The Ultimate World Football Manager Game

               The 40,000 capacity Heng Jabat Stadium DISCLAIMER: If you are one of my friends or family reading this latest instalment of the Ultimate World FM Game, please note that the story surrounding it is a pure work of fiction and are not based on real life events. I have never been remotely near Cambodia, only through a laptop screen on Football Manager 2021 and Google Earth for research purposes. I am still living in Leeds, UK, with my wife and son. If your name happens to also be Charlotte Lay, then once again, she is a pure work of fiction invented for the purposes of this ficticious story. Lastly, this made up story is not reflective of the real EDC FC, or any of the personel associated with the club. Enjoy reading! Jonathan.  ‐-----‐------‐----------------- Plop plop plop fizzzzzzzzz.. the wine was poured gently into Charlotte Lay's glass.  She was feeling down after a long shift at the hospital and in need of a friend.  Her friend, housemate and fellow nurse, Su Phen

   It was yet another hot, sunny day in Cambodia, but this time the birds were singing and there was a big rainbow in the sky. The air seemed fresher and... well enough of that. I was happy today. Training had just finished, the players had gone home, or to start their shift at the Electricity company. I was seeing Charlotte tonight and I couldn't wait! I just had the little matter of a humdrum scouting meeting to get through, before racing back home to get ready to meet her. She was coming to my apartment and I seriously needed to give it a clean and tidy round before she arrived. I felt like just assigning my recruitment team to some far flung province near the Laotian border, just so I could get away a bit early. Anyway needs must and football must come first. I welcomed my recruitment team, assistant manager, Nen Borey and my head of Youth Development, Chan Vannak who was to update me on some young wonderkid prospects he may or may not have discovered. My scouting team, Chea Ma

It was the day before the start of the 2025 Cambodian season when we kicked off against Chhlam Samuth at The Electricity Stadium. Today was a day off for the players as they did their other jobs, either at the Electricity Company itself, or elsewhere. Meanwhile, I  had other things on my mind....! You may remember near the end of my first season, back in 2020, mentioned in Part 7, "Squeaky Bum Time" that a woman called Charlotte Lay tweeted a very complimentary message about me: ‘Jonathan Rudd is an absolute hero can’t believe he kept us up! EDC are lucky to have him!’  Well, it turned out that Miss Lay was quite the EDC superfan. I used to see her regularly at games, along with her partner, Nhem Ravy. I thought little about this, apart from admiring from afar how pretty she was, but accepted that he was rather a lucky fella and she would never look twice at me.  However at the beginning of last season she started turning up with a female friend, rather than a boyfriend and i