bigmattb28 - Comments

Good update, and looking good so far, keep it up

Good luck in job number 2 mate



Was thinking the same, I tend to be on the forums a lot anyway, apart from the last couple of weeks, just got back on today and got a lot of threads to read!

Good update as always mate, could the play offs be a realistic prospect

Not been on the forums much recently, and had a few bugs crop up in the beta, logged them over on the SI forums. Will try and get an update on this soon.

I live in York so definitely following, they're doing alright in real life, good luck

I think having the beta is a good way to get to know about the new features and lay out, plus with big teams there won;t be much to change in the short term

Cheers mate

Hope I can win a few things with PSG in the beta, should set me up for full release man

You know you're not expected to do much when you're in the position you are and the board are happy, no offence man. However an epic win over Toronto and Adi looks a goo player for this league, just hop you can get more service to him.

I know I said I was going to hold off on FM20, but the excitement got the better of me, so this save is on hold.

I've actually done a lot on this save and had a lot to write up, for what it's worth Vince has won trophies in Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, America and a certain job came up in his native Scotland , but that's where we leave it. I've pre ordered FM20 and have been playing the beta, and won't lie, I've got the bug for a new FM again.

I will return to this save at some point, but for now it is on the shelf. You can read my opening beta thread here.

Thanks to those who have read this save, I hope you'll read my beta thread and my upcoming thread for FM20, once the full game is released.

So I’ve gone and got the beta for FM20, my current save found here is on hold for now, more details on that thread

Anyway, as the game is only in beta stage for 2 weeks with full release being 2 weeks tomorrow, I’ve decided to go ahead and play a save with a big team to get used to the new features and what not.

This is along the same lines as @r96Skinner 'journey to’ threads, his current one being in the MLS found here, with that in mind, please follow my 2 weeks trip to Paris, specifically Paris Saint Germain



Not anything like my usual saves where I start as low as possible, this time I’m starting at the top, and given my manager stats based on PSG. There’s no aims to this, just have a play with the beta, see how the new features play out and if I see any bugs, get them reported to SI on their forums.

Here’s our hero for the next 2 weeks then, Matt B who has stats based on PSG from the start.







The board’s vision is to win everything domestically whilst challenging for the Champions League. Now I don’t know if I’ll have this thread going into year 5, I might get sacked before then or the full game will be released long before season 5 is in the bag. Either way, no aims, no challenges to stick to just get the game, and have fun. Fun fact, I’ve never managed in France, or at least I don’t ever remember doing so in my 21 years playing this game from my first edition way back on CM 99/00.







So, PSG are a massive club I’m sure we’ll all agree to that, and the assistant managers best line up is below



A front 3 of Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani should frighten any defence in any league in the world. All 3 able to play inside forward on the left and up front, whilst Mbappe is considered better as a winger on the right over Neymar. Basically, with these 3 in the line up there’s going to be goals.

Complementing that world class front 3, are 3 players that I know most football fans have heard of. Angel Di Maria was an out an out winger ant Benfica, Madrid and Man U, but in game he is competent at center mid and that’s where the assistant manager tells me he’s best suited, however he finds himself on the bench prior to our first game. In his place is former Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye. A good all rounder, probably looks better than he actually is alongside the world class pairing of Marco Veratti and Ander Herrera. As all 4 of those are generally positive thinking players, I’m looking to sign someone to compliment them, more on that later.

In defence is where we find yet more world class players. Center halves Marquinhos & Thiago Silva are absolute rocks in defence, and should take some beating. Out wide at the full back positions we see Meunier and Bernat, 2 complete wing backs in every sense that should patrol the wide areas.

In goal we’re not short of quality, Keyler Navas is a top goalkeeper and playing back up is on loan Sergio Rico, another keeper of high quality.

Even the bench players at PSG would walk into most top flight sides first team, as Kurzawa is a quality left full back, Kimpembe will be better than Marquinihos all being well, and then there’s the small matter of Icardi on loan from Inter Milan, who is a world class forward, enough said really.

Here’s where I’m a bit confused, despite the attacking threat in the team, as well as the world class team in general, the assistant manager thinks this 4-1-2-3 counter attacking set up is the best way to go. Not only that, the board want us to play attacking football, weird. Anyway, with that in mind here’s the starting tactic and line up.



Just before our season opener, I decided that with the midfield players consisting of Veratti, Herrera, Gueye and Di Maria, none of those are really defence minded players. So I sign Nemanja Matic from Man United for 12 million. I’m mainly using him alongside any 2 of the other 4 players, mainly for his defensive qualities.



So after pre season gets out of the way, we win our first trophy in FM20, with the Trophee de Champions, or the French equivalent of the English Charity Shield. A nice opening victory in my first competitive game.







On to league action, and the first game of the save was an absolute white wash, a resounding 4-0 home win over Strasbourg.



This was followed up with another win, away at Angers.



After that game I can’t believe I’ve not noticed until now but Cavani is leaving on a free at the end of the season. If this save carries on until then I’m going to need a replacement, luckily I don’t have far to look, and make an offer for on loan striker Icardi.



We get brought straight back down to Earth with an absolute appalling loss away to Reims who hung on for dear life. They took a 2 goal lead but that scoreline flattered them as we absolutely battered them all over the pitch, but we just couldn’t get that killer goal.



Champions League draw time and we’re in Group A alongside Benfica, Valencia and Lokomotiv Moscow



We finish my first month off in Paris with a good win over FC Metz, to leave us with 4 wins from 5, and see us top of Ligue 1 for now, with Marseille having a game in hand








It’s early days but anyone with half an interest in football knows this team has some serious talent in it. Okay so the 2-0 loss to Reims came as a surprise, but in that game we could’ve scored 8 any other day, so that’s got to be the catalyst for not allowing any complacency to creep in.

Next update will be the next couple of months worth of games, and any other business.

Thanks for reading.

Oh no, bad form to begin with, however I guess if you get the poor performances out of the way now, maybe you can pick it up from now on. Fingers crossed.

Great update as you always do mate. Even more intrigued now as I think you've built a decent team there. Looking forward to seeing how you get on

Won't be able to until the database editor is out which comes on full release dude

AHH yeah this will be good

Massive challenge there dude. Looking forward to seeing your thread with them.

Blackpool are the team I'm toying with using the beta, I'm glad Oyston has gone, that club was going nowhere under him so that's why I wanna give Blackpool a whirl.

Ahh got ya, they're doing well at the minute, top of the league still, they've got the new stadium as well. Hope they get back to the football league eventually, they're too big a club at the level they're at. I met Steve Watson not so long back, genuinely nice guy

That's a varied list. You'll be waiting for added databases coming out for all of those though apart from Ukraine.

Do you live in York? As I do. I'm same as you, tend to stay away from big leagues, until I'm a few seasons in

So the countdown has begun on the Beta for FM20, what's everyone's first save going to be?

Mine is 1 of 2, I'm either loading up all Scandinavian countries and aiming to do win all of the top divisions or I'm doing a Hall of Fame career, where I start unemployed and try and top the worldwide hall of fame, am leaning more towards the hall of fame save first. Hardly ever have England loaded on my saves any more,so tend to stick to European countries with the MLS loaded too.

What's everyone else got in mind?

Which in game editor were you using?

Cheers man, bit strange how Kuala Lumpur let the leagues leading scorer go on a free, I;m not moaning though, here's hoping he bangs in a few.

Yeah for sure, looking forward to seeing what I can do here.

To start this update off we have end of season stuff as Menda gets the fans player of the year, and it shows us playing a 4-2-3-1 yet I never once played that formation this season, it’s been 4-4-2 every game so I’m confused by that, as well as the standard season review.





After 2 and half years in management, 2 clubs and 4 trophies, Vince Lloyd has accumulated an incredible 36 points towards his hall of fame total, he just needs another 1822 points to get to tenth place in the worldwide hall of fame…



I spent a couple of days looking at the job center and seeing who’s job was insecure / precarious and there was a couple of decent looking jobs. Inverness in Scotland was precarious but firstly I’m not sure if they’d go for me yet and I’m not really thinking about going to Scotland just yet. Before looking in Singapore there are a lot of jobs in Malaysia, with 4 looking really interesting, Johor Darul, Penang, Sarawak and Selangor all look like a step up and progress, as well as 2 jobs in South Korea that look really worthwhile. With all these potential openings, and the fact I’ve won all I can in Singapore, I decide that I will stick to my original decision and leave Albirex Niigata. It’s been a pleasure.







As soon as I leave Albirex I apply for 2 jobs in South Korea, Anyang and Gangwon, both in the second division known in game as K League Challenge.





I’m also curious as to my standing in the footballing world, particularly in Asia. Does winning 3 cups and the League in Singapore make you attractive to other teams in Asia?



So back to the job center, and to my surprise quite a lot of vacancies have been filled, now there’s still jobs in Singapore, namely at cup runners up DPMM where Barry Ferguson left as well as Geylang International, but I don’t want to go back there and will be removing Singapore at the end of the year, so I look at Malaysia again to see that only Penang and Selangor are available in the Super League, I don’t really want to go to the second division, that seems a step down for me, and apply for both.





Word quickly gets out that I’m interested in the Selangor job and I’m invited to an interview to which I attend.





Shortly after I’m also invited to an interview with Penang, again I go to it.



After looking at both teams, recent finishes, I’m hopeful either of these teams take me on. Selangor are the runners up in the Super League and Penang finished way down in 9th, but I’d be confident with either team.

Before either of the Malaysian teams get back to me, my former reserves manager at Albirex Saswadimata Dasuki is promoted to the managers job, good luck to him.



I then get news that I’m not getting the Selangor job, with the board going for a local manager just like the 2 Korean teams did.



So it’s fingers crossed time as I am now only in the running for 1 job, Penang. It seems a long few days waiting around before I eventually get the message:



Not quite sure about a virtually unknown manager, however I’m happy to be here after getting 3 rejections. A decent sized club, they’ve won the Super League 3 times, the league and FA cup a couple of times as well as being a fairly decent size overall in Malaysia. I feel this is a good chance to continue my progression up the ranks of the hall of fame



A club with some decent history, I think there is certainly room to improve it’s recent fortunes and hopefully win some more trophies.

The first thing I do is agree mutual terminations of the contracts of the staff already here, and bring in my own team.









Chief Scout Andy McKenzie, physio Paul Spencer, first team coach Steven Thompson and of course my right hand man Jim Love, all join as they had left Albirex when I did.

Before I joined Penang I had done a bit of scouting, and to my surprise last season Malysia Super League top scorer Patrick Wleh had actually been released by Kuala Lumpur, so I went straight in for him and after agreeing what I would say is a pretty low contract, he’s joined us on an initial 1 year deal. Here’s hoping he can bang in some goals for us.









To continue improving the team we sign center half Mohd Aidil Zafuan from Perak, as well as making what I would say is a surprising loan signing. Robbat Gary Steven joins on loan from Selangor, he was transfer listed as wants to leave the club, so I put in a loan offer and managed to him and agreeing to pay his wages. I’m guessing Selangor may be in financial trouble this would be why they’d let him join us on loan.







Joining those 2 is another center half, Mohd Syawal Nordin from Kedah, and Scottish right full back Jamie Henry.





The clubs finances are listed as okay, and there’s still some money left to get more staff in, joining me on this leg of the journey is defensive coach Jason Butterfield and goalkeeping coach Dumisani Ngcobo.









So with 5 new signings, a new back room in place and a lot of desire to get cracking, the new season is almost upon us, and the season preview has us finishing around 5th in the league.



I’m confident we can get 5th at the absolute minimum finish this season.

In the build up to the first game the team have only been working on tactics in training, my favored 4-4-2 approach, with the aim of getting as many balls in to target man Wleh and getting him as many opportunities as possible to grab some goals for us.



We’ve got title favorites Selangor at home first, a tough test but one we’ve got to confident of getting a result from.

Next update will be the first few months of the new season in Malaysia, and any other business.

Thanks for reading

Sure did mate, You'll see shortly

Cheers mate

Champions!! Great season, what's next then?

I'm the opposite, I'm not looking forward to 20 as much as I think I should, think due to game breaking glitches I had in 19 has put me completely off, hopefully the demo will draw me in, but I'm still loving 17.

Thanks for the support as always man, think if I do leave Albirex I'm going to stay in Asia, but either way hopefully some more competition wins.