Altrincham F.C. - Mission: Champions League

[Hampus Silverholt]

Christ - that needs fixing and quick - I think the laptop would have been in need of repair if I'd been faced with that!!

I couldn't believe it at first! Just a good job I managed to find a way of staying on as manager... I think if there was no other alternative to getting sacked then I would've never played FM again.

Glad you managed to save the story mate - What a ridiculous bug!

Time to bring home the Premier League and etch your name into the record books!

Almost completely ruined the story but the first thing I did was save the game so I'd have the opportunity to see if I could stay on as manager

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After getting a solid draw away against Chelsea, a win at home against Brighton would pretty much guarantee us winning the league because of our superior goal difference.

So what a great time to lose our first home game of the season!

Unbelievable. Yet typical.

But we were still 6 points ahead with a game in hand.

17th placed Leicester were next up.

Only just!

There was no way Arsenal were catching our goal difference, so the title was done with that game.

The next set of fixtures saw Arsenal face Norwich in the early kick off.

And so, without a ball being kicked, we were finally confirmed as Premier League champions!

It has taken us 14 seasons to go from the National League North to the champions of England. Not bad.

It was such a good achievement that even the board were delighted.

I’ll cover some of our key players in our title-winning campaign in the next post.​

 

[Michael Onwuegbu]

Amazing achievements! What's the legend list looking like now?

 

[jasarole]

What an incredible story so far! I had to make an account just to respond and say I can't wait for next season. Thanks for allowing me to get my FM fix at work these last few weeks!

Ps. Currently taking Wimbledon FC to the prem. Wages are killing me but we will stay up and release some guys not living up to their pay.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Amazing achievements! What's the legend list looking like now?

I don't really pay that much attention to the legends screen so this was the first time I'd looked at it in a few seasons. I'm now a club legend yet only one player involved in the save is an icon and that's Felix Baker who has captained us to the Premier League title after being at the club for 7 years!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

What an incredible story so far! I had to make an account just to respond and say I can't wait for next season. Thanks for allowing me to get my FM fix at work these last few weeks!

Ps. Currently taking Wimbledon FC to the prem. Wages are killing me but we will stay up and release some guys not living up to their pay.

Thanks I'm glad it's kept you entertained at work! My main advice for your Wimbledon save would be to try and get loan players from the big Premier League clubs. If I had not done that I'd still be in League One at this point!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

It’s been another crazy season but we have finally won the Premier League!

Remarkably, we did it after being predicted to finish 7th and with the 12th highest wage budget in the division.

It was mainly because of our attacking prowess, with us scoring 83 goals in the season whereas the next best scored 60.

Thiago Ryan finished top scorer with 22 goals which is impressive, but he scored 15 in his first 9 so should’ve got more.

Our captain Felix Baker won footballer of the year, after averaging 7.42 in the season.

He has been at Altrincham for 9 years, captained us to the Premier League and scored for England in the Euro 32 final. All that and he cost £50,000!

JJ Vazquez won young player of the year and is arguably better than Baker. The 21-year-old Mexican is turning into some player and is wanted by the best clubs in Europe.

His 10 assists was the second-most in the league, with Michael Adjetey also picking up 9 assists along with his 15 league goals.

8 Altrincham players were named in the Premier League Team of the Year and I won manager of the year for the first time!

Despite finishing 4th in the Premier League, Man United beat Roma in the Champions League final which makes losing to them in the quarterfinal even worse.

Roma have won Serie A in the last two seasons and their good form in Europe prompted me to look closer at their squad. We might have poached 2 of their best players for next season…

That is despite already having a very strong squad who have just eased to the Premier League title. It’s easy to forget just how young the squad is, with 15 players under the age of 23.

As well as that, our under 23s won their league meaning that they are promoted to the top tier of under 23 football next season.

Altrincham under 18s also won the league, so we have the strongest under 18 side in England as well!

Next season we have one aim. To win the Champions League.​

 

[Alan2168]

Fantastic achievement well done. Looking forward to next season now and another crack at CL!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Fantastic achievement well done. Looking forward to next season now and another crack at CL!

cheers mate, hopefully I can make some summer signings to take us to the next level... (I already have)

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

As we enter the pre-season of 2033, I thought it’d be good to look closer at some of the players that have gone under the radar in the last few years.

But firstly, we have 2 very sad departures to announce. Club legends Connor Stanley and Zac Fryatt will be departing in the summer when their contracts expire.

Both were on loan at other clubs last season. I kept Stanley around mainly out of sentiment but he has been a true legend of the save, appearing for Altrincham in every division from the National League North to the Premier League.

Fryatt joined on a free in League One. He went onto appear for us in the Premier League and Champions League and played an important role when we won the FA Cup a few seasons ago.

Another club legend is Adie Higginson, who we may sell in the summer if a good bid comes in.

He was a mainstay in the team for a number of years with over 200 league appearances for us but has fallen down the pecking order at Altrincham, especially in the last 18 months.

Another player that will fall down the pecking order is goalkeeper Federico Panariello.

He’s a solid Premier League goalkeeper, but can’t even make it into the England squad and we may or may not have signed a world-class keeper to replace him.

An Altrincham player that is in the England squad is Kimborough Bennett, who had a brilliant season scoring 14 goals and getting 7 assists in all competitions.

Eder Claveria has developed into a world-class player whilst at the club. He was initially signed as a centre back but now plays in the holding midfield role for us.

He’s also one of our longest-serving players after joining us when we were in the Championship.

Another world-class player is Hector Pozos. There’s a reason he’s described as an elite centre back despite being just 21.

Ukrainian Oleg Bondarenko has also developed into a world-class right back. He’s been with us for 3 seasons and was £35m well spent.

Finally, we seem to have a real gem on our hands in Matthew McKenna. He came through our youth intake last season and I’ll look to give him first-team opportunities next season.

Right then, let’s defend our Premier League title and maybe challenge for the Champions League.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The summer transfer window is over and we are ready to go into the 2033/34 season.

To say we’ve been busy would be an understatement. Be prepared for a lot of screenshots.

Transfers Out

Firstly, we’ve made £173m in transfer fees and have not sold a single first-choice player.

Our second choice right-back has joined Real Madrid for £46m

We made a profit of over £25m on Ivan and the only reason I let him go was that we have an Altrincham produced right back, Julian Cupid, who is good enough to be back up in that position this season.

Back up centre midfielder Srdjan Radmanovac has joined Roma for £35m. We paid £30m for him so I was happy to get that sum of money for him.

Borussia Monchengladbach have been busy, picking up Altrincham legend Adie Higginson as well as another backup centre midfielder, Junior Carhaus, for £38m.

And finally another great servant to the club, John Slaven, has joined Fernabache for £21m.

Now for the good stuff.

Transfers In

Normally, the first image I’d share would be a list of our transfers in. However, I’ll just show the amount we’ve spent for now.

Last season Roma got to the Champions League final and walked Serie A. So we have signed two of their key players.

The first is Matteo Ferrarini for £57m. He’s one of the best keepers in the world and will take us to the next level.

Next in from Roma was Alfredo Jose, who I’ve known since his Corinthians days but decided to sign JJ Vazquez at the time instead. It turns out that he’s developed into a special player so I just had to buy him.

At £93m he was our record signing… for about 10 days.

That is because we have spent £111m on a player!

Ian Johnson joins from Everton for £111,000,000. I did have question marks over the fee but we had the money and I’ve had 13 seasons of being financially prudent. So the cash was splashed.

So here’s a full list of the transfers in. We spent £262m on 3 players!

Johnson celebrated his transfer by getting injured straight away, meaning he’ll miss the first game of the season.

But the season started nicely with a win against Man City in the Community Shield, which is the first time we’ve won it.

Yet they’re predicted to win the Premier League and we’re predicted to finish 5th even though we won it last season!

I can’t wait to see how the new signings fare this season!​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Despite the huge sums of money spent in the summer, we still only have the 9th highest spend on wages in the Premier League. Not bad for the reigning champions

And after winning the Premier League last year, we were 1st seeds for the Champions League Group Stage draw for the very first time.

We have an easy group on paper and it’s nice to face 3 teams who we’ve not played before in Monaco, AEK Athens and Rangers.

We’ve only played 4 games so far, but our start to the season has been okay. We narrowly beat Liverpool and then were awful against Man City, but at least those 2 difficult games are now out of the way.

There haven’t been any fireworks from the new signings Alfredo Jose and Ian Johnson, although the latter did score on his England debut.

Instead, our star performer has been JJ Vazquez who has 4 assists in 4 Premier League matches.

The season really kicks into action now, as we begin our quest for Champions League glory with a home match against AEK Athens in September.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After getting to the semi-finals 2 seasons ago and the quarter-finals last season, the Champions League is very much the aim this year.

Our first match against AEK Athens was an incredibly one-sided 2-0 win.

And our second match against Rangers was an incredibly one-sided 1-1 draw.

A Rangers side who are managed by Gareth Southgate!

We’re getting some weird results this season despite dominating matches. By weird I mean drawing against relegation favourites Bournemouth (who I’ve decided are our bogey team mainly because they beat us 8-1 on aggregate in the Championship playoffs 7 seasons ago)

But at the same time we’re comfortably beating title contenders Spurs.

West Ham away summed up the weirdness of our results. We were 7-0 up at half time, looking utterly unstoppable yet conceded twice in the second half so I almost felt underwhelmed at the final whistle even though we had scored 7!

I suppose I shouldn’t really be complaining, especially as we’re top of the Premier League.

Michael Adjetey is top scorer in the division with 8 in as many games, whereas Vazquez and £111m man Johnson have the most assists.

After the October international break, we’ll face Monaco twice in the Champions League who are currently top of the group.

We should comfortably qualify, but being Premier League champions we should really be striving to finish 1st place in our Champions League group.​

 

[Alan2168]

great signings - all are excellent but think that keeper Ferrarini will be the best of the bunch - keepers can make a huge difference

Some interesting results as well, to say the least...but on track... fingers crossed

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

great signings - all are excellent but think that keeper Ferrarini will be the best of the bunch - keepers can make a huge difference

Some interesting results as well, to say the least...but on track... fingers crossed

Yeah I agree, have no idea why he had a £57m release clause but I'm not complaining!

And as for the results we seem to either look like we're going to score 10 or look like we're not going to score at all

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Our third Champions League group stage match saw us comfortably beat Monaco away in what was a big game considering we had already dropped points in the group.

It was a great win, however our league form is incredibly frustrating. We look unstoppable at times, Southampton at home being an example of that where we won 6-0.

Yet in other matches our players just do not turn up, like against Villa when we lost 2-0.

We were also knocked out of the League Cup after the craziest penalty shootout ever against Liverpool in which every single player took a penalty in the shootout.

But other than those 2 losses, our form has been good.

Another win against Monaco in the reverse fixture means that we have qualified for the knockout stages for the third season in a row with 2 group games remaining.

And it’s very tight in the Premier League. Liverpool are leading the way with just one more point than us.

Altrincham players dominate the individual stats, with Thiago Ryan and Michael Adjetey both on 10 Premier League goals already.

And centre back Hector Pozos has the highest average rating in the division. He has 3 goals and 3 assists all of which have been a result of set pieces as nobody can handle him in the air.

Another player bang inform is left back Idlemar.

He only joined the first-team squad in the summer after we loaned him back to Corinthians but is a beast of a player… and still only 19!

Finally, another promising full-back this season has been Julian Cupid.

He came through the Altrincham academy and has had to wait for his chance, but was becoming too good to not involve in the first team.

We have an easy looking fixture list in November so hopefully we can overtake Liverpool and open up a gap at the top of the Premier League.​

 

[jasarole]

Those physicals on Pozos are insane! And still only 21?!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Those physicals on Pozos are insane! And still only 21?!

I know, some of his stats are incredible (15 passing and 17 vision for a CB!) and I can't think of a more well-rounded centre back that I've had on any FM. I found a screenshot of him when he first signed and it just goes to show how important 20 determination and a driven personality is. I didn't even realise his vision was at 11 and now is at 17!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

The inconsistent performances continued in December, with a 6-0 drubbing of Palace followed by an unconvincing win against bottom of the table Birmingham.

However, we’re showing a real champions mentality by winning games that we don’t particularly play well in.

Elsewhere, with first-place already secured, our back up XI recorded an impressive 3-0 win against Rangers in the final group stage game of the Champions League.

Another clean sheet meant that we conceded just 1 goal during the group stages.

We will play RB Leipzig in the first knockout round. They’re 4th in the Bundesliga so I expect to progress to the quarter-finals.

With the easy looking games out of the way, we faced Champions League holders Man United at home in the league.

It was once again a match which we dominated but failed to score in. But we made up for that by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a week later.

Our year ended with a comfortable win over Burnley in the FA Cup 3rd Round, meaning we have won 11 of our last 12 in all competitions.

Liverpool dropped points in December, so we are 4 points clear at the halfway mark of the season.

And we officially have the best goalkeeper in the world at Altrincham.

Matteo Ferrarini was also named in the World Team of the Year, with Michael Adjetey among the substitutes.

At £230,000 a week, he is our highest earner by a mile. But it’s now getting to the point where our best players are asking for pay rises and we have no reason to decline other than being disgusted by forking out £250,000 a week to half of the squad…

We’re going to be paying ridiculous wages soon, which means our salary will be closer to that of the bigger clubs in the league.

I’m hoping for a quiet January window, but we may sell some fringe players like our long-serving 4th choice centre back Predrag Djuric

Other than that, I don’t expect any major business as we enter the business end of the season.​

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

After saying I did not expect any major transfers... Some major transfers have occurred.

Winger Noah Lowens kicked up a fuss when I refused to double his wages (because he is the only outfield player in the squad with an average rating below 7). So he has joined Arsenal for £62m.

It seems cut-throat but there was just no way he justified £200,000 a week so I was happy to take a hit on the £66m we paid for him. The only downside is that he has joined Arsenal, so is bound to score against us at some point.

His replacement is another German. 19 year old David Mensah joins from Bayern for £81m as we triggered his release clause.

He’s pacy, can cross, is only 19 and was willing to be a squad player. £81m is a lot but the funds were there after Lowens departed.

We started off January with a loss to Spurs but since then have been brilliant, winning all our matches in the month.

It means that we have pulled away from everyone else and are top of the Premier League by 10 points!

We also beat Villa in the FA Cup but have Man City away in the 5th round.

Our win in the competition 3 seasons ago is still our only domestic cup honours, to go alongside our Premier League title last season.

Thiago Ryan went 5 games without a goal in December, but has scored 4 hat tricks this season.

He’s a peculiar player. By that, I mean that he was the top scorer in the Premier League last season and has 19 goals in 24 Premier League games this season, but it always feels like he could do more.

I might be being a bit harsh. If he leads us to Champions League glory I shall never doubt him again.

RB Leipzig await us in the 1st Knockout Round.

We should beat them on aggregate but we need to make sure we take our chances.​