[FM24] Reviving The Saints

[TheJanitor]

After my save with Crystal Palace died in the second season, I still had the itch to write about a Football Manager save. I felt like I had some unfinished business in England, so I remained in the country. My next team was Southampton FC.

The Saints suffered relegation at the end of the 22/23 years after 11 impressive years in the Premier League, where they established themselves as a top half side, committed to youth development and attractive style of play. Unfortunately, constantly losing their top players (and managers) as well as making some bad decisions lead them back to the Championship. In real life, they were able to get back in their first try by finishing 4th and winning the play-offs.

Squad

There are a few key players at the club, all of which remained from last year's Premier League campaign and are probably at this level. First is Kyle Walker-Peters, and England international who is equally capable and RB and LB. Jan Bednarek is going to be our rock in defense while Che Adams is going to lead the line. Finally, we have the Armstrongs (no relation) - Adam and Stuart. The latter already informed us that he will consider his options at the end of his contract, which expires at the end of this season.

And since we are Southampton, there are a few youth prospect to build upon. Manchester City sent 4 players down Southampton's way - Shea Charles, Samuel Edozie, Juan Larios, and Gavin Bazunu. All are ready to challenge for first team spots, with Bazunu already establishing himself as our #1. Sam Amo-Ameyaw is very young but ready for some minutes and Sekou Mara is going to be Che Adams depute upfront.

In our U21 team we have Tyler Dibling, who looks like he would have been incredible if it wasn't for that low determination. Jayden Meghoma is a left back, but honestly, I am seeing his future in the CB position and will retrain him.

Tactics

Initial thoughts about the squad is that it is most suited for a 4-3-3 formation, due to the lack of depth in CBs and upfront, and also the lack of a truly capable #10. What we do have is a striker who is able to bring other players into play, star right back, and pacy wide players, so I going with a Barca inspired, possession-based tactic:

Instructions are going to be the default "Control Possession" settings, with Positive mentality, standard tempo, and without "Work Ball Into Box" instruction, which appears to be working decently for me this year.

Goals

Supporter Culture & Expectations | Board Culture

Looks like the supporters and the board are on the same page. The aim would be to play attractive football and sign young players, which doesn't make for the most creative FM save, but I will still try to appease it. I know FM24 is towards the end of it's run and pretty much every wonderkid is already known, but I will try to sign players that I at least didn't get the chance to manage this year.

Unless Savio becomes available again

[TheJanitor]

23/24 - Pre-Season

Results

The Pre-Season trip to Austria went well, as we got high wins over all of our rivals. Picked a few nagging injuries as well, most of them short-term other than Flynn Downes, who will miss the first few games of the season, leaving us in the hands of young Shea Charles as his only replacement.

Staff Changes

Incomings

Sorting staff is one of those pesky things we have to do every time we start a save. Thankfully, Southampton start with a good bunch and I didn't need to release anyone, only bring in where we had the space. I either signed staff recommended to me in the monthly meeting or those who answered an advert. Asked the board to increase the amount of coaches allowed and they agreed, so we will see two more coming in.

[TheJanitor]

23/24 - August

Results

A near-perfect start for us. In the league, we only dropped points to table-topping Norwich (who, to be honest, deserved a win) and performed well against the rest. The EFL Cup draw has been kind to us, but we were still impressive considering we fielded mostly substitutes and youngsters. Sadly, it seems like our luck ran out in the 3rd round:

League Table

Still too early to take the table too seriously. Obviously we are off to a good start but September promises to be a bit more difficult for us.

Player of the Month

Che Adams | Kamaldeen Sulemana

Hard to pick between the two. Adams led the line incredibly for us this month, scoring 5 in 4 and assisting once, including a hattrick that single-handedly won us the match against Plymouth. Sulemana contributed with 3 goals and 3 assists, which is even more impressive considering the fact he did it in 2 starts (6 total apps). This earned him August's Young Player of the Month award.

Staff Update

Added three more coaches to our ranks. This should conclude our staff recruitment for the coming months.

Edited June 9 by TheJanitor

[TheJanitor]

23/24 - September

Results

We kept the momentum with another great month. We rode our luck some times - especially against Middlesbrough where Edozie scored against the run of play before they had a player sent off. Against Sunderland we nearly blew a 3 goals lead, but other than that, things went smooth. We did lose Bazunu and Sulemana to injuries through the month, but they are both expected to be back early in October.

In the EFL Cup, we bowed out in the 3rd round against Chelsea as predicted, but we were actually the better side. A missed penalty at 1-1 could have changed completely the direction of this game but it is what it is.

League Table

Thanks to our good run we climbed to 1st at the table, as well as having the best goal difference. Still a long way to go, but with matches against 4 of the other top 7 out of the way, we put ourselves in a very good position moving forward.

Player of the Month

Kyle Walker-Peters

KWP put a solid shift this month and he is now leading our assists charts, along with attackers Adam Armstrong and Kamaldeen Sulemana. Interest is not surprisingly high for him, including from Manchester United and PSG, and with Bree being my only other RB, I should probably be on a lockout for a replacement sooner rather than later.

Player News

Speaking of transfers, another one of our players announced his intention to consider his options at the end of his contract, this time Che Adams. His form dropped massively this month, and he didn't score or assist once, but he is still wanted by top division sides in England and Italy.

Thanks for all the reactions! Due to some very good things that are happening, I may not be able to update as frequently in the next week or two but I will follow up on some of the other career threads here.

Edited June 10 by TheJanitor

[TheJanitor]

23/24 - October

Results

Our unbeaten run was cut short against Stoke, but we reacted wonderfully against Rotherham. Against Preston we tried a 4-2-3-1 for the very first time, and it produced a solid display. It did also against Birmingham, however, they capitalized on our wastefulness and a shocking defensive error to snatch a draw.

Overall, performance is good, but against Stoke and Birmingham we dropped points because struggled to convert our dominance into goals. Che Adams struggles meant Sekou Mara has seen more minutes this month and while he didn't really set the league on fire, he seems to be contributing more to our play at the moment.

League Table

We maintained our place at the top, as well as a very good goal difference that might come handy in this tight race.

Player of the Month

Samuel Edozie

Edozie contribute 4 goals and an assist this month. There is a real contest between him and Sulemana for our LW spot at the moment. I think the latter would do a good job at RW as well, but Adam Armstrong has been solid himself.

[TheJanitor]

23/24 - November

Results

A mixed month for us. 17th placed Millwall landed us our 2nd loss of the season. We reacted again with possibly our best match of the season against West Brom, that included an amazing display from Sekou Mara, who scored 4, including a 12 minutes hat-trick. Relegation battling Huddersfield held us to a point before the match ended with a home win against Bristol City.

We are still having issues turning our dominance into goals. Against Millwall, we had 13 shots (8 on target) compared to their 2 (1 on target), but no clear cut chances. Same against Huddersfield.

League Table

Despite our inconsistent results, we finish another month at first place, a point ahead of Swansea and Ipswich, 6 ahead of Watford at 7th.

Player of the Month

Sekou Mara

In a below average month, Mara's performance against West Brom is a season highlight. He is now our leading goal scorer with 10 goals, and our starting striker ahead of Che Adams, who failed to score a goal since August. More on thus below.

Player News

With his incredible first month now a distant memory, and his contract ending at the end of the season, a decision was needed to be made regarding Che Adams. I asked his agent if any team willing to make an offer. RC Lens was willing to fork £8.5m for him and Adams will be off come January. With some cash available now, I went for a long-term target:

I know Ouedraogo is quite famous amongst FM players, but I never got to manage him, so when I noticed him on the transfer list (due to Schalke's financial situation and Ouedraogo's release clause) I knew he will be our first signing. He will join us next season, hopefully helping us on our return to the Premier League.

Edited June 15 by TheJanitor

[TheJanitor]

23/24 - December

I'm currently on my laptop only. Thankfully, the Sas24 skin got a laptop version and it looks lovely in my opinion.

Results

A near-perfect month saw us get back to form and me get the Manager of the Month award

League Table

We maintain first place, and thanks to Swansea dropping points we got them of our backs, however, Norwich also had a near-perfect month and are shaping to be the biggest threats to our championship run.

Player of the Month

David Brooks

Our first-choice RW Adam Armstrong got injured for 2-3 months against Watford. Loanee David Brooks just returned from injury himself and made an incredible impact, scoring 4 goals and assisting one time. I considered going to the market to replace Armstong, but seems like Brooks got us covered for now.

Player News

With the transfer window opening next month, a few deals are already cooking. First, two outgoing transfers are already completed - Joe Aribo joins Leeds for £2.5M after barely featuring for us this season (despite scoring a cracker) and fringe player Jake Vokins joins Hearts for £15.5K.

The first arrival to the club (remember, Ouedraogo joins next season) is a direct replacement for the departing Che Adams:

Azon was signed because he is young, cheap, with good personality, and provides a different option compared to Sekou Mara, being more of a hard-working target man. I don't expect him to make much of a splash this season, but hopefully he will prove his worth over time.

I suspect there is going to be more action this January, with Kyle Walker-Peters drawing an interest from a fairly decent side:

With PSG and Aston Villa also interested, I am definitely preparing myself for KWP's departure next month. We have James Bree and Taylor Harwood-Bellis capable of playing RB, but neither got his offensive ability. I already going through a list of possible targets, but unfortunately I can't find someone quite as capable.