2038/39 Season

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

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

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

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

Ben Doak - Winger - £12.75m from Liverpool

Homegrown and quality even at 32. A stunning signing!

Ekaitz Clemente - Midfielder - £39m from Eibar

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

Giorgio Scalvini - Defender - Free from Liverpool

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

Kiechi Takahashi - Right Back - Free from Al-Ittihad

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

Fynn Barz - Left Back- £55m from Leipzig

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

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

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

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

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

OF COURSE WE DID!!

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

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

Another domestic treble!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some names I'll never forget!!!

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

Thanks for following along!

2037/38 Season

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

Scottish Teams In Europe

St Johnstone - Europa Conference League

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

Dundee - Europa League

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

Falkirk - Europa League

Rubbish, knocked out in the League Phase

Dundee United - Champions League

Even more rubbish, ended 32nd!

Rangers - Champions League

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

Celtic - Champions League

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

Queen's Park in Europe

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

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

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

Absolutely gutting especially with how poorly we played.

Domestic Action

A very brief show of the Premiership table.

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

Key Men

Here is the Best XI for the season.

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

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

And here is the whole squad.

What Next?

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

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

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

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

2037/38 - Summer Transfers

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

Transfers Out

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

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

Transfers In

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

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

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

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

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

Cristian Obregon - Midfield - £24m from Boca Juniors

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

Julien Lucas - Defender - £45.5m from Lille

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

Mariano Pintos - Left Back - £11m from Talleres

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

Nico Lohkemper - Midfield - £56m from FC Koln

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

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

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

Niklas Hedl - Goalkeeper - Free Transfer

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

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

2036/37 Season 

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

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

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

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

Celtic - Champions League

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

Rangers - Champions League

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

Dundee United - Champions League

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

Ross County - Europa League

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

Hibernian - Europa League

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

Falkirk - Conference League

Terrible!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just look how far England are ahead!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And here is the whole squad.

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

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

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

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

2036//37 - Summer Transfers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the squad for the upcoming season.

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

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

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

2035/36 - Europe Review

This is going to focus solely on the Champions League and the other teams in Europe, as expected we dominated domestically and it's Europe that matters in this save!!

Scottish Clubs In Europe

Celtic - Champions League

They had a brilliant season overall, they qualified for the playoff round ending 17th in the League Phase, they then beat AC Milan in a crazy 2-legged game to reach the Last 16 where they beat Atletico Madrid before losing the Spurs in the Quarters

St Mirren - Champions League

As expected they struggled in parts but did just enough in the League Phase to scrape the final playoff spot where they lost a tight 2-legged game to Dortmund

Rangers - Europa League

What an absolutely incredible run it was for Rangers, they had to win the playoff game to get into the League Phase where they did enough for a knockout playoff spot, from there they went mad beating Genk, Arsenal, Wolves and Nice to get to the final but unfortunately they lost to Benfica.

Aberdeen - Europa League

The did enough to claim a playoff spot but lost to fellow Scottish side Ross County. A repeat of last season Conference League final!

Ross County - Europa League

After beating Aberdeen in the playoff round they then lost to Wolves in the Last 16.

Kilmarnock - Europa Conference League

A really good run for Kilmarnock, they had to get through two qualifying round to seal a spot in the League Phase where they ended 5th, bypassing the playoff round. They then beat APOEL in the Last 16 before losing to Lyon in the Quarters.

Overall a really good season for all the Scottish teams but now we have to see how I did, strap yourselves in!!!!

Queen's Park in the Champions League

We had our best League Phase yet, ending unbeaten, winning 6 and drawing 2, some great wins along the way as well including smashing Leipzig and beating AC Milan

Top of the pile as well!!!!

This meant we bypassed the playoff round and went straight into the Last 16 and this is where it went crazy!!!

Last 16 v Liverpool

A tough ask but we came out the first leg at Anfield with a solid 1-1 draw even if they utterly dominated the game, our goal was scored by winter signing, defender Barry Rai grabbing the goal meaning we went back to our place with high hopes of getting through.

Liverpool once again has most of the chances but their shooting was way off, academy star Jay MacLeod scored twice in the first half to seal a stunning 2-0 win and a place in the Quarters.

Quarter Final v Manchester City

Another English side and this was probably the toughest!!! The first leg was at home, Man City played well and took a deserved lead on the hour mark, we made a few changes and the game turned, Kier Hamilton, our longest serving player after coming through the 2024 intake scored with 15 minutes to go, then with nearly the last kick of the game pounced after a shot was saved to smash home and seal a stunning 2-1 win!

We still had to go to the Etihad though and see the tie out, we really didn't play well, we struggled to keep hold of the ball and our defending at times was farcical, Man City took the lead mid-way through the first half but we immediately levelled courtesy of Tait, Haaland then scored before we levelled again in first half injury time. Man City took the lead for a third time and the game looked to be heading to extra time, that was until the 85 minute when Jon-Paul Tait nodded home to make it 3-3 and 5-4 on aggregate, we're into the semi's!!!

Semi Final v Chelsea

ANOTHER ENGLISH TEAM!!! Chelsea stood in our way for a first ever Champions League final and I had high hopes, the first leg was at home and we absolutely dominated, Chelsea never got going, we absolutely battered them, the forward line of Medel and Tait proving the difference as we smashed them 4-0!!!!

We went to Stamford Bridge in the second leg knowing we just had to see the game out, Chelsea scored just before the half hour mark but we never looked in danger of capitulating. Then in the second half the academy boys did what they do, Tait and MacLeod scoring to seal a 2-1 win, 6-1 on aggregate and a spot in the final!!!!

Final v Tottenham

Yes ANOTHER ENGLISH TEAM!!! Four round, four teams from South of the border! Spurs had ended the Premier league season in 5th but has put Manchester United out the semi's on penalties. It was going to be a tough game but they boys had been given a good rest prior to the match as the League was wrapped up weeks ago!

The first half was cagey, very few chances and hardly any highlights, at half time it was 0-0, we were doing OK though, restricting Spurs to only a few half chances. 

The game then went crazy in a bonkers 4 minutes, firstly, we took the lead in the 52nd minute, a corner by Hamilton was flicked on by MacLeod and Tait was at the back post to tap home!! We then went for the kill and scored a second goal two minutes later, Machorro and Yeremenko combined down the right, Machorros cross came in and was met my MacLeod to put us two up!

Spurs had to come out and they scored two minutes after our second goal, de Jong hitting a lovely shot from the edge of the box. Now we had to stem the tide!

As Spurs pushed forward we held firm and tried to hit them on the break and we scored a third goal with just under a quarter of an hour to go, a Spurs corner was cleared, Colonna ran down the left, he played it to Tait, Tait layed it back to Colonna who smashes it home! 3-1!!! NOW JUST SEE IT OUT!!!

Time ticked on, the fans were biting their nails, I was pacing my kitchen, then the whistle blew.

QUEEN'S PARK ARE CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely incredible, I have no more words, this is my greatest achievement on any FM ever!! What a crazy journey!!

Co-efficient Update

And that win, combined with how well the other Scottish teams cements Scotland place near the top of the rankings, we are currently in the 4th but the forecast is for us to move up to 2nd!!! The big issue is how far England are ahead!!! I don't think we'll ever be able to catch them!

They sit 30 points clear of us, there is no way we can catch them alone, we have to hope for either a) the English teams to capitulate or b) the AI to make the Scottish teams better and win competitions. I don't see either happening unfortunately! I'm not stopping though, I'll at least see how close we can get to them and review it in a few seasons time. 

Key Men

Below is the Best XI for the season, it's great to see 4 academy players in there.

There really is only one player to start with and that Jon-Paul Tait, he had his best season so far and dominated the awards, not only at the club but in Scotland and in the Champions League. He won nearly every award!! 45 goals scored in 38 starts, this guy is an absolute superstar!

Summer signing Alessandro Colonna was one of the big reasons why we did so well, when I lost Craig Wiles in the Summer I was worried but this lad has stepped in and been incredible. An assist machine from LWB, he's also chipped in with 9 goals including the final goal in the Champions League final.

Julio Medel, signed last season had a great season, he had to rotate with Jay MacLeod but always performed when called upon, he ends with 27 goals in 30 starts. Incredible!

Another academy star impressed this season, RWB Michael McKinlay didn't play loads, he was used in domestic action more than anything but when he played he was brilliant and ended as the Premiership Young Player of the Season.

Finally is my favourite player and that Kier Hamilton, he came through the 2024 intake and is now our longest serving player, he isn't highly rated but this lad is solid, playing as the AM behind the front two he is a constant threat, whether that's from his set pieces or his shots from the edge of the box. He had his best season to date scoring 10 goals and grabbing 14 assists in 29 starts.

And here is the whole CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNING squad!!

What an absolutely incredible season it's been, we are European Champions!!!! How on earth do I top this? I honestly don't know but we will dust ourselves down and go again for another Champions League win next season! What we need now though is the other Scottish clubs to use our win as motivation to start progressing in Europe as well, it's the only way we're going to take down the English!!!

2035/26 - Summer Transfers + Co-efficient News

Transfers Out

I expected a quiet Summer and all in all it was relatively peaceful. We did however lose a few players, one of those was a big loss!

I'm sure you can pick the big one out and that's academy star, Left Back Craig Wiles who moves to Manchester City for an initial fee of £36.5m, rising to £47.5m with add-ons, a big loss but he clearly wanted the move. The other notable loss was defender Barrientos who got his head turned by Saudi Arabia! The other players to leave were all back-ups.

Transfers In

Alessandro Colonna - Left Back - £24m from Stuttgart

My replacement for Wiles, he's just about as good and at only 21 he has time to improve.

Stian Gudevang - Defensive Midfield - £10m from Molde

I didn't exactly need this lad but there's no way I could not bring him in once he got recommended to me, he looks an absolute superstar and is only 19!

Denis Yeremenko - Right Back - £21.5m from Shakhtar

With Barrientos and MacArthur leaving I was light on players who could play RWB so I went big and got this lad in. Another incredible player.

Marius Hansen - Central Defence - £8.5m from Bodo/Glimt

I needed an extra resource to play at CB, another young lad who will only improve and can play anywhere along the back-line

Co-efficient News

I said in the previous post I expected us to move up to 4th in the co-efficient rankings and now we've had it confirmed. This is huge!

A guaranteed 4 Champions League proper spots for next season and 2 in the Europa League!

2034/35 Season Review

Welcome back, I've decided seeing as I'm playing quite quickly, to shrink to one post a season (with a possible Summer transfer update on the side), this means the posts will be less frequent. Also I'm going to focus the posts more on Europe and the players, less on the domestic side, mainly because it's pretty obvious, bar a miracle, that we won't dominate in the League at least. Europe is the main goal, not only for us, but also the other Scottish Teams

Firstly, transfers and in the Winter I sold and signed two players….

We say goodbye to two stalwarts of the save, both have fell out of favour and wanted a move, it's good money for players who I saw as back-up at best.

Now the two in's

Firstly is Defensive Midfielder Roger Machorro, we were really short in this area due to the late departure of Alcaraz in the Summer window. He joins for £8.25m from Monterray. A top quality player who is a huge upgrade on anyone we have at the club

Secondly is a player I didn't really need but when I saw him and the fact he had a £2.5m release clause it was a no-brainer, Julio Medel is an absolutely incredible talent and will fit seamlessly into our team as an AM behind the two striker.

I said I wouldn't speak too much about domestic stuff so here are screenshots of how it went and as expected we dominated!

Easy as ever! We had the title wrapped up with six games to go and lost three of our matches towards the end when I played rotated sides.

Now to Europe and what a season it's been, not just for us but also for some of the other Scottish Clubs!

Let's start with ourselves and we had a decent run in the League Phase ending with 14 points, we went into that final match against Leverksuen knowing a win would seal a top 8 spot, we lost and did not play well meaning a spot in the playoffs.

Where we faced Villarreal and we eased past them with a 2-0 away win followed by a 2-1 win at home. Medel with 3 of those goals

It then got tougher as we faced Arsenal in the Last 16, I had no expectations of winning the game but we ended up winning the first leg at home 2-0 in a fantastic display. We then went to The Emirates and played our flat back 5 defensive formation which worked a treat as we drew 0-0 sealing a spot in the Quarter finals!

We managed to miss the likes of Real Madrid, Chelsea and AC Milan, all whom had won it in the previous few seasons, instead we faced Inter Milan. We went to their place in the first leg, deployed the 5 at the back tactic and came from 1-0 down to seal a 2-1 victory courtesy of a late Pajoy goal. We had the advantage going into the home leg but Inter scored mid-way through the second half which sent the game to extra-time. Usually in previous season we have ran out of legs in this period of the game but it was total opposite, Inter fell apart, we scored twice, both goal by Jon-Paul Tait, a 4-2 win on aggregate and for the second time in two season we were into the semi's!

Where we faced Barcelona, once again the first leg was away and Barca grabbed an early goal, MacLeod then drew the game level just before half-time and after that it looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw, that was until the 93rd minute when Roque scored his second of the game and gave Barca a 2-1 win.

I still felt we had a chance though going into the home leg, our form at The Malkay MacKay Stadium had been really good this season so I expected us to push for a win. Kier Hamilton scored mid-way through the first half to level the tie on aggregate but Yamal scored for Barca only 8 minutes later, we immediately went for a second goal and grabbed it courtesy of Medel and at half-time the tie was level at 3-3. As we pushed for the winner we were caught on the break and Barca grabbed what was to be the decisive goal, we couldn't find a way back and as the whistle blew we had lost the tie 4-3.

Another incredible run though and I really feel we are challenging the big boys much more than we were in the previous couple of seasons. We need to go that one step further now and reach a final!

As for the other Scottish team well it went pretty well..

Celtic - They qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League by beating Anderlecht and Ajax, they then gained 12 points in the League Phase to end 22nd and seal a playoff spot where they lost to Barcelona

Rangers - Automatically qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League and gained 12 points ending 21st. They beat Rennes in the play off before losing to Liverpool in the Last 16 3-0 on aggregate

Dundee United - Automatically qualified for the League Phase of the Europa League and ended 11th gaining 16 points sealing a playoff spot, they lost in that round Hoffenheim 3-2 on aggregate

Aberdeen - Won two round of Europa League Qualifying before losing to Kairat in the 3rd round. They then beat Pafos in the Conference League final qualifying round sealing a League Phase spot. They did amazingly to end 5th in the table gaining 13 points from 6 games meaning they bypassed the playoff round. They then beat Steaua Bucharest on the Last 16 and Vitoria de Guimaraes in the Quarters. They then beat Austria Wien in the Semi sealing a spot in the final!

Ross County- They beat Dnipro, Sligo Rovers and CSKA Sofia in qualifying to seal a spot in the League Phase of the Conference League where they got 11 points from their 6 games ending 11th in the table meaning a playoff spot. They then beat Levski Sofia in that round before beating Konyaspor in the Last 16, Servette in the Quarters and Nice in the Semis

Meaning…………

A Ross County v Aberdeen Conference League final!!!!!!! Absolutely mental

Aberdeen win the Conference League AND get relegated to the Scottish Championship! This gives them a Europa League spot next season and that means we'll have 7 teams in the Europe next season!

Now for the even bigger news! These good performances this season means we are projected to jump from 6th in the co-efficient rankings to 4th and this is huge!! 4th gives us 4 automatic League Phase Champions League spots and 2 automatic League Phase Europa League spots, so for the 36/37 season we'll have 6 guaranteed teams in the League Phases, this is going to massively bump up our co-efficient in the coming season, more than already is!

If you look on the far right column our co-efficient for next seaosn is 96.467, the 4th highest and only 5 points behind Italy in the 3rd! Amazing!

I'll keep you updated when the ranking for next season comes out as to if we have claimed 4th spot.

Key Men

The only place to start is with Jay MacLeod, this lad is just so good. He ends as the clubs players of the season and the Premiership player of the season. 43 starts, 17 goals and 14 assists. Amazing!

Jon-Paul Tait also had an incredible season, he ends as the club young player of the season and the top scorer at the club with 27 goals in 30 starts. He had a few niggle injuries through the season which kept him out but when he played he was incredible.

Finally I want to speak about Goalkeeper Efraim Ilharco, he nearly left in the Summer but I turned down £40m for him, I was so glad I could keep him about as he had an amazing season playing 54 times and keeping 26 clean sheets with an average rating of 7.28

Here is the Best XI

And here is the whole squad.

As you can see the tactic has changed from what I've been using in the previous couple of season, the 424 has gone, we no longer play Wingers, instead we're rocking a 352 formation and it's working a treat!

The roles suit the players and do change dependant on who's playing there. I've also kept a Libero! It's the first time as well that I've kept automatic duties on my Wingbacks, this just helps when changing mentality throughout the games.

So another brilliant season down, we are getting closer to that elusive Champions League title and it was brilliant to see another Scottish team lift European silverware, especially against another Scottish team! Getting to 4th in the ranking is an amazing feat but we can't stop there, we have to keep improving, not only ourselves but also the other Scottish sides.

Next season we go again, I don't foresee many changes, it really depends who leaves the club. We have £112m to spend if we need it so I may go big on one, maybe two players if the right option comes up. The bank balance is only at £72m so I really can't go spending all that money!

I only have England and Scotland loaded both down to the lowest level in the normal DB. That's it

2034/35 - Summer Transfers

 This will be just a transfer update, no results, will just go through who's left and who's come in as there is a lot of business!

Transfers Out

Bloody release clauses have done us again, we say goodbye to both Tsunoi and Alcaraz who's clauses got activated, Alcaraz was the most gutting one, Liverpool came in with literally 2 hours of the window left, I had no time to find a replacement. We also say goodbye to Lygaard (RW), Takahashi (RB), Buksrud (GK) and Jashari (DM), all were on the fringes and with the academy players doing so well I could sell them, most for a decent profit and still not lose any quality in the squad. 

So £97m of out's, let's see who came in!

Transfers In

Firstly is two signing I made last season who went straight out on loan, for this season they're back and they're going into the first-team

Ecio Hasicic - Goalkeeper - £3.4m from Rijeka

An amazing looking young keeper who, with Buksrud leaving, with provide back-up to Ilharco. He'll be getting game-time in the cup competitions.

Da Silva - Centre Back - £6.75m from Flamengo

Another top quality looking young lad, he'll provide back-up in defence this season but will get his chance in the cup games.

Kelby Neilson - Right Back - £3.9m from St Mirren

The first of two signings for the future, I wanted to a) send some money to other Scottish teams and b) build for the seasons ahead. Neilson is a quality, young RB and will spend this season on loan to our parent club Raith Rovers

Danny Kiely - Left Back - £4.2m from Falkirk

And here is the second of those “for the future" signings, another decent looking full back, Kiely will also spend the season on loan at Raith.

Sol Wark - Left Back/Centre Back - £10.75m from Celtic

A lad I'd looked at a few seasons ago, I decided against a bid and he went to Celtic, I needed a player to provide back-up to Wiles at LWB and also Murillo as LCB, Wark can do both and looks really good.

Ognjen Stojanovic - Centre Back/Defensive Midfield - £7m from Crvena zvezda

I took a bit of a punt on this lad, he looks absolutely amazing but for a defender he is short, can he fit into a back three as a Libero? That's my hope and if not he can play as my DM instead.

Titouan Berger - Central Defender - £23m from Monaco
 

The biggest deal of the Summer and what a player! With Ben White retiring I needed a new right-footed CB, this lad can play either BPD on the right or the Libero in the middle with ease, I am so excited as to how he will fit in and think he can take this side to a new level.

Roosevelt - Right Wing/Central Midfield - £5m from Sao Paulo

A last minute signing due to Lygaard leaving, offers versatility as he can play naturally in three different positions, another young signing who I think can be a superstar in the coming years.

Dwayne Keizer - Left Wing - £6.25m from Aston Villa

Another punt, he looks really good attribute wise to me but he isn't rated very highly, he won't get his chance this season as he'll spend the season on loan at Huddersfield, an exciting prospect in my eyes.

Ryan McArthur - Right Wing-back/Central Midfield - Free Transfer

Remember this lad? Yes he was the academy star who wanted to move to Man United, well three seasons later he hasn't played a game and left on a free!! So I brought him back! He will provide back-up in either midfield or at right wing-back. Let's hope he's learnt his lesson and won't leave again!

Ferran Torres - Winger/Striker - Free Transfer

We needed a bit of experience in our squad and Torres fits the bill, a top quality forward who can play anywhere along the forward line.

A very busy Summer, I do feel the squad is a lot better now, the loss of Alcaraz though has really hurt our midfield and we will now have to rely on the kids to fill the gap, at least until the Winter window.

2033/34 - End of Season Review

700 Up

This save has been utterly incredible and towards the end of the season I managed by 700th game over my time at Queen's Park and my brief stint as the Scotland Manager.

Some amazing stats, a 69% win percentage and a whopping 1,681 goals!!! That's 11 seasons at Queen's Park and we've managed to win all that!

Champions League

We had to play in the playoff round and were handed a winnable tie against FC Porto, we went to their place in the first leg and sealed a stunning 3-1 win. Then in the home leg we did not defend well but managed a 3-3 draw to go through 6-4 on aggregate.

Then we got the last 16 draw and as an un-seeded team we always knew we were going to get a tough tie and we got exactly that as we faced PSG!

The first leg was at home and we didn't show up, PSG did what they had to do and won the game 2-0.

We then went to the Parc de Princes and came away with a stunning win, unfortunately it wasn't enough and we went out 3-2 on aggregate. It was nice though to see us go toe-to-toe with such a big team.

So an early exit from the Champions League and with us out of the Scottish Cup all we had to focus on was the Premiership.

Premiership

When I left you from the last update we were once again miles clear at the top of the League, so it will come as no surprise that we won the League AGAIN!

The one thing I wanted was the unbeaten season but we failed at that as we lost to Celtic away, this game was sandwiched in-between the two PSG games so I had to rest players, I'll put that down to why we lost.

We won the League with 6 games to spare and after that I mixed the team around a lot and played some of the kids, results did suffer slightly but it was a good experiment to see who were up for the task!

Another dominant season!

Key Players

Fans Player of the Season goes to wide-man Connor Smith, he was by far our best and most consistent player this season, scoring 16 and getting 19 assists in 38 starts, he also ends as the young player of the season and with the most assists, most POTMs and highest average rating at the club!

Academy star Jay MacLeod ends as the clubs top goal scorer with 17 goals in 43 starts, a solid season for him but for him to be our top scorer is pretty poor, what it does show though is we shared the goals around a lot more!

Another academy star Craig Wiles had an amazing season, he's only 18 and already has 25 Ireland caps and 91 league appearances for us. This lad is going to an absolute superstar and I fully expect the big clubs to come calling soon.

He also won the NxGN award, the third straight season a Queen's Park academy player won the award.

And here is our Best XI for the season.

Scottish Clubs in Europe

It wasn't as good as last season I'll be honest.

Both us and Celtic were knocked out of the Champions League in the Last 16 with Celtic losing to Liverpool

In the Europa League Dundee United were knocked out in the playoff round to Villarreal, Rangers got to the Quarter finals beating Fiorentina in the Last 16 before losing to Spurs.

Falkirk got to the Quarter final of the Conference League, they beat Fehervar in the playoff round, then AEK in the Last 16 but lost to Man United in the Last 8.

Still a solid season overall and we end on 19.400 points, this keeps us in 6th place but we are catching Germany up in fifth!

Another good run next season and we could well be over-taking Germany to fifth, that would give us a seventh European spot and a fourth in the Champions League!

Youth Intake

For the first time in a while we had a pretty average intake with no elite talents and four top talents, two of which look relatively decent, are they world-beaters? No, but they could do a decent job in the years to come with the right training, mentoring and game-time out on loan.

Both look pretty decent but only time will tell if they improve enough for a first-team spot.

Next Season

Now we look forward to another season and we have to contunue to try and improve to get further in the Champions League, the one thing that screwed us this season was the sales in the Winter window, losing Nando, Vergara and Ilie without really replacing them meant we had to blood some of the kids, especially with so many injuries and fitness issues. I need to improve the squad overall and look to replace those players we lost in the Winter. We will also be losing Chilwell and White, both signed in the Winter and have decided to retire.

As you can we have some whopping budgets!! A bit odd seeing as our bank balance is only £65m! There's no way I'm going to spend so much that we go into the red so my budget will be my bank balance, players will be sold, players will join, my aim this Summer is to improve the options at Wingback and also in defence whilst bring in players to replacement Ilie (LW) and Nando (RW). It should be a busy Summer!

2033/34 - Mid-Season Update

Transfers

I was really hoping for a quiet Winter window and it looked to be heading that way, I decided to left LW Ilie leave, he is now 30 and has fallen down the pecking order, £15.75m is a good deal, for me that was it, then came the last week of the window!!! Both CB Vergara and ST Nando has their release clauses activated (yes I forgot about them!) and it was too late to entice them to stay, two huge losses and with Nando it was even too late to find a replacement.

I decided to bring two players in, both experienced England internationals.

Ben Chilwell - Left Back - £1.6m from Galatasaray

With me only really having Wiles as a decent LWB I needed to bring a new player in, I struggled to find someone to be happy to be back-up so went for Chilwell, a cheap fee and good experience.

Ben White - Central Defender - £1.5m from Wolves

My short-term replacement for Vergara, it was a real struggle to find a decent CB for a cheap fee and with me having a couple of decent players out on loan who could come in next season I went for another experienced player to plug the gap.

League Cup

Once again it was a good campaign in the League Cup

I did mix the team about and we struggled to break teams down, both Motherwell and Dundee United were beaten in extra time.

To the final and we faced Celtic where we absolutely hammered them!

A 5-1 win in a game we utterly dominated, we certainly have the number of Celtic at the moment.

Scottish Cup

We faced Rangers at Ibrox in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup and with a raft of injuries and the fact the game was in-between a couple of huge Champions League games I had to play a rotated side, we took a late lead but the legs tired and Rangers scored twice late on to knock us out. Not happy!

Premiership

As you'd expect we have absolutely dominated the league with some insane wins!

Loads of goals and if you look above you will see we have beaten Celtic 6-0!!!!

Still unbeaten and with 14 games to go we sit 16 points clear. A fifth straight title is pretty much tied up.

Champions League

We had a decent set of fixtures in the League Phase and did OK but we fell to a couple of defeats against the bigger teams.

I can take those defeats, we did play but they were too good. The big one was the win over Barca, a stunning 3-0 win. We did go into the game against Crvena zvezda knowing a win would see us into the Last 16, bypassing the playoff round but we drew the match and did not play well.

This means we go into the playoff round where we face Porto.

Scottish Teams in Europe

As you'll see above Celtic also managed to seal a playoff spot, they will face Napoli

In the Europe League Rangers ended 5th sealing a Last 16 spot, Dundee United got a playoff spot and will face Villarreal.

In the Conference League Falkirk got a playoff spot and will face Fehervar.

So all 5 teams that got into the League Phases of their respective competitions have qualified for at least the playoffs, that's pretty good.

Our co-efficient for this season currently sits at 16.000, the joint third highest, it keeps us in 6th in the overall ranking a couple of points ahead of Portugal and 2 points behind Germany.

Other News

A couple of pieces of awards news for my boys!

Jon-Paul Tait, who has just come back from his broken leg, won the FIFA Best U21 Mens Player award.

And Jay MacLeod ended the year as the European Golden Boy, these lads are good!

2033/34 - Opening Games and European News

What a start it's been!

As you can see it's getting a bit too easy domestically, I'm mixing the team around a lot to keep playing some of the kids and we're still battering most of the teams.

I would love this season to end unbeaten!

But it's Europe where we need to continue improving, we got to the semi's of the Champions League last season and it is my aim to go one step further!

As ever we automatically qualified for the League Phase of the Champions League and we have a decent set of fixtures.

We should be able to get enough points in those games to be challenging for a top 8 spot.

As for the other Scottish teams in Europe, well it's gone well with both Falkirk and Rangers getting through their qualifying rounds to get into the League Phase. That means we have two teams in the Champions League (Us and Celtic), two in the Europa League (Rangers and Dundee United) and Falkirk in the Conference League. Let's hope all five of us have good run in their respective competitions.

Finally, a bit of transfer news, there is good and bad news, firstly the good, Jon-Paul Tait stays but there is a bad side to that, he broke his leg in training and is out for 4-5 months. A huge loss.

Another piece of bad news is we have lost one of our highest rated youngsters and left back Dolcek moves to Liverpool after the activated his £20m release clause. A big loss but I will not be replacing him.

It was nice to get all business done early in this window and not go frantically rushing about as we got towards deadline day. Now for a big push in the Champions League!

2033/34 - Transfer Update and Club World Cup

Just a quick update to look over the transfer business so far and how the Club World Cup went.

We had what looked like a tough group and after losing the opening game to Bayern 3-2 we needed 2 good wins to get out the group. In those 2 games we were incredible.

We hammered both Al-Ahly and Boca to seal 2nd spot in the group

In the Last 16 we faced Dortmund and scored twice late on the seal at 2-0 win.

Then, in the Quarters, we faced this seasons Champions League runners-up Chelsea and it was a step too far as lost the tie 3-1.

A decent run though overall.

Transfers Out

I said this Summer would be a busy one and it's been just that. We've had bids for so many players, Man United came in for Tait for just over £15m, I said no and then fell out with him, I've said he can go for £33.5m. Newcastle then activated Left Back Craig Wiles' release clause of £23.5m, luckily I managed to tie him down to a new bumper deal with the release clause now set at £80m.

I kept those two but lost a few first-team players

Out go Goalkeeper Hasegawa who wanted the move, a decent profit as I signed him for £3.9m last Summer. Isak also moves on after falling down the pecking order, he was signed on a free so another good profit. The one that annoyed me was Winger Montalto, one of our best players but he had already said he wouldn't sign a new deal which runs out next Summer, a big loss but Connor Smith is so good on the RW that Montalto won't be missed. The other players to leave were all back-ups or kids that were never going to make it.

We also lost Ajer and Tierney who both retired and Jashiri who asked for a move but I couldn't the deal right, he goes to Leicester on loan for the season with a future fee (mandatory) of £9.25m

Transfers In

So I needed some new recruits and I really feel I've done very well with my business.

Lewis Miley - Attacking Midfield - £8m from Aston Villa

I watched him play yesterday on MOTD and thought he looked amazing, so I looked at him on FM and my word he's good. A solid player who can play anywhere along the line behind the striker and also in central midfield.

Flemming Lygaard - Winger/Striker - £5m from Toronto FC

My replacement for Isak, he can also play on either wing. He looks really good and will do a great job as back-up to Pajoy, Tait and MacLeod.

Emmanuel Barrientos - Central Defender - £28m from Newcastle

With Ajer leaving I needed a new right-side CB and I went big! A club record fee, a cracking looking player who will slot in defence alongside Murillo.

Nando - Striker - £12.25m from Sao Paulo

With the rumours swirling about Tait leaving I went in for this lad to replace him when he eventually leaves, currently there have been no more bids for Tait but I expect him to go. Even so this lad is incredible!

Efraim Ilharco - Goalkeeper - £12m from Sporting Lisbon

My replacement for Hasegawa, in comparison Ilharco is actually better and he cost me half as much. A top quality keeper!

So some really good business but we have spent a lot!!! Nearly £65m spent with around £35m of player sales. It's pretty much decimated our bank balance so there will no more in's for now unless someone leaves. I do have a really healthy squad now with a good mix and youth and experience.

2032-33 - End of Season Review

Welcome back! This may be a long update, it's been a busy final few months!

Youth Intake

Once again we have another really good-looking player in the latest intake.

I say good-looking, clearly that his attributes and not that shocking photo of him! Please welcome Jake Falconer, a second awesome looking left back in the past three intakes. He's going to have to improve if he's going to take that LB spot off Craig Wiles!

We also welcome this lad, central defender Liall Coult, he looks solid and will do a decent job in the years to come

Scottish Cup

It was another brilliant campaign in the Scottish Cup, we eased into the final with wins over Raith, Hearts, a lucky win over Ross County and then a hammering of Kilmarnock in the semi final.

In the final we faced Celtic, a tough, tight games which went to extra time after the 90 minutes ended 1-1. It was settled by one of our own, Right Back Michael McKinlay stealing in at the back post to win the game and our fifth Scottish cup win in six seasons.

Premiership

As you will expect, we smashed it in the League, we lead from the front and never ever looked in danger.  We had some great wins but did lose a couple towards the end, mainly because I rested players for much bigger matches.

Lots of green though, some amazing wins along the way!

One point less than last season, still 100+ points in successive seasons is amazing.

Champions League

Now to the big one, I wanted to get past the Last 16 this season after falling at that point in the last three seasons.

In that round we faced Hoffenheim, we got a solid 0-0 draw away and then went crazy in the home leg scoring 6 goals!

An amazing win against a decent team but it was about to get much tougher!

Barcelona were our opponents in the Quarters, we went to the Nou Camp in the first leg and played well, it looked to be heading to an amazing 0-0 draw until, in the last minute of injury time, Vitor Roque scored and they would take a 1-0 lead with them for when they come to the Malkay McKay Stadium.

I had hope, I knew we were good enough if we got it right and my word did we!!! We went mad in the first half scoring three times, Barca got one back just before half time but we managed to see out a famous victory against one of Europe's elite and we're into the semis!!!!

Where we faced another Spanish giant Real Madrid, again the first leg was away and Real were just too good, they ended 3-1 winners with a couple of second half goals.

We still had a chance though, we knew we could match then and just like the Barca game we had an amazing first half, three goals scored putting us ahead on aggregate but this is where we fell apart, Jude Bellingham ran the show, we ran out of legs and Real scored mid-way through the second half, levelling the tie and taking it to extra time. 

The players were shot and Real dominated, Bellingham again running the game and set up Thuram to score the goal that would knock us out.

What a brilliant run though, we were so close to another amazing shock, we got to the semis of Europe's premiere competition and mixed it with the big boys! 

Player Awards/Key Performers

I could talk about so many players but I'll try and keep it short!

Firstly is academy star Jon-Paul Tait, he ends as the clubs player of the season and also dominates the Premiership awards with player, players player and young player of the year! He also ends as the Premiership top scorer with 23 goals in 25 starts, overall he scored 29 goals and got 17 assists from 33 starts, this lad is absolutely incredible!

Jean Carlos Pajoy ended as the clubs young player of the season, he didn't make as many appearances as normal, mainly due to Tait and MacLeod doing so well but still managed 26 goals in 29 starts!

Talking of MacLeod, he had another solid season, he does seem to like to go numerous games without scoring and then bangs a shed load in. He ends with 19 goals and 9 assists in 40 starts

Wonderkid academy star Craig Wiles had a really good season, an ever-present at Left Back he was solid in defence and really good going forward. He made 32 starts, scoring 3 goals and getting 3 assists. He is an absolute superstar!

I said before the season started I wanted to give some of my academy players more game-time and that was the case for Right Back Michael McKinlay, he isn't the best but overall he had a solid season. He made 33 starts scoring 3 goals including the winner in the Scottish Cup final!

Now to a player who isn't at the club as the moment and that's Midfielder Ray Horne, will he ever play for us when he comes back from his loan art Stenhousemuir? Probably not but he had a stunning season in League Two ending as the player of the season with 15 goals and 10 assists from 36 games, all from midfield!

And here is the clubs Best XI for the season.

And the whole squad.

Scottish Clubs in Europe

A quick word on this as it was a brilliant season for most of the Scottish Clubs.

Alongside us getting to the Champions League Semi's, Celtic got to the Last 16 but lost to Chelsea

In the Europe League St Mirren lost in the playoff round to Roma, Hearts got all the way to the Quarters before losing to Newcastle, Rangers went one better than that, getting to the Semi's before also losing to Newcastle

Aberdeen were the sole team in the Conference League, they got to the Last 16 before getting absolutely smashed by Brighton.

So another great season and it's been Scotland best co-efficient wise.

We dropped to 7th this season meaning next season we lost a European spot but, as you can see, we have done so well this time around that we go back above Netherlands into sixth for next season.

The bigger news is, we have ended with the second highest co-efficient for the season, so unless something goes horribly wrong, we should get an extra Champions League spot as the two highest co-efficient scorers get extra spots! That is massive news!

In Other News

And finally, some bits of news.

Firstly is the budgets for next season and my word it's a whopper!

£72m and a £200k per week in wage budgets. I will be spending some of it that's for sure!

We also had some of the academy lads in the NxGN award and for the second season Jay MacLeod won the award. The future is bright!

 And the final piece of news is that, for some reason, we're in the Club World Cup!!! We were seeded fourth and were handed a really tough group!

Can we get out of that group? It's going to be tough.

So another brilliant season down, another treble and a brilliant run in Europe, now we need to kick on, there is going to be some movement in the squad this Summer. Both Ajer and Tierney are retiring and it's likely that certain players will leave, Montalto, Isak, Ilie have all asked to move and with some of the kids doing really well I can afford to sell some of these lads, bring some of the kids in and then buy two or three top quality players to get this squad ready for another push at the Champions League.

I expect it to be a busy Summer!

2032-33 - Mid-Season Review

Winter Transfers

I had no plans for any business this window but I've decided to be proactive and not wait, the reason for this is there are quite a few unhappy players at the moment, mainly because I'm blooding the kids in the domestic, thats means I have a lot of my key men asking for more game time! Both Ajer and Tierney have had enough and are retiring at the end of the season so I need to replace them and then there is talk of both Montalto (RW) and Jashiri (DM) wanting to go. Neither have left but in the Summer they will more than likely leave. So I decided to bring in a couple of players to get them bedded in.

Tomislaw Dolcek - Left Back - £15m from Dinamo Zagreb

A player I looked at in the Summer but felt it was worth waiting, with Tierney heading towards retirement now was the time to get him in, a big fee but a quality looking player.

Nikola Mance - Defensive Midfield - £3.3m from Rijeka

A player I actually signed in the Summer but I sent him back to Rijeka on-loan, with Jashiri wanting a move I decided to recall him to get him into the first-team squad for some game-time.

League Cup

Once again it was another successful campaign in the League Cup, Hibs and Falkirk were beaten to get us in the final.

Where we faced Rangers, I decided to stick to starting my kids and did an OK job, the game only really kicked into life in the second half, MacLeod scoring just after the second 45 started. Rangers then pegged us back but sub Pajoy scored within minutes of their leveller and that's how it ended. Another League Cup win!

Premiership

What an incredible run it's been! 24 games in and we're still unbeaten!

The kids have been incredible so far, I have had to bring in a few of my key men just to try and keep the likes of Isak, Pajoy, Connor Smith, etc happy but the main bulk of the youth players have been given their chance and have been so good.

Miles clear!!!!!!

Champions League

Now to the big one, I kept my key men back for this and my god did they repay me!!!!

Just look at that!!! 8 games, only a single defeat and that was against Man City, we even went to Anfield and won an absolute thriller 5-4!!! Napoli and Porto were also beaten away, sensational!!! That meant, for the first time, we had a sealed a top 8 spot, bypassing the playoff round!!

Scottish Teams in Europe

But it wasn't just us who's had a good season in Europe, as you can see above Celtic were so close to a top 8 spot, they played Arsenal away in the final, all they had to do was avoid defeat for a top 8 place, unfortunately they lost 2-0 but what a run they had, they even went to Juve and won!

In fact all six teams made it out of the League Phases with Aberdeen sealing a playoff spot in the Conference League, Hearts got a top 8 spot in the Europa League with Rangers and St Mirren ending in the playoff spots!! It's been by far the best season for the Scottish clubs in Europe and it's reflected in our current co-efficient score.

We currently have the second highest score behind England for this season, if we keep that up we get another Champions League spot for next season, what it does mean though is it looks like we will go back above the Netherlands into 6th next season meaning we get back the Champions League spot we lost by dropping down to 7th for qualifying this season.

Things really are looking up but we really need one of us to go on and win something now!

In Other News

One big piece of news is wonderkid Striker Jon-Paul Tait, who has been sensational this season, was awarded the Golden Boy for 2032. What a year he's had, 23 goals and 17 assists in 35 starts, this lad, along side MacLeod are going to be a force to be reckoned with for years to come, what I have to do now if hang on to them! The vultures are circling!!

We've got to the Last 16 and lost for 3 straight years, I want to get a Top 8 spot in the League Phase which bypasses the Playoff round and then hopefully we can get to the Quarters with an easier Last 16 draw

2032-33 Season - Summer Transfers and Opening Games

So I had this great plan for the Summer, the kids are going to play the domestic games but I wanted to upgrade my key men with better players, my choice, if I find someone better for relatively low cost then I'll bring them in and sell the player they're replacing on, what I didn't envisage was clubs unsettling my key men before I even started!!! It's been a big Summer, lots of outs but I really feel I've majorly improved this squad and I feel we are well set for a run at the Champions League this season.

Transfers Out

As I said, it's been a tough Summer as you can see by these out's

9 players sold, all from the first-team, we lose our first choice RB Larossa, Our No. 1 Henderson, Arismendi, one of our key DMs, James Hill, a CB who started most games last season, LW Boyer who went to Newcastle after they activated his release clause and then the big one, we lost Striker and save legend Rodrigo Muniz. The good news is, for most of these, I brought in better players for less money. 

Nearly £80m brought in as well and pretty much all of those sold were for a profit on what I paid for them.

Transfers In

Nahuel Alcaraz - Defensive Midfield - £12m from Racing Club

With Arismendi leaving and Anguissa retiring I needed a new DM and this lad is a huge upgrade on both those players, a big fee but well worth it.

Shuichi Hasegawa - Goalkeeper - £3.9m from Yokohoma

Compared to Henderson this lad is head and shoulders above him, a stupidly cheap fee and only 24, this lad is going to be a superstar for us.

Juan Vergara - Central Defender - £2.5m from Millonarios

My replacement for James Hill and like the others, a huge upgrade, only 19 as well, this lad is incredible and will only get better!

Alexander Isak - Striker - Free Transfer

My short-term replacement for Muniz and what a signing, Isak is still amazing at 32 and will provide great experience to MacLeod and Tait whilst providing Champions League experience in those big games.

Keiichi Takahashi - Right Back - £5m from Kashima Antlers

With Larossa going I needed a new RB, this lad isn't as good as Larossa but I really struggled to balance quality with price, Takahashi is only 22 so has time to improve and will provide great attacking impetus on that right-hand side.

Takeharu Tsunoi - Defensive Midfield - £4.3m from Yokohoma

My third Japanese signing of the Summer and this was a last minute signing, he can play in both defence and midfield and will provide good options when needed. Another young signing who also looks first-team ready.

An absolutely brilliant window, we have some incredible talents coming in, we've lost some big players but I do feel this squad is more than ready for another amazing season, and all with a profit of nearly £45m!!!!

Opening Games

We've started really well this season, I've stuck with what I said, I've played the kids in the domestic games and filled in when we've had injuries or fitness problems with my big game players.

5 games, 5 wins, amazing! Jon-Paul Tait has had an amazing start with 6 goals!

Already top, can we stay there?!

Champions League Fixtures

We have what looks like a solid set of games to play in the Champions League.

We face Liverpool and Man City which will be tough but in the other games I fully expect to be challenging, a playoff spot is well and truly on but can we sneak top 8?

Scottish Teams in Europe

Finally, it's been a brilliant Summer for our fellow Scottish teams.

In the Champions League we have ourselves and Celtic who both automatically qualified

Rangers lost in the Champions League playoff on penalties to Sporting Lisbon but that means they drop down to the Europa League

They will join Hearts, who automatically qualified and St. Mirren who got through four rounds of qualifying to get into the League Phase

In the Conference League will be Aberdeen who got through three qualifying rounds to seal a League Phase spot.

Six teams in Europe this season, a massive boost and it should help our co-efficient rise.

Qualifying for next seasons European spots has been dented by the fact we've dropped down to 7th in the co-efficient rankings, Netherland went above us and this means we lost an automatic League Phase spot in the Champions League, it should be a one season blip though as I fully expect us to do enough this season to overtake Netherlands.

2031-32 - End of Season Review

Another season down, when I left you last we were smashing the league and still in the Scottish Cup and Champions League, let's see how it went……

Youth Intake

It was another solid looking intake, no elite talents but numerous top talents.

Of those players there were a couple that really stand-out

Ryan Taggart - Central Midfield

He will need to re-train as a DM as we don't play CMs but I feel he can do a decent job there, his mental attributes are top quality for a 16-year old.

Kyle Smith - Left Wing

He needs some work but he has some good physicals, bravery, flair and work rate, a great base to work on.

Scottish Cup

We had won the Scottish Cup three years in a row and flew through the opening rounds hammering Raith and then Partick, we then faced Celtic away in the Quarters and played really well to seal a 2-1 win. With Celtic beaten and Rangers already out if was ours to lose, we faced St Mirren in the semi's and played like absolute muppets, we took the lead but then just stopped playing, St Mirren scored mid-way through the second half and the game went to extra-time, St Mirren then grabbed a second goal to seal a 2-1 win and knock us out.

Not happy!

Champions League

When the playoff draw came out it threw up one mouth-watering tie, yes we were facing Celtic!! A shame as it would've been nice to have us both go through to the Last 16 but at least it guaranteed one team going through.

Obviously it was us that won, it was tight though, a 1-1 draw at Celtic Park followed by a 2-1 win at home, John-Paul Tait grabbing the winner.

Into the Last 16 and we were handed a tough tie, we faced Liverpool and, for the third straight season, we were dumped out in this round. 4-1 at Anfield and 3-1 at home, Liverpool were just too good but it was frustrating how poorly we played.

Premiership

Now we come to the League, we had won back-to-back titles, this would make it three in a row, in the last update you saw how far ahead we were, I spent the rest of games rotating and giving some the kids a go and they were excellent. The title was wrapped up in early-April, even before the Championship Group had started, it was an utterly dominant season, we scored so many goals (122) and amassed 101 points!

An incredible season!!!

Key Men

Fabrizio Montalto has an insane season, he lost his spot to Connor Smith on the right-wing last season but came back in this campaign and won it back, he ends as the clubs player and young player of the season, he also ends with the most assists and highest average rating, he only started 20 games with 24 games as sub, he got 13 goals and 23 assists with an average rating of 7.69!

Striker Jean Carlos Pajoy ends as the Premiership top scorer and has the most goals for Queen's Park this season, he scored 28 goals in 38 starts, another brilliant season but he now has some of the young lads breathing down his neck for a starting spot.

The Kids

I said I was going to blood the kids this season and I did just that, over 15 players that have come through the academy made appearances this season, I want to speak about four of them.

Firstly is forward Jay MacLeod, this lad is absolutely amazing, he dominated the Premiership player awards winning both the player, players player and young player of the year. He's also a fixture in the Scottish side , he managed 19 goals this season in 34 starts. His improvement has been immense this year.

Another Striker also excelled, John-Paul Tait was amazing when called upon, he also made his Scottish debut and grabbed a hat-trick in his second Scotland start when they beat Wales 4-0 in a friendly. He managed 12 goals and 5 assists in 21 starts, his improvement has been even bigger than MacLeod's, his current ability has jumped 1.5*'s in the last 9 months. 

This lad is an absolute superstar, Craig Wiles came through last seasons intake and is already a fixture in the first XI, he also made his Ireland debut and all at 16 years old! He made 37 starts and scored 3 goals!!

The final player I want to speak about is midfielder Alex Harrison, he's not rated very highly but I recalled him from a loan in the Winter to give him a chance and, although he didn't played loads, he was really good when called upon, he even made his Scotland debut in the March internationals! I think he looks great and his rating is really low for someone who looks this good. He ended up making 7 starts for us averaging just under 7. Next season he will get more game-time.

The future is so bright at Queen's Park, we have a raft of kids coming through who have proved in the second half of this season they can mix it.

At the end of March both MacLeod and Tait were rewarded for their amazing rise by being named 1st and 2nd in the NxGN award, we also had Wiles is also in there. and Summer signing, defender Pires.

Here is the Best XI for the season.

And here's the whole squad

Scottish Teams in Europe

It's been a mixed bag for our teams in Europe this season.

Rangers went out in the League Phase of the Champions League

Celtic lost to us in the Playoff and we then went out in the Last 16

Dundee United lost in the Playoff of the Europa League

Aberdeen lost in the Last 16 of the Conference League

But one team did so well!!

Hibernian, who ended bottom of the Premiership got all the way to the Europa League final!!! They beat the likes of Malmo, Galatasaray, Lyon and Feyenoord along the way but the final was against Chelsea and they lost 3-1, what a run though!

Even so, our co-efficient ranking will drop a place next season as we will be overtaken by Netherland, this doesn't affect our European spots for next season, we'll still have six teams in Europe with three in the Champions League but, with us dropping to 7th next season we will lost a Champions League spot for the following season.

I'm pretty confident, looking at our co-efficient points, that we will retake 6th spot from the season after

Next Season

So what an incredible season, a League Cup win and a third straight Premiership title, the League this year was so easy, we dominated from start to finish and I fully expect that to continue, next season though I will be focusing on the Champions League, we need to start progressing further, not only to help ourselves with money and improving our reputation but also to get the co-efficient increasing.

With my focus on Europe I will be blooding even more kids in the domestic competitions, I hope to play at 6 academy players in each XI in most of the domestic games and hold my key men back for Europe and the big domestic matches.

My aim this Summer is to look at improving the squad as a whole, the kids will play but can I improve the non-academy players, can I find a better Right Back that Larossa? Can I find a better Centre Back than Murillo? I have had my scout scouring the World for players that are upgrades on these type of players so as long as I can get the right deal there may a few changes this Summer, it all depends on the deal and whether I can move the players being replaced out. The kids will stay, they are the future but I need to keep the squad as a whole moving forwards.

2031-32 Season - September to January

I have to say its been an incredible first half of the season!

Champions League

We had some winnable home games which we needed to get points out of, especially after we lost our opening two games away to Newcastle and Liverpool. We came back with two really good wins over Roma and Slavia Prague before home draws to Monaco and then last seasons winners AC Milan, in the final two games we needed to secure at least a win, we drew PAOK 0-0 away before absolutely smashing Austria Wien in the final game to secure a playoff spot.

16th place is absolutely fantastic, there was good and bad news from our other Scottish teams in the Champions League with Celtic nicking the last playoff spot but Rangers went out after a poor campaign

League Cup

A competition we lost last season on penalties in the final so I was determined to win this, we eased past Motherwell and Hibs to get into the final.

Where we faced Celtic, we conceded early and we never really got going, it looked like we were going to lose until academy star MacLeod grabbed an equaliser in the 90th minute to take it extra time, this is where Celtic fell apart (I've seen this happen before!), we scored 3 times in extra time to seal a 4-1 win!!!

As you can see from the stats we utterly dominated.

Premiership

Now to the league and my word it's gone well!!!

A sea of green but we have slightly fallen off in the last month or so. We have however been incredible, some hammerings, loads of goals, lots of clean sheets, sensational! That last game away to St Mirren was the real only downer of the first half of the season, we never really got going but with us so far ahead in the table I have decided to give some of kids a chance to prove themselves.

18 points clear at the top!!! DOMINATION!!!

In Other News

In the Winter window I decided to make one signing and that was to bring in a new goalkeeper, Gebhardt left after not getting enough first team football so I went out and brought myself a new, young GK, who can replace Henderson once he decides to retire.

In comes Jesper Buksrud, signed from Rangers for £11m, I nicked their first choice goalie to become my back up!!!

We've also had the completion of the expansion of the ground, it's now totally max'ed out with a capacity of just over 38k, currently we're getting around 25k a game which is a massive increase in the previous seasons.

A fantastic first half of the season, my plan now, with such a lead at the top, if the blood some of the youth players to see who has got what it takes to get a spot in the squad for next season. Hopefully we can continue our good form and end with another league title and hopefully we can progress further in Europe

2031-32 - Transfers and Opening Games

I have to say we have properly upgraded this squad for next season, lots of outs and some real top quality players coming in.

Transfers Out

£68m of player sales, we say goodbye to DMs Peiffer and Anon, both sold for a profit, around £5m made on Peiffer, Anon was signed for £375k! Left Backs Moreno (signed on a free) and Granhus (signed for £5m) also leave, Tierney is so much better than these two and we also have wonderkid Wiles so neither of them were needed.

Ryan Porteous also leaves, he asked for a move and he wasn't going to get regular game time.

So a few first-teamers go meaning I needed to bring a few players in.

Transfers In

Pires - Central Defender/Left Back - £11.75m from Cruzeiro

A lad I'd looked at last season but I held off. With Murillo spending more time in midfield I felt it best to go out and sign a new left-footed CB, he can also play LB which helps.

Florian Boyer - Left Wing - Free from Toulouse

I really didn't need this lad but when I saw his contract expiring, meaning I could get him on a free, well it was a no-brainer. I top quality attacking midfielder who is an upgrade on Ilie and Paterson

Nordi Mukiele - Right Back - Free from Monaco

Another player I snapped up on a pre-contract. My new back-up right back to Larossa, he has Champions League experience as well and will be a great help to the young lads in the squad.

Andre-Franck Zambo Anguissa - Defensive Midfield - Free Transfer

With Pefiffer and Anon leaving I needed to bring in new midfield recruits, Anguissa is getting on in age but for 35 he still look top quality.

Ardon Jashari - Defensive Midfield - Free Transfer

Another ridiculous signing on a free transfer, just look at his value!!! This is why I left Anon leave, a huge upgrade on any midfielder I currently have.

Kristoffer Ajer - Central Defence - £12.5m from Brentford

I may have slightly overpaid but Ajer look really good and adds experience to our defence.

Some fantastic signings, lots of experience added and I really feel we're in a much better place for a good run in the Champions League

Opening Games

Sensational!!!! We have started incredibly with plenty of goals and hardly any conceded!

How low are Celtic?!?!

In Other News

I mentioned in the last update that the board agreed to my request for more seats in the ground, they agreed to a 3k expansion, then only days later they told me they were going to add over 9k more!

This will take the capacity up to nearly 38k! Huge!

The biggest news though is that all six teams that qualified for Europe this season have made it to their respective League Phase, we had three teams (including us) that has automatically qualified and then Rangers, Hibs and Aberdeen all made it through their qualifying rounds, this means we have….

• Champions League - Queen's Park, Celtic and Rangers
• Europa League - Hibernian and Dundee United
• Conference League - Aberdeen

This should really help the co-efficient!

Our Champions League fixtures also look pretty decent.

Those four home games in a row are going to be huge, three of those we should win, we also face last seasons winners AC Milan, there are also a couple of winnable away games. Could we do enough for a top 8 spot?

2030/31 - End of Season Review

And just like that the season is over! But first we have a worldie in our Youth Intake!

Craig Wiles, our new wonderkid left back. I swear I've never had an intake player this good and already first-team quality before on any FM. He went straight into the first XI and played 8 times since joining, he hasn't set the world on fire but I think he is going to be a superstar.

Champions League

We managed to seal a playoff spot for a third straight season and in that round we face Leipzig, a tough ask but we absolutely battered them! 3-1 in the away leg and then 5-3 in the home game!!

We then face Barca in the Last 16 and it was a step too far, we lost the home leg 2-0 and then went to the Nou Camp and lost 3-1. Another really good run though.

Scottish Cup

After losing the league cup final on penalties I was determined to make sure we won this and we did amazingly.

Solid wins all the way against pretty decent teams, the other semi was between Celtic and Rangers and Rangers won 2-0.

Now it was time to get revenge after losing to them in the league cup final and we did exactly that, we absolutely hammered them!!!

5-1, an amazing performance and our third straight Scottish Cup win.

Premiership

Now to the league, when I left you last we sat 3 points off Celtic but we had 2 games in-hand, it was ours to lose and we did really well, we did lost to Celtic 3-2, after being 2-0 up which was a shocker but after that we went on an amazing run of 8 wins in a row and by the time we faced Hibs with 3 games left we knew a win would seal the title, we beat them 2-1 and we had successfully retained the Premiership!

Only two defeats all season, both of them to Celtic but we absolutely smashed it, 94 points, 7 clear of Celtic, our best season yet by miles!!!

Key Men

Striker Jean Carlos Pajoy dominated the player awards, he won the clubs player and young player of the season, he also ended as the clubs top scorer. A stunning talent and a player I really hope will stick around for the long-term. He ends with 29 goals in 46 starts, sensational!

I spoke about Connor Smith in the last update and he continued his good form throughout the rest of the season, he ends with most assists at the clubs for the season, 14 in 40 starts with 17 goals. 

Another player I want to speak about is Murillo, he played the first half of the season at CB but I moved him into midfield to play as a Segundo Volante and he was amazing, I was going to look for an SV in the Summer, I don't think I need to anymore!

Here is our Best XI, strangely though there is no Murillo!

And here is our whole squad.

Co-efficient Update

This has suffered this season, mainly because only three teams qualified for the League Phase with Queen's Park in the Champions League and Celtic/Rangers in the Europa League. We had a good run as did Celtic who beat Rangers in the Last 16 before losing to Ajax in the Quarters.

We will retain 6th spot for next season but we have teams breathing down our neck. The good news is that due to us being in 6th we are guaranteed 2 teams in League Phase of the Champions League and one team in the Europa League League Phase, all in all there will be six teams in the Europe, with the other three going into Qualifying.

In Other News

At the end of March we moved back to our new ground after a lovely 9,400 expansion, this is going to massively help our gate receipts as we move forward.

But the even better news is I've persuaded the board to add even more seats! Another 3k at a cost of £8m!

The Academy is Flourishing 

A quick word on a few of our academy lads, who all made their Scotland debuts this season. David Moyes (Scotland manager) went mad in the March friendlies and called up 8 Queen's Park players, including these lads who all made their debuts

It was great to see forward Jay MacLeod get his chance for Scotland, this lad, when called upon has been really good this season and is improving rapidly, next season he is going to get his chance.

There was also a call-up and debut for Striker John-Paul Tait, he hasn't played much for me so I sent him on loan to Hearts, he didn't score loads but obviously impressed enough to get the call-up. 

Another player on-loan at Hearts who got the call was defender Steven McIlvogue. He isn't rated very highly but has a really solid half a season on-loan.

These three lads will all be in and around the first-team next season. I feel now is the time to give them a chance as we are doing so well in the League, with these guys, Kier Hamilton in midfield and Craig Wiles at Left Back we have a really good crop of academy players who I think can help take this club to a new level.

2030/31 Season - September to January

League Cup

Two relatively easy wins over fellow Premiership sides put us into the final where we faced Rangers who beat Celtic in the semi's.

It was a really boring, tight game, then it exploded in injury time. Turone scored a header from a corner to put us ahead in the 91st minute and we looked to have one hand on the trophy but, with the last kick of the game, Rangers levelled the tie. Extra time came and went and it was to decided by penalties.

All penalties were scored until the final spot kicks of the five, Saito scored for Rangers, Turone stepped up….and missed. We had lost in the cruellest way possible.

Gutting!

Premiership

What an amazing run it's been, we are now 21 games into the season and as you can see below, we are still unbeaten!!!

Some amazing results, including a 2-0 win over Celtic and plenty of goals scored whilst being pretty tight at the back.

Even though we're unbeaten we aren't top but it's only because we have games in-hand. We have two games in Celtic and sit three points behind them. It's going to be a really interesting, tight end to the season.

Champions League

We played really well in nearly all our games in Europe, we ran Inter close and got a solid 1-1 draw at home to Man United, three wins in a row towards the end of the campaign sealed a play-off spot and we went into that final game v PSG knowing a shock win would seal a top 8 spot, unfortunately PSG were just way too good and we got hammered.

We had qualified for the play-off round though and that's really pleasing, we are punching at the moment and long may it continue!

We only had three Scottish teams left in Europe this season with both Celtic and Rangers in the Europa League and both of them qualified for the knockouts, Celtic managed to end 5th and go straight into the Last 16, Rangers ended 18th, sealing a play-off spot.

January Transfers

The Winter window was relatively quiet with two out's and two in's.

As for the out's we lost Striker Peters, who asked for a move after falling down the pecking order and Right Back Rosier, a signing in the last Winter window who didn't perform well and wanted to leave, a good deal for a 34-year old.

Now to the two in's, please welcome…

Kieran Tierney - Left Back - £3.7m from Atletico Madrid

When I saw Tierney on the transfer-list for that fee it was a no-brainer, a top quality full back even at 33, I do have Granhus and Moreno who are good but Tierney is on another level. A statement signing.

Kaio Jorge - Winger/Striker - Free Transfer

A player I didn't need, with Peters going I wanted to give the kids a chance but when I saw Jorge on a free he had to come in. He can play on either wing and up top which offers versatility and with us suffering from numerous injuries I couldn't turn the chance to sign him down.

Who's Stood Out

Jean Carlos Pajoy has been fantastic up front alongside Muniz, at only 22 he is already better than Muniz and is currently our top scorer with 15 goals in 26 starts.

Connor Smith came in to be Montalto's understudy on the right wing but has actually over-took him in the pecking order. He has been a revelation since signing last Winter. He has had a couple of injuries and struggled slightly with fitness issues but has made 18 starts and scored 9 times with 5 assists. 

Now for the one of the kids and that lad is Striker Jay MacLeod, this lad is improving at a rate of knots and has made a few starts due to the sheer number of games causing fitness issues and quite a few injuries. He scored his first Queen's Park goal in the 2-0 win over Celtic and has two more since. 

500 games down

It's amazing to think I'm already at the half-century mark of games, I'm nearly at the end of season 8 and it's been absolutely amazing so far but there is so much more to come!!

500 games

1 x Premiership

1 x Championship

2 x Scottish Cup

1 x League Cup

Amazing!

2030/31 - Transfers, News & Opening Games

I can't believe I'm saying this, Queen's Park won the domestic treble last season!!!!! All with relative ease, we dominated the Premiership, we won the League Cup early and then we utterly battered Celtic in extra time of the Scottish Cup final. It's going to take a minor miracle to top what we achieved last season but to do that we need to continue to improve the squad.

I said in the previous update that I wanted a new LB and a new LW and then players would come in depending on who left, so let's firstly see those out's.

A few more than I wanted, the big losses were Fisher (GK), Martinez (CB) and Thomson (CM), all three wanted to leave and those fees are more than their value. We also sold Mavididi, The Ox left on a free and Navaroo went back to his parent club after his loan ended. 

The one interesting sale was Ryan McArthur, he was in last year NxGN list and is highly rated by me and the club but when Man United come calling there is no way you're going to keep hold of him. I got the best deal I could which includes 50% of the next sale.

It will be interesting to see how he develops at Old Trafford.

Now to the in's.

Calvin Paterson - Left Wing - £10.75m from Hearts

A player I'd been looking at for a while and I actually did this deal before last season ended, a top prospect and he helps with the homegrown rule. I have high hopes this lad could become a key player for club and country.

Dean Henderson - Goalkeeper - £15m from Crystal Palace

Did I overpay? Maybe but just look how good he is, compared to Fisher, who left and Gebhardt, who joined in the Winter, he is so much better and still had a good 3 or 4 years ahead of him.

David Moreno - Left Back/Defensive Midfield - Free from Burgos

With Navarro leaving and Thomson moving on I wanted a new LB and a new DM/CM, well Moreno ticks both those boxes and all for no money. He will be a good back-up player who can fill in as and when required.

Samuel Hernandez - Winger/Striker - Loan from Tottenham

A late deal, I just felt I needed another forward option, especially with players getting injured left, right and centre! A top quality young player who will provide a great option off the bench

Giuseppe Turone - Central Defender - Loan from AC Milan

With Martinez leaving I needed another option at CB, I didn't want to go out and spend a huge amount of money on a player as we do have a couple of decent, young prospects who I hope can improve enough to get a first-team spot in the next season or two. Turrone looks amazing and is a great short-term solution

So five in's costing just over £25m, a good window and now the squad looks set for another shot at domestic glory and hopefully a decent run in the Champions League.

Talking of that competition, as Premiership winners we automatically qualified for the League Phase and here are our fixtures. 

It actually doesn't look that bad, we have 3 winnable ties and some good match-ups against the likes of Inter, PSG and the team that knocked us out last season, Man United.

In our opening games we've played well but results haven't been as good as I hoped.

Three league games and only one win but we've played ok in those games. We also progressed in the League Cup with a brilliant display away to Hearts.

After four games the league is already really right, Celtic, now managed by Eddie Howe after Brendan took over at Real Madrid (YES REAL MADRID!) have also started the same as us. 

I also have numerous other interesting updates to show you.

Firstly, the board have decided to expand our new ground but just short of 10k seats. What this means though is until the expansion is complete in March we will be ground-sharing with Partick Thistle at their 10k capacity stadium

I've also decided to let my HOYD Jon Goodman leave and upgrade him with this fella.

Sam South-Thomas looks incredible, the last couple of intakes haven't been great so I've decided to get a new man in to hopefully provide us with some quality kids.

I mentioned it in the last update that it looked like we were going to rise up the co-efficient rankings and it's now been confirmed, we have moved up to 6th place which gives us more spots in the Champions League and more guaranteed League Phase spots.

Massive news for the save but we are a long way off taking on the big 5 nations of England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain!

So a good transfer window, an OK start result-wise, lets hope we I update you next, at the end of January we are still challenging in all competitions

2029/30 End of Season Review

Well here we are, it's been a few months since I last updated, I want to keep the amount of posts down at the moment, especially I seem to be writing a bit too much, hence the lack of “March/April” update.

Well the end of the season is here and when I last left you things were looking good, still in the Scottish Cup, we scraped into the knockouts of the Champions League and we say well clear at the top of the League, where we were looking for our first Premiership title.

Champions League

When I left you we had just beaten RB Salzburg in the playoff round, in the Last 16 we were drawn against Man United, a really tough draw but you'd expect it at this point.

We played the first leg at home and played so well, we let in an early goal but by half time were 2-1 up, we then fell asleep at the back and with 11 minutes left Anthony scored to level the tie. A draw is a solid result but we really needed to go to Old Trafford with an advantage.

We did really well in the away leg but it just wasn't enough. Three goals in the second half, one for us, two for them, their second coming minutes after we had levelled the game.

Still, after the start we had in the League Phase to get this far has been incredible.

Scottish Cup

We had some tight games in the Quarters and Semi's where we edged past Aberdeen and then a late goal to beat St. Johnstone 4-3.

We'd made it to the final where we faced Celtic, a team that had been nowhere near as good they should have been this season, a wounded animal you could say but it was time for us to lay down a marker, show them who we are!!!

We we didn't start well, Celtic scored within 8 minutes and they looked right at it. Then we got some big help, Celtic were down to 10 men 15 minutes in, surely we could come back? Well we did play well but we were sloppy, wasted chances galore, it looked like it was going to end 1-0 to Celtic until the 2nd minute of injury time of the game, a corner was swung in Navarro, up rose Martinez, BOSH!!! 1-1!!! We have rescued it!!!

Into extra time and this is where the game went absolutely bonkers, Celtic were dead on their feet, we had the bench to make a different, the subs came on and we went mad!!! 4 minutes into extra time it was 2-1 to us, Muniz beating his man and smashing it into the far left corner, 4 minutes later is was 3-1, Larrosa scoring a gorgeous curling shot from the edge of the box, 107 mins it was 4-1, Celtic has capitulated, another goal from a corner, this time Porteous with the header and then, right near the end, we scored a 5th goal, Pajoy nipping in front of his man to poke home. The whistle blew and we had BATTERED THEM!!!

5-1 FIVE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely insane!!!

So we had won the League Cup, we had won the Scottish Cup, could we make it a treble? 

Premiership

When I left you last we sat top by 5 points from Celtic with 2 games in-hand, we did have a couple of slip-ups along the way but that was due to fitness issues and we having to rotate but as we entered the Championship group we sat 11 points clear of Celtic, all we had to do was not fall apart!!!

Well we lost our opening game to Rangers but Celtic also lost, this meant we had the chance to win the title in the next match. We were away to Hibernian, Celtic were at home to Rangers.

We did our bit and beat Hibs 2-0 but could Rangers do us a favour? YES THEY COULD!!! They hammered them 3-0 at Celtic Park meaning, for the first time, QUEEN'S PARK ARE SCOTTISH CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!

An absolutely amazing season but we were helped by how poor Celtic were in comparison to the season before, last season they lost twice, this time they lost 11 games!!!

It couldn't have been much easier than that, 13 clear!! We have to thank the tactic though and the new signings, the 424 has worked so well since the Winter break, in the league alone we won 13, drew 2 and lost 3, 41 points from 18 games, we also end the League season unbeaten against Celtic!!!

What an absolutely incredible season, we have won the domestic treble!!! Our demons from last season have been vanquished!!!!!!

Key Men

I could talk about so many people here but then you will get really bored so let's speak about a couple of our key players.

The Clubs player of the season goes to Right Winger Fabrizio Montalto, this lad gets better and better every season and what a season he's had! 21 goals and 14 assists in 37 starts!!!! Incredible!

Connor Smith ends as the signing of the season, he only came in January and I remember at the time I said I was worried about his poor form at Aberdeen, well he turned that around and repaid my faith with a string of impressive displays. For us he made 18 starts and scored 10 goals!

Our Wide men this season have been so key and Rares Ilie has been amazing, playing on the left wing he has been a machine, providing 15 assists and 19 goals in 43 starts, he has over-performed his xG by 7! What a player!

Here is the clubs Best XI

And here is the whole squad.

Some amazing performances

Scottish Teams in Europe

It's been another decent season for the other Scottish teams:

Celtic went out in the League Phase of the Champions League ending 29th gaining 5 points from their 8 games/

Rangers ended 16th in the League Phase of the Europa League sealing a playoff spot where they beat Slavia Prague but were knocked out in the Last 16 to Celta Vigo

Hibernian ended 2nd in the League  Phase Conference League and automatically qualified for the Last 16, in that round they beat PAOK before losing to Sevilla in the Quarters

Hearts ended 9th in the Conference League League Phase qualifying for the playoff round where they beat Tobol Kostanay, they then lost in the Last 16 Besiktas.

So a decent season overall and then we got some huge news, we had risen two more places in the co-efficient, we are now up to 6th and that means big gains in the qualification spots available for next season.

As you can see our 30/31 season co-efficient rises to 80.667, above Turkey and Portugal.

And below you can see 6th spot means an extra Champions spot, rising from two to three, we also get two automatic League Phase spots. We gain a League Phase spot in the Europa League as well.

Finances & Budgets

The board have once again been generous with our budgets, nearly £20m to spend on players and a solid wage budget which leaves us with around £150k per week spare

The bank balance is also looking fantastic with it sitting at £56m, we haven't made much of a profit but that's because we spent nearly £40m in the Winter!

In Other News

A few pieces of good news for you and firstly I've persuaded the board to increase the capacity of the new ground.

Only 2,000 more seats but it's better than nothing.

We also, for the first time in the save, had two players in the NxGN and one of them is from our academy.

Ryan McArthur came through the 2028 and improving really quickly, he made a few appearances this season and chipped in with a couple of goals. Hopefully he continues to improve and he'll get more game-time as we move forward.

Next Season

Now we look forward to next season and I have a feeling expectations are going to go through the roof! Overall though we have a really good squad, this Winter signings have really propelled the quality we have and because of that I don't expect a raft of new players to join, that obviously may change is people leave.

My two main aims this Summer are a new Left Back to challenge Granhus and new Left Winger to provide back-up to Ilie. We have a few players who have declined quite rapidly this season who we'll be saying goodbye to. The Ox is leaving and I will be looking to sell Thomson and Mavididi. One thing I do need to keep an eye on is the number of homegrown players we have in our Champions League squad, last season we only had four, I need eight, so I'll be looking for a couple of trained in nation players to help make sure the squad is at it's maximum.

Hopefully those couple of signings, alongside the Winter incomings will mean next season we have another successful campaign, it's going to be really tough to exceed what we did this time around but I have faith!

29/30 Season - January & February 

Yesterday was a hard one for me, as you can tell from my updates I was struggling a bit, even though we were still winning games I was getting increasingly frustrated with performances and my decisions. It ended being the best thing that could've happened, it allowed me to take a step back and remind myself what this save is all about and that's taking this club and the nation to the top.

It's not about standing still and transitioning, nor is it about blooding all the kids in one, we need to continue to move forward, to challenge Celtic and to improve this squad to a level where we can progress in Europe.

The signings made in the last update improving a good few areas has helped but I needed more, not only new players but also a fresh approach, a new tactic which could give us more attacking impetus.

Now I've waffled let's see if it's worked and firstly the transfers, I have made two more signings to improve the side.

Murillo - Central Defender - Free Transfer

Not only is this guy costing me no money but he is a huge improvement on my current defenders. When a big came in for my main left-football central defender Waylon Renecke from Saudi Arabia for £19m (I signed him for £1.3m) I needed to find an alternative and this is that guy!

As you can see below, in comparison to Renecke, who is one of my better defenders, he is so much better, in virtually every area, for a free transfer this is a no-brainer, especially as I'm making such a profit on Renecke.

Feliz Gebhardt - Goalkeeper - £7.5m from Augsburg

Andrew Fisher has been really good for us but is slowly declining, with us also losing back-up keeper Santiago Silva after he asked for a move, I needed another option in goal. I spent a long time looking for a new No. 1. I got priced out of some players and then out-waged when going for others.  eventually settled with this lad and I have to say is still really good.

In comparison to Fisher he is better in some areas, not in others. Distribution for me is key, Fisher has struggled in some games, so to have this improved it massive, Felix's shot-stopping also a lot better, as is aerial ability and communication. The only area Fisher is better is physically. So again a good improvement.

With those two new signings, alongside the other five signed in this window I really feel we have a squad capable of properly challenging but I still had to sort this tactic out.

The “double-Libero” tactic had worked so well for me so far but, with teams more inclined to sit back on me and counter, I needed something new and fresh, to maybe catch a few teams out, letting goals in is fine if we score more!!! What we've found lately is we're struggling to create chances, we're still scoring but we could be doing more and that's down to a) not having enough players joining the attacks and b) we are too slow on the ball and need to get it forward quicker. So I decided to change to this….

We are using the base Gegenpress team instructions with a 424 formation. What I've tried to do is balance the roles giving us different options on either side of the pitch while trying to balance risk and award in the middle. I've also tried to get the players playing in their best position's where possible.

The F9 was the one I wasn't sure on but as you'll see in a minute, it's working pretty well. The only big concern for me was when we faced bigger teams or teams that played an AM, we may get caught out but for the domestic games, where bar Celtic we should be winning and dominating every game, this should work, I said “should”!!!

Changing tactics mid-season is always a risk but with a winter break in Scotland, it meant we had three weeks to put in some hard work in training and arrange some friendlies to see how it worked. Well the friendlies went amazingly and then it was time to put the tactic into proper competitive games!

I want to show you all the results together just so you can see HOW well it's gone!

I mean just look at that! Only one red but we'll gloss over that. 42 goals in 11 games!!!!!

Lets discuss the Champions League! So we lost our first five games and looked doomed. We then beat Copenhagen in matchday six to claw some dignity back, as you can see above it's gone mad and for me it all started in the Champions League.

After a solid 2-1 win over Marseille courtesy of a late goal from new-boy Pajoy, we went to Anfield knowing we HAD to win to get a playoff spot, I had no hopes, this tactic was new and surely it wouldn't work?! My God did it work!

We won 5-2!!! Just look how clinical we were tough, 6 shots on goal, an xG of just over 2 but we scored 5! This is what we've been missing this whole season. This meant we had nicked a playoff spot, unbelievably!! 

From there it went crazy, we beat Red Bull Salzburg in the playoff round, 5-0 at home before a rotated side lost the away leg 5-2, this puts us into the Last 16 for the first time!

We've also progressed in the Scottish Cup with two emphatic wins over East Fife and Arbroath, in the Quarters we will face Aberdeen away.

It's in the League though where things have took off, we weren't losing before but I wasn't enjoying the performances, now, with this new tactic, it's just insane!!!

5 games, 5 wins, 18 goals scored, including another 4-1 win over Celtic!! Again we only had 5 shots on target and scored 4! This tactic is so clinical!

And that means we are in pole position for our first ever League title.

5 clear of Celtic and we have 2 games in-hand! Surely we can't blow it from here!

The tactic has also sorted Rodrigo Muniz out! In the last update he had 9 goals from 28 starts, he now has 18 from 36 starts! His form has got mad and it has coincided with him having someone up-front with him. He ends February as the Premiership Player of the Month.

It's amazing how things can change just by taking a step back and re-assessing. Things were never bad, they were far from it but something was wrong, I needed to look and remind myself of the aims of this save. The kids will still come through, I may just take it a little slower, we need to keep moving this squad forward, as I said before, we can't stand still, Celtic won't, the big clubs in Europe won't, if we are to continue to challenge we need to continue to adapt and upgrade.

Apologies for the long post AGAIN. I wanted to keep these short but felt it good to put my ideas down so you can all see my thinking!

29/30 Season - December to Mid-January - Levelling up!

I'm updating now as, firstly it's the Winter break but also I have a lot of transfers to talk about.

We've gone big, we've gone bold, I've attempted to upgrade this squad by spending a shed load of cash, if this doesn't work, nothing wilL!

But first lets look at the results and actually it's gone pretty well since the last update. I don't think performances have been that good, we've played well in probably two games, the two most important games but overall the way we're playing is still a bit meh!!

Firstly the best news is that we won the League Cup!!!

It wasn't pretty and it took three goals late on in the second half to seal a 3-1 win. We deserved it, you can see by the stats we had all of the game, most chances, more possession, hugely better xG but still I felt we could've done better! I guess that shows you how far we've come!

The other good news is we smashed Celtic in the league.

We left it very late though, the game itself was really even, similar stats for both sides but we just hit a good patch at the end!

We actually end this little period unbeaten.

Some really good wins, a couple of iffy draws, I really can't put my finger on it, I watch the games and I just get frustrated, we miss so many chances, we give away stupidly easy chances by either not tackling or making sloppy passes. I really need to stop complaining, in six seasons we've gone from the Championship to battling it in the Champions League and challenging for the Premiership title. 

What I know though is we can do better, the tactic is still working even if it does have it's off games so for me I need to upgrade the players, we've stood still for a few seasons now, I wanted to give the kids a chance but I know I've rushed them through this season and they don't need the pressure. I need to improve the squad and like I said in the last post, we need to upgrade certain positions and that is what I have done!!!

What I want to do here is show you who we've signed but also look at the comparison against who is my best player in that position, that will show you how much better that player is.

Valentin Rosier - Right Back - £4.1m from Besiktas

A little older than I wanted but he looks so good for 33 years old. Right back has been one of my biggest issues for a few seasons now, I stuck with Tanner, I brought Larrosa in who just hasn't done well. Tanner is now leaving to go to Saudi Arabia and Rosier is his replacement.

As you can see below he is a lot better technically and mentally and as I like to play an attacking RWB to see his attacking and vision much better is key. He's also had a very good season at Besiktas averaging well over 7 in his 20 starts.

Bernt Granhus - Left Back - £5.5m from Juventus

Just look at those physicals, a bit like the right back area we've really struggled at left back. We lost Torijano late in the Summer window and I had no time to replace him, Navarro came in on loan and he's done OK but Anon as his back-up has been awful. 

As you can see Granhus is a lot lot better than Anon in nearly all areas. I like my LWB to play a little bit more reserved so the fact his attacking is lower doesn't bother me, What I like is he is quick, strong and has much better mentals. He is also only 20 so has time to improve.

Axl Peiffer - Defensive Midfield - £10.75m Genk

Only 21 and already played 100 times for Genk, I really like the look of this lad. His mental attributes are top quality and also has really good passing and first touch. We've missed having that creative player in defensive midfield since the likes of Okeke and Kilkenny have left, with Kier Hamilton playing as the CM I really needed this type of player to play alongside him in the DM role. 

Jack Thomson is the club captain and is the only player left from when I joined, he has been a great player for us but is declining now the club are improving. Pfeiffer is a different type of player to Thomson, he more technical and forward-thinking. In comparison he looks much better in those areas, I want my DM to pick the ball up off the CBs and not to lose it all the time, something that's been grating on me for the past few months!

Connor Smith - Attacking Midfield - £12.75m from Aberdeen

I've had my eye on this lad for a while now, even when I was Scotland manager, he's now 20 and is improving massively even if his form at Aberdeen hasn't been great this season. I've signed him as I see a huge for him and also he helps with the homegrown rule. He looks exciting, can play either on the RW or as an AM. 

As he can play RW I've compared him to our main man Montalto, he is probably the best player in the squad and has been on good form this season. As you can see though Smith isn't that far off him, physically and technically he's actually better. Whether he played RW I'm not sure, I am thinking of bringing him in to play as an AM behind a Striker but we will see.

Jean Carlos Pajoy - Striker - £1.4m from America de Cali

Now I didn't really need a Striker but when I saw this lad I had to bring him in. He is absolutely ridiculously good!!!! Rodrigo Muniz has been such a big player for me over the past few years but this season he has been so far off it, Jason Peters as back-up has also not been great and with Muniz looking like he wants to go I needed to find someone who would be a like-for-like replacement. 

In comparison to Muniz who, attribute-wise, the best player at the club he is actually better in so many departments. He isn't as good in the air but seeing as we like to play the ball on the floor and not put too many crosses in, then I don't mind. Pajoy is quicker, stronger, has better vision and is technically better. This lad could be an absolute superstar, I just need to get rid of his £12.75m release clause!!!

So some big upgrades, now let's hope this helps!! I really want to stick with my 343 double-Libero tactic but I'm finding it more and more defensively unstable and in some games we're struggling for goals, even though, as you can see in the results, we've scored a few lately, we do miss a lot of chances though!

I am looking at a 4231 to accommodate either Hamilton or Smith playing in behind a Striker but I'm reluctant to switch it all up mid-season.

Now it is only mid-January to there is still time for more business but I hope I can now hang on to my other players, this squad looks much better now I've signed these five players, let's hope it shows on the pitch, results continue to be good but our performances get better! 

29/30 Season - November to Mid-December

This update might end up with me just waffling but hopefully it all makes sense!!!

So far this season has gone pretty well, we've prioritised the league and cup and scrapped the Champions League and it was working well but, as the games wore on and, as you'll see in the results, especially for November, it showing that my plan to give the kids a chance and to keep the squad thin isn't working. If we are to actually challenge and challenge consistently I am going to need to improve the squad. That's not to say the kids won't get a chance, some aren't doing too bad but it is looking like a mistake bringing a load through in one go.

I'll be giving them their chance but maybe a bit more spread out!

Anyway enough waffling let's see how it gone

I thought I'd put all the results together so you can see that it's all fallen apart!!

8 games over a month and a bit, we've won 3 games, 2 of those in the league. Our 2 Champions League games have been awful and even in our wins we've struggled!!

The only positive note was we beat Kilmarnock in the League Cup semi final, we will face Hibernian in the final.

As you can see though we didn't create much, nowhere near the levels are the start of the season.

So with only 8 points from 5 games you would expect Celtic to have overtaken us in the table but even they've struggled, they've gained 7 points from 5 games. The funny thing is, although we're top we have a new challenger!

Yes Celtic are down to 3rd and Hibs are the team level with us at the top of the league, Dundee United are also doing well!!!

So as you can see results haven't been good whatsoever but we're still top which is a big bonus! We now move in to the Winter window and the board have increased our transfer budget from £6m to £36m, they clearly want improvements as well. My aim is to look at 3 or 4 positions, positions where we don't have a decent kids coming through and then improve on the players we have. 

Those positions are: Right Back, Left Back, Defensive/Central Midfield and a Winger that could be left or right. We have a couple of decent Strikers and Central Defenders coming through so I feel like I hold out on those areas but the likes of Tanner (RB), Thomson (DM) and my back-up Wingers just aren't good enough if we are to properly challenge Celtic consistently. We've also then got the worry of whether we will lose players as, once again, the transfer rumours are circulating!

Another thing I've noticed is, after our initial burst of goals earlier in the season, we've completely stopped scoring, in most of our defeats we've failed to score but we've also stopped creating decent chances, maybe I need to look to change our formation to add some extra attacking impetus or maybe I need to change our style to be a bit more forward-thinking and quicker at getting the ball forward, this is me thinking out load so I'll spend the Winter working it out!!! 

I tend to go basic. England down to the national League north/south and Scotland obviously. Then added a couple of view only leagues, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A. Had a large database and added all players from the UK. Came to about 60k players I think

29/30 Season - September and October

Champions League

This season, for me, is all about winning the Premiership, just to get to the League Phase of the Champions League is enough for me, so I've been resting and rotating to keep my key men fit for the bigger domestic games. This means results have suffered!

Only one point from the three games. Fiorentina we played well but defended poorly, Young Boys we should have won but they scored a late leveller and Leipzig we were rubbish!

League Cup

We're into the Quarters where we faced Rangers, it was an incredibly tight game, very even but we managed to come out the other end with a 2-1 win/

The good news is Celtic lost to Hibs meaning we are clear favourites to win it, possibly for the first time in the save. We will face Kilmarnock, the other semi is between Hearts and Hibs.

Premiership

It's been a really good start to the competition which means everything this season, we have however really struggled with injuries, with a much smaller squad than normal due to wanting to give some of the kids a chance, I really didn't want a raft of injuries, they haven't been long-term lay-offs but those annoying 2-3 week one, this has really stretched the squad, another reason why I've had to prioritise the league and forget about European progression.

The good news is we have been really really good so far and the kids who have had to fill in have been solid.

Still unbeaten and we also seemed to have stopped shipping goals as well! A couple of iffy draws but who cares, a stunning start!

And Celtic have already lost three games!!!

So we sit top on goal difference but we have a game in-hand, we haven't actually played Celtic yet, that will show me more than anything how far we've come. 

I really need to stem the injury tide now and try and get my players back fit, I'm looking forward to the next international break where we can have a rest!!!

In other news we have eventually moved to our new ground and the good news is we have a big expansion capacity!

Hopefully we can get the capacity increased quickly, the interesting news is the ground has also replaced Hampden as the new ground for the national side!

We've also signed another new affiliation with Japanese side Consadole Sapporo, hopefully that gets us some commercial income