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#258038 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2030/31
Youth Intake
No player was good enough to take on this year.
Results
We had our biggest ever European win in the first leg of our match with Borac, smashing ten past them. We were absolutely irresistible, have to say, and when you're 4-0 up after 7 minutes, you know you're onto a good thing. A 2-0 win made official a job that was most definitely finished already, and we moved on to face Scottish Champions Rangers.
Here's where things got interesting. As the draw was made, I shrugged and moved on, correctly noting that it wasn't the worst or the best draw we could've hoped for. Not so for the Rangers manager Martin McCluskey, who crowed about how "easy" they would now have it.
As they say in these situations, there's your team-talk boys. Unfortunately, a 2-1 defeat at Castle Greyskull left us in a precarious position. Still, we had that away goal, so we still had a chance, right? Wrong. We were powerless to resist as Rangers/Newco/Sevco put three past us and put us out. I will avenge.
We were rewarded with a brutal draw in the Europa League, putting us up against Spanish giants Villarreal. They predictably pummelled us 5-0 at Madrigal, and then finished it off with a 4-2 win back on Gibraltar. Very disappointing.
Better in the cups as we won back our Pepe Reyes trophy, and then kept our grubby mitts on the other two, dropping five goals in nine games, scoring forty-one. Dominant.
But wait til you see the league! Just two points dropped in what was our best league performance so far. A lot of clean-sheets (13) too, which is always welcome considering that we often end up with basketball scores at times.
Only two points dropped, eighty-one goals scored, twenty-three points ahead of the competition in a 21 game league. You don't get much better than that unless you win that drawn game.
Stats and Key Players
Connor Budge | Lewis White | Mark Curran
Awards
First Division Player of the Year
1st - Lewis White
2nd - Connor Budge
3rd - David Hendry
He missed out last season, but not this time. I've been trying to properly replace David Barrett for a while now, but to be honest I just haven't really needed to thanks to Lewis. Good to see us round out the award too with Connor Budge and David Hendry (a new signing...I forgot the transfers screenshot) getting 2nd and 3rd.
First Division Top Goalscorer
1st - Lee Daws
2nd - Lewis White
3rd - David Hendry
They may be a good distance behind us as a team, but Lee Daws continues to show us what we missed by not just letting him go, but also discounting him when he first arrived as a youth graduate. My assistant sawa something I didn't, gave him a contract, and now he's tearing up the league. Twenty goals, one better than Lewis's nineteen, and a deserved award.
First Division Young Player of the Year - Greg Donaldson
I expect there will be a lot of interest around Greg in the next few years if these performances are anything to go by.
First Division Manager of the Year - Jaydan Catania (Hound Dogs)
So for the second year running, the runaway title winning manager doesn't win manager of the year. Not entirely bothered - honest - as it's kind of just average now for me to win the title, whereas Jaydan was very good in getting Hound Dogs so high in the league.
Youth Round-up
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Again rotated with Dave Dunnan, but again looked very good domestically. He only played one European match - the first leg against Borac - so was spared any of the absolute hidings we got.
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - I think Niall may have hit his wall. Despite moving into what should be his peak, other player arrivals have kicked him down the pecking order. I'll look to get him a move elsewhere I think, so he can keep playing. He deserves that for his service.
2026
(YP26A) Dave Dunnan - Unfortunately for Dave, he was present for most of our European games, so that accounts for the vast majority of goals conceded. Played well domestically though, and remains our number one.
2028
(YP28A) John Paul Ignacio - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP28B) Lee Olivero - No games.
(YP28C) Nathan Hewitt - No games.
2029
(YP29A) Adam Phillips - No games.
2030
(YP30A) Joe Gill - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
Gone but not Forgotten
(YP15B) Louis McCoy
(YP15A) Jack Peachman
(YP15C) Andrew Baker
(YP16B) Andy Keen
(YP16C) Josh Miller
(YP17B) Jamie Peace
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson
(YP18F) Tony Grainger
(YP18G) Dylan Alman
(YP19D) Ian Smith
(YP22C) Tim Connor
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole
(YP16D) Fraser Willis
(YP17A) Andy Jones
(YP18A) Simon Forster
(YP18B) Luke Walker
(YP18C) Tom Wilson
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton
(YP21F) Robert Ashley
(YP22A) Christopher Langtry
(YP22D) Danny Donachie
(YP23A) Charlie Bell
(YP25A) Ashley Russel
(YP22B) Gareth Bagu
(YP23B) Matt Bishop
(YP23C) Jack Cross
(YP23D) Shane Austin
(YP24B) Malcolm Ruddick
(YP24C) Ben Lewis
(YP24E) Billy Clough
(YP18E) Lee Ward
(YP19E) Darren Chambers
(YP21C) Mark Brown
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth
(YP21E) Greg James
(YP24D) Danny Hepworth
(YP25B) Jordan Ellison
(YP20A) Craig Owen
(YP20B) Kevin Ward
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen
(YP20D) Tom Campbell
(YP20E) Carl Dodds
(YP20G) Leon Hadley
(YP21B) Anthony Ford
(YP24A) Joseph Moreno
(YP25C) Jon Brownhill
(YP25D) Shaun Martin
(YP25E) Ashley Hargreaves
(YP26B) Michael Dodd
(YP27A) Chris Davies
(YP26C) Harvey Patterson[/URL] - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP27B) Callum Thompson[/URL] - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
Facilities Update
I've cobbled together these results, given that our facilities very rarely change. So yeah, no changes.
Club Update
This section will suffer the most from the crash, but you can see our season tickets increasing...that's...nice, I guess?
Coefficient Update
Another dismal showing from t'other sides as they conspire to three defeats once again. Red Imps were probably the closest to progressing, but they let themselves down in the second leg after drawing the first.
End of Season Review
Fans Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Where are they now?
Our commercial summary makes...good reading, I guess? It's a lot of numbers that don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. It's good to see them grow though.
I received my first job offer from Spain after adding the league about a season ago. Good to know, but it's hardly the highest level, and I'm not too interested anyway. I'm just waiting for the Real Madrid offer to come - I still (probably) won't be interested, but given I put my manager down as a supporter, I know it's going to happen someday.
History and Stats
Once again, our league rep did rise, but not by a great deal. You'll just have to take my word for it though.
Stoke perhaps struggled to live up to their heroics last season, and normal service has pretty much been resumed with Manchester dominating all. Chelsea have sneaked back into the top four again too.
Another title for Rangers, which means a potential rematch is on the cards next season in Europe...ooooh I'd love that.
Spain becomes active, and absolutely nothing changes. Real do a cup double, Barcelona win the league and Atletico and Valencia finish just behind. Yawn.
This is perhaps more interesting. As soon as Spain was loaded, Barcelona storm to their first title in six years. Of course, they've won it before, so is it just a coincidence? Will be interesting to see.
South Korea, USA, Brazil and Mali win tournaments in 2031...clear to see where the shock is though, isn't it? Wonderful performance from the Malians, with Togo managing a creditable 2nd. Next year it's the European and Oceanic Championships, and I'm going to push the boat out and say that I'm expecting a New Zealand win. I'd also go as far as saying that New Zealand are more likely to win the Euros than drop the Oceanic title. There, I said it.
#258037 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2029/30
Transfers
Greg Donaldson | Dan McCarthy | Gerry McCabe
The first two signings will definitely shore up our defence, and probably do so for the next few seasons. Gerry McCabe will provide depth in the important AML position, but to be honest, he looked better before I signed him. I should stop trusting my terrible scouts so implicitly!
As for departures, we let a lot of youth players go, and some other filler. The club is certainly trimming down in terms of sheer squad bulk.
Youth Intake
Joe Gill
Just the one player taken on in an official sense, but I imagine my HoYD will take on a few more. They're just going to be filler though, but I have some hope for Joe Gill. We'll see if he can force his way into the side - that could be the trouble.
Results
We had great fun in Europe last season, but there shall be no such mirth now. It's January, and FM's sense of festive cheer is well and truly gone. We battered Birkirkara on our return to the First Qualifying Round, but then stumbled a little against Shamrock Rovers. Luckily we turned it around and won the second leg fairly comfortably. After that, it was a disaster. Basel was a very tough draw, and although we didn't disgrace ourselves at all, we still didn't really come realistically close to winning. If the first leg had been away and we had lost 2-1, we probably would've still been in it, but to head to Switzerland needing to score two, we were pretty much out. And so it proved.
Less said about facing Roma the better. We were dreadful, they were great, we got pumped.
A European hangover perhaps as we prepared for getting beaten by Roma by getting beaten by Gibraltar United in the Pepe Reyes. A very disappointing result, especially on penalties, but we made up for it by winning every other cup game we played in. Another two trophies, cheers.
Another unbeaten season, but with a few disappointing draws thrown in. Our extra quality in terms of finance and signings is starting to really show as we strolled to another title. The opposition really can't live with us at times, and we're only going to get better while the opposition struggles to keep up. What we really need is some kind of investment in the clubs below us, or a European run for one or more of them. Neither seems that likely at the moment.
Stats and Key Players
Lewis White | Connor Budge | Dan McCarthy
Just the forty-three goals for Lewis White this season. Standard. He's obviously taking his place on this list. Connor Budge has really impressed though just behind him. The shadow striker role netted him thirteen goals and ten assists, and he's pretty key to our formation and how we play. Just like Dan McCarthy, who quietly went about his business at the back pretty solidly.
Awards
New Section! One of the perils of an edited database is of course any problems in said edit. These awards appeared to be one of them, as after the first season they disappeared. Players were still rumoured for the award, but they were never actually given out. Until now!
First Division Player of the Year - 1st: Kevin Jones 2nd: Enrico Meloni 3rd: Lewis White
A clean-sweep of the player of the year award, and good to see a couple of players sneak in ahead of Lewis White. Not that White wouldn't have deserved it, but he's an obvious choice.
First Division Top Scorer - 1st: Lewis White 2nd: Lee Daws 3rd: Kevin Jones
He had to get this one though. You could say it's a clean sweep of this award too, with Lee Daws being an old youth product of ours.
First Division Young Player of the Year - Connor Budge
Another player award, and a very, very deserved one for Connor Budge.
Youth Round-up
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Turned 30 this year, and still featuring fairly heavily. Will I have a youth product who retires after a full career at the club?
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - I'm not really sure how he keeps producing these performances. Actually, that's probably not true. He's still comfortably good enough domestically. Still though, he's seen off a number of left wingers in his time. How much longer he can do that I'm not sure though.
2026
(YP26A) Dave Dunnan - Played about as many games as Derwayne Carr, and did just as well. We don't just have one great youth product keeper, we've got two. I don't think they have it in them to keep their place for the remainder of their careers though, particularly Dunnan. I'll keep him as number one for as long as I can though.
(YP26C) Harvey Patterson - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2027
(YP27B) Callum Thompson - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2028
(YP28A) John Paul Ignacio - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP28B) Lee Olivero - No games.
(YP28C) Nathan Hewitt - No games.
2029
(YP29A) Adam Phillips - No games.
2030
(YP30A) Joe Gill - No games.
Gone but not Forgotten
(YP15B) Louis McCoy
(YP15A) Jack Peachman
(YP15C) Andrew Baker
(YP16B) Andy Keen
(YP16C) Josh Miller
(YP17B) Jamie Peace
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson
(YP18F) Tony Grainger
(YP18G) Dylan Alman
(YP19D) Ian Smith
(YP22C) Tim Connor
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole
(YP16D) Fraser Willis
(YP17A) Andy Jones
(YP18A) Simon Forster
(YP18B) Luke Walker
(YP18C) Tom Wilson
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton
(YP21F) Robert Ashley
(YP22A) Christopher Langtry
(YP22D) Danny Donachie
(YP23A) Charlie Bell
(YP25A) Ashley Russel
(YP22B) Gareth Bagu
(YP23B) Matt Bishop
(YP23C) Jack Cross
(YP23D) Shane Austin
(YP24B) Malcolm Ruddick
(YP24C) Ben Lewis
(YP24E) Billy Clough
(YP18E) Lee Ward
(YP19E) Darren Chambers
(YP21C) Mark Brown
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth
(YP21E) Greg James
(YP24D) Danny Hepworth
(YP25B) Jordan Ellison
(YP20A) Craig Owen
(YP20B) Kevin Ward
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen
(YP20D) Tom Campbell
(YP20E) Carl Dodds
(YP20G) Leon Hadley
(YP21B) Anthony Ford
(YP24A) Joseph Moreno
(YP25C) Jon Brownhill
(YP25D) Shaun Martin
(YP25E) Ashley Hargreaves
(YP26B) Michael Dodd
(YP27A) Chris Davies
Facilities Update
No changes, but as a warning, you're going to start seeing gaps in these tables as Excel crashed, losing me about 2 seasons worth of stats. Annoying, but not too much lost. Some I can cobble together
Club Update
A big recovery after our exit from Europe a couple of seasons ago. I imagine come next season we'll have been boosted significantly.
Coefficient Update
Again, the coefficient table has suffered from my Excel crashing, so there's a few years missing, starting here. There hasn't been much of a rise though, despite my first appearance in the group stages last season.
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Where are they now?
Lynx received a consortium takeover recently, with some interesting news. Not only could this mean something in terms of funding for the club, they're also planning to install our very own club legend Anthony Bardon as manager. Good on him, and I look forward to coming up against him at some point. Not next season though, as they've just been relegated. Oops.
Also, after receiving at least seventy thousand job offers over the course of the save, I decided to not auto-reject every one, and actually attended one interview. I don't remember who it was for, and it didn't really matter anyway as I had no intention of joining. It's good I did, as the board bricked it. I upped my wage slightly and renewed my contract, so was worth doing it. Won't be making a habit of it though.
History and Stats
I think the league rep rose, but again, it's MIA.
As we move out of the roaring 20's, Stoke shocked England by finally breaking the domination of the traditional big four. They've managed a couple of 3rd place and a couple of 4th place finishes, but now they've won the whole thing. Wonderful achievement for them. Now we really can see what the best in Europe do when facing the veritable wet Wednesday night at the Brittania. Brighton winning the FA Cup was also a bit of a surprise.
It's starting to look very familiar at the top of the table as Rangers start to develop a bit of a stranglehold over the league. Two in a row now for them, and with them starting to do pretty well in Europe, that money should allow them to stay there. Celtic remain pretty inconsistent, only managing 3rd this time round.
Ahead of the addition of the Spanish leagues, here's a look at how things have been so far in the country. Obviously these are inactive leagues, so not truly representative, but can anyone really see it changing much once they're actually active? Barcelona wrestled back control from Atletico's title in 2013/14, then Real did, then Atletico snuck in. Then Barca...Real...Barca domination...Atletico, Barca, Real. It's all very predictable really. The only thing that really strikes me as different is one 3rd placed finish for Valencia. One thing in fifteen seasons. Deary me.
It's been a particularly purple patch for England in the past couple of seasons, particularly the North. Two titles for the Manchester sides, the latter contested by both sides. Everton and Stoke were both disappointed in the Europa League, by Leverkusen and Marseille respectively. Hopefully now we've added Spain things might start looking a bit different, and I'll consider adding a few more top leagues - Germany, Italy etc - to make things a bit more representative now that I'm assaulting Europe.
After winning the World Cup in 2026, England probably hoped for a win on home soil at Euro 2028, and then retain their title at Italy 2030. Unfortunately, they managed neither. They were knocked out in the semis of the Euros by France at Wembley, and then in the 1st knockout round of the World Cup against Spain. Normal service resumed! Elsewhere there haven't been too many shocks, but nice to see South Africa winning the Cup of Nations on home soil.
#258036 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2028/29
Quite an eventful season last time out. Although we fell at the usual hurdle in Europe, a fantastic performance from Gibraltar United almost meant that we ended the season in 2nd place. Fortunately we made the stretch at the last moment and managed to nick it by a point. I'd certainly take our season being a bit more eventful in Europe, but I would like it to be slightly less so domestically. Please.
This is an interesting start. Early on in the season we received this, but all news soon dried up. More on it later though...
Transfers
Another big summer of goings, but probably our biggest summer in terms of arrivals. I really pushed the boat out, knowing that if we're going to progress in Europe, unfortunately we can't just rely on our youth products. They're good, but unfortunately they're not that good. We need to supplement our squad with quality from overseas, and that's exactly what we did. I'm concentrating on the UK market, but mainly because that's where my scouts are reporting extensively from. There haven't been too many suitable players returned from outwith there, and I think I'm still stuck in the mindset of FM14, when we were only allowed three foreigners in the squad. UK players back then were wonderful as they didn't count as foreign. Those restrictions have been lifted this time around, but still finding it hard to reject those good old British names. Easy, Farage...
One other thing I concentrated on was getting youth in the door. Older players from the lower leagues of England often demand the Earth to move to Gibraltar, so buying young allows you to get them in the door for relatively low wages, and mould them into the player you want. Connor Budge and Gareth Watson were purchased under this policy. Danny Green and Richard Trowbridge are going to be the next two hopefuls to try and step up and be what David Barratt was to us, whereas Pete Charles, Ryan Harris and Graham O'Sullivan will shore up our defence.
Squad
Another quick look at the players we'll be relying on this time around.
Derwayne remains our number one, but I have high hopes for Dave Dunnan. It looks like as Derwayne goes on the...wane, then Dave will start to overtake him. I imagine in a few seasons, I'll start phasing him in, but not quite yet.
Our defence is starting to look a bit ropey. Of the low CA players, a few are genuine prospects, but there's a worrying few who will never really be good enough. Over the next few seasons I'll be looking to nurture the high potential, and bring in some young signings from outside the country to up the quality. Left back in particular is worrying me.
Midfield is looking better, although I'm a little worried at the lack of depth. We're certainly going to be playing a variation of three in the middle (probably 2 CMs and a DM) along with 2 wingers, so would really like to have more than four central players to play there. Budge will need to drop back, but it's not his natural position.
As I said earlier, we're still looking for the guy to really replace David Barratt, but at least we still have Lewis White. He'll lead the line for us more often than not, with Green and Trowbridge just behind him in the pecking order. Again though, we're worryingly light in depth. If we go two up front - which is definitely possible - once we've brought on our third choice I'm not confident in Callum Thompson being a suitable 4th option.
Youth Intake
Youth Intake
(YP29A) Adam Phillips
Just the one this year, with the rest being below average. Coaches think he has decent potential, and even with his current ability, he's already third choice. He's worth keeping around at least.
Results
Traditional beginning as we entered into the 2nd round of qualifying for the Champions League. Unfortunately, that was well and truly the end of tradition as Skenderbeu of Albania decided to be very difficult. We were 2-0 up in 5 minutes, and that's how it stayed until after the hour mark. Then ten minutes of madness saw us pegged back to 2-2. We retook the lead, and then added a 4th soon after. Job done, right? Not quite. Skenderbeu got another goal back, making it 4-3 at the final whistle.
Now it wasn't a terrible result. We had four away goals, and headed back home with a lead to protect. What could possibly go wrong? Well, early on we took the lead in the 2nd leg, making it 5-3, and after that we should have gone out of sight. They equalised, but we responded with two from Lewis White. We were all set to go in at half-time with a 7-4 lead. Seven. Four. Really, how could we screw it up from here? On the stroke of the half-time whistle, they scored. That rattled us, because seven minutes into the second half, it was 4-3 on the night to Skenderbeu and 7-7 on aggregate. Despite having fourteen goals in the tie so far, we went the next forty minutes with no goals, and it went into extra-time. Somehow, despite completely throwing it away on several occasions, we managed to raise ourselves enough to take another two goal lead through goals from Kevin Jones - a penalty - and Lewis White, and for once we didn't relinquish it. Into the third round we went.
Unfortunately, such scenes were not repeated in the next round. We had a good first leg, but an early goal for Haifa put us on the back foot. We desperately searched for a goal to take over to Israel in the second leg, but it never came. We then got absolutely battered in the second leg to send us into the Europa League with our tails between our legs.
The Europa League usually means a really tough draw, and I have to say that Maribor were no different, but they were the best side we could have hoped for. Once again though, it looked towards the end of the first leg that it was going to be the same old story. We were 2-0 down heading into stoppage time, but then Lewis White somehow popped up and nodded in what would end up being a priceless away goal. He then scored in the second leg back home to put us into a winning position, and we managed to hold on.
We're in the Europa League Group Stages.
A bit of a change of pace before we turn to Europe, and the very definition of a clean-sweep of domestic cup football. There were a few hairy defensive displays, but every time that happened we outscored the opposition handily. Fifty-one goals in ten games, three trophies, pretty much perfect.
And not much wrong with that league season either. We put the tension of last season behind us by going through this one unbeaten. Too many draws of course, and a few too many goals conceded on those occasions for my liking, but can't really complain with those results.
So, shall we cover Europe?
(Table)
Oh well, it was good fun while it lasted. Honestly, when we went out in front of 10,000 at the Europa Point and won 3-1 in our first ever European Group Stage fixture, I started to wonder whether we could actually do something in the group. That thought soon disappeared as Twente dismantled us in our first away game, and then Roma did similar in our second. It was to be expected, of course, but still annoying after such a good start. We were a lot more competitive back home against Roma, almost stealing a result before the Italians emphasised their class. Very disappointed in not being able to get something away to Astra, as it would have given us an outside shot going into the final match against Twente. As it was, we lost, and then lost on final day too, although more respectably than the 5-0 in Holland.
Whether we got pumped or not, we can be proud for just getting there. Our finances have benefited too, so good all round.
Stats and Key Players
Youth Round-up
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - His stats have suffered slightly from our European beatings, but in the league he was wonderful, playing all but one game.
2020
(YP20A) Craig Owen - Lost his place to Kane Kitchen, and after all that early promise it looks like he'll be on his way before long if we can bring in some real quality in his position
(YP20B) Kevin Ward - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen - First choice left back, but probably more by necessity than choice
(YP20D) Tom Campbell - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP20E) Carl Dodds - Fringe player, but can be depended on at a push
(YP20G) Leon Hadley - Our third choice keeper if that, probably going to move on soon
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - Despite my coaches not believing he's as good as him, Niall has replaced Toby Wheeler more often than not in the side. Great news for him.
(YP21B) Anthony Ford - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2024
(YP24A) Joseph Moreno - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP25C) Jon Brownhill - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP25D) Shaun Martin - No games.
(YP25E) Ashley Hargreaves - Red Imps are giving him the games we can't, and he's doing OK there.
2026
(YP26A) Dave Dunnan - Returned to the club from his loan spell but didn't get too many chances. His one league appearance was in a 5-5 draw towards the end of the season. Not exactly the best impression to make.
(YP26B) Michael Dodd - An ever present in the side, and probably the star performer this year.
(YP26C) Harvey Patterson - Didn't feature as much as Michael, or look as impressive, but a good backup.
2027
(YP27A) Chris Davies - Spent the season on loan at Red Imps, played pretty well.
(YP27B) Callum Thompson - On loan to Gibraltar United, six goals in nine games, pretty good. Doubt he'll be good enough to make it with us though.
2028
(YP28A) John Paul Ignacio - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP28B) Lee Olivero - No games.
(YP28C) Nathan Hewitt - No games.
2029
(YP29A) Adam Phillips - No games.
Gone but not Forgotten
(YP15B) Louis McCoy
(YP15A) Jack Peachman
(YP15C) Andrew Baker
(YP16B) Andy Keen
(YP16C) Josh Miller
(YP17B) Jamie Peace
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson
(YP18F) Tony Grainger
(YP18G) Dylan Alman
(YP19D) Ian Smith
(YP22C) Tim Connor
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole
(YP16D) Fraser Willis
(YP17A) Andy Jones
(YP18A) Simon Forster
(YP18B) Luke Walker
(YP18C) Tom Wilson
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton
(YP21F) Robert Ashley
(YP22A) Christopher Langtry
(YP22D) Danny Donachie
(YP23A) Charlie Bell
(YP25A) Ashley Russel
(YP22B) Gareth Bagu
(YP23B) Matt Bishop
(YP23C) Jack Cross
(YP23D) Shane Austin
(YP24B) Malcolm Ruddick
(YP24C) Ben Lewis
(YP24E) Billy Clough
(YP18E) Lee Ward
(YP19E) Darren Chambers
(YP21C) Mark Brown
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth
(YP21E) Greg James
(YP24D) Danny Hepworth
(YP25B) Jordan Ellison
Facilities Update
The pitch has been relaid again, but our training facilities have taken a dip.
Club Update
A big recovery after our exit from Europe a couple of seasons ago. I imagine come next season we'll have been boosted significantly.
Coefficient Update
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven |
Probably our best season yet thanks to our European exploits, and it always helps to complete a domestic clean-sweep.
Remember I mentioned a takeover earlier? Well...
Well it isn't a tycoon, but he has given us a bit of money. He also decided to "let me keep my job", which was just as well given the number of trophies I've won. His first act though was to allow me to go off and study for improved coaching qualifications. Good news certainly.
History and Stats
#258035 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2026/27
Another two years for James Spiteri. All a formality now.
Transfers
Just the one signing this summer, but he's a doozie. David Barratt is considerably the most highly rewarded player we've ever had on our books in terms of salary and bonuses. I was reluctant to sign him, but if he gets us further into Europe, it'll be worth it. If not...ah screw it, it's only money.
A lot of departures too, mostly players who haven't made the grade.
Youth Intake
Chris Davies | Callum Thompson
Results
This is absolutely not how it should be done. Cork City absolutely deserve to go through to the next round, as we were absolutely rotten. After a 3-2 first leg defeat, we went all out for the second, and I fully expected to close it out from there. Instead, Cork pummelled us into the ground, and for the first time in years, we're out at the first hurdle. That...is going to cost us.
A bad season gets worse as we lose the Rock Cup, again to Gibraltar United. We got the other two cup competitions, remaining unbeaten, but that just isn't good enough.
You see that Gibraltar United result? Check out how it happened. You may not recognise the scorer immediately, unless you've paid close attention to my side for the past few seasons. Basically, to explain this I need to explain my youth policy. I usually bring through four or five youths a season, or, more accurately, all the players with at least 4* potential. Beyond that, my assistant decides whether or not the rest of the players are up to the grade. A lot of the time, he brings in a lot more than I update you on, but they end up being pretty much exclusively filler. Enter Lee Daws. He's scored very well for us in his time here, almost making me retrofit a youth academy status to him. But then he left - no worries, right? Not that day. He put us to the sword and inflicted another damaging defeat on us. Also notice how they have three more of our graduates in their side, one of which assisted both goals. Balls.
Away from that though, we strolled to the league once again.
Stats and Key Players
David Barratt | Adam Ellis | Lewis White
Youth Round-up
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Only managed nineteen games, but was just as solid in all of them as he always has been.
2018
(YP18E) Lee Ward - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2019
(YP19E) Darren Chambers - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2020
(YP20A) Craig Owen - A virtual ever-present for the side, and wonderful throughout.
(YP20B) Kevin Ward - Played when our formation called for a right midfielder rather than a winger. And played well.
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen - Solid squad player this season
(YP20D) Tom Campbell - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP20E) Carl Dodds - Fringe player, but can be depended on at a push
(YP20G) Leon Hadley - Mostly played during Derwayne Carr's injured periods, and was pretty good when called upon.
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - Benefited at last from our move to using advanced wingers. He's backup for the first time usually, but his performances have made me think about that.
(YP21B) Anthony Ford - High up in terms of backup appearances.
(YP21C) Mark Brown - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP21E) Greg James - Very much a fringe player, but he's featured from the bench fairly often.
2022
(YP22B) Gareth Bagu - Gareth is a bench-warmer, but if you want a goal from there, he's a decent bet
2023
(YP23B) Matt Bishop - A fixture in midfield for around half of the season, but not too impressive. Just solid.
(YP23C) Jack Cross - Has really improved with game time over the past couple of seasons. Soli
(YP23D) Shane Austin - An impressive season from Shane as he took the chances he was given. Hope for more from him next time out.
2024
(YP24A) Joseph Moreno - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24B) Malcolm Ruddick - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24C) Ben Lewis - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24D) Danny Hepworth - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24E) Billy Clough - Probably doesn't have a glittering future with us, but a decent enough squad player currently on his loan spell.
2025
(YP25B) Jordan Ellison - No games.
(YP25C) Jon Brownhill - No games.
(YP25D) Shaun Martin - No games.
(YP25E) Ashley Hargreaves - Red Imps are giving him the games we can't, and he's doing OK there.
2026
(YP26A) Dave Dunnan - Started two games, let in four goals. Will he be trusted again?
(YP26B) Michael Dodd - No games.
(YP26C) Harvey Patterson - No games.
(YP27A) Chris Davies - No games.
(YP27B) Callum Thompson - No games.
Gone but not Forgotten
(YP15B) Louis McCoy
(YP15A) Jack Peachman
(YP15C) Andrew Baker
(YP16B) Andy Keen
(YP16C) Josh Miller
(YP17B) Jamie Peace
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson
(YP18F) Tony Grainger
(YP18G) Dylan Alman
(YP19D) Ian Smith
(YP22C) Tim Connor
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole
(YP16D) Fraser Willis
(YP17A) Andy Jones
(YP18A) Simon Forster
(YP18B) Luke Walker
(YP18C) Tom Wilson
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton
(YP21F) Robert Ashley
(YP22A) Christopher Langtry
(YP22D) Danny Donachie
(YP23A) Charlie Bell -
(YP25A) Ashley Russel -
Facilities Update
No changes.
Club Update
Our increased spending on wages has led to a fall in both value and balance, but we still climb in other areas.
Coefficient Update
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Where are they now?
Was there really any doubt about fans' player of the year? Lewis White was unlucky to miss out last year, but he can have no complaints this year after Barratt blitzed the competition. Thirty-five goals in twenty-nine appearances...need I say more? Ok, he also managed an 8.0 average.
History and Stats
A slight drop, perhaps due to our European failure.
#258034 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2025/26
Transfers
We have to do the transfers in two sections this season due to the sheer weight of them. I remember the days of FM14 when my squad ballooned to close to 100 players. That is most definitely not happening here. Vast swathes of our squad were let go as we freshened things up, with a lot of youth graduates not making the grade. Later on in the summer we moved on to sales and loans. A lot of young players will populate the Gibraltarian leagues either on loan or plain sold. The biggest news though was probably stand-out youth Simon Forster leaving us for pastures new. Fortunately our transfer incomings will hopefully lessen that impact.
Toby Wheeler | Enrico Meloni | Jack Horton | Kevin Jones | Lewis White
It was a window to strengthen our attacking options, which will not surprise those who have read a few of my careers. Basically, I can't resist a striker, but since Forster left, it was a must to bring in a new striker. I also concentrated on the wings, trying to move to my favoured 4-1-2-2-1 formation. Meloni and Wheeler will be the starters, with Horton as a nice utility player. Kevin Jones will give us a bit of bite in midfield, and should do for years to come. But it's Lewis White I'm most looking forward to playing. He will be a wonderful signing if his first game is anything to go by, scoring after 25 seconds, to end thirteen hours without a goal. Remarkable.
Youth Intake
Dave Dunnan | Michael Dodd | Harvey Patterson
If my transfer window was about strengthening further forward, the youth intake was about the complete opposite. Three players brought in, two for central defence, one keeper. Goalkeeper seems to be the new right midfielder in the way that we're getting at least one in every intake. They've certainly got quality, but how many of them will get serious game time?
Results
It's just like Groundhog Day. Once again we smashed through Birkirkara of Malta, with Simon Forster signing off with a goal in the second leg. Unfortunately, once again we came up short in the next round. Were we close? Perhaps, depends on your viewpoint really. It was effectively over after the first leg when we once again failed to net an away goal, but it wasn't an absolute thumping. I guess that's something.
Into the Europa League, where we gave a decent account of ourselves against Zurich. We started off with a home tie this time, but conceded three away goals. Why do we keep doing this? It finished 3-2, meaning that a two goal win would send us through. Unfortunately, we just couldn't force that, despite taking the lead. Zurich got a quickfire double to send us out, and that'll be another season of crushed hope.
I talked last year about how we needed to concentrate on the Rock Cup from now on given the big money on offer, but clearly the squad didn't listen. Once again it was (****ing) Gibraltar United who beat us in the semi-final, then went on to win it. We were unbeaten in all our other cup games though, which was good, but that Rock Cup loss really disappoints me.
Far too many draws, but it took a poor performance against College Europa to hand us our first loss. Not really troubled outside of that though, with some absolute tonkings handed out, a 9-0, 6-0 and two 4-0's the highlights.
Stats and Key Players
Oops...this was missing for this season...
Youth Round-up
Oops again...
Facilities Update
No changes.
Club Update
Increases across the board.
Coefficient Update
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Where are they now?
A pretty good season, and what will probably end up being a key one. This is the first time we've really started to bring in quality, but it wasn't enough to get us further in Europe just yet. We're still playing youth though, and I intend to keep doing that as long as I can. We can't just keep buying in - by all means we can add some glitter to our team, but we have to have a good home-grown base for our future endeavours in the Champions League.
History and Stats
The league rep continues to rise, and we're just about to break into the top 100. Fantastic news, and should lead to more opportunities in future. Looking at our competition wins like that though...it's quite disappointing how badly we've done in the Rock Cup. It's great to win the League Cup more often than not, but the Rock Cup is the one we really need to be winning, especially now the prize money has been jacked up.
Stoke seem to be cementing themselves as a fixture in the top 4, so we'll finally get to see what the cream of Europe can do on a wet, windy Wednesday in Stoke. That's...nice I suppose? Everything else seems pretty predictable.
Celtic fall out of the top 4 once again, with their cross-town rivals taking the title. Hearts still up there, as are St Mirren. Have to say that Aberdeen seem the form team in Scotland, managing a top 4 placing in all but one of the seasons covered so far.
Another shock in the Europa League as Metalist Kharkiv reach the final. I guess you could say that the Champions League final was a bit of a shock too, with Atletico reaching their first final since 2013/14, and then going on and winning their first title.
England continue their charmed FM life by wrestling the World Cup away from Spain finally. France have another great tournament, but for the second World Cup running, they finish as runners-up. Always the bridesmaid.
#257865 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2024/25
Another new contract as the season opened, and I'll be with the club until at least 2027.
Youth Intake
Ashley Russel | Jordan Ellison | Jon Brownhill | Shaun Martin | Ashley Hargreaves
Results
Our traditional curtain-raiser for the season did not go well at all this year. On paper, we should have enough in our ranks to comfortably beat Valletta of Malta. Instead, we decided to keep things interesting by putting in an absolutely woeful defensive performance, losing 4-3. Bottles, boots, and youth team players flying all over the place in the dressing room after that one. Luckily we did get those three away goals, which must have given us some confidence going into the 2nd leg. We dominated them, winning 4-1, but it was far from comfortable.
Then we came up against Maccabi Haifa in another very tough 3rd round game. But, for probably the first time, we came very, very close to that magical place in the Playoff round. In the end, our profligacy in front of goal in the away leg was our undoing. A 1-0 defeat there meant that when Haifa scored on the Rock, we were pretty much out. 2-0 down, needing three to go through, so Simon Forster's goal ended up being no more than a consolation. It was closer than it looked though. Gutting.
We must've given our all in those games, because when Lille came to town, we were absolutely battered. No more European football for us.
Our heartache goes on as our most hated club Gibraltar United do us on penalties. ****ers.
We didn't look convincing early in the group stage, but soon picked up and added another League Cup trophy to the collection.
Barely troubled as we strolled towards the Rock Cup trophy. However, the Rock Cup prize money appears to have...ballooned somewhat recently though. £396k awarded to the winner, which is massive for this level. This happened with TV money back on FM14, so seems like the "issue" is still there. Should mean that things get a little different over time when money starts pouring in.
It was lucky we were so good at the start of the season, because we finished it in dismal form. Only Gibraltar United having a pretty poor one saved us, and we still finished six points clear.
Stats and Key Players
Jack Sergeant | Anthony Bardon | Adam Ellis
Youth Round-up
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Another great season for our number one. Hard to believe he's still only 25.
(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2017
(YP17A) Andy Jones - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2018
(YP18A) Simon Forster - Another great season for him, and doesn't appear to have reached that ceiling I talked about just yet.
(YP18B) Luke Walker - A solid, dependable center back for us, which is something we haven't always been able to rely on.
(YP18C) Tom Wilson - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP18E) Lee Ward - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2019
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson - Fairly average when he featured
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie - Similar to Andy above.
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton - A lot of sub appearances, but even then he hasn't blown me away with his level of performance.
(YP19E) Darren Chambers - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2020
(YP20A) Craig Owen - A breakthrough for him this year as he starts to realise the potential he was originally said to have
(YP20B) Kevin Ward - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP20D) Tom Campbell - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP20E) Carl Dodds - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP20G) Leon Hadley - Managed one game when Derwayne Carr was injured and kept a clean sheet. Could he have a future?
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - Hasn't really featured much.
(YP21B) Anthony Ford - An awful lot of sub appearances, which points to him being a fringe player. Good enough option to have though.
(YP21C) Mark Brown - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP21E) Greg James - Very much a fringe player, but he's featured from the bench fairly often. Only five goals in sixteen appearances though.
(YP21F) Robert Ashley - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2022
(YP22A) Christopher Langtry - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP22B) Gareth Bagu - Continued his good form from last season with another high-scoring effort.
(YP22D) Danny Donachie - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2023
(YP23A) Charlie Bell - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP23B) Matt Bishop - A fixture in midfield for around half of the season, but not too impressive. Just solid.
(YP23C) Jack Cross - Similar to Matt Bishop, Jack has had a few games, but ended up being pretty average throughout.
(YP23D) Shane Austin - An impressive season from Shane as he took the chances he was given. Hope for more from him next time out.
2024
(YP24A) Joseph Moreno - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24B) Malcolm Ruddick - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24C) Ben Lewis - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24D) Danny Hepworth - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
(YP24E) Billy Clough - Hasn't featured enough for comment.
2025
(YP25A) Ashley Russel - No games.
(YP25B) Jordan Ellison - No games.
(YP25C) Jon Brownhill - No games.
(YP25D) Shaun Martin - No games.
(YP25E) Ashley Hargreaves - No games.
Gone but not Forgotten
(YP15B) Louis McCoy - St Josephs, Gibraltar - Still playing for St Josephs as their number one.
(YP15A) Jack Peachman - Oostende, Belgium - He's not quite as prolific
(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Retired
(YP16B) Andy Keen - Gibraltar United, Gibraltar - Really impressing at our rival
(YP16C) Josh Miller - KV Kortrijk, Belgium - Moved from Eupen to Kortrijk for 25k, giving us a windfall of...about 4k! Yay! He's been truly hopeless so far though.
(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Retured
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - Angels, Gibraltar - Moved on a free, and started off pretty well there.
(YP18F) Tony Grainger - Angels, Gibraltar - Like Dickinson, moved to Angels and impressed down in the second tier.
(YP18G) Dylan Alman - College Pegasus, Gibraltar - Moved on a free, but hasn't entirely impressed just yet.
(YP19D) Ian Smith - KV Kortrijk, Belgium - Moved on a free at the end of this season, will be interesting to see how he does.
(YP22C) Tim Connor - Cannons spent 1.1k on him, and have bought themselves...well, a bit of a dud. 6.56 average rating...disappointing.
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole -
Facilities Update
No changes.
Club Update
Our increased spending on wages has led to a fall in both value and balance, but we still climb in other areas.
Coefficient Update
Manager Update
The manager stats continue to improve at a ridiculous rate. To be honest, I'm about ready to just ignore them, as they seem pretty arbitrary.
End of Season Review
Sad news as our training facilities take another dive. I may have dropped the ball on this one slightly. In FM14, I think I improved my facilities early on when I had little other expenditure, meaning that once the big bucks started rolling in, I could concentrate on signing players. This time around, I'm having to fight on two fronts pretty much, and I think the facilities will lose out. At least until we reach the Champions League and start getting crazy money.
Also sad news as long-standing (in fact, founder really) member of our squad Joseph decides to retire. He joined the club the season before I did, and was an ever-present pretty much until the last season. A loyal servant, and I wish him well in his future endeavour of getting culled from the database.
History and Stats
The league rep continues to rise, and we're just about to break into the top 100. Fantastic news, and should lead to more opportunities in future. Looking at our competition wins like that though...it's quite disappointing how badly we've done in the Rock Cup. It's great to win the League Cup more often than not, but the Rock Cup is the one we really need to be winning, especially now the prize money has been jacked up.
I haven't commented on these before, so here goes. First up, England. To be honest, there have been few surprises in Sky's favourite league. Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal have shared the title honours, with the top four - apart from a few exceptions - being pretty familiar. Hard to argue with many of the relegated sides either. The Cups, also, have been dominated by the big sides, with a smattering of "Romance-of-the-Cup" stores thrown in. How very meh.
Now to Scotland. It's been described as Spain of the North due to the duopoly, but...well, what duopoly? Celtic started off on par with a first season domestic treble, but since then it's been an unmitigated disaster. Aberdeen have been the form side elsewhere, managing two titles and a 2nd place before Celtic wrestled the league back to Parkhead. They dropped the ball again though, with traditional FM darlings Hearts picking up the slack, along with a first title (in their history...sorry ra' Gers fans) for Rangers in 2021. Hearts were back on top again this season. Talking of Celtic again, you'll notice that in two seasons they didn't even make the top four. They finished 7th and 8th that season...aye, I know. The Cups have been more eventful than down in England too, although you could probably only point to Falkirk's and St Mirren's success in the Scottish Cup, and perhaps Kilmarnock in the League Cup for any kind of upset. Even Saints managed to finish fourth the previous season from their cup win. Still though, Scotland is hilariously unbalanced in this save - half expecting Thistle to win it soon (please).
European competitions. There's often said to be an English bias when it comes to the Champions LEague, but it doesn't appear to be prevalent in this case. Only three English titles out of eleven, thanks to two from Chelsea and one from Man Utd. Bayern Munich looked like they were going to take Europe by storm again early on after completing a London double (Spurs in the Champions League final?!) but they fall away and haven't managed to reach a final since. Other than that, the wins for Juventus and Porto seem like shocks, and I suppose you could add PSG in there. If you can call winning the Champions League with a budget the size of most countries' a shock. Once again the Europa League proves to be where the entertainment lies. Ten different winners in eleven seasons, with Arsenal doing a double, and a nice mixture of shock appearances. Victoria Plzen definitely jumps out as one of those, before they were beaten by the German Juggernaught.
And finally, the internationals. A lot of information here, and it's hard to pick out the salient points. I'll go continent by continent.
Asia - The first two tournaments went "to plan" with South Korea taking both. Iran and Iraq both managed creditable 2nd spots in those tournaments though after good tournaments. In 2023 though, it went a bit mental. Japan didn't place in either of the two previous tournaments, but went into the final thinking that they should surely dispose of little Vietnam. Wrong. They ended 2nd, and Vietnam took the trophy on Japanese soil. Scenes.
North America - The Gold Cup is always held on US soil, which makes the results from this tournament all the stranger. Off the back of a great 2014 World Cup, USA won the 2015 edition, beating Jamaica in the final. But then it all went to hell. Trinidad, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and then Mexico (twice) all took the next six editions, with USA only managing two second placed finishes in 2021 and 2025, and a third in 2023. Great for the smaller nations of CONCACAF, but Mexico would probably be in for similar criticism had they not won the last two tournaments.
South America - Business as usual. All four editions have been won by either Brazil or Argentina, as they share two titles each. Argentina slightly edge it for finishing 2nd both times they didn't win it, with Uruguay beaten in the 2023 final and Brazil finishing 3rd. Disappointing not to see a smaller nation win something like in other competitions around the World.
Oceania - New Zealand and New Caledonia have played out three finals, with New Zealand taking all of them. The textbook definition of a procession.
Africa - No real shocks here. Egypt continue their good form in Nations tournaments (and then probably followed it up by imploding for the World Cup), while Ivory Coast finally broke their hoodoo to win in both 2021 and 2025.
Europe - England won in 2016, and then finished 2nd in 2020, with Belgium taking the 2024 crown in Spain. Good to see the Czech Republic make the final in the latter, but you can probably all write your own punchlines on England doing so well. Amazing what removing the tabloid media from the equating can do, eh?
World Cup - Two controversial World Cups in Russia and Qatar are now in the books. In 2018, Spain got their trophy back following their dismal 2014 showing by beating England (come on...) in the final. Germany took 3rd place, disappointing a nation still high from their 2014 win. In Qatar, the reports of players dieing in the heat, and stadiums being cooled by the frozen dreams of Indonesian slaves proved unfounded. But still, Spain went home again with the gold. France were beaten in the final, with Germany third, in a Europe-dominated podium. Farage would be proud.
#257864 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2023/24
Transfers
Adam Ellis joined the club to offset the many departures on loan. Really, really happy to get someone of his quality in - only 20 too, so plenty of room to improve.
Youth Intake
Joseph Moreno | Malcolm Ruddick | Ben Lewis
Danny Hepworth | Billy Clough
Results
Our co-efficient changed to allow us into the 2nd Qualifying Round, but the result remained the same. We strolled past Rabotnicki relatively easily, but then came up against Scottish Champions Hearts. That may not seem like a daunting task compared to other sides, but Hearts always end up extremely strong, despite their financial issues in real life. They brushed us aside fairly easily, as did Fiorentina in the Europa League playoff. We went for it in the second leg of that one, and got absolutely cuffed as a result.
A missing screenshot for the Rock Cup, but after a 4-0 win against Olympique and then a 6-0 win against Lynx, we were knocked out by old foes Gibraltar United in the semi final on penalties. Better news in the other two though. We edged a tight Pepe Reyes Cup tie on penalties against St Josephs, and then absolutely breezed through the Premier Cup.
Another unbeaten season, and that will do very nicely. A twenty-five point gap between us and 2nd, and you can't get much more dominant than that.
Stats and Key Players
Jack Sergeant | Anthony MacDonald | Adam Ellis
Youth Round-up
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Another similar season to the last one. Derwayne appeared in pretty much every game, and played pretty well throughout.
(YP16D) Fraser Willis - No games.
2017
(YP17A) Andy Jones - A handful of appearances, but not enough to make too much of an impact.
2018
(YP18A) Simon Forster - He had another great season, but I'm starting to worry whether we've seen the ceiling for Simon. He's certainly good enough for domestic football, but we have to improve in Europe, and I'm not convinced that he has that in him. We shall see.
(YP18B) Luke Walker - Featured heavily, and featured well.
(YP18C) Tom Wilson - One sub appearance.
(YP18E) Lee Ward - Still no games.
2019
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson - Played less than he's used to thanks to the arrival of Ellis. Unlikely to displace him either.
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie - Similar to Andy above.
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton - Fairly average on his few appearances.
(YP19E) Darren Chambers - No games.
2020
(YP20A) Craig Owen - Starting to come into his own.
(YP20B) Kevin Ward - Suffering from being in a position we're not really using.
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen - Played pretty well on his two appearances, but he is a total fringe player for us.
(YP20D) Tom Campbell - Two appearances, average in both.
(YP20E) Carl Dodds - A few average cameos.
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole - Nothing. Surely I could find a place for someone with such an unfortunate name?
(YP20G) Leon Hadley - Managed one game when Derwayne Carr was injured and kept a clean sheet. Could he have a future?
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - Below average season for Niall.
(YP21B) Anthony Ford - Below average again.
(YP21C) Mark Brown - No games.
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth - One uninspiring appearance.
(YP21E) Greg James - Fourth choice striker, and chipped in with a few goals.
(YP21F) Robert Ashley - Leon Hadley got one game between the sticks, but Ashley got 2. Two conceded though.
2022
(YP22A) Christopher Langtry - No games.
(YP22B) Gareth Bagu - Stepping up alongside Forster as one of our most promising youths.
(YP22D) Danny Donachie - Slotted in to midfield for a good chunk of the season and absolutely did not disappoint.
2023
(YP23A) Charlie Bell - Nothing.
(YP23B) Matt Bishop - Nada.
(YP23C) Jack Cross - One average appearance.
(YP23D) Shane Austin - One average appearance.
2024
(YP24A) Joseph Moreno - No games.
(YP24B) Malcolm Ruddick - No games.
(YP24C) Ben Lewis - No games.
(YP24D) Danny Hepworth - No games.
(YP24E) Billy Clough - No games.
Gone but not Forgotten
(YP15B) Louis McCoy - St Josephs, Gibraltar - Still playing for St Josephs as their number one.
(YP15A) Jack Peachman - Oostende, Belgium - He's not quite as prolific
(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Retired
(YP16B) Andy Keen - Gibraltar United, Gibraltar - Really impressing at our rival
(YP16C) Josh Miller - KV Kortrijk, Belgium - Moved from Eupen to Kortrijk for 25k, giving us a windfall of...about 4k! Yay! He's been truly hopeless so far though.
(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Retured
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - Angels, Gibraltar - Moved on a free, and started off pretty well there.
(YP18F) Tony Grainger - Angels, Gibraltar - Like Dickinson, moved to Angels and impressed down in the second tier.
(YP18G) Dylan Alman - College Pegasus, Gibraltar - Moved on a free, but hasn't entirely impressed just yet.
(YP19D) Ian Smith - KV Kortrijk, Belgium - Moved on a free at the end of this season, will be interesting to see how he does.
(YP22C) Tim Connor - Cannons spent 1.1k on him, and have bought themselves...well, a bit of a dud. 6.56 average rating...disappointing.
Facilities Update
[CENTER]
No changes. My plan is to improve youth and training facilities of course, but I'm reluctant to spend the money on it at the moment - we're not exactly rich, pretty much hovering around the 2 million mark each season. If we drop close to that amount on facility improvements, we may threaten our professional status.
Club Update
A slight fall in value, probably due to us actually getting our finger out and releasing a lot of the deadwood in our squad. Everything else is on the rise though, slowly.
Coefficient Update
Manager Update
The manager stats continue to improve at a ridiculous rate. To be honest, I'm about ready to just ignore them, as they seem pretty arbitrary.
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Where are they now?
Our feeder link was cancelled at the end of the season, which is fair enough given the only benefit we got from it was the 20k a season we received.
History and Stats
[/CENTER]
#257863 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2022/23
So back to normal now with updates - should get a lot more detail. If there's anything else people would like to see included, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I think once I start getting into the European Group Stages, I'll go to more regular updates to try and spread things around, but yet to be decided.
Transfers
The big news this summer is that Josh Miller has decided to follow Jack Peachman out of the door. Like Peachman, there's a 40% of next sale clause, but we still didn't really get too much for him. Still, it's more than it cost to bring him in in the first place, so good luck to him.
In terms of transfers, we finally bit the bullet and brought in some non-youth players. However, I stayed with the youth philosophy, trying to bring in players who were at most 21-years-old. That will probably change once I run out of decent players, or see one that's too good to refuse. First up was Anthony McDonald. I bawsed up and have a screenshot from the end of the season, so it shows how important he has been in the season I'm currently talking about. He should be important for far longer than that though. Michael Chukwu also arrives, and should shore up our defence slightly. He's a bit of a utility player too, which should come in handy.
Squad
It might just be Derwayne Carr's year this year. Robba is not getting any younger, and is now probably about level in terms of ability with no room for improvement. He'll begin to be phased out, replaced hopefully by another youth player while Derwayne takes the number 1 jersey.
Looking pretty healthy, but would really like a bit more strength in depth at center back. What we have is certainly good enough to dominate in Gibraltar though.
Quite thin on the ground in midfield, and with only two real stand-out players. One of those of course will be leaving us, as I've already said. Will look to strengthen there if we can't fill from the youth ranks.
Four youth strikers, and that's all we need. If we continue to play 4-3-3, then I'll fill from the youth ranks, but these will be my starting four.
Youth Intake
Charlie Bell | Matt Bishop | Jack Cross | Shane Austin
Results
With a change to the coefficients, I ended up having to start way back in the 1st round once again. Luckily, our relative seeding did not change, and we had a pretty easy time of it in the first two rounds. Libertas put up little fight, and Sant Julia we've already beaten. Thoroughly professional performances, especially by Jack Peachman, who was in the midst of his transfer away from the club. It all went predictably tits up though once we hit the 3rd Round, as we came up against Olympiacos. A trip to Greece would be tough anyway, but an aggregate 10-0 scoreline shows that we didn't have much luck back at home. We then rounded our European season off playing, once again, a side much, much better than us with a place in the Europa League Group Stages at stake. This time Braga, but as always, a pumping was on the cards. 9-1 this time, so that's...improvement, I guess?
This, on the other hand, is not improvement. Just one cup trophy this year, after two pretty poor performances in the Premier and Rock Cups.
Made up for it in the league though. At least some way towards it. We were far from our impressive best, but we did end up taking the league by six points.
Stats and Key Players
Jack Sergeant | Anthony Bardon | Jean-Carlos Garcia
Youth Round-up
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Finally got his chance as he became our number 1. Average rating was...average really, but conceded less than he played, and generally very happy with him. He could potentially be our keeper for the next fifteen years, let's face it.
(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Managed a paltry 45 minutes, but I'm reluctant to release him just yet given the relative paucity of our defensive options.
2017
(YP17A) Andy Jones - When I finally remember to check my squad at the end of the season instead of charging on towards the new one, then he'll be gone. Shame.
2018
(YP18A) Simon Forster - Another star season for the guy
(YP18B) Luke Walker - Played around half the season, generally pretty well.
(YP18C) Tom Wilson - He's improving across the board, but that hasn't bought him games.
(YP18E) Lee Ward - Still no games.
2019
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson - Featured heavily in what is now his third full season. Looking for more from him though when he is there.
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie - Still featuring in a handful of games each season, which is about all I can offer him at the moment.
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton - Impressive on the few occasions he was called upon.
(YP19D) Ian Smith - Rating says he was pretty average. Sixteen goals suggest he was a little more important than that.
(YP19E) Darren Chambers - No games.
2020
(YP20A) Craig Owen - Joseph played a lot of games this season, but he is surely not going to be around for much longer. When Owen played, he was very impressive, so we have an able deputy there.
(YP20B) Kevin Ward - No games.
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen - Two average games.
(YP20D) Tom Campbell - One average sub appearance.
(YP20E) Carl Dodds - A few impressive cameos.
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole - Nothing. Surely I could find a place for someone with such an unfortunate name?
(YP20G) Leon Hadley - No games.
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - He's ridden out the 4-3-3 fetish and managed to get some games under his belt. Happy enough with his output.
(YP21B) Anthony Ford - A lot of sub appearances, but hasn't set the world on fire when he's featured.
(YP21C) Mark Brown - No games.
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth - One uninspiring sub appearance.
(YP21E) Greg James - Fourth choice striker, and chipped in with a few goals.
(YP21F) Robert Ashley - One average game.
2022
(YP22A) Christopher Langtry - No games.
(YP22B) Gareth Bagu - Definitely looks a prospect.
(YP22C) Tim Connor - No games.
(YP22D) Danny Donachie - Slotted in to midfield for a good chunk of the season and absolutely did not disappoint.
2023
(YP23A) Charlie Bell - Nothing.
(YP23B) Matt Bishop - Nada.
(YP23C) Jack Cross - Zilch.
(YP23D) Shane Austin - Zip.
Gone but not Forgotten
Louis McCoy - Released
(YP15A) Jack Peachman - Transferred to Oostende
(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Released
(YP16B) Andy Keen - Left
(YP16C) Josh Miller - Transferred to Eupen
(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Left
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - Left
(YP18F) Tony Grainger - Released
(YP18G) Dylan Alman - Released
Facilities Update
[CENTER]
No real changes this year, but the pitch has been relaid. Not sure by who given it's a shared stadium - I did have the option to request it myself, but didn't want to spend the money on everyone to be honest.
Club Update
Club rep is slowly rising, as is our value, balance, and ticketing data. All looking good.
Coefficient Update
We just need that one shining season in Europe for our coefficient to take the leap it needs. At the moment, it's just down to our results, as all the other sides end up getting papped out pretty early, as you can see above.
Manager Update
The manager stats continue to improve at a ridiculous rate. To be honest, I'm about ready to just ignore them, as they seem pretty arbitrary.
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Where are they now?
History and Stats
[/CENTER]
#257862 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2021/22
I mentioned earlier that some of my screenshots may be missing, and this season seems to be the one that is causing the problem. Normal service will be resumed next time.
Expectations
Board Expectations
I want what I always want - as many trophies as possible, playing in the best possible way.
Youth Intake
Christopher Langtry | Gareth Bagu | Tim Connor | Danny Donachie
Results
We started off well, but I can point to the 2nd leg against Birkirkara as the point where it started to turn. A 2-2 draw there was academic really, as we'd done enough in the first leg at home, but it was still disappointing. We put up a good fight against Dinamo, managing two away goals in the first leg to give us some hope going into the second. Unfortunately, whenever we go into a second leg in Europe saying "we just need to keep a clean sheet", the exact opposite usually happens. No different here - Dinamo got an early goal and we just couldn't get back into it. Oh well.
When it came to the Europa League playoff, once again we were unseeded, so once again our list of possible opponents read like a list of "bigger-boys-who-might-kick-the-****-out-of-you". Anderlecht were the chosen ones, and they won comfortably. I think our best bet is going to be to sneak through the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, as that grants us at least a Europa League Group Stage spot. The playoff round in the Europa League is always going to mean a near-impossible match until we get seeded, which probably won't happen until we progress. Vicious cycle.
Jackie boy gets us started, and that's another trophy.
And another. Props to Ryan Murphy and Ben Gough who managed to slip by my very scientific monitoring of youth players to both graduate from the youth academy, gain a contract, and then feature in the team. Those sneaky little fluckers.
We sometimes struggle in cups. Not this year though. The Rock Cup was a demolition derby of a competition for us with twenty goals in four games. With the exception of Bardon's goal in the semi, and the own goal in the quarters, every single goal was a result of our youth academy. Wonderful stuff.
And we've finally done it. An unbeaten season in the league, only blemished by a couple of disappointing draws. Hopefully this becomes a regular feature.
Stats and Key Players
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Where are they now?
A shorter update this time of course, but the sentiment is the same as usual. Another very good season, but still we hit that stumbling block in Europe. We're not good enough yet for the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Champions League, and absolutely nowhere near the quality needed for the Playoff round of the Europa League. We just need one season though. One shining season where we progress, bank our money, and then push on.
As I moved into the off-season though, I finally had to actually do some management of the squad.
Jack Peachman, probably my most successful youth product, has decided that he wants to leave. In a small way, I'm happy that there is this side of the game now in Gibraltar, that players can attract other clubs. However, on the other side, this is disappointing. I'm really up for taking a player from my academy and having him with me until retirement, but looks like Jackie Boy won't be that guy. I reluctantly told him that he could go if we get a decent enough offer.
And then a few weeks later, he was off. I'm not getting much money for him, but I am getting 40% of his next transfer. Goodnight sweet prince...
In other less crushing news, a handful of my other youth candidates decided they didn't fancy sticking around either. Not too bothered, but it is disappointing that they didn't want to stick around.
History and Stats
#257861 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2020/21
Expectations
Blah, blah, blah we want the league and don't care about the cups...blah, blah, blah I agree, but want everything.
Youth Intake
A fair-to-middling intake, but not quite as good as I had hoped with my improvements to facilities. Unfortunately for Niall O'Connell, we've started to move on from using wingers, which could affect his development. Andy Ford, Mark Brown, Eddie Smyth, Greg James and Robert Ashley round out the intake.
Results
Just two games in Europe as our unseeded status led to us drawing strong Austrian opposition, who promptly knocked us out without too much bother. We put up a bit of a fight, but not enough. Disappointing after such a good season last time round.
Our bogey team strikes again as we lose 3-2 in the curtain raiser.
Better.
Not better. Not better at all. Knocked out at the semi-final stage - deservedly so.
We were well on course for an unbeaten season before the Rock Cup result you previously saw pushed us off the rails. Britannia benefited and inflicted our only league defeat, but one that fell after we had already secured the title. Disappointing that we couldn't close out that shutout, but the title is the main thing.
Stats and Key Players
Joseph | Anthony Bardon | Jack Sergeant
Bardon makes it on, as usual, but it's a rare appearance for Joseph. I've always said he's likely to leave soon due to age, but he keeps on keeping my youth players out of the side. 1858 minutes played this season, over 24 appearances. Jack Sergeant also makes it, for the first time, after a very good season in the center of our defence.
Youth Round-up
2015
(YP15A) Jack Peachman - A slow season by his standards, with only seventeen goals managed, but still a very important player. Simon Forster outscored him, but he complemented him nicely.
(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Released from the club.
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - A handful of appearances, and again, pretty impressive when called upon.
(YP16B) Andy Keen - Suffered from my assistant's insistence on capitalising on our strengths centrally and moving to 4-3-3. Played very little as a result, and could end up released if we stick to this plan.
(YP16C) Josh Miller - Continued to be absolutely excellent, and there's not much more you need to say.
(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Managed a paltry 45 minutes, but I'm reluctant to release him just yet given the relative paucity of our defensive options.
2017
(YP17A) Andy Jones - Again, suffered due to 4-3-3. Could find himself looking for a club.
(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Featured whenever Joseph didn't, which wasn't too much. Happy enough with his output though.
2018
(YP18A) Simon Forster - Star of the season from the youths without a doubt.
(YP18B) Luke Walker - Didn't quite continue the upward curve he showed last year, but played solidly enough when called upon.
(YP18C) Tom Wilson - Looking dangerously close to not making the cut once again.
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - Couldn't come close to eclipsing Forster, but did very well when he got a chance.
(YP18E) Lee Ward - Still no games.
(YP18F) Tony Grainger - Released.
(YP18G) Dylan Alman - Released.
2019
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson - Did very well on his first full season.
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie - I said last year that his natural DM status may count against him, and looks like it is. Will stick it out though, in the view that we may end up needing a DM some-day. In the meantime, he's a decent backup at MC.
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton - Not too many games for him, but played solidly when he did.
(YP19D) Ian Smith - Continued his stealth good form by having another pretty good season. He's one of our four main strikers now, all of them from the youth academy. Pleasing.
(YP19E) Darren Chambers - No games.
2020
(YP20A) Craig Owen - I'm scratching my head at this one. Jamie Peace was mostly ahead of him in the pecking order, despite being markedly worse according to my assistants. Not sure where he'll be in a few years, but we'll stick with him obviously.
(YP20B) Kevin Ward - No games.
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen - No games.
(YP20D) Tom Campbell - No games.
(YP20E) Carl Dodds - No games.
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole - No...hold on! One game! Yaaaass! But he still wasn't too impressive.
(YP20G) Leon Hadley - No games.
2021
(YP21A) Niall O'Connell - You arrive at a club as a top prospect, and immediately find out they're abandoning wingers...oops. One game managed, but if we do move towards 4-3-3, he'll struggle for games.
(YP21B) Anthony Ford - One game, but not too much chance to shine.
(YP21C) Mark Brown - No games.
(YP21D) Eddie Smyth - No games.
(YP21E) Greg James - Impressed in his only game, but he has some way to force his way into contention.
(YP21F) Robert Ashley - No games.
Gone but not Forgotten
Louis McCoy - Continues to rattle around the Gibraltarian leagues, and he is playing very well. Good for him.
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Where are they now?
Another new contract, but yet again I failed to persuade the board to give me more than a one year extension. This came in early Spring, like clockwork. But there was more to come from the board come the end of the season. They offered me another contract. I was pretty surprised, but signed with no hesitation given they were offering me a two year extension this time. Just what I wanted, but still strange timing.
In the end, that news paled into insignificance next to the other bits of news. First, we turned professional. Massive news for us, but I'm still wary. The move up is probably going to be fine given our fairly steady Champions League money, but it could go sour if we go too big, too soon. The way things are, I'm happy to stay with the current squad and not splurge too much, so hopefully that's enough to get us on a sound footing in the next couple of years before pushing on. We still need to put all our players onto full-time contracts, which will drain funds quite a bit.
Of course, professional status is all well and good, but what use is it if you can only scout in Gibraltar? Well...scouting the rest of the World would be a start. Probably a bit of a bug in the game that we've jumped from Gibraltar to the World, but I'm not going to complain. We won't make use of it fully yet given that I don't intend to purchase anyone just yet, but it's good to have, and we'll be keeping an eye out for players.
So all in all, that's been quite an off-season. Season itself was OK, about par for us. Certainly makes for an interesting season next time out. One thing's for sure, we must improve in Europe.
History and Stats
#257860 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2019/20
Expectations
Transfers
The big news this summer is clearly the two released players. I've covered Pacheco, and the difficult decision he gave me, but the third and final Casciaro brother has also left the club. He's already a club legend, so it's quite a big loss, but quality-wise, I'm afraid he had to go. Hopefully the fans aren't too raging.
In terms of players in, we just have one. I couldn't resist signing Luke Spencer from Gibraltar United. I'm trying not to make too many signings and rely on youth, but hopefully Luke can add to our ranks well with his potential.
I realised this season that I hadn't passed over responsibility for contracts to my director of football. With a club like this, I like to pass over a lot of those responsibilities, as all I need is for the big players to be renegotiated with. I often forgot, and the DoF doesn't. So I gave him the job, and then this happened. Thirty-five players released. Luckily they're all the awful filler, but I did panic initially! Just goes to prove how much deadwood we had on the books.
Squad
Youth Intake
Craig Owen is apparently "one of the better players". This usually means he's of pretty rubbish quality. Oh well, I guess I could...
Oh my...Craig Owen is not just "one of the better players", he is comfortably the best player we've ever produced in the opinion of my assistants. Probably just in time too - we have a youth left back, but he's understudy to Joseph at the moment, who is getting old. Once Owen is ready, Jamie Peace should also be ready, and Joseph can move aside. Exciting times.
We also have our customary right midfielder graduating in Kevin Ward, but he's probably the only other real prospect. I'm always wary of players with blue stars, but then that's how a lot of our youth started out. They'll get their chance, especially Mr Beaglehole. If only for his name. Oh and Kane Kitchen (Paul Bearer not pictured). Tom Campbell, Carl Dodds and Leon Hadley round out the intake.
Results
With the co-efficients increased, we started out in the 2nd Qualifying Round, and treated our fans to quite a journey.
When we travelled to Serbia, we expected a battering, but managed to keep it down to a 1-0 defeat. Let's face it, that's still not a great result in the grand scheme of things, as when I go away from home, I always go all out to get at least a goal, giving you a big advantage in the second leg. Not getting one also means that we have to keep a clean sheet back at home, which is...difficult. However, not impossible, as we proved back at the Victoria. Quite disappointing that we didn't play it at the bigger Europa Point Stadium, but 2000 fans witnessed us move into the Third Qualifying Round on penalties. Wonderful result.
After that, it was well and truly back to normal. Videoton kept us at arms length, and although it wasn't the worst result in the World, we rarely looked like we'd get near them. Even after a defeat, we moved into the Europa League Playoff for a place in the group stages. Zilina decided to show us that we're still not good enough, even for that competition. Dumped out, but significantly richer, I'd call that a win.
I'm going to blame this on our extra games in Europe...yeah, that's it.
But honestly, we just weren't good enough. We looked out of sorts from the start, and two goals from the Peach still couldn't stop us from conceding five and throwing away the season opener. Disappointing, but not the worst news in the World.
I said I would try and play youths in the cups from now on, and you're seeing the fruits of this here. From the knockout rounds onwards (so really just the last two games), I played a first eleven made up entirely of youth graduates. That team was pretty much constant throughout all our cup games (more on that later) and they did us proud here. It took a while for us to find our gear in the final. It finished 0-0, but two quick extra-time goals from - who else - Jack Peachman put us on the brink. College Europa got a goal back, but it wasn't enough, and our youth team finally has a trophy.
They're like buses! Our youth team does us proud once again by remaining unbeaten in the Rock Cup and lifting the trophy. Last year we fell at the final hurdle, and to be honest we just about did again. But once again, a brace from Peachman in the final - including a 95th minute winner - let us lift the trophy. Brilliant.
Not quite the shining season we hoped for, especially the start, but definitely enough to breeze through as Champions once again.
Stats and Key Players
Anthony Bardon once again tops the list. He could find his place under threat in future, either with oncoming youth or new signings once we turn professional. But for now, he remains supreme in the middle of the park, and I think he will for some time to come. In a similar vein, Jean-Carlos Garcia is back, and he completely deserves it. He refuses to be displaced by youth players, but the time will probably come. Jamie Robba takes his place for the first time. Derwayne Carr may be champing at the bit to get a shot, but it's hard to grant him that when Jamie is playing so well. At 28, he could play for the next ten years potentially.
Youth Round-up
2015
(YP15A) Jack Peachman - 31 goals in 36 games, including some absolutely crucial ones. He's also just become our top league goalscorer of all time. However, it's not all good - one thing I would criticise is that to date, he only has two goals in European football. That's not a problem just with him, as most of our players struggle at that level, but can Jack ever reach that? That's the question.
(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Another two appearances picked up, and he's still at the club, but he's very much on the fringes.
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Impressive when called upon in the cups. It's great to know that we have a backup as good as him ready to step in, even if Robba remains first choice.
(YP16B) Andy Keen - Another impressive season, but would really like him to add more goals.
(YP16C) Josh Miller - Featured heavily in midfield, and he's taken his chance well. Only one assist though - for one of our best passers of the ball, that's a bit odd. Could be the role I'm playing in, so we'll look to get better out of him next season.
(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Two substitute appearances, so one more than last year, but again he's way down the pecking order.
2017
(YP17A) Andy Jones - Not quite as impressive a season as he's used to, and he's fallen behind Andy Keen in terms of starting games.
(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Again, for the second year running he's featuring a lot in the team, but isn't exactly setting the field alight. With Craig Owen coming in, it'll be interesting to see how he reacts.
2018
(YP18A) Simon Forster - Followed up his twelve goals on his debut season with fourteen this time around. We don't miss Pacheco at all, although he clearly misses us given how often he talks to the media about us. But I digress - Simon Foster, along with Peachman, are the ones I really have high hopes for.
(YP18B) Luke Walker - I said that I had doubts about him last year, but he's appeared a lot more this time around and has really impressed
(YP18C) Tom Wilson - Impressed when he appeared, but hasn't appeared enough.
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - I said that this year could be his year, and it kind of was. Limited appearances, but took his chance when it came. Just needs to keep building on that.
(YP18E) Lee Ward - No games.
(YP18F) Tony Grainger - Spent the season on loan, and played a fair bit. Didn't overly impress, but solid.
(YP18G) Dylan Alman - Again, spent the season on loan, and again didn't overly impress. Can't see him getting regular games with us, so will probably be released.
2019
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson - A very good first season, all set to improve again next year.
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie - Didn't get the chance he probably deserves. Unfortunately, he's a natural DM, which we don't play. He can play at MC, but there are better players in front of him unfortunately. May end up being released to give him a chance.
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton - Not too many games for him, but played very well when he did.
(YP19D) Ian Smith - Came out of left field a bit. I said last season that he might struggle for games with plenty of people in front of him, but with a few starts and sub appearances, he's scored a fair whack of goals, so hopeful for his future.
(YP19E) Darren Chambers - The curse of the right midfielders...you guessed it, no games. He's on the list of players that will probably be released.
2020
(YP20A) Craig Owen - Our biggest prospect, at least on current ability, but I'm reluctant to really enthuse about him at the moment. He played solidly, but not fantastically in his few games, so I'm really hoping for more obviously. Next season will be the big year.
(YP20B) Kevin Ward - I really need to have a look at all these right midfielders and cull some unfortunately. No games.
(YP20C) Kane Kitchen - No games.
(YP20D) Tom Campbell - No games.
(YP20E) Carl Dodds - No games.
(YP20F) Brian Beaglehole - No games.
(YP20G) Leon Hadley - No games.
Gone but not Forgotten
Louis McCoy - Continues to rattle around the Gibraltarian leagues, and he is playing very well. Good for him.
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven
Another slight pay-rise, by another £25, but still just a one year contract. Junior Coaching was also increased in the off-season, which should make a bit of a difference.
As a generality, we've had a great season. One dropped trophy, but was fully made up for by two fantastic cup runs with our youth, and going further than we ever have before in Europe. What do we want next season? Just the usual - go as far as we can in Europe, win all the trophies we can, and develop those youth players.
Job Interview Round-up
Hereford United | Raith Rovers (for a second time)
Oxford United | Sutton United
History and Stats
WILL BE ADDED LATER
#257859 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Cheers! Guess you'll just have to wait and see how long success takes to come around...
As you'll see as the years tick by, it's not quite as frustrating as Gibraltar United ended up being to me!
#257857 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Gibraltar Bonus Update
Gibraltar Update
An eventful few years I suppose, given that we managed our first win against Singapore. However, the rest of the results were a mix of lucky draws and absolute hidings. It also saw the advent of the Nations League that UEFA have set up. Surely our best chance of results, right? Naaaah...we were pumped in all six matches, and ended with nothing.
The draw for the European Championship Qualifiers came around, and it was one we couldn't really get up for. In the end, we received a better draw than we could have perhaps hoped for, with a lot of sides low in their pots. However, it's still going to be a massive task to get anything.
But then...
I was already feeling pretty down about managing Gibraltar, as despite being able to mould my players for Lincoln into a decent outfit, we're absolutely miles away for Gibraltar. And if there's one thing I am, it's massively flaky. The first question in said press conference asked why I kept picking most of my Lincoln players. So I stormed out. You're seriously asking me why I pick mostly Lincoln players? Players from the side who are absolutely dominating most domestic competitions? Seriously?
Promptly resigned. Let someone else deal with them. I may be back once the nation gets bigger, but for now I'll be concentrating on Lincoln.
#257856 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2018/19
A good start to the season as the board approved step 1 of our masterplan to be self-sufficient. Our youth facilities look to be approved to "adequate" (pfft) and our junior coaching gets ever better. Already looking forward to the next intake, although our youth facilities won't be finished for a while.
Expectations
The usual expectations, and the usual replies from me. I'll be going all out to win all four competitions.
Squad
Youth continues to pervade our first team squad, and in the next few years I hope the numbers will increase. I'll be starting to let go a few of the older players to replace them with better youths, with a view to playing with line-ups fully comprised of youth products. That's probably a while away yet though.
Further to that, I've managed to persuade them to give us a parent club. I'm not actually sure why to be honest. It'll be of decent financial benefit, but as you'll see by the clubs returned, I'm not sure we'll get much benefit in terms of players on loan. Not even sure we could sign any given our scouting range. But hey, we've now got links out into Europe, which hopefully paves the way for our scouting range getting upgraded before long. Rizespor were eventually chosen as the only top-flight side returned. I'm all a bit meh about it.
Youth Intake
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson | (YP19B) Ross Donnachie | (YP19C) Ryan Lawton
(YP19D) Ian Smith | (YP19E) Darren Chambers |
Results
We navigated the first qualifying round well enough, thanks to a brilliant first leg performance, but I wasn't exactly happy with our second leg. The less said about BATE the better - we set up badly for the first leg, and once again we headed into the second knowing we had pretty much no chance. We really need to start setting ourselves up to make us hard to beat, otherwise this will keep happening.
Routine win, but one that comes against our bogey team. A good start to the season.
Another routine performance, unbeaten throughout the competition, ending up with a very comfortable performance in the final.
But we couldn't quite close out that third cup.
There's a bit of a story behind this though. After a great youth intake, I decided to accelerate my plans slightly. If I want to rely on youth, I'm going to need to start believing in them. I've been giving a lot of them starts and sub appearances in the league, but where's the pressure in that? Lose and we'll probably still be Champions. So I played 9 youth graduates in my starting line-up in the final of the Rock Cup.
Have to say, it backfired. Probably harsh to say so on Leo FC - who are in the 2nd tier - as they matched us every step of the way, but to be honest, even our youth players should have enough to beat them. It was a classic battle for the neutrals, and - to their credit - twice our youngsters fought from behind to draw level. First from 2-0, then from 3-2. Unfortunately, we ended up losing on penalties. A missed opportunity, but I don't regret it.
A much more assured performance in the league as we strolled towards the title, taking it by a massive margin.
Stats and Key Players
Jean-Carlos Garcia - Another appearance for our stalwart right back. Completely deserved, and he's one of the players who hasn't been threatened with being replaced by a youth player. Can't last forever, and I'm not going to lose sleep over it given how good he's been.
Anthony Bardon - Fan favourite, absolutely fantastic in the middle of the pitch...he's crucial to how we play. Again, he's not been replaced as of yet, and again, who cares with this form?
Francisco Tamayo Pacheco - The Spanaltarian striker gets a spot on this list for two reasons. One, because he's been fantastic. Eighteen goals and nine assists, but that's come to be expected of him. Second though, because his time at the club has come to an end. With so many young strikers coming through, I made the difficult decision to let him go. As expected, the board are raging, but I stand by the decision. Jack Peachman outscored him, and we have a few more coming through. So it's thank you and goodnight for him.
Youth Round-up
2015
(YP15A) Jack Peachman - Just keeps getting better and better. Nineteen goals, ten assists, and our absolute first choice striker. I've also started to dabble in playing an AML instead of an ML, so he has started to feature out wide too. He's even awesome at that. The only worry on the horizon is not playing him in future if we get better players in, this guy deserves better than that.
(YP15B) Louis McCoy - It was always going to one players misfortune to be the first released, and unfortunately, it was Louis. Being a goalkeeper, he would've had to have been exceptional to stand out, and with Robba as number 1 and Derwayne Carr as number 2, I released him for the good of his career. Thankfully, he was picked up by Britannia soon after, and is now their number 1. Fantastic news for the guy.
(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Only two pretty unimpressive substitute appearances for Andrew, and unfortunately it looks like it's over for him.
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - Regressed slightly and didn't get as much time to play, but he remains our number 2, and hopefully he gets more time next year.
(YP16B) Andy Keen - An impressive season as he featured heavily on the right. Twelve assists, but I would have hoped for a few more goals from him. If he adds that to his game, he has the chance to get even better.
(YP16C) Josh Miller - We were short in the middle of the pitch recently. Fortunately, we have Josh. We don't play with AMCs, but he seems happy enough in a slightly advanced MC role, and he's been fantastic when playing alongside the more experienced Bardon. Do want him to add more assists though.
(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Still well outside of contention for starts. One sub appearance probably isn't enough for development.
2017
(YP17A) Andy Jones - Andy Keen started more games than him this season, but when he did play, Jones impressed. I think he has fallen behind slightly though after a very good season last time out.
(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Still struggling to displace Joseph permanently, but he played a good few games again this time around, and hasn't done much wrong. Hasn't set the world alight either though.
2018
(YP18A) Simon Forster - First full season, twelve goals in twelve games. And you wonder why I'm releasing Pacheco?
(YP18B) Luke Walker - Played less than I thought he would when I updated you last season, and it's making me think I was perhaps too hasty in my effusive praise. Still one to watch though.
(YP18C) Tom Wilson - I said last time I was dreaming of a Wilson/Walker partnership. Wilson did not play a single game this season. Oops.
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - Another upcoming striker, but only one substitute appearance. Next year should be his year though.
(YP18E) Lee Ward - Another player that hasn't played a single game thanks to the queue being extremely long.
(YP18F) Tony Grainger - Again, no games.
(YP18G) Dylan Alman - Appeared twice, and got one goal. Not a bad return, but he is in quite a long queue, so not sure if he'll make it here.
2019
(YP19A) Andy Hutchinson - Great to have another midfielder in the ranks. Managed seven appearances, and looked great in the process.
(YP19B) Ross Donnachie - A more defensively minded player, but another center mid. Beautiful! No games yet though, but that'll change.
(YP19C) Ryan Lowton - A pretty awkward start in the couple of games he featured in, but plenty of time for him yet.
(YP19D) Ian Smith - No games yet, but given how oversubscribed we are on strikers at the moment, it's not a surprise.
(YP19E) Darren Chambers - The curse of the right midfielders...you guessed it, no games.
End of Season Review
Fans' Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven
Another new contract awarded, with a £25 pay rise. Yay! That was a compromise after the board refused to offer me more than a year extension. A bit annoying, but I don't think I'm in any danger of being let go, so not too much of a problem.
I remember during my run on FM14 that employment-wise, I was pretty much toxic to anyone outside of Gibraltar. It seems that in FM15, the increase in reputation of clubs here has made quite a difference, as I'm getting job offers all over the place. Raith Rovers, Hyde, Dagenham and Redbridge, Altrincham, Eastbourne Borough and Colwyn Bay all offered me an itnerview, and all of them were turned down. Nothing against them personally, but its decades before I even think about moving on.
Perhaps some interesting news elsewhere is that Gibraltar United have received a consortium takeover. Not sure how much benefit they'll get from it - could this mean a bit of competition? Maybe that's why the board refused to allow me to go on another coaching course...
Next season I want to start seriously thinking about improving youth. I'll look to play entire youth teams in the cups and see if we can improve them that way. Might lose a few we should win, but them's the breaks.
History and Stats
#257401 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2017/18
Expectations
The board expectations are the same as always. As are mine.
Squad
In a new section, I'll outline my squad for the coming season. I've decided to do this thanks to trimming things down - I spent the last Gibraltar save I had struggling to keep the squad down what with having no reserve team, and only being able to register 35 players. Now that we have reserves and that registration rule is gone, I can use the reserves as a feeder team, and keep my first team squad as small as possible.
Robba will be the first choice obviously, but hopefully I can give Derwayne Carr a few games as the season goes on.
Two left-backs, two right-backs, five center-backs...pretty much sorted in terms of squad depth barring injuries. What I really want though is to start adding to the numbers of youth players we're including. Some of our big players - Chipolina and Casciaro in particular - are getting on a bit, so we'll be hoping for getting some youth graduates in for those positions in the coming seasons. Joseph, Chipolina, Casciaro and Garcia will be our starting line, but there's some nice backup in there. Jamie Peace will feature heavily.
This is where things get a bit tentative. We really struggle to bolster our numbers for midfield, so it's lucky we're only using four there. We're well served on the right, thanks to our youth academy churning out nothing but right midfielders. We're weak on the left though, and although our first choice centers are strong, we're pretty thin on the ground.
Four strikers, the perfect number, but I'd be amazed - not to mention worried - if Duarte is playing too many games. I'll rotate between the other three, and hopefully give the Peach a good few games.
Transfers
Just the one signing, but one that is greatly needed. Scott Ballantine will fill a gap we have on the left of midfield, and at 21 he's got plenty of room to improve.
Youth Intake
(YP18A) Simon Foster | (YP18B) Luke Walker | (YP18C) Tom Wilson
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson | (YP18E) Lee Ward
(YP18F) Tony Grainger | (YP18G) Dylan Alman
Results
A wonderful start to our season as we served up a goal-feast for our fans at the Victoria Stadium. We were already 2-0 up from the first leg, but the second we just blew Tre Penne out of the water. Ten goals, and just one in return. A burial.
We were then up against Slovan Bratislava in the 2nd round, for our usual battling performance that ultimately ends in defeat. We played fantastically for about an hour in the first leg before Bratislava broke our resolve. We couldn't stop them adding another two soon after, putting us in a very tough position when we travelled to Slovakia. I went all out, and played very well going forward. We got the three goals we needed, but unfortunately conceded six, getting picked off every time it looked like we might have mounted a comeback. Disappointing, but there were definitely shoots of hope in there.
That's better - we win our trophy back after last season's disappointment.
And another trophy won back. We disappointed in our final group game, but by that time it was already all over. We strolled through our semi-final with St Josephs, and then destroyed Britannia in the final to take the title.
But this wasn't so good. We'd had a great season, so I'm not sure what it was that ruined this one. Maybe we were too cocky, or maybe the squad was just too tired, but we absolutely did not turn up against Gibraltar United. They went 2-0 up, and we got a goal back, but from that moment on we failed to start any kind of comeback beyond that. They got a third, and that was that.
Last season we struggled in the league at times. Not this time though.
We had a wonderful league season, finally settling into a tactic that suits us, and we were very close to having a perfect season. I expect a few bad results, but outside of those occurrences, I want our team to be utterly dominant. Think it's safe to say we were. Job done.
Fourteen points clear, three trophies, just gutting that we threw away the Rock Cup.
Stats and Key Players
Francisco Tamayo Pacheco | Anthony Bardon | Jean-Carlos Garcia
It was quite tough to pick just three players for this section. To be honest, a few youth players would've made it in here usually, but they get their own section, so **** 'em :p
Pacheco once again gets a spot thanks to his goalscoring exploits, but I want to give special props to Anthony Bardon. Eleven goals, thirteen assists, and an 84% pass accuracy. Just a wonderful season for him. He's only 25, so coming into his prime. Unless we get some good youths in at center mid, then he's going to there for a while yet. Jean-Carlos Garcia deserves credit too, going about his business quietly and confidently. He started whenever fit, managing 29 starts and was constantly solid.
Youth Round-up
2015
(YP15A) Jack Peachman - Earlier in the season, we made a lot of substitute appearances, usually coming on at half time once our first choice two had done some damage. Later on he got a few more starts, but all the way through the season, he did what he does best. Scoring goals. Eighteen this time around, including two international goals in three appearances. Delighted with him so far.
(YP15B) Louis McCoy - He was on loan last year and did well, but unfortunately he's fallen behind Derwayne Carr in the pecking order. He'll be made available for loan again, but I imagine he'll get released before long.
(YP15C) Andrew Baker - Suffered from being good, but not quite as good as others who have graduated to our right wing. He's still a good option though, impressing on his three appearances. However, he may well end up on the released list before long.
2016
(YP16A) Derwayne Carr - He made his breakthrough this season, and was thrown a few starting spots. He certainly didn't let us down. 9 appearances and 9 conceded, which doesn't sound particularly great, but he didn't cost us any games, and I was fairly happy with how he did. He will remain behind Jamie Robba in the queue for game-time though.
(YP16B) Andy Keen - Didn't get too much time, but a pretty much ever-present on the bench. When he came on, he made an impression, so will be interesting to see if he can build himself up enough to push for a more regular place.
(YP16C) Josh Miller - A central midfielder at this club is like Gold dust. It also helps that the guy is very, very good. Stepped in alongside Bardon mostly, and played very well. Hoping to use him a bit more next season.
(YP16D) Fraser Willis - Unfortunately, not a single appearance for Fraser, and he'll be released soon enough I think.
2017
(YP17A) Andy Jones - Wonderful. He started on the right the majority of our games, and was a constant thorn in the oppositions side. And he's only 16...can't wait to see how he improves.
(YP17B) Jamie Peace - Joseph was our top left back, but given he can play on the left of midfield where we're particularly weak, Jamie got a good few chances to impress. And impress he did. A future legend of the club thanks to being in a position we're light in.
2018
(YP18A) Simon Forster - Didn't have too long to impress after just graduating a few months ago, but he did net a single goal. My assistants think he is the best prospect of the bunch, so high hopes for him.
(YP18B) Luke Walker - As is so often the case, my youth intake contained a few players that I thought were better than the "best" prospect. Luke Walker is indeed one of these. Slotted straight in, and impressed massively in his five games.
(YP18C) Tom Wilson - No games yet, but I'm already dreaming of a future defensive partnership of Walker and Wilson. How good would that be?
(YP18D) Andrew Dickinson - A brief substitute appearance, nothing special shown. Early days.
(YP18E) Lee Ward - *sigh* can we PLEASE stop getting right midfielders? No games yet, but will he be able to replace Andy Jones? I have my doubts, but stats-wise, he looks a prospect.
(YP18F) Tony Grainger - He'll become an understudy to Jean-Carlos Garcia, but he's far from being good enough to be anything more than that, at least at the moment. Will keep an eye on him.
(YP18G) Dylan Alman - Jamie Peace may be our big prospect on the left, but Dylan could well displace him if his first appearance is anything to go by.
End of Season Review
Fans Player of the Year | Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven
Well, that was quite a promising season. Our strangehold on the league has resumed, but at the moment it's just a light grasping of the throat. We could well regress back next season, but hopefully not. We haven't really gone much further in Europe, but the main positive is that our youth academy is paying dividends. There was a game late in the season when eight of my graduates started, and we won. The dream is to totally fill the team with youths, so we'll see how that goes.
As a quick Gibraltar update, we're now starting to see the first raft of naturalised Gibraltarians come into our National Pool. Ibrahim Kallon and Francisco Tamayo Pacheco are both available for selection now, which is a big boost.
History and Stats
#257397 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2016/17
Expectations
Let's face it, until we progress in the Champions League, this section will always be the same. The board will ALWAYS expect us to win the league and the Rock Cup, and not care about the other two competitions. And I'll always want to win everything. So yeah...let's just win.
Transfers
Tyson Ruiz | Kevin Martinez Rodriguez | Ivan Lobato
Estiven | Francisco Tamayo Pacheco
Youth Intake
Earlier in the season, I managed to persaude the board to increase our junior coaching. This usually means that the standard of youths increases, so did it do the job?
Andy Jones (YP17a)
Jamie Peace (YP17b)
Sort of. Only two players deemed worthy of tracking, but both should work out pretty well. Jamie Peace will go straight into the side, but unfortunately Andy Jones is yet another right midfielder - could we please just hold off on producing them for a few years? We have enough.
Results
We started out, as is traditional, with our absolute lifeblood - the Champions League qualifiers. We faced TNS for the second time in as many years, and managed to exact some measure of revenge on them. It was a very tight first leg, but a 1-0 defeat away was pretty much the nightmare result. Luckily we completely turned it around back on the rock with a comfortable 3-0 win. Unfortunately, that was about as good as it got. A torrid first leg performance against Dinamo meant that we welcomed them back home knowing we were, to all intents and purposes, absolutely out. We gave a very good performance though, only losing 2-1, and that gives us hope for next year.
This was not so good. It's only a glorified friendly, but any chance of a trophy should be taken with both hands. It was a storming game for the neutrals, but we slipped badly in the final period of the game, and paid for it. Well done to St Joseph's, but we have to improve.
This wasn't much better. We got to the last four, but our now traditional mid-season slump intersected with that semi final, and Man 62 totally deserved their win. Captain Fantastic Chipolina chipped in a consolation, but the game was gone by then. Two trophies down, two left.
That's more like it. When the Lynx game went on, and on, and on, I expected us to end up on the losing side and leave us with no cup trophies. Pacheco - who was having a fantastic first season - popped up and got a late, late winner. From then on our form picked up, and although Boca put up a good fight in the final, we never really looked like losing. If we were going to win a trophy, this was the one we wanted.
I've talked about tradition a lot in this post, and here's another - the Lincoln mid-season league travesty. And that was joined later on by the Lincoln Late Season Crisis. Our mid-season form dipped, but early in January we were well ahead of the pack. They closed the gap, but we were far enough ahead to stay on top. That all changed in April, when three terrible results threatened to send us into a tail-spin.
Gibraltar United and Britannia got the best of us by the odd goal in two absolute classics (for the neutral), but don't worry guys, we're still ahead. And we get to play bottom of the table Lions next! Yay!
I won't say much about this game, but what I will say is that if we won, we would've been Champions, and that we were 3-0 up at half-time. We had a man sent off early in the second half, and I stupidly decided to keep things the way they were. I may well have gone and looked at something else, because when I came back it was 3-3. I tried to stop the rot, but then they got a 4th. Absolutely terrible.
Luckily the squad reacted to my bollocking well enough to stroll out 5-0 winners in our final league game to take the title. And with that, a huge sigh of relief.
Stats and Key Players
George Cabrera | Francisco Tamayo Pacheco | Brian Perez
Three players made our season, and unsurprisingly two of them were strikers. Pacheco had a wonderful first season with the club, scoring twelve and assisting six. Thanks to our new and extremely basic 4-4-2 formation, there's a chance for two strikers to grab the limelight. So George Cabrera takes another spot amongst the pat-on-the-back crew. His twenty goals pretty in twenty-one starts pretty much got us the title. Brian Perez was one of the more unsung heroes, but one I massively appreciate. He was the leading assist maker with nine, but also completed a ridiculous 1916 passes in the season, attempting 2424. I'd have liked his percentage (79%) to be higher, but when you're completing an average of around 58 passes a match, I can't really complain. Hopefully he keeps it up next season.
Youth Round-up
More from what will end up being a pretty huge section in future.
2015
Jack Peachman (YP15a) - He featured in 20 games this season, with 14 starts, and managed 11 goals. Not a bad return for the Peach. He's only 17, but I'd have hoped for more improvement in his attributes by now. Hopefully he picks up slightly in the coming seasons, and I imagine with me now playing two strikers, he should get more game time.
Andrew Baker (YP15c) - Started a few games, but struggled to hold down his place. Looks like he's been usurped by later graduates, but maybe a loan deal can be sorted out.
2016
Derwayne Carr (YP16a) - My assistant believed Derwayne to be the most talented out of 2016s graduates, but he's struggled for time this season. I'm always reluctant to throw a youth goalkeeper in, and Jamie Robba has played very well. But when he's been called upon, he's been good.
Andy Keen (YP16b) - Another man who suffered from the emergence of Andy Jones. He looks very talented, but didn't manage a single appearance in his first full season. I'll go with him as second choice next season, and give him some time to show what he can do.
Josh Miller (YP16c) - A very promising start in his first full season at the club. An impressive level of passing accuracy, and a good average rating, and I'm pretty excited to see how he turns out.
Fraser Willis (YP16d) - Not too many chances in the side, and doesn't look like he'll be up to much. Remains to be seen whether I'll keep him around in the coming seasons.
2017
Andy Jones (YP17a) - One of our many MR prospects, but went straight into the side ahead of his older youth buddies. Four assists in his seven games so far is a great record for someone so young, and I'd imagine he'll be given the starting berth on the right when he's fit. I'll try and rotate slightly though.
Jamie Peace (YP17b) - Only arrived a few months ago, but he's been pretty much ever-present. Eight starts, and a very good level of performance throughout. Interesting to see how he progresses when he gets a clear run at the first time for an entire season next year.
New Contract
And again, as is tradition, it's new contract time. Thank you very much.
End of Season Review
Best Eleven | Overall Best Eleven | Fans Player of the Year
The club are happy with the season, as am I. Although it would have been nicer to pick up the cup trophies too, we achieved our objective - as long as we win the league every year, then we're good.
Another bit of news came out of the blue late in the season when our chairman decided that it was time to move on.
A pretty smooth transition, and my job isn't under threat, but no real investment mentioned. Our financial state is pretty good at the moment, so not too worried about his talk of restructuring finances.
Next season, I'm just desperate for some stability. I want to go back to the first season where we strolled through domestically, rather than worry about getting pipped to the title. Over that, I want to progress in Europe. The second qualifying round should be our absolute minimum, with a stretch objective of the third and beyond. We're maybe not quite there yet, but we have to progress if we want to start picking up the cash to really improve the side.
#257394 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2015/16
Expectations
Board
Argus Insurance Premier Division: Win it
Rock Cup: Win it
Pepe Reyes Cup: Not Important
Premier Cup: Not Important
Me
Argus Insurance Premier Division: Retain, as we should every year
Rock Cup: Win it
Pepe Reyes Cup: Win it
Premier Cup: Win it
Transfers
This was going to be a big summer for us. Why? See below.
A mass exodus of players from the squad as contracts came to an end and players decided that they'd rather go and stagnate rather than stick with a league-winning side. Me? Bitter? Naaah...Liam Walker isn't pictured there, but he ended up leaving, and to be honest if I'd kept him and lost the rest, I wouldn't be worried.
We brought in a few players, but nowhere near as many as were let go. Quality was also pretty tough to replace.
Ibrahim Kallon | Liam Clarke | Robert Gulling
George Cabrera | Jean Carlos Garcia | Jamie Robba
Will they be enough? I have my doubts.
Youth Intake
Another fairly decent youth intake, and this time around we'll have four players graduate
Andy Keen (YP16b) | Josh Miller (YP16c) | Derwayne Carr (YP16a) | Fraser Willis (YP16d)
A bit annoying that probably our best prospect is a MR, exactly the same as one of our best from last year. My assistants seem to think that Derwayne Carr is the best though, and also a bit annoying that he's a keeper - the same as another graduate from last year. However, the other two - being a CM and a DC - are spread out better. Quite happy with these four, and I'll be monitoring their progress.
Results
Absolutely gutting.
A terrible first leg gave way to a truly battling performance in the second, and at one point we were heading to extra-time. It took a late goal from TNS to shatter our dreams, and set things back to more like how we expected. I actually think I would've rather gone through the regular six or seven goal defeats than something like this - we should really be through.
Another trophy early on. It was pretty much all wrapped up in the first half, and although we conceded a late goal, we deserved our win.
Unbeaten once again in the Premier Cup, although once again there was a disappointing draw in the group stage. Can't really complain though as we pick up a second trophy.
*record scratch*
But here's where things go a bit awry. Knocked out of the cup in the quarter final, and I can't say that we didn't deserve it. St Joseph's appear to be our nearest rivals at the moment, and a ding-dong battle of a match ended 1-1. It looked like we would head for a penalties, b ut a 118th minute goal for the opposition sent them through at our expense. Disappointing, but we'll get over it. We'll walk the league instead, right?
Oh deary me...
Last year we were impervious and won the league at a canter. This time around we really struggled. We started off just as good as we always were, but as injuries piled up due to low fitness, our squad looked worryingly thin and short on quality. The losses kept coming and the gap we'd opened up narrowed considerably. We were lucky that the teams around us - particularly St Joseph's - failed to take the initiative. If they had won some of their games, they would've been out of set by Spring. Fortunately, they didn't, and we went into our final two games knowing that two wins would hand us the title. One of those matches was against St Joseph's, who were a point ahead. A strong 3-1 win put us in pole position, and fate in our own hands, and we closed it out with a hard-fought 2-0 win on final day against almost relegated Europa Point. So hard-fought, in fact, that it took until the 88th minute to make the breakthrough. A draw would have been enough in the end thanks to St Joseph's drawing in their final game, but it was great to win it on our own terms.
Only eighteen points separating top and bottom...last year it was 40. That tells you how badly we did this season. Still though, we won it, and we'll be in the Champions League next year.
Stats and Key Players
Kyle Casciaro | Brian Perez
Joseph | Roy Chipolina
Extra kudos to Chipolina who managed to pack in being a captain, our starting center back, and then later in the season, also our first choice striker. He even got a few goals. Hero.
Youth Round-up
I'll post up the attributes of last year's youth players currently, and you've seen their stats above, but I'll hopefully redo this one to be able to track how they're doing a bit better.
Jack Peachman (YP15a) - Had a bit of an injury-hit season and didn't make too many appearances, but when he did he scored. Still have high hopes for him.
Louis McCoy - Didn't really get much of a game thanks to the arrival of Jamie Robba. Unfortunate, but not sure if he'll make too many appearances - maybe in the cups.
Andrew Baker - The Peach may have caught my eye, but it's Baker who has definitely been the pick of the bunch. Not sure if it's my tactics, but he's really thriving whenever he gets a game, netting a few more goals in the process. It'll be interesting to see how he fares now that we have a potentially higher rated youth coming in to the squad next year. I'll try and rotate between the two.
New Contract
Another new contract, and another year.
End of Season Review
I can't say I'm exactly delighted with the season, but we did what we needed to do. I was probably premature in thinking that this would be easier than FM14, as the increase in quality of our players has led to them leaving the club en masse. We've got a real job on trying to keep ahead of the competition, let alone getting good enough to progress in Europe. In other news, almost a year to the day after he left us, Liam Walker retired. It's a sobering reminder of what we could have had, and I've got to say it's pretty frustrating. Can't be helped though.
Next year, the league is an absolute must, and I'd like to get to at least the second qualifying round of Europe. Beyond that, anything else is a bonus.
Gibraltar Update
Two years have passed, so I guess I better update you on how we blew away the competition in the European Championship qualifiers.
Nailed it.
What can I say really? We were dreadful, and we still haven't won a game. Four goals in sixteen games, and...well, too many conceded. Absolute rock bottom, and it's probably a good thing that we can't be FIFA ranked. We now have two years of friendlies before qualifying starts again, so hopefully by then we can improve slightly.
#257391 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
Season 2014/15
Expectations
Board
Argus Insurance Premier Division: Win it
Rock Cup: Win it
Pepe Reyes Cup: Not Important
Premier Cup: Not Important
Me
Argus Insurance Premier Division: Win it
Rock Cup: Win it
Pepe Reyes Cup: Win it
Premier Cup: Win it
Transfers
None. I decided to rest on my laurels slightly and keep th e squad we had. To be honest, there isn't really much value out there for a club like us, so I'm happy to rely on youth players to fill in any gaps. We should have enough. Should.
Youth Intake
My first youth intake, and one I can get pretty excited about. I mislaid a screen of all our players, but I managed to pick out three in particular that I'll be tracking.
Jack Peachman (YP15a) - The Peacher (as approximately no-one will be calling him) is my most exciting prospect. Maybe it's because he's a striker, or maybe it's that 14 for finishing, but if I can nurture him well, he will become absolutely deadly at this level. I signed him immediately, and even found time to give him a few games towards the end of the season. Just you wait til you see how he did...
Louis McCoy (YP15b) - Always good to get a 'keeper in your ranks, and although he's nowhere near the quality of current number 1 Navas (and probably never will be), I'm happy to see how he goes.
Andrew Baker (YP15c) - We're a little light on the flanks, and although I usually use advanced wingers, my current tactic will have a nice gap for this guy to get a couple of games towards the end of the season. A decent prospect.
Results
Europe up first, as we took our bow in the competition. Now 2014/15 saw the entrance of Gibraltarian sides into European competition for the first time, so I expected to start early. What I didn't expect was that the day I took over was the day of the second leg of our first qualifying round tie. What was also a surprise - but a nicer one - was that we were already 2-0 up after the first leg.
We closed out the tie well, and moved into the second round with surprising ease. Bear in mind that my early years in FM14 involved getting absolutely pummeled by everyone we came up against, so to only go out 3-1 on aggregate to Maccabi Tel Aviv was a nice surprise. I'm not sure whether we just set up well, or if they were having a bad day, or a bit of both, but I'm not going to complain. Very encouraging signs for next season.
An early season trophy for us as we passed our first domestic test with aplomb. It probably should have been easier, but I'll take a 2-1 at this stage. It's not quite the domination I was expecting, but to be honest, I'm still getting to grips with how to play with this team.
Even better news in the league cup. We had a couple of small scares, but remained unbeaten all the way through. College Europa pushed us close in the semi, almost pipping us on penalties, but Brittania couldn't live with us in the final, and that's trophy number two.
Closely followed by trophy number three. Only one goal conceded and thirteen scored in our four national cup games. Barely troubled, and it's starting to look ominous for the rest of the country. Has our strangehold begun?
And finally, the new, improved league. Seven more games to play, but it still ended up a procession. I was not happy with our form at all in the early season. Although starting strongly, we were leaking goals, taking until the 7th game to manage a clean sheet. It was that 5-4 loss to Brittania that really annoyed me though. We were behind for long periods of the game, but finally nosed ahead at 4-3 before collapsing once again. We need to be much better than that, and luckily we were for the rest of the season, finishing well clear of the opposition.
You may also notice that there's a flurry of youth scorers in the latter games. More on that later...
Thirteen points clear, a clean sweep of trophies, but still just that second qualifying round in Europe. Obvious where we need to improve then.
Stats and Key Players
Stats 1 | Stats 2
Liam Walker - What can I say about the man? I built my formation around having him just behind the striker, and he repaid me with twenty-four goals in thirty-two games. A wonderful return from a wonderful player. Unfortunately, there's also negatives to the story. I think his CA and rep have been boosted to the point that he realises he's too good for Lincoln. His contract is up, and he has no intention of sticking around. I'll try and persuade him, but looks like he will be a star that burns out rather than fades away. To be honest, I'm not really sure where he could go that would give him Champions League football. He's probably good enough for League Two clubs, possibly League One. So very annoying that he doesn't want to stay. If he retires without a club, I'll be raging.
Roy Chipolina - Captain Fantastic has been a rock at the back for us. While all around us there were injuries and lack of fitness, Chipolina strode through the season fantastically. He'll remain our captain next time out, and hopefully we can add some more trophies to his list of achievements before he retires in a few years time.
Kyle Casciaro - One of the three Casciaro brothers in the squad, but this season definitely the most important one. Liam Walker was great behind the striker, but I often struggled to get a forward that could match him. When Casciaro played - he was injured a lot - he stepped up to the plate with fourteen goals. He's one of the many players out of contract at the end of the year, but hopefully I'll have a better chance of keeping him than I did Walker.
Youth Round-up
I'll hopefully keep this section each update to give a run-down of how the youth players I've brought in have done. I didn't expect to be doing it this early, but two players in particular have impressed me so much that I was compelled to.
Jack Peachman was thrown in for the last handful of games once we had pretty much wrapped up the league. This was made easier thanks to our strikers struggling to score. In his first couple of games he was pretty unremarkable coming off the bench. But then I started him...and he grabbed three goals in three games. A wonderful return from the fifteen year old, and I'm so happy for him. I'm even happier that I may have found a hometown hero this early in the save. I could be premature with that, but if he spends the next ten or so seasons scoring goal after goal before passing on to more talented strikers, I'll be happy.
Of course, anything the Peach can do, our lesser known youth signing can do better. Andrew Baker started a similar number of games to the Peach, but he managed four goals. From right midfield. An amazing return from what I hope is someone with an amazing future ahead.
New Contract
Towards the end of the season, my success led me to be offered a new contract. Happy to accept on the current terms and vision, and I'll be here for another year.
End of Season Review
The board are very happy, as am I. I didn't expect to be quite as dominant just yet, especially when my form dipped slightly early in the season. My European performance was even pretty good. However, there are storm clouds on the horizon. As I've already said, there are a number of important players with their contracts running out. I'll be trying to renew as many as possible, but I expect several will leave. My challenge will then become trying to keep up this form with what could be a decimated team. It'll be an interesting challenge.
#257390 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
The Club
The board's expectations are unsurprising. There is no way we're going into any competitions as anything other than favourites. The only concession is that some of the cup competitions are expendable. Not to me they're not - I'll be going to win the domestic quadruple each and every season - if I drop a few cups, I won't be devastated, but if I drop a league...I'll be absolutely furious.
I'm fairly happy with the squad - as I should be given it's arguably the best in the country - but there are gaps. I think that's more down to us having players who are very, very good being compared to those that are just average for the league. Navas and Walker are the key players, especially the latter who is an absolute beast for this level.
In terms of youth, there's probably only one promising player. I'll promote Leon Clinton up to the first team and hopefully give him a few games domestically to see if he can make the grade.
Staff-wise, we need a few additions. We definitely have enough to get by now though. Fun fact - Charles Polson isn't just a real person (I expected him to be just generated), he's also the man who formed the club. Adds a little bit more to the story for me.
The Nation
I know saying "be competitive" is just a "please don't embarrass us", but even that might be a stretch. I'll be happy to better some of the results they've managed in real life up to now, so that's an aggregate score of -18 over three games...
#257389 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
James Spiteri Relives a Past Life
The Setup
Running pretty light in terms of setup initially, with just England and Scotland loaded.
EDIT: Should say that this screenshot appears to be out of date. On checking the actual game, only Gibraltar was loaded. I've added England and Scotland again, so they'll arrive at the end of the first season.
The Manager
Meet James Spiteri
I did some research (alright, Wikipedia) on Gibraltarian names, and found that there's a bit of Maltese heritage there. So what better avenue to go down for my struggling international manager than adding a second nationality of another diddy of the international game! James is a Maltese-born football fanatic who moved to Gibraltar with his Gibraltarian father and English mother when he was three. He grew up getting the benefit of both Premier League and Spanish football, and was delighted when Gibraltarian teams were finally admitted to UEFA. He had always been a fan of the league, but had his head turned by the glamour of Real Madrid. Now that Lincoln have a shot of glory, however, he decided to forego his football playing career - totally not because he was dreadful - and forge his way into management. After impressing at several amateur clubs around the island, he put in an application for the vacant jobs at Lincoln and Gibraltar. Thinking they couldn't really do much better, they offered him an interview, and the rest as they say is history.
I've tried to capture how I would rate myself (if I was being extremely generous). No idea how much these attributes will affect anything - guess I'll find out.
#257359 Between a Rock and a Hard Place
forameus
Rocking their World: Gibraltar Redux
Max Harvey Relives a Past Life
The History
Way back in the early months of FM14, I was struggling. I just couldn't find a save that grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. I had great fun with FM13, but it seemed like it just wasn't to be.
Then SI released their Gibraltar file, and my interest was piqued.
I started out as just the national manager, dreaming of unprecedented success. We were predictably laughable, and a few issues with the DB caused that to die. I started again, forgetting about doing any kind of career update, in case it all fell apart again. But it didn't. Around sixty seasons later, I retired the manager, having won two Europa League titles, and three Champions League titles amongst others.
The Present
So with that in mind, I'm back, this time with an updated database thanks to SI. I'll notice things a lot more as I travel through the save, but there are a few headline changes that will change the landscape slightly.
The Aims
You'll see two logos up at the top, but for those that haven't twigged, I'll be undertaking dual management once again. Firstly, I'll be in charge of the Gibraltar National Team. I thought long and hard over this, but decided to bite the bullet and go ahead. I'm hoping the FA are loyal enough to not care how terrible we are for the first few years to give me a chance to settle in and bring the quality up. Ideally, I'm here for the duration, just as long as I'll be at the helm at my club side.
But then you already know what club side I'll be at...it just has to be Lincoln. I tried, I really did. I tried to move down to the second tier and pick a side with potential - and more importantly with a logo and kits - but after using newly formed Gibraltar United as a test, I couldn't stop looking longingly over at my old side. Sure they're the best side in the land, and some may complain that this makes it easy, but I'm cool with that. The real battle is not on Gibraltar itself - it's in Europe, and in Europe I'm sure we'll still be reassuringly guff.
My aims are fairly simple, and can be split into two sections
International
Let's face it, outside of the first two, we're unlikely to manage them. I added the two specific mentions to England and Spain due to the rivalry, but the former don't really matter. If we could beat Spain though, that would really mean something. Late in my Gibraltar save last year, they had reached the stage where they were rank outsiders for the play-offs. I think they just about managed a 4th placed finish in a couple of campaigns. It's possible we could qualify, but it'll be very, very difficult. We'll see. The key is getting above-average players qualified for Gibraltar, as I did last time, but obviously there's a ceiling to the strength of players you can attract - once they're good enough, they'll declare for their parent nation. Could I naturalise a young player early enough? Probably not, but worth a try.
Club
A laundry list of predictable aims really. The second one is the most telling, and gives you a window into how I'm going to approach this. In the beginning, it doesn't take much for a youth player to become a first team player. In fact, in the early years you can throw them in at 15 and things will usually be alright. As you improve facilities, the players get better, but usually when you improve facilities, it's because you've been more successful, and have better players, so the youths are less important. It's a bit of a vicious circle. So my intent is to spend the first ten years building a formidable home-grown contingent. They should be able to destroy teams domestically, but I know I probably won't be able to get them to do the same on the continent. There will come a tipping point when we'll turn to signings from abroad, but I'll put that off as long as possible. Every other objective on the list I achieved previously, so they're an absolute must.
Anything Else?
Well, I should say that this tale is a pretty mature one, so I've got a lot of updates already written. So posting should be pretty quick - how good or bad that is depends on how good or bad my posting is I guess.
So...shall we?
#289341 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
#289340 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - Relegation Play-out 2032
One of these teams would be heading down into the cold, dark abyss of Serie C, and one would be remaining in the relative warmth of Serie B.
After that performance, it's odds on to be Crotone raking in that TV money. An insipid performance that typifies our season. We managed a good deal more possession than Crotone, but we didn't really do anything with it. Was it any wonder we lost in the end? Our home leg has now been and gone, and we lost it. We now have to go to Crotone's ground and hope for a miracle. I mean, who could believe we can...
Oh. Fair enough then.
This team continues to surprise me, and continues to lift themselves for play-offs. We took the lead twice through Charly Schwabl and then second-half sub Jean-Claude Le Goff, but we were pegged back both times. It began to look like it wasn't going to be our day or year, but then the Frenchman popped up with a second to put us ahead on the night and level in the tie. Crotone searched for a winner, but it was Davide Bonnesso who scored it, putting us 4-3 up and keeping us safe for one more year.
Como, eh?
#289339 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - Final Day 2032
So here's the table going into the final run of games. There are all kinds of permutations, but it looks like we're the worse off.
Viareggio - Relegated, will finish bottom
Spezia - A win could see them into the play-off, providing Como lose. They cannot catch Crotone without a seventeen goal swing
Como - A win would see them into the play-offs at least, and a Bologna defeat would see them safe. If Virtus better their result, they will be relegated
Crotone - A win or a draw would see them into the play-offs. They cannot catch Bologna (head-to-head).
Virtus - Win at all costs, and hope that Como lose to Crotone.
Pretty simple really - Viareggio have nothing to play for, Spezia and Virtus have to win and Crotone just need a draw. We stand to lose the most, and it's a good old fashioned six-pointer against Crotone. Lovely.
It was tense. Oh God, it was tense. When Virtus scored in the 2nd minute, it got even more tense. They would now be safe, pushing us down into the relegation zone. Then Spezia took the lead also. Worst case scenario. If we were to be beaten, we would need both games back in our favour before our scoreline even mattered. We were locked at 0-0 which suited Crotone down to the ground. All three games stayed that way until the second half began, and then everyone decided they would start doing something.
Relegated: Viareggio, Spezia, Como
In the 51st minute at Napoli, the home team equalised against Virtus. Any celebration on our part was short lived though, as Crotone took the lead in our game. Nightmare scenario. Virtus were still safe with a draw, but one more goal for Napoli and they would be on their way down.
Relegated: Viareggio, Spezia, Como
Sure enough, the 54th minute arrived, and Napoli had their second in five minutes. Spezia rejoice, Virtus in trouble.
Relegated: Viareggio, Virtus, Como
But then an amazing turn of events at Spezia as they let in an equaliser. Rughetti for Latina breaks Spezia hearts and sends them back down into the relegation zone. It's also fantastic news for us.
Relegated: Viareggio, Virtus, Spezia
Fantastic news got even better two minutes later as Le Goff slid in to equalise for Como. A point grabbed wouldn't change our position, but it would solidify our play-off position - provided Spezia and Virtus had no more surprises left.
Relegated Viareggio, Virtus, Spezia
Napoli put the game beyond doubt in the 59th minute by scoring their third in a crazy eight minute spell to well and truly send Virtus down to Serie C. We were celebrating, but only a minute later at our game, Crotone scored their second. We were now just a Spezia goal (or unlikely Virtus comeback) away from everything changing.
Four minutes later it got worse, Crotone extended their lead to 3-1 and then ten minutes later it was 4-1. We were falling apart, and even if there was no Spezia goal, this was the team we would be facing off against in the play-off. This was getting embarassing. In amongst that, Virtus went 4-1 down, and the white flag came out.
The minutes ticked on, and Spezia could not find that decisive goal. The final whistle blew, and we were safe, at least until the play-off.
A crazy afternoon of football, and really we've just been saved by Latina and Napoli. They kept us up there, because we did nothing to help ourselves.
Would anyone fancy facing Crotone again just a week after a 4-1 mauling? We had to.
#289338 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - Relegation Battle -
So it comes down to this. Just five games.
Here's the run-ins of my four rivals...
To put a bit of context into things, Viareggio have a tough run-in, playing teams from the top half of the table mainly. Virtus Lanciano have it slightly easier, as they face Spezia and Crotone in their five. Crotone and Spezia share the accolade of the easiest run-in, as they both play us, Virtus and also each other. The fixture list could not really have got any better for anyone who isn't Viareggio, could it?
Match-day 38
The momentum is with Virtus as they dispatch Sassuolo ruthlessly by four goals to two. Wonderful performance by them as they bid to make the jump out of the relegation zone. We managed a 0-0 draw against Vicenza which would've been poor if it wasn't for Spezia and Viareggio both losing out. Crotone were later thumped 5-1 by Parma to make it an even better day.
Status: Relegation Play-off
Virtus will fancy their chances of catching us, but we also have our eyes on Crotone. We still have them to play as well...
Match-day 39
The first of the huge relegation six-pointers happened in the 39th round of the league with Virtus once again the winners. Spezia are now staring down the barrel of relegation with only three to go. With Crotone and ourselves up next, six points are a must. We managed another creditable draw, but at this stage, even one point against second placed Parma isn't quite enough. Viareggio breathed some life into bottom spot with a scrappy win at home to Benevento and Crotone lost again, this time to Taranto.
Status: Relegated
Virtus had their eye on us, and now they've passed us thanks to their head-to-head record. We're six ahead of Spezia below us, which is far from an insurmountable obstacle. This one is going right down to the wire.
Match-day 40
Viareggio pretty much confirmed their relegation with a defeat in this round, but it was elsewhere the excitement really happened. Spezia won a priceless three points from Crotone, but their celebrations were cut short as they found out that even after throwing away a 3-1 lead, we had won our game 4-3. Ooft.
Status: Relegation Play-off
A huge result for us, but probably a huger one for Spezia as they keep the dream alive. They face us in the next round, and if they win that they will be close to survival. Virtus played the next day, knowing what they needed to do. Unfortunately, they couldn't do it.
Match-day 41
Already relegated Viareggio decided they better start playing in this round, and ended up taking three points off Champions-Elect Sampdoria. It may have been a result that meant little to either team, but a great result nonetheless. Again though, the excitement was a few places higher. A double relegation six pointer. Crotone faced off against Virtus knowing that a win would probably give them a play-off place and stave off relegation for at least two more games. They could only draw though, keeping Virtus in the drop-zone going into the final round, and leaving Crotone with the spectre of relegation still looming over them. The big result is at the top though - Spezia destroyed us at the worst possible time. Not much to say about the game really.
So there we have it. We head into the final game of the season with two relegation spots still up for grabs. Both ourselves and Crotone could still grab that crucial 17th position as well, which would save the dread of a relegation play-off. All to play for.
#289337 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - December 2031 to April 2032
December
For December, I tried something new tactically. I withdrew our advanced wingers, turning our formation into a very deep 4-2-3-1. It would isolate our striker, but playing on the counter I hoped it would shore up our defence and hopefully yield some narrow victories. In our first match, I have to say we were absolutely amazing. Taranto just couldn't cope with our attack, even if my aim of shoring up defensively went out the window. At 2-2 we scored two fantastic counter-attacking goals, the first coming from a move that crossed the whole pitch. Schwabl started it from two yards away from his own byline and then charged up the pitch to head in from five yards. A magical goal, and one I Hoped would kick-start the season.
Unfortunately, I was wrong, as in the very next game - a must-win against relegation strugglers Spezia - we were absolutely dreadful. My amazing new tactics looked just like my old terrible ones, and we slumped to a 3-0 defeat. A 2-2 draw against Crotone was hard fought, but any momentum was thrown away with another collapse against Virtus.
A terrible month, and we're now only out of the relegation zone on head-to-head against Bologna. Half-way home, and that home looks like it might be Serie C.
January 2032
When January arrived, we badly needed a kick up the arse. If we kept up the form we had managed since October, we would be down by Easter. I took advantage of the small break to play a couple of friendlies and bring the morale up as best I could.
They went according to plan, 9 goals scored and 2 conceded against lower league opposition. It looked like my plan may have worked when we returned to league duty with a 1-0 win against Latina. Novara had other ideas in our final game of January, beating us by the same scoreline.
Those three points were priceless to keep our heads just above water.
March 2032
This is what it feels like to be without a win in two months. We did pick up six points with some hard fought draws - and matches that would probably have been great for the neutral - but for Como fans it was grim viewing.
We've been threatening it all season, but by the end of March we were stone dead last. Eight games to go, and it's hard to see a way out of this.
April 2032
We had to do something. We were bottom of the table at the end of March, and we didn't have much time to save ourselves. We faced Verona at the start of April knowing we needed a win more than anything.
And we got it. The 81st minute winner by Thomas Adam could be worth so much by the end of the season. We followed it up with another two draws, but that meant we remained unbeaten that month. We had also held the league leaders away from home. That gave us confidence going into a crunch five games.
Those three games lifted us off the bottom by four points. Quite a difference between the table now and the one at the start of the month. We sit four ahead of the relegation zone and can smell safety. Crucially though, we're five away from a position that wouldn't require us to face a relegation play-off. I really don't want to do that.
Five games to save our season, and possibly my job.
#289336 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - November 2032
First up this month, quite a milestone reached in this career.
1000 games. Doesn't seem like that much really - it's gone fairly quickly. Hopefully by the time I reach 2000, I've won everything I need to win...
In worse news, the board decided to cut the wage budget for the club, despite already being over the original mark.
We're now around 12k over-budget.
Serie B
A terrible month adds to a dismal recent period of time for the club. Three goals scored, eleven conceded and just a single point achieved. Sure two of the teams were pushing for the title, but we didn't look like we had any fight in us. It's very worrying at this stage of the season.
Now just two points above the relegation zone. Just above the abyss...
#289335 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - July to October 2032
As you can see, I got carried away again, but not sure why with those results. We started off the season with a few friendlies and the now customary humbling in the Italian Cup. Albino Leffe were this years victors, running out 2-0 winners in the 3rd qualifying round. When we started the league proper, in the first two games we looked like a fairly competent side, picking up four points. A 4-2 defeat by Novara didn't seem to affect us too much as we won the next two, crucially keeping two clean sheets.
The Viareggio result was a bad one though - they are usually around the bottom of the table, so to lose to them is a big blow. We bounced back well enough though, thumping another basement dweller Cittadella 4-0. The next few weeks were not so good. We started with a draw against high-flyers Bologna, but then went on a four match losing run. We halted that with a 1-0 win at Benevento and a 1-1 draw at Verona, but the damage was already done.
We're in not too bad a position. We're almost a third of the way through the season and sitting in mid-table. Would be delighted if we ended up here at the end of the season
#289334 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - Pre-season 2032
International Job
My ill-fated month with Tonga didn't quite put me off the Oceana region, so I return there to manage Fiji. There's an outside chance of glory with them, but if not it'll do until the New Zealand job comes up.
Como
Awards
Four of our players in the team of the year, and have to say it's deserved. Our central defensive pairing made it in, as well as Arcangelo Vitale and our goalkeeper. Well deserved.
Happy to be nominated for manager of the year, but interesting to see that the title winning Bologna manager wasn't. Varese manager ended up winning it, and that's a bit surprising too considering he oversaw a ridiculous collapse to throw away the league title and then lost the promotion play-off. Each to their own.
On-loan Vitale just missed out on player of the year, but Pintus of Bologna ended up far better, scoring a ridiculous amount of goals on his way to the title. Happy to lose to that.
Good to know the board are behind me. Hopefully we don't see Serie C again. Ever.
Finances
More money in sponsorship for the coming season. Not much more, but it'll all add up.
Slightly improved budget, but since I've installed a revolving door for people leaving and arriving at the club, we'll end up with decent room for improvement.
Transfers
Just five players in this time around - we brought a good amount of money in from sales and co-ownerships, but once again we're over-budget. It's another risky move and one that will backfire if we don't survive.
#289333 Tetradeca-gone (in sixty years) - The Ballad of Steven Smith
forameus
forameuss's Career - Como Calcio S.r.l. - March to May 2032
March
We postponed the inevitable with a 2-0 win at Alto Adige, but when we came up against Varese things were well and truly decided as we crashed to a 3-2 defeat. It was hard to take, as we played far better in that game than we had against Bologna. We still ended up with the same number of points though, and the morale was sapped as we slumped to a 1-1 draw in our final league game of the month.
Of course, the result against Varese probably wasn't helped by being thumped by Sorrento in the first leg of the Serie C Cup Semi-final. It made our job in the 2nd leg pretty much impossible, and a 1-0 win was not enough.
Bologna and Varese will fight it out for the title and both have secured a play-off place well ahead of time. We should secure ours with a win in the next match.
April and May
A good April secured our play-off spot with games to spare. We struggled to keep a clean sheet once again, but we were scoring for fun.
But then came the play-offs. In the form we were in, we could expect to have a ridiculously high scoring tie, but in the end, we managed a pair of clean sheets in the semis against Reggiana. We then went into a very predictable final against Varese, and I was absolutely bricking it. We hadn't beaten them all season, and now it was even more important to get a result. We managed another clean sheet, but in a very rare occurrence the match finished 0-0. The second leg was finely poised, but we won through 2-1 after Arcangelo Vitale signed off on his loan spell by firing us into Serie B once again. Love that guy.
Varese almost threw away their second place in the end, and we finished only a point behind. We were a massive eight ahead of Reggiana, and after the performance against Varese in the play-offs, I think we deserve our place in Serie B.