Altrincham F.C. - Mission: Champions League

[Hampus Silverholt]

A day before our FA Cup semi-final against Villa our best player Miguel Rubiano was ruled out by injury

With many players tired from our league exploits, I wasn’t expecting much from the game. But Trevor Dickson decided to win it on his own.

It was a bit of a smash and grab, but who cares? Altrincham are into the FA Cup final!

Dickson played out of his skin and has been a completely different player for us since January.

Chay Cooper was also outstanding in the match, contributing a goal and an assist.

And at the same time we were getting to the FA Cup final, other results in the Championship meant that we were confirmed as champions with two games to go.

We played our final two matches and ended up winning the league by 6 points. Then we had a 20 day wait until the FA Cup final.

It was confirmed that Chelsea would be our opponents after they beat Liverpool in the other semi final at Wembley.

They won the Premier League this year and the two seasons before that, so a miracle is required to beat them.

I never thought our first ever FA Cup final for Altrincham would be as a Championship side, but here we are.

We couldn’t… could we?​

 

[leckuno]

What a win against Villa and sets up a great final to top off an excellent season. Could we see you in Europe next season as well?

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What a win against Villa and sets up a great final to top off an excellent season. Could we see you in Europe next season as well?

I'd love to make Europe but that'd probably impact the survival chances next season. Not that it mattered anyway...

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our starting XI in the 2027 FA Cup final contained 2 players that were with us in League One (Fryatt and Bass) and only 4 non-regens (Bass, both Coopers and Mejrbi).

Chelsea’s team contained a lot of quality. A lot.

After a dull first half, it was inevitable that Chelsea would break the deadlock.

And despite throwing everything at them, we just couldn’t find a way through.

It was a bit of an uneventful match but I’m glad we didn’t get smashed like we did this time last year against Bournemouth in the playoffs.

Chelsea’s goalscorer Aitor is one of the best in the world and has some crazy attributes.

And so comes to an end a crazy, yet hugely successful season.

2026/27 Season Review

Stoke ended up beating Brentford in the playoff final. It means that we have 2 very good teams coming up with us and next season is going to be a real challenge.

The bottom of the Premier League was ridiculously close this season but unfortunately Oxford will be coming straight back down.

Our squad performed remarkably well this season and there is lots of Premier League potential there. The problem is that we need Premier League quality now, or else it could be a long first season in the Premier League.

7 Altrincham players were in the Championship Team of the Year, which is a ridiculous number.

And the board has given us £30m to spend in the summer. The wage budget is going to get eaten up by wage increases and the fact that every current player wants an extra £20,000 a week.

And because our Moss Lane stadium has a capacity of 7,000, we will be renting Bolton’s stadium next year.

Our new stadium will be built at the end of next season so hopefully we can survive relegation and go into the new stadium as a Premier League club still.
​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first transfer window as a Premier League club was always going to be a busy one and there’s a lot to cover.

Players Released

We’ll start with the players released. Tyrese Fornah and Aaron O’Driscoll both played huge roles in our promotions from League Two and League One, as well as our first season in the Championship and it is sad to see them go.

Callum King-Harmes has also left the club. He played a part in 4 promotions for us from the National North to the Championship.

Transfers In

Now for the exciting bit. We’ve spent £42m and thankfully have not sold any of our players.

The first player in was Bruno Carrasco for £6.25 from San Lorenzo. He’s our best signing by far.

Next in was a first choice right back. Frano Bronic cost £7m from Dinamo Zagreb.

Jesper Madsen is finally at the club. We signed him last year but I didn’t realise that he couldn’t join until he was 18.

Then we managed to get Avelino Chapanga on a free from West Ham. He’s classed as a wonderkid so it was surprising that they let his contract run out.

Another free transfer was Matt Grimes from Crystal Palace. He was the best player in the Championship last season and we needed experience in the squad.

Those signings were all made early, but I spent most of the window looking for a goalkeeper and centre back and we spent most of our budget on the following two players.

Predrag Djuric joined us for £16m from Basel making him our record transfer. I had the choice of getting him or the experienced Scott McKenna for the same price. In the end, I decided to go with youth. If we get relegated then he’ll go for big money so we might as well.

And we managed to sign Scotland’s first choice goalkeeper James Potts from Celtic for a surprisingly low fee of £8m.

That may seem like a huge amount of money spent for such a small club but we’re getting over £90m in TV money this year which is just ridiculous.

And we’re predicted to finish bottom of the table. It looks like our season will be defined on how we fare against Burnley, Stoke, Newcastle and Bournemouth.

2 of our first 3 matches are at home against Burnley and Sheffield United, so a good start is paramount if we want to stay up.

This could be a painful and ultimately unsuccessful season, but we won’t go down without a fight!​

 

[leckuno]

Some great signings there and they will be instrumental in you staying up. Hopefully teams will massively underestimate you and you can take advantage of that

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Some great signings there and they will be instrumental in you staying up. Hopefully teams will massively underestimate you and you can take advantage of that

Hopefully! It shows how big the step us is when we make all those signings and are still predicted to finish bottom!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our first game as a Premier League club was away against Leeds, who have established themselves as a top-half Premier League club in the last few years.

It was a mad game. But I was glad we scored twice and believed we could take that into games that we were expected to win.

Like, for instance, against Burnley at home who were promoted with us. We faced them in our second game of the season, our first at Bolton’s stadium which is home for the year.

The game could not have gone worse. Trevor Dickson scored two but missed a penalty in the last minute to equalise and our best player Carrasco got injured for a month.

It meant that our next game against Sheffield United was huge.

It was only our third game, but a 2-0 was massive for us. It was followed up by a win against Plymouth and an away loss to title favourites Chelsea (who beat us in the FA Cup final last year).

So we sit 14th in the table after our first month in the Premier League. I’d like to have more points given our opponents so far but the fact Norwich and Bournemouth haven’t won so far is a good sign.

Despite missing a penalty against Burnley, Trevor Dickson has been on fire for us. He’s the top scorer in the division and won Player of the Month for August

Not bad for someone that only got 11 goals in the Championship last year.

And just to give an indication of the ridiculous finances in the Premier League... we’re spending £425,000 a week on wages whereas every other team is spending more than treble that.

That’s not stopping the fans coming in their droves though. Even though we’re playing in Bolton, we have sold 18,000 season tickets compared to 3,000 last season. Our new stadium will only have a capacity of 16,000!

We face Brighton, Bournemouth and Everton in the next few matches so it is crucial that we don’t drop points to them in those matches.​

 

[Saibot1891]

This is really good

 

[OutsideTheBox FM]

Awesome story mate. Love a good Non League to Prem challenge!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

This is really good

Thanks! I'm a few months ahead and it gets very interesting this season...

Awesome story mate. Love a good Non League to Prem challenge!

Cheers mate, haven't done a save like this since FM16 and am really enjoying the challenge. The Premier League is a lot harder than I remembered!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’ve played 8 more league games and it’s going well… ish.

*(I DECIDED TO FORGET TO TAKE A SCREENSHOT)*

We’re 17th, one point above the relegation zone but have played a lot of the teams around us already. They include losses to Bournemouth and Everton (where former Altrincham right back Bamba scored a left footed volley because he was in the box from a deep free kick, obviously).

It reflects a stark contrast in our home and away form. All of our points this season have come at home.

Even though we’re not in the bottom three, I am apparently being too stubborn with my tactics.

I’m sorry I can’t beat Man City away with a bunch of kids who are expected to finish bottom!

One of those kids, Trevor Dickson, is still top scorer in the division and recently signed a new contract where his release clause is now £74m.

We have 8 games before the January transfer window so I’ve set a target of 8 points then to keep us ticking along.

It’s important that we don’t drop any more points to teams around us, so that Norwich game on the 18th is looking tasty.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

So the 8 points in 8 games idea from the last post? Wishful thinking.

We were on 11 games without a win before playing bottom of the table Norwich at home in the middle of December.

Surely we’d win this one?

Nope. This season has relegation written all over it.

We’ve won as many matches against Premier League teams this season as we did last season and we weren't even in the division! (We beat Norwich and Villa in the FA Cup).

We went on a run of scoring 3 goals in 7 Premier League games in December, which really was abysmal.

Then it all came to a head in our Boxing Day match against Villa, the same side we had beat 4-1 in the FA Cup last season.

How can we go from not scoring to that?!

Eli Amsalem scored 5 goals for Villa in the game. 5!

Do you know how many goals he had scored before that this season? 0!!!

Don’t you love constantly conceding from indirect free kicks yet never scoring any yourselves. I don’t understand why our players cannot man mark on indirect free kicks!

It’s very annoying because we’ve lost points this season specifically because of something to do with the match engine. I can’t deal with getting beat by last-minute winners from unmarked right-backs at the back post who I have specifically singled out to man-mark because of the space they were getting.

Also, morale is too overpowered. I honestly cannot see how we’re going to win another game unless morale magically picks up but there’s only a certain number of team meetings you can do…

The January transfer window is desperately needed. It’s a shame we have no budget!

But do you know what the most annoying thing is? We’re halfway through the season and STILL only 2 points from safety!

It’s the hope that kills you.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

I thought it’d be nice to start off with some positive news for a change. Trevor Dickson is the best player in the world under the age of 21.

Back to reality.

But what’s this? More good news?

We actually won a game! An FA Cup Third Round replay against Brighton ended our 19 game winless run, which of course was a club record.

It was the perfect result right before we played 17th placed Everton at home. I’ve used the term must win a lot, but this was a must-must win.

I cannot begin to explain what went on before this Everton game, but it was ridiculous.

Firstly, we asked the board if we could perhaps have some more of the TV money to go to our transfer budget so we could perhaps sign some players so that we could perhaps stay in the division.

It seems as if the board wants us to be the worst team in Premier League history? Not as if we have nearly £50m in the bank. Oh wait.

At least our long term assistant manager wasn’t poached by Peterborough. Oh wait.

And good job that 3 key players were available and not playing in OLYMPICS QUALIFYING MATCHES for their country. Oh wait.

Now back to the Everton game. Remember me complaining about indirect free kicks in the last post?

5’10” Aaron Ramsey scored a TOWERING header after 3 minutes… from an indirect free kick.

We did actually manage to get a goal back and looked to be on course for a draw until Oliver Skipp picked up the ball 40 yards out...

And scored with the last kick of the game. Look how far out he is!!!!!

If there was ever a game to sum up this season, this was it. You honestly could not write it.

The indirect free kick, the injury for us in the first half, the getting back into it to give us some hope and then a last kick of the game 40 yard thunderbolt from a player scoring his first of the season.

Just the 17 games without a win in the Premier League for us now.

We’re 7 points from safety, can’t buy a win and literally every conceivable thing is going against us.

Our poor old loan signings Rodriguez and Williams don’t know what they’ve got themselves into.

Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh.​

 

[Jedd95]

Unfortunate so far mate. I had the same with my recent team but managed to shift tactics around and survive fortunately - board were more forthcoming with money tho!

Either way, you've done great thus far and even if you go down you'll bounce straight back up I'm sure.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Unfortunate so far mate. I had the same with my recent team but managed to shift tactics around and survive fortunately - board were more forthcoming with money tho!

Either way, you've done great thus far and even if you go down you'll bounce straight back up I'm sure.

Yeah I can't say luck has been on our side this season, but even if we go down we're going to have so much money to bring in players good enough to get us promoted straight away.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

There’s never a good time to be in bad form, but especially when you have winnable games against Bournemouth at home and Burnley away.

We were especially unlucky in the Burnley game and considering the amount of bad luck we’ve had this season it was about time we smashed someone. That turned out to be Cardiff in the FA Cup.

But then... the impossible happened.

A victory? In the league? It cannot be!

Yes that’s right, we actually beat Leeds (a top 6 side) to end a win that saw us go 20 Premier League games without a win. Oops.

It was incredible to see us win 2 games in a row. I’d forgotten what that had felt like.

We then had another winnable game away against Norwich.

A draw wasn’t really enough but then we happened to score 4 against Newcastle.

What is happening?

Well I’ll tell you. Trevor Dickson. The man is a hero.

His braces against Leeds and Newcastle mean he’s back as the top scorer in the division.

And the league table makes interesting reading. We’re now 4 points from safety and still have Stoke and Leicester to play.

We also beat Wigan in the FA Cup meaning that we went through an entire month without losing!

Our away games against Spurs and United are basically write offs, but we face Stoke at home in March.

If we win that, then the great escape on.​

 

[Alan2168]

Great story - top effort and really enjoying following.

I'm working through a similar save with Workington. 3 promotions in 4 years and now in Conference national.... a long way to go! But similar approaches with squad refreshes and retaining a core etc.

Good luck - hope you stay up.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Great story - top effort and really enjoying following.

I'm working through a similar save with Workington. 3 promotions in 4 years and now in Conference national.... a long way to go! But similar approaches with squad refreshes and retaining a core etc.

Good luck - hope you stay up.

Cheers mate, glad you're enjoying it! I like the different challenges you have every couple of years. I can't believe how easy League 1 and 2 were but also how difficult this first season in the Premier League has been

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The amount of times this season that I’ve said "it’s a must-win game" for us to then not win the game in question has been ridiculous.

Therefore I was not looking forward to our encounter with Stoke, who were bottom of the league.

But turns out I was wrong to think that. It was a great result but the teams around us just kept on winning.

Our form was so good that we were 5th in the form table.

But it did not help that our game in hand was away against Man United

After that, we had our 2 most winnable remaining games of the season. At home against 8th placed West Ham and away against 18th placed Leicester.

That’s curtains.

West Ham’s goal came from a corner and one of Leicester’s goals came from an indirect free kick. I literally cannot find a way to stop the AI scoring from corners and free kicks.

Those results extinguished any faint hope we had of staying up and left us 7 points from safety.

The inevitable was confirmed 3 games later in ironic fashion.

Relegation was confirmed after we won our first away match of the season against Sheffield United but results elsewhere did not go our way.

In the end, our young squad just couldn’t do it for a mixture of reasons which I’ll look at in the next post.

Our first season in the Premier League ends in disappointment.​