retired_shaneltolbert

Sounds good. I'm in.

Leagues Loaded

USA
Spain
South Africa
Mexico
Italy
England
China
Brazil
Argentina.

retired_shaneltolbert

Looks like i'm following in Evertonblokes footsteps. Just been aproached by Lanzou.

retired_sneakystef

My mate Neil is also playing, but he doesnt post in the forums. Hes gone to Lanzhou too!

I'm halfway through my current season and promotion is looking a very real posibility

Danny, did you join Lanzhou half way through the season? If so where were they in the league? In mine they were 11th, Neils was 13th!

retired_osumicrobio

I'm hopeless at sticking to challenges but started this one yesterday. I loaded up:

Argentina, Mexico. South Africa, France, Spain, South Korea and Australia (who are also in Asia).

Top divisions in each, except Mexico and France just in case.

I was offered two jobs, one in second division of Mexico (Tecos B) and also Ajax CT in South Africa which is the one I took.

So far about 7 games played and doing well. I'm in 1st or 2nd place, but have struggled against the top sides. Sundowns thrashed us 4-0 for our only league loss so far, and Kaizer Chiefs by 3-0 in the first round of the league cup.

I think I've done OK with signings with very little money (had to sell our supposed best player, though he looked pretty crap to me), but it looks very hard to compete with the top 3 teams (Sundowns, Chiefs and Orlando Pirates) who pay much higher wages and have big squads full of African internationals.

Ajax CT is tipped to come 7th, but I think we're better than that definitely. Hopefully the good start will continue. Not really sure, but I think the top two qualify for the African Champions League.

retired_sneakystef

@ Jesero - I have managed Tecos B before, its not a bad side, but I failed to spot that it was a B team so you cant get promoted! After 3 games I was off to Tambo Cosmos in South Africa. The difference in teams with the same division there is shocking! Good luck with breaking into the top three, I think you will need it!

Lanzhou Update
After leading the Division for the whole first half of the season I started to slip thoughout the second half, results were just not forthcoming. we started haemoraging points for the next few months and come the end of the season we finished 4th No promotion.

There was 1 job available in the Great League that I went for but failed to get in mid season, and then a chance to declare my interest in another job came along - I was laughed at!

The club is sliding towards bankruptcy too, which ias always a problem. Season 1's transfer budget was £120K, Season 2 was £17K, realising Season 3 was going to be £0 and I had made some sales I did my preseason buying early before the board stoe my cash! Bringing in a real prospect up front and a new leftback who should be solid although not spectacular. One of my young mids is looking really good and theres a lot of interest from the great league in one of my young defs.

Things could be better, but I think they are good enough. The media has predicted 5th place again for us, but I think I can get the top spot if my new striker keeps up his preseason form.

Going to get a good sesh in tonight so will hopefully update again tomorrow

retired_sneakystef

Lanzhou Update

Half way though my second full season and it is not going well at all.

I'm still in the cup for the first time at this stage, which is nice although irrelevant as I just want promotion really.

In the league we started with a lucky point against a newly promoted team which really should have been a good tonking in our favour. That set the tone, after 10 games we were 12th in the league and confidence was only satisfied, dropping down from delighted at the end of last season.

Things were not looking good, teams were dominating me and I had no idea why, apart from 1 big win we were sneaking draws and fluked a 2-1 somewhere too.

Then a job came up in the great league, I was straight onto them with a begging letter, please give me a job mr chairman, things arnt going well for me down here. They, of course, said no.

At this point my board were very unsatisfied following the poor form, debts increasing, and now my 3rd attempt at a new job since joining them!

I considered if I should just quit and then I could be free to apply for everything.......

I stayed. I changed my tactics. Gone was my beloved 4-4-2. I looked at my 3 best/favourite players and checked their natual positions ST, DMC, AMC. Great going to have to go for the crappy diamond!

Next game 5-2 win, following game 4-2 win, third game (cup) 2-1 away win against a Great League team.

Now the board are satisfied with me and I am a lot happier with the progress we are making. At exactly the half way point we are 8 points off the leaders and 9th in the league. I am hoping for a big improvement for the second half of the season.

retired_nikimh

I have just started this challenge, used the leagues:
South Africa(2)
China(2)
South Korea(2)
England (3)
Italy (3)
Spain (3)
Germany (2)
France (2)
Brazil (3)
Argentina (2)
USA (1)

Start date was Dec05, and by Feb06 I became Burghausen manager, a second division team in Germany. The team are almost bankrupt, so only could buy free players, most of which are in my U19 squad

]Profile[/URL]

]Senior Squad[/URL]

Updates on their way, season about to start (August 2007)

retired_nikimh

2006/2007 Burghausen Mid-Season Update

After a mid-season start for the first few games, the team suddenly got a confidence boost after beating Division 1 team Wolfsburg in the cup. After that they have since been unbeaten. Looking good, 2 points behind 1st, in 2nd at the moment. The 15 free transfers are looking good in the U19's.

]Fixtures/Results Page1

]Fixtures/Results Page2

]League

retired_nikimh

2006/2007 Burghausen Mid-Season Update

Pre-season went average, but I found the diamond 4-4-2 formation worked, so I started the season with that. After 9 games, the team won just 4 games, and lost 5. But then we beat Wolfsburg, a good Division 1 team, in the cup. After that, the team won the next 8 games!! That left us in 2nd place, just 2 points behind 1st.

The team have also been in the media spotlight for very long. Most of our 15 free transfers have been regularly getting man of the match in the U19 league, so some good bargains there! Vlado Jeknic (DC), Sebastian Kneissl (AM/FC), Ozgur Kart (ST) and Marek Krejci (ST) have all been praised regularly in the press, but the later 3 seem unsettled, wanting to move to a bigger club, so not good!!

The Internacional (Brazil Div1) job came open, and excited as I was, because at that time I wasn't doing well in the league, and expecting to be knocked out of the cup to Wolfsburg, so I applied. The team were obviously very good, so am sitting at the screen, begging, please, please, please, imagine playing with Alexandro Pato for free!!, please, please..... NO! This left the board a bit angry. Lucky results went the right way....

Fixtures/Results 1

Fixtures/Results 2

League

Senior Squad (look at Krejci's goals!)

retired_sneakystef

Lanzhou Update

Well the anticipated turn arround didnt materialise. Results for the second half of the season were good, but not good enough to gain ground on the top two teams. I ended 8 points off of second which seems to be a playoff at least. However I didnt drop any further behind second either. So next season could still be the one!

Our media prediction has slipped to 7th though which was a bit harsh IMO, but I guess they can only go on my final standing this year, which was 9th.

During the transfer window I sold an under performing RW for 100K of which I was allowed to keep 34K. a cheep replacement RW was brought in and, outside the transfer window, a new GK was bought. The remaining cash was lost in the new seasons budget.

Next season I hope to have a transfer budget though as I have released about 20 players from the reserves (I didnt buy them, they were at the club on 3 year contracts when I joined!) and have actually turned a profit in each of the last 3 months. we're 400K in debt at the mo, so I am aiming for 50K a month in profit. Going to need a good cup run!

I spent the last few games of the season tweaking my formation and am pleased to say I have ditched the diamond (phew!) moving the DMC to MC otherwise it has stayed the same. I have also made some of the more attacking players a little more defensive.

I will be back on it on wednesday night so hopefully update again on Thursday morning

Cheers all
E.B.