Gibraltar: Taking a Pub Team To The Top With Bruno’s Magpies

[Hampus Silverholt]

Welcome to my 6th story on FM Base, which will be a one-club save with a pub team. Seriously - an actual pub team.

Bruno’s Magpies are a team in the top division of Gibraltar, founded in 2013 and named after Bruno’s Bar in the Ocean Village.

Since being founded, they’ve gone on a crazy journey which culminated in them finishing 4th last season.

That 4th place finish means that they will be playing in European competition for the first time in the 2022/23 season - surely making them the first pub team in Europe!

This article from RTE explains everything you need to know about this crazy story https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022/0621/1306077-from-pub-team-to-europe-brunos-magpies-soar/

So my objectives for the save are:
​

1. Make Magpies the best team in Gibraltar​
2. Get to a European Group Stage Competition​
3. Get to the Champions League Group Stage​

If we achieve all of that, then we’ll see what happens.

There are just 20 League games a season in Gibraltar so that means I will hopefully get through things much quicker than a save in England where 50+ games a season are usually the norm.

So we’re taking over a literal pub team with aspirations of going to the very top.

I have no idea how far we can take the club, but you can’t get a more perfect story for a Football Manager save!​

 

[leckuno]

Yasss and he's back

 

[FM_TNSSO]

The main man! As with every year, I will look forward to this...I'd say you've definitely taken on your toughest challenge yet!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Yasss and he's back

The main man! As with every year, I will look forward to this...I'd say you've definitely taken on your toughest challenge yet!

Cheers both, no idea where this one is going to go! I think a Conference League or Europa League is the very best I can hope for but we'll see

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I’ll be taking over the job of Nathan Rooney, who has worked wonders in real life with Magpies by getting them to the first qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.

Whereas in real life Crusaders beat Magpies in the Europa Conference League 1st Qualifying Round, we’ve been drawn against Tre Penne of San Marino - which is possibly the easiest tie we could’ve got!

But it being the 1st qualifying round means the games are played very early on in the season, giving us just 2 weeks to get everything in order.

The first alarming thing was that one of the best players at the club - simply named Joe - is out with a long term injury

So if we’re going to do anything this season then we’ll be relying on striker Pibe, who is on 3x as much money as anybody else at the club.

Another 35 year old, Olmo Gonzalez, is going to be key for us at centre back.

We have a tiny bit of wage budget remaining, probably enough to get one player in to improve our starting lineup. That’s if we can actually find anybody…

The club are also predicted to be £300,000 in debt by the end of the season, so beating Tre Penne in this qualifying round is well needed.

So, barely knowing the team, this is how we’ll line up for our first game in charge.

And the pressure is on because we’re favourites to go through, despite being a semi-pro team from Gibraltar!

It feels weird starting with such an important game, especially as I had no involvement in getting Magpies into Europe, but I hope to play plenty more matches in Europe during this save.​

 

[sahajpal97]

I was thinking it is a Newcastle save, with Bruno Guimaraes being referred to as Bruno, but this is something different. Good luck.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first ever game in charge, weirdly the biggest game in Magpies’ brief history, was a solid win over Tre Penne of San Marino in the Europa Conference League 1st Qualifying Round, 1st Leg.

The second leg was at the Victoria Stadium, which if you didn’t know is the home ground of every single team in Gibraltar because the country is so tiny!

And another 2-1 win in the second leg did the job and sent us through to the 2nd Qualifying Round, which is far more than even the board expected.

Pibe has already proven that he is the man after just 2 games. If he gets injured then we’re going to be struggling this season.

He’s also had an interesting career, representing 4 other clubs in Gibraltar as well as teams in Spain and Norway.

That win gave us a needed £80k, but it’s still not looking great in terms of the financial status of the club

The second round will be far tougher than that though, as Bulgarians CSKA Sofia await us.

We really did get lucky with facing a side from San Marino in the 1st round, so I’m not expecting to progress further.

It’s been a hectic start and I’m still yet to make any transfers, but let’s see what we can do against CSKA Sofia!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

In this save, as I do with most of my saves, I make the ‘players from continental teams’ available to reduce the likelihood of facing greyed-out, non-existent players in the European qualifying rounds.

This meant our semi-pro team would be facing CSKA Sofia players on more than 20x their salary, containing internationals from Bulgaria, Serbia and Armenia.

We were huge underdogs, so a 3-1 loss against them in the first leg was honestly not a bad result.

We tried and tried in the second leg, but just couldn't get past the far superior CSKA Sofia side

So it was an expected loss over two legs, but the short journey in the Conference League has done wonders to the finances.

We’ll be back in Europe at some point. But for now, it’s all about our first league season in charge.

The second leg against Sofia was on the 28th July, and our first league game in the newly named Gibraltar Football League was on the 1st of October - meaning we had to wait over 2 months to play a competitive game again!

The transfer window ended in August and it was very difficult to find players. Not least because in the Gibraltarian league, you must have 5 players that were trained in Gibraltar in your playing XI at all times.

And we were not helped by the board spending some of our remaining budget on an u23 assistant manager that we didn’t need!

However we did make 2 signings, both recommended by the director of football and both loan signings from Southampton.

We signed them knowing literally nothing about their stats, but we’re contributing £0 to their wages so there was nothing to lose.

We’re 3rd favourites this season but a 4th place finish should get us into the Conference League again so that’s the aim.

Europa Point will be our first opponents in the league at the Victoria Stadium (of course).

20 league games and a domestic cup quarter-final is all we have to play, so hopefully we whizz through this first season in charge of Magpies.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I’ve already realised that having 5 players trained in Gibraltar in the playing XI at all times is going to be key, not just this season but for the entirety of the save.

That rule means that we can’t field our strongest XI on paper, but we still recorded a solid 2-0 win in our first league games thanks to 2 late goals from Pibe.

Our next game was a statement 4-1 win over College Europa - who were predicted to finish ahead of us at the start of the season - even after going down to 10 men in the first half.

That result was just the start, as we ended up winning our first 5 league games (which is a quarter of the season completed already).

Pibe has been ridiculous for us and carried the team by scoring 6 goals in the first 5 games.

So the last thing I was expecting was to lose our next game… 6-1 against 8th placed Glacis United!

I still dont know how it happened, former Magpies player Federico Cataruozzolo scored a hattrick from midfield, but it shows that it’s not going to be a walk in the park in the Gibraltar Football League even though the first 5 games made it seem that way.

Next up for us was the most dominant team in Gibraltar and the side we’re aiming to eventually topple; Lincoln Red Imps.

Those 2 losses in a row leave us in 2nd position in the table, which I’d still take at the end of the season!

We’ll play 3 more league games, after which the league splits into 2.

Those 3 games are spaced over 3 months - it’s going to take some getting used to the long waits between fixtures!

Having said that, it gives us plenty of time to do some scouting and start planning ahead for next year and beyond.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

With very few games across December and January, it was a perfect opportunity to scout around and see what players we could find.

Or so I thought…

Apparently we’ve used up all of our budget so can't even scout players in Gibraltar! The board also want to get rid of our 2 scouts as well, which seems extremely counterintuitive.

We’ve also seen a loan player head back to their parent club in Goran Babic.

What seemed like a great loan signing at the start of the season never worked out. Needing 5 players trained in Gibraltar on the pitch at all times meant there was just no room for him to get a game.

So I decided to actually make a useful loan signing and bring in Gibraltar trained (and starting right back for the national team) Jack Sergeant on loan for 6 months after he had fallen out of favour at Red Imps.

Surprisingly there were a few offers for some of our squad players, so I was more than happy to offload them with their contracts expiring at the end of the season as it freed up £300 in wage budget

And we’ve made some very decent free transfers.

The first was Mungo Bridge who I think could be a huge signing for the level we’re at - he joins on what is essentially an 18-month contract on just £100 a week.

Nya Kirby, formally of Crystal Palace, joins as our best midfielder - £160 a week is the same wage as the fringe players who we let go of, so it’s once again a great bit of business.

The final signing was Aaron Reartes, who does not help with the registration rules but was too good not to sign. He’s been without a club since being released by Argentinos Juniors.

So at the halfway point of the season we are comfortably second position.

The league now splits into 2 and we’ll play the 5 best other teams twice, so it’s not going to be an easy second half to the season and we could drop a lot of points.

But we’ve made some good transfers, so I’m very much expecting to finish in the top 3 and gain European qualification again next season.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

First up for us after the league split was the runaway leaders Lincoln Red Imps.

We had 2 players who were ineligible because they were on loan from Red Imps, so our side was a lot weaker than usual especially as we still had to fit in 5 Gibraltar-trained players.

And the gulf in quality showed as they comfortably beat us - we’re a decent side but Lincoln Red Imps are just far too good for us… at the moment.

We continued to be a bit hit-and-miss after that, losing to Manchester 6 who are having an incredible season for a team predicted to finish in the bottom half.

Star striker Pibe has been sensational for us this campaign, averaging more than a goal a game.

So it was truly gutting when news came through that he will be considering his options when his contract is up. We’re going to have to find a replacement in the summer!

With 5 games remaining Red Imps are out of sight, so we’re either going to finish 2nd or 3rd this season.

I actually don’t mind where we end up as both teams qualify for the same stage of the Conference League next year.

A 4th place finish is likely going to be fine as well unless an underdog wins the Rock Cup - the domestic cup competition in Gibraltar.

We recorded a resounding win over St Joseph’s in the quarter-final but will face Lincoln Red Imps in the semi-final so I’m not expecting to progress any further.

Finally in our first ever youth intake we had one player, Josh Webber, who looks like he could play a part for us and the national team in the future. These intakes are going to be vital for us throughout the duration of the save.

So it’s just 5 league games and a cup semi-final remaining, all we need to do is book our place in the Europa Conference League next year and I’ll consider that a successful first campaign in charge of Magpies.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s fair to say that we already have a bogey team.

Unsurprisingly it’s Lincoln Red Imps, the best team in Gibraltar, who beat us for a 3rd time in the league this season.

But we weren’t done there. We faced them in the Rock Cup too and of course lost again! We just cannot seem to beat them no matter what we do.

We also lost to Manchester 6 in the final league game of the season, which meant they pipped us to 2nd place overall.

Still, 3rd position is the highest finish in Magpies’ history and means we qualify for the Europa Conference League next year - I hope we never finish lower than 3rd during the course of the save though!

In total, we played just 26 games in our first season in charge

Player of the year was undoubtedly Pibe. With 22 goals in 20 games, he was the top goalscorer in the Gibraltar Football League.

As mentioned previously he has chosen not to renew his contract which is a massive blow and we need to find a replacement next season which is going to be very tough.

Jamie Coombes has also been key this season, scoring 10 goals in all competitions. He’s the best Gibraltarian player at the club, which is huge given the league registration rules that I so often mention.

January signing Mungo Bridge only played 12 games, but averaged over 7.50 and I’m expecting a big season from him next year.

We’ll need to sign a first-choice goalkeeper as well, as Jaylan Hawkins will be returning back to parent club Red Imps after his loan spell.

We end the season with a healthy £175k in the bank, which is almost entirely down to Europa Conference League prize money at the start of the season.

That means we have a wage budget of £1,590 next season. It doesn’t seem much, but can go a long way at this level.

Now the real work starts in trying to improve the squad over the summer.

I’ll be closely monitoring clubs in England and Spain to see which players they release, but I have no idea if they’ll be willing to join a semi-pro team in Gibraltar!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s been a busy summer with Magpies as we frantically tried to improve our squad for the upcoming campaign.

I must admit it’s been very difficult in finding quality players that were willing to join us, but we have managed to make a number of signings.

We started with experience. 39-year-old Cusi has spent his entire career in the lower divisions in Spain and I reckon we can squeeze one more year out of him in midfield.

He’s not even the oldest player that we signed though… that’s because 40-year-old David Barral has joined the club. He has 40+ La Liga goals in his long career so I was willing to take a punt on him for a year as well.

I also looked extensively at the u18 squads of Premier League teams for players whose contracts were expiring. In the end, we only managed to get one player - Will Andiyapan from Spurs.

Versatile forward Jay Turner-Cooke has also joined on loan for the year from Newcastle.

In terms of Gibraltarian-trained players, we’ve managed to sign Jack Sergeant permanently after his loan spell last season as well as Jaron Vinet from College Europa on a free.

But most importantly, after all the drama of him wanting to assess his options at the end of his contract, our star striker Pibe decided to sign a one year deal at the club!

It’s huge news as his goals were the sole reason we finished 3rd last season - I’m just hoping he can replicate that form at the tender age of 36.

Getting all of those deals done early was crucial as we’re in the 1st Qualifying Round of the Europa Conference League, where the games take place at the very start of July.

Luck was on our side this time last season as we were paired with a San Marino team in the 1st round, however this time around we’ll play Shamrock Rovers in what is a far more difficult tie.

It’s the 3rd best team in Gibraltar versus the 3rd best team in Ireland, so we’re anything but favourites.

Still, after getting to the 2nd qualifying round of the Conference League last year, we’re up to 591st in the European rankings.

I wonder how high we can get during the course of this save?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Despite making 5 signings early in the window, our starting lineup against Shamrock Rovers contained only 2 of those new signings due to a mixture of fitness and selection issues.

We went into the game as big underdogs and it showed with a poor performance in the first leg.

The signing of 39-year-old Cusi instantaneously backfired, as the midfielder picked up an injury in the game that will rule him out for 5 months - what a great signing he’s turned out to be!

We were still in the tie going into the second leg though and despite the gulf in quality between the two teams, an even match was expected.

But it was an incredibly frustrating second leg, we were 2-1 up with Shamrock Rovers down to 10 men but just couldn’t get the extra goals.

It was a harsh draw for us in truth, but it’s frustrating to go out at the very first stage of Europe and it means attention turns to the Gibraltar Football League already.

With a large portion of the transfer window still remaining, we were able to make even more improvements to the team.

Centre back Ibane Bowat and goalkeeper Myles Roberts both joined after their contracts at Watford and Fulham expired.

And Iker Liano was also snapped up after his contract at Spanish 3rd tier side Alcorcon expired.

The only issue with these signings is that not all of them are going to get game time this season due to the league requirements 5 Gibraltar trained players rule.

But another part of signing them was because it only takes 2 years to gain Gibraltar nationality, so I’m hoping that at least one of them will take that up and help out the national team in a few years time.

Talking of which, very late into the window striker Kelvin Morgan became available on loan from Lincoln Red Imps. It’s a huge signing because he will count as 1 of the 5 Gibraltar trained players in the playing 11.

With one eye on the future we’ve also signed 15-year-old Mark Clinton from College Europa, who were willing to let him go for free.

All of those signings mean that we are predicted to finish 2nd, with Red Imps again the clear favourites to win the league.

It’s going to take something special to topple them this season but let’s see what we can do.​

 

[Klippybo]

Good luck - love your stories!!!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Getting comfortably knocked out at the 1st round stage of the Conference League has made me realise how daunting this task with Magpies is going to be.

Even Lincoln Red Imps, who are far superior to us, couldn’t even make it to the Conference League group stage but were very closing to doing so.

From time to time we’ve be using a different formation in the league this year, mainly so we can get 2 strikers in the team and try and keep players happy with game time.

But that’s proving to be difficult and I’ve not really learned my lessons from last season.

We have too many non-Gibrlatar trained players at the club and the old guard are annoyed at not playing.

Even when we managed to offload squad player Olmo Gonzalez, he was still unhappy with me!

So with a bloated squad, what did I go and do?

Sign another player of course!

When players like Bjorn Hardley become available for just £140 a week, I can’t turn it down - I’m already thinking about the Europa Conference League next season.

Despite the squad size issues, it could not be going better in the league as we’ve won 8 in a row.

The only problem is that so have Lincoln Red Imps! It’s just goal difference that separates us at the top of the table.

We face them next and will play them 2 more times when the league splits into two - those 3 games are surely going to determine who wins the league this year.

Veteran striker Pibe is still our main man with 10 goals in 8 games, with Nya Kirby leading the assists charts with 6.

Kirby is also wanted by Crawley Town, so it’s going to be interesting to see if we can keep a player at the club who is valued at £12k!

He’s one of the many signings we’ve made which mean we have the 3rd highest salary in Gibraltar - College Europa should really be doing better for a team spending that much!

We also gave youngster Mark Clinton a cameo in a game that was already won, and with virtually his only kick of the match he became Magpies’ and the Gibraltar Football Leagues' youngest-ever goalscorer!

He’ll surely be playing for the national team in the future, who incidentally won their first game in a few years against Albania - with our on loan striker Kevin Morgan scoring one of the goals.

And just to emphasise how poor the level of Gibraltaran football is - the Gibraltar national team are currently ranked 197th, behind the footballing giants of East Timor and Bhutan…

I could be tempted into management of the national team at some point, but not until we turn Magpies into the best team in Gibraltar.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

January time is always quiet in terms of games in Gibraltar, so it leaves me nothing to do other than scout.

That’s resulted in us signing 2 more Gibraltarian youngsters as we plan ahead for the future.

We’ve also done an unreal piece of business in signing David Gonzalez on a free transfer - he is arguably one of the best in the Gibraltar league and his wage of £275 is only the 5th highest at the club.

We’ve also sold David Barral, the 40 year old former La Liga striker who we only signed 6 months ago.

He made just 2 substitute appearances before struggling to get game time ahead of the Gibraltar trained players - it’s not the best transfer I’ve ever made I’ll admit…

Our first dropped points in the league were against an unexpected opponent as we laboured to a 1-1 against Gibraltar Lions, despite them having only one shot and us having 72% possession!

That was followed up with a more expected 1-1 draw against Lincoln Red Imps, despite us dominating and them again only having a shot on target.

This is a team that are winning other games in the league 11-0!

With the league split into 2 we almost immediately played the team that are becoming our bitter rivals. This time it wasn’t a draw, as we lost 3-2 thanks to 2 contentious penalties.

We’re just not getting any luck against them! But if we can only get draws against inferior teams like Gibraltar Lions, it’s only going to go one way in a league season with there being just 20 games.

Suddenly, after 4 winless games, there were murmurs of discontent and we were under a bit of pressure!

That was coupled with an abysmal youth intake where I dont think any of the players will make the first team despite the low standard of playing ability.

We did manage to get a few more league wins to silence the critics. It means we’re comfortably in 2nd position and aren’t going to finish any lower than that.

It’s trying to be hyped up as a title race, but I can’t see us winning from here.

So if we dont win our next game against Lincoln Red Imps, then we’ll have to settle for 2nd position.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It has finally happened.

After nearly 2 years and on our 6th attempt, we have actually won a game of football against Lincoln Red Imps.

Annoyingly it didn’t mean too much as we were still 2 points behind them. And as a team who are beating other sides 11-0 in the league, we’ve established that Red Imps dropping points won’t be happening.

We needed to win all our remaining games to even have a glimmer of a chance of winning the title, but a 0-0 draw against Manchester 6 summoned us to our fate of 2nd place.

And sure enough, a 3-0 win in their penultimate game secured a 4th league title in a row for Lincoln Red Imps.

We did, however, make it to the final of the Rock Cup where we had the usual opponents. It was our last chance to get one over them this season.

But of course it wasn’t to be!

We were the better team until winger Aaron Reartes got sent off - we just cannot seem to beat them in important games.

Ironically Red Imps actually lost their last game of the season when the title was already secured, so we were just one point behind them in the standings.

It was a record points haul for us and we’re surely not far from winning the league for the first time next season.

With us getting knocked out of Europe at the very first stage back in July, we played just 25 games in total this season.

Goalkeeper Myles Roberts kept 11 clean sheets in 20 league games, which is a record.

Veteran striker Pibe was top scorer again with 16 goals in all competitions, but his ability is declining so I wont be renewing his contract in the summer.

That’s because we have a solid core that are top players for the level we’re at and I’m hoping they will see us progress through at least one qualifying round in the Conference League next year.

The overall balance is at £87k and we’ve never been in the red thanks to the money generated from the Europa Conference League.

And our wage budget for next year is just over £2k which seems pitiful, but with a current average salary of £200 per week there is a lot we can do with that money.

We’re two seasons in now and starting to move away from the players and staff that we inherited when we took over at Magpies.

Next year we either need a decent run in the Conference League or a first Gibraltarian league title - both would be nice!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s the 2024/25 season, our 3rd in charge of Magpies, and once again we’ve done our transfer business as early as possible to ensure we have a competitive squad for the Europa Conference Leaue qualifying rounds in early July.

First in was right back Darnell Fisher, who has 150+ appearances in the Championship and was playing for Middlesborough less than 2 years ago.

Ryan Trevitt, recently released by Brentford, also came in to bolster options in midfield.

We’ve resigned Kelvin Morgan, Gibraltar’s first choice striker, who is back for a 5th spell at the club after spending last season on loan with us.

Ateef Konate formley of Nottingham Forest and Juan Aguero from the lower Spanish leagues have also arrived to provide depth on the wings.

Lastly, Kian Pennant joined on loan from Leicester simply for the pacey option up front. He’s only on a 7 month loan because we’ll be picking Gibraltar trained Morgan ahead of him in the league.

And after a poor youth intake last year, former Spain striker Dani Guiza has been appointed as Head of Youth Development - he’s a player I’ve always been fond of since his cameos at Euro 2008.

2 years ago it was Tre Penne of San Marino, last year it was Shamrock Rovers and this season we will face Latvian side FK Liepaja in the 1st Qualfying Round of the Europa Conference League.

They actually look like a decent side and are in the middle of their season so match sharpness is not a problem. Their best player is on 3x as much as our highest paid player and would walk into our team.

LIEP PLAYER

Having said that, our starting lineup is so much better than the team we put out this time last year against Shamrock Rovers with only Bridge, Kirby and Reartes remaining from that XI.

We’re expected to get a draw in the 1st leg away from home, so this two-legged tie could be a close one.

After going out at this stage last season, I’ll be gutted if we fall at the first hurdle again.
​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

There was a bit of apprehension ahead of the first leg against Latvians FK Liepaja - I could not face going out at the 1st qualifying round again.

A 1-1 draw away from home was a decent result but if Bjorn Hardley hadn’t of got sent off then I think we could’ve won the game.

I was confident for the second leg though, despite the board predicting that we’d lose!

Although I was confident, the pressure was on to get a result and progress to the 2nd Qualifying Round.

That’ll do!

We coasted past them in the end, with new loan striker Pennant scoring twice and midfielder David Gonzalez running the show in midfield.

Our prize for that victory is not a pleasant one though. Next up for us is Molde of Norway.

They’re currently 8th in the top division of Norway, which gives us some hope, but there is a huge gulf in quality between the two sides and it’s a very daunting opponent.

They have a player on £4,300 a week who is a Norway international whereas our entire wage budget is £5,590…

Ahead of those matches I’ve decided to bring in Jarell Quansah, who has just been released by Liverpool, for more defensive reinforcement.

I have a very strong suspicion that we’ll be heading out of the Conference League in the next round, but we could still spring a surprise!​