It's no secret that we're big fans of Football Manager here at Balls, to the extent that, on occasion, we loose the run of ourselves and forget that what happens in the game isn't actually real sporting news. As such we have been known to go into the future and use the game to predict what will happen. For example, The Premier League In 2021 According To Football Manager 2015 or The 2024 Ireland Team According To Football Manager 2015.
Well, lucky for us, the good folks at Sports Interactive are doing the 'hard work' for us. The makers of the game have come along and handed us 'Football Manager 2015 Predicts The Final League Table'. Delightful.
To do this as accurately as possible, they've made two versions, one with the Premier League teams as they appear now and another with teams with predicted January transfers added in.
Teams as they were going into January transfer window:
It's as you were with the top two. Chelsea continue their march to the title and although City stay close there's nothing they can do to stop them. Pellegrini's men suffer key defeats to Stoke, Liverpool, Southampton and QPR, which ultimately cost them dearly.
Liverpool and Manchester United fully recover from the early season disasters to pick up the coveted Champions League spots with Arsene Wenger's midas Champions League touch finally running out. You have to assume he'd be out the door not long after.
At the bottom of the table, it looks like Aston Villa will finally get their shooting boots on and grab the goals that will see them clear of the drop, but the same can't be said for Hull, Sunderland and Leicester who face the ignominy of relegation.
Teams with predicted transfer window additions:
First things first, here's the transfers that the FM folks think will happen this month. Transfers that were announced before the start of the window have been inducted into the above scenario so Eljero Elia for example is there but he's not listed below. Another player not listed is Juan Cuadrado who despite, being heavily linked to Chelsea today, is no where to be seen.
All in all, the transfer window is set to have a big impact on the table at both ends.
The signing of Wilfried Boy works out perfectly for City as the Ivorian acts as the perfect foil for Sergio Aguero, whose 26 goals fires City above Chelsea by a single goal. Strootman and Sissoko work out well for both Man Utd and Arsenal respectively but if Brendan Rodgers is looking at this he should immediately put away all thoughts of signing Petr Cech. Somehow the goalkeeper conspires to cost Liverpool 15 points between now and May.
At the bottom it's much the same for Sunderland and Hull but for Leicester and West Brom it's evident what an effective striker can do for your season. Saido Berahino's move to Spurs is the catalyst for a slump to the foot of the table. While for the Foxes, Andrej Kramaric looks like he could be a monumental piece of business if this is anything to go by.
So, what we've learned from this is that Chelsea should probably buy Cuadrado, Liverpool should stick by Simon Mignolet, Man United are going to make Champions League no matter what and Arsene Wenger should sign Moussa Sissoko if he wants to keep his job.
