Crusaders F.C. - The European Crusade

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Back again! Season 2016/17 - UCL qualification

Into the new season we go, and this time we played more friendlies to get match fit for the Champions League qualification.

Nothing has changed this year; same tactics, same staff and same players albeit 1 year more experienced.

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We nearly pulled off a credible 0-0 at home to Arsenal in the penultimate friendly, but lost 1-0 late on and then went into our 2nd leg tie full of confidence. Lovcen of Montenegro were swept aside with ease, 5-1 on aggregate.

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We would face a far sterner task than I could imagine in the next game though; Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia awaited us. Luckily, some of their best players were out injured for both games but they still had some top internationals who could do us harm. Two great free kicks from Knowles saw us take a 2-1 lead back to Seaview, but we lost 2-1 in the second leg meaning extra time! Darren Murray came off the bench to score and see us though to the play offs!

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Drawn against the Czech side Viktoria Plzen, we wanted to end our run of failure at this stage. First up, the away leg and Daniel Hughes scored a potentially crucial away goal in the 12th minute. They equalised and the match finished 1-1 with us defending for our lives. Into the second leg and we set up defensively gifting them possession. We countered them fairly well but couldn't score; luckily neither could they and we went through on away goals!

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So we've made the group stages of the Champions League, a feat that will boost our league reputation further! Also the millions will come in handy for facilities upgrades as well as turning professional!

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To be honest, our group was never going to be easy...

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Group stages + other

First, a little update on the club overview/stature/facilities:

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Crucified Crusaders
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Should be the in-game headline to sum up our Champions League Group. We fought back to claim a 1-1 draw at home to Galatasaray but that was as good as it got. We were simply outclassed in the other games!



Our hopes of a domestic clean-sweep were dashed as we were knocked out of the 1/2 star reputation County Antrim Shield after a never ending Penalty shootout with Cliftonville!

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Onto the second half of the season where our young squad can continue to gain experience and grow. The player development aspect of this save is insane; I've farmed out a good 30-40 youngsters on loan and the cream of the crop get thrown straight in the first team. I'll be letting more senior players go in the summer so I have just the nucleus of key experienced players to supplement an army of academy products! I'll keep you posted...
 
rocco russo said:
I love this story keep up the good work
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Thanks mate, I'll be posting an in depth breakdown of the squad at the end of the season, just to update everyone on the young players I'm pinning my hopes on. Also there will be the annual update on Youth intake where I'll post screenies of the better players!
 
2016/17 - Season Finale inc. Youth Intake + Good News!

So we were out of Europe not long after making the group stages, but it didn't mean we had to have a bad season...

The Glory trail continued as we pummeled our adversaries into submission, although we lost a few along the way even at home in contrast to last season's unbeaten league campaign:

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The League Cup was the first of the season

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The league followed with 7 games to spare in February!

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As did the Irish Cup...

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And to my surprise, the All-Ireland Cup where we faced a very strong Dundalk side once again (we've played them in this competition, and Champions League qualifiers before; see previous pages). They actually made the Champions League group stages this season which shows that they are in fact a great little team from over the border.

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Not quite as dominant (slash unbeatable) as last season but we won the league with ease.

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Clean sweep of the top 3 in the Player of the Year awards, which Knowles won. I also claimed Manager of the Year courtesy of the instant result button!

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The Youth candidates this season were a very interesting bunch; A high quantity of quality made this a very good group. A total of 6 players who have definite first team futures, as I continue to build long term!

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As we head into the early pre-season a few quick updates on the club, and GREAT NEWS!!! We have finally been granted professional status by the powers that be! As if this wasn't good enough, our scouting range has been upgraded to anywhere in the world! It doesn't mean I'll be scouting Argentina for the next Messi, but I'll certainly be looking over that slither of water towards England as I look for some quality experienced pros to guide my youngsters

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There was even money left over from our Champions League adventure to secure upgrades to training and youth facilities for a 3rd successive off-season!

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Finally as this has been a long update, I will do the annual documentation of our rise as a club, league and nation in the UEFA rankings:

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As you can see, our club ranking has gone from 240+ to 120th in Europe, a massive jump entirely down to our Champions League group stage appearance! I'm not sure if we would be seeded next season if we make the group stages, but it's progress! The league could well be 2 1/2 star reputation next season if we can have a run in Europe, which would be brilliant for the standards here! As a nation we have now 2 2nd round Europa League spots also

Next post I'll most likely run through the full squad for next season, with profiles for all my players, since I know the last time I posted profiles for most of my players was in the Youth Intake and they have grown alot since then! This will be followed by European qualification when I get round to it.

Thanks for reading everyone who has gotten this far, please leave a comment because it's feedback that makes me want to keep on writing this up! (6)
 
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rocco russo said:
Nice youth intake
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It looks like 90% of the ability was given to just 5/6 players doesn't it? The fact I'm still getting 5 star potential players is brilliant, because I'm thinking that means championship level or above now surely! I just need some good tutors for the better ones.
 
Smendyke116 said:
Will other Northern Irish clubs go pro independently?
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Yes it happens independently, but as I've found out, it completely depends on bank balance (and predicted balance). I've been trying for 3 seasons but not had enough in the balance (even though the cost of going pro is low, only determined by the extra wages you'll pay players for signing on full-time as contracts aren't made FT automatically).

Hopefully a single group stage appearance will make other sides go pro but I think it will be at least a decade or 2 before everyone in our division is professional!
 
Great going so far mate!

It was about this stage of my Aberystwyth save last year where I started to pick up some really good regens from the likes of Jamaica and El Salvador. If you look through the national teams of the low reputation nations in North America and Africa you can sometimes pick up some really good young players who are still playing for teams in their own country, and since they'll have a few caps for the national side there shouldn't be any problems with work permits.

Keep up the good work!
 
Safc-mad-scotty said:
Great going so far mate!

It was about this stage of my Aberystwyth save last year where I started to pick up some really good regens from the likes of Jamaica and El Salvador. If you look through the national teams of the low reputation nations in North America and Africa you can sometimes pick up some really good young players who are still playing for teams in their own country, and since they'll have a few caps for the national side there shouldn't be any problems with work permits.

Keep up the good work!
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That's some solid advice, I'll keep an eye out, specially now I've got worldwide scouting range!
 
It would be great to get into the champions league group stages twice in a row, Keep up the good work!
 
2017/18 Pre-season + Champions League Qualifying

Transfers

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After re-negotiating almost every players' contract on Full-Time professional terms, I still had a sizable budget but decided to go for some good looking free-transfers. One thing I noticed in recent seasons is that despite having great tactics for possession, we rarely got above 55% due to poor passers in the midfield area (low passing/decisions/technique/touch). I made it my main mission to strengthen the midfield with guys who could retain the ball:

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We made a total of 4 signings, 1 of which was the re-signing of Jordan Owens after he was released following an injury to other strikers in the run-up to key qualifiers. The others are as follows:

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Aged 33, Richard Brittain boasts hugely impressive mental stats and can play both the Central Midfield and Defensive midfield. The thing that swung it for me was 13 passing and 17 decisions, combined with PPMs of No Through Balls, Curls Ball and Switches Ball to other Flank. If we're playing more of a Barca style, he can be our Busquets! 17 Determination and 18 Leadership was a good reason to make him captain, and the Spirited/Level-Headed combination makes him a good tutor also.

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Staying with the Barca style, if Brittain is our Busquets, Digby is our Xavi (who is his in game idol also!). He's young enough to develop into a nice DLP and will be tutored by Brittain as we look to mould a key cog for our side long-term!

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Jordan Jones is the Northern-Irish Iniesta, recently released from Middlesbrough. 16 dribbling and agility add excitement to some already decent creative ability and 14 technique. He could be great at unlocking defences in tight games!

This is the main tactic we use, along with the classic defensive 4-5-1. Note we now use a Regista due to Brittain slotting in there nicely:

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Here's the squad overview (I'll post individual players in the next update since it will be quite large). So many young players, but the experienced players are leading the way as it should be!

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Champions League Qualifiers


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The 2nd Round gave us an easy match-up against an Andorran side who we swept aside with ease. Our possession game saw us control 68% of the away leg, and they didn't have a shot as we won 3-0. In the second leg we went for more goals and won 3-1 with them scoring from their only shot in the 2 legs!

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Up next, Romanian side Pandurii and we pretty much wrapped it up with the 2-0 away win, allowing me to rotate the squad and give some younger guys the taste of blood. We went through 3-1 on aggregate.

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So far so good, but we were drawn against Celtic in the Play-offs. We had avoided them every season so far but inevitably we had to make the short trip to Glasgow. The first leg and despite a barrage on our goal, we managed to go in front twice through new signings Jones and Brittain to narrowly win 2-1. It gave us something (but not much) to defend in the second leg, where we went with the 4-5-1 defensive.

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Unfortunately they scored in the 21st minute, and when you set up to defend it's very hard to stem the tide of the match and go more attacking against good opposition. We were barraged once again but kept it at 1-0 for most of the match. Then finally with the last roll of the dice, we put together an attack in second half injury time and scored with our first shot!

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Burns' goal to ****** and grab qualification:

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UNBELIEVABLE!!!

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We snatched qualification for the Champions League right at the death, and in a way it's Karma after what happened at the same stage in the 15/16 season! In our group were Manchester City, Inter and Rubin Kazan. I'm actually quite happy with the group given I often get results against Inter with minnows, and City "should" beat the other two no problem.

There's more great news: Linfield made the Europa League group stages after beating CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria! The money and effect on our coefficient should be massive for next season!

Fixtures so far:

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Up Next: Profiles of every player in the first team (all good prospects included).
 
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Full Squad Profiles!

The transfer window shut, and this is what I'm working with for the forseeable future. With so many good youngsters, I'll be letting guys like McPake, Canning, Billy Joe Burns, Morrow, Owen and Hughes leave fairly soon!

Goalkeepers​

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Strikers
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What a way to get through to the group stages, you got so many good young players you could become a major European force in the next couple of years.
 
Amanado said:
What a way to get through to the group stages, you got so many good young players you could become a major European force in the next couple of years.
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My reaction when Burns scored was priceless, a mug was knocked over and I almost fell off my chair haha :D

I've never done a save like this, the youngsters are good enough already to dominate domestically and have the potential to grow into European competition in a few years. Linfield making the Europa group stages should be massive for the reputation of the league, we'll see come the end of the season anyway!
 
Champions League Group stages + round-up of 17/18 so far

Into the groups we went, and we actually didn't do as bad as many would have thought. We lost both games to City, who won all 6, including a narrow 2-1 defeat at home. We lost the other 2 away games and got draws at home to Rubin Kazan and Inter Milan. 0-2-4 with no whoopings isn't a disgrace:


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With Europe out of the way, here's the first half of the season in a nutshell:

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Glentoran have beaten us in both our league games so far, giving us our first home defeat in domestic football for well over 2 seasons. Other than that we have been fairly dominant and have pulled away from Glentoran and Linfield who, as the next 2 biggest clubs in Northern Ireland, will hopefully compete in next seasons Europa League and help further boost our leagues' reputation.

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They may beat us in the league, but Glentoran didn't stop us from claiming the first silverware on offer this season as we smashed them 5-0 to win the County Antrim Shield.

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Squad overview in descending order of appearances:

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And finally some more screenshots of interest. Note the Good Training facilities and Great Youth facilities, as well as our nice bank balance! (6) Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade Youth Recruitment at some point to ensure I get some (more) really talented players on a regular basis. I might look at combining the Crusaders and Northern Ireland job at some point in the future (when the current generation of England/Scotland based players retire).

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Just had a 5 million pound bid for 17-year-old striker Paul Henry from Liverpool and they pulled out when I asked for a 50% sell on fee. With 3 star Current Ability and 5 Star Potential, I hope I've made the right choice. He's definitely our best prospect up front (out of several, hence why I cancelled Jordan Owens' contract). In theory he should be worth more in a few years time!
 
rocco russo said:
shame you couldn't get by Kazan and into the Europa league knockouts
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We really needed to turn the home games against Inter/Rubin into wins for that to happen, but we'll be back! I'm looking forward to the days when we're capable of doing damage in the knockout rounds.
 
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