[FM13] Making and Breaking History: A Multi-Manager Tale

[forameuss]

The above is a little bit of a preamble to the news that I will be continuing this career, but with a bit of a twist. Stephen Smith will be retiring, having led Scotland to a historic World Cup trophy, but a completely unknown manager - Max Harvey - will be starting out from where he left off, building up his experience until he rights the wrongs left behind by Smith and ends up just as successful (hopefully).

I'll be adding a manager bio either tonight or tomorrow, then I'll get on with the save itself.

[DazRTaylor]

Um, was that post just a dig at England?

[AcidBurn]

Any chance of a screenshot of Crewe's competition - domestic league page?

[forameuss]

Um, was that post just a dig at England?

Nooooo...

Honestly, not really. It's more a dig at some of their coverage. I myself am half English, and three of my four grandparents are English, so I'd be taking a dig at myself!

[forameuss]

Any chance of a screenshot of Crewe's competition - domestic league page?

Certainly is...

Recently had a bit of an upturn in fortunes, and look fairly comfortable as a Premiership outfit after four seasons in the top flight - they won the Championship on their way up, but unfortunately haven't won much else. They'll be earning big bucks now though thanks to the Premier League's ridiculous TV money

[pricey687]

it's back!!! Are you trying for the 14 tournaments with this manaager aswell :confused: well Good Luck no matter what it is you plan on doing (aslong as it's not rape or something highly illegal,or even lowly illegal for that matter:p)

[forameuss]

it's back!!! Are you trying for the 14 tournaments with this manaager aswell :confused: well Good Luck no matter what it is you plan on doing (aslong as it's not rape or something highly illegal,or even lowly illegal for that matter:p)

I can solemnly swear that there will be no rape in this story.

And that is something I never thought I'd say...

As for what I'm planning, I'll cover that in my next post.

[forameuss]

The Manager: The Story

Meet Max Harvey. The 25-year-old Scotsman (I realise I may have screwed up his age giving him that date of birth, given I'm starting in 2054...will need to see) was born into a football-mad family, and in particular a father who was like an encyclopedia of World Football, with a particular interest in Italian football. One of this earliest memories was watching his father follow the career of one Stephen Smith, who had moved to Como in Northern Italy. As he grew up, he continued to follow the career, and followed the fortunes of whatever club he was at at the time.

He grew into a pretty good footballer, but that all fell apart in the summer of 2053 when a crunching tackle from the opposition in a works 11s game made sure he would never play seriously again. He was bitter, but found solace that if he couldn't play football, he could still be involved in the coaching side. He began to "coach and manage" the 11s team for his workplace, leading them to a ridiculous winning streak against other companies, and then moved onto youth football while working on his coaching badges. He oversaw the combative "Kirky Young Team" winning the only trophy of their history in 2054, but still wasn't sure that management was really what he should be doing with his life.

Then World Cup 2054 happened, and he watched Stephen Smith win the World Cup for his country. At that moment he wanted to be that guy, and vowed he would go forward into a career in football management.

He went out and bought himself a sheepskin jacket, and planned his ascent...

The Aims

I may be continuing the Tetradecagon story, but I'm not going to go for the fourteen again, at least not intentionally. I want to win competitions wherever I go, and that includes the Champions League wherever I am, but I'm not going to be leaving clubs as soon as I've won to move onto pastures new.

One thing that was definitely missing from the last career was any kind of legacy (apologies if I start sounding a bit like Seb Coe...). I started in Asia and Africa, and got out at the very first opportunity in both cases. I moved to North America and swept most aside with LA Galaxy, but I could have stayed after that and really built a dominant team. Unfortunately, I didn't, and moved on. South America is always a struggle for me - even with my all-conquering FM12 Santos team, I never really got into the pretty much year long seasons in Brazil. The only times I really stayed anywhere was with Como and Hertha. The former finished pretty much where I started with them, so it was only really Hertha I left with any kind of prospects. They reached the quarter finals of the Champions League the season I won it with Juventus - glad I didn't have to face them!

So really, I want a journeyman save where I build legacies. Have teams which call me a legend because of what I've done for them - that sort of thing. Apart from that, I don't really have any aims, but there are a few clubs I want to manage. Como, obviously, as I'm desperate to right the wrongs I had with the previous manager. I also want to manage Scotland again, as that was my most satisfying achievement. Apart from that, I'm just going to go where the game takes me.

[JackJCFC]

Good Luck going again in this FM 'world'. Love the fact its going to be so different being so far in the future.

[B.W.G]

Hope you can be just as successful with Max Harvey as you were with Stephen Smith!Also good to see you playing it in the future,I always find it much more interesting.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Part 2

The Future of Football

I kicked off the career from where Stephen Smith left off, in Autumn 2054. I added a few more leagues though, and they won't come into effect until the following summer. I went on holiday, but kept the job feelers out in case there were any juicy offers up for grabs.

I thought about it, but in a way I don't want to return to Italy unless it's to Como.

A third tier German team, and they're tempting, although I remember my experience with Darmstadt in the Smith career - I left after 9 games, losing all of them. I've asked for the decision to be delayed.

Another Italian side, not a good enough offer.

Now this was an interesting one. Quite why how they're happy to offer an absolutely unproven manager (with Sunday League rep) that kind of opportunity I'm not sure. I was very, very tempted, but in my eyes, going to a top level side would be suicidal. I've experienced good players paying no attention to any teamtalks with inexperienced managers, so this would probably be a poor decision. Still, there's lots of money - I'll see at the end of the season.

A newly promoted Italian side, and another I've asked to delay.

Another La Liga side...what is it with them and taking chances on unproven managers?

Lotte, Betis and Curata all came back to me on the same day, but for reasons I've already stated, I plumped for the Germans. It's off to North-western Germany to start my career.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Part 2 - The Future of Football

Lotte - June 2055

Background

Team Report

Finances

Expectations

Information and Facilities

[AK22]

Good luck in Germany. Any formerly 'big' sides to contend with?

[AcidBurn]

From a purely selfish point of view I'm glad you're in Germany to add to the how many competitions can we win thread! Go for it!

[deltablue]

Interesting re-starting point.

[forameuss]

Good luck in Germany. Any formerly 'big' sides to contend with?

I plan to do a bit of a round-up with any surprising occurrences from this alternative start date, as I haven't been consciously looking out for any. The only one I actively noticed (as I applied for the job) was Aston Villa now in the Blue Square Premier. I'll leave that up to the community to decide how big a surprise this is...

From a purely selfish point of view I'm glad you're in Germany to add to the how many competitions can we win thread! Go for it!

I hope I can add to it too - I'm just furious I don't have ALL the International competitions

Interesting re-starting point.

Cheers mate. It's not ideal, but offers were thin on the ground, at least good ones were. I'll no doubt stumble around embarrassingly, admit defeat and then move somewhere else, but who knows, maybe I'll break the habit of an FM lifetime...

[SRL88]

Loving the analysis fella .

[forameuss]

Loving the analysis fella .

Thank you kindly.

I'll put some more detail up once I get my laptop online (playing FM on my lunch hour is great, but it's offline unfortunately), but I can reveal a few trends that I've noticed.

Spain

Well, Spain is as Spain does. Despite now being in 2057 (I'm a couple of seasons ahead of my last update, will fill in later), in 45 seasons since the start of the save, guess how many times a club who aren't Real or Barcelona have won La Liga? Once. Just once. Atletico Madrid triumphed on that occasion, but have struggled to break that dominance since. I was desperate to take over at Real Madrid towards the end of my Chelsea career as Stephen Smith, and you can see why. However, that gives me a bit of a challenge for later in this save - breaking up the stranglehold the big two have on the country

Germany

Guess who's on top? Those who have followed this career will of course say - Bayern Munich. Their dominance has halted slightly, as they haven't come close to their twenty season dominance, but the worst position they've managed since I was at Berlin was 3rd, and that was an outlier. Most of the time they're first, the rest of the time they're second. They are very, very good. Massimiliano Cosa is still in charge, and his time at Bayern has put him into the top ten on the hall of fame. Not bad for an inexperienced manager. Elsewhere, Hertha continue to battle at the top which is fantastic news. Maybe one day I'll return - will they know it's their old leader regenerated?

Scotland

Somewhat surprisingly, Rangers have never really properly recovered from their exile. They're a fixture in the SPL, but have only won the competition four times out of the forty-five available. The rest have been pretty predictable, as it's Celtic who have picked up the majority. There was an exciting period in the 2030's though as six times shared out the ten league trophies. Outside Parkhead, the title moved down the road to Paisley most often with St Mirren getting quite a few league wins. Dundee have a smattering, as do Hibernian. It's pretty standard fare though. I have not managed in Scotland ever really in serious saves, so taking over a side there and overthrowing Celtic would be good - or maybe just taking over the Sellick and smashing all comers. Who knows.

Italy

Again, not much has changed. Since I left Juve, normal service has pretty much been resumed. The Milan sides still dominate the top, with Juve coming a close third. It's then a big gap back to 4th, so it's clear that Serie A is a far-off ambition for any club below those three. An absolute Everest for anyone outwith that league.

England

I'll do this in more detail later on.

If anyone would like to know the fortunes of any particular club, let me know and I'll have a look. If they're outwith the playable leagues I'll see what I can do, but in most cases I can put something together.

[pricey687]

Could you show me how The mighty Ipswich town have done please

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Part 2 - The Future: Restarted

Well, seems I just can't quite catch a break with this new save. I intended to play a few seasons to make sure I was getting into it right (and I was lazy with updates) so here's a very short outline of how I did.

Season 1 - Started out at Lotte (as you know) - Absolutely disastrous. Resigned after around fifteen games with club languishing towards the bottom of the league

Season 2 - Moved to Portadown in Northern Ireland (div. 1) - Hoped for an easy ride, but having never played as a semi-professional team for very long, I struggled to put a team together that could compete with the big boys. I was distinctly average and at the end of the season I resigned again.

Season 3 - Moved to Italy and a newly promoted side from Serie D. I can't quite remember their name (can you tell what's coming?) but what did attract me was an absolutely m-ah-ah-ahssive budget. I had £1.2million for transfers and about 80% of my wage budget available. That's ridiculous for such a lowly side. It definitely attracted me, so I ran off to North-western Italy hoping for a Como-style adventure. But then, of course, I didn't factor in the reputation of the side when the dollar signs flashed up. It's all very well having lots of money, but it's another matter attracting players of a sufficient calibre to succeed. The team when I arrived was uniformly half-star in quality (seriously. Awful.). So I set about improving, but it was tough. There just weren't good enough players willing to join. I put together a makeshift team, and in my first league game thought I might be onto something. We won 3-0, but little did I know that that was the only team considered by the media to be worse than us. Cue a lot of demoralising defeats, and cue my resignation around six months later. We would most definitely be in Serie D come the next season, and that would have meant the auto-boot anyway.

Season 4 - Balleymena United, Northern Ireland (premiership) - my last throw of the dice it seemed. No club was willing to hire me with only three awful spells under my belt. Ballymena came in with an average offer, and I had to take it. Unfortunately, form didn't improve, and after one and a half seasons, we were well and truly languishing again.

But then - disastrously - Windows 8 decided that it would become unusable. I think it was something to do with FM, as any time I loaded it things would grind to a near halt. A copy of Windows 7 later, I managed to botch installing it alongside Windows 8 (thanks Microsoft, you're a pal) and subsequently wiped everything and had to start again from scratch.

On using file recovery though, I did manage to salvage some of my saves - and luckily one was from a few days before the World Cup final with Stephen Smith. I replayed it (a few times, just to keep Scotland as World Cup Winners - no-ones taking that away from me!) and then retired, leaving a fresh save to start again in.

So, long story short, we're back to the start of the Max Harvey story. Have to say, I'm pleased in a way after the disastrous stumbling around that I put forward on the last attempt. This will now hopefully be an improved Max Harvey, and there will be no more restarts. I'll be very choosy about jobs, and hopefully find that magical club that lets me build my reputation without punishing me first.

[forameuss]

Could you show me how The mighty Ipswich town have done please

I certainly will - hopefully be adding it tonight if I get a chance, along with my first proper update of this story.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Part 2 - The Future: Restarted

reserving this post for extremely boring analysis of pointless things

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Part 2 - The Future: Restarted

reserving this post for extremely boring analysis of pointless things

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Part 2 - The Future: Restarted

I promised I would bring you a review of how everything is looking, so here it is as of now. I'm still missing out England, as for some reason I managed to remove the leagues from the database and now need to wait until next summer to add them again. Not sure how I did that...

I'll rundown the last twenty years of the leagues I have loaded as well as national rankings, competition rankings and the three best players in the world according to the game.

Leagues

Belgium

France

Germany

Italy

Scotland

Spain

USA

World Rankings

World Cup Winners

Competition Rankings

Club Reputation

Ballon D'Or Top Three 2055

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Part 2 - The Future: Restarted

So now that all that rubbish is out of the way, I can exclusively reveal that the most tempting offer (by a considerable distance...really, it was) for my first job was for...

Real Salt Lake of the MLS

Yes, I have returned to the land of the free and the home of the brave to try out their version of sawker once again. I remain eternally surprised that such a side would hire someone that no Northern Irish Premier League sides would touch, but I'm not going to complain. I have now started here in all but one of my long-term saves, and that was on the tetradecagon where I started in Australia.

We'll be competing in the Western Conference, which means three games a season against the Californian sides Chivas USA, San Jose Earthquakes, and most notably, Stephen Smith's old side Los Angeles Galaxy, who have moved into a brand new stadium called...the Beckham Arena. Seriously. Why it wasn't the Smith Arena I'll never know...the format of the league seems to have changed since FM12 (or not changed - I didn't really notice it back then) so that you know play your fellow conference teams three times - once home, once away, and then one alternating home/away game - and then the opposite conference teams once each, again with an alternating home/away game. I don't think there's a particular advantage to being on either side - we'll face big teams no matter what happens, and dominance will go in cycles.

We'll be playing in the magnificent Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, and hopefully it'll be the sight of many fantastic matches over the next few years.

Aims

For once, I'm just going to enjoy being at the club. When I arrived in Los Angeles as Stephen Smith, I wanted a Champions League trophy, and then to get out soon after. I stuck around for a little while, even becoming World Champions, but I left with a lot still to be done. This time, I won't be leaving until I'm sacked, the team have stagnated, or I am absolutely dominant. The Champions League will come at some point, I have no doubt, but it's really the US Open Cup and MLS Cup I want to win - I never could win them when I was at LA, so I'm determined to win both this time.

Coming Up

I will post the first season as one long post, or maybe a couple of them. When I reach the second season I'll start posting back in my usual style, and hopefully make them a bit snazzier. I'm always terrible when I start off on new saves.

[AK22]

Good luck with Part Deux

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Season 1 - 2056

Superdraft

I didn't get screens of my superdraft players, but the truly arbitrary report card done after it seemed to think I did alright. I usually take this to be the opposite though - I've been very happy with players in the past, and I got an F. As I say, random and arbitrary.

Finances (taken at end of season)

Very, very good. With the structure of the MLS, it's very unlikely finances will change much - they should just go up and up. It won't be able to be spent though, unfortunately. Still, good to be at a healthy club.

Transfers

Key Signings

My first signing, and the one I'm happiest with. Boy's a wrecking machine, and with those mental and physical stats, combined with his finishing, he should be deadly. Truly deadly.

Grabbed Inis in the Superdraft on a whim, and he looks like he could be a good acquisition. Very moany though - doesn't like not being in the team. Could be sold if he keeps up that rubbish.

One for the present and the future - hardened Brazilian center back who will hopefully be our rock.

Fixtures and Results

MLS

It doesn't look impressive from that list, but I'm very pleased at my first season's results. Things hinged around one match really. After being stuffed 5-1 by New York, we faced a Chivas USA side which was top of our conference. They were 3-1 up until the 56th minute when we started our fightback. Veteran captain Matt Piserchio slotted home with the last kick of the game to give us three points, and the belief that we could do more than fade into mid-table obscurity. We went on a David Higgins style bender, dropping only ten points from the next thirty-six. WHen we faced Vancouver, we had our eyes on the top spot in our conference, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. We fell apart after that, but had already done the work to grab ourselves a surprise wild-card spot.

It was just enough in the end. An extremely tight league meant we were only eight points from bottom. Ifs and buts though - we made it to the wild-cards.

On we marched, thumping Chivas 3-1. We'd take our place in the Western play-offs deservedly.

Unfortunately, that's where it ended. Vancouver won 3-0 away to really put us up against it when we travelled to Canada. Two goals from Higgins wasn't enough, as we were already 6-0 down on aggregate. We bow out, but with our heads held high.

New York ended up winning the MLS Cup.

US Open Cup

We only went and won it! Amazing performances, and in the end we won it at a canter. Wantaway forward Nelson Inis showed me exactly why he should be in the first team with a second-half hat-trick, sandwiching another goal for David Higgins. There was a late Columbus reply, but we had too much for them. My first trophy, and a passage into the Champions League in the 2057/58 season.

Board Confidence

[forameuss]

So seems my photobucket account has died on it's arse. I'll get some more bandwidth today and that should clear it up. If the pictures still don't appear once I have, then clear your cache or something, that's supposed to help.

[AcidBurn]

Good luck in the MLS, I enjoy reading saves set there.

[forameuss]

Good luck in the MLS, I enjoy reading saves set there.

Cheers! Got to say, I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to, but it's probably more my fault. Real Salt Lake started out with a low supply of draft picks, meaning that come the Superdraft we have to make do with absolute dregs. I'm talking 1/2 star players on both CA and PA. Really, really bad ones. I'll take them though, as we're also blessed with a pretty tiny squad. That means we don't have anyone we can afford to trade for draft slots. I'm making do with free transfers and foreigners at the moment, but there are limits to both of those - the free transfer market doesn't exist in the MLS in the same way it does elsewhere. You can get great players from abroad, but you only have a limited number of international slots. These can be added to through trading, but again we don't have players we can afford to trade. Most free players go into a draft rather than onto the market.

There is also the most annoying part of America - player rights. That's a bit of a misnomer, because in America, players do not have rights. Any player who is unattached can be "claimed" or "discovered" by a club. This now means that this club owns the rights to the player. No money is paid to the player for this privilege, and there is no registration held with the club. They're still technically a free agent in that they don't play for the club, but the only way they can get a club is if someone first buys the rights, and then buys the player.

It's an absolutely ridiculous system to be honest, and I've lost count of the number of good players I've found who are unobtainable because I simply don't have the money to wrestle them away from doing nothing.

One shining example this summer - I spent 625k (I think, could've been less) and three draft picks on a fantastic young DM. I didn't expect to get him for that money, but they accepted, and I looked forward to having him slot into the starting XI. Unfortunately, all I did was buy his rights. He remains at his old club, leaving me with no money in my budget left (I spent it all on his rights) to buy him outright. Awful.

Still, I intend to stick around for a good while longer - I've gone through my next pre-season and have started the MLS season (badly I might add) so if I get through this season, I'll make sure I properly rebuild in the next off-season. I have some good young players who will only get better, but we're a few steps away from where I want to be.

[forameuss]

Could someone do me a favour and tell me whether my photobucket images are appearing for them? They're not on my end, but should be.

[pricey687]

no they aren't appearing.well some are others aren't.but it is allot that aren't

[forameuss]

Ah, seems that Photobucket is ballsed up for bandwidth on one server, and it seems like I'm on that lucky server. It's being worked on apparenty, so hopefully the images return soon. Will keep you all posted.

EDIT: Fixed by the looks of it. Normal service shall be resumed.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Season 2 - 2057

Drafts

Superdraft

A B-grade for this year, and all because of this player...

Yeah...I don't understand either. He's awful, but he was the best I could get with my draft pick. If he scores one goal, he'll be worth it though for zero outlay.

Finances

Transfers

A lot of ins and outs...

Cam Dragavon - Brought in during the re-entry draft for those who were let go by their clubs. Pretty happy with him - he'll slot straight into the team.

Warren Espinoza - A good young defender who should have a bright future with Salt Lake.

Michael Stevens - Brought in to fill the terrible gaps in the center of our midfield, but with stats and ability like that, he's unlikely to make any kind of impact.

Lars Kartunen - What's the opposite of potential? This guy has that. He'll fill a space, nothing more.

James Hunt - Another space-filler

Braulio Delgadillo - see above

Vladimir Viafara - This is more like it. With international players leaving, we had a chance to drop into South America for some youth that could make an immediate impact. Very happy with Vlad - he'll most definitely be a first pick in our midfield, and should solve that problem for the foreseeable future.

Bram Brouwer - Again, we went out to find an international player to play alongside Vladimir and found Bram Brouwer in Holland. Good potential, and a decent enough player as it stands.

James Hamilton - I mentioned this guy in a previous post/rant about player rights. Basically, I spent most of my budget to buy this players rights. That meant pretty much nothing, as he stays at FC Edmonton for now. I may have the wherewithall to buy him next off-season, but given Edmonton are not in the MLS, we would need to stump up a full transfer bid. Probably not going to be possible.

Brendan Clark - We needed some depth in the wing positions, as we're filling it with out of position strikers at the moment. Hopefully Brendan can do a job.

Juan Carlos Barraza - My substitute for James Hamilton - he's not as good, and much older, but he'll do for now.

Fixtures and Results

MLS

We had a terrible start, and just didn't look like a team who could compete. Even when we beat a struggling Seattle 4-1, we couldn't push ourselves to go on any kind of good form. Woefully inconsistent really, and we didn't go on any kind of run until a hard-fought win at Los Angeles.

From then, we were on fire. Two more wins in the middle of June were followed by a fantastic five further wins. We failed to build up any kind of momentum after that though, losing a few games here and there to halt our advance towards an unlikely Supporter's Shield.

We ended up only three points behind LA Galaxy at the top of the Western Conference, but a massive fourteen behind winners DC United. We did make the play-offs though.

US Open Cup

We retained our trophy fantastically, beating another four MLS teams on the way. We'll be in the Champions League next time around, which is lucky because...

North American Champions League

Well this was just awful. I expected to move easily into the knockout stages of the Champions League, but we stumbled both home and away against Boy's Town of Jamaica. Yes, Jamaica. That powerhouse of club football. A draw would have taken us through in the final game, but a capacity crowd in Kingston watched their side take the lead, and from then on we didn't look like we had a chance of scoring the crucial goal.

This will be a lesson.

Board Confidence

End of Season Awards

Hall of Fame

I sit on a massive sixty-four points thanks to my two Open Cup wins, but lag behind the top ten obviously. One interesting point though is the presence of Lionel Roger. I bought him when I was at LA many, many years ago, and now look at him - he's a fantastic manager and he could conceivably catch the managers at the top.

[Dexter_Morgan]

What an epic thread this

[pricey687]

An even more interesting point,how comes you never made top 10 with stephen smith?

[forameuss]

What an epic thread this

Cheers Dexter!

An even more interesting point,how comes you never made top 10 with stephen smith?

You can thank SI for that I think. Hall of Fame files are stored outwith the save (for obvious reasons I suppose). I pretty much went through three fresh installs (one being a completely new laptop) during the save, so the Hall of Fame pretty much reset each time. I don't think I even made the top 20 by the time I won my final tournament. Bit of a shame really.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - Season 3 - 2058

Youth Intake

Although youth teams don't work the same way in America, it's good to have a few good players coming through the ranks. If I want to bring any through, I need to sign them outright, as they sit at a different club technically. Helpfully, there's a bug around signing them meaning you need to pay more to sign them. Great.

Team Report

A delayed team report that shows where we stand now. Defensively and up front we should be alright, but in midfield we're very, very light. We badly need some quality there, but MLS rules make it difficult to build a squad in the way I'd like.

Drafts

Superdraft

Two players join, and I'm fairly happy with how the draft has gone. The players eligible for the draft still aren't as good as they were back at the start of this save though - but then it has been almost fifty years...

Finances

Transfers

Edgar Jaime - Edgar rejoined us on a part exchange - don't really need him, but with Luna improving each game, he can slot in as our backup if we let Matthew Rodriguez leave.

Clive Sawatzky - A versatile full back for both wings.

Juliano - The all-important DM position is one we've struggled with, so hopefully another Brazilian can solve that one.

Felipe Sanchez - Another international signing and clearly several steps above anything I could get in North America.

Sinisa Mladenovic - My first Designated Player signing of my MLS reign, and hopefully he can be the one to fire us onto greater things.

Fixtures and Results

MLS

Awful. Really, really awful. We started off slightly better than we usually did, but then predictably struggled to make any kind of attempt at consistency. Our best spell ended around early May, and we didn't ever reach that again. When we beat DC United 5-2 at the start of August, it looked like we might turn a corner, but then only won two more games in the next few months up until the end of the season.

How? How could this happen? I have no idea really - my only saving grace is that this seems to happen a lot in the MLS. Peaks and troughs. It's a pretty big trough though.

No play-offs this year, and it was by an absolute country mile. Or a desert kilometre in 'merican. Seven points behind Vancouver in the next spot, thirteen away from the wildcard spots and nineteen from the play-offs proper. 4th bottom in the overall standings, and that is one terrible season right there.

New York triumphed in the end, smashing Chivas USA to take the MLS Cup home.

US Open Cup

Our quest for three in a row ended after two games as Chivas USA ragdolled us in the 4th round.

North American Champions League

[

Much better this year. We only dropped points away to Metapan, and that put us through as group winners into the quarter finals. We were far from convincing most of the time though, which is worrying.

We don't have the draw that says who we'll face in the quarter finals, but it's likely to be a giant of the MLS or Mexico. No pressure there then.

End of Season Awards

There were none. Why would you reward our team?

Hall of Fame

No change.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - 2059

So the start of the season came around, and before we could even kick a ball competitively, we were up against New York in the first leg of our quarter final. We strolled to a 2-0 victory, and suddenly things didn't look too bad for our new look squad.

Unfortunately, then we went back to the home of the current MLS Champions. They raced into a 3-0 lead, and put us behind for the first time in the tie. We got a goal back which would put us through on away goals, but just minutes later they added a fourth, and out we went.

With no Champions League football this season thanks to our terrible form during the previous, I really can't face going through another MLS season with a squad that hadn't really been improved too much.

Time to move on I think.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - March 2059 - Unemploymentto see what job offers

As usual, it was onto holiday mode to see who would take on such a talented and successful manager.

My first offer, and I have to say it was a no brainer really. With finances that look like that, it looks like a poisoned chalice from the start. Close to 500% over their recommended wage budget (but still with a transfer budget strangely) and they look like a stick-on for relegation. It's a no from me.

But this one was more like it. Treviso sit perilously close to relegation with ten games to go in Serie B, four points adrift of safety. I've said before that I would only return to Italy with Como, but this job intrigues me. We have a good chance of staying up, and even if we don't, it would be a good job to try and get them back up again.

To Treviso I go!

[forameuss]

Adding this in for now as a record of what happened in the USA, then will update it with the results of my brief opening attack with Treviso. Will also add in a "Where are they now?" section in the style of other careers.

|---------|
| CAREER  |
|---------|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|
| Season   | Team                   | League  | Country | Pos. | Notes                                   | Trophies |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------|                      
| 2056     | Real Salt Lake         | MLS     | USA     |  8th | W. Play-off Semis, US Open Cup Winners  |     1    |               
| 2057     | Real Salt Lake         | MLS     | USA     |  6th | W. Play-off Final, US Open Cup Winners, |          |               
|          |                        |         |         |      | NACL Group Stage                        |     1    |               
| 2058     | Real Salt Lake         | MLS     | USA     | 17th |                                         |          | 
| 2059*    | Real Salt Lake         | MLS     | USA     |   -  | NACL Quarter Finals, Resigned           |          | 
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2058/59+ | Treviso                | Serie B | Italy   |      |                                         |          | 
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                                                                                         Total Trophies |     2    |  
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 

* Left the club during the season
+ Arrived at the club during the season

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - March 2059 - Treviso

Team Report

This team should really not be in the position they are. Good news for me - I really shouldn't be relegated with this team.

Last Fixtures

No surprise the manager was sacked - only one win in 2059 and that's put them in the position

Current Table

We're on the verge of relegation, but there's still 10 games to go. It's far from a lost cause.

Current Finances

Alright - could be far worse most definitely.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - March 2059 - Treviso

A pretty positive run of results going into the final three games, and I think we can be fairly happy with what we've produced. When we played Grossetto though, who are riding high in Serie B, we were literally a minute away from three points. They grabbed a late equaliser that denied us the win, and that could be so important come the end of the season.

The only game we were really out of was the Viareggio one - we competed against AlbinoLeffe but came up short. We then followed that game up with three wins in a row. Just what we needed.

We're out of the relegation zone with just three games to go.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - May 2059 - Treviso

Remaining Fixtures

Round 40

Not a good start. Pisa easily got the better of us, and we drop back into the relegation zone with two games to go. Vicenza, Rimini, Empoli and to a lesser extent Bari all had a good day, with the latter getting a draw and the rest winning. Pretty much the worst possible outcome for the day, and leaves us with a big job to do.

Round 41

Bari, Empoli, Vicenza and Sienna all face each other in two massive six-pointers, and make our match against Pescara look all the tougher. I'm starting to think that that draw with Grossetto may end up being the one that relegates us...

A massive, massive win. Pescara just didn't have enough to beat us after our five minute spell in the first half when we went two up. They got a goal back, but we hung on for a massive three points. Empoli were beaten, but crucially Vicenza won to send them pretty much to safety.

If results go our way, we could leapfrog four sides and avoid the relegation play-off, but that relies on all those teams losing and us winning. The latter is far from inevitable. At the very least, we need to hope that we can better Empoli's result. Even simpler - we need to win. If we don't, I can't see us staying up.

Round 42

Empoli smashed it, winning 4-2 in their final match to move to safety. Vicenza were beaten by Pisa, which meant that if we could win, they would go down. Unfortunately, we could only manage a 1-1 draw against Rimini to hand Vicenza their safety. We were relegated.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - May 2059 - Unemployed

So once again I've got the resignation hammer out, along with my passport, and fled. To be honest, it was one of the more difficult decisions to make. I told myself that if I survived, I would resign with my head held high and go and seek employment elsewhere, as Serie B didn't really appeal to me at the moment. Serie C1 kind of did though, and I fully intended to stick around if we did get relegated. However, when the last result went in, and I saw most of the team put in transfer requests, I decided that at this point in my career, I don't want to be in Italy with any club that isn't Como.

I've been trying to grab that elusive lake-side job, as the side have sacked a number of managers, but I'm either passed over for the job, or it comes at an awkward time. I don't think my next move will be to there, but to be honest I have no idea where I'll go next.

I've loaded up both the Peruvian and Uruguayan leagues to give myself something new, so something could pop up there. Until then though, I will await the chance to add more trophies to the paltry two I've managed in five years.

Seriously, it's pathetic. Something needs to be done.

So anyway, on with the offers I've had since leaving...

No way am I going back into Italy, especially with finances that look like that.

The very, very bottom rung of the English league ladder in my save, and not the kind of project I'm looking for at this stage. England-wise, I think the only sides I would want to manage would be fallen giants (Liverpool possibly, as they are absolutely terrible at this point in the save) or Stockport County. Of course, that will probably change should I get the right offer.

From the bottom of England to the bottom of Belgium. I intend to go there at some point in this save, but not right now.

And so it's off to Uruguay. I want to find a South American league that doesn't involve 452 games a season, and hopefully this is it. Good enough room in the finances, and expectations that are pretty much non-existent. Off I go.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - July 2059 - Juventude da Las Piedras

History and status-wise, we're not very good. I'll just put that out there now. We've got a long way to go to be part of Uruguay's leading group, and even longer before we can even make so much as a dent on South American continental competition. Even when I Was languishing in Northern Ireland at Amateur teams, I never found a single team that had no season ticket holders. Looks like we've got a fight on our hands just to get fans in the door here.

Team Report

Worryingly thin. We need reinforcements badly, but I don't think, even with a lot of room in the wage budget, there is enough in the coffers to build a team. We'll need to improve in key places and just pray for the rest.

Finances

We're losing money, but not rapidly. Not too bad a situation, that's for sure.

Opening Fixtures

Uruguay employs an apertura/clausura system like Argentina, so we play two league campaigns in a season. I joined the club on the eve of the apertura league, and hoped for a good start and hopefully a comfortable mid-table position.

It was all going so well. In our first three games, we were peerless. Or more accurately, Tassio, our new striker was peerless. At that point, I started to wonder whether we could actually sweep everyone aside and win the league, rather than just fight relegation. Of course, as soon as thoughts like that enter your brain, you know it's not going to be long until you're brought absolutely smashing down to Earth.

In this case, it took two weeks. Just fourteen days after our third 4-0 win, we were beaten ourselves 4-0 by early favourites Liverpool. I hoped it was just a blip, but just look at the rest of those results. We had a spell where we threatened to get back to winning ways with three consecutive draws, but then we somehow contrived to get even worse. Absolutely terrible performances in two games against table toppers River Plate and Defensor saw us concede twelve goals.

With just two games left in the opening season, we had actually achieved our objectives. We were nowhere near relegation, thanks to two teams being even worse than us, and one that we're just edging. But I was struggling to see a way to change it around.

Then something strange happened...

Penarol are a big deal in Uruguay. They should be up at the top of the table, but languish in 10th in the table above. It was no wonder that the manager was let go at that point, although the timing was strange considering there were only two more games before the long break between the apertura and clausura. I jumped at the chance to dive in to the job, and luckily they felt it was a good match.

I'll be offered a much improved wage as well as a bumper transfer budget compared to what I have at Juventud. The wage budget is pretty similar, but instead of being filled with dross, it's filled with pretty good players. An absolute no-brainer of a decision, and only a few months after I arrived, I'm off towards Montevideo and the home of Penarol.

[iHeadHunta x]

Good luck with your new club mate!

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - C.A. Penarol - Uruguayan Primera Division - 2059/60 - Apertura

A club with a lot of history, and hopefully I can add to it.

Team Report

We're good in most positions. Full back positions are the biggest problem I can see, so will be looking to improve there.

Finances

Apertura Fixtures

Here's a record of Penarol in the Apertura so far. I can see why the manager was dropped. The results below the red line are mine to finish off the league season, and I think I've turned things around slightly. Our first game ended up against the club I had left behind, and we thumped them. Unfortunately we couldn't follow it up with another three points against River Plate. Still, it's encouraging.

We can forget about this table - we'll improve on it next time around.

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - C.A. Penarol - Uruguayan Primera Division - 2059/2060 - Clausura

Youth Intake

Not exactly sparkling. Our best prospect is shown above. And no, I have no idea why a Scottish youth has made it through the academy of a Uruguayan club...

New Contract

A nice years extension. Plan to stick around here for a little while, so hopefully the board keeps these offers coming.

Fixtures

Clausura

Some very good results, but in leagues like this, if you drop points against the top teams, there just aren't enough chances to win those points back. And so it proved - our defeat against Liverpool pretty much meant that we would have no chance of winning the title. Still, we managed to finish 2nd, and that's a great achievement given how terrible the team was last year.

Unfortunately, even with such a good performance in the clausura, the results from the apertura were like a dead weight around our necks, dragging us down the overall table.

We finished up in 4th, which considering we could only manage 10th in the opening run, was quite good going. I'll be aiming to improve things by exactly three places this time next season. We also qualify for the Copa Sudamericana, which is kind of like the Europa League, if the Europa League included Champions League teams, and took place in the first half of the season. It adds to a busy schedule, but it's a tournament we have a decent chance of getting far in.

Copa Libertadores

We were truly awful in this competition, and it shows how much work we have to put in if we want to compete in continental competition. Only a single point, and that was against a team we really should have beaten. Parent club Bahia showed us why we're just a feeder club, but it was Mineiro that gave us our worst experience. We'll learn from this.

End of Season Awards

The right hand side of our defence was rewarded with a place in the team of the year, and I have to say I agree. We couldn't have got where we were without our solid back-line, so good for them.

Varela won out in the fans award, and that's a decision I fully support.

That's our best XI, and I have to say that I'm quite disappointed with the lack of goals. It's all good winning awards for our defence, but if we don't score enough, we won't win the games we need to overhaul Liverpool and Defensor Sporting.

Finally, here's a look at our finances so far...

[forameuss]

forameuss' career - C.A. Penarol - Uruguayan Primera Division - 2060/61 - Apertura

Now this is more like it. We were very comfortable in most of our games, only dropping points in three of them. Unfortunately, one was against Liverpool, which is not what we need to do with the Uruguayan Scousers as our main rivals. The two dropped points against Wanderers were big misses too. Elsewhere though, we were very strong. But were we strong enough?

Just.

We lifted the Apertura trophy with a tight 1-0 victory over Danubio, and that is just what we needed. It doesn't count as a trophy to FM, but it does to me, and it now means we're just a two-legged tie away from winning the first division title. Now the clausura doesn't really matter, although if we take that trophy, I don't think we need a play-off. Interesting take on things in Uruguay, but that's a long way away.

We weren't so successful on the continent though, crashing out at the first hurdle with Olimpia easily getting the better of us. It was the first leg that did it really - conceding three goals at home was always going to make the return leg very difficult.

And after all that, what did the board think of me?

Not sure who the board were watching, but apparently they're furious I didn't win the Opening Stage...which I did. I have no idea, but I Imagine it's a bug. At least they haven't sacked me for it.