Jimbokav1971

Youth Intake day. Mar 2024. This is really inusual. I don't think I have EVER seen a player already in National Team age-group squad on the same day of the intake. [Edit] I think this might be a really good intake and where as before I didn't really care if I lost my job, (in fact I was expecting at after every loss), now I really want to try and hang on to the end of the season and see what I can do in a 2nd season. I wonder if this could turn into a proper save if I manage to build my reputation while I'm here?

Premier League game 29. Mar 2024. The last time we played Man City they were 5-0 up agt HT so this is actually progress.

Premier League game 28. Mar 2024. Ouch! This was a serious beating. I'm not sure the Board are gonna like this.

Feb 2024. Premier League. We were just unlucky against West Ham, but it almost cost me my job. The next 3 results, (4 if you count the FA Cup), and performances were good, but we're really struggling with injuries again and both Reece James and Cole Palmer have been missing this month, with their replacements nowhere near their levels. The target was Champions League, (which is 4th), but that's 11 points away and I think that's unrealistic. 5th and 6th is more achievable, (10 points and 5 points respectively). Will the Board sack me at the end of the season if we finish 5th or 6th, rather than 4th? Yeah they possibly will, but we can only do the best we can do, so let's pick up as many points as we can and see where it takes us. FA Cup. The win against Arsenal was one of the best results of the season. (Rotation policy coming good again). Performance Review. Transfers. Finances.

FA Cup 5th Round. Deb 2024. I rotated the whole starting XI as usual and it came up trumps as we saw off high flying Arsenal thanks to our fresh legs.

Premier League game 27. Feb 2024. Reece James was missing through injury, but Gusto came in and did a job.

Premier League game 26. Feb 2024. Even without our star man Palmer, we were good enough to see off Sheff Utd.

Premier League game 25. Feb 2024. I wasn't aware that Newcastle were without a manager before the game, but either way we played really well and gave the Board a really positive performance and a good result. Unfortunately Cole Palmer got injured on his return and will be out for another couple of weeks.

2nd meeting with the Board. Feb 2024. The Board really didn't like the West Ham result, (and neither did I). I had to promise them an impressive result in the next game, (without even knowing who the opposition are). It turns out we're playing Newcastle at home, and they currently sit 10th in the league. We need 3 point or I'm gone I think. After that we have Sheff Utd and Luton, so if we can get 3 wins from 3 games then it could give us the morale boost to get us through to the end of the season. WIthout that.... I'm history.

Premier League game 4. Feb 2024. More shots, higher xG and dominated possession, but we still lost.

Jan 2024. Premier League. Losing by a single goal to both Spurs and Man Utd is really frustrating. We're not a million miles away, but with our current injuries, we're just a little off the pace. FA Cup. I keep rotating the squad and we keep progressing. Performance Review. I know it's not ab glowing report, but actually I'm happy with it. Transfers. Finances.

HG at Chelsea list. Jan 2024. The tiny clubs I usually manage don't often have many decent ex players who I'm able to sign and yet still remain within my Youth Only guidelines. With Chelsea though it's a whole different story. The players I'm interested in are too expensive and the players i can afford to sign don't really interest me. Samuel Iling at Juve is possibly 1 exception. Tammy Abraham is another. The more I look at him, the more I think he's the player we should be signing. He's out with a damaged cruciate ligament though, so if we're going to sign him it won't be until the Summer, (although maybe i can get him on the cheap now if the medical isn't a problem because of his current injury). Ruben Loftus-Cheek might also be someone who i can find value in. Jérémie Boga is actually a player who I had never heard of before this save. Dominic Solanke isn't amazing, but he could certainly do a job. We have wide ball-carriers galore, but we're short of actual #9's. Jonathan Panzo used to be the next big thing at one point.

FA Cup 4th Round. Jan 2024. I rotated the team completely, (again), and Mykhaylo Mudryk came up trumps with a brace to progress us into the next round.

Premier league game 23. Jan 2024. I think we were a little unlucky against Man Utd, but all that matters is that they get all 3 points.

I'm not sure i will be around long enough to convert this into a youth Only challenge. I've done well to get through to Jan, but I think I will be gone by the end of the season.

Premier League game 22. Jan 2024. Spurs dominated and deserved their win, but it was our old boy Werner who scored the winning goal.

Disaster. Jan 2024. Cole Palmer has 13 goals and 5 assists in 15(2) league appearances. His slot on the left will be hard to fill for the next month.

Successful bid. Jan 2024. The DoF, (or someone anyway), has made a successful bid and had a contract accepted by this guy, but I'm not keen. The fee is £15.25m (£23M) and we only have £29M available. Ideally I would like him younger, (and HG at Chelsea so I can stick to the Youth Only strategy), and I also can't see much of him. I think I'm going to cancel the deal because we're not as desperate at centre-back as we were earlier in the season because Benoît Badiashile returned from injury and is a regular starter and Trevoh Chalobah is now available for selection again We've also had big bids for both our 1st and 2nd choice WBL's. Ben Chilwell was the subject of a £55M bit from the Middle East. Marc Cucurella was the subject of a £33M bid from PSG. Ideally I would accept 1 of these and possibly both of them because we would have other younger WBL's like Lewis Hall waiting to step up. Because Chelsea are such a shambles though, they have already sold 19 year old Lewis Hall to Newcastle for £28M, so not only do they miss out on a bigger fee for Hall, but they miss out on the £55M for Chilwell. It really is such basic stupidity. There are quite a few decent WBL's at Chelsea, but perhaps not many capable of getting to the proper elite level. Lewis Hall is still technically at the club, but he's as good as gone. He's on loan at Newcastle and they have triggered a clause to make the deal permanent. Really good deal for Newcastle. Ishé Samuels-Smith is probably the brightest prospect, but he's only 17 and it's early days yet. Ian Maatsen is 21 years old and has gone on loan to Dortmund. He looks good and if someone offers me £50M+ for Chilwell in the SUmmer then they can have him. Somto Boniface is another athletic 17 year old who could be good. Dylan Williams is 20 years old and can play all down the left. He's on loan in France at Strasbourg & is valued at £7M-£8.8M. Zak Sturge 6'1" is 19 and capped by Guyana. He's just returned from a loan at League 1 Peterborough. If Chelsea had just kept Lewis Hall then they would have been laughing. They would have had a consistent production line pumping out decent WBL's for years. Instead they have screwed things up by selling Hall and keeping 2 older players.

FA Cup 3rd Round. Jan 2024. I rotated again here and we got the job done despite a Thiago missed pen. Lukaku (penalty taking 20) 2/2 at 100%. Nicolas Jackson (penalty taking 13) 1/1 at 100%. Cole Palmer (penalty taking 14) 5/7 at 71%. Enzo (penalty taking 14) 1/3 at 33%. Thiago (penalty taking 13) 0/1 at 0%.

Premier League game 21. Jan 2024. A 2nd hat-trick of the season for Cole Palmer was enough to put Burnley to the sword. Lukaku (penalty taking 20) 2/2 at 100%. Nicolas Jackson (penalty taking 13) 1/1 at 100%. Cole Palmer (penalty taking 14) 5/7 at 71%. Enzo (penalty taking 14) 1/3 at 33%.

Dec 2023. Premier League. It was decent form, but I didn't think it was good enough to keep me in a job. Had the 2 failed Palmer pens been scored then we would have won 5 on the bounce and THAT would have been worth keeping me on. Maybe they just know we were a little unlucky and deserved more. Performance Review. Transfers. Finances. The £51M they gave us for transfers, (half of which we spent on wages), have been paid for via a loan. I don't understand how they can spend the amount of money that they have on players, and then have the club running at such a shortfall on a monthly basis. There is no amount of Champions League money that can fund this. We need to sell players, but instead we're buying expensive players and selling players on the cheap.

Improve confidence. Jan 2024.

Premier League game 20. Dec 2023. This game could have gone either way, but we've had our periods of bad luck and partly with our luck turning, (and our players being fresher because of rotation), we managed to turn over top of the table Liverpool.

Premier League game 19. Dec 2023. We deserved that. Not because our performance warranted it in this game, but because our recent performances warranted more than we were given.

Premier League game 18. Dec 2023. Cole Palmer fails from the spot for the 2nd successive game and his misses have cost us 4 points. He's getting me the sack at this rate. Lukaku (penalty taking 20) 2/2 at 100%. Nicolas Jackson (penalty taking 13) 1/1 at 100%. Cole Palmer (penalty taking 14) 4/6 at 67%. Enzo (penalty taking 14) 1/3 at 33%.