DaneBramage

July 2035 Job Search After I resigned from Dushanbe-83 I was offered my first international job, taking on the reins of the Tajikistan national team. With no prospect for promotion though, I had to turn it down and focus on finding a role in Tahiti. Looking for a job in Tahiti severely limited my options though. There were 12 teams in Ligue 2, but six of them were B teams for bigger clubs. So in reality there were only six to aim for. AS Excelsior were struggling near the bottom of the table, so I declared my interest in the role and the media immediately made me favourite for the job. But they stuck with their manager, and after the midway league split they performed much better and finished top of the relegation play-off group. This resulted in his job status becoming secure again. In the end, it turned out to be none of the current Ligue 2 clubs that I signed with. I was still unemployed come the end of the season, so I looked at the Ligue 1 sides who were being relegated. AS Punaruu sacked their manager, and I pounced. --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2034 - Dushanbe-83 Squad Stats With his 19 goals Shahboz Habibov was the league's top scorer. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Although it looked like it might not happen at times, I added another promotion to my record. Luckily whenever we slumped we managed to turn it around before it ended up as a big problem. -------------------------------------------------------------- Language I've learnt Tajik to a good level. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Here we go again. With Asia ticked off, that now leaves just Oceania. And Tahiti is the only nation with a second playable league eligible (Tuvalu has a second division, but doesn't have promotion between the two). So for now I will be only be looking out for jobs in Tahiti (although that may change if it takes too long and I get bored). --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division Well this is a good time to turn competent again. The win against Barkchi confirmed promotion, the win against second placed Vahdat gave us the title, With the amount of goals we scored this should have been more convincing, more than once I thought we were going to bottle it. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division Well this is a bad time to turn rubbish again. The one positive is that the one win against Kuktosh was a 1st v 2nd clash, losing that one would have been disastrous. It could be any two from the top three, I wouldn't like to bet either way at the moment. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division There was a month's break after our last game in July, so I put together a couple of friendlies to keep us active, and also hopefully see us play our way back into form. And it worked. Since then we've gone six games unbeaten, scoring 18 times. Shahboz Habibov scored in each of these matches and is now at 16 for the season. We dropped to third after the draw with Shohmansur, but now we're back in the driving seat. Vahdat struggled this period, only picking up six points from six games. --------------------------------------------------------------

July 2034 - Dushanbe-83 First Division The odds for us to win the league were 91-1 on. So that tenner would get me a return of about £10.11. But after six games we're looking good for that 11p profit. After 11 games however, we very much are not. Our form has just imploded with four losses in the last five games. The 5-4 loss to Dushanbe was just embarrassing. We were 3-1 up with then minutes left, then 4-3 up with two minutes left. Just appalling all round to throw that away. Top two get promoted, and we're there at the halfway stage. But if we continue as we have been we'll swiftly be overtaken by the chasing pack. --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2033 - Dushanbe-83 First Division Well that was easy. Don't know what they were doing before to be in such a mess. Ended up in midtable, a long way out of trouble. -------------------------------------------------------------- History I'll put a tenner on us winning the league next year. --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2033 Job Search Tajikistan also run a summer league, so when I applied for the job it was near the end of the season with four games remaining. A few weeks later I got the Dushanbe-83 role, with just two games remaining. And it is tight at the bottom. Our final two games are against Fayzkand (2nd) and Mohir (11th). Beating Mohir will be the vital one, get that wrong and we could well be relegated, which would make for a very short spell here. We've scored just 14 goals all season, and our top scorer has two. This may have been a silly move. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2033 - Atyra Squad Stats I'm pleased with four players getting into double-figures, our left-winger and two strikers were generally deadly throughout the season. Not that I'm going to, but I think this would have been a fun squad to carry on with and give a go at a higher level. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Lucky number seven, again completed within two seasons. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Once more into the unknown. With South America ticked off I'm planning now to move to Asia or Oceania. And there's no wasting time, I've already thrown my name into the hat for a job in Tajikistan. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2033 - Atyra Division Intermedia After that first loss I was a bit worried that the FM Gods were going to spite me, but we rebounded with three straight wins to wrap up promotion with a game to spare. 32 points in the first half of the season, 29 in the second. The drop-off wasn't as severe as I'd thought, just one fewer win. San Lorenzo ended strong but could only pull back one point on us. --------------------------------------------------------------

August 2033 - Atyra Transfer Business My recruitment team brought in two Brazilians on free transfers, and four Paraguayans on loan. -------------------------------------------------------------- Division Intermedia Five wins out of ten in the league. Still pretty good, but not up to the standard that we were before. Whether it's all the incomings during June causing the team to lose some cohesiveness, or our best two players Juazinho and Jesus Amarilla missing games with injuries, there were games where we just weren't at the races, and we lost three away matches in a row. Luckily it's just been a few knocks, rather than anything substantial keeping them out for a longer period, but it is worrying that missing just one or two players can cause us to drop off so much. We're still top, but the gap to third place has been reduced. There's five games left this season, so we should have done enough to clinch another promotion, bar a disastrous run-in. --------------------------------------------------------------

June 2033 - Atyra Transfer Business Eight of our squad retired over the winter, and we also sold striker Roque Florencianez. We brought in four teenagers, made up of two loanees, and two Brazilians on permanent deals. This has left us a bit short of numbers up front, the back-up wingers and strikers aren't really up to scratch. -------------------------------------------------------------- Division Intermedia You can't really do much better than a 6-0 win to start the season, and 10 points from a possible 12 made it a very good fortnight. We had nine games in April though, so this wasn't sustainable. We had to switch to having two separate teams for the weekend and midweek fixtures. And the attacking quality in the second-string line-up just wasn't there. The weekend unit continued winning, but the rotation XI lost three in a row, the only goal in this time coming from a first-team substitute. Luckily, the fixture congestion slowed down in May. We could focus on just picking the strongest squad available again, and put together a five game unbeaten run. Jesus Amarilla has been bang on form, scoring 15 times in 15 games. Top of the table at the halfway stage. We have a six point lead over 3rd place, but if we do slip up there are plenty of teams ready to pounce. We now have a three week break, then the summer transfer window will be opening. At present there are two pre-arranged signings happening, my recruitment team again looking at cheap, young Brazilians. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2032 - Atyra Squad Stats I haven't had much time with these players, but just look at Miguel Angel Alfonzo. 18 goals in 13 games, pretty much every goal every hour. And an 8.01 average rating, incredible. I very much hope we can bring him back next year. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Seven clubs in 11 years, that's some good country-hopping. I reckon we'll be in a good place for success next season. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Despite having never heard of it before, I've learnt Guarani to a basic level. --------------------------------------------------------------

October 2032 - Atyra Division Intermedia We started well with a win in my first game in charge, Jesus Amarilla instantly impressing with a hat-trick. You'd think that would make him my favourite player, but that wasn't the case as my AssMan played a blinder at the end of the transfer window. An 18 year old striker called Miguel Angel Alfonzo was brought in on loan, and he is by far the best quality player I've had at my disposal so far in this career. I'd be happy with him as a young player at a better club in any save. Perfectionist too. He made an immediate impression, and we went on a seven game winning streak with him scoring 10 times. After scoring against Fernando de la Mora though he got sent-off, ruling himself out of our next game. And we lost that one heavily. We'd just about snuck into an outside shot at promotion, but that loss ended any slim hope. Miguel Angel Alfonzo redeemed himself with a hat-trick on his return, and we picked up 10 points from our final four games of the league season. We ended the year with a couple of cup ties, and although cups are stupid and irrelevant, it was fun watching Miguel Angel Alfonzo smash a four goal haul past a side in the Primera Division. We made good progress up the league, but started from too far back to really challenge. --------------------------------------------------------------

July 2032 Job Search I'm off to Paraguay then. I'm glad Atyra offered me a job before Andijon did, taking over a team already top of their league would have felt a little cheap, even for the purposes of this project. Since I applied for the role Atyra have fallen one place, to 11th. The top two get promoted automatically, but we're not in that conversation this year. Three teams get relegated, but because this is South America it's not that simple. It's based on average ratings over the past three seasons (currently only two as that's when this league was activated), and we're probably safe for now assuming we don't fall apart. --------------------------------------------------------------

July 2032 Job Search While I was unemployed I received a couple of offers from Bosnian sides in the division I'd just left. I believe these were the first offers I'd been sent unprompted, without having applied myself, but I had no wish to go back there at this time. I instead had my eye on another role, one in Paraguay. After a poor run of form, Atyra had slumped to 10th in the second tier and sacked their manager. While waiting for that to pan out, over in Uzbekistan Andijon's manager was poached by a side in the Superleague. Thus this opened up a promising opportunity at the top of the table, a prime candidate for a quick promotion. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2032 - NK Travnik Squad Stats Just realised I have this ordered by games rather than position. That's annoying. Eldar Muminovic ended the season with the highest average rating, but with 10 goals more I'd say it was Andrey Xaybullayev that carried us through this year. -------------------------------------------------------------- History I didn't expect a promotion this season, this one came as a surprise. I know the created leagues are easier than the out-of-the-box competitions, but even so I thought that it would be more of a challenge. Kept up my record of never needing more than two seasons to gain a promotion. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages My Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, and Croatian have all improved from good to fluent. -------------------------------------------------------------- Job Search Job's done here, time to move on. I think this was the first time the board didn't accept my resignation immediately, they invited me to a meeting to try and convince me to stay instead. I now have four African promotions and two European promotions, it's time to focus on South America, Asia, and Oceania. After that, then I'll move on to the OOTB nations. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2032 - NK Travnik First League When we dropped points to Mladost (DK) the gap was reduced to six points, which by itself was still a comfortable margin. But in second place Zvijezda Gradacac were unstoppable, and they were generally playing earlier than us, so the lead would temporarily go down to just three points. We kept our heads though, and picked up three consecutive wins to secure the title and promotion with a game to spare. We lost on the final day to end the season on a low, but it didn't matter. Look at the form of the nearest two challengers. It's good that we'd built up enough points early on, as three losses in the final eight games left things a little tighter than it should have been. Had the season been just a couple of games longer we may well have missed out. --------------------------------------------------------------

April 2032 - NK Travnik Transfer Business An old centre-back from our subs bench was sold for a minimal fee to a Finnish club, and three young players came in on loan (two centre-backs and a left-winger). -------------------------------------------------------------- First League Five wins from eight. A good record and haul of points, but we're not playing anywhere near as well as we were before Christmas, and we're scoring considerably fewer. The wins have also been pretty tight, each coming with only a one goal margin of victory. Two heavy away losses during April was not part of the plan, especially to the two sides directly below us in the table. We've extended our lead to eight points with five games remaining. It should be in the bag, but we can't afford to keep losing games. --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2031 - NK Travnik First League October was a very busy month, but at least we went out of the cup at the first time of asking. The midweek team won all three of their league matches, the weekend team won three and lost one. That one loss was an aberration of a game, both sides were terrible defensively, with us narrowly worse. The nine goals came from a combined xG of just 2.67. Four straight wins, lovely stuff. Andrey Xaybullayev is up to 18 goals for the season, averaging a strike every 75 minutes. We're past the halfway stage now and we have a lead of seven points, and a massive goal difference. It's looking good for another promotion. Four month break now for winter. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2031 - NK Travnik Transfer Business Nine players left over the summer, along with a couple of loanees returning to their parent clubs. Only four came in, and I had to boost our numbers by promoting a few players from the Under-19 squad. Some senior members of the team weren't happy with this, and I had to have couple of meetings to pacify them. The support for me isn't very high currently, and we lost all but two of our pre-season friendlies. -------------------------------------------------------------- First League Nonetheless, we've smashed the start of the season. 15 goals from an xG of roughly 6. Obviously that's not sustainable, but it's an incredible way to begin. Especially for Dragan Markovic who managed a three minute hat-trick on his debut. September was a busy month with a couple of midweek fixtures, so the second-string were drafted in for the Wednesday night games. The 4-4 draw with Radnik (H) was a dramatic one, the second-string were 4-0 down at half-time, then the starting strikers came on and miraculously rescued a point in the final 15 minutes. That was part of a rocky few games, but we ended the month strong with three consecutive wins and clean sheets. My starting strikers Andrey Xaybullayev and Eldar Muminovic already have 17 goals between them. We've got the early lead, but there are several clubs just behind us, including Gorazde, the only team to have beat us so far. --------------------------------------------------------------

June 2031 - NK Travnik Squad Stats Such an old squad. And the two best performing players (by average rating) will be leaving when their loan deals end. The recruitment team will need to do some magic over the summer. -------------------------------------------------------------- History This didn't go to plan. We only won six games out of 13, and dropped a spot down the table. And all six of our wins came against sides that finished in the bottom half of the table. Anyone half decent we struggled against. At each job so far I've managed a promotion within two years. I don't see that being the case here. -------------------------------------------------------------- Languages Languages are easy. In just seven months here I've added Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, and Croatian at a good level to my repertoire. --------------------------------------------------------------

June 2031 - NK Travnik First League Two big wins to start May saw us jump back up into 2nd place, equal on points with TOSK. But then the curse of the late goals came back to strike us again, throwing away a point in the 94th minute against Mladost (DK). TOSK could only draw so we stayed a point behind them, but we couldn't keep up. A loss to Brastvo (G) saw us drop away, and a big win on the final day was just a consolation. The back-to-back losses hit us hard. Zvijezda Gradacac and Rudar (Ka) both hit form in the final run-in and overtook us, meaning we could only finish 4th. Incidentally, TOSK were the side that didn't offer me an interview. Looks like they made the right decision. --------------------------------------------------------------

That's a great article, thanks. I did try searching for most promotions, but most I could find was Neil Warnock being promoted seven times. According to his Wiki this fella added another promotion a couple of years after that article to make it 11 in total. And all from the same division too, incredible.

April 2031 - NK Travnik First League We had a third game in a row against a struggling side, and we made it three wins in a row. That was the end of the good news though. The problem is conceding late goals. We were winning against Sloga Uskolje, then conceded in the 82nd and 91st minutes. It was even later against Zvijezda Gradacac, throwing away a 2-0 by conceding in the 87th and 93rd minutes. At least Andrey Xaybullayev is having a good time. Somehow, we're still in the mix. Despite our poor form we haven't dropped away as most of the other contenders have been struggling for results too. That's left the door open for TOSK to storm their way up to the top. --------------------------------------------------------------