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FC Inter Turku - European Giant
A Club and Country Challenge

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With just a couple of Uni exams left and hopefully a bit more time to play FM, I have decided to embark on a long term club and country challenge with Finnish side FC Inter Turku. I'll be continuing my Sunderland story, however wanted something a little more challenging to play alongside it. I'm not taking charge of the national team to start with, as it's fair to say my knowledge of Finnish football isn't great so taking charge of two teams I'm completely unfamiliar wasn't something I was keen to do.

Why Finland?

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I was quite surprised to see that Finland have never qualified for the World Cup or the European Championships, and although they have a couple of decent prospects, they don't have any real world class players. Also, the league reputation is just two stars and the European coefficients for the league is pretty poor. Here is a few quick screenshots to see how the state of Finnish football looks at the start of the game...

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Why FC Inter Turku?

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Formed quite recently in 1990, FC Inter Turku have a pretty modest history, winning 1 Finnish title in 2008, however in recent years the league has been dominated by HJK Helsinki, so our first task will be to wrestle away their dominance from them. However, we do have a pretty decent set of facilities to go about our task with...

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So we have good training facilities and junior coaching (which I improved shortly after I arrived), whilst our youth recruitment is above average but our youth facilities are basic and will need improving. The board wants us to finish in the top half of the league, which I think should be achievable as our predicted finish is 5th (12 teams in the league).



Next update will be a review of the first transfer window in charge and a quick overview of the squad. I'm undecided on how I'll do the updates for this, although I will probably do yearly updates for the national team until I take over and then they might become more regular.

 

Save History:

FC Inter Turku:

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2014 - Finnish Premier League - Runners Up, Finnish Cup - 7th Round, Finnish League Cup - Runners Up
2015 - Finnish Premier League - 3rd, Finnish Cup - Runners Up, Finnish League Cup - Semi Final, Europa League - 4th in Group.
2016 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Runners Up, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Europa League - 3rd Qualifying Round.
2017 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - 1st Knockout Round
2018 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Quarter Final, Finnish Cup - Quarter Final, Champions League - 3rd in Group, Europa League - 1st Knockout Round
2019 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - Group Stage (Finished 4th in group)
2020 -
Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - Group Stage (Finished 4th in group)
2021 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - 1st Knockout Round
2022 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Semi Final, Champions League - 1st Knockout Round
2023 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - 3rd in Group, Europa League - Semi Final
2024 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - 1st Knockout Round
2025 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - Quarter Final
2026 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - 1st Knockout Round
2027 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - Winners
2028 - Finnish Premier League - Winners, Finnish Cup - Winners, Finnish League Cup - Winners, Champions League - In progress, European Super Cup - Winners, Club World Championsip - Winners

Finland:

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2014 - World Cup - Did not qualify. End of year world ranking - 73rd
2015 - End of year world ranking - 51st
2016 - European Championship - Did not qualify (Beaten in Playoff), End of year world ranking - 89th
2017 - End of year world ranking - 97th
2018 - World Cup - DNQ, End of year world ranking - 102nd
2019 - End of year world ranking - 71st
2020 - European Championship - DNQ, End of year world ranking - 51st
2021 - End of year world ranking - 32nd
2022 - World Cup - DNQ, End of year world ranking - 43rd
2023 - End of year world ranking - 25th
2024 - European Championship - 3rd in Group, End of year world ranking - 57th
2025 - End of year world ranking - 55th
2026 - World Cup - DNQ, End of year world ranking - 47th
2027 - End of year world ranking - 34th
2028 - European Championship - Quarter Final, End of year world ranking - 26th
 
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FC Inter Turku
An Introduction

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Transfers:

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With my lack of knowledge of Finnish football, I relied heavily on scout reports and agent offers for my incoming transfers. After releasing a few reserves to free some extra wages, I managed to bring in former Villa and Blackburn keeper Peter Enckelman as my back up keeper. I also brought in ex Leeds midfielder Jody Morris, who should do a job at this level and the other player I brought in I had never heard of, but they should all have some sort of role to play this season...

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Squad:

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I'm not too unhappy with the squad going into the season, however a couple of injuries to key players would probably make me change my mind. I'd say my best player who was already at the club was Finnish attacking midfielder Paajanen whilst the player I'm most excited about is a regen defensive midfielder who was generated in our youth team at the start of the game, Jani Ihalainen.

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Tactics:

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I'm using the same 2 tactics that I'm using on my Sunderland save, with the 4-2-3-1 being my first choice and the 4-3-3 being utilised in the harder fixtures.

Season Preview:

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5th favourites to win the league but I'm secretly hoping we can challenge, even though the board will be happy with just a top half finish. Also, would be nice to win one of the cup competitions, but I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how the season pans out as I'm not really sure of the quality of other teams in the league.



Next update will be a Finnish League Cup Group Stage Update...

 
I like a good club & country story :)

remember I tried something similar in FM11 in Finland but the super-long winter break killed me...
 
I like a good club & country story :)

remember I tried something similar in FM11 in Finland but the super-long winter break killed me...

Yeah, not exactly sure how the Finnish League works but I'm sure I'll find out as I go! Hoping for a Finnish Paolone in my first youth intake XD
 
Good luck mate. I've been looking into doing a similar story along the lines of a club & country save, was looking at Finland too, but that's ok, I can look elsewhere, haha. Will be following for sure, really enjoy your stories and layout. :)
 
Yeah, not exactly sure how the Finnish League works but I'm sure I'll find out as I go! Hoping for a Finnish Paolone in my first youth intake XD

maybe he will have Swedish dual nationality and will wait until 24 to join Finland :p
 
Looking forward to seeing how this develops. I always like Scandinavian stories.
 

FC Inter Turku
League Cup 2014

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Fixtures:

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So the start to the domestic season in Finland sees us take part in the league Cup, where we took on HJK Helsinki, RoPS and MYPA in the group stage. The tournament had a very pre-season feel to it as players played the first few games short of match fitness and still getting use to the new tactics. Fortunately, a 3-1 away victory against RoPS was enough to see us slip into second place in the group and progress to the quarter finals, where we then went on to advance past KuPS in a very tight penalty shootout. Next up in the semi's was the current champions HJK, and to my surprise we managed to turn them over 2-0 at their own stadium and progress to the final, where we would play FC Lahti...

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Unfortunately, we couldn't get our first piece of silverware as they steamrolled us out of the blocks with two early goals. We threatened a comeback when we pulled it back to 2-1 in the second half, but they caught us on the counter as we pushed for an equalizer and it was game over from there. Overall, I feel it was a quite promising start to the season for the lads, however consistency did seem to be a little bit of an issue through the whole pre-season.


Other News:

1)
We got a new parent club in Swiss side Grasshoppers, hopefully we may see a Finnish regen or two come through there in the future...

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2)
Only one of our players made the recent Finnish squad, right winger Mika Ojala.

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Next update will be an April review, with the first 4 league games of the season...


 

FC Inter Turku
April and May 2014

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Fixtures:

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The league season started absolutely terribly, with two away defeats being followed by an embarrassing exit in the Finnish Cup to first division side FC Haka. Things did start to pick up a little with 5 points from the next 3 games, including a couple of really drab 0-0 draws. It now looks as though we may be starting to turn things around though, as 4 wins from the last 5 has shot us up the table to where we are expected to be. The 4-1 defeat against IFK was disappointing but they look a pretty strong team and we were missing quite a few players.

Player of the Update - Severi Paajanen:

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3 goals and 4 assists from the influential Finnish midfielder so far this season.

Player Stats:

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A lot of our attacking players have had great individual performances, however lack the consistency to put the performances in on a regular basis.

League Table:

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Only 5 points behind the leaders, however I don't think a title challenge is realistic judging by the performances of the team so far. My personal target is to Finnish (See what I did there) in the top 3 in order to bring some form of European football for next season, which should help our dodgy looking finances.

Other News:

1)
Our finances aren't looking great to say the least, don't think it's too much to worry about at this stage and hopefully the board start to pump a bit of money in to help us get back in the black.

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2)
Despite this, I can't resist stretching my wage budget further to bring in an exciting looking 16 year old English regen centre midfielder. 5 star potential and has the ability to go into the first team straight away. The only strange thing about him though is the fact he didn't have a club before us so I don't know how/where he was generated.

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3)
We got our highest attendance of the season so far in the Turku derby against TPS, which was 6,362. Considering our regular attendances are around 1,300, it was a nice jump. Also, I think it shows that there is a potential for a nice fan base if we can improve the club and league reputation.

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Next update will be a June and July review, I've decided that I'll be doing bimonthly updates for the time being. Are people interested in the club side of things (Finances, player development etc), or just results, player stats, league tables etc?

 
Decent start Scotty, at least you won't have to go up three divisions until you get in Europe this time :p
 

FC Inter Turku
June and July 2014

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Fixtures:

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Inconsistency is once again our main problem, however towards the end of the month it looked like we were starting to get on a roll with 10 points from 4 games. The main disappointment was a 3-0 away defeat to KuPS, who were bottom of the league at the time and the highlight was the 3-2 victory in the Turku derby against TPS.

Player of the Update - Tamas Gruborovics

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The Hungarian midfielder is one of the first names on the team sheet and comes up with some important goals and assists.

Player Stats:

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League Table:

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Still 4th in the league but only 4 points behind the leader, so it could be possible that we might mount a title challenge with 14 games to go. Next game is a big one against 2nd place IFK.

Other News:

1)
The Finnish League has moved up 6 places to 39th in the competition rankings, whilst we move up 28 places to 250th in the European club coefficient rankings. Also, the league has moved up 2 places in the coefficient rankings, meaning we will have a team in the Europa League 2nd qualifying round, as opposed to 3 in the first round.

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2)
We make another new signing in the shape of young English striker Coulthirst on a free after being released by Spurs. I think he'll be a great addition to the squad and give us a genuine game changing option off the bench which we have missed.

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Next up will be a August and September review, can we manage to build a title challenge or slip into mid-table mediocrity?
 

FC Inter Turku
August and September 2014

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Fixtures:

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Another couple of great months for us, as we finally start to show a real consistency that was missing through the first half of the season. The stand out game by far was the away tie against VPS, who were 3 points ahead of us at the time at the top. We went down to 10 men after just 15 minutes, but somehow we managed to pull it out of the bag as 4 goals from Coulthirst saw us win 4-2 and pull level with them at the top!

Player of the Update - Shaquile Coulthirst

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10 goals over the two months for the new striker, as he tries to show Spurs that they shouldn't have released him!

Player Stats:

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The amount of attacking players with a high average rating shows that we're probably better going forward than we are defensively.

League Table:

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With 4 games to go, we only sit behind leaders VPS on goal difference, so it's still all to play for! RoPS are also only 3 points behind us aswell so they are still in with a shout...

First Youth Intake:

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A very nice looking first youth intake, with 4 players who I'm hoping could all be future first team stars and possibly internationals. However, it's hard to judge their actual potential considering we have to compare it our current players. Anyway, here are the 4 players...

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Other News:

1)
FC Lahti completed a Finnish League Cup and Finnish Cup double, beating HJK 5-1 in the Finnish Cup final.

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2)
Our finances look horrible, despite the fact I'm actually under the allocated wage budget!

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Next update will be an October review, can we win the Finnish League title in our first season in charge?

 

FC Inter Turku
October 2014

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Fixtures:

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****! After beating FC Lahti we went to the top of the league, however we well and truly choked in the last 3 games as we only picked up 2 points from the last 3, throwing away the title!

League Table:

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So... VPS win the league by 5 points and we'll have to settle for a place in the Europa League qualifiers next year. Obviously, you get nowhere near as much money in the EL qualifiers so it is another reason to be disappointed about missing out on the league title!



Next up will be an end of season review...

 
youth intake looks primising.

what's the story of that emilio pagliarini guy? italian/finnish?
 
Unlucky in the league mate but the youth intake looks decent
 
youth intake looks primising.

what's the story of that emilio pagliarini guy? italian/finnish?

Yeah he is, first thing I checked when I got the intake XD

Unlucky in the league mate but the youth intake looks decent

Thought we were going to take it after the win against Lahti but it wasn't to be. Have a few promising young players already though, really been surprised by the quality of player I've been able to sign so far. Don't think we would look out of place in League 1 if we were in the English league system...
 

FC Inter Turku
Season 1 Review - 2014

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Finnish Premier League - 2nd

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Finnish Cup - 7th Round

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Finnish League Cup - Runners Up

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Fans Player of the Season - Youssef El-Akchaoui

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Best 11:

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So this was just a quick Season review, couldn't really think of anything else to put in it. Next update will be a 2015 preview, including a review of how our Finnish League Cup journey for the season...
 

Finland
2014

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Fixtures:

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Obviously I'm not in charge of the national team, but I thought it would be good to look back at how Finland did in 2014. Their best result was a credible 1-1 draw away to England at Wembley, and they got 4 points from the first two qualifying bad games, it wasn't a bad year for the Finnish nation. However, there was poor results against Canada and Australia, possibly showing a lack of quality in trying to break down the poorer sides...

Euro 2016 Qualifying Group:

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Top two qualify for the Euro's and third place goes into a play off. I think we could nick 2nd but would also be very happy with 3rd.

Player of the Year - Roman Eremenko:

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Under 21 Player of the year - Joel Pohjanpalo

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Best 11:

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Next up will be the pre-season and League Cup update...

 
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