Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Epilogue

To say that I've enjoyed this save and FM19 must be the greatest understatement of the year. It's been absolutely brilliant! In this update I'll be highlighting some of my successes from the save and offering my thoughts on the game itself as attention starts to turn towards FM20 in the coming weeks.

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it went 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!

Expectation vs Reality

Way back in the Summer of 2018, F.M. Athlete began his fledgling career in football management as an unemployed beginner with Sunday League experience. The goal of this save was to get offered the chance to manage one of the Premier League's big 6 clubs, a feat that would be a long time coming as he plyed his trade in the lower leagues before hopefully progressing one day in the future.

F.M. Athlete's starting profile.

Crucially, I interpreted this long-term goal as requiring the "Big 6" club in question to effectively headhunt for the job, rather than F.M. Athlete applying for it directly.

While i clearly failed to achieve what I set out to, the 6 clubs I did manage were all so enjoyable, and I did at least get offered two interviews from "Big 6" clubs in the end, as first Manchester City and then Manchester United both came knocking. On both occasions I was unsuccessful but I can't say I'm disappointed, after all this save has been anything but dull. In addition to those, I was also offered the England job twice, as well as the Scotland job and the Finland job too. I politely declined them all.

F.M. Athlete's ending profile

Highs and Lows

It's hard to pick one specific highlight, particularly as from the 6 clubs I managed, there were three promotions (Nosaby IF twice and FC Emmen), a League title (Hibernian), a League Cup (KuPS) and two MOTY awards (Nosaby IF and Wolves) during the save.

F.M. Athlete's Career Landmarks

I think though, that the part I enjoyed the most was securing European football with Wolves. In fact, less about the achievement and more about how satisfying it is to see the team you've built over 5 years come together and deliver in exactly the way you wanted.

In terms of low points, there were plenty of those too. Getting sacked by Wolves was particularly crushing, but there were also some unjust Semi-Final and Final results peppered throughout the save as well.

Overall though, I think my biggest disappointment was KuPS. In hindsight I should probably have stayed with them another 1 or 2 seasons as the team were still young with lots of potential. I left out of frustration at not being able to challenge for the title, but KuPS went on to secure 4 consecutive league titles in the years that immediately followed my departure.

Some Love for the FM Community

I appreciate my thoughts on the game are unlikely to turn any heads, but I wanted to take a minute to offer some praise for FM19 since this version has given me so much enjoyment. According to the game status, I've played it plenty this year...

The revamp of Training seemed to be the biggest headline of this edition, and it really didn't disappoint. I loved the detail applied to this part of the game, and particularly enjoyed building my Training Planner tool in Excel which is free to download here if you're interested.

I know the game has come under criticism for the match engine and player animations but I have to say that these weren't an issue for me. I've no doubt improvements could be made, but the aspects of the game that I really love, like scouting, squad building and assigning shirt numbers, aren't affected at all so no complaints from me.

At the start of 2019, I also took the plunge into blogging and have enjoyed being able to share some of my career updates throughout the year. While I started just writing for me, it was really great to build up some followers across Wordpress, FM Twitter and of course Slack, and I'm really greatful for anyone who's taken the time to read an update, share a tweet or favourite a blog post.

The Slack community in particular has been brilliant and I can't recommend it enough. If you're not already in there, make sure you click the link below and join. It's free and full of fellow FMers so don't be shy!

Away from social media and FM forums, I also love a good podcast. This year I enjoyed some excellent podding from One More Game, Grass 'n' Gear, North American Soccer Manager, FM Notebook, 5* Potential and more recently Gaffer Graemo's new podcast: The Technical Area. Thanks to all of you for keeping me entertained!

The Best Version of Football Manager?

Like so many others, I've been playing FM for 20 years now, and so having a "best" or "favorite" version is a hard thing to quantify given that it depends where you are in life. FM05 and FM07 hold significant memories for me, being at Sixth Form and University and having no responsibilities was a wonderful feeling.

In FM12 I had one of my greatest saves of all time, starting in the National League South and eventually taking the Coventry job, steering them into the Europa League, before managing Napoli and winning Serie A three times. That save abruptly ended on 27th June when my eldest son was born.

I still played the game each year, even after my second son was born in 2016, but it took until FM17 to really find the time to play again. Here I began unemployed before managing Dartford and eventually Fiorentina where multiple Champions League titles were claimed.

So how does FM19 compare to those great versions of the game? Well, my third (and final) child was born last year so logic would suggest I shouldn't have time to play as much as I do. In fact, I think I've enjoyed FM19 more than any of the others, and that's down to the game itself and the brilliant online community that it feels like have been with me all the way.

The Future (an FM20 Teaser)

Congratulations for reading this far. As a special prize you get to enjoy a little FM20 teaser before anyone else does! In addition to what's below, I have prepared an FM20 save reveal video which will be released later this month. Keep an eye on my Twitter and Slack channels for more details.

The more attentive readers out there will have noticed I've started to refer to F.M. Athlete as a separate character to myself. That's because as I start planning my FM20 save and subsequent blog posts, I'm keen to write about him as a different person with his own background and experiences.

With that in mind for FM20, you should know that Frank M. Athlete's journey continues from where he left off, in the small Spanish coastal town of Villarreal...

Over the course of his 16 year long FM19 career, Frank had amassed a staggering £12M in career earnings. While of course plenty of that was spent on accommodation, food and several craft beer subscriptions, he still had a small fortune left in the bank should he choose to spend it.

As he sat on the stony beach at Camí del Palaciet and pondered his next move, he looked out to sea and watched as several small boats sailed up and down the coast. Frank had never taken to sailing before, he'd never had the time, but he'd always wanted to, imagining it to be a serene and peaceful past time.

He'd had very few opportunities to be on the water in his lifetime, it's not something his family had ever been interested in when he was young, despite them living so close to the river. And for the first time in a long time, he thought about the family he had left behind. His grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins he presumed still lived there, or some of them at least. He stood up abruptly, lost in his thoughts as he walked back towards the car.

In that moment, he had decided what he would do next. He smiled as he thought of seeing some familiar faces again, and who knows, maybe he'd make a point of venturing out on to the river as well?

Thanks for reading the blog, i hope you enjoyed this update and the others from across this save. You can follow me on Twitter @fm_athlete and in my FM Slack channel #fm_athlete for more updates in the future.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 21: Hopes, Dreams and Disappointments

Welcome back to Wolves. Last season we hit our peak, finishing 5th and qualifying for the Europa League. Let's see how we fared in a season full of hopes, dreams and European football.

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!

Preseason

Straight back from our well earned break after our most successful season, and a very satisfying email is waiting for me in the inbox:

It's nice to be recognised for your efforts, but the England job doesn't appeal at the moment so I politely declined, and cracked on with assessing and improving the squad.

The core focus this year is to bring through some of the younger lads and afford them more time in the starting XI. The key positions that need strengthening are a new BBM to challenge Querol for a starting place, plus a new DM to give Gaggiotti competition.

Beyond that I'm loathe to making signings for the sake of it, especially after this team did so well last season. For our BBM, we've brought in Alex Okonkowo from Wolfsburg for £20M, while at DM we signed Antonio Rocic from Fiorentina for £21.5M.

Performances

Our start to the Premier League season started the same as it finished last term: very well indeed. Three wins from our opening four fixtures saw us safely within the European places by the end of August. Meanwhile, the Europa League draw grouped us with Iraklis, Zorya and Sevilla which would be challenging but far from impossible to progress from.

September would see us begin our Europa League campaign, as well as another three more league games and a 3rd Round Carabao Cup tie as well. Sadly though, our good form would all but collapse, with not a single victory in sight across all six fixtures. Losses to Burnley and Fulham and a draw to Southampton in the League, an early exit in the cup to Championship side Bolton, and two draws in the Europa League to Zorya and (rather pleasingly) Sevilla.

We started October with another loss to League title challengers Liverpool, but managed to secure our fourth win of the season against Manchester City who, in 2032, were still a big 6 team but far from the side we know today in 2019. We took that good form into our next game as well, another Europa League game, this time to Iraklis where we were convincing 4-0 winners. Unfortunately, we failed to keep it going and ended the month with a draw to West Ham and another loss at the hands of Arsenal, seeing us stuck in the bottom half of the table.

Wolves 2032/33 - Results (Aug to Oct)

As we headed into November, we managed a 2-0 win over Iraklis in the reverse fixture in the Europa League, with our only other point secured this month away to Sevilla. Our other three fixtures in the league all ended in defeat and resulted in an ultimatum from the Board for the second time in my career at Wolves - "earn 10 points from the next 5 games, or you're fired". I found this slightly unfair since i still had two games in hand at this point, and felt the Europa League campaign was going to plan as well.

That said, it seems to me that the ultimatum was the kick up the arse that we desperately needed as we went the entire month undefeated across all competitions, winning 16 points in the league, including a brilliant win over Tottenham (who are 2032's team to beat), plus a win in our final Europa League group game as well saw us qualify as group winners for the knockout stages.

Our points haul in the league was enough to move us back into the top half and into 9th place with a game in hand. And there was more good news as our performances also earnt me a Manager of the Month Award, my third while at the club.

Wolves 3032/33 - December Manager of the Month Award

Wolves 2032/33 - League Table (at end of December)

Our first game of the New Year would see us enter the FA Cup in the 3rd Round with a tricky home tie to Chelsea, whom we entertainingly dispatched 3-2 to setup a 4th Round fixture against our bogey team, Brighton.

We would play our FA Cup game the week after we played Brighton in the league, but not before we won our match against Leicester City first. In the league, Brighton maintained their reputation as our bogey team, beating us 1-0 and setting the tone for the upcoming FA Cup fixture. For once though, we were at our best and beat them easily 2-0, with Southampton drawn as our 5th Round opponents next month.We round January off with another two wins, and another two clean sheets against Villa and Burnley.

Wolves 2032/33 - Results (Nov to Jan)

Our Europa League 1st Knockout Round tie saw us drawn against my previous club, Hibernian (it's funny how football does that sometimes). Unfortunately, we preceded the first leg with two consecutive league losses against Watford and then Fulham. Thankfully, we didn't take that forward with us and beat Hibs 2-0 at Easter Road, before thumping them 3-0 in the reverse fixture at Molineux. Sandwiched in the middle of those games was our 5th round FA Cup game, where we ran out 1-0 winners and set up a Quarter Final away against Aston Villa.

Liverpool were our next opponent in the league and we were unlucky not to do better, losing 4-3 but genuinely deserving something from the game. We were much better in the next one though, smashing City 5-1 to give us our first league win since January. 

As we entered March it became clear that our Wonderkid striker, Jorge Alomia, was well in with a shout of being named the Premier League's top goal scorer for the season - an incredible achievement, particular when you consider how our league form has been. In addition, I was attracting the attention of some of the bigger clubs in the league, not least Manchester United who offered me an interview. I attended the interview without hesitation (after all, the goal of this save is still to manage one of the big 6 teams) and i was full of hope with this news item landing in my inbox:

Despite the press building up the hype on my behalf, within a few days the Manchester United board had squashed it again, naming Scott Bridgewater as their man in charge instead.

Back at Molineux and out of the three league matches in March, we'd only manage 1 point against West Ham, losing the other games to Stoke and then Arsenal. Our opponents for the Europa League's 2nd Knockout Round were Athletico Bilbao who would offer a big challenge for us to progress, but our form at home in the first leg meant we would take a 4-1 victory into the reverse fixture. Despite our best efforts to throw it all away, we scraped through to the Quarter Finals, while losing the game 2-0 (but winning 4-3 on aggregate).

Our only other game of the month was the FA Cup Quarter Final where fate had set us up a nice West Midlands derby as we went toe to toe with Aston Villa. It turned out to be a close encounter, but one which we saw out in the end thanks to a 2-1 win, setting up a Semi Final tie against West Ham at the start of April. 

For the second year in a row we were heading to Wembley for an FA Cup Semi Final. Last season we didn't make the grade and so were hoping to go one better this time around. After a nervy start, it was clear that things weren't going to go to plan though. A first half injury to Antonio Marin (our left winger) meant we had to make an early change, but it went from bad to worse when, in the 46th minute, Javairo Grootfaam (our right winger) goes down and has to come off as well. As if that wasn't enough, Rocic (DMC) then makes a rash challenge and gets a straight red card to give West Ham the advantage. They grabbed it with both hands, scoring the only goal of the game and booking their place back at Wembley in May where they'd play against eventual winners Man City in the Final.

Another Semi Final without reward, but fresh from licking our wounds we were able to win in the next game against Southampton, before our first leg Quarter Final tie where we were drawn away against Bordeaux. They proved to be a really tough opponent, but after taking an early lead and then conceding a second half equaliser, it looked like we were on course to secure the draw, that is until their 93rd minute winner to undo all our good work!

Next up was a win against Watford in the league before the second leg. I was hoping our away goal would prove useful but in fact they out muscled us in every department and the 3-2 scoreline flattered us far too much. Bordeaux win 5-3 on aggregate and we're left with nothing but our worrying league position to compete for.

In the final 5 games of the season, we managed just one win, two draws and two losses which was enough to see us finish in a fairly average position of 10th. After the Board's crisis in confidence earlier in the season, coupled with our big miss in meeting the league objective of a Europe spot, I was worried for the future, and it turned out I was right to be as we'll find out a little later on.

Wolves 2032/33 - Results (Feb to May)

Wolves 2032/33 - Final table

Season Review

As i mentioned earlier in the post, Jorge Alomia had been among the contenders for the league's Top Goalscorer and I'm thrilled that after 14 years in management, one of my players managed to win the award with 21 goals from his 32 appearances. On average he managed a goal almost every two hours across the season which was quite impressive.

Beyond that, I had to be relatively pleased with how the season had gone. Our league form had suffered as a result of our involvement in the Europa League, but as far as I'm concerned it was worth it after we made the Quarter Finals of the competition, not to mention that second Semi-Final in two years in the FA Cup as well.

Unfortunately for me, the Board weren't convinced and immediately called a meeting to ask me why we had failed to qualify for Europe next year as promised. None of my assertive responses were adequate though, and in the end it was clear that they had made their minds up before I'd even walked into the meeting:

In Search of my 6th Club...

To be honest, I was devastated. After 5 years in the job, I'd built a really great side that I thought could regularly challenge for a top 6 spot going forward. The prospect of having to do that again was a daunting one, but I began applying for vacant roles anyway as I looked to keep my career progressing.

I was not short of interview offers, but the bulk of them were coming from England and I thought I needed to go abroad again for what would probably be my last club in FM19.

It took me until January of the following year (2034) to find the right club, but I was pleased that we could make it happen in the end:

The club had been expected to finish in the top half of the league, but found themselves in a relegation scrap instead. I joined the club with 48 hours remaining of the January Transfer Window and immediately signed two central defenders as cover for the first team since there were only two senior CD's at the entire club!

We bossed our first game away against Malaga before turning our attention to the next three games against Barcelona, Real Madrid and then Athletico Madrid. An impossible fixture list but one we'd have to get on with all the same.

Incredibly, we earnt a point against Barcelona before thumping real Madrid 3-1 in the next one. Unfortunately Athletico were too good for us though, and beat us 4-1 despite us taking the lead early on. We also picked up a number of injuries and that would set the tone for the remainder for the season where we'd struggle to price together a starting XI, never mind a match day squad.

Our next win didn't come for three more games as we headed into March, but our form was still stop-start as we failed to notch up consecutive victories until the end of the month. We snatched a deserved 3-2 win at home to Sevilla, and followed it with wins at home to Atletico Pamplona and Levante before getting drubbed 5-0 away to Las Palmas to bring us squarely back down to earth with a bump.

From the remaining 5 fixtures, we notched up 2 more impressive wins against Valencia and Espanyol, 2 more draws and only one loss on the final day of the season against Athletico Bilbao to see us finish the season in a respectable 13th, and 14 points clear of the relegation places.

Villarreal 2033/34 - league performances since taking over

Villarreal 2033/34 -

Despite a reasonably successful season in spite of substantial injuries, I already know that my time at Villarreal is at an end. I don't have the energy or desire to start building a new side for the future and so have taken the decision to resign my post before considering F.M. Athlete's next move. One thing is for sure, I can guarantee he will return in FM20 though.

Keep an eye out for one final FM19 update from me as I round up the save and key career stats that have kept me glued to my laptop all this time.

Thanks for reading the blog, I hope you enjoyed this update andthe ones that came before it. You can follow me on Twitter @fm_athlete and in my FM Slack channel #fm_athlete for more updates in the future.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 20: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Welcome back to Wolves. Can we finally break into the top half of the Premier League, or will it be a fourth consecutive 11th placed finished? Read on and find out!

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!

Pre-season

In the previous chapter, I had declared that the ceiling we we were trying to break through was in fact made from concrete, as opposed to the standard design of "glass". For three consecutive season's we've finished in 11th, never managing to break into the top half despite strengthening the squad in all areas and bringing in some young stars for the future.

As we kick off another season at Molineux, I'll be aiming once again to climb into the top half of the table and embed the foundations needed to eventually reach the upper echelons of European football.

The squad's looking in great shape, but there are one or two areas left to strengthen, primarily on the left hand side of the pitch.

Wolves 2031/32 - Transfers In

Both our left backs, Josko Gvardiol and Samuel Antwi have decided they'd like to leave the club with Gvardiol headed to Celtic for a meagre £6.25M and Antwi going to league rivals Leicester for £24M. In their place I've signed 29yo Chilean full back Camilo Zamora from Chelsea for £26M and promising youngster, Sascha Schawinski from Feirense for £1M. We also have academy starlet Ryan Hilton in the U23s so one of these will head out on loan, and the other act as Zamora's backup.

Wolves 2031/32 - Camilo Zamora's attributes

For the AML slot, I opted not to give Diogo Jota, who's been at the club since 2017, a new contract. This was a tough decision, but i think necessary if we are to strengthen the squad properly. I also decided to sell Jota's backup, Jose Pascual for £21.5M, who despite being a good player, I think needed to be upgraded. In their place comes 22yo Vincenzo Cortese for £50M and 30yo Antonio Marin for 22M.

Wolves 2031/32 - Antonio Marin's attributes

My final signing wasn't planned, but at the last minute i decided to bring in a new goal keeper. I'd been pleased with Guittierez who we had signed last season, but the opportunity arose for a much better keeper to come in, so we took it. Enter 24yo Italian maestro Carmine Vignes, signing from Everton for £62M.

Wolves 2031/32 - Carmine Vignes attributes

As you can tell, i spent a lot of money in this window, all our money in fact, but hopefully our tactic of less signings of higher quality will pay off!

Performances

After winning all 6 of our preseason friendlies we kicked off the league with an Away tie to Southampton. Although we were less than spectacular, we secured the 1-0 win comfortably and then headed into the next game against West Ham where we picked up another 1-0 win.

We then made it three from three making this our best start to a season as we beat Burnley 3-1. A blip in the next game against newly promoted Stoke saw us head into the 2nd Round of the Carabao Cup with low confidence against Everton. We lost to the better side on the day and the League Cup run was overin a flash.

Rounding off August, we were back to winning ways with a 1-0 defeat of Newcastle and we were sat comfortably in the European places with just one loss and 4 wins to our name.

September dished us up fixtures at home to Manchester City and Manchester United, before an away tie against Liverpool. Not the easiest run of games and City proved too much for us in the first one, beating us 2-0 on our own turf. We responded magnificently in the next game against United, winning 2-1, before Liverpool exerted their superiority on us, winning 3-1.

This seemed to be the catalyst for a poor run of form through October and November. Two wins against Huddersfield and Fulham were supplemented by a 0-0 draw with Everton, and the other 3 games all down as losses.

Come December we were still keeping pace with some of the big boys, but had slipped to 10th and were in need of some consistency. We had 6 fixtures in one month, with the final two games against Chelsea and Arsenal, and we didn't disappoint. A 100% win record, three clean sheets, 10 goals scored and 4 conceded were not quite enough to win me Manage of the Month though, I've no idea why not!

Wolves 2031/32 - Results from first half of the season

As the January Transfer Window opened, we chose not to bring anyone in but we did move on two players. Maxence Caqueret wasn't getting the game time he wanted and so went to Slavia Prague, while our reserve DC, Nikola Pertkovic was sold to Olympique Marseille for £10M.

Wolves 2031/32 - Transfers Out (January)

In terms of performances on the pitch, we continued our unbeaten streak with a 0-0 draw away at West Ham. Next up was a tricky Third Round FA Cup tie at home to Chelsea. Having beaten on their patch just over a week ago in the league, we were brimming with confidence and dispatched them 3-0 to set up a 4th Round tie at home to Arsenal. Before that, we stayed unbeaten and kept our clean sheet run going too, having now not conceded since Boxing Day.

If our win against Chelsea was down to high confidence, it was positively soaring against Arsenal, smashing them 4-0 to set up another home tie, this time against Huddersfield in February. A loss against Man City was humbling, but we quickly recovered to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford in the next game.

Huddersfield proved to be a worthy adversary, taking us to Extra Time where a 118th winner was required to get us into the Quarter Finals where we'd play Stoke City. Prior to that game, we secured a Merseyside double win as we beat Liverpool and Everton within 4 days, before Brighton proved why they've become a bogey team for us, beating us 2-1 at Molineux. Despite the loss to Stoke in the league earlier in the season, we were dominant against them in the cup, and booked our place at Wembley for the FA Cup Semi-final where our opponents would be Liverpool.

Another win and a loss in the league before the trip down to London where we hoped our great run would continue. An early goal on 3 minutes was instantly cancelled out as they equalised int he 4th. An even game went one sided though as they struck again after half time and continued to lead as we headed to full time. We tried everything, but our master stroke proved to be Vincenzo Cortese who netted the equaliser on 88 minutes and kept us hanging on by the skin of our teeth!

Wolves 2031/32 - FA Cup Semi-Final result

Our hopes of dragging it out to penalties were swiftly dashed though, no sooner had we started to dream again than they cruelly score again in the 91st minute. They would go on to win the competition, while we crashed out, so close yet so far.

Back to reality in the league, and our recent run of form had seen us reach 4th place and stay there. With 6 games remaining we had to hold our nerve if we were to prove that we belonged among the top teams.

Wins against Reading and Leicester sandwiched draws against Watford and Norwich and took us into the final two games of the season, still in 4th and with all the power in our hands. These results were also enough to see us guarantee a place in the Europa League next year as a minimum.

Just like our final two games of December, our last two games of the season were the reverse fixtures against fellow 4th place challengers Arsenal and Chelsea. We needed to match or better their results in order to clinch 4th place and that much coveted Champions League place.

First up, a battering at the hands of Arsenal as they ran out 2-0 winners and heaped the pressure on us for the last game of the season. Chelsea now couldn't make 4th, but Arsenal could. We had to match or better their result in order to keep hold of 4th, and we were confident, having already beaten Chelsea twice now and with this tie at the Molineux fortress.

We were in for a rude awakening. A shocking performance from us practically gifted them the points and since Arsenal won their game as well, we dropped down one place to 5th for the first time in 21 games.

Wolves 2031/32 - Results from second half of the season

It seems daft to be disappointed. Having spent three seasons consistently in the bottom half, to reach 5th is incredible, but it does feel bittersweet to have bottled Champions League football so easily.

Wolves 2031/32 - Final table

Season Review

It's been a sensational season for us. I consider the concrete ceiling well and truly smashed! An impressive FA Cup run to the Semi-Final, a 5th placed finish, a guarantee of Europa League football and plenty of optimism for this young team in the future.

We also spent more than half our season in 4th place, and i was pleased to see we used 24 of our 25 players in the squad - the only player unused was our third choice keeper.

Wolves 2031/32 - Season Review

In terms of player awards, our new AML, Antonio Marin, stole the show, winning Fans Player of the Season, Goal of the Season and Signing of the Season (obviously).

Perhaps the most pleasing award though, was for Young Player of the Season which went to academy graduate Justin Vernon, who broke into the first team and hasn't looked back since.

As for the Player Stats, Antonio Marin also earned Top Goalscorer with 15 goals, not to mention Highest Average Rating, Most Assists (8) and Most Player of the Match Awards.

Gaggiotti ended the season with the best pass completion ratio, proof that he suits the Deep Lying Play-maker role very well.

And that isn't where the accolades ended either, as I also won an award for my efforts, taking the Manager of the Year Award for the first time in the Premier League, and for the second time in my career.

Wolves 2031/32 - Manager of the Year Awards

Next Season Aims

I'm not planning significant changes to the squad as i believe with the players another year older and wiser, we have enough in us to keep challenging. I'm looking forward to the Europa League and will aim to get out of the group, and in the league we'll try and keep our foot on the pedal. I don't think replicating this season's finish is realistic, but i think top 8 is a minimum requirement. Check back next time to find out how we get on.

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 19: This Ceiling is Made of Concrete

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 18: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Welcome back to the Black Country. You join me in my first full season in charge at Wolves, after we finished 11th last year with an excellent run of results following my transfer from Hibs in January. If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here.

Preseason

We had a busy Summer as we looked to start clearing out some of the old guard and bring in some fresh faces. The key here was to get us some strength in depth and so we were really looking to fill roles all over the pitch.

Wolves 2029/30 - Transfers In (Summer)

Pascual will push Jota for a starting place at AML, with Gvardiol coming in as starting left back and Taylor his opposite number on the right hand side. Roden will offer a DMC option, rotating with Caqueret while Turner, Leonard and Marques are all destined to go back out on loan, with a chance of making the first team in a few years time. The pick of the players is Fito Querol, an impressive midfielder who i'll play as BBM to start with and see how he gets on.

In terms of home grown talent, I've promoted Brian Eadie (18) and Leigh Tobin (21) from the Under 23s to act as cover at RB and LB respectively, while Gabriel Lechon returns from two years out on long to bolster our AMR options. I've also got a number of promising midfielders available to bring in from the U23 set up if they can make an impact, or an injury crisis ensues.

With the squad assembled, we headed for our preseason friendlies, most of which would take place in the Netherlands. Some pleasing performances, albeit against lesser opponents, but 24 goals for and only 2 against in 5 games is a great record to kick us off for the season.

Wolves 2029/30 - Friendly results

Competitive Performances - Part I

Wolves 2029/30 - Predicted results

Our opening games would see us host Liverpool and Man United at home with tricky away fixtures to Brighton and West Ham sandwiched in the middle. Before the season started I attempted to forecast where I thought we could pick up points as we aim for a top half finish.

I knew we'd lose to Liverpool and was pleased to meet my expectation of a draw against Brighton, but i was absolutely dumbfounded in the next game as West Ham utterly demolished us 8-1 at the London Stadium - from memory, my worst ever defeat in FM. A hapless and dejected squad then succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Reading in the League Cup just three days later. A bad week all round.

Manchester United next and some significant changes to the team were implemented as we attempted to turn things around. Although we lost, we did play well and were unlucky to concede the one goal that secured them the win.

In retaliation for the cup defeat, and in a vain attempt to claw back the negative goal difference, we had a little demolition derby of our own next as we smashed Reading 6-1 back at Molineux, before following that up with a second win, this time against Leicester.

It was a while before we managed 2 consecutive wins again, in fact only managing to pick up 4 points (including a win against Chelsea) from the next 9 before a win at home to Everton in mid-December. Despite the victory, the Board were less than impressed with how things were going, and promptly called a meeting to discuss the matter, the outcome of which was that i would need 7 points from the next 5 fixtures in order to keep my job.

We kicked off with a 4-3 win against Newcastle before a devastating defeat at the hands of Watford, who got the win with a last gasp goal making it 4-3. A win against Fulham before the New Year would mean i needed just 1 point from the next two games and i was feeling confident.

Wolves 2029/30 - Results from August to December

Despite a poor start to the season, by the halfway stage we we were hovering between relegation and a top half finish with a game in hand, although against Liverpool we could hardly call it an advantage.

Wolves 2029/30 - Table at halfway point

Competitive Performances - Part II

With the New Year comes the opening of the January Transfer Window and a chance to bring in extra troops to shore up weakened positions. My 21yo LB Leigh Tobin wasn't cutting the mustard and so was sent out on Loan along with promising Iranian centre back Reza Ghorbani. Samuel Antwi would join from FC Nordsjaelland to give competition to Gvardiol at LB while 35yo veteran centre back, John Stones, would see out the remainder of his playing days with us, offering a wealth of experience and much needed cover in case of injury. Finally, Alan Mcleod was an inspired choice by our Director of Football, cited as one for the future, he'll play in the U23s until he can prove his worth.

Our January fixtures saw us continue our march towards the 7 points needed to appease the board, with Brighton and West Ham our remaining two games, and our first FA Cup game of the campaign sandwiched in the middle. A win at home to Brighton meant my job was secured, for now at least.

The bubble was abruptly burst in the next game though as we hosted Swansea at home in the cup, and lost 1-0. Now out of both cup competitions without so much as a walk, let alone a decent run.

Three consecutive draws saw us end January still within touching disctance of the top half, and with a win in our next game against Leicester, i was feeling confident we could do it. No sooner had that thought entered my mind, did we then go on our worst run of form since taking over, with just 2 points from 21 in our next 7 games. Suddenly we were being dragged into a relegation battle, hovering perilously close to the drop, we hosted fellow relegation strugglers Swansea in the next tie, waiting until the 91st minute to secure the win and seeing us to the end of March.

April was a mixed bag, with a win, a loss and a draw in our three fixtures against Stoke, Everton and Newcastle. Enough to see us secure safety from relegation, but with hopes of a top half finish utterly dashed.

Wolves 2029/30 - Away win against Arsenal

A disappointing loss to Fulham in the next game mean that to match last season's finish of 11th, we'd need two wins away to Arsenal and then at home to Watford, plus results elsewhere to go our way. We kept up our end of the bargain, impressing against Arsenal with a dominating performance before ending on a high with a 2-1 victory against Watford.

Wolves 2029/30 - Results from January to May

As results from around the grounds started to trickle in, it was clear the gods had smiled on us once more and we managed to climb two places to secure another 11th placed finish. A satisfying end to the season all things considered, but short of our goal of a top half finish.

Wolves 2029/30 - Final league table

Season Review

The media predicted we would finish in 14th and so we can be pleased to have surpassed expectations, even if we fell short of our own goal of a top half finish.

We set out to attain 52 points which would have been good enough for 9th place, but instead had to settle for our actual tally of 45 points, 4 points shy of 10th and 14 points above 18th. The "Difference" column in the table below shows green boxes to reflect where we secured more points than forecast and red boxes to show where we dropped points.

Wolves 2029/30 - Predictions v Actual results

I was pleased to secure wins against Arsenal and Chelsea as well as draws against the two Manchester clubs, plus we did the double over Leicester equating to 10 extra points than planned. On the flip side, both Burnley and Southampton took all the points in our fixtures, and we failed to win either of our games against both Brentford and West Ham which was really disappointing. Add to that dropped points against Fulham, Everton, Swansea and Watford and we managed 17 less than plan in these games.

Stat Attack

In terms of team performance, i was surprised to see us anywhere near close to the top in some categories, compared to other teams in the division. We ranked 7th in terms of total goals scored, but our goals conceded saw us the worst ranked side overall.

Our Shots on Target ratio was pleasing, ranking 3rd with 48% of 246 total shots over the course of the season.

In terms of individual performances, our English starlet, Adam Hawkins, notched up 12 goals for us as well as 5 Player of the Match awards while Gabriel Lechon, after a two year loan spell away from the club, returned as arguably our best player, achieving a 6.98 average rating and 9 assists.

The fans felt differently though, handing Jota the Player of the Season Award who also got our Goal of the Season and the league's 3rd best goal for his thunderbolt against Fulham. Elsewhere, Hawkins also won the Young Player of the Year Award while new man Jose Pascual took the honour of Signing of the Season.

And finally, I wanted to give a special mention to our academy graduate, Brian Eadie, who, after a few terrible performances from Gary Taylor, managed to own the shirt as our starting RB for the majority of the season, and still at the tender age of 18.

Wolves 2029/30 - Team of the Season

Next Season Aims

I'll be looking at strengthening our Defensive Midfield position, as well as bringing in another centre back as I'm concerned Hlophe may not be a long term solution. Elsewhere, we'll need cover at right back and striker plus will need to replace any outgoing players.

I think with those few additions, we can come good on our ambition of a top half finish and push for 52 points. I do think we should look to secure a few points from the top 6, and perhaps i'm being too ambitious trying to take 4 points from each of the mid table teams. I'll need to adjust our forecasting accordingly.

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 17: On the Road Again

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part IV) | Chapter 16: Across the North Sea

Welcome to Easter Road in the Scottish capital where i'm excited to have taken on the role as Hibernian manager, my biggest job yet with what i hope will be plenty of success ahead.

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. In the last update, I'd just taken the job at Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League, and in this post I will be delving in to how my first foray into Scottish football has gone. I've opted to stick with the same running title of this blog series, despite having now moved across the North Sea. I think it makes more sense than keep changing it - I hope you agree.

Before i get to the update though, some pleasing news came through in my final days at FC Emmen as i completed my Continental Pro coaching licence, the highest accolade attainable. It's taken around 9 years to achieve, having started the save as an unknown manager with Sunday-League experience, and now have a 3.5 star reputation after 4 jobs (including Hibs) in management.

FM Athlete - manager profile in 2018

FM Athlete - manager profile in 2027

As a brief reminder, the goal of this save is to manage one of the big clubs in England, something i believe i'm on track to achieve one day.

State of Play

Anyway, back to the update from Hibernian. Unlike most new starts, i'm not following on from a failing manager that got the sack. Derek Innes has moved on to bigger and better things as he takes on the role as Scotland Manager, which leaves me with a different challenge.

Hibernian 2027/28

We have a fairly decent side and are performing well across all competitions. After 16 games, Hibernian currently lie in 4th place in the league, 12 points behind league leaders Rangers and 3 points off 2nd placed Aberdeen.

A quick look at the history books has Celtic down as having won the last 16 league titles consecutively. With them in 3rd at the moment, this could be the year we see their crown topple as i can't see them closing the gap on Rangers. For us, that means a challenge for the other Champions League slot in 2nd.

Elsewhere we're 2nd in Europa League Group C and are through to the 4th Round of the Scottish Cup, having already been knocked out of the Betfred Cup in the Quarter Finals.

Hibernian 2027/28 - Competitions Overview

In terms of league form, we've failed to beat either Rangers or Celtic in the home and away fixture against both clubs, while also losing at home to Edinburgh rivals Hearts and away to Motherwell. Recent results have us with just one win in our last 5 league games so looks like we're in a bit of a dip.

I take up my new job on the same day as out final Europa League group game against 3rd placed Ludogorets, a winner-takes-all match for both sides wishing to progress to the knockout stages. I'll come back to the game later as i settle in to some much needed FM admin first.

Squad Assessment

As i mentioned, the team have been performing well overall so there's no need for any major change or upheaval for the playing staff. I couldn't afford to being my Assistant Manager with me from Emmen but a couple of coaches and one of my scouts have crossed the North Sea with me. My AM leaves a lot to be desired in terms of his attributes, but he'll have to do for now.

In terms of players, we've an impressive forward line and some creative talent in the middle as well. Robby McCrorie is our main man between the posts, while the rest of defence is a little underwhelming. Ben Gibson, formerly of Middlesbrough, is the pick of the players but at 33 yo he's not one for the future.

I'll be implementing my 4-1-4-1 tactic that i developed at Emmen, but with only one player on the books that is capable of playing as a DMC, i'll look to recruit for this role come the January transfer window.

Match Performances

As i mentioned earlier, we line up against Ludogorets in the final Europa League Group C fixture on the same day I start the job. Ludogorets are 2 points behind us so a win for them will see them through to the knockout stages of the competition instead of us.

Hibernian 2027/28 - Europa League Group C table with one game to go

The players already have reasonable familiarity with my 4-1-4-1 tactic, the shape being the main part that they'll need to adjust to, so without further ado we head to the match.

Despite being away, we started the brighter of the two sides and capped our performance off with a first half goal from our left winger Benjamin Fraser. Harrison Wilton got us the second on 54 minutes and although Ludogorets gave us an instant reply with a goal on 56 minutes, we saw the game out and made it through to the knockout stages!

Meanwhile, we had six more games to get through before the New Year and a two week winter break at the start of January. Home wins against Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, Aberdeen and St Mirren, along with an away win against Ross County and a 0-0 draw away to rivals Hearts, saw us go unbeaten through the rest of December.

While we picked up 16 points, Rangers managed a meagre 4 (albeit from one less game than us). This left us lying in 2nd behind Rangers, now both on 42 points and separated by their Goal Difference.

We kicked off the New Year with two friendly wins during the Winter Break, before a 4th Round Scottish Cup tie at home to Peterhead. They were no match for us and we comfortably dispatched them 5-0. A 1-1 home draw to title challengers Rangers gave way to 7 consecutive wins in all competitions, including a league win against Celtic, a 5th Round Scottish Cup win against St Johnstone and a win from both legs of the Europa League 1st Knockout Round against Borussia Monchengladbach where we toppled them 7-1 on aggregate.

A draw to St Johnstone in the league and then a 4-0 win against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Quarter Final had us head into the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round in scintillating form. Olympique Marseille were our opponents and despite our good run so far, i knew this would be our toughest test yet. In fact we dominated the match with an impressive display and a 3-1 victory and could head to the second leg with renewed confidence.

In truth, we were no match for them in the reverse fixture and they dominated possession and dictated the play brilliantly, ultimately winning the tie 2-0 and securing their progression to the next round through that away goal in the first leg. We were not to be disheartened though, having progressed further than expected and this coming as our first defeat since i took over, an impressive run of 21 games unbeaten across all competitions. We ended the first stage of the season strongly with another 4 wins and our first league defeat to Aberdeen, followed by a pleasing win in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Dundee United to set up a Final against Rangers after the league fixtures were over.

After 33 games, we were second on goal difference with both us and Rangers having 68 points. Incredibly we'd closed a 12 point gap to 0 points and had given ourselves a great chance at the title. As the league splits, we will take on the other 5 teams in the top half, with Rangers being served up as our first opponent, an away fixture billed as the deciding game in the race for 1st.

Our good form continued as, despite being away at Ibrox, we secured a 2-1 win, their goal a mere consolation in the 91st minute. Now 3 points ahead, it should have been plain sailing from here as we'd already proved ourselves superior to the other teams. Instead, we chose this moment to completely abandon our winning mentality and succumbed to a draw against Hamilton, followed by consecutive losses to Aberdeen and Celtic.

Meanwhile, Rangers picked up a win and two draws, enough to see them nudge a point ahead of us with 73 to our 72. It was out of our hands, and would go down to the final game of the season where we needed a win against St Johnstone and for Celtic to beat Rangers at the Celtic Stadium.

We did what was asked of us, beating St Johnstone 3-0 and to my shock and delight, so too did Celtic, defeating Rangers 3-1 and handing us the title in the process!

With the league action done and dusted, and the celebrations in full swing, we still had the small matter of the Scottish Cup Final to contest. It seemed fitting that our opponents be Rangers again and thoughts of doing the double were hard to resist. Unfortunately though, it wasn't to be and with revenge on the cards for them, they were clearly keen to make a point, beating us 2-1 in the end, but leaving us with something to aim for next season.

Season Review

It's been an incredible start to my time at Hibernian, securing a league title for the first time since 1952, not to mention being runners up in the Scottish Cup and making it through to the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League.

Hibernian 2027/28 - End of Season Review

I was pleased to see the spine of the team represented in the Team of the Year and unsurprisingly, many of the same names involved in the End of Season Awards as well.

Hibernian 2027/28 - Team of the Year

Hibernian 2027/28 - End of Season Awards

We've a good bunch of players here and assuming we can keep them all, i'm only looking at bringing a handful of new faces in next year to give us more strength in depth. I'm also hopeful that the Champions League prize money will help us stay on an upward trajectory as we look to continue to build up the stature of the club. More on how that pans out in the next update.

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 15: An Unexpected Journey

Welcome back to the Netherlands as FC Emmen prepare for the 2027/28 campaign in the Eredivisie as we look to build on two 12th place finishes, with a twist to the season mid-way through.

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. The Board have proposed we avoid relegation for the third consecutive season but i firmly believe we are a mid-table team now, even knocking on the door of a top-half finish if things go well. In the Cup, we're expected to reach the Third Round and i believe we s'r capable of achieving that.

Preseason

Another preseason upon us and yet more changes to personnel as i had a bit of a reshuffle with the backroom team, bringing in a few new faces including a better qualified Assistant Manager to help me out.

There was also great news for my own professional development as news came in that I'd completed my Continental Pro Licence which i was thrilled about.

As for the playing staff, just £1M in the transfer budget, supplemented by £800k from selling some transfer clauses meant we'd have a tough time bringing in anyone who could set the world alight. That said, we've a number of youngsters who have been out on loan last year and are deserving of a place in the First Team Squad now.

In all, three were promoted and the only real vacancy in the squad was an improved Roaming Playmaker. Keita has been playing the role since he joined but he'd be much more suited to being our main Mezzala and so i wanted to find someone he could play alongside.

I was adamant not to sign someone for the sake of it so i painstakingly reviewed countless candidates to compare their attributes, form and traits with Keita so as to make sure we were improving, not going backwards.

It took all of the Transfer Window to find him but in the end we got our man as 26yo Italian maestro Diego Pedretti signed as an improvement on Keita.

In terms of friendly performances, we upped the ante in terms of who we played and were scheduled against some stiff opposition. Comfortable wins against our affiliates book-ended defeats to Sunderland, Brighton and Chelsea's U23's, but ultimately should better prepare us for the season ahead.

Competitive Performances

We were off to a flyer, securing three straight wins from our opening few games, but our success hit the buffers as we lost at home to FC Twente in a dismal display. A short lived recovery saw us collect 5 points from the next three games before we were taught another lesson at home, this time at the hands of Vitesse.

It's a slippery slope from here, as with just one win among 4 defeats in October, among which was a 6-1 demolition at home at the hands of Feyenoord, we slid down to 9th place. We approached the Winter break having picked up 2 wins, a draw and 2 more losses through November and early December, and valiantly held our position in the league - just.

As for the Dutch Cup, comfortable victories against lesser teams GVVV and then DOVO saw us secure a third round tie against VVV-Venlo.

FC Emmen 2027/28 - League Performances

FC Emmen 2027/28 - Cup Performances

With a cup game sandwiched between two more league games before the New Year, news began to circulate that Hibernian Manager, Derek McInnes, had taken the Scotland job and FM Athlete was touted as the favourite to replace him.

I'd had numerous interview offers in the last few years, mainly from other Dutch clubs and the English Championship. With each opportunity i attended the interview, but with no strong desire to leave, other than my longer term ambition to eventually manage a top Premier League club.

This was no different, in fact i was so convinced i wouldn't get the job offer that i was very carefree in my responses to the interview questions, which apparently is a great technique because...

So, decision time. Emmen are now an established top flight team, and i've got a great squad of young talent that could help take us to the next level. But, on the other hand, Hibernian presents a chance to compete in Europe, and to potentially challenge for silverware as well, helping me to reach my ultimate career goal.

So after yet more deliberation...

I leave Emmen with a heavy heart, but i believe i have to go for the good of my career. Hibernian have a few really talented young players, as well as some old heads so a good base squad, but something to build on, but I'll give a more in-depth update in the next post. That's all for now.

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 14: Emmen Wasn't Built in a Day

After a short recess, I welcome you back to Holland where FC Emmen are eagerly awaiting the start of their second season in the Eredvisie as we look to build on last year's 12th placed finish.

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. This season the Board are being just as cautious as last year, requesting we survive relegation again and reach the 3rd round of the Dutch Cup, something we failed at last time around.

Preseason

Our decent placing in the league last season earnt us just shy of £4M in prize money, enough to run the club for at least a year, even after the board generously gave me £1M towards transfers.

I decided we needed a major resuhuffle in personnel, with the most significant casualty being Oliver Antman. I'd gotten sentimental about Antman having chased after him for so long while at KuPS but it was clear now that where i'd tried to rework my tactic to suit him, that hadn't gotten us much success. Antman would fetch £2.2M and we'd get a further £540k from the sales of Maria (AML) and Dest (DR). A further four players would leave on free transfers, freeing up some much needed cash on the wage bill.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Transfers Out

All told we would now need to recruit a back up keeper, an AML for the first XI and another in reserve, a first team DMC, plus backups for DL and DC as well.

Despite the transfer kitty and the extra cash from player sales, we struggled to find the players we needed and i was loathe to sign players that wouldn't improve us, just for the sake of it. I opted to utilise a few loan deals to help bridge the gap and bring in the quality we needed.

Pavlin Iliev joined for the season from Leeds and was a great addition in the role of DMC while Ronnie Gordon would bolster our DC options, on loan from Brighton. I also brought in Richard Willems from Vitesse as a last minute third choice keeper. I knew i wouldn't need him but i was also starkly aware of the lack of GKs in both the Reserves and in the U19s.

In terms of permanent signings, we made a few of those too. Five players joined for the future and were all placed into the Reserve team, all coming in on free transfers. We then brought in Steenvoorden and Le Gall for the AML slot, Sangweni for DR, Schoonbrood for DL, and Fabry Torres to challenge Funch for the number 1 jersey. Lancey is a 19yo DC from Wales who will be a key figure in years to come, while Mariani should provide cover in midfield. Peter Benninga has some impressive technical and physical attributes and i hope with some solid mentoring, he can develop into a leading striker.

That leaves Muller, who didn't come until the January but has stats to rival our on loan DM, Pavlin Iliev and has time to bed in ready for next season when he'll be in the starting role.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Transfers In

In terms of games, we'd scheduled five friendly matches against similar or lower opposition and i was pleased with how we fared, winning all of them and keeping 4 clean sheets.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Friendly results

The player making the biggest impact was new signing Jetta Schoonbrood who scored all five in our 5-0 drubbing of our affliliate club HZVV, and then scored the winner against Billericay as well. Not a bad way to kick start your career, let's hope he carries the form into the league matches!

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Jotta Schoonbrood

League Performances

The first half of the season proved to be a similar one to last year, consisting of a mixed bag of wins, draws and losses. In truth, we were very average in most of the games, picking up 7 losses, 7 draws and 5 wins. That said, two of those wins included a 5-0 demolition of Heracles Almelo and a 6-1 destruction of N.E.C. which was pleasing for the fans and board alike. A win at hme to Ajax and a draw away to FC Groningen are also not to be sniffed at and we found ourselves comfortably in mid-table as we headed into the winter break.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - League results (first half of the season)

As previously mentioned, the January Transfer Window saw Valentino Muller join from Rapid Vienna as the only new player in as he would create some competition for Iliev in defensive midfield.

We would restart the campaign with a couple more friendlies, both of which were won comfortably, before the return to league action saw us pick up just 4 points from our opening 5 games. Despite a further 4 wins, including a very satisfying away victory to high flying sc Heerenveen, we would labour to the end of the season and eventually succumbed to another 12th place finish, this time not really challenging the teams above us.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - League results (second half of the season)

Despite a slightly abject end to the season, we have at least started to solidify our status as a club capable of staying in the Eredivisie. Hopefully we can continue to build on this footing in the seasons to come.

Cup Performances

The board had requested we reach the third round of the Dutch Cup and I was determined to meet their expectations. We were drawn against Eerste Divisie club VVV-Venio in the first round and so i took the opportunity to rest a few of the starting XI. In the end, we got the job done but were far from convincing with the score stuck at 0-0 after 120 minutes and a penalty shoot out required to see us through.

Next up, another Eerste Divisie club in Telstar, and another lacklustre performance from us saw us scrape a 1-0 win, the only goal coming from the head of our centre back via a corner.

We'd achieved our goal, we'd reached the third round and would be drawn against league leaders Ajax. I fielded our best team and new that we had it in us to beat them, having already done so in the league.

They took an early lead and defended superbly, but we were able to soak up the pressure and match them as they attempted to put it beyond doubt. As we entered injury time, it looked like we would succumb to their superiority but a 91st minute equaliser meant we would battle it out for another 30 minutes in extra time.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be as they scored another which was enough to knock us out. I was pleased with the performance though and thought on another day, we might have scraped the win.

Season Review

All told, another successful season as we continue to establish ourselves in the league and made the last 16 in the cup. Plenty to build on for next year as we look to break into the top half of the division.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - End of Season Review

In terms of player performances, Keita took most of the awards with Player of the Season, Goal of the Season and Young Player of the Season, while new full back Steenvoorden grabbed the award for Signing of the Season.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Player Awards

Just 6 goals each for van Duijn and Junior was enough to see them jointly top the club's goalscoring record this year, suggesting the goals are being spread around the team. Iliev achieved 92% pass completion, while Keita took the plaudits for highest rating and most assists from his RPM role.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Player Stats

I'm keen to continue the progression of the club, but am very happy with most of the squad and so will be giving some of the younger players time to develop and improve next year, hopefully meaning we can use the bulk of our transfer kitty for fewer, higher quality players. See you next time.

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 13: A Marathon, Not A Sprint

Welcome back to De Oude Meerdijk in the North East corner of the Netherlands, home to newly promoted FC Emmen.

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. The upcoming campaign sees us return to the Eredivisie for the 2025/26 season and the Board have sympathetically asked us to avoid relegation while reaching the 3rd round of the Dutch Cup.

Preseason

After promotion in the most unlikely of circumstances, we found ourselves preparing a squad for a relegation battle, rather than a promotion campaign, which I'd originally been expecting.

We have the bones of a decent squad, but are seriously lacking in defence, not to mention some decent backups to the starting XI and so I set about identifying our most urgent needs for the upcoming season.

I'd already signed our loanee DM, Bonke Innocent, and a DC in Jarno Janssen on permanent contracts earlier in the season and they would be joining at the start of July. Unfortunately, both were signed for the Eerste Divisie but i'm hopeful they will be decent backups when needed. Elsewhere, we need another GK and DC, plus a backup DL, AMR and two MCs.

Last year's signing of the season, Enzo Millot, would return as our leading IF on the right hand side, while our 22yo Italian maestro Pantaleo Manzo would join as his understudy.

Our GK vacancy would be filled by Oliver Funch who was initially signed as a backup but in fact will feature as our main GK.

In DC we brought in Marco Kana who has great attributes and youth on his side to become a mainstay at the club. I also signed another youngster called Adni Cani who i hope can develop at the club and possibly play a few games as a squad player this term.

At DL it's Logan Ndenbe to challenge Cristiano who at 32, is probably entering his last year at the club.

In central midfield we brought in Cheick Keita and Arthur Beauvallet, both of whom would push for starting places and create some healthy competition.

With the first team squad assembled, i was happy enough with the players we brought in, but there's no question that we will struggle against the bigger sides. Hopefully we've enough in us to secure our Eredivisie status for another year come May.

League Performances

FC Emmen 2025/26 - We're top!

The fixture list was kind to us to begin with, offering up Heracles Almelo, N.E.C. and NAC Brada in our first 3 fixtures. There are no easy games here but at least this opposition were closer to our standard than the likes of Ajax or PSV. We came away with a draw and two wins and found ourselves at the top of the league on 7 points (while the rest of the league were yet to play their third game).

Ajax showed us what we could expect against better opposition as they smashed us 4-2 at home. I didn't mind the defeat and was pleased to net a couple of goals but was very frustrated that Cani (only playing out of necessity) passed the ball into our own net from outside his own area.

Cani attempts a pass-back, but chooses to score instead.

Despite the wake up call from Ajax, we didn't completely collapse in the next few games. The highlight being a remarkable comeback away to AZ who led 3-0 at halftime, only for us to squash their celebrations and net 3 in the second half!

Following our promising start in our opening 6 games, we would go on to secure just three wins in our next 15, the other 12 games being losses. We slid down the table but those early wins were what we needed to keep us comfortably in 12th, and away from a relegation battle.

January couldn't come quick enough and a couple of weeks away from the league was a welcome distraction. We played two friendlies and won both comfortably, before restarting the second half of the season with 3 wins from our opening 6 against AZ, Roda JC and Excelsior .

With 8 games to go we were within touching distance of 8th place, with just 4 points separating us in 12th. Two impressive away wins against Groningen and then sc Heerenveen saw us take 6 points in convincing fashion, but unfortunately an inconsistent run of final games saw us finish the season in 12th with a draw against 13th placed FC Twente on the final day of the season.

All told, 12th is still mid-table and so we comfortably met the board's expectations and can be pleased with our highest ever finish in the Eredivisie, earning us a little over £5M in prize money which is enough to see the club stay in the black for the next year or two.

Cup Performances

Our cup campaign held hope for some much needed revenue and with the Board expecting us to reach the Third Round i was expecting at least three rounds of prize money to come in.

We kicked off against second-tier side Fortuna Sittard whom we beat in last year's promotion playoffs and we managed a decent win here as well to set up the Second Round with VVV-Venlo. VVV proved to be a tougher opponent and managed to scrape a 2-1 win, although in part thanks to a poor showing on our part, thus resulting in an early exit from the cup.

There's no worse feeling than getting knocked out of a cup but unfortunately for us, it would be another 11 months before we could have another go.

Season Review

If I'm honest, I'm shocked that the Eredivise doesn't have the same bizarre permutations as the Eerste Divisie, and therefore can't believe we've not qualified for Europe!

In all seriousness though, we went up a season or two earlier than planned but held our own against a number of bigger teams, which has given us a solid platform to build on for next year.

FC Emmen 2025/26 - Season Review

The main focus of our investment will need to be in defence but i'm unsure what we can expect in the way of financial backing so may not get what we clearly need. Time will tell.

In terms of stats, we were surprisingly the league's 6th highest scoring team, 2nd best in passes completed ratio (top in total passes) and top of the average possession table.

We also did well in some of the more obscure metrics, including average attendance and stadium sellouts, both of which have led the Board to start looking for a site to build a new stadium on.

I'm looking forward to bringing in some new recruits to strengthen the squad next year and am hopeful we can push for another mid-table finish, maybe even top half. Until then...

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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 12: Heading South for the Winter

Since the Netherlands is not a Nordic country (fun fact for you!), I've opted to change the series name so it still makes sense for where I'm managing. For the purists among you, fear not, this is still very much the same save - i just didn't think it through!

In the last update I revealed that I'd run out my contract with KuPS and had taken the job at FC Emmen, currently sat in 15th place in the Eerste Divisie, Dutch second tier.

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. For this season (2024/25), the Board have asked for a mid-table finish which I believe is realistic, and the league will be our only focus, having already been knocked out of the Dutch Cup.

Current Position

The first thing I did once i got through the door was a detailed assessment of the club's current state of affairs. FC Emmen have literally no silverware to their name, and although were predicted to finish 8th this year, are clearly off the pace with just 16 points from our opening 15 games.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - Eerste Divisie League Table at time of taking over

Having spent the last 6 years working in Sweden and Finland, it will take some adjustment to the season running from August to May, rather than in a calendar year. The Eerste Divisie also has 20 teams in it which will make for a much busier fixture schedule.

You will note that one team will be relegated and one automatically promoted from this division. You may also have spotted the "Pl" next to Almere City which denotes the fact that they have already qualified for a playoff spot. That's because the league splits the fixtures into 4 "periods" of 9 or 10 games, and if you finish top for any of those periods then you qualify for the Promotion Playoffs at the end of the season.

This presents an enormous opportunity for clubs who might not be consistently at the top, to still be in with a chance of gaining promotion. We're already midway through the second period and won't get near top spot so if this is a route we want to take, we need to target the third or fourth period instead.

Financially the club are doing ok with a relatively small debt that costs us £33k p/m, but a healthy bank balance, and i have a few thousand p/w left to spend on the wage budget, plus £1M for transfers.

Initially, my main focus was on the staff, of which there were hardly any. We'd retained the AssMan, DoF, GK coach, a scout and a physio but that was it. The only one worth commenting on is the GK coach who's attributes for GK coaching were all 18 and above. I set up adverts for all the vacant positions and within a few weeks had filled them all with good quality staff. We went from our staff being below the league average for almost every attribute, to having the highest ratings in almost every category instead.

Next up was assessing the squad. For the first time in a long time, i opted to prioritise my tactic over the players I had. That meant a few of the lads would be retrained to suit new roles, and i would be planning to bring in some new talent both in the January window and in the Summer as well. The squad as it is is very unbalanced, with just 2 central defenders, but 7 wide attackers. Some will stay on as Inside Forwards but a few will be sold or loaned out.

Not many prospects in the Reserves or U19s either, but i'll wait until the Summer before doing a clear out there.

League Performances

The three games prior to me taking over had seen the team draw once and win twice, not bad results and hardly sackable form but here we are anyway! We kicked off my first game in charge with a win and picked up 14 points from my opening 7 games in charge.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - league fixtures and results (after I took over)

With just two wins from our next 10 games, our form took a bit of a hit and our climb up the table stagnated somewhat. We would go on tot take 13 points from a possible 18 in our final 6 games and despite coming close in the 4th period to topping the league, we failed in our bid to grab a promotion playoff spot, not that we were expecting one. Our league form was enough to see us climb 6 places and secure 9th so all told, not a bad season.

I believe that part of that success was down to my decision to ditch the defensive midfielder in favour of an AMC in the Advanced Playmaker role. While this left us open to counter attacks, it also made us far more convincing in the final third and, most importantly, we have an excellent AP in Oliver Antman - a Finnish national whom i'd tried and failed to sign while at KuPS.

With a top-half finish in the bag, I'd surpassed the board requirements of a mid-table finish and could call the season a success, before turning our focus to planning for next season. That idea was short lived though as news broke that our fairly average 9th place finish was enough to see us qualify for the First Round of the promotion playoffs!

We were drawn against FC Eindhoven, the team we had just laboured to a 2-2 draw against int he final game of the season. Our pre-match prep worked wonders though and we hammered them 4-0 in the first leg at home. We weren't so fortunate in the return, but we held out to qualify for the Second Round with a 5-3 aggregate win.

Next up are Eredivise relegation strugglers Foruna Sittard who were hoping to keep their place in the Dutch top flight. We were drawn at home gain for the first leg and did our best to burst their bubble with a convincing 4-1 win. They sought revenge in the second leg but we managed 3 away goals and ultimately a 7-5 aggregate win to set up a playoff final game with Jong Ajax.

There was some confusion over whether Jong Ajax were eligible for promotion given their senior side were already in the Eredivisie but i noticed that Jong PSV had been promoted the season before and so assumed it was a possibility. Regardless, we could take no chances and would need to be at our best to get past them. We held our nerve in the first leg away and managed a 1-0 win so confidence was high as we went into the second leg at home.

Nothing prepared us for the battering that we would receive as they repeatedly hit us again and again, notching up an impressive 6-0 win and a masterclass of a display.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - Promotion play-off fixtures and results

Against all odds, we'd qualified for the playoffs and some how navigated our way to a final, only to be undone by a superior team. All of this was a bonus though, and so i looked forward to the next season where we might put in a decent challenge for promotion from the get-go.

A Twist in the Tale

That was until the incredible announcement greeting me in my inbox, Jong Ajax were ineligible for promotion after all and so we would take their place in the big time! In almost 20 years of FM, I've never managed such a a bizarre promotion where we finished 9th and got smashed 6-1 in the final, but still went up anyway!

FC Emmen 2024/25 - we're promoted!

Season Review

What should have been a routine start to a new club, where stability was the word of the day, instead turned into a shock promotion and now a scramble to try and ready the team to survive the drop. I'm pleased of course, but am thinking this may have come a season or two too soon for us. Time will tell.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - Season Review

The quote in the screenshot says it all, "It was a season of unlikely yet jubilant success for FC Emmen, who really picked up momentum around October to propel them into 12th place, providing them with a platform to go on and clinch promotion".

In terms of player highlights, our main striker Joseph van Duijn managed 15 goals from 32 games whohc is not a bad return for his first season at the club. My favourite highlight here though is my new AMR, a 22yo Frenchman by the name of Enzo Millot who went down as the signing of the season with 6 goals and 4 assists from 26 games and a 7.07 average rating to go with it. I'm very hopeful for his development at the club.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - End of Season Awards

As for a comparison with the rest of the competition, we led the charts on possession, tackles won and passes made which was pleasing to see. I'm not sure how hard the step up next year is going to be but I'm hopeful that bringing in some strength in depth will see us beat the drop, but only time will tell if we have what it takes.

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.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 11: The End of an Era

Thanks for joining us again in the city of Kuopio, Finland where the average annual temperature is just 3.4° C. We're entering my 4th year with the club and my 3rd full season in charge as we strive to build on two 3rd placed finishes in the league, a cup win and a record best of reaching the group stages of the Europa League.

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. My goal this year is to challenge HJK for the league title (media predict 2nd, Board expect 3rd), win the Finnish Cup (Board expect a final) and reach the group stages of the Europa League (no Board expectations yet).

Close season

Last season was very up and down and so this year i want to bring more stability in terms of our performances on the pitch. I also struggled to meet the Finnish homegrown rules in some of our league games and so will need to bring in some local talent so we don't have the same issue this year.

Following the departure of Lancini to Inter, I recalled Moreau-Lehmann from his loan as i wanted to promote him to backup striker and needed him fresh for the season ahead. From KuPS 2 i promoted our Spanish keeper, Abel, to replace Paulo after he left for Crystal Palace.

Elsewhere, i needed a new DR and DC for the first XI, a backup DL, and a backup MC that would push Sepalla for his starting place as our RPM. I managed to bring in Peiponen from HJK (DR), Heinonen from FC Lahti (DC) and Makinen also from HJK (MC), all of whom are Finnish and so help bolster our homegrown contingent. For the backup DL role, i brought in Castro, a young Peruvian with real promise and he'll be an ideal understudy to Bruno Dita, our regular DL.

With the squad fully assembled with just those 4 new signings and 2 promotions, my next challenge would be keeping hold of my other star performers from last year. The first to come under off was my first choice centre back, Jean-Clair Todibo who picked up Fans Player of the Season, Signing of the Season and Young Player of the Season last year. Hammarby came in for him and i promptly rejected the offer, he's going nowhere.

Unfortunately Todibo had other ideas and stirred up a storm in the dressing room at the idea of not being allowed to talk to them. His intrinsic value to us is far more than his transfer valuation but i had no choice but to agree a minimum fee with Todibo, which Hammarby then came back and matched. Finding a replacement at the same level was proving too difficult so I had my DoF suggest some targets. He identfied a Brazilian named Iurl who looked almost as good as Todibo, but two years younger and higher potential. We snapped him up for a little shy of £300k.

Next was the biggest upset of them all. The success of my system depends on the athletic and technical ability of our RPM, a role that's hard to fill at his level. Ours is a 20 yo Fin called Sepalla and i've built the team around him, but i hadn't realised that i'd accidentally included a minimum fee release clause in his contract. In came Anderlecht and Stoke City who both met the minimum requirement and despite my best efforts to persuade him to stay, the prospect of English Premier League football was too much for him to resist and he went on his way. I was devastated. To make it worth, Stoke stuck him in the U23s and promptly put him up for loan. I tried to bring him back on a temporary basis but i couldn't afford the 50% wage contribution that they wanted.

I set about trying to identify a replacement but neither I, nor my DoF could find anyone as good, nor with the same potential. In the end I decided our new man Makinen was good enough for the first XI, albeit not quite as good as his predecessor. I'd also just signed a very promising 17 yo MC, Araujo, who was rated good enough for the first team by my coaches, but lacked the familiarity in the RPM role. His attributes told a different story though so i put him on individual training to learn the role and put him in as an understudy to Makinen.

No further departures from the first team but i did bring in a few additions for the future that would sit in the KuPS 2 side for the time being. Kevin Ashbee from Colchester United has some impressive technical and physical ratings and joins for free at the tender age of 18.

KuPS 2024 - Squad List

Preseason Performances

As with last year, I set up 3 friendlies to be played prior to the Finnish Cup qualifying round, while Litmanen (my AM) took care of the other friendlies to be played before the league kicked off in a few months time.

All told we played 10 games, mainly against similar reputation teams and once again came away unbeaten, notching up 9 wins a a draw. We conceded 1 goal while we scored an impressive 19, and with all 22 players now match fit, we were ready to take on the new season.

KuPS 2024 - Friendly results

Cup Performances

We kicked off the campaign in sensational form, winning 4 and drawing 1 of our qualifying games in the cup. We drew IFK Mariehamn in the Second Round who we beat comfortably 3-1 away from home.

Things were going so well and confidence was high, that is until we met FC Lahti at home in the Quarter Finals. No matter what tactical changes i implemented, we were destined to lose the tie 1-0 - a shock upset by all accounts. I was crushed, we were out of the cup before we'd barely got going!

KuPS 2024 - Cup results

League Performances

Our League performances saw us get off to a good start, keeping pace with HJK and last year's Runners Up, VPS. By a third of the way through the season we were top on goal difference, but finally proving that we could run with the big boys.

KuPS 2024 - League Table after 11 games

By the mid-way point we still clung to top spot having added another 5 wins and a draw to our tally from our last 6 games. We were level with VPS but 5 points clear of HJK which highlighted just how bad their season was going for them.

KuPS 2024 - League Table at halfway point

Our leading striker Tuominen picked up a long-term injury at the start of the campaign and so spent most of the first half of the season sidelined. Eventually LASK came in and offered a very healthy £1.2M for him which i couldn't refuse. Our financial stability was wavering and this cash would be enough to see us through for another few months. That meant that Antoine Moreau-Lehmann got the nod as our leading man, with Kevin Ashbee promoted from KuPS 2 as the backup striker.

Things unravelled a little as we headed into the second half of the season as we went 8 games with just 1 win. Two of those games saw us lose to HJK and then immediately draw with VPS a few days later. Meanwhile, three of our starting 11 had been sidelined with long-term injuries and unfortunately their stand-ins weren't up to standard. Our lead slipped and with 5 games to go we found ourselves in 3rd, 6 points off the top now, but still 3 points clear of 4th.

KuPS 2024 - Title race

HJK took full advantage of their game in hand and closed the gap with VPS to 3 points. By the final game of the season, we were safely in 3rd but wouldn't climb any further. Meanwhile VPS and HJK found themselves on level points, meaning the title would be decided on the final day. HJK could only manage a draw, while VPS took all three points and finished on top.

KuPS 2024 - Final Premier League table

Europa League Performances

Our Europa League campaign began against Belarussian outfit Slutsk where we won 4-0 in the away leg, but were held to a 2-2 draw in the home return. The aggregate win saw us meet Laqi in the Second Round whom we beat 6-1 in the first leg, followed by a comfortable 3-0 away victory to see us through to the next round.

The 3rd Qualifying Round paired us with Teplice and we did well in the first leg to hold them to a 0-0 draw. I hoped we could play our usual game and scrape a 1-0 away win to go through but it wasn't to be, they trounced us 3-0 and we were out of the competition.

KuPS 2024 - Europa League results

Season Review

All told, another tough season for KuPS. A poor Cup run and a poor end to the season had me contemplating my future at the club. We'd not achieve what i'd wanted to but the lack of resources coupled with the challenging Homegrown rules had made it almost impossible to compete with the likes of HJK, and now VPS. Their consistent performances in Europe meant a gulf had started to form between them and the rest of the league.

I did at least have some personal successes, including back-to-back Manager of the Month Awards for April and May, plus the completion of my National A and my Continental C coaching licences.

The End of an Era

As my contract was coming to an end, i declined early negotiations for a renewal and pondered my next move. Do i stick it out and hope some of my youngsters coming through will be enough to see us win the league, or do I move on to pastures new and find a new challenge?

In the end, my heart wasn't in it with KuPS and so i told the Board i would be resigning when my contract expires at the end of this month. I applied for jobs at higher reputation clubs and got offered a few interviews with Molde, Nottingham Forest and FC Emmen.

Naturally, Molde would be the preferred choice but despite the interview going ok, they decided to go in another direction. As for the other two, both offered me a job and so i had a decision to make.

Nottingham Forest were struggling at the bottom of League 1 with no money and half a dozen loan players on the books - what a project it would be to rebuild them to their former glory. The downside is, it's England which is my ultimate destination and i wonder if this opportunity has come too soon.

On the other hand, FC Emmen presented a different challenge. They had no silverware to their name, found themselves in 15th in the second tier of the Dutch league, and had a few promising talents in the squad. The downside is their limited resources and low reputation might make it hard to bring in the right players.

I went back and forth a few times, before making the decision that to some extent i'd already made once i received the job offers. I accepted the contract and called my travel agent to book my flight.

Let's hope the grass is greener in... the Netherlands.

FMathlete hired as new FC Emmen boss

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.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 10: Comfort is the Enemy of Progress

You join us back in south central Finland, 390km NNE of Helsinki in the city of Kuopio where I'm with KuPS, preparing for my second full season in charge.

The journey so far...

• 2018 - started unemployed (Sunday League experience, no badges) before getting the job at Nosaby IF in the Swedish Second Division East on 3 August 2018. Took over with 9 games to go and secured a 9th placed finish.

• 2019 - finished runners up in the league, enough to make the playoffs which we went on to win to secure promotion to the Swedish First Division South. May MOTM Award winner

• 2020 - stormed the league and won the title against all odds to win automatic promotion to the Swedish First Division Elite. 2020 MOTY Award winner

• 2021 - after a terrible start and a struggle to sign the players needed, I resigned my post. Took the job at KuPS in the Finnish Premier League on 25 July 2021. Finished 7th in the league and reached Second Qualifying around of Europa League. They also won the Finnish Cup before I took over

• 2022 - Finnish Cup Winners for the second consecutive season, a comfortable 3rd place in the Finnish Premier League and a departure at the group stages of the Europa League, the furthest we've been to date. May MOTM Award winner.

• 2023 (present day) - media predicts a 2nd place finish in the league, while the board expects us to finish around the top of the league and reach the final of the Finnish Cup (the Europa League expectations will be set later in the year). I've set myself the ambitious target of pushing for the league and cup double this year, along with another run to the Europa League groups for good measure.

Close Season

Fresh off our relative success last year, we entered the close-season with renewed optimism. The foundations were in place, we could start building a legacy. I was confident of our chances to do well in the Finnish Cup again, and keen to build on our success in the league and push HJK for the title.

With that in mind, i set about assessing the squad, and in doing so, also had a look at my tactics. We'd been playing a fairly basic 4-4-2 which had worked ok, but we hadn't set the world on fire. I wanted to try and improve this somehow, especially since as yet, i hadn't found a striker pairing that worked. I thought an AMC sat behind a lone striker might yield more goals and assists between them, especially as I'd had some success with this on previous versions of the game.

The man i identified for the position was Deom from Belgium who was available on a free and was perfectly suited to plays as an Advanced Playmaker behind our star striker Frederico Lancini.

Elsewhere, we were in desperate need of a solid centre back to cover for the departing Cipriano, and we also needed some strength in depth if we were to fare better with the busy schedule this time around. In came Alessandro Confente (GK), Aldin Adzovic (MC) and Bruno Dita (DL) as cover for the first XI.

Meanwhile, the board gave me an enormous transfer kitty of £3M, most of which came from the Europa League prize money. Since i'd already made most of the additions needed for the squad, i didn't want to get carried away spending needlessly. We still needed a centre back and my scouts identified the Frenchman Jean-Clair Todibo as a perfect candidate. He cost me £575k but i think he's a great investment for the future too at just 23 years old.

Jean-Clair Todibo

Since legacy was what I had in mind, i wanted to start building a decent reserve side of hot prospects that might push for first team places later in the season. I also hoped to use this system to train some foreign talent so they could reach Homegrown status and help out with the Premier League requirements - finding Finnish talent is proving very hard.

KuPS 2023 - Transfers In

The first thing to do was establish KuPS 2, an official reserve team that would play competitive matches. I used some of the transfer budget to hire in the extra staff needed and started bringing in the hot prospects that were available on frees. I signed a player for each position, and then supplemented the squad with my best U20 players and any unused first teamers. Another Belgian looked a great prospect as Oliver Bertrand would undoubtedly be a star of the future.

I still had a little shy of £2M for transfers and so opted to use a lot of it to bump up my Scouting budget. As we were now able to scout all over the World I thought could make the most of it in the hope of uncovering some hidden gems.

Preseason

Unlike last year, i wouldn't make the same mistake as leaving my assistant to schedule all our friendlies after the Finnish Cup had started. I still had the last Europa League game to play, despite already being knocked out and so i scheduled 3 more friendlies around this fixture so the boys could start building up their match fitness.

Unsurprisingly, we were battered by SC Freiburg, but were very comfortable against our lesser foes. In fact, stepping out of chronological order, i can reveal we were unbeaten in all our preseason friendlies this year, including the ones we played in between the Cup and League fixtures.

KuPS 2023 - Preseason friendlies

Finnish Cup

We entered the tournament having won the cup for the last two years running and so i was confident we had the ability to make it three from three. We navigated the qualifying group stage, with relative ease, bar a wobble against much lesser ranked TPS, and a poor draw against SJK.

The second round drew us against Futura from the First Division, but they proved to be a worthy opponent and we scraped through 1-0. Next up were fellow Premier League side RoPS in the Quarter Final who again battled hard against us and we were lucky to win. I'd been so sure we'd breeze through these stages, now my resolve was beginning to waiver.

The Semi Final drew us against FC Lahti who won the league back in 2019 and so far had outplayed us in a few of our previous encounters. I ploughed ahead with the new tactic and instead of a solid win, i got a solid lesson as they dispatched us comfortably 2-1 - our goal a mere consolation in the 90th minute. Were were out of the cup and i was devastated. FC Lahti would go on to win the cup so at least we went out to the champions, but it didn't make defeat any easier to swallow.

KuPS 2023 - Finnish Cups results

Premier League

Meanwhile, the Premier League fixtures had gotten underway after the Quarter Final and things had not gone well there either. A lacklustre performance in the second half against FC Inter saw us give away a two goal lead to draw at home. Up next were HIFK, another side we should be comfortably beating and yet we found ourselves on the end of a shock 1-0 loss.

The next two games had us up against our opponents from the Cup Quarter and Semi Finals - FC Lahti and RoPS. Both games took place before the cup fixtures and we were comfortable winners, taking both games 3-1.

I thought things were improving, but then we went away to recently promoted Ilves and managed a pathetic 0-0 draw. We hosted TPS at home in the next game and ran out 3-0 winners, that was just before the Finnish Cup semi-final defeat which proved to be the last straw for me.

After 6 games in the league, we were joint 2nd on 11 points, already 7 adrift of HJK who had a perfect record so far. Needless to say, this is not a bad record and the team were playing ok, but i think that was my issue. I wanted to dominate, not scrape by, and I'd allowed us to get carried away with the previous seasons success in thinking this would be a walk in the park.

I'll save the tactical epiphany that i had for another blog, and instead will skip to the part where i developed a system I was happy with. I changed from a 4-4-1-1 to a 4-1-4-1 with two wide inside forwards, and set my midfield three up to win back the ball in front of the back four and quickly recycle possession to the attacking three.

In the next 5 games we lost 3, drew two. 0 Goals scored and 7 conceded, but two of the games were 0-0's and i was pleased with the clean sheets. Some would call this failure but in fact the team were brilliant, we dominated possession, had plenty of shots and most on target, we'd just been unlucky. The goals conceded were good goals and i was confident with a tactical tweak or two we could perfect our system.

In our 6th game with the new tactic we lined up away to FC Inter and we hit gold! A penalty and a well taken second for our Finnish frontman Mikko Tuominen saw us win comfortably and from here on out, we fared much better.

We were 20 points adrift of top spot by now, and languishing in mid-table so we had our work cut out to recover. Having been knocked out of the cup, we had to finish 3rd or higher in order to qualify for Europe next year.

In fact we would go on to win 11 of the next 21 games, drawing 7 and losing 3. This was enough to see us climb the table and had we been more clinical in goal, we'd have finished 2nd. Instead we settled for 3rd place which i can't complain about given we switched gears mid-way through the season.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 9: Making KuPS Great Again - Part II

Hello again, and welcome to part II of this season's update. We left off with KuPS having qualified for the group stages of the Europa League which will accompany our fierce battle for the top spot in the league.

The journey so far...

• 2018 - started unemployed (Sunday League experience, no badges) before getting the job at Nosaby IF in the Swedish Second Division East on 3 August 2018. Took over with 9 games to go and secured a 9th placed finish.

• 2019 - finished runners up in the league, enough to make the playoffs which we went on to win to secure promotion to the Swedish First Division South. May MOTM Award winner

• 2020 - stormed the league and won the title against all odds to win automatic promotion to the Swedish First Division Elite. 2020 MOTY Award winner

• 2021 - after a terrible start and a struggle to sign the players needed, I resigned my post. Took the job at KuPS in the Finnish Premier League on 25 July 2021. Finished 7th in the league and reached Second Qualifying around of Europa League. They also won the Finnish Cup before I took over

• 2022 (present day) - Finnish Cup Winners for the second consecutive season, have qualified for the Europa League group stages, and currently lying in 3rd place in the Finnish Premier league. May MOTM Award winner. Season aims were to finish "around the top" of the Finnish Premier League, reach the Semi-final of the Finnish Cup and reach the Second Qualifying Round of the Europa League.

Premier League Performances

As we headed into September there were 8 more fixtures on the calendar. We sat comfortably in 3rd, trailing IFK Mariehamn and HJK by 1 and 2 points respectively. First up we were away to top of the table IFK Mariehamn and it didn't go well, eventually succumbing to them 5-2, our heaviest defeat in my tenure.

The rest of September's fixtures saw us win, draw then lose in what would prove to be the start of a slump. October served up 4 more fixtures where we managed 1 win against IFK Mariehamn, along with 2 bore-draws and a loss. Just 2 goals scored, and 1 conceded in those last 4 games - a pathetic effort!

KuPS 2022 - September and October results

We were comfortable in 3rd but those poor results towards the end cost us dearly. HJK held their nerve and eventually went on to win their 3rd consecutive league title, 4 points ahead of us.

Europa League Performances

Qualification to the groups saw us earn a massive £2.6M in TV money, an incredible achievement for us which took our bank balance from £800k up to a very healthy £3.6M.

KuPS 2022 - Europa League windfall

We were drawn in Group J against Sporting Lisbon, Atalanta and SC Freiburg. Looking at some of the other groups, I think things could have been a lot worse, but this was going to be a significant challenge for our boys.

My biggest issue with progressing this far was squad fitness. The team are really flagging having now played significantly more games than i had planned to at the start of the season. It's a constant rotation of players at the moment, and a few long term injuries to some key roles have really hit us hard.

The first game was a home tie to Sporting Lisbon. The aim here was to "not get beat by many" as i didn't see us getting close to their ability. In fact, we played really well, matching them at every turn before taking the lead in the first half. Their second half equaliser was enough to see them secure a draw but on another day, this would have been 3 points to us.

Next up was the return fixture, away to Sporting where they proved to be much too strong for us and ran out 2-0 winners. It could have been a lot worse and the boys did well to keep the score as it was. SC Freiburg were an even tougher opponent and despite an early goal, we would eventually lose 3-1. A well deserved draw followed by a disappointing defeat against Atalanta saw us knocked out of the competition with a game to go.

KuPS 2022 - Europa League Group J results

In the end, further progression wasn't to be this year. Reaching the groups was a surprise in itself, but qualifying to the next round was too big an ask. We may have crashed out of the group but we could be proud of the two draws against Sporting and Atalanta. Our final game would be away to SC Freiburg, but the match isn't scheduled until the New Year so I will include it in the next update and treat the game like a friendly instead.

End of Season Review

All things considered, this season's been a resounding success for us, as we achieved a reputable league position, reached the Europa League group stages and won the Finnish Cup.

KuPS 2022 - Season Review

Our loanee central defender won over the fans by winning the Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season Awards. He won't be returning for another year as his parent club want him in their First Team so we'll need to fill his shoes as well.

KuPS 2022 - End of Season Awards

Before the players went on their annual break, i did my usual review of the playing squad. If we want Europa League group stage football to be a regular thing then we will need to strengthen the squad, particularly the reserve 11, so we can fare better with squad rotation.

I also dabbled with the training schedules this year and now feel ready to take a more active role in changing how these work for the coming season.

Season Highlight

In end, we had a great season but after a rocky start in the league, coupled with some off the pitch issues, it could have been a lot worse. We had a fair few highlights, including the Finnish Cup win, our 14-0 aggregate demolition of St Joseph's in the Europa League and Montenegro joining the EU.

But my season highlight has to be reaching the Europa League group stages - an achievement that i thought we were still a few years away from reaching. The cash injection it provided is the start of what I hope is the "next level" for us as we attempt to put our stamp on the league, and further our successes in Europe.

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom, you'll never get that time back you know! Until next time...

Nordic Nights | Chapter 8: Making KuPS Great Again - Part I

Welcome back to the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. It's Finland, where i'm currently in the role as Manager of Kuopion Palloseura, or KuPS for short.

I've freshened up the layout of this blog to hopefully make it easier to read, and have opted to split this update into two halves, this being the first instalment. I've also added a recap section in case you've missed any of the other save updates. Comments and feedback welcome.

The journey so far...

• 2018 - started unemployed (Sunday League experience, no badges) before getting the job at Nosaby IF in the Swedish Second Division East on 3 August 2018. Took over with 9 games to go and secured a 9th placed finish.

• 2019 - finished runners up in the league, enough to make the playoffs which we went on to win to secure promotion to the Swedish First Division South. May MOTM Award winner

• 2020 - stormed the league and won the title against all odds to win automatic promotion to the Swedish First Division Elite. 2020 MOTY Award winner

• 2021 - after a terrible start and a struggle to sign the players needed, I resigned my post. Took the job at KuPS in the Finnish Premier League on 25 July 2021. Finished 7th in the league and reached Second Qualifying around of Europa League. They also won the Finnish Cup before I took over

• 2022 (present day) - season aims are to finish "around the top" of the Finnish Premier League and reach the Semi-final of the Finnish Cup. There's no Europa League aims at this stage as i didn't qualify via the league last year and so will need to win the Finnish Cup to qualify for this years competition.

Close-season

I covered most of our off-season dealings last time so not too much to add here. The squad is in place and I have my customary 22 players, 2 for each position, all in the door and being put through their paces in training.

My youth intake was nothing to shout about, just the one decent prospect but doubt he'll get near the first team unfortunately. Our Youth facilities leave a lot to be desired and so I've started scouting and signing my own potential stars for the future. I'm pleased with a couple of CDs and a CM that we now have on the books and I'll try and get them loaned out ASAP for some match experience.

The only other item of note is that I've successfully completed my training course and am now the proud owner of a National C Licence which is prominently hanging above my imaginary desk in my fictional office.

Pre-season

More off-the-field shenanigans marred our preseason training as my new captain, Karjalainen, our star RW from last year, decided I was a fool for selling Penalainen (the AMC I got rid of). Being the captain, he's turned out to be quite influential in the dressing room and he successfully managed to turn half the team against me. This is the group of players who think I can't cut the mustard as it is and so now things really have gone from bad to worse.

And just to add to my woes, I've made a huge mistake in my desperate attempt to sign a decent central midfielder. I'm only permitted to include 3 Non-EU players in the match day squad and so opted to only look at Europe based players for the role. Mandovic is Montenegrin so no issues there, except that with all this Brexit chat, i didn't realise that Montenegro weren't in the EU? So it turns out he won't be able to play alongside my Brazilian superstar who i have on loan for the season, and instead have had to settle for a mediocre Finnish lad who's only 2 stars according to my coaches.

Before i get on to our performances in the friendlies, i need to explain how the league and cup games work here, which is a bit different to any other country I've managed in before. The Finnish Cup has a qualifying round where teams are seeded into groups and the games are played in February and March, before the season proper gets under way in April. I realised too late that this meant my AssMan* scheduled all our friendlies to take place after the cup games, before the league fixtures began, so we had no match prep done beforehand!

*I don't think I've mentioned this before by the way, but my AM is none other than Jari Litmanen of former Liverpool fame and he's actually pretty good, usually anyway!

Performances

Friendlies
As i mentioned earlier, our friendlies actually took place after the Finnish Cup qualifying games, but at least that meant that we were well warmed up for the warm up matches!

We played really well in all of them. All told, 7 games, 27 goals scored, 3 conceded - a perfect record to set us up for the season ahead.

KuPS 2022 - Friendly results

Finnish Cup
Fresh from last year's resounding success in the competition, this seasons aim was to reach the semi-final. We were seeded into a six-team group alongside Honka, FC Inter, JJK, RoPS and TPS where we would each play against each other once. The top four teams in the group will proceed to the Second Round.

We managed victory in 4 of our 5 games, succumbing to a 1-0 away defeat to arch-rivals Honka whoa re becoming a bogey team for us. Despite the dip, we topped the group and drew NuPS from the division below in the Second Round. We were too strong for them and ran out 6-1 winners before meeting Gnistan in the Quarter Finals. Another comfortable, albeit not convincing, 2-1 win saw us into the Semi Final where we would play AC Oulu and win again, this time 3-1. Let's face it, this wasn't the hardest of cup runs but as they say, you can only beat what's in front of you, and we're now into the final, our second in consecutive years.

KuPS 2022 - Finnish Cup results

The Finnish Cup final saw us drawn against Premier League rivals Honka again and the game would be played at their ground giving us a slight disadvantage from the off. That said, I did my homework and was quietly confident as we headed into the match, especially after our disappointing defeat in the group stage.

They took an early lead from a soft penalty, which we cancelled out before the break and 6 minutes into the second half we took the lead, a second goal for our loanee striker Jesse Tuominen. We were playing brilliantly, dominating possession and getting some good shots on target. We hit the post twice as well as the cross bar and i knew it was only a matter of time before the next goal went in.

Imagine my shock then, when it was our net that the ball ended up in! 2-2 at 67 minutes and a tense end to the game ensued, i couldn't believe we were headed to extra time when we'd been so dominant. But then, on 91 minutes, salvation in the wake of a hat-trick for our hero Jesse, and surely a Cup win for us in the process.

But wait, there's more. An unexpected twist in the tale, a delightful equaliser from our opposition in the 92nd minute to snatch glory from our fingertips and completely ruin our afternoon! Extra time and of course now the momentum was with them, i dreaded the outcome.

2022 Finnish Cup Final result

It turns out I had nothing to fear, Tuominen wasn't about to roll over, and instead chose to hit them hard on the break with a stupendous winner in the 98th minute. They couldn't get close to us after that and in the end the best team won. Here we are celebrating our success, and my first piece of silverware for the club!

Wild scenes as stewards struggle to hold back the crowds

This guarantees us another go in the Europa League this year, but more on that later on.

Premier League
The board wanted a finish "around the top" of the league which i interpreted as 3rd or higher which are the Europe qualification spots. The media had us down as 2nd favourites to title rivals HJK who have won the league for two years running now.

With some solid friendly results just behind us, we headed in to the opening fixture with some cautious optimism, despite being up against title rivals HJK at home. We were hoping for a win but a disappointing 0-0 draw was what we got. The alarm bells didn't really go off until the second game of the season against JJK which also ended 0-0. What was going on with my tactic? Why couldn't we score any goals?! Worst of all, we picked up 2 points from what should have been at least 4 in my opinion.

This was the moment Karjalainen decided to make his move and despite my best effort to assuage his concerns, i ended up losing my temper at his stubbornness and agreed to sell him. I offered him to clubs without success and so instead offered him a chance to play in the third tier of Finnish football for one of my affiliates, which I thought was more than fair. He declined the offer and so I promptly relegated him to my U20's where he was too old to play anyway. Eventually he agreed to talk to some clubs, but not until the window had closed, and so he managed to secure a move away for when the transfer window reopened in July.

In the next game, we were back on it, securing a convincing 5-1 win, before notching up 2 more consecutive victories to see us comfortably secure 3rd place. By the end of May, we'd taken a bit of a dip in form with a couple of draws and 2 losses, one of which was a home defeat to IFK Mariehamn. We were pegged back in 3rd, 10 points behind league leaders IFK Mariehamn who had been predicted a 6th placed finish at the start of the season. I resigned myself to the fact we probably wouldn't catch them, and instead turned my attention to drawing in 2nd placed HJK who were only 4 points ahead of us and also seemed to be under-performing against expectations.

In the meantime, i had my scouts look for a replacement RW and they managed to find me a brilliant Finnish lad, Robert Taylor from Odd, who I was able to loan in for the rest of the season. Just as I'd agreed the deal, the scouts notified me of another RW who was available for next to nothing, currently languishing in Ipswich Town's reserve side. His name is Nathan Holland and he's a product of West Ham's academy so i knew he'd be good. After the initial Scout report they sent me, i had him scouted until full knowledge and saw him as an absolute steal at £20k. We got the paperwork signed and he would join later in the Summer.

Meanwhile in the league, our fortunes started to take an upward turn. We earnt ourselves 16 out of 18 points in June to see us leapfrog HJK and draw within 1 point of IFK Mariehamn. Our resounding success in the league saw me also earn the June MOTM Award which was an added bonus, but perhaps the real icing on the cake was the news update that Montenegro had joined the European Union. It seemed the gods were finally smiling down on us and my midfield maestro that had missed half of the games so far, could now take his rightful place as a permanent fixture in the starting XI.

Get Out of Jail Free - Montenegro join the European Union

Into July and we couldn't maintain our winning streak, first losing to FC Lahti, and then two more bore draws against VPS and then HJK. We wobbled, and fell back down to 3rd, but still within touching distance of 1st and 2nd.

August saw us compete in just three league fixtures but the fatigue was really starting to show. Despite winning two and drawing the other, none of the performances were overly convincing and we now had 3 long-term injuries to our 1st and 2nd choice LW, plus one of our CD.

We were really struggling now with fixtures coming thick and fast and limited time to recover, let alone train. Hopefully we can hang on as we head into the final few months of the season.

KuPS 2022 - Premier League results (April to August)

Europa League
Having won the Finnish Cup, we qualified for the Europa League and the board set us the target of reaching the Second Qualifying Round.

We entered the competition at the First Qualifying Round where we drawn against Gibraltan side St Joseph's. I didn't really know what to expect, although i assumed we would win, i still fielded my best XI just to be sure.

In fact, we absolutely demolished them, going 7-0 up in the first half and finishing the first leg 10-0, an incredible scoreline I thought. All but 3 of my players scored a rating of 9 or higher in the game and we took that momentum into the return leg, still a solid 4-0 win but slightly less emphatic than the first encounter.

A Perfect 10

Next up were Polish outfit Legia Warsaw, who without a doubt would prove to be a much tougher opponent. We'd already achieved our season aim of reaching the Second Qualifying Round so this was just for fun now. The team were already starting to tire from having two games every week so i rotated the squad as much as possible. Incredibly, we took a decisive 2-1 home win in the first leg, before settling for a 1-1 draw in the return, giving us a 3-2 aggregate victory.

The Third Qualifying Round threw us Derry City from Ireland and I was much more confident heading into this one. The away leg proved to be much tougher than i expected and we were lucky to come away with a 1-1 draw. We weren't much better on our patch either, but at least secured the win we needed to take us through to the 4th Qualifying Round.

By now, the team were exhausted, but with this round being the only thing standing between us and the Europa League Group Stages, we ploughed on. The team we'd been drawn against were Real San Sebastien from the Spanish La Liga. A much more superior opposition to any we'd faced to date, i was prepared for defeat and pleased we'd made it this far anyway. To my surprise, we outplayed them in both legs, securing a 2-0 win at home, followed by a 2-1 win in the return fixture.

Incredible stuff, we were into the group stages!

KuPS 2022 - Europa League Qualifying results

The squad are shattered, it's been 2 games a week for 4 months now, with the exception of 1 week where it was just the one game! I hadn't anticipated this amount of success at the start of the season and I'm worried we really don't have the depth in the squad to keep going like this. Nonetheless, i'm optimistic for our potential in the league and am excited for the Europa League group stages. You never know, we might just pull of an upset!

To be continued...

Tune in next time to see how we fared in the Europa League Group stages, read up on the finale to the 2022 Finnish Premier League title race, plus I reveal my season highlight. Until next time friends...

Nordic Nights | Chapter 7: Cause for Optimism

We left off with KuPS floundering in 10th place out of a total of 12 teams, and in desperate need of getting some points on the board. The media had predicted us to finish 5th so we were some way off the pace in the league. On the positive side, as mentioned previously, they had already emerged as League Cup winners and secured next season's European football so that was great news for me in terms of squad building, given the draw that European football should have on prospective new signings.

Before we get into that though, a quick reminder of this year's aims. A generous transfer and wage budget along with an achievable goal of mid-table finish in the league and second qualifying round in Europa League

Board expectations for remainder of the season

The team had already made the second qualifying round for the Europa League and so my main focus is going to be getting some points on the board in the league.

Squad Assessment

I went through my usual method of club and squad assessment - it's a fairly detailed process which i'll one day type up for others to look at. For now though, may assessment was we are short on good strikers, and have a serious imbalance of homegrown and foreign players.

The Finnish Premier League rules state i can't have more than 3 foreign players in my match day squad, and must have at least 9 home grown players in the squad, with 4 on the pitch at all times. This meant promoting a couple of Under 20 players and taking my loanee Brazilian centre back out of the match day squad to be used as a straight replacement for my other foreign centre back. Not ideal, but necessary to make things work.

I also got two 18 year old strikers in on a free, both with good attributes for the first team and with huge potential. With these additions I was confident of getting the results we needed to get out of the relegation battle and back to mid-table safety.

We had a good defensive minded midfielder in Gabriel who had been underutilised prior to my arrival, despite his attributes having him down as one of our best players. I decided to setup with a 4-1-2-2-1 formation so we could get he most of him, while simultaneously reducing the number of strikers we need on the field.

League Performances

When i took over we had 16 games left to play. We also had several games in hand due to our Europa League commitments - a few teams had played 4 more games than us which explained why we were so far down the league. Assuming we could win them all, 12 points would see us move up to top half, assuming the goal difference swung in our favour as well.

My first game in charge was against JJK, currently ranked 7th in the league. We played ok, but couldn't score and definitely weren't not good enough to win, and so we came away with a point - a bore draw. Better than nothing but even with my limited tactical knowledge, i could see the team hadn't fared well with the formation. My striker had next to no chances on goal and the defensive approach didn't really suit our stature over the other teams in the division.

League results

I changed the tactic to my usual 4-4-2 and in the next 5 games we were much better, notching up 3 wins and a draw which saw us climb a place in the table. In the remaining 10 games we were a bit hot and cold, but 4 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses were at least enough to finish a respectable 7th in the league. On the whole we had a few disappointing results against lesser opposition so we have some improvements to make for next season.

Europa League Performances

My second game in charge was a the first leg of the Europa League Second Qualifying Round where we were up against Rostov from Russia. We played well, delivering a solid 1-0 win to take with us to the second leg. Here we were outplayed and despite a first leg win, they overpowered us in the return fixture where we lost 2-0. I wasn't too disappointed in the end though, we achieved our goal and left plenty to build on next term.

Preparation for Next Season

With the season concluded i had a few administrative tasks to attend to while the players went on holiday. I had the usual in-depth assessment of the team, but I also had a number of disgruntled players. It seems my in-game reputation was too low for the players liking and so i had very poor backing from the team and therefore, a dressing room on the rocks.

My only real solution for this to wait it out, win more games and gradually prove that i know what i'm doing. However, this was further complicated by the fact that once i'd done my squad assessment for next season, one of the players that was surplus to requirements was the main complainant. He was eating up £1k p/w on wages so i really needed to move him on, despite the obvious backlash I'd get for it.

I managed to offload him and now have half a dozen players who think that was a mistake. Hopefully the board stick with me long enough for the new season to start so i can prove my worth.

Transfers - in and out

In terms of new signings, i resigned a couple of loanees that we'd had last season and apart from a few backups, i got a new central defender and a new central midfielder. My tactic was originally utilising a BBM-D but i was find in it very difficult to find a suitable player for this role and so have switched to a CM-D. Will be interesting to see what difference this makes.

Inspired by @JLAspey's Moneyball approach when scouting this player, i used player ratings and other stats as part of my decision to find the right player. Marko Merdovic is a 23 y/o from Grbalj in the Montenegrin league and whom i signed for 80k, and is now worth £130k which i'm quite happy about. His average ratings have been above 7 for the past two seasons, and he's contributed a few goals and assists too. Hopefully he can prove the difference for me.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 6: Over and Out

For the first time since taking over at Nosaby, I've failed in having my squad assembled by the end of the year. I'm still missing a key piece to the puzzle: a Ball Winning Midfielder. I'm keen to find the right player for this role, someone with good strength and stamina, who has the ability to disrupt attacking play and pass his way out of danger and into an attack of our own.

Needless to say this is proving quite challenging, made harder by the fact my club reputation is impacting my ability to sign anyone decent. We're also still a part time club with a limited scouting range of just Sweden which doesn't help. I'm starting to wonder if I've already taken Nosaby as far as they can go, but i'm determined to at least go through this season and see how they fare against the big(ish) boys.

I kicked off my pre-season friendlies with a home game to world famous IF Elfsborg, where we ran out 5-3 winners. I made the mistake of starting to think this season might not be as hard as i thought, but i was swiftly brought back down to earth with 6 successive defeats, scoring just 3 and conceding 15! Still, having been a lifelong West ham fan, i know that pre-season mean very little compared to playing competitive fixtures.

Somewhere in the midst of those losses, i signed my BWM, a 30-year old Swede with good but not great attributes. I was happy enough with him, but he's not exactly what i was looking for.

So with my team in place and pre-season training complete, the new season beckoned. The bookies had us predicted to finish bottom of the league, with 300-1 odds of winning it. As expected, we were in for a tough season. By the midway point we'd notched up 3 wins, 3 draws and 9 defeats - 6 of them consecutive, and including a 7-2 loss at home, a particular low point.

My 17th game of the season took saw us play at home to league leaders Sirius IF. By this point i'd made so many tweaks to my tactic that i barely recognised it anymore. I reverted to how i'd played last year and was pleased to see us lead for most of the game, conceding an equaliser in the 91st minute - gutting!

Despite what was still a positive result, I knew that the bubble had burst and my time at Nosaby IF was coming to an end. After a few more days hesitation, i decided to resign. There were still enough games left in the season that a new manager might be able to save them, but my patience had worn out. Our inability to sign the players we needed (and I wanted) had started to take it's toll and i didn't have the energy to go down and rebuild again.

I promptly began applying for some vacant posts in England, Scotland, Belgium, Finland and Norway and awaited their response of a chance to interview. A couple of interviews went well but ultimately ended with them going in another direction, until finally a job offer came through from Kuopion Palloseura, better known as KuPS, in the Finnish Premier League. Currently languishingly in 14th place, one place above the relegation zone, but with 4 games in hand, they were expected to finish in the top 3 at the start of the season.

A fresh start

They have already won the League Cup earlier this year, and as such have qualified for Europe next year, not to mention currently being in the 2nd qualifying round for the Europa League this year too. The club want a mid-table finish which i think is an easy ask with 9 games to go, and have thrown in £250k transfer kitty to get me started.

I'll get to work on assessing the squad and will report my progress next time. Thanks for reading!

Nordic Nights | Chapter 5: No Time for Losers

Pre-season review

Keeping with tradition, I holidayed through January, (somewhere hot I think!) and got back in time for pre-season. My Assistant Manager's contract expired and I took the chance to hire someone new with better coaching credentials. I also brought in another new coach, a new scout and and physio.

My new AM was much more organised than his predecessor and got us 6 friendlies sorted straight away. The step up to the First Division is quite a jump and given my bad start last year, I was keen to properly bed in my new recruits and create some squad harmony, while also testing ourselves against some decent opposition.

The teams we played were a mixed bag of similar and higher reputation and so I was pleased with our record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, a particular highlight being the 6-1 drubbing away to Almhults IF. By this point, the team were well versed in our tactic and seemed to be making friends. It's fair to say i was optimistic we could survive a relegation battle and stay in the division.

In complete contrast to last season, we managed to take 7 points from our opening 3 games which rocketed us up to the dizzy heights of 4th in the league. Don't worry though, we were promptly brought back down to reality with 2 successive defeats which put us in mid table, albeit the bottom half.

These opening games sum up our season really. A couple of wins, marred by the occasional draw or loss. I became so centred in how we did game to game that I genuinely didn't notice our gradual rise up the league until mid-way through the season when we sat comfortably in 2nd place.

Barring 2 consecutive defeats in mid-July, the second half of the season would see us lose just once more alongside 3 draws and a staggering 9 wins. Despite our impressive form in a division where we were expecting to struggle, we entered the final game of the season on level points with 2nd placed Mjallby AIF, ahead only on goal difference.

Our final game had us pitted away against mid-table Skovde AIK while Mjallby would play away to 3rd placed FC Trollhattan. We played a blinder in the first half, and most of the second too with the score at 3-0 on the hour mark. A goal for them in the 63rd minute, followed by another in the 83rd made for a stressful end to the game but we hung on and ran out overall winners. Meanwhile, Mjallby ultimately lost 1-0 and so it was official, we were First Division South Winners and were going up to the big time, the First Division Elite!

We are the champions!

To round off an unexpectedly great year, i was also to be crowned Manager of the Year by my peers, and given the honour of managing the First Division South Rookie team in their annual friendly match again the First Division North Rookie team. I employed my usual tactics and was pleased to see a couple of familiar faces in the squad as my Poacher and Advanced Playmaker both made the side as well. Unfortunately though, it wasn't to be me and we succumbed to a lacklustre 1-0 defeat. Not my proudest day but not something I was too hung up about.

MOTY

Squad Rebuild

Like a ships sail tacking into the wind, I swung my attention to planning for next year. If i thought the step up from Second Division to First Division was big, the climb to the Elite League was a quantum leap. The only similarity i can really use to describe it is it feels like taking a League Two team straight into the Championship and bypassing League One.

The board granted another increase to my wage budget which gave me an extra £2k p/w to play with. For reference, most of my players earn less than £100 p/w with a handful on around £200 - £300 p/w. I immediately relegated 4 of my starting 11 to my reserve 11 as i didn't believe they would cut it week-in-week out at this level. I also had a couple of retirees and two backups unhappy at the lack of first team football.

All told, i was on the hunt for a new BWM, a left winger, striker and right wing back for the first team, along with a couple of reserves to ensure squad depth. It was important the new players complimented what i already have in place. For example, I've hung on to my star striker, who notched up 18 goals last season (more than anyone else int he division), and i wanted a big target man that he could play off as i'm sure it will lead to more chances.

As I've discovered in the past, the vast majority of players believe our rapid rise up the leagues will be short lived and it won't take long for us to slide our way back down again. As a result, convincing quality players to join has proved extremely difficult which is frustrating to say the least. I have the budget to buy them and to pay them well but they won't give me a chance to even negotiate with them!

This conundrum has led me to two solutions. The first, i will hire good quality (as opposed to exceptional quality), hard working players for the first team - think 3 starts rather than 5. The second, is i need to invest in some youth prospects. My thinking is if (or 'when' hopefully) i stay up, i'll likely continue to have the same problem, but with some good young players coming through, hopefully i can blood my own superstars instead.

I manged to secure the services of a good quality left winger, a decent target man reserve centre back, reserve BWM, and best of all, a highly rated 19 y/o full back. My only gap that needed filling was my starting BWM. My new reserve player was ok and will come good for future years, but for now i need something that can compete at this level.

Now that the team is starting to settle, i don't see the point in signing someone unless they're exactly what i need so i'm biding my time and waiting for the right man. The search is still on, with every recommendation coming from my scouts turning out to be lower league level, or severely lacking in the key attributes i need. I'm sure he's there, skulking in the shadows, waiting to be discovered!

Staff changes

Unfortunately for me, my AM got offered a managers position at Hogaborgs BK in the Swedish Second Division and who am i to stand in the way of his career progression. I sent him on his way with my good graces and promptly began searching for a replacement. Unlike the rest of my staff hires, my new Assman came by way of recommendation from one of the coaches, and he's proven to be quite the upgrade. Defensive coaching attribute at 15, good with the kids and JCA and JPA both at a respectable 7 (which is good for my regional reputation team!).

With most of the squad assembled and my new staff in place, i noticed the days shortening as the nights drew in and before i new it, another Christmas morning dawned and i was relishing my annual holiday in January...

Nordic Nights | Chapter 4: Taking the Scenic Route

Back from a nice break and straight into pre-season. The team reported back in top condition, most likely a result of having 4 months to do nothing but relax, or maybe work out at the gym.

I had hoped the Board would show some willing and increase my wage budget but they opted to keep it the same which meant i was spending £300 over the budget each week. I should point out that this is a significant amount for Nosaby who's total wage budget is around £1200p/w. Despite my best efforts i could not offload my 6 veterans that were surplus to requirements and so i focused my energy on other things, hoping the Board would give me some patience of results were good.

They asked for a top half finish but given the discontent of some of my players, i instead opted for the target of reaching the playoffs. I didn't get any more money for it but my squad were much happier with our ambition.

I had a few affairs to get in order before the season started, beginning with squad registration and short number allocation.

I'm a big fan of reallocating shirt numbers to match the position the player is suited to. For example, 2 and 3 are for the full backs while 9 and 10 are the strikers etc. I then apply the same logic to the reserve 11 as well so 13 and 14 are given to the back up full backs and 20 and 21 to the reserve strikers.

I find this particularly useful when in the lower leagues as you're far less likely to know the players you're working with. Therefore it's hard to remember which position, role and duty they're supposed to be playing in, but more importantly, which one is the first choice and which one is the backup. Because I will know my formation and tactic quite well, I can use the shirt numbers to tell me the position, role, duty and comparative ability of each player.

Squad List

Next on my to do list is to look through what my assistant had the team working on in training. Given my in-game experience on the training pitch, I think I'm better off leaving the bulk of it to my Assistant, but i did want to review the individual positional training. He had some of the players working on positions that they were highly unlikely to play in, while their familiarity of the position i did want them in was still quite low. I made this adjustment for the next month and will check back again to see if any others need changing in the future. I, like many other FMers, tend to focus on the players attributes for the position, rather than their familiarity with the role as this will improve the more he plays there anyway.

The next thing I notice is my assistant hasn't set up any pre-season friendlies despite me asking him to organise it. With time already against us I schedule half a dozen games against similar and higher reputation teams. and am delighted to see we win all 6 comfortably which gives me tremendous optimism for the coming season.

Unfortunately for me, my optimism was short lived. I took a pitiful 1 point from my opening three games and by which point was fearing the worst. With the number of new signings I had made, I was sure that squad harmony was to blame for my poor start, but since that's beyond my control at this point, I ploughed ahead regardless.

In the two previous games where I had lost, the scores were 3-2 and 4-3 which proved my tactics were ok from a goal threat stand point, but I needed to shore up my leaky defence. I made a few changes and tweaked the tactic slightly to get stuck in and close down more. To say that it worked is a huge understatement. I would go on to win all of my next 9 games, including the home fixtures against both of my local rivals, and best of all we conceded just 3 goals in the process.

We rocketed to the top of the league and stayed there for most of the season. With a handful of games remaining, and an 8 point gap at the top I was confident we would secure promotion with ease. Of course the God of Sod with his crazy laws had other ideas. Not only did we let our lead slip, but we dropped down to second with 2 games left and ended up finishing there.We would have to contend the playoffs to get promoted.

I was expecting a playoff with one of the relegated teams for the First Division but in fact we were drawn into a group with two other teams, that then progresses to a knockout semi final and final.

A lot of hoops to jump through but I accepted our fate and got stuck in. We lost the first group game, but one the other one comfortably and progressed in goal difference. We won our semi final across two legs as well and made it to the final where we ran out comfortable winners.

We were up! Promoted to the Swedish First Division South for the first time in our history. A proud day for all and a nice achievement so early in my career.

End of Season Awards

Thanks to the massively over complicated playoff system, we finished the season almost at the start of the Transfer Window and so I only had a little time to assess our needs.

The board showed their true colours and immediately doubled my wage budget ready for the new season. If anything, I had too much money now! I quickly learnt that my top targets that we'd been scouting throughout the season still saw me as a low level team. I had some luck getting transfer fees agreed but before I could negotiate a contract, the players were telling me they had no interest in signing.

I picked up some good free agents, including a new front line, a Croatian midfielder and a new full back. In the end the squad were looking really good just before the Christmas break.

My only worry was the sharp decline of my no. 1 keeper. My promising young reserve goalie isn't ready for first team football so I picked up an established keeper from the first division for the astronomical fee of £1k.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 3: Upwards and Onwards

Uh oh! The transfer deadline is in 1 week! Worse still is the fact that I don’t have a scout in place to help identify some transfer targets and it will likely take me all week to find one anyway. My Assistant Manager (with a score of 1 for JCA and 1 for JPA) does his best to help and suggests half a dozen youth prospects. I sign them all up to a trial so I can assess them better over the coming week.

Meanwhile, I have my first game in charge later today - away against Osterlen FF - and in the absence of a scout (did I mention I don't have one!), I can’t get an opposition report to look at. Instead I look at what the media can give me which isn’t much to go on. They were predicted a mid table finish and are punching above their weight in 4th. They are unbeaten in 4 games and have only lost 3 all season– this will be tough.

I set the team up using the default templates, but switching the wide midfielders to supporting wingers and the two striker roles to a Pressing Forward and a Poacher as these better suit the players I have. I have a solid back 4, a good goalkeeper and two decent strikers so am hopeful of a good result.

First game in charge

After going down a goal in the 3rd minute, I thought I was in for a hiding, but I stuck with the tactic and trusted the team to rally. They left it late but with 2 goals of our own in the 73rd and 81st minute I was delighted to see us recover.

As it turns out, the win against Osterlen FF would prove to be the start of us going unbeaten for the rest of the season. A total of 5 wins and 4 draws saw us climb from 12th up to 9th place in the league, closing the gap to our target of 7th to just 3 points in the end. I was surprised to see such a quick upturn in our performances. Prior to me taking the job, Nosaby had managed a meagre 3 wins in 17 games.

First season remaining fixtures

End of season overview

With the first season completed I turn my attention to rebuilding the squad for next term. Out of the youth prospects my assistant suggested, I signed four of them up as cover for the first team before the window closed.

Our last game was end of September and the window doesn't reopen until end of November. With no money, and nothing but time on my hands I set about assessing the the team and identifying the areas that needed strengthening. The key area that needs improvement was in central midfield, but I also wanted a backup DR, GK and ST.

Meanwhile, some of my key players were becoming frustrated with our underachievement and were threatening to go elsewhere so I had that to contend with too. I also had some staff vacancies that needed filling.

My assistant continued to suggest potential signings which i was able to give trials to. I eventually got myself a scout and filled the other open staff roles as well. This helped a lot, particularly on the recruitment and training side of things. I was able to scout some of the players who were set to be released by other clubs and managed to utilise the free transfer market to make some good signings.

A couple of goal keepers, a few central midfielders and a reserve full back all came in, but the one that really excited me was my new central defender, Joakim Hall, a young and talented defender with great mental attributes. He was a perfect replacement for my ageing veteran centre back.

Incredibly, i had the team assembled a month before the window reopened. I had half a dozen players that I wanted to move on and so promptly put them on the Transfer List and offered them out to clubs. They were taking me over my wage budget but i knew once they were gone things would be back under control.

Before i knew it, the Christmas festivities were upon us and then a New Year dawned. My first match of the season wouldn't come until 17 April so i took January off, ready to come back and get the team in shape and ready to go again. Let's hope for a continuation from last season this year.