There and back to see how far it is

So here is my latest FM career, and one that has had a few interesting twists and turns. I will give a brief overview here in the OP, and then post a second thread with links to league tables as a history of where I've been and what I have achieved.

Coventry City
Season 2013/14 - League One

So I started my game with the intention of managing my beloved Coventry City, with the aim of my time there to promote players from my youth side and use them rather than buying players. So I set the rule that I wouldn't buy anyone, and to see how far I got.

In my first season, I guided the club to a mid-table finish, clearing our -10 point deficit fairly quickly, and we looked fairly decent. We also won the JPT, which made the board very happy and my job status was secure.

As the season drew to a close, I secured new deals on our emerging youngsters, and managed to shift a couple of the older players on high wages out, including Joe Murphy and Cyrus Christie. Franck Moussa secured a new deal after being a stand out player for us, and young goalkeeper Lee Burge signed a new contract to become our new number 1.

All looked rosey, until the rumblings that a takeover was on the cards. Whilst this is normally seen as good news - particularly for a club financially crippled as Coventry are - it came with the kicker that they wanted to replace me with Steve Cotterill. The takeover went through without a hitch, and I was fired.

Doncaster Rovers
Season 2014/15 - League One
Season 2015/16 - League One
Season 2016/17 - Championship
Season 2017/18 - League One
Season 2018/19 - Championship

After being sacked from Coventry, I was approached to be the manager of Doncaster Rovers who had just been relegated from the Championship. We had a tough time as we yo-yo'd between the two divisions, securing promotion twice, and relegation twice.

I focussed mainly on bringing in young players, as again the club were not particularly well blessed with finances. A number of players were sold to bigger clubs with sell on clauses as we looked to balance the books and secure the future of the club.

During the 2016/17 season, I managed to add Joe Mason, Jordan Bowery and Max Clayton to be my front three, as well as Lewis McGugan (Watford), João Carlos Teixeira (Liverpool) and Vajeba Sakor (random free transfer) to control my midfield. When we were relegated that year, they all demanded moves but I told them they would stay.

We won the title at a canter, and all were happy. The squad was very strong for League 1, but probably not quite enough for the Championship. Unfortunately, Teixera and Sakor wanted away, and we managed to cash in on them both for about £3m each.

I was approached by Aston Villa, now in the Championship, to be their manager at the start of the season, but Randy Lerner wanted me to play direct football, and play defensively. I told him I disagreed and wanted to play possession football and attacking. Eddie Howe (Bournemouth) was given the job.

Midway through the 2018/19 season, Doncaster were subject to a takeover approach from Barry Hearn (former Leyton Orient chairman), who lined up John Terry to replace me. I am unsure what I have done wrong at these two clubs, but it seems the new chairmen don't like what I've done with the place.

Sunderland
Season 2018/19 - Championship

With more unrest at board level, I began looking around for jobs, and was approached by Sunderland, also in the Championship. I accepted the role, and I am on the way to completing the season at the Stadium of Light. My first proper update will come at the end of this season.

Just realised my dates were a little bit out, so I've adjusted the OP. So here are the tables as I've progressed through my career so far:

2013/14 League One: Coventry City (14th)



So my debut season as a manager, and starting at Coventry City with a 10 point deduction meant that anything above the relegation places was a good season. In the end we finished 14th, and drew a lot of games. In fact, we only lost more than the top four sides! We also won the JPT, but I was sacked when the new board completed their takeover.

2014/15 League One: Doncaster Rovers (8th)



After being sacked from Coventry, I moved to Doncaster Rovers. They had a poor start to the season, and when I took them over, we managed to get up to eighth position. The only issue was our end of season form, which ruined our outside chances of a play off position. The board were happy with 8th though, and we continued to rebuild for next season.

2015/16 League One: Doncaster Rovers (1st)


The board's patience certainly paid off, as the following season we secured the title, and were promoted back into the Championship. As you can see, there was little to separate the top three, and going into the final game of the season, all three had a chance of the title and promotion. It was a good season, and it was certainly a lot closer than I would've liked. But we were CHAMPIONS!

2016/17 Championship: Doncaster Rovers (23rd)


Unfortunately for us, and Crewe who finished second the previous season, it was just to be a one year stay in the Championship as we ended up finishing 23rd on goal difference. I thought we had enough to stay up, but as the season drifted, our hopes were pinned on getting rather difficult results. In the end, we were condemned to relegation after defeat at Southampton who won the league convincingly. A lot of the players demanded moves away, but we managed to keep the majority, and it meant that the following season was a bit easier...

2017/18 League One: Doncaster Rovers (1st)


The season couldn't have gone much better, except for the fact we just missed out on the 100 points total. We only lost three games, and the season was a walk in the park for us. Definitely glad we managed to keep hold of our better players, as it meant that even a rotated squad was better than most in the league, with the likes of Jordan Bowery and Max Clayton scoring goals for fun. Birmingham joined us in automatic promotion, whilst free scoring Portsmouth somehow re-appeared from the wilderness to win the play offs.

2018/19 review to come...

2018/19 Championship: Sunderland (1st)


Well that went a lot better than planned. When I took over, Sunderland were floating around mid-table, threatening a play off push. We sorted the team out a bit, moved a couple of guys out and then brought in a couple of loans, and bam we were flying up the league! In the end, we made it look very easy. We played Ipswich and Cardiff back to back, and won both. It essentially promoted us barring any major failures.



To put some rather random icing on the cake, we managed to win the League Cup, beating Arsenal's reserves in the final. We were very luck, drawing Sheffield United in the semi finals, whilst Arsenal faced Liverpool. So into the Premier League, and into Europe!

July/August 2019

I thought I'd lump together pre-season and the first month of the new season. Adjusting to Premiership life will be difficult, but hopefully we can stay up this season and start to get the money flowing back into the club.

Fixtures & Results



A bit of a mixture here as you'd expect in pre-season, but I am really disappointed with our defeats against Napoli and Besiktas. However, it's only pre-season and the fun and games began after that when we began our Europa League Qualifying!

Europa League 3rd Qualifying vs Rosenborg



First leg went really well, although going 1-0 down to an away goal after 2 minutes did make me wonder if we were going to be out of our depth this season. We were massive favourites for the game, and won 2-1 to give us an edge.



James Wilson's first goal for the club cancelled out the away goal we conceded in the first leg, and we managed to get through to the next round.

Europa League Play Off vs Dundee United



Absolutely perfect start for us here, comfortable 2-0 win away from home, and I felt confident going into the second leg...



... where we did our best to throw it away! Ah well, we managed to get through and we are in the group stages to face Ajax, Olympiakos and Sturm Graz.

League Table



Due to our Europa League exploits, we have only played two games so far, so the table is in it's infancy. A 2-1 defeat against Everton was followed up by a 3-1 win over Ipswich Town, so we've about evened ourselves out during August!

September/October 2019

Thanks George, appreciate the follow! It's been an interesting career so far!

Fixtures & Results



As expected, we fell to an early defeat at Old Trafford, but Helenius gave us hope as we drew 1-1 at home to Chelsea. That started a three game winning streak in three competitions as we beat Sturm Graz, Reading and Forest in the Europa, Premiership and League Cup respectively.

Two defeats followed as we travelled to Arsenal before hosting Ajax, losing both games 2-0. Very disappointed that we failed to perform in either game, but we then had a five game winning streak. It's been a very pleasing season so far!

League Table



Liverpool lead the way early on, with Stoke surprising many. Manchester United are struggling, and I have declared my interest in the job to apply some more pressure on Laurent Blanc.

Europa League Table



Ajax are running away with the group with three wins, but so long as we can get points against Olympiacos and Sturm Graz, we should be able to push for the knock out phases which would be amazing for us financially.

Next update at the end of the year... thanks for reading!

2019/20 Premier League: Sunderland (11th)

So firstly, my apologies that this is only just being updated. I've recently moved house, and as you can imagine getting time on FM is sadly not that possible at the minute. However, I have managed to finish the season, so an end of season update for you all.



An 11th placed finish sees the end of a successful season for Sunderland in our first year back in the Premier League. I was aiming for a top half finish,but we just couldn't quite muster the fight towards the end of the season to get us into 10th. To be honest, the back end of the season was quite dreadful, and I am glad to see the back of the season to be honest. We struggled against the bigger sides, and we struggled against some of the weaker sides too.

Points of interest are the (lack of) performances by Manchester United and Arsenal this season. Manchester United were toying with sacking Laurent Blanc for much of the season. They finally pulled the trigger, and I applied for the job. I didn't get it as it went to Leonid Slutsky (CSKA Moscow), which was a massive disappointment for me. They ended up finishing 7th.

Later in the season, Vincenzo Montella's position at Arsenal came under pressure, and was eventually sacked. I again applied for the job, but it wasn't to be as they went for Fulham manager Cesare Prandelli to fill the void. Arsenal finished 13th, two places below us, and one below Fulham. I couldn't believe I didn't get either role, and it made my enjoyment for the save dissipate a little bit.

As Sunderland kept wanting to discuss my contract, which was due to expire at the end of this season, I kept rejecting the talks as I was determined to see the season out and then see if I could find another job. During all of this unrest, we managed to retain the League Cup, beating Liverpool in the final. We also managed to reach the quarter finals of the Europa League, losing to eventual finalists Bayer Leverkusen 4-3 on aggregate.

The end of the season arrived, and I resigned... where to next?

I would've been tempted to continue at Sunderland, but I really didn't have any interest in them, and I wasn't really invested in the club. We had a few good players, but it just didn't feel right. Very happy with the way the season went though, and happy to bail out at the right time.



Yeah delighted with how we performed in the Europa League; Quarter Finals at our first attempt was sensational really. Winning the League Cup back to back was good, and 11th is brilliant. Thanks both for following!

So where did I go next...?



Croeso (i Gymru)

So, Cardiff City is to be my next stop on my career. They were relegated from the Premier League, and I took the job for one reason... they are Welsh, and my decision to move there was spurred by a challenge - to build Cardiff City into a Welsh only side.

This meant transfer listing any players who aren't Welsh, and I have only bought in players of Welsh origin. This meant quite a bit of transfer activity:



You will recognise a lot of the players, with Andy King, Jon Williams and Ben Turner all signing. We also focussed on a lot of younger players, and I've promoted a number of youngsters to the first team squad.

July/August Results



We had a complete nightmare in the friendlies, and we started with two 1-0 defeats in the league to play Derby County and West Bromwich Albion. A win over Charlton was important, but a 3-3 draw with Doncaster was disappointing against my old side. We dropped out of the League Cup on penalties, before beating Crewe Alexandra in the final game of the month.

League Table



10th after five games is okay seeing as we've built a new squad from scratch. The board aren't happy seeing as they expect us to win the league, but hopefully they can give me time to get this project moving forward.

So that's the next little chapter of the story, thanks for reading!

Thanks Dan, yeah I wanted to try something a bit different, so hopefully this will give me a test!


Thanks George, it was a good summer of building a squad, but I am unsure if we can make the step up. I hope we can compete at this level, as the board are expecting promotion!


My expectations at Cardiff is a slow and steady build, but the board want us in the Premier League next season so it's going to be a tough ride one way or another. Thanks for your comment Gaz, appreciate the follow!

September/October Results



We didn't start the month well at all, as we lost at home to Brentford, before losing away at Sheffield Wednesday. A good win over Burnley sandwiched those results, and we managed a 1-1 draw with West Ham. I have no idea where the 5-1 win over Leicester came from, but it was very much required as the board continue to be disappointed with the start we've made to the season. This was only further supported with a dire draw against Birmingham before defeat at QPR.

We managed the end the two month stint with three excellent wins though, beating Leeds United and Peterborough at home, before travelling to Southampton for a strong 2-0 win.

League Table



So we're upto ninth in the table, and just three points behind the play offs. If we can have a good run in November and December, I think the board might give me some breathing room. The squad is starting to gel, and I hope we can turn that into a strong run of results.

Thanks for reading...

November/December



The eagle eyed amongst you will have spotted that I haven't played all the games in December yet, but we'll come to that later. We started the month with a trip to Torquay, and came back with a really good 1-0 win. They've really had a good time on this save, and are doing okay in the Championship. We followed that up with another 1-0 win against Middlesbrough, with Andrew Outlaw scoring the only goal.

A trip to relegation threatened Blackburn resulted in another clean sheet, as we returned with a 2-0 win with goals from Lee Lucas and Outlaw, before we suffered a 2-2 draw with Leyton Orient in the last home game of November. Outlaw scored both the goals, as we squandered an early two goal lead. Disappointed not to have won that as it would've given us a flawless November, but these things happen in football.

Thankfully, we got straight back to winning ways against Sheffield United, with a 5-2 win at Bramall Lane. Nicholls, King, Outlaw and Roose got the goals, with the first coming from an own goal. As we saw the fixtures ramp up in December, we travelled to Nottingham Forest and drew 0-0. We were lucky with this one really, we didn't play well and we were missing a few key men.

Three home games back to back followed, starting with a 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic who were second at the time of playing the game. It was a big win for us, and saw the board confidence shift to being secure again! A 3-1 win over Bournemouth was followed by a dour 0-0 draw with Derby County on Boxing Day. A trip to the Hawthorns two days later got us back to winning ways with a comfortable 3-0 win.

League Table



We're into second place behind Queens Park Rangers, although we're a massive seven points behind them as we approach January. It's going to be tough to claw that back, but I'd be delighted if we can finish second this season as it's a bit of an over reach. Having said that, the board might not be so happy with us missing the title, but I am sure with Premiership money in their pocket I should be safe.

Andrew Outlaw



This kid is phenomenal! He has been a goal scoring machine so far this season, with 13 goals in 14 games. He is a product of our Academy, and was already there when I arrived. He's been given more game time this season at the club after previously being out on loan, and he has really shown his ability to compete at this level. He's certainly one to watch, and one I'd like to keep hold of for as long as possible!

Something to think about...

So the reason why I haven't yet played the last game of the month... well this happened:



I honestly have no idea what to do! I've been wanting to be offered the Manchester United job for so long, and they have now offered me it... but I've built the start of a footballing dynasty at Cardiff, and would like to continue that... but Cardiff could sack me at any point as they are volatile when results go against us!

Any advice?

Well I've gone for it...



So next update will be my first few games as Manchester United manager!

January

Here begins my journey as Manchester United manager...



We finished December with my first game as United manager, with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa. It was a great way to start my role at United, and to be honest they were terrible. Villa were bottom of the league at the time, and they didn't really give us a challenge. The next two games however were extremely disappointing! Drawing 1-1 at Fleetwood in the FA Cup was really disheartening. Whilst I did change the squad around to give other players a game and to look at what we've got, you'd expect us to really hammer them. We had the chances to do it too, but they took a very early lead, and thanks to De Bruyne we managed to get a replay. We looked just as bad against Hull City in the league the following game, so there must be something not right.

We changed tactics against Fleetwood for the replay at Old Trafford, and it paid dividends with a 5-0 drubbing. This was our first of four home games on the bounce, and we scored plenty in each one, whilst narrowly beating my old side Sunderland 1-0 thanks to De Bruyne (again). He's looked amazing in the early parts of my career at Old Trafford, and should be a fixture of the side for a long time to come. Back to back 4-1 wins over West Brom (FA Cup) and Fulham (League) meant that our confidence was growing, and we started to dominate games again. Finally, we travelled to Everton and secured a strong 2-0 win, which should provide us with a spring board into February.

League Table



We're still in sixth, but we've got a chance to move up the table and we're in the right position to be challenging right now. Manchester City look untouchable this season, and I am not really looking forward to my first derby against them. Disappointed to see Sunderland struggling, and Cardiff are currently doing okay in the Championship since hiring David Moyes as my replacement. Dan Petrescu replaced me at Sunderland.

Manager of the Month



An unbeaten month to start the reign off, and despite the blip against Hull City, we've not really had a challenge as yet. If we can keep the squad scoring, then hopefully we can get cemented into the top four by the end of February and look to make a challenge for the Champions League places.

Transfers



Most of the deals were done before I got there, with Slustky spending big on a number of players. They did sell Anthony Martial to Chelsea for a whopping £55m though, so he must have been doing something right. My transfers began with releasing Rafael (105k pw!!), Bernard and Fellaini, and also offloading left back Juan Bernat for nearly £20m, and Junior Malanda for just under £17m. I've got Luke Shaw and another younger left back in the squad on much less than Bernat, whilst Vincent Wanyama has kept Malanda out of the side for much of the season.

Incoming were Martin McGowan who my scouts were raving about, Matt Vickers who was my captain at Doncaster (more on him in a minute), and Roger Trumpy. We also added some youngsters to the squad as one of my board promises was to sign young players for the first team. Daniel Rudolph looks an interesting acquisition and should compete with Wanyama for the DM role in midfield.

Martin McGowan



My scouts were really excited about this guy, and we managed to pick him up for £1.3m as his contract was winding down. His physical stats look amazing for a winger (16 acceleration and 17 pace), although his finishing needs a lot of work! He was given his debut in the first game against Fleetwood, and missed a couple of sitters. He's not featured again since, but that has been due to the form of El Shaarawy.

Matt Vickers



Matt Vickers was my captain at Doncaster Rovers, and throughout my time there I received so many bids for him. I stuck a £5m price tag on him, and still the bids kept coming so I knew I had to keep hold of him at the time. As soon as I moved to United I set my sights on him, offered his asking price and they accepted. £1.4m for him and I am delighted. Three goals in 2 games is a great start, and he's already a fans favourite, and keeping Henrique out the team.

I also tried to sign Andrew Outlaw from Cardiff, but they won't accept my offer despite him not having played (or scored) since I left.

Roger Trumpy



Yes I did laugh when I saw the scout report on him... but he looked a decent acquisition and was running his contract down at Grasshoppers. We agreed terms for him to move end of season, but then the option came for me to sign him now for £1.1m and it was a done deal. Delighted to get him in, and hopefully can get him some game time this season. If not, he'll be out on loan.

Looks decent in tackling, heading, leadership and positioning, and could be a potential captain for Manchester United! Decent in the air, strong and only 22 years old... very happy with that!

So onto February... thanks for reading!

February/March



A big couple of months for us, as we finally face some of the bigger names. A comfortable win at Reading in front of the TV cameras gave us a strong start to the month, but we were pegged back by Tottenham at New White Hart Lane, despite scoring twice in first half injury time. Our third away game on the trot came at Newcastle in the FA Cup, where we picked up a comfortable 2-0 win. Henriquez has finally started scoring, so I am very pleased with his performances! We finally returned to Old Trafford but left it late to beat Norwich.

Frustratingly, we let a first half lead slip at home to Stoke City, and these games are the ones that are going to see us really struggle to break into the top three. We should be winning against sides like Stoke, but on the day we were not good enough. Thankfully we rectified that with a massive 4-1 win at Huddersfield Town. Nigel Donaghue was moaning about lack of first team opportunities, so he was given a couple of games and it paid off!

Next up came the Manchester derby at Old Trafford, and we froze... it wasn't a great performance from either side, and just one goal was enough to split the two sides. Any slim desires that we had of catching City up are now all but gone. Two more away games in the North East saw us dispatch Middlesbrough 3-0 in the FA Cup, and Newcastle 2-1 in the League. The two month stint finished early due to international breaks with a 2-0 win at home to Arsenal. Very pleased with that result after the defeat to City.

League Table



With seven games to go, we're up into fourth, with Arsenal still in sight after our win against them keeping our hopes of a second place finish open. Liverpool are still on our heels, but hopefully we can get Champions League football, and keep the board happy!

Manager of the Month



Two games, two wins, and very happy with that! Keeps adding to my manager profile, so I am delighted to pick up the award... despite it only being two games!

Youth Intake

It was youth intake month, and we managed to get a pretty rough hand to be honest. Nothing too exciting in there, but hopefully one of these three can step it up:



Adie Farrell is the most likely to do anything according to my coach reports, but we have to hope that we can bring in some better young players in the future!

Thanks for reading...