KibworthBull

August 2063 1,500 games into the save. Looking good for 88. A bit of wheeling and dealing before the window closed. In comes a new Right Back - Uzbeki Shavkat Akramov and Turkmenistani DMC, Mekan Khadzhimuradov - both on a good wage and both should feature very nicely in the first team. Both are current internationals. Out goes back up Centre Back Javohir Karimov. Game No. 1500 was an 8-1 win. Lovely. We are keeping up with Paxtakor as we look to secure Continental Football as a minimum, Kone gets injured in the win at Olmaliq. Our old foes Qu'qon are beaten, Shavkat Akramov scoring his first and getting the champagne from Right Back. Despite being second fiddle at Right Wing, Pirimov still knows when to shine, a 23rd MoTM award in 67 games in the Cup. We finished the month with a creaky victory away at Neftchi, Mansur Ismatullayev scoring a penalty. A two-horse race for the title. 7 games remaining. We are outsiders.

July 2063 We have a transfer window opening. And a new right winger, from that ever-reliable source - ASEC Mimosas. He comes in on a free as he was out of contract. We do however have to balance the books. Keong ticked off Singapore but took up the FGN slot, Toshmatov was brilliant last season but we have better options now. Jo was bought in as a promising youngster but never kicked on, and Isabayev was a solid Centre Back that deserves to play every week. On the pitch we strolled through the cup, Kone on debut doing "bits", before a Niyom Yooyen-inspired win against Paxtakor that really puts the cat amongst the title pigeons. Tight at the top

June 2063 A 4 game month. Nasaf Qarshi are having a good season, 4th in the table, the point keeps our unbeaten season going but it's 2 dropped. We are decimated through injuries, international call-ups and suspensions for the Metallurg match, both keepers and several key starts are missing. We were never in the tie. Everybody returns for the Toshkent game and everyone leaves happy, back to winning ways. Just turned 17, it was a MoTM display from Baxrom Meliboyev as we made it back to back victories against the bottom side in the league. Our only league match next month is against Paxtakor, failure to win will mean that we won't catch them.

May 2063 This doesn't count as a break - I was on holiday! A bruising battle first up, but Thailand is ticked off thanks to Niyom Yooyen scoring and getting MOTM, he's 19 and looks rather good for this level, so he's likely to stick around for a bit. Teenager Baxrom Meliboyev sees red. That's how he celebrates his call-up to the U20 World Cup. Our ground expansion has been completed. Before the board congratulated themselves too much, when I arrived we were playing in a 15,000-capacity ground... Improvements eh... We celebrated with a 5-1 victory, which was 0-0 after an hour. Pirimov the usual dominator. Kazkhakstani Evgenii Tsoi scored a double in a less-than-impressive draw at Bunyodkor. He makes it nation no.144 though. A complete reserve side for the Uzbek Cup - 5th tier opponents. Keeper Sergey Andreev plays up front and scores twice to tick off Estonia. #145 All in all a very good month, I should go away more often. Only two teams unbeaten. Us and the favourites. Thailand Estonia Kazhakstan

April 2063 Istiqlol Farg'ona in the league, and the cup. What a place to start. They got promoted last season and currently sit at the bottom of the table Pirimov and Tembo teach them the lessons they need to learn to compete at this level. In the 3 days between the games, they appear to have learnt nothing. 5 more goals and our wingers are tearing it up. Shaxboz Ikromov is a cheat code right now. Singaporean Ng Thian Keong grabs us a last gasp equaliser and it also ticks off the nation. Nicely poised in 2nd, just behind Paxtakor. Singapore:

March 2063 A new league season and another new signing. A Kazakh-born striker called Evgenii Tsoi. On a free and hopeful he can tick that nation off. The dominant force, Paxtakor, is a tough season opener. A point gained, rather than 2 dropped. New boy Shaxboz Ikromov got us going at home, with the only goal of the game, to give us 4 points from two games.

February 2063 Again? Yep, more comebacks than Lampard at Chelsea. First order of business is the end of the international element of the save. Never gives me the enjoyment it needs to. We won 9 of the 18 games. Domestically we start in the Uzbek Cup, away to lower league opponents, and it's as straightforward as you would hope. As it's a new season, we have some new recruits. Meliboyev is a 16 year old Left Back, very highly rated, Ikromov is a Left Winger, 22 and massively improves that side of the pitch. Klidje is a Right Back and again moves us forward, and A'zamov is a young option in the middle of the pitch.

January 2063 It's Asian Cup time. Pirimov (from this parish) is included - on merit, no Uzbeki has more goals and assists than him this season. If he can make the step up then we'll have some real threat on the right hand side. Pirimov makes his debut against Jordan, and lasts 43 minutes before going off injured, and will miss the entire competition. Javlon Farhodov comes in to replace him. Izzatbek Sultonov takes the **** against North Korea and grabs 6 of our 9 - this should help our goal difference if it comes to it. A huge win against Qatar is bitter sweet as Sultonov goes off injured and could miss the rest of our stay in the competition. Time will tell. We should qualify now. Neither Qatar or North Korea can catch us. Right Back Rustam Abdullayev misses the Iran match due to suspension. He's the only right back in the squad (natural) We lose to Iran, but have 8 players booked - this will surely cost us at some point. But we progress AND that's the important bit. Syria, 65th in the world, will be very tough. They always seemed to beat my Ugandan side back in the day. 12 of our squad are 1 booking away from a suspension, so even if we win, it might not be worth it. In the end it wasn't something we needed to worry about.

December 2062 One game left. A dead rubber. We are secured in 3rd place. Our opponents need a win to stay up. Pirimov was not in the mood to allow that to happen. Paxtakor won another league title. We were much better going forward than defending Next month is the Asian Nations Cup and our first competitive matches for Uzbekistan, we have a tough group. Iran are the holders, Qatar beat us a few months ago and North Korea, who knows what they are like.

November 2062 We sign 3 of our intake. It's the best we've had but there isn't much to right home about. 2 of them are AMCs and we don't use that position. We go again with the International side - now I've worked out having over 4,000 players in the national pool might impact the performance.... who'd knew... Dilyaver Toshboyev and Laziz Rahimov are new names, both Paxtakor kids. Toshboyev is a regular at 19, Rahimov is 16 and is yet to feature. El Salvador will prove to be a challenging tie, and in true fashion, we are unable to lay a glove on them. Dilyaver Toshboyev made his debut. The Maldives was like a holiday. Laziz Rahimov netted 5 times on his professional (and it was also his international) debut. 16 years old. On the domestic scene, we have 4 injuries and 4 suspensions for our first league game. We are very nearly just playing for pride. And we are very proud. Kelvin Tembo with a treble. Mathematically we cannot get into the top 2 now, but that's okay. We are proud. Before we travelled to Qu'qon and 2 injury time goals stole a point.

October 2062 I asked the assistant manager to name the squad for the next friendlies as the screens in the national pool are so incredibly slow. International Management is a pile of crap within this game. We storm into an early lead against Qatar before everyone realises where we sit in the grand scheme and they fly back and condemn us to another defeat. Surely though we can beat Bangladesh? Yes, we can. Convincingly. Domestically Navbahor took revenge on us for killing off their unbeaten record earlier in the season, before Kelvin Tembo resues a point in the other match this month. 3 games left. Looks like 3rd is where we finish

September 2062 Before we can enjoy the international window, we play relegation-threatened Olmaliq - the point does no one any favours. Both New Zealand and Bolivia are close enough in the rankings to suggest we have a chance. However slim. Or not.. We slip to 103rd in the world. The league returns and Kelvin Tembo puts us top - because the other sides around us didn't play, but I'll take it Karidioula Ripama puts in a brilliant defensive display to ensure a clean sheet and three points against Neftchi Farg'ona, before we grabbed a draw when we deserved nothing at Nasaf. 5 games left, 3rd place Navbahor next.

August 2062 2 more squad players have departed. Both did a good job to get us into this level, but we've moved on, and so have they now. Paxtakor finally demonstrates why they are the dominant side historically. They move above us in the table. A shed ton of goals - 8 actually - as we return to winning ways, Tempo and Pirimov both on the double. It's almost impossible to keeper Pirimov out of the goals, another couple sees us past Dinamo Samarqand We were the runners-up in the cup last year, but fell a long way short this year, a poor performance and result. Back to the league and Pirimov. You know the rest. 2nd place and well in the mix Next month Uzbekistan face New Zealand and Bolivia - we name the standard squad, with one new name - Sandro Mihalić as 3rd choice keeper.

July 2062 I didn't need a striker, but Niyom was too good looking to resist. Only 18 as well. It's a nation I don't have in my collection. Ariel Angeles is a fantastic player - he's not, he's dreadful, but he was the best I could find from the Northern Mariana Islands - one of the harder nations to tick off in the challenge. He does the biz in the cup and it's nation #141 We had an unhappy Estonian (that's the worst isn't it) so have bought another one in - Centre Back Ivar Suppi was signed on a free. He can also cover the DMC role and we had people complaining about that as well. Northern Mariana Islands

June 2062 Just the two games this month break the mid(ish) season break Mansur Ismatullayev gets the only goal of the game in the opener before we renew rivalry with Qo'qon who are having a tougher time than us. We are a different beast this year. Victory, and it was sweet. Navbahor lost so we close the gap at the top. Paxtakor are on our heels but we've beaten them already so we don't fear anyone. The transfer window is about to open, out go 3 foreign slots, in come a Centre Back from Russia - Igor, and 2 defensively minded Uzbeks.

May 2062 Kelvin Tembo is a new face, someone who should do very well with us. He can't do much until the transfer window opens in July. But once that comes, boy we should pick up the Tembo... But let's focus on the ones that can play for now. A dull 0-0 kicks off the month, before we repeat with another 0-0 before a frankly ridiculous results against Navbahor. For context they were 8 wins from 8 before we smashed them all over with 4 unanswered goals. Javier Torres with a double. Kelvin Tembo can play in the cup, and it took him 19 minutes to open his club account. We disposed of lower league opponents again. Pirimov with a double and yet another MOTM award. We almost made it through a month without conceding but in the 91st minute, we let Bunyodkor Toshkent score. Everything is awesome

April 2062 Paxtakor are the best team in the country by a mile, so this will be our 1st big test of the season. And holy smokes, it went in our favour. We smashed them. Javohir Toshmatov is impressing his international manager (me...) and he gets a hattrick as we top the table against Dinamo. We dominated in the Uzbek Cup but only a solitary Mo Khan goal to show for it - 35 shots. Our Northern Marianan Striker missed a penalty. The winning every week was bound to fall over eventually, a draw and then a defeat put a slight dampener on the month Javier Torres scores late to rescue a draw at the end of the month. Staying up is all that matters. Based on how it's going so far. That should be fine.

March 2062 We were Runners-Up in the Uzbek Cup last year, but did have a fairly nice ride the whole way. We start away to lower league oppo. It's a goal fest. 8 of them. 6 for us. Most importantly we can tick off our 140th nation - Kyrgyzstan, thanks to a goal and a MOTM from Dilmurod Abdullayev Plenty of debut goals as well for others. Before we jet off on our international jollies, we have our top-flight debut. New Ukbek striker Javohir Toshmatov grabs a double and we are off and running At an international level we have Australia and Japan in friendlies, both should beat us but these games are for seeing where we are, rather than winning. Full Back Javohir Xursanov is the only debutant in the squad. We put Australia under a lot of pressure but lost, and similar against Japan - the Japanese winner was in the 93rd minute. Soooo close to a draw. Both results are encouraging.

2062 Season It's time for some top flight Uzbekistani football. We've been busy in the recruitment. The main players to mention, Jasurbek Tolibjonov is a top flight standard keeper, Said Marei and Yousef Al-Khatib both have decent ability at left back. Most of the signings have experience of the top flight. We are expected to struggle, but at least we will give it a go. Also not shown as he was a very late addition, and I've already taken too many screenshots for my liking - Karidioula Ripama a Burkinese Centre Back. The players are convinced we are light in the DMC area - they are correct. So we've signed a Singapore International for £41k. And just before the season started we levelled up our keeper. Estonian Sergey Andreev comes in and he looks a bit tasty Finally the football can return!

November 2061 Only a win will do in the final league game of the season. But first we need to announce our squad for this month's friendlies. Azizbek Saidov is new to the squad, a 29-year-old midfielder who probably won't be around for long. Goran Jovanović returns and will take the gloves. We got our win in the league, but it's not enough as Qu'qon completed an unbeaten season. BUT Dragan Bogdanović ticks off Serbia in the last game of the season. Meanwhile, at the international level, a goal glut sees us past Kyrgyzstan. Izzatbek Sultonov gets the glory with two goals. Unbelievably Jasurbek Yo'ldoshev has only 2 goals this season - he has 19 for finishing - he got 2 against Indonesia. All eyes on the Cup Final. Paxtakor - the greatest side in Uzbekistan. Bookies aren't even taking bets on this one. We don't get a sniff. But we get about 400k in match receipts. So Happy Days!

October 2061 We are popping out for a Chinese (Taipei) Sandro Mihalic and Umid Holiqov are both new names in the squad. It was fair to say, it was one-sided. Before this, Andjion come to town - a reminder that we have already gained promotion so this is fairly meaningless, slow meander to the end of the domestic season. A goal at the start, and one at the end, gives us the three points - Ilxomjon Ergashev doing the damage. We went toe-to-toe with Qu'qon again, and once again they showed us that next season might be tough. It means with one game left we need results to go in our favour to win the league.

September 2061 Straight away it's another international match - away in the Philippines, I'm just blindly rotating the side at the moment as I try and work out what I have got (not that there is much!) Two goals from Jasurbek Yo'ldoshev secure us the victory against the side 70 places lower than us in the rankings. Before we jump back into the Promotion battle and our 3rd contest against Qu'qon. Our No.1 keeper is out for it and most of the rest of the campaign. Bob Croft steps up. The draw is our best result against them so far and it secures our place at the top table next season. As ever when we win big, it's the Muhammadqodir Pirimov show - a couple of goals and an assist gets him the MoTM award. Again. 8 times in 19 games. Ilxomjon Ergashev is a striker who we bought in to star in the top tier, he has 1 goal in 4 league games so far, but helped us beat 3rd place Andijon in the final league game of the month. We end the month with a Cup Semi-Final against our rival - Qu'qon. Neither side would have expected to reach this stage. Neither side want to face Paxtakor in the final. Guatemalan semi-regular Alejandro Moreno got us going and we never looked back. I'll need to check the rules but we might have qualified for a Continental Cup just by getting to the final, as if we lose, Paxtakor are winning the league. Time will tell.

Flippin Flamengo Always next year

August 2061 Hudoyor Yo'ldoshev picks up the MoTM award for the away victory over 3rd-placed FK Iftixor Oltiariq. Our entire cup run in the Uzbek Cup has been against Non-League sides - can't complain about that, the latest was 3rd tier Yangiyer, we sneak through and have a Semi-Final to look forward to. We get League rivals Qu'qon in September. But that's then. Top of the table clash Klaxon - we welcome Qu'qon, the only side who have beaten us this season come to our house, and do it again. It puts them top of the table. We will meet again next season in the top flight. But before we get into the next month, we have our first International match - away to Iraq. We have 7 players in the squad who can make their debuts 12 of the squad are from Paxtakor - the dominant force in the country. We lead 2-1 but fail to see it through but technically our players scored more than theirs did! 5 debutants

July 2061 Loyalty is massive for me. 12 players have played for me across 2 clubs. Now, 1 has played across 3. Bob Croft played 146 times for Quintana at the start of his career, a further 36 at York United, and now at the end of his career he is trying Uzbekistan for size. The reality is that he is an expensive backup - but it ticks something off so happy days. Ilxomjon Ergashev has been bought in as well - he's a Uzbeki Striker from the top tier - not prolific in his career but better than what we had already. After a routine cup victory, it was back to league action away at the bottom of the table side and Mo Khan smashed in a hat-trick to secure another 3 points. We continue to march on