Welcome back to the first post at club 3 of my #FM20 Journeyman – Everton F.C.
I’m feeling a bit sad today after leaving Dundalk, but I took a real life decision – Everton have potential (With a fair bit of work, as we will see) to do things in Europe – it would have been a push to win anything with Dundalk, regardless of having more than £50M in the bank. But I hope I left them in a good position:
Four League titles, 20 cups, 81% wins, just 24 games lost in 4 and a bit seasons. We will follow Dundalk this season and next with interest.
So, to Everton. Where to start.
Rich apparently – Though only really breaking even in the past few seasons. There’s still a bit of wage budget but i hope to thin that out a lot in the Summer.
Transfer-wise it looks like Nketiah, Gomes and Zinchenko have used up the current budget – a few big slaes in the past few seasons (Richarlison @ £77M, Moise Kean @ £69M and Newgen Keren Tal (£63M) have put the club in a better financial state than prior/ But there’s a ton of dead-wood to be coppiced. And looking at the clauses we are still due a fair amount of instalment money from the big transfers
Squad depth – Lacking a really good keeper, another right-back, everything else seems OK (Gegenpress 4-1-2-3 anyway). But there a lot of older players taking a lot of money.
11 players 29 or older, and £950k/Week in wages… And really only Jamal Lewis as a starter. The 4 out on loan need to be sold on. Zinchenko is a superb utility player so may stay.
We have loads of staff spaces, so lots of contracts offered.
The vision of the club is really stay in the top 10 in the Premier league, so not even getting to Europe. I really hope to push for at least EC2/Europa League football in 28/29, but we also have a small chance as we are in the FA Cup Quarters this season.
Chelsea are currently 4th in the league, so we have a one-game opportunity to get to the FA Cup Semis followed by 2 weeks off for the international break. The run-in isn’t too bad – From Spurs in 6th it goes 18th, 12th, 19th, 9th, 17th & 5th. We could still finish in the top 10 this season. Two days in-game until the FA Cup Quarters.
Dom Calvert-Lewin doing really well for Fulham, now 4 points clear in 7th and level on points with Spurs.
Man City & Arsenal left in the FA Cup with Chelsea as the big teams.
20th March 2027 – Chelsea (A) – FA Cup Quarter Final
(I think) I’m playing my first game versus Chelsea this save. Their base is still Stamford Bridge in 2027.
FT Chelsea 1 (Upamecano 29) Everton 2 (Dodo 57, Can 85) Att 52,962 (2,951 Away)
Chelse come into this on the back of a 3-1 aggregate win versus Porto in the UCL and 2 wins versus Leeds, one FA Cup, one EPL. This will be very tough. We are matching up pretty-much man-to-man. It’s a great start from the lads, nearly a goal inside 90 seconds, Edwards making a fine save in the Chelsea net. Dodo looking like a menace down the right as a CWB. 20 gone and they have a couple of tired lads, Frenkie de Jong and Ousmane Dembele both flagging. Chelsea however take th elead in the 29th minute, set pieces! Upamecano with a header from a Dembele Corner. We aren’t the tallest, definitely. 1-0 at the break, OP set pieces will kill us if we aren’t careful. A decent start to the 2nd half, changed a few instructions, a couple of subs and we are back in it 🙂 1-1, 57th minute, Dodo with th eshot, that trickles in after Edwards parries it. Game on lads!!! Time ticking down rapidly – last 10. And then a massive moment – 85th minute, a great counter after a Chelsea attack breaks down and we go 2-1 in front!!! Emre Can with a fine finish from the edge of the area after being set up by a Prescott nod-down. Can we hold on!!! We are hitting them very well via counter attacks. AND YES WE CAN. We go through to the FA Cup Semi Final 🙂 2-1 Everton. £858k for the win.
Arsenal through at the expense of Wolves, the other games go to replays.
We have 16 players off now on their international breaks. About the same as Dundalk have TBH.
That’s that for the month for games, I will report back any other info.
Our U18’s are through to the FA Cup Youth Final after beating Leicester 7-2 on aggregate! Good signs there.
Man Utd keeping it tight at the top of the EPL with Man City and Tottenham keep ahead of Fulham with a win against a decent Norwich side.
And we’ve had the draw for the Semi Final…
Bugger – Away to Man City most probs. Got to beat the best! We have a couple of league games before then so we can tune-up for it.
Staff-wise people are starting to join, which is great. Teddy Sheringham has just joined as a coach, aged 60 🙂 Ex- Ipswich Centre-Back Richard Naylor also joins as an U18’s coach. Ex-Arsenal Keeper Jens Lehmann joins as my Ass. Man. 🙂
Our U23’s lost 1-0 to Chelsea.
A couple of the kids had U19 internationals – DC Stewart Ferguson played 90 in Scotland’s 3-0 win over Cyprus and MR Garreth Cross played in England’s 3-0 win over Bosnia.
Derby through to the FA Cup Semi. Jayden Bogle with the goals.
Some more youth internationals. Obinna Ali (GK) and Des Higgins (AMR) played in England U20’s 2-1 win over Switzerland, Des with a goal. James Errington (Our starting STC) played in England U21’s 3-0 win over Scotland and Enzo Lacoste (Starting MC) and Mathieu Renault (MR) played in France U21’s 3-0 win over Switzerland, Mathieu with a goal.
In Full internationals Jean-Philippe Gbamin (DR At Valencia) played in Cote D’Ivoire’s 1-1 draw with Mali and Joe Aribo (MC) played in Nigeria’s 0-0 draw with New Zealand. Dario Maresic played in Austria’s 1-0 loss to Sweden and Olexandr Zinchenko played in Ukraine’s 5-0 win over Cyprus. AMC Yusuf Yazici played in Turkey’s 2-0 win over Poland and Edon Zhegrova (ML) played in Kosovo’s 0-0 draw with Lithuania.
And back to the youth internationals Enzo Lacoste (Starting MC) and Mathieu Renault (MR) played in France U21’s 1-0 win over Serbia, James Errington played in England U21’s 1-1 draw with Norway, Stewart Ferguson played in Scotland U19’s 1-1 draw with Ireland and Garreth Cross, Stephen Garner (ML) and Chris Whitehead (DC) played in England U19’s 1-0 win over Bulgaria.
Our U18’s lost 2-0 to Leicester. We are still top of the U18 Division 1 North.
More full internationals – Jean-Phillipe Gbamin played in Cote D’Ivoire’s 3-0 win over Uganda, Joe Aribo played in Nigeria’s 1-0 loss to venezuela and Jamal Lewis played in N. Ireland’s 1-0 win over Scotland. Dario Maresic played in Austria’s 1-1 draw with England and Zinchenko played in Ukraine’s 4-0 win over San Marino. Edon Zhegrova (Kosovo) played against Yusuf Yazici (Turkey) – It finished 4-1 Turkey, Yazici with a goal. Lastly Jamal Lewis played in N. Ireland’s 4-0 win over Azerbaijan (Big Col McGarvey scoring) and Matt Harris played 22 minutes in germany’s 4-0 win over Israel, scoring a goal, his second in 5 senior caps.
Our U23’s lost 1-0 to Man City.
And we will be playing Man City as expected in the FA Cup Semi as they dispatch Watford 3-1.
Our U18’s beat Hayling (Yes, Hayling Island, Tier 10!!) 5-3(!) – Goals from Steven Guest, Gary Lemon, Lloyd Mitchell, Reuben Hopkins and Sean McCulloch.
And that’s that for March 2027. April 2027 will be a big one.
Just the 5 games though 4 are away, a change of pace from Dundalk with 9 games a month! Tottenham are also with a new manager, Paulo Sousa taking over after 9 months out of management after leaving the Portugal post having managed a bucket-load of teams over the past 2 decades. If we can sneak past Man City somehow we will be 90 minutes from European Football next season as well, which would be massive. See you soon.