DaneBramage Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 (edited) November 2046 - Estudiantes (BA) Primera Nacional Three wins and three draws from our six games, I'm happy with that. This was enough to remain in 9th place and take one of the play-off spots, coming in during the first round. We're up against Gimnasia, who finished one point and one place above. Also, this is a ridiculous league. It clearly has way too many teams in it. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited April 20 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 (edited) December 2046 - Estudiantes (BA) Primera Nacional - Play-Offs Bad time to suffer my first loss here. -------------------------------------------------------------- History I don't regret leaving Turkey as I clearly wasn't going to be achieving anything more with 1461 Trabzon FK any time soon. I didn't get the immediate promotion I hoped for in Argentina, but the six game unbeaten run hopefully shows that we have quality here and will be able to make another push at promotion next year. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited April 21 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boycott Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 Read through this story in the last hour. I am a fan! It's a very unique challenge and while I'm sure it has been started before you have a commitment to plough through the seasons and have some disappointment, while already having a high level of success too that is very impressive. Also from my point of view it would be very hard to not get attached to a group of players at a team but I guess you might reunite with some of them at other clubs. Incidentally I also managed FC Anyang and got them promoted to the top league in Korea and ended up being there eleven years and winning the K League seven times in a row and the Champions League. One of my best FM teams. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 16 hours ago, Boycott said: Read through this story in the last hour. I am a fan! It's a very unique challenge and while I'm sure it has been started before you have a commitment to plough through the seasons and have some disappointment, while already having a high level of success too that is very impressive. Also from my point of view it would be very hard to not get attached to a group of players at a team but I guess you might reunite with some of them at other clubs. Incidentally I also managed FC Anyang and got them promoted to the top league in Korea and ended up being there eleven years and winning the K League seven times in a row and the Champions League. One of my best FM teams. I appreciate it, thanks for reading. Part of the fun of this is definitely just rattling through the seasons without worrying about a lot of things, with most tasks delegated out. I've signed maybe a dozen players myself over 20+ years, the rest of the recruitment and contract dealings have been left to the staff. I've barely looked at youth intakes either, so there's little attachment to most players. I'd struggle to remember the names of even those that performed heroics. FC Anyang was a fun one, only there six months but I enjoyed it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 April 2047 - Estudiantes (BA) Primera Nacional The off-season was a nightmare. Six players had hissy-fits about wanting new contracts, then asking for amounts far above what we could offer. We could give them up to £1.8 k per week, they all wanted between £5-£7k. And it wasn't just them who were upset, but also their teammates. There were a lot of dressing-room revolts where they supported their buddies, and a lot of blow-ups when they were told to stop being unprofessional. So morale was in the toilet, and the players' confidence in me plummeted. Nonetheless, we started well with a pair of wins, but results have become more mixed since. We sit just outside the play-off places. Position: 14th -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 (edited) June 2047 - Estudiantes (BA) Primera Nacional There's not much green here. Left-winger Sanchez scored a couple of early goals to set us on our way to wins against Arsenal de Sarandi and Nueva Chicago, but those were outnumbered by three losses. We've dropped a few spots, but we're not far off the play-off places. I'm not feeling particularly confident though. Position: 19th -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited April 21 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 August 2047 - Estudiantes (BA) Primera Nacional Dreadful. Five losses from nine games, and just the one win. There's very little fight in this squad, the worse showing was when we led 4-1 at Fenix (ARG) before giving up three goals in the last half hour. We've dropped way down the table, and are now closer to the relegation places than the promotion mix. And the pressure is starting to show. There's been player meetings where they've moaned about the lowly placing, and I've told them to stop whinging and start playing properly. And there's been a couple of board meetings. The first was one I've never seen before, interfering with team selection and asking me to stop playing the underperforming left-back. And the second, which was surely coming sooner rather than later, was the board being unhappy with me. They were pretty relaxed though when I said a change now wouldn't help, and I remain in charge for now. Position: 29th -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 September 2047 - Estudiantes (BA) Primera Nacional Before every game I'm seeing the headline that with a loss it could be my last, but I'm holding on and we're on our best run of the season (admittedly, the bar is pretty low). Orosco joined in July and scored his first goals for the club in the win over our namesakes from (RC). Diaz is one of the players who was difficult at the start of the season, but he now has 10 goals and five assists so he's put together a decent argument that he should be paid more if we could. 23rd is considerably better than 29th, but it's still in the bottom half and we're nowhere near where we should be. With eight games left we're ten points off 13 place, this year is a lost cause. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 September 2047 - Estudiantes (BA) Okay, this is true. But bringing it up after our first positive month of the campaign is annoying. Let's see what they have to say in the meeting then. Oh, it's a completed unrelated point. And there's eight games left lads, we could still make the play-offs. It's very unlikely, but technically still possible. But really, trying to argue that would be a losing battle. There's only one outcome here. Sod Argentina. Silly country. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Another failure in Argentina, and a third overall. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 22 Author Share Posted April 22 October 2047 Game World It's time to change up the available nations again. Over the winter Malaysia, Argentina, and South Korea will drop out to be replaced by Brazil, Chile, and South Africa. Then in the summer Turkey will be removed, and Germany, Czechia, and Mexico will be coming in. That will leave the eight nations below active. -------------------------------------------------------------- February 2048 Job Search I've applied for the Bahia job in Brazil's Serie B, and was immediately installed as favourite to get it by the media. -------------------------------------------------------------- March 2048 Job Search While waiting for a response I was approached by the Irish FA. Unfortunately in 2046 they were promoted to League A in the Nations League, so this is a non-starter. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 22 Author Share Posted April 22 June 2048 Job Search Four months after applying for the Bahia job, I still hadn't heard back from them. They'd lost in the finals of both the regional cup and league since then, and had even begun the regular Brazilian Serie B season, so I wrote this off as not happening. As I was going through the days I saw another role open up, and after checking what division they were in now, I knew I had to apply for it. I'm going back to North Macedonia! In 2042 I took over for the Nations League campaign, but we were out of our depth and got relegated from League B. They were promoted in 2044, then relegated again in 2044, so are back in League C for the 2046 competition. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 22 Author Share Posted April 22 September 2048 - North Macedonia Interview Offer Now you come crawling, seven months later when you're struggling in 16th place. No thanks. -------------------------------------------------------------- UEFA Nations League C - Group 4 Darko Cvetkovski wasted a big chunk of his career staying at Roma until he was 25, only making two sub appearances for them. Since moving to AEK Athens in 2045 he's turned into a goal machine, with 27 goals in 36 games. And he's also prolific on the international stage, scoring his 19th and 20th goals against Latvia on his 39th appearance. Back in 2042 I called Petar Popovski up for the first time to prevent Australia nationalising him. He gave away a penalty on his debut, and the AI managers never picked him again. In 2048, he's been redeemed. The goal against Latvia was good, but he excelled with a hat-trick against Greece. He just tore them apart, their defence could not handle him at all. There was also danger from the opposite wing, Hristijan Murati grabbing a hat-trick of assists before scoring one of his own. An excellent start. Not just is it two wins (more than I managed in the whole stage last time), but we battered Greece who are our most likely rivals. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 October 2048 - North Macedonia UEFA Nations League C - Group 4 Raging. Who loses to Luxembourg?! Absolutely pathetic. Luxembourg just completely bossed us first-half, we were lucky to make it to the break just one down. They cut through our defence a few times and hit the post once, it could have been even worse. We came on much stronger in the second-half, but couldn't score. Their keeper got the MotM award, but it's not like we tested him much, only managing three shots on target. Nine changes were made for the Greece game, and it would have been more if I could. But these clowns were just as bad, giving them an early lead from a defensive mistake and then sealing our fate by conceding a penalty. The Berate Entire Team button was used a lot during this international break, arms were thrashed and plenty of water bottles were thrown. I'm furious with how badly it went, and we are now definitely on the backfoot. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 November 2048 - North Macedonia UEFA Nations League C - Group 4 A comfortable, solid win over Latvia. No drama, just got the job done. Then we tore Luxembourg apart to gain a measure of revenge after last month's embarrassment. We killed them off with a succession of early goals, 4-0 up after just 16 minutes. There was still time to collapse in the second-half though, woeful defending allowing them to make the scoreline closer than it should have been. We ended up finishing second. That loss to Luxembourg cost us, it's unforgivable and is going to haunt me for a long time. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 23 Author Share Posted April 23 (edited) November 2048 Job Search Sod North Macedonia. Can join Argentina on the silly country list. The only club role available at the moment is Pumas Tabasco in the Mexican Expansion League, but they're a B team that can't get promoted or relegated. So it'll be a case of waiting a month or two and likely seeing what opens up in Europe over the winter. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Upgrade: Macedonian (basic to fluent) -------------------------------------------------------------- History A fourth failure from my last six jobs. Starting to become a bit of a habit. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited April 23 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 (edited) January 2049 Interview Offer In a normal journeyman save this would be a great choice, Universidad Catolica have just finished 4th in the Chilean top flight and qualified for continental competition. Which makes it a bit mad that they'd thought I was someone worth talking to, but I had to decline it as there's no promotion opportunity. -------------------------------------------------------------- June 2049 Job Search Several months later though, I did end up in Chile. The managerial merry-go-round was underway, and after a few moves there was a vacancy at San Luis de Quillota in the second tier. Before the manager was poached away they were on a good run of form, having won four in a row, and they're sitting 5th in the table as the season approaches the halfway point. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited April 25 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 (edited) July 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B I joined during a break in league action, and my first games in charge were in the cup. Cups are stupid, but an away win at Deportes Magallanes (from the division above us) saw us reach the next round where we faced Deportes Iquique (from our division). They humped us in first leg, so I threw in the youngsters for the second leg and the inevitable loss. The important detail here though is that we're playing them again in the league in three days time, so hopefully resting my senior players will leave us in a better state for that game. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 1 by DaneBramage 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vakama2619 Posted April 26 Share Posted April 26 On 22/04/2024 at 22:04, DaneBramage said: October 2047 Game World It's time to change up the available nations again. Over the winter Malaysia, Argentina, and South Korea will drop out to be replaced by Brazil, Chile, and South Africa. Then in the summer Turkey will be removed, and Germany, Czechia, and Mexico will be coming in. That will leave the eight nations below active. I do believe Mexico does not have promotion and relegation between the Liga MX and Expansion League, unless you've added a custom database ofc 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 27 Author Share Posted April 27 (edited) July 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B Resting players for the cup tie against Deportes Iquique paid off, as we beat them handily in my first league game. This was the first of four home matches this month, and we won all of them. This included a 3-0 beating of Rangers de Talca which saw us overtake them in the table. We didn't do so well away though, picking up just one point from two games. Mario Anazco impressed me quickly with a bunch of goals in this time, but unfortunately he's now ruled out for at least six weeks with a groin injury. A very good start to my time here and we've jumped up into second place, albeit having played a game more then a couple of our competitors. We're looking good for a play-off place, but Deportivo Nublense are probably out of sight at the top for the sole automatic spot. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 1 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 27 Author Share Posted April 27 (edited) August 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B The good vibes fell away a little as we suffered back-to-back losses. It was against difficult competition though. Deportivo Nublense are the league leaders and Union La Calera overtook us with this result. At least we picked up a first away win at a side struggling near the bottom. Still firmly in the play-off mix, but this month was a little bit of a blow after the highs of July. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 1 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 27 Author Share Posted April 27 10 hours ago, Vakama2619 said: I do believe Mexico does not have promotion and relegation between the Liga MX and Expansion League, unless you've added a custom database ofc There was a relegation and promotion in 2048/49, so I've done a bit of checking to see what's going on. In real life relegation and promotion was suspended for six years after the re-formation of the Mexican second tier in 2020. But in FM23 this was only implemented for one year, then started up again for the 2023/24 season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vakama2619 Posted April 27 Share Posted April 27 12 hours ago, DaneBramage said: There was a relegation and promotion in 2048/49, so I've done a bit of checking to see what's going on. In real life relegation and promotion was suspended for six years after the re-formation of the Mexican second tier in 2020. But in FM23 this was only implemented for one year, then started up again for the 2023/24 season. ohhhhhh, I forgot this was FM23, we've got it removed completely in FM24 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 28 Author Share Posted April 28 (edited) October 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B The end of the season saw us have a pretty easy run-in. In our final seven games we didn't play any of the top teams, instead all these fixtures were against sides in the bottom nine. At the same time, Deportivo Nublense were collapsing at the top. They only picked up one point in October. And our six consecutive wins put us into a very good position. We went into the final day on 59 points, they had 61. They still had the advantage, but form was not on their side. When we took an early lead it looked good, but unfortunately we never pushed on after that. A one goal lead was risky, and we gave it up in the 79th minute. Deportivo Nublense lost on the final day, so a win would have seen us take top spot. It wasn't to be though, so instead we go into the play-offs. By virtue of finishing 2nd though we do have an advantage. The teams that finished between 3rd and 7th go through a couple of knockout rounds before we face one of them in the final. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 1 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted April 28 Author Share Posted April 28 (edited) December 2049 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B - Play-Off Final In the home leg we were much stronger then Union La Calera, but didn't take advantage. We managed 23 shots compared to their six, but only seven on target and only converted one of them. It was a disappointing display from our attack and it cost us. We conceded just four minutes into the away leg, then went down to ten men after 23 minutes. We made it to the interval level on aggregate, but fell apart in the second-half. A very poor loss. -------------------------------------------------------------- History So close, yet so far. We managed to miss out twice by not getting the results we needed on either the final day or the play-offs. Still, in general results were good during my time here. We didn't have much depth in defence or midfield, so hopefully some smart transfer business will strengthen us for next season. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 1 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 1 Author Share Posted May 1 (edited) March 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B We have not made a good start, just one win from the first six matches. Leonardo Ruiz has scored a couple of goals on loan from Universidad Catolica, but he was listed by the media as potentially being the star player of the division so I'll be looking for more from him. I know it's early days so this doesn't mean much, but being down this low despite having played a game more obviously isn't ideal. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 1 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 1 Author Share Posted May 1 May 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B Turns out that all you need to do to improve your form is switch the game off, not touch it for a couple of days, then hope for better RNG when you load it up again. But the FM Gods are never on your side for too long. We should have beaten both Deportes Temuco and Fdez Vial thanks to the efforts of Miguel Palomino, but instead dropped four points by conceding three goals in stoppage-time. And then we were FM'd by Curico Unido, with the only goal coming from a player who we had on loan here last season. We're just outside the play-offs for now, but in the mix at least. This period was two steps forward, then one back. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 August 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Transfer Business Three of our best young players were sold during the transfer window when their release clauses were met. Luckily, we were sent all three back on loan until the end of the season. The money received was re-invested into improving our training facilities. -------------------------------------------------------------- Campeonata Primera B Cups are stupid. I played these games a few days ago and don't remember anything about them. Looks like we made a good return to league action after the summer break until we ran into trouble against the Concepcion teams. I'd been underwhelmed by the performances of Leonardo Ruiz so far this season, but he got his act together with five goals this month. One of the young stars who'd been sold and was back on loan, Ivan Ragusa, also impressed with a goal in each of our wins. Santiago Morning are a side we should have beaten, but we had three players missing through suspension for accumulated yellow cards and the back-ups were poor. With seven games remaining we're in the play-off places but not secure yet. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 November 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B We were terrible against D. Melipilla and deserved to get stomped. The scoreline would have been truly embarrassing had our goalie not saved two penalties. After that though we were imperious, battering everyone in our path. The only game which looked close was the 3-2 win at Curico Unido, but that was only because we didn't kill the game off at 3-0 and allowed them back into it. Our form over the first half of the season was very mixed (5W 4D 5L), but we improved massively in the second half of the campaign (12W 1D 3L) to finish in 2nd place for the second year in a row. This means we go straight into the play-off final instead of going through the knockout rounds. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 December 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Campeonata Primera B - Play-Off Final In the final we're facing Deportes Antofagasta. They finished 6th in the table so are perhaps the underdogs to reach this point. During the regular season we lost 1-0 at their place, but battered them 4-1 at home. The first leg was at home, and a fourth minute opener was the perfect way to start. We added a second before the half-hour mark and were well on our way. We let them back into it with a late goal, but quickly restored the two goal advantage. We had the better of the first-half in the away tie, but couldn't add to our aggregate lead. Deportes Antofagasta came out fired-up after the interval and scored not long into the second-half, but it didn't last for long until Cesar Toloza scored in his final appearance for the club. That knocked the stuffing out of them, and from there the outcome was never in doubt. Promotion! -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 December 2050 - San Luis de Quillota Squad Stats Miguel Palomino had a brilliant first year at the club, scoring 20 times. A great signing for £37.5k. Cesar Toloza is leaving in the summer when his contract expires, but he was voted fan's player of the season after a goal in each leg during the play-off final. The stats for Ivan Ragusa only show the games since he was loaned back to us, if we include his appearances in the first half of the campaign he managed 14 goals to be our second highest scorer. -------------------------------------------------------------- History A great success. When we were in 9th place at the end of May I thought we might be missing out on the play-offs this year, but we came on strong over the final few months to ensure we made the play-off final again, and this time we went one further than last season and finished the job. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Here we go again. Is it time to give one of the big European countries a go? I'm thinking about just aiming for a job in Germany. -------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 10 Author Share Posted May 10 (edited) January 2051 Job Search There were two jobs available in the German second tier, so I applied for both. FC Köln at the top of the table was a long shot, but I thought I might have a chance with Karlsruhe who were just outside the relegation area. As it turned out, neither were interested. Both replied saying they were going to give their caretaker managers an opportunity to impress instead. Within a day of that disappointment though, I was gifted with an open goal for another easy promotion. The Stellenbosch FC job became available when the manager jumped ship to the top division, and it was a no-brainer to apply. After being relegated last season they were overwhelming favourites to get promoted from the South African second tier this year, and with just over half the campaign gone they were top of the table. There won't be any glory in getting this one over the line, it's a bit of a cheap one, but it will be another promotion and they all count. On the other hand, if I do screw it up from here it might be a new low. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 10 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 10 Author Share Posted May 10 May 2051 - Stellenbosch FC First Division Since I was only in charge here for 14 matches and there wasn't much jeopardy I'm not bothering with a month-by-month breakdown and just going straight to the final table. When I took over we had a three point lead. We then won the next four games and everyone else stumbled, so the lead grew to 11 points and the fight was pretty much over. During my time here we won 12 and lost two. The two losses came when striker Victor Ndlovu was missing. While available, he scored 17 goals in 12 games. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- History It was expected to be easy, and it proved to be easy. That's my fifth promotion in Africa, and the first since 2029/30. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages New: Afrikaans (good) Total: 21 -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search This time I will make it to Germany. Maybe. The Karlsruhe job is available again anyway, so I've put my application back in. -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BML Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 Cheap and dirty it may be, but a promotion's a promotion (and an (improved) language is a language) and they all count the same. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 On 13/05/2024 at 15:11, BML said: Cheap and dirty it may be, but a promotion's a promotion (and an (improved) language is a language) and they all count the same. Absolutely. As long as the numbers keep ticking upwards I'm happy. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 June 2051 Job Search I'm starting to think about the end goal of this save, and that's a promotion to the top flight in one of the big European leagues (or several if possible). I've been managing 29 years so far, but there's still plenty of time left. Neil Warnock has the most promotions in English football history and his managerial career went on for 44 years, so I've got a good 15 years to go. So this time around I was again looking for work in Germany and put in a couple of applications there. I also submitted a back-up application in Czechia. Although Bohemians Praha and Arminia Bielefeld are listed as being in the top division, that's just because the season hasn't ticked over into 2051/52 yet. They've both been relegated this year. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 June 2051 Job Search I'm still having no luck getting a role in Germany. Maybe I need to stop looking at the second tier and go for the third instead, and build my way up from there. Or work on improving my coaching licence, at the moment it's only Continental B. Anyway, I'm heading back to Europe, but it's with the back-up option of Czechia instead. Bohemians Praha have spent most of the history of this save in the Czech top flight (albeit inactive for most of that time) and just three years in the second tier. After relegation in 2050/51 they're 5/1 on favourites to go straight back up with the media and press, though the players got upset when I suggested this in my introductory team meeting, and the board would just be happy with making the play-offs. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 August 2051 - Bohemians Praha Transfer Business As is normally the case when taking over a newly relegated club, I was met with a bunch of unhappy players wanting to leave. Since we had a pretty big squad I allowed the ones causing trouble to go, rather than keeping them around and having a toxic atmosphere in the dressing room. We made just over £3 million from these sales, and I also cashed in a 30% clause for an ex-player now at Juventus, claiming another £5 million. We now have a transfer budget of more than £10 million, though the recruitment team don't seem too interested in using this. Most business had already been done before I joined, though we are a bit short in defence. -------------------------------------------------------------- Narodna Liga The season began in perfect fashion, five wins from five. Rostislav Scasny (19 year old striker) is interested in leaving and his release clause (£2 million) has been met a couple of times, but luckily for us he failed to agree terms. He then went on to score in each of our three opening games. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 September 2051 - Bohemians Praha Transfer Business To fill a couple of gaps in defence I stepped in and signed a Welsh left-back and a Senegalese centre-back on free transfers. -------------------------------------------------------------- Narodna Liga The dropped points against Viktoria Zizkov were my fault. I made the mistake of throwing in both new defenders from the start, and they were not yet match-ready. Both played poorly and we had to rely on a last-minute goal to take a point. An international break gave us a week off, so we booked a couple of friendlies to get everyone up to speed. When competitive action returned we went back to winning ways. We're top and undefeated, but there's a couple of sides in close pursuit. It already looks like this will be a three horse race. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 October 2051 - Bohemians Praha Narodna Liga Cups are stupid anyway. In the league we smashed everyone in our path. Slavia Prague B were the victims of a real battering, we just tore them apart. They were made up of mostly young players, but did have a winger valued at more than £5 million who couldn't get into the game. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 22 Author Share Posted May 22 December 2051 - Bohemians Praha Narodna Liga The first hurdle of my time in Czechia. I wouldn't go as far as saying we were FM'd against Pardubice, but it's a game we really should have won. Our shooting was just poor and their goalie was man of the match, while they were efficient with their efforts. Our offence was back on form against FK Banik Sokolov, though it had to be with the troubles we were having at the back. And the defence was then even worse at Lisen. They scored four times from just six shots on target, and my keeper lost a week's wages for his incompetence. At least we ended the year with a win, though again we conceded twice. I'm not happy with how this final month of 2051 has gone, the 11 goals we've conceded in these four games is more than we had in the previous 12 combined. We now go into a three month winter break, with no games until March. We remain in 1st place, but it's still very close among the top three. Winner goes up automatically, while 2nd and 3rd go into a play-off with two of the worst performing sides from the league above. Sparta Prague B can't get promoted, so with a 15 point gap down to Prostejov in 5th we're pretty much already guaranteed at least a play-off spot. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 (edited) March 2052 - Bohemians Praha Transfer Business On 22/05/2024 at 11:20, DaneBramage said: Rostislav Scasny (19 year old striker) is interested in leaving and his release clause (£2 million) has been met a couple of times, but luckily for us he failed to agree terms. This was back in August. Unfortunately, his release clause was met again during this window and he was off to Slavia Prague. Can't begrudge him this move though, he's earnt it with his performances so far this season. He's now valued at £9-£12.5 million, and a few months later has two Czech caps (scoring once against Germany). Spoiler We also lost our best midfielder for £1.4 million. I'm in charge of outgoing deals and I don't remember any messages about it. Maybe it was another release clause being met, or possibly agreed before I took over. My recruitment team didn't show much urgency in bringing in any replacements, so I took it upon myself to sign an Irish midfielder and a Nigerian striker, both on free transfers. -------------------------------------------------------------- Narodna Liga Dynamo Ceske Budejovice were in 3rd place, so a draw against them is a tidy result. Vaclav Mrazek scored his third hat-trick of the campaign, though the other two were in the cup so don't really count. Pardubice matched our results so we remained top of the table, two points ahead of them. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 23 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 April 2052 - Bohemians Praha Narodna Liga Goals goals goals! This is a fun team to manage. Nigerian striker Abiodun Francis burst on to the scene with a brace against Prostejov, as well as a pair of assists. He then added four more goals over the rest of the month to make a great start to his career here. We put nine past Slavia Prague B in our previous encounter, this time we could only manage eight. Vaclav Mrazek grabbed his fourth hat-trick of the season. I'm missing a screenshot of the league table from this month, but it was looking very good for us. While we picked up 13 points, Pardubice could only gather eight. Thus we have a seven point lead with six games remaining. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 May 2052 - Bohemians Praha Narodna Liga 9-1, our biggest win yet. They had a centre-back sent-off just after the 20 minute mark and we destroyed them afterwards. Abiodun Francis got his first hat-trick for the club. His strike partner Vaclav Mrazek responded in kind, grabbing his fifth hat-trick of the season when we battered Varnsdorf a few days later. We rested a few players at Usti nad Labem ahead of a potential title-decider, it looked like we were heading for a goalless draw but the subs clinched the win for us late on. So it was on to Pardubice in game week 28 for the potential title-decider. But as it turned out, they'd lost their previous game to gift us the title instead. So we whooped them 4-0 just as a title celebration. Not winning on the final day was a bit of an underwhelming way to end the campaign. Dominating. Pardubice fell away badly and in the end didn't even make it into 2nd place. 100 goals in 30 games is ridiculous, more than twice as many as anyone else could manage. -------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 23 Author Share Posted May 23 May 2052 - Bohemians Praha Squad Stats We ended up with four* of the top five scorers in the league, and three* of them only played much for us for half a season. Vaclav Mrazek came top with 18 games, but only really became a regular starter after the winter break. Rostislav Scasny* and Milan Cverna came joint second with 14 goals. The latter was arguably our star player, also adding 13 assists. The former left during the winter break, but most of his goals came during his time with us, only adding one more when playing for Slavia Prague's B team. Abiodun Francis joined in February and he finished fifth, his 13 goals coming in just 14 appearances. -------------------------------------------------------------- History We went top of the league in game week 3, and we never looked back. Astonishingly easy. I was given a squad of newly-relegated players that really were too good for this division and it didn't take much to point them in the right direction. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages New: Czech (fluent) Total: 22 -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search You know the drill by now. With promotion to the top flight completed, it's time to jump ship. If I see 2066 as a potential end date I have 14 years to go. So rather than have an assortment of countries from all around the world to jump to, I think I now need to be a bit more focussed in terms of what leagues I have active. It's too late at night to plan it out properly now, but I want to finish up with a promotion at one of the big European countries (England, Germany, Italy, or Spain). It would be a shame not to hit Brazil at some point, though admittedly I don't fancy having to deal with all the games in the state championships as well. And I'd like to go through somewhere in Scandinavia too, and maybe one of the other nations from the British Isles too. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 November 2052 Job Search There weren't many jobs available catching my eye. I applied for the Juventude role (8th in Brazil's Serie B) but they said no, and with various leagues being turned off and others coming in soon I was content just skipping by for a bit until the new year and the game world stabilising a bit. But then an opportunity opened up that could be the quickest, dirtiest, cheapest promotion yet. I'm off to Brazil! Coritiba's boss had just been poached away to Universidad Catolica in Chile, but he was leaving behind his club in a good place. Top four get promoted to Serie A. With four games remaining three places have already been decided, and we currently hold the fourth spot. With a six point lead over the next side all we have to do is not **** the bed in the final month. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 (edited) Coritiba - November 2052 Serie B I was a bit worried when we lost to Operario Ferroviario, as this allowed Sampaio Correa to close the gap to three points. But we won the penultimate game of the season and they lost theirs, meaning promotion was sewn up with a game to go and the final day didn't matter. 23 days in charge and my job is done. Promotion secured, you're welcome. -------------------------------------------------------------- History There is no such thing as a bad promotion. They all count. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search I now have only European nations active, with a couple more on the way. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 24 by DaneBramage 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 May 2053 Job Search A couple of big offers came my way, but that was it. And neither were appropriate. Interesting, but no promotion so what's the point? And then this was a big one. Finally offered a German job, but it was a Bundesliga side so I couldn't take it. But this did work out in my favour. They instead went for the manager at high-flying Arminia Bielefeld, thus opening up a suitable job in the 2. Bundesliga... ...and I got it. With 31 games played they're in a really good spot too so this could work out very nicely. Top two sides go up automatically, then 3rd place goes into a play-off against the 16th placed Bundesliga team. If results go my way this could be a sensational three game spell. -------------------------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 (edited) May 2053 - Arminia Bielefeld 2. Bundesliga My first game in charge was a very even encounter, but we were just slightly better in front of goal. Nurnberg drew and Bochum lost, so we jumped up into 3rd place, just one point behind 2nd. Another win, but bad news as goalscorer Arthur Sow knackered his ACL and will be out for the foreseeable future. Nurnberg also won but the unhelpful news was that Werder Bremen had won 3-0, so overtook us into 3rd place on goal difference. An own goal on the final day gave us a third successive win. Unfortunately Nurnberg also won, and Werder Bremen won 7-0. Ah, well, we did what we could. But Werder Bremen won their final three games by a combined score of 14-0 to take the play-off place. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 24 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 24 Author Share Posted May 24 (edited) May 2053 - Arminia Bielefeld History The club's finances are a mess, and there's a massive first-team squad. We'll receive over £14 million for finishing in 4th place, but that will still leave us £15 million in the red. And it will only get worse while we remain £150k per week over the wage budget. So the summer objective will be to reduce the size of the squad, which will also sort out the wage budget issue. Then we go again and hope for the best. Spoiler -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 24 by DaneBramage 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted May 29 Author Share Posted May 29 (edited) August 2053 - Arminia Bielefeld Finances + Transfer Business The board arranged loans of more than £8 million to try and sort out our poor bank balance. And instead put us in potential trouble with FFP, which isn't ideal. So I had to be proactive with clearing players out this summer. Since I'd only had three games here I wasn't attached to anyone, and decided pretty much anyone was available for transfer. We managed to move players on for a total of £11.25 million, only re-investing £1 million into new signings. And just as importantly we've reduced our wage bill by £175k per week. We're still in the red, but at least we'll be losing money at a slower rate and hopefully this will be enough to avoid any FFP punishments. -------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Bundesliga Or course, the flipside of that is that we've weakened our squad, possibly too much. It took four games for us to score our first league goal, and we didn't get our first win on the board until game week 5. -------------------------------------------------------------- Edited May 29 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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