sortitoutsi
Football Manager Graphics
- FM24 Graphics
- FM24 Player Faces
- FM24 Logos
- FM24 Kits
- FM24 Backgrounds
- FM24 Installation Instructions
Football Manager Guides Database
Football Manager Data Update
Football Manager Shortlists
- FM24/25 Update Guides
- FM24/25 Update Shortlists
- Best FM24/25 Update Wonderkids
- Cheap FM24/25 Update Wonderkids
- FM24/25 Update Young Players aged 21-25
- FM24/25 Update Best Free Players
- FM24/25 Update Expiring Contracts
- FM24/25 Update Bargain Players
- FM24/25 Update Injury Prone Players
- FM24/25 Update Richest Clubs
- Best FM24/25 Update Facilities
- FM24 Guides
- FM24 Shortlists
- Best FM24 Wonderkids
- Cheap FM24 Wonderkids
- FM24 Young Players aged 21-25
- FM24 Best Free Players
- FM24 Expiring Contracts
- FM24 Bargain Players
- FM24 Injury Prone Players
- FM24 Richest Clubs
- Best FM24 Facilities
This site is not endorsed by Sports Interactive or SEGA and is intended for entertainment purposes only. The views expressed on this site are the views of the individual contributors and not those of Sports Interactive or SEGA.
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
2018/19
Premiership - Win
Scottish Cup - Win
Scottish League Cup - Win
Europa League - 1st Knockout Round
Transfers
Overall Best XI
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
2019/20
Premiership - Win
Scottish Cup - Win
Scottish League Cup - Runners Up
Champions League - 1st Knockout Round
Transfers 1
Transfers 2
Overall Best XI
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
2020/21
Premiership - Win
Scottish Cup - Win
Scottish League Cup - Win
Champions League - Runners Up
Transfers
Overall Best XI
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
2021/22
Premiership - Win
Scottish Cup - Win
Scottish League Cup - Quarter Final
Europa League - Win
Transfers 1
Transfers 2
2021/22 Best XI
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
2022/23
Premiership - Win
Scottish Cup - Win
Scottish League Cup - 2nd Round
Champions League - Group Stage
Euro Super Cup - Runners up
Transfers 1
Transfers 2
Transfers 3
2022/23 Best XI
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
2023/24
Premiership - Win
Scottish Cup - Win
Scottish League Cup - Win
Europa League - Quarter Final
Transfers 1
Transfer 2
Transfers 3
Transfers 4
2023/24 Best XI
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
2024/25
Premiership - Win
Scottish Cup - Win
Scottish League Cup - Win
Champions League - 1st Knockout Round
Transfers 1
Transfers 2
Transfers 3
Transfers 4
2024/25 Best XI
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers
Now into my eighth season with Rangers (my longest ever with them) I actually don't think I've ever enjoyed a save so much. It has helped that I have been playing it in bursts as I've had a fair few times away from the game this year. I couldn't have started any better as somehow we tore it up in the first season and went on to win the treble! I didn't even add to the team until January but tbh there are a fair few players in the team from the start that you can do a lot with such as, Alfredo Morelos, Connor Goldson, Borna Barasic, Nikola Katic, James Tavernier, Ross McCrorie and Glenn Middleton. Middleton and McCrorie are class young players and perform amazingly right from the off and the same can be said for the rest of them. Lining up with a 4-2-2-2 seemed to work really well and I'm glad as I've always liked playing two striker as opposed to the 4-5-1/4-3-3 everyone seems to favour. Goals, goals and more goals that's what our success was down to. We only improved from there and now I'm halfway through my eighth season with them on schedule to complete the treble again and in the last 16 of the CL. I thought I'd share my team on here as a way of looking back on how the career has gone.
I went with the usual method of bringing in free transfers, bargain buys and potential wonderkids with the view to loaning them out and/or selling them to make loads of money. It's a method I've always followed on FM as I've always had success doing it. I've managed to bring in £1.2bn by selling/loaning players so clearly my team is very rich. When I got into the CL final and lost in the third season and then won the EL in the fourth season I was thinking this is going to be far too easy. So I decided to change my approach and start to develop home grown talent with the intention of fielding an almost entirely Scottish team with maybe a few UK based ones too. I think that was in season 4/5 I started that and now my team is very close to only Scottish players apart from a couple foreign ones. Although I wanted a home grown team I had spent years building and buying a team, or several teams, so it was going to be hard getting rid of all of the players especially since I didn't want to let them go for less than what they were worth. As such, I have kept a select few players over the years like Moritz Hollerieth, Erkan Eybil, Isaias, Vincent Njoku, Alfredo Morelos, Nikola Katic, Svetozar Markovic, Federico Zapata, Yuri Alberto, Alex Bielsa, Roberto Navarro, Matonense and Tourinho. Nowadays Alex Bielsa has Scotland as a second nationality whilst Navarro is less than a year away from the same. That being said I will probably accept decent bids for them unless I get the Scotland job(again) and manage to persuade them to declare themselves for us! Matonense is a really good winger but I'm not really fussed on him for some reason, even though he is amazing. Now Tourinho on the other hand, that's different, he has become a phenomenal player for me and arguably the best striker in the game too. I would be really surprised if he didn't win the Balon d'or this year. I rejected a £100m offer from Real Madrid for him last year as it had too many clauses in the deal and I expected them to come back in with another offer which I would no doubt have accepted. With my young Scottish striker Tony Herd picking up a couple month long injury I decided to just keep playing Tourinho this season and he has been unplayable, completely. So now I'm stuck with a dilemma.. Do I let him leave or keep him as a bonus foreign player? Who knows?! I've stuck his valuation at £200m as Real Madrid have been scouting and expressing interest in him all season so will see what happens I guess. In two more seasons both he and Matonense will also have Scottish nationality so there's that, although both have been capped by Brazil. Let's see where the rest of the season and the transfer window takes us eh?
Squad
Fixtures
League
ChrissBurns1993
December-March
A major topic I spoke about last time was that of Tourinho and my uncertainty of what to do with him but alas we have another transfer window gone and he's still here as Real Madrid look to be going down their usual long and drawn out transfer process. I was shocked that Tourinho didn't win the Ballon D'or and only made the bench for the World XI, his stats were considerably better than the rest as well. Tony Herd earned the European Golden Boy award though so that was some good news. Now to Europe; I mentioned previously about hoping to avoid Barcelona in the 1st knockout round of the Champions League, did we do that? Nope! I decided that this time I wouldn't treat them so kindly by switching our play like we had done last year, no, we went for it with our usual 4-2-2-2 attacking system. In the first leg it was starting to look like a mistake after 30 mins but we managed to pull one back and make it a respectable scoreline. The follow up tie went so, so, so well for us, we battered them and had a 3-0 lead up until they pulled one back which looked likely to send the tie to extra time but we were awarded a very dramatic late penalty and Tony Herd stepped up to put us back ahead, then following up with another to completely kill them off and sealing his hat-trick. Surely one Spanish giant would be enough though? No? Ok.. Real Madrid next!
We got another nice youth intake this year and have a great young wonderkid youth through our affiliation with Columbus Crew in America; Reese Camm. He has all the potential in the world and has great current ability for a 16-year-old too. His only downside is that he has no flair whatsoever, yet all his other technical, mental and physical stats seem to be really good, we shall see how that fares in game. We got another youth through an affiliate, another young goalkeeper! We have a plethora of those it has to be said. Still, a decent pick up through our partnership with Socheux. Interestingly Celtic dismissed another manager in their hopeless quest to topple me at the top and this time Roger Schmidt was shown the door. Schmidt came in and started really well, played some good games against me and also led Celtic to a first 2nd place finish in 3/4 years but failed to convince the board. Next in was a very close friend of mine, Robbie Stockdale, I brought Robbie in as our reserves assistant manager in 2019 and then gave him the Scotland under 21's managers job during my stint in charge there too. He was with us for six years before making the move to Nottinham Forest to become his own man, he was doing a decent job there too. Now he fancies a crack at me? Going to be gutted getting him the sack! On the plus side another of my former colleagues replaced him; Michael Beale taking up the job after his recent dismissal by Sheffield Wednesday.
Domestically we are absolutely flying as we extend our unbeaten run to sixty-six games. We are just six games shy of beating our previous record of seventy-one games unbeaten. With just seven games left of the league campaign I'm hoping that we can secure a second invincible season under my leadership of the club. We have come close to a further two invincible seasons but had one pesky defeat in each of those campaigns. We sailed through three Scottish cup ties and Hibernian lie in wait for us in the semi finals. Hopefully another domestic treble en route to Ibrox as we have already secured the Betfred Cup by beating Celtic in a thoroughly spectacular game in which we came from behind to win. I also must reserve a special mention for that Aberdeen result, wow! Interestingly Tourinho became the second striker to bag a hat-trick that game yet he actually only came on with twenty minutes to play, a glorious feat.
ChrissBurns1993
End of season
We continued exactly where we left off in the league as we won five out of our seven remaining games and kept clean sheets in those games too. We drew the other two to take our tally to the season to six draws but once again we have an invincible season in what was our eighth straight league title. Unfortunately we succumbed to a penalty shoot out defeat to Hibs in the Scottish Cup Semi Final meaning we fail to reach the Scottish Cup final for the first time in my eight years at the club. After seeing off Barcelona in the last 16 of the CL it was time to face off with their fellow Spanish giants Real Madrid! We got off to a flyer as we beat them 4-0 at home the return leg wasn't so straight forward however. Despite that, we played out an incredible game and possibly one of the greatest ever Champions League games as we lost 5-3 on the day which of course meant that we were 7-5 victors on aggregate! Next up was PSG and if I'm honest, after beating those two, I probably underestimated them a little bit and went hell for leather against them in both ties, evidently it wasn't to be for us as we we trounced 6-2 on aggregate. So near, yet so far once again as we almost reach the final of the Champions League. It's becoming clear that my biggest challenge will be trying to conquer Europe with a fully Scottish team. Had I kept up with my previous method of signing every good wonderkid I could then I know for a fact we'd have at least 3/4 more EL/CL wins. However, I think I'm probably happier that we're struggling to achieve that European domination as it's keeping me motivated with the save. I'm now going into my ninth season and I still have a real purpose, with real goals to achieve. Also, I haven't mentioned this yet but I have another long term goal in this save and it is to break the long standing club records held by Sam English, Sandy Archibald and Ally McCoist. In order to do so I will need a player of mine to score 252 league goals, make 514 league appearances and score 45 league goals in a season. Our main man Tourinho shattered Alfredo Morelos' record of 47 overall goals in a season for us with his 51 goal haul. I will post a screenshot of the record breaking Tourinho below alongside his and the clubs stats and awards for the season, of which there are many.
Overall Best XI
Our stats for the season
Tourinho
Squad
ChrissBurns1993
Rangers 2026-27 Preview
As we set about our latest season I was already really happy with my team so I didn't really have to make any additions to the team. Which doesn't mean I didn't bring anyone in does it? We brought in two young Scottish prospects who will mostly play with the reserves although they will be used sparingly in the first team for us. I am really happy with the players that I have in my squad this season once again. We have a blend of youth and experience even if our squad average age does sit at twenty-two, our players around the age of twenty-two have probably played a hundred games or more and so are actually experienced. We do still have our main man Tourinho as we fielded absolutely no calls about him which is a bit weird but perhaps our £200m valuation of him is a tad off putting for some. I did allow Matonense to leave for Man City for a fee a little lower than I would've like to however we added in a clause that'll see us receive 50% of his next transfer fee. Both Navarro and Bielsa now have Scottish nationality so I'm not too fussed about moving them on for that reason. I would like to sell Navarro though, I bought him six seasons ago as a wonderkid with a view to selling him on for a big profit and so I put up with his £140k p/w wage but now I still have him on that and I really don't want to pay him that wage. Still, I'll play him until we get a decent offer I guess. I still have a bit of a headache with our goalkeepers as they all have similar ability however, it is becoming clear that Ali Wilson may be the man with the most potential abilty in him and so he may be our most frequent #1 although the other two will still play 10-15 games. I am happy with almost all of the other positions in the team apart from maybe our forwards. I, of course, have no problem with Tourinho as his record speaks for itself although he is less likely to play than Bobby Docherty and Tony Herd due to their home grown status. I'm quite concerned with Herd though, I've been using him as one of my main strikers for four years and his ability hasn't quite shot up as much as I'd have liked. He is the player I want to break the league goalscoring and appearance records with the club and so far he his 111 appearances and 67 goals so he is on the right track that way I guess. Docherty is a terrific pressing forward and I have no issues about him at all and Mick Crawford needs more development, training, tutoring and game time before he can be judged. We had a bit of a backroom staff restructure this season too as I allowed my long standing assistant, director of football and head of youth development staff leave after their contracts ran down. Pep Clotet had been a great assistant for six years and Krystian Speakman done a really good job as our head of youth for the same period of time. Mark Allen was actually in place before me and so he leaves after nine years with the club and will be replaced by the highly reputable Monchi. Our other two replacements came with just as high of a reputation as Monchi, Zsolt Low previously held the assistant managers position with PSG and a couple of the Red Bull franchise clubs, and Max Balster was key to nurturing the talent at Schalke for seven years as their head of youth too. I feel quite bad letting Speakman and Clotet leave as we built up a terrific rapport over the years but I just felt it was time to step everyone up to that elite level and hopefully we can do that by bringing through a higher calibre of player than ever before. Having sold quite a lot of my foreign contingent that were out on loan I am hopeful that next season I won't spend even half as much of the time dealing with transfers and agents! We loaned out another eight players that are foreign so there should be just those to deal with next season. Then any other offers I have to deal with won't be as tough as I won't be going out of my way to sell them and so I will have the upper hand in negotiations. Number nine lets be having you!
Squad
Transfers 1
Transfers 2
Transfers 3
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
Squad
League
With everything in place for the club to do well once again in the upcoming season we got stuck in to the task of trying to win as much silverware as we could once again. In the league we were absolutely flying as usual as we won ten games on the bounce, conceding just once in the process. Celtic put an end to that winning run although not the unbeaten run. I feel like Celtic maybe put us off of our game though, as in that very same month we struggled massively in the League Cup Final to Hibs. We went behind in the game and for the first time in a very long one I actually changed our shape from a 4-2-2-2 to a 4-2-3-1 but although we did pull one back extremely late to take the tie to ET Hibs subsequently scored an extremely late goal of their own as they sunk us with an 118th minute goal. The domestic treble dream was over once again.
In the Champions League we played fairly well as we won four out of six games. We were hammered by Bayern Munich in the first tie but revenged that defeat in the follow up game. After absolutely annihilating RedBull Salzburg 7-1 the first time we somehow managed to lose 1-0 to them in the second game which was extremely disappointing. Dynamo Kiev seemed to be a complete mismatch for us as we easily dispersed of them with a ten goal to nil haul over the two games. To my absolute joy, finishing second must have done us some good as we were handed a favourable 1st Knockout Round tie with another RedBull Franchise; Leipzig this time! Zsolt low didn't know what to make of it all.
Amazingly we have managed to keep twenty-one clean sheets in our thirty games this season. Although annoyingly we've sorted of felt the pinch at the other end as our strikers aren't quite scoring as much as I'd have liked them too. It became clear to me that Ryan Gauld, Callum Paterson and Scott McTominay aren't as good as the other players in their positions now and we'll likely let them leave, perhaps on loan. Well, Paterson and McTominay anyway. Gauld has been incredible for us since joining for less than £60k in 2020, particularly in the following season. As a result, I will likely keep him as a squad player and also use him to help develop the youngsters vying for his position! I have been really impressed with the development of Tony Herd after previously doubting him. He seems to have knuckled down in training and is finally listening to the advice from his mentors as well as starting to adopt their approach. He hasn't quite scored as many as I'd like, neither has Bobby Docherty but hopefully they can kick on in the second half of the season.
Unfortunately Adam Morrice damaged cruciate ligament damage in his knee and was ruled out for seven months. I'm really hoping that the injury doesn't set back his development too much! With the absence of Morrice and the declining abilty of Gauld I decided that our new midfield rotation duo will be 16-year-old's Jack McMaster and Reese Camm. Craig Johnson will also get some game time when we can allow it, he will be our bench player for the season too. It also became clear that Ali Wilson should be our #1 goalkeeper and Mark Murray should be his understudy. With that in mind I still decided to give Liam Begg ten games before we reach the winter transfer window and we can look to loan him out for the remainder of the season. I will also be looking to loan out Mick Crawford and bring Shogo Nakamura back from his loan at Falkirk as he isn't playing enough games there.
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
Squad
League
Best XI
It's fair to say that this has been my most disappointing season in a long time. Firstly, losing the Betfred Cup to Hibs and then the Scottish Cup semi-final to Hearts followed up by a Champions League quarter-final knockout by Man United. Somehow though, we managed to go another season unbeaten in the league which now stretches back to three years, we were beaten on the third fixture of the 2024/25 season meaning we have gone 111 games without defeat. Quite remarkable when you consider we're not that formidable of a force in all of the other competitions evidently.
Our clean sheet record didn't quite follow us into 2027 but fortunately we managed to find our shooting boots! After again moaning about the development of Tony Herd he's finally kicking on and has become my best player this season. He managed to add an incredible 23 goals to his 12 goal haul in the first half of the campaign as he finally found his place in the team. I reckon it was the shift in role for him as we started to utilise him as a complete forward due to his all round statistics which seemed to bring the best out in him. He improved so much so that he was the top goalscorer in the league, was the FW Player of the Year runner up, Players Young Player of the Year, FW Young player of the year and was in the Team of the Year alongside Bobby Docherty and Jamie Dair. Tourinho had a bit of a stop, start season for us through injuries and also due to me playing Herd and Docherty together nine times out of ten. Reiss Nelson and Robert Navarro had particularly good seasons for us but with a couple of teams interested in the pair I'd be happy to sell them on for the right price. In saying that, I think I've yet to come across a really high potential Scottish winger to date and so it might be best to hold on to them for now.
I was really hoping to have been more successful in Europe by this point and to go out on away goals to eventual winners Man United was really infuriating. Particularly because we dominated them in that first league but just couldn't put the game to bed and of course they went on to grab that crucial away goal like you'd expect from a Jose Mourinho team. Interestingly we have lost to the two eventual winners in the past two years! We have got to do better next year though as it's the one success I haven't been able to achieve thus far. I expect to be at the club for another 10 years though as I'm starting to feel like I want to overtake Bill Struth in the hall of fame and surpass his 18 league titles with the club. If I do that and become the best in the country then and only then will I be satisfied with my career with Rangers. Well, that and the other club records we want to try and break too. Ross McCrorie has accumulated a lot of games for us but I don't reckon he's the man to break the record due to his ever advancing age, at 29 he's maybe just a couple of years too old as he'd need to play every league game for the next 7/8 years or so.
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 232 League appearances
Tony Herd - 146 League appearances
Tony Herd - 96 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
Transfers
League
Senior Squad
Reserve Squad
Youth Squad
Heading into my tenth season with the club my hunger for success with Rangers was yet to fade. If anything it was growing stronger as we crumbled in all competitions bar the League last year which is unacceptable. You can't annihilate everyone in the league and then falter against those very same sides in other competitions it makes no sense! We must achieve a domestic treble this season and I will honestly be seething at anything less than European progress too, which means at least making the final of the Champions League.
I am extremely happy with the squad at my disposal this year too as this was the final year where we had still to sell unwanted players that were out on loan to other clubs for years on end. We now have no unwanted 'foreign' players at the club and have a full squad of Scottish nationals or with Scottish citizenship at least. We have this throughout all three of our squads and we have a number of exciting prospects across all three squads too. We added another couple of bright young lads to the team as well as bringing back former loanee and Celtic youth graduate Willie Craig for an absolute bargain fee. Considering the fact that he signed for Manchester City for £20m just three years ago and played really well on three separate loans shows City's ineptitude there. If I could've added anything more to our team it would be bringing in a couple of Scottish wingers but there seems to be a bizarre lack of quality wide men around at the moment. With the sale of Reiss Nelson, who was signed on a free and sold for £60m, we now had an open slot on the left wing which we had to fill but with no quality replacements around we had to get creative. So, Billy Gilmour will be retrained as our right winger, Robert Navarro will retrain as our inside forward on the left wing and best of all, we can fit another of our quality centre midfielders into the line up as a result.
I have started to learn more and more about the group and the most important thing of all is the amount of players who seem to crumble in the big matches or appear to hate playing in them. Now, as you'll have noticed, we have a strong rotation with our squad year on year and so we have decided to create a preferred eleven for the league and a preferred eleven for other competitions. This will allow the players that relish playing in the big games to do so and the other players to play without pressure in the League where we're never really troubled. Where possible we will try to allow similar amount of game time for all players within the rotation system. I believe, or hope, that this could be the key towards our progression in cup competitions. Furthermore, as a precaution we have worked on a third formation for the first time in my tenure and will look to use a 4-5-1 system when playing teams most likely to counter-attack us. We have suffered from this in recent years so it was the next logical step to find a way to prevent those teams from opening us up. We were drawn in the 'group of death' alongside Juventus, Manchester United and Ajax so we will be utilising this sooner than anticipated.
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 238 League appearances
Tony Herd - 152 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 147 League appearances
Tony Herd - 97 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 92 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 9 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League
Champions League
Squad
Main XI
Cup competitions XI
Big game XI
With our revised plan of action for our challenge in all competitions it was time to see if our carefully selected sides suited their respective competitions. The League has been a pretty easy ride for us these past few years, it stopped being a challenge a long, long time ago, in fact, I can't even remember if we were ever challenged in the league. We made a blistering start to the season by outscoring anyone and everyone within sight. Bobby Docherty and Tony Herd are firing on all cylinders and challenging each other for the Golden Boot with both players already reaching twenty goals for the season. We have scored five or more goals on eight occasions so far this season, I am loving it. Unfortunately our run of 121 games unbeaten finally came to an end when we fell to a 1-0 defeat to Hearts in a game in which we were completely lacklustre. We were looking like we were going to follow that up with a defeat to Livingston but for a 90th minute screamer from Jack McMaster, our star man that day. We bounced back spectacularly in our next game against Ross County though and normality was resumed once again. In a month which saw us beat Celtic 6-1 we could still only finish with a draw as we yet again failed to beat Hearts, this time a 1-1 draw seen to that. With Hearts challenging us in our matches this season you would think that it would be them that's trying to fight us for the title but no, it's their rivals Hibs. When we went those two games without a win Hibs were really on our tail until we beat them once again, had it not been for our two victories over them we'd really be in trouble and in actual fact it's still pretty close due to their game in hand.
Having been drawn in the 'group of death' in the Champions League we really had to be careful not to over think about our opposition too much and build up a fear of them as that could spell disaster. Instead we carefully selected players we thought would present us with the best chance of progressing in the competition. We absolutely could not have got off to any more of a flyer than we did at home to Ajax as we thrashed them 7-0, we just battered them from start to finish, simply. In the return leg it was much the same as we scored four without reply. Next up was Juventus and when we went 1-0 down inside 10 minutes I really feared the worst. Oliver Burke and Tourinho allayed those fears though when they both scored inside two minutes to put us ahead. The win wasn't to be though as Juventus equalised with twenty minutes left to play and after Robert Navarro stupidly got himself send off having only come on as a sun ten minutes previous. Manchester United were seemingly the best team in the group, as they should be given they are the current holders, but that didn't stop us from nabbing all three points on the day. They got their revenge in the return tie though as they beat us 2-0 which meant we were joint 2nd in the group on ten points and Juventus were 3rd on eight points. We went into the final game against Juventus knowing that we only had to draw the match to finish 2nd. We won 1-0 and saved ourselves from the agony and dread of a late goal by the Italians. Group D couldn't have gone any better for us and if you look at poor Ajax down in fourth you'll see how lucky we were not to be the whipping boys that they so clearly were. We were handed a Last 16 Knockout Round tie with German club Hoffenheim and I'm excited about our chances of progressing as a result.
It was par for the course for us util the final in the Scottish League Cup as we dispensed of Queen of the South, Hearts and Dundee en route to the final. Our victory over Hearts coming in the cup this term as opposed to in the league and being knocked out of the cup like in previous years was a bit of a relief. This set up a fourth League Cup Final with Hibs in my time here, we have won on two occasions and lost on one, we've also faced them in the Scottish Cup Final too with us being victors. When Hibs scored in the 30th minute I was thinking 'oh no, not again'. So we ramped up the tempo and went hell for leather to grab an equaliser which duly arrived after the hour mark through left back Jamie Dair's wonder strike. With the game tantalisingly close and both sides failing to break the deadlock we headed to penalties. When Alex Bielsa missed his penalty my heart sank but thankfully Ali Wilson was able to save the next two penalties to send us to victory! One in the bag now!
As previously mentioned our strikers are in blistering form with Docherty on 20 goals in 24(4) games, Herd on 23 in 24(3) and also the injury prone Tourinho managing to accumulate 17 goals in 15(2) too. Young Paul Wilson has also impressed by scoring 4 goals in 2 Champions League games! The goals are more spread throughout the team asides from that although a special mention has to go to Ryan Gauld. With injuries to a couple of players we called upon Gauld out of the blue and he's only went and scored 8 goals in 4(3) games including a double against Celtic! He has left me with a bit of a headache as in that form he should be getting a game but then with his advancing years and the potential we have in the squad it makes more sense to play the youngsters. However, we know we have a more than able deputy.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 252 League appearances
Tony Herd - 168 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 163 League appearances
Tony Herd - 109 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 98 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 9 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
Transfers
League
Senior Squad
Reserve Squad
Youth Squad
With all the hustle and bustle, wheeling and dealing of our past summer transfer windows I was really looking forward to just loaning a couple players out, sorting my own squad out and maybe bringing a couple of youth players in this year. Apparently the other club managers didn't get that memo as I was inundated with offers for my players from start to finish. Firstly Tourinho then Jason Henry next it was Blair Thomson and then Alex Bielsa and Robert Navarro. I finally got a bid worth accepting for Tourinho and so off he went to negotiate with PSG in a deal that would earn us £120m up front. Poor little Tourinho must not have been getting enough money though as he only went and rejected them didn't he? I was seething with rage at him, we had been negotiating with clubs for years for him and only now had someone been willing to pay our asking price and he outright refuses to go? Worst of it was that more clubs started bidding for him once again but their offers around the £40m mark were simply laughable considering what we'd just been offered. PSG were done their bidding on Tourinho for the summer though and it was with reluctance I finally agreed to let him go to Chelsea for £80m, I'm not happy that we couldn't break our record fee received for him as we really should have. However, we will also get 50% of the fee involved in his next move, should he make one. We've benefited from those clauses twice already this season as we got £15.5m Enrique Fernandez move from Newcastle to Man United and got £11m from Matonense move from Man City to Borussia Dortmund. When Tottenham came bidding for Alex Bielsa I was reluctant to sell but considering the talent we have stocked up in the midfield I relented and accepted the £35m but, again, inserted a 50% of his next fee clause in the deal. Robert Navarro was running out of contract next summer and was on £150k p/w so it made sense to move him on particularly as he was extremely inconsistent and didn't like playing in the big matches for us. The best bit about our dealings in the market this year is that even if we did let a couple players move on we didn't have to replace them at all as they're replacements were in our squad already, patiently waiting for their opportunity.
We had an extremely busy pre-season but also a highly productive one as we set about playing our affiliate teams and showing them who's the boss. We won twelve out of thirteen which was a great boost of confidence for the lads going in to the new season. Ross McCrorie was delighted to receive a testimonial match this year too and our captain thoroughly deserved the spectacle that ensued. We couldn't have gotten off to a better start domestically either as we ran riot on the opening day of the season against Aberdeen and Mark Rankin got a remarkable five goals on the day too! Jack McMaster could only manage the four from midfield in the next game as we saw off St. Johnstone in the League Cup rather easily, Motherwell will be our opponents in the Cup next. We won our next two games just as comfortably but having played a game more than us Celtic sit top of the table with four wins from four. We will face off with Juventus, again, Porto and Leicester in the Champions League and that is a draw which I think will suit us in terms of progress.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 271 League appearances
Tony Herd - 183 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 176 League appearances
Tony Herd - 121 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 100 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 10 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League
Senior Squad
After losing what was left of the foreign contingent at the club and also the 'star men' we were set for a very different season with everyone now pulling in the same direction and no one thinking of their next move. As the season has progressed that has become quite clear as the team have been putting in great performances collectively and therefor we have had a very high number of players scoring for us, sixteen in actual fact. The slight downside to that is that we only have one player with more than ten goals and it is neither Bobby Docherty and Tony Herd surprisingly! In actual fact it isn't even a striker! Mark Rankin emerged from the reserves to become a first team player last January and he has been excellent ever since. We have been unfortunate with injuries these past few months as the likes of Docherty, Herd and McCrorie were sidelined for weeks at a time. Another player who has excelled in that same period of time has been Willie O'Halloran who has even been crowned European Golden Boy for his efforts. In the absence of Herd and Docherty Shogo Nakamura and Ruaridh Burns have emerged as first team players with both men grabbing eight goals each and the former grabbing three CL goals too. Things are looking pretty good in our first team at the moment. We have Ross McCrorie, Oliver Burke, Ryan Gauld and Glenn Middleton all now in their senior years of 29 or above but despite that we have ready made replacements for all of these players at the club for when their time comes to an end with us.
Having been drawn Juventus, Leicester and Porto in the Champions League Group Stage I wasn't too sure how it was going to pan out for us as all of those sides have real quality within their teams. Things got off to as bad a start as we could've imagined as we were beaten by Leicester in the first game and we could only muster up a 0-0 draw with Juventus in the next game too. At that point we were bottom of the group and looking like a team out of their depth however we bounced back emphatically to win the next four with relative ease. Progress was ours as we topped the group with Leicester in second place, Juventus in third and Porto in last place. We will be facing Red Bull Leipzig in the Last 16 Knockout Round, something we also done two years ago and emerged 7-5 victors on aggregate. We had an easy run at the Scottish League Cup too before facing a tough Livingston side in the final. Having went behind the them we managed to turn it around to win the game and the Cup for my sixth time. In the league things have been motoring along nicely but for that unexpected defeat to Motherwell a couple of weeks back. That was a real disappointment as we were running riot and winning every game but I guess you can't have all of the luck all of the time eh? We sit top of the league by a seven point margin and with two games in hand as well.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 282 League appearances
Tony Herd - 192 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 184 League appearances
Tony Herd - 125 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 106 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 10 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Domestic Success
Fixtures
League
Fixtures
ChrissBurns1993
Recent Form Comparison
West Ham 3-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-0 Real Madrid
Tottenham 1-1 Arsenal
Real Madrid 2-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 2-1 Man United
Rangers 3-0 Hibernian
Rangers 2-0 Hearts
Rangers 4-0 Celtic
Livingston 0-2 Rangers
Rangers 2-0 Raith
Going into this Champions League Final with Tottenham and Rangers it would appear to be the latter who comes in with form on their side after a final four league games won without conceding a goal was topped off by sealing the treble against Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup. Tottenham on the other hand have looked a bit wobbly after defeat to West Ham and then a draw with Arsenal was sandwiched between their Semi Final progress on away goals at the expense of Real Madrid before they got a narrow win over Man United to end their domestic season on a high. Whilst Tottenham came out on top when these two faced off in the Quarter Final of this competition last year they haven't had the best of seasons this time out. They have only managed to finish 6th in the league whilst also failing to achieve anything in the domestic cups either whilst Rangers have of course won another treble as they continue to steam roller Scottish football. Going into these kind of matches though, only time will tell who comes out on top!
Tottenham Lineup
GK. Meret
RB. Jedvaj
LB. Cullen
CB. Junior
CB. Upamecano
CM. Reinaldo
CM. Royer
RW. Richardson
LW. Saidi
CAM. Gravenberch
ST. Colidio
Rangers Lineup
GK. Wilson
RB. Craig
LB. Dair
CB. Munro
CB. McAllister
CM. Gilmour
CM. McMaster
RW. Rankin
LW. O'Halloran
St. Burns
ST. Nakamura
Kick off: Both teams are absolutely raring to go here and it's Colidio who kicks off for Tottenham
2 mins: The first piece of real action for either team is a card for Spurs' Reinaldo after an aerial collision with Billy Gilmour
6 mins: O'Halloran appeared to get retribution for Gilmour as he scythed Reinaldo down just minutes later
14 mins: It's Saidi with the ball on the break now, passes out wide right to Richardson who lets fly at goal... GOAL!
19 mins: Gravenberch with the through ball to Saidi here, he's one on one with Wilson now... SAVE!
35 mins; As Rangers push for that equaliser Saidi intervenese and hoofs the ball clear, his ball finds Colidio who's one on one with Wilson... SAVE!
48 mins: Craig goes to ground here and he's on a booking... NO FOUL! That could've spelled disaster for Rangers there as they still look to find a way back into this match which would have been near impossible with 10 men.
63 mins: Saidi with the cross for Gravenberch here, he swings a foot at it... GOAL!
65 mins: Rangers are going for this one now as they look to go all out attack and the disappointing duo of McMaster and Rankin are replaced by Camm and Middleton.
79 mins: Alex Meret with the goal kick which can only reach Craig who heads the ball forward for O'Halloran who's been pulled back by the booked Saidi... RED!
82 mins: Rangers are looking to take advantage of the extra man here as they switch to 3 at the back and 3 up top whilst Craig slots into central defence and Dair makes way for Tony Herd
Full time: It is all over here and it is yet more Champions League misery for Rangers!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Bit of a tough one this as I was halfway through an update and at half time of this game at 1-1 and playing much better than that game there when my laptop decided to cut out...
ChrissBurns1993
Awards
League
Senior Squad
In our squad of twenty-eight senior and up and coming youth players we have just five players twenty-eight or over and of those players only Ryan Gauld and Oliver Burke are really near the end of their playing careers. As I've previously mentioned, we have more than enough quality and depth in the squad currently that would enable us to replace these players instantly. We have been inundated with enquiries about Jason Henry, Adam Munro, Willie Craig, Billy Gilmour, Adam Morrice, Shogo Nakamura and Bobby Docherty but we do not need to sell anyone so the fees required for these players would be between £80-120m.
As a result of our European adventures of recent years our standing in club football has soared as we are now considered the seventh best team in the world. Furthermore, our league is growing too as we are now considered the sixth best league in the world and will now have three teams in the Champions League and three in the Europa League starting from next year. A dramatic upturn of fortunes considering less than a decade ago we only had one in the Champions League and three in Europa! With all the awards we won at the ceremony as well it's fair to say we've been letting loose and partying these past few weeks before we have it all to do again next year.
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 296 League appearances
Tony Herd - 210 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 197 League appearances
Tony Herd - 133 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 116 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 11 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
Transfers
League
Senior Squad
Reserve Squad
Youth Squad
Champions League draw
We had a pretty short pre-season this time around but a successful one nonetheless, we followed up those 4 friendly wins with a further 4 domestic wins before slumping to Hibernian, a really poor performance on the day it has to be said. Having scored 39 goals in 9 games already this season I am really looking forward to a season full of goals, drama and entertainment from these lads! With the departures of Burke and Gauld our most senior players are now Billy Gilmour(28), Glenn Middleton(29) and captain fantastic Ross McCrorie(31). The average age of the squad is currently 23 and this fills me with excitement as I believe this team can go on and do great things.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 298 League appearances
Tony Herd - 214 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 201 League appearances
Tony Herd - 137 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 119 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 11 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League
League graph
Champions League
Europa League
Senior Squad
When we got paired with Liverpool, Roma and RedBull Salzburg I was expecting to get a bit of a challenge from the English and Italian sides but as runners up the year previous I thought we'd still do well. Well how wrong was I? Four losses on the trot was how our Group Stage started off and for a brief moment, sitting rock bottom of the group it looked like we were going out of Europe all together. Thankfully though we managed to muster up a couple of wins in the end to ensure we would be playing in the Europa League in the New Year. Liverpool just annihilated us in all honesty and that has really set us back in terms of where we go from here. The only way we bounce back from that is by actually going on to win the Europa League and when you look at the teams left in the competition surely we can manage that? Let's hope so!
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 315 League appearances
Tony Herd - 227 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 215 League appearances
Tony Herd - 146 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 128 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 11 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
January transfers
New additions
Squad stats
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League table
Season review
Club awards
League awards
League table
Loanee player stats
Squad
Domestic treble number six has been signed, sealed and delivered! It's pretty much turning into a forgone conclusion for us to complete a clean sweep domestically now and although the season started off with it's up and downs for us we soon got our act together. In the end we won the league by 24 points which is some feat given that we didn't get settled into the top spot until January almost! The team in second place has been ever changing since then and despite St. Mirren looking good for it Celtic soon overtook them before they themselves took a tumble on match day 30, then came Hibernian swaggering towards the finish line with 2nd in sight only to fall at the last hurdle to Motherwell who beat the Hibees in the match previous and stole 2nd spot at the death. Our road to the Scottish Cup was pretty straight forward apart from our semi final against Motherwell as the Steelmen took us to penalties but thankfully we came out on top. My favourite match in our Scottish Cup run was the one against Hamilton as we had faced them in the league in the match previous and they beat our senior team, so we decided to give the kids a chance against them and they did not disappoint at all!
After our Champions League humiliation we were fortunate enough to land into the Europa League and that gave us the chance to secure our second EL trophy. Our journey started off spectacularly, as we let Porto feel our Champions League pain with a 5-0 thumping first leg victory, the second leg ended in a draw but progress was already ours! We were paired with Celta Vigo next and we got off to the worst start imaginable as Willie Craig was sent off after 13mins. Despite that, we managed to take the lead for a whole 2 minutes before Celta equalised, we then took the lead again on the 37th minute.. For a whole 2 minutes.. From that moment on it was all Celta Vigo and we had it all to do in the second leg. And boy did we do it!!! The game we played that day was unreal, everyone was flying and I was starting to think that maybe European success may be coming our way once again. Villarreal was a much tougher test but the fact we managed to grind the result out over two legs instilled me with so much confidence going into our next tie against our third Spanish opposition on the trot. We managed to take the lead against Atletico in the 13th minute but a late 10 minute double salvo by German Ursino put paid to us getting a first leg result. Had we managed to hold on to the victory in that match then the follow up leg could have been so much different but in the end the Spanish giants showed their class and knocked us out without any great challenge. Another season done another season with no european success.
With the influx in youth midway through the season the squad seemed to be reinvigorated and fresh as we went on to play our best football of the season in the second part of the campaign. The development of Andy Lawless has given me another goalkeeping headache as once our loanees return we will have six goalkeeping options, seven if I'm counting young Ewan Gallacher who's just came through the academy. It may be time to move some of those lads on as we don't want any more than three goalkeepers in our squad. At right back we are so strong right now as we have two lads in their prime battling it out and another couple of young lads hoping to get a sniff. On the other side we have two lads also in their prime but no one else behind them so it might be wise for us to look out for some young left backs. In the heart of our defence we have our captain Ross McCrorie and another four lads on his level as well as another two lads looking to make the step up. We now have three options on both wings and only Glenn Middleton is likely to move on any time soon. Middleton, Willie O'Halloran, Steven Wright and Mark Rankin have all had incredible seasons individually as all four of them got double figures in both goals AND assists for the season! Our central midfielders are all really good and each player has contributed well this season but I am starting to think that maybe their mentality in the big games is holding us back. Jack McMaster is inconsistent and injury prone, Reese Camm seems to lack any flair, Adam Morrice has had a couple of big injuries and doesn't enjoy big matches and Billy Gilmour has been pretty poor in Europe this year despite not showing any great weaknesses in his game or mentality. So that makes me wonder, should I start using Steven Wright in the central mezzala role and pair him with Allan Wilson as our B2B midfielder. In actual fact I have so many midfield pairing possibilities it's going to take some time to figure out what to do about the position going forward. Upfront we have the mainstays of Tony Herd and Bobby Docherty coming off of great seasons once again. Herd has had his joint 2nd best season for us and I am really happy with his progress, Jamie Brown and Shogo Nakamura didn't set the heather alight this year but Nakamura was injured for a few months and Brown is still developing. However, we have as many as eight strikers at the club of varying ages just looking for their chance and so they will have to step it up next year. I am still happy with the team at my disposal but the past season has definitely planted seeds in my mind that maybe we do need some slight changes. On a further note I have now been inducted into the European Hall of Fame at number 17 which is a crowning achievement! Oh and Celtic are now on their SEVENTH manager in twelve years, it's so fun consistently keeping them at bay, so much so that you'd think they would just start to accept it by now.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 314 League appearances
Tony Herd - 245 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 232 League appearances
Tony Herd - 160 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 138 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 12 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League table
Transfers
CL Group Stage
Squad
Heading into this campaign I knew it might be the time to make some changes to the squad, despite our success last season I just feel like there's something missing, well there's a big thing missing actually; the CL trophy! There is more to it than that though, we are missing that win at all cost, die for each other and show no fear kind of spirit that we once had. I am aiming to bring that back and as a result I am no longer going to accept passengers in this side so when we get decent bids in for those I deem as passengers then they can go, some already have. Billy Gilmour has been a great player for us over the past seven years as he joined on loan for two years before signing on a free. Last year was possibly one of his poorest seasons though and when Leicester came in with that bid then I had no doubts about accepting, given that Gilmour is 29 as well it makes complete sense. Our next big loss was Glenn Middleton, Glenn is a player I've loved having in both of his spells, having sold him for £36m then bought him back for £6m, but with him now being 30 and with cover already at the club I felt like it was a good move for all parties. I wish him well and can't thank him enough for his contributions for the club as there have been many! I was pleased to receive such high fees for our back up players that we wanted to move on as well and then the rest of our business was just finding the right clubs to loan our developing players out to. Chris McShane joined us from Watford to complete a deal we agreed on around a year or two ago and he will be looking to learn from our senior strikers to help kick his career off here.
Our pre-season was short and very sweet as we racked up the goals against mixed opposition. We got off to a poor start in the league as, once again, our chances of an undefeated season come to an abrupt end as Falkirk overturned our lead to snatch victory. Our other disappointment of the month was the 3-3 draw with Celtic, we took the lead twice against them but were pegged back immediately and they then took the lead with half an hour to play but thankfully for us Tony Herd stepped up to score a 70th minute penalty. We've made early progress in the Scottish League Cup and will be paired with Dundee in the quarter-final as we seek to retain the trophy for a fourth year. I am much happier about our Champions League draw this year as Hertha Berlin and Marseille should be comfortable teams for us to play against. We also have the chance to seek revenge on Atletico Madrid as well and hopefully we can do that.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 316 League appearances
Tony Herd - 249 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 235 League appearances
Tony Herd - 165 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 143 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 12 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League table
CL first knockout round
Squad
Loanees progress
After making the changes that we felt were necessary for us to progress even further I was confident going into the new season and it wasn't a false confidence I'm happy to say. Across all competitions we have managed to win 25 of our 30 games so far this season and I am thrilled with that. The couple of slip ups we've had in the league aren't a major deal and both our Champions League defeats came against last seasons Europa League conquerors Atletico Madrid so I was hardly surprised. I was disappointed with the manner of defeat in our second game against them and it looks like we're going to have to go back to the tactical drawing board against teams of that stature. Moving on from that though, we have played some fantastic football this season, truly, expressive, exciting and full of goals just what I love to see from my teams! In our other Champions League games we managed to secure three narrow wins against Marseille, home and away and away to Hertha Berlin and it was those types of performances we've missed recently, just grinding out the win in Europe. Our last game of the group stages was Hertha Berlin and boy was it a cracker! We annihilated the Germans from start to finish and Paul Wilson really put on a show for us after some indifferent form up until that point. Dundee really tested us in the Scottish League Cup as they took a 2-0 lead and then a 3-2 lead after we had pulled it back but fortunately for us we got our head in the game and killed them off with two late goals. The Hearts game in the following round wasn't any easier as it took a 91st minute winner for us to secure our place in the final and then the final was a piece of cake! That cup win also allowed me to enter at number 19 on the worldwide hall of fame.
My best games of the season so far have been; Our 4-0 demolition job over Celtic, what a game and what a result, I love beating Celtic. Phillip Cocu has since taken over the managerial reigns at Parkhead after Belarusian Vikor Goncharenko left the club to join Everton. My next favourite game was an obvious one, Ross County a couple of weeks ago.. We smashed the poor Staggies 10-0 and achieved another record at the same time, we overtook Celtic's biggest ever Premiership win record of 9-0 v Aberdeen, dating back 21 years. A special mention has to go to my main man and favourite player Tony Herd for his efforts this season, the big man racked up 18 goals in his first 12 league games! He's eased off a little bit now though with just the 23 goals in 21 games but at least he hasn't peaked too soon! Could he match Sam English 44 goal haul this year? I truly hope so. In terms of our overall squad I am so much happier with the balance and the consistency we have this season, we have options in most positions and it's really good options too. Matthew Love has taken his game to another level since coming back from his loan at Hibernian in the summer and young Allan Wilson has impressed me whether it's been from the bench or as a started, either 2/3 of his goals have actually been from the bench. Ali Wilson has impressed while Teddy Landais needs to do more with the chance he's been given this year and my final shout out goes to Bobby Docherty who has been sharing more game time with Shogo Nakamura this year but hasn't complained once he's been fantastic, as has his goal to game ratio. We were disappointed to lose Steven Wright a month or so ago as he was really coming onto a game for us and becoming such a key player so to be ruled out for up to seven months is a great shame, we're just hopeful he can recover well. We've had a couple of injuries now and having checked up on how our loanees have been getting on we've decided to recall Martin Finnie as he wasn't getting enough game time and Dean Wilson as he can step into Steven Wright's shoes. Those two will definitely be getting games for us but of the other two we've recalled, Liam Begg & Ruaridh Burns, it will be a case of trying to find either a permanent move for them or a better suited loan deal.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 319 League appearances
Tony Herd - 265 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 246 League appearances
Tony Herd - 185 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 154 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 12 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League table
Season review
Club awards
League awards
Squad
Season number thirteen is now complete! In a season that looked to have so much promise throughout it ended up being a little disappointing in the end. We only managed the double of the league and Scottish League Cup this time around. Our actual league season was a little better than last years as we didn't have as many bumps in the road and actually held our spot at the top of the table from match day 5 as opposed to 20 or whatever it was last year. Tony Herd looked on course to smash Sam English league goals record of 44 goals in a season but fell short by 7 goals in the end. Had he made those extra 4 starts in the league then who knows what might've been all I do know is that he's closer than ever and a certainty to get that record. A couple of records he did get were those previously held by Henrik Larsson and Carlos Tourinho. Larsson had held the record of most goals scored in a season in the Scottish Premiership and Herd managed to sneak a couple ahead of the former Celtic player. The other award was that of most man of the match awards in a season and Herd's 12 overtook the 11 previously set by our former Brazilian superstar. When playing Celtic last time out I noticed something for the first time in a while, their starting line-up had just once Scottish player in the side. Now if they are really wondering how they go about getting the fans back on board, some passion in the team and actually challenging for second spot at least then the answer is simple; focus on bring some local lads through, hire a Scottish manager, stop throwing money around on foreign players on big wages that have very little heart.
As ever, European success was elusive for us once again. It was looking good after we managed to sneak past Tottenham and even against Chelsea when we managed to come back from a pounding to obtain a respectable defeat with two away goals into the bargain it was looking alright for us going into the second leg. We took the lead on the 1st minute of the 2nd leg and it looked like our dream might be alive but for a stubborn Chelsea defence and the torment of Carlos Tourinho who scored against us in both legs. It wasn't too bad a scoreline or performance across both legs but it was an indicator that we are still a little bit short of quality when it comes to this level. I have confidence that the squad we are building is capable of reaching that level with just one or two additions in key areas and then we are on our way!
In our youth intake this year we recruited two players with some potential in Daniel Brown and Iain O'Neill but we found what can only be described as a player of his generation in Shaun McStay, this lad can be world class. The ability he has and attributes in his locker at the age of just 15 is incredible and as soon as we got him signed up he was straight into the first team and became the youngest player to feature in the Scottish Cup and the Scottish Premiership in back to back games. The future looks incredible for this guy although we now have five right backs at the club, two seniors in Blair Thomson and Willie Craig and two fellow youth players in Steve Gray and Ben Hutton. Now, the youth players needn't be an issue as he is head and shoulders above both lads and in actual fact he is almost on a par with Blair Thomson which leaves his future up in the air. If a bid comes in for Thomson this summer then there is a fair chance we will be parting our ways despite his ten years of loyalty. Unfortunately loyalty doesn't win you Champions League trophies and that is the main goal right now. As well as those players we got through the youth system we signed another young centre back in Colin Doyle which now leaves us in a very healthy position with defenders at the club. The key attributes about the youth players we have been signing of late is that we are now zoning right in on their mentality from the start to figure out if they have what it takes to make it here; can they handle big matches, can they handle pressure and will they be consistent players? These are all things that have to be a priority going forward as we've settled for 'really good on occasion' for far too long. We have recruited further for next season already and have four more youth additions and, again, they all look incredible young talents.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 324 League appearances
Tony Herd - 282 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 262 League appearances
Tony Herd - 199 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 165 League goals
Tony Herd - 37 league goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 13 League titles
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League table
Transfers
Squad
CL group stage draw
Unlike our past couple of years, which have been quiet, we decided to go on a couple of tours and play varying sides across Europe and America this pre-season. It went so well for us as the camaraderie and togetherness shone through in our results as we demolished side after side. Those results trickled through to our competitive matches in August as we scored eighteen goals in six matches, unfortunately a couple of those matches ended in a draw. However, despite those draws we still managed to come out on top of the league by the months end. In addition, our dismantling of Falkirk in the second round of the Scottish League Cup puts us through to the next round where we face an exciting tie against Celtic! Our Champions League draw was deja vu all over again as we will face off with Atletico Madrid once again! Hopefully our past with them can inspire us to victory this time around, one can only hope anyway.Dynamo Kiev and Feyenoord also pose their own threats but as the saying goes 'if we play to our own strengths we should beat them. On a sidenote, Celtic now have a another new manager! Phillip Cocu jumped ship to join Benfica and has been replaced by Paco Jemez.
Once again we had a bit of a reshuffling of the first team squad and we had a major outgoing this summer; Adam Morrice has left us to join Brighton for £90m! Morrice has looked like a real player for us since we signed him for £5m from Motherwell eight years ago and he's went on to become a key player for us in that time. Despite this, he had a couple of major injuries which have hampered him and he struggled in the big games and with consistency too. In the end it has turned out to be a major plus for us to bring in such a huge sum for a player, save on his bigger wages and we also have a ready made replacement for him in young Allan Wilson who I've no doubt will step up and be counted. We moved on Mark Rankin this summer too as his inconsistency and recent injury problems have affected his development and with a couple of young wingers at the club itching for a chance to shine it became clear that his time was up. Diogo Afonso was a tough player for us to suss out, we knew he had the quality to match the strikers already in our squad but our main worry was could he match their mentality? We didn't think so and the decision was made to sell him. I would've liked him to go abroad and ply his trade but with only Livingston willing to pay that money for him then we just had to accept it. I was disappointed in a couple of players this summer, namely; Julian Weller, Mark Potter and Ruaridh Burns. All three lads were offered moves to the English Premiership and all three of them turned down the moves which would've seen our coffers swell by another £30m+ combined had they left. I've no idea why they want to stay as their wages can easily be matched elsewhere, they have no chance of making it here and we were actively looking to sell. We were able to loan Weller out to Aberdeen but the other two are going to be in the reserves until January, at least, which just seems silly.
I was hoping that we would receive some bids for Blair Thomson, Adam Munro or Kenny McAvoy this summer which would have enabled me to promote some of our younger players to the starting line-up. Shaun McStay will soon overcome Blair Thomson that is inevitable and I won't worry about the progress of him as he's still only 16 years old anyway. I was hoping that our two main defenders in the league would garner some interest though as I was wanting to utilise Martin Wilson, Scott Alexander and Colin Noble in their positions going forward. That never materialised though so Wilson and Alexander were sent out on loan and Noble is going to step into Ross McCrorie's shoes after we asked our captain to take a step back to allow our younger players to start developing. McCrorie being the man that he is duly obliged and I couldn't be any less surprised as he is the beating heart of our club and has been for well over a decade now, he loves to see us thrive and what better way for us to continue thrive than to help the next generation. We have allowed twenty-four players to leave the club on loan this year and I can be honest and say that there could be a future for around 30-40% of them so I just hope they can go and impress.
ChrissBurns1993
Fixtures
League table
Squad
CL group stage draw
September was a bit of a mixed month for us across all competitions as in the league we won three matches and scored fourteen goals and then we drew 0-0 with Atletico which is a decent result considering past games and then we went and bottled the Scottish League Cup quarter final against Celtic. Raging with the cup game as that meant we weren't going to be adding another treble to our current haul. We were flying in the league and Champions League in October as we smashed almost all of our opposition but for Celtic, yet again. Novemeber and December were also good months for us as we continued to rattle in the goals and tasted defeat just twice. We lost against Atletico again as they showed us up this time around and it's clear we have a lot of work to do against that calibre of club. We also seem to be having a bogey season in the Old Firm games this season as Celtic ended our 2031 with another defeat, a defeat that finally ended our unbeaten run too. Celtic games aside, we're doing quite well in the league and had we beat them in that last game then we'd be fourteen points ahead of them going into the New Year, that being said, eight is still a pretty decent tally.
Our forwards and wingers are just firing on all cylinders this season and there are a couple of others banging in the goals too. Tony Herd, Shogo Nakamura and Bobby Docherty have each had their little dry spells but have managed to reach a decent tally thus far. Matthew Love and Dean Wilson have just gone from strength to strength this year and have just excelled on the wings in our important matches. Love's form has been so good that he only went and won the European rookie of the year award as well as the European Golden Boy award! A magnificent feat for the young lad and we are buzzing with him. He joins the likes of Tony Herd, Willie O'Halloran, Carlos Tourinho and Robert Navarro in winning either or both of the awards with us in recent years. We had a bit of a goalkeeping crisis at the club in December as both our starting keepers got injured but we managed the situation with young Ewan Gallagher stepping up from the under 18 side to claim three clean sheets in four games. Ahead of the transfer window we agreed a deal to bring in Bobby Cowie from Hamilton and I believe he is a player who could have a real future at the club. Having received feedback on our young players that are out on loan it looks like most of them are impressing and the young strikers certainly appear to be making the most of their chance by bagging plenty of goals. I am absolutely thrilled to share the news that our training facilities have been upgraded to keep up with the modern technology but the best news possible is that after years of me telling the board that we should look at building a brand new stadium they have finally decided that it's time! We will be building a new 84250 capacity stadium and, all going well with planning permission and building, should be given the go ahead to move in on 30/06/2033 but there has been no confirmation on a name as of yet.
ChrissBurns1993
Season review
Fixtures
League table
League awards
Club awards
Squad
Much like last season our campaign was a relative damp squid as we again just won the domestic double. We fell fairly short in the Champions League in my eyes but we were dealt a hard draw so it was inevitable. In our first leg versus Paris Saint-Germain we were 3-0 down within 15 minutes so we decided to go hell for leather to try and get something from the game and in the end we managed a respectably scoreline that we actually felt could give us a good chance of progressing. When we didn't manage a goal in the first half and then PSG scored ten minutes later we knew it was game over and that's what it turned out to be, still, 6-4 wasn't too bad of an effort we just really need to start defending better in these games. We routed our way to the Scottish Cup and kept four clean sheets on the bounce in the process to notch up our tenth in fourteen years. The league was more or less a formality once again, despite Hibernian rattling us twice in the second half of the season. We started utilising our youth back four in the last ten games or so and they impressed me in all but the Hibernian game where we were dire.
Shaun McStay, Bobby Cowie, Iain Scott and Ricardo Macedo could be our main defenders in a couple of years so it was good for them to get some key playing time, of the four only Macedo failed to score in that time too as the rest managed a solitary goal each. Young Duncan McLeish looks like another real prospect from the academy this year and he'll be looking to progress as well as the likes of Allan Wilson, Iain O'Neill and Logan Dear have this season. The game time that has been given to our players out on loan this season has been spectacular and as a result I expect to see them coming back and knocking on the door for their chance here next year. The strikers in particular have been superb although that is the one position that definitely looks locked down at the moment as we have our fantastic four playing exceptionally right now. In actual fact the midfield through to the strikers have all found their shooting boots this year as the goals seem to be split more than I've seen in a long while. Our central midfielders have been getting in on the act whilst a couple of our wingers have scored enough goals to make a striker proud too.
It is looking good for us right now and I'm happy with the squad we are building I am just frustrated that we failed to win the treble or managed any European success once again. That will come though, the only disappointment is that we won't win as many European trophies as I set out to when I started this journey. If we never win the Champions League then I will see this journey as a failure. On a brighter note though we have been granted the go-ahead on the new stadium and our almost £400m stadium will be funded entirely by the club and will be scheduled for completion by the 2035/36 season. I am honoured that the club have decided to name the stadium after myself and it will be called Chris Burns Park. I have signed a contract extension that will tie me to the club for another four years minimum and as per our agreement whilst in negotiations the club have also agreed to improve our youth facilities too. We have made the decision to terminate our affiliations with Sochaux, Cagliari and Fortuna Dusseldorf as all three clubs were relegated and no longer a good option for loaning players out for us, we will be on the look out for new clubs. Across the other side of the city Richard Fox has been named as the tenth Celtic manager in fourteen years after Paco Jemez became the seventh of those to jump ship for another club.
Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles
Current
Ross McCrorie - 335 League appearances
Tony Herd - 318 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 283 League appearances
Tony Herd - 225 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 182 League goals
Tony Herd - 37 league goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 14 League titles