After the great first three seasons of the Gateshead to Glory story, now it’s time to face the next step up, the Sky Bet League 1.
If you haven’t read the previous posts, here a quick recap:
Introduction: My presentation as Gateshead’s manager.
First season: We won the FA Trophy and the Vanarama League North without loosing any games, with 112 points in 42 matches.
Second Season: We lift the FA Trophy Cup and the Vanarama National League without loosing any games with 122 points in 46 matches.
Third Season: We won the Sky Bet League ,2 seventeen points ahead of second placed team MK Dons.
Our Performance this Season
Carabao Cup:
The board asked me to reach the 2nd round in this competition. We made it to the 4th round, where Premier League team West Ham eliminated us on penalties…
The FA Cup
The board expected me to make it to the third round.
We made it to the 3rd round, and got knocked off by Premier League team Leicester for 1-4.
Papa John’s Trophy
We won the Papa John’s Trophy in front of 60k people at Wembley Stadium defeating Birmingham for 1-0 in the final!
Sky Bet League One Fixtures
Once more we did incredibly well, over performing the initial expectations set on us by the board, odds and media….
The Sky Bet League One Table
Yes!
I managed Gateshead to it’s 4th promotion in a row while winning every league!
The next Season the Sky Bey Championship awaits us….
Pre Season and End of Season
With odds of 50-1, we were predicted to finish in 19th position, which was understandable since we were recently promoted.
The odds table is a thing that I always pay a lot of attention throughout every season in all my saves. I find it the fastest and easiest way to gauge my team strength and development compared to the rest of the other clubs in the league. By the end of the season we moved up to the 5th position with 5-1 odds.
To me, this means that many of my young players improved a lot and that the players I signed during the season made us a much better than we were in the pre season.
The Squad
All the first team 11 players performed well beyond the 7 average rating mark.
I usually like to have a 22 players squad, with many versatile subs who can play in different positions.
Remember that only 5 players on loan can be chosen for any given match squad in League One.
Anyway, I think I will need to improve this squad a lot if I want to achieve my goal of winning the Championship League next season.
Ending the season in 5th place at the odds table, means we should be positioned last on next season in Championship odds table.
The First 11 Players
Sweeper keeper on defend duty
Right wing back on attack duty
Left full back on support duty
Central defender on defend duty 
Central defender on defend duty
Central midfielder on defend duty
Box to box central midfielder
Advanced midfielder on support duty
Right winger on support duty
Left inverted winger on attack duty
Advanced forward striker
The transfers
Players in:
I did quite well throughout the season bringing new talents.
I focused on loaning great Brazilian, German, French and Argentinian youngsters with massive potential with reasonable future optional buying fees.
I also signed Colin Norman from South Shields for 28K, who I think I could make a lot of money by selling him in the future.
Along with this, to complete the squad, arrived several UK players which were released from other clubs.
Players out: £9.73M
As I usually manage to do in all of my lower league management saves, my method to bring young players from all over the UK to sell for a huge profit is working again.
After signing Matthew Kohler for free from Welsh Barry Town one and a half years before, I managed to sell him to Southampton for £9M cash plus 50% of a future sell while loaning him for free for one more season.
If you want to know how I make millions managing in the lower leagues, check this FMS guide! 😀
Matthew Kohler bought November 2023 for free:
Matthew Kohler sold January 2025 for £9M cash plus add ons:
Before and during this season, I managed to sell some more players for £370K and send many more on loan for them to develop.
The Club Profile
After only 4 years at the club I became a Tynesiders legend! 😀😀😀
The media predicted us to finished in 19th position throughout the season….. they were wrong .
The Facilities
The facilities we got will be poor for Championship level. I will start improving them as soon as I get some more cash from transfers out.
So far, the owner of the club haven’t injected one penny yet. 😡😡😡
The affiliates
I cancelled the link with Newcastle and managed to get a better one with Man City. This is as good as it gets regarding senior affiliates.
We get to loan two players per season and the money from the gate tickets of a pre season friendly match.
The Finances
After selling Matthew Kohler for 9M to Southhampton, our overall finances are superb for a League One team.
The Club Vision
The board expects us to fight bravely against relegation next season.
They started to improve the youth facilities and accepted to expand the scouting range to scout players from all over the globe.
The Squad Dynamics
The squad dynamics look very good, though I have 5 players concerned and an unhappy one.
Anyway, most of them will be leaving soon.
Plus, none of their mates support or agree with their concerns or unhappiness.
Ideally I try to have one or two core groups, having 4 is better to be avoided.
The Tactic
I used the same 4-2-3-1 wide tactic as the 3 previous seasons. So far it worked super good, so soon I will make a post about it.
The Training
As in all previous seasons I used Andrew Gibney’s training schedule, you should check his training guide and download his set ups.
The Coaching Staff
I improved the coaching staff and is looking great with 3.5 or 4 stars⭐️ in all categories.
I hope you enjoyed this new episode of my Gateshead to Glory FM story. See you next season in the Sky Bet Championship league.
