Tongey Travels [FM24]

Let me introduce you to what will hopefully be the save that gets me back into the swing of things with Football Manager. Truth be told, I have fallen out of love with the game recently but I've had the itch to get back into things lately and today is the day I finally get to it. What save would get me back into it I hear you ask? Well of course it's my typical ridiculous Journeyman that has no chance of completion.

The aim is simple; to win everything the game has to offer. It's a task that more than likely won't be completed but I'll sure as hell give it a good go. There will be no set route that I will follow, but I'll just go where the wind takes me.

- I am using the original database with no additional leagues (why would I make my job any harder.)
- I will set my manager to Sunday League Experience and No Coaching Qualifications to make it more realistic.

This post will now be my career history post and below I'll be posting my achievements so far.

Clubs Managed

Nation Flag	Club Logo	Team Name	Date From - Date To	Reason Left	Days in Charge
		Persekat Tegal	23.09.24 - Present	N/A	N/A

Trophy Cabinet

Nation Flag	Club Logo	Team Name	Competition Name	Date Won
		Persekat Tega	Piala Indonesia	04.05.24

Country Completion:

Asia:
Indonesia - 1 / 3

Tongey: Also known as Mark Tonge is a 32-year-old first-time manager from the North West of England. Born in 1992 in Manchester he followed only two teams growing up. The mighty Manchester United, and the lowly Northwich Victoria.

 

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Despite having Zero Playing Experience and No Coaching Qualfications he has set out on his quest for the first job in football management. 


He has decided that his first destination in management will be in Asia, so headed out on the first flight to Singapore to follow his management dreams. The following jobs was available and he has applied for all immediately.
 

Where will Tongey get his first job...?

Tongey's First Job in Football Management

Welcome to Indonesia, the home of over 17,000 islands including Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi & Borneo in the middle of the Indian Ocean & Pacific Ocean. Indonesia is actually the worlds largest Archipelagic State and is the 14th largest country in the World. It may only be the 14th largest country by size, but it's the 4th most populous country with over 280 million people calling it their home. Half of these live in the capital of Jakarta.

It's now also my new home, and I'll be residing in Java specifically. Java is home to my new club:

Welcome to Persekat Tegal.

Club Overview:

Persekat Tegal were founded on 16th August 1962 and go by the full name of Perserikatan Sepakbola Kabupaten Tegal. It's catchy I know and purely for my sanity, I'll be calling them Persekat from now on.

They also go by their nickname: Banteng Loreng (The Stripes Bull) and play their home games in the Tri Sanja Stadium which holds a capacity crowd of 10,000 eager and passionate fans. (I'm not sure we'll ever see that many watch us to be honest)

Despite being around for 62 years, the club has won absolutely nothing which is where I come in. I'll be looking to challenge for silverware as quickly as I can. They did finish as Runners-Up in the Indonesian 3 League once upon a time.

Training Facilities: Poor
Youth Facilities: Poor
Club Colours: HOME & AWAY

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The Season So Far:

Well this sub heading is a bit of an anti-climax, as we're only actually 2 games into the current season when I was offered the job. The club are currently participating in the League Two Group Stage 1st Round which is a round robin style group phase containing 4 groups of 7 teams competing for 3 places who progress to the next round. 

After two games, we are sitting pretty at the top of our group and in prime position to kick on over the next 10 games to try and secure that passage to the next round. In terms of the media, we aren't predicted to do much at all. I'll prove them wrong.

Next Post | End of Season Update | 2024/2025

Welcome back Tongey lad.

Thanks so much for the welcome back @HockeyBhoy! It's certainly been a while, but I've rekindled my love for it again. No time better for a save like this! I hope you enjoy the ride!

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End of Season Update: 2023/2024

Persekat Tegal | Indonesia | Liga II Indonesia

We've absolutely flown through our first season in this career, and we've had quite a journey truth be told. I know little about the league system in Indonesia, but I've thoroughly enjoyed navigating my way through the different stages of the league. I'll walk you through in the following update style.

Personal Update
Transfers
League Round Up
Cup Round Up
Player Stats

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Personal Update

Like I said, it's the end of my first season in charge of a football club, but we're still very early in my career so my stats haven't changed too much since the start. I've now managed to ask for a coaching badge course yet because the club are in a pretty dire place financially. I'm hoping we can get round to it pretty soon.

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Transfers:

My main job this season was to make a judgement on each player, and whether they will play a part in my plans for this year and next year. If they don't, they were moved on. I moved on a total of 15 players for a number of reasons: high wages, too old, not good enough. This left me with a core squad of what I deemed to be enough quality. We just needed to add in certain areas to increase that depth. I managed to find 2 players…

Akhsay Rismawanto (AMR)
He was recommended to me by my newly appointed DOF, and I made a quick decision to try and bring him in. He's got decent physical attributes for a winger, and I was deligthed to see he could dribble well. I like players with pace and high dribbling so they can beat a man down the wing. His finishing is poor, but I'm glad to see him improving in that area. 

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Taopik Hidayat (GK)
I needed a new backup goalkeeper and Taopik was available on a free. He has decent attributes for this league so I made the move to bring him in. He won't get much game time this season but he's going to improve so he may force his way in next season.

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League Update | Liga II Indonesia

I'll just update you on the format of the league system and how it works. There are basically 28 teams in the league, and it's split into 3 different rounds of knockout competitions. 

- 4 Groups of 7 Teams (Play each other twice) (Top 3 teams in each group progress to 2nd Round)
- 3 Groups of 4 teams (Top team in each group, plus best runner up progresses to the Semi-Final)
2 x Semi Final Games
1 x Third Place Playoff (Winner gets promoted)
1 x Final (Both get promoted)

I know, it's different than the usual league format, but I kind of like it. When I took over the job, we had already played 2 games and were sitting top of the pile in our group. Could we hold on and move through the rounds.

Round One:
 

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We rattled through the remaining 3 months of competition in the First Round without losing a game. We had some good wins along the way against some good sides, but we quickly cemented ourselves as the team to try and knock off top spot. The best result was probably the 2-1 victory over Persijap Pejara and the 2-1 win over Persipa thanks to a last gasp penalty from Kahar Muzakkar.

My record in this round ended on:

7 WINS
3 DRAWS

0 LOSSES

And with that, we had secured top spot, a nice comfortable 7 points clear of Persijap Jepara in 2nd place. 30 points was our total, and we said goodbye to Persela Lamongan, Persipa, Gresik United & Deltras FC who all enter the Relegation Phase of the league competition. We were on our way to the 2nd Round.

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Round 2:
 

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It wasn't as straight forward as we made our way through the Second Phase. We were placed in Group C alongside Kalteng Putra, PSKC & Semen Padang. It consisted of 6 games (2 against each team). It was during this phase, that we suffered our first loss on the season, against Semen Padang, but it was an absolute corker of a game. 5-0 down before we fought back to 5-4 with a chance to equalise in the dying moments. A belter, but 0 points. 

We did manage to end the phase on a high, winning both of our final 2 games against PSKC & Semen Padang. The latter being a win and in situation. The winner went through to the Semi-Finals, whilst the loser bowed out at this stage. 
 

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A top place finish secured our passage to the Semi-Final, but it was very very close. Too close for comfort to be honest. Both Semen Padang & PSKC finished. a point behind us on 10. I'm glad to put this round behind us. The semi-final awaits.

Semi-Final
 

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Unfortunately, it wasn't to be this time around as we lost in the Semi-Final over 2 legs to Bekasi City. They were by far the best team in this tie, and deserved their win overall. The first leg didn't go to plan at all after we went 4-0 down. We did stage a mini fightback to get it back to within 2, but it wasn't enough overall. 

The second leg was better as we set out to attack from the off. It paid off as we went 2-0 up with further chances. We couldn't take enough of them and sucummbed in the end to a 2-2 draw. We left ourselves very open at the back as we got more desperate to score. Not to be.

Third Place PlayOff:

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After losing in the Semi-Final and missing out on guaranteed promotion to the top tier, and the chance to win the league title we ended up in the 3rd placed playoff against an old flame of mine Persiraja Banda Aceh. I had managed them on a previous challenge in a previous version of the game. Again, it was 2 fantastic matches, the first ended 1-1 and left it all to play for. 

The second leg was a thriller and ended 5-4 to them. We pushed so hard to find an equaliser at the death but jsut couldn't get it over the line. After being predicted to not be anywhere near a promotion stage, I'm pretty excited at how far we came, and what we could end up doing next season.

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Piala Indonesia:

The domestic cup competition in Indonesia is called the Piala Indonesia, which guess just means Indonesian Cup. I'm not too sure to be honest but hey ho, we're in it, and we're aiming to win it. We'd have to be incredibly lucky with the draws though.

I'll walk you through each round individually below. We started things off with a ridiculously impressive result as we knocked out Liga I side Persib Bandung after winning 3-0 away from home. A fantastic start to a potential cup run. 

From the 2nd round it moves to a 2 legged affair, and we were against a non league side this time. Persbul Buol were our opponents and we showed our superior quality as we ran out 8-0 and 1-0 winners in each leg. A comfortable affair and into the 3rd round we go.

Waiting for us in the next round were PSDS Deli Serdang. They are in our level of football but we once again showed why we were the better outfit. Muzakkar netted a hattrick in the first leg to put us firmly in control of the tie, before we ended it nicely with a 2-1 win. 

The Quarter Final was next, where we faced another top tier league side Persikabo 1973. It was a much tighter affair in which a lone goal from Sumarna meant we had a 1-0 lead going into the return leg. Again it was a great game, tightly contested in the middle and with some good goals. We went 2-0 up before the break before a goal early in the second half made it a nervy ending. We held on and marched on to the semi-final.

Persipa who were in the relegation phase of our league were our opponents. A 3-2 win courtesy of a 95th minute long range bullet from Sumarna meant we took a slender advantage into the 2nd leg. We managed to hold on in that return leg and secure a 2-2 draw and with that passage into the Final. Would we?

THE FINAL!

 

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Well well well, look at that! We have been crowned CHAMPIONS of the Piala Indonesia!

A 4-0 demolition job in the 1st leg meant the hard work was done. Rismawanto & Surmana were both unplayable and made life very difficult for Persikab. We just went on a rout in that second half! Could we hold on in the 2nd leg? Of course we could.

We set up differently, and went slighty defensive which did mean we ended up losing the game, but we just managed the overall match situation which meant we were winning the trophy at the end! A fantastic achievement for a little old club.
 

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Player Stats

Top Goalscorer
1. Kahar Muzzakar - ST (22 in 28)

2. Sumarna - AMC (15 in 31)

3. Akhsay Rismawanto - AMR (14 in 26)

Top Assists:
1. Kahar Muzzakar - ST (10 in 28)

2. Akhsay Rismwanato - AMR (7 in 26)

3. Mirkomil Loqayev - RB (6 in 31)

Highest Average Rating:
1. Kahar Muzzakar - ST (7.39)

2. Akshay Rismwanto - AMR (7.37)

3. Sumarna - AMC (7.26)

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Plans for next season are underway, but it's nice to get a trophy ticked off in my first season in charge. I've got a few aims that I'd like to tick off next year and I'll list them below:

- Get myself on the coaching badge ladder, whether that be just one, or two. 
- Get promoted to Liga I, preferably as Champions.

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Next Update | End of Season Update | 2024/2025

Well this is a nice surprise. Welcome back bro 

I just love how you start somewhere obscure @tongey  - this is just like days of yore. Stories like this are much more enjoyable than watching video stream stories in my opinion. It feels like retro Susie stories this way…..

Have recently started on a FM24 save of my own with a bit of a difference, may return to the FM19 and FM20 ones at some point in the future.