Managing in Malaysia...I must be crazy?!

  • Thread starter Thread starter BCAFC86
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 29
  • Views Views 17K
B

BCAFC86

Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2012
Messages
233
Reaction score
16
Points
18
FELDA UTD APPOINT ENGLISHMAN CRAIG SMITH AS MANAGER

View attachment 248066

​
After completing my National C License and finding a job in English football hard to come by, I decided to mix business and pleasure. I had always wanted to travel and so I went to Australia on a working tourist visa for 12 months. Whilst there I got a part time job coaching an amateur team near Sydney. When I left Australia I decided to visit South East Asia. During my time there, I was helping out at a local expat school doing some casual football coaching when I learned of a job at Felda United. Why not apply I thought? I liked Malaysia and I had a bit of experience on my CV and some qualifications acquired back in the UK. Imagine my disbelief when I was given an interview!

Felda United were formed in 2007 and are owned by the Federal Land Development Authority (hence the club name). As it turns out, when I met with the head honchos of the club they told me that they had a dream of Malaysia being as big in footballing terms as other South East Asian countries such as Thailand and maybe even one day able to rival the likes of China! The feeling was that a foreign manager who has experience in other, more advanced, footballing nations would be beneficial to Felda United and at just 28 years of age, they felt I could grow alongside the club.

Newly promoted to the Malaysian Super League, the long term goals are:


Win Malaysian Super League DONE - SEASON 2
Compete in Asian continental competition DONE - SEASON 3
Raise Malaysian footballers to improve the National Team
Win an Asian continental competition
Win the Asian Champions League
Win the World Club Cup
Improve the Malaysian Super League ranking by continental success
See Malaysia qualify for a World Cup largely by the help of Felda Utd players
Get the National Team job​

Currently the Malaysian Super League is the 35th best league in Asia, behind the leagues of Lebanon, Hong Kong, Vietnam and India, among others. Improving that should help to with most of the goals above.
The National Team is ranked 151st at the start.



Half a star on both Youth and Training facilities are clearly something I will need to address in the future. The board want me to finish in the top half of the league. When I arrived at training, here is the squad I was met by:


I was informed that the league rules state I am only allowed 4 foreign players in my squad, one of which must be Asian. Unfortunately none of the four at the club are Asian and so I am already resigned to losing one of my best players. As you can see, not the youngest squad in the world, or the most talented, but I do have high hopes for Makeche (who I have discovered is half Australian, hoping this will count as Asian)

 
Last edited:
Always good to see a story in an obscure league! :)

Do you plan on taking over the national team as well at some point?
 
I surely admire your corrage to start a save with a Malaysian team !
 
dllu said:
Always good to see a story in an obscure league! :)

Do you plan on taking over the national team as well at some point?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, I will see what comes up as I may try to manage the under 20's or something first if I can.

At the moment I am just trying to sign as many good Malaysian players as I can due to the 4 foreigners rule
 
Working around foreign limit is a challenge on its own. Good luck!
 
As you can see, the National Team have had a shocking run of form, this has also seen their ranking tumble from 151st when I started at FELDA, to 162nd. Now behind Indonesia and Singapore and only just ahead of Myanmar and Hong Kong. Clearly improving the National team will be a tough task if I am ever able to get the job.

Meanwhile, back at FELDA, as I took the job in July, the season doesnt start until the end of the year, currently just signing players and will update you with who I have signed once I get to pre-season. I am looking at current Malaysia internationals as clearly they should be the best I can get. Central Midfield is a huge problem area for me so looking to address that.
 
THE SQUAD TAKES SHAPE

​
So as my 4 foreigner slots were already filled and those players are the best four at the club, I decided against letting any of them leave and instead to focus on buying better Malaysian players than what I had.

Players Out: Latif and Soley were not good enough and when I learned I could get a little cash for them, I was happy to let them go. Other than that, the only other real notable exit was Hasni Jamian. He would have been my first choice right back but I received an offer of around 4k. I negotiated it asking for 15k and 10% sell on (his value was 10k) and they accepted my counter offer. I cant turn down money like that unfortunately.

Players In:
Roslan - A Malaysia international goalkeeper. Signed for 10k, he will absolutely be my first choice. Signed from current league champions Darul Takzim, he is of good quality. I now own 2 of the 3 Malaysian international keepers. At just 23 years old he could be the long term future between the sticks for club and country.
Tajuddin - Was signed as cover at Right back, but after Jamian left, the loanee will be first choice.
Suhaimi - Young with alot of potential, will provide cover out wide but is a player I will look to sign permanently down the line.
Ramli - I was weak at left back, this guy solves this problem. Just 24 years old and good physical stats.
Azmi - Central midfield was by far our weakest area. The 29 year old has 13 caps for Malaysia and I found him by looking at the National squad. Along with Roslan, it now means FELDA have 3 current Malaysia internationals, rather than the 1 they had when I joined.
Radzi - Another central midfielder for the first team. 32 years old and capped 3 times for Malaysia. Very good flair (17) and technique (12). Has been installed as new team captain due to his leadership qualities.

Couple of screenshots of my best signings:


 

After playing a 4-1-2-3 in the opening two friendlies, I then switched to a 4-4-2 for the remaining games with much improved results (albeit against lesser opposition in most cases). Discovered than new left back, Ramli is banned from Malaysian football for the whole season. Made an error there as I didnt notice that when I signed him.
Also lost one of my foreign players (Zah Rahan for 5 months) to a torn calf muscle, thats a huge blow as he is one of our 3 best players and was going to be key to any success. I will effectively now only be using 3 of my foreign quota spots for around half the season due to that injury.

So with my first choice left back banned for the season and my first choice right winger on the long term injury list....here goes nothing! Darul Takzim are odds on favourites to retain the title.
 
Season One - Part 1
The encouraging start
​

So we are a third of the way through the season and our form has started to improve.



8 games into our 22 game season and you can see we sit in 5th position.
Kelantan had won 7 out of 7 before we played them in game 8. Very pleased that we managed to get a point off them, they had only conceded 3 goals in their previous 7 games and look favourites for the title.
Polis DRM are having a shocker of a season as you can see and we play them next.
Edward Wilson has been superb upfront for us and luckily has stayed injury free. The same cannot be said for others. Our two defeats came when we were dealing with an injury list like this:



Five of those six players out would be first team regulars, meaning we are missing half of our team. Makeche is now back from injury, but we are really missing Rahan and Mahayuddin out wide. Ramli is suspended all season :( At one point we could only name 6 subs (7 are allowed) due to our injuries.

All in all its going well, hopefully we will have better luck with injuries for the rest of the season but its going to be hard to catch the from runners, especially Kelantan!
 
Feeling at home

Great to know that you're managing in Malaysia. (Psttt. I'm a Malaysian). As i am proud in playing my home nation league, i've played since the fm08 as i can clearly remember, The standard of the league are so low that even backpass mistakes leading to goalscoring chances are considered normal in each game. But, will be following this story through n through!! Goodluck managing Felda United. Try buying Brendan Gan (Kelantan) or Nazmi Faiz Mansor (Selangor) bcause they're both by far currently the best player in Malaysia and for years to come. Cheers mate.
 
DanialHasif said:
Great to know that you're managing in Malaysia. (Psttt. I'm a Malaysian). As i am proud in playing my home nation league, i've played since the fm08 as i can clearly remember, The standard of the league are so low that even backpass mistakes leading to goalscoring chances are considered normal in each game. But, will be following this story through n through!! Goodluck managing Felda United. Try buying Brendan Gan (Kelantan) or Nazmi Faiz Mansor (Selangor) bcause they're both by far currently the best player in Malaysia and for years to come. Cheers mate.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the player tips. I remember Gan from the 2-2 draw with Kelantan. He is valued at 50k and looks to be a little out of my price range but I have scouted and shortlisted him and if I am going to have the best 7 Malaysian players within the next 2-3 years then he is 100% a player that we need, my scouts really rate him.
Mansor has also been added to the shortlist. Valued at 10k my scouts think around 50k should be accepted. His wage demands seem reasonable according to my scouts so fingers crossed I can get him within the next year or so, at 20 years old hes a bit talent.

Also hoping to sign Haris Harun as one of my FGN players, or Evan Dimas if possible :)
 
Season One - Part 2
The season falters

​
So the middle part of the season has proved to be tough here at FELDA
7th in the league. Losing to Polis DRM hurt as they had lost their previous 8 games in a row! After the FA Cup defeat I ditched the 4-4-2 tactic and went to the 4-1-2-3 that I used a little in pre-season. The last 4 games here have shown a small turnaround in form and the draw away at Darul Takzim most recently was a good result.

Mahayuddin has been great since returning from injury and our captain, Radzi is also back now.
Edward Wilson has seen his goals dry up since we have moved to one up front, but delighted that he and Miladinovic have signed contract extensions.
A few other contracts have been extended on smaller wages such as Mahayuddin which is great.

With seven games left its looking like mid table. With that in mind I used the April transfer window to make some changes. Ndumba Makeche whilst young and talented only scored once in 10 games and so I offloaded him to allow me to bring in another non-Malaysian. Rahan one of my other FGN players recovered from injury finally, before getting injured straight away for another month. Despite not making an appearence for the club he wanted an increase in wages to stay on another year....no thanks. Mutually terminating his contract freed up some funds.

You can see below the April 2015 transfers. Quite alot of movement but its better to get them in now ready for next season.


Players out:
Makeche and Rahan, two FGN players are arguably the biggest names to leave. Also sold my back up keeper Harun for a small fee, his contract was expiring in 9 months.

Players In:
Ewan Grandison - Jamaican player, had him on other saves and was delighted to bring him here. Very good young player, getting rid of the under achieving Makeche allowed me to bring him in.
S.Kunanian - My scouts rated him very highly and said I should sign him whatever the cost. Offloading Rahan allowed me to free up some transfer funds to go for him, 50 caps for the national team and just 28 years old.
Hariss Harun - My FGN replacement of Rahan. Wanted this guy since the start and managed to get him. Young Singapore international, a real midfield powerhouse.
Mohd Umar - A bit of a utility man. Can play right back, centre back or centre midfield. Ill be using him as a right back. 27 caps for Malaysia.

 
Season One - Part 3
The league concludes

View attachment 244229

View attachment 244228

​
So the final third of the season saw us win 6 of our last 7 games to finish 5th in the table. Very pleased with that as we suffered alot of injuries early season and so it was nice to see how well we could play when we had a fully fit squad.
Kelantan ran away with the league, not losing a single game and also won the Malaysian FA Cup. As the FA Cup winners also qualify for the Asian Confederations Cup (Europa League equivalent), 2nd place in the league also qualified for the ACC (no Asian champions league spots for Malaysian teams).
Clearly next season we need to really improve to finish higher, winning the league though seems almost impossible until Kelantan get a little worse haha.


Edward Wilson - Epic season and also won striker of the season for the Malaysian league.
Bojan Miladinovic - Solid at centre half and scored about 7 penalties and a few other goals too.
Alif Shafiq Suhaimi - The young loanee was impressive when called upon, hopefully we can sign him permanently.
S.Kunanlan - Looks to be a fantastic signing. Finished the season with the most assists in the league (spread between 2 clubs)

The board were pleased with my performance and now we have the Malaysian Cup to come in the off season (no continental qualification for winning that), whilst I look to sign some players on pre-contract deals for next season. Cant complain at a 5th place finish in the league though.
 
Malaysian Cup update coming in the next few days, but in the mean time, take a look at what we have to compete with:
Just FYI...we are in the red :(
 
Malaysian Cup
Smith makes history


View attachment 242679
View attachment 242678​

Some fantastic performances, the match against Selangor stood out, Wilson and Kunanlan were utterly brilliant in that match as they have been all season.
Delighted to win the Malaysian Cup, although it has no continental cup qualification attached to this tournament, it does give us a great boost before the new season and shows we are capable of beating all these teams.


The final was relatively convincing. The goal from Mohd Nor was a great bit of play with Wilson providing a through ball and Mohd Nor finishing well into the bottom corner.

All in all a good 1st season. But then I got the call from the board around next seasons expectations.....
 
Congratulations on the cup win mate! Great story so far!

I recently started an unemployed save, ending up in the Indonesian Premier Division. Is quite different from the European Leagues...
 
Yeah it is certainly different haha, still trying to get my head around the transfer window timings and season schedule. Also difficult to sign the best Malaysian players, Brendan Gan went for 80k plus add ons, I just cannot compete with that, I have £0 transfer budget.
 
End of Season 1​

So the season has finished and my the FELDA Utd best XI is announced:


I am also delighted to sign a contract extension, really enjoyed my first season here in Malaysia and I am intrigued to see what we can achieve next term:


Of our youth intake, only 1 player was signed to the club. He doesnt look to be a world beater but I am hoping with the right coaching, tutoring and maybe some first team football we can get the best out of him:


And finally, the board announce their expectation for next season...clearly I am going to have my work cut out!

View attachment 242010

BRING ON SEASON 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​
 
Love a minnow league story!! Good 1st season and cant wait to see how 2nd season pans out!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top