Motlhen Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 (edited) I've got every league on view-only & will work my way from the worst reputable nations up to the best! Micronesia & Saint Barthélemy are the two worst-ranked top divisions. I've started with just these two in Playable mode & will see where I am offered a job first: Our journey starts off the East Coast of Peurto Rico which is the largest land mass visible below, on the small Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy (highlighted in orange). We have no qualifications & no experience, so only a team in dire circumstances would give us a chance. The Saint Barthélemy top division is ranked equal-bottom of all the World's top divisions by reputation and is a stand alone division in the nation consisting of 7 teams, with no relegation. ASCCO are some way adrift at the bottom of the league standings midway through the 2020 season. There are no expectations this season & I can see why. The league points system is 4 for a win, 2 for a draw & 1 for a win. Which is the same as 3-1-0 but with a point extra for everyone for participation. The inherited squad: My coaches tell me our best player is injured RB Blanchard. Chitas & Rei are also considered key players: & although it doesn't mean much to have an average rating of 6.72, Picard is our top performer this season so far: Albert is also a very useful player to have with such massive ability from set pieces: & 17yo Alvarez is our most promising youngster. At the club we only have two other staff members & I cannot find anyone else remotely interested in a staff role at the club. Edited September 19, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 (edited) Capped International & veteran midfielder Pujol joins as a player, coach & scout! This guy's going to be busy! Edited September 17, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 The countries best player Beniseau plays for Miami FC in the states. I got excited when I found out he had a release clause of £0, but he's not interested in a move back home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 (edited) Setting up for our first game & the biggest problem, rather unsurprisingly, is our goalkeepers. I have opted to stick with Morais & our lineup looks like this for our first competitive fixture in charge. Including two starting debuts in midfield. Edited September 18, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 Debutant Albert, thrown in for his quality from set pieces, makes the difference in a game that lacked quality against his former club. Our 'keeper Morais made two very decent stops to showcase his value despite my pre-match comments. A great start! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 17, 2020 Author Share Posted September 17, 2020 Next up we face off against 2nd place ASPSB, one of two unbeaten teams in our 7 team league. I've altered our midfield slightly, with the youngster Alvarez coming in for Faroese Joensen. & it is now that I realise that we've not got a player who has scored more than a single goal all season in the starting XI. Hopefully that will swiftly improve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 We lost out to a much better side. But the man who got a brace against us has already agreed to join us in the next transfer window. This defeat leaves us 11 points adrift, which is 4 worse than when we arrived. We face Diables Rouges next in a must win game if we want to finish off the bottom of the league! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 (edited) Both Goncalves & now Albert have scored two goals each this season after an early Albert penalty gives us another important win. I never expected my top two goal scorers to be a centre-back & a DM. I'm looking forward to being able to strengthen the squad at the end of the month. First though, we have two games: Team FWI & Arawak. Team FWI have just inflicted Arawak's first defeat of the season, we face the former first. We are chasing a group of 3 teams sitting 8 points ahead of us, although Team FWI have played two more games than us, meaning they are only a traditional 6 points ahead of us, making this our biggest game yet. Edited September 18, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 The in-form side took their chances. We're now some distance from the rest of the league & it'll take a massive squad revamp to make any progress with ASCCO. Luckily, we've got 6 new faces joining in the summer transfer window, after our next match. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 A stalemate against top of the league. This will be some players final appearance for the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 (edited) I'm really excited about the signings we've made! & none more so than veteran RB Edwards who comes in as the only non-Saint Barthélemy national. He'll feature in the first team squad but has also signed up to be both a coach & a scout, similar to Pujol. Rosseau should fix our goalkeeping issues. Pinto comes into our midfield after showcasing his abilities against us by scoring a brace in my 2nd game in charge. Whilst Denis & Maurel sure up our back line. We've signed Oger up front too- he will act as a backup for now. Let's hope the new signings can make a big difference! Edited September 18, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
3runhomer Posted September 18, 2020 Share Posted September 18, 2020 (edited) St Bart: son of the god Homer. Edited September 18, 2020 by 3runhomer Derp 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 The new faces in the backroom staff brought with them a knowledge of their peers so we now have the best coaching team in the country after a second round of hires. Signing-wise there are not an abundance of interested other parties beyond the players we've already brought in. Our reputation and league standing will be playing a big role in this and it means that the cover we needed may be sub-standard. It's hard to tell the bad from the very bad. We're after the former as anything better isn't really an option. Maertens I brought in on loan after the disgruntlement caused by signing Toussaint, thinking a non-permanent signing with poor expectations would reflect slightly better on my transfer handling. Not quite sure it did. In my defence, I've brought Toussaint in to play from the bench against tired opposition as he's the fastest player on the island (who will consider joining us)! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 Our new look starting XI. We have 5 debutantes starting & 2 more on the bench. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 After going 1-0 down, I switched tactic at HT and we turned the game around. Unfortunately, we conceded a late equaliser and the gap from us at the bottom of the league to Lorient in 6th remains at 6 points. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 18, 2020 Author Share Posted September 18, 2020 A great comeback in a game we always deserved to win. Happy to see the squad fight to the end to get the 4 points as in the past we've coasted to a loss or draw in a similar situation. Unfortunately, it means nothing to the league standings as AJOE Lorient put a dent in ASPSB's title hopes with a win to keep us 6 points at bay with one-quarter of the season to go. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 Wow! Where did this performance come from?! We dominated throughout and were clinical from start to finish, with Oger getting a brace against his former side. Albert makes it 3 from 3 on penalty duty, also adding 5 assists in his first 8 games for the club. Now I know we're capable of this, I've got to expect closer to today's performance every match! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 Edwards is considering heading back home to Trinidad & Tobago. The 41yo has been underwhelming in his performances so far & our best player when I took over RB Blanchard is back to fitness now. We'll have a Blanchard right side if Edwards leaves as we bring in another Blanchard, from ASPSB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 We have strong options at RB with Edwards choosing to stay. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 Post the summer transfer window closing we are back to 6 points adrift (we automatically will make up 2 of the 8 points by playing our games in hand). It is looking increasingly likely we won't be able to catch up to AJOE Lorient, but we are unbeaten in our past 4 games so may even be able to catch one of the other teams who are on a worse run of form. This is how we set up against Gustavia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 A poor start to the game from which we recovered well considering the 1-man defecit. A very poor debut from Maertens, but Albert with another outstanding performance. He is the first name on the team sheet at the moment. The board won't let us talk to Saint Bart's best player, Miami FC's Beniseau, as we haven't been signing enough youngsters. Challenge accepted! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 Albert comes another step closer to becoming my PotY keeping up his 100% penalty record and ensuring that our later ill-discipline would not break our undefeated record which is now at 6 games. Considering that when we joined the club, they hadn't won a game in 20, I have to be happy with the progress we've made even if it is not reflected in our league position. 3 games to go. Our search for young players was quickly put on hold when the youngest players interested in joining our 21+, backup level players. & it looks like we have to wait until September, a month after the season is finished, for our youth intake. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 ASPSB clinch the title in our back yard. A poor performance & our unbeaten run is over. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 What. A. Game. We were 2-down twice, either side of halftime and Oger completed his hattrick as we took the lead for the first time and managed to cling on. Unfortunately the result means nothing as we are guaranteed a last place finish. One more game to go. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 Another great performance to round off a decent second half to the season. Final league standings: Personally, this wasn't a bad first season as a manager, 20 points separating 1st and last place isn't huge. Every team is capable of beating every other team so I am not surprised we didn't manage to catch 6th, closing the gap by 5 points during my tenure. But I'm under no illusions that things need to improve quickly if we're going to start the world tour rather than languishing in the St Bart league for multiple seasons. I took over just before the first (league) win of the season. 3 defeats and two of those came against the eventual champions. A couple of records were broken, including by my chosen Player of the Year, Albert: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 20, 2020 Author Share Posted September 20, 2020 (edited) The biggest name in St Bart's football retires. It's not a huge disappointment as his performances were sub-par for someone of his ability. The 42yo managed 8 apps, getting 2 assists and a 6.80 average rating. He'll stay on as our coach and scout. Our youth intake from the outset looks disappointing. We'll see how the players develop. Edited September 20, 2020 by Motlhen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 20, 2020 Author Share Posted September 20, 2020 The board agreed with me that the Youth Intake was sub-par & we're going to increase our Junior Coaching to improve future intakes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 20, 2020 Author Share Posted September 20, 2020 We're considered the 2nd-worst team in the joint-worst top flight football league in the world. Hopefully some of these new signings can help quickly change that! & appease the boards wishes to sign youngsters at the same time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 23, 2020 Author Share Posted September 23, 2020 Another young defender joins us! After failed attempts to secure St. Bart's new top player. A massive moment for the country as a Qatari team come in for LB Gato. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 23, 2020 Author Share Posted September 23, 2020 We've been tipped to win the league this season. No pressure then! Our first fixture is against the reigning Champions ASPSB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 23, 2020 Author Share Posted September 23, 2020 After only two pre-season friendlies, it was obvious we were playing with a number of debutants. We had to rely on last season's top scorer to come off the bench to claw back 2 points as they created more chances than us but were not clinical. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 23, 2020 Author Share Posted September 23, 2020 Next up is an Arawak double-header. We face last season's 3rd place finishers in the cup QF first, then in the league. Both games we scored 5: Through in the cup in style! But pegged back in the 92nd minute in an instant classic in the league. Charbonnier breaking records in both competitions as our youngest goalscorer & player. We also signed another player. Mulugeta is special, but at first glance you might not notice why. He is from Mayotte, making him the only non-St. Bart's player at the club. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 We've played two more games & have remained unbeaten! But it's not the best results as we make it four draws from four games in the league so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted September 24, 2020 Author Share Posted September 24, 2020 Finally, a win! Now this is more like it! This could and probably should have been a romp as we hit the woodwork 5(!) times. We've lost ground on the two breakaway teams & with a game in hand each they could extend the gap to 6 points after only 5 games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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