Saving Scottish Football 2021

[Mr_Grieves]

Hibs Season 11
Pre Season 2030/31


Season Targets
SPL - Title Challenge
Scottish Cup - Win a Cup
League Cup - Not bothered
Champions League - Europe after Christmas

Hardly any changes here yet again. The squad has improved but still too many good teams in the SPL to just expect a league title. I've got lots of Scottish Cups to win to make up for my first decade of failure, backups, and kids for the league cup i expect. In Europe, my obvious target is a top 2 finish in the group but it's totally dependent on who we draw.


SPL Pre Season Prices

The days of free money mega wins on Hibs are done. I still feel disrespected that were 5/1 The rest of the odds seem fair. Kilmarnock huge favorites for the drop.


Hibs Transfers

In

Szymon Stasiak - DC

Best u21-year-old Defender i have managed to get on this year's save. Looks a world-beater already but amazingly nobody else was in for him.

Abdoul Niyonkuru - MR

A solid winger from Genk. He will start as a backup but will definitely get a chance to play into the f1st team.

Robson Ernandes - MC

By far the best player I've signed in FM21. Paid a huge amount in wages and put him on a wage almost 5 times higher than anyone else at the club but he was interested and is a cant miss talent giving me the best MCs in the league.


Youths

Only 7 youths join this summer. Might be the last year i spend so much time looking at four u18s.


Out
My first team is overflowing to go with loans we had to move out 7 players from last year's squad and some of the backups. Alex Robertson was never planned to be moved on and I've not replaced him either yet. £7.5m from Burnley but i could really regret that. Ergin Yilmaz was always there till i got a good big and surprisingly it came from Aberdeen. Allan Campbell's value has plummeted. Can still offer something to the majority of SPL teams but he chose the worst one as his next team. Lucio Leeb had served his time and in a more than double you money move he's off to Juventus. Alberto Tobar also moves to Serie A with Napoli. His spot takes by Niyonkuru. Mamadou Sawadogo had all the potential in the world but was the most troublesome player I've owned this year so thanks to a loan spell at Lazio his value swelled and Hamburger's problem now. Dusan Garadijevic got an offer from Juventus i couldn't refuse and Reece Bruce was the stand-out youngster that didn't develop to stay with us.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

The league started off with a huge game at Ibrox where we took the point with a 0-0 draw. We then reeled off 3 league wins and our biggest win of all with the kids and reserves in the League Cup.


SPL Table

Interesting start. Celtic in 8th!


Champions League Draw

We should be safe in the top 3 at worst. Man City will be a fantastic challenge.


SPL Transfer Window

Aberdeen's 2nd biggest purchase was Benji Griffiths a player i signed to them for pennies, who they sold for £350k and now spend £12m to get back. Good for the other SPL clubs! One of my former midfielders, Stephen McLaughlin returns to Scotland with Hearts after the sell another Ross McCrorie heads the other way. Celtic pick up one of the best players in the league from Real Madrid. Santiago!​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September

Celtic are in utter turmoil and has sacked their new manager after less than 10 games in charge. You'll soon see why

Fixtures

We keep on winning on the homefront. Thrashing Celtic 4-0 did not help their worst ever start to a season. We deserved the win over Aberdeen in the League cup and are rewarded with Rangers who we'll play back to back in November.


SPL Table

Celtic are managerless and second bottom with 1 win and 4 points from their first 7 games. They are in a prime place to be taken over by me however i have work to do with Hibs. I need at least 1 more season to get the squad sorted long-term but the big move i need to do with Hibs is getting a 40,000 plus stadium so we can make over £1m per game from ticket sales. That's what i need the SPL clubs to be at for long-term success.
Back to the table, we lead only just from Aberdeen. Hearts still hanging in there and it almost slipped past me but the Rangers also only have 1 win from the first 7 and are only on 7 points themselves.

Champions League

We started as i expected with a convincing loss in Manchester. The toughest game is out of the way at least.

France

France and Spain will fight out for the top spot.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

October


Celtic makes a questionable hire as their new manager. A former Rangers manager

Fixtures
I don't know how unstoppable Hearts would be if they could win their games against the smaller teams as they thrashed us in the last game before the international break. We came backfiring on all cylinders 3 big wins the best of which at home to former leaders Aberdeen.

SPL Table

Hibs and Aberdeen lead the way but i won't bore you with the normal. Rangers and Celtic have combined for 22 games and only 5 wins and are still in the bottom half of the table.

Champions League

We win both our games 3-0 to move into the 2nd spot we crave to have come December.


France
The most boring game in history against Spain then we thrash Poland​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November


Fixtures

Hibs enjoy one of our best domestic months so far winning all our games by 3 goals as well as reaching the League Cup final.


SPL Table

Aberdeen has a few blunders and let Hearts sneak into 2nd 7 points behind us. Rangers are up to 6th, Celtic still only 8th


Champions League

We thrashed Club Brugge but got screwed against Man City who scored a 5 of their shots on target in a game we were playing well, better than our English rivals. Lucky for us our 2nd place was secured by a Brugge win.


France

Dramatic game in Spain but its only 2nd for us again.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Scottish League Cup Final 2030
Dundee Utd 0-1 Hibs

The 1 goal win is a total injustice after we totally dominated the game. Dundee Utd had as many goals as they had shots on target.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

December


Fixtures

We stepped it up a gear as the team peaked in December. Following on from the League Cup win was 6 wins all very comfortable non more than beating Celtic 5-1 at Easter Road.


SPL Table

Leagues over this year isn't it? Celtic had a good month aside from their day in Edinburgh but the battle for 2nd split by 3 points is 16 points behind us.


Champions League

My u18s put out the best performance of the season.


Last 16 Draw
Hibs vs Inter

A better draw than last year. Still don't fancy our chances much more.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January


Fixtures​

​

We dropped points for the first time since October it was almost a defeat but we came from 2 down to draw with Aberdeen so we lost non of our lead at the top. Beating Rangers in the League and Celtic in the cup is great for our rest of the season plans.


SPL Table

17 clear of Hearts while Aberdeen Rangers and most of all Celtic have work to do to get that 2nd Champions League spot.


SPL Transfers Window

Rangers and Aberdeen bring in a big name signing each while Celtic's main buy from Man Utd is a former Hearts wonderkid from my season there.


Hibs
£36m of profit for the club in this window.


In

Silvio Martinez - DR

The young Argentine looks like an utter stud. This should be the last DR i buy for the first team while at Hibs with 3 quality starters in the squad now. Silvio has the most potential by far.

Ales Klesa - ML

Not sure why a player with 10 caps in 2 years doesn't get a work permit, however. He goes on loan to Italy but i pray he gets a permit for next summer or I'll need to spend.


3 Youths join. All were set to join in the summer but very favorable valuations meant they come to learn now.

Out
Only one starter leaves us and that is my Left Back Gonzalo Jimenez. His back-ups are not to his standard but t could not let this much money pass now with the depth were going to have at DL next summer. Jonathan Ross & Paetur Mikkelsen were last in line for the first team so i accepted both of their transfer requests and was delighted with the profits we made there. Deadline day brought the biggest shock with Aberdeen paying almost £9m plus 30% off his next fee for Nadson Nery who has made 1 start and 2 sub appearances for us. What is going on at Kingsford!​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

February


Fixtures

Were enjoying utter domination on the homefront and 6 comfortable wins against mostly bottom 6 teams is perhaps a sign that in the next 18 months i'll have to move on. I want to see us build a 40k stadium but they don't want to move on from Easter Road despite me bringing in over £150m to the bank and us selling out the current stadium for every game this season. If they won't build me a new stadium i may have to go and build as strong a first 11 as possible to challenge the top European clubs.


SPL Table

No real change. Dundee Utd under new boss Paul Lambert has some work to do to try and secure a top 6 place.

Champions League Last 16
1st Leg

We played tremendously although i only saw the first goal as one of my brats decided to lock their finger in a clip so i missed the chance to try and shut upshot once we went 2 goals ahead and was sickened to see another big European game at Easter Road where almost every shot on target went in.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

March


Aberdeen sacks their manager Mr Schmidt and he is replaced with recently sacked Belgium manager Paul Clement.

Fixtures

4 More league wins and my biggest win so far in any game. The backups and u18s put 12 past hosts Alloa.


SPL Table

Those results secured the title for the 3rd year in a row, in record time.


O'Connor set a club record for goals and he's only halfway through his career.

Champions League

Were out at the last 16 stage again. We were tied for 80 minutes but as soon as i went for it Inter hit 2 goals in quick succession to end our dreams of European success


France

Two wins get the Euro qualifiers underway in expected circumstances​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

End of the Season

No reason for 2 monthly updates when the league was over. I played mostly youth players and players i want to sell in the summer to put them in the shop window. Only Aberdeen got 3 points against us.

The only game that really mattered was the Scottish Cup Semi with Rangers where we got our biggest win with a strong team.


Final Table

Aberdeen goes clear in second under new management. Hearts beat Rangers to 3rd but no Champions League spot this year. The bottom two were the worst two teams. Ross County finishes bottom.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Scottish Cup Final 2031

Hibs do the treble!​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 11 Review


Stadium Expansion

I wanted a new stadium but instead, they give us 5,000 extra seats. Great!


Hibs Squad

Pantalaci is our No1 and I've upped his minimum fee to try and scare off other teams. If he does leave i do have 2 backup keepers that are worthy of a shot in the 1st team if need be.
Right, wing-back is one of the few spots where i have a fight for the starting spot. Balaban has it but January's purchase Martinez has 5* potential. My center backs are slow but that aside they have everything i'd want in CBs Some clearing out of the depth is required with the 16&17 year-olds better than the 18 year olds graduating.. Left-back is a strange one since Jiminez was sold in January 3 u18s at different points of development are ready to step up.
The center midfielders are elite. Our 4 squad midfielders are the best 4 in the league. At least one will have to go for the finances and the upcoming youth players. Both wings are primed for change. Selcuk Ari is on his way for over £20m profit with no clear ML back up in the squad. The two-player on the right Braniff & Niyonkurk are suitable backups but one will have to go and be replaced with a better starter.
Up front Luis Estrada & Josh O'Connor were amazing once again. I have not managed to up Estrada's min fee so he could be away for under £20m. Im fine with that with 5 strikers set to come up from the u18s. Hagerty & Beale being the best of them.


My Player of the Year
Josh O'Conner

He became Hibs all-time scorer during the season and like Gilchrist a player I'll never sell unless I'm forced to.


Final SPL Table

Hibs finish 2 points off the all-time record for points we got a 100 goal difference in our most dominant season. Aberdeen cleared into 2nd once they got a new manager leaving Hibs 3rd with Rangers & Celtic following up and St Mirren making a new team in the top 6. Ross County go down automatically and will be replaced by Hamilton who will not have as many Hibs players on loan to help them next year.


Play-Off
Kilmarnock 3-2 Livingstone

Killie made a giant comeback to keep their SPL spot for next season.


Club Rankings

No Change


France

Two big wins, We won​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Hibs Season 12
Pre Season 2031/32


Season Targets
SPL - Title Challenge
Scottish Cup - Win a Cup
League Cup - Win a Cup
Champions League - Champions League last 16

We're upping the game. I'm now expecting a treble domestically with the backup players doing the job a few times last season. The first 11 is stronger than ever so i now expect the last 16 of the Champions League


SPL Pre Season Prices

SEriously after that, we're still not favourites for the league? Aberdeen didn't do too much in the transfer window but under a new manager, they are favourites. It's insane! Hearts have a new manager too. The best manager in the league Jess Thorup leaves to take the Holland international job and gets replaced by Harry Maguire in his first job since retiring


Hibs Transfers

Big summer for the bank balance. Shame i can't do much with it due to the boards ridiculous decision to add 5,000 seats to Easter Road. This could hold me back at Hibs for at least 2 more seasons as i really don't want to leave another team without getting a proper stadium built.


In

Franco Testi - MR

Not a move i remembered making but we now have 3 MR's and with no bids on the other two i'll have to offer Baniff out for sale as he has reached his potential of a decent SPL player. I need much more at this stage.

Danny Fitzpatrick ML

We have a wonderkid and my long term answer at ML

Youths

Edu Callen will be a reserve GK and Nicky Savage goes to the u18s


Out
Pierre was the first to leave. Like most he was in the last 12 months of his deal and despite being good did not improve to a level that justified the £44k a week he wanted. Thato Radebe was neither running out of contract or up for sale but he apparently had a release clause so he's off to Spurs for £15m. Darlo Vidal was my all-rounder back up but a £23m bid for a back up was not going to be sniffed at. Ari and Vos deals were agreed last season. Almost every penny of the £44m is profit. Igor Balaban was no sooner got the role of new all-rounder back up when Dortmund offered silly money and he was gone. Kurt Rizoski never did the job with us or on loan but his Austalia exploits made us the money here. Luis Estrada was my best player but with so many youth prospects coming up this summer i didn't change his clause and eventually had to offer him out for sale. Alessio Moschetta was the last back up MC i had but one again i was offered more money than i could resist and on the eve of the new season he was off to Lyon for £33m. I'm stunned that he got no offers from England since that's his chosen nationality.

5 Youths that failed me or i failed are let go for there valuation after never reaching the required standard to show that for every £30m profit there is a few flops.#​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

We win every game and except Falkirk, we win big. Far bigger challenges await in September


SPL Table

Celtic look like there not playing after years of failure. Aberdeen is the ones making a poor start. But not as poor as Dundee Utd.


Champions League Draw

No top tier team in the group so we could finish anywhere but qualification is expected!


Hibs Transfers

It's all out and it was all planned, till the deadline dan when Monchengladbach met Robson Ernandes £36m release clause and like that he was gone with no time to get in a replacement. This will be a huge issue in the big games. Panico & Banriff were well down the pecking order with the summer business


SPL transfer window

Amongst out 7 sales over £15m Celtic sold their wonderkid Santiago for £34m and Aberdeen sold star winger Christian Alvarez to Man Utd so he better be good! Aberdeen did make a great buy in Callum Hope the top Scottish U21 striker for only £8m! raging i missed that. Hearts were very busy in the window.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September


Fixtures

No problems domestically with the only game we were ever in dangers were in the cup against Aberdeen where we needed extra time to get to the semi-finals.


SPL Table

Early days but Celtic look like our biggest rivals this season remaining perfect except for our head to head game. Dundee at the other end look like giving Kilmarnock competition for being the duds of the league and i found out what's going wrong at Dundee Utd. Star forward Dom Diego is injured.#

How have they held onto this guy for 7 seasons?

Champions League

We mean business this year and start off by destroying the last 16 regulars Porto.

France

Typical French demolition jobs​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

October


Fixtures

A 73rd-minute penalty completed Aberdeen's comeback and gave us our first defeat of the season. We dropped points 2 games later at Dundee Utd coming from 2 down with 10 men for almost 70 minutes feels like a win.


SPL Table

Mark Warburton shows he was the right choice for the Celtic job and he's got them tied at the top with ourselves. Aberdeen, Rangers & Hearts are all positioned to pounce if the top 2 slip up. Nobody is slipping up as much as Dundee Utd showing the true loss of their manager to Celtic. Another job that's coming up to early for the Hibs board to build me a new stadium.


Champions League

Two more wins make it a perfect start in the Champions League and if we can beat Shakhtar at Easter road we could be topping the group with 2 games to spare.


France

Still perfect and were going to the 2032 Euros as if there was any doubt​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November


Fixtures

We held on with 10 men against Hearts to return to the League Cup Final then thrashed St Mirren before the international break. We did not hit the ground running coming back with a tight win against Kilmarnock before being held by Hamilton.


SPL Table

The small slip up helped Celtic close to 4 points at the top with Hearts & Aberdeen right on their tails.


Champions League

We blew had the chance to win the group against Shakhtar but totally made up for it by beating Porto after falling behind to secure the top spot in the group.


France

Poor Liechtenstein! We have a top spot, a perfect record and Mbappe scored 26 goals in the 10 games. Cherki was 2nd for France and overall.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

League Cup Final 2031
Rangers 3-5 Hibs AET

Do you want to talk about a game of 2 halves? Imagine being told you'll be 3-0 up after 36 minutes. You should be planning the parade route not worrying about extra time! We were disgusting in the 2nd half and totally collapsed on our **** almost costing us the cup. Luck for us Rangers was gassed at full time so we took full advantage and rolled over them in extra time to retain part 1 of the treble.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

December & January


Two updates for the price of one. I finished December right as i was due to leave for work so thought i'll do an update once im home but i forgot.


Fixtures

And what a two months as we're in an unprecedented winning run. We've beaten all of the top 6 and progressed in the Scottish cup. A second treble is very much on if we can get past Hearts!


SPL Table

Gaps not changed too much over the two months. Every position has spaced out slightly but everyone is under threat from the top 6 teams on their heels. 1 point splits the bottom 4 in a far more interesting fight. Dundee Utd! Come on, guys.


Champions League

Our Youth team must be big Bilbao fans as they got turned over in the San Mames. It was not deserved, however.


Last 16
Inter Vs Hibs

Oh, come on!!!! give us a break draw machine!


Transfers Window


Hibs

One of our more expensive windows.

In

Ibrahim Almaraz - MC

I tried to buy the Mexican wonderkid on deadline day as i lost Ernanded but the age and the work permit both denied me till January. Our midfield is totally class again!


Jonny Forrest - MR

A player you may recall from Scotland days. Man City never gave him a chance so i plucked up the courage to loan him now with a guaranteed future fee of £20m. The board are furious but they won't give me a new stadium so watch me give a flying.

2 for the youth team

Out
Two back up squad players in Abdoul Niyonkuru & Leonardo Amaya are both sold for reasonable returns. I've upgraded both positions so i'm not moved by these sales.


SPL

Jeez Aberdeen **** away your best players won't you. McFarlane was even better than Gilchrist in the MC and Van Dijk may be the last decent player i bought that was still at the team. At least they spend some of their returns on players from the Edinburgh sides. Celtic, Rangers & Hearts were very quiet.​