Career League of Ireland, the best league in the world?! (S8)

[Mr Tree]

Hey kids! 

It's been six weeks since i completed my 28yr "Goal-a-mile" career 😮

Watched a lot of Netflix in the meantime, but now - I'm back, baby! 

I've had my eye on another long-term challenge for a while, and I've just completed the first season - loved it, I'm hooked again! 

I was holding out, mindful that i had a free phone upgrade coming up at work. Then they broke something on my computer too, so i had to go to the office. While i was there i casually enquired about my upcoming upgrade, and they said "oh let's just sort it now, save you having to come in again" - sweet! So now i have a new Samsung S20 FE to play with The difference in running the game is immediately noticeable...

Anyway, the big reveal...... will be tomorrow A clue? Well, you'll probably think the challenge is impossible...

Edited Monday at 17:17 by Mr Tree

[DLC]

I'm excited for this! 😁 Following mate! Good luck.

[George Traistă]

After I failed my Impossible Youth Academy Challenge... I've setup the save for The Impossible Challenge so... that is?

[broodje kip]

There’s only two challenges for this:

or....

 

[George Traistă]

16 minutes ago, broodje kip said:

There’s only two challenges for this:

or....

 

Augusta is very do-able!! The only impossible is the second one, 100% impossible! 

[geordiekrispy]

No idea but I know it'll be a fun one!

Edited March 26 by geordiekrispy

[Mr Tree]

Wrong so far lads - you've latched on to the wrong word......

[geordiekrispy]

Is it one of; How far can can you take them or Removing all Premier League teams challenge?

 

They both seem pretty impossible.

I tried starting the how far can you take them challenge with York, it was tough...

[Mr Tree]

Nope, nice try, but I will be taking on this....

Any guesses for where i'm going?

[Mr Tree]

Not up for guessing games today ok, i will reveal... I'm off to Ireland, my father's country of birth (before he sired me in England).

And what team? Well, Shamrock Rovers would be the obvious choice, so booo to that. My family are from Kilkenny, but alas, no soccer club around there... 

My father was actually born in Dublin though, although shamefully my sieve-like memory can never remember if he was a Northsider or a Southsider

But i do know that he once told me that Shamrock and Shelbourne were the big rivalry. And again, i forgot which way round, but he supported one and my nan supported the other (for the bantz). They were the same with Rangers-Celtic - pretty sure it was Nana who supported the hoops, so Dad supported the Gers to wind her up (all in good fun of course!)

So... Shelbourne it is! 

I did some looking but i don't think anyone has ever got far with the challenge. There's been some advice to move around rather than making one club a local powerhouse - i see the logic, but I'm gonna hope that my offcuts and rejects will raise the stature of those around me. We'll see, i might be wrong! 

But for now, i banged out the first season and enjoyed it, so we'll see how far we get! 

[broodje kip]

Oh! Uhh.... wtf? You’re ok Tree?

[StuartM]

Good luck Mr Tree, I like the sound of this - its certainly different!

[DLC]

Good Luck Tree! 👍

[Albionic]

I have always wanted to try this, but always thought it was too hard, so will be interested to see how you get on!

[Chelseaplchamps2022]

Good luck mate!

[Ian]

Good luck Mr Tree.

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks @broodje kip @DLC @StuartM @Albionic @Chelseaplchamps2022 and @Ian for the support, much appreciated!

Season 1

I will try to avoid waffling on with these, keep it short n sweet - but no guarantees!

A little look at the frantic business i achieved on my meagre budget:

Had to get a Brentford player, of course! Scott got flipped in the midseason transfer window, giving me some financial flexibility. 

We actually lost 5 of our first 7 to sit bottom nearly a quarter of the way through, with successive games being 4-0 down in the first half leaving me worrying that this career could crash and burn! 

But i signed Mair to go in goal and he was excellent, and we tweaked and tinkered and got rolling and in the end, almost muscled our way into the title race:

 

Player of the season

I'll try and pick someone out to look at each season, hopefully slowly building up to world superstar level

We start low, but with a bit of a classic:

Added mid-season after we got some funds and Windsor returned to West Brom on loan, Cassidy was superb:

Don't get attached though kids - i sold him early in Season 2, to Barnsley for 300k, and his value immediately jumped to 5.5m!

But we need the funds to level up. The board won't entertain my requests for better than Adequate facilities (I'm an unknown manager at the start), but at least with a bit of money they finally let me ditch my Bronze-Poor coach, and now we have me (Gold already?!) plus three Silvers - I'm Youth and the coaches are Youth, Fitness and Defensive. 

So we're rid of the deadwood in the squad now and ready to push on, but there's a looooong way to go:

Edited March 26 by Mr Tree

[Stuttgartsteve]

this looks tough and will need some luck but it will be enjoyable to follow i know.

[DLC]

Nice first season mate and some good business, Cassidy will be a key player by the looks of things!

Edited March 26 by DLC

[FuddledFox]

I have a feeling you might have to move clubs to complete this just based on my experience in Wales last year where the other teams did get a little better but never to an extent that they challenged in Europe and improved the league standard.

Either way this will be fun to follow whatever the outcome so good luck.

[Woody]

Keep going mate. 👍

 

[Rich]

Good first season there Mr Tree.

[Paul186]

Godd first seson another long challenge great lots more posts to look forward to.

[geordiekrispy]

Great first season, I'm interested to see how it goes once you've got to a level where you're challenging in Europe.

I feel that like others have said, the other teams aren't going to be brought kicking and screaming to your level, without your assistance.

[Kanegan]

This is quite a tough challenge. Good luck Tree and you are off to a great start. 

[Albionic]

Great first season Tree, some good transfer business there!

[Mr Tree]

Many thanks for the great comments, @Stuttgartsteve @DLC @FuddledFox @Woody @Rich @Paul186 @geordiekrispy @Kanegan and @Albionic! Regarding moving around Ireland, i might review at 10 / 15 / 20 seasons, but I'm hopeful that my rejects will help raise the local standard. It'll be interesting to see how the Irish national team gets on too - I'm not planning to manage them myself, but maybe the evogens will help boost the local quality (I've only loaded the Irish league). Maybe I'll come back next year and do this again the other way! We'll see

For now, on to a spectacular...

 

Season Two

Because not only this...

(won with 8 games to spare!)

And this...

But also, we made our first timid steps into continental competition... A nervy win over some Albanians got us started:

We held on to a 0-0 away, restricting to them to just one shot in the second leg Then Swedes Esborg were defeated in the second round, before we ran into a juggernaut - Feyenoord!

3-1 down in the first leg, we went Overload and pushed up high for the last 25mins - and it paid off!!

Could we seal the deal at home? No sweat...

Confidence was sky-high now, so we cruised past Ross County to reach the group stage:

Thank god i won the league early (Ireland has a summer league), because the group stage nerfed my fixture list 😮

Gonna need a strong squad to deal with that regularly! 

The bookies were pessimistic:

And to be fair, they had a point:

Obviously they steamrollered me - but i thought 6-0 was a bit harsh

I managed to beat Malmo at home and draw away, so a home draw with Bordeaux (and a 6-4 home defeat to Roma) left me needing a win in the last game in France to qualify...

We lost 3-1, but a very respectable first outing!

Our ranking has already risen (don't know when these are fully updated, I'll just check it at the end of each Irish season, which is Jan 1st funnily enough)...

 

A couple of bugs / annoyances:

 - i haven't been able to increase my facilities yet... they keep saying I'm an "inexperienced manager" so i should focus on the football, even at the start of the third season. Hopefully this won't last long. 

 - SI might have fixed the loan bugs a little (or maybe they just don't work here)... only been able to get a couple of uninterested players to join me on loan (none this season), and haven't been able to get anyone without having to pay at least 50% wages (used to be able to get them at zero).

 - no reserve football in Ireland. BUT, I'd never seen / noticed the option to arrange friendlies for the Reserves before. So i just do that, and it's working really well. I can coordinate the fixtures nicely and keep everyone developing, etc. 

 

Player of the Season

Quick look at the transfers, in case there's any interesting names:

Nice profit again to support higher wages. Don't know why i wasted that money on Dervin, he's a backup midfielder...

Anyway, i couldn't deny Josh Bowler, known to his friends as E...

Richards and Scarlett had 25 or so each up front, despite Scarlett missing time through injury, but Bowler was the main guy who lifted us up. Although the voters couldn't make up their minds...

Hodgey missed most of the first half of the season, but got back into form and finished strongly:

 

Thanks for reading! Let's hope we can keep it up in Season 3, although Champs League qualification will be tough. Improving the training facilities is the main requirement now though! 

[FuddledFox]

That European run was great and I think the Euro 2 competition is going to be a good one for you in the first few seasons before you can compete in the later stages of the EL and CL.

6 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

Irish national team

I would like to offer you my condolences on the morning after the night before.

[broodje kip]

Well done with the league win Tree. Dane Scarlett signing is a real bargain 

[Woody]

Well done mate. A great 1st foray into europe despite Roma being in your group. The buggers.

Got some cracking players in too.

Edited March 28 by Woody