“I’m starting to get into this…”
That’s what FM tells me as I finish off my first season in charge of Southampton on FM22, and I’d agree. It was a cracking first season at St Mary’s, one I really enjoyed more and more as it went on. I haven’t played in the English Premier League since FM16 and I’d forgotten how good the battle for every point is on a weekly basis.
Here’s a summary of that first season and a look at the biggest decision I’ve had to make so far…
James Ward-Prowse
I switched the first transfer window off when I fired up the save, meaning the squads that begin the game are the ones you’ve got to contend with until the January transfer window opens.
It’s quite clear on that first look of the Saints squad that James Ward-Prowse, the captain, is the star man. By the time January rolled around he was deemed a world-class midfielder. He’d scored twice, once in the league, and laid on 10 assists across his 27 appearances. He was a cut above the majority of my side, and obviously a set-piece wizard. Brendan Rodgers’ Newcastle were sniffing around with their reported £200m budget to burn, but when Manchester City came in with an initial bid of £33m I saw he was keen to leave the club to head to the Etihad. I don’t like standing in the way of players that want to leave so I negotiated up to a more fair price of £52m and off he went.
The initial January transfer window budget of £6m was obviously bolstered by the sale of our key man, so how would we replace him? Even before his sale we were probably a little bit lighter than I’d usually like in the central midfield area. Oriol Romeu took over the captaincy following JWP’s departure, but the 30-year-old Spaniard probably isn’t my preferred option long-term in that midfield two. He has some incredible mental attributes and his Natural Fitness is 18, but his Acceleration and Pace have both dropped to 7, I need a mobile and dynamic midfield two in our 4-2-2-2. Ibrahima Diallo was the third choice in the first half of the season, with Stuart Armstrong also capable of filling in centrally.
To summarise, what I was looking for was:
Numbers. At least a couple of players to fill out our options. The Aston Villa approach post-Grealish.
Dynamism. They need to be able to move.
Affordable. Despite the JWP money we still aren’t made of money. I won’t be splashing tens of millions on a replacement.
Homegrown. Ideally they’d help fill out the Premier League homegrown squad rules.
So naturally the first signing I made on FM22 was spending £5m on Filip Rønningen Jørgensen, one of my star men from FM21. He could be an excellent Premier League midfielder, but the 19-year-old failed to get a work permit. He spent the remainder of the season out on loan at Austria Vienna, and continues to fail to qualify for a work permit so he’s spending the 2022/23 season at FC Midtjylland. I hope it works out eventually.
My key target was Ruben Loftus-Cheek. I was losing one double-barrelled surname player, I needed another in to replace him. RLC was deemed surplus to requirements at Chelsea and in he came for £7m. If you compare the two players, it’s no contest. Ward-Prowse has a number of standout attributes, Loftus-Cheek only has a couple, but I’m confident he can be one of those players that plays beyond his immediate ability given a chance. It’s always handy when you’ve got a club like Chelsea topping up his wages, they’ll be paying him an additional £52k a week for the next two seasons.
24-year-old Englishman, Lewis Cook, also joined the club. He’d hardly featured for Bournemouth in the Championship and was available for £3.7m. He won’t be the first name on the teamsheet, but was affordable and adds another rotational option in there.
Squad Planning
I actually really love switching the first window off. It gives you that first half of the season to really analyse your squad, give them minutes and see who’ll perform for you. Wholesale changes might not have come immediate once the January window opened, or even by the time it ended, but it certainly gave me the time to work plenty out about the future of the squad.
There was one more addition in January though. Ché Adams and Adam Armstrong had cemented themselves as my first choice pairing up front with Armando Broja as their back up. Broja was only on loan from Chelsea and I didn’t see a permanent move coming in the summer, so I acted swiftly to bring in another option up front. Someone who could be a difference maker.
There’s a theme developing on these signings. Anthony Martial was deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford and arrives on the South Coast for £10.5m. Again, Manchester United are happy to be paying him £48k a week for the next two seasons. It’s a really handy tool to attract players that might just be demanding more wages that you’re willing to offer.
He mostly lined up on the left wing in his 17 appearances across the second half of the season, cutting inside as an Inside Forward on Attack. He scored four and assisted two and I’m expecting bigger things from him as he settles into life nearer his native France.
There was one main reason he didn’t get more minutes on the pitch in his preferred forward position. Adam Armstrong. More on him later.
Both first team goalkeepers were out of contract come the end of the season. Fraser Forster cemented himself as my number one, and had a great season overall. He agreed a new deal with a £15k reduction in his weekly salary, while Alex McCarthy left for Lazio on a free. The JWP sale money was also used to agree a deal for a future number one arriving in the summer. 20-year-old Irish international, Gavin Bazunu, will arrive from Man City for a potential £8m. He’s got great potential and will be the perfect initial back-up for Forster.
After starting the central midfield overhaul my next step will be working on the wide positions. There was enough there to see me through until the end of the season but long-term, the current options aren’t ideal:
Theo Walcott (33-years-old, on £75k p/w)
Stuart Armstrong (30-years-old, £60k p/w)
Nathan Redmond (28-years-old, £75k p/w)
Moi Elyounoussi (27-years-old, £60k p/w)
Moussa Djenepo (23-years-old, £35k p/w)
Nathan Tella (22-years-old, £10k p/w)
There’s some big wage savings to make there on players who aren’t quite living up to what they’re making. Walcott barely featured, Redmond had a good first half of the season but lost his place in the second half, and Elyounoussi was disappointing when he did feature. They’ll be some changes in the summer for sure.
Season One Summary
Back to Adam Armstrong. Our £15m arrival from Blackburn last summer repaid the outlay and then some in his first season at the club. Armstrong scored 30 goals in 43 appearances, 26 of those goals coming in the Premier League as he led us to 7th in the league and finished behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the Golden Boot (Ronaldo scored 46, ridiculous).
It’s our highest finish in the league since 2015/16 and qualifies us for the Europa Conference League. I’m delighted about that and will 100% be going for the win in that competition.
It was a real battle for the top 6 as the season went on. Leeds, Aston Villa and ourselves were swapping positions between 5th and 7th on an almost weekly basis. After we beat Villa 3-0 on matchday 35 it looked as though we’d sewn up a top 6 place, but then faltered with draws against West Ham and Watford, while Villa went on an incredible run to finish the season, beating Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal and Dean Smith got the May Manager of the Month award. It’ll be very interesting to see if Spurs and Chelsea recover next season and finish as high up as expected.
We took 12 points this season against the traditional big 6, six of those points came on the first two matchdays as we defeated Chelsea and Liverpool. The importance going forward will be turning some of those eight defeats into at least draws and competing more in some of the disappointing defeats. Every little helps.
We fared well in the other 14 battle, losing four times and only one of those was in the second half of the season. Villa and Leeds did inflict two of those defeats, with Leeds handing us our only outclassing, a 4-1 defeat at Elland Road on matchday six. All of our seven draws came against our direct competitors and could easily be turned into more points on the board.
Armstrong’s form, as our Advanced Forward, really did help propel us into Europe. By the end of the first half of the season he had seven league goals, which I thought was fine. I was quite happy with his outlay. In the second half of the season though, something clicked. He scored in seven consecutive appearances from the end of January to the beginning of April, actually scoring 11 in that time, including two hattricks against Norwich and Everton. Doing some quick maths, it was 19 league goals in 17 matches across the second half of the season.
Going forward in the save it’d also be really nice to beat Liverpool again after they knocked us out of both domestic cup competitions. It was great to get to the semi finals of both though, going above and beyond the board expectations.
What’s Next?
More of the same?
The board are expecting us to finish mid-table next season, which suits me perfectly. I’ll be personally aiming for another European spot finish, but it’ll be tricky if the big 6 underperformers do improve.
I’m buzzing to finally play in the Europa Conference League too. The board are expecting us to reach at least the quarter finals, I want to win it. I’d love to win it. Will we be able to contend with the multiple matches every week?
I didn’t go through our tactical approach much, but did allude to a few positions. We’re mainly lining up in a 4-2-2-2 similar to Saints’ approach IRL right now. I won’t be making many tweaks to that going into my second season.
The summer will be busy, with a fair few squad changes planned. Everyone wants a summer of wheeling and dealing on FM, don’t they? I’ve got to get it right, seeing as my contract expires at the end of season two. Will I be given a new deal and get kept on at St Mary’s?