Ropo Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 The hugely unanticipated follow-up to An Eastern Bloc Party which can be found here. Season One - 2015/16 Ropo loads up a selection of cold, wet and windy countries to explore and starts applying for jobs. IFK Aspudden-Tellus Swedish Regional Leagues (Fourth Tier) I'm off to Stockholm because IFK Puddings need someone to stop them from being relegated to the fifth tier. They are five points adrift with six games left to play, having only won twice all season. I win twice in my final six games but we still go down without even coming close to safety, and as quick as a flash I am looking for another job. FC Svendborg Danish Second Division (Third Tier) The impressive manner of my first relegation raises some Scandinavian eyebrows and it isn't long before I convince Danish side FC Svendborg that I am the man to save their bacon (pun intended). The Danish third tier splits into a Promotion stage and a Relegation stage, and as we enter the winter break my new mob are bottom of the latter, but with plenty to play for. Unfortunately the £42 p/week wage bill doesn't spread very far (excuse #1) and I do not appear to know what I am doing (excuse #2) - a few months later I am relegated again. Two teams relegated in my first season; that's bad even for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 Season Two - 2016 Ropo needs another bite at the Ikea meatball. Karlslunds IF HFK Swedish Regional Leagues (Fourth Tier) Back to Sweden where I take the reigns at Karlslunds in one of the bottom level regional leagues. They are sitting just above the drop zone with seven games to play. This time I decide to go ugly, lumping long balls into the corners and kicking people where possible. The season comes down to the final game, where a win will ensure survival, but we draw 1-1. Relegated, again. Back to the job centre, with no intention of ever visiting Scandinavia ever again. Maybe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Three relegations in two seasons?? Nice work.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExiledKopite Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Oh man, and I though me getting sacked withing two months at Bradford in my career was bad. Ouch. Hope it picks up for you, mate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 Cheers all. Season Three - 2017 Ropo aims to win his fourth consecutive sack race. Náutico FC Brazilian Third Division Group A (Third Tier) Brazil is weird. I spend the first four months of the season playing the same five teams over and over again in what is sold to me as 'The Roraima State Championship' but is really just the longest and most tedious pre-season tournament ever inflicted on football. Worse still it turns out all the other teams in the state of Roraima are mind-numbingly terrible so I actually win the thing. Eventually everyone plays out the actual league. Náutico have half a squad when I join, most of which are absolute guff, so over the course of the State Championship I panic buy sixteen players. Terrifyingly we nearly end up in the play-offs, but a final day hiding helps us back down to a respectable 5th (of 10) place finish. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 Season Four - 2018 Ropo still finds Brazil weird. Náutico FC Brazilian Third Division Group A (Third Tier) An exact repeat of last season. We won the State Championship, which I once again found really boring, and finished fifth in our Third Division group. I also spent a good five minutes searching for a way to tell the club's president he is completely crackers, after he went above my head to sell our star striker. Unfortunately the game doesn't appear to have a 'you're a dork' button in that situation so I decided to bitterly plot my exit for the remainder of the season instead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted January 18, 2016 Author Share Posted January 18, 2016 Season Five - 2019/20 Eastern Athletic Association Hong Kong Premier League Hong Kong: the domestic players are all a bit pants, but you can bring in four foreigners if they can be tempted. I managed to make one marquee signing in a retired Australian international, probably the best player in the league but as agile as a bag of rocks, who ended up narrowly missing out on Hong Kong Footballer of the Year. With one game left I was 9th in a league of ten and about to be relegated. Bizarrely we were also only two points off 4th which would have come with a shot at qualifying for the Confederations Cup - Asia's Europa League equivalent, I think. We won our last game and climbed to 7th. Go on the lads! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orikoru Posted January 19, 2016 Share Posted January 19, 2016 Haha, this is great. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted January 22, 2016 Author Share Posted January 22, 2016 Cheers ears! Season Six - 2020/21 Eastern Athletic Association Hong Kong Premier League This season I won the League Cup despite being forced to stick a winger in goal for most of the final. As well as this I finished second in the league, and won the end of the season play-offs, with a spot in the Asian Champions League qualifying rounds as reward. It looks like we would probably come up against a proper team before the group stage (as in one from Australia rather than Myanmar) which might prove tricky (as in we might get demolished). Exciting! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted January 29, 2016 Author Share Posted January 29, 2016 Season Seven - 2021/22 Eastern Athletic Association Hong Kong Premier League Despite a little wobble halfway down the line we were once again runners-up this season. Winners Kitchee are by far the strongest team in Hong Kong but I think we are slowly closing the gap on them. The wobble coincided with my signing of a Japanese OAP midfielder, who I chucked straight into the (already winning) team but probably should have introduced more gradually. He absolutely shanked a penalty on his debut and then was terrible for two months - by the time he started playing properly he had already decided to retire at the end of the season. In the Asian Champions League we only played one match, losing 1-0 to this season's Indian champions Bharat FC. Interestingly another Indian side, Royal Wahingdoh, have a crazy Argentine chairman throwing money at them, so old Ropo is keeping tabs on their current plight in case they need someone to waste all of their money. Unfortunately we lost in this season's Play-Off final so we won't be having another go at the Champions League just yet. But I am looking forward to sending my scouting team to the World Cup, which has been moved from Qatar to China. Up the Eastern! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrnwsBucksFanNC Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Really enjoying this, keep up the good work Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 Thanks - glad to hear it. Season Eight - 2022/23 Eastern Athletic Association Hong Kong Premier League Another 18 game season rattled through, and with a third consecutive 2nd place finish we really are in danger of being remembered as Eastern's nearly men (just kidding, nobody will remember this). The wage budget is getting smaller each season, as the club goes deeper into the overdraft, and I think it's now past something that could be resolved by a Champions League run. All we can probably do now is buy a load of scratchcards. Once again we were beaten to the title by Kitchee, this time by a solitary point - despite us only losing once all season. Bloody Kitchee. For next season I've convinced the Ghana U20's captain to come and play for me, but I don't actually know if he's any good because I can only see four of his stats, so that could backfire somewhat. Bring on the administrators! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted February 8, 2016 Author Share Posted February 8, 2016 Season Nine - 2023/24 Eastern Athletic Association Hong Kong Premier League After nine seasons I've finally won a league title, and I've just had a giant slice of cake to celebrate. I even beat Kitchee twice, although it was Hong Kong Rangers who nearly snatched top spot on the last day. Luckily we scored a late winner against Lucky Mile (who are a football team despite sounding like a Chinese takeaway). My Ghana U20's captain turned out to be really good, as did a 34 year old striker Kitchee had got shot of a few seasons ago. Next season: more titles, more cake. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motlhen Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 Brilliant! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted February 14, 2016 Author Share Posted February 14, 2016 Thanks! Season Ten - 2024/25 Eastern Athletic Association Hong Kong Premier League This was a great season; we didn't lose a game in the league (won eleven, drew seven), securing a second consecutive title on the final day. We also made good progress in continental competition after losing our Asian Champions League qualifier in Japan, as our consolation prize was a spot in the Confederations Cup group stage (which is like the Europa League, it turns out, but without any teams from the big countries). Anyway, we just about came through our group to set up a tough Quarter Final in Baghdad at the start of next season. I think I'm busy that week. The bank balance looks a bit better, helped by a Turkish team buying out my Ghanaian midfielder's release clause, and the board has ramped the wage budget back up for next season - so I think I'll stick around a little while longer. Here's all the stuff I've done so far: 2015/16 IFK Aspudden-Tellus; Relegated 2015/16 FC Svendborg; Relegated 2016 Karlslunds IF HFK; Relegated 2017 Nautico FC; Roraima State Championship winners 2018 Nautico FC; Roraima State Championship winners 2019/20 Eastern; Hong Kong Senior Challenge Cup 2020/21 Eastern; Hong Kong League Cup, Hong Kong Senior Play-off 2021/22 Eastern; Hong Kong Community Cup 2022/23 Eastern; Nowt 2023/24 Eastern; Hong Kong Sapling Cup, Hong Kong Premier League 2024/25 Eastern; Hong Kong Community Cup, Hong Kong Premier League If nothing else, it goes to show that if you give up whilst the game keeps punishing your inability to manage a football team by relegating you over and over again, you might miss out on winning some strange trophies in Hong Kong further down the line. And that, my friends, is a lesson worth learning. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Season Eleven - 2025/26 Eastern Athletic Association Hong Kong Premier League We won the league again, fuelled by a free-scoring Welsh centre forward I had signed from Hyde United, and we also reached the Confederation Cup final where we were beaten 1-0 by Iraqi side Al-Zawra'a. However I think I had pretty much decided half way through this season that it would be my last in Hong Kong. Hopefully I'll find somewhere terrible to go over the summer - somewhere with less cups, preferrably. Up the Eastern! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted February 28, 2016 Author Share Posted February 28, 2016 Season Twelve - 2026/27 Brora Rangers Scottish Third Divison I closed the chapter on my time in Hong Kong with the intention of finding a new club pretty quickly - early enough to mix in my own new players with whichever wierdos are hanging around from the previous regime. Bolton came calling, by now bankrupt and struggling to survive in the Conference, but I couldn't pass up a year in the Highlands. Newly promoted to the Third Division, Brora's squad were mostly pants, so I brought in a load of ringers and by the end of the season one of them was scoring relentlessly; an Icelandic striker that I took from Dover Athletic. We finished fourth before being dumped out of the play-offs, so a good season, and for the first time I was linked to a couple of jobs (Raith Rovers and Livingston in Div 1). I haven't signed a new contract yet because I am an absolute livewire. To be continued. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 I'd have thought a prestigious multiple national champion in Asia would find better employment. I mean, no offence to Brora Rangers' fans, but the Scottish Third Division isn't very glamorous. I know as I've played there! (Third Division = League 2?) Good job so far, and entertaining read. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 What can I say, there's something about the doldrums that I find attractive! Thanks for your kind words. Season Thirteen Slough Town National League South There is a famous poem, written during one of the World Wars, which opens 'Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!'. Slough. It even sounds dreary. Perfect. Except this season we've been exiled so we won't actually play in Slough, we'll groundshare with Uxbridge, in London, because it's going to take a whole season to create standing room for a thousand extra supporters at our actual ground. Who are these thousand extra supporters? Where did their lives go sufficiently wrong to free up their Saturdays for Slough Town v Staines United? Maybe I'm reading too much into this. I decided to put together a proper non-league side; defensive players with work rate and strength, forwards with work rate and strength... basically people who I could ensivage liking pies and gambling. The result? We went top with a 7-0 win at Woking at the end of August, and stayed there for the whole season, fuelled by yellow cards and kicking it vaguely towards the floodlights. Truly excited to see how this one goes before the wheels come off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darius1998 Posted March 8, 2016 Share Posted March 8, 2016 I decided to put together a proper non-league side; defensive players with work rate and strength, forwards with work rate and strength... basically people who I could ensivage liking pies and gambling. The result? We went top with a 7-0 win at Woking at the end of August, and stayed there for the whole season, fuelled by yellow cards and kicking it vaguely towards the floodlights. Just as well you did that. I once tried to play passing football and went down. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ropo Posted March 12, 2016 Author Share Posted March 12, 2016 A man after my own heart! Season Fourteen - 2028/29 Slough Town National League Premier The National League Premier. Or the Vauxhall Conference as it was known in a better time - a time when the league didn't give a hoot if your ground was made up of three plastic chairs and some corrugated iron, or ask you to perform witchcraft like 'registering players'. You could probably even still sign someone's flatmate ten minutes before kick off. Tinpot times. Better times. It took me and my mighty Slough eleven attempts to win a game. It took us until mid-January to record a victory on the road; a 1-0 win on a rainy Tuesday night in Alfreton. By Easter we had completely capitulated, and on the final day 12 travelling fans saw relegation confirmed with a 4-1 collapse at Tamworth. Luckily the board love me, but my players hate me and I really don't blame them. My fourth relegation and probably my favourite as it was all my own doing. Up the Rebels! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted March 12, 2016 Share Posted March 12, 2016 Nice yo-yoing. I'm going to take a wild guess that next season's summary won't feature Slough Town? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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