The Flying Scotsman. A Hall of Fame career

Cheers man, Warriors have it all to play for so we won't take them lightly. The bookies have made us favourites for a reason, so hopefully we can live up to it

If there was any doubt in my mind if leaving a stable role in Hougang for Albirex, these first 2 games proved my decision right. Absolutely dominating Tampines Rovers, despite only managing 1 goal and exploiting Hougang’s weaknesses despite a red card, I know this team can at the very least challenge for a top 2 spot.







Complacency seemed to be the issue against Home United, but after an aggressive team talk and some rotation in the line up, defending champs Warriors felt the full wrath of our desire to be as dominant as possible.





We rounded out the first month of my reign with a draw at home to Young Lions, we could’ve and probably should’ve scored more but we end the month second in the league but plenty of time to improve where we can.







March came and went in a flash as we recorded 2 wins, and a loss to keep in second place, 2 points behind Home United who have 2 games in hand and have won all 6 of their games.





It’s not panic stations time yet, there’s still plenty of games to go to make up ground on Home United. We assert our dominance in April with wins over DPMM and my former team Hougang United, and on the same day Home United lose their first game of the season, going down 3-2 away to Tampines Rovers which helps us move into top spot for now









I didn’t realise but after leaving Hougang, last season tops scorer Pablo Rodriguez signs for Geylang International and helps them win 2-1 away at Home United to keep them in second and us top of the league after 10 games. It’s now on us to make sure we stay there.





Before we play Home United we manage a 2-1 away win over Young Lions to keep the good work so far going.



As the match preview says we’re overwhelming favourites to win the game



And win the game we do, however it wasn’t all plain sailing. Despite having many shots on goal, we only converted one of them, and Home United did look threatening throughout the game. Still, a win is a win and against second place helps us in maintaining our dominance.



We end April with a 1 all draw against the champions Warriors, and this means we finish the month unbeaten and top of the league by 5 points.







The one thing I’ve noticed is that this side has a lot of shots, we dominate games but we’re not exactly very clinical in front of goal. We could easily win by 5 goals in every game if our finishing was better, whilst not a cause for concern just yet, it’s something I’m going to keep an eye going into the next few months of the season. If we’re really going to dominate and take the league by storm, converting as many of our chances as possible is going to be key.

Next update will cover May to July’s games, any news in the world of football and anything else of note.

Thanks for reading.

5pt lead! Nice of Pablo Rodriguez to help you out too!

Yeah going well, a nice little cushion early on always helps. I'm a bit surprised by him joining Geylang though, he refused a new contract at Hougang but Geylang aren't exactly a top team, but we'll see how he gets on

As the season in Singapore runs from February to November, and it's the end of May, we'll take a look at the European Leagues that have just finished to see who won each.

First up Atletico made it back to back La Liga titles



Man City made sure the Premier League trophy went back to Manchester, this time to the blue side as United won it last season



Somewhat surprising in Italy as Napoli won Serie A with Juventus finishing 4th and 14 points off top spot



Another surprising result, this time in France with Monaco winning Ligue 1 on goal difference



Also slightly surprising is the Russian Premier league isn’t going to Moscow or Saint Petersburg, as Rubin Kazan won the league



No surprises in Germany or Portugal as Bayern & Benfica won their leagues, again





Which brings us to Scotland. Last season was a big surprise as Hearts of all teams won the SPL, this season surprising absolutely no one Celtic won the league, however it’s the bottom of the league that I am interested in



Motherwell were flirting with relegation all season and managed to finish in the relegation play off places. Luckily for them they managed to win the play off game to live to fight another day. Hopefully for Motherwell this season is just a blip and not a sign of things to come





In our own season, May kicks off with confirmation my replacement at Hougang isn’t enjoying the best of times at my former club. I could see this coming a mile away, it’s a shame they couldn’t do much about it.





Our form continues with a good win over Geylang International, before a poor result at home to Balesiter preceded a great away win over DPMM







Confirmation of Warriors season going from bad to worse as well as they sack their manager, the same manager that won the league last season with them.



Singapore cup quarter final first leg now as we didn’t show up with our finishing boots on at all and went down 2-0 away to Balesiter. The saving grace is that there’s a second leg to play



It was in the second leg where we really showed our mental toughness. Going in at half time we had managed to go in at 2-0, meaning the next 45 minutes were key to us as we’re now drawing 2 all in the tie





To finish off July we smashed Tampines Rovers 4-1 to finish on top of the league with 38 points







With 7 games left to go in the league, it's our to lose. I can't see us going on a 7 game losing streak now and the title is within touching distance.

Next update will be the final set of games for this season, thanks for reading.

Looking good! Thought Balestier Khalsa were becoming a bogey team for you, luckily that second leg puts that idea to bed!

Cheers mate, Balesiter seem to step up when they play us. Am still confident tho

Just catching up with your story, the end of last season must have been frustrating - looking much better going into the end of this season with your new team though. Good luck, keep it up for that final push mate!

Thanks man, glad to have you here following

To start this update off we’ve got the small matter of the World Cup final to discuss, and it was Germany that won it after a 3-1 win over Belguim.





In our season we had the Starhub League cup start, and we kicked off with an incredible 6-1 win over warriors, a 2-0 win over Tampines before rounding out Group B with a poor 2-0 loss to Home United. The loss wasn’t the best result but we had qualified from the group by that point.



We’re drawn against DPMM in the semi final, a game we should win





In the semi final first leg we more or less booked our place in the final with a 3-0 away win over Warriors, only a catastrophic showing in the return leg will stop us getting in the final.



Before that second leg we had a league game against Home United in which we drew 1 all. Not bad considering I rested the majority of the team to keep them fresh for the cup.

The first leg result proved decisive as we drew our second game in a row 1 all, but we’re in the final of the cup.





Where we’ll play DPMM, who knocked us out of the league cup, revenge is certainly on my mind.



With only 5 games to go in the league, we absolutely spanked my former team Hougang 5-0 before beating Warriors 1-0, the red card they got certainly helped us.





On the same day as that win away at Warriors, I was greeted with this result






Now before the game I’d already made my mind up that I am going to be leaving Albirex. I came here for the league title and the league title is what I got this year. I’ve already won both of the cups with Hougang, so winning it again whilst it would be good, it won’t be the end of the world if DPMM do turn us over. With that said, I am going to give everything, as always to win this game.







Do we end on a high, or a sour note?



Now I had decided that I was going to leave Albirex after this game, however after seeing this cup final and how I’ve actually had fun with this team, I am going reconsider staying.

Next update will be end of season stuff and the next steps in the career, if I stay at Albirex or if I leave. Thanks for reading.

Congrats on the double! Moving up nicely in your career. Interested to see your next decision.

Thanks for the support as always man, think if I do leave Albirex I'm going to stay in Asia, but either way hopefully some more competition wins.

Congrats on the double mate ! Good season good luck for the next one !

Cheers mate

Matched me fella, well done. What next for your career?

Sure did mate, You'll see shortly

To start this update off we have end of season stuff as Menda gets the fans player of the year, and it shows us playing a 4-2-3-1 yet I never once played that formation this season, it’s been 4-4-2 every game so I’m confused by that, as well as the standard season review.





After 2 and half years in management, 2 clubs and 4 trophies, Vince Lloyd has accumulated an incredible 36 points towards his hall of fame total, he just needs another 1822 points to get to tenth place in the worldwide hall of fame…



I spent a couple of days looking at the job center and seeing who’s job was insecure / precarious and there was a couple of decent looking jobs. Inverness in Scotland was precarious but firstly I’m not sure if they’d go for me yet and I’m not really thinking about going to Scotland just yet. Before looking in Singapore there are a lot of jobs in Malaysia, with 4 looking really interesting, Johor Darul, Penang, Sarawak and Selangor all look like a step up and progress, as well as 2 jobs in South Korea that look really worthwhile. With all these potential openings, and the fact I’ve won all I can in Singapore, I decide that I will stick to my original decision and leave Albirex Niigata. It’s been a pleasure.







As soon as I leave Albirex I apply for 2 jobs in South Korea, Anyang and Gangwon, both in the second division known in game as K League Challenge.





I’m also curious as to my standing in the footballing world, particularly in Asia. Does winning 3 cups and the League in Singapore make you attractive to other teams in Asia?



So back to the job center, and to my surprise quite a lot of vacancies have been filled, now there’s still jobs in Singapore, namely at cup runners up DPMM where Barry Ferguson left as well as Geylang International, but I don’t want to go back there and will be removing Singapore at the end of the year, so I look at Malaysia again to see that only Penang and Selangor are available in the Super League, I don’t really want to go to the second division, that seems a step down for me, and apply for both.





Word quickly gets out that I’m interested in the Selangor job and I’m invited to an interview to which I attend.





Shortly after I’m also invited to an interview with Penang, again I go to it.



After looking at both teams, recent finishes, I’m hopeful either of these teams take me on. Selangor are the runners up in the Super League and Penang finished way down in 9th, but I’d be confident with either team.

Before either of the Malaysian teams get back to me, my former reserves manager at Albirex Saswadimata Dasuki is promoted to the managers job, good luck to him.



I then get news that I’m not getting the Selangor job, with the board going for a local manager just like the 2 Korean teams did.



So it’s fingers crossed time as I am now only in the running for 1 job, Penang. It seems a long few days waiting around before I eventually get the message:



Not quite sure about a virtually unknown manager, however I’m happy to be here after getting 3 rejections. A decent sized club, they’ve won the Super League 3 times, the league and FA cup a couple of times as well as being a fairly decent size overall in Malaysia. I feel this is a good chance to continue my progression up the ranks of the hall of fame



A club with some decent history, I think there is certainly room to improve it’s recent fortunes and hopefully win some more trophies.

The first thing I do is agree mutual terminations of the contracts of the staff already here, and bring in my own team.









Chief Scout Andy McKenzie, physio Paul Spencer, first team coach Steven Thompson and of course my right hand man Jim Love, all join as they had left Albirex when I did.

Before I joined Penang I had done a bit of scouting, and to my surprise last season Malysia Super League top scorer Patrick Wleh had actually been released by Kuala Lumpur, so I went straight in for him and after agreeing what I would say is a pretty low contract, he’s joined us on an initial 1 year deal. Here’s hoping he can bang in some goals for us.









To continue improving the team we sign center half Mohd Aidil Zafuan from Perak, as well as making what I would say is a surprising loan signing. Robbat Gary Steven joins on loan from Selangor, he was transfer listed as wants to leave the club, so I put in a loan offer and managed to him and agreeing to pay his wages. I’m guessing Selangor may be in financial trouble this would be why they’d let him join us on loan.







Joining those 2 is another center half, Mohd Syawal Nordin from Kedah, and Scottish right full back Jamie Henry.





The clubs finances are listed as okay, and there’s still some money left to get more staff in, joining me on this leg of the journey is defensive coach Jason Butterfield and goalkeeping coach Dumisani Ngcobo.









So with 5 new signings, a new back room in place and a lot of desire to get cracking, the new season is almost upon us, and the season preview has us finishing around 5th in the league.



I’m confident we can get 5th at the absolute minimum finish this season.

In the build up to the first game the team have only been working on tactics in training, my favored 4-4-2 approach, with the aim of getting as many balls in to target man Wleh and getting him as many opportunities as possible to grab some goals for us.



We’ve got title favorites Selangor at home first, a tough test but one we’ve got to confident of getting a result from.

Next update will be the first few months of the new season in Malaysia, and any other business.

Thanks for reading

Bring on Malaysia then!

Interesting next move, best of luck! Wleh could end up being a smart piece of business.

Yeah for sure, looking forward to seeing what I can do here.

Cheers man, bit strange how Kuala Lumpur let the leagues leading scorer go on a free, I;m not moaning though, here's hoping he bangs in a few.

I know I said I was going to hold off on FM20, but the excitement got the better of me, so this save is on hold.

I've actually done a lot on this save and had a lot to write up, for what it's worth Vince has won trophies in Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, America and a certain job came up in his native Scotland , but that's where we leave it. I've pre ordered FM20 and have been playing the beta, and won't lie, I've got the bug for a new FM again.

I will return to this save at some point, but for now it is on the shelf. You can read my opening beta thread here.

Thanks to those who have read this save, I hope you'll read my beta thread and my upcoming thread for FM20, once the full game is released.