[FM07] Overtaking Colin

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - April + May 2027

April Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 4, Williams 2, Hunter 2, Gray 2, Brunetti 1, Pannach 1, Titan 1

We started the month with a great win over Liverpool to throw the title race wide open, then beat Spurs to really put the pressure on. Unfortunately an absolutely spineless performance against Charlton meant we threw away any momentum in the league. In Europe we're going strong, with a trio of 2-0 wins. Villa were dispatched easily, while we have one foot in the final after a win in the Netherlands. Our strikers are still rubbish, although Cabezas has scored a few times this month none of them were goals that mattered, they were all additional goals after the game had already been won.

Visser (WK) won the young player of the month award for the fourth time this season (3 games, 7.67 average).

We've climbed one place to second but sit six points behind Liverpool with four games to go. You never know, but it looks like any hopes of taking the title are gone.

May Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 3, Brunetti 2, Benedetti 1, Traore 1, Fitzgerald (WK) 1

A great month for the defence with five consecutive clean sheets. But the two goalless draws meant the title was handed to Liverpool with two games to go. We made it to the UEFA Cup Final with ease though, and at this point the strikers starter scoring, all desperate to earn a spot in the starting XI for this.

Premier League

[Deisler26]

Amazing finish! 2nd is a good result!

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - May 2027

In this universe Chelsea have won the UEFA Cup twice before (2012 and 2016). Here's the team hoping to win it for a third time.

UEFA Cup Final

7th minute - A hopeful ball up the left is collected by Williams, his cross falls to Brunetti in the box but he has his back to goal. No problem, a brilliant turn opens up space and he slots past the keeper! 1-0 Chelsea.

26th minute - Carrasco knocks the ball past his defender and whips in a cross, Cabezas gets in front of his man to head in at the near post. 2-0 Chelsea.

63rd minute - The ball falls to Carrasco on the halfway line, he gets held up but plays the ball to Georgiev on the overlap. A clever through ball into the box and Cabezas is in, hitting the ball into the far corner. Game over. 3-0 Chelsea.

Excellent stuff, we were deadly up front. That's why I've been saying all season how great my strikers are!

[DaneBramage]

2 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Brilliant work dude!

Thanks! I didn't want to reply too early and tempt fate, but now that's out of the way it's safe to do so.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - End of Season Review - 2026/27

Top Scorer – Francisco Cabezas 26 goals - A good amount of goals from Cabezas and Brunetti's tally looks respectable too. Not many of them were in the league though, just 10 apiece. Cabezas did fire us to the UEFA Cup trophy though, with 15 goals in this competition.

Most Assists – Ruben Carrasco - 12 assists - Second year in a row - Double last year's total, but like above, more than half of them came in Europe. Williams was next up with 11.

Highest Rating – Jon Gray - 7.50 - An excellent signing for the club. Was brought in at the same time as Miranda and was expected to be his backup for the defensive midfield role, but while Miranda complained about not settling, Gray fit in right away and played a heck of a lot better. Was also voted the league's best signing. Visser (WK), Elliott, Parkes, and Carrasco all recorded really good averages too.

Fan's Player of the Year –  Francisco Cabezas - Score two goals in a final and the fans are guaranteed to like you.

My Player of the Year – Javier Visser (WK) - Won four young player of the month awards this year, as well as the young player of the year. Consistent top quality performances at left-back. 

Waste of Space – Miranda - Didn't settle, didn't play well, complained about not playing enough, skipped training, fined, transfer-listed, sale agreed. Form did pick up in his few rare appearances near the end of the year, but damage was already done at this point. Traore was a midseason signing and has been competing with Benedetti as the most underwhelming striker.

Edited August 9, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

My History

My Stats

[DaneBramage]

Previous Club Watch

Hednesford Town

John Morling's side battled away but never really looked like making the play-offs, instead finishing 8th in the Conference National.

Hinckley United

Looked good for promotion out of League Two, until the turn of the the year. Once 2027 had begun they only won 7 of their last 21 games, slipping to 6th. Darren Stride still hoped they'd go up, but this dreams were ended by Notts County in the play-off semi-finals.

Haverfordwest County

Flirted with the relegation area in the opening months, which saw Kevin Doyle lose his job in November. Josh Wright took over and results improved, and they ended the Welsh Premier League season in 7th place.

Southampton

Avoided relegation from the Premier League pretty comfortably, Kevin Barnard leading his team to a 13th place finish. 

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - 2027/28 pre-season

Transfers Out

Melgar and Ion were a couple of my earliest signings who never really made it. Miranda was a big money flop.

Hunter is a disappointing loss. He's been my captain and a good, reliable player. He wanted a new contract, I offered him exactly what he wanted, and them some more, but he kept refusing it for several months, before taking an offer from Milan instead.

Transfers In

Rober is the replacement in central midfield for Hunter.

Then I loaded up the game today for the first time in a week and decided I didn't want to play as Chelsea any more. I'd achieved a promotion and then won a big trophy here, that was good enough for me. But I'm only four promotions down out of the nine I need, time to get back to the hunt.

My next destination? I'll leave that in the hands of the FM gods.  There are currently no vacancies, but whichever English club outside of the Premier League next needs a new manager, I'll go for it.

[Deisler26]

[DaneBramage]

The new job - August 2027

In the ever-changing landscape of football, managers come and go at the drop of hat. And when one change happens, this kicks off a chain reaction. And it turns out I was at both the start and end of this chain.

Step 1 - Ace Fandango leaves Chelsea.

Step 2 - He is replaced by John Terry, who leaves Sheffield United (PL).

Step 3 - He is replaced by Adrian Whitbread, who leaves Southend (PL).

Step 4 - He is replaced by Michael Barnes, who leaves Reading (PL).

Step 5 - He is replaced by Heather Sills, who leaves Everton (PL).

Step 6 - He is replaced by Gus MacPherson, who leaves Hibernian (SPL).

Step 7 - He is replaced by Morten Gamst Pedersen, who leaves ... 

Not sure why it says I'm replacing this fella though, he left in 2023.

Here's the recent history, looks like they had been on an upward trajectory but the Championship was a level too high.

I take over with the team 4th in League One, with two wins and two draws from the opening four matches, and having progressed in the first round of the League Cup.

Barnet

Division: English League One

Media prediction: 8th

Board expectation: Respectable league position

Fan expectation: Win promotion

Balance: £500k

Transfer budget: £425k

Wage budget: £27k per week

[DaneBramage]

Barnet - August-December 2027

Transfers In

I joined right at the end of the transfer window, so there wasn't really any time to bring in any permanent signings (especially as my shortlist was filled with Premier League standard players now, rather than players suitable for League One). I only had two senior midfielders in my squad and of course both got injured at the same time, so I had to pick up Jacques from the free agent list.

Loans In

The first four loans are for the whole season, the next two are for three months.

The last week of August was a scramble to bring in anyone I could. Gage (YP25) was a striker who came through at Chelsea while I was there, and he does have a Champions League goal for me. Hughes is a centre back who will go straight into the first team, while Schei is a goalkeeper who will also likely start. 

I quickly decided only one of the strikers already at the club was good enough, so brought in another, Haugh, shortly after. 

I've had a lot of injuries so far, and annoyingly, they're coming from games rather than training, so there's not much I can do about it. When this happened and left me short I raided the Chelsea reserves for another couple of players, central midfielder Vega (SPA, 25), and striker Cooper (24).

Results

Goalscorers: Tait 9, Murray 7, Gage (YP25) 5, Haugh 5, Curtis 2, Thorsen 2, Duke 1, Bryson 1, Smith 1, Moen 1, Own Goal 1

On my debut match in charge we led twice, but gave up the lead of both occasions to leave with just a point. A comfortable win followed, but things then dipped with three losses in the next four games, including elimination from the League Cup, making this move start to look like a bad idea,

Luckily I then managed three wins in a row to keep support on my side, and although there was a blip against Darlington, the fans enjoyed a big EFL trophy win over QPR. Left winger Tait scored a hat-trick in this match, including two from free-kicks. He wants to leave to join a bigger club, but he is continuing to play well for us, and has actually been the top scorer during my spell here. Unfortunately he's broken his foot in December and will be out for a long time.

In the cups we've had differing fortunes, as a couple of underwhelming performances against Boston saw them knock us out at the second time of asking. But we continued to go well in the EFL Trophy, making the semis after beating Wolves on penalties.

In the league we went nine games unbeaten, which propelled us up to the top. A poor display on Boxing Day threatened to ruin the holiday period, but two days later we recovered and beat Walsall, with Smith's first goal for the club and Murray ending a ten game drought to send us into the new year top of the table.

League One

It's not a commanding lead by any means, but I'll take it. 

[Deisler26]

[DaneBramage]

Barnet - January-April 2028

Results

Goalscorers: Haugh 7, Gage (YP25) 2, Murray 2, Thorsen 2, Wright 1, Sims 1, Hughes 1, Own Goal 1

We had a full blown injury crisis in January with 11 members of the first-team squad out injured at the same time, and results inevitably suffered. We started 2028 with two league draws, before struggling through the EFL Trophy semi-final with a penalty shootout win. Those draws looked good in retrospect though, as three consecutive losses saw us drop off of top spot.

As players started to return from injury in February we hoped for an uptick in performances and results, but this didn't really materialise. Two draws against Brighton were enough to win by the away goal rule in the regional final of the EFL Trophy, but apart from that things weren't looking good. We gained our first league win of 2028 against Lincoln, but as February went into March we found ourselves on a six match losing streak. We'd plummeted down the table, not just falling off top spot, not just falling out of the automatic promotion places, but even out of play-off contention altogether, all the way down to 12th place. The loss against Huddersfield was a poor way to celebrate my 1,000th game in management.

League One

We did have the EFL Trophy final to look forward to absolutely dread, going up against Bolton who beat us easily not too long ago.

EFL Trophy Final

It wasn't good in any way, and the ineptitude of the penalty shootout was one that would be mocked for years to come, but we somehow managed to win the competition. Following the two I'd previously won with Southampton this is my third time lifting the trophy.

[DaneBramage]

Barnet - April 2028

Results

Back to the league, back to losing, extending the streak to seven. 

Sod it, I can't even be bothered to finish the season. This pathetic collapse isn't worth my time.

A league record of 1 win, 4 draws, and 11 losses since the turn of 2028 is some pretty terrible form by anyone's standards. At least with the EFL Trophy win I can try to pretend the spell at Barnet wasn't a complete failure. But I think this graph says it all.

[Deisler26]

Ahh, no.

Still a trophy though

[DaneBramage]

April 2028

Decided to try and rescue the season by slagging off Dennis Wise and nicking his job.

This gives me another crack at League One. Automatic promotion is out of reach but should make the play-offs.

[DaneBramage]

Crystal Palace - April + May 2028

April + May Results

Goalscorers: Wood 2, Omodiagbe 1

It certainly wasn't very exciting and if the fans were hoping for end-to-end action they'll have been disappointed, but I've made an unbeaten start to my time at Selhurst Park and the wins arrived in the final two matches. A strong set of defensive performances were enough to keep a hold of our 5th place and qualify for the play-offs.

League One

[DaneBramage]

Crystal Palace - May 2028

We're drawn against Millwall in the play-off semi-finals. Before my time here, but during the regular season both teams won their home games against the other.

League One - Play Off Semi-Final Leg 1

We nearly had the perfect start to the game, as a cross into the Millwall box hit an outstretched arm and the referee pointed to the spot. Unfortunately right back Russell hit the penalty straight at the goalie, and the chance was blown. Ten minutes later there was another setback, as Wood (the only player to score more than once during my time here) had to go off injured.

But we still had the better of the first-half, and left-winger Clarke opened the scoring with a nice effort from outside the area.

Millwall battled hard in the second-half, but we restricted them to half-chances at best, and without even a shot on target they never really threatened. We held on for the win.

League One - Play-Off Semi-Final Leg 2

There was not a lot of quality going on in this game. Millwall needed to get a goal, but only managed four shots all game. Meanwhile, we managed 15 shots so should have put the game out of sight, but we did really poorly in the box, only getting four shots on target.

And with the misfiring strikers on both sides, the expected result came. A boring nil-nil draw.  Which is plenty good enough for us and the aggregate win.

We're up against Huddersfield in the final after they beat Grimsby 3-1 in the other semi-final. Before my time here, but during the regular season we managed a draw at home, but lost at their place.

League One Play-Off Final

We bossed 88 minutes of this match, with the usual inadequacies in front of goal. Unfortunately Huddersfield had already done the damage, with the only goal of the game in the 2nd minute.

This is now the fourth play-off final I've lost.

Edited August 27, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

My History

Part 1 - 2007 to 2027

Part 2 - 2027 to 2028

My Stats

[Deisler26]

OOF. That Playoff Final loss. Could have been an easy promotion

[Northernpilgrim]

You'll go up next season. Keep going