I’m still pretty horrible at this LLM thing, but I’m having so much fun I decided to get serious about it – started unemployed and with the lowest possible reputation, loaded every country and every division. Let's see where life and my skills (or lack thereof!) take me.
2007/2008 – Tai Po – Hong Kong First Division
The first team to reply to my applications is Tai Po Football Club, recently promoted to the Hong Kong First Division. I accept the challenge, being paid an amazing $625 per month. I’m rich!
The team is pretty awful. It becomes obvious I’m gonna need to bring reinforcements, but with a transfer budget of 6k and being only 1k below wage budget, it’s not going to be an easy task. I decide to bring in a half-decent goalkeeper (since I don’t think adding up the attributes of all 3 goalkeepers in the team would actually produce one good GK), and to focus on defense for the other few reinforcements I bring in. I also hire two scouts since the team has none.
Preseason is a disaster, as the squad is definitely not fit for it and usually starts the games at 75-80% fitness. I then have to play my (even more) atrocious reserves for most of the games, and get trounced by every grey team in the vicinity of Hong Kong. This includes a match which my newly signed goalkeeper singlehandedly loses after we’re leading 1-0 by making two superb passes to the opposition strikers. He looks like a wonderful signing already, and I fear I’d get sacked even before the season starts.
The season however starts brilliantly, with the team scoring impressive wins both home and away. Then I lose my star striker to an injury, followed by 3 other starters, and the team collapses. We fight relegation throughout the season against Citizen, and it all comes down to the last game. Spending more than half the season without a single win, we need at least a draw to stay up. Fortunately it’s a home game against the already relegated Workable. We do just enough (draw 0-0) and secure our First Division spot for one more season on goal difference.
Games: 18 – 3 wins, 5 draws, 10 losses – 14 points, 8th place, 24 goals, 35 allowed
Champions: Happy Valley –
Relegated: Workable and Citizen (8 and 14 points respectively)
I got both the best (a veteran midfielder) and the worst (my idiot goalkeeper) signing of the season :p
Positives: I learned Cantonese
Negatives: I lost count on the number of games I lost to own goals. One of my defenders alone had 4, and I thought he had a real chance at winning the Golden Boot.
Curious Fact: it’s amazing how many Brazilians play in the HK First Division. Each team has at least 2 or 3. Since I had just started the game I assume this is accurate?
2008/2009 – Tai Po – Hong Kong First Division
I was unsure whether to stick with Tai Po or move on after the awful experience last season, but finally decided to give it another go. Started off by clearing as much deadwood as possible, offloading most of my youth and reserve team in hopes I would get some space on the wage budget at least. I also improved the staff a little bit, hiring a better assistant manager and coaches. The board gives me a lot of room in the wage budget but no transfer funds. I bring in a half-decent striker and a few good midfielders and hope for the best.
The team looks a lot better and by mid-season we’re standing safely mid-table and playing well. We keep more or less the same form throughout the rest of the season to finish a respectable 5th.
G-18 W8 D4 L6 – 24 goals, 17 conceded, 28 points
Champions: Kitchee (39 points) –
Relegated: Lucky Mile and Tung Po (7 and 9 points, lol)
Despite the decent position in the league, the highlight of my season is the League Cup. After qualifying second in the group stage, we took on runaway league leaders Kitchee and beat them 3-2. Lightning strikes twice and we win 2-1 against South China to lift the cup. My first LLM trophy, aww
I really enjoyed the season with Tai Po and the HK League, but I felt it was time to move on. There’s still a huge gap in quality between the top clubs in the league and ours, and no real opportunities to make the money needed to build a team that can achieve greater things. So I decide not to renew the contract and look for a fresh challenge elsewhere.
2009 – Khimik Svetlogorsk – Belarus Pervaja Liga (2nd Division)
After a few weeks of unemployment I apply to the recently vacated job at Khimiki and they accept me, so I’m off to cold Belarus. The board wants a respectable league position. We’re about a third into the season when I take over and in 9th place out of 14. I also have a 22k transfer budget so it doesn’t seem so bad.
The team is actually pretty strong, and with just a few tactical changes we manage to get a pretty good start. I bring in a midfielder and a new striker and for a while we actually challenge for promotion. But we don't do well against the other promotion contenders and on the last game of the season we needed to beat promotion contenders Dnepr Mogilev 8-0 away and still hope for Mozyr to lose their game. Needless to say it doesn't happen, and we finish the season an honorable 4th place.
G:26 W14 D5 L7 - 46 goals, 20 conceded, 47 points
Champions: Dinamo Brest (62 points)
Promoted: Mozyr (53 points) -
Relegated: Lida and Polatsk (both with 14 points)
Curious Fact: The Belarus league is very enjoyable! Downloading a stadium pack made it a lot more fun because you can see the freeeeeezing conditions and the very small stadiums the teams have to play in, but the level of play is actually pretty decent. Or maybe that's just compared to the Hong Kong league :p
Cups were awful. I’m hopeful for next season, though. The team is actually pretty good, and if I do get just a little money I can probably cover the few positions we lack the quality to challenge for promotion. Stay tuned!
Hopefully this won't have too many Tai Pos 
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