Career Zakan makes the Welsh league the best league!

[Zakan]

As of the 1st July 2018, the JD Welsh Premier is sat 50th on the coefficients. It is my job to increase that to number 1, and to do that I've enlisted the help of the best team in the country.

The New Saints

Safe to say they are the dominant team in Wales and hopefully should make a good puppet to increase Wales' standing. And if necessary I may swap clubs along the way if I'm confident the team I'm leaving is still capable in Europe, and if all goes well; by the end of the career we'll see the Welsh league become the dominant league in Europe.

This is indeed my attempt at the Probably The Best League In The World Challenge

My season 1 review will be posted tomorrow. I hope you enjoy!

Edited April 20, 2019 by Zakan

[Zakan]

Season 1

Transfers

When I took over at TNS it was obvious to me that the squad needed an overhaul if we were even going to challenge in the european qualifications, luckily for me Eastbourne were keen on one or two of our players...

Spoiler

With my new added bonus of a bigger wage budget I set out to get myself some new talents that would make themselves known at the club while helping me reach the group stages'. One of my favourite transfers being Jamie Thomas, the young striker with a lot to give in the league and a player that would prove important for the team during the course of the season

Quote

 

Most transfers had to be free agents as TNS don't have the world's biggest transfer budget but due to some of the recent departures I managed to scrape enough together to gain a few first team players that would eventually prove worth it.

Europe

As TNS were previous league champions we started out in the champions league qualifications which provided a good lifeline if we were to be knocked out in the first few rounds. Our first tie was against Sheriff, a Moldovan team, this was to be a tough couple of games for us as they were of higher quality and it didn't show as much as I thought it would.

The first leg wasn't exactly the best I could have asked for but at least we didnt lose by too much otherwise that would have made the home leg a lot harder, now all we can do is hope we win by 2 goals to guarantee going through.

It was a tough home leg for us and unlucky as we conceded twice after we were level meaning we never really got the opportunity to go in front till an 84' penalty was scored but by then it was too late and sadly for us it was on to the Europa League qualifiers but at least we're still in something!

The next game saw us away at Cork City, the Irish team that really we should beat due to our quality however the first leg ended at a poor 0-0 with neither teams actually getting too close to anything.

However, we didn't let them stop us from progressing at home as we send them back to Ireland packing in all hopes of European Qualification with a 4-0 victory! 

Next up was possibly on of the worst teams we could have faced, Celtic; obviously I wasn't going to expect much from this game with the lack of experience in the team and it showed as we were smashed 8-0 away from home but we managed to keep them at bay for the home fixture as we even got ourselves a goal after a defensive change in tactics seemed to work well for us against a team that should have expected another 8-0 game

Domestic Competitions

After our failed attempt at European Qualification we focused on all of the domestic competitions, the main being the league of course, and boy was it a good year for us domestically.

First off, the league; it only took us till the 6th February to confirm the league title after a mass amount of victories in the league saw us not only win the league but win it in style. Not only that but with the only distractions being the domestic competitions there was no real excuse for not fielding my strongest 11 every single game.

Quote

 

Spoiler

Both the Nathaniel MG Cup and the JD Cup were walks in the park for the team and picked up 2 easy victories in the finals against lower tear opposition which really would've found themselves lucky to even be in the finals of each competition as some easy 7-0 and 5-0 wins saw us lift the treble at the end of our first season!

Spoiler

Coefficients

After a okay start to life qualifying for Europe there was to no real surprise no movement in the coefficients as we stay in 50th but hopefully next season after some more squad improvements we can jump up to some extent!

I hope you enjoyed the first part to this career and feel free to comment below!

Edited April 21, 2019 by Zakan

[Ian]

Good luck and great first season.😀

[S4NCH0]

I love the welsh league 

It allows you to develop young talents, dominate your league easily, but still sets a massive european challenge.

I won the champions league 3 times in a row with Newtown and still I found myself as the 10-12th league in the world. An advice I can give you is: try to improve the other teams in the division, don't buy players from them and if you do, pay good and add 30-40% sell on clauses, and maybe a loan back option if they're still young.

I might try this challenge some time soon.

[macmole]

Good luck, I have tried something similar with both Crusaders and Linfield in Northern Ireland.  It’s easy to dominate domestically.  Linfield save went better than Crusaders. 

[Zakan]

18 hours ago, 1759 said:

Good luck and great first season.😀

Thanks

15 hours ago, S4NCH0 said:

I love the welsh league 

It allows you to develop young talents, dominate your league easily, but still sets a massive european challenge.

I won the champions league 3 times in a row with Newtown and still I found myself as the 10-12th league in the world. An advice I can give you is: try to improve the other teams in the division, don't buy players from them and if you do, pay good and add 30-40% sell on clauses, and maybe a loan back option if they're still young.

I might try this challenge some time soon.

Don't worry it was always my plan to move across teams, it would seem a bit difficult if I'm winning the champions league but the other teams couldn't even qualify!

7 hours ago, macmole said:

Good luck, I have tried something similar with both Crusaders and Linfield in Northern Ireland.  It’s easy to dominate domestically.  Linfield save went better than Crusaders. 

Thanks it's very easy to dominate domestically indeed especially if you have a team capable of winning European trophies in such a poor league!

[S4NCH0]

4 hours ago, Zakan said:

Don't worry it was always my plan to move across teams, it would seem a bit difficult if I'm winning the champions league but the other teams couldn't even qualify!

That's actually a great idea, dumb me hadn't thought about it hahaha. Good luck then! 

[LenTheWelsh]

On 21/04/2019 at 16:02, Zakan said:

Season 1

Transfers

When I took over at TNS it was obvious to me that the squad needed an overhaul if we were even going to challenge in the european qualifications, luckily for me Eastbourne were keen on one or two of our players...

  Reveal hidden contents

With my new added bonus of a bigger wage budget I set out to get myself some new talents that would make themselves known at the club while helping me reach the group stages'. One of my favourite transfers being Jamie Thomas, the young striker with a lot to give in the league and a player that would prove important for the team during the course of the season

Most transfers had to be free agents as TNS don't have the world's biggest transfer budget but due to some of the recent departures I managed to scrape enough together to gain a few first team players that would eventually prove worth it.

Europe

As TNS were previous league champions we started out in the champions league qualifications which provided a good lifeline if we were to be knocked out in the first few rounds. Our first tie was against Sheriff, a Moldovan team, this was to be a tough couple of games for us as they were of higher quality and it didn't show as much as I thought it would.

The first leg wasn't exactly the best I could have asked for but at least we didnt lose by too much otherwise that would have made the home leg a lot harder, now all we can do is hope we win by 2 goals to guarantee going through.

It was a tough home leg for us and unlucky as we conceded twice after we were level meaning we never really got the opportunity to go in front till an 84' penalty was scored but by then it was too late and sadly for us it was on to the Europa League qualifiers but at least we're still in something!

The next game saw us away at Cork City, the Irish team that really we should beat due to our quality however the first leg ended at a poor 0-0 with neither teams actually getting too close to anything.

However, we didn't let them stop us from progressing at home as we send them back to Ireland packing in all hopes of European Qualification with a 4-0 victory! 

Next up was possibly on of the worst teams we could have faced, Celtic; obviously I wasn't going to expect much from this game with the lack of experience in the team and it showed as we were smashed 8-0 away from home but we managed to keep them at bay for the home fixture as we even got ourselves a goal after a defensive change in tactics seemed to work well for us against a team that should have expected another 8-0 game

Domestic Competitions

After our failed attempt at European Qualification we focused on all of the domestic competitions, the main being the league of course, and boy was it a good year for us domestically.

First off, the league; it only took us till the 6th February to confirm the league title after a mass amount of victories in the league saw us not only win the league but win it in style. Not only that but with the only distractions being the domestic competitions there was no real excuse for not fielding my strongest 11 every single game.

  Reveal hidden contents

Both the Nathaniel MG Cup and the JD Cup were walks in the park for the team and picked up 2 easy victories in the finals against lower tear opposition which really would've found themselves lucky to even be in the finals of each competition as some easy 7-0 and 5-0 wins saw us lift the treble at the end of our first season!

  Reveal hidden contents

Coefficients

After a okay start to life qualifying for Europe there was to no real surprise no movement in the coefficients as we stay in 50th but hopefully next season after some more squad improvements we can jump up to some extent!

I hope you enjoyed the first part to this career and feel free to comment below!

😍😍😍😍😍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

 

Good luck mate can’t wait to see how this pans out.

[Zakan]

On 22/04/2019 at 14:41, S4NCH0 said:

That's actually a great idea, dumb me hadn't thought about it hahaha. Good luck then! 

Thanks, just thought I was a definite for any challenge like this really 😂

 

On 22/04/2019 at 16:09, LenTheWelsh said:

😍😍😍😍😍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

 

Good luck mate can’t wait to see how this pans out.

Thanks it's definitely an interesting challenge 😉

[Zakan]

Season 2

Transfers

Stupidly, I forgot to screenshot the transfers in and out of the club, so as my punishment I'm now going to bullet point all of the main transfers:

Departures:

• Corie Andrews - Hull £95k
• Sebastian Des Pres - Gateshead £22k

Arrivals:

• Botti Biabi - Free
• Jordan Cox - Free
• Jamie Stephens - £65k from Carlisle
• Aden Baldwin - Free
• Tom Broadbent - Free
• John Goddard - £75k from Stevenage
• Lee Lucas - £140k from Connah's Quay
• Jordan Sinnott - £22k from Alfreton
• Llyr Lewis - Youth
• Dominic Bernard - Free

Most players were signed to improve my defence significantly especially goalie Jamie Stephens however, Cox was signed to replace Andrews and a few were signed to improve my midfield as well. Both Sebastian and Corie were allowed to leave when I felt their valuation was met to gain a decent profit off of them after quite a few clubs knocking on the door for their services.

Europe

Qualifiers

After winning the league last season we were put in place for the champions league qualifiers once again, and with no movement in the coefficients, we don't have an easier road this year. Our first opponents were Cliftonville, a team for once we were favourites to beat (Much to my suprise!). It's odd being favourites to win a Champions League qualifier but hey ho and into the games we went.

The first leg was away and a lone goal from soon-to-leave midfielder Des Pres was enough to see us win at home. The second leg was a more convincing result as our main goalscorer Jamie Thomas scores a brace to put us through 3-0 on aggregate. We're through to the next round of the champions league!

Spoiler

Our second round of qualifiers saw us playing Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli league, sadly we weren't favourites for this game 😞 but that didn't matter as we went in with our heads held high!

Once again we were away first and 2 early goals from Goddard and Thomas saw us sneak a 2-1 victory and the help of away goals could see us through! Sadly it wasn't to be as a leaky defence meant we went 3-1 down at home as the team switched off for the last 5 minutes and we're off to the Europa League once again.

 

Spoiler

Even though we bowed out of the champions league once again that doesn't mean we were out for the count as this time we faced easier opponents (well, easier than Celtic anyway) in ODD. The first leg was played away once more and Goddard gets himself another goal to counter the eventual goal as we go into the second leg. The home leg was a petrifying leg as ODD were desperate to get a goal as soon as possible to eliminate the away goal for us, sadly for them our defence held out and we drew 0-0. We're now only 180 minutes away from the Europa League group stage! But can we make it?

Spoiler

Luckily for us we were given an even easier fourth round tie against Estonian side FCI Levadia Tallinn. This time round we had the home leg first and an amazing performance from the whole team as both Jamie Thomas and newbie Jordan Cox score a brace each and we win the first leg 6-0! Surely we've reached the group stages! But we can't get complacent now as we head into the away leg and Jamie Thomas does exactly that as he scores a hat trick to ensure we win and in style we won as we progress to the group stages 9-0 on aggregate! And we've done it! Group stages in our second season! Let's see how far we can go!

Spoiler

Group Stage

Our group stage wasn't as bad as I was expecting with 2 well known teams in Olympiakos and Basel. Russian side Krasnodar were also involved in the group stage with our opener being us hosting Olympiakos.

The team were well rested as sacrifices had to be made when it came domestically so we could have our main players in fighting shape for these Europa League ties, Olympiakos came ready to fight and we were ready to counter them when Cox was fouled while on the break in the 8th minute giving us a decently angled free kick, which Cox scored. Sadly Olympiakos still have a lot of quality and equalise before half time but a hard fought draw shows our ability against top teams.

Spoiler

Our second game was against Krasnodar. The weakest team out of the 3 we play in the group, we were going into these games with a lot of confidence at the same time so we were hoping for something good. Luckily for us we have Jamie Thomas and he bags himself another hat trick to see us win 3-1 and give us our first ever europa league group stage win!

Spoiler

Our third game was against a Basel team that was underperforming in the competition so far, sadly they weren't underperforming against us as an Ajeti hat trick saw them providing our first loss of the tournament

Spoiler

This time we were home against Basel and we were hoping to bounce back and after I modified the tactic a smidge we managed to grind out a 2-0 win. Looking good in the group so far as we saw ourselves second to Olympiakos with only 2 games to go!

Spoiler

Last time we played Olympiakos we managed a 1-1 draw and at this stage we could not afford to lose! We were only 2 games away from possibly qualifying for the knockout rounds and I had to do everything in my will to let that happen. After another Cox goal we were attempting to hold out for a well worked draw but sadly Athansiou had other plans and equalised only 12 minutes away from full time handing them a draw that they really deserved after dominating most of the game.

Spoiler

It's the last game of the group stage. TNS are second with one game to go and it's all in their hands. Draw and hope Olympiakos can hold to at least a draw against Basel, or win and possibly top the group if Olympiakos can't beat Basel, anything could happen! My main focus was defence, if we could keep the scores at least level, maybe snatch a winner we could see ourselves through. An early goal from Thomas filled me with hope and even though Ivan got an equaliser 10 minutes later we managed to hold on as Krasnodar attempted the impossible of trying to qualify for the next round despite being bottom. Fortunately for us Basel were held to a draw against Olympiakos which means yes, we are through to the knockout rounds of the europa league in only our second season!!

Spoiler

Knockout rounds

Seeming as we'd qualified for the knockout rounds I was hoping we might be able to get an easy draw, see ourselves maybe even to the round of 16...

Ah ok then nevermind, we got Inter 😂. I think the results speak for themselves.

Spoiler

Hey at least it could have been worse than 7-0 on aggregate, I mean we had some shots in the second game!

Despite our exit in the round of 32 I couldn't be happier with our second season in European football already beating the group stage!

Domestic

League - Stormed to the title easily although sadly after the Europa League many tired players needed resting for games so there were a few weak games and we couldn't have another unbeaten run.

Nathaniel MG Cup - Another easy cup win over Bangor City for the second season running alongside Jamie Thomas deciding to steal the show!

JD Welsh Cup - Prestatyn stood no chance as we smashed them into next week after an 8-0 win giving us our second treble in a row!

Spoiler

After our successful domestic season, let's look at how our domestic counterparts have done in Europe

Connah's Quay Nomads - Knocked out at the first time of asking, unlucky!

Spoiler

Cefn Druids - Also knocked out in the first qualifying rounds 😞

Spoiler

Cardiff Met Uni - Definitely the toughest side in the league (excluding us of course) and it shows as they make it through the first lot of qualifiers, still sadly knocked out in the second round but better than the other teams so it's ok!

Spoiler

Coefficients

After a successful second season let's see how well we improved our coefficients!

We move up 7 places from 50th to 43rd! Result. Sadly that won't give us any advantage in terms of qualifiers but it's definitely a start and only 42 and counting!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment 😀

[Mr Tree]

Great start, keep up the good work!

[Ian]

Going great, I recognise a few of your players too. I had Botti Biabi in my Queen’s Park career. 😀

[ManLikeRobbieBrady]

Great work to get that far into Europe so early on!

KIU

[Zakan]

2 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

Great start, keep up the good work!

Thanks 😀

 

1 hour ago, 1759 said:

Going great, I recognise a few of your players too. I had Botti Biabi in my Queen’s Park career. 😀

He's honestly been quite a good backup this season

 

1 hour ago, ManLikeRobbieBrady said:

Great work to get that far into Europe so early on!

KIU

Thanks it really was a suprise to get this far already, still sad we had inter straight away.

[DIRECTFX]

Nice start to career. I always try a couple of these in Ireland, Scotland but gets hard when the other clubs lose to leagues you need to jump over ......... I use Andrews a bunch with lower leagues surprised you sold him so soon hes real fast and puts up decent numbers usually. You are aiming high trying for #1 ranking I usuaslly aim for the top 4 to get the most spots but its a process and like I said you cant control other teams at same time so they can frustrate you even if you do well . Just need a bunch of patience and it looks like you have a good start so far. What leagues do you have loaded? Always watch those free agents teams releasing players year round it seems in my saves no just end of contracts. Last tip is always try to find the surplus to requirements players as they are basically free agents as team asks for $0 and just need to agree on terms. 

 

[Zakan]

12 hours ago, DIRECTFX said:

Nice start to career. I always try a couple of these in Ireland, Scotland but gets hard when the other clubs lose to leagues you need to jump over ......... I use Andrews a bunch with lower leagues surprised you sold him so soon hes real fast and puts up decent numbers usually. You are aiming high trying for #1 ranking I usuaslly aim for the top 4 to get the most spots but its a process and like I said you cant control other teams at same time so they can frustrate you even if you do well . Just need a bunch of patience and it looks like you have a good start so far. What leagues do you have loaded? Always watch those free agents teams releasing players year round it seems in my saves no just end of contracts. Last tip is always try to find the surplus to requirements players as they are basically free agents as team asks for $0 and just need to agree on terms. 

 

I have England loaded apart from Wales and that's it, mostly focusing on free agents seeming as the transfer budget doesn't seem to be the highest alongside players with expiring contracts.

[Cripps89]

Hi mate how did you get on with this, I’m in 2025 with regular champs league group stages but all my players want to leave for bigger clubs and the most anyone will offer for my players is 20k so getting frustrated with it, want to see if it’s possible to make the league better if not