Stenhousemuir:
Location: Stenhousemuir, Scotland (outside of Falkirk)
Owned By: Stenhousemuir, currently ground sharing with East Stirlingshire F.C.
-Fairly Basic Corporate
-Average training
-Adequate youth
Stenhousemuir, or “The Warriors”, are a team that hold a special place in my heart. While I can’t claim any family connection, I’ve followed their progress for quite some time (mainly because I liked their name), and really enjoyed my visit to the town when I lived in the United Kingdom. They’ve spent their entire history languishing in the lower tiers of the Scottish Football system, and their only notable honor was their 1995 Scottish League Challenge Cup victory. They’re expected to finish last in this years Second Division campaign, and I’ll have a challenge on my hands to keep them afloat!
Goals:
I expect the title of the post to be something of a give away, but I have several goals for this club:
1) Gain promotion to the Scottish Premier League. The Warriors have never played Premier League Football, and their highest ever finish was a 1959 3rd place finish in the First Division. I’d like to reward the fans loyalty to the club by taking them to the top of the pyramid.
2) Break up the Old Firm. This is my single greatest goal. The history of Scottish football has been written by two little clubs from Glasgow (Celtic and Rangers), and aside from a few brief periods, no other club has been able to sustainably compete. It’s my goal to add a third team to that mix, and show the Glasgow boys that they aren’t the only game in town.
3) Win the Europa League. Perhaps not the most lofty of goals, but everyone has to begin somewhere! We need to get our feet wet in Europe, and the Europa League is a great place to do it (with the bonus of being a competition we can actually win).
4) Make Scotland’s presence routinely felt in the Champion’s League. This could also be translated as “make the world once again respect Scotland” or more simply “Improve the Scottish League’s reputation”. Regardless, I want Barcelona to be just as terrified of visiting Ochilview Park as we would be of playing in the Nou Camp.
5) Win the Champion’s League. By far the most difficult goal, I’d like to take The Warriors to Champion’s League glory (becoming only the second Scottish club to do so). It’ll be a task several years in the making, but one I feel is ultimately achievable.
Wrap-Up:
I’d like to thank you all for your ongoing support, and I hope you’ll find this story as enjoyable to read as I’m finding it to write! I’ll be posting our preseason moves tomorrow as we gear up for a season focused on Second Division survival. Our board isn’t expecting much, and I haven’t been given much money to work with:
Cruickshanks
30 апреля, 2011 at 21:17
Hey Jon,
I’m Scottish and I look forward to your story. An interesting choice of team I must say. I’m sure you can achieve your goals although it will take some time.
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:55
Yeah, it’ll probably be a bit before I can achieve them all, thanks for the support! I wish I could say I’m Scottish, but I’m only a Scot by ancestry. :(
Johnny Karp
30 апреля, 2011 at 21:20
Welcome to the team Stromson! I didn’t know that you gave up on the Ukrainian challenge but I do like your choice, this Scottish story has a lot more potential. I wish you the best of luck and I’m looking forward to the transfer activity news tomorrow.
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:56
Thanks Johnny! Yeah, I did quite a bit of stewing on the topic before I settled on a Scottish team. The Ukrainian league is already fairly dominant, and with only a single «lower league» available, it wouldn’t take very long to rise through the ranks.
Darren Smith
30 апреля, 2011 at 21:35
Great first post Stromson, its great to see you on the main site and welcome to the team! Your goals are certainly high, but also achievable. If you pull it off, this could be a legendary story. Must say I’m excited about this stories potential. Good luck mate :)
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:57
Thanks Darren, and I appreciate all the help in getting started. :)
Kevin
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:23
Hi Stromson
Greetings from Canada and welcome to the main page!!
I’m sorry I haven’t read your Salisbury story, I just have about enough time to get through what’s posted here. Anyway, great choice of team, I once applied for the Partick Thistle job in real life :) Got turned down of course! Good luck and looking forward to your next update.
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:59
Thanks Kevin, and that’s okay. There are quite a few stories on the forums, and its tough to keep up with them all! That’s pretty wild about Partick Thistle, sham you didn’t get it. :) (Also, glad I’m not the only Westerner around!)
kevin
1 мая, 2011 at 20:16
Where do you live?
Stromson
2 мая, 2011 at 00:42
Below you, in the United States. :)
MRDNRA
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:23
I have relatives who live in/near Stenhousemuir, so I can’t complain about the club you’ve chosen. Look forward to see how you do, but I must say, it’s going to be a very tough task to dislodge Rangers and Celtic from the top of Scottish football. One of my long term goals with FM has been to get Celtic as a well established presence within the Champions League (with the ultimate aim of winning it for only the 2nd time in their history), indeed on FM2010 I got as far as the quarter final before losing what I believed was by far the easiest tie of the round due to a dreadful away performance, next season first match in the CL group stages, due to a combination of being extremely over optimistic causing me to go completely crazy with formation and strategy, lost 10-0 away at Real Madrid (from 2-0 at half time!).
Nevertheless, I believe given enough time it can be done, I feel the main challenge will be attracting top talent to the SPL, the problem being is that once you reach the top it becomes somewhat less competitive as none of the other teams have enough quality.
Anyway, good luck with your story, look forward to see how you do this season.
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 23:01
Agreed, it isn’t going to be any easy challenge. I’m hoping by adding a third team to the mix, I’ll be able to count on Celtic and Rangers to help prop up the league coefficient, and allow us to attract some higher tiered talent. Hopefully I won’t disappoint your relatives in my management of the team. ;-)
Laxeyman
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:42
Hi Jon, interesting choice with Stenhousemuir, this looks lie it has the makings of a good story. I like the goals you’ve set yourself, and they’re all achievable, although obviously winning the Champions League will be difficult. Looking forward to seeing what you do in pre season :)
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 23:01
Thanks Laxey, the CL is going to be super tough, but hopefully we’ll be able to pull it off in the long run!
daniel
30 апреля, 2011 at 22:51
Hi Jon i look forward to reading your posts its always fun welcoming new FM writers to the site (even though for now i havent got the time to do it myself) i look forward to your story and its always more fun starting with lower league teams
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 23:07
Thanks Daniel, I appreciate the support!
Daniel
30 апреля, 2011 at 23:59
anytime :)
Excessive
30 апреля, 2011 at 23:26
Stromo :)!
Looking forward to reading this bud, your Salisbury story had me hooked and im sure this one will be no different. Hope you can smash that Old firm pair and go onto winning some European silverware in the future.
As ever, ill be following bud. Hope you can get out of the second division this season!
Good luck :)
Stromson
30 апреля, 2011 at 23:50
I don’t know, my track record with clubs in my first year is spotty: I’ll either be relegated or promoted. ;-) Really appreciate the support Jake, it helps knowing you’ve got my back!
vikingmarius
1 мая, 2011 at 00:10
Hi Jon
I lived in Aberdeen for 7 years, and as a fan of the last team to break up the old firm grip I can’t wait until you eventually take them off the top, It may take a while though especially seeing as you are starting with under 3,000 a week in wages, anyway good luck and look forward to see how you get on.
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:32
Thanks Viking! It’ll be pretty tough, but with some time and patience I think we can smash that Old Firm!
Alex
1 мая, 2011 at 05:57
Hey Jon, I’m glad that there is another person writing on the team :)
If you reach your goals you will have done an amazing job, I look forward to reading it. Good luck, I hope you can do well in the first season, the beginning is always the hardest in my opinion.
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:33
Thanks Alex, I’m glad to be here! I agree the first season will by far be the toughest, but with any luck I can channel some of that Academia success and pull off a miracle. ;-)
vaibhavc
1 мая, 2011 at 06:27
Hey Jon
I think you have set some good goals for your club and hopefully you can achieve them. It will be interesting to see what you do. Good luck!
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:34
Thanks Vaibhavc, will need all the luck we can get! >.>
Lye
1 мая, 2011 at 07:06
Hi Jon,
Another new member joining Johnny and Darren. Great to see you posting your story here. I am looking forward to you achieving your goals though it will be a long route ahead. I hope you can achieve it in a short span of time. Good luck.
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:37
Thanks Lye, I think we can achieve a few of them in the relative short term (winning promotion to the Premier League and challenging the Old Firm), but I expect it’ll be quite a while before we win Champion’s League glory.
hils
1 мая, 2011 at 07:53
Hi Jon,interesting choice of club there!!!!!!!!!! I hope you achieve your goals!!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!!!
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:37
Thanks for the support hils!
CsAtlantis
1 мая, 2011 at 09:21
Looks like a pretty tight budget there Jon, hopefully you can get by for a while, how does your team report look like? would like to know how many players you have at the club
Good luck with your team, they don’t really look like much (pretty low expectations for the season it seems)
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:39
Yeah, we have very little budget room and it’s unfortunately fairly spread out between all the players. The team roster is currently fluxing (I’m in the midst of preseason right now), but I’ll give solid numbers later tonight when I post our final moves. The team report reeks of mediocrity, and we need to seriously shore up our midfield and centerbacks!
Sayam Khan
1 мая, 2011 at 11:42
Hi Jon, welcome aboard! This should be a good story, and I’m looking forward to it. Good Luck!
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:39
Thanks Sayam, I hope it’ll be a good one!
Ana Garcia
1 мая, 2011 at 19:05
Hi Jon, welcome to the team!
Really interesting choice, I dont know much about Scottish football (only from what I read on Sears story) but it seems like a good challenge!
Seems you will need a bit of luck so I wish you well!
:)
Stromson
1 мая, 2011 at 20:40
Thanks Ana, appreciate the support! It won’t be terribly easy, but hopefully we’ll succeed!