Where Can Football Take Me?

Season Summary

Having done a double (Of Sorts) with the Super League win and the All Stars win I am fairly satisfied but as you could probably tell the manner in which we lost the FA Cup Final really put a downer on a very progressive year. The Champions League exit was also something of a disappointment given our performances in the competition the previous year but not exactly unexpected. One thing I am delighted to say however is that Guangzhou's only trophy win was the insignificant Super Cup when they beat us at the start of the season but having pipped them to the league title and knocked them out of the FA Cup I certainly had the last laugh and can feel the sticking with Shandong was the right choice.



Here is the stats for the squad over the season, this is the squad that I am planning on beginning next season with plus the 2 signings i;ve lined up rather than the actual squad i've used. As you can see Mario Garcia & Shen Tianfeng are the real key figures for the year, sharing a staggering 59 goals between them with Garcia responsible for 39 of them! Tienfeng was also a creative force with 13 assists closely followed by the wide men Yeng Chengbin & Jin Hu. Charles Aranguiz has also been very solid in the centre of midfield or wherever he's been asked to play.

Firstly sorry for a lack of updates, I have been on a training course for work for the last 3 days which were incredibly long days and the evening was spent getting to know the rest of the people on the course so FM had to take a back seat. Anyway, back now so here we go...

Transfers



This young Brazilian full back comes in on loan from our parent club Santos and will provide back up to Maio, even though he is already a better full back he is our 5th foreign player and the other 4 are vital to the team so Alexi will see more reserve action than first team, but provides excellent cover.



Jaqi comes in for a measly £55k from Swiss Super League side Sion, despite spending his football career to date in France and Switzerland he has seen very little first team action and with his contract soon to expire Sion snapped my hand off to get a fee for him. His physical stats along with his work rate are very impressive.

Pre Season 2021



Friendlies are tough in China as there are very few teams willing to travel long distance and my board won;t allow me to travel so they are far easier games than I would have hoped for. Still satisfying to win all 6 without conceding any goals while banging in plenty ourselves.

Super Cup 2021



A very impressive performance and an unexpected easy trophy win to kick start the season, makes the Cup Final loss last season even more painful though! Mario Garcia was, as usual, outstanding scoring one and creating the other 2 for Charles Aranguiz & Yang Chengbin.

Champions League 2021



Here is the draw for the group stage, again i'm not sure what to expect and it could be tricky. Chunnum do not strike as much fear into me as some of the Korean sides would and I would anticipate Thai side Chonburi to be this year 'whipping boys' but being drawn with Japanese side Saitama who eliminated us in last season's first knockout round will make this group very challenging for us.



If I would have been offered a 2-2 draw away at Chunnum pre match I would have gladly accepted, however, given the circumstances of throwing away a 2 goal lead it's bitterly disappointing. We were looking comfortable at half time thanks to Charles Aranguiz & Mario Garcia's 2nd goals of the season but 2 horrendous errors from keeper Wang Dalei allowed Chunnum a share of the spoils. The first goal was a cross that Dalei strangely decided to palm into the net and in the final minute he decided to come running out of his box with the ball in his hands! A free kick was awarded and Dalei somehow got away with a yellow card but Sanchez stepped up and curled the ball into the top corner to make it 2-2. gutted!

March 2021







Only 2 league games this month to get the season underway, but what a fantastic start opening with a league and club record biggest win with an 8-0 demolition of Shenzhen. Mario Garcia continuing where he left off from last season bagging a brace and second half sub Xu Haiyang coming on to score a hat trick being particular highlights. The next game away at Jiangsu is one that I expected to be a bit tougher with them being the closest challengers to us and Guangzhou in recent seasons but it wasn't to be. Garcia again on the score sheet and his effort was added to by young super sub Zhang Xu and centre back Velazquez. Only 2 games in but top on goal difference as we are one of 4 sides that have opened with back to back wins.











3 Champions League group games this month and we have shown excellent form here too, opening with a 2-1 win over Japanese side Saitama before seeing off Chonburi as expected with a comfortable 2-0 win. The final game ended goalless at home to Chunnum which was a slight disappointment as I felt we deserved to win but our forward players forgot their shooting boots, and the Chunnum keeper was incredible. A very positive standing in the group though with 2 games to go, a draw at Saitama in the next game or a victory at Chonburi in the final game would secure our place in the next round.

Great start to the season! 8-0! really good champions league form and good work in winning the super cup!

Thanks George, i'm very pleased with the start to the season hopefully we can maintain it. The 8-0 was pretty special.

What a way to start the league season! Brilliant man!

Nicely done mate! I'm in a similar situation to you with Guangzhou however I'm falling short against the Korean team suwon in the ACL!

Was a great start, cheers.



Korean sides are much stronger, that's why I have their league open in case any top jobs come up.

April 2021





An almost perfect month in the league, 5 wins from 6 denied only by an 85th minute equalizer away at Rizhiquan which was a massive disappointment given that we should have won comfortably. Mario Garcia's form has been disappointing this month with just 2 strikes but thankfully we have goals coming in from all areas of the pitch at the moment, Yan Baoxiang, our young recruit from Sao Paulo, hit an impressive 4 goals in 6 league games.

The 3-2 win over Renhe was impressive in the manner of it fighting back from a losing position twice to snatch a late win thanks to a brace from super sub Shen Tianfeng, other than that results pretty much as expected but the away win at Shenhua who were one of the league's form sides was a great performance too.





A goalless draw at Saitama secured our passage and a solid 1-0 win at Chonburi despite rotating the first xi completely put us through as group winners, a very satisfactory start in the ACL with 4 straight clean sheets to end the group stages too.



And of course this is our reward, Suwon first up in the knockout rounds, this won't be easy!

Doing very well mate in all competitions!

Good luck mate! Looking on good form for the Suwon matches, I lost both group games against them but still managed to win the cup, hopefully you can fair better against them!

Thanks for the comments guys, however things have taken a sharp and sour turn in the wrong direction, don't know where this come from!

May 2021



We opened the month with a comfortable and routine 2-0 home win over Qingdao ...



Then this happened, absolutely gutted as not only did we deserve at least a draw from this game, this all but put us out of the Champions League again! We matched Suwon for the whole 90 minutes but for some reason our defenders forgot how to deal with crosses and suddenly they hit us for 4! Mental!



What?? A struggling Beijing side then smashed 4 past us as well, I have no idea what has happened here nothing has changed in the way we are playing, the players fitness ,levels and morale are all good, I am honestly dumbfounded about this!



I have to admit I started to dream when we went 2-0 up inside 15 minutes but then the defending like a bunch of clowns kicked in again and we found ourselves facing the mountain again! Their second goal was a cross that literally hit my keeper and went in off the post, no idea why he didn't just catch it! Thought we had lost the match again late on but rescued a meaningless draw! So 7-4 on aggregate and out we go again.



My Shandong days are over, I feel like i've performed really well for them and managing to overhaul Guangzhou was a massive achievement but the lack of quality Chinese players is hindering my Champions League chances and I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, I might regret this though. We currently have 6 of the Chinese regular starting xi and our 4 foreign additions are as good as we can attract so i'm struggling to see where we can make the required improvements to challenge in the Champions League.

For now it's time to search for the next chapter in my career.

Guangzhou?

China is notoriously tough but fortune sometimes favours the brave. If Guangzhou is available go with them otherwise hit up South Korea.

Wow that was tough! as everyone else said, Guangzhou if its possible!

Thanks for the comments guys, unfortunately I blew my chance with Guangzhou as I turned them down to stay at Shandong a year and a half ago, it looked like the right decision when we won the league and knocked them out of the cup but it's the Champions League that matters. If I remain in Asia it will be in South Korea but I have other leagues loaded so there may be a surprise yet, if only someone would give me a chance.

Shame about the form but you did well overall! Best of luck in wherever you go next!

Guangzhou can go through managers like haribo so just wait and see! I agree with the Korean idea, the Chinese talent is awfull unless you get amazing youth which is a complete gamble. You need a team that can win the ACL not a team that can just scrape through given the right games.. that's what happened with me! I was just incredibly lucky to come up against mostly sub par Korean and Chinese teams!

Yea I feel like I had my chance at scraping through to win it when I got to the final and lost to Ulsan, struggling to find an adequate job at the moment though might need to lower my expectations a little.

I've clearly underestimated my chances of securing a new challenge here, Guangzhou job came and went and they gave it to a guy who hadn't even been an assistant before let alone a manager! I can't get jobs at the bottom of Liga Adelante, Championship or any other divisions. This story may well be coming to an end here I think.

As you will have noticed by now the name of the story has changed, the description has also been tweaked and i'll give a little insight into why I have done this. As much as I was enjoying doing a pentagon I feel that the challenge of winning the Champions League was restricting the enjoyment of the game, I mean after all I was really enjoying managing Shandong and left there simply because I didn't feel they could ever really compete for continental glory, I don't want the rules of a challenge getting in the way of one of my most enjoyable ever FM saves so I have a new theory for this career.

The idea is just to see where the world of football can take me, having already managed in 2 countries that I have never ventured into before I am about to embark on another journey, another new country for me (yes, I finally got a job) and I want to really enjoy the game. I hope that all of you following this can understand and appreciate this and will continue to track my progress in the future.

There will an update shortly about my new club, for now though, thanks for reading.

Many jobs came up but struggling to be given an opportunity anywhere I was fearing the worst, I thought i'd finally found an opportunity at Belarusian Premier League side Vitebsk which was lower than I realistically hoped for but was a way back into football, only for them to appoint a management newbie ahead of me! From that moment I thought I was doomed and actually considered not even applying for this club, but thought why the hell not and now I sit here today as the new manager of ....





As you can see the club currently are in the Brazilian Second Division and I have accepted the job with the expectation of winning promotion, a heavy burden on my first season in Brazil but I have been given a fair £11.5M to spend with £265k per week wage budget, this gives me plenty of room to improve the squad.



The stadium is very unique with trees situated in 2 corners of the ground, but with a capacity of 38,000 (30,000 seated) this is more than adequate for a club of our standing.



I take over the club before the league campaign starts and just 5 days before a Semi Final 2nd Leg in the Northeast Regional where I have a huge task of overturning a 2-0 defeat against Bahia.



At a glance the squad certainly needs some work if we are to achieve promotion this season but I have the budget to make this happen, Marquinhos looking like the best player on the books, you may also notice we have a certain Paulinho (Of Tottenham fame) in the ranks, however he's getting on a bit now.


This is an exciting challenge for me and i'm really looking forward to getting back into management, the hard work starts now.

Best of luck mate! I agree the pentagon does sometimes restrict what you would do in a normal career!

Good luck mate! Big challenge on your hands now!

What a start to my reign at Vitoria, we controlled the game from start to finish and a change of striker was the difference in the end, Fabinho Fuba came on to bag a brace and level the tie for us and to be honest we could have turned the tie around completely in the 90, Alex saw an effort chalked off for offside and Andrade crashed a 30 yard screamer off the bar, it wasn't to be though and it came down to the lottery of penalties. We were to take first and when George stepped up and saw his effort saved it was looking bleak but the hero was keeper Gil who made 3 fantastic saves in a row to send us through to the final!!

Even better knowing that we had overturned the first leg loss against our big rivals in front of a sell out 38,000 crowd!



Here is our reward, a two legged final against Sport Recife of the division above us! This will be one hell of a challenge but it's a free shot at a trophy and we really have nothing to lose.

Transfer Update

Over the course of my first month in charge in Brazil I firstly moved out almost all of the current staff and set about bringing in better quality staff members with a better structure to it, then I moved on to addressing the squad weaknesses with 7 players coming in to the club for a combined total of nearly £8.5M I am fairly sure my spending is over and the squad is in good shape for the upcoming season. Here they are:



First to arrive was Marcelo Lomba, the experienced keeper comes in a short term solution for a lack of quality between the sticks, despite Gil's impressive performances I am not sure he is consistent enough to satisfy my expectations. Lomba spent 7 seasons at one of Brazil's top clubs in Santos as their regular number 1 playing 302 times for them before his release. Once the scouts had alerted me to his availability there was nothing obvious to put me off going for him and to my surprise there was no competition, he should still have plenty of action ahead of him so this is a real bargain.



Gonzalo Oliva was a second freebie in quick succession arriving from Argentina's Velez Sarsfield, he made 16 appearances in the Argentine Premier Division last season giving a good account of himself too and I was once again shocked to pick him up with no competition on a free transfer. A very good all round player who looks very solid for the season coming up in the Second Division.



Adriano Vagner arrives from division rivals Mogi Mirim in a £500k deal, he was a late blossomer in football terms having only stepped up to the professional level at the age of 22, he spent 2 seasons at Mogi Mirim before I brought him over to Vitoria. A major concern is his lack of finishing ability and a lack of flair but his speed, passing, crossing, dribbling and technique mean he has all the attributes necessary to create bucket loads of chances for our front men from his right wing position.



The biggest signing so far, and a new club record at £4M. Another well rounded full back who will compete for a place in the side against the impressive Willian Osmar, I've had to pay over the odds for this guy but he has the attributes to succeed not just at the level we are out but even at the next level, i'm delighted with the capture of Da Silva.



Left winger Pingo arrives on a season long loan from Sao Paulo, another good technical player but lacking finishing there should be stupendous chances created for our strikers. The concern here is his high aggression but hopefully we can keep that in check. This signing is a short term measure to provide backup for the winger who comes in.



20 year old centre back Jameloa is another signing from divisional rivals Mogi Mirrim and another that has set me back a fair chunk of money, he has been capped 5 times at U20 level for Brazil and has the potential to be a future international regular, however he does lack speed. Looks very much like a no nonsense kinda player who will put his body on the line for his team.



This guy is the best signing of the lot in my opinion, Santiago Martinez comes in from Newelll's Old Boys for a bargain £115k as his contract was due to expire in 6 months. He combines pace, power, technique and ability which stands him in good stead to have a fantastic future with us in Brazil, he made over 100 appearances at Newells since coming through their youth setup and i'm looking forward to managing him at Vitoria.

That's the lot, there are no positions that I currently anticipate making changes and I am confident my squad is good enough to challenge for the romotion the board and fans are expecting.

Some pretty good signings

Cheers PT.

Here is how the squad stands now, the ability & potential ratings will e different as I have a new assistant with better judgement.

March 2022



We started the month with an impressive 0-0 draw away at Sport Recife in the first leg of the Northeast Regional Final, things were looking fantastic when we took an early 2 goal lead but we somehow fell apart conceding 2 before HT to go in level, the final nail was put in the coffin midway through the second half and we (as expected) had to settle for second best, which was a shame as we didn't deserve to lose, we were fantastic over the 2 legs.

We got our state championship underway very successfully with 4 straight comfortable wins scoring 16 goals and conceding just once, with 4 games to go in the group stages we are looking good. The final game of the month was another comfortable win but by a much smaller margin than we deserved, we missed chance after chance but had to settle for the single goal, this still puts us in a great position to progress to the next round of the cup.



We sit joint top of our group alongside rivals Bahia, the way that the groups work is that you play each of the sides in the opposite group to you 2 times (So we play all of Group B home and away) and the top 2 teams in each group progress to the Semi Final ... crazy right?

I don't understand why players like this have such terrible scout recommendation rating or potential rating, when he clearly is gonna be insane ?

Looking good so far mate! Like the change in the story, pentagons do limit what you do which is why I'm doing a 'slow' version