Improving Ireland with Sligo Rovers

[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!

 

[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.​