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Assistant coach Brian Reimer appears in a series of podcasts about Brentford this spring, here's some of the interesting things he said in the first episode

Brian Reimer, assistant coach to Thomas Frank, is doing a series of podcasts with a danish podcast-channel called Mediano this spring. The first episode aired a couple of days ago, and I thought some of you might be interested in some of things he said.
- He was very nervous when arriving at a job in the Championship, coming from Denmark and with no claim to fame. He was with FC Copenhagen for 10 years as academy manager and later assistant coach.
- But during his and Thomas' bad spell in the beginning, they never felt pressure from Phil, Rasmus or the owner. He laudes the culture at Brentford, where decisions are made based on facts - not feelings. Underlying numbers backed their decisions, and they were always greeted with optimism by people around the club.
- During the 18/19 season things started to turn for the better. The plan was always to sell Maupay in the summer of '19 and bring in a new striker. They didn't manage to get their two targets (no reveals here), so on training camp in Austria, they made a snap decision to play Ollie Watkins up top that season.
- Watkins was promised that he would be sold to a prem club, if he played well. The same summer Said Benrahma was almost sold, but they decided to keep him another year, because they thought they could increase his value by keeping him for another year. Usually they keep players for 2 years - a policy they follow with most players. Benrahma was very unhappy with that, which might explain his bad form during the start of 19/20.
- They knew that the club almost always sell their best players, so there have never been any disagreement between the hierarchy and the coaching staff in regards to transfer activity. They were told the name of the game when they signed.
- He and Thomas are the only ones to decide the playing style and tactics, but Benham has a few points they must follow. For example they can never defend a lead, because SmartOdds has numbers that prove that the strategy don't pay off in the long run. So they must always go for the next goal.
- He admits that when West Brom gave them the opportunity to take the second spot last season, everything changed in the camp. Many players didn't sleep the night before the 1-0 loss to Stoke, and he and Thomas couldn't handle their nervousness.
- In the changing room after Barnsley-loss people were crying and others were screaming of frustration. Ollie Watkins told him that more than anything else he wanted to play in the Prem with Brentford, and that he felt that they let everyone down.
- He thinks the reason for them not making it was their lack of routine, most players being young academy rejects or lower league players. He and Thomas were new in their jobs as well.
- He is much more confident in the team this year because of the experience players like Josh Da Silva and Rico Henry has taken from last season. The thinks the squad now is even better. Maybe the football is not as free-flowing, but it is less reliant on individual brilliance. They play more like a unit, and that means players like Fosu and Mads Bech Sørensen can come in and look like they belong.
The podcasts will follow Brentfords end to the season and are all in Danish. They can be found on spotify and soundcloud. Many of the danish players will appear in later episodes.
submitted by szymbk to Brentford [link] [comments]

[English Football] How the Champions of Europe became the Banter Club - 20 years of farce in the East Midlands

English football has in excess of 100 professional clubs, and a fair percentage of them are absolute circuses. I'm going to do this write up and if there is demand/interest I will do a few of the other shitshow clubs, particularly those outside the Premier League which a wider audience might know less about
The first club in what I hope will be a series covering the petty dramas and farces of English football is none other than my own club, Nottingham Forest. This post will cover the last 20 years, and consider bigger themes and dramatic highlights alike.
Introduction
Nottingham Forest is famous for two football trivia quiz answers, which in combination reveal a lot about this absolute carcrash of a club. First of all, Nottingham Forest is the only club to win the European Cup (later known as the Champion's League) more than it has won a domestic title, winning the 1979 and 1980 European Cups, but only winning the English First Division (later the Premier League) once, in 1978. Secondly, it is the only European Cup winner to ever be relegated into the 3rd tier of football in any country. We'll be touching on that later.
The meteoric rise under 'maverick' (read alcoholic wife-beating) manager Brian Clough from obscure 2nd division club in an unloved corner of England to one ecstatic night in Munich in 1979 and another in Madrid in 1980 is of course the stuff of footballing legend. Children across the East Midlands are indoctrinated from birth to remember the miracles of this age, when Liverpool and Ajax at their full flowering were humbled in a quaint provincial city previously unknown for footballing achievements, as Brian Clough's team of misfits boozed their way around the continent and the most attractive wide player in Europe wasn't some flashy Spaniard or Brazilian, but an overweight chain smoking Scotsman.
But you don't come onto this sub to read tales of sporting glory and giants humbled by a small city known for coal rather than goals. After the pride and the glory comes a fall.
After the glories of 1977-80, Nottingham Forest settled as a respectable First Division side. With the odd tilt at a cup run and qualifying for European football a few more times, the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s was broadly a good time for the club. After two League Cups and a few good finishes, the club was finally relegated in Brian Clough's final season, with the effects of alcoholism clearly showing. After a resurgence under successor Frank Clark embodied by Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce including a shock 3rd place finish in the Premiership in 1995, leading to UEFA Cup (now Europa League) qualification and becoming the most successful English club in the 1996 competition, gravity was too much for an increasingly mismanaged club which was relegated into the First Division (note that from 1992 the First Division is now the 2nd tier, this is now called the Championship) in 1999. Our story begins here. Each new manager will be numbered to indicate how many appointments since relegation there have been, not including caretakeinterim appointments.
We're Serious About Promotion, Are You?
Initially things in the 1999-2000 season were optimistic. Forest had had two stints in the First Division in the 1990s and bounced back up both times. This time would be the same, right?
Enter David Platt (#1), who promptly spent £12m on aging Italian players he knew from a season managing Sampdoria only for two midtable finishes to challenge his transfer policy. At the time this generated an outcry and his replacement by Paul Hart, but Forest fans would doubtless look back on two midtable 2nd tier finishes as a decent run.
Paul Hart (#2) was lumped with a dire financial situation, caused by Platt and the collapse of a digital TV deal that Forest and many other clubs had based their future finances on. He had a good season, marred by Forest's first failure to be promoted via playoffs.
In both the 2nd and 3rd tiers, the top two teams get automatic promotion, while the 3rd-6th placed teams have a small competition for the final slot. In 2003 Nottingham Forest finished 6th, a good improvement, but drew a strong Sheffield United side in the play-offs. Now, not only were Sheff Utd a good side under the ubershithouse Neil Warnock himself, but Nottingham and Sheffield had a bit of bad blood. In the 1984/85 Miner's Strike the coal miners of Nottingham and its surrounding area (the UK's 2nd largest coalfield in 1984) did not join the strike. The Yorkshire miners had called the strike without a ballot (rendering it against union rules in the eyes of the Nottinghamshire miners), but enjoyed the support of the Welsh and Northeast English miners and bitterly resented the betrayal of the Nottinghamshire miners. This fed into football with acrimonious scenes at any match between a Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire club well beyond the strike ending. Basically, Forest didn't want to get battered by them up the M1. Grabbing a draw at home, Forest took the short trip up the M1 to Bramall Lane where an own goal(!) and a goal by deflection by otherwise stalwart defender Des Walker condemned Forest to the first of what would be many playoff bottle jobs.
The psychological damage was done, and Hart was sacked at the start of 2004. Enter Joe Kinnear (#3), who had good pedigree as a no-nonsense combative Irishman. He proceeded to declare that supporters who wanted him out were idiots before telling the media that the game against hated local rivals Derby County was just another game, being in his mind a quaint provincial rivalry compared to the Glasgow Old Firm or West Ham vs Millwall, before Forest promptly got stuffed by them inbred sheepshagging cunts down the A52. With Forest staring down relegation with just months to go, Gary Megson (#4) turned up in a firefighting job, which he failed in. In May 2005 Forest became the first European Cup winners ever in any country to become a 3rd tier club.
Quite something given that, at the start of the season, season ticket holders received promotional leaflets stating 'We're serious about promotion, are you?'.
Can they do it on a cold night in Yeovil?
Many clubs who find themselves in 3rd tier delude themselves that they can piss their way out of this pub league. Leeds United, Portsmouth, recently Sunderland. But League One and its open terraces and potholed pitches is another game all together, and by the end of 2005 Gary Megson's Nottingham Forest were staring relegation into the fourth tier in the eye.
Enter Colin Calderwood (#5), a decent and broadly well-liked Scotsman who became Forest's longest manager since Frank Clark in 1993-6. A good achievement, and his efforts eventually paid off as Nottingham Forest snuck into the 2nd automatic promotion spot on the final day of the 2007-8 season, their third in League One.
But to get to this happy juncture, the greatest achievement any Forest fan under 30 has seen, we must pass through the valley of death and discuss quite possibly the greatest playoff bottle job in history. In the 2006/7 series Forest had a good run. A lot of good young players were bringing the club into being serious promotion contenders and Colin remained a well liked and respected manager in the city. A 4th place finish rewarded their efforts fairly, with a playoff semi-final tie against Yeovil Town beckoning.
Many Forest fans regarded this as essentially a bye to the final. Yeovil were a non-league club who had risen up a lot and were about to get turned over by the big boys. Yeovil is a small town in rural Somerset, an area of England virtually unknown on the football pitch (Rugby being the preferred sport in the Southwest). To make things better, Forest had turned up in Yeovil and smashed them 2-0. A bumper crowd packed the City Ground to watch their heroes make it to Wembley and the final against Blackpool. What a spectacle it would be.
And what a spectacle it was. Read it and laugh. Yeovil were up 2-1 with just three minutes to go. A valiant performance from a small club but not enough. Until a last minute Yeovil header made it 3-1 and 3-3 on aggregate! In injury time, Yeovil scored twice more, making it 5-2 on the night and 5-4 aggregate. It's hard not to look bad and laugh, but this result summed up the agony more than anything as Forest were turned over at home after winning 2-0 in the first leg by a club who had spent only a handful of years in England's professional leagues at all.
After this humiliation, Colin picked up the pieces and led Forest to a dramatic last day clinching of promotion in May 2008. There was much rejoicing, ironically with Yeovil being the club Forest beat on the last day to secure promotion. Colin had secured his redemptive arc, but if fans thought things could get better, they were wrong.
Mad King Billy
Colin stayed on until Christmas of his first season in the Championship, but poor form and a Boxing Day loss to bottom-placed Doncaster Rovers (another South Yorkshire club) sealed his fate. He was to be replaced by one of the most 'characterful' men in football.
Enter Billy Davies (#6). A Nottingham sports journalist allegedly phoned a colleague in Lancashire where Billy had worked at Preston North End to get a handle on him. His Lancastrian colleague apparently pointed out that he was a short and aggressive man (a nippy sweetie as they say) from one of Glasgow's roughest slums who owned several Staffordshire Bull Terriers. To put it another way, Billy might have known football, but you wouldn't want to knock his drink over and he never forgot a grudge. Billy managed to grind out the results to keep Forest in the Championship in the 2008-9 season, before his warped genius reached new levels in 2009-10.
Forest in all fairness spent most of 2009-10 at the top end of the Championship. They started off strongly with a win over Derby County when striker Nathan Tyson paraded a flag around in order to wind up the sheepnonces. At the return fixture Billy had an altercation with Derby manager Nigel Clough, son of Brian himself. Billy Davies, a staunch Rangers supporter who played for his boyhood club in several Old Firms in Glasgow (easily the most hate-filled football rivalry in Britain), doubtless was a bit more up for a derby day scrap than Joe Kinnear, and it only enhanced his reputation amongst Forest fans.
So, Forest once again succeeded in making the playoffs. Did they win them at last and end the exile? Did they fuck. Forest drew Blackpool for the semi-finals. King Billy tried a few mind games but they backfired spectacularly. He put a weaker side out in a league match against Blackpool to indicate he was resting players for the playoffs, then proceeded to tell Blackpool and the media that playing a jumped up seaside resort was a surefire ticket to Wembley. Where have we heard that before? Anyway, Blackpool, fired up by the team talk Billy gave them, absolutely creamed Forest on both legs.
Back to square one. King Billy had another season and Forest did secure another go at the playoffs. Again, Forest held out for a draw at home but got battered on the return leg at Swansea. The King had fallen out irreparably with the board, and left over the summer.
In June 2011, enter Steve McClaren (#7). Former England manager with a strong pedigree. He resigned 10 games into the 2011/12 season after poor form, then went to go and manage Derby twice, fucking up on both occasions. Lad.
Enter Steve Cotterill (#8). The managers are going to start coming thick and fast about now by the way. Steve is broadly remember positively as getting Forest out of a relegation scrap, but unfortunate events off the pitch would ensure he never got a chance.
You may have asked during this, who the fuck is paying for all this? What lunatic would pump so much money into such a ridiculous enterprise? Meet Nigel Doughty. Local boy done good, he made a huge amount of money in private equity and did what all eccentric multimillionaires do. He subsidised his boyhood club to the tune of £1m a month. He stepped down as Chairman in late 2011, but died of a rare heart condition in early 2012, throwing the club into serious financial disarray as a new buyer had not yet been finalised.
Rumours abounded that Forest was getting into some serious money though. This, readers, is about when it starts getting surreal.
The Fake Sheikh
Forest's new owner was none other than Kuwaiti businessman Fawaz Al-Hasawi. Were Forest now in the financial big leagues? Were the Midlands about to get their first superclub brought up from nothing like Manchester City? Like fuck they were.
Cotterill left as Fawaz brought in Sean O'Driscoll (#9) as manager. Sean was a competent manager who had inherited a decent side and Forest were once again battling for promotion. He lost his job on Boxing Day of his first season, after a 4-2 win against Leeds United, the pantomime villains of English football who everybody likes beating, because Fawaz had been advised by a friend that Forest now needed a manager with Premiership experience. He had wanted to sack Sean on Christmas Day, but the board refused to deliver the letter on the 25th, and so it was Boxing Day.
Who had the experience to get Forest up? None other than Alex McLeish (#10) who had managed both Villa and Birmingham City in the Premiership. McLeish tried to get George Boyd in from Peterborough to bolster his squad, but George couldn't join as he failed an eye test. Alex and his experience would stay at Forest for about a month.
But who could step into his shoes? Who was the only manager to prove himself at Forest since 2000? Of course, it was King Billy himself. I could write an entire post about this deranged man, but I'll summarise the good bits of his second tenure.
Fawaz was ecstatic to get such a titan of the game back. He described Billy as being to Forest what Alex Ferguson was to Manchester United and talked up the prospect of Champions League football at the City Ground. Billy had a few years to reflect on his breakdown with the Forest board, his stated policy that he only wanted to manage Rangers next narrowed down a list of suitors. When he arrived, it was with vengeance in mind. He blamed the Nottingham Post and BBC East Midlands for his downfall, and instituted a North Korea-style media ban in the ground, epitomised by his catchphrase 'nae comment ya media bastards'. He hired his cousin, a solicitor banned from practising, as a club official and got him to offer a 4 year contract. When he was forced to talk to the media on the last day of the 2013 season before a match against Leicester City (a rival club, but less hated than Derby) he held his post-match press conference before the match offering quotes to suit a win, loss, or draw.
But the King had lost his Crown. After 8 games without a win and a 5-0 loss to Derby (still known down the A52 as Deforestation Day) he left in early 2014, with no club in Britain looking to hire him. His paranoid views were now the stuff of common knowledge.
The old King is dead, long live the King. Another nostalgia appointment beckoned, as Stuart Pearce (#11) took over. Stuart was a legend at Forest, and a notorious Pashun Merchant who espoused old school English attitudes that passion, desire, and teamwork would always beat flash foreigners with things like 'skill' and 'training'. In all fairness, the fans loved him. See his first emergence out of the tunnel before a match where the old 'Psycho Psycho Psycho' chant came back. His demonstration of raw pashun when his side beat Derby endeared himself to the fans. Despite this, he struggled with an erratic signings policy to really make an impact. Fawaz had sold two good young players to Newcastle United without Stuart's permission and his position became untenable. When Stuart left in early 2015, the fans remembered a dignified club legend who tried his best but couldn't beat the owners.
Enter Dougie Freedman (#12), who spent a year in role. His year was marred with growing relegation battles, an injury crisis and a transfer embargo preventing him from replacing long term injuries or building a squad. Nonetheless, his advice was so good that even after his March 2016 sacking Fawaz would still phone him up for transfer advice.
Philippe Montanier (#13) became the first non-British or Irish manager at the club, an urbane Frenchmen who had cheese boards at press conferences. Fawaz desperately sought to cut his losses by selling Oliver Burke, then regarded as a future leading talent of his generation, to RB Leipzig without telling the manager again. By now the curtain had started to come down on the Fake Sheikh as people began to realise that being vaguely connected to a Gulf State monarchy doesn't make you rich by default.
The last throw of the dice was Mark Warburton (#14), a no nonsense English manager but without the solid defensive play that Warnock et al are known for. Warburton managed to avoid relegation on goal difference on the last day of the 2016-7 season as Forest stayed up at the expense of Blackburn Rovers by just two goals. Wild scenes followed as a pitch invasion to celebrate staying up became a source of mockery.
The curtain fell on the Sheikh just two weeks later as he announced the sale of the club to controversial Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis.
Interlude: Don't Bully Meh
Forest at about this time gained temporary global fame. Was it for an amazing goal or run of wins? Of course not.
Two overweight and possibly intoxicated supporters had a fight at halftime over who could have the last steak and kidney pie. The pies at the City Ground aren't even that good. Watch it here for a beautiful example of the local accent
Beware Greeks bearing gifts
The final chapter brings us up to the present day. Marinakis kept Warburton around until the end of 2017, when he replaced him with Aitor Karanka (#15). Marinakis had talked a good game, promising a more mature approach to the club and gained a lot of goodwill with slashed ticket prices and planned stadium expansion - the City Ground has had no work done since c. 1990 and looks a little dated by Championship standards. Karanka was a suave manager who combined attractive continental football with English pedigree, having taken Middlesbrough to the Premier League. The remainder of the 2017-8 season was an unremarkable mid table finish, but the fans wanted a safe finish by this point.
Things heated up in the summer. Marinakis brought in a mix of experienced Championship journeymen such as Lewis Grabban - fresh from Sunderland Til I Die - but also a flock of young Portuguese players signed through superagent Jorge Mendes. These included the club's record signing, £13m for a relatively unknown teenager called Joao Carvalho. Observers talked about 'Big Spending Nottingham Forest' who looked set to ape Wolves by exploiting the good-value Portuguese player market and buy their way into the Premier League.
Did Forest buy their way up? What do you think?
The 2018-9 season started well, with Forest nosing around the top end but not really challenging. Things started to look ugly behind the scenes as Karanka claimed to be feeling flat in a December 2018 interview after a win against strugglers Ipswich Town (another former 'big club' gone wrong). His position weakened after a 3-3 draw against league leaders Norwich. A good result, but Forest were 3-1 up until a disastrous substitution brought on Gil Dias, an unproven Portuguese youngster who made two goal-conceding errors. Even a New Year's Day win over Leeds United (yours truly was visiting relatives in a small village, found a pub showing the match, and serenaded the TV room with 'We All Hate Leeds Scum' for 5 minutes) wasn't enough to save him, as he left the club in January 2019.
So, what had happened? We now know that Marinakis' man in Nottingham, Ioannis Vrentzos, had sought to interfere with Karanka's training and match preparation, causing Karanka deep anxiety issues around the toxic environment that saw him decide to leave the club. We'll come back to Vrentzos in a bit.
Enter another Club Legend, European Cup winner Martin O'Neill (#16). Martin had a fairly impressive record from back in the day, doing bits at Celtic, Aston Villa, and Leicester City. The phrase 'back in the day' is instrumental. He took the job 15 years after his prime and immediately advocated what is often termed 'shithouse football', the use of physicality, endurance, and gamesmanship to beat a more technically adept side. The wonderkid Carvalho was dropped from the side and became a proxy for a Boomer vs Zoomer war in the fanbase.
The battlelines became the Forest Boomers who broadly supported Martin O'Neill as a club legend committed to proper football. He received a lot of support from three former teammates who worked as sports columnists in regional media - fellow European Cup winners Gary Birtles and Kenny Burns in the Nottingham Post and John McGovern on BBC Nottingham.
The Zoomers bitterly resented Karanka's departure and felt that playing young technically able players like Carvalho was key, the idea that the 'English Game' requires a certain sort of player is at best old fashioned.
Forest missed out on the playoffs, but Derby lost the playoff final with our future King, a Villa fan, watching and cheering
After a few months of social media warfare, O'Neill left the club after losing the trust of the players over the summer break. He brought them all back and committed to training methods such as just making them run up a big hill all day instead of the more modern approaches to football training which involve various sorts of exercise and training.
Anyway, the board fucked him off for Sabri Lamouchi (#17) in the summer of 2019. He was announced just 20 minutes after O'Neill's sacking, as thousands of fans frantically googled his name.
Sabri started strong and united the Boomers and Zoomers behind him. Forest signed a series of players who became fan favourites, with one fan having goalkeeper Brice Samba's name tattooed on his arse after he kept a clean sheet against Derby and winger Joe Lolley gaining a new admirer.
Sabri spawned levels of support not seen for a long time for a manager
Forest briefly went top of the league in September, surely they could finally end the curse and get back up into the top flight?
Ahahahaha, no.
Forest stayed around 4th-5th until the Covid lockdown in March. When football returned, it was like another squad. They had been teetering on form since a 2-0 win over Leeds exhausted the side in February, but now it was like watching a Knacker's Yard XI. A string of late goals against a tired side, including a 1-1 equaliser by Derby which shocked one Forest fan who had already jumped into the canal in celebration, condemned Forest to clinging onto the playoffs. Two matches remained. Barnsley away and Stoke at home, all Forest had to do was get a point at either match.
Earlier I mentioned a contentious coal mining dispute. Well, Barnsley is also party to this. If there were fans at the match, it would have been like Billy Elliot. Barnsley were nigh-on relegated and had to win to take it down to the wire. They got a 90+3 winner, staving off relegation for another day while also putting Forest's playoff chances to the wire.
Going into the final match against Stoke, all Forest had to do was either get a point or hope Swansea don't overturn a 5 goal difference. Of course they couldn't fuck this up could they?
Narrator: they did fuck it up
Forest lost 4-1 to Stoke, the same margin Swansea won by to get into 6th place. Highlights include the BBC Nottingham commentary shouting "Swansea have scored, Forest are OUT of the playoffs" while the goalkeeper got up to help in a last ditch corner. A Stoke player got the ball, punted it up the pitch, where January flop signing Nuno da Costa obligingly put it into the net by accident, scoring his only goal thus far in a Forest shirt.
Even by the standards of this story, this was a spectacular collapse of epic proportions and led many to ask, what is wrong with Nottingham Forest?
It turned out quite a lot. The Greeks had an erratic signing policy and Daniel Taylor, a well respected journalist, exposed in the Athletic (sadly paywalled) that Vrentzos was a bully responsible for a toxic working culture that undermined players and the manager. Sabri had little say in transfers, and what is worse, it seemed Forest was being used as a feeder club. Marinakis also owns Olympiakos, the dominant Greek club. He has sought to move good Forest players there, and placed those unwilling to move in a 'bomb squad' who are removed from the first team. Carvalho was likely subject to this, as were several other young prospects.
Sabri got another chance, but four straight losses at the start of this season condemned him. Chris Hughton (#18), a respected Championship manager, came in. He managed to get some points on the board, but at the time of writing Forest are 21st and only outside the relegation zone owing to Sheffield Wednesday's points deduction. This season looks like a relegation scrap, ironically with Wayne Rooney's Derby County also down in the mud.
So, what did we learn from this? Perhaps Marx was right, history repeats as tragedy and then farce. Are some clubs just doomed to making the same mistakes? Should we be wary of Greeks and their gifts?
That is for you to decide, but if you liked this post please let me know as I will do some more for other clubs.
submitted by generalscruff to HobbyDrama [link] [comments]

[OC] Premier League Clubs’ First Summer Transfer Window Signing, Ten Years Ago (2010/2011): Where are they now?

Arsenal → Marouane Chamakh
Let’s ignore his horrible hair. Chamakh marked his debut season in England with seven league goals but found the back of the net just once the following season. He subsequently joined West Ham for a short loan spell before a permanent transfer to Crystal Palace, where he lasted three years and scored seven more league goals in that time. Prolific. The Morocco international was released from Palace in 2016, and moved to Cardiff City where he made two appearances with the Welsh club before a swift release. The Bluebirds proved to be the last club for the target man as he spent two years as a free agent before a 2019 retirement.
Aston Villa → Stephen Ireland
Heavily hyped at Manchester City as a youngster, Ireland switched to Aston Villa with James Milner moving in the other direction to the Citizens. Ireland failed to recapture his form in the Midlands and later in an incendiary interview with a French publication, apparently called Birmingham a ‘crap city’. A loan spell at Newcastle brought more personal issues and Ireland eventually made 47 league appearances in three seasons for Aston Villa. He later joined former boss Mark Hughes at Stoke but the heights of Man City still continued to elude him with less than 60 Premier League games in five years hit with injuries. Released by the Potters after their 2018 demotion, Ireland would move to cash-strapped Bolton Wanders only to leave after two months and zero appearances. He’s still without a club after two years – oh, and apparently lives next to Bruno Fernandes. Fun.
Brighton → Matt Sparrow
Sparrow became a Gull when he joined the League 1 side after a remarkable 396 appearances for Scunthorpe. The midfielder would later find the grass isn't always greener and suffered a frustrating time in the south, later departing Gus Poyet's team for Crawley Town in 2013. Sparrow returned to Scunthorpe for two seasons but after a few more spells with Football League sides, now plies his trade in Australia with semi-professional club Bayswater City at the age of 38. It's his third Aussie team after time at Sorrento and Joondalup United. Australia, probably much sunnier than Lincolnshire.
Burnley → Dean Marney
A hard-working midfielder, Spurs academy graduate Marney found the perfect home at Burnley with eight seasons in Lancashire. Marney would win promotion to the Premier League twice with the Clarets and made 202 league appearances in his time there. Unfortunately he failed to make the pitch in his final season at the club due to a significant cruciate knee injury, and was released in 2018. Marney later joined Fleetwood Town, managed by Joey Barton, and was eventually axed by the club at the end of the 2019/20 season after two years there.
Chelsea → Yossi Benayoun
A creative runner in midfield, the Israel international moved to the Blues after three years with Liverpool. It proved to be a disastrous move as Benayoun suffered a ruptured achillies in September 2010 that saw him out for six months. Under new boss Andre Villas-Boas, the player was deemed surplus to requirements and so moved to Arsenal for a season-long loan. In all competitions, Benayoun returned a modest six goals in 25 appearances. He turned out to be quite the lover of London clubs with further spells at West Ham (a former club) and QPR (once Chelsea had released him). Israel’s most capped player returned to his country in 2014 with Maccabi Haifa and finished his career at Beitar Jerusalem, where he seems to be a Sporting Director behind the scenes.
Crystal Palace → David Wright
Joining Palace as a 30 year old, the defender featured 57 times for the Eagles while also spending time on loan to Gillingham. Wright dropped down to League 1 with a free transfer to Colchester, and played 52 games there in two full seasons (and a few months into the third). The ex-Wigan Athletic man additionally took on non-playing roles while at Colchester, and since retirement currently acts as the head coach for the Norwich City U23s. It’s a living.
Everton → Jermaine Beckford
A hitman of a striker at Leeds (including a famous Manchester United sinker in the FA Cup), Beckford moved to the Toffees on a free transfer. Beckford returned eight league goals in his debut Premier League season but after just 35 league appearances for Everton, the striker was sold to Leicester City in the Championship. Beckford would never return to the top division in his career that saw spells at Huddersfield and Bolton before returning his best form at Preston North End with 18 goals in his debut season, three of which came in the League 1 Play-Off Final. Born in London though capped by Jamaica, the striker spent two more seasons in Lancashire before his career ended at now-defunct Bury. Known for something of a part-swaggering, part-twat attitude in his playing career, Beckford seems to have calmed down with pundit work for Sky Sports.
Fulham → Philippe Senderos
The Swiss defender signed for the Cottagers on a free transfer and in four years, returned 57 league appearances. Somehow the centre-back even managed a loan switch to Valencia, and then later moved to Aston Villa in 2014, the same year he appeared in his third World Cup. Senderos mustered only eight appearances in the Midlands before moves to Grasshoppers and Glasgow Rangers, where he was sent-off in his debut – an Old Firm clash with Celtic. Big, bald and bad (in the classic hard-man centre-back style), the former Arsenal man secured a move to Houston Dynamo in 2017 and managed to score four times in ten appearances. Fair play. He announced his retirement in December 2019 after a short spell at Swiss club Chiasso.
Leicester → Tom Kennedy
Nephew of former Liverpool man Alan Kennedy, the defender joined the then-Championship side from Rochdale. Kennedy terminated his contract with the Foxes two years later after a handful of appearances before joining Barnsley and marking a later return to Rochdale. Like a Football League journeyman, Kennedy also appeared for ex-side Bury and Blackpool on loan then dropped into the non-league with AFC Fylde in 2016. He ended his career after a stint with Welsh club Bangor in 2018. Since hanging up his boots, Kennedy now acts as a financial planner for footballers and the general public. In an interview with the Professional Footballers’ Association, Kennedy has stressed the importance of a pension to all those who have laced up the boots.
Leeds → Kasper Schmeichel
Remember when Notts County were bankrolled by a consortium from the Middle East? Well, all that turned out to be incredibly dodgy and the Danish keeper fled the promoted League 2 team after not being paid much of his £15,000 a week salary. Leeds did not prove to be much of a sanctuary as Schemichel admitted he regretted his move to the club after a few weeks, blaming a negative reaction from the fans towards his family’s link to Manchester United. Following 37 appearances in a single season at Leeds, the Foxes followed and ‘tumultuous’ was the word to describe the keeper’s move to Leicester as apparently Leeds chairman Ken Bates approved the transfer without the knowledge of Schmeichel. Nonetheless it worked out as Kasper continues to be the starting Leicester keeper after ten seasons and even appeared in every league game as the Foxes won a historic Premier League title against the odds in 2016.
Liverpool → Jonjo Shelvey
A fiery (or, a bit of a twat) midfielder with an eye for a Hollywood pass, Shelvey was 18 years old when Rafa Benitez snapped him up from Charlton for an initial £1.7 million. The Spaniard soon departed from Anfield and subsequently Shelvey experienced Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers in three years. The England international (I know, right?) made 47 league appearances with the Reds but only 17 of those were starts. In 2013, Shelvey transferred to Europa League side Swansea and in three years, Shelvey made 79 league appearances and 10 goals. His most famous performance was perhaps contributing at both ends to all four goals in a 2-2 draw with Liverpool. Poor form ended his time in South Wales and two days after an angry confrontation with a Swansea fan, Shelvey joined Newcastle United in January 2016, where he remains today. Last season equalled his best return of league goals by scoring in the Premier League six times.
Manchester City → Alex Henshall
Sought after by Liverpool and Manchester United, Swindon boy Alex Henshall signed for Man City aged 16. The winger played alongside Raheem Sterling in various English youth sides but their careers took completely different paths as Henshall subsequently bounced around the Football League on numerous loans before a free transfer to Ipswich in 2014. And uh, then came (deep breath): Blackpool, Kilmarnock, Margate, Braintree, Nuneaton (Town and then Borough), Darlington and then finally back in Wiltshire with amateurs Swindon Supermarine ten years on. That’s a depressing route, town-wise.
Manchester United → Javier Hernandez, Chris Smalling, Marnick Vermijl
The joys of three pre-arranged transfers.
Mexico’s ‘Little Pea’ enjoyed an impressive debut season under Sir Alex Ferguson with 13 league goals as the Red Devils won the Premier League and appeared unsuccessfully in the Champions League Final. Ferguson’s retirement led to his game time and goals dry up under David Moyes, and boss Louis Van Gaal hooked him to Real Madrid for a loan move abroad, having preferred the arriving Falcao. The poacher scored seven times with the Spanish giants but found his continental scoring touch with a later move to Bayer Leverkusen. Indeed, Hernandez returned 28 Bundesliga goals in just two seasons. He returned to England with West Ham United in 2017 yet never rekindled his old form in Britain and joined Sevilla after a transfer request two years later. Hernandez now features for LA Galaxy at the age of 32.
Despite nine years of service and two Premier League titles, Chris Smalling never earned huge amounts of praise at Old Trafford since his transfer from Fulham. Capped 31 times by England, Smalling appeared under the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Louis Van Gaal and Jose Mourinho only to find himself out of favour with Ole Gunnar Solksjaer. The centre-back became one of the few modern-day Englishmen to play abroad last season with a loan move to AS Roma and a successful season in Italy saw his time in the capital made permanent just a few days ago for an initial £13.6 million fee. Smalling ultimately made 323 appearances in all competitions for Manchester United.
Belgian fullback Vermijl made his debut for Manchester United with a League Cup appearance in 2012 but failed to make a senior league appearance. The fullback found first team football at Dutch club NEC on loan, and signed permanently with Sheffield Wednesday in 2015 in search of more game time. He managed just 11 league appearances with the Owls, and the defender has told of his regret at leaving United so early. Vermijl made appearances at Preston North End, Scunthorpe and native side MVV Maastricht before ending up recently with K.V.V. Thes Sport Tessenderlo in the third-tier of Belgian football.
Newcastle United → James Perch
Having initially transferred from Nottingham Forest, the versatile defendemidfielder made 65 Premier League appearances for the Magpies in three years. Perch dropped down to the Championship with a 2013 move to FA Cup winners Wigan Athletic and became a fixture in the club’s line-up, earning the team’s Player of the Season award in back-to-back seasons with an impressive 81 appearances in that time. He would later ply his trade at QPR but was released as a 32 year old in 2018 after three years in London. Perch completed a move to third-tier Scunthorpe and 71 league appearances there was not enough to prevent his release due to Coronavirus-related cutbacks. He subsequently signed a one-year deal with home town team Mansfield in League 2.
Sheffield United → Daniel Bogdanovic
The Maltese striker (who was apparently born in either Libya or Serbia, depending on your source…) bagged 14 goals for Barnsley but moved across Yorkshire to the Blades on a free transfer. He notched five goals in a single season with then-Championship side Sheffield United and subsequently joined Blackpool, of which Malta cannot compare to. Loan spells at Rochdale and Notts County followed without much joy, and Bogdanovic returned to Malta to play for a selection of Maltese clubs. He finished at the wonderfully-named Xewkija Tigers a few years prior to becoming manager of Ghajniselem FC in the same country.
Southampton → Ryan Dickson
Impressive at Brentford, midfielder Dickson moved to third-tier opposition Southampton for an initial £125,000 fee. He endured a season of seemingly poor displays in spite of the Saints winning promotion back to the Championship and an injury-ridden time on the south coast saw him sent to Yeovil, Leyton Orient and Bradford City in search of game time and fitness. Dickson joined Colchester in 2013 after being released by Southampton and found more football than ever there, with the same experience at Crawley and Yeovil (permanently, this time). The former Plymouth talent would return to Devon with Torquay in 2018, although after a loan spell and a free transfer, now plays football for Truro City. Based in the only city Cornwall has to offer, the club feature in the seventh-tier of the English pyramid.
Tottenham → William Gallas
Despite a summer in which Gallas and the French national team dramatically crashed out of the World Cup, the centre-back was picked up by Harry Redknapp to become the first player to ever feature for London rivals Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs. He even made quite the stir as he captained Tottenham in a North London Derby! Gallas enjoyed a good first season with Spurs but knocks and a tense relationship with Harry’s successor Andre Villas-Boas marred the rest of his time at the club. Ultimately Gallas still made 61 league appearances in three seasons. The two-time Premier League winner ended his career with Perth Glory after a single season in Australia.
West Bromwich Albion → Gabriel Tamaș
The Romanian centre-back made a permanent move to the Hawthorns in May 2010 after a five-month loan spell. He made 45 appearances (starting from June 2010) in three years before returning to Romania with CFR Cluj, only to be released from his contract without playing for uh, alcohol-related incidents. Unfortunately, this would become a running theme for the defender. Following spells with Doncaster, Watford, a couple more Romanian clubs and an Israeli side, Tamas plays for second-division side Universitatea Cluj at the age of 36.
West Ham → Thomas Hitzlsperger
A German international, the midfielder nicknamed ‘Der Hammer’ by Villa fans made a fitting move to east London. Despite his transfer the former Lazio man did not feature until February 2011 due to injuries. Hitzlsperger mustered 13 appearances in all competitions as the side dropped down to the Championship, and his contract was terminated despite years remaining. He made a handful of games at Wolfsburg and Everton before hanging up his boots due to reoccurring knocks. In his post-career, the former Villa man made headlines as he became perhaps the most notable player to come out as gay. Currently, Hitzlsperger sits as a Sporting Director at VFB Stuttgart, the same side he won the Bundesliga with in 2007.
Wolves→ Jelle Van Damme
Capped 31 times by Belgium, the defender signed a three-year deal with the Black Country club only to force a move back to his country in the winter window with six appearances (and a goal!) to his name. Van Damme spent five years with Standard Liege, impressed with LA Galaxy for two seasons before wrapping up his career with Royal Antwerp and Lokeren, his fifth Belgian team, last season.
submitted by a-man-with-a-perm to soccer [link] [comments]

My Barnsley Career Mode Story - Season One (20/21)

(This career mode was set to Strict Financial Difficulty - World Class in game difficulty with four minute halves, no financial takeover and no homegrown talents)
All Goals of Season One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H3ltXVm4XE
After succeeding in the goal of 'Divisional Retention' as the board would put it due to a points deduction to Wigan, with two last minute goals in two different games, keeping the club up and remaing in the Championship - against all odds and arguably undeservedly. With manager Struber recently departing to the USA, it was time for myself to step in, save the club and bring it under stable and steady leadership on as well as off the pitch. A hefty task, with a limited budget and fair expectations from the unpopular board, it was up to me to deliver on field success with not much support.
Summer Transfer Window
Outgoings
It was clear this squad needed some overhaul, whilst a fairly young squad, there wasn't too much potential in a few of the players. Individuals such as Victor Adeboyejo saw early moves to China, whilst prospect George Miller headed to Wurzberger in 2. Bundesliga. Other low-valued players like Keaton Ward, Jasper Moon, Brad Binns and Matty Wolfe departed the club on a permament basis. Mike-Steven Bahre, a player at the club since 2018 on loan, and 2019 on a proper deal, also departed, not fitting into my 4-4-2 system, I wished for different central midfield options, selling for £1.1M, it was a good deal as he headed back to his native Germany. Second-Choice Goalkeeper Jack Walton also departed the club, heading out to the MLS to play for Nashville for a fee of £2.05M - a great price for a keeper I was never intending on playing.
https://i.imgur.com/hqsLklB.png
Incomings
These sales gave me the cash to be able to improve the squad, not only the first team, but the entirety of the team. Our goals were to sign young players with some promise about them, but with enough quality to slot in or around our first team, with a few experienced heads in our team, we would be bound to stay up. With Dennis Eckert Ayensa being our first signing, from FC Ingolstadt, a £2.4M fee for him, which would be a risky play. Looking inward in England, we also picked up Archie Collins from Exeter City for only £720K, plus a small sell on clause, whilst not a first team player, his role in the team was to provide support from the bench or injury backup, whilst also being young enough to grow and explode into the first team in a future year. With our backup keeper sold, and the first choice Bradley Collins not filling me with confidence, Alex Bass was picked up from Portsmouth, for a fee of around £1.8M, the goalkeeper slotted straight into the first team. Later on in the window, Philip Schobesberger was also purchased, from Austrian Bundesliga side SK Rapid Wien, for a fee of £1.5M, the Left Midfielder was trained to play on the right, where he became a rotational player for us.
https://i.imgur.com/bn7joxY.png
Youth Academy Graduates - Pre January
Whilst these purchases were great, we wanted to look at our Youth Academy, with nobody -extremely- talented in there, we still picked out a few promising players. Oscar Osorio from Venezuela came in, a left back turned centre back - he would provide defensive cover and be given some cup football. Hugh Morley was a striker when he joined our academy, but had better defensive stats, it only took a few weeks for him to develop into a centre back. Joris van Veen and Isidoro Vicente also rose through, both forward players, though they didn't see much game time.
Our business in the window was finished, four incomings and eight outgoings, a successful transfer window all things considered, it was time to kick on with the league and start getting some results under our belt.
August
August started poorly, in Barnsley tradition, the opening game was not a winning one, with a 2-1 Loss to Middlesbrough, Alex Mowatt scoring our only goal of the game. We soon bounced back however, with a 4-2 win at Coventry, a 3-3 Draw and a win on penalties against Charlton in the first round of the Carabao Cup, and then something quite spectacular happened. A 1-7 thumping of Wycombe away, with Luke Thomas, new signing Ayensa, Alex Mowatt, Cauley Woodrow and Dominik Frieser among the goals. A crazy day certainly. It was just a shame not to manage a clean sheet, following it up three days later with a comfortable win away at Swansea City - we sat top of the Championship after four games. We continued our high goal scoring against Reading, managing three goals but conceding five away at the Madjeski Stadium. With Carabao Cup football, our rotated eleven gave us another 0-5 thumping win away at Crawley Town, showing the Red Devils who was the Championship team apparently pushing for that playoff place. Against Bournemouth however, a 1-2 loss was all we could achieve, the former Premier League team managing to defeat us. At the end of August we sat in ninth place, mere points from the playoffs - and Barnsley began to hope.
https://i.imgur.com/OF79vdo.png
September
September was an absolute disaster of a month, with no wins recorded at all. Four losses in the league, with one draw and another loss in the Carabao Cup to lower league opposition. The only highlight is that we managed to score in almost every game, showing that our potency was not the issue. Our shocking and shambolic defense certainly was though, shipping a total of twenty goals over the course of six games. We ended the month in 17th place, dragged straight into a relegation battle once again, and it was a surprise that I retained my job.
https://i.imgur.com/9FQfaSY.png
October
Another poor, poor month, starting off with a 1-2 loss at home against Cardiff, the Welsh side turning us over with ease. Then we entertained Luton. Oh dear. One flew into our net, then two, then three, then four - then five...then six - ..and finally seven. Defeated seven-nil at home against relegation rivals? I should've been sacked before I even got down the tunnel. It was a horrendous display at the back, with our first team all playing, they hanged their heads in shame at what they just did. Nearly record breaking with how bad it was. This was followed up with a 3-1 defeat and a 4-2 defeat, showing that we still had goals in our game, it was our defense that needed work, and needed it fairly quickly. The month ended on a high, after dipping to 23rd place with only ten points, a victory at home against QPR saw us climb out of the relegation zone, ending the month in 21st place.
https://i.imgur.com/CSMRUeH.png
November
A bit of a turnaround in November. Beating Derby 1-2 away, and then Blackburn by three goals to one after the international break, climbing up to 15th place and heading away from the drop. Another victory against South Yorkshire rivals Rotherham United meant we jumped to 13th, before then a crushing defeat by Sheffield Wednesday at home. Five Goals to One - another absolutely horrendous display, especially in such a crucial derby game. It simply wasn't good enough, and certainly needed work. We conceded in every game this month, not keeping a clean sheet since the 26th August against Crawley in the Carabao Cup.
https://i.imgur.com/hnNgnuy.png
December
December is a crucial month, with the transfer window just around the corner and a lot of games to play - seven to be exact, in the space of only four weeks. A 2-2 draw at Millwall wasn't bad, before then going on a three game win streak, against Preston, Stoke and Coventry, keeping clean sheets in all three of them, it seemed as if finally things were improving, as we climbed up to 11th, with the playoffs a target. A 0-1 defeat to Middlesbrough at Oakwell dampened the mood, dropping us to 14th before heading to Hillsborough. Playing out hearts out but once again managing the same scoreline against Wednesday, losing by five goals to one yet again. Embarrassing.
https://i.imgur.com/UBf8ELV.png
January
Our FA Cup Journey began, with a Championship tie against Wycombe - I predicted an easy game, after beating these lot 7-1 earlier in the season, I imagined it would be easy - and it was, a resounding 4-0 victory, keeping a clean sheet and progressing to the next round. A defeat at Stoke followed, with a victory against Millwall right after that - bouncing back and forth from victory to defeat as we took on and lost convincingly to Preston, before finding ourselves against recently promoted Leeds at Elland Road in the fourth round. We won, of course, a 0-2 win, confident and potent infront of goal. Onto the fifth round. After beating Premier League Leeds however, we then lost 3-0 to Rotherham, a team battling for Relegation. Our form was all over the place and our consistency was not there at all. We ended the month in 13th place, with 38 points - whilst we weren't safe from relegation yet, it looked like we'd passed this hurdle by now.
https://i.imgur.com/sMevsdv.png
January Transfer Window
Incomings
With Marcel Ritzmaier being sold to Feyenoord for £2.1M, it was clear we needed some sort of first team quality replacement, well imagine my luck when Norwich City swooped in with a swap deal, Mads Juel Andersen, a centre back that wasn't playing too often, rotting away on the bench. It was him for German midfielder Moritz Leitner, a player with solid Championship and some Premier League experience, and only twenty seven, it was a no brainer, the highly rated player slotting straight into the team and making a good impact. Two other European players came in too, with Patrick Wimmer from FK Austria Wien for £2M, the right midfielder a signing with the future in mind, but also providing backup and relief. Valentino Muller was also signed from LASK for a £1.1M fee. The central midfielder also providing support, but not direct first team action.
https://i.imgur.com/cfC4cOV.png
Outgoings
How exactly was all this afforded? The sale of Marcel Ritzmaier for the aforementioned £2.1M as well as another MLS sale of Bradley Collins, heading to Toronto FC for again, £2.1M. Those combined figures allowed us to gamble on some younger, developing talent, and allow them to develop within our facilities and grow to fit the needs of out team. Kilian Ludewig, a player with single digit amount of appearences was recalled by RB Salzburg, who complained about a lack of minutes on the pitch for the young prospect.
https://i.imgur.com/vuTzKiw.png
February
Another pretty poor month, not much to say over than achieving a league double over playoff chasing Derby County, another 2-1 Win against them, then a 2-2 draw at Loftus Road, before losing out narrowly against Brentford and Swansea, with only one goal in both games, both going to the opposition, our league position didn't change at all, remaining at 13th throughout the month, now on 42 points. We were surely safe by now?
https://i.imgur.com/eDwJN9G.png
March
The month started away at St. James Park, a tough fixture against Newcastle United in the FA Cup, surely an upset was on the cards, but not in the way we did it - a 0-3 win away from home at the large stadium left many on the Tyne upset, angry and rather confused at how a middling Championship team had managed to turn them over with such ease. Only three days later, a draw against Wycombe left us in 13th still, with the playoffs out of sight and relegation only a nightmare that couldn't possibly come true. It seemed like we had to settle for mid table mediocrity, but that was a good thing, with the club barely able to survive last year, we'd come on leaps and bounds since then. It was then time for the Quarter Final - we drew Manchester City, of course we did. One of the strongest teams in England, if not Europe - if not the world, this would be a tough fixture, and they certainly didn't go easy on us, with Sterling, Jesus and de Bruyne on the pitch, with many other first team players there too. At home, at Oakwell, infront of a sell out crowd, we took the lead, and then another, then conceding one, but managing to score a third before eighty minutes. It seemed like we'd do it again, all we had to do was stay composed, but then they came for us, their pressing was too much, we fumbled and let loose of the goals - with City scoring two in the last ten, one in the last minute itself. We were bound to lose, as the game went to extra time. We held on for the first half, and then for the entirety of the second, when in the 120th minute, we saw an oppourtunity and leapt on it with vigour and desire, managing to score in the very last second, the penultimate kick - or head - of the game. Beating City 4-3 AET and heading to Wembley for the Semi Final! Que Sera, Sera! The rest of the month was poor, we don't talk about the rest of the month.
https://i.imgur.com/6quzjOp.png
April
After finishing March in 15th and booking a place at Wembley for the Semi-Final of the FA Cup, we then won three on the bounce, beating Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield Town and Reading, conceding zero and scoring six across the three games. It was then time for our Semi Final tie at Wembley, against the team we had just knocked out's rivals. Manchester United. It was on. With a cagey opening thirty, we managed to press and then make a mockery out of game, latching onto a poor touch and driving it into the net, going 1-0 up. It wasn't long before world class talent showed us why we are where we are, and not where they are. Bruno Fernandes scoring a cracker to put us level at half time. The rest of the game was dominated by Manchester United, whilst we had done excellently in the first half, we were ran over in the second, managing to limit the damage to only one goal, at the end of the game it was 2-1, with a final chance that just didn't come to be. It was a great day out, one I'm certainly proud of the way we played, and gave me real hope and made me see the potential to compete with this squad.
https://i.imgur.com/7IgFevy.png
May
Three games in May due to the delay of some league fixtures due to our excellent FA Cup run, we faced Birmingham City first, earning a deserved 1-0 victory, before then getting a thrasing in Wales against Cardiff, 6-1 was the scoreline, and certainly one to forget. The last day was a 2-0 defeat down way south in England against Bournemouth, with us being no match for the 3rd place side.
https://i.imgur.com/0VBwmWS.png
Youth Academy Graduates - January Onwards
Our Youth Academy grew with some middling scouts sent out to England, Wales, Scotland and then a few months in Austria. Returning some intriguing talent. Of particular interest was centre-back Jacob Walsh, a young sixteen year old Englishman with a decent potential but also good enough to slot into our bench.
https://i.imgur.com/n4oPHfW.png
Youth Academy - Potential Players going into next season.
Not every Young Player could earn a first team contract however, with some not old enough, and others not good enough yet. We'll keep a keen eye on many of these players, especially centre-back Lucas Miller, another one with decent potential but also a high chance of slotting into our game from the start, despite his young age.
https://i.imgur.com/vXuhDcH.png
Season Roundup
An okay start to the season quickly descended into a scrap, with an awful eleven game winless streak (in all competitions) and a six-game losing streak in the Championship, we managed to turn it around and then go on a fantastic cup run, beating out high level opposition at every turn until the Semi Final, where we were narrowly defeated by a full strength Manchester United team. Glints and hints of real quality in the squad as we scored 97 goals in all competitions, but also conceded a lot more than that. Our defensive game was extremely poor, with many scorelines typically having the opposition scoring five or more, it wasn't good enough.
We finished 13th in the EFL Championship, getting to Round 3 of the Carabao Cup, losing out to Oxford United on Penalties, achieving a Semi-Final finish in the FA Cup, being knocked out by Manchester United before we could reach the final.
https://i.imgur.com/oWXs9ul.png
Next Season Goals The goal for next season is simple, achieve a playoff place and win the playoffs, going up to the Premier League, I don't wish to buy too many players, and I wish to develop the squad we have whilst letting a few stagnant or undesirable players move on. I want to focus more on the Youth Academy, hiring superior scouts and getting better players through our club to play in the Premier League.
Video of all the goals scored, all ninety seven, with images at the end highlighting our season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H3ltXVm4XE
submitted by Valrysha1 to FifaCareers [link] [comments]

Barnsley FC - Season One (FIFA 21)

(This career mode was set to Strict Financial Difficulty - World Class in game difficulty with four minute halves, no financial takeover and no homegrown talents)
All Goals of Season One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H3ltXVm4XE
After succeeding in the goal of 'Divisional Retention' as the board would put it due to a points deduction to Wigan, with two last minute goals in two different games, keeping the club up and remaing in the Championship - against all odds and arguably undeservedly. With manager Struber recently departing to the USA, it was time for myself to step in, save the club and bring it under stable and steady leadership on as well as off the pitch. A hefty task, with a limited budget and fair expectations from the unpopular board, it was up to me to deliver on field success with not much support.
Summer Transfer Window
Outgoings
It was clear this squad needed some overhaul, whilst a fairly young squad, there wasn't too much potential in a few of the players. Individuals such as Victor Adeboyejo saw early moves to China, whilst prospect George Miller headed to Wurzberger in 2. Bundesliga. Other low-valued players like Keaton Ward, Jasper Moon, Brad Binns and Matty Wolfe departed the club on a permament basis. Mike-Steven Bahre, a player at the club since 2018 on loan, and 2019 on a proper deal, also departed, not fitting into my 4-4-2 system, I wished for different central midfield options, selling for £1.1M, it was a good deal as he headed back to his native Germany. Second-Choice Goalkeeper Jack Walton also departed the club, heading out to the MLS to play for Nashville for a fee of £2.05M - a great price for a keeper I was never intending on playing.
https://i.imgur.com/hqsLklB.png
Incomings
These sales gave me the cash to be able to improve the squad, not only the first team, but the entirety of the team. Our goals were to sign young players with some promise about them, but with enough quality to slot in or around our first team, with a few experienced heads in our team, we would be bound to stay up. With Dennis Eckert Ayensa being our first signing, from FC Ingolstadt, a £2.4M fee for him, which would be a risky play. Looking inward in England, we also picked up Archie Collins from Exeter City for only £720K, plus a small sell on clause, whilst not a first team player, his role in the team was to provide support from the bench or injury backup, whilst also being young enough to grow and explode into the first team in a future year. With our backup keeper sold, and the first choice Bradley Collins not filling me with confidence, Alex Bass was picked up from Portsmouth, for a fee of around £1.8M, the goalkeeper slotted straight into the first team. Later on in the window, Philip Schobesberger was also purchased, from Austrian Bundesliga side SK Rapid Wien, for a fee of £1.5M, the Left Midfielder was trained to play on the right, where he became a rotational player for us.
https://i.imgur.com/bn7joxY.png
Youth Academy Graduates - Pre January
Whilst these purchases were great, we wanted to look at our Youth Academy, with nobody -extremely- talented in there, we still picked out a few promising players. Oscar Osorio from Venezuela came in, a left back turned centre back - he would provide defensive cover and be given some cup football. Hugh Morley was a striker when he joined our academy, but had better defensive stats, it only took a few weeks for him to develop into a centre back. Joris van Veen and Isidoro Vicente also rose through, both forward players, though they didn't see much game time.
Our business in the window was finished, four incomings and eight outgoings, a successful transfer window all things considered, it was time to kick on with the league and start getting some results under our belt.
August
August started poorly, in Barnsley tradition, the opening game was not a winning one, with a 2-1 Loss to Middlesbrough, Alex Mowatt scoring our only goal of the game. We soon bounced back however, with a 4-2 win at Coventry, a 3-3 Draw and a win on penalties against Charlton in the first round of the Carabao Cup, and then something quite spectacular happened. A 1-7 thumping of Wycombe away, with Luke Thomas, new signing Ayensa, Alex Mowatt, Cauley Woodrow and Dominik Frieser among the goals. A crazy day certainly. It was just a shame not to manage a clean sheet, following it up three days later with a comfortable win away at Swansea City - we sat top of the Championship after four games. We continued our high goal scoring against Reading, managing three goals but conceding five away at the Madjeski Stadium. With Carabao Cup football, our rotated eleven gave us another 0-5 thumping win away at Crawley Town, showing the Red Devils who was the Championship team apparently pushing for that playoff place. Against Bournemouth however, a 1-2 loss was all we could achieve, the former Premier League team managing to defeat us. At the end of August we sat in ninth place, mere points from the playoffs - and Barnsley began to hope.
https://i.imgur.com/OF79vdo.png
September
September was an absolute disaster of a month, with no wins recorded at all. Four losses in the league, with one draw and another loss in the Carabao Cup to lower league opposition. The only highlight is that we managed to score in almost every game, showing that our potency was not the issue. Our shocking and shambolic defense certainly was though, shipping a total of twenty goals over the course of six games. We ended the month in 17th place, dragged straight into a relegation battle once again, and it was a surprise that I retained my job.
https://i.imgur.com/9FQfaSY.png
October
Another poor, poor month, starting off with a 1-2 loss at home against Cardiff, the Welsh side turning us over with ease. Then we entertained Luton. Oh dear. One flew into our net, then two, then three, then four - then five...then six - ..and finally seven. Defeated seven-nil at home against relegation rivals? I should've been sacked before I even got down the tunnel. It was a horrendous display at the back, with our first team all playing, they hanged their heads in shame at what they just did. Nearly record breaking with how bad it was. This was followed up with a 3-1 defeat and a 4-2 defeat, showing that we still had goals in our game, it was our defense that needed work, and needed it fairly quickly. The month ended on a high, after dipping to 23rd place with only ten points, a victory at home against QPR saw us climb out of the relegation zone, ending the month in 21st place.
https://i.imgur.com/CSMRUeH.png
November
A bit of a turnaround in November. Beating Derby 1-2 away, and then Blackburn by three goals to one after the international break, climbing up to 15th place and heading away from the drop. Another victory against South Yorkshire rivals Rotherham United meant we jumped to 13th, before then a crushing defeat by Sheffield Wednesday at home. Five Goals to One - another absolutely horrendous display, especially in such a crucial derby game. It simply wasn't good enough, and certainly needed work. We conceded in every game this month, not keeping a clean sheet since the 26th August against Crawley in the Carabao Cup.
https://i.imgur.com/hnNgnuy.png
December
December is a crucial month, with the transfer window just around the corner and a lot of games to play - seven to be exact, in the space of only four weeks. A 2-2 draw at Millwall wasn't bad, before then going on a three game win streak, against Preston, Stoke and Coventry, keeping clean sheets in all three of them, it seemed as if finally things were improving, as we climbed up to 11th, with the playoffs a target. A 0-1 defeat to Middlesbrough at Oakwell dampened the mood, dropping us to 14th before heading to Hillsborough. Playing out hearts out but once again managing the same scoreline against Wednesday, losing by five goals to one yet again. Embarrassing.
https://i.imgur.com/UBf8ELV.png
January
Our FA Cup Journey began, with a Championship tie against Wycombe - I predicted an easy game, after beating these lot 7-1 earlier in the season, I imagined it would be easy - and it was, a resounding 4-0 victory, keeping a clean sheet and progressing to the next round. A defeat at Stoke followed, with a victory against Millwall right after that - bouncing back and forth from victory to defeat as we took on and lost convincingly to Preston, before finding ourselves against recently promoted Leeds at Elland Road in the fourth round. We won, of course, a 0-2 win, confident and potent infront of goal. Onto the fifth round. After beating Premier League Leeds however, we then lost 3-0 to Rotherham, a team battling for Relegation. Our form was all over the place and our consistency was not there at all. We ended the month in 13th place, with 38 points - whilst we weren't safe from relegation yet, it looked like we'd passed this hurdle by now.
https://i.imgur.com/sMevsdv.png
January Transfer Window
Incomings
With Marcel Ritzmaier being sold to Feyenoord for £2.1M, it was clear we needed some sort of first team quality replacement, well imagine my luck when Norwich City swooped in with a swap deal, Mads Juel Andersen, a centre back that wasn't playing too often, rotting away on the bench. It was him for German midfielder Moritz Leitner, a player with solid Championship and some Premier League experience, and only twenty seven, it was a no brainer, the highly rated player slotting straight into the team and making a good impact. Two other European players came in too, with Patrick Wimmer from FK Austria Wien for £2M, the right midfielder a signing with the future in mind, but also providing backup and relief. Valentino Muller was also signed from LASK for a £1.1M fee. The central midfielder also providing support, but not direct first team action.
https://i.imgur.com/cfC4cOV.png
Outgoings
How exactly was all this afforded? The sale of Marcel Ritzmaier for the aforementioned £2.1M as well as another MLS sale of Bradley Collins, heading to Toronto FC for again, £2.1M. Those combined figures allowed us to gamble on some younger, developing talent, and allow them to develop within our facilities and grow to fit the needs of out team. Kilian Ludewig, a player with single digit amount of appearences was recalled by RB Salzburg, who complained about a lack of minutes on the pitch for the young prospect.
https://i.imgur.com/vuTzKiw.png
February
Another pretty poor month, not much to say over than achieving a league double over playoff chasing Derby County, another 2-1 Win against them, then a 2-2 draw at Loftus Road, before losing out narrowly against Brentford and Swansea, with only one goal in both games, both going to the opposition, our league position didn't change at all, remaining at 13th throughout the month, now on 42 points. We were surely safe by now?
https://i.imgur.com/eDwJN9G.png
March
The month started away at St. James Park, a tough fixture against Newcastle United in the FA Cup, surely an upset was on the cards, but not in the way we did it - a 0-3 win away from home at the large stadium left many on the Tyne upset, angry and rather confused at how a middling Championship team had managed to turn them over with such ease. Only three days later, a draw against Wycombe left us in 13th still, with the playoffs out of sight and relegation only a nightmare that couldn't possibly come true. It seemed like we had to settle for mid table mediocrity, but that was a good thing, with the club barely able to survive last year, we'd come on leaps and bounds since then. It was then time for the Quarter Final - we drew Manchester City, of course we did. One of the strongest teams in England, if not Europe - if not the world, this would be a tough fixture, and they certainly didn't go easy on us, with Sterling, Jesus and de Bruyne on the pitch, with many other first team players there too. At home, at Oakwell, infront of a sell out crowd, we took the lead, and then another, then conceding one, but managing to score a third before eighty minutes. It seemed like we'd do it again, all we had to do was stay composed, but then they came for us, their pressing was too much, we fumbled and let loose of the goals - with City scoring two in the last ten, one in the last minute itself. We were bound to lose, as the game went to extra time. We held on for the first half, and then for the entirety of the second, when in the 120th minute, we saw an oppourtunity and leapt on it with vigour and desire, managing to score in the very last second, the penultimate kick - or head - of the game. Beating City 4-3 AET and heading to Wembley for the Semi Final! Que Sera, Sera! The rest of the month was poor, we don't talk about the rest of the month.
https://i.imgur.com/6quzjOp.png
April
After finishing March in 15th and booking a place at Wembley for the Semi-Final of the FA Cup, we then won three on the bounce, beating Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield Town and Reading, conceding zero and scoring six across the three games. It was then time for our Semi Final tie at Wembley, against the team we had just knocked out's rivals. Manchester United. It was on. With a cagey opening thirty, we managed to press and then make a mockery out of game, latching onto a poor touch and driving it into the net, going 1-0 up. It wasn't long before world class talent showed us why we are where we are, and not where they are. Bruno Fernandes scoring a cracker to put us level at half time. The rest of the game was dominated by Manchester United, whilst we had done excellently in the first half, we were ran over in the second, managing to limit the damage to only one goal, at the end of the game it was 2-1, with a final chance that just didn't come to be. It was a great day out, one I'm certainly proud of the way we played, and gave me real hope and made me see the potential to compete with this squad.
https://i.imgur.com/7IgFevy.png
May
Three games in May due to the delay of some league fixtures due to our excellent FA Cup run, we faced Birmingham City first, earning a deserved 1-0 victory, before then getting a thrasing in Wales against Cardiff, 6-1 was the scoreline, and certainly one to forget. The last day was a 2-0 defeat down way south in England against Bournemouth, with us being no match for the 3rd place side.
https://i.imgur.com/0VBwmWS.png
Youth Academy Graduates - January Onwards
Our Youth Academy grew with some middling scouts sent out to England, Wales, Scotland and then a few months in Austria. Returning some intriguing talent. Of particular interest was centre-back Jacob Walsh, a young sixteen year old Englishman with a decent potential but also good enough to slot into our bench.
https://i.imgur.com/n4oPHfW.png
Youth Academy - Potential Players going into next season.
Not every Young Player could earn a first team contract however, with some not old enough, and others not good enough yet. We'll keep a keen eye on many of these players, especially centre-back Lucas Miller, another one with decent potential but also a high chance of slotting into our game from the start, despite his young age.
https://i.imgur.com/vXuhDcH.png
Season Roundup
An okay start to the season quickly descended into a scrap, with an awful eleven game winless streak (in all competitions) and a six-game losing streak in the Championship, we managed to turn it around and then go on a fantastic cup run, beating out high level opposition at every turn until the Semi Final, where we were narrowly defeated by a full strength Manchester United team. Glints and hints of real quality in the squad as we scored 97 goals in all competitions, but also conceded a lot more than that. Our defensive game was extremely poor, with many scorelines typically having the opposition scoring five or more, it wasn't good enough.
We finished 13th in the EFL Championship, getting to Round 3 of the Carabao Cup, losing out to Oxford United on Penalties, achieving a Semi-Final finish in the FA Cup, being knocked out by Manchester United before we could reach the final.
https://i.imgur.com/oWXs9ul.png
Next Season Goals The goal for next season is simple, achieve a playoff place and win the playoffs, going up to the Premier League, I don't wish to buy too many players, and I wish to develop the squad we have whilst letting a few stagnant or undesirable players move on. I want to focus more on the Youth Academy, hiring superior scouts and getting better players through our club to play in the Premier League.
Video of all the goals scored, all ninety seven, with images at the end highlighting our season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H3ltXVm4XE
submitted by Valrysha1 to seriousfifacareers [link] [comments]

Championship run-in preview #2: Stoke City

As organised on /Championship
Club: Stoke City
Manager: Michael O’Neill
Current table position:
Position P W D L GF GA GD PTS
17 37 12 6 19 49 55 -6 42
How the season has gone so far: 8 points in 15 games before O’Neill and 34 points in 22 games since. It’s difficult to articulate just how ridiculous things were under Nathan Jones with a never-ending list of individual and tactical errors.
Michael O’Neill improved our organisation, confidence and form overnight. There’s still a lot of work to do, but Stoke fans are feeling positive about finishing the season and moving onto the next.
The best game this season was the 3-2 Boxing Day victory over Sheffield Wednesday with goals in the 93rd and 97th minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsPB_JzK25I
Key stat(s) of the season: I wasn’t really sure what to put here so I’ll go with midfielder Sam Clucas being our top scorer with 10 goals. He’s an odd player. I often wonder whether he’s actually a robot that’s been programmed to play football. He knows how to play... but not why. Thankfully O’Neill seems to be getting the best out of him unlike Jones.
Any news from the season break?: It was very quiet until it was announced that the manager has Covid-19. Thankfully he’s not showing any symptoms so once he’s finished isolation (and tests negative) he’ll be back at the training ground.
How will you fare financially in the future?: We’ve got one more year of parachute payments and we’re continuing to reduce our wage bill. However we’ve still got some of our Premier League rejects plus higher earners like Jack Butland and Joe Allen. I’m not overly worried about our situation, although I don’t expect us to spend much money over the next couple of transfer windows.
Expected lineup and tactics for the run in: Michael O’Neill likes to play 4-3-3 with the two wide players up high to support the lone front-man. Joe Allen is out for the season with a ruptured Achilles heel but on the plus side it looks like James McClean and Ryan Shawcross are fit. Star man for the final nine games will be Tyrese Campbell (son of Kevin Campbell) who has got huge potential and recently signed a new contract.
Remaining fixtures: Reading (a), Middlesbrough (h), Wigan (a). Barnsley (h), Leeds (a), Birmingham (h), Bristol City (a), Brentford (h), Forest (a).
It’s a mixed fixture list with some easier games followed by a tough finish. I was supposed to be going to Wigan which would have been my first away game in a couple seasons. Oh well.
Best case scenario: 3-4 wins from the easier fixtures gives us greater confidence for when we play four of the top 6 in July. A top half finish would be incredible progress.
Worst case scenario: It turns out that O’Neill infected the squad with Covid-19 and we’re totally fucked. We get relegated playing the academy squad and end up in League One with the Crewe Alexandra pedo collective.
Prediction: We’re currently 17th and I think we’ll end up around 14th. After the Nathan Jones catastrophe that will be a very solid finish.
Social media/other shithousery: I’ve honestly not paid much attention to Stoke or football in general since the pandemic started. In lockdown boredom I’ve bought a couple of 1990s Stoke away shirts and started drawing Mr Men characters based on classic Simpsons scenes.
submitted by SekZBoiAlex1986 to soccer [link] [comments]

Championship run-in preview #11: Luton Town

As organised by s0ngsforthedeaf on /Championship
Club: Luton Town Manager: Nathan Jones Current table position:
Pos P W D L GF GA GD
23 37 10 5 22 43 71 -28
How the season has gone so far: Its obviously been an incredibly difficult return to the Championship for us after 12 years away much of which spent outside of the Football we have returned to a Division nothing alike what we had left.
Despite having won League 1 last season we were under no illusions this would be a tough test to keep up in the division and prior to the season start I think most Luton fans would have agreed that 21st Place would represent a good achievement for us. Having lost 2 Key players in Jack Stacey and James Justin to Premier League clubs and a new manager in Graeme Jones I think many Luton fans were unsure of what to expect or if we had enough about us to keep afloat in a league where we regularly come up against players who have been bought for more than the value of our club!
We started reasonably inline with expectations, consistently around the lower reaches but picking up the odd win here to keep hopes up. There were consistent issues with silly mistakes costing us points, most notably from the keeper who had to be dropped after costing us a point away to Derby, but also playing ourselves into danger from playing out of the back without really the players to do it properly at this level. Going into the Brentford game at the end of November we sat one above that 21st Place target having just beaten Charlton 2-1. We lost the game 7-0 and despite winning the following game 2-1 against Wigan, our confidence was shot. In the period between then and the end of January we rarely looked competitive in games leading to many to question whether Graeme Jones was the man to keep us up.
Latterly we have showed signs of life, especially under the lights at Kenilworth Road, beating Wayne Rooneys Derby, finally winning away again with a win over Middlesbrough meaning we had won back to back games for the first time all season, having beaten Sheffield Wednesday, and somewhat avenged our 7-0 drubbing by toughing out a 2-1 win over Brentford again under the lights at the Kenny in a game no one expected us to win. Unfortunately despite that small upturn in form we lost a key game to Charlton and only picked up 2 points from Stoke and Wigan games, still leaving us with an uphill task to keep ourselves up.
Key Stat of the season: The key stat is that Goals Against column above. We have consistently leaked goals throughout the season often through very bad individual errors. We were not helped by the early season form of our new Keeper, and record signing, Simon Sluga, who made a number of mistakes which lead to goals which seemed to sap all confidence from the backline, and a manager in Graeme Jones who had said he would rather lose 10-9 than keep a clean sheet! More recently Sluga has come back into the fold and looked solid including a couple of wonder saves and playing a big part in our slight form upturn of late but conceding goals through bad errors has been the story of the season.
Any news from the season break?: We sacked our manager Graeme Jones and replaced him with our former manager and ex-Stoke manager and chief architect of our rise from League 2 Nathan Jones. There was a split in the fans about whether Graeme Jones should stay or go and his comments, like the one above about clean sheets, and saying we would go down if Izzy Brown didn’t play (probably a fair statement but not exactly great man management!), often riled fans. I was on the side of giving him a chance but can understand those who felt that we looked defensively poorly organised, frustrated with our form over the winter that left us adrift as well as with management seemingly unable to stop himself from criticising players, many of whom played a huge part in getting us here in the first place and were fan favourites.
I had thought that this was a pure cost cutting move but more recent statements by our CEO seem to indicate that they had taken performance into consideration alongside the costs. I know Nathan Jones had a torrid time at Stoke but he built the vast majority of this squad himself so it’s a smart move from our perspective, even if he has some making up to do with the fans for how he left!
How will you fare financially in the future?: We had previously been on a very good financial footing prior to COVID with planning permission on a new stadium being approved, the sale of some good young players and kept our spending in check in a division that is becoming something of a financial madhouse. I’ve no doubt that this situation and playing without fans will hit us particularly hard in comparison to the rest of the league and may leave us disadvantaged going into next season should we be in a league below, but I genuinely believe we have some of the best owners (custodians as they would say) in the EFL who, long term, will ensure we remain on a solid financially footing even if the short term may be rocky.
Expected lineup and tactics for the run-in: https://www.buildlineup.com/shared/5eeb915a4e5ac404cc46987f
I fully expect us to remain with the Nathan Jones 442 Diamond that we have consistently played for 3 seasons. This season Graeme Jones came in and slightly tweaked things, perhaps with the loss of the 2 fullbacks who were so key to it all in mind. Its fair to say he had mixed success with his tweaked version of this with James Collins, our top scorer very often being seen playing something akin to left wing rather than being in the box and we missed a proper DM all season until Rea regained fitness from a long lay off.
I expect it to revert to a more traditional version of the diamond with Nathan Jones back in the hotseat. I question whether we have the quality of fullback to play this shape any longer with Potts on the left certainly not being the type of attacking fullback that’s required to provide the width in the final 3rd, although he had played under NJ before and done the job albeit at a lower level, but I fully expect that’s how we will play.
We will probably need Izzy Brown on top form and hopefully Rea can bring some stability to the DM role that has been lacking for much of the season. If we can get Collins chances in the box, he will score so hopefully a more central role and working with a manager who he knows well will help him.
Remaining fixtures:
Preston North End (H)
Swansea City (A)
Leeds United (A)
Reading (H)
Barnsley (H)
Huddersfield Town (A)
Queens Park Rangers (H)
Hull City (A)
Blackburn Rovers (H)
The first 3 games look pretty tough and if we are to have any hope I think we need to at least win one of those first 3. Once we are passed that we start a run of teams with mostly little to play for or fellow lower table sides. Games against Barnsley and Hull look crucial and we will be hoping to go into the latter of those 2 with something on the line. Could be a real relegation 6 pointer or it could all be over by then.
Best case scenario:
We hit the ground running and manage to wriggle into that 21st Place, aiming to make that game at Hull a do or die for both sides.
Worst case scenario: We get cut adrift early on in this little 9 game mini season and never really give ourselves a chance to stay up.
Prediction: 23rd – Id love to think we could get out of it but just think despite looking slightly better before the shut down, weve given ourselves too much to do. In my view we had to have won at least one of the Charlton/Stoke/Wigan games to have a realistic shot at it and we only picked up 2 points from that “winnable” little run. Even a couple more draws from that torrid 12 game losing run away from home would have helped us, just think its a little bit too late now.
Social media/other shithousery:
Think we had a little fight with a professional gamer about that Fifa tournament but we tend to stay above the fray on social media. Danny Hylton who has been injured for much of this season but is now fit might be one of the best shithousers in the EFL as this little clip shows https://twitter.com/James_Dart/status/931988555479638016?s=20 as well as Sonny Bradley who is not averse either https://twitter.com/HLTCO/status/1161922009221271552
submitted by HedonisticVibrations to soccer [link] [comments]

The United Nations Challenge Part 8

Hello again, here is the second half of the fourth season within this challenge. We have an ex-premier league wonderkid coming in next season who will be revealed in part 9 that I'm pretty excited for. Before we get there though, we have massive cup games to talk about as we push towards gaining promotion to the promised land, the premier league. Here are the ins and outs for January, again not revealing the pre-contract arrivals till next season.
Part 7
​
Ins Outs
Henry Vaca (Troyes) - £2.8m Hallur Hansson (Philadelphia) - £1.05m
Zarek Valentin (Houston Dynamo) - 600k Joevin Jones (Portland Timbers) - £1.6m
Moctar El Hacen (Real Valladolid) - £8m Jonathan Tamimi (Seattle Sounders) - 620k
Karol Mets (Anderlecht) - £5m
Yarid Abetew (Avai) - 310k
Serhat Tasdemir (Cracovia) - 760k
Player Count: 55/159
January - First leg of league cup semi final was the first game of 2023 for Crewe, against Spurs. A howler from Bonet gifts Sissoko a goal early on in the game. However, a depleted spurs defence couldn’t contain Semple, who earned a brace! Semple managed to bag a hat trick against Preston, who were hammered 7-3 by the railwaymen. FA Cup duties were next for a trip to Old Trafford. Crewe couldn't pull off an upset and it finished 2-1 to Man United, with Fernandes and Hakimi scoring. Mhango scored a consolation late on but it wasn't enough. Up next was the away trip to Spurs for the 2nd leg of the League Cup semis. Against all odds, The Railwaymen are up 2-0 in the first half, with goals from Eisa and Semple putting the tie almost out of reach! Kane got a goal back but another goal from Eisa put the tie to bed. CREWE ARE IN THE LEAGUE CUP FINAL!!! Michael Higdon's side finished the month with a shock 2-0 loss to Hull. There were also 3-2 and 3-1 away wins at Blackburn and QPR, respectively.
February - Crewe can’t buy a win, with draws against Sunderland and Derby. To make matters worse, Bundu breaks his ankle and is out for 7 weeks. Middlesbrough are now breathing down Crewe’s neck but were put back in their place with Higdon’s side the 3-1 winners. LEAGUE CUP FINAL vs Man City. Could the Railwaymen rise to the challenge against the best team in the country? Absolutely. Suslov, the deserved MOTM, tore through the City defence from a Semple pass to put Crewe ahead. 20 minutes later the two combined again with Suslov the provider this time. 2-0 at half time! City huffed and puffed but a determined Bonet held firm for a clean sheet and Crewe win the League Cup!!!
March - The Railwaymen start the month 10 points behind Bournemouth and 13 points behind villa, ahead of Middlesbrough by 3 points, with a game in hand. Can Crewe make up the ground? The first 3 games of the season were smashing past Cardiff with no reply, grinding out a 1-0 victory against Barnsley and a depleted Crewe grabbing a vital 2-0 win at Brentford. Next though was a huge game at home to Villa. Despite Villa abusing the offside trap to nullify Semple, Eisa broke through the defence to score the only goal of the game for Michael Higdon’s men! The rescheduled West Brom game followed, with a depleted Crewe side again picking up the win. A hard fought win at Huddersfield give The Railwaymen a 100% record for this month.
April - Crewe have the chance to reignite the promotion race with Bournemouth and Villa if they beat Bournemouth in the first game of the month. A physical, end-to-end game ensued, leaving all fans pulses racing. The Railwaymen, fighting for promotion, take the lead in the 2nd half through that man again, Semple! Bournemouth kept fighting but instead of equalising, they were caught on the break with Eisa scoring Crewe’s second! The game finished 2-0, there are now 4 points between 3rd placed Crewe and 1st placed Bournemouth with villa and Bournemouth against each other at the end of the month. “The Glassman” Bundu is now out for the season, breaking his collarbone in a 3-0 victory against Charlton. Leeds almost pulled off a massive win, however Crewe battled hard to pick up a 3-2 win. The month finished with a hard fought 2-1 home win against Millwall and a big 4-1 away win against Reading.
May - One game left of the season and it’s Bristol City at home. Villa are top on 113 points, Bournemouth and Crewe on 112 points (and I need to simulate using my rules). Bournemouth are ahead by seven goals. The railwaymen win 2-0 with goals from Suslov and Eisa but it wasn’t enough. Routine 3-0 wins for Aston Villa and Bournemouth mean they are automatically promoted and Crewe have to go through the playoffs, with Norwich awaiting. James-Wildin got in the TOTS though! First leg at Carrow road and it was a complete demolition of Norwich, with Eisa running riot with a hat-trick. Semple and Vaca added goals to give Michael Higdon’s side a resounding 5-0 victory, coasting to the playoff final. The second leg finished 2-1 to Norwich with a half strength team but Crewe are through to the final to face... Preston. The team that Crewe have put 13 goals past in 2 games. Preston are massive underdogs to Crewe, who haven’t lost at Wembley every time they’ve been there under Michael Higdon. It was a bit anti-climatic as Crewe had a huge 5-1 victory in the final. The party started once Vaca slotted home a penalty, before Eisa bagged one. Semple made it 3-0 before half time. Semple got his second and third in the second half, with Preston grabbing at consolation. THE RAILWAYMEN ARE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE.
The Team:
submitted by Cnf21 to FifaCareers [link] [comments]

I have this really amazing idea for a new FM holiday save, for all the nerds out there, what do you think?

Hello everyone, hope you're all doing well. For the last few weeks of isolation I have been experimenting with randomly generated statistical analysis (nerdy, I know), and I have thought it would be a great idea to implement it into Football Manager.
So what I've done is created some random players (I edited some random 16 year olds with no future so it wouldn''t really affect the game) and completely randomised their stats, everything from their hidden stats to their height and weight. I'll show a step-by-step to how I did this further below. (Skip the next stuff if you don't want to hear the introduction).
So far, I only did 4 players, as a joke I made myself and 3 of my friends. Two of us had really good careers (mine was better) and I played for England, went to Sheffield United (who were higher mid table) for £36M, then retired in the UAE. We all started in Fylde, and it was a competition to see who could have the best career. One of my friends retired at 22.
Now, all of us retired completely from football, except for one. He turned into a manager, and the game gave him 184 potential ability. So I decided I wanted to carry on. My friend (whose name is Joe) played for 7 clubs in his career, and managed Bromley as his first job. So I decided to then make 8 completely random - name and nationality included - players, and make one each come from the teams that Joe used to play for, and Bromley to make up 8. So it started like this (you need the FMEditor by the way):
So this is how I ordered the randomness (I'm using google spreadsheets to note all the stats down because I'm a big nerd):
*Ok, the last part is the most fun part. So I put their current ability the exact same as their recommended current ability (the one underneath you can't change). Then, I randomise between their current ability and 200 for their potential ability. Whatever that number is will be how much potential they have. I increase the 200 at the start so the potential ability of the player you're editing doesn't get in the way of the stats you randomise.
*Done! You've completely randomised your first player. Don't forget to put them on your shortlist and to Keep History After Retirement! I would love to see other people try this and see different results.
Here is the link to my spreadsheet in case you don't know what to do in these terms. When they're all retired, I will do a comparison stat from their first year to their peak year, and their final year. If anyone is interested please message me because I'm a nerd and I find this stuff really interesting!
reddit!
Also, if you would like to know about some teams or players, let me know in the comments and I'll fill you in. Just an example, Southampton knocked Atletico Madrid out of the Champions League, and Stockport are yoyo-ing in the Championship.
submitted by LucDA1 to footballmanagergames [link] [comments]

Swansea City: Our season so far

I was never a Swansea fan until this summer. Sure, I liked the club: I've always loved Dutch football and Swansea did have a lot of Dutch footballers the last ten years or so, while also playing in a style that could be described as Cruijffian. And when they reached the Premier League, me and a friend had a great Football Manager 2012 (?) session for two weeks where I managed the Swans with great pleasure. As an old-school leftist, the concept of the club at one point being owned by its own fans also made my heart warm. I definitely had positive feelings about the club, despite being far from a fan.
We had similar 2017/18 seasons. Both me and the club were doing some heavy economical and emotional investments. Me moving in with my girlfriend, and the club signing Wilfried Bony and some other players eventually turning out to be shit. We also failed miserably. Lost games. Made bad decisions. Saw people and clubs moving into our positions without being able to defend ourselves. Sure, we both picked up our game by the spring, but it was too little, too late. We got relegated. Swansea lost their Premier League status, I lost my girlfriend.
In the last year or so, I had started to develop an interest in Östersund coach Graham Potter. To me, society in many aspects are dying - and few seem to know how to deal with it. Potter got solutions. Playing nice football and taking Östersund from the fourth tier to playing versus Arsenal was not that interesting; the way he developed people and the way he put emphasis on connecting the club to the city and its fans, making people in Östersund passioned about something and creating new opportunities for meeting other people and sharing a pride and joy, that was what really got to me.
This summer I was renting a cheap apartment in a city where I knew no-one but a few drug dealers. I smoked a lot of weed. I was very lonely. When my money ran out, I started to collecting the hash butts of my neo-nazi neighboors who were indeed very wasteful. That was my day: sleeping, smoking, going out early in the morning to collect hash butts, rolling the pieces of hash into new joints, sleeping, smoking... it was kind of sad. You could compare it to Swansea signing Declan John in that same transfer window.
I finally read another long piece about Potter, and when he joined Swansea, I joined too. Despite a great interest in football, I was only a fan of my local tier seven Swedish club and the Dutch national team, so it really became a new experience. Because of Potter I started to care for Swansea. After joining the Swansea subreddit, I started to care about the fans. Soon I cared about the history of the club, about every step we made on the transfer market, about our performances in the friendlies.
Most of all I wanted Graham Potter to succeed. I thought "if this man becomes really succesfull, he could change football, he could fucking change the world".
Swansea had a very rough transfer window.
Leon Britton retired. Angel Rangel was released. Fabianski, Mesa, Sung-yueng, Bartley, Mawson, Amat, Clucas and Fernandez all left the club - players that would probably been great in the Championship. Add to that: Borja Baston and the Ayew brothers all left on loan deals.
Joining us? Yan Dhanda from Liverpool, with zero senior appearances, Jordi Govea from Real Madrid who also never played first team football. Joel Asoro, a young Swede from relegated Sundrland. Barrie McKay, an at best average Championship winger. Bersant Celina, a very talented midfielder who had been on loan from City to Ipswich and who did perform well in the 2017/18 Championship. And Declan John, because our left back situation was really poor.
The squad looked very thin. We were left with players deemed to bad for us, too young or unproven in senior football, or who had failed so miserably in Premier League that no one wanted them. And the £100k a week injured Wilfried Bony who would be injured until November.
With only one central defender with any experience of senior football - the magnificent Mike van der Hoorn - we made a deal in the last days, loaning Cameron Carter-Vickers from Tottenham.
When the season started, we had a decent mid tier Championship starting eleven, but the rest of the squad was players who had shown nothing, proved nothing.
Graham Potter told us to be patient. He wanted a return to the Swansea way. He wanted a Swansea that the fans could be proud with and identify with. More focus on youth development, more focus on playing attractive football, more focus on players eager to play for Swansea and creating strong characters doing what they do best.
Actually, while Potter was obtaining his degree in Emotional Intelligence at Leeds University after he quit playing - tired of British football coaching standars being shit - he drove to Swansea to watch the Roberto Martinez training sessions that made Swansea a revelation in English football as they fought the odds playing attractive football in the League One.
Interesting enough - it was also Martinez and his staff who told Daniel Kindberg, chairman of Östersund, to sign Potter. With Potter joining Swansea, the an unexpected circle was... circled. I dont remember the expression and at the time writing this, I have no Internet, so bare with me.
With Mike van der Hoorn as the only senior central defender left, Potter brought in youth talent Joe Rodon to the central defense. He immediatly impressed - he has been great all season - to the degree that when Carter-Vickers joined at the end of August, the Spurs loan had to find himself on the bench.
He also choose to play another youth talent, Connor Roberts, instead of the experienced Kyle Naughton. In the midfield, the disliked Tom Carroll and players formerly deemed not good enough such as Jay Fulton and Matt Grimes got to start games together with the more attacking Celina while waiting for Leroy Fer to return from injury.
Also in the wings Potter choose to keep experienced players like Routledge, Dyer and Narsingh out of the squad, instead giving the chance to young talents like Joel Asoro, Barrie McKay and Daniel James. Up front, McBurnie who only had half a season of experience (a succesfull loan to Barnsley during the spring) became the natural number nine. The lanky striker, known for playing with his socks down and wearing the smallest possible shin pads, was ready to leave the club in the summer, but after meeting Potter decided to stay as the manager told him he would be his star striker.
The start of the season was succesfull, although very sweaty. Poor performances in one half would be corrected in half time leading to a better second. We won our two first games - barely - and drew our next two ones before losing versus Bristol City. The starting eleven was heavily rotated, we won games, we lost games, we drew games, overall performing better than expected but rarely winning or losing with more than one goal; every game being sort of a struggle to already tested hearts.
The end of November and most of December was really poor. Doubts started to spread, with the surprising and happily very succesfull return of Routledge and Dyer still making us take a couple of wins.
Going into 2019: "The first half of the season - of course we tried to win but it was a lot about getting to know the players and what the can and cannot do, but now its more about looking to win every game". After a bad performance against Wigan on December 29 following two defeats against Hull and Villa, a lot of fans started to question Potter, his heavy rotation of players and tactics, so the January 1 game versus Reading felt very important.
We won the away game with 4-1, with McBurnie scoring two of the goals, we drew versus Preston despite a lot of absent players, won versus Villa in the FA Cup with six players being out with sickness, won against top three team Sheffield, and yesterday we ate the same Gillingham that knocked out Cardiff in the FA Cup. We're ninth in the league with a squad that one paper could have been in the same situation as Sunderland last year.
Despite our squad being thin - Joe Rodon out for eight weeks and Martin Olsson missing the rest of the season leaving us with zero left backs (plus Declan John) and only two senior central defenders - we are very optimistic. Most of us dont expect playoff or promotion, some of us dont even want it - we want to continue to build what to us is obviously going to be great in due time - but we will be a threat to anyone that comes our way this spring.
Graham Potter so far has given nine youth players the chance in the senior team.
Connor Roberts is probably the first man on the team sheet every week. The right back who made his Wales national team debut in the fall has been one of the best, if not the best, right backs in the league, excellent both in defending and attacking. The Welsh Cafu. This man is going to play in a very big club in a year or two.
While Roberts had gotten a few minutes in the Premier League last season, Joe Rodon had none. The tall and strong central defender has been great together with Mike van der Hoorn with Manchester City reported to be interested. A few lesser performances in the winter doesnt end our belief that we might have a future world class centre back in our hands, and the 21 year old who got called up to the Wales national team in the fall could be interesting to a lot of clubs in the summer.
Daniel James came out of nowhere and took us by storm and gets better with every performance. Leeds are looking to sign him and our American owners likes money, so we are all hoping and longing for the transfer window to end with him on our books. One of the fastest players I've seen, and with great technique, we have to thank our lucky star that the man can not shoot, because he would be an interesting name for any Premier League club if that was the case.
In addition to our young talents, maligned or mistrusted players like Matt Grimes (who has turned into something like a poor mans Xavi), Jay Fulton, Oliver McBurnie and presumed-to-be-dead players like Routledge, Naughton and Dyer proving they are still highly competent, at least on this level.
We are most often playing fantastic short passing football with a lot of flair and I really recommend you to watch some of our games (or at least Youtube some highlights), because we are going to be changing football once again - like back in the days when Roberto Martinez showed that League One and the Championship doesnt need to be all about kicking-and-running.
You dont need great resources to play great football. You dont need expensive signings. You dont need the Porsches and the monstrous wages and being exiled from the common man. We are proving it.
Graham Potter is the future of English football and he will prove it with Swansea. A new type of coach, a new type of football. Wait and see and take notes - producing your own youth, connecting the club with the city and the society, emphatic, creative players with a lot of character - thats what will be next for English football. Oligarchs of Russia, America, Asia and the Middle-East - fear the future! The People's Football will return!
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Guide to 2019 K League

Guide to 2019 K League

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Welcome to what I think is the first ever reddit guide to the K League, Korea's top flight. The new K League 1 season kicks off 1st March with last season's champions Jeonbuk against FA Cup winners Daegu. (1st is a Friday, but it's a national holiday.)
To whet your appetite, here's a best goals of the season video, and because this montage missed out one of my favourite goals of the season, here's the most entertaining team in last season's relegation battle, Incheon United's top 5 goals of last season.

Table of contents

  1. 2018 season recap & 2019 club guide
    1. K League 1 club guide
    2. K League 2 clubs
    3. Winter transfer window activity
  2. History of club football in Korea & establishment of the K League
  3. Football pyramid & League format
    1. K League 1
    2. International context
  4. Resources
    1. Websites & podcasts
    2. Highlights & watching live

2018 season recap & 2019 club guide

Here's how the K League 1 table looked at the end of 2018:
# Team P W-D-L GF GA GD Pts Notes
1 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors 38 26-8-4 75 44 31 86 CL group stage
2 Gyeongnam FC 38 18-11-9 59 44 15 65 CL group stage
3 Ulsan Hyundai 38 17-12-9 61 46 15 63 CL playoffs
4 Pohang Steelers 38 15-9-14 48 49 -1 54
5 Jeju United 38 14-12-12 42 42 0 54
6 Suwon Samsung Bluewings 38 13-11-14 53 54 -1 50
7 Daegu FC 38 14-8-16 47 56 -9 50 CL group stage - FA cup winners
8 Gangwon FC 38 12-10-16 56 60 -4 46
9 Incheon United 38 10-12-16 55 69 -14 42
10 Sangju Sangmu 38 10-10-18 41 52 -11 40
11 FC Seoul 38 9-13-16 40 48 -8 40 Relegation playoff with K League 2
12 Jeonnam Dragons 38 8-8-22 43 69 -26 32 Relegated to K League 2
• FC Seoul won their playoff against K League 2's Busan IPark • Seongnam FC were promoted from K League 2 • Ulsan won their Champions League playoff and are in the group stages
It's impossible to write a concise summary of the 2018 season - you can get some of the details from the club guide below - but one of the most interesting stories actually comes from K League 2.
For context, you need to understand a bit about military service for footballers. Rather than take 2 years out of their career to serve in the military or do some kind of e.g. 'desk job' service, players can join one of two military football teams that play in the K League. In K League 1 there is Sangju Sangmu, and in K League 2 there is Asan Mugunghwa. Every player in these two teams is on loan for two years from another club in the K League. Sangju Sangu is affiliated with the 'normal' military, whilst Asan Mugunghwa is affiliated with the Police (serving in the auxilliary police force is another way to do your service).
The Korean government recently decided to abolish the auxilliary police force by 2023. The Police however decided to already wind down their sports teams, putting an immediate halt on recruiting players and disbanding the teams in 2019.
Now, the champions of K League 2 last season were... Asan Mugunghwa. They were in line for direct promotion to K League 1. To compete in the K League, you need to have at least 20 players, but by the time the next season started, Asan would only have 14 players, as the loan deals ran out. The League gave Asan a deadline in November to submit a recruitment plan, which they failed to do, and so the promotion spot passed to second-placed Seongnam FC. Although that deadline and hence promotion was missed, Asan have how submitted a recruitment plan that would see their 14 serving players be supplemented by new signings that indicates the club will transition to an city-owned club with the help of the Asan government.
Funnily (or depressingly), this is not the first time "Police FC" won K League 2 and missed out on promotion - in 2016 Ansan Mugunghwa were crowned champions, but at the end of that year moved from Ansan to Asan. In line with the League's policies, they were registered as a brand new club.

K League 1 club guide

Clubs can have up to three foreign players in their squad, plus an extra one from another AFC nation. Although rare, a player with North Korea citizenship is not considered foreign. Most of those foreign places are taken by Brazilians, or players from the former Yugoslavia (e.g. K League veteran Dejan Damjanovic). The exception to the foreigner rule is the goalkeeper - Korean goalkeepers in the 90s were just so bad that a block on recruiting foreign goalies was put in place to help encourage development of domestic talent. It seems to have worked, with Korean goalkeepers often being signed abroad (in Asia at least).
There is also a requirement to have U23 players fielded and on the bench, with a failure to meet this impacting the number of substitutes that can be made (Article 30 of the league 'rules').
You'll notice some of the clubs have a Korean chaebol in their team name, and even if it's not in the name, they may still be owned by a corporation behind the scenes. This sounds very odd if you're not familiar with it, but it is extremely common in Japan, China, and Korea. It may just be a symptom of some of the teams being relatively recently-founded, and perhaps isn't that unusual these days (think Red Bull, City group, majority shareholders in the West). However, the number of "Citizen" clubs, owned by the local city or provincial government, is on the rise - Gyeongnam FC is one example.
A lot of clubs probably like to think they have a derby with FC Seoul (because, well, it's Seoul) but the biggest, and probably considered the national derby, is the "Super Match" (슈퍼매치…) between FC Seoul and Suwon Samsung Bluewings. Montenegrin Damjanovic, known simply as 'Dejan', formerly of Seoul and now playing for Suwon, is the top scorer in this fixture.
Here's the clubs, by last season's standing, and since crests are a bit unstable on reddit at the moment, here's an imgur album of all club crests and corresponding home kits for the 2019 season:

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors

Jeonbuk are the dominant team in Korea, and one the of the teams you don't want to face in the Champions League whoever you are. They've now won 4 out of the last 5 K league 1 titles, and a most recent Champions League title in 2016.
Their rise to power over the last decade+ has been overseen by long term manager Choi Kang-hee. Choi left at the end of last season to Tianjin Quanjin/Tianhai Daliang Yifang FC in China. Korea seems to have a thing for Portuguese managers these days, and his replacement is one José Morais. Morais was assistant manager to José Mourinho for a period, but as manager proper he's been a bit shit. He was at two clubs in 2018, which included ushering Barnsley into relegation to English League One. How Jeonbuk will fare after Choi remains to be seen.
Although Jeonbuk cruised to the League title, it would be difficult to call their season an outright success due to a horrendous 15 mins at the end of the second half in a home match against Suwon in the Champions League quarter-final. They turned the 3 goal deficit around in the seond leg when they travelled to Suwon, but went out on penalties.

Gyeongnam FC

Gyeongnam were only promoted from K League 2 the previous season, so coming second in K League 1 is something special. Top scorer in the league Marcão, played his part with 26 goals.
Gyeongnam will now feature in the Champions League for the first time. I thought that seems to have put the brakes on too many of their players departing, but captain Choi Young-jun signed for Jeonbuk in the winter transfer window. A major loss is Marcão who was also top scorer in K League 2 in the year they were promoted, who appears to have followed the money to China. Also off to China is key centre-back Park Ji-soo. So basically the backbone of the team from defence to attack has left…

Ulsan Hyundai

Known as the Horang-i (호랑이) - the Tigers - Ulsan have had intermittent success in Asia, winning the Champions League for the first and only time in 2012 in an unbeaten run.
Towards the end of the 2018 season, Ulsan were battling Gyeongnam for the second spot, which brings with it direct qualification to the Champions League group stages rather than having a play-off. They lost out, but were widely expected to secure a direct qualification spot anyway when they faced Daegu FC in the FA Cup final. Ultimately they finished the season on a low, losing 5-1 on aggregate to Daegu in the final.

Pohang Steelers

One of the few clubs that predates the formation of the K League, Pohang are another of the historical Korean powerhouses. They hold the record for the most number of Champions League title (3), but their last title came in 2009.
Finishing fourth in the league, they were hoping that Ulsan would beat Daegu in the FA Cup final to pass their Champions League spot on down, but it didn't happen.

Jeju United

One of the original members of the K League, founded as the Yukong Elephants in the Seoul area. As part of the decentralisation program, they moved to Bucheon (kind of) and were renamed as Bucheon SK. The decision to move to Jeju in 2006 was an abrupt one, and understandably deeply unpopular with the fans. Teams uprooting and moving elsewhere is a bit of a catalyst for the creation of new teams in Korea, and the fans formed Bucheon FC 1995 in the absence of Bucheon SK.
The reason given for the relocation was to the address the imbalance in football teams being located around Seoul/Gyeonggi-do, and Jeju did not have a pro team at the time, but there are suggestions the owners SK group wanted to cut their investment and recoup some costs.
There were recent rumours that Jeju would move yet again, back north to Yongin, but who knows.
Jeju had a pretty mediocre season, what more can I say.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings

Suwon's 2018 season was a bit bonkers, and especially so in their Champions League run.
In their Champions League group, in which they were drawn with eventual winners Kashima Antlers, Suwon did not manage a single home win. However they had managed to get two away wins, and going into the final match, they still had their fate in their own hands if they could win against group leaders Kashima in Japan. They won 1-0, getting three away wins and topping the group.
Manager Seo Jung-won, at a time when Suwon were 4th in the League, resigned the day before the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash with Jeonbuk, due to fan protests. Jeonbuk were apparently completely bamboozled by this event, and took a 3-0 beating at home. Then in the return leg in Suwon, Jeonbuk fought back to win 3-0, but Suwon were able to scrape through on penalties to face Kashima Antlers yet again in the semis.
In the semi-final fixture, Suwon went 2-0 up against Kashima Antlers inside the first 10 minutes, but went on to lose 3-2 in the first leg. Soon after, manager Seo returned as suddenly as he had departed, having been gone for just 6 weeks. In the second leg, Suwon went a goal down in the first half, but came back with 3 in the second half to be on their way to the final after 60 mins played. However, Kashima Antlers fought back to get two more goals and win 6-5 on aggregate, and would go on to win the final. If you want to relive a part of that rollercoaster night, here you go, and here's an idea of the atmosphere that night.
At one point, it looked like they might qualify for the Champions League again for the 2019 season, but Suwon didn't win any of their final five league matches and dropped to 6th.
Manager Seo left again at the end of the season and will manage Japan's Sagan Tosu. Recently, captain Kim Eun-sun was released from the club for drink-driving. The drama just never ends.

Daegu FC

Prior to the World Cup, Daegu were languishing at the bottom of the table, but after the return they found some kind of consistent form, helped out by World Cup hero goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo. They really peaked at the right time, as Daegu made it to the FA Cup final, and against the odds defeated Ulsan Hyundai 5-1 on aggregate, meaning for the first time they will feature in the Champions League. This is no mean feat for team whose best ever finish in the top flight is 7th place. If they carry over their momentum into the 2019 season the year could be one of their most successful ever. They will also be playing in a new football-specific stadium this year.

Gangwon FC

Gangwon are a fairly mid-bottom team, I don't really know what to say about them. They did have the 2nd-highest top scorer in the 2018 season though, Bosnian Uros Deric. They also had the worst colour scheme in the league last season, their kit is slightly improved this season.

Incheon United

I always like to imagine that Incheon chose their strip so that they could be the Inter to FC Seoul's AC Milan. They even have a nickname "Nerazzurri" (another nickname is the Durumi - 두루미 - the cranes).
Incheon spent most of the 2018 season at the very bottom of table, and had the joint-leakiest defence in the league. They brought in Norwegian manager Jørn Andersen midway through the season to turn their fortunes around, but even after that they were on the wrong end or the biggest thrashing of the season, 7-0 against Gangwon. Coming into the end of the season though, they were playing really nice attacking football, even if they didn't always get the result. At 'the split' they were still bottom, but won 4 out of 5 games to pull themselves up 3 places.
It was in attack that Incheon shone. Montenegrin Stefan Mugosa was their top scorer in his debut season. Moon Seon-min, with the best goal celebration in the league, also put in a strong performance, but has now signed for champions Jeonbuk. Nam Jun-jae returned in the summer to score some bangers. Costa Rican international Aguilar was also impressive, but has signed for Jeju in the new season.

Sangju Sangmu

The "military team" where other K League players get loaned to to complete their military service. Their history goes far back in one sense, as various military teams were playing way back to the 50s, but they were founded for pro footballers to serve their time only in 1984. Although they were for pro players, they competed in the semi-pro National League until 2003 when they joined the K League, based in Gwangju. When Gwangju FC were formed, they moved to Sangju.
Sangju Sangmu do not have any foreign players for obvious reasons, and cannot compete in the Champions League, although the chances of ever finishing in a qualifying spot are fairly slim.

FC Seoul

FC Seoul. Wow. What happened? Having won the league in 2016 (albeit somewhat fortuitously), and always finishing in the top half if not competing for the title in the past decade, nobody expected Seoul to be fighting against relegation. Although relatively solid defensively, they scored the least number of goals in the league season of all teams. Their star foreign players almost all left before the season started (including Dejan to rivals Suwon) and were not replaced with the same quality, and for many matches Seoul played with an all-Korean team. One bit of good news for the future is that former captain Osmar will return from his loan to Cezero Osaka for the new season.
Seoul at least managed to avoid relegation by beating Busan IPark over two legs in the play-off, helped by a red card in the first leg. Surprisingly they managed to score 3 goals in the first leg in open play.
Seoul is probably the most popular club in Korea, I'm sure helped by the fact that it is the main club in a city of 10 million people - Seoul generally has the highest game attendances (although it was much reduced last season because they were so crap).
Starting out as Lucky-Goldstar (i.e. LG) FC in Chungcheong province, the team was permitted to relocate to Seoul at the start of the 90s, and were renamed as LG Cheetahs. During the decentralisation period, they moved to Anyang, modifying their name to Anyang LG Cheetahs. After the World Cup, the team successfully negotiated a move back to Seoul and did away with their "cheetahs" moniker, taking their current name FC Seoul. Their founding and "re-birth" years are both on their badge - 1983 and 2004.

Seongnam FC

Gaining direct promotion due to Asan Mugunghwa's situation, Seongnam is actually the most decorated team in Korea.
Founded in 1989 in Seoul as Ilhwa Chunma, they were forced out of Seoul and settled in Cheonnan for a period. In 2000 they moved to Seongnam, a satellite city of Seoul and appended the city name to the name of the club. Seongnam's title drought started when the head of the owner company that backed Seongnam died in 2012, and the board were keen to let go of the club. Seongnam city government took over ownership of the club for the 2014 season, and they were renamed Seongnam FC. Seongnam are now back in K League 1 after a 2 year absence.

K League 2 clubs

By last season's standings:

Jeonnam Dragons

Jeonbuk's Jeolla province rivals, they finished the previous season on an awful losing streak and were relegated for the first time.

Asan Mugunghwa

"Police FC", they missed promotion despite winning K League 2, and will probably lose their police affiliation by next year.

Busan IPark

One of the founding members of the K League and another that effectively predates the K League, Busan were beaten by K League 1 opposition in the pro/rel play-off for the second year in a row. They were the first Korean team to win the Asian continental title in the 80s.

Daejeon Citizen

One of the first community/city-owned clubs in Korea.

Gwangju FC

Relegated in the 2017 season. Despite finishing 5th in 2018, they still got to participate in the play-offs due to Asan Mugunghwa's situation.

FC Anyang

Founded in 2013, finally filling the void left by the departure of FC Seoul from the city.

Suwon FC

The other Suwon team, they featured in K League 1 briefly in 2016.

Bucheon FC 1995

Formed after the departure of Jeju United from the city. Formed in 2007, 1995 refers to the year of the organising of the Yukong Elephant fan club. Including 1995 in the name is meant to show it's a club for the fans or something.
Bucheon FC 1995 are also one half of the '032 derby' with Incheon United because they share the same area code, 032.

Ansan Greeners FC

Formed only in 2017, they've had two 9th-position finishes.

Seoul E-Land FC

The other Seoul team, their debut season was in 2015. They didn't do very well last season, although it was very tight at the bottom of the table.

Winter transfer window activity

From a monetary point of view, Korea is the biggest net exporter of players in Asia in the transfer market. This winter window was no different, with what I would say were the two biggest stories involving young homegrown Korean talent going abroad.
The first is that of Jeonbuk and national team star centre-back, Kim Min-jae, nicknamed "the monster". There were rumours of an offer from English side Watford, but it wasn't clear if there ever was any offer or negotiations - Kim himself said he did not know of any interest from Watford. It doesn't really matter now - Kim signed with Chinese side Beijing Sinobo Guoan and will see Champions League football with them in the new season, being drawn in the same group as Jeonbuk.
The second is Hwang In-beom, who has signed for MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps. Hwang In-beom played in K League 2 last season with Asan Mugunghwa and Daejeon Citizen, but has impressed as a midfield playmaker and is currently seen as a replacement for Ki Sung-yueng in the national team.
For a recognisable name for western readers, the best I have is Englishman Jordon Mutch who signed for Gyeongnam from Crystal Palace, resulting in this awkward photo op. (Another recognisable name is Mix Diskerud on loan to Ulsan from Man City, but he joined the previous year).
K League 1's top scorer Marcão left Gyeongnam for Hebei China Fortune, and his replacement is Luc Castaignos signed from Sporting CP. His stats in Europe haven't been great in recent years, but he may fare better in Korea.
There were of course a few hundred domestic internal transfers and number of other foreign player signings - if you want the full list, K League United's winter transfer tracker has it all.

History of club football in Korea & establishment of the K League

Association football was first introduced to Korea in 1882 when British Royal Navy crew harboured at Incheon played a game. It wasn't until the 1900s that football began to take hold, and the first public match was played in 1905. There was a boom in in the 1910s with a number of football clubs being formed, and rivalries began to form between clubs in Seoul and Pyongyang.
The first nationwide competition was the All Joseon Football Tournament (Joseon being the name for Korea at the time), founded in 1921. There wasn't actually a champion crowned in 1921, as the tournament was cut short due to complaints over refereeing decisions. All this was taking place during Japanese occupation of Korea during most of the first half of the 20th century.
According to the KFA, "football was the only tonic that could relieve the the national resentment that had accumlated in the hearts as a colony under the Japanese empire, and was a sprout that could foster the hope of freedom". A tad hyperbolic maybe.
One side effect of being a Japanese colony is that some Korean teams were allowed to participate in the Emperor's cup, Japan's FA cup, and in 1935 Kyungsung FC (Kyungsung was a name for Seoul during Japanese occupation) won the tournament, becoming the only 'non-Japanese' team to ever do so.
The All Joseon Football Tournament ran until WWII.
After WWII came Korean independence, and shortly thereafter the Korean War. There was football being played during this period continuously when possible. The Korean National Semi-Professional Football League was founded in 1964, and is the predecessor to today's tier 3 National League. Many of the teams during this period were works teams - employed by a company, playing under the name of the company, but also having a 'proper job' in the company. Cha Bum-kun, said by some to be the greatest ever Asian footballer, rose to fame during this period (albeit mainly in the Bundesliga), starting his senior career at the mighty Seoul Trust Bank FC. The most astonishing statistic about Cha Bum-kun is he only received one yellow card in his career.
Finally we get to the establishment of professional football with the Korean Super League in 1983, now named the K League. Initially there were only 5 teams, and 2 of those teams dropped out within 2 years. The number of clubs in the top flight has varied from the initial 5 to a high of 16 in 2011. In 2013 the K League split into two tiers, now K League 1 and K League 2.
For the first few years of the K League, teams did not have a fixed home stadium that they played in, because there was no standard home/away format that we are so familiar with today. Instead it was operated as a "national tour".
The K League in the modern era has its own history, but one of the most interesting events was the forced exodus of all three clubs from Seoul in 1996 as part of a policy to spread the popularity of football around the country, also with an eye on stadium infrastructure for the 2002 World Cup. Two of the clubs didn't move far, only just outside the city of Seoul, each to one of Seoul's satellite cities. Yukong Elephants, only half-left, because the city they moved to didn't have a stadium yet, so they continued to play in Seoul until a new stadium was built. For a number of years the K League was without any Seoul representation. In 2004, after the need to find someone to fill a great big national football stadium and help pay towards it, one of those relocated teams moved back to Seoul, becoming FC Seoul.

Football pyramid & League format

The current system looks like this:
Tier League Notes
1 K League 1 12 teams, 1 relegation to K League 2, 1 relegation play-off with K League 2
2 K League 2 10 teams, 1 promotion to K League 1, 1 promotion play-off with K League 2
3 National League 8 teams, Semi-pro, no promotion/relegation
4 K3 League Advanced 12 teams, Semi-pro/amateur, 2 relegations to K3 League Basic, 1 relegation play-off with K3 League Basic
5 K3 League Basic 11 teams, Semi-pro/amateur, 2 promotions to K3 League Advanced, 1 promotion play-off with K3 League Advanced
6 Division 5 League 6 regional leagues with 52 teams, some relegation to Division 6
7 Division 6 League 26 regional leagues with 174 teams, some pro/rel with Divisions 5 & 7
8 Division 7 League 160 regional leagues with 960 teams, some promotion with Division 6
As you can see, the naming is completely screwed up - K3 League occupies tiers 4 and 5, and Division 5 is in tier 6. This is probably because the top tier K League only split in two in 2013 with the creation on K League 2 and nobody's been bothered to update their names.
The National League sits stubbornly in tier 3, blocking any continuous pro-rel. The powers that be have regularly stated that they want to reform the pyramid to have a continuous route from top to bottom (at least to the bottom of K3 League) within a few years, but for some reason it's not happening. The winners of the 2006 National League season were offered promotion to the K League, but they declined the offer. The winners of the 2007 season were also offered promotion, but declined again even though they said they would like promotion at the start of the season.
One of the more recent additions to the K League, Bucheon FC 1995, joined from K3 League because they didn't want to pay the higher fees associated with starting out in the National League.
Outside of this system, there is the WK League, the women's top tier. The WK League has been dominated by Incheon Red Angels (no connection to Incheon United) in recent years. There's no Womens Champions League in Asia yet, but for a few years in the past the winners of the WK League played the winners of Japan's Nadeshiko League. For a little more info on the WK League, see this reddit post.
Also worth a mention is the separate U League (for universities and colleges), some of the teams from which enter into the Korean FA cup. The route into a pro team in Korea is often direct from High School or University teams, something I don't think exists in Europe. Some High School teams are even seen as "feeder teams" for a particular pro team. I won't pretend to understand how the system works, but I'll leave you with the tidbit that Park Ji-Sung was first signed to a professional team from a University team, almost by accident as the scout had come to see a different player but took home Park instead.

K League 1

K League 1 consists of 12 teams playing 38 games. The format is identical to the Scottish Premiership - all teams play each other three times and then after "the split" the top 6 and bottom 6 battle it out among themselves to settle the championship and relegation spots respectively. The first tie breaker for teams level on points is goals scored rather than goal difference.
The top 3 places offer a chance in the AFC Champions League, the fourth Champions League spot going to the winner of the Korean FA cup. Bottom place gets relegated to K League 2, whilst 11th place has a play-off with one of the teams that finished 2nd-4th in K League 2.

International context

In the current format of the AFC champions league, the competition is split into a West region (think UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran) and an East region. The East region is dominated by three nations - Korea, China and Japan. Australia, who decided it wanted to be Asian earlier this century, has also had a bit of success.
This year there will be two debutants from Korea - Gyeongnam FC and Daegu FC. It's dufficult to predict how well these two will fare, but if they can carry some form over to this year, they could get out of the group stages at least.
Determining who has the strongest teams amongst the 'big three' East Asian nations is a difficult task and is hugely subjective. I'm almost (I say almost because obviously K League is best league) of the opinion that they're as close to equal as makes no difference. Korea has the most number of titles and the club with the most titles (Pohang Steelers). China have the highest coefficient. Japan has won the past two tournaments.
In recent years China and Japan have had a number of 'big star' foreigner signings (e.g. Paulinho, Torres) which are absent from the K League. I believe this is due to Japan having cash mainly coming from TV money, and China having cash from... well, being China. Despite Korea lagging financially, all three nations have the same limit on foreign players (three foreigners plus one from another AFC country), and so Korean teams are still competitive due to the relative strength of their domestic players.
While we're on the topic of the Champions League, each of the 'big three' East Asian nations get 4 places total - 2 or 3 to the group stages and 1 or 2 to the last qualifying play-off round before the group stages. This play-off round is massively weighted in the big three's favour, as they have to win just one home game when the weather is still genrally freezing cold, against a team from a nation with a tropical climate. I don't know of a Korean club ever losing this play-off match.
The AFC cup is sometimes said to be the equivalent of UEFA's Europa League, but it's not really comparable. The AFC cup is for the 'weaker' Asian nations only and Korea aren't allowed to enter.

Resources

Websites & podcasts

For those of us who are linguistically challenged, here's how you can follow K League in English
One of the best websites for news, match previews, and analysis is K League United. It covers everything - K League 1 & 2, FA cup, transfer news, national team and more. It also has a podcast if you're into that sort of thing.
A really good resource for up-to-date breaking news is an English version of a Korean news outlet. The "sports" category of Yonhap news for example is great. Although you'll be getting other sports news in there such as Korean baseball, football appears pretty regularly. Also, the team that works on writing the articles don't seem to work weekends.
Tavern of the Taeguk Warriors has a lot of information mainly on the Korean national team and tracks the progress of Koreans playing in Europe, but covers the domestic club scene now and then.
48 Shades of Football is a great English language podcast following Korean football.
The Asian Game is another great English language podcast that doesn't specifically follow Korean football, but since they cover Asian football they'll sometimes have in-depth coverage of the Korean clubs competing in the AFC Champions League, as well as the Korean national team.
For your Twitter fix, the Korea Football News (@KORFootballNews) and Viva La K-League (@kleagueno1) Twitter feeds are pretty quick with breaking news in English.
There is also the official K League website which can be viewed in English, but I think unless you live in Korea it's going to be painfully slow to use.
Then of course there's kleague with news and discussion, and where you can ask questions to the community.

Highlights & watching live

All highlights from K League 1 matches are uploaded fairly promptly to the spotv Youtube channel (spotv is a korean sports broadcaster). They also upload content from the KBO (baseball) and the V League (volleyball), so you'll have to scroll down until you see something saying "K리그1". It helps if you know how Korean letters sound phonetically to understand which teams are playing, but you can also see which match a video is from the crests in the thumbnail. The commentary will be in Korean, but each video is really good quality, typically about 10 minutes long.
If you watch to watch live, the good news is that is very easy, and basically free. I have no idea whether any national broadcasters or streaming services around the world have K League rights, but in Korea itself, essentially every thing is streamed on Korean online behemoth Naver's platform. The one caveat is that live streams are region locked, so to access them you'll need a VPN to get a korean IP address (although some other Asian countries also seem to have access). I won't repeat what others have already written, so here's a short guide to getting it working which also covers another route via the Daum online portal; or there's a comment in that thread which covers a more straightforward way by using the Naver TV app.
The KFA Youtube channel has a bunch of non-K League highlights including the FA cup, K3, and WK League highlights.
The K League website also has plenty of highlights, but again, outside of Korea it might be buffering for a long time.
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