DaneBramage

May 2025 - Ndanda FC Championship Pretty good results. We won half of the remaining matches, including a hammering of JKT Tanzania which screwed up their push for automatic promotion. We nearly upset the eventual champions Prisons SC too, but they escaped with a point due to a missed penalty from our left-winger. Away form was a bit of a worry though. We only gained three points from a possible 12, compared to 10 at home. We gained one place in the table and turned the goal difference into a positive, so we'll call that a decent enough start to my time here. Before my arrival the team was averaging 1.18 points per game, during my time it was 1.63, so there's a big improvement which hopefully we can carry over into next season. -------------------------------------------------------------- History The immediate improvement in results shows there's some quality in this side, but additions are definitely needed in the summer. I don't know if we'll manage it next season, it might take another year, but I think there's potential for a promotion here. --------------------------------------------------------------

February 2025 - Ndanda FC One successful interview later, and I was off to Tanzania. Pre-season expectations were for a midtable finish, so the club is doing about as well as expected. And that was enough for the previous manager to get poached by the side bottom of the Premier Division. There's £115k in the bank, and the balance has steadily been increasing over the last year, so it looks like a well-run organisation. Training facilities and youth facilities are poor, junior coaching is fairly basic and youth recruitment is basic. All the board want from us for now is to avoid relegation, so I can use these eight games to get a handle on the squad and see what we need to improve on. --------------------------------------------------------------

November 2024 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Divizia A - Group B Our record for the second half of this stage was near identical to the first. Two losses, followed by a win and a draw, then another loss. The defeat to Olimp Comrat was a disaster. We somehow conceded twice despite them having an xG of just 0.15. The first was a mistake from our keeper, the second was a great volley from the edge of the area. There's definitely a clear divide here. We lost all our games to the sides above us, and our only points came from the sides below. We did the double over FC Ungheni and they were our only wins during this stage. Points are now reset to zero, and we go into an eight team relegation stage with the corresponding four from Group B. Bottom two go down. -------------------------------------------------------------- Available Jobs I'm a few months into the winter break now, and we return to action towards the end of March. But with no prospect of promotion this year, and since we're so far off the pace probably not next year either, I'm keeping my eye out for other opportunities. I did apply for a job with the team 5th in the Algerian second tier, but they just laughed at me. An application at Ndanda in the Tanzanian Championship may bear more fruit though, as I've been invited to an interview. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2024 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Divizia A - Group B The second tier has a bit of a wacky set-up. There's 12 teams in the division, but split into two groups of six. The top two from each group then qualify for a promotion stage, and it looks complicated at that stage so I'll worry about it if and when I need to. For now though, we haven't made a great start to life at this level. Performances haven't been as bad as results suggest, but ultimately it's the points that matter. On the opening day a draw would have been a fair result, but the opposition were clinical and we were not. It was the same story against Olimp Comrat, but even more extreme. We had an xG of 2.60 from 22 shots, but only five were on target and we didn't trouble the goalkeeper anywhere near enough. We battered FCM Ungheni for our one win so far. It should have been more emphatic, but I can't complain. I can complain about dodgy defending letting Spartanii Selemet steal a point though. And we were just rubbish away at Speranis Nisporeni. It's not looking good for our chances of reaching the promotion stage, and that's even having played a game more than a couple of teams. We'll need to do a lot better in the second half of this group, but I wouldn't put any money on it. -------------------------------------------------------------- Available Jobs There's a few jobs currently available in Tajikistan. I considered Lokomotiv-Pomir, with seven games left they were seven points off of 2nd place, which would see them get promoted. But their squad looked too thin, just one winger and one striker. So I'm sitting tight in Moldova for now. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2024 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Facilities We have over £60k in the bank so it made sense to spend some of it, even if the benefits from this probably won't come to fruition while I'm still at the club, but at least when it is time to go I'll be leaving the place in a better state. -------------------------------------------------------------- Departures The AssMan spent most of the summer tying players down to contracts now that we're semi-pro, but he couldn't keep hold of our best midfielder who chose to retire. -------------------------------------------------------------- Arrivals While there weren't many leaving, there were plenty joining the club. First, three of last year's loanees were renewed for another year. Then we added a new first-choice goalkeeper and a pair of midfielders, plus a sub defender and striker, The latter shares a name with a defender already at the club, hence the ST at the end of his name to differentiate them. --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2024 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Squad Stats This season was all about our four attacking stars. We scored 75 goals, and 65 of them came from this quartet. Ruslan Yefremov came out on top, with 22 goals, 13 assists, and an average rating of 7.93. -------------------------------------------------------------- History Wahey! The first promotion is in the bag. Admittedly it wasn't much of a challenge, but you've got to start somewhere. I have a decision to make next though. To quote The Clash, should I stay or should I go? Will having a crack at the second tier with this team give me the best shot at another promotion, or do I look elsewhere? --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2024 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Divizia B Nord It was never in doubt really. We had a decent lead going into the run-in, and we just kept winning when it mattered. The 6-0 win over Edinet was a record victory for the club, and eight wins in a row was a record streak. Dmitry Lisitsyn scored in the 1st minute of a match for the third time this season, improving the record fastest goal in a game from 47 seconds, to 32 seconds, then 22 seconds. 23c Vadim Chiper scored the first goal of an academy graduate. The final winning margin was 15 points, We were top of the table since week six, and after the winter break in particular no one could keep up with us. The title was wrapped up with four games to spare. We averaged over three goals a game, setting a record for the most goals scored in a season. FC Cahul embarrassed themselves, but at least they finally got some points on the board. --------------------------------------------------------------

March 2024 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Departures Just the one player left during the winter transfer window. Ordinarily losing the 5.0 star prospect from the last year's intake would be a disaster, but when the player in question is Turkish and we can't register foreign players in this division, it doesn't really matter. -------------------------------------------------------------- Arrivals We were busier bringing players in. I signed a midfielder, while the AssMan brought in a couple of defenders. All will go straight into the starting line-up. -------------------------------------------------------------- Youth Intake I've decided there's no point providing the full screenshot of the youth players, as few if any will make an impact on the team before I move on. So I've just included the top-rated, those who may appear next year if I'm still around. Only one player from the 2023 batch has featured for me, though they have played in every game so far, so there is a chance. --------------------------------------------------------------

December 2023 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Divizia B Nord Ruslan Yefremov had a great run through October, scoring four times in three matches, then adding another at the start of November for good measure. Then Sergey Rodin took over the baton, scoring six times in four games in November. We flopped in the final game of the year though. It was a low quality affair all round against FC Olimpia, but they were clinical with their chances and we were not. We're in a good position going into the winter break, five points clear at the top and with a far superior goal difference. Spare a thought for FC Cahul at the bottom. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2023 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Divizia B Nord A win on the opening day is the ideal way to start the season, but following it up with a loss to last year's runners-up wasn't good. A draw would have been a fair result, but a defensive calamity doomed us - their free-kick hit the crossbar, and then my left-back's attempted clearance hit the goalie in the face to ricochet in for an own goal. We were back on form over the next five games, picking up some big wins. In particular my wingers were flying, with 13 goals between them already. Ruslan Yefremov scored in all five of these wins. In comparison, my strikers were struggling a bit. Dmitry Lisitsyn has four goals despite missing some time with a knock, but Ion Bobrov has had a stinker with no goals yet. The loss to FC Singerei was dreadful. We had plenty of chances but just couldn't hit a barndoor. We're looking good, but that loss at the end of the month was a blow and allowed FC Olimpia to catch up. Edinet are also only a point behind. --------------------------------------------------------------

September 2023 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Qualifications First qualification ticked off. My reputation is obviously still very low, but it's given my stats a little boost. -------------------------------------------------------------- Departures A starting centre-back and goalkeeper were both stolen away. I also kicked out the crap right-back mentioned previously. So this left us a bit short of numbers at the back, so that was the priority for the transfer window. -------------------------------------------------------------- Arrivals My staff weren't as active as I hoped they were going to be. The only early movement was a new first-choice goalkeeper on loan (Alexandru Popa), so I had to get involved. I picked up two defenders from Inter Soroca. Neither are good, but they'll work as back-ups. Towards the end of the window my assistant brought in two more players; a sub striker, and a new first-choice right-back (Vyacheslav Zhikarev). --------------------------------------------------------------

May 2023 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita Divizia B Nord Should have won my first game in charge, but right-back Artem Lobanov missed a 95th minute penalty. Goals goals goals! Inter Soroca were 3rd in the table so it was a big win over them. We led from the start, but kept inviting them back into the game. Our attacking force had a field day. Then our attack one-upped themselves the following week, battering bottom club EFA Visoca. Ion Bobrov scored a hat-trick in his third game for the club. We couldn't continue in this fashion, though, and were again let down by Artem Lobanov. We were winning 1-0 until he got sent-off in the 31st minute, and we were never in the game after that. He's never playing for us again. We managed to allow Riscani to score with their only shots on target to give them a point, before getting back to winning ways at home. Our final games of the season were against a succession of midtable sides. Three good wins, and our strikers and wingers continued to fill their boots. A three place gain, I'm very happy with this. Just the one loss and we brought our goal difference up to a positive value. -------------------------------------------------------------- Squad Stats Artem Lobanov will be ditched this summer, two mistakes to cost us games is a career-ender under my management. Ibrahim Misyura and Ruslan Yefremov on the wings and Dmitry Lisitsyn and Ion Bobrov up top proved to be a potent combination. I've been using a fairly standard 4-4-2, as I'm pretty much tactically incompetent at coming up with anything else. -------------------------------------------------------------- History A good start, and one that gives me encouragement for next season. --------------------------------------------------------------

CF Locomotiva Ocnita - 2023 Youth Intake Before I'd had my first match, the youth intake for the year came through. These probably won't be massively important throughout the save as I'll likely be moving on before there's any impact (hence why only four players have been tagged, though all have been signed), but a 5 star CA player will always catch the eye. Unfortunately, it's not as good as it looks. The window to register players ended just a few days ago, so we can't start playing anyone yet. And we can't use foreign players in this league. So the top two, 23a Enes Aksu and 23b Tadas Juska, can't be selected anyway. Bummer --------------------------------------------------------------

February 2023 - CF Locomotiva Ocnita League and Expectations The media expectations at the start of the season were for a solid season, a top-half finish the target. But things haven't gone that way and with just three wins from 15 games the side are languishing in 10th. Only one team get relegated, so with a seven point gap down to EFA Visoca, we're probably safe barring disaster. -------------------------------------------------------------- Finances and Facilities We've got almost £21k in the bank. Doesn't sound like much, but everyone at the club is on an amateur contract and not being paid, so it may well be a healthy amount. Training facilities and youth facilities are poor, junior coaching is basic, youth recruitment is limited. Improving facilities isn't necessarily going to be something I focus on, as often times any upgrades made won't have any affect while I'm still there. -------------------------------------------------------------- The Squad At the moment I've delegated most jobs to the staff, though I did have to take back control of outgoings when they tried letting one of my best rated players go. I joined with a few weeks of the winter break remaining, so most of my time was spent asking players to stay at the club instead of moving elsewhere. Luckily no one chose to leave, and the club brought in another striker too (Ion Bobrov). There are a lot of horrible average ratings in this group, and apparently not a lot of quality in defence. Terrible personalities and determination too. The attack looks a lot better though, we should be able to get some goals out of these players. Dmitry Lisitsyn has a one-in-two record so far, we need this to continue but with more support around him. --------------------------------------------------------------

Set-Up I downloaded a pack with a bunch of additional countries, and after weeding out those with only one tier, and those without a promotion/relegation set-up, used a random number generator to select eight countries to start with it. Periodically countries will be rotated, to open up new opportunities and make this a bit of a worldwide journeyman game, playing in a load of places I've not touched before. And once I've (hopefully) seen a bit of success, the larger out-of-the-box countries will be added in. These are the first eight countries activated. The RNG has provided a lot of African representation, with six of the initial options coming from that continent. Elsewhere there is one Asian country, and one European country (which is also the only one with a third tier). The Job Search I started the game with a June 2022 commencement date, and then holidayed through to 1st January 2023 to let the gameworld take shape, and for the initial available jobs to be filled. Once January came I started applying for jobs, looking for openings in the lowest tiers only. My manager has no experience and no qualifications, so expectations should be at a minimum. He's English, with Swedish as a second nationality (that's my mistake - I meant to add it as a second language. Never mind, doesn't really make any real difference). I avoided applying for roles at clubs in their relegation areas, not wanting that on my CV at this early stage. Clubs looking at promotion were out of my reach, so midtable sides were more the target at this time. By mid-February I'd enquired about four jobs in four different countries, and was considered favourite by the local newspapers in both Moldova and Tanzania. All four invited me to interview and I attended each. None of them were prioritised or favoured, I would sign up with whoever offered me a job first. And so I was off to Moldova.

Intro Michael Prince loves promotions. He doesn't care about winning the league - ending up in 7th place and scraping through the play-offs is just as good as finishing top with a 15 point margin. The trophy would be nice, but it's not essential. The ascension to the next level is all that matters. He doesn't care about cup competitions. Waste of time. If his team makes it through a couple of rounds, fine, cool, but it's never the main objective. If ever there's fixture congestion and players need to be rested, it will be the cup that is sacrificed. He doesn't care about international football either. Waste of time. That being said, he does see some merit in the lower reaches of the Nations League. Objectives 1. Earn a first promotion. 2. Earn a second promotion. 3. Earn a third promotion. 4. You get the point. Promotion, promotion, promotion! Rules Just the one rule. If he ever reaches the top flight, he'll resign from that job. No point staying if there's no promotion possible. Other that that, he can stay with clubs or move around as he wishes. The only thing that matters is the quantity of promotions. Leading the same team up multiple divisions, travelling round and racking up a single promotion in different countries, either approach is fine.

NK Dornava - August 2038 Arrivals Three players returned to the club this summer. The most exciting of these was the prodigal son, 28a Sasa Pirc. He was a potential star that came through before we could offer contracts, so left as soon as he turned 17 without even stepping on the pitch for us. Despite having more than £11m spent on fees during his career, he's had a pretty terrible time of it, and had ended up back in Slovenia, at the same level as us. He scored a few goals for Prrimorje Ajdovscina, but then found himself released. We spent most of last year trying to get him to join, but instead he spent the whole season unattached. But we've finally got our man now, at the bargain price of £5 per week. He's got no pace, and he's never going to reach the heights that a Premier League move suggested he should have, but hopefully he can give us some goals. 30a Sandi Grbec is also back. In a three season run from 2031/332 to 2033/34 he provided 21 goals and 21 assists from the right-wing, so he'll be taking that spot back now. His career slumped away from us so he needs some rehabilitation. We'd somehow managed to end up with only one left-back in the squad, and he was awful (as highlighted in the 2037/38 season review). So I've also brought back 30e Grega Pihler. ------------------------------------ 2. SNL A win on the opening day is always a good time, and putting one over on Rudar Velenje on their own patch made it even better. Nice for 30a Sandi Grbec to get a goal on his second debut too. 10 years after coming through our academy 28a Sasa Pirc finally scored his first goal for the club, the only strike in a win against Beltinci. There were three losses also, these were pretty comprehensive and we didn't deserve anything from them. No point showing a table at this stage, but we're in 10th place. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - 2037/38 Season Review History, Finances, & Facilities Another successful year as we survived to fight for another year in the second tier. Everyone else in the division has a substantially better reputation than us. I'm hoping that another season or two at this level will see our reputation pop to 1.0 or 1.5 stars, and that will fix the sponsorship bug. Receiving less than £4k per annum (compared to £52k per annum up until 2034/25, when we were Obscure rather than Local) is killing our bank balance. ------------------------------------ Squad Stats 29k Thomas Brauner obviously had a great season. With 18 goals he wasn't just our top scorer, but top of the league too. Predictably though, the rest of the squad struggled with the step up. No one else managed more than five goals, and that was the maximum assists provided too. And some of the average ratings for first-choice starters were horrendous. Left-back in particular will be a troublesome spot next year. 35h Samo Dordevic started in the season in the team, but is joining Mura when his contract runs out.34g Ziga Lukac spent some time there, but his main role was at centre-back, and he'll be back at his parent club next year anyway. And 36f Milos Petrusic ended the season in this position, but his average rating of 6.23 is possibly the worst I've seen. Could also do with someone else scoring goals, but it looks like I might have a solution for that. ------------------------------------

There were definitely times I thought we were drifting into trouble, but then we'd pick up a win again just in time to stop it turning into too bad a run. I switch on and off between caring about personalities or not. At this stage there's not too much difference between someone being rubbish and someone being able to do a job, so I've accepted some lower determination stats than I normally would. But I think this summer I need to do a proper squad review and decide who to focus on. We currently have 52 players eligible to play (under 17s can't be selected), so really at least 20 of them should be cleared out.

NK Dornava - May 2038 2. SNL At the start of April we had a four point advantage over the teams in the relegation area, and a goalkeeper goal to secure victory at Videm increased that to seven points. Aluminij Kidricevo were too strong for us, and yet again we lost to a stoppage-time goal. This has been a real problem in recent months. Our next match was against bottom-placed Brinje-Grosuplje. We scored in the first minute, but conceded just before half-time (in stoppage-time of course). Luck was on our side in the second-half through. They missed a penalty, and we killed off the game late on. 36c Denis Kovac scored the final goal, and I don't recognise his name at all. Just too many players. Apparently he made 21 appearances this year, but 20 were from the bench. The wins during April saw our lead over the relegation threatened teams increase to eight points. We did our best to throw it away though, with three straight losses. Luckily, the teams below us couldn't quite do enough to catch up in this time. I think we were mathematically safe come the final day. We did concede first against Primorje Ajdovscina, but turned it around with a much better second-half performance to finish the season with a win. Lovely stuff. In the end there was a comfortable buffer between us and the bottom two. We went the whole season without ever being in the relegation places, though we were never far away either. ------------------------------------

NK Dornova - 2038 Youth Intake ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - March 2038 2. SNL Any suggestion that we're a one-man team would be completely accurate. 29k Thomas Brauner has 16 goals for the season, nobody else has more than four. This month alone his goals won us four points, and it would have been six if others could do their jobs properly. Against both Rogaska and Triglav Kranj we lost due to conceding stoppage-time goals, it could have been an unbeaten month otherwise. We're nowhere near being out of trouble, but we're keeping our heads above water at the moment. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - December 2037 2. SNL Our defensive record has improved, but we're still conceding goals at bad times. We could have been three points better off, but conceded in the 93rd minute against Primorje Ajdovscina, and at the end of both halves at our old enemies Rudar Velenje. We also didn't score enough. 29k Thomas Brauner is giving it his best effort, but not getting much support from his teammates. We're five points and four places clear of the relegation area. Judging by our goal difference we're overachieving at the minute, we're one of a group of teams that could still easily be dragged into trouble. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - October 2037 2. SNL This is what I feared, as we took some beatings in this period. Our defensive record is just horrendous, by far the worst in the division. I missed out on a league table screenshot, but I believe we were in 12th place at this stage. Only the bottom two get relegated so anything from 14th up will be seen as a success, but we're definitely trending downwards at the moment. ------------------------------------ Pokal Slovenije Ugh. A rotated side struggled past fourth tier opposition, then lost to a team from the third tier. ------------------------------------

NK Dornava - August 2037 Departures The sponsorship bug has caught up with us. Being deep in the red means that when an offer for actual cash came in for a starting centre-back, the board took it upon themselves to accept it. 34g Ziga Lukac was sold a few games into the season to Krsko, who are in the same division as us. We're getting £13.75k upfront, which could rise to £20k if he makes 10 appearances, There's also a 40% of profit clause. He's been sent back to us for the year, which is good for our hopes of survival. ------------------------------------ 2. SNL I see this going either one of two ways. Either we're competent from the off and never look like being in relegation trouble, or we're absolute no-hopers getting tonked every week. A big win on the opening day was a great start to our time in the second tier, though a home defeat to Rudar Velenje, a team I was glad to see the back off when they were promoted from 3. SNL before us, brought us back to down to earth. 29k Thomas Brauner brought his goalscoring form over to the new season with a brace either side of half-time against Dob to give us another away win. We had our first disastrous defensive outing at Bistrica. We weren't completely outclassed though, we gave them plenty of problems at the other end, but conceding five times is just too many to come back from. I'm happy with this. Just as many wins as losses and a positive goal difference. Good start, ------------------------------------