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Us as football fans always tend to ask the same question – What if?
-What if Arsene Wenger resigned?
-What if Cristiano Ronaldo had a Welsh grandmother?
-What if English, Welsh and Scottish leagues were combined?
-What if Dante signed for Aberystwyth Town?
Since Brazilian World Cup semi-finalist, Dante, was seen beaming with delight at the receipt of an Aberystwyth Town Replica Shirt, it has only been natural for any Aber Town supporter to dream of what could be if his transfer from Bayern Munich to Wolfsburg had actually been from Munich to the seaside town of Aberystwyth.
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Produced at Juventude, Dante went on to play at Lille, Charleroi, Standard Liege, Borussia Monchengladbach and finally Bayern Munich, where he won nine domestic and international honours.
Having made his Brazil debut against England in February 2013, he has gone on to make 13 appearances and score 2 goals for his country. Dante, 32, arrived at Wolfsburg from Bayern for a fee of £3.2M in 2015. Primarily a central defender, he is also competent playing as a defensive midfielder or a left back.
With a five-year contract matching Chris Venables’, Dante’s transfer was arranged from Bayern to Park Avenue on the popular football management game, Football Manager (in a copy which was actually won in a giveaway by the Welsh Premier League).
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With good reason Ian Hughes, appointed Dante as the club’s Vice-Captain soon after his transfer to the club was complete.
Dante had an immediate impact at the club, with solid performances at centre back with only Bangor City conceding fewer goals over the course of the season than the Seasiders. He also had some luck at the other end of the pitch with his first competitive goal for the club coming on the 11th of September in a 1-1 draw against Airbus UK.
Over two months went by before he striked again, this time scoring the winning goal against league leaders Port Talbot in a solid 2-1 victory, with eventual Top Goalscorer Darren Thomas having started the scoring with a well struck penalty. The two goal scorers from the victory against Port Talbot had differing luck the week after as Darren Thomas scored a hat-trick and Dante was given his marching orders for a professional foul in a 3-2 win against Airbus.
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The Seasiders form picked up following Dante’s second goal for the club as they went on to go ten games without losing from November to January, completely engulfing the current Christmas period we’re in.
Aber Town’s recent 1-1 draw away to TNS was replicated on the game with different goalscorers and the timing of goals reversed. In the simulation, Darren Thomas got the goal for Aber, with Chris Venables providing the assists. Cieslewicz got the second half equaliser for TNS as Aber Town moved to top of the league table.
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Dante’s third and last goal of the season came at the end of the team’s unbeaten period as he scored in a 2-0 win over Haverfordwest in early January, with Jamie Reed providing the other goal.
Come the end of the season, the Seasiders were still in touch with top spot, knowing that they needed three points against Llandudno at home and for Port Talbot to fall to defeat away to TNS.
Darren Thomas’ continued his hot scoring streak for the side as they went 1-0 up after just two minutes, and helped his side do their part as they went on to beat Llandudno by the one goal.
However Port Talbot were having none of it, (heavily assisted by ex Swansea and WPL Player of the Year Alan Tate) came back from behind at TNS to scrape a 2-2 draw to make them Champions by one point over Aber Town with just ten minutes of the regular season left to play.
An impressive season saw Aber finish runners up to a much improved Port Talbot team with previous Champions TNS finishing down in 6th with sixteen of their 32 games ending in draws.
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Darren Thomas took the WPL Golden Boot award from Chris Venables this year as he followed in his path to score the most goals in the league for 17 goals in 24 games. Despite only scoring four goals, Venables still got nine assists and six Man of the Match awards (joint highest at the club).
There was really only one star man for Aber, and his name was Dante. Dante was shortlisted for the WPL Player of the Year award (only for Alan Tate to lift it) and he also won the Aber Town Supporters Player of the Year award. In his first season at the club, Dante scored three goals, provided four assists and also received six Man of the Match awards.
Sadly, Ian Hughes left the club at the end of the 2015/16 season to join Cefn Druids as Manager. Former Wrexham and Haverfordwest County player Deryn Brace took the helm, who had previous managerial experience at both County and Carmarthen Town. Deryn quickly promoted Dante to club Captain, and after a quick staff reshuffling found winning ways.
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The following eight years saw a glory-filled era for the Seasiders, with multiple domestic honours, as the club went on to turn professional in 2022, four years after current Chairman, Tony Bates, decided to leave the club at the end of the 2017/18 season.
Deryn worked wonders at Park Avenue and was named WPL Manager of the Year for the next eight years running.
Deryn was named Manager of the Year for the next 8 years running, lifting the JD Welsh Cup and the Welsh Premier League in his debut season.
The club’s run in the Cup saw Aber overcome an early shock in the Third Round of the JD Welsh Cup to beat Ton Pentre on penalties following a 1-1 draw to progress to the Fourth Round. On their march to the final, they beat Rhyl (3-0), Airbus UK (4-0) and Connah’s Quay (1-1, pens). They met TNS in the final, and avenged their 2014 defeat at the Racecourse by winning 2-0. Over the course of the competition they only conceded two goals.
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Deryn Brace went onto guide the club to eight consecutive WPL Titles, also lifting the JD Welsh Cup and theWord Cup five times apiece, bringing the seaside town trophy after trophy.
During the most successful era the club has ever seen, the Seasiders longest winning streak was from April 2021 to November 2021, winning eighteen league games on the trot. Even more impressive was their form from December 2016 to March 2018, in which they were undefeated for 45 league games, spanning over three seasons of football.
Success in Europe was much harder to come by, despite qualifying for Europe year after year, and receiving record attendance for every European home fixture, Aber only managed to progress to the Second Qualifying round of the Champions League twice.
The second of these times came in 2018, where Dante scored the quickest goal in Aberystwyth Town history, scoring in a 1-0 victory against Faroe Islands Champions, HB, after just fourteen seconds.
After six years at the club and at the age of 38 Dante retired from professional football. During his time at the club he made 153 league appearances, along with 13 goals, 51 assists and an astounding 50 Man of the Match awards. He also managed to get the reputation for being one of the dirtiest players in Aberystwyth, racking up 64 yellow cards and 6 reds in all competitions in his time in Aber.
There was one award in the WPL that kept eluding Dante, the WPL Player of the Year award. Despite being one of the best players in the league, he only won the award once, in his penultimate season at Aber Town.
This season would go down in history as the most astounding individual accomplishment in the WPL. On the way to Aber lifting the title in 2019/20, Dante managed to receive the Man of the Match award in 21 of his 28 league appearances, crushing any previous records.
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A delayed hangover after Dante’s retirement set in in 2024 and lasted 10 years, with a still respectable seven Runners Up and three 3rd Place Finishes in the Welsh Premier League.
TNS returned to the top over this period, dominating the WPL and topping the league for nine consecutive seasons. TNS’s reign at the top was finally stopped by Connah’s Quay who lifted the WPL Title for the 2033/34 season.
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Deryn Brace won his last silverware for the club in 2026, lifting the JD Welsh Cup. The following year he left to join TNS and went onto to lift the Welsh Premier League four times along with three domestic cup triumphs. In a surprise appointment, Deryn then went onto manage Finland’s National Team, with mixed success.
Following Deryn Brace leaving the club, Town hired ten different managers with five of these managers’ terms lasting less than twenty days.
Current Cardiff City youth player, Tom Burridge was in charge for the last year of this period, following a career that including playing time at MK Dons, Bristol City and Bolton.
Dante went onto football management, and went to manage Sao Paulo, lifting silverware three times and at the age of 49 retired from football altogether. He would be forever remembered as an icon of Aberystwyth Town FC, and they went down as one of his most favoured teams.
Despite Aber’s mixed success over this period, one player, Tim Misbah stuck with them. He stayed at the club through the glory years and hangover in a career spanning 15 years at Aber Town, scoring 183 goals in 353 games.
In the last of the Hangover years, the 2033/34 season, Aber Town showed much more promise and were there or there abouts at the top of the table throughout the season. As the games went into the final day, Aber proudly sat at the top of the table, joint on points with Connah’s Quay but ahead on goal difference.
However, the return to the top would have to wait a little longer as Aber lost on the final day with Quay finding victory to become the new Welsh Champions.
The pain and heartache of the year before spurred on an inspired Aber Town team, lead by Tom Burridge to bring back the glory days in style. Town had a remarkable season, topping the league with 80 points, eleven ahead of runners up TNS and 24 ahead of third placed Quay. During this season they had a spell were they had a sixteen match-winning streak.
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With Dante long gone, other players had to step up and take the charge for Aber, with four players in particular standing out.
First of all, Club Legend and Vice Captain, David Harding (only three years old at the time of writing), who finished the season with three goals, thirteen assists and seven Man of the Matches, leading the former Academy player to being voted as the Supporters Player of the Year 2034/35.
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Other stars of the team were the three Aber Town players at the heart of the defence of the WPL Team of the Season. These were, Jonathan Pritchard as Goalkeeper (Former Norwich & Stoke player, currently ten years old), Kyle Snelling as Centre Back (Former Airbus UK player, currently four years old) and Aaron Lewis at Left Back (Current Swansea Youth player, currently seventeen years old). These three remarkable players led to the Seasiders only conceding 20 goals over the course of the season.
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Meanwhile, Chris Venables joined TNS in 2016, scoring 23 goals for the team before retiring in 2019. He then went onto become Assistant Manager for six different WPL clubs, and at the end of the 2034/35 season was the current TNS Assistant Manager.
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What if Chris Venables goes onto become Aberystwyth Town Manager?
If Dante Was At Aberystwyth Town FC, a 20 Season Football Manager 2016 Experiment
Us as football fans always tend to ask the same question – What if?
-What if Arsene Wenger resigned?
-What if Cristiano Ronaldo had a Welsh grandmother?
-What if English, Welsh and Scottish leagues were combined?
-What if Dante signed for Aberystwyth Town?
Since Brazilian World Cup semi-finalist, Dante, was seen beaming with delight at the receipt of an Aberystwyth Town Replica Shirt, it has only been natural for any Aber Town supporter to dream of what could be if his transfer from Bayern Munich to Wolfsburg had actually been from Munich to the seaside town of Aberystwyth.
Produced at Juventude, Dante went on to play at Lille, Charleroi, Standard Liege, Borussia Monchengladbach and finally Bayern Munich, where he won nine domestic and international honours.
Having made his Brazil debut against England in February 2013, he has gone on to make 13 appearances and score 2 goals for his country. Dante, 32, arrived at Wolfsburg from Bayern for a fee of £3.2M in 2015. Primarily a central defender, he is also competent playing as a defensive midfielder or a left back.
With a five-year contract matching Chris Venables’, Dante’s transfer was arranged from Bayern to Park Avenue on the popular football management game, Football Manager (in a copy which was actually won in a giveaway by the Welsh Premier League).
1. Debut Season. 2015-2016
With good reason Ian Hughes, appointed Dante as the club’s Vice-Captain soon after his transfer to the club was complete.
Dante had an immediate impact at the club, with solid performances at centre back with only Bangor City conceding fewer goals over the course of the season than the Seasiders. He also had some luck at the other end of the pitch with his first competitive goal for the club coming on the 11th of September in a 1-1 draw against Airbus UK.
Over two months went by before he striked again, this time scoring the winning goal against league leaders Port Talbot in a solid 2-1 victory, with eventual Top Goalscorer Darren Thomas having started the scoring with a well struck penalty. The two goal scorers from the victory against Port Talbot had differing luck the week after as Darren Thomas scored a hat-trick and Dante was given his marching orders for a professional foul in a 3-2 win against Airbus.
The Seasiders form picked up following Dante’s second goal for the club as they went on to go ten games without losing from November to January, completely engulfing the current Christmas period we’re in.
Aber Town’s recent 1-1 draw away to TNS was replicated on the game with different goalscorers and the timing of goals reversed. In the simulation, Darren Thomas got the goal for Aber, with Chris Venables providing the assists. Cieslewicz got the second half equaliser for TNS as Aber Town moved to top of the league table.
Dante’s third and last goal of the season came at the end of the team’s unbeaten period as he scored in a 2-0 win over Haverfordwest in early January, with Jamie Reed providing the other goal.
Come the end of the season, the Seasiders were still in touch with top spot, knowing that they needed three points against Llandudno at home and for Port Talbot to fall to defeat away to TNS.
Darren Thomas’ continued his hot scoring streak for the side as they went 1-0 up after just two minutes, and helped his side do their part as they went on to beat Llandudno by the one goal.
However Port Talbot were having none of it, (heavily assisted by ex Swansea and WPL Player of the Year Alan Tate) came back from behind at TNS to scrape a 2-2 draw to make them Champions by one point over Aber Town with just ten minutes of the regular season left to play.
An impressive season saw Aber finish runners up to a much improved Port Talbot team with previous Champions TNS finishing down in 6th with sixteen of their 32 games ending in draws.
Darren Thomas took the WPL Golden Boot award from Chris Venables this year as he followed in his path to score the most goals in the league for 17 goals in 24 games. Despite only scoring four goals, Venables still got nine assists and six Man of the Match awards (joint highest at the club).
There was really only one star man for Aber, and his name was Dante. Dante was shortlisted for the WPL Player of the Year award (only for Alan Tate to lift it) and he also won the Aber Town Supporters Player of the Year award. In his first season at the club, Dante scored three goals, provided four assists and also received six Man of the Match awards.
2. The Glory Years. 2016-2024
Sadly, Ian Hughes left the club at the end of the 2015/16 season to join Cefn Druids as Manager. Former Wrexham and Haverfordwest County player Deryn Brace took the helm, who had previous managerial experience at both County and Carmarthen Town. Deryn quickly promoted Dante to club Captain, and after a quick staff reshuffling found winning ways.
The following eight years saw a glory-filled era for the Seasiders, with multiple domestic honours, as the club went on to turn professional in 2022, four years after current Chairman, Tony Bates, decided to leave the club at the end of the 2017/18 season.
Deryn worked wonders at Park Avenue and was named WPL Manager of the Year for the next eight years running.
Deryn was named Manager of the Year for the next 8 years running, lifting the JD Welsh Cup and the Welsh Premier League in his debut season.
The club’s run in the Cup saw Aber overcome an early shock in the Third Round of the JD Welsh Cup to beat Ton Pentre on penalties following a 1-1 draw to progress to the Fourth Round. On their march to the final, they beat Rhyl (3-0), Airbus UK (4-0) and Connah’s Quay (1-1, pens). They met TNS in the final, and avenged their 2014 defeat at the Racecourse by winning 2-0. Over the course of the competition they only conceded two goals.
Deryn Brace went onto guide the club to eight consecutive WPL Titles, also lifting the JD Welsh Cup and theWord Cup five times apiece, bringing the seaside town trophy after trophy.
During the most successful era the club has ever seen, the Seasiders longest winning streak was from April 2021 to November 2021, winning eighteen league games on the trot. Even more impressive was their form from December 2016 to March 2018, in which they were undefeated for 45 league games, spanning over three seasons of football.
Success in Europe was much harder to come by, despite qualifying for Europe year after year, and receiving record attendance for every European home fixture, Aber only managed to progress to the Second Qualifying round of the Champions League twice.
The second of these times came in 2018, where Dante scored the quickest goal in Aberystwyth Town history, scoring in a 1-0 victory against Faroe Islands Champions, HB, after just fourteen seconds.
After six years at the club and at the age of 38 Dante retired from professional football. During his time at the club he made 153 league appearances, along with 13 goals, 51 assists and an astounding 50 Man of the Match awards. He also managed to get the reputation for being one of the dirtiest players in Aberystwyth, racking up 64 yellow cards and 6 reds in all competitions in his time in Aber.
There was one award in the WPL that kept eluding Dante, the WPL Player of the Year award. Despite being one of the best players in the league, he only won the award once, in his penultimate season at Aber Town.
This season would go down in history as the most astounding individual accomplishment in the WPL. On the way to Aber lifting the title in 2019/20, Dante managed to receive the Man of the Match award in 21 of his 28 league appearances, crushing any previous records.
3. The Dante Hangover. 2024-2034
A delayed hangover after Dante’s retirement set in in 2024 and lasted 10 years, with a still respectable seven Runners Up and three 3rd Place Finishes in the Welsh Premier League.
TNS returned to the top over this period, dominating the WPL and topping the league for nine consecutive seasons. TNS’s reign at the top was finally stopped by Connah’s Quay who lifted the WPL Title for the 2033/34 season.
Deryn Brace won his last silverware for the club in 2026, lifting the JD Welsh Cup. The following year he left to join TNS and went onto to lift the Welsh Premier League four times along with three domestic cup triumphs. In a surprise appointment, Deryn then went onto manage Finland’s National Team, with mixed success.
Following Deryn Brace leaving the club, Town hired ten different managers with five of these managers’ terms lasting less than twenty days.
Current Cardiff City youth player, Tom Burridge was in charge for the last year of this period, following a career that including playing time at MK Dons, Bristol City and Bolton.
Dante went onto football management, and went to manage Sao Paulo, lifting silverware three times and at the age of 49 retired from football altogether. He would be forever remembered as an icon of Aberystwyth Town FC, and they went down as one of his most favoured teams.
Despite Aber’s mixed success over this period, one player, Tim Misbah stuck with them. He stayed at the club through the glory years and hangover in a career spanning 15 years at Aber Town, scoring 183 goals in 353 games.
4. Return To The Top. 2034-2035
In the last of the Hangover years, the 2033/34 season, Aber Town showed much more promise and were there or there abouts at the top of the table throughout the season. As the games went into the final day, Aber proudly sat at the top of the table, joint on points with Connah’s Quay but ahead on goal difference.
However, the return to the top would have to wait a little longer as Aber lost on the final day with Quay finding victory to become the new Welsh Champions.
The pain and heartache of the year before spurred on an inspired Aber Town team, lead by Tom Burridge to bring back the glory days in style. Town had a remarkable season, topping the league with 80 points, eleven ahead of runners up TNS and 24 ahead of third placed Quay. During this season they had a spell were they had a sixteen match-winning streak.
With Dante long gone, other players had to step up and take the charge for Aber, with four players in particular standing out.
First of all, Club Legend and Vice Captain, David Harding (only three years old at the time of writing), who finished the season with three goals, thirteen assists and seven Man of the Matches, leading the former Academy player to being voted as the Supporters Player of the Year 2034/35.
Other stars of the team were the three Aber Town players at the heart of the defence of the WPL Team of the Season. These were, Jonathan Pritchard as Goalkeeper (Former Norwich & Stoke player, currently ten years old), Kyle Snelling as Centre Back (Former Airbus UK player, currently four years old) and Aaron Lewis at Left Back (Current Swansea Youth player, currently seventeen years old). These three remarkable players led to the Seasiders only conceding 20 goals over the course of the season.
Meanwhile, Chris Venables joined TNS in 2016, scoring 23 goals for the team before retiring in 2019. He then went onto become Assistant Manager for six different WPL clubs, and at the end of the 2034/35 season was the current TNS Assistant Manager.
…
What if Chris Venables goes onto become Aberystwyth Town Manager?
