The Ultimate Football Manager

[BustaRaymes]

Congrats vikeologist on a great season, and Super_Gord on winning the Afrian CL! Some real progress being made now

threelions1goal I started out in Hong Kong

Quick update, did finish the season but it's not quite done yet (what?)

SUWON BLUEWINGS / TUNISIA

2017

First off, at Suwon I had to work with a very small squad. Only 5 defenders and no right back. We lost our pace in the race for 3rd place (I should be a rapper), due to injuries in that same back line. There was one game played with 2 DMC's and a 15 year-old DL next to the only proper DC. **** hit the fan, board did not understand why we had this losing streak. Last game against 2nd Seoul would seal my fate. We were in the lead for quite some time but around minute 80 we conceded 1-1. I hoped I would get away with it, but: http://imgur.com/zESvMAz.

The board will never know the beauty of my shortlist. A good Korean right back, an talented centre back, and 4 awesome foreign players would be brought in if I would keep my job. If only they knew..

It's not all sadness. My Tunisia side had to play Ghana (livedraw is rigged) in the final WCQ playoff. I got away with a slightly deserved 2-1 at home. Hoped to keep the door shut as long as possible in the 2nd leg, maybe snatch a goal, and see what happens from there. Then this went down: http://imgur.com/fHmJVkj. I aged like a decade in those 5 minutes and I'd like to say it was worth it, but it's just a videogame so it's not, but I'm happy to see Tunisia go to the World Cup. This should improve my reputation when I go looking for a new club in South Korea / China / Colombia.

Draw: http://imgur.com/0Z0DDRw. Although it's indeed a tough group, it could've been worse. If Brazil just wins their games it's up to the rest to snap 2nd place.

[vikeologist]

Also (without checking every post) beteen us all, at club level, how many countries do you think we have managed in??

South Africa seems to be nearly all of us

China

France

Indonesia

South Korea

Mexico

Brazil

Any more??

geez, it's bad enough that you've deposed Letsgetreadyto as the ruler of this thread and put me in his place, but to erase from history his challenge attempt in (ok, I admit I had to look it up) Norway. He's like the Leon Trotsky of Ultimate Manager.

The he took over as manager of Hereford, which I guess is pretty much like having a toothpick put through your head.

Maybe the only other nation to have a season completed and reported on is India.

Indonesia for some reason does seem to be where Ultimate Manager dreams go to die, as posters realise that the league title is easy to win, and completely worthless. We do need 5 league titles though.

[vikeologist]

Club World Championship

We beat ES Tunis (African champions) easily in the quarter-final, and it began to dawn on me that maybe we stood a chance against our semi-final opponents, Barcelona.

We didn't. we lost 3-0.

As it turned out, this was fortunate, because at that point 6 of my first 11 (and 11 of my squad in WCC in total, left to join the Chinese national team for the upcoming Asian Cup (which starts in about 3 weeks time). I only had 12 players left, and had to play some of them out of position, for the 3rd/ 4th tie against Monterrey. If we'd been in the final, I'd have been seething. (Monterrey thrashed us as would be expected in the circumstances).

So, that's all folks. Job hunt begins.

[vikeologist]

A Tale of 2 Cups

I had two major international tournaments at the same time. The Gold Cup with USA (which I stood a chance of winning) and the Copa America (which one would assume that I wouldn't).

The Gold Cup was all plain sailing through the group stage and quarter finals. Lots of squad rotation, including goalkeepers in central defence. Mexico meanwhile thrashed everybody in their path.

The draw saw us meet Mexico in the semi-final for the de facto final. I was hoping that our fresher legs would give us an advantage, and when we went 1-0 up I started to dream, but Mexico pulled two goals back and progressed to the final which they won in extra time over reigning champions Costa Rica, (so perhaps it wasn't the de facto final after all). Burtur - please note.

Going out in the semi finals meant that USA nearly sacked me. Why would this matter? Well, USA U23 weren't out of the Copa America.

In our first match we met Argentina (and were hammered). next we met Venezuela. I hoped that we could maybe sneak a point and leave the tournament with our dignity intact, but we beat them. Then we beat Chile and qualified 2nd from our group. Next was a quarter final against Peru, which we were always the lesser side in, but near the end we pulled a goal back to be only 2-1 behind, and then nearly scored an equaliser near the end.

To be fair Venezuela, Chile and Peru are all ranked pretty low in the world, but considering that it was only our U23 side, (and at least one player who would have normally been in the squad was in the senior side) I thought that was pretty impressive.

But I don't suppose it matters. My tally of international trophies (that count towards the challenge) is still a big fat zero.

The Gold Cup is every two years, so I guess staying on and qualifying for the World cup is a possibility, albeit quite a boring one.

The reason that these two cups came around so quickly is because after about 8 months I still don't have a new club job (Sao Paulo and Internacional both turned me down after interview) and I'm worried that having an international job may be the reason. At the moment I'm hoping that I can get a job in Germany (or maybe France) as I have now loaded those leagues.

Busta - Bad luck at Suwon. Hope that you've managed to get a job at another good club, or a club that will give you sufficient time. Good luck in the World Cup.

Update - I was offered the Hertha job on condition that I resigned from my international job. (You can make that offer in the interview) so goodbye USA.

[BustaRaymes]

TUNISIAWorld Cup 2018

Tunisia - Serbia 2-3 http://imgur.com/sJbJ8iO

Line-up: Ben Chrifia; Hajri, Benalouane, Abdennour, Chemmam ('30 Ifa); Kom, Khazri, Saihi ('62 Korbi); Msakni, Ben-Hatira ('73 Allagui), Khalifa.

The first group game was going to be the important one. Expecting Brazil to win the group and Saudi Arabia to finish last, it had to be either us or Serbia to advance from 2nd place. From their line-up I expected to be able to hold on easily at the start so I kept the usual standard playing style. Franck Kom, our big Cameroonian-turned-Tunisian DMC was assigned to shadow Djuricic. However, Adem Ljajic turned away from Abdennour, Djuricic made the run and finished for 0-1 after just 18 minutes. At the half hour break Ben-Hatira ****ed up on the left side. Not knowing which decision to make, he just chose to make none and lost the ball to Zivkovic. Jojic picked up, Chemmam was both injured and out of position and Ljajic could convert the cross easily. It was a deserved lead. Bilel Ifa replaced the injured Chemmam and I switched to a defensive tactic to not concede a third before half time. And it worked.

Second half started a little different. 2 chances from breaks for us, but no goal. Then, Jojic made a great run after a bad pass from Hajri and finished it for 0-3 after just 54 minutes. Because there wouldn't be much chance of progressing at such a big loss I pushed op powerful Kom to the dynamic role, with experienced Korbi as the new DMC, and tried to get hold of the game with some tactical tweaks. Allagui joined Khalifa up front for the last 20 minutes and 3 minutes later Kom slipped the ball through to him for 1-3. There was some pressure on the Serbian goal and Allagui scored a second, but it came too late for us to push for one more. 2-3 is not as bad as it looked at half time, but nevertheless an expensive loss.

Other result: Brazil - Saudi Arabia 3-0

Brazil - Tunisia 1-1 http://imgur.com/lXud85U

Line-up: Ben Chrifia; Ifa, Benalouane, Abdennour, Hajri; Kom, Khazri (red card '45), Saihi; Msakni, Chouchane, Khalifa.

We went into this game assuming we would have to keep the score low and hope Serbia would mess up against Saudi Arabia. Ifa replaced Chemmam and pacey 18 year old Chouchane was given the left wing spot. As expected, Brazil pushed us back, with Neymar, Luiz Gustavo and Oscar as main players. We did get forward a few times, but nothing too impressive. After 33 minutes, Chouchane played it deep for Saber Khalifa to run on to. He couldn't outrun Juan Jesus but old fox Khalifa hit it from outside the box into the far corner to give us an unexpected lead. Only 3 minutes later Oscar equalized after a corner. Close to half time, Khazri reeived a second yellow and was sent off. I actually gave up on hoping to hold out for a point. Msakni was going to play more of a midfield role, and Chouchane was a supporting inside forward for the rest of the game, leaving Khalifa somewhat alone up front. But my god, it worked. Brazil got maybe 3 more good chances, the rest were long shots. Ben Chrifia was awesome, Kom and Abdennour lost virtually no challenges and we survived for a point against Brazil.

Other result: Serbia - Saudi Arabia 7-0.

Clearly, Serbia didn't slip up against Saudi Arabia. The result of this is that we have to win against Saudi Arabia and Serbia has to beat Brazil for us to progress, and we had to make up for a total goal difference of 3. I was not really too depressed with that. Serbia destroyed Saudi Arabia and Brazil has had a tough game against us.

Tunisia - Saudi Arabia 2-2 http://imgur.com/Ijq7w2w

Line-up: Ben Chrifia; Ifa, Benalouane, Abdennour ('80 Haggui), Hajri; Kom ('64 Allagui), Hadhria, Saihi; Msakni, Chouchane, Khalifa ('64 Ayari).

Things started out great for us. Khalifa headed home Msakni's cross in the 37th minute, and until then the Saudis got to our goal just once. Healthy game, 1-0 lead, nothing wrong. Second half started the same way, but we needed more goals. Kom and Khalifa came off for experienced Allagui and the quick Ayari. With both fresh players up front I hoped for more goals, but it backfired immediately. A scrimmage in our box resulted in the ref pointing to the spot after a foul by Chouchane. Hazzazi converted and it was 1-1 in the 66th minute. Still nothing wrong, but we needed the win. Chouchane slipped it through for Allagui and after 73 minutes it was 2-1. By then, Serbia was down 0-1 with 10 men, so we were done anyways. I subbed Abdennour to give 34 year old Karim Haggui his 116th and probably last cap, and again a change messed it up. Haggui fouled Hazzazi in the box and Hazzazi sored Saudi Arabia's second penalty for draw.

Other result: Brazil - Serbia 1-0.

So close and yet so far away. In the meantime I still don't have a club yet. I thought about Happy Valley but returning to Hong Kong for a season would be useless. With active leagues South Korea, China, South Africa, Colombia and Germany something is bound to come up soon.

TL;DR: Tunisia played an ok WC but came up short to advance, still no new club.

[Super_Gord]

BustaRaymes - That seems like a tough break at Suwon, what's the plan now? hoping for another Asian side? Must be happy with the Brazil game, maybe less so with the Saudi Arabia one!

vikeologist - I see you have about as much luck in Gold Cup's as I do, Mexico also happen to my demons aswell! I had a similar epiphany when it comes to the Club World Championship, I feel as though the European/South American's heavy faourites to win the thing and it being very tough for any other team, as I type this it turns out in 2020 the winners were none other than New York City FC, beating PSG in the final, disregard everything I just wrote! Finally, congrats on the Hertha job, that's going to be a challenge amongst the big boys of that league!

[Super_Gord]

Beijing Guoan & Jamaica Season Review 2020/21

Beijing Guoan

After achieving all I wanted to achieve with Ajax CT it was time to move on, I have sort of a plan of attack, which continents I want to hit in order and Asia was next, I was only out of work for a little over two weeks when I was interviewed and given the job at Beijing Guoan, they'd had a poor season finishing in 7th position, so no continental competition to worry about, not ideal but a foot in the door of a new continent. I was given a pretty mega transfer kitty, £9.25m to be precise, I was used to wheeling and dealing on 900k at Ajax CT so was pretty taken aback. Despite all the money in the world getting in capable players was really tough, I found the Chinese players, just, not very good to be fair, I tried my best at cherry picking some of the Chinese internationals to strenghten my side and some of them worked out well, others, not quite. Beijing already had 4/5 of their foreign player allotment and with them being contracted and frankly not that brilliant my options were limited.

League Table - Champions

I really didn't see this coming, Guangzhou had won the title 8 times out of 9 since 2011, very much the dominating force in the league so I didn't fancy my chances. I could soon understand how Guangzhou had the monopoly in this league, a lot of weaker teams in China so we rarely dropped points against teams we were expected to beat, we literally robbed Guangzhou home and away, they absolutely tanked us in both games but we managed to grab a point in each, dumped out of the FA Cup by, you guessed it, Guangzhou. All in all pretty happy with my first season in Asia, I don't think I can replicate my first season again, I can't see Guangzhou slipping up again so I'm going to have a stab at the Asian Champions League, see how we compete, I might just then see if anyone in the K League will have me!

Jamaica

Another pretty succesful year for The Reggae Boyz, we got ourselves to a second Gold Cup final, this time losing out to the good ole' USA pretty disappointed really, we had the lion share of chances just coudn't convert them!

We also bossed our way through the World Cup Qual (NAM) Group finishing in top spot and qualifiying for the 2022 World Cup, rather happy with it

[b]Management Career[/b] [b]- League[/b]
2014/15 - Jomo Cosmos - South African National First Division - Champions
2015/16 - Ajax CT - South African Premier Soccer League - Champions
2016/17 - Ajax CT - South African Premier Soccer League - 5th
2017/18 - Ajax CT - South African Premier Soccer League - Champions
2018/19 - Ajax CT - South African Premier Soccer League - Champions
2019/20 - Ajax CT - South African Premier Soccer League - Champions
2020/21 - Beijing - Chinese Super League - Champions

[b]Management Career - Cup Wins[/b]
2017/18 - Ajax CT - South African Knockout Cup
2018/19 - Ajax CT - South African Knockout Cup
2018/19 - Jamaica - Caribbean Cup
2019/20 - Ajax CT - South African FA Cup

[b]Challenge Landmarks
[/b]Top League Title - 2 - South African Premier Soccer League - Chinese Super League
Domestic Cup Wins - 2 - South African KO Cup - South African FA Cup

[vikeologist]

SuperGord - Fantastic work. My time at Guangzhou proved that a Chinese club can win the CL, but I was lucky. My side had about 5 or 6 good players, and only one of them was actually born in China, despite the fact that a few of them had second nationality, (something which is absolutely impossible in real life, since you have to renounce all other nationalities if you obtain Chinese nationality, which in itself is practically impossible). The other half of the team were frankly inferior, though they often did manage to do what was needed. Even at Guangzhou I didn't have the money to bring in the Chinese players I wanted.

Another tough thing in China was that it is almost impossible to get rid of any over-paid foreigners you inherit.

Fellow Challengers - I do think there's a possibility that it's more difficult to get a new club job if you have an international job. This would have a big effect on the challenge as we need to find new club jobs fairly regularly.

If anyone's struggling to get a new job, this may be the cause.

[threelions1goal]

I do think there's a possibility that it's more difficult to get a new club job if you have an international job. This would have a big effect on the challenge as we need to find new club jobs fairly regularly.

If anyone's struggling to get a new job, this may be the cause.

What does everyone think about the International aspect of this challenge??

I'm not suggesting we change the format and dynamics of this challenge as many have toiled with the International side of it.

But I was thinking earlier today, this challenge would be difficult enough (and no less fun!!) if it was solely concentrated on just the club side of things, attempting to win the trophies that Letsgetreadyto originally set out.

As I said, I'm not wishing to change anything, but personally I find the International aspect a hindrance, rather than an enhancement!!

[vikeologist]

I suspect to achieve this challenge, most people will have to manage well into their hundreds (after achieving the club side of things), and as yet I don't know what effect being a geriatric will have on our employability.

I don't exactly enjoy the international side of things, but it has a lot of benefits in the game, (and also if my above post turns out to be true) one big disadvantage.

[burtur]

Vikeologist - Why do you say that managing a national team hinders you from getting a club job? Is that what the respective boards tell you after you don't get the job? I at least find it fairly easy to get an international job when managing a club so why would the opposite be an issue?

I have to say that usually I am not particularly fond of managing a national team but then again managing in South Africa isn't exactly my cup of tea either. So for me trying to win all those trophies I usually don't go for is what makes this challenge exciting.

[predator_scare]

2017/2018 Season Review - Shrewsbury Town

predator_scare

Competitions

Transfers

Fixtures/Results 1

Fixtures/Results 2

I just want to start off this post by saying that I am sorry it has been so long. I been busy with school, so have not had much time to do this challenge.

Another great season for Shrewsbury, but again, another horrible season in terms of challenge progress. It came down to the last day of the season for us to secure a play-off spot and unfortunately it was against league winners Brentford. We had to win, and when we were 2-0 down at half-time, it didn't look likely. But after an inspiring team talk, it only took us 20 mins to bring it back to 2-2, but that still wasn't enough. We had luck on our side though. At 80 mins, a shocking tackle from one of their defenders got him a straight red, causing Brentford to make their final sub. 2 minutes later though, a bad tackle (great tackle) from one of our players meant that their new sub had to be taken off, leaving them with only 9 men on the pitch. This was our chance, and we took it. With only 5 minutes to go, a set piece grabbed us the winner. It felt like we had won the league, not just secured the play-off's.

Although finishing 6th in the league, we were still dominant against the teams who finished above us while against them in the play-off's. A 3-0 SF win, followed by a 3-0 final win meant that we had secure back to back promotion. We were in the championship!

In the cups, a disappointing 4th round exit to Rotherham in the FA Cup and a second round exit to Hull in the League Cup were fine by me at the end of the season, as it was our performance in the JP Trophy which I was happy about. Although not part of the challenge, to win in was a great rep boost and shows the progress that this side has made in just 2 years.

Standout Performers:

Top Goalscorer - Luis Leal -Signed in January on a free when our star player and current top goalscorer went out with a long term injury, to bag 23 goals, 5 assists and a 7.27 rating in just 26 starts is amazing and only makes me wish i'd picked him up at the start of the season.

Top Assister - Marcos Lopes, James Collins, Khalid Abdo - For all three to grab 15 assists each, and add 36 goals between them, shows how important these three were to the teams success.

Highest Rating - James Collins - With a rating of 7.54, 14 goals and 15 assists (as mentioned above), James was instrumental for the team's promotion. It's even better when I say that I considered selling him at the start of the season, as I did not think he would be good enough for League 1.

​So, another great season with Shrewsbury, but I just could not see them performing well enough in the championship for me to stay with them, and so when my contract ran out at the end of the season, I refused to renew it, leaving my dearly beloved Shrewsbury Town in the hands of another, unknown manager.

Managerial Career

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Season[/TD]

[TD]Team (Country)[/TD]

[TD]League (Tier)[/TD]

[TD]Position[/TD]

[TD]Cup 1 (FA Cup)[/TD]

[TD]Cup 2 (League Cup)[/TD]

[TD]Cup 3 (JP Trophy)[/TD]

[TD]Continental[/TD]

[TD]Other[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014/2015[/TD]

[TD]Santos F.C (South Africa)[/TD]

[TD]National 1st Division (2nd Tier)[/TD]

[TD]1st[/TD]

[TD]Quarter-Final[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]Winners and Promotion[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2015/2016[/TD]

[TD]Unemployed[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016/2017[/TD]

[TD]Shrewsbury Town (England)[/TD]

[TD]League 2 (4th Tier)[/TD]

[TD]3rd[/TD]

[TD]Second Round[/TD]

[TD]Second Round[/TD]

[TD]First Round[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]Play-Off Winners and Promotion[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017/2018[/TD]

[TD]Shrewsbury Town (England)[/TD]

[TD]League 1 (3rd Tier)[/TD]

[TD]6th[/TD]

[TD]Fourth Round[/TD]

[TD]Second Round[/TD]

[TD]Winners[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[TD]Play-Off Winners, Promotion and JP Trophy Winners[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Trophy Cabinet

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Season[/TD]

[TD]Team (Country)[/TD]

[TD]Trophy[/TD]

[TD]Type[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014/2015[/TD]

[TD]Santos F.C (South Africa)[/TD]

[TD]National 1st Division Winners[/TD]

[TD]League (2nd Tier)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016/2017[/TD]

[TD]Shrewsbury Town (England)[/TD]

[TD]Play-Off Winners[/TD]

[TD]Play-Off's (4th Tier)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017/2018[/TD]

[TD]Shrewsbury Town (England)[/TD]

[TD]JP Trophy Winners[/TD]

[TD]Domestic Cup (3rd and 4th Tier Only)[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Challenge Progress

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Season[/TD]

[TD]Progress[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2014/2015[/TD]

[TD]None[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2015/2016[/TD]

[TD]None[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2016/2017[/TD]

[TD]None[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2017/2018[/TD]

[TD]None[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[predator_scare]

Derby County

predator_scare

Following my decision not to extend my contract with Shrewsbury Town, I managed to secure the Derby County job. I picked them up while they were in 16th position, but, as they have a strong team and there is plenty of time left, I am confident in maintaining my promotion streak and getting into the premier league.

[vikeologist]

PS - Great to see you back, and great progress.

Good luck at Derby.

[burtur]

Great job PS. Derby is a big club with decent resources, great fit for 3rd consecutive promotion!

[burtur]

Don't stop believing in Journey!

burtur's 2019/20 end of season report

FC Metz - Ligue 1

League Table | Positional Graph

League

We played fairly well this season, improving slightly from previous season (in terms of points). We are closing in on PSG, closing the gap from last season by 9 points. We played them 5 times during the season. We lost in the Champions Trophy, The FA Cup quarter final and the League Cup final, but won and drew them in the league. It will take some achievement to knock them of their perch though, they are totally dominant in France having won 5 league titles, 5 league cups, the FA cup once and every champions trophy since the first season. In addition to that they are the current European Champions.

In Europe we bettered our excellent debut season by won stage, reaching the Quarter Finals where we lost again against Liverpool (so frustrating). It was a brilliant European run though, we won the group, this time leapfrogging Chelsea to the top befor beating Ajax in the 1st knockout stage. .

I said at the end of last season that only Monaco and PSG could tempt me from Metz now, well the Monaco position became vacant and I decided not to apply for it. As it turned out they hired some clown so I think I would at least stand a chance to get the job. I guess I am down to only accepting a job from PSG now.

At the end of the season there was a kind of managerial merry-go-round with managers being sacked left, right and center from big clubs and big nations. I declared interest in most of the big jobs which resulted in interviews at Valencia and Schalke, probably the least prestige jobs I was after, but didn't get them. Furthermore, probably the only big nation that didn't fire their coach was Italy and as a result Antionio Conte stayed put at PSG. So I guess I am set up for another duel with my nemesis, hoping for a David vs. Goliat moment this time round.

Roll on next season!

Roll on next season.

Managerial career:

Season           Club                League        Pos       DC1         DC2      Continental        Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014/15  EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël  French National   3rd    7th round      n/a          n/a             n/a
2015/16  EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël      Ligue 2       1st   11th round   3rd round       n/a             n/a
2016/17  EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël      Ligue 1      14th   semi-final   semi-final      n/a             n/a
2017/18         FC Metz              Ligue 1       3rd   semi-final   3rd round       n/a             n/a
2018/19         FC Metz              Ligue 1       2nd     winners    4th round  ECL 1st KO rnd       n/a
2019/20         FC Metz              Ligue 1       3rd  quarter-final runner up     ECL Q/F      Champions Trophy, runner up


Season           Nation              Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18        Costa Rica            World Cup Group Stage
2018/19        Costa Rica            Copa Centroamericana - Winners

 

Landmarks

* Challenge landmark

[b]France:[/b]
[u][i]Ligue 1[/i][/u]
Runner up (1)     2019 (FC Metz)
Third place (2)   2018,2020 (FC Metz)
[u][i]Ligue 2[/i][/u]
Winner (1)        2016 (EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël)
[u][i]Championnat National[/i][/u]
Third place (1)   2015 (EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël)
[u][i]Coupe de France[/i][/u]
Winner* (1)       2019 (FC Metz)
[u][i]Coupe de la Ligue[/i][/u]
Runner up (1)     2020 (FC Metz)
[u][i]Trophée des Champions[/i][/u]
Runner up (1)     2020 (FC Metz)

[b]International:[/b]
[u][i]Copa Centroamericana[/i][/u]
Winner (1)        2018 (Costa Rica)

 

The journey so far:

Prologue

Season 2014/15

Season 2015/16

Season 2016/17

Season 2017/18

Season 2018/19 Part 1, Part 2

[vikeologist]

Burtur - I sort of feel for you, having been in that position myself with Kaiser Chiefs; being the second best team in South Africa, and Africa, and by the end we were pretty close to one of the best teams in the world, because season and season we improved, but kept finishing second.

There's no doubt in my mind that my Kaiser Chiefs team was better than my recent Asian CL winning and perfect league season Guangzhou.

In fact there's a tiny part of me, knowing how much Guangzhou would have improved, that felt that I was leaving with the job left only half-done. Basically we fluked our way to the Champions League.

So, if you do stay at Metz, imagine how rewarding it will be when you finally win, though of course Kaiser Chiefs were Goliath, and you're managing a David. I haven't won a league title with a David yet, and frankly, though Hertha were newly promoted when I took over, and thus didn't have a great squad, they are one of the biggest clubs in terms of attendance, and general financial clout.

Bayern have won the league for something like the last 20 years in my save though, so maybe we're a Philistine, but not actually Goliath. (Apologies that a background in theology has suddenly become a prerequisite of understanding my posts.)

As for an international job being a barrier to getting a club job, I don't know. There were a few interviews where the clubs seemed very interested, but decided I wasn't the right person, but when I offered to quit USA (which I was going to do anyway) I got a job straight away. I think I have got club jobs while managing an international side in the past, but I would have to check.

[burtur]

I have had to read several Wikipedia articles in order to understand your references so you if you don't cut the theology bullcrap I will be forced to make engineering references in my posts!

Joking aside though, you are absolutely right. Knocking PSG of their perch will be so rewarding, and I feel I am very close. However, should the PSG post become vacant I will take a leaf out of Gauis Cassius's book and betray FC Metz.

[BustaRaymes]

TUNISIA

African Nations 2018

Group stage saw us draw Ivory Coast, Gabon and Zimbabwe. A lot of perspective for us there.

Tunisia - Zimbabwe 1-0

Prior to this game, I saw my old striker Khalifa (you know, the kind of guy that gets balls hit in the face and they end up in the goal?) pick up a 2 week injury. With only two pacey strikers available the standard style of play didn't work that well. We did however get the goal we needed through winger Sami Kehli.

Ivory Coast - Gabon 3-0

Tunisia - Gabon 0-0

Had to switch even more because the second choice striker was injured too. Played with two playmakers on the sides just to make sure 3rd choice Ayari got the through balls he needs. A bit annoyed that we didn't win this, but seeing as we were not that much better I'm glad we didn't lose it. Not conceding is worth something too.

Ivory Coast - Zimbabwe 3-3

Tunisia - Ivory Coast 4-1

As Ivory Coast slipped up against Zimbabwe we were now facing the big team, knowing that losing will get us even with any winner from the other game. Then Tunisia went crazy; within 17 minutes Chemmam (DL) and Kehli (AML) gave us an early 2-0 lead. Lacina Traoré scored 2-1 after 33 minutes, but 5 minutes later Saihi (DYM) made the difference 2 again. Towards the end Ayari (SC) scored his goal too, and Ivory Coast got lucky to advance.

Gabon - Zimbabwe 1-0

Tunisia - Ghana (QF) 5-6 http://imgur.com/4EW5Lp9

Yes way. 5-6 should be a penalty shootout score, but it wasn't. After 80 minutes the score was 4-4. Through Clottey (82), Chouchane (84) and André Ayew (88) the last minutes were nerve wracking. Ghana went on to play the final in thich they lost to Ivory Coast, so I'm quite gutted about this. After the game I resigned and started the new season with new club

RENHE

The Chinese side were in 10th position when they approached me, with 8 games to go last season. There was 11.75 million to spend, so I just played out the season and search for several players for the next. As foreigners I got Kehli (AMRL) and Azouni (DC/DM) from my Tunisia team on a free and snapped up big Chad striker Ndouassel from Terek Grozny, among others. Also a 19-year old Chinese international striker. He scored 11 for Guangzhou at just 17, moved to Shandong, scored 15, and now he's here. Not sure if I can compete with Guangzhou already, but the start (Jiangsu 7-0 and 4-2 at Guo'an) is promising.

[vikeologist]

Busta - Bad luck in the African nations. The fact that none of us have yet managed to lock up even one challenge trophy internationally shows how tough it's going to be to win all of them.

What are the Renhe board expecting from your first full season?

[burtur]

Good effort Busta, good luck in China.

[threelions1goal]

AmaZulu Season Report 2019/20

Competitions

Transfers

Confidence 1%....Really??

1%........After I delivered This??!!

A good season for me!!

Initially predicted to finish 6th, we managed to finish fourth and the only thing that let us down was a mid season slump where we went 4 games without a win.

On our day, we can give anybody a game, it's just doing it consistently over the whole season. Obviously we all suffer injuries, but the squad I'm assembling is more than a match now for most teams as we proved in the cup - did I mention we won the FA Cup??!!

I'll not mention it again!!

I will just mention though that in preparation to the final, I picked up a couple of injuries in training, so I thought "this isn't meant to be" but the match itself was a doddle - even when we went down to ten men.

In all seriousness, the best thing that happened was our takeover last year - my new chairman responds positively to most of my reasonable requests. Allowing me to scout the whole world allowed me to sign a couple of Brazilians - Lucas a left back and Rafael Guendes a forward.

I also bolstered my defence with a loan signing who then signed permanently by the name of Diogenes Joao, but my best signing was Phakamani Mngabi - a forward who scored 21 in 25 league appearances and contributed 11 assists.

Obviously the 5 foreigner rule (and it does only apply to players over 21 vikeologist as you suggested) can be a hindrance, but I've a couple of ageing foreigners who I won't register for the squad for next season, so I'll be able to raid Brazil for a couple more freebies!!

Internationally - nothing to report with Ivory Coast, though I do have a couple of African Nations qualifiers coming up during the close season.

Hopes for next season.......well, dipping my toes in the African Chumps League will be interesting and I really want to have a tilt at winning the title.

I'll do one of those code things in a while, charting my career progress - especially now I can add a domestic trophy to the challenge!! (as we all agreed the Super 8 Cup doesn't count)

[vikeologist]

3L1G - Congrats on what may be breakthrough for you. The question is; are you going to stay and make Amazulu the best club in Africa, or are you going to jump ship as soon as KC or AP have a vacancy?

I had Mngadi in my squad early on, at Swallows. I sold him for a tidy sum (250k was a tidy sum at that point) and used the funds as a foundation, but he was in my squad long enough for me to nick-name him Phak-Attack. He spent the rest of his career in Saudi Arabia (where he scored a lot of goals) and in the national team (where he didn't, but probably because the players I'd developed kept him on the sub's bench).

Always sad to see Swallows get relegated. (I don't think yours is the first save that's happened).

You say you'll be in the Chumps league. You mean the Confederations Cup, or have S Africa managed to get 4 teams qualifying for the CL?

[burtur]

3L1G: Congratz on the Cup win...and what a win. On the job status thing, I'm guessing your contract was about to run out and that's why it was so low. The Job status is merely how much of a security you have in terms of your contract. Your overall job security is in the top right corner of the "board confidence" window.

[threelions1goal]

Vikeologist - yes, you are correct, it's the Confederations Cup I qualified for, not the Chumps League - I got a little giddy with the excitement of winning a pot!!. I'm will stay with Amazulu, but it's dead hard working within such financial constraints regarding wage budgets, when you see Kaiser Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Bloem Celtic (in my save) who are all minted!!

Burtur - again, you are correct regarding job security and the new contract scenario - my job is safe as houses..........for now!!

I must admit, at this moment in time I'm part in shock, part devastated........ a schoolboy error on my behalf has allowed Phakamani Mngabi to be sold for a measly £115k

I'd only just negotiated a new contract with him, with a minimum release fee of £600k, when literally what must have been hours before he signed it, a club from Saudi Arabia (same as your save Vikeologist - tho I can't remember which club it is) came in with this bid of £115k which matched the clause in his existing contract........I'm thinking "please don't sign, please don't sign"........but he did.

"You're fookin joking me" was the cry I uttered out loud, before commencing pacing around my living room.

"What's up" said my wife, thinking it was something really serious and when I began to explain.......she interrupted "You really need to grow up"!!

She thinks I'm a dickhead at the best of times - the sale of Phakamani Mngabi has merely confirmed this!!

I've now spent the best part of three hours (my close season) frantically trying to find a replacement. I'm waiting on a couple of work permits, but I'm gutted!!

The things this game does to us all, eh guys??!!

[vikeologist]

Possibly VERY IMPORTANT bug alert / update

There's been more clarification on the bugs forum (for south America) about the bug that affected Arbee's save.

Unfortunately with new games started with the 15.2 Update if Brazil was not an active nation then the Copa Libertadores was not getting scheduled correctly..

A fix for this was included in the 15.3 Update, however as it is competition related the fix will only work with new games. So unfortunately old save games will continue to experience the issue.

I'll be honest; this sounds very ominous.

15.3 came out on 25 Feb. I don't know when 15.2 came out. If I take this at face value it means that any of you who started the game with any 15.2 databases (which may be quite a few of you) might be screwed if you didn't start off with Brazil league added, which I would imagine is practically everybody.

May I suggest the following;

1. Everybody look at which database you started with.

2. if you started with 15.2 make a new save of your existing game (called something like 'I hate SEGA'), add Brazil and go on holiday for a few years to see if the Libertadores keeps loading.

3. If it becomes apparent there's a problem; try adding Argentina, and see if the problem recurs. Hopefully if there is a Brazil problem, there might be a workaround by avoiding managing in Brazil.

I can't do this, because I started with 15.1, and so my save has no problems at all (so far) of this type. I can't start a new game with 15.2 to test this out. If I could I would, because you're like my family, blah, blah, blah.

If you're going to run into this problem when you move on to S America, I'd really like you to find out now, and for us all to figure out the solution together. At the point that Arbee ran into problems, I thought that it had been fixed in 15.1, (and so I thought that maybe Arbee's problem was a really unlucky freak of his individual save that nobody else would experience).

If we take the quote from SI at the top, this could affect a lot of you and completely bugger up your challenges, but then again, possibly by being forewarned, we can help people being 'arbied' if you'll forgive my addition to the English lexus, by avoiding Brazil if necessary.

[burtur]

I've got version 15.3...so I think I'm in the clear.

[vikeologist]

This is from a moderator on the S America bugs forum.

a) If the game was started on 15.2.0 without Brazil active the bug will be present, it was fixed within 7 days by a hotfix so the number of users affected should be minimal.

b) Immediately, the 2015 tournament does not schedule so the bug will present itself on January 16th 2015 if using a 2014 start date.

So hopefully not many of you will be affected.

With regard to b) that's good news, but I'm still unclear whether there's a danger that the CL may stop scheduling at a later point in your saves, e.g. if you add Brazil.

[burtur]

I think it might be a good idea to make a copy of the save before we go to S.America, and especially Brazil.

[threelions1goal]

I think I'm affected

http://"][/url]

I've now loaded the Brazil League, which will start (on my save) just after Christmas........I'm hoping and praying that everything will be okay

[vikeologist]

3L1G- You're definitely affected. Regardless of what leagues you have running, all these competitions should have kept going from the start. If anybody has a save where the Libertadores is scheduled to start in the past, it never will, regardless of what you do now.

The quickest way to confirm this is to add a S American nation that's not Brazil, then go on holiday for a year and check, but this is exactly the problem that has been described. In fact, you already have Mexico, and they take part in the C Lib.

So, it wasn't solved by a hotfix.

Sorry.

[ArBee23]

I think I'm affected

http://"][/url]

I've now loaded the Brazil League, which will start (on my save) just after Christmas........I'm hoping and praying that everything will be okay

Aww man. gutted for you mate. I had this happen in a really successful game and it killed it knowing i'd never with the Copa Libertadores.

[burtur]

This is such an annoying bug. Gutted for you mate.

[threelions1goal]

*Sits and shakes head*

I'm gutted!!

In a way it's almost laughable though - the fact I started this challenge only FOUR days before 15.3 was released.

Vikeologist - as much as I'm tempted to try your advice to see if it works, I think I'll just start again......man, what a chore!!

ArBee - I can now empathise how gutted you were........my only positive spin is that I'm only 6 seasons into the challenge and only won one trophy (being bobbins sometimes is a good thing, obviously!!)

Grrrrrrrrrrr - Sega!!

Thing that REALLY disappoints me is that I was finally starting to get somewhere with this challenge, I had a good set up at Amazulu, good players, good backroom staff and had started the 20/21 season well (ahead of my Confederation Cup campaign)

Oh well, these things happen - I'll post screenshots tomorrow of where my fresh faced 20 year old will begin his career!!

(And I'm loading Brazil - just in case!!)

[vikeologist]

3L1G - I'm so glad you're planning to start again. Obviously sorry that you have to.

I never did get the movie reference in LGRT's initial post; Groundhog Day?

Hopefully this is the last we'll hear of the bug, though I worry that we've lost some others because of it.

[threelions1goal]

3L1G - I'm so glad you're planning to start again. Obviously sorry that you have to.

I never did get the movie reference in LGRT's initial post; Groundhog Day?

Hopefully this is the last we'll hear of the bug, though I worry that we've lost some others because of it.

Yeah, starting again tomorrow - well, it'll make a Sunday more interesting!!

I think you may be correct that some people have left the challenge due to that bug. For those of us who are loving this challenge, I too hope that their games are unaffected.

Being honest, now I've had time to reflect (and a bottle of red!!) I'm glad you highlighted the bug, otherwise I would have carried on, oblivious that it affected my save.

And, that movie reference in LGRT's original post.......... I thought it was just me!! But the amount of times I've re-read that initial post and I too cannot get the movie reference - that is unless "The Boys From Brazil" has been re-named "The Bugs From Brazil"!!!

Anybody else got any ideas on the movie reference??

[threelions1goal]

Here we go again.......!!

Profile

Information

[Super_Gord]

Argh sucks to see this bug rear it's ugly head again and people's saves destroyed

I seemed to have dodged the Copa Libertadores plague, no progression since my last update, been on that Bloodborne grind recently, I'm still in it, active and reading everyone's updates!

Best of luck to you threelions1goal, hoping for some speedy success for you!

[burtur]

Don't stop believing in Journey!

burtur's 2020/21 end of season report

FC Metz - Ligue 1

League Table | Positional Graph

League:

Well we finally did it. We knocked those spoiled PSG prats of their perch. And what a season it was. We went the first 22 games unbeaten 6 of which being draws so PSG were always hot on our tail. After our first loss it was a case of you win-we win, so neither team pulled away and it was very much a two-horse race. Before our final game against Dijon at home we knew that if PSG slipped up in their final game away versus Lyon, we would become champions. We certainly did our part and fortunately Lyon also did theirs by holding PSG to a draw. Oh joy!

This conclusion came as a pleasant surprise as I was ready to jump ship in March when Man Utd came knocking. At the time the gap between us and PSG was 7 points and I thought would never manage to pip them to the league. But Utd went another way and I stayed on only to see my side finally lift the title. Brilliant.

I ended up as manager of the season and one of my players was voted star of the season. He is definitely up there with my best ever signings. Got him for free before the season and his return of 19 goals and 14 assists from midfield is nothing short of fantastic.

Cups and Europe:

We had two very good cup runs. In the FA cup we were unlucky to get knocked out away to St. Etienne on penalties, they were really the only big team left in the competition so our second FA cup was there for the taking. But it was not to be.

The League cup however saw us go all the way after last season final heartbreak. Not only did we win it, we won through a repeat of last seasons final.

In Europe it was our best season to date. We finished second in our group and drew Barcelona in the first knockout round. A fantastic home win helped us through to the next round where we fortunate to draw CSKA Moscow. Again a first class home performance catapulted us through to the next round, even though we tried to make it difficult for us by conceding a penalty and a red card inside the first minute! In the semi-final we played Man City and again the first leg proved fruitful. This time away. I was therefore quietly confident of making it all the way to the final! However a first half collapse at home saw us lose 0-3 and our dream run came to a disappointing end. Brilliant effort though by the players.

The aftermath:

I was out of contract at the end of the season. I always declined contract talks during the season as I somehow felt this was going to be my last at the club. The big boys were starting to take an interest in me and I wanted a new challenge. It was therefore a perfect end to my reign that the board decided to agree to my final request and build a new stadium. I consequently resigned and started to look for a new job. A lot of clubs offered me interviews. I came really close to sign for Wolfsburg in Germany. They are the only club that have managed to win the Bundesliga besides FC Bayern but one of my boyhood dream clubs had a vacant position and there was no turning back from that.

Inter haven't won a single trophy since the start of the save and clubs like Sassoulo, Sampdoria and Cagliari are actually more reputable than them at the moment. So I am keen to let the good times roll in again. The club finished 5th last season and weirdly are in the Champions league :confused: I have no idea why (EDIT: AC Milan failed the Financial Fair Play rules, thats why!). Thinking this might be a bug. But anyway the squad looks balanced and fairly good and I am hoping for a title push right away!

So now there is nothing left but to wave adieu to France and say ciao to Italy!

Roll on next season!!

Managerial career:

Season           Club                League        Pos       DC1         DC2      Continental        Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014/15  EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël  French National   3rd    7th round      n/a          n/a             n/a
2015/16  EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël      Ligue 2       1st   11th round   3rd round       n/a             n/a
2016/17  EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël      Ligue 1      14th   semi-final   semi-final      n/a             n/a
2017/18         FC Metz              Ligue 1       3rd   semi-final   3rd round       n/a             n/a
2018/19         FC Metz              Ligue 1       2nd     winners    4th round  ECL 1st KO rnd       n/a
2019/20         FC Metz              Ligue 1       3rd  quarter-final runner up     ECL Q/F      Champions Trophy, runner up
2020/21         FC Metz              Ligue 1       1st  quarter-final  winners      ECL S/F           n/a


Season           Nation              Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18        Costa Rica            World Cup Group Stage
2018/19        Costa Rica            Copa Centroamericana - Winners

 

Landmarks

* Challenge landmark

[b]France:[/b]
[u][i]Ligue 1[/i][/u]
Winner* (1)       2021 (FC Metz)
Runner up (1)     2019 (FC Metz)
Third place (2)   2018,2020 (FC Metz)
[u][i]Ligue 2[/i][/u]
Winner (1)        2016 (EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël)
[u][i]Championnat National[/i][/u]
Third place (1)   2015 (EFC Fréjus St. Raphaël)
[u][i]Coupe de France[/i][/u]
Winner* (1)       2019 (FC Metz)
[u][i]Coupe de la Ligue[/i][/u]
Winner* (1)       2021 (FC Metz)
Runner up (1)     2020 (FC Metz)
[u][i]Trophée des Champions[/i][/u]
Runner up (1)     2020 (FC Metz)

[b]International:[/b]
[u][i]Copa Centroamericana[/i][/u]
Winner (1)        2018 (Costa Rica)

 

The journey so far:

Prologue

Season 2014/15

Season 2015/16

Season 2016/17

Season 2017/18

Season 2018/19 Part 1, Part 2

Season 2019/20

[burtur]

My apologies for the long post :o

[threelions1goal]

My apologies for the long post :o

No apologies needed - it was worth the read just for the "spoiled PSG prats" quote!!

Good job on a good season - Inter should enable you to win Serie A - and possibly the Chumps League too!!

[threelions1goal]

Just a quick update - I loaded China, South Africa, Mexico, Australia and bleedin' Brazil

I've applied for loads of jobs, most didn't grant me interviews, but then I was applying only for clubs in the top divisions.

Beijing in China granted me an interview, but didn't give me the job, as did Gremio in Brazil.

Back in South Africa, Black Aces and even Orlando Pirates gave me interviews, but again, neither wanted to take a chance on a 20 year old, with no badges, no experience and who had merely graced the local park playing for The Dog And Duck on a Sunday morning!!

So, as I was already coming towards the end of the first season I decided that I'd lower my sights and start in any division.

Then Ajax CT sacked their manager, I threw in my umpteenth application and they granted me an interview.

And they liked what they saw!!!

So, there's only four games left and I've got to attain mid table, which is easily doable as they are in 12th place, but there are only six points separating 12th place and 5th.

I doubt I'll emulate the success of Super_Gord, but Ajax is a good gig!!

[Super_Gord]

threelions1goal - Haha, good old club Ajax CT, definately got the potential to take on the so called big two in South Africa, you'll do well with them I'm sure!

burtur - Amazing job there buddy, I'm actually a little jealous, I wish I'd of started in Europe now, by the time I get there it's going to be regen city!

[burtur]

Super_Gord: Yeah, that was actually one of my arguments for starting in Europe. I don't know any of the players in other continents so they might as well be regens

3L1G: Good luck with Ajax CT!

[vikeologist]

Burtur - Well done. That's quite a progression; from Fréjus to Inter in 7 seasons. You say that you like having non-regens. Any big names at Inter?

I don't think I know enough abou real players for that to ever be of any help to me. I assumed my current Assistant manager Miguel Carvalho, was a famous ex-international. Turns out he played for team in the Portuguese second division his entire career. I guess I must have been thinking about William Carvalho.

3L1G - Congrats on your new job. If it took you a year to get a top division job, it must have become harder since 15.1 when I started. Maybe I had a big advantage, in addition to the main advantage of the release version, in that it didn't have a bug that killed my challenge.

Did Amazulu ever have a job vacancy during your year in the wilderness. I'm sure if you'd explained to them about how you'd already achieved success with them, and about alternate realities and how aliens abducted the Copa Libertadores, they'd have sacked their current manager. I suppose the capability to do that will just have to wait until football manager 2016.

[burtur]

No, not really any big names at Inter. Samir Handanovic is still the number one keeper though. But it helped me a lot to know players in France. I was quicker to identify loan players and had a good eye for a bargain. I knew a couple of Icelandic players that were the best players at St. Raphael and at Metz I brought James Wilson (youngster at Man Utd in real life) in on a free. He almost averaged a goal a game and after I left was sold til Man City for 30m pounds

[threelions1goal]

Did Amazulu ever have a job vacancy during your year in the wilderness. I'm sure if you'd explained to them about how you'd already achieved success with them, and about alternate realities and how aliens abducted the Copa Libertadores, they'd have sacked their current manager. I suppose the capability to do that will just have to wait until football manager 2016.

Haha - that made me chuckle!!

I'll get in touch with them and if they grant me an interview, I'll ask for "Time Travel" in my philosophies!!

Maybe LGTR's film reference was "Back To The Future" after all??!!

[vikeologist]

Vikeologist's 2031/2 Hertha Berlin End of Season Report

It was a good season, and was 30 minutes away from being a great season.

Even though Hertha were a newly promoted club, the board wanted UEFA Cup qualification. In a way this was fair enough. They are a reasonably big club (potentially) when you consider their attendances, and the board did make quite a lot of money available. It made things difficult for me though as I was completely new to the nation and had very little scouting knowledge, especially of players who would be good enough to play for the team. I could have used my staff's scouting knowledge but I didn't have any staff to start off with.

I quickly got staff of course, but their judgement was a bit unreliable, at least initially. My top earning player was the only striker I had, a Turk called Ender Evren. Had he not been my only striker, I would have tried to get rid of him, because my staff didn't rate him. Luckily I spotted that he was scoring a lot of goals. he ended up being one of the top goalscorers in the division, and now is rated quite highly by everybody. (He is still on a ridiculously high salary though).

I had to build a squad quickly (before the end of the first transfer window) capable of meeting the objectives. I probably made a few mistakes, paying big money and giving a huge 3 year contract to an over the hill 32-year old. He got the job done though. I also brought in quite a few loan signings; one of whom turned out to be a real star. I'm probably bringing him back next season again, but this time his club want a hefty monthly fee. (They're asking about £66 million for a transfer). I was generally fairly profligate with the money I was given.

Anyway, to get into Europe we had to get a top 6 or 7 place depending on who won the FA Cup. We were in 6th, 7th or 8th place all season, basically in a 3-way battle for 2 European spots.

This was made more complicated by the fact that we reached the final of the German Cup, and our opponents, Leverkusen, were one of the two other teams in the aforementioned battle. To be sure of Europe we had to finish 6th, and we did that by winning our last game of the season. In the end 2 points separated 5th from 8th place, and European qualification switched around continuously throughout the last match of the season. We were holding on to a 2-1 lead against 9 men in a one-sided game, but conceding a fluke equaliser would have dropped us down to 8th.

So, on to the FA Cup final. Hertha have never won the German Cup. No Berlin club has; and they still haven't. We were 1-0 up, but conceded 2 second half goals.

Leverkusen sacked their manager anyway (for finishing 8th). Dortmund sacked their manager (for only finishing 3rd) and I applied for the job, but they gave it to the newly unemployed ex-Leverkusen manager. Had we won the FA Cup, maybe I'd have got the job.

Maybe it doesn't matter. Hertha has less pressure, but pretty almost the same resources as Dortmund. The UEFA Cup should be fun. I hope we qualify automatically for the group stage, (rather than Leverkusen as the Cup winners).

The squad still needs a lot of improvement though.

Season	Team			Position	Notes										Challenge Landmarks
14/15	Swallows(South Africa)	14th		Took over after 14 (of 30)games in 16th bottom position. Dodged relegation.
15/16	Swallows		12th		South African FA Cup winner. Continental qualification.				1 domestic cup
16/17	Swallows		3rd		Champions League qualification
17/18	Swallows		3rd	
18/19 	Swallows & Kaizer Chiefs2nd		Quit Swallows mid-season. Took over Kaiser Chiefs with 9 games of the season left
19/20	Kaizer Chiefs/ChU23	2nd		Won 2 domestic cups.
20/21	Kaizer Chiefs / China	2nd		Lost in Champions League Final on away goals
21/22	Kaizer Chiefs/China	1st		Lost in Champions league semi-final. Won 36 straight matches and East Asia Cup	1 domestic league
22/23	Kaizer Chiefs/ China	n/a		Won African Champions League. Humiliated nation of China.			African Champions League
2023	Seoul			1st		Won South Korean League								2nd domestic league
2024	Seoul / Brazil U23	3rd		Won FA Cup									2nd domestic cup
2025	Cruz Azul		9th		Won FA Cup (Opening Stage). Then I was sacked.					3rd domestic cup
2026	Chivas			2nd		Manager for one match. Lost title in extra time of 2nd leg of league final.
26/27	Chivas /Ivory Coast	6th/1st		Won NACL. Lost Closing stage final of Mexican 1st Div (again)			NACL
27	Chivas / Ivory Coast	5th		Lost in Opening Stage semi-final and resigned after CWC Q/F
28	Dalian / Ivory Coast	11th		Lost in FA Cup Final / Lost in 2029 ACON Q/F
29	Guangzhou / Egypt	1st		League / Cup double. Qualified for World Cup					4th cup, 3rd league
30	Guangzhou/Egypt/USA	1st		League / Champions League double						Asian Champions League
31/2	Hertha Berlin		6th		German Cup losing finalists. Qualified for UEFA Cup

[burtur]

Well done Vikeologist on your first season in Europe. Amazing that Hertha Berlin hasn't ever won the cup! I didn't know that.

On the subject of loan fees, you should definitely give in and pay for a loan move if the player is a star player. It is totally worth it in my opinion....as long as the loan fee isn't ridiculous. Also, the parent club usually is after a "monthly fee" from you. So if you have a hefty wage budget you can offer to pay higher wages in order to reduce the loan fee. I found that to be useful a couple of times. But you probably knew that

[vikeologist]

Well done Vikeologist on your first season in Europe. Amazing that Hertha Berlin hasn't ever won the cup! I didn't know that.

On the subject of loan fees, you should definitely give in and pay for a loan move if the player is a star player. It is totally worth it in my opinion....as long as the loan fee isn't ridiculous. Also, the parent club usually is after a "monthly fee" from you. So if you have a hefty wage budget you can offer to pay higher wages in order to reduce the loan fee. I found that to be useful a couple of times. But you probably knew that

Burtur - I find it quite hard to get used to how much money I have now. The loanee is back at my club on loan for the next 2 seasons, and I'm paying about £160k a month for him all told, but as you say, that's a bargain. I just hope his parent club doesn't recall him. I should have tried getting that clause removed.

I thought that I was getting Hertha into financial trouble as we went about £12million into debt. I didn't realise that we would get £29 mill prize money for finishing 6th in the league. Now our wage budget is even higher, since we're in the UEFA Cup.

I really can't imagine the shock you'll suffer once you've conquered Europe and you moved on to the other continents for the challenge. There's such a huge difference financially and in quality.

Incidentally I don't remember how many times in a row you said PSG had won the league, but Bayern just notched up their 20th in a row with well over 50% more points than us. They beat us 10-4 in the second league fixture, which I think is pretty much my heaviest league defeat in football manager ever, and we were one of the better sides in the division.