stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 27, 2020 15:54:24 GMT
Portadown End of Season Update 2038/39 Well how about that? I thought we were good enough to keep the defeats down, but i never expected to go unbeaten so soon with Portadown. It tool me 7 seasons with Glentoran, yet it only took me just over 4 with Portadown. I think there were only a couple of matches were we needed a little fight to win or draw and the one that sticks out is the 2-2 with Ballymena. They were relentless from kick-off 2-0 inside the first half and the made us battle all the way through the second half to get the draw.
For the vast majority of the season i wasn’t looking for the unbeaten record. I just wanted to win the league. As we got towards the last few games, i’ll admit I started to aim for it. Apart from the Ballymena game, i think Glentoran was the only other team to give me a scare. They took the lead in the first highlight in the second half after a poor show in the first. As the time went on i was dreading that they would be the team that ruins it, but a 66th min goal and an 81st min penalty settled me down. I admitted to the press that we were lucky, it wasn’t one of our better performances, but who cares!
The performance in the league has been record breaking not only for the club but for the players too. Devine was more than i couldn’t hoped for in goals. An amazing 25 clean sheets is the most the club has had in the league and only 2 away from equaling the league record of 27. He also set a club record of 37 clean sheets in all competitions. While 28 goals by Wright doesn’t get close to the 45 goals record set by Glentoran’s Lasse Jansen in (26/27), it does beat last year’s record for a Portadown player of 26. If i can strengthen the squad a bit more, there’s no reason why he can’t get a few more. Burns almost equalled his tally from last year with 25, finishing 2nd in the chart. He did set a club record of 40 goals in a season in all competitions. Our brilliant run in the league is now at 41 games unbeaten. Unlike my time at Glentoran, i’m not bothered about maintaining it. As long as I win the league i’m happy. and I only took care of a couple of domestic cup matches. This was down to the team going on a clean sheet run. I have came close to getting the ‘Park the Tank’ achievement with Glentoran when i got 9 in a row, only for a European match to come up and it would be ruined. This time there were no European ties to play, only domestics. I can now chalk it off my list of achievements i was never able to get. I decided against playing the Irish Cup final and just let the assistant manager play it. The target is the league and that is all I wanted. The run in the Europa League* went as well as i hoped, but it should’ve been at least 1 round longer. We did a great job against Dundee Utd, and as it goes every time i win or get through a round in the ko stages i start thinking about the 29/30 season when i won the Cup with Glentoran. I didn’t expect to get past Espanyol but we gave them 2 good games, to the point that i felt hard done by in the second leg. The first leg we were really unlucky not to at least take a 1-0 lead into the 2nd leg. In the 2nd leg we outplayed them but our finishing could’ve been a bit better. A lot of our shots on target were straight at the GK and anywhere else would’ve been perfect, but the quality shone through as always and they went through with a 2-0agg win. Transfers
No-one came on a transfer, but we did get our intake. When there is a player so bad it is probably a good idea you don’t tell the manager that you had some influence on that player. I actually looked at the HoYD’s contract to see if it was worth terminating. Barcelona are the latest high profile club to steal a member of my staff. They take my reserves Goalkeeping coach and pay us £52k in compensation. That works for me, i didn’t think he was that good and was probably brought in by whoever takes care of the reserve/u18 staff hiring. I did make an addition to the first team coaching staff - Curtis Davies* and Mark Tinkler*. Other
We get £430k for playing in the Europa League 1st ko round and got just under £1m for 2nd ko round. We also get £221k for Europa League tv money and £137k for coefficient ranking pool money. The prize money for winning the league is now £739k and we just paid out £425k to the players. The prize money had been constantly on the rise, just like the league, but this season it drops to £807k. We move up 80 places in the European Club Rankings to 112th. Another brutal hammering with the rankings. I am sure it will improve and with the other teams only able to play in the Europa League Conference, it is down to us to improve it. Might not happen this year or next, but it will happen. Players
Tom Chambers has managed to win Danske Bank Premiership Young Player of the Year despite only playing 20 league games, Toby Matthews was 2nd. New York CFC are looking to sign Krasniqi for £6.5m. They can double it and then add some before they get my attention. Teams seem to more interested in taking their bidding war to the media. One team is talking about £6.5m, another is mentioning £9m. Evan Santiago*Liam BarrMarc McCulloughStuart CraigSevere lacking in quality. NI Teams In Europe
- Made it past Dundee Utd 4-2agg in the 1st k.o. round, but lost to Espanyol 2-0agg in the 2nd k.o round of the Europa League. - Knocked out in te First KO round of the Europa League by eventual winners PSV. - 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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Post by Nick on Jun 27, 2020 16:42:23 GMT
Great effort stouters. It's always massive when someone goes a season unbeaten. I'm surprised at how good a coach Curtis Davies is. What are your facilities and general infrastructure like these days? That intake was atrocious.
You deserve a lot of credit for carrying on this long, especially with the league dropping again in the rankings.
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Post by chaodck on Jun 27, 2020 17:23:47 GMT
Great season Stouters, the unbeaten run is just amazing. I agree with Nick on the congratulations for keeping this save thaat long dude, what is your idea to try and keep improving the league's rep? Is a team change in the cards to try and build something with another side who can be somewhat competitive in Europe? I see Glentoran and Institute are already on that level by last season's results at least.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 27, 2020 21:03:24 GMT
Great season Stouters, the unbeaten run is just amazing. I agree with Nick on the congratulations for keeping this save thaat long dude, what is your idea to try and keep improving the league's rep? Is a team change in the cards to try and build something with another side who can be somewhat competitive in Europe? I see Glentoran and Institute are already on that level by last season's results at least. Thank you. Yeah, that's been the goal the entire time, trying to get the rep to the top. I started off with Glentoran and stayed there for 15 consecutive titles. The domestic side of things got boring ages ago with them, so i had to get a bit more creative and ambitious. The only thing i desired apart from progress in the Champions League was 100% win rate. Even though i felt i hit a wall with them as far as Europe was concerned, i shouldn't have left. Their typical FM, downward slide, has been costly. That and the fact i didn't get Portadown back into Europe for 2 seasons added to the coefficient getting hit. Dominating the league was always going to happen and that is my bread and butter. I need to break into the Champions League group stage to get that rep going again. This time i won't leave until i've won it, possibly multiple times. Getting and keeping that second CL spot is crucial. Great effort stouters. It's always massive when someone goes a season unbeaten. I'm surprised at how good a coach Curtis Davies is. What are your facilities and general infrastructure like these days? That intake was atrocious. You deserve a lot of credit for carrying on this long, especially with the league dropping again in the rankings. Thanks. It's only my 9th time in an unbeaten season . I could throw in a few requests to get facilities upgraded, but i'm trying not to the balance. I did get the training facilities upgraded once and it cost £400k. The next upgrade will be more. Hit the CL group stage and i'll be all over them. I've got the recruitment and i think the coaching upgraded, otherwise i've been trying to get the best staff for the first team. When we get to the group stage we'll be playing in Linfield's 18,000 seater, so there's no point in wasting money to lose money. If we get to the 8,000 min requirement, we'll lose any money from bigger attendances and the money spent on our stadium. I believe rep of either/both club and league affects the capacity of a new stadium and its max capacity. The better staff like O'Dea and Davies are only now becoming available because we can throw a bit of money at them. Scouts are proving hard to get. I just wish was a bit quicker with this save because i'll still be at this in October. The only other option is a second team and i haven't got the time or energy for it. I seem to be going off on one here, sorry.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 27, 2020 21:16:48 GMT
I'll have to update the table. My blue screen returned and the game was last saved after the cup final. So the European playoffs had to be replayed and Institute got in and not Larne. Managed to get Davies and Tinkler as staff again. Just realised i'll have to re-read the league rep falling again.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 30, 2020 16:14:24 GMT
Portadown Pre-Season Update 2039/40 This update Friendlies Bates*, Quinn* and Kis* were brought in at the end of their contracts to be apart of any necessary rotation. Simonovic* and Stefanovic* were brought in to bulk up the squad a little, and Chapman was signed because he is Northern Irish. I don’t have any major plans for the, but i could have a look in future. I took into consideration that they are all a good age and hopefully we’ll reap the rewards with that sometime. The bidding war for Klasniqi never looked took off at all and that is fine with me. I let some players go out on loan to local clubs in a bid to get them moving towards success. Other Champions League Fixtures We get the jackpot for our exploits in the Champions League. As soon as the cheque cleared i managed to get 3 of my 4 request accepted. I asked them for upgrades to our training and youth facilities which comes to £1.1m and will be completed in 1yr. A couple of days later they agreed to upgrade the data facilities, this will cost £24k and will be completed within 1 month. I find the data facilities are the easiest and quickest to upgrade. I also asked about expanding the stadium, they don’t believe we have the fan base. I understand where they are coming from as far as the league is concerned, but we have to get a stadium of our own that can host Champions League games eventually. I have a funny feeling that when we play our Champions League games at Windsor Park the inflated attendances will let the board believe that our average attendance is higher than it really is. I could be wrong. I don’t remember getting a news update about this but we get a new stadium sponsor. We will get £137k per season until 2044. Hopefully, this is the catalyst for being able to buy better players and push on our efforts to do better in Europe. Players I know it means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but the player values have shot up. Wright, Matthews and Burns are all just short of the £10m mark and 6 others are between £5m and £7.5m. If anyone would care to bid for them i would be happy. NI Teams In Europe - Made hard work of the games against FC Inter Turku. So many chances not taken would’ve given us a more impressive aggregate win. I wasn’t too impressed that they scored. I always felt the Maribor games were going to be a banana type of fixture. I felt we still a bit of work to do before we no longer fear teams like this, but it is nice to see i was wrong. The same went for the Slovan Bratislava and Sparta Prague. If this is the run we’ll get every season to the group stage then i’ll be happy. I just realised that we won all but one game in the qualifiers. In typical fashion, we get a nightmare group of Bayern Munich, Valencia and Ajax. 1pt will be considered an achievement. - Glentoran
- Institute
- Cliftonville
[/ul][/ul][/spoiler]
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jun 30, 2020 16:39:03 GMT
Missed a few screeshots. oops.
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Post by Nick on Jun 30, 2020 19:50:14 GMT
Good to see you get the gif working stouters! Massive effort to get into the group stages of the Champions League with some stunning results along the way. Are you playing any differently in Europe? I take it you just attack the shit out of everyone at home?
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 1, 2020 1:16:23 GMT
Thank you. I wish i was the sort of manager that adapted tactics when necessary. Same tactic home and away, Europe or not. It can be fairly attacking if teams underestimate us or try to sit back. We seem to enjoy playing against narrow formations like the box and diamond. We just play a 4-4-2 a tactic that hasn't changed in 20yrs. If it ain't broke...
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Post by Nick on Jul 1, 2020 10:16:32 GMT
I don't think I've ever used home/away tactics and from what I've read from other blogs etc. no-one else does either.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 1, 2020 12:44:10 GMT
This is my tactic. the IW has a few PI's and the winger is near post. I don't think its anything special.
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Post by Nick on Jul 1, 2020 17:20:59 GMT
Sometimes it's just about what works for your team at that time.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 2, 2020 1:16:53 GMT
I FM'd the FM Naturally, the GK got man of the match.
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Post by ttgb on Jul 2, 2020 15:21:38 GMT
Cracking result
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 2, 2020 20:04:25 GMT
Thanks. Got another point of them at home!
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 7, 2020 10:54:49 GMT
Portadown Mid-Season Update 2039/40 I am happy that we are sitting nicely at the top with a 9pt lead. This time last year we had 2 points less, scored the same but conceded less. The 2 defeats were to Glentoran and Crusaders both of which were accepted with it had to happen sometime kind of attitude. Glentoran flew out of the blocks giving me the belief they aren’t done yet, so when they beat us it wasn’t that much of a surprise. The defeat also saw the ending of our magnificent unbeaten run which lasted 43 games. The Crusaders defeat probably came more from tinkering with the line up a bit too much, or maybe i was a little arrogant thinking i can afford to use back-up players more. I’m pretty certain we’ll continue to dominate this season, but there is no need to get complacent. Ballymena gave us a scare as we had to come back from losing 2-0 at HT to win 3-2, i also got the 'Comeback King' achievement (i like the steam achievements). The top 6 is the same as this time last year with the exception that Institute and Cliftonville have swapped positions as have Ballymena and Ballinamallard. I am please that Linfield are getting sent back to the dark ages. I’m obviously not a fan of them in real life (Glentoran fan, shocker!), but i seem to detest them even more in the game. Our 2 strikers are playing well with Wright sitting on 16 goals and Burns topping the goal scoring charts with 18. At the other end Devine is joint top with Institute’s GK for keeping 14 clean sheets. Fixtures* and Cups* My assistant manager is getting plenty of praise for his work in the cups, and rightly so. I can only hope that taking control of matches and winning them makes him a better coach in the same way training and game time helps a player become better. Other I'm not expecting anything from this intake, but for the positive there are 4 green comments compared to zero green comments last season. If the fullbacks are useable i will be happy. We get £382k for our share of unallocated match prize money for matches drawn in the Champions League. I asked the board for an affiliate club. I think it was the one where you take advantage of a clubs youth recruitment. One of those options was the PSNI...with no youth recruitment. I chose Derry Colts of the NI National Youth League as they have an excellent youth recruitment. We pay them nearly £3k pa. We now have a cool £20m in the balance and the board have loosened the purse strings a little. They have given me £6m to spend. I still have to be careful as far as spending the money is concerned. There are some Northern Irish players that are only around because of the registration rules, but some of them might need to be moved on. So, this means i need to have a bit more faith in the youth players we have here, but buy a star player or extend the contracts. I suppose i will think about it a bit more over the January transfer window. Both of our training and youth facilities are getting up graded. I can’t remember how much they cost. PlayersI had a quick look to see if the players that i’ve bought or sold had any clauses that could be cashed in. There was just the one, but something else caught my eye. Klasniqi has a 40% of next transfer fee and Chambers has 40% of the profit of next transfer. What on earth was i thinking? I wonder if it was down to player values at the time and i thought we’ll never get a decent fee for them anyway. Right now Klasniqi is valued at £8m ad wanted by a few clubs. They aren’t the Man City’s and PSG’s of the world, more like Osasuna and Preston. He isn’t bothered about leaving and that is fine by me. The defence could do with a massive overhaul. The quality is lacking and it has been difficult in getting the players for next to nothing. My main problem is the HG issue. The HG at the club are nowhere near good enough and are getting promoted to the first team out of sympathy almost. We are scraping the minimum number of players for the HG nation, although Klasniqi, Born and Geerts qualify for that in the summer. NI Teams In Europe - This is our run in the Champions League* We did unbelievably well, yet we narrowly miss out on getting through to the k.o. stage. In the first match against Ajax i wanted to see were we were as a team. I wanted to see if it would be a case of we can match or play better than the teams in our group and still get beat, or will we just get our ass handed to us. We did more than what i expected for the majority of the match when we, not only took the lead, but went 2-0 ahead as well. Ajax eventually fought back for the draw with a goal in the 81st minute and the 95th! The match stats would scream draw, but we’ve been robbed, haven’t we? We gave it a go against Valencia both home and away, but failed to score. We played them in the last game and we only needed 1pt to go through. The biggest surprise of the group has been the 4pts that we took off Bayern Munich. We created plenty of chances, but Bayern Munich threw everything at us to try and get the equaliser in front of their own fans, including a penalty which Devine saved and got man of the match. We had a 2-0 lead against Bayern Munich as well and we were lucky not to lose the match with a last minute attack. 8 points from a group that i only hoped we could get1pt, brilliant. We go on to play Espanyol in the 1st ko. round. I think it’s one of those ties that could go either way. We played them in the Europa League 2nd ko round last year and lost 2-0agg. I think we’re a little older and wiser and that should help. - They lived up to my expectations with qualification from the group in the Europa Conference League. They finished 2nd behind Fiorentina. They get a very beatable Ludogorets in the first ko. round. - Institute have done well to finish 2nd in their group too. They play Maccabi Haifa in the 1st ko. round. - Lost to Vitoria Guimaraes on away goals in the Europa Conference League 3rd qualifying round. This has done wonders for the national coefficient with it sitting a 10.875, making NI the 5th best performing country so far this season. Just a little note to say that if you follow me on twitter, you'll know that i am aware of a transfer exploit that, in my opinion, is worse than going into the editor. If you don't follow me or don't know the exploit, then i won't say what it is. I just want you to know that i will never use it whether it adds on £10m or £300m to a transfer. This also applies to the loan deals that can be affected. Either way, if you choose to do it that's up to you, its your save. Sorry for the lack of posts. I've had some bluescreen issues with the laptop and struggling to find time to play and do updates as well.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 7, 2020 15:06:47 GMT
I would appreciate if someone could offer their thoughts on this. So £20m upfront and £20m in instalments and the 50% sell-on fee. This would double the balance straight away, but this is my best player. He isn't looking to go but if Watford came along he would like to talk. What do you think? Just reject?
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Post by chaodck on Jul 7, 2020 15:46:01 GMT
I would appreciate if someone could offer their thoughts on this. So £20m upfront and £20m in instalments and the 50% sell-on fee. This would double the balance straight away, but this is my best player. He isn't looking to go but if Watford came along he would like to talk. What do you think? Just reject? I already bought him the plane tickets mate.
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Post by Nick on Jul 7, 2020 16:06:12 GMT
For that kind of money, I wouldn't think twice about selling him. You can max out your facilities with that kind of dollar. Bit shit with him being your best player, but I think your team is good enough to cope with his loss. He's easy to replace than a 30 goal a season striker, for example.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 7, 2020 16:32:30 GMT
Cheers for the replies. I accepted. I agree that i could work on the facilities with that money, there's also the potential to boost the wage allowance for players. In theory i should be able to get 2 players with inflated wages rather than hanging onto Matthews. I think they just sacked their manager sitting 13th in the league. I'm selling to a EPL side so his value will shoot up maybe bringing in more money with a future transfer.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 12, 2020 13:08:25 GMT
Portadown End of Season Update 2039/40
Pretty happy with the way the table has finished. The European dream team of us, Glentoran, Institute and Cliftonville, make it into Europe again. Another repeat performance, if not a better one, will do wonders for the coefficient. Its a pleasant sight to see Linfield go down again, but to do it in a playoff against Harland and Wolff Welders, is even better. I think i accidentally took control of the League Cup Final, but otherwise, the assistant manager had a decent year in the cups. Other We get £430k for playing in the 1st ko round of the Europa League, if we had qualified for the 1st ko round of the Champions League it would’ve been £8m. We get our usual pay of £429k for Mid-Ulster Cup, the assistant did a good job with a 4-0 win over Glenavon. £680k for tv revenue and £1.9m for Champions League coefficient ranking pool money over a 10yr period. We were labelled the best overachievers for reaching the group stage and our home game against Ajax was labelled the best match. The board have been putty in my hand this year. Our coach allowance has shot up to 16, the training and youth facilities have been getting their upgrades and the data facilities are getting upgraded at every opportunity. We also finish the season with the healthy bank balance of £41m. Players Burns is showing the signs of a leading goal scorer up front with 33 goals in 35 league games. I think he is a few goals short of winning the European Golden Shoe. Wright finished 3rd in the league with 23 goals in 30 league games. He is still scoring but i would like someone a bit more ruthless. 30goals+ is becoming more necessary, especially if that transfers onto the European stage. Transfers Geninho is probably a fair way of showing where i was mentally with the type of player i wanted. I wanted someone to slot into the first team but needed to be young. I think i compromised on both accounts and ended up with him. I suppose it means i can phase out McCann and let Chaplin concentrate on playing in midfield. Getting 3 assists in 6 games isn’t too bad. Toby Matthews got sold for £20m with another £20m in instalments. Pesic was a late £6m transfer to Rangers. Arrived at Portadown on a free, sold 2 seasons later for £6m. I bought Kevin Montgomery from Linfield simply because he had a bit of PA and he would do for back-up in the reserves. Gary Marsh arived on a free in January from Man Utd. I signed the following players from the intake. Matthew Scott, Stefan Lavery, Steven Holmes, Thomas McBride- Portadown - A very open match away to Espanyol lead to an unlucky 3-2 defeat. I thought the 2 away goals might give us something to work for at ‘home’, but i didn’t expect us to run rampant. a 5-1 half-time lead had all but secured us our place in the 2nd ko round against Torino. We made hard work of it at home against Torino. While we got an 85th minute equaliser through Blazevski, we probably should’ve got beat 1-0. The way we played against Torino away has had me thinking that we are just a couple of quality players of either going further in the Europa League or qualifying from the Champions League group. We lost 2-1 away, but we gave them a good game and were unlucky not to score the equaliser to go through on away goals. We would’ve gone on to play Napoli, so we would’ve got hammered anyway.
- Glentoran - Did what was needed against Ludogorets beating them 2-0agg, but came unstuck with a 3-1agg defeat to Sevilla.
- Institute - Another good performance from them with a 3-1agg win over Maccabi Haifa. They went on to lose 5-0agg to semi-finalists Fiorentina.
- Cliftonville - Lost to Vitoria Guimaraes on away goals in the Europa Conference League 3rd qualifying round.
The coefficient topped at 13.125. I think this will launch us back up to where we want to be in the league rankings.
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Post by stouters on Jul 14, 2020 19:56:34 GMT
Portadown Pre-Season Update 2040/41
Friendlies Transfers Abderrahim Jabrane* Bought him for £2m upfront with £3m after 50 games. I will do as much as i can to make sure he doesn't see 50 games before he leaves. £3m isn't going to break the bank, i would just prefer to to be crafty and sell him for a huge profit. Dave Robertson* One of many players i bought purely for the PA. Still counts as back up and i think he may get a chance next season with some potential departures. Jean Diouf* He should definitely be the main man at RB next season. Elia is being phased out and Diouf will probably just get league and cup games. Marco Palmitessa* I seem to be unintentionally buying for next season's line-up. I haven't been able to see him much with the player being away on international duty and important Champions League matches. Shaun Hutchinson* Not sure why i bought him to be honest. Peter Anyanwu* I had bought him to replace Devine in nets, but i'm not so sure. He could easily play if he gets impatient, but i'm happy with Devine. They're very similar apart from the communication and command of area. Jan Novak* I probably overspent on him, but he's young and will hopefully get some game time. If i'm not using him by January then i'' loan him out. Unfortunately there are no £40m bids from anyone this season. This is mostly down to the fact that the players aren’t really worth that sort of fee, but also down to the fact that the player values have dropped like a lead weight. Players like Burn were previously valued close to £10m, now he’s worth about £2m. Players have been getting bid for left, right and center, thankfully they have no real interest in going. They aren’t totally loyal, they are happy to stay but wouldn’t mind talking to them as well. NI Teams in Europe.
Portadown - The ties against Zeta are proof that we are too good for the 1st Qualifying round of the Champions League, and the 1st leg agaisnt Rosenborg is proof of what can happen when you get complacent. I’ve already posted the unbelievable pic of our dominant performance over Rosenborg. I had a feeling that we would be alright in the return leg and beating them proved it. I didn’t have any real concerns about Maribor, but i wasn’t going to holiday of field a weakened team either. I did get a pleasnat surprise against Besiktas in the first leg of the Playoff with a 6-1 win (former Glentoran and Golden Shoe winniner, Harry Phillips scored agaisnt us). It’s a brilliant result and it’s a strange feeling sitting back with a weakened team and not being bothered about drawing. I was a little surprised to find that we are 3rd seeds in the draw for our group. We find ourselves in the same group as Barcelona, RB Leipzig and Club Brugge. I’d be disappointed with anything less than 3rd. Glentoran - Flew through the Best Placed Qualifying rounds of the Europa Conference League group stage with a 6-0 agg over Kosovo’s FC Prishtina, a 4-2 agg win over Cork City and a 6-1 agg win over FCSB. They play Dundee Utd, Qarabag and HJK. Institute - Another good performance in the European Conference League by Institute who also reached the group stage. They put out VPS of Finland 4-0 agg, Maccabi Tel-Aviv 4-1agg and Hamilton of Scotland 4-3 agg. They play another Israeli team Maccabi Haifa, Astana and Watford. I would be impressed if they got out of that group. Cliftonville - A disappointing exit at the hands of Indjija of Serbia with a 1-0 agg defeat in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd qualifying round. Other Our youth facilities are getting upgraded at the cost of £650k even though there is a board takeover going on. The board have been quashing rumours of any takeover by ‘at least one consortium’. Personally, i don’t believe anything will come of it. The training facilities are good but the youth facilities are below average. The youth recruitment and junior coaching are both excellent. The stadium is getting an expansion of 578 seats costing £575k and will begin at the end of the season. It should take about 1 month or 2 to complete. I also got these messages to do with what i hoped would happen This pre-season and last year's effort in Europe by the Northern Irish teams has got the save back on track. Long may it continue.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 19, 2020 21:35:39 GMT
Portadown Mid-Season Update 2040/41 League
Sitting top of the league once again, but we can’t take our eyes of Glentoran. Glentoran have been exceptional this season and they look like they could push us all the way this season. There isn’t much more that we can do to ensure we stay top. The team has scored nearly 20 more goals than this time last season. This was boosted with a purple patch of wins of 5-0, 2x 6-1 and 2x 7-0 in 6 games. I think the defeat to Glentoran was a long time coming. I have probably tried to play players like Novak with potential a bit too much, rather than focusing on winning with the best players . As a result some players like have had to come to me about the lack of game time. Fixtures*and CupsNot to report as far as the domestic cups are concerned. The assistant manager lost the first League Cup match against Newry AFC. I think this was a match that i could’ve rescheduled due to internationals, but i thought there’s no harm in using the other players in the squad. Not bothered by the result, it just would’ve been nice to carry on. Transfers I think its a bit strange that i don’t include January transfers in the mid-season update. Probably because i cut my updates off just before the New Year. Chelsea bid for Blazevski for a paltry £2m. I managed to switch this to a loan deal which all parties agreed to. Blazevski will go on loan for the remainder of the season for £150k pm played/unplayed. My hope is that player values will shoot up and i will be able to command a higher fee at the end of the season. We will get £750k for this deal. We got into some sort of strange bidding war for Pires. Napoli successfully unsettled him and he stated he would be upset if we didn’t accept their bid. I still did. Managed to hold him off until the end of the season. There were any number of teams putting in their bid, but none of the way the bids were coming in made sense. There wasn’t any 'if they bid this much then we’ll raise it’ carry on. This pic* will give you an idea of how varied the bids were. Chelsea got the hots for a player from last year’s intake, Montgomery Scott. They were offering decent money for a player not yet turned 18, but i had to turn it down. He’s a promising player that will be promoted to the first team next season and he’s a Norn Iron lad. They’re getting pretty scarce around here. Krasniqi was also subjected to random bidding. We were getting offers from Burnley to Beijing. He wasn’t too fussed on going and the offers were just not good enough. Some of the players that came in during the summer have left on loan. It was a necessary evil as they were getting fed up with the lack of game time. Januz Janicki* - A Polish international bought for £7m from Lyon. I think he was valued a lot higher than i bid for. It’s alot of money, but i am only going to splash out on marquee signings, players that are at least 4*ca. I need these sort of players to push on in the Champions League. Omar Messaoudi* - Bought for £1m from Nimes. Karim Lopez-Liebart* - Bought for £1m from Lille. Players A special mention has to go to Scott Burns*. He has been on fire in the league with 28 goals in 22 games and also managed 7 goals in 12 Champions League games. According to his report he isn’t a very consistent performer. Shaun Devine deserves some credit between the sticks with 13 clean sheets in the league and another 5 in the Champions League. NI Teams in Europe Portadown - No giant killing fun this year. We were firmly put in our place by Barcelona and RB Leipzig early doors, but at least we maintained our level against Club Brugge. As per usual we fall into the Europa League. Any progress in Europe is always gratefully received and to have another crack at winning the Europa League again is very welcome. We continue this progress with a 1st ko round against Feyenoord. I definitely think they are beatable over 2 legs, but i always think it can go either way. Glentoran - They qualified from their group with a game to go. Somehow they managed to lose to Dundee Utd home (3-0) and away (4-1). They play Basel in the Europa Conference League 1st ko round. Institute - Unfortunately they are out of the Europa Conference League. They finished 4th in their group with their only win coming against Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Cliftonville - A disappointing exit at the hands of Indjija of Serbia with a 1-0 agg defeat in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd qualifying round. I know i shouldn’t get my hopes up, but i can’t help but think that in 2 seasons time we will have an automatic spot in the Champions League group stage as well as a spot in either the 2nd or 3rd Best Placed Playoff. It probably depends on what ourselves and Glentoran get up to, along with any help from Cliftonville and Institute. The higher up the national coefficient we are, the more difficult it is to hang onto to those spots. This is when things get really interesting. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a long way to go. The coefficient for this season so far is 10.375 Other We have signed to little sponsorship deals worth £5.5k for 4yrs for the back of the shirts and a training kit deal for £5.75k for 5yrs. We continue to upgrade the data facilities and it will cost us £2.5m. Along with the £4.6m for the 2 wins over Club Brugge, we also get £330k for unallocated money for drawing matches. We have another feeder club to go with Alloa Athletic, Lechia, Newry, Queens University and Derry Colts. I was allowed to pick Barnsley. They play in the Championship and have great training facilities, great youth facilities and we pay them £51k pa. Finally, a look at the intake preview
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 19, 2020 21:54:36 GMT
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Post by kanwulf on Jul 20, 2020 11:20:16 GMT
It's nice that you decided to move to the better team there
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 20, 2020 12:45:19 GMT
It's nice that you decided to move to the better team there I think you'll find i made them better
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Post by stouters on Jul 21, 2020 19:44:17 GMT
Portadown End of Season Update 2040/41 Despite the 8pt gap the run for the title was uncomfortably tight. Luckily for us April was a horrible month for Glentoran. They had 2 draws and 2 defeats with a win over Ballymena in the middle and the league was over just before they got hammered 6-1 by us. The last game was more important for me as it was Burns’ last chance to break the goal scoring record. Between his goals and Wright’s 24, they managed to score just under half of the goals scored in the league. cups Players The vultures have been trying to get in early to beat the inevitable value rises. Geninho had a mad spell of Brazilian teams trying to lure him back, but they were offering nothing that would make me even think about selling. Eventually, he came to me looking to move because he would be more valued at another club. I promised him ‘star player’ status and then the bids stopped. Jabrane, who is now a wonderkid, has been wanted by at least 26 clubs. I get the feeling that i’ll be dealing with a bidding war in the summer. Wright becomes the club’s highest ever goal scorer with 183 league goals, beating Portadown legend Vinny Arkins’ 178. Burns also makes history beating a 14yr old record. His 46th league goal of the season against Glentoran beats Lasse Jensen’s tally by one. Devine finished 3rd in the Champions League GK of the season. Burns has been awarded the Golden Boot award getting 68pts, 2nd place had 59pts. NI Teams in Europe. Portadown - We got knocked out by Feyenoord 4-3 agg. We didn’t really turn up in the first leg away from home, but we did manage to not only keep the defeat to 1 goal, we managed to score twice. At home there i got the feeling that the team was acting a little desperate with the amount of shots we were getting in. They were on target, but i think they could’ve been scored on another day. The job got harder when Feyenoord scored and despite scoring a goal ourselves and continuing our assault on their goals, we never really looked like getting the goal to send us through on away goals. Glentoran - They had an amazing run in the Europa Conference League that took them all the way to the final. They got past a couple of tricky teams in Vitoria Guimaraes and Shakhtar Donetsk, both 3-1 on agg. Maccabi Haifa was the easiest semi-final they could ask for and easily took care of them 4-1 agg. In the final they were up against a Premiership side, Watford. They held them to a goalless draw for 90mins then crumbled and conceded 2 goals in extra-time. I was really hoping they would win as i think they would be the first team to win the Europa League and the Europa Conference League. Institute - Unfortunately they are out of the Europa Conference League. They finished 4th in their group with their only win coming against Maccabi Tel-Aviv. Cliftonville - A disappointing exit at the hands of Indjija of Serbia with a 1-0 agg defeat in the Europa Conference League Best Placed 2nd qualifying round. This brilliant run in the Europa Conference League, along with the performance of the rest of the Northern Irish teams, has given us the national coefficient of 13.750. This should keep the league climbing and boost the qualifying places for us as well. Other £430k for playing in the Europa League 1st ko round. £482k for winning the Mid-Ulster Cup. A total of £445k for playing in and winning the Irish Cup. The prize money for winning the league has gone up to £772k. Youth facilities getting upgraded costing £625k. We get £659k for Champions League TV revenue and £2.86m for the 10yr coefficient ranking pool money. The news about a stadium upgrade changed to this - I wonder if our relocation will see us playing at Gary Hamilton Park rather than Windsor Park for the Champions League matches? We have also have had plenty of whispers about a takeover with the latest one being a consortium. I don’t mind how things are at the minute, the chairman has been the most flexible since i arrived.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 21, 2020 22:19:32 GMT
This just put me to bed and i'm not even tired. To top it off Barry gets 40% of the fee. The Chairman has shit himself and accepts any bid he considers decent. Never had this before.
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 23, 2020 23:30:29 GMT
Portadown Pre-Seaon Update 2041/42 Friendlies Transfers This has got to be one of the worst transfer windows i have ever been subjected to. I lost count of how many times i had to protest a transfer. Krasniqi* was sold against my wishes and with total disregard for what the player wanted. Obviously, if the player didn’t want to go then he would’ve rejected the contract, but that was never going to happen. I sold Blazevski. I probably could’ve go more for him another time, but i was so battered from players being bid for and being sold against my wished. He was one of the few players i was happy to let go. Jalbane, bought for £2m, sold for £25m+ £10 after 50apps, 4 installments of £2.5m/2yrs, a friendly and the important 50% sell-on fee, in the following season. The money is great, but it wasn’t really needed. He was a star player and a wonderkid. Simonovic was a player i wanted to include more this season, but in the end he was sold. Cadiz came in for him and i could see he would be annoyed if i rejected the bid. £2.9m rising to £3.5m is just poor. The players that came in were pre-arranged transfers. They arrived in the window when they turned 18, another 2 arrive in January this year. They aren't exceptional or much needed positions, just players i hope to develop to become first-team players. Jonathan Adolfsson*Ivan Gospodinov* Peter Beggs* Willie Russell* Javier Bottaro* - Bottaro was probably the best player i could get and afford. Unfortunately, it's in a position i don't really need. Chambers and Bottaro are going to have to share the RM positon. Bernardo Jesus* I basically have to treat this season as a rebuilding project. Players like Palmitessa and Carson are getting playing time that they wouldn’t normally. Jesus is getting thrown in at the deep end and will play as much as possible. Other The tv rights for the new season has reached a new high of £105k and the prize money is now £879k for winning the league. We get our usual £13m for qualifying for the Champions League group stage. After all of the financial dust has settled, we have a cool £67m in the bank. N.I. Teams In Europe At the end of the last update i was wondering if our relocation to Gary Hamilton Park would see us play our European games there. The answer is yes. Not that we are anywhere near filling it, but it is nice to be back. Even though the objective of the save is to get the league to be number 1 in the rankings, the one thing i’m looking at more than ever is the Nation Club Coefficients. It might be a bit early to call, but i think that we could sneak an extra Champions League group stage spot within the next 2 seasons and poosibly a 3rd round qualifier too. If that happens then we get a Europa League group stage spot as well. Portadown - A pretty straight forward run to the group stage. Right Midfielder, Tom Chambers has scored in all 4 legs and Jesus scores on his debut against GNK Dinamo. We go on to play Atletico Madrid, Holders Man City and Slavia Prague. I expect nothing less than 3rd place even though we were seeded 4th, not 3rd like last year. Glentoran - Held up their end of the bargain by taking care of Ceske Budejovice , Benfica and PSV after starting in the Best Placed 2nd qualifying round. They have a very manageable group with RB Leipzig, Monaco and Galatasaray. I don’t think its too much to think they’ll get 2nd place. Institute - No more heroics from Institute. They beat Anderlecht 3-2 at home but lost 3-1 away in the Europa League Best Place 3rd Qualifying round. They were unlucky to lose to AA Gent on penalties with 1-1 draws both home and away in the Europa Conference League 4th Qualifying round. Ballymena - I never expected anything from them and that is what happened. Knocked out by BK Hacken in the Europa Conference League 2nd Qualifying round. Drew the away leg 1-1 but crumbled 3-0 at home. Just a couple of other pics to do with Europe
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stouters
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Post by stouters on Jul 27, 2020 21:29:54 GMT
Portadown Mid-Seaon Update 2041/42 League Pretty happy with were we are in the league and how we are performing. I’m able to rotate with ease and it hasn’t affected our ability to score or keep the goals conceded to a minimum. Burns got off to a slow start with scoring, but more than made up for it with his tally now at 26 goals in 22 league games. Devine has been his usual best keeping 11 lean sheets. Glentoran’s 2nd place flatters them. A few games before they beat us away from home, but at home...they were mid-table. I couldn’t take my eyes of their results and positioning in the league. They have been our partners in crime in Europe trying to get the coefficient and league rep up. If they don’t qualify then everything will crumble. I am pleased to see the usual teams behind us. Cliftonville need more appearances in Europe and need to better in the Europa League or Conference League. I hope Institute climb one more spot. They’ve been great over the last couple of seasons in Europe and i hope they can improve a little bit more. Josip Palovic* - He was probably going to replace Devine at the end of the season, then i bought Miller. George Allan* - I’m not sure why i have George Allan. Maybe the scouts lied. Remi Kvile* - Could’ve done with him over the last month or two as we got hammered on the left side. Nathan Miller - Signed towards the end of the transfer window, he will probably take over from Devine. A pack of Wolves in the shape of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Dortmund and even Real Sociedad, all took their turns in sending in pretty poor bids trying to unsettle my Janusz Janicki and bully me into accepting. One of the lowest bids was £3.4m rising to £4.9m, one of the highest was £8.5m rising to £11.25m. Janicki had wanted to leave, but those bids didn’t even come close. Sure, i could’ve got my money back and added in the 50% sell-on fee, but he’s too important and i’ll hope i can ride out his unhappiness. Other Youth facilities upgraded and getting upgraded again costing £1.6m. This year we get £166k of unallocated money for drawn matches in the Champions League. Intake Preview* N.I. Teams In Europe Portadown - Pretty disappointed that we didn’t finish 2nd. We didn’t beat Slavia Prague away simply because the team was playing players that were not fit enough and players that were playing out of position. Injuries hit us down the left side and we didn’t cope against Slavia Prague. The 4-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid was a little unlucky. We played well creating plenty of shots, but they had to be very lucky to score their 4 shots on target. Overall, we played well, but playing well only gets you so far. Glentoran - I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t get 2nd place, but it can mean that they make it to the 2nd ko stage of the Europa. They just need a little luck to get past PSV in the first ko round. Institute - Lost in the Europa Conference League 4th Qualifying round by AA Gent. Ballymena - Knocked out by BK Hacken in the Europa Conference League 2nd Qualifying round. At the minute the coefficient is sitting at 5.600. After this season we should lose a poor year that gave us a 3.900 coefficient. I think that will get us a 2nd Champions League group stage spot. I don’t know how this will translate to the league rep. I hope it still goes up.
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