June 5, 2029. The in-game date of my resignation as a Dijon FCO manager. I decided to leave this French club a season earlier than planned for this save, but I felt it was the best decision in combination with winning the domestic double twice in a row and winning the Champions League in the second season too.
My next aim was to become the Reading FC manager as the club is the last one on my list of clubs I want to play with in FM24. They had their manager who was the fan’s favourite and he was able to keep them in the Premier League by just one point in the previous season.
So, I had to wait…
…waiting was not so long.
It took only around six in-game months of clicking the continue button, and watching a couple of Perugia/Dijon/Reading matches just to let others know my in-game manager person is still alive. And tens of similar press conferences with the same questions and the same reactions no matter what answer I selected.
Reading started the 2028/2029 season horrendously with seven defeats in the opening seven Premier League matches. They gained the first point of the season after a 1:1 draw against West Brom away from home. The first win was a 1:0 win over Middlesbrough in the 12th league round thanks to a goal in the 90+5 minute.
But despite the job security of their manager being insecure, it lasted until the start of December 2028 before the board decided to sack the manager. It was after 16 matches with just 1 win, 4 draws and 11 defeats. Bottom of the table.
The Premier League table after the opening 16 matches.
Will they give me the job?
I already declared my interest in the job back in September but there was nothing to do more. The only real response after declaring the interest was from the Reading fans as they said they want to keep Tyler as the Reading FC manager. But when the board sacked him, I applied for the job immediately.
They sacked him on December 9, 2028, after a 2:3 defeat by Aston Villa. Before the board decided to hire me, it lasted around 10 days and the caretaker manager was able to beat Sunderland 2:0 at home so I took the job with two wins in 17 matches.
I had just three days before the first match against Arsenal away from home. We lost 0:1. I didn’t count some points from this match but conceding just one goal was a positive result.
Worst performing team in everything before my appointment.
Tactic: 4-1-3-2
The same as I planned what clubs I would play with in FM24, I also had a clear idea of what formations I would use with each club. It was a 3-5-2 with Perugia, it was a 4-4-1-1 with Dijon and the plan was to create some 4-1-3-2 formation with Reading. The same as I used in Football Manager 2017 when I played with Reading for many years and I tweaked it a lot.
4-1-3-2 v2028-29
The main difference between FM17 and the current version is that I didn’t use the Half Back role in FM17. But I will use it as my main role for the defensive midfield position.
The tweaking of this formation began straight in the match against Arsenal. It’s not ideal to tweak and test the formation against the second team of the table with a couple of great young players in combination with the fact you’re at the bottom of the table. But it’s just a game.
My initial idea was to use WB(A) or CWB(S) on both sides of our defensive line in combination with the Half Back role. But the first match gave me enough reasons to start rethinking this selection. Despite the overall tactic is not so risky, using CWB(S) is risky if you don’t have enough players to cover all the offensive adventures and trips by the wide defenders. They are wide attacking midfielders more than defenders.
We conceded eight goals in the first four matches and I had enough despite we gained four points thanks to a win against Leeds and a draw with Chelsea. But the wide defenders were 1) too high up the pitch, 2) too wide and we lost too many simple passes, and 3) they didn’t contribute effectively on both sides of the pitch.
I changed both to FB(S) and lately to FB(A). And our “stay in the Premier League quest” started definitely. We beat Leicester in the league and Charlton in the FA Cup with two clean sheets. We drew 2:2 with Brighton (2nd of the table at that time) and we beat West Ham in the FA Cup. The great bonus was three wins against Liverpool, Manchester United and West Brom.
The bottom place of the Premier League was behind us after these results as we moved up to the 16th place.
GK - FB(S) - CD(D) - MEZ(A) - DLF(A) - MEZ(A) - FB(S) - DLF(A) - AF = goal. Simple. #FM24 pic.twitter.com/oKjknqMNks
— FM Rensie | Ondrej (@FMRensie) April 29, 2024
Winter transfers break
It’s not so easy to join a new club in the middle of the season. I had very limited time to analyse the squad and I also had to deal with a couple of unhappy players because 1) they wanted a new/better contract or 2) they wanted to leave because they don’t play as much as they would like.
It resulted in some winter transfer business but I will keep it short. The main outgoing transfers were Alex Bailey to Leeds for €37.5M and Erwand Chelbon to Rennes for €23.5M. Some more players didn’t accept offers so they remained in the club. The bank balance was already boosted enough by these two big transfers.
I knew the biggest issue was the defensive line. I bought Enrico Brancadori from Südtirol just for €900k (a stupidly low transfer release clause), Bren Worrall from Bristol City for €8.5M and Elliot Kidner from West Ham for €1.1M. The first two mentioned players are also able to perform in the Half Back role solidly, that’s another bonus for both of them.
The real strengthening of the squad was buying Sam Gerlofs. The young Dutch midfielder is able to play as DLP(S) or AP(S) but also as a boring CM. I decided to pay €17.25M for him because I felt it would be worth it.
TL:DR: We spent €27.5M and we received €65M during winter.
Probably the best decision in terms of the squad and transfer policy within January was when I found out one of the best-rated central defenders Mike Seager is out on loan in the Championship with Bristol City. It felt weird to have the most valuable defender out on loan and I decided to recall him back.
He made 17(1) Premier League appearances and he ended the season with an average rating of 7.01. Our defensive line was much better with him and I also gave him a new contract.
Back on the pitch
After beating West Brom 4:0 at home at the beginning of February, I thought we need some real challenge or some slap to feel the reality again. Luckily, we lost in Newcastle and players went back to the ground.
Six wins followed this match against Newcastle as we won four matches in the league and fifth round and quarter final of the FA Cup. The 3:2 win against Sheffield United in the middle of March was our penultimate win of the season.
We lost to Nottingham Forest and tied with Everton at home. Both these results were dissapointing but I was calm as I was 100% sure we will survive. The FA Cup semi final against Newcastle was cruel. We were 2:0 up, they equalised but we scored our third in the 90th minute. Newcastle equalised in the 90+6th minute and they scored the winning goal in the 119th minute when we already played with ten men because I was not able to substitute. But matches like this happen. Reaching the FA Cup semi final while battling against relegation really was not in a plan.
We didn’t have easy schedule for the last league rounds and it started with a heavy 0:4 defeat against Manchester City. But we beat Aston Villa 2:1 at home and that meant we had safety secured. After one draw and two defeants in the last three matches, we ended 14th in the Premier League while Aston Villa won the league and they became the first team outside Manchester winning the title since Liverpool in 2020.
How did the other two (past) clubs do in the 2028/2029 season?
Dijon finished third in the French top tier and made it to the Champions League quarter-final.
Perugia finished 15th in Serie A, just two points above the relegation, almost the same as in the previous season when it was three points above the relegation.
What next?
The main aim of keeping the club in the Premier League was successful. I feel the real club re-building starts now ahead of the 2029/2030 season. There are many more players I don’t want in the club and I am sure I can safe some serious money if I would be able to sell them.
Also, the contracts of two-thirds of staff members end at the end of the season. The club facilities are great but the potential is not fully used because staff members are not good enough. It’s time to find some better ones for all teams.
I set up some new scouting recruitment focusses to find some good UK-based players + some top players outside the UK who are able to gain the work permit.
I will try to improve the tactic too for another season. Do you have some tips on how it can be improved? Just let me know and I will try to take some inspiration.
When I mentioned the potential/great facilities, the youth intake 2029 proved there can be some great new players. The central defender Niall Wright has a lot of potential and I think I will let him play in the next season as much as possible. He just needs to work on some things like jumping and strength.
This is my last FM24 club, I don’t know how long I will be able to play this save but I’m one season ahead of the schedule in terms of playing with two clubs already. I feel I will focus on the club development the most now as it would be the one-club save…
FM Slack alert!
There were a lot of changes within many social media including Twitter (now “X”) and it’s not the same as in the past. We can’t see many things due to the algorithm, weird preferences and many other reasons I don’t even want to know.
There are many Discord servers and I’m sure they are good and useful. But I will probably always be a bigger fan of Slack. Or better worded the Football Manager Slack. Feel free to join us with this link.
You will find a short channel summary in the ‘generalchat’ so it will be easier for you to navigate through the channels.
Thanks for reading.