Fortuna Sittard

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 41
Back To Back 10.0 Match Ratings
31st December 2027

Our first encounter with Sparta Rotterdam after beating them in the cup final last year ended in another resounding victory for us. Great result!

It was a game that saw Rasmus Henriksen score a hat trick and one of our newest players has made a really impressive start to life at the club!

Another win over newly promoted De Graafschap followed after the International break.

And that is back to back 10/10 performances for Rasmus Henriksen. I don't think I've ever seen two perfect 10.0 match ratings back to back!

We knew Tottenham (now managed by the legend that is Zinedine Zidane) would present us with an altogether tougher proposition, especially coming into the game having won all 4 of their Europa League games. We didn't get anything from the game, but the performance was respectable!

Against lesser opposition in the Eredivisie we hammered in 6 goals, with Anwar El Ghazi having an exceptional game scoring a hat trick and getting 2 assists as well!

Rasmus Henriksen was then at his very best against FC Utrecht again! This kid is turning out to be an amazing signing!

Massive game up next against Feyenoord. We have already gained ourselves a draw away at Ajax this year and beaten PSV at home...can we get a decent result against the last of the big 3?!

We did get another valuable point away from home, but it was disappointing to throw a 2-0 lead!

There was no such complacency in the Europa League though as we beat Lodogorets out in Bulgaria pretty easily.

There's only 2 games of the league phase left to go and we will need to get results in possibly both our matches against Vikingur and Sturm Graz to ensure our place in the top 8 and safe passage to the knockout phase.

Our last league match of 2027 ends in a disappointing draw at home to FC Emmen. Bad performance, bad result!

After just going through the half way stage of the season, it would seem to be a two way title race between us and Ajax. Feyenoord and PSV could easily catch up if we lose a couple of games though, so we need to keep on our A game!

Our final game of the calendar year was our first game in the TOTO KNVB Beker as we start the defence of our trophy! And we had no problems getting through to the 3rd round.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 42
January Window In Full Swing
28th January 2028

Vitesse away in the Eredivisie was our first game back after the Winter break and a nice strike into the bottom corner from 25 yards out from Nicholas Pierini earns us all 3 points. Very relieved to take the win here after letting a 2 goal lead slip!

Outgoing: The January transfer window has brought about a lot of interest in a lot of my players. The first one to leave the club is striker, Steffen Tigges. He has been a good player for us over the past 3 and a half seasons and has scored 38 goals in 91 league appearances for the club. However, I just feel we have outgrown him a little and when Los Angeles Football Club were willing to pay a fee of £14.5 million (which could rise to £18.5 million with add ons), I just couldn't refuse.

He breaks the record for the club's biggest sale.

Incoming: His replacement is a young Scot who has already been making his mark on the Cinch Premiership in his home land. 19 year old Bob Monaghan signs from St Johnstone as we activate his £4.8 million minimum fee release clause, where he has already scored 35 goals in the top tier in Scotland.

I'd have loved to play the youngster against lower league opposition in the Dutch Cup, but he had a small injury that will keep him out for a couple of weeks. Instead, it was our own product of the youth academy, Marcel van der Plas who led the line who gave a decent account of himself (without getting on the scoresheet) in a 2-0 win as we progress to the quarter finals.

The shock of the round was FC Emmen knocking out Feyenoord! That's PSV and Feyenoord both out in the early stages of the competition this year.

Outgoing: Remy Vita is a player I wasn't planning or expecting to sell this window. The left back has been the ultimate rotation player for us in that position since my arrival, without ever really being first choice. He's always done well when he steps into the team though, but when Bournemouth were willing to pay £13.5 million for him, again it was an offer too good to refuse.

During my years at the club already, we have managed to put 8 past a couple of teams in Europe and 9 past PSV in a freak result in the Eredivisie. However, I genuinely felt that we had a good opportunity to hit double figures for the first time as we went into the Europa League fixture against Icelandic minnows, Vikingur Reykjavik....and I wasn't wrong!

I think it's the first time ever that I have had three players in a single match score 10.0 match ratings.

And the win was a new record high for the club!

Willem II have seen some gradual improvement year on year since I took over as Fortuna manager. During the last 4 seasons, they have won promotion, before steadily improving their Eredivisie position. This year they are doing even better and sit 5th at present and come into our game on a 5 match unbeaten run.

And they pulled off the win against us as well! We were poor here though and despite creating some excellent chances, we just couldn't get that equalizer and even missed a pen as well!

The result not only hands the initiative to Ajax in the title race, it also allows Feyenoord and PSV to close in on us!

Incoming: After the departure of Remy Vita, I needed another left back in the squad. The player I turn to is Greek international, Vasilis Zagaritis, who joins from Salernitana for a fee of £2.7 million (all paid up front).

Zagaritis went straight into the starting lineup for the Europa League clash with Sturm Graz and bagged himself a debut assist on our way to an easy win. Young striker Marcel van der Plas scored a brace as our youngster continues to enhance his reputation.

It ensures we finish in the top 8 of the league phase and we are successfully through to the last 16 of the competition for the 3rd year running.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Good to see you joining the big boys now with selling players for a decent value which can then be reinvested into the squad

It's a massive step in being able to compete in Holland, but has taken a good 4 seasons to build the squad to a level where we can develop players for decent fees. It's all about replacing them with good quality for cheap now to keep that cycle going.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 43
Deadline Day Goalkeeper Business
25th February 2028

New striker Bob Monaghan has been injured since joining the club, but is long awaited debut came in the Eredivisie against FC Groningen. He came off the bench on 63 minutes when we were 3-0 up and the youngster scored our 4th in stoppage time to bag a debut goal for himself!

Incoming: Transfer deadline day was all about the goalkeepers. First up, I moved to bring in a better quality backup keeper as Owen Goodman joins the club from Crystal Palace for a fee of £2.7 million. He is better than Verrips and strengthens us in the goalkeeper position.

Outgoing: Then something happened that I was not prepared for, with just 4 hours of the deadline remaining. Antwerp approached me with a £21 million offer for number 1 keeper, Fabian de Keijzer. I didn't want to sell, so I went back with a stupid counter offer of £33.5 million thinking they would pull out, but they agreed to the deal. It's a sum of money that I just can't reject so he moves to Belgium!

Incoming: But it did leave a void between the sticks. I had a huge amount of money to spend, but instead I feel I picked up a bit of a bargain. 20 year old South African keeper, Spike Brits, looks like a great keeper already and will only improve. I've managed to pick him up from Manchester City for a fee of just £6.5 million (all paid up front) and with him being worth more than double that on his first day at the club, it's an amazing deal for us. Now the 20 year old just has to show that he can step up to first team football despite his young age.

It does also leave the club's bank balance in an incredibly healthy position and a transfer budget with plenty of cash in it, although I didn't have many plans to spend much of it.

Incoming: Although I did use £3.1 million of it to bring in one of Feyenoord's promising young midfielders. Samu Oversier could have a decent future in the game and we will monitor his development closely over the next few years.

Here's the biggest deals across Europe for the January window.

Our first game back after the hectic deadline day was a Dutch Cup Quarter Final clash with Go Ahead Eagles. They're a team we've had some mixed fortunes against of late, but on this occasion it is us that get the better of the battle and progress to the last 4.

And that sets up a massive semi final against Ajax. We find ourselves in a very similar position to last season...if we can beat the favourites in the semi then we will be hot favourites to win the final.

Back in the Eredivisie, we enjoyed an absolute goalfest against Heracles, eventually getting a couple of late goals to seal a good win away from home from one of this season's overachievers.

The following week would be the biggest of our season so far. We will face off against Ajax twice in the space of just 4 days. With home advantage on our side in both matches, we have an opportunity to jump Ajax to the top of the Eredivisie and potentially knock them out of the cup as well...although it will be anything but easy!

The league game didn't go our way, but mostly due to our own downfall as we went down to 10 men so early in the game with Lucan de los Santos red card.

The result has allowed Ajax to open up a 5 point lead over us at the top of the table and we've fot Feyenoord now breathing down our necks as well!

On a more positive note, we did get immediate revenge on Ajax and progress to the cup final again. Can we make it back to back domestic cup wins?!

And we have a massive opportunity to do so as our opposition will be from the division below!

Meanwhile in the Europa League, we got the worst possible draw available to us in the last 16. Juventus beat us in the league phase of the competition and will be amongst the favourites to lift the trophy, so we will be up against it to progress past them.

 

[misterioBean]

I can tell you with confidence Spike Brits is a quality pick up. He looks even better in your save when compared to mine so you shouldn't have many problems when you do call him up

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I can tell you with confidence Spike Brits is a quality pick up. He looks even better in your save when compared to mine so you shouldn't have many problems when you do call him up

Going straight into the first team lineup mate so I hope you're right

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 44
Another Underwhelming Youth Intake, But We Do Have One Of The Best Youngsters In The World!
2nd April 2028

Sitting 5 points behind Ajax in the league meant that we really couldn't afford to drop anymore points, so it was really disappointing that we did exactly that in our very next game against opposition we should have beat!

At least we went out and battered PSV in our next game as the lads bounce back in spectacular fashion.

Incredibly, I've never lost to PSV in the whole time I've been manager of Fortuna Sittard. Our record against them is quite something considering they are one of the 'big three'.

Things have quickly tightened up at the top again as Ajax have lost back to back games!

We headed out to Italy for the first leg of our Europa League last 16 tie. We lost to a 96th minute goal out there in the league phase of the competition earlier in the season, so we know we can give them a game!

And again we matched them and this time, it was us who edged the game by a single goal. A massive result in the away leg, although we will still need to be at our best to see the tie out.

Rotation was required as we faced Heerenveen between the two Juventus games, but we still managed to chalk up another 3 points. A good result against one of the better sides in the division on their home turf, with a weakened 11 fielded.

I wanted us to play on the front foot in the 2nd leg against Juventus as I was confident that if we scored the first goal of the game, we would be in a strong position to go on and win the tie. However, things didn't go to plan at all and within 5 minutes, it was actually Juve that had levelled up the tie through ex Arsenal man, Emile Smith Rowe. However, we responded well and by half time we'd scored twice and took a two goal lead in the tie with 45 minutes to play. We knew the Italian side would come hard at us and they did just that, but we managed to hold them to just 1 goal and win the tie 3-2 overall! A massive scalp for us as we knock out one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

It's another side we played in the league phase for us in the quarter final as we take on Swiss side, Luzern. We beat them 3-1 earlier in the season and have every reason to feel confident we can progress to the semi final with this draw.

We'll return to the Eredivisie for three games first and that kicked off with an encounter with AZ who were top of the form table, having taken 13 points from an available 15 in their last 5 matches. But we still proved a bit much for them and replace them at the top of the league form table with this win.

I didn't really have any doubt that we'd beat 16th placed NAC and we had no issues whatsoever. Great to see our young striker Marcel van der Plas gettning on the scoresheet again as the 18 year old nets his 11th goal of the season.

And that leads us on to this year's youth intake, with my assistant again overestimating the quality of the young players coming through. A golden generation is again announced, but I just don't see it.

English central midfielder, Lyall Felgate, might go on to make it but he still needs to improve a lot over the coming years!

Talking of top youngsters, our very own Rasmus Henriksen is 2nd on the list of best wonderkids in the world!

Go Ahead Eagles have given us some tough games over the last couple of years and have beaten us on a couple of occasions too and again they proved to be a thorn in our side here as we drop points.

Just five games of the season remain and the title is still very much up for grabs between us, Ajax and Feyenoord.

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 45
The Most Tense & Important Run In We've Ever Had
15th May 2028

With the 1st leg of our Europa League Quarter Final on the horizon, there are persistent rumours flying around that there is an impending board takeover at the club. I hoped the speculation wouldn't cause any lapse in concentration out in Switzerland.

But I clearly had nothing to worry about and with 90 minutes of the tie still to play, we should already have safe passage through to the semi finals already secured!

Back in the Eredivisie, we know that we'll probably have to win all 5 of our remaining games if we are to lift our first ever title (and hope that Ajax slip up in the process). We did kick our run in off with a win away at Sparta.

I wanted to rest as many players as possible for the upcoming Dutch Cup Final and with a healthy lead over Luzern in the Europa League, I had the opportunity to do so. Despite the heavy rotation, we still win easily, with 6 different goalscorers getting on the scoresheet.

So next up was the KNVB Beker Cup Final and we will take on Cambuur from the division below, so we'd go into the game as heavy favourites. We've knocked them out of the competition twice before under my leadership, whilst also beating them in a couple of pre season friendlies. Surely this will be a walk in the park right?

Lineups

The game did prove to be relatively easy for us. We dominated from start to finish and although Cambuur did managed to score twice from just 3 shots, we had Daan Rots in a sensational form and his hat trick and man of the match performance will be a day he will never forget! We are officially Dutch Cup champions for the second time!

Back in the league, we displayed some fine attacking football against a De Graafschap who drop to the bottom of the division and look destined for relegation now. Another game with 6 goals from 6 different scorers!

In the Europa League, we had drawn Napoli in the semi final. Having already knocked Juventus out of the competition, could we claim another massive Italian scalp in the competition? Well, if we are going to then it's gonna have to be the hard way after losing the first leg 2-0. We will be at home for the return leg though and we've been strong in front of our own fans all year, so I don't quite feel this is over just yet!

Defensively we were terrible back in the league against Excelsior, but luckily that doesn't matter when you can go up the other end and score 5 goals! Another win to keep up our title challenge.

And would you look at that! Ajax were beaten by PSV, which means we go 2 points clear at the top of the division! It's now simple...win our last 2 games and Fortuna Sittard win their first ever Eredivisie title!

The excitement around the title challenge had to be put on temporary hold though as we faced off against Napoli in the second leg of our Europa League tie. In 90 minutes, we managed to turn around the 2-0 deficit from the first leg and take the game to extra time! No matter what happened from here, my lads had done me proud!

And in extra time, a Will Fish headed effort from a corner ensured the turnaround was complete and we progress to the final of the Europa League!! What a game!!

It's Tottenham for us in the final! They won the Champions League as recently as 2025 and will now be looking for their second European trophy in just 3 years!

With the Dutch Cup already won, being top of the league with 2 games to go and being in the final of the Europea League, we have a chance at an incredible treble this year! And we took another step closer to making that a reality with a win over FC Utrecht!

It's firmly in our own hands. We play Feyenoord on the final day of season and a win guarantees us the title, although with our superior goal difference a draw will probably do as well! Ajax will go away to 6th placed AZ. No matter what happens though, we will be playing Champions League football next season for the first time ever!

When we went 1-0 down in the 72nd minute, it wasn't looking good and the fear set in that we were going to lose it on the very last day of the season! However, I issued a fire up shout from the sidelines and it immediately spurred my players into life and the reminder of what was at stake saw them rally to score 3 times in the last 16 minutes and you know what that means...

Yes, we are Eredivisie champions for the first time in the club's history! And in the process, we complete a domestic double!

After completing such a feat, the Fortuna Sittard fans apparently worship me like a God!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Chapter 46
Europa League Final
17th May 2028

We go into the Europa League Final with a domestic double already in the bag and an opportunity to win an unbelievable treble!! The fans and pundits can't split us and this is very much seen as a 50/50 match that could go either way!

After beating us in the competition earlier in the season during the league phase, Tottenham may have a little more confidence on their side coming into the game though.

Tottenham Hotspur Route To Final

Fortuna Sittard Route To Final

Lineups

12' Spurs Chance; A cross comes in from the left side and Pape Sarr rises at the back post but his header is saved by Spike Brits.
16' Spurs Chance; This time Sarr crosses from the left, Kulusevski heads back across goal where Son meets the ball with his head, but straight into the arms of Brits. Should have scored.
18' Fortuna Sittard Chance; Pierini picks up the ball in the Spurs half, beats his man and strikes low and hard from 25 yards out. The ball is just inches wide.
29' Fortuna Sittard GOAL; Outwswinging corner from the right is met by the head of Mbuyamba who rises highest in the box, heads his ball down into the ground and it beats the keeper. 1-0 Sittard!
35' Spurs GOAL; Son puts through Galeno on goal. Brits is off his line and Galeno expertly chips the keeper and the ball dips just under the bar and lands in the back of the net. 1-1!
HT' All square after an even first half where Spurs have had more possession, but both sides have had 4 shots at goal each.
53' Fortuna Sittard Chance; Daan Rots is free in the middle of the box and a cross comes in. He has all the time in the world to bring it down if he wants, but he wastes the chance with a weak header that is easily saved.
56' Spurs Chance; Pape Sarr runs past two Fortuna defenders far too easily and enters the box, strikes, but pulls his shot wide. Poor effort!
68' Spurs Chance; James Maddison hits a free kick from 28 yards, which fizzes just over the crossbar. Close!
70' Fortuna Sittard Chance; Gijs Smal take a free kick from 19 yards out. Curling towards the top corner, it looks like it is going in before the Spurs keeper comes out of nowhere to pull off an amazing save!
79' Fortuna Sittard Chance; Fortuna win the ball back in the Spurs half with the high press. It ends up with Halilovic who hits a left footed curled effort from 20 yards, but again the Spurs keeper is equal to it and pulls off another great save!
84' Fortuna Sittard GOAL; Wow what a strike from young substitute, Bob Monaghan. Ball passed into him from Halilovic and Monaghan hits his shot hard and low from about 25 yards out and this time the strike is just too good for the Spurs goalie. 2-1 Sittard!
90+5' Fortuna Sittard Chance; Reisinho has the ball at his feet around the penalty spot. He gets the ball out from under his feet and gets his strike off but it just goes over the bar.
FT: And that's it! Fortuna Sittard are Europa League champions!!!

Europa League Performances This Season

What a ******* season!!!!

 

[misterioBean]

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

 

[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?