Liverpool and Manchester United were new to starting out as Europa League teams. Liverpool, for the second time in fifteen years had sold for more money than bought. Manchester United’s response? Spend $370 million on transfers in! United can be scary when they get serious. They brought in Edon Lopes, the best Portuguese striker in the game from Fulham, Darragh Foley, the best young central defender I have been trying to pry from Nottingham Forest for the past four seasons, and Indio, a young Brazilian star goalkeeper from Valencia. Indio would end up on the world’s Best XI, with 25 shutouts.

Arsenal is the other big buyer, with $220 million spent on players this offseason. But just behind them is yours truly – $213 million later and here’s who we have:

While I have central defender stats highlighted, I actually think Jackson can play well in a right wingback role behind Nicolas Casier. I plan on playing him there and seeing if his dribbling and crossing can improve. If not, he’ll stick at central defender.

Speaking of central defenders, in comes Hamid Soleimani, a 6 foot 5 inch stud who I think can be re-trained to switch roles with Jackson.

Also joining the defense is my first signing of a player over 25 in Kingstonian history. Meet William Blaise, a Frenchman from Chelsea:

Blaise will link up with Ryan Reynders on the left and Casier with Maverick on the right to create dual French-Belgian connections on the wings. I didn’t plan for that but it’s a neat result. Considering that Sunday Umar can also play left winger, I wanted to find a bench player on the right.

Another Brazilian joins the squad, Vanderlei. He doesn’t have the greatest player trait or speed, but he does tick a lot of other boxes. And considering I just need him to warm the bench and rotate with Maverick, he’ll do. With all these Brazilians, though, I feel like I need something new from South America.

Diego Garcia enters with a lot of similar characteristics to Eric Aubry. He came with high recommendations from my scouts and just look at the summary – 17 pros! I’m a little nervous his finishing isn’t good enough for a 21 year old but maybe he will advance more with the higher competition of the Premier League.

I still feel like we need a new icon. It’d be great if they were English too. And now that I have filled the left wingback role, all that’s left is to add to the midfield.

Check, check, check. Rourke Cathline looks like Danny Johnson-lite but with striker qualities too. He looks fantastic and slots perfectly into the midfield with the other youngsters, Igor and Diego. Manuel Acosta heads to the bench as he has maxed out his potential, while Kurtis Butler, Alessandro Marotta, and Radim Ditmar are sold at a premium to afford all of the incomings and make room for the younger midfielders.

Season Results

Our win against the weakened Fulham (no Danny Johnson, no Edon Lopes) is now Kingstonian’s sixth straight opening day win. Reynders and Umar get a brace each. Reynders scored a goal in the next two games too, which includes an impressive draw against Liverpool on the road. Liverpool’s Dutch legend, Alexander Lemmens, gets on the scoresheet against us again; I’m going to be so happy when he retires. But at 33, he still has a few years of bothering us to go.

Next up is the Champions League draw. Here’s our group:

Wow.

We’re in the same group as Juventus and Barcelona. Talk about a rough welcome to the Champions League. Just take a look at the scouting report for Juventus.

Juventus’ Gabriel Rio was purchased for $156 million a few years ago and has been nothing short of remarkable since. Last season, he averaged a 7.9 in Serie A with 27 goals. I guess we’ll try our best against Augsburg so we can have a go again in the Europa League.

The draw with West Brom was our third in a row and I was concerned about the points we were dropping. But away wins at Watford and West Ham got us back on track. It helped that we thrashed FC Augsburg on the road in the middle of that early stretch. The home draw with Chelsea was predictable but October was downright surprising.

A 1-0 nervy win at home against Barcelona in which we went all-out defense after Igor scored a goal in the 61st minute. After sneaking away with that win, I was convinced we would lose against Juventus. But 4-nil was stunning.

Against one of the best teams in the world, we smashed them. We had 20 shots to their 4 and we had most of the possession. You can see from the small number of key passes that we didn’t have the most fluid of attacks spread evenly across our team, but Maverick was the star. I was also experimenting with a new defensively-minded tactic now that Diego could play an excellent defensive midfielder.

The new tactic has helped us secure those hard-fought draws against the bigger English clubs, like the 0-0 draw at Manchester United, and hold onto wins against mid-table sides like our 2-1 win over Leicester.

I don’t even know how to explain our 1-0 win away at Juventus. It should have been a draw. But in the 89th minute, Igor found himself unmarked just outside the box and struck the ball into the bottom right corner. An unbelievable 12 points after 4 games in a group with Juventus and Barcelona. After already qualifying for the next round, we took it easy against Augsburg and drew 1-1. This was hot on the heels of a disappointing draw at Brentford where Maverick was injured and would be out for a month, so I had a feeling our form was starting to falter.

A busy schedule showed what an inopportune time it was for Maverick to be injured. It didn’t help that Vanderlei was a colossal disappointment and utterly failed to be remotely competent on the pitch. I couldn’t even play him by the end of the month. But our standards at Kingstonian have never been higher as we still won five games this month, including a Carabao Cup quarter final win against cheeky Brentford.

Our losses against Arsenal and Manchester City were understandable as they were at the top of the table at the end of the calendar year.

With only two losses to our name in the first five months, we were on target for a title-contending season. It helped that Manchester City took a step back from their incredible season the year before.

It was a very entertaining game against Arsenal at home in the Carabao Cup semi-final. Arsenal scored the first two goals but we struck back with two from Aubry near the end of the first half and beginning of the second. Then, Arsenal took back the lead in the 78th minute but a strike from Cathline evened the score again a few minutes later. Then, finally, in the last moments of the game, in the 96th minute, Maverick scored the go-ahead goal. The return leg wasn’t as fun as Son and Maverick were injured in the big-time home win against Manchester United. We lost 2-0 against Arsenal on the road, just short of our first Carabao Cup final. The shellacking at Tottenham was also the result of injuries, which made our FA Cup win against Chelsea all the more surprising.

By this point, the entire team was struggling with fatigue due to all of the games. 18 games in two months is a LOT. The league wins against Manchester United and Chelsea as well as the less-than-superhuman performances by Manchester City made me feel like the club needed to give it a go at the Premier League title. Speaking of City, I noticed that they weren’t playing our good friend, Danny, as much this year. So I made a phone call and . . .

Welcome back, Danny! Sure, I spent $78 million to get him, but he is a club icon, could help us with our title run-in, will sell shirts, will be the captain soon enough, and is an important part of the England squad. He secures the midfield now and in the future for the next five years. I’m also excited to have him help mentor Cathline, who is averaging just above a 7.0 rating.

That Liverpool result is probably the best one we’ve ever had against them. Cathline, Soleimani, and Umar all scored goals, and each goal was about 20-30 minutes away from each other. We were better on the whole throughout the match, which is something I’ve not yet been able to say against the Reds. Fulham was a fantastic win too because we played the entire second half with only 10 men after Casier got sent off. This was our fourth straight victory over Fulham and helped put to bed a lot of our nightmares at Craven Cottage. We then secured a crucial away win at Ajax in the Champions League, one of the easier teams to face this year. Everything was going really well, but next up was Manchester City. But first, a look at the table.

A very close title race and a result against City would keep at least five points ahead of them before their inevitable charge.

It has been a season of exceeding expectations and this win over Manchester City was just the latest example. I’ve never experienced a team firing on all cylinders at the highest level like this before. Especially against monumentally good squads. Juventus, Barcelona, Liverpool, City – they all were vanquished by us. We just had to keep this going!

Ah, Anfield. We had 61% of the possession. But we didn’t threaten the goal at all, with only three shots taken and all off-target. A miserable 83rd winner was struck and we couldn’t muster any offense in reply. Another crash out of the FA Cup. After setting the goal to win the FA Cup in four years upon entering the Premier League, we would now be three years behind schedule.

My disappointment was not eased when we lost 2-1 at home to a weak Everton side who had gone down to 10 men just before halftime. I consider this our worst loss of the season. But the 2-1 defeat at home against Ajax is a close second. An incredibly frustrating moment occurred when Casier made a reckless challenge in the 13th minute, sent off on a red, and leaving us to play defense and not give up our one goal advantage. We almost made it too, not allowing the tying goal until the 84th minute. In extra time, Ajax scored again in the 99th minute and we replied with a Johnson penalty kick in the 113rd but that was it. Out on away goals. I fined Casier for several weeks of pay for his red card and will never forget his act. Frankly, I started looking for a replacement right fullback just after the game ended. Furious.

Then, of course, in the biggest match of the title race, we lose 1-0 to Arsenal.

Three promising and winnable competitions, all over in ten days’ time. Oh, also – I should mention that we were in the middle of a possible takeover bid by an investor who wanted to put the club on the stock market so we could generate some huge revenue. The loss to Arsenal put us out of the conversation of the title race and apparently this was enough to discourage the investor because shortly after, this happened:

I guess the league title is still technically possible, but we would need to be perfect from here on out and have Arsenal falter.

Some big games from Reynders, Umar, Diego, and Johnson throughout this month, who were consistently excellent and really pushed us forward from the March disaster. The big wins also helped us with goal difference. Meanwhile, Arsenal drew twice against Tottenham and Southampton and then lost at Leicester to put us back on top by a point. It helped that they were rotating their squad during the league games while attempting to advance in the Champions League. Also, Manchester City was vying as a possible spoiler, only two points behind. Three clubs, three games to go.

A draw with Brighton was an auspicious start to the month of May. Coupled with an Arsenal win, we were now down by a point. The key now was to see if Arsenal’s second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid would tire them and force a rotated side to play cellar dwellers, Sheffield Wednesday. Otherwise, they would have a full week to rest, prepare, and beat Nottingham Forest on the road. The first part went well as Arsenal advanced against Atlético Madrid but it took 120 minutes to do so. The second part – not so much. Arsenal crushed Sheffield Wednesday 3-0. Meanwhile, our side did their part to keep the pressure on.

I think it’s official. We are a consistently better club than Chelsea now. We have surpassed our rivals, especially thanks to the efforts of Danny Johnson and his nine key passes. He has been on an absolute tear the last two months, along with Umar who keeps slinging in the goals and Son, who has been enormously strong at the back.

Just one game to go, at home versus Watford. Playing Watford is always a nice reminder of our first match in the Premier League, when we beat them and I felt like we had finally climbed the mountaintop from the base of tier 6. It would be fitting, then, if we could secure the title against Watford. We would need help from Nottingham Forest as only a Kingstonian win and an Arsenal draw/loss or a Kingstonian draw and an Arsenal loss would give us the title.

The pictures tell the story. Kingstonian has won the Premier League! Not even Arsenal, Chelsea, or Tottenham won the Premier League since this campaign began and yet here we are, the kings of England! I am dazed, confused, bewildered, ecstatic, and a whole mix of emotions between happy and amazed. It was definitely the year to do it considering that City dropped off and the competitiveness in the league was fierce. Just take a look at the final table.

Chelsea’s drubbing by us was the final nail that sealed their fate outside of the European competition spots, which makes that victory all the more sweeter. We have definitely kicked them down a notch in London. West Ham had a great year and will make a surprising appearance in the Champions League. It’ll be interesting to see if they can build on this success. Meanwhile, Liverpool and Manchester United will now have two seasons outside of the Champions League as the balance of power rests with us, City, and Arsenal for the time being. United certainly has to be feeling glum after spending so much cash in the summer.

Best XI

Something is wrong with this Best XI determination to come up with Vanderlei over Maverick. If you switch those two, and put Danny in place of Acosta, you can see just how good our squad was. Considering that Umar really should be a winger rather than a striker, I think a replacement for a striker, a backup for Maverick (replacing Vanderlei), and scouting for a replacement for Casier is the way to go for next season. I also want another English star to team up with Danny and Cathline. Check out who I find next time as we look to (I still can’t believe it) defend our Premier League title . . .

After a lot of waiting, we have finally returned from our diaspora to Kingston upon Thames. Although we didn’t generate a lot of fans until we had climbed into the upper reaches of the Football League, I’d like to think that our club president, part of the fan consortium that bought the club a few years ago, was the one fan that followed us all the way from tier 6 to the top. The president is the first to welcome us to our new home, Kingstonian Stadium.

The new field smell is wonderful but I’m not satisfied. Still smarting from the Europa League loss with Manchester City, I am hungry to claim a trophy this season. We need a big-time transfer.

Son Sang-Hyub from South Korea is the best left-footed central defender at his age, and is probably better than all the central defenders 2-3 years older than him. This pickup for $63 million is a big buy but a massive addition that will change my defense for a long time.

Speaking of big changes, my attack has to be reworked. Marcial Zaragoza, the European Golden Boy from two seasons ago, is out. His injury problems last year as well as his ineffectiveness (6.82 rating, 2 goals in 16 league games) make me think he is expendable. Well, okay, I was willing to work with him but Napoli met his release clause so it was out of my hands anyways. I am down to just Savas Ozdogan. This leads me to the second big pickup – a left winger to spell the inconsistent Ryan Reynders and also be a striker with Ozdogan:

Sunday Umar, a Spaniard, is the man set to replace our previous Spaniard. I am excited for the country of Spain’s chances internationally with Umar and Zaragoza playing together but I hope I have the better end of this “trade.” At least I have the more versatile player.

I also purchase another Belgian player, this time – Eric Aubry, who has the chance to develop into a decent backup.

With Maverick re-signed on the right wing for several more years, I feel set in our attacking unit.

With Son in the central defense next to Vitor Silva and Nicolas Casier as the right fullback, I think we are a revamped midfield and a great left wingback away from a Champions League-worthy lineup. Speaking of the midfield, I have these two guys coming in January:

Igor Onyschenko, the Ukrainian stud, and Diego, from Brazil and the best young defensive midfielder in the game, will transform my midfield when they arrive mid-season after they turn 18 years old. Until then, some patience and praying for good health in the midfield is required.

The optimism I feel from these additions is reflected in our new status as a top 7 team in English football.

It is hard to think of ourselves as a favorite. And yet, that is exactly what we are.

Season Results

We christened our new home stadium in style, defeating cross-town rivals, Arsenal 2-0 with both goals by Ozdogan. We continued the good home form by drawing against Liverpool, defeating the Danny Johnson-less Fulham (more on that later), and a Europa league victory against Valencia.

We almost kept the home record going against Manchester United until we were unjustly scored upon in the 94th minute. Angry about the first home loss, we smashed Leicester 7-0, which included braces from Alessandro Marotta and Ozdogan, and three other goals from midfielder Radim Ditmar, Reynders, and Umar.

But as good as our form had been, it was nothing compared to Manchester City, which had bought Danny Johnson over the summer. Here’s the table by early December.

I did try to buy Johnson again this summer but he said no. You may recall Johnson’s dream was to play for Man City many years ago when he was with us in the Championship. So kudos to the guy for working hard to making sure it would happen.

Speaking of working hard, my club full of internationals has led to two recent awards:

Now I just need an African and South American superstar. It seems like Diego might step into that role for us as his stats look excellent and his form has been great. Other than Liverpool’s Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, though, Africa hasn’t quite seen a bona fide superstar in nearly a decade and a half.

The winter months were extremely busy but thankfully we would find some reprieve because we cruised through our Europa League group, finishing first with five wins and the last match a draw due to playing primarily youth prospects. This meant no European matches in February and with our FA Cup Fourth Round win over Ipswich Town, no cup games until the end of March.

While we struggled against Liverpool and several big London teams, we also had some hiccups along the way against mid-level sides. We also received the worst winter transfer news I could have possibly received after beating Manchester City and giving them their first defeat: Ozdogan’s release clause had been activated and he was off for just north of $100 million to Bayern Munich. Auf wiedersehen!

Still, Ozdogan’s departure is an untimely and horrible blow to our plans to reach a Champions League spot. I thought we had a really good shot now that Diego and Onyschenko had arrived. I tried to focus on finding a replacement striker but my efforts were unsuccessful. The options were limited at the price point I wanted to pay and the best in the game would command a transfer of over $100 million.

But the lesson I learned was to renegotiate these contracts to get rid of these release clauses. Although our players’ agents had refused to exclude them when we were just entering and establishing our foothold in the Premier League, they only this season willing to play for us without treating us like a stepping stone.

The end of January saw Maverick and Manuel Acosta injured. Despite this, we played extremely well in February. Umar scored in all four matches and carried us through this month. The last game against Brighton finally saw the first team healthy and in action together; a complete effort was given. Reynders, Maverick, Diego, Umar, and Acosta all got on the score sheet in the first half and we coasted to a 5-1 win. What a response from the boys.

Well, after playing a good first game together, there were some growing pains that followed. Luckily, we had a really easy draw in Sparta Praha in the Europa League, which helped us ignore some disappointments drawing against Brentford and West Ham while failing to play up to the big boys of Manchester City and Tottenham.

April was more of the same with a disappointing draw against mid-table Crystal Palace, losses to big clubs Chelsea and Liverpool, and a favorable match-up against Stuttgart. However, we nearly threw that away too. Thankfully, we held on. Our next opponent? Of course, like last year, it was a Champions League knockout worthy club – this time, PSG.

We did not do well in Paris. While we pushed forward and went very attacking at home, our Ukrainian youngster, Igor, was sent off in the 57th minute while we were up 1-0 and daring to come back. We kept the pressure on but just could not compete a man down. A disappointing finish yet again in Europe.

That said, we did have a nice end to our league games, with wins over Fulham, Everton, and Southampton. These games were actually quite stressful because Manchester United and Liverpool, who had struggled more than usual this year, had faltered right at the finish line to hold onto Champions League spots. This was a huge result for us and the league as a whole because for the first time in 15 years, one of Manchester City, Manchester United, and Liverpool did not make the top 4. And this year, it happened to two of them!

You may recall Manchester United had an undefeated season in 2030-2031, with 102 points. They scored 88 goals that season, with 19 conceded. Manchester City arguably had a more dominant season. Only giving up 11 goals in 38 matches is insane. They also went undefeated in the Champions league, giving up only 5 goals the entire competition, and undefeated in the FA Cup, giving up only 1 goal (!) during their cup conquest. Jakub Fucik, a Czech like Kingstonian’s Jiri Baranek, is City’s keeper and had 39 shutouts this year. Remarkable.

Meanwhile, Kingstonian barely snuck into Champions League football. You can see that if Manchester City falters next year, it is going to be a wild race for first.

Best XI

An impressive showing from the team except from José Antonio, whose contract demands were too exorbitant to re-sign and grew frustrated during the second half of the season that a new contract was not given. I am also frustrated at losing Ozdogan because he played really well for us. But, while his efforts in total look excellent, he was also very inconsistent. You either got 2-3 goals from him in a match or an awful 6.3-type performance the next. Without a reliable backup like Zaragoza, living with Ozdogan became frustrating. I’m going to need to find a striker that is reliably healthy, consistent, and excellent – I only got 2 of 3 from each of Zaragoza and Ozdogan.

I’m excited for Champions League football next season but also concerned. I’m not sure we are fully ready yet. But that’s what the summer is for – time to go transfer hunting!

We are finally leaving England! Okay, sure, we’ve left before for preseason games but this is the real deal now! The top of the Premier League is brutally brilliant but how well has the rest of the world fared? Here are the past winners of the Europa league:

That’s 6 English champions, 5 for Germany, and 1 apiece for France, Italy, and Spain. We know from my decade review that English teams dominated in the Champions League during the 2020’s so the Premier League has done a pretty good job arguing it is the best in the world. So I’m pretty confident that since we did well in the league, we can get pretty far in Europe. The Board certainly thinks so, demanding a quarter final appearance in our first year in European competition. Here’s our Europa group:

We definitely got one of the more favorable draws despite being last on the club coefficient list with a sparkling 0.00 rating. Benfica will be tough but St. Mirren from Scotland and a Swiss opponent who I can’t even get a scouting report of are very winnable games.

With Europe on the mind, I went into the transfer window thinking we needed a really strong XI. We might have to tank the Carabao Cup or some league games against the bigger clubs that we were going to lose anyways, but I figure this is acceptable so we can raise our reputation by playing well in Europe. This should lead to more players wanting to join us. Plus, despite the fact that I’ve been upgrading our youth facilities every year for the past three seasons, there’s still a long ways to go until they produce excellent talent. And I haven’t shared a single intake yet because there hasn’t been anyone to write about despite finally reaching exceptional junior coaching and youth recruitment this year. So it’s another year of relying on transfers.

Transfers

The cream of the crop is Nicolas Casier, a Belgian wonderkid right back with some great mentals and good physicals. The only downside is his dribbling is poor. I’m optimistic based on his potential that he can improve but I still feel like I’m reaching for something just short of a first teamer every time I pick up a defender.

A fast, determined Mexican midfielder, Manuel Acosta, joins the squad. I think he could make a good mezzala or box-to-box midfielder. I’m a little concerned about his lack of 5-star potential but I haven’t found really any better midfielders for an affordable price. It seems like there aren’t as many impressive non-striker, non-winger youngsters.

Here is the planned starting XI.

Casier and Acosta fill the holes in the lineup and I am impressed that we have basically three-star players at each position now. Remember the stars adjust based on the strength of the squad so considering that Ozdogan became a world class striker over the summer, those three stars mean a solid Premier League starter.

I’ve sold off quite a few players. Juma Mbaga, Ansel Brown, Juan de Dios Ballester, Rajee Isaacs, Simon Ford, Armend Bajrami and Luca Innocenti are all gone for approximately $170 million. That’s a profit of just north of $150 million. A good chunk of that money went to Casier, Acosta, and facilities upgrades. The rest is going to salary upgrades to keep my wingers and strikers and possibly a winter transfer.

I also have this 17 year old left wing back coming in during the winter transfer window:

Noel Michiels from Anderlecht will help back up José Antonio, who my scouts have warned me is very prone to injuries. The fact that Antonio hasn’t had a major injury yet has me worried it will be a massive one . . . and soon. Michiels helps ease my mind that we’ll have a quality backup at that spot.

Results

We nearly gave away our first game, the third opener away at Watford in four seasons. We were up 4-0 deep into the second half when Watford scored in the 78th, 90th, and 91st minutes to bring them within one. I decided to go bold and attacking rather than sit on our heels and the approach worked, resulting in a fifth goal for Kingstonian and our fifth straight opening match victory.

We then did the unthinkable and beat Manchester City 4-2, with a brace from Maverick, an own goal, and a penalty well taken by Acosta. We rode that high to 3-1 victory on the road against West Brom, with Marcial Zaragoza picking up two goals.

We were up 1-0 against Nottingham Forest when they went down to 10 men just before halftime. After the break, we notched our second and third, coasting to another win. But for some reason, Football Manager decides to mess with you and your desire to play this game. Goals in the 75th, 82nd, and 94th minute for Nottingham Forest brought them back from the depths of misery and cast all such sadness onto us. What a pathetic result.

And I’m sure the hangover from that frustrating defeat (yes, I know it was a draw) carried over to our first game abroad. Up 2-0 at halftime, we again collapsed in the second half, giving up a goal at the 61st minute then going down to 10 and giving up a late equalizer in the 83rd.

Then again disappointment in a home game that felt like an away game in the Battle for Craven Cottage. We just didn’t seem to get anything going and no one our team managed above a 7.0 rating.

In the FA Cup, what seemed destined to be a draw turned into a bump for morale as we scored twice after the 90th minute to win 4-2 over Rotherham.

Savas Ozdogan, who had already scored six goals this month, got a brace against that Swiss team whose name I can’t muster the courage to try typing out. Acosta added one more, his third of the month, and we secured our first win in European competition.

A gutty game against Tottenham proved a couple of things about my players. Ryan Reynders and Maverick are awesome wingers who crash towards the goal and then cross to each other and lash it to the middle with a quick pass to Acosta. But despite Maverick’s rating of 8 in finishing, he still takes shots close range more often than I’d like. And if he or Reynders instead passes or crosses to Ozdogan or Zaragoza, one of them will be hot and get a brace or hat trick and the other will cold as ice. The key is figuring which one of them is ready to play and if one looks bad the first 60 minutes or so, the other comes on. It doesn’t help then when one of them gets injured, as Zaragoza did against Everton, leading to a loss.

What also doesn’t help is giving up a goal in stoppage time just before halftime and in the 89th minute at home versus Benfica. We just weren’t finishing halves or matches. It was very frustrating and I’m considering creating a defensive time-wasting tactic for the end of halves.

We then fell asleep against Brentford before two miracle goals in the 94th and 96th minute made us surprising winners. This may have affected Brentford for the FA Cup follow-up which we absolutely dominated, with Ozdogan and Zaragoza both getting on the score sheet.

The momentum from late October carried over into November and we shocked the world by going to Portugal and defeating Benfica 3-0 in a dominating performance. Zaragoza picked up a knock in this one and he’d have to skip the game against Wolves. We didn’t need him as Ozdogan again stepped up with a brace. Maverick also scored a brace in that one too and was really coming into his own as an attacking right midfielder. Both each added a goal against Southampton and Zaragoza again was injured, this time with a twisted knee that would keep him out three weeks.

I was very worried Zaragoza’s injury had ruined our confidence when St. Mirren scored in the very first minute of the match on the road. But the K’s, with the help of Acosta and Ozdogan, roared back to take the game and first place in the group. All that was left was to beat the practically unknown Swiss team. But we were looking too far ahead; we drew with Leicester despite them going down to 10 men 25 minutes into the match, and then drew with Chelsea, giving up a 96th minute equalizer.

A third straight draw, when we tied Arsenal 3-3. This was frustrating because Maverick seemed to have clinched the winning goal in the 91st minute, only for us to give up a goal at the death of the game, in the 94th.

Even though I thought our group was easy, I never thought we would win the group ahead of Benfica. And yet, here we are. Europa League rules has us skipping a round of knockout matches with the teams dropping down from the Champions League, which is fantastic for a squad high on potential talent but low on versatility and numbers.

After beating Brentford twice back-to-back for the second time this year, we drew Everton in the FA Cup Fourth Round, a team we were playing the week before in the Premier League. Remember that FA Cup goal? Within the first four years? Yeah, I felt pretty good about our chances – at least until it was determined we’d be playing Manchester United. So much for our cup run.

But even more pessimism followed, with Zaragoza tearing his calf muscle against Tottenham, requiring a specialist’s care and 3 months to recover. It was clear the team was shaken when we somehow lost to Norwich. The wake-up call was the two games against Manchester United. After giving up a goal in the 2nd minute, the boys did admirably on defense to not let another go in. We ultimately win with an Ozdogan goal in the 79th minute.

The rematch is just a few days following this first result and the defense again holds strong. And just when it looked like penalties were on the horizon, Manchester United score a 122nd minute winner right at the end of the game. In other words, 210+ minutes played and Manchester United scored just after the first minute and in the last minute.

We unfortunately were placed against Wolves in the Europa League quarterfinal rather than a fresh, exciting team outside of England. But the good news is that Kingstonian has had an excellent record playing Wolves in the past. When we won the first leg comfortably on the read, I didn’t see the need to tinker with what brought us there.

A dull second match against Wolves saw us advance to the quarter-final and lo and behold, there were Wolves again in early April, our third match against Wolves in 5. We thankfully scraped by, and I turned the team’s attention to Olympiakos, a club from Greece.

We dispatched Olympiakos professionally then erupted for 12 goals in two matches. Maverick scored a hat trick against Aston Villa and Ozdogan scored a brace against Crystal Palace. Drawn against another unexpected semifinalist, we stumbled at first away at Gent but dominated in the return fixture at home. Reynders, who scored the only goal for Kingstonian in the first game, scored a brace in the second. But this great run came to an end with two straight defeats at the end of the season.

While the last two defeats did not impact Kingstonian’s ability to qualify for European competition, it did make us closer to 7th rather than 5th. Manchester City had a great season, only losing twice with one of those losses to us. I don’t think we can catch them next year but qualifying for the Champions League looks doable. Also, take a look at Chelsea, who floundered all the way down to 14th.

Oh, and one more thing about Manchester City.

Unbelievably, Manchester City had dropped out of the group stage of the Champions League (3rd behind Stuttgart and Real Madrid) and fallen into the Europa League. So, rather than facing a second tier type European team, we had to face one of the best teams in the world. Funnily enough, it was their first Europa League final too.

We were well and truly beaten. We had a nice comeback effort after Maverick scored in the 69th minute but it was not to be. Still, not a bad way to announce ourselves on the European stage. First year in Europe and we made it all the way to the Europa League final!

Best XI

I didn’t mention Rasoul Zarei in the transfer section above because, well, he was just so disappointing I don’t want to talk about him. He and Lubos Hynek were loanees and their performances did not meet my expectations.

Acosta gelled with the team right away in his midfielder role. Also, Eoin Barron did well as a 2.5 star stand-in for Zaragoza as an advanced forward/right winger. However, he may have to keep that role as Zaragoza is generating a LOT of interest from some big name clubs. I am not sue we’ll survive the summer with him still on the squad.

Despite having enough money for Danny Johnson, he fancied his chances at Fulham instead. After that rejection, it was time to figure out how to take the next step forward after two straight 11th place finishes. While I thought we could add up to 10 new players, prices for transfers that would actually impact our squad increased tremendously this offseason.

With Golden Boy Marcial Zaragoza, you’d think our first transaction wouldn’t be another striker, right?

Savas Ozdogan, our new Turkish star, was the highest rated player my scouts had found. And he only cost $8.5 million. Listen to me now – only $8.5 million – I’m such a Premier League hotshot manager. But, when you compare this amount to what I paid for the players below, Ozdogan is a bargain.

Next up is our newest central defender, a Portuguese star in the making.

Vitor Silva, only 21 years old from FC Augsburg, worth a whole heck of a lot and bought for $52 million. That is the largest transfer Kingstonian has ever paid and I sure as hell want to spend that much on someone who can lock down our defense. Silva was scouted to have 5-star potential so I’m already having buyer’s remorse seeing 4 stars instead, but his attributes look excellent for this world.

The final big transfer is Ryan Reynders, a Belgian attacking left midfielder to complement our offensive force of Maverick, Zaragoza, and Ozdogan. For $33 million, he seems right on the money:

Reynders also can help on corners and free kicks, something the team has lacked a dynamic force for. And last but not least is our loan signee for the season, French midfielder Boualem Guesbaoui.

With basically every part of the pitch addressed, I felt really good about how complete the starting XI was. In just three years, we have acquired 3 excellent goalkeepers (Juma Mbaga, Kevin Rodrigues, and wonderkid Jiri Baranek), two solid central defenders (wonderkid Mateo Gauthier and Silva), left wingback José Antonio, two midfielders (Alessandro Marotta, Radim Ditmar), wonderkid wingers Maverick and Reynders, backup winger/striker Armend Bajrami and two wonderkid strikers (Zaragoza and Ozdogan). We also signed right wingback Ansel Brown from his loan during that time too. A squad I think can challenge for Europe for about $177 million.

Results

After a preseason in Germany, the media still picked us as relegation favorites. I think we are absolutely underrated. And I’m proven right by two straight wins to start the season with two goals from Ozdogan in the opener and Maverick and Bajrami slotting home a goal apiece in the next match against Norwich. An expected loss to Manchester City threatened to ruin our morale but we bounced back in a big 6-0 win over Wrexham (4 goals by Reynders) and a 3-0 plastering of Leicester.

We then came down to earth against Tottenham and Kyle Skeete and then again later in the month with a 94th minute conceded goal to Liverpool’s Alexander Lemmens. The superstars of the league showed their mettle in style. However, a home draw in the rematch against the formidable Reds was encouraging.

So were three more consecutive draws against other top half teams of the Premier League. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with the draws. But wow, I was not pleased that we had not managed to turn one of them into a victory. Danny Johnson finally scored against us to equalize in the 83rd minute and Wolves gave us an annual reminder of our youth by scoring in the 96th minute.

With the cold weather, hail, and sometimes gusty wind, we had a rough go of things in the winter. It didn’t seem like this would happen at the start of winter as we won handily over West Brom 6-1 and then lucked out with a 97th minute winner against West Ham by Guesbaoui. Sicoumarou Sacko and his Watford side only needed one goal to stymie us but Ozdogan prevented another loss with late heroics in the 96th minute against Brighton a few days later.

A series of crazy, nail-biting matches in the pouring rain with players sliding all over the pitch occurred around Christmas. This resulted in a large amount of goals in matches against Chelsea and Wolves, which we unfortunately lost. A morale-saving game against Oxford United came at the right time and we let our hair down only to have it tussled by the big boys, including another frustrating draw against Fulham.

And then it finally happened. Out of nowhere, and hot on the heels of losses to Liverpool and Manchester United, we managed our first victory over Chelsea. Reynders has been a monster this season and he showed up against our London rivals, scoring a quick hat trick within the first 34 minutes of the game and giving us a 3-1 lead at halftime. Zaragoza then followed with two goals and with 20 minutes to go, we were sitting pretty at 5-1. A goal was clawed back in the 72nd minute but we responded in kind with Guesbaoui securing the “W” with a goal in the 75th minute. At the end, it was 6 to 3 with Reynders at a 9.7 rating and Zaragoza at 9.2. A fantastic showing by the boys and our last goal from the lower league days (beating Chelsea) was finally completed.

Our focus turned completely to our new goals, including the one where we are somehow supposed to win the FA Cup within four seasons of entering the Premier League. I had certainly tried the past two seasons but now I started to feel the pressure. Despite this, we did well with wins over Walsall and Fulham (a 4-0 thrashing to boot) to propel us into the quarter final against Arsenal. I was quietly confident because we were firing on all cylinders at the moment.

Silva had been red carded the game before so he missed this one, forcing a replacement appearance from Juan de Dios Ballester. With the score at 3 to 1 in the 54th minute, I did think there was a chance we had overcome the odds. But how foolish I was.

de Dios Ballester absolutely punted this game, giving up a ton of mistakes and ending up with a miserable 6.2 rating. Antonio played injured the whole match and Zaragoza just disappeared. A shambolic showing in the second half. We now had one year left on our goal to win a FA Cup in our first four years.

Our disappointment from the FA Cup quickly evaporated into quiet optimism when we drew even against them at home the following week. This was largely thanks to Ozdogan, who scored at least one goal in nine straight matches during March and April.

We drew again against a big side, this time – Manchester City. Ditmar had 12 (twelve!) key passes in that game and upon further reflection, we probably should have won. But no matter, this result basically ensured that we had climbed the mountain with this second-half run to get us a European spot. The last two games of the season seemed like a formality but we still played handsomely, including a 4-0 demolition of Tottenham.

Our goal differential indicates we punched our tickets to Europe on merit. We also had a lot of close games with the top contenders, which portends good fortunes for next season.

You’ll notice that Fulham had a rough season while balancing their efforts in Europe. I would have to mindful of this for next season so we don’t similarly drop down the table. We may have to have our goal next year simply be to maintain our league position while adding on a whole new set of fixtures.

Ozdogan and Zaragoza both traded off goals and appearances in an effective way while Reynders smashed expectations with 15 goals and 21 assists. Not to be outdone, Ditmar put on quite a performance as a deep lying playmaker and Silva performed really well in controlling the middle of our defense. Disappointing was the frequent injuries Brown suffered to where I think we now need a new solution at right back. I also became disillusioned with the lack of finishing quality from Bajrami even though he did a good job converting to a left winger to backup Reynders. The bench became really small by the end of the year and I’m nervous for how this might affect us next year.

We are going to lose Guesbaoui as he was just a loanee so looking around the lineup I think a right back and a midfielder are all that we need to resolidify the starting XI. Based on my scouting, we don’t have a lot of options for right back and there are quite a bit of midfielders, but they are all expensive. I may have to decide whether I prioritize a complete XI or work on filling out our bench.

I am thrilled to see the team advance and I can’t wait to see where in Europe we go. Also, can we win the FA Cup within our goal of 4 years in the Premier League? We’ll find out next time . . .

Well, it’s about time we moved. Too bad it’s not into a new home. We go to Craven Cottage, a 25,700 capacity stadium and Fulham’s home. Considering our previous rental dwelling had a capacity of just under 9,000, this move was necessary just so we could have a good day at the gates when we had a Premier League match.

Speaking of a new home, this also happened:

Kingstonian Stadium will be open in 3 years, with a capacity of 22,114. I cannot wait – it’s going to be a long three years full of impatience. This was the very first goal I had for this club and the reason for the save. It’s only right to get a club befitting and ready to make that new home full of special memories. So let’s see our transfers.

Transfers

Juma Mbaga is back after an absolutely splendid first season as the first-team goalkeeper. He’ll be joined this year by Kevin Rodrigues, a $300,000 pickup from the Portuguese Liga NOS.

But the big-time move at goalkeeper was to arrange for the transfer of 17 year old Czech wonderkid Jiri Baranek. He won’t be available to move to the team until the summer so here’s a look at his ratings by the end of the season, at 18:

The anticipation and composure is not quite where I want it but the rest of Baranek’s attributes are nearly equivalent to Rodrigues and Mbaga. With these three, I’m basically done with shopping for goalkeepers for the foreseeable future.

The defense has been difficult to solve since getting to the Championship, let alone the Premier League. There just aren’t a lot of promising youngsters out there. Manchester United probably has the best of the bunch, an English 25 year old who has 13 tackling. Yeah, that’s what I mean – it’s rough out there.

It took some time but after digging through all of my scouts’ reports throughout the past season, I finally found a central defender worthy of my attention. He hadn’t been labeled a wonderkid yet but by the time the transfer window opened, he was. I was nervous that his price would skyrocket but thankfully, it stayed at a measly half a million. Meet Mateo Gauthier.

Good height and jumping reach, with superb tackling, anticipation, and concentration. Plus, look at that acceleration and pace. Add in that he prefers his left foot and we have a budding superstar in the making. He’ll do quite nicely. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find another central defender so the other spot will be a committee of Liam McCorkell, Lennard Dvorak, Juan de Dios Ballester, and Mario Sobral.

For the fullbacks, Ansel Brown will be one of the two starters and we have a plethora of good backups in Matisse Dewulf and Jack Cole. So I search for a left wingback and find José Antonio.

I definitely feel like I overpaid here. Wages are the highest at the club and the transfer fee was $10 million. But when you look at the other options, there just aren’t any at the level between $1 million and $35 million. You have to either make due with 2.5 star caliber players or spend your entire transfer budget on one left back. Antonio knows this too. Or at least his agent does. He wouldn’t sign a deal longer than 2 years. Which makes me even more nervous about how much I spent. Still, there’s a lot to be excited about Antonio and I’m hopeful his technical skills improve.

With Antonio in, I work to offload Cole and arrange for him to leave on a $4.7 million transfer to Portsmouth. Pretty good business to move a third-stringer.

Let’s head to the midfield where Kurtis Butler and Gary Corness remain. Not a lot of central midfielders want to join the club and I am absolutely gobsmacked that my options are so few. Still, I did hit on both of my signings, Alessandro Marotta and Radim Ditmar for a combined $16.75 million.

Marotta looks like a less speedy version of Danny Johnson and Ditmar is one of our first midfielders in many seasons to actually be good at tackling. With his 18 passing, Ditmar will play balls from a deep lying role. Marotta will be a box-to-box this season and likely move to a mezzala role next season when I can find another fast midfielder.

Speaking of Johnson, he’ll be around the club a lot this year. He was signed by recently promoted Fulham, who spent $125 million last season and another $188 million this season. Funnily enough, Roco Rees was also signed by Fulham to sit on the bench so I’ll probably plan on grabbing drinks with the two of them frequently throughout the season. Unfortunately, Johnson’s release clause is $129 million so I don’t think I’ll have a chance to get him back to the club for another couple of years.

To the wings we have some excitement in another French wonderkid.

At 18 to start the season and 19 as you see from the image above, Mayverick Cornelie-Julan is an impressive talent. He will start from day one, as much as it pains me to tell Rajee Isaacs that he’ll have to take the bench. Speaking of right wingers, I don’t think I mentioned him last season because he simply did not perform at all but Yari Binchi, an Italian with 16 acceleration and 14 crossing and dribbling, was sold for $3.8 million. Which helped me get Mayverick, or rather, Maverick, as I now call him, for $525,000. Both Maverick and Gauthier are PSG products and I have to say, if they gave up these guys from their academy, who else do they have that’s better???

I also picked up another left winger on loan, Benjamin Gerard, and a few young strikers (Eoin Barron, Ray Cavanaugh) who were backups and not worth talking about in detail. But the big prize was from Barcelona’s youth academy: 20 year-old Spanish striker wonderkid Marcial Zaragoza.

The above image is an end of the season look at Zaragoza and he improved in a lot of attributes. Coming off of a five-week injury for sprained knee ligaments, Barcelona’s damaged goods became our star striker. You’ll hear more about Zaragoza soon.

That makes 3 wonderkids on the first-team this year (Gauthier, Maverick, and Zaragoza) and one coming next year (Baranek). 7 more to go?

Season Results

After a preseason trip to New York, USA (our past two seasons, we went to Scotland and the Algarve coast in Portugal), we were matched up again with Watford at home to start the season. And immediately, the new kids made their presence known. Maverick made some incisive moves, quickly dashing past defenders and swerving past them in the box like no other player I’ve seen before. He nearly scored several times but instead, Zaragoza was first on the scoresheet this year, having controlled a ball over the top with a deft first touch and timely placed shot past the keeper. Let’s keep playing Watford to start the season, it seems to be a good matchup for us!

We then lost disappointingly against fellow relegation candidates Bristol City, giving up one of those wretched last minute goals. I had been changing our tactic to go more defensive because of all of the late goals over the years but I think this is one of those young player problems, not a tactics or mentality problem. As long as I stick with youngsters, I’m going to have to live with them not finishing every match.

This put us in a precarious position at home against Manchester City, the champions of Europe. But a sweet shot by Maverick put us in the lead in the 24th minute and a red card foul in the box against Luca Innocenti gave us a 2-0 lead. We then scored a third in the 66th minute and I started to believe. But City was not ready to give up. Tony El Bahraoui scored in the 70th minute and Brown was sent off in the 72nd, meaning it was 10 versus 10 for the last 20 minutes. Thankfully, we held on and the team was in a good mood.

This mood continued on as Zaragoza scored his first Premier League hat trick against Crystal Palace but then stopped as back-to-back away defeats against Manchester United showed us how much further we still had to go to be considered contenders.

We unfortunately were not able to take care of a distraught Chelsea club at home, who used their victory over us to climb out of the relegation zone. Nor were we able to stop Alexander Lemmens, who this time scored 4 goals against us.

Danny Johnson and the Battle for Craven Cottage occurred at the end of October and I desperately wanted to show him the error of his decision. But, alas, it was not to be as a tough 1-0 defeat came instead.

We were in a bit of a bad form but this was largely due to the quality of the big clubs we were facing all in a row. So we unloaded against West Ham, with 6 goals, 4 of them from Zaragoza, 1 from Maverick, and another from Ditmar.

A frustrating loss to open December as we had been up 1-0 after 9 minutes and looking good. But Ditmar and Gauthier were sent off on straight reds by the 23rd minute and we were lucky enough to get a second while only giving up three.

The defense picked up from there as we managed two solid wins against teams we have been very successful against in the early days of our time in the Premier League, Wolves and Norwich. A draw against Arsenal and surprise win over Leicester with a brace by Ditmar showed the progress the club had made from last season.

We then lost the plot against Aston Villa and Fulham took advantage of their home game while wearing the away kit, defeating us for the second time at Craven Cottage this season.

But January was a bright spot, even though we didn’t score many goals. First, the news came out on the day of the Liverpool match that Zaragoza, with 13 Premier League goals to start the year and 11 from his time with Barcelona’s B squad, had won the European Golden Boy award. Then came the Liverpool game itself.

We managed to hold Lemmens to a single goal, which only arrived right at the end of the first half. Maverick struggled big-time in this match and was having some fits and possibly fatigue by playing too much. I subbed in Isaacs in the 73rd minute and he miraculously found the tying goal 20 minutes later. Without time to reply, the ball was barely touched again when the whistle blew and we had secured a huge result considering how good Liverpool had whipped us to this point. This then led to four straight league draws and two FA Cup wins.

And a barnburner against Watford. I talked a lot of smack before this game with the press. I was pretty dang confident we were going to beat them. But I seemed ready to eat my words when Marotta walked off the pitch with an injury and the score level at 1. But then, hope! Bajrami, who had been having a great resurgence of a season serving as Zaragoza’s backup and starting on the left wing as an inside forward, scored in the 87th minute to give us the lead. It was all too good to be true, though. A brilliant 23 year old French striker, Sicomarou Sacko, scored his second goal of the match a minute later and then in the 8th minute of stoppage time scored the winner. Sacko had absolutely outclassed Sobral who had tried defending him.

8 minutes of stoppage time! Clearly, the match was fixed. I struggled to contain my temper after the game and luckily the FA only gave me a warning. But Sobral was not so lucky. He was immediately placed on the loan list and was off to Moscow.

I should also mention that Dvorak was gone. Eintracht Frankfurt wanted him for $14.25 million, which would grow to $16.25 million after a few appearances. Considering that Dvorak was not in my long-term plans and I hadn’t been satisfied with his performance this season, I packed his bags for him.

Also, with Marotta injured, I thankfully had picked up a good replacement. Florentino from Real Madrid joined us on loan through the end of the season just before the winter transfer window shut.

I had targeted him since last season but he was badly injured in April and wanted to stay in Madrid to heal. By January, he was finally all better and I guess Real Madrid wanted to see how he was recovering before loaning him to us. He would give us 10 great games, with a 7.24 rating, including a brace against Leicester.

We had made it to the FA Cup fifth round again and should have advanced. Innocenti scored a penalty in the 109th minute and Birmingham had only 10 men after the red card that led to the penalty. But they scored literally less than a minute later and I knew the rest of the game wouldn’t matter. We were destined to lose that one, so sayeth Sports Interactive programming.

But no matter, we could focus on the league and Wolves/Norwich again saw us triumph over them. Also, Everton saw us at our best all season. 5 – nil, with a Zaragoza hat trick and a brace from Bajrami. Maverick was starting to get back in form after I had focused on him through individual comments during team talks the past two matches.

I also had moved Dewulf to a starting role as a central defender even though he was really a small fullback. Dewulf’s speed, concentration, and determination were needed after de Dios Ballester, McCorkell, Sobral, and Dvorack had all failed to impress me in their various auditions throughout the year. I am sure that we would have challenged for Europe had we had another good central defender.

The tactic and team worked until we played Manchester City, who was playing at home for a win which would secure them the league title. We watched them lift the trophy that day and I hope it was a good learning experience for the lads.

Then came one of the best results of our season. A 4-2 win versus Manchester United. This meant Liverpool was the last of the big three we hadn’t yet beat. Bajrami, Florentino, Maverick, and Antonio all scored while Zaragoza and Marotta provided the assists. We even looked like the better team. Now, this may have been due United’s disappointment at City winning the league the matchday before. But I didn’t care. This was a big win for our reputation. And for our final position in the league as the last match of the year got away from us.

Crystal Palace has an amazing 22 year old French striker named Gabriel Rio.

With Rio, Sacko, and Maverick, and Gauthier, the French are loaded with talent under 24.

Rio scored a hat trick against us and he was probably the only player on their team that played well. He was massive and singlehandedly won that match. Those three goals gave him the goal scoring lead for the Premier League, one more than Lemmens and Sacko, five more than Zaragoza.

Season Recap

We ended up 11th again for the second year in a row but were nine points better and +6 instead of -6 on goal differential. Chelsea managed to salvage their season after being in the relegation zone for more than a month. Fulham, with Danny Johnson’s help, just slipped into Champions League football. Grr, yes, I’m bitter about that.

Best XI

I’ve got two years left to win the FA Cup. It really comes down to the second central defender next to Gauthier. Also I tried all of May to get Florentino on loan for next season but Real Madrid wants to try him in the first team. Butler played out of his mind at the end of the season and likely beyond his true ability. So another midfielder would make me rest easier.

Bajrami really took to the left inside forward role and was our best player for the second half of the season. A lot of our players are foreign and finished up their English language courses this season so maybe there was just better communication going on the pitch. Speaking of, I need some good English players to pass Premier League rules for homegrown players. Johnson sure would be nice; let’s see his asking price.

And our transfer budget for next season?

Well, then. Do I buy one player or eleven?

So. Much. Money.

Man, it feels great to throw financial caution to the wind. Especially after a decade of narrow margins due to the club’s homeless status. No change on that front, by the way.

Let’s see who we’ve brought in to try to survive our first year in the Premier League.

Transfers

Let’s start with the big news first. Roco Rees, our long-time goalkeeper, will no longer be in the first team. Rees has been with us since we entered the Football League and gave us one hell of a ride to the top. I won’t sell him just yet as I’d like for him to get one Premier League appearance. So, who is stepping in?

A 26 year old English goalkeeper, Juma Mbaga, wasn’t really given a chance by Bournemouth. But he’ll start almost every game for Kingstonian. I am in love with his one-on-ones, reflexes, and mentals. Snapped up for only $1 million. Solid business.

Ansel Brown‘s loan is over – and that’s because we bought him. His flexibility to play both sides of the pitch is the big reason why. $1.8 million.

On the left side of the defense is loanee John Namo from Arsenal. He’ll take over for the departed Danny Preston, who had been with us since the National League.

Inserted into the central defense is the Spainard Juan de Dios Ballester, and Austrian Lennard Dvorak.

I’m not entirely thrilled with either but they were the best of the bunch I could find and that wanted to join. I also added Mario Sobral to the central defense and he has the flexibility to play on both the right and left edges of the pitch too. Sobral will be a last resort next to Liam McCorkell and Andrea Papetti. Total for all 3 new central defenders? $10.65 million. Just remember – the central defenders in this world don’t have the greatest attributes; 16’s are rare and it’s hard to find someone with 14’s in heading, marking, and tackling.

Up to the central midfield, we have Danny Johnson, Kurtis Butler, and Gary Corness. New is a loanee from Marseille, Jelano Koolman.

Koolman has some disappointing teamwork but I think the rest of his mentals will help him create and score in a mezzala role on attack.

Oh yeah, and I should show you how Danny Johnson is progressing.

This guy is awesome. I have a confession, though. I’ve been trying to get Johnson to agree to a new deal for the last year but he doesn’t think Kingstonian is a big enough club. Johnson wants Champions League football and is convinced Manchester City wants him. With the attributes above, I don’t blame him for thinking that. He could be one of the best young players in the world.

Up to the wingers, Simon Ford is bought from Aston Villa for just under a million dollars and will have every chance alongside Rajee Isaacs to succeed in the Premier League after good showings in the Championship. But in case I want to change my tactic to a pair of inside forwards, I have recruited a Scottish youngster from Rangers – Joe Grady. He’s barely 19 years old and has great physical attributes and dribbling. But he also can’t defend, can’t hit a long shot, and loses his concentration and bravery often. An Italian, Yari Binchi, with 16 acceleration, 14 pace, crossing, and dribbling is a backup and possible long-term solution for $2 million.

Another Italian joins – Luca Innocenti, a striker from Lazio.

And a Swiss striker from Chelsea, Armend Bajrami:

Another year of rebuilding our strike force. Both strikers are in for a bit under $9 million. Which is important because Steve Paxton is back to Leeds United, Gianluca Esposito to Atalanta, and Curtis McGuire on loan to a lower league side. Bajrami will also see some play as an inside forward on the left wing. He’s not natural there but I think he’s got some overall skills that could work there if Grady doesn’t pan out.

$30 million provided, $30 million paid. I’m cautiously optimistic we can have good season. We just have to be better than three other teams.

New Goals

As discussed recently, the only competitive goal we had left was to beat Chelsea. It’s time, then, to set new ones. I am going to go with a modified version of the Sir Alex Ferguson Challenge.

Time based challenges:

1. Win the FA Cup within 4 seasons.
2. Win the Premier League within 7 seasons.
3. Win a Premier League/FA Cup double within 8 seasons.
4. Win 3 PL/FA Cup doubles within 13 seasons.
5. Win a PL/FA Cup and Champions League treble within 13 seasons.

Career challenges:

1. Win 13 PL titles.
2. Win the FA Cup 5 times.
3. Win the Carabao Cup 4 times.
4. Win the English Community Shield 10 times.
5. Win the Champions League twice.
6. Win the Europa League or get a third Champions League victory.
7. Win the UEFA Super Cup.
8. Win the FIFA Club World Championship.

First Year Results

Our first match is at home versus Watford, a consistent mid-table side that last year finished 11th. I’m not entirely sure what to expect but a draw would be encouraging.

An unexpected comfortable win. Perhaps fittingly, Johnson scored the club’s first ever Premier League goal. Johnson was a superstar at this point with a current ability at 4.5 stars and still room to improve according to my scouts. I’d probably have to secure a Europa League spot if I’m to have a chance to re-sign him – and that still seems very unlikely looking at the quality of my players.

Looks like I was right. We have a long ways to go. The Leicester game was particularly instructive as my opponent was down to 10 men in the 4th minute yet they still won 2-1. We played against a rotated Liverpool side and took the lead into halftime but the Reds’ quality saw them recapture the lead and win.

Some encouragement though with the Nottingham Forest 3-0 win, all goals scoring within 5 minutes late in the second half, and the 5-1 demolition job against Norwich. Even more impressive was our first away victory, 3-0 against defensive stalwarts Burnley.

Our first game against Chelsea came on the heels of a very disappointing loss to QPR, the same team that thwarted our FA Cup run last year. We were outclassed throughout the match with Johnson the only Kingstonian who looked like a Premier League player at a 7.0 rating. Ford picked up two yellow cards by the 71st minute when we were already down 1-0 so it was still impressive that that remained the final scoreline.

3 wins in 3 months is tough to handle. We were still barely holding above the relegation zone but we were certainly flirting with it. Bajrami was injured during the Everton match and it was tough to generate much offense after that. Thankfully, Grady scored a 96th minute winner in extra time that admittedly went on for far too long against Aston Villa. I figured the game against Bristol City would be a good opportunity to start a positive series of results as the rest of the month’s matches looked winnable. But Johnson missed a penalty and the team failed to generate any forward movement, making us losers by a goal.

We then frustratingly lost our match at home against Burnley, the same side we had whooped at their field 3-nil. I was convinced we were going to get stomped by Chelsea but a 97th minute goal by Johnson saved the day at the death of the game.

An exciting one against Tottenham though secured our second straight positive draw in the league. Tottenham went up 2-0 with goals from Kyle Skeete, a player who had scored against us several times in the League One championship campaign two years ago while on loan for Reading. Ford struck back in the 41st minute and we headed into halftime with a chance. Innocenti continued our good fortune by collecting a 60 yard floating pass from Mbaga and then shoving the ball past the keeper. But Tottenham immediately replied the next minute with another goal off a failed clearance in the box. 15 minutes passed and we gained the equalizer off a lovely cross from Isaacs that found Innocenti unmarked and in on goal.

A thrilling first half ensued at Old Trafford against Manchester United, with the score 3 to 2. United had a man sent off shortly after halftime and I thought we could find another goal somehow over the next 40+ minutes. But it was not to be as United parked the bus expertly and thwarted our efforts, collecting all three points.

We then finished January with a professional 3-1 win over West Ham, which, combined with the last three league games, helped me feel like we were on a good run of games.

The somewhat good run of form continued against Leicester but I felt hard done in by Dvorak’s straight red near the end of that game. He’d miss some important matches through the rest of February. We were lucky to draw against Watford and I should mention that I was incredibly disappointed by Bajrami by this point. Only three goals all season long. I really could only play Innocenti up front and his two goals against Watford were his 13th and 14th of the season.

We did well against Wolves again, wining thanks to a brace from Isaacs and a goal from Johnson. Johnson had quite the campaign going, with 8 goals to his name an average rating around 7.20, which is pretty good considering how difficult our season had been and how poor the rest of the squad was.

I’ll be honest. I nearly thought we had flubbed it all in the Bristol City game. A dull 0-0 suddenly heated up when we were fouled in the box in the 79th minute. Johnson stepped up to take the penalty but missed it. Thinking another disappointing draw was on our hands, I stood up and walked away from my laptop for a few seconds until I saw flashing commentary from a distance. I saw Butler had scored on the replay, having been left wide open on a corner. Phew! The danger of the draw seemed to have passed . . . until a penalty was given to Bristol City in the 91st minute. I couldn’t watch. When I looked up, I saw the scoreline was still 1-0. I went back and watched as Mbaga stood straight on and saved the penalty shot right at him. We won and I truly felt we were out of the relegation picture with this victory.

Maybe the team thought so too as we struggled mightily against Aston Villa. We were up a man in the 35th minute while down 1-0 but gave up a penalty before halftime. There was everything to play for in the second half and yet, shortly after the break we gave up a third goal. We didn’t score until the 75th minute and couldn’t muster even a draw. Granted, Aston Villa has become a really good side in this save, having finished 7th the previous season, but I felt like we should have done more.

We then had two of those games, the first against Leeds, giving up our hard-fought victory with two late goals after the 89th minute, and the second at home against Everton, giving up a goal in the 93rd.

Our final three games were a good test of our stature and I was pleased to win the final two. Liverpool absolutely demolished us and more specifically, Alexander Lemmens did. The Dutch legend who had led the national team to two straight World Cup victories scored five goals against us, taking his league tally to 42 goals, stretching way beyond Mo Salah, Andy Cole, and Alan Shearer. I’m a season ahead of this recap in my save but here’s his accolades:

• 110 international appearances, 137 goals.
• 2 World Cup wins, 1 Nations League win
• 3 Premier League titles, 1 Club World Cup win, 3 Champions League trophies, 1 Europa League title, 1 FA Cup, and 4 Carabao Cups
• Champions League Golden Boot once, Premier League top goalscorer 5 times, English Player of the Year and Best Player in Europe 4 times, World Cup best player twice, WC Golden Boot runner-up twice.
• Best Player in the world twice and a Ballon d’Or.

And his attributes:

I think it might be a bit ambitious but I suppose another goal is to try to find or grow a player somewhat close to this guy. Lemmens is a big reason why the Liverpool dynasty continued through the 20’s. But some shout outs are due for the Liverpool names you know who were a consistent presence in the World’s Best XI (appearances in Best XI in parentheses): Alisson (7), van Dijk (5), Mané (5), Salah (5), and Alexander-Arnold (4). Also ever-present for Liverpool during the latter half of the 20’s was Italian attacking midfielder Nicolo Zaniolo, who was with Roma at the start of this save. Zaniolo showed up six times in the World’s Best XI along with Lemmens’ five.

Final Overview

With the last two victories, we jumped from 15th, teetering around possibly being 17th, to instead a fantastic 11th. The mood around the club was suddenly sublime!

Also, take a look at Manchester United’s season. An invincible year. Incredible. They also won the FA Cup. In their other competitions, they lost on penalties to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semis and by one goal in the quarter-final of the Champions League to eventual runners-up Inter. They had world class goalkeeper Jorge Rosas from Chile, an elite English right fullback in Max Aarons, German striker Fiete Arp, Argentinian attacking midfielder Thiago Almada and tricky left inside forward David Griffiths from Scotland. Rosas, Aarons, Almada, and Arp were all 30 years or older so I breathed a sigh of relief that United had not done this with a bunch of 24 year olds.

Another crazy goal might be to have an invincible season like Manchester United!

I should also mention Manchester City. They lifted the Champions League trophy this season, in large part to Kylian Mbappé. He is, by far, the best player in this world. 10 World Best XI appearances, three times more than any other player (we’ll talk about Real Madrid and their superstars later).

After transferring from PSG in the summer of 2023, he led City to a double PL/Champions League season and has brought two more Champions League trophies since. Here are his stats:

City also has a 28-year old Brazilian striker who has been converted to a left fullback named simply Pedro and a young 23-year old right winger named Tony El Bahraoui from the Netherlands who will keep them a force for the next couple of years even after Mbappé slows down.

Best XI

We’re going to lose Johnson. I accepted a $38 million offer for him from Chelsea during the January transfer window but Johnson refused. He is going on a free and my disappointment is immense. Especially since he has had transfer offers in the millions the last two years and he just never accepted any. He’s left us in the lurch in the midfield. I really like him because he brought us to the Premier League and kept us in it this first year but now that his time is over, I’m just sad.

Other than Mbaga (who had an absolutely stellar season!), Brown, and Butler, I feel like there are holes all over the pitch. Grady and Bajrami were massive disappointments as was the central defense. Oh, and I didn’t get a chance yet to tell you that I want nothing more to do with Namo. I think he gave up about five penalties in the last three months of the season. He’s dead to me.

So, there’s a lot of work to do to get to the level of the top 3 in the Premier League. But our mid-table finish meant that there was more interest from the wonderkids of the world. My scouts have found some really good players – I’ll show them off next time . . .

Based on the team’s ratings last season, we should have had better results. So I didn’t plan on making big changes.

The big reason is that we still had not been given our own stadium. I thought the owners would once we became a Championship club. I then thought they would after we beat Wolves and Tottenham in the Carabao Cup last season. But each request was rejected. I had hoped with saving up a bunch of money, this would incentivize the Board to go along with the building with a nice bank loan. Still – the answer was no.

At the very least, though, for the first time in ten seasons, the board has finally agreed to approve upgrades to youth recruitment and junior coaching. They also agreed to upgrade the training facilities again, which were now “good.”

As a result, attendance has only jumped up to an average of just under 6,000. To put this in context, the second lowest average attendance is about 13,700. So, we still have some work to do on our club goals to move into new grounds and raise attendance.

As for the other goals, we have successfully been playing attractive attacking football and have added pressing as a key component of our style of play.

The 4-2-2-2 DM system won us the National League and the FA Trophy. But these tactics above helped us win League Two, League One, and hopefully now the Championship. We have now far surpassed AFC Wimbledon so the only original goal left from a competition perspective is a win over Chelsea, which will have to wait.

Transfers

As discussed last time, we need a central defender. Up to this point, I have primarily relied on players under age 23. But to advance, I feel like I need to expand my search as the regen defenders in this world are pretty lackluster except at the elite level.

While the Board has been reluctant to agree to upgrades, one area where that isn’t true is with scouting. When we got promoted to the Championship, we were allowed to scout all of Europe. I also signed an Italian coach, which then provided a lot of knowledge of Italian players. One such player is Andrea Papetti:

Papetti will fit in nicely alongside Liam McCorkell, flanked by Jack Cole and Ansel Brown. Cole has disappointed me quite a bit so I also transfer for a young 17-year old Belgian named Matisse Dewulf. He’s got marking and tackling at 12, 17 acceleration and agility, 16 for decisions, but only 8 for crossing and 9 for dribbling. I’m hoping that he grows up and adds to his technical ability.

Moving to the midfield, there’s a surprising amount of movement. Mike Foster refused to sign with Kingstonian, wanting his ambitions met . . . in Canada? He’s off to Toronto FC for some reason. And Peter Rees? He’s now playing in Scotland for St. Mirren. This was not what I had planned for!

I went hunting for midfield replacements from the Premier League teams, finding another Manchester United player in Gary Corness, Crystal Palace’s Mohammed Sulley, and Tottenham’s Dave Clayton (on loan) to fight over a deep lying playmaker role. For the mezzala role, I make a big purchase and a gamble of a loan. First, the gamble – Ellis Stone, a loanee from Crystal Palace. Stone is one of the weirdest players I’ve seen. 7 dribbling but 15 first touch. 8 anticipation but 16 aggression. He’s fast, makes good decisions and has a wonderful work rate. I have no idea how he’ll play.

More predictable is Kurtis Butler, a Liverpool product. He has great determination, flair, technique, and balance, decent speed, but can’t defend.

This mish-mash midfield will have to do alongside Danny Johnson, whose current star rating is now 4.5 with attributes increasing rapidly, and long-time Kingstonian anchor, Tom Dinsmore.

Up front are two loanees. One is another Italian, Gianluca Esposito, with 15 finishing, composure, and technique as well as some great physicals. He’s no Connor Jones (who returned to his club while out for months, he won’t return to us) but Esposito will work. Also in is Steve Paxton from Leeds, who is really fast with 17 ratings in acceleration and pace but finishing around 13. Esposito and Paxton provide different skill sets so it’ll be interesting to see how we can play match-ups with them against the opposition.

Whew! That’s a lot of movement and yet, the biggest move of them all may have been securing a permanent move of Rajee Isaacs from Aston Villa. I’m going to need to keep doing this as the amount of reliance on loanees led to the unexpected departures of Foster and Rees.

Results

With all of the movement with the team, I really did not expect this much winning. In fact, after losing Foster and Connor Jones, I was positive that we would be stuck in the Championship for another year. Sure, we annonyingly didn’t have a clean month, but this was a good start.

Some notable games included the game away at Stoke where we scored three stoppage time goals, one by Johnson at the end of the first half and goals by Papetti and Cole in the 93rd and 94th minutes. Also fun was a 4-1 win away at Southampton with Butler, Simon Ford (remember him?), Isaacs and Esposito getting on the scorecard and young right back Dewulf with a splendid 8.3 rating.

Less fun was giving up stoppage time goals to lose games against Charlton and Bristol City back-to-back and then in the next game give up a draw to Rotherham with 89th and 91st minute goals.

By the way, can we just stand up and applaud Mr. Esposito? He has done a wonderful impression of Connor Jones, scoring 11 goals. Also admirable was the performance of wingers Isaacs and Ford, who both scored 5.

Strangely, the match fixture congestion was more pronounced in December-February than in the fall. I’m also not quite sure why this happened. There was no World Cup going on that would move the schedule around so why???

I don’t know but I think this congestion actually helped us. We were able to play around and rotate with our unexpected depth. This allowed different players to make their mark.

Paxton scored a 94th minute winner versus Hull City to gain us three points and finally got off the ground, scoring nine goals over these three months. Butler scored a brace away at Middlesbrough. Stone chipped in three unexpected goals to give us a draw against Walsall, a win over Portsmouth, and a draw against Stoke. And Isaacs scored the only goal in the win over Norwich.

Meanwhile, steady as it goes as Esposito continued his relentless season, scoring 7 during this stretch of matches.

The Birmingham and Derby losses were explainable, but the home loss to QPR wasn’t. QPR was a mid-table team that we were better than. We played rotated sides so we could have our first-team play the cup game and get us past the fifth round. But we fell flat on our face – it didn’t help that Isaacs pulled his groin in the 8th minute of the match and would miss most of the rest of the month.

I experimented with a couple of different replacements for Isaacs but none of them really worked. Curtis McGuire, a long abandoned soldier of the club chipped in though for the game at Bristol City and wouldn’t you know it, the guy scored a 90th minute winner. This was a crucial win and moved the team on top of the table. Here are the standings at the start of April.

At the end of last season, I felt we were just a few additions away from the title. After the mess of a summer, I was less optimistic. And yet, here we are, with as good a chance as I’ll get to win the Championship and make it four trophies from the National League up the ladder. I have never done that on a save before, usually one or two promotions are by playoffs and another by getting a promotion spot rather than a title. So, I was feeling the pressure a bit.

Sometimes this game feels scripted. Y’know? We were doing great, winning tough games here and then a game as dull as a brick against Cardiff and a lackluster showing away at Barnsley. This put us at 89, Nottingham Forest at 87 and Bristol City at 86. Both Nottingham Forest and Bristol City had better goal differential so we would have to win to make absolutely sure. Another bare knuckle last match day!

Home versus Sunderland. The weather report? Pouring rain.

Now, rain is a bit tricky in Football Manager. Players slide around a bit more and the ball is harder to handle. Sometimes, it’s best to just go direct with your passing and outrun the opponent in the mud; other times, the players can’t get traction to run and so only short passing works to get the ball up the pitch. Regardless, it usually is really hard to score in these games and with a club needing a win, this was not great timing.

By halftime, as predicted, we were locked 0-0. Thankfully, Nottingham Forest was down by 1 goal and Bristol City was drawing 0-0 against Swansea. We probably should have scored twice as Danny Johnson, in a box-to-box midfielder role for this one, broke past the central defense with two great balls from Butler but squandered both efforts. Butler again dropped a deep ball over the top of the defense perfectly for Paxton but the keeper ran way out to the edge of the box and got a fingertip to the shot just in time.

A penalty scored by Nottingham Forest in the 63rd meant they were within a goal of three points and the title if we didn’t score. And then, in the 73rd minute off a corner, a McCorkell header struck the keeper but bounced off his chest leading to a rebound and slam into the goal by Paxton. The crowd went wild and the players raced over to the corner to celebrate, sliding in the rain! We were just 20 minutes away from glory!

A few minutes later, Nottingham Forest scored a second goal, taking the lead. If we drew, we would lose the title.

In the 84th minute, a Jack Cole free kick near the halfway line was lumped forward for McGuire who anticipated the ball beautifully. McGuire then crossed it to the other side of the pitch where Ford one-timed it right at a defender. The ball careened off the defender’s chest to a waiting Paxton who shoved the ball into the net. 2-0 with less than 10 minutes to go.

Bristol City scored in the 89th minute. But it didn’t matter.

We. Won. Again!

Best XI

A really good season for Kingstonian. How could I say otherwise after they just lifted the Championship trophy? But there are some questions. Esposito drifted onto the bench by the end of the season and Paxton came on strong in the second half. Stone, Corness, and Sulley each battled for fitness and form and I wasn’t really ever sure who I would play on a given match day. I also wasn’t convinced that Papetti and the rest of the defense would be good enough in the Premier League; all of them were solid three star type players but not superstars who could still thrive with the jump.

My scouts were now operating around the world and we were out to find the best youngsters – or at least the best ones who wanted to join this unlikely yet memorable club.

With the Premier League money coming, I made another request to the Board. Build me a stadium!

Request rejected.

On loan from Brighton, Connor Jones walked onto the pitch where Kingstonian was practicing and just knew things would be different.

He had been kept on the bench the entire previous season as Brighton flailed in the Premier League to an 18th place finish and relegation. Figuring he’d get more playing time in the Championship, he was actually pleased to see the club go down. However, his summer was rocked when he discovered he wasn’t going to make the first team.

Jones took a few steps forward in his new red and white striped #10 jersey.

He had called his agent and asked to be sent to a team that needed him. This was a new agent, of course. The $3.5 million transfer from Southampton to Blackburn was supposed to mean he was a young star striker. But Blackburn only played him five times in two years despite finishing 13th and heading towards administration for financial irresponsibility.

More steps forward towards the ball set just on the edge of the box and Roco Rees practicing his goalkeeping; their eyes met and they both knew.

Despite the lack of match experience, Brighton saw talent. And they spent $6.5 million for him. But he sat and sat and sat while the team lost and lost and lost.

Jones strikes the ball and it curls high, seemingly overstruck, before it dips down just out of the reach of the keeper. Nylon shakes and Jones pumps his fist. It was time to show England who he was.

16 finishing, aggression, acceleration, and pace. 18 balance. 14 dribbling and first touch. 12 passing and 13 composure, technique, decisions, and off the ball skills. What a find.

But that’s not all. Kingstonian also signed another Blackburn cast-off, Danny Johnson. Johnson had some solid attributes in the 13’s and 14’s with passing, vision, and off the ball at 15. He wasn’t as fast as I’d like, only at 13, but he still had some room to grow and was highly rated by my scouts. I paid a pretty high $235,000 price for him, but this was an easier decision because I sold Patrick Dawkins for $200,000 due to Connor Jones’ arrival.

I also picked up Simon Ford, another loanee from Aston Villa, to play the left wing. He is natural there as a winger and is a different style option than Kwame Poku who can only play as an inside forward on that side of the pitch.

Roger Howcroft, an aggressive, brave, yet smart left-footed central defender arrived to take over a similar role Mungo Bridge had previously enjoyed.

And that is it. Only four in’s this year. Part of the reason was that we did not get as much of a bump in payroll as I thought we’d get. I worked on re-signing the core of my team and adding only starter-type players rather than building more depth. I felt we needed a year of consolidation in the Championship and to try to get loan players who would eventually be signed on free transfers at the end of their contracts with their parent clubs, like Roco Rees and Liam McCorkell had done.

Season Results

This team is good. Connor Jones is better. 13 goals to start the season. He also scored the only goal in our first ever victory over a Premier League team, Wolves, in the second round of the Carabao Cup. We also progressed to the fourth round after matching up with our lower league rival Aldershot Town, who was back in League Two and would finish the year in 6th, banging on the door of promotion to League One. Good luck, my friends.

The only team I felt we really were out of our element with was Fulham (we went down to 10 men against Brentford so I’m ignoring that result). Fulham had just been relegated from the Premier League and they still had a great deal of talent. I also kind of threw this game, resting Connor Jones and our defenders so they would be ready against Wolves. It ended up working exactly like I wanted!

I was feeling very confident but then we had another one of those games against Reading. My Kingstonian teams have always been young so I suppose it makes sense but wow, I keep giving up late comeback goals! 88th and 96th minute goals took the home win away from us. But we bounced back with a 1-0 victory over Barnsley and then prepared for the big one – away at Tottenham.

It didn’t look good early as Tottenham opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a goal just inside the box when a corner wasn’t cleared. But in the 24th minute, Connor Jones lifted a beautiful cross after stopping the ball dead in its tracks outside the box and found Rajee Isaacs crashing towards the goal post, who one-timed the ball into the net. 10 minutes into the second half and Danny Johnson passed the ball nicely to Connor Jones through the midfield. Jones juked a defender and then struck the ball into the net from about 25 yards out (similar to the one I imagined he scored against Rees described above). Kingstonian 2 – Tottenham 1. Final.

Kingstonian truly had arrived. Or not? Gentian Kuqi had put on several really good performances in the central defense and now demanded to move onto the Premier League. Like now. As in, in the middle of October. I tried to convince him that we were going to zip through the Championship and get him there by next year but he wasn’t having it. Kuqi refused to cooperate and demanded I accept the next transfer offer from a Premier League side. For about $1.5 million, he was gone – to West Brom. A big shame – well, I hope he never develops his marking and tackling.

His unplanned, now planned departure shook the team and we only scored one goal after the Tottenham game in five dismal games.

I don’t know what to say. We just didn’t do well for a long time after that. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the game change so drastically as it did when we beat Tottenham and Kuqi demanded out. It was like the air was let out of a balloon.

But there was one shining light. Connor Jones. He added 10 more goals to his tally, which now totaled 25.

The Middlesbrough result was also a nice surprise. Take a look at our performance here:

We followed that up with another great game against Huddersfield a few days later:

Matt Carney, a bench player, was usually on a yellow card by the end of the game and well, he got sent off this one. He wasn’t nearly the same player as McCorkell, Howcroft, or Kuqi, but with Kuqi gone, he did an admirable job. But the rest of the team was back in good spirits now. Well, until this happened to Connor Jones. . .

My heart dropped. I almost quit the game, to be honest. A 7 month injury. Brutal. Here were his final season stats in the league:

Add four goals, 1 assist, and the exact same rating (7.5) from his five cup appearances and what you have is one of the greatest seasons I’ve seen in Football Manager – cut short before he could set all of my club’s records forever.

The final eight matches after that were just a blur. The team was in a fog. We had done well this season but without Connor Jones, it just wouldn’t have felt right to do any better.

We did have a nice season, after all. But the quality of teams like Birmingham, Swansea, Brentford, as well as the three promoted sides, were just too much to handle for our young team. Maybe if Kuqi hadn’t gone the way he did and we had him stick around to develop, we would have made something of ourselves. But it just wasn’t meant to be, I suppose.

But looking at next year, if we were to advance, it would continue the pattern of mid-table finish, promotion, mid-table finish, promotion that had been going on since entering the National League. Who knows? With Connor Jones and Kuqi gone, though, we’d need another striker and central defender.

Best XI

Going into the second season in League One, I knew we had one position locked down: the left winger. You may be wondering who I brought in to fill this role but you’d be wrong – the solution was in front of me for an entire season and I didn’t even know it: Play Kwame Poku as an inside forward on the left and sign one of the more readily available and better quality free right wingers. That would work – now to find that good player on the right . . .

Transfers

Yeah, I’ll say. Rajee Isaacs, welcome to the squad! Isaacs is on loan from Aston Villa, a solid mid-table Premier League team since the start of this save and which just won the FA Cup two seasons ago.

Next up is Sam Jones with 15 acceleration and 15 finishing, on loan from West Brom, and Dave Robertson from Reading with 15 and 14 in the same attributes, respectively. Both have 15 off the ball and at least 12 passing.

In the midfield, I added Todd Highfield, a speedy box-to-box midfielder on a free from Newcastle, along with Mike Foster, a Manchester United product with a deft first touch, 16 passing, and 12’s and 13’s across the board as an excellent all-around player.

My final signing is a tall Kosovan, Gentian Kuqi, 6’4″ with 15 jumping reach, 18 bravery, 15 decisions, 13 positioning, and 15 acceleration. His technical skills are not great with marking and tackling at 11 but he can dribble the ball. I’m hoping his height can bother players on set pieces, his speed can catch up to fast attackers, and be brave while Liam McCorkell makes the smart tackle to wipe away the attack. At just 17, I’m looking at Kuqi to grow tremendously.

On the outs, Dylan Ruffles, the aging Dave Burke, and Phoenix Patterson see the door. I also tried to sell Leon Davies so Jack Cole can feel more settled in but the deal never came together.

Season Results

With Jones, Robertson, Curtis McGuire, and Patrick Dawkins up font, I’ve got plenty of options at striker. Isaacs and Poku will take the wings. Foster and Highfield join our star, Sefa Akgün, as well as ever-present Tom Dinsmore and super-sub Kyle Allison in the midfield. And the back four of Cole, McCorkell, Kuqi, and Danny Preston, along with Roco Rees will keep the goals out. The six pretty big signings should boost us up the table quickly.

A decent first three games, I suppose, followed by a disappointing but expected loss to Peterborough in the Carabao Cup because I played a rotated side. But there had been some drama leading up to that match. Akgün (maybe upset about the midfield additions?) had demanded a transfer out and back to Turkey. Maybe he was homesick? Regardless, he was ready to rip the team apart because I wouldn’t let him go and the players took sides throughout the beginning of August. Last year, team morale was really low at the beginning of the year and it took us a long time to find some form. Keen to not repeat last season’s issues, I relented and let him go home for more than 3 times the price the Board paid for him. See you never again.

Team morale returned until those defeats you see at the end of the month occurred. Sigh. To fill the hold left by Akgün, I signed Peter Rees, a Welshman who had been released by QPR. (I confirmed he was unrelated to Roco Rees.) Peter was a decent player, maybe not on the same level as Foster, but his 17 flair was exciting, especially with 13’s and 14’s in first touch, dribbling, passing, and vision. Maybe Peter’s creativity could help unlock the all-around skills of Foster and speed of Highfield?

Sorry about the long list of fixtures but I really wanted to highlight that we gave up either 1 or 0 goals in almost every single match except one during these three months. Our defense did really well and thankfully our offense did just enough. Jones and Isaacs scored five each and a remarkable 13 other players scored goals during this stretch of games. This team had some really good depth now!

And it was needed because Jones and Isaacs were both the goalscorers and injured in the match against AFC Wimbledon when this run began. I was furious at the time but ultimately glad to see the other players in action to gain some match experience and add to our depth.

Our good form continued. Notable was Sam Jones’ 7 goals this month. His consistent performance all season to this point got me thinking about placing Robertson on the loan list.

The Reading result highlighted for me a weakness developing. The team’s captain, Preston, continued his struggles from last season. This coupled with Cole’s success and an arrangement for Davies to head out to Oxford meant we were a bit thin in the wingback role.

In comes Ansel Brown.

Composure, concentration, decisions, and determination all at 13’s, 14’s. Crossing and dribbling at 10 but acceleration, agility, pace, and stamina over 15. Passing was good too, at 12. Plus, he is versatile and can play both right and left back naturally. Now I could rotate Cole, Preston, and Brown and use the two best in-form players of the three. It felt good to have the defense completely settled again – and with the complementary roles in the middle and excellent performances up front from Isaacs, Poku, and Jones, we would surely contend for the title now.

Spot on. With the 2-1 victory over Reading, who were in second place, I felt we could cruise to the title. The Grimsby Town was a brief setback but we were still comfortably ahead.

Next followed a game at home against AFC Wimbledon. AFC Wimbledon really struggled this season and was fighting for survival. It seems they never shook the bad form they had to end last year. After a 19th minute goal to take Wimbledon ahead, McGuire (a surprise start but had previously had excellent performances against Wimbledon) struck an equalizer a minute later. Foster scored in the 42nd minute and took us ahead for good.

Really, it was quite simple from there. We had 3 home games and 1 away game. Win two of them and we would secure the title. Considering we hadn’t lost twice in the league in one month since August, I was pretty confident we would succeed.

Dominance and excellence. Isaacs really did a great job crossing to Jones and Poku, and the latter often passed back to Isaacs who would drift towards the net after his cross. Just sensational stuff from our attacking players, and Foster looked like a Premier League player. He rarely got on the scoresheet but he was always winning balls back, making sweet passes forward, and had a motor that didn’t seem to ever stop.

This really was a fun and liberating season; a joy after the taxing and tumultuous one before. Even if we struggled next season, I enjoyed watching the team play and the teamwork and passing felt more fluid than any season before. This was now looking like a proper contending club and the balls over the top of lower league football were far gone now. To put an exclamation on that point, AFC Wimbledon would now be two leagues behind us and the few years we had as solid rivals had come to a close.

Best XI

Okay, I have to give it up to Dinsmore. The fact that I don’t say his name more often is a shame. Here’s his last four seasons:

Just a consistent force in the middle. Doesn’t score or provide that final pass much, but he’s always winning tackles and interceptions and making smart decisions. He’s reliable and that has more value than I have given him credit for. A good lad.

Another gold star should go to Poku. He is better as a right winger but he put in an excellent season as an inside forward on the left. This allowed Isaacs and his 12 goals to shine on the right.

5 of the 6 players I brought in on transfers made big impacts. And if we switch Robertson for Brown, we can safely say that we had six significant additions this year. That is excellent and I hope we can continue this success rate moving forward.

Now – onto the Championship! What big names might we be able to convince to join the team? Will the Board give me enough payroll and transfer money to get the players I need to survive? Who will be on the final team to take Kingstonian to the Premier League? It’s all coming up next!