FM EXPERIMENT

You have heard of fantasy football, right? Well, welcome to an experiment where we see what happens to the Lads over a number of seasons on the Football Manager 2024 PC game using the most up-to-date game update. First, I went back to the 2023-24 season for our season with the ill-fated Michael Beale in charge of our red and white heroes.

PRE-SEASON

Sunderland played four friendlies ahead of the new season, three of them on a pre-season tour of the Republic of Ireland before returning home for a game at the SoL. All three games in the RoI ended in the same outcome, a 2-1 win for the Lads, with Longford Town, Shelbourne and Bohemians being the defeated sides. The sole home friendly saw Eredivisie side Vitesse Arnhem visit and the 13,783 in attendance saw the two sides play out a goalless draw.

SUMMER TRANSFER WINDOW

In addition to the already built-in transfers, Keidi Bare is the only addition to the squad. Bare has joined the Lads for an initial £700K from Espanyol, with the fee raising to £775K once he has made 50 appearances for the Lads. He has been allocated the number 8 shirt, last worn by Elliot Embleton.

AUGUST 2023

SAFC started their season by hosting Ipswich Town in the SoL. Bradley Dack, aka Mr Olivia Attwood, gave us a 35th minute lead in front of 41,441 supporters. However, second half goals from George Hirst and Freddie Ladapo gave the Tractor Boys the points. Midweek, and it was an early exit from the Carabao Cup at Field Mill, Mansfield - Hiram Boateng scoring in the first minute. To compound it further, Anthony Patterson was sent off in the ninth minute for handling outside his area.

Two successive 1-1 draws then followed, with the Lads coming from behind in both games. At Deepdale, Mads Frojkær Jensen gave the Lilywhites the lead but Eliezer Mayenda's first ever goal for the Lads, seven minutes from time, got us our first point of the season. Dack's second of the season ten minutes from time gained us point two after Fred Onyedinma, on loan from Luton, had given visitors Rotherham the lead on the hour.

We completed that first month with a TV date at the CBS Arena in Coventry, and it brought us our first three point haul with Keidi Bare scoring the only goal of the match in the 67th minute. So, after a rocky beginning: the Lads are unbeaten in three matches with Bradley Dack of all people our top scorer so far with two goals. What will happen in September?

SEPTEMBER 2023

September's batch of fixtures began with newly relegated Southampton making the long trip from the South Coast. Over 45,000 were inside the SoL to see if the Lads could build on that first win of the season at the CBS a week previous, and they came away happy and with another three points in the bag. Alex Pritchard opened the scoring after 21 minutes, and this was helped further when Saints left-back Ryan Manning was dismissed just before the hour. New signing Bare's second SAFC goal made it 2-0 after 64 minutes and although Will Smallbone halved the deficit three minutes later, we held for another win.

After the international break, we made it three from three with a fantastic 3-0 away at Queens Park Rangers. Jack Clarke's brace, his first goals of the season, and one from Dan Neil saw off the R's at Loftus Road. Unbeaten in five now! That became unbeaten in six after a midweek 1-1 draw at Ewood Park, where Patrick Roberts gave us the lead only for Ryan Hedges to equalise in the 69th minute. The third game in seven days saw us twice lead visitors Cardiff City through Dack's early penalty and one from Trai Hume but Ike Ugbo's brace gave the Bluebirds a point to take back to South Wales.

The unbeaten run ended at seven as the end of month trip to Hillsborough ended in a 1-0 defeat, Anthony Musaba scoring the only goal of the contest with just seven minutes to go.