Why are we here?
A recap…
I grew up in the 90s/00s and being a football fan, I disliked Sir Alex Ferguson. He won everything at Man United and everyone seemed to be a fan. Now I’ve matured I appreciate that he was the greatest manager there might ever have been. Certainly in the top 5. Looking back it was pure jealousy.
The Sir Alex Ferguson challenge is something that exists in the world of Management Simulation Challenges, more popular in the series that begins with F, than C but it’s certainly something that’s possible within the confines of C.
Sir Alex was in charge of Man United from 1986 to 2013 – a grand total of 27 years, within CM9798 you get until the end of 2025/26 – a very similar time frame.
For the record he got:
- 13 * Premier League
- 10 * FA Charity Shield
- 5 * FA Cup
- 4 * League Cup
- 2 * Champions League
- 1 * UEFA Cup or Cup Winners Cup
- 1 * European Super Cup
- 2 * World Club Cup
- Make full use of the “Academy” – which on this version of the game means signing Schoolboys so every season there must be Schoolboys signed.
- Break the Club’s transfer record – at Bolton, currently that was £4.87m for Dean Holdsworth from Wimbledon
- Break the English Transfer Record Fee – £29.1m for Rio Ferdinand from Leeds in 2002
We’ll kick things off with an FA Cup trip down to Devon and a new signing.
Ian Bishop joins from West Ham United and scores early as our second string see out the game. Some of the fans are disappointed with the signing, but I will accept none of their talk. In fact, there will be no bashing of the bishop when I’m around thank you…
Did I sign Bishop just to do that gag?? Yes…
A nice pleasant Derby day win. Peter Beardsley still going strong.
Shay Given MoTM as we go to Newcastle. Should have won.
Sir AF had a fantastic FA Cup record, our run is already over. West Ham shows us how to finish. Zeddy Saileti, not exactly setting the world alight but a goal is a goal.
January ended with the most action-packed minute that’s started a match – Saileti gets stretchered off before the big hand completes a minute, and Ian Bishop puts us ahead before old father time completes his 2nd lap. Andy Todd wins it before halftime.
The win against Leeds put us into the top half for the first time this season.
Leicester are struggling, we make them look like Man United. You bet Steve Claridge enjoyed that.
Barnsley are doing quite well, but we make them look like a side that deserved a pasting. It’s 3 but should have been more.
I don’t think anything interesting happened in this one, apart from Beardsley getting a fine goal. A contender for last game of the night on Match of the Day.
Now, I don’t normally have a sub-keeper on the bench. So when you are away to the Champions Elect, Yes, Tottenham Hotspur, and Keith Branagan get carried off after 8 minutes it promises to be a long day. Robbie Elliott went in goal and was immense. He was only beaten late AND we missed a penalty so could have taken something from it.
On reflection, it was probably a good point against Chelsea. That nagging bit of doubt that it should have been three though. A brilliant 60 seconds between Chelsea goals.
Tiredness is starting to kick in. The squad is threadbare. Injuries are mounting. We are good money for a point until Carl Tiler kicks us in the unmentionables. We sit 7 points clear with 8 games to go.
Transfer deadline day came and one addition. Murdock has had a brilliant season with Lancashire rivals Preston and knows the real Sir Alex from 3 years as a pro at Old Trafford. Maybe he can offer some tips.
He started against another Lancashire side. It would have been a massive win.
I don’t like West Ham. They complete a personal double. Abou does the business again.
To complete this challenge we are going to need to go toe-to-toe with the real Sir Alex and crush him into oblivion. We’ve got a long way to go. It could easily have been double figures.
Our personal villain of the story starts for Coventry and get’s his 5th against me in two games, we get back in late on but it’s a massive defeat.
4 games left. Fading Fast… Not won in 2 months. 5 points clear. We still have to play Palace so it’s in our hands. I can’t lose a season of this challenge in getting promoted back to the promised land – if I don’t get sacked…
Villa have nothing to play for so will be thinking about their holidays right? No. Wrong. Very Wrong.
An absolute pasting.
3 left.
HUGE!!!!
David’s twin with a double and we move 4 clear with 2 to play. One of them is Palace. The other is 19th Southampton.
The Dell is a tough place to go, especially when they are fighting for their lives and they are 1-0 up. Dean Holdsworth gets us back on terms and Jamie Pollock has nerves of steel at the end. It’s enough and Premier League football is secured.
Good Job we needed nothing from Palace. Holdsworth is the man in form at the end.
We started 19th, got up to 10th but ended 15th. A massive rebuild job for next season.
There is a lot wrong with the squad. The new additions did not perform. Ian Bishop’s 6.56 was the best performer…
So that’s the first season down. And we didn’t go down. Join me for the start of the 1998/99 season next week. But first, I need to recruit.