A UK Journeyman Story

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first game in the Europa League at home to the Bulgarian team I’m only half-convinced are actually real was an absolute walk in the park, with 33-year-old Douglas Luiz getting on the scoresheet in his 13th season at the club

We followed that up with some more really impressive results, first away to Manchester United in the league with a 1-1 draw before grabbing all 3 points away to 1st seeds Hoffenheim in our second Europa League game.

We’re just 2 games in but I firmly expect us to make it to the Europa League knockout rounds

Everything was going incredibly well for us, so it was only a matter of time before we were brought back down to earth.

That happened with a completely unexpected and rather undeserved home loss to recently promoted Burnley

The 1-0 loss also ended our record 24-game unbeaten run, which stretched back to last season.

The loss was even more annoying because if we had won, then we would be going into the October international break top of the Premier League table!

Our 4 summer signings have hit the ground running and all have contributed to 5+ goals across all competitions already!

Tammy Abraham has a very impressive 6 goals and 2 assists in 7 Premier League games but is being rather outshone by Haaland who has 14 Premier League goals already.

A busy few weeks approach as the games come thick and fast in the Premier League, Europa League and League Cup.

Those league games against Man City and Arsenal are going to be a real test to see if we can keep up with some of the best teams in the league!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After our unexpected home loss to Burnley last time out, we followed that up with two draws in the league against West Ham (which was a poor result) and Man City (which was a very good result)

That made it 3 games without a win in the Premier League, so the pressure was slightly on as we travelled to the Emirates to play Arsenal

But you know you’ve built a good team when you go to Arsenal and completely outplay them!

That game was sandwiched between easy victories against Partizan (who we also beat in the away tie) and Hull in the League Cup.

Our 4 wins from 4 Europa League matches also mean that we’re confirmed as winners of our group already - so there will be plenty of opportunities for the backups and youth players in the final 2 dead rubber matches!

And we went into the November international break on the back of an emphatic 5-1 win over local rivals West Brom, with Tammy Abraham again scoring 2 goals!

10 goals in 11 Premier League games is not enough to keep him in the England squad though apparently!

Those goals still only make him 4th highest scorer in the division behind Haaland, Mbappe and… Troy Parrott! All 3 are averaging a goal less than every 60 mins!

Still, Tammy’s goals have got us up to 4th and if we keep up this form we could be in a title race!

At the back, Jon Casado is turning into an incredible player for us - he was signed for big money from Athletic Bilbao just over a year ago but the £51m we paid is now looking like a bargain.

One of our more recent summer signings Jesus Aguilera has annoyingly picked up an injury that will keep him out for a month.

However that now gives £27m signing Leandro Pedroso the chance to stake his claim as our starting right winger - he already has 7 goals and 5 assists across the Europa League, League Cup and a handful of Premier League appearances.

So things are going very well at the moment - there’s a long way to go but this Villa team are very close to becoming the real deal.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’re 11 years into the save and now at the weird stage where people like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Joao Moutinho are Premier League managers!

A lot of our players are regens, one of which Yuri Kame decided to get sent off in his first game for Brazil!

And in celebration, he got injured for 6 weeks to leave us with limited options in attacking positions.

Not that it mattered as we got an impressive 3-0 win over top 4 rivals Newcastle and an even better 4-0 win over Spurs, who were finalists in the Champions League last season!

Little did I know that was just the start of the brilliant form as we ended up winning every single one of our games in December.

So as we head into 2032, it seriously looks like we’re in a 3-horse title race with City and United.

Tammy Abraham is proving to be one of my best ever signings as the 34 year old has 18 goals in 16 games! That still only makes him the 4th highest score in the league though.

Unsurprisingly the form has earned us a new contract on £55k a week - it’s crazy to think we were on just £140 a week in our first job of the save at Colwyn Bay!

In the Europa League, our squad players more than showed their worth by winning our last 2 group stage games comfortably. We finished top of Group D with 6 wins and 18 goals and will enter the Second Knockout Phase in March next year.

And backup goalkeeper Pontus Dahlberg was also the hero against Arsenal in the EFL Cup quarter final, saving 2 penalties in the shoot out to take us to the semi-final for the second season in a row as Villa boss

We’ll play Fulham in the sem-final, which means we’re big favourites to make it to the final.

It’s not going so well at my former club Blackburn though as Henrik Larsson was sacked with them 16th in the Championship table - just 20 months after we took them to an FA Cup final!

And it’s not faring any better for my previous club before them Lincoln, who are bottom of the Championship table.

But what a month it’s been at Villa, it seriously could not be going any better at the moment!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our hectic schedule continued at the start of January with our two EFL Cup semi-finals against Fulham.

Considering they were in a relegation battle we were strong favourites, but we still couldn’t beat them at home in the first leg.

The pressure was on in the second leg, so we went with a full strength team.

And that decision paid off, Tammy Abraham is the man!

We’ll play much stronger opponents Liverpool in the final - it’s our first final since the 2030 FA Cup final with Blackburn and the chance to win our first bit of silverware since the League One title as Lincoln manager!

Did the cup run impact league form? Nope!

The incredible set of results continued, this time with a 2-0 win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

And we kept on winning and winning and winning, so much so that by the end of January we had won 11 in a row!

For the first time ever we were top of the Premier League table. We also had a game in hand over Man City in 2nd position, who were the team we faced next.

So it was 1st against 2nd in the title race. Even though it was only January it still felt like a pivotal game.

But it was not to be for us as we suffered only our second loss of the season - Haaland’s 2 late goal put gloss on the result for City but the game showed that we’re still slightly behind the top teams in the Premier League

That was our only loss in January, so it was still a very successful month overall for us especially as City went on to drop points

So things are hotting up at the top of the table, we’re level on points with City and United but still with a game in hand.

Not for a lack of trying, but it was a quiet January transfer window for us.

Backup striker Jamie Donley wanted to leave, so the £22m offered by Leeds was good enough to convince me to sell him.

That freed up a bit of funds which I wanted to use to bring in another quality central midfield player.

However it didn’t go to plan, as Man City’s Reinier opted to join Chelsea instead of us whereas Jochen Trager decided to sign a new deal at Bayern after our bid for him was accepted!

So there are no new additions to the squad for now, which I hope doesn’t come back to bite me.

Next up is the League Cup final against Liverpool and a chance of silverware for the first time as Villa boss.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It feels like we’ve had a game in hand on Man City and United for almost all of the season, and that game against Southampton was finally played in February.

A routine 3-1 saw us go top of the table once again. With 13 games remaining it was really becoming a dare to dream moment.

But that bubble was soon burst at home to Everton. We were so unlucky to lose as we were much the better team - but it’s the results that matter!

That result had to be put to one side though, as our first final as Villa boss approached.

And it was a brilliant performance by the players, with Tammy Abraham scoring an early screamer and substitute Leandro Pedroso grabbing a winner late on.

Despite the success we’ve had at Blackburn and Villa, that was our first trophy as manager since winning League One with Lincoln!

The result immediately caused Allegri to lose his job as Liverpool manager. It’s a job I would’ve been interested in at the start of the season, but if we’re going to win a major competition I think Villa are the club that we’ll be at.

Good results continued after that, with two consecutive 5-goal hauls against Sheffield United and Crystal Palace in the league.

It is still stupidly close at the top of the table - just 10 games remain and we’re 3 points off City (but still with a game in hand!)

Something I’ve not appreciated enough this season is how good defensively we have been - we’ve conceded just 18 goals in our 28 matches in the league so far

Left-back Junior is a big part of that form, but it’s his attacking output that’s been more impressive this season. He has 15 assists in the Premier League so far

At times I’ve almost forgotten we’re still in the Europa League as it’s been so long since we’ve played in the competition after winning our group comfortably.

Scottish side Aberdeen will be our opponents in the 2nd Knockout Round.

It’s probably one of the best teams we could’ve faced at this stage and I have to admit that there aren’t too many teams left in the competition who I fear.

We’ve also been drawn against Man City in the quarter-final of the FA Cup. With such a busy schedule, it might have to be a game and a competition that I sacrifice in order to concentrate on the league and Europe.

Some huge games are up next. We play Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea in our next 3 league games so we’re going to know if we’re still in a title race by the time we’ve played them all!

It’s truly getting to the business end of the season now - massive games in the Europa League and Premier League await us and could determine our season.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Europa League knockout time - we’ve come a long way since being in the second division of Wales many months ago!

We utterly dominated the first leg of our last 16 tie, but could only beat Aberdeen 2-1.

It was a solid performance in second leg though, with back up centre back Burger scoring the solitary goal.

That set us up with a quarter-final against Hannover, who are 4th in the Bundesliga. They’re no pushovers but a team of our quality should be beating them over 2 legs.

The relentless schedule was creeping up on us at this point and is was one step too far against Man City in the FA Cup quarter final - the game going to extra time did us no favours with our packed schedule!

And sure enough, it caught up with us against Hannover.

It was a really dissapointing first leg in Germany and we really should’ve won the game, but ended up losing 1-0.

Tiredness and fatigue were creeping into many members of the squad - so the next 3 games being in the space of 5 days was the last thing that we needed!

The second leg against Hannover was my sole priority, yet we still managed to get a 3-1 win against Southampton in my 500th career match.

Tammy Abraham played 60 minutes in that Tuesday game and was our hero two days later against Hannover.

His early goal set us on our way to a 4-1 victory at Villa Park and a Europa League semi-final!

It’s another Scottish team who we’re up against, but this time we face Celtic in what will comfortably be the biggest two games of the save so far. If we do progress then it will be Bayer Leverkusen or Everton in the final.

Playing Newcastle 2 days after the Hannover second leg was too much for us as a 3-1 defeat pretty much confirmed we were out of the title race, even though we followed that up with a morale-boosting 5-0 win over rivals West Brom

League leaders Man City were playing Arsenal at the same time as the West Brom game - victory for them would mean they’d go 5 points clear with 5 games to go.

But they actually lost!

So with 5 games to go, we’re still just 2 points behind Man City. As exciting as it is to be in the Europa League semi-final, we are very much in a Premier League title race still!

We’re not favourites by any stretch, but there’s a chance…​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Have loved this all year mate....just wondering what your plans for FM23 might be?

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Have loved this all year mate....just wondering what your plans for FM23 might be?

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?

 

[leckuno]

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?

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

 

[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!​

 

[leckuno]

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

 

[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