A UK Journeyman Story

[Hampus Silverholt]

That was why I stopped my deportivo save as well since I won the league and champions league. Been enjoying a rest before a new save with fm23 and trying to decide who to go

Yeah once you've won every trophy there's definitely less motivation to carry on! Every year a new FM comes out I tell myself I won't buy it because it's exactly the same as the last version, yet here I am planning on who to do an FM23 save with...

 

[PimpmyFM]

cant beat a good journeyman great read!!!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

cant beat a good journeyman great read!!!

cheers mate, I'm hoping it ends with a trophy win before FM23!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

So with 5 Premier League games remaining, the title race was heading to the wire.

Facing Manchester United in our last game could prove to be pivotal!

First up for us was 15th placed Leicester, who we absolutely battered. But Tammy Abraham’s 30th Premier League strike of the season was all we could manage as we drew 1-1.

A United victory over City in the Manchester derby meant that they leapfrogged both of us to go top of the table with 4 games remaining.

We were still very much in the running, but succumbed to defeat against Chelsea in our next match.

In the end the relentless schedule caught up with us - Chelsea may be 5th but are still a quality side.

Just 3 days later we had possibly our most important game as Villa manager so far, away to Celtic in the Europa League semi-final first leg. We were clear favourites and firmly expected to win over two legs

So that first leg was a shock, a real shock.

I have never seen a more disgusting score in such an important game. We dominated, yet lost 4-1 - I honestly could not believe it.

Yet the worse thing was that I still believed we could overturn a 3 goal deficit in the second leg. It truly is the hope that kills you…

27 shots and no goals, it’s almost laughable. We battered Celtic in both legs yet somehow lost 4-1 on aggregate.

A routine win over Leeds made little difference - this incredible season has been undone by that Europa League result.

But something intriguing was brewing in the Premier League.

Clear favourites Man City were on a worser run of form than us.

So even though we’d been dropping points for fun, we weren’t completely out of the title race.

City then lost again to Liverpool, whilst United could only muster a draw against Southampton.

So with just 2 games remaining (only 1 for City) we are 3 points behind Manchester United, who are firm favourites to win the league.

However…

We play United last game of the season and have a better goal difference than them.

So I make it that if we win our final 2 games then, somehow, we will be Premier League champions.

How we’re still in the race I’ll never know. This save is either going to have the perfect ending or a heartbreaking ending.

Please lads, do it for Hampus…​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Cheers mate, was hoping to end it with a Premier League or Champions League win before FM23 but I'm probably going to run out of time (don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of FM!). Not too sure about FM23 save yet but will very likely be a long-term challenge with a team in Europe possibly Spain/Italy/Germany/France as I've actually never done a save in any of those countries - have you got anything planned?

Hoping you can finish on a high with that league title! In the process of downloading the beta as I write this. Have no idea where to start if I'm honest. Will you start in the bottom leagues of one of those European countries, or start with an already established side in the top tier?

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Hoping you can finish on a high with that league title! In the process of downloading the beta as I write this. Have no idea where to start if I'm honest. Will you start in the bottom leagues of one of those European countries, or start with an already established side in the top tier?

I'm the same and still not sure what save to do, am thinking something like my Sligo or Berwick saves though (just in a European league instead) I'm probably going to give it until Dec/Jan before I get into it again as well just to see what the reaction is to the full release - looks like there aren't too many changes and still can't believe they've not sorted set pieces out!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Spending £20m on 34-year-old Tammy Abraham in the summer has been one of the best transfer decisions I’ve ever made.

He’s won countless matches on his own and scored another 2 goals in our penultimate game of the season, a 4-2 win over Watford.

That win remarkably sent us top of the Premier League table for the first time since February.

Untied’s European and domestic cup runs meant that they were playing their game in hand midweek, in what was a very tricky encounter against Liverpool.

And sure enough, Liverpool did us a huge favour.

So with one Premier League game remaining, we were top of the table!

It was winner takes it all at Villa Park, where even a draw would do for us if Man City did not win by more than 5 goals.

You really couldn’t write it - this was the biggest game we could possibly have.

We had a full strength side including Aaron Ramsdale in goal and Trevor Chalobah at centre back.

The nerves were all too much…

UNBELIVABLE!

Tammy Abraham you absolute hero! His brace sealed the most unlikely of Premier League titles for Villa to give us the perfect ending.

I still can’t believe we’ve done it.

What a way to end this story!​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

GET IN THERE MY SON! Perfect way to finish the story! Again, top work my friend and I look forward to seeing where you go for FM23!

 

[sahajpal97]

Aston Villa legend.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What a way to end it with finally getting your hands on the premier league. Now looking forward to see what FM23 brings

GET IN THERE MY SON! Perfect way to finish the story! Again, top work my friend and I look forward to seeing where you go for FM23!

Aston Villa legend.

Thanks everyone I couldn't have asked for a better way to end the story! Will do a bit of a recap here before getting stuck into FM23 in December/January time

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What a season it’s been in charge of Villa! We crumbled in the Europa League but more than made up for that with a Carabao Cup win and a surprise Premier League title.

Our Premier League win also ended a 6-year streak of titles for Manchester United, who have dominated English football in this save.

Our squad has done a truly incredible job this season and we played 61 games in total!

9 of our players made it into the Premier League Team of the Year

That included Tammy Abraham, obviously. What more can I say about this guy. 35 goals in 36 games in the Premier League and 41 goals in all competitions.

What. A. Signing.

He forms the spine of this Villa team with Carnevale and Casado, who were our 2 most expensive signings but are both world-class players.

Brazillian left-back Junior also recorded the most Premier League assists this season and has been an absolute bargain costing us just £9m 2 years ago.

Our defensive form was the basis of our Premier League win with 34-year-old Aaron Ramsdale keeping 16 clean sheets and winning the golden glove.

As a team we conceded just 29 goals all season, losing only 5 Premier League games.

I’ve said it before but what a way to end the save!

We’ll do a recap of the journey before we move on to FM23…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What a journey it has been.

We started with no badges and no experience and ended on £55,000 with a 4* reputation.

Attributes have improved significantly since we started - but we’re still not keen on goalkeeping though…

In total my managerial career has spanned 510 games, with 321 wins and over 1,000 goals scored - it’s fair to say we’ve been a success at every single club we’ve been at.

We’ve gone from the Cymru North in 2021 with Colwyn Bay and ended at the top of the Premier League with Aston Villa in 2032, via Oldham, Lincoln and Blackburn.

We won 5 domestic titles and 4 domestic cups, the majority of which were actually in our first job at Colwyn Bay.

And we made it to 6th in the Swedish Hall of Fame.

In total we bought 120 players and had a net spend of £129m, which was worth it in the end at Villa.

I still love how Sebastian Frankle was the highest fee ever received - he moved to Villa for £45m when I was at Blackburn and then ended up winning the Premier League with me at Villa!

I also forgot how wild it was at Colwyn Bay back at the start of the save. We won the Welsh treble in our first season back in the top division, achieving everything we could at the club in just 18 months!

The Villa and Colwyn Bay stints are the most memorable but taking Oldham back to the Football League, Lincoln to the 2nd tier for the first time since 1961 and Blackburn back to the Premier League were all memorable moments in the story too.

Colwyn Bay have never won the league since, but remain one of the best teams in Wales and finished 2nd in this most recent season.

Oldham are now back down in the National League, where they finished 6th last season.

And Lincoln were also relegated from the Championship last season! Although Blackburn thankfully bounced back to the Premier League at the first attempt

So it’s been mixed fortunes for our previous clubs but there is no better way to end the save and this story as a Premier League winner and Manager of the Year

Thanks to those of you who have read and followed yet another one of my Football Manager stories!​

 

[Rebuswad]

Thanks for this entertaining read, look forward to the next one.