Ana – FM 2011: Moroko Swallows, Season Eleven

Hi everyone!

Got some free time so managed to finish another season on my challenge! If you remember I left my job at F.C.A.K to join the Moroko Swallows a powerfull club in the South Africa top flight and I have have high hopes of maybe getting into the African champions league and seeing how well I can do.

I took over at the halfway mark of last season so this is my first real full season here so I will bring it to you in full, a whole season!

Career History :

— Cheonan (July 2010 – January 2013)

— South China (June 2013 – June 2016)

— F.C.A.K (December 2016 – November 2019)

— Moroko Swallows (November 2019 — Present)

International Teams :

— Morocco (Febraury 2015 – December 2016)

Honours :

Hong Kong League Title : 2014, 2015, 2016 (South China)

Senior Shield : 2013, 2016 (South China)

League Cup : 2014, 2015, 2016 (South China)

Asian Confederation Cup : 2014, 2016 (South China)

South African First Division :  2018, 2019 (FCAK)

South African First Divison Cup : 2019 (FCAK)

South African FA Cup : 2020 (Moroko Swallows)

Just to clarify this is my career up to my last post, so will not include any of the things I will win in this post. Hope that makes sense! Anything in red was won last year to keep people updated!

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Transfers In And Out First Transfer Window

So I decided on a bit of a re-shuffle  and I let a lot of players go who I didnt need or want, but I also bought in a new few faces to help me this season and used my new wealth and spent a massive £450k on new players! So here is the full details.

I did lose probably my best player of last season of Thabo Evans but I did get a very good amount for him of £300k so I guess I only spent about £150k on new faces almost all are bought as starters and are alot better than what I had before. I will highlight the three best that I bought :

Francois Kirsten

Definatly one of the most exciting prospects in South Africa at the moment my brilliant scout (the one I had at F.C.A.K) rated him 5* so have really high hopes for him. He is a centre forward who will hopefully score the goals that we need, got him cheap from recently relegated Ajax Cape Town.

Bradley Dhlamini

Another very good player who I payed £130K for he is a central midfield player who can play as a defensive midfielder or as a centre back and with his height and power should be a force for me. He also has an excellent free kick!

Thabang Mabena

Finally Mabena another hot prospect with hopefully a bright future. He isnt too bad stat wise for the league I am in so he will start alongside my new captain Paulse (Who was my captain at F.C.A.K!). A great free transfer and another good signing I feel.

Results At The Half-way Mark

So we have began really well and are top after 15 games, but my former team are rock bottom so I am pleased to be where I am with Swallows but am also a little sad to see them there!

The defeat away at Jomo Cosmos was the worst display I have ever seen it should have been double that and we were lucky to escape at three!

New Signings Second Transfer Window

Please just ignore the the total of the players in as that is the whole season not just this window. Again I used my new found wealth to fund the arrival of a few new players but lost a few including a couple of my best players. Lebese was unhappy all the time, and he didnt like me! So just got rid but sold him to my rivals so now the fans hate me!

Patrick Scott was sold for huge money of £1.4 million to Dinamo in Croatia I had no say on the deal as my board went above me and accepted it so had to act fast and brought Hendricks in as his replacement. I also looted my former club bringing in Maluleke who was F.C.A.K’s record goal scorer to the Swallows.

Sabelo Hendricks

What a player! Only 17 aswell so am more than happy with the replacement for the departed Scott, Hendricks is a left back who can also play right back so two positions for one and just as good as the one sold for big money!

Sibusio Davids

Brought in to replace the moaner Lebese! Again just as good as what had left and for a fraction of the price, he is a central defender who will provide good cover for my team.

Results Second Half Of The Season

So we were not quite as good in the second half of the season but were simply too good for the other teams as we raced to the title with 66 points. I was pretty pleased with the season but a couple of things we need to improve but I cant be to critical.

A few surprise results and the loss of F.C.A.K as they finished bottom was sad as I worked really hard to get them up so hopefully they can make a return very soon.

Final Player Ratings

My star palyer was my right winger Tshepo Khumalo who was a real creative force, Paulse the new club captain helped himself to 11 goals which isnt too bad for a defender and new signing Hendricks settled really well. Kirtsen scored the goals but I would have liked a few more but his partnership with Josephs is pretty bad so I will look to address that.

Cup Competition

Charity Cup

The Final

So this is the first trophy of the season like the Super cup in Spain or the community shield in England it nice to win because of the financial boost around £500k or something. To be honest we probably didnt deserve to win the final and if the Kaizer Chiefs scored that penalty I feel they would have gone on to win. But thy didnt and we held on!

South African FA Cup

The Final

There are tons of cups in South Africa so I will only post the one’s I get to the final off. This is the same trophy we won last season so we defended our FA cup! We had a few scares along the way, we needed extra time to see off the Rainbow Stars in the second round and a shootout in quarter final.

The final itself was fairly routine Orlando Pirates are a big club with good players but my team dominated from the off, and a double from my left winger Molefe was enough to seal the win.

And that is that! Another season gone and all we need is that champions league so I can get out of South Africa and somewhere new! That said South Africa isnt as hard as I feared and very enjoyable to manage in, you must scout well but I love the fact that all my players are South Africans.

So we won the league but confusion reigns as we didnt get a place in the African Champions league the reasons will be told next post! When I try to figure out why! But hopefully I am wrong and we are but at the moment of posting I have no idea!

I have started my new season and have done two months so my next post should be very soon and hopefully I can clear everything up, again thanks for staying with me on this journey and hopefully I can get my hands on the champions league to complete at least one part of this challenge!