A new season is upon us in Football Manager 2020 after a powerful end to the 19/20 season finishing 2nd and bouncing back to League One. It’s time to meet the new signings and see how they get on in their first month.
Find out how season one ended here.
First order of business in this busy summer, try and persuade Man City to let us keep Eric Garcia another year. The ball playing defender is a perfect fit for the way I play and was too good to be playing League Two last season.
And he’s going to be with us in league one!
Great news.
Scouring the market to find players coming to the end of their contract. Savvas is one of those we’ve scooped up early doors. Will go through every new face at the end of the window.
Tried to get George Cooper back, but some weird technicality has prevented that from happening. Will have to wait until the transfer window opens officially. Makes sense as the site sponsors him!
With the planning for League One already underway, its easy to forget that the season has only just ended. Here are some run downs.
Wing-back Demeaco Duhaney is the latest loanee to sign on for another year.
But Lewis Morgan isn’t interested. Fair enough really, Southampton just got relegated and he can become a key player in their Championship team.
Thank you for the ups and downs Lewis, we’ll meet again I’m sure.
Talks are still ongoing with getting Cooper back.
3 players in the team of the year!
In Graham Carey news, he’s still doing bits in Bulgaria. You love to see it.
Please come home Graham.
Dom Telford makes a clean sweep of Player and Young player of the season. That blistering form in the second half of the season went a big way to getting us promoted.
The gang are getting back together as Adam Lewis signs up to give League One ago. I love this guy.
Which settles McFadzeans future as our back up left back.
The move for Cooper keeps breaking down, and I don’t want to bloat the squad with loanees. We have £1 million to spend, but I can’t justify it on one player. And if I did, that player would be Carey.
Fight bravely against relegation is the goal in League One.
It could be a long year, but I am determined not to see us go straight back down.
Some more transfers coming through…
Including a huge offer for Crewe winger Callum Ainley. 16 goals and 6 assists in league one at 22 years old he has good re-sale value.
I need to be smart with this money and invest wisely.
I want to continue the sustainable way the club is run.
Which includes cheap options like Jack Baldwin from Sunderland who have been promoted to the Championship.
A league two in the league cup first round. Finally.
Welcome 6”3 Conor Shaugnessy as we look to add some power in the middle of the pitch to protect the defence.
Confirmation of those who have left.
As the new boys trickle in..
We will be facing up against Curtis Nelson who joins relegated Hull for £150k. A price I would have paid if I knew he was available.
Welcome to Argyle.
The New Signings
Alex MIghten – Winger – 18 – Nottingham Forest – £88k
Young Alex has the potential to be playing high Championship to low end Premier League football, and I will do everything I can to develop him and hopefully get a return on our £88k we spent. A player with great flair and dribbling, can play on either wing and has room to grow. At the moment he won’t be a regular starter while we work on developing him from an impact sub to someone who can be hassle for fullbacks all game.
Savvas Mourgos – Playmaker – 22 – Norwich – FREE
Greek under 21 international Savvas has the ability to play anywhere in midfield, but his role for us will be breaking forward from midfield with his great dribbling and passing ability. At 22, still has his prime ahead of him.
Rekeil Pyke – Forward – 22 – Huddersfield – FREE
I tracked Rekeil all summer, but we had to wait until his contract was up to avoid paying £700k to Huddersfield. A versatile attacking threat, who can play on either wing and up-top. Will need to narrow down his best position in order to develop more, but he gives us greath depth in those positions. Only 1 goal in League One last season with Rochdale, but at 22, will only get better.
Chris Maxwell – Goalkeeper – 29 – Preston – FREE
At 29 and entering the peak of his career as a goalkeeper. Experienced Maxwell is the perfect sweeper keeper for our system. A deal too good to turn down depsite wanting to use Mike Cooper as first choice, we went with a player who has played Championship football and can offer Cooper a lot to learn.
Marco Toscano – Deep-lying Playmaker – 23 – Entella – £69k
Meet Marco Toscano. Marco shares a lot of similarities with his name-sake Marco Veratti, a shaved head, short stature and great passing and vision. The most left-field signing I made this summer. He can’t speak English, but we can work on that. Just 23 years old. His only skill may be passing, but with attributes with 15 and 17 in passing and vision, hes really good at it. Will play in the base of our midfield 3 picking out passes like Pirlo. Could be a cult legend at this club.
George Williams – Right-back – 27 – MK Dons – FREE
An experienced right-back who joins on a free from MK Dons. Will play back up to Demaco, or whenever he is needed. A solid league one full back in the peak of his career.
Callum Ainley – Winger- 22 – Crewe – £215k
As mentioned before, a big money signing for us. Great dribbling and flair, will be interesting to see if he can step up to League One, or be one of my worst signings to date.
Jack Baldwin – Centre Back – 27 – Sunderland – FREE
Jack got a season ending injury in the first week of pre-season, so the less said about him the better right now.
Angus Balfour – Striker – 17 – Montrose – £20k
Look at him, look at that magnificent golden hair and dark beard. Angus, Angus Balfour. What a name. I scouted this guy last season when he was banging them in Scottish League One at just 16 years of age. I offered £20k, but he didn’t want to come! Now we are in league one, he’s keen. I am very excited about him. He probably doesn’t deserve to play as much as I will play him.
Alex Jakubiak – Forward – 23 – Watford – FREE
A better version of Rekeil Pyke, and with more goals last season in league one. Just the 5, but will be good depth for us.
Max Kilman – Center Back – 23 – Wolves – FREE
With a name like Max Kilman, and Russian ancestry, he could easily be the next bond villain. But the 23 year old comes in as a great ball-playing defender with great composure on the ball.
Conor Shaugnessy – DM – 24 – Leeds – LOAN
And finally its big lump Conor on loan from Leeds to round up our summer signings.
May not seem like a lot, but we do already have 3 really good loan players – Adam Lewis, Garcia & Demeaco. A 20 season goal scorer in Dom Telford. Danny Mayor playing on the wing this season. Sarcevic. Randell showing great development and Lloyd Jones who don’t forget who joined last January.
I’m happy with the squad.
Pre-Season
The board organised a nice training camp in Cornwall..
At least it was cheap, but next year I will take a look at organising our schedule.
Oxford happened to be in the area as they prepare for Championship football. And we won.
Buckland was a walk in the park.
As were Torquay.
As for our odds next season, we aren’t tipped for a relegation battle at all. Some faith in my signings from the media and bookies.
Everywhere we go.
Some very scary strikers in this division this year.
All about getting their fitness up.
August – The Season Begins
And just like that it’s time for the season to begin.
Doncaster away.
I spent so long of my real life hours searching for the best possible signings. Now it’s time to see if I did a good job in the market.
We keep the 4-3-3 that got us promoted and give debuts to Maxwell in nets, Mourgos, Toscano and Ainley.
Game on.
0-0 in a game we dominated away from home? I’ll take it.
The next game was pretty similar.
No goals in our opening 2 games meant a switch up top, Alex Jakubiak comes in.
And we get our first win! Danny Mayor with two goals and an assist. Funnily enough, Telford came off the bench to score the third.
But as you can see, we got an injury.
3 months without Demeaco, George Williams will get some game time now.
Hi Stuart O’Keefe.
Drawing 1-1 until Mayor picks out the top corner in the 76th minute.
This is his season.
Fletcher joins Gateshead, time is running out for him to develop.
Randell continues to keep out more experienced midfielders as Telford returns up top.
What a start to the season.
No relegation battle here.
Ugh. The £200k signing is out for a while.
Lolos is off for some games.
MK Dons away. Pyke steps up on the right wing for injured Ainley.
Oh my word.
What a way to get your first every goal Adam Randell.
Danny Mayor is still at it as well.
But we will be without him for a couple games.
Someone is jealous.
I feel bad.
League cup second round time! Good chance to get a good draw with a win.
Adam Randell only scores bangers. Oh my god.
A league two team in the 3rd round, wow what a draw. We could go deep in this cup.
Final game of August, and we have yet to lose.
Home Park is packed.
88th and 90th minute Posh goals. What a joke.
But doesn’t detract from the great start to the season we have had.
Thanks for reading.