TerminalPortugal Posted April 2, 2022 Share Posted April 2, 2022 (edited) After the very recent demise of a more elaborate version of this "Climb The Ladder" challenge, I have decided that when you fall of your bike because one of the wheels falls off. The only thing you can do is fix the bike wheel and get back on the bike. For those uninitiated, back in FM20, I started this challenge which was to travel around the world using modded leagues added into the game in a sort of ultimate journeyman, where we net to conquer each stage by winning trophies that have pre-allocated points associated with them. Each stage would only have a few countries available and we would need to plot a way to maximise the number of points. In this save I went over 130 years completing a variety of countries before eventually instead of the save failed me, the computer itself failed me and I believe the save was lost forever, only the memory remaining on these boards. Just recently I decided to bring it back for FM22, and while we manage to complete a whole continent, this time the save failed us, as we arrived in North America and once again I was thwarted. But I still have the itch to complete this so I have been redesigning the path and the rules to provide a similar challenge to last one, albeit only encompassing the vanilla leagues, which hopefully will not let me down. For those who did not read either of the first two they are here for posterity should you wish to partake in them Climb The Ladder 1 Climb The Ladder 2 I will go over the rules again and provide the amendments as well. Ruleset How do you get points? You get points by winning trophies plain and simple. Depending on the trophy they are worth different amounts. The following is a guide of what each trophy is worth Top Division Domestic League title (100 points) Top Domestic Cup (50 points) Any other Domestic Cup (30 points) Top Continental Cup (500 points) Secondary Continental Cup (200 points) Any other Continental Cup (50 points) If there is any confusion as to what the main cup is, then I will just make a call at the start as to what the top trophy is, if I cannot verify it within the game. Can you lose points? Yes, you can lose points. There are two ways to lose points as below:- Being relegated at any time at a club or leaving a club for any reason at a time when you are in the relegation places (-50 points) Being sacked or resigning under pressure i.e. if there are comments in the media that I will be sacked then if I resigned it will be treated as a sacking (-100 points) Any more rules around the points? Yes, and this is a key point. The first time you win a trophy with a club, you receive 100 per cent of the available points as stated above. However the second time that we manage to win it in the same trophy with the same club, the points are then halved, and it will continue to half for every time we win that follows. So to give an example, let says that I am managing Liverpool and I win the English Premier League and English League Cup, I would receive 100 points for the league and 30 points for the League Cup. If in the second season I won the English Premier League, the FA Cup and The English League Cup, then we would get 50 points for the league, 50 points for the FA Cup and 15 points for the League Cup. If in the third season we won the English Premier League again, then it would only be worth 25 points. So as you can see we will be incentivized to plan our route through each stage and move on when it makes sense to do so. There is an exception to the halving of points. All continental competitions are never halved, even if we win it with the same team multiple times. How many points are required to get through a stage? There are two types of stage. The first are the normal stages whereby there are normally 3 or 4 nations loaded for the stage and we can pick a club at any of them. In these stages we need to win 500 points, to advance to the next stage. In Golden stages, which are normally at the end of the continent and will only have one country available we will need to win 1,500 points to get through the stage (previously it was 1,000 points required for the golden stages). In the diagram below, normal stages are in a variety of colours related to the continent they are part of. Golden stages are have a golden glow and have a gold inlay line around them on the diagram and should be easily identifiable. Who is the manager you will be using? The manager will be from a random nationality. I will use a random number generator to give me the nationality. The manager must then start with no coaching badges and Sunday League experience. So I still don't know who my avatar will be. How often will you be providing updates? As you can see from the diagram, this is a major challenge, that will last at least a few hundred years if I get anywhere near the middle or end of it. So each update will be a seasonal update, and focus mostly on results rather than players, since there will be many many different clubs. The other time I will update is when we switch clubs, and that will let you know the results at the last club before we moved. Where do we start? We start at AFC6 at the bottom of the diagram which is Malaysia or Singapore, and will have to work our way up through each stage. Where is the Diagram? Just below:- Click to expand. Next up we will find out our club and our manager Edited April 2, 2022 by TerminalPortugal 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 2, 2022 Author Share Posted April 2, 2022 Season 2021 Introduction to Manager Introducing Raul Aguilar from El Arenal, Peru. Peru was the country randomly chosen as the nationality this time around and we start with no qualifications and no previous experience. Introduction to the Club We had to wait around for a while until a job became available and boy was it a daunting one to start. We took over at Hougang United in Singapore, whom were firmly rooted to the bottom of the league and things could not get much worse for them as we came in. They were attractive because they were underachieving and so probably could do better, they were still in all competitions which was more down to not yet entering the majority of competitions and they were involved in Asian football in the form of the AFC Cup, the Asian equivalent of the Europa League. While we stood very little chance it was still a positive. AFC Cup Well what a ride it was. The AFC Cup was actually our first game in management as we took on Bali United in the first game of the ASEAN group stage in Group F and picked up a win and from there we went on a hell of a run, as we topped our group, and then got past Persebaya, Ha Noi, Churchill Brothers and Altyn Asyr to reach the final. However in the final away in Tashkent we were unable to continue the run as we came unstuck in a very fun match by 5-3. It could have been an early 200 points but alas it was not to be. Singapore Premier League We started the league absolutely rooted to the bottom of the league having only picked up one win in the league before I arrived, but our fortunes immediately changed and very soon we were the form side in the league and we were actually potentially challenging for the playoff spots, of which there are 3. Unfortunately for us, there was just too much to do, we got within touching distance for the final game of the season but it would have required losses for Geylang and Tampines, by quite a few goals and we needed to score a hatful, and while we won everything else did not materialise. Still it was a very positive performance from the moment we took over and we can use that and take it forward to next season. Singapore Cup The SIngapore Cup started after the league regular season had ended and we were the form side in the country and it showed s we pretty much breezed our way to the final, before we just snuck by Tanjong Pagar to take the cup and with that the first ever trophy the club has ever won of note. It also brings with it our first ever points in the stage, 50 of them to be precise. Squad and Transfers While there is a full page of transfers we were only involved in the final two coming in which were Peruvians which I presume came to our scouting knowledge because of our nationality and the deifnately add some quality. The team only performed for half a season so some of the ratings are down this season but they will hopefully improve next season if we can take the same form in to as we had in the second half of this season. Manager Thoughts We came in and completely changed the fortunes of the club and won our first trophy of the season and we were very close to winning another one in the AFC Cup. It is a very positive start and I expect that we should be able to build on this going into next season. The important thing at this stage is to build up our reputation and get some badges under our belt while working towards the trophies and getting points on the board. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hrmantovani Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 Nice to see you back! Your first thread on this challenge was something else. Good luck on your new adventure, would bet on you completing it this time. I got inspired by this and started one myself on FM 21 today with Nauti from Tuvalu Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 5 hours ago, hrmantovani said: Nice to see you back! Your first thread on this challenge was something else. Good luck on your new adventure, would bet on you completing it this time. I got inspired by this and started one myself on FM 21 today with Nauti from Tuvalu Thanks a lot for the kind words. Certainly hope that this time is time that I am able to complete this challenge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 Season 2022 Community Shield By virtue of being the cup holders we qualified for the Community Shield where we faced Lion City Sailors, and we ended up taking the game by 3-1 and getting another 30 points on the board. AFC Cup Another final reached, but another defeat and the final was absolutely brutal on us. We led from the 19th minute until the 89th minute of the game in Uzbekistan before they scored and then they scored another 2 minutes later to win it. It seems like we were just never destined to lift this one. Last time around we ran into a side that we just could not stop from scoring this time around we just could not last out the 90 plus minutes and end up losing in the worst possible way. Unfortunately no points for us. Singapore Premier League We looked great last time around a brought ourselves off the bottom of the league to respectable league finish, this time around we were much too good for the rest of the league as we pretty much walked our way to our maiden Premier League title. 100 points gained. Singapore Cup We were the cup holders going in and we showed the same kind of form we had shown in the league, where really no one could stop and it culminated in another Singapore Cup win as we take another 25 points towards our target Squad and Transfers We wanted the squad to improve from last season in terms of performances and this has happened well. We have got Anuar scoring the goals, along with an old but fine Ishak. Defensively we have a very strong unit, which generally has not given much away this season and mostly kept things tight for us. We are looking pretty dominant now from a Singaporean perspective. Manager Thoughts There were some good points picked up this season. The main negative has been the AFC Cup, where we manage to get to the final and then we are unable to finish the game off. This time around it was awful to be winning in the final minutes of the game and end up losing, we need to do better in these high pressure situations. Domestically however it was a clean sweep for us and we now look like the team to beat, and we have been able to engineer this in a very short space of time. Next year we will be in the Champions League and may actually be less beneficial to us than regular AFC Cup football, as I don't see us challenging in the Champions League. We may also at some point need to think about moving on to a new club as the points begin to dwindle for subsequent wins, assuming we can keep it up. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 Season 2023 Community Shield Another Community Shield against Lion City Sailors and we came away with 4-1 win. AFC Champions League We were pretty well outclassed in the Champions League, we only managed one win and a draw and lost the remainder of the matches. I just don't think a team from Singapore has much of chance of competing in the Champions League, not surprised we went out in Group Stages. Singapore Premier League We found it pretty easy to take our 2nd league title in a row as there was not much competition this year. We proved a little too strong for the other Singaporean teams. Singapore Cup Had we won the cup again it would have made it three in a row, but we fell in the final to Lion City Sailors who got the 1-0 win. Squad and Transfers We actually did not have that many super performers this year. We actually lost some key players at the start of the season as we could not retain them or they have got older and no longer have the ability, and we arguably are a little worse this season. Domestically however the results have been up to scratch so it does not worry me much. Manager Thoughts We picked up 65 points from the Community Shield and Premier League win. It is probably getting to the point where there are diminishing returns for wins with Hougang United at this stage. We are never going to win the Champions League with a Singaporean team so that is a pretty closed avenue to get undiminished points. The issue is, that there are no jobs available at the moment either in Singapore or Malaysia and our interactions with the media to link to insecure jobs have not got very far with the fans, who still do not see us as a big name in management. So we will need to see what comes up, but realistically it's maximum one more season at Hougang. I am even putting off signing any new contract the club to make sure we are not disuading anyone from coming to get us, however we run the risk of an easy firing should things go wrong. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 Good luck with this Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 4 minutes ago, john1 said: Good luck with this Cheers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 2034 Season Introduction to the Club In the off-season we actually had a couple of options. There was a club in Malaysia that offered us the job, and I would have taken it had I not got the Niigata Unicorn job. Fortunately we got the job and we became their new manager. There were a few other jobs in the end around Singapore, such as Tampines and Geylang Int. but this one was the one I earmarked. Niigata Unicorn are a subsidiary of a very well known Japanese club of the same name and that used to go by the name Albirex. In terms of success they have had a fair bit of it, with 4 league titles to their name and 4 cup titles as well. They were predicted to finish first this season so I saw it really us upgrading the job. The journey from Hougang to Jurong is about 26 km, so not very far, but Singapore is not a very big place at the end of the day. Singapore Premier League The league was not much of an issue for us in the end as we won it from Lion City Sailors by 7 points. LC were neck and neck with us for quite a while but eventually we managed to pull ahead and never really looked like we would give up the leadership of the divison. Singapore Cup A pretty easy group stage saw us knock out LC Sailors in the semi final and then beat our old club in the final 2-0. Squad and Transfers We didn't make any transfers. The club has special rules attributed to it, where you are only allowed Singaporean and Japanese players. Having Japenese players, or rather an unlimited amount of them is a big advantage generally in the quality available, so I did not really feel we needed to make any reinforcements. A lot of good performances, particularly Sugita up front was a real handful. Taniguchi probably was the best player this season with 12 goals and 13 assists, its very difficult to find those kind of numbers in this league. All around very good from the boys. we deserved the double this season. Manager Thoughts We are now approaching the end of AFC6. We are under 100 points, but it will difficult to achieve that in fell swoop with Niigata Unicorn next season as we will likely need to win a domestic treble including the Community Shield to make that happen since I cannot see us doing anything in the Champions League realistically. Provided we can win the league, it should leave us very close. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 Season 2025 Community Shield A rather annoying result for us to lose the Community Shield out of the gate as that meant there was no chance of us progressing past AFC6 this year. Basically Niigata Unicorn are exempt from Asian football it seems, and a league and cup double would only bring us 495 points. Singapore Premier League The league was a pretty straightforward affair from us, we led for the majority of the season and despite being chased by our old side Hougang United, they never really got close enough to us to cause us many issues. Singapore Cup Another Singapore Cup win as we took our Lion City Sailors in the final. This win brought us to 495 points in total. Squad and Transfers A lot of players left us in the off-season and it actually meant we had a pretty threadbare squad at times, but we came through it. Morrison Hashii was on another planet with his 29 goals in 27 games as well as 8 assists. Ryotaro Megumi was also ridiculous in terms of his overall average rating of 8.30 this year. A great year when it comes to performances, pretty much everyone stepped up in a big way. Manager Thoughts We sit on 495 points, just 5 points away from completing the leg. Hopefully we can get the job done in the Community Shield nice and early otherwise we will need to more of less complete the season to gather the points we need. Any domestic competition should be enough for us for progression to the next leg. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 (edited) Season 2026 Community Shield The Community Shield would be enough for us to complete the challenge and we got the 2-1 win over Hougang United to finish up in AFC6 Manager Thoughts It took us 4 years, 9 months and 2 days to get the points we needed and we did across two clubs in Singapore, Hougang United and Niigata Unicorn. We leave Singapore as the top manager in the Hall of Fame. Next up is AFC5, which includes Hong Kong and Indonesia and again we will need another 500 points. AFC6 COMPLETE!!! Manager Profile Career Summary Edited April 3, 2022 by TerminalPortugal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 3, 2022 Author Share Posted April 3, 2022 Season 2026/27 Introduction to the Club We were waiting for quite a while until the post at Lee Man in Hong Kong became available and we decided to go for it and got the job. The club had some recent success in the form of a league title but assessing the squad there were some real problems. There seemed to be a solid defence but nothing going forward. A squad that was built in a very different image of how I like to play football. I expected it to be tough going with limited funds and a squad I was not enamoured with. Hong Kong Premier League We were absolute trash. We couldn't hit a barn door half of the matches. It was very disappointing, we came in with just a few games played and we got worse if anything under my management. This team does not really fit how I want to play, there is nothing going forward to speak about. We were actually quite often difficult to beat, but we ended up drawing many many matches as a result. In the end we were in the relegation group, never really much chance of getting relegated though as the Hong Kong Under 23s and Southern District have been really bad this season. Still it was not what I was looking for at all. Hong Kong Senior Shield Trash Hong Kong FA Cup Very bad. Sapling Cup Wasn't here for most of it, but really bad again. Squad and Transfers The squad performed abysmally. The strikers are a joke at this club. I have a good mind to release every last one of them. We need some proper players going forward, enough of this nonsense defend for your lives crap. The issue we have is, there is no money and we are overspent by about £1k on wages, and there are not huge pieces that we can get rid of and alleviate that. It is going to be a slog to renovate the side. Manager Thoughts I have walked into a quagmire here. I am not at all hopeful we can achieve anything next season. I really feel we may be walking into a sacking and 100 point deduction here, that is what spider senses are telling me. Still we will persevere. The teams seemed to be getting at least familiar with my tactics by the end so perhaps we can perform a little better than we have so far. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 Season 2027/28 Hong Kong Premier League Well would you believe it, just another year on from our pretty woeful performance in the league, we pushed everything just over the line when it comes to results, draws were turned into 1-0 wins, as our defence continued to be imperious but we found just enough attacking prowess to start causing a few problems and the end result is Premier League title. In the end it was reasonably comfortable although Eastern were always there or there abouts. Kitchee were very disappointing all season. A wonderful 100 points for us. Senior Challenge Shield Another trophy for us this season as we took on the Senior Shield. We won the tournament without conceding a goal showing exactly the defensive virtues that this team has been built upon. A late winner was enough to win it against Kitchee. 30 points in the bag Hong Kong FA Cup This cup was worth 50 points, as the most prestigious in Hong Kong, but we fell at the end on penalties to Eastern in the final. Again it was another very good performance as we progressed through the group, despite the first game being a bit of shambles as we had internationals away with the National team. It is a shame we squandered this one but in the end penalties was the enemy as we lost 7-6 to Eastern in penalty kicks. Sapling Cup Yes, we made it a domestic treble as we picked up the Sapling Cup as well. We came through the group pretty easily and then matched up against Eastern in the semi final again with internationals away and this time we took them apart 3-0. In the final we beat Kitchee 3-1 and the game was only made safe a minute from time, as we claim another 30 points. Squad and Transfers We still don't have a lot of goals in the team and this is still a worry, but we have enough now that I expect us to get a goal every game or so, and we are pretty good at stopping the opposition scoring. They say defences win league titles and I guess it is apt here to say that, it was the defence that did the damage. In terms of performances, no real key attackers to pick out but overall there is a just a good set of performances this season that most in the team can hold their head high. Manager Thoughts What a difference 12 months can make as we go from pretty abject to a domestic treble. Only the FA Cup slipped our grasp and let's face we were penalties away from it being a quadruple. It is a fantastic turnaround and it has been built on a sturdy defence and getting the morale of team up from the depths of last year. In other news the Kitchee job did come up and we actually went for it but they opted for another manager interestingly enough. We may have considered moving on at the end of the season since, it might of been a way to continue to win in Hong Kong without facing the halved points. We are in the AFC Cup next season so there is always an outside chance at that but there are so many cups in Hong Kong that there is still plenty to go at next season even with diminished points. The issue is that I do not yet feel totally confident that we are going to dominate, we won this year by the odd goal almost every game and that can go the other way to. A good striker would be a god send to me at this time. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 Season 2028/29 Community Cup We took the Community Cup with an easy 3-0 win over Eastern, for the first points of the season Hong Kong Premier League We were sublime in the league this season as we capped off an unbeaten title win. No one had any answers for us as we scored the most and conceded the least, going through the Championship Round with conceding a goal. Another 50 points for us for the league win. Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield This ended early as we could not find a goal and paid the penalty on penalties. Hong Kong FA Cup The FA Cup had eluded us last season but it was not going to happen this year. The group stages provided no challenge, and neither did Kitchee or Eastern in the semi final and final respectively as we dealt with everyone pretty easily on the way to the cup. Another 50 points bagged. Sapling Cup We had won this won last time around and once again we got through the group without any problems. The semi final was not an easy affair as we came through 1-0 against Southern District, and in the final, we got two late goals against Kitchee to take the game 2-1. Another 15 points won. AFC Cup The AFC Cup runs across two seasons, so we are still in it this season, after disposing of our group without much problems. Amrokkang of North Korea did not even pick up a point and Eastern our compatriots were well out of it too. Next we go into the Knockout Rounds which should kick off some time around pre-season and the start of next season. This one is worth 200 points, so would technically finish this leg of the challenge for us, after our points haul this season. Squad and Transfers The main story here is us being able to finally bring a good striker that fits into our system. We had been trailing Leonardo pretty much as soon as I joined the club, but we only had to ability to bring him in now, with the wage clearance to do it, and it made a huge difference as he bagged himself 28 goals in 35 appearances. Danny Sanabria was another big signing that adds key quality in mdifield. We also found the loan market in China a very good place to find a few key acquisitions on the cheap. The performances have been great this season, with pretty much everyone firing. Manager Thoughts We have hit the 300 point mark and this has been another very successful season. The AFC Cup is now foremost on my attention as it will take us over the 500 point mark that we need, but realistically it is still a very long shot and there are a lot of knockout games to be played. We have previously got to the AFC Cup final on 2 occasions if my memory is right and we lost them both, so I do not have good memories of the competition. If we cannot win it, then diminishing returns are beginning to rear the ugly head and we may need to think about whether we need to move in the near future. I am pretty certain at least for next season we will be in place at Lee Man. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 (edited) Season 2029/30 Community Cup We got another Community Cup win with a win over Eastern, it only adds another 15 points to our total however. AFC Cup We resumed the AFC Cup, with a shot at winning it, but I had limited expectations but we were brilliant. Defence was the key in the Interzone Playoff ties against Persik and Khujand, and then in the final against Al-Ittihad of Syria, the handbrake was taken off and we got a big win 5-2. To take the AFC Cup, at our third time of asking as a manager. It also means that we got enough points to finish of AFC5. Manager Thoughts It was short and sweet at the start of this season to get the job done, which I am very happy about. It was going to be a slog going forward, and likely requiring a move of clubs to complete it. The fact we managed to get the job done early is great. We will now be moving on AFC4, which has just one country and that country is India. We will need 500 points to advance. AFC5 COMPLETE!!! Manager Profile Career Summary Edited April 4, 2022 by TerminalPortugal 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 Season 2030/31 Introduction to the Club We had to wait for a while until India loaded and then a good way into the season, the first job became available at it was Sporting Clube de Goa. A club inspired by the colonial history of the city of Goa to the Portuguese colonists and Vasco da Gama. The club had never won a league title before but had picked up the odd cup here and there but there was not much success to speak about generally. When we arrived the club was rooted to the bottom of the division a few points adrift, and it was looking like it would be a survival job that was required. Durand Cup Already knocked out when we arrived at the club Hero I-League This may well be one of my greatest ever achievements, as we went from bottom of the league when I took over the club to league champions in the same season. We were almost perfect after I arrived, with only 1 draw and 1 loss, as we amped up the pressure on the leading pack and they buckled in a big way as suddenly we found ourselves merely needing to win our final game of the season to be champions and we managed to do that to win the league. Hero Federation Cup We were so bouyed by the league win, that I half expected us to win the Federation Cup and we won rather easily with a demolition of Kerala in the final 6-0. Squad and Transfers Some big names that made a big difference were Bayo, Matheus and Medina, our first three signings as we came into the club and they changed everything about this club. Kinny Gomes was also brilliant as a guy who was already here and performed amazingly for us. Manager Thoughts Wow, just an amazing achievement. I don't think I have ever seen anything like that. We were expecting to come and the mission was to stay up and survive. But it became noticeable early on that we were seemingly flying especially after the new signings came in. A great haul of points from where we picked up the club. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 Followed Version and 2 of this and really enjoyed it! I like how you have structured things with the vanilla leagues, probably makes it more likely that you will be able to finish the whole thing off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makoto Nakamura Posted April 4, 2022 Share Posted April 4, 2022 Love following your threads! Best of luck with this! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 Season 2031/32 Hero I-League It was pretty close this year, we did not finish the season very well, but we managed to get over the line in the end. There was a weird set of events whereby we had quite a few of our Indian players away on Under 23 duty for months, and they did not seem to be playing any matches. Was not too sure what happened there but it did not help us much, still we got the job done. Durand Cup The Durand Cup is at the start of the season and we were in pretty imperious form at the start of the season as we strolled to the Durand Cup. Hero Federation Cup After winning the league we were in tough form and we again we managed to come away with the trophy after a win against Chennai City 3-2. AFC Cup The AFC Cup is still ongoing after the end of the season. We managed to get through the group without any issues, winning all games and scoring 23 goals and conceding just 3 goals. Squad and Transfers Only one signing Abdulla Abbas at fullback. The Bahraini added a little bit of quality and filled out our foreign quota. Bayo and Kinny Gomes were the main guys again this season, they scored 43 goals collectively and have 27 assists between them, showing how strong they were for us this season. Manager Thoughts It was another good haul of points this season. We still have the AFC Cup next season, which we might be able to win another 200 points which would put us on the precipice of qualifying for the next round. Obviously it is a massive if for us, since I don't expect us to ever be likely to win this competition. We are looking good though and I can see us staying at least another season, maybe even two depending on results. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 2 hours ago, corinthiano said: Followed Version and 2 of this and really enjoyed it! I like how you have structured things with the vanilla leagues, probably makes it more likely that you will be able to finish the whole thing off. Thanks, I hope so mate. I hope I can get it done this time around. Mechanical failures have hindered me twice, hopefully the vanilla leagues won't mess up. 16 minutes ago, Makoto Nakamura said: Love following your threads! Best of luck with this! Thanks very much. Also have always enjoyed your threads in the past. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 Season 2032/33 Durand Cup Much like the other times we managed to lift the Durand Cup at the start of the season. We had a hairy tie against Dempo in Quarter Finals but it was easy from there. AFC Cup We resumed the AFC Cup in the new season and we managed to go all the way and win the entire tournament. Pyongyang did not put up much of a fight against us, but Dordoy was a little harder and we needed late goals at home to get through them and a steely draw in the away leg. The final was against Qadsia of Kuwait and we came through the tie in flying colours winning 4-1 and picking up another AFC Cup as a manager. 200 points added to the kitty, and just as important that meant that the league and Fed Cup would see us through AFC4. Hero I-League We were very dominant this season in the league. Dempo seemed to have the beating of us, doing the double over us, but no one else did this season as we ran away with the league title to make it three in a row. AFC Champions League This year we had a berth in the first stages of the Champions League as Indian champions but it did not go well. One of our heaviest defeats as manager of Sporting Goa. Needless to say that was our first and last involvement in the competition this year. Hero Federation Cup Having won everything else, we just needed the Federation Cup at the end of the season to pass from AFC4, and we managed to get the win in the Final beating Aizawl 3-0 on the night. Squad and Transfers We did some transfers this season, moving on Medina and Matheus, and bringing in upgrades in Sagna for the back and Ho Choi-Ho on the wing, with a view to spicing up the attack by sacrificing a little bit of defensive solidity and it seemed to pay off. Everyone was in amongst the goals. Bayo turned into a serial provider this season bagging 22 assists in the process. Kinny Gomes has always got the goals but this season he bagged 23 which was a very nice return for him. Choi-Ho had 23 goal contributions and had a very impressive rating. He was averaging over 8 for the majority of the season but he did go a bit off the boil towards the end of the season. Manager Thoughts So we managed to complete AFC4, in quite a quick time. That first title win in our maiden season is still in the memory and absolutely crazy to achieve that in all honesty. We have been superb all season and we have really turned Sporting Goa into a force in India. Next up we will be heading to AFC3 which is the first of our golden legs and it is going to be in my opinion one of the hardest. Now we will need to get 1,500 points instead of the normal 500, and the country this time around will be Australia. We will need to find a way to win a few Champions League's or it will be a very long journey indeed. Also I have never been a fan of Australia or the USA because of the wage rules and the complicated format and don't get me started on Grand Finals. We will see how we fare when we arrive in Oz. AFC4 COMPLETE!!! Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 4, 2022 Author Share Posted April 4, 2022 Season 2034 Introduction to the Club We finally landed in Australia a few months into the new season. We had a couple of options; Newcastle Jets and Western United and I opted for Newcastle Jets. They seemed to have a better squad and I think more potentially more opportunities to win. Newcastle Jets have not been too successful in their history with one Grand Final win in their history. For this round we are only counting Grand Finals as league titles and not Regular Season titles. This time around as we are in a Gold stage we need 1,500 points, which is a mountain. This leg is going to take some serious time to complete. Isuzu UTE A-League We joined a few months into the season, and won our first game 5-0 against Melbourne Victory. But it was tough going as we had a fair few injuries which meant that I had to drop to the B team to even field a remotely competent team at times. However we managed to have a bit of luck. Despite qualifying 5th and needing to qualify the hard way through quite a few fixtures we first knocked off Macarthur on penalties. Then we pulled out a shock in the return leg at Sydney when it seemed they would go through after forcing a draw at our place. Then we faced mean final boss of Australia in Melbourne City and we got the win in extra time, winning 2-1 and claiming the Grand Final win and with it 100 points. FFA Cup Did not occur this year, restarts next year. Squad and Transfers One problem we immediately remembered from our last foray to Australia is Middle Eastern clubs attempting buy everyone in the team and unsettling everyone. Under my tenure we lost Andre Steel a player we would have liked to have kept. Another new rule that seems a bit annoying is that you are not allowed to buy players from other Australian clubs. Not too sure what they are trying to curb by having this rule and I am not sure if it is just a limit within the season, but adds a new layer of complexity. The only signing we made Jhonathan, who was only a bit part player this season anyway. I quite like the squad in general, there is good quality in the team Manager Thoughts Well we stole 100 points this season, we were not the best team in Australia but we won the final and that is all that matters. There are 1,400 more points to go so we need the Champions League come into play for us, and hopefully Australian clubs have some chance in the tournament otherwise this is going to be a very long one. The plan is probably at least another 2 or 3 season at Newcastle Jets and then reassess as to where we are at. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Season 2035 FFA Cup Our early season and pre-season form was good and while we rode our luck in the Quarter Final and Semi Final games against Melbourne Victory and Macarthur, the final left no doubts as we smashed Wellington Phoenix 6-0 to win the cup. 50 points in the bag Isuzu UTE A-League I used to hate leagues with Grand Finals and I still do to be honest, but we are profiting from this. We could only finish in 2nd place. We had bad runs of form but when it came time for the big games we were ready and we beat Melbourne Victory home and away in the semi final and then Sydney in the final to win another A-League Grand Final AFC Champions League The Champions League stretches across two seasons in Australia, we have completed the group stage and we were very comfortable qualifiers from our group that included Seoul, Buriram United of Thailand and Nagoya of Japan. We will play Suwon Bluebirds in the next round, so hopefully we can navigate them. Champions Leagues are going to be crucial to making any kind of short work of this leg. Squad and Transfers We brought in a few new faces in Jo Wichne at the back, and Samir El Omari in midfield that have had a positive impact on the side. Also Andrea Barrone came through the youth intake this year and he is a brilliant player, straight into the first team and he has been good in defensive midfield. He could end up being an absolute monster, if it 16 you can play first team football in the A-League. Omar Saleh deserves special praise this year for his 20 goals from the left wing, which were crucial to us this season. Manager Thoughts Steady progress, means we are at 200 points, but we have to be careful of diminishing returns. The Champions League is vital for us now. We need to win it, as the longer it goes on without winning it, at some point I will have to cover my losses and look for an alternative club and build them up. Manager Profile Career Summary Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Season 2036 FFA Cup We fell short at the Quarter Final stage losing on penalties. Isuzu UTE A-League We had an absolutely horrible time with injuries mid season, and we had some awful form several times this season but we still managed to finish in 3rd in the regular season. We did also make it all the way to the Grand Final for a third year in a row but this time around we could not overcome Melbourne City as we were well beaten 3-0 on the night. AFC Champions League (2035/36) We resumed the Champions League from last season and we managed to progress all the way to the final where we beat Shabab Al-Ahli 2-1 to claim our maiden Champions League title and with it 500 points. AFC Champions League (2036/37) We are safely through our group, topping it comfortably. We will resume again next season where we play Japanese opposition in the next round. Squad and Transfers Some new faces came in in Lauro, Martinez and Wichne, as well Litsios up front. We were not that fluent this season, injuries did not help us much but you can see that the players have been performing well, we have just been at times a little unfortunate. Manager Thoughts The Champions League win is massive for us, and it will pretty much dictate my time at Newcastle Jets going forward, if we get through the groups there is incentive to remain at the club despite diminishing returns domestically. Domestically this season we could not bring any silverware so the point situation with regards to those competition remains the same and they are not worth even less this season. 700 points after just 3 seasons is a good return, we just need to keep it up. This is a difficult leg of the journey and we just need to stay on course. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Season 2036/37 FFA Cup We last rather surprisingly in the cup final to Western United, which was unfortunate for us. A good run up until then. Isuzu UTE A-League Our form did not start well and it actually prompted me to change up the formation a few times before changing back to what we had used the past few seasons. Results improved at time but we just went through periods where we struggled. We ended up in 2nd place in the regular season but then as we so often seem to do we turned up for the post-season. We smashed Adelaide United, and Melbourne managed to lose to 6th qualified Brisbane Roar and that gave us a great chance to win another Grand Final which we duly obliged. Only 25 points now as the diminishing returns have really set in. AFC Champions League (2035/36) It ended up being a very tough draw for us at this stage in the season having to go to division rivals Melbourne City and we lost 1-0. A shame for us. AFC Champions League (2036/37) No issues for us in qualifying for the next round in what was a pretty weak group. We will face South Korean opposition in the next round when we get to it next season. Squad and Transfers It is difficult for us, as we never really able to settle a squad as often a club comes in for a player and we ended up having to sell. We do replace them and this time around Omar Saleh and Jo Wichne left, and we brought in the likes of Song Dong-Hoon and Keisuke Nikaido to fill the gaps which they have done ably. It is always a bit of revolving door which we have to manage. Also this season we did switch up the tactics, more to make us a little less predictable and I think it worked just to manage the season. Manager Thoughts Only 25 points this season, which is not great and we really are now at the point where we need to move, but it is a stick or twist situation for us. We have Champions League football and that means we could earn 500 points for winning it. I know that if for whatever reason we were to fail to qualify from our group that would be me gone, but at the moment it is difficult to judge whether it is best to stay or go. If we were closer to the 1,500 I think I would be more inclined to leave and rebuild elsewhere for domestic glory. But we are still just under halfway to the target so we are in a difficult conundrum at the moment. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Season 2037/38 FFA Cup It was a disappointing cup run this season as we lost in the Quarter Final to Sydney. Isuzu UTE A-League We were pretty brilliant this season, for once we actually managed to win the regular season, and we won quite easily to be honest. I did have a fear that we might choke in the playoffs, but we managed to get through Melbourne City and then beat bitter rivals Central Coast Mariners in the final by 1-0. It is only worth 12 points to us, and that shows the diminishing returns we are now getting for domestic competitons. AFC Champions League (2036/37) Really disappointing performances as we bowed out in the Second Round to Ulsan from South Korea, a really poor performance in a part of the season where we were lacking confidence. AFC Champions League (2037/38) We faced Ulsan again in the group stages of the Champions League but this time around it was very comfortable as we walked the group and beat Ulsan twice to boot. FIFA World Club Cup We had won the AFC Champions League some seasons ago which had qualified for the FIFA World Club Cup. We got smashed by Real Madrid in our opener but I was very proud of the boys to get a draw against Brazil's Flamengo. Either we did not proceed past the group stage. Squad and Transfers We had a well performing squad this season. There is always turmoil during the transfer windows, since we are very vulnerable to Middle Eastern clubs unsettling players and I am just inclined to let people go and replace them. Our youngsters that have come through over the past few seasons have been developing such as Kadir, Barone and Lewis all under 21 and already key members of the team. Manager Thoughts 12 points gained. It is not enough, and with that we have decided to move on. Well to be honest it was more that an opportunity presented itself mid season. Melbourne City, arguably the best team in Australia were having a bad season and the manager got the axe, so we decided to move there after the season. They actually recovered amazingly to make it to the semi final of the Grand Final where we knocked them out. I just need to move to a club where the domestic trophies still mean points and Melbourne is top of that list. Secondly that elusive Champions League is still out there that we realistically need to win and we are best placed at a place like Melbourne City with their large finances. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Season 2038/39 Introduction to the Club We left Newcastle behind and arrived in Melbourne to take up our new job as City manager. The deal had been agreed the season before and we were looking to get back in the points. Melbourne City are an affiliated club of English giant Manchester City and play in the same colours. They also have in recent history become the best club in Australia, if you discount my previous side Newcastle who we won enough silverware to dispute this fact. FFA Cup Our first competitive match and it went wrong, as we lost out to rivals Victory 1-0. Not the start I was looking for. Isuzu UTE A-League We were absolutely brilliant this season absolutely streamrolling the rest of the league in the regular season and in the post season we knocked off Sydney and then Brisbane Roar in the final to claim 100 points. AFC Champions League (2037/38) The big one was the Champions League and we were excellent. We beat Thai side BG Pathum United before getting past fellow Australians Macarthur and Sydney. In the final we played Saudi Arabian side Al-Shabab off the park as we won out 6-1 winners and we claim another Champions League crown as a manager. The second for us, and the second for the club in their history. More importantly though we get 500 points. AFC Champions League (2038/39) We had to qualify for the Champions League because the season before my then Newcastle Jets had knocked us out in the semi finals of the Grand Final. We got through that and then breezed through the group without much issue. We will be playing BG Pathum again this year in the next round, hopefully it is a good omen. Squad and Transfers The squad performed brilliantly. We have a brilliant group of players here at Melbourne. Unfortunately we will be losing some of them so I task it going to be to replace them as well as we can. It seems in Australia it is bloody difficult to hold on to top talent. Manager Thoughts Another 600 points won this year and that was exactly what I was hoping for when we moved. To be honest it was beyond my expectation I was hoping we could work up to another Champions League win, but to do it immediately out of the gate was brilliant. Here's to hopefully getting the job done next season; the only way we can do that is with another Champions League win. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 5, 2022 Author Share Posted April 5, 2022 Season 2039/40 AFC Champions League The job is done with this Champions League run, as we go through everyone including Al-Jazira of the UAE in the final, to win another Champions League and bring our time in Australia to an end. FFA Cup We had reached the final of the FFA Cup where we would play Perth Glory. Isuzu UTE A-League Only the one game played in the league and it was a rather resounding win against our FFA Cup opponents. Manager Thoughts Well it was a slog to start off, and we did well with Newcastle United Jets, but eventually the diminishing returns kicked in and we needed the move to Melbourne City, and I must say it worked out perfectly as we captured back to back Champions League crowns to make it three for us now as a manager. Next up we have another gold stage this time in China. I expect it will be every bit as hard as Australia. Although I was figuring that Australia may end up taking 20+ years to complete, so to complete it in around 8 or so years was pretty good all told. On to AF2 next. AF3 COMPLETE!!! Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 6, 2022 Author Share Posted April 6, 2022 Season 2040 We waited around for quite a while until the first job that came up in China that was in the top division and was of interest. Shanghai Shenhua are a historic Chinese club from the past. They used to be one of the best clubs in the country but were overtaken over time. They were really languishing in the league sitting in 15th place and in danger of going down. We applied and got the job to kick of AF2 in China as manager of Shenhua Shanghai. What Shenhua do have is a mountain of cash and wages, and a terrible squad. As I inspected in closer after taking the job it was going to be a real struggle and we would need to work hard to turn this ship around. CFA Cup We lost to Shandong in the Quarter Final. Our team is bad and was in a bad way morale wise so it did not surprise me. It did surprise me that it took penalties. Ping An CFA Super League The results before we took over were criminally abysmal. The results we got after we took over were not brilliant but in comparison they look great. We actually became pretty bloody hard to beat, as we moved up from 15th to 11th by the end of the season. Squad and Transfers We had to make some instant transfers. Unfortunately what we needed was foreign talent and we got some in, but we could not register Luciano or Paulo Jose because you can only register two foreigners a window. So that hurt us a little bit. I think we will be a damn sight better once we get these boys in the team. Also we have already been picking up Chinese players that we think can improve the squad. The squad is bad, especially at the striker spot where Gao Jiayu can't hit a barn door with finishing of 5. There is a lot of work to do. I expect next season we can make sure we are safe in mid table and keep adding pieces to the puzzle as we go along. Manager Thoughts This is going to be quite a project. Initially when I saw Shenhua and saw their media prediction I thought we could turn them around quickly but this going to be a longer project I fear, especially with the likes of Guangzhou flying, it will be difficult to compete with them. However we do have a serious war chest at our disposal so that will come in handy I am sure. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 6, 2022 Author Share Posted April 6, 2022 Season 2041 CFA Cup It was a decent run for us until we had to play Guangzhou in the semi final and while we gave them a good game we could not come through. Ping An CFA Super League We were great in the early part of the season, and were early leaders vying with Guangzhou, but we faded in a big way towards the back end of the season as injuries caught up with us. It was unfortunate but I would have taken this result, as we finished 4th and got Champions League football next season. We also recovered the club back to where it should really be in the table. Squad and Transfers It was a wild window as we initiated a fire sale and brought in who we could that would improve. The one snag was that we can only register 8 over-21 Chinese players a season, so it meant that half our signings could not play a game for us, including some of our better players that were signed later in the window. They should be back next season and we should have a better team going forward, as we look to build on our Chinese core, who are essentially crucial to having a competitive team with all the restrictions on foreigners. I wouldn't say the team were great this year, but we are in transition to hopefully being able to challenge the likes of Guangzhou. Manager Thoughts No points, but plenty of progress to make me hopefully that we will be able to challenge and crucially we have qualified for the Champions League which gives us a route to winning the big 500 points, whether or not we have a chance remains to be seen and we know we will have to go through the preliminary stages and it might be tough to get past some of the Australian sides. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 6, 2022 Author Share Posted April 6, 2022 Season 2042 AFC Champions League We had a superb run in the Champions League as no one could beat us all throughout the tournament. We dealt with Hiroshima of Japan, Guangzhou and Shandong, before we faced off in the final against Al-Shabab of Saudi Arabia, and won the game 2-0, to give us a 4th Champions League crown as a manager and the maiden crown for Shenhua. That is 500 points in the bag CFA Cup We were little troubled in the run to the CFA Cup trophy. The final against Shenzhen was more or less over after this first leg when we smashed them 5-1. 50 points to us. Ping An CFA Super League We were very good all season and were in amongst the top places all season. Guangzhou had an awful run this year leading to the manager getting sacked and probably that helped just take some of the pressure off of us. In the end we won the league by a very comfortable 10 points as we made it a treble for the season. 100 points grabbed. Squad and Transfers Big business in the transfer market, but the key was to register the key players that we had already brought into the club and finally we looked a top side. There are a few holes I would like to bring players in for and increase depth in a few places, and I am always looking to improve the standard of our foreign players, such as bringing in Walker and Matthew Campbell who add a lot of quality. They can't all play at the same time due to the restrictions on foreign players but we can rotate them in and out of the side. Big strides made over the past few seasons. Manager Thoughts A massive haul of points this season as we won everything we entered. We now have 650 points in the bag for this stage, and we are approaching the halfway point. As mentioned previously and as we saw in Australia the key is the Champions League. We will be staying with Shenhua as I really think we are very serious threat next season in all competitions again. Manager Profile Career Summary 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted April 6, 2022 Share Posted April 6, 2022 Congrats on the the first CL win in China! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 6, 2022 Author Share Posted April 6, 2022 1 hour ago, corinthiano said: Congrats on the the first CL win in China! Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 6, 2022 Author Share Posted April 6, 2022 Season 2043 CFA Super Cup We left it late but we got the goals to beat Shandong and win the Super Cup AFC Champions League Apart from needing penalties away to Shandong, we were very comfortable all competition as we capture our second straight Champions League title, and our manager's 5th Champions League crown. More importantly it is another 500 points. CFA Cup We needed a good away performance in the final against Shandong to get the job done, after being held at home, but we got the job done to win the CFA Cup Ping An CFA Super League We were incredibly formidable this season as we swept the rest of the league aside and marched to another league title. We finished 15 points clear of Shandong who are the nearest challengers. We also finished with a crazy 101 goal difference this season, as we conceded the least and smashed in 125 goals this season, showing how dangerous a side we are going forward. Squad and Transfers We are always looking to improve the squad and that is what we did this season with the signing of Didier Sebai, and allowing Kim to leave to Ulsan. Sebai just makes us an incredibly formidable attack with Aduga up front snapping up every chance. The team were incredible this season it is the only way I can describe them. I am pretty sure we are the best team in Asia, and the two Champions League prove it. Manager Thoughts We did a clean sweep this season of every trophy and now we are within touching distance of the end of AFC2 and our time in China. Obviously to win the Champions League a third season would be great but we can't take it for granted as it is always a crapshoot no matter how good you are as a side and many things can get in the way such as injuries or a bad performance especially with the one legged format. We look great at the moment and I expect we will be the favourites for everything next season. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 6, 2022 Author Share Posted April 6, 2022 Season 2044 CFA Super Cup We left it late to make it safe but we got the win against Shandong to secure the Super Cup AFC Champions League We left ourselves a mountain to climb after losing our first two games, that meant in reality we needed to win the remaining games to have any chance of qualifying and we dug in and got the wins including a massive narrow win in Australia to qualify. From there we were now having to play a group winner away, but we managed to get through against our old side Melbourne City. We were back in Melbourne for the next round against Victory and this game was a little easier as we got a good 2-0 win. Macarthur provided no resistance in semi's to make it a trifecta of Australian sides knocked out before we faced Al-Ittihad in the final. It should have been easy when we jumped out to a 3-0 lead in Saudi Arabia but they got two back to make in nervy in the 2nd half but we hung on to make it three Champions Leagues in row, and my sixth. 500 points in the bag and the leg complete. CFA Cup We did not finish it, since the 2nd leg occurs after the Champions League that provided us to points necessary to leave. Let's call this a little present to Assistant Manager for his hard service when he steps up to the interim role, at 5-0 up he should be getting a medal Ping An CFA Super League We started sluggishly to the season both in the league and in the Champions League but we quickly turned it around and it was business as usual as we dominated the league. Shandong hung in there more or less but we were never really threatened. Squad and Transfers Not too much business, just a back up keeper and Opri who was a big upgrade at centre back, we replaced Walker in the foreign registration with him and he had a great first season at the club. Aduga deserves special mention here for his 38 goals and in 34 appearances this season. At this level he is an absolute monster. Manager Thoughts A third Champions League gets us the requisite points required to leave AFC2 and head towards AFC1 in South Korea, our final stop in Asia. We built an incredible team, I am little worried I may have created a team that may be quite difficult to defeat when we have to face them in the Champions League, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Season 2045 Introduction to the Club We arrived in South Korea, and the K League season was throwing up some surprises. Both Jeonbuk and Ulsan were having pretty bad seasons. Jeonbuk were the first to pull the trigger with their manager so we decided to apply for the position and got the job. The club were sitting in 8th place, but points wise it was not a huge jump to the top of the table and Championship playoff places. The squad was very small but they had a good core of players so I was hopeful at the time that we could build the club up over time to be competitive again. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, to give them their full name are one of the most successful clubs in South Korea and in Asia, having won the league 18 times and the AFC Champions League twice before. So we are dealing with a serious powerhouse of South Korean football. AFC Champions League We arrived at the club already qualified for the second round of the Champions League which was a very pleasant surprise for us. We faced Ulsan in the Second Round, but they were having a horrible season although they gave us a real tough game. A late goal was needed to get past them. Then we faced Chinese opposition, the two sides that had given us the stiffest opposition when manager of Shenhua, and we got past both them in tight ties. Against Shandong the in the semi final we really needed some luck as we got two late goals to kill off the tie. In the final we would face Al-Ain and it was by far the easiest game we had in the knockout rounds as we swept them aside 4-0 on the night to claim another Champions League, the third for the club, and the 7th for us, and the fourth we have won in a row, now with two different clubs. An amazing start and 500 points on the board. Hana Bank KFA Cup We got as far as the semi final, but extra time was enough for Suwon to knock us out of for this year. Hana Q1 K League 1 When we came into the club, we found a club in really bad form, but unlike Shenhua, they had a good core of players that we could use and could then build on. Also the transfer window was still to come and we could reinforce heavily. We were good when we came in and started climbing the league again but once we got some new signings in, we became deadly and impenetrable which is a very dangerous combination if you any other South Korean club and so it proved as we pretty much waltzed to the league title, winning it by 16 points in the end, in what must be one of the strangest seasons. Ulsan, normally a dependable title challenger almost got themselves relegated this year. 100 points in the bag for us. Squad and Transfers We made some smart acquisitions, the likes of Patrick Smith and Didier Sea, came in to fill out our foreign quota, but we also pulled in some key Korean talent that pushed the overall level of the team and the depth in reserve to probably the best in the league. Smith ended up top goalscorer despite only spending half a season at the club, he looks a fine player and I hope next season he can keep it going. Didier Sea, also has a lot of quality and I think he can increase his strike rate into next season. Manager Thoughts The perfect way to start AFC1, is with a Champions League and K League combination and that is how we came in, which is fantastic. Now we need to build on this and hopefully pick up the cup and keep competing on all fronts. We really landed on our feet here. The season has been a weird one, where both Jeonbuk and Ulsan were struggling and we got a job at one of them. It could have been a different story and we may have started a club that needed far more work to make them competitive. Manager Profile Career Summary 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 (edited) Season 2046 AFC Champions League We conceded once in the whole tournament and that was against Ryomyong, who were probably the least likely to score against us, and it came in a 7-1 drubbing. We absolutely walked the Champions League this year as smashed Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia in the final 5-0 to claim a second successive Champions League and my 8th. 500 points in the bag. Hana 1Q K League 1 Much like the Champions League, the K League was a stroll in the park as we had won the league before the league split had even occured. We ended up on a massive 104 points, 31 better off than Ulsan in 2nd place, who did well to recover this season after the debacle that was last season. A very easy league title this time around. Hana Bank KFA Cup The one disappointment of the season was an underwhelming KFA Cup as we were beaten by Suwon, in a game that we should have won. Squad and Transfers We continued to improve the team, particularly with Korean players. It has become the Patrick Smith and Didier Sea show, as they bagged 26 and 22 goals respectively and Patrick Smith also contributing 19 assists. When they are both on the pitch, we never lose. Elsewhere the team was brilliant this season. Can hardly fault anyone. Everyone stepped up this season to pull out the massive double win for us. Manager Thoughts Another Champions League and K League double does now put us in touching distance of completing AFC1 and with that also completing the Asian leg of the tour. We were unstoppable in both competitions this year and I hope we can get the job done. It would be nice to also pick up the KFA Cup since we are still missing that one from our collection. Manager Profile Career Summary Edited April 7, 2022 by TerminalPortugal 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corinthiano Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 Within touching distance of completing Asia! Things moving along nicely for you. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Season 2047 AFC Champions League All too easy for us again in the Champions League. The most testing game was the final as Al-Duhail held us up for 90 minutes, but in extra time they crumbled as we ran out 3-0 winners. 3rd Champions League for Jeonbuk with us as manager, our 9th Champions League as a manager in Asia and that is safe passage out of Asia. Hana 1Q KLeague 1 Absolutely terrorised the league this season as we smashed our way to 107 points and an easy league win. We had won the league after just 29 games played so was our advantage. This time we won the league by 42 points. An unbelievable season from the boys. Hana Bank KFA Cup With the Champions League win, the KFA Cup was academic. We looked good value to win it after wining 3-0 in the first leg against Pohang Steelers in the final. Squad and Transfers Some big chances this year as Sea left, but we brought in Jorge Arturo Salvador, and he has been a goal machine for us with 35 in 36 games. Patrick Smith was injured for a good section of games but bagged himself 24 goals as well. Park Te-Su has also been a creative master this season. Adbullah Al-Amadi also came in this season as we used our additional foreigner slot and he was very good. Top performances all around. Manager Thoughts Asia has been conquered, and we did it in style. China and South Korea produced at the end 6 Champions Leagues in 6 seasons, which amazing. This Jeonbuk side we have assembled is a seriously good side, I think we could give many a European team a game. Anyway we are onwards to North America next where we will be tackling NA3 which only has Canada in it. We are back to needing 500 points to advance as it is not a golden stage. It will be nice to just have to hit 500 points as opposed to the gargantuan 1,500 points of the golden stages. AFC1 COMPLETED!!! Manager Profile Career Summary 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 8 minutes ago, corinthiano said: Within touching distance of completing Asia! Things moving along nicely for you. Yeah, just got it done and it has been some memorable few seasons at Shenhua and Jeonbuk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoxToBoxFM Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 Congrats on completing Asia, loved following it! Looking forward to seeing how you get on in Canada, hopefully NA isn't too difficult considering there's only 3 nations Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Season 2051 Introduction to the Club They say that patience is a virtue but the Canadians take it another level as we had to wait 4 years until a job became available and even then it required us first to link ourselves in the media to get the club to sack the manager. The club is Forge FC and they are the defending Canadian Premier League champions however we picked them up in 7th, one place above bottom place, and things were not looking too great. The positive was that the playoff places were not too far away so their was still incentive to perform this season to the best of our ability. The team had one major issue of not really having a natural defensive midfielder, and there a fair few gaps for my liking in some places where the team were not particularly good. Forge FC are from Hamilton, Ontario and are the most successful club in the league with 12 titles to their name. So overall if I was going to join a club, this a club with good pedigree so at least there was that to look forward to. Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League We produced an absolute madness in the CONCACAF Champions League especially after losing 5-2 to America Club. But we got hard won draws to Cruz Azul and DC United before we beat LA Galaxy at home rather amazingly, and that was enough to qualify us in 2nd place, with an identical goal difference to Cruz Azul but more goals scored. We will resume the Champions League next season, but that was turn up for the books. I am not getting ahead of myself I don't think we have a prayer of winning this competition. Canadian Premier League Much like the MLS and the A-League, the Canadian Premier League culminates in a post season playoff, so our job on arriving was to stabilise things and then try and grab a playoff spot. We started badly two losses but recovered really well and we started to pick up points and eventually we managed to sneak into 3rd spit. We played Edmonton away and were expected to lose but pulled off an amazing performance and won 2-0. In the other game Pacific, the best team in the division managed to somehow lose to York United, which set up a playoff final between us. A solitary goal from our only transfer this season, was enough to give us the perfect start in Canada and win the CanPL, and take home 100 points. Canadian Championship So I had to adjudicate this competition, since technically it might be treated like another continental competition in our rules, the advantage of that would be that it would not depreciate points, but I am being objective and saying on a technicality it does not qualify for that since it only contains teams from one country. It is however a competition that is much harder to win than a normal cup for clubs who play their football in the CanPL because Toronto FC and CF Montreal; MLS sides, also participate. I did not have much hope, but amazingly we managed to pull another rabbit out of the hat, we beat Montreal and then turned it completely around against Toronto FC at home beating them on penalties before doing the same in the final against York United, to win another 50 points and the Canadian Championship Squad and Transfers Well the squad got a lot done this season and we have to appreciate that this team just won a double and got itself through to the Champions League Second Round, it is an amazing achievement. Having said all this it is a team that probably needs a fair bit of reinforcing wherever we can. The stars are a little deceptive as some of these guys are not particularly great. The stats tell you that. Nico Beach who we brought into the club because we didn't have a defensive midfielder has started his Forge career well getting our winning final goal in the league. Manager Thoughts Well what a welcome to Canada, we pick a domestic double and 150 points as a result. I would not have thought it possible to be honest but we managed to do it anyway. I think the Champions League is going to be more or less impossible for a team from Canada so we will need to make our moves at some point elsewhere. The main concern I have is that no one ever seems to lose their job in Canada so that could be a concern, especially when the points start to dwindle. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Season 2052 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League (2051) I am incredibly proud of the boys for what we were able to do. We beat Saprissa from Costa Rica 4-1 on aggregate and then we were a kick away from being in the semi finals, as we lost out to New York City on penalties. Superb from the side. Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League (2052) Despite missing out on automatic qualification, we qualified the hard way through the Interzone Playoffs as we beat fellow Canadian side Pacific and MLS side Sporting Kansas City to make it to the Second Round. Canadian Premier League As close to a perfect season as you can get as we went unbeaten both in the regular season and the post season to win another Canadian Premier League title. We barely conceded any goals, with 7 against us in an entire season, 8 if you count the post season. An amazing season by any standard. Canadian Championship There was to be no repeat of the Canadian Championship. We had a lot of players missing for the first leg due to international call ups and it meant we were well beaten at home by York United leaving us chasing in the 2nd leg and we got punished. Squad and Transfers Initially when I did my transfers and contract renewals I did not realise that we had a salary cap, that put us in trouble a bit because we then could not register everyone, we made do with it though and managed to assemble a very strong squad for this standard of league, as we went the entire season unbeaten. Toledo and Brough were brilliant up front this season both bagging 17 goals. Top performances all round. Manager Thoughts For what felt like an amazing season, we actually only got 50 points for the Canadian Premier League which is a bit of downer in the end. We are still in the Champions League although that is always hard. We probably need a huge slice of luck to get anywhere near winning it, which means we need a contingency plan to move elsewhere, however I don't think any managers lost their jobs this year. It's job for life here in Canada. We may need to get creative somehow. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 7, 2022 Author Share Posted April 7, 2022 Season 2053 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League ABSOLUTE LEGENDS!!! I can't believe we actually did this. We needed a lot of luck, we beat Chivas and Tigres on penalties after hard fought ties. We then beat Seattle at home and withstood an onslaught but fortunately had scored an early banker away to take the game away from Seattle. Then we went to Monterrey, and Esteban Toledo has made himself a legend with the only goal of the game as we lift the Champions League. Canadian Premier League Only three games played in the league before we captured the Champions League, three wins from three. Milestone The second leg against Seattle Sounders marked our 1,000th game in management. Squad and Transfers Our transfers were pretty mundane due to the salary cap, it was a matter of bringing in future quality, but people who could also fill in now. In the end it did not matter due to the Champions League win. Manager Thoughts Wow, what a way to get the job done. I never thought we had a shot at all at winning it. A few Canadian jobs came up and I considered moving, but something in the back of mind believed we might do something crazy and well here we are. We completed NA3, and now we move on the The United States of America and NA2. The MLS has always been a complicated league for me to manage in with all the caps and the draft and everything else. Let's see what it brings. NA3 COMPLETE!!! Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 8, 2022 Author Share Posted April 8, 2022 8 hours ago, BoxToBoxFM said: Congrats on completing Asia, loved following it! Looking forward to seeing how you get on in Canada, hopefully NA isn't too difficult considering there's only 3 nations I've had a good start to North America. Was very surprised by what we were able to do in Canada. U.S. is never a favourite place for me to manage however. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 8, 2022 Author Share Posted April 8, 2022 Season 2054 Introduction to the Club We decided to take the first available job, which ended up being Minnesota United. They were having a horrible season. Looking at the club, the team were not too bad, so it was a major underperformance in my book, they probably should have been doing better. In terms of the club's history they have never won anything, so a blank slate to start from. Why join this club, they were in the Champions League this season, so it was a good opportunity for to potentially capitalise. Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup We fell at the Quarter Final stage to Sporting Kansas City. Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League We had to do it the hard way as we finished in 3rd place, we were a little unlucky as it was on our head to head record with Toronto that we finish 3rd. However we managed to get through two difficult away games to make the Second Round next season. Major League Soccer We were dead and buried when we arrived at the club, there was a huge gap even to San Jose above us, but we were actually extremely good, we were the form side in the whole of the MLS. Unfortunately we fell just short of the playoffs. We entered the playoff spots in the final game when we smashed LA Galaxy, but it left us needing Seattle needing to get something at Real Salt Lake and they weren't able to do that, so we narrowly miss out. I think next season we will be comfortably making the playoffs next season. Squad and Transfers On the transfer front, we only brought in Lamine Yapo Yapo as a weapon up front and we are working on more deals for next season. The team are very decent actually. I was a little surprised that this is the case. We maybe just need to add a few X-factor players to the team and hopefully that should be enough to make us a good side, or even an excellent side. Manager Thoughts No points this season, but some progress made. We just had too much ground to make up in the league, nothing we can do about it, we won the majority of the games. I think next season qualifying for the playoffs won't be a problem for us. The Champions League is also there for us, if we can take advantage of the opportunity. Manager Profile Career Summary 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 8, 2022 Author Share Posted April 8, 2022 Season 2055 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League We got as far as the semi final stage but eventually we ran into Monterrey who were too good for us in Mexico. Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup We got our first points in America as we win out in the US Open beating Columbus 2-0 in the final. 50 points on the board. Major League Soccer We were not great all the season, we struggled at the start and then in the middle we has a lot of injuries. But everywhere else we were good, and we were good enough to win the Western Conference Regular Season, win the Western Conference Post Season and win in the MLS Cup beating Chicago Fire 3-0 in the final to claim 100 points. Leagues Cup The Leagues Cup requires some adjudication as to the points available, it is most certainly a continental trophy but it is not the same as the Europa League as a Secondary trophy so we will deal with it as "Another Continental Trophy", not that it matters to us as we fell in the semi final to Chicago Fire losing on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Squad and Transfers We had some serious injuries this season. Lamine Yapi Yapo was out most of the season as were many others. In terms of signings Dragan Jakovljevic came in from Benfica, he has quality although he is 33 now, he added a lot to the midfield. We had a really good season and the players really performed but there are going to be changes from next season, there are many that are leaving. A lot of them on a free transfer as we just can't fit them all under the wage cap against the wage demands. We will have a long hard look at the scouting and see how we can fill in gaps in the team for next season. Manager Thoughts We got on the board in the USA, with what was a good season. We at times left a lot to be desired but in the end we were decisive when it counted in the MLS, and the US Open Cup. Next season we want to target the two continental competitions in the Champions League and Leagues Cup as a way of adding on some serious points in this gold stage as we need a bundle of points to make it to Mexico. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 8, 2022 Author Share Posted April 8, 2022 Season 2056 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup A second US Open Cup in 2 years. Major League Soccer It was as close as a perfect season as we could really get. We won the Western Conference, both regular and post-seasons and then won the MLS Cup to boot and all while losing one game all season. Campeones Cup We had to adjudicate this competition, it is worth 50 points as another continental competition. Well we won it, so the points are very welcome. A penalty was the only goal against Cruz Azul Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League Back in the Champions League this season and we topped our group with only a solitary loss. It will reconvene at the start of next season. Squad and Transfers We lost a fair few players to free transfers and were frugal in replacement especially non designated players. We took a view of filling gaps at an affordable price where we could. Zakaria Naciri was a big player for us this season. He came in at designated player for our old Romanian keeper, Lup. He had an awesome season, being top golscorer, asissts getter and best average rating. He did not get much media praise or award praise which was strange. We will keep making managing that cap space and make sure we are able to continue to put a good side out on the pitch. Dragan Jakovljevic has been great for us but his age was concerning me so his designated player spot will be open next year and I think I want another central midfielder where he often plays to come in. Manager Thoughts A good season for us, we made progress everywhere we could and won the key competitions we could win this season. We are still in the Champions League and we have hope that we might be able to go all the way. At some point we will need to think whether we might need to move on when the depreciation of points really kicks in. Manager Profile Career Summary 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 8, 2022 Author Share Posted April 8, 2022 Season 2057 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League (2056) We finally got over the line the Champions League, beating Chivas in the final. We had a tough time of it against Atlanta United, and I though we were likely to go out, but we produced a great performance to come back. Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League (2057) Safely through to the 2nd Round. Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup We lost in the final to Orlando City, as we were unable to make a third US Open Cup in a row. FIFA World Club Cup Did not expect much here, especially from this kind of group, but we gave a decent account of ourselves. Major League Soccer We were not as good as last season, but we were still extremely good as we again won every related the MLS; the Western Conference, the Shield and most importantly the MLS Cup Campeones Cup We managed to win the Campeones Cup rather emphatically 6-2 against Pumas, as mentioned previous it counts as another continental competition so 100 points, which now is quite a bit considering the MLS is worth 25 this year. Squad and Transfers We had two players poached this season, Naciri went via minimum fee release clause, turns he got far more plaudits for last year than I initially thought and it attracted atention. Cook left after the President decided that it was an offer that was too good to refuse and I was not given the option to object. All round great performance from the boys. Didi came in this season and was a goal machine. Manager Thoughts Major points this season which is great and it means that it is possible that next season we may be able to complete this leg of the challenge. It would require a Champions League and Campeones Cup win, but that would be enough. We look great at the moment, but again we need reinforcements again next season. Manager Profile Career Summary 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerminalPortugal Posted April 9, 2022 Author Share Posted April 9, 2022 Season 2058 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League (2057) We managed to win another Champions League. We actually got a pretty favourable draw with Central American sides in the Second Round and Quarter Final stage, and then wins against DC United and New York Red Bulls, avoiding all Mexican opposition. Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League (2058) We failed to qualify from our group and were doing things the hard way, still needing to beat Chivas to make the 2nd Round, however the update is now as we will be moving from Minnesota United in their near future and will not be manager when this game takes place. We did okay in a tough group but just not enough to get through. Tiredness really set in the players. Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup A semi final exit this time around. Again I put tiredness as the main cause here. I will go into more detail in the squad section, but our squad this year was very small. Major League Soccer We managed to win the all sections of the MLS Cup again. We really had a tough time in the middle of the season, as mentioned previously tiredness and player overuse was the main cause as we just lost our way a bit, but we eventually recovered to secure top spot in both the Western Conference and the league at large. A forgot to insert into the graphic above, but we got through the Western Conference playoffs no problem beating Seattle and Austin, before overcoming Columbus. Campeones Cup A third win in the Campeones Cup as this time we beat Pachuca for the 50 points. I mistakenly had stated that this tournament was worth 100 points previously but it is worth 50 points, but as a continental competiton the value does not degrade with each win. Squad and Transfers The main talking point this time around is how small our squad is. We had 18 first team players in the squad, and you can tell that some players played a whole hell of a lot of games. This really affected our mid season form especially around the Champions League and the middle to end of the MLS season. We got through it though and managed to pull the MLS Cup out of the fire in the playoffs. Top performers were Lamine Yapi Yapo with his 23 goals this season, and a great rating as well as Nelson Akande who was the main provider. More or less everyone contributed very positively to our season. Manager Thoughts As mentioned, I have mistakenly said that winning both Continental competitions got us over the line, but this was not the case. My maths failed me and the Campeones Cup is only worth 50 point and this had been corrected in the Career Summary and tracker of points. We are however very close and this has meant that I have taken what some might perceieve as a strange decision and decided to move from Minnesota United and take up the managers position at LA Galaxy. They have been pretty poor since I have been in the US, and they have sacked manager after manager since I have been there as well. Some have lasted just 30 days. I know this because I checked at the time because it seemed they popped up in the newsfeed all the time. So there is some jeopardy as they had another awful season but they do on paper have some quality to them. The reasoning is that if we move and manage to win a domestic competition that will actually contribute in a meaningful way towards our total whereas at Minnesota we are pretty much left with no real domestic points of note and are reliant on Continental football, which is a crapshoot, despite our two wins in the Champions League and the Campeones League wins. We shall see if it proves at all a good move next season. Manager Profile Career Summary 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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