The highlighted part of the image tells the whole story – 10 promotions done. The Promotion Hunter challenge is complete.

I came up with this idea when I still had plans to do Football Manager 23 content on YouTube. Life and other things got in the way of that, but I kept these blog posts up to mark my progress. Whether I continue that for FM24 is to be seen, but let’s not worry about that. We have a successful challenge to celebrate.

I won eight titles – two of them in EFL’s League One – and failed to get promoted with three teams. I won four Cups and managed in 11 countries. The challenge took 21 seasons. I was Coach of the Year four times.

The final piece of the puzzle came in Finland with VPS where I jumped in midway through the season with the team sitting in fifth place. The second division only has one automatic promotion spot with second place going into a playoff with the next-to-last place team in the top division.

By this point, my reputation gave me a head start with most teams. I had my Continental Pro coaching badge and three stars. I needed less time to get a locker room behind me.

Still, I started a little slow and worried I might not be able to make up the gap. Then one of my least favorite pieces of the FM23 puzzle actually worked in my favor.

I had started off playing a 4-3-3 counter-attacking formation. That style seemed to work best for my team, but we couldn’t get unstuck. We only won two of our first five matches. Then the parent team of Janne Kainulaainen, a midfielder I had on loan, complained that I hadn’t been playing him in an attacking midfielder position.

So I looked at my team a little more holistically. I honestly would have been fine with not getting promoted in the first season and either re-building for a second run at the prize or finding another job in the winter. But I felt we could make some noise.

I switched to a 4-2-3-1 and saw some good results, but still had a hiccup or two. As we headed into the final five matches for the promotion phase, I did the thing that has helped me most in the latter stages of this save – I put the striker with the best finishing up top, other metrics be damned.

And Joonas Nousiainen started scoring. We won four and drew one in those final matches and put ourselves solidly in second place. We then had a chance to gain promotion with two legs against FC Lahti. The first one was a tense 0-0 draw on the road. I liked our chances coming home. But the game dragged on with no score and either OT or penalties looming.

Until Nousiainen ran into space, chested down a ball sent in by winger Emil Kortelainen, and sent the ball into the back of the net for a 1-0. We held on and sealed Promotion #10.

This team had some real deficiencies that we overcame with team spirit. The finishing was not good, there were not a ton of set-piece threats and the defense often got caught out. But I did make a move which I think made a big difference.

The transfer window didn’t present many great opportunities, but I did sure up the defense with the free transfer of Bruno Mertes, a 25-year-old Belgian who had a 7.78 average rating in the nine league matches and chipped in two goals off of set pieces. He allowed me to get some other folks in better positions for a more cohesive team.

So the Promotion Hunter is done. I hope other folks try this kind of challenge. I am excited about the changes coming in FM24 and what kind of save I might try.