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#514474 The Fallen Giants -- A new century of history
TinakoFM
#514417 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Current Team: Ballymena United (NIFL Premiership) | Honours With Them: 0
This Season's (2025-26) Expectation(s): Top half
Overall Team #: 5 | Career Honours: 0
Real Life
Ballymena United were founded in 1934, following the liquidation of Ballymena FC at the conclusion of 1933-34. They are nicknamed the Sky Blues. The club has never won Northern Ireland's top division, though have finished 2nd on numerous occasions.
Ballymena hold European competition experience, qualifying for the UEFA Cup or UEFA Cup Winners' Cup five times between 1978 and 1990; more recently making the UEFA Intertoto Cup and UEFA Europa League in 2004 and 2017 respectively.
Despite no league title or continental title, Ballymena United have won the Irish Cup five times (six counting Ballymena FC's) and League Cup once, as well as other minor trophies like the County Antrim Shield (6). The club holds a strong rivalry with Coleraine. They play their football at the Ballymena Showgrounds in County Antrim.
In-Game
Now January 2026, Ballymena United are currently sitting 7th - we're expected to finish within the top six by the end of my first five months in charge. The race will only likely involve us, Glenavon (5th) and Cliftonville (6th) - we face them both once, as we play seven games before the split... including Cliftonville last. Ballymena have been eliminated from all three cup competitions, by: Warrenpoint Town (Irish Cup, R5), Larne (League Cup, QF) and Ards (County Antrim Shield, SF).
As for the years in-between since the save started and my arrival, Ballymena finished 2nd back in 2021-22 but haven't yet made that step upwards, though have won two more trophies: claiming the League Cup and County Antrim Shield double last season, defeating Larne and Glentoran to do so. Nothing has changed around the club, they still play at the Showgrounds for example.
Journey So Far!
Thank you for reading!
Next? May 2026! (hopefully)
Current Manager Profile:
Career Recap:
Job 001, 2019–2021:
Job 002, 2021:
Job 003, 2022–2024:
Job 004, 2024–2025:
Job 005, 2026–:
Awards/Trophies:
With Limerick:
Club: 2022 End of Season Play-offs (pic)
Personal: 2022 Manager of the Year (pic)
With Khimik:
Club: 2024 Promotion (pic)
Personal: 2024 Manager of the Month, November (pic)
#514416 The 'Worldwide' Win It All Journeyman
TinakoFM
Good league impact early on, sure you'll improve further next season. Nice work with the cup win, too.
#514309 A Turkish Delight
TinakoFM
That cup final, though...
#514281 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
I wasn't planning on returning to Northern Ireland, but Ballymena United interests me greatly. They're currently mid-table in the top-flight but have finished 2nd a few times and are yet to be anywhere near relegation, so they've got room to improve whilst also being a stable club to manage - until I join that is!
#514248 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Back to Northern Ireland!
full in-depth look at my club in the my post
#514247 Now I would walk 500 miles...
TinakoFM
Hopefully you can get through the play-offs. Fingers crossed!
#514246 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Well that was anticlimactic.
You always expect to lose penalty shoot-outs on Football Manager, so can't say I'm too disappointed - grateful to only miss two!
I sure do love a relegation! Second (third if you harshly count Basingstoke Town) of the save. Lovely stuff.
Current Team: Khimik (Belarusian Premier League) | Honours With Them: 0
This Season's (2025) Expectation(s): Fight bravely against relegation
Overall Team #: 4 | Career Honours: 0
That's how it all went down (pardon the pun) in the end. Relegation is certainly tough to take, given we were never once in the bottom two, but that's the way the game goes sometimes.
As for mid-season transfers, I signed one player while letting go three. Mikhail Babichev (CM) arrived, Andrey Hleb (yth), Alexandr Svirskiy (GK), Vadim Lagun (yth) and Petr Vikhrov (yth) left.
Below you can see the squad dynamics and the board's reaction, all rather meaningless at this point.
As I always planned, I have departed at the end of 2025 as Khimik manager. Annoying way to end things, but hey-ho. Onto the next
relegationjob!Thank you for reading!
Next? New Job!
Current Manager Profile:
Career Recap:
Job 001, 2019–2021:
Job 002, 2021:
Job 003, 2022–2024:
Job 004, 2024–2025:
Awards/Trophies:
With Limerick:
Club: 2022 End of Season Play-offs (pic)
Personal: 2022 Manager of the Year (pic)
With Khimik:
Club: 2024 Promotion (pic)
Personal: 2024 Manager of the Month, November (pic)
#514244 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
BONKERS.
Smolevichi go 4-1 on aggregate, only for us to miraculously draw it back to 4-4 to force extra time. Nice of us to finally turn up...
#514243 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Wow we're bad.
#514242 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Extremely fortunate.
We lost, obviously, to Energetik but thankfully Neman Grodno, and our top goalscorer from last year Alexandr Vasilyuk, defeated Smorgon.
So, Smorgon are relegated. We head into the play-offs, where we'll meet Smolevichi from the First League. Dinamo Brest play Naftan in the other fixture. The two winners will play in the Premier League in 2026.
#514241 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
#514240 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
#514239 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
The most obvious outcome of the run-in, Minsk simply too good.
Due to results elsewhere, coupled with our loss, we are indeed condemned to a bottom four finish.
Now the objective is to avoid automatic relegation, the fight is between the two promoted clubs - us and Smorgon.
We both have away matches: I take Khimik to Energetik, while Smorgon visit Neman Grodno. Two matches that could go either way in truth.
We hold a 2pt lead on them.
#514237 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
A draw with ninth place Vitebsk, which closes the gap to 2pts on Gorodeya and safety. Two to play.
Third place Minsk (A) next, so we could be condemned to a bottom four finish by its conclusion.
#514234 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Expected defeat to high-flying Isloch.
Energetik suddenly a winning machine, a worry given they were the only other 'winnable' fixture we've got left.
#514233 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Just need to avoid 15th-16th, 13th-14th gives us a second chance via the play-offs.
#514230 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
#514212 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Very close indeed! I'd say we've got the tougher run-in, though Dinamo Brest and Slutsk have it difficult too. It's a hard one to call.
#514160 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
We certainly do.
Hopefully we can at least maintain the gap between us and 15th (currently Smorgon), which would see us avoid the two automatic relegation places. I'd take the play-offs, given our schedule as I'd only expect points, at best, over Neman Grodno and Energetik.
#514129 The 'Worldwide' Win It All Journeyman
TinakoFM
Bring on 2036-37!
#514127 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
#514112 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
How about that for a sudden nosedive in form?
Somehow still outside the relegation zone (for now), but we're gonna need to get ourselves together if we want to stay up.
#514089 Now I would walk 500 miles...
TinakoFM
Some important wins in there against teams you'd need to be beating like Bastia and Rodez.
#514087 Lets go on a European journey, man!
TinakoFM
Dortmund would be a nice next step, unless you want to try to win the Club World Cup with Roma?
#514034 My FM20 Youth Academy Challenge in Italy
TinakoFM
#514033 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
I've thoroughly enjoyed the impact he has made to us, which was much needed after Vasilyuk's departure.
#514010 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Current Team: Khimik (Belarusian Premier League) | Honours With Them: 0
This Season's (2025) Expectation(s): Fight bravely against relegation
Overall Team #: 4 | Career Honours: 0
What a pleasant surprise, so far.
It has been a terrific start to this season in the Premier League, after our unlikely promotion from the First League last campaign. We are predicted to finish bottom of the pile, given our lack of resources and the fact it's Khimik's first-ever season at this level. After 12 matches, we sit a very respectable 10th and are, most importantly, 6pts clear of the relegation/promotion play-offs (13th-14th) and 7pts clear of the automatic relegation places (15th-16th). That is extremely promising, but it is of course still early days - 18 more fixtures left to play. We're doing very good though, shown by the other promoted club in Smorgon not having it as pleasant - they're bottom as it stands.
The Belarusian Cup kicks off in July, we'll play Gomel in the second round. I'm not expecting us to do anything amazing in that, the league is certainly the priority.
The transfer window was very busy, as it had to be in truth - we needed big changes if we were going to have a chance at survival this campaign.
As I previously posted, my star signing has been striker Courtney Duffus on a free transfer. After offering himself to us, he has bagged a marvellous 9 goals in 12 matches. Duffus has been top notch, he is the only reason we're sitting in this positive position - no-one else has scored more than once for us so far. We'll be screwed if (when
Alikhan Khazilov (CB), Oleg Patotskiy (CM), Dmitriy Dubrov (FW), Artur Mrinskiy (CM), Ilja Bobryshov (RB), Denis Shpakovskiy (GK, loan), Evgeniy Stepanov (CB), Alexandr Sverchinskiy (CB), Artem Shubko (CB), Maxim Martynovich (CM, loan) and Andrey Solodkin (CM, loan) were the other arrivals. Mrinskiy was a permanent signing after his loan last year, while we renewed Egor Romanchik's loan. Khazilov, Patotskiy and Dubrov have featured a little, but Stepanov and Solodkin barely haven't - in fact, the latter has been recalled by his parent club, Dnyapro Mogilev, due to lack of game time. Bobryshov, Shpakovskiy, Sverchinskiy, Shubko and Martynovich have become regulars, alongside Duffus.
No major outgoings, just weak squad members and youngsters being loaned. The most notable departure was actually Alexandr Vasilyuk, who was on loan from Dinamo Minsk and scored a superb 19 goals in the First League. I couldn't resign him, as they wanted him to play with a 'higher quality of player'. That was worrying, but thankfully we found Duffus near the end of the window. Vasilyuk now plays for Neman Grodno, who are below us.
Everything is happy at Khimik at the moment, as you would expect. Onwards!
Two last things:
-I won a Manager of the Month award back in November from the First League, which is always nice.
-I have a new assistant manager. Vladimir Leshonok left to return to Russia, so I put out a job advert for a new assistant - and who popped up? It was one Dušan Tadić, who has now joined me in Svietlahorsk.
Thank you for reading!
Next? 30 November 2025 (hopefully)
Current Manager Profile:
Career Recap:
Job 001, 2019–2021:
Job 002, 2021:
Job 003, 2022–2024:
Job 004, 2024–:
Awards/Trophies:
With Limerick:
Club: 2022 End of Season Play-offs (pic)
Personal: 2022 Manager of the Year (pic)
With Khimik:
Club: 2024 Promotion (pic)
Personal: 2024 Manager of the Month, November (pic)
#514008 Another shot at redemption.
TinakoFM
Nice season!
Best of luck in the Libertadores qualifying round, it would be cracking if you could sneak into the group stages.
#514007 [FM20] Earth Trip
TinakoFM
Thought you might like him.
If he carries on like this, he'll become a favourite of mine too!