Hi there!
Judging by some of the comments there seem to be a lot of people on the site that support Rangers’ rivals, so I’ve taken it upon myself to convert you all to the Rangers’ cause! If you find it impossible to like Rangers then just think of them as Dan’s Rangers, the Scottish side with a loveable Geordie boss. :D
Now onto the business of the actual club. I thought I’d just pan out the game setup I’ve got going and the information I’ve been given about the club, I figure the more info I give you guys the more you’ll feel part of the story, so here we go…
These are the leagues I’ve loaded. Although only England, Scotland, Italy, and Germany are playable I like to have all the major European countries there. Brazil and Argentina usually produce good regens so that’s why I’ve got them as view only and surprisingly there are a lot of good Ukrainian players so I thought it couldn’t harm things to have the Ukraine leagues as view-only.
More importantly is what state the club is in behind the scenes. As you can see we have a national reputation with top training facilities and a good youth academy/facilities. I can also tell you our youth recruitment network is above average in case you were wondering. We’re in the ECC and predicted 1st domestically (no pressure). The problem is plain for anyone to see, our debt amounts to 50% of the value of the club! And our chairman doesn’t look as though he wants to go anywhere fast. I suppose we do have a great stadium though (not as good as St. James’ Park but it’ll do) and that should rake the money in each weekend.
As for the squad it should have no problems domestically but this is where the club is stuck in limbo. The squad is too good for the SPL meaning success every season in at least 1 trophy. However, the squad is not good enough for Europe which means that they never progress far which in turn means their reputation won’t grow in order to attract the players that will allow them to win a European competition. What I’m saying is need a good run in the EURO Cup or something before I can even consider an assault on the Champions League!
This is my best team in the 4-4-2 system but I’m not sure if I’m going to take that approach, obviously it’s always good to have at least one of your 3 formations as a 4-4-2 but it won’t be my first choice. I’m thinking 4-5-1 since I have a strong midfield, or 4-3-3 since I have plenty of capable strikers.
Plenty of staff but whether or not they’re good is a different story, I basically put this shot here so that you can see the changes once I cull the deadwood and replace them with my own tried and tested staff such as Paul Maxwell (physio), Paul Winsper (fitness coach), Simon Hunt (scout).
As you can see the club must have a warehouse for their trophies, 113 competition wins, 53 of which are SPL/1st Division titles! This is crazy and shows why the pressure will be on right from the start of the game.
This doesn’t really bother me but I thought you guys would be interested in it, if not then please feel free to skip the loan report. Weiss and Bartley should do well in Scotland but I’m not sure if I can stomach having El-Hadji Diouf in my team, he’s scum and I don’t thing anyone here would disagree with me. I have Forster on loan too from Aberdeen but he’s always blighted by injury. As for players away on loan there’s James Beattie who I’ll sell at the end of the season probably and the other bunch who I’ve no idea who they are…
This is probably the most positive backroom meeting I’ve ever had. Although we have the oldest squad we also have the best passing, dribbling, first touch, and the strongest squad. Celtic have better concentration, determination, flair, and height than us but all in all we’re very even which should provide some interesting derby matches.
Now that we’ve done all of that let’s move onto what the board wants from me, well I’ll give you one guess at the league expectation…
…Win the league! And they’ve generously given me £0 transfer budget and a £215K wage budget of which £210K is already being spent, wonderful! This is the reason I chose Rangers, big expectation and no cash, it’s a difficult scenario, especially when the Premier League clubs come knocking for your best players.
Well that’s all for now! Hope this gave you an insight into the club that is Dan’s Rangers, the pros and the cons. Not sure how long it’ll take for my next post since there’s a lot to do in pre-season but I doubt it’ll take more than a week so until then…
Thanks for reading!
Desmo Wenning
1 августа, 2011 at 12:34
Why Ukraine! Holland, Croatia, Portugal all have more talented players! Oh well, good luck! :D
Dan
1 августа, 2011 at 13:07
Thanks Dezmo! The reason I chose Ukraine was just through personal experience some good regens come through there in the future as well as supplying really cheap good players at the start of the game…
I never even thought of Croatia or Portugal and I usually have Holland available but forgot this time :)
Laxeyman
1 августа, 2011 at 12:56
Looks like you’ve got a strong squad, and with a few more additions you’ll be hard to stop in the SPL :) Looking forward to seeing who you bring in.
Dan
1 августа, 2011 at 13:08
Thanks Laxeyman, at the moment I’m concentrating on formations and staff, since the club has poor finances I think having the right staff and correct formations to utilize what I’ve already got is more important for now :)
Johnny Karp
1 августа, 2011 at 13:05
Hmm, the club seems to be in a very difficult position in terms of finances, no transfer money at such a big club is not something you get to see every day… However, the squad is strong enough to win the league and hopefully the Champions League money will help you to get a transfer budget in January. Good luck!
Dan
1 августа, 2011 at 13:09
Thanks Johnny, hopefully I can actually stay in the Champions League past the group stages because the money would really help a lot.
FM Blogger
1 августа, 2011 at 14:12
Hi Dan,
This is going to be a pretty interesting story, Rangers is a club that has high expectations but their budget is just poor. But you have some good players like Jelavic, Fleck and Bougherra. If you manage to win the title and get to the CL then you will get a lot of money which can be used in order to gain financial health. The truth is that in the game Celtic are better because they have a big budget (about 5,5M euros) but hopefully you can overcome them. Good Luck!
fmblogging.blogspot.com
Dan
1 августа, 2011 at 18:13
I think I’ll be able to overtake Celtic completely in a couple of seasons :)
Darren Smith
1 августа, 2011 at 18:36
Well this could be tough, no budget to put your stamp on and the board expect instant success. I hope you can play around with transfers and make room for one or two new faces. Good luck mate.
Dan
1 августа, 2011 at 21:07
I’m currently looking at the loan market and trying to work out 1 or 2 transfers using my own players as bate. You’re right though, I’m basically going to be playing with Walter Smith’s squad until I can be backed with some money but I should consider myself lucky, at least I haven’t got Mike Ashley as a chairman! :D
celticman
1 августа, 2011 at 18:50
I think the key for you here is to manage the finances. I can tell you that Rangers often struggle in later seasons in my game, always due to the finances. You’ve loaded leagues which generate good regens, so its worth taking a note of the days those regens are generated and play the market.
Look to sell on players coming to the end of their contracts. You are right they are all good enough to win the SPL but they’re not worth negotiating new contracts with since they are not good enough for Europe. You should also have some decent youngsters coming through the ranks.
Dan
1 августа, 2011 at 21:10
Thanks celticman plenty of good advice as always! Great idea about playing the market and I’m already looking to get rid of a couple of first teamers who are wanted by Premier League clubs. THe youth system at the moment is disappointing, only 2 players, Darren Cole and Greg Wylde are anywhere near good enough for the first team squad but I’m sure the regens that come through in the future will be better.
domcorr11
1 августа, 2011 at 21:02
Well good assesment but i still dont agree with ur team choice but good post mate and good luck with the story
Dan
1 августа, 2011 at 21:11
Thanks dom, seems I’ll never convert you but I’ll just have to keep trying! :)
CsAtlantis
2 августа, 2011 at 01:59
It’s a good squad Dan, mcgregor and davis are great players, and there is also the legendary 40 year old Weir, I think you can use some wingers in your tactic, you have quite a few of those
I am sure you can get yiourself out of financial issues, the stadium is huge at 51k capacity
Dan
2 августа, 2011 at 15:25
For the financial aspect I’m kind of hoping some rich guy will buy the club and hand me some cash. I do have a really strong squad for the SPL but its really thin and even my reserves hardly exist. As for tactics, I never make a tactic without wingers :)
Rod
2 августа, 2011 at 11:26
Hi mate, you have a very capable squad, but you are right, you will need more quality in order to be a serious contender for european titles! That backroom meeting was awesome.
Too bad you don’t have money, you will have to say goodbye to a few players if you want to bring new blood to the team.
Looking forward to the story, cheers.
Dan
2 августа, 2011 at 15:22
Thanks Rod, I’m already trying to get rid of the players who I don’t think will feature and am scouring the loan market for good deals but I’ve had no luck in the free transfer aspect, none of the free players would add anything into the team. Hopefully the money from the Champions League will go straight into the transfer kitty so that I can do some January deals.
vaibhavc
2 августа, 2011 at 18:49
Hey Dan
Good squad, but no money whatsoever. You will have to sell dead-wood and hope that you get a lot of money. Are you going to terminate Diouf’s loan?
Dan
2 августа, 2011 at 18:53
I’ve decided to keep Diouf, I haven’t got enough players to cancel it unfortunately. The problem with selling the deadwood is that nobody wants them so it looks like this is going to be a really difficult season, but hey, that’s why I chose Rangers :)
Martin
3 августа, 2011 at 08:48
Great post bud…nice and indepth. One thing I will say is that from past experience when starting a save Brazil produce the best EVERYTHING…coaches, players and having them set as ‘View-Only’ wont allow you to get the best out of that Nation. Good Luck though fella…can’t wait to see your signing.
Dan
3 августа, 2011 at 12:17
I like to have coaches who speak English fluently so I’m not too bothered about missing out on Brazilian coaches. :)