timpy00 Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Season 2023 Our first complete season in Indonesia, with a lot of matches on the line this season. There is the AFC Cup, the league and the cup (where rounds have a home and an away game). Because of the financial position of the club I had to work with a small budget to improve the squad, luckily for us we managed to pick om some free agents to improve the starting squad, but also the depth of our team. The season started with the Indonesian Supercup, in a match where the xGoals difference was over 2 in our advantage the score didn't show that after the final whistle and so we lost the battle for the supercup, that ment I still had to wait for my first price in my career. The AFC Cup is played based on regions in Asia, we made it to the final quite easy, a lot of times we could give some rest to the important players of our team and give some changes to the substitutes. We made it to the overall final, despite our affords it looked like Teshrin the team from Syria was way better then us and we lost the final. Despite losing the final we made an impressive run and scored 37 goals in 15 matches. Changes are this was the only time in my career I got the opportunity to win this trophy because I'm not planning at staying to long in Indonesia and the bigger leagues in Asia only qualify for the Asian Champions League. In the league we started a bit shaky, which ended in us trailing the top two teams in the league for almost the entire season. Persebaya and PSS both were a couple points in front of us for a long time. Each time we had the change to catch them we made a misstep against, most of the times, a bad team. For example we managed to earn 1 point this season against the team that finished last. Fortunately for us we managed to get 6 points against PSS and 3 against Persebaya. And just like last season when I took over in November we managed to go on a insane last streak of games with ended in winning the title. Because of the winning streak we went on, in the end we had a clear margin on the other teams in the league which is nice. To make things even better we also managed to win the cup in a final against Persebaya, which ment we won the double. So I managed to win the first two prices of my career. The club obviously want to continu with me as there manager, but I'm having obvious doubts. Earlier in the season I extended my contract for another year, just to be sure when things weren't working this season they would in the next. But at this moment I'm having a good look at the available jobs and will be looking for a new adventure. Hopefully we can go to a club were in a few seasons time we can build to a serious champions league run. But we have to wait and see where we going to end. Spoiler @_JHTB_ good luck with the Spurs, hopefully you can make a quick build aiming for a title @dkouv Congrats with Australia @The Regista Good luck in the league and with Ghana. 19th on the world ranking looks promising to make a good run for the Africa Cup. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MShing Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Leicester City Review 2032-33 After just missing out on the League last season. I was hopeful we could go one better after strengthening the squad further. We started off well up til halfway through the season but then star striker Tol got injured for 3 months and we struggled losing pretty much all of our away games. Nothing I tried could turn our fortunes around. We only just about hung onto 5th place, qualifying for the Europa League. 5th Place finish, about where the media predicted us to finish but after last season I was disappointed. Nothing doing in the cups, knocked out by 3 big teams whos squads I just cannot compete with Star Man Once again our superstar dutch forward was the performer of the season, even with him being out injured for 3 months he still managed 23 goals, he was closely followed by Jovanovic our young LB who won young player of the year Whats Next? This Leicester squad has some very good young players who could really become a force in the next few seasons.But I am not sure I have the time to stick around, I really need to start making progress on completing this challenge. I think my best hope for this season is to win a cup, for this I would need to avoid the big boys. I almost left during the summer after this season, /cruz Azul in Mexico was available but they could not afford the payoff to Leicester, just as well really. It is World Cup year and hopefully my South Korea side can take a few scalps and please the crowds with it being on home soil. Best I can hope for is plenty of available nations once its finished leaving some big clubs without a manager. Fingers Crossed Season Team Position Key Player Notes and Achievements 21/22 Supersport United 1st Rodney Ramagalela Won Telekom Knockout Cup 22/23 Supersport United 1st Oswin Appollis Won CAF Champions league, MTN 8 Cup, Knockout Cup 2023 Guangzhou Evergrande 2nd Elkeson Won Chinese FA Cup 2024 Guangzhou Evergrande 1st Anton Miranchuk Won Chinese FA Cup, Won Asian Champions League 2026/27 C.F. Monterrey 3rd Duvan Vergara Won Copa MX 2027/28 C.F. Monterrey 6th n/a n/a 2028/29 Newell's Old Boys 15th n/a n/a 2030/31 Leicester City 8th Ernie Braithwaite missed out on Europa qualify 2 points 2031/32 Leicester City 2nd Sam Tol sold player for £197 million 2032-33 Leicester City 5th Sam Tol Challenge Progress Club 2/10 top domestic leagues (South Africa, China) 3/10 domestic cups (South Africa, China, Mexico) 2/5 club continental championships (CAF Champions League, Asian Champions League) 0/1 club world championship International 2025-27 Nigeria ACON 2027 Knocked out in QF pens Sacked 2027-29 Ivory Coast ACON 2029 Win Resigned 2031- South Korea 1/5 continental tournaments (ACON - Ivory Coast 2029) 0/1 world tournaments () Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_JHTB_ Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 United States of America 2032 I was planning on doing a very small update for the US side this summer as we had the finals of the North American nations League, but in the end they served as the pre-tournament friendlies to the Copa America which we were one of the invited teams for. We lost in the final of the Nations League to Mexico who were good value for the victory which wasn't the best of preparation for the upcoming tournament. I wanted to put in a good account of our self for the Copa America as it will give me an insight into our ability to win the Gold Cup next year. Group Stage Spoiler Our group stage started out with a game against Brazil who were just far too good for us and beat us 3-0 before we had an incredibly disappointing match against Colombia in the following match who smashed us 5-1 as we found ourselves bottom of the group after 2 matches. A couple of victories on the bounce against Ecuador and Chile were just the tonic for the disappointment of the first two matches and we actually kept 3 clean sheets in a row as we drew to Peru in the final group game, and we were through to the quarter finals as we didn't finish in the bottom 2. Quarter Final Spoiler As we finished 4th in our group that meant we had to face group winners from the other group in Argentina and whilst we put a better show than we did against Brazil and Colombia in spite of never really challenging there goal a 1st minute goal from Argentina as enough for them to record the victory. Semi Final Spoiler Final Spoiler What Next? Spoiler Really nothing should have changed and we wait for next years Gold Cup, though how we were outclassed by Mexico in the Nations League prior to the tournament makes me pause for thought as to whether I believe this USA team capable of getting a result against them in the inevitable final match up, I may yet jump ship and revisit the Gold Cup further down the line and try for another international job, but I'm not sure yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukefox44 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Luke Fox Palmeiras 2031 / 2032 After resigning from Racing in Argentina I was a little unsure of what my next move should be, I couldn't decided between going to Europe and trying to up my rep before returning to South America or to try and stay and work towards the Copa Liberatores. The Palmeiras job become available but the club was a bit higher rep than my manager so I wasn't sure I would even get an interview. They were under performing in the league and had been knocked out of the Liberatores in the second round but the quality of squad was evident and they should really of been doing a lot better. I was a bit surprised to be offered the job but excited to get started trying to turn it around, the board wanted me to qualify for the Libertadores and that seemed to be very achievable. This is the league when I took over, only 2 points from the top 7 but the top end of the table looked well out of reach. My first few games in brazil were a bit of a shock. I was playing in a league I had never been to before and some of the formations and styles of play were like nothing I've come across yet in any league on this game. I regularly came across this formation. I soon realised that playing a standard back 4 probably wouldn't end well, we would just get out numbered every time the opposition attacked. So I set up a back 3 formation for the first time in a long time. It was also the first time I played two up top for a while and found it to be very good. Caue Santos had only 4 goals in the 15 matches before I joined but the new system seemed to really suit him, he went on a massive goal scoring run, he got 20 goals in my first 11 games including a real purple patch of 12 in 6 at one stage. Spoiler With our early form we managed to climb the table from 11th when I joined to 6th for a few weeks and then up to 2nd in what seemed like no time at all and maybe a bit surprisingly within touching distance of top club Corinthians who were 5 points clear at the top and 12 points ahead of us when I joined. Then after being so dominant all season out of no where Corinthians lost 4 games in a row, including tow games to teams battling relegation and from no where with 10 games to go we were 6 point clear at the top and in great form. It was in our own hands but with 2 of our last 4 games against Corinthians who were 6 points behind us and Flamengo who were 9 points behind it was going to go down to the wire. After winning 15 games from my first 17 league games it was looking good and even seemed like we had teams a bit scared. Fortaleza who were in 7th place and doing pretty well dropped there normal 4231 system to this 5410 monstrosity Spoiler After a few games we found ourselves 7 points clear with 8 games to go, we played Bahia who were sat in 15th at the time and it should of been an easy win for us. Somehow they absolutely murdered us 5-1, both Corinthians and Flamengo won, our lead was down to 4 points ahead of Flamengo and 5 in front of Corinthians. 6 Games left and we played a poor Atletico Mineiro team who were in 16th place. We only just managed to snatch a 1-1 draw with an 84th penalty, we were lucky to only drop 2 points and not all 3. Corinthians won but Flamengo only drew, our lead was still 4 points. Our next game was even worse, we gave away a late penalty and lost 1-0, both Flamengo and Corinthians won cutting our lead to 1 point with 4 games left but with Flamengo up next and Corinthians still to play. Flamengo beat us 2-0, we were 2nd for this first time in around 10 games. We were 2 points behind Flamengo and level on points with Corinthians, but we had the bottom two clubs left to play, so 3 wins was very possible and its probably what we would need to be in with a chance. Flamengo played a day before us and a win would of put us back top, only on goal difference. However only a 94th minute penalty saved us from defeat against 19th place Parana. Corinthians won, leaving both Flamengo and Corinthians on 72 points and us on 70 with 2 games to go. In our next fixture we struggled to a 1-0 win over an already relegated Chapecoense who only got 24 points all season. Flamengo beat a decent Santos team 2-1 and Corinthians lost to relegation threatened Bragantino. those points incidentally keep them up. Before the last game of the season Flamengo had 75 points, we had 72 and Corinthians had 72. We play Corinthians and Flamengo played Botafogo who needed a win to guarantee a Copa Libertadores spot. We needed to win and Botafogo to win or if they drew we needed to beat Corinthians by 6 goals, so we really needed Botafogo to do us a massive favour. We won with an injury time penalty but it was all for nothing as Flamengo scored early on and would 3-0 comfortably, meaning we finished 2nd by 2 points. I would like to blame the one loss to Flamengo late on in the season but the reality of it was we still had chances to win the league but our poor form in the last 6 or so games was what cost us. We dropped points we should not have and as you can see in the screenshot below Flamengo and Corinthians were pretty relentless in the run in. Spoiler When I joined I didn't even consider chasing the title, but having spent 9 weeks top towards the end of the season but to fall short was disappointing. What's next With our unexpected challenge for the title this year I'm very optimistic for next season in both the league and on the continental stage, especially with the money we have in the bank and being able to move on some of those foreign players for decent money and re invest it wisely. There was a mid season AFCON as well and I was offered the Senegal job, they are the highest ranked African nation, so my job will be to qualify for the world cup next year and preform enough to not get sacked and then onto AFCON in 2 years. Challenge Progress Spoiler 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
libbyshuss Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Season 2041/42 PSG and England League Having won the cup last season this was the one that I really wanted. I spent way more time that I have before scouring the transfer market looking for some bargains and managed to find 4 (although at 65m I'm not sure how much of a bargain one of them was). Pick of the bunch was this fella, top scorer for 3 seasons running with Nantes and requesting to join a bigger club. I got him for 35m: With him and Orme up front we were unstoppable at times. It was a three horse race until February when Lyon and then Monaco faded away leaving us to coast home and take the championship. As a bonus, we won the cup as well! Troube is, it's taking me longer and longer to finish a season. This challenge is such a slog! International The world cup with England is coming up! check out these qualification fixtures, some of them are hilarious What's Next? I'll see what the manager merry-go-round throws up after the world cup. I need an Italian job but also about 6 domestic cups so who knows. Challenge Progress Career Progress 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
libbyshuss Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 World Cup 2042 We came into the World Cup as number 1 in the world and favourites for the title. Let's see how we did! Group Stage Spoiler Not as easy as it looked, we only just squeaked past China despite being 3-0 up at halftime. Paraguay were a bit easier to be fair 2nd Round Spoiler United States. We beat them easily in a friendly leading up the world cup so they shouldnt offer too much resistance should they? Oh. Spoiler Even worse, we can't really complain. We were rubbish, xG was about 0.8 for both teams. A really poor performance. complacency maybe? it was pretty much the first choice XI out there so.... i dunno. 3rd Round Spoiler USA kept on going, beating Italy Quarter Final Spoiler The beat Brazil this time! Semi final Spoiler Uruguay put a stop the US march Final Spoiler Uruguay and Argentina, partying like it's 1934! uruguay won 2-0 What's next? Spoiler well, i didn't need the world cup so the question is will i get sacked or not? the final was a week ago now and i'm still in a job somehow...... More excitingly, I got a new club job! they're so dominant in Italy it's ridiculous! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 (edited) @libbyshuss If you'e #1 in the world, and didn't get sacked, that's a massive change in the game. In any previous version, you would have been sacked for not winning it. Possibly if you lost in the final you would have held on to your job. Did any national team managers get sacked? Edited January 26, 2021 by vikeologist Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
libbyshuss Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 15 minutes ago, vikeologist said: Did any national team managers get sacked? yeah, loads. I had a rating of F with the FA as well - they were deeply saddenned and bitterly disappointed with our performance. I fully expected the sack as well. To be honest, I still am expecting every new news item to be about my sacking! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowy Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 MANAGER PROFILE: LEAGUES LOADED: As usual I'm always drawn to this challenge. I've improved year on year. I struggled with International management last year and that is something I will be looking to do as I go along from the begining this year. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjwphneb Posted January 27, 2021 Share Posted January 27, 2021 (edited) Scott Williams' 2044 Copa America Review Peru In the Scott Williams universe, Peru have been a surprise package, they have already won another Copa America title in 2036 to go along with their wins in 1939 and 1975. There's a lot of good players representing Peru. Man City have the two best in their ranks Jack Soriano a left winger (Scott signed him at Chelsea and he left for city for £32million the season after Scott left) and Bolivar the GK, whilst a few others play for top sides in Italy, France and Portugal. Since Scott took over, prior to the CA, he had not won a competitive match. Scott's two losses and two draws so far in World Cup Qualification has them in 9th after 6 matches (previous manager had 1 draw 1 loss). Therefore hopes were not high going into CA Group Stage With 5 games to play and Peru supposedly being the 3rd best team in their group, there shouldn't have been too much cause for concern. However, to qualify Scott would have needed to get his first competitive win. First up Colombia, a nice simple start. Goals after 4 and 11 minutes gave Peru a nice cushion. Colombia brought it back to 2-2 before a flurry of late goals in the 81st and 89th minute made it up to 3-3. Fortunately Peru weren't finished there and nicked a late winner in the 91st minute. Next up was Brazil, holders and Scott's last SA team. A far less entertaining match but a hard fought 1-0 win for Scott and Peru. With the two best teams beaten qualification looked certain however Peru then went on to lose 3-0 to Ecuador, 1-0 to Japan meaning they would need a point to qualify in the last match against Venezuela. 1-1 job done! Quarter Final Spoiler Peru's prize for finishing bottom of the group: Argentina! A missed penalty for Argentina was the only action of the match before going to pens. 5/5 penalties for Peru was too much for Argentina who only managed 3/4. Argentina 0 - 0p Peru Semi Final Spoiler Next up was Peru's first opponents and Group A toppers, Colombia. A couple of injuries on the wing and up front meant a few youngsters needed to step up. And boy did they. Remember the name Juan Bermudez, the 20 year old got two in 11 minutes. Peru would go on to get a third and eventually a fourth after Colombian threatened a dramatic come back at 3-0. Colombia 1 - 4 Peru Final Spoiler Another of Scott's teams awaited in Peru in the final. At this stage it's probably more difficult not to play his former sides. This time it was the turn of the Mexicans. As it was the last game Scott decided to start his two slightly injured wingers, who then became even more injured after 7 and 11 minutes. On came Bermudez, devastated to have been left out after his semi-final brace. Not happy with just the two goals he bagged himself another. Mexico scored a pen to make it 1-1 at HT. Both sides started the second half strongly and Peru took the lead again before being pegged back once more. With 10 to go captain, leader, legend Ricardo Castro nodded home Peru's third and finally the other young winger scored his second of the match to bring the trophy back to Peru. Peru 4 - 2 Mexico What Next? Spoiler That tournament had shades of Euro 2004 to it, there was no way Peru should have won that, having not won a game going into it and then only just qualifying to go on to win was totally unexpected. Brazil not qualifying certainly helped. That's now 5/5 Continental Competitions for Scott, so all that is left on the international stage is the World Cup. Peru probably aren't going to qualify let alone win it, so Scott shall be in search of pastures new. In club football Scott has committed the cardinal sin by joining PSG. Lille have won the last two Ligue 1 titles so there is a bit of work to do, won't quite be the walk in the park that it has been for them for 38 out of the last 40 years! Career Progress Spoiler Personal Career Hall of Fame Rank: 6 Clubs Managed: 13 Nations Managed: 9 Trophies Won: 34 Runner Up Medals: 14 Manager of the Year: 10 Number of Sackings: 3 (Kaizer Chiefs, Suwon, Brazil) Career Earnings: £74 Million --------------------------------------------------- Club Career Season NAT Club Division Pos Cup 1 Cup 2 Cont CWC Things to Note 2020 CHI Nublense Primera Div B 6th R2 - - - Playoff Winners, U19s Runners up in Div 1 2021 CHI Curico Unido Primera Div 7th R2 - R1 - 2022 CHI Curico Unido Primera Div 1st Won - R1 - Domestic Double, MOTY 2022/23 ARG CA Union Superliga 17th R5 - - - Avoided Relegation 2023/24 ARG CA Union Superliga 15th R5 - - - Avoided Relegation 2024/25 ARG CA Union Superliga Resigned End of Phase 1 2025/26 RSA Kaizer Chiefs Asba Prem 2nd RU Won - - KO Cup Winners RU in other Comps 2026/27 RSA Kaizer Chiefs Asba Prem 3rd RU R1 Won - Champions League Winners, MOTY 2027 KOR Suwon K League 1 7th - QF - Joined July in 5th, Sakced September 15th 2027/28 ARG Velez Superliga 2nd - - - - Joined December in 8th 2028/29 ARG Velez Superliga 1st Won - QF - Domestic Double 2029/30 ARG Velez Superliga 2nd Won - Won - Copa Libertadores and Copa Argentina Winners, won both Supercups MOTY 2030/31 ENG AFC Bournemouth Premier League 9th R3 R2 - - Somehow won Superliga manager of the year for 2030 2031/32 ITA AC Milan Serie A 6th - - - - Joined with 7 games remaining U18s won the legaue and cup 2032/33 ITA AC Milan Serie A 2nd R1 - R3 UEL - 2033/34 ITA AC Milan Serie A 1st Won - SF - Invincibles! Centurians! League + Cup double 2034/35 ENG Chelsea Premier League 1st R5 QF R1 - League Winners, Super Cup Winners 2035/36 ENG Chelsea Premier League 2nd R5 R3 R1 - Nearly Got the Sack 2036/37 ENG Chelsea Premier League 1st R4 QF Won RU Second League Title and UCL 2037/38 ENG Chelsea Premier League 1st Won Won Won - First Quadruple 2039 KOR Seoul K League 1 2nd Won - - - Lost the League on GS 2040 KOR Seoul K League 1 1st QF - Won - League and ACL Double! 2041/42 ESP Real Sociedad La Liga 4th R5 - R2 - Qual for UCL, dissapointing in UEL after topping group. 2042/43 ESP Real Sociedad La Liga 2nd Won - QF - First UCL appearance since 2013/14, First trophy since 1987 2043/44 DEU Bor. Dortmund Bundeslig 1st R2 RU GS - Awful Performance in all competitions, don't know how BVB won the league 2044/45 FRA PSG Ligue 1 ---------------------------------------------------- International Career Season Nation Rank Continental World Cup Things to Note 2023 Honduras 67th - - Relegated from Nations League 2024 Honduras 72rd - - Qualified for Gold Cup 2025 2024 Russia 42nd - - 2nd in NL Div B 2026 Russia 30th - 2nd Rnd v SUI Topped Group, Lost to Switzerland 2027 Nigeria 12th RU - AFCON Runners Up, Resigned as Manager 2031 Guinea-Bissau 53rd Won - AFCON Winners 2032 Portugal 3rd Won - European Championship Winners 2034 Portugal 4th - RU v Holland Unsure how we haven't won that one 2035 Mexico 13th Won - Gold Cup Winners 2036 Mexico 11th 3rd - Nations League Winners | 3rd in Copa America 2038 Brazil 1st - 2nd Rnd v UKR Lost to Ukraine 2039 Iran 28th RU v Australia - 2042 Iran 21st - 2nd Rnd v MEX 2043 Iran 15th Won - FINALLY! 4 Long years with Iran comes to an end. 2044 Peru 7th Won - Screams Greece 2004 that result ----------------------------------------------------- Challenge Progress 6/10 Leagues (Chile; Curico Unido 2022, Argentina; Velez 2028/29, Italy; AC Milan 2033/34, England; Chelsea 2034/35, South Korea; Seoul 2040, Germany; Borrussia Dortmund 2043/44) 7/10 Cups (Copa Chile; Curico Unido 2022, RSA Telkom KO; Kaizer Chiefs 2025/26, Copa Argentina; Velez 2028, Copa Italia; AC Milan 2033/34, English FA Cup; Chelsea 2037/38, Korean FA Cup; Seoul 2039, Copa del Rey; Real Sociedad 2042/43) 4/5 Continental (Africa; Kaizer Chiefs 2026/27, South America; Velez 2029, Europe; Chelsea 2036/37, Asia; Seoul 2040) 0/1 Worlds 5/5 Continental (AFCON; Guinea-Bissau 2031, EUROS; Portugal 2032, GOLD CUP; Mexico 2035, ASIAN CUP; Iran 2043, Copa America; Peru 2044) 0/1 Worlds Total 22/32 Edited January 27, 2021 by bjwphneb 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siepe1990 Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Season 10 (2029/2030) & Season 11 (2030/2031) After winning everything with Corinthians that I had to win in South America within 5 months, I left the club. They begged me to stay (haven't had that before, any of you?), but I left anyway - nothing can stand in the way of completing the challenge! I managed to land a job at a struggling Leeds Utd, taking over on the 1st of January 2030 whilst they were 15th in the League. The squad was actually quite decent, I managed to get rid of some dead wood and only bought one player, a CD from Boca Juniors. I managed to produce some decent results and we finished 8th in the Premier League, only 1 point short of European Football (Conference League, but still). The main problem with the team was the Striker: they basically had a couple of decent wingers trying to be strikers, but it just wasn't working. I decided to splash the cash on the winner of the NxGn in the previous year, a barely 19-year old strikers from Senegal, who had scored 11 for Sporting Club de Portugal in the previous season with a 7.20 average. Other than one or two big replacement signings, I focused mainly on talent, because I wanted to build something from the ground up for years to come. The season started of really nicely, and before long we were at the top of the league, switching positions with Liverpool, Man Utd and Tottenham every few weeks. We managed to keep our good form and when the end of the season was drawing near, there were 3 clubs tied with 7 matches to go: Liverpool, Tottenham and Leeds Utd. Sadly, we started dropping points, drawing against Newcastle and Bournemouth. Luckily, so did the other teams, so with 2 matches to go, everything was in our hands. However, since our opponents were Liverpool and Arsenal, it wasn't going to be easy... Well, we managed to screw up nicely against Liverpool, losing 1-3, and had to hope for a helping hand from all three title challengers - which didn't happen. We all won our matches, resulting in the final League Table looking like this: Gutted to have lost the title to Liverpool, but very proud of the achievement. I had hoped to get a decent Transfer Budget, but the board has only given me 50M to work with, so I hope I can sell a few back-up players for big money to improve the squad further, because I want to compete again next year! On the cup-side, we had two chances. The FA Cup drew us against Chelsea, so sadly that was over before it even begun. The EFL Cup however saw us beat Liverpool in the QF and Tottenham in the SF, which left us facing West Ham (16th in the League) in the Final. After going down 1-0 early in the game, I started to fear we would leave empty handed. Some changes however saw us scoring 2 goals in the 2nd half, meaning we had won the EFL Cup! International With Ivory Coast, I got to play both the World Cup (2030) and the African Nations (2031). The World Cup handed us a group with Venezuela and England, both teams I had managed before. Quite fun to face them, managed to beat Venezuela but lost to England. The 2nd Round saw us facing Belgium... who thrashed us 1-8. Quite surprised I was allowed to keep my job after such a humiliation, but the FA was pleased I managed to get to the 2nd Round at all. January 2031 brought the African Nations. The group was pretty easy, we scored 4 goals in each of the 3 matches, finishing on top. In the 2nd Round, we faced Ghana, once again scoring 4 goals on our way to the Quarter Final, where Cape Verde awaited. Now, they don't sound like much, but they almost barred my way to the World Cup earlier on, so I was wary of them. It proved to be a difficult match once again, I was down 0-1 with just 30 minutes to play. Luckily, player of the tournament Amad Diallo (yeah, Man Utd's boy) stood up, guiding us through to the Semi's. Cameroon was next, a real challenge again. Turned out to be an easy match, running out 3-1 winners to book a place in the Final! There Senegal awaited, with non other then my own Leeds Utd Striker as Key Player. It turned out to be a nerve wracking affair really, down to 10 man in the E.T. with 15 minutes to go, but we managed to hold on to the draw, and get to the penalties. Our nerves turned out to be the strongest, which meant we had won the African Nations! Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted January 28, 2021 Author Share Posted January 28, 2021 @Siepe1990 Congrats on reaching the leader board (clearly some time ago without my noticing). Who knows where you obtained your 10th trophy, but going with your latest competition at least poses a challenge finding an inspirational quote from that country. Let's be honest about this. Every single famous person from that country is a footballer. There's a DJ, but his songs are in French. There was an actor who had a minor role in Black Panther. So really, going to have to go classic with Alpha Blondy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 (edited) RB Leipzig & France (2036) I've actually won another Domestic Cup!! My second season with Red Bull ended with wins in the League, Champions League & DFB-Pokal! I really didn't think i'd conquer Bayern Munich so quickly, but I flipped my tactics back to 442 and brought in another explosive striker to go for goals whilst being a strict back 4 with very little messing about. Scary record from my main striker. His goals have been massive! The winning league season went right down to final day, although I had a better goal difference so it would have taken a drubbing from Bayern for them to overtake us. I'm about to play Euro 2036 with France. Hopefully tick that off! But given my results since joining, i'm a little sceptical. Challenge Progress Edited January 28, 2021 by Gregg88 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe Hands Posted January 28, 2021 Share Posted January 28, 2021 Back playing after 9 years away,Going to give this a go. Got a new laptop coming weekend but will start on my old one for now, left European leagues off for now. Will probably try and knock Asia and south africa off. Was just going to try the Pentagon but this thread much more active. I'm rubbish so not expecting much. 4th season at Sunderland and was still struggling in championship on normal save. Will probably leave internationals out, the thought of getting to the final losing on pens and having to wait 4 years would send me over the edge. Anyway had few interviews from Uruguay 2nd division no bites yet. See where I end up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe Hands Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 If my post is not in correct format or not what I should be typing can you let me know. First job. Free State Stars in the South African 2nd division. Joined halfway through the season with them placed 2nd bottom with only 2 wins. I actually got offered bottom of the league and it would have been the ultimate challenge as they only have 3 players rest grey guys but they have 1 point and would need a miracle to stay up as 14 points away from me. Challenge I may consider to start a save with them another time. Anyway Free State. Got something to work with. Decent wage budget, 2 foreign slots left and they have some decent players. 3 pacey strikers, couple of decent wingers and a 37 year old who can play every position and has still 15 pace. One striker I really like the look off, last manager wasnt using him. My first game we beat 4th bottom 3-1 the striker got 2. I have pace going forward so going for simple 442 counter attack and sit deep. Worked to perfection 1st game. Only had 39% possession but created 20 shots they scored a late pen. Stay up this year and aim for promotion for following season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
berrers Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 SEASON 3 REVIEW -2023- DEFENSOR SPORTING CLUB After completing the double last season the only reason keeping me in uruguay was a tilt at the Copa Libetadores. However after last season' failed group elimination in the lesser sudamericana I was skeptical of how we would fair! A failed attempt to get the Flamengo job at the conclusion of last season meant we continued with Defensor. Our league form was patchy in the first stage of the league. Losing as many games as I did for the entirety of the last campaign but I put this down the juggling act with resting players for the copa libertadores................... Group navigated comfortably........unfortunately of all the teams that finished runners up in the other group we managed to draw brazilian power houses Corinthians out of the hat! We should have had the tie won in the away leg, managing to spurn countless chances but at 0-0 but I was happy enough with the result and I thought we would have a good go at them at home. The Brazilians had other ideas and their superior quality told in the second leg and we couldn't hold out to extra time with Vagner grabbing the only goal of the game on 84' eliminating us from the competition. I had my reservations over the chances of winning this with a Uruguayan side with a relatively small budget and those doubts were unfortunately correct. Time to move on with my eyes on getting either a top side in Argentina or Brazil. The copa lib was midway through the intermedio stage so we finished the comp before departing and managed to retain the cup obliterating Penarol! A fitting way to leave. The Boca & River Plate jobs were applied for and I didn't even manage to get an interview! After missing out on those 2 big fish I was beginning to flirt with the idea of getting out to the MLS. I was offered the Minnesota Utd job and I liked the look of the project with them being rock bottom and they would also have been happy for me to see out the season with Defensor! I delayed accepting for a week though as the Santos and Internacional jobs had came up! Santos had won the league the previous campaign but were having an awful season and had already been dumped out of the brazilian cup and copa libetadores so they'll be no ticking off the challenge list of any club honours this season. The target is to try and get into the top 7 and sneak into the copa libertadores qualifying spots! The squad is very unbalanced with far too many centre backs and little to no midfielders. There's also a lot of strikers with none of them being at the level I require A major revamp will be required during pre season but with only a week left of the existing window we added 2 players just to boost the midfield numbers Richard is a cheap stop gap signing from corinthians for £450k & Luan should do a job as a dm (£3.4m from Sao Paulo) Results for the rest of the season after taking over were mixed. After a poor start we steadied the ship but never really kicked on. Went chasing in the last game at Botafogo and got hammered! Took over in 12th and finished 8th so some progression there and most importantly we even managed to fluke a Copa Lib spot through the back door after Atletico Mineiro already took their place through winning the Sudamericana!... very lucky I managed to find a young striker who is joining for next season from Santa Fe who looks very good and had a whole host of top European clubs interested in him! ALBANIA The draw for the euro's qualifying was made putting us in a group with Norway & Croatia. Not fancying my chances of getting out of this group & with the winter world cup finishing (France Retained) a few decent international jobs were coming up... The Nigeria job particularly caught my eye due to the upcoming African nations only 6 months away in June that they had already qualified for which would give me a shot of winning that. NIGERIA We got the gig at the super eagles. Unfortunately Roy Aitken, bobby Mimms and the gang didn't want to come over from Albania with me The goal was simple: Try and win the African Nations Cup Comfortable qualification into the knock out rounds with new Real Madrid signing for £117m Victor Osimhen netting a few! Burkina Faso put up some tough resistance but Osimhen popped up in the 89th minute to save the day for a deserved win Gambia...we're roll them over easy :\ Truth be told we should have lost this and it wasn't a good game for the health! We thought we had it won then battened down the hatches and came undone at the death, The magic man Osimhen saving the day! 10 men for 100 mins conditioning on its backside! Had to rotate the side which was a worry but we went off like a train only to be pegged back but hit them twice again without reply and we were into the final! We were heavy favorites to beat Mali and after falling behind we fired back and won comfortably to lift the ACON ! After winning the ACON and with no Tournament football for Nigeria until the next World cup there was no point sticking around really! WHAT NEXT Full focus is now on Santos and putting together a squad this pre season (needs a huge revamp) with the aim of competing for the league title, Brazilian cup and libertadores which we have been very lucky to qualify for. Also on the look out for a good international job (hopefully Brazil or Argentina) 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe Hands Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Quick question how do you set your age as 19. Lowest I could achieve was 20 as earliest birthday year was 2020. Meant I was 21 by time got first job. How this is ok and not against spirit of the challenge Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted January 29, 2021 Author Share Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) 6 hours ago, Safe Hands said: If my post is not in correct format or not what I should be typing can you let me know. Welcome to the challenge. You could always post a screenshot of your manager so we can see that they're 19/20 years old and no quals / exp. Either 19 or 20 is fine. The idea is to be 20, but people like to use their real date of birth, and sometimes that comes out as 19. Basically choose the latest possible year of birth. That's the start of the challenge. After that, doesn't matter if you don't take a first job until you're in your 30s, although I would suggest that might be being a little bit too fussy about the jobs you'd accept. Edited January 29, 2021 by vikeologist Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe Hands Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 (edited) Edited January 29, 2021 by Safe Hands Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamLUFC Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 2030 Sometimes you get the feeling that everything just clicks. We didn't just win the league, we won it with six games to go and completed an undefeated season in the league. I was surprised how easy the league was in all honesty. The four foreign signings we had were incredible and by far ahead of any Chinese players we have. Two were poached in the summer window, but we replaced them with equal quality. A miracle also happened - I won a cup game. Annoyingly despite our dominance in the league we only reached the quarter finals of the Chinese FA Cup where we lost at home to Shanghai SIPG who were in the second division. I'm pretty confident we can take the cup next season which will be a primary target next season. The Champions League we were unlucky in. After sailing through the qualifiers and the group stage we again came unstuck in the quarters finals where we lost to Korean side Ulsan Hyundai. After losing 3-1 away in the first leg, this was the outcome in the second leg - I thought we were going to do it! We were not helped by one of our foreign stars getting a lengthy injury the day after the registration window shut, and three key Chinese players being injured and then away on international duty we were completely up against it. I'm hopeful that the signings we make in the upcoming end of season window will push us over the line in the Champions League. The 2030 World Cup also took place, and again I was rejected for all the top jobs. Austria offered me a job, but I took a pass on that Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timpy00 Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Season 2024 Well the 2024 season is one that is quite remarkable for in my career. At the beginning of the season I decided to resign at Mandura United after winning the double, and looking forward for a new challenge. It took us a couple months but we ended up in Peru where we signed with FC Cusco. The competition in Peru is split up in two halves, and the champions of both halves and when there is another leader in the overall standings, those three teams will play a play off for the title. When arriving at the club a came to notice that the financial household of the club is a disaster. Red is the color on the financial tab, so that wasn't too good. The club ended up 3th in the league two years ago, and also won the cup back then. So I waas hoping for a quick run for prices and hopefully some better financial numbers otherwise this adventure is going to be a short one. And a short adventure it was. This club learned me to take a good luck at the rulebook of a competition when I'm starting at an unknown competition. But we made quite a good run and for a long time were in a good position to win the second half of the season. Eventually ending 2nd, well that was before we got punished for not following the rules of the minimum playing minutes for players under 20. We got a penalty of minus 42 points in the league. Which ment we ended up 16th and relegated, which also ment I got fired. Luckily for us our good form in the competition was also going in the cup. Luckily for me the cup final was two weeks before the season ended. With a very nice run, and a quite fortunate path in the cup we made it to the final. And we did manage to win the cup, so this adventure that ended up being a disaster had one little good moment in it. So we have to focus on a new job. I have no idea at this moment where I will be going but I hope to find a team in a not European country with a good change of being top of the league and making a serious run in my first champions league. Spoiler @MShingGood luck in England, hopefully you manage to keep improving your squad and make that cup run @_JHTB_ Good luck with the challenge, hopefully some nice teams/countries come around for you @lukefox44 GL this season, hopefully you can make it. @libbyshuss Still at the job in England? GL with Juventus @Crowy GL with the challenge @bjwphneb Nice win, GL with PSG. @Siepe1990 Nice win, impressive career as well. GL for the upcoming season @Gregg88 Great season congrats, not afraid your cup titles are falling behind? @berrers Congrats with the Africa Cup, @Safe Hands Good luck with the challenge @JamLUFC Unfortunate in the CL, hopefully you can make it this season 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe Hands Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 timpy00 know the feeling mate. I started in Indian. Team had a big wage budget so signed a full squad of ageing internationals from Africa and europe, plus few Brazilian players. Preseason smashed everyone by 3 or 4 goals, sold all my other players. Come to squad registration before first proper game and didnt have enough players as can only have 3 foreign players in entire squad so had to restart the challenge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Siepe1990 Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 (edited) On 28/01/2021 at 11:29, vikeologist said: @Siepe1990 Congrats on reaching the leader board (clearly some time ago without my noticing). Who knows where you obtained your 10th trophy, but going with your latest competition at least poses a challenge finding an inspirational quote from that country. Well, you're not to blame - I posted a mass update on the 16th of January of 2 1/2 seasons... but I managed to get 9 trophies in that time (3 with Bayern Munchen, 3 with Real Madrid, 2 with Corinthians and 1 with Holland), so I jumped from 4 to 13 in one post. Didn't know I'd get an inspirational quote upon reaching 10 trophies, so very glad you have still given me one. Guess my 10th trophy would have been with Real, but I like the one you picked now better anyway - glad I got the African Nations out of the way and I really like the quote, thanks! Edited January 30, 2021 by Siepe1990 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted January 30, 2021 Author Share Posted January 30, 2021 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Siepe1990 said: Well, you're not to blame - I posted a mass update on the 16th of January of 2 1/2 seasons... but I managed to get 9 trophies in that time (3 with Bayern Munchen, 3 with Real Madrid, 2 with Corinthians and 1 with Holland), so I jumped from 4 to 13 in one post. Didn't know I'd get an inspirational quote upon reaching 10 trophies, so very glad you have still given me one. Guess my 10th trophy would have been with Real, but I like the one you picked now better anyway - glad I got the African Nations out of the way and I really like the quote, thanks! Oh, if I'd known it was Spain, I could have wheeled out my personal hero, Torquemada, but I'm sure I'll get the opportunity in the future. My welcome to the leader board thing used to be using cult terminology and imagery, but I just ran out of cults. Edited January 30, 2021 by vikeologist Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkouv Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 Season 6 (2026/27) - Jeonbuk I applied for several jobs after finishing up with Cruz Azul, and was rejected by Boca but got offers from Newell’s, Marseille and Jeonbuk. I opted for Jeonbuk as they seemed to be one of the biggest clubs in Asia and qualified for the 2027 Asian CL despite finishing 3rd in the league and sacking their manager. On arrival I discovered an even more generous transfer budget than at Cruz Azul, around £35m if memory serves right. The squad was unbalanced, as usual with AI teams, with no right backs and no decent keepers, but with that kind of money I could pick off the best South Korean players more or less at will. And so I did, the only catch being that it took my scouts a while to find them so most players were brought in after the CL registration deadline so I was kind-of winging it in the early rounds of the CL. Champions League: We had to navigate a group of Beijing, Perth Glory and a random Indonesian team with my reserve side, since I couldn’t register the new signings, but we did this without any problems. Beijing who finished runners up in the Chinese premier had some very good foreign players but their Chinese players seemed pretty rubbish so we beat them fairly easily. To add insult to injury we also met them in the second round with an even more depleted side, and beat them again. For the quarter final, I could finally register new players so we easily dispatched a Thai side to meet fellow South Koreans Ulsan in the semi. That was tight game which we just about edged 3-2 on aggregate, even though we were definitely deserved winners. The final saw us face another Korean side Pohang, the second best team in the league behind us, and we turned on the style to absolutely thrash them 8-1 on aggregate. Third continental trophy under the belt then. League: this was never in doubt as we were very dominant and kept buying up the other teams’ best players to finish with 100 points after 37 (I might resign before the last game). Cup: The semi and final against Pohang and Suwon were very tight affairs but again we edged both by a solitary goal to complete the treble. Key players: The key performer was striker Lee-Min-Keun who I bought for £1.5m from Busan, one of those destined for bigger things I think, scoring over 40 goals for us in all competitions. The other two key players - king of assists left winger Koo Biho and Argentinian centre back Joaquin Novillo - were already at the club when I joined, and I’m glad I managed to win everything this year since Biho is off to military service for two years starting next year! What’s next: I didn’t expect to finish Asia so soon, so I only got Argentinian, Brazilian, German and French leagues loaded, let’s see if something comes up there. But I don’t really want to manage in Brazil due to their ridiculously long seasons. On the international front, the Mexican manager somehow kept his job after the Gold Cup despite losing to Jamaica in the semi, so nothing has come up yet. 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 2022/23 Orlando Pirates RSA Premier 1 Won Won A quintuple of league, MTN 8, Knockout cup, Nedbank cup and CAF confed cup 2023/24 Orlando Pirates RSA Premier 1 Won Won Won A clean sweep domestically + champions league 2024/25 Cruz Azul Mex Liga BBVA 1 Won Won both apertura and clasura 2025/26 Cruz Azul Mex Liga BBVA 1 Won 2026/27 Jeonbuk K League 1 1 Won Won A quickly completed treble ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 2022/23 Uzbekistan World Cup Group Stage; Asian cup Q/F 2023/24 Ivory Coast 2024/25 Ivory Coast Won 2025/26 Ivory Coast Lost in World Cup second round 2026/27 Australia Won ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Challenge Progress: Club 3/10 top domestic leagues: South Africa (Orlando Pirates); Mexico (Cruz Azul); South Korea (Jeonbuk) 3/10 domestic cups: South Africa (Orlando Pirates); Mexico (Cruz Azul); South Korea (Jeonbuk) 3/5 club continental championships: CAF Champions League (Orlando Pirates), CONCACAF CL (Cruz Azul); Asian CL (Jeonbuk) 0/1 club world championship: International 2/5 continental tournaments: ACON (Ivory Coast); Asian Cup (Australia) 0/1 world tournaments: Overall: 11/32 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
berrers Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 @timpy00 blimey, I think I will give peru a miss. Good luck next up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe Hands Posted January 30, 2021 Share Posted January 30, 2021 My save didn't go over to cloud as I thought. So starting again on my new laptop. New profile below will update end of first season, see where I end up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 @timpy00 Small concern about the cups, yeah! But I will pick them up in random countries just to make the challenge look a bit more exotic! Haha. I don't know if to laugh or cry for your Peruvian season! I would have missed that too. How annoying! At least you got something out of it I guess @dkouv Did you enjoy Jeonbuk at all? Was all too easy personally, so I was in and out ASAP. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_JHTB_ Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 18 hours ago, timpy00 said: We got a penalty of minus 42 points in the league. Which ment we ended up 16th and relegated, which also ment I got fired. Wow, that is mental, Peru firmly off my FM bucket list, at least you got the cup win as cups are (in my experience) the part of the Challenge that ends up falling behind. 58 minutes ago, Gregg88 said: Did you enjoy Jeonbuk at all? Was all too easy personally, so I was in and out ASAP. I had the same thoughts with Guangzhou, I like winning games obviously, but, there wasn't any real challenge. I think both South Korea and China are similar in that to do well it's easy* enough to buy the best players of the nation and dominate. *Obvious difference that the best Chinese players cost about 10 times as much as the best South Korean players despite not being half as good generally. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 3 hours ago, _JHTB_ said: I had the same thoughts with Guangzhou, I like winning games obviously, but, there wasn't any real challenge. I think both South Korea and China are similar in that to do well it's easy* enough to buy the best players of the nation and dominate. *Obvious difference that the best Chinese players cost about 10 times as much as the best South Korean players despite not being half as good generally. That's exactly it! Buy the league essentially. Shame really, as I quite liked the team. Just wish the league was more competitive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 (edited) Quick update! I always seem to get Hoffenheim in the major comps! Just pipped my 2nd German title in a row from them, beat them in the Champions League Semi Final of the same season (which I won again) and then the Semi's of the Club World Champs! I'm now leaving RB Leipzig. I applied for the Supersport Utd job, but was too late annoyingly! Will have to sit tight until that November deluge of sackings. My crusade with France continues though. Got a great squad, so i've got a serious chance of winning the world cup. Then hopefully I will go to Mexico and go for the Gold Cup! Edited January 31, 2021 by Gregg88 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_JHTB_ Posted January 31, 2021 Share Posted January 31, 2021 Tottenham Hotspur 2032/33 My brief spell in charge of the team at the back end of last season actually went very well with us winning all but one game which we drew, but I'd say our fixture list was pretty favourable, but did give me hope going forward and allowed me to identify the weaker areas of the squad with the major one being defense with our best 3 defenders aged 33, 34 and 36 respectively so that was the area I was prioritising for a transfer window that ended up being a very free spending affair with us spending well over £200 million over the season as a whole as after strengthening in the defense I ensured to cover every other area of the pitch, including a Tottenham Transfer record, though I thought it was a relatively cheap deal all told as we signed Michael Afolabi from Leverkusen. With Tottenham I didn't want to use the tactics I've had success with elsewhere (424 and 4231), so I set about creating a tactic, however, the start of the season quickly meant I had to make some changes to it as we were finding goals hard to come by, even if defensively strong and the board were getting annoyed at the lack of both Attacking and Entertaining football so I ended up having a shape which the game describes as 4-3-3 DM WB Wide. As can probably be worked out from that it was a quite attacking shape and whilst it was giving us a lot more goals than we were getting previously it also made us quite vulnerable defensively especially in away games losing heavily to Manchester United, Southampton, Manchester City and Arsenal. The January Transfer window saw us sell Andre Onana our goalkeeper who was nearing 37 and bringing in a young English wonderkid in Steven Blake from Fulham as our new first choice and really, it worked out well as the second half of the season saw us a lot stronger defensively and we started to put together a strong run of form and start making our way up the table actually keeping a decent number of clean sheets which was something that we had done little of before hand. In fact our form picked up enough that we were actually in with a slim shot of the title as the season was drawing to and end which is not something that I expected, though it was out of our hands with winning games the only thing we do. Unfortunately, after going two goals up in our penultimate game in the South London derby against Arsenal we capitulated in the second half just about salvaging a draw which meant if Manchester City won their game in hand their goal difference would mean they'd all but secure the title. They of course won it and then on the last day to make it so they'd have won the league even if we'd beaten Arsenal so our hope was only ended a game sooner than otherwise. I did want a good showing in both the cups this season but, it wasn't to be in the league cup at least as we lost in our first match in the competition whilst I was still working on my tactic for my time at Tottenham. The FA Cup however, did see us have a good run seeing of Sheffield United who were struggling in the league in our only away match on route to the final. The tough matches of our journey were Manchester City, the eventual league winners, who we beat in the quarter finals and a Chelsea side that had already beaten us twice in the league in the semi-final. It was probably a game I expected us to lose but really we put in a dominant performance beating them 2-0 to reach the final. It was the other side of the draw where the real fairy tale cup run was happening as Brighton beat Manchester United in extra time to reach the final having seen off Arsenal in the previous round, all this whilst playing Championship football. This, of course, presented a fantastic opportunity to secure some domestic silverware this season. We duly obliged and won the game 1-0, a lower scoreline than I'd hoped, but some credit must go to the Brighton 'keeper for that. Our end of season surge under my tutelage last season meant we secured a spot in the Europa League where we breezed through our group and earned a bye to the second knockout round. We got the one team I didn't really want to face in Hertha Berlin, who, in my save game, spend some crazy money. Of the top 10 most expensive transfers since the start of my save Hertha have been responsible for 5 of them and 2 of those 5 were this season, a scary prospect indeed. In the end, we were actually relatively well matched in both games, however, a 2-2 draw at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium meant they progressed via away goals as the other match had finished 1-1 and we were out. Best Player: Federico Sotelo Going by average ratings it would probably be Afolabi who would be the player of the season this year but I feel Sotelo deserves it more. When I signed him in the summer he couldn't play central midfield at all but I felt he would be much more effective as a central midfielder in my system so that's where he was trained. He ended the season with 11 goals in his last 16 appearances, which if was a strikers stats would be good, but they're even better considering all of those goals came from central midfield. What Next? Honestly, this season went a lot better than I'd anticipated, especially after a start to the season that wasn't fantastic. In the main I'm very happy with my squad with striker being the main area for improvement as there was a lack of goals from the players in that position (a multitude of roles were used, false nine only settled on because of their lack of goals so maybe at least bring others into play), though I've already snapped up my first choice striker for next season. I don't actually see myself making too many more transfers but could see myself being tempted if I can shift some of the squad players over summer. Next season the aim has got to be to go one better and win the league, this season by the end of the season we were in my mind, the best team in the league, in the second half of the season we picked up 4 more points than the next best team so if we are able to replicate over a season we will be in a good place. I am probably not targeting the Champions League, but it would obviously be a very welcome bonus. Story So Far Challenge Progress 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Safe Hands Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Well that wasnt the bad of starts. Took a job at CF Atlante on Mexican 2and division. Decent wage budget or so I thought. Once I took the job found out o had a terrible squad and no wage budget as they had 6 players out on loan on big money which meant I had nothing to play with. Managed to bring in a few loans and frees. Struggled all season to even hire staff. Won first game then went 12 without a win. Finished bottom of the league but last 4 games I found a style that was working, drew 2 and thrashed 3rd in league 4-0, offloaded 2 of the loans and signed 4 players think were looking it up. Then stupidly I applied for a new job and BANG came down the sacking hammer. Lesson learnt only apply for a new job from a position of power. Did managed to get my C licence out of them so not all lost. Have a choice of 4 jobs at the minute, 1 in Chile 2and division, 1 in the same league as my old club, 1 in Uruguay 2and division and 1 in Colombia 2nd division. Not sure where to go, I turned a few jobs down already in Mexico and Uruguay. I should have took 1 in Uruguay but had been interviewed for a Chinese 2nd division team I really wanted but didnt end up getting. The lore to give my old club a bloody nose is tempting but i signed up to this to experience leagues I wouldn't look at so might go else where and go back to Mexico when my reps up and can get a top league job. Will post screen tonight of lack of progress. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_JHTB_ Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 United States of America 2033 Gold Cup Time for the gold cup again, the aim is to try and win it, but regardless of the outcome of the tournament it will be my last action in charge of the USA national team. The team is ageing and the new prospects coming through aren't close to the quality of previous star players. As ever with the gold cup, I expect a relatively easy time reaching the final before we face off against a tough Mexico side. Group Stage Spoiler If looking at scorelines after the fact you'd be forgiven for thinking the group stages were stress free games but in truth it was only the Guadeloupe game that was as we beat them 4-0. We struggled in the first game against El Salvador taking until the 61st minute to get the breakthrough and waiting until the last couple of minutes to score another 2, this was most annoying as we'd beaten them 8-0 just a month prior. Another relatively poor first half against Panama although we broke the deadlock in the first 45. This game was more frustrating due to the lack of goals we did score as we ended up with an xG of 5.74 but only managed to score 3. Alas, we weren't really in and worry of losing any of the games or not qualifying so it hardly matters how the games went. Our two first choice right backs also suffered tournament ending injuries in the group stages which is always fun. Quarter Final Spoiler We drew Jamaica in the Quarter finals, the team that beat USA two Gold Cup's ago which allowed me to get the job. We were comfortably the better team in this game so of course it took a 83rd minute penalty to give us the lead. But, of course we then decided to concede in the 85th minute and to extra time we went. We peppered their goal a lot over the extra 30 minutes and thankfully got another goal as I'd have been pretty sure we'd lose the penalty shoot out as it was just one of those games. Semi Final Spoiler Canada were our opponents in the semi final, and the game was just as frustrating as the rest of the tournament for us just with a slight increase in quality of opposition, we were the better team in xG sense and yet were very poor at converting chances and allowing Canada a chance at the game. Thankfully we scraped through 3-2, but it was far from as convincing as it perhaps should have been. Final Spoiler As predicted pre-tournament, we are facing off against Mexico in the final. Writing this prior to the game, I think we've got no chance of winning this game. Mexico are a scary prospect indeed having not conceded so far in the competition but having scored 31 to date I think they're just better than us. We're also without our best player following an injury in the semi-final. The game unfolded much as I expected it to, Mexico grabbing a 3 goals and not looking like conceding, a red card for us thrown into the mix, we were well beaten and Mexico managed to survive the entire competition without conceding. The only positive from the game is that Giovanni Gaytan who scored a brace is the striker I signed for my spurs side. What next? Spoiler Well, as I said, I'm resigning, the team here is no where near good enough to realistically challenge for any future tournaments so it's time for me to move on, I can foresee a long period of dominance for Mexico in the gold cup so hopefully I can get that job in the future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukefox44 Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Luke Fox Palmeiras 2032 / 2033 After the heartbreak in the league last season I was confident in the squad we had but we need some more depth, the games come thick and fast in Brazil, its crazy. I didn't make any crazy signings that would play in the first team, just some decent options in our easier games, the most notable was probably bringing a 34 year old Douglas Luiz back to Brazil from Aston Villa, as a Villa fan I couldn't not. Maybe more important than our signings was the players we managed to keep hold of, a lot of the big European clubs were sniffing around pretty much my whole back 4 and for big money too, I got some offers of £30m+. I did look at cashing in and replacing them with cheaper options that were hopefully as good, after all we only had £25m in the bank and at one point had a collection of offers worth over £100m, but there wasn't really anyone that we could bring in and money in the bank doesn't get you points. State Championships This wasn't anywhere a priority for me and I mainly used those back up players I bought in, but even with the first team hardly ever playing we had some good results against some good Serie A teams, Corinthians, Santos and Bragantino. Spoiler Serie A We started off really well and were unbeaten after 10 games, winning 8 and drawing 2. Caue Santos was firing again with another run of 12 goals in 6 games, but despite our brilliant start Flamengo had also started unbeaten and we were level on points, it felt like it was going to be a long close season. Spoiler We then went on to win our next 9 league games in a row and started to build up a bit of a lead at the top. Spoiler It was starting to feel like we were unbeatable, even when we rested players around Copa Libertadores games we still won and mostly relatively comfortably. We eventually lost on our 29th league game, I was hoping for an invincible season but it wasn't to be, we even dominated the game as well. Spoiler We won the league with 7 games to go, we did lose another game but a very dominant season. Spoiler We only conceded 32 goals in 38 games and most of those come at the end of the season, we also kept 18 clean sheets, scored over 100 goals and almost a 100 points. Caue Santos ended the season with 49 goals in 36 games from only 112 shots at an average of a goal every 60 ish minutes, the most prolific forward I think I've ever had over a full season. Spoiler Club World Cup The team had won the Libertadores a few seasons before I joined and mid season we had the club world cup, more games in a season in Brazil is never a good thing but we were drawn against Kaiser Chiefs and Barcelona so it would be a good test to see how good we really were on the not just the continental stage but the world stage. We beat the Kaiser Chiefs 4-2 relatively easily and had set up a winner qualifies match against barca. We lost 3-1 but that doesn't tell the whole story, at 1-1 we missed a penalty but the game was still very even but two pieces of brilliance sent us out, like I said extra games in brazil isn't a good thing so disappointed in the loss but only 2 extra games is a bonus. Spoiler Copa Libertadores Group stages Spoiler Pretty straight forward, our draw was our last game after we already won the group and I played the kids to give our big guns a rest. We beat Velez easily twice which as they were maybe the best team outside of the Brazilian teams in the whole tournament. Second Round Spoiler A 5-1 away win meant i could again make 11 changes for the second leg and we were already comfortably through to the quarters. Quarter Finals Spoiler We played Millonarios, another good non Brazilian team but a 3-1 first leg win followed by 3-2 in the second leg saw us through. Semi Final Spoiler Even though Botafogo were doing pretty averagely in the league this was still a challenge for us. We went 2-0 early on but a late goal gave us only a one goal lead to take back home. Our two away goals proved vital as we lost 1-0 on the night but went through on away goals, this was a close call they were pushing all game. We hadn't lost in all comps for a long time at the point of this game and we certainly hadn't had to defend this much for a while, but we held on and onto the final we go. Final Spoiler The final was against Flamengo, the team who snatched the league title from us last year, I couldn't see the same team ruin my season twice in a row and to be honest I've enjoyed Brazil but I don't think I've got another 70+ game season. We went 2-0 up inside 10 minutes and were absolutely cruising for the next 30 minutes. That was until my Left back who is joining Arsenal on a free at the end of the season went in for a 2 footed lunge in the middle of the pitch with no danger or need to what so ever. We were less dominant with 10 men but still comfortable, we ran the clock down, held the ball and went on to win 2-0. Best Copa Libertadores Player Spoiler Our Serbian Winger was incredible all year but especially in this tournament, he has a £16m release clause to foreign clubs and despite major interest from the likes of Man Utd and Bayern Munich we managed to keep hold of him all year. I think when I go to Europe I will be seeing him again, he has the potential to go a long way. What Next Spoiler I've left Palmeiras now as I won everything on offer but the cup and I'm not playing a 75 game season for a chance at a cup. I've just taken the Senegal job, ranked 13th in the world and the top African club, we have a world cup and then an AFCON in 2034, so I might stay without a club job for a year unless a very good opportunity pops up. With only the European Champions League left on the continental side that will be my next move, hopefully to a if club in the top 5 league but we will have to see what comes up. Challenge update Spoiler 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_JHTB_ Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Just after my resignation from USA I get this through I have grown to dislike a few USA players in my time here, Dest one and Josh Sargent the other, the latter for missing so many penalties. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 On 21/01/2021 at 14:19, vikeologist said: Hide contents Sometimes you only get 1 chance with a nation, so I really wouldn't quit if I were you. 2 years isn't long. @_JHTB_ Sorry. My bad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_JHTB_ Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 29 minutes ago, vikeologist said: @_JHTB_ Sorry. My bad. Nah, it was the correct decision to stay on, just happens Mexico have got some good players coming through. For Spurs I've signed two Mexicans who turned 20 and 21 respectively this summer and between them already have 25 goals for Mexico in 29 combined appearances, there's no way of guessing when the good players will come through. Still plenty time to get international tournaments ticked off so I'm not too disheartened, yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pug 407 Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Pug's Update So With The Board Expectations For The Closing Stages I Got The Players In Who I Think Could Do The Job. With 13 Wins 2 Draws And 2 Losses We Won The League By 7 Points. I've Not Had Any Notice That We've Qualified For The Champions League. With Us Not Competing In The Champions League, We Were In The MX Cup. Which With A Mixed Bag Of Results We Won. Clausura Results Cup Results League Table Transfers POTS Job History Also I've Started My Continental A Licence CLUB CAREER ----------- Season Club Leagues Cups Other & Notes 1st 2nd 1st 2nd Cont CWC ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2020 Ansan Finished 7th 2021 Ansan Left After 17 Games 2021-22 Bolton Promoted 2022-23 Bolton Left To Take Over CD León 2022-23 CD León Won Won ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL CAREER -------------------- Season Nation Cups Other & Notes World Cup Confed Cup Euro's AFC ACON Gold Cup Copa America ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2022-23 South Africa Challenge Progress. ------------------- Club ---- 1/10 Top Domestic Leagues (Mexico) 1/10 Top Domestic Cups (Mexico) 0/5 Continental Cups 0/1 Club World Cup International ------------- 0/5 Continental Tournaments 0/2 World Tournaments 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 7 minutes ago, _JHTB_ said: Nah, it was the correct decision to stay on, just happens Mexico have got some good players coming through. For Spurs I've signed two Mexicans who turned 20 and 21 respectively this summer and between them already have 25 goals for Mexico in 29 combined appearances, there's no way of guessing when the good players will come through. Still plenty time to get international tournaments ticked off so I'm not too disheartened, yet. The thing is, you'll probably need to win with Mexico to keep your job, so you maybe get one chance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pug 407 Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 @vikeologist You Not Doing The Challenge This Year Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vikeologist Posted February 1, 2021 Author Share Posted February 1, 2021 3 hours ago, pug 407 said: @vikeologist You Not Doing The Challenge This Year No, having achieved it twice, I've no intention at the moment of doing it again (ever), unless something big changes which affects the challenge. Wanted to complete it again, because the first time was messy, with my losing my save midway through, an I wanted to complete it faster, which I did. Never going to beat your record though, although to be fair, neither are you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Monterrey F.C I finally landed my Mexican gig! When I say I landed it......and I well and truly landed on my feet with this one. The previous gaffer left for a job in Croatia, so I swooped in and grabbed myself a top 5 team with £25m to spend in the season break. What could go wrong? Well......not a alot really. A relatively entertaining season with Chivas keeping up with us and even passing us at one stage! It certainly wasn't plain sailing when we hit the closing stage knockout rounds as I only managed to get away with one goal losses, then completely dominate the home leg! Mission accomplished. I was pretty lucky to get a team already in the North American Champions League and as you can see by the results, it was pretty much in my control. As I'm typing this though, it's dawned on me that I won't be able to get the cup in Mexico either. So I've got to leave. The fans are going to be p*ssed! The media will have a field day and I will decline all questions. A stance must be taken! Any nominations for random countries to get my cups in? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timpy00 Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Season 2024/2025 Looking for a new club, I've noticed that my reputation went a little bit down after being fired at FC Cusco in Peru. There were no teams available where I saw a good opportunity to win a champions league in a few years. So I decided to go to my home country to Go Ahead Eagles, when arriving at the club they were standing 7th in the league with 17 games to play. I'm planning on improving my reputation so its probably best to stay here for at least a while, and bring back the club to the highest level in dutch football. We had a pretty decent squad to work with, and the club was doing pretty fine. The only reason the job came available was that the former manager went to Cambuur in the same league. I was hoping to make a run for the play offs, or when things went pretty good for one of the two spots to promote instantly. Unfortunate for me, the team was already out of the cup, but to be fair with this club changes aren't that big of winning the cup. My plan with the team worked instantly and we went on having some good results, and better for us most of the opponents weren't. To be fair we had a bit of luck in a couple of games were we where out kicked in xG by over 1.5 difference, but you gotta have some luck when you want to go up in the leaderboard. What happend at Madura United in Indonesia happend here as well, right from my start we started to win a lot of games. In the end we finished second behind the second squad of Ajax, who got a ******** of talent. But obviously this was way better than we thought coming in to the league. The manager who went to SC Cambuur which gave me the opportunity to start with Go Ahead, didn't perform that well with his new club and is now fired by SC Cambuur. But from this position I want to thank him for this opportunity. For now I am planning on staying at the club and battle in the Eredivisie next season, hopefully we can avoid relegation and hopefully that gives a nice boost to my reputation. So after that I hopefully will find a club in a not European country to make a run for the campions league on that continent. Spoiler @dkouvNice run in South Korea, nice to have that crossed of the list. Hopefully you soon find a new (good) club for your next challenge @Gregg88Congrats with a very nice season with Leipzig. Club World Cup a very nice one to cross off the list. Very nice season with Monterrey as well, you win your titles fast and it looks like easily so nice job. Don't know if there are a lot of countries left where they have to cups? Probably would go for that option if there is one. @_JHTB_GL with hopefully winning the league with Spurs, unfortunate to lose the final with USA, lets hope Mexico makes a bad run in the future so you could fill in the spot. GL @lukefox44Very nice season in Brazil, with seasons like that you can scratch a lot of cups of the list in no time. @pug 407 Congrats with your first titles. Planning on staying or moving on? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg88 Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 11 minutes ago, timpy00 said: Hide contents @Gregg88Congrats with a very nice season with Leipzig. Club World Cup a very nice one to cross off the list. Very nice season with Monterrey as well, you win your titles fast and it looks like easily so nice job. Don't know if there are a lot of countries left where they have to cups? Probably would go for that option if there is one. Cheers mate! That Club World is a big tick off the list for sure! The Jeonbuk, Monterrey & even the Napoli seasons were down to the sides they had already really. I wouldn't want to make out I did all the work with them! I should really try and find out who has the shorter seasons and try and steal a cup. But I certainly won't be beating my completion date from last year, so I may well take on some challenges rather than walking into winners. Congrats on the promotion! Have they given you a good transfer budget to play with? What's the youth set-up like at Go Ahead? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Regista Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 I'll catch up with this thread after I've calmed down. My first full season with Wolfsburg has come to an end. All I can say is this... I HATE BAYERN MUNICH Losing the league on the final day plus losing the Pokal final with the last kick of the game. Absolutely fuming. There's a temptation to move on - the Arsenal job is available as is Nacional in Uruguay. But there's so much more temptation to stick around and knock them off their ******* perch. One good window could really transform us, and with finishing 2nd and Champions League football, I sense a big rebuild coming. I'm going to win this Bundesliga title if it kills me. Sorry for the brief update, but I need to go chill out. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timpy00 Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 @Gregg88 Transfer budget is not that good. Youth set-up ain't good as well. But we will see what we can do. Look for opportunities between countries with season that last a calder year en clubs with seasons with broken years (don't know if this is correct English but hopefully you understand what I try to say). Then it's possible to make more runs in a shorter time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
numero uno gunner Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 Invested in FM21 over the weekend, so think I'll have a go at this to see if I can get a third completion. I was interested to see whether or not I could land any half decent jobs in the top flight of any nations. I've run through a year tonight, and these are the jobs I have been offered in that time period: River de Montevideo Ilves FC Inter Turuk FC Honka Black Leopards Maritzburg I've saved at the job offer for each one, and I'm going to sleep on it and then make a choice at where to start tomorrow. I know for my enjoyment that getting the first couple of jobs right is going to be important. On my two previous goes at this I've started in Ireland, so looking forward to starting somewhere new. Any thoughts welcome! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted February 2, 2021 Share Posted February 2, 2021 8 minutes ago, numero uno gunner said: Invested in FM21 over the weekend, so think I'll have a go at this to see if I can get a third completion. I was interested to see whether or not I could land any half decent jobs in the top flight of any nations. I've run through a year tonight, and these are the jobs I have been offered in that time period: River de Montevideo Ilves FC Inter Turuk FC Honka Black Leopards Maritzburg I've saved at the job offer for each one, and I'm going to sleep on it and then make a choice at where to start tomorrow. I know for my enjoyment that getting the first couple of jobs right is going to be important. On my two previous goes at this I've started in Ireland, so looking forward to starting somewhere new. Any thoughts welcome! Is Matias Arezo still at River de Montivideo in your save buddy. If he is then can you send me the link to your saved file as I want to tackle this challenge and would love to start at the same club as the legend that is Mattias Arezo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_JHTB_ Posted February 3, 2021 Share Posted February 3, 2021 39 minutes ago, numero uno gunner said: I've saved at the job offer for each one, and I'm going to sleep on it and then make a choice at where to start tomorrow. I know for my enjoyment that getting the first couple of jobs right is going to be important. On my two previous goes at this I've started in Ireland, so looking forward to starting somewhere new. Any thoughts welcome! Last year I started in Finland and found it a relatively easy league to tick off, so it depends on whether you want the first job to be more of a challenge or not. I've never managed in Uruguay so no real idea on that, though I presume it's a league where the best players go to Brazil or Argentina quite frequently. Would say the benefit of the South African teams comes from the obvious fact that you have to manage in South Africa at some point in the save and my bias would go towards Black Leopards in that case as I've managed them previously and Maritzburg are rivals of both the South African teams I managed this time round 5 hours ago, timpy00 said: @_JHTB_GL with hopefully winning the league with Spurs, unfortunate to lose the final with USA, lets hope Mexico makes a bad run in the future so you could fill in the spot. GL Nothing unfortunate about it in fairness, we just didn't have the quality, it would have been an upset had we done it even though I wish we had. I'm pretty confident about my chances with Spurs, throughout the first season we had neutral club atmosphere and neutral managerial support as my 3rd choice winger got the huff and upset my entire team, yet we still got second, he was sold this summer so dynamics are looking much better so I'm hoping that will prove the difference in the league. On 01/02/2021 at 14:27, vikeologist said: The thing is, you'll probably need to win with Mexico to keep your job, so you maybe get one chance. Honestly, I think the quality difference between Mexico and USA is the same as the quality difference between USA and the other teams in the competition, so unless USA get a golden generation through it should be a relatively straight forward ordeal. 4 hours ago, The Regista said: Losing the league on the final day plus losing the Pokal final with the last kick of the game. Absolutely fuming. At least the computer survived! That's a horrible way to end the season - I had similar in FM20 as Manchester City beat my Liverpool side in the last game of the season to snatch the League title from our grasp. I'd probably stay on as well, especially as the you were so close in the end. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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