Greg Nelli — Everton Manager (on Football Manager)

by Greg Nelli  |   27/06/2023  7 Comments  [Jump to last]

As it's the off-season, I thought I'd take you to a parallel dimension where your all-Australian Boy, Greg Nelli, replaced Sean Dyche as Everton manager at the beginning of the 2022-23 Premier League season.

A surprise appointment... much to the chagrin of the Supporters Club, might I add. Greg took the reigns of a club spending £2.1M a week on wages.

2022-23 Objectives: Give opportunities to the youth players, work within the wage budget, avoid relegation. 

Sure, okay, nothing out of the ordinary.

Article continues below video content


First order of business: get that wage bill down. Offered Keane, Maupay, Doucouré, Davies, Alli, Gomes, and Gbamin for sale. 

Alli, Gomes and Gbamin were all on loan (the current loans were updated on the game patch so any loans were in place from a game POV from July 2022); none of the borrowing clubs wanted to make a permanent deal .....(wage demands too high), so with those guys, I just had to bide my time.

A furious Abdoulaye Doucouré stormed into my office feeling that I was pushing him out. Whether I am a soft touch or felt a bit Ted Lasso-ish, I promised I wouldn't sell him. a double-edged sword with the guy in the last year of his contract. 

West Ham offered £7M for Keane. Sure, done deal.

Maupay and Davies: no offers. 

On the injury list, Godfrey, Calvert-Lewin, Townsend, Mina – all very expensive and all very unavailable. 

In terms of purchases, old mate Farhad gave me a bit of dough to spend and, in the interest of getting younger players, my scouts reported two very interesting prospects (from a data perspective):

- Cho Gue-sung (South Korean Striker) from Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC £7.75M

- Josh Tymon (left-back) from Stoke City £4.6M

- Reiss Nelson (attacking midfielder / winger) from Arsenal £22.5M

Okay, I'm ready to go. From the U21s side, I promoted Charlie Whitaker, Sean McAllister, Reece Welch, Kyle John and Stanley Mills.

Dobbin, Price, Iversen, Butterfield, Hunt, Warrington and Okoronkwo – all out for loan.

I recalled Branthwaite from his loan at PSV.

Stay tuned for the next instalment…

back Return to Talking Points index  :  Add your Comments »

Reader Comments (7)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer ()


Lee Courtliff
1 Posted 28/06/2023 at 15:25:44
I used to love games like this. And I too would build my teams around young players that I could mould.

And, £7M for Keane!!! If only...

Dennis Stevens
2 Posted 28/06/2023 at 15:54:49
Eh? "replaced Sean Dyche as Everton manager at the beginning of the 2022-23 Premier League season" - Dyche wasn't appointed until half way through the season!
Mike Hayes
3 Posted 28/06/2023 at 20:29:09
I'm playing Football Manager 2010 on PSP (I've got from 2006 -2013) I've won everything possible with Everton - it's a great game not as in depth as the PC versions I've got 2014 & 2019 you can do a few seasons in a few hours - love it! 💙
Greg Nelli
4 Posted 29/06/2023 at 03:02:43
Hey Dennis,

The reason why Dyche was in place at the start of the season was because the game ran an update near the end of the season to include the latest transfers and such, but running the game just starts the season with the new stuff.

Dennis Stevens
5 Posted 29/06/2023 at 20:44:52
Ta, Greg. I suppose that makes sense. It may come as no surprise to learn that I'm not a gamer!
Jason Li
6 Posted 01/07/2023 at 09:16:19
My favourite game of all time. But had to give it up as it took up hours of my time going through different leagues looking for players breaking through into the squads and signing up unknowns before top league clubs came in. Literally probably could spend an evening if I had nothing to do just sifting through club-by-club.

Ended up with most of the best young players in Europe in my FM Everton. Over 5 seasons.

Since I stopped playing I don't know who are the up-and-coming players to look out for anymore. Maybe the club need a FM analyst role for transfer planning, I'm sure there's loads of experts!

Admittedly, loved the game when I used to play it. I enjoyed the scouting and trying to find an unknown gem more than the match playing.

Biggest tip is buying young players and the wages are really low. So you can keep raising the wages regularly and they would perform fantastically. When the player has wages about level with mid-Premier League teams in the game, put the player on sale. As the player is one of the best talents in the game, it's easy to find a buyer as the wages are not top level.

And like any player, have 2 or 3 players in the U21s and bench who can step straight in when you sell a player.

I think everyone finds a system in Football Manager to dominate all the trophies.

It's a great game. Unfortunately in the real world most top clubs are sifting through squads of lower leagues and teams so it's much harder in the real world.

Peter Gorman
7 Posted 08/07/2023 at 23:17:18
It is much harder in the real world because you never know when a player on nitrous oxide might be snapped by the paparazzi or commit a felony in a hotel room (allegedly).

Add Your Comments

In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.

» Log in now

Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.


How to get rid of these ads and support TW

© ToffeeWeb