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Aswijan Assignment | Part 4: All The Giant-Killing
Life in Aswijan is off to a surprisingly good start. Trebor Mahtal was even able to reward the Zagora Athletik boys with a trip into the luscious delights of the Marinna Rainforest that surrounds us in the state of Elisha.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 20 – The Best Goal I’ve Ever Seen On Football Manager
After wrapping up a fourth consecutive Primeira Liga with Sporting Lisbon a massive summer of change was coming, including selling our oldest player for the third transfer window in a row.
Aswijan Assignment | Part 3: The Birth of the Mitsetse Derby
The first two months of life in Aswijan saw us get acquainted with Zagora Athletik and, eventually, settle into a formation and style that suited our players. And the relentless schedule of playing every Wednesday and Saturday was set to continue for a considerable time to come, which would eventually take its toll.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 19 – Season 4 Reflection
Our fourth campaign as Sporting Lisbon manager had plenty of drama, including a board intervention that had me questioning my position at the club. However, it soon became our best season so far in the save.
Aswijan Assignment | Part 2: Trial and Error
Last time out, we selected the team that we will take charge of in Aswijan – Zamora Athletik. And we gave you a brief overview of the club, its league competition Liga Dukh, and introduced you to some of its better players and exciting youth prospects.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 18 – Fixture Schedule Chaos
Sporting Lisbon moved into March 2023 still unbeaten in Primeira Liga and, for the first time in this save, having progressed past the first knockout round of the Champions League.
Aswijan Assignment | Part 1: Welcome to Aswijan
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the brand new country of Aswijan for a Football Manager 2020 save that’s a little bit different. If you haven’t read the introduction to this series then go and give it a read here. If you have, then let me introduce you to our new life in Aswijan.
Aswijan Assignment | An Introduction To Aswijan
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a subtle difference to my ongoing Saving Sporting series. That’s because I discovered the work of Laura, aka Chilled Moose, with her awesome looking regen faces and a really exciting database she’s created.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 17 – Sticking It To The Board
Last time out I was fuming with the Sporting Lisbon President’s decision to sign two players behind my back for huge money on huge wages. I was keen to put it behind me and move on, and would deal with it when the two signings arrived in January.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 16 – Fuming with the President!
I’ve built some exciting young teams during my time playing Football Manager but this new-look Sporting Lisbon side has to be one of the most inexperienced but exciting. However, all of my good work could come to a dramatic ending after a ridiculous move by the club’s incumbent President.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 15 – Season 3 Reflection
I normally like to summarise the season just gone within the last post of the season, but this time around the finale to Primeira Liga was too frantic for that!
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 14 – Bizarre Title Battle
Sporting Lisbon’s chances of a third straight Primeira Liga title looked unlikely going into the last few months of the season. Despite being only three points behind off the top of the league we faced a tough task toppling the unbeaten FC Porto.
24 Hours In FM: Part 15 – Euro 2028!
The year is 2028 and the European Championships are here! England come into the tournament on a national record of 19 consecutive wins and 20 unbeaten. But can they rule Europe for the first time?
24 Hours In FM: Part 14 – Meet England’s Euro 2028 Squad
Ahead of a big summer international tournament, which is my first on Football Manager 2020, I thought it’d be a good idea to provide a brief rundown of the squad. There’ll be some familiar names and some players I’ve probably mentioned by name and you’re thinking “who’s that guy then?”
24 Hours In FM: Part 13 – 17-0 (Seventeen)
England had made the perfect start to the Euro 2028 qualifiers, with two wins from their first two matches. But things were about to get very special indeed in what was, admittedly, a relatively weak group.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 13 – Batalha Blinder
Sporting moved into 2022 on a good run of form but trailing the even more impressive SL Benfica and unbeaten FC Porto.
24 Hours In FM: Post 12 – Enigmatic England
After securing their place in the Nations League Finals in the summer of 2027, the England staff and players had plenty of time out to prepare for future exploits.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 13 – Top of the Table Lisboa Derby
Sporting Lisbon headed into November 2021 on the back of five straight wins and with key players and young starlets hitting a real purple patch of form.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 12 – Impressive Meneses
Two games into Primeira Liga season three and we’d started well with two wins, including an impressive 4-0 defeat of Vitória de Setubal. But that promising start was soon to hit a bit of a bump.
24 Hours In FM: Part 11 – Nations League Progression
Our first matches as England manager began with a draw in Italy and a win over the World Champions, which set us up nicely for the conclusion of the Nations League group.
24 Hours In FM: Part 10 – Managing England
I’m not sure I’ve ever managed England on Football Manager, I can’t remember doing so on recent versions that’s for sure. In fact I’ve rarely done international management, and it’s obviously very different.
24 Hours In FM: Part 9 – Country Calls
When I said that the next post in this 24 hours of Football Manager challenge would reveal where we’ve ended up after holidaying while on a Zoom call, I most definitely did not expect this to be the end result.
24 Hours In FM: Part 8 – Zooming Off
This Atalanta team is utterly dreadful, and I don’t have the patience, the interest nor the inclination to try and rebuild it.
24 Hours In FM: Part 7 – A Cold Welcome Home
It was a proud moment when, following several months of unemployment, I was asked to become the manager of Atalanta. This is a club I had a great save – maybe my greatest ever – with in Atalanta Avventura on Football Manager 2019. But the club is not in a good way on this save. […]
24 Hours In FM: Part 6 – Back On The Job Market
Having suffered the indignity of getting the sack in Part 5 – albeit while on holiday – it was time to sign back on the dole and hit the Job Centre.
24 Hours In FM: Part 5 – Oops!
Our first season as a manager was up and running with goals aplenty in our first few matches with Athletic Bilbao. And our 3-5-2 setup seemed primed for attacking football.
24 Hours In FM: Part 4 – Finally A Football Manager
After five years sitting on the beach honing my tactical knowledge, the time was finally upon me to begin life as a football manager. And we had a big game to get things started.
24 Hours In FM: Part 3 – Sergio Ros and Sergio Ros
An hour into the game and we were already stepping into club management for the first time in 2024. Eight-time Spanish champions Athletic Bilbao had entrusted us with our first role as manager and I’m excited by the prospect.
24 Hours In FM: Part 2 – On the Job Hunt
Joining the job hunt in 2024 there were several roles available and I appeared to be in with a chance of getting them – despite having been on holiday for 5 years.
24 Hours In FM: Part 1 – Setting The Scene
Today (14 May) is my birthday and, seeing as there’s nothing to do I thought I’d just play Football Manager all day. Then I thought, ‘can I just play Football Manager ALL DAY?’ So I decided to try and play Football Manager for 24 hours straight.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 11 – Mr. Darcy
The Premier League may be going through all manner of problems with its ‘Project Restart’ plan but we here at Sporting Lisbon are having a lovely old time with our ‘Project Rebuild.’
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 10 – Another Tight Title Battle
Despite being 12 points clear in January, Sporting Lisbon somehow suffered a dip in form that took the Primeira Liga title race to the final day for the second successive season.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 9 – Taking on Porto
Having established a commanding lead at the top of Primeira Liga, Sporting Lisbon faced two January battles with SC Braga and FC Porto then looked ahead to a Champions League clash with Real Madrid.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 8 – Youngsters Step Up
Winter has set in and we’re pushing on towards warmer weather in Portugal, but Sporting Lisbon remain the team to beat as we head into the second half of the campaign.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 7 – Sporar the Scorer
The rebuilding effort at Sporting Lisbon seems to be defying the “Saving” aspect of the name of this particular save.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 6 – A Somewhat Sluggish Start
Sporting Lisbon’s defence of an unexpected title win in the first season began with two matches FC Porto, who we hadn’t beaten in three attempts. First was the Supertaca Candido de Oliveira – or Supercup – then we were drawn to visit Porto on the opening day of the league campaign.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 5 – Title Battle Goes To The Wire
Sporting Lisbon’s attempt at a first Liga NOS title since 2002 boiled down to the last two games of the season after the big six matches featured in Part 4 left them 5 points clear of FC Porto.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 4 – Six Season-Defining Matches
Sporting Lisbon’s unexpected assault on the Liga NOS title boiled down to six season-defining matches against teams around us at the top of the league.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 3 – The Rebuild Begins
We’ve begun putting our stamp on Sporting Lisbon by selling off several of the club’s older, non-essential players during the first January transfer window. But it’s not affected Sporting’s fine form in our first campaign.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 2 – A Strong Start
Our reign as manager of Sporting Lisbon got off to a flying start as Leões (The Lions) picked up four wins out of four in August then progressed to a strong position before the Winter break.
The Journeyman | Saving Sporting: Part 1 – A New Start in FM20
You may have noticed that our Football Manager blog updates have been away for a while. I took some time out to go travelling and now, with Coronavirus sticking around, I thought it’d be fun to get back to the Football Manager blogging game!
Vamos Valencia: A New Beginning
One of my first blogs when I started this site was a review of my Valencia side on Football Manager 2018. Now, I’m heading back to Valencia for the 19 version. Valencia has always been a team that I’ve been intrigued by, ever since the days when they were winning La Liga and reaching the […]
Marching On Together: Part 14 – Amazingly Ridiculous
I’ll freely admit that today’s episode of Marching On Together is totally ridiculous, but at the same time brilliantly amazing. The Leeds United boys moved into 2025 with new signing Raheem Sterling and Brazilian striker Sidnei spearheading a lethal attack that had us flying high in the Premier League and into the Champions League knockout stages. […]
Marching On Together: Part 13 – Sterling Efforts
Leeds United had reached heady heights heading into the 2024/25 campaign, with our Euro Cup success leading us into the Champions League and a +£300 million transfer budget at our disposal. We began the Summer by selling off a few players that weren’t quite cutting it. This saw midfielder Alessandro Cortinovis move to Derby for […]
Marching On Together: Part 12 – Euro Glory
Leeds United moved into 2024 on a strong run of form in the Premier League and having secured progression to the knockout stages of the Euro Cup with a 100% record thanks to striker Sidnei’s incredible goalscoring form. A quiet January transfer window was dominated by the outgoings of attacking midfielder Armin Djerlek to Werder […]
Marching On Together: Part 11 – Super Sidnei
With another season of European football to come at Elland Road, we headed into the 2023/24 campaign in a confident mood and with more exciting youngsters establishing themselves as first choices. The summer of 2023 saw a fairly hefty clear-out, which included a club record sale and a club record total of incoming transfer fees. […]
Marching On Together: Part 10 – Leeds’ Local Lads
Leeds United moved into 2023 having easily secured qualification to the knockout stages of the Euro Cup. This was secured as the 2022 World Cup was taking place in Qatar and the competition was won by France, who lifted the trophy after a penalty shoot-out victory following a 0-0 draw with Italy – which was […]
Marching On Together: Part 9 – Eleventh Heaven
The 2022/23 campaign would see Leeds United play in European competition for the first time in 20 years. A massive summer clearout saw no less than 26 players depart the club, either permanently or on loan. The biggest outgoing was striker Patrick Bamford, the Premier League top scorer two seasons previous, who was showing signs […]
Marching On Together: Part 8 – European Football
We moved into the latter stages of the 2021/22 campaign, our third in the Premier League with Leeds United, embroiled in a very tight mid-table battle. We began the year by selling centre-back stalwart Pontus Jansson, who’d been overtaken by youngster Benoit Badiashile in the pecking order, to Bournemouth for £4 million. In his place […]
Marching On Together: Part 7 – A Mixed Bag
Moving into the 2021/22 campaign Leeds United had established themselves as a Premier League club following a seventh-placed finish the previous campaign. We continued with a focus on signing exciting youngsters, signing several youngsters from Brazil and immediately loaning them out – so I won’t focus on them for now. However, one player that will […]