A UK Journeyman Story

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s becoming a bit of a tradition for me to plan to have a quiet January transfer window, only for the complete opposite to happen…

I was more than happy with the loan signing of Morgan Rogers from Bournemouth - which includes an option to buy for £375,000 that I will almost certainly be taking up in the summer.

And I also managed to get Jordan Rossiter for £50,000 from Aberdeen to bolster my midfield options and conclude my January business… or so I thought!

That was because Norwich came in with a £2m bid for our youngster Ger Corr.

He’s a bright prospect but I just thought that £2m was too good to turn down. Only time will tell if that’s the right decision but I can’t see him becoming a top player in the future.

The transfer happened so late in the window that I spent a while scrambling around for a replacement.

But I happened to find the perfect one in Freddie Davidson from Spurs, who were happy for us to contribute £0 to his wages.

It turns out that was for a reason…

I somehow failed to realise that Davidson is recovering from a broken leg so won’t be available for another month at least!

To be honest our attacking depth is more than adequate even without him and that proved to be the case in January as our only losses were in the FA Cup and EFL Trophy.

We got two big wins against Portsmouth and Sheffield Wednesday - the latter of which was a top of the table clash where Freddie Draper scored a hattrick.

And we were also beaten 2-0 by Everton in the FA Cup 3rd Round - in all honesty it could’ve been about 8 as they absolutely battered us!

But those results in League One mean we’re 10 points clear and have lost just once in 31 matches!

With not too much of the season remaining, surely we’re going to win yet another league at our new club?

Also, something completely unrelated to all of the above is that Jurgen Klopp is Brentford manager.

A bit of a strange one I must admit…​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I think I'm more surprised about the fact Klopp chose to leave Liverpool in favour of Spurs!!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I think I'm more surprised about the fact Klopp chose to leave Liverpool in favour of Spurs!!

It gets better...

3 draws, 4 losses and he's sacked!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Forever the pessimist, I was just waiting for something to go wrong this season.

But it took a 6-0 victory over one of the stronger sides in League One to convince me that we’re probably going to get Lincoln promoted this season…

And it was business as usual for us after that win against Birmingham, winning 3 of our next 6 games and drawing the other 3

So it’s now only a matter of time before promotion to the Championship is confirmed with us 14 points ahead of 3rd placed Blackpool. We’ve still lost just one league game all season which is mad!

Morgan Rogers has already been an inspired January signing and was the League One Player of the Month in February thanks to 4 goals and an assist.

He’s done so well that I’ve decided to buy him permanently from Bournemouth in the summer. £325,000 already seems like a bargain and he’s not even our player yet!

Another attacking player that we have on-loan is Rod Herd from Brighton who has been very solid for us the season on the right hand side. My coaches only rate him as a 2.5 star player but my faith in him has paid off as he has 11 goals in League One this season.

But it is Freddie Draper and his 27 goals in the league that has been totally unexpected, his goalscoring has fired us to the brink of promotion.

Losing just once in the league all season would be an incredible achievement - we have 7 games remaining to make that a reality!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A 2-1 win over Crewe coupled with other results going our way meant that with 4 games remaining we were confirmed as champions of League One!

Normally I’d put out the kids for the last 4 matches, but there was still a chance of us getting 100 points as well as going through the whole league season losing just once.

We ended up achieving one of those things…

It would’ve been nice to get 100 points but losing just one league game this season is an outstanding achievement. That loss was at home so we’ve actually gone the entire league campaign without losing an away game!

That was all done with a team that only had the 8th highest salary in the division.

Our small squad comprised almost entirely of English players that were predicted to finish 8th at the start of the season have done incredible work this season

8 of our players were in the team of the year which shows just how dominant we were

Our very own Freddie Draper was the league’s top goalscorer by a mile with 32 goals. That’s despite him being League One quality at best!

Our centre back pairing of Luke Woolfenden and Zeno Ibsen Rossi were awesome all season, with the later winning the League One Player of the Year

Goalkeeper Will Mannion was signed from Barnet for just £81,000 at the start of the season and finishes the campaign with the most clean sheets in the league!

And captain Sam Field has been excellent all season as has fellow central midfielder Jack Rudoni, who ended up with 12 assists in League One.

Finally, there’s the curious case of Gary Griffiths - the one player I brought with me from Oldham had a really poor start to the season but actually ended the season with 16 goals, including 11 in League One.

So, what next?

Despite all the deserved plaudits I have for the current squad, we need to strengthen in a lot of areas in order to avoid a relegation scrap in the Championship next year.

We’re in a pretty secure financial situation with £3m in the bank, but is that enough to build a competitive Championship squad? Well, I’m about to find out…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The summer break was a good time for reflection to see just how far we’ve come since taking over at Colwyn Bay 6 seasons ago.

Since then we have not finished lower than 2nd in the league at any club, which is quite an impressive achievement

I’ve been in charge of 267 games so far and have a 70% win percentage, which is probably the highest that number will ever be!

In terms of my old clubs, Oldham actually had a pretty successful season back in League Two by finishing 15th.

On the other hand, Colwyn Bay have struggled to dominate since my departure.

Since winning the treble with them, they’ve finished 4th, 3rd, and 4th again which still gets them into the Europa Conference League in fairness.

Looking at the Welsh leagues got me reminiscing about the good times. A maximum of 40 games a season and European football, whereas in the English leagues you can play up to 60 domestic games in a season which takes its toll!

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to manage Lincoln in the Championship… but what harm could applying for other jobs do?

Hibs was the most appealing job so I applied for that straight away.

Two days later, midtable Championship side Preston also offered an interview and then also immediately offered me the job!

Before deciding on whether to accept, there was a Hibs interview to attend to.

Then out of nowhere Brighton, recently relegated from the Premier League, also offered an interview - at this point my finger was in many managerial pies!

So much so that I decided to turn down the Preston job.

If I was going to manage in the Championship for the first time, then it was going to be with Lincoln. But I was pretty confident of getting the Hibs gig at this point even though Brighton rejected me.

And after an utterly ridiculous amount time, about 5 weeks in total, Hibs eventually came back… and said no!

So after thinking I’d be leaving Lincoln all summer, it turns out I will be staying at the club after all!

It’s going to be difficult to keep them in the Championship, but then again I’m not expecting to stay around for much longer…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After applying for numerous jobs and ultimately not getting any, the focus was now firmly on making Lincoln’s squad as competitive as possible for our first season in the Championship.

The only notable transfer out was first choice right back Teddy Howe for £250,000, who for some reason was demanding to go to League One Coventry…

And so far we have spent £1.6m in transfer fees.

The Morgan Rogers transfer was already agreed and we signed 2 more players that were on loan with us last season in League One.

Rod Herd was the first and joins for £300,000 which I thought was a bargain albeit for a player that’s probably not Championship quality yet.

Omari Forson was terrible for us last season considering how good we were as a team, but when he was listed by Southampton for £81,000 I just couldn’t resist

Oliver Webster was our most expensive signing at £400,000. He was surplus to requirements at Man United which made him so cheap but he’s also on a hefty wage of nearly £15,000 a week

Talking of hefty wages… Axel Gallardo joins on a season long loan from Villa and we’ll be paying all £17,000 of his wages per week.

The last loan signing (for now) was another attacking player in Marius Corbu from Southampton

Considering our initial budget, that’s some pretty decent business.

But it doesnt stop us from being predicted to finish 22nd in the Championship this season.

That’s because the majority of our squad are very good players for League One, but the Championship might be a step too far for them.

Centre back pairing Woolfenden and Rossi were incredible last season, but it remains to be seen what they can do in the division above facing higher quality players.

And our first game of the season is against Preston, the club who we turned down last month in the hope that we’d find a better job!

After 5 seasons of constantly winning it’s strange going into games expecting to lose, but I’m genuinely intrigued to see how well we can do at the start of the season.

And if it all goes wrong, we can always jump ship anyway…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’re back. Don’t you hate it when real life gets in the way of FM?

-

Our first game of the Championship season was away against Preston where we had 20 shots in total…

But still managed to lose.

However, a 3-1 win against Luton next up calmed any fears of the league being too difficult for us, with new signings Webster and Gallardo getting their first goals for the club.

And with a lucky win at Huddersfield followed by another victory over Swansea it was beginning to seem like the Championship was easy!

Oh how wrong I was.

Middleborough firmly grounded us in a ridiculous match.

How do you lose 7-0 yet have more shots than the other team? I’ve genuinely not experienced anything like it, especially after winning 3 in a row!

It’s the first time at any of the clubs that I’ve managed where the players have refunded the supporters - I hope it’s the last time too!

That result aside, it’s been a successful first month as a Championship manager.

We’ve played one game extra than most teams already (presumably because being knocked out in the League Cup 1st Round gave us a chance to play another league game) so are actually in 2nd, which is the highest we’ll be this season I think!

Then it was reported late in the transfer window that Gary Griffiths, a player who I’ve had at Oldham and now Lincoln, was wanted by Premier League side Sheffield United.

He was valued at £1.7m-£4.2m, so I decided to see if they were willing to pay £4.5m.

They were…

The player who joined us on a free for Oldham in the National League just 2 seasons ago has now gone to a Premier League club for £4.5m, plus we get him on loan for the season too!

I honestly think the Championship is his ceiling so it’s going to be interesting to see how he fares this season.

That deal came late in the window so we couldn’t really spend much of that money. The only other player we signed was right back Kyle Knoyle for £130,000 who will probably be our first choice for the season.

It’s still too early in the season for any manager to be under pressure, but I’m going to be keeping a close eye on the job centre over the next few months!​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Good to have you back mate!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Good to have you back mate!

Will hopefully be able to post a bit more often now!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

For the last month or so we have been without captain Sam Field through injury, who has been a key player for us since taking over as manager just over a year ago.

But we have hardly noticed his absence. We’ve been lucky at times but have only lost 2 of our last 8 matches!

So we’re almost a third of the way into the season and still in the playoff places - it’s been a truly incredible start to life in the Championship as Lincoln manager!

A key part of our success has been down to striker Morgan Rogers, who has 9 goals in 13 matches which puts him at the top of the scoring charts.

Ben Chrisene also has 5 assists in 13 games from left back, which is almost as many as he got in the whole of last season in League One!

With us doing so well it’s making me think just how far we can actually take Lincoln. All of this is being achieved with the lowest salary in the division and we’re spending less than £8m on wages whereas teams like Norwich and Brighton are spending £45m+

The first managerial casualty of the season was at another Championship side Barnsley, who then offered an interview which I rejected.

I can’t say I’m interested in going to a club in a relegation scrap but over the last few weeks some really tasty jobs have become available at clubs who are below us in the table.

Middlesborough beat us 7-0 at the start of the season but that’s been their only good result so far, whereas Norwich and Brentford are both struggling despite having Premier League budgets and resources.

The only thing stopping me from applying is that I want to spend some time in Scotland at some point.

But what harm could applying for those jobs do?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s truly managerial crunch time.

The November international break saw a whirlwind of changes, with Nigel Pearson leaving Bristol City to go to Brentford meaning that the side in 1st place were managerless!

Then we also gained our Pro Licence at just the right time, meaning that the bigger clubs in the league were starting to take notice.

None more so than Blackburn Rovers, who had just sacked their manager in the November international break.

They’ve just been relegated from the Premier League last season and more significantly, are described as RICH!

But at the same time as Corberan getting sacked, we were heavily linked with Middlesborough and the irony of joining the club that smashed us 7-0 just a month ago was actually becoming more and more appealing.

Especially as they then offered me the job to takeover at the brand spanking new Juninho Paulista Arena with a £19m transfer budget!

Then the Blackburn interview happened. The sheer temptation of the Premier League parachute payments made me delay the Boro offer for a week.

In that week we recorded another 2 emphatic wins with Lincoln against Charlton and Brentford, which is not helpful when you’re considering leaving because the team aren’t strong enough to compete in the Championship!

Both Blackburn (14th) and Middlesborough (16th) are below us in the table, but both are not far off the playoffs in terms of points and we’re still yet to reach the halfway mark of the season

Then it happened.

Blackburn offered me the job - with a budget of £36m!

My choices are:
​

1. Join 16th placed Middlesborough, with their £19m budget​
2. Join 14th placed Blackburn with their £36m budget and more parachute payments to come​
3. Continue at Lincoln for the foreseeable (we’re comfortably in the playoff places after all!)​

This is a tricky one! I actually don’t know what to do…​

 

[leckuno]

A big choice to be made especially since just coming up to the transfer window as well to let you get some decent players in as well for a promotion push

 

[Enrico Pucci]

In terms of story plotlines, Blackburn Rovers owners are horrid and clueless. In real life, managing Blackburn would be a nightmare. However, Boro have failed so badly for so long. Its a tough choice. Also ... so ... much ... money ...

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I don't know if I could turn down nearly £40 million in the Championship! Blackburn all the way!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A big choice to be made especially since just coming up to the transfer window as well to let you get some decent players in as well for a promotion push

In terms of story plotlines, Blackburn Rovers owners are horrid and clueless. In real life, managing Blackburn would be a nightmare. However, Boro have failed so badly for so long. Its a tough choice. Also ... so ... much ... money ...

I don't know if I could turn down nearly £40 million in the Championship! Blackburn all the way!

Money talks...

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I had to do it, sorry Lincoln.

When you remember struggling to afford £200 weekly wages for players at Colwyn Bay, in the end the prospect of splashing the cash with Blackburn was just too much.

We leave one historic club for another but the lure of Blackburn was too tempting. They’re a side that should really be in the Premier Lague (and were last season!)

I was a bit worried I made the wrong decision, but a quick glimpse at the finances extinguished any of those thoughts.

£86m! There’s absolutely no doubt this was the right choice even if we don't get promoted this season!

There’s quite an interesting selection of players at the club, including an ancient centre back pairing of Conor Coady and Ben Gibson

The key players are both English and both in their prime. Joe Gelhardt and James Garner are Premier League quality but also want to leave because the club were relegated last season.

But it is genuinely sad to be leaving Lincoln. We joined them after they finished 17th in League One, now they’re 3rd in the Championship.

On the other hand, we’re in 14th with Blackburn but only 8 points behind Lincoln.

We’re straight into the action with an away game against Swansea, and a reunion with Lincoln is also happening very soon.

Let’s see what we can do at Ewood Park!​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist....and I don't blame you one little bit! Can't wait to see who you bring in with all that dough!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist....and I don't blame you one little bit! Can't wait to see who you bring in with all that dough!

The parachute payments were far too tempting!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

So far as manager of Colwyn Bay, Oldham, and Lincoln we’ve won all of our first games in charge. Evidently, it was time for a change…

What’s the worst possible start to your first game as manager of a club?

Well having a player sent off in the first half, losing 3-0 and one of your key players getting injured for a month seems close!

A response was needed in our first home game in charge against Derby and thankfully we got it with a 3-0 win, which slightly flattered us.

The 3-0 loss and 3-0 win were followed by two of the flukiest wins ever!

The first was a huge win over Lancashire rivals Preston, with veteran Alex Mowatt scoring in the last minute, and the second was an even flukier win over Milwall in which we had another man sent off and another injury-time winner!

So with 3 wins in a row, things were starting to fall into place.

Next up was the big one. A reunification with Lincoln.

It was a pretty easy win for us in the end in what was quite a boring game, with my former favourite and League One Player of the Year last season Zeno Ibsen Rossi getting a red card

So, apart from the loss to Swansea and another loss against Derby, it's been a very successful first 6 weeks in charge of Blackburn.

We’re up to 8th position in the table and already ahead of my former club Lincoln. But the top 4 seem to be pulling away already.

One downside to taking over this Blackburn side is that there is a fractured dressing room. Our key players want out because the club were relegated from the Premier League last season, including striker Gelhardt and midfield maestro Garner.

I’m taking a 0% tolerance approach - I don’t care for players that don’t want to be at the club.

And that, coupled with the fact we have a sizeable budge anyway…

Did somebody say January fire sale?​