The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge - Silver Age Archive

[vikeologist]

1 hour ago, _JHTB_ said:

 

Overall Progress

[_JHTB_]

Liverpool: Club World Cup 2037

After a solid domestic season my first hope was that we had better draw luck then we had in this competition 4 years ago with Atletico Madrid. Alas another tough group with Barcelona and Atlas Guadalajara. Regardless of how we fare I will be resigning after the tournament.

Group Stages

Spoiler

Not only did we have a harder group than we would have liked we also ended up with the worst game order with us playing matches 1 and 2 in the group, I would have much preferred 2 and 3 and obviously 1 and 3 but oh well. The first game was against the easier opposition on paper against Atlas though we did make hard work of it scoring two late goals. The second game is basically a must not lose though given we only generated 2 goal difference from the first match I would guess it is actually a must win. Thankfully we raced into a 3 goal lead in the first half and despite a below par second half we held on to secure a 3-2 victory and a place in the quarter final.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

We drew Tottenham in the Quarter Final, the benefit of our group stage scheduling means that we did have a much longer rest than them for our game which should hopefully allow us to progress. In spite of our superior fitness it took us to extra time to take the lead with us scoring in the 110^th minute, 111^th minute and then being reduced to 10 men in the 112^th minute. Spurs did pull one back before the end of the game but thankfully we held on to progress to the semi final.

Semi-Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Another English team in the Semi-Final as we faced off against rivals Manchester United, and in predictable fashion the team buckled under the pressure, conceding a goal just before half time before our winger inexplicably decided to get himself sent off. The second half was as expected with a player deficit and Manchester United got a second goal. I did push for it towards the end with a 2-5-3 formation which did yield us a goal, but alas it wasn’t enough. I should come into these international style tournaments expecting just to lose, save me getting my hopes up.

Final/Third Place Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Another 3^rd place playoff to Instant result my way through our game against Internacional (why couldn’t we get this as the semi-final draw). We won the game 2-0 and yet again it was the team that beat me to go onto win as Manchester United bested their intercity rivals Manchester City 1-0 in the final.

What next?

As I planned, I did resign after the tournament and do have job applications thrown in with a couple of potential options for me, but I’m sort of hoping that the Liverpool job will provide a lure to a manager of a team that would be a better option for me.

[vikeologist]

2 hours ago, _JHTB_ said:

Liverpool: Club World Cup 2037

After a solid domestic season my first hope was that we had better draw luck then we had in this competition 4 years ago with Atletico Madrid. Alas another tough group with Barcelona and Atlas Guadalajara. Regardless of how we fare I will be resigning after the tournament.

Group Stages

  Reveal hidden contents

Not only did we have a harder group than we would have liked we also ended up with the worst game order with us playing matches 1 and 2 in the group, I would have much preferred 2 and 3 and obviously 1 and 3 but oh well. The first game was against the easier opposition on paper against Atlas though we did make hard work of it scoring two late goals. The second game is basically a must not lose though given we only generated 2 goal difference from the first match I would guess it is actually a must win. Thankfully we raced into a 3 goal lead in the first half and despite a below par second half we held on to secure a 3-2 victory and a place in the quarter final.

 

This tournament group stage set up is definitely difficult if you're not in the final match.

At least you have 2 Euro leagues to win, which could very well take you up to the next CWC, but no guarantee of a second job with a club that will qualify. Generally speaking, one would expect there to be one Italian or French club there in 4 years time, and that's PSG, unless you change that through your own managerial success, so you may have to stay with your next club for 4 years.

TLDR: That sucks.

 

[_JHTB_]

4 hours ago, vikeologist said:

This tournament group stage set up is definitely difficult if you're not in the final match.

At least you have 2 Euro leagues to win, which could very well take you up to the next CWC, but no guarantee of a second job with a club that will qualify. Generally speaking, one would expect there to be one Italian or French club there in 4 years time, and that's PSG, unless you change that through your own managerial success, so you may have to stay with your next club for 4 years.

TLDR: That sucks.

 

Yeah, hopefully I'll be able to progress through to the next one though I think I'm planning to leave my last top 5 league till last then I'm not limited to the premier teams in that league and can build them up whilst I'm chasing the 10 international trophies I'm inevitably still after. Incidentally, it is Lille who have won the last two titles in France and with ease too so perhaps not on the PSG call.

[vikeologist]

1 hour ago, _JHTB_ said:

Yeah, hopefully I'll be able to progress through to the next one though I think I'm planning to leave my last top 5 league till last then I'm not limited to the premier teams in that league and can build them up whilst I'm chasing the 10 international trophies I'm inevitably still after. Incidentally, it is Lille who have won the last two titles in France and with ease too so perhaps not on the PSG call.

PSG have won the last 16 seasons, though they're in a battle this season, which is of course good news for me, because I'd like their manager to be sacked, though the timing may suck.

[treva]

Anybody else played the Argentina Superliga in this challenge? Crazy format with the Copa Libertadores and Copa Argentina ending halfway through the league season and then starting again before the season is finished. Taking me forever to get this season done.

[Crispypaul]

15 hours ago, treva said:

Anybody else played the Argentina Superliga in this challenge? Crazy format with the Copa Libertadores and Copa Argentina ending halfway through the league season and then starting again before the season is finished. Taking me forever to get this season done.

Yep I had a couple of seasons as River Plate.  It does take some getting used to, but at least the league itself is relatively straightforward.

Also it appears it only takes two seasons for non-Argentine players to get citizenship which is great if you've found players from other leagues (Colombia and Paraguay in particular) but are near your foreign player limit.

[treva]

53 minutes ago, Crispypaul said:

Yep I had a couple of seasons as River Plate.  It does take some getting used to, but at least the league itself is relatively straightforward.

Also it appears it only takes two seasons for non-Argentine players to get citizenship which is great if you've found players from other leagues (Colombia and Paraguay in particular) but are near your foreign player limit.

Yeah, I've found as a league in general they don't have many foreign players anyway. When I joined Boca their entire squad was full of Argentineans. Thankfully only have 8 league games and four cup games left. 

[Crispypaul]

  

  

  

  Crispypaul
Roma
Serie A
2027/28

League - Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Table - after a poor 8th place finish the previous season only Europa League qualification was required, however we smashed it and won the league with 100 points

Italian Cup  - Fixtures - in Italy if you finish in the top 8 in Serie A you enter the cup quite far down the line (the equivalent of the 5th round in England) - we did well to get to the final after sneaking past Juventus in the semis to face Sassuolo (now managed by Andre Villas Boas) and a dull game was won by us in the end on penalties.

Finances - reasonable.  There's a lot less money in Italy than I thought.

Transfers - with only two competitions we didn't need that big a squad so I offloaded some high earners and spare players

Squad

Key players

Giacomo Raspadori - very prolific Italian international striker

Lorenzo Pellegrini - veteran Italian central midfielder

Emi Buendia - experienced Argentine right winger signed on a bosman before arrived, was great down the wing

Ratao - a bargain £20.5m release clause signing from Gremio, the teenage central midfield still has plenty of room for improvement

Jesus Valencia - young Colombian centre half

Gorka Santisteban - Spanish left back now picking up Spain caps

Eduardo Quaresma - Chelsea paid £59m for him from Sporting a few seasons back, but he was signed on a bosman before I arrived.  Finally capped by Portugal.

Carlos Silva - one of the best bargains I have had, this forward cost just a £9m release clause from Penarol in Uruguay and went on to become the top scorer in Europe.

Future - so that is Italy down already.  I do fancy a stab at the Champions League however if a good job comes up after Euro 2028 I'll move.

 

Domestic
Season	 Team			Division		Position			Notes						
2019     IF Karlstad        	Swedish 1st   	   	 	 6th
2020	 IF Karlstad		Swedish 1st			1st		Champions, National B
2021	 IF Karlstad		Swedish 1st Elite		3rd		Promoted, National A
2022	 IF Karlstad		Swedish Premier Divsion		 -		left partway through season
2022 	IFK Norrkoping		Swedish Premier Division 	3rd		Qualified for Europe, Continental C
2023	IFK Norrkoping		Swedish Premier Division	1st		Cup Winners, ECL Knockouts, Continental A.  Resigned at end of season.
2024	Jeonbuk			Korean League 1			1st		Cup Winners, ACL Winners.  Resigned at end of season.
2024/25	River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	2nd
2025/26 River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	1st		Copa Sudamericana winners, cup finalist
2026/27 River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	  -  		Cup winners, Copa Libertadores winners, resigned
2027 	Cruz Azul		Liga MX				1st		CONCACAF Champions League winners, resigned at end of season
2027/28	Roma			Serie A				1st		Italian Cup winners


International
Year	   Team					Achievements
2021	Oman			Qualifed for 2023 Asian Cup
2022	Oman			left at end of year
2022	Netherlands		joined after 2022 World Cup
2023	Netherlands		Qualified for Euro 2024
2024	Netherlands		Won Euro 2024
2024/25 Netherlands		Won Nations League 2025
2025/26 Netherlands		Qualified for WC 2026
2026/27 Mexico			-
2027	Mexico			Won Gold Cup, resigned

Challenge Progress

Club
 5/10 top domestic leagues (IFK Norrkoping, Sweden, 2023; Jeonbuk, Korea, 2024; River Plate, Argentina, 2025/26; Cruz Azul, Mexico, 2027; Roma, Italy, 2027/28)
 4/10 domestic cups (IFK Norrkoping, Sweden, 2023; Jeonbuk, Korea, 2024; River Plate, Argentina, 2026; Roma, Italy, 2027/28)
 3/5 club continental championships (Jeonbuk, Asia, 2024; River Plate, South America, 2026; Cruz Azul, North America, 2027)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 2/5 continental tournaments (Netherlands, Europe, 2024; Mexico, North America, 2027)
 0/1 world tournaments 

Edited July 23, 2020 by Crispypaul

[vikeologist]

Now supposedly my second best striker, and potential ability wise could be a mainstay for me at both club and international level.

Just one problem. This guy has never scored a first team goal, and believe me I've given him some really easy games. 

I mean everything else is good. Attributes, shots on target, assists, ratings, and when playing for literally any other team than my first team, is bag full of goals. This guy has it all, apart from the whole scoring in the first team, and it's becoming really noticeable, especially since all our other strikers score roughly every 40 minutes.

It's becoming almost comical.

 

I'm tempted to let him take a penalty if we're significantly on top in a match I don't instant result, but he's rubbish at penalties, so it might make it worse.

Anyway, remember the name, because he'll probably be my top scorer next season (definitely not the one I'm coming to the end of) and help my Spanish team win the Euro in 2 years' time.

I'm starting him every match from now on. I'm going to make it happen.

 

UPDATE: Hallelujah. 

 

 

Edited July 23, 2020 by vikeologist

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Valencia and Spain 2033/4 Season Report

At the start of the season I decided to give it 10 matches, and if at that point we weren’t contending for the title, I’d quit.

9 matches in, with losses to both Barca and Real Madrid, and only 4 wins from 9, our title hopes were essentially over, but I have moved the club quite a lot into the black. Maybe at some point the board will make some of that money available for transfers. Mind you, it will take a lot more than the £100 or so million we have in the bank to make these guys contenders.

I had to give up on a job at AC Milan because they could afford the compensation, but like Roma and Atletico before, it didn’t look a good situation anyway. Way down the table and they’d lost their first 2 champions league matches.

Another factor was that despite the results, I had a good team. I didn’t think that at the time, because they’d let me down in those first 9 matches, but I had brought in and developed good players.

I did come extremely close to quitting, but I asked myself, is it possible that we can win next season, which after all would mean only taking two and a half seasons to get the job done.

It’s a good job I didn’t quit, because after those first 9 matches, we went on a winning spree.

We kept pace with Real Madrid and even overtook Barca for 2^nd on the last day of the season, but Real Madrid never faltered and finished 10 points ahead on 100 points.

That still left the Spanish Cup, but unfortunately we went out very early in the 3^rd round.

We won the Euro Cup II. Frankly I’d have been very disappointed if we hadn’t.

Top Goalscorer – Nathan – 45

Bought this Brazilian striker for just £15 million, and he is world class.

Also signed a veteran Dutch striker on a free and he bagged 37 goals despite playing a lot less.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Carlos Gimeno -7.79

4 players had a +7.70 rating, but my left winger narrowly topped the category.

 

Man of The Match – Nathan / Gimeno - 9

 

Most Valuable Player– Carlos Gimeno

Uncapped Carlos has been included in the (provisional) Spanish squad for the first time for the World Cup, and due to an injury to my normal starter, might even start.

For indeed next up is the World Cup with Spain, which I don't need to win, but I do need to avoid a disastrous early exit which would result in my sacking.

 

We've won every competitive match for the last 18 months without even conceding a goal.

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.
33/34	Valencia	PrimeraLiga		2nd		Carlos Gimeno (ML)		Won Euro Cup 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	

 

Edited July 24, 2020 by vikeologist

[treva]

 

This was by far the longest season in terms of time taken to complete having joined at the beginning of the 2033/34 league season but midway through the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Argentina. Coming off the back of a trophyless season the season before, I was expecting to mount an immediate challenge on all competitions, with focus primarily on the Copa Libertadores. We had a huge chance to tick that off my list within half a season having already made it to the second round before I joined, where recent surprise winners of the Club World Cup, Sao Paolo, were waiting. They had beaten us on their way to winning that competition so revenge was in order. We drew 1-1 away before seeing them away with ease 3-0 in the second leg to progress through to the QFs.

Meanwhile, the Superliga had started well with five straight victories, as well as a victory in the 6th round of the Copa Argentina. Then we faced an early Superclasico against River, where we dominated them at home but were unable to make it count and were punished, losing 1-0 in what already seemed like a vital result even so early on. We faced fellow Superliga rivals Argentinos Jrs in the Copa Libertadores QFs, this time winning the away leg 3-2 before holding them to a 1-1 draw at home to progress to the SFs.

They shocked us in the league a few games later and, after victories in the cup and the first leg of our Copa Libertadores semi final vs Flamengo, back-to-back losses to Velez and Independiente really dented our title hopes as we fell eight points behind River and dropped as low as fourth. Luckily our cup form was not effected and we made our way to the Copa Libertadores final 2-1 on aggregate despite a 1-0 loss in the second leg. That would be our last defeat for 15 games, which including a run of three back-to-back cup games.

First came the Copa Argentina Semi Final where we defeated Velez 2-0 to progress to the final. First we had to go through River in the Copa Libertadores final, which we did with relative ease, beating them 2-1 in yet another game we dominated having conceded from a penalty in the first half. The Copa Argentina final was perhaps the easiest game of our season as we wiped the floor with Racing Club 4-0, scoring two goals inside five minutes to put things to bed early.

In the league we would win 14 of our next 16 matches, and added the Supercopa to double our tally of final wins vs River, as well as the Recopa Sudamericana, the equivalent of the UEFA Super Cup, beating Fortaleza 3-1 on aggregate to land our fourth trophy of the season.

Our league chances looked over when we threw away a 2-0 lead at home to Velez to lose 3-2 and fall seven points adrift of River, but results went in our favour as we lined up to face our rivals in the penultimate game of the season just two points behind them. Sadly we were never at the races and they thundered home a header from 18 yards to beat us 1-0 and clinch the title with a game to spare. Highly frustrating as we had scored the most goals in the history of the Superliga, landing 90 points in the process, which would have been enough to win the league every other year apart from this one. Fair play to River, though, they never really let up and were masters at grinding out wins when unconvincing.

 

Results

League Table

Copa Libertadores

Copa Argentina

 

Tomas Hernandez had a monster season with 40 goals across all competitions, whilst Fernando Montero was by far the league's best signing. Other notable mentions for Omar Apaolaza who would probably be star striker for most other clubs in South America but had to play Inside Forward for the entire season and young Hernan Barragan who set a Superliga record for his average rating at the age of just 20 having stepped up to fill the void left by Hernan Biondi's mid-season departure to Flamengo (who we would subsequently draw in the Copa Libertadores Group Stages but beat to no.1 spot in the group).

 

The World Cup with Nigeria is up next and with a few tasty European club jobs available I will just have to see what happens in the meantime.

 

Challenge Progress

Club

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

3/10 Domestic Cups: Piala Indonesia (x2), Yanjing Beer Chinese FA Cup, Copa Argentina

2/5 Club Continental Championships: CONCACAF Champions League, Copa Libertadores

0/1 Club World Championship:

International

0/5 Continental Tournaments:

0/1 World Tournaments:

Edited July 24, 2020 by treva

[Crowy]

Valencia

2039/40

---

Manager Profile: Crowy - 2040

Key Players: Gabor Gallik ~ Juan Carlos Lopez ~ Kabelo Majola ~ Rodrigo Mancuso ~ Wellington Sabrosa

Squad: Overview ~ Match Stats

---

Competitions Overview

(click to Enlarge)

I took over Valencia mid way through the season in 8th, we had a good second half to the season eventually finishing in 5th. I only had 29 games in charge of Valencia overall and I went on to winning 21 of them, if we can carry that form on to next season I think we will be there or there abouts. In regards to the challenge we beat Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey final to add another trophy to our list. I've had to do my transfers early for next season due to the Copa America but I think we've improved overall and bought the age of the squad down and I think we'll be challenging next season.

CAREER PROGRESS

CAREER STATS

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Mexico

2039/40

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COPA AMERICA

Group Stage

Spoiler

Pretty straight forward in the Group Stage, I used plenty of rotation as the games come thick and fast, Colombia got a draw against my second team and Brazil beat me 3-2 with two late goals. Pretty pleased with how we played due to rotation.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

 Line Ups ~ Match Stats ~ Player Ratings

We got drawn against Costa Rica in the Quarter finals, one of the better draws we could of hoped for. As you can see from Match Stats etc we dominated them with the back up team.

Semi Final

Spoiler

Line Ups ~ Match Stats ~ Player Ratings

So in this game Ecuardor are ranked a pretty low side, so I almost played my back up team again but with Brazil knocking out Argentina in the Quarter Finals I didn't want to risk it. I decided to play my strongest team to make sure we got the job done. Brazil actually got knocked out at this stage of the competition themselves losing 4-1 to Uruguay, Final here we come!

Final

Spoiler

Line Ups ~ Match Stats ~ Player Ratings

We started this game so well, we were on top and a player I had at Dortmund, a player I trusted, lets me down. This one hurt, I tried using a diamond first to try and compact the midfield after going down to 10 men, but Uruguay were just running us over so I switched back to my normal formation minus the DM and we started to get back in to the game, we even had a goal ruled out in the 89th minute... It weren't meant to be

 

INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS

As I cry whilst typing this out, I will be staying with Mexico as they have the Gold Cup in 2041. Then I'll look to move on regardless of whether I win it or not.

[vikeologist]

 

Quote

As I cry whilst typing this out, I will be staying with Mexico as they have the Gold Cup in 2041. Then I'll look to move on regardless of whether I win it or not.

@Crowy I was almost crying seeing you draw Costa Rica, Ecuador and Uruguay in the knock out rounds. I do appreciate my envy can only add to your pain, but the only reason I still oversee this thread is because I'm an emotional parasite feeding off everybody else's pain, especially the international strain, so keep it coming.

And that brings us neatly to 

Vikeologist's Spain 2034 World Cup Report

My Spanish squad contains 3 of my last 4 club MVPs; Juan Manuel Jiménez (MR), Aarón Fernández (SC) and Carlos Gimeno (ML). The 4^th is Sergio Goñi (SC) who is Spanish, but has never been good enough for the national squad, which is why I bought 2 new strikers immediately after making him MVP a year ago.

 

 

Group Stage

Spain           3-0     Ivory Coast

Having our right back (also my Valencia back up) sent off after 10 minutes made this match difficult, and it was a lot closer than the score suggest, but it does at least guarantee us qualification to the next round.

I guess we’re not really qualified yet. We need to avoid losing to Chile by 6 goals.

 

Spain           5-2     Chile

So we top the group, but unfortunately my old team France only managed to finish 2^nd in their group, so we get a tough knock out stage from the start.

In theory, European teams all the way to the final as Brazil and Argentina are both in the other half of the draw. Just as importantly, so are England, and they’re our 3 biggest threats.

 

2^nd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Spain            3-0     France

This match could very easily have gone a different way. France had an early goal ruled out for a foul. The first half flew by 0-0. We had a dodgy penalty, and that was it until we scored twice in the last 10 minutes as France threw everything into trying to get an equaliser.

We do look vulnerable to set pieces.

A tasty looking Germany next.

 

3^rd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Spain            3-3p   Germany

We had only narrowly beaten Germany in the Nations League Final, and this was a very even battle. It went to penalties, and we missed 2.

I expect Germany to win the World Cup fairly easily now.

Obviously I will be sacked now.

 

 

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

 

3^rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

N/A

After The Tournament

Spoiler

 

Obviously in retrospect, it may have been better to stay with Argentina, almost certainly win another World Cup, or perhaps not even bother with international management for 2 years, and then move on to a European nation rather than taking such a big chance of surviving the necessary 4 years to get a Euro.

So, if we count the penalty shootout as a draw, my (competitive) record with Spain in W18, D2, L0.

But, of course, sacked.

And equally of course, nobody else came close to Germany who won the World Cup easily.

No Asian jobs came up after the competition, so I applied to France. I didn’t expect them to offer me the job again. I wonder if you quit before being sacked it enables you to get a job a second time, or if that has just changed for FM20. In any case, I wish I hadn’t waited for Spain to sack me.

Anyway, there’s a few players who are the wrong side of 30 which worries me about our chances in 2 years’ time, but what the hell. I’ll give it another go.

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.
33/34	Valencia	PrimeraLiga		2nd		Carlos Gimeno (ML)		Won Euro Cup 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)
32-34	Spain				European League		Ansu Fati (SC)
					Knocked out in '34 WC R3
34-	France (Again)



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	

 

 

[Crowy]

@vikeologist: we're all together in this thread, I must admit the players that have completed it already. Absolute credit to them. Did you stay at Valencia? 6 years apart but still I like Valencia already.

[vikeologist]

18 minutes ago, Crowy said:

@vikeologist: we're all together in this thread, I must admit the players that have completed it already. Absolute credit to them. Did you stay at Valencia? 6 years apart but still I like Valencia already.

Well, I finished 2nd last season and apart from the first 9 matches of the season, we were the best team in the league (by 1 point I think), but if the jobs at Real Madrid or PSG come up in the post World Cup job shuffle, I might leave. They were a mess when I took over but in a season and a half I've turned things around financially and we should contend for the title this season, even though we still basically have no transfer funds. 

At the very most, it should take 2 more seasons to win the league. Annoying I haven't won the cup yet.

(You can only manage 1 Spanish club side a year, so I may not be able to take the job even if it becomes available pre-season).

[Crowy]

2 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

(You can only manage 1 Spanish club side a year, so I may not be able to take the job even if it becomes available pre-season).

say what? since when?

Same for me ageing squad etc, why can't you manage 2 teams a season in Spain is that in the latter of a save? or have I misunderstood?

[vikeologist]

[Wheresmyspacebar!]

Really enjoyed reading all these updates the last 20 or so pages, been some good reading material

 

Doubt anyone would remember me in the slightest but i used to do this challenge back in 2015 and unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, i had to leave and sort my own life out.

Now though, im back and have a PC that can run Football Manager

Going to start off in England and look for teams down in the VNS/N and National, i think the reputation build is better overall in England for the first few years.

I'll look forward to updating when i finish the first season!

[vikeologist]

1 hour ago, Wheresmyspacebar! said:

Really enjoyed reading all these updates the last 20 or so pages, been some good reading material

 

Doubt anyone would remember me in the slightest but i used to do this challenge back in 2015 and unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, i had to leave and sort my own life out.

Now though, im back and have a PC that can run Football Manager

Going to start off in England and look for teams down in the VNS/N and National, i think the reputation build is better overall in England for the first few years.

I'll look forward to updating when i finish the first season!

One of the founding fathers is back.

Where is my Space Bar
My name is Where is my Space Bar
And there's a million things I haven't won
But just you wait, just you wait

 

or alternatively

 

I am not throwing away my save
I am not throwing away my save
Hey yo, I'm just like this challenge
Bored, crazy and nothing rhymes with challenge
And I'm not throwing away my save

Edited July 26, 2020 by vikeologist

[Crispypaul]

On 25/07/2020 at 20:46, vikeologist said:

Italy is the same for managers, although doesn't have the AM and fitness coach (eh?) restrictions.

[Crispypaul]

On a separate note I did get another international job, I am now manager of Senegal.

Ranked 11th in the world, the Cup of Nations is early in 2029 followed by the 2030 World Cup.  We have a qualifying group of Gabon, Angola and Ivory Coast so it's obvious whom our big opponents are there.  There is one group with Zambia, Libya, Comoros and Uganda, so a bit harsh we're drawn with Ivory Coast really.

[treva]

I just don't understand international football on this game. I'm afraid I think I've already conceded that I will never complete this challenge based on it.

 

 

World Cup with Nigeria started very badly. A 1-0 loss to a very poor Croatia side despite 30 shots and their only chance coming from the penalty spot which they converted. Then we played Japan knowing we would have to win to progress, which we did with a much improved performance playing more on the counter to net a 2-0 victory. Japan could only beat Croatia 1-0 putting us top of the group on goal difference. We then drew Mali in the second round, a team I had played in my very first match in charge of Nigeria which we won 6-0. What unfolded was probably the worst performance and result I have seen on Football Manager in a long time. Somehow we lost 4-0. Utterly embarrassing from a team supposedly top 10 in the world. No idea if I'll be sacked but regardless I'm tempted to just give up on the international side of this challenge and just be happy if I reach the target of club titles instead.

 

Away from that shambles, I have joined Tottenham for my first foray into Europe. They have finished 1st, 3rd, 3rd and 3rd in recent seasons and after being taken over by a Tycoon in 2025 are one of the best clubs in Europe. Should be interesting to see how we get on.

Edited July 27, 2020 by treva

[vikeologist]

@trevaA few of my recent attempts at this challenge

FM17

International
Year	Team					Achievements	
2019-21	Nigeria					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2021-23	DR Congo				2022 World Cup - R2, 2023 African Cup Losing Finalists
2023-25	Chile					None. Resigned to take South Korea job.
2026-27	South Korea				Asian Cup winners
2027-29	South Africa				Lost in African Cup Q/F
2030-31	Brazil					Lost in Copa America final
2031-33	Chile					Resigned again to take Egypt job.
2033-5	Egypt					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2036-37	Mali					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2037-37	Ivory Coast				Quit after 1 competitive match to take over Mexico
2037-38	Mexico					Knocked out in group stage of WC and sacked.
2038-	Italy					Lost on penalties in Nations League S/F and Euro 40 R2		

Club Landmarks - 20. International Landmarks - 1

I think I gave up on that challenge because of a bug, not because I am a wuss.

FM17 Second Try

International
Year	Team					Achievements
2018	China U23				Asian Games
2019-21	Ghana					Quit after losing in ACON Q/F
2021-	Nigeria					2023 ACON losing finalists. 

And then the attempt that made me try to find someone else to oversee this challenge;

FM18

International
Year	Team				Achievements
18	China U23			Won Asian Games.
19	Norway				Left after 4 matches of Euro Qualifying.
19-20	Ghana				Left after 2 matches of African Cup Qualifying
20	Belgium				Sacked after leading the #1 team in the world to 1 draw and 3 defeats
21-22	Ivory Coast			Qualified for World Cup and reached second round, won CHAN.
22-23	Mexico				Won Gold Cup, reached Copa America semi with B team.
24-25	Ivory Coast			ACON semifinals
25-26	Ghana				Failed to progress past World Cup group stage
26-27	South Korea			Lost in Q/F of Asian Cup
27-29	Ghana				ACON quarter finals.
30-31	Argentina			Copa America Q/F
31-32	Colombia			Left them on top of WC Qualifying group
32-34	Italy				Confederations Cup winners. Lost in World Cup S/F and sacked.
34-38	Brazil				2035 Copa America, 2037 Confederations Cup, 2038 World Cup
38-39	Ghana				ACON S/F
39-41	Nigeria				ChAN and (at the 12th time of asking) ACON
42-44	Holland				Euro Q/F Sacked
46-47	China				Asian Cup S/F Sacked
50-58	Spain				Lost 2 Euros Finals. 3 Nations Leagues. Confederations Cup, World Cup winners (and runners up in all 3).
58-		Australia			Asian Cup R/U

International
 3/5 continental tournaments 		(N America, S America, Africa)	
 2/2 world tournaments 			(World Cup, Confederations Cup)

I basically ran out of Asian nations to manage, since you couldn't get employed by the same nation twice. But losing 2 Euro finals in a row didn't help. It was also during this challenge that I had failed to win about 7 ACONs in a row, though that has been broken by somebody.

UPDATE (I see from my notes it was 11 failures in a row. Maybe that is a record. Maybe that is a record you will beat).

Hopefully my reemployment by France this save means that I can go on losing international tournaments with the same sides well into the next millennia. I'm never going to achieve this challenge by 2035, so I might as well aim for the opposite 2085 mark.

Edited July 27, 2020 by vikeologist

[Crispypaul]

This isn't me (I signed Jonathan Tah on a free in the summer hence the report came up) but....wow....

That's Tyler Roberts of Leeds (Derby in my game) with the hat trick by the way

Edited July 27, 2020 by Crispypaul

[Wheresmyspacebar!]

Brackley Town 2019/2020 Season

So, i started off the season unemployed, i had a couple of options at the start, teams like Leamington/Alfreton but both predicted for relegation so i wanted to hold off for a bit. Fortunately, after 12 games, promotion candidates Brackley Town were placed 20th in the table after only 2 wins.

I got the job, with the expectation that i would beat relegation, an easy task i thought, until i walked into a dressing room full of turmoil. Every single player had 'Abysmal' morale. So i looked into it and found the reason why, the previous manager had ostracised the captain and was refusing to play him, the entire team had rallied around the captain (Who also happened to be the star defender).

Easy fix, not sure why he had pissed off the ex-manager but i put him straight back into the team and after 3 weeks, had no more morale issues.

 

Anyway, i came in to also find an inflated wage bill. Some bang average players on £700 a week left me with very little money to spend, even free agents were out of reach because no one wanted to buy any of my players and i couldnt offload them via mutual termination.

It was a slow start, trying to introduce some new tactics and with 25 points already separating me with the playoff race, i dug in for the long season ahead. I spent a few months, bouncing around the place, winning 1 game here, losing the next. With only the league to worry about, i could afford to keep one star team without many changes.

 

Schedule : Lot of back and forth, until February when my tactics and team suddenly seemed to 'click'. We went on an insane run towards the tail end and won 10 out of 14 games, only losing once.

Usually i dont bother with 'Match of the season' but the catalyst for this incredible run was clear. Playing a 2nd place Kidderminster, i came from 0-3 at the halftime with a striker sub, to win 4-3 with goals in the 78th, 89th and 94th minutes.

League Table: Even with the incredible run towards the end, it still wasnt enough to sneak into the playoff scene, Brackley were predicted 5th before the season so its still disappointing but with the way they were when i joined, top half of the table is a miracle. It was hard to catch the pack up but once we got there, we jumped a fair few places in the last couple of matches. 

Squad: Where to begin... Like i said above, a LOT of dead wood, a couple of quality players but around them, just sub-standard players that are more fitting to a mid-bottom team in the VNS/N, of which if i want promotion, i cant afford to have. Ive highlighted a couple of the worldies that i had this season but for the rest, im looking at 12 of them leaving at the end of their contracts and if i can get buyers, im looking to sell Lee Ndlovu. Whilst good, i want to keep Asonganyi if i can and £775P/W for a backup striker is to much at this level.

 

Jake Kenyon: Brought in at the start of the season, has been my number one defender. With my system of pushing FBs up to whip in the crosses, he works perfectly, runs for 90mins, doesnt stop, can get past his man and im looking forward to seeing how he does next year.

Dylan Asonganyi: On loan from MK Dons ATM, 18 goals in 37 games and consistently good, his physical stats are great for this level, his finishing could be better but he does the business already. His contract runs out in a month so im desperately trying to get him to join us but he is wanted by Hull and Ipswich so it could be a battle im not going to win.

Future: Ive done enough to get another year on the contract (With 2 years on top if i get them promotion). Im liking certain members of the team i have so far but Brackley are really poor financially. They have no money to spend really. On a plus side, there has been a lot of talk about a takeover recently so maybe that will go through.

My aim next season is to win promotion, whether by winning the league or playoffs. I also want a deep run into the FA Trophy to hopefully see silverware there. If a 'giant' of a team in the VNN has a job opening, i may look there to skip up a league but currently, my reputation is slowly going up and thats all i want ATM. I need to be careful about job hopping because last time i did this challenge in 2015, unless its been changed recently, hopping teams made  finding a team later on, really bad.

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by Wheresmyspacebar!

[Crispypaul]

Senegal
African Cup of Nations 2029

Group Stages - Table - smashed Gabon and beat Egypt to qualify for the 2nd round, although a shock loss to Burkina Faso meant we were 2nd.

2nd Round

Spoiler

Morocco 1 Senegal 3 - a solid defeat of Morocco to setup a tie against Algeria in the next round

 Quarter Final 

Spoiler

Senegal 1 Algeria 0- a dull game with our only goal coming as a late penalty

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Senegal 3 Ivory Coast 2 (AET) - a great game, we nearly won in normal time only to concede an own goal in added time.  Ivory Coast scored again 10 minutes into extra time but we responded immediately.  A last minute goal meant no penalties and we were into the final

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Nigeria 0 Senegal 2 - a pretty comfortable win in the final to lift the trophy

 

Edited July 28, 2020 by Crispypaul

[Wheresmyspacebar!]

Brackley Town 2020/2021 Season

Soooo, where to begin with this season?

With the board wanting promotion and myself losing 12 first team players through contracts ending, this was going to be a hell of a rebuild. Especially since they reduced my wage budget by £1.4k a week.

With some decent scouting and some young players being released i managed to cobble together a strong team, including 2 leading keepers and a striker that SHOULD have run through the league like hot butter.

A strong start put me in 1st quite quickly, with my new striker Connor Hall scoring 9 goals in 6 games and looking to be a great find. Nothing of real note happened through the season, i managed to get to the 2nd round of the FA cup after beating L2 Grimsby in the 1st round but then went out to a VNL team. The FA Trophy was a complete bust, losing in the 2nd round also.

After being hampered by the club having no money, i was happy to see a takeover come in around Christmas, until i realised i'd traded one turd, for another. The club was still insanely poor, they lowered my wage budget again and still refused to let me go on a coaching course.

Away from all this, we were still ranked first and going strong, 16 points above 2nd place and cruising. Then disaster struck. A couple of big injuries combined with my team decided they wanted to play like animals, my 3 best CBs all getting sent off in the same game and suddenly i had issues. On top of that, my 'star player' Connor Hall was on his 2nd run of 10 games without a goal and we had an issue.

Going from 3 losses in 22 games, i then went on to lose SIX games in 8 games.  With that going on Gateshead managed to jump me with 4 games to go and go 4 points ahead of me. I thought i was a goner, that the title was gone and i was going to have to suffer a playoff hell. Suddenly though, my team remembered how to play and with 3 wins in a row, going into the last match of the season, we were 1 point ahead of Gateshead.

LAST GAME OF THE SEASON:

Well, this was hell. Knowing that i had to match Gatesheads result to win the title, i sent out the strongest team i could, against a team ranked 16th, hoping for an easy enough win, due to the 3 win streak. That.... Didnt go to plan. 

I conceded 3 goals in 20 minutes, i had no idea what was going on. Gateshead went 2-0 in there game and suddenly it wasnt looking good.

A lifeline on the 36th minute and it was 3-1. Then another lifeline with Ashton losing a LB on the spur of halftime and us pinching a goal just before half time. In the second half, i chucked us on all out attack, we had to go for it and against all odds and just before i was planning to sub Connor Hall off (Once again, on a 3 game scoring blank) he pulled the equaliser out of the bag. 3-3 with a whole half to play basically.

After another 20 minutes, Hall stepped up again and scored in the 71st minute!!! 4-3 and now we were in for a very tense 20minutes. 

It looked like disaster had struck as Ashton scored in the 89th minute to make it 4-4 but ruled out as offside! 

We held on and walked out with the title and promotion!

 

SQUAD:

A decent squad but nothing to write home about, a strong offense undermined by a really poor defense at times and 2 keepers that should have been best in the league who constantly had howlers, both making massive mistakes that lost us games.

Quite a few injuries resulted in me having to call up youngsters who performed admirably but not at the level needed.

My best player by far though was my CAM who pulled the strings all season. Unfortunately age has starting to get to him and Brackley will need to get a replacement in for him soon.

 

Future: In a surprise turn of events, 2 weeks after winning the title with Brackley, i have resigned from the club and am now looking elsewhere. I was hopeful when we had a takeover that it would make the financial situation better but it hasnt. Since winning the league, they have 'increased' the wage budget by £1.2k a week, essentially covering the future pay-rises for next year but the team is nowhere near ready for the VNL and with 4 of our players on the decline, no money to replace anyone and a club still refusing to allow me to go on a coaching course, there isn't much future for me there.

Im currently looking far and wide, if i get lucky, the Gillingham job is currently going in League1 but i highly doubt i'll get that, so im looking for League 2 teams and looking further out at leagues in Scotland/France and Spain as well.

[Crispypaul]

 

  

  

  Crispypaul
Roma
Serie A
2028/29

League - Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Table - stuttered a bit near the end but beating rivals Lazio away sealed our second title in a row

Italian Cup  - Fixtures - this cup is so odd - apart from the two leg semi final if you finish higher up the table you automatically get home advantage...anyway we made it to the final where we beat Inter Milan after extra time to lift the cup again

Champions League - Fixtures | Group Stages - we were drawn in a group with Athletic Madrid, Sporting Lisbon and Lille.  Unfortunately lost in Spain in the first game but won all our other fixtures to set up RB Leipzig in the 1st knockout round.  We got past them to face English champions Man Utd, after a 2-2 home draw I thought we were out only to win in Manchester.  Bayern Munich were our semi opponents.  A good win at home was followed by a draw away, and we faced Spurs in the final.  A couple of early goals meant we lifted the Champions League, against the odds I say.

Finances - all fine, helped by the CL run

Transfers - shifted out some older players and ones not good enough for a better balanced, younger squad

Squad

Key players

Giacomo Raspadori - another prolific season

Tiago Goncalves - I managed this centre half as Netherlands manager, whom had moved to £50m to Liverpool who promptly hardly played him.  I signed him on a bosman and he was brilliant.

Jacopo Lonzar - signed the Italian left winger from Verona as backup but ended up taking the spot for himself

Ratao - very strong once more from the CM, the mega clubs are circling though

Gorka Santisteban - good again from the left back

Carlos Silva - astonishing.  Doubt he'll stay though.

Future - so the CL win means we also qualify for the upcoming Club World Cup...however I had already agreed to move clubs (see below) so won't be able to play this 

 

Domestic
Season	 Team			Division		Position			Notes						
2019     IF Karlstad        	Swedish 1st   	   	 	 6th
2020	 IF Karlstad		Swedish 1st			1st		Champions, National B
2021	 IF Karlstad		Swedish 1st Elite		3rd		Promoted, National A
2022	 IF Karlstad		Swedish Premier Divsion		 -		left partway through season
2022 	IFK Norrkoping		Swedish Premier Division 	3rd		Qualified for Europe, Continental C
2023	IFK Norrkoping		Swedish Premier Division	1st		Cup Winners, ECL Knockouts, Continental A.  Resigned at end of season.
2024	Jeonbuk			Korean League 1			1st		Cup Winners, ACL Winners.  Resigned at end of season.
2024/25	River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	2nd
2025/26 River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	1st		Copa Sudamericana winners, cup finalist
2026/27 River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	  -  		Cup winners, Copa Libertadores winners, resigned
2027 	Cruz Azul		Liga MX				1st		CONCACAF Champions League winners, resigned at end of season
2027/28	Roma			Serie A				1st		Italian Cup winners
2028/29	Roma			Serie A				1st		Champions League, Italian Cup winners


International
Year	   Team					Achievements
2021	Oman			Qualifed for 2023 Asian Cup
2022	Oman			left at end of year
2022	Netherlands		joined after 2022 World Cup
2023	Netherlands		Qualified for Euro 2024
2024	Netherlands		Won Euro 2024
2024/25 Netherlands		Won Nations League 2025
2025/26 Netherlands		Qualified for WC 2026
2026/27 Mexico			-
2027	Mexico			Won Gold Cup, resigned
2028/29	Senegal			Won Cup of Nations

Challenge Progress

Club
 5/10 top domestic leagues (IFK Norrkoping, Sweden, 2023; Jeonbuk, Korea, 2024; River Plate, Argentina, 2025/26; Cruz Azul, Mexico, 2027; Roma, Italy, 2027/28)
 4/10 domestic cups (IFK Norrkoping, Sweden, 2023; Jeonbuk, Korea, 2024; River Plate, Argentina, 2026; Roma, Italy, 2027/28)
 4/5 club continental championships (Jeonbuk, Asia, 2024; River Plate, South America, 2026; Cruz Azul, North America, 2027; Roma, Europe, 2028/29)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments (Netherlands, Europe, 2024; Mexico, North America, 2027; Senegal, Africa, 2029)
 0/1 world tournaments 

Edited July 29, 2020 by Crispypaul

[Crispypaul]

So I join Bundesliga side Hertha BSC Berlin.  Maybe a strange choice, but I had a great career with them way back in FM12 (career thread here if anyone interested) and so decided to join them after leaving Roma, and forgoing my chance to win the Club World Cup like an idiot.  Hey ho.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Crispypaul

[vikeologist]

14 minutes ago, Crispypaul said:

So I join Bundesliga side Hertha BSC Berlin.  Maybe a strange choice, but I had a great career with them way back in FM12 (career thread here if anyone interested) and so decided to join them after leaving Roma, and forgoing my chance to win the Club World Cup like an idiot.  Hey ho.

When was the CWC going to be, and would you definitely have been in it?

[Crispypaul]

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

When was the CWC going to be, and would you definitely have been in it?

That summer, and we had already qualified by getting to the CL final...

[Crispypaul]

And I see Roma won it.....bugger

[Britrock]

Quick update - after putting in 1500+ hours to FM this year I finally burned out on it a month or so ago. I'm not sure if I'll be able to pick the game up any time soon (due to exhaustion with it more than anything else!) but hopefully after a few months away I'll get the itch back and pick it up. It's such an impressive feat to make it to the end of this challenge without losing interest/enjoyment!

[treva]

8 hours ago, Britrock said:

Quick update - after putting in 1500+ hours to FM this year I finally burned out on it a month or so ago. I'm not sure if I'll be able to pick the game up any time soon (due to exhaustion with it more than anything else!) but hopefully after a few months away I'll get the itch back and pick it up. It's such an impressive feat to make it to the end of this challenge without losing interest/enjoyment!

I feel you man, I’m really starting to slow down now as well.

Hopefully a break will do you some good and you can come back to it eventually with fresh enthusiasm.

[_JHTB_]

Napoli and Nigeria: 2037/38 Season

Close, Collapse, Falling Out, Resurgence, Too Late and Wobble

Following my departure from Liverpool (and indeed in the weeks leading to my departure) I applied for a few different jobs in France and Italy but both French jobs went to other people so I ended up in Italy for the 3^rd time with Napoli. I inherited a team that was not very balanced and was ageing (a seemingly common theme) with not a huge transfer budget. This was probably my worst transfer window thus far although I did improve the team though spent probably too much money on ageing players I’d had at previous clubs. The season aim is just to try and work towards reducing the wage budget so next season can be a proper rebuild.

Close

The first two games of the season were frustrating, both had a similar script, we go a goal up in the first half they score two in the second half the big difference being the second game saw us equalise but still altogether disappointing results. We did change tactic fairly quickly and started to pick up results and perform much better and really, I was dreaming of a title. Not because we were much better than any other team but because of how close the league was looking to be with just 2 points separating 1^st and 7^th after the first 12 games.

Collapse

The potential for a title challenge looked quite good and we had a chance to cement our status as title challengers when we hosted then top of the table Roma. We led 4-1 at half time as everything was looking rosy, unfortunately we crumbled in the second half conceding 3 goals and dropping 2 points. That game seemed to be a catalyst for some bad form as we started to struggle to pick up wins a run of form that ultimately saw us go from a title challenge to a battle to remain even in the Europa league positions.

Falling out

Whilst the poor run of form was ongoing we did have the January transfer window to contend with as I frantically tried to find signings that would help improve our defence which ended up involving recalling a young loanee and selling our two back up defenders (they were both under 5’9’’). A big issue I was having in January was that the board kept on blocking my transfers such as a 25 year old World Class goalkeeper for £12.75 million  who was deemed too old by the board. I did eventually bring in said goalkeeper after a second attempt later in the window but unfortunately, the wait added another £8 million to his price tag. (still good value)

Resurgance

After the January window I felt a little more secure in our defence the recalled loanee actually becoming a first choice player replacing a defender who was very good in every attribute except his physical ones owing to his 35 years. This actually spurred a bit of a resurgence in form winning 3 of our 4 league games in February which included a hard fought victory over top side Juventus. This ne found form saw us start picking up a lot more victories though we did bow out of the cup in this run as well as a 90+4 minute goal seeing us out of the Champions League. Such was our form that it saw us be back with a shout at the title in spite of being as many as 14 points behind the leaders at one point with us clawing the deficit to 6 points.

Too late

Our sparkling form did help improve my feeling on Napoli as a whole, as I did nearly resign mid-season out of frustration, but it was too late to give us a real shot at the title. We ended the season on a 13 match unbeaten run with 11 of those being wins which launched us to a 3^rd place finish 6 points behind eventual winners Juventus.

Wobble

With Nigeria we did have to secure our spot at the World Cup with 4 games in our group remaining we won the first two before we endeavoured to lose the two remaining games though thankfully we prevailed anyway.

We also had 2 AFCON qualifiers which went as expected, 2 wins.

Overview/Looking Forward

Overall I’m happy with the season as a whole as I’m not that sold on the squads overall quality. I would actually say that my best player this season for the first time in a long time is not a newgen with a 34 Naci Unuvar contributing 12 goals and 11 assists in the league, which does perhaps speak to the quality of the league or maybe just the quality of the player.

This summer a massive overhaul is needed, several of our first team players either returning to their parent clubs or are out of contract with me not wanting to extend due to too high wage demands. The main issue being we’ve been handed just £13 million in transfer budget when I think I need at least 9 first team ready signings over the summer. Because of that it may be that I look to move on again this summer to give myself a better shot but I’m undecided.

It is the World Cup this summer so I’ll give it a shot with Nigeria to see how I fare before making a decision whether to stay on with Nigeria for another shot at the AFCON or to move to pastures new and a shot at probably the EUROs or Copa America.

A Close League

End of Season Form

The story so far

Overall Progress

 

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by _JHTB_

[_JHTB_]

Nigeria: World Cup 2038

As I mentioned at the end of my Club update I am not sure whether I’m going to remain at Nigeria after the World Cup and I don’t really have any expectations of how we’ll do. We were given a group Norway and Qatar which I feel is a group we can progress to the next stage with at least.

Group Stages

Spoiler

I was confident going into the group that we should finish top based on our pre tournament friendlies and an early goal against Norway in the first game enhanced that confidence. It did plummet before long as defensively we were not good as we succumbed to an eventual 4-1 defeat. This meant we had to beat Qatar to go through. Qatar went ahead early doors twice after a quick equaliser from us leaving me fearing a premature exit. The Qatar game did end up a pretty mad one ending 7-4 to us which saw us through but again highlighting defensive fragility.

Second Round

Spoiler

We drew Austria in the second round who beat us courtesy of a long range strike as defensively we were much improved just didn’t look like scoring at all in what was a very dull game in terms of highlights.        

Third Round

Spoiler

Had we bettered Austria we’d have ended up with facing Germany which we would likely have lost – they beat Austria 1-0. The main shock of the round saw Sweden beat Italy with everywhere else to form.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

The quarter final saw USA perhaps get the shock of the round as they bettered a pretty strong Turkey side to progress to the semi-final.

Semi-Final

Spoiler

The Semi-Finals saw Germany better USA and Spain beat Brazil to set up an all European Final.

Final/Third Place Playoff

Spoiler

Germany went on to beat Spain 3-0 in the final and USA managed to secure a victory over Brazil to get 3^rd place.

What next?

Spoiler

Whilst I wasn’t expecting to get to the late stages of the World Cup I did at least expect us to show something that would make me feel we’ve a chance in the next AFCON, sadly we did not and so I resigned. I will be looking to jump straight back into international management but not in Africa for now.

 

[Crowy]

I've gotten off to an awful start in my 2nd season at Valencia. The sack is getting close, there are no other jobs that interest me at the moment though so going to try and ride it out.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Valencia and France 2034/5 Season Report

We finished 2^nd behind Real Madrid, and went out in the Spanish Cup semi-final; against Real Madrid. There’s not much to say. We’re a good team. Real are better. Much better.

It didn’t help that we only made it as far as the 1^st knockout round of the Champions League. We were level on aggregate with Liverpool when they had a layer sent off, and we contrived to lose 4-1.

We don’t have the money to improve our squad enough. Some of our players are good, and want to be appropriately paid. Despite having a small squad, I regularly have to increase the wage budget.

So, should I keep going, or jump ship?

I’ve applied for the vacant Barcelona job. I’m not sure I’ll take it even if offered. If you ignore our £70 million profit on transfers this season, we made a £65 million loss, and that’s not sustainable.

If I am offered the Barcelona job, I will have to do a lot of research, but there’s no point agonising over it, and then not being offered it.

 

Top Goalscorer – Nathan – 43

He scored even more goals this season, despite the fact that we were playing in the Champions League instead of Euro Cup II (and that’s a big difference, believe me). The trouble is that I don’t have an effective strike partner for him. I dropped my high scoring veteran from last season because he was 33 at the start of the season, and I have too many strikers anyway, but they were all just ok.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Nathan / Carlos Gimeno -7.58

The average ratings fell a lot, but I refer you to my previous comment about not being in the Euro II this season.

 

Man of The Match – Nathan - 7

 

Most Valuable Player– Nathan

I expected my end of season story with France to be similar. We weren’t bad in topping our Nations League group or Euro qualifying, but I expected to be second rate against the top teams in Europe, but to my surprise we won the Nations League. The matches against Germany and Italy were close, but at least it shows that we stand a chance in the Euros in a year’s time.

 I suppose since we won something I should have an MVP. Manuel Jourdan. He scored 3 goals in the 2 Nations League playoffs, and 8 in the last 6 matches.

 

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.
33/34	Valencia	Primera Liga		2nd		Carlos Gimeno (ML)		Won Euro Cup II
34/35	Valencia	Primera Liga		2nd		Nathan (SC)			Once again, a distant second best to Real Madrid.

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)
32-34	Spain				European League		Ansu Fati (SC)
					Knocked out in '34 WC R3
34-	France (Again)			European League		Manuel Jourdan (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	

 

[Crispypaul]

Just been FM'ed 

[vikeologist]

So, in my last update I reported that I had applied for the job at Barcelona, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted it, or should instead stay at Valencia.

They didn’t give me the job, but they gave it to the manager of Paris SG, which is the job I really want.

But PSG didn’t give me the job either, which was frankly devastating. I’m obviously useless at interviews.

So, I had to stay at Valencia. We won the first match of the season against Real Madrid, which was huge, since they lost one league match all last season.

And then we threw away that advantage losing 3 of our next 6 matches.

Next we threw away a 2 goal lead after 86 minutes against our main Champions League group rivals to draw that match, but since then we’ve won 7 straight, mostly by a country mile, to get almost back on track.

But it’s depressing. We should be winning. My squad is great on paper (or maybe that should be great on team report). I just don’t know what is going wrong some of the time (and with Real picking up 100 points a season, there’s no wiggle room for going wrong).

But something has finally gone right.

 

 

A tycoon takeover. This is just what I needed, even though I shouldn't have needed it. It does feel a bit like the game throwing me a float when I should be in the Olympic Swimming Finals.

I still can't afford the player I really want though, Real Madrid's Christopher Mc Kay. I paid £20 million for him when I brought him to Everton.

He's 30 years old now, so past his peak, and he would sign for us, and he does have a minimum release fee; of £237 million, and that's what Real would demand. Plus he's probably the highest paid player in the world at 425k a week, so that puts the tycoon takeover in context.

(Footnote, he is not the highest paid player in the world. Not even close. Barca have a player on 650k a week), which is higher than the total wage budget of 8 of the 20 teams in our division.

Edited August 6, 2020 by vikeologist

[Crispypaul]

    

Crispypaul
Hertha BSC Berlin
1. Bundesliga
2029/30

League - Fixtures 1 | Fixtures 2 | Table - we had an aim to finish in the top 6 but after Xmas it seemed we had a chance at the title.  I thought that was gone as then leaders Dortmund walloped us 3-0 but then their form collapsed and with a game to spare we won the title.

German Cup  - Fixtures - a 10-0 win against lower league opposition kicked off a run to the final where we beat Bayern Munich 2-1 to lift the cup.

Finances - no problems here

Transfers - the club needed an overhaul particularly in defence and I properly splashed the cash...mainly on Argentinians 

Squad

Key players:

Robin Edelmann - youth product became our top scorer

Emil Jovanovski - spent £38m on the Swiss centre half from Bayern Munich and he had a great season

Timon Pitter - £23m bought this German international midfielder also from Bayern Munich, and proved a relative bargain

Markus Ewers - assist king from the left wing

Manuel Cervantes - just £5m on a release clause bought this top notch centre half

Elias Flores - another Boca signing was this great central midfielder

Teppi Takada - top notch German international right back

Future - Germany completed a lot quicker than expected so I have resigned and looking for my next job

Senegal
2029/30

WC 2030 Qualifiers - Fixtures | Table - won our group to qualify for the World Cup in Spain, where we will face Ukraine and Venezuela in the group stages

Cup of Nations 2031 Qualifiers - Fixtures | Table - smashed Chad but then had a shock 1-0 defeat to the DRC.

 

Domestic
Season	 Team			Division		Position			Notes						
2019     IF Karlstad        	Swedish 1st   	   	 	 6th
2020	 IF Karlstad		Swedish 1st			1st		Champions, National B
2021	 IF Karlstad		Swedish 1st Elite		3rd		Promoted, National A
2022	 IF Karlstad		Swedish Premier Divsion		 -		left partway through season
2022 	IFK Norrkoping		Swedish Premier Division 	3rd		Qualified for Europe, Continental C
2023	IFK Norrkoping		Swedish Premier Division	1st		Cup Winners, ECL Knockouts, Continental A.  Resigned at end of season.
2024	Jeonbuk			Korean League 1			1st		Cup Winners, ACL Winners.  Resigned at end of season.
2024/25	River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	2nd
2025/26 River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	1st		Copa Sudamericana winners, cup finalist
2026/27 River Plate		Argentine Primera Division	  -  		Cup winners, Copa Libertadores winners, resigned
2027 	Cruz Azul		Liga MX				1st		CONCACAF Champions League winners, resigned at end of season
2027/28	Roma			Serie A				1st		Italian Cup winners
2028/29	Roma			Serie A				1st		Champions League, Italian Cup winners
2029/30 Hertha Berlin		1. Bundesliga			1st		German Cup winners


International
Year	   Team					Achievements
2021	Oman			Qualifed for 2023 Asian Cup
2022	Oman			left at end of year
2022	Netherlands		joined after 2022 World Cup
2023	Netherlands		Qualified for Euro 2024
2024	Netherlands		Won Euro 2024
2024/25 Netherlands		Won Nations League 2025
2025/26 Netherlands		Qualified for WC 2026
2026/27 Mexico			-
2027	Mexico			Won Gold Cup, resigned
2028/29	Senegal			Won Cup of Nations
2029/30	Senegal			Qualified for WC 2030

Challenge Progress

Club
 6/10 top domestic leagues (IFK Norrkoping, Sweden, 2023; Jeonbuk, Korea, 2024; River Plate, Argentina, 2025/26; Cruz Azul, Mexico, 2027; Roma, Italy, 2027/28; Hertha Berlin, Germany, 2029/30)
 5/10 domestic cups (IFK Norrkoping, Sweden, 2023; Jeonbuk, Korea, 2024; River Plate, Argentina, 2026; Roma, Italy, 2027/28; Hertha Berlin, Germany, 2029/30)
 4/5 club continental championships (Jeonbuk, Asia, 2024; River Plate, South America, 2026; Cruz Azul, North America, 2027; Roma, Europe, 2028/29)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 3/5 continental tournaments (Netherlands, Europe, 2024; Mexico, North America, 2027; Senegal, Africa, 2029)
 0/1 world tournaments 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Crispypaul

[Crispypaul]

 

Senegal
World Cup 2030

Group Stages 

Senegal 4 Ukraine 1 - Ukraine were no match for us

Venezuela 1 Senegal 2 - the win sealed our finishing top of the group stage, we face Canada in the 2nd Round

2nd Round

Spoiler

Senegal 1 Canada 0 - just scrape past the Canadians, we next face giants Brazil.

3rd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

Brazil 0 Senegal 1 - a shock, smash and grab win sees us through to the quarter finals where we face my old side The Netherlands

 Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Netherlands 1 Senegal 2 - another great win!  We face England's conquerors Serbia in the semi final.

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Serbia 1 Senegal 2 - another fantastic win sees us through to the final.

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Spain 1 Senegal 2 - HOLY **** - I can't believe it!  The first African team to win the World Cup.  I am astounded.  With nothing else to win here I resign on a high shortly after.

 

[Crispypaul]

Not long after the World Cup I am offered the job at Lyon in Ligue Un, and take it.

[vikeologist]

@Crispypaul I read the reports for the first couple of World Cup rounds, and I was like, this dude is dead in the water once he faces a real team. Unbelievable, and I don't mean that in a disbelieving way. Sometimes things just come together.

[treva]

2035 Africa Cup of Nations

 

After a very disappointing World Cup and a humiliating loss to Mali, things needed to change. We removed all our ageing players and looked to the younger Nigerians coming through. The qualifiers were plain sailing against some poor teams, winning every game to extend the winning run in AFCON Qualifiers to something like 30 straight!

Group Stage

Spoiler

 

Nigeria 6-0 Egypt - The perfect start, smashing one of Africa's biggest names in the opening match.

Nigeria 2-0 Libya - Not as convincing against the worst team in our group but another clean sheet and thanks to results elsewhere we booked our place in the next round.

Nigeria 3-1 South Africa - Resting a few players to keep them fresh, we still saw off South Africa with relative ease to go through with a perfect record and a GD of +10.

 

Second Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

Nigeria e2-1 Guinea-Bissau - Such an unnecessary stress. We needed extra time to beat a team that scraped through with the worst record of any team. Thankfully we scored two minutes into extra time and avoided another embarrassing exit.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Nigeria 6-0 Burkino Faso - Well that couldn't have been more different from the second round. My AML missed a penalty for a second game in a row but apart from that we were perfect.

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Nigeria 2-1 Morocco - This was almost another extra time heart attack. Morocco scored with their first shot on goal at the beginning of the second half but with eight minutes to go, the AML who had missed two penalties in two games, stepped up to smash in the winner from the spot.

Final/Third Placed Playoff (If Applicable)

Spoiler

Nigeria 4-1 Senegal - On paper this should have been very difficult, and it was tight for the first half after they took an early lead. However, after the break we just tore them apart and ran away with it. Finally it comes together on the international stage! Hopefully this will allow me to get a big international job next, although who knows when that might be.

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by treva

[Crowy]

Valencia

2040/41

---

Manager Profile: Crowy - 2041

Key Players: Gabor Gallik ~ Jonathan Basse ~ Juan Carlos Lopez ~ Max Cabral ~ Ozealisson

Squad: Overview ~ Match Stats

---

Club Competitions

(click to View)

Results: La Liga I | La Liga II ~ Europa League ~ Copa Del Rey

 

So I lost two of my first 3 games at the start of the season and was for some reason under pressure, perhaps it was to do with not getting Champions League the season before. So I thought I was close to getting sacked but we turned it around quickly, Valencia now have an excellent squad with some good youth prospects. The League was so close, Real Madrid faded off mid way through the season and us and Barcelona were neck and neck going in to the final 5 or 6 games. We were literally level on points but we had the better head to head beating them 2-0 and FM'ing them 1-0. We went to win on the final day while they lost to Atletico crowning us Champions! I'm not going to take any credit for the Copa Del Rey or the Europa league as I didn't play any of those games. I was going to leave Valencia at the end of the season either way, their finances are so poor losing £5M-£10M per month so I was pleased to add the title before leaving. The Board actually tried to convince me to stay when I resigned, first time I've had that on FM, but I really want to crack on and complete the club side of this challenge.

CLUB PROGRESS

CLUB STATS

 

---

Mexico

Gold Cup 2041

Group Stage

Spoiler

8-0, 9-0 and 4-0 pretty straight forward group stage as expected, on to Honduras in the Quarter Final.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

Line Ups ~ Match Stats ~ Player Ratings

Another straight forward victory, was expecting to get one of the big boys in the Semi Final but we have 64th ranked El Salvador. After what happened in the Copa America though I'm not getting ahead of myself.

Semi Final

Spoiler

Line Ups ~ Match Stats ~ Player Ratings

The Semi Final between Canada and USA was played before our game and USA thrashed Canada 5-1. Canada got a draw against us in World Cup qualifying so I decided to rotate this game. As you can see El Salvador were never a threat and we finally got the break through around the hour mark. On to USA in the Final.

Final

Spoiler

Line Ups ~ Match Stats ~ Player Ratings

I'd say the scoreline flattered us a little here as USA had their chances nothing too clear cut though. I was pleased Alejandro Diaz scored after getting sent off in the Copa America final. I've still not forgiven him... Finally! an International trophy in the bag, I'll be looking to move on now and try and get an International job in the top six who have a chance of winning the World Cup and a Continental tournament to help me really push on.

INTERNATIONAL PROGRESS

So I've now resigned from Valencia and Mexico, I'm going to bide my time a little before jumping in to my next job, I still need a domestic cup in Germany and China. Another place I'd like to take on is Argentina to get me closer to domestic leagues too. Let's see what becomes available as there aren't any jobs available at all at the moment.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Crowy

[Crowy]

Club America

Unfinished Business!

---

Club Overview ~ Finances ~ League Table ~ Squad

---

9 or so seasons afer leaving Club America, I've returned! Losing 3 stage finals last time and not being in the cup I left after winning the CONCACAF Champions League. we're currently sitting 18th but only 3 points off the playoffs and we're top of our group in the domestic cup, I'm hoping this will be a short stint and redemption will be on the cards.

[_JHTB_]

Napoli and Russia: 2038/39 Season

Where we left off, Scripted, Form, Defense?, FM’d, Showdown and Positive

At the end of last season I had outlined that this summer I needed to sign 9 players who are of enough quality to be at least squad players in our team to counteract the outgoing players. I fell a little short signing only 8 though one of the players brought in can play in the position that I missed out on fully strengthening. With our reinforcements making the squad better than last seasons and our end of season form I’m aiming for a title win this season to tick off another of the big 5 leagues.

This summer also saw me look for a new international management role, with the main job I wanted being World Champions Germany following their managers resignation. This meant as I held out for it that I declined job offers from both Argentina and Mexico who both would surely offer a good chance at their respective continental competitions. I was rueing the decision before long as Germany declined me so instead I applied for Russia as a fall back.

Where we left off

In spite of much change in playing personnel over the summer we picked up where we left off winning our first 4 in a row and actually managing to maintain an unbeaten run for the first 14 games which combined with last season took our run to 27 games. In this run we did lose some group games in Europe with both Celtic and Liverpool bettering us in our away fixtures.

Scripted

We were obviously not going to last the entire season unbeaten as our squad isn’t crazily good but the manner that we lost our first game of the season was disappointing. We went 2-0 down to Roma relatively easily before we managed to peg one back just before they were reduced to 10 men. Using the man advantage we grabbed an equaliser and started to take the game fully to them before they popped up with a 3rd to condemn us to a loss seeing us drop below them to 3rd in the table. Not long after we faced up against top of the league Inter knowing that our previous 2 games against them had seen them score late in added time to salvage a result. In the game they were much better than us but we managed to scrape a goal just after the break and defend well all before 4 minutes of added time were shown and I watched the clock tick to 94:09 as a highlight for Inter appeared. The script was set and Inter for the 3rd game in a row scored an incredibly late goal against us to deny us points.

Form

Following that result we managed to pick ourselves up and win 10 domestic games in a row including knocking both Inter and Juventus out of the TIM cup to reach the final of that. The run of victories also saw us rise to the top of the league and it became obvious that the league would be a two horse race between us and Inter. In fact through January to March we’d won all but 2 league games a loss to Fiorentina and a extremely frustrating 3-3 draw to Chievo Verona as they scored their 13th 14th and 15th goal of the season against us after 26 games.

Defense?

Throughout the season we have had a very decent defensive base with a lot of our worse defensive performances coming when our first choice goalkeeper was injured (that happened way too much this season also) but April saw our defense act crazily. We kept 4 clean sheets throughout the month and still ended up conceding 16 goals in all competitions including another 3-3 draw and a 4-4 draw. Thankfully 2 of our 4 clean sheets came in back to back 4-0 victories the first seeing Juventus well and truly out of the title race and the second securing us the TIM cup beating Cremonese in the process – finally another domestic cup.

FM’d

In spite of less than convincing defensive displays in the previous month we entered our last 3 games with every chance of getting the title in spite being second with us likely having to win them all. The first was a very cagey match against Hellas Veronas where we scraped a 1-0 victory which was tense as it is. But, the next game saw us against Inter with them knowing a win would secure them the title and us needing to win to ensure it would be in our on hands come the last game. The game shaped up similar to the reverse fixture where they were seemingly the team more likely to make the breakthrough so I made two early subs before being forced into a 3rd sub when my left back got sent off. Even worse was 6 minutes later one of the players I’d brought on as a sub also received his marching orders leaving us 20 minutes to at least hold on against them. It was back to the wall stuff before we managed to grab a goal in the 88th minute with our first shot on target with 9 men – we FM’d them.

Showdown

Thanks to our heroics in the previous game we knew all we had to do was match the result Inter get against Juventus and we’d be champions, though our opponents in Cagliari had caused us some problems earlier in the season in spite of a 2-1 victory for us. Though unlike Cagliari, Juventus still needed a win to secure Champions League Qualification which was a bonus for us.  I was incredibly nervous going into this one as I’d suffered final day heartache previous at Liverpool but they didn’t rub off on the players as we went a goal up with just a minute on the clock. We added a second before half time to slow the heartbeat before we traded a couple of goals in the second half for the score to be 4-2, some late drama did unfold though as they scored in the 89th minute to make it 4-3 and with Inter winning if we conceded again we’d have lost the league. Thankfully we held on to secure a domestic double.

Positive

Any misgivings I had about having to settle for the Russia job were quickly dispelled as I remembered that I had previously had several young Russian players on my signing shortlist at both Dortmund and Atletico Madrid which meant they were now in their prime heading towards a EUROs campaign.

Most of our games this season were however Nations League games which we could have actually topped the group containing an ex-side in France but a unfortunate draw against Albania meant we settled for second. We did have a couple of European qualifiers which we won most importantly against Poland who are the second best team in the group and have a striker who haunted me whilst I was at Liverpool.

Overview/Looking Forward

A very close season us and Inter were back an forth for all of it and I’m so glad we managed to com out on top as we yet again were given a low budget and we still have ageing players in first team spots that would need replacing. That said, 33 year old Jacques Diallo had the season of his life this year scoring 29 goals in the league. Alas other than trying to qualify and win the Club World Cup I’ve achieved everything I need to here so am going to resign and will hopefully get a job in any of Australia, South Korea and South Africa as I go chasing the remaining Champions Leagues.

How the league ended

Diallo’s Career

The title decider

The story so far

Overall Progress

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's Valencia and France 2035/6 Season Report

We were runners up behind Real Madrid in the league for the 3^rd season in a row.

As revealed in an earlier update, we beat Real in the first match of the season, but didn’t build on that good start.

We had a tycoon takeover, but by the time the transfer window opened up we had too much ground to make up. (It seems that they are actually already open to takeover offers so my tycoon days could be short-lived).

That didn’t stop me spending the money though, primarily on my MVP from Dortmund a few seasons ago, right winger Juan Manuel Jiménez.

Our record in the second half of the season was W17, D1, L1, but that defeat was to Real Madrid. It was a last minute winner for them because we had to chase the win, and to be fair, if we’d picked up the last minute winner instead, and all other results were the same, we’d have won the league by a point.

So the board and a lot of the players are unhappy at not winning the league, but with even more money to splurge this off-season, I’m fairly optimistic about our chances next season.

It wasn’t all bad. We won the Spanish Cup, so I’m now just one achievement away from the challenge leader board.

We also won the Champions League. I’d already won it with Everton, but the money and gratitude from the board won’t hurt. 

 

Top Goalscorer – Nathan – 56

Nathan equalled @_JHTB’s season record of Santi Prados. Last season Nathan scored 36 goals. 1 short. This season he went into the final match of the season on 37, needing just 1 to set a new record. And we played very well. We spanked Atletico. It was a good performance. It was just that Nathan didn’t score. He did however set what is hopefully a respectable new mark for most goals in a season of 56 club goals. 144 goals in 3 seasons. Not bad for £15 mill.

Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Nathan - 7.74

 

Man of The Match – Nathan - 11

 

Most Valuable Player– Nathan

Obviously

Next up is the Euros with France. I don’t think the squad has many great players, (maybe 3 world class players, but they’re all goalkeepers), but we have no injuries (at the moment), and I have a first XI who seem to play well together.

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.
33/34	Valencia	Primera Liga		2nd		Carlos Gimeno (ML)		Won Euro Cup II
34/35	Valencia	Primera Liga		2nd		Nathan (SC)			Once again, a distant second best to Real Madrid.
35/36	Valencia	Primera Liga		2nd		Nathan (SC)			Spanish Cup and Champions League

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)
32-34	Spain				European League		Ansu Fati (SC)
					Knocked out in '34 WC R3
34-	France (Again)			European League		Manuel Jourdan (SC)



Challenge Progress 9/32

Club
 2/10 top domestic leagues 		(England, Germany)			
 3/10 domestic cups 			(England, Germany, Spain)						
 1/5 club continental championships	(Europe)	 	
 1/1 club world championship

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