Fortuna Sittard

[FM_TNSSO]

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

Yea the league was the one I wanted this year, so was pleased to get our title back. Would have been nice to win a cup as well, but my main target was achieved so has to be seen as a good season. Another year of Champions League money next season will be massive for the continued development of the club too.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

END OF SEASON 2029/30 REVIEW

Competition Winners

A record breaking Eredivisie campaign saw us win the total whilst recording the most amount of league wins and the most amount of points in a single season ever!

We came as close as you can come to a domestic double, but defeat in the final of the Dutch Cup robbed us of it.

Again a decent showing in European competition but losing that quarter final to Spurs still hurts as we were definitely the better side over both legs.

The New Arrivals

Best 11

Looking at the overall best 11 since my time here, I now have four players in the 200+ games played club!

Club Awards

League Awards
​

The following of the football club has again seen a sharp increase in social media followers of more than 1.4 million!! We also have a season ticket waiting list with more people on it than our current stadium even holds!

As far as the board are concerned, we are established as one of the best clubs in the country now and Champions League qualification is the bare minimum expectation moving forward.

The Commercials

The Finances

Earlier in the season, I asked the board to increase the stadium capacity to which their initial response was to increase by about 4,000. However, those plans were put on hold and we will now get over 7,000 new seats instead!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 61
First £50 million + Sale
2nd September 2030

Outgoing: My first sale of the Summer is one of the ageing players in the squad. Gijs Smal signed for £3.7 million 4 seasons ago and has been a key figure in the squad with major contribution to our two title winning seasons. He hit double figure assists for three straight seasons but was outshone by Vasilis Zagaritis last year and he is soon to turn 33 years old, so I was happy to move him on. He joins Lorient for £3.5 million.

Outgoing: Then there was a sale I hadn't planned on. However, when Crystal Palace offered us £51 million for Enoch Mastoras, it was just an amount of money I couldn't refuse! The right back has been with us for 6 seasons from a teenager when he signed from AZ for just £3.6 million. He's been my first choice in that position and has been an ultra consistent performer, winning the young player of the year award at the club twice. Sorry to see him go, but we did get a massive amount of money for him!

Incoming: The replacement for Mastoras is 26 year old Italian, Filippo Missori, who signs from Empoli for £8.5 million (all up front). To get a player that looks as rounded as him for just a fraction of the money we brought in for Mastoras is a great deal in my book!

Our pre season campaign saw us win every game, scoring a tonne of goals on a Portuguese tour against smaller sides in the country. We rounded things off with a good win against Palace and I feel suitably prepared going into our clash with Feyenoord in the Johan Cruijff Schaal.

Incoming: The morning of the game, we are able to announce a new signing and I'm delighted to add another Dutch player to the ranks after losing Mastoras and Smal this Summer. Ray van den Berg comes in from Middlesbrough for a fee of £23 million (£21.5 million up front) and boosts our defensive options. Great to add such a versatile player who can cover anywhere across the back line, although I'll primarily look to utilize the 6ft 4" defender at centre back.

It took a penalty shootout to separate the two best sides in the country (based on last season) and it was a shootout we came out on top of, so we lift the Johan Cruijff Schaal for the second time.

We turn our attentions to the start of the Eredivisie season and our first two games will be against two of the only three sides to beat us in the league last season, so not necessarily the easiest start.

Despite being the current champions, we are not favourites to retain it this season, but instead Ajax are hot favourites which surprises me with how poor they were last year. We only have Cristian Aguero retaining his place in the media dream 11.

We did start the campaign with a win. A strong performance which saw us have 23 shots at goal so it was never in doubt and a comfortable 2-0 victory to kick things off.

Our unbeaten start to the season lasted just 1 game this season though as we were beaten by Ajax in our 2nd match. A really poor and slow start from us allowed them two score twice in the opening 8 minutes, through new £79 million signing Nicolas Jackson (from Chelsea). We were the better side after that, but not good enough to get back on level terms.

We did get right back to winning ways against Heracles, although we still struggled to put the ball in the back of the net, scoring only 2 of our 22 chances.

With us, Ajax and Feyenoord all dropping points in the opening games, it was AZ that led the way with 3 wins from 3 in the early stages.

Our next game was against the early leaders and going into the last 12 minutes of the match, there had only been 1 goal as our opponents led us. Then things went a little crazy and four goals were shared by the two sides, with us coming out on top through Bob Monaghan's 86th minute winner!

And that result tightened things right up at the top of the table in these early stages, with just a single point separating 1st to 6th.

Meanwhile, the Champions League fixtures are announced and we have some really tough games ahead of us in the league phase of the competition.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 62
Season Officially Kickstarted
17th October 2030

The Summer transfer window again comes to a close and here are the biggest deals (over £20 million) across Europe from the last few months.

So far this season, I didn't think we'd looked hugely impressive and when we went 1-0 down to NAC within the opening 2 minutes I have to admit I was concerned for a second. However, this match actually turned out to be our best performance of the season so far as we went on to put 6 past them and record a comfortable win in the end.

Fair play to NAC though as they bounce back immediately to beat one of our title rivals in their next game!

We took full advantage of Feyenoord's slip up by beating Go Ahead Eagles to leapfrog them in the table.

Abdallah Sima has been one of my favourite players of my career so far with Sittard. The man I signed from Brighton for just £1.7 million back in 2025 has been one of my most consistent players year on year and now has 49 league goals in 102 appearances for us from the right wing!

Our first Champions League game of the season was one of our more winnable fixtures, so I felt it was a must win game if we are to have any hopes of progressing past the league phase of the competition. So I was pleased to see my lads go out there and make light work of Galatasaray.

The game against Cambuur came just 4 days later, so I made 8 changes to the starting lineup. Despite the changes, we still turned in a solid performance to chalk up another 3 points.

Half the reason I rotated so heavily is becase we had a massive Champions League clash against Man City just 3 days afterwards. It was City who knocked us out of the competition 2 years ago after two tightly contested games in the knockout playoff round.

Again, we keep things tight on the scoreline, despite being dominated for large periods of the game. A very good point away from home!

Another strong defensive performance back in the Eredivise was the foundation of another win.

With all of our main rivals dropping points over the same weekend, we've managed to open up a nice little 4 point lead at the top.

The stadium work has now been completed and we have expanded our capacity to over 25,000 which is double what we had to offer when I took over the club!

It also means we now have the 5th biggest stadium in the country.

Our next game would be away though, at Feyenoord, and we earned a decent draw at their place. We seemed well in control of this one for about an hour, limiting them to just 1 shot and then they upped their game in the last half hour to come back at us and in the end we were holding on a little for the point.

We marked our first game in our new improved stadium with a comfortable victory over Heerenveen, in front of a club record attendance of 25,031 fans!

After 10 games, we sit top of the table with a 5 point lead over four clubs all sitting on 20 points behind us.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 63
Opening Up A Decent Lead
11th December 2030

We were far from our best against PEC Zwolle, but when you create 27 chances in a single game, you probably don't need to be as law of averages says you'll score at least a couple to get you the win, which is exactly what happened here.

Then we headed off to Italy for a really tough game against Napoli. Just as we did against Man City, we put up a brave effort but this time we weren't able to take anything from the game. We are, however, proving that we can mix it with some of the better teams in Europe now.

Our next Champions League game will pit us against Italian opposition again in the form of Monza, but before that we had two more Eredivisie to play. Playing against two sides in the bottom half of the table, 6 points was duly delivered.
​

​

It was the perfect platform to lead us into a Champions League game that I felt we could definitely win. And I wasn't wrong as we cruise past Monza with relative ease. Rodiney's goal here took him into double figures for the season and the young Brazilian is continuing to prove he can be the main man up top for us.

On ten occasions last season, we scored 6 or more goals in a game which is quite incredible really! Against ADO Den Haag, we scored 6 for the third time this season too and we are becoming well versed in handing out a battering to lesser sides.

We probably could have had another 6 against Volendam after creating 30 chances against them. However, on this occasion just the two will do.

Back in the Champions League, we gave ourselves another boost to our chances of qualifying for the next round with a win out in Austria.

But the win came at a cost as I lose one of my biggest attacking threats for at least the next 2 months!

However, the absence of Sima didn't seem to effect us against PSV as we beat them yet again! Our record against them is nothing short of incredible!

That's now 16 games since I took over as Fortuna Sittard boss that PSV have failed to beat us!

FC Utrecht were next to fall to defeat against us. Things were a little nervey as we led 1-0 for a long time, but once we got the 2nd goal, the result was never really in any doubt.

Massive game up next against Ajax, who have beaten us in our last two meetings, including being the only team to beat us so far this season. It's 1st vs 2nd in the table!

It was a game we should have won! We were on top for 90 minutes and created so many chances. However, squandering most of them and only putting the ball in the back of the Ajax net once saw us punished by our opponents as they ****** a lucky point right at the death.

Still, that point does keep us 7 points ahead of both Ajax and Feyenoord as we have passed the half way stage of the season. We're in a nice position right now, especially with both Ajax fixtures played and out the way.

In the Champions League, we did grab a big win out in France, with Bob Monaghan coming off the bench to bag a brace on our way to 3 points.

It's a win that keeps us firmly in the top 8 with 2 games to play. Our final two matches will be against Dortmund and Inter so we still have plenty of work to do if we want auto qualification into the last 16!

 

[leckuno]

making the league look easy now. Hopefully keep it going and can secure the title again

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 64
Progress On All Fronts
2nd February 2031

Our final Eredivisie game before the Winter break was against 17th placed N.E.C and they weren't expected to pose us much of a problem...and they didn't!

Our very last game of 2030 was in the Dutch Cup. It's Ajax for us in the Second Round of the KNVB Beker this season and although it isn't ideal to be drawing them so early in the competition, it is at least a massive opportunity for both clubs to get rid of one of our main rivals. So far in the cup, we've met twice before and it's 1-1.

Just as we did in the league game last month, we dominated the game and created multiple chances. Just as we did before, we took a 1-0 lead! But not as before, we didn't concede this time and hold on for a massive result to knock Ajax out of the competition!

Heracles were up next for us in the Eredivisie...a team we have won 15 straight matches against!

Make that 16 wins in a row!

It was a quick return to the Dutch Cup and we cruise past lower league Top OSS. The game was over inside 27 minutes with us already 5-0 up and I found myself subbing key players after just half an hour to rest them.

After us knocking Ajax out, Feyenoord have now been dumped out by NAC at an early stage. With our two biggest rivals out of the competition already, we have to be targeting the trophy this season now!

Being able to rest key players proved vital as we took on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and a solid defensive performance ensured that Rodiney's 19th minute strike was enough for a massive win!

Our final game of the league phase will be against Inter Milan in 8 days time and a draw will be enough for us to secure a top 8 finish and a place in the last 16.

Incoming: The January window has been very quiet for us so far, but I was approached by the agent for Brazilian forward, Kaio Jorge, to see if we would be interested in signing him. He has been without a club since being released by ATM at the end of his contract and I was more than happy to snap up the ex Juventus player on a free transfer.

Before the showdown with Inter Milan, we had a league game with AZ to play and I put new striker, Kaio Jorge, into the starting lineup for this one. The new man made his contribution as he got the assist for our equalizer as we come from behind to win.

Our Champions League encounter with Inter looked like it was getting off to the perfect start when we were awarded a penalty as early as the 5th minute. However, Miguel Reisinho missed the spot kick and that set the tone for one of our worst performances of the season as we are well beaten at home. The only positive I can really take it seeing Kaio Jorge come off the bench to get his first goal for the club.

Despite the defeat, we do still finish 6th in the league phase and secure safe passage through to the last 16. It's a fantastic achievement to go through and avoid having to play in the knockout playoff where we were eliminated from the competition on our only other appearance in it.

Incoming: On transfer deadline day, I forked out £10 million (all up front) to sign former Spanish U21 International centre back, Andres Cuenca. He comes in from Bodo/Glimt and at just 23 years of age, he should spend his prime years at the club.

Outgoing: Bob Monaghan leaves the club before the Dutch window closes. He has only featured in 23 league games over the past 2 seasons, scoring 12 times, but with the recent arrival of Kaio Jorge and some decent striker prospects coming through the youth I just didn't see much of a future for the Scot at the club. He returns to the UK where he'll play for Derby County after they paid us £18.5 million to sign him. It's a good return on a player I only paid £4.8 million to sign.

Back to the action on the pitch and we resumed winning ways against NAC, despite not being at our best.

With 12 games of the season remaining, we are 9 points clear at the top. Surely it's ours to lose from here!

 

[ricardo12]

Haven't played FM in ages. Just started playing 24 recently and enjoying reading career stories.
And I must say I love your content!

Keep up the good work.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Haven't played FM in ages. Just started playing 24 recently and enjoying reading career stories.
And I must say I love your content!

Keep up the good work.

Thanks mate, I really appreciate this!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 65
The Worst Possible Champions League Draw
14th March 2031

Not an ideal start to this update as we lose new striker Kaio Jorge to injury for up to 6 weeks!

Even without him, we comfortably progress to the semi final of the Dutch Cup with 4 goal victory over FC Emmen.

It looks very much set up for a final between us and AZ and I have to be honest that I'll be bitterly disappointed if we don't lift the trophy this year from here.

Juan Hernandez was in sensational form as he scored a brace in a man of the match performance as we beat Go Ahead pretty easily in the Eredivisie.

The Spaniard is having a decent season and now has 11 goals and 6 assists in 28 appearances in all competitions. He's proving to be an absolute bargain at just £5 million from Barcelona.

He's now attracting interest from Spanish clubs, but to prize him away, he'll cost them at least £40 million + now!

Another 3 points were chalked up against Cambuur, even though our performance was nowhere near as dominant as it has been of late. But we are defending well and this was our third clean sheet in a row.

And it's another clean sheet as we cruise through to the final of the KNVB Beker! We are just 1 win away from winning our 3rd Dutch Cup under my management.

It was time for the Champions League last 16 draw and from the pool of unseeded teams, it's fair to say I was hoping for a draw against Club Brugge. Failing that, Real Sociedad and Lyon would be preferable!

But luck wasn't on our side in the draw and we have one of the toughest ties we could possibly have ahead of us now!

PSG are the current holders and have won the competition twice in the last five years! It really doesn't get any tougher for us!

Before heading out to Paris for the 1st leg, we would appreciate a game against much easier opposition in the Eredivisie.

We were dominated by PSG in all honesty. However, we did at least manage to restrict the score to 2-0 and give ourselves a slim chance of turning it around in the 2nd leg...although we'll have to play much better than we did here to do so!

Of all the league games to have sandwiched between the two legs, Feyenoord were not ideal opponents as I wouldn't have any opportunity to rest my best players, or it would at least be a big risk to do so.

We have a healthy lead in the league so I decided it was a risk worth taking and we still managed to get the win so it paid off! A massive result in the title race!

It was a result that saw us take a massive leap towards the league title and probably dumps Feyenoord out of the race. With just 8 games to go, Ajax are our main threat, but they still remain 9 points back and we have already played them twice, so they will be relying on us losing 3 games whilst they win all of their remaining!

All of our efforts will now go into a potential domestic double as we are out of the Champions League. It was a brave effort from my lads in the 2nd leg against PSG and if Filippo Ranocchia hadn't two footed Mbappe and subsequently seen red just before half time, we might just have turned this game around ya know!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 66
Looking To Finish Strong
19th May 2031

PSV did us a massive favour by beating Ajax before we took on Heerenveen. If we win our game in hand, we could now go 12 points clear at the top!

And we did just that! Great performance away from home against the side sitting 4th in the table.

And we followed it up with another win against Zwolle. Good to see two products of our youth academy on the scoresheet!

This year's youth intake is pretty average, although there is one player that excites me for the future.

Ton van der Plas is only 15 years old and has some impressive states for an attacking midfielder. If he develops well, he could be a future first teamer for us.

He is tipped as potentially being the next Xavi Simons. Could be worse than being compared to a Real Madrid regular.

Our next game would be a personal milestone for me as it would be my 400th as manager of Fortuna Sittard.

And we marked the occasion with a big win over our fiercest rivals.

Excelsior did well to get a couple of goals against us on the break, but they were no real match for us as we put 5 past them! It brings us to within a single win from retaining our Eredivisie title.

In the space of the next week, we could complete a domestic double as we face AZ in the Dutch Cup final and then if we can beat ADO Den Haag then the league title will be ours too.

Part 1 is complete in dominant fashion as AZ were barely even able to muster up a chance against us! We are Dutch Cup winners for the 3rd time under my leadership!

Part 2 was completed seven days later in emphatic fashion! We are officially Eredivisie champions again and double winners too!

We finished the season well, remaining unbeaten in our final three games despite already having the title sewn up.

So it's comfortable in the end with a 10 point gap at the top and Feyenoord will be bitterly disappointed with their lack of title challenge this season, being a massive 21 points off the pace!

With the season coming to a close, the board release the budgets for next season, but I do have a couple of deals already sorted for when the window opens (which were completed in April out of the remainder of this season's budget) but we will get to them later.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

END OF SEASON 2030/31 REVIEW

Competition Winners

The Eredivisie campaign for us was near perfect this year, winning 30 of our 34 games and losing just once on our way to the title.

Eredivisie Season Stats

When Ajax (knocked out by us) and Feyenoord were both out of the Dutch Cup early on, we targeted the trophy and went on to win it to complete the domestic double.

We gave a good account of ourselves in the Champions League this season, competing with some of the best sides in Europe in individual games. PSG was not an ideal draw for the last 16 and proved too strong for us.

Overall Squad Stats

The New Arrivals

The Best 11

Club Awards

League Awards
​

Another great season ensured our popularity keeps on growing, with over 1.3 million new followers gained on social media this year. Our season ticket waiting list is also nearly 40,000 strong now too!

Which is going to be helped by our stadium gaining another 10,000 seats!

And the training facilities are getting a new upgrade to keep them as state of the art too.

As far as the board are concerned now, anything less than winning the Eredivisie will now be seen as failure in the coming seasons.

We continue to develop relationships with clubs around the world to enhance our global reputation and the latest affiliation is in China.

The Commercials

The Finances

​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 67
An Elite Signing...On A Free!
11th August 2031

We had three senior players leave the club this Summer at the end of their contracts. All three have played important roles for me, but are now only fringe player quality or coming toward the latter end of their careers, but all three have done enough for us to be worthy of a mention and a look back over their Fortuna careers.

Outgoing: My first sale of the Summer is that of centre back, Will Fish. He has played 140 league games for me, so it's fair to say he will be remembered by myself and the fans, but again we have better players now and Getafe were willing to pay £17.5 million for him, which I personally thought was over the odds so was happy to take it.

Incoming: There is a direct replacement for Fish joining the club anyway. Mads Bech Sorensen joins us on a free transfer after his contract with Atletico comes to an end. I pre-arranged this deal back in January and am happy to bring such a high class player to the club who will add some solid experience to the back line.

Incoming: Now it's time to announce the two deals I completed back in April as well, with the window opening they can finally join us. First of all is 19 year old Uruguayan, Ignacio Fernandez who comes in from Penarol for £3.6 million (all up front). It's a bargain deal for a player who is worth much more on his first day here and could develop further into a very, very good attacking player.

Incoming: The better of the two 19 year old signings though is Ukrainian wonderkid, Vladimir Proshkin and this kid excites me. I met his minimum fee release clause of £13.25 million to sign him from Shakhtar and he was being pursued by other big European sides, so it's definitely a coup to get him! He's got great pace and acceleration, is a top finisher, great crosser and a brilliant dribbler of the ball. He's going to bring some serious flair to the attacking unit.

Outgoing & Incoming: There was a change in the backup goalkeeper department this Summer too as Owen Goodman leaves for Dortmund after agreeing a pre contract deal to join them on a free. I replaced him with 33 year old Dutch keeper Maarten Paes who joins from Rennes for £3 million.

Outgoing: Mehdi Bendaoud is a product of our youth academy but doesn't look all that to me, so when Napoli were prepared to pay £8.75 million to sign him, I was happy to let him go.

Outgoing: It was the same story for Marits Keizer who joins Kaiserslautern for £8 million.

Incoming: When an opportunity to sign an elite player comes along for a club like us, it doesn't matter how old they are, you just kind of have to take it. And that's exactly what we've done in signing 33 year old Christopher Nkunku on a free transfer after his release from Chelsea.

Our pre season campaign this year has been good and included a successful tour of Switzerland which was capped off by an 8-0 win over St Gallen. But the most impressive victory of our friendly run was the last one over RB Leipzig.

After winning the domestic double last season, we would contest the Johan Cruijff Schaal against league runners up, Ajax. It was a game we dominated for the entirity of the game, but took us right up until the final 30 seconds of the match to eventually find the back of the net. Although we made hard work of it, we do kick our season off with a win and a trophy again.

As we look ahead to the start of the Eredivisie season, it is Ajax that are the favourites for the title, but we are a very close second now with odds of just 2/1. When I took over at the club we were a mid table side at best, with title odds of 150/1 so we have made incredible progress. We now have 7 players in the media dream 11 too, so it's clearly the best squad I've ever had at the club as I entre my 9th season in charge.

We started the campaign with a display that backed up our position as one of the title favourites, by hammering newly promoted FC Eindhoven. Christopher Nkunku with a man of the match performance on his debut!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 68
Record Transfer Fee Broken
17th September 2031

Outgoing: Franz Michiels is another player that has come through our youth academy. He has had some time on loan and now he is 20, it was time to evaluate whether he was good enough for our first team. I decided he wasn't and Willem II have signed him from us for £10.5 million (£7 million up front).

Incoming: With the Michiels deal completed, we had a healthy transfer budget and I decided to blow the lot on one player. Sebastian Martinez is a defensive midfielder with real quality and knows this league well after spending a season with Feyenoord back in 2028/29. He joins us from Porto for a fee of £29 million, with £20.5 million paid up front. It breaks the club's record transfer fee again - something I have done several times since arriving at the club.

Our first away day of the season resulted in victory at Heerenveen. The scoreline doesn't reflect our entire dominance though as our opponents didn't have a single shot in the whole game!

Our encounters with Ajax and Feyenoord have now become pivotal parts of the season and getting the better of them in these games is massive even if it is only the 3rd game of the season.

It's lucky the Nkunku has made such a positive start to his career with us as he is likely to be playing more than anticipated over the first couple of months of the season, as we lose Rasmus Henriksen to injury.

The Champions League fixtures are announced and we have some tough games ahead of us against the likes of Bayern, Arsenal and Manchester United. On a positive note, if we are in the running to qualify with two games left, then we definitely have a chance of picking up wins against Anderlecht and Shakhtar.

Outgoing Loan: With the incoming players this Summer, I have a surplus on the wing and something had to give. Daan Rots has been an excellent player for me over the last few years since joining from FC Twente, contributing with goals and assists consistently every season! However, he has fallen down the pecking order and is 30 years old now, so he has been allowed to join Molde on loan for the season. We will bag a monthly fee, they will pay all of his wages and they can sign him for an optional fee of £3.1 million during the loan spell.

Outgoing Loan: Another player leaving on loan for the season is ex captain of the club, Miguel Reisinho. He has recently complained of being home sick and I was always going to do the right thing by one of my favourite players of my career. Reisinho was one of my first signings at the club and he captained us to our first ever league title so will always have a special place in my heart! He now returns to Portugal to join Penafiel for the season and they can sign him for a fee of £1.1 million to make the deal permanent.

And with that the transfer window is closed. Here's the biggest deals of the Summer across Europe (above £20 million).

Before we ventured into the Champions League for the first time this season, we had three more Eredivisie games to play and we took care of our opponents with ease in all three of them. Good to see the goals being shared around the side, with 9 different scorers in these 3 wins.

Our first Champions League game would be against Nice and we had to be confident of kicking things off with a win after we beat them in the league phase last season.

And we beat them again this year, by a more convincing scoreline. I had some fitness issues, so had to put 20 year old Jack Sanders (who came through our academy) on the bench...with 19 minutes to go, I introduced him into the game and he scored a debut goal for himself.

Another four goals were then put past ADO Den Haag as we kept up our 100% record in the Eredivisie this year.

We are the only side to win all of our opening 7 games, which sees us top the table at this early stage. Feyenoord are our nearest pursuers as they also remain unbeaten.

Our first defeat did come at the hands of Bayern Munich in the Champions League and was probably expected, but we gave a good account of ourselves out in Germany and can take positives from this game.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 69
Some Big Injuries That Could Threaten Our Season
30th November 2031

Against FC Utrecht, we turned in a lacklustre 1st half performance and the scores were still level at the break. However, I made my feelings known at half time that I wanted to see better and the lads went out and delivered in the second 45!

We were then hit by another injury as we lose Filippo Missori for a few months. The right back has had an excellent start to the season, so it's definitely a blow to lose him!

It was back to back wins to nil against Venlo and Vitesse in the Eredivisie and that makes it ten wins from ten in the league so far this season!

But it's not all good news as we lose yet another key player for months! Christopher Nkunku has proven to be more important than I thought he'd be, but he will now miss a significant part of the season!

And with that, our 100% record in the league is also gone as we fail to put the ball in the back of the net against Zwolle.

At least we got back to taking our chances against Monaco in a much needed victory in the Champions League.

We had kept 5 straight clean sheets in all competitions before meeting Cambuur in the Eredivisie, who did manage to put one past us courtesy of a massive deflection. However, we scored twice to ensure we still took the 3 points against one of the overachievers of the season so far.

It was Fenerbahce at home for us next in the Champions League and it was a match I was seeing as a must win. The reason being that we would follow this game with two really tough fixtures against Man Utd and Arsenal from which it would be tough to take any points.

We got the job done in convincing fashion. Rodiney has been a little in and out of form this season, so it was good to see him bag a hat trick here which hopefully he can now kick on from.

Although we have a couple of tough games coming up, we have put ourselves in a nice position at the half way stage of the league phase.

We had a massive game in the Eredivisie against one of our main title rivals...or they're at least supposed to be although you wouldn't think it from the result! It's our biggest victory over Feyenoord in 9 seasons of me being here!

The expansion to the stadium has now been completed and we can boast a capacity of more than 36,500 now!

Only Ajax and Feyenoord can fit more fans into their stadium than us in the country now!

We've overtaken PSV in stadium size and it's fair to say that we are a bigger team than them now as well. We might not have as much of a rich history, but they have never really been challengers since I took over at Fortuna and I never really worry about taking them on these days. Their lack of threat was once again proven as we beat them again in the league.

Possibly our most impressive win of the season came in our next game though as we travelled to Manchester in the Champions League and returned home with all 3 points. We had to ride some pressure at times, but defended well, took our chances when they came and record an excllent victory.

The Manchester United win did come at a cost though as I lose one of my best centre backs for the next month or so.

But our position in the league phase of the competition is cemented in the top 8 and we look on course to qualify directly for the last 16 again, which would be a great achievement if we can do that for the second season in a row. Ajax are also having a decent Champions League campaign which can only be good for Dutch football.

Back in the Eredivisie, it was case of business as usual as we beat Go Ahead Eagles without any issues whatsoever.

And that ensures we remain unbeaten after 15 games and retain a 3 point lead over Ajax who are trying their hardest to keep up with us this year, only losing once themselves (we do have a game in hand though).

 

[CrokayVessel]

Fantastic save! I was looking for a new save for a while & this has inspired me to go to my grandfathers heritage & start a save with SC Heerenveen! Good luck for next season!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Fantastic save! I was looking for a new save for a while & this has inspired me to go to my grandfathers heritage & start a save with SC Heerenveen! Good luck for next season!

Thanks mate, glad you've enjoyed the read so far!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 70
Domestic Dominance
25th January 2032

Two Eredivisie games in 4 days would take us to the half way point of the season! We had 51 shots on goal across those two games and when you have that many attempts, you're pretty much always going to win games and sure enough, it was another 6 points on the board.

That would lead us into a Champions League encounter with an Arsenal team that desperately needed a win, as they sat 23rd in the league phase after 5 games and were in potential danger of not even qualifying for the knockout playoff at this rate. One player they do still have in their ranks is my favourite IRL, Bukayo Saka who has gone on to win the Ballon d'Or three times in his career.

Saka wasn't able to prevent Arsenal losing to us though and this is another massive result for us in this year's competition.

With 2 games of the league phase remaining, we sit 2nd behind Porto and with our last 2 matches being against Anderlecht and Shakhtar, I would fully expect us to qualify for the last 16 from here.

Our last 2 fixtures of 2031 will pit us against the same side as we take on Heerenveen in both the league and cup.

It was advantage to us as we won the league fixture pretty comfortably, meaning we could go into the cup game full of confidence of progressing in the competition.

Thanks to a second half brace from Ignacio Fernandez, we are indeed through to the next round of the cup and we remain unbeaten in domestic competitions this season.

In the third round, we will face off against VVV-Venlo.

I haven't had an approach from another club for a while, but Newcastle have become the latest in my career to invite me to interview for the manager's job at their club. With them sitting 11th in the Premier League, it wasn't a job that appeals to me in any way right now.

As we come to the end of the calendar year, the European Golden Boy is announced and for the second time, one of our players wins the award for the most promising youngster in Europe.

Incoming: The January transfer window is now open and it's likely to be a quiet window for us with not a lot of money left in the budget. However, there was an arrival on the opening day as 17 year old youth prospect, Rick Hup, signs from PSV for £950k.

Our first game of the New Year was against FC Eindhoven, who we had thrashed 5-1 on the opening day of the season. The scoreline wasn't so impressive this time round, but it is another easy win and another 3 points!

We're comfortably through to the quarter finals of the Dutch Cup again as well after beating our fiercest rivals by a big margin.

Where we will now take on Feyenoord in a battle of two of the tournament favourites.

Outgoing: There is a big departure again this transfer window as 23 year old attacking midfielder, Gustavo Hormazabal joins Bournemouth. He wanted a move in the Summer but I couldn't get enough money for him and agreed to let him leave if someone was willing to pay £25 million + for him. As it turns out, The Cherries were willing to pay £29.5 million (with £21 million up front). Again, it's a fantastic profit for us on a player I only paid £1.6 million for.

With progress in the domestic cup sorted, we turned our attentions back to European competition and with a win out in Belgium, we assure progress in the Champions League as well! For the second season in a row, we have finished in the top 8 of the league phase and made it straight through to the last 16 and that's impressive.

If we win our last game, we might even finish top of the pile!

Back in the Erevisie, we had a tough away day at Ajax to contend with. Or at least it was supposed to be tough...we absolutely batter our biggest rivals in the title race this season on their own turf and is this a sign of just how dominant we have become in domestic Dutch football now?!

With that victory, we now have a massive 14 point lead at the top of the table!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 71
Competing On Multiple Fronts Makes For A Busy Schedule
15th March 2032

Incoming: After Gustavo Hormazabal joined Bournemouth a couple of weeks ago, we now have a player coming back in the opposite direction as we sign 22 year old Dane, Martin Jensen, from the South coast club. He only cost us £3.5 million and will act as a fringe player to provide cover in the Eredivise, giving me an opportunity to rest key players for the Champions League games.

Our final Champions League game against Shakhtar resulted in another win and another 3 points in the league phase for us. It was 3 points that ensured we finished top of the pile...if only this meant we were the Champions League Champions eh?!

In the Eredivise we took on bottom side NAC and I took the opportunity to rest a whole load of players, with a Cup quarter final on the horizon against Feyenoord. NAC actually took a shock lead in the game, but we rallied and ended up putting 6 past them on our way to an emphatic victory.

We are now 53 games unbeaten in the Eredivisie across the last 2 seasons and that is a new Dutch record!

Resting most of my first team in the league game against NAC proved to be a worthy exercise as in the quarter final of the Dutch Cup against Feyenoord, we managed to overcome one of our main rivals with considerable ease. It was a game that saw the return of Christopher Nkunku after nearly 4 months out as he came off the bench for the second half and his return to the first team can only bode well for the back end of the season!

The semi final will now pit us against our other biggest rivals and an away draw makes things that little bit trickier for us to make the final again. If we do, I fancy our chances of lifting the trophy again though!

Excelsior are the biggest overachievers in the Eredivisie this season and are pushing hard for a European qualification place. And to be fair to them, they gave us a very good game here and pushed us closer than most have done this year, but we just had that extra bit of quality to come out on top.

AZ were no such challenge and we beat them pretty easily.

Rodiney now has 19 goals in all competitions this season and of late, he just can't stop scoring and now has 12 in his last 9 appearances.

It was time for the last 16 draw of the Champions League. There were some massive sides in the unseeded side of the draw and I was hoping we might get Monaco, Newcastle or Benfica as I felt these were our most winnable ties. After getting PSG at this stage last year, surely we would get a bit better luck in this season's draw?

We didn't get any of the three I was after, but Roma is probably the best of the rest we could have hoped for and although it will be a tight couple of games, I feel this is winnable.

Before the first leg, we had an Eredivisie fixture against ADO Den Haag...a fixture that resulted in another easy win and another 2 goals for Rodiney!

With the first leg of our Champions League fixture being out in Italy, my plan was to keep things tight and if we could go into the home leg level on terms with Roma, we would have a good chance to progress. What I didn't expect was to be the much more dominant side and return home with the lead. It is only a single goal though, so we'll still have to be on our A game in the return leg.

Back in the Eredivisie, we looked like we might be suffering a Champions League hangover in the first half and we went into the break at 0-0. However, that second half performance was pretty unbelievable!

Carrying a 1-0 lead from the first leg, I probably shouldn't have felt as nervous as I did for the second game against Roma in the Champions League, with home advantage now on our side. My lads relayed any fears of letting the opportunity slip through our fingers with a solid performance and a good win against our Italian opposition to see us into the quarter final of the competition.

We will now face a very tough quarter final against 6 times competition winners, Liverpool!

The games are coming thick and fast and a league tie with VVV Venlo was only 4 days later. And 4 days after this, we'd have a semi final of the Dutch Cup to play against Ajax. Therefore, I took the opportunity to rest as many players as I could here and a full 11 changes were made to the starting lineup! It cost us as we turned in our worst display of the season and suffer defeat in the league for the first time this year.

It's disappointing to lose our unbeaten record, but with such a huge lead at the top of the table, it shouldn't make a difference to where the league title is going again this season!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 72
The Business End
14th April 2032

With us looking to wrap up the league title, lift another Dutch Cup and progress in the Champions League, this was very much the business end of the season and I would have to carefully balance the players fitness whilst ensuring we are at our best every game to ensure maximum success on all fronts.

After resting my first choice starting eleven in our last league game, which resulted in our first league defeat of the season, we had to make sure it was worth it against Ajax in the semi final of the Dutch Cup. And we did exactly that as we breeze past our main rivals to make the final once again. It was a tight first half, but the introduction of Kaio Jorge saw him get us off the mark before a Juan Hernandez masterclass as he bagged a hat trick.

It'll be PSV for us in the final now and it's worth noting that I've never lost to them! Surely we will go into this as hot favourites.

We had a league title to wrap up before that though and that started with a home win against Vitesse, where Ignacio Fernandez was in sensational form, scoring a perfect hat trick with right foot, left foot and header!

That win left us just 1 victory away from wrapping up the title.

And we got the job done in our very next game away at Zwolle. We are Champions of Holland once again!

On a more negative note, our youth intake this year is absolute dog ****!

However, more positively, we do have three players listed in the top 50 wonderkids this season and all three of them did come through our youth academy. All three of them are out on loan at the moment across Europe and performing well.

Andy Hasselbaink has even just had his first call up and cap for the Dutch national team, whilst Nziza is becoming a very established centre back. Both of these two will be promoted to the senior squad and feature for us next season for sure, whilst Lyall Felgate will also get some game time as well.

Back to the action on the pitch and we celebrate our title win with a victory against Cambuur in front of our own fans.

Just 3 days after the Cambuur game, we had the first leg of our Champions League tie against Liverpool to play. Heading out to the North West of England, for our first encounter with Liverpool under my management, we managed to come back with an unlikely victory. A massive result in the away leg that should give us a confidence boost we can get the job done at home and progress to the semis.

We had a league game against Feyenoord in between the two legs and with the title already won, I took the opportunity to rest as many players as possible. Even with a weakened side and a second half red card, we still managed to get the win. Is the Dutch league just a bit too easy for us now...well, I think it's safe to say that this season it has been!

I mean...nobody has got anywhere near us this season!

Just 3 days after the win over Feyenoord, we were back in Champions League action for that 2nd leg against Liverpool. With a 3-2 lead and home advantage now on our side, we had every reason to feel confident we could progress to the semi finals of the competition for the first time. That confidence was not misplaced as we pull off possibly the most incredible result of my whole career! The other three sides in the final 4 will be on red alert after our display here!

It's more English opposition for us in the semis as we face Arsenal...who we have beaten in this year's league phase already.