Year 1-15

These updates will not be insanely comprehensive, just a bit of an overview of what’s been going on and any major moments.

League Performance

So, in Andorra, there are two divisions. Out of the promoted sides, I went for Engordany. Just liked their kits the most.

We got out of the second division, the Lliga Unida, straight away. It was only possible after our intake in March because we had like 8 players after they’d all been poached. Just having some extra players gave that massive boost and we only conceded one goal in the rest of our games.

Once we were in the top division, the Lliga Multisegur Assurances, it was pretty smooth sailing. The league structure is super nice, part of the reason I chose Andorra. There are only 10 teams and you play each other 3 times, so 27 games in total. Starting out, the top 3 teams qualified for Europe. European football is massive when playing in Andorra because the money everywhere else is so shit. For seasons 2-5, I finished just outside the European spots, but in season 6 I climbed above FC Santa Coloma to grab the third spot. This was massive because it meant we could start getting the final upgrades to our youth recruitment and junior coaching, two massive factors for generating good youth academy players. Once fully upgraded, these combine to over £50k a month, which is a lot for a semi-professional Andorran team.

From season 7 onwards, we had second locked down. There was zero danger from the other bigger dog in the league, Atletic América. However, there was one team being a real prick: Inter Club d’Escaldes. The previous season, they won the league undefeated. They were the only professional team in the league and they just battered everyone all the time. It took me until season 13 to dethrone them, but we got it done. Last season they did reclaim the title with their second undefeated season, however this year we won it again. We also went undefeated. They’re just a poor man’s Inter Milan at the end of the day.

We’ve also won the cup 3 times but nobody really cares about the cup.

Continental Football

Not loads to report here, just the singular thing keeping this club afloat. The closest I’ve been to qualifying is the final qualifying round for the Europa Conference League after my first title-winning season, but we drew FK Sarajevo, the best team in Bosnia and lost 6-2 on aggregate. Hopefully, we can keep winning the league now because that’ll put us into Champions League qualifying which gives us more of a chance to qualify for the other competitions as we drop down.

The country has risen in coefficients slightly to 41st, which means we now get 4 European places: 1 Champions League and 3 Europa Conference League. The next rank which improves the round we enter into the Champions League is 23rd. The lowest rank to get an automatic qualification spot is 10th. Insane.

The Club

Just last season we were able to make the switch to professional status which is a gigantic step. Now our players can train full-time, their development will get a massive buff. We’ve also managed to max out our junior coaching and youth recruitment, as well as improving our training and youth facilities to adequate and below average, respectively. With all these upgrades we have the best academy in Andorra by far.

With the close of this season, we have been able to move into our new 6,021 capacity stadium, aptly named, Engordany Stadium. I was quietly hoping for it to be named after me (my last endeavour into Andorra with the Champions League victory had the 25k seater Andrew Fitzgerald Stadium), but I am only an Icon at the club currently. Would rather have our 100k seater in 150 years anyway.

The Players

It feels so good to finally have a bit of security with players not leaving at any time on their non-contracts. I’m having to transfer players onto professional contracts at the moment which is a bit annoying for some of the stars as they want release clauses of 600 quid. I am slowly getting them to sign without these clauses with some special tactics and a bit of patience. I’m also getting the optional extensions in when I can so they have as long contracts as possible, a very important thing in youth academy saves for when they outgrow the club.

Most of my players are in the Andorran international team and we’ve had a few stars come through recently. The best players generally have great mental attributes in Andorra, the physical side seems to be what is lacking the most at the moment, with all of the individual training focused on pace.

Also, here is my current tactic which allows me to shoehorn my best players into the starting 11.

I also keep a spreadsheet going with the youth academy saves I do, so I’ll stick those at the end of these updates so there is a more detailed view of the individual seasons. See you in 15 years.