Pentagon or Bust - Introduction

 

With the wait for FM25 and wanting something to freshen FM24 up, and I’ve seen mention of this challenge.  For those who don’t know (and I’m sure that’s nobody), I’ll explain.  The Pentagon is the challenge of winning the top continental competitions in Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa.  But you have to start unemployed, with no coaching badges and the lowest possible starting reputation.

This sounds like a challenge.  And it will be!  For context, in my many years of playing this game (and I’ve been playing since the original CM), I’ve never won a Champions League and the only league titles I’ve ever won are the Premier League in the original CM (with Sheffield Wednesday - Chris Bart-Williams was an unstoppable goal machine) and Serie A with Milan a couple of years ago.  So, I don’t exactly have a record which suggests this is even remotely possible for me.

Regardless, I’m gonna give it a go and record my successes (and more likely, failures) on this very thread!

I’ve loaded up a game, and the countries loaded are as follows (and as you’ll be able to tell, some of these are custom database files - courtesy of Timo.  Files downloaded from here: https://www.fmscout.com/a-fm24-leagues-pack-by-timo.html

In Alphabetical order:

Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, England, Germany, Ghana,  Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, North Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Tunisia and USA.

To start, I’ve set the game up and holidayed to 1st Jan 2024 and see if any roles are available, and apply for any jobs that are available to see what comes up, although I’m thinking it’d be better to start off in Africa or Asia and start building my reputation there.

It took me until 6th February, but I’ve finally found a club willing to take a chance on me.

CLUB 1:

Club: US Biskra

Country: Algeria

I take over the club at around halfway through the season.  The club is in danger of relegation unless results improve, but are not adrift by any means, with only 3 points between us and 12th.

Financially, the club is not in a good state:

The squad is probably a little bit too large, and there’s a number of older players as well.  There’s very little in the way of value here to help with the finances, but we’re within budgets.  Plus, the overall personality of the squad is fairly determined and morale is actually OK, so I’m hopeful we can get off to a good start.  The squad seems OK in terms of quality as well.

Looking online, I found a picture of the club’s stadium, named Stade du 18-Février.

My intention is to provide regular updates from here with my progress as I go on.  Will I manage this mammoth challenge?  My previous history would suggest not, but stranger things have happened.  For example, once upon a time, Southampton won football matches.

If you're reading along, feel free to leave comments.  :)