Blackburn Rovers – EI EI O, up the football league we go!

Hello FMCrowd – we meet again.

Yes, I am back. I know I appear for a few months, then disappear into the abyss, then appear again, however with the release of the new Football Manager I have finally managed to get my hands on the game in a period where my University work is minimal.

For those of you who know me or remember me, you will know that I am a Blackburn Rovers fan. So as always, whenever a new version of Football Manager is released, my first career is always with Blackburn Rovers.

So, Blackburn Rovers eh? That team who won the Premier League back in 1995, then crumbled and became a mid table mediocre Premier League side, then got a new bald manager who then got them relegated to the nPower Championship 17 years later. As some of you know, Kean has left (thank God) and Henning Berg was hired. He hasn’t done well whatsoever so far, however I guess he needs time. However, why should I settle with Berg when I can be the manager myself? So, as you can guess, that’s what I did – I became the manager!

At my time of appointment, it was no lie that our squad was if not THE strongest squad in the Championship, then at least one of them. With the £8 Million Jordan Rhodes up front, with the likes of Danny Murphy, Dickson Etuhu, Martin Olsson, Paul Robinson, Mauro Formica & Ruben Rochina within the team, anything below promotion would not be acceptable. As for transfers, I sold Martin Olsson for a hefty price – I could not say no, realistically. I did not purchase anybody within the summer though. However, in January I had to bring two reinforcements in. A center back and a wing back.

Oh, and yes, I’m playing in FM Classic. I don’t have the time to play the full version!

As can be seen, we won the league. We were 5 points clear of 2nd place, I was disappointed not to hit the 100pts mark to be honest though. However, I think our +47 goal difference was impressive. The idea was to score two goals for every one goal which we conceded. It is extremely difficult not to concede within FM13, the match engine is extremely dodgy. So the only way to win is to outscore the opposition, since strikers can run straight through defenders this year.

As can be seen, Jordan Rhodes scored 26 goals, Rochina got 22, Formica got 17 & Kazim Richards got 13. I wanted to sign Kazim Richards after our promotion since we had a £1.3 million buy clause within his loan contract. However he refused to enter contract negotiations.

Despite Rhodes’ 26 goals, he did not end up being the leagues top scorer.

We had decent runs of form in areas, and others could’ve been better. The biggest highlight being the last 4 losses. As soon as our ‘winning of the league’ was confirmed, we went straight into the 4 loss slump. Disappointing really.

But yeah, again it was a shame about the last four matches. Hopefully that complacent form won’t carry on into the Premier League.

Our best eleven that season was as follows:

Mauro Formica won the nPower Championship player of the year award.

I won the nPower Championship manager of the year award.

Mauro Formica also won the fans’ player of the year.

…and that’s about it. The Premier League will be tough, I’ve been given a transfer budget of £13 Million. However, I have faith in my abilities, so hopefully I can make a few signings and make something happen. We have a pre-season match against Manchester United, so it should be interesting to see how that fairs out.

Thanks for reading!