Who would have thought that we would be entering our third season in the premier league in our 7th season in charge.
The board have kept our expectations low again this season with us expected to fight bravely against relegation. The season preview backs up these expectations as we are predicted to finish 18th, the first time we have not been predicted to finish bottom at the start of the season.
Budgets
Now we are talking. An incredible £21 million extra pounds in the war chest from last season. This is huge and could help us with the next step forward.
So lets see where I spent the chairman's money......
Transfers
The first thing I would like to point out, I've "Only" spent £31 million.
The second thing is we have smashed our transfer record. I thought we were fantastic going forward last season but lacked a bit of steel at the back. Enter Mauro Guerra. The Italian U-21 international joins from Sampdoria for £23 million.
Raul Caballero has huge potential and we fought off most of La Liga for his services. £750,000 could be the bargain of the century. He will be used sparingly on the left wing to begin with to allow his development to continue.
Enzo Ortega is another one with the world at his feet. £7 million from Penarol in Uruguay he will offer support in the front line.
Taylor Harwood-Bellis is a familiar face to most who have played FM. The promising young English centre back will offer stiff competition in the back line.
The departing players were all bit part and although great servants to the club were not up to the standard we now require.
The only other bit of Club business to bring up was the delay in the reopening of Adams Park. So we faced another season sharing with Reading at the Madjeski Stadium.
Pre Season
We toured China for our Pre Season this year and faced some tough tests. We then followed up with back to back home games against Brentford and AS Monaco wit a win and a draw in the bag.
With Pre Season done it was time to get back to business.
August 2026
Match 1 - Norwich (A) 2-1
Our first game was a trip up to Carrow Road to face Norwich. It was a cagey first half with little to no action. All the goals were in the last 30 minutes as we took the lead through Jack Clarke. Norwich hit back immediately before new signing Ortega saved the day on the 95th minute to secure all three points.
This is the fist time we have won our opening Premier League fixture of a season, maybe an omen for the season ahead!
Match 2 - Liverpool (H) 1-4
In the first of three tough league games in a row we were unable to cause an upset at home as Liverpool ran riot in the first half to put the game to bed early.
Jack Clarke had equalised in the 13th minute but that was as good as it got.
Before the Arsenal game we were reminded of an impressive personal milestone.
Match 3 - Arsenal (A) 1-2
We gave a better account of ourselves in the first half than we did against Liverpool and made it to half time 0-0.
Two quick fire goals from Arsenal in the second half were slightly against the run of play and a quick response from Contento gave us hope but Arsenal held on. Back to back defeats.
EFL Cup Second Round - Ipswich Town (A) 0-0 Winning 5-4 on Pens
Whole sale changes were made and it didnt really pay off. The game was a bore draw in the finest sense of the word.
We were perfect from 12 yards whilst Ipswich missed their 4th penalty.
Suppose it doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get to the next round.
We suffered an annoying injury to an important player as Left Back Tulelli broke his arm.
Match 4 - Manchester United (H) 0-0
We seem to have Man United's number at the moment as we limited them to 1 shot on target.
Sadly we weren't as clinical as the last time the two sides had met but a draw against a side like United is always a positive.
A mixed bag of results really. Pleased to have progressed in the cup and I suppose 4 points from 4 games with the run of fixtures we had in the first month.
Table
Way too early to look at the table but its nice to see that we are the only team United didn't beat.
We will do a long midseason run of fixtures in the next episode and the always busy festive period.
Cheers
Panda
If you have enjoyed this episode and want to fully catch up with our Journey so far you can start way back at the beginning here -
We also recently had our turn in a joint save with other FM creators called "The Far East Express. Please check out our three episodes with the link below. One hell of a journey going on in that save.
We also have an fascinating International save going as we attempt to take Jamaica to Gold Cup and World Cup glory after acquiring some new recruits who have been ignored repeatedly by England
