Clyde FC - European Giant


Clyde FC
Season 8 - Update 4

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Fixtures:

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3 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats from our 8 league games since the last update isn't the best but is just enough to keep us in the hunt for a top 3 finish.

Player Stats:

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Jack Lowe has dropped off slightly after coming back from international duty with Australia in December but right winger Matthew Needham has stepped up his game and is really starting to develop into a quality player.

League Table:

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We sit nicely in third place but this season could still go either way. If we drop down to 5th place then we will once again narrowly miss out on European qualification as one of the finalists in the Scottish Cup will be a team from the bottom half meaning they'll take the last Europa League place. Alternatively, if we can go on a good run of form in the last 5 games then we could potentially finish in 2nd and gain Champions League Qualification.

Youth Intake:

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A pretty decent intake with one real standout player who'll hopefully be leading the line for us for many, many years. Meet Alex McIntosh... Could he sound any more Scottish?..XD

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Transfer News:

More transfer activity over the last few months. Firstly, we brought in a Bulgarian international Defensive midfielder to add more competition for places and so we can start to edge out the likes of Rocco Quinn and Stuart Kettlewell. He's nothing special, but does have leading SPL potential (4 star)...

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Secondly, Ricardo Fuller went on a very successful scouting trip to Croatia and found these 2 gems for us to pick up on free transfers. At just 18 and 20, they both have very high potential (5 star each) and my only worry is the awful attribute of just 3 for anticipation for the striker. Hopefully, with the right training we'll be able to get that to improve and his blistering pace can make up for it!

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Next update will be an end of season review, can we qualify for Europe for a first time or will it be disappointment again?..
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Clyde FC
Season 8 - Season Review

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Fixtures:

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7 points from the last 5 games was enough to secure a third place finish and to bring European football to Clyde for the first ever time!

Player of the Season - Jack Lowe

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The fans decided the Australian striker was our best player and it's hard to disagree! 13 goals and 10 assists in the league from 27 appearances was a decent return from our false nine, and we're now having to fend off bids of ?2,000,000+ for him from foreign clubs...

Best 11:

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Overall Best 11:

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League Table:

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Such a massive gap between us and Celtic, but we improved massively from last year and gained 18 more points. The target for next year will be to improve on the points total once again and try to push into the top 2 and break up that old firm!

Club News:

1) The board have decided to expand the stadium by 2,000 seats. Also, the work on the training and youth facilities have started, meaning we have had a hefty amount of money come out of our finances over the summer!

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Next update will be a season 9 preview, and will probably include our Europa League qualifying. Can we make it into the the Europa League Group stages or will it all end in disappointment?​
 

Clyde FC
Season 9 - Preview

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Transfers:

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The same old story of bringing in loans and frees. I've already talked about the two Croatians so I won't go over them again. The only other permanent transfer was last years loanee Greg Kiltie coming in on a free to give Needham competition on the right wing. The rest of our signings were loanees, 3 from AC Milan and one from Catania. The center back and winger from Milan are both very good and will imrprove our first 11 massively.

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Squad:

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I think that's what you call a multicultural squad! I'm very glad Greg **** aint the chairman of the Scottish FA or I'm sure we'd never hear the end of his moaning!XD

Europa League Qualifiers:

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3rd Qualifying Round - Clyde FC 5 - 1 Udinese

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Wow! When we were drew against Udinese I thought we were going to be heading straight out but in the end it turned out to be very straight forward. The first leg was at home and we managed to run out 3-0 winners thanks to a Lehmann brace and one from Jack Lowe and the second leg was more of the same as we won 2-1 to pick up a brilliant 5-1 victory on aggregate.

Playoff - Clyde 3 - 3 FC Basel (Clyde win on away goals)

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We did it! A sending off in the first leg meant we could only manage a 1-1 draw at home and when we were 2-0 down in the second leg at half time it seemed our European adventure was at an early end. Luckily, we managed to grab one just after half time and then notched an equalizer when Basel played one of the worst backpasses in history and Croatian striker Bosko Crepulja pounced to net from 12 yards out. So, we qualified for the group stages... but how would our group look...


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Hmm... we were always going to get a difficult group with being 4th seeds but I think we have an outside chance of qualifying. Schalke should be the runaway winners of the group but Kuban are there for the taking and I fancy we could beat Dnipro at home. Hopefully I'll not regret these words come the end of the group stages!

Ok, next update will probably be a Europa League Group stage update and then I'll follow that with a review of the 1st half of the season. How do you think we'll get on in our first season in Europe???
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Clyde FC
Season 9 - Mid-Season Update

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League Fixtures:

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It's fair to say our league form has been very much a mixed bag this season. The positives are that we seem to dispatch a lot of the poorer teams with ease, however the major worry is our form against the old firm which is absolutely awful!

Cup Fixtures:

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Again, it's been a mixed bag in the cups. Going out to Aberdeen at home in the Scottish Cup 4th round was not acceptable, but we have managed to make it to the League Cup semi final for a second year running. Unfortunately, we'll probably have to bear Rangers and Celtic to win the competition, so we've got no chance!XD

Europa League Group Stage:

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The main positive to come from this season so far has to be our form in inaugural season in Europe. Pulling 3 wins and 2 draws out of the bag in a group including Schalke and Dnipro was very nice, and we've been rewarded with a tie aginst Dutch giants PSV in the First Knockout Round!

Player Stats:

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All 3 of our main strikers have shown they know where the back of the net is and young Croatian has really took advantage of injuries to grab a place in the starting 11, notching 17 goals from 21 starts! The young striker from last years intake Alex McIntosh has also been used sparingly to aid his development and has scored 3 goals,
including a winner in the Europa League away to Kuban Kransdonar.

League Table:

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I'm slightly disappointed with our league performance but I'm going to put it down to the fact of the extra games in the Europa League leading to more fixture congestion. St Mirren are 10 points ahead of us in 3rd so it's likely we will be dropping at least 1 place from last year, but hopefully we can recover in the second half in the season and secure continental qualification for a 2nd year running.


Not sure when I'll put up the next update, if we make any transfers in January I may do a January update, or I may do individual updates for the Knockout Round/s of the the Europa League...

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Clyde FC
Season 9 - January and February Review

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Transfers:

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Just 2 free signings incoming in January, however the two players have plenty of quality. Amorim is a Portuguese international center half and McLaughlin is and Irish international defensive midfielder. Both players have been brought in to go straight into the starting 11, and hopefully help in the push to secure a 3rd place finish for a second season running.

Fixtures:

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That's more like it! We've been much more consistent over the past couple of months and managed a couple of crushing victories in the league. The main success however was the 3-2 victory over Rangers (aet) in the League Cup Semi Final. What makes this even better is the fact that Hibs managed to beat Celtic in the other semi so I feel this is a major chance to win our first major cup in Scotland...

Europa League First Knockout Round:

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Unfortunately we could not make it any further in the Europa League as PSV showed their extra quality over the two legs to knock us out. We did manage to hold them to a draw in the 1st leg however they were far too strong for us in the second half of the second leg and blew us away.

Player Stats:

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League Table:

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Well our change in form has managed to push us up to third place and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to hold onto that position. We need 16 points from our last 9 games to overtake last years points total and so that will be my main target for the rest of the season...


Next update will be the League Cup Final, can we finally bring back a piece of silverware to the Broadwood Stadium?..

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Unlucky in the Europa league, there's always next year though, how are coefficients looking?
 
kiedude said:
Unlucky in the Europa league, there's always next year though, how are coefficients looking?
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Yeah mate they're looking pretty good. Celtic and Rangers both in the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round so that should help as well. Hoping to break the Old Firm next season but they're both playing very well so it'll be hard.

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Safc-mad-scotty said:
Yeah mate they're looking pretty good. Celtic and Rangers both in the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round so that should help as well. Hoping to break the Old Firm next season but they're both playing very well so it'll be hard.

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Mine are gonna rocket, Celtic got CL group stages and me, Rangers and Dundee Utd all got Europa League 2nd knockout round
 
This is the part where you are supposed to scream!
Congratulation on your first major trophy
 
Clyde FC
Season 9 - End of Season Review

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Fixtures:

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Similar to Swansea last year in real life, we fell apart in the League after winning the League Cup and managed to go winless for 6 games. This left us in 5th place on the final day and needing to beat Hearts, while hoping that St Mirren got beat at Celtic so we could get into 4th and qualify for the Europa League. Luckily, that's exactly what happened and so we will be playing in Europe for a 2nd year running!

SPL - 4th Place

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4 points and 1 place worse off than last season. However, I'll put that down to the extra games of the Europa League and switching off after we won the cup...

Scottish Cup - 4th Round

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League Cup - Winners!

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Europa League - 1st Knockout Round

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Not too bad for our first season, a repeat next year would be well appreciated!

Fans Player of the Year - Anders Lehmann

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21 goals, 8 assists and 5 MOM's in 42 appearances in the first whole season at the club for the Dane!

Best 11:

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Lehmann was fans player of the year but couldn't make it into our best 11, suppose it goes to show how good our strikers are!

Overall Best 11:

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Club News:

1) With only 1 year left on his contract and refusing to sign a new one, Jack Lowe will have to be sold over the summer to avoid losing him on a free. Hopefully we can get a big fee for him and reinvest the money back into the squad well...

2) In terms of a new stadium, I really don't know where we stand. We've never had a message to say we're building a new stadium, however on the 'boardroom' screen, it used to say that we were building a stadium which would be completed in 2024 but that has now disappeared. Also, if I go to ask the board to build a new stadium, the option is grey out and says 'board request is currently being actioned'.


Next update will be a season 10 preview, hopefully with plenty of transfer news and news of us qualifying for the Europa League Group stages. Also, does anyone have any idea what is going on with the stadium situation I've mentioned???

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Clyde FC
Season 10 - Preview

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Transfers:

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6 players in and 5 players out, but we still manage to make over ?3,000,000 profit due to the sale of 2 time fans player of the year Jack Lowe to Birmingham for ?6,500,000. As I mentioned on the previous post, he only had 1 year to run on his deal and wouldn't sign a new one, so I had to cash inn on him really...

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On to the incomings and we've once again raided the loans and free transfers to bolster the squad. Yilmaz and the Italian keeper will both offer great competition for places in their respective positions, whilst McManaman and Gordon will offer cover down the left.

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Finally, the final two players were brought in for fees and are our replacements for Jack Lowe. Jimmy Smith cost us ?3,000,000 from Rangers, where he scored 16 goals in 31 league games last season. Poulsen was far cheaper at just ?26,000 and despite being brought in as back up for Smith, has been outperforming him so far this season.

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Squad:

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I think the squad is probably stronger than last season, despite the loss of Lowe. A lot of our players are young and therefore one season older they should have improved and the target for this season must be to try and break into the top 2. However, that's easier said than done...

Europa League Qualifiers:

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The bad news for this update is the fact that Bochum knocked us out of the Europa League in the 4th qualifying round so there will be no repeat of last years Europa League run. Well, I say it's bad news but you can put the positive spin on it that it should really help our league form and avoid any major fixture congestion that we occurred last year.


Next update will be a mid-season review for season 10.
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Shame about the EL, hopefully without those extra 10 or so fixtures you will do better domestically and lift some silverware.
 
kiedude said:
Shame about the EL, hopefully without those extra 10 or so fixtures you will do better domestically and lift some silverware.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I'm hoping for pal, not getting to play as much in the past couple of days with having some Uni work to do but hopefully will get the first half of the season updated by tomorrow!
 
Unlucky with the Europa exit but hopefully, as you mentioned, you can let that go and push on in the league this time around! Going to be tough breaking those pesky Old Firm partners, I wish you the best!
 
Safc-mad-scotty said:
Yeah that's what I'm hoping for pal, not getting to play as much in the past couple of days with having some Uni work to do but hopefully will get the first half of the season updated by tomorrow!
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Don't worry, I'll avenge you in the Europa League :D
 
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