As It Was

“Holdin’ me back, gravity’s holdin’ me back, I want you to hold out the palm of your hand, why don’t we leave it at that?”

Hello everyone and welcome back to our FM24 beta save, Sunderland Till We Die. When I last left you we were flying high in the league, with a squad full of potential, and dreaming of the promise land that is the Premier League. The main goal for us at the moment is to stop all the other teams from stealing our best players in January, and it didn’t quite work out.

So in a shock turn of events, Watford recalled James Morris as soon as January hit. Apparently his loan agreement wasn’t being adhered to, which tells me he is playing better than their defenders at the time, and they needed him back. I wasn’t too bothered to lose him at the time, as we have a good LB in Dennis Cirkin in the squad and decent cover, until this happened.

The Beta injury curse happened again. Dennis Cirkin broke his ankle on the first game after Morris was recalled. This was made worse by our other back up left sided defender Aji Alese leaving on loan because I didn’t give him a new contract, and that hadn’t gone down well with some of the squad. To be fair he had been injured at the start of the season meaning he hadn’t played a lot and he still had 2 years left, I was never giving him a new contract. So into the transfer market we went. I was totally having a reactive transfer method this January and only signing people if others left. Here are the out goings.

We got some big money for players, and the only one that was a first team regular was Daniel Ballard.

I was disappointed to see Daniel leave as he was a very good player for us and solid in our early season form, but he wanted to go and was a squad leader, so didn’t want to cause more unrest with the rest of the squad. I felt £7.5m was a fair price and he is on more wages than we can offer him at the moment.

The next to leave was promising youngster Abdoullah Ba. He was a rotation option for us and mostly played back up to Jack Clarke, to which he done a good job, but to get £11m for a back up player wasn’t something to be sniffed at. We did get him back on loan for the rest of the season as a lot of big teams were circling around Jack Clarke and I was scared we would lose him.

Another rotation player in Dan Neil left us for decent money and honestly I think it was my fault he wasn’t a better player for us. Me pushing for Jobe Bellingham to be successful has hampered Dan’s opportunities, so I didn’t begrudge him leaving for relegation threatened Wolves. Hopefully he can help save them, but if not he might be a cheap back up option in the summer.

That was the major outs we had, the rest were loans or young players who weren’t going to make it in this save. I was quite happy we kept the core of the squad, but there were some weird bids that came in. Celtic tried to take our first team keeper on loan, and Brighton also tried that with Jack Clarke both were rejected straight away. So now we seen the outs, Let us have a look at the ins.

Yeah there weren’t many options that jumped out at me if I am honest, and I wasn’t gonna sign players that wouldn’t improve the first team if I didn’t have to. I like to use the scouting team when making my signing as it is a little more realistic, but I maybe should have set up my scouting assignments a bit better. Ultimately it doesn’t matter too much as we still have the core of our team and really only needed to sign players for strength in depth in defence.

Lyons-Foster was brought in on loan as cover for the left side of defence. We have Scales already here who can play both LB/LCB but having another back up after letting Alese go on loan and Cirkin getting injured made sense. I did spot Sergio Gomez from Man City on the loan list but they demanded we pay all of his wage and we just cant afford that.

Rekik was brought in for extra cover over the CB position, after we let Ballard go to Saudi. There were a number of options we could have went for, Maguire was up for sale, along with Matip and Harry Soutter. All were options I explored, with only really Soutter being one we could afford the wages of, but we went with Rekik in the end. Him being 22 and having potential was what done it for us really as the board want us to sign players under 23 for the first team.

So now we have gotten to the end of Jan, did we manage to keep up our momentum and stay top of the League?

You bet your top dollar we did. Now from the outside it looks like it has been plain sailing for us, with only 8 points dropped, but this team has fought for these wins and certain players have let their quality shine through. The other question is did we remain completely unbeaten during this time?

No, we did not. After absolutely flying in the league and seaming almost unbeatable, we came up against our bitter rivals Newcastle in the FA Cup and they gave us a harsh reality check.

The score line flatters us a bit as it really was men against boys out there, and if it wasn’t for a Patterson masterclass in goal it could, and should, have ended up really embarrassing. They came and nullified our play perfectly, marking Bellingham off the ball all game so he got a 6.2 rating. Our striker barely touched the ball, and both wingers are still in the pockets of the Newcastle full backs to this day. Hopefully this is just a blip though and it doesn’t effect the lads too much, as they have all been playing really well.

These players have been having the time of their lives and long may it continue. The only position I am surprised about is up top, with Luis Semedo coming in from nowhere to absolutely smash defences in the league.

Luis has had a lucky break with other strikers getting injured and he took the opportunity with both hands. A whopping 17 goals in 26 games is fairly impressive, and I couldn’t have asked for more really. He is still very young and has loads of potential left in his game so hopefully he can keep growing with this team. The future really is bright for this young lad.

I called him the other Bellingham in my last post, which was maybe a little harsh, but he has become his very own player in such a short time. Jobe really is the heart of my midfield and the stats don’t really show the whole picture. He is always playing the defence splitting passes just before the assist, or winning the ball back in the middle to stop the counter. This man will be a star in this save, I just hope it is for us and not off somewhere else.

Jack Clarke has been sensational for us and he really is showing the form that got him that move to Tottenham as a teenager at Leeds. I was surprised no one came in for him in the January as he was touted by the media to have a lot of interest. The only bids were all loan bids with options to buy and they got rejected straight away. He does want a new contract but I cant afford the wages he is demanding so hopefully he can hold off till the summer and we can give him the Premier League wages he wants.

Finally there is Patrick Roberts. What can I say about this man? He is a brilliant player for us and a key element to this teams success, but with him wanting to explore his options at the end of the season, do I continue to back him in the hope he stays, or drop him now and back his understudy who is nipping at his heels? I did really hope someone would come in for him in January, as I would have sold him and searched for a replacement but it never came about.

Finally I leave you with this.

Now there have been rumours of this for a while, but this is the first proper message that has come through. Ultimately it means nothing until a takeover is finalised, but I have been sacked after a takeover before. If that happens we take over Middlesbrough and try our hardest to ruin Sunderland for their disloyalty.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to a beaded mans ramblings on Football Manager.

“In this world, it’s just us, you know it’s not the same as it was”