Motlhen

Thanks! Oh really? Thanks for the heads up. How did you find that out? I wasn't aware of that & I would've liked to have had some time in the continental competitions on the way to my main goal which is to win the league. I guess without the continental comps, I will just have more of a focus on the league. We also don't compete in the Singapore Cup (although Young Lions do irl) which is another shame, but neither absences will stop me from continuing with these guys.

SEA Championship 2024 Thailand won for a record 7th time, demolishing Singapore over the two-legged final and smashing the previous record for the biggest win in the final which was 6-2 over two legs. Laos did not qualify for only the 2nd time since the competition began (1996). Brunei were the surprise package, after failing to qualify on the previous 8 attempts, they made the semi-finals in only their 2nd appearance in the competition.

Tanjong Pagar winning the title this season means that the number of eligible teams for me to complete the challenge with is down to 3: & Balestier are after my services.

Sep 2024 We were much better this month, battling to a tight loss against LC Sailors & then grabbing another win to stay above Balestier in the final game of the season! Overall, a position and four points better off than last season and we'll be looking to improve on this again next season. Youth Intake We've got another good Goalkeeper and striker, two positions I was pretty comfortable with. I'll never complain about solid backups and might change tactic to 2 up front next season to accommodate for our two young forwards. Baharom made the difference this season. I'll have my work cut out to keep him around.

Aug 2024 A very poor month, but luckily Balestier have lost all of their games too. The board have finally allowed me to try and get my first coaching licence.

July 2024 We managed hit our target of 4 points over the next 8 games in only the next 2 games!!! The win against Balestier was brilliant, but it was even more incredible to pick up a draw against top-of-the-league Tampines. We still have a way to go and we'll probably have to beat Balestier in our last game of the season (gameweek 21) to avoid bottom of the table. But we're sitting pretty, off of the bottom of the league as we approach the business end of the season.

June 2024 Transfers In I have been slowly recruiting over the past few months and the transfer window opened after the first game of this month so we had an influx of players - hopefully they can help us end our run of bad form. Youth Intake Preview With all of the new signings lined up against Tanjong, it took Wong Qing Wei 15 minutes to get a straight red card whilst giving away a penalty. The salt in the wound in that game was that the other two goals were scored by players I released at the beginning of the season. But then we managed a deserved win against LC Sailors!!! Yes, they had a man sent off. But we were solid in the game up until that point (55mins) and I'm ecstatic with the 3 points. Last season we got 10 points. We've got 8 more games to get 4 points to beat that total. That's the aim for this season! ..and we still do have to play Balestier twice. I feel we'd have to beat them twice to have any chance of finishing off of the bottom of the league.

May 2024 Losing a lead against Balestier was a blow to our chances of finishing off the bottom of the league. We had a higher xG against Tampines, we just aren't putting our chances away as clinically as other teams & we keep conceding so many headed goals! We have produced over triple the number of Premier League players compared to the next highest team.

Apr 2024 We've picked up our first points!!! & we are not bottom!!! A great win and a draw against two teams who finished mid-table last season. LC Sailors went unbeaten last campaign so it was no surprise that they stopped our good run. This is the current tactic I have been starting games with. This is an incredible stat. Hopefully we'll be able to keep up these sorts of numbers! Finances are still looking better than last season.

March 2024 Despite picking up no points, the performances have been much better than they were at the end of last season. After being out for 3 months over the summer with broken ribs, one of our star prospects has had an even bigger blow in our first game this season. Our next game is against Tanjong Pagar, where we have loaned quite a few first team starters from. So I have quickly loaned in another midfielder from another club to plug one of the holes we'll have when we face Tanjong. I have been pestering the board at every possible moment for facility improvements and it's paid off!

Feb 2024 Friendlies We managed a couple of draws against weaker teams & only a single-goal loss against Hougang who are in our league. I'm taking this as an indicator of progress - any game that we aren't shipping six goals would be! Despite my view of progress, we are considered even further rank outsiders Finances The board have rejected all of my requests so far, but to be fair to them they have kept us afloat financially. We seem to be losing money at a slower rate than last season too, which is positive!

Gutted Good luck for this season. Have you ever been to a LC Sailors game?

(Catching up on past major events) 2022 World Cup Messi lifted the World Cup in what could well be his last major tournament. USA making the semis the biggest shock with their best performance since 1960. Qatar didn't make it past the group stage hosting & appearing in their first World Cup. AFC Asian Cup 2023 Japan continued their dominance, winning for a record 5th time. Philippines made the knockout stages in only their 2nd appearance in the competition. & Indonesia were the surprise package, reaching the Quarter Finals after making it past the Group Stage for the first time in 14 attempts.

Off-Season 2023 Our U18's finished dead last in their league too. I'll be trying to fill out their squad for next season too. Transfers Out I managed to shift a couple of players that were earning more than me. There are still 6 players that we are offering out though. I'd much prefer not to pay the wages of these players that will be rotting in the reserves if they don't move on. Transfers In I've not managed to get in as many strong replacements as I had hoped. I've brought in a few loanees and tried to flesh out with some backups in our weaker positions. Our backup goalie might not make the registration places, but he's a decent GK coach so he'll definitely play a role at the club. Finances We've been slowly losing money so reducing our wages by releasing the dead wood in the reserves is doubly important. Youth Development - we have produced twice as many top level players as the next club.

Sep 2023 We had our first youth intake just before the final game of the season. The top prospects (including some I rate higher than the staff do): & whilst I was looking at the league rules I noticed.. ..so this was how we lined up for the final game of the season Fixtures We were completely outclassed. In our first game, we had a player score a double hattrick against us: The only positive was that we didn't concede 6 with the help of the new youth players. The player who scored 6 against us is slightly better than our players: One of the big disadvantages Singaporean players have over the foreign players in the league is their height. Half of the goals we conceded were headers and 11 of the 14 were scored by non-Singaporean's. One of our top youth prospects suffered a big setback after breaking our youngest player record. But it wasn't all bad news.. My favourite youngster & player (so far) got his first goals for the club. This is how the league looked by the end of the season. @DavidBeckham LC Sailors are invincible champions! These poor results were, in a way, expected and deservedly we lost 1 whole follower. It's a bad start but the rebuild starts now.

I found the Hougang gifs! They have some really great ones:

Awesome Ah, wicked! Thanks so much for the extra insight. I do think it's going to take a while to build up the facilities to be able to produce good enough players to compete with the foreign players brought in to the league by the other clubs. I have one eye on International management for the future of the save - although I might be more tempted to start out with one of the national youth teams. I definitely have a soft spot for Hougang United from a previous FM save. I found a bunch of incredible gifs of the team celebrations (I can't find a link to them right now, but they have a story on their IG called 'gifs' if you want to see what I mean) and watched a couple of short clips on YouTube about their fanbase. It was this save that brought Young Lions to my attention as they always seemed to be the league's whipping boys. I've also found a good link to the real life games this season which is what I've been sticking on in the background whilst I'm playing this save!

One cool thing I noticed is that our U18's youth team is actually a dedicated sports school. We have great recruitment and I will be focusing on improving these facilities too! Our staff set up is really odd, I'm not getting on with them. Luckily all of their contracts are running out at the end of the season so I can do a full revamp with emphasis on the youth staff positions too. Somehow this guy is my Chief Scout?!

I actually believe the real life club impose some rules upon themselves as they are owned by the country's FA and this is the game's way of replicating their behaviour. Wiki does a better job at explaining it: So in real life I guess they could sign over-23 players, they just tend not to, and they can sign foreign players, but they only do so with the vision that they'll take up the nationality one day. In the game, we are not allowed to sign any foreign players (those with dual nationality already are okay) and we can sign as many O23's as we want, but we can only register 4 of them. There's actually some club-specific rules in the rules of the league: (Albirex are a Japanese team playing in the Singaporean league system) And this is our full list of registration rules to reflect that: I'm going to try to sign as many of the national team youth players as possible to reflect real life!

Aug 2023 continued.. I'm earning £300p/w, which means there are quite a substantial number of players earning more than me at the club. The top 5 have contracts expiring soon, so I've set them to be released. The remainder I will fight to get there requested wage down below £300p/w or look to sell or loan them out before next season starts. Unfortunately, as would be expected, the higher earners at the club were the better players & culling the team has greatly reduced our squads quality. For comparison, I believe this is our best starting lineup using players that are on less than £300p/w. (Hisham at centre-back has agreed to, but not signed, a deal on £275p/w which is why he's included below.) From this group, the standout players are: Yeo who is now the only over-23 player we want to keep on the books. Handily he also has a 1-year extension on his contract too. Rashid will be the more attacking option in midfield. Along with Saravanan who looks a great prospect at only 15yo. And last but definitely not least, I will be doing everything I can to keep Baharom around as he will be the main focal point in attack. Time to start looking to the transfer market for next season and as the final few games of the current season are quickly approaching, our only aim is to not get outclassed or embarrassed. (Which could be quite an ambitious aim.)

Aug 2023 After a disappointing season, Tampines have sacked their manager. The Young Lions boss took the vacant Tampines job & proceeded to beat his former side 2-1 in his first game at his new club. This left Young Lions 5 points adrift at the bottom of the league with 3 games to play & desperate enough to employ an unknown manager to consolidate on this season & build for the next. Founded in 2002, two early 3rd place finishes were the closest the club has ever got to the title. They have a completely empty trophy cabinet, so hopefully we can change that! The club was founded to provide a better foundation for domestic youth players. We are the only club not allowed to sign non-Singaporean players (whilst the other clubs can sign up to 4). We also can only register 4 over-23's, of which we currently have 6! Because of these restrictions, we are considered quite far outsiders for the league. Both the board & supporter vision is to attempt to avoid to finish bottom of the league. The squad is huge so there is a lot of organisation to do. I might even open up the squad planner.

I'm going to start unemployed with the intention of first managing in Singapore. There are 4 teams that have never won a domestic division title so I will hope that one of their jobs becomes available soon and then the mission will be to push to claim their first ever title! Not getting too far ahead of myself, if I manage my goal in Singapore, I'll move on to another nation with the same premise, always starting in the lowest playable division. A few other "rules": I will not be spending any money on transfers so will be relying on freebies, loans and youth intakes. These signings will be made via staff recommendations only (no player search) and the staff I employ will come from the job centre (no staff search). I usually also try to ensure that I am the highest paid person at the club, but I am not sure how possible that will always be. Singapore AIA Singapore Premier League Eligible teams

Hey mate, I got the same when I selected all positions. I think it acts as an inclusive filter, so you're actually asking your scouts to find someone who plays everywhere which is why theres no one and only maybe James Milner would ever appear in near matches. When I chose instead to leave the position filter blank and tick the "Any position from tactic" box (top left) then I started to get recommendations come through.