Improving Ireland with Sligo Rovers

[Hampus Silverholt]

I've read this and your Berwick Rangers save over the last few days - you've done amazing work in those teams and I've got to say, I really enjoy reading your writing.

Best of luck in the Champions League and the Euros!

Cheers mate glad you enjoyed both stories! I think we'll need all the luck in the world now that I know who the Champions League opponents are!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Hala Madrid

It might’ve been a successful Champions League group stage for us but the same can’t be said for Shamrock Rovers.

In fairness they did their job by getting to the group stage. Dundalk however were disappointing after finishing bottom of their Europa League group.

For some reason it's saying that 6 Irish teams will be in Europe next year but I think that’s a glitch.

Cobh will go into the Champions League qualifying rounds with Shamrock going straight into the Europa League group stage. Dundalk and Cork will attempt to join them there by winning their qualifiers.

For the Champions League last 16 draw the potential opponents were daunting… and we got the glamour tie!

Real Madrid are coming to town! I’m not even that bothered that we’ll get smashed I just think it’s great that we’re playing Real Madrid in the knockout rounds of the Champions League!

The reason for my lack of confidence is that our two best players will be going back to their parent clubs. PSG will not let us have Renato back when we could kind of do with him in the team against Real.

Whilst Milorad Sveljo will finally be going to Barcelona after we sold him to them for £37m but ensured that we got him on loan for 18 months.

Our squad on the whole is very young and talented but not good enough to beat the likes of Real Madrid. We’re at the point where we need to sign young players and develop them as signing the finished article is just too expensive.

So next season we have the Champions League knockout rounds and EURO 2028 to look forward to!

Irish Football Summary – 2027

National Team Ranking: 49th (was 51st​ in 2026)
Nation Coefficient Ranking: 8th (was 8th​ in 2026)
Airtricity Premier League Players in Ireland Squad: 7

Irish Teams in Europe:

Shamrock: 4th in CL group stage
Dundalk: 4th​ in EL group stage
Cobh: Lost to Roma in EL 3rd​ qualifying round
Cork: Lost to ADO Den Haag in EL 3rd​ qualifying round​

 

[FMSunflash]

I've really enjoyed this story, thinking of my own whereby I'll take an under performing country and try to improve them. Perhaps USA?

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I've really enjoyed this story, thinking of my own whereby I'll take an under performing country and try to improve them. Perhaps USA?

Glad you're enjoying it! And I think I could only do these types of saves with European clubs, I've never done a save in America just because I have no idea how the MLS draft and registration rules work. You should definitely try it out though if you're keen on doing a long term save!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

2028 Season Preview

The first news of what could be one of the most important years of the save was that the board have decided to expand the size of the stadium.

For some reason I’ve never really been bothered about the stadium in this save and I still don’t think we have enough fans to warrant a new one being built. We’re still playing our European games at the R.D.S Arena in Dublin.

Onto transfers... and after playing just 19 games for Sligo Artem Sitnikov has left the club.

We’ve sold him for £23m to Borussia Dortmund when this time last year we bought him for £7m. It might be a mistake but he is injury prone and the offer was too good to refuse.

Part of the reason for letting him go is because I have been scouting a more than adequate replacement. Jesus Montoya has joined for £4m from Dinamo Zagreb.

I’ve not been able to sign Colombian regens in this save (something I did frequently with Berwick) because none have wanted to join. Now they all want to join!

Another Colombian at Sligo is right winger Javier Perez who has signed for £900,000 from Millionarios.

He is joined by central midfielder Johan Gutierrez who has joined for just £425,000 from Independiente.

We don’t actually need them, but they were too cheap to turn down so at some point players are going to be annoyed with lack of football.

Our last transfer in was a familiar face. After thinking he was gone forever, Milorad Sveljo has immiedtaely joined us back on loan.

Barca were willing to let him go on loan without us paying for his wages. Yes please!

Our first game of the 2028 season will be at home against Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League. They’re top of the league and have one of the best players in the world in Fiete Arp.

It’s out first knockout action in the Champions League and I can’t say I’m expecting much…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Oh What A Night

Sligo v Real Madrid. It was our first game of the season, our first competitive game in over 3 months and against one of the best teams in the world. It was never going to end well.

Our first shot of the game came in the 46th​ minute, turns out it wasn’t a bad thing.

Then it all went a bit crazy.

We were 3-1 up at one point! Then with 5 mins left our young right back picked up his second yellow card of the match.

It was backs against the wall for us to try and protect our lead for the last 5 minutes.

Then substitute David Shaw had a free kick outside the area.

Was I seeing things? Were Sligo beating Real Madrid 4-2?

Yes they were and yes they did. What a result!

Leandro Machado and centre back Filip Cvjeticanin were our two outstanding players.

David Shaw is not good enough to get into the Scotland squad but good enough to score against Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16.

How on earth do you approach the second leg now?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Almost...

In what I can only describe as the most Football Manager thing ever, after beating Real Madrid we lost to Limerick in the first game of our league season.

It’s our first loss in the league in 90 matches, that’s 2 years and 7 months! It means we also had the bizarre experience of being bottom of the league.

Thankfully we won our two games after that to at least give us some form going into the return leg at the Bernabau.

What we needed was to keep it tight in the first half and not concede an early goal, for instance conceding after 24 seconds wouldn’t be great.

But we responded brilliantly, having a goal disallowed before Oliver Batista Meier popped up unmarked at the back post.

5-3 on aggregate to us, things were looking promising but Real got another before half time.

And unfortunately it was £81m signing Sebastien Simon who was just too good for us.

We performed admirably over two legs and there’s no shame losing to a team as good as Real Madrid, with players as good as Simon, 7-5 on aggregate.

So our first taste of Champions League knockout action ends as expected but we will be back.

We have a lot of domestic fixtures to play first but my attention has now turned to taking Ireland into EURO 28.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Group of Death

We’re now into the start of June where we are currently 8 points clear at the top of the league.

Shamrock and Cobh are slowly getting better and better and making things more difficult for us. We also broke Shamrock’s record of the highest league attendance in Ireland thanks to our stadium expansion.

Real Madrid were knocked out by PSG in the quarter finals of the Champions League. The French champions eventually went onto lose against Man City in the final.

But all of the above is a distraction, EURO 2028 is where it is at!

I’ve now been in charge of over 50 Ireland games and it has all led up to this point.

For the group stage draw we were seeded first, so I expected to get quite a favourable group.

Oh how wrong I was.

Does that constitute as the group of death?

As far as I can tell, it’s the same format as previous EUROs as I know them apart from the fact that there is a second round. So we could finish third in the group and still progress, which might be our best chance of getting through.

14 Sligo players will be going to the EUROs and 3 will also being representing their nations at the Copa America this summer.

Here’s the Ireland squad I’ve selected, it contains 11 real players and 12 regens.

Now we have 3 friendly games to get through with no injuries before we play Portugal in our first match. I can’t wait!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Ireland EURO 2028 Starting XI

EURO 2028. It’s Ireland’s first major tournament in 12 years and our first game is against Portugal who are the best team in the group.

We have a full strength squad and I’d love to screenshot every player but uploading images on FMbase is impossible without them appearing as attachments. So as a compromise, here is the starting line-up for that game.

GK - John O’Neill

First choice for Spurs and Ireland, one of the best players in the squad and should easily get 100+ caps.

RB - Adrian Devaney

One of two players from the Sligo academy in the starting XI

CB - Conor Masterson

Has been with Sligo since the very start of the save and is now captain of his country going into EURO 28.

CB - Paul Douglas

Came through the Cork academy and after moves to Sligo and Arsenal has just helped Lazio finish 2nd​ in Serie A

LB - Adam Lewis

Gained Irish citizenship after spending 5 years at Sligo and has been first choice left back for Ireland ever since.

CM - Jayson Molumby

Plays for Scottish champions Hearts and will be our deep lying playmaker

CM - Brian Miles

Manchester United produced and has spent 2 seasons on loan at Sligo. Recently had a loan spell at Burnley and helped keep them in the Premier League.

AMR - Ryan Cassidy

Key player for the Sevilla team that got to the Europa League semi-finals. Will play as our right winger in our 4-2-3-1 system.

AMC - Sean Travers

Another player that came through the Cork academy. Spent 3 seasons at Sligo before his move to the Premier League.

AML - Eoin Sheridan

Has been a Sligo player for 7 years after we signed him from Shamrock Rovers. Has more international goals than any other player in the squad with 16.

ST - Steve Keady

Produced by Sligo before we sold him for £18m to Leicester a few years back. Has not been prolific for Ireland so this tournament could be a perfect time to change that.


Here we go…
​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

EURO 2028

Portugal are ranked ninth in the world and have many world class players... So 1-1 draw was a brilliant way for us to start the group stage.

Jayson Molumby scored our first goal at a major tournament in 12 years with a screamer from just outside the area.

It was a great result as we needed to get something from either Portugal or Holland to have a chance of going through. That was because I was confident of beating Iceland, who were our next opponents.

Despite a 4 day gap between fixtures, a lot of our squad were already very tired so I decided to make 4 changes to the starting line up against Iceland

It wasn’t the best of ideas.

It’s a game we should’ve won and I have no idea how we didn’t. I was furious when we went 2-0 down and we just about kept ourselves in the competition with two second half goals.

Holland beat Portugal in the other group game to guarantee that they would finish top of the group

. That meant we needed to get something from our final match versus Holland and for Iceland and Portugal to draw.

When Eoin Sheridan scored in the final minute against the Dutch I thought he had taken us to the next round.

All we needed was a draw between Portugal and Iceland.

Portugal’s win meant that they qualified at our expense and we were reliant on the results from other groups to be one of the best teams to finish in third place.

But it was not to be.

4 points were needed to get through, the Iceland result was our undoing after impressive points against the much superior Holland and Portugal.

So, that was a somewhat anticlimactic performance at the EUROs. The Irish FA were happy with it but I thought we could progress to the second round at least.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Summer 2028 Transfers

EURO 28 mania made me put aside Sligo transfers but there was a lot going on and a lot of money involved.

Spain were the country that won the EUROs in the end by beating France in the final.

Our group stage opponents Portugal and Holland were both knocked out at the second round stage. Serves them right!

And we’ve also been given our Nations League group.

Ireland, England and Germany all in one group, should be uneventful…

-

When I said there was a lot going on with Sligo transfers, by that I meant a lot of players leaving.

Firstly, Vojislav Zivadinovic has joined Watford for £16m.

He was 4th​ choice centre back for us, yet after signing him for £500,000 we still managed to sell him for a hefty fee so the move made sense.

Simon Pattison has joined Premier League Swansea for £12m.

He was one of Sligo’s longest serving players, so much so that he’s gained Irish citizenship and will be in my next Ireland squad. However, it made sense to sell him as he was only going to be back up for us and with 103 goals in all competitions I’m pretty sure he’s one of the highest scorers in Sligo history.

Then it all got a bit hectic. Firstly, Steve Keady moved from Leicester to Everton for £50m and because of a sell-on clause we installed into the last deal, we got more than £15m for doing nothing.

He’s been fairly consistent for Leicester but it was still a surprise when Everton forked up big money for him.

The Irish transfer window ends before the English one so there was still time for one more transfer out and it is a significant one… Jakub Vana has joined Man City for £45.5m.

That’s right, £45.5m. I honestly negotiated that price as a joke and Man City actually accepted. We spent £2m on him as a 16 year old and we have 2 decent players in his position so once again the move made sense. Plus, it’s £45m for a Sligo player!

We were extremely close to selling centre back Losseni Diallo for even more money when Bayern Munich offered £56m for him.

£56m is ridiculous but we need to try and not be a selling club
and Diallo’s determination plus his insane physical stats made me realise that he would be hard to replace.

And with £150m in the bank, we really didn’t need the money!

The only player to come into Sligo is centre back Matan Avraham from Israeli side Beitar Yerushalayim.

We have a number of players to cover centre back but Avraham intrigued me. I’ve never signed an Israeli regen before and his physical stats along with determination, marking and tackling made me think it was worth spending £1.3m on him.

The mad transfer window made little difference to results on the pitch as we are still top of the league.

I’m excited to see how fellow Irish teams get on in the qualifying rounds of Europe. Dundalk and Cork are in the Europa League Third Round whereas Cobh will face Austria Wien in the Champions League Third Round. We could still have 5 Irish teams get to the group stages!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Champions League Group Stage Opponents 2028

Cobh Ramblers are in the Champions League group stage. How surreal does that sound?

After defeating Austria Wien and Celtic in the qualifying rounds, Cobh are into the group stages and all it took was an overpowered tactic and controlling their transfers.

Their task is to do better than Shamrock did last season by getting more than 0 points…

Our Champions League group, on the other hand, has third place written all over it.

Spurs beat us in the Europa League final 3 years back and Real Madrid beat us in the last 16 of the Champions League earlier this year. If we finish in the top 2 it’ll be a miracle.

By finishing third in the league in 2027, Shamrock Rovers automatically went into the Europa League group stage.

Like Cobh, I have a manager in charge of them for transfers so I can holiday the games using an overpowered tactic. Because of this I’m hopeful that they’ll finish in the top 2.

Dundalk and Cork both lost at the fourth qualifying round, so it is just the 3 Irish teams that reached the group stages.

We’ve also had more transfer news, the first of which was that former player Paul Douglas moved from Lazio to PSG for big money.

It’s a bit annoying as he is Ireland’s best centre back but won’t get much game time for PSG.

The final transfer news of 2028 is that long serving midfielder David Shaw has left to join Hearts for £10m.

He was our first transfer over £1m and was brilliant for us but I just think that we’re better off giving playing time to younger players who can develop into a better player than he is. It’s also interesting how we signed him from Hibs and now he has joined the other half of Edinburgh.

Next up for Sligo is our first Champions League group stage game of the season against Spurs.

They’re currently second in the Premier League after winning all 6 of their games yet they’re not even the best team in our group!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Real Madrid's Bogeyteam

I was not expecting much in our first Champions League group stage match against one of the best teams in England.

But we managed to ****** a win against Pep Guardiola’s side despite them having twice as many shots as us.

The person who scored the goal versus Spurs was Leandro Machado, who is by far our best player.

So it was great when he picked up a 4 week injury in our next league game. It kept him out of our next 2 Champions League games.

Thankfully we have a team good enough to beat Dinamo Zagreb without him.

And even though we rotate our team pretty much every game, we are still the best team in Ireland by a long way.

Just the 9 league titles in a row!

However we were knocked out of the FAI Cup by Cork because the semi final was played in the middle of an international break when all of our players were unavailable and we had no option to reschedule the fixture.

Those circumstances annoyed me but it was all forgotten when we played Real Madrid in our third Champions League game.

That’s the second time we’ve beat them in this save and unlike the Spurs game we actually deserved to win!

So after thinking Spurs and Real would be far too strong for us, surely now we’re into the last 16 of the Champions League for the second season in a row.

Elsewhere Cobh look on course to finishing third in their Champions League group.

Shamrock Rovers are also dominating their Europa League group.

We could have 3 Irish teams in the knockout rounds of European competition!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Giant Killers

We achieved one of the best results in Irish football history by beating England in the Nations League.

It wasn’t just the score, it was the manner in which we won as we tore them apart. Steve Keady has come a long way since coming through the Sligo youth intake in 2021.

And he scored again in the next game against Germany to send us into the Nations League semi-final!

We’re still ranked 42nd​ in the world but surely we’ll be climbing up the rankings now. Next summer we’ll face France in the semi-final.

Back with Sligo and our fourth group stage game was undoubtedly the toughest at the Bernabeu.

3-2 wasn’t really a bad result at all but they deserved to win by more. However it shows that we’re not far away from competing with the big boys.

If we drew our next game against Spurs then that would see us through to the last 16 of the Champions League. They just so happened to have won all 14 of their Premier League games this season though.

But that didn’t matter as we beat them for the second time this season to qualify for the last 16.

A draw was probably a more fair result but for once we seem to be getting a bit of luck when playing the bigger teams!

Because we scored two away goals against Real, if we beat Dinamo Zagreb in our final group stage game we would finish top of our Champions League group of death.

We almost bottled it, but two late goals ensured we topped a Champions League group for the first ever time.

The luck seems to be on our side! I’m starting to think if we get a nice draw that we might be able to get past the last 16!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

2028 Season Review

It’s been a very interesting season for Sligo and Irish football as a whole (apart from EURO 2028!)

After losing the first game of the season against Limerick, we recovered to finish with 97 points in the league.

In terms of Europe, it was our most successful season so far and the same can be said for both Shamrock Rovers and Cobh Ramblers.

Cobh finished third in their Champions League group whereas Shamrock topped their Europa League group.

That meant both went into the Europa League last 32.

Shamrock were unlucky in drawing our Champions League group stage opponents Spurs, whereas Cobh will fancy their chances against Shakhtar Donetsk.

As for us? In the Champions League last 16 we’ll face Napoli.

I don’t want to tempt fate but it is a good draw for us. Napoli are third in Serie A and there were a lot of stronger teams who we could’ve faced.

Unfortunately, Milorad Sveljo won’t be available for that game as he’ll be back at Barcelona. It’s the same situation as last year so we’ll have to wait and see if they make him available for loan again.

Two players who we need to keep hold of in the transfer window are Leandro Machado and Tomas Kolar.

Machado scored 36 goals in 30 games this season for us whereas Kolar is one of our best players despite only being 19.

One more player to mention is back up striker Alan McCabe.

He’s gone from a player I was considering selling to a more than capable back up to Machado with 29 goals this season.

Finally, our 2030 World Cup Qualification Group has been drawn. Scotland are our main challengers but hopefully we can finish top as one of the main aims of the save is to take Ireland into a World Cup.

Irish Football Summary – 2028

National Team Ranking: 43rd (was 49th in 2027)
Nation Coefficient Ranking: 9th (was 8th​ in 2027)
Airtricity Premier League Players in Ireland Squad: 9 (plus 6 English Premier League players)

Irish Teams in Europe:

Cobh: 3rd​ in Champions League group
Shamrock: 1st​ in Europa League Group
Dundalk: Lost to Basel in EL 4th​ Qualifying Round
Cork: Lost to SC Olhanense in EL 4th​ Qualifying Round

See you next season! Our first game of the year will be away against Napoli in the Champions League Knockout Round.​

 

[JonoMUFC]

So I just binge read this all in one night and like doing it with 4 seasons of GoT a few years ago I'm dying for more!

Great work mate, will take a look at your Berwick story for sure

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

So I just binge read this all in one night and like doing it with 4 seasons of GoT a few years ago I'm dying for more!

Great work mate, will take a look at your Berwick story for sure

Hahaha glad you're enjoying it mate and you'll be there for a while if you read the whole Berwick story! Will definitely keep this save going until the 2030 World Cup at least and hopefully we can get further than the last 16 of the Champions League at some point

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

2029 Season Preview

It was a quiet January transfer window for us, which seems a strange thing to say given that we had over £100m to spend. However the important thing is that none of our key players departed the club.

The reason for that is because the players who will make a difference to the starting XI are still too expensive for us, especially when it comes to wage demands. Because of that we have to try and buy the best young players in the world if the big clubs haven't got to them already.

The only first team player to join us is Milorad Sveljo who again arrives on loan from Barcelona.

For the past two seasons Barca have decided to make him return only to list him for loan again in January. This will be his 4th​ season on loan at Sligo.

Our first game of the season will be in the last 16 of the Champions League versus Napoli.

They’re fourth in the league and, having beaten Real Madrid and Spurs in the group stage last year, we should really be aiming to get through to the quarter finals. That doesn’t stop them being favourites for the first leg though.

We have no injuries to worry about but first choice left back Jesus Montoya is suspended so Adam Lewis will be starting in Naples.

He is entering his 11th​ year at the club and it is remarkable that he’s still good enough to be backup in this Sligo side and I have no hesitation in putting him into the starting XI in such a big game.

Here we go then, can we get to the Champions League Quarter Final?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Easy!

This is the second ever time we’ve reached the last 16 of the Champions League. Last season Real Madrid knocked us out at this stage but Napoli represented a far weaker opponent.

What a result for our first game of 2029! Leandro Machado is the man and put us within touching distance of the last 8!

We had a couple of domestic games to play before Napoli came to Ireland for the second leg.

4-1! 8-3 on aggregate! Champions League quarter finals here we come!

Leandro Machado keeps on producing and I think it is fair to say that he is not far from world class.

So it was wonderful of him to pick up an injury for a month.

He should be fit for both quarter final games though!

Elsewhere, Shamrock were defeated by Spurs in the last 32 of the Europa League

But Cobh just keep on winning! They saw off Shakhtar Donetsk to set up a last 16 tie with Arsenal.

There was no preferable draw for us in the quarter final as every remaining team was top class.

Sligo will play Manchester United in the Champions League quarter final. What a tie that is!

They’re top of the Premier League and have a squad littered with world-class players so I’m not expecting much.

But we’ve beaten Real Madrid in the Champions League this season and football can be a funny old game sometimes…​

 

[chrism94]

Thoroughly enjoy following this save just like the Berwick one man also very funny especially the Cretaro bits XD Being from Ireland myself I never did an Irish save but currently have started one with Shelbourne my local team from reading this. I reckon the reason Scotland are doing so well in this save is because of the legend Scott Scott the Scot