It wasn't long before I was offered a job, with Hummel, in the South Korean N-League foolish enough to hire this former sunday-league footballer.
It was July, and the opening stage of the South Korean had just finished, so I was taking over for the closing stage. Hummel had surpassed expectations up to this point, winning the opening stage despite being predicted to finish 6th.
Hummel are a semi-proffessional club, with basic training facilities, no youth facilities and an 'unknown stadium'. But still, they had some decent players. They also had about ten useless central midfield players who I just couldn't shift, and I could only afford to release a couple. Anyway, I quickly got to work, asking the board to upgrade youth facilities which they accepted, before hitting the transfer market.
I tried to get rid of as much deadwood as possible, mainly the wingers, as they didn't fit into my 4-3-1-2 tactic which has served me well before. As for the in's, I took advantage of the wealth of talent playing for high school teams available for nothing or next to nothing.
My first game in charge was in the South Korean FA Cup, against Busan, who are a in the K-League and one of the most successful clubs in the country. Here's what happened.
A great start to my managerial career, but missing those penalties made me think it was never going to happen. That was the last game before a long break, during which time I arranged a couple of friendlies to keep the players and the coffers ticking over, before returining to the start of the closing stage. Here is a full list of those fixtures.
A slow start to the league, with the players seemingly not responding to my tactics and my lack of Korean (at the end of the season I couldn't even speak basic Korean), before an emphatic 4-2 win against Kimhae made me think things had clicked.
We then went on a decent little run before being knocked out of the FA Cup 4-1 against Daegu at the Quarter-Final stage. That signalled a downturn in form, as we won only one of our last five games.
The Play-offs
At the end of the season, I realised the winners of the opening and closing stages played in a two-legged play-off to determine the winner of the N-League. This was worrying, as we were playing BTC, the team who beat us 3-0 on the last day of the season. For some reason we were favourites despite BTC only dropping 5 points in the closing stage. In the first leg it was damage limitation, and I wasn't too displeased to come away with a 1-0 defeat (away goals don't count double, as I was later releived to realise).
In the second leg, we went for the victory, and it looked to have paid off when we raced into a deserved 2 goal lead, only for them to level on aggregate in the 87th minute. This took it to extra time and penalties which I was not confident about seeing as we missed all of our four penalties in the rest of the season, but the Hummel boys held their nerve.
We were champions! Despite finishing the closing stage in 6th place! And somehow this earned me manager of the year (they're almost as bad as the Premier League). However, once the celebrations had died down, I saw that there is no promotion and relegation between the N-League and the K-League :S.
I quickly resigned, as this job was going nowhere. Was it worth my while? Yes, as that trophy increased my reputation, and as the season finished in December, I could now go looking for a job in a country where I could take over for the second half of their season. I will return to Korea one day, but definately at a K-League club where I have a shot at the Asian Champions League!
See where my next job takes me in the next update...
P.S. If you want any other screenshots just ask, but I am at the end of the season so can't show everything.
---------- Post added at 12:26 AM ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 11:00 PM ----------
Bidvest Wits
When the previous manager left to join Orlando Pirates, he left this South African club in a decent state. Predicted 14th, they were sitting 8th with just over half the season gone. The club has excellent youth facilities, so I see it as a club on the up, and hopefully I can eventually win the African Champions League here.
I inherited an average squad with one outstanding player, Thando Mngomeni, who will be integral to my plans. Luckily I managed to tie him down to a new contract, staving off offers from the likes of Kaizer Chiefs. In January I opted not to sign anybody, but raised £40k through player sales.
My first game in charge was a 2-0 win over Maritzburg United, before throwing away a two goal lead at home to AmaZulu. The day before our next game, Mngomeni signed a new contract, and the next day, he scored all four goals in a 4-0 win over Bloem Celtic.
The rest of the season saw the good and the bad of my new side. I had hopes of mounting a challenge for an African Confederations Cup slot, and with an emphatic 5-1 win away to Swallows left us in touch with 4th. However, defeat to Kaizer Chiefs in our penultimate game meant a mid-table finish was all we could achieve. We also had a decent cup run, getting to the Quarter-Finals of the SAFA Cup.