KibworthBull

August 2075 After a great month last month, we look to continue the momentum at Alianza, but these boys are a bit decent so they have too much for us, despite Fernando Córdova's goal. Back on the horse and we spaghettied Bolognesi - the traditional Guzman goal the killer one. Eder Morales has finally scored - at the 10th attempt - mostly from the bench in his defence - and loanee Alberto Quiróz also notches his first goal as we come from behind to beat Club Juan Aurich. Victory over Municipal means we end the month top of the Closing Stage. 2nd in the overall, but 13 points behind the leader. We might sneak Copa Liberatordos qualification. Next month we have some Olympic qualifiers. Now that's a reason to stick around...

July 2075 The transfer window is open. Yay! We've signed 3 players: Clive Phirri is a right winger from Zambia, and will be first choice Fernando Córdova offers us good depth on the left hand side - especially further forward - he's Peruvian Eder Morales can now play after signing 3 months again. A striker No one has departed. Victory over Cienciano ensures we finish 5th in the opening stage. In the closing stage opener we miss a penalty late on so have to settle for a draw at Cristal. Both the new wingers get goals and we beat Leon in the 2nd game. We followed it up with another win, this time it was Phirri and Cezar Guzman with the goals. Alianza Atletico will be playing 2nd tier football next season, we beat them with ease, before a much tougher test, away to Melgar. We stink the place out and get a controversial penalty for a huge win. We top the closing stage. Sport Boys is the stereotypical game of two halves - we lead 3-0 after half an hour and then cling on for a point in the last few moments. Tons of green. Yay!

June 2075 A busy month. 2 domestic games before the Pacific Games. A defeat to UTC and then Cesar Guzman returns from injury with a last gasp winner. For Samoa, we had a friendly against Antigua and Barbuda - two teams!! - Joe Sefo scored a record setting 19th national goal, just before they equalised and that's how it ended. Vital minutes before we enter competition football. Patrick Tapeni is ruled out of the tournament due to injury, Gavin Granger replaces him. Fiji are our toughest test. They wipe the floor with us. Nuts. A response is demanded. It takes an OG to get us going but we've finally arrived in the competition. It's between ourselves and Tahiti for the final qualification slot, everyone in the media is happy with the draw, but we know we are out. We need to win by 7 goals. We get 4, Collin Foni gets 2. Not the June we wanted But we do climb to 144th in the World. The highest Samoa have ever been.

May 2075 The Pacific cup is next month, and our Samoan side know the group now. We avoided New Zealand U23. We should be competitive for 2nd. We have no injuries so it's the strongest 23 we can muster A bad day at the office for our Peruvian side, as we fall to defeat at Cesar Vellajo, but we respond well to beat Cusco 2-1 with Daniel Salinas having a particularly good game. We've barely got the numbers for an 11 right now, let alone a strong one, so we take points where we can get them. A 2-2 draw thanks to Ndumba Mubili. Thats 5 key players watching from the stands. But as long as we have Mubili we will score goals. He gets a treble, and we end the month with a win. 3 more games in the Opening Stage. We are looking good for top 10

April 2075 I've convinced the board to spend over £1m on the training and youth facilities, so they must love me. A third defeat on the spin at Bolognesi was painful - as with the other 2, Guzman scored our goal. Late goals are our downfall. A 2-0 lead is squandered against Juan Aurich, but it's a point. Municipal are sitting bottom of the table. It's not quiet a must win, but a need to win. Francesco Baioni slams home a penalty after Guzman's normal goal. And relax. Baioni celebrates by getting injured and misses the next month. As does Guzman. Never rains... We don't need strikers, when we have wingers, Francisco Romero gets two and that feels like a massive result. A better end to the month than start. We are extremely light on numbers. Striker Eder Morales has joined on a free. He'll have to sit it out until June when the window opens but he's a decent-ish body to have around. Nicely mid table though

You'll need to have the leagues in the folder before you start the save and then I normally add my next league 12-18 months before I think I'll need it - so I have Peru as only nation loaded right now, and when I am closish to winning Champs League, I'll load my European nation - that gives enough time for managers to start getting sacked and jobs becoming available. If I'm really struggling to get a player from a nation, then I might load that nation for a year or two, but normally I'll only have 1-2 leagues loaded at a time. I've never used view-only tbh.

March 2075 We have an AA meeting to attend. Sorry, a meeting with Alianza Atletico. It might cause some confusion. Oscar Villacorta has a fine day at left back and we return with a 2-0 win. We do appear to have found some sort of stride - a 5-2 win over Melgar took us top but Brandón Carrascal broke a foot - if we are still top when the Colombian returns (4-5 months) then all will be good with the world. The injury meant we had to dip our toe (sorry Brandon) into the transfer market and bring in Cesar Bravo - he's not really good enough but will mean we have another option in the squad. Sport Boys are unbeaten, but so were we. Sport Boys are still unbeaten. César Guzmán gave us the lead in the last game of the month, but that was as good as it got. A reality check? 8th is a fantastic position considering we are odds on favourites for the drop. A new year and a new-looking Samoa squad We play New Caledonia and Kiribati at the end of the month. 6 players could make debuts - Fauivi Tafola is a keeper who is 28 and has been overlooked for years - he's now the best we have so his time is now. Patrick Tapeni has the potential to make the Left Wing his own going forward. We don't have many young DMs so Steve Pupi at 16 is one to watch. Gavin Granger has been in previous squads but never made an appearance. Vea Talia and Tony Tafiaina are barely out of short trousers. A shocker against Kiribati - they beat us last time, and this time we scrape a draw. Atili Amituana'i scoring his first ever goal for the nation in the dying embers. Bitner Taufaga with his record breaking 17th national team goal - Joe Sefo has 16 so this one will flip flop around a bit. A destroying of New Caledonia, Sefo moves onto 18, as does Bitner. Amituana'i also on the score sheet again. Some cliche about buses... We move to 146th in the world - our best position since 2007. Just one more place to go before we tick off our next achievement

Welcome aboard, it doesn't matter when you enter a party, as long as you buy the host a drink - or something like that. The idea isn't my own, someone I know on Twitter did a European one back in Fm17 or FM18. I did one on FM19 where I completed it in a made up league on the Island of Sodor, with some very relaxed rules around foreign player limits. What I tend to do is stick to a continent at a time, so if we take Africa as an example, I started in Angola, from memory they were the 5th or 6th highest league at the time so most nations had keen players which allowed me to get ticked off whilst I tried to get the relevant Champions League. Once the Champions League was secured then I had a list of the more minor nations to work through, for them I went to a lower nation that was Amateur - Lesotho - and went through the national sides for each nation and approached every single one and signed them - Lesotho had NO restrictions so was able to fill my squad with international players from the minor nations. Within 1 or 2 seasons I'd burned through 10-15 nations - lots of squad rotation and moving players on - over time you realise that certain positions really perform well for certain formations - Right Wing for instance gets MoTM around 25-30% of the time - Assists are very heavily skewered towards MoTM - I've had an example where my Central Defender from an obscure nation scored a hattrick but was pipped to the award because my winger had 3 assists. You find that naturally over time as your club gets bigger in that continent that your scouting improves so without any real chasing I have ticked off South America long before I arrived in the continent. Right now I have 9 Asian nations to go and 45 in Europe. I'm not really chasing them yet, once I get the Copa Liberatordos (10-15 years) ticked off then I'll move to Europe, firstly to win the Champions League and then somewhere like San Marino to finish the rest. Right at the start of the save, I clicked on "Load all players in International Squad" as I've found all nations have at least 4 or 5 players in there. Of varying quality.

February 2075 We have returned for another season and it's been a busy summer. Plenty of departures. Arce, Marquez and Barboza were regulars but were all out of contract and probably not quite good enough for the top flight. Abuaker was a FGN player who did his bit, and Muntari was someone who wanted to leave from the moment I arrived. I wont take it personally. Coming in is some decent talent (I would say that though) Moses Mathebula will be the keeper this season and the reason Barboza was let go. In Defence, we have strengthened with Ecuadorian Manuel Ávila in the middle and Freddy Medina on the right hand side. Ahead of them will be leader Bryan Neyra and youngsters Alberto Quiróz and Yordy Caballero in that DM role, and on the wing Luis Quincho has come in on a free. Up front both Ndumba Mubili and César Guzmán should score plenty. We've got to give U20s a total of 810 minutes across the season or be deducted 3 points for every 90 minutes we are below that threshold. Only a total of 180 minutes per match will be considered. Not 100% sure on how this works so have signed a few more young uns than needed. Thankfully Mubili is included and he will play most weeks. In the nations challenge, we have a Japanese player now - Satoshi Nakano - he was with us last season as a Peruvian with Japanese 2nd nationality but has switched over the winter. We start with a 0-0 draw at home to Cristal, and then an away 0-0 draw. Consistent Goals are like buses... you wait 180 minutes for 1 and you get 5 in 90. 4 of them for us. Just before the transfer window, and the month closes, we signed Leandro Gamarra as a back-up keeper.

November 2074 Just the one league game, a relatively tame 1-0 win. The 2nd tier didn't hold any fear And just one international game. Just the one change, Joe Sefo is still not fit, but Pualele Talia is and he comes back in. We were in truth, lucky to get a draw out of it It means we end the calendar year in 148th in the world.

October 2074 2 extremely winnable friendlies for Samoa at the start of the month. The only change in the squad is a return for Vasisigano Mataafa after injury, so we are full strength. The next day Joe Sefo informs us he is injured and pulls out, to be replaced by Samuelu Feiloaiga from the U19s. Sulu Teveli is off the mark for his nation and we got the first win we wanted. We even had the luxury of missing a penalty. 2 records achieved. Both players mentioned are part of my current squad, so this will likely flip-flop between them. We are also 148th in the world. We get a draw against the Solomon Islands - they equalised late. Debuts were given to Cameron Chrétien and Samuelu Feiloaiga. Anitele'a Sauiluma has announced he is to retire at the end of the season - he has made 10 caps, mainly from the bench, but has been involved in most squads since his debut in 2073. On the domestic front, it was normal service. Daniel Salinas got MoTM in both games.

September 2074 I'm on the verge of an achievement. 4 wins this month will mean that I will have won a league title in South America, the 5th continent that this will have been achieved. A trip to Mannucci sees us concede more goals in 90 minutes than we have in the entire season before today, thankfully we score 6. Guzman with a treble. The focus then moves onto Samoa. We've never beaten New Zealand. We have never really been able to get close to their U23s. The positive is that we scored twice. The negative is that 2 of their boys did that and more. A good test for us. 6,032 was a record attendance so that's another positive. Fiji are the 2nd best nation in Oceania, and where I started this challenge. I expect to lose again. And when the 2nd Fijian goal thundered into our net, my expectations were met. But we rallied and Joe Sefo brought us level with one of the last kicks of the game. We are now in the world's top 150. 15 straight wins against the side with 0 wins all season was probably only going to end one way. Francisco Romero gets a hat-trick as we hit 8. Another 4 goals from loanee César Guzmán gives us the title. A loanee not for much longer I'm not saying the boys enjoyed the celebrations of winning the title but there were a lot of sore heads and we lost the next game. Missing 3 defenders from suspension probably didn't help. That one bit of red is annoying but doesn't matter

August 2074 Phillip Bottom scores twice as we continue our winning run. Another 5 goals scored. The 2nd tier of Peruvian football is not challenging. I suspect the 1st tier might not be too difficult - this isn't the challenge - the challenge will be winning the South American Champions League (or the Copa Libertadores as it's more widely known) 3 further wins make it 14 from 14 There are just 8 games left of the season, we have already secured a play-off place, but only now need 10 points from the remaining 24 for the title. Next month it's Samoa's turn to get some focus. We face New Zealand and Fiji in friendlies - two very tough tests. Cameron Chretien is a striker who had a very good U19 qualifying campaign so has been pushed into the main squad. He's only 17 and is very much one for the future.

July 2074 The transfer window is closed. No further additions were required. Francisco Romero made light work of CNI and Llacuabamba with back-to-back MoTM awards. The board have agreed to put £240k into the Youth and Training facilities, which is very nice of them. Both of them are currently considered Poor. Our Palestinian Right Winger scores early and puts in a fine display to make it nation number 175 against Sport Ancash. He's also the 13th player to play for me across 2 clubs. 10 games played, 10 wins. 2 goals conceded. We'll be playing top-flight football next season. It's not mathematically certain but I can't see it falling apart. Palestine

June 2074 It always feels like life takes over whenever I get to a new country and I don't have time to play. But tonight I do. The press seem convinced that we will be successful this year, and to be honest, so do I. César Guzmán celebrates his debut with a hat-trick and we make it 2 from 2. Carlos Stein sounds like they should be playing, and not our next opponent, but they are. And we smash 5 unanswered goals to go top. The transfer window re-opens and we strengthen with Maxime Obekop coming in - he's a Centre Back who can also play Right Back. Our current right back, Kelvin Muntari, was the star man as we made it 4 from 4 - maybe he got the hint - he's already told me he wants to leave though, so maybe he's trying to impress. Another 5 goals, another 5 goalscorers although Guzman ended the month as he started it, with some champagne. Everything looking rosy

May 2074 Regular football returns with (checks notes...) 1 match this month. But it's our first in Paddington's home country. We've been relatively busy in the nearly 5 whole months we've been here. A load of Peruvians have come in - most of them midfielders. Francisco Romero (Left Wing) and Brandón Carrascal (Right Wing) should create plenty. Defensive Midfielders Bryan Gonzales, Eduardo Cotrina, and Ginaluca Espinoza will add some much-needed depth, in truth Espinoza will be the main cog. Oscar Villacorta is a Prem standard Left Back who has decided to slum it in the 2nd tier. Luis Gomez and Mazen Abuaker add depth on the right wing. Abuaker has followed me from Guam and is the "in-play" Palestinian, but he is injured for a few months so don't expect anything there. Cesar Guzman and Francesco Baioni will hopefully fire the goals to see us promoted. In terms of the long awaited start - Phil Backside, or to give him his Peruvian name Felipe Arce gets a double and we have a win.

March 2074 Welcome to Peru... Oh wait. It's an international break, so it's Samoa time. We've had the youth intake since the last time we checked in for Samoa, and we've had very little come in. Just one new name - a potential future option at either Right Back or Centre Back - he's 1 star and 17 right now, but has that always reliable 5 star potential. Ladies and Gents, it's Tauati Gosche As soon as we confirmed the squad, first choice Right Back Michael Lafai pulled out so Sulu Teveli comes in - he's 16 and not quiet as good as Gosche, but another who might become a Samoan Strength in years to come. New Caledonia help us see in the new year - Jefferson Lafai struck twice in the first half to give us victory - the 32 year old has now got 12 in 52 caps - i believe that 16 is the national record. But as Joe Sefo has 15 and is only 19, I don't think Jefferson will have it long, if he ever gets there. It's 7 games unbeaten and 153rd in the world - both are records. Against Tahiti, Andrew Tipelu had the game of his life - 2 assists and he got the opener. Up to 151st in the world.

December 2073 1st game of the month, 1st defeat of the season. BOG Strykers put us to the sword. If we are to continue our Asian Confederations Cup journey then we must beat Easterns at home, we led going into injury time but a last gasp equaliser means that this journey must come to an end. And indeed the Guam journey. A club in Peru came up and I took the interview but they wanted me to start immediately. So I have decided to do so. 20 nations were done in Guam. I haven't completed Asia yet and there are one or three there that I wish I could tick off but it's time. They are in the 2nd tier of Peru. The only instruction at the moment is avoid relegation. We finished 8th out of 12. It's the off season so let's pick this back up when we are next playing some games

November 2073 It's an eclectic bunch that hosted North Korean opponents in the Asian Confederation Cup - we sneak through 2-1. Nothing to report on the nations sadly. 3 Indonesians and a Iranian are bought into the squad for the league match against Shotguns. And it's a debut double for Irvan Saleh who ticks off Indonesia. After an international break, it's back to league action, but a Guamian Striker takes the plaudits. Boo!! Ching Fung are seen off in the Confed Cup - another MoTM award for Hong Kong - this one less well celebrated. We end the month with a goalless draw. Nothing to report. Just the one change for our last international window of the year. Edwin Lagaaia comes in for Kane Leiataua who has retired from football. We take a 2 goal lead against Barbados but cannot hold onto it, and have to settle for a draw. We always seem to see goals in games against Papua New Guinea - this one had 7, and again we threw away a lead, but managed to claw a winner out of it. A positive end to the year. Indonesia

October 2073 The luxury of an unchanged squad. I'll avoid any comments about lack of depth... Both opponents are 50 odd places higher up the rankings than us, but both are beatable. And they were in pretty much identical fashion. 6 different scores across the 2 games. We hit new heights at 154th We've had international success, can we also get domestic success? And continental. It's all going OFF THE HOOK!!! Sadly we got the wrong number in Hong Kong - Easterns hit us for 5. Considering how close Tajikstan and Uzbekistan are, it's surprising it's taken me this long to get Tajikstan, but it's been a long journey - we've had a few in the intake but none good enough. It's taken a move to Guam to get Umedjon Rasulov and his double in the league opener moves us onto 172 Nations are getting harder now - we've pretty much exhausted the list of players who would want to join us, so it means we have to play locals, and they sometimes nick the honour. Lai Yun Hing gets the gong against Quality Distributers (yes really) - mainly for some good passing and an assist which is ironic. Thats our 173rd nation. Victory over Beercelona means we are 2 from 2 in the league. Tajikstan Hong Kong

September 2073 It's Group Stage time. 2 matches. So 2 chances of ticking off a nation. Ching Fung are from Macau (China), and it's fair to say we are expected to do well. Alto Keryer goes one better than last time - he gets his 2nd MoTM and a goal. That's Malaysia folks. #170 We've been turned down by every North Korean in the game, so we go behind their wall to play a side from that mysterious nation in our 2nd game. We return with a victory, a sense of being watched, and the knowledge that Turkmenistan is done. Alexandr Hojowow scored and got the MoTM award. Boom!!! (maybe not the best choice of buzz word) 2 wins from 2. Lovely stuff. Malaysia: Turkmenistan

August 2073 Welcome to our last Asian Season. Whatever happens we move onto Peru, at the very latest, the end of this season. Maybe earlier. All depends on nations. It's the Asian Confederations Cup EAST Play-Off Zone Legs 1 and 2. We can only use a maximum of 6 Foreign players - we have a few more than 6 in the squad. Thankfully we can register them all, we need to be a bit selective on match day. Our Palestinian winger scored, but we faded to a home defeat. They are professional side so have 5 days a week to train, and are paid for the privilege. A man of the match performance from Alto Keryer moves us a step closer to completing Malaysia - it also helps turn around the tie and we progress. East Timor scored for us. Victory means we have 6 more games to play at least. No shocks In the international set up We host Guyana first up. Bitner Taufaga puts in a captains performance with 2 goals and we win. Huzzah! And we improve to 156th in the world. We make plenty of changes for the trip to Micronesia. Andrew Tipelu scoring his first for his country in an easy 3-0 win. Right Winger Malaetala Lafi and Keeper Faleahuga Dan-Tyrell both make their debuts. They've been in the squad a while but have been judges (long time sitting on bench...)

June 2073 It's an international window. As ever we have 2 games for Samoa. No changes from our last original squad. As soon as we announce the squad, Sivamalie Felise calls and tells me he is injured so the left winger is replaced by 17 year old Andrew Tipelu It was 1-1 going into stoppage time against the Solomon Islands, then we struck TWICE to record a fantastic victory. Bitner Taufaga celebrating his return from injury. We reach 158th in the world. All the optimism evaporated in the first 6 minutes against New Caledonia - we were 0-3. It barely got better.

Thanks Most of the players have long since retired - to keep the game as slim-lined as possible I don't tend to keep history and only have the leagues loaded that are active now - so most of the profiles are lost to the depths of time I'm afraid.

May 2073 I probably should have combined this into the April one - it's one game after all. Parminder Kumar has been playing on the left wing for a few games and he finally has a good one. We beat Frank Cable 5-1 and Kumar gets two. We were able to win the league India