Introduction

While I continue my main save from FM23 into FM24, I have decided to have a couple of other saves on the go, created fresh in FM24. While you may have already seen my posts about my save currently in the Northern Mariana Islands with the Thundercats, this one is perhaps the more serious of the two.

In this save, I am as usual, starting out unemployed with a Sunday-league reputation and no coaching badges, the plan is to start out my career in Hong Kong and at a club in the Third Division, from there, the plan is to work my way up, either by taking my first team all the way, or by moving clubs, it really doesn't matter how I do it and unlike my FM23 main save, there are no rules here, I just want to reach the top, though, that's not to say I will not drop down the levels to seek out new and interesting challenges.

While there are no rules to my save and no definitive goals, there are a few teams I would like to manage on the way:

• Happy Valley - My favourite team from Hong Kong, should they emerge from the obscurity of non-league football and find their way back to being playable, I would like to take the reigns and put them back where they (probably don't really) belong.
• Hong Kong FC / Lucky Mile - Back on Championship Manager 2001, I tried managing the team but only got a few games into the season, I would like to give them another go at some point, possibly in this save, should the option emerge. Lucky Mile is the B team and while the job is available from the start, my plan is to start out at team in the league below them.
• South China / Eastern District / Southern District / C&W District / Wan Chai - Hong Kong teams that I've never managed but which interest me.
• Islands District / Sparta Asia / Double Flower / Biu Chun Rangers - Teams I have previously used that I would consider managing again. There are other teams in Hong Kong that I have managed or would be willing to manage again but right now they are in unplayable leagues or are defunct. 
• Yokohaka F. Marinos - Favourite Japanese team.
• Shanghai Shenhua - Favourite Chinese team.
• Suwon Samsung Bluewings - Favourite South Korean team.
• Shenzhen FC - My most used Chinese team on CM/FM games.

Beyond specific teams, I would also like to manage in Indonesia as I've never managed there, India as I have never completed a season in that country and Malaysia as I have not used a Malaysian team for a long time (not counting the national team which I managed a few years back).

With this save, I have a number of European countries loaded along with those in Asia, so there is also the possibility that I might not just manage in Asia.

Pre-season is over, we picked up some big wins and one rather embarrassing defeat, the team I've put together will hopefully win us the league, just so long as I don't go with the tactics I used in that last friendly.

Our first team squad for the forthcoming season, on the surface it doesn't look that great going by the star ratings alone, you would be forgiven for thinking we just have two star players and a bunch of mediocre-at-best guys [but when you consider that most of the other teams in the NMI have only greyed-out players, we now have a strong advantage, especially when you also consider that this squad, including the youth team players, is now larger than all the other teams in this territory combined, hell, you could probably throw Guam in there as well, the joys of managing in obscure nations lol.]

Below I have have the profile pages for some of our better players, they won't look like much to most people, but here in the third tier of the Northern Mariana Islands, these guys should make a serious impact as we attempt a rapid rise through the divisions.

Following on from my first post about what needs to be said, well there really isn't much to say about this team, they play at the bottom of the Northern Mariana Island football pyramid, they play on a primary school pitch with room for only five hundred spectators and they don't even have any players. I can't do much about the team's station in life or their facilities just yet, but one thing I can fix, is the somewhat empty roster.

I joined the team at the start of August, I have just two months to assemble a squad and get them ready for the new season, I have every faith in my ability to build this team from the ground up, I have faith that I can mould them into a competitive outfit, and I have faith that we can win our group and gain promotion to the Second Division. 

[The reason I have faith is because this will not be my first time doing this, I previously managed this team back on FM21 and managed to get them up to the First Division thanks to back to back promotions, still, this is a different game and no-doubt, I will have different players this time around, so who knows what will happen.]

Thunder… thunder… thunder… Thundercats Ho!!!!!!

What more needs to be said lol

August 2036 – Ivory Coast

After last season's disappointment of losing on penalties to Africa Sport in the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire, we get our own back in the Coupe Houphouët-Boigny at the start of this season.

With the Ivory Coast's equivalent of the Community Shield out of the way, now we turn our attention to the league, where we hope to repeat our success from last season. At the end of last season, six of our senior team departed due to their loan spells ending, we managed to bring one of them back on a permanent deal but this time, we have three new players joining us on loan, along with six additional players who join us on permanent contracts, most of which were free transfers, but we did sign one player, Georges Doumbia, who at £32,500, is not only a club record signing, but a personal one as well [in this save at least].
 

I haven't noticed any major bugs, the one issue I did come across was simply my finishing position in Liberia wasn't showing up on my job history page straight away, it did however fix itself maybe half way through the next season, this season it has worked fine so I think it might be just down to my season in Liberia being played half on FM23 and half on 24. As for the skin it's OPZ Elite, I'm not sure if the latest version is on this site but I'm pretty sure FM Scout has it.

So with my recent success in the Ivorian MTN Ligue 1, I have been presented with the manager of the season award, this is the first personal award I have been given during my fourteen year journey through Africa.
 

[The lack of awards in my career is mostly down to the database files that I'm using being not detailed enough to include awards for many of the countries, otherwise I would have probably won a few more by now, given that I won the top divisions of Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, São Tomé & Príncipe & Cabo Verde, along with the second division of Angola, and where I didn't win the league, such as Namibia and Liberia, I overachieved enough that I might have had an outside chance at winning the award, if it existed in the game.

Beyond the award, another aspect of this save that I'm happy to announce, is that this save, as of the end of the 2035/2036 pre-season, is now my longest ever save on any Football Manager or Championship Manager game, the previous longest was my save on FM15 which was thirteen full seasons long and then just the pre-season of the fourteenth season. 

Looking ahead, I am planning to keep playing this save through early-access and so I would expect to see at least one more season, once the game is fully released, I am planning to create a new save but I will probably keep this save and run them alongside each other, generally I have two to three saves on each edition of the game so this should work out nicely as I do want to try and get as far as I can towards reaching my goal of one day managing in the UK, at the very least, I would like to reach the shores of the Mediterranean or even cross over to southern Europe.]

June 2036 – Ivory Coast

Jubilation and devastation in equal measure as the 2035/2036 season comes to an end in the Ivory Coast.

After being eliminated on penalties in the third round of the Coupe de la LPF, we managed to reach the final of the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire, only to lose the match on penalties once more.

Losing in the cup final seemed to affect us more than I would have liked and our lead in the league dropped to just three points by the final day as we struggled to assert ourselves in the final few matches just prior to the final day.

Reaching the final game of the season, we knew that a win or draw would secure us the title, though we also knew that should we lose the game and should ASEC Mimosas win by a sufficient a margin, they could steal the title through goal difference.

As the game progressed, I watched as our title rivals scored goal after goal and by the end of the game, they had levelled with us on goal difference, we didn't managed to win the game or even score, but thankfully our opponents, third placed USC Bassam, were in the same boat, with the game ending 0-0, the single point we came away with, was sufficient to bring home the trophy and give the team and all our fans, something to celebrate after the heart break of the recent cup final.

With the season now over, much like last season, I face a decision, stick around for another year or move on. As I stated in my previous post, the aim is to move onto Mali should a suitable job become available, right now there are positions available, but these are at either second or third tier teams, or one top tier team that has already confirmed its relegation to the second tier, these jobs are not really what I am looking for, so naturally staying in the Ivory Coast might well be my best bet, though if one of the top-half teams decides to part ways with their manager, I may well make the move, provided they are willing to hire me.

Should I end up sticking around, which is by no means certain given that as of right now at the beginning of June, I have yet to be offered a new contract, the plan is to build on our recent success, strengthen the side once more and attempt to win our second title, while also hopefully doing better in the two main domestic trophies and also the Coupe Houphouët-Boigny, which we should enter as league champions.

As usual, my next post will reveal whether I have decided to stick around or continue my journey back to the UK.

January - March 2036 – Ivory Coast

This was going to be the mid-season update but time just has flown by, such is the fun I've been having in this new country. Right now we are two thirds the way through the season and things could hardly have gone any better.

When I joined the team, my initial impression was that the team was a fairly solid, mid-table team, I managed to make a number of changes in the pre-season transfer window to strengthen the squad, and those signings have really hit the ground running and the team as a whole, has really exceeded expectations in the league this season.
 

At the half-way point, we found ourselves top of the league, ahead of USC Bassam by three points, but at the two-thirds mark, we now lead ASEC Mimosas by six points. With just ten games remaining, I am hopeful that we are able to maintain our strong performance to date and continue to push for what could well be this team's first ever Ligue 1 title.
 

Away from the league, we also entered two cup competitions, the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire and the Coupe de la LPF, the Ivory Coast equivalents of the FA Cup and League Cup. For both competitions, the board have no real expectations and don't particularly care about the outcome, only that we be competitive, upon entering both cups, I didn't feel as though we would be likely winners, but being a top-half team from the top division, I felt like we had an outside chance at success.
 

In the Coupe de la LPF, we made it to the third round, eventually defeated by AS Denguélé, another team from our division, in the Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire however, we are still in and face a semi-final match against AFAD Djékanou. Should we manage to progress to the final, I am expecting to face Africa Sport, also from our division, but should they lose their semi-final, we could face non-league outfit ASC Ouragahio (they're possibly third tier but could be lower, I only have the top two levels playable in the Ivory Coast so I'm not sure), which would be an interesting match-up.
 

In the most recent transfer window, I didn't bring in any new faces, though I did try to streamline the squad somewhat, sending a few fringe players out on loan and offloading a few of the youth players that I don't consider worth keeping around.
 

The next update will be at the end of the season, hopefully we will be league champions by that point and it would be nice to see some success in the cup as well, though as long as we give it our best and are there or thereabouts, I will be happy. Looking ahead to next season, right now, my plans are to either do a second season here at Issia Wazi, or to move onto Mali, should a suitable job become available. Ideally I would like to join one of the better teams in Mali but if there are no jobs of interest come the end of the season, I will most likely stick around.

Some good work there in Chile, shame about the MLS but a nice rebound in Canada. Are you planning to give the MLS another go at some point in this save? I think it would be cool to go back there after a year or two in Canada. 

Good luck with this save, looks interesting, I've never managed in Uruguay and as far as South America goes, I have only ever managed a single season in Brazil and a half season in Chile across all FM and CM games so I will be interested to see how you get on, does the league have any interesting rules?

Sorry buddy, your reply appears to be blank.

September 2035 – Ivory Coast

Pre-season has come and gone, all too quickly it feels, though that said, I have managed to get in a good bit of business, strengthening the side with eight new players, adding to the two the previous manager brought in just before he stepped down.
 

When I joined, the team looked to be a fairly solid mid-table team on paper, but there was a major issue in that there was no first team standard goalkeeper, that was an issue I fixed straight away, signing two, one on a permanent deal and one on loan, though as both are of a similar standard, I could comfortably go with either as our first choice.

Not long into my reign at Issia Wazi, the captain and a good portion of the squad decided they were going to confront me over a lack of depth at the centre-back position, in my opinion they were wrong on several levels, firstly we had two really good dedicated centre-backs, on top of that, we had a talented left-back that was accomplished in the position (and who we had only recently signed) and finally, a third dedicated centre-back was also in the senior team and he was not too far off first team standard, I really don't know what they were complaining about, anyway, to shut them up I signed two more knowing full well that some of the players complaining would now lose out on playing time because of this, but do I care? No I don't lol, they raised the issue and now they can live with the results.
 

Because one of the new centre-backs was from Angola and as part of his signing, I promised to bring somebody in to help him settle, I also signed a decent Angolan centre-midfielder on loan, he was then joined by another, local, centre-midfielder, and a winger.

Over the course of the pre-season, while working to improve the squad, we played a small number of friendlies, mostly against lower or non league teams, though we did have one match against another team from our division. We managed to win the first four friendlies but we only managed a draw in the fifth and that was the team from our division.
 

Once the league kicked off for real, we hit the ground running with a pleasing 2-0 win, that was followed up with a 1-1 draw, two wins and another draw, making it three wins and two draws in our first five games of the season, not a bad little run and that sees us up to second place at the moment, one point behind Stella Club, which happens to be a team I could have joined, they, along with my current club, both offered me job interviews at the end of last season and I turned them down for Issia Wazi, let's hope that was not a decision I will come to regret.

Out of the 11 teams I've used in this save, only the 2d kit for FC Platinum is available online, that came from FM Slovakia I think, the rest, both 2d and 3d kits I made myself.

July 2035 – Ivory Coast

This morning I made the decision to step down as manager of the National Port Authority in Liberia, after spending a few hours saying my goodbyes to the players and some of the fans that had gathered at the stadium, I headed out of the door and began a journey that would see me leave the country behind.

My time in Liberia was brief but my desire to return home was strong, in the lead up to my resignation, I had scouted the job markets of several neighbouring countries but one job stood out to me above the rest, that was the managerial position at Issia Wazi in the Ivory Coast.

With Issia Wazi currently playing at the top level in the Ivory Coast, I jumped at the chance to managed them, after attending an interview with their board, within the week I was being announced as the new manager.
 

In joining this team, I have moved to a bigger team in a more reputable league, both facts being vital to what will hopefully be a future move to Mali in one or two years time. Provided I can make a success of my new team, it could well stand me in good stead for taking on a job at the top level in Mali and that in turn will help when I eventually try to reach Algeria, provided this ends up being the route I take.

For now there is little to talk about, when it comes to the club, other than that the team finished in the bottom half last season, despite being a fairly solid mid-table team, I believe I can turn this outfit around and get them pushing towards the upper end of the table and hopefully I can being to do this right away, without even having taken part in one game with the team, I have already begun the process of strengthening the side and in time, I will also be streamlining it as well. 

My next update will be at the end of pre-season or perhaps a few games into the season, by that point I should have a much better overview of what I am now working with, on this new chapter in my journey.

May 2035 - Liberia

The 34/35 season is over and I am pleased to announce that we managed to finish in second place, while it would have been nice to win the league, we didn't really have much of a chance with just how strong LPRC Oilers were, and their level of consistency.

For much of the season, we appeared to be in second place, but due to multiple games in hand, the eventual third-placed team LISCR, overtook us and gained a small lead which we had to work incredibly hard to overcome, by the second to last game of the season, we managed to take second place for real this time, and going into the final game, which interestingly enough, was against LISCR, we had to either win or draw the game to secure our position.
 

The away game against LISCR was one that I was not entirely sure we could win, they were the better side on paper, in terms of player ability, squad depth, size and reputation, we however had a few things going for us, notably proven tactics and the motivation to push beyond our means, despite being the weaker team, the fact that we were in the position we were, was a testament to our hard work all season, by the end of the game, and it really was the end of the game, we pulled off an 85th minute equaliser that got us the draw, second place and our entry into next season's CAF Confederation Cup (thanks to LPRC Oilers winning both the league and cup, we get the spot in the Confederation Cup which would have gone to the cup winner had they been a different team).

Aside from the league, we also took part in the LFA Cup, unlike in the league however, our performance there was largely forgettable, we were knocked out in the third round by Nimba FC, the team that ended up finishing fifth in the league.

Below I have included our transfers for this season, though as I've talked about our signings in previous posts, I don't really have much more to say other than that I was generally pleased with the business we were able to conduct, Bagbéma Nadinga especially turned out to be an inspired signing, easily becoming our star player almost straight away, besides him, most of our incoming players did their part and I have no major criticisms of any of them. As for the outgoing players, I felt we did quite well in managing to bring in £90k, especially given than none of the players had a transfer value, the only player I would say we missed, was Faisu Carlos, he was a left-back and his replacement, while adequate, did not particularly excel to any great extent.

In light of our, I would say, fairly successful season, I'm now left with a choice, try and continue to build up this team and try and challenge for the league title, all the while taking part in my first continental competition in quite some time, (despite having qualified for either the CAF Champions League or the Confederation Cup on a number of occasions, due to moving teams so frequently, the last time I actually managed a team in one of those competitions was back in 2027 while managing FC Platinum in Zimbabwe), or I could leave and once more, continue my journey back to the UK.

If I do choose to move on, I have several options that I am considering, previously I had hoped to try and reach Portugal via Cabo Verde, despite several successful seasons there, I was unable to secure a job in Portugal and that left me with little option but to try and cross the Mediterranean via north Africa. Upon leaving Cabo Verde, the most viable options for me at the time were either Senegal or Liberia, of the two, Liberia was the most appealing to me, but either way, I would need to progress through several countries before reaching the shores of the Mediterranean.

(Based on the rules I have for my save, I can move on from Liberia to a variety of countries, essentially, I could travel west/north along the coast as far as Senegal, back to Cabo Verde, or I could head east and go as far as Cameroon or anywhere along the way, as long as it is along the coast. I don't have every country in Africa loaded, which why I have set up some shortcuts—please see my initial post for routes, in this case it is the yellow route on my map.)

Looking to the job market as we head into the post-season period, there would appear to be an abundance of jobs going in Cameroon, while a move there might be of interest, I would be more inclined to go for jobs in the Ivory Coast, Benin or Nigeria due to the possible routes I could take in future seasons that would allow me to progress towards my goal. It's going to be a tough decision but one I expect to be able to resolve by the time of my next post.

As of my last post, this save is now on FM24 and in my first piece of business in this new era, I can announce the arrival of Galy Coumaré, Marc Gaki and Raymond Wantee to strengthen the first team at the National Port Authority in the AMC, DC and CM positions respectively.

January 2035 - Liberia

The halfway point in the 2034/2035 season has arrived and my NPA Anchors side are currently second in the league, trailing LPRC Oilers by six point and they have a game in hand. Third place Mighty Barrolle also have a game in hand but the points difference keeps us safe from them for now, though the team in fourth, LISCR, have four games in hand and provided they score enough points, they could go second and push us down a place.

For the remainder of the season, I'm hoping we can keep pushing, I don't know if we'll be able to win the league, but finishing second with this team would still be a really good finish and even placing in the top four will be a slight overachievement for a team that ended up in the bottom half last season.

There you go, the countries that are in purple are ones I have loaded in this save, green and anywhere with a team logo is where I've managed so far. The teams in order are Young Buffaloes in Eswatini, Baia de Pemba and Ferroviario de Maputo in Mozambique, FC Platinum in Zimbabwe, Township Rollers in Botswana, Orlando Pirates in Namibia, Guelson FC in Angola, Sporting Clube de Sao Tome in Sao Tome & Principe, Botafogo and Academica do Mindelo in Cape Verde and now the National Port Authority in Liberia.

This looks to be an interesting save and it seems you've started off well, always fun when you join a club that has little to no staff, I know that one well from my current save where several of my former teams have had either no staff, no players or both, I find it makes those early days all the more exciting as you just don't know how things will turn out. 

Hi, thanks for taking the time to read through my posts, it's been a fun save so far. If you like the weird team names you're going to love it if I end up in Nigeria at some point, they have some of the best on the continent, Mountain of Fire and Miracles FC and Federal Road Safety Corps FC both spring to mind.

August 2034 - Liberia

With a new season comes a new challenge, after leaving Cabo Verde I now find myself at the helm of the National Port Authority Anchors, at the time of joining, one of the weaker teams in the LFA-Cellcom First Division League.

Having joined at the start of pre-season in Liberia, and with the transfer window wide open, I have taken full advantage of our time and made a number of additions to the squad, strengthening the team in most areas as I attempt to turn this outfit from a likely relegation battler, to one that can push for the upper reaches of the league.

Amongst the new signings, I have brought over four players from Cabo Verde, three of which played under my management at Botafogo, the fourth player was one which I became aware of while managing in the country and who I had kept on my shortlist, but who was never quite what I needed at the time when managing there, here in Liberia he makes a good addition to my side, along with the others that I am more familiar with.

My signings from Cabo Verde strengthen the team at left-back, right-wing, central attacking midfield and up front, though as the whole squad more or less needed improving, they are but a small selection of my signings. Other key signings come in the form of central-midfielder Stephane Boumsong from Brasseries in Cameroon, centre-back Mark Bility from LPRC Oilers, goalkeeper Aboubacar Keïta from Académie Kabassan in Guinea, central-midfielder Dennis Williams from MC Breweries, centre-back Emmanuel Olalekan from Freeport and from Burkina Faso, we bring both central-midfielder Harouna Ouédraogo and left winger Bagbéma Nadinga, from Sya Foot and KADA International respectively.

With the arrival of our new signings, where we were previously expected to finish just above the relegation zone, we are now expected to finish in fifth, perhaps with good tactics and the right motivation, we could push higher still, though I would not necessarily expect us to topple the big two teams, which right now, are LISCR and LPRC Oilers, that is unless they end up losing key players to injury or transfer, and they massively underachieve, so with that said, I'm going to put it on record that I'm aiming for third but a top five finish would be pleasing, though anything inside the top half is going to be acceptable this year.

I waved goodbye to Cape Verde today and took the next step on my journey, I had hoped that my next step would be to Portugal, but unfortunately none of their teams were interested in me, their loss is another country's gain.

I knew in order to continue my journey, I would need to return to the African mainland, Senegal would have been the logical port of call, however the available jobs there were not really what I am looking for at this point in my career, instead, I booked passage to Liberia, where upon landing in the port of Monrovia, I was detained by the Port Authority.

At first I thought the authorities were taking issue with the way I arrived into the country, or perhaps with my documents, but it turns out the Port Authority wanted to hire me to be the manager of their football team, naturally I looked them up on the website of the Liberian FA and discovered that they were in the top division, that was all I needed to know, I took the job and here I am.

The team last won the LFA-Cellcom First Division League back in 1994 and they have at times been towards the upper end of the table, though for the last few, they have been in the bottom half and this season they are a candidate for relegation, predicted to finish just ahead of the recently promoted teams.
 

In the next few weeks I will be assessing the current squad, removing the deadwood and bolstering it where I can, though we are currently predicted to be in amongst the relegation favourites, I don't plan to be involved in any kind of struggle for survival, so expect a good number of changes to the team, both on and off the field.

Once I've had chance to review the squad, make some transfers and play a few friendlies I'll have a fairly good idea how well we will do this season, though looking briefly at the top couple of teams, I think winning the league is out of the question this season, that said, if we can keep well away from the relegation zone or even push for the top half, I think that would be a decent achievement. Keep an eye out for my next update which should come at the end of pre-season [probably within a day or two real-time].

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.

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.

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).

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.

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. 

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.