The Idea
A few years ago I was playing Football Manager and decided to start a game as unemployed and put myself on manager holiday for a few years, which turned out to be until 2028.
My original post about it can be found here.
I recently was reminded of this and thought it’d be fun to give it another go. My game of choice this time is FMH15 on my iPad.
At the end of every season I checked in on the league standings to see what had become of my favourite team, Southampton, and was pleasantly surprised to see they’d continued their success and were consistently finishing between 5th and 7th. They’d even signed Bastian Schweinsteiger at one point.
Then, after a solid 6th place finish in 2023/24 season they were relegated in 2024/25. Their attempts at bouncing straight back were dealt a blow with a playoff defeat in 2025/26 but the following season was going well and they were 2nd and 6 points ahead of Brighton by the time the 2027 transfer window closed. But then Newcastle came along and poached manager Dean Smith and, for some reason, Southampton made a very odd choice that completely changed my plans.
They offered the job to a man with no managerial experience, a man who had been unemployed for 12 years. Me.
Southampton 2026/27
As a lifelong Saints fan this was an interesting proposition, could I return the club to the Premier League? How quickly could I get them back into European contention?
I took the job (after creating a new save so I could go back and continue my original plan at a later date) and was informed by the board that they expected the club to finish in a respectable league position.
The squad was small, especially light in defence and topped with a trio of high paid South American forwards, a hangover from the Premiership years. There were three players left from the 2014/15 season; defender Jason McCarthy, striker Ryan Seager and left back Matty Targett. There were also two English attacking midfielders, Alex Marshall and Jerry Anderson, both in their early 20’s and wanting moves to a bigger club. Our keeper, star midfielder and one of the sub strikers were all on loan from other clubs.
They’d given me a transfer kitty of £2m, which was irrelevant as the window had just closed, and a wage limit of £93k per week. This was the real issue because the current wage bill was over £300k at this point. Usually I’d sell or loan out the high earners to ease the wage bill, but with the window closed and the squad already thin I had no choice but to stick with this motley crew until the end of the season.
My first game was the FA cup Quarter Final against Man Utd in a game I was expected to lose. I was 2-0 up inside 20 minutes and had a third goal disallowed a few moments later. But a second half collapse had me 3-2 down in injury time. In the 96th minute they had a defender sent off for a foul in the box, but the final whistle went before we got to take the penalty! I’ve never seen this happen before; needless to say I was slightly aggrieved.
I lost my first 5 league games as I struggled to find my best team and best formation but turned it around in the last few games of the season and managed to steer the team to 4th and a place in the play-offs. I beat Villa 3-1 at Villa Park, then drew the second leg 1-1 at St. Mary’s to book a place at Wembley. Hull awaited us in the Final, where we were 2-0 down with 20 minutes remaining. I went direct, pressed them and tried to catch them on the counter. It worked; with 5 minutes left on the clock we pulled one back and equalised moments later. A 93rd minute winner from the star of the season, Diego Moreno, saw the club back into the Premier League.
Rebuilding the Team
As the new season drew closer the club increased the transfer kitty to £6m and the wage limit to a healthier £244k per week, but I was still a lot higher than that. Moreno was on the highest wage, £40k, but he was also our top scorer and vital if we were going to remain in the league. But I had to shed money somewhere as I needed to strengthen in defence, bring in a keeper and replace anyone who moved on.
I sold Ryan Seager, Myles Hannah, Robbie Wood and Lucas Piazon for nothing to free up some more wages, while Tommie Hoban, Liam Wilkinson and Matty Targett were sent out on loan for the season for the same reasons. Theo Kaye was the striker I had on loan the previous season and, as luck would have it, he was released by Stoke and I snapped him up to be Seagers’ replacement on the bench.
The club promoted three youth players to the first team, two of whom are actually really good prospects that will help with some squad depth.
Out of my trio of Hispanic strikers now only Argentinian Diego Moreno remains. Tiago Pereira went to Pescara for £3.3m and Ayoze Perez moved to Scunthorpe for £575k. Joining them in leaving was Ollie Bird, who was only ever a sub for me previously, who went to Derby for £2m, Phil Awford who I sent to Coventry for £675k and Vladimir Alexeev who I sold to Sunderland for £1.5m.
This gave me some increased spending power so I was finally able to bring in some new players. To replace these older, high paid foreigners I went for a crop of young English talent. I went for players who were still on their first pro contracts, so on wages of £400-£750 per week, which meant the £4-7k I could offer was a lot more attractive than it would have been to those already on decent wages.
In came striker Matt Rigg from Watford for £4.7m, forward Ashley Watts from Fulham for £3.1m, keeper Nicky Kelly from Burton for £1.7m and midfielder Jason Turner from Sunderland for £3.5. I supplemented these with the loan signings of Lloyd Ward from Spurs to replace McCarthy at right back and George Robertson from Ipswich to add strength to the central defence.
The biggest transfer deal, for me, was being able to keep hold of Alex Mitchell and Jerry Anderson, my two want away wide men. I even offered them to clubs, expecting they’d go and I’d need to replace them, but no-one came in for them. I decided to mix up the formation to make the best of their skills, as two of the best players in the team. They played high up the pitch in wide positions with Moreno through the middle (prior to Rigg’s arrival). The tactic worked, to an extent, but Moreno struggled as a lone striker. When Rigg arrived the two of them fared much better.
Premier League 2027/28
I’m now 13 games into the season and, despite the huge disappointment of losing to Portsmouth in the first round of the League Cup, it’s gone pretty well. I’ve managed to hold Liverpool to a draw, won 3-1 away at Man City and beat Arsenal and Spurs 2-1 with a last gasp winners. I’m currently sitting 5th and have just been named as runner up in Manager of the Month for the second month running, both times losing out to Chelsea’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
What Football looks like in 2027
With all the excitement of promotion and rebuilding the team I’ve only just taken time to look around at the footballing landscape of 2027.
There are still a few players from 2014/15 who are at the same club; De Gea and Courtois are still Utd and Chelsea’s first choice keepers, Chambers at Arsenal, Stones at Everton, Shaw at Utd, Zaha at Palace, Butland at Stoke, Origi at Liverpool, Ben Davies at Spurs. All of who are now at least in their early/mid thirties.
The best ranked players in the world are £60m-rated striker Carlos Moreno (Chelsea), forward Jorge Martins (Real Madrid), goalkeeper Roberto Rossi (Liverpool) , Martin Odegaard (Real Madrid) and Midfielder Manu Lopez (Barcelona).
Manager wise in the Premier League we have Steven Gerrard at Liverpool, Ronaldo at Chelsea, Antonio Conte at Utd, Nigel Pearson at Notts Forrest, Ian Holloway at West Ham, Eddie Howe at Reading, Roberto Mancini at Spurs, Tony Mowbray at Leeds, Didier Deschamps at Arsenal, Keith Hill at Bolton, Oscar Garcia at Brighton, Jimmy Walker at Palace, Tim Sherwood at Everton, Chris Powell at Huddersfield, Garry Monk at Ipswich, Dean Smith at Newcastle, Jurgen Klopp at Man City, Steve Cotterill at Stoke and Muniz at Middlesbrough.
Chelsea (4) and Man City (3) have won the league more often than anyone else in the last 12 years but there have been wins for Man Utd (23/24), Arsenal (22/23), Spurs (18/19) and Liverpool (16/17).
The FA Cup has only been won by Premier League teams with the cup going to Liverpool (4), Chelsea (2), Man Utd (3) and Everton (1) in the past decade
English teams have also dominated in Europe with Chelsea winning 3 Champions League trophies, Man City winning 2 (one of them in a final against Utd), Arsenal winning 2 and Liverpool winning 1.
England are ranked #7 in the world and are managed by Chris Smalling. They were runners up in Euro 2016, losing to France; who have also won Euro 2020 and Euro 2024.
What’s next?
Well next up is trying to maintain my league position, buy in some squad depth in January and hopefully finish in the top half of the table.
I’ll write another update at the end of the season, if you’d like me to include something about your favourite player/team then feel free to ask in the comments.