Altrincham F.C. - Mission: Champions League

We're into a new month but the same old problems keep on occurring. Our first game back after the international break was a 0-0 draw against lowly Huddersfield.

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I’m fed up of getting these results. I’ve not got time to watch the game on comprehensive highlights to figure out what's going wrong but no matter what I change, we just do not take our chances.

It’s especially annoying when our main competitors Spurs are winning 9-0!

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However, taking our chances in the Champions League has been no issue. Young striker Brian Morrison popped up with 2 more goals against Fenerbahce.

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He also got another goal as we thrashed them 7-2 in the reverse fixture, meaning that we qualified for the knockout stages with 2 matches to spare.

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Our final game before the November international break was a 1-1 draw against Man City.

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It wasn’t a particularly bad result, but Spurs can’t stop winning so are 3 points ahead of us in the league.

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Although we’re second, I’m more pleased with the tactic and the way we’re playing. Our strikers Thiago Ryan and Morrison are now scoring and our attacking midfielder, who has mainly been Alfredo Jose, is getting plenty of assists.

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Now we have to go and knock Spurs off their perch!
 
For some reason we’re making a habit of performing abysmally straight after international breaks.

This time it was against Norwich, where we went down to 10 men and made them look like prime Brazil in 1970.

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But once again we followed up a hugely annoying defeat with a lot of wins.

We also finished top of our champions league group, winning all 6 matches and scoring 22 goals.

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We will face Atletico Madrid in the knockout round. It’ll be the first time we’ll play them in 4 years since we beat them at the same stage in 2032 (Thiago Ryan scored one of the goals).

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Back in the Premier League, we had 3 huge games over the Christmas period. First up was Spurs on the 22nd December where we desperately needed a win to close the gap at the top.

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And we showed them who’s in charge with a brilliant performance. Thiago Ryan, Pozos and 30 year old former Arsenal man Bennett inflicted a first league loss on Spurs and put us right back in the title race.

Next up was Chelsea on Boxing Day. Another 3-0 win followed.

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It was also enough to get Klopp the sack! (Frank Lampard is currently the Man United manager too!)

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But those excellent results were, of course, followed up with a loss against Man United on New Year's Day.

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If anything it means we’re in for a heck of a title race. Both us, Spurs and United are on the same amount of points after 21 matches.

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We face Chelsea and Arsenal away in January and also have a Carabao Cup semi-final against Norwich. Hopefully, the loss against Man United is just a blip.
 
This post is solely dedicated to Felix Baker.

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Our long-serving club captain Baker wanted a new challenge. I tried to ask if he would go at the end of the season but he was not having it.

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When I say long-serving, I mean it. He’s in his 12th season at the club which is remarkable. What’s more remarkable is that he’s never been out of place as we’ve gone from Championship strugglers to Champions League winners.

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He’s the only player in the squad to win the Championship twice and Premier League 3 times. There’s also the small matter of a Champions League to go with that too. Oh and 2 FA Cups.

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So it felt strange and a bit sad to be accepting a bid from Aston Villa for him.

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And it felt even stranger selling him to Villa

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After 447 total appearances, 50 goals and 78 assists he deserved to get the move he wanted.

Thank you for everything Felix Baker. Please don’t score against us.
 
Our traditional, monthly 0-0 draw occurred against Norwich in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final.

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And in our next match, we notched up 32 shots against Leicester yet only scored one goal.

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It’s a team effort, but inside forward Michael Adjetey has been in abysmal form for us this season. It’s fair enough not scoring, but he’s constantly dropping 6.4 average ratings are leaving me no choice but to drop him.

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He again performed poorly in the most uninspiring 3-0 win over Norwich… which put us into the Carabao Cup final.

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It was completely undeserved but gives us a chance to defend the trophy we won last season against Brighton.

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At the moment, I’m really struggling to get the most out of our world-class squad. Results like a 2-0 loss against Arsenal, where we had just 8 shots, really get on my nerves as I don’t really know what to do.

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The more I try and push for a goal, the less shots we have - it’s so frustrating I can’t even comprehend it. The advice I get is to add ‘shoot on sight’ but we have literally never scored when I add that instruction.

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Still, we’re picking up enough wins to still be at the top of the Premier League.

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But I am a bit afraid of our Champions League clash versus Atletico Madrid.

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I honestly have no idea which Altrincham team is going to turn up in that match.
 
At this point in the save, it has become a formality for us to progress easily from the Champions League First Knockout Round.

This time around, the first leg was away against Atletico Madrid. We had twice as many shots as them, yet our team full of world-class footballing superstars could not score.

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And to follow that up we drew 0-0 with Spurs. That made it 3 out of our last 4 games in which we had failed to score.

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We did, however, win with relative ease against Brighton in the League Cup final to win the competition for the second season in a row.

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It was nice to win yet another trophy for Altrincham, but the next match for us was the second leg against Atletico.

We won the Champions League two seasons ago, lost in the final last season and needed to win by two goals in order to avoid embarrassment here.

So a Thiago Ryan penalty was a great way to start the encounter.

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Needing just one more goal to get through, we relentlessly went at Atletico Madrid. Yet at full time it was still 1-0.

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Just look at those full-time stats!

Extra-time beckoned and for all of our chances created in open play, it was a set-piece which finally saw us score.

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It was a nerve-wracking end to the match as we shut up shop, but Altrincham are still alive!

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The Champions League show goes on! It was a thoroughly deserved win as we dominated them in the second leg.

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We will face PSG in the quarter-final, which will be the first time we’ve ever played them. What’s more interesting is that Man United knocked out Barcelona so we’re now arguably favourites to win the competition!

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That’s because we are top of the Premier League by 4 points.

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It’s mainly down to the form of Thiago Ryan, who looks on course for a second Premier League golden boot in his career.

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And we’re also into an FA Cup semi-final after a perfect March 2036.

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The next handful of matches are going to make or break our season!
 
After almost ******** up a routine win over Norwich in the league, we faced 2 huge games in 4 days against Man City and then PSG in the Champions League.

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A Jean-Marc Chevalier hattrick saved the day against City as his goals salvaged a draw for us and kept the gap at the top to 4 points.

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It also ensured that he would start against PSG ahead of our record signing Sakamoto… who we signed from PSG for £112!

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The first leg of the quarter-final was at home. Just like the Atletico Madrid game, we dominated open play but our goals came from a penalty and corner.

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Not that I’m complaining! A 2-0 was a great result and meant that we just needed to keep things tight in Paris to make it to the semi-final.

And that’s exactly what we did.

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Chevalier again proved his worth as the Frenchman scored the only goal in Paris to confirm our place in the semi-finals of the Champions League once again.

We will be up against Real Madrid in the semi-final, a team who we’ve knocked out of the competition twice before.

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They have some quality players but are 3rd in La Liga. So it is a tie we should be winning.

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We also cruised past Championship side Bristol City in the FA Cup semi-final 5-1.

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And to top it all of, we are 3 points clear with a game in hand with a favourable run of fixtures coming up in the Premier League.

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Did somebody mention the quadruple?
 
After almost ******** up a routine win over Norwich in the league, we faced 2 huge games in 4 days against Man City and then PSG in the Champions League.

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A Jean-Marc Chevalier hattrick saved the day against City as his goals salvaged a draw for us and kept the gap at the top to 4 points.

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It also ensured that he would start against PSG ahead of our record signing Sakamoto… who we signed from PSG for £112!

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The first leg of the quarter-final was at home. Just like the Atletico Madrid game, we dominated open play but our goals came from a penalty and corner.

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Not that I’m complaining! A 2-0 was a great result and meant that we just needed to keep things tight in Paris to make it to the semi-final.

And that’s exactly what we did.


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Chevalier again proved his worth as the Frenchman scored the only goal in Paris to confirm our place in the semi-finals of the Champions League once again.

We will be up against Real Madrid in the semi-final, a team who we’ve knocked out of the competition twice before.


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They have some quality players but are 3rd in La Liga. So it is a tie we should be winning.

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We also cruised past Championship side Bristol City in the FA Cup semi-final 5-1.

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And to top it all of, we are 3 points clear with a game in hand with a favourable run of fixtures coming up in the Premier League.

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Did somebody mention the quadruple?
Things shaping up nicely....
 
Our hardest remaining Premier League game on paper was a trip to Anfield. So a 3-2 all but sealed the title.

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It really was a great win but was tarnished by an injury to first-choice left-back Idlemar.

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Which was even more devasting because backup left-back Marcos Alberto was also injured!

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However, the league was pretty much wrapped up with a win over Villa in my 900th game in charge of Altrincham.

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Our attentions soon turned to Real Madrid in the Champions League, who we had to face without a recognised left-back.

Alfredo Jose picked a great time to score his first of the season but the Spanish side got a goal on the break to make it all square in the first leg.

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3 days later, we faced Bournemouth in the Premier League.

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An underwhelming 1-1 draw was enough to confirm our fourth Premier League title in a row!

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It’s an incredible achievement to have won it that many times with pretty much the same players.

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But we must now focus on the second leg against Real Madrid.

If we keep a clean sheet, we are through. Whether we can do that without a left-back remains to be seen...
 
After drawing 1-1 at the Bernabeu, we knew that a clean sheet would be enough to take us into the Champions League final.

And that’s exactly what we did.


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It wasn't pretty, but we’re into the Champions League final for the 3rd successive season!

And instead of facing Barcelona for the 3rd time, we will be up against Manchester United in the final! What a tie!

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In true Altrincham style, we followed up that result with a loss to Everton in our penultimate Premier League match. It’s honestly astonishing how miss so many chances.

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So despite getting to the Champions League final and winning the Premier League for the 4th year in a row, we’ve actually gone 4 games without winning.

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However, we beat Newcastle 3-0 in our final Premier League match, which was excellent preparation for the FA Cup final against Arsenal.

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After an 8th placed finish in the Premier League, the pressure was on Arsenal boss Guardiola to beat us.

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We expectedly dominated the 90 minutes, but the game went to extra-time courtesy of former Altrincham player Noah Lowens.

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But we were rampant in extra time, scoring 3 goals.

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Thiago Ryan was the man for us again. I’ve lost count of how many times he’s scored for us in important fixtures during the save.

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That result proved to be the last domestic game for Pep, he was sacked after losing the Europa League final.

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So, we have just one game remaining this season.

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We've won the Carabao Cup, Premier League and FA Cup this season so are just one match away from winning the quadruple with Altrincham!
 
****, you make all those opposing GK look like Buffon. I just don't understand...hopefully this is addressed in FM21.

Good luck on the quad! Can't wait!
 
****, you make all those opposing GK look like Buffon. I just don't understand...hopefully this is addressed in FM21.

Good luck on the quad! Can't wait!

I know, it's beyond ridiculous! Our centre backs win a lot of headers from attacking corners but to constantly have around 30 shots and score once or twice most games is very annoying
 
This will be our 3rd Champions League final in a row.

Thankfully, we don’t have to face Barcelona this time but United were the team that knocked them out on the way to the final.

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In the Premier League this season we lost against them at Old Trafford but beat them at home.

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Their star player is William Murillo who we sold to Barcelona for big money 4 seasons ago.

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Just 2 days before the 2036 Champions League final against Manchester United our goalkeeper Matteo Ferrarini - the best in the world - picked up an injury.

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There was no way he was missing the final, so he was given injections to get through the injury.

Ferrarini, along with 9 other players, will be appearing in their 3rd successive Champions League final for Altrincham.

Matteo Ferrarini - GK

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Oleg Bondarenko - RB

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Hector Pozos - CB. Surely the best centre back in the world

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Cyril Ferreira - CB. Scored the opening goal when we won in the final 2 seasons ago.

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Idlemar - LB. Recently back from injury for a 3rd Champions League final at just 22 years of age.

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Eder Claveria - DM. Played for us in the Championship along with Thiago Ryan.

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JJ Vazquez - CM. Scored a penalty in the loss in the final last year and will be our captain this time around

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Alfredo Jose - AM. Playing in a more advanced role than in the previous 2 Champions League finals.

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Jean-Marc Chevalier - RW. Appearing in his first Champions League final. 21 goals this season means he’s keeping our record signing Sakamoto on the bench.

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Michael Adjetey - LW. Has been poor this season but loves the big occasion…

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Thiago Ryan - ST. The greatest striker in our history. We need just one more big performance from him…

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Right then

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Let’s do this.
 
Deadlock in the 2036 Champions League final was broken by Altrincham’s greatest-ever striker (probably).

Thiago Ryan scored a brilliant opening goal to give us the advantage early on. The love I have for him cannot be matched.

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The Brazillian scored in the final of our Champions League triumph 2 seasons ago, as did Michael Adjetey. So it was only right for Adjetey to also score for Altrincham in the 2036 final too!

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It made his poor form this season instantly worthwhile.

For once we dominated the scoreline rather than the match stats, but United would not roll over.

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And to make matters worse Thiago Ryan had to go off after pulling a hamstring midway through the second half

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But I knew it was going to be our day when right back Oleg Bondarenko appeared on the overlap with 12 mins left.

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You beauty! What a time and occasion to score your first goal of the season!

We comfortably saw out the last 10 mins to secure a memorable victory.

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We have won the Champions League!

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That makes it twice in three seasons for Altrincham!

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And it completes the perfect season for us. We have won the domestic quintuple (if you count the Community Shield)

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What an incredible season! It quite literally could not have gone better.
 
Well that was some way to prepare for the release of FM21!!

Will you keep going though? Must be hard to stop after that season! Great to read - well done on the QUADRUPLE!

If you do move on to FM21 will you do a similar challenge?
 
Well that was some way to prepare for the release of FM21!!

Will you keep going though? Must be hard to stop after that season! Great to read - well done on the QUADRUPLE!

If you do move on to FM21 will you do a similar challenge?

I think it's quite a fitting way to end the save to be honest. My saves normally end with a 'so near yet so far' feeling so to actually win every trophy available to us is a great way to finish!

Not really sure on my plans for FM21 yet, it probably won't be a save in England though. Considering my last three saves on the last 3 games have been in Scotland, Ireland and England I think it's time to spice things up so I might see what I can achieve in some other European league
 
The 2035/36 ended with us winning every trophy available to us, in what was a fitting way to end the save.

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We won the Premier League for the 4th season in a row and what was interesting about this season was the fact that all 3 promoted teams stayed up and comfortably so. Also Norwich have turned from a mid-table team to Champions League contenders!

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With 26 league goals, Thiago Ryan won the Premier League golden boot for the second time. (They’ll be more on him to come in a separate post)

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Goalkeeper Matteo Ferrarini won the Premier League golden glove once again. He's so good that the £57m we paid for him 3 seasons ago was honestly a bargain.

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Both of them were amongst the 5 Altrincham players named in the 2035/36 Team of the Year - all of them for the 3rd season in a row (and Thiago Ryan for the 4th year in a row!)

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We played 64 matches this season, so a lot of squad members were used. It’s also still easy to forget that the average age of the squad is only 24.

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Another nice thing to see was that Stockport, a long time affiliate, were promoted to the Championship after winning the League One playoff final.

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What a year it’s been. And what a save it’s been!

With nothing else to achieve (aside from the Club World Cup, which is next summer) I feel this is a good point to end the save with the release of FM21 imminent.

The next few posts will take a walk down memory lane as we look back on how we took Altrincham from the National League North to Quintuple winners.
 
Its been a terrific journey and what a way to finish. I look forward to seeing what FM21 brings
 
It’s hard to succinctly put into words how much we’ve achieved with Altrincham, so here’s a nice graphic of all the trophies that we’ve won.

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We’ve been in charge of Altrincham for over 6,000 days, spent £1.38 Billion on transfers and received £1.36 Billion. So we’ve taken Altrincham from the sixth tier to the best in the world with a net transfer spend of £20m. Not too bad.

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As Tim Sherwood said, a 59% win ratio is second to none.

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And we were just 60 points off appearing in the all-time top 20 managers in the Hall of Fame.

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However, our domestic exploits mean that I’m the 4th most successful manager in English football history.

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We’ve always been financially successful - from selling average Northern Irish players for £10m back in the Championship, to getting rid of deadwood for £35m in the Premier League, all whilst not trying to spend extortionate amounts on wages.

And so we finish the save with £385m in the bank, which is the most we’ve ever had.

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And the revenue we produce is crazy when you think back to the days of us constantly having the smallest wage budget no matter what division we were in.

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We’ve still only got the 3rd highest wage spend in England and are spending significantly less than Man City.

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In terms of facilities, we’ve just been downgraded because of “technological advances” but also actually never got the chance to improve training facilities beyond “good.” Our 31,000 capacity stadium is unsurprisingly now too small for the greatest club in the world.

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We are also the most reputable football club in the world.

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True club legends like Felix Baker and Thiago Ryan are only classed as ‘icons’ in the game which is just crazy.

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They’re 2 players who have been essential to the success of Altrincham and we’ll cover them, and many more, in the next and final post of this story.
 
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