Relegation Battle to Success Story? - A Premier League story

[WeArePalace]

A PREMIER LEAGUE CHALLENGE - RELEGATION FIGHT TO SUCCESS

Hello and welcome to my new Football Manager 2019 story where I begin the game unemployed and simulate until just after christmas (in this case I simulated to the 27th of December) and am allowed to pick one of the three teams in the relegation side and attempt to firstly survive and then get the team to do as well as possible in the league for the next few seasons. After disappointment with a save yet again, I hope that you will enjoy this one and like and comment on the story. Thank you.

The sim finished and the relegation sides are Cardiff, Leicester and Huddersfield. I immediately took the chance to take over at Leicester City, especially after their success story in 2015/16 and they sit in 19th place although the relegation battle is tight. Southampton in 17th have 16 points whereas bottom placed Huddersfield have 14 points so the places could all quickly change. I left it with 1 game in the month, where we'll play Tottenham before going into the key month of January, with a very healthy budget of 30m. Brendan Rogers have already signed Carles Alena from Barcelona on loan and Lucas Alario from Bayer 04 for 8m. Not too bad but we won't use them much this season because we already have enough to start for the team.

Leicester won't make this challenge any easier though, we still have to win the Premier League and the morale of the team is extremely low, don't be surprised if the team goes down to the Championship, although I should be able to do well enough to prevent the side from being relegated. Obviously, Huddersfield would've been a bigger challenge, but Leicester have always intrigued me on FM and I'm quite happy to be taking over at the club.

These are the current results which we've gotten. The start wasn't too bad for the side but they've since entered abysmal form with little to no wins across the board. Obviously there is a good amount of work which needs to be done to restore the pride of Leicester City after their title-winning season.

And this is the league table - no one is doing especially bad in the season so far except for Spurs who sit in 9th place. It's a tight table and Arsenal are currently winning the league.

Next Update: Starting our time at Leicester

 

[WeArePalace]

INSANE TRANSFER WINDOW BUT POOR START
Well I've just been through my best transfer window with a club as when we entered January to board injected another 27.5m into the budget and I sold some top players as they weren't performing. This was probably my biggest transfer window ever in terms of completed deals and sales. Here are the transfer window results (window still running):

IN
Jordan Pickford, Everton, GK
David Brooks, Bournemouth, RM
Callum Wilson, Bournemouth, ST
Pietro Pellegri, AS Monaco, ST
Issa Diop, West Ham, CB
Ryan Gravenberch, Ajax, CM
Nicolo Zaniolo, Roma, CAM
Lee Kangin, Valencia, CAM
Phil Foden, Man City, CAM (Loan)
Filip Benkovic, Celtic, CB (Loan Recall)

OUT
Kasper Schmeichel, Everton, GK
Matty James, West Brom, CM
Christian Fuchs, Swansea, LB
Jamie Vardy, Man Utd, ST
Jonny Evans, Man City, CB
Marc Albrighton, Arsenal, RM
Wes Morgan, FC Cincinnati, CB

So what a window! Three players (Brooks, Pickford and Wilson) go straight into my starting line-up. Brooks was my first signing at a bargain price after he tried to force a move through to Tottenham which fell through. Everton then came in with a very healthy offer for Schmeichel which I immediately accepted. After that went through, I went for Everton's GK myself and nabbed Jordan Pickford from them. I was going to reject the offer for Vardy, before I saw how well Wilson was doing for Bournemouth and looked like just what we needed. I sold him on and brought in Wilson. What also changed a lot here was the Squad Dynamics, as the dressing room atmosphere was quite poor, the new arrivals have already improved that status.

RESULTS (Regard that the line-ups for the first few matches have the players before they were sold)

It was quite a decent start between the match of the two disappointments of the season. We were 2-0 up and flying so I was disappointed to see us throw that away. A good result to begin though.

Southampton are struggling with us near the bottom so I was really hoping that we could win this game because we have enough quality to do so and they didn't play very well. Not a loss but a bit disappointing considering our good performance.

The new signings played in this one and I guess they need time to gel because they were absolutely thrashed here by Man Utd. They're doing well to be fair and are high up in the table but I would've hoped to lose by no more than two goals. Incidentally, Callum Wilson is first in the golden boot race this season.

FA Cup 3rd Round

We force a replay here against Chelsea which was decent enough. Zaniolo and Diop were ok on debut, Diop was the better of the two. There isn't any summary for this update as the month isn't over but had to update because of that mad transfer window as I didn't want it to be too long.

 

[WeArePalace]

FINISHING OFF JANUARY BUT SEARCH REMAINS FOR FIRST LEAGUE WIN
For the rest of January one more deal was completed in the window and then we faced Chelsea in the replay before the Premier League resumes.

IN
Dwight McNeil, Burnley, LM

OUT
Nampalys Mendy, Istanbul Basaksehir, CDM

After Mendy forced through a move to Istanbul, we managed to nab McNeil from Burnley for just under our remaining 20m budget. Jefferson Lerma is on my radar, but I have no money so that'll be a deal to look at next season.

RESULTS

We start off with a draw to Burnley but we should've taken all 3 as they had a man sent off and we missed some decent sized chances but we should've played better in general.

Then a defeat to Liverpool where we actually played much better than the scoreline suggests. Wilson scoring was the only positive though as Ndidi and Barnes both missed big chances to get us back in the match. Attacking football was likely the wrong option against a side like Liverpool who were just too hot to handle.


FA CUP

I'd rather these wins come in the league but what a result! Wilson is showing himself as a very good player on his day and he won it for us here as we eliminate Chelsea from the FA Cup.

We got a similar result against Reading via another late Wilson winner! I would've liked it to be easier but we are through and that's all that matters.

SUMMARY
Not great so far in the league, but our FA Cup campaign is going quite well. We really need a first win because we are starting to drop further off 17th place.

As you can see the table doesn't look great. I did have quite high hopes for this side to do a lot better but hopefully we can pick up form soon.

Our best player this month was Callum Wilson as he's starting to put the ball in the back of the net a bit more frequently for us.

 

[WeArePalace]

PROGRESS MADE AS DECENT FEBRUARY AND STUNNING MARCH HELP CLOSE IN ON SURVIVAL
I've been hugely enjoying this save so far, so this update contains 2 months worth of gameplay. As there was a total of 10 matches played, I'm not going to display all of them but the most interesting 3 (I hope this is fine) from a great period of time in the club. We've been on the receiving end of bad injury news over the time period but that's the worst that's happened.

So as you can see..the lads have done great! March was a stunning month with nothing but wins and our FA Cup journey continues into the semi-final where we'll face Tottenham. I don't want to jinx anything but I have a good feeling about reaching the final! Harvey Barnes was the star performer while Filip Benkovic showed star quality at the back. Ecstatic with this.

So our first result was our first win of my time here! Barnes nabbed a late winner to seal the win and it was so relieving to finally get a win on the board. Barnes picked up a slight knock but thankfully nothing major. Back-up keeper Danny Ward played in a 3 week absence through injury of Jordan Pickford. He was really good and so were Pereira and Maguire. Overall, very solid from the lads.

This was one of my most frustrating matches yet because we twice went ahead and both times they immediately equalised from kick-off! The result wasn't bad but when we scored in the 92nd I practically started going crazy thinking we'd won but then I was brought swiftly down by another quick City response. Oh well a very decent point at least.

Chelsea seem to be the team we can beat as we do it again here after eliminating them from the FA Cup. Wilson scored and he's being doing decent enough up top - better than Vardy was doing which is good to see considering he did cost a decent amount and is leading the race for the Golden Boot.

Harvey Barnes absolutely tore Newcastle apart with a stunning treble. His second goal was simply magnificent as the Magpies simply couldn't deal with the young guns great skill and pace. They just had to sit back and admire. As good as it was, the major disappointment is that David Brooks if out for 9-11 months. Dwight McNeil will slot in the left and Barnes will move to the right for the time being.

OTHER NEWS

Just showing the Brooks injury. Really sad to see but McNeil has done better than Brooks already so while it depletes us of one great player it has opened the door for another.

James Maddison is also gone for a couple months in the win against Palace. Foden is his replacement and scored with 10 minutes of coming on for him in that match.

Barnes won the Young Player of the Month and a trio of our lads managed to round it out with McNeil and Benkovic as the runners-up!

It was a hat-trick of awards for the club as Barnes also won Player of the Month and I won Manager of the Month for March boasting a 100% record.

SUMMARY

The league table looks so much better now, doesn't it! We are very much mid table and who would've thought it from the last update. Amazing improvement and wonderful stuff from the lads!

No prizes for guessing our best player over the two months! Harvey Barnes. Interest from Man Utd has come and gone, it has been gone for a bit now which is good as he will hopefully not be going anywhere unless the board step in.

 

[WeArePalace]

SOLID END AS LEICESTER BASK IN FA CUP GLORY
So we did really well in the end and made it all the way to the FA Cup Final - and won! We again very very decent in the league and also qualified for the Europa League because of our FA Cup win. Youri Tielemans stood out and we'll look to make him a permanent signing and Nicolo Zaniolo won Goal of the Season as well - so overall great stuff!

Very good stuff from the club to avoid relegation within just a few matches of the next month. As you can see we beat City 2-1 in the final and Callum Wilson won the golden boot for both the FA Cup and Premier League. He is tearing teams apart with his finishing ability and his pace causes real trouble too. Once again, I'll just include the best few matches rather than show them all.

This is our biggest win over the season and we thrashed Wolves, who ended up finishing in a solid 8th position. They came into the game much higher up, but we absolutely tore them apart. Tielemans early goal got the ball rolling and Zaniolo scored what would prove to win the best goal of the season with a absolutely scintillating strike from outside the box.

Tottenham, Chelsea and Man City are all teams which we seem to do ok against and that continued here as we beat Spurs through a stoppage time winner from Foden after a late turnaround. A great result in a match between the two disappointments of the season. We will need to replace Foden as he's only on loan and there's no way I'll be able to afford him.

The monthly awards were very rewarding for the club as Tielemans really started hitting form and Zaniolo's stunning goal sweeped the goal related awards. Callum Wilson also won the golden boot. He's been spectacular and while he hasn't got many assists is also proving vital in our build-up play. A great pick-up.

So we finish 12th in the league but qualified for Europe as we won the FA Cup. Overall, I'd have to say that I would've bitten your hand off if I knew I would finish this high up considering where we were when I came into the team.

FA CUP FINAL

Just thought I'd show Man City's stats prior to the match - Bernardo Silva has been their star man, especially in the FA Cup while De Bruyne, when not injured, has also been very good. Aguero is also still consistently putting away the goals and has done so in good number this season for the Citizens.

AND THERE IT IS!!! A stunning win as Barnes and Wilson, our own Dynamic Duo, struck in quick succession to give us the win. I don't really want to say this, but ever since Brooks got injured and McNeil came in, we've been playing much better and practically are playing out of our minds. The only negative is that Barnes is out for a month but we have no matches so it should be fine.

Confirmation that we qualified for Europe via that win! The FA Cup review doesn't have us as the Biggest Overachievers which I was slightly surprised by but Cheltenham did have a very solid tournament, reaching the 4th round before being eliminated by Spurs, who we thrashed 3-0 in the semi-final.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH - Youri Tielemans
This guy's solid performances translated to the scoresheet this month, and I will splash all of my transfer budget on him if I have to, because we seem nothing without him in the team.

 

[WeArePalace]

LEICESTER SEASON REVIEW 2018/19
So we've reached the end of the season after joining the club in late December where they were in 19th, and took them to 12th, won the FA Cup and qualified for the Europa League. Overall, a very decent job done first season here but next season we want to do even better and secure European Qualification. In terms of transfer plans, Tielemans is returning to Monaco, and he's my clear Number 1 target for the upcoming window because he did really well.

The Season Review shows that it was a disappointing season, which it was but not during my time here. A 12th placed finish for Leicester isn't very good considering their squad ability. The season reminded me a bit of their 2016/17 season, where they were in and around the relegation zone until Craig Shakespeare helped them clear of relegation.

Season Awards time as Harvey Barnes takes home the Leicester POTY award and Wilson won quite a few awards statwise, being the Signing of the Season as well as our top scorer and also our highest average rating.

My Player of the Season - Callum Wilson (ST)
My Young Player of the Season - Harvey Barnes (LW/RW)
Needs Improvement - Harry Maguire (CB)
Flop of the Season - Ben Chilwell (LB)

Wilson was our best player and carried us in some matches with his pure goalscoring ability. Barnes came a close second but was certainly the best young player this season. Maguire was ok at CB but nothing amazing and he could do a lot better. However, Ben Chilwell has been really poor on the left hand side. When we're losing he's always around the 6.0 rating and in the red. He doesn't have the biggest impact when we win either, but we don't have another LB, so we'll look to sign a new one.

The squad dynamics look a lot better than I did when I came into the club. They seem to happy under me which is very good and that's always a positive contribution to our play.

Our new transfer budget for next season looks very healthy. 62m should be enough for my transfer targets, which are LB, Tielemans and maybe another RW or CDM.

 

[WeArePalace]

So another save that ends in disappointment for me.....I've been sacked as Leicester manager just 9 games into the new season. We had a great window but the team couldn't perform, with just 4 points gained. I was surprised I was sacked so early but can understand that I was doing quite badly. I'll probably think of a new story soon, but please leave suggestions down below for a new story. Thanks!