[FM24] Stranded: Zeb's African & European Adventure

There you go, the countries that are in purple are ones I have loaded in this save, green and anywhere with a team logo is where I've managed so far. The teams in order are Young Buffaloes in Eswatini, Baia de Pemba and Ferroviario de Maputo in Mozambique, FC Platinum in Zimbabwe, Township Rollers in Botswana, Orlando Pirates in Namibia, Guelson FC in Angola, Sporting Clube de Sao Tome in Sao Tome & Principe, Botafogo and Academica do Mindelo in Cape Verde and now the National Port Authority in Liberia.

Cool, thanks! Still a long way to go, but you already progressed a lot!

January 2035 - Liberia

The halfway point in the 2034/2035 season has arrived and my NPA Anchors side are currently second in the league, trailing LPRC Oilers by six point and they have a game in hand. Third place Mighty Barrolle also have a game in hand but the points difference keeps us safe from them for now, though the team in fourth, LISCR, have four games in hand and provided they score enough points, they could go second and push us down a place.

For the remainder of the season, I'm hoping we can keep pushing, I don't know if we'll be able to win the league, but finishing second with this team would still be a really good finish and even placing in the top four will be a slight overachievement for a team that ended up in the bottom half last season.

As of my last post, this save is now on FM24 and in my first piece of business in this new era, I can announce the arrival of Galy Coumaré, Marc Gaki and Raymond Wantee to strengthen the first team at the National Port Authority in the AMC, DC and CM positions respectively.

May 2035 - Liberia

The 34/35 season is over and I am pleased to announce that we managed to finish in second place, while it would have been nice to win the league, we didn't really have much of a chance with just how strong LPRC Oilers were, and their level of consistency.

For much of the season, we appeared to be in second place, but due to multiple games in hand, the eventual third-placed team LISCR, overtook us and gained a small lead which we had to work incredibly hard to overcome, by the second to last game of the season, we managed to take second place for real this time, and going into the final game, which interestingly enough, was against LISCR, we had to either win or draw the game to secure our position.
 

The away game against LISCR was one that I was not entirely sure we could win, they were the better side on paper, in terms of player ability, squad depth, size and reputation, we however had a few things going for us, notably proven tactics and the motivation to push beyond our means, despite being the weaker team, the fact that we were in the position we were, was a testament to our hard work all season, by the end of the game, and it really was the end of the game, we pulled off an 85th minute equaliser that got us the draw, second place and our entry into next season's CAF Confederation Cup (thanks to LPRC Oilers winning both the league and cup, we get the spot in the Confederation Cup which would have gone to the cup winner had they been a different team).

Aside from the league, we also took part in the LFA Cup, unlike in the league however, our performance there was largely forgettable, we were knocked out in the third round by Nimba FC, the team that ended up finishing fifth in the league.

Below I have included our transfers for this season, though as I've talked about our signings in previous posts, I don't really have much more to say other than that I was generally pleased with the business we were able to conduct, Bagbéma Nadinga especially turned out to be an inspired signing, easily becoming our star player almost straight away, besides him, most of our incoming players did their part and I have no major criticisms of any of them. As for the outgoing players, I felt we did quite well in managing to bring in £90k, especially given than none of the players had a transfer value, the only player I would say we missed, was Faisu Carlos, he was a left-back and his replacement, while adequate, did not particularly excel to any great extent.

In light of our, I would say, fairly successful season, I'm now left with a choice, try and continue to build up this team and try and challenge for the league title, all the while taking part in my first continental competition in quite some time, (despite having qualified for either the CAF Champions League or the Confederation Cup on a number of occasions, due to moving teams so frequently, the last time I actually managed a team in one of those competitions was back in 2027 while managing FC Platinum in Zimbabwe), or I could leave and once more, continue my journey back to the UK.

If I do choose to move on, I have several options that I am considering, previously I had hoped to try and reach Portugal via Cabo Verde, despite several successful seasons there, I was unable to secure a job in Portugal and that left me with little option but to try and cross the Mediterranean via north Africa. Upon leaving Cabo Verde, the most viable options for me at the time were either Senegal or Liberia, of the two, Liberia was the most appealing to me, but either way, I would need to progress through several countries before reaching the shores of the Mediterranean.

(Based on the rules I have for my save, I can move on from Liberia to a variety of countries, essentially, I could travel west/north along the coast as far as Senegal, back to Cabo Verde, or I could head east and go as far as Cameroon or anywhere along the way, as long as it is along the coast. I don't have every country in Africa loaded, which why I have set up some shortcuts—please see my initial post for routes, in this case it is the yellow route on my map.)

Looking to the job market as we head into the post-season period, there would appear to be an abundance of jobs going in Cameroon, while a move there might be of interest, I would be more inclined to go for jobs in the Ivory Coast, Benin or Nigeria due to the possible routes I could take in future seasons that would allow me to progress towards my goal. It's going to be a tough decision but one I expect to be able to resolve by the time of my next post.

July 2035 – Ivory Coast

This morning I made the decision to step down as manager of the National Port Authority in Liberia, after spending a few hours saying my goodbyes to the players and some of the fans that had gathered at the stadium, I headed out of the door and began a journey that would see me leave the country behind.

My time in Liberia was brief but my desire to return home was strong, in the lead up to my resignation, I had scouted the job markets of several neighbouring countries but one job stood out to me above the rest, that was the managerial position at Issia Wazi in the Ivory Coast.

With Issia Wazi currently playing at the top level in the Ivory Coast, I jumped at the chance to managed them, after attending an interview with their board, within the week I was being announced as the new manager.
 

In joining this team, I have moved to a bigger team in a more reputable league, both facts being vital to what will hopefully be a future move to Mali in one or two years time. Provided I can make a success of my new team, it could well stand me in good stead for taking on a job at the top level in Mali and that in turn will help when I eventually try to reach Algeria, provided this ends up being the route I take.

For now there is little to talk about, when it comes to the club, other than that the team finished in the bottom half last season, despite being a fairly solid mid-table team, I believe I can turn this outfit around and get them pushing towards the upper end of the table and hopefully I can being to do this right away, without even having taken part in one game with the team, I have already begun the process of strengthening the side and in time, I will also be streamlining it as well. 

My next update will be at the end of pre-season or perhaps a few games into the season, by that point I should have a much better overview of what I am now working with, on this new chapter in my journey.

Hi! Nice job. Where i can find the kits?

Out of the 11 teams I've used in this save, only the 2d kit for FC Platinum is available online, that came from FM Slovakia I think, the rest, both 2d and 3d kits I made myself.

September 2035 – Ivory Coast

Pre-season has come and gone, all too quickly it feels, though that said, I have managed to get in a good bit of business, strengthening the side with eight new players, adding to the two the previous manager brought in just before he stepped down.
 

When I joined, the team looked to be a fairly solid mid-table team on paper, but there was a major issue in that there was no first team standard goalkeeper, that was an issue I fixed straight away, signing two, one on a permanent deal and one on loan, though as both are of a similar standard, I could comfortably go with either as our first choice.

Not long into my reign at Issia Wazi, the captain and a good portion of the squad decided they were going to confront me over a lack of depth at the centre-back position, in my opinion they were wrong on several levels, firstly we had two really good dedicated centre-backs, on top of that, we had a talented left-back that was accomplished in the position (and who we had only recently signed) and finally, a third dedicated centre-back was also in the senior team and he was not too far off first team standard, I really don't know what they were complaining about, anyway, to shut them up I signed two more knowing full well that some of the players complaining would now lose out on playing time because of this, but do I care? No I don't lol, they raised the issue and now they can live with the results.
 

Because one of the new centre-backs was from Angola and as part of his signing, I promised to bring somebody in to help him settle, I also signed a decent Angolan centre-midfielder on loan, he was then joined by another, local, centre-midfielder, and a winger.

Over the course of the pre-season, while working to improve the squad, we played a small number of friendlies, mostly against lower or non league teams, though we did have one match against another team from our division. We managed to win the first four friendlies but we only managed a draw in the fifth and that was the team from our division.
 

Once the league kicked off for real, we hit the ground running with a pleasing 2-0 win, that was followed up with a 1-1 draw, two wins and another draw, making it three wins and two draws in our first five games of the season, not a bad little run and that sees us up to second place at the moment, one point behind Stella Club, which happens to be a team I could have joined, they, along with my current club, both offered me job interviews at the end of last season and I turned them down for Issia Wazi, let's hope that was not a decision I will come to regret.

Sorry buddy, your reply appears to be blank.

Sorry, I'm here. I asked: Could you send me the 3d kits?

January - March 2036 – Ivory Coast

This was going to be the mid-season update but time just has flown by, such is the fun I've been having in this new country. Right now we are two thirds the way through the season and things could hardly have gone any better.

When I joined the team, my initial impression was that the team was a fairly solid, mid-table team, I managed to make a number of changes in the pre-season transfer window to strengthen the squad, and those signings have really hit the ground running and the team as a whole, has really exceeded expectations in the league this season.
 

At the half-way point, we found ourselves top of the league, ahead of USC Bassam by three points, but at the two-thirds mark, we now lead ASEC Mimosas by six points. With just ten games remaining, I am hopeful that we are able to maintain our strong performance to date and continue to push for what could well be this team's first ever Ligue 1 title.
 

Away from the league, we also entered two cup competitions, the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire and the Coupe de la LPF, the Ivory Coast equivalents of the FA Cup and League Cup. For both competitions, the board have no real expectations and don't particularly care about the outcome, only that we be competitive, upon entering both cups, I didn't feel as though we would be likely winners, but being a top-half team from the top division, I felt like we had an outside chance at success.
 

In the Coupe de la LPF, we made it to the third round, eventually defeated by AS Denguélé, another team from our division, in the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire however, we are still in and face a semi-final match against AFAD Djékanou. Should we manage to progress to the final, I am expecting to face Africa Sport, also from our division, but should they lose their semi-final, we could face non-league outfit ASC Ouragahio (they're possibly third tier but could be lower, I only have the top two levels playable in the Ivory Coast so I'm not sure), which would be an interesting match-up.
 

In the most recent transfer window, I didn't bring in any new faces, though I did try to streamline the squad somewhat, sending a few fringe players out on loan and offloading a few of the youth players that I don't consider worth keeping around.
 

The next update will be at the end of the season, hopefully we will be league champions by that point and it would be nice to see some success in the cup as well, though as long as we give it our best and are there or thereabouts, I will be happy. Looking ahead to next season, right now, my plans are to either do a second season here at Issia Wazi, or to move onto Mali, should a suitable job become available. Ideally I would like to join one of the better teams in Mali but if there are no jobs of interest come the end of the season, I will most likely stick around.

June 2036 – Ivory Coast

Jubilation and devastation in equal measure as the 2035/2036 season comes to an end in the Ivory Coast.

After being eliminated on penalties in the third round of the Coupe de la LPF, we managed to reach the final of the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire, only to lose the match on penalties once more.

Losing in the cup final seemed to affect us more than I would have liked and our lead in the league dropped to just three points by the final day as we struggled to assert ourselves in the final few matches just prior to the final day.

Reaching the final game of the season, we knew that a win or draw would secure us the title, though we also knew that should we lose the game and should ASEC Mimosas win by a sufficient a margin, they could steal the title through goal difference.

As the game progressed, I watched as our title rivals scored goal after goal and by the end of the game, they had levelled with us on goal difference, we didn't managed to win the game or even score, but thankfully our opponents, third placed USC Bassam, were in the same boat, with the game ending 0-0, the single point we came away with, was sufficient to bring home the trophy and give the team and all our fans, something to celebrate after the heart break of the recent cup final.

With the season now over, much like last season, I face a decision, stick around for another year or move on. As I stated in my previous post, the aim is to move onto Mali should a suitable job become available, right now there are positions available, but these are at either second or third tier teams, or one top tier team that has already confirmed its relegation to the second tier, these jobs are not really what I am looking for, so naturally staying in the Ivory Coast might well be my best bet, though if one of the top-half teams decides to part ways with their manager, I may well make the move, provided they are willing to hire me.

Should I end up sticking around, which is by no means certain given that as of right now at the beginning of June, I have yet to be offered a new contract, the plan is to build on our recent success, strengthen the side once more and attempt to win our second title, while also hopefully doing better in the two main domestic trophies and also the Coupe Houphouët-Boigny, which we should enter as league champions.

As usual, my next post will reveal whether I have decided to stick around or continue my journey back to the UK.

So with my recent success in the Ivorian MTN Ligue 1, I have been presented with the manager of the season award, this is the first personal award I have been given during my fourteen year journey through Africa.
 

[The lack of awards in my career is mostly down to the database files that I'm using being not detailed enough to include awards for many of the countries, otherwise I would have probably won a few more by now, given that I won the top divisions of Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, São Tomé & Príncipe & Cabo Verde, along with the second division of Angola, and where I didn't win the league, such as Namibia and Liberia, I overachieved enough that I might have had an outside chance at winning the award, if it existed in the game.

Beyond the award, another aspect of this save that I'm happy to announce, is that this save, as of the end of the 2035/2036 pre-season, is now my longest ever save on any Football Manager or Championship Manager game, the previous longest was my save on FM15 which was thirteen full seasons long and then just the pre-season of the fourteenth season. 

Looking ahead, I am planning to keep playing this save through early-access and so I would expect to see at least one more season, once the game is fully released, I am planning to create a new save but I will probably keep this save and run them alongside each other, generally I have two to three saves on each edition of the game so this should work out nicely as I do want to try and get as far as I can towards reaching my goal of one day managing in the UK, at the very least, I would like to reach the shores of the Mediterranean or even cross over to southern Europe.]

Just caught up on this, good going and seems that FM23 saves with added leagues work fine in 24. What skin is that you're using?

I haven't noticed any major bugs, the one issue I did come across was simply my finishing position in Liberia wasn't showing up on my job history page straight away, it did however fix itself maybe half way through the next season, this season it has worked fine so I think it might be just down to my season in Liberia being played half on FM23 and half on 24. As for the skin it's OPZ Elite, I'm not sure if the latest version is on this site but I'm pretty sure FM Scout has it.

August 2036 – Ivory Coast

After last season's disappointment of losing on penalties to Africa Sport in the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire, we get our own back in the Coupe Houphouët-Boigny at the start of this season.

With the Ivory Coast's equivalent of the Community Shield out of the way, now we turn our attention to the league, where we hope to repeat our success from last season. At the end of last season, six of our senior team departed due to their loan spells ending, we managed to bring one of them back on a permanent deal but this time, we have three new players joining us on loan, along with six additional players who join us on permanent contracts, most of which were free transfers, but we did sign one player, Georges Doumbia, who at £32,500, is not only a club record signing, but a personal one as well [in this save at least].
 

April 2037 – Ivory Coast

The 2037 season is drawing to a close with only four league games left to play, however, because I never did a mid-season post, I'm going to hold off revealing the current table for now and focus just on the cup competitions.

In my previous post, I revealed that we managed to win the Coupe Houphouët-Boigny, the Ivorian equivalent to the Community Shield, beyond that, we also entered both the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire and the Coupe de la LPF, the equivalents of the FA and League Cups. Last season we came close to winning Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire, only missing out thanks to a penalty shootout in the final, in the Coupe de la LPF, we reached the third round, this time I hoped to do better.

In the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire, we have managed to reach the final once more and we face ASEC Mimosas, it'll be a tough match but we have a chance, we have managed to beat them on several occasions since I took charge at this club. For the Coupe de la LPF, we did unfortunately get knocked out, but we managed to reach the semi-final so whatever happens from this point, we have at least made an improvement on last season as far as domestic competitions go.
 

Now while we've had a shot at three domestic trophies (not counting the league), we also took our place in the CAF Champions League, it was a relatively short campaign and after beating AS Otôho from the Republic of Congo in the preliminary round, we were knocked out in the first round proper by Wydad Casablanca. Wydad being the bigger team, I fully expected them to beat us, though in actuality it was a close affair, they beat us at their ground 1-0 and we beat them at ours 3-2, unfortunately that meant going out on goal difference, annoying but those are the rules, we can still take pride in the fact that we game them a good match and we were not in the least bit outclassed by the bigger team.

Being dumped out of the CAF Champions League, we see one door close, but another opens and we found ourselves in the CAF Confederation Cup instead, the second tier competition in Africa, there we emerged in the second round, a round in which we managed to fend off a challenge from Wiliete de Benguela, I club I once faced during my time in Angola. Having found our way to the group stage, we came up against last year's champions MAS Fès from Morocco, WAFA SC from Ghana and Sundowns of South Africa. At the start of the group stage, I was unsure how we would fare but any doubts soon went out of the window when we managed to win the first three games, scoring eleven goals in the process. The final three games did not go quite so well but we did manage to win one of those three and draw another, so a single loss in six games is more than reasonable.
 

Having reached the quarter final, we now face WAFA SC again, though we have a chance of progressing here as we did beat them in the group stage, nothing is certain and there are still some good teams in the competitions should we manage to get beyond this round, and I would not put us among the favourites, still, anything is possible and we may yet pull off a few upsets.
 

The next update will be an end of season review so expect the final table and the results of the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire final and final three rounds of the CAF Confederation Cup.

May 2037 – Ivory Coast

'Always the bridesmaid and never the bride' a phrase that I feel could almost describe us after we finished runner-up in the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire for a second year in a row and also runner-up in the CAF Confederation Cup this season, the only reason why the phrase is not a true match for us, is that we did manage to win our second league title in a row and we also came home with the Coupe Houphouët-Boigny at the start of the season.

In the league this season, our performance was generally excellent, while we did lose one more game than during last season, we managed scored more points overall thanks to a higher win percentage. Where last season we beat ASEC Mimosas by one point, our sixty-nine to their sixty-eight, this time around we beat them by eleven.
 

As I mentioned in my previous post, we reached the semi-final of the Coupe de la LPF before getting knocked out, that was a big improvement over the previous season, though our performance in the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire was only the same as last time, still, reaching the final was more than reasonable and losing to ASEC Mimosas was not totally unexpected, though we have beaten them in the league on several occasions, they are still the bigger team in terms of reputation and the quality and depth of their squad.
 

As far as continental football goes, I think we had a good year, though we did get knocked out of the CAF Champions League in the first round, we were never really expected to progress far, still, getting bumped down to the CAF Confederation Cup was probably a good move for us and we generally fared well against most teams that we came across, only losing out in the final to ES Tunis, a team that is not only one of the best in Tunisia, but also one of the best in Africa, currently rated 3rd on the continent.

Now that the season is over, decisions need to be made, on one hand, my contract runs for another season, on the other I am ready to move on, as per my plans to try and make my way back home to the UK (and based on the movement rules I'm following), Mali looks to be the next step, the only problem I have is waiting for a suitable job to come up, right now there are four clubs in Mali looking for a new manager but all of them are third tier teams and that would mean dropping down to a semi-professional level once more after now three seasons at professional clubs. I'm in two minds as to whether to just go for one of the jobs in Mali and work my way up, or wait and see if anything at a higher level becomes available down the line, though doing that is why have been at Issia Wazi for two years now and why I didn't just leave at the end of last season.

 

October 2037

After all these years of club football in Africa, I have finally been given my first taste of international football, it might be tough at first, having to commute from Issia in the Ivory Coast for international matches in Praia, Cape Verde, but I am looking forward to this new challenge, hopefully my prior experience from managing in Cape Verde will come in hand, at the very least, I should have some knowledge of some of the better local players, though I have a feeling that we might well be relying on players plying their trade in Portugal and other European nations.

As I join, the country has fairly recently failed to qualify for the 2038 World Cup, finishing bottom of their qualifying group, next up we have a single friendly, but after that, we face qualifying for the Cup of Nations, in that we have a group consisting of Comoros, Guinea-Bissau and South Sudan. I am reasonably confident we have a chance at progressing but only time will tell and I have plenty of time to think about my tactics and possible squads as the matches are not for a good five months.

Away from the Cape Verde isles, back in the Ivory Coast, I can give a brief update regarding our latest season. At the very start of the season we won the Coupe Houphouët-Boigny, right now we are five games into the league and we sit at the top, having won five out of five games, we are also still in both the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire and the Coupe de la LPF (neither of which we won in my last two seasons here) and finally, we are at present, waiting to find out the teams we will face in the group stage of the CAF Champions League, having knocked out Génération Foot and Zesco in the preliminary and first rounds respectively.

November 2037

While our Cup of Nations qualifying doesn't start for a few months yet, it didn't take long before we had to play our first friendly match, taking on Réunion.

I reviewed the already established national pool and spent a moment scouting to see if there were any dual nationals that might be of interest to us, once I decided on an initial squad, I called them up.

It's interesting to note that all but one of our players are based in Europe and in fact, our only African-based player is also the only one to have ever played in the Cape Verde leagues and he is the only one that doesn't really belong here based on ability, if you look at the screenshot below, you might spot him with his half a star rating.

António Monteiro's position in the squad is not so much based on his ability level but simply because I like the guy, though it has been a few years now, he played for me when I was the manager of four different teams, Guelson in Angola where I remember fondly the four goals he scored in one cup game, I remember when he came with me to Sporting São Tomé and was the top goal scorer two seasons in a row, he joined me again at Botafogo and then at Académica do Mindelo, in his time at those two clubs, he was the top scorer three years in a row in the Liga Cabo Verde, and for Académica, he was also the top scorer in the Liga São Vicente. Because he helped me to multiple league titles and cup wins, I felt it was only right to show my gratitude by giving him a run out for a national team.

Monteiro's stats might not look like much to a lot of people but his first tough and finishing skills were almost god-like in the amateur/semi-pro levels of the Angolan Second Division and the leagues of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.

When viewing Monteiro's career stats, it's important to note that for Cape Verde, only the stats from the island leagues are shown, the nationwide competition is classed as a cup so only shows when you click on the individual seasons and therefore the numbers visible are a fair bit lower than the reality.

April 2038

For the CAF Champions League group stage, we were drawn against Zamalek of Egypt, SuperSport Utd of South Africa and Young Africans from Tanzania. By reputation alone, we were the smallest team in our group, though in terms of player quality, I would say we are more l like the third best team.

I figured we could probably finish in third place but I hoped that we might be able to sneak into second if a one or two results went our way, I did not however, expect us to comfortably win the group. We managed to win all three of our home games and then the away game against SuperSport, the draw was against Young Africans and the loss was against Zamalek, though that was a very close game that we could have even won on another day.

For the quarter final we have been drawn against Wydad Casablanca, we should in theory lose to them, they are the bigger and better team on paper, though the results of the group stage prove that we do have a reasonable chance, the same applies all the way to the final, should we manage to get beyond Wydad. My prediction for the match is that we either draw or narrowly win the home game but then lose the away game by enough that Wydad will progress, but I am not counting my boys out of this, we will hit them with everything we have and maybe it'll be enough, maybe it won't, either way, we have already exceeded any expectations and the prize money we've earned so far, has gone a long way to helping us out, financially speaking, I think we might well make a tidy profit this year, which would be nice as I'm not sure if I'll be remaining at the team beyond the end of the season so it will be good to leave the team in such a state that the next manager has a plenty to work with to keep this team at the top of Ivorian football.

Now I didn't bother with a mid-season update but as far as the domestic side of things go, we're top of the league right now and looking good for our third league title in a row, we've also reached the final of both the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire and the Coupe de la LPF, for both finals we face ASEC Mimosas, a team I know we can beat if we play well, but as they're one of the top sides in the country and the team that had won the league four times in a row before we came along to spoil things, they are a team that could just as easily lift one or both trophies. If recent history is anything to go by, I'm not looking forward to the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire final, we were runner up in the last two years and in the Coupe de la LPF, we never even made it to the final under my management.

April/May 2038

We exceeded expectations this season in reaching the group stage of the CAF Champions League, facing off against Zamalek, SuperSport and Young Africans, I didn't really think we would be winning our group, but I did think we could probably come third or maybe second with a little luck, we ended up topping the group and facing a quarter-final tie against one of the strongest teams in Africa, Wydad Casablanca of Morocco.

Seeing how we performed in the group stage, I felt that even though we were weaker on paper than our opposition, there was a chance that we might be able to progress. The hope was try and keep the scoreline low in the away game and then see what we could do in front of our home fans and maybe there would be that chance. When it came to the first leg in Morocco, we lost, but we did so with a 3-2 scoreline, a narrow loss and two away goals. The home game was just as close, but we manage to win 2-1, meaning we won the tie on the away goals rule.

Our next challenge was the semi-final, there we came up against Ismaily from Egypt, another really good team, this time one that we were unable to overcome. Though we managed to win the home leg 1-0, we would go on to lose by two at their ground, sending us out of the competition.
 

June 2038

The sun has set on the 2037/2038 and what a year we had, securing the quadruple and a clean sweep of all the domestic trophies on offer this season, not only that but it was a year that saw us reach the semi-final of the CAF Champions League, a marvellous achievement for a team of our stature.

Over the last three years, I have taken this team from a fairly capable mid-table outfit, to being the biggest team in the Ivory Coast and now three times winners of the MTN Ligue 1. While I like to keep things tight at the back, and we did very well defensively, it was our offence that really shone this year, slicing through the opposition like a hot knife through butter. We have five players in our squad that managed to score into double figures, three of them were into the twenties and one, our captain Adama Cissé, scored forty across all competitions.
 

As you can see from our fixtures and results, we picked up some big wins along the way, 11-1 in the league, 10-0 and 10-1 in the cup, and then we had plenty of impressive results that were not quite so embarrassing for the opposition. Aside from our one loss in the league, the only other matches we lost were in the CAF Champions League and there we were facing tougher opponents that we have in the league.
 

In terms of transfers, we did some good business this year, raking in £275k while only spending £10. We did technically lose two key players in Doumbia and Akindes but in the case of Akindes, we did at least get to loan him back for the remainder of the season. For the incoming players, we saw a big improvement to the strength of our senior side, but as well as that, we did manage to pick up a number of talented youngsters that might well break into the senior side in the coming years.

While things have gone well for us this season and I could build on it next year, after three years at the club, I feel as though it is probably time to move on and continue my journey back to the UK. Over the coming post-season period, I will be keeping a close eye on the job market, searching for a new role that can bring me closer to my goal. (Based on the rules I'm following, I will be looking in a few different directions to see what options are available to me, one possibility might be Mali as they directly border the Ivory Coast to the north, I could try a lateral move to say Nigeria or Cameroon and then work my way north from there, or I could go around to Senegal and then Mali but as I am also the manager of the Cape Verde Islands, I have the option of trying to reach Portugal and my reputation might well be high enough now to get a job there, unlike when I applied while managing at club level in Cape Verde.

The next few months are going to be an interesting time, my contract is days from expiring so while I could renew it, and there is certainly interest from my board for me to do that, I am at present more likely to leave, provided the right opportunity arises. My next update is likely to be upon me getting a new job, though if I do stay, it will more likely be at the point the pre-season ends and we're ready to kick of the new season.

June 2038

After sixteen seasons managing in Africa while trying to make it back home to the UK (from the starting point of Eswatini), I have today taken a big step in my journey, I have been appointed as manager of Marítimo in the Portuguese Liga 3.

For most of last two seasons, I had operated under the mindset that I would likely move on to Mali once a suitable job came up, but then I managed to become the manager of the Cape Verde Islands and that presented me with another viable option (based on the rules that I'm playing by, I can move to Portugal from the Cape Verde Islands).

For the immediate future, I will remain as the national manager of the Cape Verde Islands and it is my intention to at least see out the qualifying stage of the CAF Cup of Nations along with the tournament proper should we manage to qualify, and as well the 2038 WAFU Cup of Nations. 

August 2038

Having recently made my long awaited move into Europe, taking on the reigns as manager of Marítimo in the Portuguese third tier, I have begun the process of getting this team ready for the new season and my goals of getting this once top division side back on track and heading in an upward direction.

Over the course of the pre-season, we lost our best striker, Tiago Graça to Belenenses in the top division, there wasn't much we could do to keep him here and it a case of either selling him now and making some money, or keeping him around against his will only to lose him at the end of the season on a free and having to spend that season with him being a grumpy goose the whole time and possibly disrupting the moral of the team. In selling him, I ended up annoying the team anyway, but I made a promise to replace him and we did that three times over, bringing in Siriky Traoré from my old team Issia Wazi, Paulo Conceição from our local rivals Nacional da Madeira and Danny from Cruizeiro, all of which were loans so as to limit our spending.

Aside from bolstering our strike force, I also loaned two players from Inter, Domenico Antonicelli [DC/DR] and Nicolas Vita [MC], Jean Dago, another player from the Ivory Coast where I had just been managing before this job, he will play as a central-midfielder, strengthening us in the middle, an area I Identified as a weak point when reviewing the squad.

With our transfer dealings out of the way for this window, the only thing we had to deal with then was getting match fit, that was achieved with a nice selection of friendly matches, mostly against lower or non-league sides, though we did face off against one team from the top division and one from the second tier and we won all our games except the one against Amora, which was the top division side. As we now go into the first few games of the season, I am confident we can get off to a winning start and it is my hope we can push for promotion this season.

Right now, the media see us as the third best team at our level (that's including teams from the other group - we're in group B of which we are meant to be the second best), I believe we have enough about us to be involved in the promotion stage later in the season and I will certainly be disappointed if we end up in the relegation zone. For the opening stage, I am looking for a top two finish but top four at the least would keep us in with a chance, once the promotion stage begins, we need to be looking to win to gain automatic promotion but coming second would see us through to a match, I assume against the other group's runner up and then if we can win that, a playoff match against a team from the league above.

For the short-term, my plans are to remain at Marítimo for a season or two, hopefully I can raise their profile a little along with my own. As far as my journey goes, the next obvious move would be to Spain but there is the possibility that I could remain in Portugal and try and reach the top here, should I boost my own reputation enough, it may well be possible that an English club becomes interested in my services and provided they approach me, I could well end up skipping Spain and France altogether, for now though, such thoughts need to be pushed to the back of my mind as I have a job to do here.

The next update will likely be at around half way through the opening stage, that should be followed by another at the end of the stage and then finally at the end of the season once any playoffs have been settled.

November 2038

We've had a good start to the season, winning eight out of nine games and drawing the game we didn't manage to win. I am hopeful of a good promotion push this season and I would rather not have to remain at this level for long.
 

Should we manage to gain promotion this season, I am planning to stick around for a second season here, though as my goal is to reach the UK, I don't have long term plans in this or any particular country, should a suitable position come available in Spain, I will be putting serious consideration into moving on, though I would not be against moving to a bigger team in Portugal as well, should the chance arrive.
 

While I am managing at club level in Europe, I have kept ties to Africa for the time being by remaining as the manager of Cabo Verde. During my time as manager of the nation, we have done quite well, reaching the quarter final of the WAFU Cup of Nations (West Africa) and we have just qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations. 
 

With Cabo Verde, my plans are to remain at least until after AFCON, beyond that, my remaining will largely depend on how well we did in that tournament and whether there are any other international positions available that might offer me a new challenge.

January 2039

Africa Cup of Nations 2039 -  Cape Verde

Host Nation: Morocco
Holders: Morocco

Prediction: 3rd or 4th in Group Stage

Having both Egypt and Ghana in our group, qualifying is going to be tough and then with Tanzania as well, the last team to play Cape Verde before I joined as manager where they won 5-0 in the World Cup Qualifying, I'm not terribly hopeful of coming away with much in this tournament.

Aim: 3rd  

Finishing above fourth place is going to be tough but if we can sneak a win somewhere or a couple of draws, it's possible that we can avoid coming last. I'm not overly hopeful of getting a result against Egypt but we only narrowly lost our last game against Ghana so there is hope there, and while Tanzania thrashed us under the previous manager I have taken a look at their squad and from the stats I can see, they're not vastly superior to us and only rank two places above us in the African nation rankings. I think we need to try and beat Tanzania, maybe grab a draw against Ghana and keep things respectable against Egypt and we could hold our heads high, even if we don't qualify for the next round.

January 2039

Africa Cup of Nations 2039 -  Cape Verde

Group Stage & Second Round

After failing to beat Tanzania and then losing to Egypt, I thought my Cape Verde side would be going home at the end of the group stage, even after our surprise victory over Ghana, I still thought that we were done until I realised that four of the third place teams also progress to the next round and that we would be one of them.
 

Next up we faced Morocco, I didn't expect us to win the game but I went into it with a similar plan to our game against Ghana, fast-paced, direct, counter-attacking football, where last time I went with an attacking mentality, this time it was balanced and my god did we get a result, 6-1 against the current champions and hosts.
 

In the quarter finals we are due to face Tunisia, who just beat South Africa in their second round match. On paper, we are a weaker team than Tunisia but then again, we were much weaker than Morocco as well and we saw how that one turned out, I'm not expecting a win here as before, but as the previous games proves, anything is possible.