The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge - Silver Age Archive

Fadedaf · February 22, 2017

@vikeologist yeah getting there slowly, but i reckon @pug 407 will beat me to it for sure. I have had the South African league loaded the whole time but every time a good job has come up so far I haven't been in a position to take it. But whenever the time is right i'll head back there, and I would still like to go back to Royal Eagles as they are still a decent team in SA and it would be a good way to finish off the club side of things if I end up getting there! Having trouble yet again finding a good club job for next season and I may have to resort to Athletic Bilbao...

shirajzl · February 22, 2017

Keep it up guys, still an interesting read!

My nemesis within this challenge, international management, still induces frustration even when I'm only reading @vikeologist progress table! Struggling with African Dice Rolling Cup and then when you finally land a big job with Brazil you lose a final! Ugh, bad memories.

I'm genuinely jealous to read about @pug 407 success with international management.

vikeologist · February 22, 2017

3 hours ago, shirajzl said:

Keep it up guys, still an interesting read!

My nemesis within this challenge, international management, still induces frustration even when I'm only reading @vikeologist progress table! Struggling with African Dice Rolling Cup and then when you finally land a big job with Brazil you lose a final! Ugh, bad memories.

I'm genuinely jealous to read about @pug 407 success with international management.

I think I now have the right tactics to win the ACON. The trouble is I probably have the wrong side (Mali). Oh well, I'll find out soon I guess.

Something that's made my day. I've just signed one of my Challenge XI, Johnny Choi. Here's his challenge biography so far

Quote

SC-Johnny Choi (Jeonbuk / S Korea / Atlas) His 42 goals in the league / Champions League double season with Jeonbuk got his foot in the door, but what really cemented it was his seven goals in the six 2027 Asian Cup matches including a hat trick in the final. Clinical. He was like a snake waiting for his chances to pounce. As a 34 year old, joined my Atlas side in Mexico pretty much 16 years to the day since I signed him for Jeonbuk.

I'm not expecting much from Johnny. I've only signed him for sentimental reasons. He may still be a snake, but his pouncing days are probably behind him and the mice have to go to him. He'll be on the sub's bench though, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of him coming good at exactly the right moment. I have an almost religious view of his capabilities.

Edited February 23, 2017 by vikeologist

vikeologist · February 23, 2017

Vikeologist's 2037 Mali ACON Report

So my 5^th attempt at the ACON. Mali would have to be regarded as outsiders, but for the first time in a long time, the squad is fairly injury free.

It’s annoying that for the first time I can remember, I’m having to play this competition at the same time as being involved in a regular season. Usually I’ve been on a winter break, or not a club manager. Tempting to instant result the league games, because I’m fairly confident of finishing in the top 8, and league placing has only minimal importance in the playoffs; none in the final.

Group Stage

Spoiler

Vs Angola 0-0 Not an ideal start.

Vs Algeria 3-1 A necessary win if we are to progress.

Vs Cameroon 1-3 Cameroon went 3 up, and I spent the whole match looking at the score in the other group game. One of my strikers picked up a light injury, so I took him off, (taking us down to 10 men) hoping that he’d then be available later in the tournament, if there was a later for us. However, Angola went ahead in the other game meaning that the score in this game was going to be important. We pulled a goal back, but with 11 players on the pitch we may have been able to get another goal or two.

At the end of the match we had an identical record to Angola. The table showed them above us, but I presume it went to some kind of lottery because we qualified for the next round. Finishing 2^nd in the group meant that we got Togo (the winners of their group) rather than Ghana. Togo and Ghana may well be ranked pretty much equally in the world, but I know who I’d rather be playing. Obviously, given this result, pretty much any side left in the tournament will probably beat us fairly easily, but you never know.

The striker I pulled off will only be out for 2 or 3 days, so maybe my gamble will pay off. Of course I’ve mentioned before the unreliability of our physio's timeframes, so his ‘gashed head’ may actually be a decapitation. We’ll see.

Ivory Coast and Egypt both crashed out at the group stage, so I can take comfort in the fact that there’s always somebody worse off than me. And somebody who’s a worse manager than me. I don’t think I’ve ever failed to get to the quarterfinals, though 3 times out of 4, that’s exactly where I’ve got to.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Vs Togo 0-1 The only thing that happened in the whole 90 minutes was the penalty given to them. Another Q/F defeat, but I’m pretty certain this time I won’t get sacked. Of course, I will leave anyway. Mali just aren’t very good. I’m feeling fairly positive about my chances in 2 years. I just hope a nation like Ivory Coast or Egypt are prepared to give me a chance.

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

3^rd Place Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

After The Tournament

Spoiler

Was offered jobs by Egypt, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and DR Congo. Egypt looks as though they don't have any good strikers, so I'm going to take the job with Ivory Coast, which is a big gamble as they're in the same WC qualifying group as Nigeria, top ranked African nation and the nation that didn't offer me a job. Which I suppose is a pretty good reason to make them pay by taking the Ivorian job.

Edited February 23, 2017 by vikeologist

vikeologist · February 24, 2017

Vikeologist's 2037 Atlas Clausura Report

TL;DR League / Champions League Double

So I did it. I won the league at the third time of asking, and won the CONCACAF Champions League, but there was a point near the end where I thought it was unravelling.

After winning the regular season league by a country mile and getting to the CL final very easily, we came to the business end of the season.

First we faced America (Mex) in the first leg of the CL, and lost 2-1. Then we had the first leg of the league quarter final and were behind at one point before eventually coming out on top 5-4. I was worried that I might end with nothing from the season but the sack after going out in the Q/F.

Then in the second leg of the CL we won 4-0 comfortably to claim my third continental club trophy.

We reached the final of the league, though the matches were closer than the previous campaign, and the final was a relatively relaxing 7-1 aggregate win.

The problem with my Atlas side is that the club is losing lots of money, despite reaching the final of all 5 competitions we’ve been in under my management. I’ve been able to get in very few new players, and have had to resort to the bargain basement. My first team are good, but usually their backups are pretty mediocre, and those backups don’t have any backups meaning we’re always one injury away from disaster.

The first team is very good though, especially my striking tandem of Ibarra and Ospina.

Stats are for the aperture and clausura

Top Goalscorer – Isidro Ibarra 49

Best Average Rating Alex Ospina 7.93. Ibarra and Ospina spent the second half of the season breaking each other’s goals records, and ospina probably would have finished on top were it not for an injury that kept him out for about 6 weeks at the end of the season.

Man of Match – Alex Ospina – 11

MVP – Alex Ospina

So what now. Despite what I thought, I didn’t qualify for the 2037 Libertadores, but I very much doubt that Atlas can win it anyway. Maybe once the 2038 Cup starts, we’ll have more money, but realistically it’s time to move on.

Having won the Mexican league means that I need the Libertadores, but I don’t need to win the Brazilian league; just the mandatory 5 European ones.

I signed an extension to my contract during the season, which I realised was a mistake after I did it, but then again, it wasn’t certain that I would win the CL.

I’d like to take part in the World Club cup later in the year, just to see how the team gets on, but I’m not going to spend the hours and hours I have the last 3 off-seasons trying to find new players, and I may have to sell some of my best players at some point to stave off bankruptcy.

So, if a good job comes up, preferably a Brazilian club in the Libertadores, I will probably try to jump ship.

Domestic
Season	Team					Position	Notes										Challenge Landmarks
2016	FC Lahti				10th		Just 9 points from the 10 matches remaining after I took over
2017	FC Lahti				3rd		Qualified for Europe
2018	FC Lahti				1st		First domestic title
2019	FC Lahti				1st		The double. First domestic cup
2020	Jeonbuk					1st
2021	Jeonbuk					2nd		Knocked out of CL in semis
2022	Jeonbuk					1st		League / FA Cup / Champions League Triple. CWC 3rd place
2023	Minnesota Utd				14th
2024	Minnesota Utd				7th		Lost on penalties in Western Conference Semifinal
2025/6	Orlando Pirates				3rd		Knockout Cup Winners, failed to qualify for Champions League
2026/7	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super 8, Knockout Cup, Nedbank Cup. Won everything basically.
2027/8	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super8, Nedbank Cup. Confederation Cup losing finalists.
2028/9	Orlando Pirates				n/a		African Champions League. Left mid-season with the team on track for the threepeat.
2028/9	Rosario Central				18th		Took over for last 2 matches of the season.
2029/30	Rosario Central				1st		4th domestic title
2030/31	Rosario Central				1st	
2031/32	Rosario Central				1st		Threepeat, Copa Argentina, Lost in Libertadores Q/F
2032/33	Rosario Central						Left after 4 matches because we'd been knocked out of the Libertadores.
2032/33	Stade Rennais				7th		Coupe de la ligue
2033/4	Stade Rennais						Resigned after 14 matches
2036(C)	Atlas					4th		5th cup. Lost in league final.
2036(A)	Atlas					1st		Lost in league final again
2037(C)	Atlas					1st		5th domestic league / CONCACAF Champions League


International
Year	Team					Achievements	
2019-21	Nigeria					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2021-23	DR Congo				2022 World Cup - R2, 2023 African Cup Losing Finalists
2023-25	Chile					None. Resigned to take South Korea job.
2026-27	South Korea				Asian Cup winners
2027-29	South Africa				Lost in African Cup Q/F
2030-31	Brazil					Lost in Copa America final
2031-33	Chile					Resigned again to take Egypt job.
2033-5	Egypt					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2036-37	Mali					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2037-	Ivory Coast

Challenge Progress

Club
 5/10 top domestic leagues 		(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico)
 6/10 domestic cups 			(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, France, Mexico)
 3/5 club continental championships 	(Asia, Africa, North America)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments 		(Asia)
 0/2 world tournaments

vikeologist · February 25, 2017

Vikeologist's 'Doing A Vike' 2037 Mexico Gold Cup Report

Wait, what! I thought you took the Ivory Coast job. Let me explain.

After the Confederations Cup, the Mexico vacancy became available. Just as with the opportunity with USA 4 years ago, the national B team were in the Gold Cup. I didn’t take the USA job then, but I wasn’t going to pass this up.

In my 154 days with Ivory Coast, I managed one competitive match, plus three friendlies, but we did win them all. The problem was that we are in the same group as Nigeria who have already won the first match against IC in the World Cup Qualifying, meaning IC will almost certainly have to win the return fixture to stand any chance.

No such problem with Mexico. We’re hosting the next World Cup.

But first of course, the Gold Cup, with the B team. I don’t know the players (no Atlas players) I didn’t pick the squad and they don’t fit with my preferred formation.

But there’s nothing to lose, because if it goes wrong, I don’t think I’ll be blamed.

Group Stage

They beat Panama, Guadeloupe and Costa Ria before my arrival.

Quarter Final

Spoiler

Vs Honduras 0-0 aet (lost 2-3 on penalties)

Wow; just wow. I guess I shouldn’t have tried to get the team to use complicated tactics on the trot. I guess there’s also a reason why I never signed any of these numpties for my Atlas team. I changed tactics halfway through, but I should have seen what tactics the team were familiar with, rather than trying to fit eleven square dregs into a round whole.

That is usually precisely what I do, usually. You’d think since the opportunistic title grab is named after me, I’d flaming well know how to do it. The fact is that I thought I could play any tactic and beat Honduras. Boy, do I have egg on my face.

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

3^rd Place Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

After The Tournament

Spoiler

I’m not too sure whether to do a Vike, you have to win the competition you take over during shortly before the final. Oh well, I suppose if I win the Gold Cup in two years with my senior squad, many of whom know how to play with my tactics, it will feel more earned.

The Confederations Cup have 5 of my players, plus a guy I had on loan, and would dearly love to be able to bring back.

Danny_H22 · February 26, 2017

@vikeologist River have won it a couple times in the past decade or so. In fact they lost in the final in my most recent season

Danny_H22 · February 26, 2017

Danny_H22 2028 Season Review

To be honest, this whole season felt like a waste of 12 months. Colo Colo aren’t good enough to win Copa Libertadores, but too good to struggle in the league. I spent the whole season waiting for jobs to become available and when they did I applied right away. Sadly, I had no luck with any of them.

On a personal level, my reputation is still at 60%, but I am now ranked as the third most successful English manager of all time.

Campeonato Nacional Scotiabank- Won it again and it was fairly easy. 24 wins and 6 draws resulted in an unbeaten season. What was surprising was how many goals we scored, finishing with a total of 135 league goals. I had several games where I scored more than eight goals, including a 12-0 win.

Copa Chile- Very disappointed in this as we went out in the quarter-final to Deportes Iquique who beat us 1-0 over the two legs.

Supercopa de Chile- We beat Audax Italiano 3-0

Copa Bridgestone Libertadores- Really tough group stage against Pachuca, Flamengo and Boca. We only managed 3 points and were dumped out.

Copa Total Sudamericana- Atletico Nacional were our opponents in the quarter-final, in what should have been a winnable tie. We won the first leg 2-1 but lost the second 3-1 and were knocked out.

Top Goalscorer- Ivan Morales with 46 goals in 44 games. Honorable mention to right winger Nicolas Pozo with 36 goals in 35 starts

Most Assists- Bryan Carvallo 25 assists and 33 goals in 42 games

Highest Avg. Rating- Bryan Carvallo

Most POM- Ivan Morales with 9

International- Nothing of note really happened with Egypt this year. Definitely need to move on once something comes around.

There is no point in staying here, so it’s just having to decide between hanging around or handing in my notice and become a free agent. Brazil, Argentina or South Africa are my chosen destinations.

Season       Team             Position         Continental       Notes and Achievements     
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17      Newtown          8th                  -              Took over in November
2017/18      Newtown          3rd                  -             
2018/19      Newtown          3rd       First Qualifying Round    Won theWord Cup and Manager of the Year
2019/20      TNS              1st       Second Qualifying Round   Won theWord Cup and JD FAW Welsh Cup. Retained the Manager of the Year
2020/21      TNS              1st       Second Qualifying Round   Won theWord Cup
2021/22      Linfield         1st       Second Qualifying Round   Won League Cup and County Antrim Shield. Unbeaten league season. Won Manager of the Year
2022/23      Linfield         1st       Second Qualifying Round   Won League Cup, County Antrim Shield and Challenge Cup. Won Manager of the Year.
2023         Beijing Guoan    5th                  -              Took over after 15 games. Won Chinese FA Cup. Won CFA Best Manager
2024         Beijing Guoan    1st       Won Champions League      Won Chinese FA Cup and Super Cup. Won CFA Best Manager.
2025         Beijing Guoan    1st       Quarter-finals            Won Super Cup.
2026         Beijing Guoan     -                   -              Left in August with the club top of the league. Won Super Cup
2026         Colo Colo        1st                  -              Took over in August. Won Copa Chile Cup
2027         Colo Colo        1st       Second Round              Won Cop Chile Cup and Supercopa. Won Manager of the Year
2028         Colo Colo        1st       Group Stage               Won Supercopa

Challenge Progress

Club
 4/10 top domestic leagues (TNS- Welsh Premier League 2020, 2021, Linfield- Danske Bank Premiership 2022, 2023, CFA Super League- Beijing Guoan 2024, 2025, Colo Colo- Campeonato Nacional Scotiabank 2026, 2027, 2028)
 4/10 domestic cups (Newtown-theWord Cup 2019, TNS- theWord Cup 2020, 2021, JD FAW Welsh Cup 2020, Linfield- Northern Ireland Football League Cup 2022, 2023, County Antrim Shield 2022, 2023, Irish Football Association Challenge Cup 2023, Beijing Guoan- Chinese FA Cup 2023, 2024, Colo Colo- Copa Chile 2026, 2027)
 1/5 club continental championships (Beijijng Guoan- Asian Champions League 2024)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments (Egypt- African Cup of Nations 2027)
 0/2 world tournaments 

International:
Season       Team             Notes and Achievements     
----------------------------------------------------------
2018/19      Togo             Appointed manager of Togo
2019/20      Togo             Knocked out of World Cup Qualifiers in second round
2020/21      Qatar            Won WAFF Championship
2021/22      Qatar            Qualified for The World Cup. Knocked out in first round
2022/23      Senegal          Lost in quarter finals of African Cup of Nations. Fired
2023         Jamaica          Took over in July. Won CONCACAF Cup
2024         Jamaica          5th place in Caribbean Cup
2025         Egypt            Qualifed for the World Cup
2026         Egypt            Won African Nations Championship. Reached second round of World Cup. Qualifed for Cup of Nations
2027         Egypt            Won African Cup of Nations
2028         Egypt            Won African Nations Championship

vikeologist · February 26, 2017

@Danny_H22 To be honest, I think you should quit. I'm in much the same situation as you in terms of reputation, and having both a club and national job. I've been applying for lots of 'suitable' jobs and not even got an interview. This isn't too big a problem as I kind of wanted to see how we got on in the Club World Cup, but after the season is over, (just the 2-legged league final after the CWC), then I'm going to quit so I can hopefully get a decent new job.

vikeologist · February 27, 2017

Vikeologist's 2037 Atlas Apertura Report

TL;DR Won league, lost in CWC Final. Should I stay or should I go?

As expected I won the league fairly easily. I instant resulted the whole regular season (W15, D1, L1) and most of the post-season.

I’d stayed for the Club World Cup. We put on a 5-0 show against Al-Hilal in the quarters, and got the tie I wanted in the semis against South American champs Flamengo for the unofficial American club cup. I was surprised just how better than them we were, winning very easily 4-1.

We then met PSG in the final, and they were better than us, but we had our chances before losing 2-1 to a fantastic winner by best Mexican player in the world and ex-Atlas player (for 1 year before my time) José Alfredo Trujillo.

I assumed that I would leave after the CWC, but the ease with which I dispatched Flamengo makes me wonder.

The problem is that we still haven’t qualified for the Libertadores, even though we should have multiple times if the game reflected reality. It’s the end of 2037, and we’re not in the 2038 cup, so it would be at least another 2 seasons before I could win the Lib. Apart from the CWC, I’d have nothing else to play for during that time, and the game might never put me in the Lib.

On the other hand, I can get through the games fairly quickly by instant resulting, and if I took over a Brazilian (or European side) now, it might take that long to get to qualify and win the Continental final.

I’m the manager of Mexico, and staying at Atlas might help in that regard, although I only have about 4 of my players in the national squad, so it probably wouldn’t help that much.

However, being in the CWC, or perhaps piling up the Mexican league wins, has increased my rep, and I was offered an interview by Liverpool, which I will turn down if offered, because frankly they’re a mess and very near the relegation spots. They are however still in the Europa League, and both domestic cups including the semis of the League Cup. Decisions, decisions.

The main argument against staying is that we’re losing money; even with the CWC money and a big chunk of money we got when the above mentioned Trujillo was sold to PSG because he’s an ex-player. We’d probably have to sell our best players, who would be labour-intensive to find replacements for, or keep bumping up the salaries. We simply can’t afford to have a team this good.

Update: Decided to leave, to boost my chances with a couple of jobs I wanted, and it worked, have been offered job with Juventus. (I'll do some actual checking on the club / players etc before I actually take it though).

Edited February 27, 2017 by vikeologist

dkouv · March 1, 2017

flu.png.15afa797f8508c9a1393d1039b927b54.png 58b73987d914c_ivorycoast.jpg.9ec085d5419367ddff721cd00260366b.jpg

Season 13 – 2029 – Fluminese / Ivory Coast

Season Review

So I finally finished the slog of a season in Brazil. It felt a bit endless because I had little FM time in the last few weeks, and had to get through what felt like 1 million pointless regional championship games before I got to the real deal of the league, cup and Copa Libertadores.

About 20 players came back from loan in the pre-season and I found quite a few gems among these, so I only bought a few, mostly experienced, players for some of the key positions in the squad. The team was looking strong so I was hopeful on all three fronts in the league and cups.

The league was easy in the end – none of the other teams raised their game and we won it by a whopping 22 points.

Cups were much tougher. I hit a bit of a tactical stalemate at the crucial stages of the cup campaigns – seemed like my rep increased, teams started to park the bus and the tactic wasn’t aggressive enough to break them down. I lucked it out a bit against Boca Juniors in the quarter final, scoring two late goals in the away leg to go through 3-1 on aggregate and avoid an away-goal exit. I then decided to change things a bit tactically which seemed to work in the league but backfired terribly in the cup, as I was thrashed 4-0 in the away leg of the quarter-final by Gremio. Thankfully I didn't follow a similar fate in the Copa. I dominated the semi final but only went through on penalties against fellow Brazilians Sao Paulo. The final was - for a change - a relaxing 4-0 aggregate win over Ateltico Mineiro.

So I got two of the three trophies I was after, am especially with the Copa Lib, which saw me through some tough games and is required for the challenge. Even though I could do with another cup, I don’t think I can bear another season in Brazil with its multitude of fixtures and 3-letter team names, so I am looking to move jobs in the near future.

I also managed to win the Club World Cup for the second time, beating Barcelona in the final.

Btw @vikeologist: the Copa Lib has been fairly evenly spread between Argentinian and Brazillian teams in my save. And Argentinian teams gave me as tough a game as Brazillian ones this season. I was hoping that you could “do a full Vike” (ie win the Gold Cup) with Mexico, but still, you should be well-placed for the next tournament.

League | Copa Lib | CWC

Player review

Top scorer – Walmir (AM/ST): 28 goals and 7 assists in 51(10) apps. A wonderkid who I would expect to be playing for a top European team in the future. Maybe even one managed by me if I get there soon enough.

Top assists – Marcos Rogerio (AM/ST): 15 assists and 27 goals in 41(24). My player of the season and a great all-round performer. Also I purchased him myself which makes me extra proud.

Top rating – Cesar (DL): 7.64 in 41(4) apps. One of those players who was randomly out on loan last season but came back with a bang.

Challenge XI additions:

Andrade (DC/DR): Rock solid throughout the season and better than most of my center-backs at previous clubs

Leo Guerreiro (DR/DL): Lower rating than Cesar but a much bigger contribution with 12 assists and 3 goals in 42(6) apps; has been very consistent as well

Manager progress

70% rep and top of English hall of fame

International

Breezed through my WC qualifying group of death, with 6 wins out of 6. This Ivory Coast team seems to really be gathering steam now, and I’m looking forward to next year’s World Cup.

What’s next

Look for a new club job, in Argentina or Europe (the only other leagues active at the moment). And continue with Ivory Coast, first CHAN then World Cup.

Challenge XI

GK: Lee Ki-Ho (Jeonnam, South Korea)

DR: Sergi Palencia (Sheff Utd)

DC: Adama Fofana (Jeonnam, Ivory Coast)

DC: Andrade (Fluminese)

DL: Leo Guerreiro (Fluminese)

MC: Leonardo Capezzi (Sheff Utd)

MC: Luis Osorio (Club America)

MC: Ko Ji-Sung (South Korea)

ST: Marcos Rogerio (Fluminese)

ST: Miguel “The Man” Rodriguez (Club America)

ST: “Bruce” Lee-Sang Joon (Jeonnam, South Korea)

Subs: “Birdman” Kwak Hee-Seong (MC/ST Jeonnam, South Korea), Kim Jong-Hyun (DR, Jeonnam/ South Korea), Josh Harrop (AMRC Sheff Utd), Thomas Trujillo (AM/ST Sheff Utd), William Diallo (DC Ajax CT), Yassir Belhaj (DR/DL Ajax CT)

Club Career:
  
Season     |   Team           |       Division      |   League  |       Cups         |   Notes & Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   4       |       n/a          |   Took over in December (team in 20th), lost on penalties in playoff final
2017/18    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   1       |       n/a          |   Promotion; League 2 points record (104). Moved to Sheffield Utd at end of season
2018/19    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Championship (ENG) |   1       |       n/a          |   Promoted
2019/20    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Premiership (ENG)  |   7       |       semi         | 
2021       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   5       |       n/a          |   Joined when 10th in the league, after a one-year job search
2022       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |       won          |   Domestic double   
2023       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |   won ACL + cup    |   A historic quadruple
2023/24    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   9       |   won AfCL         |   A champions league win with an super-thin squad (joined in CL group stage)
2024/25    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   2       |   won FA cup       |    
2025/26    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   1       |   won CL + 2 cups  |   A quadruple of sorts
2026/27    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   2       |   won Mex cup      |   Joined 2 games before play-offs. Lost in play-off final
2027/28    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   1; 1    |   won NACL         |   Won closing and opening league + champ league
2028       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   8       |       n/a          |   Joined 1/3 through the season. Qualified for Copa Lib.
2029       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   1       | won Copa Lib + CWC |   
 
International career:
 
Season     |   Team           |  Tournament    |   Notes & Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    |   Greece         |  Euro quals    |   Took over in Autumn
2019/20    |   Greece         |  Euro          |   Quarter-finals; lost to France
2021       |   Egypt          |  WC quals      |   Qualified by beating Nigeria in final group game
2022       |   Egypt          |  WC            |   Quarter finals; lost to Poland on penalties
2023       |   Egypt          |  ACON          |   Lost in semis (Ghana, extra time)
2023/24    |   Jamaica        |  WC quals      |
2024/25    |   Jamaica        |  Gold Cup      |   Winners!
2026       |   Jamaica        |  World Cup     |   Group stage exit
2027       |   South Korea    |  Asian Cup     |   Winners!
2028       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON quals    |   Qualified
2029       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON          |   Winners!

Challenge Progress:
  
Club
 4/10 top domestic leagues: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América), BRA (Fluminese)
 3/10 domestic cups: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América)
 4/5 club continental championships: Asian CL (Jeonnam), African CL (Ajax CT), NACL (Club América), Copa Libertadores (Fluminese)
 1/1 club world championship: Jeonnam 2023, Fluminese 2029
 
International
 3/5 continental tournaments: Gold Cup (Jamaica), Asian Cup (South Korea), ACON (Ivory Coast)
 0/2 world tournaments

Edited March 1, 2017 by dkouv

vikeologist · March 3, 2017

Vikeologist's 2037/8 Juventus End of Season Report

th?id=OIP.Mf6fa72674ba2717cc6ad79c565da4

TL;DR Won cup and Europa League after taking over midway through season with team in 7th.

We won the TIM Cup. I thought things weren’t going to go our way in the final against likely league champions, Inter, when one of our players was sent off for a two-footed assault in the first 10 minutes. However we scored a goal, and I went into ultra-defensive formation to hold on for my 7^th domestic cup.

Actually winning the cup was pretty bad for the club financially, as we had to pay out about £7.5million to clubs because of our victory, plus almost another million to the players. The managers before me certainly loved their transfer clauses, and we often have to pay out lots of money. Still, although we’re temporarily in debt, I don’t think I have to worry too much.

League

In order to improve my chances of getting get the job, I promised the board that we would qualify for the Champions league when I took over. This looked possible given that I was just 6 points behind the team in 3^rd, but given that we were in 7^th, that was a lot of teams to overtake in half a season. Luckily we got off to a good start, but we blew a couple of matches near the end and I thought our chances had disappeared. However, we went into the last match of the season in 4^th, and 1 point behind the 3^rd place team.

As it turned out, a draw would have been enough. We went a goal down, but then our opponents, AC Milan, had a player sent off, and then pulled 4-1 ahead. The match ended up a 5-3 victory for them, and we ended up in 5^th place.

We had another chance to qualify for the Champions league though, because we had reached the final of the ...

Europa League. Victory against Sevilla would get us into the CL.

We dominated the match for the first 15 minutes, and it looked like it was going to be fairly easy until we had another player sent off for a 2-foot lunge. What is the matter with them. We still looked like the better side, but Sevilla went ahead from a set piece. However, we managed to pull 2 back in quick succession in the second half, and I did what had to be done, going ultra-defensive with my ten men in the second final in a week.

It worked. We won the trophy, and are in the Champions League. Predictably we also had to pay out another huge chunk of money because we’d won the Europa League. I hope these competition bonuses are a 1 time only thing, because otherwise I’m not going to be able to keep winning things like this.

All in all a very pleasing season. Sure, we didn’t win the league, but given that I had to make do what the squad I inherited; I wasn’t able to sign any players, and had to ship off some of my wingers on loan because I don’t use them, hopefully I will be able to improve the team over the summer.

That won’t be my priority though, because I’m about to host the World Cup in Mexico.

Top Goalscorer – Agostinho André – 34

Best Average Rating Agostinho André 7.33

Man of Match – Agostinho André - 8

MVP – Agostinho André. Honestly I think the MVP is the system I play. My players are just my tools, but to be fair to Ago, he was on injections for the Europa League final, and still banged the crucial brace with his killing speed.

Domestic
Season	Team					Position	Notes										Challenge Landmarks
2016	FC Lahti				10th		Just 9 points from the 10 matches remaining after I took over
2017	FC Lahti				3rd		Qualified for Europe
2018	FC Lahti				1st		First domestic title
2019	FC Lahti				1st		The double. First domestic cup
2020	Jeonbuk					1st
2021	Jeonbuk					2nd		Knocked out of CL in semis
2022	Jeonbuk					1st		League / FA Cup / Champions League Triple. CWC 3rd place
2023	Minnesota Utd				14th
2024	Minnesota Utd				7th		Lost on penalties in Western Conference Semifinal
2025/6	Orlando Pirates				3rd		Knockout Cup Winners, failed to qualify for Champions League
2026/7	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super 8, Knockout Cup, Nedbank Cup. Won everything basically.
2027/8	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super8, Nedbank Cup. Confederation Cup losing finalists.
2028/9	Orlando Pirates				n/a		African Champions League. Left mid-season with the team on track for the threepeat.
2028/9	Rosario Central				18th		Took over for last 2 matches of the season.
2029/30	Rosario Central				1st		4th domestic title
2030/31	Rosario Central				1st	
2031/32	Rosario Central				1st		Threepeat, Copa Argentina, Lost in Libertadores Q/F
2032/33	Rosario Central						Left after 4 matches because we'd been knocked out of the Libertadores.
2032/33	Stade Rennais				7th		Coupe de la ligue
2033/4	Stade Rennais						Resigned after 14 matches
2036(C)	Atlas					4th		5th cup. Lost in league final.
2036(A)	Atlas					1st		Lost in league final again
2037(C)	Atlas					1st		5th domestic league / CONCACAF Champions League
2037(A)	Atlas					1st		Retained title, lost in CWC Final
2037-8	Juventus				5th		Took over half way through in 7th. Won 7th domestic cup and the Europa League - both with 10 men.


International
Year	Team					Achievements	
2019-21	Nigeria					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2021-23	DR Congo				2022 World Cup - R2, 2023 African Cup Losing Finalists
2023-25	Chile					None. Resigned to take South Korea job.
2026-27	South Korea				Asian Cup winners
2027-29	South Africa				Lost in African Cup Q/F
2030-31	Brazil					Lost in Copa America final
2031-33	Chile					Resigned again to take Egypt job.
2033-5	Egypt					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2036-37	Mali					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2037-37	Ivory Coast				Quit after 1 competitive match to take over Mexico
2037-	Mexico					

Challenge Progress

Club
 5/10 top domestic leagues 		(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico)
 7/10 domestic cups 			(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, France, Mexico, Italy)
 3/5 club continental championships 	(Asia, Africa, North America)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments 		(Asia)
 0/2 world tournaments

vossmaj · March 3, 2017

Preface: After some weeks of illness I managed to get back to my save. Here's a quick update.

Tactics (Instructions)

JIA LEAGUE

Not much to report or write home about. All in all I am content though as we dealt ok with two major challenges:

We couldn't adequately fill our foreigner spots in the squad. Two of our three best players left us pre-season and the third (striker Luis Cabezas who still had a contract until the end of the season) was unhappy most of the time. None of them wanted to talk about new contracts.

And one of our major transfers in (Sun Haosheng (MR)) was banned for the first half season for unknown reasons. We truly missed him and as he returned we hit a good run of form. In his first match for the club he scored after 10 minutes.

Tactic wise I tried to adapt to my squad (weak passing, no decent crossing, no specific strengths), i.e. not overthinking, few instructions, rather defensive/ counter attacking

Domestic Cup

Knocked out in round 2. Let's not mention this any further...

MVP Kong Han-Bin (AMC): Got him for 91k EUR from Jia League fellows Yiteng. Turned out to be my player of the season with 6 goals and 8 assists in 30 matches and the best average rating of 7.36..

GOALS for next year

More balanced squad.

Get some decent transfers from South Korea.

Top5 in the league.

Domestic
Season  Team                                    Position        Notes                                                                           
2015    Hunan Xiangtao                          11th            Took over 6 games before end of season
2016    Hunan Xiangtao                          9th             Knocked out in 2nd round of cup

Challenge Progress
Club
 0/10 top domestic leagues              
 0/10 domestic cups                     
 0/5 club continental championships     
 0/1 club world championship

International
 0/5 continental tournaments            
 0/2 world tournaments

Edited March 4, 2017 by vossmaj

vikeologist · March 4, 2017

@vossmaj Looks like hard sledding there in the Jia league. What is your scouting range? Looks like your links are all to this page. Weird that you can't see why Sun Haosheng was banned. Better luck next season.

@dkouv The seasons in Brazil look exhausting. I hope that I can just parachute in to claim the Libertadores. If you're not enjoying it, an instant result skin might be a nice addition, but unless your teams is a lot better, I've found results are not as good as actually playing. Anyway, you're out of Brazil now.

vikeologist · March 4, 2017

Vikeologist's 2038 Mexico World Cup Report

This is only my second World Cup in this save. The previous time was 16 years ago in 2022 with DR Congo. It seems like 16 years ago.

A bit of pressure, since I’m expected to at least get to the second round, and I need to ensure that I keep my job so that I can have a shot at the Gold Cup, which is my primary objective with Mexico.

But if you asked me if I thought Mexico had a chance of doing well here, I’d have to say yes. Being the home nation means that though no group would be easy, we stand a chance of progressing.

Group Stage

Spoiler

Vs Japan 2-1 A bumpy start. It took us a long time to break them down, including missing a penalty, but when we finally did we had lots of chances to romp away, which we didn’t take. Their penalty late in the game made things tenser than they had any right to be.

Vs Uruguay 1-1 Probably a fair result, though we seemed to create more chances, which again we didn’t take. Need a draw in our last match to progress. A loss would almost certainly send us (and me) out.

Vs Belgium 1-2 Oh, nuts.

Second Round

Spoiler

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

3^rd Place Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

After The Tournament

Spoiler

So I’m going to be sacked, which is so annoying. I’ll probably wrap up the domestic side of things relatively quickly, but my failure in international football means that it might take me even longer in terms of years to finish this challenge, although I suppose that holidaying, continue timeout and instant result I’ll get through seasons quite quickly once I’m just an international manager. I could well be the first to complete this challenge in the 22^nd century.

vossmaj · March 4, 2017

@vikeologist Yes, the start was a bit bumpy. Scouting range is East Asia and the board is not willing to extend that. Combined with my setup (loaded countries China, Chile and South Africa) that turned out to be, ehm, challenging. I will add South Korea for next year so that there is at least some "material" to scout.

I edited the links. Don't know really why this happened but now it works fine.

I tried to find out about Sun Haosheng's ban. Posted in the forum, googled the real life player and league, checked the editor - no info available at all. I would have expected the game to give me something actually.

Such a shame with your Mexican WC. I can imagine that this might add some years to your challenge... Best of luck!

dkouv · March 4, 2017

@vikeologist Yes, parachuting in for the Libertadores looks like the way to go, if the Brazillian sides have become so dominant in your save. I have an instant result skin but was reluctant to use it in the first season, as you say the results seem to become worse, even though once your team becomes dominant ability-wise you can just sail through. In any case, I managed to get out of Brazil and get a job at Valencia which I'm very pleased with. But to replicate the slow progress of the Brazillian league I've been hit by the 17.3 processing speed bug, so will take an enforced short break from the game I guess Shame about the World Cup results with Mexico; looks like you had a very tough group considering that you should've been a 1st seed as hosts...

shirajzl · March 5, 2017

Good luck, still reading you guys.

Edited March 5, 2017 by shirajzl

HawkAussie · March 6, 2017

I'm interested in doing this challenge and I might do this for a little bit of fun and my first team that I have got is

As you can see it is going to be the African Warriors from the South African First Division

Domestic
Season  Team                                    Position        Notes                                                                           
2015    African Warriors										Got the job on 5th August

Challenge Progress
Club
 0/10 top domestic leagues              
 0/10 domestic cups                     
 0/5 club continental championships     
 0/1 club world championship

International
 0/5 continental tournaments            
 0/2 world tournaments

Here are the leagues that I have loaded up for this challenge so far. I have put Italy, Spain and England on view only for the moment.

Edited March 6, 2017 by HawkAussie

pug 407 · March 6, 2017

Pug's Season Update 2025-26

The Board Give Me A Transfer Fund Of 605 Million, Plus 502 Million From Sales Of Players I Didn't Need. So I Went About Getting My Squad Up To

The Challenge Of Competing For The Title. Transfers . So Up First Was A Game Against Marseille Trophee Des Champions. Up Next Was A Game

Against My Old Club Liverpool Super Cup. So Next Up Was The League And A Unbeaten Season. Final Table . Results 1 Results 2 . In The Two Cups I Played Most Of

The Reserves Coupe de France And Coupe de la Ligue. In The Champions League I Wanted To Win But Just Fell Short. Results . So With That I Resigned To Give

Myself A Better Chance Off Another Job. Season Review. Job History.

Here We Go To Try And Win The World Cup. In A Group Of China Cameroon And Serbia, Up First Was China And A 6-0 Win. Next Up Was Cameroon And A

Good 6-1 Win. Up Next Was Serbia And A Few Change's To The Starting Line Up A 7-0 Win. On To A 2nd Round Game Against Chile And A 3-0 Win.

Just Got A Manager Job At

So Back To The World Cup Q-Final And A Game Against Belgium And A 6-0 Win. Onto The S-Final And Hard Game Against 10 Man Switzerland And A 2-0 Win.

The Final Was The Surprise Team In USA And A Very Easy 4-0 Win, To Become World Champions. Job History .

                                                                CLUB CAREER
                                                                -----------

 Season    Club                Leagues        Cups                                     Others & Notes
                               1st  2nd       1st  2nd    Cont    CWC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Hunan Xiangtao                                                              Took Over In 16th Finished 6th
2017/18    Hunan Xiangtao                                                              Left After 20 Games
2017/18    Ulsan Hyundai       Won
2018/19    Ulsan Hyundai       Won            Won         Won     Won                  All 4 Trophys
2018/19    Gladbach
2019/20    Gladbach                           Won                                      Won DFB And Euro League
2020/21    Gladbach            Won            Won         Won
2020/21    Fluminense                                     Won                          Took Over In 14th Finished 8th
2021/22    Fluminense          Won            Won
2022/23    Tigres              Won                        Won
2023/24    Liverpool           Won            Won  Won
2024/25    PSG                                Won  Won
2025/26    PSG                 Won
2026/27    Fiorentina
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                           INTERNATIONAL CAREER
                                                           --------------------

 Season Nation    Cups                                                                     Others & Notes
                  World Cup   Confed Cup   Euro's   AFC   ACON   Gold Cup   Copa America

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 Nigeria                                           Won
2019/21 USA                                                      Won
2023/24 China
2023/24 S Korea
2023/24 Brazil                Won
2025/26 Brazil    Won

  Challenge Progress

Club

6/10  Top Domestic leagues (S/Korea-Germany-Brazil-Mexico-England-France)
5/10  Top Domestic Cups (S/Korea-Germany-Brazil-England-France)
4/5   Continentals Cups (Ulsan-Gladbach-Fluminense-Tigres)
1/1   Club World Cup (Ulsan)

 International

2/5   Continental Tournaments (Nigeria-USA)
2/2   World Tournaments (Brazil-Brazil)

dkouv · March 6, 2017

valencia.png.ddb66c978e512ebf37ce25eed468a773.png 58bdc431896e1_ivorycoast.jpg.d8e49c5c7a87764c8e3cd4f71df74ca6.jpg

Season 14 – 2029/30 – Valencia / Ivory Coast

Season Review

I managed to land a job at Valencia without giving up my Ivory Coast role, and escape the travails of the long Brazillian season, which with the slowness FM bug was starting to feel truly endless.

Valencia finished 3^rd behind Real and Barca the season before, but were in 10^th when I joined. We were only 7 points behind champions league places with 22 games gone, and I managed to sneak into the final CL slot in the last 2 games of the season. It was a closely run race, but we just about edged Atletico Bilbao. I also had time to lose to FC Bayern in the CL first knockout round.

League when joined | League finish

Player review

The squad is good but very much on the ageing side, in contrast to my previous clubs. I will try to reshape it over the summer, but only have £10mil to spend before player sales, so it’s not looking that good (and I already sold a few players). Here are the best performers for the season:

Top scorer, top assists – Christian Gruber (AMC/ST) – 17 goals and 11 assists in 30(9) apps. A solid forward at the peak of his powers.

Highest rating, MVP – Emerson Simarro (M/AMC) – 14 goals, 6 assists in 42(2) apps; rating 7.35

Manager progress

65% rep (down 5ppts)

What’s next

I’m not too happy with the financial situation at the club, and it’s hard to find players which would improve the team but are cheap. Also, Barcelona and Real are absolutely dominant in the league, Barca getting 98 points this season. So I’m not sure whether to stick around – the Dortmund job is available so I am tempted. At the same time I want to give it a go for the full season with Valencia and see how far I can go.

In the most immediate future, a World Cup campaign with Ivory Coast is next on the list.

Challenge XI

GK: Lee Ki-Ho (Jeonnam, South Korea)

DR: Sergi Palencia (Sheff Utd)

DC: Adama Fofana (Jeonnam, Ivory Coast)

DC: Andrade (Fluminese)

DL: Leo Guerreiro (Fluminese)

MC: Leonardo Capezzi (Sheff Utd)

MC: Luis Osorio (Club America)

MC: Ko Ji-Sung (South Korea)

ST: Marcos Rogerio (Fluminese)

ST: Miguel “The Man” Rodriguez (Club America)

ST: “Bruce” Lee-Sang Joon (Jeonnam, South Korea)

Subs: “Birdman” Kwak Hee-Seong (MC/ST Jeonnam, South Korea), Kim Jong-Hyun (DR, Jeonnam/ South Korea), Josh Harrop (AMRC Sheff Utd), Thomas Trujillo (AM/ST Sheff Utd), William Diallo (DC Ajax CT), Yassir Belhaj (DR/DL Ajax CT)

Club Career:
  
Season     |   Team           |       Division      |   League  |       Cups         |   Notes & Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   4       |       n/a          |   Took over in December (team in 20th), lost on penalties in playoff final
2017/18    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   1       |       n/a          |   Promotion; League 2 points record (104). Moved to Sheffield Utd at end of season
2018/19    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Championship (ENG) |   1       |       n/a          |   Promoted
2019/20    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Premiership (ENG)  |   7       |       semi         | 
2021       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   5       |       n/a          |   Joined when 10th in the league, after a one-year job search
2022       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |       won          |   Domestic double   
2023       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |   won ACL + cup    |   A historic quadruple
2023/24    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   9       |   won AfCL         |   A champions league win with an super-thin squad (joined in CL group stage)
2024/25    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   2       |   won FA cup       |    
2025/26    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   1       |   won CL + 2 cups  |   A quadruple of sorts
2026/27    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   2       |   won Mex cup      |   Joined 2 games before play-offs. Lost in play-off final
2027/28    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   1; 1    |   won NACL         |   Won closing and opening league + champ league
2028       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   8       |       n/a          |   Joined 1/3 through the season. Qualified for Copa Lib.
2029       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   1       | won Copa Lib + CWC |  
2029/30    |   Valencia       |  La Liga            |   4       |       n/a          |   Joined with team in 10th, qualified for CL
 
International career:
 
Season     |   Team           |  Tournament    |   Notes & Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    |   Greece         |  Euro quals    |   Took over in Autumn
2019/20    |   Greece         |  Euro          |   Quarter-finals; lost to France
2021       |   Egypt          |  WC quals      |   Qualified by beating Nigeria in final group game
2022       |   Egypt          |  WC            |   Quarter finals; lost to Poland on penalties
2023       |   Egypt          |  ACON          |   Lost in semis (Ghana, extra time)
2023/24    |   Jamaica        |  WC quals      |
2024/25    |   Jamaica        |  Gold Cup      |   Winners!
2026       |   Jamaica        |  World Cup     |   Group stage exit
2027       |   South Korea    |  Asian Cup     |   Winners!
2028       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON quals    |   Qualified
2029       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON          |   Winners!

Challenge Progress:
  
Club
 4/10 top domestic leagues: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América), BRA (Fluminese)
 3/10 domestic cups: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América)
 4/5 club continental championships: Asian CL (Jeonnam), African CL (Ajax CT), NACL (Club América), Copa Libertadores (Fluminese)
 1/1 club world championship: Jeonnam 2023, Fluminese 2029
 
International
 3/5 continental tournaments: Gold Cup (Jamaica), Asian Cup (South Korea), ACON (Ivory Coast)
 0/2 world tournaments

pug 407 · March 7, 2017

19 hours ago, dkouv said:
Season 14 – 2029/30 – Valencia / Ivory Coast

Season Review

I managed to land a job at Valencia without giving up my Ivory Coast role, and escape the travails of the long Brazillian season, which with the slowness FM bug was starting to feel truly endless.

Valencia finished 3^rd behind Real and Barca the season before, but were in 10^th when I joined. We were only 7 points behind champions league places with 22 games gone, and I managed to sneak into the final CL slot in the last 2 games of the season. It was a closely run race, but we just about edged Atletico Bilbao. I also had time to lose to FC Bayern in the CL first knockout round.

League when joined | League finish

Player review

The squad is good but very much on the ageing side, in contrast to my previous clubs. I will try to reshape it over the summer, but only have £10mil to spend before player sales, so it’s not looking that good (and I already sold a few players). Here are the best performers for the season:

Top scorer, top assists – Christian Gruber (AMC/ST) – 17 goals and 11 assists in 30(9) apps. A solid forward at the peak of his powers.

Highest rating, MVP – Emerson Simarro (M/AMC) – 14 goals, 6 assists in 42(2) apps; rating 7.35

Manager progress

65% rep (down 5ppts)

What’s next

I’m not too happy with the financial situation at the club, and it’s hard to find players which would improve the team but are cheap. Also, Barcelona and Real are absolutely dominant in the league, Barca getting 98 points this season. So I’m not sure whether to stick around – the Dortmund job is available so I am tempted. At the same time I want to give it a go for the full season with Valencia and see how far I can go.

In the most immediate future, a World Cup campaign with Ivory Coast is next on the list.

Challenge XI

GK: Lee Ki-Ho (Jeonnam, South Korea)

DR: Sergi Palencia (Sheff Utd)

DC: Adama Fofana (Jeonnam, Ivory Coast)

DC: Andrade (Fluminese)

DL: Leo Guerreiro (Fluminese)

MC: Leonardo Capezzi (Sheff Utd)

MC: Luis Osorio (Club America)

MC: Ko Ji-Sung (South Korea)

ST: Marcos Rogerio (Fluminese)

ST: Miguel “The Man” Rodriguez (Club America)

ST: “Bruce” Lee-Sang Joon (Jeonnam, South Korea)

Subs: “Birdman” Kwak Hee-Seong (MC/ST Jeonnam, South Korea), Kim Jong-Hyun (DR, Jeonnam/ South Korea), Josh Harrop (AMRC Sheff Utd), Thomas Trujillo (AM/ST Sheff Utd), William Diallo (DC Ajax CT), Yassir Belhaj (DR/DL Ajax CT)
Club Career:
  
Season     |   Team           |       Division      |   League  |       Cups         |   Notes & Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   4       |       n/a          |   Took over in December (team in 20th), lost on penalties in playoff final
2017/18    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   1       |       n/a          |   Promotion; League 2 points record (104). Moved to Sheffield Utd at end of season
2018/19    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Championship (ENG) |   1       |       n/a          |   Promoted
2019/20    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Premiership (ENG)  |   7       |       semi         | 
2021       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   5       |       n/a          |   Joined when 10th in the league, after a one-year job search
2022       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |       won          |   Domestic double   
2023       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |   won ACL + cup    |   A historic quadruple
2023/24    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   9       |   won AfCL         |   A champions league win with an super-thin squad (joined in CL group stage)
2024/25    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   2       |   won FA cup       |    
2025/26    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   1       |   won CL + 2 cups  |   A quadruple of sorts
2026/27    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   2       |   won Mex cup      |   Joined 2 games before play-offs. Lost in play-off final
2027/28    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   1; 1    |   won NACL         |   Won closing and opening league + champ league
2028       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   8       |       n/a          |   Joined 1/3 through the season. Qualified for Copa Lib.
2029       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   1       | won Copa Lib + CWC |  
2029/30    |   Valencia       |  La Liga            |   4       |       n/a          |   Joined with team in 10th, qualified for CL
 
International career:
 
Season     |   Team           |  Tournament    |   Notes & Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    |   Greece         |  Euro quals    |   Took over in Autumn
2019/20    |   Greece         |  Euro          |   Quarter-finals; lost to France
2021       |   Egypt          |  WC quals      |   Qualified by beating Nigeria in final group game
2022       |   Egypt          |  WC            |   Quarter finals; lost to Poland on penalties
2023       |   Egypt          |  ACON          |   Lost in semis (Ghana, extra time)
2023/24    |   Jamaica        |  WC quals      |
2024/25    |   Jamaica        |  Gold Cup      |   Winners!
2026       |   Jamaica        |  World Cup     |   Group stage exit
2027       |   South Korea    |  Asian Cup     |   Winners!
2028       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON quals    |   Qualified
2029       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON          |   Winners!

Challenge Progress:
  
Club
 4/10 top domestic leagues: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América), BRA (Fluminese)
 3/10 domestic cups: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América)
 4/5 club continental championships: Asian CL (Jeonnam), African CL (Ajax CT), NACL (Club América), Copa Libertadores (Fluminese)
 1/1 club world championship: Jeonnam 2023, Fluminese 2029
 
International
 3/5 continental tournaments: Gold Cup (Jamaica), Asian Cup (South Korea), ACON (Ivory Coast)
 0/2 world tournaments 

How Many More Points Would You Have Got In The First 22 Games. Could Have Been A Bit Closer Than You Were.

dkouv · March 7, 2017

@pug 407 Good point; if I apply the points-per-game from my 16 games in charge to the whole season I would've got 95 points, just 3 behind Barca. But my fixtures were easier than the preceding 22, eg I didn't have to play Real home or away and played the 3rd - 6th places at home only. Anyhow, it might have been possible to catch up but certainly very tough with an ageing squad and a transfer budget of £10 million; guess I'll never find out because I accepted the Dortmund job They have a great squad and a £96million transfer budget, so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. Will try to come back to Spain later, hopefully with Barca, Real or Atletico.

Are you waiting till the Barca or Real job becomes available before moving to Spain? Well done with PSG btw

pug 407 · March 8, 2017

18 hours ago, dkouv said:

@pug 407 Good point; if I apply the points-per-game from my 16 games in charge to the whole season I would've got 95 points, just 3 behind Barca. But my fixtures were easier than the preceding 22, eg I didn't have to play Real home or away and played the 3rd - 6th places at home only. Anyhow, it might have been possible to catch up but certainly very tough with an ageing squad and a transfer budget of £10 million; guess I'll never find out because I accepted the Dortmund job They have a great squad and a £96million transfer budget, so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. Will try to come back to Spain later, hopefully with Barca, Real or Atletico.

Are you waiting till the Barca or Real job becomes available before moving to Spain? Well done with PSG btw

Don't Think You Can Ever Say I'm Going For A Team. Just Who Ever Comes Up At The Time, None Of Them Jobs Have Come Up Yet.

numero uno gunner · March 8, 2017

Season 2018

Sligo Rovers

Well, that was rather unexpected.

After a rather unsettled pre-season, with 7 new signings settling in, we hit the ground in the league running. Settling with my 4-2-3-1 formation, I had targeted players to fit the system, and went about bringing the squad up to scratch. Key signings were centre back Nam Dae-Sik, attacking midfielder Dean Shiels and striker Dinny Corcoran, all of whom were utterly essential to our successful campaign.

Three wins and three draws in our opening six games was a solid start, before we went to title favourites Dundalk and lost 5-4 in a ridiculously crazy game. I decided that I needed to tinker with the defensive side of my tactic, and we became far more solid at the back from this point onwards. In fact, we only conceded 2 goals in the next 12 league games, a run which saw us catapulted into the title race. However, in this run we did get knocked out of both cups, after leading in both games as well. I really fancied our chances of winning one of the cups, so it was ridiculously frustrating to say the least.

Seven wins on the bounce took us top, 6 points clear, and we travelled to second place Dundalk on the back of a 23 game unbeaten streak in the league. They had a game in hand, so a defeat here would leave them with the chance to take the top spot back, with their far superior goal difference. We found ourselves 2-0 down after 16 minutes, and I decided to throw caution to the wind. We grabbed one back before the break, and then a quick-fire double just after the hour mark saw us go in front. It looked like we were going to smuggle all three points back to Sligo with us, but they got a deserved equaliser to take a share of the spoils.

Three games to go for me, four for them, with us 6 points clear. They then proceeded to lose their game in hand, and we both won our next game, meaning a single point would be enough to seal the title. We travelled to Limerick, taking a huge 163 fans with us, hoping to be able to say 'I was there'. Alas, they were, as we managed to throw away a lead, and then snatch defeat from the jaws of a title-winning draw by conceding in the 88th minute. Dundalk won, meaning we went into the final game, knowing our fate once more.

A single point. All we needed was a single point.

2,669 fans packed into The Showgrounds to watch us give the most lacklustre, pathetic and utterly inept performance of the season. St. Patrick's Athletic tore us apart, thrashing us 4-0. The fans were glued to their phones, refreshing their internet streams as the desperately awaited news from Dundalk. And then it came through. Limerick had somehow gone to the champions and won 2-0, meaning we had sealed the title! Its a very odd situation, celebrating a title win on the back of a 4-0 home mauling.

In terms of stars of the season, whilst Dinny Corcoran (16 goals in 25 games) and Dean Shiels (11 in 33) were important, and my two keepers piling up clean sheets, the star performer was by far our outstanding centre back Nam Dae-Sik. Brought in on a free from Derry, he played 33 times, averaging 7.48 and, almost unheard of for a centre back, amassed 10 man of the match awards. Evidently, he's played his way into my challenge XI already.

So what now? I'm hoping that the slightly improved reputation might allow me to get another job elsewhere. If that doesn't happen, I'll stay on at Sligo and see if I can target a domestic cup. My guess is we'll get absolutely smashed in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, but it'll be another experience I guess!

Club
Season Team Position Notes and Achievements
2016/17 Dungannon 9th Irish Cup winners, Mid-Ulster Cup winners

2018 Sligo Rovers 1st League winners!

Challenge Progress

Club

1/10 top domestic leagues - Republic of Ireland (Sligo)

1/10 domestic cups - Northern Ireland (Dungannon)

0/5 club continental championships -

0/1 club world championship -

International

0/5 continental tournaments -

0/2 world tournaments -

dkouv · March 8, 2017

58c08b5c9be13_ivorycoast.jpg.cb9f2504faee12d1756c601784fc80e4.jpg

Ivory Coast 2030 World Cup report

A tough but not impossible group with Argentina (rank 4), Russia (rank 17) and South Korea (rank 20) awaits. I look forward to testing this Ivory Coast team against high-quality opposition.

Group stage

Spoiler

Argentina 0 – 3 Ivory Coast. Goals: Doumbia, Kouakou, Zeze

Boom! We start in style, playing the mighty Argentina off the park. One of my best players Doumbia pulled his hamstring, but I have good depth in his position.

Ivory Coast 1 – 1 South Korea. Goals: Kean

Annoyed with this, one of those games where you dominate completely but can’t find the winner. Still, a draw against Russia will see us through.

Russia 1 – 2 Ivory Coast. Goals: Zebli, Diaby

Should have won by a bigger margin but job done, and we go through topping the group. And what is our reward? Another injury and bloody Germany in the second round…

Second round (if applicable)

Spoiler

Germany 0 – 2 Ivory Coast. Goals: Kean, Diaby.

An exciting and close game, and we edged it. Another injury to my attacker Moise Kean means the squad is starting to look a bit thin, however.

Quarter final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Holland 2 – 3 Ivory Coast. Goals: Zeze, Kouakou, Doumbia.

What a game. Holland were utterly dominant in the first half but somehow we hung in there, at 2-1 down. We were getting back into the game in the second half, and Kouakou equalised with a low 20-yard drive. I was preparing for extra time when Doumbia popped in with a 92^nd minute winner to send us through. My keeper Digbeu played superbly and made 10 saves to limit Holland to 2 goals.

Semi final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Ivory Coast 1 – 2 Turkey. Goals: Diaby.

Oh well, the dream dies here. In a way, it was annoyingly unlucky: Turkey had 3 shots and 2 goals, one thanks to a howler from my center back. On the other hand, I also messed up: I rested some players (“it’s only Turkey”, I thought), and I still haven’t worked out a tactic to beat certain bus-parking formations. Basically I know that if I play a team of similar quality, but which goes ultra-defensive against me, I always struggle and often draw or lose, or have to score a long shot to win… Anyway, enough detail is enough detail.

Third place playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Colombia 1 – 0 Ivory Coast.

In a way it was nice to lose this one, makes me feel like I wasn’t that close to winning the whole thing

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

After the tournament

Spoiler

A good showing but ultimately we fell at the penultimate hurdle. Not too fussed in the grand scheme of things. I’ve really enjoyed my time with Ivory Coast, but now I need to move on. To…. [drumroll] …. Brazil!

Edited March 8, 2017 by dkouv

vikeologist · March 11, 2017

@pug 407 A bit jealous that you got the job at PSG. I really wanted the job in my FM15 challenge, because my favourite player (who I managed with the Holland team) played for them. I've been turned down by them so many times. Maybe they're hard-coded to repel Vikings. Jealous of the unbeaten season as well, so congrats.

Looks like you're going to come fairly close to beating your record for the fastest completion,.

Do you look at the squad or other club details before taking over a club? I try to usually, although sometimes the job offer is so enticing or I'm so desperate that I figure I can make lemons out of lemonade if necessary. Like at the moment, the job at Bayern is available, and I'll take it no matter what the squad looks like, although I've just taken a look and now I really want the job.

@dkouv Hard luck on the WC exit, but good luck with Brazil. I'm surprised the Valencia board didn't make more than 10 mill available once you qualified. When you don't have much money it's difficult to replace the aging players, because aging players is all you can afford. My Juventus squad is geriatric. Valencia are one of those sides I thought I'd never manage in FM (because I didn't enjoy my visit to the city) but they're my backup to Bayern in my current job search stakes. Anyway, good luck at Dortmund. Are they close to being the best club already?

@numero uno gunner Congratulations on your first domestic success. I think you've been doing this challenge longer than anyone except me. I hope that you can get on to the leader board and then complete the challenge. Wonder what kind of new job you'd be able to get at the moment, but if you do stay I hope that it's interesting enough just chasing the cup, and seeing how far you get in the CL. Maybe you'll be able to get a decent African international job after the ACON; who knows?

@HawkAussie A belated welcome to the challenge. Good luck in South Africa.

Edited March 11, 2017 by vikeologist

vikeologist · March 12, 2017

Vikeologist's 2038/9 Juventus and Italy End of Season Report

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TL;DR league / Cup double. Lost in Champions League semi-final.

After the inevitable sacking from Mexico after the World Cup, I needed a new job. It’s a bit depressing to have not picked up the Gold Cup from my time there, but hopefully they’ll give me another chance some day.

Anyway, I was offered plenty of jobs, but Italy looked like a very good match for the formation I want to play.

There’s not much overlap between Italy and my Juventus side. I only have 1 Italian player in my first eleven at Juventus, and usually only 1 or 2 subs. My one Italian player is 31 and is only a squad member internationally.

We were in a tough Nations League group with Spain, or at least you’d think so, but Spain were actually relegated with just 3 points and 1 win from their 4 games. Portugal, one of the other jobs I was offered, were also relegated. We comfortably won our group ahead of Wales, though they did manage a draw when we had a player sent off early on in the first match.

Had a bit of a scare in our first Euro Qualifier when my fun return to Finland after 20 years almost turned into a nightmare when they scored a goal on the counter-attack. As you would expect I threw resources into attack, and they scored a second goal. We managed to turn it around though and won with match 3-2 with an injury time winner.

Anyway, the heat of the meat is my season at Juventus. I won the Euro Supercup, or whatever it’s called, at the start of the season and thought we might have a shot at the Champions League. The fact that we reached the semis might make it seem like this turned out to be true, but in reality we skirted with disaster all the way through; ten minutes from going out in the group stage, nearly threw away a 4-0 first leg victory to go through on away goals in the second round, then had to turn around being 4-1 down in the first leg to get through the QF.

We encountered Man Utd in both the group stage and semis, and they were a lot better than us. In fact 3 of the semi-finalists were from England, so I’m thinking that, unless I win the Champions League in another nation along the way, I probably need to manage in England last of the Euro Mandatory 5.

The league however was much smoother. The league title always looked like a formality, although Inter and Roma did so well that they stayed on our heels throughout. Roma finished 7 points behind us, but would have won the league in any other season. We only lost 2 league matches all season, and 1 of those was the meaningless final one against our next (Italian Cup final) opponents.

I’m going to move on. I’m enjoying my time at Juve, and now for the first time, I have a very large amount of money, although with 4 first team players 34 or over, and a few others not far behind, it would take a lot of money to halt the decline. I brought in guys to do a short term job, and they didn’t disappoint. My 4 granddads all did very well, and the oldest of them all was my MVP.

Anyway, the final piece of business was the cup final against Bologna. Could they win the cup for the first time in 65 years? Well, their central defender who gave away 2 penalties (which we converted) in the first 11 minutes probably shouldn’t show his face in downtown Bologna for the foreseeable future. With his help we rolled to a comfortable 3-0 victory.

I’m quite close to the hall of fame now. Would probably be there already if it wasn’t for some guy who’s won the last 15 league and cups with Basel. Almost makes me want to load up the Swiss league to knock him off his perch.

I haven’t been in the Hall of Fame for years. In FM15 I changed computers half way through, which lost me my Hall of Fame points because it didn’t carry over. In FM16, I sucked and won nothing.

Top Goalscorer – Agostinho André – 39

Best Average Rating Antoine Duval – 7.41 My (now) 36 year old left wing back. He’s already won everything there is to win (with maybe the exception of the World Cup) with PSG and France, but he still had enough in the tank to have a stellar season with us after signing on a free transfer. He shows no sign of retiring.

Man of Match – Agostinho André - 9

MVP – Antoine Duval. Going to put him in my Challenge XI, though given that my tactics are wing back friendly, he probably won’t last there till the end.

So, I quit Juventus, and in my job interview with Bayern offered to stop my interest in the Valencia post to improve my chances with them. It was an offer that I regretted almost immediately, but it paid off, and I was offered the job. I’m the new Bayern manager. They finished 3^rd in the league this season, so I’m in the Champions League at least.

Domestic
Season	Team					Position	Notes										Challenge Landmarks
2016	FC Lahti				10th		Just 9 points from the 10 matches remaining after I took over
2017	FC Lahti				3rd		Qualified for Europe
2018	FC Lahti				1st		First domestic title
2019	FC Lahti				1st		The double. First domestic cup
2020	Jeonbuk					1st
2021	Jeonbuk					2nd		Knocked out of CL in semis
2022	Jeonbuk					1st		League / FA Cup / Champions League Triple. CWC 3rd place
2023	Minnesota Utd				14th
2024	Minnesota Utd				7th		Lost on penalties in Western Conference Semifinal
2025/6	Orlando Pirates				3rd		Knockout Cup Winners, failed to qualify for Champions League
2026/7	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super 8, Knockout Cup, Nedbank Cup. Won everything basically.
2027/8	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super8, Nedbank Cup. Confederation Cup losing finalists.
2028/9	Orlando Pirates				n/a		African Champions League. Left mid-season with the team on track for the threepeat.
2028/9	Rosario Central				18th		Took over for last 2 matches of the season.
2029/30	Rosario Central				1st		4th domestic title
2030/31	Rosario Central				1st	
2031/32	Rosario Central				1st		Threepeat, Copa Argentina, Lost in Libertadores Q/F
2032/33	Rosario Central						Left after 4 matches because we'd been knocked out of the Libertadores.
2032/33	Stade Rennais				7th		Coupe de la ligue
2033/4	Stade Rennais						Resigned after 14 matches
2036(C)	Atlas					4th		5th cup. Lost in league final.
2036(A)	Atlas					1st		Lost in league final again
2037(C)	Atlas					1st		5th domestic league / CONCACAF Champions League
2037(A)	Atlas					1st		Retained title, lost in CWC Final
2037/8	Juventus				5th		Took over half way through in 7th. Won 7th domestic cup and the Europa League - both with 10 men.
2038/9	Juventus				1st		League/Cup double plus a couple of supercup knickknacks. Lost in CL SF
2039/40	Bayern


International
Year	Team					Achievements	
2019-21	Nigeria					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2021-23	DR Congo				2022 World Cup - R2, 2023 African Cup Losing Finalists
2023-25	Chile					None. Resigned to take South Korea job.
2026-27	South Korea				Asian Cup winners
2027-29	South Africa				Lost in African Cup Q/F
2030-31	Brazil					Lost in Copa America final
2031-33	Chile					Resigned again to take Egypt job.
2033-5	Egypt					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2036-37	Mali					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2037-37	Ivory Coast				Quit after 1 competitive match to take over Mexico
2037-38	Mexico					Knocked out in group stage of WC and sacked.
2038-	Italy				

Challenge Progress

Club
 6/10 top domestic leagues 		(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico)
 7/10 domestic cups 			(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, France, Mexico, Italy)
 3/5 club continental championships 	(Asia, Africa, North America)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments 		(Asia)
 0/2 world tournaments

pug 407 · March 12, 2017

12 hours ago, vikeologist said:

@pug 407 A bit jealous that you got the job at PSG. I really wanted the job in my FM15 challenge, because my favourite player (who I managed with the Holland team) played for them. I've been turned down by them so many times. Maybe they're hard-coded to repel Vikings. Jealous of the unbeaten season as well, so congrats.

Looks like you're going to come fairly close to beating your record for the fastest completion,.

Do you look at the squad or other club details before taking over a club? I try to usually, although sometimes the job offer is so enticing or I'm so desperate that I figure I can make lemons out of lemonade if necessary. Like at the moment, the job at Bayern is available, and I'll take it no matter what the squad looks like, although I've just taken a look and now I really want the job.

Yes I Look At Ever Thing, Especially The Squad To See If The Players Fit My Tactics.

vossmaj · March 17, 2017

58cc3664e3c81_LogoHunan.jpg.8a62edb94b9bb792dc5a91202ab7e564.jpg 58cc36c48dafe_HelongStadiumHunan.jpg.0788f7ca10839cc3cea42f95faaa2dc3.jpg

Pre-Season situation

After a mediocre start into the save reaching 9^th place in the Jia League in 2016I overhauled the squad.

Main trandsfers:

Zhang Yi'nuo (GK): Talented young GK. Was supposed to be the backup for our aging and less talented #1. Turned out to be #1 himself pretty early in the season.

Lee Jeong-Feel (DC): This guy was supposed to bring stability into the creaking centre of defense. On paper the best DC in the squad. ..

Bai Hongtao (ST): Very young, very talented striker. Snatched him mid-season and loaned him back for the rest of 2017. Hopefully he'll get important in 2018.

JIA LEAGUE 2017

The new squad felt right, more like MY team. So I was optimistic to at least make some progress compared to last season.

We started bad with two points out of the first five matches. Then we picked up form and between mid April and early July we lost only two matches (out of 13) – including the longest unbeaten streak in the club's (short) history (six matches unbeaten in the league, winning five).

Then we kind of did the same thing the other way around – not winning for 7 games in a row (losing five). All this inconsistency led us to rank 12 in the end.

Table

Player Stats Part 1 Part 2

PLAYERS

Failure of the season:

Especially our new DC from South Korea – Lee Jeong-Feel – fell short. He was utterly disappointing with an average rating of 6.41. I don't really know why he turned out to be such a disaster. I guess though that I asked too much of him (new in the country, not speaking the language) by making him vice captain at once (because of high leadership skills).

MVP

Again Kong Han-Bin (AMC) consistently performed well (AR 7.47).

BEST STRIKER

Chen Ziljié: 14 goals in 19 matches

My goals for the season were:

More balanced squad – Well, kind of accomplished this
Get some decent transfers from South Korea. - Nope; we had transfers from SK but they were mostly rubbish
Top5 in the league – Not even close

Goals for next season:

Concede less (than 45 goals in 30 matches)
45 points
Develop Bai Hangtao (ST) and Xu Hao (DM/ MC), both 18y, to become regular starters
Be more courageous tacticwise and successfully change formation from 41311 to 442 or 4411.

So all in all this is not heading into the right direction, let alone coming any closer to the challenge's goal. So far, Hunan and me didn't really click. If there will be no turnaround next year, I will reconsider and rather leave this place.

And all this crappy situation occurs at a club that gives me a budget so high I can't find a way to spend it as there are not enough quality players to splash it out on. Meanwhile the training (below average) and youth facilities (poor) remain as unchanged as the scouting range (East Asia). Our club just announced a small profit - adding the comment that it was achieved due to some 6M EUR investment by the owners. We achieve this kind of "profit" every year...

Quote


Domestic
Season  Team                                    Position        Notes                                                                           Challenge Landmarks
2015    Hunan Xiangtao                          11th            Took over 6 games before end of season
2016    Hunan Xiangtao                          9th             Knocked out in 2^nd round of cup
2017    Hunan Xiangtao                          12th            Knocked out in 3^rd round of cup

Challenge Progress
Club
 0/10 top domestic leagues              
 0/10 domestic cups                     
 0/5 club continental championships     
 0/1 club world championship

International
 0/5 continental tournaments            
 0/2 world tournaments

Edited March 17, 2017 by vossmaj

vossmaj · March 17, 2017

@vikeologist Great progress. As a Bayern supporter I will clsoely follow how you are doing with them!

@pug 407 Truely impressive work!

dkouv · March 17, 2017

dortmund.png.9e6c513fcf4b3e2b7805554474348658.png brazil.jpg.b6449c2113ab52870e147d2732e0a30d.jpg

Season 15 – 2030/31 – Dortmund / Brazil

Season Review

As you can see from the title, it was all change this year, from Valencia with their meagre transfer budget and Ivory Coast with a talented but not world-class team, to Dortmund and Brazil. Dortmund just sacked Tuchel, who was their manager for 16-odd years, but he seemed to have left them in a really good shape. A very talented-looking squad with players at top end of their career age-wise, and a nice depth in every position, plus some really good youth prospects who couldn’t really get any game time. They finished 4th last year but have been in the title race most of the previous seasons, even though Bayern are still the dominant German team.

I was given a £90m transfer budget, but only brought in a few high-quality players for positions where I lacked numbers: center back and center mid; the rest of the players seemed so good I couldn’t really find many upgrades at short notice.

The season unfolded nicely – I had to switch to a tactic with wingers to make the best of the squad, but it was all working before too long, and we were completely storming the league come March, 12 points clear of Bayern. We then entered a bit of a slump as I kept resting players for league games, and were only 1 point + game in hand ahead of Bayern with a few games to go. But we stuck it through to win the league, my first of the “top 5”. In the cup I got a tough semi-final draw away to RB Leipzig, who have a good squad and beat us in the league – but we came through 2-1 winners, and dispatched Wolfsburg in the final. A double! Could it become a treble? Nope...

Barcelona were our nemesis in the CL: they beat us in the group stage, and we cruised past every other team, including Arsenal and recent winners PSG (5-0 on aggregate). But Barca beat us in the semis, even though it was a really annoying game: we lost 3-0 away, thanks to a needless penalty, a ludicrous goalkeeper error (one where he just strolled past the ball on the edge of the area and let their striker slot into the empty net), and an own goal from a corner. Aaargh! In any case, with 4 of the top 5 leagues to go there should be plenty of chances to win the CL – judging by recent winners, Spain, England and France would be my best bets, in that order.

League | Cup

Player review

Top scorer – Fidel Jarquin (ST), 25 goals and 3 assists in 28(7) apps

Was my back-up striker but ended up being first choice because my "world-class striker" Nedilson was off form for large parts of the season

Top assists – Thomas Devos (MC), 13 assists and 10 goals in 32(3) apps

One of my signings and a player with great attributes and many great performances

Top rating – Can Bahar (DL), 7.78 from 21(2) apps

Challenge XI additions:

Lars Schaefer, DRC – 3 goals, 3 assists, 7.67 rating

Was ever-present at right back, great going forward and defending

Nicolas Reimann, DRC – 7.39 rating

Ridiculously good attributes and very solid at center back

Manager progress

75% rep

What’s next

Job hunt at club level and Copa America with Brazil

Challenge XI

GK: Lee Ki-Ho (Jeonnam, South Korea)

DR: Lars Schaefer (Dortmund)

DC: Nicolas Reimann (Dortmund)

DC: Andrade (Fluminese)

DL: Leo Guerreiro (Fluminese)

MC: Thomas Devos (Dortmund)

MC: Luis Osorio (Club America)

MC: Ko Ji-Sung (South Korea)

ST: Marcos Rogerio (Fluminese)

ST: Miguel “The Man” Rodriguez (Club America)

ST: “Bruce” Lee-Sang Joon (Jeonnam, South Korea)

Subs: “Birdman” Kwak Hee-Seong (MC/ST Jeonnam, South Korea), Kim Jong-Hyun (DR, Jeonnam/ South Korea), Leonardo Capezzi (MC Sheff Utd), Thomas Trujillo (AM/ST Sheff Utd), Adama Fofana (DC Jeonnam/Ivory Coast), Yassir Belhaj (DR/DL Ajax CT)

Club Career:
  
Season     |   Team           |       Division      |   League  |       Cups         |   Notes & Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   4       |       n/a          |   Took over in December (team in 20th), lost on penalties in playoff final
2017/18    |   Accrington     |  League 2 (ENG)     |   1       |       n/a          |   Promotion; League 2 points record (104). Moved to Sheffield Utd at end of season
2018/19    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Championship (ENG) |   1       |       n/a          |   Promoted
2019/20    |   Sheffield Utd  |  Premiership (ENG)  |   7       |       semi         | 
2021       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   5       |       n/a          |   Joined when 10th in the league, after a one-year job search
2022       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |       won          |   Domestic double   
2023       |   Jeonnam        |  K League (KOR)     |   1       |   won ACL + cup    |   A historic quadruple
2023/24    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   9       |   won AfCL         |   A champions league win with an super-thin squad (joined in CL group stage)
2024/25    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   2       |   won FA cup       |    
2025/26    |   Ajax CT        |  South Afr Prem     |   1       |   won CL + 2 cups  |   A quadruple of sorts
2026/27    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   2       |   won Mex cup      |   Joined 2 games before play-offs. Lost in play-off final
2027/28    |   América (MEX)  |  Mexican 1st Div.   |   1; 1    |   won NACL         |   Won closing and opening league + champ league
2028       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   8       |       n/a          |   Joined 1/3 through the season. Qualified for Copa Lib.
2029       |   Fluminese      |  Brazil Ser. A      |   1       | won Copa Lib + CWC |  
2029/30    |   Valencia       |  La Liga            |   4       |       n/a          |   Joined with team in 10th, qualified for CL
2030/31    |   Dortmund       |  Bundesliga         |   1       |  won Ger cup       |     Domestic double
 
International career:
 
Season     |   Team           |  Tournament    |   Notes & Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    |   Greece         |  Euro quals    |   Took over in Autumn
2019/20    |   Greece         |  Euro          |   Quarter-finals; lost to France
2021       |   Egypt          |  WC quals      |   Qualified by beating Nigeria in final group game
2022       |   Egypt          |  WC            |   Quarter finals; lost to Poland on penalties
2023       |   Egypt          |  ACON          |   Lost in semis (Ghana, extra time)
2023/24    |   Jamaica        |  WC quals      |
2024/25    |   Jamaica        |  Gold Cup      |   Winners!
2026       |   Jamaica        |  World Cup     |   Group stage exit
2027       |   South Korea    |  Asian Cup     |   Winners!
2028       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON quals    |   Qualified
2029       |   Ivory Coast    |  ACON          |   Winners!

Challenge Progress:
  
Club
 5/10 top domestic leagues: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América), BRA (Fluminese), DEU (Dortmund)
 4/10 domestic cups: KOR (Jeonnam), RSA (Ajax CT), MEX (Club América), DEU (Dortmund)
 4/5 club continental championships: Asian CL (Jeonnam), African CL (Ajax CT), NACL (Club América), Copa Libertadores (Fluminese)
 1/1 club world championship: Jeonnam 2023, Fluminese 2029
 
International
 3/5 continental tournaments: Gold Cup (Jamaica), Asian Cup (South Korea), ACON (Ivory Coast)
 0/2 world tournaments

Edited March 17, 2017 by dkouv

vikeologist · March 17, 2017

I've managed to delete (when editing) most of the hall of fame post and all of the leader board.

I have a backup of the hall of fame, but not the leader board.

I'll add people back to it as they give updates, but I'm sorry, it's gone.

I don't know if a mod could get it back.

I've created a new leader board, based on the people who've posted an update the last couple of pages. I'll update or correct it as and when people post updates, but if I have missed out any active managers, let me know, and I'll add you.

Edited March 18, 2017 by vikeologist

dkouv · March 18, 2017

@vikeologist that's a bummer :[ I fear I also triggered it with my Dortmund update :o

Congrats on the double with Juve btw. Their job just came up in my game, so I might end up following your footsteps there. They finished 5th in Italy so not in CL, and I'm weighting up whether to go for it or wait and see if Liverpool sack their "very insecure job" manager...

vikeologist · March 18, 2017

@dkouv yes, I did bugger it up while updating your total, so sorry I didn't congratulate you earlier. I was annoyed with myself for not having a backup. Before I thought the leader board was too cluttered, but now it looks a bit depressingly small.

Have you actually quit Dortmund? One reason for quitting a job is that the vacancy may get filled by a manager from a club you crave. My Juventus job was filled by the PSG manager, the club I really would like to manage, but I'd already got the Bayern job. That's worked out pretty well for me, but it might take more than 1 season to get the French title if I can't get the PSG job, and I already have the French Cup.

Good luck in the Copa America.

@vossmaj - Sorry it doesn't seem to be coming together in Hunan. Better luck next season. Just imagine how good it will feel when it all comes together.

pug 407 · March 18, 2017

Pug's Update Season 2026-27

So With A Transfer Budget Of 49 Million Pounds, A Squad That Looked Good I Had A Slow Transfer Season. Bringing In Just A No 1 Goal Keeper

I Started With 2 Wins Out Of 2 Games, Before Getting Beat By Juventus 0-3. I Then Won my Next 5 Games Before A Draw Against Empoli.

I Then Went On A 15 Game Unbeaten Run Before A Loss To Roma. In The Last 13 Games I Won 10 And Drew 3 To Finish Top. 7 Points Clear Of

Inter Who Pushed Me All The Way. Results 1. Results 2 . League Table .

In The TM Cup Apart From A 0-0 Draw In The Semi-Final 1st Leg Against Milan, It Was A Comfortable Win. TM Cup Results . So With The Double

Done It Was Time To Move On. Job History .

So On To The Copa America And A Group Of Peru Chile And USA, And 3 Out Of 3 Wins To Top The Group. In The Quarter-Finals We Played

Bolivia And A 2-0 Win. On To The Semi-Finals And A Difficult 1-0 Win Against Argentina. In The Final Was A Easy 4-0 Win Against Colombia, So

With Every Trophy Won With Brazil It Was Time To Resign. Job History .

                                                               CLUB CAREER
                                                                -----------

 Season    Club                Leagues        Cups                                     Others & Notes
                               1st  2nd       1st  2nd    Cont    CWC
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Hunan Xiangtao                                                              Took Over In 16th Finished 6th
2017/18    Hunan Xiangtao                                                              Left After 20 Games
2017/18    Ulsan Hyundai       Won
2018/19    Ulsan Hyundai       Won            Won         Won     Won                  All 4 Trophys
2018/19    Gladbach
2019/20    Gladbach                           Won                                      Won DFB And Euro League
2020/21    Gladbach            Won            Won         Won
2020/21    Fluminense                                     Won                          Took Over In 14th Finished 8th
2021/22    Fluminense          Won            Won
2022/23    Tigres              Won                        Won
2023/24    Liverpool           Won            Won  Won
2024/25    PSG                                Won  Won
2025/26    PSG                 Won
2026/27    Fiorentina          Won            Won
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                           INTERNATIONAL CAREER
                                                           --------------------

 Season Nation    Cups                                                                     Others & Notes
                  World Cup   Confed Cup   Euro's   AFC   ACON   Gold Cup   Copa America

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 Nigeria                                           Won
2019/21 USA                                                      Won
2023/24 China
2023/24 S Korea
2023/24 Brazil                Won
2025/26 Brazil    Won
2026/27 Brazil                                                              Won

Challenge Progress

Club

7/10  Top Domestic leagues (S/Korea-Germany-Brazil-Mexico-England-France-Italy)
6/10  Top Domestic Cups (S/Korea-Germany-Brazil-England-France-Italy)
4/5   Continentals Cups (Ulsan-Gladbach-Fluminense-Tigres)
1/1   Club World Cup (Ulsan)

 International

3/5   Continental Tournaments (Nigeria-USA-Brazil)
2/2   World Tournaments (Brazil-Brazil)

vikeologist · March 18, 2017

Vikeologist's 2039.40 Bayern End of Season Report

th?id=OIP.5KWKz4A4W3fyxUzkAzvCYQEsEs&w=1

TL;DR League, Cup, Champions League Treble.

I hate to echo lazy stereotypes of Germans, but my Bayern side were a machine. If you want a (1984 derived) picture of my team, imagine a boot stamping on your face, forever. Vorsprung durch hetrik. The other teams were towels that we wiped the floor with. Be punctual, or you’ll miss our first few goals.

We won our first 12 matches of the season. We then lost to BMG who were the only team to challenge us, although they never narrowed the gap to less than 6 points, so it was never really in doubt.

Fortunately I also won the German Cup. Hopefully I can win the cups in England and Spain while winning the leagues, or I’ll need to win the Brazilian cup to get my tenth.

We reached the final of the Champions League against Real Madrid, and they were basically at home since the final was to be held at the Bernabéu. One would assume that I’d have won the Champions League somewhere along the way, (@dkouv seems to be in the same situation). It would have been a real pain if I’d had to hang around a club later in the challenge just to win it; and that nightmare situation could still happen with the Club World Cup.

I can stop worrying about the UEFA Champions League though. It was a very comfortable 3-0 victory to wrap up the league, cup, Champions League treble.

I’ll be staying on for the Club World Cup, and I’m enjoying my time at Bayern anyway, although the currently vacant job at Man Utd looks enticing, and indeed I would have applied for it, had I lost the CL Final.

Top Goalscorer – Tomislav Majher 41. Just 20 years old, but he may well be the best striker in the world already.

Best Average Rating Tomislav Majher – 7.73

Man of Match – Tomislav Majher - 11

MVP – Tomislav Majher

My only worry at this point of the save is who to put in my challenge XI. I guess Majher should go in, just because he may well be the best player I will ever have in my career, but my shadow striker Abrãao who I brought to Bayern from Juve, where I’d also bought him, has now played quite a few games for me, and shared in a lot of triumphs.

So next it’s the European Championship with Italy where we discover whether my international career will continue to be disastrous.

Domestic
Season	Team					Position	Notes										Challenge Landmarks
2016	FC Lahti				10th		Just 9 points from the 10 matches remaining after I took over
2017	FC Lahti				3rd		Qualified for Europe
2018	FC Lahti				1st		First domestic title
2019	FC Lahti				1st		The double. First domestic cup
2020	Jeonbuk					1st
2021	Jeonbuk					2nd		Knocked out of CL in semis
2022	Jeonbuk					1st		League / FA Cup / Champions League Triple. CWC 3rd place
2023	Minnesota Utd				14th
2024	Minnesota Utd				7th		Lost on penalties in Western Conference Semifinal
2025/6	Orlando Pirates				3rd		Knockout Cup Winners, failed to qualify for Champions League
2026/7	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super 8, Knockout Cup, Nedbank Cup. Won everything basically.
2027/8	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super8, Nedbank Cup. Confederation Cup losing finalists.
2028/9	Orlando Pirates				n/a		African Champions League. Left mid-season with the team on track for the threepeat.
2028/9	Rosario Central				18th		Took over for last 2 matches of the season.
2029/30	Rosario Central				1st		4th domestic title
2030/31	Rosario Central				1st	
2031/32	Rosario Central				1st		Threepeat, Copa Argentina, Lost in Libertadores Q/F
2032/33	Rosario Central						Left after 4 matches because we'd been knocked out of the Libertadores.
2032/33	Stade Rennais				7th		Coupe de la ligue
2033/4	Stade Rennais						Resigned after 14 matches
2036(C)	Atlas					4th		5th cup. Lost in league final.
2036(A)	Atlas					1st		Lost in league final again
2037(C)	Atlas					1st		5th domestic league / CONCACAF Champions League
2037(A)	Atlas					1st		Retained title, lost in CWC Final
2037/8	Juventus				5th		Took over half way through in 7th. Won 7th domestic cup and the Europa League - both with 10 men.
2038/9	Juventus				1st		League/Cup double plus a couple of supercup knickknacks. Lost in CL SF
2039/40	Bayern					1st		League / Cup / Champions League treble. 


International
Year	Team					Achievements	
2019-21	Nigeria					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2021-23	DR Congo				2022 World Cup - R2, 2023 African Cup Losing Finalists
2023-25	Chile					None. Resigned to take South Korea job.
2026-27	South Korea				Asian Cup winners
2027-29	South Africa				Lost in African Cup Q/F
2030-31	Brazil					Lost in Copa America final
2031-33	Chile					Resigned again to take Egypt job.
2033-5	Egypt					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2036-37	Mali					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2037-37	Ivory Coast				Quit after 1 competitive match to take over Mexico
2037-38	Mexico					Knocked out in group stage of WC and sacked.
2038-	Italy				

Challenge Progress

Club
 7/10 top domestic leagues 		(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Germany)
 8/10 domestic cups 			(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, France, Mexico, Italy, Germany)
 4/5 club continental championships 	(Asia, Africa, North America, Europe)
 0/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments 		(Asia)
 0/2 world tournaments

vikeologist · March 18, 2017

@pug 407 Don't want to miss out congratulating you. Looking good for the record, but it will be interesting to see who you have to go for the Asian Cup and African Champions League with.

I wish I'd started the challenge with the tactics I'm using now. I might have been able to give you a run for your money.

pug 407 · March 18, 2017

1 hour ago, vikeologist said:

@pug 407 Don't want to miss out congratulating you. Looking good for the record, but it will be interesting to see who you have to go for the Asian Cup and African Champions League with.

I wish I'd started the challenge with the tactics I'm using now. I might have been able to give you a run for your money.

Just Applied For And Got The Kaizer Chiefs, So Think I've Got The Best Chance Of The African Champions League.

pug 407 · March 18, 2017

@vikeologist Just Hope Your Tactic Works At International Level Also GOOD LUCK.

dkouv · March 18, 2017

@vikeologist Thanks - and no, I haven't quit Dortmund, after reading the discussion in this thread some time ago I stopped quitting jobs and it became noticeably easier to get employment, so I'm sticking with that for now. But at some point when my rep is high enough it should be fine to start quitting again. I really want to have a go with Liverpool since that's the team I support, but their manager seems so useless I wonder if anyone will hire him Impressive stuff with Bayern btw! Good to get the Champ league out of the way; hope I can do it before too long too.

@pug 407 congrats, a very swiftly done Italian job

Edited March 18, 2017 by dkouv

vikeologist · March 19, 2017

Vikeologist's 2040 Italy European Championship Report

th?id=OIP.0Pm-TRHRsY5061flXCggjAEsEr&w=1

The FA expect me to get to the semi-finals, and obviously my first priority is keeping my job, but we do have a legitimate shot at this.

No injuries coming into final selection. We don’t have any truly world class strikers, but the team as a whole is so good, that hasn’t been a problem thus far.

Group Stage

Vs Belarus 1-0 Not exactly impressive, but hopefully we’re just warming up. It’s not as though they ever threatened us.

Vs Ukraine 2-0 More of the same. We didn’t create many chances, but then again, after we’d scored twice, we didn’t need to. I spent the second half boring my assistants about my wonderful season at Bayern. Did they know that we did the triple? Turns out they did.

The Czechs also won their first 2 matches, so we’re through, but we’ll need to beat the Czechs to finish top of the group, which could be important.

Vs Czech Republic 4-1 That’s more like it. Unfortunately winning the group earned us a second round match against France who finished 3^rd in their group, but will still be very dangerous.

Second Round

Spoiler

Vs France 1-1 (lost on penalties aet). A mixture of horrendous mistakes combined with not being able to put away more than one of the many, many chances we had. I thought that I might be able to run the board competition-wise with Italy, but now I will be sacked. My international nightmare continues.

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

3^rd Place Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

After The Tournament

Spoiler

To my surprise, and annoyance, France won the competition. Just rubs in how unlucky we were. But; good news. I get to keep my job, which I’m very pleased about. I think it’s a fairly good side and there’s some good young players coming through.

We’re in the same Nations League group as France, so an early chance for revenge.

Crowy · March 19, 2017

Santarcangelo Calcio

2019/20

So, I've not played FM17 for around two months now and I finished this season back then. I don't remember much about it, so in this update I'm just going to post a few screenshots to document the season in here for when I comlete the challenge . I have around a week and a hlaf spare and I'm up for a good FM17 bashing so hopefully can get a few more seasons done in that time.

So I'm two seasons in at Santarcangelo and my contract is up, they can't afford to offer me a new contract, I think it allows you to continue though (I'm not sure will find out possibly). I've tried very hard to get finances back on track but the stadium is just way too small. My balance is now -£2.5M after getting frees and selling them for £500K+ the next season but finances just seem to get worse. I'm one division from Serie A though and that might be the only reason I stay as that would improve my reputation dramatically. I would like to get more coaching badges but not sure what would improve my reputation more Serie A or the nes badge.

League Table

Transfers

I can't really add much more screenshots as I'm past the previous season so squad stats etc have gone, my squad is looking really thin ahead of the next season. It will be my hardest season yet if I stay, let's wait and see.

Edit: Forgot to add transfers as you can see I made almost £2M from transfers this season and we're still struggling terribly finanacially.

                                                        CLUB CAREER
                                                        -----------

Season       Team             Country           Position           FA Cup          League Cup         Champs League       Others & Notes       
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17      Macclesfield     England             11th                -                 -                   -             Took over in 22nd after 13 games
2017/18      Macclesfield     England             1st                Rd1                -                   -             Promoted, Manager of the Year, Gained National C Licence                     
2018/19      Santarcangelo    Italy               9th                 -                 -                   -             Gained National B Lincence
2019/20      Santarcangelo    Italy               5th                 -                 -                   -             Lost Playoff-Semi Final to Empoli


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


                                                   INTERNATIONAL CAREER
                                                   --------------------

Season       Country         Tournament         Finished         Others & Notes             
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                    CHALLENGE PROGRESS
                                                    ------------------

Club

 0/10  Top Domestic Leagues
 0/10  Top Domestic Cups
 0/5   Continentals Cups
 0/1   Club World Cup

International

 0/5   Continental Tournaments
 0/2   World Tournaments

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                     CAREER STATS
                                                     ------------

Macclesfield   - P 95  W 53  D 20  L 22  GF 165 GA 95  GD 70  WR 55%  Days in Charge: 630
Santarcangelo  - P 89  W 37  D 22  L 30  GF 133 GA 123 GD 10  WR 41%  Days in Charge: 710
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall        - P 184 W 90  D 42  L 52  GF 298 GA 218 GD 80  WR 48%  Days in Charge: 974

Edited March 19, 2017 by Crowy

Fadedaf · March 19, 2017

Faded's 2035 Gold Cup Report

So i've finally finished this competition! Traveling and uni work has prevented me from playing any FM for ages and then when I had the time, my game was struck by the bug that appeared on Mac after the latest update which caused constant crashes. It's all sorted out now and I can now update on my progress. My Mexico squad includes a few of the old Tigres golden generation who I won so many trophies with (and even one old Saint Etienne player!), so it would be great to roll the years back and lead them to glory again. The squad looks pretty decent overall, fits my formation well and we are ranked in the top 15 worldwide so i'm optimistic! Our group contains Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago and Panama so i'm pretty confident we can at least progress.

Group Stage

Spoiler

Mexico 0-1 Honduras. What a terrible start! They got pretty lucky with an early penalty goal where my centre back was also red-carded, but it was still a horrible performance. Need to pick it up in the next game for sure

Mexico 4-0 Panama (goals from Ramirez, Carvajal x2 and Campos) Much better. A good, solid performance. Now we just need a point against Trinidad to progress.

Mexico 1-0 Trinidad and Tobago (goal from Aceves) Not the best performance and we should have scored more, especially as we missed a penalty... but we did what we needed. Some say that a team winning when they don't play well is a true sign of champions so I guess it's not too bad?

We finished second in our group behind Honduras and have drawn Canada for the quarter final

Quarter Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Mexico 3-0 Canada (goals from Millananco, Ibarra, Rincon) This is more like it! A very good performance as we dispatched the Canadians easily. On to El Salvador in the semis who managed to upset the USA!

Semi Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Mexico 3-0 El Salvador (goals from Ramirez, Millananco, Robles) Very similar to the last game, another good performance and a comfortable win. We are really hitting our stride now and I have high hopes for the final, although we are facing a dangerous Costa Rica team.

3rd Place Playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Mexico 5-1 Costa Rica (goals from Rincon, Ibarra x3 and Campos) I shouldn't have had any doubts! We saved our best performance for last as we brushed Costa Rica to the side courtesy of a Felix Ibarra hattrick. Fun fact: Costa Rica's goal was scored by another old Tigres player; the one who scored our Club World Cup-winning goal Luis Elizondo!

Aftermath

Spoiler

Another international tournament win! Great to be able to tick this one off the list despite an incredibly shaky start. We got better as the tournament progressed which is absolutely ideal. I don't really think there's any point in me staying with Mexico any longer so i'll most likely resign now and look for another international job, perhaps coaching a European country. On the club side of things I have yet to find another job but I'm still looking. I declined an offer from Athletic Bilbao as I'd really like to win La Liga with Barca so i'm prepared to go after some other trophies until Jurgen Klopp finally retires. I just won the German Supercup with BMG so that is a good ending point for my career there. If I don't find another good job before the new season starts i'll most likely just resign but we shall see.

dkouv · March 19, 2017

brazil.jpg.e41ba279e9c496cf424414c1b25c97a6.jpg

Brazil 2031 Copa America report

Well, it’s Brazil so the team is very strong. Most of my good wingers got injured before the tournament so I went with a narrow formation, which means the tactics are tried and tested as well. All in all, we are raring to go.

Group stage

Spoiler

Paraguay 0 – 4 Brazil. Not really a contest

Brazil 1 – 0 Venezuela. Not too enticing but got the job done.

Brazil 2 – 0 Chile. A comfortable win against a decent side.

Quarter final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Brazil 3 – 1 Bolivia. Not the strongest opponents but you can only beat what’s in front of you. Crunchtime next against Argentina in the semis.

Semi final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Argentina 1 – 6 Brazil (!!) Well, Argentina must be sick of the sight of me by now… What can I say, my star striker Cassio Jose scored four goals – he was a pain playing for Barcelona against my Dortmund side, so this goes some way to redeeming that. And the game was as one-sided as the scoreline suggests.

Third place playoff (if applicable)

Spoiler

Final (if applicable)

Spoiler

Chile 0 – 3 Brazil. They held on until the 2^nd half but couldn’t stop us in the end.

After the tournament

Spoiler

Job done. With the Copa only once every four years, I'm please I don't have to have another go at this again. I'll be sticking with Brazil for a while longer - at least for the Confederations cup and World cup in 2 and 3 years' time.

Edited March 19, 2017 by dkouv

vikeologist · March 20, 2017

@dkouv Congrats. Of course, I'm verging on near-psychotic levels of jealousy whenever somebody wins an international tournament, but at least now my reputation is so high that I think I might be able to get any international job I want. I just hope Brazil and Mexico don't hold a grudge. Hope you can get the other 2 trophies with Brazil.

I think your reputation may now be at a point where quitting jobs won't adversely affect your ability to get new ones, but then again, I'm no wiser about those mechanics of the game than anybody else.

@Fadedaf Good to see you back. I was worried you'd given up when I tried to cobble together a new leader board and realised how long it was since you'd posted an update.

You're not the only one to come across bugs and problems with the game. I'm sort of exhausted with all the bugs I've had to circumvent or deal with in this challenge. Admittedly (thus far) there hasn't been one that killed the challenge (like there was 2 years ago for a few people when competitions stopped rolling over) but at the moment I'm dealing with the fact that I can't access the tactics screen for my Italy side, and the game seems to freeze quite often when I try to go to a match with them. If that happens with future international teams my challenge will be over. Also I'm worried about this bug that people are reporting where you can't select a squad for the World Club Cup. Has anybody played that competition recently? How widespread is it. I reckon I've had to deal with at least 10 fairly major bugs in this challenge so far

-Finnish Cup

-Getting jobs when an international manager (or rather not getting)

-Nearly being sacked for no reason

-Copa Libertadores non -entry to my champion Mexican side

-The MLS. No idea what are bugs and what are just beyond human understanding, but there only being about 5 players in the draft was definitely a bug

-Painfully slow inbox

-Swedish league not able to be removed

-Job vacancies remaining unfilled

And the sites where you're supposed to load your saves so SI can look at the bugs themselves cannot be accessed by me.

Both of you, I'll add one trophy to your totals on the leader board if and when I'm able to get into that post, because the Great Firewall does not love this forum.

@Crowy You can usually just stay at a club when your contract runs out on a rolling basis. I think the coaching quals make a big difference in reputation. Hope if you do apply for jobs you are successful. My advice above to dkouv doesn't necessarily apply to you. At the start of the challenge you are indeed doing the right thing (I think) by staying where you are while looking for another job, if that's indeed what you are doing.

Edited March 22, 2017 by vikeologist

vikeologist · March 22, 2017

And it looks as though my challenge may be over.

In a repeat of the challenge killing bug from 2 years ago, the Copa Libertadores has stopped regenerating, or rather it's stopped in the middle of the competition, (in 2040)

As I still need the Lib, this would be the end of my challenge.

Might be worth checking that it's still going in your saves.

I'm pretty angry, but at least I achieved the challenge in those halcyon days a few years ago when the game worked.

On the now meaningless bright side, I was able to register my players for the CWC, which I won, so my final challenge tally;

Domestic
Season	Team					Position	Notes										Challenge Landmarks
2016	FC Lahti				10th		Just 9 points from the 10 matches remaining after I took over
2017	FC Lahti				3rd		Qualified for Europe
2018	FC Lahti				1st		First domestic title
2019	FC Lahti				1st		The double. First domestic cup
2020	Jeonbuk					1st
2021	Jeonbuk					2nd		Knocked out of CL in semis
2022	Jeonbuk					1st		League / FA Cup / Champions League Triple. CWC 3rd place
2023	Minnesota Utd				14th
2024	Minnesota Utd				7th		Lost on penalties in Western Conference Semifinal
2025/6	Orlando Pirates				3rd		Knockout Cup Winners, failed to qualify for Champions League
2026/7	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super 8, Knockout Cup, Nedbank Cup. Won everything basically.
2027/8	Orlando Pirates				1st		League, Super8, Nedbank Cup. Confederation Cup losing finalists.
2028/9	Orlando Pirates				n/a		African Champions League. Left mid-season with the team on track for the threepeat.
2028/9	Rosario Central				18th		Took over for last 2 matches of the season.
2029/30	Rosario Central				1st		4th domestic title
2030/31	Rosario Central				1st	
2031/32	Rosario Central				1st		Threepeat, Copa Argentina, Lost in Libertadores Q/F
2032/33	Rosario Central						Left after 4 matches because we'd been knocked out of the Libertadores.
2032/33	Stade Rennais				7th		Coupe de la ligue
2033/4	Stade Rennais						Resigned after 14 matches
2036(C)	Atlas					4th		5th cup. Lost in league final.
2036(A)	Atlas					1st		Lost in league final again
2037(C)	Atlas					1st		5th domestic league / CONCACAF Champions League
2037(A)	Atlas					1st		Retained title, lost in CWC Final
2037/8	Juventus				5th		Took over half way through in 7th. Won 7th domestic cup and the Europa League - both with 10 men.
2038/9	Juventus				1st		League/Cup double plus a couple of supercup knickknacks. Lost in CL SF
2039/40	Bayern					1st		League / Cup / Champions League treble. 
2040/1	Bayern							CWC Winners


International
Year	Team					Achievements	
2019-21	Nigeria					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2021-23	DR Congo				2022 World Cup - R2, 2023 African Cup Losing Finalists
2023-25	Chile					None. Resigned to take South Korea job.
2026-27	South Korea				Asian Cup winners
2027-29	South Africa				Lost in African Cup Q/F
2030-31	Brazil					Lost in Copa America final
2031-33	Chile					Resigned again to take Egypt job.
2033-5	Egypt					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2036-37	Mali					Lost in African Cup Q/F
2037-37	Ivory Coast				Quit after 1 competitive match to take over Mexico
2037-38	Mexico					Knocked out in group stage of WC and sacked.
2038-	Italy					Lost on penalties in Nations League S/F and Euro 40 R2			

Challenge Progress

Club
 7/10 top domestic leagues 		(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Germany)
 8/10 domestic cups 			(Finland, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, France, Mexico, Italy, Germany)
 4/5 club continental championships 	(Asia, Africa, North America, Europe)
 1/1 club world championship

International
 1/5 continental tournaments 		(Asia)
 0/2 world tournaments

Edited March 22, 2017 by vikeologist

pug 407 · March 22, 2017

@vikeologist I'm Sorry To Read About Your Save

dkouv · March 23, 2017

@vikeologist sorry to hear about this, how annoying!! :@ Maybe even more so because it's not the first time you've been hit by this bug.....

vikeologist · March 23, 2017

3 hours ago, dkouv said:

@vikeologist sorry to hear about this, how annoying!! :@ Maybe even more so because it's not the first time you've been hit by this bug.....

I wasn't hit by it 2 years ago, but others were, and they never restarted the challenge.

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