A UK Journeyman Story

I love the name Tony Moxon (Arsenal player)

A very good player as well, Arsenal signed him for £58m from Leeds in the summer transfer window!

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It is lovely to see how you and TheNotSoSpecialOne like Shakur Omar very much.

He's a solid player for a mid-table Premier League side in this save, so to get him for £18m whilst in the Championship was a great deal!
 
A 2-0 win at Elland Road against a strong Leeds side was exactly the kind of result needed to convince me to keep the faith with Blackburn and the team I have built here.

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It also resulted in Roger Schmidt getting sacked as Leeds manager.

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That’s a Leeds side in the Europa League and predicted to finish in 8th, with a managerial vacancy. A very tempting managerial vacancy.

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But ultimately it was a job I didn’t apply for in the end as I’m not interested in a relegation scrap, with Brendan Rodgers ending up with the gig.

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That result against Leeds also made it 7 unbeaten for us.

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So, naturally, we lost our next match at home to Watford. The winner was scored by Omari Forson, a player we signed at Lincoln for £81,000 who is now a Premier League player!

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A tough run of fixtures followed in December where we got just 1 win in 5 games.

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We’ve actually only won 3 of our last 14 Premier League matches, yet sit in 9th in the table!

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It’s an impressive position to be in but we’re not going to finish any higher than that. At the same time, we’re not going to be dragged into a relegation fight either.

I’m pretty confident of that because of the defensive performances of the team - goalkeeper Mile Janjetovic has the 3rd most clean sheets in the league.

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And whilst the goals aren’t exactly flowing, our main striker Shakur Omar has 8 goals in 16 appearances which is all you can ask for.

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But I have to admit that I'm getting itchy feet at Blackburn.

With 1 day until the January transfer window, this is what the job market looked like

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Ernesto Valverde’s job was very insecure and Arsenal went on to lose their next match against Championship side Cardiff in the FA Cup.

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That resulted in a very appealing vacancy opening.

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Even though I still have a 3 star reputation, a job like Arsenal is the natural next step for me as we’re turning Blackburn into a solid midtable Premier League side

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So I instantly applied for the job.

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We couldn’t, could we?​
 
IMO, you should have taken the Leeds job. They were still competing in European competition, but I will admit Arsenal looks like an intriguing prospect.
 
IMO, you should have taken the Leeds job. They were still competing in European competition, but I will admit Arsenal looks like an intriguing prospect.

Yeah at the time I wasn't really convinced by the Leeds job, but I probably should have at least applied for it in the end...
 
One thing I’ve learned in this journeyman save is just how long the job application process takes, so I knew I’d take charge of Blackburn’s next game at least.

That game happened to be against our local rivals Burnley, who we comfortably beat 4-1 thanks to a hattrick from Noni which doubled his tally for the season.

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The talk in the press was not about that emphatic result though. Instead, it was about a certain former manager of Colwyn Bay, Oldham, and Lincoln, being the favourite for the Arsenal job.

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What a way to sign off! After seeing I was favourite with the press, I could not think of a more fitting end for my time at Blackburn than by beating Burnley!

It’s been 18 months of disappointment for Arsenal, with them currently in 7th position in the league after also finishing in that position last season.

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They have a quality squad but a lot of their players are past their peak, so some new blood on the pitch is also needed to regenerate the club.

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The prospect of a Europa Conference League run with them was also appealing.

There was just one problem…

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It turns out that a job like Arsenal is still very much out of my reach!

They can go and pluck Zidane from Real Madrid despite being 7th in the Premier League.

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So the wait to move to another club still goes on, maybe we are going to stay at Blackburn for a few more years after all!
 
Knowing I was staying at Blackburn for the rest of the season, I decided to get to work in the January transfer window.

I was forced into the first transfer with Dani Vivian, our holding midfielder, picking up an injury that could potentially end his season.

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So with that I decided to splash £5m on 33-year-old Scott McTominay from Everton to add some more experience (and quality despite his age) to midfield.

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Then we had the second unexpected transfer after our starting right back Jorgen Kampenhøi insisted on moving to Bayer Leverkusen

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He’s been awesome since signing but there was no way we could persuade him to stay and £27m was a good price for him, although Chelsea did get £7m of that.

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Getting a replacement for him was extremely difficult. So I went for a short-term option in signing Mason Holgate for £2m from Sheffield United.

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Signing another 33-year-old might seem odd, but his attributes were better than Kampenhoi so I decided to do it.

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Another player to leave was backup Jellando Duncan to Championship side Crystal Palace for £7.5m. He scored a crucial goal in our promotion season but did very little other than that during his time at the club.

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Then we had unexpected transfer number 3, although this one was probably more predictable.

Sebastian Frankle had wanted to leave for over a year ever since causing a fuss because we didn't sign another Croatian player for him. I was happy for him to leave if somebody paid his £47m release clause, but when I managed to negotiate £45m with a 15% of the next fee clause with Villa I decided to accept that too.

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It’s a good signing for them but a £35m profit for 18 months of mediocre performances is solid business in my eyes

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So what did I do with all that money? Nothing of course

Despite being in the relegation zone, Leeds were willing to let Jack Harrison leave on loan with just 6 months remaining on his contract.

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He’s the 3rd 33 year old to join in the transfer window but again it made sense to get him because he is considered to be our key player!

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I was actually very close to signing Nikola Milenković from Man City, but signing a 4th player over the age of 32 in the same window seemed ridiculous.

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So instead we went back to the loan market and secured Giorgio Scalvini on loan from Leicester

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Weirdly, that made it 2 players we signed on loan from clubs below us in the table!

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We’re still spending the least amount on wages in the division which again emphasises just how well we’re doing.

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But those sales should mean that we get an even bigger transfer budget in the summer, so even if we don’t move clubs soon then we’ll be able to go on a spending spree with Blackburn.​
 
I’m not saying that the rejection from Arsenal is hurting… but losing 2-0 at home to a poor West Brom side was not the kind of result I needed

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It also highlighted an ever-growing issue of us struggling to score goals from open play.

Luckily we scored 2 against Spurs in our next match… which we lost 5-2!

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Lorenzo Lucca scored just the 4 goals in that game. We’ve played Spurs 4 times since promotion to the Premier League and he has scored 13 goals - yes, 13 goals in 4 games! The hatred I have for him cannot be matched

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That result made it 5 without a win in the Premier League and the critics were really lining up - calling us hapless is a bit harsh though!

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It didn’t get any better after that either, with a big injury to key player Eddy Ortiz

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And then a 2-2 draw against Villa in a game that we dominated.

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Something had to give.

And finally it did in an absolutely mental game against Bournemouth where a 5-4 victory ensure that we reached the FA Cup quarter finals.

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Young Mexican Aguelira won the game by himself with 3 goals and 2 assists to finally announce himself after a poor start to life as a Blackburn player.

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The result means that we’ll play Brentford, who are bottom of the Premier League, in the quarter-final. So we actually have a decent chance to get to Wembley!

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The league form means we’ve dropped a few places but with 9 games left there are too many teams below us for us to get seriously dragged into a relegation battle.

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Elsewhere, club captain Alex Mowatt was sold for £200,000 (his contract was due to expire anyway) because he really wanted to join Toronto…

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Who then released him literally one day after signing him!

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I have no idea when it comes to the MLS registration rules but even so, that’s a really bizarre transfer!​
 
We went into our FA Cup quarter final against Brentford as favourites and a full strength XI was put out to see if we could get the win.

And a hattrick from 33-year-old Scott McTominay sent us into the FA Cup semi final - not a sentence I anticipated writing!

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Chelsea were the team to beat in order to get Blackburn into their first FA Cup final since 1960.

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Back in the league, we managed to go to the Etihad and salvage a 3-3 with Man City which was an incredible result.

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However it still meant that we had not won in 9 league matches, so the pressure was growing for us to get a win.

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We finally managed do that against Leeds thanks to a former Leeds player scoring for us as well!

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Noni Madueke, who we signed permanently for £10m from Leeds, has been a quality signing for us with 9 goals and 8 assists in all competitions this season.

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That strong Leeds side also look destined for the drop this season thanks to their Europa League run, whereas with just 5 Premier League games remaining we are in 11th position.

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I also half-heartedly applied for the Liverpool job after Pep Guardiola was sacked from there.

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It was worth a try, but I wasn’t even considered for the position as Max Allegri eventually ended up with the job. It’s obvious that we’re just not going to get a job at one of these bigger clubs…yet.

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So next up for us was Chelsea in the only really meaningful game left in our season - the FA Cup semi-final.

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It was the first time I’d managed a game at Wembley in the save and although Chelsea were clear favourites, I did have some optimism going into the match as it was a one-off where anything could happen.

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And an incredible team performance saw us come out on top at Wembley, with 2 goals in extra time enough to see us into the FA Cup final!

We’ll play moneybags Newcastle in the final, a team who made it to the Champions League quarter finals this season, so it’s not going to be easy.

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This season has admittedly been a bit of a drag at times, but it could all be worth it if we come out on top in the final!​
 
Disgustingly, the FA Cup final was scheduled to be played before the final Premier League game of the season.

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We coasted through our 4 league games after the semi-final win. I barely remember what happened in them, nor did I care what happened in them as the only thing that was important was the final.

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It was the chance to win the FA Cup for the first time in over 100 years for Blackburn, whereas Newcastle won the competition 3 years ago in 2027. And with them being 5th in the Premier League, they were favourites to lift the trophy.

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But we were there to give it a right go.

Our starting lineup contained Chukwuemeka and Omar, both of whom were in the Champioship with us, whereas record signing Hannibal could only make the bench.

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One very harsh omission was centre back Helder Bastos, who has played in every Premier League game this season, but was only ruled fit enough to play 45 mins so I decided to pick Dani Vivian ahead of him.

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But it turned out to be an absolute heartbreaker of a final.

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Newcastle won with virtually the last kick of the game despite us having the better chances throughout.

Juanjo Tejedor also decided to get sent off 10 mins after coming on as a sub so extra time may not have gone well anyway, but the way we lost the game was a sickener

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Tino Livramento, on his modest wage of £375,000 a week, was man of the match thanks to his assist but I am still truly gutted as on another day we could’ve won the game quite comfortably.

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It just evidently wasn’t to be.​
 
An FA Cup final and an 11th placed finish is not a bad season for this Blackburn side, however we did only get 1 more league point than we did last year.

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Incredibly, Leeds were relegated to the Championship all because they couldn't balance European and domestic football.

They lost 4-1 to Everton in the Europa League final and if they had won that game then they would be playing Champions League football next season whilst also being in the Championship!

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Our squad is now a solid mid-table Premier League outfit - we’re not gonna finish higher than 10th, but we’re not gonna be in a relegation battle either.

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Star player for us this season has been Noni Maudeke - again. 11 goals and 7 assists in the Premier League is a very impressive return for a player that cost us just £10m.

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Equally as impressive was 19-year-old Eddy Ortiz who got 9 Premier League goals and 6 assists from central midfield

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Both he and Jesus Aguilera have a £70m release clause to clubs in the Champions League - if nobody triggers them, they could be huge players for Blackburn next season.

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Looking ahead to the new season, I was expecting a big budget for the summer after fetching over £50m in January from player sales. But our budget is still only £57m

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It’s not a bad budget to have at all, but we do have £120m in the bank. And after all I’ve done for the club you’d think they’d give me a bit more money!

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Last season proved that jobs like Liverpool and Arsenal are out of our reach but at the same time we are the manager of the 11th best club in England so surely some team will we want me?

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We’re not going to get a job at a top 4 team but seeing a job like Villa become available suddenly seems quite appealing…​
 
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.
 

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.

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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.

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

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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.

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However, it turns out the press were right this time

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It’s decision time.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

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But the time has come for our next step.

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