After the success of our Football Manager 2015 simulations earlier this month, were we simulated seasons with the managers we’d been linked with, I’ve decided to give you another one.
With Slaven Bilic now our manager, Pedrio Obiang signed and a whole host of exciting players being linked with us, it was probably time we put everything to the test on FM15.
SEE ALSO >> West Ham’s ‘Dream XI’ next season…
Before starting off, I added Yohan Cabaye, Loic Remy, Darren Randolph, Carl Jenkinson (on loan), Dmitri Payet and Obiang to the West Ham team, along with Slaven Bilic as manager.
Oh, and as a tribute to David Gold’s wonderful Twitter episode last week, I also signed up Angelo Ogbonna from Juventus.
After Bilic finished eighth in the Premier League in our first simulation, I had even higher hopes with this one.
And here’s how the season panned out.
(Please note: That this is purely for entertainment purposes and not a true reflection of real life. Football Manager is only a game and we have automatically simulated a season without any user influence during the simulation. Obviously most of you know that, but sadly there were some readers who struggled to understand what our last FM15 experiments were all about. Now those people do.)
Transfers
In
To add to the players we already put in to the team before starting, Bilic brought in Pavel Kadarabek from Sparta Prague for £3.1million and Jose Enrique from Liverpool for £1.7m.
Hardly eye catching additions, but they’d already been done for him.
Out
Quite possible the most mental thing I’ve seen on Football Manager ever. Manchester United bought Joey O’Brien for £4.1million, and he played quite regularly for them too.
Needless to say, Louis Van Gaal was sacked as United boss at the end of the season, but that won’t be a surprise later on.
Competitions
Europa League
Just like all the other simulations in the past, West Ham had no problem getting through all the qualification rounds in the Europa League, but the group stage proved to be a step too far.
Drawing Standard Liege and Villarreal in Group K turned out to be the killer blow, despite pulling off decent 1-1 draws against them.
But we only managed to beat Sottish Premier League team St. Johnstone, which is why we finished third in our group…
Capital One Cup
So a decent run in the Capital One Cup was out of the question after losing 2-1 to West Brom in the third round – not a major deal, though.
Slaven Bilic is sacked…
So on December 2nd Bilic was sacked after poor start top the Premier League season saw the Hammers win just two of their of their opening four games.
That, coupled with the early Capital One Cup exit and failure to get past the Europa League group stage meant the board felt as if they couldn’t go on with the Croat in charge and risk relegation.
He was sacked with the team bottom of the Premier League heading in to the festive period and someone was needed to come in and save the club from spending their first season in the Olympic Stadium as a Championship side.
However, his record on paper after being sacked didn’t look too bad. Though that does include all the easy Europa League qualifiers…
Step forward…
Well this is awkward.
The board tempt Allardyce back to the club and task him with keeping us in the Premier League.
At this stage you assume every single football fan in the country is laughing at us. Embarrassing.
The rest of the season
FA Cup
With our Premier League status on the line and the club reeling from having to bring Allardyce back following Bilic’s failings, the FA Cup will have been the last of our priorities.
So drawing up Man City in the fourth round probably did us the favour. Just the league to concentrate on now…
Premier League
It did take Allardyce five games to register his first league win, but once he did the team managed to click and climb out of trouble, albeit on the final day of the season with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Spurs. Can you imagine if they were the ones to send us down?
What did ensure our top flight status was a run of eight games unbeaten between February April. Had we not managed that, we’d have been relegated well before the end of the season…
Players
Despite a difficult season, several players enjoyed good seasons at the club.
Loic Remy ended the campaign as our top scorer with 21 goals in all competitions, Enner Valencia netted 15 and Dimitri Payet bagged 10.
Mark Noble chipped in with a huge 15 assists, but other than that the rest of the squad were largely average.
VERDICT
So it didn’t really go to plan and we’re stuck with Allardyce again.
Obviously the above happening in real life would be an absolute nightmare, so thank god it’s only a game.
If you want me to do any others then please leave your suggestions in the comments section below.
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We have signed Payet apparently. Payet’s and Slaven’s agent let it slip last night at midnight but got taken down quickly because the club want to be the first to Unveil him in the new club shirt. So I have heard.
Have watched AFCB under Eddie Howe in Div 2, Div 1, and championship. They learn fast, play patient football on the floor with pace and skill. They have a team spirit 2nd to none. They will surprise a few teams. Hopefully not the Irons.
Bournemouth in 8th just about believable? I need some of your drugs. Lol
Bournemouth in 8th just about believable. Liverpool top – you’re having a giraffe
Another thought is to let Allardyce play out a season with the players Bilic had and see who does better.
Sad but i really enjoy these posts. Maybe give him £30mill and let him choose the signings from here.
We’ve also been linked with Gignac, Yilmaz and Halilovic the latter being a loan offer. Add them in and I’d imagine it would be a different story.
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