Altrincham F.C. - Mission: Champions League

[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.​

 

[andy_14clark]

Shame to see you get relegated. Were you still playing a 4-2-3-1 or change the formation?

 

[TaymuirFC]

Unlucky first season relegation but you've done incredible job so far, the finances from just being in the EPL for one season plus the parachute payment should really help you kick on next season hopefully and get back up first time of asking. Relegation is tough but this might just let you build a better club for the seasons ahead. Also, enjoying reading the layout you've got makes it more appealing to read

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Gutting to see you getting relegated but if you can hold onto your players then you should be able to strengthen and then come straight backup and avoid relegation next time

Shame to see you get relegated. Were you still playing a 4-2-3-1 or change the formation?

Unlucky first season relegation but you've done incredible job so far, the finances from just being in the EPL for one season plus the parachute payment should really help you kick on next season hopefully and get back up first time of asking. Relegation is tough but this might just let you build a better club for the seasons ahead. Also, enjoying reading the layout you've got makes it more appealing to read

Got a big summer ahead, especially because of the number of relegation release clauses that we have so we'll see. For most of the season I played with a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 mainly because we lacked depth at centre back so I was hesitant to switch to a back 5. I've learned my lesson, so next time we get promoted I want to make sure we have 3 or 4 quality centre backs in the squad in case I need to change things up

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We actually won our final 2 away games but ended up finishing 19th in our first season in the Premier League.

We were just 6 points away from survival and I believe relegation was down to 7 things.

1. Inexperience
The average age of the squad was 23. There were just 13 Premier League appearances between the whole squad at the start of the season and in the end it showed.

2. Ground Sharing
We shared Bolton’s ground for home matches. It was great in terms of matchday revenue, but it will be even greater to be at our new stadium next season although the opening has been delayed until October.

3. Set Pieces
We conceded 12 from indirect free kicks and 6 from corners. I tried man marking, zonal marking, set-piece training before every game and nothing worked.

4. Morale
As soon as you lose a few on the spin, the whole squad is devastated and it’s hard for it to recover.

5. The Financial Disparity
To be frank, we’re just not a Premier League club yet. The sponsorship money and our wage expenditure is nowhere near our competitors and it meant we could only sign promising young players on the cheap.

6. Underperforming Signings
Having said that, our new signings Carrasco (avg. of 6.64) and Chapanga (avg. of 6.74) underperformed this season. Carrasco in particular was a disappointment as I thought he was the real deal when he came in

7. Players not being good enough
It’s harsh but true. Most of our squad wouldn't get into a lower half Premier League side but they are young and will be much better when we next enter the Premier League. I love Zac Fyatt, as he has been with us since League One, but he should not be appearing in 33 of our 38 games.

2027/28 Squad

Trevor Dickson was our player of the season by a mile. He was also the golden boot winner with 18 Premier League goals.

He is one of many players with a relegation release clause and his stands at £36m

Dickson along with Predrag Djuric (release clause of £39m) and Miguel Rubiano (release clause of £36m) are players which I really do not want to leave as they are the only 3 who are Premier League quality in the squad.

But if they do leave, 100% of funds from transfers go to our already sizable budget of £38m.

At the very least we’re in a very healthy financial position.

And we’ve started to get some quality players in our youth intakes. The best is Julian Cupid, who looks like a potential Premier League player.

We’re ignoring every job offer that comes our way to concentrate on Altrincham. That includes Liverpool!

And so another crazy summer is ahead of us. I have no idea how many players will be leaving or coming in for that matter. But we need to get promoted back to the Premier League at the first attempt.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

So we’re back in the Championship after a fleeting visit to the Premier League and a lot has happened in terms of transfers. We’ve made £80m in sales, mostly because of relegation release clauses.

Firstly, the top scorer in the Premier League last season has joined newly-promoted Blackburn for £36m. I was expecting Trevor Dickson to leave, but not in order to go to Blackburn.

Elsewhere, Hannibal Mejbri has joined Brighton for £18.5m

Chay Cooper has joined Luton for £12.5m. It seems an odd transfer but Luton were actually promoted to the Premier League last season.

Finally, Villa have triggered the £10m relegation release clause of Frano Bronic.

Transfers In - £58m spent

We’ve gone all out on youth and there are just 4 players over the age of 24 in the squad.

The first player in was Eder Claveria from Colo Colo in Chile for £6.25m.

We then bought two young South American strikers, Colombian William Murillo for £1.6m and Brazillian Thiago Ryan for £10.5m.

Then I decided to get some home grown talent. Firstly we spent £15m on Luke Wordsworth from Charlton.

The excellently named Pierpaolo Buonocore came in for £11m from Arsenal and I am training him to be a right back.

And, after two seasons on loan, Adie Higginson has joined us permanently for £11.75m

The final signing was Pascual Rodriguez on loan from Barcelona. He was with us for the final part of last season and should be one of the best defenders in the division.

It still means we have a huge amount to spend, but I’m happy with the makeup of the squad. Our finances are going from strength to strength, especially as we’re getting £41m in parachute payments.

We’re predicted to finish third, but automatic promotion is the minimum I want from this season.

And I have decided to go with a more attacking formation this season. We’ve normally played a 4-3-3 but we’re going with two strikers this campaign.

Right then, let’s get promoted!​

 

[TaymuirFC]

£41m parachute payment!!

I'll let you know how long it takes me to hit £41m in income nevermind 1 payment ha!

Good rebuild tough losing players but sometimes actually makes the club stronger, hopefully you can kick on again back up.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

£41m parachute payment!!

I'll let you know how long it takes me to hit £41m in income nevermind 1 payment ha!

Good rebuild tough losing players but sometimes actually makes the club stronger, hopefully you can kick on again back up.

I remember being happy selling players for £250,000 so to get £41m for essentially doing nothing is great!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’re 6 games into the Championship season and top of the league.

Results have been emphatic and we’ve already scored 4 goals in 3 matches this season.

It was all going well. Too well... So then Real Madrid came in for Miguel Rubiano.

He’s our best player but if you’re a 21 year old Colombian do you want to be playing Championship football for Altrincham or for Real Madrid?

The Spanish giants paid us a record £55m for him after we paid £1.9m 2 years ago.

We had no time to get a replacement so will have to wait until January, but because the attacking 4-4-2 is working a treat we don’t need that many central midfielders anyway.

It means that we recuperated £143m in sales in the transfer window, which is ridiculous.

And have £161m in the bank!

We have the funds, but finding the right players is going to be tricky. Our wage expenditure is the 10th highest in the Championship so we’re slowly becoming a top club off the field too rather than continually punching above our weight.

Back to events on the field, and our explosive start to the season has been because of Jesper Madsen and Zac Fryatt.

They’re top scorers in the division and Madsen recently signed a new contract which contains a £66m release clause.

Fryatt has 4 goals and 3 assists in the league in 6 matches.

He is in his 6th season at the club and has seen it all. He’s got to be our greatest transfer in terms of what he’s done for the club and he was free!

Despite the sale of Rubiano, I fully expect to be around the top of the table for the remainder of the season.
​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

All going well which is good to see. That's a good profit there in that sale as well. The balance will at least help with getting a bigger transfer budget when you get promoted again

Yeah, to be honest I expect to get promoted but I'm struggling to find players in their prime for us to sign even for next season. At the moment the best transfer policy seems to be buying future stars but that only gets you so far so will be interesting to see how we do

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

We’re now halfway through the season and are top of the Championship by 5 points.

Our recent form has been a bit sketchy with home losses to Oxford and Huddersfield but when we win - we win by a lot.

Our players are dominating the individual stats with our striker partnership of Madsen and Thiago Ryan the top 2 scores in the league.

Thiago Ryan has 14 in 19 and looks to be worth every penny of the £10.5m we paid for him in the summer.

We’ve also finally moved into our new stadium, which has gone under the radar. The capacity can be expanded to 31,000 in the future but for now I just want to play in our own actual ground!

In our first match at the 15,909 capacity all-seater stadium, we beat Portsmouth 3-0.

Young striker Murillo has the honour of being the first person to score at the Mark Maddox Arena.

So it’s all going well so far but 7 of our players are wanted by Premier League clubs. If release clauses are still active then we may see some players leaving the club in January.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The January transfer window has been and gone and we have made 2 new signings whilst our first choice keeper has left to be back up in the Premier League.

First in was Michele Moresco for £4.5m from Juventus. He is the replacement for Rubiano (who left for Real Madrid in the summer) and was not quite good enough to break into the Juve side but is more than good enough for us.

Next up was young left-back Julián Córdoba for £1.7m. He has 6 months to settle with us in the Championship and I’m hoping he kicks on and becomes our first-choice left-back for years to come.

The one outgoing transfer was that of first choice keeper James Potts to Everton for £12m.

Despite being our number 1 he was not going to be our long term Premier League goalkeeper so I was not too concerned about selling him.

Alex Bass is more than good enough to capatilise for him as he was our keeper when we last got promoted from the Championship. We just need to hope he doesn’t get injured...

The decision not to bring in another keeper was partly influenced by the fact that we are 11 points clear at the top of the Championship.

We went on a 9 game winning run which propelled us to the top of the division and, with 15 games remaining, we should be returning to the Premier League next year.

We also beat 2 Premier League sides in the FA Cup in Burnley and West Ham. We face Championship side Reading in the 5th round.

Our players are still utterly dominating the individual stats in the Championship. We’re leaky defensively but Madsen, Fryatt and Thiago Ryan are the top 3 scorers in the league and Murillo isn’t far behind on 12 goals.

A special mention has to go to midfielder Felix Baker as he has 14 assists so far.

He is finally starting to play up to his potential having signed for us for £50,000 from Crusaders 5 years ago.

The only thing stopping us from promotion back to the Premier League will be a goalkeeper injury crisis!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Remember Julian Cordoba - the left back we signed in January? Apparently I promised I’d strengthen the team to him.

Literally 10 days after signing, he wanted to leave. So we had another conversation.

Looks like he’ll be leaving without ever playing for us then. Ridiculous!

In other news, we reached 500 games in charge of Altrincham.

Yet only a few games later we were losing to Reading in the 5th round of the FA Cup.

It’s annoying because they’re a mid table Championship side, and we’re top of the division by 10 points with 9 matches remaining

I’ve banged on a lot about individual stats this season but our goalscoring has been something else. We literally have the top 4 scorers in the league!

We have 97 goals and the next best has 66.

And 8 out of the 10 players with the highest average rating in the Championship play for Altrincham. The domination is ridiculous!

It’s only a matter of time until promotion back to the Premier League is confirmed.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Slowly but surely we’ve been improving the youth facilities in the last few years and it looks to be paying off.

We’ve had 2 decent looking players come through this year. I'm completely ignoring the star ratings because I believe these 2 players could break into the first team one day if they progress well.

We also sold someone from our academy, Kuma Hall, for £1.5m to Fulham in January when he didn’t look that impressive.

Back in the present, our promotion back to the Premier League was clinched with 4 games to spare and our second Championship title in 3 years was claimed 2 games later.

Birmingham completely bottled their last two games so it will be Nottingham Forest that go up alongside us. It’s great for them to be back in the Premier League but it also ruins our plans of buying some of their promising young players.

I decided to go with a gegen pressing system for the last few games of the season but it didn’t really impress me. Tactics have never been my strong suit, but an attacking 4-4-2 probably isn't the way to go next year in the Premier League so we’re going into next season without really knowing what system or formation to play.

A full recap of our season will follow before we take on the Premier League… again!​

 

[Froug]

How did you deal with Julian Cordoba in the end?