Rangers

You've become the dominant force in Scotland, once again. I absolutely love that as somebody who absolutely despises Celtic, but doesn't have much affiliation with any Scottish team, in truth.

Your appearances in European competitions have ranged, but congratulations on your Europa League triumph and commiserations for your loss in the Champions League final a few seasons ago. Hopefully it won't be long before you can push on once again and look to go one step further than you did in 2021. Your achievements are fantastic for a Scottish side in the current footballing climate.

I'm intrigued by how you will improve your side for next season!

Now into my eighth season with Rangers (my longest ever with them) I actually don't think I've ever enjoyed a save so much. It has helped that I have been playing it in bursts as I've had a fair few times away from the game this year. I couldn't have started any better as somehow we tore it up in the first season and went on to win the treble! I didn't even add to the team until January but tbh there are a fair few players in the team from the start that you can do a lot with such as, Alfredo Morelos, Connor Goldson, Borna Barasic, Nikola Katic, James Tavernier, Ross McCrorie and Glenn Middleton. Middleton and McCrorie are class young players and perform amazingly right from the off and the same can be said for the rest of them. Lining up with a 4-2-2-2 seemed to work really well and I'm glad as I've always liked playing two striker as opposed to the 4-5-1/4-3-3 everyone seems to favour. Goals, goals and more goals that's what our success was down to. We only improved from there and now I'm halfway through my eighth season with them on schedule to complete the treble again and in the last 16 of the CL. I thought I'd share my team on here as a way of looking back on how the career has gone.

I went with the usual method of bringing in free transfers, bargain buys and potential wonderkids with the view to loaning them out and/or selling them to make loads of money. It's a method I've always followed on FM as I've always had success doing it. I've managed to bring in £1.2bn by selling/loaning players so clearly my team is very rich. When I got into the CL final and lost in the third season and then won the EL in the fourth season I was thinking this is going to be far too easy. So I decided to change my approach and start to develop home grown talent with the intention of fielding an almost entirely Scottish team with maybe a few UK based ones too. I think that was in season 4/5 I started that and now my team is very close to only Scottish players apart from a couple foreign ones. Although I wanted a home grown team I had spent years building and buying a team, or several teams, so it was going to be hard getting rid of all of the players especially since I didn't want to let them go for less than what they were worth. As such, I have kept a select few players over the years like Moritz Hollerieth, Erkan Eybil, Isaias, Vincent Njoku, Alfredo Morelos, Nikola Katic, Svetozar Markovic, Federico Zapata, Yuri Alberto, Alex Bielsa, Roberto Navarro, Matonense and Tourinho. Nowadays Alex Bielsa has Scotland as a second nationality whilst Navarro is less than a year away from the same. That being said I will probably accept decent bids for them unless I get the Scotland job(again) and manage to persuade them to declare themselves for us! Matonense is a really good winger but I'm not really fussed on him for some reason, even though he is amazing. Now Tourinho on the other hand, that's different, he has become a phenomenal player for me and arguably the best striker in the game too. I would be really surprised if he didn't win the Balon d'or this year. I rejected a £100m offer from Real Madrid for him last year as it had too many clauses in the deal and I expected them to come back in with another offer which I would no doubt have accepted. With my young Scottish striker Tony Herd picking up a couple month long injury I decided to just keep playing Tourinho this season and he has been unplayable, completely. So now I'm stuck with a dilemma.. Do I let him leave or keep him as a bonus foreign player? Who knows?! I've stuck his valuation at £200m as Real Madrid have been scouting and expressing interest in him all season so will see what happens I guess. In two more seasons both he and Matonense will also have Scottish nationality so there's that, although both have been capped by Brazil. Let's see where the rest of the season and the transfer window takes us eh?


Yip, 10 in a row here we come ScottT! Aye the European progress kind of stuttered once I moved a lot of the foreign players on as they were my best players at the time, of course. I remember that CL final as well, was such a hard one to take as we took Atletico Madrid to extra time and had some excellent results along the way. I can see us doing well this season as we got a favourable group stage this time out as opposed to the past few seasons, I just hope I don't get Barca in the last 16 again! Cheers mate, hopefully!

A major topic I spoke about last time was that of Tourinho and my uncertainty of what to do with him but alas we have another transfer window gone and he's still here as Real Madrid look to be going down their usual long and drawn out transfer process. I was shocked that Tourinho didn't win the Ballon D'or and only made the bench for the World XI, his stats were considerably better than the rest as well. Tony Herd earned the European Golden Boy award though so that was some good news. Now to Europe; I mentioned previously about hoping to avoid Barcelona in the 1st knockout round of the Champions League, did we do that? Nope! I decided that this time I wouldn't treat them so kindly by switching our play like we had done last year, no, we went for it with our usual 4-2-2-2 attacking system. In the first leg it was starting to look like a mistake after 30 mins but we managed to pull one back and make it a respectable scoreline. The follow up tie went so, so, so well for us, we battered them and had a 3-0 lead up until they pulled one back which looked likely to send the tie to extra time but we were awarded a very dramatic late penalty and Tony Herd stepped up to put us back ahead, then following up with another to completely kill them off and sealing his hat-trick. Surely one Spanish giant would be enough though? No? Ok.. Real Madrid next!

We got another nice youth intake this year and have a great young wonderkid youth through our affiliation with Columbus Crew in America; Reese Camm. He has all the potential in the world and has great current ability for a 16-year-old too. His only downside is that he has no flair whatsoever, yet all his other technical, mental and physical stats seem to be really good, we shall see how that fares in game. We got another youth through an affiliate, another young goalkeeper! We have a plethora of those it has to be said. Still, a decent pick up through our partnership with Socheux. Interestingly Celtic dismissed another manager in their hopeless quest to topple me at the top and this time Roger Schmidt was shown the door. Schmidt came in and started really well, played some good games against me and also led Celtic to a first 2nd place finish in 3/4 years but failed to convince the board. Next in was a very close friend of mine, Robbie Stockdale, I brought Robbie in as our reserves assistant manager in 2019 and then gave him the Scotland under 21's managers job during my stint in charge there too. He was with us for six years before making the move to Nottinham Forest to become his own man, he was doing a decent job there too. Now he fancies a crack at me? Going to be gutted getting him the sack! On the plus side another of my former colleagues replaced him; Michael Beale taking up the job after his recent dismissal by Sheffield Wednesday.

Domestically we are absolutely flying as we extend our unbeaten run to sixty-six games. We are just six games shy of beating our previous record of seventy-one games unbeaten. With just seven games left of the league campaign I'm hoping that we can secure a second invincible season under my leadership of the club. We have come close to a further two invincible seasons but had one pesky defeat in each of those campaigns. We sailed through three Scottish cup ties and Hibernian lie in wait for us in the semi finals. Hopefully another domestic treble en route to Ibrox as we have already secured the Betfred Cup by beating Celtic in a thoroughly spectacular game in which we came from behind to win. I also must reserve a special mention for that Aberdeen result, wow! Interestingly Tourinho became the second striker to bag a hat-trick that game yet he actually only came on with twenty minutes to play, a glorious feat.

We continued exactly where we left off in the league as we won five out of our seven remaining games and kept clean sheets in those games too. We drew the other two to take our tally to the season to six draws but once again we have an invincible season in what was our eighth straight league title. Unfortunately we succumbed to a penalty shoot out defeat to Hibs in the Scottish Cup Semi Final meaning we fail to reach the Scottish Cup final for the first time in my eight years at the club. After seeing off Barcelona in the last 16 of the CL it was time to face off with their fellow Spanish giants Real Madrid! We got off to a flyer as we beat them 4-0 at home the return leg wasn't so straight forward however. Despite that, we played out an incredible game and possibly one of the greatest ever Champions League games as we lost 5-3 on the day which of course meant that we were 7-5 victors on aggregate! Next up was PSG and if I'm honest, after beating those two, I probably underestimated them a little bit and went hell for leather against them in both ties, evidently it wasn't to be for us as we we trounced 6-2 on aggregate. So near, yet so far once again as we almost reach the final of the Champions League. It's becoming clear that my biggest challenge will be trying to conquer Europe with a fully Scottish team. Had I kept up with my previous method of signing every good wonderkid I could then I know for a fact we'd have at least 3/4 more EL/CL wins. However, I think I'm probably happier that we're struggling to achieve that European domination as it's keeping me motivated with the save. I'm now going into my ninth season and I still have a real purpose, with real goals to achieve. Also, I haven't mentioned this yet but I have another long term goal in this save and it is to break the long standing club records held by Sam English, Sandy Archibald and Ally McCoist. In order to do so I will need a player of mine to score 252 league goals, make 514 league appearances and score 45 league goals in a season. Our main man Tourinho shattered Alfredo Morelos' record of 47 overall goals in a season for us with his 51 goal haul. I will post a screenshot of the record breaking Tourinho below alongside his and the clubs stats and awards for the season, of which there are many.

As we set about our latest season I was already really happy with my team so I didn't really have to make any additions to the team. Which doesn't mean I didn't bring anyone in does it? We brought in two young Scottish prospects who will mostly play with the reserves although they will be used sparingly in the first team for us. I am really happy with the players that I have in my squad this season once again. We have a blend of youth and experience even if our squad average age does sit at twenty-two, our players around the age of twenty-two have probably played a hundred games or more and so are actually experienced.

We do still have our main man Tourinho as we fielded absolutely no calls about him which is a bit weird but perhaps our £200m valuation of him is a tad off putting for some. I did allow Matonense to leave for Man City for a fee a little lower than I would've like to however we added in a clause that'll see us receive 50% of his next transfer fee. Both Navarro and Bielsa now have Scottish nationality so I'm not too fussed about moving them on for that reason. I would like to sell Navarro though, I bought him six seasons ago as a wonderkid with a view to selling him on for a big profit and so I put up with his £140k p/w wage but now I still have him on that and I really don't want to pay him that wage. Still, I'll play him until we get a decent offer I guess.

I still have a bit of a headache with our goalkeepers as they all have similar ability however, it is becoming clear that Ali Wilson may be the man with the most potential abilty in him and so he may be our most frequent #1 although the other two will still play 10-15 games. I am happy with almost all of the other positions in the team apart from maybe our forwards. I, of course, have no problem with Tourinho as his record speaks for itself although he is less likely to play than Bobby Docherty and Tony Herd due to their home grown status. I'm quite concerned with Herd though, I've been using him as one of my main strikers for four years and his ability hasn't quite shot up as much as I'd have liked. He is the player I want to break the league goalscoring and appearance records with the club and so far he his 111 appearances and 67 goals so he is on the right track that way I guess. Docherty is a terrific pressing forward and I have no issues about him at all and Mick Crawford needs more development, training, tutoring and game time before he can be judged.

We had a bit of a backroom staff restructure this season too as I allowed my long standing assistant, director of football and head of youth development staff leave after their contracts ran down. Pep Clotet had been a great assistant for six years and Krystian Speakman done a really good job as our head of youth for the same period of time. Mark Allen was actually in place before me and so he leaves after nine years with the club and will be replaced by the highly reputable Monchi. Our other two replacements came with just as high of a reputation as Monchi, Zsolt Low previously held the assistant managers position with PSG and a couple of the Red Bull franchise clubs, and Max Balster was key to nurturing the talent at Schalke for seven years as their head of youth too. I feel quite bad letting Speakman and Clotet leave as we built up a terrific rapport over the years but I just felt it was time to step everyone up to that elite level and hopefully we can do that by bringing through a higher calibre of player than ever before.

Having sold quite a lot of my foreign contingent that were out on loan I am hopeful that next season I won't spend even half as much of the time dealing with transfers and agents! We loaned out another eight players that are foreign so there should be just those to deal with next season. Then any other offers I have to deal with won't be as tough as I won't be going out of my way to sell them and so I will have the upper hand in negotiations. Number nine lets be having you!

Rangers: September - December
Fixtures
Squad
League

With everything in place for the club to do well once again in the upcoming season we got stuck in to the task of trying to win as much silverware as we could once again. In the league we were absolutely flying as usual as we won ten games on the bounce, conceding just once in the process. Celtic put an end to that winning run although not the unbeaten run. I feel like Celtic maybe put us off of our game though, as in that very same month we struggled massively in the League Cup Final to Hibs. We went behind in the game and for the first time in a very long one I actually changed our shape from a 4-2-2-2 to a 4-2-3-1 but although we did pull one back extremely late to take the tie to ET Hibs subsequently scored an extremely late goal of their own as they sunk us with an 118th minute goal. The domestic treble dream was over once again.

In the Champions League we played fairly well as we won four out of six games. We were hammered by Bayern Munich in the first tie but revenged that defeat in the follow up game. After absolutely annihilating RedBull Salzburg 7-1 the first time we somehow managed to lose 1-0 to them in the second game which was extremely disappointing. Dynamo Kiev seemed to be a complete mismatch for us as we easily dispersed of them with a ten goal to nil haul over the two games. To my absolute joy, finishing second must have done us some good as we were handed a favourable 1st Knockout Round tie with another RedBull Franchise; Leipzig this time! Zsolt low didn't know what to make of it all.

Amazingly we have managed to keep twenty-one clean sheets in our thirty games this season. Although annoyingly we've sorted of felt the pinch at the other end as our strikers aren't quite scoring as much as I'd have liked them too. It became clear to me that Ryan Gauld, Callum Paterson and Scott McTominay aren't as good as the other players in their positions now and we'll likely let them leave, perhaps on loan. Well, Paterson and McTominay anyway. Gauld has been incredible for us since joining for less than £60k in 2020, particularly in the following season. As a result, I will likely keep him as a squad player and also use him to help develop the youngsters vying for his position! I have been really impressed with the development of Tony Herd after previously doubting him. He seems to have knuckled down in training and is finally listening to the advice from his mentors as well as starting to adopt their approach. He hasn't quite scored as many as I'd like, neither has Bobby Docherty but hopefully they can kick on in the second half of the season.

Unfortunately Adam Morrice damaged cruciate ligament damage in his knee and was ruled out for seven months. I'm really hoping that the injury doesn't set back his development too much! With the absence of Morrice and the declining abilty of Gauld I decided that our new midfield rotation duo will be 16-year-old's Jack McMaster and Reese Camm. Craig Johnson will also get some game time when we can allow it, he will be our bench player for the season too. It also became clear that Ali Wilson should be our #1 goalkeeper and Mark Murray should be his understudy. With that in mind I still decided to give Liam Begg ten games before we reach the winter transfer window and we can look to loan him out for the remainder of the season. I will also be looking to loan out Mick Crawford and bring Shogo Nakamura back from his loan at Falkirk as he isn't playing enough games there.

Rangers: January - June
Fixtures
Squad
League
Best XI

It's fair to say that this has been my most disappointing season in a long time. Firstly, losing the Betfred Cup to Hibs and then the Scottish Cup semi-final to Hearts followed up by a Champions League quarter-final knockout by Man United. Somehow though, we managed to go another season unbeaten in the league which now stretches back to three years, we were beaten on the third fixture of the 2024/25 season meaning we have gone 111 games without defeat. Quite remarkable when you consider we're not that formidable of a force in all of the other competitions evidently.

Our clean sheet record didn't quite follow us into 2027 but fortunately we managed to find our shooting boots! After again moaning about the development of Tony Herd he's finally kicking on and has become my best player this season. He managed to add an incredible 23 goals to his 12 goal haul in the first half of the campaign as he finally found his place in the team. I reckon it was the shift in role for him as we started to utilise him as a complete forward due to his all round statistics which seemed to bring the best out in him. He improved so much so that he was the top goalscorer in the league, was the FW Player of the Year runner up, Players Young Player of the Year, FW Young player of the year and was in the Team of the Year alongside Bobby Docherty and Jamie Dair. Tourinho had a bit of a stop, start season for us through injuries and also due to me playing Herd and Docherty together nine times out of ten. Reiss Nelson and Robert Navarro had particularly good seasons for us but with a couple of teams interested in the pair I'd be happy to sell them on for the right price. In saying that, I think I've yet to come across a really high potential Scottish winger to date and so it might be best to hold on to them for now.

I was really hoping to have been more successful in Europe by this point and to go out on away goals to eventual winners Man United was really infuriating. Particularly because we dominated them in that first league but just couldn't put the game to bed and of course they went on to grab that crucial away goal like you'd expect from a Jose Mourinho team. Interestingly we have lost to the two eventual winners in the past two years! We have got to do better next year though as it's the one success I haven't been able to achieve thus far. I expect to be at the club for another 10 years though as I'm starting to feel like I want to overtake Bill Struth in the hall of fame and surpass his 18 league titles with the club. If I do that and become the best in the country then and only then will I be satisfied with my career with Rangers. Well, that and the other club records we want to try and break too. Ross McCrorie has accumulated a lot of games for us but I don't reckon he's the man to break the record due to his ever advancing age, at 29 he's maybe just a couple of years too old as he'd need to play every league game for the next 7/8 years or so.

Records to beat Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles

Current
Ross McCrorie - 232 League appearances
Tony Herd - 146 League appearances
Tony Herd - 96 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season

Rangers: Pre-season, August & Transfers
Fixtures
Transfers
League
Senior Squad
Reserve Squad
Youth Squad

Heading into my tenth season with the club my hunger for success with Rangers was yet to fade. If anything it was growing stronger as we crumbled in all competitions bar the League last year which is unacceptable. You can't annihilate everyone in the league and then falter against those very same sides in other competitions it makes no sense! We must achieve a domestic treble this season and I will honestly be seething at anything less than European progress too, which means at least making the final of the Champions League.

I am extremely happy with the squad at my disposal this year too as this was the final year where we had still to sell unwanted players that were out on loan to other clubs for years on end. We now have no unwanted 'foreign' players at the club and have a full squad of Scottish nationals or with Scottish citizenship at least. We have this throughout all three of our squads and we have a number of exciting prospects across all three squads too. We added another couple of bright young lads to the team as well as bringing back former loanee and Celtic youth graduate Willie Craig for an absolute bargain fee. Considering the fact that he signed for Manchester City for £20m just three years ago and played really well on three separate loans shows City's ineptitude there. If I could've added anything more to our team it would be bringing in a couple of Scottish wingers but there seems to be a bizarre lack of quality wide men around at the moment. With the sale of Reiss Nelson, who was signed on a free and sold for £60m, we now had an open slot on the left wing which we had to fill but with no quality replacements around we had to get creative. So, Billy Gilmour will be retrained as our right winger, Robert Navarro will retrain as our inside forward on the left wing and best of all, we can fit another of our quality centre midfielders into the line up as a result.

I have started to learn more and more about the group and the most important thing of all is the amount of players who seem to crumble in the big matches or appear to hate playing in them. Now, as you'll have noticed, we have a strong rotation with our squad year on year and so we have decided to create a preferred eleven for the league and a preferred eleven for other competitions. This will allow the players that relish playing in the big games to do so and the other players to play without pressure in the League where we're never really troubled. Where possible we will try to allow similar amount of game time for all players within the rotation system. I believe, or hope, that this could be the key towards our progression in cup competitions. Furthermore, as a precaution we have worked on a third formation for the first time in my tenure and will look to use a 4-5-1 system when playing teams most likely to counter-attack us. We have suffered from this in recent years so it was the next logical step to find a way to prevent those teams from opening us up. We were drawn in the 'group of death' alongside Juventus, Manchester United and Ajax so we will be utilising this sooner than anticipated.

Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles

Current
Ross McCrorie - 238 League appearances
Tony Herd - 152 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 147 League appearances
Tony Herd - 97 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 92 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 9 League titles