Rise of the Academy is a Football Manager game where we imagine a world in which Roman Abramovich has grown tired of waiting for Chelsea youth players to break through. He has sacked all the players who aren’t youth academy products and put us in the hotseat to try and manage Chelsea back to glory with only home grown players.
In the first part, which you can read HERE, we assessed the squad, built a tactic and prepared for a tough first season.
In the second part, which you can see HERE, the season proper began and Chelsea found themselves in serious trouble until a certain midfielder took the team by the scruff of the neck.
In this third part, we find out how the first season ended…
After a rocky first quarter of the season, we have battled our way up from 17th to 9th, and I am determined not to let the team slide back into a spiral of low confidence again. What the side needs is older heads and more experience, and so I immediately use the January transfer to bring back in some Chelsea youth team players who never should have been let go. Both Ryan Bertrand and Jack Cork are brought back to Stamford Bridge (I overpay for both, but with £100m and counting in the transfer budget and almost nobody to sign, it’s not an issue), and by the second day of January both are in the squad and ready to slot straight into the team.
This prompts a reshuffle at the back, with Nathan Ake moving in from left back to play alongside Andreas Christensen in at centre back. For the first time in my managerial reign, John Terry is out of the team. A real weakness in the side had been the lack of a ball winning midfielder to complement the range of more creative players in that position. Jack Cork is no Kante, but he is a solid and Premier League ready addition to the team in that position and immediately makes it his own.
The changes to the team take a while to settle and the January fixtures are troublesome for my young team. But a win over Man United in the FA Cup sparks a fantastic spring period which sees only 1 loss in a 13 game stretch. The highlight is a 3-0 humiliation of Tottenham, which comes from absolutely nowhere. After keeping the game tight f0r 80 minutes, my speedy counter attacks lead by the exceptional Charly Musonda savage Spurs three times on the break in 7 minutes. It is a landmark victory for us and one that turns heads around the league.
Musonda has developed into one of the stars of the season for us, with Boga returning from his broken leg to make himself first choice on the other flank. Those two support Tammy Abraham, who has finally seen off Dom Solanke to become first choice striker. All three of these attackers are improving week on week thanks for their sudden exposure to first team football, and are forming a potent attacking trident.
Meanwhile at the back, the arrival of Bertrand brings more experience and allows Terry to be dropped, so we can push up further as a team now and put more pressure on opponents. Andreas Christensen signs a huge new contract, a massive moment for the club in securing perhaps our best player both at the moment and a potential world class defender in the future.
At youth level we get our first batch of homegrown youngsters. There are plenty with potential but 15 year old centre-mid Jason Edge looks to have serious potential, as does 16 year old full back Ashley Fayed. These two are joined by Wayne Cullen and Simon Ford, 15 year olds signed from Birmingham and Ipswich respectively, as the stars of my U19s for next season. Of the real life Chelsea youngsters, Juan Castillo and Dujon Sterling are doing well in the youth teams and both are primed for a loan to League 1 next year.
Our strong run from February to April puts us within reach of the Champions league, but once again a game against United changes our fortunes, this time for the worse. A 2-0 loss breaks our confidence and leads to a run of six games without a win in the vital last two months of the season. It is a brutal run in to be fair, with the Man United game followed by fixtures against Hull, Man City, Southampton, Arsenal and Liverpool. We win just 2 points from those fixtures. An impressive FA Cup run is ended by a last minute Gabriel Jesus winner, and our Champions League hopes are crushed by the slump- even two wins from the last two games of the season leave us a point short of the Europa League.
I try to see this as a blessing. While I am desperately filling the squad with young talent, it will be another season before some of the 16 and 17 year olds are ready to play a role in the first team, and it will probably be beneficial to have another year to mature the team before I unleash them on Europe. Roman Abramovich seems to agree, and I am awarded a new contract on the basis of my work bringing young talent through. The board are unlikely to be as forgiving next year.
You can read the fourthpart of ROTA HERE.
