Football Manager: Chapter IV, Win-tember
Could we redeem ourselves?

Our goal for September was to push on. We had to remain close to the top to make things more difficult for us later in the season.

Giani didn’t manage to win best Youth player of the Month.

Nketiah was impressing us with his time at Celtic so far.

He made sure he got both month awards.

As we took another look at our finances it became clear to me that the wages were hurting us more and more.

Gabriel Paulista was approached by PSG who looked to frustrate him as they offered a mere £28 million with a lot of clauses attached. I valued him at 40 million but he did not agree. He took steps to publicly out his frustration to the media. I then answered a question, do you want a player who values money more than loyalty.
We were too late in the transfer window to send Schonfeld to AA Gent, but luckily we got an offer from CSKA-Sofia for a season long loan. I would not be able to play him but perhaps he could pick up enough attention to be noticed.

Apparently we had done well in the years before me with young players who were now playing abroad.

Surprisingly we were put as joint favourites with Real to win the Champions League this season, though understandable after three consecutive final appearances. Dybala was seen as second favourite for top scorer.


Just a few days before the Man City match Gibbs picked up an injury.

The first 30 minutes were pretty boring, after that things started to pick up. Aguero had a chance as Paulista failed to cut out a pass, luckily Giani was there to hold onto the ball. Oli and Alexis were making combination to get closer goal but failed. Giani was playing a good first half as he stopped multiple chances from Aguero as Man city dominated in the first half.
This continued into the second half until the 53th minute when Dybala scored from a counter attack after an assist from Oli. The frustration grew with City as 10 minutes later Dybala scored his second from a Bellerin pass. The kep pressing but weren’t able to break us down. Alexis was not as effective as I would have liked. Özil picked up a head concussion fuing a De Bryne challenge, might have been pay back for the challenge Alexis made on him a few minutes before.
We held on as were happy to pick up three points.

Guardiola was respectful and said he enjoyed playing against us, calling me one of football’s good guys. It felt like he was buttering me up before approaching me for player.
Özil his injury wasn’t that severe.

We continued to look to improve our backroom. Bringing in more specialised people who could be shifted to other positions once a vacancy opened up.


The first Champions League match of this season got of to a rocky start as Cech picked up an injury after a few minutes. Minutes after that Sevilla scored from a corner. They kept attacking making it hard for us to push forward and when ever we did we wasted the chance. Things didn’t look good for us until the 29th minute when Jeff beat the keeper at the near post. It went back and forth till the 40th minute when Jack scored from counter attack putting in front just before the break.
After the break Jeff picked up an jury after a bad challenge which wasn’t booked. We started to gain more control but weren’t able to really penetrate their defence to finish it off. Buitink and Silva kept trying till they succeeded in the 54th minute where Silva scored. We kept pressing but from now where they scored to put the pressure back on. Their equaliser came with 7 minutes left from a diving header. They appeared to smell blood and started coming more forward. As it looked to end as a draw until Buitink reacted the quickest to a Odegaard pass to give us an injury time dramatic winner.

We were disappointed to find out that Cech would be out for up to two months. While Jeff his injury had him out of close to two weeks.


After the crazy game in Spain we hoped for a more relaxed match against Swansea. Sadly none of that was true. The players were just aimlessly shooting at goal not looking for the penetrating pass. And when they did get in the box they weren’t clinical enough to finish. At times it felt like Swansea was throwing bodies in front of our shots. After some ridiculous chances Dybala managed to score for us.
Though in front I was not happy one wrong move and this could all be square again. We kept pressing and it was not until deep in the second half a close range effort from Oli made it 2–0.

Out league Cup match was a hard fought one. Despite the early penalty we didn’t manage to get another goal. Scunthorpe came close to an equaliser but luckily it went wide.

A day or so after our win we got the results of the next round in the League Cup. It seems we were drawn to Man Utd in this competition. Liverpool didn’t manage to go through after a 3–1 loss against Newcastle. MK dons surprised Stoke.

With us being the only late kick off on the day we could wait to see how each team above us would perform. 30 minutes before our kick off the pressure was on us as West Ham was the only team in the top 4 to win while the rest lost.

Growing frustrated with Oli’s wasted chances in front of goal I opted to play Andre Silva ahead of him against Norwich. Things could not get more frustrated as we were unable to take control in the first half. Silva was not having the effect I hope he would.
We changed formation half way through the econd half as we subbed Silva for Iwobi. Going with a 4–2–3–1 from then the team was blocking Norwich effort at midfield before Dybala pass reached Alexis who volleyed the ball into the back of the net. Finally the deadlock was broken. A Sarr cross led to us getting a penalty for a shove on Alexis. Dybala stepped up and scored. The final goal came after Iwobi tapped in a cross.

With that win we were now third on goal difference behind West Ham and Man Utd.

We had done well in the League not by not only winning all matched but conceding zero goals as well.

(The Book of Gooner follows the career of a long time Championship/Football Manager player)

