fmtreq — Blogs — 5 Star Potential

After some epic saves (still ongoing) at the likes of Deportivo La Coruna, Arsenal, Fenerbahce and the mighty York City, we put @FMTREQ to the test as we asked him to name his Player of the Year from this year’s version of the game.

When @MaddFM asked me to write a piece on my favourite player of FM20 the answer was remarkably easy. Despite having 7 different saves on FM20 spreading across over 30 years since the beta was released last October. I’ve managed clubs such as Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Fenerbahce, Sampdoria, Genoa and Deportivo La Coruna.

Now this isn’t an outrageous South American wonderkid I’ve stumbled across after trawling through every top tier club in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. This isn’t Paul Pogba, Jadon Sancho, Nicholas Pepe or even Vedat Muriqi, the 6ft 4in Kosovan who has been immense for me at Fenerbahce.

Let me introduce you to former Manchester City Academy player George Glendon, a player who almost wasn’t even in FM20 as he was one of many players in 2019 promised a deal by Bury only for the Shakers’ heart breaking expulsion from the EFL putting paid to those hopes.

Luckily for me Chester City of the Vanarama National League North under the duo of former Salford managers Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley, who managed to pull off the deal of the century to bring him down into the 6th tier of English Football.

Now his move to Chester City did mean I was able to sign him for York City as part of my Non League To Premier League save. If the former England Youth international had found an EFL club after leaving Bury I may never have been able to lay my hands on the man who has literally (along with myself 😄) guided the club from Non League all the way to the Premier League (#spoilers).

I picked George up for £38k at the start of Season Four which was our second season in the Vanarama National League. We had tried 12 months earlier but his wage demands of over £2K a week was way above what I was willing or able to pay. However in our second season in the division with money to burn along with a few decent FA Cup runs, high attendances for our level and three seasons of managing our budgets with a fine tooth comb, we decided to do a “Salford” by doubling our wage bill for the season and spending £250k on players to help us push for promotion to the Football League (check out Episode 16 to view the historic moment that we signed the man himself).

Throughout the majority of the save we have played a 442 or 424 and I always had my midfield two as a Carrilero/Deep Lying Playmaker alongside a Box to Box Midfielder. Boring? Maybe, but a combination that I have found very successful in this year’s game. Even better though - George was a natural in all three midfield roles which always helps with rotation in repeat seasons where we would play around 60 games on average.

In his first season he guided the club to the league title scoring 6 goals and setting up another 7 with an average rating of 7.54 🔥🔥.

Now normally as you progress through a save like “Non League to Premier League” there are always players you would love to keep and bring along with you on your journey up through the leagues. Nathan Dyer is one player I have had in this save for all 12 seasons but he is no more than a Vanarama National League standard player; because as I used to coach him at York City footie camps when he was little and he lives in the same town as me I wanted to bring him along for the journey.

Glendon on the other hand has been completely different. I signed him as 27 year old so he was hardly likely to improve much attribute-wise, but as the club progressed so too did George - stepping up to club captain in 2025 as we won the League One title at the first time of asking. However the best was yet to come for our Captain Marvel.

In the 2027/28 season, the club’s second season in the Championship we managed to reach the final of the Championship Playoffs against Middlesbrough, losing in true FM style..

Despite that defeat George Glendon was named Championship Player of The Year at the age of 33 scoring 9 goals (not one of them a penalty) and assisting 16 with an average rating of 7.47; not bad for a player who according to my backroom staff was “surplus to requirements” and had an ability start rating of 1.5/5!

Our third season in the Championship saw us make a real push for promotion making key signings in the midfield for the next phase of the project at the club. Regen / Newgen wonderkids were brought in from Bosnia and Italy. Both Hadis Heric (£900k) and Gabriele Di Nicola (£3.9m) became regulars during our promotion winning season however George still had a very good impact, proving he was still capable of playing both positions and made 31 appearances scoring 3 and setting up another 3 with an average rating of 7.12.

George now was 34 and heading into his final two years of his contract. Stepping up again now in the biggest and best league in the world, George Glendon was happy to play back up to a number of talented youngsters we had in our midfield.

We had started the season well however by January we started to slide into the bottom half, Tottenham activated Gabriele Di Nicola’s £32.5m release clause which was a superb bit of business with a £27m profit in 18 months. It did though leave a massive gap, a gap we tried to fill with other promising youngsters. George Glendon was reintroduced in April after a horrendous run of form, during which we won 2 games in our last 7 which kept us away from relegation giving us a highly respectable 13th in our first season in the Premier League. Glendon managed a total of 8 starts and 9 substitute appearances with an average rating of 6.80, not bad for a 35 year old who attribute-wise should have been playing in the Vanarama National League at best.

Despite having a year left on his deal and me asking him to reconsider, he decided to call time on his wonderful career with me at York City and retire from football. 8 seasons in 5 different divisions. 300 club appearances, 41 goals, 68 assists and 33 man of the match awards.

We gave George a more than worthy tribute in Episode 62 (1.40 minutes on the video).

However, the story doesn’t stop here, George Glendon wanted to stay in the game as a coach and I immediately appointed him as my assistant. Once again his attributes don’t perhaps do him justice, I am putting him through his A license and he joins the best set of coaching staff in the country so we hopefully might see his numbers improve over the next few seasons.

For me as Manager, who better to have as a link between the players and I than George Glendon handing down his knowledge and experience to what is a very young squad we have built in the Premier League. He is now right by my side as we look to finish the journey by winning the Premier League and Champions League with York City over the next 8 seasons.

Thanks for reading!

@FMTREQ.

You can find more of George Glendon, York City and all of @FMTREQ’s awesome Football Manager content on his Youtube channel - we also recommend his “Welcome to Hell” series at Fenerbahce as well as his recent Rebuild series with Arsenal. If you haven’t already subscribed, you’re doing it wrong ☝️.

Interested in sharing your own FM Player of the Year? Drop us a message or reach out to MaddFM for more info.