Motlhen
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Posts posted by Motlhen
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May 2025
What a way to end the season.
After we clinched a Conference League spot for next year through the Carabao Cup, I thought we could maybe upgrade to a Europa league spot, but never thought Champions league would be possible.
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We've beaten Liverpool! And with it qualified for the UCL!!!
We were 9th for most of the season and have flown up to 3rd and I can't quite believe that we'll be playing in the Champions League next season.
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May 2025
A massively disappointing draw.
I was hoping we would battle for a point - but we were 3-0 up at half time and cruising. Losing in this manner feels like 2 points dropped and I hope we don't live to rue this.
Chelsea (who we play on the last day of the season) and Man Utd (still in the current season's UCL) are hot on our tails.
I don't know when our aim became top 4, but it is now!Next, we have the minor task of playing Liverpool, who have only lost to Villa this season.
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Apr 2025
April ends with 4 wins from 4 and my first Manager of the Month award in the Premier League.
(I forgot to take a league screenshot here, sorry)
Whilst we push for Champions League football I have been toying with the idea of signing Lewis Miley.
I am not over the moon with the fee or the contract clauses - but he is one hell of a youngster.
I've delayed my decision as we need to know what competition we'll be playing in next season before making a decision I reckon.
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Another commanding win!
We're above Chelsea too now! 3rd never seemed possible, but everyone around us has been dropping points (or not playing as many games) and we have stormed up the table.
...
Then Chelsea lost their game in hand, crowning Liverpool Champions as they won 7-0 at home, and meaning only Man Utd can are within touching distance of us when they play their game in hand.
Man Utd are also still involved in the UCL - in what is an absolutely outrageous semi-final line up.
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We're up to 4th with a convincing win over Burnley.
Man Utd can catch us and the teams 7th and below have a game advantage too but they have a gap to catch back up to us.I'm hoping for 2 more wins next, then a draw and then probably 2 losses (so 2 free hits!)
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Apr 2025
The run in!
Buonanotte grabs a 97th minute winner to muster a huge 3 points for us.
We've won our hardest game in April and will have to keep this run going this month because May's fixtures are not a kind way to end the season.
That result takes us to the dizzying heights of 5th.
All of a sudden both we have an advantage over Arsenal and Aston Villa despite their games in hand. Can we make 5th our own?
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Mar 2025
We've crashed out of the FA Cup after a slightly rotated squad didn't give enough against Bournemouth. This marks the first competition I've not won as a manager (although it would be unrealistic to think we'll get close to the league title this season).
In the league, it has become remarkably close.
4 points below us are Arsenal, who have two game in hand on us.
4 points above us is 3rd!?We have 7 games to go and I would love to push our Conference League spot up to a Europa League spot for next season.
Bardghji is denied a 3rd YPotM award by Ferguson - with Barco rounding off a Brighton top 3!
NxGN
Our 2 signings and also Hinselwood have made it into the top 50.
I will pay Hinselwood more attention when he returns from his loan from Clermont and try to get him some playing time next season to see how he develops.
Youth Intake
Not a great intake, as expected.
I'm hoping some European money will fund some more facility improvements next season and the quality of our youth intakes should improve soon after.
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Feb 2025
We had a great month, only dropping points to Man City.
Our run of games wasn't the toughest but the winning run will have helped us overcome Newcastle to win the club's first Carabao Cup.Bardghji continues to prove an incredible signing with his 2nd Young Player of the Month in a row in 2025.
We're in 9th and now closing the gap between us and the teams above us.
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We've achieved our goal for the season!
Our first trophy at Brighton makes it 5 out of 5 competition wins so far for me personally (including the quadruple at PSG).
The game was decided by Enciso, a great individual display by the sub made the difference.
We had to hang on at the end after Bardghji's injury reduced us to 10-men for the final 6 minutes plus nine minutes of stoppage time but we did it and I am delighted!
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Jan 2025
Transfers In
There were a couple of transfers that I cancelled at the last minute again this window.
£7m for Calvert-Lewin, £15m for Salisu and a loan for Kimpembe with an optional £11m fee. All of these players are good, but I realised that they are on-par with the players we already have and I want to make sure we are improving the quality of the squad with every purchase.£27m for Thiago Almada was the biggest cancellation. He would have improved the calibre at the squad, but I've opted for another, cheaper, younger AMC.
£7.5m for 18yo Pafundi (a saving of £20m) and I think that he will be a better player in 5 years than Almada is at 23.
Transfers Out
£10m+ for a 30yo backup.
With Koulibaly coming in on a free, on less wages, this made sense to generate revenue for a player who would at most end up on the fringes of the squad.
I will be keeping a close eye on the Portuguese Premier League as Lamptey will be sold for near £20m if Porto win it!
He's fast, but he's not a good footballer. We have plenty of options in his position so I figured this transfer was worth the risk.
Fixtures
Another decent month.
We're through to the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle, who beat us at the start of the month. We play the final at the end of Feb and will be looking for revenge and to get our place in Europe for next season!We're also advancing through the FA Cup with some favourable draws and have Derby in the 5th round.
In the league, we're in touching distance of Tottenham & Arsenal and only 7 points off of 4th (although looking that high up might be overly optimistic).
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Dec 2024
An amazing turnaround. The team remembered how to score and, apart from a bad loss to Liverpool, we've done brilliantly to pull ourselves back into European contention.
We're also through to the Carabao Cup semi-final against Southampton. Winning this competition would get us into Europe too so I am delighted to be facing a Championship side over two legs for a place at Wembley versus either Newcastle or Arsenal.
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Nov 2024
In a month where I thought we could win every game, we've come away with only one win where we scraped past bottom-of-the-table Ipswich.
We've only scored an average of 1 goal per game for the last 8 games and when we concede as many as we do it's not enough.We've slipped into the bottom half of the table and the pre-season aim of finishing in a European spot seems very far off now.
The board have given me £15m more to spend in January as well as set up an affiliate in Northern Ireland.
Youth Intake Preview
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Oct 2024
Another humbling defeat at the start of the month.
Only managing to score once in each game is a minor worry - hopefully we can find our shooting boots again.
Transfer In
To help improve at the back, I've brought in Koulibaly on a free transfer.
Improvements
The board have agreed to do a clean sweep of improvements:
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Sep 2024
Arsenal humbled us - but apart from that result we have been in great form.
The only clean sheet this season was on Restes' debut in the Carabao Cup - defensively we need to be stronger.
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Aug 2024
After the opening day loss to Manchester United, we bounced back with a great turnaround win against Newcastle, with Bardghji grabbing his first goal and Ferguson getting a brace. It was a fantastic performance and we deserved to win after battling hard the whole game. Then I sent out a rotated squad against Bristol City in the Carabao Cup - which we comfortably won - with Bardghji coming off the bench to grab his 2nd goal!
Transfer Out
I sold Gross for £10M.
He was a great player for Brighton, but his physical decline cannot be ignored and we needed to generate the funds to bring in a right back.
Transfer In
Emre Can comes in with experience and versatility.
He cost us £9M which in our circumstance, I think was a very good deal.I'll be getting the scouts to search for a long-term replacement, but we'll still get a good few years out of Can first.
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History
Season 1, Club 1
Season 2, Club 2
Ongoing
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Depth at Right Back
Veltman has forced a move away due to being home sick which leaves us with a problem at right back.
Currently I am thinking that March is our best wing back and I do not rate Lamptey going forward, let alone in defence.We need to bring someone else in.
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Our first Premier League match we lined up like this.
Estupinan and March in the full-back and wing-back positions are the areas I'm worried that we aren't playing to our strengths. I considered tweaking the formation - mirroring it to switch the full-back and wing-back roles to opposite sides - but for now I will stick to this.
Our first game was away at Old Trafford and after a bright start, we weren't really in the game.
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Transfers Out
I sold Kozlowski as I feel that £10M is a decent price for him and it will cover the price of my main target in the same position.
Transfers In
AMC
Bardghji is typically a winger. But I plan to use him similarly to how I used Asensio at PSG.
Comparing the two, they are remarkably close considering the 10-year age difference.
I also managed to sign Orkun Kokcu from PSG on loan after he impressed me and had fallen out of favour with the new manager (Pep).
Goalkeeper
Restes is touted as a gk with amazing potential.
He will battle with Verbruggen for the backup spot this season.
As the number 1 spot will be going to Szczesny.
We managed to sign the veteran for £5.5M with Juventus also paying half of his wages.
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Squad
I arrived and immediately rejected the ongoing bid for Estupinan.
We are receiving a lot of bids for players, including some hefty bids for van Hecke.
I quickly sorted out my 1st & 2nd XI to identify where we need to strengthen (and where we can't afford to be weaker).
It's immediately clear to me that we need a goalkeeper.
And the other position I would like to strengthen is AMC as Joao Pedro is more of a winger or forward and I do not see a long-term future for Pascal Gross.
We have a big bank & transfer balance.
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De Zerbi left to go to Barcelona during the Euros so I applied for the Brighton job.
None of the potential World Cup candidate jobs (Portugal, Netherlands & Belgium) became available.
From the list of European Championship candidates, the only job that became available was England, but with 4 years until the next Euros, I thought my focus would be too far in the future and as the Brighton job was my favourite of the potential Premier league jobs, I decided to go for it.
They finished in 10th last season and 4 points off of a European place.
The board want another top-half finish, but I will be aiming to get into Europe this first season.
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Euro 2024
Italy & Croatia both finish bottom of their groups on zero points!
England got knocked out by semi-finalists Ireland.
France the eventual winners, with Dembele and Mbappe joined on the scoresheet by MotM Ngolo Kante who got 2 goals to help France to a 3rd European Championship title.
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After winning the Champions League, my next aim is to win one of the next 3 competitions with the highest reputation with a team that has not won it before.
That means the World Cup with the likes of Belgium, Netherlands or Portugal.
The Euros with England, Belgium or Switzerland.
The Premier League with West Ham, Brighton, Brentford or Crystal Palace.Crazily, Ronald Koeman has kept his job as Netherlands coach despite them not making it to the Euros, which are happening now in-game.
I will wait to see what opportunities the inevitable manager movements that happen after the Euros finish.
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We've beaten Liverpool! And with it qualified for the UCL!!! 
[FM24] Breaking the Duck
in FM Career Updates
Posted
I've immediately asked the board to use the Champions League money for improvements.
And we managed to get an affiliate in France.