DaneBramage

Tyresö FF - May 2020 I knew our unbeaten opening to the season wouldn't last forever, but the way it ended was pretty disappointing. We were on a bit of high after the big win over Huddinge IF, and a trip to bottom of the table Hanvikens SK shouldn't have troubled us, but we were completely off the pace and deserved to lose. That wasn't even the worst loss of the month though. Despite equalising against Västerhaninge IF in the 93rd minute, we then conceded again immediately from kick-off. Infuriating. But it's easy to dwell on the negatives. So forget that, and look at three green dots below. Nine points from a possible 15. That's good going, and we are now 2nd after nine games, behind only Assyriska IF i Norrköping.

Tyresö FF - April 2020 I'm very happy with this first month, but there is still the suspicion that it's just the new manager bounce in play. We came flying out of the blocks to start the season with two wins, Musa Dibba with all the goals in these games to make a great first impression. The next two matches didn't quite go as smoothly, both times fighting back from being behind to take a draw, but we're still undefeated. After four games (out of 26) we sit in 3rd place.

Tyresö FF - Tactic The same 4-4-2 I always use. I'm a tactical dunce, when I make one tactic that works I don't dare try anything else, bar the occasional foray to 4-5-1.

Tyresö FF - 2020 Pre-Season Squad It's difficult to read too much into this, but at least there does agree to be some degree of quality in most areas of the pitch. There aren't many defenders in the senior squad, but the reserves and U19 squads are full so there are players available when we need them. The top two players by PA are 4.5 star midfielder Milan Hussein, and winger Joel Embring. Between them they have a total of one technical attribute in double-figures, so standards aren't the highest. The favourite players of the fans will include Lukas Brikell, who holds the appearance record with 134 games (scoring 12 times), and all-time top scorer Niclas Thomasson, who has 38 goals (in 77 games). Both players came through the academy here.

Why Tyresö FF? I've been learning Swedish for just over a year, so I wanted to start a Swedish lower-league save. Picking this particular team was just dumb luck, using the randomise button until a club in the bottom tier was selected. What's their history like? Information is pretty minimal on Wikipedia, not updated in several years. But as far as I can tell it's not a glittering past. There were a couple of years in the second tier (1985 and 1990), but other than that the rest of their history has been spent between the third and fifth tiers. How are the facilities? Very much as you'd expect for this level. Poor training facilities, poor youth facilities, fairly basic academy coaching, and basic youth recruitment. Finances? There is a bit of cash, just under £125,000. I assume it will disappear very quickly. Youth only, probably? I've tried youth only before, and never got far with it. So there's every chance I'll fail miserably, in which case I may pivot to a Scandi journeyman career instead. Expectations for the 2020 season? In the holidayed 2019 season the club finished 11th out of 14. 12th place goes into a relegation play-off, while 13th and 14th are sent down automatically. So they just avoided trouble. This year the board want us to avoid relegation, and the media predict that we'll finish 11th again. Game Set-Up? All out-of-the-box leagues are loaded for Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland. The top division has also been added for the major European nations.

September 2020 This is more like what I was expecting, but that doesn't make it any easier to take. Only one goal in 360 minutes is pretty inept. The losses to West Ham and Bournemouth are one thing. I accept those, we didn't play well at all away from home. But the other two games could have been much better. Tottenham was a missed opportunity. I treated it as a write-off, playing the rotation side. Spurs also played a weakened side and we dominated them, especially when they had to play most of the second-half with ten men after a red card. But we just couldn't score, and they punished us in the penalty shootout. It was the same story against Watford. More domination, loads of shots, no goals, concede against the run of play, fourth loss in a row. We've fallen to 14th in the table, four points above the relegation places.

August 2020 I was expecting to get destroyed, but we've made a really good start. We didn't hit the ground running though; we were two-down to Norwich within half an hour. We managed to pull one back, but it wasn't enough. The bookies suggestion that we were evens to get relegated looked pretty fair. Two home games in a row suited us nicely, and we picked up two good wins. We had five games in 16 days, and the Tottenham match was the one we sacrificed. The rotation side was played, and predictably lost. But the intention of this was that our strongest XI would be fresh for the next two games, and it worked. We smashed Aston Villa in the cup (admittedly they did play a weakened team), and then beat Everton convincingly in the league. Michael Olise was named young player of the month. After five games we sit in the heady heights of 7th place.

Summer 2020 The early part of pre-season was spent handing out new contracts, as those who didn't have automatic promotion increase clauses kicked up a fuss. There was also a slight bit of transfer interest from PSG in Michael Olise, but when I rejected their approach they didn't come back in, and he didn't stay upset for long. There wasn't a huge amount of transfer business going on, either in or out. Throughout last season we only had two scouts, neither particularly good, so we didn't have a big list of targets to look at. We've signed up a few more scouts now, but our options for this window were limited. Departures No major losses here, and good to get some expensive wages off the books. Charlie Adam and Garath McCleary were both in the rotation side last year and in the twilight of their careers, while Vito Mannone and Adrian Popa were out on loan anyway. Signings Despite the lack of money in the bank the board handed me a transfer budget of £34 million. Ovie Ejaria was a pre-arranged transfer at the end of a loan spell, and one of our star players last year, so he doesn't really count as a new signing. Neither does Matt Miazga, who was also on loan last year, but transfer-listed when he returned to Chelsea. Towards the end of pre-season one of our centre-backs was ruled out for several months with a hip injury, so we splashed the case to bring in Scott McKenna from Aberdeen. He'd only just been named their club captain so the fans weren't happy to see him go. The other two signings were brought in after they'd been on impressive trials with us. 18 year old Connor Stanley had been released by Manchester United and will go into our under 23 squad. Josh Cullen had been released by West Ham after barely making any appearances for them, though he does have over 135 games at Championship and League One level over various loan spells, as well as a few caps for Ireland. He'll be a rotation option in midfield. Squad As well as the new signings, we have Mo Barrow back after he was out on loan last year. I've also bumped up Tom McIntyre and Sam Smith from the under 23 group.

When was your ST? I had one way back in 2008/09, then continued going fairly regularly for the next few years, until the Jaap Stam era killed my interest. Actually the best performance in recent years, but mind-numbingly dull. Just looked over my records and I haven't been at all since 2017 (though I have seen the women's team a couple of times, and go to Thatcham and Hungerford a few times a year).

End of Season Thoughts I was not expecting to get promoted at all. I wasn't even expecting a play-off push. I'd have been perfectly happy with a midtable finish, then clearing out overpaid players and taking the money for anyone in demand, so we could plan a rebuild in the Championship. So a promotion is a big surprise. It kind of annoys me when I read updates here and people have instant success, and now I'm one of them! As such we are not set up for the Premier League at all. We only have two scouts, and no money to sign anyone, so our options for strengthening are pretty limited. We even had to pay out an additional £1.7 million in bonuses for getting promoted (£200k to Liam Moore, £500k to Sheffield Wednesday (as part of the Lucas Joao deal), £1 million to Brighton (as part of the Sam Baldock deal)), so the Premier League money can not come soon enough. We are very overdrawn with the bank. Our youth category has also been reduced from level 1 to level 2. I don't entirely know what that means, but it can't be good. Now I've been here for a year I feel I can start making background changes, so it may be time to start asking for upgrading and hiring new staff (once we get some money anyway).

2019/20 Squad Review Goalkeepers Rafael Cabral had a great season, keeping 20 clean sheets and conceding less than one goal per game. Sam Walker is nowhere near good enough as backup, conceding more than twice per game. Defenders Matt Miazga had a cracking season, I'm certainly going to try and get him back from Chelsea for another year. Not just for his defensive performances, but 9 goals from defence comes in very handy. At right-back Andy Yiadom also performed very well, and was a creative force. The contract of Chris Gunter is up in the summer, I was expecting to let him go but when we had to draft him in for the play-off final he played well, so may have earned himself another year. Midfielders John Swift was our top creator from the deep-lying playmaker position, finishing the season with 18 assists. He was named the fan's player of the year, as well as Championship player of the year. Michael Olise is a big prospect for the future, I'm happy with how much gametime he got this season and he was vital in the play-off final. Charlie Adam is retiring in the summer, and joining the coaching team for our under 18s. Wingers Ovie Ejaria and Yakou Meite played brilliantly on the wings. They finished the year as our top scorers, while the former also notched double-figures for assists. The back-ups didn't really do much, at least two of them won't be here next year, hopefully all three. Strikers Danny Loader had an amazing first season with the senior squad, finishing as joint-second highest scorer with 16 goals, often coming from the bench. He has to be in the first-choice team next season. George Puscas and Lucas Joao both underwhelmed, though at least the latter had a decent end to the season to finish with a more respectable goal tally. Sam Baldock wasn't used much, and I stopped using him at all when I saw we'd have to pay Brighton another £200k if he made two more appearances.

May 2020 Play-Off Final Blooming 'eck, we've only gone and done it! It wasn't necessarily as easy as the scoreline might make it look - Rafael Cabral was called in to action several times and the defence put in a sterling performance to limit what the West Brom attack could do. But when we had opportunities at the other end, we took them. Yakou Meite struck just before the break, and as the cliche goes, that's always a good time to score. We came out for the second-half full of confidence, and in the 71st minute it paid off. When Lucas Joao was tripped after bursting into the box, Michael Olise grabbed the ball to take the penalty. And mirroring his goal from the spot on the opening day, he repeated the trick here at Wembley. Nine minutes later and he scored a second, a sweet strike from just outside the area, and the Royals were ready to celebrate a return to the top flight.

May 2020 Play-Off Semi-Finals John Swift was on a one-man mission to win the first-leg, with his first goal of the season sandwiched between a pair of assists. Unfortunately the rest of team didn't perform to anywhere near the same level, and although we led twice, we left Wales with the tie still in the balance. We made three changes for the second-leg, and one of them paid off big time. With the encounter locked 4-4 on aggregate, Danny Loader took control of the game. First he pounced on a loose ball in the box to slot past the keeper, and after the break he got on the end of a cross from the right with a glancing header into the final corner. An excellent showing from him to win the match, only let down by his actions in the 95th minute. He went in with a completely unnecessary two-footed lunge, and the subsequent (deserved) red card will see him sit out the final. We're up against West Brom in the final. We beat them at home, and drew away.

April + May 2020 The good form continued, as we added another four wins to make it 14 games unbeaten. Lucas Joao hit a bit of a purple patch in this time and was named player of the month for April. He, along with George Puscas, both finally reached 10 goals this season. The Blackburn game was a damp squib and ended our hopes of hitting 100 goals, but at least we ended the regular season strong. We were top scorers by a considerable margin, hitting the target 14 more times than anyone else. This boost to our goal difference meant we just pipped West Brom to 3rd place. If we'd only picked up one more point (balls to that Blackburn loss) we'd have been going up automatically - instead, it's the play-offs. We're up against Swansea in the play-off semi-finals. We played them on the final day of the season, so it means we'll now be taking them on three games in a row. Form is on our side - we beat them at home and drew away.

March 2020 Goals goals goals! The games where our first-team played were super impressive, three big wins, all with clean sheets. Even Lucas Joao managed a brace, and we got a measure of revenge against Brentford for the defeats earlier in the season. The second-string took on Derby in midweek and could only manage a draw, but it was enough to extend our unbeaten run to 10 games. Ovie Ejaria is the third player to reach 10 assists, and the first to meet this threshold for both goals and assists. With six games left we're guaranteed a play-off place, and still have an outside chance of automatic promotion. We have conceded more than the teams around us, but have also scored 8 more than anyone else. I'm eyeing up a target of 100 goals for the season. Our bank balance is now more than £8 million in the red. If we don't get promoted we'll probably have to make some significant sales in the summer.

Youth Intake The first youth intake is in. I've signed everyone up. No 5.0 PA players in this batch, but there is one 4.5. Not much depth after that, just a 3.5 and two 3.0s. I know you can't necessarily tell much at this stage, and there's every chance the PA could be well off, but there are a couple of things worth noting. The personalities and determination are a bit lacking. Annoyingly, those with more determination are the lower rated players. At the higher end we have three unambitious players with determination 5 or below, they're never going to make it. Thanks to our link with Ocean City we have two American players joining us from their academy. 20a Walter Derrick

February 2020 I thought the season was getting away from us after the poor January, and defeat to Leicester in the FA Cup replay didn't help, making it five games without a win. We put out our strongest line-up against Leicester, meaning we had to rotate against Hull. And in a stroke of genius (or absolute fluke...), under 21 Ryan East and little-used loanee Ayub Masika were thrown into the starting XI, and both men scored to inspire a win. Not just that, but it kickstarted a run of six games without defeat. The last-minute win over West Brom was particularly pleasing, as was beating Leeds (Rafael Cabral saving a late penalty). The less said about failing to beat bottom placed Barnsley though... Andy Yiadom is the second player to reach 10 assists this season. I've managed to get Danny Loader to sign a new contract, amid interest from several Premier League clubs. He wouldn't add an optional three years, and insisted on a buyout clause, but at £30 million this should be safe for now. We remain 5th in the table, now 13 points above Sheffield Wednesday in 7th. Barring catastrophe, we should have a play-off spot in the bag.

January 2020 Have the wheels come off? It certainly feels like it. We started the year poorly, throwing away a 2-1 lead and ending up getting hammered by Fulham. We then played out a miserable goalless draw in the FA Cup against Blackpool, though at least we finished the job in the replay. Even then our defence did their best to let them back in to it, giving up two late goals to make the result closer than it should have been. In between we smashed Nottingham Forest, but used up most of our goals for the month in the process. We've been terrible in front of goal since, with just one goal in four games at the end of the month. We ran circles around Leicester in the FA Cup, 62% possession and 27 shots, but couldn't do any damage and had to settle for a replay in February. Just four points from a possible 15 is an awful showing. I'm pinning most of the blame on Lucas Joao, he's an absolute donkey. Ovie Ejaria and Danny Loader have both reached (and surpassed) 10 goals for the season. Interestingly*, that's now both wingers and our rotation striker reaching this target before either starting striker has. John Swift has picked up 10 assists, while Rafael Cabral has managed 10 clean sheets. We've fallen to 5th in the table, but we still have a nine point gap to Middlesbrough in 7th, so we're safe in the play-offs for now. Transfers A couple of players left this window, as both rotation full-backs were sent away, one permanently and one temporarily. The contract of Jordan Obita was up in the summer, so he was allowed to leave now for a small fee. We're also getting a bit for Felipe Araruna going out on loan. The amounts are swallowed up by our deficit though, the bank balance is over £5 million in the red.

December 2019 We were flying in the lead-up to Christmas, making it five wins on the bounce. We even won our first midweek game, Charlie Adam rolling back the years with a goal and an assist against Barnsley. We must have overdone it with the mince pies though, as we barely put up a fight on Boxing Day. The fake hoops turned us over easily at home to complete the double over us this season. Still, at least we went into the new year with some momentum, a good win over Preston to end 2019. Yakou Meite has now reached 10 goals for the season, the first of our squad to reach double-figures. We're still doing much better than expected, and have risen to third in the table. We're definitely in the fight for a play-off spot.

November 2019 Consecutive home wins brought some joy to the Madejski, but momentum was lost during the international break. We returned to action with a trip to Brentford, and although we had more of the ball, were toothless in front of goal. I was resigned to leaving with a point, which still would have been a good outcome, but we were hit with a late suckerpunch. We haven't won a single midweek game this season, our second-string line-up just isn't strong enough. They were easily turned over by Leeds. I was ready to read the riot act when we gave up a two goal lead against Wigan, but luckily substitutes Garath McCleary and Danny Loader made the difference in stoppage-time to make the long journey home a much happier time. Ovie Ejaria is perhaps emerging as our star player with 7 goals and 6 assists so far this season, and the highest average rating at 7.41. We stay 4th in the table, but surprisingly we're the highest scorers at the moment with 42 goals, just ahead of West Brom with 40.

October 2019 The new manager bounce ended dramatically, as we were beaten handily by Fulham and Bristol City. It's no exaggeration to say that we could easily have conceded twice as many over those games, we didn't turn up at all. In fact, our defence was pretty poor all month, conceding 13 times in five games. Liam Moore made two mistakes leading to goals against Bristol City, and was fined a week's wages. After the QPR loss I held a team meeting and let them know this poor form needed to end. When we conceded after just four minutes to Nottingham Forest I feared the worst, but our attackers had a great day in front of goal to turn it around into a big win. Yakou Meite came second in the player of the month voting after four goals this month (up to nine for the season). We've slipped a couple of spots to 4th place, behind Fulham, West Brom, and Leeds. The board have put £4 million in to the club, but our bank balance is still negative.

September 2019 Solid month. Could have been better if we'd been more clinical up front, but can't complain. Ovie Ejaria was a key player this month, scoring twice and coming second in the player of the month voting. We had enough chances to beat Blackburn but wasted them, and Rafael Cabral was the hero of the day when he saved a penalty at the other end to make sure we at least gained a point. The Swansea game was back-and-forth, we took the lead before they pegged us back and then pulled ahead, a draw was a fair result. We've dropped to second in the table now, just behind Fulham. Financially things aren't looking great, we've lost about £5 million in just two months and our bank balance is in the red.

August 2019 Much to my surprise, we've come flying out of the blocks. We'd picked up a number of small knocks over the summer, so had to make five changes to my provisional first-team. But the players who've come in have done so with style, and the younger players have shown they're ready to step up now. Michael Olise showed nerves of steel to score from the spot, his first goal for the club, on the opening day against Sheffield Wednesday. Danny Loader scored three times over the first two matches, before picking up a short-term injury himself. The second-string were rubbish against Brentford, I can't argue with the convincing 3-0 loss, but it is disappointing to drop out of the League Cup at the very first stage. We didn't let that bother us though, bouncing back with a good win over Cardiff. A strong mentality allowed us to rescue a point against West Brom, Tyler Blackett scoring a header from a last-minute corner. Thierry Nevers scored on his debut to clinch the win at Huddersfield, before we ended the month with another win. For what it's worth at this early stage, we sit top of the Championship, two points above West Brom. Yakou Meite is our top scorer so far with 4 goals. I was named manager of the month.

July 2019 - Pre-Season Contracts Michael Olise, Thierry Nevers, and Omar Richards have all signed contract extensions, complete with an optional three years. Danny Loader isn't interested in a new deal at the moment, and if this doesn't change any time soon I'll trigger the one year option currently available. Friendlies We beat Greenock Morton, Dagenham & Redbridge, Basingstoke Town, and Gillingham. Losses to Köln and Fiorentina were expected, but we did well to draw against Chelsea. Expectations The bookies don't think we'll contend for promotion this year, giving us odds of 30-1. The board would be happy with a top-half finish.

The Manager Ceve Stoppell has the relevant badges and experience for the Championship. The Set-Up Leagues are loaded up to match the nationalities that I plan on signing. Depending on speed I may add more leagues later on, particularly the bigger European leagues, more a more rounded game world.