We did it!! The home leg was another goal fest with us coming out on top with a 4-3 win and the ACL title. I am now an instant hero with the Masra fans
With the first leg of the challenge completed I will be departing Africa and focusing my job search on the Americas. There was a very tasty job available straight away and it looked like they were extremely interested
However they decided to go elsewhere so after some careful thought I decided to quit Masra. I thought about seeing the season out as we were looking good for a treble and I fancied a crack at the CWC but I decided that wasnt what the challenge was about.
There was some early interest from other African jobs which were rejected and the Hungarian national team made an approach which was also knocked back.
i'll keep you posted on any job news
Well it took a while mainly because I couldnt remove the African leagues till after June so when I went on holiday and set it to automatically apply for top division jobs, I kept getting offered African jobs!!
Eventually six months after quitting Masr this dropped into my inbox
This is practically a dream job for me in South America, joining a club with so much history and a fully deserved reputation for bringing through bags of Argentinian talent.
That was the good news.
The bad news:
The clubs finances seem shot to pieces and the squad is quite imbalanced. It was outside the transfer window so I would need to make do with what I had during the sumer. I never play without wingers but looking at what I had I think I may have to make an exception and have decided to use a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 with a 4-3-3 as a backup for when i needed something more attacking.
Looking at the league table I can see why Palermo was sacked, although i've read through the league rules (not making that mistake again!!) and I have to say I still don understand how the Argentinian league works!! Since we're in the closing stage my main aim for the rest of this season is just to get to know the squad, see who I can afford to lose and hopefully line up some targets for the summer.
Good work mate! Keep it up
We saw out the rest of the season without losing a game. The team adapted to my 4-1-2-1-2 formation brilliantly and despite the defenders being a bit ropey only conceded 9 in 13 games. My only complaint is we drew a couple of games we really should have won.
This left us 3rd in the cloing stages league and 6th overall qualifying us for the Copa Sudamericana. Those home draws we hould have won cost us a place in the Libertadores though.
My strike pairing of Olivera and Barrera combine very well and my midfields short passing game was wonderful to watch at times.
The clubs financial mess has been sorted thanks to this
Nice chairman!!
I also had to face a tough decision during the close season:
Its an honour to be linked to the Santos job and I was really tempted. Santos still had Neymar on their books and I'd love to manage him. Their squad was also a step up in class to what i currently had available at Boca and I'm pretty sure I'd win the Libertadores pretty quickly with them. However I decided to stay with Boca as they gave me my break in South America and I was looking forward to turning around the fortunes of one of the continents giants who had fallen on hard times.
A quiet pre season as there wasnt a huge amount I wanted to change in the squad. There were no offers for ny of my players so i had no decisions to make. I brought in a few frees and only spent good money on one player, signing this playr for 2m:
A load of youth players were allowed to leave along with a couple of first teamers who's wage demands were higher than I felt they deserved.
I've picked up a tough draw in the Sudamericana, drawing Independiente who have been the top club in Argentina over the last few years and the club with all the money
Loving the story, keep going mate!
Nice story, I personally wouldn't have gone before the cwc, but well done on getting Boca so high in the league. I'm sure you'll manage Neymar some day.
really enjoying this story
keep it up.
