Improving Ireland with Sligo Rovers

[Hampus Silverholt]

2026 Season Preview

So, it’s 2026 and we’re into our 9th​ season as Sligo manager. It’s been a tough January transfer window mainly because of this.

The players we need to sign to improve the team simply do not want to join us!

The only piece of business we’ve been able to do is to sign Simon Pattison permanently for £1.5m from Liverpool. He’s spent the last 3 seasons on loan at Sligo and his contract was expiring in the summer.

The major news from the transfer window though is that star midfielder Milorad Sveljo has been sold to Barcelona.

He is undoubtedly going to be world class but £37m and loaned back to us for 2 years? That’s surely got to be the greatest bit of business ever.

Meanwhile, on the pitch the season could not have started any better for us.

Ignacio Lagos scored a hattrick to virtually send us through to the Europa League second knockout round.

The second leg was solid yet unspectacular.

The Europa League journey is happening again!

Is what I thought until I saw the draw.

They’re only 5th​ in Serie A but Inter Milan are the favourites to progress. The board only expect us to get to the second round anyway so we have nothing to lose.​

 

[Emirali]

Been reading this on and off for a couple of weeks at work and finally caught up. Loving the journey so far, hopefully can make the leap soon into the last 16 of the Champo League- think of the money! First time i've ever commented on a post so i hope i've done this right lol

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Been reading this on and off for a couple of weeks at work and finally caught up. Loving the journey so far, hopefully can make the leap soon into the last 16 of the Champo League- think of the money! First time i've ever commented on a post so i hope i've done this right lol

Cheers mate. I don't think we're far away from making the last 16 of the Champions League so hopefully we can do it this time next year!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

No Final This Time

Our Europa League Second Knockout round tie against Inter Milan could not have started any better.

One nil up at the San Siro after 2 minutes, what could go wrong?

Brilliant. Inter were lethal and we could not handle them all match.

Unfortunately there were no miracles in the second leg. We will not be making the Europa League final like we did last season.

I’m slightly worried that the tactic is faltering. Apparently we’re having too many long shots but taking too many touches in the opposition area…

Unless they score, whoever plays as the striker averages 6.4 or less so we need to work out how to get them most out of them using this system.

The Inter result means that we’ll have nothing but domestic football to concentrate on for the next 6 months, as we’ll go straight into the Champions League group stage next season.

For now we’re playing catch up as we play our games that were rescheduled because of our Europa League run.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Unbeaten Season?

After the disappointment of the Europa League we've played a lot of domestic games and we’re into the summer of 2026, which is the halfway mark of our season.

We could be on for an unbeaten season in the league for the first time in the save especially because we won’t have Champions League qualifiers to contend with.

Talking of which, Adam Lewis was the highest rated player in the 2025/26 Champions League and picked up 11 assists!

Annoyingly we beat Bayern Munich 3-0 on our way to finishing third in the group and they went on all the way to the semi finals of the competition!

They were eventually knocked out by Spurs, who then lost to Manchester United in the final. Ireland keeper John O’Neil started for Spurs in that match.

That brings us to Ireland and our Nations League group. I forgot we won our last group so have to contend with 2 games against France and Croatia this time round. Great.

But I won’t worry about getting smashed by them for now.

Ever since selling Sveljo to Barcelona we’ve had a fat chunk of money lying in our bank.

If we can find the right players who can improve the team in the upcoming summer transfer window, then that money will be spent.

Finally, Ireland has risen to 8th​ in the coefficient rankings despite us not having the best season in Europe.

There are only 10 teams in the league and next season 6 of them will be in Europe!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

2026 Summer Transfers

The summer transfer window has been and gone and we’ve been quite busy.

Firstly we’ve let Ignacio Lagos join Borussia Dortmund for £6.5m in what might not be the best decision I’ve made.

He wanted to leave, had a match highest earner clause in his contract that was doing my head in and I want to give a chance to a younger player in his position so I let him go on the cheap.

Another player to leave is Irish international Sean Travers. He joins Bournemouth for £2m.

It’s again not the best deal but we have Brad McGregor coming through the ranks and I’d rather give him the game time. We signed him for £200,000 from Hearts in January.

Our first signing was a player we didn’t really need, but was too good to turn down. Centre back Renato joins us on loan from PSG.

I never thought I’d see a player valued at £52m at Sligo.

Finally, the culmination of our transfer window is the signing of Leandro Machado from Nacional in Uruguay.

He was just £3m and looks like he’ll be something special. All we have to do now is get a tactic that gets him more involved in the game.

In the league, we are still unbeaten with just 9 games remaining.

It’s so strange not playing any Champions League qualifiers and actually playing one game a week!

But the unbeaten record might be under threat because we have our Champions League group stage games coming up.

We were seeded third and will face current holders Man United as well as Bayer Leverkusen. Again, qualifying for the last 16 is going to be incredibly difficult.

Elsewhere Cobh Ramblers (yes I’ve still got a manager in charge of them) are the only other Irish team left in Europe.

They automatically qualified for the Europa League group stage and will face Benfica, Legia Warsaw and Maccabi Tel Aviv!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Europa League Bound

Our Nations League campaign has got underway and suddenly I love international management.

Somehow we beat France, the third best team in the world, 5-2! The result and performance came out of nowhere and was thanks to Ryan Cassidy and Sligo produced Steve Keady.

We needed a performance like that for Sligo when we took on Champions League holders Manchester United in our first group stage game.

They’re a class apart and I struggle to see how one day we’ll overtake teams like them.

As expected we beat 4th​ seeds Besiktas thanks to a hattrick from left back Adam Lewis.

I cannot emphasise how much love I have for Adam Lewis. He’s been at Sligo since 2019, gained Irish citizenship and never puts in a bad performance.

However our Champions League campaign will be defined by two games against Bayer Leverkusen.

Despite a good performance we lost to them and it’s already looking like we’ll go into the Europa League knockout rounds for the third season in a row.

It’s annoying because we played well, there’s just not much you can do when you are paired with two teams who are better than you.

In the league, we’ve still maintained our unbeaten record even with a game against Derry in the middle of an international break, which forced us to play 4 players who had just come through the youth intake.

All we need to do now is beat Man United and Bayer Leverkusen…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Invincibles

We’ve completed an unbeaten season for the first time in the save but still with one less point than our record of 103!

We also won the FAI Cup thanks to a last minute extra time winner against Dundalk.

I think it’s gone under the radar just how dominant we’ve been in Irish football over the last few years. We’ve won every single trophy on offer for the past 5 seasons!

The invincible season this time round was mainly because we did not have to rotate the squad to contend with Champions League qualifiers. In the group stage we needed a victory in our fourth match against Bayer Leverkusen to stand a chance of getting to the last 16 for the first time.

It was a frantic game where a draw was a fair result. However, it effectively sealed third spot for us given that they had a better head-to-head record against us and that our next game was against Man United.

A Paul Pogba free kick is all that separated us from the defending champions. We’re honestly not that far away from competing with the big boys but I’ve been saying that for the past 3 seasons now.

A routine win over Besiktas in our final match ensured we qualified for the Europa League knockout rounds.

There’s more positive news when it comes to international management though. Somehow we managed to not get relegated from our Nations League group.

We beat a team ranked 3rd​ in the world and a team 9th​ in the world along the way.

Surely our young team will be able to qualify for EURO 2028. Surely.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

2026 Season Review

In our ninth season in charge we completed an invincible season for the first time.

Despite qualifying for Europe last season, Bohs lost to Athlone Town in the relegation playoffs.

I’m still confident that our young squad is only a few quality players away from getting to the last 16 of the Champions League

Striker Leandro Machado looks like he will be a genuine world-class player very soon. He scored 13 goals in 20 games since joining us in the last transfer window.

Hopefully he can help get us to our second Europa League final in 3 years at the start of next season. Our first games will be against Dynamo Kiev in the First Knockout Round, who we beat in the semi-final two years ago.

You may have noticed another Irish team in that draw. Incredibly Cobh Ramblers have qualified for the last 32 of the Europa League.

Their group stage run included a win against Benfica as well as a 8-1 victory over Legia Warsaw, as you do.

That brings us onto the other part of this save, in that I’ve installed managers in charge of Cobh (for the past 4 seasons) and Shamrock Rovers (since the start of this season after moving from Dundalk).

I basically make sure they sign/loan good players, whether that’s from Sligo or from any other team. Then I install a plug and play tactic and holiday the season. Occasionally I select the team because the AI doesn’t know how to rotate the squad.

The European places were taken up by the best 5 teams in Ireland this season so I’m hoping that there’s going to be a large Irish presence in the group stages next season.

Hopefully we’re able to make Irish football a force to be reckoned with but my priority will always be Sligo.

Irish Football Summary – 2026

National Team Ranking: 51st (was 60th in 2025)
Nation Coefficient Ranking: 8th (was 10th​ in 2025)
Airtricity Premier League Players in Ireland Squad: 7

Irish Teams in Europe:

Dundalk: Lost to Shakhtar in CL Round 2 and Standard Leige in EL Round 3
Cobh: Qualified from Group Stage
Bohs: Lost to Genk in EL Round 3
Limerick: Lost to AZ in EL Round 3​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

2027 Season Preview

We’re into our 10th​ season at Sligo and the last of the originals has departed the club.

John Mahon was at the club from the very start but unfortunately was no longer needed so I’ve let him go to Shamrock Rovers for free.

He’ll be one of the better players there, which will help them as they try to negotiate the Champions League qualifying rounds in a few months time.

Another transfer out is that of Zdenek Licka who has joined a Saudi Arabian team for £6.25m.

I expected big things from him when I signed him for £2m a few years back but he hasn’t really developed well.

It says it all that teams from Saudi Arabia are after him at 21 years of age rather than the biggest in Europe.

We’ve also broke our transfer record with the singing of Russian left back Artem Sitnikov for £7m rising to £12m.

I actually made the deal in the last transfer window but he joins up with the squad now ahead of the season, bringing a seven month injury with him…

Despite the injury and my scouts not rating him that well, looking at his stats I think he can become a really key player for Sligo.

Other than that we didn’t spend the rest of the £40m the board made available to us so they gave some of it to the directors instead.

It’s great to know that my financial prudence gets the directors £10m for doing nothing.

For Ireland, our EURO 2028 qualification group has been announced

Poland and Bulgaria could be tricky and we need to finish top to have any realistic chance of getting to Ireland’s first tournament since EURO 2016.

Finally, for the third year in a row our season kicks off with the Europa League knockout round.

Dynamo Kiev, who we beat in the semi finals two years ago, are our opponents this time around. The aim is to get to the final like we did two years ago.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Europa Knockout Rounds 2027

Our 2027 season started with a 1-0 win in the first leg of our Europa League First Knockout Round match against Dynamo Kiev.

We should’ve killed the tie off with the amount of chances we created but that wasn’t to matter as we beat them at home a week later.

Cobh’s amazing run also came to an end at the first knockout stage despite them drawing the first leg away against Wolfsburg.

After the first knockout round, the strongest team left in the Europa League were Bayern Munich.

If there was one team that I did not want to be drawn against in the last 16 it was Bayern Munich.

Typical.

The good news is that we’re actually unbeaten against them after facing them twice in the Champions League last season.

The bad news is that they are top of the Bundesliga and unbeaten.

Not only are they favourites to beat us but they are favourites to win the competition outright!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Europa League Second Round Hoodoo

Just before our first leg against Bayern Munich I couldn’t help but notice that both of our group stage opponents made it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

We really don’t get much luck when it comes to opponents in Europe do we?

Throughout this save we’ve not been good against the top teams (losing 8-1 to Man City springs to mind) however Bayern are the exception as we beat them 3-0 at home in the group stage of the Champions League last season.

Here we were in the 2027 Europa League Second Knockout Round. It didn't go as well as last time.

To lose after opening the scoring is disappointing but again there’s not much you can do when your opponents are the best team in Germany and have players like this.

The second leg wound me up. We had chances to score at 0-0 and then they were just ruthless. What’s annoying is that the floodgates opened when we conceded from a corner, which is how they scored the winner in the first leg as well.

So for the second season in a row a big team have beaten us in the Europa League Second Knockout Round. We’re either stagnating or just stupidly unlucky with who we get drawn against. Bit of both me thinks.

I’m not one to scapegoat but 19-year-old Sligo academy graduate Adrian Devaney did not play the best over the two legs.

He’s probably Ireland’s and Sligo’s first choice right back, but if we want to progress then we need to get better players than him into the first team.

Devaney was part of the Ireland team that made a solid start to the EURO 28 qualification campaign

Any one of the top 4 teams stands a chance of finishing first in the group.

But for now we have around 30 domestic games to play until the Champions League group stage next season. I’m not bored yet but this part of the season always seems to be a bit of a slog…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Goodbye Dionkou

Soon after getting knocked out of the Europa League we made the tough decision of letting Alpha Dionkou leave the club.

He was at the club for over 8 years and has been a tremendous servant but is another player who isn’t going to take us to the last 16 of the Champions League and beyond. He also gained Irish citizenship but won’t take up my offer of representing the national team.

We played the bulk of our league games with just one recognised right back in the squad but that still did not affect the unbeaten record

Now that we’re dominant in Ireland I really want us to be winning every game by 3+ goals if we can so it was nice to beat Athlone Town 9-0.

So that made it quite annoying when we drew against them in the away game.

I shouldn’t be complaining but our squad is so superior that there’s no way we should be failing to score against the worse team in the league.

Elsewhere, after finishing second in our Champions League group Bayer Levekusen went onto win the competition.

A German team won the Europa League as well… but it wasn’t Bayern Munich!

Bayern were knocked out by Spurs in the semi final but it was Hertha Berlin who won the competition despite only finishing fourth in the Bundesliga.

Lastly, I’ve been Ireland manager for 5 years and am only now starting to enjoy it. We drew with Bulgaria and beat Cyprus in our two most recent games, which sees us top of the group still.

The Cyprus game saw Shane Duffy score with his very last kick in professional football!

With him gone, it’s likely that Sligo’s fourth choice centre back Conor Masterson will become Ireland captain.​

 

[Scruffyuk]

Read this recently and been really fond of it and got me starting a save with Shamrock

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Read this recently and been really fond of it and got me starting a save with Shamrock

Glad you're enjoying it mate, the updates are a bit sporadic but I'm still playing the save to see how far I can get the other Irish clubs to go in Europe and it'd also be nice to lead the national team into the Euros or World Cup.

Dylan Watts is still at Shamrock in this save and they always seem to produce a couple of talented regens so it could turn out to be a fun save.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

2027 Summer Transfer Window

We’re into the exciting part of the season and there is a lot to cover.

-

There were 3 ins and 1 out in the summer transfer window.

The transfer out was that of back up goalkeeper Vidomir Djakovac to AC Milan.

We bought him for £185,000, he made 14 appearances in 2 seasons and then Milan came in with a bid of £12.5m. I don’t care how good he can become, show me the money!

To replace him, we’ve bought in Arijanet Muric from Arsenal. He’s the highest paid player in Sligo history.

He cost £1.7m from Arsenal but was the only decent backup I could find at a reasonable price and in fairness they are paying the majority of his wages.

Russian Artem Makhoshvili has also joined for £4.4m from Krasnodar.

We didn’t really need him because we have two very good players in his position but he looks like he can become something special so we met his release clause.

Finally, Tomas Kolar has joined the club for £3.5m from Slavia Prague

I actually signed him last year and loaned him back to Slavia. He’s only 17 but will be our first choice right back and could become one of the best in the world.

I was very content with our business and was even more pleased when we made a nice profit from the sale of Paul Douglas to Lazio from Arsenal

We’ll get around £7m for installing a 40% clause in the deal when we sold him 4 years ago.

It’s also still going well on the pitch. We’ve drawn more games this year but remain unbeaten in the league.

And we achieved the biggest win in our history by beating the National University of Ireland in the first round of the cup.

Coefficient points mean that Ireland has 2 teams that qualify for the Champions League. Shamrock beat Fenerbache and then Sporting Lisbon in the qualifying rounds to reach the group stage for the very first time! The money made from that alone will transform the club.

In our Champions League group, we were drawn against the champions of Spain and the team that won the competition two seasons ago. Miracles are needed to reach the knockout round for the first time ever (I feel like I’ve been saying that for 5 seasons now)

PSV were also the team that knocked us out of the Europa League in our very first European campaign 8 years ago.

The Irish teams in the group stages of Europe don’t stop there though. Dundalk went straight into the Europa League group stage after finishing third in the league last season.

Finally, this is how the Euro 2028 qualifying group looks.

We have two massive games away against Poland and at home against Bulgaria next up, which will almost certainly decide our fate.

But for now we have to prepare to face Man United in the Champions League. It might not end well…​

 

[Scruffyuk]

Loving this save man

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Best Result Yet?

Our first Champions League group stage game this season was away against Man United and did not end well.

It’s games like these that make this save hard to play sometimes. The whole save revolves around how far we get in the Champions League but then we’re drawn against teams that are just far too good for us.

We did beat PSV in our next match but the Champions League is already having an all too familiar feel to it in that we’re comfortably the third best team in the group and nothing more…

…so when we drew with Atletico Madrid I was pleasantly surprised.

To get a draw after going down early was so pleasing, it’s honestly one of the best results we’ve had. They’re current La Liga champions and are top of the league unbeaten.

It means we’re second in the group at the halfway stage.

The Atleti result was even more impressive considering we had our usual crazy October of playing every two days despite there also being an international break in the middle.

I think it’s because so many Irish teams are in Europe now that games are constantly rescheduled until there’s not enough room for them!

-

With the national team, we had two pivotal games against Poland and Bulgaria to determine who would qualify for Euro 28.

In a high-pressure game against Poland, where a win was needed, we produced a performance to remember.

The goals were scored by 4 regens who each came through the Sligo, Shamrock, Cork and Dundalk youth systems. You have no idea how pleasing that is when this save revolves around improving Irish football!

The result meant a win against Bulgaria would see us qualify for EURO 28.

Two 4-0 wins in our two most important games as Ireland manager, it couldn’t have gone any better! Our starting XI had an average age of 24.2 and with one game left against Cyprus we are surely going to qualify.

Even if we finish second we should have enough points to be one of the best second placed teams to get us through to the tournament being held in Italy.

Ireland doing well in a big tournament held in Italy? Sounds familiar...​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Finally!

Cobh Ramblers are a team in which I’ve installed a manager so I can build them up. I’ve done this by making transfers, improving facilities and holidaying all the matches and letting an overpowered tactic take charge.

I installed a manager 4 seasons ago when they were bottom of the First Division. It has now come full circle.

Someone had to end our domestic dominance of both cups I suppose. Cobh are the first team not called Sligo to win the FAI Cup in 7 years.

I’m not too fussed as it makes the domestic side of things more interesting for us as teams get more competitive. What I am fussed about is getting to the last 16 of the Champions League.

In our 4th​ group stage game we came back from 2-0 down against Atletico Madrid.

Yet we’re still going to finish third unless we somehow beat Man United or PSV somehow beat Atleti, which is very unlikely.

After that we played our final league game and completed an unbeaten seaason for the second year in a row.

With Ireland, the November international break saw us beat Cyprus in our final EURO 28 qualifying game. It means that we’ve taken Ireland into the EUROs for just the fourth time in history.

Sean Travers decided to make things easy for us by putting in an amazing performance. He came through the Cork academy, signed for Sligo and then signed for Bournemouth a few seasons ago.

We topped the group but it turns out that 14 points would have been enough to qualify as one of the best second placed teams. Either way, all that matters is that we’ve qualified. I cannot wait for next summer!

Back to Sligo… do you remember when I said it would be very unlikely for PSV to beat Atletico Madrid?

PSV you beauties!

All we needed was a win against PSV in our final group stage game to get to the last 16 of the Champions League because surely Atletico Madrid were not going to beat Man United.

On the final matchday we needed to do the business against PSV and hope Man United would see of Atleti.

We’ve done it! Sligo are in the last 16 of the Champions League!

Thank you PSV, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Our first game of the 2028 season will be our first taste of the Champions League Knockout Round.​

 

[Froug]

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!