The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge - Silver Age Archive

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Argentina 2030 World Cup Report

No suitable club jobs came up, so here we are already.

So 4 years ago, I made it to the semi finals with Uruguay, and frankly we could have won it because all the top nations went out.

Argentina are magnitudes better, but after winning every match my first year, we’ve not been as good in the lead up to this tournament.

We could win it, but the important thing is to make it to the Q/F so that I’m still here in 2 years time for the Copa America.

Group Stage

Argentina      3-1     Russia

Argentina      6-2     Japan

I played my reserves against Japan.

 

2^nd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      4-0     Wales

Was more one-sided than I expected, which shows how pessimistic I am about international tournaments.

The draw hasn’t done us any favours though, because after having it very easy so far, in the next round we face world #1 and my last team France, and we have to get past them to meet my FA’s expectations. On the other hand, they haven’t looked that good so far, and Mbappe retired after our Euros debacle 2 years ago.

It’s still gutting that 2 top 4 teams meet at this stage though, and the winner of this tie will play #3 who knocked out #2 England. This is a seriously lopsided draw

 

3^rd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      3-1     France

I’m not going to lie. It does feel good to beat my old team.

 

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      4-1     Holland

A fairly even match in terms of shots, but really there was one team much better at defending, and one team much better at scoring, and it was the same team.

Next up Germany, who have been scoring a lot of goals.

 

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      3-0     Germany

World Cup Final, baby, and you can’t say we haven’t earned it.

I fully expected the final to be against Spain, who were the only big nation in the other half, but they were beaten 2-0 by South Korea in the other semi. They also beat Brazil and Belgium en route, but take it from me, Brazil aren’t anything.

I can’t even contemplate how gutting it would be at this point to lose to S Korea in the final.

I mean, who are they?

Who are they?

 

 

 

3^rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      1-0     South Korea

The score doesn’t lie. This was by far our toughest match in the entire tournament. In fact they were the better side in the first half, although it did look as though it might stay 0-0 forever.

In the end we won courtesy of a penalty. Neither side ever looked like scoring from open play.

But hey, a win’s a win.

And I want to be manager of South Korea at some point soon. Not yet though, obviously. At this point I expect the Copa America in 2 years to be a cakewalk.

Being manager of Brazil is the only job that Bastião Carvalho da Silva Júnior has ever had, and frankly must have had some Kompromat on someone, because they were terrible under him. I’m going to miss him.

 

After The Tournament

Spoiler

 

One thing to bear in mind is that Argentina don’t have many highly respected players, or at least they didn’t before this. They’re going to give respect to our names now.

 

I don’t do international awards unless my guys win something.

Stats are just for the World Cup.

Top Goalscorer – Eduardo Salvatierra – 6

My other striker came into the World Cup as the top guy, but was injured for the group stage. 21 year old Eduardo is top dog now.

 

Highest Average Rating – Mario Pascua – 7.88

My left back ran himself into the ground

 

 Man of The Match – Mario Pascua - 2

 

Most Valuable Player– Matías Gayoso

If he’s not the best goalkeeper in the world, I don’t know who is.

 

I’ve been offered jobs by Sevilla and Marseille, but I’m turning them both down. I’m waiting to see if Dortmund offer me an interview, (I mean, they flaming well should at this juncture in my career) but with at least 6 top international jobs vacant, there might be plenty of appetising vacancies coming up in the near future.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division		Position	MVP				Notes										
20/21	Folkestone	England VNL South	4th		Alfie Matthews 	(SC) 		Lost in playoff S/F
21/22	Folkestone	England VNL South	1st		Jobi McAnuff	(MR)		FA Cup R4, won league by a country mile.
22/23	Folkestone	England VNL Conference	1st		Dion Rankine	(MR)		FA Cup R4 again, back to back promotions to the Football League
23/24	Folkestone	England League 2	4th and lost in playoff final without me 	Left after 21 matches with Folkestone in 2nd and on course for 3rd promotion in a row.
23/24	Everton		Premier League		11th		Alexander Nübel	(GK)		Took over after 16 matches. Won Carabao Cup.
24/25	Everton		Premier League		7th		Christopher McKay (MR)		Won Carabao Cup (again) and Europa League, thus qualifying for Champions League.
25/26	Everton		Premier League		3rd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Carabao Cup Threepeat, Lost in CL Final.
26/27	Everton		Premier League		1st		Moise Kean (SC)			League / FA Cup Double.	
27/28	Everton		Premier League		2nd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup Treble	
28/29	Everton		Premier League		1st		Christopher McKay (MR)		League, FA Cup, Champions League, Club World Championship	

International
Year	Team				Achievements
23	Indonesia U23			Topped U23 Asian Nations Cup Qualifying.Quit shortly afterwards.
24-26	Uruguay				World Cup S/F
26-28	France				Knocked out in Euros Q/F
28-	Argentina			World Cup		Matías Gayoso (GK)



Challenge Progress 5/32

Club
 1/10 top domestic leagues 		(England)			
 1/10 domestic cups 			(England)						
 1/5 club continental championships	(Europe)	 	
 1/1 club world championship

International
 0/5 continental tournaments 		
 1/1 World Cup		

 

 

 

 

[_JHTB_]

Atletico Madrid and France 2032/33

Unexpected, Silverware, Bragging Rights, Perfect season? and Straightforward

I applied for two jobs in the summer Manchester United and Atletico Madrid but was unsuccessful with the former so took the Atletico Madrid offer when it came through. The task in the window is a pretty tough one as the club is in the red, has an ageing squad and a pretty low transfer budget for a team that finished 3^rd last season. Because of that I had a fairly slow transfer window and 4 of my 5 signings were bit part players from Dortmund. My aim for the season is to qualify for the Champions League and try and win the Spanish Cup. After the summer internationals I managed to secure myself an international management job as I took charge of France.

Unexpected

As I was using a tweaked version the tactic that served me well towards the back end of my time at Dortmund (as well as all my time at Sporting Kansas City) I did reckon we’d be a good team but I didn’t peg us doing quite as well as we did as we recorded 14 wins on the bounce in the league to start the season off.  The winning run ended as we got smashed by Barcelona, it was what I’d have expected considering their squad quality compared to ours but given our start it was disappointing, especially as it finished 4-0. We did go on to win our remaining 3 games to end of the year with a remarkable record of 17-0-1. We progressed easily enough through our Champions League a draw away to Marseille our the only ‘blot’ on our account.

Silverware

So, I did think we’d drop off instead we started the second half of the season the same as we’d left off the first also claiming some silverware in the form of the Super cup before continuing our form of just winning league games. We progressed through to the Copa Del Rey semi-final and got the kinder draw with us avoiding all the participants of the Super Cup. The first leg was away from home where we recorded a draw which itself was followed up by our first draw of the league season in the 25^th game and that draw really was probably a game we should have lost based on the balance of the game. We then just got back to winning our games winning our Spanish Cup semi second leg and managed to secure qualification for the Champions League via the league with 11 games of the season left. In terms of the Champions League we got a favourable draw in the first knockout facing Lille who we beat 4-0 in both legs to cruise through to the next round.

Bragging rights

In spite of what can only be describe as sensational league form I did feel that we would struggle in the next round of the Champions League against Manchester United. My team had other ideas as they continued to absolutely baffle me and smashed what is a strong Manchester United team 9-2 on aggregate before we comfortably beat Bilbao in the Spanish Cup final to secure my first cup win in 8 years. By the time the Champions League semi-final came around it ended up with our fixtures pitting against Real Madrid for three games on the bounce. The first leg of the Champions League semi-final came first and we secured a 3-1 victory which was a great start. Next, a huge league game with Real Madrid needing to win to prevent us winning the League against them, it was a tight affair but we did enough with a fairly early goal to secure a 1-0 victory and the league title to boot. The second leg in the Champions League was another pretty cagey affair but a goal in the early stages of each half put us in a commanding position and despite them getting a goal back we held on to qualify for the Champions League final.

Perfect Season?

Coming into this season I wasn’t expecting us to be close to winning the league never mind the Champions League and yet we had the opportunity to make it 3 competitions ticked off in one season as we faced Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabéu of all places. Given the season we’d just had, I backed us for it really. Bayern should really have gone one or two up in the first half before we managed to snatch the lead following a lucky deflection. The second half had about 3 highlights on extended as we went on to hold out for a 1-0 victory meaning we won every trophy we could have this season.

Gabriel Ahumada has had me writing about him before when he was fantastic for me at Fluminense, he’s just had the best season of any player I’ve ever seen on Football Manager, he was directly involved in 42% of our 139 league goals with 16 goals and 42 assists and he missed 4 league games. He was our corner and freekick taker which will have aided his numbers but I use the default set pieces so it shouldn’t be that overpowered.

Straightforward

My first task in charge of France was the Nations League, I wasn’t really required to do anything in it but we won our group with 5 wins and 1 loss. The loss was weird, as we faced the lowest ranked team in our group, Ireland, who smashed us 4-1.. We also got our World Cup Qualifying campaign started in the March international break and we’ve been given a fairly easy group which I expect to qualify easily from – and indeed we started with two comfortable wins. We had a pretty tough nations league semi, but won 3-2 against The Netherlands in the end to set up a final against Spain. We got off to a fast start 2 up inside 10 minutes before the second half saw Spain score two of their own to take it to extra time and ultimately, penalties. We lost 7-6 on penalties but I was never all too bothered about the nations league so it’s not a terrible outcome.

My Tactic

The League

Gabriel Ahumada Stats

Next Season

We have the club world cup in a few weeks which we’ve got to aim to win, though I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t. Given how crazy this season has been we’d probably be considered the favourites but we shall see. 

With France we just want to secure a spot at the World Cup, though given we have some older players as first teamers I probably have to look at bringing through their potential future replacements in time for the World Cup.  

The story so far

Overall Progress

[_JHTB_]

Atletico Madrid: 2033 Club World Cup

 

This is my second club world cup after I got to the semi-final whilst at Guangzhou. Our group draw this time round was pretty difficult with us facing Paris Saint-Germain and Argentine team Velez.

Group Stages

Spoiler

As was expected, my team was a little tired for the first game but we managed to beat Velez 3-0 which meant a win versus Paris Saint-Germain would see us through to the next round. We lost it 2-0, players tiredness not helping matters though we were second best. We could now only hope Velez got the better of PSG in their fixture for us to progress. Alas, it wasn’t to be as PSG won the game 2-1 and out of the Club World Cup we went

Quarter Final (If applicable)

Spoiler

The quarter finals saw the European team progress in each instance except, you guessed it, PSG who bowed out to Gremio.

Semi Final (If applicable)

Spoiler

Real Madrid dispatched Gremio in one semi-final and a Manchester derby in the other saw Manchester City prevail.

Final/Third place playoff (If applicable)

Spoiler

Manchester United won the 3^rd place playoff with Manchester City winning the tournament with a 2-1 victory in the final.

What now?

Spoiler

I had originally planned to stay a few seasons at Atletico Madrid, but given we won everything bar the Club World Cup it doesn’t make all too much sense for me to stay. There isn’t actually many jobs available at the moment as it’s pretty late in the summer but I’m happy enough to be without a job for a while if need be. Plus I still have France to focus on

 

[XuluBak]

42 (LaLiga) assists is insane, although, not entirely surprising for a W(A) that's also on set pieces.  As I think about it, I rarely seem to have the same person on both (as the first choice at least) corners and free kicks. 

Aggressive pressing with a 424 is ridiculous. That's what I did my first two seasons with Benfica (domestically and at home in UCL). Switched cause it was too boring. The AI doesn't adapt well enough. Admittedly a bit surprised it worked quite that well in Spain though. Not the end result, but that you didn't concede more. 

Edited June 23, 2020 by XuluBak

[_JHTB_]

6 minutes ago, XuluBak said:

42 (LaLiga) assists is insane, although, not entirely surprising for a W(A) that's also on set pieces.  As I think about it, I rarely seem to have the same person on both (as the first choice at least) corners and free kicks. 

Aggressive pressing with a 424 is ridiculous. That's what I did my first two seasons with Benfica (domestically and at home in UCL). Switched cause it was too boring. The AI doesn't adapt well enough. Admittedly a bit surprised it worked quite that well in Spain though. Not the end result, but that you didn't concede more. 

I think part of why it was so successful is that the La Liga is very much a 3 team league, 4th place 29 points below 3rd just tells you how much disparity there is, I think that's probably why I didn't concede as much as I may have otherwise done as well with the other teams perhaps not being all too strong. I didn't actually set my set piece takers so he usually went there as default for having the better attributes for it he did only have 15 for corners and 16 for freekicks so not as high as they could have been. 

[vikeologist]

7 minutes ago, _JHTB_ said:

I think part of why it was so successful is that the La Liga is very much a 3 team league, 4th place 29 points below 3rd just tells you how much disparity there is, I think that's probably why I didn't concede as much as I may have otherwise done as well with the other teams perhaps not being all too strong. I didn't actually set my set piece takers so he usually went there as default for having the better attributes for it he did only have 15 for corners and 16 for freekicks so not as high as they could have been. 

I don;t suppose I could persuade you to enter some of your records into the records thread. Think you've beaten all the ones I just entered  a few days ago for a 38 match league campaign.

[Britrock]

8 hours ago, vikeologist said:

I don;t suppose I could persuade you to enter some of your records into the records thread. Think you've beaten all the ones I just entered  a few days ago for a 38 match league campaign.

Hah, here's me thinking my Milan season was good only for it to be bested by 3 other people in a matter of days! 🤣

[vikeologist]

9 hours ago, Britrock said:

Hah, here's me thinking my Milan season was good only for it to be bested by 3 other people in a matter of days! 🤣

Now I need to goad the Youth Challenge people into posting by entering my semi-impressive player career records.

Let's see if they notice.

Edited June 24, 2020 by vikeologist

[treva]

A little mid-season update.

 

 

As previously mentioned, following our exit from the AFC Champions League Group Stage I resigned from Dalian having won two league titles, two Super Cups and the FA Cup in just over two seasons. They would go on to win a third straight CSL title but fell short in the FA Cup Final.

I was aiming a little high with some of my applications with my resignation coming right at the end of the European season. However, there was one job in Mexico that stood out and it seemed a realistic opportunity to increase reputation slightly and also challenge for another league title, cup title and continental title within the space of a few seasons. The club was Tijuana, a team that had finished inside the top five of all but one opening and closing stage since 2021, until missing out on the playoffs in the closing stage last season.

The team was pretty strong, albeit not so strong in terms of home-grown talent, which is probably where they came unstuck last season as you have to play with nine home-grown players in your match day squad. With £16mil to spend I brought in five players, mainly at the back where I felt we needed the most strength. In total I spent £12mil on two CBs, a GK, a CM and a young ST on loan for the season from Torino.

We began with the Leagues Cup, a competition that pits the best of Mexico vs the best of the USA. We lost on penalties to DC United in a game we really should have won. The league started with five straight wins to put us top having not conceded at all, before we faced Cruz Azul, clearly the strongest team in Mexico at present, although rather surprisingly had only won the overall league title (opening and closing stages combined) once since the save began. We lost 2-0 and followed it up with a draw vs Chivas. Our season continued in a pretty similar path and we ended up finishing third with 13 wins, two draws and four losses.

What followed was basically a steal. After losing the first leg away to Toluca, we won the home tie 1-0 and progressed as the higher seed. Then we faced America, a side who beat us in the regular season and finish one point behind us. We should have beaten them 1-0 in the away leg but conceded late on. A boring 0-0 draw at home saw us progress to the final again without winning on aggregate, this time away goals counting in our favour. As expected we would face Cruz Azul in the final. We dominated the first leg but failed to score, although having not conceded at home I was more than happy. They were much better in the away leg but a mistake from their defender gifted us a first half goal and then we just shut up shop. We played out the second half with minimal fuss knowing they needed to score twice and we were crowned Apertura champs for the first time since 2026.

The win qualifies us for the CONCACAF Champions League, which has been won by a Mexican side six times in a row, including back to back wins for Tijuana in 2025 and 2026. This should be a great opportunity, although I do fear we're not quite good enough to win it just yet, based on the opening half of this season, but we'll see.

 

 

I will update my career progress after the end of the full season but as per first post rules, that's another title towards the challenge, my 3rd league title (5th in total) and 5th overall trophy (8th in total).

Edited June 24, 2020 by treva

[bjwphneb]

Scott Willimams 2039

End of Season Review

 

The first full season for Scott in South Korea. He had 9 games at the end of last season to push for a Champions League place but the other teams didn't drop enough points to catch.  So this season it was jusy the FA Cup and the League to compete in. The board had set the target of winning them both, having finished last season in 4th and knocked out of the Cup in round 2 that wasn't going to be easy.

The FA Cup was won without too much bother, the final was only 1-0 on aggregate over the two legs but it was a match dominated by Seoul.

The league was proving to be more of a challenge, Seoul and Jeonbuk traded places a few times over the course of the season. Every match between the two ended in a draw and ultimately that is what cost Scott. Two of the games ended 0-0 the other two Seoul were ahead and Jeonbuk managed to draw level. Seoul ended the league on 90 points (enough to win in each of the last 5 seasons), Jeonbuk also ended the league on 90 points, however they were crowned champions on Goals Scored. Jeonbuk did go unbeaten this season and so perhaps were worthy winners but that doesn't mean much for Scott.

   

Scott also had a board meeting to discuss his dissapointing performance in the league (apparently losing the league by 19 goals is not good enough in South Korea) but thankfully they've allowed him the next 5 games to get 11 points. So don't know if that's at the start of next season or if they'll just forget about that when the league starts up again.

Ultimately the decade ends in dissapointment, losing the Asian Cup final and coming second in the league, hopefully the 2040s can start with an AFC Champions League and K League 1 double. 

Sadly Hernan Delgado will unlikely stay with Seoul for another season. He was signed on loan from Arsenal when last years main man wanted out. 24 goals in all competitions in his debut season at 19 years old was a strong performance, but he is far too good for the legaue.

Career Progress

Spoiler

Personnel Career

Hall of Fame Rank: 	 6
Clubs Managed: 		10
Nations Managed: 	 8
Trophies Won: 		28
Runner Up Medals: 	12
Manager of the Year: 	 8
Number of Sackings: 	 3 (Kaizer Chiefs, Suwon, Brazil)

Career Earnings: £65 Million
---------------------------------------------------

Club Career
																	
Season	NAT	Club		Division	Pos	Cup 1	Cup 2	Cont	CWC	Things to Note					
2020	CHI	Nublense	Primera Div B	6th	R2	-	-	-	Playoff Winners, U19s Runners up in Div 1
2021	CHI	Curico Unido	Primera Div	7th	R2	-	R1	-
2022	CHI	Curico Unido	Primera Div	1st	Won	-	R1	-	Domestic Double, MOTY
2022/23	ARG	CA Union	Superliga	17th	R5	-	-	-	Avoided Relegation
2023/24	ARG	CA Union	Superliga	15th	R5	-	-	-	Avoided Relegation
2024/25	ARG	CA Union	Superliga						Resigned End of Phase 1
2025/26	RSA	Kaizer Chiefs	Asba Prem	2nd	RU	Won	-	-	KO Cup Winners RU in other Comps
2026/27	RSA	Kaizer Chiefs	Asba Prem	3rd	RU	R1	Won	-	Champions League Winners, MOTY
2027	KOR	Suwon		K League 1	7th		-	QF	-	Joined July in 5th, Sakced September 15th
2027/28	ARG	Velez		Superliga	2nd	-	-	-	-	Joined December in 8th
2028/29	ARG	Velez		Superliga	1st	Won	-	QF	-	Domestic Double
2029/30	ARG	Velez		Superliga	2nd	Won	-	Won	-	Copa Libertadores and Copa Argentina Winners, won both Supercups MOTY
2030/31	ENG	AFC Bournemouth	Premier League	9th	R3	R2	-	-	Somehow won Superliga manager of the year for 2030
2031/32 ITA	AC Milan	Serie A		6th	-	-	-	-	Joined with 7 games remaining U18s won the legaue and cup
2032/33	ITA	AC Milan	Serie A		2nd	R1	-	R3 UEL	-	
2033/34	ITA	AC Milan	Serie A		1st	Won	-	SF	-	Invincibles! Centurians! League + Cup double
2034/35	ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	1st	R5	QF	R1	-	League Winners, Super Cup Winners
2035/36 ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	2nd	R5	R3	R1	-	Nearly Got the Sack
2036/37	ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	1st	R4	QF	Won	RU	Second League Title and UCL
2037/38	ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	1st	Won	Won	Won	-	First Quadruple
2039	KOR	Seoul		K League 1	2nd	Won	-	-	-	Lost the League on GS
----------------------------------------------------

International Career

Season	Nation		Rank	Continental	World Cup	Things to Note
2023	Honduras	67th	-		-		Relegated from Nations League
2024	Honduras	72rd	-		-		Qualified for Gold Cup 2025
2024	Russia		42nd	-		-		2nd in NL Div B	
2026	Russia		30th	-		2nd Rnd v SUI	Topped Group, Lost to Switzerland
2027	Nigeria		12th	RU		-		AFCON Runners Up, Resigned as Manager
2031	Guinea-Bissau	53rd	Won				AFCON Winners
2032	Portugal	 3rd	Won		-		European Championship Winners
2034	Portugal	 4th	-		RU v Holland	Unsure how we haven't won that one
2035	Mexico		13th	Won				Gold Cup Winners
2036	Mexico		11th	3rd 				Nations League Winners | 3rd in Copa America
2038	Brazil		 1st	-		2nd Rnd v UKR	Lost to Ukraine
2039	Iran		28th	RU v Australia			
-----------------------------------------------------
Challenge Progress
4/10 Leagues 		(Chile; Curico Unido 2022, Argentina; Velez 2028/29, Italy; AC Milan 2033/34, England; Chelsea 2034/35)
6/10 Cups		(Copa Chile; Curico Unido 2022, RSA Telkom KO; Kaizer Chiefs 2025/26, Copa Argentina; Velez 2028,
			Copa Italia; AC Milan 2033/34,  FA Cup; Chelsea 2038, FA Cup; South Korea 2039)
3/5  Continental	(Africa; Kaizer Chiefs 2026/27, South America; Velez 2029, Europe; Chelsea 2036/37)
0/1  Worlds

3/5 Continental 	(AFCON; Guinea-Bissau 2031, EUROS; Portugal 2032, GOLD CUP; Mexico 2035)
0/1 Worlds

Total 
16/32

 

 

 

[vikeologist]

1 hour ago, bjwphneb said:

Scott Willimams 2039

End of Season Review

 

 

   

Scott also had a board meeting to discuss his dissapointing performance in the league (apparently losing the league by 19 goals is not good enough in South Korea) but thankfully they've allowed him the next 5 games to get 11 points. So don't know if that's at the start of next season or if they'll just forget about that when the league starts up again.

 

 

 

Nope, they're not going to forget about it. S Korea is brutal (or at least has been in past incarnations). Win or be sacked, so historically speaking they've been quite lenient with you. It's entirely possible that the only domestic teams I've been sacked from in this challenge are S Korean or Mexican. Honestly can't remember any others, but I do remember winning a cup with Cruz Azul, and then immediately being sacked.

[bjwphneb]

@vikeologist Yeah the chairman over there are savage. Thankfully it looks like I've got another season otherwise it could be time to head to China

[bjwphneb]

Scott Williams

End of Decade Review

2030 - 2039 

It was a decade filled with many highs and lows for Scott. He added 10 more trophies towards the challenge but missed out on a few of the big ones.

Club Football

                                                                   

To start off Scott headed to England to take charge at AFC Bournemouth. At this point they were a side pushing for Europe and doing well in the FA Cup, reaching 2 finals. Sadly for Scott he couldn't take them any further and in December of his second year, resigned before the board had a chance to fire him. 

Next up was a trip to Italy with AC Milan, Scott took over a side that had been successful in the Europa League but struggled in the Serie A. In his first season he got them up to 2nd place losing out to rivals Inter. The following year Milan rinsed the legaue, finishing unbeaten on 100 points, that year they also won the Copa Italia but were knocked out in the semi final of the Champions League to Benfica who went on to lift the trophy.

After a successful spell in Italy the opportunity to head back to England arose when Nuno Esperito Santo got the sack at Chelsea. Chelsea had Arguably the best ST and CB in the world and the resources to build an unstoppable force. That is exactly what Scott did. In 4 seasons Scott won 3 League titles, 2 Champions Leagues, 1 FA Cup, 1 League Cup and 1 Super Cup. His big regret, however will be that Club World Cup final defeat to Barcelona, after beating them in the UCL final 6 months prior. 

With nothing else to win and 2 more years until the next CWC, Scott left Chelsea to head out of Europe and return to South Korea. A second place in the league and an FA Cup win puts him in a good position to add more trophies to the collection at the start of the next decade.

International Football

                                                                                             

 

The thirtees saw Scott rack up some serious air miles as he managed a side in every continent. In Afirca he brought success to Guinea Bissau who lifted their first ever AFCON trophy. In Europe Scott's portugal lifted the European Championship having won it 4 years earlier as well. Portugal was also where Scott picked up the worlds worst losers medal as he lost the World Cup Final to Holland in a match dominated by the Portuguese. In North America, Mexico won the second of four straight Gold Cups and also picked up the Nations League for good measure. Mexico came third in the Copa America and so it seemed sensible to head to South America next to world number ones Brazil. With the world cup just around the corner this should have been an excellent chance for Scott to forget about the pain of '34. Unfortunately only more pain was added as Brazil crashed out to Ukraine in the second round. Sacked and he didn't event get a chance at the Copa America. Finally to asia, where more heartbreak was lying in wait. Scott's Iran lost on penalties to Australia in the Asian Nations Cup. With the best player retiring from International football, the chance of winning it in 2043 look bleak but with no other option, at the moment that is where Scott will stay. 

 

Team of the Decade

It's hard to justify not having a full team made up of Chelsea players. They were simply unbelievably good.  Big Bad Vlad (Vladimir Petrovic), stands out as the player of the save at the moment and he'll take some topping. He was signed while Scott was at Bournemouth and has stayed with him for most of the decade, sadly not making the journey with him to South Korea. It's worth noting that both at AC Milan and Chelsea, Scott played with wingers, the depth in midfield this decade was so strong that none of them made it into the team. It is hardly surpising how good Chelsea were, they had the funds to buy whoever Scott wanted and he spent £850m in 4 years. However, just like in real life they had a reserves packed out with players worth millions of pounds. In fact, Scott's net spend was -£393Million (£393million profit).

Spoiler

Best XI 2030-2039
Pos	Player Name		Club (s)  (Seasons)	App  G/C As/Cs Pm  Avg	  Notes

GK	Kevin Stoyle		Chelsea	  (2034-38)	115   71  62   2  6.88    28 clean sheets in final season

LB	Mark Hanna		Chelsea   (2034-38)	154    2  11   2  7.05	  Finally a good LB to take the place of Araujo from S1		
CB	Arno De Groot		AC Milan  (2032-34)	 94    3   0   2  7.06    Main reason Milan went unbeaten conceding just 13 goals	
CB	Daniel Caldera		Cehlsea	  (2034-38)	148    9   3   6  7.18    Probably the best CB in the world, played 500 games for Chelsea (7.20)
RB	Pasquale Grosso 	AC Milan  (2033/34)	 22    1   9   3  7.31    Had some very strong RBs but Pasquale's first season was unreal for Milan

CDM     Giacomo Delle Rose      AC Milan  (2032-34)	 70    5   3   7  7.19    Suprise package, was 21 when he made his debut and stayed in the team for the entire 1st season
CM	David Pickwell		Chelsea   (2037/38)      57    6   7   5  7.09    Just edged out Lemoine, honeslty Chelsea's midfield in 2037/38 felt like cheating
CM	Vladimir Petrovic  BOU, ACM, CHE  (2031-38)	213   40  30  20  7.21    The golden boy, still only 26 in 2039. Signed for 2.4m at BOU then had him at ACM and CHE, (2038/39 22 goals, 20 assists, 7.73avg)
CAM	Abel			Chelsea   (2034-38)     152   31  28  17  7.21    Unsurprising how much Chelsea dominated looking at the depth in midfield alone

ST	Fabio Silva		AC Milan  (2032-34)      85   45  13  12  7.20    The only non regen to make it in the team. If only he were 10 years younger would have had him at Chelsea
ST	Gautier Lopez		Chelsea   (2034-38)     179   95  50  19  7.24    The reason Scott went to Chelsea in the first place. What a player.

Honorable Mentions/Subs
Ivan Sunjic     (CB)  AC Milan  Signed for £17m was a great partner to De Groot
Erich Imhof     (CM) 	       	7.28 rating but not a touch on Chelsea's trio
Jakub Jankowski (RW)		On loan from United for 1 season. 22 goal contriburions
Joel Bernal     (ST) 		Didn't play many games for Scott at club level, but did for Mexico, gone on to be one of the best in the world.
Tony Lemoine    (CDM) Chelsea   7.25 rating but played more as a CDM and CB so doesn't get into those positions
Hernan Delgado  (ST)  Seoul	Unreal 1st season for Scott and will probably be making a return at one of his future clubs

 

 

The Fourtees

Still lots for Scott to achieve. First up he will be looking to leave Asian club football behind him and return back to Europe to try and topple PSG off their Parisian Perch. Hopefully this will be the decade that sees Scott lift the World Cup, it won't be in '42 as he'll probably still be with Iran but maybe an Argentina, France or Spain will be looking for a new manager for the '46 WC.

Career Progress

Spoiler

Personnel Career

Hall of Fame Rank: 	 6
Clubs Managed: 		10
Nations Managed: 	 8
Trophies Won: 		28
Runner Up Medals: 	12
Manager of the Year: 	 8
Number of Sackings: 	 3 (Kaizer Chiefs, Suwon, Brazil)

Career Earnings: £65 Million
---------------------------------------------------

Club Career
																	
Season	NAT	Club		Division	Pos	Cup 1	Cup 2	Cont	CWC	Things to Note					
2020	CHI	Nublense	Primera Div B	6th	R2	-	-	-	Playoff Winners, U19s Runners up in Div 1
2021	CHI	Curico Unido	Primera Div	7th	R2	-	R1	-
2022	CHI	Curico Unido	Primera Div	1st	Won	-	R1	-	Domestic Double, MOTY
2022/23	ARG	CA Union	Superliga	17th	R5	-	-	-	Avoided Relegation
2023/24	ARG	CA Union	Superliga	15th	R5	-	-	-	Avoided Relegation
2024/25	ARG	CA Union	Superliga						Resigned End of Phase 1
2025/26	RSA	Kaizer Chiefs	Asba Prem	2nd	RU	Won	-	-	KO Cup Winners RU in other Comps
2026/27	RSA	Kaizer Chiefs	Asba Prem	3rd	RU	R1	Won	-	Champions League Winners, MOTY
2027	KOR	Suwon		K League 1	7th		-	QF	-	Joined July in 5th, Sakced September 15th
2027/28	ARG	Velez		Superliga	2nd	-	-	-	-	Joined December in 8th
2028/29	ARG	Velez		Superliga	1st	Won	-	QF	-	Domestic Double
2029/30	ARG	Velez		Superliga	2nd	Won	-	Won	-	Copa Libertadores and Copa Argentina Winners, won both Supercups MOTY
2030/31	ENG	AFC Bournemouth	Premier League	9th	R3	R2	-	-	Somehow won Superliga manager of the year for 2030
2031/32 ITA	AC Milan	Serie A		6th	-	-	-	-	Joined with 7 games remaining U18s won the legaue and cup
2032/33	ITA	AC Milan	Serie A		2nd	R1	-	R3 UEL	-	
2033/34	ITA	AC Milan	Serie A		1st	Won	-	SF	-	Invincibles! Centurians! League + Cup double
2034/35	ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	1st	R5	QF	R1	-	League Winners, Super Cup Winners
2035/36 ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	2nd	R5	R3	R1	-	Nearly Got the Sack
2036/37	ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	1st	R4	QF	Won	RU	Second League Title and UCL
2037/38	ENG	Chelsea		Premier League	1st	Won	Won	Won	-	First Quadruple
2039	KOR	Seoul		K League 1	2nd	Won	-	-	-	Lost the League on GS
----------------------------------------------------

International Career

Season	Nation		Rank	Continental	World Cup	Things to Note
2023	Honduras	67th	-		-		Relegated from Nations League
2024	Honduras	72rd	-		-		Qualified for Gold Cup 2025
2024	Russia		42nd	-		-		2nd in NL Div B	
2026	Russia		30th	-		2nd Rnd v SUI	Topped Group, Lost to Switzerland
2027	Nigeria		12th	RU		-		AFCON Runners Up, Resigned as Manager
2031	Guinea-Bissau	53rd	Won				AFCON Winners
2032	Portugal	 3rd	Won		-		European Championship Winners
2034	Portugal	 4th	-		RU v Holland	Unsure how we haven't won that one
2035	Mexico		13th	Won				Gold Cup Winners
2036	Mexico		11th	3rd 				Nations League Winners | 3rd in Copa America
2038	Brazil		 1st	-		2nd Rnd v UKR	Lost to Ukraine
2039	Iran		28th	RU v Australia			
-----------------------------------------------------
Challenge Progress
4/10 Leagues 		(Chile; Curico Unido 2022, Argentina; Velez 2028/29, Italy; AC Milan 2033/34, England; Chelsea 2034/35)
6/10 Cups		(Copa Chile; Curico Unido 2022, RSA Telkom KO; Kaizer Chiefs 2025/26, Copa Argentina; Velez 2028,
			Copa Italia; AC Milan 2033/34,  FA Cup; Chelsea 2037/38, FA Cup; South Korea 2039)
3/5  Continental	(Africa; Kaizer Chiefs 2026/27, South America; Velez 2029, Europe; Chelsea 2036/37)
0/1  Worlds

3/5 Continental 	(AFCON; Guinea-Bissau 2031, EUROS; Portugal 2032, GOLD CUP; Mexico 2035)
0/1 Worlds

Total 
16/32

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[treva]

Brief update as I'm already half a season on...

 

 

After winning the Opening Stage in the first half of the season, the primary focus was on the CONCACAF Champions League. Having failed to land the AFC Champions League with Melbourne City and Dalian I was keen to get this one out of the way ASAP. However, as always, it wasn't to be so simple. We began our Closing Stage campaign with six wins, two draws and one loss to rivals Cruz Azul before taking on Houston Dynamo in the Champions League. We put them away comfortably 6-2 on aggregate, although a loss to Monterrey in the league came in between the two legs. After bouncing back in the league against Queretaro, a mini run of four 1-0 losses ruined our season. Two of those came against NYCFC in the Champions League, despite dominating both matches. Another frustrating Champions League exit. The rest of the season was so-so, we drew quite a few matches and finished 5th, where we drew Cruz Azul. They beat us in the first leg 2-0 at home in a disappointing performance and despite a spirited 3-2 win away from home we fell one goal short of going through to the semi final.

 

As mentioned, I'm already halfway through the next season so I'll wait for that update to go into more detail, but a new formation and mentality has been set for a tilt at back-to-back Opening Stage titles before the all-important CONCACAF Champions League in the second half of the season. Here's my overall progress.

 

 

Challenge Progress

Club

3/10 Top Domestic Leagues: Indonesian Liga 1 (x2), Chinese Super League (x2), Liga BBVA Bancomer MX Apertura

2/10 Domestic Cups: Piala Indonesia (x2), Yanjing Beer Chinese FA Cup

0/5 Club Continental Championships:

0/1 Club World Championship:

International

0/5 Continental Tournaments:

0/1 World Tournaments:

Edited June 30, 2020 by treva

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Dortmund (and Argentina) 2030/31 Season Report

Back in Black, but mostly yellow, at Dortmund. Of course they’re nothing like my previous black and yellow clad warriors at Folkestone, but then they’re not that much like Everton either.

One of the challenging things about this, erm, challenge is going from being the manager of the best club team and best international team in the world, to being in charge of a Dortmund team that are, well, not the best in the world.

I even bought a couple of Argentina players in, and they struggled in their new inferior surroundings.

We couldn’t keep up with Bayern in the league,

but 2^nd place was never in any doubt. To be honest, I gave up too easily. We might have caught them if I hadn't instant resulted some of the final matches.

I thought we stood a good chance in the cup, but we went out on penalties to Leipzig  in a semi-final we dominated. Thus we underperformed against the expectations of the board who demanded the league title and a cup final.

My job might have been in trouble had we not done well in the Europa League, which was of course of no real interest to me.

In the final we had the chance of revenge against RB Leipzig, who despite their cup final achievements, only finished 10^th in the league.

Like the German Cup semi-final, we were the better team, but could only establish a 1-0 lead, and they equalised in the 89^th minute. Extra time didn’t solve anything, so penalties again.

But this time it was Leipzig who missed one penalty, and the Europa League was ours.

At least the trophy kept me in my job.

 

Top Goalscorer – Jonathan David – 29

It really should have been Eduardo Salvatierra, my best Argentinian striker who I bought for what I thought was a bargain £39 million, but he only scored 19 goals all season for us. JD should be the striker to drop when I bring in a much needed upgrade this season, but he did have a good season.

 

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Juan Manuel Jiménez – 7.74

The right winger was the best player I inherited, and despite spending a lot of money, he still is my best player.

Man of The Match – Juan Manuel Jiménez - 9

 

Most Valuable Player– Juan Manuel Jiménez

It’s not going to help me decide my all challenge XI to have right wingers as my MVPs every season. It would be nice to have a good left winger for once. My left wingers are rubbish. I actually brought in Everton’s 3^rd best left winger on loan, who actually did well, so that’s another position I need to address over the summer.

 

 

As for Argentina, we’re just playing meaningless friendlies waiting for the World Cup Qualifying to start, which will only be marginally less meaningless.

 

Domestic
Season	Team		Division		Position	MVP				Notes										
20/21	Folkestone	England VNL South	4th		Alfie Matthews 	(SC) 		Lost in playoff S/F
21/22	Folkestone	England VNL South	1st		Jobi McAnuff	(MR)		FA Cup R4, won league by a country mile.
22/23	Folkestone	England VNL Conference	1st		Dion Rankine	(MR)		FA Cup R4 again, back to back promotions to the Football League
23/24	Folkestone	England League 2	4th and lost in playoff final without me 	Left after 21 matches with Folkestone in 2nd and on course for 3rd promotion in a row.
23/24	Everton		Premier League		11th		Alexander Nübel	(GK)		Took over after 16 matches. Won Carabao Cup.
24/25	Everton		Premier League		7th		Christopher McKay (MR)		Won Carabao Cup (again) and Europa League, thus qualifying for Champions League.
25/26	Everton		Premier League		3rd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Carabao Cup Threepeat, Lost in CL Final.
26/27	Everton		Premier League		1st		Moise Kean (SC)			League / FA Cup Double.	
27/28	Everton		Premier League		2nd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup Treble	
28/29	Everton		Premier League		1st		Christopher McKay (MR)		League, FA Cup, Champions League, Club World Championship	
30/31	Dortmund	Bundesliga		2nd		Juan Manuel Jiménez (MR)	Won Europa League. Whoopy Do.

International
Year	Team				Achievements
23	Indonesia U23			Topped U23 Asian Nations Cup Qualifying.Quit shortly afterwards.
24-26	Uruguay				World Cup S/F
26-28	France				Knocked out in Euros Q/F
28-	Argentina			World Cup		Matías Gayoso (GK)



Challenge Progress 5/32

Club
 1/10 top domestic leagues 		(England)			
 1/10 domestic cups 			(England)						
 1/5 club continental championships	(Europe)	 	
 1/1 club world championship

International
 0/5 continental tournaments 		
 1/1 World Cup		

 

[Crowy]

Kaizer Chiefs

2036/37

---

Manager Profile: Crowy - 2037

Key Players: Abilio Matsipa ~ Andrew Qalanto ~ Lehlo Makola ~ Menzi Sithole ~ Siseko Tau

Squad: Overview ~ Match Stats

---

Competitions Overview

(click to Enlarge)

 

So after resigning from Dortmund, I was ready for my next challenges I had an offer from China and South Africa. I almost went to China to get the two trophies that I need in the Domestic Cup and the AFC Champions League but it has been a few FM's since I managed in South Africa and decided that was to be my next step.

Overall it was an excellent season, my main aim for this season was qualifying for the Champions League and come January we were looking comfortable to do that. However for the next season I felt my squad needed some improvements so I focused on South Africa players for this season. Actually all 5 of my Key Players were brought in January and it's given me a great spine to my team, After those additions I went on to win the League, NedBank Cup and the Euopra League, I'm hoping the Champions League is as easy as the Europa League as I wanted to focus on the league and a domestic cup this season so played my back up players throught the Europa League and they won it with ease.

I had a bit of a scare in the league, I was 5 points clear with 3 games to go and I had to play 5th, 3rd and 2nd and the NedBank final in between playing 5th and 3rd. I had to play them all in a week where as 2nd my final game had to play two games in that week 7 days apart, the scheduling in this league is ridiculous! so I drawn with 5th and lost to 3rd who had 10 men for 60 minutes which left SuperSport 3 points off me in our final game. I conceded an absolutely poor FM style goal and almost smashed my keyboard as I didn't know how league sorting was done (I will check in future) then ten minutes later it still had me as top, thought it was slow to update so pushed for the equalizer and thankfully we got it. League was sorted on goal difference though so I got frustrated over those last 3 or 4 games for nothing haha.

Having won the League and Cup this season I can focus on the Champions League next season and hopefully get this part of the journey out the way.

 

---

CHALLENGE PROGRESS

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by Crowy

[vikeologist]

44 minutes ago, Crowy said:

 

 

---

CHALLENGE PROGRESS

 

[stevelcfc2011]

Good evening all. Time to give this a go! 

[_JHTB_]

Liverpool and France: 2033/2034 Season

Inconsistent, It’s a knockout, Resurgence and Breeze

I didn’t stay out of a job all too long as I applied for the Liverpool job after their manager was poached by Barcelona and unsurprisingly, I was successful in my application. We got the job after the season had already started and with just a month left of the transfer window so not much time to bring in players. That said we were only given £3 million to spend so only one loan signing brought in.

Inconsistent

The squad as a whole was pretty thin and very ageing, a 23 man squad and all together not a fantastic amount of playing quality, at least not in terms of challenging for the league. With that in mind my main aim for this season was to try and get a top 4 finish, which was still a big ask. My first 3 games saw us lose twice before we managed to fashion some form together winning all but one in September and October in all competitions. November however, saw us start faltering a little losses and draws finding their way into our results. This inconsistency was maintained throughout December seeing us hovering around the Europa league spots, though we ha progressed to the semi-final of the league cup in that time.

It’s a knockout

By the time January arrived the finance side of the club was not really looking all too great, in fact our transfer budget was reduced to 750k so any hopes of bringing in reinforcements to aid a challenge for the top four were not going to happen. January saw us knocked out of the league cup at the semi-final stage as we were knocked out by the team running away with the league – Manchester City. It also saw us embarrassingly despatched 5-0 by Wolves. We bounced back in the league in February but were knocked out of the FA cup by Leeds United before poor form in March also saw us out of the Europa League to KAA Gent and outside of a top 4 spot leaving me fearing I may get my first sacking of the challenge.

Resurgence

The end of the season saw us 6 consecutive clean sheets with 5 wins which coincided with 4^th spot Chelsea dropping some points with them having to play all of 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd in back to back fixtures to end the season. That form allowed us to secure a top 4 finish and me to keep my job as I feel Liverpool would have sacked me had I not managed 4^th. The main issue is that the club is not in a profitable state with us spending the whole season in the red it is much like the issue we had at Atletico Madrid minus a few saleable assets to rectify the situation. In fact, since 2029 (and probably before that too) the club has gone into the red every season. Having secured our top 4 finish, we did lose the last game of the season with one of our better players picking up a 2 month injury which means they miss the World Cup which is a shame for them.

Breeze

With France we easily qualified for the World Cup with a 100% win record in our group and only one goal conceded. I didn’t really expect anything other than an easy qualification campaign but I’m happy it went to plan. March just saw a couple of friendlies in the build up to the World Cup so they didn’t really matter at all but we won them nonetheless.

Next Season

We’ve been handed a £54 million budget for next season which is a lot more than I thought we’d get, and more than we probably should get with the financial situation, however, I feel it’s enough to start rebuilding this squad at least a little. I think we’re probably going to aim for another top 4 finish but maybe we can secure one of the two cups but regardless this is likely to be a slow process. In spite of a strong finish we were far from convincing this season even in our wins so don’t think it’s a given we can replicate our 4^th spot.

Of course, we’ve no real rest as it’s a World Cup summer, my first attempt at a World cup with France so update on that will be before too long.

Finances

The Squad

The story so far

Overall Progress

[Crowy]

@vikeologist; I forgot about the Leaderboard list thingy, thank you for adding me. Next stop, Hall of Fame!

[Crowy]

Kaizer Chiefs

2037/38

---

Manager Profile: Crowy - 2038

Key Players: Abilio Matsipa ~ Karim Yahiaoui ~ Lehlo Makola ~ Lesego Mothwa ~ Siseko Tau

Squad: Overview ~ Match Stats

---

Competitions Overview

(click to Enlarge)

 

So overall in Domestic Competitions we done fairly well would of been nice to get a full house but it was nice to win the other cup this time around. In the league we were once against pushed close due to some late poor form but we managed to hang on. In terms of the squad it took me so long in pre season to find the foreign players that I wanted to add quality and depth to the squad, also for work permits it takes the league around a month to view the work permit and an appeal can take a couple of weeks depending on how long of the transfer window is left. I had a few times where I felt I might be going in to this season with 16/17 players or so but thankfully they eventually got over the line. I pretty muched rushed through these games as I'd won what I wanted last season now for the important update the CAF Champions League.

---

CAF Champions League

Prelim Round/First Round

Spoiler

So for some reason we had to play a prelim games against Bidvest who finished 3rd in the league the season before and we got off to a worrying start losing the away leg, however at home we demolished them and that will be a bit of a theme through out this update. However I was pleased to get through the prelims facing a tough side which them moved us on to the first round.

No problems in the first round disbatched of Berekum Chelsea 7-0 on aggregate and was making me feel a little more comfortable about my chances in the competition.

 

Group Stage

Spoiler

Group Stage Results

Looking at this group stage there was one club who was a three star reputation club like us but the other two sides looked pretty poor so was confident of a top two finish. We went on to win five out of the six games with one draw which saw us finish comfortably in top spot and was hoping for a better draw in the next round for it.

 

Quarter Final

Spoiler

Once again scrapped through the away leg but managed to control the game at home to get through fairly comfortably, this was the round where I truly thought I'd go on to win this competition but not because I was in the Semi Final. The three strongest team in Al-Ahly, ES Tunis and ES Sahel were all knocked out at this stage by weaker opposition and I knew it was there for the taking.

 

Semi Final

Spoiler

Another meh performance away from home, saying that winning 2-1 away from home in this competition is not bad at all with a lead and away goals. I would take it at any other club and 4 of my 5 foreign players couldn't play in this competition due to playing in the prelims for other teams before signing them. Once again a dominant performance at home I'd love to see my home win % for my time here I'd assume it is a strong one!

 

Final

Spoiler

We took an 2-0 early lead in the final with Makola and Mothwa with the goals inside 15 minutes. things got interesting on the hour mark as they pulled one back with their only shot of the game and thankfully we went on to get another goal in the 77th minute to ease the nerves for the final 10 minutes. There's no doubt our home performances got us through this competition more comfortably, I think I was a bit harsh on the away performances earlier they gave us a decent platform to build on and manage games correctly to get the win we needed in this competition.

 

---

CAREER PROGRESS

 

I'm not sure which part of the career I want to take on next, I like the idea of getting all the Champions Leagues out the way but I feel I might need something a little more challenging. I still of course have 3 more big league to get out of the way and I will need 2 more leagues after that, one will be Mexico I'm still haunted by losing in 3 finals there for a league win. I'm on June 1st now so it's a good time to make a cuppa and see what is about. I'm also 3 games away from my 1000th game I'm interested to see where I'll be.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Crowy

[_JHTB_]

France 2034 World Cup

My first attempt at a World Cup and the French FA expect us to reach the final so high expectations indeed. We’ve been drawn in a group with Japan and World Cup newcomers Zambia so the group stages should be relatively straight forward. I don’t know how to gauge our overall chances as it’s hard for me to determine who the best team on paper is.

Group Stages

Spoiler

We played the first two fixtures and secured our spot in the second round with ease a 4-0 victory over Japan and a 3-0 victory over Zambia (a little disappointing if anything on the scoreline). Japan followed us to the next round.

Second Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

The second round saw us pitted against New Zealand who we smashed 7-0 in a game that was never really in doubt.

Third Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

Norway were the opposition that awaited us in the 3^rd round a game we should win, but Norway did top their group which contained Brazil so they’ve obviously got something about them. Not enough in the end as we won 3-0 to progress to the quarter final.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Here we faced one of the teams I rejected to take the France job in Argentina, in what is probably the first real test of the World Cup. We were well in control of the game but only managed 1 goal, so they pegged us back in the last minute to take us through to extra time and ultimately penalties where we lost. I’m annoyed because we were far the better team just didn’t take our chances.

The stats

 

 

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Argentina ended up losing to Portugal in the semi-final who set up a final against rivals Spain who beat who saw off Turkey.

Final/Third Place playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Argentina continued to disappoint me after knocking us out by losing to Turkey in the 3^rd place playoff. Spain (another team I turned down for the French job) went on to claim the world cup on penalties.

What now?

Spoiler

As the French FA wanted us to get to the final they fired me after the final had been completed, I’m going to try and get another international job as I’ve still every international tournament to go for.

 

[vikeologist]

24 minutes ago, _JHTB_ said:

France 2034 World Cup

My first attempt at a World Cup and the French FA expect us to reach the final so high expectations indeed. We’ve been drawn in a group with Japan and World Cup newcomers Zambia so the group stages should be relatively straight forward. I don’t know how to gauge our overall chances as it’s hard for me to determine who the best team on paper is.

Group Stages

  Hide contents

We played the first two fixtures and secured our spot in the second round with ease a 4-0 victory over Japan and a 3-0 victory over Zambia (a little disappointing if anything on the scoreline). Japan followed us to the next round.

Second Round (if applicable)

  Hide contents

The second round saw us pitted against New Zealand who we smashed 7-0 in a game that was never really in doubt.

Third Round (if applicable)

  Hide contents

Norway were the opposition that awaited us in the 3^rd round a game we should win, but Norway did top their group which contained Brazil so they’ve obviously got something about them. Not enough in the end as we won 3-0 to progress to the quarter final.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

  Hide contents

 

Here we faced one of the teams I rejected to take the France job in Argentina, in what is probably the first real test of the World Cup. We were well in control of the game but only managed 1 goal, so they pegged us back in the last minute to take us through to extra time and ultimately penalties where we lost. I’m annoyed because we were far the better team just didn’t take our chances.

The stats

 

 

Semi Final (if applicable)

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Argentina ended up losing to Portugal in the semi-final who set up a final against rivals Spain who beat who saw off Turkey.

Final/Third Place playoff (if applicable)

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Argentina continued to disappoint me after knocking us out by losing to Turkey in the 3^rd place playoff. Spain (another team I turned down for the French job) went on to claim the world cup on penalties.

What now?

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As the French FA wanted us to get to the final they fired me after the final had been completed, I’m going to try and get another international job as I’ve still every international tournament to go for.

 

Spoiler

International management sucks sometimes

 

[Crowy]

PSG

2038/39

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Club Overview ~ Finances ~ League Table ~ Squad

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I said I wanted something a little more challenging so I chose . . . PSG. It was kind of weird as there weren't many jobs about to take me a step further in my challenge Atletico and Real Mardrid rejected me. Argentina and Lille turned me down too and I was thinking maybe the South Africa move damaged my reputation somehow as Argentina have offered me their job around three times. Then Man City offered me a job which gave me some hope and I declined as I've done that part of the challenge which opened up the PSG job. Dortmund Manager to Man City and PSG Manager to Dortmund, so it was nice to land on my feet so to speak. I really wanted the Lille job tbh they had some good value players to rebuild and PSG have failed to win their league twice since this save started (2020/21 and 2022/23). It (Lille) was just the sort of challenge I wanted but I'm not going to stand still looking for challenges if a position comes up to help me complete this challenge I'm going to take it.

[treva]

 

As mentioned in my previous update, a change of formation and mentality was needed ahead of the 31/32 season. Moving from a 4-2-3-1, which didn't really suit the team, to a 3-2-3-1-1 formation that utilised wing backs instead of attacking widemen. We also switched from a customised fluid counter attack style to gegenpress, placing focus on fitness that suits our relatively young squad. Considering we were switching from two centre backs to three, it probably wasn't the best idea to sell two of our defenders, but the £15.5mil total for them was too good to turn down. We also sold our Peruvian international goalkeeper to Wolves, bringing in an Argentinian replacement from Boca Juniors who proved more than worthy to don the first team gloves. With the board rejecting almost all deals that didn't involve Argentine's (club policy), I ended up with three new signings from the South American giants - a right wing back, an attacking mid as well as the aforementioned GK. Rounding up our summer activity, we signed a Serbian striker on a free, a back-up veteran wing back on a free and a Mexican forward on loan from Parma to help with the Mexican home-grown quota.

 

We started off with the Campeon de Campeones, effectively the Super Cup, against old foes Cruz Azul. We beat them 1-0 to set up a Campeones Cup match with MLS champs Colorado, who we dispatched 1-0 also. We suffered another Leagues Cup penalties defeat after a 0-0 draw against Orlando in the QF - we have now taken 9 penalty shootout penalties and missed 5 of them. The opening stage was pretty irrelevant having won it last season but we finished second, losing only to Atlas (1st), Pumas and Toluca. We then faced Toluca in the QF, losing the first leg, before coming back to thrash them 3-0 in the second leg. That loss would prove to be the only loss for a while. We went on to beat Queretaro in the SF before setting up yet another final with Cruz Azul. We drew the first leg 1-1 before a crazy 5-3 victory in extra time in the second leg, which at one point saw us on all out attack thinking we were going to lose on away goals, only to find out they don't count in the final. Back-to-back titles was nice, but the real prize was up next.

 

We played seven league games before our opening round game vs New York Red Bulls, winning six and drawing one. A 4-0 demolition of New York away from home put the tie to bed early. Four more victories in the league brought us to the Champs League QF match with LAFC and we won both legs 1-0. We drew Queretaro in the semi final but tiredness seemed to be kicking in as we rotated heavily in the league. Despite a drop in performance we continued our unbeaten streak, extending it to 25 by beating Queretaro in the first leg 2-1. A 2-2 draw in the second saw us through to the final. Against who? You guessed it, Cruz Azul. We drew the first leg 1-1 after they scored an 89th minute equaliser. The second leg was just as close on the pitch but we made the most of our chances and ran out 3-0 winners in the end, clinching my first Champions League title and Tijuana's third.

 

The rest of the season meant very little, but we kept our unbeaten streak going until the closing stage semi final. In total we racked up 34 games without defeat and finished top of the closing stage league standings. Our loss came against Tigres 3-2 in the semi final first leg, before beating them 1-0 at home to go through on away goals. We faced Atlas, easily the best team besides us this season. The amount of games we had played caught up with us and we were defeated 1-0 in both legs. The fairytale ending wasn't to be but we had had an amazing season. Four trophies from a possible six and, to top it off, I had entered the English Hall of Fame.

 

 

Here's a look at our 'Best XI'. No one really stood out but the best performers were comfortably Valdes, Milan and captain del Palacio Langer.

 

Time for a new challenge and perhaps my first foray into European management...

 

 

Challenge Progress

Club

3/10 Top Domestic Leagues: Indonesian Liga 1 (x2), Chinese Super League (x2), Liga BBVA Bancomer MX Apertura (x2)

2/10 Domestic Cups: Piala Indonesia (x2), Yanjing Beer Chinese FA Cup

1/5 Club Continental Championships: CONCACAF Champions League

0/1 Club World Championship:

International

0/5 Continental Tournaments:

0/1 World Tournaments:

Edited July 3, 2020 by treva

[vikeologist]

Just padding out the thread, but my 4 time MVP at Everton Christopher McKay might be on the move again.

I bought him for £20million, but after I left Everton he was sold for a then world record £196 million to Real Madrid.

That record was broken less than a year later by the worst transfer ever when Real sold a striker to Man City for £197million. Aparisi wouldn't even make it into my first XI at Dortmund.

[treva]

 

So a year has passed since I left Tijuana. Not a lot has happened. Well, I guess a fair bit has happened in a way. Not long after I left Tijuana I got back into international management with Norway. I had applied for all the big jobs but no one wanted me, although Norway still had Haaland and were ranked inside the top 20.

Our Nations League group consisted of Germany, Spain and Russia. After a thrashing from Germany in my first game in charge we bounced back to win a thriller against Russia 4-3 thanks to a Haaland winner in the last minute. We lost to Spain and then had a heartbreaking defeat to Germany as they scored a freekick with virtually the last kick of the match to win 3-2. Two 1-1 draws ended our Nations League campaign and we had avoided relegation with 5 points.

As we waited for the World Cup qualifiers to come round the Nigeria job came open after they failed to win the AFCON and so I jumped at the chance of taking them over. Ranked 10th when I took charge, we thrashed Mali in a friendly 6-0 to move up to 9th before a massive break to AFCON qualifiers at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, no appealing club job had come up since the previous summer. I had managed to get an interview with Man City but they went with Pochettino instead. The likes of Sao Paulo and River Plate rejected me, as well as a few top European clubs, leaving me waiting for the right opportunity. After a year of waiting a few top jobs came up at the end of the 2032/33 season. Tottenham and PSG were the big ones but I couldn't even get interviews for those. That left Valencia, 4th in La Liga, and Boca Juniors. Both offered me jobs but I took Boca with the opportunity of going straight into the Copa Libertadores knockouts almost immediately. We play Sao Paulo, a team that had just beaten Boca at the Club World Cup, in the first round of knockouts - should be a good test.

Edited July 6, 2020 by treva

[_JHTB_]

South Korea: Asian Cup 2035

As I suspected after getting the boot from France I didn’t have too long without an international job though it was a tough choice to where to go with me settling on South Korea as I feel they have a good chance at winning the Asian Cup. I did have to persuade their best two players out of international retirement including 4 times Ballon D’or winner Han Ji-Yong.

 

We were drawn against Vietnam, North Korea and Bahrain in our group which should be straightforward such is the relative strength of South Korea compared to them. Though Vietnam sees me up against ex-player Lam Thanh Hai who averages over a goal a game or his national side. This is my 2^nd attempt at the Asian cup following reaching the semi-final with Qatar 8 years prior.

Group Stages

Spoiler

Where I thought we’d have an easy time in the Groups our first game against Vietnam, whilst we did win 2-0 in the end, we made hard work of it not scoring until the 80^th minute, but a victory nonetheless. The second game was similar in some respects that we were lacking somewhat yet still recorded a comfortable victory, this time 3-0 versus North Korea which was enough to secure our spot in the next round with a game to go. The final group game had the same feel as the other two a relatively easy victory, but less convincing than I feel it should of. That said, the 3^rd game was with a more rotated squad and we did still win 3-0 – maybe I’m expecting too much.

Second Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

We drew Jordan in the second round, a Nation at similar placing in the World ranking as all of our group stage opponents, so with us comfortably winning in the groups in spite of not playing sensationally we should ease through to the next round. 4^th game, same script, far from what I feel is our best, but a 2-0 victory and through to the quarter final.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

The Quarter final saw us against Saudi Arabia, who on paper should give us a tougher game than what we’ve experienced thus far as they are over 30 places higher in the World. We got off to a very slow start as we just weren’t connecting with shots all of the off target or blocked which allowed them to race into a two goal lead and leaving me fearing yet another failed international tournament. Thankfully, we pulled the game back to 2-2 before half time though the second half was woeful as nothing happened and we sped through to extra time. We snatched what I thought was the winner late into extra time, but conceded a late goal to go to penalties, my second consecutive international quarter final penalty shootout, my second consecutive international quarter final penalty shootout loss. It was coming, we didn’t play well at all through the tournament just happened to be facing teams much worse than us overall.

Semi-Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

This is the stage I got to with a much worse Qatari team in my previous Asian cup outing this time round we saw China and Iran dispatch Saudi Arabia and Australia respectively.

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

In the final the favourites would probably be Iran owing to their better world ranking but that doesn’t always mean much in knockout football. This time world ranking won out as Iran beat China to claim their first Asian Cup in 57 years.

What next?

Spoiler

International football is sure to add another decade onto this challenge for me, especially with the cutthroat nature that it brings. I knew South Korea were going to fire me after the final had taken place so had already applied for my next international adventure arriving at Nigeria (I did previously unsuccessfully manage Nigeria U23s) with the hope of winning the African Cup of Nations.

 

[vikeologist]

You're lucky if international football only adds a decade on to the challenge for you, though given that I last achieved this challenge with FM15, international football has now added half an actual decade for me. 

I mean, it was FM18 where I achieved the club side, and had to give up the international side after 20 more years, so I suppose it's only added 2 so far.

 

 

[_JHTB_]

31 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

You're lucky if international football only adds a decade on to the challenge for you, though given that I last achieved this challenge with FM15, international football has now added half an actual decade for me. 

I mean, it was FM18 where I achieved the club side, and had to give up the international side after 20 more years, so I suppose it's only added 2 so far.

 

 

I wouldn't be at all surprised if my decade prediction ends up being very optimistic, only really said a decade because I've not done too well in cup competitions in general, so not just international tournaments that are adding time on

[Crowy]

Yeah I was going to leave International management until after I completed the club side of things, but I think I will get the club side of done in the next 10 seasons or so. Then I feel the International management could take quite a while so I've started to look for jobs and hopefully I can get 2 or 3 out the way in the next 10 years.

[treva]

Agree with all that’s been said RE international management. I find it hard enough to win the qualifiers let alone the important tournament matches. At least we’re not alone, I guess.

[_JHTB_]

Liverpool: 2034/35 Season

Depth, Four Horse Race, 6 pointer, Crazy Form and Defensive Fragility

Last season I said that we didn’t really have any saleable assets and I was proved to be incorrect as we managed to have a prolific transfer window which is spite of spending over £200 million still saw us make a profit and allowed me to complete a major overhaul of the playing squad. The players brought in make the squad, in my opinion, a much stronger unit as a whole making me much more confident of a top 4 finish this season.

Depth

Such was the overhaul in the summer we handed out 7 debuts in our opening league fixture a 4-0 victory over Watford. The season in general got off to a great start, 8 wins from our first 10 games though I wouldn’t say we were playing amazingly, just getting the job done. Defense is a big factor in our game this season few goals conceded makes a goal often enough for the three points. We got off to a strong start in what is a fairly tough Champions League Group, Barcelona, Schalke, and RB Salzburg our opposition. If I’m honest, I don’t really feel we’re playing that much better on the whole to last season we just have a greater squad depth to rely on to keep the players fresh.

Four Horse Race

The run in November and December did see us have a higher volume of games with continental competitions, cup games and league games to contend with and it did have a bit of an effect on the overall form, only 3 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss not terrible form, but we were challenging for the title by this point and that is not title winning form. That said, one of the two victories was a 3-0 win against Manchester United which saw us leapfrog them to top of the league (incidentally they lost their following game 3-0 also as Tottenham also leapfrogged them). Manchester United did end the year top of the league though as they capitalised on both ours and Tottenham’s drop off in form.  So in spite of our form everyone else was faltering at the same time, the title race is much closer than last year 4 teams with a good chance at this stage . We did manage to secure another League Cup semi-final though we played two League 2 teams with Chelsea being the only premier league opposition.

6 pointer

For the second season in a row the semi-final of the League cup pit us against Manchester City, though they were having a worse season than last but that didn’t stop them from comfortably beating us in the first leg putting us on the way to more semi-final heartbreak. We did one better than last season in winning the second leg, unfortunately not by enough as Manchester City knocked us out at the semi-final stage yet again. We were getting back to form in the league winning most of our games as we looked towards trying to make top spot our own though Manchester United were doing their best to prevent that. The game at Old Trafford promising to be a vital match in the season, win and we’d be looking good value for the title, lose and it would be very much touch and go between us very much a title 6 pointer. They were the better team in the match, but thankfully we kept our defensive resolve as we have done well this season to allow us a platform to score a late goal on the counter attack and win 1-0.

Crazy Form

Whilst I was busy concentrating on the threat to the title posed by Manchester United it was the blue side of Manchester that was gearing up to be our main contenders as the season reached the end, 8 league wins in a row put them only 2 points behind us with a game in hand with 6 matches to go. We did manage to knock them out of the Champions League with a 5-1 aggregate score line so we had more matches as the season drew to a close with a Champions League semi-final to navigate, we both did have FA Cup semi-finals as well, they one theirs as my ability to win cup competitions continued to be lacking as we were dismissed 4-0 by West Ham in a game where we were the better team in all stats but goals. All we could do now in terms of the league was just win our games and hope Manchester City drop points and that we did winning 5 in a row to set up a final day showdown with Manchester City. Anything other than a loss would see us win the title, but Manchester City were on some fantastic form, the second half of the season till this point they had won 16 drawn 1 lost 1.

Capitulation

Heartbreak. We were well beaten in the end as Manchester City beat us 5-2 to claim back to back league titles, a disappointing end to what otherwise was a strong season. Well, not quite end, we did have the Champions League final against Bayern Munich to look forward to, but it isn’t all too important except for seeing if we are capable of winning big matches with Liverpool. Another important game lost with Liverpool as we were smashed 3-0 by Bayern Munich as well as we’ve done there we are very capable of just bad performances where we ship goals.

Overview/Looking Forward

Such a disappointing end to the season but realistically this I wasn’t expecting us to be challenging for the league, and in fairness to Manchester City, their second half of the season did a lot to warrant their title win. It may be a blessing in disguise though as I was likely to leave had we won the league this way I’m here for at least another year meaning another opportunity to win one of the two domestic cups alongside the league. This season I will be submitting another record entry as Sepulveda in goal for us kept 22 clean sheets in the league this season.

This summer I don’t think I need to make quite as many signings as last year and I’m probably going to look to trim the squad as a whole namely in the striker positions as I have 4 strikers but only play one up top so few games for some of the strikers so they’re likely to kick up a fuss in the long run. We have a takeover to contend with this summer one already having failed so that should add a bit extra drama to the summer.

Transfers

Second half of the season

Sepulveda

 The story so far

Overall Progress

[vikeologist]

@_JHTB_ I thought that I'd be able to better the 22 clean sheets you've entered in the Records Thread, (thanks for that by the way), but no. 22 is pretty good.

[Crowy]

Sadly I've lost all my FM files, I could go back to my second season in Dortmund but not sure I want to go through 3 or 4 seasons again. I'll take a few days away and see if I want to re do those seasons but in all likelyhood I'll probably start a different smaller challenge till the next FM. I'd just finished France as well winning League and Cup and was in Champions League Final for my final game.

This was my own faultt for messing around, should of backed everything up first just didn't think my FM files would be affected, as it was for something else.

Edit: I'm an effing GENIUS! After 2 hours of fumbling around trying to restore with no restore points... I've finally fixed the problem and found everything again, it transferred to my documents in my one drive for some reason and deleted the important stuff from my usual FM folder so just had to move it from there back to its normal location and it's fixed! I'll have my end of season in PSG posted a bit later.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Crowy

[Crowy]

PSG

2038/39

 

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Manager Profile: Crowy - 2039

Key Players: Diego Araujo ~ Lasse Hansen ~ Matteo Sammartino ~ Nico Hauck ~ Patrick Edwards

Squad: Overview ~ Match Stats

 

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Competitions Overview

(click to Enlarge)

As expected with a team like PSG domestically we won everything comfortable. I had a little scare in the semi final of the Coupe De France where 2nd division Nancy scored an equaliser in the 90th minute and thankfully we went on to win 2-1 by scoring in injury time. I would post a mega update but the Champions League I've already won in this challenge had a couple of good games in that against Liverpool and Man City. We actually managed to turn around a 3-0 deficit against Man City in the 1st Knockout Round which is probably one of my best comebacks in FM in recent memory.

 

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CHALLENGE PROGRESS

CAREER STATS

 

I've enjoyed my short stay in France but I have no reason to hang around here, I've qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup but that is not for another two years and I don't want to delay this challenge by staying here for the one trophy. I think my next plan is to conquer the Asian Champions League then hopefully get a job in 2040/41 with a team that has qualified for the Club World Cup. I think that competition will be my biggest delay on this save with it being every 4 years but I do have two big European League left to complete so I think I will get my chance sooner rather than later.

I'm still looking for jobs on the International front but nothing of note has come up yet, I think the ACON is about to be played so will have a look in to what's available whilst I search for my next club.

 

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NEW TEAMS

Mexico - 2039

 

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Nation Overview

 

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So after leaving PSG I saw the ACON was playing and I was looking at a couple of nations to take over, another competition that was running was the Gold Cup I had a few offers from ACON teams and Mexico and felt Mexico will be the easiest one to get out of the way as they probably easily the best team in NA. So I decided to take the Mexico job first and then do ACON next as their tournament ends roughly the same time as ours.

Beijing Guoan FC

2039

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Club Overview ~ Finances ~ League Table ~ Squad

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Another job that became available was the Beijing Guoan job, the thing that interested me about this team is that they're still in the AFC Chmapions League in the Quarter Final but are behind from the first leg. This is the only Champions League I'm missing from this challenge so will be nice to get that part ticked off. If I do win it this season I will then stay another season focusing on the FA Cup as that was another thing I failed to win in China last time.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Crowy

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Dortmund 2031/32 Season Report

I spent a lot of money on big money signings, (in both my years here) to try to make sure we secured the league title this season.

£341 million on 4 players, but I think they were all worth it. (I bought other cheaper players as well, who were all bargains, including my top striker for Argentina,  Eduardo Salvatierra).

For half the season I didn’t instant result my league matches, because I thought we might need to win almost every match, and I didn’t trust my assistant manager.

We did win almost every match, but we didn’t need to. Shortly after Christmas we were 12 points clear of a Bayern that a mountain of draws.

I started instant resulting, and we won with 4 matches to go.

I probably set a few decent records for a 34 match season, but probably won’t enter them to my thread because there aren’t many leagues with just 34 matches.

Thankfully I also won the German Cup. Leaving a nation without a cup can add seasons to your challenge.

The only stressful part of the cup final was when, 4-0 up, I realised that I still had 2 members of my Argentine national team on the pitch immediately before the Copa America, and hurriedly subbed them off to avoid injury.

Top Goalscorer – Aarón Fernández – 45

45 goals might seem good, but it’s even better when you consider how few matches German clubs play, 48 matches in Aaron’s case.

He cost £95 million, but actually my other striker, and aforementioned Argentina frontman, Eduardo Salvatierra, is probably almost as good having developed nicely with me for the last 2 years.

 

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Juan Manuel Jiménez – 7.77

Another great season from my right winger, and again, despite all the really great players I’ve bought, my best guy is still this one I inherited. To be fair, he was a big pat of the reason I took the job.

Man of The Match – Aarón Fernández - 9

 

Most Valuable Player– Aarón Fernández

Juan Manuel is great obviously, but that was a lot of goals.

The jobs at Milan (and at Lazio) have come up, which hopefully will mean I won’t have to actually quit Dortmund, which can affect your job chances. Obviously, one way or another, this is Bye Bye Borussia.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division		Position	MVP				Notes										
20/21	Folkestone	England VNL South	4th		Alfie Matthews 	(SC) 		Lost in playoff S/F
21/22	Folkestone	England VNL South	1st		Jobi McAnuff	(MR)		FA Cup R4, won league by a country mile.
22/23	Folkestone	England VNL Conference	1st		Dion Rankine	(MR)		FA Cup R4 again, back to back promotions to the Football League
23/24	Folkestone	England League 2	4th and lost in playoff final without me 	Left after 21 matches with Folkestone in 2nd and on course for 3rd promotion in a row.
23/24	Everton		Premier League		11th		Alexander Nübel	(GK)		Took over after 16 matches. Won Carabao Cup.
24/25	Everton		Premier League		7th		Christopher McKay (MR)		Won Carabao Cup (again) and Europa League, thus qualifying for Champions League.
25/26	Everton		Premier League		3rd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Carabao Cup Threepeat, Lost in CL Final.
26/27	Everton		Premier League		1st		Moise Kean (SC)			League / FA Cup Double.	
27/28	Everton		Premier League		2nd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup Treble	
28/29	Everton		Premier League		1st		Christopher McKay (MR)		League, FA Cup, Champions League, Club World Championship	
30/31	Dortmund	Bundesliga		2nd		Juan Manuel Jiménez (MR)	Won Europa League. Whoopy Do.
31/32	Dortmund	Bundesliga		1st		Aarón Fernández (SC)		League / Cup double

International
Year	Team				Achievements
23	Indonesia U23			Topped U23 Asian Nations Cup Qualifying.Quit shortly afterwards.
24-26	Uruguay				World Cup S/F
26-28	France				Knocked out in Euros Q/F
28-	Argentina			World Cup		Matías Gayoso (GK)



Challenge Progress 7/32

Club
 2/10 top domestic leagues 		(England, Germany)			
 2/10 domestic cups 			(England, Germany)						
 1/5 club continental championships	(Europe)	 	
 1/1 club world championship

International
 0/5 continental tournaments 		
 1/1 World Cup

 

[vikeologist]

God, this new style Copa America group stage (playing 5 matches) is pretty boring. One good thing about there only being 2 matches in the new World Cup group stage is that you’re at least engaged by the possibility of a disastrous draw against a team that can then run up the score in the final match. Even when you win by a bucket load in the first match, you wonder if it’s a big enough bucket load.

I'm not sure any of you have done a Copa America recently, (though if you have, I of course read every word of your report), so I wasn't prepared for this. 

[Crowy]

Beijing Guoan FC

2039

 

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Competitions Overview

(click to Enlarge)

So we went on to win the AFC Champions League in our remaining games of the season. Our league form was a bit indifferent with 4 wins 2 draws and 1 loss so we went on to remain 3rd, which I was happy with as we would have qualified for the Champions League again had I not won it this season. Now the dilemma, I'm lacking seriously on the domestic cups front and have already done my transfers in China ready for next season, which is why it took me so long to complete the season (as well as scouring for Mexican players) however I'm concerned with the FIFA Clup World Cup being every 4 years and the next one is in 2041 and I feel this is my best chance not to delay my save any further so after a long 85 days at Beijing Guoan I'm going to move on.

I have no idea what I'm going to do for domestic cups may well have to add/remove a few leagues to get that section done but I've figured it will be a long time before I complete the International side of things so going to try to get the most difficult cup out the way first (CWC), If I don't get that in 2041 I'll have a look at other avenues, as I don't need any more Champions Leagues it gives me more room to manouver.

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CHALLENGE PROGRESS

CAREER STATS

Edited July 10, 2020 by Crowy

[Crowy]

Valencia

2039/40

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Club Overview ~ Finances ~ League Table ~ Squad

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So after leaving Beijing there wasn't many available job, I looked at the jeb security page and Valencia immediately stood out to me. I declared interest and they sacked Zaha straight away.This is the sort of team I've been looking for in the last few seasons a few aging players and it could take me a few seasons to win the league with them. Their wages are ridiculous but they have some good value in the squad to do a rebuild in the summer. Thankfully I've landed on this job in the January transfer window so I will be looking to get our wages down for the time being. One of the problems with this challenge is they want Champions League football at the end of this season and I'm 10 points off 4th. I'm quitely confident tough my tactic has worked well in England, France and Germany so why not Spain right?

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Argentina 2032 Copa America Report

 

Next up is the Copa America with Argentina. 2 years ago when we won the World Cup, this would have been a cakewalk, but Brazil were rubbish then. The manager they appointed then has secured much better results, although we have comfortably beaten them (and indeed everybody else) in World Cup Qualifying.

To be honest, unless there’s a completely fluke result, we should win this. I doubt that I have ever in Football Manager been such a clear favourite for an international tournament, but travesties of justice happen. I still refer to one nation as ‘Bloody Jamaica’ and that must have been at least 4 FMs ago. I think this challenge is really starting to leave permanent scars.

Group Stage

Argentina      2-1     Paraguay

Argentina      4-0     Uruguay

Argentina      4-1     Venezuela

Argentina      4-0     Bolivia

Argentina      0-0     Mexico

 

 

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      3-0     Colombia     

Mexico knocked out Brazil 0-0 on penalties. There’s a possibility that Mexico are better than us, and I didn’t realise because they’re not in South American qualifying.

 

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      2-1     Chile

I was mentally already in the final, and I guess my team was too. This was too close for comfort, with Chile going ahead with a penalty.

 

 

 

3^rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Argentina      2-0     Mexico

This was all one sided, but still close. Mexico had one shot all match, and that wasn’t on target, but it still wasn’t easy. Lautaro Martínez missed a penalty for the second match in a row, and that would have given us the lead, but we ground them down. The Copa America is ours.

 

After The Tournament

Spoiler

 

I’ve left out a lot of the drama, such as it was. There were times when we looked beatable, but that never actually came close to happening.

Sad to leave Argentina. We didn’t have a lot of star players; only 2 world class ones really, our goalie and midfield general. But we played very well as a team, and when even one player was missing, such as our hard working left back who missed this competition through injury, things clicked a lot less.

The stats don’t lie though. 33 competitive matches under me. W31, D1, L1, and that loss was a fairly unimportant loss to Brazil in the previous World Cup Qualifying. The draw was obviously the one against Mexico just now.

 

Since we won something again, I’ll do another MVP, and it’s Matías Gayoso, my goalie again. He conceded the least goals in the competition, (3).

I was offered the jobs at Spain and Italy, but it wasn’t a hard choice especially since my MVPs at Dortmund the last 2 years are Spanish.

Of course, this means that I have to wait 4 years for the next European Championship, but I don’t have any great moral objection to winning the World Cup again in 2 years’ time.

It would be nice to get a job in Africa for next year’s African Nations, but I very much doubt any will become available.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division		Position	MVP				Notes										
20/21	Folkestone	England VNL South	4th		Alfie Matthews 	(SC) 		Lost in playoff S/F
21/22	Folkestone	England VNL South	1st		Jobi McAnuff	(MR)		FA Cup R4, won league by a country mile.
22/23	Folkestone	England VNL Conference	1st		Dion Rankine	(MR)		FA Cup R4 again, back to back promotions to the Football League
23/24	Folkestone	England League 2	4th and lost in playoff final without me 	Left after 21 matches with Folkestone in 2nd and on course for 3rd promotion in a row.
23/24	Everton		Premier League		11th		Alexander Nübel	(GK)		Took over after 16 matches. Won Carabao Cup.
24/25	Everton		Premier League		7th		Christopher McKay (MR)		Won Carabao Cup (again) and Europa League, thus qualifying for Champions League.
25/26	Everton		Premier League		3rd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Carabao Cup Threepeat, Lost in CL Final.
26/27	Everton		Premier League		1st		Moise Kean (SC)			League / FA Cup Double.	
27/28	Everton		Premier League		2nd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup Treble	
28/29	Everton		Premier League		1st		Christopher McKay (MR)		League, FA Cup, Champions League, Club World Championship	
30/31	Dortmund	Bundesliga		2nd		Juan Manuel Jiménez (MR)	Won Europa League. Whoopy Do.
31/32	Dortmund	Bundesliga		1st		Aarón Fernández (SC)		League / Cup double

International
Year	Team				Achievements
23	Indonesia U23			Topped U23 Asian Nations Cup Qualifying.Quit shortly afterwards.
24-26	Uruguay				World Cup S/F
26-28	France				Knocked out in Euros Q/F
28-32	Argentina			World Cup		Matías Gayoso (GK)
					Copa America		Matías Gayoso (GK)
32-	Spain



Challenge Progress 8/32

Club
 2/10 top domestic leagues 		(England, Germany)			
 2/10 domestic cups 			(England, Germany)						
 1/5 club continental championships	(Europe)	 	
 1/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments 		(S America)		
 1/1 World Cup	

 

 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2032 Unemployment (for one day) Report

 

I need a new club job as well. I initially had the choice of jobs at Milan or Lazio who I applied to before the Copa America even started. They took ages to have interviews, and I could have spent that time scouting the players, but I thought it would be an obvious choice with Milan in the Champions league, but Lazio are a lot richer.

In the end, when I quit Argentina, both clubs gave the job to someone else, but if I’m honest I was just hoping that one of the 3 club jobs I really want (Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG) would become available after the European Championship, or even better PSG’s Argentine manager would quit for his national job. Unfortunately he’s already managed the national team, so they probably don't want him back.

So, with no suitable club jobs available, I quit Dortmund as well, and actually was completely unemployed for a day before taking the Spain job.

I’ll just have to wait patiently for a club job. In retrospect, I should have taken the Milan job, but it would have gutted me to have missed out on a dream job.

[_JHTB_]

Liverpool and Nigeria: 2035/36 Season

Disaster, Experimentation, Better, Homegrown Hero and Expectations

The first month of the transfer window for us was spent under transfer embargo so I missed out on some targets through not being able to bid for them which was disappointing especially as the takeover fell through after all that. There were later takeover bids which were causing havoc with my attempts to offload some players. I did manage to secure signings that represent upgrades in the areas but again spent less money than I brought in meaning the financial situation here is significantly healthier than when I joined. The goal for the season has to be to try and get the league title we were close last season so with our squad improvement this time round we should be able to at least challenge again.

Disaster

My hopes of a title challenge again this season took a huge nosedive after just 3 league games as we had no points on the board – this also meant in all competitions this was my worst losing run of the save so far with the last two games of last season and this years community shield which Manchester City won making it 6 losses on the bounce. I thought our 5-0 demolition of Everton would give us a needed boost but a disappointing draw with newly promoted Leeds immediately followed before we lost our first Champions League game against Celtic a miserable start to the season, and I can’t really work out why we’ve been so much worse than last season with only one of my first choice XI from the previous season having left the club.

Experimentation

Given our form I fully expected us to bow out of the first cup competition as we faced Manchester City yet again in the League Cup. Because of my pre-match expectations I decided to experiment with our formation and it paid off as we smashed them 5-1. Though it wasn’t long before I reverted back to our original formation as whilst we were playing ok we were just drawing games with it and changing back started us on a pretty strong winning run to help put us back towards at least contention for the top 4. I did feel like we may be able to win the League Cup this season as most of the better teams went out early. Unfortunately, we put in a pretty inept performance in the quarter final and Sheffield United beat us 2-1. Despite our poor start to the season we hadn’t actually lost a league game since the third of the league losses in a row to start the season and by the halfway stage of the season we were only a point off the top 4 (though 14 off top spot) and had managed to progress through our Champions League group despite having only 1 point from our first 3 matches thanks to an 89^th minute winner away against Real Madrid.

Better

As we entered January we did have some reinforcements arrive that the new owner decided to purchase as part of their promise in their takeover bid, they did add strength to our teams depth and such aided our continuing strong form. We didn’t lose a single game in January with a disappointing 1-1 draw in the 4^th round of the FA Cup against Championship opposition the only frustration – we smashed them in the replay but a shame it went that far. Our form continued through the next month as we looked to find the performances of last season and cement at least a top 4 spot – the title looking out of our reach as Manchester City continued to dominate.  March was more of the same in the league as we were rueing our poor start to the season which killed off our title hopes.

Homegrown Hero

With the league all but out of our reach we still had the FA Cup to compete for as we looked to tick off cup win number. We got lost out again, this time in the quarter finals to West Ham as they scored in the 88^th and 89^th minute to win the tie 3-2, I can’t buy a win in domestic cups. We did end up having poor form to end the season which threatened to see us drop out of the top 4 again thankfully back to back wins to end the season saw us finish 3^rd. We did reach another Champions League final this time doing one better beating Manchester City in the final 1-0 in a very boring match. The scorer of our winner was Billy Brown a player who came through the youth intake here two years ago, the goal was in the opening minute of the game as well.

Expectations

With Nigeria we had a few competitive games, a couple World Cup qualifiers and a couple AFCON qualifiers, both we met expectations and won comfortably, not conceding a goal for good measure. I did coax another top quality player out of international retirement and he returned the favour with 5 goals in 2 games – he’ll likely retire the summer after the next African Cup of Nations so hopefully we’ll have him for that.

Overview/Looking Forward

This season was a huge let down I’d entered it with so much expectation and the team just didn’t live up to that. We did show that we are capable of being a force in the league which does show promise for next season.

This summer I don’t really need many reinforcements I don’t think, maybe a new top quality striker to challenge our ageing front man for the spot. I am a little annoyed with the new owner and the two players he brought in. Not because they’re bad players, they’re actually pretty good, they just undid all the work I had done to improve the financial stability of the team adding over £350k per week to the wage bill between them. Not only that, in spite of the signings being 100% the Chairman one of them is now listed as my highest transfer fee paid at £109 million (doesn’t make much difference in stability but not great for the accuracy of my overview). Incidentally we’ve already got rumours of another takeover less than a year on.

Next season we really need to go better than this and win the league and hopefully one of the cups finally. The Club World Cup also takes place next summer and we have qualified for it thanks to our showing in the Champions League the last two seasnons. We should also qualify for and compete in the African Cup of Nations with our Nigeria side and well, it would be nice to win that obviously.

Our opening league form

Billy Brown

My ‘record’ transfer

The story so far

Overall Progress

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by _JHTB_

[_JHTB_]

The game just decided to not be open anymore after that Champions League, autosave did happen a few days prior to the final so only the final in terms of progress lost but the story of the final will now be different than what I've put a shame but could be worse I suppose.

[Crispypaul]

On 23/04/2020 at 09:23, Crispypaul said:

Just to note I will be taking a little break from this save, fancy doing a one club game for a little while.  Hopefully I will be back!

I'm ready to come back into this after my one-club save.

I can't remember if I mentioned it by I was hired by Roma after leaving Mexico.

I'm also about to play the quarter final of the Gold Cup against Jamaica (I am Mexico) so will update on that next.

[Crispypaul]

Mexico
Gold Cup 2027

Group Stages - Costa Rica, Panama and Guyana were our opponents and we obviously dominated to win the group.

Quarter Final 

Spoiler

Jamaica 2 Mexico 6 - Jamaica were in fact the holders but were absolutely smashed

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Mexico 4 Trinidad and Tobago 0 - another comfortable win to reach the final

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

USA 0 Mexico 2 - despite losing a player to a straight red late on we beat rivals USA to lift the Gold Cup.  I resigned not long after.

 

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Valencia and Spain 2032/3 Season Report

I blame boredom.

For half the season I was only managing the Spanish national side, and then decided to take the Valencia job.

This was a bad idea. They were in mid-table. I couldn’t scout the club, because you can’t do that if you’re only managing internationally.

Basically the club was a mess when I took over. I had to overhaul pretty much the entire backroom staff. The squad was small, and nobody would buy my players I didn’t need, and who I kind of did need because the squad was so small.

Half the first team is pretty good, but I need a few new players, and there’s nowhere near enough money to do it.

I almost left during the season to take a job at Roma, who were going to qualify for the Champions League. I even persuaded my board to not ask for compensation by threatening to quit, and then ended up not taking the job, because Roma are even more of a mess.

Anyway, I promised the board I’d qualify for the Europa League. We finished 6^th, and were unlucky that a midtable side won the Spanish Cup, meaning that we only qualify for the Euro II Playoff.

I’ve applied for the vacant job at Atletico Madrid, who are at least in the Champions League, but I’m not sure they have much more money than Valencia.

Top Goalscorer – Sergio Goñi– 30

Typical of most of my team. Not bad, but not going to get us to the next level.

 

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Sergio Goñi – 7.41

Another great season from my right winger, and again, despite all the really great players I’ve bought, my best guy is still this one I inherited. To be fair, he was a big pat of the reason I took the job.

Man of The Match – Sergio Goñi- 11

 

Most Valuable Player– Sergio Goñi

I don’t suppose I have much choice with this award, but I don’t think he’s going to be a contender for my Challenge XI.

 

As for Spain, we won the European International League, which was nice, but there’s 3 whole years to go until the European Championship. Still, nearly all my first team in comfortably under 30, and hopefully we’ll be even better in 3 years’ time. Our final matches against England and Germany were pretty even affairs.

However, we did win something, so I will nominate an MVP, one of my strike force, Ansu Fati.

Domestic
Season	Team		Division		Position	MVP				Notes										
20/21	Folkestone	England VNL South	4th		Alfie Matthews 	(SC) 		Lost in playoff S/F
21/22	Folkestone	England VNL South	1st		Jobi McAnuff	(MR)		FA Cup R4, won league by a country mile.
22/23	Folkestone	England VNL Conference	1st		Dion Rankine	(MR)		FA Cup R4 again, back to back promotions to the Football League
23/24	Folkestone	England League 2	4th and lost in playoff final without me 	Left after 21 matches with Folkestone in 2nd and on course for 3rd promotion in a row.
23/24	Everton		Premier League		11th		Alexander Nübel	(GK)		Took over after 16 matches. Won Carabao Cup.
24/25	Everton		Premier League		7th		Christopher McKay (MR)		Won Carabao Cup (again) and Europa League, thus qualifying for Champions League.
25/26	Everton		Premier League		3rd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Carabao Cup Threepeat, Lost in CL Final.
26/27	Everton		Premier League		1st		Moise Kean (SC)			League / FA Cup Double.	
27/28	Everton		Premier League		2nd		Christopher McKay (MR)		Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup Treble	
28/29	Everton		Premier League		1st		Christopher McKay (MR)		League, FA Cup, Champions League, Club World Championship	
30/31	Dortmund	Bundesliga		2nd		Juan Manuel Jiménez (MR)	Won Europa League. Whoopy Do.
31/32	Dortmund	Bundesliga		1st		Aarón Fernández (SC)		League / Cup double
32/33	Valencia	Primera Liga		6th		Sergio Goñi (SC)		Took over after 16 matches. Qualified for Euro II.

International
Year	Team				Achievements
23	Indonesia U23			Topped U23 Asian Nations Cup Qualifying.Quit shortly afterwards.
24-26	Uruguay				World Cup S/F
26-28	France				Knocked out in Euros Q/F
28-32	Argentina			World Cup		Matías Gayoso (GK)
					Copa America		Matías Gayoso (GK)
32-	Spain				European League		Ansu Fati (SC)



Challenge Progress 8/32

Club
 2/10 top domestic leagues 		(England, Germany)			
 2/10 domestic cups 			(England, Germany)						
 1/5 club continental championships	(Europe)	 	
 1/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments 		(S America)		
 1/1 World Cup		

 

[_JHTB_]

Nigeria: African Cup of Nations 2037

As Nigeria we easily qualified for the African Cup of Nations winning every game in qualifying (also currently on 100% in World Cup Qualifying). We were rewarded with a relatively easy group with Tha Gambia, Angola, and Sudan to play. If we’re going by World Rankings we should be heavy favourites to win the tournament but I’ve had enough heartache in these competitions to ignore world rankings.

 

I also thought the AFCON had been moved to summer months in real life? This takes place in the historical January.

Group Stages

Spoiler

As expected of us we progressed through our group with 3 wins from our 3 games, I’m a little disappointed we weren’t more dominant especially in the Angola game which we only won 2-1. We had beaten Angola with a 9-0 aggregate in the qualification for this tournament which is the basis for my disappointment there.

Second Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

We got what I thought was near enough the worst possible second round draw getting Morocco, 2^nd place Angola got on paper a much easier draw with Uganda but we should still be able to progress. I was fearing another knockout defeat after we were reduced to 10 men after just 15 minutes but Morocco were playing a defensive strikerless system so despite their man advantage we smashed them 4-0 with them only mustering a solitary shot in the entire match – off target too.

Their Formation

 

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Ghana next up and I’ve given up trying to predict the strengths of teams at this point so who knows how we’ll fair. It was a pretty comfortable victory as we secured a 2-0 victory to send us through to the semi-final.

Semi-Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Cameroon our opponents in the semi-final as we look to get to my first international final since 2021 when I got to the Gold Cup Final with Haiti. Low and behold, we lost. International football is so frustrating, we absolutely dominated the game against Cameroon yet still contrived to lose the game 3-2.

Final/Third Place Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

A prestigious 3^rd place playoff to play, I can’t wait. This is a rare usage of instant result for me as I don’t particularly care about the result. We won 2-0 to claim 3^rd spot and Cameroon did at least go on to win the entire thing so every cloud, right?

What next?

Spoiler

I guess I’ll stay on as Nigeria manager until the World Cup or something, but I’ll keep an eye out to see if anything other comes up, though I’d imagine none worth taking will till after the World Cup anyway.

 

[_JHTB_]

Liverpool: 2036/37 Season

Injuries, Suspensions, Sole Focus, Bottling and 16^th times the charm

After my game crash the Champions League Final finished 2-1 rather than the 1-0 mentioned but it obviously had no bearing on my plans for the summer. As I had planned I didn’t bring a whole load of reinforcements during the summer signing only 4 players with 2 of them replacements for outgoing players and the other two adding additional quality in depth to our squad all the while making £200 million in transfer profit.

Injuries

Whilst results wise the season got off to a much better start then last we immediately were suffering from a fair few medium to long term injuries to fully test the strength in depth of the team four players who would be in with a shout at being in my best eleven picked up injuries that saw them out over 2 months each, and another four picked up month long injuries. They were staggered somewhat so we weren’t without all eight in one go but the depth of my team was definitely tested. Our early season form suggests our squad coped well with our injuries, though we did struggle in the Champions League with back to back losses in our opening two fixtures and saw ourselves take an early exit from the league cup

Suspensions

We were looking good in the league and were unbeaten in the first 15 games though any thoughts of an unbeaten season (I didn’t really think we were capable) left when Arsenal beat us 2-0, an uncharacteristically inept performance from my team. That result immediately proceeded us drawing our final Champions League game against my ex-team Atletico Madrid which saw us miss out on progression to the knockouts which was disappointing considering we were the holders. Really on the whole December was a pretty poor month for us, the prior two setbacks and then we had 4 players pick up suspensions in the same game – if that wasn’t enough another player picked up the flu forcing us to 5 changes for the next match. Even with the changes I probably expected us to win, but one of the replacement players came in and got sent off after 3 minutes and we lost 2-1. We also picked up yet another major injury as our best attacking midfielder broke their ankle and the next game we got another broken ankle – 7 major injuries this already season and only halfway through.

Sole Focus

Coming into the new year I was still fairly content with the team although we were in a tough title battle with Manchester City and Tottenham who had also had really solid seasons to date but I really wanted to try and win a cup this season especially following our disappointing early exit from the league cup. I quickly changed my tune and ‘decided’ that we’d focus on securing the league title as we lost 2-1 to Bournemouth in the 3^rd round of the cup (in spite of creating 7 clear cut chances). Even then it wasn’t long before we dropped to 3^rd following yet more disappointing results. We did pick up not long after though perhaps benefitting from no domestic competitions.

Bottling

Whilst as mentioned we were out of domestic cups I feel fixtures are less optimally spaced out for Europa League as opposed to Champions League so it did cause a little worry, but the race with 10 games to go was ridiculously close between us Manchester City and Tottenham with just one point separating the teams with all 3 to play each other. As the final 10 fixtures transpired each of the 3 teams were in the driving seat but with 2 months to go I had Tottenham down as favourites following our 0-0 draw against Manchester City. They absolutely bottled it winning only 2 games of their final 9 meaning it was a throwback to a couple of seasons ago with us up against Manchester City for the top spot.

16^th times the charm

The title race was such a stressful time and following a 2-1 defeat to a team that ended up relegated in Norwich us and Manchester City were level on points with 4 games to go, though we did have the better goal difference, though thankfully Manchester City lost their next game which allowed us some breathing room. The penultimate game saw us in a position that if we won we’d be all but guaranteed the league title due to our goal difference. We won 6-0 which meant there needed to be a 20 goal swing in the last game or Manchester City to win the league, it needen’t matter as we won our game anyway. We also managed to progress to the Europa League final which is nice.

But I’m finally on the leaderboard, since getting my 9^th trophy of the challenge there have been 15 opportunities for me to get my 10th, 4 FA Cups, 4 League Cups, 3 Premier Leagues, 1 World Cup, 1 Asian Cup, 1 African Cup of Nations and 1 Club World Cup.

Overview/Looking Forward

We do have the next iteration of the Club World Cup in a few years but on this season I’m so happy we managed to hold on though maybe we got lucky with Tottenham ending the season so poor. One of the key factors for this season for me was bringing in a new striker in summer. The one I brought in had only reached double figures in a top flight once before and that was under my stewardship at Atletico Madrid and he didn’t let me down winning the golden boot, but it wasn’t just his explots that were vital with our second choice striker whilst scored 15 less than our first choice he was very good in terms of minutes per goal.

The Club World Cup will be my swansong with Liverpool as whilst I haven’t won the FA Cup or League Cup I’m going to try and get a job in Italy or France, though I may leave France till last as it always seems harder to get a top job their so may be a big rebuild job.

We didn’t have any games with Nigeria since our disappointing AFCON campaign so I’m just going to plug away and try and qualify for the World Cup and make any international decision after then.

Major Injuries

Indiscipline

10 games to go

Minute Per Goal

The story so far

Overall Progress

[vikeologist]

Had an easy Spanish Cup 1st round tie, so decided to go for some records.

Some of my players seemed a bit frustrated by my urging them forward late in the match.