Jay Mann - Journeyman (FM21)

Season One - 2020/21 - A Career Begins

On the 24th October 2020, Jay Mann finally realised his ambition of becoming a Football Manager, accepting a job offer from Welsh Tier Two side Port Talbot Town.  At that point Town were next to bottom in the Cymru South League, with a record of one win and nine losses from ten games played.  They were also out of both cup competitions, the Welsh FA & League Cups, having lost in the first round of both.  This was going to be some challenge…

Having reviewed the squad, Mann proceeded to bring in no less than 14 new players on free transfers between January and June, including the legendary Harry Owen (ask Loki Doki) from Cardiff Met Uni.  With these squad additions and a fairly solid tactic employed, Town improved greatly over the course of the second half of the season, eventually managing a 6th place finish (out of 16).  A promising start to Mann's career.

What would season 2021-22 have to offer?

Season Two - 2021/22 - First Silverware

Quite a lot as it turned out…

Further squad re-shaping took place in the summer of 2021, no money spent in fees but a good looking crop of youngsters released by professional clubs was brought in.

Remarkably, Mann's rebuilt, and ever evolving, squad finished as Champions of the Cymru South, thus claiming the only available promotion place.  Next season would be in the promised land of the Welsh JD Cymru Premier League!  

Both cup competitions saw good runs from Town too:

Nathaniel MG Welsh League Cup - Semi Final - Lost 1-4 to TNS

JD Welsh FA Cup - Quarter Final - Lost 3-4 AET to Penybont 

Personal honours came Mann's way too as he was named Manager of the Month three times and, ultimately, Cymru South Manager of the Year.

Season Three - 2022/23 - Tier One Football, a Cup Win, and Itchy Feet

Following the somewhat surprise promotion the previous season, it was no shock to see Port Talbot favoured for an instant return to the Cymru South.  However, as Melchett once said, “Au contraire, Blackadder!”.  

A summer spent bulking up and re-shaping the squad paid off, big style, as Town enjoyed an excellent start to life in the JD Cymru Premier Division, threatening the European places for a time, before fading badly down the stretch to finally finish in fifth position.  A none too bad first effort back in the top tier though.

The excellent results continued in the cup competitions, most especially in the Nathaniel MG Welsh League Cup, which the club won:

Nathaniel MG Welsh League Cup Final - Won 1-0 vs Connah's Quay

JD Welsh FA Cup - 4th Round - Lost 2-3 AET away at Bangor City

Personal honours came Mann's way once again too, as he was named JD Cymru Premier Division Manager of the Year.

As the season drew to a close and thoughts began to drift towards next season, Mann was beginning to think that he had taken Port Talbot Town as far as he could. What then would the future hold?

Season Four - 2023 - New Club, New Country, and a Relegation

Season 2023/24 began slowly for Port Talbot Town, enforcing Jay Mann's conviction that it was time to look elsewhere.  After a fairly short search, he secured himself a job in the Republic of Ireland's Premier Division, as manager of Drogheda United.

He resigned from Port Talbot on the 16th September 2023, with the team at that point in 7th place (out of 12) in the JD Welsh Premier Division.  Sadly, Town completely imploded following Mann's departure, ultimately finishing in 11th place and suffering relegation back to the Cymru South Division.  In a strange quirk of fate however, the Footballing Gods weren't to spare Mann himself from relegation that season either…

Leaving Wales for the fair shores of Ireland, Mann immediately took over at a Drogheda United side themselves battling relegation, and at that time sitting in 9th place out of 10 in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.  With the Irish football season being played out completely within a calendar year, the 2023 season had just 10 league games left to run.  The first of these under Mann's management was away at Finn Harps, the only side beneath United in the table.  An incredible 6-0 win for Mann and his new charges had everyone thinking that staying up was a real possibility.  Then reality hit…

Failing to win any of the remaining 9 games, Drogheda finished in 9th place, meaning that they would be involved in a two-legged Promotion/Relegation Play Off with the second placed team in the First Division.  This was Dublin based Shelbourne FC, who would host the first leg.  Earning a 1-1 draw, thanks to a 95th minute penalty, had Drogheda's hopes high with the home leg coming up in just 3 days time.  Hopes that were dashed in the 74th minute, with Shelbourne grabbing the only goal of the game to seal a 2-1 aggregate win and thus a swap of divisions with Drogheda.  Not the best start to life with a new club it had to be said, but Jay Mann was made of stern stuff and he resolved to bring United straight back up.

Season Five - 2024 - Bouncebackability

Jay Mann may have resolved to take Drogheda United straight back up to the Irish Premier Division, but resolving to do something, and then actually doing it, aren't always that easy.  However, 12 new players were brought in (10 on free transfers, the other 2 on loan) and indeed Mann was as good as his word, leading his team to a League of Ireland First Division winning points total of 56 (from 27 games, losing just 3), and finishing 6 clear of second placed Galway United.  Cup Final appearances in two competitions were also attained, though both were lost to Premier Division opposition:

Irish FA Cup - 1st Round - Lost 1-2 away to U.C.D

League of Ireland Cup Final - Lost 0-1 to Derry City

Leinster Senior Cup Final - Lost 6-7 on pens to Dundalk, following 1-1 AET draw (0-0 after 90 mins)

Mann was named as League of Ireland First Division Manager of the Year, and he also picked up two Manager of the Month awards enroute.

A fine season all round then, but how would United fare back up in the highest division?

Season Six - 2025 - Landlord, make mine a Double!

Having led Drogheda United back up to the Premier Division at the first time of asking, Jay Mann was under no illusions that his job for this season was simply to keep them there.  Ahead of the new season, seven new players were recruited, all on free transfers.  The most notable of these was former Real Zaragoza and Manchester United youngster Mateo Mejia, who had just been released by Norwich City. Hopes were high for the 5ft 11in Colombian striker, and his signing certainly paid off big time as he scored 27 goals across all competitions.

Those goals were pivotal in driving Drogheda to a quite incredible Premier League and FAI Cup double, with a further trophy, the Unite the Union Champions Cup, thrown in for good measure.  The latter competition was a two-legged affair, played between the Premier Division champions of Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The League title meant of course that United qualified for the Champions League, which they would enter at the First Qualifying Round stage.  That would not be until July 2026, by which time they would be over half way through the league season, due to the calendar year nature of Irish football.  In six seasons then, Jay Mann had gone from a total football managing novice, to leading a team into the Champions League.  Quite some achievement!

Cup competition summary:

Irish FA Cup Final - Won 1-0 vs St Pat's Athletic

Unite the Union Champions Cup Final - Won 5-3 on aggregate vs Cliftonville (Away 1-3, Home 4-0)

League of Ireland Cup - 2nd Round - Lost 1-2 AET away at Longford Town

Leinster Senior Cup - 4th Round - Lost 1-3 away at Shamrock Rovers

Mann was named as League of Ireland Premier Division Manager of the Year, and he also picked up one Manager of the Month award.

Now though, things were going to get really interesting…

Season Seven (Part One) - 2026 - One season, three European competitions?

As reigning Irish Premier Division Champions, Jay Mann knew that his team were now the prime target of everyone that they would play against in the league this season. After all, beating the Champions is a fine scalp for anybody.  With that in mind, and knowing that they were going to be involved in extra matches this season thanks to their European qualification, Mann signed a further six players for the squad, even spending money on one of them! £5K bringing in centre-back Emmanuel Bayiha from divisional rivals Shamrock Rovers.

The season was to begin with an appearance in the President's Cup, the annual curtain raiser between the previous season's league and cup winners.  An exciting game saw Drogheda lift yet another piece of siverware, with a Mateo Mejia hat-trick seeing them to a 3-2 win over Waterford.  Mejia still in the goals was a good sign, and in the early part of the season he was regularly on the scoresheet as Drogheda once again mounted a title challenge.  Until, in late May, disaster struck as United's goal-scoring talisman suffered an injury that was to keep him out for four months.  June ended with Drogheda lifting another cup in the shape of the Leinster Senior Cup, but with league form beginning to dip and European games just around the corner, the Summer months were set to be a real challenge.

Ah yes, Europe.  Starting out in the Champions League First Qualifying Round, Drogheda would go on to actually take part in all three European competitions that season, thanks to UEFA's curious policy of rewarding failure.  Any team knocked out of one competition would drop into it's junior partner, i.e. from the Champions League into the Europa League or from the Europa League into the Europa Conference League, rather than just being straight-out eliminated from Europe.  Strange perhaps, but Drogheda certainly profited from it.

European competition summary:

Champions League First Qualifying Round - Beat Universitatea Craiova of Romania 3-2 on aggregate (Home 2-0, Away 1-2)

Champions League Second Qualifying Round - Lost to Hammarby IF of Sweden 2-5 on aggregate (Away 1-2, Home 1-3)

Europa League Third Qualifying Round - Lost to FC Honka of Finland 1-2 on aggregate (Home 0-0, Away 1-2)

Europa Conference League Fourth Qualifying Round - Beat FK Suduva of Lithuania 3-0 on aggregate (Away 0-0, Home 3-0)

Qualified for Conference League Group Stage - Group G, finished 3rd - Opponents, Athletic Bilbao of Spain (Away 2-4, Home 0-2), FK Astana of Kazakhstan (Home 4-1, Away 0-2) & GS Apollon of Greece (Home 1-4, Away 0-3)

Domestically, Mejia returned too late to arrest United's slide down the table and they eventually finished in a disappointing 6th place.  Cup wise, they won two (as described above) and made home exits from the other two:

Cup summary: 

President of Ireland's Cup Final - Won 3-2 vs Waterford

Leinster Senior Cup Final - Won 5-4 on pens vs Shamrock Rovers after 2-2 AET draw

Irish FA Cup - Quarter Final - Lost 0-1 at home to Shamrock Rovers

League of Ireland Cup - 2nd Round - Lost 1-2 at home to St Pat's Athletic

Mann won a single Manager of the Month during the season, but now that it was completed he was formulating ideas of moving on again.  Both of the clubs that he had managed so far had been semi-professional.  What would it be like to manage a full-time, professional side?