An Idiot abroad - Acidmonkey conquers the world!

Game - Football Manager 2011 patch 11.3

Database - 11.3 Large Database

Leagues Loaded – Egypt Premier Division, Japan (J-League), USA (MLS), Ukraine(Premyer-Liha) New Zealand (NZFC) Argentina (Primera Division)

First off this is pretty much only a short term game, i fancied a break from my Sunderland dynasty (which i might post up when I’ve finished this game), this game is inspired by Acidburns continental challenge, along with my need to manage around the world but also my lack of time to commit to a long term save other than my Sunderland game.

Ok i digress, anyway the challenge is simple stay at each club until i get bored of the club and ive won the League and respective champions league for the continent, Europe will be the fun one as I’ve only opened Ukraine so i need to win the champions League with a “lesser” club.

That’s about all the rules I’ve set to be honest....Wish me luck

(also I’ve played a fair few seasons already )

UEFA Champions league:N/A

AFC Champions league: as Urawa Reds in 2015

CAF Champions league: as Al-Ahly in 2022

OFC Champions league: as Auckland City in 2012 and 2013

CONCACAF Champions league: N/A

Copa Libertadores:as River Plate in 2020

First Stop – New Zealand and.....

Well the first stop was always going to be New Zealand as it has the lowest reputation and i wanted to work my way up from there, but i was torn between taking over Auckland Due to reading Acidburn’s history with them and also Team Wellington to be different, i flicked a coin and ended up at Auckland too

So i set about reshaping the squad, in came a couple of players from Waitakere Utd as both looked to be too good for that side, and baring New Zealand striker Jarrod Smith my team had a very Argentinean look to it as 4 argies were drafted in

Good luck in New Zealand with Auckland, always good to see someone managing in the same country as you, the Season is only 14 games long so should go by quite fast

End of Season 10/11

Well at the end of season one in New Zealand and after a bit of a shaky start we managed to become more consistent and rise to the top, at the mid-way point we were sat 3rd as Team Wellington seemed to have a big lead and we had just gone down 4-3 to Waikato, but thanks to their late run of bad form winning only once and picking up 4 points in their last 5 games, a run kicked off by my 3-1 win at home to them, we managed to peg them back and claim 1st spot going into the play offs, in the semi final Otago Utd were first up, and were despatched 4-1 with great ease, which i thought was impressive considering we only drew 1-1 and 2-2 with them during the season, the final we met Team Wellington looking for revenge, but a tight game ended with us claiming the spoils and the ASB Premiership title with a 2-1 victory.

@Tony Hawker, thanks man im a few seasons ahead of what im posting now, so i know how the future of New Zealand pans out for me

MAJOR TROPHY WINNERS IN 2010/11

UEFA Champions league: Barcelona

AFC Champions league: Osaka AC

CAF Champions league: Al-Ahly

OFC Champions league: Ba

CONCACAF Champions league: Toluca

Copa Libertadores: Santos

Nice start.

Pre Season 2011/2012

With the upcoming O-League debut under my leadership i felt we needed to cut the average players out and replace with a couple of quality players, the main addition was probably Ghanian Samuel Appiah who was brought in to be the lynchpin in my three man midfield, the other thee incoming were to improve the overall quality of the squad with a left back a centre back and a striker coming into the club

End of Season 2011/2012

Well the season was good fun with more games due to the O-League, we rose quickly to the top of the league this term, only for back to back to defeats to make us slip to second, when last years bottom club Waitakere beat us comfortably, but we managed to not let that stop us as we bounced back with a 5-2 win over Hawkes Bay, before reclaiming our top spot back which we held on comfortably till the end of the season, the semi final we took on YoungHeart, who were dispatched with ease, before a game against runners up Waitakere Utd, bottom one year title finalists the next, making our defeat earlier in the season not so bad, and it was a tough game we struggled to overcome them and were forced into extra time, which we managed to edge to claim our second ASB Premiership title.

In our debut in the O-League the group contained Team Wellington, Hekari United and Tafea, Hekari were despatched 5-0 and 6-0, Tafea were beaten comfortably 7-1 and 5-0 with Wellington being the other major force in the group, a hard 1-0 win away and a 1-1 draw at home was enough to see us into the final taking on last years beaten finalists AS Magenta, who again came back unlucky with us winning comfortably 3-0 and 2-0 to claim an O-League title and my first of 6 continental cups.

@letissierandhenryaregreat cheers hope you keep reading

MAJOR TROPHY WINNERS IN 2011/12

UEFA Champions league: AC Milan

AFC Champions league: Saitama UTD

CAF Champions league: Al-Ahly

OFC Champions league: Auckland City

CONCACAF Champions league: Jaguares

Copa Libertadores: Corinthians

Pre Season 2012/2013

Well can i continue my dominance of New Zealand and win a Third ASB Premier League title? I brought in three more Argentineans as the squad increases in quality as i now have 7 argies on the books, and the squad is flat out too good for the league but is it good enough for another O-League title, and to do well in the World Club cup in December? If i can impress there and there is interest shown in me from Japan will bid farewell to New Zealand and begin a new chapter in the journey.

Good to see this up and going I wish New Zealand was harder as I love managing there. I think another O-Leaugue is easily winnable, good luck dude i will be reading.

End Of Season 2012/13

Well another league win but it was a struggle taking us 3 games before we got our first three points on the board, before a relatively inconsistent run saw us sat in 3rd in January with only 5 games remaining, but again the run of last five games saw us jump to the top of the pile again, into the play offs we played Waitakere Utd, in a game where i knew there were goals, drawing 5-5 in the league with them before beating them 4-0 in the last day of the season, into the Semi Final we went, and again there were 5 goals this time we ran out 4-1 winners, before despatching Team Wellington in the final 2-1, three times winners.

As O-League reigning holders we went into a group containing Tonga side Lotoha’apai who were beaten 5-1 and 5-0, New Zealands Waitaker Utd who following a 2-2 draw at home we beat 3-0 away, and Kossa from the Solomon Islands who were spanked 4-0 and 6-0, to set up another final meeting with AS Magenta, and again the side from New Caledonia were the losing finalists going down 4-0 and 3-1 over the two legged final.

The tournament i wanted to do well in though was the World Club cup, as i know this would be a way to boost my reputation to move countries, and we had to overcome the Japanese side Yokohama in the Playoff game, which we did on spot-kicks after a 3-3 draw, in the Quarter final we took on current Asian Champions League holders Saitama UTD who after an early red card we came away as 1-0 winners (this would spark a series of events ill go into later)

In the Semi final we were drawn with European champions AC Milan, however who showed their class as we were powerless to resist a 9-0 thrashing, before losing to CONCACAF Champions League holders Jaquares in the 3rd place play-off, but over all I’m happy with the FWCC run.

and i resigned from Auckland City on the 21st of May ideally im heading to Japan

@Acidburn - Good its your fault im doing this lol

MAJOR TROPHY WINNERS IN 2013/14

UEFA Champions league: Real Madrid

AFC Champions league: Kyoto Mantis

CAF Champions league: CS Sfax

OFC Champions league: Auckland City

CONCACAF Champions league: Cruz Azul

Copa Libertadores: Velez

Ahh I see you're using the career overview thing that I made. Best of luck in Japan if you get a job there!

@offen94 - yea blatantly ripped you off on that one

oh yea i just put the japenese club names fix in so Saitama UTD are actually Urawa Red Diamonds

in Japan, after finishing on the losing side to my Auckland City side, Saitama UTF went on to finish the season in a 2nd place just, the following year they had a poor inconsistent season and finished in 10th place, which is very poor for a side who have continually finished 2nd in the J-League and even won the Asian Champions League, at the beginning of the 14/15 season with Saitama sitting 13th after 8 games with 1 win 3 draws and 4 defeats it was decided to sack manager Rene Vandereycken and replace him with, yup you guessed it, MOI!

Konnichiha Japan Next Stop......

Very happy to moving to Japan now, the greater plan continues, and to Urawa red was a suprise if im honest they have the squad to win the league but the AI manager just seemed useless, if the squad is as good as it looks i should qualify for the Asian champions League this season with ease, and considering they have won it already in this game i can safely say this club could fulfil my ambitions in Japan and Asia comfortably.

End of Season 2014

Well as you can see its the 2014 season Japan runs the league march to December.

Well the first game in charge went spectacularly as i got a few gens who weren’t playing in the old regime to be main players in mine, we started my regime with a 2-0 win over Avispa, and kept the momentum up with wins over Antlers, FC Tokyo, Ehime and marinos, before my crowning Glory, a 7-2 win over S-Pulse, to moves us into the top 4 the question was can we keep up this excellent form and as you can see from the table we easily did and i managed to achieve my board expectations of a title challenge as we racked up win after win, we only dropped points in a 0-0 gave v Grampus and a 1-1 draw with Verdy, this was going so much better than i expected as the wins kicked in and kept coming thick and fast, i knew they were one of the better sides but the ease im beating these teams is surprising, we even took 4 points off the side pushing for the title when we beat Avispa 2-0 away. We qualified for the champion’s league and claimed the J-League title with ease this season, can we strengthen and do it again next season?

Yamazaki Nabisco Cup was won as we progressed past the group stage without losing and then proceeded to bead Jubil and Roasso on the way to the final, but this was harder than the rest of the competition as we had to rely on penalties to beat Frontale and lift the trophy.

In the emperors cup we managed to ease to the quarter finals where we faced Jubilo but we struggled to beat Jubilo needing Extra time before we edged the game the semi was a difficult game too with us only shading the match 1-0 against Frontale, before Kashima antlers beat me to the trophy, and made it a trophy I need to win next season.

Nice to see a move to japan can you pm about the name fix? Good luck dude what previous experience did you start with?

started with Ex Professional experience

and sent you a PM

Lucky you, getting all the good teams with ease!

lol i wish it was purly down to the fact that the Urawa manager was oo useless

Cheers for the PM.

Like the name as well, I am guessing/hoping it was inspired by An Idiot Abroad on Sky?

End of season 2015

Well season two was more of a struggle to reclaim the league title this year, with only two wins in my opening 7 matches, as we started very sluggishly, before 6 consecutive wins saw us bounce into life, and we continued that form into August but we again hit a bad run of form with only two wins in six again before eight wins in my last nine games saw us reclaim the title but only just as we were pushed all the way by Frontale and went into the final round of matches only two points ahead knowing only a win could guarantee our title but we could only draw and it didn’t look good, until i found out Frontale had lost handing us the title.

Cup wise it wasn’t all good as despite beating Seattle in the Pan Pacific semi final before losing to korenas Busan.

We lost in the Opening charity shield giving us our second runners up medal before the league had even begun,

The Nabisco cup was worse with us failing to make it out of the group picking up one win and 3 draws we were stuttering in all the cups,

The Emperors cup saw us get past Yokohama FC and Trinita before Reysol beat us on spot kicks,

The Champions League saw us play Chinas Chengdu (5-1 & 2-2) Thailands Pattaya (3-0 & 3-0) and South Koreas Ulsan (3-3 & 5-0) which put us in the second round where Australias Melbourne Victory were brushed aside 2-0, the Semis saw us meet Saudis Al-Ahli where a 3-1 away win saw us through despite going down 2-1 at home, the Semis against fellow J-League side Sanga where a 3-1 win away again was followed up by a 2-2 draw to see us into the AFC Final.

We met Saudis Al-Ittihad and raced into a 2-0 lead which despite a late Saudi fight back we managed to hold on and game the win.

A Good season should of taken over FC Gifu, they didn't seem to of done to well:D

@Acidburn - No worries on the PM and yea inspired by that..........

Forgot to add the FIFA World Club Cup,

We met my Old side Auckland City in the play-off this time and i wanted to beat em as well as get revenge on the last time these sides met and auckland won, i know i was in charge of aukland but its the principal of the thing

well we trounced em, running out 4-1 winners, the Quater final saw us play Al-Ittihad less than a month after playing them in the champions league final and again we won this time 5-2 over the 90 minues setting up the big one, a semi final V Man Utd!

and we got a trouncing again not as big as the Auckland v AC Milan but 4-1 is bad enough. and we play Al-Ahly in the third place play-off im hoping im playing my next club at some point. and boy did i win gaining a 7-2 win over the Egyptians to be crowned the third best side in the world at the moment

yea i noticed that Tony Hawker, its was a bad run they i beat em 3-1 and 5-0 during the season and im 4 seasons from being upto date

You did very well in NZ and you've made an impressive start in Japan, keep it up

cheers man, gonna watch Parma v Napoli now so might get the write ups done on a season or two more tonight

Been trying to find a working Japan file for 11.3, would you mind pm'ing me a link acidmonkey?

Nice job with Auckland and good to see you've managed to move up in the football world, hopefully thats the reputation problems over with then.

End of season 2016

Season three was a disaster as i sold a few players but couldn’t replace them with good enough quality leaving with nearly £30m burning a hole in my pocket and a squad who would struggle to stay in the J-League and as i continued to look for replacements and knocked back on ever occasion, we kicked off the season and instantly plummeted to the bottom of the league which is where we stayed for a prolonged period, 17 games in and we were still rooted to the bottom, but we started to grind out the odd result and started to move up the table and we managed to finish in 13th place which is just not acceptable to me, how i kept my job is beyond me unless the board now take into account your past glories.

To me there’s not much to say with the cups, except the round i was eliminated Pan-Pacific (Final) Champions League (Quater Finals) Nabrisco Cup (group stage as i lost EVERY Match) and the 3rd round of the Emperors cup

And on the Eve of the 2017 season i was Sacked as manager of Urawa Reds

Unlucky you staying in Japan or just going with where ever you can get a job at?

not sure yet, think ill just see where the next job offer comes from if im honest

Step three the Americas

RIVER PLATE

Well again a year of unemployedness and i eventually get a job offer 17th place finish in the Opening stage for River saw them sack their manager considering they finished third last season in both the opening and closing stage. So ive got to turn a 17th place side into a table toppers in the closing stage just to finish mid-table, but on the plus side River are still in the Copa Sudamericana so could get a trophy without even trying. But more importantly is the closing stage and ive got learn the whole calendar league table option im banking on finishing 1st in both stages to win a title.

That's a great move despite the poor finish they must still have some reputation and usually produce some great newgens. Good luck dude.

End of Season 17/18 (Closing stage)

The whole average points is goanna take some getting used too, as I work out who’s going to win titles and who i s going down, sort of beginning to wish i had loaded Brazil instead of Argentina now.

Well despite having to wait nearly two months for a league game we kicked off the Closing stage with a 2-2 draw against Huracan. And never really looked back we weren’t the best team in the closing stage unfortunately but the squad was easy good enough to do this, we were in the top half from the outset as we needed to get our average points up and we managed that the average points table stating we got 74 points overall this year which I’m happy with considering we only picked up 18 points in the opening stage.

The only cup we were in from me joining was for us to be in the Copa Sudamericana Final which we lost to Internacional 2-1 at home then 5-2 away as we had poor form and needed to shake it, oh well onwards and upwards next season J

Thats quite a step up and it looks like you made a impact during the closing stages. Good luck for the new season

it was hard not too as the squad is soo much better than the opening stage showed,

Opening Stage 2018/19

Well my first proper season at River started well, we opened with a draw which was good enough but after that we were on fire only dropping a further 7 points including a comfortable 2-0 win over Rivals Boca, the team was just quality, Scoring 48 goals in the opening 19 games but the defence wasn’t AS good letting in 19 we just needed to tighten up more at the back.

Closing Stage 2018/19

We weren’t AS good in the closing stage but still good enough to win it overall after winning both stages, we picked up les points as we lost twice and drew 4 times in the closing stage we should have been better overall but again we picked up a win over Rivals boca beating them 2-1 this time

I’m still not sure how to qualify for the cups but during the opening stage i found myself in the Copa Sudamericana Preliminary round against Estudiantes who were despatched 2-1 in both legs, to set up a first round tie against Liga de Quito of Ecuador,

The Ecuadorians were smashed 7-0 over two legs (4-0, 0-3) to set up a very hard tie in the Quarter final against Boca, and after a 0-0 draw away it was finely poised for a good second leg only for us to steamroller over them and win the tie 3-1 on aggregate.

Semis and the Brazilians Aletico Mineiro beaten 3-1 at home we looked confident only to go down 2-1 in the second leg to scrape into the final and another set of Brazilians in Intenacional.

First leg we came out on fire and took the tie and ultimately the cup with a 7-3 win the second leg we let them get back into it and they beat us 2-1 leaving us the champions with a 8-5 aggregate win.

During the Closing stage i was drawn in group C of the Copa Libertadores with America (MEX), Universidad Catolica and Gimnasia, and thats as far as we got, losing to America twice both going down to a single goal, we beat Catolica twice comfortably 6-0 and 4-0 and with a 1-0 win over Gimnasia we felt confident, only to go down to a 3-2 reverse which resulted in us finishing 3rd in the four team group

Opening Stage 2019/20

We kept the good form up going into the new seasons opening stage starting the season off with 5 straight wins, before dropping points but we bounced back and continued to have the good form we eased to the top of the table and stayed their comfortably highlight includes a 3-1 win over Boca in the first tie of the season.

Closing Stage 2019/20

We were still as good and would have won the league if it was European style but with it reset we struggled at the beginning with back to back defeats against Lanus and Godoy Cruz which ultimately handed the closing title to Insituto but we did concentrate a fair amount on the liberators as i really wanted to win that as i though it was my best opportunity to do that,

Again during the Opening stage we played in the Cop Sudamerica overcoming Libertad in the 1st round, guessing there’s no prelim as I’m holders but no idea, we beat them 3-1 away and then 4-0 at our place.

Quarter Finals drew us against Gimnasia and we won the first leg handsomely as they fell apart at home and we came away 4-0 winners before getting the draw at home to send us into the semis against Brazilians Vasco only to fall at the semis losing 2-0 at home but winning 4-3 away the 70th minute goal sent us out.

Copa Liberatadores in the second half of the season and a group containing Cruzeiro Tiges and Cerro Porteno I felt confident, even more after crusing Cruzeiro away in the first game 5-1 then Tigers 4-1 at home in the second game before back to back wins against Cerro sent me through despite losing the last two matches.

the 2nd round sent us to Brazil and Santos where a 1-0 home win was followed up by a 2-1 away defeat, only moving on thanks to Away goals.

The Quarters and the home land against Racing Club and a 4-2 home win followed up by a 2-1 defeat meant a 5-3 aggregate win and the semis i could smell the cup at this point!

The Semis provided a stern test America a side who beat me twice but only by a single goal we were stronger this year and i felt we could edge it. A 3-2 home win was good but it could have been better the second leg was a 3-2 reverse meaning extra time but still 180 mins couldn’t separate the sides. And it took the dreaded spot kicks to seal a Final Berth.

The final against Cruzeiro and i was confident we could win this we had trounced them earlier in the competition but I knew not to take them lightly as we could easily be on the receiving end of a beating. And a close 2-1 win at home set us up nicely for the second leg which we again edge and we have the Trophy

Well that’s three down three to go but i want another copa Libertadores first!

Opening Stage 2020/21

Well the south American champions took to the field for the opening stage of the 20/21 season and we just failed to live up to the billing the squad was decimated by the European clubs in the summer leaving us weaker and with a board unwilling to invest, with 4 wins in the opening 10 games as we lost 4 of the opening 10 we did pick up a bit after that but defeats to Godoy Cruz and Boca meant we just couldn’t catch up to River and Boca which was a disappointing first half of the season.

Closing Stage 2020/22

As you can see the second half was just as bad a run of win-lose-win-lose at the beginning of the closing stage showed we were unable to get the consistency to mount any sort of title challenge, we need to do a lot better than this if we want to get back into the top two every stage, we did string a run of 10 games unbeaten at the beginning of the season to help us go for it and push up towards the top but the title was too far out of reach for us by then and we had to settle for a terrible 4th place

Another Year another Copa Sudamericana and as we weren’t the holders we were stuck in the preliminary round where we faced San Lorenzo and when we went down 2-0 at home i though that’s it out at the first hurdle, but we rallied to a 4-1 win in the second leg to make the 1st round.

The first round pitted us against Real Potosi of Bolivia and we beat them just with the strikers on form but the defence playing like schoolboys edging a 4-3 game to take the lead in the tie, the second leg we were defensively sound but were disappointing in attack and a 0-0 played out

The Quarter finals kept us in Argentina to play Instituto and a 5-0 thrashing at our place put us in a commanding position for the second leg, and even a 2-1 defeat wasn’t enough to stop us marching into the semi finals.

The Semi finals now and it was Sao Paulo and what’s to be set we were comfortably beaten over both legs losing 2-0 at home and then 3-0 in brazil to send us crashing out.

Holders of the Copa Libertadores and group H is where we started our run being drawn with Bolivar, Cruz Azul and Insituto. Well a good opening as we smashed bolivar 4-0 before beating them 5-1 later, we went down to Cruz Azul twice 3-1 and 2-0 as they won the group it was down to us beating Insituto away 2-1 that we finished second in the group so the second title was still on, a 2nd round match up with Fluminense was brushed aside with a 2-1 home win and a 1-1 draw to put us in the Quater Finals, and a tie with Cruzeiro again a comfortable home win (3-1) and i was confident of a semi berth only to collapse in brazil 3-0 and we went crashing out.

We lost the Recopa (I’m guessing its some kind of super cup?) but we went down 1-0 away from home before winning 2-1 at home to force penalties in only for us to go out in sudden death.

Last but not least is the Club World cup and the trophy i slowly edge towards winning at some point! We made it into my first final as we overcame LA Galaxy on penalties but Steve McClarens FC Bayern made light work of us as we lost 5-1 to the Champions League holders

after one win in 6 from the opening stage in Argentina River have had enough and have sacked me.

Things seem to be going pretty well on the trophies front anyway. Sacked twice in one save surely a first?

it is for me but then again i normally jump before im pushed if im doing crap already got the next job lined up and then im up to date with the save

Land of the Pyramids

And my next target will be the African champions League with the best club in Africa after their manager left to take over as the Egypt coach they appointed their assistant to full boss only to sit second with three games to go, when they promptly sacked him and offered me the job ive got £14m to spend and league rules that pretty much state i have to stick with Egyptians so time to raid all the other Egyptian clubs to build a great squad.

Should be pretty straight forward with Ah-Ahly. especially with £14 million to spend.

yea to give me a challenge with these i want 5 CAF Champions LEague titles

End of season 2021/22

Well first season in Egypt and it was an average start we won the opening game v ENPPI but lose the next match against Petrojet, but we settled down with a run of 6 straight league wins and just as we were getting going we went down to back to back defeats from Zamalek and Ismaily. Before winning the rest of the games including a run of four straight clean sheets. Haras did pull a leveller out to force us to accept our only draw of the league season and we even lost the last match but it made no difference as we finished 16 points clear of second place.

The only Cup we participated in this season was the Egyptian Cup where we went crashing out on spot kicks to Olympic Alexandria after a 2-2 draw