NML
Well-Known Member
I'm not abandoning my JM save, but with all the international stuff happening this summer, I really wanted to do a club and country, and that's where my head's been.
There are two main reasons I'm picking Malta:
1) It's in Europe. Within this is a few more reasons. One is Champions League, which is both an exciting competition and a huge money maker. If I truly want to build not only a club but an entire country, that money will be vital. In addition, within Europe, you get youth competitions for every country (including the small ones). So I can see progress within my U19's, U21's, etc. If I picked a small country in, say, CONCACAF, I would only have the main national team. This is a nice addition to note how I'm doing.
2) Within Europe, there were still a few choices for a "project." Some I eliminated because I couldn't even read the fucking names (looking at you, Faroe Islands) and some seemed to have too easy of a road, like Northern Ireland and their handful of studs. Malta has a nice balance of a base (the best players are similar to a L2/Conference Premier side) but lack of elite talent. They have never qualified for a major tournament at any level, nor have they come close to my knowledge.
So I'll also be taking over the country's best club, Valletta.
I'm doing this to build up this club quickly. Hopefully they are good enough to make a run in Europe soon and we can really improve their facilities. The sooner that happens, the sooner the players will improve. I definitely will not stay with this club forever, though. I need quite a few clubs pumping out talent to have a shot in tough European qualifying groups.
According to the game, they own Ta'Qali - which is Malta's national stadium. They don't IRL, but it's a nice bonus here. They have some very solid talent, including a handful of Malta NT members - like the all-time leading goal scorer for the country, Michael Mifsud.
As the new national team coach of Malta, I sat down with the FA and we agreed to increase the length of the season, add more teams to the various levels, and attempt to the make the league much more professional. Malta use to run a format extremely similar to Scotland, which we quickly ditched. We brought up 8 teams to make a 20-team top division. Our first division now has 22 teams, basically combining the previous 4 divisions of 12 teams.
Our expectations are not too difficult, IMO:
Malta
- Learn from the experience of WC Qualifying
Valletta
- Challenge for the title
- Reach the Final of the Cup
- Don't care about the Super Cup
- Learn from the experience of the Champions League
Valletta has more than enough talent to do all of those things. Clearly the FA has no expectations. And I can't say I blame them when looking at our group for the 2014 WC Qualifying.
Could we maybe steal some points against Armenia or Bulgaria? That will definitely be the goal. Anything else may be asking a lot this early. Our U21's are wrapping up their qualification run. They played well against Slovakia, winning at home and getting a nil-nil draw on the road, while also doing the same against Portugal, but likely will still finish last.
Our U19's group will be drawn in September.
For Champions League, our first round draw was very good, getting an amateur side from Andorra. Not such an easy ask if we do advance, getting a professional side from Poland. These will be our first matches of the season, so our fitness and knowledge of the tactic likely won't be great. I'm planning on sticking with the 4-2-3-1 that I've been doing with H&Y.
Got a lot of house cleaning to do here with Valletta. Lots of dead money laying around and I need every penny possible to start upgrading facilities.
