A UK Journeyman Story

[sahajpal97]

I have generally wondered why people who play Football Manager really like to build the squad with youngsters. If anything the illusion of them growing every year makes it less appealing as the rise to the top is a bit too quick. I really want to see a managerial career on this site one day where players who are managing the team buy both young and experienced players, and for it to be a natural thing to get sacked for poor results or something. I personally have a save like that on the site, you can check it out. In fact there are a couple of them. I was just thinking about the general trend of FM content that I read on FM Base or other sites like SI community or sortitoutsi.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

With the Villa job available immediately available at the end of the season I was hesitant to apply at first. They only finished 2 places ahead of us last season but at the same time this journeyman save is close to becoming a Blackburn-only save…

So I applied and got an interview.

In that interview, it was revealed that Europa League qualification was an aim for the club, something that the Blackburn board simply aren’t bothered about. So that was a good sign.

Another good sign was a budget of £75m being available to me, compared to £57m at Blackburn.

Yet again the press were saying that I was favourite for the job although I doubted how true that was considering what happened with the Arsenal job application earlier in the year.

However, it turns out the press were right this time

It’s decision time.

Do we leave Blackburn for Villa - a club that finished 2 places and 4 points ahead of us last season?​

 

[leckuno]

Whats the current squad like? Think you could make the push for European football?

 

[sahajpal97]

On one of your previous posts, I saw that the Middlesbrough job was available. Yes it is in the Championship, but restoring a decent sized club to the level of competing for European football, like how they used to with their frankenstein squad under Steve McClaren in the mid 2000's, would be a cool challenge and a little less obvious than taking the Villa job.

 

[TheWizard65]

Good good!!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Whats the current squad like? Think you could make the push for European football?

A lot of players aged 28-31 but easily a better squad than Blackburn, a few quality additions and it could be a very competitive squad which is why I've made my decision

On one of your previous posts, I saw that the Middlesbrough job was available. Yes it is in the Championship, but restoring a decent sized club to the level of competing for European football, like how they used to with their frankenstein squad under Steve McClaren in the mid 2000's, would be a cool challenge and a little less obvious than taking the Villa job.

No chance I'd go back to the Championship! After 8 years going from Cyrmu North, Cymru Premier, National League, League One, Championship and now finally the Premier League I'm doing all I can to get to the top as quickly as I can! It's only Celtic or Rangers that could tempt me away from England and both of those jobs haven't become available yet

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’ve had 2 and a half successful seasons at Blackburn, firstly getting promotion to the Premier League and then turning them into a solid mid-table club

The club also have a lot of money in the back, as well as 2 or 3 players who are going to be world-class in the future.

But it just feels like we’ve reached a peak with them and to be honest it’s felt like that for a while.

Villa seem a bit more ambitious in their aspirations for European football and sizeable transfer budget and are a step up from Blackburn.

So it was decided.

Villa are a huge club with brilliant facilities, a large transfer budget and the potential to finish in the top 7 next season.

After 940 days, 118 games and 1 promotion, it is with a heavy heart that I leave Blackburn.

But the time has come for our next step.

And that next step is with Aston Villa and their £76m transfer budget!​

 

[sahajpal97]

Good to see you at Aston Villa. It's fine if you didn't want to go back to the Championship. It would've been an interesting challenge to build a frankenstein squad like Steve McClaren did at Middlesbrough and guide them to some of the glorious European nights they had in the 2000's. The thing about Aston Villa is that it is not quite big enough to be an upward step and not small enough to be a sideways step. The owners are ambitious now for sure considering the problems they had when their spending was cut from about 2011-2016 and basically Christian Benteke was saving them from relegation at the time. If I really had to make a real life comparison, it would be like Danny Ings moving from Southampton to Aston Villa.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We joined Villa on 23rd June, giving us plenty of time to overhaul the squad and bring in the players that we wanted.

One player already at the club was Sebastian Frankle - who we sold to Villa as Blackburn manager for £45m! He was one of just two first team players under the age of 25, so it was quite clear that we’d be signing some younger players to join him.

Upon joining there was £70m in the bank but the finances have been a bit up and down over the last few years. But that just makes it even more ridiculous that the Blackburn board were only giving us £50m to spend!

We were also able to expand that budget even more by selling some squad players, including 34 year old Ollie Watkins and central midfielder Gustavo Assuncao.

In return, we have spent £101m on players and the window isn’t even over yet!

My first signing as Villa manager was Junior, an attacking full-back who I tried to bring to Blackburn many times but he just wasn’t interested. I’ll be retraining him as a conventional left-back rather than using him as a winger this season.

Yuri Kane was the 2nd Brazilian to join us and, just like Junior, was a player who I’ve had on my radar for a while.

Next up was the big one.

Centre back was an area I wanted to improve on, so I went all out and spent £51m on Jon Casado from Athletic Bilbao

It was Villa’s record transfer fee but I think it will be worthwhile. He’s one of the best players at the club and is still only 22.

The last major transfer was another defender as we paid Bayer Leverkusen £26m for Alex Taylor, who can play right back or centre back.

So it was only 4 major signings, but if you sort our players by my scout's opinion on their current ability then those 4 signings are our best 4 players.

There are some familiar names at the club including Ezri Konsa and Douglas Luiz (who have both spent their entire careers here) as well Trevor Chalobah, Aaron Ramsdale and Conor Gallagher.

I should probably know who Matheus Cunha and Gabriel Vidovic are in real life… but they are here too and look like 2 very decent players as well!

The season preview has us down as 3rd favourites, but that is genuinely wrong. We’re about the 8th or 9th best team in the league on paper, which is why the board only expect a top half finish

A few weird bugs like that seem to be popping up in the save now, including the fact that Nnamdi Ofoborh is going to be joining Cincinnati on the 1st January 1900…

My former club Blackburn are predicted to finish 14th this season and have appointed Roger Schmidt as my successor. It’s a pretty decent appointment for them as he won the Carabao Cup and Europa Conference League whilst manager of Leeds before being sacked from Elland Road last season.

Our first match in charge of Villa will be away against current title holders Man United so is the toughest game we could’ve got!

So as long as we don’t get off to a dodgy start this campaign, I am hoping to take Villa to the levels that I could only dream about at Blackburn.

European qualification is very much the aim this season.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first game as Villa manager was at Old Trafford and the result was an expected one, as we lost 1-0 loss to reigning champions Man United.

But thankfully we didn’t let that impact our next performance as we recorded an emphatic win over West Ham in our first home game in charge.

Immediately after that match, Conor Gallagher announced his intention to leave - he wasn’t going to be first choice for me so when Brighton offered £14m I decided to accept.

To replace him we signed Omer Sevgi from Dortmund for £17.5m, a player who I can’t believe we got for that cheap but admittedly can’t shoot to save his life.

He had little impact in our next 4 matches though. I’m not sure how you deal with Haaland on this game after he scored 4 in Man City’s 5-1 win at Villa Park, whereas we also lost to Liverpool at Anfield thanks to a goal from Mbappe who has been at Anfield for 8 seasons now.

So that makes it 3 wins and 3 losses so far, which probably isn’t bad considering we’ve played the 3 best teams in the league already.

Summer signing Jon Casado picked up his first cap for Spain in the September international break, showing that the £51m we spent on him is probably going to be worthwhile.

He’s been solid so far along with central defensive partner Trevor Chalobah and right back Malo Gusto, who is keeping summer signing Alex Taylor out of the team.

Our main striker Gabriel Vidovic has been very hit and miss so far but does have 3 goals in 6 Premier League games.

One thing that always interests me is how much we’re spending on wages compared to other teams in the league. We were always bottom with Blackburn, but now at Villa we have the 10th highest spend on wages in the Premier League.

I want to finish a lot higher than 10th this season but there are a lot of quality teams in the league. Hopefully we can now push ourselves up the table!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After losing against Liverpool, Man City and Man United it was about time our luck changed against the better sides in the league.

And exactly that happened at Stamford Bridge, as we somehow recorded a 1-0 win despite being the second best team for most of the match.

Next up for us was my former club Blackburn. Relations with them were not great considering how poorly they were doing in the league (more on that below!) and our pre-match report essentially said that we should be beating them comfortably.

The scoreline ended up being close, but it was a game we dominated.

It just had to be Sebastian Frankle who scored the winner - a player who we sold to Villa as Blackburn manager! It’s funny how things work out.

Some really poor results followed after that though, including two 0-0 draws at home to local rivals West Brom and Wolves.

We’re actually in 7th place in the Premier League but have played a game more than the teams around us, whilst former club Blackburn are bottom of the Premier League. With just 1 win in 13 games, it is not looking good for them!

Despite being 7th it feels like things haven’t quite clicked for us yet and Shola Shoretire has been a real disappointment so far. I just can’t get him performing well no matter what position I play him in.

It probably says it all that 32 year old Douglas Luiz has been our best attacking player this season with 4 goals so far in the Premier League.

Elsewhere, summer signing Junior recently made his debut for Brazil despite some pretty average performances so far at left back.

Totally unrelated but still noteworthy was that Diego Simeone has recently been hired as Brighton manager… a side that have never finished higher than 14th in the Premier League and were relegated 3 seasons ago.

And even more unrelated, I just happened to notice that Alex Davies is now the record appearance holder for Colwyn Bay at 237 and counting.

He was the player we signed from Bangor on a free 8 seasons ago… it seems a long time since we were managing in the second tier of Wales!

Back in the present with Villa, we’ve been drawn against Newcastle in the League Cup quarter final after some decent wins and performances from our second-string side in previous rounds of the competition.

It would be great to get to the semi-finals, but I’m also out for revenge over Newcastle for beating us in the FA Cup final last season in my final game in charge of Blackburn.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Normally i wouldnt take the League Cup seriously but it could be our best chance of qualifying for Europe next season. So beating Newcastle in the quarter final was great and particularly pleasing as we managed to get some sort of revenge for them defeating us in the FA Cup final as Blackburn manager last season.

We’ll play Chelsea in the semi-finals who will obviously be favourites, but hopefully their busy schedule over December works in our favour.

What made that quarter final result even better is the fact we did it all over again in the league, this time beating Newcastle at St James Park. This is a Newcastle team who are firmly amongst the best 6 teams in the league as well!

That victory was part of a rich vein of form for us in December and we ended 2030 with three wins in a row.

So that means we’re 6th in the Premier League and in contention for the European places but at the same time we’ve played a game more than Arsenal and Newcastle who are below us.

My old club Blackburn are firmly bottom of the table and that has resulted in Roger Schmidt getting sacked after less than 6 months in charge. He’s turned a midtable team into relegation certainties so it was not a surprise.

It was quite ironic to see Henrik Larsson then getting offered the Blackburn job, as I’ve been tracking both Glasgow clubs for the last few years to see if there were any vacancies, which there never have been.

He accepted but has a huge job on his hands trying to keep Blackburn in the Premier League this season.

Two players I’ve not mentioned so far are the highest earner at the club Matheus Cunha, who is constantly injured and the wrong side of 30 but still has 4 goals and 2 assists in the Premier League

The other is key player Hugo Guillamon who has played every league game so far this season either as a box to box midfielder or anchor man.

Up next is our two League Cup semi final games against Chelsea as well as the January transfer window.

We don’t have much budget, but a few players are wanted so there could be some wheeling and dealing.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

January 2031 started with an unbelievable win over Everton (who have qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League this season), with Shola Shoretire scoring a hattrick to more than make up for his slow start to the season.

That was followed up by a great first leg against Chelsea in the League Cup, where we came away from Stamford Bridge with a 1-1 draw to put us in pole position for the second leg.

But our hard work in the first leg was completely undone at Villa Park. We had just 2 shots on target and completely bottled our chances of reaching the final

We were also knocked out in the FA Cup in the same month after losing on penalties in a replay against West Ham.

Two EFL Cup semi-finals plus two FA Cup matches have taken their toll and we really could’ve done without the flurry of games as the injuries were piling up.

But that did not impact us one bit in the league as we’ve won each of our last three matches 2-0. We’re actually on a run of 7 wins in 8 matches!

We’re in 6th but are 6 points ahead of Spurs in 8th - if we keep up this form I’m confident of securing qualification for Europe next season but there’s still a long way to go.

At the other end of the table, it’s breaking my heart seeing how bad my old club Blackburn are doing. Henrik Larsson is having no impact and they have now gone 22 Premier League matches without a win.

January ended with no significant transfers in or out, but if Blackburn do go down then there are some relegation release clauses (which I was part of the negotiations for) that we could be activating in the summer…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

With no more domestic cup football for us, our attention is now solely on securing a top 7 place finish and qualification for Europe next season.

Chelsea ended up winning the EFL Cup, which is probably a good thing as it means that a finish in the top 7 will get us European football providing there is no surprise winner of the FA Cup.

We were buoyed by that news and in our next game recorded a huge win over Arsenal, a result which could be pivotal come the end of the season.

Getting knocked out of both cups in quick succession has actually masked just how well we’ve been doing in the league as that result made it 12 matches unbeaten in the Premier League.

Form in February and March has been really strong and we’ve actually only conceded twice in our last 6 matches!

So we those results we are still in 6th position but are now only 6 points off the top!

We have 8 huge games remaining as we could still feasibly finish in the top 4 but I’ll be more than happy with securing Europa League qualification.

What’s perhaps more impressive is that we’re 6th in the Premier League, in with a shout of getting Champions League football… and 33 year old Douglas Luiz is our top scorer!

Our starting striker Gabriel Vidovic has not been doing it for us this season and if we’re going to become a top team, then we need a better return than 10 goals in 29 games for our starting striker.

His latest form has been so poor that Jamie Donley has been introduced to the starting XI. The backup striker scored 7 goals in the EFL Cup earlier in the campaign but has just 2 Premier League goals this season - now we’re relying on him to fire us to Europe.

Unless we have a dramatic decline in form, we could be getting our first taste of European football since 2024 with Colwyn Bay in the Champions League qualifying rounds!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our end of season runin started with a crucial 1-0 win over Spurs, which left them 9th in the table. It was another fine defensive display in what has been an impeccable defensive record in the second half of the season.

It also made it 3 goals in 3 games for Yuri Kame who was benefiting from an extended run in the team. Little did I know that this was just the start…

Two consecutive draws followed against Wolves and former club Blackburn. Interestingly the Wolves goal was scored by Giorgio Scalvini, a player who we had on loan at Blackburn last season and started in the FA Cup final for us.

Blackburn’s point was too little too late in their relegation battle though as they were soon confirmed as the first team to go down. I did not expect them to plummet so badly after leaving them in the summer!

A win was needed in our next game after dropping those points. So when Matheus Cunha was sent off in the first half against Southampton I was expecting the worst, but somehow we were still comfortable winners.

Yuri Kame had only scored 5 goals by March but his hattrick meant that he was now our top scorer!

At this point we had played 2 games more than the teams around us and still had City and Liverpool to play.

First up was Leicester and two more goals for Kame - he was single-handedly keeping us in with a shout of getting Champions League football next season.

The race for the Top 4 was really heating up now.

With 3 games remaining we were up into the Champions League places, but faced both Man City and Liverpool next.

Kame was at it again versus City with a last minute equalise in what was an entirely undeserved draw.

But that meant a 4th place finish was in our hands next up against Liverpool. No pressure then!

That game ended in another draw which kept our unbeaten run going.

But Chelsea were closing in…

A huge win over Spurs meant that they leapfrogged us into 4th with one Premier League game to go

With them at home to Brighton and with goal difference in their favour, a 4th place spot for us seems unlikely.

At the same time, if we lose against Sheffield United and other results go against us then we could still end up in 7th!

Can Yuri Kame lead us to the Champions League, or have we drawn one too many matches in this crazy end to the season?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

So it all came down to the last game of the season to see if we could sneak into 4th place after going under the radar all season.

We more than did our job at Bramall Lane by thumping Sheffield United 3-0.

The question was, did Brighton get any points against Chelsea?

Of course not…

Despite an incredible run at the end of the season, it is 5th place and Europa League football for us next year.

Yet there was nothing about Europa League being mentioned in the news, only the Europa Conference League…

Something weird was going on and I think it was because of who was in the Europa League and Champions League finals.


Tottenham had finished 9th in the Premier League but were somehow in the Champions League final! So a victory against PSG would mean they took part in the tournament next season.

Likewise, if Arsenal beat Liverpool in the Europa League then they would be in the Champions League next year too. That’s despite them finishing in 7th in the Premier League!

I genuinely had no idea what would happen if both Spurs and Arsenal won but it turned out that all that was needed was for Chelsea to win the FA Cup.

That confirmed Europa League football for us next season in what was an incredibly successful Premier League campaign (Arsenal ended up winning the Europa League but Spurs lost to PSG in the Champions League final).

We were only 7 points off the top in the end in a season that was dominated by Haaland and Mbappe. Art immitates life as Haaland has been at Man City in this save since 2022 - just the 42 Premier League goals for him this year!

We don’t have quality like him in the team but the squad we inherited along with our 4 summer additions has performed above expectations this year.

Jon Casado has been our signing of the season, £51m was steep but he’s a Spanish international and our best player by far.

His centre back partner Trevor Chalobah has also been immense and played in every single Premier League match - he’s the wrong side of 30 but will be a key part of the team next season too.

Summer signing Yuri Kame had a crazy end to the season, scoring 10 goals in his final 10 Premier League games. He will be a key player next year and surely a Brazil callup is not far away.

Finally there’s Sebastian Frankle. We sold him to Villa for £45m as Blackburn manager, now he’s a firm part of my Villa team after some very consistent performances as a central midfielder.

Off the pitch, the sponsorship money has gone nuts - we’ve gained more than £100m more in income compared to last season!

And that has been reflected in the transfer budgets as we have over £100m to spend.

The board are really backing me and want us to qualify for the Champions League next season as a result - no pressure then!

It’s actually nice having a board with high expectations after being at Blackburn where finishing 17th every year was the aim.

Next season is going to be a big one - Villa could be the club we stay at and take to the very top!​

 

[StormToChampion]

Congrats on finishing 5th and getting Europa League. Great transfer budget and wages budget. Board is ambitious though on wanting u to finish in the Champion League next season.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Congrats on finishing 5th and getting Europa League. Great transfer budget and wages budget. Board is ambitious though on wanting u to finish in the Champion League next season.

cheers mate, it's been a long old save but I'm finally getting somewhere with Villa - hopefully I can win the Champions League before FM23 comes around!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

August 2031. We are entering our 11th season of the UK Journeyman save and after starting at Colwyn Bay in the second tier of Wales, we’re now taking Aston Villa into the Europa League after a 5th placed finish in the Premier League last season.

It’s been a busy summer of transfers as we try and take this Villa squad to the next level. Firstly, we managed to recoup £74m on a selection of fringe players including Karamoko Dembele and Mike Kleijn

Now for the good stuff.

Transfers In

After Blackburn’s relegation last season, there was one player who I was desperate to be reunited with.

When I was Blackburn's manager, it just so happened that I negotiated a £27.5m release clause for Jesus Aguilera if they were to ever get relegated.

As soon as that relegation was confirmed, we swooped in for the Mexican wonderkid. He only scored 3 times when I was in charge of Blackburn but the price we paid is surely a bargain after a solid season last year.

Next up was our record transfer as we spent £60m on Andrea Carnevale from Real Madrid

He made 34 appearances last season in La Liga - albeit most of which were from the bench - and is a big upgrade on our current midfield despite only being 21.

I didn’t think I could top those two transfers, but the next player in was my favourite transfer of the summer.

That’s right. 33 year old Tammy Abraham has joined for £20m from Roma, 13 years after last wearing a Villa shirt! He’s still a quality player and I’m hoping he can be the man that gets us 20+ goals this year.

And we weren’t done there with the attacking reinforcements.

Out of favour Leandro Pedroso was transfer listed for £27m by Man City and I think that could be a bargain £27m considering his quality (8 goals in 18 games for France!)

Our defence last season was very solid so I’ve made no additions to that department.

Nevertheless, we’re predicted to finish 3rd in the Premier League this season. I still think that’s inaccurate but we have definitely improved on our squad from last season so should be eyeing up those Champions League places.

And of course this is our first season in the Europa League with Villa and our first season in any kind of European competition since Colwyn Bay 7 years ago! The board expect us to win the competition outright but I’m just excited to see who we get in our group.

First up for us in the Premier League is a tricky tie against Everton (a top 7 side in this save) before winnable games against Brighton and Leeds.

This should be an interesting season in charge of Villa. I’m very excited to see what our new attacking players can achieve across 4 competitions this campaign!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The 2031/32 season got off to the perfect start with a win at Goodison Park.

There was a debut goal for Aguilera and a last-minute winner against a very strong Everton side, what more could you want?

Our next game against Brighton showed us that this is going to be an exciting season for Villa.

New signings Abraham, Carnevale and Aguilera all scored in a comfortable 4-0 victory - I can’t remember us ever being so dominant in a game.

August was rounded off with another last-minute winner away against Leeds to make it 3 wins out of 3.

Tammy Abraham was a risky signing given his age and wage demands but he is certainly paying off already with 4 goals in 3 games!

He’s our highest earner at £150,000 a week but we still only have the 10th highest salary in the Premier League overall - not bad for a team predicted to finish in the top 4!

Those 3 victories mean we are joint top with City, Liverpool and Newcastle.

So things have been going well domestically for a while now but I have been waiting so long for a taste of European football.

We’ve managed Oldham, Lincoln and Blackburn since getting knocked out of the Champions League 1st Qualifying Round by Sheriff Tiraspol and then the Europa Conference League 2nd Qualifying Round by Mol Fehérvár in 2024 as Colwyn Bay boss.

As this was the first time Villa were in European competition for 21 years (since 2010), we were seeded 3rd for the Europa League group stage draw.

And it certainly was an interesting group to get.

I’ve genuinely never heard of Arda Kardzhali! It should be an intriguing couple of trips to Bulgaria and Serbia for us and our fans.

September sees us play Arda Kardzhali in our first Europa League game, with Manchester United and Doncaster our next two games after that - what a surreal schedule!

So it’s two games per week for the foreseeable future, let’s see what this squad can do!​