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

January/February 2039

Africa Cup of Nations 2039 -  Cape Verde

Quarter-Final & Semi Final

Beating Morocco in their own tournament 6-1 came as a massive shock, and although we had beaten Ghana in the game before, I wasn't really expecting too much in the next game against Tunisia. We ended up beating Tunisia 3-0 and I started to wonder if the tactical changes I had instigated in the Ghana game and adjusted slightly for Morocco were going to give us the edge we needed to compete with the bigger teams.

While I kept the tactics exactly the same from the Morocco game onwards, I rotated the squad as needed to avoid losing anybody completely to fatigue, for the semi-final, we had Cameroon to contend with, yet another stronger team, though having beaten the teams we had to get here, I wondered if we could do it all again and we did, 3-1 this time, taking us through to our first ever Africa Cup of Nations final.

February 2039

Africa Cup of Nations 2039 -  Cape Verde

Final

Taking on and beating the likes of Morocco, Tunisia and Cameroon to reach the final, I knew we must have a chance against Mali, even if we were weaker on paper. There was a little fatigue for a couple of players but by and large, the team had made it this far without suffering any injuries and without losing anybody too important to suspension. Fielding nearly a full strength side, I went into the match, keeping everything the same as before, tactically speaking. This new system I implemented initially in the Ghana match and then tweaked for the Morocco game seemed to be working wonders, allowing us to beat teams that we probably should have lost against normally.

The key to the current tactical system is simple, our best players are up front and on the wings and the rest of the midfield are plenty competent, defensively we are at our weakest, so the solution was simple, get the ball up as quickly as possible to the front lines and let them lead the way. The system works and because of that, we reached our first ever Cup of Nations final.

With everything much as it was before, we went into the final hopeful of success, 1-0 turned to 2-0 and then to 3-0, it was looking to be a great win for us, though later in the game, Mali started to find gaps in our defence and we made mistakes, they pulled two back, one thanks to a penalty and the other a close-range header.

The final moments were nervy as I thought Mali might get a third, they didn't however, and as a result, my Cape Verde side were crowned Champions of Africa.

May 2039

The first phase of the Portuguese Liga 3 has finished, we came top of Série B with an eighteen point lead over second place Académica. Because of the way this league works, the top four teams from the two Liga 3 divisions will go through to the promotion playoffs group stage. For the promotion stage, we face Leiria, Leixões and Vianense. I'm hoping we can keep up our good from throughout the first phase and come out on top once more.

While I would like to come away from this season as Liga 3 champions, at the very least we need to go up, this team should really not be in the third tier. Given how well we have performed so far this season, I believe we should be able to top our group but if we fail, we should still have a chance of promotion as three teams go up, it'll just mean having to play more matches. Should we fail to secure promotion altogether, I think I may have to look to the job market once more, either I'll try and get a job at a higher league team here in Portugal, or possibly move on to Spain, rather than having to spend another year in the third tier.

May 2039

After dominating the league in the first phase, finishing eighteen points ahead of the second place team, we went into the final weeks hopeful of a successful promotion push. What I don't like about the Liga 3 in Portugal, is that a team can finish in third place in one of the two divisions, be ranked fifth overall for points and yet still come away as champions, fortunately that did not happen on this occasion, the Liga 3 winners, were in my somewhat biased yet correct opinion, that the team that deserved to be champions, lifted the trophy on the final day.

Having easily reached the promotion group phase, we managed to continue our good form, winning five out of the six games and drawing the other one, ending up top of our promotion group.. For the final, we faced off against the team that won the other group, which also happened to be the team that finished third in my division during the first phase. Having beaten Sertanense twice in the league in the first phase, I was confident of a repeat performance in the final, my players did not disappoint,. Though our promotion was already confirmed by topping our promotion group, winning the final gives us the bragging rights as champions.

By winning the league, it marks my third promotion since starting out on my journey, the others coming in the second tiers of Mozambique and Angola, it also gives me my first trophy in Europe, having only managed in Africa previously. A side effect of our promotion is the activation of a clause in my contract that extends it for another year, that means I should be here for another year as the team attempts to stay up in the second tier, and push for higher accolades.

For the time being, I plan to stick around and begin strengthening the side, as I do, I will also be checking the job market frequently, ideally I will be looking for a job in Spain, either of the top two tiers will do, but alternatively, I could be willing to move to a bigger team here in Portugal, in that case, it would need to be from the top tier to really make it worth moving. One final option that I have thought about is a move to Morocco, for that to be worthwhile though, I would only consider one of the absolute top teams, maybe Wydad or Raja Casablanca.

My next update will either be an end of pre-season update with friendly results and transfers, or a new job announcement should I end up leaving before the season starts.
 

Our transfers for the season, we focussed on bringing in talent without breaking the bank, relying heavily on loan players.

Our results throughout the season…

July 2039

Though I had my eye on the job market and I did apply for the vacant manager position at Alavés who had just been promoted to the top division in Spain, I was for the most part, expecting to kick off the 2039/2040 season still in Portugal. I had begun strengthening my side in preparation for the challenges ahead this season, and had already made several acquisitions, a combination of transfer and loans for the first team, both the starting XI and players for added depth, I was quite happy with the business I had managed to conduct and we had played our first couple of friendly matches.

Several weeks had passed since I applied for the Alavés job and I had heard nothing, I'm pretty sure they're still in a board meeting, trying to decide who to invite for job interviews, I have yet to get one, so I have to assume I'm not all that high on their shortlist, that said, it was then a rather big surprise, to wake up in the morning to representatives from both Wolverhampton Wanderers and Watford, looking to invite me for interviews for their vacant manager positions.

My goal along this journey has always been to reach the UK and last I checked, Wolverhampton and Watford are still in England. Naturally I hopped on an Easyjet flight to Gatwick, from there I headed to Vicarage Road to attend my first of two interviews. The interview seemed to go well and the board there seemed to have a well formed vision of the direction they wanted to take the club. Right now, Watford are an top-half Championship side, with a few improvements, I could see myself feasibly taking them them towards the playoffs within my first season there.

Once the Watford interview was out of the way, I headed north west, up to Wolverhampton, to see how things would go with their representatives. Once again, the interview went well and it was now a waiting game, which of the two teams, if either of them, would offer me a job. I knew that there would be a decision to make, firstly do I want to move on from Portugal? And secondly, which of the teams would I join, if they were both to make an offer?

In the end, both Watford and Wolves offered me a job. Given the difference in wages between what both teams were offering and what I was already on, it was a no-brainer to consider their offers, beyond the financial considerations, both teams were in higher-rated leagues, and finally, with my goal being to reach the UK, this was going to be my best chance to do so, without having to pass through Spain and France.

[Consulting the rules that I set for my save regarding moving without passing through a neighbouring country, this falls under the headhunting exception, the requirements that need to be met are that I have not applied for the job directly, both teams offered me the job, the wage is sufficient to cover the cost of the flight there, the club is professional and I have a continental license of some description, all these are met, so now it is just a case of whether I want to make the move or not].

When comparing Watford and Wolves at the present time, the decision is not too hard to make, while I have a fairly good opinion of both teams, Wolves are in the Premier League and Watford are in the Championship. While Wolves will need to avoid relegation, Watford will be looking for a top-half finish and eventually, a push for promotion. For most of my career, I have managed teams that didn't take much effort to turn into a competitive outfit at their level, managing Wolves, at least early on, would present an interesting challenge as I try to keep them in the Premier League, with that in mind, and if you are still reading this, you will now know that I have accepted the Wolves job (or if you are reading this on Facebook then you probably just saw the relevant screenshot to begin with lol).

Upon taking the job at Wolves, I have announced my resignation as manager of the Cape Verde Islands, instead, at least for the time being, I will be focussing solely on club football.

August 2039

The 2039/2040 pre-season has come to a close, though I've not been at Wolves for all that long, I have begun to make my mark on the side, bringing in a selection of new players and allowing a few to leave, either on loan or permanently.

After reviewing the senior team, I noticed we appeared weakest at the left-back position, and in the centre of defence, we have a number of players just into their thirties now, with that all in mind, I signed a young new left-back on loan from Arsenal (Albi Zekiri) and a centre-back on loan (but with a future fee) from FC Basel (Danilo Scanu). To bolster the centre of midfield, I've brought in Ollie Griffiiths from Aberdeen. Up front, I have signed Junior Koné from ES Zarzis in Tunisia. Of these new signings for the senior team, only Koné is a player that I'm familiar with, while he played in Tunisia at the point of signing him, I know him from before when he played in the Ivory Coast, during my time there at Issia Wazi, we loaned him in from ASEC Mimosas and he scored sixteen goals in twenty games and helped us along the way to the league title.
 

While I've made additions to the senior team, I have also picked up a couple of young players that might feature for the team down the line, Diego Fornals we signed on a free transfer and Márcio Neto, one of the star players from my previous team Marítimo. I don't really know too much about Fornals beyond his stats so he is a little bit of a gamble, but not an expensive one. Neto on the other hand, I've seen play, he was great in the Portuguese third tier and he drew the attention of bigger clubs there, right now he's not quite ready to play in the Premier Leauge, but the plan is to try and build him up to that level through training and loan moves as necessary.

As you can see form the pre-season friendlies, we did alright, a nice win against Barcelona and a somewhat weird score line against Chartres, a non-league French team that managed to score five goals against us.
 

September 2039

Competitive football has begun and we are now fives games into the Premier League and have survived two rounds of Carabao Cup action.

I'm pleased with the start we have made so far, though we lost 3-2 to Tottenham and 2-1 to Arsenal, we've put together some decent wins as well, such as 4-1 against Brighton, 4-2 against Liverpool, and 5-0 away to Aston Villa. As of right now, we find ourselves in sixth place, it would be nice to up there come the end of the season but there is a very long way to go yet, still, if we can continue on as we started, there's no reason we can't have a good year.

In the Carabao Cup we knocked Oldham out in the second round, beating them comfortably 4-1. For the third round we faced off against Watford, the team I could quite easily have joined, had Wolves not invited me to an interview on the same day that Watford did. When it came to the Watford game, things were a little closer, we only won 2-0 but watching the game, I felt confident that we were the only likely victors as they never really threatened us all that much.
 

In my last update, we had just reached the end of pre-season, now however, we have reached and passed the transfer deadline day, as such, I can reveal the final signings we made during the window and those departing. As we allowed our first choice attacking central midfielder to depart, we needed to find a new one, thanks to having scouts that are on the ball, they found us Lars-Erik Arnesen, a young and highly capable player, and one that did not cost us an arm and a leg. Kevin Brown joins us from Burnley, he should slot in nicely as an improvement to our left wing, while Fabricio Álvarez joins us as an additional striker. We didn't really need another striker, but with how much potential he could have, we just had to make a move for him, should he realise that potential, we could be on for a nice little earner, though I do hope he can help us bring success to the club as well. Finally, Connor Kinsella arrives at the team as a hot prospect, he is a fair way off first team football, though within a few years, he might turn out good, provided we can support his development.
 

Having bolstered the squad somewhat in this window, I'm conscious that we need to keep a close eye on the financial side of things, we did offload a bunch of players, but most of our departing players were on loans with either optional or mandatory fees, because of this, we might be alright, but it's also possible that I've overdone it a little, something that happens when you're more used to buying players for free and paying them £5 a week lol.

November 2039

Twelve games into the 39/40 season now with recently promoted Wolves and we're still doing well, currently sitting in eighth place but we're close enough to some of the teams above that we could move into contention for a place in European competition next season should results fall right for us.

The highlights of the season so far have to be a 5-0 thrashing of Aston Villa, winning 4-2 against Liverpool and beating both Manchester sides at their own grounds.
 

Hopefully we can continue on like this for some time yet, it would certainly be nice to be pushing for Europe come the end of the season, rather than battling relegation as was predicted by the media.

December 2039
 

We're half way through the 2039/2040 season in the Premier League and my recently promoted Wolves side are doing well, currently sitting in 4th place and hoping to secure a place in Europe at the end of the season.

We are yet to play in the FA Cup but we will shortly be facing Preston in the third round. In the Carabao Cup, we have managed to reach the semi-final and will take on Man City, we did beat them in the league but they are a much stronger team on paper and I'm not fully convinced we can do a repeat. 

If things remain as they are, this will have been a very successful arrival into England after leaving Portugal at the end of last season and after having worked my way through a variety of African nations.

May 2040

And just like that, the 2039/2040 season is done and what a season it was.
 

Having made the move from Portugal to England at the end of last season, after being headhunted by Championship winners Wolves, I've gone and taken a team that has very much been a yoyo club for the last decade, to qualifying for the Champions League and playing at Wembley twice in the same year, coming runners-up in the FA Cup and lifting the Carabao Cup.

The source of my success with Wolves comes from a number of areas, to begin with, the tactics I use have been proven time and again, through various countries in Africa, Portugal and now in England, after that, I strengthened the side in the pre-season and again slightly in the January window but it was as much about the players I kept as it was the ones I brought in. I've always had a strong commitment to forging and developing the bonds between both myself and the players and the players and each other, maintaining a harmonious locker room and ensuring that we go into each and every game with the belief in ourselves that we can go out there and win, and as this season proved, we did just that, playing well above the expectations of the media, the board or the fans and while we didn't win the league, we still put ourselves up there with the top teams and never shied away when facing them home or away.

Now that the season is over, the next step is to take stock of where the team is now and look to build for the next season. With some of our key players on loan from other teams, we are going to have to look to their replacements, should we not be able to secure a permanent transfer, and given our performance, I suspect other teams may well become interested in a number of our stars, so keeping them around could be a challenge but with qualification for the Champions League secured, we should be in a position to attract a better standard of player this time around hopefully.

Below is a look at our results and transfers this season…

As far as next season goes, the plan right now is to stick around and try and improve things here at Wolves, if the right job comes up, I could be tempted to move on, but it's going to have to be a really big team or a really good offer for me to consider it.

June 2040

Now there's an offer that's hard to turn down.

June 2040

A tough decision, remain at Wolves and continue what I started last season, playing in the Champions League and building to perhaps challenge for the Premier League title within the next couple of seasons, or take the Barcelona job and only play in the Europa League this season, but with a squad and the finances in place to challenge for the Spanish title right away.

As much as I have enjoyed my time at Wolves, the decision wasn't all that hard.

Replacing Xavi as the new Barcelona manager, the plan this season is to correct his mistakes and put the team back at the top of the table.

Despite only having been in the job a matter of hours, I've already identified a few areas in the first team that can be improved and in my next update you will see who I managed to bring in.

August 2040

It's been a busy pre-season since I joined Barcelona but it has come to an end now, we played a bunch of friendly matches, which went well, and we've done some fairly good deals, I feel I've strengthened the side slightly or at the very least, I've not made it any worse.

My focus for improving the squad has been two fold, players for this season that are at or about the standard to play first team football for us, but with the potential to improve, and players for the future, perhaps a year or two from now.

I've only included screenshots of those that are likely to be relevant this season, as you can see, we've not really spent big on any one player.
 

Hopefully things go well as we kick off the season and perhaps either at one quarter distance or maybe the half-way point, that'll be when I do the next update revealing how we faired in those first competitive games under my leadership.

October 2040

After ten games in the league, we maintain a 100% record, though we have yet to face last years champions Sevilla or the runners-up Real Sociedad, nor have we taken on perennial challengers Real Madrid or Atlético yet so you could say we've had and easy run so far, with the closest game being against newly promoted Córdoba, who actually came close to ending our run when they went two goals up in the first half and then even when we managed to level the scores, they got a third, leaving us to give everything we had to not only claw our way back into contention, but to come out of it at the end with the win and we did thanks to a last minute from Salah Samir.
 

As you can see from the fixtures, we also managed to pick up three wins out of three in the Europa League. We started out by absolutely battering Ajax 7-2 but then we had a much closer game with Borussia Mönchengladbach before facing Sampdoria, a team I was fairly confident we would beat, though that said, with it being 2040, they could quite well have given us a nasty surprise. In many ways, my knowledge of teams in Europe is still somewhat out of date, especially with having spent such a long time in Africa, I'm still thinking it's the 2020s so I could well end up going into matches thinking we have an easy win, only to be left embarrassed, luckily, so far that hasn't happened and it is my intention to try and make use of our scouts to get me up to date on both the Spanish leagues and Europe as a whole.

December 2040

We've just entered the winter break now and we are still top of the league, exactly where I hoped we would be. I'm happy to report that we are as yet undefeated in the league but unfortunately our winning run came to an end with draws against Betis and Sevilla, those games ending 1-1 and 2-2 respectively.
 

The highlights of the season so far, in the league, have been a 5-0 demolition of Atlético and a 5-2 victory over Real Madrid, and in the Europa League, the Ajax match which I mentioned in my previous update.

In terms of my aims here at Barcelona, I am expecting to win something this season, naturally the league is a must, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de España would be nice as well, though the board only expect us to reach the semi-final of the former and they don't care about the latter, regardless, I will make sure we will give both our best effort and then that just leaves the Europa League, again we will give it a shot but I think this season, as long as we manage to reach at least the quarter-final I will be reasonably satisfied, though maybe reaching the semi-final or even the final itself is the real goal. A team with Barcelona's history should really be aiming to win the tournament but Spanish football is not exactly where it once was, though this team does still have an excellent reputation, the league is now ranked 4th behind England, Germany and Italy, maybe if I stick around long enough, we might see a reversal but I'm not one for spending a long time at a team but who knows.

I think the plan going forward will be a brief update once the winter break and the January transfer window are out of the way, provided we make any noteworthy changes to the side, after that it will be an end of season update where I will hopefully be talking about all the silverware we managed to secure, fingers crossed. 

Good start at Barca

Cheers, it's always nice when things go to plan.

June 2041

And we are done, the 2040/2041 season has now been entered into the history books. On one hand we are celebrating an amazing undefeated season in La Liga and our victory in the Supercopa de España, our season has not been perfect, we only managed to reach the quarter final of the Copa del Rey, one round less than the board were expecting, and we got within touching distance of the Europa League, only to fall at the final hurdle, finishing as runner-up after losing to Newcastle.
 

To start with, in the league, we blew everybody away, never losing and only failing to win a handful of games. We registered some big wins along the way, including a 5-2 win over Real Madrid and we also scored seven goals in two matches, six in three games and five in nine games, demonstrating the lethality of our strike force.
 

I'm pleased that we were able to lift the Supercopa but in only reaching the quarter final of the Copa del Rey, we should be a little disappointed in ourselves on that front, the board expected us to at least reach the semi-final and judging on our league performance, we should have easily won the cup, unfortunately we faced an Atlético side that really decided to turn up that day and we just didn't have enough about us to hold them off that time.
 

Finally, in the Europa League, I had high hopes of success, I didn't necessarily think we would definitely win it, but I thought we would be one of the more likely ones to do so, it was therefore disappointing that having reached the final, we did not manage to lift the trophy at the end of the match. Had it not been for us losing a player to a red card, early in the match, I feel like we might have had a good chance at success, as it transpired though, we lost, albeit, we still managed to play fairly well, even scoring a goal after the red card.

Below you can check out our results throughout the season.

Now that the season is over, the question, as always is what to do next. Right now, I'm looking at improving the squad over the pre-season as we look ahead to another year challenging for the title and all other top-level domestic trophies, while attempting to also challenge for the Champions League, which the team has not won since 2015. As always, I like to keep an eye on the job market, so while the plan is to stay for another year, you can never rule out me moving onto a new challenge.

July 2041

In a move that has shocked the footballing world, I have today ripped up my €120k p/w contract with Barcelona in order to re-join Botafogo in the Cape Verde islands, a team I managed back in the 2032 and 2033 seasons.

As far as why I decided to make such a dramatic move, I guess it comes down to a couple of issues, the first stems from a club vision meeting I recently had with the Barcelona board, where they were somewhat critical of me in areas I had little control over, another side of it comes from the fact that I change directions more often than the wind.

Upon handing in my letter of resignation, I reviewed the job market, there were jobs available at Man Utd, Liverpool and Tottenham, all of which I could have gone for, had I wanted to, I actually turned down offers of an interview from both Athletic in Spain and RB Leipzig from Germany, in the end, I noticed that my old team Botafogo, from the Cape Verde islands were looking for a new manager and I remembered the good times I had in the country, both as their manager and also as the manager of Académica do Mindelo and then later on, as the national team manager.

During my time in the country, managing at the domestic level, I won the Liga Fogo twice and the Liga São Vicente once, I also won the Liga Cabo Verde and the Taça Nacional de Cabo Verde twice each and finally, while managing the national side, I was able to claim the Africa Cup of Nations. Having tasted success there, it just felt right to return and see what I can do this time around.

In my first season back at the club, the plan will be simple, I will completely overhaul the backroom staff and then start reforming the side so that it can challenge for the Liga Fogo title once more and as a result of that, reach and challenge for the Liga Cabo Verde as we did in my second season here last time.

The next update as normal will cover pre-season and transfers.

Keep up the adventure mate, good mix of write up and graphics alike.

Like that skin you're using, what's it called?

Thanks, the skin is OPZ Elite

November 2041

After my somewhat drastic exit from Spain and my return to Cabo Verde, I can say I have now settled back into my old office and begun this latest project in earnest, brining in a new assistant manager, two new coaches and a head physio along with eighteen new players to bolster our chances of not only winning the Liga Fogo but also challenging for the national championship and the main domestic cup.
 

While I have signed a couple of players for the youth team, the majority of the incoming players are for the senior team. Under normal circumstances, signing so many players at once would disrupt the harmony of a squad, but the one benefit to managing in this country, is the extremely long pre-season, at the point I write this, we have already played more friendlies than there are matches in the Liga Fogo (we play each team once) and we may yet still play more depending on the length of gaps between games.

I have not included screenshots for all the players due to the sheer number of them but instead, these are the more notable ones, with special attention given to António Monteiro who joins me yet again on this adventure having first signed for me when I managed Guelson in Angola, he later joined me at Sporting Clube de São Tomé, here at Botafogo in my first stint as manager, then at Académica do Mindelo before parting ways for a few years, I did briefly call him up for a Cabo Verde national side game and then he joined me once more at Barcelona. For Cape Verde and Barcelona he was way out of his depth but I wanted to give him a moment to remember as thanks for all the goals he scored that helped me secure four league titles across São Tomé & Príncipe and Cabo Verde.

Now that most of our business in the transfer market has largely been concluded, I am looking forward to seeing whether this group of players can come together into a cohesive unit that is sufficient to meet my ambitions this season. Looking at the results of the friendly matches, I believe we should do well and right now we are 1-10 favourites to win the Liga Fogo, something we have to do if we want to play in the Liga Cabo Verde later in the season and challenge for the right to call ourselves national champions as well as island champions.
 

November 2041

My first league game back in charge at Botafogo and boy did we make a statement, 5-0, what a win! 

In many ways, the game was about returnees, firstly myself, that really goes without saying, and António Monteiro who we managed to bring back to the club, once Barcelona terminated his contract, his two goals letting everybody know he still means business, and finally, Carlos Lopes, the winger we signed from Académica da Boa Vista, an amazing start to his Botafogo career, scoring three goals, and what makes it all the more special, is that he is also a local lad, born in São Filipe on our home island of Fogo, so in signing him, we have brought him back home.

With the first game out of the way, that just leaves eight more to play, can we continue as we start? Find out next time.

January 2042

After five games in the Liga Fogo, we sit top of the league with a perfect record, five wins in five, if we can just keep things like this for four more games, we will be island champions once more.

During my previous spell at the team, I was able to lead the team to two Liga Fogo titles and subsequent managers secured another three titles in the eight seasons I've been away, the team last won it the year before last and with my improvements, I'm fairly confident we'll be able to do it again, though with only nine games in the league, one mistake is all it takes for another team to squeeze in and take it all from us.
 

For the Taça Nacional de Cabo Verde, we managed to win our first round game against Corôa da Brava but unfortunately, we faced last years champions and my former team Académica do Mindelo in the second round, there we lost 1-0 but the scoreline is rather misleading, we actually played the better football throughout the game and only really lost due to a fluke of a goal, that said, it's the goals that count and they were the team to score one, it's disappointing to be eliminated early in the competition but we did manage to meet the board's minimum expectations. With the cup out of the way, we can focus our entire attention now on the last four games and then hopefully, come my next update, we'll be entering into the Liga Cabo Verde (national championship).

June 2042

As favourites to win the Liga Fogo, it was always likely that I would see us sitting at the top of the league at the end of the nine games but that was with the team I inherited, I wanted to make sure we did just that, hence why I signed so many players in the pre-season and with how long that was, we had more than enough time to find ourselves the right men for the job and turn them into a cohesive unit.

From the league table you can see that we won all our games in a clean sweep but the stats don't show the whole picture, we did actually have to fight to the very end of some of those matches to get the victory and in four of them, we had to come from behind to claim victory.
 

In winning the Liga Fogo, we took our island's spot in the Liga Cabo Verde, the national championships, there we faced off against the top teams from the other islands and in the group stage, we managed to finish top and undefeated, though we didn't manage to win all our games this time around. 
 

Once we reached the semi-final, we had to face Sporting da Praia over two legs and while we won both games, they did manage to score five so it wasn't as easy as I would have liked, luckily our strikers and attacking midfielders were able to out score them.

In the end, we took on Atlético de São Nicolau in the final and much like a few of our league matches, we had to come from behind to claim victory.

While we tasted success both in the Liga Fogo and the Liga Cabo Verde, we didn't do so well in the Taça Nacional de Cabo Verde, there we only managed to reach the second round after losing to my old team, Académica do Mindelo.

With this season out of the way, it's onto the next and that is where I have to think about what to do, I could stay another year but even coming here this season has dented my reputation somewhat, I feel like it might be an idea to return to Europe or at the very least, join a more reputable team in Africa as I continue my journey. If I do remain in Africa, I would like to manage in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria or Tunisia, though Cameroon, Mali and Senegal are also contenders, depending on the teams, if I return to Europe however, I want to join a fairly big team if possible, now I know my reputation, dented as it may be, might stop me from getting in a world class team like my former employers Barcelona, I'm open to a top level team in any of the top six to eight nations or at one of the top teams in a lower ranked league, essentially, I'm looking for a team that could play in Europe either in this season coming or the next.

July 2042

Just as the tide comes in, it goes back out again, with that in mind, I have departed Botafogo and the Cape Verde islands once more and returned to Europe, taking over as manager of one of my favourite teams (as you can tell by my choice of gaming chairs lol) - Benfica.

Anyone that's been following my save will know I'll probably only be here a year or two at most before moving on, but while I am here, let's see if we can't restore this team to its rightful place at the top of Portuguese football.

As you can see from the league history, Benfica haven't won the league recently and Braga is the team to beat. My goal this season is simple, try and win the league and whatever other cups we happen to be in this season domestically, beyond that if we can give a good account of ourselves in the Champions League, that would be great as well, I'm thinking group stage as a minimum but the round of 16 or beyond could be a realistic target, any less and it would be a slight disappointment.

In order to meet my targets this season, I might need to strengthen the side, mostly this will be bolstering the defence and possibly replacing the goalkeeper, in midfield I feel we are fairly decent and my striker is almost as good as any I had at Barcelona so he won't need removing any time soon, unless he gets unsettled by another club.

As I write this, the pre-season is almost over, so my next update will be a short way into the regular season, once we've played a few games and perhaps made a couple of signings.

August 2042

Despite only having enough time to play one friendly before we had to face Braga in the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira Vodafone, we come away victorious after winning the game 3-1.

Just prior to the game we were able to confirm the signing of Giorgio Balzano on a free transfer and both Ranaldo Braithwaite and Roberto Rivera on loan from Chelsea and Leicester respectively, Balzano and Rivera managed to make the starting XI for this game and Balzano even managed to score our second goal.

With the super cup out of the way, we now face a Champions League third qualifying round before we kick off the season, I'm hopeful my tactics will continue to work though I don't have a lot of choice but to tweak as I go in competitive games, rather than friendlies as I normally would, the main downside of joining a team late into the pre-season and the complete opposite of last season where I had several months of free time to work with in the Cape Verde islands.

December 2042

What a win, very satisfying to see that scoreline.
 

February 2043

Half way through the season now and we're on a roll, dominating the Portuguese league after having won all our games so far. For the three domestic cups that we're in this season, we have already won the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira Vodafone at the start of the season and we are through to the semi final of the Taça de Portugal and the final of the Allianz Cup where we will face FC Porto and Belenenses respectively.

The only place where we're haven't done quite so well is in Europe, but even then we have done okay, we managed to reach the league stage of the Champions League after beating Gent and PSV and during the league phase we picked up some wins against Larne, Celtic, Napoli and my former employer Barcelona, we also lost to Atlético, Man Utd and Arsenal and only managed a draw with Frankfurt. Now we face Atlético again, this time over two legs to see if we can make it to the last 16, at this point, while I obviously would like to see us progress, the board are already happy with our performance so it won't be a massive problem if we go out at this stage.
 

April 2043

After an okay performance in the league phase of the Champions League, we went on to eliminate both Atlético and Real Madrid in the knockout playoff round and the round of 16, taking us through to the quarter final where we faced and were eventually defeated by Man City, who beat us in both legs, though we did at least make them work for it.

With our Champions League campaign now over, we can bring more focus to our domestic game where we face a tough second leg against FC Porto in the Taça de Portugal, currently we are behind 2-1, so this upcoming match is one we have to win if we want to reach the final. As soon as that match is out of the way, we then have the final of the Allianz Cup to tackle, there we are set to play against Belenenses and they're a team I know we should be able to beat, so it will be disappointing if we fail to do so.

Beyond those two competitions, we just have six more games of the season and with us being eleven points clear and with two games in hand, it'll not be long before I believe we will be crowned champions, we will have to seriously mess up at this point to not come away as champions.