FMCTVaughaniola

EPISODE ZERO Hello everyone, it has been a while since I last posted on here, with that being of Scale The Tower 3.0 with my good friend @CapLFC450. However this is something different. The majority of Football Manager players will have heard of the Pentagon Challenge, however have you heard of the Hexagon Challenge, probably not, however I imagine you lot will be able to figure it out without an explanaition. If you think you've got it nailed down on what this challenge may be, great! Then you will probably not need to read this post (please do because it let's you in on how this is going to work). So as you can imagine, this challenge is an adapted version of the Pentagon Challenge, including the need to with the Oceanian Champions League as well as the other main five. However there is a catch. We will also be included international management into this challenge, forcing us to win the European Championship equivalent in all 6 of the continents as well. As you will have gathered, this challenge is certainly not for the feint hearted. This will need dedication and commitment to the cause. I do have major tests coming up soon, so if you don't hear from me for a while, don't panic, I'm not dead, I'm just nailing in on my exams. I have decided to load 5 nations from each continent, and here they are: AFRICAN LEAGUES: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia ASIAN LEAGUES: Australia, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea EUROPEAN LEAGUES: England, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain NORTH AMERICAN LEAGUES: Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, United States OCEANIAN LEAGUES: Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga SOUTH AMERICAN LEAGUES: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay This is certainly going to be tough, but I hope you guys come along for the ride and enjoy this save as much as I do. Thank you for reading the introduction, hope to see you all again for Episode One, where we will pick up our first job and play our first games! The save has been started in February 2024 due to us having the Brazilian league loaded, so hopefully that will mean more jobs are available!

SCALE THE TOWER 3.0 2026 SEASON REVIEW After the title win at O.I. we had to switch our allegiances to another Micronesian outfit in Tamil, and ten more points were added the the cabinet! YES! Four titles from four seasons in management at three different clubs! What else could I want in life! What a season! Roll on 27'

SCALE THE TOWER | SEASON 2025 We are the champions! Ten more points added to my total which makes it up to 25 in total! We are on a roll. My resignation was handed in after I won the league and I move to another Micronesian team. Here is the spreadsheet as of current.

SCALE THE TOWER 3.0 2025 HALF LEAGUE REVIEW Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you to Micronesia, welcome to Outer Islands FC. Sir Jimmy Okoronkwo has moved on, and put the Manu Laeva era behind him. We have left the country of Tuvalu all together and now come to conquer our next boss, the Pohnpei Premier League. Unfortunately in Micronesia there is no cup, so the only way we can get points in Micronesia is by winning the top flight, however that may be a lot more difficult than once was in Tuvalu. You see, with Manu Laeva we only needed to play five games to complete a league season, and in the two years we were there, the league title came quite easily to us. However, in Micronesia it will be tougher than ever before, this will be our biggest challenge of Scale the Tower 3.0 so far. In the Pohnpei Premier League, yes there are still 6 teams but, you play 20 fixtures across the season which spans between March and August. I have called a few of my old buddies from Manu Laeva to come and join me here at Outer Islands and they seemed pretty eager to join the next step of our journey. Instantly the best winger in the league we have confirmed the signature of Alopua Seloto, a little Tuvaluan lad who got countless minutes for Manu Laeva in the 2024 campaign. Alopua stood out to me as a transfer target with Outer Islands as I remembered back to the 13 goal contributions in all competitions with Manu Laeva, he was a star. The next man to follow him from Manu Laeva was a striker that goes by the name of Etimoni Taaroua. When managing Manu, I saw him as a wonderkid for the league, a man that every little Tuvaluan lad would look up to as a role model, his 10 goals in all competitions in the 2024 season made him a name on the O.I. teamsheet. The next to follow in the footsteps was Paolo Tima, who didn't do much in the way of goals or assists, but he would die for the shirt and that is the sort of passion we are looking for here in Micronesia. There was one more player to make the transition from Manu Laeva to Outer Islands and that was Toua Ituaso, who was constantly putting balls into the box, but Alopua Petoa's old legs couldn't reach them. Now you've met the new signings let's get into the season. In this post we will be showing the first 10 games of the 2025 Pohnpei Premier League season in detail, and going into it all, I'm excited, are you? We kicked off our time at Outer Islands with a 3-0 victory over International FC B. Alopua Seloto and Etimoni Taaroa both got themselves on the scoresheet in the opening game of the season, with Seloto also getting himself an assist for Taaroa's goal to pick up man of the match. One of the stand out players in this game that didn't get the match rating he deserved was Paolo Tima, he was constantly bombing down the wing and quite frankly, he excited me whenever he touched the ball. Just absolute domination in the second game of the season against COM-FSM. Clearly they wanted to hold 6 so we gave it to them. Alopua Seloto genuinely deserves a statue put outside the ground. He's played two games for the club and has already had two man of the match awards and 2 goals, you can't stop the man. I feel the squad I have built is so strong that we could genuinely just take the full league by storm. After the signings I made we went from being predicted sixth to now being predicted second. I'm wanting the league title. Next up we have the team that are predicted above us in Island Pitbulls. What a win! Seloto bagging a hat-trick of assists and Toua Ituaso really warming up to the idea of Micronesian football. I feel I have built a dynasty here, time to go and take over the world lads. In all fairness, 4 players in the squad are from my back to back title winning Manu Laeva side. I feel more at home here than I did in Tuvalu and that is saying something. The players are playing for the fans, for the badge, for me and for the love of the game. Currently, we are top of the league and looking to extend that league with a win against Island Chihuahua! WHAT A WIN! Island Chihuahua, the team that have won the league in 2023 and 2024, taken down by Okoronkwo's Islands. Absolute scenes in the away end for the full 90 minutes, you can't knock the fans, they know how to put on a show. The same certainly goes for the group of lads that we have here. Ituaso will certainly be a big miss however Alopua Seloto and Etimoni Taaroa and bringing some of that Manu Laeva flow to Outer Islands and I am loving watching this team work together this well. John "JJ" Jonathan is one of the greatest strikers I have witnessed throughout the three FMs of doing this challenge. The striking partnership between John and Etimoni Taaroa cannot be ignored, they compliment each other perfectly. Pippen Ongrung made a big thing about getting game time and now that Toua Ituaso is injured I thought it was the perfect time to slot him in, and honestly, he's not that bad. Everyone has their off days and that also goes for God's. Alopua Seloto didn't have the greatest game, but he will be back in the next one. International B were certainly an improved team and there attacking presence was shown a lot more in this game than it was when we played them on the opening day of the season. Seloto back on the scoresheet we love to see it. Unfortunately this is our first game that we haven't won this season and I'm worrying that it may spike a bad run of form with drawing and potentially even losing games in the next few. Thankfully my worries were struck aside when we defeated Island Pitbulls by four goals to three. I was panicking at 3-2 down however we were able to pull it back and a part of me knew that the full way through. Tried rotating the squad a little bit and clearly we only need a few main starters to win the game and that doesn't even include Alopua Seloto! Our first ever league loss in our history of managing and it comes in Season Three. That's okay though, we can learn a lot from this game. We learn that "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is utter crap! And we also learn that you win some you lose some. This season is going to be a lot tougher from this point, we have been shown that we aren't just a robot club that will just beat any team put in front of us. But it's a blip, we will be back at our usual ways soon. There we go! I told you guys we'd be back, I'm trying something out to see if without our "main" starting XI we can still win games and clearly we can! John Jonathan is the only man we need, he can run this team all by himself. Outer Islands are proving that you don't need to be predicted first to finish first, you just have to believe in yourself. Predictions are exactly what they say, predictions. What some guy thinks is going to happen, you just have to prove all the haters wrong and keep winning! Right... I think we will go back to the usual starting eleven for the next post. In the last 10 game stretch we have something to prove to Micronesia. We need to show that we are worthy of winning games and winning trophies! Like I said after a previous game, you win some you lose some, don't let that get us down! I believe in the squad and I believe that we will be champions this season! Thank you all for reading Episode Four of my Scale the Tower 3.0. In the next one we will finish off the 2025 season in Micronesia and hopefully lift another one of those league title things. This is how the league table is looking as we end this post off: We are still sat top of the league with a five point gap to COM-FSM in second. If we had won those games we had drawn and lost however, that gap would be thirteen points, so I am a bit disappointed that we haven't done that or at least close to it. Also I realised I didn't post the spreadsheet at the end of Episode Three like I was supposed to so I will do it now, do bear in mind that some of the spreadsheet is not complete yet for this season e.g. the league finishing position and the points total. Thank you all for reading.

3 - SCALE THE TOWER 3.0 2024 SEASON REVIEW Okay... so I probably have some explaining to do. During the season break two jobs were available, and that was Turawa Urban Council of Kiribati, and Tabil of Micronesia. Tabil were in the second division of Micronesia, so I felt like it would not be home having to manage them for a full season before even fighting to get some points on the board. So I waited for another job to become available. I did apply for TUC during this time, however they did not want me to be their boss, and instead took a man from Kiribati, which on a whole makes a lot more sense. No more jobs came available and we decided to stay in Tuvalu with Manu Laeva, I have already built a squad able to challenge to win every cup and the league this year, so I wholeheartedly believe that anyway this is the better place for us to be at the current moment in time. With the free transfers made, and the transfers I made over the summer period, we will be a force to be reckoned with ahead of the 2024 campaign. As you may have noticed , this isn't a "league" review or a "cup" review. I have decided that instead of doing that I will do one long season review at the end of every season for you guys to enjoy. Without further ado let's get into the competitions! The first competition to finish was the Tuvalu Games as we crashed out in the Group Stage of the competition. I don't know how it happened, Tofaga absolutely dominated us when we played them, and Vaoloa just got lucky with a draw against us, we won't slip up like this again! We've done it again. Unfortunately unable to win all five games, but we had the title wrapped up after four games which allowed to sit back and chill out against Nauti. No stress in that last game of the season, but genuinely so proud of the lads, 3 goals conceded in a league season is special. I was panicking after Tamanuku got given a penalty and thought the fortunes would completely turn around, however the first time I've ever seen this in Tuvalu, A KEEPER SAVED A PEN! And don't worry, I won't keep you lot waiting all day, here's the lads lifting the trophy: Absolute scenes. I couldn't compose myself this time and look chill, I could only give a round of applause. Anyhow, what a league season for the Manu Laeva lads. We did get out of the groups in the other 3 competitions, so our Manu story isn't quite over yet! Also with the Cup Win Half rule, that means we get 5 points for that title win, since we have already won this competition with Manu Laeve the points are halved. It was time for the NBT Cup, cruised through the group stage against 3 sides in our division. We had Vaoloa in the Semi Final, and it one of the most stressful ways possible, we lost in the Semis. A 117th minute equaliser from Vaoloa let the game go to penalties and we went through 9 penalty takers before finding the victors in Vaoloa. Unfortunately - even though we were rooting for Vaoloa to win their second ever trophy - Nauti managed to beat them in the National Bank of Tuvalu Cup Final to lift the NBT Cup trophy. We move onto the Independence Cup, where there is a slight glimmer of hope that a cup competition could be won here at Manu Laeva. Utter termoil. We fail to win against B-Division side Lakena United in the final, and this confirms what I have been feeling the past few weeks. I knew I was going to leave Manu Laeva at the end of the season anyway, but some jobs were available, and I was certainly up for an interview. I still had the Christmas Cup to play, so I wanted to request in the interview if I could play the Christmas Cup before joining my new side. This was not an option. A tough decision had to be made and I said goodbye to the fans, the staff and the players over at Manu Laeva, as we headed off for a little Micronesian adventure.

SCALE THE TOWER 3.0 2023 CUP SEASON REVIEW After a rather unexpected title win, we set our sights on the cups that were remaining. In Tuvalu there are four cup competitions and they all work the same way, two groups that consist of four teams. The top two sides from each group progress to a semi final-final stage of the competition. Unluckily for us, we don't get to play the group stage part of the cups for this season, as when I had taken the job, all of the group stage games had already been completed, and we made it out of two of those! These are Tuvalu Games and the Christmas Cup. These competitions also include some teams from the division below. As you will know if you read @CapLFC450's first post in this thread, I have already gained 10 points from my league win, however there are still 10 points up for grabs in the two cups. I would get 5 from winning Tuvalu Games and another 5 from winning the Christmas Cup. Let's go win some more trophies! Before we get into Tuvalu Games Semi Final against Nauti, I would like to say that I have made some signings from other teams in my league (players that are better on paper etc.) however they don't come in until June, meaning we won't have them available to us for use in Tuvalu Games, but they will be at the club for the Christmas Cup. Without further ado - and a bit of a shaky hand because it's my first cup match with Manu Laeva - we headed forward, simulating the 30 day gap in between the end of the league season and the start of the cups. I saw Nauti, and after the annihilation we gave them on the last day of the league season, I was quite confident about how this game would end up. Oh Jesus, Lord, Mary and Joseph, what has gone on here. So first of all, we gifted them a penalty, SECOND of all, Paulo Lotonui - one of the star players from the league - scores an own goal trying to pass it back to the keeper. Then finally, we let Afelau Ituaso run through our entire team to score their third. I guess I just lost my first game?! Huh, so this is what losing feels like. We had a 7 month break between this match and the Christmas Cup Semi Final, so I'll let you readers at home hop in a time travelling machine and I'll see you all there. Right, can I just please have a stress free game. We did progress to the Christmas Cup Final, however we did so by winning in extra-time thanks to Sepetaio Seloto. Great performance from the lads, unlucky to let our two goal lead slip back to a 2-2 before full-time, but we still go into the final. Anyways, who do we get drawn up against in the final? OH NO! Do you know how embarrassing it would be to lose to Nauti FC's B team in the Christmas Cup Final! I don't think I'd be able to show my face anywhere near a Manu Laeva fan again. Anyways, roll on the final and hope for the best... Right I can explain what happened here... The youth intakes had just come through, they had an overpowered youth intake and that is why we lost to Nauti B, end of! We have failed at the opportunity to gain five more points in the OFC4 Stage of Scale the Tower. Just so you guys know aswell, that was in no way shape or form a penalty, the referee gave a dodgy handball - that was most certainly not a handball - and then we somehow concede to it? And then lose on penalties? And our second best striker Nelesone Musika is the one who misses the penalty? No way man, honestly I'm very unhappy about this. Before I mentioned not being able to show my face near a Manu Laeva fan again if we lost the final Nauti B. I will stick to promise, I resign from my post as the Manu Laeva manager. Where is next for Sir Jimmy Okoronkwo? Find out in the next blog of Scale the Tower 3.0!

SCALE THE TOWER 3.0 2023 LEAGUE SEASON REVIEW (V) Hello everyone. First of all I would like to thank @CapLFC450 for the opportunity to do this save with him again, for a 3rd FM running. When setting up this save, I had a vague idea of the leagues and what clubs I was interested in started at, there was Temana Team, the club I started at in FM22. There we Nauti, to go rebuild a dynasty I kind of destroyed by losing my rag and retiring the save. But we ended up some place different, a place CapLFC and I are rather familiar with. Sir Jimmy Okoronkwo was hired by FC Manu Laeva, the side that Cap started his FM23 Scale The Tower with! When we arrived in Tuvalu, Manu Laeva were predicted to finish 6th out of 6 teams in the Tuvalu A-Division, 600-1 to win the title. I had no hope, but after bringing in some well known faces in Alopua Petoa and Paulo Lotonui, we set sail for the league season. The transfer window was nearly up when I got the job, so we were looking for any possible way to make some signings, I managed to pull off some deals for players that were on Amateur contracts in the A-Division. Once again we were struck by a hit of bad luck and the transfer window slammed shut on our fingers, and many signings were lost. As we prepared for the opening day of the season, more players with "unattached" contracts became interested in joining on the journey with Manu Laeva, and I saw a glimmer of hope that we might not finish bottom of the table in the 2023 campaign. The day before the opening game I said my prayers and checked the season preview, we were predicted to finish 4th, 50-1 to win the title. We were up to face Tofaga, and boy was I excited. You know that nervous shiver you get as you walk up the steps to enter the ground of your favourite club, yeah. It was my first game in management and I was scared alright, don't mug me off for it. Anyways it was a stressful outing, but you can always rely on a regen left-back and Alopua Petoa to win you a match. Three points out of the first game was an amazing start, however could we continue that heading into the next game against Vaoloa? In my save last year they were the whipping boys of the league. They would always lose and very rarely finished the league season with a point to there name. They seemed to put up a decent fight in this one, with me having to come back from 2-2 to win the match 4-2. But this was the game where I realised that the group of lads I have at my hands could actually be the real deal. Two wins from the opening two game in a five game campaign? Surely we wouldn't be finishing bottom of the table. The next game coming up we knew was going to be hard, Ha'apai United had always put up a strong fight whenever we had come up against them in previous itterations. However I had my silver suit on with my lucky pink tie and we went to work. It didn't take long for Ha'apai to find out our weaknesses and take the lead, however we had some will power, some real fighting strength! And the ability to role around the floor and get a penalty. However I am so glad we did that because that spurred us on! After this game we had nine points and were sat top of the league, cruising to victory. With us playing Tamanuku in the next game of the season, it all came down to this. A win here and we would have done the unthinkable, we would've won the Tuvaluan A-Division. Before the game we were sat top of the league with nine points and Tamanuku were in second on seven. The team in third (Nauti) were on five points, making it mathematically impossible for them to catch up if we had won this game. My heart was pounding. As I sat there, watching men dressed all in black hold up black and white flares it made me think, if we win the title I would have won my first major honour after only four games of managing the Green & White club of Manu Laeva. I saw the light, we were all prepared for the match, however not as prepared as Tamanuku as they scored early. I wasn't worried because I saw what we were able to do against Ha'apai... and look what happens next. WE WON IT! And once again our fortunes had turned around due to an Alopua Petoa penalty. Get this man a statue built outside the ground, because him and Teoliga Fakailoga had just won us the game! Also hats off to Afelee Valoa, who has now played two games in a row without injuring himself or getting sent off. But with that win comes a trophy in the cabinet, and my god was I overjoyed to see my team lift it. The confetti, the fireworks, it just confirmed what we new before the final whistle was blew, that Manu Laeva were champions of the A-Division for the first time since 2017! You can even see me trying to stay composed on the left hand side with the owner and director of the club, in my silver suit with - of course - my lucky pink tie. However it wasn't over, the perfect league campaign would not have been complete without fifteen points from a possible fifteen. We saw Nauti on the fixture list, and I gave a chuckle, remembering back to those times on FM23 of winning and losing penalty shootouts, it just brought me back seeing there Stoke-like badge. Yet we moved, Nauti were the last on the hitlist and we were here to fork shirt up. I felt like a proud Mama Bear watching her little baby Bear scratch it's own back on an oak tree for the first time. We had done it, I had won the league title, and won every game in the league season to do it. A proud moment for myself, Sir Jimmy Okoronkwo, and the Manu Laeva ultras, who came out in there numbers for all five games this season. This concludes the 2023 season review. Thank you all for reading, make sure to stick around because the 2023 Cup review will be released shortly after you read this. So take care, and I will see you all soon, goodbye.

Hello everyone, just a quick reminder before we start posting about our saves, this is a DUOS forum post! So we are both putting our saves on here, I hope this doesn't confuse any of you guys and can understand the difference and remember which one is which, thanks.

EPISODE ONE Just like any old soul starting a Journeyman, I loaded up the leagues that appealed to me the most, and set up my manager no coaching badges and a Sunday League Footballing reputation. I put my backpack on a went off. There we a few places on my checklist, a few vacancies that excited me, so off I was to go to as many job interviews as possible and get my name a known one to the world. Off I was headed then to the tune of a popular Agatha Christie novel "Destination Unknown". Which was what it was like in the few days leading up to my first job interview, I was nervous, I had struggled eating and, just like my cats had started chewing on my own fur. But then I received an email, a club that had caught my eye in the job centre were intrigued by the possibility of working with a manager that had no experience or reputation, which honestly amused me, however off I was, booking a train to the luscious area of Taunton! 'Twas the 2nd January 2024 when Taunton came calling, previous manager Rob Dray had left them in quite the mess and it looked destined that I was going to be the one to pick it all up. The Peacocks sat bottom of the Vanarama National League South and with their fans having little to no hope in the clubs survival, seemed set on for relegation. Kevin Sturmey welcomed me into his office with a warm cup of tea and a dream. I looked at him bedazzled as I tasted what surely was the greatest tea any human on the planet could've made. "Look Vaughan, I don't want to waste too much of your time but we are in dire need of a saviour, and your anonymity astounds us." Kevin began. Greetings came from my end too as I began to ramble on about his tea making skills. I mean is it something he does special with the bag? 2 milks 1 sugar? 1 milk 2 sugars? Besides the point. After a long hard 15 minutes of talking went by, I found myself leaving the office, still unsure if I was unemployed or not, and still wondering if I'd have to work 2 other jobs alongside being the manager of Taunton to feed myself and my cats. I waited at the train station for half an hour when finally my train came to take me back to Costa Del Sunderland. * The Next Day * I received a call from a man claiming to be the owner of a Welsh side known as something Celtic, I couldn't really understand how to spell the first name of the side over the telephone. He had requested my time to do a Skype call as an interview, to save me the pain of having to travel back down south two days running. I said of course and booted up my laptop. He had given me a way into the call and I heard a ringing noise as I was wondering about Kevin's wonderful tea from the day prior. But I had to get my head on straight as I was preparing for an interview with Scott Kinsella, the chairman over at Cwmbran Celtic. We exchanged pleasantries and once again, talking led to more talking and I kept thinking I was digging myself down a rabbit hole my bringing up the tea at Taunton, so I kept my mouth shut when it came into my mind. 30 minutes had passed before Scott had to leave, and I genuinely felt as if this side were the right choice. Yes, I would have to relocate, and yes, the pay wasn't ideal, but who doesn't like working night shift at Nissan when your job as a football manager doesn't pay as high as you thought. Thankfully after this interview I didn't have to go back to a train station to find my way back home because I already was home, and that was the beauty of it. The comfort of my mother's spare room, I mean comfort of my own home. After the interview with Scott Kinsella - a really nice bloke by the way - I started to look around google for Cwmbran Celtic, to see what else I could find out about the club. They played in the Cymru South in Wales, currently sat 12th/16 teams, and most media predictions had them sitting higher up the table. After previous manager James Kinsella (no relation to Scott) was sacked for poor league position, I did begin to wonder whether there was any point going to Cwmbran Celtic as they seemed in a tough position. It took a few more days for that poxy ringtone to come back, however it did, and you'll never guess who it was?! Kevin and his gorgeous tea wanted to invite me down to Wordsworth Drive to have a look around a get familiar before being announced as the boss later in the day. Immediately my face lit up, I knew that with this happening truly anything was possible! As I racked my brain for the next thing to say, I came out with something completely different to what I'd thought I would say... "May I have a few days to think it over?" Like what! I thought for certain I wanted to take this job with no hesitation, however clearly my mouth and brain are on totally different wavelengths! "May I have a few days"!? I sounded like an utter clown, surely Kevin would just say that it was now or never coz they had other managers lined up... Nope! Kevin and his lovely tea struck again! Giving me an extra week to think about it. I wondered what I could do with my next week to gather my thoughts, maybe I'd just sit alone in my room and think about the possibilities of what could happen after I took over the job at The Peacocks, or maybe I could travel to different places of the globe and go for even more job offers, only time will tell, and that silly little ringtone of mine of course. Once again that ringtone went off, with me thinking it would be Kevin to ask if I'd had any more thought on pursuing the Taunton role, I picked it up and answered "Hello, Hello, Vaughan speaking". Sure enough, it wasn't Kevin nor Scott that answered my greeting, more a strong voiced man with an accent asking me to come to Croatia to interview for a post open at Solin! This was great, it gave me time to clear my head, and have a few days away in the mean time. I don't even need to tell you guys about the interview (other than the fact I aced it and will have Miroslav on the phone tomorrow begging me to take the role) because the holiday was a blast! Now I am a 20 year old Englishman, trying to get a job as the manager of a Football club and somehow, I still enjoyed my little solo trip to Croatia, what a time I had! However while I was in Croatia I got a call from a familiar voice. It was Scott asking me if I wanted to take the Cwmbran Celtic job. I had to get myself dressed and packed quick, because even though I had enjoyed my time in Croatia, I saw it more as a few days away rather than a permanent position, so sorry Miroslav, but no can do. As for Scott's offer, I went and had a look around the place upon my return to Great Britain. The whole place had a really wholesome feel you know, like I was meant to be there, the staff were nice, Scott was as nice in person as he was over our Skype call, and I even got to meet some of the players too (although I think their thought process was to get on the good side of the new manager before he even got the job to be playing as much football as physically possible.) Scott and I had a little private discussion in his office and came to an agreement that I would become the manager at Cwmbran Celtic. 15 minutes later I was out on the pitch holding up a yellow scarf with "Celtic" plastered across it. I had only been here for a few hours, and it already felt like it was home. Scott even offered to let me sleep in his spare room until I had found somewhere else to move into (or until I got the sack.) But there we have it folks! That is where we end it for Episode One, hope you have enjoyed and I will see you all next time for more of this story. If you have enjoyed reading this then please let me know in a comment below this, love and guidance to you all!

CONTINUED SAVE NOT BLOGGED

EPISODE 0 - LAYING OUT THE FOUNDATIONS Hello everybody, my name is Vaughan and I'm here to blog my next FM24 save! Starting out unemployed with 0 badges has always appealed to me, however I have never really been able to stick to something quite like it. Since the Tier 10 English database has arrived (and with some side motivation from WorkTheSpace releasing his Episode One of Park to Prem) I have decided to kick start my first blogged save of FM24. One of my main aims would be to get a job at a team local to where I am from in real life and sort of work from there. LEAGUES LOADED: England (All Leagues) Ireland (All Leagues) Northern Ireland (All Leagues) Scotland (All Leagues) Wales (All Leagues) France (Top 2) Italy (Top 2) Germany (Top 2) Spain (Top 2) Portugal (First Division) Netherlands (First Division) To some of you this may seem like a lot of leagues, to others it may seem minimal (depending on what you game on.) Now I know this is a very short blog but I was just attempting to do a quick post letting you all know about the save we have on our hands. Episode 1 will be out very shortly once I have found myself a job and got myself kickstarted into my new role as boss.

VRD - SCALE THE TOWER 2.0 BLOG FOUR We're back with another Cup review with Nauti FC in the Scale the Tower Challenge. After winning the league, I was pretty confident that I could dominate the cups and get the quadruple. I was still assured that the players I had could bring me even more glory, but I never thought that it would end the way that it did. With the Tuvaluan Cup up first, and a chance to win it for the second time in a row. I wasn't entirely fussed about winning this one, with the fact that I had won it before, the points would be halved, meaning I would only get 2.5 points for this trophy (3 because you always round in STT). Well then, I had been drawn in the group with only two other sides in for the Tuvaluan Cup, they were Vaoloa and Manu Laeva. We had Vaoloa up first. Before the game had started, we had sold Alopua Petoa, I just thought he wasn't reliable to be honest with you, with the amount of time he goes down injured in a season, it just wasn't a smart idea to have him playing, because his teammates wouldn't be able to get used to having him up front. We sold him to none other than Vaoloa, so obviously I was a bit frightened that he would scored against me and make me look like an idiot, but here we go. The group stages were interesting, Alopua Petoa didn't score against us (thank god) and we kept the games relatively pointed in our direction of winning. I wasn't entirely too happy about the result against Vaoloa, but I was already confirmed out of group after it because Manu Laeva had beaten them by a pretty large score line. Then after defeating Manu Laeva to finish top of the groups, I knew that we could go far in this competition. The Semi Final was up next, and we faced Tofaga. It's feeling like all the Semi-Finals are going to either Extra Time or Extra Time and Penalties at this rate! In the game I wasn't too impressed as they still had the majority of highlights. But our keeper did well on the penalties. Scoring one for us and saving one of theirs. All round pretty happy to have gone through to the final. What a result! I subbed on Togavai Stanley in the 71st minute as a replacement for Hosea Sente up top. He managed to score the equaliser to take us through to extra time, and then two more in extra time to confirm a 4-2 victory over Tamanuku, a side that had proven themselves as a tough team to face! Wonderful! Another 3 points on the board for the stage, and another trophy to show off to other owners when they are trying to hire me for other clubs. The group stages for the Independence Cup were very intriguing. Losing heavily to Tamanuku, almost certain I was going out. And then just dominating the fixture against Ha'apai and confirming that I was going into the Semi Finals. YOU LITERALLY CAN NOT WRITE THIS! In the Semi Final we faced Tamunuku, the side that absolutely tore us apart in the group stage... lovely. And of course we suffered another loss from them. What else would you expect? Typical, typical, typical... I knew that I was going out as soon as I saw that I was facing Tamanuku. The penalty that was given away in the dying embers of the game was an awful decision too, what sort of referee gives a penalty but doesn't book our player for the foul? I swear this game is against me! So I said to myself, do I really want to stick around for this Christmas Cup? The answer was no, I had had enough after this game, after what I had been shown by the club. So I resigned, I decided that my time at Nauti was up, and I started searching for another job. In the next blog I will show you all the job that I eventually get, and show you around the team a little. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog, as always you can follow my twitch at @atlastv__ and my TikTok at @AtlasGaming717 thank you all for reading, see you all later!

VRD - SCALE THE TOWER 2.0 BLOG THREE Back again after not too long of a break for the 2023 League Review, and boy, you're not going to want to miss this one. After winning the Tuvaluan Cup, I set my sights on the quadruple next year, with one more cup being brought into play. The Christmas Cup would be played after the Independence Cup, and subsequently, over the Christmas period, shock. The quad would not be easy though, we would have to first win the league, and then aim to keep that form up for the whole of season, aiming to win 3 separate cups throughout the season. Well without further or do, let's get into the 2023 League Review. I hoped to start off strong to this campaign, playing Ha'apai United first, the team that finished one spot above us in the 2022 season. It would be a tough first outing, but I knew that with the right motivation, the lads could find a way to seal the victory and take the three points. And that we did! Togavai Stanley was back on the scoresheet twice more, proving himself now, as one of Tuvalu's best strikers. The way he plays on the ball is brilliant, one of the minimal downsiders to his game is the lack of awareness. He gets caught offside all the time, that's something I'll tell the coaches to bring up in training. The team played excellently, I think that our goalkeeper in Imo Nukualofa is finally gelling in with the rest of the team. Making a penalty save that ultimately won us the game, and props to Taulau Ionatana too. He put in a risky challenge right near the end of the game to deny Ha'apai a guaranteed scoring opportunity, giving them a free kick which was placed directly into the hands of Nukualofa. Next up was Tamanuku, a side that have proven themselves as a tough opposition, and were in the title fight this year, was expecting more of the same this season. Wasn't too disappointed with this result, we were outplayed completely yet still somehow came away with a point. Once again Togavai Stanley showing his worth to the club with a goal and another quite late on challenge to stop a scoring opportunity. We were looking very good in this new season, and with the side finally gelling together in the 4-3-3, I think we were certainly ready to make that title push this season! The next game we faced Lakena United, a team that I played five times last season, once in the league, once in each cups group stages and once in each cups final. Basically knowing how they set up, I aimed to counter exactly how they play. They had attempted to hold possession in all the other games, so I set up to do the exact same thing. And it sort of worked. The possession was more of an even split, I think that the only reason they had more possession than me was ultimately because they are used to playing that way, they are used to attempting to break down opposition teams by playing the ball around and waiting for openings. As you can see, our players got a little bit hot-headed, but at least there were no reds coming our way in this one. The 4th game of the season saw us face Tofaga, a side that we had beaten 3 times in total last season, and I was looking for the same again, a convincing victory to us, so lets show you how I did then... I did exactly that! My side dominated the game, and tore them apart on the counter attacks. Some of the best football I have watched in Tuvalu whilst managing Nauti. This game brung me a lot of joy, it almost felt as if I was in a bit of a slump, 1/3 wins, only 33%, but this win topped it back up to winning 50% of our games this season, hopes were high for the title. With Manu Laeva sat top again however, we needed a miracle. Against Vaoloa it was an interesting game, they saw more of the ball, however we dominated the game. To be honest with you, this game doesn't stand too strong in my memory, I just remember two more goals from Togavai Stanley, he was quickly becoming one of my favourite players in the side. Vaoloa did dominate the possession of the ball, which may have struck us hard, but Stanley should've certainly scored more than he did, but I couldn't be upset with this result, especially when it's another 3 points on the board for the lads. I needed Manu Laeva to lose or draw to hold onto my top spot, and they did! They drew 1-1 against Tofaga, although we did see Ha'apai United win, which also brought them into the title race. With one more game left in the league season, we did now need a miracle, to stop Manu Laeva becoming back-to-back Champions, and bringing the title back to its rightful owners in Nauti FC. Who could've written this, we end up playing Manu Laeva on the last game of the season, needing a point to stop them winning the title, and a win to confirm it. Ha'apai United were to play after us, so we would need a win to watch the lads lift the trophy today. Unfortunately a win is not what we received, but we got absolutely dominated by Manu Laeva, somehow we clinched onto the draw (probably the same reason why Nukualofa received Man Of The Match). This game had my heart beating more times a minute than amount of digits in pi, and with all our hope lying on Lakena United to either beat or draw to Ha'apai to seal us the title. Once again Kit and I were sat in a discord call for this game, me screensharing, and Kit watching nervously alongside me, this was it, the deciding game. The game that decided the fate of my job at the end of the 2023 campaign. Would I resign, or would I stay for one more season to have another good crack at the title? Lakena had done it! Lakena, the team that I would've considered our "rivals" before this game, confirmed the title for Nauti FC in the 2023 campaign! I was buzzing! Granted I didn't do it in the same way that Kit did it with Manu Laeva by winning every game, but I did it and that was the main thing. 10 more points on the board in the OFC4 stage! What a year this had been so far! And we still have 3 cups to go! There's the screenshot just confirming that we won the title. I am absolutely buzzing with my side that we have manage to achieve this! This is a statement to the other sides in the division, and the sides in Kiribati and Micronesia showing them that I am available from 2024! Anyways that's it for today, thank you for showing your love and support on this series so far. As always you can follow my twitch at @atlastv__ and my TikTok at @AtlasGaming717 thank you all for reading, and I will see you again next time! Much love.

VRD - SCALE THE TOWER 2.0 BLOG TWO Following a rather underwhelming start to life in Tuvalu, and finishing 4th in the League Season, we headed for the cups. With hopes high heading into these, I knew it was time to smash some points on the board in Season One. I had made minimal signings in between the league fixtures and cup fixtures, Steve Gwynn-Jones being the main pickup from Kiribatian side Abaiang. I also signed a player from Kits side in Manu Laeva, a little player known as Jelly Selau, but we'll certainly talk about him more later. It took a while to simulate forward to the cup games, but when it came, I was prepared. Both cups ran in the same way, two groups, one consisting of 4, the other consisting of 3. The top two sides from each group would be put into the Semi Final stage before the winner being put into the final. Since there were only 7 teams in the competition, I was really looking forward to my journey. The Tuvuluan Cup was up first, and my group looked relatively easy, facing off against the teams that finished 3rd, 6th and 7th. We had Ha'apai United up first, and after finishing the season off strong against Tofaga with a 2-0 victory. I was ready to continue this winning form heading into this one. And that we did! What a performance and another win by two goals! Togavai Stanley proved himself as an absolute weapon up top, coming on for Alopua Petoa, who once again got himself injured for a decent span of time, wonderful! They scored two pretty easy goals, leaving us able to take the game away, and sail to first in the group after the first game. In the next game we faced up against Lakena United, a team that had proved themself as a tough side against me, however they only finished 6th in the Tuvalu A-Division, which made me skeptical as to how far they could get in this competition. Yep... well... not the result I was hoping for against a team that finished lower than me in the league table. We had a lot of chances and just didn't bag them, wasn't enough to take away even a point in this fixture, which to be honest with you, was quite disappointing. Last but not least in the group stage was Vaoloa FC, they finished the league rock bottom, not scoring a single point in the whole league season, it had to be this game where we confirmed it. Other results had gone our way and we only needed a point to confirm 2nd place in the group and go through to the Semi-Finals... could we do it? Yes we could! A 0-0 bore draw saw us through, I set up the team to defend, I knew there was no point going for the win on this one because it wasn't needed, we just needed to scrape a draw, and that's what we did. Role on the Semi-Finals! After seeing the draw, we faced up against Kit's side in Manu Laeva, a team that had proven themselves in the league, coming away as Champions, they were probably my main competition to win these trophies. Phew. We got away with getting a 3-2 victory against them. Akelei Lotonui's goal was wonderful. A free kick from the left-hand side of the goal, slotted perfectly top right, wondergoal from our midfielder, and we moved into the final. Tensions were high on the discord call between me and Kit. Could I do it? Who would I be facing between Lakena United and Tofaga? All these questions ran through my mind into the run up of the final, and well... we'd be facing the side that beat us in the group stage, Lakena United. We certainly proved ourselves better in this one! I told you we'd talk more about Jelly Selau later, and we certainly are going to, he scored 2 off the bench and got Man Of The Match in a game that saw us take the trophy and take 5 points in the Scale The Tower Challenge! Wonderful. It was really nerve-wracking towards the end of the game, seeing Lakena pull two back against me, but it was really about how well we played as a team, the passing was stringing together better than I had ever seen before, the amount of attacks we had generated was immense, I was really starting to enjoy managing this side, and the team I had created while managing here. On another note, my C team managed to win the same cup! It was only for teams in the B-Division but still it was massive! Next up was the Independence Cup, a trophy that would be brilliant to win, and it would let me take another 5 points early on in this OFC4 Stage. Excitement built up between Kit and I, hoping that at least one of us could come away with points from this one. My group looked a lot tougher in this one, we had two of the same teams in Lakena United and Vaoloa, but Ha'apai United had been replaced by Tamunuku, a side that were really close to winning the title before Manu Laeva snatched it. First up in the Group Stage we faced Vaoloa, the side I was expecting to heavily defeat. They hadn't really brought in any more players, they hadn't made the team any better, realisctically, I should've been looking at a 4-0/5-0 victory here. Lovely 5-0 win lads! Incredible! No but in all seriousness, I don't think I've seen the side play much worse. When I was using the 4-4-2 it wasn't as bad as this, we had more shorts than them granted, but we shouldn't be letting a side that had 0 points in the league take 60% possession off us, that is absolutely disgraceful and I can't begin to say how disappointed I am with that result. The next two games were exceptional, we dominated both of them, taking two victories and finishing top of the group. Alopua Petoa was showing himself as one of the better players I had, and I was loving it, he was balling out, he definitely deserved to be playing in a more prestigious league e.g. American Samoa. With Kit also bringing in Petoa, it also just displays how good of a player he must be if he plays in both of our sides. The Semi-Final was up next and boy was I nervous. We had to play Tofaga, I had only played them once before in the league and we had defeated them by two goals to nil just after switching up to the 4-3-3. Pulses raised, tensions high, I began the game... A 120+1' minute equaliser from my new favourite player! TOGAVAI STANLEY! What a player he is and I don't even know where to start with this match review. The game went to extra time after it being level 1-1 at Full Time. They scored a 119' minute goal that was surely the winner. But no it wasn't Togavai Stanley was played through, with a beautiful ball from Steve Gwynn-Jones, as we level things up once and for all and move onto penalties. Penalties were even more nerve-wracking, but my goalkeeper played an absolute worldy, and we came off to play in yet another final! The final was coming up, and who else was I going to face than Lakena United. The side that have proven themselves so far as a tough opponent, and both finals set to include the same teams, but could we take them down again, and become double cup champions of the 2022 season! The answer was no. After a very hard fought game between two strong sides, they scored a goal early on in extra-time to cement the lead and make sure that they came away with one trophy from this season. I can't say that I am not disappointed about this defeat, but at least we didn't get dominated and we still took it to extra time. Thank you for everyone's support on this series so far. A lot of hard work gets put into this on mine and Kit's behalf, so if you guys can show some love that would be well appreciated. You can follow me on twitch at @atlastv__ and on TikTok at @AtlasGaming717, thank you all for reading, I'll see you again soon for the 2023 league campaign, too-da-loo.

@Hanys @MattyLewis11 @Mordurette @wearesporting would like to apologise for not continuing with this save. Started up a new save in Tuvalu, and a new save called Pep's Disciples, I hope you guys enjoy that as much as you guys enjoy them ones too! Once again, apologies for not continuing this save.

VRD - SCALE THE TOWER 2.0 BLOG ONE Hello everybody! As Kit mentioned in the blog above this one, this years iteration of the Scale the Tower challenge is once again, a duos game! I know in the last one I didn't commit myself to this save, however I am going to give this one my all to show off my Football Managing skill, and to show you lot what I can do! So as you guys know, we start this save off in the stage of OFC4. OFC4 consists of three nations in Oceania, which are Micronesia, Kiribati and Tuvalu. Before loading up the save, I didn't have a clue what nation I was wanting to start in and, to be honest, I was a little bit scared that I needed to pick a good starting, and boy did I do that! After looking at some of the clubs, and seeing that there was only seven teams in the Tuvalu A-Division, I set my sights to where I wanted to go. There was only two sides that really interested me in the A-Division, one was Tamanuku, I loved there badge, there kits were nice and they just looked like an all round generally decent club. But the other team that I thought was interesting was Nauti FC. There badge was similar to something I had seen before, the kits were the same colour and design as the team I support, it looked brilliant. It was now that I realised this is where I wanted to begin my Scale the Tower journey. Nauti FC. Here. We. Go. Now I thought it was hilarious that a team in Oceania, Tuvalu to be precise, had a very similar logo to English outfit Stoke City. After doing some digging, I didn't find any evidence that linked Nauti and Stoke City together, it must've just been a silly coincidence... I had a gander around the league, mainly checking the league rules, and found out that you only play six games in the whole league season, yes six! With the fact that the league was a farmers league, and it appeared like we were certainly the best team in the league, I had hope for the season ahead, fully believing that we were the side that were, in fact, going to win the A-Division this season, which would've started me off very nicely with 10 points on the board. I was announced as the Nauti manager, and all hopes were high for the season ahead. We looked good, we had an "alright" quality side (for teams around this level) and it certainly appeared that we were already a step above the other sides in the league. Well then... not the greatest start I could've wished for. A 2-2 draw against one of the more mid-table sides in the league, they were predicted to finish 4th in the league, so heading into the game, I was truly hoping to come out with all three points. To be honest with you, was disappointed with the teams performance on a whole, however Alopua Petoa really intrigued me, he was a good player on the ball and going forward, he scored both of our goals too! So I was excited for the season of using him and getting him involved in all the plays! Oh. That one went well. Alopua Petoa then got himself injured for 3 months, meaning he would miss the rest of the league season, lovely. Next up was the only team without a badge in the division, they were predicted bottom and 700-1 to win the league, if we don't do a demolition job on these, I will be heavily upset with the team. What a game and what a win! My first win as a manger, and my first win as manager of Nauti! Loved it! What a performance from the side, Togavai Stanley proved to be a decent replacement for Petoa, which would really help us for the rest of season. Even though our main goalscorer was injured, we still found a way to score some goals, Taufaiva Ionatana was playing in the Right Midfield slot and he certainly proved himself as a brilliant player. 2 goals and Man Of The Match! What a game! Come on boys keep it up! Next up we faced Tamanuku, the side that I was also looking to join before I decided to sign the dotted line at Nauti. Lets hope they didn't hold a grudge against us. Well if they did hold a grudge, they certainly did it correctly. We were outplayed for the entirety for the game. They were the better side and we basically ghosted against them, one win two draws from the opening three games, not dreadful to be fair, we looked like a decent side, and we hadn't lost a match yet! Hopeful heading into our next game against Manu Laeva that I could get a win, even though they were also a side pushing for the title this season. Right well then... Our Centre-Back (who is the best at penalties by the way) missed a penalty, and then got himself sent off. Six other yellow cards given to our team, we conceded to a man called Jelly Selau, who has confirmed that he is signing for us in July this year! He must be trying to prove to us how good he is. But the way to do it is not to score against me Jelly! First loss of the season, and the title was already out of our hands, was just hoping that we could defeat Ha'apai United in the next game, to at least make the season look like it was a close fight. However before we get into that I had other news to share. My C Team were ahead of my B team in the Tuvalu B-Division! I thought this was crazy to be honest. Along with the fact that we had three sides in this division! Wow, our team certainly looked good for the future coming up. I finally have decided to switch the tactic up after this game. If you look at this one, we tore them apart, twelve shots to their eight, 1.18 xG to their 0.98, 53% possession to their 47%. Something needed to change, and it wasn't the players, because they have already shown what they can do on their day. They've shown that their capable of scoring, they've shown that they're capable of creating viable attacks. We just needed to be finishing off said attacks. I didn't expect much from the last game of the season, especially considering I was playing the team that were still in the title fight. Here we go then, finally game of the A-Division season against FC Tofaga, let's ruin their hopes and dreams shall we! That's more like it boys! I changed the tactic up to a 4-3-3 and it has clearly worked! The lads strung passes together like prime Vauxhall Motors! Lovely football, took the game by storm, and surely ruined the dreams of FC Tofaga! I just hope the board keep there hope in me for the next season and don't sack me... After a fighting season, we have finished the division in 4th, with Manu Laeva taking the title! Thank you all for reading, I will be back at another time to show you guys the two cup competitions that take place in July and September respectively. I hope you guys have enjoyed the read, and I will see you all later!

PEP'S DISCIPLES #02 Well it was Borussia Dortmund that we had to face on the opening game of the season. Quite a tough test for a side that had a completely new style of football. With me trying to emulate the tactic of Guardiola closely, in the up coming 23/24 Premier League season, I will be trying to watch more Manchester City games to really get a feel for how he likes to set out his team, and how it works so well for him! Facing such an elite German side in Borussia Dortmund away from home in the first game of the season. I think it'll be a pretty hard fixture, the bookies odds don't see Leverkusen and Dortmund too far away from each other in the season preview, so lets make sure that this is shown here today and let's try get our first three points on the board! Up the Bayer! Well then... I didn't think I would be here after Matchday One talking about an own goal, a red card and three yellow cards, but here we are... The tactic apparently really doesn't work! Granted, we shared 64% of the possession in the game, but that's not good enough. Taking 5-0 losses like that against teams that we're predicted around in the league is deplorable, and I am utterly and truly disappointed with that result. I know it's early on in the save, but really debating switching up our style of play completely for the next game, as that, was f*cking dreadful. Well after deciding it was time for a switch up, I did a complete switch up, and decided for the next few games it was time to test out a 5 at the back formation, these are probably the players that will slot in, in these exact positions too. I have high hopes for the next game, facing Augsburg at home, a team that are predicted to face a relegation dog fight this season, should be a certainly winnable game. Now that is more like it! 5 at the back has certainly make a change! It looks like we finally have a way into European Qualification this season! Who would've thought that said way in would've been through using a 5-1-1-3 assymetric! Certainly not me! Anyways, the game went well, as you can see. Schick played astonishingly, as did Jonathan Tah in my personal opinion. I thought Diaby could've had a better game, as could Callum Hudson-Odoi, but you know, according to player ratings neither were as bad as Mitchel Bakker. That's the problem with playing on key highlights, I don't get to see my players make mistakes, or even make good challenges, I think from next game onwards, I will be using Extended Highlights. Before the next game against Hoffenheim, I have signed a new Centre-Half from 2. Bundesliga outfit St Pauli, Jakov Medic. His stats look decent, and I look forward to having him play in our side. And that is two wins from the first 3 games of the season! Granted the other was a 5-0 loss, but we move on, and we progress to success! I can't even think to pick one stand out player from this game, if I had to, it would probablies be Edmond Tapsoba, we would've certainly conceded without him being an absolute brick wall in the back line. Onto the next and final game of this blog. We face Mainz 05 away from home. Before the game was the UEFA Champions League Group Stage draw, since we weren't in seed one, I knew that there was going to be at least one team that we would most certainly lose to in the groups, however, I still prayed for some version of reality where I would face 3 easier sides and progress straight on to the Round of 16. To be completely honest, we got one of the easier draws out of the ones available, and I think 3 of the sides are on a similar level, and then you have AC Milan who will probably dominate the group and finish top with 18 points! But hey-ho, lets give it our best shot at qualification. Unfortunately we face our 2nd loss of the 4 games in the 22/23 Bundesliga season. And we can't get away with this one... another blatant loss, which clearly displays that it's not the tactic it's the team. However the tactic really helped in me in the previous two fixtures, so I am really unsure as to what the problem is in the side in the early stages of the season. I will be back for the next blog that will involve the month of September in 2022. Thanks for reading, take care now.

PEP'S DISCIPLES #01 Back again after not too long. And I have decided on my team that I will be starting with! There were six teams to choose from, those teams being: Arsenal Barcelona Bayer Leverkusen Burnley Leicester Manchester United I thought this was an even spread of teams, spread across three nations and four divisions, it really made it tougher to choose the team that I will begin this journey at. You had Burnley, which would've certainly made the save tougher, starting in the second division, however I would have a team that were cut out to play Premier League football, if I could get them promoted in Season One. Then you had Manchester United, Arsenal and Barcelona. Three teams that are already challenging at the top of their respective leagues, three teams that wouldn't necessarily be hard to complete the challenge with. Then there were the middle teams, or the Goldilocks teams; should I say. Bayer Leverkusen and Leicester City were two teams that I could certainly have challenged for at least top half football in the first season (with Leverkusen being a bit of a stronger side than Leicester). They weren't too good, they weren't too bad, they felt just right. In the end, after a long thinking period I decided to start my journey off at Bayer Leverkusen. A team that I could certainly have in the Champions League within the first few seasons, and a side that aren't really too far away from the clubs challenging for 2nd, my toughest challenge, would be trying to overhaul Bayern Munich and becoming the best team in my league, alongside trying to win the trophies that I need to, to make this challenge complete. The only problem that I had with starting in Germany was the fact that it would be hard to drop myself to the level of Burnley when the time comes, they were the team I planned to join second in this challenge... Here we are then. Arriving in Germany to finally be announced as the Bayer Leverkusen manager! After months of rumour and speculation, it is final! Pep Vaughaniola --> Bayer Leverkusen, Here. We. Go. Since this is a challenge revolving around Guardiola, the players he managed, and trying to emulate his success at said players currently managed clubs. I will be using a tactic that tries to copy the Pep way, within my best capabilities, try to attack more using fast-paced passing, shorter passing, and playing it out from the back. Hopefully this tactic can help me win games, and take Leverkusen to the top! With Wirtz injured for the start of the season, Amiri will be taking up the Box-to-Box Midfielder roles and Andrich taking up the Advanced Playmaker role. If Wirtz was fit, Amiri would be playing as the AP and Florian playing as the Box-to-Box. Early on I attempted to sell some of the ageing players in the squad, as it came to my realisation that we didn't have enough money to make the signings that would take the club to the next level. But did we even need new signings? Were we already at that level? These were the sort of questions I asked myself when simming through the first pre-season of this save. When I introduced myself to the players, I set high targets to aim for. Qualification for the Champions League (which is top 4 in the Bundesliga), reaching the DFB Pokal final and getting out of the group stage in the Champions League. Pretty bold considering I don't know what the groups are in the Champions League yet, and I don't know my "road to the final" in the DFB Pokal yet! Oh well if I set the bars higher then there's something hard to aim for. I normally wouldn't make a big deal over a friendly to be fair, but this was the first "Disciple Derby" (if you will) of the save, and it was quite a tough one for my boys. Manchester United at home in a friendly... let's see how we did. We lost! 1-0! But not worry though, it was only a pre-season friendly, the real test begins on the 30th September, the first round of the DFB Pokal. However before we get into that game, here is how pre-season went, it was a pretty bad pre-season if you look at it as a whole, but I see it as a building ground to create a start for the next season coming up. Unfortunately I am really disappointed with the result in this one, however it looks like the tactic is really reaching it's desired effect, which is to help us hold the ball. But only winning 2-1 against a 4th tier side is really upsetting, especially when I didn't really rotate the side at all. But you know, got to give the players time to adjust to the new tactic for them! Anyway that's gonna be it for the first blog. Hope you guys like the set up and how I have written it out. Until next time!

Well hello everybody. It's me back again with a new save, and the problem is with this one, I can't tell you how long it will last. Running this alongside a Scale the Tower duos save which I am doing with my buddy @CapLFC450 which we will be posting regular forum updates for that save, taking full inspiration from the Climb the Ladder save created by @TerminalPortugal. However this one is one that I will be doing on my own, not alongside a friend, just a solo save that I will enjoy and hopefully you guys do too. This challenge was created by one of my good friends however, @brooke, so I hope you lot go over there and show her the love and respect she deserves for her work, without further or do, here are the rules to this save (will just copy and paste the rules from Brooke's post on this). PEP’S DISCIPLES —————————————————————— Teams: Arsenal 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (1) - M. Arteta Bayer Leverkusen 🇩🇪 (1) - X. Alonso Burnley 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (2) - V. Kompany Barçelona 🇪🇸 (1) - Xavi Leicester City 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (1) - E. Maresca Manchester United 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (1) - E. ten Hag —————————————————————— Premise of the Save: Replicate what Man City have done - Dominate the leagues - Create a super team - Win the club’s elite treble (League, FA Cup, UCL) - Overtake Pep - Win 2 UCLs - Win every trophy in the country you can - Become the best—————————————————————— Feel free to take on this challenge yourself! - this can be done on either FIFA or FM which will require two different things: - FIFA: - a new save every time you complete one | manager career of the season you beat it - FM: - take control of a new team once you complete the challenge | NOTE: Editor can be used to switch teams ONLY. If you use the editor make sure to send how many times the editor’s been used along with your managerial career. - Brooke So I hope that you now understand the rules and premise for this save. I know this one was just a short blog, however I will be back with more very soon, once I have decided on the club I will start at, and have gone a decent bit into the season, thank you for reading.

Just so everyone knows, I will not be continuing this thread, after consideration I will not be starting off in Russia. Due to acts in the real world I do not want to support that in any way, I hope you all respect my decision. I do not know where I will begin my journey, but I will post another thread in a few days/hours (unsure when it will be posted) including a complete set of rules, and the journey I wish to take, thank you all for reading, follow me for updates so you know when the next thread goes live.

NO WAY HOME EPISODE ONE Well then everyone, I am back again with a brand new save! With Scale the Tower 2.0 coming from me and @CapLFC450 very soon, this will not be a long blog (for now). The No Way Home concept is something that I have tried before, but am yet to finish, so hopefully I can delve even deeper into the depths of this challenge this time around. I only have two weeks until the beginning of Scale the Tower, so I will try and graft through 2-3 seasons in that time. Once I feel satisfied with how I have done in Scale the Tower, I will most likely be coming back to here to finish off this save. Now without further or do, let's get into the save! If you guys don't know the rules of this save, I will be doing a wee rundown here so you guys can get more of an understanding as to how this one works. But it is also in the FM Scout Challenge Index if you want to look over there (I believe that set of rules is a tad bit different to mine). So the aim is to start in an abroad nation and work back to your home country (or even your home city if you wanna make the save just that little bit more hard on yourself, which I will be doing). Once you have selected your nation, you need to win the league in that nation before being allowed to move on, however you must move to a bordering nation. Let's say if your home nation is England, an easy start could be to start in France, there you only need to change nations once, a medium level start could be in Serbia, where you have to work through a little bit more to get back to England, and a hard start would be starting in any country outside of Europe, meaning you would have to move even further and over two continents. For my save, I have started at a middle ground nation, not making it too hard on myself, nor too easy by beginning in Russia, however I think I might double back on myself a few times to run through more nations and drag the save on for longer, even though I need to work my way back to Sunderland once getting myself back to England anyway. Enough of the nattering on about the save, lets get into this! Well! I have decided to begin my No Way Home journey with Torpedo Moscow. They're recently promoted to the First Division after gaining promotion in the 2021/22 campaign, and with high odds to go down, will I be able to keep this club afloat in the top division? Remember, I can't move away from the Russian leagues without winning the Top League. So whether I completely turn around this team and aim to win the league with them or just make my name with Torpedo Moscow and eventually find myself at a title fighting club I do not know, but what I do know is that this is where we begin our journey, and our future looks very bright from where I'm currently standing! With the main aim of Season 1 being to stay in the league, I kept my head held high for the season ahead. I think it will be a struggle, but with the right focus on different areas of the club, I should be able to keep us up for definite! Looking around, the squad doesn't seem half bad, to be honest, I think I could be able to nurse us to a mid-table finish, the Rossiyskaya Premyer-Liga has multiple very strong sides in it, and with no Continental Competition to fight to get in, all the fight will be to get the top spot and to avoid relegation, so if I can assure I will be in neither fight (preferably closer to the fight for the title) I should be able to slot right in between the fight for them. Thanks for reading this first blog, I hope that you all enjoy this in the future, if you have any pointers about my writing, FM, or anything to say in general please leave a comment on this post. Goodbye!

(deleted save)

Hello it's me again. Writing to tell you all about my new career, another Extra Extended Glory Hunter. To stop you having to go back and look at one my previous posts, I will tell you what you need to win here. It is a spin off version of the Glory Hunter (created by DoctorBenjy.) This takes into account 7 more leagues and cups, and 2 extra competitions, these are: Scotland, Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Turkey, Switzerland, Europa Conference League and the European Nations Cup. I am certainly not expecting myself the finish this monster of a challenge, but I am certainly attempting to get as far as I possibly can before starting a new save after GCSEs with my good friend @CapLFC450. So, as I am writing this, I am at a crossroads of what team to manage. Do I start in one of the big leagues and eventually branch out to the smaller ones? Or do I start in one of the smaller leagues and work my way up. I already had a few teams in mind, a club in Austria, and a club in the Netherlands immediately sprung to mind when I thought about starting this save, these teams were Rapid Wien and Feyenoord. However I ultimately decided to let a discord server that I run pick the team for me! And this is where we ended up... Here we go then! PSV Eindhoven it is, and boy am I excited. This Dutch side has a rich history including winning 24 Eredivisie titles (latest being in 2018) and winning one UEFA Champions League in 1988. I kickstarted the save by assessing the squad and transfer listing and loan listing the players I wanted out the door. The backroom staff recommended Wing Play, Route One and Fluid Counter-Attack for the presets, however I decided against that, and made a completely custom tactic, and here it is! Hopefully it helps us progress and make a strong push for the Eredivise title and TOTO KNVB Beker this season! This is where I am going to cap off for this blog, if you've enjoyed reading today, then please leave a comment and support me (it might keep me interested and make me want to write more often.) The next blog will be at the end of August, where we will assess our progress so far. But without further or do, take care and I'll see you again very soon.

Hello everyone, my name is Vaughan, and I am just about to get my Slovak Build A Nation underway. I am part Slovakian, so when it came to pick what country I would start this journey in, it was pretty easy to chose. However, through the teams in the second division, that was the part I found tougher to figure out, for a while I was back and forth between 4 teams, deciding, and thinking. Until I found the one, I found the save that I am going to stick with (hopefully) until the end of the FM23 game cycle. I hope you all will follow along with this save. WELCOME TO FK SLAVOJ TREBISOV! I started the game by going over to the section most people have dreaded this year, club and international manager. As I scurried around looking for nice badges in the Second Division of Slovakia, I saw one with a yellow outline, and I instantly fell in love. As I took a deeper dive into the club, I realised that they have been a staple in the 2.Liga, not fighting for promotion, fighting against relegation most seasons, and just staying up on the last days of seasons, this is going to be terrific! I began this save by going on the search for a Striker. The main problem at this club was the fact that we had no strikers, which would really put a damper the attacking 4-3-3 tactic that I was going to use. I can't even drop the Striker to a Shadow Striker in the Attacking Midfield position, as we have none of those either! I think we need to start the season using a strikerless tactic and hope it goes to plan! At Trebisov, we're predicted to finish in around the relegation spots, and the board would like us to "Fight Bravely Against Relegation" and we all know what that means, it means if we get relegated, the board won't sack me, however there is no 3. Liga in the game, so should we get relegated, we would be moving to another team! With the Slovak national team I have decided to play a 4-4-2 Diamond Narrow, hoping that our midfield strength will help us to dominted the middle third of any game that we head into. Hopefully, with the nation ranked 46th in the world, we shouldn't have trouble trying to bring ourselves to play in Euro 24! Pre-Season went exceptionally well, I wasn't in charge for the two losses, so as it currently stands, I have won every game in charge of Slavoj Trebisov and I don't plan on stopping my record heading into the first game of the season against predicted 4th Humenne. That rounds up the first edition of the Slovak Build a Nation, if you liked this and want to see more. Put a comment in to let me know, in the next blog I will have played through the rest of July at least, and probably some of August too. Thanks for reading and I will see you all later, goodbye!

Episode One - The Beginning Well everyone, it's just about time to get started with my FM save, Zero to Hero, starting as an unemployed manager with no badges and working my way up through the divisions. I haven't loaded two many divisions as to not crash my laptop, but I still think that it is enough to see a fun journey throughout the tiers of the world. When first loading up, I got a few interviews with clubs in the 6th tier of England (the place I ultimately have taken my first job). I had 4 job interviews in this tier, but only two teams were interested in me, Eastbourne Boro and Kidderminster Harriers. I know it's not the greatest to start in England, but there wasn't any other nation where teams actually wanted me to become there manager! So I delayed, and delayed and delayed until eventually one of the teams rejected the delay. At this point I was in a split decision, do I walk away from this job opportunity to manage in England at the first time of asking? Or do I wait and start in a lower nation, eventually I came to my decision. And this is where we begin... Welcome... to Eastbourne Boro!