Championship 2021/22 – Season 13

After last seasons fine midtable position, I was hoping to push on and make a play for the playoffs (or at least be closer to the playoffs than relagation) with the bookies even giving me odds of 50-1, though our media prediction was still last.

Though my players quickly quashed any hopes of a play for the playoffs with nearly everyone wanting out: Keeper Galley, Right-Back Balu, Left Back Cardozo, Centre-Backs Diego, Whitbread and Cowling. Right Winger Owen, Midfielders Patterson, Batchelor, Hurrell, Fievet and Strikers Pearson, Mintus and Rankine.

By the end of the season Right-Back Allan, Left-Winger Friar, and Midfielder Gudgeon joined the list of players wanting out.

During the Summer window I didn't receive a single bid for one of the many players who want out or are wanted by someone, though with January approaching I only managed to get Keeper Galley to sign a new contract with Striker Pearson sold to Hibs, Right-Back Balu sold to Millwall and Midfielder Hurrell sold to Partizian, and with no-one willing to offer any money for Caradozo or Fievet they were both poached on free's.

I didn't have a great time bringing in replacements - young Serbian Full-Back Ivan Miladinovic and Czech Striker Petr Kucera were brought in for the future, whilst I loaned a rightback from Leeds, and with most of my strikers injury prone I brought in Striker Whitbread on a free.

I also let various youngsters go out on loan, to get some experience, though my squad is now rather bare so some are going to be thrown in at the deepend.

This season proved to be a mixed bag, we had no consistency, whilst we had the ability on our day to beat anyone in the league if we could be bothered to turn up, the problem was when we didn't turn up we were woeful, having half my team wanting out didn't help the motivation, with the ones not wanting out upset due to a lack of squad harmony.

In the end it was just a case of where midtable we would finish - with seven games left we could neither reach the playoffs nor be relagated, I then gave some of the players who weren't unhappy a chance in the team and in the end we finished a creditable 13th.

Final Table - Rather worrying is the amount of points needed to get out of this league, in any but the last two seasons Forests 97 pts would have been enough for the title.

POS Graph - We just bounced around the midtable positions after a good start.

Snapshot - The cups saw us go out to Premiership sides Arsenal in the Third Round of the Carling Cup after needing an injury time goal to beat Grimsby and a pen in extra-time to beat Notts County.
The FA Cup saw us take Spurs to a replay in the Third Round before some woeful refereing knocked us out - this challenge from Corluka is not even worth a yellow card, but a similar challenge from my defender Diego is worthy of a red card - if anything my chance was more of a clear goalscoring chance than theirs and both should have been red cards :(

Squad - whats left of it.

In Goal Mark Galley had a solid season and his new contract see's him become my top earner.

In Defence Richard Allan was given the rightback spot after Balu left, though of course he now wants to leave, on the left is Jack Ferdinand who is about my only happy player now that he no longer dislikes half my team. Providing cover was young Serbian Ivan Miladinovic, he's not ready for first team football but I don't have anyone else.

In the centre of defence Diego and Mal Thompson are first choice, with Steve Cowling given a chance to impress at the end of the season as Diego wants out, but now Cowling wants out aswell.

In midfield Jamie Cole stepped in for the injured and want away David Owen, and he had a good season until Sunderland wanted him back and upset him. David Owen had a quiet season apart from demanding a transfer, but with no interest he has decided to stay (we'll see how long it is before he wants out again).

The Left wing is the one position apart from goal that I seem fine in Gonzalo Alonso had another fine season as did his understudy Andy Marshall and rather shockingly they are both happy at the club.

The centre of midfield is another matter, Steve Patterson was in fine form, but demanded a move at the end of the season, which saw youngster Ben Wharton given a chance. Partnering them was Harry Gudgeon who stepped in for Keith Hurrell who defected to Serbia in January.

Upfront Captain Sendoa was my top scorer for a record fourth time, with the loss of Pearson in January the striker spot was up for grabs with Matty Rankine and Lewis Mintus the least injury prone of the rest, though it will be no surprise to learn that they both want out aswell.

Best XI and Overall XI - Overall is starting to look better now after a few seasons in the Championship (looks like games in higher leagues are given a lot more weight than the league below, so it'll break again if we ever make it to the Premiership) - with the sale of Pedro and Patterson at the end of the season the odds are rather high that Sendoa will have more appearances than the rest of the team put together soon.

Profile - minor changes, whilst I take it manager knowledge no longer exists apart from your nationality?

Club Info - Not sure what David Owen did last season to get on the favoured panel, whilst our repuation is still Regional but shockingly is better than Leyton Orient's as next season we are no longer expected to finish rockbottom.

Club Facts - our average age actually went up for the first time in ages, whilst we are still outmatched wageswise but not as bad.

Club Stats - we rearly need to cut out some of those mistakes.

Club Facilities - most of my transfer profits have been put towards improving our Facilities, we now have Top Training Facilities (not 20/20 yet as they are being improved again) and Excellent Youth Facilities - which at the end of the season produced my first potential youngsters since the first couple of seasons - a 7star Keeper and a Championship Potential Left Winger, its a shame they are in positions I don't need, hopefully they are the start of a production line as I could do with some squad depth.

So the plan for next season is to see how many players I have left who want to play for me, and then hopefully make a play for the playoffs.

Career Overview
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2009/10	Blue Square North	1st	Promoted - Champions
2010/11	Blue Square Prem	5th	Playoff Final
2011/12	Blue Square Prem	1st	Promoted - Champions
2012/13	League Two	2nd	Promoted
2013/14	League One	24th	Relegated
2014/15	League Two	6th
2015/16	League Two	4th
2016/17	League Two	1st	Promoted - Champions
2017/18	League One	3rd	Promoted - Playoffs
2018/19	Championship	21st
2019/20	Championship	21st
2020/21	Championship	14th
2021/22	Championship	13th

Championship 2020/21 – Season 12

So after narrowly avoiding relagation again last season, I was hoping for better this season, my young team has had a year to gel, though the game wasn't giving me much of a chance the board were willing to give me nearly £8m to avoid relagation, though they didn't expect any of the players I bought with that money to be given a wage.

The press also gave us no chance double our odds from 500-1 to 1,000-1 and for the third season in a row we were expected to finish rock bottom and be everyone's wipping boys, even the fans weren't optismistic, with 300 less season tickets sold this season.

The board at least had enough confidence in me to give me a new contract.

Our transfer dealings would be relatively quiet this season, I got rid of the what I hoped was the last of the moaners: Wingers Woolley and Ross finally left both for Scotland, whilst the rest of the signings were mainly players who refused to sign a new contract unless they were a key player - Greek Winger Fotiadis and young midfielders Patterson, Jeffrey, Kearney and Basham wouldn't settle for squad roles and weren't good enough for first choice so they were all sold off.

Transfers in saw the arrival of some promising youngsters, whilst english youngsters Ferdinand and Cole were brought in to provide some depth at left back and right wing. Russian Keeper Astakhov was poached from under the noses of Real Madrid a couple of years ago but I had to wait for him to turn 18 to join us, I'm rather surprised he actually got a work permit at the age of 16 and again when he finally joined I snapped him up on a 5 year contract without a single cap for Russia.

We made a solid start to the season hovering around mid-table, with my defence solid for the most part I adopted a slightly more attacking system - pushed the team mentality up and made my MCa more attacking to create some more chances and goals.

And it worked for the most part when my team turned up, with my MCa causing havoc in the opposition defences, though November did go a little wierd as we managed five 1-1 draws in six games.

In the second half of the season we started to switch off in too many games, mainly due to half my 'loyal' defence declaring they wanted to move to a bigger club after struggling Championship sides and the likes of Basel, Zenit and Cluji (Romania) declared an interest in them.

Having three games postponed in March, saw us fall further down the table and if results went the wrong way we'd be in danger of being dragged into the relagation fight, Stoke being deducted 10pts helped us out and a 4-1 hammering of Norwich followed by a 2-2 draw to Fulham made us safe with five games remaining.

Table - 14th place was a fantastic acheivement and even better we never dropped into the relagation spots even once this season.

Squad - Does anyone else have a problem with most of their players not being worth anything?

Mark Galley stole the #1 Jersey from Pedro as Pedro really struggled this season whilst new signing Dmitry Astakhov is highly rated but not quite ready for first team football.

On defence Romanian Right Back Marian Balu struggled a bit with Richard Allan proving to be a capable understudy.

On the left Omar Cardozo was solid for the most part with new signing Jack Ferdinand providing cover.

In the centre of defence Diego had a disapointing season by his standards not helped by his demands to leave the club and is now transer listed by request, partnering him was vice-Captain Mal Thompson who quite possibly will be my only centre-back next season after my understudies Dave Whitbread and Steve Cowling demanding moves to bigger clubs - I've not even had a chance to play Cowling yet he demands a move to a bigger club after a handful of games, he spent the season loaned out to get some experience, he was called back when Diego got injured starts to show some potential and then demands a move :(

On the Right Winger David Owen was in fine form equaling our assists record from back in League Two, before injury ended his season, providing cover was new signing Jamie Cole.

On the left Gonzalo Alonso had a quieter season with Chris Friar again providing cover.

In the centre of midfield Steve Patterson lost his place to Andy Batchelor after he wanted a transfer, but by the end of the season Batchelor was demanding a move, whilst Patterson was happy at the club.

Helping out the attack was Keith Hurrell who had a fine season until he wanted out, which means that Harry Gudgeon is likely to take his place with Swiss midfielder Gilbert Fievet rewarding my giving him a chance by also wanting out.

Upfront we were given a boost when for some reason Bristol City decided not to make Promising Striker Kevin Pearson's loan permanent and he hit some fine form after a slow start ending up my top scorer, though he spent the entire season wanting a move to a bigger club, forgetting he signed a new contract with me at the end of last season when no-one was interested in him, and rather interestingly he is the only player I have who is actually worth something (£1.4m at the moment). My Captain Sendoa had a good season aswell.

With the rest of my strike force being rather injury prone, Record signing Lewis Mintus was the only one to manage a meaningful number of appearances.

Best XI - it's currently looking like only Thompson, Owen and Sendoa will still be here by September.

Snapshot - Accrington rather embrassingly beat us in extra in the first round of the Carling Cup, whilst luck was against us against Man City in the FA Cup.

Moneywise we are in trouble, we lost £5m this season from last seasons transfers, not sure where the board were going to get the ~£8m they were offering me.

Manager Profile - knowledge still not returning.

Club Info - Still Regional reputation, and it is no surprise that next season we are again predicted to finish bottom of the league, whilst its a joke that my squad personality is listed as loyal.

On the plus side the board have upgraded our Training facilites to Top and our youth to Good.

We also gained the Overachievers tag for the first time in the Championship.

And my sponsorship deal finally increased.

So the plan for next season is to see how many players I am left with, and to hopefully make a play for the playoffs.


Career Overview
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2009/10	Blue Square North	1st	Promoted - Champions
2010/11	Blue Square Prem	5th	Playoff Final
2011/12	Blue Square Prem	1st	Promoted - Champions
2012/13	League Two	2nd	Promoted
2013/14	League One	24th	Relegated
2014/15	League Two	6th
2015/16	League Two	4th
2016/17	League Two	1st	Promoted - Champions
2017/18	League One	3rd	Promoted - Playoffs
2018/19	Championship	21st
2019/20	Championship	21st
2020/21	Championship	14th