DaneBramage

December 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Squad Stats Miguel Palomino had a brilliant first year at the club, scoring 20 times. A great signing for £37.5k. Cesar Toloza is leaving in the summer when his contract expires, but he was voted fan's player of the season after a goal in each leg during the play-off final. The stats for Ivan Ragusa only show the games since he was loaned back to us, if we include his appearances in the first half of the campaign he managed 14 goals to be our second highest scorer. -------------------------------------------------------------- History A great success. When we were in 9th place at the end of May I thought we might be missing out on the play-offs this year, but we came on strong over the final few months to ensure we made the play-off final again, and this time we went one further than last season and finished the job. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Here we go again. Is it time to give one of the big European countries a go? I'm thinking about just aiming for a job in Germany. --------------------------------------------------------------

December 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B - Play-Off Final In the final we're facing Deportes Antofagasta. They finished 6th in the table so are perhaps the underdogs to reach this point. During the regular season we lost 1-0 at their place, but battered them 4-1 at home. The first leg was at home, and a fourth minute opener was the perfect way to start. We added a second before the half-hour mark and were well on our way. We let them back into it with a late goal, but quickly restored the two goal advantage. We had the better of the first-half in the away tie, but couldn't add to our aggregate lead. Deportes Antofagasta came out fired-up after the interval and scored not long into the second-half, but it didn't last for long until Cesar Toloza scored in his final appearance for the club. That knocked the stuffing out of them, and from there the outcome was never in doubt. Promotion! --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B We were terrible against D. Melipilla and deserved to get stomped. The scoreline would have been truly embarrassing had our goalie not saved two penalties. After that though we were imperious, battering everyone in our path. The only game which looked close was the 3-2 win at Curico Unido, but that was only because we didn't kill the game off at 3-0 and allowed them back into it. Our form over the first half of the season was very mixed (5W 4D 5L), but we improved massively in the second half of the campaign (12W 1D 3L) to finish in 2nd place for the second year in a row. This means we go straight into the play-off final instead of going through the knockout rounds. --------------------------------------------------------------

August 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Transfer Business Three of our best young players were sold during the transfer window when their release clauses were met. Luckily, we were sent all three back on loan until the end of the season. The money received was re-invested into improving our training facilities. -------------------------------------------------------------- Campeonata Primera B Cups are stupid. I played these games a few days ago and don't remember anything about them. Looks like we made a good return to league action after the summer break until we ran into trouble against the Concepcion teams. I'd been underwhelmed by the performances of Leonardo Ruiz so far this season, but he got his act together with five goals this month. One of the young stars who'd been sold and was back on loan, Ivan Ragusa, also impressed with a goal in each of our wins. Santiago Morning are a side we should have beaten, but we had three players missing through suspension for accumulated yellow cards and the back-ups were poor. With seven games remaining we're in the play-off places but not secure yet. --------------------------------------------------------------

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. --------------------------------------------------------------