Inspiring India

[TheNayr]

Oh ho, we have another GEM come through the youth ranks again at Jamshedpur. If this player came through at any top league team around the World you'd be happy, but first. The preview listed the intake at 'Good' but it's come through as 'Excellent' and a potential 'Golden Generation'.

As I've said before, the depth in these intakes are getting better. Even the lower ranked players can still become decent players showing that the overall level has increased here in India. Of the 'Top Talents' there's no particular stand outs. I won't bother showing them because they'll be good players without being World beaters and come on, I know you just want to see Amit Ghosh and I do not blame you, here he is.

Yes, yes, yes. He could be special. Mentals are in a great starting position. Alright technicals and mentals are decent. Excellent determination coupled with good personality means he has the potential to grow and he's 15. Straight into the 1st team.

Now on to the bed news. We were pants this year in the league. Didn't even get any Continental football next year, though we're still in the playoffs so there's a chance to win the league, but I wouldn't bet on it. We also crashed out in the Champions League in the next round too, bit of a bum last year.

 

This can be quite easily explained by 1 simple fact. We did not score enough/take our opportunities. 

As you can see from those stats, we should've done so much better. But, alas. We did not so no point crying about it. Just gotta focus on playing better and trying to win the league.

 

 

 

 

 

And that is what we do. Winning the league in my final season is a great way to end 6 years here. I will do my best to sell Chhangte Singh for a good deal before I leave. Next up, the World Cup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Until next time.

 

 

[TheNayr]

It's here. Finally. So we're allowed a 26 man squad which is nice as usually it's only 23 for all international games. Brazil have already played Ireland and beat them 4-0 which is good for us, we I know we're gonna lose to Brazil so the match against Ireland is most important. Top 2 go through so we can assume Brazil  have top spot locked up. We've gotta hope in this first match against them we can hold them to beating us 3-0 or 4-1. Let's have a look at the squad that we have at the 2038 World Cup in South Africa.

Goalkeepers

These have been the same 3 GKs used for our international squads for the past few years because there have been no exciting new guys coming through which is a bit of a concern. As usual, leading the way as he has done for many years now. Ayush CK.

In order, Himanshu Chatterjee and Jonathan Dev are good GK's for the top division domestically, but never developed ahead of Ayush.

Defenders

We are really strong with our 4 starting defenders, and with some good younger talent coming through, the defence can be a very strong unit going forward.

Starting at RB for us will be Arjun Singh because of his better mentals and experience over the younger Pratik Jadhav. We'll look at Arjun. It was a very close call, but the experience and better mentals will help us, though the 17 year old will soon be our starting RB for India. We'll look at him shortly.

The starting CB's is a very easy decision though, nothing to think too hard about here. Mohammed Singh who is still playing his trade for Seoul in South Korea and is a sold all rounder without a significant weakness in his game. Followed by the quite remarkable Sukhjit Marbaniang. Just a shame he's 5'10 haha, otherwise he's an absolute ELITE CB.

Then completing our back 4 is a young LB playing for Magpies in Gibraltar unfortunately, not the best of career moves (Although they just won the league this year!)

Here are the other defensive players in the squad.

Pratik Jadhav who will be future RB

Ajith Singh who brings great mentals and experience who can cover RB and CB. Parveen Singh who is the main CB cover who brings good mentals and decent technicals and Monsur Islam who is a competent and average LB.

Midfielders

Starting in the only DM position is obviously gonna be Anirudh Saini. He was a generated player on the first day I started this save at Bengaluru. He was quickly named captain of India and the 5'4 psycho has been with us ever since, he was NEVER going to be missing out on playing at the World Cup. Though this might be his last time in our squad.

Our 2 starting CMs are quite clear in front of everyone else in that position atm. First up is a solid player in Jason Singh and his partner is young Harshad Pradhan who does have holes in his game, not gonna deny that but I like what he has to offer and I'm expecting some good things from him.

The rest of the squad (In order picture wise) contains Sushil Saha who can CB, DM, CM and AMC and I love that versatility. Motiur Rahman Hossain who is a solid AML who has always performed well for the national side. Prabin Sharma who has solid mentals and is a good option to come on from the bench. Prasanta Basak who is very versatile and has good physicals despite his age who can come on late and cause havoc. Same for Sachin Singh as in good physicals who can come on late and be a nuisance. Finally is Suhail Dasgupta who is the best natural AML India has to offer.

Strikers

Obviously our best unit, stocked with talent everywhere here. Suhail Dasgupta might be the best natural AML India has to offer, doesn't mean he's starting there.

Starting at AML is the poster boy of Indian football Naveen Wani an IF instead of a winger.

Our starting AMR is Keegan Rawat who is a physical and mental monster.

The lone striker is India's next best hope in Chhangte Singh who I was able to sell to Orlando in the MLS for £925k and 40% of the next sale, annoyingly has a minimum release clause of £6,5m which will get activated next year maybe and the payday won't be as good. He rejected offers from Oostende Porto and Lyon and any of them would've been perfect because his value would've been a lot higher...but at least Jamshedpur will get something out of the next sale too.

The 3 backup strikers are also very good players who are versatile. Aniket Murty who has an outstanding record for the national team and a solid all round striker. 

Noah Fernandes who also has a very good record for India and is dependable. Currently playing for MK Dons but looks like he will be leaving.

And the final player of this Indian World Cup squad is Balwinder Singh who doesn't really have a weakness to his game, he's very good.

 

Well they are the 26 men who will try and get out of our World Cup group. I CANNOT wait to play the games, however, that'll be a job for the morning and it's a little past 1am and I'm a tired man. 

 

Until next time.

[BML]

No better way to introduce India to the World Cup than getting drawn with Brazil!

Good luck against the Irish.

[TheNayr]

12 hours ago, BML said:

No better way to introduce India to the World Cup than getting drawn with Brazil!

Good luck against the Irish.

Haha! Exactly! Just give us the reigning World champions, just think of all the people who would be tuned in around the World and in India to watch this game, big time!

 

 

The match against Brazil went as you'd expect!

We offered little going forward and weren't very good at the back. However, going against the current World Champions and World ranked #2, I wasn't thinking any different. 2 easy 4-0 wins for the Brazilian boys. Now our focus is fully on Ireland as it always has been. They are ranked 23rd in the World. Conceding the 4th goal in the 93rd minute could be a disaster because I don't know what will happen if we now draw with them as our goal difference would be the same?? Had we only lost 0-3 and drew with Ireland I'd assume we would've gone through over them. But hey, we gotta get a result against them before I start thinking of this.

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the all important game against Ireland.

 

It was a very close game, going into HT leading I was very happy but they are a stronger team in almost every position. Losing to them wasn't a surprise. And just like that, our 1st World Cup, which this whole save has been about has come to a close with an expected 0 points.

Is this save over? No. I think I have 1 more World Cup in me for this save, provided we get it next time. Naveen Wani is such an elite player for us and he'll be 33 in 4 years time. Unless Chhangte Singh becomes an elite striker like him, we just won't have someone to fire us to glory. Realistically, I'm never going to get India in a position to win the World Cup, let's be honest here. I have done what I set out to do in this challenge and I'm very happy with that. But I would love to get out of the group stage. Maybe even win the Asian Nations Cup after losing in the last final. 1 MORE WORLD CUP!

 

Until next time.

 

[TheNayr]

So I left Jamshedpur just before the World Cup and I left them in a fantastic position. Near £40 million in the bank. About to move into a brand new 28k stadium, another upgrade to training facilities so they'll be state of the art, youth facilities being the best in the country, the best youth coaching and recruitment and just won the league. I also made sure the best players at the club are tied down with new 4 year deals, they are set for the future. I've done all I can for them, it's time for a new challenge. That challenge, is Odisha.

We're starting from the bottom again facility wise, but that's all part of the charm of this challenge, making the teams in this country as good as they can be. Yeah, you did read it right. Their stadium in this universe is currently 60 years old, could do with a new build. Hopefully the board come up with that idea themselves so I don't need to ask them, here it is.

 

Gotta get used to have no money again haha. Having been rich at Jamshedpur for the past 4 years, this is gonna be rough! Speaking of rough, the quality of player here is far weaker than I've been used to the past few years.

The best GK at the club being 32 year old Argentinian Rodrigo Casas who isn't good at all to be honest haha. Oh dear, his backups aren't any good either.

A mediocre bunch at defence isn't going to help, might be shipping a few goals in this 1st season. Only 1 natural CB is a bit of a horror show.

And he's 5'9 with not much of a future. Damn. 

At least I've personally capped this guy 3 times for India in Surajit Kumar. The only workable guy in this whole defence.

On paper, the midfield appears to be the strongest unit.

We have a good-ish young talent in Pratik Bose who has good physicals which will help us. Might be able to make a player out of him. 

Possibly the best player at the club is Samuel Majumdar who is the most show offy and expressive player India has ever produced maybe! However, is already committed to leaving on a free after this season which is a shame.

Then on the right hand side, we have another capped player in Srinjoy Cardozo who again has good physicals and can just about cross a ball.

The striking unit is solid without being remarkable. Workable is another phrase I could use to describe it. 2 strikers with not too much to choose between them.

I do prefer Subrata Singh over Shyam Singh though and we'll show the former first.

 

So just to remind you of the rules regarding foreign players. You can have 6 registered to your squad with a maximum of 4 in the playing 11 (Though 1 of them must be Asian). We currently have 4 foreign players and they're all bad haha! Luckily they all will be out of contract come the end of the year, I will not be renewing any of them! So I have room to bring in 2 more currently which I will look to do as I have a lot of money left to bring in some players.

Luckily the board don't expect anything of me this season which is good due to how poor the team in, at least in my opinion. However, I am already making major moves behind the scenes bringing in staff to improve the staffing team massively. Namely an old HOYD who I've worked with before at Jamshedpur he's good without being amazing. 

And my assman who I hired when I first joined at Jamshedpur and who stayed with me the entire time there. I was sneaky and didn't renew his expiring contract because I knew he was leaving, but this guy is an amazing assman and I'm thrilled that's joining me at Odisha. 

Right, I have a bit of time to try and add some quality to this team before the season get's started. 

 

 

Until next time.

 

 

[TheNayr]

So big news. This MIGHT be the end of the save after this bombshell.

 

 

 

 

 

The greatest player India has ever produced has retired from international football and he rejected me asking him to re-consider.

 

Not having a player of this quality to go through the difficult World Cup qualifying is devastating. I mean obviously the national team is good, we could maybe make our way through the qualifying but damn it's going to be a lot harder without him. Okay, I won't stop the save here, however I am not happy and will probably take a few days break. Very disappointed. 

 

****!!!!!!

[TheNayr]

After taking a couple of weeks away from the save, I tried to get back into it and I couldn't after playing on. I will end the save here. Thank you all for reading and for those who commented on it. Naveen Wani the superstar just too much of a blow going forward with him retiring. The aim of this challenge was to get India to the World Cup, I achieved what I set out to do. I'm very happy with how this save went. I also think I'm proof that that the game importance can change as well as dynamic youth rating as we did see some very good players. 

Until next time. (Which will be soon as I know what my next save will be.)

[TheNayr]

I have some BREAKING NEWS to report from India. Over three months ago, respected manager Ryan Balchin had decided to leave his post as manager of India after 15 years of service. His aim of getting them to a World Cup was achieved. He has however, decided to dramatically un-retire and continue with the job he started in making India a footballing powerhouse. We go live to him now in Odisha.

 

Hello everyone. This is the most fun I've ever had during my 12 years of playing Football Manager. After some time with Sant Andreu where despite being sacked, I had a great time. Now, with Football Manager 25 still a few months away, I found myself in a tricky situation. I thought long and hard about starting other saves and couldn't really decide on what to go with. I was tempted to go again with Viktoria Zizkov after having ENOURMOUS success with them in FM23 (I didn't do any posts here) however, I am thinking they will be my first save in FM25 and going youth only showing how good the regens are in Czechia. After some thinking, I have made up my mind to come to back to India because I have work still here to do.

I didn't even get them into the top 50!!! What was I playing at?! I left them at rank 59 in the World. Not good enough. I have about 5ish months left before the new game comes out. How high can I get India ranked? Can I get them beyond the first round of a World Cup? I've still got more work to do at club level.

Basically guys.

[TheNayr]

So, a brief little reminder for myself and you. I went back through and read every post I made to catch myself back up to speed and the memories came spilling back through to me. Here's how the teams look in the top division.

So some things that stand out. There's quite a few rich benefactors knocking around here which is awesome! 3 teams having over £50m in their bank accounts. I NEED to manage one of the teams that have the 80,000+ stadiums as I think I could get close to selling out and increasing the season ticket sales and money hither to unthought of! 

Here is where the league stands in this continent, I'll be honest. No idea where it starts, but I guarantee it's nowhere near 16th!

Here are the teams around us in the World rankings.

I think the highest we've been is 55, gotta crack that top 50!

 

Back to Odisha business and we needed to improve quite a bit, especially at the back and that's what I did before taking my hiatus. 

First up, an experienced head who has been an ever regular with the national team in Ajith Singh. On a free from Bengaluru.

He's only here for a year but he's a solid performer who plays better than his attributes suggest. Dependable and experienced.

We only had 1 natural CB in the first team, so I raided Goa and paid £100k for a young CB with room to grow. Lalliansanga Colaco.

I have no doubt that he will see some action with the national team and he will be regular player for us in the league so he will get better, but the 9 determination will hinder any serious progress,

I also spent £105k on his new CB partner from Mes Kerman in Iran this is Hossein Gholizadeh.

Marks opponent tightly trait with 13 marking is solid and he will hopefully form a good CB partnership and be a bit of a mentor to Colaco.

Now, on a free from Saudi Arabian side Al-Anwar is Mohammed Al-Jasim.

Very happy with him, he won't be going forward much and I'm very happy with that, potentially the best player that we have. If not, he's close.

Finally, new signing from Kerala is Prabin Sharma.

He's going to offer a lot of creativity going forward and hopefully get quite a few assists over the next 2 years.

 

I am very excited to get stuck back into this save and continuing to Inspire India.

 

Until next time.

 

 

[Carambau]

Good to see you back  

[TheNayr]

On 28/05/2024 at 08:12, Carambau said:

Good to see you back  

It is so good to be back, taking a break from the save was what I needed after the retirement of Wani. Regular updates are back!

 

So, our first season with Odisha has gone well so far. A mid table finish was what the board was after and we're hovering around that now.

 

 

We started off very. very well. Undefeated through the first 10 games means was an excellent achievement and we were really overperforming, though that's something I'm never going to complain about! Though, our form was taken a bit of a nosedive lately. 4 losses in 5 games is a bit alarming with all the losses being away, so I'm gonna have to do something about that!

The table looks like this.

After 15 games, I'm happy with that and probably would've taken it had you offered it to me at the start of the season. We are the top goalscorers in the league which is nice and I expect that to continue with a good new signing at striker.

Sitting in free agency was a 39 cap 22 goal Indian striker Noah Fernandes. He started at Bengaluru, played for MK Dons for the last 3 years and was sitting there ready to be signed and we got him a couple of weeks ago.

And here he is compared to our current top scorer and current starting striker Shyam Singh.

I've also been able to upgrade the youth coaching and youth recruitment.

 

Getting them up is vital to this save, can't have just 3 teams providing all the good players! The aim is to have as many club teams here in the top division to have exceptional youth coaching and recruitment with great facilities! Speaking of which.

 

Yeah, not much to expect there. Youth intakes won't be that good here at Odisha for a couple of years, by the time they start getting good we'll be on our way to going to another team! 

 

Until next time.

 

 

[TheNayr]

And that next time won't be long at all as I'm doing this next update immediately because we're back in action with India for the first time since the World Cup as it's time for the Asian Nations Cup which is being held in China. In the last edition we lost to U.A.E in the semi finals, can we do better this year? I bloody hope so!

The previous winners of this competition. It's the Asian equivalent of the Euros and Copa America in that it takes place every 4 years.

This is how the draw played out for our group.

The squad is largely the same as it was from the World Cup.

Ayush CK as he has been for the last 10 years or so for India our #1.

Still no sign of a good, up and coming GK which is a bit of worry. We'll have to use him for as long as we can.

For the next 10 years we have locked up a CB, RB and LB. Our defence is looking solid and potentially our best unit. Our starting RB will be the 17 year old Pratik Jadhav.

Unless an absolute freak of nature comes through, the RB spot in the national team will be his for the next 15 years. Hopefully there will be some awesome development from this young star.

On the opposite side to him is 19 year old Ajit Negi. I wish he wasn't playing in Gibraltar but his side Magpies have good training facilities so that will help his development.

He is awesome physically which makes up for a little poor technicals and average mentals. You can't teach speed though.

Mohammed Singh has been ever present for this team for many years. At 29 he's coming to the end and hopefully we can get him to the next World Cup. An amazing CB.

Now then, I have claimed for a few years that Naveen Wani was the best player India has ever produced, I think he has been replaced to that title by this monster. Sukhjit Marbaniang.

Just look at him! He is beautiful and only 23. I could look at him all day. Starting practically every game in the Premiership. Oh who wants him? Only Real Madrid.

Next up, we have the midfielders. Now, I know you're going to see no natural AMR but that's fine because 3 of my striker can play that at least to a competent level, so no issue there.

Anirudh Saini only just made it into the squad, I can see this as his last competition/last time called up to the squad. He has been national captain for the last 11 years or so. A treasure.

Our 2 starting CMs will be a good partnership for at least through the next World Cup cycle, starting up Jason Singh who is playing his trade in Bundesliga 2 with Union Berlin.

He is absolutely solid and a great piece to have in the middle of the field. His partner in the middle, despite being 7 years younger will prove to be a solid guy next to him. Harshad Pradhan.

18 acceleration with 15 pace and the trait 'Knocks ball past opponent'. He's dangerous! He is currently wanted by LAFC in the MLS. 

The weakest area of this national team since the start has been AML and that trend is continuing which is sad news for us, hopefully in the next few years we can get someone awesome coming through. Currently our starting AML is Suhail Dasgupta.

Very nice physicals with some really good mentals mean he isn't poor, but attacking wise he's not amazing.

Our starting AMR you all know, a guy I've loved since very early in this save. Also I must add he role is a natural RAUMDEUTER alert! A position you don't see utilised much. Keegan Rawat.

He can play that role very well. I am not looking forward to the day that he decides to retire! Expecting big things from him this tournament, especially in such an aggressive role on the right wing.

Then our strikers.

Led by this nation's next great hope in Chhangte Singh who had a very poor first season in the MLS with only 3 goals and 1 assist in 15 starts. However, this guys just HAS to play for us.

 

He is a Wonderkid, still has room to improve a bit. Getting a move to Europe in the next couple of years would be vital to his development.

 

Anyway, our first game is against Palestine. Hopefully we can put a few goals past them to get some early confidence and morale for this tourney. 

 

Until next time. 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheNayr]

A large number of people are expected for this game which is awesome! The Indian FA want us to reach the second round minimum and I fully expect to get there myself.

And we are heavy favourites, as to be expected.

Let's brush them aside easily please guys yeah? A few goals to help with the goal difference in case that's needed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm. Not really what I was after. Their first goal was only because our GK made a mistake and came out too early then an own goal for the second when it was already 4-1. I would've liked a couple more goals. However. A win, is a win. Keegan Rawat scored 2 as a Raumdeuter, proving he fits that role perfectly. (He did also miss a penalty in the first half after he'd already scored!)

Next up is the most important game of the group, against Saudi Arabia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POOR POOR POOR. 3 shots on target from 14 attempts. Their first goal was again a mistake by Ayush CK who again came early for a cross, missed it again and practically left the goal wide open for an easy goal for their equaliser. Very frustrating game. It means we are second in the group above Thailand. We have the same goal difference and same record so I don't know what happens if we get a draw...we just gotta avoid a defeat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cannot tell you how frustrating this game was. We had SO MANY highlights that didn't end in goals. Thailand decided to just play the best football they have ever played. I mean, them having 4 goals from 0.95 xG is farcical if you ask me. How f'ing lucky can you get?! 

Luckily, we qualify in third.

Which leaves the second round looking like this.

We draw a tough team in Iran where we need to step up our performances, big time.

 

 

Half time and not a single highlight. Great game so far!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another poor showing just sums up a very disappointing tournament.  

 

 

 

Saudi Arabia went on to win the competition. They are a very good team filled with good players tbh.

 

 

Who can spot the mistake?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, we didn't make it to the quarters haha! We lost in the second round. That's how much people really care about football here! I'll take it though, if it enthralled the nation that means football will continue to get better here!

No increase for us this time.

 

Until next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheNayr]

So I'll just rip the plaster off, the youth intake was absolutely dreadful haha! No redeeming factors about it whatsoever. 

Most definitely a poor intake, headlined by Shyam Singh.

Good news though, this should hopefully be the worst intake we have here at Odisha. It can only get better...one can imagine haha!

We were able to steady the ship toward the end of the season where we reduced our losses and appeared to play a little better.

These results left the table looking like this.

Making the playoffs is awesome! We perform slightly better than predicted which is always nice. What isn't nice though, is missing out on getting continental action next year by a point which sucks! However, we're still within a chance of winning the league through the playoffs!

First up in the quarter final we are home to Jamshedpur.

 

 

 

And we brush them aside fairly easily, onto the semis against Goa who are potentially the best team in the country right now.

 

 

 

Despite being battered and under pressure for majority of the game, we escape with victory away from home in the first leg. Onwards to the second leg at home. On our way to being Champions!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well over the two legs we were BY FAR! The worst team, but that doesn't matter. We are through to the final and have the chance to win the Super League for the first team in this team's history after being runners up in 2024 and 2027.

 

 

 

 

 

And our nice little run comes to an end! We fall at the final hurdle and are not crowned Champions.....this year at least!

 

And at the end of the season in the Super Cup which is just glorified friendlies at the end of the season:

We lose yet another final to Bengaluru. You don't get anything for winning the final, so it's not like we missed out. But as got there, it would've been nice to have won!

Squad by goals.

Squad by average rating.

Overall, it was a very good season. Just a mid table finish would've been good, but we got to 2 finals and to have 9 players who finished with over 7.00 means we played very well throughout the entire season. 

So apparently we're going to be playing in the Asian Champions League despite finishing 4th even though we have only 3 qualifications spots in the league for the top 3.

So considering we came 4th...we shouldn't have qualified? Unless it's a little bug and the game thinks I have? I guess we'll see when the new season ticks over.

 

 

We are losing 3 of our 5 foreign players due to me not wanting to keep them and to renew their contracts, so it's gonna be fun trying to recruit 3 new superstar foreign players to really make us better!

Until next time.

 

 

 

[TheNayr]

So I have gone out and added 6 new players and every single one of them is here to improve the back half of the pitch. Let's not waste anytime and get into how the squad looks into going into the new season where we MIGHT be playing Champions League football!

Starting off with our goalkeeper and we have a new number 1,

Jonathan Dev has been in and around the national team setup for quite a few years and has been a deputy to Ayush CK whilst starting many games in the league over the years. Got him for £35k from Jamshedpur.

The worst part is he's 5'10 (Which I HATE for a GK) but his mentals and technicals are good enough to look past the 5'10...we'll see how well he does this year to see if I wish to keep him as our guy between the sticks beyond this season.

Now then, our defensive players and our biggest unit. It was our worst performing part last year, so a few new names were needed, located and got in.

Probably the 'Worst' of our new signings is Luciano Gonzalez.

A new LB was a priority so I went out and got this guy for £35k from Huachipato in Chile. He's not great, but his physicals are good for this level.

I needed a better RB as well, so I went out and got 2. I couldn't say no to either of them. Starting with David Rana on a free from Goa. 

Then £185k from Mumbai is Prem Paul.

Okay, I'll be honest haha. David Rana I approached to sign on a pre-contract and kind of forgot about him before agreeing to the Prem Paul deal. Too late now, they're both here. Both can play along the right side which is good because I did need another body for AMR position. Here they are compared.

I think it's clear to see that Prem Paul is the better player and he'll be starting at RB.

Subhash Mallick has come over from Chennai for £33k as we lost a DM who had no desire to sign a new contract so he's filling a hole that was opened.

He's not as good as the guy he's replacing. But he's not horrendous. 18 aggression, 17 bravery is wonderful for a ball winning midfielder!

Finally, the best new signing this Summer and according to my assman, he comes in as the best player at the club. £80k from Guwahati is Dominique Bamba.

He's got great size at 6'4 in a nation where's a lot of smaller guys. Very nice mentals with some good physicals. I'm surprised we were allowed to get him/get him that cheap. He's gonna be a very important player for us.

Then no new additions but a couple of losses for our attacking unit.

Steadying our backline a lot has risen expections. The board and fans both want us to make the playoffs at a minimum. Considering we lost in the final last year, playoffs is where we need to be and the media agree.

The fans may expect getting to the playoffs this year, however they haven't backed us with their money/season ticket sales as we've sold a whole 1 more than we did last year haha! 

I was able to increase our youth coaching level, but not the recruitment as of yet!

Leaves us looking like this.

I'd love to make our training facilities better but just don't have the money yet. Speaking of money.

We do lose money every month but we're still in the black, increasing both facilities would put us in the red, I won't ask for upgrades just yet!

 

Finally, we had some action with India and played the competition I HATE. The South Asian Football Federation Championship. 

We have won the last 8 editions. I wish we could skip/opt out of this tournament. 

 

Until next time.

[TheNayr]

We're back a little earlier than I normally do for the first one of the season, but we've got India duty and I can't really ignore that now can I?!

The Duran Cup, just a bunch of glorified friendlies. You don't win money or get anything for winning, but as it's the season opener, I do go pretty full strength. Winning a trophy is better than not winning a trophy right? The board wanted us to just be competitive. Obviously they were very happy that we got to the semis where unfortunately our journey ended. However, moving onto what DOES matter, the league.

A beautiful unbeaten start and nearly perfect start. Though, we have yet to play any of the big 3 in Goa, Bengaluru and Jamshedpur. However, you can only beat what is put in front of you! We have played very well though in every game, we even deserved to win the game we drew tbh. Playing really good and long may it continue. It leaves the table looking like this.

Whilst the main aim for the board and the fans is just to finish in the Champions Playoffs, I want continental football next year! Despite what it said in my season review for last year where it claimed we had qualified for Champions League football, we do not. So, it's just the  league to focus on 100% this year!

I also made two more new signings after the previous update. I needed more cover at DM, I had underestimated how poor we were there and I needed a natural AMR backup instead of having to rely on a couple of RBs who could play AMR at a push haha!

I know that £150k from Hyderabad on a backup might be insane, but he has been important so far, making 4 sub appearances in 6 games for the league. This be Salim Singh.

I know he isn't much at all except good physicals, but coming on late against tired legs could be great! This guy though...yeah....he's not good.

On a free, his last team being Bengaluru is Amit Jadhav.

Backup/depth at DM and that is all, no more questions about him.

We continue to lose money every month but not at a drastic rate. Around £120k a month. Champions League football would really help that out!

 

Not much else for Odisha news right now, but we do have news for India. Our World Cup qualification starts soon and our Second Round group has been drawn. The FA expect us to reach the fourth round minimum and so do I. I expect to win every game in this first group stage though.

Kuwait 109th Philippines 132nd and Sri Lanka 186th should not provide much competition at all. Winning every game is the goal, going undefeated at least is expected.

 

Until next time.

 

 

[TheNayr]

I left off the last update with the draw for our World Cup qualifying and we have played the opening two games. 

Two games, two wins. However. The scoreline doesn't reflect the game against Philippines.

I was very annoyed with a 3-2 win. However, we got the win, that's the main thing.

We were already qualified for the next round in my head as soon as the draw was made. We're nearly there anyway!

We had started the season undefeated through 9 games which was very great! Were we able to keep that the awesome start?!

Nope, IMMEDIATLY lost the undefeated start haha! It was against Goa though so that's understandable. The rest of the time has produced some good performances! The 3 draws to finish December we were very unlucky to not have 3 wins instead. 

Dominated Kolkata.

They scored late.

Jamshedpur also scored late.

And for the third game in a row, we conceded late.

Unfortunate but that is just a part of football. Those 6 points dropped would've come in handy though!

We are top, but only by 1 goal. The 6 points would have us very clear! However, that doesn't matter. Top 3 is all that matters for continental football next year. 

The youth intake preview looked to be a little promising!

 

No A grades anywhere, but it's gonna be 'Excellent' apparently. We'll see!

We had a big sale in the January window.

Lalliansanga Colaco who I purchased for £100k, had a bidding war over him which ended up to £600k and I clearly could not say no to that!

He is NOT worth £600k but Kerala have over £53m in their account so they can afford it! Unlike us.

 

Until next time.

 

[TheNayr]

We played two more games in our World Cup qualification efforts. 

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you, we beat Sri Lanka 11-0 haha, it was beautiful. With those two wins have secured passage to the next round with 2 games to spare.

Enough about India though as it was obvious we were going to get through with no sweat being broken. Onto Odisha.

 

Note to self, don't do an update before a Goa game because they will beat us straight after!

That wraps up the end of the regular season, was that enough to secure continental football for next season? Would that be Champions League football or Confederation Cup football? Top 2 for Champions League, 3rd for Confed....

Ah, it won't be Champions League for us. We had to beat Kolkata away on the final day to jump above them to second but alas we could not. We start against Kerala in the playoffs.

 

 

 

 

 

And a bitter end to the season as we crash out in the first round of the playoffs, so we're not challenging for the title this year!

 

 

On a brighter note...

 

 

 

 

 

Youth intake, what a beautiful day!

Yeah, I'd say it was pretty excellent too! So the 'Good Talents' are good, but not gonna be amazing so I won't show you them. Goutam Das and Melroy Banerjee fall into the same category as not really worth showing them so I'll avoid them.

Sonam Vaz has an alright starting point for a Shadow Striker at AMC. He'll never blossom into a special player but he looks alright. Will regularly feature in a lower team's starting 11 in the future no doubt in the top league.

 

A 20 aggression Ball Winning Midfielder at DM? Yes please. Nikhil Singh is that guy. He's very much a mentals guy than anything else, but that will help him grow.

 

Mustafa Vaz would be a good prospect if it wasn't for the other guy who I'm yet to show. Again mentals are more his thing, but he has the potential to be solid.

 

Moving onto our main attractions from this intake.

Something this country didn't need more of when it comes to strikers? A Pressing Forward. We have an abundance of them! That is what Surjit Pandey is, moreover, he's a guy with only 4 determination which ruins everything good about him. Let's hope that doesn't hinder his process too much! At least he's described as 'Enthusiastic'.

The main guy from this draft though is Mohan Singh who looks to be a special player. Determination is only 11 which isn't great, but double figures at least, Great starting physicals which could increase a lot to make him a monster. As soon as I can get him in the starting 11 I will. 

 

 

Until next time.

 

 

[TheNayr]

More glorified friendlies at the end of the season in the Super Cup where we lost in the final last year. There's no prize money or anything for winning but it's still a chance of silverware and as it's not important I can just come out with it. We lost yet again in the final haha!

Ah, you win some, you lose some! The game was pretty poor tbh. The match report states we were able to create more clear cut chances, that's just pure lies!

Squad by average rating.

We had a good year with some good performances, which is shown by having 8 players who averaged over a 7.00 across the season. We really didn't have too many bad games or bad performances from the players. Our best player being Mohammed Bhattacharjee.

Squad by goals.

The goals were spread around this season a fair bit and we finished second higheset scorers in the league. We did have a standout who had double the second place scorer. Our captain Noah Fernandes.

End of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

And we end the season in the red.

 

We wrapped up our World Cup qualifying second round coverage.

 

All wins which was expected. Shame we conceded the 2 goals, maybe next time we can try and get through this round without conceding a single goal!

The next round is a marked step up though...

Top 2 go through and 3rd/4th go into the fourth round playoffs. 

 

Until next time.

[TheNayr]

The chairman was ever so nice and decided to help us out as we were in the red.

So I decided to use that money for something good instead of just letting it dwindle down for the rest of the season slowly.

As well them increases...we have.

So that's a pretty good start I'd say. A lot of work done to the infrastructure of this club. What isn't a good start to the season is this.

 

Despite coming third last year in the league, we HAVE NOT qualified for continental football. We should be playing in the Confederation Cup and yet we are not. There's the two Confed Cup groups and we should be playing in one of them. 

So here we have 3 places, two in the Champs League and 1 in the Confed Cup.

Goa who topped the league and became Champions least year are in the Champions League groups.

Kolkata lost in the Champions League Playoff round.

And they dropped into the Confed Cup which I showed you up there. But that leaves one place, which should've been ours as we finished third in the league last year. So we've just been screwed out of playing continental football this year which sucks and has annoyed me quite a bit. I was relying on that money to help fund more facility upgrades....****.

Time to get over that, nothing I can do about it. We have 5 transfers to go through this Summer window.

No new names at GK. Jonathan Dev will still be our #1 but I can see this being his final year as yet, I can do so much better but it'll have to be a foreign guy. The talent in this country at GK is shocking tbh.

Only one new name for our defensive unit and he's someone we sold a couple of years ago. He's not that particularly good, but just cover and he's Indian so helps with the numbers.

Lalliansanga Colaco returns, he might not even make the bench haha, but if there's a bit of an injury crisis, he'll be there to help. On loan from Kerala.

 

Three new signings in the midfield and all of them will be starters which is good, they've come in to strengthen that unit.

Despite my assman only rating him at 3 stars, he does come in as the best DM at the club, at least in my opinion. On a free from Wanderers in Uruguay is Mauricio Tabeira.

A two year deal for a player during his peak, I'm happy to have him in. 16 passing (Ignore his low vision) means he'll be pinging balls all over the place at DM. Many assists coming his way this year, I can see it already.

Now this guy I can't believe I got on a free from Goa. A foreign team were approaching to sign him and I thought I'd try my luck, he agreed. 

Harshad Pradhan is young, very good, room to grow and is already an important player for India. The fact we were able to get him I'm very happy with. He'll be playing at AMC where I expect him to be a star man for us there.

Now the next guy was brought to my attention by a scout playing on an amateur deal in Jamaica of all places where he had been tearing it up so I decided to take a punt on him.

Hopefully the punt works out, Noel Powell walks in as our best AML and will be starting most games this season.

Our last new signing is in the strikers as we were a little short up front and much like our other loan signing, he isn't good at all. Just needed the numbers.

Alex Singh is on loan from Bengaluru.

Really good mentals and some good physicals, but he won't see much time at all.

 

Until next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheNayr]

For the first time in Odisha's history, they have won the Durand Cup!

I should've been paying more attention to the rules! I always thought you got no money from it, the rules must've changed!

Always nice to win a competition, especially this one. A perfect launch pad for a successful season! Especially as we remained undefeated with a perfect record in the group stage.

 

Has it been a good start to the season as I hoped?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You bet your sweet ass it has! We have played well and deserved all those wins. Plenty of goals and 3 straight wins away, nearly a perfect start to the season! Which obviously leaves us looking pretty in the standings.

Considering we got screwed out of continental football despite finishing in the correct places...a top 2 finish HAS to be the priority. I fully expect us to do that, or at least run it close.

I doing the first update a little sooner than I usually would for one reason, international duty calls. We have already played 4 games in in the group and well, I knew it was going to be a little harder. 

Starting with a very disappointing loss at home to Iraq despite being in charge of the game. Starting off in the worst possible way.

So we were already on the backfoot. Did we continue to struggle in the next three games?

 

 

 

 

 

Ah of course we didn't! Things were certainly looking better now.

We now have two home games against Jordan and Iran. I'll take 4 points if offered to me now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They pushed us hard, but clearly we were the better team in an entertaining game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew it would be a tough, close game and that's exactly what it was. A shame. We deserved a draw 100% so to get nothing from the game is a bit annoying.

A win here would've been huge! We're halfway through and things are looking good so far. It's almost CERTAIN that we're at least through to the playoffs if we don't make it through this group stage at least so that's something.

 

Until next time.

 

[wildecooke]

Great adventure, I love these stories.

[BML]

I was going to comment on how your most recent star graduates are 5'3 and 5'4 respectively, but then remembered where you were managing and how it's probably not that much of an issue!

RE: The prize money for the cup, I'm assuming the rep increased to a level that prize money was introduced. You had better start taking it more seriously!

Edited Thursday at 10:44 by BML

[TheNayr]

18 hours ago, wildecooke said:

Great adventure, I love these stories.

Thank you, it's definitely been a fun and very rewarding adventure to partake in!

6 hours ago, BML said:

I was going to comment on how your most recent star graduates are 5'3 and 5'4 respectively, but then remembered where you were managing and how it's probably not that much of an issue!

RE: The prize money for the cup, I'm assuming the rep increased to a level that prize money was introduced. You had better start taking it more seriously!

Yeah, getting small players in is just common in this save. Any defender that is 5'11+ is wonderful haha! 

 

 

We started the season unbeaten through 5 games, have we been able to keep it up and go on a brilliant run? Let's see!

 

 

 

 

We couldn't remain unbeaten but I am still VERY happy with how the season has gone. Look at all that green! Isn't it just beautiful?! Our boys have played wonderfully and we have been dominant in a lot of the games. Even the two losses we were actually the better team in both! There are no complaints from me though! With no shock or surprise we are doing very well when it comes to the table!

We have 8 games left to play, 1st place is very much ours to throw away at this point! 

Youth intake preview has been and gone.

 

There doesn't seem to be too much to be thrilled about. I'm still dying for a superstar GK to come through and I'm beginning to think there never will be one! I would love to be proved wrong though!

Finances continue to get worse, they wouldn't have been anywhere near this bad had we got our Confed Cup place like we should have!!!!! Still very salty about that haha!

However, as we have an Underwriter as our chairman, he should cover the losses and put us back in the black at the end of the season so I'm really not worrying there!

 

Until next time.

[TheNayr]

Kicking straight off with the intake....and it wasn't good haha! Rated as 'Average' and that sums it up. No elite talents. 4 top ones and 3 of them are bloody AMR/MRs haha. Never a good sign!

 

Don't think that the DC could be good. I've signed him but he's only 5'9. Meh. The GK at the bottom of the picture is alright but nothing to be excited about at all. Nothing good here really. 

 

So that brings us to the next important thing, did we bottle first place in the table by being horrendous chokers?

 

 

We did not! We WILL be playing Champions League football next year. After three seasons we shall be playing continental football with Odisha!

We saw out the final 8 games undefeated with some very good performances. Now though, we need to move on and try to be crowned champions of India. First up will be Jamshedpur in the semis and we'll start off at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very solid first leg where we were in control for all of it, they never had a highlight. Halfway through to the final!

 

 

He originally said no, but after a quick meeting...

Meaning both our youth coaching and youth recruitment are at the max level!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well we're not going to be crowned champions of India this year. A really disappointing second leg after such a good first leg. Useless bastards.

 

Moving onto national team duty now.

Two more games, both away. First up to Iraq.

 

 

 

 

 

Despite them  having more of the ball, we we played so much better than them. Coming out of there with a victory was VITAL to us qualifying for the World Cup at the first attempt. A massive, massive three points away. The next game was away in Syria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that was a very frustrating game. They got an earlyish goal and that was all that was needed. However, you can see under the stats the momentum bar and for most of the game we were in charge. Unfortunately we were very poor in the final third which costed us. 

A loss to Syria means they jump above us in the table.

 

The good news is, in our final two games we play Jordan and Bahrain which should be at least 4 points and that might be enough to book our tickets to Germany.

 

For the first time in this save, we have an Indian who made the top 50 wonderkid list.

He's coming along really nicely. I can't see any reason as to why Pratik Jadhav won't be our RB for the next 10+ years.

 

Until next time.

 

[TheNayr]

We have made it back to the Hero Super Cup final for a third year in a row and we've been unsuccessful the past two times. Can we break the duck and win it, winning both of the cup competitions here this season?!

We've played well and been given a game against Bengaluru who beat us in the final two years ago. Time for some revenge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there we have it! We break the curse, we win two cup competitions this year which is awesome! We probably should've done the treble by winning the league as we've been the best team in India this year. Ah well, two out of three isn't the worst!

 

Squad by goals:

What an amazing free signing Harshad Pradhan was. Scoring 24 goals this season from AMC being our top scorer. He has been so, so brilliant for us! He also popped up with 4 assists. Incredible season.

Special notice to our AML the young Jamaican Noel Powell who also chipped in with 14 goals and 9 assists from the wing, another inspired free agent signing by me if I do say so!

Squad by average rating:

Just an absolutely top notch season, we played elite level of football all season and our players consistently played brilliantly. 

End of season review:

Our final finances of the season. Poor, but I expect our chairman to put us back in the black very soon.

 

Now, we've played the last two World Cup qualifying matches.

Very, very annoyed with this game. Yes, we won. But ONLY 1-0 despite utter domination is a poor performance. 31 shots, 7 on target. Over a 3 xG and only 1-0, meh. It left the table looking like this.

Iran beat Syria to make the final match day very tense with any of the top 4 being able to go through automatically through to the World Cup. We were now away to Jordan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A draw?! Was that enough to finish in the top 2?! We played poorly mixed with Jordan playing well and keeping us at bay. Very annoying that their goal was an OG by our GK and they only had 1 shot on target all game. This should've been 3 points. Was the draw enough? Are we through?

 

 

 

 

 

No. We threw it away. Into the fourth round.

Winner goes to the World Cup. Second goes into a playoff against teams from South America, Africa and Oceania. Coming first in our group is a must. We play each other once. 

 

 

Until next time.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheNayr]

As guessed, the chairman pumped £3m into the club to turn our finances from bad to alright and put us around £1.3m.

 

 

 

So we're not exactly wasting the money! The benefits will help both Odisha and India!

 

Talking about the national team. 

 

We have just won the 9th SAFF Championship in a row. We've also just had another retirement and it's a big blow, Jason Singh our best CM.

A big blow as he was very important to us in the middle of the field. I tried to talk him out of it and he instantly declined it, so he is done with India as he think it'll help prolong his football career. Probably right, but screw you anyway buddy! Could've at least helped us qualify for the World Cup before going!!!

 

The World Cup qualifying fourth round is upon us. Are we going to the World Cup or will it be another 4 years to wait?! First up is Japan. They have just beaten Iraq in the first game, so beating them here is vital. A loss will see Japan through to the World Cup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that is a brilliant result! Matching their opening win is lovely. The beginning of the match they looked to be better than us, and when they scored I thought this was the start of them having a solid win over us. Luckily, that wasn't the case and this result leaves us needing just a draw, away to Iraq to secure passage through to the sacred lands yet again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND WE ARE GOING BACK TO THE WORLD CUP BABYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Although after 16 minutes, it didn't seem like that was going to happen!

3-0 down in 16 minutes, my head was in my hands. At this stage we were not going through, we were also not going to the playoffs due to goal difference. Luckily though, our stay boy came through with 2 stupidly important goals and fired us to the top of this little group and onwards to the World Cup next Summer!

 

 

 

Until next time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheNayr]

I wasn't expecting that last update to be so India heavy, which leads us onto what's been happening here at Odisha! How are we looking squad wise?

Jonathan Dev is still our number 1. I decided to give him another year as he is still worth having as our GK though this COULD be his final year!

We had 7 new signings over this window and 5 of them are defenders haha! We let a lot of them go and obviously they needed replacing!

First 'New' guy is someone who we sold for £600k after buying him for £100k, then last year we had him on loan. I signed him on a free, Lalliansanga Colaco.

Depth and that is all, if he starts any games we'll be in trouble!

Much like Colaco this new guy, Sultan Ibrahim who we purchased for £34.5k is nothing more than a homegrown depth piece that will be a benchwarmer/watching the games at home!

Some good mentals on the lad, if there's an crisis, he could do an alright job for a couple of matches.

Next up, a new starting CB on a free from Great Olympics in Ghana and potentially the new tallest man in India is Augustine Diallo!

We needed good height at the back and this lad 100% brings that. Good technicals paired with some solid/good mentals. He will make a very good impact here.

Another new CB, this guy will be CB 3 and will see a lot of time from the bench and starting when needed. £47k from Mumbai is Akashdeep Singh. He started the game in Australia with their nationality and Indian second nationality. He recently played a few games for us at the SAFF Championships. 

Solid without being remarkable. But he's 6'ft with some good physicals, he will be an important member of this squad. Natural at DM which makes things easier.

It took me a while, but it quickly dawned me on that I only had 1 player capable of playing LB so I had to quickly change that with 2 signings. The first guy, isn't that great. But we didn't have an Asian player in the squad. With the Asian player, you can have an additional foreign player in the playing 11 instead of the standard 3 if they aren't Asian. 

He was just chilling as a free agent. Mitchell Kealy.

He signed a contract as an emergency backup but when needed, he'll be used and be semi useful.

I signed this next guy after the Aussie, had I signed him beforehand, I would've found another Asian player to use, oh well. For £93k from Kerala is Farukh Barreto. He's the actual LB backup.

He can play all long the left hand side so he'll see a good amount of games I can imagine.

I've just bunched the rest of the squad together as there's only 1 new signing for the rest of the team and that's the guy you see in blue, from Orlando Pirates in South Africa for £3k a month it's Mbongeni Masango.

He looks really bloody good doesn't he? I think he might have an outstanding year for us! And if he doesn't, well, there's a guy joining on a free from Robinhood in The Netherlands in Janurary. He's a Surinamese international, Kevin Alberg.

He has all the tools to be a good DLP and I'm looking forward too having him join us. 

Talking about pre-contract agreements....I have found someone. My scouts have found someone I went to sign him IMMEDIATLY. You'll see why. He will join next Summer when he's 18, from Mangasport in Gabon is Jacques Assoumou.

Look at him, just look at him. The beauty of it? I've trapped him to a 3 year plus 3 year optional extension by the club. This kid could be OUTSTANDING. What an amazing looking prospect. When I leave Odisha which might be in 2 years time, he'll be there for ages or they sell him for a massive fee. I CANNOT wait to use this guy, just gotta wait a year!

These new signings paired with our team from last year with how well we played have the media see us storming to the title.

I am inclined to agree with them.

 

We have our Champions League group draw.

Al-Sadd are from Qatar. Buxoro are Uzbekistani and Persepolis are from Iran. They actually knocked out Kolkata in the playoffs and because they lost in the playoffs like last year, they've gone down to the Confed Cup and stopped Goa from competing in the Confed Cup like they did to us last year. It was also last year that Kolkata were rated to finish 10th by the media. They've overperformed both years and stopped better teams like Goa, us, Bengaluru and Jamshedpur from competing on the continent. I got off on a tangent there, I have no idea how we'll do in this group. We do have our first match now though, away to Al-Sadd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I changed to my favoured away tactic of a wing play 5-2-3 system and it worked very well! Ignore the possession, that's overrated when you're having 17 shots and 6 on target when we're away!

They have a fair few greyed out players but check out their wages to ours haha!

 

We won't be back to back Duran Cup winners as we lost in the semis due to a heavily rotated team due to a close Champions League match.

I will show the next Champs League game and that will be the end of this update!

 

 

 

 

Well this game was incredibly frustrating. I guess losing a man in the 55th minute didn't help. I would've even more annoyed had we not won with 11 men on the field.

 

Until next time.

 

[TheNayr]

We'll kick things off with the youth intake preview, how are we looking?

Hmm, an excellent rating but no 'B' grades for any positions so that's not too great. I might end up being surprised though, so we'll have to see!

 

The Champions League journey has been very fun. It's our first continental football in all the time we've been here at Odisha, were able to show Indian football isn't a pushover?!

Yes we were! Undefeated throughout the group stage! Fantastic showing by us!

We even finished top of our group, wonderful performances by our players! Despite not happening for another 2 months, the next round has been drawn.

Al-Ain of the U.A.E and I am quietly confident about the tie if I'm honest! We shall we when the time comes!

A really good by product of playing in the Champions League is the money aspect. Not winning though. Winning a game only rewards you with £42k and drawing £8k. The real money is within the ticket sales!

We have nearly surpassed all of last season's ticket sales with about 7 months of football left to play. The ticket sales for the Champions League games have really helped us keep above the red so far. Well, we did dip briefly into it.

I don't think the Confed Cup would bring in the same amount of money, but this alone shows how important it can be. Finishing in the top 2 places of the league table is so very vital!

 

 

Has the league been treating us the same way though?

 

It really has. Ignore the Bengal result, I rotated the whole team because I wanted the team fresh for the Mumbai and Persepolis games. I thought the second team would maybe get a draw at home, but it wasn't to be. Oh well! So obviously the table is looking good with all them greens!

Despite our good start, Goa who were crowned Champions after winning the playoffs last year are flying even higher than us having gone unbeaten in their 10 games. Having no continental football (Thanks Kolkata!) is allowing them to keep a fresh team only focusing on the league. They're going to be tough this year!

 

Something very important is up next though, we have the World Cup draw! Last time we drew the best team in the world Brazil and Ireland. Hopefully we can get someone a tiny bit easier!

Here's how it's all looking after the first two rounds of the draw. The groups in yellow are groups that I can't be drawn into as there's already an Asian team in it.

There's a couple of Groups I wish to avoid. N with Argentina and Croatia looks like a nightmare and clearly the draw we don't want. Ideally I don't want to play Brazil again. Group P with France and Uruguay would be horrendous also. Group J, Mexico and Ireland could be alright. I wouldn't mind B with Turkey and Jamaica. I wouldn't be mad going with Norway or Colombia either. Well, time to see.

Obviously we got the worst possible draw because the game hates me and doesn't want me to make any progress despite being many other groups that we could've been placed into.

Until next time.