Super White Army - Tranmere Rovers Football Club

[FM_TNSSO]

End of Season Review 2023/24

What an incredible season as we reach 100 points again, making it back to back titles and promotions!

I really thought we might win the Papa John's Trophy this season as we progressed through the competition, but it wasn't to be. For the second season in a row, we don't make it past the first round of the Carabao Cup and again didn't disgrace ourselves in the FA Cup.

Squad Stats...

The Best 11...

Joe Newell was this year's signing of the season and he was an amazing addition coming in from Hibs. The centre mid got 8 goals and 14 assists! All the new additions played their part though with some strong average ratings across the board.

Club Awards...

League Awards...

We lost a very small proportion of the hardcore fanbase this season, but have gained more fair weather fans in return. Over 5,000 extra followers on social media takes us past the 40k mark.

The board's vision has also changed with one of the biggest things appearing is the club's plans to build a new stadium, which would be huge for us!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Six players were released from the club this Summer and just as per last year, there was at least one I didn't want to see leave.

That player was Faysal Bettache who I signed at the start of my first season here on a free. He has been a massive part of our back to back league title wins, playing 68 league games for the club and I'm really sorry to see him leave. However, he just wasn't interested in even talking about a new contract and had made up his mind to look for a new challenge.

My first signing of the Summer was that of Tom Bayliss who joins from Shrewsbury for a fee of £350k. Bayliss is an excellent signing for the club and improves us in central midfield immediately!

Bayliss was quickly followed through the door by Barnsley's Mitch Clark, who I forked out £215k to bring here. I really wanted Clark for his versatility as he can play both full back positions or centre back when required as well. He will become an extremely useful squad player this season I reckon.

Next in was my first loan signing of the window and it's a player that could become our most exciting attacker this year. Sonny Perkins, of Leeds United, has lots of potential and brings some great atttributes with him. He can play down either flank or up top and I may do some experimenting to find his best role.

A 3rd loan signing through the door, this time to bolster the defence, as centre back Robbie Deas joins for the season from Bournemouth. He's probably better than any other player we have in that position and should be a first team regular this year.

Then it was back to a permanent signing and a new number 1 goalkeeper. I paid £225k to bring Matija Sarkic to the club from Wolves and I'm hoping he can play a key role between the sticks to help us stay up this season. He brings with him some International experience too, gaining 6 caps for Montenegro in his career so far.

The squad is still looking a little on the thin side as we are set to kick off the league campaign, so new signings will have to be made before the transfer window shuts.

Although the players that are here haven't had a bad pre season, although I would have expected us to win all of our games as we played all sides from lower divisions.

It's no surprise to see that the bookies have us as pretty much nailed on to go straight back down this year. We are way behind all the other teams when you compare the odds and could be gearing up for a long, hard season!

You could say the fixture list has been kind to us in terms of our opening day game though, as we will play Hull City (now managed by Frank Lampard) who themselves are expected to be in and around the relegation battle.

For the 3rd season in a row, we kick off the league with a 1-0 win! Hull certainly helped us out when Ryan Longman saw red just before the half hour mark for them and it was a very dominant performance fo us after that with the extra player advantage. Although we couldn't find anymore goals, Macauley Langstaff's 24th minute strike was enough for the 3 points.

With Championship football this season, comes nearly 2000 extra season ticket holders too. The core fanbase is growing.

We haven't progressed past the 1st round of the Carabao Cup in either of my first two seasons in charge, but this season I was hoping we could break that trend as we prepared to face off against League One side, Reading. Although, they would still be favourites for the match with home advantage on their side.

Reading confirmed their favourites tag and yet again, we won't see the second round of this competition!

But back in the league, it was another victory as we beat Huddersfield with relative ease.

Two wins from two...life in the Championship has started well!

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

Bayliss and Perkins both players I've had at Magpies on FM23, I've even turned Bayliis into a Gibraltar national team player! Good luck with the upcoming season - a nice bit of mid-table obscurity would do!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Bayliss and Perkins both players I've had at Magpies on FM23, I've even turned Bayliis into a Gibraltar national team player! Good luck with the upcoming season - a nice bit of mid-table obscurity would do!

Unfortunately didn't happen mate. Back to back league wins obviously proved too much. After winning the opening two matches, we went on to win only 2 of the next 22, resulting in me getting the chop! Gutted to be honest as I thought after back to back league titles, I'd be kept on even if we were relegated. Back to the drawing board with another career it is, although I think it will be something completely different maybe starting in the top tier somewhere. After taking Bromley and Tranmere both up the leagues of English football, I'm not sure I can sign up for that sort of save again!