Fortuna Sittard

[leckuno]

What a season for you. Onto bigger and better things in the Champions League now

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Congrats on winning the treble!
Let's see how you do next year in the Champions League!

Thanks mate! I'm looking forward to the money it will bring, but I reckon it will take us a good few seasons to build a squad capable of competing with Europe's elite. I feel there's a massive step up in quality between Europa League & Champs League!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

END OF SEASON 2027/28 REVIEW

Our first ever Eredivisie title!

Back to back KNVB Beker wins!

Our first ever Europa League title!

Our Europa League title win has seen us move to become the 21st most reputable team in Europe and Feyenoord are the only Dutch team above us!

Overall Squad Stats

The Best 11

After 5 seasons, I also felt it was a good time to show the overall best 11!

Club Record Over Past 5 Seasons

League Awards

Such a successful season has seen our fanbase grow considerably this year. We've now reached the 1 million social media followers landmark and now have over 10,000 people on the season ticket waiting list.

With rumours of a board takeover still out there, we await the new 5 year plan from the boardroom.

The Commercials

Despite winning an incredible treble and securing Champions League football for next season, we will still start the new season with a negative transfer budget again!

Which is a bit annoying considering the positive state of the club's finances.

At least the board did agree to spend some of that cash on more upgrades for the club.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 47
An Opportunity To Win Two More Trophies!
2nd August 2028

Two players left the club this Summer at the end of their contracts and both have been with me since the start of my tenure at the club!

Arianit Ferati hasn't been a regular first team starter in my entire time at the club, but the Moroccan has been the ultimate squad rotation option. A player who has always come in and done a job as a backup and never once complained to me about his playing time. Hopefully, he will go on somewhere that he can get regular first team football to finish his career.

The bigger departure is that of Alen Halilovic. He has been excellent for me and always turns in solid performances and maintains excellent average ratings every season. He has scored 40 leage goals and got 30 assists in the Eredivisie for me as well over 5 seasons - he's been a memorable player for me and I'm sad to see him go. But he is 32 now and his attributes are on the decline and with Henrikson coming through as the main player in my attacking midfield role, I was happy to let him go and try to bring someone else through as the backup in that position.

Incoming: We do have a new arrival at the club though to compensate for the two departures and this one was actually agreed back in April. I had £7.25 million left over in the transfer budget after the January window closed and I didn't want to lose the money, so I turned to Argentinian wondekid, Cristian Aguero and agreed a fee of £9.25 million with Velez to bring him to Holland (with £7.25 million paid up front). It's an amazing deal when you consider he is worth over £45 million upon joining the club and this is a real statement signing for us of a young kid that was being looked at by a number of much bigger sides across Europe.

The fixtures are released for the upcoming season and we will begin our title defence with the most difficult fixture possible.

However, our first competitive fixture of the season will be to attempt to win a trophy I didn't even know about. The European/South American Club Challenge is a new trophy introduced in 2023 where the winners of the Europa League play the winners of the Copa Sudamericana.

And it might only be a minor one, but it is another trophy in the cabinet for us!

Outgoing: My first sale of the Summer was Oleksandr Polyunystski, a product of our youth academy. He is 20 now but hasn't come on as much as I'd hoped he would and we cash in on him for £2.2 million from AZ.

Outgoing: With the signing of Cristian Aguero, I had a surplus of defensive midfielders, so it's time for Loreintz Rosier to leave the club and he moves to Cardiff for £9.25 million with £5.75 million paid up front. He was just the weakest of our options in that position now, but someone who has been pivotal for me and I'm still sad to see him leave.

In amongst the trophy win against Talleres, we played a few other friendlies including against the two big North London clubs. And now we'll have a chance at winning another trophy as we face Ajax in the Johan Cruijff Schaal.

It was a demolition job as we dismantle the 'biggest' team in the country. It's a big statement victory ahead of the new season and we have secured two trophies already before the Eredivisie even kicks off!

We had one more friendly against lower league side, VV Katwijk, which resulted in a 3-0 win and we are ready to kick off the new Eredivisie season. Despite being treble winners last year and being the reigning champions, we are not the favourites to win the league again this season. Ajax are actually odds on to win their title back. We do have our first ever player in the media dream 11 though, as new wonderkid signing Cristian Aguero appears amongst a haul of Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV players.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 48
Potential Tycoon Coming In?
30th August 2028

Our first game of our Eredivisie defence was against Ajax. I played the exact same starting lineup that had beaten them 4-0 a week before in the Johan Cruiyff Schaal. But this one was a much tighter game and neither side takes the opening day advantage as we play out a 2-2 draw.

Now we have an opportunity to win our 3rd trophy of the season already! With the Dutch Super Cup and the European/South American Challenge Cup already in the bag, we now face Dortmund in the UEFA Super Cup.

And once again, my lads do me proud as we come out on top in an entertaining game with both sides showing off some superb attacking football at times. Although it was Rasmus Henriksen who got man of the match, I have to give a shout out to our keeper Spike Brits who made some massive saves at key moments in the game!

Hitting the heights of playing in these sort of games is massive for us on a financial level. I mean we pick up nearly £4 million just for winning this one game. In comparison, we only picked up £6.8 million in prize money for winning the Eredivisie last year!

Meanwhile, talks of an impending takeover are still out there in the media and with mentions of a possible tycoon now being interested in the club, this could be a game changer!

VVV-Venlo are back in the top tier this season after a year away and we will once again face off against one of our fiercest rivals in the Limburgse Derby. In 4 previous matches, we have a goal difference of 16-1 in our favour and the fans would be looking for another dominant performance again today.

The scoreline wasn't so dominating this time round, but the performance itself was and on another day we would have scored 5 or 6. Still, a win is a win and that's the most important thing!

Incoming: I could do with another attacking midfielder to challenge Rasmus Henrikson for his place in the team, or at least play backup to our star wonderkid. I have brought in 19 year old Baba Dieye from Benfica on loan for the season. The kid looks good already, but if he proves a success here then we have a future optional fee of £21 million in place (not that we'd likely be able to afford that anyway).

Cambuur achieved promotion last year as well as reaching the final of the Dutch Cup (where they were beaten by us) so it was a good season for them. However, this was a stark reminder for them that the top tier can be a completely different level sometimes.

Go Ahead Eagles were one of only 3 sides to beat us in the Eredivisie last season! In fact, we have lost this away fixtures with them on 3 occasions in the last 5 seasons in the Eredivisie. So this is definitely a potential banana skin for us early in the new campaign.

In the end, I was worried about nothing as we cruise to an easy victory. Although, I am still pleased to get this one out the way against a bogey team for us!

The Champions League fixtures are finally revealed and what a tough introduction we have to the competition. We will play both of the Spanish giants as well as AC Milan, one of the teams with the richest history in this competition. On a more positive note, we did avoid any of the English sides who are generally always favourites to win this thing. And if we are anywhere near a chance of qualifying for the knockout stages, then at least we finish the league phase with what should be two of our easiest games.

The takeover seems to be gaining traction and our new potential owner is promising a huge warchest for me to spend if he completes his takeover of the club! With only a few days of the transfer window left, I am hoping the deal can be done sooner rather than later!

And just like that, 2 days later my dreams are shattered.

Despite all the speculation off the pitch, it didn't effect us on it as we put 6 past Heracles with a great display of attacking football once again.

Five games into the season and it is once again us and Ajax that sit at the top of the table with the only unbeaten records in the division.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 49
Settling In To The Champions League
1st November 2028

Transfer deadline day was naturally quiet for us considering we had no funds to spend. My main aim was to keep my squad together and I managed that. Here's the biggest deals across Europe this Summer though (over £20 million)...

Back on the pitch we stretched our unbeaten start to the season to 6 games, beating De Graafschap. Ajax drew with Feyenoord so we go 2 points clear at the top.

Our welcome into the Champions League was a stark reminder of the difficulty of the competition. Even though RB Leipzig went down to 10 men with more than 20 minutes to play, we still fall to defeat in front of our home fans.

I feel like every time we play in the Champions League this year, we will immediate appreciate the step back into domestic football against easier opposition and we immediately proved that against Vitesse.

It was straight back into the lion's den as we headed off to Camp Nou to face the mighty Barcelona. Again we lose but not by anywhere near as wide a margin as most would have expected. We might have even snatched a draw when Bob Monaghan found himself one on one with the Barca keeper in the 89th minute, only to put his shot wide.

Willem II beat us in the Eredivisie last season and when they went 3-0 up inside 29 minutes here, it looked like they were going to repeat the feat. However, an excellent fight back from my side sees us rescue a point!

We were right back to winning ways against Excelsior, with Bob Monaghan making the most of his opportunity to start up front!

Monaghan was again on the scoresheet as we beat FC Utrecht as well with a very dominant performance.

Defensively, we've been pretty solid of late and we made it three straight clean sheets against PEC Zwolle. Unfortunately, we couldn't penetrate their defence either and have to settle for a disappointing point.

That may have been a disappointing result for us, but we then pulled off an excellent one out in Milan in the Champions League. A game I never expected us to win, but a superb performance and a massive 3 points after losing our opening 2 games in the competition.

A strong first half performance ensured victory over bottom side, FC Emmen, back in the Eredivisie. Miguel Reisinho's penalty being a cheeky one as he chipped it down the centre of the goal with supreme confidence.

And then something happened that hasn't happened in a long time...we took a good hiding! Feyenoord were just too strong for us and I don't know if we just had an off day or what, but we were very poor.

Things are now very tight at the top with just 3 points separating the top 4. PSV are the best of the rest but a little off the pace!

We responded to that Feyenoord defeat in the best possible way by getting our 2nd win on the board in the Champions League.

Half way through the league phase and winning our last two games has put us right in the mix.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 50
European Golden Boy!!
12th January 2029

Heerenveen came into our game with the best defensive record in the league, conceding only 9 goals in their opening 13 games. However, we made a complete mockery of that record by hammering 7 past them here!

It was the perfect preparation for Benfica at home in the Champions League. A Benfica side that has a certain Dominic Calvert-Lewin playing his football for them!

Now we did keep him quiet, but we do lose the game by a narrow margin! We had our chances but didn't take any of them, so we only have ourselves to blame for the defeat here.

We squandered a number of chances against PSV back in the league as well and have to settle for a draw because of it. However, maybe it's a good point being away from home and down to 10 men for the last half hour.

We had two weeks during the International break to practice our shooting and we did come back better, with a win over AZ.

But at the moment, we are definitely off it a bit and a poor result against Sparta Rotterdam followed.

Nothing like a solid performance and a good result over your fiercest rivals to steady the ship though!

Real Madrid were always going to offer a completely different proposition in the Champions League. But although we did lose the game, I don't think it was the worst performance from my lads and we did have chances here to get a goal or two against one of the best teams in the world.

We'll definitely need to win at least one but maybe both of our last 2 games in the competition to progress. We play Celtic and Austria Wien so they are at least winnable matches.

Back in the Eredivisie, we recorded a massive win away at Ajax. After dropping points in some of our other games of late, we had fallen a little off the pace of our title rivals, but this win brings us right back into contention again.

From an excellent result to a ****** awful one! There will be no 3rd Dutch Cup in a row for us this year as we fall at the first hurdle against lower league opposition. Rubbish!

For the second time in my career, Arsenal have come knocking at my door for their vacant managerial role. I have to admit I was seriously tempted after winning the treble last year with Sittard, but resisted the temptation to move to London....for now!

With the January transfer window about to open, we will once again likely have to fend off some interest in some of our best players. And interest in Rasmus Henriksen could well be heightened after he is named the European Golden Boy!

Outgoing: There was a departure on the opening day of the window as Luis Amarilla leaves the club for Olimpia in a deal worth £220k. Amarilla came in for cheap money and did us a job for a couple of seasons but at 33 years old he is past his best and fallen behind our young guns in the pecking order.

Our first game of 2029 looked like it might be destined to end in defeat when Will Fish saw red after just 8 minutes. However, despite having to play most of the game with 10 men we still cruised to an easy victory.

As we reach 20 games played in the league, it's shaping up very much the same way as last year. A three horse race between us, Ajax and Feyenoord.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 51
Another Quiet Window For Us
18th February 2029

If we are going to progress from the Champions League 'league phase' then we had to go to Scotland and get a result against Celtic. Our own young Scot, Bob Monaghan was desperate to have an impact on the game and twice had the ball in the back of the net, only to see both goals ruled out for offside. However, Abdallah Sima's 18th goal of the season did stand and that was enough for a very important victory.

Monaghan certainly had an impact back in the Eredivisie as he smashed in a first half hat trick on our way to an easy win over Go Ahead.

Our final league phase game of the Champions League was out in Austria and we needed a win to secure a place in the knockout playoff. We went 2-0 down and it looked like our progress in the competition would be halted, but a superb revival saw us come back and score 6 times to ensure our ride in this season's Champions League is not over yet!

No matter what happens from here, we have done ourselves proud in our first entry into the competition.

Abdallah Sima has been in sensational goalscoring form this year and he bagged his 18th and 19th goals of the season as we beat Heracles back in the Eredivisie.

So far, Sima could well be one of my best signings of my whole career. I paid just £1.7 million for the Senegalese international back in 2025 and since then, he has got better each season upping his average rating every year. He has 30 league goals in 71 games which is a great return for a winger. He's still only 27 as well, so could easily have another 3-4 seasons with us in his prime.

The Champions League knockout playoff handed us the toughest draw possible. It was the one tie I really wanted to avoid and this is going to be incredibly difficult to get through.

Incoming: On transfer deadline day, I only had £ 2.5 million available to me so my options were severely limited. I opted to spend £1.6 million on 20 year old Chilean midfielder, Gustavo Hormazabal. He looks like a decent prospect and even if he doesn't 'make it' with us, then I should at least make a profit on the youngster when I sell him on. For now, I have loaned him back to Universidad Catolica who I signed him from for the rest of the season.

Failed Signing: I did come very close to signing striker, Joshua Zirkzee, on loan for the rest of the season from RB Leipzig, but he has opted to join our rivals Ajax instead.

So a quiet window for us again, but here are the biggest deals from the past month.

It was none other than Mark van Bommel's son who was the biggest deal of the window as he moved to Germany.

There was some slight concern amongst the fanbase about our lack of transfer business this season, but we were quick to buff those concerns with a solid performance over De Graafschap.

Manchester City were going to present an altogether different proposition. This is how they line up these days...

Our biggest concern would obviously be the beast that is Erling Haaland. However, we did an excellent job in keeping the best striker in the world very quiet and holding City to a 0-0 draw is an excellent result. We're under no illusions that it will be tough to get a result in England, but we have at least given ourselves a small chance of pulling off an amazing feat.

We will have a major issue in the second leg as well, with 3 of my first team players all being suspended!

Sandwiched between the two Man City games was an Eredivisie visit to Vitesse. A visit that proved fruitful for us as we come away with another 3 points.

We're back at the top of the table, but Feyenoord and Ajax are breathing right down our necks and just like last season it looks like it will go right down to the wire to see who lifts the title.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 52
Title Chances Thrown?
2nd April 2029

We always knew it was going to be a difficult task to overcome Manchester City at The Etihad, but we gave it a very brave effort and I am ultra proud of my team for pushing The Citizens all the way! Our Champions League run is over for this season, but we have given a good account of ourselves and it should raise our profile across Europe once again.

Willem II have proven difficult opposition for us and we have lost 2 of our last 4 games against them and have actually only beaten them 4 times in 9 meetings. And again, they made us work really hard to get a result here, but thanks to Xavier Mbuyamba's header in the 93rd minute, we do walk away with the points on this occasion! Big result against a bogey team for us.

We were made to work for the points against Excelsior as well taking over an hour to score our first goal, but again we get over the line. These are the sort of hard fought victories that could be huge come the end of the season.

After winning 9 Eredivisie games in a row, we are beaten for only the 2nd time this season away at FC Utrecht. Spike Brits has been pretty solid this season between the sticks for us and is on the verge of breaking the record for most clean sheets in a season for the club (16). But today he was awful and an off day for our keeper ultimately cost us. We did look like we were coming back into the game and might have gone on to score again, but Lucas de los Santos red card with more than 20 minutes to play robbed us of our momentum.

Brits was again absolutely ******* terrible and it's back to back defeats as we lose to PEC Zwolle as well. A poor result that probably kisses goodbye to any hopes we had of retaining our Eredivisie title.

This year's youth intake is OK. Although there aren't any players that I think will impact the first team in the next 12-18 months, there are a couple who might develop into good players in future years to come.

Pascal Nziza is certainly the most promising of the bunch.

None of our current crop of youngsters make the list of top 50 wonderkids in world football this year.

Back on the pitch, we got back to winning ways against FC Emmen, although I have to say that if we had lost against the bottom side, I'd have been really ****** off!

Despite winning that game, the damage is possibly already done with those two defeats. We are 4 points behind both Feyenoord and Ajax now and it is looking like we might have to setlle for a 3rd place finish this year.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 53
Final Five Games
14th May 2029

The final run ins are shown and with us being 4 points off the pace and having easily the toughest of the three run ins, it's fair to say we need a minor miracle to win the title this season.

We were so close to getting a massive result that would have changed the complexion of the last 4 matches of the season, taking the lead in the 83rd minute against Feyenoord through Anwar El Ghazi's amazing free kick, only to be pegged back as late as the 90th minute.

Ajax failed to capitalise on the opportunity presented to them and they can only manage a draw against Cambuur. It leaves us 4 points behind both the top 2 with 4 games to play.

With us potentially looking at a 3rd placed finish, I might just get thrown a lifeline to Champions League football next season. I'm not quite sure how this works, but if we get the extra place then I assume that drops down to 3rd place in the Eredivisie - or it may go to 2nd place just getting a free pass into the league phase without needing to qualify. Have to wait and see.

For now though, we would focus on winning all of our remaining games and hope that the two above us would drop points and we might even nick 2nd place. We had no issues despatching of Heerenveen first of all...an easy win in a game I expected to be much tougher.

And we followed that up with a win against PSV. We might have left it until the last 16 minutes to get our goals, but on the balance of play it never looked like we'd lose this one.

It's incredible really...our record against PSV I mean. 12 meetings since I've been Fortuna boss and they have never beaten us!

And with 2 games of the season remaining, we are still in with an outside shot of winning the Eredivisie as our title rivals have dropped points and given us a chance. A very slim one I admit, but still a chance.

We kept up our strong finish to the season with a win away at AZ, although I'll admit we might have got away with one a bit here. They had 3 goals disallowed for offside either side of their first goal, so could have been 4-0 up on another day. Thank **** for VAR!

Feyenoord and Ajax also won their games, so it's no change at the top. So as we go into the last day of the season, any one of three sides can win the Eredivisie, but we do need to win and rely on Ajax and Feyenoord both not winning!

We will play Sparta Rotterdam at home and they need a win to guarantee safety in the league, so will be giving it their all! Feyenoord should have the title in the bag as they play bottom side FC Emmen who have only managed to rack up 13 points all season!! Ajax probably have the trickiest tie of all of us, going away to 9th placed Vitesse.

Our game will have some extra significance for us as it will be the last at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion, before we moved to our new stadium this Summer. In my 301st competitive game in charge, I was keen to sign off with a win!

It's fair to say that we signed off our season and our stadium in emphatic style!

Unfortunately for us, both Feyenoord and Ajax got the jobs done in their games too, so we have to settle for a 3rd place finish and it is Feyenoord who lift the Eredivisie title after losing just once all season!

At least we will have a healthy transfer budget for the Summer after going through this season with virtually nothing to spend!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

END OF SEASON 2028/29 REVIEW

Competition Winners

It was another good season for us in the Eredivisie, even if it was disappointing not to retain our title. However, when you're up against teams that only lose once in a whole season, it shows just how tough it is.

Our performance in the Dutch Cup this year was awful as we crashed out at the first opportunity to lower league opposition. Extremely disappointing.

We did ourselves proud in our first ever venture into the Champions League, getting through the league phase, and there is no shame in going out to Manchester City.

And our performance saw us move up to 14th in the European club rankings, which makes us the highest ranked Dutch club in Europe now!

Overall Squad Stats

The Best 11

Club Awards

League Awards

It's amazing what a bit of Champions League football can do for the club's exposure. We have gained more than 600,000 social media followers over the past season...that's about a 60% increase in just one year! In terms of the fan's expectations, it's all geared towards the way we play rather than what we actually achieve.

The board want us to play the same entertaining, attacking brand of football as the fans and with a board takeover again in the potential pipeline, there are no competition targets set for us just yet.

The Commercials

The Finances

Meanwhile, in other news Pep Guardiola vacated his position as Manchester City manager after 13 years in charge, to take over at Arsenal!

And guess who was potentially being lined up as his replacement! Boy, this is tempting, but I'm just enjoying life at Fortuna too much to move!

Going into next season, Holland have been allocated an additional Champions League spot, but it hasn't yet been confirmed if it is ours yet?

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 54
Takeover Complete & We Officially Move Home
10th August 2029

Interest in my players is high this Summer and early in the window, I am having to fend off giant bids for the likes of Enoch Mastoras and Spike Brits.

The impending takeover at the football club has finally happened and it's former Director, Fabian Janssen who takes over as Chairman.

And he pretty much expects us to continue in the same vein as we have done over the coming years. Qualifying for European competition has to be the priority from here on out.

This year's released players list is mostly made up of youngsters who haven't progressed to a good enough level. Anwar El Ghazi also leaves now he has reached the ripe old age of 34, but it's worth giving him a mention. He came in as a squad/fringe player just to help us out but actually played a relatively pivotal role for me over the past couple of seasons.

Incoming: As I lose one Dutch player with lots of experience, I sign another. Donny Van de Beek is 32 and could be the new El Ghazi...a player I sign for squad cover but could easily end up playing a big part. He joins on a free transfer after his contract with Brentford came to an end.

It's official, we are in our new 18,375 capacity stadium, giving us an extra 6,000 seats on our previous one. Also, the new stadium has room for expansion to a 36,000+ capacity!

Incoming: My first signing of the Summer (in terms of money actually laid out) is a product of the Barcelona academy. 21 year old Juan Hernandez has played most of his football for Barcelona Atletic rather than Barcelona proper but does have 69 goals and 22 assists in 165 games, so I am hoping he can transfer that form to more competitive football with us in Holland. He only cost us £5.25 million (all up front) which I think could prove to be a bargain!

It would seem that the extra coefficient place that was handed to Holland just meant Ajax would go straight into the league phase, as we have been entered into the Europa League and we will need to get through two qualifiers as well. Our first will be against Turkish opposition.

That Europa League game will be our first competitive game of the season and our preparations went as well as they could have done, winning all of our friendlies and scoring plenty in the process.

The only negative was that new signing Juan Hernandez picked up an injury in the Kobenhavn game which will see him miss the first month or so of the new season!

Incoming Loan: This could be a massive signing for us, even if it is just a season long loan deal. 24 year old Brazilian striker, Deivid Washington, joined Chelsea for nearly £16 million in 2023 from Santos. Since then, he has managed 37 league appearances for them without ever really getting a run in the first team. He looks like a complete striker to me and I am delighted to bring him here and he could genuinely score bundles in Holland I reckon - I hope I'm right! We are having to pay £70% of his £71k per week wage along with a £200k per month loan fee but he should prove worth it!

Washington joined the club with a minor injury so couldn't go into the matchday squad for the away leg with Adana Demirspor in the Europa League qualifier. I think it's fair to say we got by OK without him!

We will turn our attention to the start of the new Eredivisie season next and the bookies have shortened our odds on winning the title once again, although we are still predicted to finish behind Ajax and Feyenoord. Enoch Mastoras joins Cristian Aguero in the media dream 11 this season!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 55
Perfect Start
5th September 2029

Our first game of the new Eredivisie season would be against Heerenveen. We banged in 12 goals against them across the two league fixtures last year!!

And this year we kick off the season by hammering 9 past them in a single game! What a welcome this was to our fans at our new stadium!

What a performance it was from Rasmus Henriksen! This kid is just incredible!

With our passage to the next round of the Europa League qualifiers already secured, I took the opportunity to rotate the squad pretty heavily, with two 17 year olds and a 15 year old from the youth team playing in the game. Despite that, we still won the 2nd leg and increased our aggregate score.

Back in the Eredivisie, we hammered FC Utrecht as we continue our free goalscoring form at the start of the season. We haven't even had a chance to play new striker, Washington, yet!

In the Europa League, Rapid Wien are the team that now stood between us and the league phase of the competition. With the first leg being at home, we needed to ensure we had a healthy lead to take to Austria with us and we will take a 3 goal cushion into the 2nd game. Great to see Abdallah Sima on the scoresheet in his first appearances back from injury and there was also a debut goal for Deivid Washington.

Sima was again on the scoresheet against Go Ahead Eagles and he seems to have picked up where he left off last season!

Outgoing: Mauricio Diaz hasn't really developed as well as I hoped he would and he has become frustrated at being 4th/5th choice centre back at the club. He asked for a move away and I was happy to oblige, so he joins Standard Liege for £2.9 million. It's a small profit of £900k on what I paid for him.

Out in Austria, we beat Rapid Wien with a solid performance from Rasmus Henriksen at the forefront of a decent team display. We will therefore be playing in the league phase of the competition this year.

Five years ago, I might have looked at our Europa League fixture list for the league phase and felt we might struggle. However, nowadays this is a fixture list I'll be looking to win at least 6 of the 8 games.

Winning in Austria ensured that we set a new record at the club for consecutive wins in all competitions.

And we extended that to 12 with a win over Cambuur in the Eredivisie, even though we missed two penalties in the process.

Outgoing: Transfer deadline day saw one centre back leave and one join. The one that left was Kaelan Casey who joins Blackburn for £1.8 million. He has only played 16 times for me in 3 years and most of them were as a sub rather than a starter and that had frustrated him so it was the right thing to do to let him get on with his career somewhere else.

Incoming Loan: We had to replace Casey and we have done so with another player looking to rebuild their career. Luka Vuskovic moved to Spurs back in 2025 for £11.75 million but has only played 16 times for them since and needs some first team football to show his parent club what he can do. He will get that chance with us this season as he will spend a year on loan here.

We extended our 100% start to the season against FC Volendam, getting at least a little bit of revenge for them knocking us out of the cup last year.

So it's been the perfect start to season 6! Won every game, scored a hatfull of goals and hardly conceded any! Hopefully we can keep this up!

 

[dporter8999]

Checked the Champions League place, it is for the season after! Great performances so far, the goalscoring is immense!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 56
Another Record Broken
3rd November 2029

Over the years, Willem II have become a bit of a pain in the **** for us, so I really don't look forward to playing them. However, this was the most dominant we have been over them for a while and it's a good win away from home.

We kick off the league phase of the Europa League with a nice win against Brondby. I don't want to show any level of complacency towards my players, but I really think the league phase of this competition should be a doddle for us now with our current squad.

There's no doubt we are flying on all fronts at the moment and that was backed up with another comfortable win in the Eredivisie. It was left back, Vasilis Zagaritis who shone in this one as he bagged 3 assists.

We are already selling out our new stadium, so I approached the board to invest in an expansion, to which they agreed. Come the end of the season, we will have a capacity of nearly 22,000.

Our first home game in the Europa League (proper) this year resulted in a comfortable win over Shakhtar. It never really looked in doubt from the off to be fair.

N.E.C have been away from the top tier for a few years and they're return hasn't been pretty so far as they sit bottom of the table. A win was expected and a win was delivered by my players.

And another 3 points chalked up against Excelsior, with braces for both Monaghan and Sima.

PEC Zwolle beat us towards the back end of last season and so the message to my players before kick off was simple...go out there and get your revenge. And they did exactly that as we record an easy victory. Rasmus Henriksen turned in a top performance with 2 goals and an assist on his way to a man of the match award.

It's not very often that a player gets man of the match and gets sent off in the same game, but that's what happened against Heracles for Juan Hernandez. He opened the scoring on 14 minutes, before going on to assist our other two goals. Then a moment of madness saw him throw out a two footed tackle late on to see a straight red card.

We're now unbeaten in 23 games and that's another club record broken!

We haven't suffered a really long term injury for a few seasons so the medical staff at the club have clearly been doing a good job in looking after my players. However, we have been rocked with our first one in a while as we lose Gaston Avila for up to 5 months.

Avila is another player that has proven to be a bargain buy for me. Signing for just £3.1 million from Ajax back in 2026, he has become an important part of the defensive back line and is now valued at over £23 million. He will be missed whilst out.

Our first game without Avila resulted in a clean sheet, but that was largely down to Spike Brits who made an amazing penalty save to keep the score 0-0. A good point out in Lyon.

After the opening 3 games of the Europa League, we are firmly placed in the top 8 where we want to be.

We went behind against AZ back in the Eredivisie and it looked like our 100% start to the league campaign might be in jeapordy. However, a late rally and a 92nd minute strike from Daan Rots ensured we turned the game on it's head and pick up another win.

Our first defeat of the season came at the hands of Feyenoord. It was a closely contested game, but with home advantage on their side, they just about edged it.

Thanks to the fact we won every one of our first 12 games, we are still top of the Eredivise. But with Feyenoord remaining unbeaten, they are just 3 points behind us. Meanwhile, Ajax have had a poor start to their season (by their standards) and have lost twice already and are already 9 points off us!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 57
Two More Major Injuries!!
20th December 2029

****!! We have another key player now out for 4 months. Bob Monaghan has embraced his role as first choice striker this season and has 10 goals in 15 appearances, but will now miss a sizeable proportion of the season after breaking his leg in training! Absolutely gutted!

Temporary life without Monaghan started well enough with no trouble putting the ball in the back of the net, hammering 6 past Qarabag in Europe.

ADO Den Haag are a team we haven't played a competitive fixture with throughout my career until now. And they won't relish the next one after we thrashed them.

I can't believe it...we have another long term injury as Juan Hernandez is now out for 2 months! What the **** is going on!

With multiple injuries, we still managed to grind out a determined result against Sparta Rotterdam.

And the same again in Europe against Spurs, once again beating the side we overcame in the final 2 years ago to lift the Europa League trophy.

16 year old Edwin Baffour was on the bench for the game due to the injuries in the squad. I gave him the last 15 minutes to make his debut and the youngster scored a goal he will never forget!

And it was the youngster who came off the bench to score the winner against PSV! What a few days it has been for Baffour and I had to start to wonder if we had a star in the making.

It was one of my more established youngsters in Marcel Van der Plas who excelled against Ajax though, scoring 4 times on his way to a 10.0 match rating! Massive result away from home against one of our title rivals.

With them now 12 points off the pace, does that put Ajax out of the title race at the half way stage of the season??

As for our own title challenge, we kept up the charge with a comfortable victory over FC Utrecht.

We carried that good form into Europe as well, picking up a big win out in Portugal.

We're top of the league phase of the Europa League with 2 games to go and it's fair to say we are currently finding the competition all too easy so far this season. It would be great to win this one again and that's what I have my eyes set on!

Heerenveen were up next in the Eredivisie...a team we have scored 21 times against in just our last 3 meetings!!

We beat them again, although by a much tighter scoreline. Sometimes it's nice to get a solid 1-0 with a strong defensive performance.

Feyenoord may remain unbeaten in the league this season, but it is us that tops the table and sit 5 points clear after 19 games. Right now it looks like a 2 horse race this season, although a couple of defeats for either of us could easily see Ajax close the gap.

Our final game of 2029 saw us through to the next round of the Dutch Cup as we beat Telstar by a ridiculous scoreline. We went out last year in the 2nd round to lower league opposition and the lads seemed determined not to repeat that this year!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 58
Another Treble On The Cards?
24th February 2030

A couple of seasons ago, Go Ahead Eagles were looking very much like our bogey team. However, this was our 4th win in a row over them and so maybe we have now put that behind us. And this one was an excellent performance where we limited our opponents to just a single shot on goal.

We're comfortably through to the next round of the TOTO KNVB Beker after winning at Willem II. It was a game that saw Gustavo Hormazabal score his first goal for the club.

Hormazabal has been on loan from the club we bought him from, ever since we signed him, but returned this month and this was only his 2nd appearance for the first team since coming back.

Outgoing: Lucas de los Santos joined the club 3 years ago for a small fee of just £4.3 million and has played 54 league games for the club. However, it is time for him to leave as Damac were willing to pay £18.25 million to sign him and that's profit I just can't turn down. Especially as I have a couple of decent prospects coming through the youth system that play in his position.

One of them prospects is 19 year old Rodney van der Laan who gets a promotion to the senior squad as de los Santos's replacement.

Rodney came off the bench to make his senior debut for the club as we beat Rosenborg in the Europa League. He gave a decent account of himself in the 29 minutes he played.

It was a win that ensures we make the last 16 of the competition with a game in the league phase to spare.

Incoming: I've forked out £3.4 million (all up front) of the transfer budget to bring in 19 year old full back, Armin Hasanbegovic. The young Italian/Bosnian will likely improve over the coming years and could develop into a first team regular, but right now he'll be used as a rotation option.

He made his debut from the bench in a 4-0 win over Cambuur. That's our 20th win from 21 league games this season!

Incoming: Transfer deadline day saw an exciting young Brazilian join the club and we have beaten both Porto and AC Milan to his signature. Rodiney is only 19 and already good enough to have an impact on our first 11, so I'm really exciting to watch him develop into hopefully a world class player over the next few seasons! We signed him from Gremio for £10.75 million, meeting his minimum fee release clause.

Unfortunately, he couldn't play against Wolfsburg in the final game of the league section of the Europa League, due to the fact he isn't registered. It was a game that meant very little to both sides as we have both qualified for the last 16 already. Despite that, both sides still looked like they wanted the win and it was us who sealed it with a couple of late goals.

The win ensures we finish top of the league phase of the competition.

The transfer window is now shut and the biggest deal of the January window was Evan Ferguson's move from Brighton to Dortmund.

Our own superstar signing, Rodiney, got the chance to make his debut for the club in the quarter final of the Dutch Cup against PSV, and it was his goal that opened the scoring on our way to a win that secures our place in the last 4.

The youngster didn't get his first Eredivisie goal, even though we did put 6 past FC Volendam on our way to another big league win. Rasmus Henriksen earned himself a 10.0 match rating as he continues to impress.

Our next two league games saw us take on the two sides that prop up the Eredivisie table, so I fully expected two more relatively easy wins!

And my lads duly delivered!

So with 10 games of the season remaining, we have a 10 point lead over our nearest pursuers, Feyenoord. Ajax are well back, 18 points behind in 3rd and won't be winning the league this year! It's very much ours to throw away at this point and with us in the semi final of the cup and last 16 of the Europa League, we have our eyes on a potential treble for the 2nd time in 3 years.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 59
Is Rodiney My Best Ever Signing?
7th April 2030

The Europa League Last 16 draw could have given us an easier tie to be honest and we'll have to be at our best to beat Bayer Leverkusen.

Before that, we play back to back games against N.E.C in both the Dutch Cup and Eredivisie.

First, we secured our place in the final of the cup and then followed it up with a dominant performance in the Eredivisie, but were surprisingly beaten. I think it was just one of those days if I'm honest - they're keeper had the game of his life, we hit the post, missed an open goal and had two goals ruled out for offside.

Four years ago was the last time we played Bayer Leverkusen and that was again in the last 16 of the Europa League. A big win out in Germany on that occasion helped us on our way to knocking them out of the competition that year.

And we win in Germany again, bringing a 2 goal lead back with us for the second leg.

Before that return leg, we had a league game against Excelsior to play and I needed to see a reaction following our surprise defeat to N.E.C. We bounced back to immediately get our title challenge back on track!

We completed the job against Leverkusen to make the quarter finals of the Europa League as well. They won't want to see us in European competition again any time soon.

Next up it's the team we beat in the final 2 years ago!

Meanwhile, back in domestic competition we took another step closer to the Eredivisie title with a win over Zwolle.

It's that time of year again for the youth intake, but this year's is nothing to get excited about at all.

Our next league game will pit us against Heracles...a side I have a 100% win record against, scoring 50 goals in the process!!

And we recorded our biggest win yet over them this time round.

The top 50 wonderkids in world football are announced and it's promising for Dutch football to see that there are 3 players in the top 10 based in Holland.

And promising for us as well as 3 of our own players make the top 50, including Rodney van der Laan who is a product of our own academy!

Back on the field, it was another 3 points away at AZ. We were far from our best here, but still managed to grind out a result and edge ever closer to the Eredivisie trophy for the 2nd time.

What a signing Rodiney is turning out to be. He has 10 goals in his opening 11 appearances for the club!

His goals are helping fire us towards the title as we lead Feyenoord by 7 points, with just 5 games remaining. Three more wins secures it for us, but we do have to play both Feyenoord and Ajax in our last few matches.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 60
Tottenham, Feyenoord, Tottenham, Feyenoord
20th May 2030

Our next four games are going to see us play both Feyenoord and Tottenham twice each, in alternate fixtures, across three different competitions.

We started that run off in the worst fashion. Despite being the better side, we were beaten at home by Spurs in the first leg of our Europa League tie and now have it all to do in England.

The next game is absolutely massive. There's only Feyenoord and us in the title race now and of the two sides, we definitely have the tougher run in. So beating them in our next match would be huge and put one hand on the trophy!

What I didn't expect was for us to absolutely hammer them! Massive, massive result!

Unfortunately, we couldn't take the momentum of that result into the 2nd leg of our Europa League clash with Spurs. It's really disappointing to lose this tie as we were the better side in both legs, creating more and better chances in both games, but just couldn't find the back of the net. Gutted!

We needed to quickly put the disappointment behind us, as we had an opportunity to win the Dutch Cup for the third time under my management. It would be a final that pits the best two teams in the country (at present) against each other. Here's how the sides lined up.

At half time, we had been the slightly better of the two sides, but the score remained level. However, Rodiney had lost his head on the big occasion and a two footed tackle had him seeing red on 38 minutes, so we would be up against it with 10 men in the second half.

It proved too much of an ask and late in the game, Feyenoord made their extra man count and beat us to the cup! Just like that, we are out of two competitions and now have to turn our complete attention to at least winning the Eredivisie or the season will have ended up being a disaster!

We did, at least, win the league in our very next game against ADO Den Haag. It's a very good ending to a disappointing couple of weeks.

For the 2nd time under my management and only the 2nd time in the club's history, we are champions of Holland.

With the title win, I officially enter the Dutch hall of fame too.

And it also sees me move from a club favourite to a club icon!

Our last 3 games of the season were just a formality but we did still manage to win two of them. Not the ideal ending finishing with a defeat to Ajax, but certainly not complaining after a campaign that saw us win 31 of 34 games!!

With the season wrapping up, the board announce the budgets for next year. Not quite sure where we can improve at the moment so we will see what the Summer brings.

 

[leckuno]

Disappointing end to the cup and Europe League but at least you have the league title and will have Champions League football to look forward to