Unbelievable Jeff!! A Hartlepool United Story!!

[FM_TNSSO]

amazing as always story bro

Thanks mate I appreciate that!

 

[brooksey84]

Thanks mate I appreciate that!

Would say this is my favourite story on here a lower league story with failure, well written and formatted and you have stuck through it! Only criticism is I WANT MORE!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Would say this is my favourite story on here a lower league story with failure, well written and formatted and you have stuck through it! Only criticism is I WANT MORE!

Again, thank you for this! Really pleased you guys are enjoying this! And I can guarantee this isn't coming to an end any time soon!

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Flying in the league mate, looking solid and consistent all season (forgetting the cups of course). Hopefully your hard work will be reward with promotion to the premier league this season!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Flying in the league mate, looking solid and consistent all season (forgetting the cups of course). Hopefully your hard work will be reward with promotion to the premier league this season!

Cheers mate....here's hoping fella!!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Monday 6th May 2024

Monday 6th May 2024

As we prepared to roll up our sleeves and mount our title challenge (I still can't believe I'm saying that), Aston Villa are a big team that had the potential to throw a spanner in the works for us immediately! However, we kept our composure and turned in a great performance to kick off our final 10 games with a win!

Wednesday were another side that were a potential banana skin for us, but again we turned in a solid display and pick up another vital 3 points! Eloy Gonzalez was in sensational form as he netted a hat trick for the 3rd time this season!

We didn't have the best record against Wigan coming into this game, having drawn 4 of our 6 meetings with them (1 win a piece in the other 2). However, we improved on that record slightly by picking up a victory over them here and it takes our winning run to a total of 10 games as we are stringing together an amazing run of form at just the right time of the season!

Eloy Gonzalez has been in amazing goalscoring form with 8 in his last 5 games and that's enough for him to win the Player and Young Player of the Month awards for March!

And our 100% record throughout March wins me the Manager of the Month as well!

Leeds are having a good season and are 4th in the league and fighting to secure a playoff spot, so it wasn't much of a surprise that they managed to turn us over! Especially as I had to make wholesale changes to the starting lineup with only 2 days rest since the Wigan game!

Despite losing to Leeds, with other results going our way elsewhere, we secured a playoff spot!

It was a case of 2nd vs 1st here, but neither side was able to take the upper hand in the title race as we played out a 2-2 draw!

Nooooo! Timing on this injury couldn't be any worse as we lose our top goalscorer who has been in immense form for the next few weeks and he may not play another league game this season!

Andrija Novakovich has ultimately been pretty disappointing since I signed him for the club a couple of seasons back, but if he can continue to score the goals that will see us promoted to the Premier League (with Eloy Gonzalez out injured), he could cement himself as a club hero forever!

With only 4/5 games remaining, the title race is really hotting up and we currently sit top of the division! Leeds are probably too far back to win it and with us, Southampton and Brighton all having to play teams in the top 10, nobody has an easy run in! Just how massive could our final game of the season against Southampton potentially be?!

A nervy game for both sides as we chase promotion and Cardiff chase the playoffs! But it was us that just about came out on top, with a Ndicka Matam strike the difference between the two sides.

Big shout out to my defence here as their efforts secured us the win and another massive 3 points towards automatic promotion! Every one of my back 4 in that second half put a shift in and produced block after block to keep Brentford out!

With only 2 games remaining, we are potentially only 1 win away from securing automatic promotion!!!

29 shots on goal to their 4, and somehow the game finished in a draw! Disappointing! Matias Baldo hit the post in the 88th minute with a great effort that would have given us a deserved win!

So a win over Southampton in our final game will see us confirmed as champions and promoted to the Premier League! If we draw and Brighton fail to beat 17th placed QPR, then we will be champions too! It all rides on the last game of the season!!!

But unfortunately The Saints were just too strong for us! We had our own chances in this game, but in the attacking department they are exceptional for a Championship club and our defence simply couldn't deal with them!

It was an awful final day of the season for us, as Brighton thrashed QPR to also leapfrog us and relegate us to 3rd in the table and after coming so close to winning the Championship title, we now have to settle for a place in the playoffs!! Possibly the worst single day of my mangerial career at Hartlepool so far!

There's the confirmation of the final league table and we have every reason to feel hard done by, as 93 points would have been enough to win the Championship title in any of the past 5 seasons!!
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[FM_TNSSO]

The Playoffs

The Playoffs

I'm so proud of the lads for the way they picked themselves up for this game after the disappointment of the final day of the regular season that left us all so deflated! A good job done away from home in the first leg here and as long as we can finish them off at home, we'll make it to our second successive Championship Playoff Final!!

And we kept our heads in the home tie, recording another win and extending our aggregate score in the semi final to 5-2! We're on our way to Wembley again and have another shot at making it to the promised land of the Premier League!

Leeds will be our opponents in the final and we have an even record against them in previous meetings with 2 wins a piece!

The lineups for the final...We were missing semi final hero Mohamed Bangoura and Xavier Amaechi through injury, which left us massively short on numbers down the right wing! It meant there was a massive opportunity for Marcus Harness to play although it was a massive blow to be missing two of our best attacking players! Darnell Fisher also had a niggle that kept him out!

And we only went and done it!! It's official...Hartlepool United will be a Premier League club next season!! What an amazing achievement and I'm so **** proud of every single one of my players for capping off such a wonderful season with this achievement! The introduction of the on loan centre mid, Adrien Bongiovanni, at half time made all the difference as he came on and completely ran the game in the 2nd half, bagging an assist and scoring a blinder of a free kick as well!

PLAYOFF CHAMPIONS! SAY WE ARE GOING UP, SAY WE ARE GOING UP!!!
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[LiamCFC88]

Great read so far, outstanding how rapid the development has been, keep it up

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Great read so far, outstanding how rapid the development has been, keep it up

Cheers mate! Can't believe we're in the Premier League!!!!

 

[brooksey84]

Love this! Congrats on the promotion you are going to have to be shrewd in the prem as i doubt you will get mega monies!

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Congrats mate! I was worried about jinxing you when i mentioned the consistent form and gutted you couldn't seal the title but promotion is massive! Well done!

 

[WeArePalace]

Amazing achievement to get to the Premier League in what's not a long time either! Brilliant stuff and look very much forward to seeing how you far in the Premier League. Well done and good luck.

 

[Hampus Silverholt]

If you're going to go up, that's the way to do it!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

End of Season 2023/24

End of Season 2023/24

Eloy Gonzalez wins the golden boot by a fair margin of 9 goals!

He also picked up the Young Player of the Year award too!

Gonzalez was also our only player to make the Team of the Year. This did surprise me a little as I felt a couple of the other lads had done enough to be named here!

And I pick up another Manager of the Year award. To be fair, after my biggest achievement so far, I'd have been disappointed not to have won it this year!

The season review shows just how good we were all season as our league positions show we were rarely outside of the top 4 all year and promotion is very well deserved!

It was no surprise to see the fan's voting wonderkid Eloy Gonzalez as their player of the year this season, after the young striker bagged 29 goals for the club this year! For his first season in professional football, 19 year old Chris Pearce had an immense one as he scored 9 goals and bagged 8 assists from central midfield! A fantastic product of our own academy and it always gives me pride to bring through one of our own!

I have absolutely no idea how they work out these best overall elevens, as Danny Redmond and Bevis Mugabi have somehow worked their way into the side this year?! Neither of them I would ever consider to be a superstar for the club and neither of them have even played here all season, so not sure how they wormed their way in?!

Dynamics in the squad are all good, as I'd expect after another promotion!

It was great to see a large number of players scoring high average ratings over 7.00 again this season! Eloy Gonzalez was immense up front and bagged an incredible 29 goals for us, however it was slightly disappointing not to see any other player reaching double figures on the goals front although a few of our midfielders did come close! Assists again came from all over the pitch, but it was the wingers who led the way again as we focus most of our attacking play out through the wider channels! Defensively, we were solid with most players across the back line performing well and consistently this year!

My Player of the Year: Theo Ndicka Matam
My Young Player of the Year: Eloy Gonzalez
Surprise Package: Andy Boyle
Must Do Better: Kieron Harrold
Most Disappointing: Nacer Chadli

The commercial summary isn't the greatest this year, with a number of areas down on the year before! However, we have nothing to be worried about here as next year everything should see huge increases with Premier League football!

Next season, we will play our home games at Hull City's KCOM stadium (as Victoria Park doesn't meet Premier League requirements). The season after, our new stadium should be ready to move into and hopefully we'll still have Premier League football to play there!

With promotion now confirmed, the board have upped the wage budget by £200k per week and given me a £32 million transfer budget to spend!

Plans For The Summer; Well, I have over £30 million to spend which isn't a massive budget in the grand scheme of things! The areas of the squad I feel it is essential that we improve is our goalkeeper and our back line! Although the defence have done well this season, playing in the Premier League is a whole new level and some of our players are sure to struggle in the top flight against world class forwards! It will be important to try to keep some of our better attacking players here on loan for another season, especially wonderkids Eloy Gonzalez and Matias Baldo...hopefully we can agree deals with Arsenal and Man Utd respectively to keep them both at the club at least for one more season!
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[FM_TNSSO]

Summer Transfer Window Roundup

I've given a complete update to the Summer Transfer Window as it's been a busy one and I've spent hours trying to find the right players for us and negotiate deals!

So before we get on to the transfers, one thing I found out this Summer is that it isn't easy to encourage players to come to your club when you're absolutely nailed on for relegation and seen as a pretty small side! And the players that might be willing to join, it's a struggle to meet their salary requirements with such a small and strict wage structure in place! Despite all that, we did manage to improve the squad and here's the business I managed to get done...

A number of players were allowed to leave this Summer! Nacer Chadli is released after a single disappointing season! Mark Kitching & Kenton Richardson have been at the club ever since I took over, but it was now time for them to move on with their opportunities severely limited at this level! Cameron Humphreys is a centre back who has played over 150 times for us over the past 5 seasons and been a massive contributor to 3 promotions...I tried to keep him here but we couldn't agree terms on his contract and he also leaves!

First bit of transfer business this Summer was the renewal of Matias Baldo's loan deal, so he'll stay with us for a 4th season in a row! The young midfielder has now made well over 100 appearances for us with an average rating of 7.24 across all those games and I'm delighted he'll be staying with us for our first season in the Prem!

Next up was a free transfer as I brought in left winger Glenn Middleton! He was released by Rangers at the end of last season after 7 years with the club and he made nearly 100 appearances for them, scoring 11 goals! He is a great addition to the side and what a fantastic piece of business it turned out to be as his value is immediately £11.5 million after signing!

Then I decided to spend some money! One of the target positions this Summer was for a new goalkeeper and I've forked out £4.4 million to sign 19 year old Boris Monier from Bournemouth! A solid keeper already, he could still improve massively and has the potential to become our number 1 keeper for years to come!

Sikou Niakate immediately becomes my best player in the centre back position after signing on a free transfer! He was released by Watford, after they'd sent him out on loan for the past couple of seasons and didn't see a place for him in their side! Their loss is definitely our gain!

A great signing for us as English left back, Max Lowe, joins from Huddersfield on a free transfer! He will provide stern competition for the left back spot and could easily become our first choice in that position this season!

Possibly my favourite signing of the Summer is the free transfer of Aaron Ramsey to the club! Although he is 33 years old now, he still has plenty to offer and has maintained some extremely high attributes! He has been there, at the highest level, and his experience for some of the younger lads could be huge for us! I'm confident he'll still get plenty of game time here as well!

Another 35 year old joined the squad on a free transfer in the form of striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang! Don't get me wrong, he isn't the player he once was, but if he can somehow ****** 8-10 goals for us in the league this year, he'll have achieved the job he has been brought in to do! And he definitely still looks capable of scoring some goals!

This one was the work of my Director of Football, as he brings in 18 year old promising striker Scott Woods from Motherwell for a small fee of £27,000. I'll keep an eye on his development.

Next up is a surprising transfer, mainly because I'm surprised Liverpool allowed 24 year old Rhian Brewster to leave the club on a free transfer. He might not be good enough for their squad, but surely they have missed out on a transfer fee here that plenty of clubs would have been willing to pay to snap him up! I mean, the day he signed for us, he is already worth over £10 million! Another shrewd piece of business by me if I do say so myself!

My marquee Summer signing has to be that of 21 year old Spanish midfielder Ivan Ferrer! He comes in from Chelsea for a total fee of £11 million (£5 million up front and £6 million in 12 monthly installments over the next 3 years)! He is a solid young player with a big future ahead of him and I'm shocked Chelsea have allowed him to leave for such a low fee! This is a lad I could potentially build the team around over the next few seasons!

A season long loan signing up next as I added another striker to the squad. 20 year old Argentinian wonderkid, Juan Ignacio Di Donato, plays for PSG but has failed to make a senior appearance for them just yet! So the kid will have a point to prove and a name to make for himself and I'm willing to give him that opportunity here at Hartlepool! I think it's a great move for him, with fellow Argentinian youngster, Matias Baldo, at the club too!

​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Friday 9th August 2024 (Pre Season)

In all fairness, the fixtures list has been pretty kind to us for our first ever season in the Premier League. We won't have to take on any of the big boys in our opening 5 games and actually take on 5 teams that have spent some time in the Championship over the past 5-6 seasons!

Not a bad little boost to the club's finances this season as we'll rake in nearly £100 million on TV revenue!!

The matchday revenue figures make for quite humourous reading! We're bottom of the table and Burnley who are only one place above us make 3 times the amount we do!

I'm not at all surprised to see the bookies have us finishing last this season! However, I am surprised that they only have us at 700-1 to win the league....surely you should be getting thousands to one on us?!

It's mental to think that only a few seasons ago I was managing our first team in the Checkatrade Trophy and this season we have our own U23s team in the competition!

Pre season started off extremely poorly and I have to admit I was seriously worried after we failed to beat both Sligo and Boreham Wood! However, we got progressively better across the 7 games and capped off the friendlies with big wins over Middlesbrough and CSKA Moscow and I feel a lot better about things now!

The captaincy changes hands for the upcoming season as I hand the responsibility to Aaron Ramsey, possibly the most experienced player at the club! The vice captain goes to Matias Baldo, which seems like a weird decision as he is only here on loan, but Baldo has been with us a total of 4 seasons now and feels like one of our own, so I feel the decision is justified!

In other news, I enter the international management stage for the first time on FM19 as I am appointed Belgium manager!

There are some familiar names amongst my backroom staff for the Belgium national side as Jan Vertonghen and Vincent Kompany currently manage my U23 and U19 sides.

Belgium have slipped down the World Rankings over the past few years and currently sit 15th, which is disappointing for a side that 5-6 years ago were seen as one of the best national sides in the world!

Their most recent competition was the 2024 European Championship, where they were dumped out by Germany in the 2nd round! Previous competition progress reads in date order as; Nations League 2019 (Semi Final), Euros 2020 (Group Stage), Nations League 2021 (Finished bottom of League A Group 1), World Cup 2022 (Failed to Qualify), Nations League 2023 (Finished top of League B Group 2)

As I take a look at the current first team squad, there are still some familiar names floating around as Courois, Alderweireld, De Bruyne, Tielemans, Januzaj and Batshuayi are all still present.

But my star player is world class centre back, Zinho Vanheusden, of Atletico Madrid.

The only games currently scheduled for the national side for the rest of this year are those in the Nations League against Sweden and Portugal.
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