Berwick Rangers: An English Club in Scotland

scousegin said:
Hampus, great story and nice layout mate. Been trying to get back into FM for a while now but I just dont have the time anymore XD and If I do get a spare few hours for myself I usually just jump on the PS4.

Reading these stories is the closest I get these days.

Hope you keep it up until Berwick are Champions of Europe
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Cheers mate glad you're enjoying it! And the Champions League is the ultimate aim... may take quite a few more seasons until we get there though!
 
2028/29 Season Preview

It's new season time!

We’ve gone wild and spent £12m this summer as we aim to consolidate ourselves as the best (English) team in Scotland and also seek progression in the Champions League. And by progression I mean not finish bottom of our group.

Only one first team player left in the transfer window and we’ve increased the amount of non-regen players in our squad from 2 to 3.

Transfer Out

Bryan Illanes £1.5m to Rangers

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After 2 years at the club we’ve sold Bryan Illanes to Rangers. He was one of the better players in the squad when we signed him so the fact he was no longer needed shows just how much we’ve improved.

Transfers In

Kurt Zouma – Free Transfer

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Kurt Zouma comes in and is the experienced centre back we needed to hopefully stop us from bottling big games.

Pedro – Free Transfer

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Zouma is joined by another centre back that we got on a free after his contract expired at Las Palmas. He's the best defender at the club... and did not cost a penny!

Juan Grecco for £3.8m from Rosario

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Juan Grecco came in because I thought we were going to sell our left back. We didn’t. He’s a right footed, left sided defender and I am going to play him at right back this season because he’s good enough to be in our starting XI.

He also has a key trait that I hope will further contribute to us not bottling big matches.

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Hector De Anda for £6.5m from Chivas

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The best striker that we could find within our budget was Hector De Anda… and he just so happens to be a wonderkid!

Scott Brown on loan from Manchester United

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Scott Brown adds some more quality to the midfield. He’s too good for the SPL but not good enough for Man United... yet. He also helps with league and Champions League registration rules.

The value of our players has shot up dramatically in the last couple of months, with some players doubling in value.

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After those transfers it feels like we’re spending a lot on wages now… but compared to Celtic we’re still spending peanuts.

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For the first time in this save we’re predicted to win the Premiership. The board also expects us to complete the domestic treble.

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No pressure then.

On an unrelated note Sunderland have spent £78m on a player… they’re a mid-table premier league club. Modern football eh.

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BallyC7 said:
Not too much pressure from the board then lol
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Haha I literally just edited the post to say that. I'll be amazed if we win everything, we're never far away from a bottle job at Berwick especially in cup competitions
 
Treble or bust is quite the challenge, but think you've got the squad for it
 
ninjaskill said:
Treble or bust is quite the challenge, but think you've got the squad for it
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Yeah I expect us to win the league again but anything can happen in the cups especially with us. Hopefully Zouma comes in to give us that experience we've been missing in big games and calms everyone down
 
Champions League Draw

Because Scotland has moved so far up the European coefficient rankings, incredibly we were seeded 1st​ for the Champions League group stage draw.

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2028 Champions League Group Stage Draw

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Berwick Rangers
Associazione Calcio Milan
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
CSKA Moscow

Bizarrely we’ve played all 3 teams in our group previously in Europe.

Benfica were in our group last year, CSKA beat us in the Champions League qualifying rounds the season before that and A.C. Milan knocked us out of the Europa League the season before that one. Is playing a different team too much to ask?

Elsewhere Hibs, Celtic and Rangers are all in the Europa League Group Stage.


As is the norm we’ve started the season very well and smashed Rangers.

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Rangers play a strange 3-1-3-1-2 formation so we always score lots of goals when we play them.

Our 100% record means we sit top of the league. Surprisingly Hibs look like our closest rival this season and even more surprisingly Celtic and Rangers all the way down in 8th ​and 10th​

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Our next game is against Benfica at home in the Champions League. Our group stage games will once again be played at Gateshead’s stadium.
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Doing amazing! Even more impressed considering my Relegation favourite Championship side get more fans at a home game than the Scottish Champions! KIU
 
coolmcool said:
Doing amazing! Even more impressed considering my Relegation favourite Championship side get more fans at a home game than the Scottish Champions! KIU
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We've outgrown our 4,099 capacity ground which I never thought I'd say after we used to get about 500 each game in the first season haha... the new stadium being built can't come soon enough!
 
Turning Point?

After scoring 7 in our last game against Rangers the last thing I expected was a 0-0 against Benfica.

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We only managed one shot on target in the whole game and probably needed to win it if we want to progress in the group.

Especially when in our next game, as is usual with Berwick, a 2-0 lead was bottled…

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But this time it wasn’t us!

This is it. A watershed moment. Only our second ever Champions League group stage win but it finally halts what seems like a decade long curse of us bottling leads and crumbling in big games.

We absolutely battered them and also missed two penalties so it’s not like it wasn’t deserved.

The result reflects the brilliant start to the season we’ve had, which in all honesty we should expect as we’re too good for most teams in our league

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We’ve won all 9 league games but that’s not even the most significant thing… Rangers are 11th​ and Celtic are 4th​!

(The screenshot of the league table won’t load; you’ll have to trust me on this one)

And our form was capped off by a brilliant win away at the San Siro.

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It leaves us top of the group after 3 games.

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We’re also into the League Cup final for the 4th​ season in a row.

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Our squad players will get the chance to win us silverware with a favourable tie against Hamilton.
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Normal Service Resumed

Bottlejob Berwick are back.

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What better way to help Celtic kick start their season by letting them score two late goals to beat us.

I don’t mind losing, I know we’re not going to win every league game, but if we’re going to lose can it please just be without throwing away a lead.

We had the chance to redeem ourselves immediately in our next game against A.C. Milan in the Champions League.

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All they had to do was score from a corner and then from a free kick and it was game over after 15 minutes.

We also lost to Benfica in our next group stage game, which means the table looks like this.

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We’re guaranteed to make the knockout rounds for the Europa League, which is better than we did last season, but after a good start to the group we’ve let Benfica right back into it.

Up next was the League Cup Final against 11th​ placed Hamilton. It was a comfortable win in the end.

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Berwick are the 2028 League Cup Winners

That’s our 3rd​ League Cup in 4 years… it’s not even that big of an achievement anymore! Winning the Scottish Cup for the first time is a far more important goal for us this season.

In the league Hibs are doing a good job of making sure that we don’t run away with it. Our loss to Celtic probably wasn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

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We still have a crucial game against CSKA Moscow to determine if we’ll go into the Europa League or Champions League knockout rounds. We need to win that game and hope Benfica avoid victory against A.C. Milan to progress.

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You were unlucky to lose against a.c milan and benfica loving this story keep up the good work
 
Are You Joking?

A win against CSKA Moscow was vital to ensure that we qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League. What happened next was quite incredible.

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What an unbelievable result! We absolutely destroyed CSKA for the second time.

Robert Koeman scored 6 goals in the game, which was not only a record for Berwick but also a Champions League record!

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We picked him up for £400,000 from PEC Zwolle last season. He was our 4th​ choice striker at the start of the season but has scored 26 goals in only 13 starts!

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Everything went right in the CSKA game. 6-0 by halftime, I was thinking about what team I wanted in the knockout rounds. Barcelona, Man United and Sean Dyche’s Real Madrid were my picks.

I sort of forgot that qualification was not in our hands.

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Of course… OF COURSE Benfica beat Milan! We finished 3rd​ by virtue of the fact that Milan beat us 3-1 and we only beat them 2-0 at the San Siro. Unbelievable!

With that rather anticlimactic finale to the Champions League group stage we joined Celtic and Hibs in the draw for the Europa League 1st​ Knockout Round.

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Europa League 1st​ Knockout Round –
Koninklijke Atletiek Associatie Gent v Berwick Rangers

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A decent draw I suppose. The board expect us to get to the quarter finals so we’ll see what happens.

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I’ve also decided that the SPL is too easy for us now.

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We’re winning games very, very comfortably and we’re even keeping a lot clean sheets which based off our past is a minor miracle.

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The January transfer window is on the horizon and a lot of bigger clubs have been snooping around our players.

Thankfully as soon as it says a player is wanted I’m able to offer them a new contract which the Champions League money allows me to do.

Here are some of those players just to give you an idea about the level we’re playing at now.

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Those 5 are our best players. The eventual aim is to win the Champions League and if we do, I think they’ll all be good enough to still be in the team.

Either that or we sell them for big, big money.

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January 2029 Transfer Window

It’s the end of an era as centre back Jason Kerr has left to join Hearts. His contract was expiring in the summer and he asked to leave early which I could not turn down as he’s been an excellent servant over the years.

Jason Kerr has joined Hearts on a Free Transfer

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He joined us for £20,000 from Inverness (no idea how we got him so cheaply) when we were first promoted, made 200 appearances in all competitions and earned 4 caps for Scotland whilst at Berwick.

Lukas Zak has joined Benfica for £19m

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We also made an unexpected sale as Lukas Zak has joined Benfica. £19m was just too much to turn down for our back up left back even though he’d been at the club long enough to help with squad registration rules.

Luiz has joined Berwick from Sao Paulo for £13.25m

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To replace him we brought in Brazilian Luiz who can play anywhere across the back four. Receiving £19m for Zak made the £13.25m we paid for him seem a bargain however it was Berwick’s and Scottish football’s record signing.

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He’s going to be our back up left back for now but I also see him as a long term replacement for Kurt Zouma.

Unlike this time last year, the transfers have made no difference to our form. We’re on a 14 game domestic winning streak.

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23 wins and 1 defeat all season in the league is just ridiculous.

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Up next we have Dundee United in the Scottish Cup 5th​ Round, which we haven’t won yet, partly because they knocked us out last season so we’re out to get revenge.

Then after that it’s the two games against Gent in the Europa League 1st​ Knockout Round.
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Looks like Celtic have been firmly knocked off the perch!! Not be long now before you are competing for the Champions league!
Whats your plans with the save once you have won CL?
 
JamesScott2908 said:
Looks like Celtic have been firmly knocked off the perch!! Not be long now before you are competing for the Champions league!
Whats your plans with the save once you have won CL?
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They definitely have, Scotland is just getting too easy now. Although having said that we still haven't won the Scottish Cup so the immediate aim is to win that for the first time.

And the plan is to win the Champions League, once that happens I'll worry about what the plans are afterwards haha. The furthest we've got in Europe is the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round so it's going to take a long while for us to be competing for Champions Leagues but we move into new stadium at the end of next season so I'm hoping that can be the catalyst to turn us into a European powerhouse.
 
2029 Europa League 1st Knockout Round

We most certainly got revenge on Dundee United for knocking us out of the Scottish Cup last year by beating them 7-0 in the 5th​ round!

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With that we set a Berwick record of winning 16 games in a row.

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Our prize for that result? Celtic in the quarterfinal.

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If anyone can beat us then it’s Celtic but I suppose we have to play them at some point, I just didn't expect it to be so soon.

Next up was a trip to Belgium to face Gent in the Europa League. We dominated the game and they were lucky to only be two goals down for the second leg.

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Still, I put a full strength side out in the Second Leg.

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Easy. 6-1 on aggregate and could’ve easily been more.

However we were drawn against Arsenal in the Second Knockout Round.

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English sides have dominated the Europa League and Champions League in this save (I think because of a soft brexit so there’s very little work permit issues) so that should be our European run over. They’re only 5th​ in the Premier League but are overwhelming favourites to reach the quarter finals ahead of us.

Elsewhere Celtic will play Monaco and Hibs will play Villarreal.

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Our winning streak in domestic games was finally halted after we drew 1-1 with Aberdeen.

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We should have won but it was just one of them days… it matters very little anyway as we only need 4 more points to win our third league in a row.

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Our next two games are against Celtic in the Scottish Cup quarter final and Arsenal in the Europa League second knockout round. 2 season defining games in the space of 4 days.

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11 Seasons, Still no Scottish Cup

We approached our two massive games against Celtic and Arsenal in record-breaking form.

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So you know what happened in the Celtic game don’t you? 22 game unbeaten run, only dropped 5 points in the league all season, playing in a cup competition that we haven’t won yet… of course we lost!

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As soon as we were drawn against Celtic I knew, I just knew that they’d beat us.

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Ever since we had 2 players sent off in the final (5 seasons ago now) I honestly think we’ve been cursed in the Scottish Cup. We’re going to have won the league at least 3 times before winning the cup… we’re probably going to have an unbeaten season before we win it!

With that disappointing exit from the Scottish Cup we played our first English opponents in the save as we travelled to the Emirates to play Arsenal in the Europa League Second Knockout Round First Leg.

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That’s the first time we’ve lost twice in a row in 2 years! It’s also 2 losses that will define our season.

For the second leg against Arsenal I decided to go all guns blazing…

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…and it almost worked. We done well to come back from 2-0 down but the damage was already done.

Annoyingly, despite us utterly dominating the SPL, Celtic are through to the quarter finals of the Europa League after beating Monaco over two legs.

I can’t tell if we were just unlucky with being drawn against Arsenal or if we should’ve expected better.

Nobody played better than a 6.9 in the first leg so that really gave us too much to do in the second leg. But we didn’t help ourselves by going 2-0 down and then deciding to finally play. The stats show we had way more shots than Arsenal but only 7 of our 27 shots on goal were on target.

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However there’s definitely no coincidence that we lost our two important games when our best centre back Pedro was injured.

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So, a harsh exit in both Europe and the Scottish Cup this season. All of a sudden we have nothing left to play for and should wrap the league up in our next game.

One day we’ll win the Scottish Cup and get to a European quarter final… one day…
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At Least the League is Easy

After the disappointment of losing to Arsenal in the Europa League and to Celtic in the Scottish Cup, we wrapped up the league in our next game against Hibs.

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Berwick are the 2028/29 Premiership Champions

That’s the third time we’ve won the Premiership and this time we won it with 8 games to spare! We’re on course not only to get 100 points but to get a 100+ goal difference as well.

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Our dominance in the league makes it all the more frustrating that we still haven’t won the Scottish Cup and have failed to get past the second knockout round of the Europa League.

Talking of frustrating… Kurt Zouma has broken his leg and, unsurprisingly given his age, is considering retirement.

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In more positive news we’ve had probably the best player ever to come through our youth intake…

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…it’s a shame we don’t play with wingers.

Finally, Berwick are subject to a takeover bid with the potential of £38m being injected into the club.

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The next post will be the summary of the 2028/29 season and hopefully the world’s wealthiest person has taken over Berwick by then.
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