Welcome back to Edinburgh where the sun is shining on Leith and fans are still basking in last term's success.
The Journey So Far...
If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. Chapter 16 saw Hibernian crowned as league champions after an excellent second half to the season and in this update we'll take a look at our preparations for Champions League football, as well as that title defence.
Preseason
Needless to say, after our overwhelming success last season, the squad were all happy to stay and see how far we could go in the upcoming season. The financial benefits of a league win and, therefore, champions league qualification, was enough to see the clubs stature secured, although our new found wealth wasn't reflected in the £2M transfer kitty we received.
I went about looking for a few new additions that might provide some strength in depth. We also had a few players out on loan last year who returned but weren't good enough to compete for places, so they were moved on.
We signed Scott Cunningham for the DM role on a free from Stoke, as well as a promising Iranian right winger called Rouzbahani who would be a great understudy to Mark Hay.
Hibernian 2028/29 - Transfers In/Out
In defence we picked up Allan Paterson (DL) from Celtic and Philip Michael (DC) from FC Ebedei, both on frees and both bringing in strength in depth to the squad.
The pick of our new players though was our new goalkeeper, 22yo Abram Ndlovu, signed from South African side Sundowns for a mere £650k and will push Robbie McCrorie for a starting place each week.
Hibernian 2028/29 - Abram Ndlovu
Performances
Our preseason friendlies saw us continue the good form from last year, and once the competitive fixtures got under way, it was just more of the same.
We went unbeaten in our opening 8 league games, with just 2 of those being draws. Our first defeat came against bitter rivals Hearts whom drubbed us 4-0. Two draws followed which saw our lead at the top of the division begin to diminish as others started to catch up, however a pleasing 4 consecutive wins in the next round of fixtures let us hang on to top spot.
Next came our worst run of form since i took over, a draw followed by two consecutive defeats, another draw and another defeat meant we'd secured 2 points from a potential 15. We slumped to 4th place, despite a less than convincing 1-0 win at home to Hamilton in the next game.
Meanwhile, we made a good start in the Betfred Cup with a Second Round win to Raith, followed by a penalty shootout win over Aberdeen to set us up with a Semi Final against Kilmarnock. We were much too strong for them, thumping them 4-0 and teeing us up for the Cup Final against Celtic at the end of November. Once again we fell short against Celtic and they convincingly dispatched us 3-0 meaning we'd have to settle for the Silver medal.
Perhaps more excitingly, this season saw our return to the Champions League. We were drawn in Group E against Italian titans Juventus, Portuguese giants SLB and French colossals AS Monaco. Qualifying from the group would be a big ask but if we can secure a win or two then i'll be happy.
Juventus immediately put us in our place with a convincing 3-0 win, however we bounced back in the next game with an unexpected win against SLB. After two games, all four teams in the group have won one and lost one, meaning we were keeping pace and in with a chance of qualifying.
Normal service resumed in the next fixture as AS Monaco beat us convincingly, but a draw in the reverse fixture meant the roller coaster ride wasn't quite over yet.
Despite our best efforts, we weren't up to the task though. Juventus beat us at home and then SLB got their revenge as we lost 3-1 away. We were dumped out of the group, but with 4 points on the board i thought we'd done ok.
Despite our dip in league form, exit from the Champions League, and my obvious poor management of the team, I was amazed to see an interview offer from Wolves in my inbox after the Hamilton game.
Obviously I've only just got to Hibernian so i had no intention of leaving, but with the title already bagged last year, it did prove to be a tempting prospect. I attended the interview and within a week they'd offered me the job.
I don't like jumping from club to club too often and the thought of not even completing a full season at Hibs didn't sit right with me. That said, the goal of this save is to manage one of the big 6 clubs in the Premier League and maybe Wolves will prove to be a useful stepping stone toward that aim. With that in mind:
Their current position is precarious, sitting in 17th after 20 games and with just 1 point earnt from the last 7 fixtures.
Squad Assessment
A glance at the squad and there are one or two familiar names still there, even as we enter 2029. Will Hughes, formally of Watford, is now 33 and a Key Player in the middle of the park, while Diogo Jota (32) is now in his 12th season at the club after his 2017/18 loan was made permanent the following season. He's notched up 111 goals, 44 assists and 24 POM in just over 400 appearances for Wolves alone.
The club also signed Phil Foden (28) this year, joining from Arsenal after they signed him from City in 2025. It's fair to say his 7 games in 3 years at Arsenal have seen his development take a hit but hopefully there's still time to get the best out of him.
In addition to these, there are a few more ageing players, not to mention some under-performing, high value players that i'll be looking to move on in the January window to generate some funds. The board have allocated just shy of £50M so we have some cash to splash.
Wolves 2028/29 - Players Out (January Transfer Window)
In addition to that, we generated another £92M in transfers as our leading DC, Nicolas Leal, and our midfield maestro, Brahim Diaz, both left to join Arsenal and Man City respectively. This took some delicate management of the players as many were disappointed to see two key players leave in one window. The Livakovic and Barkley transfers were already arranged before i took over, but i managed to move on the ageing and unhappy Calvert-Lewin and Chris Mepham to free up some of the wage bill. Elsewhere, a few of the youngsters were sent out on loan to earn their stripes.
In terms of players in, i focused on youth mainly, the two most exciting prospects being a pair of Iranian 18yo - central defender, Sajjad Jahan Alian, and keeper, Hamid Reza Ghorbani. For the first team, we brought in Maxence Caqueret to play in defensive midfield, Danny Lynch as a back AMR and Mitchel Eppink, a 21yo Dutch central defender who looks really promising
Wolves 2028/29 - Players In (January Transfer Window)
Wolves Performances
As i mentioned earlier, we were on a poor run before i took over, and unfortunately i wasn't able to make the instant impact everyone was looking for. My first game in charge would be at home to Brighton, followed by QPR at home (in the league) and away (in the cup), before home ties against Liverpool and Man City.
From those opening 5 games, we took a shocking 1 point and were casually dumped out of the cup in the process as our form had us now 11 games without a win. The point, at least, came at home to Man City, still a big 6 club in 2029 and we did well to draw, before taking that good performance with us to Leicester where we churned out our first win under my tenure at the start of February.
I assume our poor start was in part down to the fact i had changed our formation and also down to a few new players still bedding in to life at Molineux. We were now faced with a two week break for internationals and cup games (which we were not a part of), but i was keen to keep our momentum going so I scheduled a friendly against Kaiserlautern which we won convincingly.
My plan worked as we won our next three against Fulham, Reading and Everton before Tottenham swiftly brought us back down to earth with a crushing 5-0 defeat. Just prior to that, we'd managed 5 games unbeaten, a welcome turnaround in our fortunes.
We recovered in the next fixture against Brentford, before being faced with another break - this time for three weeks! I organised us a mini tour in Vienna (where my family are from) and we played three games, winning all three in the process, before returning to beat Bournemouth at home.
Things had gone well up to this point, as we climbed the table and began to put a gap between us and the relegation zone. Unfortunately, we were about to learn what complacency was all about, as we managed 4 consecutive defeats, culminating in a 2-1 loss at Chelsea. Miraculously, other results had gone in our favour and we were guaranteed top flight football for another season next year as we sat in 14th place.
With safety assured, I used the final few games to trial a few more of the playing squad and to develop a new tactic that might better utilise Phil Foden as an AMC. This seemed to work very effectively, notching up 3 wins including away to West Ham who were knocking on the door of the top 6 at the time.
We managed an impressive 11th place finish, leaving us plenty to work on for next year but huge satisfaction for everyone involved with the club.
Season Review
Diogo Jota continues to be a key player for the club and i was pleased to see Maxence Caqueret voted as our signing of the season. Elsewhere, our striker Hawkins, an English young wonderkid, makes the team of the season, along with new signing Eppink in the heart of defence.
And it's many of the same names in the end of season stats, Hawkins getting the most goals, Jota with the highest rating and Caqueret with the best pass completion.
All in all, i'm delighted with the move to Wolves and am eager for the the next step as we look to rebuild an ageing squad and push on for great things. Thank you for reading.
Thanks for reading the blog, i hope you enjoyed this update. You can follow me on Twitter @fm_athlete and in my FM Slack channel #fm_athlete for more updates throughout the season.