The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge

[Phelix]

1 hour ago, libbyshuss said:

Toss a coin?

That's as good a way as any to choose between these two. I'd look at the squads and see which players excite me the most.

[jcricky]

Cavalry FC – 2022

My second year in Canada with Cavalry, one which I said would be my last, but in FM anything can happen. The League went pretty much the same as my first year, playing pretty well throughout with a few poor performances. Unfortunately one came in the final where we lost on away goals. My best midfielder Camargo ended up missing a penalty, ultimately sealing our fate. I’m not too fussed though as we did win it last year. 

Cup – We fell at the same stage as last year, losing to a MLS side again, this time the Montreal Impact. Their team was stacked, Bojan and Wanyama to name a few. A good showing to beat them 3-2 in the home leg was impressive but not enough. 

 

CONCACAF League – The North American Europa League was one I felt we could win at the start of the season. I thought my confidence was misplaced after drawing at home to Herediano at home, but a 4-0 victory away was class. W Connection was a simple enough game in the first round, but following that we drew last year’s winners Opimpia (HON). After a first leg loss we brought the tie back home and managed to win 1-0. Not knowing the rules I’d saved a couple of subs for ET only to find out that it went straight to penalties. My first penalty victory of the save! In the semi’s we meant overachievers FAS, winning with relative ease. The final was a bit tense, winning 1-0 at home before a real goal fest in the away leg. A 4-3 win meant I have won another trophy, although it doesn’t count to the challenge, I hope it will increase my reputation.

 

What else? – I’ve managed to get my National C, and I’m working towards my B badges. One of my signings this year was ex Arsenal and Rangers midfielder Gedion Zelalem, but he’s already leaving at the end of the year because of being played out of position (apparently). David Villa was also part of my coaching staff, I’m going to try and bring him with me if possible. 

 

I let my contract run down at the end of the season, I didn’t feel like we could challenge in the Champions League, so we’re on the hunt for our third job!

 

Challenge Progress

1/10 top domestic leagues - Canadian Premier League (Cavalry FC, 2021)
0/10 domestic cups ()
0/5 club continental championships ()
0/1 club world championship

Extras: CONCACAF National League (Cavalry FC, 2022)

International
0/5 continental tournaments ()
0/1 world tournaments ()

 

[_JHTB_]

 

Brilliant, thanks Sporting, a frankly insulting offer for our prolific striker that he'll no doubt kick a fuss at us rejecting. Why would I sell a player, who is not only valued at £245k, but has scored 96 goals in 76 appearances for us, for less money than we spent for him with him still having a year and a half on his deal?

[jcricky]

HB Køge 2022/23

 

Gone 3AM on a Sunday night and here I am writing my next update. After leaving Cavalry in December, I’m back in a job by the end of March. I applied for a number of different jobs, with 0 interviews offers! Obviously setting my sights too high, but I didn’t want to rush back into a job unless it was the right one. The previous manager took the Brondby job in the Superliga, one that I had also applied for. I had a little look at the table and HB Køge were 2^nd, and had almost qualified for the promotion group in the Nordicbet Liga. By the time I took the job qualification was secured. 

We were already out the cup, the race for promotion was between us, Vejle BK (1^st) and Randers FC (3^rd). We were pretty solid to be honest, apart from our two losses where Randers and Vejle outclassed us. One weird thing was that we actually gave away a penalty in about 5 games running. The 7-1 win came out of nowhere, we were actually losing 1-0 at half time. Ultimately it came down to the last game, Vejle had secured promotion, we were a point behind and Randers were 3 behind us, but we had a far superior goal difference. Vejle ended up smashing Randers the day before we played, meaning we gained promotion without having to play! 

 

 

Challenge Progress

Challenge Progress

1/10 top domestic leagues - Canadian Premier League (Cavalry FC, 2021)
0/10 domestic cups ()
0/5 club continental championships ()
0/1 club world championship

Extras: CONCACAF National League (Cavalry FC, 2022)

International
0/5 continental tournaments ()
0/1 world tournaments ()

 

[libbyshuss]

Barcelona - La Liga

So in the end I accepted the Barcelona job! They just have the nicer kits. The squad is insanely good so with any luck it will be just a short stay over.

I felt a bit guilty about going so I left Arsenal a leaving present. 90m spent on this striker:-

 

Spoiler

Last season he scored 50 loeague goals for Leeds, 57 in all competitions and also 17 international goals in 7 international starts. Hopefully it wasn't just a fluke season, those stats are ridiculous for an AI team

Career Summary

[Solsol]

Let's get this show on the road! 

 

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Solsol

[joehelsing1]

What are the rules around taking over a club near the end of a season to win a trophy. For example if a vacancy was available to manage a team who is currently 1st in the top league with only 4 games to go. Ultimately it means that I would technically win the trophy even thought I haven't really done the work. 

Firstly is this allowed?

Secondly, if this is allowed then is it frowned upon or should I jump at the chance for an easy trophy?

[vikeologist]

11 minutes ago, joehelsing1 said:

What are the rules around taking over a club near the end of a season to win a trophy. For example if a vacancy was available to manage a team who is currently 1st in the top league with only 4 games to go. Ultimately it means that I would technically win the trophy even thought I haven't really done the work. 

Firstly is this allowed?

Secondly, if this is allowed then is it frowned upon or should I jump at the chance for an easy trophy?

Not only is it allowed, it's encouraged and celebrated.

[joehelsing1]

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

Not only is it allowed, it's encouraged and celebrated.

Great to hear! Maybe I can coast my way through this challenge then by swooping in last minute to claim the trophies

[jcricky]

Forgot to add this into my last post, but has anybody had a player have this many passes in a game? Thought it was mad high but don't know if it was the norm!

[danielclouston1]

Season 2023-2024 ABSA Premiership

Kaizer Chiefs job became available after they finished 4th in the league last season so I applied and was offered an interview immediately. The board wanted a top 2 finish in the league. It was scarily easy, we very quickly went top and stayed for the entire season playing 30 games, winning 26, drawing 2 and losing 2. There´s not much more to say really other than we had goals coming from all 4 of our attacking men.

Cups

I´m going to throw all the cups in together because only 1 counts for the challenge and they all went the same way. We stormed through the MTN8, Knockout Cup and Nedbank Cup scoring a massive 52 goals and conceding just 4 across all 3 of the competitions.

International Management

The Nigeria job was available for nearly a year before I took the decision to apply for it. We´ve not played any competitive games yet but have fairly easy groups for World Cup 2026 qualification and ACON 2025 qualification

Notes

I feel like I am having too much success and it is too easy so I changed the way I was playing the game for this season. I was playing 50% of the games and using instant result for the other 50%, alternating each game but I wondered if the instant result gave better results so I played 100% of this season and it didn´t make a difference. On a bit of a deeper look though, I am absolutely certain my tactic breaks the game. I started to work on it at FC Edmonton and tweaked some while I was at Pumas but at both Pumas and Kaiser Chiefs my reserves and youths teams have also started dominating everything after using the tactic I do for the first team. I kinda feel like changing it but at the same time, it works! I am studying for my Continental Pro licence but it´s not yet completed.

Domestic Career Overview

International Career Overview

Domestic League Challenge

Domestic Cup Challenge

Continental Challenge

International Challenge

Trophy Cabinet

Career Record

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by danielclouston1

[lukefox44]

@danielclouston1 that's a hell of a dominant season, congrats.

Like you I'm feeling the game is a lot easier than it normally is. What tactic are you using just out of interest ? 

[to_madeira]

So after a while landed my first job. Rejected a few teams in India and was odds-on favourite to become Forge FC manager but that never materialised. So ended up in Chile 2nd tier.

 

Being predicted 14th out of 16 teams didn't look good but the squad wasn't too bad and a few free signings were enough for me.

 

As you can see we don't know how to defend but score for fun. Finishing 2nd may look great but if you look closely we only won 1 out of last 5 games.. yeah we were 1st and bottled it.

 

So play-off time.. and to my surprise we went straight to the final. Two-legged affair, was really close but in the end we did just enough.

 

Our squad was good and I cannot believe how my CB's are amongst the top performers. David Llanos arrived midway through the season and looked amazing until an injury ended his season and suddenly we couldn't win a game.

 

I mean if I had any doubts just look at this:

We were 3rd best side when it came to least shots faced but our analysts barely couldn't get our dot on the graph due to terrible conversion %! Offensively we were the best side in the land.

 

So what's next? 

Probably stick around another season as my reputation didn't grow enough to land a better job. Maybe a mid-table finish if we can achieve it does the trick and helps attract some interest.

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by to_madeira

[danielclouston1]

Just now, lukefox44 said:

@danielclouston1 that's a hell of a dominant season, congrats.

Like you I'm feeling the game is a lot easier than it normally is. What tactic are you using just out of interest ? 

A 4231 based on a gegenpress but not the preset one, just one I made based on how I like football. Its not just winning, its completely dominating teams. Having like 30 odd shots a game with 60+% possession.

[lukefox44]

17 minutes ago, danielclouston1 said:

A 4231 based on a gegenpress but not the preset one, just one I made based on how I like football. Its not just winning, its completely dominating teams. Having like 30 odd shots a game with 60+% possession.

Yeah the gegenpress has always been effective in game.

I think this year with the work they did in the match engine on "central play" anything with an Attacking Midfield works well. I was playing a wide 4-3-3 with a DM and was doing ok with it, when I moved him to behind the forward I instantly noticed an improvement.

Are you playing on Control as well? I get similar shots and possession as you do when I'm on control.

[danielclouston1]

16 minutes ago, lukefox44 said:

Yeah the gegenpress has always been effective in game.

I think this year with the work they did in the match engine on "central play" anything with an Attacking Midfield works well. I was playing a wide 4-3-3 with a DM and was doing ok with it, when I moved him to behind the forward I instantly noticed an improvement.

Are you playing on Control as well? I get similar shots and possession as you do when I'm on control.

I started as 433 2DM at Edmonton until I signed a decent AM C. To be honest, most of my play comes from the wings, my AM L in the last three seasons has 15+ goals. Although the AM C does have around 10 too.

No mate, I play on positive most of the time unless I have a team in the league below in a cup when ill play attacking.

[lukefox44]

7 minutes ago, danielclouston1 said:

I started as 433 2DM at Edmonton until I signed a decent AM C. To be honest, most of my play comes from the wings, my AM L in the last three seasons has 15+ goals. Although the AM C does have around 10 too.

No mate, I play on positive most of the time unless I have a team in the league below in a cup when ill play attacking.

Yeah sorry, control was the old name, it is positive now.

Yeah I get good goal contributions from out wide as well but maybe slightly more from the attacking midfielder.

Maybe it's the positive mentality that's a bit over powered, as well as the shape. I normally find building a very good team alot easier out side the top divisions as well, so maybe its partially that as well.

I'm not sure but something feels easier than normal.

[libbyshuss]

1 hour ago, lukefox44 said:

Like you I'm feeling the game is a lot easier than it normally is. What tactic are you using just out of interest ?

i'm finding that atm as well. I'm using a 4231 gegen press.

edit: one i made myself as well, with lots of running at defences

Edited December 7, 2020 by libbyshuss

[libbyshuss]

1 hour ago, danielclouston1 said:

I´m going to throw all the cups in together because only 1 counts for the challenge and they all went the same way

how'd you get that screenshot with all three cups together? it looks cool and i've not found it!

[danielclouston1]

13 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

how'd you get that screenshot with all three cups together? it looks cool and i've not found it!

It was just on the competitions page using snipping tool just after the last final but before the end of season review.

[libbyshuss]

5 minutes ago, danielclouston1 said:

It was just on the competitions page using snipping tool just after the last final but before the end of season review.

oh nice one, cheers.  It works really well on those end of season reviews. I could have spent days before finding it myself. 

[darren1983]

So my FS Stars side has taken to the top flight rather well and at near the halfway point we are undefeated and we won a cup. However I have left to take over the side 2nd bottom because it's the Kaizer Chiefs and I couldn't say no.

[MShing]

On 06/12/2020 at 12:56, lukefox44 said:

Hopefully that should work, @libbyshuss seems to have the same problem/fix, so it should.

It's a strange one to come across first time, I was like you and thought this might be the end of the save haha.

Yeah hopefully will not bottle the Champions League next year and then the plan is to move on to the Northern American version or African depending on what jobs pop up. What's your next club plans?

Its 2 years until the AFCON as well and should have a good crack at that with this Nigeria side. How good of an attacking side are Nigeria by the way, pace and dribbling is nuts for everyone. Good luck with them.

Your solution works so yes I can continue 

I have added, Argentina, Mexico, Scotland and Holland. I would prefer Mexico or Argentina. I would like to save Europe til last. But it has been 15 months since I left china and I'm still without a club. There have not been any tempting clubs sack their manager. I have qualified for the world cup which starts in about 4 months so hopefully I can do well and not get sacked. We have some talented players but my temptation to holiday through friendlies and easy games gets the better of me so I don't really know my best team yet

[pug 407]

Pug's Season Update

Just A Small Update After Getting The Players I Think Was Needed. We Started So Good And We Where Top Of The League After 17.(League)(Results).

I Then Got Offered The Managers Job At Bolton Which I Took.(Contract Offer)

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

Season    Nation         Cups                                                                         Other & Notes
                         World Cup    Confed Cup    Euro's    AFC    ACON    Gold Cup   Copa America
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

[dkouv]

2023 Asia Cup - Uzbekistan

I got the Orlando Pirates job in the summer and am in a tense three-way title race with Cape Town City and Kaiser Chiefs, but first onto Uzbekistan and the 2023 Asia Cup. We actually qualified for the Qatar World Cup via a play-off and had pretty decent group stage beating a Senegal team with Mane, Balde, Koulibali etc 3-2 in our first game, but then lost to Turkey and Brazil, rather predictably, to finish 3rd.

So onto the Asian cup, I can’t really see us competing with Japan and South Korea, but the other teams seem beatable and who knows what luck would bring. I’ll be heavily relying on 26-year old striker Shomurodov, who plays for Genoa, 34 year old midfielder Ahmedov who is a SIPG Shanghai.

Group Stage

Spoiler

Uzbekistan 4 - 1 Bahrain A promising start, and a Shomurodov hat trick.

Uzbekistan 1 - 0 Iraq A deserved win, they never threatened and we edged it with a 79th minute goal

Uzbekistan 0 - 0 Philippines Underwhelming from my reserve team, but we’re through as top of the group.

We face holders Qatar in the second round - not the best draw but a winnable game nonetheless.

Second Round (if applicable)

Spoiler

Uzbekistan 3 - 1 Qatar A tight game which was 1-1 until the 81st minute, but we’re through thanks to a double by Shomurodov and a long-range screamer from one of our centre mids

Thailand next which seems like a kind draw.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Uzbekistan 1 - 2 Thailand. Ahh, the price of arrogance. I rested a few players including my star striker Shomurodov, a few more were suspended, and this was the result. We were in control and 1-0 ahead when a 30-yard screamer and a skewed clearance from our defender gave them the win. We won on xG I guess, that counts for something, right?

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

 

After the tournament

Spoiler

I think that’s it for me with Uzbekistan, I’ll want a better team next time I try for the Asian cup. In the meantime I’ll try to get a job in Africa or America, annoyingly the Ivory Coast job just got taken and the World Cup is already past us so there’s nothing on at the moment.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by dkouv

[darren1983]

FS Stars & Kaizer Chiefs - Season 2022/23 Review

League - A fun but long season as I'm sure you'll see from the fact I managed 2 clubs! After promotion my FS Stars team were flying and we even won the Telkom Cup but the chance to revive a fallen giant (in African terms anyway) was too good to pass up, Chiefs are massive but hadn't wont anything for 8 seasons and their recruitment left a lot to be desired so were 15th place and in real danger of going down. Thanks to the world cup I had 16 games to turn them around and I did but it was tough as we took a while to find form but then finished the season poorly, we ended 9th in the end which isn't where we should be be is a base to build on.

Cup - As said I won the Telkom Cup with FS Stars and in the Nedbank Cup with Chiefs we had a good run to the final and after extra time we won that as well which meant that we also qualified for the CAF Confed Cup (Europa league) which while doesn't count here will be a target for me next season

Squad - an OK squad but needs a lot of work this summer 

Transfers - Only Capellino was my signing. There will be a massive turnover/rebuild this summer with probably 7 ot 8 new players in the team and likely even more than that in the squad. 

Finances - These being really good helps me out big time

Career Progress

Season		Club		Country		League		Position	Notes/Achievements 
2020/21		FS Stars	South Africa	NDF		5th 		Took over in 8th. Started 1st coaching badge
2021/22		FS Stars	South Africa	NDF		1st 		Completed 2 coaching badges & started a 3rd
2022/23		FS Stars	South Africa	Prem		2nd 		Won Cup, completed national C licence, left club on 5/2/23
2022/23		Kaizer Chiefs	South Africa	Prem		9th 		Won Nedbank Cup, Started Continental B licence 

Challenge Progress

Club
0/10 top domestic leagues ()
1/10 domestic cups (2022 – South Africa, FS Stars)
0/5 club continental championships ()
0/1 club world championship

International
0/5 continental tournaments ()
0/1 world tournaments ()

ACON this summer as well so might get a job after that, tried after the world cup but no one wanted me  

[danielclouston1]

Season 2024-2025 ABSA Premiership

Won´t go into too much detail since it doesn´t count for anything right now but we ran away with the league again, 26 wins, 3 draws and a loss.

Cups

We won the MTN8 cup and the Knockout Cup again, however we fell to a 1-0 defeat in the Nedbank Cup final but we did have 7 players on international duty at the time. 

CAF Champions League

This was the one I wanted. We had a pretty easy time of it to be honest, we played both Orlando Pirates and Sundown during the competition. We had a very easy group that was followed up by 4-1 agg win in the QF against Sundown and then had a 5-0 agg win against Orlando. We had Tunis in the final and we managed to demolish them, 2-0. I´ve no idea how it was only 2 but never mind, we won the champions league. A wee note that we had 4 out of 5 players in the top scorer charts for a combined 58 goals, crazy.

 

ACON 2025 Qualifiers

We had a fairly easy group containing Zimbabwe, Egypt and Niger. We won 6 out of 6 to qualify for the 2025 ACON. I forgot to screenshot the final table.

ACON 2025

Group Stage

 

Spoiler

We had a pretty easy group

 

Second Round

Spoiler

We dominated against SA, xG of 4.78, 34 shots with 28 on target and 67% possession. I was shocked, I expected a harder contest.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

I got exactly what I expected out of this, another utterly dominant display.

Semi Final

Spoiler

I had to rest pretty much whole team here due to fatigue although we were winning right up until the 91st minute. We could have lost it in ET but the keeper made a superb save.

 

Final

Spoiler

We were by far the better team throughout the game however this time it was us with the late goal. Losing from the 3rd minute all the way to the 89th. We pulled through in ET and Nigeria are now ACON champions.

Moving on

I´ve resigned from Kaizer Chiefs and Nigeria. Hoping to pick up a job in China or South Korea since they´re half way through their season but I´ll wait if I need to.

 

[danielclouston1]

Domestic Career Overview

International Career Overview

 

Domestic League Challenge

Domestic Cup Challenge

Continental Challenge

International Challenge

Trophy Cabinet

 

I´m now at 10 out of 32 for the challenge. It´s coming along nicely

[danielclouston1]

Shanghai job is available, they currently sit 10th after 15 games but they´re still in the champions league. This is the job I want, although I have also applied for Melbourne Victory and Racing Club in Argentina.

[Solsol]

8 hours ago, danielclouston1 said:

Domestic Career Overview

International Career Overview

 

Domestic League Challenge

Domestic Cup Challenge

Continental Challenge

International Challenge

Trophy Cabinet

 

I´m now at 10 out of 32 for the challenge. It´s coming along nicely

Very good progress mate, if you could finish Asia and South america before 2030, you could fly through Europe. The International trophies will be a tough part. 

[danielclouston1]

2 hours ago, Solsol said:

Very good progress mate, if you could finish Asia and South america before 2030, you could fly through Europe. The International trophies will be a tough part. 

I dunno mate, I still only have a 3.5* rep. The competitions I´ve won aren´t the most reputable haha. It´s looking good though.

[danielclouston1]

Dalian Pro

Season 2025 Chinese Super League

So I didn´t get the Shanghai job but Dalian Pro was also available so I applied for that too. I took over with them already out of the cup and sitting 8th in the Super League after 17 games with 8 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses. We signed Fabinho for 30mil and a few chinese players totalling another 30 mil, outside of the foreign players the squad I inherited was terrible. We had a good start to life at Dalian with a win against the then top Wuhan Zall but then went on a run of 3 draws and 3 losses in a row. The final 6 games were all against teams below 5th in the league and we finished up with 6 wins in a row to place 7th in the table.

Career Overview

I removed the ´Development` column since I have the Continental Pro Licence now.

Edited December 9, 2020 by danielclouston1

[_JHTB_]

Golden Arrows 2025/2026

After a season of domestic dominance last season I knew I shouldn't need to make huge amount of change in the offseason, though had highlighted centre midfield and right back as key areas to strengthen - which I did. A couple of first team ready players in both positions, a new goalkeeper and making a couple of our previous seasons loanees into permanent signings and our squad was looking impressive several players for each position that I'd have no hesitation playing and being good enough for us to allow for rotation where needed - we did sign a couple of players as fringe players as well and were intended to be utilised as such though one of them did break their leg and miss the entire season so that was a waste.

Previously I've covered league and then cups in different parts but I'm just going to cover domestic competitions first as the Champions League was the only thing that mattered this season. For the first half of the season no team could really lay a glove on us in any competition aside from Tuks taking us to extra time in the Telkom Knockout and then Sundowns taking us to penalties in the following round before a 2-2 draw in the league against Sundowns again in a 3 game period at the end of November. Though we did go on to secure that cup to go alongside the MTN 8 that we secured earlier in the season. We maintained our strong form in spite of a disappointing draw with SuperSport early in the new year.

It was Sundowns who were the biggest threat to an unbeaten season and they took a 3-0 half time lead against us in the Nedbank Cup but an incredible second half saw us score 6 to no reply to keep our run going. It was 'Period 3' in the league where our worst performances came though most were accompanied with us victorious nonetheless but alas, Sundowns did what they had previously threatened and beat us in the league, following that however, a draw against Tuks (who seem to always cause me problems) was the only other game we didn't take maximum points as we stormed to another League Title. However, we were bested in the Nedbank Cup final by Kaizer Chiefs after extra time to prevent us taking a domestic clean sweep.

As mentioned, the Champions League was the only trophy that mattered to me this season and I was desperate to get it won this year to prevent me having to stay another year at Golden Arrows. The rounds prior to the group stage caused us no issues at all as we progressed through but, I did think us drawing Al-Ahly in the Groups was a worry. The Egyptian side not only with the most time winners but also having reached the final the previous year. I needn't have worried as we beat them 5-0 and 7-1 respectively with us putting up similar demolition jobs against the other two sides in our group seeing us comfortably top the group.

It was another Egyptian side in Zamalek that awaited us in the quarter final who ended up with a similar fate to their counterparts Al-Ahly a 11-0 aggregate victory. The semi-final was the key for me in that we avoided both Sundowns and Cape Town City as I did feel them to be the main threats in the competition with me hoping for a Cape Town City victory as we had at least beat them other than via penalties this season. Though our opponents could still be tough in ES Tunis who had won 2 of the 5 Champions Leagues since the start of the save and indeed the previous 2 on the bounce in real life. However, a 4-0 victory in the first leg pretty much secured our spot in the final with the other leg finishing 2-2 and the best bit of news was that we would be facing Cape Town City not Sundowns in the final. The final itself was a pretty dull game, very cagey with us taking an age to get going, in fact in the end it was an 84th minute winner that did it and Champions League number one ticked off!

Best Player - Patrick Tarentaal

He was perhaps unlucky not to get this title last season with his 60 goals but, this season he scored even more with 64 goals in all competitions including 32 in the league, though he did have a battle to get league top scorer as Sundowns' Max McMillan managed 29 league goals himself though only a pitiful 51 goals in all competitions. You'd think with 64 goals he was always a consistent scorer but he did actually have a barren patch midseason or he might have scored even more.

What next?

I'm so glad I managed to get the Champions League ticked off as I really didn't fancy another season in South Africa especially as I always end up with horrendous fixture congestion to end the season, though I'm pretty certain that the squad I assembled would have no issues challenging for it again next season. I pre-emptively applied to a couple of jobs before the Champions League final with the thought I could always turn them down if I lost it so will see if anything comes of them. For now I'm just running down my contract which does end at the end of the month so I'm hoping one of the teams I applied for approaches me before then as otherwise it may be hard for me to get a job whilst an international only manager.

Senegal 2025/26

With Senegal our first competitive games were in World Cup qualifications, and I immediately thought I was onto a winner as we raced into a 3-0 lead against a Ivory Coast team that I turned down in favour of Senegal, alas they came back to draw the game which was dissapointing. We then recorded back to back 3-0 victories against Togo and made it stick against Ivory Coast. We did then fall to a terrible defeat to DR Congo though we did qualify for the World Cup on goal difference. We have also started our AFCON qualification campaign and have 6 points on the board and a goal difference of +14 so don't anticipate any issues there. The World Cup is this summer so I'll have another Senegal update before long. A weird quirk I found was that our first World Cup friendly is against Mali who somehow find themselves ranked 16th after winning the previous AFCON and finishing 4th in the last World Cup, though they didn't qualify this time round.

Story So Far

Challenge Progress

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by _JHTB_

[_JHTB_]

Senegal 2026 World Cup

Coming into the tournament I didn't really have any expectations on how we would fare, though was targeting for us to at least make it our of our group of England and Ecuador. 

Group Stage
 

Spoiler

 

Us and Ecuador kicked off Group K at the World Cup in an absolute bore fest which looked to be heading towards a 0-0 draw before we snatched a winner in the 89th minute to all but secure our place in the next round. That was confirmed before our next match as England bested Ecuador meaning our match against England was to see who would top the group. They ran out to a comfortable 2-0 victory to top the group, I wasn't really expecting anything other than a defeat all told.

 

Second Round 

Spoiler

Finishing second in our group meant a tough match as our second round game as we faced Spain. I fully expected this to go the same was as the England game with them ultimately proving too strong for us though that's not how it played out. We took an early lead which was pegged back 10 minutes later and the rest of the 90 minutes was much a non-event. Extra time was actually much the same before incredibly we scored another late goal scoring on just on the stroke of the one added minute for the second half of extra time to see off Spain.

Third Round

Spoiler

Yet another tough draw as this time we were facing Germany. Any thoughts of further heroics went out the window however as they comfortably beat us without us having any sort of look in. I'm not too disappointed though.

 

Quarter Final

Spoiler

 

 

Semi Final

Spoiler

 

 

Final/3rd place playoff

Spoiler

 

 

What Next?

Spoiler

The World Cup was only ever something that just happened to be before the AFCON, so I'm carrying on as I was and hopefully will be able to do well in next years AFCON with Senegal before future decisions are made.

 

[libbyshuss]

i need to get into a world cup, they look fun!

[vikeologist]

9 minutes ago, libbyshuss said:

i need to get into a world cup, they look fun!

Not when you get sacked at the end of them, which can happen a lot.

[_JHTB_]

1 hour ago, libbyshuss said:

i need to get into a world cup, they look fun!

I don't enjoy international management so not fun for me, means I actually have to make a good tactic not use what is made to look like a good tactic by me buying good players for it!

 

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

Not when you get sacked at the end of them, which can happen a lot.

And this, if you're at a nation that has a good chance of winning then you'd better win it or you'll be looking for a new job

[_JHTB_]

Rotherham United

Thought I'd also do a quick domestic side update now I'm at a new team, Rotherham United. In terms of progressing through the challenge fast they probably aren't the best team for me to chose especially given they finished one place above the relegation zone of the Championship last season but they do pose an interesting challenge given their tycoon takeover a couple of seasons since, so they gave me a £23 million transfer budget. (They weren't actually my first choice as Bundesliga 2's VfB Stuttgart were providing an £80 million budget which is mad). 

The issue with Rotherham is the same issue a lot of AI clubs that get a sudden influx of money have, ridiculous wages, they have two players on over £40k per week who are no where near players that should be earning that much so a big clear out is needed as whilst I've been given a good transfer budget, I've only £1k left of wages so have a job to try and reduce the wage bill considerably.  I am hoping that I can work the team well enough to put together a squad that can possibly challenge for the playoffs at least and perhaps put myself in the shop window for some European teams.

[libbyshuss]

20 minutes ago, _JHTB_ said:

I don't enjoy international management so not fun for me, means I actually have to make a good tactic not use what is made to look like a good tactic by me buying good players for it!

usually me either, i've enver really bothered with international management in all these years but this challenge is making me look at it differently. And I quite enjoyed my ACON and Euro adventures, even if I did get sacked straight after them both! 

[JamLUFC]

Season One

 

So first time attempting this challenge and my starting point brought me to India. I was left with two options - Tiddim Road or Chennai City, and I opted for Tiddim Road. I missed the Durand Cup which takes place in August, and with the league not starting until January I had some time to week out a large number of the 37 players in the first team! Even after this I was still left with 30 players so used the first league season to see who was capable enough for an attempt at the second season.

In the league I qualified for the Champions stage, and took it to the last game where I needed to beat Punjab FC by 2 or more goals to overtake them at the top of the league however I came up short in a 3-2 defeat. The Federation Cup followed and I went out in the Quarter Finals to MHDN, and never came close to beating them. On the positive side I completed the National C licence and am nearly through the B licence.

Next steps are to go for the league and cup double for next season. I'm not actually sure whether it's the Federation or the Durand Cup which is the main cup trophy, so I'll target both just to ensure I can tick the first silverware off the list. I have started to look for International jobs to come up, however with the World Cup 18 months away and the Asian Championships after that I think I may need to look further afield to Africa or North America to get on the International ladder. I'll also have one eye on jobs in China after next season as I don't see an Indian side challenging at continental level.

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by JamLUFC

[MShing]

World Cup 2026 report

We qualified for the World Cup quite easily. I just hope we do not fail miserably and I get the sack at the end of the tournament.

Group Stage

Spoiler

A good solid win to kick off our campaign

A shock loss to Thailand, I couldn't believe how bad we played, we just could not create anything.

I'm not sure I am a fan of this new World Cup layout, groups of 3 don't work for me, after we beat Serbia in our first game we had already qualified before we lost to Thailand.

First Round

Spoiler

A really good attacking display from the boys, I couldnt fault their performance, job was done before half time.

Second Round

Spoiler

A tough draw, I never really expected to beat italy but we played as well as we could have done.

Future

Spoiler

The FA were happy with our performance in the World Cup, so I kept my job, I am looking forward to the ACON in 2 years time. Nigeria were finalists last time round, now I am in charge I hope we can go one step further and win it.

On a club note, I have finally managed to land a club job, in Mexico with Monteray

After reading the threads about the youth intake problems in long term saves. I might hold off playing this save for a while until it is fixed. The longer I play the worse the problem will get by the looks of it.

What's everyone else think?

Edited December 9, 2020 by MShing

[jcricky]

The First Sacking – 2023/24

I mean, that just shows you everything, we couldn’t get going, my best players last season and the ones I brought in this year just weren’t performing. We even ended up going out in the Second round of the cup to a team in the second tier of Norwegian football. We were about 2 million in the red when I joined and that remained the same when I left. All our transfers were free or on loan and we weren’t able to attract any exceptional players. We dust ourselves down and go again, as I’m the Nigeria manager I can’t see myself getting a club job until I leave, I’ve applied but nobody is interested. 

 

Nigeria 

On a brighter note, the Nigeria job became available after the 2023 AFCON, where they lost to Ghana 2-1 in the second round. The squad is brilliant so I have a real hope of winning AFCON in 2025. So far our group has been drawn for the qualifiers, where we’ve drawn Ivory Coast, Eq Guinea and Tanzania. We’ve also got WC qualifying but I doubt I’ll be sticking around til the actual tournament.

 

Challenge Progress

1/10 top domestic leagues - Canadian Premier League (Cavalry FC, 2021)
0/10 domestic cups ()
0/5 club continental championships ()
0/1 club world championship

Extras: CONCACAF National League (Cavalry FC, 2022)

International
0/5 continental tournaments ()
0/1 world tournaments ()

 

[libbyshuss]

7 hours ago, MShing said:

After reading the threads about the youth intake problems in long term saves. I might hold off playing this save for a while until it is fixed. The longer I play the worse the problem will get by the looks of it.

What's everyone else think?

yeah, that's worrying me as well, but I've put so much time in i don't really want to quit at the same time. But it couold become unplayable quite quickly.

[vikeologist]

10 hours ago, _JHTB_ said:

I don't enjoy international management so not fun for me, means I actually have to make a good tactic not use what is made to look like a good tactic by me buying good players for it!

 

And this, if you're at a nation that has a good chance of winning then you'd better win it or you'll be looking for a new job

Even more so if you're not expected to win, but you do have to get to a certain stage, just so you can be in charge for the ACON or Asian Cup etc that you need.

[joehelsing1]

Season 2 - 2022

Last season we won the league so the plan this season was to do the same whilst adding the cup to my cabinet as well. It didn't quite go as planned...

Competition

Overall we didn't play bad. We draw WAY too many games we should have won and those draws were the difference between winning and not winning. We lost our first 3 games which got us off to a bad start but followed with a 16 game unbeaten run with half of those games being draws. As I won the league last season my focus was on the Canadian Championship Cup, however I was knocked out of that in the quarter finals by Cavalry FC as we lost both legs. My last shot to gain something was in the North American League. Despite 2 very dominant performances we were unable to finish effectively and lost 2-1 over the two legs in the Quarter Final to Herediano. Overall it was a season to forget which didn't see me progress in any way.

Squad

As the squad we strong and pretty well rounded last season, I didn't want to make any changes other than add a little depth so no major purchases were made other than bringing in Midfielder PAtrick Metcalfe permanently. Most of our players had not yet reached their potential so I focused on bringing in great coaches to improve our already great team. Despite having the best coaching in the league in every aspect, almost all of our players saw a decline in development since last season which could be the reason behind some of our disappointing results. 

Best Players

Keven Aleman - Left footer who I played as an Inside Forward on the right. Very rarely had a poor performance and was able to score goals and assists on a regular basis. 

Amer Didic - Very consistant as a Central Defender was always able to bring in 7+ performances when the rest of the team couldn't. Even scored a couple of great headers to avoid a couple of losses.

Finances

The club went through a takeover mid season but nothing of note happened. We remained in the positive throughout. 

Myself

Reputation currently sitting at 35% and I am currently studying towards my Continental A Licence.

I decided that I am done at FC Edmonton and that it is time to move on. After looking around for a while I took a job at Felda Utd in the Malaysian Super League.

Felda Utd

After taking the job I was asked to battle bravely against relegation whilst heavily in debt. The squad is in terrible shape and with no money to buy players my only option was to look at loans and free transfers. After a couple of months in the off season trialing 180+ players, I could not find a single player with more than 2 1/2 stars of current ability. I felt set up to fail and for the good of my career I decided to resign before the season even started. 

Indonesia

I have applied for quite a lot of national roles however nobody has even given me an interview except for Indonesia. I wasn't sure whether to take the job at first as I can't see them winning any trophies, however I thought some good results may see my reputation increase and help me when applying for other roles. After taking the job my repuation decreased from 40% down to 35% so I perhaps need to gain a little understanding on how reputation works in this game...

Challenge Progress

 

 

1/10 top domestic leagues (Canada)

0/10 domestic cups ()

0/5 club continental championships ()

0/1 club world championship

International

0/5 continental tournaments ()

0/1 world tournaments ()

[vikeologist]

10 hours ago, JamLUFC said:

Season One

 

 

So first time attempting this challenge and my starting point brought me to India.

Welcome to the challenge. Your manager was 20 / Sunday league at start?

 

9 hours ago, MShing said:

 

 

After reading the threads about the youth intake problems in long term saves. I might hold off playing this save for a while until it is fixed. The longer I play the worse the problem will get by the looks of it.

What's everyone else think?

You're the first person to mention this problem on the thread. Well, I mentioned it when I asked if anyone had had problems, but you're the first to reply.

You're 6 seasons in. is it actually affecting your save?

There's 2 ways it could do this. 

1. Dramatically reducing the number of international teams you can manage. I think this is the biggest problem for the challenge. If nations don;t produce regens, they will become unmanageable very quickly. Nations in Africa and Asia disappear even without the bug. So 6 seasons in, how many nations in those 2 continents are manageable, and more pertinently, have any big ones disappeared. You can tell this from the job security page. If the nation's not there, they're gone. In theory they can reappear once players are added, but this is unlikely.

2. Clubs in added leagues don;t have any young players. I'm not doing this challenge, so you'll all have to tell me if this is happening. If clubs in added nations do have sufficient young players, there's no problem.

Don;t give up on a save just because of the noise from elsewhere about bugs.

This is called the Youth Development bug, but I'm doing the Youth Development challenge, and it's presenting no problems to me at all. The number of players in my save has not reduced.

I've always thought that it would potentially present more problems for this challenge, but I'm not going to be able to tell if it actually is. 

@jcricky Commiserations on the sacking. In the early days of the challenge people used to get sacked a lot. Ok. I used to get sacked a lot. In fact 2 of us had a side challenge on to see who would get sacked the most. Unsurprisingly, they became the 2 completions that took the longest.

I worry that these days there's a stigma to getting sacked from club jobs on this challenge. Maybe lots of people start, get sacked and quit. 

One should celebrate one's failures as much as one's successes. Also

I should point out that in my recent completion, I didn't get sacked once from a club job, (or if I did I've blanked it from my memory). 

 

[danielclouston1]

9 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

2. Clubs in added leagues don;t have any young players. I'm not doing this challenge, so you'll all have to tell me if this is happening. If clubs in added nations do have sufficient young players, there's no problem.

I think the biggest problem for this save could be when you load up additional leagues further down the line. I've not really noticed it yet but when I get to Europe it could pose a problem. SI say the problem is with unplayable leagues and also bigger when its 10+ years down the line. I worry that once I've done Asia and South America that Europe is just going to be awash with greyed out players when I add in the leagues.

Edited December 10, 2020 by danielclouston1

[vikeologist]

2 hours ago, danielclouston1 said:

I think the biggest problem for this save could be when you load up additional leagues further down the line. I've not really noticed it yet but when I get to Europe it could pose a problem. SI say the problem is with unplayable leagues and also bigger when its 10+ years down the line. I worry that once I've done Asia and South America that Europe is just going to be awash with greyed out players when I add in the leagues.

I really think the biggest problem is going to be playable nations.

I'm in 2025. Only England loaded, and I think medium database, apart from the lower league English players loaded.

The only playable Asian nation in my game is Australia. No China. No South Korea, and certainly no-one else.

Obviously everybody else's set ups for this challenge are different, but if people haven't taken my advice in the opening posts to add Asian players, I'd imagine they'd be screwed, given this is after just 5 seasons.

So those of you 5 or so seasons into the save, how many Asian and African nations are manageable?

[lukefox44]

40 minutes ago, vikeologist said:

So those of you 5 or so seasons into the save, how many Asian and African nations are manageable?

I'm only just finishing up the 4th year in game, but by the looks of it I cant see any that have disappeared. However I did take you advice on loading in all Asian international players or I imagine it would be very different.

Wasnt this issue already fixed in the 21.1.3 update? I'm sure I saw it had improvements to newgen in inactive leagues. Or is it still an issue?

[vikeologist]

1 minute ago, lukefox44 said:

I'm only just finishing up the 4th year in game, but by the looks of it I cant see any that have disappeared. However I did take you advice on loading in all Asian international players or I imagine it would be very different.

Wasnt this issue already fixed in the 21.1.3 update? I'm sure I saw it had improvements to newgen in inactive leagues. Or is it still an issue?

Some people seem to think it's still an issue. The nature of bugs is that the only people who talk about them is those who've encountered them.