DaneBramage

May 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B Turns out that all you need to do to improve your form is switch the game off, not touch it for a couple of days, then hope for better RNG when you load it up again. But the FM Gods are never on your side for too long. We should have beaten both Deportes Temuco and Fdez Vial thanks to the efforts of Miguel Palomino, but instead dropped four points by conceding three goals in stoppage-time. And then we were FM'd by Curico Unido, with the only goal coming from a player who we had on loan here last season. We're just outside the play-offs for now, but in the mix at least. This period was two steps forward, then one back. --------------------------------------------------------------

March 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B We have not made a good start, just one win from the first six matches. Leonardo Ruiz has scored a couple of goals on loan from Universidad Catolica, but he was listed by the media as potentially being the star player of the division so I'll be looking for more from him. I know it's early days so this doesn't mean much, but being down this low despite having played a game more obviously isn't ideal. --------------------------------------------------------------

December 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B - Play-Off Final In the home leg we were much stronger then Union La Calera, but didn't take advantage. We managed 23 shots compared to their six, but only seven on target and only converted one of them. It was a disappointing display from our attack and it cost us. We conceded just four minutes into the away leg, then went down to ten men after 23 minutes. We made it to the interval level on aggregate, but fell apart in the second-half. A very poor loss. -------------------------------------------------------------- History So close, yet so far. We managed to miss out twice by not getting the results we needed on either the final day or the play-offs. Still, in general results were good during my time here. We didn't have much depth in defence or midfield, so hopefully some smart transfer business will strengthen us for next season. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B The end of the season saw us have a pretty easy run-in. In our final seven games we didn't play any of the top teams, instead all these fixtures were against sides in the bottom nine. At the same time, Deportivo Nublense were collapsing at the top. They only picked up one point in October. And our six consecutive wins put us into a very good position. We went into the final day on 59 points, they had 61. They still had the advantage, but form was not on their side. When we took an early lead it looked good, but unfortunately we never pushed on after that. A one goal lead was risky, and we gave it up in the 79th minute. Deportivo Nublense lost on the final day, so a win would have seen us take top spot. It wasn't to be though, so instead we go into the play-offs. By virtue of finishing 2nd though we do have an advantage. The teams that finished between 3rd and 7th go through a couple of knockout rounds before we face one of them in the final. --------------------------------------------------------------

There was a relegation and promotion in 2048/49, so I've done a bit of checking to see what's going on. In real life relegation and promotion was suspended for six years after the re-formation of the Mexican second tier in 2020. But in FM23 this was only implemented for one year, then started up again for the 2023/24 season.

August 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B The good vibes fell away a little as we suffered back-to-back losses. It was against difficult competition though. Deportivo Nublense are the league leaders and Union La Calera overtook us with this result. At least we picked up a first away win at a side struggling near the bottom. Still firmly in the play-off mix, but this month was a little bit of a blow after the highs of July. --------------------------------------------------------------

July 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B Resting players for the cup tie against Deportes Iquique paid off, as we beat them handily in my first league game. This was the first of four home matches this month, and we won all of them. This included a 3-0 beating of Rangers de Talca which saw us overtake them in the table. We didn't do so well away though, picking up just one point from two games. Mario Anazco impressed me quickly with a bunch of goals in this time, but unfortunately he's now ruled out for at least six weeks with a groin injury. A very good start to my time here and we've jumped up into second place, albeit having played a game more then a couple of our competitors. We're looking good for a play-off place, but Deportivo Nublense are probably out of sight at the top for the sole automatic spot. --------------------------------------------------------------

July 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B I joined during a break in league action, and my first games in charge were in the cup. Cups are stupid, but an away win at Deportes Magallanes (from the division above us) saw us reach the next round where we faced Deportes Iquique (from our division). They humped us in first leg, so I threw in the youngsters for the second leg and the inevitable loss. The important detail here though is that we're playing them again in the league in three days time, so hopefully resting my senior players will leave us in a better state for that game. --------------------------------------------------------------

January 2049 Interview Offer In a normal journeyman save this would be a great choice, Universidad Catolica have just finished 4th in the Chilean top flight and qualified for continental competition. Which makes it a bit mad that they'd thought I was someone worth talking to, but I had to decline it as there's no promotion opportunity. -------------------------------------------------------------- June 2049 Job Search Several months later though, I did end up in Chile. The managerial merry-go-round was underway, and after a few moves there was a vacancy at San Luis de Quillota in the second tier. Before the manager was poached away they were on a good run of form, having won four in a row, and they're sitting 5th in the table as the season approaches the halfway point. --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2048 Job Search Sod North Macedonia. Can join Argentina on the silly country list. The only club role available at the moment is Pumas Tabasco in the Mexican Expansion League, but they're a B team that can't get promoted or relegated. So it'll be a case of waiting a month or two and likely seeing what opens up in Europe over the winter. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Upgrade: Macedonian (basic to fluent) -------------------------------------------------------------- History A fourth failure from my last six jobs. Starting to become a bit of a habit. --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2048 - North Macedonia UEFA Nations League C - Group 4 A comfortable, solid win over Latvia. No drama, just got the job done. Then we tore Luxembourg apart to gain a measure of revenge after last month's embarrassment. We killed them off with a succession of early goals, 4-0 up after just 16 minutes. There was still time to collapse in the second-half though, woeful defending allowing them to make the scoreline closer than it should have been. We ended up finishing second. That loss to Luxembourg cost us, it's unforgivable and is going to haunt me for a long time. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2048 - North Macedonia UEFA Nations League C - Group 4 Raging. Who loses to Luxembourg?! Absolutely pathetic. Luxembourg just completely bossed us first-half, we were lucky to make it to the break just one down. They cut through our defence a few times and hit the post once, it could have been even worse. We came on much stronger in the second-half, but couldn't score. Their keeper got the MotM award, but it's not like we tested him much, only managing three shots on target. Nine changes were made for the Greece game, and it would have been more if I could. But these clowns were just as bad, giving them an early lead from a defensive mistake and then sealing our fate by conceding a penalty. The Berate Entire Team button was used a lot during this international break, arms were thrashed and plenty of water bottles were thrown. I'm furious with how badly it went, and we are now definitely on the backfoot. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2048 - North Macedonia Interview Offer Now you come crawling, seven months later when you're struggling in 16th place. No thanks. -------------------------------------------------------------- UEFA Nations League C - Group 4 Darko Cvetkovski wasted a big chunk of his career staying at Roma until he was 25, only making two sub appearances for them. Since moving to AEK Athens in 2045 he's turned into a goal machine, with 27 goals in 36 games. And he's also prolific on the international stage, scoring his 19th and 20th goals against Latvia on his 39th appearance. Back in 2042 I called Petar Popovski up for the first time to prevent Australia nationalising him. He gave away a penalty on his debut, and the AI managers never picked him again. In 2048, he's been redeemed. The goal against Latvia was good, but he excelled with a hat-trick against Greece. He just tore them apart, their defence could not handle him at all. There was also danger from the opposite wing, Hristijan Murati grabbing a hat-trick of assists before scoring one of his own. An excellent start. Not just is it two wins (more than I managed in the whole stage last time), but we battered Greece who are our most likely rivals. --------------------------------------------------------------

June 2048 Job Search Four months after applying for the Bahia job, I still hadn't heard back from them. They'd lost in the finals of both the regional cup and league since then, and had even begun the regular Brazilian Serie B season, so I wrote this off as not happening. As I was going through the days I saw another role open up, and after checking what division they were in now, I knew I had to apply for it. I'm going back to North Macedonia! In 2042 I took over for the Nations League campaign, but we were out of our depth and got relegated from League B. They were promoted in 2044, then relegated again in 2044, so are back in League C for the 2046 competition. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2047 Game World It's time to change up the available nations again. Over the winter Malaysia, Argentina, and South Korea will drop out to be replaced by Brazil, Chile, and South Africa. Then in the summer Turkey will be removed, and Germany, Czechia, and Mexico will be coming in. That will leave the eight nations below active. -------------------------------------------------------------- February 2048 Job Search I've applied for the Bahia job in Brazil's Serie B, and was immediately installed as favourite to get it by the media. -------------------------------------------------------------- March 2048 Job Search While waiting for a response I was approached by the Irish FA. Unfortunately in 2046 they were promoted to League A in the Nations League, so this is a non-starter. --------------------------------------------------------------