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#358676 On a quest to be the best II
r96
#358675 Dans Journey Around The World [Take ll]
r96
#358550 Celtic - A Squad Building Exercise
r96
#358477 Emulating (Surpassing) Red Bull
r96
#358437 From Unemployed To Wherever...
r96
#358435 [FM17] Journeyman's Journey I
r96
Yellow/Red circle indicates my current job.
Orange/Green circle indicates my past jobs.
About 2016:
As 2016 petered out, I asked the board of Albirex Niigata (S) if I could start a coaching course to improve my badges for the first-time (I began the save with no badges), they accepted and I eventually completed to gain my National C Licence. Also, we received the awards and review of 2016 news items.
Coaching Badges:
Season Review and Awards:
Season 2017 Begins!:
After joining in July of last year and going onto win the 2016 Singaporean League Cup and 2016 Singaporean league title, we head into 2017 aiming to retain our trophies but also win the one trophy missed last season, the Singaporean FA Cup. Let's get going.
First of all, over the course of the transfer window we made four signings and let one go with another set to follow later in the year. We signed: Hiromitsu Nakaue, a defender. Masahiro Shuji, a goalkeeper. Travis Fujii, a forward. Kazutoshi Takeda, a midfielder. Meanwhile, unfavoured and disgruntled left-back Yû Takano left on loan to Garena Young Lions. Another unhappy player, Wataru Satô, will leave in June to Malaysian Super League team Kedah for a fee of 11.25K. We also received our season expectations.
Transfer Round-up:
Season Expectations:
As always, the season began with pre-season and we played three fixtures. Firstly, we faced Harimau Muda (who, in real life it seems, have been disbanded yet are still in the game?) and beat them 5–1 in a match that my new assistant manager, Chan Gabriel, took charge of as I was focusing on transfer activity. Secondly, we played Bedok Youth United and won 0–2. Lastly, we met Malaysian side Melaka United and lost 1–0. I took charge of those latter two friendlies.
The 2017 S. League season began on 5 February as we went up against DPMM. Despite dominating, we got off to a slow start as we drew 1–1 with Steve Kean's men. Balestier Khalsa were up next on Matchday 2 and we got our first win of the season as we won 2–1. Matchday 3 saw us play Garena Young Lions and we again won 1–2 after goals from Susumu Kawashima and Koichi Yoshii. In all of our opening three league fixtures, we played fantastically well. As we did in our fourth fixture, against Geylang International, but it took until the 90th-minute for us to find the winner after Shôsuke Ishida converted a late penalty. February ended with an unfair defeat to Home United.
March began with another loss, as we were defeated 0–1 by Warriors. We didn't deserve to win that one, but neither did Warriors. At this point, we were three points behind surprise early leaders Hougang United and we faced them next at Hougang Stadium. We were two goals ahead at the break thanks to Kawashima and Fumihiro Fujiwara, Hougang Utd got one back shortly after half-time but we went onto win 1–4 as Kawashima and Yoshii scored. A quite brilliant result in truth, I wasn't expecting such a performance or scoreline. This result took us top, although numerous sides around us had games in hand.
March ended how February began as we played DPMM to round off the month's league action. Unlike on day one, we ran out 2–0 winners and remained top. We finished March with two friendlies, a win over Si Ling United and another versus Crescent Villa. By the end of our two friendlies, a few sides had played their games in hand which moved us down to third place, a point off first place Hougang United. Overall, a positive start to the 2017 season.
Results:
League Overview:
Tactics:
So, eight S. League games down and we sit third. Squad statistics can be seen below. Just like last season, Susumu Kawashima has been tremendous with five goals in eight matches. Shôsuke Ishida has also kept up his 2016 form with two goals and four assists so far. Credit to Koichi Yoshii, he has been very good after being OK last campaign.
Statistics:
Update four complete. Thanks for reading, I'll be back in early July, we have six S. League matches to play and two Singaporean FA Cup games to play. I'm looking forward to it.
Cheers,
R96Skinner.
Career so far:
2016– | Albirex Niigata (S) | (Singapore/1) | Trophies: 2 / Awards: 0 / Promotions: 0 / Relegations: 0.
Trophies won:
2016 | Albirex Niigata (S) -- (Singapore) League Cup.
2016 | Albirex Niigata (S) -- (Singapore) S. League.
#358395 Tongeys' Travels [II] (Take Two)
r96
#358393 FMREGEN: FULL CIRCLE
r96
#358373 Dans Journey Around The World [Take ll]
r96
#358371 -
r96
#358368 On a quest to be the best II
r96
#358358 Dans Journey Around The World [Take ll]
r96
#358347 FMREGEN: FULL CIRCLE
r96
#358346 Sunderland AFC - Breaking the Curse
r96
#358341 The Globetrotter
r96
#358267 [FM17] Journeyman's Journey I
r96
Yellow/Red circle indicates my current job.
Orange/Green circle indicates my past jobs.
The Final Six League Fixtures:
After a first defeat to DPMM, we headed into the final six league fixtures top of the table and ten points clear. Could we keep our head to win the double and give Albirex Niigata (S) their first-ever in-game S. League title?
The run-in began on a more calmer note with three consecutive friendlies against lower-league sides, we got wins over Damai Rovers, Singapore U16s and Pulau Ubin. S. League action resumed soon after as we hosted Geylang International, a team who had been struggling, but we fell to a 0–1 defeat. Next came a trip to Bishan to face Home United, but we again lost by a single goal. Hoping to get back to winning ways, we were again on the road as we played Hougang United but incredibly we lost 1–0 for the third time in a row. Extremely frustrating, we had bottled a ten point lead! At this point, Warriors overtook us into first place; a place they hadn't been in since Matchday 10.
Two more friendlies took place to keep fitness up, wins over Buona Vista and Singapore Power arrived before we returned to league action. Bottom of the table Garena Young Lions were our next opponents at home, and we flew into a first-half two-goal lead and we were looking comfortable. However, disaster struck in the second half as, the team who had lost their last four matches by conceding at least three goals in each, somehow clawed it back to 2–2; helped by an equalising penalty. As you could imagine, I was stunned. I was conceding defeat in the title race. On the penultimate matchday, we faced Tampines Rovers at home and again missed three points as we yet again lost 0–1. I thought that was it, but unbelievably Warriors also lost to Balestier Khalsa. We had a chance, and guess who we faced on the last day - Warriors, away!
The final day came upon us, we sat in second place and two points off of leaders Warriors. Only a win would do. Shôsuke Ishida gave us an 18th-minute lead, it remained that way until the 81st-minute when Susumu Kawashima scored to make it Warriors 0–2 Albirex Niigata (S)! I couldn't believe it, I was positive we had thrown this away. The impressive Jonathan Béhé got Warriors a late consolation but it wasn't enough.
League champions!! An incredible end, I did not see us winning the title after that horrific drop in form but somehow we are 2016 S. League champions! We should've secured it earlier but I'll take it, the late suspense was all planned!
Fixture rundown:
That Dramatic Final Encounter:
League Overview:
The Glorious Inbox:
As you can see from the inbox above and from my previous posts, the league title is part of a double as we also won the 2016 Singaporean League Cup. What a first (half a) season! We arrived in July 2016 with the side top of the league, we've gone onto win the title (albeit fortunately) and win the League Cup. Lucky to get this as the first job, it's certainly the quickest time I've achieved silverware on Football Manager. Delighted.
Future plans? As I've said, this career is a see what happens type career. I have no plans to achieve certain things, I just like to see what happens and do what I can. Ideally, I'd like to get the Singaporean Cup next season to complete the collection and we'll probably leave Albirex Niigata (S) then. As @ThatFMRegen reminded me, this club cannot qualify for any continental competitions as they're basically a Japanese side so there isn't much point in sticking around, but we'll see.
Appreciate all of you who take the time to read my post, I appreciate it. That's that for update three, the next one will likely be in March 2017 after a couple of the new league season matches have been played.
Cheers,
R96Skinner.
Career so far:
2016– | Albirex Niigata (S) | (Singapore/1) | Trophies: 2 / Awards: 0 / Promotions: 0 / Relegations: 0.
Trophies won:
2016 | Albirex Niigata (S) -- (Singapore) League Cup.
2016 | Albirex Niigata (S) -- (Singapore) S. League.
#358262 [FM17] Journeyman's Journey I
r96
Thank you, I appreciate it!
#358244 The Globetrotter
r96
#358240 Tongeys' Travels [II] (Take Two)
r96
#358238 [FM17] Journeyman's Journey I
r96
Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that! Similar to Wellington Phoenix in the A-League. Thanks for the reminder, hopefully I can get the league & cup to go with the League Cup I won and head off out the club. Enjoying the all Japanese squad though, got some pretty decent players. Hadn't seen your career post until now, will be following along now!
#358209 Dans Journey Around The World [Take ll]
r96
#358200 [FM17] Journeyman's Journey I
r96
Thanks! Just started reading your story recently. A little late I know, so need to catch up!
#358121 [FM17] Journeyman's Journey I
r96
Yellow/Red circle indicates my current job.
Orange/Green circle indicates my past jobs.
The First Two Months:
I'm two months into my new job in Singapore, so far it's gone very well. We started with an unconvincing 3–1 home win over Warriors, we started that match horribly and should've been two or three down in truth but thankfully the boys managed to score the first goal and from there we got back into the game and subsequently won; but Warriors deserved a draw from that. Next came a friendly versus Hougang (lower league side) which, as you'd expect, we won comfortably.
The mini summer break came along, no league match for a month but there was the Singaporean League Cup to play for. Not an important trophy, that's what my board said anyway, but it was one I was taking seriously. It's a group stage to semi-finals to final style competition. We began Group B with a solid victory against former Blackburn manager Steve Kean's DPMM. Three days later came a match against slight strugglers Geylang International, as it came so soon after the DPMM match I rested the majority of my squad ahead of the tougher fixture on Matchday 3. We went two goals ahead versus Geylang, despite Yû Takano receiving a red card, however we collapsed in the final thirteen minutes as our opponents raced backed to 2–2. Disappointing.
We faced Tampines Rovers, club of well-known Englishman Jermaine Pennant, in the group's final tie sitting in a qualification spot. We went a goal behind before we found a leveller on minute 74, a goal that saved us as a defeat would've sent us home but thankfully we drew to finish top of the group. So, into the semi-finals we met Group A winners Balestier Khalsa. A goal either side of a Balestier opener sent us through to the 2016 League Cup final, the club's second time in as many years. Our final opponents were Group A runners-up Home United. A dramatic final was to come.
We took an early lead through Susumu Kawashima, who has been superb for me so far with five goals in eight competitive games, before Home Utd struck back via a Sufianto Salleh goal. Into extra time it went. The team who sat fourth in the league then went ahead thanks to Luqman Ismail. At this point I was concerned, we started well but Home Utd got on top towards the end. However, Shinnosuke Matsubara popped up with an equaliser five minutes before the end to send the game to a penalty shoot-out! We, Albirex Niigata (S), kept our nerve and won the shoot-out 5–3 without missing a spot-kick.
Wow! Our first trophy after only a month in charge. A fantastic start.
A 3–1 friendly win over Marist United followed before league action returned. We faced our League Cup SF opponents Balestier Khalsa at home and won thanks to a goal from that man Matsubara, our cup final hero. A week later we played DPMM once more but fell to a bitterly disappointing 2–0 defeat, the first defeat of our career and first with Albirex Niigata (S).
Full rundown of our results, including goalscorers:
League Cup champions!:
So our first trophy is in the bag. As for the league table (see below), we are still in first and are ten points clear with six games to play. Hopefully we can achieve a double, but there's a long way to go; especially for me.
The Table:
Special Mention: Susumu Kawashima!
He has fourteen goals in twenty-four games for the club, five in eight since I've joined. Brilliant!
My current tactic:
I've pretty much used this system throughout, although have switched it about here-and-there in some games. It's working well so far, the front three are rather good.
That'll do it for my second update, I'll be back after we've played our final six matches and hopefully I'll return with good news. Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
R96Skinner.
Career so far:
2016– | Albirex Niigata (S) | (Singapore/1) | Trophies: 1 / Awards: 0.
Trophies won:
2016 | Albirex Niigata (S) -- Singaporean League Cup.
#358044 From Unemployed To Wherever...
r96
#358009 [FM17] Journeyman's Journey I
r96
Side note: My third attempt at doing a career post on here, on my previous attempts I've tried it at the end of my use of Football Manager; basically when I'm getting bored/annoyed with the game so try to get back into it by doing this, that usually fails but this time I'm doing it early while the game is still fresh to me.
Yellow/Red circle indicates my current job.
Orange/Green circle indicates my past jobs.
As you can tell with the map above, my first job of the save is in Singapore. More on that later.
I've decided to start in Asia, therefore loading all Asian leagues except Australia (felt it would be a little unrealistic getting an A-League job). I also loaded all the big leagues as view only (e.g. England, Germany, Spain etc.).
The Search:
Persika Karawang (Indonesia, tier two) were the first club to get back to my application. I decided to delay a week to see what other offers I get, coming into this I was interested/expecting an Indonesian team.
If you didn't know, Albirex Niigata (S) are related to Japanese J. League club Albirex Niigata so therefore have an all Japanese squad and can only sign Japanese players; similar to Athletic Club's rules regarding Basque players I guess. That makes it interesting and perhaps a little more difficult, but it sounds fun to me.
That's as far as I am as of right now, will be cracking on with it as soon as I've sent this. I'm looking forward to it!
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it. I will be regularly tweeting about this save on my Twitter account (@R96Skinner), updates on this post will be every two months (in game) unless something big happens.
Cheers,
R96Skinner.
Career so far:
2016– | Albirex Niigata (S) | (Singapore/1) | Trophies: 0 / Awards: 0.
#313268 [FM16] Whatever happens, happens.
r96
April was just as awful, in competitive football at least; friendlies offered some respite. First we faced leaders Romorantin but, like Chambly-Thelle, deservedly got well beat. That was followed by a loss to A.S Beziers which sadly confirmed the inevitability that was relegation. So all was settled and only pride was at stake. Then came the first of the final three friendlies of 2026/27, a 6-1 win over non-league Olympique de Valence. We carried some of that confidence into our next National match versus CA Bastia, who funnily enough were managed by my former assistant manager Salim Laassami who deserted us for Bastia a few weeks before, and we managed to gain a point. Martin grabbed a goal, been impressed with the young lad especially as Benhmida started to go missing. April finished with a 4-2 friendly win over another non-league side in La Clermontaise. End of Month Position: 17th.
So despite all of that, the board of Hyéres were actually content with me which I guess shows how bad the squad was and how decent most of our performances were despite the losses. I also have one year left on my contract so I'll definitely be sticking around it looks like for the fourth tier of French football. A huge ton of work in the off-season ahead but hopefully we can at least challenge for promotion next season but it'll be tough. I'm always up for a challenge, these are the type of saves I enjoy most!
Next Post: 2027/28 Season Review.
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Thanks for reading!
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#312762 [FM16] Whatever happens, happens.
r96
Job number 8 in my career will be with...: Hyéres FC in France's National!!
Excited to join Hyéres, my first step into one of Europe's top five leagues; albeit in it's third division but it's a start!
Table:
Fixtures:
It's going to be a tough challenge, but one I'm well up for. Even if it goes badly, at least I've made a mark into one of the big footballing countries which can only be a good thing.
Next Post: 2026/27 Season Review.
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Thanks for reading!
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#312759 [FM16] Whatever happens, happens.
r96
March featured three league fixtures and one friendly. ATM, Kedah, Sime Darby and Perak being the opponents. The match against ATM was frustrating, we dominated the match but only managed to get a point out of it. In our next Super League fixture, we made our dominance count as we thrashed Kedah 3-0 at home with that man Zainuddin getting a hat-trick. March ended with a friendly loss to Sime Darby before a league loss to Perak, both were deserved defeats. End of Month Position: 5th
Audrey Jemang, Faiz Abdul Hamid and Muhd Nur Abdul Aziz were signed, all became good members and featured fairly regularly. Mohd Norhamizaref Hamid (loan), Mohd Nor Ismail and Mohd Faizal Zulkifli (loan) were signed as back-up, them three only featured a few times collectively; Zulkifli's loan was terminated early. Mohd Nazrul Hisni also came in as back-up but didn't feature at all. We also signed well-known Australian Ryan McGowan on a free, he retired in October after making 9 appearances. Overall, as usual with small clubs, our transfer business was hit and miss.
As of this post, I am currently on 17 October 2026 and my contract with Selangor PKNS is running out in November. I'm a tad worried as it looks like I'll be leaving at the end of said contract, which I'd feel hard done by and would feel quite sad given I'm building this club and with had two strong campaigns in the Super League which followed that incredible promotion winning season. I believe that the board's expectation was to finish top half, which I know I failed but only by a couple of points; we were 5th with two games left. Feels harsh. Who knows I perhaps may be offered a new deal, I'd love to stay, but if they put conditions on next season with the new contract, like Lokomotíva Košice did to me, then I'd probably reject it and leave. Time will tell!
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Next Post: Job Update.
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Thanks for reading!
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#311782 [FM16] Whatever happens, happens.
r96
(NOTE: Apologies for the late update, been a little busy lately and also got bored of the game itself for a few weeks but regain interest in it again.)
Well, my third League Cup run with Selangor PKNS didn't go very well.
Final Standings:
Full Results:
I am not concerned at all, it wasn't a competition I took wholly serious although of course I am disappointed we failed to win. Funny thing is, we continue to frustrate arguably the best team in the country: Johor DT. We drew with them 1-1 on both occasions here. Overall, as I mentioned in my first post, we have a little bit of an unexpected rivalry with them (P10 W3 D3 L4); considering they've won the league in six of the last seven years I'm happy with our record against them.
As for the League Cup itself, we had a very difficult group that included the aforementioned Johor DT and our local rivals Selangor, who went on to win the thing and have now won three of the last four League Cups. So that was against us, given as we aren't that big a club, as well as the fact I played around with a few things, testing different tactics and players ahead of the 2026 season.
2026 Incoming:
Speaking of the upcoming 2026 season, I'm feeling fairly confident that we can maintain our solid performances in the league; as we did in my debut campaign after promotion in 2025. As of this post, I'm still two months away from the start of the season so still getting things together in terms of tactics and transfers so anything could happen. One man I have managed to sign was our on-loan winger/striker Mohd Nor Zainuddin. We signed him on loan from lower division Real Mulia, he made 15 appearances overall and scored 8 goals and made 3 assists. Impressive for a club like ours as the stats suggest but even with his performances that the stats don't show; sort of player I like. Had to pay him a bit more than I had preferred, but felt it would've been a bigger mistake not signing him then it would if we didn't loosen the purse strings.
Zainuddin:
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Next Post: 2026 Season Review.
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Thanks for reading!
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#306468 [FM16] Whatever happens, happens.
r96
Cheers! I'm enjoying it and I'm liking the way the save has progressed and developed. Its got nothing on your Journey Around The World though, that save is brilliant.
Nice one! I concur, unemployment saves are always a winner.