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Trotters Talent | Part 13: Bolton’s Exciting Future
Exciting times appeared to be on the horizon for Bolton Wanderers as new owners were installed on Christmas Day 2025. The new consortium, led by local investor Rick Harris, were able to quickly get acquainted with their new side as Bolton faced a ridiculous three games in four days over Christmas.
Trotters Talent | Part 12: Goodbye Financial Ruin?
Bolton Wanderers had continued to exceed expectations by staying in the Championship for a third successive time and recording a second successive top ten finish in 2024/25. There’s plenty to be excited about with the club’s finances looking in ruder health and with just one year remaining on the monthly director’s loan repayments.
Soviet Surge | Part 8 | Galatasaray #3: First Taste of the Champions League
Heading into the summer of 2023, Russian manager Vladimir Latunov was enjoying a growing reputation having just wrapped up consecutive titles, adding the Turkish league to the Polish crown he’d won with Legia.
Trotters Talent | Part 11: Sliding Down The Table
Bolton Wanderers were continuing to defy expectations in the SkyBet Championship, sitting in the playoff positions heading into 2025. That had been mostly inspired by the goals of free-scoring Ryan Cassidy, but it couldn’t be expected for the side to continue to challenge at the top.
Trotters Talent | Part 10: Super Ryan Cassidy
Bolton Wanderers had survived in the Championship for two seasons, including a strong top half finish in 2023/24. But finances were a still major issue, with two years remaining on the £500,000 monthly director’s loan repayments.
Soviet Surge | Part 7 | Galatasaray #2: Targeting the Turkish Title
Life in Turkey had gotten off to a flyer, with Vladimir Latunov’s third club in three seasons sitting top of the Turkish Super League heading into 2023. But things were about to get interesting with key players running out of contract and on the move.
Trotters Talent | Part 9: Trotter Talents Step Up
Bolton Wanderers were once again performing well above expectations in their second season in the Championship, sitting nicely in the upper mid-table as 2024 approached. But the most pleasing thing about the club’s progress is the number of homegrown players starring in the first-team.
Soviet Surge | Part 6 | Galatasaray #1: Three Clubs in Three Seasons
Vladimir Latunov indulged his jubilant Legia Warszawa players in copious bottles of vodka as the squad raucously celebrated becoming the most successful club in Polish history. But the elation would soon end as the Russian manager’s achievements didn’t go unnoticed.
Trotters Talent | Part 8: Top Of The Championship!
Bolton Wanderers had their goalkeeper to thank for keeping them in the Championship for a second season and building on that relative success was going to be hard work. Finances had improved slightly but the club is still losing money, with three years remaining on £500,000 monthly loan repayments.
Soviet Surge | Part 5 | Legia #2: New Hometown Hero
The winter break in Poland’s Ekstraklasa gave Vladimir Latunov and his in-form Legia Warszawa players a chance to reflect on their strong start to season two of the Soviet Surge. After 19 games of the 34-game season, Legia were unbeaten and 13 points clear at the top.
Trotters Talent | Part 7: Goalkeeping Hero
Bolton Wanderers had made a surprisingly decent start to life in the SkyBet Championship in 2022/23. The red hot relegation favourites were sitting firmly in mid-table at the start of November, some seven points clear of the drop zone after 18 games.
Soviet Surge | Part 4 | Legia #1: Moving to Warsaw
After winning the Polish FA Cup for the first time in Zaglebie Lubin’s history and a terrible conclusion to the league campaign, Russian manager Valdimir Lutunov swiftly jumped ship when rivals Legia Warszawa came calling.
Trotters Talent | Part 6: A Massive Championship Challenge
Bolton Wanderers had a day to remember at Wembley as a win over local rivals Rochdale catapulted the club up to The Championship on the back of two consecutive promotions.
Soviet Surge | Part 3 | Zaglebie #2: Cup Drama and a Late Twist
The long, cold Winter break in Poland gave me time to get over the wrath I felt towards Nicklas Bendtner. However, it came too late to stop me unleashing that fury upon some of his high-earning former Zaglebie Lubin teammates.
Trotters Talent | Part 5: Exciting Youth Potential
Bolton Wanderers were performing well beyond expectations in their first year back in League One. The side predicted to finish 20th and battle relegation by the media was sitting in the playoff positions as the clock ticked over to 2022.
Trotters Talent | Part 4: Doyle and Delfouneso Dominate
Bolton Wanderers had sealed promotion back to League One at the first time of asking by winning the League Two title. However, a serious lack of finances and the continuing crippling debt meant any rebuild was going to be difficult as we made the step up.
Soviet Surge | Part 2 | Zaglebie #1: Bizarre Tale of Lord Bendtner
In the first part of this brand new save surging into the former Soviet Union, we created a Russian manager and selected our first club – Polish side KGHM Zuglebie Lubin.
Soviet Surge | Part 1: Finding a Team in the Eastern Bloc
Welcome to a brand new save here on the FM Addict Football Manager blog! We’re casting our eyes east for this adventure, as we embark on a Soviet Surge across Eastern Europe.
Rossoneri | Part 7: Record-Breaking Season
Consecutive draws with Juve and Inter had AC Milan sitting a healthy 14 points clear at the top of Serie A, still unbeaten and with a game in hand. But a surprising progression to the Champions League semi-finals meant we had 12 games in 43 days to conclude the season.
Trotters Talent | Part 3: Getting Bolton Firing
We’d made a solid enough start to life in League Two with Bolton Wanderers. At the mid-way point of the season we were third and just three points off top spot.
Rossoneri | Part 6: Relentlessly Good Form
Having made a flying start to our Serie A title defence, it was interrupted by a mid-season break while players went off to the Winter World Cup in Qatar.
Trotters Talent | Part 2: ‘Brace’-ing start to League Two
After a brief introduction to Bolton Wanderers and their current plight in Part 1, it was now time to lead the club into its second-ever season in the fourth tier of English football.
Rossoneri | Part 5: Moneybags Milan
AC Milan wrapped up the Serie A title after a tense title battle with perennial Italian champions Juventus. And things were about to get much more exciting for the Milanese.
Trotters Talent | Part 1: Welcome to Bolton!
Welcome to a brand new series now that the full version of Football Manager 2021 is live. Hoorah! This series is something that I reckon a lot of people will be taking on but, for me, it’s a very personal one.
Rossoneri | Part 4: Tight Title Battle
Season two in Italy had started really with AC Milan, as a club-record winning streak took us just three points behind the Zebras heading into 2022. A key man behind the success had been goal machine Andrea Belotti, supported by a solid start to life from Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Rossoneri | Part 3: Club-Record Winning Streak
Season one in Football Manager 2021 began slowly but gradually crescendoed to Champions League qualification and lifting the Europa League with AC Milan. However, plenty of work was required in the summer of 2021 as we had a pretty threadbare squad that wasn’t ready for the Champions League.
Aswijan Assigment | Part 30: Simming Into The Future
The summer of 2026 is where we ended things in the Aswijan blog series, as I considered winning three consecutive titles and the Champions League worthy of conquering Aswijan. I’d really enjoyed the journey but we’d achieved everything possible in Aswijan club football, so I considered it time for a new challenge.
Rossoneri | Part 2: Zlatan’s Final Swansong
Our reign in Milan had gotten off to a solid yet unspectacular start in which we we were seriously lacking goals in the first 30 or so games in Football Manager 2021. Our main source of goals, however, was the 39-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic!
Roth Raivers | Part 28: Farewell to Raith
The monumental rise of Raith Rovers had culminated in well and truly ending the Old Firm domination of Scottish football. The Fife side had wrapped up successive titles in 2026/27 and 2027/28, as well as winning two of the last three League Cups.
The Journeyman | Part 85: 21 Glorious Years End With Final Flourish
Way back in August 2019, fledgling English football manager Robí di Lathamé took the reigns of Sporting Lisbon. Now, 21 years later at the age of 56, I was preparing for my final match as a football manager.
The Journeyman | The Old Lady: Part 3 – Season 1 Reflection
My return to Italy with Juventus, some time on from a failed time at Cagliari, was a resounding success. We pipped Inter to the Serie A title and won my first Champions League and the club’s first in 44 years since 1996.
Roth Raivers | Part 27: Felipe Anderson + Wonderkids = Title Defence
Raith Rovers’ players had etched their names into the history books and the club’s folklore by winning its first-ever Scottish Premiership title and becoming the first non-Old Firm champions for 42 years.
The Journeyman | The Old Lady: Part 2 – Chasing Trophies
The clock ticked over to 2040 as 55-year-old English title specialist Robí di Lathamé was showing no signs of letting up with his Juventus side sitting pretty seven points clear at the top of Serie A
Roth Raivers | Part 26: Championes and Season 8 Reflection
The people of small Scottish town Kirkcaldy had been buzzing for weeks. The town’s pubs had done record sales of whiskey and Tennent’s on a daily basis and the concept of a hangover had been forgotten, with people drinking through the mornings and the bars never closing.
Rossoneri | Part 1: A New Beginning
My Beta FM21 save sees me begin the new game in Italy’s Serie A with sleeping giants AC Milan. Despite winning 18 Italian titles, the club only has two since 1999. It also has seven European Cup titles to its name, but none since 2007. And it only has one cup win since 2011. So there’s plenty of space to restore glory to Milan.
The Journeyman | The Old Lady: Part 1 – Welcome to Juventus
With the in-game Football Manager 2020 clock ticking past 20 years, a new challenge was afoot as title specialist Robí di Lathamé took one last gamble in a career that’s soon to come to a close. With the new Football Manager about to land, I decided to move on from two titles with Feyenoord and joined Italian giants Juventus.
Roth Raivers | Part 25: Legendary Status
Imagine seven years from now, in real life, Raith Rovers have not only surpassed Rangers as the second-best team in Scotland but are also tantalisingly close to toppling Celtic.
21 Teams I’m Eyeing up for FM 21
Aside from the two clubs I know I’ll be starting saves with in Football Manager 2021, I have a few other save ideas in mind for which the starting team is up in the air.
The Journeyman | Rotterdam or Anywhere: Part 6 – Season 2 Reflection and One Last Hurrah
Our 20th season of this Journeyman Football Manager 2020 save saw us wrap up a 13th league title and our second in Holland with Feyenoord. We’d dominated the Dutch league, winning the title by a huge 10 points from Ajax.
Roth Raivers | Part 24: Raphael Varane and a Title Challenge?
Manager Robí di Lathamé and his plucky band of Raith Rovers players have taken the Fife side to some fairly unlikely heights. Having begun in Scottish League One obscurity, they’ve gone on to win the Europa Conference League, won a League Cup, finished runners-up in the Scottish Premiership, and earned a point at Real Madrid in the Champions League.
The Journeyman | Rotterdam or Anywhere: Part 5 – Dutch Domination
Robí di Lathamé’s 20th season as a football manager saw him lead Feyenoord Rotterdam into 2039 in second place in Eredivisie. However, the club’s title defence was looking promising as they’d played rivals and Ajax twice and were well clear of both, only trailing AZ Alkmaar by a point with two games in hand.
Roth Raivers | Part 23: Real Madrid v Raith Rovers
Robí di Lathamé was enjoying a delicious, undoubtedly extremely expensive glass of Rioja deep in the bowels of the majestic Santiago Bernabeú. And he couldn’t help but reflect on how quickly things had changed.
The Journeyman | Rotterdam or Anywhere: Part 4 – Career Match 1,000
I don’t want to jump boat after a season as I’m keen to see if we can build something with this Feyenoord side. There’s plenty of potential in the club with several exciting youngsters (and there weren’t any other jobs going in the summer).
Roth Raivers | Part 22: Season 7 Reflection
In 2035, Raith Rovers had reached a European final and qualified for Europe for the first time in 30 years. Could they build on that? You bet they could, as Robí di Lathamé’s team of heroes won the club’s first European trophy, won the League Cup and qualified for the Champions League for the first time in its history.
The Journeyman | Rotterdam or Anywhere: Part 3 – Season 1 Reflection
After winning leagues in Portugal, Spain, Germany and England, perennial title winner Robí Sebastian Jesús di Lathamé took a major challenge and sprinkled his magic dust across the Eredivisie.
Roth Raivers | Part 21: Challenging For Titles
The amazing rise of Raith Rovers has seen the club go from Scottish League One to European football, Scottish League Cup winners in 2025, through to sitting at the top of the Scottish Premiership moving into 2026.
The Journeyman | Rotterdam or Anywhere: Part 2 – Eredivisie Showdown
Life in Holland had gotten off to a flyer as we led Feyenoord to the top of Eredivisie with a healthy ten-point lead over PSV Eindhoven, who had a game in hand, moving into 2038.
Roth Raivers | Part 20: League Cup Winners!
It was safe to say that Robí di Lathamé was enjoying life in Kirkcaldy, despite the relative lack of finances available to him. And it was in such a happy state of mind soaking in the rare rays on Kirkcaldy beach that he received a phone call from chairman Robbie McGinn.
The Journeyman | Rotterdam or Anywhere: Part 1 – Time to Reset
This Journeyman save has certainly been an interesting adventure. Having started out as a mission to rebuild Sporting Lisbon that immediately delivered massive success, we then went on to rebuild Valencia, fail at Cagliari, bring glory back to Dortmund and Man City. Not to mention international excitement with United States, Denmark and England.
Roth Raivers | Part 19: Season 6 Reflection
The Raith Rovers project being built by recently turned 41-year-old English manager Robí di Lathamé had just seen another season of huge over-achievement. Not only did the club with the lowest budget in the Scottish Premiership qualify for Europe for a second season, they also reached the Final of the Europa Conference League!