Hello again from the West Midlands where, at Wolverhampton Wanderers, the rebuilding continues as we enter the 2030/31 season. Fresh from our second consecutive 11th placed finish, we're keen to push on this year and climb into the top half.
If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. For more regular updates and other FM chat, why not join the FM Slack group and follow my #fm_athlete channel? It's free to join and you'll be warmly welcomed by other FMers too!
A glance at the Premier League in 2030
Not much has changed about the Premier League in 2030. The "Big 6" of 2019 are still considered the biggest 6 teams in 11 years time, with Liverpool (still with Klopp) and Spurs (managed by Pep) now the dominant force each year.
Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are a little behind the top 2 but still routinely sit comfortably in the other top 6 spots. Making up the rest of the top half are Everton, Leicester City, West Ham United and Newcastle United, all now firmly established top-half sides.
The bottom half of the league includes some familiar faces. Burnley, Southampton and Watford are all still around, while Brentford, Fulham and Reading have all established themselves as Premier League sides in recent years.
Brighton & Hove Albion were relegated last season, along with Stoke City and Swansea City, while AFC Bournemouth, Norwich City and Sheffield Wednesday have all achieved promotion for the 2030/31 season.
Preseason
The squad is starting to take shape now, after last Summer's major clear out and with the players we brought in, I've only identified a few positions that need strengthening this year. Owing to a couple of departures last term, we're in need of a new back up Striker to challenge Adam Hawkins, and also need a new starting AMR to replace Ihattaren. I've already secured Frenchman Lionel Nicolas's signature to play as Striker on a free transfer so that's one box ticked.
Elsewhere, Gary Taylor failed to impress in his first season at the club and so will be moved on, requiring a replacement at DR, while our backup DC Mashao is complaining over the lack of first team football and so will need replacing if he leaves. Our promising Dutch centre back, Eppink, is also grumbling after i failed on my promise to achieve a top half finish last year. I'm hoping he can be persuaded to stay but he's currently unhappy so time will tell if he'll still be here come the start of the season.
We were handed a handsome budget of £70M, not including any additional funds raised through player sales. We've a number of players out on loan who haven't cut the mustard and will be sold to generate more funds as well.
Our first piece of business was to bring in Francesco Gaggiotti, a promising DLP who will sit in the DMC slot as cover for the back four. He's a huge upgrade on Caqueret and Roden so am pleased to strengthen our depth there. Next in is our big-money signing, Javairo Grootfamm, a promising Netherlands international, who will play as our starting right Winger on Support duty, and joins for £30.5M from recently relegated Brighton.
Lining up behind him is experienced Irish full back, Lee O'Connor. Joining from Man Utd, he should be a great mentor for young Brian Eadie who did so well last season and is still only 20 years old. O'Connor is an expensive buy at £32M but the money's there so i think it's a worthwhile purchase.
Wolves 2030/31 - Javairo Grootfamm
Mashao did leave so i saw that as a massive opportunity to bring in a solid DC. David Boldeo joins us, also from Brighton, and his English nationality will help boost our HG number as well. Nikola Petkovic also signs as DC, offering cover in case Eppink continues to grumble.
As the Transfer Window headed into July, an offer came in from Bayern Munich for Holdridge, our Canadian international goalkeeper, which i reluctantly accepted at his request, meaning we needed a replacement ASAP. His understudy, Brandon Martinez, also sought a move away and before long a suitable offer comes in meaning we also need a new backup keeper. Reza Ghorbani is still only 19 and i feel needs another year of development before i consider him to be our backup so i'll look to sign someone a little older that he can learn from.
We manged to bring in Guittierez as our number one keeper, whom i believe to be a slight improvement on Holdridge which is saying something. His backup will be Cadogan, a 30yo Englishman who's happy to sit as backup for the season and should provide some mentoring towards young Reza Ghorbani for the next couple of years.
Wolves 2030/31 - Roberto Gutierrez
Wrapping up our transfer business, my DoF brought in Blackburn's hot prospect, Jari Caesar, while i secured the signatures of two wonderkids, Alomia (striker) and Lavergne (centre back), both of whom will join in January.
Predictions
We set out with the aim of finishing in the top half of the league, a big ask in this competition, but not impossible given our steady progress in the past two campaigns. I once again looked at our opposition to try and predict where i thought we'd win points.
Last season we nabbed 8 points off the big 6, despite me predicting we'd get 0. This year i've gone for half that tally, but am also confident of picking up extra points against each of the promoted teams.
54 points would have been enough for 8th place last year, let's hope we can get close to that tally, and then push on from there.
Performances
We didn't get off to the best of starts, two draws and two losses in the league for August, and a win in the League Cup, albeit via penalties. This seemed to give us confidence and we earnt two more wins in the next two fixtures which got us off the mark in the league.
Our cup run was cut short as Everton easily dispatched us in the 3rd round, but this meant more time to focus on the league, which saw us earn a well deserved draw against Arsenal to round off September.
A loss to Man City at the start of October prompted me to create a more defensive tactic for when we play the bigger teams. A 4-4-1-1 set up with more direct passing and less dribbling, along with a Cautious mentality. We employed the tactic in the next tie away to Liverpool and boy did it work as we ran out 2-0 winners.
Our return to form was short lived, just 1 point collected in our next three, before another stunning away win, this time against Chelsea at the Bridge. We finished up the calendar year with just one more loss, two more draws and four wins, the highlight being an emphatic 4-1 defeat of Manchester United at Old Trafford.
The new tactic was great, but we were losing too many points against the teams around us. That said, we found ourselves in 8th place, keeping pace with the likes of City and Chelsea, and pulling away from Manchester United and Arsenal at the half way stage.
As we headed into January, a bid came in form our club captain, star striker and England international, Adam Hawkins. I'd expected this to happen at some point, although had hoped we'd wait until the Summer. He wanted to go and i wouldn't stand in his way, so we accepted the offer of £55M from Manchester United (now managed by Pep) for him. Nicolas was promoted to starting forward and 20 year old Alomia, who signed on the 1st January, would play as his back up with Henriksson. Elsewhere, Eppink secured his move away from the club which i hope will help settle the team a little.
New Years Day saw another opportunity to use the new tactic as we played Tottenham at the New White Hart Lane. Unfortunately, they had the measure of us in this game and we found ourselves on the receiving end of a solid 3-1 loss, which we followed up with an FA Cup 3rd Round win against Newcastle, a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Everton, and then our own 4-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday.
In the twelve games that followed, we collected just one more win and two draws, one of which was my 500th game in management against Fulham. Our spectacular collapse in form saw us sink back down the table, but it also saw a bizarre approach for my services from another club:
The goal of this save was to end up managing one of the big 6 teams. This is the first one to come knocking and despite enjoying my time with Wolves, it was too good a chance to pass up. I attended the interview and awaited my fate. That was until:
With my feet firmly back down on the ground, it was time to try and revive our season. Our recent slump had seen us drop to 14th and with a top half finish all but gone now, our next best hope was to try and finish 11th for the third season in a row.
With four games left, we needed to pull out all the stops to climb back up the league places. We reverted to our 4-1-4-1, with slight tweaked TIs to include a standard tempo and more direct passing as this had served us well in the other tactic.
We travelled to newly promoted Bournemouth where we put in a stellar performance, comfortably winning 2-0 with a rare goal from our centre back Justice Hlophe. This was one of the best performances from this team that i can remember, and in fact we continued our resurgence at home to Brentford and then away to Southampton, both 2-0 results and another two clean sheets to boot.
We took our three consecutive wins with us to our last fixture of the season, a tricky home tie against Manchester United. I had a dilemma to consider, do i stick with the tactic that won us three games on the bounce, or do i revert to my "big 6 demolition" tactic that had won us so many points this season?
I opted to stick with what was working and was pleased to see i made the right decision. A hard fought 1-0 win meant 4 wins in a row, and a league double over Man U this season. Meanwhile, Watford lost in their final game which meant we soared back to 11th place in spectacular fashion!
We ended so well, but i can't help feel that had we done better in the second half of the season then we'd have been one or two places higher. I think our lack of progress may make it difficult to hang on to some of our better players next year, but time will tell if i'm right.
Wolves 2030/31 - Final league table
Season Review
We were aiming for a top half finish and we fell short, despite a bigger points haul compared to last year. We also doubled last season's points tally vs the Big 6 with 16 points, but it wasn't enough to break through the concrete ceiling that is the top half.
I think our performances against the likes of Burnley, Norwich and Reading, coupled with not earning a single point against Everton, Newcastle or Spurs contributed to our downfall, but had we achieved our target of 54 points, we'd still have only managed 11th such was the competition this season.
On the positive side, our last minute recovery to 11th did attract some attention from the media:
Liverpool finished 2nd, which obviously wasn't good enough for their board, so with Klopp gone, they looked to his successor. Which, despite the media suggesting so, wasn't to be me. Not so much as a sniff of an interview offer!
I did however secure May's Manager of the Month Award, and that wasn't the only plaudit we received as Phil Foden's long-range effort against Fulham saw him earn Goal of the Season.
Wolves 2030/31 - Foden's Goal of the Season
We did at least manage to top one table, that was for the net transfer spend in the Premier League with us some way in front after deciding not to spend all of the transfer kitty.
Depending on how you look at it, you might also say that we're close to top of this table too, with just 34% of our total revenue going on wages, the second lowest in the league despite being the 7th highest earning club in the division.
Next Season Aims
All in all, the picture above paints a bright future for the club and for me as a manager. Our financial future is secure, we have a strong hold of 11th place now, and i'm starting to attract the attention of some of the bigger clubs.
In terms of the squad, Diogo Jota will be leaving, thus creating an opening for a new AML, while Gvardiol, our back up DL, has already secured a move away and will need replacing. Will Hughes has also retired so we'll need to bring in some additional cover in the middle of the park as well.
Our aims for the season ahead are the same as ever, try and hang on to our best players and attempt to break through the concrete ceiling to reach top-half stardom. I think we'll stick to a similar points target as this year and hope that it's enough to see us through.
Until next time friends. 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.