James Boothby - Comments

The 2024/25 season is over and WE ARE GOING UP SAY WE ARE GOING UP!!!!

What an amazing season from the lads who fought their way through the league and finished in a respectable third place after a battle for the automatics through the last 2 months with Leeds United. In finishing Third, we faced the  playoffs once more where we were met with a midlands derby in Birmingham City for the Semi Final. In the first leg, Birmingham had the upper hand after a convincing 2-1 win at St Andrews. However in the second leg we fought back and claimed an 86th minute penalty winner from Torp to take the game to ET and Penalties. Penalties continued on until sudden death, when Brad Collins saved the Birmingham keeper's penalty, sending us to the Playoff Final vs Nottingham Forest. The game was hard thought, with possession in Forest's favour but the XG going completely our way. The game finished 2-1 at full time with a Josh Eccles thunderbolt and Haji Wright bullet header sending us into the Premier League for the first time since 2001.

The season started off average with 2 wins and 1 loss in our first 5 games, however we started to pick up momentum after this and went on an 8 game unbeated streak. Haji Wright was having the season of his life, with the same amount of goals in the same amount of games, it seemed as if nothing could go wrong. That was until Haji Wright suffered a torn hamstring vs Leeds, seeing him out for the best part of 3 months. This obviously saw massive repercussions on our team, with our top goalscorer out with a major injury, as well as Simms out with a knock of 3 weeks. This saw me trust the youth and begin starting youngsters Rob Smith and Douglas Kalyanko, two youth recruits both at 17 years of age. To my suprise, Rob Smith scored a brace on his debut, showcasing why he should be featured in the squad permanently.

In the FA Cup we reached the Fifth round, where we bowed out to Everton losing 2-0 at Goodison Park. In the Carabao Cup we lost in the First Round embarrassingly to Wycombe. 

On the transfer front, we had a bit more activity here…

Transfers In

Jamie Shackleton - Free

Jose Leon - Free

Will Fish - Loan (terminated in January)

Jamie Cumming - 165k (January)

Hjalmar Ekdal - 425k (January)

Transfers Out

Alex Kovacevic - Loan

Ben Wilson - 875k (January)

Even with his injury Haji Wright finished the season as top scorer with 26 goals overall (22 league)

Our most overachieving player this season has to be Victor Torp, controlling the midfield throughout the season as well as starting 44 of the 48 league games this season, keeping a 7.13 average rating. 

The big news is how badly Wolves have done after being relegated last season, keeping most of their team, and still finishing only 9th in the league. We will be joined in the Premier League next season with Norwich and Leeds.

Well after a long year full of ups and down, our season comes to an end. The January transfer market saw no new faces coming in, with nobody of interest available. This would be a grave mistake of mine, as the rest of the season would be plagued with one injury after the other. This saw us drop to as low as 13th, with me having to give youth players a run out against top teams in the division. 

However after a good 10 game unbeaten streak towards the end of the season, we luckily finish 6th, just enough to get into the playoffs where we will face Sunderland in our first game. However this would prove to be too much for us, as we lose 3-0 at home in the first leg, crushing our dreams of a second playoff final in a row. We do show some fight in the second leg however, with a calmly slotted finish from Callum O'Hare and penalty from Haji Wright before Sunderland put the tie to bed with a 74th minute header. 

On a positive we do end the season on a club record haul of points, with 83 points to our name and 25 games won. 

Our top goalscorer is Haji Wright with 15 goals (16 in all competitions)

This leads us to another year in the Championship, with Southampton and Leicester being promoted alongside either Sunderland or Bristol City. Fulham, Wolves and Notts Forest will be joining us for the 2024/25 season.

This season, I plan to make improvements in the quality of the squad, building the team around key players whilst also giving the younger players a run out. 

As for competitions, I want to cement our place as promotion contenders as well as give a good account of ourselves in both Domestic Cups, especially the FA Cup.

After multiple injuries and irritating cup matches in which have sent us crashing out of both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, we finally get to January. 

We currently sit in 8th in the championship, 1pt off playoffs and 11pts off automatics. 

Injuries have been a real setback going into Cup ties, with a perfectly timed flu virus taking out half of our starting XI before our Third round FA Cup tie agains Huddersfield, ending in a 5-4 thriller away from home. 

We seem to be missing a main man up top, with Simms not living up to expectations and Godden doing exactly the same. As well as this, we lack a lot of depth in the wide wing positions, but with no budget I have had to delve into the free transfer market. American winger Llanez of Wolfsberg seems like a good backup winger and with him leaving on a free at the end of his contract, now is a good time to snap him up on the cheap.

Our stand out players up to now seem to be Haji Wright (understandably), Victor Torp (showing why he should be the main man in midfield) and Bobby Thomas.

Underperformers as of now seem to be Ellis Simms, Callum O'Hare and Luis Binks.

Going into the transfer window, I want to get some depth into most positions and with big clubs sniffing around star midfielder Ben Sheaf for around 17m we need to explore all options if that does become a reality. 

As for how we are playing, we seem to be playing fairly average, with 42 scored in 28 matches and 35 conceded. 

Bristol City and Cardiff are emerging as the overperformers, both in the playoff places midway through the season whereas Preston, West Brom and Middlesborough are all fighting a relegation battle, sitting in 24th, 19th and 17th.

At the end of a positive pre-season and the beginning of the Championship right around the corner, I have chosen to spend my time upgrading the backroom staff as much as possible, bringing in new staff such as a DoF and many coaches. I have decided to opt for a 4.3.3 (DM) Gengenpress style play, in which I will focus on holding possession, playing through Ben Sheaf in the centre of the park. 

On the transfer front, not much can be done with a budget of 200k, alongside and extra 5k for wages. 

Transfers Out:

Simon Moore - 140k

Transfers In:

Kovacevic - Free

Pending:

Kian Breckin - Loan

My first decision I am faced with is the Callum O'Hare contract situation.  

Callum is currently out injured until at least September, in which I will give opportunities to Victor Torp and Kasey Palmer to show what they have and why they should be in my starting XI once Callum is back and fit. However with Torp looking like the better future option, he looks at his best in the CM position rather than O'Hare's preferred CAM. This will clearly have an affect on the system that I choose to implement at CCFC and could leave either the experienced and club favourite O'Hare or the new upcoming Victor Torp out to dry.

Do I renew Callum's contract, with him asking for a considerable wage change or try and move him on once he returns fit for as much money as possible?