The Luke Henderson Story

A move from Hearts to Spurs is a huge step up in class, hopefully you can manage it in the toughest top flight in the world!

#091 - Worth all the millions?

08/01/2035 -- Okay. We lost only once. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m started to ask myself why for god sake I spend all those millions last summer? Please! Do something you stupid bunch of over-paid prima donna’s! Really, all those guys are performing so terribly bad. £150,000,000 for two central midfielders. Both of them scored only 1 goal so far, and one of them can add an assist to his statistics as well! Great! Their average rating is also awful and with one of them (Reyes) I had a fight already… He expects more playtime. Well, show me some proper football then your fucking idiot! Show me you’re £100,000,000-worth pass. I didn’t see it until now. By the way, it’s annoying me heavily that - as far I can remember in Football manager - you can’t say against him that he actually play shit when you have a chat with him because he thinks he is not playing enough. It’s almost every time the main reason why you as a manager ignore a player, but for some stupid reason you can’t chose this option from the possible answers… It would make things far more easier I would say!

Beside of that some other guys who are playing here for a while did some good stuff from time to time, but it’s a very disappointingly season this far. We can already memorize the battle for the league title. We played a lot of draws against nearly every midtable side and couldn’t win either against the big teams. So we slightly drifted away and right now it even seems to become a challenge for finishing fourth and so securing Champions League football next season. Hopefully we can straighten our back a little bit, the only tiny advantage we have right now is that the matches against the big five are all in our (still unnamed) stadium in the second half of the season. Maybe it can make a difference because over the last two seasons we won almost all our matches against the big teams at our own place.





The Champions League group stage was our only highlight so far. We were qualified for the next round already after we won our fourth group match as well and played the last two with a lot of reserve players to give them some play time. We didn’t concede a goal so far, which is a remarkable achievement I would say. In the next round we are facing Borussia Dortmund. We will see how things sort out, from now on every round we survive is some kind of a bonus I think. We also qualified ourselves for the League Cup semi-final after we beat Chelsea. Now we are playing against Manchester City, who are really struggling in the league this year. Pep Guardiola has joined them again since last summer, but it’s an unlucky second marriage so far… Hopefully we can take advantage from it and reach straight into the final!



The winter transfer-window has already opened, but I’m not expecting anything. I’m still in a search for a world-class central defender, but I can’t find him until now. I didn’t want to sell the newbies who are playing bad either, it feels not really great for written them off in only four months time… I really hope we can pick up some good form in the second half of the season, otherwise it is some kind of a lost season. I really don’t know how the board is thinking about it, they are very neutral until now, but that can be completely different in only a couple of matches time. My contract is not ending yet, but to be honest I was expecting a little bit more at this point, possibly the board as well… I don’t insinuate anything though.


Note: It sure is Eoin97! And it's tough as well, especially when the level of the squad isn't really great when I joined this club. It's not getting far better right now, but at least there is some kind of progress visible. Hopefully we can pick up some form to end at least within the first four.

#092 - When is my goalkeeper scoring a 7+?

07/04/2035 -- Be warned in advance, this update isn’t very positive at all. Just saying. I know since the early days of the Football Manager franchise this game is pushing you to the limits quite often, and sometimes even beyond. But this 2020 version defies you even to a point you get completely insane. Some ridiculous things are going on during the last few months and of course it’s all against me. Just everything! I was this close for shut down the game without saving it and play the match again. Of course I didn’t, because it’s ruining this career entirely, but I was so angry you couldn’t even imagine. I said it already a long while ago in one of my Hearts updates that sometimes things are just happening so ‘randomly-coded’ and this time I’m even more sure about it. Let’s talk about this famous West Ham United game in a minute when all stupid things comes together!

Until then all seems going well. Winning a game, losing a game. Playing a draw sometimes, nothing strange huh? Apparently not, until you get deeper into it. It was starting with the Burnley game. We showed them every inch of the pitch, creating a lot of chances, but of course their very average goalkeeper from nowhere land played an insane match. Luckily (is it?) we forced a late winning goal via a header from Godden, one of the very few matches over the last two seasons we scored a late goal by the way. My opponents are scoring late goals far more frequently than we do, but I’ll take that. At the end their goalkeeper was awarded with a 7.20 score. Quite good, as you probably know scoring a 7 or higher by a goalkeeper is barely happening this game.

After a solid away win against Borussia Dortmund we faced Arsenal for the FA Cup. As you can see below in the screenshot we beat them with 3-0. But their goalkeeper… You probably don’t believe me he scored a 7.60 rating when the match finished. Concede three goals and still rewarded with a 7.60. I’ve never seen such like that before in this game. But there is a reason for it. Obvious. He made some miracle saves. Once it even looked like he dives into a shot before it was even shot by my player! Is he a fucking god or what? But, we won the game, so I couldn’t complain that much, although it’s still remarkable. Next: Chelsea at home. Yeah, you guys probably know what happened. Again their goalkeeper scored a 7+. Of course he did! We were way better, created many chances, but at some point a 35-year old guy (the mighty Kai Havertz) who barely can’t stand on his feet anymore scored a goal from the only chance they’ve got. It was a very important game because Chelsea is our main competitor for the fourth place in the league, but apparently we were not allowed to win this game in either way…

But it’s getting even more crazy! Are you ready for it? The next game, the famous West Ham United match. It’s famous now because of what just happened, ha-ha! Let me start with the fact that Wolverhampton Wanderers beat West Ham one match earlier before because of which West Ham dropped to the last spot in the league. You feel it coming already, don’t you? West Ham United is performing terrible this season and their current streak for not winning a match is now during for twenty(!) league games already. The second fact is that I didn’t loose a game against the bottom team in the league for quite a while. It was happening very occasionally before, but now it’s already three or four seasons ago I think.

The first ten minutes of the game were in our hands, with creating two very decent opportunities and Flavien Peter promoted one of them into a goal. Only a few minutes later. No danger at all when my goalkeeper and the two center backs are playing the ball to each other. But on a certain moment my world-class (mind that!) goalkeeper decides to keep the ball on his feet. Their striker is chasing him, but he still didn’t shoot the ball away to the parking lots outside the stadium. No, he decides to battle with him. Of course it went horribly wrong and good old Erling Haaland took his chance for an empty goal: 1-1. I was furious, but soon afterwards we turned the match in our favor again with Martínez scoring 1-2 and even before half time Yeboah heads in the 1-3. Drink some tea in the pause, took control in the second half; job done right? Apparently not. Suddenly from nowhere my striker (Martínez) decides to make a horrible tackle in an area on the opponents half where it doesn’t sort out anything. Straight red with thirty minutes to go. Still nothing to worry about, we go fully defensive, keep the lines closed and waste some time wherever we can. What can they possibly do huh?

67th minute. Corner kick for them. One of their so many veterans who barely can’t jump anymore heads it in, with some help of the floppy hands of my world class goalkeeper... Okay, it’s tight now, but they are bottom league and basically still shit. 89th minute. Everything looks fine until now, we are going to fulfill this job I thought. Their 32 yards free-kick straight in front of the goal can never hit target. Eehhhmm, can’t it? Hang on. Of course it can! Because he has only 12 free kick taking and most importantly: he has played a couple of matches for Spurs when he was young! Former players are scoring almost always against you remember! I should known that! Silly me! Again my world-class goalkeeper didn’t looked very well by the way… 3-3 now. Okay, we’ll take a point, I guess we have to life with it. But wait. 90+1th minute. Corner Kick. It isn’t happening right? It isn’t happening! Game? YESSSS OF COURSE IT IS!!! Again a goal from set-pieces (which we even practiced in training just before the match), and again by an old man who is already prepared for taking place in some kind of a nursery home. And yes, my so called world-class goalkeeper made a terrible mistake again (his fourth this game) for diving under the ball. It wasn’t really his game huh? On top of that the little fellow hits the goal with his first goal of the season. No wait, his first goal in two seasons! Of course, just because it can! And because it’s always their first goal of the season against me. I. Am. Sick. Of. It. I really don’t care if we lost this game after their world class striker (if they had one, which isn’t even the case) showed his skills with scoring some goals from proper field play. But losing like this… As I said before. It felt completely random what happened this specific match. Everything the match-engine is producing against you randomly throughout the season felt all together in this single game… I just can’t believe it. Actually, I’m pretty proud of myself I accept it and haven’t played the match over again. Although it took me a few minutes to grab myself together…





This update has come to end right now, so you could stop reading here. Or, you like to read some heavy complains about this game, join me then from here on! First I will immediately apologize myself for all of this cynical shit above (although I think you guys recognize this kind of stuff as well!). At least I lost some of my frustration, ha-ha! Maybe this isn’t the best place to complain about the game, but serious. I can’t just be the only person who is struggling with the madness this game is showing me time to time. Am I? It is way too easy for me for saying: Yeah it can happen in real life as well, so where are you actually complain about? No, that isn’t the case. I’m aware of that, and I can completely life with it when such kind of things are happening occasionally. Although it’s more than occasionally, but okay, I’ll take it. The thing is: When is such kind of stuff like the West Ham United match happening in my favor? Never, ever, never. I’m on the road now for almost fifteen seasons and I have to dig really really deep to find five games where I experienced some luck. I mean real luck. Not winning a game in the 90th minute when you already was as twice as good as your opponent. However, for having bad luck the amount of five matches is probably reached already before I’m even go back in the past for a year…

What my point is: The ratio for stupid or ‘bad-luck’ things happening against you is completely out of balance. I could live with a 2-against-10 ratio or something. Tough, but at least there is something to enjoy or laugh about from time to time (that’s basically the essence why you are playing a videogame, right?). But it’s not even close to that number. It’s more like 1-50 or so. I’m playing Football Manager for many years now (so I know where I’m talking about), but I have never seen such strange things going on like this version. Actually, I’m doubting heavily currently to go one with this game or not. I thought about it a few times already throughout this career, but now I will speak about it openly for the first time. Sometimes I can’t even been angry anymore, it’s more like a cynical laugh and just accept it. I’m asking you: what will be more worse actually? I remember me FM12, or FM16 or actually all versions until FM18 and before. There were also very stupid things happening (remember the good-old 2D pitch!), but what I do remember the most is the fact it was way more fun to play one of those versions. It felt far more balanced and natural in either way. FM18 was already a bit of a struggle, but still acceptable, but this FM20 version is completely fucked-up (I don’t know anything about the 2019 version, I didn’t owned it). SI has some serious work to do in my opinion, to start with a complete new match-engine to be built from scratch on as the main subject which felt much more natural to me (and probably many players will agree with me about this). There are more things that needs to be improve obvious, but until then I’m pretty sure I will not buy a new copy anymore.

Oh wait, almost forgot to tell! There’s something else what happened last month. Or actually not happened. Our youth intake was truly terrible again. Our own world renowned youth academy is bringing in shit after shit after shit, whilst all facilities, staff members and circumstances are state-of-the-art. I have no explanation for it at all. I am going to ask the board for downgrading our facilities now. It doesn’t really matter obvious. Actually it’s only draining huge parts of our money straight into the London sewers… It’s another part in this version of the game that is annoying me heavily. In fifteen seasons the amount of breakthroughs from a youngster into the main squad is stuck at only two… Yup, this can also happen in real life. I’m aware of it for sure. But this isn’t real life. This is a video-game which you should enjoy from time to time. And one of the most enjoyable things of this game is having a great youngster at the youth intake which you can develop into a first team player. So, there should be more of those youngsters for sure. Even if all your facilities are crap, which isn’t even the case in my situation…

Yeah, what now? I don’t know actually. I love this game. I surely do. In fact it’s the only videogame I’m playing for many years. But at the same time I hate it. And currently I’m hating the game way more then I love it. It’s pretty much like my wife, ha-ha! I will play on for a while, hopefully I can find some joy again on a certain moment, but it might be possible this story is going to end very soon because of all this shit (I will let you know in advance). FM20 will disappear in some kind of a dusty corner and maybe I will find it back in a couple of months or so and give it another try (just because I’m hooked!). Or not… But first I will finish this season for sure. We have still a battle in front of us for both the fourth spot in the league and the Champions League as well! Although I probably know how this is going to end…


Note: For the guys who disagree with me (or can recognize themselves in some things), just let me know! I’m very curious how other players experience this version of the game. Coming up next: the final stretch of the season and the squad judgment.

#093 - Liverpool…

04/06/2035 -- It’s all about Liverpool this season. They beat us in the Community Shield even before the season has started. They eliminated us in the FA Cup. They kept us away for finishing third in the league and last but not least; they handled to win the final of the Champions League after a penalty shoot-out. It’s never gonna end isn’t it? Since the last update when I criticized the game pretty hard, suddenly from nowhere we picked up a really good run of form. Till the end of the season we didn’t loose a game and we were even close for finishing third in the league and winning the Champions League! But just when the game gives you the idea you can end this season with a big smile on your face, it was all blown away in the two final matches of the season, both against Liverpool…

No, this is not a renewed offense against the game. I made the decision for myself not to complain about it anymore to heavily. I made my point pretty much clear last time I think. After we handled to win seven league matches in a row our total amount of points equalized with Arsenal. But our goal difference is much better, so we can actually finish third this year. It is in our own hands as well, but for the fourth time this season we couldn’t beat Liverpool. They are pretty damn good this year and did win the league again, miles ahead of runner-up Manchester United. Unlucky for us Arsenal has won their last game of the season as well, so at the end we finished fourth again, just as last year, although we collected two points more. So, at the end there was a little bit of progress in comparison with the year before, so my main goal is fulfilled I guess. We are qualified for the Champions League again, so I’m pretty much satisfied.

But our main focus was set for the Champions League. After we eliminated Borussia Dortmund we faced Barcelona. We handled to score an away goal in the first leg, so things are looking really good to reach into the semi’s. And so we did after a somewhat dull 0-0 draw in our own stadium, but I’ll take it! In the next round we drawn Inter Milan. The current holder of the cup. Twice actually. So a tough opponent for sure, but we played brilliant in both games. The very late 2-1 by them in the first leg concerned me a bit, but in San Siro we beat them again! That means we can prepare ourselves for the final. To be honest I never expected us to reach this far, but it’s not really a surprise if you take a look at the statistics. Most of the players performed way better in the Champions League than our own league. We concede only 3 goals in 12 matches!

But the final will be tough for sure. Liverpool barely lost a match throughout the season and they are the favorites for sure. But we gave them a really good game and in the extra time we were this close for taking the lead. I played way more attacking because I didn’t want it to come down to a penalty-shootout. We have only one player who can actually shoot a penalty… Just before the first half of the additional time ended club legend Sebastian Bernard was ready for taking a free kick just outside the box. He didn’t play much this season, he didn’t score either and it was some kind of romantic thought this guy will help us to win this major trophy in his very last game for Spurs, so I used him as a sub. But sadly he hits the post… That was our change. And his chance to become a true legend who is never been forgotten in the far future. But it was not given to him. We pushed even more in the last ten minutes, but it didn’t sort out. Penalties are needed to make a decision and as expected we lost them. Only Martinez missed his shot, but the five Liverpool players didn’t: 5-3. Someday our revenge will be there. I hope…







At the end it was a somewhat stressful season. We reached our main goal for doing better than last season, although it was just a tiny bit without winning some silverwork. The variety in our form is still to heavily spread, we have to make sure we are balancing it a little bit more. At least we should exclude results like the early loss against Southampton in our own stadium and of course games like the one against West Ham United. Who get relegated at the end of the season by the way… Not really a surprise, almost their entire squad contains players who are over thirty already, a handful are even passed 35… To be honest I was hoping they got relegated. There is a player I like pretty much and right now my chances are probably rising for taking him over. Also Manchester City experienced an awful season. Not really a big surprise Pep Guardiola was sacked after only a year, despite winning the League Cup. But he already has a new job. Chelsea offered him a contract after they sacked their manager as well. Also the Arsenal manager was sacked… Honestly… What are these clubs thinking. That you could win the league every year? Luckily the Spurs board is a little bit more realistic, although my job is not very secured, it’s just stable.






Players judgment
Okay, back to the old days when I did a full review of the performances of my players. I will introduce it again from now on, mainly because the squad is pretty much assembled by me at this point rather than deal with the players who were already here. I’m not expecting a lot of changes in my squad for next year as well, so you guys can come a little bit more familiar with the current squad. I’m starting with my goalkeepers because it can be done pretty soon. Although it wasn’t the best season for Purton obvious he will be staying for sure. In the first place because he is English, but at the end he is just a solid goalkeeper (if we forget the West Ham match). Because we act in the Champions League this year Awuni didn’t play much last season, but he is still happy with his current role. So, definitely no changes between the woodwork again.



I think our defensive line is the weakest point in our squad. Mainly because most of the guys are still pretty young and the lack of possibilities for attracting a world-class center back. It isn’t going to change for sure. Almost every two weeks I take a look at the worlds player market, but there are just no good center backs at all! A whole bunch of them are mentally and technically very good, but their main technical attributes (heading, marking, tackling) are just mwoah. Beside of that a lot of them are not really tall either… So it’s pretty sure we are going ahead with our four center backs we already have. Grieco is probably the best of them. He is a 23-year old Italian who is scoring frequently as well. Godden is just 20, but his development seems to stand still a bit. Next season will make clear if he can make it into a near world-class defender or he already has reached his potential (which is not good enough for being a starting player then). Valenta is a very solid and reliable back-up and 18-year old wonderkid Guittard from France has played a good amount of matches and his development is following our expectations until now.

Our wing- and fullbacks are doing well. Youngster Ronnie Adams is my starting player as a right back and he achieved well, although I’m expecting a little bit more in terms of assists. But he is only 18 and his attributes are still growing. In potential he is still the world-class player I was hoping for when I bought him. At the left hand side is Stijn Bredewolt doing bits. I’m still delighted with him, although his average rating is not really great. He took care for a good amount of assist and is barely involved in mistakes. Mballa is actually the only back-up player for both the right- and left fullback position. That’s why he played a lot of matches already. He did pretty well. For next season I want an extra player for the left-back position to extend my opportunities for rotating a little bit more. The search for a new world-class center back has turned down by now, mainly because I’m going more attacking next season, which hopefully can discover our defensive weaknesses a little bit more.

Our midfield is from a world-class level already. Although, it should be. Nohan Kenneh is my 32-year old captain who is scattering with wonderful passes all the time. His physicals are still brilliant with having a very good pace as well, so I’m hoping he can act on this level for at least two or three years more. Gasser is the highest valued player in the squad, but it wasn’t his best year sadly. He experienced some long periods without making any difference. Hopefully he will do better next year. At some point Sauer has become my starting player because of newbies Macdonald and especially Reyes performed very disappointingly. Reyes didn’t play much anymore in the second half of the season. Remember I paid £88,000,000 for him last summer… He might be leaving if a club is making a bid near that amount of money, otherwise I will give him a second chance next season. A first season is always tough for most of the new guys I noticed throughout the years.

But that doesn’t count for Guglielmo Tocci! This newbie, together with Yeboah performed amazingly on the right hand side of the pitch. They are scoring goals pretty often (especially Yeboah) and taking care for a good amount of assists as well. I was doubting a bit about Yeboah in the early days when I joined Spurs, but he convinced me completely right now. At the left hand side Flavien Peter is finally doing better. His first one-and-a-half-year were not great, but he is slightly making progress now. He has scored some very important goals last season and also took care for a good amount of assists. He is 21-years old now and still developed himself. Luckily I’m a very patient person to get the maximum out of my talents, hopefully Reyes can do the same from next season on (although he is not really a talent anymore at the age of 26).

The reserve players did their job, but they are all replaceable. I send Wilson on loan already last winter because he didn’t play much and Ashby is having some great attributes, but it doesn’t sort out on the pitch until now. Although he is usable as a reserve player, but I think he want’s to play every week and I can’t make him that promise. Ferraro can go if a solid bid is coming in, and also the future of Olaitan at Spurs has come to an end. He and Tetteh had to compete with each other to impress me and Tetteh has won the battle with distance. Olaitan’s contract is not expiring yet, maybe we send him on loans next season if there isn’t a good bid for him.

Our strikers did well again. Cordner is still a reliable striker, although I think he needs to score a little bit more. Martínez has overtaken Bernard’s position as a reserve striker and played a very good amount of matches this season. He is still developing himself and there might be some point he will even outflanked Cordner! Bernard didn’t play much anymore last season. He is 34 years old and his glory time has slightly fade away now. He could become a legend if he had scored in the Champions League final, but he failed. His 300,000 per week wage contract is ending, so that will make some room in my next year’s salary budget as well. Although it means we need a new striker for sure, we can’t have only two of them. But I already signed a Belgian guy last year who is joining us this summer. I will introduce him next time!

That’s pretty much it. All summarized I don’t expect busy times this summer (although I said that earlier before, ha-ha!). I’m searching for some more squad depth only, in essence the current squad should be capable for battling for the league title when they are entirely familiar with each other. If the youngsters are developing themselves even more there lies a bright future in front of us I would say. But there is more than the first squad only. Our under-23 team has relegated twice in a row in their league because I neglected the team heavily. Also our under-18 team barely contains a player. So I made the decision I will sign every academy talent from now on (even if they are all shit) and I will search in the transfer market as well for a bunch of talented players who are not costing us that much (everything below £5,000,000 I would say). To do so I’m hoping our overall level of football along the whole club is slightly increasing a bit.

#094 - Fresh new start

02/08/2035 -- A brand new season is starting to begin. We did some business on the transfer market, we had a solid run of pre-season games from which a couple of them were played in Singapore during our trip over there and in the meanwhile rumour has started that our club is part of a new take-over deal. But first I have to tell you some very sad news… Spartans has relegated... After thirteen consecutive years for competing in the Scottish Championship the club is now back where it all began for me, Scottish League One. How has that happened? The year before they did an amazing job for ending sixth in the league and so qualifying for the Premiership promotion play-offs for the very first time in their history. Something which I was heavily struggling for by the time! Maybe they have splashed all their money to go for it, but it didn’t sort out with big financial problems as a result and therefor getting relegated the year afterwards… I truly hope they can fight themselves back very soon, I think they definitely belong in the Championship as their bottom level.

But my focus is now set to help Spurs further up the road. Again I will try to book some progress in the league this year and therefor we did some business again. Mainly for creating more squad depth by replacing the last years weakest players, but we also bought a new world-class player. And we didn’t even pay that much for him! Thanks to the brilliant morons that managed Spurs in the past. I will tell you all about it in a minute.



The first guy who joined us this summer is Belgian striker Julian Gautier. He is replacing Bernard who was 34-year old already and has left the club by the end of last season on a free. I signed Gautier already a year ago, mainly because he could play for another year with Club Brugge and so developing himself even more. That sorts out perfectly. He played every game and scored almost twenty goals in the league, so I think he is ready for Spurs now! Gautier is 19 years old and a very good player already. All his key attributes are colored green (or nearly), he is tall and my scouts do believe he hasn’t reached his full potential yet. However, Cordner will be my starting player, but both Martínez and Gautier are sitting front row if he fails.



We signed three other players to extend the squad depth a bit. Ali Brown is a promising youngster for the future. One of my scouts found him and we didn’t had to pay that much for him, so he is the first player who will upgrade my under-23 team as pronounced last time. But maybe I will send him on loan, it depends a bit which team is coming in. We paid Celtic around £4,400,000 for Brown. Wilshaw and Dan are joining our first squad. Both are English and both in essence a back-up player in the first place. I wanted Dan already two years ago, but every time I had some doubts about him. I still have some doubts actually… But we need a reserve player for the left fullback position, so at the end I decide to give it a go, although it felt like we paid a little bit to much. Both physically and mentally he is pretty good, but my main concern are his technical skills. They aren’t looking great, does it? He is definitely not useful in any attacking role, so if we have to play Dan we have to change our tactic a bit. But, we shall see how it sorts out. He is still quite young and has some caps already (although that doesn’t say much currently, the defensive line in the English squad is completely shit… It’s quite remarkable manager Thierry Henry (there he is!) is winning a lot of games despite having some terrible defenders).

Wilshaw is our new left midfielder. He is replacing Olaitan who hasn’t developed himself enough for staying in the main squad. Wilshaw looks far more promising and he is much younger as well. The only problem is that we have two other good left midfielders already. Peter is nearly world-class level and Tetteh surprised me amazingly last season. I will see how it goes until the winter transfer period, if Wilshaw isn’t playing much I will send him on loan most likely.







We signed another youngster for our under-23 squad. It isn’t confirmed yet because I delayed the deal by accident, but he is definitely joining us. 19-year old Swedish center back Magnus Nilsson is coming over from Swedish side AIK for only £2,6000,000. Also a catch from one of my scouts. He is not there yet, but in essence he looks quite promising. He has the right length, his physical and mental skills are pretty good already, only technically he has to learn a bit more. But for this tiny amount of money it’s worth a gamble.



Okay. There we are. We have signed another world-class midfielder, so the newbies from last year who failed heavily throughout the season are definitely warned. He isn’t completely unknown to Spurs because he was coming in via our world renowned youth academy (*cough*) ten years ago. But a certain manager by the time didn’t saw it in him at all. Shame on you Mauricio Pochettino! On his second term at Spurs he sold Nicholas Alexander-Spence to West Ham United for only £3,000,000. By the way, it was also this player who scored the 32-yard free kick against us in that famous 3-4 loss against West Ham last season. I don’t blame him! Not anymore…

But, in all my honesty, Pochettino did one good thing as well. There was a transfer clause with a 40% profit sell on fee. In exact figures it means that from the £70,000,000 we paid right now around £30,000,000 from it is immediately flowing back in our own pockets. So for only £40,000,000 we have an absolute star player and he is English as well! West Ham United should be truly sad about their relegation... Last winter we bid over £150,000,000 for him and we were definitely prepared for paying it. But they rejected the offer. Now they are relegated and with the contract of Alexander-Spence expiring within a year his value has dropped heavily. Lucky for us, but West Ham should have been done better I think…





However, 26-year old Nicholas Alexander-Spence is our main signing this window. He is a beast in any sight and I am pretty sure he is boosting our level of football. He scored a decent amount of goals throughout the years, although his average rating isn’t really great. But he, the rating from the guys we signed last year were brilliant before they joined Spurs, but it didn’t sort out in anyway. Maybe this will be the turning point for Alexander-Spence in his career to show the fans his skills! Because of the signing of Alexander-Spence we have to many central midfielders and that is some sad news for Josh Wilson. He is the weakest midfielder we have, so he is the first one who has become superfluous right now. To be honest I hate it for letting him go, especially because he is English as well. But he is just a little bit too average I’m afraid. He was on a one year deal left so gaining £24,500,000 for him isn’t that bad. He joined West Bromwich Albion, so we probably hear from him again when we are playing against them with Wilson scoring a goal… I’m pretty sure about it already that’s going to happen.







The transfer window is open for another two days, but I’m not expecting big things anymore. Maybe another youngster, but definitely not a first team player. The current squad contains 25 players which I’m very pleased with. There are twelve English guys. I’m prefer to have at least thirteen of them, but I will count the two Scottish guys as a Britain as well, ha-ha! I have some good faith for the upcoming season. A couple of players played brilliant already in the pre-season period (especially Tocci), if they are capable for extending their good form into the start of the season everything should be okay. I’m happy if we are finishing third in the league and reaching as far as possible in the three cup tournaments, although winning one of them will be appreciated for sure of course!

#095 - There is definitely some progress now

03/11/2035 -- All seems okay so far. We played a lot of brilliant games! A couple of them were not as brilliant as well, but the main thing is: we didn’t play against the other big five in the league yet so I’m not really sure where we are right now in comparison with them. Oh, and our stadium expansion has finally completed! Against Bournemouth we played in our renewed stadium for the first time, which is the biggest now in the league. Because of the terrible loss against Leicester City (which we definitely deserved to win; they scored from their only chance…) and the two awful draws against Southampton and Birmingham City early this season we lost to many points already in my opinion. We have to reclaim these points against the big ones, which will become clear in the next two months when we are facing every one of them. Although, those so called big five are slightly fading away over the last few years. Last season Manchester City performed terrible and this season Chelsea is completely going wrong. I think it has something to do with Pep Guardiola again… He is ruining every club he managed over the last ten years… He was fired everywhere (most of the time after only one year as well), his only achievement was winning the European Cup with Spain, although he managed them only for a year, so it was not entirely his achievement I would say. He just stepped into it on exactly the right moment.

But, their failure will increase our changes for finishing within the first three. We are definitely on our way so far, but as already said, we have to play against all the giants yet. In the League Cup we did a good job so far, although we couldn’t complain about the draw either, just like last year. We faced two lower league teams (one of them being our affiliated club who is not going to harm us of course) and in the quarter finals we have to play against Rotherham away, who are playing in the Championship currently. So, lots of opportunities to play my reserve players and reaching into the next round as well!

At the other hand; our draw for the Champions League group stage couldn’t any tougher. Last year we had a very easy draw, but now we have to compete with Juventus and Bayern Munich for the two qualifying spots for the next round. But we did a great job already in the away game against Juventus (we turnaround the match in the second half: 1-2) and defeated Turkish side Trabzonspor with an astonishing 10-0 which is my biggest win so far this entire career. Only Bayern has beaten us with 3-1. A bit of a flattered result, we earned at least a point out of it I would say, but they were quite lucky with their goals. If we can win one of the two home games against Juventus or Bayern and win our second leg against Trabzonspor as well then our qualification for the next round is pretty much secured I think.

A massive move from Hearts there and I am glad you have got your chance to prove yourself at the highest level now! Hearts was a great time and despite not winning what you would have liked, you are set up nicely for a big career from here on out!

It will be interesting to see how things go over the next couple of months when you really test yourselves against the other top clubs.

#096 - Just waste too many points

31/12/2035 -- We played against the big clubs now. Which made pretty much clear we are still not on the level I pursue. Away against Manchester United we played a terrible match and they absolutely destroyed us: 5-2. Also Arsenal has beaten us (1-0) and in our own stadium we screwed a 1-0 lead against Manchester City in the dying seconds of the game, resulting in having only one point. Although we defeated Liverpool in our own stadium (1-0) we also lost points again a few mid-table clubs which means it doesn’t bring us any further up the ladder. But, nothing is lost yet. Together with Arsenal, Liverpool and both the Manchester sides we are pretty close to each other and nothing is decided yet.

Our battle in the group stage of the Champions League become pretty tight at some point when we also lost the second match against Bayern Munich, while Juventus did won some points against them. That means we definitely need to win again Juventus in our own stadium and so we did. With a very solid 2-0 win our qualification for the next round was pretty much secured given the fact Trabzonspor is pretty damn bad. We beat them again in the last playing round and so finishing second in the group, close behind Bayern and just above Juventus.

We also qualified ourselves for the League Cup semi-final, just like last year. We smashed Rotherham in the round before and now we are facing Arsenal. It’s a two leg match, which gives us a fair opportunity to reach into the final, although Arsenal is performing quite well until now. Tomorrow the winter transfer-window will be opened, but I’m not expecting anything. I’m happy with the current squad and if we can lowering down the amount of blips against the smaller teams in the league we should be able to battle for some silverwork in the second half of the season! I hope though...








Note: But there's also more pressure TheLFCFan! A couple of losses in a row and everybody is complaning... But, if we are doing the same in the second half as we did until now I have some good fatih! Well, not really good Scott. But luckily for us the other giants are not performing solid for a longer period of time either. Coming up next: can we battle for the league title?

That top six is very close! Good work in getting into the next round of the Champions League and hopefully the small mistakes can be fixed in the second half of the season.

Still well within the mix at the moment.

#097 - Bling!

16/03/2036 -- We have done it! After the FA Cup in 2034 we can make some more space in our trophies cabinet! We just have won the League Cup. Not really important though, but at the end a prize is a prize! First we had to play against Arsenal in the semi’s. Because the schedule wasn’t that busy by the time (at least not playing harsh games against the giants) I was able to play with most of the key players and that sorts out perfectly. In the first leg at Emirates we already secured our ticket to the final pretty much with an amazing 3-1 win after two late goals from Yeboah and Martínez. Although they handled to score an early goal in the return match and so giving us some kind of a battle, we controlled huge parts of the match, which finally ends with the equalizer in the second half. The final isn’t going to be easy either. After Manchester City performed terribly last year they recovered themselves pretty well this season, even without buying a busload of new players.

But today it was called the “great Carl Cordner-show”. He took care for a hattrick and so providing us the first League Cup trophy since 2020! A brilliant performance I would say. But Carl Cordner wasn’t done yet with Manchester. A striking coincidence for the draws and the fixtures made it possible that we had to play against Manchester City two times more, creating a consecutive streak of three matches against the same team. Once for the League Cup final, once for the fifth round in the FA Cup and once for the league. But as already said, Carl Cordner revealed himself as Cities most worse nightmare. He scored twice (after only four minutes!) against them in the away game at Etihad in the league and scored another two goals in the 2-0 win in the fifth round of the FA Cup. It’s just insane what he just did! Scoring eight goals in three matches. He is a hero now for sure. It made me curious how our first match ended against them in the first half of the season. That particular match ended in 1-1, and guess what. Cordner scored the goal! He really hates Manchester City, isn’t he?

We also handled to survive the first knock-out round of the Champions League against Olymique Lille. Luckily we already won the first leg in our own stadium with 5-0, because in the return match I could barely compose a fresh starting eleven! For some reason two players had to play with the under-23 squad for their country, we had to deal with a couple of injuries as well but mostly because of a whole bunch of players were pretty damn tired due to the busy schedule. For some reason we won the away game as well, but don’t ask me how.

Not everything was going perfectly this period. Again we lost a game in the league against one of the big five clubs. This time it was Chelsea, beating us with 1-0. Although you could start to ask yourself if Chelsea is still part of it. Again they are struggling in the league. They should sack Pep. Just sack him. He is now an old grandpa with some long forgotten ideas about how to play football I would say…! But the most annoying game was by far the 2-2 result against Wolverhampton Wanderers. It was just one of those days I guess; hopefully it doesn’t harm us at the end of the season when we are one point a short for finishing at a reasonable place. We controlled the game ninety minutes long, creating a bunch of chances and even a handful of sitters, but it was one of those days their goalkeeper had a brilliant day with them scoring the equalizer in the 90+6th minute after Purton missed the ball completely again after corner kick. I really don’t know why almost every game has such an absurd length of extra time especially when we are in the lead… But I’m not complaining about this kind of stuff anymore, I will take it just as it comes in. I’m pretty much prepared for such kind of insane things are going on all the time against you.

Spoken about Purton. Actually he was never supposed to play against the Wolves. At some point I was pretty much done with him. He is still called a world-class goalkeeper but whilst I’m here at Tottenham I didn’t see him saving points for us, not even once. The only thing he does is make some fatal mistakes from time to time. Reserve goalkeeper Mark Awuni has become my starting goalkeeper and he did pretty well actually! He even made some miracle saves I never ever saw before with Purton staying under the crossbar. But after some ten matches or so he got heavily injured at the training and is out for the rest of the season… I was heavily disappointed about it. This can be our game changer this season for winning some more silverwork or not. On top of that: I don’t have a third goalkeeper, not even a youngster from the youth intake! We really have an enormous problem if Purton is getting injured as well… I lowered down his training intensity to a minimum immediately and tried to search for a new goalkeeper. Although that will be hard. The transfer window was already closed and also the period for hiring somebody was already passed. So there was only one opportunity left: we have to sign a free agent who is probably shit. Otherwise he wasn’t a free agent right? At the end we find an experienced 36-year old Dutchman called Kjell Scherpen, who is ending his career at the end of the season. At least he is tall! It was the best we could get. Right now I really pray we don’t have to make use of him…

Firstly that goalkeeper problem is something that needs sorting as soon as possible. Secondly congratulations on the cup victory, a bit of silverware is always nice for the fans. Although the league looks unlikely this season a top four place will surely be acceptable. Good work.

#098 - Hang on

02/06/2036 -- Just hang on and don’t scroll down yet. Otherwise you know immediately how it all ends and it’s quite enjoyable to read through it I would say! Last time we were fourth in the league although we had two games in hand and theoretically we shared the first position at the ladder if we were able to win both games. But that wasn’t the case. Do you remember our last game in the league against Wolverhampton? Well, the next two were just as bad. I really don’t know how it’s possible, but for some reason it’s happening to me all the time. Against Norwich and Arsenal we were the better team by far, but both of their goalkeepers played the game of their life apparently. Why always exactly against us? Why for god sake? My own goalkeeper is barely scoring a 7+ rating throughout the whole season, but all those opponents goalkeepers are scoring a 7+ so damn often that it’s not a coincidence anymore. Mathematical it doesn’t make any sense in either way. It’s just one of those under the carpet AI settings in FM I think. It must be. It’s just ridiculous. So, we are left behind with only two points instead of six. And if you take in count the Wolves match it should be even nine instead of three… That will make a huge difference at the end…

We had three games in a row against Manchester City last time. Now we faced Liverpool four times within 8 matches. One of them being the quarter final of the FA Cup. Away. Liverpool is one of our worst opponents we are struggling with almost every time, but not today. Again the schedule made it possible for me to use my best players and that sorts out perfectly. We played a brilliant match and silenced the mighty Anfield Road more and more during the game, resulting in a very solid 3-0 win. We faced them again in the Champions League quarter final. This time they looked far more excited and aggressive for showing their fans some sexy football. Although we forced an early goal from a corner kick, which will be very important for a possible aggregate result, but that doesn’t really matter anymore if you just have lost with 4-1… We played terrible in the last thirty minutes, granting them three more goals. Although my goalkeeper (Purton) who is actually my back-up goalkeeper didn’t looked very secured all the time…

All seemed lost already and I told the guys just to enjoy the second leg match. Play without any pressure, just entertain the fans and then we will see how things sorting out. But an early goal from Tocci and an utilized penalty from Cordner before halftime does give us a tiny chance to recover the first leg result in the second half. We only need one more goal. We pushed a little bit more in the second half and after some missed half-chances it was our Italian midfielder Guglielmo Tocci again who forced the 3-0 with a powerful shot in the bottom corner of the goal. Suddenly we are in the lead now because of that obvious unimportant away goal from Grieco (our other Italian). We didn’t get full defensively from that moment on because most of the time it will go horribly wrong, but we hold stand and so wiped out the 1-4 loss from the first leg. A brilliant result and quite surprisingly as well! But they got their revanche very soon afterwards when they beat us again in the league and so creating a gap of 5 points with only five more playing rounds to go. A nearly impossible job to fulfill, so by then I rest my case we are not battling for the league title anymore and set focus for the Champions League and FA Cup.

In the semi-final of the Champions League we draw Napoli. The best possible outcome I guess, the other two teams left are Real Madrid and Barcelona. The home game was a bit dull, mainly because of their catenaccio style of play, but we handled to win the game with 1-0 with Cordner taking care for the goal. Who else! A good result I would say, forcing a clean sheet is always a welcome result in the first place. But our way of play isn’t as smooth anymore as it was before in the first half of the season. I already mentioned it in the in between game against Birmingham City for the league. We won the game though (1-0) but it wasn’t very convincing at all. Too many players has lost their form currently and the return game against Napoli made pretty soon clear it isn’t going to happen today. Napoli didn’t play great either, but we couldn’t create anything. They were very clinical with the few chances they’ve got, resulting in a 2-0 win. Although we missed two absolute sitters in the extra time, but our second Houdini-act didn’t happen at the end. Napoli hasn’t really great players to be honest, it’s just a very solid team who is barely giving space away and they took the maximum out of it against us. I was pretty much disappointed about the result to be honest, this was definitely a very good chance to reach into the final again…

I was even more disappointed because it was probably our only chance for winning some more silverwork this season. But wait! Suddenly we were extremely lucky with the outcome of the other matches in the quarter final of the FA Cup. Both Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City lost their game (all after penalties or extra time) and so letting us behind in the semi-final with Brentford, Nottingham Forest (both from the Championship) and even a League One club, being Sheffield Wednesday! Could you believe! I think we can make some space in our trophy cabinet already, if we are not winning the FA Cup now it will be a huge shame for sure! In the semi’s we faced Brentford. It took place in between two Liverpool matches, so I gambled a bit and played most of my reserve players. They should be able to win this, especially because Brentford will be impressed by an entirely sold out Wembley, which they didn’t experienced very often before. And so we did. Belgian striker Julien Gautier took care for all the goals we scored: 3-0.

In the meantime we played the last matches in the league. We are struggling heavily. Most of the players are not in a great form and great fitness either, but we literally scraped the win, after another, after another. I was blaming Manchester City heavily in the first half of the season because they won nearly every match with only one goal difference, but in fact we are doing the same now! The most important win was without any doubt our 2-1 victory over Manchester United. We jumped over them in the league and with Liverpool losing visiting Arsenal, suddenly everything is possible again and will be decided in the very last playing round of the season. Liverpool is still at top and with a game left against Birmingham City away, they are the favorites for winning the league for the third time in succession. We have to play against Bournemouth who are nearly relegated already and also Manchester United can still win the league if they beat their rivals from their own city. A tough game for sure. So, we need definitely some help, but we do have one big favor: our goal difference is slightly better compared with Liverpool. Below I have shown the table after 37 playing rounds and the schedule for the last round. Already feeling what is coming?




How it all ends
Two more games left. Two very important ones. Just like last year, when we faced Liverpool twice. Once for the Champions League final and the other one for having an opportunity to finish third in the league. We failed completely. Will it happen again? I don’t want to think about it, but given my portion of bad luck throughout my entire career you definitely have to take it into account. We started our last game in the league against Bournemouth, who are as good as dead already, quite nervous. But after fifteen minutes Yeboah granted us the lead with his sixteenth goal of the season. But we aren’t there yet. Bournemouth is pushing us to the limits and they are creating some chances as well. But apparently Purton showed his skills with one very good save. At half time we are still in the lead and with Birmingham City against Liverpool being 0-0 we are the champions, virtually.

The match continued as a very nervous one, with Bournemouth’s power to force something slightly fading away, but our lead didn’t looked very secure at all. The last few minutes of the match were lasting for ages. The last whistle. Finally. 1-0. It wasn’t great at all, but we have done it. But now the most horrendous minutes of my entire career are start counting. We have to wait for the final whistle at Villa Park as well and we don’t have any influence about the outcome. We know it’s still 0-0 but they have won earlier before in the last seconds of the additional time. It’s killing. Me, the staff, the players on the pitch and the fans of course. This just can’t be true. Let me have some luck just for one time… Just once. It’s all I’m asking for. And there it is the final whistle! A true miracle has happen. Although Liverpool was by far the better team the Birmingham City goalkeeper crowned himself as the man of the match. Just for once I’m not complaining about a goalkeeper’s performance. Give him a contract immediately, we need a third keeper for next year! It just had to be like this. After 75(!) years the Premier League trophy is back in Tottenham, it’s an incredible feeling we have completed the job. Beating Liverpool on goal difference! With having only 82 points we are the champions with the least number of points in a very long time. But who cares! We deserved it for sure!

After a remarkable bus tour through London and especially the neighborhood Tottenham and surroundings, an incredible party afterwards and Daniel Levy (still alive and kicking) being invited as a special guest because he is the man who laid down the foundation for this great success, we need to return to the training grounds again. You should almost forget there is one more match to be played. The FA Cup Final in which we are facing Nottingham Forrest. An easy job you would say, but it crossed my mind to appear with the weakest players I’ve got. Granting them this cup (because I already have won it once before) and European football next year. They have done such a remarkable achievement as well for reaching into the final. But the main thing because I want to do this: then they are qualified for the Community Shield instead of Liverpool, which gives us the perfect opportunity for winning that prize. I don’t have it yet!

But it felt like I just couldn’t do that. So we don’t and we end up with a very solid 3-0 win and lifting our third trophy this year! An incredibly achievement for sure. In the pause I subbed off Purton to give third goalkeeper Scherpen some game time and so rewarding him with a medal as well in his very last game in his career. I’m just a good guy you know! So yeah, I didn’t expect this major success this season for sure. Especially not because everything needs to fell into place on the exact right moment and that happened this year. I am going to enjoy it first now, next time I will be back to you with the squad statistics and such kind of stuff! Stay tuned.








Note: Luckily for me the goalkeeper issue aren't become a problem at the end, although Purton is really not performing great anymore... Hopefully Awuni can do the job for me next season again after he is recovered from his injury. A top four place was acceptable for sure, but winning is even better I guess!!!

Wow! Congratulations.