Altrincham F.C. - Mission: Champions League

[Hampus Silverholt]

Hello. It’s been a while.

My first save on FM20 was with Altrincham, but the ridiculous match engine (missed one-on-ones, missed penalties and just general disregard for the team instructions that you set up) made the game unplayable for me and I was fully expecting to not play it again.

Only a very specific set of circumstances would mean that I came back to FM20. Like, for instance, a global pandemic meaning I was forced to self-isolate for a number of weeks/months and have nothing else to do but play FM20.

And so here we are. Altrincham F.C.

Having not thought that I’d share this story on FM Base, you join me near the end of my third season in charge in April 2022...​

 

[Froug]

Yasss Hampus, welcome back always love following your stories

Couldn't agree more! The Sligo and Berwick saves were bangers (Scott Scott the Scott, anyone?). A shame that we couldn't follow this one from the beginning.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Yasss Hampus, welcome back always love following your stories

Was honestly going to wait until FM21 because the match engine was annoying me so much before Christmas, but it obviously was just meant to be...

Couldn't agree more! The Sligo and Berwick saves were bangers (Scott Scott the Scott, anyone?). A shame that we couldn't follow this one from the beginning.

Yet on both of those saves I didn't actually win the Champions League! 2 finals with Berwick and a Europa League final and Champions League quarter finals with Sligo is the best I did. Hence the name of the story

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

So, as I stated in the last post, I’m currently in April 2022 and have just signed a new contract until 2024.

But enough about the present. Here’s a recap of our last two seasons.

2019/20 - National League North - 7th Position

League: Finished 7th - Knocked out by Chester in Playoff 1st Round
FA Cup: Lost 2-1 to Southend in the 1st Round
FA Trophy: Knocked out in 3rd Qualifying Round by Blyth

We weren’t expected to get promoted so a 7th place finish was decent although it was harsh to get knocked out by Chester on penalties in the playoffs.

2020/21 - National League North - 1st Position

League: Champions!
FA Cup: Lost 1-0 to Port Vale in 1st Round
FA Trophy: Lost 3rd Qualifying Round to Gateshead

We won the league on goal difference in our second season in charge. Having unlimited loans helped but it meant a massive overhaul was needed for the next season…

5th April 2022

The massive overhaul happened and this is the current situation in our first season in the National League.

We are top by 4 points although Chesterfield have a game in hand.

The reason we are top is because of shrewd transfers in the summer and the fact that we have Tyrone O’Neill on loan from Middlesbrough. 22 goals in 39 games.

So yeah, you join me as I’m on the brink of getting semi-professional Altrincham into League Two. What could possibly go wrong?​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We had 4 games remaining and the first was against 4th position Aldershot who had the top scorer and best player in the league Timmy Abraham (brother of Tammy).

I was a bit worried going into the game, but it turns out I didn't need to be.

A Connor Stanley hattrick did the job in the end.

He has been with us since the start of last season after being released by Man United and could still do a job for us in League 2 if we get there.

The victory over Aldershot was made sweeter by the fact that Chesterfield lost their game in hand. So with 3 games in the league remaining, we were 4 points ahead.

So another 3-0 win, this time against Macclesfield, went down a treat.

With 2 games remaining, it was between us and Cambridge United.

A win away against Notts County would give us the National League title. However, the game was defined by 3 minutes.

Our centre back decided to get sent off, so we had to bring on our only defender off the bench. Then our left-back decided to get injured, so we had to play a left-winger at left-back. Naturally, we lost game.

A win in our final game would still get us promoted though. It was at home against already relegated Hereford and started swimmingly.

1-0 down after 2 mins, the bottle job was on. But thankfully our young side held their nerve.

We’ve done it! We’ve earned back to back promotions and Altrincham are promoted to the Football League!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Did you start with any badges and experience?

Yeah started with a continental C licence and playing experience of professional at regional level. Didn't want to be a world class manager but also didn't want to start with no qualifications.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first season in the National League turned out to be our only season in the National League as we went up as champions at the first time of asking!

That was despite having the 4th lowest salary in the league.

We had a tiny squad this season but the players available to us did the job.

Along with top scorer O’Neill, Max Sheaf was one of our best performers of the campaign and we’ll be looking to get him in when his contract at Hull expires in the summer.

Part of our success was down to getting some good players for free from the youth squads of Premier League clubs. Vitezslav Jaros and Kwaku Oduroh were 2 of those and both are already wanted by bigger clubs.

As good as they’ve done for us this season, the current squad won’t keep us in League 2 next year so a big transfer window awaits as we go into our first season as a professional club.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

nice I've been toying with starting down there with York as something to keep me going through this after work everyday

Yeah York would be a good side to start with, they've got a big budget for the division that they're in

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The 2022/23 season is upon us and Altrincham are in League Two. A lot of transfers have been made and there are still a few loans signings still to be made.

Once again I’ve raided the under-23 teams of Premier League clubs to pick up a lot of good players on free transfers. They include Aaron O’Driscoll and James Olayinka.

Doing it this way means that we have a very competitive squad, but almost all of these young players would only sign if they could have a release clause in their contract. So if they do well then they could be off to bigger clubs.

Still, the signings mean we’re predicted to finish 11th and we still have space for 4 loan signings which could add some real quality to the side.

Our first game as a professional side is away against Hull in the League Cup before we face Swindon in our first league game.

The plan has always been to stay up this season and get promoted next season, but with a couple of quality loan signings who knows what we could achieve this campaign.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first game as a professional club was away against League One Hull City in the EFL/Carabao Cup. Nothing was expected from the game and nothing was achieved.

It was nice for Callum King-Harmes to score the first goal for us as a professional side as he’s one of our longest serving players

Next up was Swindon away in our first league game. Right-back Zak Swanson was making his debut in the game after his Arsenal contract expired in the summer.

So he celebrated it by getting sent off after 19 minutes.

Yet that didn’t stop us.

It was a brilliant win. Tyrone O’Neill scores no matter what division we’re in and James Olayinka scored a screamer to consolidate the points.

We have also made the first of our loan signings. For some reason Mitko Mitkov (great name) has decided to join us on loan from Leeds despite being Championship quality.

The signings we’ve made mean that we are now predicted to finish 2nd

The top 3 automatically get promoted so there’s a possibility that we could get back-to-back-to-back promotions. Just the 45 games to go…​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We are 7 games into the season and it is going well.

We’re in 5th position having won 4 of our opening 7 games.

I’m a bit confused as to what constitutes a good season for us considering that we’re now predicted to finish in the top 2 due to the signings we’ve made.

Those loan signings include left back Dominic Thompson from Brentford and Jean-Pierre Tiéhi from Fulham, who looks far too good for League Two

Tyrone O’Neill had a 4 star rating at the start of the season but that is now all of a sudden 2.5 stars. I think that owes to just how good our signings have been.

So it’s going to be interesting to see what the next few months hold for us. They’re going to determine if we’re in for another promotion push or on for mid-table mediocrity, which I’d still be more than happy to take.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

In the previous post I questioned whether we’d be in for a mid-table borefest or a promotion push this season. It turns out it’s very much the latter… Just look at our form in September and October!

It means we are top of League 2 by 3 points after 18 games.

It’s not as if we have a complex tactic that’s overwhelming teams, I honestly think it’s just the signings we’ve made. I much prefer spending time trying to find the best players to buy rather than perfecting the tactic.

David Parkhouse was signed as a backup striker after his Sheffield United contract expired, but he now has 5 goals in 6 starts so has displaced Tyrone O’Neill in the side.

Timi Sobowale and Charlie Savage are other examples of players who are playing an important part after we signed them for free in the summer (from Man Utd and Man City)

But my favourite player is James Olayinka, who is our joint top-scorer with 6 goals despite being a box-to-box midfielder. All of his goals have been from outside the area.

Next up we have Halifax Town in the FA Cup and considering the form we’re in I’m hoping we can get to the 3rd round of the competition at least.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

November was an interesting month for us as we continued our brilliant league form and had a kind draw in the 2nd round of the FA Cup at home against Lincoln. So of course we were knocked out by them after bottling a 2-0 lead even though we’re above them in the league.

We also finished 3rd in our Mickey Mouse cup group, but I cannot overstate how little I care about the competition.

It meant that from December, all that was remaining for us in the season was our league games

We are now in February...

We. Cannot. Stop. Winning.

It’s honestly getting a bit ridiculous now. After 30 games we are 19 points above fourth position.

It’s hard to believe how well we’re doing considering this time 2 years ago we were in the Vanarama North. We just constantly find a way to win and showed how good we were by dominating Solihull Moors in a 6-0 victory.

Despite the domination, our 3rd choice centre back Tom Clayton was unhappy with his playing time so I decided to cash in on £250,000 for him, which is the record for Altrincham

His replacement will be Ryan Shotton who significantly boosts the average age of the squad but is only contracted for 6 months so the deal made sense.

He joins the club he was on loan at in the 2007/08… the very same club who are about to get back-to-back-to-back promotions. There is no way that we’re not going to get promoted to League One this season!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I’m still in disbelief about how easy this season has been for us and how dominant we’ve been.

The fact we have only lost 4 out of our 37 league games is ridiculous and it is only a matter of time before we get promoted.

I was concerned about losing out the title to Colchester but after winning our game in hand, we’re now 7 points clear of them.

It truly has been a team effort with players like Tyrese Fornah (8 goals 3 assists) and Aaron O’Driscoll providing a solid spine in the team.

Which allows players like Mitko Mitkov and David Parkhouse to produce the goods.

We also have players on the fringes that always do brilliantly when in the side. Paul Hart came on a free from Arsenal and has 4 goals this season in 10 starts and 14 sub appearances.

And Callum Wright, who wasn’t even first choice last season in the National League, is performing out of his skin this season. He has 3 goals and is averaging 7.23 in 17 league appearances for us this season.

This is all with us having the 22rd highest salary in the league.

We go into our final 9 league games needing 5 points to confirm promotion… but with promotion a given, the focus now is on sealing the League Two title.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

A 3-1 win at home against Newport meant that if we won our next game against Cheltenham, then promotion would be confirmed.

And we did just that.

We have been far too good for League Two this season. I can’t quite believe it’s the middle of March and we’re promoted.

With 7 games remaining, the focus was now on getting promoted as champions. So what better way to start with a game against 2nd placed Colchester.

16 points clear with 6 games to go, I think it was fair to say that we would be going up as champions.

And that was confirmed with 5 games to go

The only thing left to do was to beat the league record of 102 points, which was achieved by Swindon in 1986.

And that was done with 2 games to go.

What a ridiculous season, in the end we got 111 points.

The fact we won 35 of our league games is mad. What a season!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Great season there. Wonder if you'll have the same effect on League One next season as well

Don't know about you but I'm finding the lower leagues in England to be far easier than they were before. To be fair the last lower league save I did in England was on FM16 but I can't believe how easy it's been since getting promoted from the Vanarama North

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Well then, that wasn’t too bad. We achieved back-to-back-to-back promotions but it wasn’t just that… it was the emphatic way in which we did it! We absolutely walked League Two and 111 points smashed the previous record points haul.

David Parkhouse got 18 goals overall and was named player of the year.

He was one of 8 Altrincham players who were named in the League Two Team of the Season.

And the manager of the year was no surprise…

It truly was a team effort, we scored 91 league goals but there wasn’t really a standout scorer as every team member contributed.

The goal-scoring contributions from our central midfielders James Olayinka (8) and Tyrese Fornah (9) as well as centre backs Aaron O’Driscoll (4) and Timi Sobowale (4) was vital throughout the season.

Having said that, Mitko Mitkov and David Parkhouse were the two standouts and had the highest average ratings in the league.

It still baffles me how we managed to get Mitkov on loan. He contributed 11 goals and 13 assists and his contract expires in the summer but he’ll surely be picked up by a club better than us.

One player that continues to deliver the goods is Callum Stanley. He joined us in the Vanarama North and in 3 seasons at the club has got 3 promotions.

What’s more impressive is that he’s played a pivotal role in all 3 seasons and despite picking up a few injuries this season, he still managed 10 goals and 9 assists in all competitions.

Sadly, we’ll also be saying goodbye to some players who played an important role for us in the past 3 seasons.

Callum Wright will be released after 2 seasons at the club even though he performed out of his skin this season.

Captain Joe Lynch and left back Ryan Campbell-Gordon were pivotal players in our promotions from the Vanarama North and National Leagues but are no longer needed.

And after 3 loan spells at the club in our 3 promotion seasons, Tyrone O’Neill’s Middlesborough contract will be expiring but I don’t think he’ll be good enough for us to take him to League One.

I started planning early and have already prearranged some transfers ready for our League One campaign. Once again a big summer beckons, but doing a big rebuild seems to have worked every season so far!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

As expected we’ve been busy in the transfer market and, as is now tradition, we have raided the under 23 sides of Premier League teams to find some quality players who were about to be released.

The first is Diamantino Carpinteiro, a left-back from Liverpool. He only wanted £700 a week but has a £450,000 release clause.

Next up is Callum Fletcher, a holding midfielder also from Liverpool who also has a £450,000 release clause.

And the final one is Zac Fryatt from Derby. He didn’t make an appearance for them but I’m really surprised they let him go. His release clause is £2.7m.

With wage rises handed out because of promotion, we didn’t have a lot more to spend after those transfers. So when Rotherham came in with a bid of £500,000 for Kwaku Oduroh, I accepted.

He was 4th choice centre back and with only £300,000 in the bank it made sense to cash in on him. Thanks for helping us get promoted from the National League Kwaku.

That money allowed us to get a new first-choice keeper. Alex Bass arrived at the club after his Portsmouth contract expired. He spent last season in League One with AFC Wimbledon.

And Callum Hulme comes in after Leicester decided not to renew his contract. He also spent last year on loan in League One with Southend.

Finally, we have made two loan signings. We are spending a combined £325 a week on Vanja Matovina and Kyle Cullen, both of whom add really quality to the side.

We’ve also added some experience in Kieran Wallace, Murrary Wallace and Gwion Edwards, all of whom have made over 200 appearances in the Football League, and brought in a lot of coaches to make our coaching staff the best in the division.

So another great transfer window means that we are predicted by the media to finish 6th!

Our first game in League One is against Wigan, who were relegated from the Championship last season.

After 3 promotions on the bounce, I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen this season!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first ever game in League One was against Roberto Martinez’s Wigan. And it was business as usual for us within the first minute.

Just the 20 seconds it took for us to score….We went on to win 4-1.

The result partly owed to Martinez playing a weird 3-4-3 formation but we were still brilliant. All our goals came from players who played a pivotal role last season and Connor Stanley has now scored in every division for us (just the Championship and Premier League remaining).

The game was also played in front of a full stadium. Season tickets have doubled for us in the past year.

The Wigan game was followed up by a crazy 4-3 win over AFC Wimbledon.

Before we faced the favourites for the league Sheffield Wednesday, who are managed by Vincent Kompany

We also won that game because Zac Fryatt is a genius.

The rest of August panned out just how the past 3 seasons have, with us winning games and top of the league.

We were knocked out by Championship side Rotherham in the Carabao Cup, but other than that we could not have started the season any better!

I’ve never had a team that is so dominant no matter what division they’re in!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s October 2023. In 2021 we won the Vanarama North, in 2022 we won the National League and in 2023 we won League Two. We are now 7 points clear at the top of League One.

Our form has been more than solid, but nobody in this league can string more than 3 wins together so we’re already building a significant lead at the top.

We have an annual salary of £1.6m which is the lowest in the league. In comparison, Sheffield Wednesday’s is £8.8m.

On loan striker Kyle Cullen is proving to be deadly in League One and has 9 goals in 12 games.

But it is Tyrese Fornah who has been our player of the season so far.

He has 4 goals as a ball winning midfielder and the highest average rating in the division at 7.48 despite just about being good enough for this level.

I’m not really sure why everything is so easy and it’s getting to the point where the save is getting less and less enjoyable so I wanted to take a deeper look into it...

-

Firstly, the tactic is simple but seems to be working no matter who we play. Something else which is having an impact is the incredibly strong partnerships between both centre backs, both centre midfielders, and our right back and right winger which were formed last season in League Two.

Another thing is the dressing room atmosphere and managerial support. I don’t think any of them have ever been bad so I dread to think what will happen once they do deteriorate.

An additional factor is the coaching setup. It’s very easy to get the best coaches available to you, especially as you can literally search for them by star rating, and this is something the AI can never match you on.

One other thing I have noticed is that the quality in League One is poor. If we take Hull City, for instance, they are predicted to finish 3rd and should have a squad that is miles better than ours considering the financial difference between the clubs.

But when I filter their starting 11 by ability, there are 5 or 6 players with a 2 or 2.5 star rating which means they are League Two quality.

The same can be said for nearly every team in League One and I think that it is part of the reason why we are constantly predicted to finish in the top half of the division we have just been promoted to. We make a couple of decent transfers and suddenly we’re predicted to finish 6th even though we’ve just gained 3 promotions on the bounce.

In comparison, our squad has 11 players that are 3 stars or over. That makes them good League One players and the fact they’re young means they’re only going to get better.

In comparison, Derby are 18th in the Championship and asked me to attend an interview (which I declined), but looking at star ratings their squad is miles better than ours.

So surely at some point, it’s all going to come crashing down?

To be honest I expect things to continue as they are. We have a squad with high morale who cannot stop winning and could seriously be on for 4 promotions in 4 seasons.​