Chapter 19: A Much Better Start Than Last Year
A perfect start to the season as we thrash US Orleans and in all fairness, we could have easily had 7 or 8 here, but 4 will do.
How we didn't follow that up with another win against Troyes I don't know. We hit the woodwork 3 times in this game and were totally dominant, so it's disappointing to settle for a single point.
The scoreline suggests this game was close, but we had over 20 shots at their goal in this one and the win was a lot more comfortable than it initially looks.
A solid performance again as we dominate the wide areas of the field throughout, with both our wide men scoring the goals that led us to another 3 points!
Both the goalkeepers starred here as we played out a 0-0 draw with Chateauroux.
Well, our first 5 games of this season have been in stark contract to last year. We lost 4 of our opening 5 last season, but this year we are unbeaten in our first 5 as we sit pretty in the top 3 at these early stages.
Early signs are showing I'll have a decent centre back partnership between Bamba and Simeu. Through the opening five games of the season, they both sit in the top 4 for possessions won in the league, winning the ball back nearly 120 times between them already!
There's no doubt that Axel Bamba has been a very important part of my team since I arrived, and his stats would suggest that he is simply getting better each season.
Chapter 20: Could This Be Our Year?
Transfer deadline day saw a new arrival come into the club. Baba Fernandes was available on a free transfer and gives me some extra cover at centre back which was much needed. He looks good enough to push the first choice pairing for a starting spot too and can only improve with him being only 22 years old.
F***inghell, PSG's spend is just beyond ridiculous! The brought in Erling Haaland during the Summer and they now have a strike force that consists of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland!!
They can't even fit them all in the team properly, so Harry Kane is playing as a central midfielder!!
We continued our unbeaten start to the season with a good all round performance against Guingamp. A Marvin Gakpa double secured us the points.
Gakpa is another player who has been an important member of my squad throughout my time here. He has 66 appearances under me, with 21 goals and 11 assists.
Nimes were up next for us in an early season top of the table clash.
And we managed to chalk up a massive win, although we did ride our luck at times with Nimes having a goal disallowed for a very narrow offside and missed a penalty.
Our keeper, Stefano Gori, earned himself a man of the match for making 8 saves in the game!
Four more games extended our unbeaten run to 11 in the league and moved us to the top of the table!
Which sets us up nicely for our next game and another 1st vs 2nd clash. Metz are also unbeaten this season and it remains to be seen which of us would manage to keep hold of that record. Would it be our passing game or their route one style that would prevail?
The answer was ours as a Jack Marriott double secures the points!
And that means after twelve games, we top the division with a 5 point lead already! Could this be our year?
Fair to say Baba Fernandes has been a pretty awesome addition to the squad. Just look at those match ratings!
Chapter 21: League Form Takes A Dip
Our next game against AS Nancy would be my 100th in charge. Question was if my team could mark it with victory?
Of course we did! Right now, we look absolutely unstoppable!
We did suffer our first big injury of the season though, as we lose our first choice right back for a few weeks!
Did I say we looked unstoppable?? Pretty sure I jinxed us there as we then go through the whole of November, picking up only a single point!
Time for a team meeting to lift everyone's spirits! Let's hope it brings about a better performance in our next game!
It seemed to do the trick as we give a solid performance and record a 1-0 win against Clermont.
A new signing and this should improve our profile in China (assuming he becomes as good as I think he will). I forked out £325k to bring 17 year old Chinese winger, Guo Yuze, to the club from Grenoble Foot.
First up in the Coupe de France this year was US Orleans, although they didn't provide much of a challenge and we're comfortably through to the next round.
And the 9th round draw provides a tie that will see us take on the country's giants for the first time in a competitive game under my management.
Back in the league, we could only manage a bore draw away at Chamois
Which leaves us 3rd in the league at the half way stage. It looks, at the moment, like the title will be contested between the current top 4 as we've pulled away from the rest of the teams.
Chapter 22: Consecutive League Wins Record Takes Us Back To The Top
A big win over Troyes in the league was the perfect way to warm up for our massive cup tie against PSG!
Now let's just have a little look at these lineups for our big cup game shall we?
Now there lowest valued player is goalkeeper, Thomas Strakosha, at £29 million! Against our highest valued player, Stefano Gori, at just £2.5 million!!
Despite the gulf in class, we can be proud of the performance we gave and held our own for large periods of the game.
We quickly put the cup defeat behind us, getting straight back to winning ways in the league.
Although we did lose our captain for a few weeks, which might hurt us! I have to admit, it had me a little worried.
But it turns out I had no reason to be, as we strung together another 5 wins on the bounce!
And those 6 games in a row we've now won in the league is a new team record.
A record that has taken us back to the top of the division with 12 games to go!
We've scored more goals than anyone in the league this season and it's fair to say that Jack Marriott has been a great addition to the front line as he has 16 in 25 appearances so far this year.
Chapter 23: Putting Ourselves In Pole Position
A wonderful first half performance against Auxerre, see's us extend our winning run, with Jack Marriott bagging another brace!
But our winning run then came to an end as a late, late goal consigned us to defeat away at Rodez.
Four points from our next two games, including a massive win over 3rd placed Metz, coming from behind to ****** 3 valuable points!
And then the worst possible news! Jack Marriott won't score more than 21 goals this season, as he won't play again this season!! Absolutely gutting and this could hugely damaging to our title challenge!
Just as he took his first Player of the Month award as well!
The man we turn to up front is Gaeten Laura, who only has 1 league goal this season!
Fair to say he stepped up!!
And we continued to score plenty of goals as we racked up another wins!
With just 5 games remaining, we lead the way by 4 points! Even more importantly, we are 8 points clear of 3rd...surely automatic promotion is all but guaranteed right?
Our next two games are absolutely huge as we play the sides currently sitting 3rd and 2nd!
The annual youth intake was a really disappointing one and there isn't a single player who excites me!
Gaeten Laura has come in and done a fine job in the absence of Jack Marriott, backed up by the fact he won the Ligue 2 Player of the Month for March.
With our next two games being against the sides in 3rd and 2nd, and challenging us for the league title, I had the mentality that we must not lose and draws would do just fine!
However, we went better than that and took a maximum 6 points from the two games!
And that secures promotion to the top tier!! BOOM!!!
With promotion in the bag, the board go ahead and announce that I'll have just under £4 million to spend this Summer and have boosted the wage budget by about £50k per week.
We had three games remaining to seal the title!
We only needed one!
The last two games were simply a formality, but it was nice to finish with a couple of clean sheets.
Chapter 25: A Title Winning Season
The final league table confirms our status as champions, winning by a clear margin in the end! Won more than anyone, lost less than anyone, scored more than everyone!
Nothing to shout about in the cup this year, but we can be forgiven for going out to one of the biggest teams in the world.
The income grew in most areas again this season, although we'll expect to see a big difference in this area next year after a season in Ligue 1.
The best eleven shows that everyone put in a shift this year and it was an all round great effort!
17 year old Steeven Ongenda made the team at right back after making 19 appearances for the club this season, despite his young age! This lad could have a bright future.
The squad stats sorted by appearances. Marvin Gakpa had a stormer of a season scoring 17 and bagging 10 assists. Jack Marriott did become that 20 goal a striker season I desperately needed, and without that injury, he may just have got a few more!
Fan's Player of the Season = Baba Fernandes
Young Player of the Season = Baba Fernandes
Signing of the Season = Baba Fernandes
My Player of the Season = Marvin Gakpa
My Young Player of the Season (U23) = Axel Bamba
Most Disappointing = Lucas Da Cunha
Top Goalscorer = Jack Marriott (21 in all comps)
Most Assists = Marvin Gakpa & Mauro Marconato (10 in all comps)
As far as the Ligue 2 awards go, we were well involved this year season!
Six players made the Stars Team of the Competition, whilst three of them also made the Ligue 2 best eleven.
We filled both the top 2 players in the most assists award.
I'm convinced Jack Marriott would have finished as the top goalscorer if he hadn't have got that injury!
And with a 71% win ratio this campaign, I take the Ligue 2 Manager of the Year award to round off a perfect season!
Before we sign off our season review, we'll have a look at PSG's season as per usual. They reached over 100 points to win their 6th straight Ligue 1 title.
But again they failed to get past Monaco in the Coupe de France!
They're getting closer to winning the Champions League though, this year reaching the Semi Final where Man City dumped them out of the competition.
Chapter 26: The Summer Ins And Outs
Promising signs for the future as the board have agreed to invest some money in our youth recruitment and junior coaching.
A few players left the club this Summer as their contracts came to an end, but we didn't lose anyone that I wasn't prepared to let go.
Florent Hanin is worth a mention though as he joined Boavista on a free. He played 90 times for us and had a good record under me.
However, he is 33 years old and winding down his career now and it's time for 20 year old Jaouen Hadjam to take over as the number 1 left back. He came through our youth system a few years back and impressed in his 23 appearances last season.
Now for the incoming. My first signing of the Summer as we prepare to build a side capable of surviving in Ligue 1. Julien Masson is a 24 year old French midfielder who hasn't been getting much football at Lyon and I was happy to fork out just over £1 million (£850k up front) to bring him to Paris. His work rate and determination in the centre of the park will be crucial for us and it's always nice to add French players to the team as well.
Next up is a 19 year old striker from Hoffenheim, who joins us on loan for the year. Abdoul Camara looks a very tasty prospect and has joined to give Jack Marriott some decent competition up front, and may just prove to be our number 1 striker this season (if he is ready).
I'm nicknaming these two the 'Lyon Loanees' as Titouan Thomas and Sinaly Diomande sign for the season on temporary deals to bolster both the central defence and midfield areas. Both are capable of challenging for a place in my first eleven and improve us significantly!
My next signing was one for the future as 17 year old Lukas Vecera joins the club. We snapped him up from Slavia Prague where he has already made 50 senior appearances despite his young age. He only cost us £53k in compensation and could go on to be worth a h3ll of a lot more than that!
He quickly went out on loan for the season to get some first team football under his belt in Germany.
Another loanee comes into the club, this time it's Miguel Reisinho from Watford. He bolster my central midfield options and could well become an important player for us....if he does, we have a clause in the loan deal where we can buy him for £2.5 million. He spent last season on loan in Portugal's top tier with Portimonense where he made 10 appearances with an average rating of 7.17.
Finally, I did reject a hefty bid (by our standards) for Axel Bamba!
Chapter 27: A Decent Enough Start
A decent enough pre season with plenty of goals scored.
As expected, the board are looking for us to fight bravely against relegation this year.
I don't think I've ever seen 3 players from the same club fill all top 3 spots with the bookies for top scorer in the division. It shows just how potent that PSG attack really is!
With the season about to start, we're widely expected to go straight back down this year.
But we immediately showed the bookies what we're made of, as we kick off the season in the most perfect way!
And we followed that up with another 4 points and we're unbeaten in 3 Ligue 1 games!
But that was potentially about to change...
Sure enough, we did suffer our first defeat of the season at the hands of our rivals, but we didn't go down without a fight and many would argue we deserved something from this game!
And we followed that up with another defeat as we crumble in the last 10 mins against Brestois!
However, 7 points from our opening 5 games is respectable and has to be seen as a decent enough start to our first ever season in the top tier.
On transfer deadline day, we lost Jessy Benet on a free transfer to Preston. He's been decent for me over the last couple of seasons and was a big part of our promotion season last year. However, we couldn't agree a new contract with him so he leaves the club.
I have also forked out a fair few quid on 15-16 year olds for the future, who are all set to join the club over the coming months. As they do, I'll introduce you to them individually then.
Meanwhile, PSG were once again splashing the cash. As if they don't have enough attacking talent in their squad already, they've now added Mason Greenwood for over £100 million!
Chapter 28: We Continue To Impress In The Top Tier
Our first youngster from the Summer signings has now joined the club. I managed to nick Tuncer Biricik on a free transfer from Istanbul Basaksehir and the 18 year old looks like he could develop into a fine player. He's got a great work rate and determination about him, so if he can improve those technical attributes he'll be an interesting prospect.
If we're going to stay up this year, it's really important that we win the games against the other sides that are expected to struggle.....like this
We followed that up with an expected defeat at home to Monaco, before finding our form again to string together another 3 game unbeaten run.
Up next was a really tough game against Lyon, who had a certain Todd Cantwell in their starting lineup!
A solid first half performance from my lads put them to the sword and we record our most impressive result under my management so far!
And we followed that up with a solid home win against Amiens, although it did take us until the 89th minute to score!
So incredibly, we sit 3rd in the league after 12 games, having amassed 23 points already! Our aim was to avoid relegation and over the past 3 seasons, the clubs that have gone down have done so with around 28-31 points, so we're almost safe already!!
One of the players that has been hugely responsible for our success so far this season is Mauro Marconato who has already racked up 5 goals and 7 assists! A player I bought for just £140k and is now worth over £4 million!
More investment in the youth recruitment can only be a good thing! Especially as we have PSG to compete with in attracting young talent to Paris!
It's definitely promising, but that gap to PSG is so huge! And every year, they keep improving the squad by about £200 million!! It's going to be a really tough ask to overhaul them, but then that's why I took on the challenge as I knew it would keep me occupied for some time.
The January transfer window has opened and I've bolstered our attacking options with the addition of Anthony Elanga. The 21 year old winger comes in on loan from Manchester United for the remainder of the season!
Then three of our youngsters that were signed in the Summer have now joined the club. One striker and two centre backs who all look to have bundles of potential and could all feature in the first team in the coming years!
I then added a new central midfielder to the club as I picked up an absolute bargain! Ibou Sissoko comes in to be our new ball winning midfielder and I signed him for just £950,000, which has already proven to be a steal as he is worth double that as soon as he joins. He has been performing well for Reims in Ligue 2 this season, with an average rating of 7.19 from 21 games, and I feel he'll cope with the step up to the top tier just fine.
I think everyone expected us to get a few thrashings this year and against Rennais we suffered our first one! We were just awful!
Two more defeats followed, although this recent run of bad form can be forgiven considering the opposition we've played.
And we got right back on track against weaker opposition.
And over the next 3 games, we were unbeaten in some games that offered up plenty of entertainment for the fans with no less than 17 goals featuring across the 3 matches!
Before an underwhelming draw with Lens who are bottom of the division! We really should have won this one!
We're still massively punching above our weight, despite dropping down to 7th in the league. PSG are absolutely running away with it, winning 18 of their 20 games so far! As we pass the halfway stage, I wonder if it's too early to start dreaming of a top 6 finish and maybe qualifying for one of the European competitions! That would be an incredible achievement!
All that investment in the youth recruitment might just pay off, as there is a promise of a potential golden generation coming through.
And the board have agreed to pump more money into the Junior Coaching side of the club.
Meanwhile, in the Coupe de France, we comfortably got through our first game of the season.
Chapter 30: A Golden Generation
Klaus Gjasula was a big part of our title winning campaign last season that secured promotion. However, he's struggled in Ligue 1 this season, not really shining in any of his 9 appearances. Maybe age is catching up with him, but he was on some big wages and I needed to get him off the bill, so I allowed him to return to Germany on a free where he will play in the 3rd tier with Sandhausen.
A really disappointing result for us as we crash out of the Coupe de France to Strasbourg. We were poor and didn't deserve anything from the game!
I demanded a reaction from the lads in our next game and boy did I get it, as we hammered Lorient on their own turf!
That result put us on a 6 game unbeaten run in the league, but we took on the mighty PSG in our next game and despite a real good effort from my team, we were just undone by our rivals.
That sparked a run of 6 games with some mixed results - 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in fact!
The top 5 have clear daylight between them and the rest now, whilst PSG has pretty much sewn up the title already! With 10 games to go, we sit in 6th as the current best of the rest though and we have a real shot at securing a European qualifying place in our first season in the top tier. I won't be too gutted if we don't get it this season, but what a massive bonus it would be if we can!
It was time for the best time of the year....the youth intake! And this year it really was the best time as we inherit what could be a potential golden generation with no less than 5 players who look like they could be future stars!
First up is Ismael Mbayo, an aggressive striker with a decent work rate and a tidy finish. Plenty of potential to become a top front man!
As I don't play with a DM, Thierry Cabrol will likely be retrained as a central midfielder. If he can improve his work rate then he could become a key figure in the centre of the park for us.
But the player with the most promise has to be centre back Samir Souiri, who genuinely looks like he might be a first team regular by the time he is 17/18 years old! He already looks pretty awesome and with a determination attribute of 18, there's no reason why he shouldn't go all the way! The only slight negative for him as a CB is his height, but I may just look to retrain him as a ball winning midfielder as he ticks a lot of boxes for that role too.
Chapter 31: Some Tough Games, Some Great Results!
Disaster strikes as we lose our number 1 keeper for nearly 2 months!
Which opens the door for 21 year old, Obed Nkambadio, to get a run in the side. He's made 5 appearances for us this season already and held his own, so hopefully he can step up to the plate.
And he immediately makes an impact as he turns in a man of the match performance against Lyon as we record one of our results of the season!
Two more wins against Amiens and Stade Rennais followed and we were stringing together some big wins at just the right time of the campaign.
Wins that were helping us tighten our grip on a top 6 finish! We've now opened up a 7 point gap back to 7th as well as close in on the top 5 sides that looked well out of our reach only a few games ago.
2nd placed Marseille proved too strong for us, but we quickly put that defeat behind us with a solid 1-0 victory over 4th placed Lille.
So with just 5 games remaining, we look almost nailed on for a top 6 finish, barring a complete meltdown in our final few matches. And with victories over Lyon and Lille in our last few games, we've even closed the gap on them and could even push for a 4th or 5th placed finish. PSG have been confirmed as champions for the 7th consecutive season.
And if we could edge into one of those two positions, we'd qualify for the group stages of the Europa League....although I wouldn't complain with 6th and Europa Conference football next season either!
Titouan Thomas has really stepped up his game through the second half of the season and the loanee from Lyon seems to have settled at the club now and we are finally seeing some good form. He has an average rating of 7.34, 2 goals and 4 assists from his last 5 games. I'd love to make him a permanent member of my squad this Summer, but I don't know if the budgets will be big enough for me to be able to afford him.
Really enjoying reading mate, be very important to keep hold of the core of that squad next season as i would imagine you'll have bids from bigger clubs in the summer!
