Bruises

“Counting days, counting days since my love up and got lost on me”

hello everyone and welcome back to another installment of our Football Manager 24 Beta save, Sunderland till we die. When you last left us we were riding high in the league, and were looking like an unstoppable force. We had been humbled a little in our last game against Premier league Newcastle, but hopefully that doesn’t derail the momentum we have accumulated in the league.

The first thing I want to show you is probably my favourite part of Football Manager, the youth intake. Now I have seen some amazing intakes on FM 24 so far, and also some “meh” ones so I was hoping for the former. Without further delay here is what we got at the mighty Sunderland.

Overall it was a fairly good intake, with three stand out prospects. I have shown them like this as there was a bug in my intake screen which didn’t have them showing up, even though I had the message through for them.

Wu Chein-liang Looks to be a brilliant prospect and with the right nurturing, he could make it into the first team squad sooner rather than later. His mentals are really good for a 15 year old, and that first touch stat is amazing. I have already tied him down to a contract till 2028 as I didn’t want to risk losing him.

Ayrton Moynes Looks to be a decent CB and has decent stats all over. His work rate and natural fitness, coupled with the fact he is 189cm make me really excited to see how he develops.

Last, but by no means least, Luke Williams is another one to watch. With 15 dribbling and a decent spread of attributes for a 15 year old, I feel this lad could turn out to be a very good player indeed. Only time will tell mind you.

Now I let my DOF sign the youth candidates he wanted to and then as soon as they were signed I locked all the ones with decent potential to long contracts, meaning if anyone wants to poach them they will have to pay top coin for them. The other interesting thing that happened during this period was this.

Once again in this save I have lost my starting and back up keeper to injury. The Hennessey one isn’t too bad but it happened on the day of a game. I do have Nathan Bishop as a third choice keeper, but he doesn’t fill me with confidence. While this happened we already had a injury crises at defence, and also both starting midfielders and striker were out. Were we going to be able to weather the storm?

In short, the answer is yes. We did have to grind for results, and ultimately come undone against Cardiff, but mostly we had a successful couple of months. The loss to Cardiff did mean we weren’t going to have an unbeaten season, but we are massively overachieving at this point so I am not overly worried. Plus some of our players are coming back into the team soon so we should be back to full strength. This unreal form did mean something amazing did happen.

That’s right we have secured promotion to the Premier League and all the riches that go with it. This young squad has a lot of potential and with the right signings we could avoid relegation next season. So lets take a look at the league table.

With some distance between us and second place Leeds, the title is all but wrapped up. All I have to do is win one more game, or Leeds lose one, and then we are Champions. We are on he verge of breaking 3 records in the league, most wins, most goals, and most points. I ultimately don’t really care if we do break these records but it will be nice to do it. Now lets see how the players have gotten on so far this season.

I have tried out a different look for the stat screen and not sure how I feel about it yet, but on to the players performances. It seems to be the same old story with this team, as the same players are carrying the rest of the squad to the Premier League.

Jack Clarke has been the stand out performer in this team so far this season, turning out every week, and also showing up with moments of greatness when they are needed. he has been responsible for 35 goals so far this season, either scoring them himself or setting them up for others, this alone was the reason I gave him a new contract as soon as he asked for one. I absolutely smashed our wage cap knowing we were all but confirmed to get to the Prem and it would be worth it.

What can I say about this man? He has absolutly smashed this season and showed that there must be something in the water at the Bellingham household. Other than getting sent off for silly challenges twice, he has been outstanding. Always doing the dirty work in midfield and also chipping in with 18 goals. I truly believe we can build a team around this man, and we may already have the building blocks in place to do it.

I said this man would be key for us this season and I was right. He has played in central midfield and also up top for us and always puts in a shift when needed, and we miss him when he isn’t in the team.

The man who is trying to replace Patrick Roberts in the team, and doing a fair job at it, Jewison Bennette. He is young and full of potential, so I have started to phase him in, as I have all but given up on Roberts signing a new deal. I have also signed someone to compete with Jewison next season.

That’s right Joe Aribo. He has experience at playing in the Premier League, he is also a very good player still, and we got him on for an absolute steal. He has cost us £2.2m and is on £36k a week for 2 years, I think that’s a no brainer.

Here are our final fixtures of the season and honestly, they are all winnable. When we come back the season will be over and I will discuss out plans for next season, transfer plans and goals. Thank you for stopping by and listening to a bearded man ramble about Football manager.

“I’ve been told, I’ve been told to get you off my mind, but I hope I never lose the bruises that you left behind. Oh my lord, oh my lord, I need you by my side. There must be something in the water”