Roy Keane - A Cobh Ramblers Journey

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Keano returns to his Roots!

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Throughout this story, I will be playing the role of Ireland Legend Roy Keane as he embarks on a new managerial career with his boyhood club, Cobh Ramblers, who he played for before moving to England.

I will try and stay true to his personally as much as possible. So you can expect some harsh words being exchanged with players, managers and the press, a few moments of what seems like insanity... along with installing a rock hard mentality within the Ramblers side who will be determined, close down fast, dive into tackles and see the occasional red card or 3.

I see this story going 10+ seasons strong before I can look to accomplish all of the below goals. Although, I am aware that some of the targets set out below may never be reached....such is life but I will be aiming to achieve a much as possible.

It would be nice to achieve the bonus objectives which would sign off on a fantastic accomplishment.

Hopefully you guys enjoy.


Goals for this story

Club
-Gain professional status

Domestic
-Get promoted from the first division (Accomplished Season 1)
-Win the premier division

European
-Qualify for Europe
-Advance to the Champion's League group stage

Misc
-Sign an Irish international (well known with 50 caps or more)
-Produce an Irish international

Bonus
-Get the Call to manage Ireland
-Give the Irish fans their money's worth at a Tournament

Red = Accomplished

​
 
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Who are Cobh Ramblers?

Cobh Ramblers Football Club is an Irish football club in the League of Ireland First Division. The club, founded in 1922 and elected to the league in 1985, hails from Cobh, County Cork and play their home matches at St. Colman's Park.

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Stephen Henderson guided them to the First Division title for the first time on 10 November 2007, which saw Cobh promoted to the top flight for the first time in 12 years.

Henderson resigned at the end of the 2008 season after Ramblers were relegated from the Premier Division, where the battle went down to the last day and saw UCD, Ramblers and Finn Harps relegated. They subsequently failed to gain a license for the League of Ireland First Division and thus played in the A Championship.

The Football Association of Ireland on 24 January 2013 announced that Cobh Ramblers had been awarded a licence by the Independent Club Licencing Committee to compete in the 2013 Airtricity League First Division.


Kit
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The club's colours are claret and blue.



Stadium
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Stadium Name: St. Colman's Park
Capacity: 9000


St Colman's Park was redeveloped during the mid-2000s. Construction of a new state of the art changing facility and press office along with a new Chairman's office was completed in 2006 along with new floodlights and a 900-seater stand replacing the old shed. The east stand, too has seen improvement with 450 new seats being installed. Plans for a new 900 seater stand adjacent to the existing stand have temporarily been put on hold due to minor financial difficulties at the club. A new slick surface was also added prior to the clubs admission to the Eircom/Airtricity League Premier Division in 2009.

The stadium has hosted international games including games in the 1994 UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship qualifiers.

Munster Schools Senior Cup games have also been staged at the stadium including the final which was won by local Cobh school, Coláiste Muire in 2010.



​
 
Been looking forward to this, good luck mate. Cant wait for the fireworks to begin!
 
Looking forward to seeing those moments of insanity! :D
 
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Roy Keane Bio


Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football manager and former professional football player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies, 17 of which came at Manchester United, in his club career.

In his 18-year-long playing career, he played for Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest and Manchester United, before ending his career at Celtic. Keane was a dominating defensive midfielder, noted for his aggressive and highly competitive style of play, an attitude that helped him excel as captain of Manchester United from 1997 until his departure in 2005. Joining the club in 1993, Keane helped United achieve a sustained period of success during his twelve year tenure at the club. He then signed for Celtic but retired as a player less than a year later.


Key Statistics:

-Played for Cobh Ramblers Senior team on 23 occasions, scoring 1 goal.

-Played for Man Utd 326 times, scoring 33 goals.

- Played for Republic of Ireland 67 times, scoring on 9 times.



Manager Profile
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I tried to be realistic when distributing Roy Keane's attributes, with the likes of his defensive coaching being his best coaching attribute along with his discipline being 20; Keane takes no nonsense from his players...or anyone.

Decided that Keane should only hold a National B licence as if he was given continental pro licence he would have too many points and his attributes couldn't be reflected accurately.


​
 
Lippo255 said:
Been looking forward to this, good luck mate. Cant wait for the fireworks to begin!
Click to expand...
Cheers! I've been playing a little into this save, first, to ensure I enjoyed it and would stick to it. I can happily say I am and will :p

Znik said:
Looking forward to seeing those moments of insanity! :D
Click to expand...
Haha Oh, you'll see them I'm sure!
 
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Season Expectations

First board meeting of the season kicked off with the chairman explaining what was expected of me this season. I have been given a lowly 6 month contract and I will have to prove my worth within that time frame if I wish to get a new deal.

As I sat there listening, I couldn't help but think how great it was to be back in Ireland, my home town and managing my boyhood team. It may a have changed a lot in other's eyes but to me, it is the exactly the same as I left it.

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I was told that there would be no money made available for any transfers and the wage budget was basically used up. Great start but hey, I already expected this. I promised the board I'd achieve a mid-table finish; there is no real financial benefit to promising anything better so I thought I'd play it safe. If we finish higher than mid-table, well then it looks better for me.




After the meeting I decided to call the team meeting; time to meet the players that I'll have to work with this season.
I need to get my point across to them before preseason, I'll be taking no sh*t!
You dont work hard...you're out!​
 
Game needs press conference options gives death stare while stroking beard. And for player interactions hurls abuse while telling them to never come back then it will be full realistic.

Good luck anyway
 
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Meeting the players

I still follow some Irish football even when I was managing Sunderland and Ipswich and most recently helping Martin O Neill with the Ireland squad. Although my knowledge was more solid of the Irish Premier division, I still have a soft side for Cobh Ramblers and therefore already know of most of the squad.

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Although I had promised the board a mid-table finish, I wanted the team to be thinking higher than that! I'm confident if the team get with my program and my way of thinking we can definitely push ourselves beyond mid-table.

It seems we are about 50-50 in regards to who agrees with trying to reach above mid-table. I'll be sure to sort the rest of the guys out later, extra training will be sure to change their mind.


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It seems the morale of the squad is quite high at the moment which is great. Lets see how long that lasts for once we begin the gruelling preseason.



Senior Squad
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We seem to have a decent squad, maybe just about achieve our goals this season with this squad but I am keen to look at a few free transfers to beef it up.



Key Players


LB - Shane O'Connor
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Shane is a great young talented footballer who will be known in England from his time at Liverpool where he played for their youth side. I then signed him for Ipswich in 2009. He made 12 appearances for us that year and played extremely well. It will be great having him at Cobh Ramblers as he knows how I work, what I expect and is also very versatile; he can play anywhere on the left.


CM - Darren Murphy
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One of our most experienced players is former Cork City, Stevenage and Port Vale midfielder Darren Murphy. He is now back this Summer at the club where it all began. He will be my key player this season in the midfield. He has a solid defensive ability along with being able to pick a pass.



CM - Robert Waters
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A versatile midfielder, Rob started his career with Cork City before joining UCC. He then moved to Dundalk in 2012 but returned in Cork in the summer of that year to join Corinthians. He made his LOI return when he transferred to Cobh in June 2013. He will play the role of our main playmaker this season. He can pick a pass and although doesn't possess the best ability to dribble, he is great mental stats for this division which will help him excel.



ST - Kynan Rocks
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Kynan joined our u19s for the 2012/13 season from Rockmount and was also part of the club’s First Division squad on our return to league football in 2013, making his debut in the 5-0 win over Wexford Youths.

He is still only 18 years old and will be key to us scoring goals this season! I will be expecting a lot from him, hopefully he can handle the pressure.



There are a few other players who I may have missed out on but they will be given their chance to impress during preseason. Hopefully I will see a few other players in the squad who will be vital for us this season.​
 
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Tactics

I've been think this over and over again about which approach is the best for finishing as high up the table as possible in a lower league. I dont think the guys here could play any sort of unorathadox formation. With that in mind, I've come to the decision to play a simple 4-4-2 formation.

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We will be looking to play defensive long ball football! Slightly like Old-school Stoke football.

I will be expecting my players to close down fast and not to be afraid to dive into tackles when required. When we get the ball, either hoof it up to the strikers or out the wing in which the wingers will cross it at first opportunity.

I will be operating with a ball winner and an advanced playmaker in the middle. A targetman/Advanced forward and a Poacher combination up front.

This will be tested throughout preseason, a few tweaks my be made.​
 
ninjaskill said:
Game needs press conference options gives death stare while stroking beard. And for player interactions hurls abuse while telling them to never come back then it will be full realistic.

Good luck anyway
Click to expand...

Haha I agree. I'll see what I can do :p

Cheers.
 
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Free Transfers

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We brought in 3 free transfer in this window; that was all our wage budget could allow. Rowlands, Meade and McCarthy should definitely improve the existing squad.

A few other loanees have been secured but they are not worth going into detail about as they are just there to play backup, to the backups.



Martin Rowlands
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This is a great capture for the Rams! Rowlands has an abundance of Championship experience in England whilst also making an appearance in the premier league for Q.P.R. The experienced midfielder can play in a few positions and will compete with waters for the playmaker role but can also back up Murphy if he gets injured.

Rowlands has also represented the Republic of Ireland on 5 occasions.



Conor Meade
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Signed on a free from our affiliate club Cobh wanderers. I felt our attack left something to be desired with Kynan our only striker who I have any confidence in. Shines is a young striker but is not ready for the first team. So I brought in Meade who I feel will be a great addition up front; he has the pace, dribbling and finishing to score a bucket load in this division.



Brian McCarthy
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Brian was snapped up on a free, from St. Peters, to bolster our defence who aren't up to much. He will slot straight into the starting 11 along side O'Connor. He is currently out for the next few weeks injured but should be back in no time. ​
 
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Preseason

Preseason approaching and I am looking forward to it. Some people used to ask me if I get nervous before a game and my answer was always the same...

No.
If you've done your preparations and looked after yourself all week then there is no need to be nervous. I think players and managers get anxious if they haven't really done things properly - like eating, training, resting or knowing the opposition inside out. If you are fully prepared to face the opposition you've got nothing to worry about - it's just a game of football.

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Preseason went well and it is good to see the players adapting to my tactics quick enough. Although in saying that, we cant really measure ourselves in preseason as we were expecting to beat Athlone Town and Bray Wanderers.

Kynan and Meade have been combining well up front but we are still lacking quality wingers but unfortunately there is are no funds left to bring anyone in.



With preseason now behind us and I've had a chance to see everyone in action, I'll be announcing my starting 11 soon..​
 
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Disclaimer89 said:
View attachment 943916

Keano returns to his Roots!

View attachment 944040


View attachment 943924


Throughout this story, I will be playing the role of Ireland Legend Roy Keane as he embarks on a new managerial career with his boyhood club, Cobh Ramblers, who he played for before moving to England.

I will try and stay true to his personally as much as possible. So you can expect some harsh words being exchanged with players, managers and the press, a few moments of what seems like insanity... along with installing a rock hard mentality within the Ramblers side who will be determined, close down fast, dive into tackles and see the occasional red card or 3.

I see this story going 10+ seasons strong before I can look to accomplish all of the below goals. Although, I am aware that some of the targets set out below may never be reached....such is life but I will be aiming to achieve a much as possible.

It would be nice to achieve the bonus objectives which would sign off on a fantastic accomplishment.

Hopefully you guys enjoy.


Goals for this story

Club
-Gain professional status

Domestic
-Get promoted from the first division
-Win the premier division

European
-Qualify for Europe
-Advance to the Champion's League group stage

Misc
-Sign an Irish international (well known with 50 caps or more)
-Produce an Irish international

Bonus
-Get the Call to manage Ireland
-Give the Irish fans their money's worth at a Tournament
​
Click to expand...
Looking forward to this!
o.png
 
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Starting 11

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GK - Browne takes the number 1 jersey this season. This is one of the weakest positions in the squad, we just dont any quality here.
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DR/DL - Frahill and O'Connor claim these spots. O'Connor will be great at LB, I know him from Ipswich and have confidence in him. Frahill on the other hand, he isn't up to much but we have to work with what we've got.
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CD - McCarthy and O'Connell are the best centre backs we have at the club, they should be able to do a decent job this season.
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CM - Murphy will be our main Ball winner while Waters partners him as out main playmaker in the middle of the park.
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MR/ML - McCarthy and Goldsmith will command the wings this season, they have good pace and work rate so they can be counted on to roam the wings throughout the entire match along with tracking back when required.
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ST - Kynan rocks will play up front at a poacher whilst Meade will play as an advanced forward. I will be hoping for big things from these guys this season if we are to accomplish anything!
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Throughout the season, as I get to know the squad in more detail, I may make adjustments on who is considered starting 11 material.​
 
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League Schedule

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We start off with a few tough games; no breaking in period! In saying that I will be demanding the guys go out there and make it difficult for them and if we get a chance, ****** it!

Each team plays each other 4 times in this division, meaning I'd expect 12 points from Shamrock Rovers B, a youth team with next to no experience. There will be harsh words if we fail to beat them each time this season.


​
 
Very interesting.. can't wait to see where Keane takes the Ramblers!
 
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