Eric Portapotty - Comments

Had to be done, to make way for the new leagues if nothing else:



Couple of coincidences with the 5 new leagues - 1 Virgin Islands replacing another, Somalia replaced by its neighbour Djibouti, Samoa replacing the only Oceanic representative in Tonga, Sri Lanka replacing Pakistan as the South Asian rep, and Brunei as the 1st Southeast Asian nation and the 1st with 2 tiers!

But of course, we still had the remaining 5 nations for Stage One:



And one of them's ruled me out from the off already, great.

The good form continued towards the end of 2036 - apart from the Old Madrid scare we weren't troubled, with the Islanders beatdown a particular highlight.
Well I say that, we troubled ourselves, with a shocking challenge from rising star RB Noval Rapley resulting in a deserved red and 1-match ban at the start of 2037.

Between that time, well we had a transfer window:



FUCKS SAKE STOP POACHING
That's starting GK Fitzroy Miller, and centreback Ranelie Morton - at least I managed to keep Miller, but not Morton ffs.




It didn't seem to affect our form thankfully, and coming towards the end of the season we were on a 6-win streak, and still unbeaten at that.
Despite all that, Rebels had kept up with us all the way and baefore the final day, they were still in with a shot of winning the title.

Well guess who we play in that final day:



A scriptwriter's dream, this.
Trading punches and wins all season, the league's record points tally of 34 (set by Rebels no less) will be matched at least after this game (if Rebels win or we draw, and surpassed if we win).

Well:





Incredible stuff - we dominated proceedings in the 1st half, and despite Venton Cain's best efforts went into the interval 4-1 up.
Rebels - led by perennial thorn in the side Cain - threatened to mount a comeback, but aside from that Williams OG we managed to sail through unscathed and seal a 2nd league title in 3 years.



An extraordinary season that led to many a record being broken - though of course, as good as it is my eyes are only on the one cup competition I've yet to win:



A performance befitting men on a mission, as Wolues were comfortably outclassed.



Likewise with One Love, though our nerves did get to us at times.
Nevertheless, I'm in the final for the 1st time!



GET IN, winning the final at the 1st time of asking.
About as perfect ending you can ask for for this season and my time here in general, a historic domestic treble and doing it unbeaten throughout.






Players of the Season


Damiel Fisher was hands-down the breakout star of the season, scoring 15 goals in 12 league starts despite being comfortably the 2nd best striker in last year's youth intake.
A great burst of acceleration coupled with smart runs meant most through balls got to him to put away.



Breaking the club's season scoring record in your 1st full year in senior football, get in lad.


David Remy was the hotter prospect in last year's intake, and thanks to Roger James' departure and Getamesay's injury on Opening Day, had the chance to establish himself as a 1st-choice striker beside his fellow graduate.
Being the Defensive forward, he didn't have the speed that you need to poach goals, but he put himself about and still finished with 10 goals from 12.


The 3rd of 3 starters from last year's intake, Norval Rapley dominated the right flank and finished with 5 assists in 11 matches.
His idiotic red mist nearly cost us towards the end of the season, but I think we can put that down to youthful exuberance.


Playmaking maestro, Joel Fisher dictated play smack in the centre of the park.
4 goals and 4 assists aren't much when compared to some of his teammates' end product, but I'll be damned if I didn't recognise his influence in our game.


Ron Morris sat at the top of the diamond and fed all those through balls to Fisher and Remy for goal after goal.
Amazingly, he only scored his 1st ever league goal this season too - could've sworn he'd had a few already since his emergence in the 1st team.


And shoutout to Fitzroy Miller as well, who was about a good a keeper as we could get when we were in the shitter 4 seasons ago.
I'm just glad I could get him to stay at a goals conceded ratio of 1/game in his time here, a man of his ability deserves better than conceding 22 in 13 in his record.

Lastly, we finish with another youth intake:



Another absolute baller of a midfielder to add to our collection of absolute ballers for midfielders.
Shame I probably wouldn't be able to manage Rohan Morris and have him be our midfield hardman at the base of the diamond.



So er, that's that then, time for a new club.
It's also the 6th nation that I've completed, so time to put them away and load up a new set of 5.

Midseason 2036/37



Another unbeaten start, just about anyway - needed an injury time equaliser to stop us from falling to Rebels again.
We were lucky that an injury to Getamesay (to add to the loss of Roger James) gave us the opportunity to unearth some explosive talents.
David Remy you know about, but it is Damiel Fisher who really came through out of nowhere - goals in 5 appearances earning him a national call-up, 2 caps and 2 goals!



Despite the unbeaten start, we still find ourselves behind the utterly relentless Rebels.
Oh well, at least we can push on to finish the season unbeaten instead of melting down from the pressure towards the end.

As usual, the Terry Evans Cup also started:



One Love are the proper whipping boys of the league at the moment, and it showed here - a rotated team with an alternate formation, and they still got comfortably beaten.

Oh and look who tried to tempt fate:





Yeah....



YEAH
Not our best game - Venton Cain (their lone striker)did what he does (scored in 4 of or 5 previous encounters) and terrorised our defence, but couldn't find his shooting boots this time, while Fisher one-upped his future striker partner for country with the only goal.



GET IN
We were better throughout, and but for massive defensive gap that gifted Vanterpool the equaliser we'd have a clean sheet to go with the title.
Both sides were pretty comically hamstrung for the final too - we were without 5 starters due to international call-ups, while Panthers played their semifinal only 3 days before this final.



Interesting that we've been ranked Overachievers while the club expected to reach the Final at minimum.

Preseason 2036/36

100% on preseason, lots of goals for the most part, but (partly due to injuries) we weren't as consistent at the back.
Estavan Norford scored a couple of bangers at the start, as did Carlos Jefferson and a couple of youth players, but the key was getting the partnership of Roger James and Getamesay working - looks like it's working too:



Ah.
Yeah building your team around a focal point be damned, just leave when you want with this non-contract nonsense.

Oh well, we also had a signing of our own anyway:



Muhammad Ullah was released by KPT a fair few moons ago, but as Pakistan manager I was able to catch a glimpse of his ability.
So he was snapped up, but due to him being 16ish at the time best we could do was to give him a long-term trial while the days tick by.
He's finally turned 18 so he's now here officially, so that's the good news.

The bad news is, well turns out he does flatter to deceive a bit - he is defensively gifted, but with next to no physical presence he'll likely get done by almost anyone else in the air.
His performances for the U20s haven't been that good either, which with his technicals you'd expect him to at least make a mark for himself.
Coaches still rate him as the best centreback at the club so he's got that going for him, but in reality he's likely to become backup right back while he continues to play U20 football fulltime.



Seasonal predictions worry me now, starting to place some expectations on us.



Bookies think so too, which to my eyes just leads us into an inevitable implosion and my dismissal soon after.

End of Season 2035/36

Well... The roosters have well and truly come home to roost.
Our inability to score didn't get any better, and if anything it got much worse, not least due to my giving a new contract to Getamesay and a couple of departures - more on that later.
Our defence could only do so much and eventually caved, though conceding at a rate of under a goal a game is still commendable.
We eventually went back to basics and a 4-4-2 with a couple of exciting youth wingers, but that didn't help in the end.



Absolutely mad that we finished 3rd after ending the season with 2 points out of 18.

Now about those strikers:



Knob.
Best finisher at the club no doubt, but when you're not putting that to good use what's the point?
He's since joined Wolues, where he's continued being utterly mediocre - he's going to score against us the next chance he gets isn't he.



I'm not that annoyed that he left, he was never going to be the clinical striker that we needed and was already behind Roger James in the pecking order - that said a striker's still a striker.

Now, the one striker we did keep:



Hopeless, downing tools after every contract renewal like clockwork.
It got so bad that I decided to get another left-footed striker:


Carlos Jefferson isn't particularly clinical himself, but at least he's got a decent technical ability and could deliver the passes for Roger James to finish - yeah I'm pretty much all in on him as my primary goalgetter.

Such was the timing of the transfer window opening though, that he didn't make an impact in the league - it was all down to the remaining Wendol Williams Cup:



Yeah... No dice here either.
4-4-2 here, probably the wrong choice given our lack of familiarity, but something different was needed given our collapse in the league.
Well at least Septus didn't score eh.

We still had another tournament to go through before we could call it quits on this shitshow of a season:




A fair way off last season's heroics, but we were still not at the standard of Puerto Rican or Jamaican clubs, so it is what it is.

Season Review

Not sure what's worse, the league collapse or the bombing out of both cups in the 1st round.




That Getamesay finished as both top scorer and PoTY despite going on that drought epitomised our season, terrible stuff.

Players of the Season



Ok, as much as I want to rag on the guy, fact is Getamesay did carry us for the 1st half of the season, I JUST NEED TO STOP GIVING HIM NEW CONTRACTS MIDSEASON


Joel Fisher, well he's not the primary playmaker with on Morris around nowadays, and despite his good performances his lack of mentality and Determination means he's not really capable of dragging us out of a rut.


It's why I like Morris more despite his lower end product, he drives at defences more and doesn't shirk as much arguably.


Roger James was our talisman in preseason and I tried to push his inclusion hard throughout the season.
He's clearly an aerial threat, but he seriously needs to stay in the box instead of chasing down long through balls (or maybe our other guys need to stopp feeding him those kinds of balls).

Finally, we had our annual intake (spoiler: it almost makes up for everything bad this season)



Ohhh yeah, he's that good:



Instant starter at RB, Norval Rapley gives us that attacking ability down the right that we've been trying to achieve with half-baked mezzala tactics.



David Remy's not half bad as well, not really excelling at any particular but has enough of an all-round game to trouble defences.
No surprise teams have been enquiring about him - am I going to gift him to my title rivals? Am I fuck.

So that's the club season done, but we still had business in Pakistan apparently:



Yes, the South Asian Football Federation Championship - 2 groups with India in the other thankfully.
We dispatched of our group comfortably, even if the last game was a bit random with a completely rotated squad and experimental formation.



India also finished top it seems, well at least we'll avoid them for the semis:



What gives?
Oh well, they did lost to Afghanistan so they're not exactly unbeatable, so we might have a chance at revenge finally:



Twats, absolute twats.
Not that we deserved to win, but they managed to put 2 of our players out of the game without so much of a yellow card, absolutely bent.



I was hoping that I could jump before I was pushed, but not reaching the final (even if a dodgy draw put paid to that) meant I fell short of their objectives, so I was cut immediately after the loss.

Think that's it for international jobs for now at least, I can't seem to get it to work with a club job as well - well I don't think I can get it working as a standalone gig at that!

Midseason s035/36

An unbeaten 1st half of the season, helped greatly by a league-best 4 goals conceded in 7 matches - Ranelie Morton (a youth entrant last season) has assimilated into the backline seamlessly as a replacement from Troy Telemaque.
A slightly worrying aspect of our season so far is the relative lack of goalscoring personnel - only Getamesay (somehow) has scored in more than 1 match this season. Admittedly it was somewhat my fault for not trusting Roger James from the off and going with Septus despite his poor preseason - James went some way to repaying an eventual faith in him with 2 goals against One Love.

So we go into the 2nd half of the season in the lead, but with Islanders and Rebels showing significantly more attacking prowess so far we need to get our act together in that department as well.

Time for the Terry Evans Cup:



... And time to exit the Terry Evans Cup.
Not a good look for the 2nd string backline, who basically wasted Daley and Getamesay's best efforts - well at least I know that I can't count on them I guess.

So that's Sugar Boys; we also had the smaller matter of Pakistan's World Cup qualifying campaign:



In a word, horrible - both defeats against the MidEast sides weren't surprising, but our inability to beat Laos at least once is extremely concerrning.

Then there's India:



Now far be it for me to think that we deserved to beat them, but with them being intense rivals and having more than enough chances to score, to concede an opener in the most collectively boneheaded way:

https://streamable.com/ruyhed

Rigged beyond all belief.



We're not bottom for now, but we've completely thrown away any chance of finishing above India, and with the return games against the MidEast teams still to come there'll be even more humiliation in store.

Preseason 2035/36

Before we move to preseason proper, let's get the inevitable departure of key players out of the way:



ffs
Club captain, (despite putting in good performances) not that good a player (which made me think no one would have an interest in him), I thought he'd be staying for the long term. But no, even he's left.
its impact has significantly been reduced by the emergence of Estavan Norford, but having to find a new captain is going to be difficult given the youth and lack of leadership in the squad currently.
As usual, we stuck with the status quo as much as possible and made no incoming transfers in the offseason.

On to preseason:



So close to a perfect preseason, oof.
Comfortably unbeaten throughout, but the relative lack of goals from our (established) strikers is an issue.
Rodney Septus only managed 1 goal in 4 starts, while Getamesay and Daley only managed 1 better.
Roger James took this opportunity to stake his claim, with 4 goals in 3 starts and 7 total appearances - I'm definitely looking to give him a run out for the start of the season.



The league and Wendol Williams Cup aren't the priority this season - they might be great to retain, but this time we need to seal the deal on a Terry Evans Cup win.



League predictions have us at top half as well - we have a settled squad which will put us in good stead, but the overall flux in club form in the league means we'll be expecting more than a few shocks anyway.

Apologies for the extended delay, but I'm back for now:-

End of Season 2034/35

We pretty much picked up where we left off at the halfway point of the season - well up to a point, we did trip up against Wolues.
Beating Old Madrid the following match did put us on the cusp of the title - only issue was that we had to beat bogey team and nearest challengers Islanders.
Well we didn't lose (we tried, shat bricks all game), and Islanders' subsequent failure to win their next match meant that:



Ohhhh yeah, 6 league titles now.



Finished off the season with a win and a loss, the final match being an opportunity to play some of the youths, as well as being a sign of things to come...
Despite the win Virgin Gorda (with Unpha Monks eventually wilted to midtable - at least they weren't previous champions Panthers, who found themselves second from bottom in a tight points race from 4th to 8th.

We now have the small matter of potentially making it a treble for the season:



Quarter Finals of the Wendol Williams Cup, and we began with a convincing win against One Love.



... Followed up with an absolute horrow show of a semi, with 3 of our back 4 conceding a penalty and giving new bogeyman Rushedo Caesar a hat-trick.
Virgin Gorda eventually won the whole thing, and still decided to sack their manager after a poor league campaign - a new boss who can properly use Monks and Caesar will be title favourites.

Oh and as it turned out, I still did have another chance at a treble:



Representing the British Virgin Islands as league champion in the CFU Club Championship, I think we gave a very good account of ourselves, with wins against our main competition (Bodden Town!!!) and a hard fought draw against Jamaican giants Portimore Town.



Alas, while Portimore managed to put their opponents to the sword (comparatively speaking), we only just about scraped through both ties so we were always on the back foot goal difference wise. Didn't help that there were 16 groups and only group winners progressed.

Season Review

I can't really complain can I - a double-winning campaign and good showings in the regionals, and we (I) only need to focus on the last cup before moving on.

Players of the Season



Arguably the surprise of the season, I thought Rodney Septus was a lost cause before this season, but a good preseason run set him up for a great campaign.
I didn't expect him to have more assists than goals (he's much better at finishing than chance creation after all), but I couldn't give less of a damn if his 10 goal contributions were all goals or all assists.



Speaking of 10 goals... Juma Getamesay topped our goalscoring charts once again.
What's more to be said about him? He's not very good, but somehow he gets goals.



He. Gets. Goals.



Joel Fisher continues to be the beating heart of our team, and even with new blood they've only either complemented him or provided cover in his absence.
2 goals and an assist don't look like much, but as with most playmakers his game lies in playing the 2nd- or 3rd-to-last pass before a goal.



Ron Morris is the said new blood, and he definitely worked his way into the team on a full-time basis (he's so much better than Baptiste anyway).
That right-sided role in the midfield 3 allows him to play as a winger of sorts as well, though he's still much better making runs into the area, or at least finding space just outside it.

We also had a new youth intake:



Frankly only one of them matters:



Twofooted, good with Passing and Technique as well as good work rate - only downside is a lack of Determination among other Mental deficiencies so to speak.
Not that I can see myself dropping any of my midfield 3, so fingers crossed he's happy with a slower integration to the 1st team via the bench.

Finally, some news on the other side of the world:



I mean, we aren't beating Bahrain so there's zero chance of us finishing top and progressing to the final stage of World Cup AFC qualifying.
No, the only point of this tourney is bragging rights over India.
Well look who we have for our group stage opener:



Bollocks.
I mean yeah, no we didn't deserve to win, yes I'dve snatched your hand off for a draw, but my days a last minute penalty, with prolific-ish striker and competent penalty taker Kamran Zameer? We should have won that, absolutely.

Midseason 2034/35

A great start to the season, tainted by the Islanders loss - completely outplayed, and as can be seen by our results since, quite out of the norm.



Nonetheless, a 4 point lead with 7 games to go is normally a very healthy lead in other leagues, but here it's still literally half the season left so I'd be a fool to call the title now.

We also had the Terry Evans Cup to contend with in this 1st half of the season:



B Team doing very well against (albeit bottom side) Old Madrid - Roger James with an effort from the halfway line to catch the keeper out of position.



A very dodgy win, not at all helped by Aboki's shocking challenge and dismissal.
We were poor already and looked to go out with a whimper but going a man down seemed to light a fire under us and we counterattacked with far more purpose as a result.
Debutant Alexander laid the ball off for Daley to finish in an open net, before Daley returned the favour for the (fortuitous) winner.



Apologies to the cup team, but damn I wasn't going to risk letting slip my 1st title in the British Virgin Islands.
Turns out I needn't have worried, with their defence getting caught in possession for Getamesay to break through and score in just 11 seconds.
The rest of the game was easy as you like, with their flat 4-5-1 not exactly set up for basically starting the game a goal down.

Septus did what Septus does and finished with 2 goals and a richly deserved MoTM.



It's only the 2 games that they played, but the B Team found good form to score 6 in 2 games - it's unfortunate that I've already got such a good thing going in the league that they probably won't get a minute, particularly Roger James who actually ended up only playing once.

Preseason 2034/35

We begin as we did previously, with another annoying departure:



The 2nd player to leave us for Virgin Gorda, despite them finishing bottom last season and 7 positions below us - absolutely brutal loss too, being our best centreback and all.
Nevertheless, we move, and crucially without an external replacement as we look to maintain familiarity.

Preseason did suggest that we didn't need one anyway:



8W1L in 9 games - not much to read into regarding the strength of our opponents, but I'd much happier take the run of wins into the season proper.

There was also the small matter of an ownership change:



Bit annoying that the new guy doesn't buy into our youth vision for the short term at least, because I'm not getting any youth upgrades as a result.

But again we move, into the new season at that:



Top half mainstays this time round - would much rather be the cellar dwellers old seasons past.

By kingrobbo 19 April 2021 - 17:46 PM UTC

I was a utd fan back in the day and loved the Tommy Doc side… now that was the best time for me simply loved it 

The odd bit of success but more importantly some great attacking football👍

 and lots of teams at the same level …now I find it abhorrent if I'm honest it's overhyped joyless with preening popijays worshipped as Demi gods because they have a great dabbing routine

It's just image and franchise now and all in the persuit of ££££££££ it's obscene

Football has lost it soul I am hoping this greed will now bring it to a tipping point and back to what it should be

Tommy Docherty... You've got to be in your fifties right?

The whole ESL malarkey though, reeks of smoke and mirrors at the end of the day unless we can rid ourselves of the American vermin

End of Season 2033/34

Let's start with some bad news:



Obviously I was far too naive in thinking he was happy with his Hot Prospect status as long as he was starting, but damn I did not expect to have to lose him.
We also lost DM Dwayne Roach to Panthers, but Panthers are runaway leaders so there wasn't any chance of us keeping him.
(I lied, I'd actually completely missed the news about them offing him a contract)



Somehow that didn't didn't derail our season - in fact we went from strength to strength.
I'd say that was attributed to Unpha Monks' return from injury, but even that we still only managed 2 clean sheets in 7 to end the season.
And how did it end - After beating Old Madrid we were only 2 off Panthers when facing each other, they managed only a stalemate - alas we couldn't even achieve that against One Love.
Beating the Champions on the final day was scant consolation.



Finished only 2 off Panthers in the end, though in a 14-game season that might as well be a chasm.
Still, with a midseason squad mutiny that I had to contend with I'll take second.

That wasn't the end of it though, as we did have another cup competition to fight for:



Beating them before their title celebrations wasn't enough, we had to tear them a new one in the very next match.
Joel Fisher had a virtuoso performance to teach our strikers how to finish in the 1st half, and after the break they seem to have learned with another 3 from the pair.



Not that they would bring that over to the semis though....
Islanders opened the scoring with a freak goal, a shot from way out that deflected off Vanterpool's head.
Even then we should've found an equaliser in the remaining 89 minutes, but we probably used up all our goals in the quarters.

Season Review

I'm not completely sold on Aboki being the signing of the season (Olad Arab would've been it had he not left midseason) but there's no denying how transformative he was to our system - wingback madness giving us central midfield numbers.



Fitzroy Miller was the better signing according to the fans - no doubt he was an important signing, but with only 1 clean sheet in 13 (he was rotated out in the last league game) everyone knows he can and needs to do better.

Players of the Season



Joel Fisher the wonderkid playmaker at the centre of the team, bit of a shame he doesn't have a good personality, could be developing so much more in the future.



Daniel Daley is the right sided forward in our strike pair, doubling up as a winger at times.
He was part of that mutiny earlier, but the difference is while Gladston Prince is shit, he's actually not too bad.



Juma Getamesay - God Getamesay - returning to blistering form after an off year in the Gaadiika relegation season. He's basically a mirror to Daley, but with Aboki having the left flank to his own he's not needed to whip in the crosses as much.





Well I had to - Nuuro Olad Arab might have left, but his goalscoring exploits in midfield did give us a decent position at the start of the season and did vindicate my signing him.

Now for the new youth intake:



An otherwise decent if unspectacular intake, there is a bright jewel in this bunch:



Who needs Nuuro Olad Arab? Ron Morris is already more highly rated than Joel Fisher, and with pace to add to his technical ability he'll excel as the goalscoring midfielder that the Somali was.
I'll very much look to take it slow with him though, don't want to burn him out.

Matthew Sergeant is only more highly rated than Unpha Monks because of his superior physical ability, but I'll be damned if a centreback with 6 Marking starts for me (unless he's left-footed of course).
Nonetheless he's got something about him, and can get starts sooner or later.



Odaine Caesar looks like a good one, with aggression and bravery making him very suited to that Defensive Forward role.



Seeing as we had nearly 2 million in the back I cheekily asked for improvements to the facilities, and voila, they somehow agreed, along with a stadium expansion to boot.

Lastly, some international news:



Yes I was still managing the Northern Marianas, but unfortunately a run of zero wins in a calendar year put paid to any hopes of me staying.
Circumstances didn't help either - our star centreback was out with concussion in a warmup game and would only be back against the Solomon Islands (by which point we were already out) and the strikers I brought hadn't scored in a year.
Okay that last bit was my fault, but whatever.

This new is important because of what came next:



I'm back in Pakistan baby!
To be honest I only signed up to this because I wanted to enjoy the fruits of my labour - let me show you what I mean:



3 years of constant upgrades of KPT's youth facilities into the country's best by a country mile, and they (we) now dominate the national squad.

North London is BLEAK rn

Midseason 2033/34

We started where we left off last season with yet another loss, and after drawing against Wolues it did seem like there might never be an end in sight for our losing streak.
Up came Islanders who gave us our 1st league win in 2 seasons to add to their gifting of their start goalkeeper. It did seem like the start of our resurgence too, in no small part to Nuuro Olad Arab with 3 goals and an assist in his 1st 3 starts.



He was so good that even the Somalia NT boss flew across the Pacific to have more than a few looks at him.

Alas, even that form couldn't last, and once we lost Unpha Monks to a twisted ankle things went to pot. Injured against Old Madrid, we proceeded to concede 8 in 3 games - sure we weren't exactly watertight before, but there clearly was something missing at the back.



So despite our oh so brief run of form we still find ourselves in the bottom half of the table, with Panthers leading and still unbeaten.
The Panthers loss was so annoying too, the stats and eye test had us as the better team, but we still lost.

There was also the first of 2 cups this season, the Terry Evans Cup:



Put out a rotated team, and well...

Now you'd think that with some wins on the board we'd have some respite from all the squad revolt nonsense, but of course not:



I do hate Gladston Prince so much - I've been starting him to try and appease him, but it's clear that even as captain he's got no qualms turning against me - he's getting dropped from here on in.

By DNZY 17 March 2021 - 10:41 AM UTC

Sounds like a rebuilding job for next season, hoping next season goes well for you!

Aye, cheers - heaven knows I need a good start or the team will start revolting again.

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Preseason 2033/34

Now before I begin, a bit of unfortunate news:



Yes, after a whirlwind title win last season Gaadiika have gone straight down.
Didn't help that Juma Getamesay fell completely short of his title-challenging/winning form with 0 goals in 7 appearances - frankly it was insane that a man with his ability could rack up double figures year on year anyway.

And it us with this that we begin with this window's transfers:



GOD GETAMESAY IS BACK
He was unceremoniously released after the relegation and with a lack of left-footed strikers in the team I decided to take a punt on him.
Will he get goals like in Somalia? Maybe not, but it'll be good at least that he isn't retiring before his 30s.

Raaliyo Aboki was also released, and brought in to start at leftback - he's not actually good, but I'm banking on his sheer speed to cover for that lack of defensive abilty.

Nuuro Olad Arab wasn't released (he even signed a new deal with Gaadiika when I approached him the 1st time), but I had to get him in once their relegation was confirmed.
Not quite the big fish in a small pond now that he's in Sugar Boys (Joel Fisher's the wonderkid here), but he probably wouldn't need to play so much and risk injuries the way he did in Somalia.



The game's the game, I got you a title at least.


Islanders do currently have a terrific prospect in goal, but imagine benching Fitzroy Miller to the point of letting him leave.
Incredible record of 46 goals conceded in 73 league games, needless to say he doesn't need to worry about the bench with us.



Rodney Septus was a bit of an impulse signing, and in footballing backwaters where pace and physicality reign supreme someone who possesses great finishing at the expense of everything else is arguably a luxury player.
Though he could be changing my mind...

Transfers were sorted before the window even opened, so we were well settled by the time preseason started:



Great preseason, 7 wins and 2 draws - though we still don't have good match coherence somehow.
Getamesay was largely poor, but a few opportunistic goals gave him something to work with going into the season.



Max out all the bonuses as usual, especially when you consider that we've got almost 1m in the bank.



Not the cellar dweller tag that I'm used to, but we're (and I'm) expecting to do better than that abomination of last season; at least a win, come on now.

Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX on repeat ad infinitum

So good

A truly abysmal start in my time here, coinciding with the conclusion of a winless, 0.5ppg season for the club.



We also went out in the 1st round of the post-season Wendol Williams Cup for good measure.

Now in my defence, I wasn't exactly helped by the terrible transfer window we had:



5 players, all arguably starters, all joined just last July, jumping ship this window and leaving our 1st team in a rough state to say the least.

We did sign a couple of our own in fairness:



1st two were signed by my U20s manager before I remembered to turn off allowing him to sign youths - Baptiste is a dud and will not make it here, while James has potential as a targetman, but simply does not have the legs to keep up.
In fact he was so slow on his debut, that I resolved to sign another striker as a result:



Prince isn't exactly great no, but he's both bad enough to not be wanted by another club (so we can finally have a bit a stability in the team), he's good enough to work out in a specific role (targetman with some speed) and the Professionalism will help with the youths as well.



That highest average rating is enough of a sign that there's not much to talk about in this team, if at all.



Ok, maybe Daniel Daley, but he's pissed at me already so who knows if he'll stay for next season.

We also had a youth intake (which contrary to Somalia with occurs with more than half the season to go, only comes through after the end of the season) - not good as a whole, but we did have 1 potential gem signed:



Unpha Monks will start for us next season, that's how bad our backline currently is.

You know how I was talking about waiting for a manager to get sacked? Well a quick gander at the Social Feed:












Would you just look at that Youth Recruitment?!



And an agreement to up the youth coaching budget in the interview - truly men after my own heart.

Obviously it's not all a bed of roses, why else would they have sacked such a successful manager:




10 games, no wins and a bloated squad with at least a 3rd of them asking for game time - we've got a rebuild on our hands it seems.



And a rebuild it will be - with no senior staff aside from me I've not been able to have a report of the squad, so I can only base it on the current playing pack:



Doesn't make for good reading, evidently.




We do have a few gems though, Joel Fisher is already a mercurial playmaker, while Christopher Alexander will hopefully steady the ship with his experience.

By DNZY 25 February 2021 - 12:03 PM UTC

I think he's done enough to earn a new contract now. Love that getting a last gasp winner to seal the league! Congrats on conquering Somalia!

Juma's agent approached me for a new deal in previous seasons for a new deal but always stuck with that "Backup + same pay" demand.
Which I agreed to, but it always seemed to lead to a drop in form which costs us big time, so this time I wanted to avoid that.
Of course it's a complete fluke that it ended up working out anyway, I wasn't expecting us to be in the title hunt throughout his absence.

And thanks man, the time to move on is nearing finally.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------






An earlier preseason (you'll see why we had one) meant that everyone else was still on holiday, so we have to play each other for a good month.
The rest of preseason was a mixed bag as usual, a 50% win rate being just about ok enough.

Now, why precisely I had to start preseason early:



Hm, turns out we had this short continental competition to look forward to, in addition to (NOT the CAF Champions League, but) the UAFA Arab champions League at the start of the calendar year.




I know I probably played it way too cautiously in a bid to not get blown out - well we didn't, but our performances were pretty dour anyway as a result.

On to the next preseason Cup:



We started well in the group stage having won our 1st 2 games to seal qualification, but it was our 1st real test that saw us fall short - Elman were Elman, and Elman are a team that I've still got a mental block against.



Banaadir were (understandably) well thirsty for revenge and played like so as well.
Naciimo Essa helped them well along the way too, making mistakes for both their opener and the late winner, making Getamesay's best efforts all for nought.

....... With all that said, there's only one reason why I stayed after our league win last season:





Yep, so that's Somalia definitely done, just one thing left to do:




I'd been beefing with the club over this for the best part of a year already, and even though I was going to leave anyway, I would at least make it seem like it was their fault for my departure.

So what next you might ask?



Well at the time of writing there's basically nothing new on offer, so I'll have to wait for managers to get sacked - watch this space.

3 things :-

1. You'll have noticed the lack of Jume Getamesay's goals - well after losing to Horseed (where we had 2 shots all game compared to their 18) he completely failed to read the room and asked for a new deal.
Swiftly banished to the U20s, though he did eventually get back into the team to great effect.

2. Tony Abdi came back from a hip injury to prove me wrong - I thought he was a poor signing, and the injury should have sealed his fate as far as regular football goals, but Juma's fallout and Dawit David's own injury meant he had 2 positions to play in.
Did pretty well too, chipping in with 3 goals and a couple of assists to boot.

3. It's only 7 games, because despite losing thrice to seemingly crash out of the title race:



Well we were right in the mix; who do we play to finish out the season? None other than Heegan and Banaadir....





David has been deserving of a place here since what, 2 seasons ago? Been a long time coming.



Oh right, yes Mohamed Essa was also stepped up as Fahad Ismail's replacement, with passing ability being a surprise he's brought to the table.



Yeah as you'd wholeheartedly agree by now, God Getamesay.

Midseason 2031/32

 

 

We (Juma Getamesay in particular) started like a bat out of hell, 11 goals in total and 6 for him individually.

Losing to Elman put us somewhat back in our place, but we recovered with another 4 straight wins, right in time to finish the 1st half of the season against the (other) 2 title challengers.

Count on me to overthink it and sit back at home to Heegan then, being thoroughly outplayed and outscored despite Getamesay's best efforts.

We went back to some sort of normalcy against Banaadir, but had to readjust after rightback Yusuf Ali Essa got himself 22 yellows in 15 minutes - fortunately our shift to a makeshift back 3 managed to hold them at bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so we find ourselves in the mix in this title challenge - could've been much better if we'd just beat Heegan, but it is what it is.

 

As usual we also find ourselves already with a new youth intake:

 

 

Pushing the board to upgrade our youth recruitment has paid dividends, as this 'golden generation' might actually have some semblance of being one.

 

Show Spoiler

Robert Ali's the pick of the bunch, somewhat secure technically and mentally, while his burst of acceleration is a nifty attribute to have.

Odd that he's being touted as a ball winner with his defensive ability though, I'm much more keen on playing him as a midfield orchestrator of sorts.

 

Herve Elmi is a man after my own heart, a striker who loves nothing more than to run around and make an absolute nuisance of himself.

Remains to be seen if I want to break my 2 striker system of runner and tall guy for someone who isn't either, but he definitely makes a hell of a case for change.

 

I'll definitely sign them both, and play by ear for the rest - some of the others have potential but are let down by either mentality or technical ability.

 

 

(Apologies for the lack of activity, work is work and work is piling up)

Preseason 2031/32

A mixed bag again, as we moved towards a 4-4-2 diamond in an attempt to maximise Nuuro Olad Arab's ability in the hole, which didn't turn out too well...





And it couldn't be more starkly exposed in the Cup - Somalifruit are and always have been lower-league so dispatching of them was to be expected, but once we encountered league regulars the ball dropped.



With form like that I'd be surprised if we beat Banaadir, and so it proved.





And for the nth season in a row, we find ourselves in the position of rank outsiders - if I don't get the tactical system in order I could find us proving the bookies right though.

You're much better off asking on https://champman0102.co.uk/ methinks

I'm up

... That is if I can be online when it's up ofc, timezones etc

JEEZ, I've seen this one before but I hadn't realised how bad it was

To his credit he aged really well though

End of Season 2030/31

Only 1 loss in 9 sounds real good, until you realise we also drew 5 and effectively came away with only 4 wins.
All in all a very 'meh' end to another season.



Our final league position reflects that, well clear of relegation but nothing to write home about.
And obviously Banaadir won the title, Andargachew Kadir inevitably making the right choice after all.

Season Review

No... No, Tony Abdi was a mistake.
Other than that due to our squad apparently being still one of the worst we're again the overachievers of the season - certainly didn't feel like it.



Players of the Season



Juma OP pls nerf
Honestly, while he's not title-winning material, Juma has somehow more than proven his pedigree in the league - another top scorer gong, breaking the seasonal goal record, it's becoming too easy for him.



Juma was helped very ably by Dawit David, who also broke his own assist record.



You'd know by now that a pattern has emerged here - 2 wingers supplying 2 strikers harking back to the Latinos days.
Same here, Askari not doing as much as David, but doing more than enough.



Last piece of our foursome, Aweys is still the targetman and perfect foil for Juma, and with 6 goals and assists each he's also more than just a battering ram.

---------------------------------------------

To end off the season, a new youth intake:



No, not a Golden Generation - only 3 picks from this crop:



Ciise Essa has zero defensive nous, but being able(and willing) to run around for 90 minutes is never a bad thing.



Only signed Tony Abdillahi for the personality, though even that doesn't seem like much seeing how little he'll probably end up offering to the team.
EDIT: Yikes, turns out I'd forgotten to actually offer him a contract... Well it is what it is I suppose.



I wasn't planning to sign Hido Ali due to his Unambitious nature, but you really can't say no to that physicality and work rate.
In fact I'm looking to start him from the off next season, being the lanky destroyer in front of the back line.
Will it work? Probably not, but I'll definitely have to give it a go regardless.

Lastly:



Basically the only way to beat Banaadir imo, just get a true Golden Generation and blow them off the park.

They did it for FM05 or 06 iirc

Can't imagine it being too much fun tbh, always found it difficult playing FM on consoles - tried FM07 on PSP, not a good experience

Yeah - I know they were archived once before when the site was revamped previously, and the formatting took a hell of a hit

Cor, this looks really good, props

Any way to access the old old site archive though? I know it was already broken the 1st time the layout changed so I'm guessing it'll be even more broken by now

No way you can leave out Pato tbh