The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge

[libbyshuss]

@vikeologist sorry, but i just laughed myself silly at that video at the end!

[vikeologist]

2 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

@vikeologist sorry, but i just laughed myself silly at that video at the end!

I wish I could have found the ESPN Deportes commentary. They were merciless.

[libbyshuss]

well, so much for my plan to stay another season at Anderlecht and go for the Cup. This just happened in the first round!

 

So.....there's still the Champions League I guess?

[Crispypaul]

I did start going with Wigan but quit as a) it seemed like too big a team to start with as a 20 year old with no experience and b) I really, really hate slogging through the lower leagues in England.

So I have restarted, profile is here.

A couple of months in I got a couple of offers, one of which I accepted from Norwegian 3rd tier side Levanger.  I love the Norwegian league and this seemed a much more fitting level for an inexperienced manager.  No games to play in the 2020 season as there is a split halfway and the bottom teams don't play any games, so 2021 will be the first proper season.

[lukefox44]

6 hours ago, _JHTB_ said:

I was going to mention that your transfer budget wouldn't stretch that far as you'd spend most of it on players who aren't worth anywhere near the amount signed for but just because they are chinese.

 

I hadn't spent a single penny all save and just saw millions and got a bit carried away haha.

Trying to use the bulk of the money to upgrade the foreign lads as mine seem a bit on the average side compared to the top teams. I did just sign Ryan Kent from rangers in the mid season transfer window to cheer myself up a bit haha.

[lukefox44]

@vikeologist ah mate I'm gutted for you. I'd of been speechless at how fast it all came crashing down.

[Tubzinho]

I have abandoned my FM20 challenge and started a new challenge with FM21.
 

To my surprise I have got the Notts County job and also the Georgia national team job. Was expecting to start lower down than that but I checked my profile and everything checks out i.e. Sunday League Footballer, no coaching badges etc.

[vikeologist]

22 minutes ago, Tubzinho said:

I have abandoned my FM20 challenge and started a new challenge with FM21.
 

To my surprise I have got the Notts County job and also the Georgia national team job. Was expecting to start lower down than that but I checked my profile and everything checks out i.e. Sunday League Footballer, no coaching badges etc.

Welcome to the challenge. It is easier to get a first job this year, although it was MUCH easier during the beta.

Your manager is 19 or 20, correct?

[Tubzinho]

3 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

Welcome to the challenge. It is easier to get a first job this year, although it was MUCH easier during the beta.

Your manager is 19 or 20, correct?

Yes, 19 years old, Sunday League Rep. no coaching badges.

 

[fromcoystocottbus]

Blues Traveler

Sputnik Rechitsa (2021)

Getting ready to start my first full season as a manager. Unfortunately, I'm worried I'm going to have to start from the beginning. My save might have picked up a bug transitioning from the beta version to the full game. See the field, from one of my friendlies:

Pretty sure this is a big. But I'm not positive? Because I received this inquiry before my league opener. Is it just my home pitch is in awful, awful shape, to the point that the ground is discolored?

Appreciate the question, Maxim, but we'll pass on answering for now.

Lastly, the season preview. The experts say our talent gives us a chance to earn promotion. I hope that also means we've got a chance to make some noise in the cup.

Also: How often have you seen a club with *1-91* odds to win a league? Getting points vs. Rukh Brest will be quite the accomplishment, apparently.

[_JHTB_]

17 minutes ago, fromcoystocottbus said:

Pretty sure this is a big. But I'm not positive?

Think it is completely because of weather that it is like that looks just like it's got a spattering of snow and then the blue lines because of the snow. So I'm fairly sure it's intended and not a bug there, don't think pitch condition is visible from looking at the match engine, but again could be that also I suppose.

[fromcoystocottbus]

13 minutes ago, _JHTB_ said:

Think it is completely because of weather that it is like that looks just like it's got a spattering of snow and then the blue lines because of the snow. So I'm fairly sure it's intended and not a bug there, don't think pitch condition is visible from looking at the match engine, but again could be that also I suppose.

You were correct. First league match was much better (though the result was not!). We shall continue.

[danielclouston1]

So starting the challenge just now.

I have all leagues loaded, just because. Set up:

 

First job is Isloch Minsk Raion from Belarus. Currently bottom with 11 points after 17 games. Time to save relegation.

I´ll be back with a proper update at the end of the season

Edited November 26, 2020 by danielclouston1

[libbyshuss]

So oncie I went out of the cup I kind of lost a little interest in the Anderlecht job. Our league form became erratic and we slipped to 5th so i started looking around for other jobs. We were still in the Champions League after topping our group but having drawn Atletico Madrid in the next round we weren't going to go much further.

 

So when Mikkel Arteta was fired leaving Arsenal in 13th place at christmas I decided to go for it. I got the intverview and then the job offer. So......

 

Theey've finished 8th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 7th in the last 5 seasons and have a paltry transfer budget of 14m. I'm still not 100% sure I've made the right move, it's going to be tough to get them back challenging but we'll see how it goes.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2020 by libbyshuss

[vikeologist]

I don't know if any of you are aware, but GD are currently going nuts over how easy it is to get a job without any experience or badges.

It would seem as though the game sometimes 'throws you a bone' with a job much better than you'd expect.

I'm not sure this is new. On my current FM20 save, I was turned down by various Championship clubs and then Premier league Everton offered me a job.

In a way, that's fair enough. Real life doesn't operate on a mathematical formula based on experience, reputation and qualifications.

I thought it had become much harder on the full release to get a job, (I still think that). Maybe there are clubs that are just more inclined to be completely rando in their appointments. Again, maybe not totally unrealistic.

I guess if you want to do the challenge with an opinion of how good the jobs you are offered should be, that's fair enough. If you want to avoid unrealistic appointments, that may be what you have to do.

I'm unsure the GD people are going the right way about making SI change their mind on this.

Edited November 26, 2020 by vikeologist

[libbyshuss]

26 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

I'm unsure the GD people are going the right way about making SI change their mind on this

who are GD?

I've been turned down for far more realistic jobs than the ones i have been getting so I dunno. Maybe they're right in that a 20 yea rinexperienced, unqualified buffoon shouldn't be getting jobs at 2.5* rep clubs but other than that it seems pretty good to me.

 

[vikeologist]

12 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

who are GD?

I've been turned down for far more realistic jobs than the ones i have been getting so I dunno. Maybe they're right in that a 20 yea rinexperienced, unqualified buffoon shouldn't be getting jobs at 2.5* rep clubs but other than that it seems pretty good to me.

 

GD are General Discussion.

OTF are Off Topic Forum.  They really look down on GD. In fact, I'd imagine 98% of the reading of GD posts is done by OTFers, just so they can then post shot about them on the equivalent OTF threads.

We're not important enough to be anything, I'm afraid. Nobody knows we're here.

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2057 South Africa ACON Report

Challenge Complete

 

 

It seems that there are 2 nations vying for top place in Africa; ourselves and Nigeria. Morocco are rated highly but have had a couple of bad results recently so Nigeria is the nation that I would very much like to avoid as long as possible.

Mind you, whereas 2 years ago the FA expected me to reach the final, this time they expect us to win.

As do I. At least I really hope we win.

If I don’t win, the important thing is to at least make it to the final so Ihopefully don’t get sacked. Despite adding the S African league, there are now only 5 managable African nations; S Africa, Ivory Coast (who I’ve already managed and may not want me back), Morocco Senegal and Angola

Ghana, Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Cameroon. DR Congo and everybody else, all currently unmanageable.

Even with all the new players, our first choice XI is very similar to 2 years ago. Junior, responsible for the own goal and psychotic lunge in the SF 2 years ago that started the landslide is still our starting right winger. It seems that match was an aberration, but I have another player in his position equally good. Should I drop him just because of that one match?

Group Stage

Spoiler

 

South Africa            2-2               Zimbabwe

Oh well, that’s not good. Especially since we beat them 5-0 2 years ago.  

South Africa            14-0             Kenya

One of our strikers,  Andile Mthembu, scored 6 goals. Notable because in 15 previous appearances, nearly all as a starter and including all our high scoring matches 2 years ago, he hadn’t scored a single goal.

South Africa            2-0               DR Congo

We needed to win to top the group, and we were utterly dominant. Given the middle result, this seems a strange thing to say, but we’re having real problems turning our dominance into goals.

Cape Verde next. We’re in the harder half of the draw. Obviously I’m not referencing Cape Verde there though.

 

2^nd Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

South Africa            6-0               Cape Verde

I rested a few players at risk of suspension, and early on Cape Verde caused us lots of problems.

Algeria next, which may sound like an easy match, but they’re the 8^th highest African nation.

Also, all that resting players means that 6 of our first team are now just a yellow away from suspension, potentially for our toughest match of the tournament against Nigeria.

 

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

South Africa            2-1               Algeria

This was a very close match, but I guess a win’s a win.

So as expected, Nigeria in the semi. Like Ivory Coast 2 years ago, they needed penalties in the QF. Hopefully everything else will be different.

If we do get to the final, it will be Ivory Coast we’ll be facing.

 

 

 

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

South Africa            5-0               Nigeria

We were 2-0 up after just 6 minutes. I kept waiting for disaster to fall, but it never did, and we thrashed the pre-tournament favourites. I just hope we haven’t peaked too early.

I’m at the stage where I could develop a real hatred of Ivory Coast if we lose to them in the final.

 

 

3^rd Place Playoff / Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

South Africa            1-0     Ivory Coast

A really even match with almost no highlights. Just a fantastic long range blast from one of our guys.

 

After The Tournament

Spoiler

 

There is no after.

I’ve finally achieved the challenge again.

MVP - Xolani Hlungwani

He wasn’t the top scorer like 2 years ago, thanks to Andile’s 6 goal tally against Kenya, but he did score 7, and had the top average rating.

He’s definitely been the MVP over the whole of my time with South Africa.

I’ll have to think about what to put in my challenge completion report.

Probably an all challenge XI, though I’m not sure I’ll have someone for all the positions. Obviously strikers tend to make up most of my MVPs.

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
36/37	Valencia	Primara Liga		1st		Nathan (SC)			League, Champions League
2037	Atl Mineiro	Brazilian 1st		1st		Leandro Mederos (MC)		Took over after 17 matches in 8th. Won league. CL S/F
2038	Atl Mineiro	Brazilian 1st		1st		Ley (DC)			League, Libertadores and the pursuit of happiness. Sorry, I mean the Brazilian Cup.
39/40	OM		French 1st		1st		Batata (SC)			League. Knocked out of Frech Cup on penalties. 
40/41	Juventus	Serie A			1st		Dustin Abeßer (SC)		League / Cup double.
2043	SIPG		Chinese SL		2nd		Anderson Omar (MC)		Took over after 13 matches. ACL S/F
2044	SIPG		Chinese SL		1st		Ninja (SC)			League, cup, Champions League triple, Unbeaten league season.
2045	America		Mexican Opening		13th						Took over after 14 matches in 17th place (of 20). Won all 5 remaining matches
2046	America		Mexican Closing		1st		Miguel Macías (MC)		League winners
2046	America		Mexican Opening		1st						League and Leagues Cup winners
2047	America		Mexican Closing		1st		Misael Hernández (SC)		League and NACL winners
46/47	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Premier	3rd						Took over in 3rd with 3 games to go. 
47/48	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Premier	1st		Tshidiso Zimu (ML/C)		League, Super 8, K/O Cup, SA Cup, Confederations Cup. Everything basically.
48/49	Kaizer Chiefs	S African Premier	1st		Siphamandla Mlungwana (AMC)	Won everything (apart from the CWC) again, this time including the Champions League.
50/51	Slovan 		Slovak 1st		5th						Took over with 8 matches remaining in 6th. Won the Euro League II Playoff.
51/52	Slovan 		Slovak 1st		1st		Matías Bessone (SC)		Fantastic all seson apart from a disasterous S/F 1st leg saw us crash out.
52/53	Slovan		Slovak 1st		1st						League / Cup double.
53/54	Hibernian	SPL									Manager for 4 matches culminating in Betfred Cup win.	
2054	Kedah		Malaysian SuperLeague							Won Malaysian Cup					

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 by eventual winners Germany
34-36	France (Again)			Nations League		Manuel Jourdan (SC)
					Lost Euro '36 S/F to eventual winners Germany
36-39	Mexico				Lost in Gold Cup final.
					World Cup Quarterfinalists
					Won Gold Cup 		Juan Pablo Diaz (MC)
40-42	Holland				Nations League		Stefan van Roon (SC)
					World Cup 3rd Round
42-43	South Korea			Asian Cup		Wookie (ML)
46-47	Switzerland
47-49	Ivory Coast			Knocked out in ACON R2
49-50	Ghana				Knocked out in WC R2
50-52	Italy				3rd Nations League	Gianfranco Tammaro (SC)
					Euros			Blaz Ribic (GK)
54-57	South Africa			Lost in 2055 ACON S/F thanks to 2 straight reds and 2 own goals.
					Won 2057 ACON.		Xolani Hlungwani (SC)



Challenge Progress 32/32

Club
 10/10 top domestic leagues 		(England, Germany, Spain, Brazil, France, Italy, China, Mexico, South Africa, Slovakia)			
 10/10 domestic cups 			(England, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Italy, China, South Africa, Slovakia, Scotland, Malaysia)						
 5/5 club continental championships	(Europe, S America, Asia, N America, Africa)	 	
 1/1 club world championship

International
 5/5 continental tournaments 		(S America, N America, Asia, Europe, Africa)		
 1/1 World Cup		

 

 

 

Challenge Manager Stats

Edited December 8, 2020 by vikeologist

[_JHTB_]

2 hours ago, vikeologist said:

I thought it had become much harder on the full release to get a job, (I still think that). Maybe there are clubs that are just more inclined to be completely rando in their appointments. Again, maybe not totally unrealistic.

In fairness, some of the higher reputation teams that were offering jobs (I'm thinking Wigan and Bolton) are in a bit of dire straights financially so can see the appeal of some nobody who they can get away with paying little. That might also be a factor in other jobs with the pandemic causing less budget for better managers. 

I've not seen enough examples of new clubs of people who've started since full release with only @Crispypaul who was with the aforementioned Wigan

2 hours ago, libbyshuss said:

Maybe they're right in that a 20 yea rinexperienced, unqualified buffoon shouldn't be getting jobs at 2.5* rep clubs but other than that it seems pretty good to me.

But, with this,  on FM20 my starting job was at a 2.5 star rep club anyway in TPS so it's not like it didn't happen in previous editions.

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

There is no after.

I’ve finally achieved the challenge again.

Though, congrats! 23 years quicker than your previous completion too, I'm glad that the AFCON in the end didn't cause you too much strife

Edited November 26, 2020 by _JHTB_

[Crispypaul]

When I restarted though I got nowhere near the Wigan job.  So maybe it was just a fluke.

[danielclouston1]

2 minutes ago, Crispypaul said:

When I restarted though I got nowhere near the Wigan job.  So maybe it was just a fluke.

When I started lasted night I got offered an interview with Wigan but they turned me down. A few Chinese first division teams turned me down too. Ended up with a Belarusian Premier league team who were bottom after 17 games. 2* rep team, I think.

[Siepe1990]

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

There is no after.

I’ve finally achieved the challenge again.

Whoa... Congrats mate! Hoping to emulate that one day myself... Enjoy the feeling!

Edited November 26, 2020 by Siepe1990

[Crispypaul]

2 hours ago, vikeologist said:

I don't know if any of you are aware, but GD are currently going nuts over how easy it is to get a job without any experience or badges.

I can't believe anyone on GD is going nuts....

[pug 407]

@vikeologist Well done Vike Nice To See You Finish

[libbyshuss]

2 hours ago, vikeologist said:

There is no after.

I’ve finally achieved the challenge again.

congratulations! so now what? start all over again?

[vikeologist]

29 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

congratulations! so now what? start all over again?

I doubt I'll ever do this challenge again. It's not that I hate it, but as well as completing it twice, I've all but completed it once (couldn't get the last 2 international trophies because I ran out of national jobs) and once I was pretty far into it when the Copa Libertadores stopped.

So I've done my time.

I'd need for the challenge to be considerably different (because the game was different) before doing it again. Such as having lots of extra leagues (which will never happen) or being much harder. (Whereas really it's easier now for a couple of reasons). It is a bit different now, with 1 less competition, no Confederations Cup, but a harder World Club Championship, but I have no interest in ever managing in South Africa or a few of the other nations again, because it's basically always the same 8 nations + either China / S Korea.

I might have a go at doing the Youth Challenge in England, with a very low rep team, because when i completed it I did it with quite a big Italian team. There's something to be said for trying the actual impossible, at least for me.

 

Edited November 26, 2020 by vikeologist

[Crowy]

I'll be restarting this on FM21 also looking to get a few hours in tomorrow night as Friday night is my shift off, but at the moment I'm working 6 days a week and 10+ hours a day so my time will be limited till after christmas. Last year this was pretty much my only save on FM and I still didn't complete it but it was my best effort yet. I've had a quick look around the new FM but not in major detail so looking forward to learning the new features to go along with this challenge.

[libbyshuss]

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

I might have a go at doing the Youth Challenge in England, with a very low rep team, because when i completed it I did it with quite a big Italian team. There's something to be said for trying the actual impossible, at least for me.

yeah, i can see the appeal with something different. I graduated from Dafuge to Youth Challenge to this. If I complete this I might go back to youth - I got so close with FM20

[pug 407]

It's 2 Years Since I Last Had A Save On Here So Here We Go.

Edited November 26, 2020 by pug 407
Update

[jcricky]

I always start far too late into the game cycle so this is going to be my main save this year. Whenever I've attempted a journeyman I always start in Asia, so this year I've taken a different approach and I'm aiming to start somewhere in the Nordics. 

[jcricky]

VPS - 2020

Didn't take me too long to get a job. I had one interview before VPS at AC Kajaani, who sat bottom of the Finland Second tier. I almost went for it but then the VPS job came about. A side who were predicted to finish top of the league, but had found themselves 11th, 4 points off safety with 5 games to go. Our last win was 9 games ago, and the job was bigger than I initially thought it would be. We only really had one out and out centre half and we were unable to call any players up from the youth squad.

. 

FM loves a narrative, as do I. My first game in charge was against the team I had an interview with, anything but a win here could mean survival was in serious doubt. A 5-1 win was massive for us, plenty of goals, but it did result in a couple of players getting injured. Next game finished 2-2, with us scoring late on to get a point. FF Jaro came next, 4th in the league at this stage, and it was goals galore. We went 1-0, then 2-1 down, but at half time the game was level. In the second half we smashed it early on, going 4-2 up, before a 7 minute capitulation where we conceded 2, levelling the game to 4-4. One thing that stuck out for us was our never say die attitude, Momodou Sarr scoring in the 90+4th minute in our very own AGUEROOOOOO moment. Next up was MuSa Pori, a decent side, which was a pretty dull game, but yet again Momodou Sarr popped up late, this time in the 88th minute. 4 games in, 3 wins and a draw, despite that, there were 4 clubs who could take the last relegation spot, which included us. We played second place AC Oulu, and despite there top placing, we were able to win 3-2.

  

 

What next? Most of the squad are out of contract, so hopefully a big rebuild for me. I already tried to sign our star striker on a new one year deal, but we can't pay him what he wants unfortunately. Could be a difficult transfer window for us, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of Finnish talent out there for us to sign.

[Siepe1990]

Season 5 (2024/2025)

So, my first full season in charge of Crystal Palace. I used my transfer window well, bringing in no less than 9 players featuring in my First Team over the next season. During the pre-season, I won all my friendly matches, including matches against AS Monaco, Villarreal and Schalke 04, so I was quietly optimistic about my chances of steering clear of the relegation battle. I told my team (and the board as well) the I would try to save us from relegation, and everyone was content, so I could play without the pressure.

The first 10 matches saw me win 5 and lose 4, with huge scores in all matches ; due to my offensive style, I either scored a lot and won, or was completely blown away by a more effective team. I was knocked out of the EFL by Burnley in the 4th round, so I could focus on the competition throughout November en December. I won 6 out of the next 9 matches, losing 3, which saw me close to European Qualifying places somewhere halfway through the season.

Funny thing is: I can't remember ever having such good results being accompanied by such lousy ratings for my players. Truth be told: I also wasn't enjoying what I was seeing on screen, but it still seemed to be working somehow. The only real stand-out performances were from my 20-year old, homegrown Goalkeeper (a regen, but a damn decent one) - who scored the highest average rating amongst all goalkeepers over the season - my left winger (De La Fuente from Barcelona), one of my central defenders (Fry from Middlesbrough) and - the real key to my good season - both my strikers: Koita from Red Bull Salzburg and Campana from Wolves.

Long story short: the second half of the season was identical to the first: big wins, heavy losses, but still a very good place in the league. In the end, I managed to just beat Leicester the manage an amazing 5th place, qualifying for the UEL next season. You can see Koita there with 24 goals - he almost become top goalscorer as well, only Martial beating him with 1 goal in the end. Perhaps not really surprising, this landed me the Manager of the Season award as a nice reward for my work.

Spoiler

 

 

 

On to the International-side of things then. As stated, I left Venezuela immediately after the Copa America was won, also because the EUROs ended at the same date. Several jobs were available, I applied for a few, and got offered two: France and England. Now, I'm curious: which one would you have picked? We're only in 2024 here, so that's just 4 years down the line, so you can imagine the top players for both teams... Mostly due to the fact that their insane forwards suited my offensive playing style pretty well, I went for...

The only real significant matches I played were for the Nations League. I had a group with Sweden, Wales and Spain, which I managed to top with 5 wins out of 6 (only losing to Sweden in my very first match in charge). The Semi-Finals pitted me against France, which was a close encounter, winning by 4-2 due to a brace from Rashford late in the game. The Final same me come up against Italy... whom I demolished with 5-1, after going down 0-1 in the 4th minute. So, first prize in the bag, although it doesn't count for the challenge of course.

Spoiler

Over the summer period, I applied to several jobs, and got offered two interviews: Tottenham and... Bayern Munchen... Really surprised the latter even wanted me interviewed... Sadly, I didn't get either of the jobs. I'm currently in mid July, so I'm getting ready for another season in charge of Crystal Palace!

Career Overview

Edited November 27, 2020 by Siepe1990

[Crispypaul]

  

    

Crispypaul
Levanger
Norwegian 2nd Division
2021

League - Season Review 1 - Season Review 2 - great work as we win the division and promotion

Norwegian Cup  - Fixtures - a great run to the quarter final until Staebak crushed us

Finances - decent sponsorship and a cup run mean these are nice and healthy

Transfers 

Key players:

Emanuel Vladic - 24 goals from the Bosnian striker

Jeppe Schultz - strong Danish centre half

Alexander Johansen - great right back

Noah Iversen - another prolific striker

William Prtic - another strong defender

Casper Hauervig - good young goalkeeper

Future - extended my contract another year.  I have already got my National C licence and working on National B.  Rep is now 20%

Domestic
Season	 Team			Division		Position			Notes						
2021    Levanger       		Norwegian 2nd  	 	 1st				Champions, Promoted



International
Year	   Team					Achievements

Challenge Progress

Club
 0/10 top domestic leagues 
 0/10 domestic cups 
 0/5 club continental championships
 0/1 club world championship

International
 0/5 continental tournaments
 0/1 world tournaments 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Crispypaul

[Crispypaul]

Sponsorship money seems a bit high - we just got £735,000 in sponsorships at the end of 2021.  That's 3 times what we spent on wages for the whole year.

[_JHTB_]

Not many fixtures is May for us...

[Danny_H22]

2022 Season Review

 

At the end of my second season in charge of Edmonton and with no cup final win to my name, I told myself that I would move on no matter wait – there was just no point in wasting a third year just for the sake of one potential cup! Anyway, spoiler alert, I ended up spending a third year at Edmonton.

 

Canadian Premier League Island Games: I’ll keep this short and sweet, we won our third league title in a row – only losing two games along the way. 23 wins from 28 – with a massive 89 goals scored – set up a final against Cavalry FC. You don’t need to be psychic to predict what happened as Edmonton were declared champions with a 10-5 aggregate win.

Amway Canadian Championship: The one that had alluded us so far! Getting off to a positive start by flouncing Sigma FC 6-2, we were next paired off against MLS opponents in the shape of Montreal Impact. Naturally, I expected this would lead to a third year of cup disappointment but to my surprise my boys put in a shift in this round – beating the Impact 4-2 over two legs.

After such an impressive performance, we nearly through the cup away against oft-thorn in my side York9. A penalty and a 93 minute goal gave us the first leg win, before York9 repeated the 2-0 scoreline at their place. Luckily, my team are made of sterner stuff and we continued our unbeaten form in games that went to penalties.

Our first final and another tie against an MLS team, this time Toronto FC. Both games were very close, with us managing a draw away from home in the first leg before an 88^th minute winner snatched the tie in the second leg, giving us the one trophy that had previously slipped by!

CONCACAF Champions League: We had something of a non-performance in the Champions League last season, losing out to far better teams. This year, luck wasn’t on our side when the balls were drawn for the first round and we were matched up against 7-time Mexican champions, CF Pachuca. Despite two first half injuries to key players, we still managed to snatch a 2-1 win at home before heading to there home and beating them on penalties.

If the first-round draw wasn’t bad enough, we were then rewarded with a tie against 8-time Mexican champions, Tigres UANL. We never really got going against the far superior team, losing 6-1 on aggregate.

Scotiabank CONCACAF League: With two finals – and one win – in two seasons, this is a tournament that we like and with the start we had this season, we were early favourites to make it three finals in a row. The first round saw us dominate Isidro Metapan 9-2 over 180 minutes, a score we then upped by beating Motagua 11-2 on aggregate – setting up a quarter final against Williams Connection.

This tie proved to be our toughest thus far, but still we marched on, beating them 5-4. Up next, the team that knocked us out last season – Alajuelense. The first leg proved tight, but if you had offered me a 1-0 victory at their place before kick off, I’d have taken it. The second leg was even less eventful, with the two teams cancelling each other out on the way to a 0-0 and a third final for Edmonton.

Starting the final at home against Costa Rican Saprissa, was about as kind as we could ask for in a final and we certainly lived up to expectations by beating them 4-2 before heading to their house and losing a lacklustre 1-2. Despite this, our first leg performance carried us to a second CONCACAF title in three years.

 

Top Goalscorer: This season was a goalscorers dream, with three players scoring 25+. New signing Jordan Perruzza made an instant impression, scoring 32 in 35 starts, whilst targetman Jordan Hamilton continued to by the star of the team by scoring 25 and assisting 14 more. Poacher Easton Ongaro rounded out the forward rotational options and contributed 25 goals in 33 starts.

Honourable mention to Raul Tito who scored 19 from our wide.

Most Assists: Lots of goals means lots of assists and it was Raul Tito who stood out in that department – 35 games, 20 assists, 19 goals.

Highest Ave. Rating: The whole team kept their standards high all season, but it was Raul Tito who remained the most consistent throughout, finishing with an average rating of 7.61

Most POTM: Goal contributions equal Player of the Match awards, so it is no surprise that Raul Tito took this too.

 

International: Last season I said I was waiting for an African or Asian nation to become available and that is exactly what happened as I am now the new manager of UAE. We have the Asian Cup to prep for and perhaps my first shot at international glory.

 

Next Season Plan: So now I definitely am leaving Edmonton! I’ve really enjoyed managing them and we’ve been playing some amazing football, but the only thing left to win is the Champions League and we are miles off that standard. I’ve been offered the BATE job, but turned it down because they wouldn’t let me play the second leg of the CONCACAF final and it didn’t feel right to leave with one game left. There are a handful of jobs around currently that I’m interested in, so I’m sure I’ll have options.

 

Season	Team              Position    Continental                                Notes and Achievements     
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020	FC Edmonton       1st         Won Scotiabank CONCACAF League             Won Manager of the Year
2021	FC Edmonton       1st         Lost Scotiabank CONCACAF League Final      Won Manager of the Year
2022    FC Edmonton       1st         Won Scotiabank CONCACAF League             Won Amway Championship. Won Manager of the Year

Challenge Progress

Club
1/10 top domestic leagues: Canadian Premier League Island Games (FC Edmonton, 2020)
1/10 domestic cups: Amway Canadian Championship (FC Edmonton, 2022)
0/5 club continental championships:
0/1 club world championship:

International
0/5 continental tournaments:
0/2 world tournaments:

International:
Season      Team                 Notes and Achievements     
----------------------------------------------------------
2020		Russia U19s
2020		Israel
2021		Israel
2020		UAE

 

[libbyshuss]

 and 

Season 6 (2025/26)

Arsenal and Nigeria

League

I wasn't that sure about taking the Arsenal job at first. They had no money, were doing poorly in the league and had an unbalanced aging squad. But their first team was amazing so I took the plunge. It was weird going from Anderlecht, with 100m in the bank to a much bigger club with a 20m debt. 

The first thing I had to deal with was an unhappy squad. In the first week 7 of my better players came asking for a transfer in search of continental competition. I offered them all the promise of selling them should a bid of a certain size be made, mainly just to try and improve their morale. It worked and we went on a really good run in the league. At one point around March we won 7 in a row to catapult us in the top ten. On the final weekend we were 7th, one place outside getting back into Europe. We were playing Liecester, 2 points ahead of us in 6th. Win, and we'd leapfrog over them. We won - 2-1! 

No bids were made either - yet. It was a bit of a gamble but it seems to have paid off. We'll see what happens over summer.

Cup 

My third game in charge was the 3rd round of the FA Cup. Away at Manchester United. This happened:-

It was the game that really kickstarted our upturn in form. In the 5th round we won on penalties against W*****d and I started to think it might be our year. A 3-2 win against Palace in the quarter final set us with a semi final game against Derby, battling against relegation from the Premier League. We played well, but lost 2-1. A win would have set up a final against Spurs as well!

Continental

We were in the weird Europa conference cup. We were easily the favourites and breezed through to the semi-final. We were playing Hoffenheim. In the first leg they had a xG of 0.06. I've never seen one that small before! Obviously they scored and we drew 1-1. The away leg was similar - we dominated and got a far superior xG only to lose 2-1. So out we went in the semi of a competition we shoul dhave won. It upset the board - my rating dropped to E- and there was talk of the sack for a couple of weeks

International

Nigeria have a great team. Somehow they got themselves knocked out of World Cup qualifying before I even turned up so all I had to play for the first year or so was friendlies until the qualifying for ACON started. We just played our first two games - 6-0 and 6-1 wins against Burkino Faso and Malawi.

Next Season

Got to get back into the Champions League and have a real go for the FA Cup. It all depends on if I can hang on to these wantaway players or not.  And I'm looking forward to the ACON in January as well, this Nigeria team have a great chance.

 

 

 

 

[vikeologist]

@libbyshuss GL in your first full season with Arsenal, and of course with Nigeria as well. Not sure I'm going to be able to read your ACON report. Might still be triggering for me.

@Danny_H22 Congrats on getting the cup. When BATE offered you the job, are you still able to delay accepting, and for how long? Where are UAE ranked in Asia? I've never thought of them as a contender, but usually by the time I get around to managing in Asia, they're not managable anyway. (In case anyone doesn't know, up to FM20, nations cease to be manageable as the number of players decreases). Be interesting to see what you can do with them.

@_JHTB_ Still in South Africa? Do you rotate your squad. In FM20, I couldn't get any sport scientists, so I had to do a lot of rotating.

@Crispypaul Congrats on promotion. Did you get on the leader board last time round? It's a pity that I have to delete non-active saves, but that post would be a huge graveyard of broken dreams if I didn't.

@Siepe1990Looks like what you're doing is working, apart from the job interviews I guess.

@jcricky Welcome to the challenge. When you say that FM loves a narrative, I assume you're not being serious. It does seem weird the narratives we're able to project on to our saves. Like the tournaments where I had awful starts, but ended up winning as opposed to the one (and probably more) where I looked invincible and then came off the rails. I'm always aware while playing of possible interesting narratives, but they usually don't actually happen. I certainly believe that the game is just chance and not rigged in any way towards narratives.

That said, although I have been relegated, I think every time I've ever ben in a relegation battle such as yourself, I've survived. When i get relegated, it's usually staring up at everyone else from a distance at the bottom of the table.

@pug 407Welcome back. Be interesting to see which route you take this time.

@CrowyWelcome back. Seems cruel to acknowledge news of your FM21 start by wiping your FM20 save off the leader board, but there you are; or rather aren't.

[pug 407]

9 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

 

@pug 407Welcome back. Be interesting to see which route you take this time.

 

@vikeologist Thanks Mate, I was A Bit Like How You Are. So Took A Couple Of Years Off.

[jcricky]

@vikeologist maybe it's just a personal thing but I always seem to see coincidence's or little narratives. Maybe I just get the luck with things like that.

[Danny_H22]

27 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

@Danny_H22 Congrats on getting the cup. When BATE offered you the job, are you still able to delay accepting, and for how long? Where are UAE ranked in Asia? I've never thought of them as a contender, but usually by the time I get around to managing in Asia, they're not managable anyway. (In case anyone doesn't know, up to FM20, nations cease to be manageable as the number of players decreases). Be interesting to see what you can do with them.

Thank you! I delayed BATE twice and then three days before the final, they wanted my decision so I had to turn them down.

UAE were 78ish when I took over and have risen around 10 spots since then. The team is definitely lacking, but outside of Australia, Japan and South Korea, most Asian squads are

[Crispypaul]

@vikeologist perhaps but I didn't finish in the end, I was put off a bit by winning the World Cup with Senegal which seemed very unlikely (I found FM20 a bit too easy generally)

[_JHTB_]

Golden Arrows and U.A.E 2023/2024

 

The off season was a very busy one, and really, our team was considerably different going into the new season. In fact our first choice 11 and subs only 5 players were at the club the season prior. The squad refreshing had a great effect with us winning all 5 of our opening games whilst conceding just once. We did have a little wobble slightly afterwards which coincided with a large number of our players being called up to represent their respective nations U23s for the U23 AFCON. Though it was just that a wobble, and we quickly found ourselves in a 4 horse race for the title, which actually wasn't out of our reach even towards the back end of the season. A culmination of a month off midseason for the AFCON and fixture rearrangements due to other competitions meant that our league form tanked at the end of the season as we faced 13 matches in just over a month. All that meant we almost came 5th in our 4 horse race and our 'title charge' ended with us 12 points behind eventual champions Cape Town City.

We bowed out of the Knockout Cup at the first round in the first of 3 losses to Maritzburg over the season, a real bogey team. Though both the African Confederation Cup and South African FA cup saw us do well (causing the previously mentioned fixture congestion). In the African Confederation Cup we actually won every match leading up to the final before we lost in a relatively close final 2-1 to fellow South African side Kaizer Chiefs which was towards the start of our form downturn. The FA Cup final was actually also against Kaizer Chiefs but this time (in spite of 4 losses and no wins in our last 6 games) we cruised to a 3-1 victory to retain the Cup - I'd have much rather our victories over Kaizer Chiefs reversed all told.

With U.A.E we did reasonably well in our World Cup qualification campaign which kicked off this season, though we did lose twice to Iraq which was not ideal and does leave us 3rd in our qualification group which is problematic as only first progresses to the next stage. A large part of issue comes from a very small pool of potential players for us to choose from which meant for our first few games we did have greyed out players on our bench.

Best Player - Victor Leshabane

One of the 5 players in our match day squad that was at the club last season, but he graduated from second choice to our first choice left back, a newgen as well. 22 goal contributions in 32 games this season for us which is an incredible return, though it was padded by his 10 assists in the African Confederation Cup where we scored lots of goals due to a lower quality opposition. 

What next?

Whilst we did have a good season overall we didn't really achieve anything in challenge terms so next season I really want to at the very least qualify for the African Champions League, but my hope would be to win the league or next season will have nothing in progress terms either.

Story So Far

Competition Progress

 

 

 

[_JHTB_]

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

@_JHTB_ Still in South Africa? Do you rotate your squad. In FM20, I couldn't get any sport scientists, so I had to do a lot of rotating.

Guess season update answers your first question. In general I don't rotate that much as I'm not always in a position with enough players for rotation, but the back end of this season absolutely required rotation, half of my players were dead on their feet for the last month. I just end up picking favourites and not wanting to drop them

[_JHTB_]

U.A.E 2024

A quick fire update here, I resigned from U.A.E after getting knocked out of our world cup qualification campaign. My thought process being that if we weren't good enough to progress at least to the next stage of the qualification here then there is no chance that we'd be anywhere close to having a chance of winning the Asian Cup. All in all it was a disappointing time, I really thought we'd fare better than we did, but there doesn't really seem any talent coming through either.

[Phelix]

Ok, after a full 12 months with Bahia I was all set to look to spend another 2-3 seasons there because I really liked the squad that I was building and thought I could challenge for a cup or even the league title. Then something happened. Something rather fitting considering everything that has happened in the real world this week, and Boca Juniors offered me the chance to manage them, replacing none other than the great man himself, Diego Maradona.

I couldn't turn this down. I have a real shot at nailing my first three trophies for this challenge, provided I can hang on to my young stars. This is proving difficult as agents go in to negotiations hard locked with stupidly low release clauses for foreign clubs, and I can't do anything about it.

Anyway, I have managed to make a couple of key veteran signings that should allow us to take the league title with Giovanni Simeone and Juan Foyth returning to Argentina.

 

In addition, I left the Chile job, we didn't have a single competitive fixture in 12 months, and with the 2026 World Cup ending, the Uruguay job came available, and to say there is some talent in that squad is an understatement. I need only stay 2 years to reach the Copa America, and another 2 and the WC will be back again, and with the mix of real players and regen's I've been gifted with, I have a real chance at both (but we all know chances are not how this challenge works eh).

[dkouv]

Season 2 (2021/22) - TS Sporting (RSA) / Uzbekistan

After narrowly missing out on the playoffs last season, I was hoping to get promoted this year and it pretty much went according to plan. Because of the 1-year contract rule it took some time to re-assemble my squad in the summer, but we went on to have a pretty brilliant season with 27 wins and 3 losses. JDR Stars had a pretty amazing season themselves, but could not keep up and finished in second. We also reached the cup quarters but got thrashed 5-0 by Sundowns despite winning the match on xG. My best players were midfielders Erickson and Chingi, due to the 1-year contract rule I only managed to keep one of them with Erickson agreeing to join Orlando Pirates. This however may not be such a big problem anymore because...

I was applying for jobs throughout the year and getting rejected by a variety of Mexican, Australian and South American teams. But it looks like Orlando Pirates are about to take a punt on me, a perfect next job really!

On the international front I moved to a better “stan”, from Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan - who apparently are some 50 places higher in the world ranking. The Asian cup is still a long shot but I’ll give it a go, and after a few dodgy friendly results the team is settling and we managed to beat Peru in the playoff to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.

. .   

                                                                CLUB CAREER
                                                                -----------

 Season    Club               Division       League     Cups                           Notes
                                                        1st    2nd    Cont    CWC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/21    TS Sporting        RSA Div. 1       5                                      Took over in 9th, finished 5th
2021/22    TS Sporting        RSA Div. 1       1        QF                            Took over in 9th, finished 5th                                                       
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                           INTERNATIONAL CAREER
                                                           --------------------

 Season Nation         Cups                                                         Notes
                       World Cup   Euro's   AFC   ACON   Gold Cup   Copa America

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020/21 Turkmenistan         
2021/22 Uzbekistan                                      			    Qualified for World Cup through playoffs
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Challenge Progress:
  
Club
 0/10 top domestic leagues: 
 0/10 domestic cups: 
 0/5 club continental championships: 
 0/1 club world championship: 
 
International
 0/5 continental tournaments:
 0/1 world tournaments:

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by dkouv

[libbyshuss]

I couldn't resist it!

 

he can now link up with a 33 year old Pogba! 

 

[pug 407]

Pugs Update

A Couple Of Month's In I'm now Manager Of Ansan Greeners In The South Korean League 2

[danielclouston1]

So I deleted my last save because it was too slow (lesson learned) and started again with Asia and South Africa loaded.

Start up:

 

 

Season 2020-2021

 

 

I waited until December until a suitable job came around and I took the managers position at Chennai City in India. 

 

League

 

So I won´t lie, I was shocked at how poor the quality is in the Indian Airtel I-League. I didn´t expect much already but it was worse than I could have imagined. To kick off the league season the media had us expected 8th with a 66-1 shot of winning the league but I hired an African DoF and signed 3 players from Africa and a Pakistani goalkeeper as our 4 foreign players and their quality outstripped anyone else in the league. With these 4 signings we went from predicted 8th to predicted 1st at 1-33. Unreal. We went the entire first stage of the league season unbeaten, finishing with 8 wins and 2 draws.

Going into the champions phase of the league, I had no doubt we were going to win it and we didn´t perform as well as I would have hoped but we won it with a record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss but our loss was a massive 6-0 drubbing to MHDN FC. Embarrassing. Regardless, we won and captured our first league title of the challenge in our the first season however I think it will be a long time until I get to add to that,

 

Cup

 

So the cup competition was the Indian Federation Cup and after our showing in the league I fully expected to win this, which we did albeit a bit laboured in the final.

 

 

Season Review

So we cleared up this season and added our first league and cup titles for the challenge. I did plan to stay at Chennai for a second season but I may have spit the dummy out and handed in my resignation after the board rejected my request for a coaching course for the third time in my 6 months with Chennai. So I´m once again unemployed, no coaching badges and not much experience. Great.

 

Career Overview

 

 

Challenge Leagues

 

Challenge Domestic Cups

 

Trophy Cabinet

 

So a decent first season, I suppose but I´m on the move again. I´ll be back with an update at the end of the season for what ever job I find myself in next.

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by danielclouston1