danmcconnell1

After topping our Nations League group, this saw us progress to the Nations League finals where we took on Portugal in their home land in the semi final. We thrashed the home side, beating them 6-0. Mbappe bagged a hat-rick while Dembele, Nkunku and Kolo Muani got the other 3 as we breezed past the Selecao. Then came the final in Lisbon 3 days later against a very good England side, however the score line suggest otherwise. Mbappe scored all 3 again, making it 2 hat-ricks in the Nations League finals, I don't believe that's been done before as we lift the Nations League for the 3rd time in just 5 editions of the competition being played, as well as consecutively for the first time too. Kylian Mbappe is of course the poster boy of French football and has been outstanding since I arrived in Paris. He's scored 11 goals following my arrival, including the consecutive hat-ricks in the Nations League. He's a player for the big occasion and has already played and scored in 3 World Cup finals including a hat-rick in the 2022 final against Argentina in Qatar, winning 2 World Cups in Russia and Canada/USA/Mexico in 2026. He also helped France to European glory in 2024 in Germany, however only scored once in that tournament as he helped them to victory again. Hopefully he can fire us to the next Euro's for us to defend our crown.

The Championship season has now come to a close after the final 6 games of the season were concluded. We kept up our winning streak in early April, coming from behind to beat Luton 2-1, Oscar Kelly and Cadamarteri scoring our goals. However that was to be our final win of the season as we stuttered over the line, losing away to Oxford 1-0, then 4 draws to end the season, beginning at home to Reading, Kelly scoring our goal in 1-1 draw there, then the same score line away at Bolton with Cadamarteri scoring for us from the spot. Our final home match of the season was a thriller against Cardiff which ended 3-3, Webster, Bowler and Cadamarteri on the score sheet. We very nearly won it late on but Bowler had an effort ruled out for offside in stoppage time. The final match of the season came away at Derby and ended in a goalless draw. All of this meant we limped across the finishing line this season finishing 9th in the end. I'm happy with our efforts overall though, considering when I came into the club we were down in 15th, to finish 9th and only 6 points off the playoffs in the end is a decent achievement for a side lacking in forward options. Bailey Cadamarteri ends the regular Championship season as top goal scorer with 26 goals. All of his strikes this season came in the league. He'll be vital to any success we may have in the future, so keeping hold of him is essential for us, however every player has his price, so if an offer comes in over the summer that's too good to refuse, we may well be able to invest any potential incoming transfer money into a deeper, more efficient squad going forward.

March was an outstanding month for us as we are now in the midst of that winning run that I mentioned previously. 3 wins from 3 this month began in Stoke with a 2-1 victory, Bowley and Byers with our goals at the bet365 Stadium. We then welcomed Ipswich to Hillsborough 10 days later and thrashed them 4-0 thanks to a Robinson brace, Warrington and Wilks getting 1 each. The final match before the first international break of the calendar year was away at The Den against Millwall and it was another high-scoring affair for us, beating the Lions 5-2. Furlong scored another goal midway through the 1st half, Cadamarteri with a brace, Oscar Kelly and Robinson scored our goals. After 5 wins in a row stretching back to last month, we now find ourselves further up the table in 8th place, just 4 points off the playoffs. If we can continue our good form then there's no reason why we can't force our way into the top 6. Our good form has earned me the Manager of the Month award for March too. As mentioned before, my France side were back in action at the end of the month as we got our qualification campaign for next summers' Euros in Italy. We began in Marseille against Armenia, beating them 4-2, Mbappe and Kolo Muani both scoring 2 each. We then travelled north to Oslo to take on Norway at Ullevaal and we beat them 4-2 as well, Nkunku with a brace while Mbappe and and Saliba also got on the score sheet. We top the group after 2 matches played having already beaten Norway who will arguably be our biggest challengers in this group, so I don't expect too much trouble going forward.

We had a tough run of matches to begin February with the visit of Fulham getting us underway. We managed a 1-1 draw with the Cottagers, Darnell Furlong scoring our equaliser early in the 2nd half. 3 days later we welcomed, at the time, 2nd place Birmingham in what would be a another difficult match. The score line doesn't show that though as we beat them 5-2, Cadamarteri with a 1st half brace, then Webster and Furlong, incidentally making it 2 in 2 for him, gave us a 4-0 lead before the half hour mark in the 1st half. Blues did get 2 back however a Josh Bowler strike with 9 minutes left put the game to bed and saw us pick up a very valuable 3 points. We then travelled to league leaders Leicester CIty and were soundly beaten 3-1, Charlie Crew scoring our goal. Another defeat came a few days later, this time at home against Norwich, losing 3-2 this time. Bowler and Paterson did get a couple back however the score line flattered us in all honesty. We ended the month with back to back wins, beginning with the trip to Rotherham and a comfortable 2-0 win on the road, Diaby and Wilks with the goals. The final match of the month was a 3-0 drubbing of Swansea at Hillsborough, Zach Robinson stepping in for the injured Cadamarteri and bagging a hat-rick. Our league position hasn't changed at the end of another month as we remain in 13th place. We're now 21 points clear of the drop zone and just 7 points off the play offs, so still in with a shout with just 9 games remaining if we can put a run of wins together, there's always 1 side who come out of nowhere to be in with a shout of the playoffs, hopefully this year it could be us. One piece of news came after the transfer window in England closed which was that Bambo Diaby would be returning to his native Spain in the summer to join Levante for £5m. The deal was done too late for him to leave immediately, therefore we keep him until the summer.

The new year began with a 2-0 defeat in the FA Cup 3rd round away to Nottingham Forest, followed by a 3-0 defeat away at Sunderland just 3 days later in the league. We did win our only home match of the month against Hull, beating the bottom side 3-0 thanks to goals from Wilks, Bowler and Cadamarteri. After an 11 day break, we travelled to the south coast to take on Southampton but lost it thanks to a 92nd minute penalty scored by Ryan Manning after Bailey Cadamarteri missed a penalty for us. Fortunately, we ended the month with another much needed win ahead of a difficult start to February as we beat struggling Watford 3-0 at Vicarage Road, Crew and a Cadamarteri brace giving us the points. We remain in 13th place, solidly mid-table. We're 15 points clear of danger and only 10 points off the playoffs, so it's not impossible to suggest we're still in with a shout of reaching them should we hit a good run of form with 15 matches still to play. Cadamarteri's great season continues as he now sits on 19 goals, all of which have come in the league. He's 1 clear of 2nd top scorer Ryan Mmaee from Stoke. We did some business in January, offloading a few players including the likes of Djeidi Gassama to Maastricht for £250k, Gabrielloni for £600k to St Louise CITY, youngster Shipston joined QPR for a potential £300k and Sofian Bahloul joined Stockport on loan until the end of the season. There's very little to spend in the transfer budget even after those departures, so there was only one player incoming this month. Leandro Ciccolini joins on loan from Argentinian side Lanus until the end of the season. The 31 year old winger can play either side and through the middle in attacking midfield roles, so he'll hopefully be a good addition to the squad for the remainder of the campaign as we look to consolidate a place in the league and try to strengthen more next season for a playoff push.

My first 3 matches in charge of Sheffield Wednesday ended up with 2 wins and a defeat. We beat Blackburn at Ewood Park 2-1, Popovic with his first goal for the club and Cadamarteri with what turned out to be the winner on the stroke of half time with our goals. We also won on Boxing Day in my first match in charge at Hillsborough, beating Coventry 2-1 again, this time Cadamarteri got both, the 2nd of which from the penalty spot. We ended the year with a 1-0 defeat away at Middlesbrough though. This means we end 2026 in 13th place in the Championship, those 4 wins in a row, 2 of which under my stewardship, really helping our league position as we sit comfortably in mid-table at the moment. Despite only being in charge for 3 games, I can see why there is such a fuss being made about Bailey Cadamarteri. He's scored 3 goals for me already in 3 starts at aged just 21 and currently the top scorer in the Championship with 16 league goals, we could face a battle to keep him in January. I hope he stays until at least the summer as he's the kind of striker who could fire us to promotion. He's scoring goals in this ill-balanced side already, imagine what he could do with better quality around him, he's really one to be excited about.

Oh, and of course, there's another significant wage increase in joining Sheffield Wednesday... The Owls have quadrupled my earnings at club level from £2500pw to £10000pw, which added onto the £46500pw I get from France, takes my total earnings to £56500pw. Considering I was on around 1% of that not much more than a year ago, I'm pretty happy with my work up to now in management and despite the loyalty not quite being there, that's not what this save is about. It's about making money.

December began with the aforementioned visit of QPR in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy South 2nd round and we drew 3-3 with them in what was a brilliant 90 minutes, Gudjohnsen ending his scoring drought with a brace and Anderson with the other. We won the tie on penalties 5-3 after Maynard saved Hepburn-Murphy's opening penalties for QPR. We then beat them again 3 days later at The Valley again, this time Jack Taylor scoring in a much changed side from the one a few days earlier. We couldn't continue the good form though as we lost away at Exeter 3 days after that though, losing 1-0 at St James Park. We then welcomed a Wigan side who're in the playoff hunt with us and could only manage a 1-1 draw with them, they equalised in the 93rd minute. These results means we have dropped to 6th in the league midway through December. Now, you may notice that December has been cut short, which is odd as it's arguably the busiest month of the English footballing calendar. This is because I have a new job... My rise up the English football pyramid continues after being offered the Sheffield Wednesday job in the Championship. I leave Charlton after just over a year in charge and have left them in a playoff place and with a much more balanced squad than the one I came into a year ago. Despite not being in great form, I do still believe Charlton are in with a shout of promotion this season, however it may have to be via the Playoffs as Plymouth and Wrexham are starting to pull away at the top now. Moving onto my new role, the Owls have won their last 2 before my arrival against Derby and Bristol City, so I come into the match against Blackburn next with the side in good form. These are the players I have at my disposal. There are some familiar names to Championship fans with the likes of Darnell Furlong, Will Vaulks, and Callum Paterson playing a lot of their career's in this league, as well as some very exciting talents with the likes of goalkeeper Pierce Charles, Lewis Warrington and Bailey Cadamarteri all looking like very good prospects. The latter of those 3 is having a great season up to now, scoring 13 goals in 23 appearances, all of which have come in the Championship.

October and November have been 2 very contrasting months. We managed consecutive 1-0 wins against Stockport in the league and Plymouth away in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy with goals coming from Barry and Willock respectively to begin October, followed by another win, this time 2-1 away at Blackpool thanks to a brace from Barry who's in good form. Barry scored again in the 1-1 draw with Carlisle before we comfortably dispatched of Mansfield at The Valley 4-2. Hall, Edmonds-Green, Kanu and Holmes with the goals that day. We then drew 1-1 with Wycombe, our goal coming from Ndiweni. We then lost at Stamford Bridge to Chelsea in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup before beating Bristol Rovers 4-3 in the 1st round of the FA Cup to end October, goals from Barry, Jones, Stevanovic and Willock. Then came the poor run of form which coincided with the start of November with a defeat at home to Huddersfield, losing 3-2. Ndiweni and Barry scored for us. We then welcomed Wrexham and were 3-1 up thanks to goals from Ndiweni, Twine and Stevanovic but were pegged back late on to only pick up a point. We won our only match of the month in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy against West Brom's Under 21 side, beating them 2-1 thanks to goals from Kanu and Willock. Consecutive 1-0 defeats came on the road at Barnsley and the MK Dons before another defeat, this time at Plymouth, losing 3-1 with Kanu scoring our consolation. We were also knocked out of the FA Cup in the 2nd round by Preson at Deepdale. A poor November has seen us drop to 5th in the league on 34 points from 20 matches. Every team goes through a rough patch of form and I'm hoping that was ours and things start to pick up again soon. We take on QPR in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy South section 2nd round early in December which is a competition I'd like to do well in as we could do with a distraction from our poor league form at the moment. Both Hull City and Ipswich Town approached me for interviews, which I of course attended, however both clubs overlooked me for the position of first team manager on this occasion. Moving onto French duty, October saw us welcome Switzerland to the Stade de France in a match we won 3-1 thanks to goals from Mbappe, Coman and Badiashile. We were then defeated in Brussells against Belgium, losing 2-0. November began in Paris again with a 3-1 win over Bosnia, Nkunku, Dembele and Mbappe with the goals, with Kylian becoming France's all time top goal scorer with his penalty, scoring his 59th goal for France, now 1 clear of Olivier Giroud on 58. We ended the Nations League group campaign with a dead rubber against Switzerland, beating them 2-1 in Geneva thanks to goals from Thuram and Kolo-Muani. These results meant we finished top of the group, therefore qualified for the Nations League semi finals where we will take on Portugal in the summer. The other semi final sees England take on Italy. Our Euro 2028 qualifying group has also been drawn and we'll be taking on Armenia, Greece, Luxembourg and Norway, the latter of which will see Kylian Mbappe take on Erling Haaland which will be exciting ties. We shouldn't have any issues getting out of the group, anything less than winning it would be seen as a disappointment in my eyes.

So was I, but the chance to manage top players, and a very decent wage increase too was too much to pass up Yeah I agree with this, hopefully the new-look FM25 will look to address this issue, however I do fear they have bigger fish to fry with a new match engine.

After a brilliant start to the season I hoped that we could continue this form going into September. We began with a comfortable 3-1 win over AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup 3rd round with Daniel Kanu scoring a brace and Michael Ndiweni scoring his first for the club to see us into round 4. We then rather surprisingly lost away to Port Vale 2-1, Ndiweni scoring for us again but we succumbed to our first defeat this season. Then came the thrashing of Northampton in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, beating them 6-0 thanks to goals from Gudjohnsen, Willock, Ferguson, Holmes and a Jack Taylor brace to get us off to the perfect start in that competition. We followed that up with a 2-1 win away at Notts County thanks to late goals from George Hall and Louie Barry. Then came another win, this time 5-3 against Chesterfield at home, Barry scoring another 2 while Kanu matched that and Gudjohnsen with the other. That was followed by another 2-1 defeat on the road, this time away at Lincoln, Barry scoring for the 4th time in 3 matches. We ended the month against fellow fast starters this season Peterborough and absolutely wiped the floor with them at The Valley, putting 4 past them with no reply, Twine scoring 2 while Kasey Palmer and Ryan Wintle both scored off the bench. Plymouth now set the pace at the top with 23 points alongside Peterborough, we sit a point behind on 22 after 10 matches played. I really do feel like we will be in with a shout in the promotion race this season, whether that be in the automatic places or the playoffs, I do think we'll be there or thereabouts. I took charge of France for the first time this month too, starting my reign in Sarajevo against Bosnia where we managed a 3-1 win in our first Nations League group stage match. William Saliba, Ousmane Dembele and Kingsley Coman all scored, the latter 2 both off the bench to make my start to life with Les Bleus a winning one. We then welcomed Belgium from across the border to Paris for my first match in charge at the national stadium, the Stade de France and we beat them 2-1 this time, goals from Coman and Allan Saint-Maximin, who was a late call up after the withdrawal from the squad of Marcus Thuram. We sit top of the group after 2 matches played.

We've had a flying start to the new season which began with a 3-0 win over recently relegated Preston North End. Ryan Wintle scored a brace while Daniel Gudjohnsen scored his first goal for the club. Our First round tie in the Carabao Cup was at home to Cambridge and we went one better to beat them 4-0 with a much changed side. Chris Willock scored on his full debut, Gudjohnsen managed a brace this time while Karoy Anderson marked his first appearance back at the club with a goal after spending last season on loan at Chesterfield. Next up was our first league match of the season at home against Portsmouth and we beat them comfortably thanks to goals from Scott Twine and a first for the club by loanee George Hall to give us a 2-0 win. We conceded for the first time this season away at Burton as we couldn't keep up our winning start, Lynden Gooch getting our equaliser in the 2nd half, however we got back to winning ways with a bang a week later at home to Gillingham, beating them 4-0 thanks to a Kanu brace, Gudjohnsen and Gooch both getting one each again. Then came the most impressive result of the month as we beat Premier League side Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup 2nd round at The Valley. Taylor opened the scoring whilst 2 late goals from another new signing Filip Stevanovic sealed our progression into round 3 where we'll take on recently relegated to League 2 AFC Wimbledon in South West London. The month ended with the first London derby of the season for us as Leyton Orient came to The Valley and we comfortably dispatched of them 2-0 thanks to 2 Lynden Gooch goals, he's had a great start to the new season. All of this means we sit top of League 1 after 5 matches played, level on points with Peterborough, Wrexham and Plymouth, our goal difference being the most impressive at +11. It's been an outstanding start to the new campaign and all I can hope for is that we continue playing as well as we are, the rest should take care of itself. We've brought in some more reinforcements at the back as Tom Holmes joins from Luton for £750k. He fits the theme of signings this summer, a versatile player however a defender instead of forward thinking player. He didn't get much game time at Luton over the last 3 years or so, so we're hoping he can find that form he did at Reading which earned him the move to Premier League Luton at the time.

On the eve of the new season getting underway, we achieved a perfect pre-season, scoring 18 goals without conceding in wins over Welling, Hastings, Morecambe, West Bromwich Albion and Boreham Wood. We will take on recently relegated Preston in our first game of the new season. This is the squad that will see us into the new campaign. Plenty of departures throughout the summer whilst there were plenty of arrivals too. Let's take a look at who left the club first of all. First out of the club was Adedokun who joined Walsall on loan. Conor Coventry wasn't happy at the club following the failure to achieve promotion so requested a transfer, he joined Cardiff for £1.8m in our biggest outgoing of the summer. Tennai Watson joined Chesterfield for £160k, Tyreece Campbell went to Bolton for £550k and Ukranian goalkeeper Artur Rudko moved to Bristol City for £1m. Another keeper left in Harry Isted, he joined Swindon for £90k. A few young players went out on loan whilst the other major outgoing player was Ross McCrorie who joined Reading for what could reach £205k, meaning we've brought in a total of around £3.75m. We've brought in a total of 7 players in total, the vast majority will bolster us at the top end of the pitch. However, first in was Guillaume Hubert, a goalkeeper on a free from Molenbeek in Belgium. He'll be our number 1 going into the new campaign, however will be under pressure from number 2 Ashley Maynard-Brewer. After a successful loan spell in the second half of last season, Scott Twine joins the club on a permanent deal this time after being released by Burnley. He's a player I really like who can play pretty much anywhere across the front, his versatility will no doubt be an important factor going into the new season. Chris Willock joins us on a free following his release from QPR. He's another versatile midfielder who can play anywhere across the front again, we now have plenty of options at the top end of the pitch. Filip Stevanovic is another winger who's joined on a free again following his release from Manchester City. He's still young at just 23 so I'm really hoping some regular football will help see him progress as he could become a very important player for us. George Hall joins on loan from Birmingham, he's a central midfielder who likes to play further forward, I'm really hoping he can become an important part of our midfield this season. Michael Ndiweni is a young striker who was released by Newcastle in the summer, he joins to bolster our front line. He's very pacy and aged just 22, has plenty of time to progress into a decent striker. Daniel Gudjonsen is another striker who has come in from Malmo for a fee of £1.1m. He's the son of former Chelsea and Barcelona man Eidur, so certainly has pedigree. He began his career in Barcelona's La Masia before joining Real Madrid. He went to Scandinavia to join Swedish side Malmo where he's barely played. He spent time on loan at Notts County last season and scored a couple of goals for them in 15 matches, I'm really hoping a big move for him can spark his career into life. Finally, the biggest news of the summer personally for me, fresh from winning the World Cup, France offered me the national side job following the departure of 3 time World Cup winner (once as a player and twice as a manager) Didier Deschamps quit the role after winning it again in the USA. Deschamps is a legend of French football so to follow him will be very tough after he won 2 World Cups, Euro 2024 and 2 Nations League titles in his 14 years in charge. It's some rise for me personally, from managing Dartford back at the beginning of December in the Vanarama National League to managing the likes of double World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe at international level, it's a very exciting time. I do of course feel for Fiji, I didn't get to manage them in a competitive match which I'm disappointed about, however the chance to manage the World champions, with a significant pay rise too, was too much of a pull.

Cheers! Appreciate the kind words! Been quite the summer...

The final month of the regular season saw us play 5 matches in total as we beat Stevenage 2-1 at The Valley to make it back to back wins, goals from Iniesta and Wintle won it for us in the 2nd half. We travelled to Burton and drew 1-1, Gooch with our goal which turned out to be the only time we dropped points this month. 3 wins in a row to end the season began with a 3-0 win over Wycombe, Mubama, Taylor and Palmer scoring there, then a 2-0 away at Notts County, Mubama again and Kanu from the spot at Meadow Lane before we ended our campaign with a dead rubber against Mansfield at The Valley, beating them 4-2 thanks to a Mubama brace, Twine and a Conor Coventry screamer to end the season on a high. The final league table saw us finish in 12th, slap bang in the middle of the table. We ended the season 9 points away from the playoffs as our good form came too late in the end, however did steer clear of the drop by an impressive 18 points in the end, with that end of season unbeaten run helping us stay well away from danger. For those who're interested, my old Dartford side won just 4 times after I left the club, with Akinwale failing to score again all season after my departure. They ended up going down with a whimper in the end back to the Vanarama South. I thought they had plenty of firepower to keep themselves up but evidently not. It does make me think that it may have been my tactics that helped Dartford to somewhat over achieve in that league though, so I hope I can have the same effect at Charlton. Here's the majority of the squad and their numbers at the end of this campaign. Mubama and Kanu share the top goal scorer award with 10 each. I'm pleased to see that goals were spread around the side though, with Louie Barry getting 7, Campbell, Palmer Twine and Gooch all got 6 each while Iniesta and Coventry both got 4 each. There will be transfer activity this summer so watch this space.