[FM20] Hall of Famer

[Motlhen]

Original save idea:

Spoiler

I'm going to try & win every domestic top division in the game (no add-ons or downloads) in reverse order:

Nation	Rep
Singapore	47
Hong Kong	53
Malaysia	55
N. Ireland	55
Wales	56
Indonesia	61
India	62
Ireland	72
Finland	97
Australia	98
Iceland	100
Hungary	106
S. Africa	107
Peru	113
Slovenia	115
S. Korea	115
Slovakia	116
Romania	117
Bulgaria	120
Uruguay	120
Israel	121
China	122
Poland	122
Norway	124
Colombia	125
Sweden	125
Belarus	126
Scotland	126
Serbia	127
Chile	129
Croatia	133
Denmark	133
Greece	133
Switzerland	133
USA	133
Czech Rep.	135
Austria	137
Holland	139
Turkey	141
Argentina	144
Mexico	145
Ukraine	145
Belgium	147
Portugal	152
Russia	154
Brazil	155
France	160
Germany	167
Italy	169
England	174
Spain	183

I will not manage any team that has previously won the top league & will always start in the lowest league available in each country.

This could take a while..

 

Current way of playing:

Using the same order of countries to manage in as the original idea, I will aim to become the top manager in the Hall of Fame in each country before moving on. 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Motlhen

[mattyjames_]

 how many years have you got to complete this save?

 

Good luck!

[Motlhen]

 

Teams:

 Albirex Niigata Unicorn

Titles: 3

• The Japanese team joined the S. League, as it was known then, in 2004.
• Squad players must be Japanese or Singaporean.
• Minimum of 2 under-23 & maximum of 1 over-23 Singaporean player(s) allowed in the 1st XI.

 

  Balestier

Titles: 0

• 3rd place finishes (the league was played twice in a year & they finished 3rd both times) in their first season in 1960 was their highest ever finish.
• Two Cup wins are the only landmarks in 60 years.

 

 DPMM

Titles: 2

• A team from Brunei that has played in their home country as well as Malaysia before moving to Singapore in 2009.
• In 2019, DPMM did the double; winning both the Brunei & Singapore top domestic leagues.

 

 Geylang Intl.

Titles: 2

• Once dominating Singapore with 6 titles in a row when the league was semi-pro, Geylang Intl. are fierce rivals with Tampines.
• They haven't won the league since 2001 & haven't seen the top 3 since 2003.

 

 Hougang Utd

Titles: 0

• Highest ever finish was 3rd, last season.
• The supporters community set up an annual friendly at the end of each season to face off against the team they cheer on all year.
• Grant Holt (formerly Norwich City) & Michael Currie (formerly Queens Park Rangers) have both been part of the Hougang squad.

 

 LC Sailors

Titles: 2

• FKA Police Sports Association, they changed their name to Home Utd to represent players coming from Police, Civil Defence and Immigration & Checkpoint authorities.
• In anticipation of this season, they were bought by billionaire owners, renamed & re-kitted Lion City Sailors.

 

 Tampines

Titles: 5

• Tampines have only finished outside of the top 3 twice since their first title win in 2004.
• The wealthiest club in Singapore draws bumper crowds both Home & Away.

 

 Tanjong

• In reality, Tanjong are the "new" 9th member of the SPL replacing Warriors FC. This change has not been reflected in the game yet.
• They have been part of the SPL in two stints over 13 years, but financial problems have seen them relegated from a league with no relegation.

 

 Warriors FC

Titles: 9

• All-time SPL title record holders Warriors FC do not appear to be competing in the 2020 season irl.
• Previously named SAFFC or Singapore Armed Forces FC, although it was not a prerequisite to be involved in the military.
• Alexander Duric, the only player with 300+ SPL goals, once scored 37 goals in a 31-game campaign for Warriors FC.

 

 Young Lions

Titles: 0

• Young Lions' squad must comprise of all Singaporean players. Up to 3 foreign players can be registered in any of the other teams squad.
• The team is under direct control of the FA of Singapore & the squad can contain a restricted number of u23 players (I think the limit is 3, although I don't believe this restriction is within the game.)

 

 

Narrowing my options down to the teams that have not won the league title previously (& exist in the game!), we are down to 3 options: tigers, cheetahs or lions?

      

[Motlhen]

8 hours ago, mattyjames_ said:

 how many years have you got to complete this save?

 

Good luck!

If I was to win every league at the first time of trying I think I would need 116 seasons. So it's definitely going to take longer than that.. 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Motlhen

[bigmattb28]

9 hours ago, mattyjames_ said:

 how many years have you got to complete this save?

 

Good luck!

[mattyjames_]

1 hour ago, Motlhen said:

If I was to win every league at the first time of trying I think I would need 116 seasons. So it's definitely going to take longer than that.. 

Do managers ever die in FM? 

[Motlhen]

1 hour ago, mattyjames_ said:

Do managers ever die in FM? 

Nope, you get to a certain age (I think 80) & then remain that age forever. I'll be on the sidelines like  

What I've seen others do (@PaulHartman71's career here is an example & a great read for anyone) is to retire the original manager & take over as your favourite regen from the save & continue your legacy under a different alias.

[Motlhen]

July 2019

 

     vs. 

With both managers jobs on the line, the clash between Young Lions & Hougang Utd sparked my interest.

 

& the Hougang board have sacked their manager following the result.
I have applied & await a response.

[PaulHartman71]

Cool idea for a thread. Best of luck!

[Motlhen]

August 2019

  
 

I will make sure I organise & play a friendly against the fans (greyed out players) at the end of the season to emulate the Hougang Hools in real life!

"The supporters community set up an annual friendly at the end of each season to face off against the team they cheer on all year."

 

A pretty awful youth intake greets me on day 1.

 

After a pretty decent start to the season, we are on a run of 1 win in 18 and we are stuck in the bottom half of the table with only three league games to play.
My first game will be against 2nd place DPMM.

 

The plan is to use the final three games of the league season as a sort of pre-season to the upcoming Singapore Cup.
We have a huge squad of 63 players so these games will allow me to remove any dead wood too.

 

Immediately I notice a problem with the quality of the team's first choice goalkeeper:

Edited July 15, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Key Players

Clubs are only allowed a maximum of 3 foreign players and as Singapore isn't known for it's national talent, these 3 squad registration slots are paramount.
From the club history's of each of our guys, we'll be lucky to hang on to them for long! Each individually has had an incredible journeyman career already.

Zac Anderson has an Ozzy A-League winners medal, is our best player & captain.
(I will always do Agent Smith's Matrix voice whilst commentating in my head)

 

Machell has a Cambodian top league winners medal.

 

Plazibat has been our best player so far this season, before my arrival.
He's currently in his second stint at the club following a move to LC Sailors & then an unsuccessful move back to his native Croatia.

 

First Team Squad

This is the team I've settled with.
22 players consisting of my 1st & 2nd pick XI.

 

Those dropped, injured or out on loan:

 

 

We faced a tough start against 2nd placed DPMM, but a dream start & 3-points later and I can't wait for the league to restart already!

[Motlhen]

September 2019

We continued in the same vein in the next match, smashing Warriors FC!

 

We've kept a 100% winning record with a win in the opening group stage match of the Cup as well as a 90th minute winner to steal a victory at Tampines.

A perfect start to my tenure with 3 wins in 3 in the league made absolutely no difference to our final position.
Niigata have won their 4th consecutive league title.

 

Plazibat showed us what he's about this month.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

October 2019

Youth Intake

The youth intake was not great, but definitely better than I expected.
The top two by CA (stars, not editor) as well as one extra I'm keeping an eye on are below:

 

RHB Singapore Cup

We secured a semi-final spot by beating newly crowned champions Niigata.
We got a goal on the break & held on for our lives as our box was jam-packed with action for the final 10 minutes.
We're in debt to both Mr. Anderson & GK Khaled ("Gee-Kay Khaled") for throwing their bodies on the line multiple times to keep a clean sheet.

As we were already through, I threw in 3 youth prospects (the top 2 above as well as a young GK) for debut starts & we managed a credible draw in our final game to claim first place.

 

The Champions are out & Tampines wait for us in our two-legged semi-final!

[Motlhen]

In the Semi-Final: very even & unlucky to be defeated turned to a well-deserved thumping over two legs as Tampines put us in our place.
I wonder if taking our foot off the gas for the LC Sailors match was a mistake..

So we faced Balestier in the 3rd place playoff.
We hit the woodwork three times and had a 94th min penalty saved.
Rotten luck, but we should have made 3rd place ours. We'll come back next year stronger!

 

It's the off season now & the players will be going on a break.
I, however, will be spending the summer looking at how we can improve the squad for next term.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Off season (Nov '19 - Feb '20)

Finances looked ropy, until I found out we have a very generous chairman.

 

News which completely changed our summer.
I was expecting to have to wheel & deal my way to maintain the standard of the squad, but in fact we had the capacity to improve.

 

We lost Mr. Anderson's to him wanting to play in a more competitive league, despite my plea to him to stay.
The original bids inspired 3 more, which the board took control of.

But he opted to stay away from his native Australia & go to Baniyas in the UAE.

From this sale, a mighty £4.5k was added to our transfer budget 

Thanks Zac.

 

The sale opened up a foreign player registration slot.
Within our ranks we have a French-Senegalese winger, some way off gaining Singaporean nationality as well as some way off the standard of player we could bring in, so he was placed on the transfer list & eventually sold. But we also had a young Swiss winger, who featured last season under me, but I had not checked to see how far off gaining nationality he was. To my surprise, he'll become Swiss-Singaporean on the 2nd May 2020. Brilliant!

 

This meant the hunt was on for a new foreign player. Which position to look for was key:

 

Goalkeeper

I brought in a slightly better GK option than GK Khaled.
Rohaizad is a young, very tall, native talent who will hopefully prove to be a lot better than what my coaches think of him.

 

Defenders

A new CB pairing with a combined age of 75 were brought in.

Khaizan will be Mr. Anderson's short-term replacement:

 

Whereas Mamadou will be a backup:

 

 

Midfielder

Pereira is a brilliant footballer & athlete (for a native at our level), but is about as dense as a jam doughnut. His mental's may let him down, but I've taken a risk to bring him in to feature initially from the bench.

 

 

Attacker

I chose to use our extra foreign spot to bring in a winger/attacker & of those I could interest in an initial trial, I settled with Santos. He doesn't have any stand out attributes, but he is solidly average, which for our league should work just fine.

 

 

With the squad registration complete & a more than decent pre-season, I am hopeful for a successful start to my first full campaign.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

It was nil-nil in our first game of the season when new goal keeper Rohaizad saved a penalty comfortably, before we ran away with the game. Plazibat stealing the headlines!

Edited July 15, 2020 by Motlhen

[Nobby_McDonald]

This save is going to take a very, very long time if you stick with it.

[Jimbokav1971]

When I was 1st furloughed I considered doing a Youth Only version of this. I bottled it. 

Good luck. 

[Motlhen]

2 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

This save is going to take a very, very long time if you stick with it.

Ohhhhh, yep! 

 

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

When I was 1st furloughed I considered doing a Youth Only version of this. I bottled it. 

Good luck. 

I am actually going with the approach of never spending any money of transfer fees; only free transfers & loans, so I might try youth only at some point to spice things up.

[Motlhen]

2020 Season

We lost our main CB Khaizan halfway through the season in the one-nil loss to Niigata Unicorn to a career-ending leg break.
Just days afterwards, key player Plazibat defied new contract talks and demanded to leave (with ~7 months left on his contract).

We were quite well covered at CB with Mamadou stepping up from being only a back up to Khaizan.
As well as a loanee from Europe who joined after our first game of the season, El Baset.

 

But in attack I felt like we had been stagnant & our best player, who we were going to lose for nothing at the end of the season, was complaining about me to whoever would listen. So I decided to transfer list him, offer him to clubs and shipped him off on the last day of the mid-season transfer window back to Croatia for a measly £1.1k.

 

Which allowed me to bring in a new, young, Italian striker in Cobucci to freshen up the side.

 

 

League Fixtures

A super strong season after a slight blip including four 1-1 draws in a row.
The changes made after Khaizan's broken leg & Plazibat's tantrum took us to the next level.

Tampines & LC Sailors gifted us the title by both slipping up in their 3rd-to-last games, which happened to be the round of games we were not involved in (9 teams in the league, 4 games per round.)
If they had both won, they were our last two fixtures and either could have ended up crowned champions, but as it were we coasted to the first silverware of my career!

 

The front three of Cristian Santos, Suhaimi & Lichtenberger toyed with defences all season.

 

Cobucci's contribution since his mid-season transfer did not go unnoticed either (but there weren't any gifs with four of them aha).
 

And our central defensive combo of 40yo Mamadou & 19yo El Baset were solid...

 

...& we must give plaudits to Rohaizad in goal as he made many class saves at pivotal times in matches to save us when our defensive work was frail.

 

Transfers

 

Awards

The most important one first!

 

Finances

 

I've signed a new deal with the club until the end of next season (30th Nov 2021) prior to winning, or even thinking I would come close to winning the league.
We have the Singapore Cup to compete in to round off this season first, but after that I'll have one eye on clubs in Hong Kong, my next destination.
A move may not be possible until the amount of compensation required for me to move has reduced significantly, we'll see.

 

After me forcing Plazibat out mid season as he didn't want to commit to the clubs future, if I leave at the end of this season the squad will all probably be quite perplexed.

[Motlhen]

October 2020

Youth Intake Day

We had a pretty rubbish youth intake, with no players really worth noting without considerable progress.

 

Singapore Cup

After a win & a poor loss in the group stage, we faced off against LC Sailors.
I noticed that they had played the exact same scorelines as us against the other two teams in the league.

If it wasn't for the on-the-day heroics of El Baset who scored a 95th minute winner to qualify us, how would the 2nd place qualifier be decided?

 

Our Fixtures

 

LC Sailors Fixtures

 

We'll play Tampines for a place in the final.
We got to this stage to face them last year at the start of my career & unceremoniously crashed out 5-0 over two legs.
Hopefully we can take the game to them this time round.

[Motlhen]

November 2020

We got one over on Tampines & went on to dominate the final.
Geylang Int. didn't have a single shot on target in 120 mins & we got the breakthrough we deserved before the lottery of penalties.

 

A domestic double!

[Motlhen]

With my initial stipulations* for a nation complete in my first full season in Singapore, it's time to look at my next destination in more detail:
*winning the top domestic league with a team that has never won it before.

 

 Eastern Sports Club

Titles: 5

• Bobby Moore, captain of England's 1966 World Cup winning squad managed Eastern 1981-82.

 

 Fuli (HK)

Titles: 1

• The English name for the club is R&F, translated directly to mean "Rich & Force".
• Fuli had not previously won the top flight until their in-game title in the 19/20 season.

 

 Happy Valley

Titles: 6

• The second-most league titles of any team currently in the premier league.
• Have finished as runner-up no fewer than 16 times!

 

 HK Pegasus

Titles: 0

• On a steady climb, with a best position of 3rd, HK Pegasus have two HK FA Cup wins to boast from a relatively short 12 year history.

 

 Kitchee

Titles: 9

• The most successful club in HK.
• They have made the AFC Cup semi-final once and quarter-final twice, the only HK side to progress beyond the AFC group stages.

 

 Lee Man

Titles: 0

• The youngest club in the top flight, founded in 2017.

 

 Rangers (HKG)

Titles: 1

• Founded by a Rangers (Scotland) fan, Rangers (HKG) has been a hub for Scottish footballers playing abroad since it's formation in 1958.

 

 Southern District

Titles: 0

• Another team on a steady incline, with 3rd as their best finish in the top flight so far.
• In an 18 year history, they have yet to win any silverware.

 

 Tai Po

Titles: 1

• After a slow rise through the leagues, Tai Po finished 3rd in the 07/08 season.
• Following this they began a steady decline, being relegated & then immediately promoted again twice between 2012-2016.
• After their latest promotion they progressed to win the league in the 18/19 season, but could only finish 6th last term when looking to retain the title.

 

 Wing Yee

Titles: 0

• Promoted from the second tier last season.
• Side note: terrible logo.

 

Teams I will be applying for when/if possible:

   

 

..for now I'll continue to grow my name & stature with the continental Asian competitions with Hougang in Singapore.

 

Edited July 17, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

I could end up being in Singapore for a little while longer than expected:

[Jimbokav1971]

On 15/07/2020 at 14:46, Motlhen said:

 

 

Phenomenal use of gifs. 

[Fudal]

I’m gonna miss those GIFS when you go to a club that doesn’t have them 

[Motlhen]

21 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Phenomenal use of gifs. 

 

16 hours ago, Fudal said:

I’m gonna miss those GIFS when you go to a club that doesn’t have them 

 

The gifs are glorious..

[Motlhen]

Nov 2020 - Jan 2021

With my contract ending at the end of 2021 & no more clubs currently available to manage in Hong Kong, I'm going to continue with Hougang Utd.
The board are delighted with my progress & have offered me a contract extension to the end of 2022 twice now, which I have turned down.

 

Transfers

At the end of last season we made 3 new signings and continued to look to improve the squad as some key players were also sold on.

 

Transfers In

Goalkeepers

 A young, Welsh talent who agreed to sign long before joining.

 

But Tyler will be loaned out as Buhari is equally good in goal but he is also native and so won't take up a foreign player spot.

 

Defenders

Decent first team level CB we'll call Khal.

 

A late loan signing to provide cover for a deadline day departure to our first choice LB.

 

Midfielder

Decent cover in the middle of the park.

 

Attackers

A winger on each flank, both with great promise, especially Shahri.

 

Ui-Young is a great signing for us, being a first choice for the international team.

 

Plus youngster Moore who joins from Northern Ireland & has bags of potential. He could easily be the biggest player for the team this season!

 

With two new foreign players signed, we're up to 6 in the squad. We're only allowed 4 so we looked to see who could gain credible interest but no reasonable bids were made. We are competing in the AFC Asian Cup, so we will see some rotation from the domestic squad, but it's going to be hard to keep all 6 players happy this campaign.

 

Transfers Out

The toughest decision was to let Vestering go, and in hindsight I probably shouldn't have as there are no LB's of his quality that are (or have gained) Singaporean nationality.
£50k was a decent amount to take for him though.

 

Our first games of the season were the Champions League.

We drew Selangor & then the winner of that single-leg clash would face Chinese giants Guangzhou.

 

We got lucky in 90 mins against Selangor with the penalty and surviving a huge amount of pressure.
Then Khal got sent off in the first half of ET, but we managed to hang on & dispatched 5 of 5 penalties to go through.

Then against Guangzhou we fought back twice to force ET, but even with 11 men on the pitch this time they were too strong for us.

Edited July 18, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Feb - Apr 2021

A superb duo of 9-0 wins (of different magnitudes) followed up by a set of strong friendlies.
Then we conceded two goals to lose our 2-0 lead in our second AFC match before Ui-Young got a last gasp winner!

The domestic campaign got off to a sluggish start though.

 

We returned to winning ways in the league, but let another 2-goal lead slip in the Asian Cup, this time without reprieve.
Only one team progresses from our group (from my understanding, it's my first time in this comp!) so we must make sure we don't come to regret losing this lead.

 

We've been struggling for goals.
At the start of the season I thought we would be struggling defensively, but would be able to out-score our opponents.
But we've seemed frail in attack & sturdy at the back.

..apart from drawing 1-1 to a team we trounced 9-0 I can't be disappointed with an unbeaten season so far (ignoring the ACL).

 

We'll play Johor for top spot & progression from our group.

 

Although making sense of what we're progressing to is a bit of a challenge.
If we win our group (ASEAN), semi-final & final, we'll progress to the semi-final "after" the Central competition.
If we win that semi-final & final then we will play the final final in the top right against the winner of the West final.
Straight forward?

 

Meanwhile the domestic league looks like this:

[Motlhen]

31 minutes ago, Motlhen said:

I can't be disappointed with an unbeaten season so far

So of course we get destroyed in our next game:

[Motlhen]

May 2021

11 points isn't enough to get the best-placed 2nd placed finish qualification spot after a horrible performance against Johor.
We rue the draw with Boeung Ket & the 2-0 lead thrown away against Johor in the reverse fixture.

Song Ui-Young saving us with another last gasp winner against Young Lions as we get back on track domestically.

 

 

Keeping an eye on possible future moves & the Hong Kong division has come to a close.

Wing Yee have been relegated, but the other eligible teams finishing 6th, 8th & 9th bodes well for some summer sackings and potential openings for me to apply to.

[Motlhen]

June 2021

I've applied for the Southern District vacancy.

 

This youth intake won't keep me around.

 

But performances like these will make it hard to leave!

[Motlhen]

July 2021

I got offered the Southern District job in HK.

BUT!

I am enjoying my time in Singapore & my new aim is to hit the dizzying heights of 1st place in the Singaporean hall of fame.

So I'll be here for another 3 seasons at least... unless I change my mind again. We'll see!

 

Transfers

The team has seen some changes in the mid-season transfer window, most notably with three foreign players leaving.
Moore played well, but I prefer Cobucci.
Machell has been great for us, but we are flooded with young, SIngaporean midfielders so they'll be given a chance.

El Baset continues to be loaned to us, although now we're paying his wages.
The rest of the loanees are short term cover for injured defenders as we were a bit stretched. None cost us any wages, so we brought in more players than necessary to take our pick of a bad bunch. Togashi may feature from the bench.

 

Fixtures

We aren't extending our leads until very late on. Meaning that if the opposition up their game at the end, they can get back in to the game or nick a draw, like Geyland Int. did.
And then we let a 3-goal lead at HT slip against the team rooted to the bottom of the league.

We're on track to retain our title- a big game against 2nd place LC Sailors next will all but secure the crown or make me start to worry we could get caught!

Edited July 19, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

August 2021

Now is NOT the time to capitulate.
We dominated the LC Sailors game, but giving away a penalty & not converting any of our chances reduced the points gap to 3, but they have a game in hand.

The following loss against Niigata Unicorn means the title is no longer in our hands.

LC Sailors got a 91st minute winner against Balestier in the round of games we weren't involved in to be a point ahead with two games to go.

[Motlhen]

September 2021

A decision has been made to stick around for another season.

 

We are indebted to DPMM for their 93rd minute equaliser keeping our title hopes alive after not being able to manage a win at Tampines.

 

For a long time it looked like we were destined to fall short, but Christian Santos' double & Warriors holding LC Sailors to a bore draw means we clinch the title in dramatic fashion on the last day of the season!

[Motlhen]

Awards

 

A terrible youth intake, again!

 

But maybe the new board will be more susceptible to facility upgrades?

 

 

RHB Singapore Cup

We've been markedly worse at the end of our season & this form continued into the Cup as we look to retain our domestic double status.

After 2 games & a blessing in the form of a 91st min equaliser for Niigata in the earlier fixture, we still have a chance to qualify.

 

Aaaaaand.. we did exactly what was required against LC Sailors to get through to the semi finals.

...where we will be playing LC Sailors again, over two legs, for a place in the final.

[Motlhen]

October 2021

We shrugged off our run of bad form at the best of times to run riot through the knockout stages to claim our second consecutive double!

 

No new funds, but a more receptive board for next season:

 

 

Cobucci & Santos the standout players again this season.
Shahiri & Nazari shone bright this year too and we hope they can keep this level of performances up into next season.

[Motlhen]

I'm now the equal best Thai manager in Singapore, but still some way off Robert Bok. 

[Motlhen]

End of 2021 - Jan 2022

Singapore has moved up in the coefficient rankings meaning we've automatically qualified for the Champions League group stage!
(Can someone let me know how to check the coefficients please?)

We've been handed a super tough group with 3 teams I've actually heard of..
Including Melbourne City, who I am a fan of & own a shirt from the 17/18 season after living in Melbourne for half a year.

 

I don't think we've seen the ACL qualification money yet, but signing freebies to sell at a profit has helped turn the finances around.
£300k in player sales in two full seasons.

 

I have also noticed that this year we will start the season with the Singaporean Community Shield (or Great Eastern Community Shield in-game).
Strangely this competition didn't run in 2020 & even though we won both competitions that qualify you for this cup we were not part of the 2021 final.
But it provides a way for me to jump into 3rd in the Singaporean Hall of Fame! Now we're in it, we're in it to win it!

 

 

Transfers

A very good Chinese CB has agreed to join.

 

Alongside my favourite loanee El Baset, who joins for the third consecutive season.
He is on course to picking up the nationality too, if I can convince him to move permanently at the end of his current contract he would be a brilliant permanent addition to the squad.

 

I've also signed a few youngsters. The pick of the bunch is BWM Rahman.

[Motlhen]

Feb 2022

Predicted favourites to make it 3 titles in a row.

 

This is how we line up for the first match of the season.

We started the season with a very unlucky loss to Busan, who could only score from the penalty spot in a match we were expected to lose heavily.
We then smashed Tianjin 4-0 to give us real hope that we can push for at least 3rd place in our group (I'm hoping that a 3rd place finish qualifies us for the Asian Cup knockout rounds, similar to UCL group stage 3rd place ending up in the Europa League knockout round.)

Domestically, we got off to a very disappointing start with a ET loss against LC Sailors in the Community Shield.
We had ample opportunity to be way out of reach by the end of 90 mins, but a lack of prolific finishing allowed them to force extra time late on, before going on to nab the winner.

I am glad, however, that we started the league season with a bang! A resounding 5-0 win, including a hattrick for Ui-Young, stating our intentions for dominance in the league.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Mar - Apr 2022

A huge draw against Melbourne, followed by very disappointing results in the league until we turned things around late on against LC Sailors, the toughest of the 3 fixtures.
 

Incredibly, we are in with a real chance of qualification from our ACL group.
After drawing with Busan in an even game, we stormed past Melbourne in Melbourne to top the group with only one game remaining.
As the first seeding rule is Results Between Teams, Tianjin, who we face in the last game have qualified already, even though they are currently behind us in 2nd.
We would lose out on a head-to-head record against Busan, so the only way we'll miss out on the KO rounds is if we lose to Tianjin & Busan win their final game too.

 

BUT, domestically we are worse off one-third of the way through the season than we have been before.
We have not needed to rotate our squad, so our first team are saving themselves for the big games at the expense of the league.
6 points off where we would expect to be.

Edited July 23, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

May 2022

A draw with Tianjin in our last group game was just enough to secure qualification to the KO rounds.
The group finishing in the opposite order I would have put money on before a game was played.

 

This meant a tough tie against the Chinese league previous season's 3rd place finishers Jiangsu.
A huge 5-1 win away from home almost put the result beyond doubt, before Ui-Young's goal in the second leg made it 6-1 and game over.
We are through to face a South Korean team. Either Ulsan or Seoul await us in the Quarter Finals.
 

 

In the league we got back to winning ways, but we conceded late in the 6-pointer against Tampines means we sit in 3rd, 3 points off top spot but having played a game more.
We're playing catch up this season- undeniably affected by the continental competition distractions.

[Motlhen]

June 2022

Another concession of poor players from the youth intake.
Hopefully the GK mentioned can be a stand out star.

 

Two games we dominated, but only one where we made it count.
Huge disappointment to drop points as we look very unlikely to retain the title.

[Motlhen]

We drew the first leg of our ACL QF against Ulsan 2-2, which is a huge result especially away from home!
But, we were 2-1 up in the 93rd minute when this catastrophe happened:

Edited July 24, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

July 2022

We crashed out of the ACL to Ulsan but got back on track in the league with 4 wins from 4.
Tampines won 1, drew 4 & Geylang won 2, lost 2 this month meaning we are sitting on top of the pile going into the remaining 6 games of the season!

Edited July 25, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

August 2022

The draw with LC Sailors was disappointing, but smashing Tampines & Geylang dropping points too means we're in the driving seat for the title!

Edited July 25, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

September 2022

Both Geylang & Us won our first games of the month, then in the penultimate fixtures a red card proved disastrous for us as we lost to Balestier.
Hugely fortunate that Geylang also dropped points, setting up huge final day fixture Hougang v. Geylang for the title. A draw would be enough for us.

[Motlhen]

September 2022 Continued..

Champions again!

We asserted our dominance over Geylang in the cup fixture & then, even with a heavily depleted squad due to injury & suspension, we go the job done with a comfortable win.

 

Awards

We signed Diego to replace Cobucci domestically as he was not interested with signing a new contract.
Cobucci has proven difficult to sell & is playing in the reserves- but Diego has proven his worth this season already.

 

Ui-Young has carried the team during the squad's lowest moments & deserves the praise that comes along with the accolades he collected this season.
Keeping him around might prove challenging.

 

&

[Motlhen]

October 2022

Youth Intake

Poor overall, but the top 3 players could become useful.

 

We were the Overachievers in this seasons ACL.

 

But we had to settle for 3rd in the Cup as Balestier came up with a smash and grab win after we threw away a 3-1 lead in the first leg.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Nov 2022 - April 2023

Transfers Out

Hao Runze left for £45k.
The decision to keep El Baset on loan to try to make him of Singaporean nationality & eventually sign him permanently to reduce the number of foreign players in the first XI was key.

 

Backup striker Suhaimi left on a free along with some reserve players not destined to feature for the first team.

 

Transfers In

Zhengrong was brought in to cover the LWB position, with El Baset moving to CB to cover for Hao Runze's departure, we'll be relying on two youth prospects as cover in each position. More below.

 

Teh comes in to play RB as our two options have started to decline winding down to the end of their careers.

 

Ghani returns to Hougang for a second spell following his pretty ineffectual £22.5k move to Tampines in 2021.
Hopefully he can provide adequate back up from the bench.

 

Youth Prospects

We'll rely on these two from the bench & to cover for fatigue.

LB

 

CB

 

 

Our starting line up for the first fixture of the season looks like this:

 

 

In the Champions League group stage we face Ulsan, the team that knocked us out of the quarter finals last season as well as Japanese side Higashiosaka Rosa & Chinese outfit HB China Fortune, who have used their fortune to acquire some big name players:

 

 

We've been a mixed bag so far this season- we are doing really well in most matches, but occasionally we can't hit a barn door with our shooting.

Exhibit A: Terrible Finishing

 

We added the Community Shield to the list of competitions I've won with an emphatic 3-1 win against LC Sailors.

 

We're unbeaten in the league so far, but we've dropped points twice.
Luckily for us, no other team has shown dominance & we still sit atop the pile by four points already.

 

The ACL group is tight going into the final fixture. It's ours to lose!
A huge 1-0 smash & grab against Ulsan the latest positive result for our underdog story.