TheNayr

What a great read so far. That Jones looks amazing. What an absolute gem to come through.

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.)

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. ****!!!!!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's been a pretty good 1st half of the year for us here at Jamshedpur and because it's just popped into my inbox, here's the youth intake preview. It doesn't look too promising, but I can hope they'll be a little gem in there somewhere. Hopefully a GK but the report doesn't seem to think so! Got another upgrade to the men's training facilities which is awesome! Still nothing on the youth side, which is a shame. There's not even been an option to upgrade it. We are playing in the Champions League for the 1st time proper with Jamshedpur and this was the group drawn to us. All 3 of these teams have more money then us, the spend more on wages than us so it was always going to be difficult. That's why the AI controlling the Indian teams that played in the Champions League went out in the group stages EVERY year with only 1 win, 2 if they got lucky. But I'm not the AI am I? Look how tight that group was! I was very worried after the 1st 3 games considering how poor we played. Although in the opening game we were 3-0 up at home and ended up conceding a goal in the 83rd minute and 90th minute for a proper kick in the teeth! I didn't know what to expect but I am very happy to come out on top. We move on and secure ourself a 2nd round tie against Al-Faisaly from Saudi Arabia though it's not for another couple of months. The high crowds for all 3 games is great and have broken our gate receipts record in the back to back home games against Al-Gharafa and Al-Nassr. The league has been an alright start, a lot of using a completely 2nd 11 to help with managing fitness around the Champs League matches. Leaving the table like this. However, the main reason I have dropped in is because of this: I'm pretty sure this is my 1st EVER World Cup draw in any FM game. Group A South Africa Belgium Group B Argentina Czech Republic Group C Mexico Denmark Group D Holland Egypt Group E England Tunisia Group F Germany Jamaica Group G Cameroon Austria Group H France Ghana Group I Morocco Serbia Group J Portugal Colombia Group K Turkey Costa Rica Group L Senegal Canada Group M Spain Australia Group N U.S.A South Korea Group O Brazil Ireland Group P Italy Saudi Arabia Well. There's a couple of groups to avoid there, namely B with Argentina and the Czech Republic (Who won the World Cup in 2026 in this universe) Group D with Holland and Egypt. I'd like to avoid Portugal and Colombia too in Group J. I personally think Group I with Morocco and Serbia might not be too bad. Let's get into it. World Champions and World ranked #2 Brazil.....Well. 'To be the man, you've gotta beat the man'. Ireland and also ranked 23rd. I am not even mad about drawing Brazil, bring them on!!!!!

If you got him at an intake at Arsenal for example you'd be happy. He could end up being even better than Wani which is stupid to think about. He doesn't want to sign a new deal which is understandable. As it's my last season with Jamshedpur I'm going to try and sell him. I know I could get a better deal from a big team than the AI could get. I'd love to know what his PA is, might have to buy the editor and check.

Here we go then into our final season here at Jamshedpur and we're kicking off with a bang, selling the most season tickets so far in our history, in the final season at our stadium. Which leaves the finances in very, very good state. And because I haven't actually shown it yet, here's the current stadium. Although it won't be for much longer, the last year using this. Bloody running track, I hate running track stadiums! Also because I never did, here's Goa's from our time there. Despite my assman thinking that they're of the same ability, I rate Jonathan Dev clearly in front of D'Silva and he will remain #1 for this season and even after I'm gone I'd imagine. Speaking of my assman, here he is. I hope to take him with me to my next club. The defence of our team is probably the weakest unit but they are dependable and solid players led by the incredible Czech RB Filip Alexa who I've just got to agree to a new contract keeping him for 4 years here. Our midfield is a good unit including new signing Sushil Saha who was a free agent from Kerala. He's solid and will see plenty of time on the pitch. Then our attacking unit is very strong and has been the cornerstone of our performances in the last couple of years to become the best team in the nation. Another new signing in Balwinder Singh who was a free agent for nearly a year before I decided to bring him in, despite only playing a 1 striker formation. He was too good to be not playing football. The star boy though is clearly Chhangte Singh. He's finally attracting some attention from much bigger clubs and RB Leipzig have put in about 5 bids for him throughout the Summer. Laughable, terrible bids. Since we're so healthy financial wise, I don't need to sell him and he still has just under 3 years left on his youth contract. In his 1st year he scored 24 goals and 32 games and last year he scored 42 in 37. This guy is destined to play in Europe. And he has developed nicely. Still plenty of room for improvement though. Despite his young age, he's a star player for us at club and country. Our excellent training facilities will help him improve. Still haven't had the option to improve the youth facilities though, I keep checking and they are still stuck on great, which isn't exactly poor by any means! Until next time.

Thank you! It took some time, but it was worth it. Now I can't wait to get through the game and take part in the WC. What a time to be alive!

The challenge of this save was to get India to the World Cup. AND IT HAS HAPPENED! WE ARE GOING TO THE WORLD CUP. GET THE **** IN THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Undefeated throughout all of qualifying. We are 1 of the best teams in Asia. I have changed this country from not caring about football into a good footballing nation. This is the best achievement I've ever had on ANY Football Manager game. Now the aim of this save is to win the World Cup right????????????? Until next time.

I'll start off with the youth intake which means it was either very good or not good at all......it was neither haha. It was just average, not a single 'Elite' talent but a couple of decent players. Some solid players, but no-one worth showing you. Disappointing but oh well. Can't expect incredible players every year from the intake. The rest of the season was a very close run thing as predicted between us and Goa. This is how the table finished. Winning by just a point proving how close it was between us! However, we have made sure we're playing in the group stages of the Champions League next year, which means I will stick around for 1 more year as we've only competed in that competition on 1 occasion with Jamshedpur and we got knocked out in the crappy 1 legged tie away a couple of years ago. So now we're going to be in in it for real, I'd like to attempt that with this team I've assembled. A quick word on the Champions League. Except for when I've competed in it, every team from India has been knocked out in the group stages with only 1/2 wins. It's been a really poor showing from the AI and we have tumbled down the co-efficient table. So I want to compete in it again and do my best. Now though, we need to get through the playoffs and defend our Crown! And we got through the Semi against Mumbai and now face Goa in the Final to see who will be Champion of India! They are turning into a bit of a rival! Make that 2 Finals actually as after beating Mumbai we continued winning in the Confed Cup and are in the final against Navbahor of Uzbekistan. Unfortunately, they've been drawn as the home team, so the Final will be played at their ground, but I guess I can't complain as the Confed Cup that we won 2 years ago, we were at home for the final. Let's get our hands on these 2 trophies again! Or we could get humbled and lose in both Finals...hmmm. That wasn't meant to happen. I'd have thought at least 1 and actually more than likely to win both. Sad way to end the season... We played another couple of games in the World Cup Qualys and they went like this: Yes baby, come on! We are SO SO SO SUPER close to getting to the World Cup. We have Japan (A) and Bahrain (H) left in that order. You'd like to think if we mess up the 1st game, the 2nd game at home to a team who have lost 8/8 is a game we should win. We basically have all but secured passage through to the sacred lands. We are 99% through to the World Cup. IT'S NEARLY DONE! As we continue to not lose and put up some good performances, we continue to rise up the rankings too. Until next time.

The first half of the season has been NEARLY perfect. So very nearly haha. Winning every single game bar 1, and even then. We dominated but didn't take all our chances, Goa did the blighters! Which leaves both tables looking like this. Speaking of Goa it looks like it's going to be between us again, much like last year. In the Confederation Cup it's been utter demolition like you'd expect, even with our 2nd team playing every game. Mumbai had a surprising loss, but come out of the group and we'll face them in the next round which I'd imagine we'll win the 2 legged tie. So I was able to get in the next upgrade to our men's training facilities, but not the option for youth facilities which is annoying. But, can't do it if they don't let me! The reason why I dropped in now was because the youth intake preview dropped, so here it is. Supposedly, meant to be 'Excellent' but we'll have to see! We were in the 3rd round of World Cup qualifying with a tough looking group. I was confident, was I right to be confident? You f****** bet your ass I was right to be confident. LOOK AT THAT! LOOK AT IT! I am so happy and proud. Whilst qualification isn't secure and we've got 4 games to go. It's looking very, very promising for us. We could be on our way to South Africa for the 2038 World Cup. And lastly, that impressive RB for India who was labelled a 'Wonderkid' in Sukhjit Marbaniang did get his move away from Arminia Bielefeld. He was wanted by about 20 teams as he had a £12.25m release clause in his contract. He chose Liverpool and is starting regularly for them, he joins Wani as being Indian and starting regularly in the Premiership, beautiful. Being the 2 best players for the national team, starting a lot in the best league in the World is brilliant. Until next time.

We are into the next season and there has been a great update, After a year of looking for the new area for the stadium, the board has found one. Jamshedpur will have a new stadium in 2 years, I very much doubt I will be here to see it! Really, really happy with the cost. ONLY £7.5 million for a brand new near 26k seater stadium?! Mental, though I am not complaining. I mean, we already offset that with season ticket sales haha! We have a couple of new additions as we lost a couple of foreign players meaning we get to bring a couple more and 1 of them is an absolute star from Paraguay meet Edgar Gonzalez! To make him even better, he cost nothing to sign, beautiful. He was just sitting there attached to no club. Okay, so he's no Ballon d'Or winner, but a player of his quality would not have joined this league at the start of the game (If he was a real person!) Decent mentals and a very good passer of the ball, I'm expecting big things from him in this league. I only had 1 recognised, natural CB in the 1st team so that was a priority. Also being in this country, a lack of size is apparent, it's just the way it goes. So I wanted a bit of a monster at CB and I found a guy lurking in Syria. 6'6 with very good mentals and obviously very good jumping reach, this is Ayham Kurdaghli. He hopefully should help us win at most set pieces, very happy to bring him in. He cost £5k and that's probably the best £5k spent on a player on any FM to be honest. The last guy I got, who is another bargain if I do say so myself is Seidu Owusu from Bechem United in Ghana for £15,25k, extremely cheap for a player of his caliber. Young, with room to grow he could develop into a nifty little player. Still not been able to upgrade the training facilities yet, they both remain on 'Great' which is obviously amazing and the best facilities in the entire country. Just 1 more upgrade and I'll look to move on. Speaking of moving on, India. There's not much to say. Oh, except a 10-0 drubbing of Oman at home, I couldn't believe my eyes haha! What an incredible result! 25 shots on target!!! It could've been so much worse for them! And we wrapped up the 2nd round beating U.A.E again to go for 6/6. Truly incredible. What a time to be a fan of Indian football! Now here's the real test. A very hard group to get out of. It's got to be playoff minimum here though I am aiming for straight qualification into the World Cup. Our 1st 2 games are against Thailand (H) and Australia (A) I am very excited and can't wait to get into them. Until next time.

Youth intake day has been and gone, and it was alright. A couple of decent looking guys, shame 1 of them is a striker as we don't need any more good strikers for club and country for quite a few years as there is a lot of depth there. The quality was decent this time again, even some of the lesser guys look alright and can be squad players in the years to come. The 2 best players of this intake are promising. We'll start with the striker Amit Das who like most of the top strikers for India is a Pressing Forward. Good mentals and a decent starting stage for his physicals means he'll be a solid player without being spectacular. The RM Mario Meitei is a solid all round guy who will be knocking on the first team's door in a couple of years of that I have no doubt! Between the last update and this 1 I was finally able upgrade the facilities yet again which I must've forgotten to take screenshots of, oh well. They're being built at the minute. I might go for 1 more upgrade after these current upgrades and move on to a different team. This is how the table finished and yes, we slipped up. Luckily the title is chosen by the playoffs otherwise I would've been fuming haha! We had an AWFUL 4 game stretch out of nowhere where there were 0 injuries or suspensions. We just got really unlucky which was enough for Goa to power on through and take the lead in the table and they never looked back. We actually played them in the final game of the league season where we were winning 1-0 until the 81st minute and we drew, ensuring they finished top of the table. And we make it through the playoffs! CHAMPIONS! We deserved it as we were fantastic throughout the season other than them 4 games haha! Utter domination. Throwing this in because I'm childish. Another 2 India games, both away. Both 1-3 victories. Not even breaking a sweat or worried. We have 2 more games to play and we're already qualified into the 3rd round. Beautiful. We're having a great run with the country atm. We also have our first Indian 'Wonderkid'. Produced at Bengaluru they sold him to Arminia Bielefeld in the Bundesliga for £275k. Sukhjit Marbaniang. Look at him, he is amazing! The RB spot for the national team is sewn up for the next 11-12 years. I can imagine he'll be moving to a much bigger team in a year or 2 as well. Until next time.

Well here we are on the 1st of January and to be honest, the 1st half of the year has gone near enough perfect as you'll quickly see. With no continental football to go through, we have absolutely smashed the league so far going unbeaten and playing well. Playing well up to a certain point though as it could've been so much better. We have smashed in 38 goals in 13 league games which is extraordinary. However also conceded 13. I guess I'm being too harsh on the team with how well we're playing and I should lighten up haha! Youth intake preview has arrived and it doesn't look too promising, but I guess we'll have to wait and actually see if it is ranked good which we've been told it will be. I won't get too excited about this. There hasn't been an option to improve the training facilities yet, I'm checking once a week as it's an important thing to upgrade and we have the money to cover it easily. Speaking of money, no news of the new ground yet. It's supposedly going to hold 24,822 which will be 398 more than our current stadium. Continuing to speak of money, the gate receipts are MASSIVELY down from last season. I think due to the large amount of season ticket holders, that's reducing our actual income. Last season we were getting in at least £400k a month profit and a lot of that was from ticket sales, now we're making a loss of around £400k-£500k a month. We're on 16,358 season ticket holders and the last 3 home games have been: 17,341 (122 away) 17,061 (509 away) and 16,868 (143 away) so that's why we're making a loss each month again, everyone got a season ticket to leave not much room in buying tickets on an actual game day! Still though, the multi millions from season ticket sales in the pre-season will outweigh the losses on the year easily. India action has been and gone and returning soon as we're back in the hunt for that first elusive World Cup appearance. In the 2nd round qualifying we drew: U.A.E, Oman and Macau (China PR). So far it's gone very easy with as you'd expect with the 2 opening games, 2 wins. If we don't qualify for the next round I'll resign haha. Until next time.

I am loving this save as well, I want to play it all the time. With the progress I've made not only with the national team but seeing the improvements in the actual league as well is making this such an exciting and enjoyable save. I don't see myself stopping anytime in the near future. Thank you for making that aware to me. He does it is up perfectly in I saw the personality 'Fickle' and immediately thought it was bad and would hinder his growth, but I can now see that hopefully won't be the case. His determination at 11 is a little on the low side, but at least it's double figures. Makes me more optimistic about him going forward though!

A bit of a bard start to begin this post and it's a gripe that I've had many times in this save. Asian Champions League, the preliminary rounds. It's a 1 legged affair and every single time we've been drawn away like we were this time and we lost, like we have every time. But then when we lose, we don't stop into the Confederation Cup. So we're 1 and done for continental football this season. It's terrible. Just a pretty lackluster performance from us. Oh well, there's always next year! 3 signings have been made this Summer transfer window (I did sign 2 free agents to mentor/tutor our future wonderkid, hopefully haha! No model citizens but hopefully they can improve him from 'Fickle') an emergency backup who I won't show and then 2 foreign players to help our defense, £64k on a new starting CB in Sim Ji-Yong. A tall CB from South Korea with really good mentals, shame his heading wasn't better but then he'd probably be out of our range if that was the case, but hopefully should be an important player for us. Next up I paid £51k for a young Czech RB from their 2nd division who has some potential about him and will be our starting RB. Has the chance to become a lot better and sell for a decent profit. This is Filip Alexa. It leaves us looking like this. Goalkeepers: Defenders: Midfielders: Strikers: The footballing boom in India is taking on an even more bigger role. Football is becoming a major sport in India and it's all down to me. Just look at this for the effect of how well we're doing with the national team. Over 7,000 more season tickets than last season!!! Incredible numbers, and speaking of numbers. Nearly £15.5m from season tickets this year, about £6m more from last year's sales! This is insane numbers, I can't get over it. Our bank balance is looking incredible! I'm just waiting to upgrade our training facilities, they both stand at 'Good' currently, can't wait to improve them again. With no continental football now, I'll probably get on through toward December where the youth intake preview is released to me. Until next time.

As to be expected, we could not catch Bengaluru toward the end of the season, so the elusive top spot on the table at the end of the season still evades us at Jamshedpur. However, we still had the chance to win the Super League through the play offs at the end the year, which we were not able to do losing to Goa. Which meant the final was between my 2 previous teams, Bengaluru and Goa with the former coming out on top. Part of the reason why we lost in the semis during the playoffs was because I was resting the full starting 11 including GK due to our Confederation Cup matches against Port which happened to be between the semi play off games and I'd rather win the Confed Cup over winning the league. And that decision turned out to be totally justified as we were able to beat them and win in the Interzone Playoff Final! Get in there! However, it's been a few years since I've competed in the Confed Cup and I thought this was the main final....it was not. There was 1 more game to play and that was against Wehdat from Jordan. This was a 1 match game, no 2 matches here. We were massively helped by the Final taking place at home....yeah. No travelling for us. We used it to great effect, winning the Confederation Cup, what a great end to the season! As you'll see, we were the far better team and were unlucky for it to get to ET. We should've won it in the 90 minutes. Instead of going into the Confed Cup again as we finished 2nd in the league, we go into the Champions League! We'll see how we do there! A nice little boost to the finances, not that we need it as we're sitting very pretty in that department. It says on our facilities page that our stadium which can hold 40,000 but only 24,424 for normal matches which is fine, so I thought we'd get the full 40,000 as the Confed Cup Final isn't a normal match....but apparently it was as the 40,000 wasn't available to us. Such a shame. Then I got this email. I didn't ask for this, thought about it, but no real need. The board decided to act by themselves and there will be a new stadium, I probably won't be around here for it though. Maybe. We'll see. Until next time.

It's time to pop into Jamshedpur and see how the season is going yeah? Especially as the youth intake has just happened. So, what's been happening at the club team? Bengaluru have taken back the mantle of 'Best team in India' whilst Kerala who had been enjoying that title for the last 3 years or so have had a tremendous fall off this season. What hasn't helped is selling their GK to Guwahati and probably the 3rd GK in all of India and replacing him with a much worse player. I am not complaining though, makes it a little easier for us to do well in the table. However, a shocking start to the season meant we've been trying to catch Bengaluru from the start. From the early years in the save where we did really well in continental football, India lost it's places in the Confederation Cup and our teams went straight into the Champions League instead with 0 teams playing in the Confederation Cup which sounds a little weird, but it's understandable. When you get to a certain point in Asian football, you're just too good for a lot of nations and teams as we both proved. 6 wins out of 6 games for both of us and at least +20 goal difference. This meant that we played each other in the South Asian Zone final and I wasn't too optimistic, Bengaluru are the best team in the country and my record against them since leaving them is terrible! However, a couple of good performances meant we were onto the next round. Not only did we get just shy of £400k for winning that final, we made a little over £1m in ticket sales as we share ticket revenue in this final and with 2 big attendances (We were a sell out) the money was good and we promptly put it to good use. Moving onto the Interzone Playoff Semi Finals were the Champions of Turkmenistan Kopetdag Asgabat FK. Yeah I wasn't worried, so much so that both games I played my 2nd team. And that decision was vindicated by 2 clean sheets and 2 professional jobs by my backups leaving us in the Confederation Cup final against Port FC from Thailand who will get more respect from me as I'll play my strongest side possible when playing them. Now then, youth intake day is here and I was told it would be a 'Good' intake which is always nice and it delivered. For once it looks actually very very good. The players in 'Top Talents' actually have some decent potential about them for once. It's just about the 'Elite talent' for which we have 1, the MR Sujit Singh who starts with good crossing ability good acceleration. I wouldn't say he's 'Elite' because he's still got plenty of work to go and with only 4 determination. So, not much there really. I'll sign him but won't expect much growth. Rohit Rana has a couple of decent mentals to start with at DM but we have much better prospects in that position. It doesn't matter how much potential Rakib Hossain has or what his stats look like, he's a 5'5 CB haha, he's going to be retrained into a DM as soon as he signs a contract. With a lot of these players, their future of solid league players is much clearer as their base starts are far superior to any starts I've had from ANY youth intake so far in this save. Which means the quality of players coming through is improving which is FANTASTIC news! Most of the players that I've seen coming through sign a youth contract and I never see them again until that contract is expiring and I never resign them, but with this lot, there's a future for them. Mohammed Abdul Azad Karim whilst there's plenty of work needed to improve him, there is a good LB somewhere there. I don't know the last time I had a solid looking prospect in the CAM position during this save, maybe I've never had 1, it's not a position you'd think of having a young player coming through at, but this might be the must show offy and expressive player in India's history! Meet Amar Khongsit. Now, there's plenty of work to be done, especially on his passing. But 18 flair! 18! There's no-one else of massive note from our intake, but there's a lovely looking GK who's come through at Goa. Ravi Ahmed is someone to keep an eye out on in the next few years. Could we finally have a challenger to Ayush Ck's throne? Hopefully! Until next time. FAKEOUT. 4 STAR CURRENT ABILITY YOUTH INTAKE PLAYER ALERT! This is Chhangte Singh. Now, he has a 'Fickle' personality is sucks. But that's the only bad thing about him. I NEED to get the right mentors for him, I might have to get in a couple of free agents with high determination and very good personalities to change this young man around but he could be SPECIAL. He could be the next Naveen Wani. He could be better than him. I am very excited. What a gem we could have on our hands. Straight in the first team with you and into my starting 11. Until next time, for real this time.

Literally about 2 days in game time after my last post (Middle of October) the draw for the Asian Nations Cup sprung up out of nowhere and we were given a hard group starting with Lebanon which i wasn't worried about, however. Followed by Iran and Japan which wasn't that nice to be drawn against, but it is what it is. The Indian FA wanted me to get into the 2nd round at a minimum, I wasn't so sure about that. Now I am in January and the competition is upon me and we started with Japan. 1 quick thing, you're only allowed 3 subs in the game and with the games pretty quick after one another, managing fatigue is always an issue in international management. Before we get into it, I have changed the main tactic used for both India and Jamshedpur. So it's a 4-3-3 Gegenpress with a DM, I've said many times I love a DM. Offers good protection for the backline and can be a deadly guy bursting forward either the ball with loads in front of him or arriving late unmarked. Anyways. First match. Japan who?! Absolute domination. I couldn't believe my eyes, what a brilliant attacking display, we blew them away and they had no answer for us. Even though they had more of the ball (Only by 2% but it's still more!) We only allowed them a measly total 5 shots compared to our 23. A fantastic opening match which couldn't have gone much better. Next up were Iran who now maybe I wasn't as scared of as I was expecting to be. WOW. This game was much closer score wise than the Japan game, but this time the domination factor was more there. 65% possession compared to their 35%. More shots and more shots on target again. We deserved the win and the beautiful Wani stepped up and made sure we had the win, though Rawat was clearly the man of the match operating as an IF on the RW. The last group game was against Lebanon which I now had absolutely 0 fear going into after these games. And I was right to not be scared. 3 group games, 3 wins, 3 dominations. Have we crossed the hill into a very good Asian nation?! We are up to our highest ever rank in the world now, 74th! (Quick note, I guess I could've been running like a yearly table of our rankings, however because I don't play friendly matches, I don't see the point. We weren't moving that much other then a couple of spots down every year so I thought it was pointless to keep a tracker) In the 2nd round we play Indonesia. I've got to try and bring my expectations down, because I am very happy and excited right now. In my head I'm already picturing winning this tournament haha. Pump the brakes! So the group ended up like this. Not what I was expecting at the start of the tournament, I am really not complaining though. I wouldn't have predicted to win all 3 games and certainly not finishing with a goal difference of 8! It seems this team is really digging this 4-3-3 Gegenpressing tactic. Again, dominating possession, more shots, more shots on target. It seems to be getting the most out of these players. I was VERY annoyed with the late penalty miss, thinking we were going to ET where the players would be VERY fatigued for the next game, but a late winner had me very happy and fist pumping. COME ON! See you later Indonesia, up next is Saudi Arabia in the quarter finals where we got to 4 years ago in the last Asian Nations Cup. Up to 72nd now. WE ARE MASSIVE! We lost the possession battle but we won the war. More shots, more shots on target. Do you see the pattern!? We are 1 very impressive attacking unit. 31 year old Arjan Raikhy set up both goals from that all important DM position. Captain Fantastic, 5'4 lunatic Saini opened the scoring and didn't look back from there. Up next U.A.E in the semi finals and up to 69th in the world...Nice... Naveen Wani not scoring in 3 straight games is a bit of a worry though. Sickening. We didn't deserve to lose this game, especially on penalties. DAMN! However, what a tournament. We've proven we're one of the best teams in Asia now and I am very, very happy. Bring on World Cup qualification because we're going to qualify. Until next time.

Here we go into the 11th season of this Indian save, I think 11th, could be 10th. October 2034, should be 11th. At Jamshedpur I made a few signings, and 1 of them being very important. Jonathan Dev the 2nd/3rd best GK in the whole of India. The guy we signed last year turned out to be a disappointment and I signed this guy from Aizawl FC who were actually relegated from the top league, but as you can see, he's such an upgrade nearly everywhere...shame he's 5'10 though... So to refresh your mind incase you haven't binged through this save as I haven't spoken about this rule in detail for a while. So, in the top league. You can have a maximum of 4 foreign players in the starting 11 if you include an Asian player. If you don't, it's only 3 foreign players. The last 2 years here, I haven't taken advantage of that rule. This year, I am though. We needed a new RB here at Jamshedpur so I focused all my efforts on finding an Asian RB and found 1 in Abdullah Abbas from Damac In Saudi Arabia and I spent £525k on him! A stupid amount, that is by FAR!!! The most I have spent on a player during this save. He's not a world beater, but for us he's very good and he's played solidly enough. I have raided my first team in Bengaluru for 2 backup players. A backup GK and a squad player striker so I won't waste my time or your time showing them. The season tickets have kicked in again. This time we made a little bit more money at £9.5m what a beautiful amount to receive for teams like us, I can only assume that other Indian teams had it again like us last year. We have the highest level of youth coaching and recruitment which is fantastic and I waited specifically until both my training facilities were sorted before this next update. So as soon as I can improve them, I will. But how is the rest of the league looking like facility wise?? Have they invested some of the money got from the season tickets footballing boom? Back in the 2025 (In this save obviously!) I posted about the other team's facilities and youth set ups, have they progressed in 9 years? Let's see. I'll keep the teams in same order (If they haven't been relegated) Team name 2025 YC 2025 YR 2025 TF 2025 YF 2034 YC 2034 YR 2034 TF 2034 YF Kerala Average Average Below average Below average Adequate Above average Adequate Adequate Guwahati Average Average Below average Below average Adequate Average Below average Below average Mumbai Excellent Average Below average Below average Exceptional Average Below average Below average Goa (Managed) Average Average Below average Below average Exceptional Exceptional Below average Below average Jamshedpur (Managing) Adequate Above average Below average Adequate Exceptional Exceptional Average Average Odisha Average Basic Basic Basic Adequate Average Basic Basic MHDN FC Fairly basic Fairly basic Basic Poor Fairly basic Fairly basic Basic Poor Hyderabad Average Fairly basic Basic Basic Average Fairly basic Basic Basic Chennai Average Average Below average Below average Average Average Below average Below average Mohun Bagan Average Average Basic Basic Average Average Basic Basic Bengal Fairly basic Average Below average Basic Average Average Below average Basic Bengaluru (Managed) Excellent Excellent Average Average Exceptional Exceptional Adequate Average Kolkata N/A N/A N/A N/A Adequate Average Below average Below average So as you can see, in 9 years there hasn't been that much movement in things changing which is unfortunate but understandable due to lack of money that's been around for this league. Even when I was at Goa for 5 years there was never really enough money to upgrade the training facilities and the board kept turning me down hence no improvement there. But now with the massive money coming in through ticket sales I might revisit this in a few years and see the upgrades then, hopefully teams will have enough about them to upgrade these things. Whilst I'm on the subject of ticket sales, I saw this a couple of days ago and it stuck out to me. Check out Kolkata vs Bengal! They share the same stadium in Kolkata the Salt Lake stadium which is an 85,000 all seater but only 66,687 used for normal matches. I hope in a few years this match will be a sell out to massively help both teams out financially. Then just to add onto it, MDHN FC also play in Kolkata but at the Mohammedan Sporting Ground however that only holds 15,000 which they rent. So 3 top league teams all playing in the same city, hence the massive attendances! And finally, we have played 2 games in the Confederation Cup and it's been as easy as expected facing against teams from Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives. Bengaluru also smashing it in their group. Kerala in their Champions League group have lost 2 out of 2. Nothing on the horizon for India yet. Until next time.

Well it has been a season of success for us here at Jamshedpur. After just scraping the playoffs last year, we finished firmly in it and have bagged continental football next year! This is how the table finished come the end of the season. Goa fell off from the last couple of years but Kerala having good showings every year, they're a strong strong side. We were shot to 2nd and nearly winning the league thanks to the young Kenyan Victor Onyango who banged in 16 goals and 4 assists in 22 starts during the league. What a great free signing by me, even if I do say so myself! He hasn't really progressed at all to be honest, but even so. He's good. With this save, I don't feel attached to any of these clubs teams I'm managing and that's just fine. The main thing is about the national team. I'm only with a team to increase their facilities and speaking of which. So this is now 3/3 clubs I've managed to get exceptional youth coaching and recruiting. When both training facilities are completed here, I believe they will be at a good level and the best in the country. I will look to upgrade them a couple more times after that before moving on to the next club. We again broke gate receipts in our home first leg playoff match against Bengaluru proving the interest in Indian football is here to stay. That was 24,112 people in to watch us lose a game we had no right in losing, I'm not on to complain but this is a bit sick haha. 12 shots on target and no goals!? Fair enough. In the return leg just over 25k people watched at Bengaluru. Next year, finishing 1st in the table, getting into the Champions League AND winning the title is the aim, potentially with winning the Confederation Cup. Until next time.

It was so close but so far! The progress that I've made so far with India be it club wise getting 3 teams to the highest level of youth recruitment and coaching or with the actual national side. Next WC qualification I'm targeting to make it automatically, none of this playoff stuff as several players by then will be in their prime!