Brainy

Some people are so pathetic By no means does it look like its going to be anything like the smooth sailing most of 23/24 was, but the knee jerk reactions here.... you're clearly not factoring there are 23 other sides in this division and you're kidding yourself if you think 21 of them are likely to score more points that us. As last week showed (against a side not made up of kids like the media will have you believe) even when we're not at our best we'll be capable of winning.

Im going to reminisce about my experiences out loud for everyone to ignore while I try and blank out that Leicester City currently exist Austria: Red Bull Salzburg, Rapid Vienna Belarus: Vitebsk Belgium: Charleroi, Royal Francs Borains, Gent Bulgaria: Litex Lovech Croatia: Hajduk, Croatia Zmijavci Czech Republic: Sparta Prague, Viktoria Zizkov Denmark: Aab, Middelfart, Silkeborg, Copenhagen Finland: SJK France: Nancy, Cannes, Bastia, Guingamp Germany: Union Berlin, Leverkusen Greece: Hungary: Puskas Akademia Iceland: Filmleikafelag Hafnarfjordur (or something, FH for short) Israel: Hapoel El Umm Fahm Italy: Inter Milan Netherlands: Sparta Rotterdam, Maastricht Norway: Rosenborg Poland: Wiska Krakow, Stal Mielec Portugal: Sporting, Casa Pia Romania: Rapid Bucharest Russia: Dinamo Moscow Serbia: Trayal Krusevac Slovakia: Slovan Bratislava, Trencin Slovenia: Krsko Sweden: Elfsborg Switzerland: Vaduz Turkey: Ukraine: Dnipro, Obolon Kyiv, Lviv, Zorya, Dynamo Kyiv Would love to do something in Greece/Turkey as there's definitely potential with some of their top clubs Highlights: Vaduz (FM 19ish without a doubt is unique as they're a Liechtenstein club playing in the Swiss Leagues, but qualify for Europe every year due to them competing in the Liechtenstein Cup. By far and away the best side in that competition, from memory there are 8 teams that contest it, 2 of which are your u21 and u18 sides. I once played my u21s in the final. Typically a 2nd tier side but they have played in the top tier recently. I managed to get them promoted and win the Swiss Super League. There is a catch though that they cannot qualify for Europa via Swiss Super League finishes, therefore if you want to try and win the Champions League with them you have to win the Europa League. My time with them was pre-Conference League so I imagine now they have to win that to get into the Europa League.. then win that to get Champions League Trayal Krusevac (FM 20) - the only time i've taken a nothing-side to Champions League glory. Serbia is generally a regen/wonderkid hotspot and soon became very easy to pinch starlets from Partizan/Crvena Zvezda. Won the CL as well as many Serbian Super League titles and left after 15 years to then go on and win the World Cup with Serbia Ukraine/Slovakia (FM23ish) - started in Ukraine 2nd tier with Obolon Kyiv. Got them promoted then ditched them halfway through the next season (while being relatively safe) to take the Lviv job who were bottom. Couldn't save them but did get promoted back at the first time of asking. Joined Zorya for four very average seasons there and then left to join Slovan Bratislava, first real time dipping my feet in this country. Was incredibly successful here winning most if not all League titles and Cup's across half a dozen seasons or so. Also won the Czechoslovakian Super Cup a few times and hoovered up a lot of the young talent in the country. Seem to recall qualifying from an incredibly tough CL Group. Left to join Dynamo Kyiv and very easily took a few of the wonderkids with me on the cheap. Took a few seasons to build a team capable of knocking Shakhtar off their perch but once we did (I think the first time we won the title was beating and as a result overtaking Shakhtar on the final day) I won the League about 10+ times and became the most successful team in Ukraine which was kinda the target. Won the Europa League one year but always struggled to get close to winning the CL. Again hoovered up a lot of Ukrainian talent but never managed to sign a Shakhtar player. Left and won the World Cup with Ukraine, against Slovakia of all teams Scandinavia: (FM22 ish) - Started at Middelfart in the Danish 3rd tier. Got promoted but I think left at the end of my contract, or joined soon into the 2nd season and joined Silkeborg in the 2nd tier. Got promoted, memory is a bit cloudy now but I had a random year in charge at Copenhagen, won the league. Moved to Norway to Rosenborg, spent a few years here bit Valerenga were an absolute pain and don't recall actually winning the the league here, but did win a few Norwegian Cups and I won the Conference League beating Wolfsburg in the final. Then after about half a dozen seasons moved to Elfsborg which was brilliant. Turned them into regular league winners, won some Swedish Cups, got to the latter stages of the CL a few times. Easily my most favourite league to manage in in terms of the scheduling, a group stage Cup which turns into knockout rounds, the season then starts after the semis with the final played in the middle of the season. Eventually won the World Cup with Denmark (theme appearing here...) beating Portugal on penalties having played 117 minutes with 10 men Sparta Prague and others (FM13) - straight into a top job which isn't my approach anymore. Spent about 15/20 years here, didn't win the league every year but did most years, had some solid competition in Slavia/Banik Ostrava and Mlada Boleslav. My mate did a similar save and was interesting to see how we had different sides being competitive (Ostrava were 2nd tier fodder on his game). Never did anything in the CL, but did win the Europa League vs Roma in 2029. Left for Chelsea not long after and got sacked before the end of the season. Moved to Bayern Munich, very successful times, moved on to Sporting Lisbon, even more successful times here forcing my way past Porto/Benfica to be the leading club. Eventually moved to back to Sparta Prague for probably just as long a spell as my first, and eventually won the CL. Slovenia/Austria/Germany/Italy (FM22ish) Krsko (the nuclear boys) in the Slovenian 2nd tier, spent a few years in this level before eventually getting promoted but not long after I moved on to Rapid Vienna. Couldn't dislodge Red Bull at the top however I did win an Austrian Cup as well as the Conference League. Moved on to Leverkusen, kinda sucked and got sacked in my first season. Decided to drop a division to Union Berlin who were near the top of the league, got them promoted and had a really really fun but difficult slog to keep them in the Bundesliga, but managed it. Second season I managed to qualify for the Champions League. Eventually I left to join Inter Milan then my interest fazed out. FH (FM16ish) - can't remember much here except winning the league regularly (when they were good), the european qualifying rounds becoming the highest of my season. I think we beat Copenhagen to qualify for the Europa League group stages. Similar to Sweden I think the Cup was played before the league starts, and there was only 22 games across the entire season so it was very tiny.

Gagging for this to come out as I don't get on with FM24. I want to turn Monaco into the best team in the world via some lower league Serie C side or maybe some random European side. Haven't done Hungary in a while and Czech Republic/Ukraine is always tempting as is Scandinavia.

Art attack head finally dropped 🙏

Where is it proven that his commute is factually the reason for his drop in form?

He's about as cheese sandwich (no butter) and ready salted crisps a football as you can get

People who support "Back British Farming" by travelling tens or hundreds of miles to go and visit Diddly Squat in the hope of spotting Jeremy Clarkson, and never stepping within a mile of their local farm shop let alone buying anything from it

Posts like this

Bear in mind the comment says his family.... seems completely fair that his family might struggle to settle in a foreign country when it wasn't their idea to move here. But if the London bit is true then it does seem a bit of a finger pointed at Leicestershire in general

Was fairly obvious what had happened when he came over and spoke to both managers, then Semenyo got a bit of attention from Iraola, especially after he won the ball and blatantly got fouled moments before. Not quite a broken headset Peter Drury

"He's not one of us!!!"

Pity Sky Comms don't fall silent for every clubs anthem and not just Liverpool's

I also hate it when you ask AI to edit one thing only and it decides to butcher something else as well (e.g the badge)

Unpopular opinion.... Prefer it with a sponsor (preferably King Power ) otherwise it just looks like a training top. A nice training top mind you

We shouldn't even be contemplating getting rid, he's Bangladesh's greatest of all time FFS

Last I checked Steaua weren't pulling up any trees in Romania at the start of this season I think for years now if you lose in the CL qualifiers you'll just get dumped into the EL qualifiers, then if you lose there you'll get dumped into the ECL qualifiers then if you lose there, you're toast. However I think I read last week that Plzen who lost to Rangers in the CL qualifiers this week are guaranteed an EL group stage spot, so apparently they don't go into the EL final qualifying round? The more I look at these qualifiers the more I feel they're somehow tiered to ensure lower level sides make it to the group stages, i.e Noah vs Lincoln of Gibraltar in the EL qualifiers tonight yet you had Shakhtar Vs Panathinaikos in another. I notice it every year, don't think it's just a lucky draw for these lower ranked sides

Ah I'm aware of Rotan. Shakhtar still seem to be able to lure Brazilian players over there which surprises me in the circumstances. Excuse my curiosity, I've managed in Ukraine for a long long time on Football Manager so I've became quite connected to Dynamo Kyiv and to a lesser extent Obolon Kyiv Shakhtar eventually became a midtable team which was great to see. Back in real life, maybe I've understood it wrong but teams I considered to be quite big (or atleast rather good over recent times) like Dnipro, Metalist, Chornomorets, Vorskla have all sadly slumped

Guaranteed Conference League football at a minimum right?

Understandable, I've noticed the balance of play change a bit the last few years. I see Oleksandriya (excuse the spelling) nearly won the league last year. Are all matches still played with no spectators?

Be an improvement on art attack head in the middle of the pitch though

My lad was ignorantly awestruck enough to get his autograph on Sunday. Because of this, this morning he informed me he wanted the new LCFC shirt with Soumare on the back for his birthday on Saturday. I was too ashamed to go into the fanstore to get it so I sent him in on his own. He's 5. Kids are weird

Do you mean he's too good for us or not good enough for us?

I've just listened to it twice, did Sam Matterface really call Gustavo Hamer world class last night?

It's all Wout Faes' fault

Kasey McAteer is about as exciting as a cheese sandwich, ready salted crisps and a Peckham spring meal deal