Afan Lido: Season 2 Review

Hello all, and welcome back to the Afan Lido story.  Unfortunately I haven’t had much video-making opportunity over the past week, so you’ll have to settle with just a written update for our second season. Hopefully that should change this week, and I’ll be able to return with some video action.  Before we begin with the written update however, I’d like to do a little theory crafting.

When I first began this challenge, it was with an understanding there were certain «stages» that any minor league to Champion’s League quest goes through. I’ve gleaned these from following various other attempts to bring an unknown team to continental glory, and I can already see them playing out here with the Lido.  From my observations, they are thus:

Stage 1) Consolidation — As the title suggests, this is the crucial beginning phase of team building. You dump the dead wood, and bring in players you think will help the team out. This phase usually encompass the entirety of the first season (regardless of your final position on the table), and sets the done for the future.

Stage 2) Domestic Domination — Before you can do anything internationally, you have to establish an iron grip on your domestic league. You’ve achieved this stage once you’ve begun winning your league with ease (domestic cups are largely irrelevant at this level), and are putting substantial distance between yourself and the rest of the competition.

Stage 3) Stagnation — This is the point where nearly all of these stories fail. Depending on how bad your league is (doesn’t get much worse than Wales, I’m afraid), you could be in this stage for 15+ seasons. This is where the domestic competitions have become mindless affairs, but you’re still not achieving any meaningful success on the European stage. This phase may include a few false hopes, such as falling into the Europa Knockout stages (by finishing third in your CL group), but the bigger teams still sweep you aside with ease.

Stage 4) The Breakthrough — Usually the shortest stage, and also the most difficult to spot (thanks to the false breakthroughs sometimes experienced in Stagnation). This stage seems to happen quickly, and relatively out of the blue. It doesn’t have to end with winning a European competition, but you suddenly find yourself standing toe-to-toe with some of the big boys (knocking out a club from the «Big 5» is usually a pretty good indicator). From here you either move on to Stage 5, or fall backwards into Stagnation.

Stage 5) European Glory — From what I’ve seen, once you experience the Breakthrough, European Glory tends to come within 2 or 3 seasons (if it doesn’t, you’ve fallen back into Stagnation), if not immediately. This is marked off by the impossible, winning the Europa or Champion’s League. Depending on your goals, you’ve now reached your destination.

So where do Afan Lido currently stand on that long, treacherousness road?  I think I’ll just let the league table answer that question:

We were top from game one, and mathematically secured the league with six games to play. Unfortunately this table also shows just how weak the rest of the league is, with none of the other teams in the top half able to establish themselves as contenders. Neath was probably my most challenging foe throughout the year, but even they crumbled towards the end. I was disappointed, if I’m honest, and was hoping for a more harrowing finish.

Regardless, that’s not all the news! For the first time under my management, we found ourselves in the Welsh Cup semi-finals against League 2 side Newport County (who’s allowed to play in the Welsh Cup on account of them being Welsh). We were 4.00 underdogs going into the game, and I knew this would be an excellent test of our progress thus far. Admittedly nervous heading into the game, I honestly wasn’t expecting this result:

I’d be lying if I said we dominated that game, because we most certainly didn’t. Both of Javlon Campbell’s goals were poachers efforts (Shane Williams’ goal on the other hand, was a screamer), and Newport was the more threatening team for most of the match. Were it not for our keeper (Callum Antel) playing the game of his life, we would likely be looking at a very different result. Not great, but promising.

Regardless, a win is a win, and this moved us along to a Welsh Cup final showdown against Airbus UK. Incidentally, we’ve never lost a game to Airbus, so I was fairly confident going into this matchup. My lads didn’t let me down either:

Or rather, I should say my lads didn’t totally blow the game. We walked through with a 2-0 win courtesy of Airbus’ own Craig Tawton. I was not-so-secretly hoping he’d score a hat-trick for us, but alas, it wasn’t to be. I’d like to say I was able to offer a backhanded thank you in the post game press conference, but the game wasn’t smart enough to give me a witty response option. None of that is really important though, because with this win, it meant we did:

The double! And my first ever double in Football Manager to boot. I was (and still am) pretty excited by that result, and I’m hoping it’s something we can build on for the future. Unfortunately it’s not all sunshine and rainbows here in Wales, and not long after the Cup win, I received a rather disheartening piece of news:

Ouch. Our climb is getting ever steeper, and the pressure is on for us to make some noise in the coming Champion’s League. Unfortunately the rest of the Welsh league seems to be getting worse, and I’ve noticed a marked decrease in the quality of players the teams around me are signing. Frustratingly, I need at least one of them to start doing well if I’m to have any prayer of ever winning a European title.

With a continued drop in the rankings, and an ever rising debt, Season 3 is going to be far more crucial than I’d anticipated. We desperately need to secure a win in our first CL qualifying matchup, or we could be staring bankruptcy square in the face come next season’s end.  Attendance is still painfully low (averaging around 100 a game), and I’ve still been unable to goad the board into turning us into a fully professional outfit (that’s right, we’re still semi-pro).

For the curious, here is our complete fixture list (minus preseason friendlies) for the year:

Thanks for reading all, and I’ll see you guys next time!