The Dublin Dons
Dominate the English game from the heart of Ireland.
I have replaced MK Dons and completely overwritten their history with the new team Dublin Dons.
I came across a story from over 20 years ago about the controversy between south London team Wimbledon moving cities to north of London in Milton Keynes ,which as is well noted caused quite the out roar at the time, but what I didn't realize is that one of the proposed locations for the new team to be moved to was Dublin. This move would have created a team called the Dublin Dons, becoming the first Irish team to compete in the English leagues.
More than 25 years ago, an Irish consortium led by Eamon Dunphy tried to buy Wimbledon FC and move it to Dublin. Some of the key players recall the story, and wonder what Irish football might look like now had it happened.
Wimbledon fans also emphatically rejected what was called the "sexy" option of moving to Dublin, displaying banners saying "Dublin = Death" at games in Selhurst Park - this despite the fancifully pitched idea that the club would strike a deal to fly fans over and back from London to Dublin for free to see their team every week.
A consortium led by Irish football legend Eamon Dunphy tried to buy the team and make the move happen but ultimately they were unsuccessful.
This struck me as an interesting idea because I've noticed the phenomenon of Irish young players being plucked from Ireland in their youth because there is no solid and competitive teams locally to give them the opportunities for growth.
So I thought if there was a team for Irish players to go to, it would change how Irish players develop entirely as they'd be able develop at one club, rather than being scattered across the English leagues after going over to England, going to trial after trial.
Also included in this deal of moving the Dons to Dublin was an agreement to pay the League of Ireland clubs a payoff of €5 million approx. and a €127 million project of a 50,000 seater stadium, located where shopping centre Liffey Valley exists today, as well as a provision of a number of football schools of excellence around Ireland.
I decided to try to make this team in Football Manager 2022, trying to imagine how a team in Ireland would exist in the modern game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please send me any feedback you may have, in the comments or to my inbox.
Comments
You'll need to Login to comment
renskay
List of Major Changes:
Bonus
renskay
StuartNG
Seems like a decent project - I tried to do the same with Maltese only players. Starting in the English Conference. Only Maltese nationals, or players who had Malta as a second nation allowed to be part of the club. I ran into issues though due to EU rules and the home grown issue. Not sure how to get around that?
Best of luck
renskay
You could make it so your club produces dual nationality Maltese players with English citizenship as well by moving an English city to a Maltese local region in the editor or you could try to add Malta as a nation with an exception to England or the league you want it to apply to
StuartNG
Thanks for the tip. i may have another dabble on doing it later on. Just interested to see how far up the chain I can take a side of purely Maltese or secondary heritage. There is a decent size pool of players from both the U.K. and Australia who ‘could’ qualify through relations.
Neil Farrugia of Shamrock Rovers is another who has Maltese lineage but he has come out and said that he had nailed his colours to the Irish mast.
StuartNG
The other thing I noticed, is that although I had put the clubs rating up to league 2 level (3,000), some of the better players from Malta didn’t want to join. I had the club shown as playing in England but the stadium (the national one) was still in Malta.
renskay
I'll have a chat with you in DMs to offer some advice on this