Where will life take me?

Meet Will Owen: about to embark on a new career as a football manager.

In many ways, he's just like me: 45-years old, born in Chester with Welsh as a second nationality. Supports Everton. Speaks French, as well as English (and Welsh, which I don't really, but comes with the Welsh second nationality).

Unlike me - he played semi-pro; and has the lowest coaching badge - National C.

We'll be starting unemployed, with a large database and a large number of leagues added, and we'll see where life takes us. Previous best journeyman took me from Malaysia to managing PSV Eindhoven

And away we go…

I wish you Good luck !

The first batch of applications is in - but alongside any club job, I'll be tasked with taking New Zealand Under 23s through qualification for the Olympics. Qualification should be achievable:

As we head in to October, no club team is minded to take a chance on an unproven manager.

But maybe that will change - because 5 straight wins at the OFC Olympic Qualifying Tournament leave us with a 100% record and as tournament winners.

So a first piece of silverware, and more importantly qualifications for the Olympic Tournament in Paris in 2024!

After qualifying for the Olympics, three more friendlies have resulted in three more wins.

By December, NZ U23 under my management have played 8, won 8 - scored 30, conceded 9 with a positive goal difference of +21.

And still not even an interview for a club job!

Still no interest from any clubs by May! I've never seen this on any previous journeyman save, so I'm not quite sure what's going on.

Next up are the Olympics, and we've been drawn into a tough group:

I took the New Zealand Under 23s job on the basis that qualification was possible, and we achieved that. Hopefully my reputation will improve with results at the Olympics proper which will allow me to get a club job. Any club job!

Taking the Des Buckingham managerial route, I see. 😁

On my save I went from late 2028 to early 2031 with only a few interviews which was unusual compared to my past experience on old FMs, so perhaps SI have tweaked something in regards to securing a job in FM24?

Something strange does seem to be going on with my Manager Reputation, which I'll post about later…

But on to the Olympics.

It's only an 18 man squad for the Olympics, and I can now pick three over-23 players, so I have to be ruthless.

Chris Wood of Nottingham Forest (and formerly Newcastle and Burnley) comes in to lead the line, and I also bring in Niko Kirwan at right-back and Callum McCowatt onto the left wing.

The Dominican Republic have also qualified, so we arrange a friendly as a warm-up, and beat them 5-1, with Wood getting a hat-trick and McCowatt one of the other goals.

Bring on the Olympics:

We got off to great start in the Olympics, beating Israel 3-1:

Mali are up next, who lost to Argentina in their opening game. Another win would virtually guarantee us a Quarter-Final spot!

But it wasn't to be. We never really got going, and despite it only being 1-0, we never put any pressure on or had any clear chances to equalise.

So it's all on the Argentina game, and here's how the table looks:

Well, it was fun whilst it lasted. Argentina were predictably too strong for us, running out 3-1 winners. And a draw for Mali with Israel is enough to see them through with 4 points.

But what's this? A 96th minute winner for Israel and we're through to the quarter-finals on goal difference!

It's a tough draw in the Quarter-final though - we've got the hosts:

Well, tough was something of an understatement. France beat us 5-1, and it didn't flatter them at all.

And that brings my time in charge of New Zealand U23s to an end, with no more football until, presumably, the next Olympics…

We're off to Japan with FC Gifu…

Good luck

Avoiding relegation is the target. We sit in 17th, two places above the relegation play-off spot with 13 games to go:

Avoiding relegation is the target. We sit in 17th, two places above the relegation play-off spot with 13 games to go:

And it was never in doubt. 7 games unbeaten to start (beginning with the 4-4 and 3-3  draws!) meant we never seriously looked like being in trouble. We won 5, drew 4 of the 13 games, with 4 losses. Three of the four losses came in the last three games of the season when we were out of danger, but still disappointing.

A 14th place finish, and on to next season: