Saving the Scottish Game

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****** **** Dunfermline get the finger out!!!

Other than that great idea and you're doing well, pretty gutted about Celtic winning the Europa without you (although I love seeing them do well).

Let's keep our fingers crossed Rangers hit a bit more financial trouble and finish rock bottom.
 
TurboGav said:
****** **** Dunfermline get the finger out!!!

Other than that great idea and you're doing well, pretty gutted about Celtic winning the Europa without you (although I love seeing them do well).

Let's keep our fingers crossed Rangers hit a bit more financial trouble and finish rock bottom.
Click to expand...

Dunfermline are outta here!

Would have been nice to have take Celtic to a European title but im glad too see that the team i put together is far better than where they were and are leading Scotland up the European table while hopefully i can get Dundee Utd playing better soon and get a second competitive team in Europe
 

February


Perfect month with 3 wins 1 draw and a clean sweep of awards with Manger of the Month for moi, Player of the Month for James Collins and young player of the month for Cowan
Mothewell appoint former Arsenal coach Stewart Gatting as manager
Were through to the Quarter Finals of the Scottish cup so maybe some silverware in our future too.


Fixtures
View attachment 390823


SPL
View attachment 390822
We join the battle for 2nd as Motherwell get there act together and move up and away from bottom spot.



​
 

March


Cup Quarter final with St Johnstone is my 300th game in management. We needed a 2nd leg to get through
Hibs sack Craig Levein as there European and top 6 challenge ends
top 4 place secured


Fixtures
View attachment 390774


SPL
View attachment 390773
Celtic secured the title ages ago but have lost twice since.Ourselfs, Inverness and Aberdeen will fight over 2nd. Rangers could nick a top 6 spot but would need results to got there way to join us in the top 6. The collapse of Dunfermline means there down. One final point to look out for is James Collins chasing down Gareth McDonagh for the golden boot. He is 5 behind at this point.




Europe
View attachment 390772
Celtic wont be retaining there Europa League crown after being knocked out by Real Sociedad




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April


Transfer Embargo enforced as a takeover attempt takes place at Dundee Utd
Steve Clarke takes charge of Hibs
A great month of results puts us in pole position for 2nd but tough games to go first
Success spread to the Scottish Cup as we beat St Mirren to reach the Cup final where we'll play 3 times defending champions Celtic


Fixtures
View attachment 390500


SPL
View attachment 390498
We got the results ourselves and help from Aberdeen and Inverness to go 2nd. Rangers secured a top 6 place and Dunfermline are going down.



​
 
Well Scotty


May




Fixtures
View attachment 390448




SPL
View attachment 390447
Victory up at Inverness sets us up then a victory at home to St Mirren secured 2nd place and the Champions League Qualifiers next year. We got humped by Celtic in the final game but it was a youth and reserve team to be in tip top shape for the cup final. Aberdeen and Inverness secure Europa league spots while Rangers and Hearts have a good end to the season. St Johnstone go into the relegation play off hoping to avoid the same fate as Dunfermline.




Scottish Cup Final
Celtic 4-1 Dundee Utd
View attachment 390446


We took a shock and short lead through the usual suspect James Collins but before i could get the bus parked Celtic were level and once the 2nd goal went in i went all out to get back into the game but Celtic were too good for that trick and we saw just how far we still have to go.




​
 


Season 5 Review




End of Season Headlines
Dundee Utd takeover is complete. My job is under review. Just a Edinbugh business man not a billionaire from Russia or such like unfortunately
St Johnstone sack Terry Butcher despite surviving the relegation play off while loosing coach Alan Archiebald takes over






Dundee Utd 2017/18
Season stats
View attachment 389464




SPL - 2nd
Scottish cup - Final
Scottish League Cup - Quarter Finals
Europe - Europa Group





Key Players


Aaron Cowan - MC
View attachment 389462
Not good enough for Man City or Carlisle but he tore up the SPL making a goal every 2 games adding goals and man of the matches




James Collins - AT
View attachment 389460
Struggled in the league well i say struggled he got 20 goals but in Cup and European competition he was incredible. 18 goals in 17 games including 2 games with Celtic & Arsenal





SPL Review




Celtic - 7/10 Two more defeats than last year. after selling 4 starting players and 5 youths they replaced them with semi skilled English loanese. A big summer for them.


Dundee Utd 7/10 - An extra 10 points was the minimum i expected but in the end 2nd was my target and 2nd is what we got.


Inverness CT - 8/10 - Only just missed out on returning to the Champions League. A Decent addition of good youth loan and decent SPL players solidifies them as a top 6 force.


Aberdeen - 7/10 - Back into the top 6 thanks to the goals of loan striker Gareth McDonagh. Back into Europe as well. So over the summer they need to add a striker!


St Mirren - 6/10 - Another small step back from there solid top 2 finishes from recent times. Still nothing wrong with what they were doing but ourselves and Inverness have overtaken them.


Rangers - 6/10 - comfortably made it into the top 6 for the 1st time. No major additions to the squad but perhaps a good loan class? We will see next year.


Hearts - 6/10 - Another season another step forward nothing significant to report at all from here.


Ross County - 6/10 - The highlanders did well to recover from just surviving the religation playoff last season to being in the top of the bottom half this time around.


Motherwell - 6/10 - Up till sacking Alan Thompson Motherwell would have been lucky to get 1/10! but under former Arsenal coach Stuart Gattings they got out of trouble and with the right work in the summer could challenge for the top 6.


Hibs - 4/10 Hibs went backwards again and cost Craig Levine his job. failed to address the major problem in front of goals so deserved to bite the bullet.


St Johnstone - 2/10 Spent big in the summer but got no where fast and will have a relegation play off to get through.


Dunfermline - 3/10 - Looked like they could stay up during the 1st half of the season before Motherwell woke up and suddenly Dunfermline looked no better than the other yo-yo sides we've seen recently




Champions League Final
Chelsea 0-1 Paris SG
View attachment 389459Chelsea may be dominating the English game but there is a very rich team in Paris who wanted to win the trophy in there own stadium.




Europa League Final
Real Sociedad 0-2 Zenith
View attachment 389458
The mega ritch Russian side win there 2nd Europa League title against the best emerging side in La Liga






Season Awards


Player of the year
Marko Pavlovski
View attachment 389457


My midfield protegy from Parkhead is a deserved winner in my unbiased opinion!




Young Player of the year
Niko Spoljaric
View attachment 389456


Signed up with some decent looking stats and coming from the legendary Dinamo youth system to settle in the squad as my left winger. A 1st national cap cant be far off.




Top Scorer
Gareth McDonagh - 24
View attachment 389455


The on loan midfielder from Blackburn denied my boy James Collins from being only the 3rd player in the SPL era to retain the top scorer status




Manager of the Year
Darran Donald
View attachment 389454


Utterly delighted to get my title back despite Celtic's domestic domination.




Team of the Year
View attachment 389453
Only James Collins makes it again. Shame for Cowan who was worth a place






Continental Standings




National Coefficients
View attachment 389452
Scotland stay in 12th but keep catching up with the next targets Belgium and Portugal




European Places
From 2019/20
View attachment 389450


Same as last year and the way it probably will be for the next few years.




Competition Rankings
View attachment 389449


The SPL jumps again with a 3 place jump to 13th as we get closer to the Belgian, Ukraine and Portugese top flights




​
 

Belgium


Road to the World Cup 2018
View attachment 389081
Remember this!!!!


Team


Goalkeepers - Caps
Thiabaut Courtois - 58
Simon Mignolet - 16
Koen Casteels - 4


Defenders Caps/Goals
Kris Van Driessche - 7
Toby Alderweireld - 75/1
Thomas Vermalen - 84/3
Jan Vertonghen - 87/4
Brandon Mechele - 2
Dedryck Boyata - 8
Derrick Tshimanga - 18


Midfield Caps/Goals
Radja Nainggolan - 39/2
Kevin De Bruyne - 59/14
Axel Witsel - 77/16
Marouane Fellaini - 77/7
Mousa Dembele - 87/8
Junior Malanda - 33
Eden Hazard - 85/18
Adnan Januzaj - 13/5
Massimo Bruno - 12/3
Nacer Chadli - 29/7
Zakaria Bakkali - 3


Attack Caps/Goals
Romelu Lukaku - 57/27
Christian Benteke - 52/28




Friendlies
View attachment 389080


Almost a perfect run to the competition. Only non perfect result was the draw with Chile where we mainly played back up players.



​
 

World Cup Group F


Match 1
Belgium 2-0 Uruguay
View attachment 389078


Pretty simple win to get our challenge under way.




Group
View attachment 389077


The two group favorites will meet next time out




Match 2
France 0-0 Belgium
View attachment 389076Group
View attachment 389075


A more boring world cup match you may never see! We have to go gung ho in the final Japan game to win the group and get plenty of goals




Match 3
Belgium 0-1 Japan
View attachment 389074


Japan stun us by putting up the shutters on our back up team. We had the chances but never took them and now have to face Brazil rather than Croatia had we won the Group.

Group
View attachment 389073



Other Groups
Hosts Russia go out with a whimper at the bottom of along with Mexico is Group A but there aside no major shocks.



​
 

World Cup Second round




Last 16
View attachment 389072




A few classics. Argentina vs England & Italy vs Holland but Belgium and Brazil is the only one im interested in.




Belgium 3-1 Brazil
View attachment 389071


The 5 times champions are out. We dominated the 1st half and lead at half time. Brazil equalized and despite falling behind again has there best period of the match until a injury to Lucas Evangelista brought them down to 10 men and effectivly ended there challenge before Lukaku's 2nd goal at the end made absolutly sure of a quarter final place.




Other Results
View attachment 389070


Austria's surprise run goes on England and Holland win the battle of the major nations.



​
 

World Cup


Quarter Final
View attachment 389060


The final 8 features the latest Angelo German battle. All teams are European too!



Belgium 3-0 Spain
View attachment 389059


Possibly the nations greatest result? Former champions and greatest side on earth were taken apart by the Belgians brutes who have equalled there greatest ever performance at the World Cup. On the subject of performances Lukaku equalled then beat the Belgian record for goals taking his personal and national record to 31.



Results
View attachment 389058



​
 

World Cup


Semi Final
View attachment 389057


We spoil the party by making the final 4. England play us for the right to face Holland or France




England 3-1 Belgium
View attachment 389056


The better side won. We made lots of chances from range but England bossed the game and had the advantage of being far fresher than my Belgian team. The golden generation have missed perhaps there last chance but will still get a 3rd place play off to aim for.




Results
View attachment 389055


France did there bit to almost set up a replay of our Group match at the final.





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3rd place Playoff

Belgium 2-0 Holland
View attachment 389054


Goals from Lukaku either side of half time secured our best ever finish at the world cup stage.




Final
France 0-1 England
View attachment 389053


The French didnt even get a shot on target!


Then i Resign


After a few weeks of thinking i resigned from Belgium. There was the thoughts of trying to lead them to the European Championships in 2020 but would rather get further on with Dundee Utd than be held up with international issues.



​
 
stonecold said:
short passing
be expressive
hassle opponents
retain posession
Click to expand...

Retain Possession still works? it used to be OP and you'd win like 4-0 with 65% possession if used with shorter passing but then it got fixed and made my tactic useless..
 

Season 6 - 2018/19



Targets
SPL - Top 2
Scottish Cup - Win either of the Cups
Scottish League Cup
Europe - Group Phase of either competition




I expect us to stay in the top 2 so we can keep our place in the Champions League Qualifiers next season. Winning either cup competition is a genuine target, avoiding Celtic along the way would be nice. Not to sure what to make of our European ambitions yet, we'll see how we get on in the Champions League Qualifiers but i'd like to think we can make it to either of the group phases.




Transfers
View attachment 388954
Thanks to the takeover we had money in the bank again and we spent the lot! All our deals are being paid over 24-36 months so we could get as much bang for our buck as possible




In



Lukas Mucha - MR
View attachment 388953


Jan Zeman - ML
View attachment 388952
The latest two Czech players to join the Dundee Utd Ranks maybe i should be looking to take over the Czechs rather than Scotland. Both these players can play up front or off the forward and with James Collins record they will probably do the latter.




Adrian Pena - DL
View attachment 388951
Put in a contract offer but expected the usual work permit issues but thankfully not. Still much work to do would have been amazing if he were 17 or 18 but if he was he wouldnt be coming to Dundee.




Nenad Jankovic - AT LOAN
View attachment 388950
I felt up front we were still lacking slightly up top so i got the best player i could find through the loan system. Still after a center midfielder but Jankovic is a great start.




2 youth players join the ranks as well
View attachment 388949View attachment 388948






Out


The big player leaving was Dirk Marcellis who was in his last year of his deal and i took the cash for him to help the development of the youngsters. Long time Dundee Utd players Tam Scobbie, Steven Lawless and Aaron Muirhead left for the same reason. Julio Pleguezulo never stayed fit or made a impression on me while David Smith, Ander Erason and Salvador Fernandez have a year out on loan to prove to me there good enough to stay.




Staff
View attachment 388947
The new chairman game me some more staff space so i filled them immediatly




Around the League
Celtic sell 6 players from there 1st team and only pick up some loans to fill the voids. Laudrup is playing a dangerous game. No other Scottish side spent over ?400k apart from Dundee Utd adding the pressure to succeed. Hamilton, Hibs and Ross County all loose players to the Premiership. Rangers i'd say have made there 1st decent upgrade in player signings.




FM Season preview
View attachment 388946
Celtic are favourites for the title as expected. We are favorites for 2nd but dont expect St Mirren or Inverness to be far behind while Aberdeen need to do some work to keep up with the top 5. Hamilton and Ross County equal favorites to go down.




Current Starting 11

Key changes are youth Center back Nichlas Bundgaard moves in to replace Mercallis, Pena is a upgrade on McHattie who will play out his contract the rest well they have to prove themselves
ves. The squad is now in a great place. Youth players starting to push through and a full youth team of players for each position meaning i'll soon be able to move onto the next stage with Dundee Utd where we can sell off players to build up funds to build the stadium and facilitys.



​
 

August


Two trips to the middle east and 2 victorys mean we've qualified for the Champions League group phase
Back home however we make a abysmal start with 3 defeats from our 4 games leaving us down in 10th
Spend deadline day adding as much talent as we can while making millions off youths.
Russell Latapy for some reason resigned as Inverness manager and is replaced with Alan Thompson


Fixtures
View attachment 388412


SPL
View attachment 388411
The Old firm and the two Saints have made brilliant starts while ourselves and Aberdeen have been awful. The Dons in particular just dont look like getting anything.




Europe


Champions League Best Placed 3rd Qualifier
Dundee Utd 5-3 Spartak Moscow
View attachment 388410


I felt confident going in as we were far fitter for the 1st leg and pumled them at the end. The second leg was spent defending out advantage.




Champions League Best Placed playoff
Dundee Utd 6-3 Dynamo Kyiv
View attachment 388409


Cant explain how we were so amazing for the 2nd leg but we destroyed them after a very even game at Tannadice




Champions League Group G
View attachment 388408
Well any point is an achievement from this group. We were the lowest ranked team in the draw and face Chelsea who have reached back to back finals, Schalke are the current 3rd team in Germany and Ajax who are never short of good youngsters




Other Sides
Celtic's Group
View attachment 388407
Barca will run and hide while Celtic have a great chance of reaching the last 16. I call it a dead heat between them and Leverkusen.




Inverness went out at the playoff stage to PAOK, St Mirren went out at the 3rd Qualifier to Real Sociedad, and the dissapoining Aberdeen side were dismantled by Friburg at the play off stage.




August Transfers
View attachment 388406




Celtic FINALLY make a big signing but sell 2 starters along the way, We sell 2 talented youngsters for rediculous prices, Rangers make there biggest signing so far, Inverness bulk up on players




Dundee Utd
View attachment 388405


In
Enes Unal - AT
View attachment 388404
Once the Group phase position was set i suddenly had a heep of money in the bank to spend of free players wages. Unal had a decent spell in Turkey but its going to be interesting to see if he can dethrown King Collins


Guido Vadala - MC
View attachment 388403
The former Boca youngster spent a few years traveling Europe including my favorite hunting ground Czech Republic. Tried to grab him all summer but the Champions League money made the difference with a lot of compremises on the contract.



2 youth player join the fray while my former keeper at Celtic Darren Sweeney joins on loan as back up.
View attachment 388402View attachment 388401



Out
I Let back up forward Iosu Martin leave as there was less oppertunitys for him and his progression was invisible. Di Giuseppe and Pacholik were given offers i could not refuse. The help these sales will give to the development of the club is immesurable.



​
 
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