Career Sir Alex and the Miracle of Gothenburg (S3)

[hhooo]

I've been taken out of  vibe action due to life circumstances for a while now, but I'm finding some time to play again finally. Going to jump on in to this challenge which I haven't seen before. I've never managed in Scotland before, and I love a good set of transfer restrictions to keep things interesting!

I will be taking control of Aberdeen for seven seasons, trying to win 3 league titles, four domestic cups, and one European title in that time, using only Scottish players.

 

Season One

Transfers

Spoiler

Obviously, I needed to clear out of the filthy foreigners from the club as my first order of business, but with the leagues I loaded (Ireland, Scotland, England), that proved rather difficult, so player exchanges had to be found. I knew a few players I wanted to pick up to start, and was pleasantly surprised with a few players already at the club who could form our backbone for the entire challenge.

 

Results

 

Spoiler

The first season was a painful one in the end. We were tied on points with Rangers at the top until February, but we hit a bad patch, lost a few games, and never caught up, despite getting the better of Rangers in the six pointers. Conference league was easier than I expected, we topped our group, and blasted our way to the final, only to fall to the wildly overrated Tammy Abraham's 40th goal of the season. We did qualify for CL playoffs next year, though. 

 

Standout performers

Just a few players who deserve a shoutout for achieving over the odds, developing well, or playing out of position.

Spoiler

Not sure I've ever met a better player with a condiment for a surname. Picked him up for 100k and over the course of a single season he's become someone I will be able to use to win titles.

Spoiler

I had picked up Henderson in a prior save, maybe last year, so I was just fine grabbing him again. Brilliant traditional winger, but his effectiveness is dulled a bit by the awful selection of Scottish strikers in the 'five-figures or less' bin. 

Spoiler

To address said striker dearth, I brought in Mr. Rooney, distantly related, as our striking solution. He bagged 20 goals and 12 assists in his first season playing very far from his normal position. 

Spoiler

I didn't sign this guy, I just wanted to share. 

Spoiler

And we had a bit of a dilemma. The best youth player at Aberdeen, who had "needs to mature to improve" for two years running, got us an offer that would septuagintuple (real word) our transfer budget. Sounds great, right? It turns out that when looking at only Scottish players, you have two tiers. The ones that cost six figures and would be side-grades for the current squad, or those that are actually good, and cost upwards of 30 million each. So he stays. And hopefully develops. After he turns 20...

 

Stay tuned for next season, which will very likely involved another hard fought second place finish!

Edited May 7, 2022 by hhooo

[hhooo]

Season 2

Transfers

Spoiler

I forgot to take screenshots of these, but I basically shipped out my remaining foreigners, and brought in two players on permanent deals and a half dozen loans, including Billy Gilmour in January. 

The two permanents were

Ethan Erhahon

Spoiler

Very versatile player who can fill in at fullback, CM, and right IF. Got that nice "I need to pass a drug test" hair bleach.

Roddy MacGregor

Spoiler

He started out slow but the last few months of the season grew into my third starting midfielder after gaining 3 stamina, 3 passing, and 6 strength in the course of a month or two! Put Gilmour on the bench by the end of the season. 

 

Results

Spoiler

My form was very good for a long time, at one point we had a 10 point lead on Rangers, but the last few weeks we started a period of wretched form, getting FMMed left right and center.

Spoiler

But, we get a favor here and there from Hearts and Celtic, and the 3-3 draw on matchday 37 ends up being the title decider.

We take home a domestic double! End up finishing 3 points clear of Rangers to take the league, and beat Celtic in the cup final. 

Europe was much closer than it looked, with our scores vs. Porto and Madrid being 1-0, 1-0, 1-0, 0-0. We were the better team a couple times and unlucky to lose. Copenhagen not getting a draw gave us third place, and we drew Nice for the Europa League.

We play away from home, and lose 2-1 in the first leg, conceding a third rebounded shot after a penalty double save. Not a terrible result... until we check the schedule and there is no second leg? No idea what the deal was there. 

 

Our Talisman

I thought this guy was a bargain last season for 100k, just look at him now. Top scorer for the team (our strikers are awful, I have converted a second fullback to striker this season. It's... okay)

Spoiler

Going to be fending off bids for the rest of the career for him!

 

I was also offered the Leeds and Watford positions, and lost manager of the year to the guy who lost the relegation playoff 7-3 to the lower league team (?!). Fun stuff.

One cup, One title. Five years to go. Check back soon!

[Rob]

Nice to have you back mate.

[hhooo]

2 hours ago, Rob said:

Nice to have you back mate.

Thanks, Rob. Good to be back.

And for anyone keeping track, Motherwell have outdone themselves this year by bringing in twenty-two players on loan.

 

Edit: I spoke too soon. I checked their reserve squad and they have thirteen more players loaned in playing for their reserve side, making their total 35.

Edited April 28, 2022 by hhooo

[Rob]

On 28/04/2022 at 23:11, hhooo said:

Thanks, Rob. Good to be back.

And for anyone keeping track, Motherwell have outdone themselves this year by bringing in twenty-two players on loan.

 

Edit: I spoke too soon. I checked their reserve squad and they have thirteen more players loaned in playing for their reserve side, making their total 35.

35 😂 

[hhooo]

8 hours ago, Rob said:

35 😂 

Dundee has 29 loanees in the first team. I was unaware of the absolute state of Scottish football

[hhooo]

Season 3

 

Transfers

Spoiler

We got rid of our third string right winger, a youth CB with no technical skills, and I don't remember who David Bates was, but decent money coming in! We were able to bring in two established, actually good players for the first team in Karlan Grant and Scott McKenna. Ferguson is a regen striker who looks decent, and we got Billy G on loan again.

 

Results

Spoiler

Once you get a league title under your belt, the rest all seem to follow without too much resistance. Defense was strong, but not a ton of goals scored. 

We were drawn into a tough CL group again:

Spoiler

But luckily we were able to get results against Genk to go through to Europa. In order, we played:

Hertha Berlin (2-1)

Lazio (3-1)

Roma (5-4) (I loathe Tammy Abraham in this game)

Sporting (3-2)

And for our efforts, we are rewarded with a Europa League Final against...

Spoiler

😑

 

Spoiler

No new cups this year, either.

 

 

That being said, let's take a look at some of our new signings and our most improved players of the year:

Spoiler

Grant came in and hit the ground running, with 18 goals and 3 assists. Scott McKenna on  a free transfer was brilliant. And our striker prospect looks like he might finally solve some of our issues up front if he can get playing time to develop.

Most improved award goes to two players:

Spoiler

Ramsay we have been waiting on for two years, and he is finally a really solid player who can cover CM and most wide positions. The biggest surprise, though, is Adam Emslie, who I was about to let go at the end of his contract because he was bad and had a shit attitude. Something just clicked this year. and now he's ready for the first team all of a sudden!

 

Looking forward to using some of our younger players next year, and hopefully getting another cup or two under our belt. 

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by hhooo

[YetAnotherDisplayName]

On 25/04/2022 at 06:53, hhooo said:

I've been taken out of  vibe action due to life circumstances for a while now, but I'm finding some time to play again finally. Going to jump on in to this challenge which I haven't seen before. I've never managed in Scotland before, and I love a good set of transfer restrictions to keep things interesting!

I will be taking control of Aberdeen for seven seasons, trying to win 3 league titles, four domestic cups, and one European title in that time, using only Scottish players.

 

Season One

Transfers

  Reveal hidden contents

Obviously, I needed to clear out of the filthy foreigners from the club as my first order of business, but with the leagues I loaded (Ireland, Scotland, England), that proved rather difficult, so player exchanges had to be found. I knew a few players I wanted to pick up to start, and was pleasantly surprised with a few players already at the club who could form our backbone for the entire challenge.

 

Results

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The first season was a painful one in the end. We were tied on points with Rangers at the top until February, but we hit a bad patch, lost a few games, and never caught up, despite getting the better of Rangers in the six pointers. Conference league was easier than I expected, we topped our group, and blasted our way to the final, only to fall to the wildly overrated Tammy Abraham's 40th goal of the season. We did qualify for CL playoffs next year, though. 

 

Standout performers

Just a few players who deserve a shoutout for achieving over the odds, developing well, or playing out of position.

  Reveal hidden contents

Not sure I've ever met a better player with a condiment for a surname. Picked him up for 100k and over the course of a single season he's become someone I will be able to use to win titles.

  Reveal hidden contents

I had picked up Henderson in a prior save, maybe last year, so I was just fine grabbing him again. Brilliant traditional winger, but his effectiveness is dulled a bit by the awful selection of Scottish strikers in the 'five-figures or less' bin. 

  Reveal hidden contents

To address said striker dearth, I brought in Mr. Rooney, distantly related, as our striking solution. He bagged 20 goals and 12 assists in his first season playing very far from his normal position. 

  Hide contents

I didn't sign this guy, I just wanted to share. 

  Reveal hidden contents

And we had a bit of a dilemma. The best youth player at Aberdeen, who had "needs to mature to improve" for two years running, got us an offer that would septuagintuple (real word) our transfer budget. Sounds great, right? It turns out that when looking at only Scottish players, you have two tiers. The ones that cost six figures and would be side-grades for the current squad, or those that are actually good, and cost upwards of 30 million each. So he stays. And hopefully develops. After he turns 20...

 

Stay tuned for next season, which will very likely involved another hard fought second place finish!

Reg dick has reached his peak in terms of development but is still a useful member… lol forgot about this won the europa had a route on all my decent players an it wasn’t fun anymore 

ps how annoying is ferguson not re training to BWM AT CDM  

[Ariza8]

Nice to see Scots National Team play for you 😂

Used to do this myself, at that time using Kieron Bowie as 1KC striker wannabe. 

Some Scottish player that I used before, maybe could be useful :

- Ryan Gauld, great AMLC. A bit expensive in first season, and around 26 y.o

- David Turnbull, A/MC. Great free kicks.

- Liam Henderson 

- MacKenzie Carse, young Celtic MC

- Adam Montgomery, young Celtic left winger. 

- Kerr Smith, young DC

- Owen Moffat, AML/FC