It'll be interesting to see where you go next.
Thomas Tuchel is the best manager in the world in my save haha
Can't believe you got booted but it does open up some great opportunities I am sure!
#110 - Back to the old days
15/06/2039 -- Yes it’s true! I’m back for sure. Today is the day I joined the club were it all began for me, now exactly twenty years ago. I didn’t expect it this soon, but the circumstances felt all together so at the end there was no way back anymore! This will be my very last episode in this long lasted career. How long it will take is uncertain yet, but I definitely will push as long as possible for the long awaited promotion into the Scottish Premiership! A lot has changed when I left Spartans fourteen years ago, so first I will talk you through this years shortly to get a little bit in touch with the club again!
How performed Spartans after I left
Basically they performed quite steadily throughout the first few years when I was managing Hearts. Some ups and downs, but they never faced any troubles with some relegation issues. The first sign of interest popped-up years afterwards when I was already at Spurs. What was supposed to be impossible became reality in the 2033/2034 season when Spartans reached into the promotion play-offs with still being a semi-professional organized side. A huge achievement from former manager Lewis Green for sure. But only half-a-year later he was sacked. Spartans lost in the first knock-out round for promotion and the couple of month afterwards Spartans was running into big troubles in the following season. Green was eliminated because of the bad results, but his successor Willie Robertson couldn’t solve the problems either. Spartans relegated after the most worse season they achieved since I started this career. He couldn’t recover Spartans immediately the year thereafter with losing the promotion play-offs but his second attempt was more successful with gaining promotion back into the Championship. Robertson left the club and my nephew Eddie Henderson (no, just kidding, not a family member at all!) brought them back on track in the Championship. He saved Spartans for the next two seasons in the second tier of Scottish football and since this summer it’s in my hands to bring them further up the ladder from now on.
As said before I’m the owner of this club as well. So in fact I’m deciding about my own faith actually! It cost me £9,000,000 million already for buying this club, but another £1,500,000 was needed for paying all the debts the club has ran into over the last few years. On top of that I have decided to ‘sponsor’ this club with another £1,000,000 every season (the in-game editor is helping me for doing so. I think there should be a function in the game which makes it possible to do something like this in a more ‘legal’ way. Because the money you earn throughout your career doesn’t mean anything right now… It can be a very nice addition to the game I think. Anyway, I will do it just as realistic as possible. I’m not spending big money or such unrealistic stuff). So, Spartans is a healthy club now again, although it’s a target to earn money with this club at some point. Hopefully this isn’t a project which is letting me down completely broke when I’m 80 years old, after all my money has drained away because of this ‘hobby’…
At the other hand, I have earned almost £60,000,000 in my entire career (and receiving another £9,000,000 this year from my Bilbao contract), so there is something more left for the next few years. Although my wife spend just a ‘little’ part of it as well. Ha-ha, you are feeling me right? There is one major thing I didn’t have to crack my brain for anymore. When Spartans achieved to stay in the Championship after the 2037/2038 season this club has turned into a full professional side. Finally! That’s a big case which allows me to steadily growing further in the next few years. Although it was needed anyway. When I left Spartans there were only nine or ten clubs fully professional in the Championship. These days everybody is. So Scottish football in general is definitely developing!
There is one more major thing that happened. When I became the owner for Spartans now already two years ago I immediately started to develop our new stadium because the excisting ground will be used for real estate development. We are now moved to the former Edinburgh Academicals Sports Ground, located just outside the innercity. A marvelous location which contains our brand new stadium with a capacity of 5,820 seats (that's almost 3,000 more in comparison with our old stadium, which wasn't an all-seater as well) with possibilities for further expandings in the future. Next two the stadium are two full-size training pitches, which will be used by both our first team, B-squad and under-18 squad. We are also switched to natural grass instead of artificial grass, which we played on in our old stadium. The name of the stadium is referred to former club legend Max Ashmore of course. I was doubting about Griffiths Stadium (referred to Bryan Griffiths, still the all-time club top goalscorer) or Ashmore Park, but at the end Ashmore Park sounds a little it better to me! One of the stands is called after Bryan Griffiths instead. Below I have shown the current facilities, the board expectations (which is very reasonable, I didn’t make it too hard for myself, ha-ha) and the current financial situation. Unfortunately the in-game editor doesn't allow me for editing the building date of our new stadium!
Poor squad quality
When I take a look at the current squad I didn’t get that excited to be honest. Basically it’s just awful. At least way more terrible when I left this club in 2025. So it isn’t a big surprise at all they finished 18th over the last two seasons. Which is even a remarkable achievement I would say given the fact all other clubs are professional organized as well. I have to downgrade my expectations for my first season immediately. I can’t renew the complete squad, it will even took me some deep research to sign a couple of ‘more than average’ players avoiding us to get into relegation troubles… Oh dear what have they done. Actually I need to replace everyone to compete at least for the top half of the league! I think I have to set focus for signing one good player in every line, which is hopefully enough to save ourselves this season. Maybe we can loan a few guys as well. Anyway, their lies a huge task in front of me, which will start today!
Transfer issues
First things first. I moved a couple of players who are really really bad to the second team to get a more clear view where our weaknesses are. Basically everywhere, but that isn’t going to be solved within one season. The biggest problem is probably our defensive line. So first we need a proper centre back, or actually two. I succeeded more or less, although the new guys are definitely not good enough for competing for a play-off spot at some point, so we have to replace them once more in a couple of seasons or so. Anyway, for the time being they are going to help us because they are an upgrade for sure. The first guy we signed is Duncan Rodgers from Raith Rovers, one of the better sides in our league who have achieved into the Premiership a couple of times. Rodgers main skills for a centre back are quite decent although he isn’t really tall or very pacy, but on this level of football you have to make compromises very often. I’m happy with him, he will be a starting player for sure.
We hired another centre back. Graeme Glennie from Premiership side Partick Thistle is joining us for the rest of the season. Slightly better than Rodgers I think, although a whole lot younger. But they are much better then the players who were already here, hopefully it will be enough. Graeme Ferguson is another player we loaned in. He is probably the best player at the club now in terms of his attributes. He can play both as right or left fullback and will be one of the starting players for sure. Hopefully he can make any difference! I’m really glad with him, he might be a very good player who can even be good enough for a bottom half Premiership club I think.
Maybe you remember we are only allowed to hire a maximum of four players per season. So we need to be careful which type of players we are loaning in. We have to make sure they really add some quality into the squad. Well, I think Jason Booty will definitely do so. One of the good things for being a successful manager is that I have some connections now. Otherwise I was never able for hiring this guy for sure. Booty is a talented Englishman from Leicester City valued at £1,400,000 (which is a far above average in this league). We only have to pay a part of his wage and he is definitely an upgrade. Although it concerned me a bit he is unambitious, but when at Hearts that was the case with one of my major signings (Joe Tompkins) by the time as well, so it doesn’t need to be a problem. Our only ‘big’ signing this year is called Barry Murray. We took him over from Rangers for around £30,000. I’m quite pleased with this guy either. He can be used in multiple positions and roles and has some very average attributes all way round.
We also signed two players on a free, which is a major thing on this level of football. Because of all short term contracts you need to sit down front row to attract players who are running out of their contract every year. Luckily I joined Spartans quite early in the season and could sign Gregg Smith and Callum Matthews, both central midfielders. Two very decent players to add some more squad depth, which we definitely need because we have to play a whole bunch of games this season, especially in the first few months.
Last but not least I signed one more player. A striker obvious, because we didn’t have any of them. I mean we have strikers, but only very bad ones... All of them have terrible figures for finishing, which is very important on this level of football, together with having some pace and a good length. It was quite hard to find someone who did have the right figures. Actually I couldn’t find somebody at all. I wasn’t able to loan in a guy either, so I had to set focus for another type of striker. That’s were Jim Johnson came in. We paid Reading only £8,000 for him, but I think he can do a great job. Although his finishing is still shit, just as the guys who are already here, but at least he is a very good header with a very good jumping reach as well, although he isn’t really tall. It was the best we could get, so I can only hope it will sort out. Otherwise we have a big problem, I really don’t know who else is taking care for scoring some goals… He is on a high wage as well, so he better make sure he is proving my confidence in him!
That’s all it. Although, not entirely. As you can see above we sold one guy as well for some big money. One of our very few talents is leaving us before he even played a single match. But that’s how it works. We can do some amazing things with that amount of money. And, on top of that, he isn’t ready for the first squad yet and I have some doubts he is going to make us any better at some point either. So at the end it’s a good deal I guess. We also managed to include a 50% sell on fee, so he can bring us good money again in the future if he is developing himself. There is one other gem who was already sold a couple of years ago. A centre back who is currently playing at Motherwell and valued around £4,500,000. Spartans sold him for only £50,000 but also with a 40% sell on fee. That can be a huge cash cow when Motherwell is selling him at some point. He is looking great and just below the level of the national squad I think. We only have to wait until a big club will pick him up.
The big question is: what can we possibly expect for the upcoming season? I really don’t have any idea to be honest. I’m not as good involved in Scottish football anymore as I was around seven or eight years ago. Because of Spartans ended 18th over the last two seasons, the majority of the squad still being shit and given the fact we are the 17th club on the ladder in terms of wage spending I think we didn’t have to expect that much out of this first season. I think we are definitely good enough to save ourselves in this league (otherwise I will resign immediately!) but not much more than that either. I will say ending somewhere between 12th and 15th will be great already, everything above that outstanding and everything below a little bit disappointingly maybe. Well, we just have to find out I guess. Next time I’m back with the very first results!
Note: Thanks guys, for all of your support again! I hope everybody will enjoy my choice for Spartans again. When I left this club many years ago it didn't felt great at that point because of I was getting stuck with the fact the club didn't get professional soon enough at some point. Although it brought me a very interestering career afterwards (it was my intention to stay at Spartans my whole career in the first place) with some good silverwork! Now Spartans has turned professional I have the feeling I can really achieve something someday. Probably not immedtialtey over the first few years, but maybe within a decade or so! In 2050 the club will excist 100 years. It is my main goal to win the Premiership with Spartans before or within this year. A very big challenge, but I'm definitely motivated for doing so (with a little bit of help with the money I earned throughout my career of course!)
Wow brilliant piece of writing, i can learn a lot of this! Good luck figuring out the transfers
#111 - Surprising start
07/09/2039 -- As always the start of the new season is beginning with the group stage of the League Cup. Only interesting to earn some extra cash, especially when we are able to qualify ourselves for the next round. But that is just a step to far currently. Although our very first match was really not bad! We beat Annan Athletic in their own stadium with 2-1! After the home loss against Premiership side Inverness who scored the winning goal in the additional time (as usual…) we played a draw against Clyde and so after three matches everything is still possible. We performed already better than I expected! But the next three games weren’t that great. We lost all those three matches with only one goal difference. We gave them a match, but at the end it’s just not good enough yet. We finished fourth in the group and because of that we are eliminated. Not a big deal at all.
In between we played already the first match of the season against Stirling Albion. Definitely not one of the better teams in the league but we got smashed: 3-0. An awful result for sure and not very promising for the rest of the season either. But thereafter we played a good streak of matches with losing only once, against Clyde again. Although all these clubs are almost predicted to finish in the bottom half of the league. But, that doesn’t really matter! You have to win this matches as well, at least for not getting relegated so I think we did a very good job. Currently we are fifth in the league, which is really surprising to be honest! But as said it’s probably not a very reliable reflection for our chances this season. We have to enjoy from it as long as it possibly can I guess!
Well well well, history being written on the back of your own history. Or are you rewriting history? Spartanception?!? Who f*cking knows at this point! Beat Bilbao with them!
Certainly wasn't expecting this move but one that could be very enjoyable. Good luck!
#112 - Back on earth
28/11/2039 -- Yep, there we are. That’s more like it. Although I’m definitely not happy with it it’s a more logical outcome seen the players qualities. From the last fourteen matches in the league we only handled to win two of them, again only against two bottom league clubs. We are fourteenth in the league now, only having a gap of 9 points above the relegation spots. I’m not that worried about relegation anymore, but we definitely need to look down instead looking up! I’m already thinking about making use of a new tactic. In the beginning it looked like it worked out pretty well, but now it doesn’t anymore. I think I will go on like this a few matches more, but if there is no turnaround I might be thinking about using a system with two strikers. Because of nearly all of my strikers can only play as a target man. And a target man is only useful when you are playing with two strikers up front. That might be a solution. It’s a lost season already, so I think it’s better to try something else for next season.
Although the new guys are performing not great either. Especially my new striker is terrible. Jim Johnson only scored once this far! I can’t use another guy because they are far more worse than him, but to be honest I expected a little bit more from him. Also the full-back on loan, Graeme Ferguson, is just terrible. Given his attributes he should be one of the best players in the squad but that doesn’t sort out at all. I send him to the bench already. Also the guy from Leicester (Booty) is not really as good as expected. But the most uncertain factor in the squad is of course my goalkeeper. Oh dear, he is so fucking bad! I already foresaw it before the season started, but I wasn’t able to find a better one. Old memories are living again. I had to think immediately at the goalkeeper in my very first season this career (Blair Carswell, had to search for his name!). But this guy is even more worse. So many mistakes… Just terrible! But we have to deal with him until the end of the season I guess, attracting new players in the winter transfer period is very tough.
We also played our first rounds in the Scotch Cup, but it wasn’t as successful as I hoped for. In the second round (our first round) we faced South Queensferry from the Lowland League, which was difficult already, but our knock-out followed soon afterwards when we faced Raith Rovers away in the third round, one of the better sides in our own league. We lost with 3-0, having no chance at all. So, the only thing left this season is the league. I think I’m going straight to the end of the season immediately from now on. There is nothing to play for anymore. I think we are avoiding a relegation battle for sure and we are already miles away for finishing at a respectable position in the league. This season is developing pretty much as I expected so far. So, I’m probably back at the end, or it needs to be going horribly wrong before that time!
Some tough results but you just have to remember that THIS.... IS.... SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANS
You are reading "The Luke Henderson Story".
