FM22 : Southend United : Know your Roots : #1

November 23, 2021

Hello there! Welcome back to my little page on the famous (infamous?) CoffeehouseFM website. Today I’ll be starting my Football Manager 2022 save with Southend United, with the intentions of turning the Shrimpers fortunes around. I covered my basic goals and objectives here, which will act as a nice refresher before I review…as much as I’m going to review.

Root of the problem

Having loaded the game up for the first time, I am pleased to announce that Southend United’s finances remain as they were in the Beta - circa £750k in the bank, and £1k per week or so over the wage budget. The opening transfer window is closed, so this obviously means that the (Ted)deadwood we are lumbered with in the U23 and U18 squads will just be a drain for a few months at a minimum. As much as I don’t intend on making any signings in the first season, I am acutely aware that I’ll need to renew a few contracts (as cost effectively as possible), and that injuries may take a toll and we need some depth. Off the pitch I’ve decided to hire club icon Spencer Prior, should he be available, and that’s it. We are expected to get Playoffs this season (albeit our Media Prediction is 14th…), and I’m confident that if we find our feet early on a tactical front that we could push on early, and if not, then we should have a relatively clean slate to entirely rebuild the club going into Season Two…if I last a failed promotion campaign.

I wanted to go simple with the tactics to start, and I think this is just about simple enough for my non-league standard players to understand:

I have two good goalkeepers at the start of the save to choose from, and have plumped for Harry Seaden for now - he’s much younger, and is as good as my experienced option in almost all areas…aside from shot stopping. If he has issues early on then I’ll go for the old shot stopper rather than the young cross-claimer
The defence, and Abu Ogogo, have a combined age of 158 at the start of the save. The centre backs are slow, but experienced, and our full backs are technically quite sound and not yet physically incapable. We will be starting with a lower defensive line as we don’t want space behind us to open up, and Ogogo is there to cover for the fullbacks, and for the midfield duo in front of him
I was intending to go for a 4-4-2 at the start of the save, however we are lacking depth up front, and thus decided to go for a couple of interesting wingers to go with a technically able Nathan Ferguson in CM(A), and experienced BBM Will Atkinson. Ferguson is able to play as an AP(A), which I’ll consider if I need to adjust any formations and tactics early on
Up front, as I mentioned, we are a bit light. We have a backup striker who is quite large but does little else, so we go with another player the wrong side of 30 in Rhys Murphy. He’s not agile, but I think he’ll link up the team nicely, and be able to finish off chances. The wingers are fairly interchangeable and largely similar in terms of overall quality, so I’ll be putting 18-year old Oli Coker into the squad to try and get him developing ASAP
The instructions are simple enough - across the defence and central midfield areas we have some decent passers of the ball (I think?), and we are lacking pace in forward areas, thus my intention is for the team to keep passes short and wait for the opposition to position themselves poorly, at which point the likes of Nathans Ralph and Ferguson, Jack Bridge, and Rhys Murphy to find room to play around in. The defence is slow, so we’re playing deeper and regrouping when we lose the ball, however I won’t be telling the team not to counter if the opportunity arises.

I really can’t wait for all of this information to be obsolete in the next blog when it transpires I’ve changed to a 3-1-3-2-1 Gegenpress. I had discussed in my original post the idea that I’ll be doing my own General Training, and my intention is to do so, but I’m going to be a little more fluid on this. To start, I’m seeing through the Pre-Season schedule set by my assistant, and then I’ll review on a week-to-week basis if I need to change anything. I’ll still be relying on FM Athlete’s training planner to play around with training when I’m not in-game, though.

So with all that out of the way, what am I actually doing in Pre-Season? Not a lot. I’ll be managing the friendlies to ensure that my tactic isn’t absolutely woeful, but apart from that I’ll actually be doing very little. What an exciting start to the save!

Vanarama National : Season One

Quite frankly, the above tactic played out exactly as I intended it to 90% of the time, although that means that the other 10% was often catastrophic, and sometimes within that 90% were times when it played perfectly but was still inadequate. Our low defensive line was a masterstroke, and five wins with consecutive clean sheets at the start of the season saw us topping the table, before five games without a win then saw us drop to eighth. At this point I changed the CM(A) role to AP(A), and the lone striker became a Poacher to ensure they were closer to the opponent’s goal. The remainder of our first half of the season saw us have a couple of short winning runs, punctuated by a draw and a defeat by the end of them. By the time we’d played our 22nd game of the league season (the proper halfway point), we found ourselves in fifth place - too far from the single automatic spot, and even the top two playoff spots that get a bye, but also too far ahead of the rest of the league table to worry about missing out. Only 13 goals had been conceded, however Rhys Murphy was pretty much the only player finding the net consistently at this point.

The second half of the Vanarama National campaign was fairly similar, although a disastrous period in April where we lost Harry Seaden, Nathan Ralph, Oli Coker, and Tom Clifford (again, having missed half of the season already) to injury contributed to a measly 4 points from six games, and mostly against our rivals at the top of the table. It didn’t give me much confidence in all honesty. We ended the regulation season in May with a domineering win and a game in which we somehow only drew, so I was happy that form was recovering as our players were returning from injury. A seventh place finish was lower than I feel like we deserved, but the important thing was to be in the mix, regardless of the fact that we have an extra Playoff round to play that the teams in 2nd and 3rd don’t have to partake in.

By way of retaining the narrative of this blog, I have to reveal that we played Aldershot in the Playoff First Round, and that Rhys Murphy scored the only goal in first half added time to ensure our progress to the Semi Final…

Cup runs

Having won the old Fourth Division in 1981, and League One in 2006, I decided fairly early on to take the FA Cup and FA Trophy seriously (perhaps this contributed to eventual exhaustion/injuries in the league campaign…) in order to bring some silverware to Roots Hall. The FA Cup obviously wasn’t achievable in terms of victory, but our victories over Non-League side Leamington, and League One side Gillingham, netted us a cool £30k to add to the bank, before Harry Seaden’s only real mistake of the season cost us in a 2-1 home defeat to Fleetwood Town in the Second Round (still making gate receipt money though innit). I’ll be taking the FA Cup with the same amount of seriousness next season as the prospect of a Third Round tie against someone good and making money, or someone rubbish and progressing, is tantalising.

The other silverware on offer at this level is the FA Trophy, which seemed below the like of Non-League ‘super clubs’ Stockport, and Notts County. We played a total of eight games in the competition - Weymouth, Hampton & Richmond, AFC Telford, Boston United (after a replay), and Wrexham (over two legs) were all seen off, and we conceded only two goals en-route to Wembley, where we would face off against Playoff rivals Bromley. The game would be played a couple of days after our Playoff against Aldershot, and at this point I was utilising the manual rest function quite heavily - I wanted our best team out at all times.

After taking a 3rd minute lead courtesy of a low cross by Patrick Ssala (our best Youth Intake prospect) being converted by Rhys Murphy, we then held Bromley at arms length for the majority of the game. I made some changes around the hour mark simply to ensure some of our older heads got a rest ahead of our Playoff Semi Final, and that’s when the pressure started. Bromley equalised in the same manner that we scored - their AMR released by the full back, and a cross converted on the six yard line. Disaster…for all of twenty seconds:

Rhys Murphy has proved to be incredibly clinical at this level, and he once again proved our saviour by scoring the equaliser from the kick off - a long ball by Nathan Ferguson out to the wing was then sent into the box by Jack Bridge, where the former Irish U21 player tucked away a header. This was Southend United’s first cup win in their entire history, and I was naturally delighted, but we had to ensure that we finished off what we started in the league…

The Playoffs

The Semi Final was another away affair, and yet again we played a London-based side, Barnet. I always had a soft spot for The Bees from my Ultimate Soccer Manager 98 days, although I can’t quite remember why. After a gruelling 90 minutes of action, and a few missed chances on our end, we went into Extra Time with the team absolutely shagged. Jack Bridge put us ahead in the 97th minute, and we then held the North Londoners off until the last minute of the game…however Harry Seaden produced a masterful save from a long shot, and we booked our place in the Playoff Final against Notts County. Our record against The Magpies had been pretty horrid having lost both of our league meetings, however the latest was a 3-1 defeat in April when we were lacking a good portion of our starting squad, so I sensed we had a chance.

The historic Wembley Stadium was treated to an absolute spectacle in this match. I don’t know about the computer generated crowd, but I was on the edge of my seat (which I should have pre-emptively chosen as the toilet) for the entire match. After a mix-up in the Notts defence, Rhys Murphy fired us ahead in the 13th minute, before Rodel Richards fired an equaliser from the penalty spot in the 20th minute. Straight from kick off we constructed the below move, and Murphy showed his quality yet again…

Unfortunately we gifted Notts yet another penalty, this time via a handball rather than a poor challenge, and Rodel Richards equalised yet again. We created very little for the rest of the half, although Notts were only really trying long shots themselves. Around the hour mark Murphy headed us into the lead to complete his hattrick, and I started to dream of a season full of silverware and acclaim for Ted Redwood…I got too excited, too soon. With twelve minutes left to play Cal Roberts fired in a strike from 25 yards, which left a very sour taste. We had led three times, and been clawed back three times, two of which were absolute gifts, and one was a long range screamer. Our fate was sealed in the 85th minute when Francis Vincent finished off Notts only well-constructed move of the game, and no amount of throwing our players forward seemed to do anything. Our game plan, in this instance, was perfect. We stifled the second best attacking side in the league in open play, and they only really had one good chance to speak of (which they converted). It was just a shame about the other goals we conceded. It’s another season in the Vanarama National for us, and no doubt the board will be expecting automatic promotion...

We had a few great performers this season, as well as a whole host of decent ones:

Four first-teamers averaged over 7.2 - Nathan Ralph (shortlisted for PotY in the Vanarama National), Shaun Hobson, Rhys Murphy, and Harry Seaden. A further 5 first-teamers averaged around a 7.0
Rhys Murphy was our top scorer with 37 goals in 52(1) games, and was followed by Oli Coker with 11 in 43(1), and Jack Bridge bagged 10 in 29(21)
Nathans Ralph and Ferguson were our top assisters with 11 and 10 respectively
Over the regulation season we had the best defence, conceding 40 goals in 44 games, including 21 clean sheets over that time. Whilst our defensive work was good, this does show that we either tend to keep a clean sheet or concede twice on average. On the forward front we hit 66, which puts us around the midtable mark for goals scored
Our 56% average possession was second only to our Playoff Final conquerors, Notts County. I’m happy with our passing and possession statistics this season, however we may need to adjust our tactics a little in the next campaign to ensure we are getting possession in the right places to boost our scoring statistics

Foundations

Whether or not I’ll be around long enough to benefit from laying foundations at Southend, I don’t know. The toughest thing about choosing a team to start a blog with is that it could all blow up in your face and leave you looking a mug - I’d say that hasn’t happened this season, but realistically it was probably only saved, on paper, by the FA Trophy win. With this in mind, how am I approaching the coming season, and beyond, to ensure success for myself and the club within this save?

Choosing the correct contracts to extend is key, and I think I’ve made a couple of mistakes this season. Will Atkinson, my BBM, is ageing, and probably won’t be a starter next season, and during a few injury-hit moments I panicked and signed up a couple of the U19s to longer deals who are definitely not good enough, but I wanted to ensure continuity and cover. Aside from this, we’ve secured Harry Seaden and Oli Coker to longer deals (for more money, but their development and performances have totally justified this), as well as ensuring we have the talents of Rhys Murphy, and the Nathans Ralph and Ferguson next season. Our core players remain in place, and although it’s increased our wage expenditure for now, we will be shipping a fair few high-earning freebies in the summer, as well as trying to replace all of our squad/backup players with younger, cheaper models. The increase to wages was easily offset by our cup successes, and especially by our share of Wembley gate receipts, netting us over £800k over two matches in a week there..

We have a number of positions that need strengthening, however we had a bit of a result with the Youth Intake being so strong. It may take a further season or so to start seeing these players regularly, but the below four players will very much be part of the squad going forwards, and may even provide us with a payday should we require it. Patrick Ssali is the highlight, but I am confident about our homegrown quota going forwards:

It was my intention to offer a moderately detailed view of our financials this season, what went right, what went wrong, however with no other seasons to compare it becomes moderately irrelevant. At the end of the season we were hit with a circa £800k tax bill as we’d made £3.2m or so profit over the season, with sponsorship, gate receipts, and season tickets bringing in around £6.5m between them bringing in the vast majority of our total £8.4m income. Player and staff wages, including bonuses, cost us circa £2.9m, so my initial target will be to reduce this amount whilst also gaining promotion from Non-League. As we’ve made a load of money, and clearly are in last chance saloon for retaining our job, I’ve decided to try and look after the club’s future by requesting an upgrade to our Training and Youth Facilities, which technically began in Season Two, and will cost around £2.7m and will be completed during the course of the coming campaign. It’s been tough not to go all-in with improving staff and extending the contracts of a few players during this first season, but it will definitely give us a lot of leeway going into an all-important season where promotion is essential.

Join me next time to see whether or not we’ll be taking Southend United into League Two, or if I’ll be doing an Infamous based on my own Football Manager 2022 save.

Laters x

Infamous : FM22 : Nuno Espírito Santo - Tottenham Hotspur

November 5, 2021

InFMous

Having signed an initial two year deal with Spurs on 30/06/2021, Nuno Espírito Santo had an uphill battle on his hands to convince the fans, and even many players at the club, that he was the right Head Coach to try and return the Lilywhites to the top table of domestic and continental football. In a well-publicised drawn out saga, Nuno was seen as a last resort option after the likes of Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino rejected the opportunity, and Paulo Fonesca and Gennaro Gattuso were overlooked for one reason or another.

The job, on paper, looked difficult from the get-go. From the outside, it seemed as if fans wanted the club to be back in the Top 4, and challenging for silverware. With the standard of the playing squad you could perhaps forgive this as an achievable target, but having been without a Head Coach for two-and-a-half months, and with the player unrest building up within the squad (and culminating in a very public interview in which Harry Kane declared his intention to leave his ‘boyhood’ club), it seemed more of a poisoned chalice than a golden ticket. Nuno was immediately greeted with scepticism due to his ‘Mourinho-lite’ image, perhaps due to the counter attacking style adopted by Wolverhampton Wanderers during the tenure of their new Head Coach. Would teams give Spurs as much space to roam? Are they capable of being as organised defensively? Even if the answers to the prior questions had been positive, you still need to sell it to the fans, and in my opinion that was never even attempted. On 01/11/2021, Nuno Espírito Santo was dismissed after only 10 league games. The wrong man at the worst time. I’m here to fix that (and not Antonio Conte).

Nuno was sacked from Spurs following three straight defeats - one in the Europa Conference League to Vitesse, an away loss to London rivals West Ham, and a 3-0 spanking at home courtesy of a hideously disjointed Manchester United (Manchester UFC to some). Spurs are only 5 points away from Top 4, are into the League Cup Quarter Final against the Irons, and are still in control of qualification in their ECL group. Drab performances seem to have killed off Nuno rather than results, although the latter wasn’t that fantastic, either. When they won it was narrow, and when the lost they were generally tanked or just totally inept.

Marching In

I turned transfers off for the opening window as I want to work with the same squad that Nuno had been using. I am glad that in-game there appears to be no personal issues with Harry Kane (which is surely something that Sports Interactive know as fact and could have been hard-coded, but oh well), however upon looking at the squad I’m reminded that the defensive and midfield positions are actually a bit rubbish, at least compared to other teams challenging for Champions League qualification spots. This is the best I could come up with:

Am I confident this will work in the Football Manager 2022 Beta? No. I think it’s a bit of a risk to throw myself into this challenge at all, quite frankly, as for many years I haven’t managed a side expected to do well whilst having actual decent competition within the league. I mentioned that I wasn’t overly keen on the quality of the defence or midfield, so theoretically one option would be to just try and decimate a team with the attacking talent Spurs have and hope to score one more than our opposition. I’ve decided to go all Thanos, though, and attempt to be balanced. I’m expected to deliver attacking, possession-based entertaining football, and I think this tactic matches intent with the reality of the current squad. I intend to keep hold of the ball in the middle to allow Sergio Reguilón and Emerson Royal to move up the pitch, and without having a forced Regroup/Counter-Press or Hold Shape/Counter, the players should be intelligent enough to decide if there is an opportunity to move faster and take advantage, or simply retain the ball and await an opening. We are pragmatic in the middle of the pitch, as I need to ensure a presence within defence and transition, as well as have at least one player from deep supporting attacks. With Dele Alli and Tanguy Ndombele in the middle, I’m confident we’ll see some good contributions from at least one of them. The attack speaks for itself, although having Son Heung-min as a DLF(A) possibly wastes some of his workrate, but he should link up with Emerson Royal and Dele Alli quite well, and hopefully move into the channel enough to make the most of his dribbling ability. Harry Kane is there simply to create and finish chances - I was tempted to use him as a Poacher, simply to guarantee he’d be around the 18-yard box as much as possible, and I may yet move him there, but for now I’d like to see how mobile a CF(A) is in this new game.

As fixtures go, unfortunately the game has decided not to use real fixtures (I honestly can’t remember if I clicked the button…or if there even is a button?), so I’m not playing all the same teams that Nuno did, however we are due to play both Manchester Ultimate Fighting Championship and East London Irons during the month of October, so that’ll be a good litmus test as to how we compare to the poor Portuguese chap. We have managed to avoid Pacos de Ferreira in the final stage of Europa Conference League qualifying (and yes I am sorting the real name fix shortly!), however we’ve drawn our Scottish friends St. Johnstone instead. The fixture list is relatively kind overall though, so I’m hoping for more than 5 league wins, and perhaps taking control of our ECL group once we get there…

August

On paper Norwich City away is quite a kind opening fixture, however we were fortunate to get away with a 1-0 win in an awful match. Slow Lloris saved a penalty early in the second half to keep the scores at 0-0, and I decided I’d had enough of the formation already in the 70th minute, bringing on Bergwijn and playing a 5-2-3 (clearly my go-to for Infamous…), Clearly an inspired change, as Bergwijn scored the winner in the 91st minute. I decided to take the 5-2-3 tactic forward (IF(A) on the left, IW(A) on the right, CF(S) in the middle) but with the same instructions. A partially rotated side then smashed St. Johnstone 5-0 in the first leg of our ECL qualifier, although it’s hard to judge if we looked exciting or were just vastly superior. The return leg yielded a mind-numbing 0-0 draw, so we progress to the group stage. Our first home game in the league was a vaguely entertaining 1-0 victory over Burnley thanks to Harry Kane’s early strike, with plenty of chances created, but our lack of cutting edge could have cost us on another day.

September

After an international break in which we lost Lucas Moura for a few months (to injury, not on his travels), we hosted a Saudi-backed Newcastle United managed by Hansi Flick, and earned a convincing 3-0 win despite playing the last 30 minutes with 10 men after Lo Celso went off injured a few minutes after he came on. What followed was a drab 0-0 in the Europa Conference League against SK Sturm Graz (also in our group are Shamrock Rovers and AMO Apollon Limassol), in which our rotated side lacked any synergy and were actually dominated possession-wise by our Austrian visitors. We looked better in the 80th minute once the big guns came on (I was daydreaming so forgot to make changes earlier), but our hot-and-cold performances leave me wondering if I’m essentially Nuno mark II at this point. The Wolves of Wolverhampton were our foes in the Carabao Cup Third Round, but despite playing our strongest XI we put in yet another faltering performance, however at least we came away with a 1-0 win (courtesy of another Harry Kane penalty) and our seventh clean sheet in a row. We kept faith with the previous squad as we travelled to Goodison to face Everton but we conceded our first and second goals of the season before halftime (a Richarlison penalty and a Michael Keane header from a corner), so I shifted to a 4-2-3-1 just to try something different in the second half, before conceding once more after the break. My favourite moment of the game was when Emerson Royal ran the ball straight off the pitch whilst under zero pressure - at least they seem to have got him right in the Match Engine.

With performances generally being quite poor, albeit usually clinical in attack, I decided to mix things up a bit and at least pretend to look threatening going forwards.:

On paper we’ve simply moved our fullbacks into wingback positions and adjusted a few roles. I’ve given our central defence less license to ‘ball play’ (the Libero may flit between that and a standard CD(D) depending on opposition), as it were, and want to get the ball wide quite quickly and rely on some overlaps to create options in the middle, which is occupied by Ndombele and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg who will be offering most of the legs in the middle. I now expect the team to press when we lose the ball, and counter when we win it. It’s not particularly original, but giving the Spurs squad license to think for themselves is clearly a risk. We actually conceded in our following game against Shamrock Rovers, but put four past the Irish in a comfortable victory. The key month for the save is now upon us…

October

A key month, but the only key I’ve seen so far is the one that opens up the door to our 18 yard box. Our first match sees us get spanked by Manchester United, with Cristiano Ronaldo proving unplayable in this edition of Football Manager. We were awful. Over the international break I pondered my existence, and wondered if this is going to be my first Infamous failure. I panicked and moved Son up top to play DF(A), and moved my other winger role into Shadow Striker. My tinkering was rewarded with a lovely 4-1 win over struggling Southampton, with Son scoring twice and securing Player of the Match from his new role. My final Europa Conference League match, against AMO Apollon Limassol, was a sensible 2-0 away win with a fully rotated side, so we end our stint in this competition top of Group C with 7 points from 9, and looking good to progress. Wolves then came to try and spoil the Spurs party again, this time in the league, but were vanquished to the shadow realm after a confident 2-0 win. We’ve looked a lot more mobile when going forwards, which is possibly due to the increased space down the wings. Who’d have thought? A Paul Dummett inspired Newcastle side fell to a 1-0 loss to our lads in the Carabao Cup, setting up a lovely tie away at Norwich in the Quarter Final (which we will never play). Our final game of the save comes on 30/10/2021, where we travelled to the generically named ‘London Stadium’ in order to be unfairly beaten 1-0 by the generic East London club, West Ham United. A Saïd Benrahma free kick dashed my hopes of leaving on a high, and we were unable to convert from our many good opportunities. These games happen sometimes, I just really could have done without it happening in my final game in charge.

Team Espírito?

Having lived through a sample size of Nuno’s toils with Spurs, I can understand why things went wrong. The squad, at least in Football Manager 2022, doesn’t seem amazingly balanced, and at some point in the near future is due a refresh, especially at the back. Although we won 5 of our 8 league games, the games we did win were against fodder, and we even managed to mess up against our London rivals in the final game. The final tactic I stumbled upon seemed to play better than anything else I had attempted before then, and think with some minor tweaks that it’d have done Spurs some good going forwards. One thing I did not have to contend with was a wantaway Harry Kane, for which I am most grateful. Despite the team’s inconsistent performances (less so results, as these were probably about as expected overall), Kane managed 4 goals in 8 league games, and a further 5 across Carabao/ECL action. Aside from Hugo Lloris (who is definitely far superior in Football Manager compared to reality), it was only really Kane himself who performed well, although the late tactical change did start to bring the best out of Son Heung-min.

In reality, Tottenham occupy ninth position in the Premier League table after 10 games. We are in the same position, however the scheduling seems to have just done its own thing in-game. We have two games in hand at the end of October versus the IRL Spurs. The next two league games on the schedule in my save are showing as Chelsea and Leicester, so there are no guarantees that 10 league games would bring about a greater return than what Nuno managed. We matched the club’s efforts in the Carabao Cup, as we’re both in the final eight, but in the Europa Conference League we are 3 points better off, and actually in a qualifying position as things stand.

This was my favourite moment of the save - Emerson Royal switching on the afterburners to ghost past two of his own players

I suppose the final way we can judge the success of this Infamous save is whether or not we were playing more exciting football than Nuno’s side. I’d argue that by winning games by more than one goal, and that our goal difference in the league is +7 on our counterparts, that it may seem that way. It definitely took a little while for my side to find their feet tactically, however it wasn’t a snooze fest every time we entered the pitch. I feel quite similar to how I felt during my John Barnes Infamous, wherein we had a better average of points per game but the actual end product was very similar to the results we were trying to improve upon. I’ve definitely not done worse than Nuno Espírito Santo, and I’d also suggest that we’ve done a little bit better, and that’s enough for me. Well done me.

FM22 : Southend United : Save overview

November 2, 2021

Alright. Welcome to my ‘save reveal’ for my ‘main’ save in Football Manager 2022 with Southend United. This blog will serve as a prologue to both the save, and perhaps my overall shift in the style of my blogging going into the new edition. The reason I write ‘main’ as ‘main’ is because I don’t anticipate that it will be a save that lasts the entirety of the edition/it won’t be my only save/the save may only last seasons. With that out of the way, I can focus on the more interesting stuff.

I don’t have many detailed memories of being at Roots Hall, but I went to around a dozen games during my formative years, travelled to Cardiff to watch their 2-0 loss to Blackpool in the LDV Vans Final (their first ever cup final appearance), and was even a ball boy once whilst playing for a local club:

I was a hugely unpopular member of the squad

Why have I chosen Southend United in FM22? On the face of it, it seems incredibly obvious, and unfortunately I have a feeble imagination and thus cannot fathom any reasons outside of them:

Recently relegated to Vanarama National - Southend United dropped out of the Football League for the first time in 101 years in the 2020/21 season
They are my local club - on foot I can reach Roots Hall in just under 15 minutes, and I can even hear the (sparse) crowd from my house when the Shrimpers score
New home - I doubt it will be hard coded in FM22 that a move to the long-mooted new stadium at Fossetts Farm is now afoot, but the location has existed as an option for Southend United to move into for a number of editions. Planning permission was finally granted on 26/10/2021, after over two decades of plans and failures to find a new home away from Roots Hall
Financial issues - for many years the club has staved off many winding up petitions due to unpaid HMRC bills, with 4 seen off in 2019 alone. Chairman Ron Martin clearly ends up paying these bills himself, as the club are not sustainable (and haven’t been throughout my adult life), but the club needs to be run differently to survive recent ill-fortunes on the pitch

So, as a TL;DR, they’re my local club, the finances are shambolic, they are struggling on-the-pitch, and they have potential in the long term to move into a large stadium.

Scrimping Shrimping

For too many years it seems as if the club have been chasing the glories of the past - Freddy Eastwood’s free kick winner against Manchester United in the League Cup, successive promotions to the Championship from League Two…those days are over, for now. The cold, hard reality is that Southend United are in a very bad place and need to act accordingly.

Short term: Get back into the Football League.

In the Beta the board demand Playoffs at a minimum, so chances are that if I fail to get promoted I’ll be under severe pressure. With this in mind I’ll need to be battling my instincts to go out and sign youngsters (regardless of how cheap they are), as I need players who can do a job here and now. I’ll be looking to handle General Training for the first time in the current iteration of the training schedule (I’ll be utilising FM Athlete’s excellent FM22 Training Planner to play around with my options before the save starts). My focus for the first year will be geared towards producing the best match performance possible, and once we’re stabilised in the Football League, and we’re looking to produce our own players (for on and off the pitch reasons), we can focus on improving our players instead.

Long term: Ensure a considered financial approach matches steady growth and results in order to make it to Fossetts Farm Stadium.

I’m not saying it will be a ‘youth only’ challenge, but in the long term great emphasis will be placed on producing our own players, as well as signing players from the lowest levels available in-game in order to maximise the value of player sales, as well as bang-for-buck in our own side. I don’t know if it’s realistic, but I’d like to avoid paying signing on/agent fees (or at least minimise them). There’ll be a big focus on how I look into finances at the club, and trying to upgrade facilities at the right time. I won’t be looking to improve our facilities for a few seasons as the cost to maintain them is exponential, and we need to be patient. There’s a possibility I will stop blogging the save should we make it to Fossetts Farm Stadium, and every season becomes remarkably similar to the last.

Impressions

Having loaded up the save during the Beta for research, I’ve noted that the main strength of the current squad is the defensive spine, with the likes of John White solidifying central defence, and Arsenal alumni Abu Ogogo offering a solid presence in defensive midfield. We will begin the save lacking any depth at left back as Tom Clifford will be out of action until at least 2022, which is worrying, but we do have Nathan Ralph as a versatile option across defence. It is said that good defences win you trophies, and that’s how I’ll be trying to build the club up for the first year or two, especially as we are a little short of quality in the forward positions to begin with. I’ll be starting with the opening transfer window being turned off, so in January I’m expecting a bit of a fire-sale of almost all U23 and U19 assets, simply to save on some wages. We can focus on balancing the squad a little bit better once we know where we stand going into Season Two (if we get that far).

I’ve noticed that a few ex-Southend players I’ve seen in the flesh are doing quite well for themselves as backroom staff, with Mark Gower a scout at Liverpool, Adam Bartlett assistant manager at Milwall, and Shaun Goater an u-18 coach at Manchester City. The only ‘Icon’ available is ex-centre back, and local lad, Spencer Prior. He is available and willing to join as a coach on the Beta, so here’s hoping that continues in the full game as well.

We start out with ‘average’ Training and Youth Facilities, and a Youth Level of 3. The training ground is dated in real life, and I’d know as I have to walk past it if I’m going to the gym. I’d love to improve the facilities, but, as mentioned earlier, this has to be lower on the priority list unless we make a lot of money through player sales quite suddenly.

Our bank balance starts out at around £743k, which will no doubt be decimated by our £29.6k p/w wage expenditure (which is a grand per week over budget). We will make a loss this season, which makes it doubly important that we get back into League Two at the first time of asking. The longer we wait, the harder it will become.

Conclusions

I’ve been looking forward to this task for almost a year, having decided very early in FM21’s cycle that this was going to happen, however now I’ve seen what I have to contend with, I am a little worried. As with all Football Manager saves, I feel like if I can get past the first year unscathed then I’ll no doubt succeed with all of my objectives, but it’s not often I take a job in Football Manager that requires immediate success.

I do hope you’ll follow along for the ride, and if you have any advice about managing at this level, then please do get in touch. I’m scared.

Thanks again to FM Athlete for making his FM22 Training Plan spreadsheet - it’ll be my entry point to getting my head around this training UI at last!

A special thanks to Ondrej Rensie for his absolutely ridiculous work on his Football Manager skin, which I will no doubt be using once the game comes out. I’ve also followed his article in regards to other graphics in order to maximise my joy from the game, which can be found here.

Infamous : FM21 : Gary Neville - Valencia

September 13, 2021

InFMous

Back for more, eh? I don’t blame you, this blog series is the hottest shit in town, speaking of which…Gary Neville was hired as Valencia CF’s head coach on 6th December 2015 following the resignation of Nuno Espírito Santo a few days earlier. A 1-0 away loss to Sevilla left Valencia 5 points adrift of the Champions League places in La Liga, but only a single point behind 7th, and the final Europa League place:

As much as ninth in the table after 13 matches isn’t that bad, a poor showing in the Champions League group stages had all but doomed Los murciélagos to the dreaded Europa League knockout rounds. Still not making it untenable enough? How about the fact that infamous investor Peter Lim became the club’s owner the year before, and that the 2015/16 summer window saw Valencia spend a net 80m euro on players like Álvaro Negredo, a young João Cancelo, and Matthew Ryan. Expectations were high that Valencia would begin to restore their position as challengers to the ‘Big Three’, however it was too much, too soon, and the current manager of North London’s biggest club decided he’d had enough.

Following Nuno’s resignation, Lim turned to Phil Neville (who had been on the coaching staff at the club since July) to take temporary charge, before deciding a different approach was needed. Gary Neville was inexplicably brought in from the Sky Sports studio to prove that his criticism of football managers could be justified by proving himself in the big chair. What followed was almost farcical. Dropping into the Europa League, not winning a league game until his tenth attempt (and only winning three of the 16 in total), not keeping a clean sheet in a single league game, getting battered 7-0 by Barcelona in the Copa del Ray semi final first leg, and left the club in 14th, just six points clear of the relegation zone, when he was sacked on 30th March 2016. Neville’s managerial reputation never recovered, and to this day his spirit is known to walk around the woods with another Manchester United dinosaur, Roy Keane.

N.B. I’ve gone for the black again due to Valencia’s classic white shirt with black shorts - just think white is lazy so I’ve chosen the colour for their shorts — N.B. I’ve gone for the black again due to **Valencia’s** classic white shirt with black shorts - just think white is lazy so I’ve chosen the colour for their shorts

What have I walked into?

Well, my friend, the media prediction for the squad in Football Manager 2021 is 8th. €0 was spent in the summer just gone, with €40m incoming for the transfers of Ferran Torres, Francis Coquelin, and Geoffry Kondogbia. In their place is Wolves reject Patrick Cutrone. In real life, Valencia went on a huge cost-cutting venture due to losses of over 300m euro over the previous six years, and that is evident in Football Manager as well. ‘The bats’ eventually finished 13th in real life, and we at least find ourselves in a similar position as we take charge on 5th December 2020 in-game:

Only three points away from the Europa Conference League positions, but also just four away from a relegation place. The league is quite compact

The good news is that we have already played the two Madrid sides once, the bad news is that we kick off straight away against Sevilla, with an away game against Barcelona coming next. Fantastic. I’d best get to grips with the squad as quickly as I can then:

For the first time in one of these Infamous ‘challenges’, I feel a little apprehensive about how to set the team up. With Celtic, we were dominant force, but I also wanted to avoid the pitfalls of attacking relentlessly. At Newcastle I was acutely aware (being a long-time fan/sufferer) that we had a dynamic attacking unit and little else, so more defensive solidity was required to build a base for our flair players. Things were almost the same here, however our wingers, Cheryshev and Guedes, aren’t quite as dynamic as Saint-Maximin, and Maxi Gómez is a very different striker to Wilson. We have a few bigger lads at centre back who are strong in the air, so the idea is to force other teams wide and get them to try and successfully beat us in the air. I was tempted to give our decent wingbacks more license to roam either on an attacking duty, or as Complete Wingbacks, however I want to ensure our shape is kept when building an attack as I feel like we’d get caught quite easily down the wings seeing as we’re giving up space in front of us (when it comes to defensive responsibilities). I’m not sold on the two roles in the middle - I may end up standard CM roles if I think Soler is heading too wide to get involved. As mentioned before, our front three aren’t completely dynamic, and I will need to bring Maxi Gómez into play to make the most of him, as he’ll certainly not be running onto anything. Patience. Patience also is the name of the game when it comes to waiting for my starting XI to be fit, as we’re about 3 weeks off having all of them back. Sweating.

In terms of key players, I suppose I’m looking at our defence to basically get us through games, as I have very little confidence that I’ve set the middle and final thirds up very well. Jasper Cillessen in sticks is reliable, Gabriel and Mangala in the centre are experienced and better than their Premier League reputation gives them credit for, whilst Wass and Gayà could be the spark down the wings that brings our attacking play to life:

The fact that Daniel Wass is even highlighted shows how worried I am by our squad. He’s very much an all-rounder, which hopefully will just about suit his position, but his attributes are very similar to our offensive wingers, and even Soler in centre midfield. Honestly, pray for me. The transfer window opens in a few weeks, however it comes at the wrong time - we are currently short of an actual striker for the next two weeks with Gómez, Cutrone, and Gameiro all injured for two weeks. Once they’re back, you’d hope we won’t need more cover for a single striking position. I don’t yet know what we’ll need, but possibly just decent cover in the middle of the park, and perhaps an ‘x factor’ on one of the wings (provided we can afford it).

December

Five league games, four wins, three clean sheets, and we advance to the next round of the Copa del Ray. Despite being extremely limited by the sheer number of injuries we currently have (it wouldn’t be until the final game of the month, against Huesca, that we are able to make our allotted five outfield substitutions), it looks like my initial attempt to stay defensively compact is working! We also didn’t have to wait long for our first goal, with winger Denis Cheryshev heading in from Lee Kang-In’s cross - Football Manager things?

Our most emphatic league performance was our first game, on the day we took over, against Sevilla. We only conceded one half-chance, and looked dangerous cutting in from the wings. Barcelona scored two set pieces against us, including a direct Coutinho free kick, to dent my confidence - we created nothing in this match. We smashed some unknown lower league side in the Copa del Ray 8-0 to help my overall goal difference, before three close games against Celta Vigo, Cadiz, and Huesca, resulted in three victories. A common theme was our left wingback (Gayà once, Lato once) linking up with our left winger, before firing a cross across the box for Guedes and Cutrone to score winning goals against Celta Vigo and Cadiz respectively. Huesca were beaten by a deep free kick that was headed home by centre back Diakhaby. Iago Aspas scored the only goal against us during this time which came from a bit of penalty box pinball, but that aside, we didn’t look like conceding - Gabriel and Mangala have been absolute rocks thus far.

January

The transfer window is upon us, and as well as shifting out some deadwood, we also got rid of ageing, high-earning Kevin Gameiro, as well as agreeing to an end-of-season €45m transfer for Carlos Soler to Man Brick Red. With the books now more than balanced, we set about recruiting ageing, high-earning stars Ashley Young, Mario Mandžukić, and Fabio Quagliarella for low fees and alright wages. On the pitch we had eight games this month due to our progression in the Copa del Ray, with victories against FC Andorra and Villareal then punctuated by a 3-2 extra time defeat to lowly Girona. Disaster. In La Liga we went unbeaten, starting and ending the month with draws, but beating Elche (thanks to a Quagliarella rescue mission from the bench), Getafe and Eibar in the middle. We lost Eliqiuiam Mangala at the start of the month (I brought in David Carmo for €15m or so to cover and replace) and our defensive stability faltered, as is evident from only one clean sheet in the 5 league games, and we’ve been sneaking late wins recently, so we could do with the niggling injuries to Guedes ceasing, and for Gómez up top to find some consistency. From 14th to 8th in December, and now up to 4th at the end of January is not to be sniffed at though…two months down, two to go to prove I’m better than G Nev.

February

The start of the first month without any particular intrigue, which makes a nice change. We were hammered by Real Madrid, but managed to escape with a 2-1 defeat, before 3 league wins on the bounce which were punctuated by a few friendlies to get minutes into the legs of the also-rans of the squad. We’ve become incredibly reliant on a specific XI, and those in reserve (and even some playing) seem to be losing fitness very quickly. In every single match we are advised by our assistant to play Defensive over Balanced, which I am attributing to our flat five at the back looking very defensive, however we’ve been anything but that this month, scoring 11 goals in 4 games, and conceding 4 in the process. It’s been a good month for our strike force though, with Quagliarella bagging his fourth for us against Levante, Mandžukić heading in his first versus Granada, and Maxi Gómez finally hitting some form and scoring in each of the final two games of the month. Special mention goes to Gonçalo Guedes, as he’s looking completely unplayable at the minute, registering 6 assists in his last 3 games.

Things are clearly going very well at Valencia this season, however I have begun to wonder if I’ve hamstrung the club a little bit next season. European football is definitely the target, and hopefully they can continue this good form to secure Champions League, however with a number of older heads in the squad they may struggle to strengthen properly across the park. Fortunately I’m only simming until the end of the season though so it’s not on my head!

March

So, this is it, the final month of my tenure, and we have only 3 games to play. Atletic Bilbao offer the sternest test, but otherwise Valladolid and Alaves offer us a kind end to my stint as big Gary. Bilbao end our winning run by holding us to a 0-0 draw, which is disappointing as Quagliarella, Gómez, and Lee Kang-In all had chances to bag all three points in a game which was dominated by our defence. I was happy with the performance, but the fans clearly weren’t and it was rated as an ‘E’, which I consider more than harsh. I’ve heard stories of how demanding the Valencia fans are, but they can just get to fuck. We surely improved their mood by beating Valldolid 1-0, with Gonçalo Guedes scoring this howitzer to secure the points (this was actually the final goal of the save as we drew our subsequent match with Alaves 0-0):

The Batman

So with all that said and done, it’s already incredibly clear that I’ve smashed Gary Neville in this challenge. Not only did we improve our results and league position considerably, but we also set Valencia up to finish the season in the Champions League places:

So we rescued the club from some horrible early form that left them closer to the relegation zone than it did to European spots, and we did it with some good defensive performances (9 clean sheets in 17 league games), with some punctuating moments from the likes of Guedes (5 goals and 8 assists in 17 starts), and the ageing striking maestro, Quagliarella (4 goals and 1 assist in 5 (4) appearances). Jose Gayà was wonderful at wingback, as predicted, however Daniel Wass struggled to get a run in the side after the signing of Ashley Young. A slight blot on the CV comes in the form of our Copa del Ray exit to Girona, however I’m pretty sure the league finish justifies the lack of progress on that front:

Overall, I’m happy, although in Football Manager 2022 I need to look to try some ‘harder’ challenges. I had things like Frank de Boer at Crystal Palace lined up, but honestly it’d probably be a waste of time, even for me! Hit me up in my DMs if you have any other great challenges to try. For now though, I’ve completed my hattrick!

FM21 : The search for Solano

September 1, 2021

The search for Solano

So, this is it, huh? My contract has been bought out, and now I have to finish the Football Manager 2021 series I started over on my old website. Quite honestly I am far too lazy to import everything over to my new home here on CoffeehouseFM, so I’ll be using this post as an overview of the whole series, including its (as yet) mysterious and fantastical ending.

The premise

The premise was simple - starting at Nolberto Solano’s first senior club, I would attempt to utilise the youth system to promote players through the club to bring success in Peru, before attempting to sign them elsewhere in the world, where they would become cult heroes. Fortunately for me, Solano started at Sporting Cristal in his homeland, and as they are probably the strongest club in the Primera División this made things a little bit easier. I still allowed myself a few transfers where we were completely lacking in depth for certain positions, however I would always attempt to use my homegrown lads first.

The Cristal chronicles

With the desired backroom staff firmly in place, as well as a tactic that encouraged the use of a mercurial playmaker as well as dynamic wingers, I set about my first objective - win everything in Peru, as often as possible, before setting my sights on a continental trophy.

Season One: The first season went well enough - we eventually beat our closest rivals, Sport Huancayo, to the title after our season fell a little short of winning the overall table outright, as well as winning only the second ever Copa Bicentenario final against Cienciano. A run to the Copa Sudamericana Semi Final also brought accolades for myself and the players already at the club, with Athletico Paranaense eventually halting our march towards a first continental final for over twenty years. Players already at the club such as Rentato Solís, Nilson Loyola, Jesús Petrell and Patricio Arce feature heavily, and will continue to do so whilst we bring through our first crop of youngsters (that happen to include future favourites Pedro Neyra and Franklin García):

Season Two: With all the pressure on to start pushing towards a dominant domestic campaign, we absolutely fell apart. We finished second overall, however our results in both the opening and closing phases meant that we, along with three others, would play in a four-way tussle for the title. I inadvertently clicked ‘Away’ when being prompted to choose where to play Sport Huancayo, and the altitude rascals beat us 2-0 to end our hopes in the Semi Final. Rancid. We also dropped out of the cup in the Group Stage, as well as getting beaten by Flamengo in the Last 16 of the Copa LIbertadores. I was actually a little surprised not to come under more pressure to keep my job.

On the youth front, Neyra featured a lot and did little, and García hardly featured and did nought. A notable batch of youngsters came through including midfield mover Bruno Camino, never-quite-good-enough Manuel Gómez, mysterious winger Eli Ríos (more on him later), and the fabulously named Oshiro Solano, a right winger. Luis Salazar arrives as my first youth import of the save as we are lacking quality striking options from the intakes thus far:

Season Three: Following a useless second season, Cristal returned to form in 2023. We won the opening phase of the season in a playoff against UTC, and then won the division in its entirety to reclaim the trophy. Another trophy reclaimed was the Copa Bicentenario, as we saw off Cusco FC on penalties to win a dramatic Final. We were beaten over two legs in the Last 16 by Brazilians again in the Libertadores, with Santos being the superior team this year.

This was the first season that I decided to bring in actual starters to the club that would probably keep their positions for a few seasons, with Argentinian folk Carlos Alegre, Erik Núñez, and Paolo Daher all joining for free mid-season.

Pedro Neyra features in over 40 games, and registers 11 goals and 3 assists. García, Camino, and Gomez all feature regularly. Oshiro Solano doesn’t play much but does play well when called upon despite his limited ability. Luis Salazar scores 26 goals in 45 games to ensure we don’t need further transfer reinforcements up top. We were blessed with the Youth Intake this year, with ‘keeper Nick Fernández, as well as future internationals Alberto Villacorta, Daniel Espinoza, and Nicolás Ronceros, all coming through. Arguably the best Intake we had at the club:

Season Four: Another season, another opening phase playoff victory followed by winning the Primera División outright. We drew on points with Sport Huancayo (those bastards were a constant nuisance), and saw them off in extra time, before drawing on points with Melgar in the closing phase, however the obscure way the league structure works ensured that we add our third league title to the collection in four seasons. In the cup competitions I made the decision to put all my eggs into the Libertadores basket, and that meant fielding a weak side against Llacuabamba in the Bicentenario Quarter FInal, which we lost 1-0. My ploy worked well as aggregate victories over Boca and INTER (not that one) got us into the Semi Final, before we conceded an atrocious goal conceded in the last twenty minutes of the second leg against Sao Paulo robbed us of our aggregate lead, and we eventually lost 5-4 over both legs:

On the transfers front, Argie stopper Carlos Alegre goes out on loan yet again, but that’s about it. Spoiler: he will end up playing a lot for me, but never make an appearance for Sporting Cristal.

Our young lads continue to thrive, with Villacorta and Ríos having breakthrough seasons. Only Luis Salazar is capped by Peru at this point, but it won’t be long before some of our own homegrown boys join him. From the Youth Intake we gratefully receive technical winger Mateo Pajares, and playmaker Alexis Alva. They don’t play too much next season, and although they will eventually sign for me at my next club, they flatter to deceive there as well. Probably a case of not playing to their strengths, but I felt the talent was there. I neglected to make a save at the end of Season Four, so you’ll just have to believe me (I have later screenshots of them but they hardly feature again so bollocks to them).

Season Five: The final season in Peru. The year is 2025, and we’re aiming to win it all. We finish the league campaign unbeaten, with 26 wins and 4 draws contributing to our fourth title in five seasons - no-one got close. In the Copa Bicentenario we actually lost a game to a second division side during the Group Stage, but this wasn’t enough to halt our progress to the Final, where we saw off Cusco FC (again) in a 4-1 victory. What I really wanted was the Copa Libertadores. We got through a tough group containing Cusco FC (ffs), Boca, and Fluminense, before seeing off Colombians Atlético Nacional, popular dining implements River Plate, and then our first ever continental foes Athletico Paranaense in the Semi Final. An historic match against Flamengo awaited. We fell 1-0 to the dominant Brazilians, with a 57th minute red card for Johan Madrid not aiding out effort. We never stood a chance, but I’m proud to have got to the Final.

As this was the final season in Peru I decided that I wasn’t that fussed about who was coming through the Intake. In the middle of the campaign we sold Paolo Daher and Luis Salazar to Atletico Madrid and Toronto respectively (whilst retaining them on loan for the rest of the campaign), but this didn’t stop them from being two of our better performers. Ronceros started banging them in this season, and Neyra was the next best off our production line, but team was now essentially made up of the old guard from the start, and those still in their teenage years and just out of them. Full international caps were gained for the aforementioned Neyra and Ronceros, as well as Frank ‘Franklin’ García. We truly had a special team at Cristal, and I do miss them.

The PEC pursuit

Season Five.Five: Having been offered high profile jobs in the Greek Second Division, and by Ufa in Russia (I made Sporting Cristal into continental challengers ffs), I eventually got through the interview process at Dutch relegation fodder, PEC Zwolle. Having taken over at the back end of December, we found ourselves one point above the Relegation Playoff zone. I noted that we had inherited two homegrown talents - a strong, hard-working right back, and a massive Brazilian striker in the youth ranks who also happened to be bloody superb, so I wanted build a solid platform defensively and hope that he could deliver the goods up top.

We needed reinforcements, however I needed to sell before I could buy. I sent €4m worth of players packing, and raided Sporting Cristal for 5 first team players for around €2.2m. At the back I was relying on Nick Fernández between the sticks, and defensive duo Alberto Villacorta and Manuel Gómez to keep more clean sheets than Zwolle were doing prior to my arrival. DMC destroyer Daniel Espinoza shielded the back four, whilst semi-mercurial winger Eli Ríos was entrusted to supply the giant Brazilian, Neto. I attempted to sign Pedro Neyra, Nicolás Ronceros, and Bruno Camino, however they all fecked off elsewhere to not battle against relegation. Frank García was about to move to Italy, however a broken foot scuppered his medical, and allowed us to pick him up at the end of this season following a successful fight against relegation - we ended the season 14 points clear of the Relegation Playoff place, and could look to clear some deadwood, and bring in more Peruvians…

Season Six: We continued to rock a 4-1-2-3 where I was looking for our wingers to move into the space in the middle, and force Neto further forward. It worked. In Eredivisie we improved on last season’s 11th place finish, and ended up 5th, securing Europa Conference League football for next season…or at least we would have, had we not also won the KNVB Beker in my first full season at the club, with Neto scoring the only goal in the Final against sc Herenveen. Europa League football beckons!

Neto absolutely carried us all season - he was the only player to score more than 6 goals in all competitions, having finished on 22. He was regularly supplied by Eli Ríos, who was quickly making me forget about the player who I thought was the new Nolberto Solano; Pedro Neyra. Ríos ended the season with 5 goals and 11 assists in 34 games, and I genuinely believed he was moving up a level. Our other Peruvians were solid, but unspectacular, however Villacorta and Espinoza did make their debuts for their country in this season.

Season Seven: Here we are. The first of the previously un-blogged seasons. Usually I end up not blogging seasons if they become much of a muchness, and this is probably the reason why I stopped this time, too. We finished fifth in the league again after starting incredibly slowly (2 league wins in the first 3 months), with the switch to my regulation 4-2-4 formation being the catalyst for improved results. Ajax knocked us out of the Beker in the third round, and we dropped into the Europa Conference League after finishing third in our Europa League group. I was chuffed to finally play in this illustrious competition, however we were beaten in the first knockout round by Rangers. We’d be back in the Europa Conference League next season, and I couldn’t wait.

On the transfers front we signed a couple of future key players in flying left wingback, Armando Lumeuno, and dominant Russian centre back, Genady Naumov. Our Peruvian boys did…jack all. Eli Ríos did his best Michu impression and become bloody awful after one great season, and Daniel Espinoza decided that he was going to be happy by earning loads more money in China. Honestly, this was a boring season. Neto was great, I guess.

Season Eight: We start off the season by signing young striking duo Eren Yildiz and Ewald Weissmann for €25m all-in, as I was under the impression that Neto’s €45m release clause would be met (it was in the winter window, January 2029, by Spurs), as well as ex-Cristal goalie Carlos Alegre resurfacing to become the PEC Zwolle #1, and roaming playmaker, Jimmy Velásquez, arriving from Allianza. In January we signed García upgrade, Bruno Camino, for around €11m from Gremio. We finally had the depth in our squad to properly push on, in my opinion, although that was at risk early when Zenit saw us off in the final round of Europa Conference League qualifying. Rancid. On the bright side, we were then able to focus all of our resources on domestic matters. sc Herenveen ended our dream of the KNVB Beker in January, so most of the season was spent concentrating on the league, in which we came second, 6 points behind eventual winners Feyenoord. We were never really challenging for the title, and were the best of the teams that finished in the European places, it was as simple as that. This was an incredibly young team that really started to come into its own in the last couple of months of the campaign, so hopefully that bodes well for the final season of the save.

I mentioned that Camino came in mid-season, and his ability to carry the ball forward and pick a pass to the wide players at the right time really aided our push to second, as we were lacking a decent foil for Peruvian wonderkid, Velásquez. With the final season approaching, I decided to try and bring in some other ex-Cristal favourites, and hope that my search for a new Solano will bring us glory in another league, and that their legend will live on forever…

Season Nine: So, this is it. The final season. To begin, we brought in two expensive full backs, and an Argentinian wonderkid centre back, in order to effectively give us two strong starting XIs. I was intending to target progression to at least the knockout rounds of whatever continental competition we’d end up in, and wanted to try and win the league above all else. Joining my exotic defensive additions was electric winger, Pedro Neyra, from Mainz for €12m, even though my coaches didn’t rate him. I attempted to bring Ronceros in from Bologna throughout the season, but I just couldn’t get personal terms over the line.

After starting the season poorly (yet again), we found ourselves rocketing up the table towards the winter break, and we were in second place going into the second half of the Eredivisie campaign. We unfortunately dropped out of the Champions League in the Group Stage, having seen off Braga and Rangers to qualify. Manchester City, Barcelona, and Shakhtar proved a little too canny, although finishing third in that group and dropping into the Europa League was no disgrace. It was around this time we also moved into our new stadium, which I was hoping to christen with at least one trophy by the end of the campaign.

Still rocking the 4-2-4, I decided to massively overload on central midfield players, and bring back as many cult heroes (to me), as I could. Luis Salazar came in from Toronto as a Ronceros-lite, Daniel Espinoza returned from China, and my only non-newgen signing since season two of the save, Jesús Petrell, joins me from FC Metz to add some experience into the middle. I suppose when you know you’re in the final furlong of the save you don’t worry about spending money any more, or upsetting one of the many DLPs we had in the squad. My faith was rewarded in the latter half of the campaign, as we dropped only 8 more points over the season to be crowned as champions of Eredivisie for the first time, as well as smashing all who came before us in the KNVB Beker to win the domestic double. The Europa League draw was very unkind, however we managed to comfortably force our way past Monaco, Braga, and Chelsea, in order to meet Roma in the Semi Final. A 2-2 away draw was incoming before one of my expensive, exotic full-backs, Daniel González, was sent off in the 88th minute. ‘Not to worry’, I thought, and went defensive. Roma immediately scored twice, and unfortunately those goals proved very decisive. We lead the second leg 2-0, and hadn’t really conceded a single chance until the Italians scored in the 83rd minute, which left us too much to do. A 5-4 aggregate defeat is no disgrace, but we should have made it through to the final, really.

Overall the season was a huge success, with so many players performing for long stretches. Striker Yildiz managed 51 goals in 49 appearances, having been supplied by assists from all over the pitch. The January signings played their part, however it was the performances of Pedro Neyra that grabbed my attention. He was seemingly peripheral at Mainz, however 12 goals and 13 assists in 42 appearances were reminiscent of his Cristal days, and I truly believe that he is the successor to Solano.

The search for Solano

As I mentioned above, I genuinely believe that the search for Solano has ended. Pedro Neyra’s contribution to the success at Sporting Cristal and PEC Zwolle cannot be denied, and he was integral to how we played in our most successful seasons at each club. A few months off his 25th birthday, Neyra has made 47 appearances for Peru, as well as 171 at club level for three sides, winning 9 trophies in the process. Solano was never this successful on the pitch in terms of his trophy output, however there was always an air of excitement when he was on the ball, and attempting to supply legendary striker, Alan Shearer, with ammunition. I felt the same connection between Neyra and Yildiz in this final season, and I’ll honestly cherish the memory of him forever (until I don’t).

In terms of other very notable players from the Cristal academy, I’ll include Frank García, Bruno Camino, and Alberto Villacorta as pseudo-legendary players, with the latter being the captain of PEC Zwolle as they lifted their first ever Eredivisie title despite not being technically as good as my other centre back options. I would have loved to manage Ronceros again as I feel like he could have had a season as good as Yildiz given the chance, but alas my adopted striking son, Salazar, was a worthy replacement, and more importantly wasn’t a greedy bastard. I know this a little much, but I felt a bit emotional during our final game of the save (an 8-2 drubbing of SC Cambuur) ended with Salazar scoring the final goal of the save, which was constructed by the other Peruvian lads:

Final thoughts

Honestly, I had hoped that this save would have gone on a little longer, and I genuinely enjoyed it when I was playing it, however my personal situation changed quite considerably in terms of how often I could play, and that dented my momentum. It’s a shame, but it’s also opened my eyes to how I want to play the game in years going forward. When I started blogging I wanted to recreate the saves of years gone by - my 15 years with Fleetwood, 16 with Crewe etc, however it’s just unsustainable for me to play and blog all of it. I’ll probably be focusing more on a player/club/scenario in future and make future series a little snappier, be it one season, or 5/6.

This blog of course is a diluted version of my save, and if you want to read more about the first 6 seasons then please visit here to read from the start. If you’ve read/enjoyed then I’m truly grateful. Cheers to Nolberto Solano for being great, aside from the fact he would never join my coaching staff. If this reaches 108 likes within a week of coming out then I’ll simulate the remainder of Pedro Neyra’s career.

The search for Solano has ended. Will always love you xox — The search for **Solano** has ended. Will always love you xox

Infamous : FM21 : Alan Shearer - Newcastle United

July 19, 2021

InFMous

On 1st April 2009 it was announced that club legend Alan Shearer would take over as interim boss of Newcastle United until the end of the season. The club had been an amusing distraction to neutrals for a number of years before Mike Ashley took over ownership of the club in 2007. After his directorial appointments undermined one club legend in Kevin Keegan, he turned to laughing stock Joe Kinnear to try and steer the Mags in the right direction. Following medical issues (and a few games under future boss Chris Hughton), Alan Shearer was appointed as interim boss on 1st April 2009 until the end of the season. Shearer pointed to his passion for the club as the reason for him taking charge and trying to save his boyhood club from relegation, which is the same challenge we face today.

As a Newcastle fan, it’s hard to look back on this time to try and figure out why things didn’t click on the pitch, simply because it was absolutely wretched and I have attempted to block it from my memory. Following a failure to qualify for the Champions League in the 2003/04 season, Sir Bobby Robson was sacked early in the following campaign after a 4-1 defeat to Aston Villa. Managers came and went, and the club somehow managed to stay in Europe for a few seasons whilst rocking it with the likes of Peter Ramage and Antoine Sibierski. Madness. The mass turnover of players, and an inability to stick with a manager/philosophy finally caught up with the Toon in the 2008/09 season when relegation was confirmed following a spineless 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa (they love being there for dramatic moments). Serial payslip snatcher Michael Owen did his best not to get injured prior to his contract expiring, and other ‘big hitters’ like Obafemi Martins, Damien Duff, Mark Viduka all failed to perform consistently, which led Newcastle to the Championship. I recall Shearer placing all of his faith in Owen leading the side to safety, however zero goals in 7 appearances shows how committed he was, although the side only scored four during the final 8 games of the 08/09 season.

On a personal level, I feel like relegation was completely deserved, and no team is ever “too good to go down”, as many have thrown at the likes of Newcastle and West Ham. I don’t blame Shearer for trying to save the club he loves, but he surely would have got another shot at a later date had he not stepped in during this tumultuous time:

As you’ll see from the above, we take over the club with 30 games played, and find ourselves in the relegation zone. I only had to re-load the save twice to get us into a similar position, although bizarrely the first time around Newcastle were 7th. We are three points from safety rather than two, but I’m fairly pleased with the ‘simulation’ overall. Where this differs from reality (aside from the 12 season gap, players, and my hairline) is that we play more games against other relegation candidates, and thus I’d say our run in is slightly easier than Shearer’s.

The goal of this 8-game save is to complete what big Al’ couldn’t and save Newcastle from relegation. Quite frankly I don’t care how I do it, but that’s the intention. Shearer’s results speak for themselves, and at the very least I expect to beat his measly win ratio:

Let’s go.

State of play

Upon looking at the squad I notice that Matt Richie has been loaned out, which is a bit of a disaster as I felt his sheer aggression would be enough to keep us up. Calum Wilson has scored 9 goals in 22 games in the league, and the mercurial Allan Saint-Maximin has missed nearly 3 months through injuries. You can see where the problems lie within the squad at the minute, and a lack of real quality at the back, partnered with a stifling of ability up top has really put us in a spot of bother. I feel like I need to make the most of a fluid attacking midfield trio in order to stop the rot, with Joe Willock, Miggy Almirón, and ASM the key to supplying the walking doctor’s note, Wilson, with decent ammunition. The rest of the tactic will have to be fairly pragmatic, so to that effect, here’s what I’ve come up with:

Willock didn’t last long… — **Willock** didn’t last long…

I think this 4-2-3-1 is relatively well balanced, albeit we’ll theoretically end up quite narrow when attacking due to two Inverted Wingers. Jonjo will hopefully spread the play wide whilst Longstaff(s) will be the legs. In defence I’ve gone for a standard set up to try to remain in solid defensive unit. I’ve tried to leave instructions fairly bland so I can adjust over the first few games, but in theory I just want play to go through the middle of the pitch before springing any of the front 4, and I don’t intend to hang around to do it. If we end up too narrow then we have the option of Ryan Fraser to come in whom will be back from injury shortly. We have plenty of pace and flair, so I’m letting them make the most of it. Defensively…well, I’ve never been a defensive-minded manager on Football Manager, so this is my attempt at some balanced attacking intent. If it all goes pear shaped then I’ll drop the AMC into a DMC role, and we’ll go from there. Recent results have been awful, so I’m hoping a change in shape/manager means that the only way is up:

I’ll admit there are some tough games in there, however when you’re battling for points you really need to beat, well, anyone really, and that’s precisely what I’ll be trying to do now.

SOS

Upon receiving an achievement for delegating literally everything to my staff (and then taking back the touchline instructions and team talks), I looked ahead to the game away at Leicester City. They’re comfortably 8th, and a number of points off the European spots, so they’re not exactly an impossible challenge on this save, even away from home. Before this, though, I managed to see off my first enemy – Mike Ashley. A takeover of the club was completed days before our first match, and the new chairman insisted that the board had been “impressed” by my tenure so far. Thanks, chief.

I’ve sat through a lot of football, and Football Manager, in my time, and I’ve never seen such a boring display. Leicester had their chances, but they were mainly pot-shots, and any time they had a go in our penalty box it was inevitably blocked. Overall, it’s a good point to gain against a top-half side, and we try and take the positives into the next game (we didn’t concede?).

Next up is my geographically closest Premier League side – West Ham United. Again, we are away from home, but this version of West Ham differs vastly from the one in reality. This Hammers side, at the start of play, are in 18th, and level on points with us after they drew 0-0 with 17th placed Sheffield United. If there are any must-win games in this mini-save, this is surely one of them. I’ve decided to keep with the same tactic and XI that got us a point away at Leicester, as I feel like trying to go and more direct towards the end of the game may work when countering against a side desperate to take the points in front of a frustrated crowd. Cross your fingers.

What a win. Aside from Michail Antonio’s two attempts at the start of each half, we stifled the Irons completely, and had a fair number of half chances ourselves. The goal from Sean Longstaff was a little scrappy, but we made that from some good play over the right hand side of the pitch. Our second came at the perfect time for us to seal the points, and it was a bit of a ripper from Peruvian AMC Rodrigo Vilca (replacing the injured Willock). Two games, two clean sheets, four points, and we’re only a couple of draws off beating Shearer’s managerial record already, although a win would be handy as we’re up against…Sheffield United.

Sean’s goal is the first for the Toon in my tenure — **Sean’s** goal is the first for the *Toon* in my tenure

The Blades start the day in the relegation zone on goal difference, but only because of our second goal in the previous match. We’re finally in front of the Geordie faithful, and hopefully our recent good results and momentum can be carried through. Vilca starts ahead of Willock in this one due to his injury, and will even when the latter returns at this rate, but the remainder of the side remains intact.

When Joelinton is coming off the bench and bagging a brace you know that you’ve done something very right, or that your opponents have done something very wrong. Another clean sheet, and six goals spread amongst the front four (Joelinton x 2, Wilson, Almiron, ASM, Vilca) are justifying my tactic thus far. We looked dangerous every time we had the ball, and there’s not much more to say than that. Normally when these results happen, people jump for the “it could have been 10!” chat, but this one really couldn’t. It should have been about six, and it was, and that pleases me more than wasting a load of chances.

The Wolves of Wolf Street were up next, and I got a few pre-game jitters. We were first up for the Matchday as we were playing on Friday night, and, as things stood, we were 3 points outside of the relegation zone, with West Brom also acting as a buffer. Despite our excellent results thus far, a loss here, coupled with decent results from the sides beneath us, will drop us right back in it and with lost momentum.

For once we were up against it from the start as a Willian José strike from an early corner ensures that the Newcastle defence was breached for the first time in over 3 games, but a Jonjo Shelvey free kick brought us level soon after. Calum Wilson poked home from a low Miggy Almirón cross in the 58th minute, before Christian Pavón equalised for the home side late on. Dogs of draw, more like (one point each against Leicester and Wolves…I’ll show myself out). I think my mistake came during my triple change, where I inadvertently let Jeff Hendrick onto the pitch.

With four games down, and four to go, we’ve already surpassed Shearer’s record in terms of points return and win ratio, but it’s good to take stock of what’s still required to keep Newcastle in the Premier League:

Sheffield United recovered from their hammering against us to wobble West Brom, and Fulham have picked up four points from their last two games. These results keep us within touching distance of 18th, which is unfortunate, but it also shows how dire of a state we were in prior to my arrival. My final four games are Manchester United (H), West Brom (A), Arsenal (A), and Fulham (H), so I’d still say our goal is well within my grasp, but I’m anticipating on losing at least two of these games.

Against my better judgement, I changed absolutely nothing about our side prior to the visit of Manchester United. It’s looked decent so far, so figured that the worst that could happen is we get tonked 4-0. After seeing Sheffield United and West Ham both win games before we kicked off, the pressure was on to pull away from 17th place.

This has all the hallmarks of a match against Manchester United. Undeserved penalty for them? Check. Anthony Martial looking unreal in the match engine despite being absolute tat in reality? Check. Defensive abominations allowing us to come from behind to win? Check. Sensationally, Fernandes’ penalty was saved by Dubravka, and Martial’s early goal was cancelled out by yet another Almirón assist from a cut back on the right, and some penalty box ping pong late in the game which Calum Wilson took full advantage of to bang home. All of a sudden we’re four points clear with three to go, and with two against relegation rivals we are surely favourites to survive.

In a truly turgid affair, I thought we’d snatched three points off Sam Allardyce’s West Brom when ASM cut in from the left and fired home into the corner on 68 minutes, only for the sublimely average Karlan Grant to slot home after a long ball effectively removed our defence from the game. A point isn’t the worst, and we’re still unbeaten in six, but the Baggies were there for the taking. I have noticed that our players are starting to get quite tired, especially right back revelation Emile Krafth, but after the majority of the squad has started six games in the last 30 days I can’t say I’m particularly surprised that there are some early signs of fatigue. I’ll push on with the same XI for Arsenal (Willock misses out due to his loan arrangement, but he’s already been usurped by Vilca anyway) as we have a 7 day break afterwards.

The task facing us prior to the Gunners game is simple – we are four points ahead of both West Brom and Fulham with two games to go, thus a win guarantees our safety. Annoyingly, we start the game in 17th due to Sheffield United’s continuing renaissance, but I don’t really mind. If we fail to beat Arsenal, the prior clubs will still need their own positive results to be within striking distance with one game to go.

It was going to happen at some point, and, realistically, taking four points from Manchester United, West Brom, and Arsenal is probably as good as it was going to get. We had a few chances here, but this was the result of our attacking midfield trio all failing to get going. Wilson hasn’t taken games by the scruff of the neck quite as much as I’d hoped, but he usually drags defenders and allows our mercurial talents to flourish. Pépé scored in the first half, and Will.I.An finished us off a few minutes from time. I wanted to scream and shout, and let it all out. Easy pickings, and it could have been worse. Our rivals’ matches were the following day, so I held my breath, crossed my fingers, and prayed to the ghost of Steven Taylor that we’d be celebrating early survival.

Fulham lost, and thus drop into the Championship (again), however West Brom pulled off a victory against local rivals Wolves in order to take the battle to survive into the final day. A win guarantees our safety, although even a draw or defeat may still be fine as West Brom are playing away at Manchester United. We could even finish as high as 15th if results go our way, which would be a little mad. We’re already one up on Shearer’s Newcastle in this instance, as we start the day 1 point outside the relegation zone rather than 1 point inside. Anything other than a defeat against Villa would have saved us that fateful day, and I am intending for history not to repeat itself. My standard line-up will continue, though I do have Andy Carroll on the bench if things go drastically wrong (right?)…

In the end this was indeed null and void as West Brom fell to a 3-1 defeat, however we absolutely smashed the Cottagers to ensure Premier League survival. Wilson made my previous sentiments look idiotic with two early goals, as did Krafth who then dutifully assaulted Lookman and received his marching orders. We sensationally went 4-0 up before a late Harrison Reed goal robbed us of our clean sheet, before Wilson saved a little beauty for last…

I went full Tom Hanks when I saw this finish

Conclusions

Well, frankly, we were fucking awesome in almost every single game. We played exactly how I wanted us to, which is rare for me to get right at the first time of asking. Including his 4 goals against Fulham, Wilson scored 7 in 8 to see us over the line (something Owen never even looked like doing back in ’09), and Saint-Maximin and Almirón were extremely threatening from wide positions. I’ll die by this sword - Heco Dubravka was solid and didn’t make any mistakes (and he is lovely IRL). As expected, our midfield and fullbacks didn’t rate too highly, however they passed the eye test so I’m happy with the roles they fulfilled. I’m also surprised at how competitive the bottom end of the table was when you consider our record of 15 points from 24 available, yet we were still in the firing line on the final day of the campaign. West Brom were the team that plummeted, as is so often the case (apparently?).

Our overall record versus Alan Shearer reads as follows:

My success in having an actual plan aside from ‘pass it to Owen and hope for the best’ has won the day. My ‘pass it to ASM and hope for the best’ plan was far better.

This one isn’t up for debate – am I as infamous as Alan Shearer? No fucking way

Infamous : FM21 : John Barnes - Celtic

July 12, 2021

InFMous

Welcome to a side-series I'll be doing over the course of my blogging career (or stopping after this first one because it's received awfully) - Infamous. I've seen other creators do similar ideas to this, where effectively you take on a team/challenge that a club/country did poorly in reality, or actually succeeded. I've had something like this in the pipeline for a couple of years and was actually going to create this as a YouTube series back in the glory days of November 2018. Those were the days - before the dark times, before the lockdowns...

As they say though, what's done is done, and you can't change it, right? WRONG. I'll be focusing on some well-known failures of football management in this series, and trying to right some wrongs. I've got a few of the obvious examples of British football covered, however if you ever feel the need to get in touch to suggest any further examples from outside my current knowledge, then please do so. I have David Moyes at Manchester United (and Real Sociedad/Sunderland) in the locker, but I'd rather not go for some THAT obvious.

Anyway - onto the most obvious example I can think of from Scottish football: John Barnes and his eight month stint at Celtic. Original.

Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic are Atrocious

It's an absolute classic, I'll give them that. John Barnes reign as Celtic Head Coach ended two days after the Bhoy's defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Scottish Cup third round on 08/02/2000. From my quite limited reading, it appears as if Barnes' sacking was moderately inevitable, given that good early season form had vanished amidst player politics, tactical indecisiveness, and perceived poor transfer activity. Barnes had lost the faith of his players, the fans, and the clearly, the board.

The 1999/00 season wasn't a complete washout for the Hoops, though, as Kenny Dalglish took over for the remainder of the season, claiming the Scottish League Cup. The cup was poor consolation for finishing 21 points behind bitter rivals, Rangers, in what was then the Bank of Scotland Premier League. Larger than life striker Mark Viduka was the league top scorer with 25 goals, and despite grumblings around the performances of Celtic's transfers, they did sign Stylian Petrov during Barnes' time as Head Coach. In terms of making an immediate impact, Barnes clearly failed to transfer his playing prowess into a coaching dynasty at the first (second, and third) time of trying. The challenge in Football Manager 2021 is simple:

Sign a 'marquee' player for Celtic in the opening transfer window
Perform better than John Barnes over the same course of time. I'll be resigning after my 20th league game with Celtic, at which time a fair(ish) comparison can be made. I had planned to just resign on the same date that Barnes left, but that would take me up to 27 league games. Consistency is key (until it doesn't fit my narrative)

Sounds easy, right? Rangers are smashing it this season up in sunny Scotland, and are on course to deny Celtic their decade of domestic dominance in the league. Can I be the one to bring in a future icon of the club, and deliver the 10th league title in a row for these heavily expectant fans? Let's find out.

As a quick note - I did actually begin this during the Football Manager 2021 Beta and played it incredibly slowly, thus any Match Engine changes are likely to seem a bit more drastic over one season. Getting my excuses in early, there.

Transfers and Tactics

After loading a database containing the entire SPFL, as well as the top division of the seven biggest European leagues (as well as the EFL Championship), I took it upon myself to rid my to-do list of the backroom staff contract negotiations, and wanted as little input as possible into the Reserves/U18s sides. I'm a Head Coach, innit.

My 'marquee' signing promise is already looking a little bit suspect, with around €5m to spend on a player, and €50k p/w being the maximum of my ambitions. I am out of touch with whom is a 'wonderkid' these days, so pomp for a bit of experience at the back - here's your future Celtic icon:

I had to get a Jamaican in there somewhere to honour our boy Barnsey, didn't I? I also signed ex-wonderkid Tin Jedvaj, who is my actual serious exciting 'marquee' signing. Ecuadorian wingback Christian Ramirez is my final transfer, as I felt that current incumbent Diego Laxalt lacks alt(ernative abilities to play wingback effectively against better opposition). I'm also happy to have these extra defensive options, as well as a few promising youngsters, with such an arduous and congested season, with the likes of Karamoko Dembele, Jeremie Frimpong, and Luca Connell on course to get plenty of minutes.

They're not the most exciting when I think of the word 'marquee', but seeing as we'll be playing with three centre backs this seaso- wait what? Three centre backs, Ted, three? You read it right, baby. This is how we lined up for the first game of our season, and no matter how bad it gets, I will not be accused of being tactically indecisive...only tactically inept. I'll probably make a couple of role/TI changes to this, but I'll stick to the formation and most of the intent throughout the save:

I tend to have a good idea how I want my teams to play in Football Manager, but honestly I'm not so great at creating a tactic when I either start with a dominant team, or start with a team that's practically guaranteed to fail. Celtic should be pressing their opposition, be dominating possession, but also be able to use their pace and skill to break if needs be. The three defenders is my attempt to let the middle roam a little bit more, and with two wingbacks (with the right wingback more offensive), I'm just looking to make patient overloads. Will it work? Probably not. Let's go.

The mild Autumn

The pressure is on early to deliver some decent results in every competition for the first three months of competitive football at Celtic. Barnes enjoyed some good early form, which was only started to tail off just as October was ending.

The key result from our early season was the 3-0 smashing of arch rivals, St. Mirren. Also we beat Rangers 3-0, too. The fans should be chuffed.

After setting the team up to try and be secure from breakaway goals, and remain dominant in the opposition half, I should have perhaps anticipated a few of the low scoring affairs that ensued over the opening months of the season. It's not that we weren't creating chances, but the chances that we were creating weren't particularly excellent. I wish I could cite that opponents aren't scoring, but it's simply not the truth. 6 goals conceded in 12 league games is pretty good, as it also resulted in 7 clean sheets, but I'd be expecting more at either end of the pitch. It's down to the quality of our players that we are top by 2 points at the end of October, rather than my tactical genius. Rangers are pushing hard, but we do have a game in hand.

Our league record against John Barnes is favourable, although we are lacking a couple of hammerings that his Celtic side gave out to the likes of Aberdeen (5-0), and Aberdeen (7-0). Not a typo.

Our Scottish League Cup record is infinitely better, and also infinitely worse, however, as that competition hasn't been played yet - we are scheduled to play Dundee United at the end of November. Europe is where there's a bit of a difference with our managerial ancestor:

After defeating Welsh and Israeli opposition in the first couple of rounds of the old UEFA Cup (RIP), Celtic lost the first leg of the Third Round match against Lyon 1-0 at the end of October, before the same scoreline knocked them out at the start of November. I'd say we've improved on his results on the continent, with us smashing all who came before us to reach the Champions Cup League proper, and we are currently second in the group behind Liverpool. It's not the toughest group, but I'd be disappointed to not go through to the knockouts now.

The winter of malcontent

With the weather starting to turn, my initial thoughts turned to my tactics. This is the point in the save where I stopped playing initially as the Beta rolled over into the full version of Football Manager 2021, so after playing three games with the initial 3-4-3-esque formation, I changed a few roles around and decided to focus on shorter passing, working the ball into the box, and adding creative freedom. The wing play was clearly working to an extent, but in the current Match Engine we seemed to have completely isolated Odsonne Edouard (makes sense seeing as he's an AF(A), but it was interlinking well in the old ME with this tactic - he's now become a DLF(A) to try and get him more involved).

November is where things started to go wrong for big JB - dropping out of the UEFA Cup after their 2-0 aggregate loss to Lyon, as well as losing two of their three league games (including one to Rangers). The 99-00 season clearly wasn't great for Celtic, but it's also worth considering that Rangers had a great year domestically. The fact that Kenny Dalglish 'saved' their season by winning the Scottish League Cup overshadows the fact that his record arguably was also a bit crap in the league, at least compared to what was expected after the departure of his predecessor.

I mention the above as it's definitely something I can sense creeping into my campaign. November is where we tasted defeat in competitive football for the first time this season, with Liverpool defeating us 4-1 and 3-1. Injuries started to mount after the international break, and going into December we were essentially rotating our entire side each game. I suffered my first John Barnes moment when we were dumped out of the Scottish League Cup by Motherwell after losing 2-1, with this being the decisive goal...

Disaster. The board were expecting us to win the domestic treble with no issues. We're perhaps saved more grief because of the fact that we beat our European expectations of 'Reaching the playoff round':

A score-draw and a 4-3 victory over both Shakhtar and Basaksehir was enough to see us through at the start of December. We drew Chelsea in the Champions League knockout round, which is a one-way ticket to exiting European competition, so I'm moderately thankful that I'll be finished with the save prior to this event.

This of course leads me to cover off our league fixtures over the two-and-a-bit months. November was sparse of action, which naturally meant a bit of a catch-up in December, prior to my final game in January 2021. In regards to my earlier comment about rotating my side, it still didn't stop me losing Odsonne Edouard and Scott Brown to injuries just before Christmas. The duo will miss the remainder of the four matches I have in charge, which is especially unhelpful as my last contribution to the season will be away at Rangers.

Seeing as I've revealed how we've done in the other competitions I didn't see the need to filter the schedule. Soz not soz. What you'll notice is that, despite losing our top scorer to injury at Livingston (24 in 26 matches in all competitions), we still managed to bang in 11 over the next 3 games, with Albian Ajeti stepping up in his absence. As mentioned, our final game of this save is against Rangers, and, as things stand, we are 2nd in the table, but a win takes us above them, and potentially up to 8 points ahead if we win our games in hand. Simples, right?

As I prepared for our final game in charge, I noticed that the transfer window opens on the same day, so this accelerated my plans to bolster the side for the rest of the season after my departure. Long-time Celtic players Nir Bitton and Leigh Griffiths left for pastures new, and I managed to bring in a few dudes to help me with my final game, as well as help the club transition over the final stretch of the campaign:

John Lundstram, Vukasin Jovanovic, and Andy Carroll join for a total of around €6m (which we made by selling Nir Bitton), whilst Jesse Lingard joins on loan for the remainder of the season. Lundstram and Jovanovic are decent enough to provide depth and options for the future manager, Lingard is a quick fix of quality, and Carroll...well, I'm a Newcastle fan, and we need a striker, so he's here and he's beautiful, although he arrives injured, naturally, so can't grace the pitch for our next game. Onto Rangers, yeah?

That's it? Apparently so. A drab game was ruined by the fact that Andy Carroll was injured and couldn't play the heavy rain seemed to affect our more intricate play, and what chances we did make came late on. The pressure we did put on resulted in an Elyounoussi goal disallowed as he was narrowly offside, and that, as they say, is that. If only we had Eduoard...

So with all said and done, we leave Glasgow four points behind Rangers, but with two games in hand. We've been dumped out of the Scottish League Cup, but we are still in the Champions League, and are yet to participate in the Scottish Cup.

More inFMous?

Truthfully, a lot fell on that final game against Rangers. Going ahead of them in the league with two games in hand would have been immense. I feel like some of our transfers have been a bit obscure (Mariappa has performed, in fairness!), but overall I think we've improved the depth of the squad. Outside of transfers, some of the younger players have improved quite well, and I think things look promising for the season...at least compared to Celtic's current season IRL.

My overall results compared to John Barnes are positive. More wins, more points, and nearly unbeaten in the league (until that final game). I have zero context to compare the quality of our play, though. The first few months were quite dire, but we were more explosive in second half of our save, which was perhaps to do with the ME. When looking at Celtic's results in the same period (Nov-Feb), they either didn't win, or they absolutely battered teams. You could argue that this means the football should be more entertaining, in theory, and I'd be inclined to agree. I'd put myself narrowly ahead at this point - the league is in our hands, there's still two other trophies to play for, and our results are better, quite frankly. However, given that we know Celtic went on to win a trophy in their 'torrid' season, I'd like to see what comes of this campaign.

Former Alaves manager Abelardo lead Celtic to the title, and also won the Scottish Cup, beating Rangers 3-0 in the final. The league record is actually very consistent with my own - if they played two more games, won them both, and got a +3 GD in the process then it'd be identical. Their Champions League journey ended in the first knockout round after Chelsea beat them 3-2 on aggregate. Did I set them up for success, or did I hold them back? I'm willing to share the spoils this time out, especially in a long, hard season, where we were pushed all the way.

Am I as infamous as John Barnes? No. No I'm not.