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Career Tree in Ireland - 27 seasons, quit with LOI in 9th overall


Mr Tree
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Many thanks @FuddledFox @broodje kip @Woody @Rich and @Paul186 - i genuinely hadn't seen how the real Irish team had got on, but honestly a loss to Luxembourg doesn't surprise me that much, we're horrendous these days, been on a downward slide for a decade or so. 

As for Shels, there was progress, albeit after an incredible defeat....

 

Season 3

After winning our first 10 games of the season...

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...the board finally relented and let me improve the facilities. And expand the stadium! 

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In total for the season we got 2x improved training facilities, 2x improved youth facilities and 2x stadium expansion, plus our first Affiliate:

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Our first good youth class (at the start of Season 4) looks decent...

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We sold Scarlett for €1.6m in the off-season and Richards for €2m halfway through the season, but no worries...

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We won our first 17 league games before ending the season on a dismal run of only 14 wins from 19 games. Shamrock's dominance elsewhere meant that i only sealed the title with six games to go this year, disappointing...

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Added four cups too, but missed out on the League Cup. 

 

But what about that incredible defeat? 

We won our first ever Champions League qualifier. In Bulgaria. 4-0.

We played Shamrock in between the two legs, so i rested a few, but not too many. And we lost to Shamrock anyway. 

But mea culpa - i should've just played my strongest team in the second leg - instead i did a bit more mix'n'match and then watched dumbfounded as...

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Honestly, devastated. Really considered reloading :D but it's just a game so, on we go...

Dropped down to Euro Cup II, but won the qualifying rounds with aggregate scores of 9-0, 11-0 and 7-0 to reach the group stages... and a favourable draw...

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Won our first two, drew with Fenerbahce at home... then won 4-2 in Turkey :D 1pt needed to qualify, beat Grasshoppers 7-1 just to be sure :)

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Didn't notice who we drew in the knockout stage, we'll have to wait and see... btw, last season's mad group stage schedule was because of the Qatar World Cup! It was much less hectic this time around. 

Not much impact on our ranking yet, but presumably this run will help next season's mark...

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Player of the Season

Goals flying in...

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Can't really look past Joey though, who was sensational:

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Got a bit of a financial cushion now so not as much "need" to sell - we'll see what comes...

Thanks for reading! 

Edited by Mr Tree
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Good Season and unlucky in Champions Cup but remember that’s what makes European competitions fun as anything can happen. So many trophies in the Irish Leagues never knew you could win that many outside England. 
You are killing it in Euro Cup 2, especially for Irish team as they haven’t had great European showings. Have you checked Irish League history in Europe ? Pretty sure you have set record far you advanced.. What team is doing best behind you from Ireland ? 

I always try these improve rankings usually with (Ireland or Scotland) and if you can with season updates maybe post also how fellow Irish teams did in Europe as it’s about all teams in Europe not just yours so might see if you doing great but other 2-3 losing first try not gonna move up . I also would go up and down results page always get in news check flags of leagues above you in rankings hoping they get knocked out early . 

Sorry so long but first time got time to reply besides short good job and at least shows interest 🤷🏻‍♂️Last part I promise .. I just saw in 21 when u don’t load England as a league lots of young talent even wonderkids get released into free agents pool just wondering where you aware of them and just ignored most besides Clark , Hugill, Scarlett ? Did you try to sign them and they didn’t want to come or too high wages? Have you checked if any other teams in Ireland took advantage and maybe signed a few or did they all go to bigger leagues? Just wondering as thinking doing career like this and might help make it possible to achieve or at least get close if the players signed with your league or leagues loaded hoping to strengthen them instead of you having to do it thru transfers / loans being one sided just to help rest of league teams. 
 

I don’t know if the no movement is from yearly calculation or it’s multi year formula like real life where success think shows after a year or two in rankings . Maybe user with better European knowledge can help you out . Good work bro like seeing a longer league wide challenge in lower leagues not just buy top players in top 5 leagues rinse and repeat challenges. 

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10 hours ago, DIRECTFX said:

Good Season and unlucky in Champions Cup but remember that’s what makes European competitions fun as anything can happen. So many trophies in the Irish Leagues never knew you could win that many outside England. 
You are killing it in Euro Cup 2, especially for Irish team as they haven’t had great European showings. Have you checked Irish League history in Europe ? Pretty sure you have set record far you advanced.. What team is doing best behind you from Ireland ? 

I always try these improve rankings usually with (Ireland or Scotland) and if you can with season updates maybe post also how fellow Irish teams did in Europe as it’s about all teams in Europe not just yours so might see if you doing great but other 2-3 losing first try not gonna move up . I also would go up and down results page always get in news check flags of leagues above you in rankings hoping they get knocked out early . 

Sorry so long but first time got time to reply besides short good job and at least shows interest 🤷🏻‍♂️Last part I promise .. I just saw in 21 when u don’t load England as a league lots of young talent even wonderkids get released into free agents pool just wondering where you aware of them and just ignored most besides Clark , Hugill, Scarlett ? Did you try to sign them and they didn’t want to come or too high wages? Have you checked if any other teams in Ireland took advantage and maybe signed a few or did they all go to bigger leagues? Just wondering as thinking doing career like this and might help make it possible to achieve or at least get close if the players signed with your league or leagues loaded hoping to strengthen them instead of you having to do it thru transfers / loans being one sided just to help rest of league teams. 
 

I don’t know if the no movement is from yearly calculation or it’s multi year formula like real life where success think shows after a year or two in rankings . Maybe user with better European knowledge can help you out . Good work bro like seeing a longer league wide challenge in lower leagues not just buy top players in top 5 leagues rinse and repeat challenges. 

cheers, i appreciate the long comment!

i was aware that Irish teams are usually token participants who get brushed aside in the first round or two - didn't know the real history. just looked up and i don't think any have ever played beyond Christmas (that was always the benchmark growing up, i.e. all the Scottish sides would normally be knocked out by Christmas :D ). I see the Shamrock once reach the Europa League group stage, in 2011/12, good on em :)

That's a good idea btw about including my fellow LOI sides' progress in Europe in my update - it'll be interesting to see whether they get any stronger and push further. Thanks!

I was just playing the game "innocently" without being aware of the young English talent being available on frees, so i can't comment too much there... I was just searching for players who work for me, and at first it was tricky cos the budget was tight, but stage one was obviously to "flip" a few to generate cash, and now our budget is already great (plus kids keep getting released in England). it might be a little unrealistic but i don't worry too much about stuff like that. as for whether others in the division pick them up, i have seen a couple, plus there are things like Andros Townsend now playing for Bohemians, etc - but that happens on this game when you get the game's universe revolving around one league specifically. so i can't give you a full answer mate, sorry, cos i haven't really been looking out for it...

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Many thanks for your comments @Paul186 @DLC @Rich @broodje kip @DIRECTFX and @Chelseaplchamps2022, all highly appreciated! Got another cracking update for you here so let's dive into...

 

Season Four 

First things first, we had to play the knockout rounds of the Euro Cup II alongside our opening league games. We had a bye after winning our group, but then the draw popped up - Spurs 😮

I wasn't expecting much of course, but they raced into a 5-0 lead with Lukaku banging in 4...

But then...

Not many managers would think of going Overload when 5 down :D

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And that 90th-minute goal gave us just enough to work with...

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A famous night! And honestly, the rest of the last 8 didn't look that scary... we couldn't, could we?

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Azerbaijan's Qarabag were swept aside in the semi, leaving us with Real Sociedad in the final.....

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A bridge too far, but a very respectable performance, and surely good for the coefficient! 

 

All that malarkey gave us quite a hole in the local league:

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And of course, Plan A was to make sure we'd be busy throughout Autumn too. Just a few weeks later the Champions League qualifiers started, and trips to Moldova, Belarus and Slovakia were safely negotiated before a final playoff against Slovenian champs Maribor. We won the first leg 3-0 before going 4 down in the first half of the second leg 😮

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Fortunately, we got the vital away goal in the second half to become the first ever LOI team in the Champions League group stage! 

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Gulp! A terrifying proposition, especially with insane fixture congestion! 

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7 league matches in the three weeks between the Real Madrid game and the Austria Vienna game! 

Fortunately we hit that patch with a boost ;)

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It ended up being our only win of the campaign, but what a win! Alas we drew at home and lost away to both Napoli and Austria Vienna, who were 4 up on us in the first 20 minutes! 

The Napoli home game was the big chance though - couldn't break down their 10 men for the last half hour, alas. Our last group game was at the Bernabeu and we went 1 up in the 87th minute, only for them to equalise immediately, leaving us without European football next Spring :(

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Domestically we smashed it of course:

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That League Cup defeat will be posted on the FMMed Challenge, fyi!!

 

Player of the Season

Quick look at the squad overview, in order of appearances:

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And just to show the age of those same guys:

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Just one old git, and lots of opportunity for this squad to grow and develop etc...

Anyway as you can see, Chey became the top dog:

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I think he's an early regen from the first year (i wouldn't know otherwise) - he was released by Man City - a useful pickup for us. 

I'm gonna try and avoid posting the same player twice and also avoid just posting the top scorer, but these lads have done great so far! 

Hugill btw wasn't at his best (he's decided he's a Target Man now, not a Poacher), but still ended with 29. I accepted a €3.5m bid for him, good money, but i was happy to see this response:

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I did sell my right back for €2m and probably shouldn't have cos he was great and my two wing-backs are now my weakest players - I'll have to find upgrades. I've started on the road of picking up shit-hot youngsters, so i have a 17yo Chilean right back who should be The Future but he had a mare in that Vienna game mentioned above.

 

League of Ireland ascent to dominance

Per @DIRECTFX's suggestion, a quick look at how my colleagues got on in Europe:

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All advanced one round before losing in the second. Better than nothing! 

So we've gone up a couple of spots overall (fuck you Finland!) - it'll be interesting to see where we can get to next year...

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Many thanks for reading! 

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Many thanks @Albionic @DLC @Paul186 and @broodje kip, much appreciated! 

 

Season Five

Straightforward domestically:

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But disaster in Europe, as Qarabag (who i beat in the Euro Cup II semi last season) got their revenge:

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I could only get a 1-1 draw in Azerbaijan, leaving the boys crushed :(

But fortunately, the Europa League was there for me if i could get through another couple rounds of qualifying... Maccabi Haifa were my opponents for the last playoff...

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10-1 is quite the giant-killing...

An awkward-looking group, and another pasting in Austria, but we got the job done...

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So we have this to look forward to...

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No progress on Ireland's overall ranking, but some points were gained, and the chance to vault up to 30th is there with some sustained success (if that's how it works!)...

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It looks like we had a little progress too with my local rivals - Shamrock only got two games but at least they started in Round 2, which should give them better chances to go further in the future...

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Bohemians got through one round...

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And Derry got through two, with an impressive win over Brondby before falling at the third hurdle...1606135234_Screenshot_20210405-145307_FM21Mobile.thumb.jpg.3e6e53b6a04822292670655a31b4d30a.jpg

 

Player of the Season

Quick look at my regulars:

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40 more for Obiero, who's getting very tasty - worth €3m+ now :)

He even ended up as the Champs League top scorer, despite us getting knocked out at the group stage! 

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I'll single out Middleton for this year though - he's forced his way into a regular spot on the wing, and he can whip in a mean corner. 20 dribbling and 20 movement is handy 😮

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Got some real cracking teenagers I'm working on too - was tempted to spotlight some of them, but hopefully their time will come! 

 

Thanks for reading! 

Edited by Mr Tree
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Season Six

Alas, my European run didn't last much longer, as we couldn't find a way past the Red Devils' defence...

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World Cup 2026 happened, and the English have something to look forward to - Raheem Sterling's 89th-minute semi-final winner against ze Germans was followed by this:

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As for Shels, well of course we smashed it domestically, getting our first ton and finishing with an average of 2.94gpg for and 0.97 gpg against :)

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Our only defeat was Dundalk quite inexplicably sticking 5 past us on the opening day - as a result we ended up signing a new keeper who wrestled with and eventually usurped Mair to become our top dog. 

We grabbed all the cups too, of course:

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In Europe we made it through qualifying, smashing Celtic along the way, before getting another group of Napoli + Giant + Austrian team...

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A chaotic and sensational group ended up with 62 goals total from 12 matches - i don't have the stats to hand but i presume that's a world record. We came from 3 down to draw in Naples before they got their act together - we were 0-0 in Ireland when they had a man sent off with 20mins to play - i went for it, they snuck a 1-0 win on the counter :(

Bayern threw us around like a rag doll before losing their penultimate game in Vienna, leaving me needing to avoid defeat in the last game in Austria to ensure more continental football in February. Easier said than done as I'd conceded 5 goals in each of my last two trips there. But this time we were rolling and we romped to a 5-1 win to progress (to the Europa League).

And our reward:

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The team who welcomed me to continental group play with a 6-0 defeat in the Olimpico back in Season 2. Revenge..... is unlikely! But who knows! 

 

My colleagues were all useless, unfortunately - apparently Ireland's standing has already increased to a point where they all got a first round bye, but none of them could take advantage:

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So overall, our points have gone up, but we've only made it a couple of places higher, so far...

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Player of the Season

Look at all these goals...

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... and bear in mind that Obiero had 30 already when i sold him in August for €8.5m 😮

It's a fine line to tread with player sales - we'll keep being bullied but hopefully i can keep the production line going. To wit, Cisse blossomed this year to get the honours:

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Plus a decent season for Hugill, and John-Jules (sorry i didn't know this til just now but the real-life nephew of the Cat from Red Dwarf, owwww!) coming in and contributing well, plus teenage wingers Sweeney and Santos showing promise - exciting times! 

 

Thanks for reading! 

Edited by Mr Tree
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Another good season, some horrible luck with some of the draws and the performance of the other teams. Is it possible to get an irish affiliate? Might help boost the other teams and allow some development. Cisse looks very good!

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16 minutes ago, Albionic said:

Another good season, some horrible luck with some of the draws and the performance of the other teams. Is it possible to get an irish affiliate? Might help boost the other teams and allow some development. Cisse looks very good!

Cheers, yep already got a couple of affiliates, and beat one of them in one of the cup finals (Roy Keane's old team, Cobh Ramblers). Btw didn't get far with other Board Requests this year, but training facilities are Excellent, youth is Great, and stadium is 20k now, so we're building well overall. 

I'm basically three-deep in every position with first-team regular, competent backup, and exciting youth potential, and i go even deeper in some positions. I try to clear out regularly too but i find it's good to have a lot of options and then see which players take off. My transfer profits largely go to expanding my wage bill to make it all work. But yeah my competitors are all happy to take my lads on loan and develop them for me, so that works out nicely and hopefully will help to boost the performance of those clubs too...

Many thanks for your comment too, @FuddledFox- no worries, we're only 20% in so far, hopefully it won't be long till we see them going further! 

Edited by Mr Tree
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Damn, Cisse got poached for €7m and my Chilean right-back for €5m, minimum release clauses, couldn't negotiate new contracts with them. 

And Roma ousted me :(

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So no progress versus last season, but hopefully consolidating a good ranking anyway...

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Unlucky in the Euro Cup, but Ireland are moving up the rankings, they will have 4 Champ League place before you know it.😄

Edited by Paul186
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Many thanks @Paul186and @Woody, much appreciated! 

Season Seven

Bottom line... or headline, really, i guess... progress was made. That in spite of losing John-Jules after 28 goals in 30 games attracted interest from England to exercise his €4m release clause :(

I'm getting very rich though so hopefully i can start offering more wages to remove the minimum clauses, and then i can be more selective over who leaves. And in the meantime, fortunately i still have my conveyor belt of talent ready to step up...

So basics first, almost got an unbeaten season before inexplicably losing the 32nd game to, of course, the one team you can't see here. FMM!!

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I lost a cup game too! So not as much on here as usual...

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And one of the other cup wins was an emotional rollercoaster:

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That was genuinely a massive goal as we really didn't want to play extra-time during a heavily congested schedule. 

 

Anyway Europe's what really matters... we had to get past Dynamo Kyiv and then Anderlecht in qualifying, tough opponents! We just about made it...

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P$G, Zenit and FC Midtjylland in the group stage - could have been worse. Noone knows how to spell the Danish team's name properly, but i have an affinity for them as they're owned by the same guy who owns Brentford. 

The first game in the group set a worrying tone:

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And i checked after but he's my best taker and an "effective penalty taker"!

Then i went 3 up in the first half against FCM, only for them to equalise before half-time!! We eventually sealed the win in the second half before jetting off to Paris to face...

A P$G team in crisis!! They lost their first two games!! And i almost had them too, but Szoboszlai popped up to score the only goal. 

In the return though, they had a man sent off early, so we just about grabbed the win... and then won in Russia and Denmark to reach the last 16 for the first time! 

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Our reward? 

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I looked them up to see if they were crumbling perchance - no, they had 10 players worth more than €100m. Gulp!

 

How did my colleagues get on this year? Same as last year :( At least they had the good grace to fit into one screenshot:

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Useless wankers. So we remain 32nd, but hopefully some more points coming our way with this PB run...

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Player of the Season

Sorted by goals:

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Sweeney and Hand were two of the three gold youth recruits i got a couple of years ago, mentioned elsewhere - the other was a keeper who got 10-15 games this year, and he's starting to look tasty too. Tempted to share them all, plus my awesome Irish RWB, but there can be only one and for now, we have to recognise Santos:

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Our only 5-figure earner, i.e. he earns more than 2x what anyone else does. But he delivers! Cracking player, bit of a dick, we'll see how long he hangs around...

 

Btw all this success led to a new stadium:

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It always takes me by surprise and i can never think of anything funny off the top of my head. Happy to be the New Tolka Park :)

No upgrade on facilities, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it! 

Edited by Mr Tree
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Great run so far just some tough losses especially the double PK misses by your best taker , just so FMM 🤦‍♂️.. Wish the other clubs would chip in somehow not like they playing the big 5 leagues. Tough enough for you to make runs to catch up on the other leagues but they also aren’t helping by who they are losing to last season they lost to Iceland 2x just how can they do that ? Those release clauses are killer in lower leagues especially if don’t have replacement ready . 

Any affiliates qualify for Europe or they all divisions below you ? Wonder if your affiliate could be promoted to same division or is there a rule keeping them below like a B team ? 
 

Are you starting to get a bunch of young Irish players coming thru academy ?? Maybe you could thru this help out the Irish National Team ? Just as a side effect of you making good progress in Europe and improving the league . 

 

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Thanks @DIRECTFX- yeah i guess the problem is going to be that their reputation won't increase (much if anything), so they'll remain rubbish for a long time. I'm happy to try it like this, we'll give it a look after 10/15/20 seasons, see if we're getting anywhere, but otherwise i might try six seasons at 5 different clubs (or whatever) on FMM22, see if it's any better. 

My reputation has increased so that loanees from big clubs are now interested in joining, which is nice. Haven't found anyone worthwhile yet though...

Funnily enough i can answer about the affiliate cos i noticed it just last year - Cabinteely finished 2nd but didn't play the playoff, the 3rd-placed team went instead of them. 

And yes getting some good Irish talent through now... more on that in the next update :)

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Season Eight

We had reached the Champions League last 16 for the first time - but we wouldn't get any further...

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A fun second half on kamikaze settings made it look closer than it was - Citeh were 5-0 up on aggregate after 24mins. 

We had just drawn the second league match of the new season too, to newly-promoted Wexford, but we hit form after our European exit, racking up a club-record 38 wins in a row in all competitions, a run that ended as soon as i noticed it - i happened to look at my fixtures and think "damn, we been killin' it", so i checked, and then we drew the next game (in the Irish Cup - we won the replay ofc).

As you can imagine, that's the sort of run that brings success:

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And it carried us through qualifying too - i was even able to treat my Czech family to a match:

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Btw, i noticed during the season that, while i entered the qualifying at the first stage again this year, our escapades would mean that i start at the second round next season. Small progress, but just 3 rounds of qualifying rather than 4 will help a little with the fixture congestion (which got a bit insane this year, but at least i have the squad to deal with it - at one point we played 5 league games in 9 days, some of which was during an international break!)

Anyway, our unbeaten run overall reached a new club record of 52 games, but it's always going to be tough to maintain with European giants around:

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Fatty too good, Frenkie scored a peach of a free-kick, and poor Tommy Talbot missed that late pen, gah! A great performance... And two weeks later, we got em back:

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From 2-1 down to injury-time winner, running round the living room waving my shirt around my head - scenes! 

And after winning all three home games, we went on to win in Moscow and Lisbon to seal qualification in style:

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So coming up at the start of next season, a Last 16 match with Liverpool... this is how their squad looks now, out of interest:

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For the challenge, my Irish colleagues at least managed one victory, but that was all:

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I think we've snuck up a place, but getting to 40pts looks nice, and just a few more (regular CL progression?) could see us fly up the overall standings...

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Player of the Season

I started this section intending to highlight one player per year, just out of interest. But already, there are 4 or 5 i wanna show each season! :D

Firstly, this (plus another €7m sell-on for my erstwhile teenage Chilean right-back) helped swell the club coffers:

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I sold Broomy at the start of the season, with a €5m+ offer on the table from MLS. Being in a tiny league, we get attacked at various different times, and although i can now resist bids, i end up having to give bigger contracts to deal with their unhappiness. 

So Santos, highlighted last year as already far and away my highest earner, upped the ante this year:

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(an alternate view of those top earners...)

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And then he got unhappy again at the next bid :D i told him I'll sell him soon, i have a pipeline behind him so no worries - hopefully we can hold on til next summer, finish the Champs League campaign first. He's been performing great anyway:

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But I'd trade one Santos for 555 Tommy Talbots:

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He had a wonderful first "full" season for us:

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Hoping he keeps growing! 

Btw i had to throw my right-back in too - he looks excellent. Actually not one of my youths, but i found him in the Irish lower leagues and signed him at 16:

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On to the January transfer window / offseason now, then hope we can keep up our good form when we meet Liverpool - can we reach the Champions League quarter-final for the first time? (and end a run of three successive last 16 exits, twice from Europa and last year in the CL)

Thanks for reading! 

Edited by Mr Tree
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Cheers @StuartM!

Btw in all that madness, i didn't even mention my top scorer Pratley - a free agent pick up released by Arsenal who approached us saying "i would be happy to sign for you" - i thought yeah he looks decent, and he ended up with 40 goals! :)

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