Career The Ron Greenwood Premier League Winners Tour (S14)

[DoneHisCruciate]

I’m making a career to try the Premier League Challenge of winning the Premier League with at least 7 different teams over a career. 
 

I quite like bringing old managers back into management (see Roy Hodgson’s epic tour) and thought I’d give Ron Greenwood a shot at Premier League management. Ron was manager at West Ham for 13 years—back in the days before they installed the revolving door in the manager’s office. (Bye Lopetegui?)
 

Season 1

I made an easy pick with Man City for Season 1. My approach was to try and not make the squad too overpowered as I’ll be facing these guys as the opposition at some point.

As you might expect we took the title with 5 games to go:

Ron’s Career:

Winning the title early meant I could jump jobs sooner and left for Leeds who were flirting with relegation.

I managed their last two games and we finished in 14th ready to build for next season’s title challenge.

 

Edited 8 hours ago by DoneHisCruciate

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 2

Leeds surprisingly had an enormous squad of sellable players and amassing a war chest wasn’t difficult. I thought it might take me a couple of seasons to make Leeds league contenders but we fielded a good first XI from the start.

Man City got off to a blistering start and we had to catch them up but we nosed in front once the fixture list congested for them. It came down to the last game of the season but we won the title.

 

Ron’s Career

 

(The Leeds 14th position season should be 2022/23 - it must be a bug. That was when I took over the club for a couple of games at the end of the Man City season)

Klopp was insecure at Liverpool so I resigned from Leeds and got him the sack by declaring interest. So, season 3 will be with Liverpool. I’m feeling confident for a third title as I don’t think a lot needs to be done with that squad.

[deepheat83]

Going great so far.

Leeds in season 2, impressive 

added 0 minutes later

Just now, deepheat83 said:

Going great so far.

Leeds in season 2, impressive 

Sorry, meant 2 seasons

[DoneHisCruciate]

Thanks! Yeah I was surprised at how well Leeds came together. Not sure I’ll trouble your 16 score but it is a fun challenge!

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 3

I romped through this season as Liverpool were in cruise mode. I’m a bit worried I made that squad a bit too good though. 

We won the league with 6 games to go:

 

I resigned after we won the league. It was turning into a great season and looked likely we would finish unbeaten. We’d also won the Carabao Cup, were in the quarters of the Champions League and the semi-final of the FA Cup. But I left all that behind for the next guy as I was hoping to shake something loose in the job market.

Ron’s Career

And Spurs were the first to have doubts over their manager. So Ron’s heading to London for Season 4.

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 4

Wow, the Spurs squad was an ugly mess. The last guy managed to annoy pretty much everyone and they openly revolted at Ron for just walking through the door! 

I think I was a bit too loyal to the senior players in my refreshing of the squad and to be honest I’ve never liked having Kane in any of my teams, but it would seem weird to try and win the league without him at Spurs.

That coupled with a few transfer duds led to a more difficult season (lots of in-game management). I would say we were Spursy at times but we did still win the league with a couple of games to go so maybe not:

Liverpool chased us all the way but I was lucky that AI Simeone picked a poor formation for the squad I left behind. 

As usual I left in search of a new club as soon as we bagged the title, leaving the club in the Europa League final and FA Cup final. I think we would have won both.

Edit: The new guy did win both.

Ron’s Career

Arsenal became unsure about Arteta and Ron stepped into the void.
 

That’s a cross London trip that I’m sure will go down well with the Spurs fans who were just a day a go singing Ron’s name.

 

 

Edited January 10 by DoneHisCruciate

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 5

Arsenal didn't have a lot of players on their books so it was a bit of a budget squad I put together as generating cash was limited. The top notch talent weren’t interested in joining anyway. Maybe it was because of a lack of European football or maybe just because it’s Arsenal. 

I did splash out a lot of money on a really promising striker who managed to get injured for 2 months at the start of season. After that he was a bit of a dud. So yeah not the best of starts. I had to try and stay close to the top and fix the squad in January.
 

In the second half of the season we were a winning machine and did take the title with 3 games to go:

We tanked in the cups which was fine with a streamlined squad.

Ron’s Career

 

 

Ron did his usual two-step out the door and scared the Newcastle manager out of a job. We head north! 

[StuartM]

Love it DHC, keep up the good work!

[DoneHisCruciate]

Hey StuartM I hope ‘25 treats you well!

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 6

I was convinced I had nailed the Newcastle squad. We romped through pre-season and headed into the season purring with intent.

And were met with a Tsunami of shit in the first few games. Sendings off, injuries, conceding stupid penalties.. Well maybe it wasn’t as bad as a Tsunami but it felt it at the time. Either way we had a sizeable gap to the top to make up and I couldn’t trust a fair few players. There was a lot of inconsistency in our play where there really shouldn’t have been. 

It took me a little while to get a trusted XI playing together and had to tweak the system a bit. We battled to January where I pruned us down to the better performers and brought in some cover. At this point I thought it could go either way with the title.

But we got over the line with a couple of games to go with a great second half of the season. (Managing to steal Stones from Man City probably helped):

Ron’s Career

Ron gracefully exited stage left and Man Utd jumped at the chance to taste title glory once more.

Weirdly Man Utd had sacked their guy even though he had taken them to the Europa League final. So Ron took their muddled squad into battle straight away:

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 7

Man Utd threw a big bag of cash at Ron so this season’s title felt like a done deal. After the Newcastle debacle I might have gone overboard with the squad. We were unbeaten in all competitions until mid Jan.

After that I should have tanked the cups but I was enjoying the Champions League action too much and I figured the squad could handle all the fixtures.

We took the title with one game to go :

We won the Carabao Cup and were in the finals of the FA Cup and Champions League. Both being winnable after Ron departed.

Ron’s Career:

So 7 titles in 7 seasons! Man City - Leeds - Liverpool - Spurs - Arsenal - Newcastle - Man Utd.

But with most of the big clubs ticked off things should get more difficult. 

Ron didn’t have long to wait for his next job as Crystal Palace were already unhappy with their manager. So back to London Ron goes.
 

 

 

Edited January 12 by DoneHisCruciate

[StuartM]

This is one heck of a roll, brilliant! Rinse and repeat!

[DoneHisCruciate]

Yeah pretty much. It’s going a lot better than I thought it would!

I wish I’d kept track of how many different players I’ve used and how many now have multiple trophies.

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 8

I think I was lucky with Palace. Their squad wasn’t awful. I still gave it major surgery but it meant I could also generate funds. I thought the squad I put together was decent.

Man City were once more at the top of the table and I seriously wish Pep would just retire. They’re the only team that have consistently been contenders.

The league became a two horse race between us and it was close the whole way. After 32 games only goal difference separated us. By the last game of the season we had a three point lead but the goal difference was tied. And then just before the game our first choice keeper was injured in training 😬

Luckily we were playing a team lurking above the relegation zone:

By far the closest campaign so far. It is kind of funny how many titles I’ve taken off Pep now. But seriously please retire!

Ron’s Career

Ron’s leaving party went into the small wee hours and he woke up to find Wolves had already sacked their manager. The Wanderers, eh? Seems apt for Ron.

8 titles in 8 seasons. 

[deepheat83]

Going great,

Be beating my record if you keep this up

[DoneHisCruciate]

Maybes. I’ve just had to take a mid-season job. That will slow things down.

It’s weird to be playing so many previous teams and seeing how the squads have changed. 

None have been relegated yet. Leeds have been the closest but saved themselves.

Edited January 13 by DoneHisCruciate

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 9

Wolves were a classic example of an AI neglected squad. 9 players were planning to retire at the end of their contract and the majority of them were in decline already. Plus the squad was fairly small and there were hardly any reserves. 

With limited funds and not much in the way of sellable players this was the worst squad I have put together. I leaned heavily into the loan market. My plan was to take the cups more seriously to try to maximise player improvements for younger players.

I would have been happy taking a Champions League spot but we hit a season where Man City finally were performing badly. At the top were Arsenal and they hadn’t won a title since Season 5 so seemed less threatening.

And, we got better as the season progressed. We caught Arsenal by game 27 and their season imploded when they hit the late season fixture congestion. European competitions have definitely been my friend in this challenge. 

We won with three games to go:

 

Ron’s Career

For once the job market was barren. The clubs worried about their manager were either already relegated or were teams I’d managed before. 

So Ron gets to put his slippers on and watch the scores on Ceefax. 
 

9 titles in 9 seasons

Edited January 13 by DoneHisCruciate

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 10

And the worst Premier League team award goes to Everton. Their board blinked first this season with the team rock bottom—5 points adrift from safety:

To be honest they should be relegated—the squad is awful. Our first two games were against Arsenal and freshly crowned Wolves. Disaster city. So much so that the fans sang “You’re getting sacked in the morning” to Ron after just two games.

Anyway I got them better organised and we picked up some points and were out of the drop zone by the transfer window. 

The whole squad seemed tainted by the relegation battle though—even the few guys I managed to get to come to us. The keeper grew butter fingers, the strikers forgot what the goal looked like, and the midfielders were having picnics on the field.

We yo-yoed around while I tried to find some consistency and ended up 15:

Ron’s Career

Ron is still employed and after we fluked a win against Liverpool I think the fans took a shine to him. Will have to do better though.

9 titles in 10 seasons

Edited January 14 by DoneHisCruciate

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 11

I got together a decent squad. I had to compromise quite a bit. Any good players I can attract seem to have bad personality traits these days.

And to add to the fun, my best goalkeeper got injured for 10 months before the season even started:

Ah, crucial ligament injury. It’s been a while since I last saw you but you always find me at some point.

Anyway we got off to a flying start and even managed to get a nice points gap before we hit the “oh no we’re unbeaten” worries and the “nervous about playing” collywobbles. 

Then the form meandered a bit. We found ourselves playing catch-up to Man Utd—who won the title last season while Ron was in the basement.

But we battled away and they hit a wobble. Eventually it came down to a Hollywood ending.

The last game of the season. Man Utd and Everton tied on points (we were ahead on goal difference) facing off for the title.

A tight affair until Osimhen popped up with a goal for them in the 69th minute. Arggh. I made some changes and they fouled one of our players around their box in the 85th minute.

While the ref popped off for a cup of tea at the VAR screen. Ron calmly said “That looked inside to me.” I screamed “That was bloody well inside the box, ref.” 

And so..Penalty! 

Torres popped it into the corner and we were back level. They chased the game and our youngest player calmly slotted home the winner in the 90th.

Spoiler

Title won:

 

Ron’s Career

Ron had a bit of a lie down after all the excitement while I put in his resignation. 

And, it worked in our favour. The Sheff Utd manager fancied a shot at Everton and Ron took his old job. Off to The Blades we go.

(Although I’m going to take a break from this challenge now that I’m a third of the way into the career.)

10 titles in 11 seasons

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 12

Last season it occurred to me that Ron has normally resigned before deciding on the youth academy prospects. And I think the AI just forgets they even exist once you resign.

I can’t quite decide if that’s a good or bad thing. I think they will all end up at big clubs. And, seeing as I’ve already done most of the big clubs I reckon that will make my job harder.

Anyway I gave three of them contracts last season while I was at Everton and hope to make use of them with loans. 

With Sheffield United I put together a squad I thought was good enough. But I made a classic blunder—I gave the captaincy to the wrong guy.

And so we started the campaign with patchy form until I got fed up and switched the armband to someone else.

Then apart from one or two blips we had the form to take the title:

Ron’s Career

I wasn’t taking the cups seriously but we ended up in the FA Cup final anyway.
 

It was the next fixture after we took the title, and I was going to let Ron stay to take it but I saw Southampton were without a manager. I can only assume their guy got a better a job after securing them a European spot.

So cup glory goes begging as Ron heads down the to south coast.

11 titles in 12 seasons

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 13

Southampton already had a decent squad so I decided to add to it and have fun in the UECL cup. It’s not often Ron gets to take over a successful team so I might as well enjoy it.

I fancied looking for some high scoring games against some European minnows. And, to be honest we handed out a fair few shellackings. 

I managed to get two of those Everton prospects on loan and brought the third. So they got a good season of training and helped us win the title:

The cups were fun this year but as usual Ron bailed as soon as the title was in the bag. Unbelievably the next guy lost the UECL final!

Ron’s Career

It looked like Ron would be without a job as the only teams available he’d been at before. And then with a few days to go before the end of the season Ron got Hull to sack their manager. 

Ron applied but we hadn’t heard back by the end of the season. 

12 titles in 13 seasons

[DoneHisCruciate]

Season 14

It took a couple of weeks for Hull to offer Ron the job. I’m not sure if we might have missed out on a couple of good loan options. But to be fair the best ones didn’t consider Hull to be a good place to go anyway.

And, that was the story of the transfer window. The squad ended up being a bunch of old time campaigners due to the budget and undesirability of Hull. 

It was still a decent squad but ultimately we were a quality defender and goalkeeper away from the title. The first half of the season was a torrid affair and the defence couldn’t be trusted.

Once the transfer window came around I was able to get what I needed and we rocketed up the table. It was too late for the title but we did snag Champions League football in 2nd:

(Oh and I forgot to do screenshots- oops. These are from the start of the next season)

Champions league football will help with recruitment next season. The only wrinkle will be how many of our old players start declining. But I reckon we’ll crush it. 

Ron’s Career

Ron got to take it easy for once and didn’t have to menace a manager out of a job.

12 titles in 14 seasons