DaneBramage

November 2042 - North Macedonia UEFA Nations League B - Group 2 In the build-up to this international window there was a news story that a Macedonian right-winger playing in Australia was considering a call-up to become a Socceroo, so I drafted him into my squad. Petar Popovski repaid that decision by giving away a penalty less than 120 seconds into his debut, from which Austria took the lead. He did somewhat rectify the situation though, as he was involved in the move that led to our equaliser just before the break. In the second-half we came on strong and in the 81st minute we rattled the crossbar. Unfortunately Austria then broke away down the other end and immediately scored. Promotion was now out of the question, we were instead fighting to stay in League B. I say fighting, that was an exaggeration. It was more like a tame surrender. Ah, nuts. We'd made such a good start too with that opening win. But that being the only one of the campaign was obviously nowhere near enough, and lamely ending with three losses doomed us. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2042 - North Macedonia UEFA Nations League B - Group 2 Poland offered nothing, and the points were ours the taking. But we couldn't capitalise. We made a couple of good chances but my left-winger hit the post twice, once in each half. Despite the red card we were the better team, even with ten men. But a defensive mix-up gave Ireland the opening to steal all three points. The group's pretty even with everyone having one point apiece. Poland are currently in top spot, but anyone could still take it. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2042 - North Macedonia Squad Selection About half of our squad is based in North Macedonia, and the rest overseas. Centre back Risto Ilievski moved to Ajax in 2040 for £16.75 million so he obviously going to be an important part of the team. We have a couple of players based in Serie A, though Fisnik Gashi is only the back-up keeper for Spezia, Darko Cvetkovski is yet to make a senior league appearance for Roma. Current top scorer in the squad is Rilind Petreski with 10 goals, domestically he's hit 71 league goals over the last four seasons. -------------------------------------------------------------- UEFA Nations League B - Group 2 What a result! We went behind early, but then equalised against the run of play with an absolute screamer from veteran right-back Martin Stojanovski. We got to half-time level, and shocked Austria when we took the lead minutes into the restart. We were passing the ball around the back, and I was screaming at them to get the ball forward, but the players knew better than I did. They waited, and waited, then when the time was right a long ball was pumped forward for Rilind Petreski to run on to and score. We were looking the stronger side at that point, which made Austria's equaliser a bit gutting. But another long ball over the top paid dividends, and when we had two players clear Petreski squared the ball for debutant Klaudio Jusuf to tap home into an empty net. Austria were rattled and lost their composure, and failed to defend a stoppage-time corner properly. The ball fell to Darko Cvetkovski just past the back post, and he curled one into the far corner for a goal on his debut. The second game of this international break was one of very little quality. The only highlight was a 92nd free-kick, which we headed wide. Our keeper was man of the match, which possible suggested Ireland had the better of the game, so I'm happy with an away point. We're surprisingly top of the group, but Poland are matching us and we play them next. --------------------------------------------------------------

August 2042 Job Search I had a couple of rejections from the South Korean and Argentine second divisions, which was a little disheartening. I was hoping that my successes in Portugal would have boosted my reputation a little more. So I was just waiting around for more appealing jobs to open up when I was contacted out of the blue with a big opportunity. A little while back @BML asked if international management is on the cards, and now it's a reality. -------------------------------------------------------------- UEFA Nations League B - Group 2 Wrong. It absolutely is important. It's going to be a challenge though. After getting promoted in 2040 North Macedonia are now in the second tier of the competition against some decent opposition. Games will be taking place in September, October, and November. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2042 - Pacos de Ferreira Squad Stats I didn't realise quite how many foreign players we had in the squad. It's definitely a big change at a club this size compared to the rest I've had throughout this career. The Italian loanee contingent was obviously a big part of this, doing wonders to improve our defensive record. Yaroslav Koval had a great first few months of the season, but from December onwards his performances stuck and he found himself benched. Daniel Cohen overtook him to end up as our top scorer with 19 goals. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Three years is the longest I've spent at any club, and if I hadn't managed a promotion this year I would probably have chalked it up as a failure and moved on. This was my fifth promotion in Europe, overtaking Africa where I had four. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Time to pack my bags once again. -------------------------------------------------------------- Game World I've had the current six leagues active for five years now, so it's time to freshen up the options. RNG has de-activated Portugal and Ukraine, and brought in Bulgaria and Turkey (from next summer). --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2042 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Victor Graca is on loan from Portimonense, and he was on a one-man mission to lead us through April. His three goals in successive games won us seven points, and with the 93rd minute winner at Estrela da Amarada SAD, also won us the title. With the pressure of we ended the year with two comfortable home wins, and a hard-fought away victory where we snatched the result with two late goals. We ended with a very comfortable lead over challengers. We took the title by 10 points, but could have managed 18 fewer and still been automatically promoted. We won six more games than anyone else, and scored 29 more. --------------------------------------------------------------

March 2042 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Crap. Every game features a player or two putting in a stinking performance, it's like I'm the only one who wants us to win. We should have battered Vilafranquense, not scoring even once from the amount of efforts we had was embarrassing. There's no more time off for these players. All rest sessions are being replaced with extra training. We're going to get promoted, but we're making hard work of it now. We're lucky no one else is putting a run of form together. --------------------------------------------------------------

February 2042 - Pacos de Ferreira Transfer Business A sub midfielder and a back-up defender left for a total of £950k. My recruitment brought in three more loanees, including a right-back from Inter. -------------------------------------------------------------- Liga 2 I don't know why I say these things, I know exactly what's going to happen next but I just can't stop myself. I'd already played the Vizela game before posting the last update, and the Porto B and Beira-Mar losses came immediately after my self congratulations. The FM Gods aren't looking down kindly on me tonight. I thought we'd got back on track when we went four games unbeaten, and Joelmir Rocha scored a hat-trick against Sanjoanense to reach double figures, but our poor away record struck again and we lost to Mafra despite leading twice. We still hold a 10 point lead over Chaves so there's no need to panic, but I don't like this habit of losing so many games. Three blanks over the last two months isn't great either. --------------------------------------------------------------

December 2041 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Of course, after writing up a glowing review of our early season form we lose the very next game. The FM Gods are always watching. Though at least it was only a loss to a B team, which basically doesn't matter. We haven't quite managed to get back into our groove since then, in particular away from home where we've lost three times. One man on a role though is Daniel Cohen. Two hat-tricks this month have brought him up to 13 goals in total for the season. The second of these, in the whooping of Feirense, was a great way to celebrate my 500th game in management. We have a six point lead over second place, but since that's Benfica B we can ignore them. And looking down to third place makes for very nice reading. Vilafranquense are on a great run of form, winning five games in a row since we beat them, managing a clean sheet each time. But they're 11 points behind, Beira-Mar are 13 behind, and after ignoring Sporting CP B and Porto B, Mafra are 14 behind. Bottling this would be an all-time low, this has to be a 12th promotion. -------------------------------------------------------------- 500 Games Pretty big milestone reached. 64% winning record, and twice as many goals scored as conceded. Very little spent or received on transfers, the majority of these amounts have come during my current employment. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2041 - Pacos de Ferreira Interview Offer Over the last few seasons Arouca have slipped down the Primeira Liga table, ending up 7th, 8th, 13th, then 16th, but as they're a top flight side this is a non-starter. -------------------------------------------------------------- Transfer Business Our starting left-back moved on when his contract expired, but he was crap so I'm glad to see the back of him. We also sold a sub midfielder for £160k. My recruitment team spent £88k on a few youngsters, and for the first-team loaned in three defenders from Inter, and an Argentine striker. -------------------------------------------------------------- Liga 2 Cups are stupid. The league is great though, and going much better than I could have imagined. Our first obstacle was against my old club, Beira-Mar, in the second game of the season. We were all over them but they defended resolutely, until we grabbed the deserved winner in the 91st minute. Including that match we won our first six games of the campaign, which included wins over both newly promoted teams (Porto B and Sanjoanense). The latter was a demolition job. Our first dropped points came against Varzim, but considering we were 2-0 down at half-time I'm going to call that one a point gained. Academica Coimbra are one of the relegated sides and were thought off as favourites for promotion, but they're struggling in midtable and we added to their woes with a thrashing, Yaroslav Koval notching a hat-trick. In the season preview Yaroslav Koval was listed as one of the potential young stars of the division, and he's living up to that with 11 goals so far and an average rating of 8.07. We are flying! This has been an amazing start. I'm glad I decided to stay instead of moving on in the summer. We're banging in the goals, assists are coming from all over the team, and the three loanees from Inter have improved our defence massively. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2041 - Pacos de Ferreira Squad Stats A lot of poor performances here. The best displays came from the two January signings. Goals and assists were spread between our strikers and wingers, but with very little contributed from anywhere else. In particular our full-backs were dreadful. -------------------------------------------------------------- History The worst season of my career, and the longest I've gone without a promotion. The decision now is what to do next. I considered giving up here and jumping ship, but that feels like the easy way out. I have a year left on my contract, I think I'm going to stick around and give it one more go. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2041 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 The good form continued into March, with new striker Daniel Cohen scoring a couple of times during the three wins. April wasn't as good, but only getting a point against Mafra was a travesty. We had an xG of more than 2.5 from 22 shots, but just couldn't get the ball into the net. Three games without a win was a mini-slump, but Daniel Cohen showed his quality with a hat-trick to beat Belenenses. We'd lost our previous three games to Chaves, so it was twice as nice to end the season with a first victory over them. We just about pulled ourselves up into a top-half finish, but I'm not happy with it. Although we ended up only one spot below our 2039/40 placing, we earned six points fewer and our goal difference went 17 goals in the wrong direction. --------------------------------------------------------------

February 2041 - Pacos de Ferreira Transfer Business A sub midfielder had their release clause met, and moved to New York Red Bulls for £375k. A right-back joined on loan from Inter, and an Israeli forward joined on a free. -------------------------------------------------------------- Liga 2 The loss to Chaves made it five defeats in six games, and the team's morale had plummeted again. But when the new additions came into the starting line-up, and a couple of tactical tweaks were made following the advice of my AssMan, we suddenly looked like an entirely different team. We went unbeaten for the next six matches, winning four of them, and finding our goalscoring touch in February. Of course, it had to be Beira-Mar that ended it. We've pulled away from the relegation area, but this season's a write-off. I just want it over with now. --------------------------------------------------------------

December 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Transfer Business A few players left the club for a total of £300k, though none from our starting line-up. Seven players joined on free transfers or loans (including a centre-back from Inter), for a total of £79k. -------------------------------------------------------------- Liga 2 The start to the season was absolutely awful. Just one point and one goal from the first six games, without the Inter starlets we had last year we were just bereft of quality upfront. The next couple of months were much improved luckily, as the new additions to the squad started to settle in. We re-discovered the scoring habit and went eight games unbeaten, gaining 12 points from a possible 18. But it didn't last long. Our attack might have got their act together, but our defence forgot how to play instead. Just the one win from four, though at least it came on 22nd December so Christmas Day wasn't ruined. Yikes. The promotion chasing exploits of last year are just a distant memory now, instead we're just trying to avoid getting sucked into a relegation battle. Surprisingly I haven't had any warnings about my job being at risk yet, but the board are dissatisfied with this league performance so I'm sure they'll be having words sooner or later. Losing half of our games is nowhere near good enough, I'd be firing me at this point. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Squad Stats Bassam Ali, on loan from Inter, was one of the lowest paid players in the team, but he was by far the star of the show. His fellow loanee and partner upfront, Franco Brugni, didn't score as many but also contributed with assists. -------------------------------------------------------------- History This is the first full season of this career where I haven't won promotion. It's nothing to worry about that though, it wasn't expected this season and I did see this as a project that might take a few years. That said, the recruitment team's overuse of loans is possibly an issue. Six regulars won't be back next year, so there's a substantial rebuilding job needed. I really should take charge of recruitment myself, but I'm lazy so I won't. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Seven points from a possible nine at the start of April put us back into the promotion conversation, especially as Varzim's form collapsed at the same time. But the loss to Chaves was a big hit, and although we recovered with our biggest win of the season, the campaign petered out with another loss. Just way too many losses over the course of the year. Convert just two of those losses into a win and a draw and we'd have been in the play-off spot instead of Boavista. The big problem was away games. At home we had the best record in the league, but away form was very poor. --------------------------------------------------------------

March 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Two good home wins is absolutely what we needed. But away losses to the sides first and second in the table is absolutely not. With six games left, I think any chance of promotion this year is gone. --------------------------------------------------------------

February 2040 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 We already had two strikers on loan from Inter, and in their infinite wisdom they decided to send us another in January. It's a good problem to have I suppose, but literally any other position would have been more useful. Mario Paone did make a good first impression though, coming off the bench to score the winner against Belenenses. Our poor form from the end of 2039 carried over, and after the loss to Feirense we had nine defeats in our last 14 games. I called a team meeting and made it clear I was not happy with this, and the Inter loan connection reacted. Franco Brugni assisted twice and Bassam Ali scored a hat-trick as we battled our way to victory over Sporting CP B. Bassam Ali continued as he left off in the next match, scoring in the first minute against Boavista, and when they were reduced to ten men in the fourth minute, the result was only going in one direction. We bossed the rest of the tie, the only disappointment was that we didn't kill the game off until the final ten minutes. We're still in the mix for promotion, but it's only looking like an outside chance now. The top two are probably too far away now unless they throw away some silly points, the play-off spot is likely our only hope. --------------------------------------------------------------

December 2039 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Given the success I brought to Beira-Mar during my time there I'd like to think there isn't any bad blood towards me, but they'll definitely have enjoyed this first clash more than I did. We weren't very good, and fully deserved to be beaten. We should have beaten Varzim, we had four times as many shots as they did but just wasted opportunities time and time again. And if November was poor, December was even worse. We got thumped by both Tondela and Chaves, with the second showing on our home turf being particularly pathetic. At least we ended the year with a good display. We've dropped down into midtable, but we're not out of the conversation. First place down to ninth are split by just six points, so it's still all to play for. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2039 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 We suffered our first loss of the season to Sporting B, but if we have to lose I'd rather it was to a B team as they can't be promoted. Our free scoring form from August has disappeared though, we were nowhere near as good in this period and this shows in the results. Three league games straight without a win saw us drop down to fourth in the table, but we stopped the rot with a victory over Santa Clara. Penalties from Joelmir Rocha gained us an extra three points in October, he's putting in an argument why he should be in the starting XI up front. We're still in contention despite the indifferent form, but it's all very close and there's also plenty of teams just below on 18 and 17 points that could easily catch us. --------------------------------------------------------------

August 2039 - Pacos de Ferreira Liga 2 Cups are stupid anyway. Who cares about a battering in my first game? Luckily, the league went much better. After a draw on the opening day we won four in a row. The two strikers on loan from Inter have already scored nine times between them, with Bassam Ali smashing three braces in a row. The perfect start, let's hope we can keep this up. The media have predicted that we'll finish in the top four, while the board would be happy with a top half finish. Top two go up automatically, third place goes into a play-off. Though there are also four B teams who can't be promoted, so potentially there's an outside chance that finishing as low as seventh could still put us in the mix. --------------------------------------------------------------

June 2039 Job Search I had the weekend to think about whether this was the job for me, and I decided it was. This is the first time I've stayed within the same country after a move, and we'll be playing my previous club Beira-Mar at some point during the season. -------------------------------------------------------------- Parent Club One of the first messages after taking over was the board informing me of a link that had been formed. And it definitely shows the step up in size. -------------------------------------------------------------- Transfer Business The recruitment team had one heck of a time, bringing in 18 players for a total of £275k (while we also sold a couple of players for £80k). Lots of these additions were for the Under-19 squads though, our first team squad was already too big. I spent the last few days of the transfer window cancelling some of the loan deals they were trying to sort out as we already had met the registration limits, more players weren't needed. Possibly the biggest deals were three loanees sent to us by Inter, including these two strikers. Bassam Ali in particular looks class. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2039 - Beira-Mar Squad Stats The recruitment team really hasn't planned for the future in defence. Just three contracted players and relying on loans did us well this year, but I don't think it's sustainable in the higher divisions. Rodrigo Matos is a player I'd never have signed, 34 at the start of the season and on more than £1k a week. But him and fellow new signing Tomas Chaparro both did a great job on the wings, as did Thiago Martins in midfield. The star of the show was again Valdir Tavares, and again he was the division's top scorer and best player. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Bit of a surprise this one. When I signed a new contract at the end of last season and the board wanted another promotion it gave me an indication that we could go back-to-back, but I still didn't necessarily expect it to happen. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Update: My Portuguese has improved from basic to fluent. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search After two promotions in two years I half considered staying on, but ultimately I don't think it would be possible to push on again with this squad. It would take a big rebuild, and we don't have the funds to do that. When I was offered a new contract the expectations were just to avoid relegation from Liga 2, and that's not worth my time. As my contract was just about to run out though I let it expire rather than resigning. But while I was waiting this period out, an offer came along. Pacos de Ferreira were among the favourites for promotion from Liga 2 this year, but struggled and finished in 14th place instead. There's not a lot of other jobs open at the moment, so it's a tempting one... --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2039 - Beira-Mar Third Division - Promotion Stage Group 1 Boom, nailed it. A very good run through the other top sides from the division. Highlights include Joao Fati scoring his first goals for the club in a first-half hat-trick against Vitoria de Setubal, then Valdir Tavares recovering after a few weeks out to smash home four goals in the final two games. An unbeaten run set us up nicely to take top place, confirming promotion and putting us into the champions play-off final. Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself though - the final is again seeing us face Belenenses. At this stage last year they beat us to win the fourth tier trophy. It's clear both teams shouldn't have been so low down in the pyramid though as we've both managed consecutive promotions. They slightly fluked their way to this game though, they only reached the promotion stage by finishing fourth in the first part of the season. -------------------------------------------------------------- Third Division - Champions Play-Off Final Revenge! We absolutely mullered them, only one team in it. --------------------------------------------------------------

March 2039 - Beira-Mar Job Offers I'm a man in demand. Casa Pia are 11th in the Primeira Liga, so that's a non-starter. Also seems like too unrealistic a jump (says the person who's been jumping all around the world). But Vizela is an interesting one. Second in Liga 2 and with a good chance of promotion. I'm applying for this. But it wasn't to be this time. They instead went with a fella who'd been unemployed for a couple of months after being fired by relegation-threatened Vilafranquense. Never mind. --------------------------------------------------------------