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!