[FM07] Overtaking Colin

[DaneBramage]

12 minutes ago, mattyjames_ said:

Noooooooooo

 

It was not a fun game. You can just about accept a loss when it feels like your players are trying, but there was just nothing going on.

This man enjoyed it.

[mattyjames_]

8 minutes ago, DaneBramage said:

This man enjoyed it.

He'd be the only one following your progress who enjoyed it, I'd say!

[DaneBramage]

Southampton - End of Season Review - 2022/23

Top Scorer – Stian Dalland - 21 goals - The loanee from Charlton was the only player to reach double figures, but I'm still underwhelmed. As you can see from his ratings from the last five games, he went missing during the play-offs, which wasn't an unusual occurrence. He wasn't backed up by his other attacking players either. Manchester City had a striker who scored 43 league goals (which makes it all the more embarrassing they didn't get promoted). I'm not saying I expect that many goals from just one person, but even having that from two players combined would be nice. 

Most Assists – Scott Birmingham - 12 assists - I'm relatively pleased with this, especially as it includes two important contributions from the play-off semis. Next up were Houghton and Dalland with nine each.

Highest Rating – Scott Birmingham - 7.31 - In general when he played well, the team played well. It's no coincidence that when he was missing in March our form dropped away. Similar to last year, very few players achieved high ratings. The only other three I consider good were all centre-backs, Milligan, Archibald, and Flottum.

Fan's Player of the Year –  Ali Archibald - Can't argue with this, he's developed into a very good centre-back. He had quality last season but was also partial to having a nightmare and coudn't keep up good form, but this year he has added consistency to his game. Liverpool are sniffing around at the moment.

My Player of the Year – Aaron Milligan - Missed a lot of games through injury, and was unfortunate to miss out on the play-offs as I didn't want to break up the Archibald/Flottum pairing at that point, but we always looked more solid with him in the team. Ward was also a big upgrade in goal.

Waste of Space – Dan Sinclair - Regularly terrible. The second leg of the play-off semis when he had a rating of 4 was the nadir of the season, but he never impressed. I also need to mention our striking contingent of Milne, Cooper, Burge, and Jansson, failing to reach even 20 goals between them was really poor.

[DaneBramage]

My History

My Stats

[DaneBramage]

Previous Club Watch

Hednesford Town

Back-to-back promotions for Carl MacAuley. A fourth place finish in the Conference National, then they beat Woking in the play-off final.

Hinckley United

A season to forget for Paul Bamber. Their stay in League One was shortlived, they dropped into the relegation early on and never made it out.

Haverfordwest County

Richard Lucas led this team to two cup finals, winning the Challenge Cup but missing out on the Welsh Cup. This took their attention away from the league, where they could only finish fourth and missed out on European qualification. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Unlucky Dane. Losing in the playoffs like that is never nice. I've experienced it.

[DaneBramage]

On 13/07/2020 at 21:50, Nobby_McDonald said:

Unlucky Dane. Losing in the playoffs like that is never nice. I've experienced it.

Third loss in the finals so far. Both times previously I got promoted the next season...

Southampton - 2023/24 pre-season

Division: English Championship

Media prediction: 5th

Bookies odds: 7-4

Board expectation: Promotion

Fan expectation: Promotion

Expectations have grown, the bookies have us joint second favourites to win the division, and both the board and fans expect us to go up. I'm more cautious, I think it will be difficult, a lot of our key performers last year were loanees who we're not getting back.

Balance: £8.3m

Transfer budget: £6m

Wage budget: £149k

Large increases to the budgets, although the balance has gone down with 14,500 seats being added to the stadium.

Transfers Out

Mostly unneeded reserves leaving at the end of their contracts, but a few senior players went. Martin was a back-up who never really got a proper run. Giles and Sinclair should both have been first XI players who underperformed.

Transfers In

It was very difficult finding players who would improve the team. My scouts seemed to only find 17 year olds who were nowhere near ready, or established players at top tier clubs. There were just two players within both our reputation range and price range.

Pellegrino's contract had run out, he can play in the centre of both midfield and defence. Pedersen is our new right back.

Friendlies

[DaneBramage]

Southampton - August + September + October 2023

August Results

Goalscorers: Burge 2, Milne 1, Jansson 1, Hayter 1

A win on the opening day gave us some optimism, which was quickly dashed by a stalemate with Swansea, and then a loss against Bolton where we dominated the game but couldn't get the ball in the net.

We took the lead against Plymouth, then Ward twisted his ankle in goal, meaning an outfield player had to take the gloves for over an hour (only cowards put a goalkeeper on the bench). The inevitable happened, we got hammered.

September Results

Goalscorers: Burge 4, Milne 1, Eastwood 1

Burge had a strong month, scoring the winning goal on four occasions. But he was the only player who showed any sort of fight. The rest of the squad only managed two strikes between them.

The low point was being knocked out of the cup by League One side Leicester. There was no excuse for this, a full-strength side was out but they failed to have even a single shot on goal. A number of official warnings were given out, leading to the board warning me about disciplining the team too often.

October Results

Goalscorers: Cooper 2

The goal drought continued, as we went over a month without a goal (admittedly this was only four games due to an international break, but that's still pretty poor).

We were leading against Burnley at half-time, and I told the players to not let their performance drop. They didn't... until the 90th minute, conceding at the very death of the game. I gave them a bollocking after this, and they did not like that, both Milne and Pedersen complaining to the press. Obviously they received a one week fine for their troubles.

But having only recently warned me about this, the board really did not like that, and reacted swiftly.

Despite this being my first sacking of the career, I can't say I'm that bothered. The rot had set in here, the players weren't performing, I think I probably would have ended up quitting soon anyway. Nothing interesting had come up in the jobs screen over the summer and I had been checking this regularly since the start of the season, hopefully something good will come up soon.

Championship

[mattyjames_]

When things go south, they go south quickly!

[Deisler26]

Ouch. Classic Colin.

Still, hopefully a promotion chasing side will pick you up!

[DaneBramage]

6 hours ago, mattyjames_ said:

When things go south, they go south quickly!

 

3 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Ouch. Classic Colin.

Still, hopefully a promotion chasing side will pick you up!

It was always a bit tenuous with the board, but yeah, when things started going downhill it fell apart quickly.

I've got my next team picked out, I feel like it could be an unpopular choice...

[DaneBramage]

My History

My Stats

[DaneBramage]

May 2023

There were no jobs around in October, so I sat out for a few months. I was offered the West Ham job at this time, but as they were in the Premier League I turned it down. I kept an eye on the job market and thought about applying for the vacancies at Bolton (just outside the Championship play-offs) and Brentford (just outside the League One play-offs), but ultimately went for neither. 

As the end of the season approached I decided not to go for anything now, and wait until the summer. So I monitored what was going on at the bottom of the Premier League. 

Crystal Palace were the first team relegated. They were pretty poor in comparison to what was going on just above them.

Next to be relegated were Reading. As my favourite team this was kind of appealing, and also as they had been my parent club at Southampton I had previously scouted a lot of their players. They were my backup option.

But I waited until the final day of the season before making my decision. There were still four teams that could have ended up in 18th place, including three giants of the English game.

Wigan lost to Arsenal, but survived. Everton beat Reading to stay up. Newcastle have turned into a bit of a yo-yo club, but a defeat to Birmingham didn't matter.

Because Chelsea lost to Sheffield United, and the 2009/10 and 2012/13 champions were condemned to relegation. I pounced, and two days later the job was mine.

[Deisler26]

Woah!! What a shocker!

[DaneBramage]

Previous Club Watch

Hednesford Town

After presiding over two back-to-back promotions Carl MacAulay had a much tougher task in League Two. Unfortunately his side weren't up to it, and were in bottom place most of the season on their way to relegation.

Hinckley United

Back-to-back relegations were a real worry for Paul Bamber, as his side spent a lot of time near the bottom of League Two. Things started looking up after Christmas and he took the club to midtable, but he was still given the boot in February. Darren Stride took over to secure 14th place.

Haverfordwest County

Richard Lucas won his second Welsh Premier League, with a comfortable nine point gap at the top.

Southampton

Kevin Barnard took my place in the dugout and lost five of his first seven matches. Things improved afterwards though, and they climbed the table to finish in fifth place. Bolton were defeated in the Championship play-off semi-finals, but for a second year in a row the club suffered final heartbreak, this time being beaten 3-1 by Manchester City.

[Northernpilgrim]

Great opportunity to get an instant promotion at Chelsea. But if you do, will you try to win the PL, or be looking to move on again?

[DaneBramage]

11 hours ago, Northernpilgrim said:

Great opportunity to get an instant promotion at Chelsea. But if you do, will you try to win the PL, or be looking to move on again?

I suspect I'd move on, but it would depend on how much I was enjoying it there. But I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - pre-season 2024/25

Division: English Championship

Media prediction: 1st

Bookies odds: 6-4

Board expectation: Win the Championship

Fan expectation: Win the Championship

We're hot favourites with absolute everyone to win the title, and really with the quality of players here, that should be achieved. I'm baffled how this squad managed to get relegated.

Balance: £25.3m

Transfer budget: £28.7m

Wage budget: £1.2m per week

The transfer budget was only £6 million when I joined, but then the chairman invested an additional £22.5 million into the club. Think I went a little bit mad with the cash.

Transfers Out

Patten and Smulders were senior players coming to the end of their contracts who'd already decided they were leaving on Bosmans. Salami, Omolade, and Marques were youngsters I decided not to offer new deals.

There were seven strikers at the club who looked like they could play in the first team. At least one of them needed to leave and it was Hyokyvaara to go, as an offer was made which also sent a centre-back in my direction. This saved £40k a week in wages, plus it meant I didn't have to learn how to spell his name. There were also several good choices in midfield, Paulo (who was out on loan last year anyway) was the man to make way.

Transfers In

So I went on a bit of a spending spree here, throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. Barta (DC, DM) and Nedved (DLC) are young backups who will develop in the reserves. Duffy is the centre-back from the part-exchange deal.

The previous manager had used a 5-3-2 formation, so there was a bit of a shortage of wide players. I've never used wing-backs in my life and I wasn't going to start now. So I needed to bring in some wingers and full backs. The Williams deal turned out to be quite expensive, but he should be my first choice left winger. Ion and Melgar will be his back-up. Bastiani nearly cost as much and should be my first choice on the right wing, while Souza can cover anywhere on that side. Stone gives me another option at left-back.

This has left me with a bit of a huge squad, which may be an issue to rotate sufficiently, but better than the opposite I suppose.

Friendlies

Edited July 29, 2020 by DaneBramage

[Deisler26]

35 year old Scott Sinclair 😂

[Nobby_McDonald]

Sadly your losing playoffs then getting promoted record didn't continue.

Chelsea should be easy... shouldn't it?

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - August + September 2024

August Results

Goalscorers: Benedetti 2, Sniejder 2, Bischoff 1, Hyokyvaara 1, Derbal 1, Elliott 1

Well this wasn't the start I wanted. It took just three minutes to concede in the opening game, a setback we could not come back from. Two wins followed to make things look a bit better, Sneijder scoring in both and Hyokyvaara grabbing a farewell goal, but a loss at home came next.

I rotated the team a lot for the League Cup game to try and find my best side, and Benedetti staked his claim with a brace. But the month ended with the worst result possible. We visited my old club Southampton, and were played off the park. More losses than wins in the league is not a good way to start my time at Chelsea.

September Results

Goalscorers: Rachedi 3, Sinclair 3, Sneijder 2, Bischoff 2, Cohen 1, Smith 1, Samir 1, Titan 1

This is more like it. I wouldn't say I'm 100% convinced by the performances, but results have certainly improved so that will do for now. I decided with so much quality up front, I needed to get more of it into the team. So I switched to a narrow 4-3-3 formation to play three strikers. And it seems to have paid off, with six wins and 14 goals from seven games.

Admittedly it does leave £20 million worth of new wingers I'd signed as nothing more than expensive paperweights, but I'll worry about that later.

Veteran Sinclair rolled back the years up with a goal against Plymouth, then both strikes against Cheltenham. In his post-match interview he dedicated the goals to @Deisler26.

There was a bizarre moment against Nowich, when at 1-0 up in the 87th minute goalkeeper Ustari somehow thought it was a clever idea to go up for a corner. It was not. Norwich broke away and scored, and I started looking for something nearby to punch. Luckily, Sneijder scored a winner just afterwards to let him off the hook, otherwise his time at Chelsea would have been over immediately.

I was named the Championship manager of the month.

Championship

We're in the play-offs and with form on our side looking upwards. Not far below us though are my new nemesis side Southampton, I'll be looking to get revenge in the home game later this year.

Edited July 21, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

30 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Sadly your losing playoffs then getting promoted record didn't continue.

Chelsea should be easy... shouldn't it?

Should be, but I can normally find a way to mess most things up. You'd think after 14 years with this game I'd have some sort of tactical knowledge, but no, I just wing it and hope for the best.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Wing it is how I do it.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - October + November + December 2024

October Results

Goalscorers: Benedetti 4, Rachedi 4, Hunter 3, Sneijder 1, Cohen 1, Armstrong 1, Pannach 1, Al-Otaibi 1, Own Goal 1

Lovely stuff, this is exactly what I want to see. Six wins, six clean sheets and a lot of goals. A few players are making noises about wanting to move to a bigger club, but if they carry on performing like this, like Hunter scoring a hat-trick against Watford, it's not a big problem yet. 

Only one game provided any difficulty, as Titan gave away a second half penalty against Portsmouth while the game was still goalless. His team-mates bailed out him though, Ustari saved the penalty, then in the 87th minute Benedetti scored the only goal of the game.

I was named the Championship manager of the month, Benedetti the player of the month (4 goals, 1 assist, 2 MOM awards and 8.4 average over 5 games), and Stone the young player of the month (1 assist and 7.8 average over 5 games). 

We went top after the Portsmouth match and currently hold a four point lead over Derby.

November Results

Goalscorers: Rachedi 2, Bischoff 2, Armstrong 2, Hunter 2, Benedetti 1, Brunetti 1, Williams 1, Derbal 1

We started the month with a big win, Stone celebrating his recent award with a hat-trick of assists. We were then unlucky not to beat the reigning Premier League champions Villa in normal time, but we got the job done in the resulting penalty shoot. 

Barnsley was an embarrassing slip up, we dominated possession but failed to turn the advantage into any meaningful chances. The benefit of this large squad is that I could then drop the entire starting eleven, and the replacements came out strong, Bischoff notching his first goals in a while and Brunetti scoring on his return from injury,

We remain top of the league, a four point lead over Crystal Palace with two games in hand.

December Results

Goalscorers: Benedetti 4, Rachedi 3, Hunter 3, Brunetti 2, Elliott 1, Own Goal 1

The games came thick and fast this month and we did not handle it very well. At no point did we manage consecutive wins, and two more league losses is nowhere near good enough. 

The month was littered with individual errors. Ustari had a poor spell, making mistakes to concede against both Manchester City and Bolton. Titan scored an own goal against Bolton. Rachedi couldn't hit a barndoor against Reading. Brunetti could bang in the goals in the Premier League, but looks hopelessly out of his depth in the Championship.

Despite this, I still won the manager of the month award, and Duffy won the player of the month award (1 assist, 7.6 average over 5 games).

Championship

The teams below us struggled just as badly though, and we hold a comfortable lead at the top. Southampton are still in the play-off mix, and we'll start 2025 with two back-to-back games against them. Revenge in the league is the number one priority, but knocking them out of the FA Cup would be the icing on the cake.

[Northernpilgrim]

Good start with Chelsea. Promotion should be easy from there, but plenty of work ahead to get them back where they should be. Good luck mate

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - January + February 2025

Transfers Out

We're losing a couple of million a month, that's sustainable as (bar a horrendous collapse) we'll be in the Premier League next season, but it seemed prudent to trim the squad of some of the deadweight and give the bank balance a bit of a boost just in case.

van Es was first to go, a 34 year old reserve who hadn't seen a minute under me decided to start skipping training. Fined and released. There was then a news message saying that Edwards and Smith disliked each other. The former was an 18 year old who didn't look to have much potential, so it seemed like the right decision to release him. Shortly afterwards though Smith complained about a team-talk, so he was fined and sent on his way too.

Samir was my first choice right back but had been largely rubbish, Ferreira was the second choice and hadn't been much better, both were shipped out. Bertin should have been first choice left back but was really underperforming, he also complained about a team-talk so had to go.

When I first took over I didn't really like the look of Cohen, and with so many attacking players and strikers he was one I was happy to let go. No one came in for him at this time though, and when I did the squad overview and saw he had 60 French caps I reconsidered and thought there must be something about him. Turns out there wasn't. Given multiple chances, never impressed.

There were also offers accepted of £25m for Brunetti from Milan and £10m for Bischoff from Lille, but these fell through due to lack of funds on their side.

Transfers In

Strand (AMRC) is a young player whose deal was agreed in the summer when I was looking at wingers. He'll go in the reserves to get some game time for now.

The other three players are all full-backs, Hendry will slot in on the right, Al-Doukhi is cover on the left, and Tedeschi can play on both sides.

January Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 3, Rachedi 2, Benedetti 1, Williams 1, Derbal 1, Duffy 1

My worst fears came true and we were so poor on New Year's Day allowing Southampton to complete the league double over us. They will surely be convinced they made the right decision in giving me the boot. It wasn't much consolation, but we did regain some revenge by knocking them out of the FA Cup a few days later.

After this I switched tactics to 4-4-2 again. We were having lots of shots but so few on target, I figured maybe we needed to try getting wingers in the team again to create better chances. Four wins in a row followed, but they were all very close with just a one goal margin. If Brunetti was disappointed to stay at the club it didn't show, with winning goals against Hull, Plymouth, and Wolves.

We stay top of the league but the gap is slightly reduced, leading Reading by eight points.

February Results

Goalscorers: Rachedi 3, Brunetti 2, Armstrong 2, Hunter 1, Al-Otaibi 1, Souza 1

The winning run stretched to seven games but it really wasn't pretty, battles of attrition rather than skill.

Defeat in the FA Cup was annoying, but I was more angry by the following league game where we led most of the match before conceding late on, a howler from Hendry letting in the opposing striker. 

For the last two games I dropped another striker and went 4-5-1. Armstrong thrived in the attacking midfielder role, grabbing a goal and an assist in both matches.

Championship

Our lead is the best it's ever been, ten points clear of Reading. Southampton seem nailed on for a spot in the play-offs.

[Deisler26]

Gotta chalk this one up!

[DaneBramage]

On 22/07/2020 at 23:11, Deisler26 said:

Gotta chalk this one up!

If I screw it up from here I'm never playing FM again.

Chelsea - March + April + May 2025

March Results

Goalscorers: Rachedi 3, Brunetti 1, Benedetti 1, Pannach 1, Williams 1, Al-Otaibi 1, Derbal 1

Three good wins with one disappointing loss. Bournemouth hit us in the second minute and then controlled the game.

We now lead Reading by 14 points, we're guaranteed at least a play-off place but need just five points from the last six games to secure top spot.

April Results

Goalscorers: Rachedi 3, Hunter 2, Derbal 2, Armstrong 1, Al-Otaibi 1, Derbal 1, Duffy 1, Titan 1

We started the month with an easy 3-0 win. Promotion was confirmed after this.

We should have scored more than just the once against Colchester, but even so, the goal from Rachedi was enough for both the win and to seal the title.

But losing the very next game is not an acceptable way to celebrate. I don't care that we're the runaway winners of the league, there's always a terrible performance just around the corner. I really don't like a lot of this squad, I don't think I'll be staying here for a crack at the Premier League.

The next two games were what I like to see, plenty of goals being scored, and a hat-trick of assists from Stone.

May Result

Goalscorers: Williams 1, Hunter 1, Own Goal 1

My top scorer, Rachedi, decided to skip training so was dropped for the last game of the season (and fined two weeks wages of course). His replacement, Benedetti, had a stinker, but we still cruised to victory without him.

Championship

Is it fair to be disappointed by this? Over 100 points is obviously an impressive achievement, but I wanted to break Reading's real-life 106 points record. Also, I wanted to get to 100 goals. There were far too many losses along the way.

[Deisler26]

Congrats man!! Still a great result!

[DaneBramage]

10 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

Congrats man!! Still a great result!

Thanks, it's just that nagging 'what could have been' feeling. I've just looked back over the league losses and all nine of them were either 0-1 or 0-2, so it would not have taken much more to reach my (admittedly very high) targets.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - End of Season Review - 2024/25

I won the Championship manager of the year award.

Top Scorer – Jean-Paul Rachedi - 23 goals - In the first half of the season he had to miss quite a lot of games due to slight injuries that would keep him our a week or two at a time, but when he played regularly, he scored regularly. Finished the season as the second highest scorer in the league. I was hoping for lots of players to get into double figures, so I'm underwhelmed that only two others made it. Hunter picked up a good amount from midfield, while Benedetti had days where he was deadly, and others where he was a donkey. Brunetti also would have got double figures but he missed both the start and end of the season through injury.

Most Assists – John Stone, Abdullah Al-Otaibi - 9 assists - Assists were spread around the team, especially as with our formation changing a few times during the year lots of the attacking players found themselves in and out of the team, so I'm not too bothered that nobody got a very high individual amount.

Highest Rating – Steven Duffy - 7.52 - Only joined in the summer as a makeweight in a part-exchange deal, but when I got fed up with both Elliott and Titan always being prone to an error he found himself playing more and more, and eventually becoming first choice. 

Fan's Player of the Year –  Jamie Hunter - Wasn't expecting this, I thought they'd go with Rachedi. Hunter is club captain though, contributed 12 goals and 8 assists, and despite wanting to leave when the club was relegated last year, continued playing well and didn't cause a fuss.

My Player of the Year – Jamie Hunter - I agree with the fan vote.

Waste of Space – Kees Sneijder, Timothee Bischoff - Rubbish. Strikers who can't score goals. No thanks.

Edited July 25, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

My History

My Stats

Edited July 25, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Previous Club Watch

Hednesford Town

After being either relegated or promoted in each of the last four years, this was a more sedate season for Hednesford as they were mid-table all season, eventually finishing 13th in the Conference National. This apparently wasn't good enough for the board, as Carl MacAulay was fired in November to be replaced by John Morling.

Hinckley United

Darren Stride had Hinckley top of League Two at Christmas, but a collapse in the new year saw them plummet down the table. A late rally saw them recover up to 6th place and make it in to the play-offs, and a penalty shoot-out win over Cheltenham secured promotion to League One.

Haverfordwest County

Richard Lucas left in January to join Burnley in the Championship (he got them relegated). Kevin Doyle took over, but Haverfordwest were well off the pace and finished 4th. They did better in the cups though, winning both the Welsh Cup and the Challenge Cup, both times beating Llanelli on penalties.

Southampton

Did the league double over Chelsea. Entered the final day of the season in second place, but could only draw with Norwich and slipped back to 3rd, missing out on automatic promotion. Kevin Barnard saw his side get revenge on Norwich in the play-off semi-finals, then beat Derby via penalties in the final to reach the Premier League.

Edited July 25, 2020 by DaneBramage

[Nobby_McDonald]

See. Easy.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - pre-season 2025/26

 I didn't intend to stay at Chelsea after promotion, but none of the teams relegated from the Premier League fired their managers over the summer, and the only vacancies were down in League Two or below. So looks like I'm here a little bit longer. 

Division: English Premier League

Media prediction: 14th

Bookies odds: 80-01

Board expectation: Avoid relegation

Fan expectation: Safe mid-table

Expectations look fine, consensus seems to be we shouldn't get relegated, but shouldn't be aiming too high either.

Balance: £23m

Transfer budget: £29.5m

Wage budget: £1.3m per week

I like this chairman. Invested another £12 million over the summer and continues with the high budgets. 

Transfers Out

A bunch of youth players and reserves left, along with two players from the senior squad. And more about Moloney (YP22) in a bit...

I didn't rate Bischoff. He had more than enough chances in the Championship and failed to score goals with any sort of regularity. Bastiani also failed to impress last year, and with a new right winger coming in he was surplus to requirements.

Deals were also arranged for Melgar and Armstrong to leave, but they couldn't agree terms with the buying clubs.

Transfers In

Visser is a player I thought I was signing back in January, not realising it was actually for the summer. Since then Stone has established himself in the left-back role, so I'll have to rotate them to see who is better. Georgiev is a young right back who will go in the reserves for now.

Carrasco will be my first choice right winger, Fitzgerald (WK) will be back-up on left wing for now, but as a wonderkid I'll aim to give him a lot of playing time.

Daniel is the reigning world player of the year and the runner-up in the European Golden Boot, so there are high hopes for him to fire in the goals to keep us in the top flight.

Dan Moloney (YP22)

Moloney (YP22) came through the youth ranks while I was at Southampton, and the assistant manager suggested he could be one of the best players of his generation. I gave him a few games that season, but he was sold for an absolute pittance shortly after I was fired. Fulham picked up a bargain for just £150k, and made a large profit when I brought him to Chelsea.

I set up a link for Elliott to mentor him. They fell out quickly, it got cut short after just a few weeks. I then suggested Duffy instead. This was refused outright.

Fast forward to the first game of the season, and Moloney (YP22) is on the bench against Bristol City. We're 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go, seeing out the game nicely, I bring him on for his debut. Five minutes later, he's sent off for giving away a penalty, and we end up losing 2-1. 

Not having that. Get out of my club. Instantly fined two weeks wages and sold to Aston Villa for a £1 million loss (actually £2 million, as Fulham had a cut). I hope his career goes on to be a miserable failure.

Friendlies

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - August + September 2025

August Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 1, Williams 1

The return to the top flight looked like it would begin with a win, but as detailed above, Moloney (YP22) ruined that. The wait for a first win didn't last much longer though, in fact it came in the very next match as Brunetti grabbed the only goal of the game.

Next up were Southampton as both newly-promoted sides aimed to gain an advantage, but a goalless draw disappointed both teams. Still, at least we didn't allow them to beat us.

September Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 3, Daniel 1, Rachedi 1, Hunter 1, Derbal 1

Sunderland was another dour game, but hammering Birmingham was fun. Crashing out of the League Cup so early was annoying, especially with the loss coming against Southampton. Since they fired me my record against them is pretty poor, just one win out of five.

Daniel was starting to look like a big money flop with zero goals in his first five games, but scoring the winner against Arsenal is certainly a good way to get the fans on your side.

The striking performance of the month came from Brunetti against Middlesbrough though. We were 1-0 down when he came on with 20 minutes left. Within a couple of minutes he put the pressure on a defender, forcing him into an own goal when defending a cross at the near post. Next up he burst into the area and was pulled down, winning a penalty. And in the 94th minute he got the goal he deserved to secure all three points. Heroic.

I won the manager of the month award.

Premier League

Obviously it's still early in the season, but we're flying a lot higher than would be expected. Goals have been a bit sparse at times and the games have hardly been exciting for the neutral, but our defence is handling the challenge of the new division very well.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - October + November 2025

October Results

Goalscorers: Daniel 1, Brunetti 1

Not many games due to the international break, and that's probably for the best as we were not good at all. Individual mistakes were the main problem, as errors from Hendry, Ustari, and Titan were all responsible for giving away goals. 

One player who is still playing competently though is Visser (WK), who has now turned into a wonderkid.

We've slipped down the table to 8th place.

November Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 3, Benedetti 2, Williams 1, Hunter 1

The poor run of form continued as we made it five games without a win. The scapegoats for this were Ustari and Daniel, their constant inadequacies at the opposite ends of the field effectively meaning we were playing two men down at times. They were both dropped after the Villa game.

A switch of formation to 4-4-2 and a switch of personnel seemed to do the trick. Wright celebrated his return to the team with consecutive clean sheets, and Benedetti and Brunetti both started scoring. 

I will have a bit of a striker shortage going into December though, with Benedetti needing a hip operation and Daniel breaking his foot. Rachedi was my best striker in the Championship but he's out of the reckoning, as I'm trying to get rid of him. Constantly moaning about one thing or another and has skipped training on a few occasions. 

Premier League

We're holding strong in 8th place, with more wins than losses and a positive goal difference, We also have game in hand on some of the teams around us. In more good news, Southampton are bottom of the table with just one win and seven goals so far.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - December 2025 + January 2026

December Results

Goalscorers: Rachedi 2, Davy 1, Williams 1

A month of three halves. Two losses, followed by two wins, followed by two draws. The striker problems continued as Brunetti also picked up a knock, and this had a the expected adverse affect. Goals were sparse this month with four blanks, although pleasingly this damage was limited by our defence and goalkeeper being tough to beat at the other end.

We finished the year in 7th place.

Players Out

Scored goals in the Championship, but not so much in the Premier League. Coupled with being a dressing room cancer and unable to stay fit for any prolonged time, he had to go.

Players In

A replacement striker who wasn't getting much of a look in at Arsenal.

January Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 2, Davy 1, Melgar 1, Hunter 1, Derbal 1, Souza 1, Own Goal 1

We made hard work of beating Wrexham but just about managed it, before the customary poor performance against Southampton. We smashed Sunderland but couldn't make the breakthrough until Derbal scored a late free-kick once they were down to nine men.

We scored the opening goal against Birmingham and even as late as the 92nd minute we were on for a draw, but conceded with the last kick of the game.

We got knocked out of the cup by Stockport. 18th place in the Championship Stockport. The 11 players involved were all fined a week's wages. The same side was picked for the Arsenal game and told that a win was expected. Twice we were leading, thrice we conceded. Again, everyone was fined a week's wages.

Premier League

I still want to leave. Abysmal months like January are really trying my patience. But the only Championship club who've fired a manager this season is Luton, bankrupt and in the relegation area, which wasn't a very appealing proposition.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - February + March + April + May 2026

February Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 2, Benedetti 2, Davy 1, Fitzgerald (WK) 1, Hunter 1

An improved month, but a frustrating one. We were two-nil down at half-time against Middlesbrough, a much better second half saw us score three times to take the lead, but then deep into injury-time Wright let a routine cross slip through his grip to drop two points. We battered Southend, 15 shots in total, it was disappointing to only score once.

Either side of that game we picked up two solid home wins.

Four more players are done at this club. Barta and Tedeschi both skipped training, Davy and Derbal both criticised team-talks in the press, All four were fined, transfer-listed, and dropped to the reserves.

Fitzgerald (WK) won the young player of the month award (3 games, 1 goal, 7.67 average).

The unbeaten month sees us remain eighth place.

March Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 2, Benedetti 2, Williams 1

Just the two games, but very happy with the results. Everton was a hard-fought victory, but we thrashed Fulham. Two clean sheets as well, making it four out of the last five for Wright. Also impressing was Brunetti, with a goal in both games taking him to double figures for the season, but he tore his groin in training the next day to rule him out for a couple of months. He'd have double the amount of goals easily if he could just stay fit for more than month at a time.

We moved up to 5th in the table.

April Results

Goalscorers: Benedetti 3, Cabezas 2, Armstrong 1, Own Goal 1

Cabezas finally made an impression in his seventh game for the club with a goal and an assist against Villa. He then scored again in the next day as we travelled to league leaders Tottenham and humiliated them 4-0 on their own patch, though it was Benedetti who took the headlines with a brace.

We beat Sheffield United without scoring a goal, as a defender helpfully turned a cross into their own net for us, but Manchester United were too strong and we ended the month with a loss.

Parkes won the player of the month award (3 games, 7.67 average). 

After the Spurs win we were as high as 3rd in the table (and at 7 points behind with 4 games remaining I did have half a thought we could overhaul them), but the Manchester United loss meant we ended the month in 5th. 

May Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 2, Benedetti 1

A poor final day. Absolutely bottled it. Duffy got sent off for an off-the-ball incident and with that went any chance of a top three finish.

Premier League

Obviously this is a great position for a newly promoted club, and much higher than was expected at the start of the year. But to miss out on the Champions League football on the last day of the season is very annoying.

Nope. I'm hoping Ashley Cole gets the boot from Newcastle, but he looks safe at the moment.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - End of Season Review - 2025/26

Top Scorer – Giacomo Brunetti - 12 goals - Not a huge amount of goals, but a very good ratio for the number of games he played. Would have been much more if he wasn't so fragile. The same could be said about Benedetti, who did well to reach 10 goals with how little he played.

Most Assists – Ruben Carrasco - 6 assists - Not good. We need more creativity from somewhere.

Highest Rating – Luke Parkes - 7.26 - A couple of players had higher ratings but didn't play as much, but Parkes started 20 games which seems like an appropriate threshold. Has never been a first choice for me, the DC/MC combination means I never really know which position I should pay him in, which leads to neither. For most of the season he was my fourth choice in both of those positions, but apparently I should rate him a bit higher as he's quietly played pretty well.

Fan's Player of the Year –  Steven Duffy - Not a bad choice, I like him as my first choice centre back. Let himself down with the red card on the final day.

My Player of the Year – Terry Wright - Apparently made 7 big mistakes, 5 of which led to goals. I knew he'd made a couple, but it surprises me that it was this many. Either way, we improved massively when he took over from Ustari between the sticks, and you can't argue with 13 clean sheets in 27 games.

Waste of Space – Daniel - £20 million, 2 goals. I think those numbers speak for themselves. Admittedly he was injured and hasn't played since November, but there didn't seem to be any sign that he was going to come good any time soon. Somehow still won the European football of the year award, but was also voted the league's worst signing.

Edited August 1, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

My History

My Stats

[DaneBramage]

Previous Club Watch

Hednesford Town

Had a strong start to the season with an 8 game unbeaten run in August/September, but during winter their form dissipated and John Morling saw his team plummet down the Conference National table to finish in 16th place.

Hinckley United

Hinckley's second attempt at League One went as badly as their first, being relegated in 23rd place. Darrent Stride took his team to the Southern Final of the FL Trophy, but they lost on away goals to Exeter.

Haverfordwest County

A bad year for Kevin Doyle. The only cup run saw a Welsh Cup final loss to Llanelli, and they struggled to a 9th place finish in the Welsh Premier League.

Southampton

We shared the points in both league games, but they knocked us out of the League Cup. Struggled in the Premier League relegation area for lots of the season, but Kevin Barnard pulled his side to safety and 17th place with a game to go.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - pre-season 2026/27

 None of the teams relegated from the Premier League fired their managers over the summer. I was offered the Sheffield United and Blackburn jobs (both in the Premier League) but rejected both. I did put in a cheeky application for the Brazil job, but was understandably turned down.

Division: English Premier League

Media prediction: 6th

Bookies odds: 20-1

Board expectation: Respectable league position

Fan expectation: Qualify for Europe

Expectations have increased as expected following last season's results. The fans and the media want to see much the same again, the board are more reserved.

Balance: £26m

Transfer budget: £40.7m

Wage budget: £1.3m per week

The chairman has put another £17.5 million into the club, and increased the transfer budget even further.

Transfers Out

Ustari was a great servant for the club, making well over 500 appearances in 14 years at the club, but at 39 and with his abilities swiftly degrading I couldn't offer him a new contract. Barta and Tedeschi were both reserves who had ideas above their station. Sneijder was poor in the Championship and didn't get a look in once we were in the Premier League.

Transfers In

Hooiveld is my replacement for Ustari in goal. I'd wanted him last summer but he wanted silly wages, he can't have good negotiating skills as we landed him this time for 20k a week less. Carrillo is a right-back to rival Hendry who I have never been convinced by. Miranda is another option in midfield, Gray another option in defence.

Friendlies

Lazy attempt at scheduling from the assistant manager. "Screw it, let's just play Boavista twice".

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - August + September + October 2026

August Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 2, Benedetti 1, Hunter 1

A good opening day, but a poor follow-up.

September Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 4, Brunetti 1, Benedetti 1

Mixed in the league, but a comfortable win in Europe.

Carrasco won the young player of the month award (3 games, 7.33 average).

Our slow start to the season has us in 12th place at this early stage.

October Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 4, Hunter 3, Benedetti 2, Carrasco 2, Brunetti 1, Pannach 1, Gray 1

Against Midtjylland Hooiveld had to go off injured early on, and without a sub goalie (as previously mentioned, these are for cowards), I had to stick Daniel in between the sticks. Our big flop striker had perhaps his best game for the club as he made a few good saves on his way to a clean sheet. He did complain about it after the game though. Moron. 

Hunter missed a 6th minute penalty against Southampton, which they immediately broke away and scored from. But a much better second half performance saw us nick a couple of goals to gain a rare victory over my rivals.

I won the manager of the award, Elliott won the player of the month award (3 games, 8.33 average), Carrasco won the young player of the month award for the second month in a row (3 games, 2 goals, 1 MOTM, 7.67 average).

Premier League

[Nobby_McDonald]

Decent first season back in the Premier League for Chelsea.

[DaneBramage]

On 03/08/2020 at 22:21, Nobby_McDonald said:

Decent first season back in the Premier League for Chelsea.

Thanks. I figured I'd give the Premier League a crack, after all, Neil Warnock has never won it so that would be a good way to one-up him.

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - November + December 2026

November Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 2, Brunetti 2, Williams 2, Benedetti 1, Gage (YP25) 1, Pannach 1, Carrasco 1, Fitzgerald (WK) 1, Hunter 1 Gray 1

We battled back to gain a creditable point against Manchester United, before going on a run of four wins, all with a clean sheet. Wright then picked up an injury and with Hooiveld replacing him in goal, both the wins and the clean sheets came to a halt.

Visser (WK) won the young player of the month award (5 games, 7.4 average).

We sit in third place. There are currently four teams at the top all on 25 points.

December Results

Goalscorers: Brunetti 6, Williams 2, Hunter 2, Benedetti 1, Carrasco 1,  Gray 1, Own Goal 1

A really inconsistent month. The first three matches were all league ties and saw a win, a loss, and a draw. We then managed two big wins (including getting Frank Lampard sacked at Bristol City), before a pathetic showing us knocked out of the League Cup against Championship side Newcastle, followed by a classic FMing against Luton. At least we ended the year with a win. 

Brunetti's tally looks good, but that is heavily boosted by 4 against Basel. Our strikers our really struggling to score domestically at the moment.

Hendry won the player of the month award (5 games, 2 assists, 1 MOM, 7.8 average), Visser (WK) won the young player of the month award for the second month in a row (6 games, 1 MOM, 7.5 average).

Premier League

We're keeping the pressure on at the top, but we need more consistency to really challenge. We need to score more goals, which looks like a common theme here. Not a classic season.

UEFA Cup

Qualified with ease. Narrow loss to Lyon, but smashed the other three.

Edited August 6, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - January 2027

Transfers Out

We managed to find a buyer for Daniel, but at a £7 million loss and we're still paying a large proportion of his wages (22k per week). He was possibly the worst signing I've made in any FM career. £20 million for 20 games, 2 goals and 3 assists.

Transfers In

A new striker so that we still have four senior options. Probably not a first choice player, but given how injury prone our other strikers are he's bound to start plenty of games.

January Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 4, Pannach 2, Brunetti 1, Traore 1, Carrasco 1, Williams 1, Visser (WK) 1, Parkes 1

A disappointing loss to start the month as our attempts at defending fell apart. A solid cup win followed, before an easy win over Everton. We struggled against Arsenal, but when they went down to ten men we blitzed them in the last 20 minutes. A disappointing loss to end the month as we didn't even threaten the Sheffield United goal. 

Cabezas has carried the team up front this month. Brunetti continues to be poor, while aside from his goal against Plymouth, new signing Traore looks like he's never kicked a football before.

Visser (WK) won the young player of the month award for a third time in a row (3 games, 1 goal, 1 assist, 7.67 average).

Premier League

We've fallen away from the leaders, and the loss against West Ham also sees us drop a position.

Edited August 6, 2020 by DaneBramage

[DaneBramage]

Chelsea - February + March 2027

February Results

Goalscorers: Cabezas 3, Traore 2, Gray 1

An excellent month for our defence as we go six games without conceding. But our strikers continue to let the side down, shooting blanks three times this month, including at a pivotal time in the league. Scoring against Middlesbrough would really have damaged their charge to the title. Instead, they maintain their five point lead over us, and they have a game in hand. At least we completed a league double over Southampton.

March Results

Goalscorers: Hunter 2, Traore 1, Armstrong 1, Visser (WK) 1, Own Goal 1

We gave Lyon a headstart in the UEFA Cup but turned it around in the second leg, gaining revenge for our loss against them in the group stage. I'll continue to moan about the strikers. between them they managed to find the back of the net just once.

Premier League

Middlesbrough have slumped, but while that has allowed us to narrow the gap to them, Liverpool have taken advantage to jump to the top.

[Deisler26]

Brilliant work dude!