Swaban

fully agreed! this issue is, who's going to buy an injury prone striker thats on £250,000 per week? I honestly think he will stay until his contract runs down.

you're not wrong! I feel for him as he has flashes of brilliance but has never been able to stay fit

away at the etihad, it'll be a tough game for sure. I never want to go into a game without aiming to win, but a draw should be enough for us!

Yeah, up to now he has been rotated with Rashford on the left, however he is becoming my first choice right winger recently. With Antony being his rotational option & Sancho being a rotational option for both Rashford on the left & Bruno Fernandes as a number 10. If this continues, Enzo Le Fee will likely be moved on if a good offer comes in for him

April 2025 A draw away to Bournemouth thanks to an early sending off for Lisandro Martinez & a 1-0 loss to Arsenal looked disastrous, however City were beaten 1-0 by Newcastle & 2-1 by Spurs which has allowed us to regain our lead in the table. We now find ourselves 2 points clear with only 3 games left to play. One of which is against City the winners of which will surely go on to win the title. Our 2 point lead puts us in the driving seat & means that even a draw against them would be enough providing we can do a job against 6th place Newcastle (who did beat City this month) & 10th place Wolves. Anthony Martial who signed for Everton this season after a disappointing stint at Bayern scored the opening goal against us & went off injured, all within the first 15 minutes of the game. If that isnt peak Martial then I dont know what is.

This year, we find ourselves with only 1 player on this list. Kobbie Mainoo is listed in 10th place. Assan Ouedraogo is this years winner, so far he has remained with Schalke however he is currently wanted by none other than Manchester City

March 2025 We make it 3 years in a row in the Carabao Cup. Manchester City managed to win the competition 4 years on the bounce between 2018-2021 & we put ourselves in a position to match this next season. The draw against Villa was particularly annoying, given that we were 3-0 up at half time, thankfully City also dropped points once again with a 1-1 draw against Chelsea & having played an extra game this month, they find themselves 2 points clear of us at the top. We do however have a game in hand.

Youth Intake 2025 My HOYD has rated this intake as "below average" & said that it is a "disappointing group of players" which I feel may be slightly harsh. Whilst none of them look to be world beaters, there are a couple of decent players here. Our top rated prospects are: Scottish goalkeeper Ally Lamie Irish midfielder Dean O'Toole who is comfortable with both feet & could well be the pick of the bunch however we do already have a number of strong young players in Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Jackson, & Riccardo De Keyser, all of which are developing nicely (I'll post screenshots below) English striker Rickie McPhillips, who unfortunately is unambitious Cypriot defender Colin Bedford who is good with both feet & can play anywhere across the backline. Unfortunately he has a mercenary personality. For anyone who is interested in seeing how some of our best players from previous intake are developing, Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho (both of whom were already at the club when I took over) are both developing nicely & receiving regular gametime in the first team. Luke Jackson, Jake Hart, Ethan Walker & Riccardo De Keyser are all receiving gametime where possible & are developing well as a result of this. Simon Kyambadde has been loaned out to Championship side Reading & is also developing nicely. (unfortunately due to an issue with NewGan, the keen-eyed among you may notice that they have acquired new faces)

Rico Lewis looks like a bargain at that price, any idea why he was so cheap?

Yes, we rotated heavily for many of the games, with strong league form being imperative due to City breathing down our necks. We did play full strength sides against both Roma & Real Betis among others, however we went on to lose both of those matches.

February 2025 A poor month all things considered, see's us drop 6 points in the league. Thankfully, City also dropped points meaning are find ourselves 1 point ahead however we no longer have a game in hand. This is compounded by the fact that we are knocked out of the Champions League by Inter Milan. Injuries are catching up to us which meant that we were without Kane, Rashford & Varane for the tie & unfortunately we just didnt have the quality to beat them. Whilst this is disappointing, it will allow us to consistently field the strongest player that we have available for league games & we play Manchester City in the penultimate game of the season, which could well end up being the title decider.

January 2025 Another great month, which saw us play 8 games across all 4 competitions. We go undefeated in the league, meaning that we retain top spot but now have a game in hand over second place Manchester City after they were beaten by Leeds. Both ourselves & City now find ourselves 11 points clear of third place Chelsea. Elsewhere, we beat City 1-0 over 2 legs in the Carabao Cup Semi Final, where we will face Chelsea in the final as we atempt the win the competition for the third year in a row. As the new look Champions League group stage is wrapped up, we finish in 12th place, meaning that we have to go through a play-off in order to qualify for the last 16. Transfers We opted not to bring anyone in during the window, however Casemiro signed a pre-contract agreement with Napoli meaning he will join them on a free in the summer. I've been through a number of contract negotiations with him this season trying to offer him an extra year on reduced wages, however he wouldn't accept anything less than the £240,000 he is on currently, so I opted to let him run his contract down. Luke Shaw again came to me and said he wanted to consider his options at the end of the contract. The only way I could talk him into staying was to promise to win the Champions League this season, which ultimately I was unwilling to promise. Particularly after we had to promise him we would win the Premier League last year. He has 18 months left on his contract, so I will look to sell him in the summer in order to get a fee for him. With this in mind, I plan to give Gvardiol a few games at left back throughout the rest of the season, despite him doing a fantastic job at centre back as this will allow me to decide whether I sign a new centre back or left back once Shaw leaves in the summer. Elsewhere, after being sacked by Chelsea last season, Graham Potter found himself back at Brighton this season & he has now been sacked there too as Brighton find themselves languishing in 19th place. Should they end up getting relegated, we may well find ourselves heading down to the south coast for a bit of shopping in the summer.

York's stadium looks really nice here!

Irl I believe that both Jersey and Guernsey are liable for the travel costs of each team that has to travel to either island. Do we know if this is also reflected in game? If so, I can see this season costing you a fortune

Im surprised to see Notts County still in the National League this far in, I thought they'd have established themselves in the football league by now

excellent story so far, managing a B team looks interesting & not something I've done before. Good luck mate

nice! any plans to try and use a somewhat moneyball approach like Brighton do?

wow, what a season. Congrats mate!

World Player of the Year / Goalkeeper of the Year We place in the top 3 from both player of the year & goalkeeper of the year. Harry Kane finishes as runner up to Haaland (Manchester City) & just ahead of Vinicius (Real Madrid). Diogo Costa finishes in third place, behind Mike Maignan (AC Milan) & Edouard Mendy (Chelsea)

November / December 2024 our good run continues after a busy couple of months, where we played 14 games in November & December. We picked up 25 points from a possible 30 in the league during this period, unfortunately City have been in even better form. We now sit on top of the table purely on goal difference with 21 games played. We have however increased the gap to third place, where Chelsea find themselves 6 points behind. We also draw Manchester City in the Carabao Cup Semi Final, a competition which we have won 2 years in a row, a run we are confident of extending should we beat City, as we would face either Southampton or West Ham in the final. Youth Intake Preview The preview makes for disappointing reading, I'm hoping that come March, things are better than they look currently!

if im honest, ill buy it regardless. As is the case every year

Goal 50 - 2024 This year, we find ourselves with 5 players in the Goal 50, up from 3 last year! New signing Diogo Costa (16), Harry Kane (20, down from 12 last year) Bruno Fernandes (23, up from 39 last year), Teun Koopmeiners (25) & Josko Gvardiol (36) Manchester City have 10 players on the list, 4 of which are in the top 10!

what an insane run in, Dover must be gutted to stumble so late on. Good luck on the final day mate!

This title race is going down to the wire! Im genuinely more invested in this than in my own save haha

September / October 2024 Another incredible couple of month see's us win 10 of our 11 games, including wins against Manchester City, Bayern Munich & Liverpool. As a result, we find ourselves sat top of the league, 1 point ahead of Chelsea & 2 points ahead of Manchester City as well as being top of the new look Champions League group stage, ahead of Napoli & Benfica on goal difference. Tactics Having read a couple of interesting articles recently regarding Pep Guardiola & his tactical style, I have recently began trying to emulate this with the below tactic. The 4 2 3 1 is still very much my primary tactic as it fits my players far better having used the market to source players for those specific roles, however the 3 2 4 1 is having good results when used. It is unlikely that I will commit to using this as my primary tactic as I would have to look at moving on my fullbacks, as I have no place for them in this tactic unless I converted them to Wide Centre Backs.