Glasgow Rangers - Blue sea of Ibrox [LiveStream]

Introduction

Hello folks! being a big fan of the stories section idea for football manager and having done a fair few of them myself over the past few years i thought since ive finally gotten the chance to get back into fm i will start my own for this years edition with the team i support, Rangers!

But since ive also been live streaming for many hours a week over on Twitch i thought why not put two and two together and stream my whole experience with Rangers for any who might be interested in coming along and watching the progress. Rather than just flood my story section here on FM Scout with messages of me going live im also going to do write up updates of the save (probably 2-3 per year) for people who maybe are not fans of watching live but still want updates on the save with hopefully some funny clips and of course many wins + silverware!

As for the live streaming, anyone who is interested in watching live or any of the videos (which all save on the channel) then i shall leave my channel link below and any follows would be greatly appreciated and would notify you when i go live as i don't have a schedule i go by, my aim will be streaming 4 days a week minimum for hopefully 10-15+ hours per week.


https://www.twitch.tv/samjhlive

My Goal

Basically to keep this short and sweet my main end goal for this save is to take Rangers to a Champions League Final and win the full thing, i did manage Rangers on last years edition and after 5 seasons i failed to reach this goal so im back again in the beta to give it another shot, second time lucky and all!



Opinion on Squad

Being a Rangers fan myself i already know the club fairly well in terms of separating the best from worst and after scanning the first team its looking more and more likely that they have a better amount of talent than they did on last years game, thats saying a lot considering i feel they are pretty overrated on some parts!



Beside the fact that many players are definelty better than they should be i wont argue or complain of course, a few i feel will be key to make my first season go fairly smooth are...



Alfredo Morelos



As much as i dislike Morelos he was not only great for me on last years game but looks very impressive this year too! at only 22 he has some very nice stats and for the level we are playing at he is arguably one of the best strikers in the league on paper if not top 3 for sure!



Borna Barisic



Probably the player im most excited to use out of all the new faces that arrived over the summer, much much better on stats than i was expecting 100% and he will add alot to an already very impressive looking defence.



Daniel Candeias



Candeias probably wouldnt be on many if any people top 3 picks but for me he will be very important as we start the game with a few key players injured out on the wings and not great depth, we still have 1-2 solid seasons we can get out of Candeias and im hoping exactly that happens.





As for our youngsters here is the ones im hoping can develop into great players and others ill try mold into the first team overtime


Ross McCrorie



Already a first team players and fairly versatile, did great for me last year and ill be expecting more of the same.


Glenn Middleton



Only 18 years old and looks like a future star if used properly, very excited to see his future under my wing.


Dapo Mebude



The 17 year old sadly isnt looking as promising as last years edition but im still hoping i can make a good first team player out of him!




Transfer History





I kept the transfer business as quiet as i could as i wanted to keep the base squad and see how they did until January and then start to offload and add players from there, Burnic and Palladino are only brought in to add more depth.

August - December 5th


So in this post we will take a look at life at Rangers so far, currently 16 games deep into the league season, the Betfred cup done and dusted and also have a look at how we are performing in the Europa League.



Europa League

We come into this competition at the best placed 1st qualifiying round, so lets see how we got on up until now...





Well after a rather straight forward 1st round draw we get handed a much harder 2nd round and it cost us, we didn't turn up for the away leg and after going all out in the 2nd leg we were becoming closer and closer to scoring that vital goal to tie the round but annoyingly Tavernier got a second yellow for a failed header from a goal kick that hit his hand (LOL I KNOW) and the game just went downhill from there as we had to force the opening with 10 men and of course it backfired.





On the plus side this loss will relieve me of 8 more games minimum if we made group stage and gives me more time and focus for just the league, so in he-insight i am glad we failed to qualify this season as we have little depth and already have an injury crisis at the start of the season.



Betfred Cup


After the rather downer to start this post i thought we would brighten it up a little... well ALOT actually.





Usually winning the Betfred Cup never really feels like a great accomplishment but given its our first cup title not only in this save but on FM19 gives it an extra good feeling, oh and we thumped Celtic on the road to the final, many more titles to come!






Ladbrokes Premiership











So after 16 league games we sit not so comfortable in 2nd place, finishing top 2 is still well on track and hopefully we can bridge the gap between ourselves and the few teams just behind us asap as the likes of Hearts and Hibernian have started the season very well, Hearts were also 1st for the first 10-12 games before Celtic eventually made top spot there own.... for now!




Ones to Watch




Key Players


Daniel Candeias - Easily the best performer for us in the final third, i predicted him to be a big part of the attack and by god he really has been especially when some of the others have been horrible, he has also missed around 3-4 weeks of the season so far and when not playing i can really feel the difference down the right side.


Connor Goldson - Arguably i could put my whole back 4 on this list as they have all been amazing but Goldson has the highest average rating and hasn't missed a game so far this season, valued at 9 million and one of the highest earners here, his performances are showing me exactly why that is.


Allan McGregor - Most clean sheets in the league and pulled off many big saves and squeezes himself into team of the week at least 3-4 times a month, key member of the team backstage and still showing hes got it at 36.



Under-performers


Alfredo Moreles - After seeing this man smash 30-40+ goals a season on last years FM i was really hoping for that kind of form this time around given he looks so good on paper but sadly thats not the case, only a handful of goals so far this season and im really hoping i can shake some good runs of form from him because at the moment he really isnt even deserving to start.

Jon Flanagan - Given Jon's versatility i thought i could use him well on the wing back roles but he has been very lacklustre when called upon and given out main back 4 have been the highlight of out team this in many ways is making Jon look even worse for form than he usually would be judged! but still... very much underwhelming.






Next post should be at the end of the season in the next few days!

December 6th - End of Season


After our early exit in the Euro Cup we did manage to win our first piece of silverware after a strong and convincing Betfred Cup run, we now turn to our last 22 league games along with our Scottish Cup journey and the January transfer activity.



January Transfers



We decided to stay quiet in January and put trust in the current team for the remainder of the season, as for outs some of our youngsters left but the main talking point was the 6m departure of Arfield, on paper he is one of the better players but he didnt fit into my formation or tactics so far this season so a 6m offer was a no brainier to throw him out the door.



Scottish Cup

After the success of the Betfred Cup i was feeling confident going into the Scottish Cup at the 4th Round, 5 wins and we win the cup? bring it on!







I DONT WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.



Ladbrokes Premiership


Given my current progress in the save i cant send screenshots from the key moments so ill just use my vast array of vocabulary and amazing story telling to set the scene.

It's been a rather draining season with injuries left right and centre but we have managed to stay very consistent all season and mount more and more pressure on Celtic... now we sit 2 points behind them with 3 games left in the season and guess what team we have to play with 3 games left? no its not Dundee... its CELTIC!... AT HOME! i know its like i scripted this myself i promise i didn't! anyway thats enough from me lets see how that game went easy win boys easy win!!!




I love this game, again... i dont want to talk about it.




Well after our grand fall to Celtic we failed to win any of our last 3 games so Celtic took the top prize and based off the final standings you wouldn't even think we put them under pressure from January!




Well we did fail to steal the title at the last few games but my original goal was 2nd place and i am honestly happy with that even though i was beginning to get a little greedy, it happens ok! As for the Scottish Cup im really disappointing that we crumbled and lost the way we did. But next season the goal will definitely to smash Celtic off that top spot, i managed to do it in my second season last year so im hoping to make it 2 years in a row, we do however have less money to spend as the club lose around 3 million a month so they gave me less than 800k to spend for season 2 summer which is shite honestly but understandable why, so we have a lot of work to do this upcoming season with transfers and adding more squad depth as well as a formation change as i want to play a 5-3-2 so that will mean a lot of departures and on top of all this information its pretty vital we get a nice run this season in Europe for income into the club as they lose so much money its starting to scare me.... no pressure right?



End of Season Awards (Rangers)


Most Goals (Overall) - Alfredo Morelos (21)

Most League Goals - Alfredo Morelos (15)

Most Assists - Daniel Candeias (13)

Most Clean Sheets - Allan McGregor (28)

Highest Average Rating - Daniel Candeias - 7.46 (38 apps)

Most Player of Match Awards - Daniel Candeias (8)


Best Eleven