see them coming back from that. - They managed to beat Shakhtar Soligorsk 3-2 agg in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd qualifying round and also put out Drebrecen 4-1agg in the 4th round before being over-powered by Sevilla 7-1agg. Apologies for any rants.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 21, 2020 18:55:13 GMT
Keep at it Stouters! This has been a great read, and if you manage to keep improving it'll be stuff of legends.
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Post by stouters on Jun 21, 2020 20:43:25 GMT
Cheers, Chaodck. Glad you're enjoying it. I suppose it would be a boring save if there were no set-backs. I just need to keep the head down and the hard work will pay off.
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Post by stouters on Jun 24, 2020 14:03:53 GMT
Portadown Mid-Season Update 2038/39
League Quite happy with how things are at the minute. The lead we have over 2nd is only 7 points, but I have no real complaints. Our unbeaten run is 25 games long and we have only looked like losing once and that was against Ballymena. We went 2-0 down inside the first half and fought our way back to the draw. There seems to be a 3-way going on for 2nd place but i’m quietly confident that Glentoran will get it, even though there are no Europa League spots this year, only 3 Europa Conference League spots. Being able to rotate in the defence and midfield has helped to keep the team fresh and strong. I’m still not happy with my attack. Merola isn’t filling me with confidence anytime I have tried him and Hollywood and Logue don’t appear anywhere good enough to try them out. Wright got sent on a week long break after I was told he needed a rest. Fixtures I accidentally played a League Cup match as i hit continue one time too many, otherwise I haven’t played any domestic cup matches, that includes the Irish Champion’s Cup. Transfers
Only one player has come in to the team since the registration period closed. 19yr old Milutin Pesic was signed on a free after being released by Buducnost. As he is 19, he is able to play for us without being registered. He is decent cover in the centre and is labelled as the next Dejan Savicevic. There have been a few transfers with my staff with 3 of them getting poached to go back to Brazil. I let someone else take care of the reserve and youth staff because i’m too lazy to deal with them, so you can imagine my face when i see a physio on my books with 11 for the attribute. I’ve only released one person that they’ve hired, otherwise i wouldn’t have any reserve staff. I take care of all staff transfers for the first team and scouts. Darren O’Dea* is someone i didn’t realise i had at Glentoran. I’ve been chasing him for a little while with Portadown, we could afford his compensation from Fulham, but we could never afford his wages. I managed to get the release fee clause removed from Toby Matthews’ contract. It’s probably a good job as he is now valued at £4.6m and Man Utd and Leicester and Aston Villa have been sniffing around. If there was any chance of a bidding war, i’m sure I could work them up to £10m+. Other I take charge of my 200th Portadown game against Olympiakos, that’s just 655 games away from equaling my time at Glentoran. For our performance in Europe we got just short of £1.5m for 3 wins, £430k for finishing 2nd and £121k in unallowcated money for drawn matches, and we still only have £4.6m in the balance. Once again the board are lapping up our good form in the league at the half-way point and have agreed to up the transfer budget, find a new parent club and upgrade the junior coaching budget. It should reach an exceptional level. They also approached me to give me a new 4yr contract. I little taste of things to come regarding our youth intake - NI Teams In Europe - We qualified with a game to spare even when we lost 4-3 to Olympiakos. We also managed to get a lucky goalless draw against Celtic. Lucky as in they had 11 shots on target and we got none of our 10 on target. We get Dundee Utd. I think Scottish teams are a bit over-powered in my save. I really hope we get past them. We need all the help we ccan get with the coefficient as i don’t think Glentoran will get past PSV. - Glentoran progress from their group with Real Sociedad ahead of West Ham. Not sure if i should be impressed or relieved. They get PSV in the First ko. round. - Knocked out in the Europa Best Placed 3rd round qualifier by Panathanaikos. - Knocked out of the Europa Conference League Best Placed 4th qualifying round by Club Brugge. - Knocked out by Sevilla in the Europa Conference League in the Best Placed 4th round qualifier
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