Glenavon & England

I usually manage Rochdale or Man Utd with the occassional attempt with St Johnstone to break the Celtic domination.

I wanted something different so saw Northern Ireland had lots of trophies to play for and that Glenavon were in Europe ... used Editor to set up a Billionaire style set up with fancy stadium and a starting 16 who could compete in Europe. Whilst the league was boosted to stop players immediately wanting out the co-efficient was left to see how that would progress.
I also wanted to bring youngsters through so the 3 cup competitions ( turned out there was a fourth for u19's) give ample opportunity to try out new talent.

Season 1 - Transfers - Brought in youngster as participating in Italian Youth Invitational Cup for under 19's ( no idea why !! ) .... Neufville ( west ham) , Humphreys ( Man City ) Flanagan (Palace) Rankin-Costello ( Blackburn) & Morris ( Ipswich ) brought in 15/16 Season. Also added Berahino in Jan window for £33Mill.

Neufville as of Season 5 still youngest player in club history at 16rs 21 days.(8/8/15)

Went on to win League , All Irish Cups ( There are 3 to play for) and toughest of all a Penalty Shoot out win over Liverpool in the Europa Cup..

Hired Phil Cannon to develop the Youth system and see if I can get a Wonderkid for once by playing longer.( He retires in 2022)

Goal Machine Ronaldo lost out on the Golden Boot due to Northern Ireland (Tier 3 country) goals only counting 1 to La Liga counting 2 ( Ronaldo 47 Gameiro 24x2 for 48 pts).

England won the Euro's with Kane getting the Golden Boot ( Thrashed Switzerland in the final)..... Note to self DO NOT play so many friendlies before a major competition. Found myself using back up keepers as outfeild subs to try keep squad fresh.

Wenger retired and Pellegrini took over ..... elsewhere Mourinho replaces Van Gaal ( one for the AI guessing correctly).

Season 2 ( 16/17)

I had taken a punt on Lingard & Rashford as youngsters for my team but unlike Real World they are not superstars so intense coaching a mentoring in place to boost them.
As usual I track the Man Utd news as I loo to pick up youngsters for Rochdale usually -- this time I picked up Mitchell & McTominay on free having been released. Also picked up Sessegnon from Fulham who it turns out just does not improve.

Major signings include Lewis Cook (£8.25m) , Redmond from relegated Norwich ( £5.5m) & Chalobah ( £10m).

Glenavon get there first Super Cup to play and somehow sneak a 1-0 vs European Champions Man City who are managed by Pep.

League went to plan as it should with my squad but lost to Coleraine in semi finals of Irish Cup after gamble to play youngsters back fires and 1-1 aet leads to Penalty shot out loss.

Dnipro & Monaco both held me to draws in Champion League knockout rounds after being well ahead in the first legs I eventually met Juventus in a dull final that again leads to a narrow win 1-0..... Thanks to Ronaldo who this time gets his Golden Boot as Northern Irelands co-efficient has moved up a tier and he gets 1.5 x goals for his points..... More importantly other teams are getting more places in Europe next season so hope to see Linfield & Cliftonville improving.

For England Vardy is becoming more useful than Kane and Berahino is a regular starter !!!

Season 3 (17/18)

With Ronaldo becoming more injury prone I buy an unhappy Martial ( seems about right) from Man Utd for £36m.
Also raided Real madrid for some talented kids so hope to train Varin & Marchand for the future.
Dean Henderson picked up after Utd release him for cover to Donnarumma & Mannion..... although I have rarely seen any keeper injured in FM.

Narrow 2-1 super cup win over Europa winners Spurs with Kane making a point to be above Vardy in my England Squads.

City sack Pep who obviously chooses Southampton as his next stop !

Atletico end my perfect group stages with a 2-1 win in Madrid. In the semis I thought 1-1 in turin would be an easy win at Fortress Mourneview but it became a 4-3 thriller to squeak through 5-4 on aggregate.

Bayern awaited in the final but 2-1 was more comforatble than score suggests.

England win Confederations Cup ( semi with the Invisible stat Germans the hardest game)... Berahino the goalscoring hero.

Also sees the end of Wayne Rooney 141 caps & 68 goals.

Also finally seeing some better Youth Coming into the Club under Phil Cannon ... even if I do not benefit it should be players for the other clubs to improve there standards.

Season 4 ( 18/19)

Only spent 34.5k on Finke from Freiburg.... did gamble on Free Transfer sick note Wilshere ( brilliant for me) & Utd rejects Varela & Romero.

Chalobah moaned too much and went to City along with Humphreys to Bournemouth.

Super Cup all too easy against Galatasary 3-0 ... my first final I could relax watching.

2nd World Club won - have won all 3 played by season 5 and all against Boca.

Utd stopped my perfect winning / scoring season by holding 0-0 at Old Trafford & Bayern almost turned round a 4-1 away defeat by winning 3-1 at home in semi finals.

Decided to send Mannion out on loan and just play Donnarumma in goal to break the Record for most appearances ... 70 games with 15 conceded ( 6 in the league... try as I might I can not beat the 4 goals conceded record).

SLB unable to stop us with a narrow 1-0 score in final but like the look of some of there squad to refresh mine .

England lesson learnt and do not play any friendlies before tournament leaving squad fit and ready.

Ai very kind as get Japan/Paraguay/Ukraine in groups before Jamaica (2nd rnd) & USA in quarters. Belguim in semi's could have gone either way before nail biting Final with Uruguay.

0-0 until 114 mins when Uruguay score ( dream over ... but no .... Sterling on 120 mins) ... followed by 15-14 on penalties... yes England win a shoot out !!!!

Season 5 ( 19/20)

Man Utd release Jones on a Free ..picked up as injury crisis hitting club.
In Jan window pick up Cancelo from City as Bellerin out for 8 months for £40mill.
18 players go on Free transfers having not made the grade .... Sessegnon is now at Newry ... as I say he doesnt match the real thing !!

Super Cup 3-0 against a luckustre Juventus.

Beat Boca again in World Club despite a yellow card in 29 seconds ... i play with keep on feet and get few bookings so not the expected start.

Man Utd are the first team to win at Mourneview ... 2-1 but it should have been worse ( Bale & Benzema ripped us apart ) before coming back from 3-1 down to 3-3 at Old Trafford in Group Stages of Champions League.... Mourinho is still there ... 3yr itch not in evidence.

Pep was sacked by Southampton after 7 months in 2017 ( battling relegation is there reward) and is now at Atletico who seem to be in most of my Champion League groups..but not this year.

Domestically unbeatable in the League still ... only Coleraine still have that penalty shoot out win in 5 seasons.

After 5 seasons my first player to insist on leaving ( Dreams of playing in England) despite all our success occurred - so Kroos is off to Chelsea at end of the season.

Decided to freshen up the squad for Season 6 so bid for Bernado Silva ( Bayern £54m) & Guedes ( SLB £48m) to join at end of season with Wilshere / Jones to leave as their injuries are beginning to increase and they did both come free !!

Kroos haunted Chelsea by helping knock them out in the Champions League ( albeit needed 2 goals in last 9mins of 2nd leg).

Bernado Silva though haunted me as he helped Bayern to an easy 3-1 win in the Final.

Decided to leave England after Euro 2020 and after cruising through the Group Stage ( Scotland/Macedonia/Sweden) Serbia & Switzerland were easily dispatched using my favourite 4-2-3-1 formation before Spain took a 118th minute winner from Vardy in a 2-1 semi final win.

Portugal went 1 up in 4 mins and until Berahino's 76th min penalty it didn't look like we would ever score. With 120 mins gone and resigned to Penalties ... up pops Berahino for a welcome winner.

Comparing FM16 projection to real world :

Simeone is not only Arsenal Manager - but he won the league.

At Juventus David Moyes is a legend who has won 2 leagues & 3 cups !!

Messi is still at Barca but 17/18/26/17/13 from 38 match seasons is not the same player we still see.

Zidane joined Everton before getting sacked as they got Relegated.

Season 6

After losing out to Bayern in Champions League Final - no Super Cup to start the season ... so straight into the Danske Bank League Campaign.

New Portugese signings already picking up injuries and my attempt to not play the Reserve League ignored again.

Only affiliate I can get despite 3 Agreed Board Requests is Reading who are not generating any quality youths.

With players now all demanding today play it is difficult to make room for my younger players so using Loan System extensively.

Started the League without conceding in first 9 games and have a real chance to beat the 4 conceded record which went down to the final game where I held off Cliftonville to only concede 3 goals all season .... did think by now the other teams would be improving more than they are showing in the League and not making much progress in Europe.

The Mid-Ulster Cup final saw a match against a surprise lower tiered side in Banbridge who managed to have the lowest player rating I have seen with 2.4 for their right fullback !!

Champions League was a cruise despite conceding 6 in the group matches ( Man U/Salzburg/Fenerbeche) .. reward was La Liga leaders Real Madrid who after a 0-0 away ( played defensive set up) won 5-0 at home by going attacking with Bernado Silva running the show from AMC position.
Marseille in QF was all over in home leg 3-0 before a late goal gave them a 2-2 in away leg.
Benefica destroyed 7-1 at home ( 9-2 agg ) in the semis with Bayern 5-0 ( 9-0 agg) doing the same to Arsenal.
Final - lead 3 times before hanging on to a 3-2 victory and revenge ( signing Silva from Bayern haunts them as he scores the winner).

Rashford after 6 seasons has topped 50 goals ( all in the league... Golden Boot Won ) - Martial is the star of the Champions League so far. Ronaldo is 36 , injuries keep coming but still scored 44 goals so far.

The legend of Juventus - David Moyes was poached by Chelsea who had a disaster start ( 3rd now with 3 games to go)....Conte back at Juve and winning title.
Everton and Burnley have bounced back to the Premier League
La Liga is still the usual 3 teams but again Messi is now where near his real life scoring feats with only 18 this season...Suarez the Main man along with Neymar.
Celtic have TEN straight league titles ... as one sided as the Irish League !!
Bayern 8 of the last 9 years.
Arsenal sack Simeone after winning league last year and coming 2nd this + semis of Chamions league ... go back to Luis Enrique.

Looking to offload Oxford + Redmond and bring through to youngsters ( Morris & Varin) in summer window.

Internationally - Sergio Ramos is on 178 caps. Berahino has 35 goals in 41 caps ( Rooney 68 goals still way ahead) .... Portugal looking the best side and producing the brightest
talent.

Rafa Benitez took over from me as England manager and is cruising through WCQ + beat Brazil to win defend the Confederation Cup Trophy.

Season 7

For the first time the press link me with another job ( only 3rd on Hall of Fame list !!) but no offers.

I have kept most of my original squad when I first set up the side ( kroos leaving last year was the first to go - Lingard wants away but persuaded to stay untl end of the season).

Only signed 2 released players from Man Utd - Callum Gribbin + Sebtaoui.

Released 12 of my youth products to try and boost the local sides - not working so far to boost the Danske Bank Standard + many more on loan.

Season started with 3-0 win over Pep's Atletico in Super Cup.

League - Again won all matches and 7th Title ( Celtic have 11 in a row now & Rangers not even in top half of table).

Champions League - Won all group games Gelsenkirchen/Sporting/Twente . Juventus (7-0 ag) brushed aside before Chelsea spoil my efforts to go whole season undeated by beating me 1-0 in 2nd leg ( won 2-1 on agg) with Berahino missing a late penalty. Gelsenkirchen beaten again in 2 dull SF clashes ..setting up a Final with PSG.
Berahino Penalty miss is forgiven as he scores in Final ( 1-1) before also slotting home to win 4-2 on penalties. (PSG did win 8-2 on yellow cards !!!).

World Club - for the first time not Boca in the final... comfortable win over Corinthians.

Whilst domestically the League is one sided ... the cup Finals have been much closer and was losing one well into the 2nd half before winning them.

I am hoping the take over of Linfield will see an injection of cash for them to start pushing on...... No sign yet of TV revenue or sponsorship reflecting success on Glenavon.

In other news -

Chelsea under Moyes win the Premier League ( Leicester 4th & Everton relegated for the 2nd time in 7 years).
Conte wins again with Juve.
Klopp wins with Bayern again.

Benitez is leading England into WC finals with Usa/Ukraine/Ageria in group stages....after 4 goals in the group stages from Berahino .... a 1-1 draw against Argentina led to the usual penalty shoot out exit.
France eventually winning the tournament.

Season 8 ( 2002/23)

Bugs getting worse ... some of the tabs to open not working on " Must Respond" so having to take 1 days holiday to get past....Want to get to 10 seasons so will have to put up with it.

Transfers - First Team Squad has remained largely unchanged in 8 seasons with youth prospects slow to come through despite the facilities and coaching available.

However a 20yr Tim Crossan(striker) had his breakthrough season - winning best youngster on loan at Leicester & in the World Cup ( 19 goals in 22 caps for Republic of Ireland).

Sold other talents who are not going to be 1st Team Regulars - Morris 1.7m / Millar 1.5m / Marchand 20m & Varin 22m ( last 2 both picked up from Madrid Youth systems and tidy profit made after a few years of loaning out - took about 20 rejected bids on each to get the prices ).

Lingard changed his mind about going .... then with a few days b4 window closes ... wants to try new things again.

Pogba by Nov now has always wanted to play in England ... rejects Utd ( they were 17th in Premier !!) and squad get annoyed as he wants Chelsea who have bid too low ...finally sorted with a player exchange.

Will be losing Lingard/Matic/Pogba/Maza at end of season now.

Ronaldo still with us at 37yrs old but now has a coaching release in his contract ( tried to redo contract as plyer/coach but he rejected it).

Rooney signed as a coach after he has failed in several manager roles.

Donnarumma breaks to Clubs League Appearance record whilst Ronaldo extends the league goals record to 300 with 5 games of the season to play.

Mourinho appointed to replace Benitez ( Thought I might be approached but no one offers me jobs !!! ). Press link me with Utd and despite being complimentary about them - Laurent Blanc appointed.( Zidane replaces after disastrous league start).

World Cup took out most of my squad and start of season has been sluggish ... along with being lazy and playing the same tactic for all of last season ( one of 2 main tactics I have used from the start of this save (4-2-3-1 wide/flexible/control).

Super Cup - Lost 1-0 to Hoffenheim ( Newcastles conquerors from Europa Final)....first final I have failed to score in.

Domestically normal service just not scoring quite as many and Linfield's takeover has not boosted them ....Crusaders now 2nd best team.

Champions League - Celtic/Roma/Kiev Won 4 drew 2... Barcelona away 1-1 before the ageing team ( Pique pace 4 & Messi only a sub) lose 3-0 in the home leg.

QF Bayern + SF Juve both 3-1 agg after drawing away leg.... Final an easy 4-0 against Chelsea.

Boca beaten again in World Club 2-1 aet

Internationally - England through in European League ( Belguim relegated and golden generation losing ability) ... Berahino upto 48 goals ( Kane/Rashford/Sterling/Stones still all scoring in campaign)

Ronaldo due to retire ... after requesting he does not ... due to retire end of next season.

Beginning to want a different challenge .... not sure how someone set a 200+ season record !!

Season 9 - Major changes within the squad

Transfers - Matic ( pace has gone) Lingard / Pogba & then Martial ( all want to try something else) ...Signed Costa ( winger) but going to give rest of squad more game time rather than trying to keep a large squad happy.

Released a group of talented reserves to help boost Danske Clubs .. oddly on my stats it shows Zero released despite getting rid of 10 each season on average.

Worse - 38yr old Ronaldo despite my begging is hanging up his boots at end of season... my attempts to beat the 513 goals for club record look dashed ( on 435 ) but he has now signed a 3 year Player/Coach contract but says retires june 24??

Weirdly Patton also retires .. career stats show at Glenavon in 13/14 season then blank !! good coaching skills but insists on being a scout ( 9/6 for ability !!)

Must be the World Cup but Mexico job came up and couldn't resisit applying - Got the job and achieved National Service Achievement.

Super Cup 2-0 easy win with back ups over Koln.

Domestically - Worse scoring season and finally a team stops us scoring - Glentoran 0-0 is my first failure to win in 9 seasons.

In the cup - Crusaders take us to a replay ... perhaps some small signs the Other teams are getting better or just my laziness in playing 4-2-3-1 every game.

World Club - Boca finally get one over me and win

Champions League - Lose a group game to Liverpool / Lose away at both Sporting & SLB in the knockouts but turn it around at Home. Win semi easily against Chelsea before again losing away in 2nd leg.

Win Final 2-1 against Arsenal --- more importantly this is 39yr 117 days old Ronaldo's last match coming on as sub in the nou Camp !!

Ronaldo finishes with 410 games played - 333 league goals and 172 cup for 495 Glenavon Career Goals.( Accelartion down to 6 and Pace 9).

Welcome to Ronaldo the coach :}

Mexico Project has seen me play easy friendlies to get team used to tactics and comfortably through early Concaf group. + Taking on U23 role to play in Olympics

Northern Ireland qualify for first ever Euro's ( 2024 ) and Glenavon have produced 33 Internationals.

Other Leagues

Celtic - 13 in a row
Bayern 5 in a row ( 8/9 wins in seasons I have played)
Juve 5 in a row ( 7/9)
Real 5 in a row ( Barca won first 4)
Chelsea 3 in a row ( Utd 2 & Arsenal 2 & Chelsea 5/9)

Europa Cup - Crystal Palace who also finish 4th in the league.

Now to decide who to kick out of the 30 + squad members and let some of the youth get more game time.

Season 10 - Post Ronaldo Era starts

The Euro's saw Portugal come out on top under Marco Silva with England making the semi's.

England/Spain/France/Croatia/Northern Ireland/Italy all change managers and i decide to abandon Mexico ( not enough keepers to make a squad now) and apply for England.

Confident as rated No.1 in Hall of Fame & having won 5 trophies with England before I applied .... to be Refused !! Same happened with Spain & France before Northern Ireland took my call.

A few days after ... England ask me to manage them and pay NI compensation ... my shortest job and not a game played !!

Transfers -
Cancelo & Silva must have got grand ideas as they refuse contract offers with exaggerated pay demands ( both 12 months remaining on existing) so I sold them ... long term suitors Real Madrid happy to take them ( They also poached Hierro as manager from Palace).
Bought a young French striker from Real but otherwise cutting squad size again to stop the moaning about not enough 1st Team Games---allow some young talent a chance in Cups.

Super Cup - Crystal Palace