Number 1 Activity

Having impressed to finish 14th and rarely look in danger of relegation, the question of course is "What now?" This after all is football - you get a few minutes to reflect on how well you did one year, then have to dive straight into the next...

Number 1 just completed the season in the year 2022 managing Sheff Wed in the English Premier Division in their FM Career WAWAW (FM20)

Thanks very much. I'm not sure what I expect - we're predicted a relegation fight again (prediction for 2022-23 is 19th) and board expectation is just to stay up. Top half would be impressive, but our changes have to hit the ground running. We...

With the season almost over, the stakes were simple enough - a draw against Southampton at Hillsborough in our final home game, and we've reached our base goal of survival. Should be doable in theory. Indeed, I'd like a win against the side who...

TS Elliot once wrote that April can be the cruellest month, and certainly, if we contrived to lose all 4 games, it would be a very cruel time for us given that, with a very difficult May coming up, it would most likely put us in the Championship. April&#...

Having finally broken our winless streak, with the win over Wolves, and gaining points over a side I turned down for a job interview twice (one last season, one after sacking Benitez a few weeks earlier), we need to carry on. The only side we've pla...

I'm pretty confident we can do it. An 8 point lead with 12 to go is a great position, so I think we're likelier than not going to do it, but we just have to wrap it up.

With our winless run now stretching to 5 Premier League games, what we could use is a home game against some absolute no-hopers, either because they're out of form or because they're on the beach already even though its still January. What we go...

A New Year brings with it the FA Cup Third Round as our first test, and with it, a home fixture against West Ham United at Hillsborough. Its consistent - in our first 2 seasons, our FA Cup ties were home clashes with Premier League teams, though we ended...

The best antidote to a result like the humiliation at Anfield is victory. We had Aston Villa at Hillsborough, against a Villains side out of form but who beat Chelsea and surprisingly comfortably so at Villa Park in their last game. It would certainly be...

4 defeats in a row was a drag on morale around the joint, and put a lot of focus on our next game to recover. It would be a bit of a big one locally, as we travelled to face Leeds United at Elland Road against a side without a win in 7 games. Quite why th...

After getting 4 points from games against 3 early strugglers in Leicester, Burnley and Sheffield United, the next few games were a far from ideal choice to try and build any kind of form. Back-to-back away trips to Chelsea and Manchester City, either side...

After confirming our progression in the Carabao Cup and the slightly unwelcome news our reward is a home tie against Arsenal, attentions had to turn back to getting rewards in the next few games. First of all was a home fixture against Leicester City at...

After refreshing over the international break, its safe to say we would be greeted back on the other side with two tough examinations. First was a trip to Arsenal, who have thus far made a 100% winning start under new boss Paulo Fonesca, and they follow t...

Progressing nicely then. And decent to be doing well against PL teams in the Cups. With any luck the journey will continue to go so smoothly.

We get a break now from the Premier League for one midweek run as we travel to the Bet365 to face Stoke in the Carabao Cup. If nothing else, it keeps them up as familiar opponents, given we beat them there in our 2 Championship seasons, in similar circums...

Our first game in the Premier League would be the last of the season's opening weekend. So we had a fair wedge of time to build up potential anticipation. First game saw Manchester City look to push on from winning the first two Premier League title...

Thanks for the praise. Honestly I'd take 17th right now, but we'll give as good as we get.

Good start and if nothing else I admire the ambition of being UCL-bound. Good luck with said challenge.

Number 1 just completed the season in the year 2021 managing Sheff Wed in the Sky Bet Championship in their FM Career WAWAW (FM20)

Its tempting to have that existential dread of thinking promotion might end up being the easy part. Turning a side twice predicted to be midtable into first play-off losers and then shock division winners was good, but the squad had baseline potential to...

Victory over Nottingham Forest has set up a potentially major juncture in our season, as victory over Blackpool at Bloomfield Road sticks us second with three to go, and with it, potentially 3 wins from promotion and with it ending Sheffield Wednesday...

Originally, the EFL scheduled our Blackpool game to take place over the international break, but a smattering of call-ups proved to be just cause to get the game rearranged. This would ordinarily have meant the uninteresting pause to build up fitness for...

While February was something due to the large quantity of games, and April will likewise pose a similar volume issue, March is relatively quiet with 4 games. However, 3 of these 4 are against teams directly up with us in the promotion chase. Bristol City,...

After the derby, our next game was originally scheduled to be against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road. However, on the morning of the game, the game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. So it was an unexpected weekend off. Perhaps unexpectedly, it turn...

Great start at PNE - good luck at maintaining it.

Oh yeah that's how it feels. Its going to be difficult, particularly as this feels like a closer fight than last season. But thanks for the compliment. Its slightly surreal to be a throw-back but its the style that works for moi and it works for me....

With the anti-climax that was a goalless draw in the Steel City Derby out of the way, it was time to see how we'd fare in our attempts to get the promotion. Ourselves and the Blades are closely split in this fight, though Preston and QPR are beginnin...

A lot of our promotion aspirations could well depend on either victory or defeat in the Sheffield Derby at the end of January. But it would be too easy to fixate on that being the make-or-break game. Before that, we still need points from games against Wi...

3 consecutive wins going into Christmas is an excellent way to start that and keep us in the promotion chase. But we now face the challenge of maintaining that momentum that comes with the build-up of games at the festive season. Its the most difficult ti...

We all know that Christmas is going to be a real season make-or-break phase. December has already brought us close proximity back-to-back games with promotion rivals West Brom and QPR, but we still have 4 more games in the tank against a variety of oppone...

After encouraging Cardiff to give Pulis his P45, our next assignment would come a few days later against the other South Yorkshire rivals to the other team in Sheffield, as we hosted Barnsley at Hillsborough. The Tykes are predicted to be in the bottom 3...

As the November international break looms, we have another chance to try and send our fans into the pause with a smile on their faces and three points in our pocket. Standing in our way is Nottingham Forest, managed by Nigel Clough as he tries to get some...

Thanks very much. I want this to be our year as our play-off misfire last year was such a buzzkill, but we're about to enter the stupidly busy bit with 24 league games before the next international break, along with the FA Cup Third Round. We'...

Our first game back after the pause would see us travel to Millwall, with the South Londoners sat bottom of the table with no wins and dismissing manager Gary Rowett, and conceding 4 to QPR, 5 to Bristol City and 6 to Nottingham Forest. If we were arrogan...

Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich as a real score... fucking hell what has happened at Barcelona to put in such a monumental collapse?

Before we made the trip to Birmingham City for our next game, Chansiri sent me a message looking to extend my Sheffield Wednesday contract. The initial two year deal signed at the start of the game expires at the end of this campaign, but after our excell...

Over the international break, there was time to reflect on phase one of this season going mightily well. But promotion to the Premier League isn't won in August. All we can do to ensure we remain in the conversation is to keep on winning. We're...

With the opening month wrapping up, there were still 2 more games left of a pretty intense opening to the season. A Carabao Cup trip to Oldham and a trip to new boys MK Dons would make it 8 games in our opening month, although consistent with last season,...

3 wins from 3 in all competitions is an excellent start in anyone's language. But while Hull, Wigan and Sunderland represent one challenge, Sheffield United are another on so many levels. On status alone, its our first test against a recently relega...

I'm admiring the ambition for this concept. Good start - keep it up.

Two and a half months or so on from our irritating play-off failure against Fulham, its time to go again. 46 games of ups, downs, delight, frustration, indifferent 0-0 draws and cul-de-sacs. It'll be good if we can grab a win to kick-off. Our first...

This had the air of being a strange summer. With very little money, no strikers and the rest, I was pondering what could I do to make it work to prepare a rebooted squad after last season's play-off heartache. As noted, I have already acted quickly...

I was mainly amused by the relief of the Irish Guy on HITC Sport that he didn't have to get Pontus Jansson tattooed on him if Brentford got up. But yeah. I'd have liked Brentford up for the novelty and the fact they're a hipstery "Oh...

Following victories over ourselves and West Brom in the play-off final, Fulham have done the same big budget spending that they did on their last promotion. Leading the line is some huge cash, spending £18M on Newcastle defender Jamaal Lascelles and...

Number 1 just completed the season in the year 2020 managing Sheff Wed in the Sky Bet Championship in their FM Career WAWAW (FM20)

4th place at the end of the season, with a side predicted pre-season to finish 11th and given promotion winners odds of 16th, was no doubt a hell of an achievement in and of itself. However, this would of course be stage one of the challenge. In truth, I...

Initially, a part of me would've considered just phoning it in and testing the reserves for our final 3 games. But I then decided that instead, with order and potential opponents to be decided from our efforts in the final 3 that this strategy may no...

With Easter here, we're just one win away from confirming a play-off position. We've had a few things done, with a new contract for Fox and a cash injection of around £4M from the owner to keep the nights on. The last one does sum up the...

If we hold any real hope of nicking automatic promotion with a run from deep, defeating West Bromwich Albion is a must. It is something we have had experience of, after we beat them at the Hawthorns earlier this season, but there was no way the Baggies wo...