Season 01.
Season 01
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Originally Posted by
Smjffy
Derby County - 2022/2023
Twelve points didn't seem to be overly excessive and although the aim was to fight bravely, I thought we'd have enough about us to at least make a good go of it but as the season transpired, we were dead and buried from day one, really.
Our relegation was confirmed with eight games to go.
We actually took more points in those final eight matches than we did all season but even without the points deduction, we would have got done over by a small distance.
The rebuild now starts but we're in a better financial position so an immediate return would be handy.
January we brought in
Kevin Mirallas and
Ramires, neither were particularly good. Loan moves for
Aaron Ramsey (not that one) and
Elliot Anderson were arranged to add some numbers,
Tudor Baluta and
Dwight Gayle joined a few weeks later,
Gayle costing nearly £100K for the remainder of the season. I doubt it would have been any different if we'd had them earlier but you never know.
Gonzalo Carneiro was the only other arrival, the latest one too given he needed a work permit but he's probably going to lead the line next season if no one meets his relegation release clause.
We're going to save well over £125,000K a week in wages with the releases of so many drains,
Tom Lawrence being a prime example as he's on £30,000 a week which just isn't going to be viable in
League One.
Still no discontent from the supporters but if we don't challenge for the promotion spots this upcoming season then I'm certain that is going to change. I can't remember the last time I got relegated on FM. I already feel like the managerial CV is ruined.
Sam Baldock was our top goal scorer with 11 in 30(5) whilst youngster
Jack Stretton was next in line with 9 in 10(12), I imagine he's going to get plenty more minutes next season.
Tom Lawrence grabbed eight goals and seven assists, still not worth the weekly outlay though. So yeah, bad times.
Season 02.
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Derby County - Season 2022/2023
After waving the white flag early doors last season, our stint in
League One was always going to be one of change. The aging rear guard all left for pastures new, high earner
Tom Lawrence left for
Reading for £250,000 which was decent given he only had 21 days left on his contract, he would have taken the 25% decrease in wages due to us being relegated but he was far from irreplaceable.
Louie Sibley joined
West Ham for £8M rising to just over £10m, the
Hammers even offered to loan him back for a season once the deal had been struck so we snatched their hands off.
Summer signing
Erik Palmer-Brown came, saw, conquered then left for
Charlotte for £5.5M, an easy sacrifice given our past form with financial mismanagement, you just can't turn that down for a free signing.
Akin Famewo (Loan - Norwich),
Harry Toffolo (£190k - Huddersfield),
Tyler Walker (£275K - Coventry) and
Dane Scarlett (Loan - Tottenham) were just some of the success stories in what was a very rewarding campaign that saw us break records left, right and centre. None more so than freebie signing and new number one,
Matija Sarkic (£34K - Wolves) who broke a club record for most clean sheets, a record that hadn't been bettered since the 1970's.
We shall not be moved indeed.
An immediate return and we do so in much better shape than last season both on the pitch and financially. A nice £12M transfer budget available too with a huge excess in our wage budget. Prudent.
In the domestic cups our luck wasn't quite with us as
Mansfield raced into a 3-0 lead to knock us out of the
FA Cup first round, 3-2 while
Bradford's 91st minute equaliser gave them a lifeline in the
EFL second round before they went on to eliminate us on pens. At least there was the
EFL Trophy though, we eased through our group with 1-0 win over
Fleetwood, a 0-0 penalty victory against
Manchester City U23's and
Salford 4-0.
Mansfield were first up in the knock out rounds, a 2-0 win gained a small measure of revenge for the
FA Cup loss, a victory by the same score line saw us defeat
Tottenham U23's but we came undone in the quarter finals as
Dylan Levitt's sole strike was enough for
Man United U23's to progress at our expense. They went on to win the whole thing beating
Rotherham in the final.
Promotion was always the sole goal but it was nice to do so by recording a club record most points in a season (98), most league wins (30), most clean sheets (28), in fact, we hadn't conceded a single goal in
League One until match day 8. The same day our unbeaten run ended as it happens. Screw you
Rotherham.
We did have to wait a while to claim the title officially despite being so far ahead, this was largely in part to winning only one league game throughout April, three draws and two defeats could have proven to be the ultimate bottle job if Doncaster and
Wayne Rooney's
Huddersfield had capitalised.
Next season is still up in air, it could be nice to see if we can challenge for the playoffs with a few additions but equally, a move could be on the cards as this doesn't have to be a one club save.
All in all though, top effort. On we go.
Season 03a.
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After speaking to Shaun Bailey about the clubs long term goals, the new chairman simply couldn't satisfy me that he wanted to take
The Rams to the promise land so I promised to land a bombshell on his table the following day.
Although he was courteous, it was hollow words. Perhaps it was his inexperience, or mine but I was Smjffy and I just landed a league title so, you know, gotta look after ones 'stock'. I decided a holiday abroad to catch some rays would be a good idea only I got turned away for looking like Steve Buscemi in Mr Deeds.
But then an intriguing offer landed in my inbox and the financial package was enough to overlook the fact that they are a bit of a cuntish club. I could change that, perhaps even alter the perception but ultimately, it'll be a short term affair, I imagine.
Oof.
Millwall, just like
Derby, were relegated dead last in the
Championship last season and an inconsistent start to life in
League One meant they departed with
Luis Freire. No one should have been surprised given the 38 year old had never shown himself to be a long term option in any of his previous jobs, barely lasting a year in his last five positions.
On we go.
Season 3b.
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Millwall - 2023/2024
The Lions were sitting in 13th place after 15 matches before the Welsh Dragon took control of the reigns, twelve points off table toppers
Sunderland but with enough of the season left to turn things around and challenge for the playoffs at least. The media had put
Millwall down for a 4th place finish at the start of the campaign so I assumed the quality was there somewhere.
With just twenty four hours to go until the first game of the new management, it was suggested that we'd take things slowly instead of tearing up everything from the get-go but what was the point when last seasons efforts with
Derby County were still fresh in mind? No point so we told the players what we expected and quite frankly, if they didn't abide by it, they'd be out in the January window.
All that said, we beat
AFC Wimbledon 2-1, a nice start. We followed it up with a 5-0 win over
Northampton in the
FA Cup first round, then wholesale changes for the clubs final
EFL Trophy game saw a 0-0 draw against
Portsmouth turn into a penalty shootout win which put us through to to the knockouts. The well rested first team however returned to action a few days later and got done over 1-0 by
Oxford. We beat
Leyton to 'turn the corner' only to get smashed 6-3 away to
Sheffield Wednesday. Annoying as we took the lead twice.
December hit and the pace picked up but so did the victories, we started the festive period with a 1-1 draw at home to
Blackpool then recorded eight on the bounce with six coming in the league. The turn of the year saw no change as we defeated
Charlton (5-0) and
Wycombe (4-1) which meant our next match, in the
EFL Trophy saw us with a chance to make history. Not since 1928 had
Millwall won ten on the spin, we'd matched that and now had a chance to surpass it against Fulham U23's. Four goals later and we did exactly that.
It ended the following game however, along with our participation in the
FA Cup as
Lincoln eased past us 4-2. No drama as success was never on the cards and the league was where our priorities lay. 7 points out of 9 for the remainder of the month continued our good work.
Shrewsbury freed up a few dates by knocking us out of the
EFL Trophy quarter finals.
February saw us sitting in 3rd place and four wins in five cemented it but March was going to be the decisive one.
Ten games from greatness?
Avoiding defeat against those in and around us was the aim but we'd been so used to winning that we felt we had more than half a chance.
And so it came to pass.
Rampant.
Sunderland taking the points at the
Stadium of Light kept them in it but with the
Wigan match being moved, we always had that game n hand.
The Latics were eventually relegated but we still had to come from 2-0 down to defeat them which would have been an absolute bottle job as
Blackburn were on the prowl.
It was
Rovers who were our final opponents of the season in fact but at that point, a win for either side would have seen the victor crowned Champions.
Well,
League One baby. Not only champions but we did so by recording a new club record for most points (96) Our golden oldie on this occasion was our goalkeeper
Bartosz Bialkowski who at 36 years of age kept 20 clean sheets, a club record. He also became the oldest player in the clubs history in May 2024. Lovely.
The final record was
Liam Cullen's 18 overall goals.
Transfers
Aaron Pierre and
Mads Bidstrup were swiftly snapped up on free deals in the first few weeks of taking charge and we brought in
Arsenal's David Oliver (Loan) on deadline day only for him to go and suffer a broken cheekbone in his first training session which ruled him out for over six weeks. He did eventually get on to the field but only managed five appearances.
Meanwhile,
George Saville (St.Gallen £2.1M)
, Abdul Abdulmalik (Derby £165k),
Junior Tiensia (Bolton £105k),
Issac Olaofe (Plymouth £84K),
Oliver Norwood (Sunderland £1M) and
Michael Craig (Stoke £65K) all left the club. The fans weren't too pleased about some of them going but £4.4M in the coffers for players who were nearing the end of their contracts wasn't too shabby.
Anyways, who the hell are they to argue, they just got launched back to the
Championship. Now do I accept the new deal or...
Season 04
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Millwall - 2024/2025
After securing our passage back to the
Championship, we felt it was important to add some quality to the ranks in what we anticipated to be a tricky campaign and so with that in mind, the
Lions welcomed the following during the summer window:
Sheer firepower.
Oli McBurnie, Piroe, Minamino and the January arrival,
Mika Biereth all got into double figures, over sixty goals between them with
Mason Bennett and
Helder Costa providing the assists as well as twenty goals between themselves.
It was our attacking play that led to us securing our league status well in advance and gave us the platform to go into the final day of the season with a chance of making the playoffs.
Former club
Derby County lay in wait, they had beaten us 3-1 earlier in the season and football being football, you just sensed they would come back to haunt me again but alas, it never occurred. Costa's penalty ten minutes from time was enough to secure the win, the points and the final spot.
QPR drew 0-0 nonetheless.
Brentford were our opponents but we somehow found ourselves 2-0 down at half time, the
Millwall faithful furious, it didn't get any better as
Samuel Gigot made it 3-0 with minutes to spare.
Takumi Minamino's late late strike gave us a glimmer of hope in the return but losing at The Den hurt.
The return offered nothing. Sod all. We lost 2-1. What an anti-climax.
I suppose we could at least say we lost to the eventual winners but what use is that.
Steven Gerrard's
Sheffield United losing in the finale.
In the domestic cups our luck was borderline non-existent as
Crystal Palace knocked us out of the
EFL Cup third round, the Eagles eventually getting relegated from the
Premier League again. Whilst in the
FA Cup, Swansea scored in injury time to put us out in the third round,
Mason Bennett's 68"minute red card not helping the situation.
My contract ends in one month time and that'll be all she wrote as far as
Millwall go. The board should have been happy but were left frustrated that we failed to grow the clubs reputation (I mean? WTF?), we finished higher than our preseason prediction and after a year long drama of listening to players moan about salaries, it's done. Over. Fuck 'em.
One has to think of their own careers so off I trot. Disappointing year though.
Season 05
Rangers 2025/2026
After running down my contract with Millwall, the Rangers job was staring one in the face and a stint in the SPL was a prime opportunity to add some more silverware to the two League One titles my fledging career had obtained.
With that in mind, we looked around the market with our limited funds and settled on the following:
Ebere Eze, a former Millwall player himself along with Davinson Sanchez were both picked up on loan from Tottenham, Louie Barry joined from Aston Villa, also on loan to add some depth up front and in midfield whilst January signing, Joshua Aryee found himself without a new deal at Dortmund and so we grabbed him to replace Jamal Lewis who we thought would go at the end of the season, as it is, he left in the January window himself so we asked Borussia how much they wanted to bring in Joshua early, £190K they said, OK. He would have been free otherwise.
Those leaving the club, of which there we a few in the end, all left in the winter window with the exception of Filip Helander. Ryan Kent left for Real Madrid for £30M rising up to £38. Alfredo Morelos went to West Ham for £25M, Jamal said au revoir and joined PSG for a whopping £35M and Linus Wahlqvist moved to Championship side Wolves for £10M. In total we sold £103M worth of talent but we knew by then where we stood and it would have taken the mother of all bottle jobs to have cost us the division. In hindsight, it may have been more prudent to have kept a few but I had no idea what was to come at the very end of the campaign.
It was a bit of a travesty not to go unbeaten given we were so close to doing so but we did smash a number of a records, goals for, beating a long standing one held by Hearts in the 1950's, and 103 points was a club record tally. If we hadn't dropped silly points to Celtic and lost to Hibs of all people, we may have landed a new Scotland record too but alas, a win is a win.
Domestically we were dominant throughout and secured both the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Cup beating Celtic in the final of both.
Goals came easy and I imagine if we'd kept the likes of Kent and co we would have claimed many more records, our teenage wonderkid who was close to joining Man United before I kicked up a stink was very nearly ready to smash Henrik Larsson's grand total of most goals in a season too. As it is, Dylan Munro will have to wait another year, if of course either of us are here.
33 league goals in 33 games. 52 in 55(6) overall and he's most definitely got further improvements in him.
That's the good news.
The bad news.....we were knocked out of the Champions League as both Liverpool and Juventus finished above us. Why is that bad?
Well....you be the judge. 
Bloody Shakhtar of all people. If we beaten them on the final match day then we would have qualified for the knockout rounds but it wasn't to be and so we dropped into the Europa League.
That goals against column makes for awful reading.
Europe's second competition was still European football and we wanted to make a dent and it is fair to say we did that.
But the final in Turkey was no delight. In fact, it was a bloody nightmare.
Rinsed.
On the personal side, accolades kept coming.
Manager of the Month in all but two to go alongside the Manager of the Year award, the Football Writers Manager of the Year award and it should have been the Players Manager of the Year award too given the win percentage but promoted side Inverness saw their manager, former Rangers striker Billy Dodds claim it. Wanker.
Records taken during the season was most points (club) with 103, biggest sale both for the club and in Scotland, initially it was Ryan Kent but days later Jamal Lewis took it with his transfer to PSG. Dylan Munro's 52 goal total was the most overall goals by a player in a season, Ianis Hagi's 32 assists was a club record although Kent probably would have surpassed him, Liam Kelly's 28 clean sheets was a new record and finally, Munro's 14 man of the match awards was a new one also.
All in all, a very good campaign and now we have money to play with along with both the youth facilities and the training ground getting a face lift.
I do want to stick around perhaps a little while longer but I have doubts that we'd taste European success and there isn't much to achieve on the home front so instead I'll keep an eye on the job market, specifically Marcelino's time at Newcastle as their 14th place finished has left him in a precarious position.
Brendon Rodgers (119 days), Manuel Pellegrini (292 days), Unai Emery and Diego Simeone all failing to win so much as a bean with the Toon Army, Marcelino looks like he's next on the list. 16th, 16th, 16th, 13th, 14th.....one would say the takeover hasn't exactly gone to plan.
On we go.
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