forameuss Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2045/46 - February 2046 - Hertha BSC Transfers An uncharacteristically busy January this year as we brought in a few players to shore up our small squad and hopefully push us into Europe. The big news was a deadline day sale of our first choice left winger Ibrahim Kahraman. I'll level with you - I holidayed this day thinking nothing would happen, and came back to this. I'll be honest, I was a little annoyed, but that's a lot of money, and it can be reinvested better elsewhere. Ulas Muslu will provide a bit of cover to replace him, but I'm confident the squad won't miss him. Fixtures It all started off so promisingly. We'd had a terrible start to the season when Dortmund and Stuttgart both easily beat us, so when we played the return fixture in Berlin, we were up for it. I didn't quite know how up for it until we finished 3-0 victors. It was a massive step towards Champions League football, and such a massive step that being beaten by leaders Stuttgart in the next game didn't matter too much. It did mean we could forget about chasing down Bayern or Stuttgart themselves, so we were now playing for 3rd place. Brauschweig and Chemnitz were the next to feel the effect of the Hertha steamroller as we kept our run going, but we couldn't keep it going against Wolfsburg and Leverkusen. That was disappointing, and with Dortmund having some good results, that three point gap we built up by beating them has narrowed again. We finished off February with a disappointing cup defeat to St Pauli. We really weren't at the races, and when I pushed forward, they picked us off expertly. All credit to them, but a big disappointment since it is a trophy I would love to be winning. Stuttgart open what could be an unassailable lead at the top. They're now five ahead of Bayern, but they have to play each other once more - massive game there. The two are far ahead of ourselves and Dortmund, the latter one point behind. Then it's a massive eight point gap back to the chasing pack, and with eleven games to go, we should be able to close that out and get at least a Europa League place. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2045/46 - May 2046 - Hertha BSC Fixtures We rounded off the season very well. We won comfortably against Hannover, Bremen, Nurnberg and Gladbach, but then stumbled slightly against Aachen, fighting out a fantastic (for the neutral) 3-3 draw. It wasn't the best preparation for facing a Bayern side clinging onto their title with a flimsy hand, but we held our own. We fell just short of completing a double, but to get four points off of a side who have won the past twenty-one titles is a good achievement. Dusseldorf and Mainz both fell, meaning that a win against Frankfurt would secure 3rd place. What followed wasn't good for my managerial blood pressure, but come the final whistle, we had won 5-4 thanks to Salvatore Muro's fantastic winning goal. We were going to be in the Champions League next season, and thanks to Germany's improving coefficient, we will be in the group stages. Amazing. We ended our season with two poor results, but it didn't matter - we couldn't move up and we couldn't fall down. Dead rubbers both of them, and no problem to lose them. Confirmation of our achievement. Despite losing the last two games, we remained six ahead of Dortmund, which shows what a poor end to the season they had. Bayern finished twelve ahead of us, but not far enough to retain their title. Stuttgart won the decider against Bayern and opened up that six point lead, and never looked back from there. Got to applaud them - first side to win the Bundesliga that weren't Bayern in twenty-one long seasons. Congratulations to them. We have a date with Europe to look forward to next season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 forameuss's Career - Hertha BSC/Chile - World Cup 2046 There's just something about me managing Chile. That's two World Cups with the country and twice we've gone out at the group stage. Serbia ran away with our group in the end, getting full points, but they only secured that by beating us in the final round of games. Before that, Senegal beat us on opening day, and we thumped Japan. We needed to beat Serbia to go through though, and we couldn't summon anything more than a miserable performance. Once again, we were out at the group stage. Spain ended up triumphing in the final, beating Russia on penalties after a thrilling 2-2 draw. A disappointing tournament for England going out in the second round, and an unbelievably bad one for Italy who didn't even qualify. But what does a board do when you're expected to win the tournament and instead go out in the groups? Wield the sackhammer of course. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - Summer 2046 - Hertha BSC Board Expectations Bundesliga: European Qualification DFB Pokal: Quarter Final My Expectations Bundesliga: We're in the CL this season, so I want at least Europa League. I'll be disappointed if I don't reach the CL again though DFB Pokal: Quarters are a must - we need to start competing Budgets: Transfer: £9,350,000 Wage: £434,000 (Currently spending £391,434) Balance: £37,327,691(+£13,516,879 on last year) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - August 2046 - Hertha BSC Transfers A mix of signings, with the usual free transfers and loans, but one massive signing for us, and one I've got total faith in. Christian Rettig will slot straight into our team, and I think he's worth the money I've paid for him. Time will tell. August Fixtures Anything 2045 can do, 2046 can do better as we went one goal better in our first round cup game. Wedel were absolutely no match for us, and we over-ran them. We'll face tougher tests of course, but always good to get the season off to a good start. We also got off to a pretty good start in the league, getting four points from our matches against Bremen and Hamburg. Salvatore Muro is on fire so far. We are top of the league, I say we are top of the league! International Job Now let me explain this. Following the World Cup, three jobs became available in Asia - Japan, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. I applied for the latter two, as Japan was unavailable for some reason. I was offered the Saudi job, and took it, assuming that I would then be rejected for the Korea one. I had a look at the players, and the history, and the future and was a little underwhelmed. Then Korea came back to me with a better offer, and better prospects. I just had to choose them, and within a couple of days, I was off to the Far East. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 28, 2013 Author Share Posted January 28, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - August 2046 - Hertha BSC Champions League Draw A tough draw, but as the lowest ranked team in the draw, it was always going to be. I think we have an outside shot of 2nd though if we can grab good results against Twente and Marseille. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - October 2046 - Hertha BSC Bundesliga Oh dear. Not good at all. We struggled all through for any kind of form, or anything close to what we achieved last season. Sure we played Dortmund, Bayern and Stuttgart, but we should have done better than this. We're in relegation form, and the relegation zone. It's alright being in the Champions League, but unless we win it, we're standing less chance of being there next year with every passing day. German Cup A disappointing result from our second string side. Our domestic form is stuttering, and we could really do without the cup, but I thought we'd have enough about us to dispatch Bochum. We can concentrate on our remaining two fronts now. Champions League What a fantastic start to our European adventure. We had the best order of fixtures, playing the two beatable teams first, and we did just that. We started off at home, beating Olympique Marseille 2-1 in Berlin. Muro and Brunel both chipped in with a goal each, negating Marseille's goal. We then travelled to Holland hoping to get at least a point before Madrid visited. We did even better than that though, winning 3-2 in a thrilling game. We went ahead twice, pegged back both times, but finally managed to grab the winner through Irakli Ghionti. When Madrid visited the Olympic Stadium, we expected an absolute battering, but ended up grabbing a hard-fought point. And thanks to them stuttering against Marseille in the previous game, we sat top of the group. Wonderful start, and if we get four points from our next three games, we should qualify. Can we win the group though? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - December 2046 - Hertha BSC Bundesliga A better couple of months domestically, but still not up to last year's standards. We must do better, there's no question about that. Champions League Well we didn't quite stand up to Madrid when we went to their back yard. They thumped us 5-0, and there was little we could complain about in that scoreline. With the other results going our way though, we knew that a win in our penultimate game against Marseille would see us through. We managed that. It was a tough game, but Ghionti got the crucial goal, and suddenly we had gone from "enjoying the experience" to second round qualifiers. Fantastic. Going into the final game, we knew that if Marseille could repeat their draw from the first round, we would overtake Madrid with a win. Unfortunately, Madrid got a late winner to take their match 2-1, and take the top spot. Comfortably into the next round, and we can start dreaming of after-Christmas European football. Ooft. But who would we be facing? Could've been much worse, but they're an unknown quantity really without Spain loaded. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - December 2046 - South Korea It was a busy month for South Korea as we faced both the Asian Games (Asian equivalent of the Olympics) and the East Asian Championship Qualifiers. Asian Games We were going so well until we came up against a good team, but Japan soon saw to it that we didn't get too confident - they absolutely trounced us. It probably looked worse than it was - they went ahead and after never really being tested, I didn't really know what to do. I went all out, and they punished us badly. Before that though, we showed that there is some potential in an Asian sense - we were unmatched pretty much everywhere else. Oh well - it's not exactly a priority for me. East Asian Championship Qualifiers We faced a whole load of friendlies earlier in the year, and then the qualifiers for the tiny East Asian Championship. Four quick fire games, and we won all of them, conceding nothing on our way. Great performances, but we'll face much harder tests in the Asian Cup next month, as well as the East Asian Championship itself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - January 2046 - South Korea - Asian Cup We moved comfortably through the groups, securing our place in the quarter final with a game to spare, setting up a decider against tournament favourites Australia. We could only manage a draw, but that was enough given our superior goal difference. We went through as group winners, which was supposed to give us a favourable draw for the next round. Unfortunately, we got Iran, which was not good news. They gave us quite a game, and after a tense 120 minutes, it was 1-1. It took penalties to separate us, and luckily we came out on the good side of them. The semi-final was more comfortable, a routine 3-0 win against China, meaning we would once again face Australia in the final. A win would give us the 13th trophy of this career, and mean we're just one away from completion. Could we do it? Yes we could, but not by much. Another 1-1 draw, and another very tense 120 minutes of football. We just had more about us in the penalty shootout, and on the day we were good enough to win it. I've got to say, that's a massive thing - I really didn't want another four years chasing an Asian dream... THIRTEEN out of fourteen, people. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 30, 2013 Author Share Posted January 30, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2046/47 - May 2047 - Hertha BSC Bundesliga We started out in January poorly, and things didn't get too much better as we moved through February. It seemed that the only ray of light was the form of Salvatore Muro - without his goals, we would have scored a pathetic two goals in seven games. We are in woeful form domestically, and if it doesn't get better, there will be no European football next season, which will be a big shame after our adventures this season. If you discount the results against Bayern and Gladbach, who I would probably expect to be beaten by, we did OK, but once again we're drawing far too many games. We scored four against Dusseldorf, but after that we struggled to score. I have no idea what is going wrong domestically, but hopefully we only endure it this season and not from now on. We finish the league season as we had been playing all season, two losses and one win, and extremely mixed form. Also Salvatore Muro to thank for the only two goals. We need to draw a line under this season and start again in the next. 8th overall, and deep into absolute no-mans land. Nowhere near Europe, but thankfully nowhere near relegation. An awful season in Berlin, but how did we do in Europe? Champions League In February we resumed our quest for an unlikely European title, and got a pretty good result at the Olympiastadion. We kept them from scoring, which was the big plus, but we also didn't score ourselves. It would be a nervy tie in Madrid, as a goal for either of us would change the look of the tie completely. Sorry for the lack of suspense, but in March and April, our journey moved on somewhat. We travelled to Madrid set up to attack - one goal would make it very difficult for Athletico to get back into it. One goal would do that, but in an absolute blitz of their defense, we got two in eleven minutes to race into the lead. They got a goal back to make things tense, but summer signing Manuel Holzer got a decisive goal which sent us into the quarter finals where we would play Stuttgart. I've got to say, I was not happy with the draw. I would almost rather have faced a bigger side from elsewhere in Europe, like a Madrid or a Barcelona - anything but one of the German sides who have made us their bitch recently. But we got Stuttgart, and we had a fantastic two legged tie against them. In the first leg, we raced into a 2-0 lead once again, and the home fans could be forgiven for thinking ahead to a semi-final. But Stuttgart fought back, eventually going 3-2 ahead. Three away goals. Not how I hoped it would go. Muro got an equaliser with twenty minutes to go and the tie stayed that way until the end. We would have to go to Stuttgart and score more than they could. With our form in Germany, I didn't hold out much hope. But hope I had, and I was rewarded in the 90th minute of the second leg. We were heading for an exit when Aljosa Kovac stepped up and smashed a shot in from 18 yards. The travelling fans went mental, and we were heading for a semi-final. Amazing. But our glee soon dissipated when it became clear that Man Utd would be our opponents in that semi-final. The richest club in the World by some distance and the team that had just dispatched Real Madrid (who destroyed us in the group stages remember) extremely easily. It just wasn't to be. In Berlin we matched them for most of the game, but you always had the impression that it was just a matter of time. And sure enough, late on Utd won a penalty, and scored a vital away goal. We couldn't muster a goal of our own, and so we would go to Manchester needing to score twice and keep a clean sheet. We couldn't do any of that, and Utd romped home 4-1. We never really had a prayer, but to get to the semi finals on our debut season...I'm so proud of the players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted January 31, 2013 Author Share Posted January 31, 2013 After I steamrollered few a few more seasons, here's another look at the career so far, through the medium of ASCII... |-------------| | CLUB CAREER | |-------------| |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Season | Team |Tier| Country | Pos. | Notes | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2012/13 | Central Coast Mariners | 1 | Australia | 1st | Joined on 14/2/2013, Regular season | | | | | | | winners, Play-off Semi-Finalists | | 2013/14 | Central Coast Mariners | 1 | Australia | 1st | Regular season and Grand Final Winners | | 2014/15 | Central Coast Mariners | 1 | Australia | 4th* | Asian Champions League Winners (1/14) | | | | | | | Resigned on 15/11/2014 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2014/15 | Bidvest Wits | 1 | S. Africa | 10th+ | Joined on 3/12/2014 | | 2015/16 | Bidvest Wits | 1 | S. Africa | 8th | Resigned on 31/5/2016 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2016/17 | Kaizer Chiefs | 1 | S. Africa | 2nd | Joined on 31/7/2016 | | 2017/18 | Kaizer Chiefs | 1 | S. Africa | | African Champions League (3/14) | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2018 | Toronto FC | 1 | USA | - | Joined on 8/11/2018 | | 2019 | Toronto FC | 1 | USA | 8th | | | 2020 | Toronto FC | 1 | USA | - | Resigned Summer 2020 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2021 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 6th | West Play-off Semis | | 2022 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 1st | West Play-off Final, S.Shield Winners | | 2023 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 1st | MLS Cup Runners-up, S.Shield Winners | | 2024 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 1st | S.Shield Winners,NACL Winners (4/14) | | | | | | | Club World Cup Winners (5/14) | | | | | | | Resigned on 28/12/2024 | | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2025 | Criciuma | 2 | Brazil | 6th | Santa Catarina State Runners-up | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2026* | Nautico | 1 | Brazil | 12th* | Pernambuco State Runners-up | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2026+ | Flamengo | 1 | Brazil | 5th | | | 2027 | Flamengo | 1 | Brazil | 5th | Rio State Winners | | | | | | | Club World Cup Winners (5/14), resigned| |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2027/28 | Man United | 1 | England | 2nd* | | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2027/28 | Como Calcio+ | 3 | Italy | 6th+ | | | 2028/29 | Como Calcio | 3 | Italy | 4th | Serie C1/A Play-off Winners, promoted | | 2029/30 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 17th | | | 2030/31 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 21st | Relegated | | 2031/32 | Como Calcio | 3 | Italy | 3rd | Serie C1/A Play-off Winners, promoted | | 2032/33 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 19th | Serie B play-out winners, survived | | 2033/34 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 13th | | | 2034/35 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 10th | | | 2035/36 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 22nd | Relegated | | 2036/37 | Como Calcio | 3 | Italy | 8th | Sacked | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2038/39 | Darmstadt* | 3 | Germany | 18th* | Resigned | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2040/41 | Hertha BSC | 2 | Germany | 3rd | Promoted via Play-offs | | 2041/42 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 12th | | | 2042/43 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 10th | | | 2043/44 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 9th | | | 2044/45 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 7th | | | 2045/46 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 3rd | | | 2046/47 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 8th | Champions League Semi-Finals | | | * left mid-season | + arrived during season | |----------------------| | INTERNATIONAL CAREER | |----------------------| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Year | Nation | Continent | W | D | L | GD | Notes | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2016 | Scotland | Europe | 5 | 1 | 0 | +13 | Joined 17/7/2016 | | 2017 | Scotland | Europe | 10 | 2 | 4 | +12 | Confederations Cup Winners (2/14) | | 2018 | Scotland | Europe | 15 | 4 | 1 | +25 | World Cup QFs | | 2019 | Scotland | Europe | 4 | 5 | 2 | +6 | Four Assoc. Tournament Winners | | 2020 | Scotland | Europe | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Euro. Champs QFs, resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2020 | Uruguay | S. America | 1 | 1 | 3 | -3 | Sacked | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2023 | Chile | S. America | 1 | 2 | 2 | - 6 | Joined in August | | 2024 | Chile | S. America | 5 | 1 | 2 | +13 | | | 2025 | Chile | S. America | 8 | 1 | 5 | + 2 | Confederations Cup runners-up | | 2026 | Chile | S. America | 0 | 0 | 3 | - 4 | WC Group Stage | | 2027 | Chile | S. America | 5 | 0 | 1 | + 3 | Copa America Winners (7/14) | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2030 | Honduras | N. America | 0 | 0 | 4 | - 6 | World Cup Playoffs Runners-up | | 2031 | Honduras | N. America | 10 | 2 | 2 | +13 | Central American Champions | | | | | | | | | Gold Cup Winners (8/14) | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2031 | Tonga | Oceana | 0 | 0 | 6 | -18 | Pacific games group stage | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2032 | Fiji | Oceana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Left without a competitive game | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2033 | Italy | Europe | 4 | 0 | 3 | + 3 | Qualified for World Cup | | 2034 | Italy | Europe | 9 | 1 | 2 | +13 | World Cup winners (9/14) | | 2035 | Italy | Europe | 8 | 1 | 1 | +20 | Qualified for Euros | | 2036 | Italy | Europe | 11 | 2 | 0 | +20 | Euro Champ Winners (10/14) | | 2037 | Italy | Europe | 3 | 0 | 3 | +11 | Confed. Cup Group Stage | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2037 | New Zealand | Oceana | 3 | 1 | 2 | + 1 | | | 2038 | New Zealand | Oceana | 3 | 2 | 3 | - 1 | | | 2039 | New Zealand | Oceana | 4 | 1 | 3 | + 4 | | | 2040 | New Zealand | Oceana | 4 | 1 | 0 | +14 | Oceanic Nations Cup winners | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2041 | Tunisia | Africa | 6 | 2 | 0 | +18 | Qualified for World Cup | | 2042 | Tunisia | Africa | 5 | 0 | 4 | + 3 | World Cup Quarter Finals | | 2043 | Tunisia | Africa | 5 | 1 | 0 | + 9 | African Nations Cup Winners (12/14) | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2045 | Chile | S. America | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Joined late 2045 | | 2046 | Chile | S. America | 1 | 0 | 2 | | WC Group Stage, sacked | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2046 | Saudi Arabia| Asia | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Joined, left after one day | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2046 | South Korea | Asia | 8 | 0 | 2 | +18 | | | 2047 | South Korea | Asia | 4 | 1 | 0 | + 6 | Asian Cup Winners (13/14) | Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - Summer 2047- Hertha BSC Board Expectations Bundesliga: Europa League Qualification DFB Pokal: Quarter Final My Expectations Bundesliga: I want Champions League Qualification, but would settle or the smaller competition DFB Pokal: I'm aiming for the win Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 Hope you can step back forward in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - August 2047 - Hertha BSC/South Korea Transfers This was the year that we really went for it with our transfer budget. I had already spent a good chunk of our budget when I came across Artan Tafaj at Schalke. I've struggled with players who can consistently find the net whenever and wherever, so I'm just hoping that Tafaj can be that player we're missing. He certainly has pedigree (as you'll see from his atts below) and proven at this level. He's only 25 too, so a lot of years ahead of him I hope. This is also the last year I'll be allowing any of my directors to go and find me players - both loan signings from Ipswich were good for cover, but they won't set the world alight, and we're still paying their wages, plus a hefty monthly fee in Mocic's case. Friendlies International Job The Summer saw our East Asian Championship campaign begin, and it's a tournament I was a little surprised about. It's structured in a similar way to the Four Associations Tournament in the UK, with only three games played and the winner being the top team after these three games. Unlike the Four Associations, the games are played over a short space of time. No matter how it was played though, we won it, showing a maturity that was missing at times during the Asian Cup. Played three, won three, including a very good win against Australia, putting aside that tight game in the final of the Asian Cup. It's another trophy, albeit one I didn't need, and the one I wanted to win before the inevitable happened. Still, it wasn't going to be long until we faced another job offer... It's back to South America once again, to try and win a World Cup for a true world giant. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted February 2, 2013 Share Posted February 2, 2013 I love a few of those signings, especially Santamaria. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - August 2047 - Hertha BSC/Brazil A good kick off to the season - unbeaten, although we haven't really been tested yet. Tafaj's debut producing two goals was great, but it seems that Salvatore Muro has taken the signing to heart - he got five in the cup game against Altona. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 2, 2013 Author Share Posted February 2, 2013 I love a few of those signings, especially Santamaria. Santamaria is amazing. I spotted him when looking around scout reports and couldn't quite believe his technical and mental stats. If I can improve his physical stats as he gets older, he should be a fantastic player for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - October 2047 - Hertha BSC/Brazil Hertha BSC A very mixed month really. We had our now traditional league defeat to Bayern, as well as to Gladbach, Bremen and Hannover. Tafaj is looking like the good buy I hoped he would be but defensively we're proving weak. Our midfield is not as good as it should be either. With no European football this season, we have no excuse not to make an impact on the league. Brazil My start to life with Brazil hasn't been the best either. We're not sweeping away all before us, despite our talented squad. We're up there though, and should easily qualify for the World Cup, where the fun really begins Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - November 2047 - Hertha BSC/Brazil That is how you go about qualifying for the Champions League. For once we have a month where we don't have any buts - we won all three of our league fixtures and strolled into the next round of the cup. Tafaj was once again on form, but was then injured, freezing his record at ten goals in nine games. Salvatore Muro has once again stepped up though, so hopefully we won't miss him too much. We've climbed to third, but the table already has a very familiar look to it - Bayern are top, and who would bet against them being there at the end of it all? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Great November. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Hossam Ashour must be one of the bargains of all time! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - February 2048 - Hertha BSC/Brazil December and January were short as usual thanks to the winter break, but we couldn't repeat the form of November even with less games. Again we struggled against the usual teams - Dortmund beat us in December before we lost the return games to Bayern and Hannover in a repeat of the first half of the season. We couldn't complete a league double over Stuttgart, with them triumphing 5-3. When we score, we score a lot, but when we concede, boy do we concede. We're not playing well enough to get a Champions League place at the moment unfortunately. We only just hang onto a European place by the skin of our teeth. Things need to improve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 Hossam Ashour must be one of the bargains of all time! He's certainly looking like it! Couldn't quite believe I managed to pick him up for so little, and he's already had interest from other parties for quite a bit more than I bought him for. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - April 2048 - Hertha BSC/Brazil An unbeaten couple of months come at just the right time for our European push. I get the feeling those three draws may come back to haunt us. We should have done much better. On a very positive point though, we made it into our first German Cup final by beating Schalke. Bayern await us in the final, which will be played in front of our own fans. With three games to go, we're only three points off the Champions League places. It's possible, but I wouldn't count on it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2047/48 - May 2048 - Hertha BSC/Brazil We did all we could in our remaining games, winning all three, but it was out of our hands at this stage Werder did enough to hold us off in 3rd position meaning we ended the season facing Europa League football. It's not the Champions League, but it's something. German Cup Final Hertha BSC vs Bayern Munich Journey to the Final Hertha/Bayern The Match Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2048/49 - Summer 2048 - Hertha BSC Board Expectations Bundesliga: Europa League Qualification UEFA Europa League: Quarter Final DFB Pokal: Quarter Final DFL Supercup: Not important My Expectations Bundesliga: Champions League Qualification, so third at least UEFA Europa League: Have a good run DFB Pokal: Retaining the trophy would be fantastic, but as long as we are competitive DFL Supercup: Win it and start the season with a bang Finances Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2048/49 - August 2048 - Hertha BSC/Brazil Transfers A big summer for Hertha as we had some big arrivals and even bigger departures. The summer kicked off as Christian Rettig left the club for Arsenal for a massive fee. Apparently it's still not enough though, as the fans are furious. I can see their point, but the money is around ten million more than we paid for him a couple of seasons ago. The money also allowed us to bring in Fuchs and Oliveira, and up the wage budget to levels where we could bring in a couple of big free transfers. Jordan McCabe arrives on 62k a week, and Paillier and Fuchs both on 48k. It's a lot of money, but we have it in budget and as you'll see by the stats, I think it's worth it Fuchs and McCabe will be my third and fourth strikers, but with our scoring problems last season, I'm happy to have the rotation. I'm also very happy to welcome a highly rated Scottish striker - if only he was around when I was in charge of Scotland... Friendlies Spot the bad result. The friendlies were pretty inconsequential, but Bayern got revenge on us for our cup win by brushing us aside pretty easily in the Super Cup. It's a shame, but nothing I'll lose sleep over. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2048/49 - Hertha BSC/Brazil Hertha BSC A bit of a bumper update up to December, and altogether, a not bad few months. Of course, if you discount October that is. A terrible few weeks saw us lose five on the bounce and pretty much end any hopes we had of Champions League qualification. We would have to go unbeaten pretty much through the rest of the season to keep the pressure up. We made a decent fist of it in November and December, only losing one game, so we may be back in contention with that. If it wasn't for that awful spell, we may have been right up there. We settle into 4th at the half-way point, which is good news, but already the top sides are pulling away. We'll need to do very little wrong and hope that they slip up. We also topped our Europa League group. It would be nice to win that one, but the league is the priority. Brazil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2048/49 - Hertha BSC/Brazil Hertha BSC Remember when I said we couldn't put a foot wrong? Well that's the sound of us putting several feet wrong. If you discount the Bayern game, we made a pretty good start. We breezed through our first set of league games, and then through our first knockout round of the Europa League. We even dispatched Dortmund on penalties in the German Cup. But then everything went to hell. We managed just one more win between then and the middle of April, and then only made a slight recovery when we once again beat Schalke in the semi finals of the cup. That prompted us to pick upa few more points in the league, but we were already a bit of a lost cause. Probably the most demoralising part was Arsenal ending our European hopes with a masterclass in both London and Berlin. We really never had a prayer in either leg. However, we had booked another final against Bayern - a second cup win would be great given the disappointing season in general. And we ended it with a trophy. Bayern once again on the end of a 1-0 defeat, and once again it's Albanian striker Arfan Tafaj with the goal. We may be truly awful elsewhere, but it's good to know we can still pull off some results in some competitions. We only sneak into Europe thanks to our cup win, as we finish 7th overall. Terrible league performance really, and my Hertha career is starting to unravel a little. Brazil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2049/50 - Summer 2049 - Hertha BSC Board Expectations Bundesliga: Champions League Qualification UEFA Europa League: Quarter Final DFB Pokal: Quarter Final DFL Supercup: Not important My Expectations Bundesliga: Champions League Qualification is an absolute must UEFA Europa League: Semi-finals at least DFB Pokal: I want three in a row DFL Supercup: Win it at the second time of asking Finances Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2049/50 - August 2049 - Hertha BSC/Brazil Transfers Friendlies Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2049/50 - August 2049 - Hertha BSC/Brazil We started off the season witha trophy - triumphing in our glorified pre-season game against Bundesliga Champions Stuttgart on penalties to win the Super Cup. My third trophy, but it's not all rosy. This is why. A good start to the season, but then it all became oh so familiar. Loss after loss after loss, and we slipped down the table. I said at the end of last season that my time at Hertha was becoming tougher, and this proves it. I was very optimistic, but... With this being the outlook, I'm not too confident of progress. We're maxing out our budgets and can't say we're not spending much. We should be doing better, but we're not, and it's hard to rival the sheer class of Stuttgart and Bayern. I'm afraid, despite saying that this was the club I wanted to win the Champions League with, it's that time again... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 I tried, I really did, but it seems I've killed another club. Don't get me wrong, I loved my time in Germany, as it was somewhere I'd never managed before, but I think the task was just too great for the budget we were given. Alarm bells should have started to ring when we saw Bayern with their seventeen-in-a-row titles when I arrived. This was a team that changed their manager two seasons before I arrived to an unproven German, and still added another six-in-a-row, before losing two of the next five to Stuttgart. They are unbeatable in the most part. Sure we've got the better of them at times over the past few years - most notably in the last two German Cup finals - but I would have traded those wins for their dominance in the league. But then of course that wasn't the whole problem - turns out that despite Bayern never really leaving their lofty form, Stuttgart were just better than them on two occasions. We just couldn't compete with those two, and ever since that Champions League run to the semis, we haven't been the same team. Players have held us to ransom with their wage demands, and they won out because of our success bringing us money. It worked for a while, but once I became established in Europe (3 out of the last 4 seasons), I realised that this team didn't really have an identity. You remember the rule that you must have at least four players in your European squad that are "home-grown"? We had none. Not one home-grown player good enough to be in our squad. That is not a good thing, and to me it's a sign that I'm just not doing enough to make sure this team is equipped for the future. If I'd done that when I arrived, I have no doubt we would have been Champions by now. As it is, we're not, and I doubt we'd be that in the next five years. But now a confession - I admit my head has been turned by some of the journeyman stories on this board, and I intend to undertake my own once this career is finished. And by God I will finish it. I've already found my new club, which you'll hear about in tonight's updates, and I think with them I can finish this once and for all. But anyway, here's an up-to-now update through the medium of dance (ASCII) once again |-------------| | CLUB CAREER | |-------------| |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Season | Team |Tier| Country | Pos. | Notes | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2012/13 | Central Coast Mariners | 1 | Australia | 1st | Joined on 14/2/2013, Regular season | | | | | | | winners, Play-off Semi-Finalists | | 2013/14 | Central Coast Mariners | 1 | Australia | 1st | Regular season and Grand Final Winners | | 2014/15 | Central Coast Mariners | 1 | Australia | 4th* | Asian Champions League Winners (1/14) | | | | | | | Resigned on 15/11/2014 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2014/15 | Bidvest Wits | 1 | S. Africa | 10th+ | Joined on 3/12/2014 | | 2015/16 | Bidvest Wits | 1 | S. Africa | 8th | Resigned on 31/5/2016 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2016/17 | Kaizer Chiefs | 1 | S. Africa | 2nd | Joined on 31/7/2016 | | 2017/18 | Kaizer Chiefs | 1 | S. Africa | | African Champions League (3/14) | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2018 | Toronto FC | 1 | USA | - | Joined on 8/11/2018 | | 2019 | Toronto FC | 1 | USA | 8th | | | 2020 | Toronto FC | 1 | USA | - | Resigned Summer 2020 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2021 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 6th | West Play-off Semis | | 2022 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 1st | West Play-off Final, S.Shield Winners | | 2023 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 1st | MLS Cup Runners-up, S.Shield Winners | | 2024 | LA Galaxy | 1 | USA | 1st | S.Shield Winners,NACL Winners (4/14) | | | | | | | Club World Cup Winners (5/14) | | | | | | | Resigned on 28/12/2024 | | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2025 | Criciuma | 2 | Brazil | 6th | Santa Catarina State Runners-up | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2026* | Nautico | 1 | Brazil | 12th* | Pernambuco State Runners-up | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2026+ | Flamengo | 1 | Brazil | 5th | | | 2027 | Flamengo | 1 | Brazil | 5th | Rio State Winners | | | | | | | Club World Cup Winners (5/14), resigned| |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2027/28 | Man United | 1 | England | 2nd* | | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2027/28 | Como Calcio+ | 3 | Italy | 6th+ | | | 2028/29 | Como Calcio | 3 | Italy | 4th | Serie C1/A Play-off Winners, promoted | | 2029/30 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 17th | | | 2030/31 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 21st | Relegated | | 2031/32 | Como Calcio | 3 | Italy | 3rd | Serie C1/A Play-off Winners, promoted | | 2032/33 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 19th | Serie B play-out winners, survived | | 2033/34 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 13th | | | 2034/35 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 10th | | | 2035/36 | Como Calcio | 2 | Italy | 22nd | Relegated | | 2036/37 | Como Calcio | 3 | Italy | 8th | Sacked | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2038/39 | Darmstadt* | 3 | Germany | 18th* | Resigned | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2040/41 | Hertha BSC | 2 | Germany | 3rd | Promoted via Play-offs | | 2041/42 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 12th | | | 2042/43 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 10th | | | 2043/44 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 9th | | | 2044/45 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 7th | | | 2045/46 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 3rd | | | 2046/47 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 8th | Champions League Semi-Finals | | 2047/48 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 4th | DFB Pokal Winners | | 2048/49 | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 7th | DFB Pokal Winners | | 2049/50* | Hertha BSC | 1 | Germany | 15th* | Super Cup Winners | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | * left mid-season | + arrived during season | |----------------------| | INTERNATIONAL CAREER | |----------------------| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Year | Nation | Continent | W | D | L | GD | Notes | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2016 | Scotland | Europe | 5 | 1 | 0 | +13 | Joined 17/7/2016 | | 2017 | Scotland | Europe | 10 | 2 | 4 | +12 | Confederations Cup Winners (2/14) | | 2018 | Scotland | Europe | 15 | 4 | 1 | +25 | World Cup QFs | | 2019 | Scotland | Europe | 4 | 5 | 2 | +6 | Four Assoc. Tournament Winners | | 2020 | Scotland | Europe | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Euro. Champs QFs, resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2020 | Uruguay | S. America | 1 | 1 | 3 | -3 | Sacked | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2023 | Chile | S. America | 1 | 2 | 2 | - 6 | Joined in August | | 2024 | Chile | S. America | 5 | 1 | 2 | +13 | | | 2025 | Chile | S. America | 8 | 1 | 5 | + 2 | Confederations Cup runners-up | | 2026 | Chile | S. America | 0 | 0 | 3 | - 4 | WC Group Stage | | 2027 | Chile | S. America | 5 | 0 | 1 | + 3 | Copa America Winners (7/14) | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2030 | Honduras | N. America | 0 | 0 | 4 | - 6 | World Cup Playoffs Runners-up | | 2031 | Honduras | N. America | 10 | 2 | 2 | +13 | Central American Champions | | | | | | | | | Gold Cup Winners (8/14) | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2031 | Tonga | Oceana | 0 | 0 | 6 | -18 | Pacific games group stage | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2032 | Fiji | Oceana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Left without a competitive game | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2033 | Italy | Europe | 4 | 0 | 3 | + 3 | Qualified for World Cup | | 2034 | Italy | Europe | 9 | 1 | 2 | +13 | World Cup winners (9/14) | | 2035 | Italy | Europe | 8 | 1 | 1 | +20 | Qualified for Euros | | 2036 | Italy | Europe | 11 | 2 | 0 | +20 | Euro Champ Winners (10/14) | | 2037 | Italy | Europe | 3 | 0 | 3 | +11 | Confed. Cup Group Stage | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2037 | New Zealand | Oceana | 3 | 1 | 2 | + 1 | | | 2038 | New Zealand | Oceana | 3 | 2 | 3 | - 1 | | | 2039 | New Zealand | Oceana | 4 | 1 | 3 | + 4 | | | 2040 | New Zealand | Oceana | 4 | 1 | 0 | +14 | Oceanic Nations Cup winners | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2041 | Tunisia | Africa | 6 | 2 | 0 | +18 | Qualified for World Cup | | 2042 | Tunisia | Africa | 5 | 0 | 4 | + 3 | World Cup Quarter Finals | | 2043 | Tunisia | Africa | 5 | 1 | 0 | + 9 | African Nations Cup Winners (12/14) | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2045 | Chile | S. America | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Joined late 2045 | | 2046 | Chile | S. America | 1 | 0 | 2 | | WC Group Stage, sacked | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2046 | Saudi Arabia| Asia | 0 | 0 | 0 | | Joined, left after one day | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2046 | South Korea | Asia | 8 | 0 | 2 | +18 | | | 2047 | South Korea | Asia | 4 | 1 | 0 | + 6 | Asian Cup Winners (13/14) | | | | | | | | | East Asian Championship Winners | | | | | | | | | resigned | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2047 | Brazil | S. America | 2 | 1 | 2 | + 5 | | | 2048 | Brazil | S. America | 4 | 3 | 0 | + 9 | | Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 That's a shame, but probably been underachieving there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 That's a shame, but probably been underachieving there. A little from column A and a little from column B. I think we overachieved at times, and underachieved at others. Our peak was definitely when we finished third in the league, then we went steadily downhill from there. I can't explain why we got to the semis of the Champions League, but could barely buy a win in the Bundesliga. I think the main problem was that our team was imbalanced. We always had a very good goalkeeper, and for the most part a very strong back four. We also had a very good strikeforce towards the end of my reign. We did not have a very good midfield however, especially in the center. I think that's what ended up finishing us off. But, I think we were actually overachieving if results since I left have been anything to go by - out of the cup in the quarters, bottom half of the table and out of the Europa League (to Bayern though, the ********). I really hope they don't go into freefall, but I don't have much hope that an AI manager can perform the squad trimming that is needed to revive Hertha. It's a shame really Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 forameuss's Career - Unemployed Ok, so I'm not technically unemployed, as I'm still in charge of Brazil until at least after the World Cup, but since I've now collected all the International trophies, that matters little. The real question is which club I've chosen to make my next assault on that one trophy I still require - the UEFA Champions League. I thought long and hard over this, but as I've said in a previous post, I don't want this to become another ten year plan. I've tried that twice now, and after ten seasons at both Como and Hertha, I've come up with only three trophies, and they were pretty minor and all in the final two years. That's just not good enough. I want a team that I can step into, mould into my image quickly, and then win. And keep winning. So after resigning from Hertha, I retreated to the forests of Brazil for an 80's style montage. With the Team America montage song playing throughout of course. I still had a job to do with the national team, but I kept an eye out for any jobs that caught my eye. There were a few offers (screenshots will follow once I get onto my own laptop) that piqued my interest, but none really had that wow factor, or the sense that I could really do it. Several offers from England with exorbitant budgets for unglamorous clubs. The Premier League TV Budget is clearly rampant still, and they would probably be the "beige-bet" (geddit? Beige is boring lolz...) for the Champions League. But there was one team I had been chasing for a while. Now bear in mind that I left Hertha in late 2049. I wasn't too bothered about getting a club before the 2050 World Cup was done and dusted, so in the summer of 2050 I swooped. This was a team whose manager was under pressure around the time I left Hertha. I declared an interest, something I don't do lightly as it's usually a suicide button for a club manager. The board did their usual disappointed face, but didn't kick up too much fuss. It was good, because it seemed my declaring interest, although accepted by that club's board, only solidified said manager's position at the club. I had saved his job. Baws. But then, fast forward to the next summer. In the latter stages of my World Cup campaign, I was offered a very good job - Newcastle United. I don't count myself as a fan, but the money was right, the support was definitely right, and it was a club who had never won the top prize. Perfect really. I negotiated a little, signed on the dotted line and then awaited my big unveiling. And it never came. The World Cup came and went, and still the Newcastle job lay vacant, and I lay unemployed. I imagine it was a bug, although not sure what triggered it. Then something big happened. Remember that club I had been chasing? Well after the World Cup, a disappointed England sacked their manager. Said club's manager, being a good solid Englishman, expressed his interest. He got the job, and I ended up strolling into the post I had coveted. So who were this famous club? I know, I know. I know you're probably vomiting all over your keyboard in scorn, and in a way I am too, but they're the perfect fit for what I want right now. There's no John Terry in sight, and no Roman Abramovich to keep the managers as his plaything. There's also a brand new stadium - the Hazard Arena (I've yet to confirm how the club treats the ballboys here) which is bringing in stupid amounts of revenue. They're clearly a very well run club now, as they have now been announced as the richest club in the World for the second year running. There's money, there's stability, but there is also turmoil. In a similar situation to where I found myself with Man Utd all those years ago, Chelsea finished 7th last season, but won the FA Cup, leading to Europa League football. They're still a fallen giant though, and there are "smaller" clubs that have overtaken them. Most notably Everton, the team who have tried to hire me three times. United and City are still up there, but I intend to change that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pricey687 Posted February 6, 2013 Share Posted February 6, 2013 Good luck at the bridge Hazard. Not the same is it. anyway best of luck on that champions league trophy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 Good luck at the bridge Hazard. Not the same is it. anyway best of luck on that champions league trophy It just isn't. I would've thought if Chelsea ever do end up getting a stadium, it would be in the shape of Roman's head. It'd have eyes that follow you around and everything. Still, it's bigger than the Bridge, and with the profit the team is set to make this season (around £30,000,000), it must be a huge cash cow for them. It's still a good 33k short of the number of seats Old Trafford has in game - they reached 100,000 for my ill-fated semi-final against them for Hertha, and "The 'Azard" only has around 67,000. Yet to notice whether we're selling out or not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 6, 2013 Author Share Posted February 6, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2049/50 - World Cup 2050 - Brazil A massive shock happened in group A as Argentina were eliminated in the group stages. In fact, it wasn't too much of a shock, as they had struggled to even qualify in front of m ore resurgent South American nations. Still though, you would expect a superpower like that to qualify ahead of Iran or even France. As it was, it wasn't to be - the Argie's went out along with Senegal. A weak group really, but in group B my old side Tunisia and Russia went through comfortably. The Welsh end up bottom of their group with just a point - big disappointment. Chile banished the memories of my two World Cups with them by winning their group and advancing to the next round at the expense of another of my old sides Honduras and Austria. Spain edged second place in the group. Africa and Asia both lost another representative as Ghana and Saudi Arabia both crashed out. Croatia and the Netherlands went through fairly easily, and the Dutch look early favourites for the whole tournament. Probably the biggest shock of the entire tournament in Group E. First, Scotland won a group, something that hadn't been done since I was in charge over thirty years ago. The second shock, and probably the bigger one, was that England crashed out. They can feel hard done by though, as they only went out on goal difference after finishing level with both Scotland and Australia. What a tournament for the Auld Enemy seeing the English knocked out. The two actually met in qualifying, winning one and losing one each. The gap has closed, and it's great to see Scotland competitive again. The Middle East was represented fantastically by Qatar as they went through as Group F winners. The USA edged ahead of Egypt and Turkey to take second place by a single point. Africa's final representative - Algeria - ended up going out by only finishing third. A miserable showing for the continent, but Algeria can feel unlucky just like England, as they too went out on goal difference. Italy and Mexico went through - good to see the Italians back in amongst it after not qualifying for the previous tournament. Finally, our group. We went through, but Portugal were clearly better, the only side to go through with a 100% record. We went comfortably through in second though, with Japan and Germany going out. The German's have really gone downhill recently - if I get a chance I may see if I can bring them back up. We got the draw I didn't want, facing my old side Italy in the second round. We won through, but they pushed us all the way. It took extra-time, but at least we're through. France and the Netherlands will face off in the quarters, but the latter needed extra-time to get the better of Spain. Another tie went to extra-time as Australia bettered Qatar - we'll face Oz in the quarters. Russia will face Chile, and it'll be a good old border battle as Mexico face the United States. We're struggling at the moment to win games outright, and it showed again as Australia proved stubborn opposition. We'll face the Netherlands, which I'm not looking forward to. The winners of that tie will face the winners of the other semi - Russia versus Mexico. We just didn't have enough for the Netherlands really. They proved too good, and 2-1 didn't quite do it justice. The Mexicans beat the Russians in the other tie, leaving us to face Russia for third place. The Dutch won the cup for the first time in twenty-four years with a good win against Mexico in the final. Another 2-1, which seems to be scoreline of the month here. A good tournament, but a bit gutting we didn't add another World Cup to the collection. It was that time again, nonetheless... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Wow! What an epic thread this is! Can't believe I haven't stumbled across it before now :o What a shame it all went pear-shaped with Hertha Berlin, especially after making the semi-final of the Champions League too. I've got some reading back to do now, but good luck with Chelsea (although I was one of those who vomited on their keyboard ) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 Wow! What an epic thread this is! Can't believe I haven't stumbled across it before now :oWhat a shame it all went pear-shaped with Hertha Berlin, especially after making the semi-final of the Champions League too. I've got some reading back to do now, but good luck with Chelsea (although I was one of those who vomited on their keyboard ) Well I hope you enjoy reading back then! It was a shame about Hertha, but I seem to have a bit of a complex with the Champions League in this game - the last time I won it was with Stockport County back in FM12, and I only managed to win it after the rest of my season had absolutely collapsed - sounds familiar. It seems I go all out for that CL spot, and then if I don't win it within a couple of seasons, I've missed my shot. Hopefully it'll be different with Chelsea. Those London urchins. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 forameuss's Career -2050 - Chelsea Here's a rundown of the other job offers I got between leaving Berlin and arriving in London. I set it to top division clubs, but this is a club that, believe it or not from that fairly generous wage budget, is not a club with a top level budget. The money has gone insane in England, as you'll see, so I doubt I'd be able to make Leeds competitive. This actually tempted me - bringing back the European Cup to Wales would be brilliant, but I think it would take just too long. In the same way as Leeds, I doubt we'd compete. Going back to Italy would take a lot more money than this. Ditto for Germany They look nailed on for relegation unfortunately. A huge offer, but I'll have to decline - can't help but think that spending all that money would cripple them The famous phantom job - I'd be in the North East if it wasn't for a bug, but alas... Here I am in London, ready to push for that final trophy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2050/51 - Summer 2050 - Chelsea Board Expectations Barclays Premier League:Europa League Qualification The FA Cup: Semi Final Community Shield: Not important Capital One Cup: Not important Europa League: Quarter Final My Expectations Barclays Premier League:Champions League Qualification The FA Cup: Win it Community Shield: Win it for a good start Capital One Cup: Win it Europa League: Latter stages Finances Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2050/51 - August 2050 - Chelsea Transfers A lot of activity this summer, but only a couple I was responsible for. Just one of the incoming players was mine, and that was the goalkeeper Jair. This was the one signing that needed to be made - our goalkeepers were just not good enough when I arrived, so a solid one arriving should make a big difference. The move was almost entirely funded by me selling star defender Eugene Scherrer to Barcelona. I'll have to make some tough decisions in my time at Chelsea - for the first time I have players who will be sought after, and I aim to sell those and find cheaper alternatives. At least that's the plan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2050/51 - September 2050 - Chelsea Things couldn't have started much better to be honest. We are rampant already, and it's shaping up to be a very good season. We started off with my first "trophy" of my reign by winning the Charity Shield. It may not be important to anyone, but it's good to win something. We'll need to stay ahead of Everton this season - believe it or not, they are the team to beat, and have a team packed with stars. Getting one over on them early is great news. Elsewhere we got good starts everywhere - to the Premier League, to the League Cup and to the Europa League. Very happy, and long may it continue. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2050/51 - October 2050 - Chelsea If September was nigh on perfect, then I wish we could go back there. We started off terribly, looking like we would never match Coventry in our game. We were playing catchup from almost the first whistle, and we just couldn't get level. We compounded that with another loss against Man Utd. Those are the kind of teams we need to beat if we're serious about a title challenge, so that's disappointing. But if we take maximum points elsewhere we should keep up. We set about Copenhagen like rabid dogs in our midweek game, smashing them 6-1 to get back on track, and that proved the catalyst for another three wins - one in the cup, and two of them against sides I could have joined the season before. I think I made the right choice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2050/51 - November 2050 - Chelsea We started off the month by pretty much assuring ourselves of top spot in our EUropa League group with a 4-1 win in Copenhagen. They were our closest rivals in the group, so I'm pretty confident of closing it out in the next two games. We stuttered against Arsenal and Ipswich though, the latter another side I could have joined. We should have done much better, and I'm very disappointed that we didn't win at least one of those games. The games were all the more annoying when we finally faced Everton in the league. We matched them pretty much every step of the way, but went down to a late goal. It was bitterly disappointing, and we've now lost ground at the top through our own profligacy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted February 7, 2013 Author Share Posted February 7, 2013 forameuss's Career - Season 2050/51 - December 2050 - Chelsea We forgot all about our slip-up at Everton at the end of November and closed out 2050 unbeaten again. Four competitions this month and we advanced in two of them. Our Europa League fixtures saw us end the group stage with six wins out of six, and we moved into the two legged semi final of the League Cup. We did have trouble in the FA Cup though, and a 3rd round replay will not help our already busy schedule when we visit Derby in the New Year. In the league there was a big result at the 'azard as we beat Man City fairly comfortably. Just need to do the same to United and Everton and we'll be fine. We're within touching distance of Everton at the top with our game in hand - pretty well placed going into 2051. Europe can't handle dis yo'... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK22 Posted February 8, 2013 Share Posted February 8, 2013 Pretty impressive start, although I can't believe you lost your unbeaten record to Coventry! Coventry!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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