Introduction

Welcome to one of my secondary saves, created so that I can take a break from my main save. While I'm working my way through Africa in my main save, here I'm starting out in Japan, unemployed, no badges and a Sunday-league reputation.

Unlike my main save, there are no rules here, I can manage any team I like, so long as they're willing to hire me, and though the aim is to manage primarily in Japan, I can leave at any time and there are no end goals, save for reaching the J1 League and if possible, at some point managing Yokohama F. Marinos which is my favourite Japanese team.
 

January 2023

It took a while to look through the massive list of teams searching for managers, teams from all different levels of the Japanese footballing pyramid, but several teams caught my attention, all of which situated down in the lowly prefecture-level divisions. Yellow Monkeys and Black Kitty FC stood out due to their amusing names, the teams representing the Kyoto Fire Department and the Kyoto-fu Police Headquarters might have been interesting prospects, so too was the Mitsubishi Industries team from Nagasaki, though the one that interested me the most, and who would eventually make the offer that I would accept, was Yokohama Fifty Club.

Having spent time in Yokohama while on vacation and with my favourite Japanese team being based in the city (F. Marinos), it was a natural choice for me to pick Yokohama Fifty Club over the other options available to me. The club is a great deal smaller than the likes of F. Marinos and as I write this, only has two players currently on the books and maintains an amateur status, they have potential and this season, I'm going to see if I can set the team on the path to realise that potential.

Right now, I have just under three months to build up this squad and challenge for the Kanagawa Soccer League, the board is expecting a top-half finish, so I will have my work cut out in building up a squad to do just that, hopefully by the time the pre-season ends, I will have a squad of some description put together, though only time will tell whether it is capable of meeting the minimum expectations or not, though I'm not of the nature to simply settle for the bare minimum, I aim to win and so I will be going all out to ensure that we are in the best shape possible once the first game kicks off. 

March 2023

Since becoming the manager of Yokohama Fifty Club, a team that only had two players on the books when I joined, I've been very busy in the transfer market, building up a squad that I think will be capable of meeting or exceeding the board's expectations of a top-half finish in the Kanagawa Soccer League (one of the Kanto prefectural leagues).

I won't bore you with a whole load of screenshots of random players you've probably never heard of (at least this time lol) but I will show off perhaps the most notable of my signings... Jun'ichi Inamoto, the former Japanese international that scored at the 2002 World Cup and who played for clubs in the EPL, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and the Turkish Süper Lig.

Inamoto joins us on a season-long loan from Nankatsu and will provide us with some much needed experience get ready to begin our upcoming campaign.

April 2023

Pre-season is over and now the real fun begins, I have assembled my squad and the time has come to see whether or not I have managed to put together an effective and cohesive unit… will we soar like a black kite (bird of prey) over the Yokosuka Chuo train station entrance? Or will we crumble like the cookie I was trying to eat outside said station back in March 2016 while on vacation and after being attacked by one of those birds when it took a liking to my food lol, I still remember distinctly, the feeling of being slapped around the face by a large feathery wing as the bird stole my cookie L but I digress, football is the focus here, not my cookie or my holiday.

The board and fans are interested to know whether our team will be sufficient for us to finish in the top half, I'm wondering if it will be enough for us to challenge for the Kanagawa league title, I certainly hope so, I'm not the sort of manager who's happy to settle for simply meeting expectations and looking to the media, they have us rated as the 7th best team, but that is not in Kanagawa, but the entire of the Kanto region, only six teams are currently rated better than us at this level and only one of those six are in our actual division, with that in mind, I have high hopes for a decent finish this season, winning this league is the obvious aim, second would be perfectly acceptable, but so long as we are up there challenging, I will be reasonably satisfied.

A quick glance below at our star striker and some of the young talent that we've secured.

As we approach our first league game, the transfer window has now closed and any business we wish to conduct from this point, will have to wait until it reopens again in July. I am fairly happy with the transfers that I've made, we have a mixture of young talent and experienced veterans and hopefully those older players can impart their wisdom before they retire.
 

Our first league game is against Yokohama Sports & Culture Club Second, the reserve team to one of the J3 League teams, they are the team as mentioned above, that is the only one in our league rated better that us by the media, as such it should be a tough match. (It's interesting for me that I start against Yokohama SCC when they were actually the last Japanese team I used on Football Manager, back on FM20).

June 2023

Six wins out of six puts us top of the Kanagawa Soccer League with a five point gap between us and Shinagawa CC, but a 2-2 draw followed by a penalty shoot-out, sees us eliminated from the Shakaijin Cup at the first qualifying round. Though it was disappointing to be eliminated so early, Sports and Society Izu are one division above us in the Tokai Senior League Division 2 and as such, we were not expected to beat them, that said, I do believe we played better than them for a good portion of the game and on another day, we might have come away with the win.

As a side note, I achieved my National C coaching badge just a few days after the cup exit, hopefully the board allows me to do the next one and I can keep improving as a manager.

December 2023

2023 has come to an end and we have made it a clean sweep in the Kanagawa Soccer League, winning all thirteen games and securing our place in the promotion playoffs.

In the playoffs, we managed to defeat Corazon Chiba, Thespa Challengers B, Meiji University Reserves and Vonds Vert to lift the playoff trophy and become champions of the Kanto Prefectural Leagues.

By gaining promotion this season, we will be moving up, at least I am assuming, to the Kanto Soccer League, the sixth tier league for our region of Japan. Because of this increase in stature, the club will also be turning semi-professional, which hopefully will mean that they'll start paying me, right now I'm having to work part time in a 7-Eleven near Hiranumabashi train station and the apartment I have been renting just up the road from there, while by no means expensive by Japanese standards, is also not free of charge and managing this team for no financial reward, has eaten into my savings somewhat.

While out performance in the league has exemplary, we did, as I mentioned in my previous post, get knocked out of the Shakaijin Cup during the first qualifying round, that was a disappointment but as I also mentioned, we were knocked out by a higher league team so it was not entirely unexpected, thankfully though, the Shakaijin Cup was not the only cup competition that we entered this season.

In the National Club Team Soccer Championship, we fared better and managed to reach the semi-final before finally coming unstuck against FC Kagura Shimane, though we lost that match, we did go on to win the match for third place. (Weirdly and I assume because of a bug, the game lists us as the cup winner in the competition and team history despite us not even playing in the final but it does not actually show up on my personal history and only the trophies appear for Kanagawa league and the Kanto region playoffs, which is correct.)

In the coming days, the plan is to offload any players that ended up being surplus to requirements this season, and if I can, I'm, going to look to make a few improvements as well, hopefully next season we can continue on in a similar vein (I know from my past experience managing in Japan on FM20 at the lower levels, and in other countries as well across many FM games, getting back to back promotions at this level is not overly difficult) and at the very least I would like to see us push for promotion, even if we don't manage it at the first attempt.