Congrats on the CL win & to do it in such dominating fashion, taking out all the English clubs one by one in the knockouts.
Great to see a lot of the stand out performers have been players brought through your youth intakes & players like Kier Hamilton, who doesn't have the best star ratings still able to make such an impact in your team!

Onwards & upwards

2036//37 - Summer Transfers

There is one bad thing that comes about winning the Champions League in shock fashion and that's the fact that all your players decide their too good for you!! This Summer has been really really hard, so many players have wanted to leave, we've managed to hold on to a few but unfortunately we say goodbye to some big players

Our squad has been absolutely hammered!!! Some big names leave including Stojanovic (CB), Medel (ST), Colonna (LWB) and Gudevang (DM), all four were key men in our success last season, unfortunately the fees were their release clauses and I couldn't entice them to stay. We also lose young star Hansen (CB) and Gaghan (RB). Every single one has been sold for a huge profit, I think I paid around £55m for the six lads so we've quadrupled our money!

A lot of money in though but now some gaping holes!

I couldn't replace them all, I do have a large squad and felt it was time to let some of youngsters get their chance. I also decided to move away from the 352 for this season and go back to the 424 meaning I needed to look at Wide men!

Gustavo Malheiro - Left Back - £25m from Sporting Lisbon

My replacement for Colonna at Left Back, he is just as good as his predecessor and I am excited to see how he will do. 

Mark Palmer - Winger/Striker - £20m from Rangers

I have had my eye on this lad for a while and decided this Summer was the time to bring him in, a quality young player, he also helps with the homegrown rule and can play in a multitude of positions.

Iran Tapia - Right Wing - £17m from CF Pachuca

Another player I'd had my eye on a few seasons ago, as I'd moved away from wide-men I decided against bringing him in, now I'm going back to the 424 he was first port of call, an absolutely amazing looking player.

Only three players in, I did want another defensive midfielder but there was no one good enough for a low enough fee to bring in.

The Summer could've been worse, we had bids for Ilharco (GK), Macorro (DM), Wark (CB) and the biggest one, a £60m+ bid from Spurs for Jon-Paul Tait, this one came with 5 hours of the window shutting and I just couldn't let him go that late. Me and Tait have now fallen out which has annoyed me as he is my favourite player, hopefully we can turn our relationship around and he can continue to smash the goals in!

Here is the squad for the upcoming season.

Have we improved? No, we have lost way too many key men but I've done my best to bolster the ranks and also give myself more options, now is the time for some of the academy lads to step-up, I am going to be giving Lowry and Coult, both centre backs more game-time and I also play on playing RB Hodge more often, he is one of my star kids and after a few seasons away on loan and a Scotland debut I feel he deserves his chance.

Finally, co-efficient news, we have been confirmed as 2nd in the rankings now but you can see how far behind England we are.

They're also ahead of us in every single season moving forward so trying to overtake them will be virtually impossible!

Tough task coming off a CL win & then having the vultures swoop in. Great to you you making a massive profit on all the players though!

Co-efficient is probably solely down to you this season until the 4x Champions League spots kick in for the Scottish League team & then need them all start to perform 

2036/37 Season 

Once again we'll gloss over the domestic stuff, yes we won the League, that's now 8 in a row, 2 short of the elusive 10 in a row!!!! We lost the League Cup final to Celtic and beat Rangers to win the Scottish Cup, another season of dominance!

We did amazingly in the League, another 100 point season and 24 clear of Celtic!

But in this save it's all about Europe  and this season we are reigning European champs!!! The big question is, can we retain it?

Before I say how we've done let's look at the other Scottish teams, we really need the others teams to start doing better if we are to catch England at the top of the co-efficient ranking but it's not gone well!

Celtic - Champions League

They did really well claiming a playoff spot in the League Phase, they beat Feyenoord in the playoff round before losing to Bayern 3-2 in the Last 16

Rangers - Champions League

A really poor campaign for Rangers as they only gained 8 points from their 8 games and ended 26th, missing out on a playoff spot.

Dundee United - Champions League

9 points from their 8 games meant they scraped a playoff round spot where the lost to PSG

Ross County - Europa League

A really good run once again for Ross as they ended 5th in the League Phase meaning automatic qualification to the Last 16, in that round they bear Pacos de Ferreira, they then beat Atalanta in the Quarters before losing to Lyon in the Semis.

Hibernian - Europa League

Hibs ended 14th in the League Phase with 13 points, they then had an awful playoff round, losing to Dinamo Zagreb

Falkirk - Conference League

Terrible!

So only Ross County really getting deep into a European competition, co-efficient wise it was the nations worst performance for six season but could we salvage some pride?

We certainly did!!! A 100% record in the League Phase with some memorable wins against some big English teams!

Chelsea, Spurs and Man United all beaten as we ended top of the League Phase!

Straight into the Last 16 we go where we were drawn against Porto, we got a solid draw in the away leg before battering them 4-0 at home, that win set a new Champions League record of 26 games unbeaten!!!

Into the Quarters where we faced AC Milan and we eventually lost a game, 2-1 away, we did play well but didn't have our shooting boots on, a narrow defeat though and I knew we could turn it around in the home leg.

And we did exactly that as we smashed them 3-0 sealing a semi final spot.

Bayern Munich stood in our way of a place in the final, a tough ask but I had hope. 

The first leg was once again away and Bayern played very well, it was an open match, lots and lots of chance but two first half Bayern goals and a goal for Yeremenko meant Bayern won the game 2-1. Like Milan though it was a narrow loss and I knew we could beat them at home.

The game was terrible, there were very few highlights but I felt we had the better of it, we took the lead in the second half courtesy of MacLeod but after that we struggled to break Bayern down, the game ended and went to extra time and in that 30 minutes there wasn't a single highlight, the game went to penalties.

And we failed, missed from Miley and Palmer meant Bayern sealed a 4-3 win and we were out.

Another really good run though but we just didn't do enough this time around to retain our title.

As I mentioned before, the poor performances from most of the teams this season means our co-efficient has been damaged, luckily we're still in second.

Just look how far England are ahead!!

Now to the players and firstly I did make two signings in the Winter, two big signings in defensive midfield!!

Santiago Suarez - Defensive Midfield - £14m from Boca Juniors

What an incredible signing for such a low fee and already 5* rated!! This is the lad, he is going be huge going forward BUT I need to remove his £31.5m release clause!

Cesare Casadei - Defensive Midfield - £12m from Aston Villa

Yes he's getting on in age but he still looks absolutely incredible. The DM area I was really short in after the losses in the Summer so to get two amazing looking players is massive and really pushed us on during the second half of the season.

Now to our key men for the season, here is our Best XI

There really is only one place to start and that's Jon-Paul Tait, he still wants to leave but if this is how he plays when he's unhappy he'll be unplayable if he ever cheers up! Another great season in front of goal with 41 scored in 46 start, 29 in the Premiership, will he be here next season? I'm not so sure!

Summer signing Iran Tapia ended with the clubs most assists, I said in the transfer update I planned to move to 424 but I actually stuck with the 532, Tapia has been retrained as an AM and has done really well. 13 goals and 20 assists from 35 starts.

The other player I want to speak about is CB Liall Coult, I was surprised to see him not in our best XI as I feel he was a key man throughout the season, this was his breakthrough campaign after coming through the 2033 intake. He made 38 starts and average over 7 and also made his Scotland debut!

And here is the whole squad.

So another good season, we now go again trying to make it 9 Premiership titles in a row, we want that 10!!! When I started this save I set myself two domestic goals, the first was to win the Champions League and that is now done, the second was to top the co-efficient rankings. I have to admit I never ever though it would be this tough to topple England but it's looking near on impossible, we are going to need all seven Scottish clubs to win all their League Phase games and go deep deep into the competitions BUT we also need the English clubs to capitulate and not win any games……for five seasons!!! Then we may have a chance, we all know though that is not going to happen, FM will not let it happen, the AI will not let it happen. 

So I'm going to attempt this 10 in a row in the League and try and win the Champions League again, if we do it in two seasons I will re-assess how we're going co-efficient wise, but it may be that the save ends there. I've had an amazing time but there's no point flogging a dead horse!!
 

So this Summer is huge, I'm expecting once again to have bids for all my key men meaning there may be big changes, I have been heavily backed by the board though who have given me insane budgets!!

A £700k per week rise in the wage budget and nearly £230m to spend on transfers! Let's get this squad ready for a Champions League challenge once again!

So disappointing to go out at that stage of the Champions League in that fashion! 
 

With the funds being there to spend, I fully back you to be back right up there competing for it next season; already loving the signings in Casadei and Suarez!

Unlucky to lose out on getting to another CL Final on Pens! 
Hopefully Tait changes is tune in the summer and decides he wants to stay and lock him down to a new contract.

Great to see Iran Tapia contribute well in his new position. Looking forward to seeing who you bring in with your war chest in the summer!

2037/38 - Summer Transfers

Well it's been a very busy Summer, we haven't lost too many players but we have brought in a shed load of players, this season we are taking this club to a new level!!

Transfers Out

As you can see there is one huge out and it was the expected one. We say goodbye to superstar Striker, academy graduate and goal machine Jon-Paul Tait. I'm gutted to see him go but he deserved the move and I've got a good amount of money for him.

A great career here where he's scored 110 League goals.

Transfers In

We may have spent rather a lot of money!!!!

Aitor Gutierrez - Central Defender - £55m from Real Sociedad

There was talk about Berger leaving so I brought this lad in as his replacement, well Berger and now my defence is stacked with quality!

Fabricio Ledesma - Attacking Midfield/Striker - £13m from Racing Club

We really needed to improve our AM options and with Tait leaving we needed more Striking possibilities, well Ledesma is one of those to come and full those areas. Top quality!

Cristian Obregon - Midfield - £24m from Boca Juniors

Another midifeld option comes in, he can play anywhere in that area so good versatility.

Julien Lucas - Defender - £45.5m from Lille

Another new defensive option which was much needed, he can also play as a DM. 

Mariano Pintos - Left Back - £11m from Talleres

We only have really have one player who can naturally play LWB so Pintos comes in to add a bit more depth.

Nico Lohkemper - Midfield - £56m from FC Koln

Another huge signing and I really like this lad, again he can play any midfield area and can play up top. Top top quality!

Emil Markovic - Attacking Midfield/Striker - £24.5m from Columbus Crew

My Tait replacement and my word he look so good! I have high hopes he can slot straight in and be that goal scoring machine we need.

Niklas Hedl - Goalkeeper - Free Transfer

I really struggled to find a decent keeper that actually wanted to join me that improved what I already had, with Ilharco leaving I needed a new GK, Hedl is a short-term replacement until I find that proper No. 1 for the right amount of money!

So what a window! We had a lot of money to spend and boy did we do that! £228m of players in with around £80m recouped, now we are properly set for a real crack at another Champions League run, the big question now is can the other Scottish teams also start to do better in Europe? I'm not confident!!!

Some great signing! Markovic especially looks top qualit and a real difference maker 

Great signings. Good to see you finally spending the war chest! Markovic looks like a great replacement

2037/38 Season

Another season down, this season we need a good run in the Champions League again BUT we also need the other Scottish teams to join the party, it's going to take a miracle to catch England!!

Scottish Teams In Europe

St Johnstone - Europa Conference League

A decent run for our only participant in the ECL, they ended 5th in the League Phase bypassing the playoff round and got all the way to the Quarters before being knocked out by Lazio

Dundee - Europa League

A good run for the Dundee boys as they made it in the playoff spots in the League Phase…..just before losing to Newcastle in the Quarters.

Falkirk - Europa League

Rubbish, knocked out in the League Phase

Dundee United - Champions League

Even more rubbish, ended 32nd!

Rangers - Champions League

Not as rubbish as Dundee United but rubbish enough to end 25th and go out

Celtic - Champions League

INCREDIBLE!!!! Celtic ended in the playoff spots and went on a crazy run beating Monaco, Chelsea and Juventus before losing in the semi's to Dortmund, they won the first leg but fell apart in the away leg in extra time.

Queen's Park in Europe

Now to us and as expected it went very well, we did amazingly in the League Phase winning all 8 games ending top of the pile

And we did just as well in the knockouts, beating Arsenal in the Last 16 before two amazing wins over Real Madrid in the Quarters. We then faced Bayern in the Semi Final and put in one of the best performances of the save so far to beat them 6-0 in the first leg! Into our second every final, it was so close though to a Queen's Park v Celtic final!!

And in the final we faced Dortmund, we were hot favourites but for the first time in a long while we didn't show up, we were really poor but defended well, that was until extra time when we failed to deal with a corner and Dortmund scored. We couldn't come back and we lost. 

Absolutely gutting especially with how poorly we played.

Domestic Action

A very brief show of the Premiership table.

We're now up to 9 titles in a row, one more for that elusive 10 in a row!!!

Key Men

Here is the Best XI for the season.

The star man this season was Jon-Paul Tait's replacement Emil Markovic who dominated the awards and everything else. He ends with 30 goals in 40 starts, a stunning camapign for the lad, he also won the clubs player of the season and the Premiership player of the season.

Iran Tapia ended with the most assists, he benefited most to our switch to 41221 mid-way through the season and did really well on the right hand side.

And here is the whole squad.

What Next?

That's the big question isn't it. I think you can all tell by the update and my lack of words I'm struggling to keep my motivation up with this save. The big aim, after winning the Champions League a few seasons back was to try and overtake England at the top of the co-efficient and as you can see below that is going to be near-on impossible.

Even with Celtic getting to the CL semis and ourselves ending runners-up we have our worst co-efficient season for a long while. Only 16 points and we drop even further behind England and down to 4th in the total rankings from next season. England still managed all those points even though all their teams went out in the Last 16 of the Champions League. We really need the other Scottish clubs to step up and unfortunately that isn't going to happen without a miracle.

So next season will more than likely be my last in the save, I think ending with 10 titles in a row will be a brilliant way to end the save and hopefully we can add a second Champions League title as well.

I have another save up my sleeve which maybe, just maybe include a return to blogging! We will see though!

Absolutely gutting result in the CL final.

Good luck in the final season 🙂

Look forward to seeing you complete the illusive 10IAR & hopefully a second Champions League win!

2038/39 Season

Welcome back to what it likely to be the final season in the save. We've won the Champions League, been sacked as Scotland manager way too early in the save and the co-efficient ranking with the aim to top it is, well let's be frank, truly impossible!

So now there's two things left I want to do, firstly, win the Premiership for an unprecedented 10th time in a row and secondly, end the league season unbeaten.

Firstly though lets discuss transfers, as ever it was a busy Summer and Winter window as we lost a couple of key players.

In the Summer both forward Ledesma and Winger Tapia left, Tapia especially was a key man in the first XI, then in the Winter defenders Pintos and Gutierrez left, both asking to leave after falling out of favour and the bids were too good to say no to. The Winter sales didn't affect us and I signed no one in that window, I did however bring a few players in over the Summer, I won't go through all of them as there were a lot but here are the key ones.

Ben Doak - Winger - £12.75m from Liverpool

Homegrown and quality even at 32. A stunning signing!

Ekaitz Clemente - Midfielder - £39m from Eibar

A good option to add to my midfield ranks, Clemente can also play LB which is a position were slightly light in.

Giorgio Scalvini - Defender - Free from Liverpool

A huge, big name signing, Scalvini had been on my radar for a while and when I saw him on a free he had to come in, good experience as well to add to a young back-line.

Kiechi Takahashi - Right Back - Free from Al-Ittihad

A former player returns and it's a big one, sold for £15m, signed for nothing. I lost Yeremenko in the Summer after he didn't renew his contract, what a signing!

Fynn Barz - Left Back- £55m from Leipzig

A late Summer signing to add some depth to Left Back, Barz can also play LW and RB, good versatility!

Some really good signings and now we're set for a run at all competitions this season!

So the first aim was, can we end the Premiership season unbeaten?

Well no we didn't, we did go 28 games of the season without loss before a ridiculous 1-0 defeat away to Hibs, a game in which we absolutely dominated and couldn't hit the target, gutting!

So, after failing the first aim, can we win a 10th Premiership title in a row?

OF COURSE WE DID!!

In fact it was so easy we'd wrapped it up with 5 games to go, we did lose 4 games but in those last few games I played the kids to see what they're made of, we lost 3 of the final games to end up with 4 losses! Not the unbeaten season I hoped for but 10 IN A ROW!!!

We also dominated the domestic cup comps winning both and beating Celtic in both finals!

Another domestic treble!

So that caps off a pretty good final season, we did the 10 in a row which was amazing!

Now we come to Europe, I would have loved to have claimed a second Champions League title but unfortunately we fell WELL short!

Once again we did well in the League Phase, ending unbeaten with 18 points and ending in the top 8, if you look down though you can see how terribly the Scottish teams did, I'll say no more!

So we'd made it into the Last 16 and we were handed a rather ironic draw, we were given Dortmund, the team that had beaten us in last seasons Champions League final, was revenge on the cards?

Well no, it wasn't, we were truly awful, losing the first leg 1-0 and then failing to score in the second leg which ended 0-0! A rather drab way to end our final European campaign!!

So that's it! The save is over, it's been an amazing journey, 16 seasons, 10 league titles and funnily enough the final game of the save, the Scottish Cup win over Celtic marked my 1,000th game of the save, surely that's the right place to end it?!

What an amazing 1,000 games it's been!

In 16 seasons we've managed all that! 10 title, 1 Champions league, 1 Super Cup, 8 League Cups, 10 Scottish Cups and 1 Scottish Championship!! Incredible!!!!

Before I show some more screenshots of the save, here is the seasons Best XI and the whole squad.

Some names I'll never forget!!!

I just want to thank everyone for following along, it's been a great journey but I know deep down this is the right place to end, the save was becoming a drag and frustrating due to the co-efficient rankings and the other Scottish teams failing at every turn (Scotland actually dropped to 5th after this seasons disaster show!). Another save is in the pipeline which will be on the blog that I do. I hope everyone follows along, but for now here are a couple of excel sheets of the journey!

Thanks for following along!

Great read. Thanks for this. and congrats on the success. Damn near impossible to shift england off that Coef. spot though. The fact they have double the teams entering European comps is the killer. Top stuff though!

Top series and massive congrats…Looking forward to your next adventure

Not the end you wanted, but still a great achievement to get 10IAR & a CL Medal.
Loved the save updates, and can't wait to read what you put out next!