lukegraham1991

TRANSFERS - DEADLINE DAY SPECIAL! First of all we managed to get rid of Tom Davies for a very decent figure. I had a direct replacement in mind after seeing that Fred was released from his contract at Manchester United and that came through immediately after, so we've made 18m in that 'swap deal' basically. With 4 hours remaining of the transfer window on deadline day, I started to filter through free agency looking for a veteran striker, someone that could both play right now, as well as using them as a mentor. Not sure I could have found a better option that Zlatan Ibrahimovic so I moved quickly to get the deal over the line, and that is our transfer business done for the summer!

2023/24 SEASON - GAME DAY 5 - CARABAO CUP - AWAY VS BRIGHTON Another early exit from the Carabao Cup which is disappointing given our recent good form. A really poor game from both ourselves and Brighton, as you can see from our player ratings below, Brighton's were very similar, with their ratings shooting up defensively after going 1-0 up - which is understandable but still disappointing that we didn't create more. On the plus side however, we can not switch our focus to a top half finish and try our luck in the FA Cup with some fresher legs than maybe what some of our opponents might have when the time comes! Notable poor performances: Dwight McNeil: 6.5, Ben Godfrey: 6.6, Filippo Terracciano: 6.6, Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 6.6 & Angelo: 6.6 Standout performances: Valentin Gomez: 7.2 & Nicolas Dominguez: 7.0.

Hey man, sure! All 3 options I have created from scratch are below

2023/24 SEASON - GAME DAY 4 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS WATFORD A huge win vs newly promoted Watford as we put them to the sword, 4 different goal scorers is always a good sign of a solid team performance and the player ratings showed that too. Our second clean sheet in a row and second clean sheet of the season so far in 4 games, not too shabby! Notable poor performances: N/A Standout performances: Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 8.2, Josip Sutalo: 8.1 & Amadou Onana: 8.0.

2023/24 SEASON - GAME DAY 3 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS BRENTFORD Much improved performance with a lot of 7+ ratings on the team this week. Keeping a clean sheet and nabbing an away win to make it 6 points from a possible nine to start the season. Notable poor performances: Nicolas Dominguez: 6.3. Standout performances: Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 7.8 & Dwight McNeil: 7.8.

2023/24 SEASON - GAME DAY 2 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS ARSENAL Not so much of a great performance! But after those two fixtures in the opening two games, we take 3 points all day as I probably wasn't expecting to get much from Man Utd & Arsenal in the opening two games of the season. Notable poor performances: Angelo: 6.2, Valentin Gomez: 6.3, Nathan Patterson: 6.3 & Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 6.3. Standout performances: Jordan Pickford: 7.5, James Garner: 7.4 & Jeremy Doku: 7.1.

2023/24 SEASON - GAME DAY 1 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS MANCHESTER UNITED Unbelievable performance! We smash Man Utd in the season opener after newcomer Angelo bags himself a hat-trick & Sutalo gets an early opener. Antony being sent off after 30 minutes helped the situation, no doubt, but by the time he was sent off, we were already 1-0 up, and from that card, we dominated. Disappointing to concede in the end which is mental to say in this fixture but we take a 4-1 win here all day!! UPPA TOFFEES!!! Notable poor performances: N/A Standout performances: Angelo: 9.7

SEASON TWO - 2023/24 Here we have it, all pre-seson friendlies done and dusted, minutes under belts, youngsters bought and loaned out for minutes. A few marquee signings already, attacking options and we've also kept hold of a lot of players that did well for us last season and we've built upon our foundations. Hopefully, we will reach a top half finish this time around and continue to build again come January & next summers transfer window!

TRANSFER IN - JEREMY DOKU Our third major signing comes in the form of winger/forward Jeremy Doku. A player who possesses major pace which again will add to our attacking threat throughout the season and hopefully that will mean more goals and more wins this campaign!

TRANSFER IN - ANGELO Our second big signing of the summer comes in the form of brazilian wonderkid Angelo. One that will excite the fans and get at his man on the wing, Angelo will add a much needed attacking threat to our front line.

TRANSFER IN - JAMES WARD-PROWSE In our first major signing of the summer, we bring in a seasoned Premier League veteran in the form of James Ward-Prowse. He gives us that extra threat from set pieces as well as being a well rounded player. Southampton didn't do very well which meant he suffered relegation last season but this was simply a prompt for me to bring him in, and with the relatively small fee involved this one was a no brainer! There have been a few ins and outs but nothing really major that we haven't already mentioned, I will list off the full ins and outs when the window closes and let you know about any major ins and outs as pre-season progresses.

I only changed to inside forwards or inverted wingers when I had right footed players on the left or vice versa - I do like to have out and out wingers with right footed on the right and left footed on the left. This only really changed when we had injuries

TRANSFERS IN - MOHAMMED DIOMANDE, THEO SANDER & VALENTIN GOMEZ In our first few deals of the summer, these are all transfers that were sorted earlier in the season but I wanted them to continue playing regularly so I opted for the transfers to come through at the end of the 22/23 season. Some good youthful additions, whether they will play here or elsewhere this season is yet to be seen though.

TRANSFER OUT - ABDOULAYE DOUCOURE In a similar situation to the Alex Iwobi transfer, we've managed to get some money in for Doucoure as well as clearing out a player who doesn't want to be here and trimming down our wage bill for now. A bit of a coincidence that Spartak Moscow wanted to take both players off our hands but I won't complain!

TRANSFER OUT - ALEX IWOBI Alex Iwobi came to us half way through the first season to tell us that he would be considering his options come the end of his current deal - which ran out at the end of the 2023/24 season coming up. I've been trying to shift him to get as much money as I could while knowing that the player didn't want to be here. We ended up taking a bit less than we wanted to but I'd rather it happen this way as now I've cut a chunk of wage out of the budget too and moved someone on that doesn't want to be at the club.

END OF SEASON REVIEW - 2022/23

SEASON 1 (2022/23) - PLAYER STATS As we close out the season, I wanted to make a note of some of the player stats throughout the season. Goals: 1. Dominic Calvert Lewin - 14 Goals 2. Rafael Santos Borre - 13 Goals 3. Neal Maupay & Dwight McNeil - 3 Goals 4. Youssoufa Moukoko, Reiss Nelson, Alex Iwobi - 2 Goals 5. Idrissa Gueye, Jarrad Branthwaite, Ben Godfrey, Demarai Gray, James Tarkowski, Tom Davies, Josip Sutalo - 1 Goal Assists: 1. Demarai Gray & Alex Iwobi - 5 Assists 2. Nathan Patterson, Dwight McNeil & Tom Davies - 3 Assists 3. Idrissa Gueye, Rafael Santos Borre, James Garner, Josip Sutalo & Nicolas Dominguez - 2 Assists 4. Youssoufa Moukoko, Amadou Onana, Neal Maupay, Jarrad Branthwaite, Mason Holgate, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Reiss Nelson, Andros Townsend & Ashley Young - 1 Assist Average Rating (Over 7.0): 1. Dominic Calvert-Lewin - 7.14 Average Rating 2. Josip Sutalo - 7.02 Average Rating 3. Jordan Pickford - 7.01 Average Rating Clean sheets: 1. Jordan Pickford - 16 Clean Sheets in 44 games Overall record throughout 2022/23 season: Wins: 16 Draws: 13 Losses: 16 Goals scored: 48 Goals against: 51 Goal difference: -3

SEASON 1 (2022/23) - PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE Last league table update of the season. We've narrowly missed out on the top half of the table. Manchester City taking the league title by a 5 point margin. Liverpool, Arsenal & Newcastle taking the champions league places. Man Utd, Spurs & Chelsea taking the other european competition places. With Fulham, Southampton & Nottingham Forest suffering relegation to the Championship. Promoted from the Championship is Watford, Norwich and either Middlesbrough or Sunderland. Stay tuned for player stats for the season...

GAME DAY 43 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS WEST HAM UNITED Last game of season 1. We took on West Ham United at London Stadium and things started very well with Calvert-Lewin netting early on. Unfortunately, the rest of the game was a bit of a stalemate and then a shocking challenge late on gifted Lanzini a chance to score from the spot & that he did. Now the planning starts for next season, I will have some lads coming back from loan, some new signings coming in & some players on their way out of the club also. I am planning on restructuring the coaching staff as I always do after season 1 - I give the initial staff a chance and now I will look at which current members I deem good enough to stay on and those that need replacing. I plan on doing this nice and early so we can tweak any tactics and formations ready for a grueling pre-season so we can improve again going into the 2023/24 campaign. Notable poor performances: N/A Standout performances: Nicolas Dominguez: 7.3 & Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 7.1.

GAME DAY 42 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR An early goal in the very first minute of the game - I thought this was going to be an absolute hammering. But we battled back to take the lead & take a 2-1 lead into the half. I tried to keep the lads out there that worked to get us in front but a lot of the squad were knackered so I had to make some changes. Unfortunately, a late goal through Bissouma meant we shared the points on the day. Final game of the season up next as we take on West Ham at London Stadium. We're currently 11th while they are in 10th, goal difference is very close so the winner of this game could take 10th position in the final league table of the season. Notable poor performances: Jordan Pickford: 6.3 & Tom Davies: 6.4. Standout performances: Amadou Onana: 7.6, Dwight McNeil: 7.4 & Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 7.4.

GAME DAY 41 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS BOURNEMOUTH Going from a draw against Arsenal and a win against Manchester United to losing in any manner to Bournemouth if a bit of a kick in the teeth. Getting a red card and losing 3-0 though, is even more frustrating. Spurs up next, yet another difficult test for us. Hopefully, we can improve off the back of this otherwise we will have a tough result to take when Spurs come to Goodison Park next game. Notable poor performances: Jordan Pickford: 6.0, Youssoufa Moukoko: 6.1, Vitaliy Mykolenko: 6.2, Nathan Patterson: 6.3 & Dwight McNeil: 6.3. Standout performances: Josip Sutalo: 7.4.

GAME DAY 40 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS MANCHESTER UNITED WE DID IT! What a win vs Manchester United - a huge thanks to Fred for putting them down to 10 men after we were already 1-0 up. I stuck with the same team that started the 0-0 against Arsenal and it proved the best practice after securing this one. We tightened things up though and hit them on a couple of late counter attacks to secure a huge 3-0 win! That's our first win vs any of the top 6 so far on this save as well, brilliant stuff! Notable poor performances: Jarrad Branthwaite: 6.5. Standout performances: Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 7.7, Jordan Pickford: 7.6 & Tom Davies: 7.5.

GAME DAY 39 - PREMIER LEAGUE - HOME VS ARSENAL We took on the tough task of a tie against Arsenal, this wasn't a game I was overly expectant of a positive result in to be honest but to come away with a point is a huge result for us. A clean sheet and holding onto the draw late on when we made things harder for them is more than I anticipated taking away from this game. Anther tough test coming up now as Man Utd come to us as they are pushing to cement a top 4 finish. Notable poor performances: Youssoufa Moukoko: 6.3 & Nathan Patterson: 6.4. Standout performances: James Garner: 7.4, Jordan Pickford: 7.2 & Idrissa Gueye: 7.2.

GAME DAY 38 - PREMIER LEAGUE - AWAY VS ASTON VILLA A win we needed here as we face Arsenal next in what will prove to be another difficult test for us. Calvert-Lewin coming up with two massive goals for us as we continue to push for that top half target once the season ends. Calvert-Lewin is now the joint top scorer for the team this season having caught up to Rafael Santos Borre on 12 goals each. Notable poor performances: N/A Standout performances: Dominic Calvert-Lewin: 9.0.

GAME DAY 37 - FA CUP - WEMBLEY VS BRENTFORD While it would have been nice to reach a cup final in our first season, it simply wasn't to be. I feared the worst when we were creating very little all game and then gave a poor penalty away to go behind on after Toney slotted home in the 64th minute. Shortly after though, half time substitute Santos Borre gave us a lifeline but we couldn't improve for the win unfortunately. We had gone to two penalty shoot outs, both of which had gone our way before this one but unfortunately, a Dominguez effort saved meant we came crashing out of the FA Cup at the final hurdle before the final itself. Notable poor performances: Dwight McNeil: 6.2, Ashley Young: 6.3 & Youssoufa Moukoko: 6.4. Standout performances: Rafael Santos Borre: 7.8.