Altrincham F.C. - Mission: Champions League
- Thread starter Hampus Silverholt
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Why did you only sign 5 loan players? I imagine it would make sense to sign 7-8 due to likely injuries and suspensions. Assuming at the more often than not seems possible to sign brilliant loan players on the cheap, often much more value for money than permanent signings, at least when you are not an established top 6 premiership club or around there.
Hampus Silverholt
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Yeah I'm finding momentum to be a big thing in this years game so as soon as we win 1 game we seem to win a few on the bounce so don't have any worries about relegation this year.
Yeah I get what you're saying. I think I'd just prefer to give players who I actually own a chance rather than flood the squad with loans. Ideally I want to have as few players on loan as I can as I don't want to be developing players for other clubs all the time. It was just in this instance that we needed to get 5 loans because the quality we had in the squad was not good enough to stay up in the Championship
Hampus Silverholt
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With 10 games of our first season in the Championship remaining, we are comfortably in 9th position and a top half finish seems likely.
Morale and momentum seem to have a massive impact on FM this year and we seem to be winning games that we should not be because of it. For instance, we beat Burnley at home despite having nowhere near a good enough squad to do so.
Our success has also been purely because of the performances of the 5 players that we have on loan. We have 6 players that average above 7.00 in the league and 5 of them are the loan signings.
Rio Corbett (on loan from Arsenal) is second top scorer and Ollie Fraser (on loan from Man United) has the highest average rating in the league.
Centre back Tim Roberts (also on loan from Man Utd) averages 7.13 and is the main reason why we have 15 clean sheets this season.
And right back Richard Sutton has 2 goals and 4 assists for us.
With 10 games to go I’m not expecting a playoff push but we can safely say that we’re not going to get relegated. It’s once again been an incredible season, even if it is the first time in 4 years that we haven’t won the league!
Morale and momentum seem to have a massive impact on FM this year and we seem to be winning games that we should not be because of it. For instance, we beat Burnley at home despite having nowhere near a good enough squad to do so.
Our success has also been purely because of the performances of the 5 players that we have on loan. We have 6 players that average above 7.00 in the league and 5 of them are the loan signings.
Rio Corbett (on loan from Arsenal) is second top scorer and Ollie Fraser (on loan from Man United) has the highest average rating in the league.
Centre back Tim Roberts (also on loan from Man Utd) averages 7.13 and is the main reason why we have 15 clean sheets this season.
And right back Richard Sutton has 2 goals and 4 assists for us.
With 10 games to go I’m not expecting a playoff push but we can safely say that we’re not going to get relegated. It’s once again been an incredible season, even if it is the first time in 4 years that we haven’t won the league!
Hampus Silverholt
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We ended up losing 6 of our last 10 league games but who cares? We finished 11th in the Championship!
It’s amazing that we stayed up never mind a top-half finish. What a season!
In the final games, I gave Christian Norton a run in the team. His 5 goals in 10 games gives me a decision to make on whether he should be first choice next season.
Another player that got a run in the team is Connor Stanley, who has now made 200 appearances for the club.
Not only that, he has scored for Altrincham in every single division. Just the Premier League to go!
We’ve been given a paltry budget of £1m for next year, which is even worse considering the wage budget.
But I’ve got some Northern Irish teenagers on loan in League One this season that could make the step up. The first is Shane Ryan, who helped Wimbledon to 10th place
And the next is Paul McVeigh, who has 6 senior caps for Northern Ireland but only scored 3 times in 17 matches for Scunthorpe last season.
The playoffs mean it's not officially the end of the season yet but I'm expecting Altrincham players to be amongst the individual awards at the end of the campaign.
It’s amazing that we stayed up never mind a top-half finish. What a season!
In the final games, I gave Christian Norton a run in the team. His 5 goals in 10 games gives me a decision to make on whether he should be first choice next season.
Another player that got a run in the team is Connor Stanley, who has now made 200 appearances for the club.
Not only that, he has scored for Altrincham in every single division. Just the Premier League to go!
We’ve been given a paltry budget of £1m for next year, which is even worse considering the wage budget.
But I’ve got some Northern Irish teenagers on loan in League One this season that could make the step up. The first is Shane Ryan, who helped Wimbledon to 10th place
And the next is Paul McVeigh, who has 6 senior caps for Northern Ireland but only scored 3 times in 17 matches for Scunthorpe last season.
The playoffs mean it's not officially the end of the season yet but I'm expecting Altrincham players to be amongst the individual awards at the end of the campaign.
Just caught up - fantastic effort. Championship is a difficult league as I'm experiencing with Exeter right now!
Great to see you steamroll all the way here, and great first season. The budget is tiny but hopefully you can work some more magic!
Great to see you steamroll all the way here, and great first season. The budget is tiny but hopefully you can work some more magic!
Hampus Silverholt
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Yeah it's more of a challenge but I actually don't mind after finding the last 3 or 4 seasons so easy. I'm happy to spend this season around midtable and go for promotion next year but we'll see
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What a season it has been. Against all the odds, we survived our first season in the Championship and managed an 11th placed finish.
Our loan signings in particular were a success this season, with all 5 averaging over 7.00
The best of the bunch was Ollie Fraser. His performances earned him player of the year in the Championship.
He had the highest average rating in the league, had the most player of the matches in the league and made 150 key passes… the next best was 106.
I don’t even know what constitutes a key pass but those numbers are ridiculous!
Tim Roberts also excelled at centre back and the fact that he won the most headers and interceptions in the league has persuaded me to extend his loan.
And striker Rio Corbett ended the season with 17 league goals which was the 4th highest in the league. However, I’ve decided against extending his loan because of the options we have coming through.
Elsewhere, a few squad players will be leaving when their contract expires, the msot significant of which is backup keeper Vitezslav Jaros.
He was first choice in the National League and League Two and performed well in the cups in the past 2 seasons. He will always be remembered for his contribution to get us where we are today.
Finally, the board sprung a surprise in announcing that a new stadium will be built.
To be honest we don’t really have the money for it and it does not seem worth building a stadium that holds less than 15,000 when the current one holds 7,000
But there’s nothing we can do. For now we have to see how we can spend our transfer kitty of £1.1m…
Our loan signings in particular were a success this season, with all 5 averaging over 7.00
The best of the bunch was Ollie Fraser. His performances earned him player of the year in the Championship.
He had the highest average rating in the league, had the most player of the matches in the league and made 150 key passes… the next best was 106.
I don’t even know what constitutes a key pass but those numbers are ridiculous!
Tim Roberts also excelled at centre back and the fact that he won the most headers and interceptions in the league has persuaded me to extend his loan.
And striker Rio Corbett ended the season with 17 league goals which was the 4th highest in the league. However, I’ve decided against extending his loan because of the options we have coming through.
Elsewhere, a few squad players will be leaving when their contract expires, the msot significant of which is backup keeper Vitezslav Jaros.
He was first choice in the National League and League Two and performed well in the cups in the past 2 seasons. He will always be remembered for his contribution to get us where we are today.
Finally, the board sprung a surprise in announcing that a new stadium will be built.
To be honest we don’t really have the money for it and it does not seem worth building a stadium that holds less than 15,000 when the current one holds 7,000
But there’s nothing we can do. For now we have to see how we can spend our transfer kitty of £1.1m…
Hampus Silverholt
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It’s the start of the 2025/26 season, our second in the Championship and we’ve probably had our quietest transfer window yet. For some reason we were unable to ask the board to increase the transfer budget so we have to be prudent with our dealings.
Firstly, Neil Farrugia has gone to Dundee United for £500,000.
He spent one season at the club as backup after coming in on a free so when Dundee offered half a million I
had to accept.
As mentioned previously, Mamadou Bamba joins us on a free from ASEC Mimosas and is already worth £1.8m.
We’ve also made our most expensive signing in Brandon Cooper for £575,000.
He’s on a lot of money (which is still a pittance compared to other Championship clubs) but we needed a centre back and so triggered his relegation release clause to sign him from Sheffield Wednesday after they were relegated to League One last season.
Then we signed another centre back, John Peacock.
£180,000 for him was a no brainer, even if we didn’t necessarily need him. He’s young, English and if someone wants to trigger his £12m release clause then they can be my guest.
Finally, I decided to extend the loan of Abdullahi Ikechukwu from Liverpool as I couldnt find a decent right winger in our price range. It means we have 3 players on loan at the club for the second season in a row
Rather than have a complete overhaul, we had a number of players in the squad who have been on loan at clubs in the lower divisions but are good enough to be back up.
That means that we still have the lowest wage expenditure in the division, we’re spending £90,000 a week whereas Bournemouth are spending £1m.
And our squad is good enough to be predicted to finish 12th in the league.
If we keep people fit and start well then I think we could make a playoff push this season.
Firstly, Neil Farrugia has gone to Dundee United for £500,000.
He spent one season at the club as backup after coming in on a free so when Dundee offered half a million I
As mentioned previously, Mamadou Bamba joins us on a free from ASEC Mimosas and is already worth £1.8m.
We’ve also made our most expensive signing in Brandon Cooper for £575,000.
He’s on a lot of money (which is still a pittance compared to other Championship clubs) but we needed a centre back and so triggered his relegation release clause to sign him from Sheffield Wednesday after they were relegated to League One last season.
Then we signed another centre back, John Peacock.
£180,000 for him was a no brainer, even if we didn’t necessarily need him. He’s young, English and if someone wants to trigger his £12m release clause then they can be my guest.
Finally, I decided to extend the loan of Abdullahi Ikechukwu from Liverpool as I couldnt find a decent right winger in our price range. It means we have 3 players on loan at the club for the second season in a row
Rather than have a complete overhaul, we had a number of players in the squad who have been on loan at clubs in the lower divisions but are good enough to be back up.
That means that we still have the lowest wage expenditure in the division, we’re spending £90,000 a week whereas Bournemouth are spending £1m.
And our squad is good enough to be predicted to finish 12th in the league.
If we keep people fit and start well then I think we could make a playoff push this season.
Hampus Silverholt
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Will be interesting to see how we do, just need to learn how to keep a clean sheet first!
Hampus Silverholt
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7 games into the Championship season, we sit 6th in the table.
But we’re only 3 points off 19th position because the league is so close. Our form has been a bit erratic with home losses at the start and end of the month and we’re yet to keep a clean sheet.
Yet we thrashed the favourites for the league Bournemouth 4-1 away.
Christian Norton scored a hattrick in that game and is the top scorer in the division with 6 in 7 games. But the number of chances he gets each game is ridiculous and he should have at least double the number of goals he has already.
We also knocked out Premier League side Leeds in the League Cup. They put out a strong side but we scored all our penalties in the shoot out.
That set us up for a third round match away against Manchester United. It’ll be the first time we’ve played them in the save.
So the next few months will be interesting. If we manage to sort ourselves at defensively then we could consolidate a place in the playoffs.
But we’re only 3 points off 19th position because the league is so close. Our form has been a bit erratic with home losses at the start and end of the month and we’re yet to keep a clean sheet.
Yet we thrashed the favourites for the league Bournemouth 4-1 away.
Christian Norton scored a hattrick in that game and is the top scorer in the division with 6 in 7 games. But the number of chances he gets each game is ridiculous and he should have at least double the number of goals he has already.
We also knocked out Premier League side Leeds in the League Cup. They put out a strong side but we scored all our penalties in the shoot out.
That set us up for a third round match away against Manchester United. It’ll be the first time we’ve played them in the save.
So the next few months will be interesting. If we manage to sort ourselves at defensively then we could consolidate a place in the playoffs.
Hampus Silverholt
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Yeah if we avoid injuries I think we could be in with a shout. Still can't believe we smashed Bournemouth!
Hampus Silverholt
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We have played a third of our league games and the Championship table is ridiculously close. We sit in 9th position and are just 2 points off the playoffs but also only 2 points ahead of Nottingham Forest in 14th.
At the moment we can’t string a run of results together which would see us enter the playoff places. We also lost 5-2 to a strong Man United side at Old Trafford in the League Cup.
And we’re also conceding far too many goals. We have just 2 clean sheets in 15 matches and have conceded the joint-most amount in the division with 28 (level with bottom club Bolton).
The leaky defence is not too big of an issue when we have the 2 most in-form players in the league in Ollie Fraser and Abdullahi Ikechukwu.
Ikechukwu, who is in his second season at the club on loan from Liverpool, has 6 goals and 8 assists in his 14 league matches.
Whereas Fraser is on course to become the Player of the Year in the Championship for the second season in a row.
We’ve lost 1 in our last 6 and our next 3 games are against teams below us so I’m hoping that by Christmas we are in a real shout of making the playoffs.
At the moment we can’t string a run of results together which would see us enter the playoff places. We also lost 5-2 to a strong Man United side at Old Trafford in the League Cup.
And we’re also conceding far too many goals. We have just 2 clean sheets in 15 matches and have conceded the joint-most amount in the division with 28 (level with bottom club Bolton).
The leaky defence is not too big of an issue when we have the 2 most in-form players in the league in Ollie Fraser and Abdullahi Ikechukwu.
Ikechukwu, who is in his second season at the club on loan from Liverpool, has 6 goals and 8 assists in his 14 league matches.
Whereas Fraser is on course to become the Player of the Year in the Championship for the second season in a row.
We’ve lost 1 in our last 6 and our next 3 games are against teams below us so I’m hoping that by Christmas we are in a real shout of making the playoffs.
Hampus Silverholt
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Since the last post we’ve played all of our November and December matches and results have gone well for us.
7 wins in the last 10 matches mean that we are seriously pushing for a playoff spot.
The Championship is so weird! Sides like Derby and West Brom are really struggling at the bottom of the table whereas Oxford, who are managed by Paulo Ferreira, cannot stop winning and could be in the Premier League next season.
We were also hit with the news that striker Paul McVeigh has a broken leg and will probably miss the rest of the season.
He only has one league goal because of the form of Norton but I was hoping he would be a striker that was with us for the long haul. He cost just £20,000 from Glentoran.
He is just one of 7 teenagers in the first team picture, all of which are contracted to the club.
Right back Richie Belcher, signed for £13,000 from TNS, recently got his first England under 21 cap.
John Peacock has established himself in the side as well. He was just £180,000 from Chelsea in the last transfer window.
And Shane Ryan has recently won his first cap for the Northern Ireland national team. He’s the only one of our youngsters who is wanted by Premier League clubs and I may be tempted to sell if a hefty fee comes in for him. He cost just £10,000 from Dungannon Swifts 2 years ago.
Finally, there is Felix Baker. He’s probably our best player but has just two assists and no goals in 20 Championship appearances.
I also have a decision to make on whether I want to give him a contract with a £28m release clause. I managed to get an extension clause in his original contract so he’s with us for the next 4 years but he’s the lowest paid player at the club so has been asking for a pay rise.
I don’t plan to make any transfers in January, only if we are forced to sell a first team player. For now we have a playoff push as well as an FA Cup 3rd round game against Bradford to look forward to.
The furthest we’ve got in the FA Cup is the 4th round so it would be nice to go on a run this season.
7 wins in the last 10 matches mean that we are seriously pushing for a playoff spot.
The Championship is so weird! Sides like Derby and West Brom are really struggling at the bottom of the table whereas Oxford, who are managed by Paulo Ferreira, cannot stop winning and could be in the Premier League next season.
We were also hit with the news that striker Paul McVeigh has a broken leg and will probably miss the rest of the season.
He only has one league goal because of the form of Norton but I was hoping he would be a striker that was with us for the long haul. He cost just £20,000 from Glentoran.
He is just one of 7 teenagers in the first team picture, all of which are contracted to the club.
Right back Richie Belcher, signed for £13,000 from TNS, recently got his first England under 21 cap.
John Peacock has established himself in the side as well. He was just £180,000 from Chelsea in the last transfer window.
And Shane Ryan has recently won his first cap for the Northern Ireland national team. He’s the only one of our youngsters who is wanted by Premier League clubs and I may be tempted to sell if a hefty fee comes in for him. He cost just £10,000 from Dungannon Swifts 2 years ago.
Finally, there is Felix Baker. He’s probably our best player but has just two assists and no goals in 20 Championship appearances.
I also have a decision to make on whether I want to give him a contract with a £28m release clause. I managed to get an extension clause in his original contract so he’s with us for the next 4 years but he’s the lowest paid player at the club so has been asking for a pay rise.
I don’t plan to make any transfers in January, only if we are forced to sell a first team player. For now we have a playoff push as well as an FA Cup 3rd round game against Bradford to look forward to.
The furthest we’ve got in the FA Cup is the 4th round so it would be nice to go on a run this season.
Hampus Silverholt
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So do I! But had the most mental January transfer window so who knows what will happen now!
Hampus Silverholt
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In the last post, I mentioned how Shane Ryan was attracting attention. I didn’t want him to leave but then Villa came in with an offer of £8m… so I negotiated the terms a bit.
Shane Ryan has joined Villa for £10m plus we get 50% of the next sale. The highest previous fee we have received is £575,000. £10 million, they paid TEN MILLION POUNDS for him!
I get that he’s only 19 and a Northern Ireland international but he only started 6 league games for us and didn’t get a goal or an assist. There’s also the fact that we spent £10,000 to bring him to the club 18 months ago so I make that a 1,000% profit!
That wasn’t even the craziest deal of the transfer window. Let me introduce to you Shane Ryan’s replacement.
Yup, Miralem Pjanic is an Altrincham player! He had no club and is retiring at the end of the season and with no obvious replacements available (that didn’t want ridiculously high wages) having him at the club for 6 months made sense. Plus, it’s Miralem Pjanic… playing for Altrincham!
But it got more hectic. Our right back Mamadou Bamba had a release clause I forgot about…
So he’s gone as well. £9.25m. We’re becoming quite the money makers!
He literally spent 6 months at the club and we made a £9m profit so I can’t really complain.
His unexpected departure meant that I didn’t have long to get a replacement. In the end, we signed Thomas Bak from Crystal Palace for £500,000 and he’ll do for now.
But there’s more!
Cardiff came in with a £3m bid for our striker Christian Norton. He’s top scorer in the league...
...but I still decided to accept.
He’s another one we’ve made a big profit on in a short space of time.
I know it may seem like a bizarre thing to sell the top scorer in the league, but I was never comfortable with Norton having 10 for finishing and that is reflected by the fact he has had far more shots on target than any other striker in the division.
I just can’t see him being a Premier League striker for us. Plus, I had already brought in a Russian striker called Pavel Kirilenko from Krasnodar. He was only £650,000 and is one of 3 strikers at the club who I all believe will be useful for us in the Premier League. I like his physical stats and the fact there is room for improvement. For that price, the move made sense.
So those massive transfer fees mean that we have a lot of money in the bank. No matter what happens this season, it will be spent on improving the squad in the summer, I just didn’t want to make any rash signings in January.
January was a month of madness not only off the pitch but on the pitch too. Somehow, we beat Crystal Palace 6-0 at home.
Connor Stanley had a rare start in that game and scored a hattrick.
He’s not Championship quality but has been with us since the National League North, scoring in every division along the way. I didn't think that he'd be scoring hattricks for us in the Championship when he first joined!
We were also knocked out of the FA Cup by Spurs in the fourth round. It could’ve been different if Norton scored a penalty at 0-0.
We actually only have one win in our last 5 in the league, so things are heating up around us.
6th position and a game in hand is positive. But we are yet to see the impact that those transfers will have on the squad. It’s going to be an interesting end to this season!
Shane Ryan has joined Villa for £10m plus we get 50% of the next sale. The highest previous fee we have received is £575,000. £10 million, they paid TEN MILLION POUNDS for him!
I get that he’s only 19 and a Northern Ireland international but he only started 6 league games for us and didn’t get a goal or an assist. There’s also the fact that we spent £10,000 to bring him to the club 18 months ago so I make that a 1,000% profit!
That wasn’t even the craziest deal of the transfer window. Let me introduce to you Shane Ryan’s replacement.
Yup, Miralem Pjanic is an Altrincham player! He had no club and is retiring at the end of the season and with no obvious replacements available (that didn’t want ridiculously high wages) having him at the club for 6 months made sense. Plus, it’s Miralem Pjanic… playing for Altrincham!
But it got more hectic. Our right back Mamadou Bamba had a release clause I forgot about…
So he’s gone as well. £9.25m. We’re becoming quite the money makers!
He literally spent 6 months at the club and we made a £9m profit so I can’t really complain.
His unexpected departure meant that I didn’t have long to get a replacement. In the end, we signed Thomas Bak from Crystal Palace for £500,000 and he’ll do for now.
But there’s more!
Cardiff came in with a £3m bid for our striker Christian Norton. He’s top scorer in the league...
...but I still decided to accept.
He’s another one we’ve made a big profit on in a short space of time.
I know it may seem like a bizarre thing to sell the top scorer in the league, but I was never comfortable with Norton having 10 for finishing and that is reflected by the fact he has had far more shots on target than any other striker in the division.
I just can’t see him being a Premier League striker for us. Plus, I had already brought in a Russian striker called Pavel Kirilenko from Krasnodar. He was only £650,000 and is one of 3 strikers at the club who I all believe will be useful for us in the Premier League. I like his physical stats and the fact there is room for improvement. For that price, the move made sense.
So those massive transfer fees mean that we have a lot of money in the bank. No matter what happens this season, it will be spent on improving the squad in the summer, I just didn’t want to make any rash signings in January.
January was a month of madness not only off the pitch but on the pitch too. Somehow, we beat Crystal Palace 6-0 at home.
Connor Stanley had a rare start in that game and scored a hattrick.
He’s not Championship quality but has been with us since the National League North, scoring in every division along the way. I didn't think that he'd be scoring hattricks for us in the Championship when he first joined!
We were also knocked out of the FA Cup by Spurs in the fourth round. It could’ve been different if Norton scored a penalty at 0-0.
We actually only have one win in our last 5 in the league, so things are heating up around us.
6th position and a game in hand is positive. But we are yet to see the impact that those transfers will have on the squad. It’s going to be an interesting end to this season!
leckuno
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Some amazing outgoings there that will help the club in the long term financially along with setting you up nicely for bringing in players who's contracts will be expiring at the end of the season or finding more young and exiting players on the cheap.