[FM21] Salford City - from League Two to the Champions League

[stevecummins78]

2020/21

League Two: Winners
FA Cup: First Round
EFL Cup: First Round
EFL Trophy: Group Stage

Salford City’s rise from non-league obscurity to the Football League, backed by the investment and pulling power of the fabled ‘Class of ‘92’, had been well documented. The vision of the owners had been consistently clear - to achieve successive promotions with the aim of establishing Salford as a Championship club, potentially even reaching the Premier League. They had also shown a ruthlessness when it came sacking managers, so it was a challenge to take the manager job in summer 2020 and the expectation was to win the League Two title in my first season. 

The club had the highest wage bill in the division after a summer of extensive recruitment, with 13 new players arriving. The strategy had shifted to signing proven players with Football League experience, with players such as Tom Clarke, Jason Lowe, George Boyd, Darren Gibson, Ian Henderson and Tom Elliott all being prepared to drop down the divisions. We had also spent £135k on winger Ashley Hunter from Fleetwood Town. Tactically, the squad was well resourced to play an attacking 4-2-3-1 formation. I knew I had a strong defence, with the excellent Vaclav Hladky in goal and a back four of Oscar Threlkeld, Ibou Touray, Clarke and Di’Shon Bernard (on loan from Manchester United). Ashley Eastham and Jordon Turnbull provided cover. In midfield I planned to use either Boyd or Gibson as a deep lying playmaker alongside the more mobile Richie Towell, or the ball-winner Lowe. In attack, Hunter was to be deployed as an inverted winger on the left, allowing Touray to attack up the left flank. Bruno Andrade took the right wing position, though I also had ex-United striker James Wilson who was to do a good job as an inside forward. Henderson played as shadow striker behind target man Elliott. I strengthened further in September, bringing in full back Cole Dasilva on a free transfer and striker Joe Gelhardt on loan from Leeds United. Former Aston Villa winger Andre Green joined on a free in January, with Luke Armstrong and Martin Smith leaving.

We put our six pre-season friendlies to good effect as we built team cohesion around a consistent tactical shape. The first competitive game though, at home to Fleetwood Town in the EFL Cup, was lost 0-1. We would also be eliminated at the first stage of both the FA Cup and the EFL Trophy (though we did enjoy a great night beating Manchester United’s under 23s on penalties in the group stage). Freed from the distractions of cup competitions we focused on League Two, which we were to run away with. We were unbeaten in our first 14 games, winning 12 of them, and would only lose three games all season. We set a new record of 115 points, winning 36 of our league fixtures. 

Promotion was secured with a 5-1 rout of Barrow on 13 March with 10 matches still remaining, and the title was won in a 1-1 draw at Forest Green Rovers on 5 April. On an individual level I won Manager of the Month no fewer than six times, as well as the Manger of the Year award. James Wilson enjoyed a sensational scoring streak in the run in, scoring three hat tricks and 14 goals overall in his last 10 games, enough for him to finish joint top scorer for the division.

2021/22

League One: Winners
FA Cup: Third Round
EFL Cup: First Round
EFL Trophy: Semi-Final

Salford City would play in the third tier of English football after a fifth promotion in seven seasons. However, celebrations were curtailed somewhat due to growing financial uncertainty at the club. The club had been losing money due to its large wage bill and the board decided to reduce the budget from £62k a week to £48k. I also knew that I would have no more for transfers and very little room for manoeuvre on salaries, so I would have to try and offload some of our large earners. Bruno Andrade, despite having an excellent season, was sold to Rochdale for £200k after being unprepared to accept a wage reduction. Ashley Eastham went to Ross County for £100k, Jordan Turnbull to Wigan Athletic for £65k and Jason Lowe to Doncaster Rovers for £46k. I also released George Boyd and Darren Gibson, as well as several fringe and youth players. One player I did fail to sell was Tom Elliott, whose wage demands put several clubs off. His promotion wage rise made him our top earner on £5.75k a week, though he was only going to be a fringe player for the season ahead.

I then set about trying to replenish the squad and add a bit of extra quality required for stepping up a division. That quality was provided to a large extent by Ethan Galbraith, signed on loan from Manchester United along with Anthony Elanga. Galbraith was to slot in to the left side of central midfield as a deep-lying playmaker, where he would excel all season, playing wonderful cross-field passes to Andre Green. Other midfield reinforcements, both signed on free transfers, were Jordan Houghton and Matty Willock. I also signed two central defenders, Matty Pearson from Luton Town and Sam Hughes from Leicester City. Both came in on reasonable wages and would eventually form a first choice pairing. I also renewed the loan deals for Joe Gelhardt and Di’Shon Bernard, and brought in right back Ben Johnson on loan from West Ham United. Having brought in funds from player sales and reduced the wage bill I also had a squad that was good enough to take on League One.

In actual fact we dominated the league from the start. We won our first game 1-0 at Wigan and followed this up with a 3-2 home victory against Peterborough United and a 3-1 win at Doncaster Rovers. Although we lost at home to Barnsley in our next match we went on a run of 19 victories and two draws and were runway leaders by Christmas. Having a couple of full internationals in the squad meant we had to postpone some fixtures and that, along with progress in cup competitions, meant we had a fixture pile up requiring us to play 11 games in December. We won nine of them, the only defeat coming at Peterborough. By January we were 15 points clear with a game in hand, having won 23 and drawn two of our first 27 games. Sadly, we had been knocked out of the FA Cup having at least made it to the third round. I thought we were the better team at home to Championship strugglers Bristol City, but went down 2-3. 

We fared much better in the EFL Trophy, a winnable competition that I was determined to have a really good go at. Having topped a group including Newcastle’s under 23s, Carlisle United and Lincoln City we then beat Harrogate Town to set up a third round tie against Manchester City’s under 23s. It was a televised classic, with City’s kids taking the lead before United loanee Elanga equalised and former red James Wilson gave us the lead. City levelled again before Cole Dasilva’s stunning strike made it 3-2. Back came City, Luke Ilic making it 3-3, before Richie Towell came off the bench to score two long range goals and seal a memorable 5-3 victory. Coventry City were beaten 2-0 in the quarter-final but we lost on penalties at League Two leaders AFC Wimbledon in the semi-final, with both Green and Wilson missing in the shoot out. If you are going to win the Papa John’s Trophy you need a slice of luck and we did not have any on the night.

We consoled ourselves with wrapping up promotion, which was secured with a 3-2 win at Bristol Rovers on 2 March. Wilson scoring two late goals despite us being down to ten men. The League One title followed three days later in a dominant 3-1 win at Fleetwood.

2022/23

Championship: Winners
FA Cup: Third Round
EFL Cup: Third Round

We had achieved the goal of Championship football much sooner than anyone could have expected, so the challenge now was to stay up and consolidate our position in the second tier and continue to grow the club. The board gave the go ahead to expand the Peninsula Stadium, which meant that we would play our 2022/23 home games at the 12,000 capacity AJ Bell Stadium, home of rugby clubs Salford City Reds and Sale Sharks. I also had at my disposal a modest transfer budget and a significant increase in the wage budget. Midfielder Ben Whiteman was signed from Doncaster for £250k and made club captain following the retirement of Tom Clarke. I once again raided Manchester United for players, signing Di’Shon Bernard, Reece Devine, Nathan Bishop and Mark Helm on free transfers and Will Fish on loan. I also spent a club record £500k to make Ethan Galbraith a permanent signing. Other free signings included striker Jack Marriott and midfielder Nick Powell. Powell was a difficult signing, but he lowered his wage demands after Stoke City released him. I once again supplemented my squad with loans, including Blackburn Rovers ball-winner Jacob Davenport, Tottenham winger Jack Clark, and renewed loans for Ben Johnson, Tom Gelhardt and United’s Anthony Elanga. Notable departures included Ian Henderson and Tom Elliott.

We got off to a great start, over 10,000 fans watched us come from behind to beat Derby County 2-1 with goals from Galbraith and Elanga. Doncaster were then beaten 4-1 in the EFL Cup, but then we lost 0-1 to a last minute goal at fellow promoted Oxford United and were take apart 0-3 at home by Birmingham City. We rallied to draw 2-2 against Middlesbrough and thrashed Sheffield Wednesday 4-1, but then lost 1-2 at Crystal Palace and 2-4 at home to Luton Town. We had also made it to the third round of the EFL Club, but were outclassed 0-3 at home against Premier League Aston Villa. By then I had replaced John Dreyer as assistant manager with Scott Kellacher from Inveness and we went back to the drawing board on our tactical set up.

Encouraging 2-1 wins against Blackburn and Cardiff City were followed by a run of only one win in five. We were in 19th place going in to the October international break. I switched us to a more patient playing style, still using the 4-2-3-1 but in a way that allowed us to have more of the ball and be less wasteful with it. The result was a 2-1 victory at West Bromwich Albion, followed by a 2-0 win at home to Preston, a 1-1 draw at Reading and a thrilling 3-2 home win over Swansea City. 

We followed that with a 2-1 win at Millwall and came from two down to beat Newcastle United 3-2 at St. James’ Park. With the eyes of the world on the FIFA World Cup in Qatar we beat leaders Watford 1-0 through a goal by Marriott, the fifth consecutive match which he found the net, and we were up to fourth in the table. We were unlucky to lose 0-1 at home to Bristol City, but we won 3-0 at Huddersfield then 2-1 at home to Oxford. We faced Premier League Leeds United at Elland Road in the third round of the FA Cup, losing a thrilling encounter 2-4, but as we went in to the new year an unlikely third consecutive promotion started to look a real possibility. Both Birmingham and Cardiff were beaten 4-2 and we also enjoyed victories over Derby (2-1), Sheffield Wednesday (4-0) and Crystal Palace (3-0). The only dropped points in this sequence was a 1-2 reverse at Middlesbrough, where we conceded two goals in the final minute of a game in which we were the better team. The good form continued in to February and we went top of the table with a 3-0 victory at Luton Town. We only won one of the next four but Swansea and Watford, the teams around us at the top, also dropped points. We returned to winning ways in style. Nick Powell, who had not been as consistent as I would have hoped across this season, scored two stunning free kicks in a 5-2 rout of Rotherham.

Ethan Galbraith missed the whole of March with a groin strain but we won three out of four, the exception being a 2-3 home defeat to West Brom. We came from behind to win 2-1 at QPR, then the recall of Will Fish to defence helped us keep clean sheets in victories over Preston (1-0) and Reading (2-0). The Preston win felt significant as they were flying going in to that game at Deepdale, but Marriott’s goal second half goal gave us a precious three points. With six games to go we were four points clear at the top and seven clear of third placed Birmingham. Consecutive 2-0 wins over Reading and Millwall put us on the brink or promotion. The decisive period came with three consecutive games against our promotion rivals. A 1-1 draw at Swansea was a good result, despite the fact that we led through a Powell goal. We then went to Watford and trailed to an early penalty, before they went down to ten men and the match swung in our favour. Marriott equalised just before half time and then slotted home the winner on the hour mark. We got in to the dressing room to hear that results elsewhere meant that our promotion to the Premier League had been confirmed. The party could begin, but the Championship title was still there to be won. Newcastle came to the newly reopened 7,919 capacity Peninsula Stadium on 15 April and we looked lethargic in the first half, deservedly trailing 0-1 at the break. Will Fish equalised with his only goal of the season before Anthony Elanga tucked away the winner. We were up as champions - a third consecutive league title! Marriott was the league’s top scorer with 24 goals, while Green was only one short of the leading assist maker. It had been a remarkable season for a team tipped to struggle against the drop. 

2023/24

Premier League: 9th
FA Cup: Third Round
EFL Cup: Third Round

Salford City were a Premier League club. I could barely believe the enormity what we had achieved in such a short space of time, yet we now faced a huge summer to try and equip the club to be able to compete amongst the elite of English football. The first challenge was that the Peninsula Stadium, even after its recent expansion, did not meet the Premier League standard. Instead of a further expansion the board invested £30m to build a new stadium, due for completion in June 2024.

Another temporary home was required and we agreed to share Wigan Athletic’s DW Stadium for the 2023/24 season. The board also made £25m available for transfers and a wage budget of £500k a week. I moved early to improve the defence, signing Joe Worrall from Newcastle for £2.6m and Ben Davies from Brentford for £8m. In midfield I brought in long-time target Ben Pearson from relegated Nottingham Forest for £7m and attacking midfielder Dan Crowley from Birmingham City for £5.5m. I didn’t have a lot of funds left to strengthen our attack but we were able to complete a club record £18m deal in instalments for Stoke City’s Tyrese Campbell, who become the top earner on £60k a week. We also made the loans of Ben Johnson and Anthony Elanga permanent, as well as renewing Jack Clark’s loan and bringing in two other loanees, Aston Villa’s Evann Guessand and Angel Gomes from Lille. Departures included Matty Pearson and Jordan Houghton, plus Ashley Hunter and Richie Towell who were allowed to leave after their contracts expired.

25,133 fans were at the DW Stadium for our opening game against West Ham United and although we went behind we came back to thrash them 4-1 with two goals each from Green and debutant Campbell. The fixture computer had given us a kind start to the season and we followed that up with 3-0 wins at Preston and at home to Sheffield United. Salford City were top of the Premier League! The first defeat came at Villa Park, though we were unlucky to lose 1-2 to Aston Villa.  After a 1-1 draw at Leeds United we beat Newcastle 1-0 before going out on penalties to the same opposition in the the EFL Cup.

But this season was all about staying in the Premier League. A trip to Goodison Park to face Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton looked daunting and we had to defend for much of the game, before substitute Guessand broke free in stoppage time to run clear and chip the ball over Jordan Pickford in secure a famous victory. It was galling to follow that up with a 0-1 defeat at home to struggling Fulham, but we then pulled off our best performance of the season in a 3-1 win at home to Arsenal. We took the lead at Old Trafford in the next game although Manchester United came back to win, but after 10 games we had 19 points and were in fourth place going in to November. Victories followed against Bournemouth and Brighton before a really tough run of games over the Christmas period. We lost consecutive games to Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham, before losing 1-4 at Old Trafford in the FA Cup third round. The match against Preston on 13 January was now important to regain some momentum. We went behind three times in the game, before equalising in the 70th minute and winning it 4-3 with a stoppage time header from Sam Hughes. Defeats followed at West Ham and Sheffield United but we then enjoyed a four match unbeaten run, beginning with draws against Leeds and Aston Villa. Dominic Solanke had been signed from West Ham for £9m, and he scored twice as we came from 0-2 down to beat Everton 3-2. Tyrese Campbell then scored four times in a 5-1 rout of Newcastle at St. James’ Park on 10 February which took us to 38 points and all but guaranteed survival.

We led 2-0 against Manchester United on 1 March before drawing 2-2, but followed that with a 4-0 win against Burnley. Defeat came at Arsenal but we bounced back with a 2-0 win a Bournemouth, featuring a goal from Solanke against his old club. We then beat Leicester 2-0 and draws against Wolves and Brighton took us to 50 points before a really difficult final set of fixtures. After heavy defeats to champions Liverpool and Manchester City we twice let a lead slip to lose 2-3 to Chelsea. By then I had dropped goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky after tiring of him agitating for a new contract which, at 33, I didn’t think made sense for the club. We finished ninth with 51 points, an excellent debut season in the Premier League. Joe Worrall was the fans’ player of the season, more than living up to the pressure of being club captain for the season.

2024/25

Premier League: 10th
FA Cup: Semi-Final
EFL Cup: Third Round

The 18,258 capacity stadium at Peel Park was completed in June 2024, with plans made to increase it to more than 24,000 by November 2025. Salford City were striving to become an established Premier League club and money was available to strengthen the squad to build on our successful first season in the top flight. Vaclav Hladky was sold and replaced by Genk’s Maarten Vandevoordt, one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe and a coup for us even at £16m. Jack Marriott joined Aberdeen, Cole Dasilva went to Charlton and Ibou Touray was released. Left back Tyrick Mitchell joined from West Brom for £11.5m and I brought in Ethan Laird on loan from Manchester United. I also wanted another left sided central defender to challenge Ben Davies, so we activated a £3.6m release clause to bring Pascal Struijk back to the Premier League from Dutch club Sparta. In midfield I signed Spanish playmaker Gonzalo Villar for £13m and then broke the club transfer record to sign Bristol City’s Han-Noah Massengo for £22m. Accommodating them would require on occasional switch to more of a 4-3-3 formation, but I wanted to add a bit of extra quality to the midfield. Up front we renewed the loan deals for Angel Gomes and Jack Clarke and added left footed winger Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford for £10m.

We won the pre-season Red Bull Cup in Germany, thrashing NY Red Bulls 5-1 and RB Leipzig 4-0, and opened the Premier League with a fantastic 3-1 win at Everton. We followed that with a 2-2 draw against European champions Manchester United in the first match at Peel Park. Hopes were raised that we could challenge for a European place but we came back to earth with a bump in losing 0-6 in the third match at Leicester. Victories followed against Leeds, Brighton, Bournemouth at Tottenham to put us in fifth at the stat of October. We then embarked on the worst run of my managerial career, the catalyst for which was Ben Pearson’s early red card at West Ham and the resulting 0-3 defeat. We went 10 games with a victory, a sequence in which we conceded last minute goals in four games. Thankfully a 3-0 win at Huddersfield in the third round of the FA Cup was confidence boost required to arrest our slide towards the bottom three. We then beat Everton (again) 4-2, drew 3-3 at Leeds (conceding a 96th minute equaliser) and then pulled off a famous 3-2 win against league leaders Chelsea. 

The upturn in form continued into February as we beat Bournemouth 4-1 in the league and won 3-1 at Leicester in a cup replay. Solanke was on a fine scoring run, scoring in four successive games, but a 2-4 home defeat to West Ham began a run of five league defeats as we slipped back down the table. I was now prioritising the FA Cup and a favourable draw took us past Championship side Crystal Palace (4-1) in the fifth round to set up a quarter-final at Stoke City. We won a thriller 5-2 with a penalty from Solanke and two apiece from Green and Campbell (against his former club). I had recalled Vandevoordt in goal having dropped him after the 0-2 home defeat to West Brom at the start of March. He had a mixed debut season, a keeper with a lot of ability but with an alarming tendency to be beaten at his near post. We were conceding a lot of goals, with Worrall and Struijk struggling to form a solid partnership in defence, but we got our first clean sheet for three months with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa at the start of April. The FA Cup semi-final at Wembley was against Manchester United, Solanke missed a good chance when it was goalless and we eventually lost 0-3. 

We rallied to finish the season strongly, winning three of the last four, against Southampton (4-1), Sheffield United (3-0) and then Arsenal (2-1), only to lose 2-3 at Wolves on the last day having been two goals up after 21 minutes. It was enough to secure 10th place and a consecutive top half finish. Solanke finished with a club record 28 goals, 24 of them in the Premier League where he was third highest scorer behind Erling Haaland and Tammy Abraham. Gonzalo Villar had also enjoyed a fine campaign, contributing 10 goals and a club record 15 assists in all competitions, and he was voted fans’ player of the season.

2025/26

Premier League: 6th
FA Cup: Semi-Final
EFL Cup: Semi-Final

I could have gone to Tottenham in January but I couldn’t bring myself to leave given the potential the club still had. A further expansion to the stadium was announced at the end of the season, but unfortunately that would mean another season playing at a temporary home - in this case that of Bolton Wanderers. My transfer strategy for the summer was to deepen the quality in the squad, so we sold Sam Hughes to Hull City, Dan Crowley to Brentford and Ben Whiteman to Reading. I also made a profit on Bryan Mbeumo, selling him to Augsburg for £16m after an underwhelming season with us. Total sales brought in £24m, which partially offset a record £102m spend. The key priorities were defensive midfield and left wing, addressed respectively by Lucas Tousart from Rangers (£21m) and imwinger Josh Martin from Norwich for a club record £30m. I also brought in Nenad Tosic for £14.25m, a ‘wonderkid’ from Crvena Zvezda in Serbia. Other signings included defender Ethan Ampadu (£10m), forward Cole Palmer (£5m) and Dutch striker Romano Postema (£20m). Attacking midfielder Erik Martens also came from FC Twente.

Tyrese Campbell switched to the number 11 shirt following Mbeumo’s departure, a good fit for the player given his strong left foot, despite him now operating mainly as an inside forward on the right wing. He scored and was man of the mach in a 4-0 opening day win against newly promoted Derby County. We followed that up with a 2-0 win at Leicester but then lost 0-2 at ‘home’ to Tottenham and 1-3 at Old Trafford against Manchester United. We bounced back after the international break with a 3-0 win against Everton which featured a first Salford goal for Josh Martin. By mid October we were up to fourth in league but the wheels came off as we lost 0-2 to Newcastle and embarked on a run of just one point from five games. Our form picked up in December, especially as Romano Postemo started scoring for us. We beat Watford 3-0, Southampton 2-1 and Crystal Palace 2-1, though lost to both Leeds United and Wolves. We ninth with 28 points at the half way stage of the season, with my dream of European qualification looking a remote prospect.

Our good form in the cups continued with runs to the semi-final stage in both the EFL Cup and FA Cup. In the EFL Cup we beat Crewe 2-0 but needed penalties to get past both QPR and Everton before a 2-1 win at West Brom set up a semi-final against Manchester City. They were just too good over two legs and we lost 1-4 on aggregate. In the FA Cup we beat Crewe again, then defeated Bournemouth, Leicester and Reading to reach the semi-finals for the second year running, where we would again face Manchester United. We were the better side at Wembley, Tyrick Mitchell gave us the lead after 20 minutes and we should have scored more. Manuel Locatelli equalised for United and as we pressed for a winner Isak Hansen-Aaroen broke free to win it for them with just three minutes left.

Our inconsistent league form continued in to January but a good run in February and March had put us back in the European picture. This included an incredible 5-0 win at Tottenham featuring a Postema hat trick and a brace from Martin. After a 2-2 draw at Aston Villa we then beat Bournemouth, West Ham and Newcastle to put us in a great position. Arsenal were one of our rivals for a European place and losing 0-1 there to a last minute goal was a blow. We lost the next three in the league, including a 0-5 thrashing at Liverpool where Ethan Ampadu was sent off and Martin was ruled out with injury for the rest of the season. We were back down in eight place with just four games to play. The first of those was at relegation-bound Watford and we trailed after 10 minutes before a Solanke penalty brought us level. Tyrese Campbell, who had been struggling for form, then scored the winner in the second half to take us back up to sixth. Campbell got the only goal of the next game against Southampton and he got two more in a 5-0 win at Crystal Palace which featured a fantastic free kick opener by Gonzalo Villar.

We closed our campaign at the reopened 27,387 capacity Peel Park with a 1-0 win over Champions League qualifiers Wolves, thanks to another Campbell goal. His 13 goals put him behind Postema (15) and Martin (16) for the season. We finished sixth with 62 points, clinching a Europa League place, and I won the Premier League Manager of the Season award for the first time.

2026/27

Premier League: 6th
FA Cup: Fourth Round
EFL Cup: Quarter-Final
Europa League: Quarter-Final

Newcastle United, who we were promoted with us in 2023, had qualified for the Europa League on the back of a fine 2024/25 season and reached the quarter-finals of that competition. They struggled in the league though, especially after losing their best player to Chelsea, and were relegated after failing to win any of their last 11 games. They were a cautionary tale for me as I planned for our first season in Europe. We took advantage of their decline by signing Spanish playmaker Oriol Busquets from them for £22m. I was delighted with the signing, especially as both United and Real Madrid were interested.

I wanted to stick with 4-2-3-1 but I realised I needed more of a goalscoring option in the number 10 position. I therefore signed another Spanish midfielder, Roberto Lopez from Celtic for £23m. Lopez boasted an ability to shoot from distance and get in to the opposition area. Unsurprisingly, the Spanish trio of Busquets, Villar and Lopez were labelled Salford’s ‘Tres Amigos’. Ben Pearson was sold to Birmingham City for £800k, Reece Devine went to Sheffield Wednesday for £750k and Ben Davies went to Reading for £500k. I needed to reinforce the defence and spent a lot of time chasing Arsenal’s William Saliba before he turned us down in favour of a move to Monaco. I eventually brought in Dutch centre back Rick van Drongelen from Atalanta for £9m and Leicester left back Josh Tymon for £17.5m. Our pre-season form was excellent but an injury to Tyrese Campbell persuaded me to add some more cover on the right wing, so we brought in Amad Diallo on loan from Manchester United. We also made a change at the top, former Arsenal player Edu Gaspar replacing Chris Casper as director of football. 

We suffered defeat in an opening league fixture for the first time, going down 2-3 at home to Leeds United. We won 3-1 at Sheffield United but the next home game was a 0-5 humbling by Chelsea. Thankfully, Josh Martin scored the only goal against his old club Norwich City to give us six points going in to the first international break of the season. Our form after that was spectacular, we beat Crystal Palace 5-2 with two goals a piece from Lopez and Diallo, then put five past Lokomotiv Moscow in our first Europa League game. We din’t lose in the league again until the end of November, a run that featured an historic 2-1 win at Manchester City. We were also dominant in Europe. Club Brugge were beaten 4-0 away and 5-1 at home, and we took four points from the two games against Bayer Leverkusen. We also went to Moscow for the return game against Lokomotiv and on a frozen pitch enjoyed a club record 6-0 victory. Postema scored 8 goals in the group stage as we topped Group A to qualify directly for the last 16. 

December featured league defeats to Tottenham and Manchester United, and we also went out to Chelsea in the quarter-final of the EFL Cup. By far the most thrilling game at was at home to champions Liverpool on Boxing Day. We led 2-0 through early goals by Postema and Diallo but Liverpool scored just before the hour and struck twice again in thee last 10 minutes to lead before Postema scored again to secure a draw. We were becoming more competitive against the elite sides, even if we were still vulnerable at the back. A 1-4 FA Cup defeat at Tottenham was a tough to take. Money was tight in January but I was able to raise funds through the sales of Pascal Struijk to Palace for £26m, Anthony Elanga to Barnsley for £2m and fan favourite Andrew Green to Stoke City for £9m. In came ‘wonderkid’ defender Rene Dyhr from Brondby for £23m. 

We had a good run in January, beating Leeds 4-1 away, Sheffield United (4-0), Palace (3-1) and West Brom (4-1). But a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth in February was followed a cruel 3-4 defeat at Chelsea, where we had led with 10 men before eventually conceding a stoppage time winner. There was a similar story in the return game at home to City in March, with them scoring a winning goal deep in the 94th minute. We bounced back with wins over Aston Villa (featuring an audacious chipped winner by Postema) and Leicester City) but good form by Leeds United meant we slipped back down to seventh place with seven games to go. We did though defeat Stuttgart 4-1 on aggregate to progress to the quarter-final of the Europa League, even if I was disappointed to be drawn against Manchester United. United beat us 3-5 on aggregate, helped by Ethan Laird’s sending off in the first leg. Once again we were coming short against the elite sides.

Back to back wins against West Ham and Southampton were enough for us to secure at least a Europa Conference League place but that was followed by defeats against Tottenham (0-1) and Liverpool (1-5). We faced Manchester United on the last day knowing that we needed to win to get in to the Europa League again and we pulled off an incredible 4-0 victory, with all four goals coming from Romano Postema. Our 70 points was a record total for us in the top division. We also scored 83 goals in the league, 23 by Postema (who scored 34 goal overall for the season). A consecutive top six finish was a great achievement for the club but we face a pivotal summer. 

2027/28

Premier League: 4th
FA Cup: Quarter-Final
EFL Cup: Winners
Europa League: Round of 16

I had signed a new £30k a week contract in 2026 that would keep me at Salford until the end of the 2029/30 season. This coincided with a change in strategy, as the club began to focus on identifying and signing more youngsters with star potential. My first bit of business in the summer of 2027 was to keep Amad Diallo. The player was open to making his loan from Manchester United permanent and a structured deal of £15m rising to £36m was enough to sign him. I was also delighted to sign long-term target Aaron Hickey from Juventus for a bargain £4m (rising to £11.5m). Other signings included 18 year-old defender Furkan Ozturk (£18m) and 20 year-old forward Ricky Clarke (for an initial £12m, rising to a club record £40m). Because of the way in which the deals were structured we were able to almost break even for the summer by selling Ben Johnson (£16m), Tyrick Mitchell (£13m) and Cole Palmer (£32.5m). No club matched our asking price for Nenad Tosic so he stayed until January, but his number 10 shirt went to Tyrese Campbell, who in turn gave his number 11 to Diallo. We also brought in Sergio Sierra and Tomas Hernandez on loan, and Scott McTominay signed from Marseille for £8m on deadline day.

We opened the season at Bournemouth, with Postema scoring four goals again in a crazy 6-4 victory. This was followed by a 4-1 thrashing of Wolves, featuring a brace from Campbell and a rare goal from Busquets. The game marked the officially renaming of Salford City’s new ground to The Lowry Stadium to mark the 140th anniversary of the artists’ birth. We continued our perfect start by winning 2-1 at Brentford, featuring a stunning first goal from Ricky Clarke, and Busquets scored again in a 1-1 draw at Newcastle before the international break. The good start continued in to September as we beat Reading, Brighton and Leeds in the league, and beat Sevilla 4-1 and Genk 4-0 in the Europa League. We also defeater Manchester City on penalties in the EFL Cup. We led the table after seven matches but the bubble was burst in a 1-4 defeat at Old Trafford and we were lucky to draw 0-0 at home to Tottenham after the visitors missed a late penalty. 

We faced United at Old Trafford again, this time in the EFL Cup, and a stoppage time goal from Josh Martin gave us a famous 2-1 win, our first ever victory there. We went in to the November break on a high after a 5-0 win over Sheffield United and 4-0 wins over CSKA Moscow and Aston Villa. The Villa win featured a hat trick for Campbell after Postema went off injured. There then followed four consecutive defeats without scoring a goal against Sevilla, Chelsea, Southampton and Manchester City before we bounced back with a 3-0 win at Genk. The victory secured top spot in our Europa League group and qualification for the last 16. A 2-1 win at West Ham put us back on track in the league before we faced Liverpool at home in the quarter-final of the EFL Cup. We rode our luck at times and Vandevoordt made several saves, but two brilliant second half goals from Lopez gave us a famous 2-0 victory. We were then unlucky to lose 0-2 at Arsenal in the league before Liverpool came back to the Lowry and avenged their cup exit by beating us 0-1.

We had a decent run of fixtures in January and won eight consecutive games in all competitions, including a club record six games without conceding a goal. This included a 7-2 aggregate victory over Hull City in the EFL Cup semi-final as we reached a major cup final for the first time in our history. We also beat Rochdale and Derby County to progress to the fifth round of the FA Cup. We had moved back in to the top six but suffered a set back by going down 1-2 at Reading. There was a bit on dressing room unrest due to lack of playing time so I decided to sell Rick van Drongelen to Shanghai for £25m and allow Ethan Galbraith go out on loan to Mallorca. I also accepted a club record £56m to sell Nenad Tosic to Watford. We broke our own transfer record again to trigger the £43m release clause for West Brom’s ‘wonderkid’ winger Aaron Sharpe.

Ozturk and Dyhr were now establishing themselves as the first choice pair in central defence and we kept three consecutive clean sheets in the league, including a vital 1-0 win against Manchester United that put us in fifth place. On the 26 February 2028, Salford City faced Chelsea in the EFL Cup Final. Chelsea, who had won the domestic treble the previous season, were favourites but they were complacent. Postema seized on a mistake by Eduardo Camavinga to race through to score after just four minutes and another error by the same player allowed him to score a second after 25 minutes. Vandevoordt gifted them a goal back with a poor clearance but substitute Scott McTominay played a long pass for Postema to run on to to complete a glorious hat trick and a famous 3-1 victory.

We still had the Europa League and FA Cup to play for as well. We faced FC Porto in the last 16 and were unlucky to lose 0-1 in Portugal. Massengo gave us the lead in the second leg to level up the tie but Porto scored from a corner and broke away to seal a 1-3 aggregate win. I thought we were the better side over both legs but they defended well and we were unlucky to hit the woodwork and have goals disallowed in both games. It was a similar story in the FA Cup quarter-final at West Ham. We played well but they broke away to score and we could not find the equaliser. Our attack looked tired and I was pleased to have the March international break to rest things for the Premier League run-in.

After a goalless draw at Aston Villa we won 1-0 at Tottenham with an early goal from Ozturk, before conceding late in a 2-2 draw at Southampton. Home wins against Leicester (3-1) and West Ham (1-0) put a top four finish in our own hands and we were unlucky to only draw 2-2 against Chelsea. The tough run-in continued with away trip to Manchester City and Liverpool. We had good chances at City but lost 2-4, but went to Anfield and pulled off a famous 2-1 win with a stunning free kick winner from Amad Diallo. A stoppage time penalty from Amad then gave us a 1-0 victory in our final game against Arsenal as we finished the season with a fourth place finish and 75 points. Chelsea won the league and cup double again, reaching (but losing) the Champions League final as well, but Salford City had unquestionably arrived as a force in English football and had now gone from League Two to the Champions League in eight years.