Samo's Stirling - Season Fourteen - Game Over

With the treble treble secured last season (that's three consecutive seasons of the SPL, Scottish Cup and Scottish Supercup being won, all three available domestic trophies), it's safe to say we're dominating domestic football. Going in to each new season I'm confident we would consistently be able to do what was required to win the league title. I'm bias, but results do show we've got the strongest squad in the country, while the data shows that we're league leaders in determination and physical attributes, two areas I look to excel in and value above all else.

Would these facts see us go on to secure a quadruple treble? 

Domestic Cups

We cruised past last season's league runners up, St Johnstone, in the Scottish Supercup season opener. That's our fourth consecutive win in that competition now after failing to win it in our first couple of appearances.

We then proceeded to cruise into our fifth consecutive Scottish Cup final, and seventh overall. Aberdeen looked our toughest test on paper in the 4th round, but Stirling youth product, Alex McGrandles, got us on our way to a comfortable 3-0 win with an own goal. Bigger Kawaya and European Golden Boy, Jack Beaton, demolished Queen of the South in the semi-final to set up a final clash with Hibs.

Who would win their first Scottish Cup since 2015/16. A really disappointing result, but at the end of the day we weren't good enough to win the game and didn't deserve to. Hibs had the better of the chances, with our only clear cut chance coming from Griffiths' missed penalty just before half time. If we'd scored that, I believe it would have put us in the driving seat, despite Hibs missing a penalty of their own at 1-1 earlier on in the first half. It looked as though Barkaia's goal and Sato's sending off for Hibs had swung the match in our favour going in to extra time, but Gary Shinnie got his second as we were restricted to long shots and kept at bay by the Hibees.

No domestic treble this season. No quadruple treble.

SPL

Hibs' Scottish Cup win wouldn't be a sign of things to come in the league too, would it?

There's plenty of green dots across the first half of the season, but the two results that really stick out are those two 3-2 defeats in a row on matchday three and four against Celtic (getting one over us for the first time in three seasons) and my boyhood club, Greenock Morton. No excuses for the defeats, it was our strongest eleven in both matches, we didn't do enough to win. We were especially second rate in the Morton defeat. Hibs were the other club to take points off us in the first half of the season, but our consistency across the other fourteen matchdays saw us topping the table at the halfway stage.

Morton! Wtf! It's really difficult to put personal feelings aside and be raging at my club for taking six points from us this season. It was 1-1 going into the last 10 minutes and I went for the win and pushed men forward. They hit us on the break and sent us back to Stirling with our tails between our legs. Hibs also inflicted a defeat on us to make it a miserable season against Paul Lambert's men. Celtic took another point off us too to go undefeated against us this season too. What was going on? Surely these dropped points wouldn't see us give up our grip on the SPL?

Nah, we still won it by 10 points in the end. But it was our worst season since 2025/26, the first SPL title winning season. It was the most we've conceded since that season, the least number of goals scored since that season and the four defeats is the most we've had in a season since the season prior to our league win, 2024/25. What happened?

As I mentioned in my transfers post, I felt it was time to blood more homegrown youngsters into the squad and I predominantly chose to do this in domestic matches. Shaun Greene aside, all of my young Scots played over 1,000 minutes this season across the league and Scottish Cup, with Hendry and Carr actually being my first choice CB pairing domestically. It was a conscious choice, but one that maybe led to performances not being as good as they could have been across each of the 34 matches.

The forward pairing of Sambu and Griffiths was fairly settled this season, but I heavily rotated the midfield four behind them. This was mainly due to me not really settling on what my strongest four was, but also because I'm a tinkerer. I want to give players gametime and also see how they'll do in match situations. Competing on multiple fronts, it's also necessary at times. I do tend to go on a bit more about the negatives, but the most important time to reflect and act is when you're on top.

Champions League

We did really well qualifying out of our group containing PSG and Chelsea last season in the CL, luck wasn't on our side in this season's competition though.

United's record against us now stands at played six, won six. I can't get the better of Mourinho. They knocked us out in the 1st knockout round last season and they've all but done it again this season, by drawing and losing against Atletico while we won and drew against the La Liga side. We could've made it a bit easier for ourselves too by beating CSKA at home, but had to play the majority of the match with 10 men after Daniel Christensen was sent off early in the first half.

That 3rd place finish means we drop into the Europa League for the first time since 2025/26. We reached the semi final that season, could we go one better this time?

Europa League

We dealt with a long away trip to Russia rather well in the 1st knockout round, dismantling Krasnodar 5-0 before hitting six past them in the home leg to sail through to face Athletic Club. After scoring six again in the home leg I felt confident, but those three we conceded set up a really nervy second leg in Spain and we only just made it through by the skin of our teeth in the end. The Basque club battered us in Bilbao, but couldn't convert their chances into shots on target or goals.

We'd already faced my former FM17 club, RBLeipzig, back in that 2025/26 Europa League campaign, eventually going through on away goals after another nervy 2nd leg. This time round it was a little bit more comfortable, a 4-1 aggregate victory. I was happy to avoid Spurs and Crystal Palace in the semi final draw, English clubs are always tough to play against, especially with the 14 seasons of financial power behind them now. Braga gained control of the tie in the 1st leg, but we'd played well enough without creating many opportunities to score an away goal. When the Big Man Kawaya scored before half time in the 2nd leg I didn't think it would take until the 119th minute of the match to secure the win and take us through to the Europa League final, but it was fist pumps all round when it did eventually come!

Crystal Palace overcame Spurs in the other semi to set up what I dubbed on Twitter as the worst Europa League final ever.

An uninspiring effort going forward but a solid one at the back brought home the Europa League trophy for little old Stirling Albion! From the 3rd tier of Scottish football when I took over to Europa League winners in 14 seasons, I don't think that's too bad at all. Past winners of the trophy over the last 14 seasons include Real Madrid, Man City, Arsenal, Dortmund and Liverpool. Stirling Albion is now engraved on the trophy too. Here's that winning goal from Daniel Christensen, who joined us on a free transfer four seasons ago, not bad value.

He intercepts a loose ball on the edge of our own penalty area and runs the length of the pitch to eventually get on the end of Griffiths' cross in the opposition six yard box to bring the trophy to Stirling.

Star men

Ença Sambú

The main man across the season was Sambuuu. He'd scored 26 goals in each of the last three seasons, but he really benefited from there not being as much rotation up front this season as he fired in 39 goals across all competitions. This included seven in Europe, as he managed to win the Europa League Player of the Season. He set a new record in the SPL too, scoring 30 goals in 32 appearances, earning him the Players' Player of the Year and Football Writers Player of the Year awards. As a reminder, he joined for £425k from Guimarães. Not bad value at all across the four seasons he's been at the club.

Gogita Barkaia

This was the breakout season for Barkaia playing in the CM(A) position. He's ridiculously gifted, a wonderkid, and could be the Horvat replacement we've been waiting for for a couple of seasons now. His output wasn't incredible, five assists and seven goals, but the importance of that role on the pitch for us is much more than pure goals and assists. So often the hockey pass or just keeping things ticking over. A product of that Circle of Transfers approach and how good our scouting set up is, just a £450k signing from Lokomotivi Tbilisi last season, he's had to bide his time before cementing down his starting spot.

Club growth

Thanks to some positive overall performances in Europe for our clubs over the last couple of seasons, culminating in our Europa League win, Scotland has moved up to 7th in the Nation Club Coefficients table. It's still a long way to go to overhaul Germany and reach that coveted 6th spot which would bring two automatic Champions League group stage spots and a third spot in the qualifiers for the league. That being said, in the fourteen seasons I've been charge, Scotland has come a long way from the 23rd spot it was languishing in back in 2017/18.

Stirling wasn't even on the map in terms of European football when I took over, but now we're Europa League winners and up to 15th in the club coefficient table. Not a bad rise at all. There's still a long way to go with our continental reputation though. We still can't compete with the likes of United, Barcelona, Real Madrid or PSG. We're also still behind clubs we've competed well with in recent seasons, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Athletic Club and even Crystal Palace. We've made huge progress, but there's still a way to go yet.

There was just over £150k in the club balance when I took over, that now stands at over £320m with player sales totaling £119m this season. Here's the usual line graph for season ticket holders and league average attendance.

Some really promising numbers versus the 2029/30 season. Season ticket sales were up 24% to 8,760 overall. This is a whopping 3404% increase versus my first season in charge. Our league average attendance grew by 19% which meant it has grown 2852% since the 2017/18 season. Both of these, along with gate receipts growing 8391%, have been huge parts of the save in line with growing the club as a whole. Moving from Forthbank to the Samo Stadium, and then expanding the capacity on two separate occasions, has enabled the club to become the most well run and reputable in the country.

The Europa League win feels like an appropriate time to end the save ahead of FM19 coming very soon. What a save it's been. FM is telling me it's been a while since I've had any human contact after putting in over 37 days of gametime into this save. I'll be summarising it all in my usual post of the game that I've done for the past two editions now, plus I quite fancied putting together a best XI type post, but we'll see what happens over the next few weeks.

I say it's coming to an end, I can't bring myself to take an FM break like others do. What else would I do with my spare time? Probably make human contact but that's beside the point. I'm going to be "moving upstairs" for season fifteen, and act as a Director of Football/Sporting Director. My assistant for the last five seasons, the great Walter Samuel, is going to "take over" as Head Coach. I'll still be in charge of my favourite things to do in-game, building the squad, buying and selling players. Walter is going to be setting the tactic (I'll shift the 4-4-2 to his preferred 4-2-3-1), picking the team and managing the matches (I'll be instant resulting). Something a little bit different to how the save has gone so far, and a little bit different to the norm too.

Morale Manager

Over the last couple of editions of Football Manager there's been talk across the FM Twittersphere of the game becoming more like Morale Manager. In my opinion, SI have got this pretty spot on. FM reflects the IRL football world with players not getting on with you or each other, complaining about training or about not playing enough, requesting a transfer and more.

I'm going to take you through some of my ways of managing morale across my players in this piece. These are ways I've found work for me, they might work for you too or you might have completely different ways of approaching it and still get results and win trophies galore. That is the beauty of this game we all know and love.

Manager profile

The first thing is to think about how you set up your manager profile and the attributes you give yourself. If you've set yourself as an former non-league footballer and you decide to take over a top six English club, you've got an uphill struggle on your hands to win the respect of those players. Starting at a club with lower expectations or lower down the leagues, and setting your reputation to be the standard for that level gives you a good chance at fostering a good relationship early on. If you want to take a bit of an easier road, stick your reputation up a notch for the level you choose to start your save in.

When I'm doing my own attributes before my save starts, the one I'm looking to put higher than the rest is my motivating attribute, "the mental ability of a staff member to motivate their players."

You can see I've made some serious gainz across the board in my save so far, but that when I started out in my first season, my motivating attribute was at 18, my highest attribute. This was in the hope that I'd be able to get the players behind me and invest in me as a manager before, during and after matches, building a positive relationship and team spirit.

Team spirit

Relationships

I'm a big believer in players having positive relationships with their manager and their teammates will lead to positive performances on the pitch. Out of my 28 man first team squad (I like rotating), 23 of them have me in their favoured personnel. These lads will run through brick walls for me.

Significantly fewer of them have one of their current teammates in their favoured personnel, but that doesn't mean they don't like them. I pointed it out before in my 4-4-2 tactical piece but I'm a fan of the new "relationships" feature on your tactic. Having the players connected on the pitch fosters a cohesive team, one that knows each other inside out.

Spine of the team

Every player has their price in my team, but I like to keep a good chunk of my players together from season to season, especially the spine of my team. Keeper, Birk Kleven, is entering into his fourth season at the club now, with 55 clean sheets to show for it across 107 matches so far. Captain, leader, legend, Ryan Porteous, has now played under me for 308 matches and is in his ninth season at the club. Edvin Horvat appears in most summary posts as one of the standout stars each season and this is his sixth season at the club now. These players know the club inside out and ensure the rest of the squad is moving in the same direction.

There's been a fair bit of change around this spine over the last few seasons, none more so than upfront. Where we had the dynamic duo of #Rog and Ryan Hardie together up top for five seasons, the front line has been much less settled since they fell out of favour and ultimately left the club. You saw the Pharaoh and Radovanovic leaving last season, Keaton Lockett has followed them out of the club this summer. If Sambu has a similar full season to the form he showed in his initial half season of first choice striker, he won't be with us for very long either. This makes it much more difficult to get a positive relationship between my front two, #Rog and Hardie had each other in their favoured personnel, they knew each other inside out.

Personalities

My approach to personalities on the game is taken from the All Blacks, after having read Legacy by James Kerr, "no dickheads". In FM terms, this means no negative personalities. Stirling players are determined to succeed (we have the highest average determination attribute in the league and our collective squad personality is determined) and just like the All Blacks they need to put the team before themselves. Having players with similar personalities only enhances the potential of them all getting along and reduces the risk of fallouts. If you can't change the player, change the player. Every player has a price, remember.

Dynamics

This FM18 addition should be something I look at much more than I do when it comes to this kind of topic. A quick glance at it for the purpose of writing this piece shows me that Porteous, Kleven and Horvat are my team leaders, that makes sense given that they form the spine of the team, and that our dressing room atmosphere is excellent.

Apparently it can be said that we've got too many team leaders though, I don't see this as a negative. All players at the club should custodians of the Stirling culture. Right now, having morale as a column on my squad view makes me feel like I don't need to visit the dynamics tab. I wonder if or how SI will switch it up for future games and surface it a bit more than those summary emails we occasionally get, maybe it doesn't need to be?

Communication

Teamtalks and press conferences

This is certainly an area where I know I play the game differently to others. I do every single teamtalk and every single press conference because I believe they can have a really positive effect on creating a positive relationship with the players. My approach is just to be honest with the players. If I think we can win, I tell them that. If I think that we're maybe going to struggle up against a better team in Europe, I don't put any pressure on them to come out with a result, I won't be annoyed if we don't win. A bit of the hairdryer treatment isn't off limits, but that's mainly used at half time to stick a few rockets up their arses if I don't see them performing well enough. The objective, as I'm sure it is for most others, is greens across the board. Getting the players delighted and/or motivated.

The players are listening, so when the opportunity arises in a press conference to praise the team or an individual player, and of course it makes sense to do so, I do it. This will only strengthen the relationship they have with me.

Praising performances

This isn't something I dish out on a regular basis, but it's another tool that can be used to reinforce positive relationships with players.

Chang-Min scored a double from right wing in our last match against Ross County. He's a new addition to the club having joined in the summer, and is also an 18-year-old Korean, so is just a young lad in a completely new country and culture. A little bit of praise for his last performance is just like throwing a metaphorical arm over him and letting him know he's doing well. It could really go a long way to him keeping that form up.

He's also just picked up both the player and young player of the month awards for October, congratulating him on those wins will only further help.

Contracts and transfers

I would say that contracts and transfers come into managing player morale too. When you're signing a new player, it's important to not just promise them that they'll be an integral member of your squad if you know they'll struggle to break in to your current first team. It might be an obvious one to some, but it'll save that player coming to you a few months down the line to moan about a lack of first team football, which in turn might also save some of his teammates coming out in support of him and that positive atmosphere in the dressing room going down.

Like I said already, everyone has a price. If a player comes to me asking to leave I'm very unlikely to stand in their way, as long as we get fairly compensated. There's no use keeping an unhappy player around the squad, potentially risking the happiness of the rest of my squad. It's often possible to try and win the unhappy player round, continue playing him in matches to see if he'll change his mind, but this isn't something I'd recommend to do all the time. Think realistically about it, taking the club you are into account. If your reputation isn't quite up there with the best yet, then it's probably worthwhile cashing in and allowing the player angling for a move to a bigger club to leave.

Matches

Playing time

I've called this out a few times before but one of the first things I do on the new game is pull minutes played into my default squad screen views. This helps me monitor how much game time my players are getting, and feeds in to how much I rotate (which is often with my 28 man first team squad!). It also feeds in to ensuring that certain players don't become unhappy. If players with a back up or rotational status aren't seeing those promises be met, or key players or first teamers aren't playing regularly, then it might be time to either start them or stick them on the bench for some potential first team minutes.

It also helps if your team is playing well when a player raises a concern about their lack of playing time. The option to tell them that player X in their position is playing well and it'd be a struggle to drop him right now usually works quite well in seeing them drop their issue.

Pre-match training

Not a big one to finish off, but I have my match preparation training set to teamwork permanently and do this for a day and a half before a matchday. These are known to give a little boost to whatever you pick pre-match, whether it's attacking movement or defending set pieces. Teamwork focuses on improving team familiarity and understanding.

For me, this just adds to the players feeling as one and knowing where to be and how to work together on the pitch. Ultimately, this leads to us winning matches which leads to happy players. Simple.

Obviously there are a lot of factors that go into keeping your players happy. I said at the beginning that there's FMers out there that won't do any of these things and they're still able to find success. I feel like the things I've outlined work well for me, that's not to say that they actually do all factor in to how morale works in the back end of the game.

If you feel like you've picked up something you're going to take into your own save from reading this let me know! Plus, if you do any of these things differently, or have completely different techniques altogether then let me know too! I'd be happy to hear about them.

If you've liked this post you might also fancy having a read of how I monitor and manage my players fitness over the course of the season. Spoiler alert, it wasn't through the medical centre.

A Strategy for Stirling

In my saves on previous editions of Football Manager I've tended to set out quite structured aims and targets at the beginning of the save. This time round with Stirling we started out in the third tier and I knew I eventually wanted to grow the club and take it to the next level but one of the main initial aims I had was survival. We were part-time and forward-planning is a bit of a dirty word at that level like I said in my initial introductory post. Fast forward to the beginning of the 2026/27 season and we'll be starting season ten with the aim of retaining the SPL crown after the clubs first ever top tier title win last season. Who'd have thought it?

The club has obviously come a long way in that time, and the restructured Scottish football leagues seem to have enabled clubs in the country to go from strength to strength. With all of these things in mind, plus the fact that Stewart Brown, our long-standing chairman in-game, stepped aside after the title win to be replaced by Graeme Mackay, I felt it was time to get some aims written down. I'll be looking to keep these things front of mind over the next part of the save. Here's my Strategy for Stirling.

Stirling Success

A culture of success needs to be created. This includes retaining the Scottish Premier League trophy, winning the Scottish Cup and securing our first Scottish Supercup. The first aim will be to secure the clubs first double, winning the SPL and the Scottish Cup in the same season with the aim then becoming to secure a treble. From there, winning domestic trophies needs to be maintained season-on-season.

The club punched well above its weight last season in Europe, reaching the Europa League semi final. Lifting a European trophy isn't something a club from Scotland has done since 1983 so saying I'm setting out to win the Champions or Europa League is a bit too much of a stretch target. The minimum aim will be to qualify for the Champions League group stage each season, with the next step being to progress from it into the knockout phase.

Both of the above aspects will also lead to improving the club, the league and the country's position on the continent. The club's current position in the European Club Rankings is 42nd, the short-term aim is to be the highest ranked Scottish club (meaning we overtake Celtic who're currently 26th), with the eventual long-term hope to break into the top 15 highest ranked clubs on the continent. The SPL has certainly benefited from the restructure and now sits in 9th place in the continents most reputable leagues, with the country sitting 9th in the European coefficient points too. This translates to the champions directly qualifying for the Champions League group stage, and a further team going in at the best placed 3rd qualifying round. The team in 3rd place qualifies for the Europa League group stage, with another two teams going into the early qualifying rounds. The immediate aim is to get the nation up to 6th in order to gain an extra qualifying place for the Champions League group stage, but this can't be done solely on our own. We need Celtic, Rangers and whoever else qualifies for Europe to have positive seasons in order to build the nations coefficient points and overtake Belgium, Holland and Portugal.

Success isn't just expected from the senior side. Stirling's Futures (u21 side) have won the league two seasons running now, and secured their first domestic cup win last year too. The aim is for Scott Robertson to continue the winning feeling at youth level. Alongside trophy wins it's also essential to continue developing players to make the move into the first team. Kevin "Cairnseh" Cairns is the shining light of the Stirling youth system so far. Young players coming into the club need to get inspired by his journey from young prospect in the third tier to making 204 appearances to date, earning a Scotland cap and playing in the Europa League semi final.

Underpinning the success and enabling the player development will be an elite coaching culture. Over the past few seasons, the club has massively improved the number and quality of coaches, and the backroom staff in general. There's no comparison between the club I took over ahead of the 2017/18 season and now as I move into my tenth season in charge, with well-known international names Walter Samuel and Jaap Stam complemented by well-known domestic names such as John Kennedy and Gordon Durie. The aim will be to continue to maximise the number of backroom staff allowed by the board and to have the best quality of staff in the league on hand to aid our players to become the best they can be.

Stirling System

The way we play has been well documented here, and is often cited by other FMers (on Twitter and Slack) as a recommended way to set up. The side has been playing this way now for five seasons with zero changes to the way it was set up initially.

The style of play ties into the success category too. Stirling sides are solid and combative but the goal is always to win no matter what. There's no desire to get a specific amount of possession or passes per match. There's no pressing triggers or set ways players need to move into half-spaces. If we make a lot of passes or I see my players pressing the opposition into making mistakes, and we win, great. If we have an off day, don't play well and lose, fine. We dust ourselves off and try to win the next match.

The system is less about the formation and roles, and more about the players. Nobody embodies an ideal Stirling player more than Edvin Horvat.

Aggressive, determined, hard-working and physical. Filling my Stirling side with athletes, who of course have a little bit of technical ability too, stands us in good stead over our domestic opponents. We lead the league in pace, stamina, aggression and teamwork, which is nice to see already. That needs to be maintained along with improving our collective determination from 3rd to 1st, work rate from 5th to 1st and acceleration and strength from 2nd to 1st.

A Strong Stirling

The club has grown considerably over the last nine seasons. That growth needs to continue though in order for the club to remain in it's very strong position domestically, and to give us the best possible platform to do well in Europe. Coupled with the success we're aiming for, the prize money that comes alongside that will help to enable the first growth aim, having £100m in the club balance. This also ties in strongly with another success aim, as developing, buying and selling on players, like we've seen in recent seasons with Rees, Gale and Freeman, will help add to the club finances. The club is currently valued at £114m and we'll aim to continually improve that in the coming seasons too.

As we grow our reputation by being domestically dominant and competing on the continent, the commercial revenues the club brings in should grow too. £1.5m was brought in from sponsors at the beginning of season ten, and I'd like to see this double in the next couple of years with renewals and additional ones brought on board. The merchandising revenues will also increase. The amount we earned from sales of the kit last season was relatively small at just over £100k, but again as we grow in stature, it'll increase. A way to bolster this amount is to sign up affiliate clubs from overseas. Ahead of the new season, a partnership with Newcastle Jets in Australia was announced, which will see us head over there for a friendly each season and grow the Stirling image abroad. Based on its success, similar tie ins will be explored with additional clubs over the next few seasons.

The 14,031 capacity Samo Stadium opened at the beginning of season nine, with the league average attendance in our first season of playing there being just under 10k. As soon as it opened though thoughts immediately moved to thinking about when it could be expanded further. It's currently the ninth biggest stadium in the country, that's in use by a club side anyway. It'd be great to get it to 20k and be on a par with Tynecaste Park, Easter Road and Pittodrie. The impact that would have on our revenues can't be played down either, especially considering the season-on-season increase of 198% in gate receipts from the old to the new stadium.

The final aim is to have best in class facilities for our elite coaching culture to operate in. Significant improvements have already been made on this front since I joined the club, as you can see below, but with more still to be done. Our training facilities are still average and our youth recruitment could be improved too to ensure we've got every chance of attracting promising young players to the club and developing them to be the best they can be.

Summary

Want the too long; didn't read version of the strategy in image form? 

That first SPL title win last season doesn't signal the end of my time at Stirling. It just signals the start of another phase on the way to becoming one of Scotland's biggest and best football clubs. I hope you'll keep joining me as I document the progress on delivering the strategy aims and my attempts at building a dominating dynasty. Who the hell finds success boring?

Samo's Stirling - Opening the Samo Stadium

Having successfully established Stirling as one of the best clubs in Scotland on the pitch, it was time to do this off the pitch too. We'd quickly outgrown our 3,808 capacity Forthbank home, we were unable to play our home European matches there (because home European matches are a thing now for the club!), and halfway through my seventh season in charge the board sanctioned a request to have a new stadium built. Just in time for the beginning of my ninth season in charge of Stirling, we'll move into our brand spanking new 14k capacity home.

Nobody wants to be playing in the Stirling Albion Stadium. It's uninspiring and the game needs to get better on things like this. So I went out and bought the in-game editor purely to change the name of our new stadium. Pure mad mental? Aye, probably. But fuck it. Welcome to the Samo Stadium.

It's customary to open a new stadium with fanfare, fireworks and a fancy friendly match. You'll have read what happened when I took my Stirling side to Argentina to face Bastardo's Estudiantes side to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our club forming. Having kept in touch in the years since, including his recommendation to Walter Samuel to join as my new assistant manager last season, I felt it was only right to invite Bastardo's bastards to Stirling to crack open the champagne bottle on the side of the Samo Stadium. Oh, and to play some football too of course.

Scotland and Argentina

FMGrasshopper gave a perfect summary of Scotsmen, the Watson Hutton's, and their influence on bringing football to Argentina. With Alexander being the founding father of the AFA, and also father to Arnold, who starred up front for the Albicelestes in the early 1900s. Being a keen student of football, I have of course read that copy of Angels with Dirty Faces that Bastardo kindly gifted to me when we locked horns previously so I'm well versed on the origins and history of Argentine football myself. Since Neil McBain left La Plata to return to Ayr in 1951, Scottish and Argentine football have only flirted with each other again on a couple of occasions.

In 1978, Scotland was on the march with Ally's Army. Before they flew out to compete in Argentina the squad paraded around Hampden to bid farewell to fans, and thousands more lined the streets en route to the airport. Manager, Ally MacLeod, had declared that the squad, containing Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Joe Jordan and Archie Gemmill, would come home with a medal and they were classed as contenders by the likes of Rinus Michels. Royal Mail even designed and produced commemorative stamps!

Glorious failure ensued, as we've got used to by now. After gaining a solitary point from the first two group stage matches in Cordoba against Peru and Iran, Archie Gemmill served up one of the greatest moments in Scottish football history in Mendoza against the Netherlands. It secured a 3-2 win for us against the eventual tournament runners up, but we needed to win by three clear goals. Out we went on goal difference and MacLeod resigned later than year with his tale between his legs.

Fast forwarding to the late 1990s/early 2000s and we had an influx of Argentines joining Scottish football. Journeyman Italian, Ivano Bonetti, joined Dundee as player/manager and set about trying to establish them as challengers at the top end of Scottish football. Beto Carranza, Pascual Garrido, Walter del Río, Juan Sara, Fabián Caballero and Julián Speroni were joined by ex-Argentine World Cup star, Claudio Caniggia. Scorer of two goals at the 1994 World Cup, he only ended up being with the Dees for a short time but very quickly became a fans favourite. Remarkably after a move to Rangers, where he also became a hit with the fans, he was called up by Bielsa for Argentina's squad for the 2002 World Cup. He didn't end up making an appearance, but he'd certainly cemented himself as a cult hero amongst Scottish football fans.

That period of Scottish football was rife with clubs spending beyond their means, with Dundee eventually going into administration and getting relegated. Scottish football ahead of the 2025/26 season though is in rude health, with the opening of the Samo Stadium highlighting that. How would we fare against Bastardo this time round after our 4-2 defeat in La Plata previously?

Match Action

A few years on and there's still some survivors in the Stirling side. Ryan Porteous continues to captain the side, alongside LB Owen Hughes, Deep Lying Destroyer Aaron Bolger and star striker #Rog. Wonderkids, Ahmed el Sayed aka the Pharaoh and Edvin Horvat are accommodated in the same starting 11, with Horvat being pushed out left and homegrown Stirling lad, Cairnseh, dropping to the bench. Those of you with good memories will be happy to see that David Jablonsky is no longer at the club, with his horror show in La Plata signalling the end of his Stirling career. Similarly to that match in La Plata, I set out in the Samo 4-4-2. As I said back then, "we’ll set up in the way we like to play and see what happens."

There would be no Lattanzio for Estudiantes this time round, who terrorised us with a hattrick in the last match, as he'd been given the boot by Bastardo. The dangermen to watch were promising young striker, Renzo Taborda, midfield controller, Raúl Rolón and the returning wide man, Fernando Zuqui.

Bastardo's men were more than capable of dishing out another defeat against us here, and the opening minutes proved it.

An initial cross from the right hand side is dealt with, but that second ball isn't closed down quick enough. Aparicio's cross looks like it's overhit and going out, but Jesus Medina is alert and somehow picks out Zuqui. Owen Hughes isn't great in the air, and he's easily beaten for Estudiantes' opening goal after just two minutes and 17 seconds. A full 52 seconds before the opening Estudiantes goal in the previous match. Why don't we start well against Bastardo's men?

Things went from bad to worse in the eleventh minute. Ryan Porteous does well to deal with an incoming Medina corner, but the ball falls right to Reynoso's feet.

Usually I see my players blasting it over the bar or wide of the post from these second ball wins on the edge of the box from a corner. Reynoso is given time (what is Aaron Bolger, #22, doing?) and space to do whatever he wants with it. His strong decision making attribute, coupled with excellent vision and passing sees him pick out Remedi, #7. With our zonal marking on defensive corners spectacularly failing here as six of my players in the box are nowhere near any of the opposing players, Remedi slots it easily past Robby McCrorie in goals. 2-0 Estudiantes.

We kick off, play a couple of passes in midfield before a slack one out left to Horvat from Bolger is pounced on by Zuqui. The away side play keep ball just inside our half, before Reynoso tries to find Zuqui with a lofted pass out right.

Hughes wins that aerial battle, but the loose ball falls to Remedi who finds Zuqui's feet this time. Hughes doesn't get tight or close down well enough, giving Zuqui time and space to cross. Taborda beats Nicholl to the ball in the box and hits the back of the net with a fine finish to make it three. It's a shocking start to life in the Samo Stadium as we're second to every ball and looking abject. That's how the score stays until half time, with McCrorie tipping a fierce shot from Taborda onto the post in the only other chance of the half.

Remarkably, that's how the score stayed for the remainder of the match. Stirling 0-3 Estudiantes. A (pretend, because we played on FMTouch) bollocking in the halftime teamtalk reminded the Stirling players that this was the grand opening of our new stadium, and we could do with not being embarrassed any further. The match was played in good spirits, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed we couldn't at least score for the newly increased capacity crowd of 14k that turned up. #Rog did have a glorious clear cut opening with 20minutes to go, but couldn't find a way past Axel Werner in the Estudiantes goal. We'd have to put up a much better fight if we want to challenge at the top of the SPL again this season.

Post-Match

I shouldn't have been surprised really, Bastardo hails from a country that is renowned for its tactical expertise and will to win. When he spoke to the waiting press after the match, he underlined this. "I envisaged possession to be an issue today, and perhaps needed to tone down our risk to ensure we keep the ball for longer periods. I told Reynoso not to play the ball so riskily, and asked Rolón to mark Stirling's forward dropping into the hole tightly. I wanted to negate the threat of their two up top."

"Remedi is a tough tackling midfielder and he was instructed to stick tight to Stirling's Pharaoh. I didn't know much about him prior to today, but had heard it was worth going in hard to keep him from threatening. Horvat's quality is wasted out on the left hand side, plus he's very one footed so I asked the players to show him onto his right. The game was won early on, but we shut it down completely with 10 minutes to go. Stirling, unfortunately for their fans, offered no threat today." Brutal honesty from the Argentine, as per usual.

Scotland has struggled internationally, continentally and even domestically in recent times. We have been accused of not moving with the times, not progressing our game. The reintroduction of the SPL ahead of the 2017/18 along with restructuring the leagues and incorporating all of Scotland's football clubs into one big pyramid attracted increased levels of income from sponsorship and television money. It gave our game the jolt it needed. My Stirling side might have been outfoxed and outplayed by Bastardo and his Estudiantes side twice now, but luckily for us these were only exhibition matches. Our aim is to compete domestically, to keep growing the club and the opening of the Samo Stadium is a huge part of that. Thanks to Bastardo for agreeing to travel to Scotland and play against us on this historic day for Stirling Albion. Hopefully they'll actually be some Stirling goals for the 14k fans to cheer in the near future...

My FM18 Tactic: 4-4-2

I grew up watching football at a time when 4-4-2 was the standard across Scottish and English football. Beckham and Giggs on the flanks, Keane and Scholes centrally and Yorke and Cole up top are my most vivid memories of the formation. Even now, on terraces across Scottish football you'll still hear some rage when teams aren't playing "two up top".

The rise of 4-2-3-1 and Barca's 4-3-3 saw the use of 4-4-2 fall away in-game, certainly for me anyway, and in the non-FM world too. However, in recent years, it's had a bit of a revival. I don't need to go on about Leicester's that won them the Premier League, but it was interesting to see Monaco using a version to great effect on their way to pipping PSG to the French league title and progressing in the Champions League. I've always had the thought in the back of my mind to get a 4-4-2 set up on FM again and working the way I want it to. Strong in defence, a creative midfield that's able to support a front two that work in harmony together. More importantly though, I want it to be simple.

With all tactical posts on this site there's a disclaimer. When I've found success with a tactic over the last couple of editions of the game, it's been purely by accident. I'm not a tactical expert, so if you're looking for a pro talking about pro things, you might want to head elsewhere just now. If you're like me and feel like you're more of an amateur talking about amateur things, read on!

Formation, Roles and Player Instructions

Defence

Nothing fancy here. My defence is tasked with defending first and foremost.

My keeper has a few specific instructions. Passing it shorter, taking short kicks and playing it out to my full backs, plus playing less risky passes too. We aren't a team that wants possession for possession's sake, but I like to keep the ball and play it out from the back. Simply put, if we've got the ball the opposition have less of a chance of scoring. My central defenders aren't asked to do anything extra at all. Just defend. Intercept, win the ball, head it clear, get opposition crosses into row Z. They aren't the most gifted so when the ball is at their feet, it's a bit of a worry. That's why my keeper plays it out wide to my full backs.

Those full backs are set to be on support. Anything more than this, and I feel they'll get dragged way out of position, leaving us wide open. When we've got the ball, they'll support the attacks from deep and provide an outlet for us to keep possession and be patient. I ask them both to cross more often too. We've got two up top so when the opportunity arises I'm happy for them to try and swing the ball into the box.

Midfield

Continuing on the defensive theme I've gone for a DLP, or as I've renamed it, my Deep Lying Destroyer (DLD). No changes to the set DLP role here, so why pick this role instead of a central midfielder with a defend duty? Positioning on the pitch and that hardcoded player instruction of closes down more, that's why. The DLP shoots less often and holds position, in comparison. That hold position instruction versus the increased closing down for a CM(D) is vital to how I want my DLD to play. A DLP is primarily a creator, but I'm happiest when my DLD is shielding the back four and enabling my remaining five players to have a bit more freedom to create and attack.

The one neutral role in the side is my left winger on support. I don't expect him to bomb down the wing, he'll support the attacking play when we've got the ball going forward but he mainly acts as cover on that side for the central midfielder alongside him to attack.

When we discussed it on the pod, I said my CM with an attack duty could be classed as a number 10 for me. He creates chances from deep and gets up to support the strikers. He seems to ghost into the box undetected at times, getting on the end of quite a few of those crosses from the attacking winger. His role is to attack opposition left backs and get crosses into the box for our front men. He also finds himself getting on the end of a fair few chances from my deep lying forward dropping in to create space.

Attack

I ultimately chose my DLF on support as my main number 10 though. He drops in and creates havoc for opposition defences. Do they follow him? Should they sit in? Panic stations. It's even more prevalent as he's instructed to roam from his position and move into channels. Alongside the advanced forward also moving into channels, we've always got that wide out ball, dragging defences all over the place. There's some lovely interplay between the front two and the winger on the right, at times forming a three man attack almost.

Relationships

This was a new introduction for FM18, and I believe it's a positive one.

Here's how my first choice side shapes up in this respect. There's connections all over the pitch. Some don't pay much attention to the morale side of the game and can still find success. That's fine, good on them.

If we're talking marginal gains though, doing everything possible to add that little bit of extra chance of winning a football match, then the players having a great understanding amongst each other (team cohesion training for the first three months of the season helps, along with pre-match teamwork training), being encouraged (talked up in press conferences, individually spoken to when they've played a blinder or won an award) and feeling like they'll run through brick walls for their manager (keeping a core together for a good few seasons and checking how well you're supported by the players on the dynamics tab) goes a long way to turning a draw or defeat into a win.

Team Instructions

I said I wanted to keep it simple. My base tactic has no set team instructions and no changes to the mentality or shape. I've seen numerous examples of tactics with a whole boatload of instructions, pretty much every option available being activated in some way. It doesn't need to be like that. Picking all the team instructions under the sun isn't a prerequisite to winning on FM. Sure, you certainly might want your team to play high tempo, direct football, with a high line and closing down opposition players to the max. Pick those instructions in those cases, if you've got the players to play that way. I like to let my players decide when to play it short or long or when to close down and when to not. Their chosen roles and individual attributes do a lot of the work here, negating my need to add numerous team instructions.

A couple of tweaks I occasionally like to make are shifting the shape to structured and telling the players to dribble less. I've got to admit that shape on FM still does confuse me slightly no matter how much I read about it. However, I take it as structured means that our players will just focus on their key roles that little bit more, so the defenders will become even less concerned with getting forward, while the attacking players will look get forward that little bit more.

We aren't blessed with the best dribblers in the world. There's no players that'll run rings round opponents, so by telling them to dribble less it gets them passing the ball that little bit more rather than potentially running into trouble and losing the ball.

Match Action

At The Back

My DLD is probably my favourite aspect of my defensive play. The players I rotate between in this role aren't necessarily the most adept at passing, or even tackling. They are both incredibly hard working, determined and aggressive though, plus have speed and stamina in abundance too. All of those qualities make them ideal for the role I want this player to play. Shielding the back four, intercepting the ball and laying it off to our more dangerous offensive players. In a 4-0 away win at Easter Road against Hibs, Aaron Bolger, who's my main choice for the role, played perfectly.

While his tackling attribute isn't up there with the best, it doesn't mean he doesn't get stuck in about our opposition.

Hibs' AMC manages to get round him here, but Bolger's work rate sees him get back in and make a decisive tackle on the next phase of the attack, as Romulo looks like he could lay it back to Talysson to get a shot away. One of my CB's aside, the DLD make the highest number of tackles, with Bolger ending up third in the league for tackles per match, but with much more minutes played that both first and second place. Both CB's aside, Bolger made the most interceptions in this Hibs match and comparing his interceptions total with midfielders from our league rivals, was up there near the top for the season.

Going Forward

When we're attacking it's all about the four forces of my CM(A), W(A), DLF(S) and AF, or as they've been over the last couple of seasons, Puigmal, Vaughan, #Rog and Hardie.

This equaliser against Rangers is a great example of the four roles in action. #19 is my CB winning the ball from the Rangers keepers goal kick. #9 is my DLF, Hardie in this instance, dropping deep to collect the second ball. Bolger, #23, does his primary role by showing for the pass and laying it inside to Puigmal, #8. Hardie's received the ball again and plays a defence splitting pass to the AF, #17, who finds himself through on goal. Remarkably, he doesn't shoot and has spotted the run of Vaughan, #10, my attacking winger who I said gets up to form a three pronged attack at times. He finishes into an empty net and ended up scoring 18 over the course of this season, with 12 man of the match awards under his belt too.

If you've read my last two season update posts (season five and six), you'll know that #Rog and Hardie love a goal. The deadly duo scored 124 goals between them over those two seasons, firing us to consecutive Europa League group campaigns when we had no right to even qualify. If they're given an inch of the space in the opposition penalty area, it usually leads to a Stirling goal. With two men up top, I said I was more than happy to fire crosses into the danger area, it's a big part of our play.

Hardie struggled with a couple of injuries this season which kept him out for months at a time. It took #Rog a little while to adjust to playing with Arsenal loanee newgen, Will Sealy, but they combined to devastating effect for this goal. It was #Rog's second on his way to hattrick away at Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League group stage.

It's a great example of the DLF's extra player instructions of roaming more and moving into channels. Sealy peels wide, dragging a Dynamo CB with him, Vaughan finding him down the right. #Rog's movement in the box is brilliant, coming across the other CB and leaving him and the RB for dead. Simple, effective, deadly. Notice Puigmal, #8, arriving late into the box as the central midfielder on attack too. I could watch goals like this all day.

Summary

The thing to bear in mind when reading anything tactical is that usually the author has moulded their recruitment around that tactic and has integrated it to the point where the players are at one with it, so they definitely shouldn't be classed as something you can plug in to your side on FM and instantly win.

However, since moving to this tactic we've gone from a team that only just stayed clear of relegation in our first season in the top tier of Scottish football, to one that's consistently punching above it's weight by qualifying for European football in each of the three seasons since, culminating in pipping Rangers to finish second behind Celtic in my most recent season to qualify for the Champions League for the first time.

Why the Medical Centre Isn't Needed on FM

The addition of the medical centre for FM18 was called out as one of SI's crowning new features. It's a feature that I hadn't seen many people requesting, it's one we've managed to live without so far up to this point and personally, it's one I think can still be lived without. Have a read of how I'm managing injury prevention on FM18 without clicking into the medical centre.

Manual rest

I became a big advocate of this on FM17, and I've continued it on to FM18 too. At different periods of the season, when midweek matches come thick and fast for example, I've even prioritised rest and having match fit players over them actually training.

Think about it in FM terms on the training screen. The preset option seems to be to have a day of rest/no training the day after you've played a match. Initially you might think that seems fine, they've just played a match, they don't need to train today. But it was just your first 11 that played the match, including maybe giving three subs some gametime too. By all means they should be given a rest, but what about the other subs that didn't get on the pitch and the rest of your squad that didn't make the matchday squad? What are they getting a rest for? I untick that "rest day after match" button on the team training screen, and then once I've just finished a match I head to my squad view and sort my players by the positions I selected them to play in.

From there, I select my first 11 (minus the keeper, unless I really think he needs a rest (which isn't often), and any subs I think need a rest too), right click and follow the breadcrumb you can see on the screenshot above. Depending on the situation, I'll alter exactly how much rest I'll give my players. In the example above, I might actually deselect my AMR and give him an extra day off to fully recover, seeing as his condition is down at 64% (he gives his all in every match with 15 for work rate but also his 17 for natural fitness helps here). I'll take into account our schedule too. I'm still in the first half of the season, we'd just beaten Raith 1-0 here and it just so happens that we don't have another match until next weekend, so I can afford to perhaps not give as much rest as I maybe would if we did have one in midweek. I'd probably go for one day of rest in this scenario.

Minutes played and rotation

When adding information to my squad views, one of my most important columns is minutes played.

Looking at the far right of the above screenshot, you'll see so far in my 17 matches this season I've got a core set of players that I've chosen on a regular basis. I believe that core are my best players in those positions, the ones I can count on, but I'm more than happy to rotate and give the players in the next tier down a shot in the first team too. Rotation in football shouldn't be an alien concept to you by now. I like to have at least two options per position in my squad, and they're players I'd be happy with stepping in at any time.

When it gets to matchday, I generally don't like to start a player who are below 90% physical condition. Even if that player is bang on form, if they aren't fit enough they'll not start a match for me. Ross Kavanagh has three goals and two assists in his last five matches, at an average rating of 7.68, if he's not worked his way back up to a good level of physical condition prior to my next match, I'm more than happy to give Ryan Tierney a first team run out.

Substitutions

If I don't make three subs a match, I get annoyed with myself. They can be the perfect way to manage injury prevention. The ability to see players condition is literally right there in front of you. Some prioritise subs to change the game and make a breakthrough, and I do do that on occasion but my priority with subs is taking off tiring players or ensuring that players returning from injury get minutes under their belt (as seen in the next section). As soon as it gets to the 60th minute, I'm starting to think about who's coming off and who from my bench maybe needs to come on for some minutes. Very rarely will I get to the 80th minute without making a sub, there's no room here for subs to wind down the clock. They serve a purpose.

Injury problems

Injuries can occur at any time. It doesn't matter if you've just played four matches in less than a fortnight or if you've just come off the back of preseason with your players as fit as they can be. You can see in my previous couple of squad view screenshots that I've got quite a few players not at peak match sharpness. These are players that are either just returning from injury, or players that I've not really needed at all to step in yet for first team action.

Calum Gallagher was signed in the summer to come in and provide an upgrade in our right winger position. Before the season started, he tore his calf and was out for three months. Predict that, medical centre. Once he's back to peak physical condition it makes absolutely no sense to just fire him straight into the first 11. He's got to be nursed back to match fitness through a combination of u21 friendlies, sub appearances and maybe a start in a cup match against a lower tier side, if you're lucky to get one. Since returning from injury, he's only got on the pitch for 48 minutes so far. I'll look to ramp this up in the next few weeks. Otherwise it's highly likely, as he's expecting to be a first team squad member, that he'll come to me moaning. Plz give us an option to explain injury management to players, SI ??.

Medical team

It's an obvious one, but one of those things related to FM that I don't fully know has an effect or not. Maxing out the options available to you in terms of the number of medical staff you can hire, I believe, puts you in a good position to deal with those injuries when they do occur and prevent them occurring at all.

Right now I'm allowed a head physio, a physio, and from this season, a head sports scientist and a sports scientist. We're ranking first in the league for quality of physiotherapy and have the second best sports scientists in the league. We are still in the second tier, so it'll be important to monitor and maintain our medical team if and when we get promoted to the top tier. The physiotherapy attribute is how good they are at issuing high quality treatment to prevent players getting injured and also how good they are at treating players to work them back from injury. FM18's new sports science attribute is how competent that staff member is at managing player's fitness levels and injury risk to keep them as fit as possible. Basically, get staff in with high attributes in both of these categories!

So there's what I do to monitor my players fitness and prevent injuries. Lots are finding the medical centre useful, and that's fine for them. It does seem like much more of a hand-holdy feature, alongside dynamics too. Surfacing things that previously were there and you could control, but weren't exactly right in your face when managing a club. If you aren't busy smashing the space bar, there's plenty to do and pay attention to in order to monitor and manage injury prevention. In my personal opinion, SI could have spent the time taken to develop that on other things. Maybe working on training a bit more? That'd be nice.

People are bound to disagree, maybe I'll be won around by some of the arguments for the medical centre!

Samo's Stirling

I've introduced you to the new structure of Scottish football, briefly touched on who I'll be taking over and even more briefly touched on why I would be. Now it's time to dig a bit deeper into the why and what exactly I'll be aiming for whilst in charge of Stirling Albion on FM18.

Let me just quickly summarise for you what I mentioned in my introductory post about why I wanted to take on Stirling as my FM18 challenge:

• Sporting excellence is in the city's DNA.

• They don't have much history of note at the top of Scottish football.

• I believe there's real potential there to grow the club, plus there's no major competitors for fans in the immediate surrounding area.

These three why's give me an almost blank canvas as to how I want to shape the club and move it forward.

Most of the things I love to play this game for are intangible. They're things that aren't really in the game, that you can't see in front of you. Building up a club in a city or town. Those positive feelings and that success you bring in turn improving the perception of the club within it's local area, and as such, more fans start coming to matches. I imagine the club reaching out across the local community to promote itself. Players going in to local primary and secondary schools to attract the next generation of fans to the club. Yes, we might have a city rival with the name Stirling University, but that doesn't mean the club can't work alongside the university to use it's resources. Top class training facilities, player and coaching education and hiring talented graduates (of which I'm one ?) to improve the club's business, commercial and sponsorship activities too. I imagine the club getting coverage in the press for it's unique approach to the game, being at the forefront of the latest innovations in football. Once you've reached a certain stature domestically, you start to look abroad and grow the club by those means too. Developing the club into a brand, more than just a football club.

This narrative I make up in my head around my save can relate to things in-game in some ways though. Firstly, the club has to become professional, up from it's current semi-professional status. Winning matches, gaining promotions and winning silverware all surround the club in a positive light, and usually the attendance grows as a result. Forthbank is currently a hub of community activity, that will continue once we fully own the stadium and look to increase it's capacity to suit demand. Once we're in different divisions, I want to develop an affiliate link with Stirling University to send my loan players there. The club's junior, youth, training, sports scientist and data analysis facilities are all in need of an upgrade, with the eventual aim for them to be best in class.

We'll have scouts scouring for talented players we can bring in, give a platform to develop as players and people with the eventual aim being to sell them on for more than we bought them for. If I'm lucky enough to get the club to a position where it's challenging at the upper echelons of Scottish football, this will give the board and it's executives the ability to then look further afield to grow the club, by signing up new sponsors, foreign affiliates and creating a network the club can tap in to for players, scouting knowledge and marketing benefits.

I'm mentioning all this, but the immediate aim is survival. I don't mean survival in the sense that the club is in dire straits and might go to the wall. I mean that right now, we're by no means in the position as a club to start splashing cash on stadium upgrades, improving facilities and signing up global affiliates. The financial side of the Scottish football in the top couple of tiers has been improved, success in our first few seasons will certainly bring us more money than it would have done before the restructure. However, I don't predict us doing anything of note on this side of things until we've maintained our place in the newly resurrected SPL, at least.

On the staff side of things, continual improvement will be the aim. Our players are currently on part time contracts, living year to year. The same for our backroom staff too. It's the way of clubs in the lower leagues of Scottish football. Success isn't guaranteed. Positive relationships are put to one side. Forward planning is a dirty phrase and handing out three or four year contracts down in the depths is unheard of. Limiting our talent pool by only looking for players with certain qualities? We need all the help we can get. It's dog eat dog, ruthless. Once we go professional, we can take things from there. In the immediate term, we just need to be smarter at recruiting than our league rivals, which, of course, is something we'll be continually aiming for.

The journey starts in Scottish Division Two (S2). Due to the previous season's final league positions before league reconstruction, we're one of the better teams in the division and are 6-1 favourites to win it. The minimum board expectation is that we get promoted via winning the league. Not exactly the fly under the radar, under-promise/over-deliver start I usually prefer when I take over a club. Once the first season is out of the way, and we hopefully achieve promotion, that's when the fun starts.

Thanks for reading, all thoughts welcome and I hope you'll join me as I look to build and grow the club!

My FM18 Plans

If you know me, you'll know I'm Scottish and that I love Scottish football. I'm also a big believer in focusing on your strengths, and that's why I'm heading back to Scotland on FM18. I want to establish myself as the go-to when it comes to anything Football Manager and Scotland. If you've got a burning question about anything to do with Scottish football on Football Manager, you come to me. Alright pal?

I think the reason you're all reading this though is to see what I'll actually be doing on FM18, so let's get into it then.

I might be very passionate about Scottish football and portraying the leagues in a positive light, but there is something I hate about it. That something is the league set up. The 12-team top flight, followed by three divisions of 10 alongside the Scottish Cup, the League (Betfred) Cup and the Challenge (Irn-Bru) Cup for lower league teams makes it hugely repetitive. Greenock Morton, my club, and Dundee United played against each other seven times last season! Madness.

Heading back to Scotland was the first reveal. So the second big FM18 reveal from me is that I'll be editing the structure of the Scottish leagues. I'm planning to stay in the country for the entirety of FM18, so it has to be done. My FM16 experience, ten seasons with my beloved Morton, only backed that up. What will the structure look like? Glad you asked.

New Scottish Structure

It's a humongous 16 tier setup! 288 clubs of pure madness but it all starts with the return of the Scottish Premier League (SPL). For those that don't pay much attention to Scottish football, you might be surprised to hear that the SPL hasn't actually been a thing since the 2012/13 season. The top flight has been called the Scottish Premiership (or Ladbrokes Premiership) since the merger of the SPL and the SFL (Scottish Football League, the lower leagues). Through the incompetence of those whose job it is to promote our game, it's failed to be adopted as the norm, and most fans, pundits, players and managers in and out of Scottish football have continued to call it the SPL. So I thought, why not bring it back.

Where possible, all of the teams in each new league created are based on their positions in their current leagues over the 2016/17 season. Believe me, football leagues in Scotland are a very complicated and not-so-joined up system. There's tiers all over the place, some that don't lead to any others in any way at all. Which leads us nicely onto the 15 tiers below the SPL, Scottish Division One all the way down to Scottish Division Fifteen. These tiers, alongside the SPL, will all be 18-team leagues and each team will play each other home and away. There's three automatic relegation spots in each league, and in all the tiers aside from the top, two automatic promotion spots plus a playoff to determine the third team going up.

One major thing about the Scottish game that you need to know is that there's no money growing on trees here in comparison to our English counterparts down south. In creating your own league structure, the temptation to go mad and boost the financial side of the game is always prevalent. When it comes to this league structure, finances have actually been a pretty difficult decision. I've decided on the winners of the SPL getting £4.8m. This is in comparison to the £2.7m that the winners of the Scottish Premiership will receive on FM18 usually in season one. Prize money per position will then decrease the lower down we go. In my tests of the database, this has resulted in quite a bit of money entering the Scottish game, but if you compare it to other leagues, I still think it's quite fair. The top two tiers will have a TV deal, which will be significantly less than the prize money total for winning the leagues, but still a decent amount. I think both of these things make sense, with the (imaginary) fanfare and excitement around the leagues being expanded and restructured.

The lower down the leagues we go, the more difficult it gets. If you think there's no money at the top of Scottish football, some of these teams being added into the league structure are dealing in packets of crisps and chewing gum. Is it realistic to be asking Dalbeattie Star or Gretna to travel to John O'Groats or FMPressure's Thurso? Do some of the clubs even want to do it? No, is the short answer. Some lower league and non-league Scottish clubs have the fanbases and resources to be competing in the current league structure, but they don't want to. Another thing to learn about Scottish football is that it's very self-preserving. These clubs don't see why they should join in the league structure and spend money they don't need to on long, and often difficult to get to, away trips. That stops now with this new structure. All clubs are in it together, under one league system. Aiming big will be rewarded, and if you don't want to progress, you'll find yourself hurtling down the tiers.

The final bit of information around the new league structure is the squad rules. Clubs in the top three tiers have to submit 25-man squads, but players under the age of 21 that have been trained in Scotland do not have to be registered and can play at any time. There also needs to be a minimum of six Scottish homegrown players in each matchday squad. The tiers below that aren't restricted in these ways. Big thanks to FMPressure, and also Acidphire21, for being there for any help or questions on the database so far.

Who Will I Be Managing?

The third and final reveal, is the club I'll be taking over on FM18 in this new structure for Scottish football. I'll be hanging my CS emblazoned tracksuit top on the back of the managers office door at Stirling Albion's Forthbank.

Welcome to Samo’s Stirling.

Why Stirling?

Firstly, sporting excellence is in Stirling's DNA. I attended the University of Stirling, while other names associated with Stirling and sport include Sir Andy and Jamie Murray, Duncan Ferguson, Billy Bremner, Gary and Steven Caldwell, Scottish rugby international Kenny Logan, plus Olympic swimmer Robbie Renwick trained at the university. A relatively illustrious few I'm sure you'll agree. I'll go through a few aims related to this in a future update.

Secondly, Stirling Albion have never been close to achieving anything meaningful in Scottish football. They've been a perennial yo-yo club and, as far as I can see, haven't played in the top flight of Scottish football since the 1960's. I'm hoping to change that when I take over. With 16 tiers created, is it a bit of a cop out to start at the third tier? It might look like that to some and maybe if I had all the time in the world to play FM, I'd start right at the bottom and work my way up. I don't though, so I'm not. Simples.

Thirdly, they're not a sleeping giant as such, but I believe there's real potential there to grow the club and get more fans through the turnstile. The city of Stirling has around 30-40,000 inhabitants, which rises to just under 100,000 when you include the surrounding local area too. It's by no means one of the biggest cities or towns in Scotland, just inside the top twenty overall and is actually the least populated city in the country. Looking at the surrounding area though, there aren't too many other clubs competing for the same fans. Of course, the edited database has activated some of the other clubs that play in the area, but there aren't any major competitors for fans. The affluent surrounding areas of Bridge of Allan and Dunblane mixed in with some of the more working class areas within the city itself will be our targets as we look to attract a diverse fanbase to the 3,800 or so capacity Forthbank.

Growth is a must. Objective one, however, will be to not get sacked. FM18's sackings are scaring me so far.