A UK Journeyman Story

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’ve been in charge of 110 games for the Bay, with 87 of those being wins…

And have taken the club from mid-table in the Cymru North to treble winners, all in the space of 3 seasons.

With the club’s finances strong because of the European exploits, my parting gift was an upgrade to the youth facilities

There are many players that will hold a special place in my heart, including Andy Coughlin and Robbie Parry who have been at the club since the very start. Will Pritt was ridiculous from set-pieces but the main man has been Eddie Brown with 63 goals and 18 assists in 80 matches in total.

But the time for sentimentality is over.

I leave only as favoured personnel, with centre back Jarvis Edobar somehow considered more of an icon than myself (not that I’m bitter or anything…)

I also leave a much better manager, with my Continental A Licence less than 12 months away.

So it was time for a new challenge.

With it being August, and the start of the season, not too many jobs were available…

It was time for a holiday!

2 months went by before a few jobs started popping up that interested me.

One of those that intrigued in particular me was Oldham, who were struggling in the National League

And this time, for whatever reason, a club in the National League actually offered me a job!

From the Champions League (Qualifying Rounds) to the National League in the space of 2 months… We are off to Oldham Athletic!​

 

[leckuno]

A great place to show what your made of in England and if it goes well will be perfect for getting a better job.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A great place to show what your made of in England and if it goes well will be perfect for getting a better job.

Yeah I thought I'd be able to get a job a bit higher up the leagues to be honest but at the same time I like a challenge and have missed the lower leagues of England since my Altrincham save on FM20 - just need to do something similar to your York save with Oldham and get back-to-back-to-back promotions!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Oldham are a club that should be nowhere near the 5th tier of English football but that's exactly where they are in this save after finishing bottom of League Two last season.

It also sadly looks like they’ll be heading to the National League in real life, not least thanks to being shafted by owner Abdallah Lemsagam, as at the time of writing they are bottom of League Two.

In this FM reality Lemsagam has just left the club but the new chairman has been promoted from within, so presumably it is the same ownership?

It’s worth noting that Oldham are a professional club, something I sorely missed whilst manager of part-time Colwyn Bay. A 13,000 capacity stadium and average training facilities will do for me!

After being relegated last year, Oldham were predicted to finish 5th in the National League this season.

But it has not gone to plan. We’re currently 19th in the table, which is why previous manager Scott Dann got the sack.

But at the same time, we’re only 8 points off the playoffs and a good run of form could see us shoot up the table very quickly!

On first impressions, the squad isn’t that great. There is a lack of depth at centre back and a severe shortage of strikers for a manager who likes to play 4-4-2!

The best player who is under contract at the club is Stephen Walker and he’s leaving at the end of the season anyway!

Our first match in charge was one day after we took the job but was quite a decent one on paper - against Telford in the FA Cup who were in the league below us.

So without knowing any of my players, I threw a starting XI together and hoped for the best.

Despite the lack of strikers I decided to stick with a 4-4-2 that worked wonders at Colwyn Bay, with a few roles adjusted to fit the style of the Oldham squad.

And we just about got a result to take us into the First Round proper.

3 days later we played our first league match in charge against Boreham Wood - they were above us in the table but this was admittedly a game that we should be winning

So not a bad first 2 games in charge. The challenge is to now sort out the staff and see which players we can offload on loan to free up some more wage budget.

And as for the fate of my beloved Colwyn Bay?

Ex-Caernarfon manager Huw Griffiths was appointed manager for the Bay. They finished 10th last season so it’s not the most inspiring appointment…

They’re currently 5th in the table but only 4 points off the top.

I’ll check in with them occasionally but for now the focus is on getting Oldham up the National League table!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our 2nd league game in charge of Oldham was a difficult one away against Harrogate. We were slightly lucky but ended up 3-0 victors!

But we then came crashing back down to earth with a home loss against Notts County.

Those 2 results pretty much sum up the unpredictability of the the National League.

But in our next few matches we managed to find some form at least. After going 3 matches without a win, back-to-back victories against Newport and Chorley were crucial.

One not so good thing about the National League - and the lower leagues in England in general - is the sheer volume of games. It’s relentless, we have 9 matches in December! It’s not going to be a fun month with a squad that has very little strength in depth!

I’ve been trying my best to get some reinforcements in to bolster the squad, but have only been able to sign one player so far. That was Ryley Towler, who has been without a club after being released by Bristol City in the summer.

He gave us much-needed depth at centre back. So, naturally, got injured straight away!

We have 6 loan players already at the club so I’ll be doing my best to offload 2 or 3 in order to get higher quality players on loan in January.

Despite the size of the club and the fact we were in League Two last season, we’ve only got the 14th highest spend on salary in the division.

After closer inspection, I found out why…

Those finances are not looking good!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

December was about getting through the ridiculous number of matches relatively unscathed before reaching the promised land of the January transfer window.

The month could not have gone better! Performances haven’t been great but I’m only bothered about the results.

Our most recent game against promotion-chasing Eastleigh was actually our best performance of the season, we absolutely dominated and had 33 shots.

I knew a good run of results would see us shoot up the table, and that is exactly what’s happened…All of a sudden we’re in 3rd! But just look at how close together the teams are!

A bad run of form could see us easily slip out of the playoff places.

A number of players have been brilliant this month, particularly Eduardo Pinto who is on loan from Bristol City and playing on the right-wing for us - he has 7 assists in 7 games.

We’ve also somehow turned Femi Akinwande into the greatest striker in the world (7 goals and 3 assists in 10 games)

And we’re into the 3rd Round of the FA Cup where we’ll play away against Championship Middlesborough

We’re entering the January transfer window almost £500,000 in debt, I don't think we’ll be splashing the cash but reinforcements are definitely needed.

Even if we struggle to get new players, there are so many of our players out of contract at the end of the season in June 2025 that there’s definitely going to be a summer rebuild no matter what happens.

I’m confident of securing a playoff place even if we can’t add new players, but it would be nice to strengthen the squad in the next few weeks.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Being the shrewd wheeler and dealer that I am, at the start of January I decided to send 2 of my loan players back to their parent clubs to free up more loan spaces…

But it turns out that our loan transfers are getting blocked because we apparently have 6 long term loans for the season, even though those 2 players won’t be coming back!

I genuinely don’t know if that’s a bug or just the way things are. Either way, it means we won’t be getting any more loans this season…

We did actually manage to sell 2 squad players for a combined fee of £130,000, which gave us a bit of money to play with.

So in came Ashley Nadesan, formerly of Crawley, on a free transfer. His wages are a bit steep, but we desperately needed a striker and he will do for now.

Our second and final transfer was a player we paid actual money for. Ciaran Wilson joins for £8,000 from Gloucester in the National League North.

I think it’s a decent transfer for the club in the long term and he’ll likely play a few games for us this season.

So I’m more at ease with the balance of the squad now, but what I am not at ease with is that we are still more than £500,000 in the red.

Finances are ‘Okay’ so I’m not going to worry too much… for now.

During January we also had the difficult task of going to the Riverside in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup. To say it went disastrously would be an understatement as we got thrashed, mainly because we had 2 red cards!

But aside from that result it was a decent month, particularly a 5-0 against Maidenhead in which new signing Nadesan scored twice.

And the crazy unpredictability of the National League means that we are up to 2nd, with a 3 point cushion over 3rd.

Our next game is probably our biggest yet as Oldham manager as we travel to 1st placed Southend - the club who didn’t even give me an interview at the start of the season!

I don't want to pre-empt anything because this division is mad, but I think we are in another title race!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A huge win away against title rivals Southend took us to the top of the National League table for the first time this season.

And from then on, we just kept on winning.

There was even a point where we had won 9 league matches in a row!

Femi Akinwande has continued to bag the goals and is now one of the top scorers in the league. I have no idea how or why, but he has been so good for us since taking over as Oldham manager.

January recruit Ashley Nadesan is also a goalscoring machine. In 11 matches he has 8 goals and 4 assists playing as a False Nine, confirming my status as a tactical genius…

But despite the winning run, other teams are keeping up with us. With 8 games left, we are in a three-horse race with Southend and Grimsby for 1st position and automatic promotion to League Two.

I also couldn’t help but notice that Eddie Brown is now Colwyn Bay’s record league goalscorer

But it’s not going great for the Bay, they won’t be retaining the title and look on course to finish in 4th

This time last season we were in a title race in Wales, now we are in the same situation in the National League. Hopefully history repeats itself and we are top of the league at the end of the season!​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

What a turnaround! Hopefully you can go on and secure that league title!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What a turnaround! Hopefully you can go on and secure that league title!

I really thought we had the momentum and would win the league, turns out I was wrong...

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A loss against Notts County and a win against Gateshead meant that with 6 games remaining, just 2 points separated the top 3 in the National League.

We followed that up with 2 more wins and by this point it was becoming clear that the title was either going to us or Southend.

Especially as Southend continued to win game after game!

So 3, games remaining and we knew that all we needed to do was win all 3.

You know what’s coming…

A 0-0 draw against Chorley wouldn’t normally be a bad result, but it was made worse by Southend scoring an injury-time winner in their match.

That result meant they leapfrogged us with 2 league games remaining.

A routine home game against 18th placed against Morecombe was next up…

So we decided to bottle it and practically gift Southend the title and the only automatic promotion spot to League Two.

We did our job in the final league game against Maidstone thanks to a Dearnley hattrick, but the damage was done in our defeat to Morecombe.

So Southend, who didn’t even offer us an interview when we applied for the job at the start of the season, go up as champions of the National League.

Next stop for us? The playoffs.

It’ll be a one-leg semi-final against Mansfield followed by the final if we win that match.

And even if we don’t get promoted, at least we don’t have insecure finances and are approaching £1m in debt…

I’m not sure what the financial rewards are, but I think we need to get promoted…​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Good luck in the playoffs mate. Still an amazing achievement considering where the club were when you took over.

 

[zacram]

The beauty of a Journeyman save is that you don't need to be overly concerned with finances - I know I'd be exactly the same but if you work within your budgets and things still go wrong behind the scenes you can always just jump ship.

Good luck in the playoffs though!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Good luck in the playoffs mate. Still an amazing achievement considering where the club were when you took over.

I know, honestly wasn't expecting to be in a title challenge but I think finishing 2nd meant that we ran out of momentum in the end...

The beauty of a Journeyman save is that you don't need to be overly concerned with finances - I know I'd be exactly the same but if you work within your budgets and things still go wrong behind the scenes you can always just jump ship.

Good luck in the playoffs though!

Yeah I still feel the need to try and set the club up for the next 4-5 years no matter what I do, but with Oldham that might be impossible

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Since taking over at Oldham, we have been the best team in the division by far.

So wouldn’t it just be typical if we lost in the semi final of the playoffs?

Yup it happened.

We lost the playoff semi-final in the cruellest way possible - a last-minute winner from Mansfield’s only shot on target.

It’s pretty gutting considering we were top of the league for 12 game weeks in a row.

And it was Grimsby who went on to beat Mansfield in the final to gain promotion to League Two.

87 points and no promotion is a sickener, especially as it is the most points a team has had without gaining promotion!

I feel like we had all our luck last season with Colwyn Bay, and no luck this season with Oldham!

To finish 2nd after taking over the club in 19th position was a pretty good achievement, especially with a bang average squad

Pinto was by far our best player this season and I’ve managed to extend his loan into next year. Zak Dearnley also ended with 18 goals in all competitions despite me not really knowing what his best position is.

But perhaps my finest achievement was managing to turn Femi Akinwande into a 17 goal a season striker

Despite the goals, he is one of many players who is set to be released at the end of the month and we’re going to go from spending £23,000 in wages to £2,500 when players leave on 1st July.

Which is just as well as the board have given us quite literally less than nothing when it comes to budgets for next season

Finances are admittedly a tiny bit better after some end of season income, sitting at a nicely even £581,000 in debt.

But our facilities have just been downgraded too - we’re really not having much luck are we?

On one hand, the challenge of rebuilding the Oldham squad excites me… But on the other hand, it looks like the club's finances are never going to be healthy.

There is also a job vacancy at another big club in the National League that is tempting me, especially as they have secure finances...

Is it time to leave a sinking ship? Or commit to Oldham for another season at least?​

 

[Tongey]

They do say a Captain should go down with his ship, but in this case, I'd jump at the chance to hop aboard a floating one...

 

[leckuno]

No harm in planning for the season but also applying for other work and seeing what happens

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

They do say a Captain should go down with his ship, but in this case, I'd jump at the chance to hop aboard a floating one...

I tried so hard to jump ship...

No harm in planning for the season but also applying for other work and seeing what happens

It's a very good job I planned for the upcoming season with Oldham!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Having learnt my lesson about how long the job application process takes, I decided to apply for the Notts County job straight away in June.

But I knew it would take weeks for them to even come back with a response, so I decided to do what I could for Oldham in the transfer market, which was a lot!

We’ve made some really strong loan signings, with Jim Forde from Milwall the first…

…along with Harvey Loader from Crewe

One of the most impressive permanent signings was Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough - the 23-year-old has over 100 appearances in the Football League and joins on a 2-year deal, with a £375,000 release clause

After being very pleased with my work in the transfer market for Oldham we finally got news from Notts County, literally one month after applying for the managerial position.

Not even an interview?!?!

No wonder I like one club saves, it’s impossible to get interviews at other clubs never mind another job!

What kind of reality is it where I can’t even get an interview at Notts County? Well, one where Roberto Firmino joins Man United apparently…

It’s a good job I made those transfers for Oldham because I’ll be staying at the club for the foreseeable future!

So with my immediate future certain, I decided to delve deeper into the transfer market… and make the signing of the summer

Striker Gary Griffiths joins on a free after the expiry of his contract at Spurs and will surely rip it up in the National League this season - the only negative is his £500,000 release clause.

But to be honest we probably need that money, especially as we’re predicted to lose £1m this season.

After being rejected by them, it is of course us and Notts County who are the favourites for promotion this season.

It’s a striking resemblance to the start of last season, where a team rejected me at the start of the campaign (Southend) who then went on to get promoted at our expense.

I am going to make it my mission to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

It’s time to get Oldham out of the National League.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Having committed myself to Oldham for the upcoming season, two more signings were made to bolster our defense before the start of the season.

The first was Conor Bremner who, with a £300,000 release clause, I have a feeling we could sell him on quite quickly.

We also signed Aaron O’Reilly on a free who only wanted to be a fringe player but looks like he’ll be very capable at this level.

Our National League campaign kicked off against Fylde. 8 players made their Oldham debuts in a nice 3-1 win to kick off the season thanks to a debut goal from Griffiths and a double from Ashley Nadesan

That was immediately followed up by a poor result at home to Newport… you’ve got to hand it to the National League, it’s extremely unpredictable!

But other than that Newport result, the start to the season has been solid although we have only kept 2 clean sheets so far.

We’re top of the National League table but, just as it was last season, it is stupidly close so a loss of form could see us easily slip down the table.

New striker Gary Griffiths has started off as I expected, winning the player of the month award in his first month at the club thanks to 5 goals in 5 games.

He and his strike partner Nadesan are amongst the top scorers in the league, with Nadesan also having the highest average rating.

Not bad for somebody who was signed as a squad filler in January!

We also got an unexpected message from Freddie Ljungberg about loan midfielder Jim Forde - apparently playing him is not enough, he’s got to play as a deep-lying playmaker or else he’ll be recalled!

There are some big games up against Notts County and Cambridge next, so he better be an incredible deep lying playmaker!​