[FM21] South East / East Asian Journeyman save - Currently managing Suwon Samsung Bluewings/Senegal

I stated my save with a Sunday league reputation and with no coaching badges, I wanted to manage a team from either South East or East Asia and so I loaded Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, along with a bunch of European nations just so I can see what happens there, though I play to remain in Asia for the vast majority of this save.

My first venture into management came a few days into the save when I applied for and was offered the job at Internazionale Pattaya. When I applied for jobs in Thailand, I specifically picked out small teams from cities in Thailand that I would likely want to visit on vacation should I ever go to Thailand, the logic being that I had visited there and maybe watched a local team play and then decided to go back and try my hand at management in the place I visited. As such, I focussed on teams within Bangkok and along the coast in areas popular with holidaymakers. I figured, I would only use a team far inland once I had managed in the country for a while. The same applied for the jobs I applied for in other countries as well.

Although in the end, I got the Inter Pattaya job, I did also strongly consider Phuket and Phnom Penh Crown, the first was my second choice if I had not gotten the Pattaya job, the second would have put me in the top division in Cambodia from the start and with the ability to challenge for a title in my first season, it was because of that, that I chose not to join them as I wanted more of a challenge. At Inter Pattaya, I started with no players and so I was able to build up the entire squad.

Over the course of my one season at Inter Pattaya, we won Group D of the Amateur Division 2 and we managed to reach the quarter final of the FA Cup. I would have liked to remain at the team and take on the challenge of the league above, but the team repeatedly refused to fund my first coaching course, despite having the money to do so, this was especially annoying as they were willing to fund courses for other coaches.

At the end of the season I left to join Samut Sakhon in the Thai League 2 M-150 Championship.

After joining Samut Sakhon FC, one of the first things I did was raid my old club, taking with me six of their best young players for free (they were on amateur contracts). With those players and others that I brought into strengthen the squad, I turned what was rated as the thirteenth best team in the division, into champions and with that, we gained promotion to the Toyota Thai League.

In the cups, we managed to reach the semi-final of the Chang FA Cup and the quarter final of the Toyota League Cup. It was very pleasing to reach as far as we did in the cups though for much of the run, we were actually facing smaller teams so many of the results were not unexpected, even so, we did exceed expectations and it was pleasing in the end that when we lost in both cups, we did so to bigger teams from the league above and the results were respectable.

After gaining promotion, I strengthened the team somewhat across the board but we did struggle a little in the striker department as a key player I brought in on loan was recalled but we managed to make do with an aging Russian striker who had been our top scorer last season and a Nigerien international had not really excelled at our club, and who kept disappearing every now and then to play for his country. By the end of the season, the Nigerien guy came good, putting in a number of good performances but his appearance in the African Cup of Nations did hurt us somewhat at the end and we started to miss his presence in the side.

Our first season up in the Toyota Thai League ended with us managing to take fourth place, securing a place in the AFC Champions League thanks to the FA Cup winner being the third place team and not one lower down in the league. In the cups we only managed to reach the quarter final of the Chang FA Cup this season but we went all the way to the final of the Toyota League Cup. We lost in the final but we were not expected to even reach it, so it was still a good effort from what was rated as the worst team in the league according to the season preview.

Over the course of the 2022 season, I was approached by a number of clubs from the same division and a few from lower divisions, offering me job interviews, I ignored offers from at last a dozen clubs but I did consider moving to Chiangrai Utd, though in the end, I stuck with my club and saw out the season. Once the dust had settled on the 2022 season, I was approached by Muangthong Utd in the off-season. Although Muangthong Utd finished one place below my Samut Sakhon FC side, they possessed a considerably larger budget for both wages and transfers, plus their players were of a higher calibre, even if they had done worse than my own. I knew if I took the Muangthong job, I would have a team that was not far off challenging Buriram Utd and Bangkok Utd for the title and potentially the cups as well.

I've had my best ever saves on FM in Asia. Great place to manage. You should've stuck UAE & Qatar in there as they're great leagues to manage in