DaneBramage Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 (edited) April 2031 - NK Travnik First League We had a third game in a row against a struggling side, and we made it three wins in a row. That was the end of the good news though. The problem is conceding late goals. We were winning against Sloga Uskolje, then conceded in the 82nd and 91st minutes. It was even later against Zvijezda Gradacac, throwing away a 2-0 by conceding in the 87th and 93rd minutes. At least Andrey Xaybullayev is having a good time. Somehow, we're still in the mix. Despite our poor form we haven't dropped away as most of the other contenders have been struggling for results too. That's left the door open for TOSK to storm their way up to the top. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 16 by DaneBramage 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttley84 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Your challenge reminded me of this: https://www.theguardian.com/football/these-football-times/2017/jun/08/vitor-oliveira-manager-won-promotion-seasons-portugal-portimonense 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 19 hours ago, Muttley84 said: Your challenge reminded me of this: https://www.theguardian.com/football/these-football-times/2017/jun/08/vitor-oliveira-manager-won-promotion-seasons-portugal-portimonense That's a great article, thanks. I did try searching for most promotions, but most I could find was Neil Warnock being promoted seven times. According to his Wiki this fella added another promotion a couple of years after that article to make it 11 in total. And all from the same division too, incredible. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 June 2031 - NK Travnik First League Two big wins to start May saw us jump back up into 2nd place, equal on points with TOSK. But then the curse of the late goals came back to strike us again, throwing away a point in the 94th minute against Mladost (DK). TOSK could only draw so we stayed a point behind them, but we couldn't keep up. A loss to Brastvo (G) saw us drop away, and a big win on the final day was just a consolation. The back-to-back losses hit us hard. Zvijezda Gradacac and Rudar (Ka) both hit form in the final run-in and overtook us, meaning we could only finish 4th. Incidentally, TOSK were the side that didn't offer me an interview. Looks like they made the right decision. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 16 Author Share Posted February 16 June 2031 - NK Travnik Squad Stats Such an old squad. And the two best performing players (by average rating) will be leaving when their loan deals end. The recruitment team will need to do some magic over the summer. -------------------------------------------------------------- History This didn't go to plan. We only won six games out of 13, and dropped a spot down the table. And all six of our wins came against sides that finished in the bottom half of the table. Anyone half decent we struggled against. At each job so far I've managed a promotion within two years. I don't see that being the case here. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Languages are easy. In just seven months here I've added Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, and Croatian at a good level to my repertoire. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 September 2031 - NK Travnik Transfer Business Nine players left over the summer, along with a couple of loanees returning to their parent clubs. Only four came in, and I had to boost our numbers by promoting a few players from the Under-19 squad. Some senior members of the team weren't happy with this, and I had to have couple of meetings to pacify them. The support for me isn't very high currently, and we lost all but two of our pre-season friendlies. -------------------------------------------------------------- First League Nonetheless, we've smashed the start of the season. 15 goals from an xG of roughly 6. Obviously that's not sustainable, but it's an incredible way to begin. Especially for Dragan Markovic who managed a three minute hat-trick on his debut. September was a busy month with a couple of midweek fixtures, so the second-string were drafted in for the Wednesday night games. The 4-4 draw with Radnik (H) was a dramatic one, the second-string were 4-0 down at half-time, then the starting strikers came on and miraculously rescued a point in the final 15 minutes. That was part of a rocky few games, but we ended the month strong with three consecutive wins and clean sheets. My starting strikers Andrey Xaybullayev and Eldar Muminovic already have 17 goals between them. We've got the early lead, but there are several clubs just behind us, including Gorazde, the only team to have beat us so far. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 November 2031 - NK Travnik First League October was a very busy month, but at least we went out of the cup at the first time of asking. The midweek team won all three of their league matches, the weekend team won three and lost one. That one loss was an aberration of a game, both sides were terrible defensively, with us narrowly worse. The nine goals came from a combined xG of just 2.67. Four straight wins, lovely stuff. Andrey Xaybullayev is up to 18 goals for the season, averaging a strike every 75 minutes. Spoiler We're past the halfway stage now and we have a lead of seven points, and a massive goal difference. It's looking good for another promotion. Four month break now for winter. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 April 2032 - NK Travnik Transfer Business An old centre-back from our subs bench was sold for a minimal fee to a Finnish club, and three young players came in on loan (two centre-backs and a left-winger). -------------------------------------------------------------- First League Five wins from eight. A good record and haul of points, but we're not playing anywhere near as well as we were before Christmas, and we're scoring considerably fewer. The wins have also been pretty tight, each coming with only a one goal margin of victory. Two heavy away losses during April was not part of the plan, especially to the two sides directly below us in the table. We've extended our lead to eight points with five games remaining. It should be in the bag, but we can't afford to keep losing games. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 May 2032 - NK Travnik First League When we dropped points to Mladost (DK) the gap was reduced to six points, which by itself was still a comfortable margin. But in second place Zvijezda Gradacac were unstoppable, and they were generally playing earlier than us, so the lead would temporarily go down to just three points. We kept our heads though, and picked up three consecutive wins to secure the title and promotion with a game to spare. We lost on the final day to end the season on a low, but it didn't matter. Look at the form of the nearest two challengers. It's good that we'd built up enough points early on, as three losses in the final eight games left things a little tighter than it should have been. Had the season been just a couple of games longer we may well have missed out. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 (edited) May 2032 - NK Travnik Squad Stats Just realised I have this ordered by games rather than position. That's annoying. Eldar Muminovic ended the season with the highest average rating, but with 10 goals more I'd say it was Andrey Xaybullayev that carried us through this year. -------------------------------------------------------------- History I didn't expect a promotion this season, this one came as a surprise. I know the created leagues are easier than the out-of-the-box competitions, but even so I thought that it would be more of a challenge. Kept up my record of never needing more than two seasons to gain a promotion. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages My Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, and Croatian have all improved from good to fluent. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Job's done here, time to move on. I think this was the first time the board didn't accept my resignation immediately, they invited me to a meeting to try and convince me to stay instead. I now have four African promotions and two European promotions, it's time to focus on South America, Asia, and Oceania. After that, then I'll move on to the OOTB nations. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 22 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 July 2032 Job Search While I was unemployed I received a couple of offers from Bosnian sides in the division I'd just left. I believe these were the first offers I'd been sent unprompted, without having applied myself, but I had no wish to go back there at this time. I instead had my eye on another role, one in Paraguay. After a poor run of form, Atyra had slumped to 10th in the second tier and sacked their manager. While waiting for that to pan out, over in Uzbekistan Andijon's manager was poached by a side in the Superleague. Thus this opened up a promising opportunity at the top of the table, a prime candidate for a quick promotion. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 22 Author Share Posted February 22 July 2032 Job Search I'm off to Paraguay then. I'm glad Atyra offered me a job before Andijon did, taking over a team already top of their league would have felt a little cheap, even for the purposes of this project. Since I applied for the role Atyra have fallen one place, to 11th. The top two get promoted automatically, but we're not in that conversation this year. Three teams get relegated, but because this is South America it's not that simple. It's based on average ratings over the past three seasons (currently only two as that's when this league was activated), and we're probably safe for now assuming we don't fall apart. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 (edited) October 2032 - Atyra Division Intermedia We started well with a win in my first game in charge, Jesus Amarilla instantly impressing with a hat-trick. You'd think that would make him my favourite player, but that wasn't the case as my AssMan played a blinder at the end of the transfer window. An 18 year old striker called Miguel Angel Alfonzo was brought in on loan, and he is by far the best quality player I've had at my disposal so far in this career. I'd be happy with him as a young player at a better club in any save. Perfectionist too. Spoiler He made an immediate impression, and we went on a seven game winning streak with him scoring 10 times. After scoring against Fernando de la Mora though he got sent-off, ruling himself out of our next game. And we lost that one heavily. We'd just about snuck into an outside shot at promotion, but that loss ended any slim hope. Miguel Angel Alfonzo redeemed himself with a hat-trick on his return, and we picked up 10 points from our final four games of the league season. We ended the year with a couple of cup ties, and although cups are stupid and irrelevant, it was fun watching Miguel Angel Alfonzo smash a four goal haul past a side in the Primera Division. We made good progress up the league, but started from too far back to really challenge. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 23 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 October 2032 - Atyra Squad Stats I haven't had much time with these players, but just look at Miguel Angel Alfonzo. 18 goals in 13 games, pretty much every goal every hour. And an 8.01 average rating, incredible. I very much hope we can bring him back next year. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Seven clubs in 11 years, that's some good country-hopping. I reckon we'll be in a good place for success next season. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Despite having never heard of it before, I've learnt Guarani to a basic level. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 25 Author Share Posted February 25 June 2033 - Atyra Transfer Business Eight of our squad retired over the winter, and we also sold striker Roque Florencianez. We brought in four teenagers, made up of two loanees, and two Brazilians on permanent deals. This has left us a bit short of numbers up front, the back-up wingers and strikers aren't really up to scratch. -------------------------------------------------------------- Division Intermedia You can't really do much better than a 6-0 win to start the season, and 10 points from a possible 12 made it a very good fortnight. We had nine games in April though, so this wasn't sustainable. We had to switch to having two separate teams for the weekend and midweek fixtures. And the attacking quality in the second-string line-up just wasn't there. The weekend unit continued winning, but the rotation XI lost three in a row, the only goal in this time coming from a first-team substitute. Luckily, the fixture congestion slowed down in May. We could focus on just picking the strongest squad available again, and put together a five game unbeaten run. Jesus Amarilla has been bang on form, scoring 15 times in 15 games. Spoiler Top of the table at the halfway stage. We have a six point lead over 3rd place, but if we do slip up there are plenty of teams ready to pounce. We now have a three week break, then the summer transfer window will be opening. At present there are two pre-arranged signings happening, my recruitment team again looking at cheap, young Brazilians. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 August 2033 - Atyra Transfer Business My recruitment team brought in two Brazilians on free transfers, and four Paraguayans on loan. -------------------------------------------------------------- Division Intermedia Five wins out of ten in the league. Still pretty good, but not up to the standard that we were before. Whether it's all the incomings during June causing the team to lose some cohesiveness, or our best two players Juazinho and Jesus Amarilla missing games with injuries, there were games where we just weren't at the races, and we lost three away matches in a row. Luckily it's just been a few knocks, rather than anything substantial keeping them out for a longer period, but it is worrying that missing just one or two players can cause us to drop off so much. We're still top, but the gap to third place has been reduced. There's five games left this season, so we should have done enough to clinch another promotion, bar a disastrous run-in. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 September 2033 - Atyra Division Intermedia After that first loss I was a bit worried that the FM Gods were going to spite me, but we rebounded with three straight wins to wrap up promotion with a game to spare. 32 points in the first half of the season, 29 in the second. The drop-off wasn't as severe as I'd thought, just one fewer win. San Lorenzo ended strong but could only pull back one point on us. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 26 Author Share Posted February 26 (edited) September 2033 - Atyra Squad Stats I'm pleased with four players getting into double-figures, our left-winger and two strikers were generally deadly throughout the season. Not that I'm going to, but I think this would have been a fun squad to carry on with and give a go at a higher level. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Lucky number seven, again completed within two seasons. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Once more into the unknown. With South America ticked off I'm planning now to move to Asia or Oceania. And there's no wasting time, I've already thrown my name into the hat for a job in Tajikistan. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 26 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 November 2033 Job Search Tajikistan also run a summer league, so when I applied for the job it was near the end of the season with four games remaining. A few weeks later I got the Dushanbe-83 role, with just two games remaining. And it is tight at the bottom. Our final two games are against Fayzkand (2nd) and Mohir (11th). Beating Mohir will be the vital one, get that wrong and we could well be relegated, which would make for a very short spell here. We've scored just 14 goals all season, and our top scorer has two. This may have been a silly move. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 (edited) November 2033 - Dushanbe-83 First Division Well that was easy. Don't know what they were doing before to be in such a mess. Ended up in midtable, a long way out of trouble. -------------------------------------------------------------- History I'll put a tenner on us winning the league next year. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited March 1 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 (edited) July 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division 22 hours ago, DaneBramage said: I'll put a tenner on us winning the league next year. The odds for us to win the league were 91-1 on. So that tenner would get me a return of about £10.11. But after six games we're looking good for that 11p profit. After 11 games however, we very much are not. Our form has just imploded with four losses in the last five games. The 5-4 loss to Dushanbe was just embarrassing. We were 3-1 up with then minutes left, then 4-3 up with two minutes left. Just appalling all round to throw that away. Top two get promoted, and we're there at the halfway stage. But if we continue as we have been we'll swiftly be overtaken by the chasing pack. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 27 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 (edited) September 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division There was a month's break after our last game in July, so I put together a couple of friendlies to keep us active, and also hopefully see us play our way back into form. And it worked. Since then we've gone six games unbeaten, scoring 18 times. Shahboz Habibov scored in each of these matches and is now at 16 for the season. We dropped to third after the draw with Shohmansur, but now we're back in the driving seat. Vahdat struggled this period, only picking up six points from six games. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 27 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 October 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division Well this is a bad time to turn rubbish again. The one positive is that the one win against Kuktosh was a 1st v 2nd clash, losing that one would have been disastrous. It could be any two from the top three, I wouldn't like to bet either way at the moment. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 November 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division Well this is a good time to turn competent again. The win against Barkchi confirmed promotion, the win against second placed Vahdat gave us the title, With the amount of goals we scored this should have been more convincing, more than once I thought we were going to bottle it. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 November 2034 - Dushanbe-83 Squad Stats With his 19 goals Shahboz Habibov was the league's top scorer. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Although it looked like it might not happen at times, I added another promotion to my record. Luckily whenever we slumped we managed to turn it around before it ended up as a big problem. -------------------------------------------------------------- Language I've learnt Tajik to a good level. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Here we go again. With Asia ticked off, that now leaves just Oceania. And Tahiti is the only nation with a second playable league eligible (Tuvalu has a second division, but doesn't have promotion between the two). So for now I will be only be looking out for jobs in Tahiti (although that may change if it takes too long and I get bored). -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 July 2035 Job Search After I resigned from Dushanbe-83 I was offered my first international job, taking on the reins of the Tajikistan national team. With no prospect for promotion though, I had to turn it down and focus on finding a role in Tahiti. Looking for a job in Tahiti severely limited my options though. There were 12 teams in Ligue 2, but six of them were B teams for bigger clubs. So in reality there were only six to aim for. AS Excelsior were struggling near the bottom of the table, so I declared my interest in the role and the media immediately made me favourite for the job. But they stuck with their manager, and after the midway league split they performed much better and finished top of the relegation play-off group. This resulted in his job status becoming secure again. In the end, it turned out to be none of the current Ligue 2 clubs that I signed with. I was still unemployed come the end of the season, so I looked at the Ligue 1 sides who were being relegated. AS Punaruu sacked their manager, and I pounced. -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 February 2036 - AS Punaruu Ligue 2 After facing everyone we've managed eight wins, including hitting a couple of teams for six. The only loss came to AS Excelsior, the side I declared interest in but never got a response. Our best player, Alexandre Leonard, has 14 goals so far. Spoiler https://gyazo.com/f03d795ba8eccd72a76f037a723d0af8 We finished top of the first stage by three points. The league is now split into two groups of six. We play everyone else in the top half twice, and the top two get promoted. Points earned so far are wiped, but we get a two point headstart for leading the first stage. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 28 Author Share Posted February 28 April 2036 - AS Punaruu Ligue 2 Four wins and a draw, we've smashed the first half of the second stage. After not scoring at all in the first stage, although he was normally a sub at this time, Matthias Deneux has turned deadly with seven goals in six games. We gained revenge for our only loss so far, turning over AS Excelsior 4-1 at their own place. Things are looking rosy. We hold a five point lead at the top, and an eight point lead over third place. But AS Tefana 2 can't get promoted, so it's actually the nine point lead over fourth place that matters. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 May 2036 - AS Punaruu Ligue 2 Wow. Out of nowhere, we just turned completely rubbish. We dropped more points in the final five league fixtures than we had the previous 16. We forgot how to score goals, and twice shipped three or more. We did manage to win the cup though, but cups are stupid. Mad that we beat AS Tefana's senior side after only drawing with their B team, and AS Central Sport were the victors of Ligue 1. Luckily, we'd done enough in the first five games to stay in the promotion places. AS Mataiea overtook us to claim top spot, but none of the other sides could put a run of form together to capitalise on our collapse. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 (edited) May 2036 - AS Punaruu Squad Stats There's a lot of goals in this squad, but a large glaring weakness in midfield. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Another promotion secured, but we bottled winning the trophy. -------------------------------------------------------------- Hall of Fame The points earned for winning the cup saw me jump into the Tahiti Hall of Fame in 6th place. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Basic French is the 15th language I can now speak. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search It's time for my P45 again. And now I've ticked Oceania off the list, I'm done with created leagues. It's time to move on to the OOTB leagues, which should be more of a challenge. Spoiler RNG has decided the first six nations I'll load up, but it will take a while for all to be active. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited February 29 by DaneBramage 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 June 2037 Job Search I had my longest spell out of management, spending more than a year on the sidelines as the updated gameworld settled with the new leagues in place. Once the 2036/37 season had finished, a lot of jobs came available and I applied for a bunch of them. There were a couple of teams just relegated from the Ukrainian top tier, as well as one that avoided relegation from the second tier. There were two teams that just avoided relegation from the Portuguese third tier, as well as two that couldn't achieve the same and are going down. And there were two that had finished midtable in the Portuguese fourth tier. I was granted four interviews, all in Portugal. Loures and Montalegre were the two midtable fourth tier sides, and Beira-Mar and Beleneneses were being relegated to this level. The four interviews earned two job offers, from Loures and Beira-Mar. Wage budgets were pretty much the same, so I went with Beira-Mar figuring they probably have the higher reputation due to being in the third tier more recently, and also that I've heard of them before. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 1 Author Share Posted March 1 November 2037 - Beira-Mar Transfer Business There was no money to spend, but my recruitment team were still busy during the transfer window. Nine players came in on either loans or free transfers, made up of a mixture of Portuguese, Brazilians, and Ghanaians. They may have overdone really, matchday squads require at least 14 homegrown players in the squad (out of 20). So at least a couple are having to sit out each game. -------------------------------------------------------------- Campeonato de Portugal - Prio B I thought a 4-0 demolition job on the opening day would get the team on side, but afterwards there was a team meeting where they said they weren't happy with my management. I'm assuming that's a bit of a bug, a hangover from the old manager. Happiness is slowly improving as we rack up the wins, and the occasional team bonding session added to the training calendar also helps, but there's still a negative feeling in the camp. Very good start. We're the second most reputable team in the division (over all four groups) and the board want an immediate promotion, but it's not as simple as finishing in the top two. That just qualifies you for another promotion stage, but that's a long way off for now. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 January 2038 - Beira-Mar Campeonato de Portugal - Prio B This is just too easy. Eight big wins, scoring at least three times in each of them, and even when it looked like we were going to suffer a loss we snatched a 95th minute equaliser. I have no idea what standard of player I was expecting at this level, but my two strikers are tearing the opposition apart. Spoiler Spoiler We're running away with this. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 5 Author Share Posted March 5 April 2038 - Beira-Mar Campeonato de Portugal - Prio B Eight wins in a row, then two draws to end the regular season. Guess which two games came after my last update, when I said it was too easy. The FM Gods are always watching. It feels like a crime that we're not promoted automatically at this stage, look at that winning margin and goal difference. We now go into a group of four, along with Sao Joao de Ver, and Freamunde (62 points) and Felgueiras 1932 (58 points) from Prio A. Top two go up. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BML Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 I know you turned down the national job of Tajikistan, but would you be against international management? The Nations League has promotions! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 June 2038 - Beira-Mar Campeonato de Portugal - Promotion Stage Group B We battered our way through the promotion group easily, beating everyone in sight until a draw on the final day. We won more games and scored more goals than the other three teams combined. Promoted in style. But there's still one game to go, the final against Belenenses to decide who would be crowned champions. -------------------------------------------------------------- Campeonato de Portugal - Champions Play-Off Final Ah, nevermind. There goes the 27 game unbeaten streak. Lucky that trophies aren't a priority or I'd be annoyed by this. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 June 2038 - Beira-Mar Squad Stats Valdir Tavares had an incredible year, scoring 33 times en route to becoming the division's top scorer and player of the season. Leandro rivalled him in the early stages but couldn't keep up, but still did well to end up with 20 goals. They each provided nine assists, just being outdone by my wingers who managed 10 each. -------------------------------------------------------------- History A tenth promotion was secured, but I couldn't add the trophy to go with it. A little disappointing, but it doesn't really matter. For the first time in a while, I haven't put in my resignation after promotion. The board want us to be in the promotion mix in 2038/39, the media think we're one of the favourites, and Valdir Tavares is expected to be top scorer again. So I'm sticking around to give the next level a go. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages New: Portuguese (basic) Total: 16 (7 fluent, 2 good, 7 basic) -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 20 hours ago, BML said: I know you turned down the national job of Tajikistan, but would you be against international management? The Nations League has promotions! International management in the Nations League is definitely something I want to do. No interest in League A of course, but Leagues B, C, and D could all be appealing. Divisions B and C in the North American version too. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 7 Author Share Posted March 7 November 2038 - Beira-Mar Transfer Business Six players left over the summer - a starting midfielder and a starting left-back, three back-ups, and a youngster. We received £245k, massive money compared to the rest of my career. The recruitment staff then brought in 11 players, consisting of five free transfers and six loans (with loan fees costing £26k). -------------------------------------------------------------- Third Division - North Not the started we wanted. We'd lost a pre-season friendly to Braga B so another loss here wasn't unexpected, but the manner of it sucked. We were leading until we were reduced to ten men just before half-time, and the red card cost us as we were just battered after the break. I was having second thoughts at this point, wondering if I should have jumped ship at the end of last season. This is more like it. We were much better than Gondomar and the stoppage-time winner from a well-worked tap-in was deserved, then we tore UD Oliveirense to shreds in a first-half thrashing. A busy month, but a good one. We found our groove and the wins came rolling in. But all good things come to an end, and sloppy defending allowed Fafe to grab a 94th minute winner. It's going well at the halfway stage. Top four teams qualify for the next stage, and we're in top spot to make it at the moment. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 March 2039 - Beira-Mar Job Offers 16th and 17th in Liga 2. No thanks. -------------------------------------------------------------- Third Division - North This kind of fixture scheduling is really annoying. It's a pain having to constantly add friendlies every fortnight to keep players fit. We gained revenge on Braga B and Trofense for the losses at the start of the season. Valdir Tavares was on fire with seven goals in three games. The draw against Fafe on the final day meant they were the only side we didn't beat at least once this season. A pretty dominant performance. Scored at least 14 goals more than anyone else, and the only side to end with a double-figure goal difference. We now go into a four team promotion group. Top goes up automatically, second goes into a play-off against a Liga 2 side. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 March 2039 - Beira-Mar Job Offers I'm a man in demand. Casa Pia are 11th in the Primeira Liga, so that's a non-starter. Also seems like too unrealistic a jump (says the person who's been jumping all around the world). But Vizela is an interesting one. Second in Liga 2 and with a good chance of promotion. I'm applying for this. But it wasn't to be this time. They instead went with a fella who'd been unemployed for a couple of months after being fired by relegation-threatened Vilafranquense. Never mind. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 (edited) May 2039 - Beira-Mar Third Division - Promotion Stage Group 1 Boom, nailed it. A very good run through the other top sides from the division. Highlights include Joao Fati scoring his first goals for the club in a first-half hat-trick against Vitoria de Setubal, then Valdir Tavares recovering after a few weeks out to smash home four goals in the final two games. An unbeaten run set us up nicely to take top place, confirming promotion and putting us into the champions play-off final. Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself though - the final is again seeing us face Belenenses. At this stage last year they beat us to win the fourth tier trophy. It's clear both teams shouldn't have been so low down in the pyramid though as we've both managed consecutive promotions. They slightly fluked their way to this game though, they only reached the promotion stage by finishing fourth in the first part of the season. -------------------------------------------------------------- Third Division - Champions Play-Off Final Revenge! We absolutely mullered them, only one team in it. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited March 8 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 May 2039 - Beira-Mar Squad Stats The recruitment team really hasn't planned for the future in defence. Just three contracted players and relying on loans did us well this year, but I don't think it's sustainable in the higher divisions. Rodrigo Matos is a player I'd never have signed, 34 at the start of the season and on more than £1k a week. But him and fellow new signing Tomas Chaparro both did a great job on the wings, as did Thiago Martins in midfield. The star of the show was again Valdir Tavares, and again he was the division's top scorer and best player. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Bit of a surprise this one. When I signed a new contract at the end of last season and the board wanted another promotion it gave me an indication that we could go back-to-back, but I still didn't necessarily expect it to happen. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Update: My Portuguese has improved from basic to fluent. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search After two promotions in two years I half considered staying on, but ultimately I don't think it would be possible to push on again with this squad. It would take a big rebuild, and we don't have the funds to do that. When I was offered a new contract the expectations were just to avoid relegation from Liga 2, and that's not worth my time. As my contract was just about to run out though I let it expire rather than resigning. But while I was waiting this period out, an offer came along. Pacos de Ferreira were among the favourites for promotion from Liga 2 this year, but struggled and finished in 14th place instead. There's not a lot of other jobs open at the moment, so it's a tempting one... -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 June 2039 Job Search I had the weekend to think about whether this was the job for me, and I decided it was. This is the first time I've stayed within the same country after a move, and we'll be playing my previous club Beira-Mar at some point during the season. -------------------------------------------------------------- Parent Club One of the first messages after taking over was the board informing me of a link that had been formed. And it definitely shows the step up in size. -------------------------------------------------------------- Transfer Business The recruitment team had one heck of a time, bringing in 18 players for a total of £275k (while we also sold a couple of players for £80k). Lots of these additions were for the Under-19 squads though, our first team squad was already too big. I spent the last few days of the transfer window cancelling some of the loan deals they were trying to sort out as we already had met the registration limits, more players weren't needed. Possibly the biggest deals were three loanees sent to us by Inter, including these two strikers. Bassam Ali in particular looks class. Spoiler Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 August 2039 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Cups are stupid anyway. Who cares about a battering in my first game? Luckily, the league went much better. After a draw on the opening day we won four in a row. The two strikers on loan from Inter have already scored nine times between them, with Bassam Ali smashing three braces in a row. The perfect start, let's hope we can keep this up. The media have predicted that we'll finish in the top four, while the board would be happy with a top half finish. Top two go up automatically, third place goes into a play-off. Though there are also four B teams who can't be promoted, so potentially there's an outside chance that finishing as low as seventh could still put us in the mix. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 October 2039 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 We suffered our first loss of the season to Sporting B, but if we have to lose I'd rather it was to a B team as they can't be promoted. Our free scoring form from August has disappeared though, we were nowhere near as good in this period and this shows in the results. Three league games straight without a win saw us drop down to fourth in the table, but we stopped the rot with a victory over Santa Clara. Penalties from Joelmir Rocha gained us an extra three points in October, he's putting in an argument why he should be in the starting XI up front. We're still in contention despite the indifferent form, but it's all very close and there's also plenty of teams just below on 18 and 17 points that could easily catch us. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 December 2039 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Given the success I brought to Beira-Mar during my time there I'd like to think there isn't any bad blood towards me, but they'll definitely have enjoyed this first clash more than I did. We weren't very good, and fully deserved to be beaten. We should have beaten Varzim, we had four times as many shots as they did but just wasted opportunities time and time again. And if November was poor, December was even worse. We got thumped by both Tondela and Chaves, with the second showing on our home turf being particularly pathetic. At least we ended the year with a good display. We've dropped down into midtable, but we're not out of the conversation. First place down to ninth are split by just six points, so it's still all to play for. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 February 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 We already had two strikers on loan from Inter, and in their infinite wisdom they decided to send us another in January. It's a good problem to have I suppose, but literally any other position would have been more useful. Mario Paone did make a good first impression though, coming off the bench to score the winner against Belenenses. Our poor form from the end of 2039 carried over, and after the loss to Feirense we had nine defeats in our last 14 games. I called a team meeting and made it clear I was not happy with this, and the Inter loan connection reacted. Franco Brugni assisted twice and Bassam Ali scored a hat-trick as we battled our way to victory over Sporting CP B. Bassam Ali continued as he left off in the next match, scoring in the first minute against Boavista, and when they were reduced to ten men in the fourth minute, the result was only going in one direction. We bossed the rest of the tie, the only disappointment was that we didn't kill the game off until the final ten minutes. We're still in the mix for promotion, but it's only looking like an outside chance now. The top two are probably too far away now unless they throw away some silly points, the play-off spot is likely our only hope. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 March 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Two good home wins is absolutely what we needed. But away losses to the sides first and second in the table is absolutely not. With six games left, I think any chance of promotion this year is gone. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted March 16 Author Share Posted March 16 (edited) May 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Seven points from a possible nine at the start of April put us back into the promotion conversation, especially as Varzim's form collapsed at the same time. But the loss to Chaves was a big hit, and although we recovered with our biggest win of the season, the campaign petered out with another loss. Just way too many losses over the course of the year. Convert just two of those losses into a win and a draw and we'd have been in the play-off spot instead of Boavista. The big problem was away games. At home we had the best record in the league, but away form was very poor. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited March 16 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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