[FM15] Adventures of a journeyman

[MTM1977]

***Season 5 (2018-2019) update 1***

First third:

We have had a bit unstable start. On cups matches we have done very well, but on league we have had some problems.

Many matches have been very tight, but we have lost a few matches that based on statistics should have been won. Again something that needs to be addressed.

Players in:

Sebastien Essomba (DL/C)

It was quite an interesting story with this one.

As i mentioned in the pre-season update, we didn't get a work permit for him and appealed.

The appeal was also turned down, but we were allowed to sign him. So, he joined our squad, but wasn't able to play, not even reserve matches.

We tried to loan him out, but there were no takers. We also continously requested work permit for him, but were denied time after time.

Until after maybe the 15th request, they finally got bored of our request and granted him a work permit.

He has now played in a few matches and was even invited to Cameroons U20 squad to get his first youth cap.

Players out:

None

Competitions update:

League update:

Scorers:

Job status:

Alfredo has been receiving invitations for job interviews steadily for the last few months or so.

I have lost track of how many there has been, but probably around 20-30.

He has so far declined them all.

However, if a very interesting offer comes, he might go to interview after all, but would not agree to join a new club until the season is finished.

He almost went to interview when Lazio offered one, it seems they have somehow managed to fall in to Serie B.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Lazio, v tempting.

[MTM1977]

Progress has been slow today as real life took a lot of my time. Unfortunately progress will also be much slower from now on, i have been on holiday for the last 11 days, but on tuesday it is back to work and normal routines.

I will still try to play as much as i can, but it will be lot less than in recent days

A few updates (not ready for the actual season update yet).

Alfredo has made some progress again:

His stats are starting to look ok(ish). Loyalty to players looks low, but it is actually at 55%.

And luckily board agreed that more is needed:

And we are almost ready to go with the preliminary round of CAF CL:

[HotChocolate]

Lazio, interesting.

Hopefully there is some more success with Spurs this season.

[MTM1977]

***Season 5 (2018-2019) update 2***

General:

Some key players returning from injury has really helped our cause. We have been able to rotate properly and as a result our form has improved considerably.

Alfredo keeps getting job offers and he keeps declining them. Funnily enough, Witbank has not offered him a new contract, which is fine, because due to great interest to his services, he has decided that this will be the last season at Witbank.

However, he will probably stay until CAF CL is finished, assuming that Spurs have what it takes to get to the final stages of the competition.

Players in:

Lyes Madoui (MC)

This young player comes with a reputation of being a trouble maker, so that is a bit of a concern.

However, he has established himself in the Algeria U20 squad with 31 appearances and has good skills for ABSA even though he is still young.

He also has a good amount of stamina, a feat which has been missing from our midfielders.

So, a bit of a risk, but worth taking.

Too early to say how he fits our squad as we have only been able to play him in one match so far.

He has been on international duty for a long time, he is with the Algeria U20 squad on CAF Youth Championship tournament.

Players out:

None

Domestic Cups:

Two of the cups have already finished and we won both of them:

Nedbank Cup is still ongoing. We fielded a rather rotated squad on the first round match, but managed to scrape a win.

CAF Champions League:

We got quite lucky with our two first opponents. They were much weaker than the teams we face every week in ABSA, so we were able to secure easy wins and even rest key players on 2nd leg matches.

Next round will be tougher, we are against two times runner up of the competition:

ABSA Premiership:

After a bit of a sticky start, we have slowly found our form.

We are now very much in a position to compete for second league win in a row:

Match results (all competitions):

Scorers:

Ranga Chivaviro has played without injuries for the first time and it has shown. He has already broken the Witbank Spurs one season goal record and there are still plenty of matches to play.

[MTM1977]

CAF CL Update:

We did well against Petro de Luanda, away match 2-2 and at home we won 2-0.

This puts us through to group stage.

This is how our group looks like:

I think that the best clubs on the group are ES Tunis and Club Africain, will be interesting to see how we match against them.

[HotChocolate]

Tough group that but lets hope you continue your league form to qualify

Disclaimer: I have no idea whether that's a tough group or not as I have no clue on the teams in Africa

[MTM1977]

Tough group that but lets hope you continue your league form to qualify

Disclaimer: I have no idea whether that's a tough group or not as I have no clue on the teams in Africa

Well, i don't have a clear picture about the teams either, but Africain and Tunis are higher reputation than Witbank and i think they have both won this competition more than once.

So, i assume they are strong. The third team should be same level or weaker than my team.

[MTM1977]

Alfredo finally got an interview request he couldn't resist. Also, we are on the final third of the season, so if they want to hire him, he should be able to ask to delay it until the end of season.

edit:

Well, that one didn't happen:

[HotChocolate]

Argh unlucky BUT losing out to Didier Deschamps is nothing to be downhearted about!

[MTM1977]

Argh unlucky BUT losing out to Didier Deschamps is nothing to be downhearted about!

Yes, that is exactly what i thought when i saw who they choose

edit:

Witbank has proposed contract renewal three times in the last few months. Alfredo has said no.

It feels kind of bad, but it is time to move on after this season.

Hopefully he can continue with month to month contract if Spurs go through from the CL group stage.

And after CL is done, then it is time to go (unless something like Marseille comes along before that).

edit2:

and another interesting interview came sooner than i would have thought:

edit3:

This is getting familiar... another big name for the job.

[MrTepig]

Tough luck. I hope that you have great success in CAF CL and when your contract does eventually run out, that you can get a good job.

[MTM1977]

Tough luck. I hope that you have great success in CAF CL and when your contract does eventually run out, that you can get a good job.

So far looking good.

We had a storming domestic season and CAF CL group matches have actually started surprisingly well. We are stronger than i thought.

We also took a very sweet revenge in Nedbank Cup. I will write more detailed update later today

[deltablue]

Interesting seeing the level of clubs who are interested.

[MTM1977]

Interesting seeing the level of clubs who are interested.

And there have been quite a lot of rather large clubs showing interest.

This is now the 5th season with Witbank Spurs and we have done quite well, so i guess it has grown the managers reputation enough to make even some of the bigger clubs interested.

There has been a lot of interview offers from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Could be interesting to try managing in one of those countries next, never done that even though i had the countries loaded in earlier FM's too.

Well, the next priority is to go as far as possible in the CAF CL, after that is done, then it is time for a new club/country.

[MrTepig]

So far looking good.

We had a storming domestic season and CAF CL group matches have actually started surprisingly well. We are stronger than i thought.

We also took a very sweet revenge in Nedbank Cup. I will write more detailed update later today

That's very good. Will be looking out for when the update comes.

PS: I meant tough luck on having unsuccesful interviews with those two big clubs.

[MTM1977]

PS: I meant tough luck on having unsuccesful interviews with those two big clubs.

Yes, i got that, it was my mistake to quote the entire post. I meant to reply only to the CL part

[MTM1977]

One more CAF CL match to play for this season, before i am ready to post my "end season report".

In the mean time, got a few interesting offers again:

If either of those wants to hire, i think it might be a good enough reason to leave before the CAF CL finishes... No way to delay until the end, as it will continue during the autumn.

Edit:

Ok, now there is an interesting situation.

With Lyon it was as usual:

However, this is what happened with Benfica:

They agreed to delay for one week.

That is enough to play the last match of this season (third match of CAF CL group stage).

I already feel kind of bad for Witbank, but i think 5 years in South Africa is enough for now... and the resource/facilities on Benfica are lightyears ahead of what we have at Witbank...

[MTM1977]

***Season 5 (2018-2019) final update***

General:

All in all, a great season. Could say nearly perfect.

Players in:

None

Players out:

None

Domestic Cups:

Last season we suffered defeat against Kaizer Chiefs in the Nedbank Cup final.

This year we were determined to triumph against them and that we did, in a style.

We won the final 6-2.

CAF Champions League:

We have done great in the group matches. Three of them played, three of them won.

ABSA Premiership:

We continued with our great form and managed to secure second title in a row.

Match results (all competitions):

Scorers:

Ranga Chivaviro continued his impresive season. First season for him without injuries and he was lethal. He actually got called to the South Africa national team and scored on his debut. So, not a bad season for Ranga either.

New players performance:

All new players were at least as good as i hoped, mostly better.

The most impressive was Daniel Agyei.

Goalkeeper Daniel Agyei was a very good purchase. He came to us with report card saying that he is slightly worse than our previous nro1 Vozinha.

Well, that wasn't the case. He was much steadier performer and made our defence a lot better. I think it was because for Vozinha his greatest weakness was organizing defence while for Daniel it is one of his biggest strengths.

And during the season his ability actually went from "good for ABSA" to "leading for ABSA", so he actually improved quite a lot during the season.

Special mention also to defender Sebastien Essomba. We had our share of troubles with his work permit, but once we got his permit, he immediately found his place in the regular starting XI.

Young player with a cool head, has a bright future ahead of him.

End of season news clip:

Next season:

Alfredo has made a difficult choice, so next season he will have all new challenges.

He will still follow up on Witbank, so we can see how they fare in the CL and other competitions after Alfredo is gone. He has learned a lot during his time and hopefully can utilize those things in new challenges.

Alfredo also got quite a pay rise. On his last season at Witbank his salary was 1,7k€/week, now in Benfica it is 28k€/week.

[MTM1977]

Moving to a new club is always a pain and Benfica is no different.

First of all, the squad had way too many players. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out who we need and who we don't need.

Already have a few transfers ongoing, released a bunch of players as their contracts run out and moved the rest to Benfica B.

Now i have a "decent" size squad which i will use in the matches.

Some incoming players too, but that will be covered in more detail when i get through preseason and write my "pre-season review".

Otherwise the club seems to be in a good shape, squad needs building, but that can and will take some time.

[MrTepig]

Did Benfica qualify for European championships?

[MTM1977]

Did Benfica qualify for European championships?

Yes, we are in UEFA Champions League.

edit:

I am subscribed to Witbank Spurs and they have sold a lot of players that were among the best on my team.

Sure, they get money from them, but i am pretty sure it will show on their results.

Their new manager is the same one who got Orlando Pirates job a few seasons back and was sacked a bit later.

[MTM1977]

***Season 6 (2019-2020)***

Season preview:

Five seasons in South Africa was enough. At least for now. Alfredo thought that he has done all he can for Witbank Spurs and it was time to move on.

So, as Benfica approached with a hefty pay rise and whole new challenges, Alfredo decided to take the next step on his career.

Benfica background:

Season expectations from board:

League:

UEFA CL:

Domestic Cups:

Transfers:

As i mentioned earlier, the squad had way too many players and a lot of them were not nearly good enough. I guess the previous manager was a bit of a hoarder.

So, lots of guys out, a few new ones in.

Players in:

Players out:

In addition to these players, some were transferred to Benfica B. We still have a large squad, but now it is more manageable and still has enough depth.

A look in to new players:

First thing i noticed that goalkeeper department was seriously poor compared to the rest of the squad. Old friend from Witbank Spurs was still around, but Vozinha clearly isn't nro1 material in Liga NOS.

So, we needed a new guy between the sticks. We found a promising young keeper from Brazil and decided to take a risk.

So, Polaco joined us. Unfortunately he got injured during pre-season weight training, but should be back soon. Until then we have to go on with Vozinha.

I also thought that we need a quality backup on the LB position and again tried to find a young player.

And i think we found a decent one, could even develop to become a first choice.

This man came from Serbia and is called Bojan Nastic.

The striker department was also seriously lacking. There was one good choice and a few backup quality guys.

So we desperately needed new ones. As with other, we went for young players. These guys were found from Brazil and Spain.

Joelinton and Hector.

Pre-season friendlies:

We had a decent pre-season and not too many injuries. Tactics are completely new to the team, so they are not nearly fluid yet. This unfortunately means that we will not be at our best when season starts and will have to keep on tactics training for a long time still.

Well, next pre-season it will go much faster.

Other stuff:

Alfredo bagged his final coaching badge:

[Bilbo Baggins]

Big jump from South Africa to Benfica but I'm sure you'll thrive,best of luck!

[MTM1977]

Big jump from South Africa to Benfica but I'm sure you'll thrive,best of luck!

Indeed, whole new playground and will probably be a much tougher challenge.

Well, at least for domestic competitions we should be very competitive, media is predicting us to finish 2nd in the Liga NOS.

[MTM1977]

Champions League groups have been drawn.

Our group isn't exactly an easy one, will take a lot of hard work and some luck to proceed from the group stage.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Very tasty group.

[deltablue]

Good to see you make a move to a club like that.

[MTM1977]

Good to see you make a move to a club like that.

Yes, while South Africa and Witbank Spurs was fun, this is a big step up in the managers career.

Just got the CL odds, it seems that people don't expect much from us (at least this year). I would be delighted to get through from the group, but won't be too disappointed if we don't.

[MTM1977]

Quite a coincidence.

Alfredo reaches 200 games as a manager and it will be quite a tough match:

edit:

We had a bit of a selection problem before the Man City match. Quite a few injuries, so we had to go with just 6 subs and a few of our best players were not available.

We were also missing our best central defender as he was suspended.

Still, we did what we could and it almost was enough...

[Bilbo Baggins]

Good effort against City, shame it didn't turn out in your favour given the milestone.

[HotChocolate]

Great move for you, looking forward to seeing you manage

[MTM1977]

A quick CL update.

We had a very important game. We were playing at home against Atletico and as they were on 2nd in the group after round 1, we knew that we must win the game if we want to progress from the group stage.

We had almost full house, 63 525 people watching how it would play out.

Our team started well, but some of the players were quite nervous and our chances were wasted by poor finishing, shooting off target or straight at the keeper.

First half ended 0-0. In the half time Alfredo gave some calming words and tried to make the players believe in themselves.

And it worked well, this is how it played out in the end:

We are now 2nd in the group and as Man City surprisingly played a draw against Anderlecht, the group is still wide open.

[kevhamster]

Excellent stuff so far. Good luck for the rest of the season.

[MTM1977]

***Season 6 (2019-2020) update 1***

General:

We have started the season pretty strong, although we have had some issues with injuries. Luckily we have such a large squad that we always have someone to backup an injured player.

Matches in Portugal offer quite a different atmosphere than what we had in South Africa. The stadiums are always full or almost full, with Witbank we often played to almost empty stadiums.

I made an interesting observation. The previous manager of Benfica was Rafa Benitez and although he had actually done pretty well (60w, 23D, 18L) he got sacked. So i guess there is quite a high pressure to get results here.

So, time to go and have a look what Alfredo has accomplished in Benfica so far.

Transfers:

No changes since the pre-season update.

Domestic cups

We have started well, although we have only played two domestic cup matches so far:

League:

Quite a strong start in the Liga NOS also, although we have had a few quite disappointing results. We have drawn games that we really should have won.

Our latest match was very sweet though. We gave our fierce rival (and league leader) Porto quite a ride.

UEFA CL:

We started with a tight game against Man City (away) and lost it 3-2. That gave us confidence though and it has gone well after that.

Goals:

We brought two new strikers for this season, Hector and Joelinton. We were looking for strikers who can score and create goals.

I think our scouts did a decent job.

[Bilbo Baggins]

You've done superbly in Europe, the title fight between yourselves and Porto will be an interesting one.

[MTM1977]

You've done superbly in Europe, the title fight between yourselves and Porto will be an interesting one.

Porto has been really strong, so i was surprised that we actually beat them quite easily. They did get the first goal, but after that it was our game.

They had played over 30 matches without losing, so hopefully that result did something to their confidence.

[MTM1977]

CL first knockout round draw was done.

I guess it is safe to say that we weren't exactly lucky in the draw.

[Jason the Yank]

Great move to Benfica, and you've started well.

[MTM1977]

Great move to Benfica, and you've started well.

It was quite easy to get it going with Benfica as the team was in a pretty good shape to start with. It is always easier if you don't have to bring in loads of new players.

Still, it has been a pleasant suprise how well we have done, especially in the Champions League. When i saw the group we got, i was quite pessimistic about our chances to go through from it, but in the end we ended up winning the group.

[MTM1977]

You don't see these too often

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtWF9UrEVV8

[MTM1977]

A small update from the newspapers:

Second season update coming later today.

[MTM1977]

***Season 6 (2019-2020) update 2***

General:

Our form in league and domestic cups has been nothing short of amazing.

I knew that our team is strong, but i am still surprised about how well we have done.

In CL it is a bit different story, we were really unlucky with the draw and Barcelona is most likely too much for us.

Transfers:

In:

None bought, but we have one transfer lined for next summer. That will be revealed on the next season first update.

Victor Andrade returned from loan. I immediately noticed that he is first team material. I don't know why he had been loaned in the first place.

That was done before Alfredo took over Benfica.

Out:

A few players left on January transfer window.

Lopez just wasn't good enough to fit our first team and rarely even on bench. So, it was best to let him go. Bojan Nastic joined us at the beginning of the season, but he wasn't happy about his playing time.

I think he played enough for his skill level, but as he wanted to go, we decided to allow him.

Salvio is a bit of a sad story. He would have been our best winger easily, but as he was very prone to injuries, i only got a few matches out of him. Fortunately there was a lot of interest for his services, so i was able to get a decent transfer fee when we sold him.

Domestic cups

Domestic cups have gone perfectly. I don't know how else to describe it.

League:

We have continued our strong form in league. And luckily our worst rival, Porto, has dropped some points in the recent matches.

We are now in strong position to win the title. If we can keep our form going, there is no stopping us at this point.

UEFA CL:

We finished our group as winners. Unfortunately we got Barcelona in the First Knockout Round and already lost our away game against them.

We still have a very slight chance to turn things around at home, but i wouldn't bet on it.

Goals:

Hector has continued his amazing scoring form.

[MTM1977]

We just had quite close to perfect performance on a league match and it apparently resulted a new record.

[deltablue]

Good luck trying to fight back against Barcelona.

[MTM1977]

Good luck trying to fight back against Barcelona.

That is already played and although we did put up a fight, it wasn't enough.

I am almost finished with my season, so last report for this season will be coming a bit later.

[MTM1977]

***Season 6 (2019-2020) update 3***

Season End:

We had a pretty good season and we managed to get a few trophys to show for it.

Transfers:

In:

None

Out:

Vozinha was released on a mutual termination of contract.

Domestic cups

We won Taca da Liga, which was nice, even though it wasn't a priority.

Unfortunately we lost Taca De Portugal final against Porto. Hector who has been tremendous this season, was the "antihero" on that match. He managed to get two yellow cards in under 20 minutes, so we played most of the match with one man short.

League:

We managed to keep our good form until the end of season. We did lose one match, it was a match against our rival Porto. If we would have won it, it would have secured the title at that point and it was probably too much stress for the players.

They looked really nervous and didn't play as they normally do.

Luckily we got right back at form after that, so it didn't ruin our season.

UEFA CL:

As i predicted, Barcelona was too much for us. Well, they ended up winning the competition, so we didn't lose to a bad team.

Goals:

Hector was in lethal form during the whole season. And he wasn't the only one who racked up a decent tally of goals.

General thoughts at season end:

We did really well on the first Benfica season. I think we have a rather good frame for the next seasons squad already.

A few players will leave and a few will come in, but no drastic overhaul is needed.

It would have been nice to progress further in Champions League, but we just didn't have luck in the knockout draw. I hope we can repeat our success in the group stage next season also and this time get a bit easier opponent on the 1st knockout round.

Our main target for next season is of course winning the Liga NOS again, anything else we can get in addition to that will be a nice bonus.

Several of our players got awards at the end of the season, so i guess we did pretty well as a team.

[MTM1977]

I have now documented my career for 6 seasons.

I am thinking that from now on i will still continue with the same career, but i stop updating it here.

I currently don't have the time (or skills) to produce actually interesting career story, so i will concentrate on reading what other people write (and playing the game of course)

I might try with another thread in the future, if i can figure out a better way to go with it.

edit:

After some consideration, i will try to keep this going, but i will try to "refine it along the way".

Maybe at some point i will find a format i am happy with.

Will be a good "practice round" for some future career thread at least

[Bilbo Baggins]

Great season in the league, losing to Barca isn't something to be bothered about either. Look forward to your return if you're putting this thread on ice!

[MTM1977]

Great season in the league, losing to Barca isn't something to be bothered about either. Look forward to your return if you're putting this thread on ice!

I haven't made up my mind yet.

I didn't have time to finish pre-season yesterday, so i am not even ready to start reporting on Season 7 yet.

I think i might do it after all, as it seems i could maybe get some interesting developments on this save if i want.

There were a few job offers early on the pre-season (even though Alfredo still has 2 years of contract left).

First of all, both Portugal and Spain national team offered him a job, but both were turned down. I have been thinking about it and i want to do it in a more realistic way.

Meaning that if Alfredo takes a national team role, then he will quit on club team and i wasn't ready to do that and i am not sure if i want to do that in this save.

He also got job interview offers from Stuttgart and Dortmund, but those were also turned down at this time. Bundesliga could be the next destination, but not yet.