The UEFA Champions League Challenge

[Klippybo]

Hello everyone!!!!! Its been a while since I posted a story on here as I kinda lost the mojo for it but I have still continued to play the game and update databases etc. A month or so ago I decided to commit to the Champions League Challenge until FM24 came out.

The challenge is simple in theory but a nightmare in practical terms. I have to win the Champions League with every team that has won it before. That means I will have to be successful with.....

Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Nottingham Forest (England)

Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Hamburg (Germany)

Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV (Holland)

AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus (Italy)

Benfica & FC Porto (Portugal)

Real Madrid & Barcelona (Spain)

Marseille (France)

Steaua Bucharest/FCSB (Romania)

Celtic (Scotland)

Crvena Zvezda (Serbia)


So as you can see I will be country hopping all over the place. Some teams are naturally much easier than others and some will be much more enjoyable than others. As someone who hates Man Utd and Aston Villa I dont exactly look forward to managing them! Normally I rank the teams with points so if you win it with Celtic you would be rewarded with 40pts say and with Liverpool you would get 5pts but this is just my final mission so cant be arsed with that lol.

At the time of writing I am in October 2029 in the game date so instead of doing month by month posts I am just going to post at the end of each season.

Wish me luck!!!!!
​

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]SEASON[/TD]
[TD]TEAM[/TD]
[TD]DOMESTIC TROPHIES[/TD]
[TD]UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE[/TD]
[TD]OTHER TROPHIES[/TD]
[TD]TOP SCORER[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2022-23[/TD]
[TD]Manchester City[/TD]
[TD]FA Cup[/TD]
[TD]WINNERS[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]58 Erling Haaland[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2023-24[/TD]
[TD]Liverpool[/TD]
[TD]League, FA Cup[/TD]
[TD]WINNERS[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]31 Darwin Nunez[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2024-25[/TD]
[TD]Celtic[/TD]
[TD]League, League Cup [/TD]
[TD]Quarter-Finals[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]23 Arthur Cabral[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2025-26[/TD]
[TD]Celtic[/TD]
[TD]League, League Cup, Scottish Cup[/TD]
[TD]Round of 16[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]39 Folarin Balogun[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2026-27[/TD]
[TD]Bayern Munich[/TD]
[TD]League, DFB-Pokal[/TD]
[TD]WINNERS[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]29 Youssoufa Moukoko[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2027-28[/TD]
[TD]Borussia Dortmund[/TD]
[TD]DFB-Pokal[/TD]
[TD]WINNERS[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]37 Matheus Cunha[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2028-29[/TD]
[TD]AC Milan[/TD]
[TD]League, Coppa Italia[/TD]
[TD]Round of 16[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]35 Alejandro Cardona[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2029-30[/TD]
[TD]AC Milan[/TD]
[TD]League, Supercoppa, Coppa Italia[/TD]
[TD]WINNERS[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]30 Alejandro Cardona[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2030-31[/TD]
[TD]SL Benfica[/TD]
[TD]League, Allianz Cup, Taca de Portugal[/TD]
[TD]Round of 16[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]31 Yuriy Sorokin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2031-32[/TD]
[TD]SL Benfica[/TD]
[TD]League, Supertaca, Allianz Cup, Taca de Portugal[/TD]
[TD]Playoff Round[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]39 Yuriy Sorokin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2032-33[/TD]
[TD]SL Benfica[/TD]
[TD]League, Supertaca, Allianz Cup, Taca de Portugal[/TD]
[TD]Quarter-Finals[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]44 Yuriy Sorokin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2033-34[/TD]
[TD]SL Benfica[/TD]
[TD]League, Supertaca, Allianz Cup, Taca de Portugal[/TD]
[TD]WINNERS[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]38 Yuriy Sorokin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2034-35[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2035-36[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[TD]-[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2036-37[/TD]
[TD]Chelsea[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[misterioBean]

What a terrific challenge. Definitely need to give it a go somewhere in the future.

Looking forward for updates

 

[Klippybo]

Season 1 2022/23

MANCHESTER CITY

So I decided to start the save with the current champions of Europe. I figured it would get me off to a good start and I wanted to manage Haaland from the start to see how good he is since I hadnt had him in any save this year so far.

Now I didnt take screenshots for the first until 2029 so I can only post screenies of what are available so the first few seasons will be particularly brief.....


TRANSFERS IN

I decided to bring in Josko Gvardiol a few weeks before they did it in real life!! I paid RB Leipzig £70m and he was going to slot into the left back slot.

Other than that I felt we didnt really need much but I had money burning a whole in my pocket so in came James Ward-Prowse for £35m from Southampton to compete for a CM spot, Alex Scott from Bristol City for £11m as a player for now but also as a gift for the future (spoiler alert - that didnt happen lol) and Marcos Leonardo from Santos for £15m for the same reasons (same again - didnt happen lol)

Max Johnston (free) and Ronnie Edwards (£3.5m from Peterborough United) completed my summer business.

Then in January I shelled out £30m to bring in Marcus Edwards from Sporting Lisbon as from memory I was getting ****** off with Riyad Mahrez.

--

PLAYERS OUT

Just a whole load of reserve players. Thats it.

--

So it was a failure for us in the league despite winning our last 12 games of the season and only losing 2 games all told!!! Liverpool were just too good while we were made to pay for draws against the likes of Sheffield United and Wolves. Poor old Luton had a nightmare season but it was nice to see my beloved Newcastle get into the top 4. Erling Haaland was my top scorer (surprise surprise) with 36 goals and in one particular run he scored a hat-trick 3 games running!!!! In all he scored 4 goals in a game twice and a hat-trick 4 times.

--

DOMESTIC CUPS

As you can see we reached the final of the Carabao Cup only to lose to Chelsea in the final. We got a scare in the semis when Leicester turned over my backup side 3-2 but they made amends in the 2nd leg by thrashing them 6-2. Chelsea were one of the 2 sides to beat us in the league so they kinda had our number.

At least we won the FA Cup!!! We strolled through the rounds, apart from against Leeds, and particularly pleasing was the 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool in the semi when we were 3-0 up at half-time. Arsenal were the other side to defeat us in the league so it was pleasing to beat them in the final with 10 men.

We also lost the Community Shield to Liverpool on penalties by the way.

--

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Mission accomplished!!!!!!

We won the Champions League but we almost got knocked out in the group stages as we had to win our final group match against Feyenoord and hope that Shakhtar got something against Real Sociedad. Thankfully both things happened but it was a shock to struggle in a relatively weak group.

Tbh we rode our luck a lot in this competition. In the next round we drew at home to PSG which made it an uphill task to go through. We were 2-1 down with 5min to play when Joao Cancelo equalised and then on 88min Haaland put us ahead in the tie and he sealed it in injury time.

Against Arsenal in the 2nd leg of the quarter-finals the roles were almost reversed as we threw away a 2 goal lead in the final 5min to take the game into extra-time but thankfully Bernardo Silva popped up with the winner.

After all those close shaves the FM gods smiled sweetly on me. Celtic in the semis?? It was hardly a contest although it wasnt a walkover and Atletico Madrid are hardly the strongest team I could have faced in the final and 2 first half goals from Haaland and Laporte was enough for us to take the trophy.

The only thing that ****** me off really was that the level of opposition in the final 2 rounds were kinda wasted when I am managing Man City. I need that kind of luck when I am managing one of the many other weaker sides.

--

I cant do a squad stats section etc but Haaland top scored with 58 goals in all comps while De Bruyne, Foden, Grealish and Silva all got double figures in both goals and assists. Shout out goes to James Ward-Prowse who got 15 assists in 23 starts (plus 18 sub apps).

(I should say I am a sad football statistician who handwrites everything out so I am going by my own jotter for these stats).

Within a week of winning the Champions League I had resigned and hoped that the managerial merry go round would start and I would get plenty of decent opportunities to get back into the saddle.........

​

 

[Klippybo]

SEASON 2 2023/24

If you can't beat them - join them!!!! The reason I got this job was that Carlo Ancelotti left Real Madrid. I desperately wanted the job and went for an interview but they rejected me because I hadnt proven that I could win the league title so they appointed Jurgen Klopp which meant I had the opportunity to join Liverpool and I did just that!!!

I inherited naturally a world class squad and they had just signed Rodri from Man City (nothing to do with me) so I was delighted with that as he shone as a CM in my City team. They had also bought Ismael Bennacer from AC Milan the previous season.

--


TRANSFERS IN

I splashed out a record £84m to bring in Moises Caicedo from Brighton and he was to form a strong midfield partnership with Rodri. I then strengthened both of the full back positions by bringing in Max Aarons from Norwich City for £38.5m and Tyrick Mitchell from Crystal Palace for £27m.

The final piece of the jigsaw however only cost me £10m. Who? Lionel Messi from Inter Miami. He was signed to play in the no10 position and despite his age it was a no brainer to bring him in.

--

PLAYERS OUT

I took in over £100m in player sales. Kostas Tsimikas went to PSG for £46.5m, Dominik Szoboszlai went to AC Milan for £29.5m, Joel Matip to Napoli for £26m and I also recouped nearly £20m by selling reserve players or loaning them out.

--

CHAMPIONS!!!! Despite losing more than double the matches than I did with Man City last season. In the end we pipped City to the title by 2pts. The highlight of the season came on the opening day when we faced my former club Man City and thrashed them 6-0 thanks to 4 goals from Alexis Mac Allister!!!!!!

--

DOMESTIC CUPS

After finishing runners-up last season with Man City I could only reach the semis this year with Liverpool. Arsenal totally outplayed us over the 2 legs and would go on to win the trophy.

As for the FA Cup I won it again. Southampton were in the Championship but got to the final and Mo Salah (more on him later) tore them apart with a hat-trick. A domestic double was ours!!!!

--

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Success!!!! We strolled through the group stages which included a 9-2 victory over Partizan Belgrade in which Cody Gakpo netted 5 times and although we lost to Celtic in our final group game the match was meaningless to us as we had already won the group.

We then put 6 past Benfica to reach the quarter-finals against Arsenal. We won the first leg 2-1 thanks to a Messi penalty and a Harvey Elliott winner and Elliott stepped up to the plate in the 2nd leg as he scored our only goal in a 1-1 draw to send us to the semis to face Barcelona. We won the first leg 3-0 (Elliott scoring again) to all but seal our place in the final where we to play Real Madrid.

And what a final it was!!!! Luis Diaz put us in front only for Vinicius Junior to strike twice but we levelled in stoppage time of the first half through Luis Diaz again. Then in the 2nd half Caicedo put us back in front and a couple of minutes later Fabinho headed in a 4th goal and it was game over.

2 seasons in, 2 clubs in, 2 Champions Leagues won.

--

SQUAD

Darwin Nunez in 36 apps scored 31 goals and was the outstanding forward player. Harvey Elliott got 15 goals and 12 assists so he excelled too but the rest were either average or shocking. Mo Salah was horrific. In 39 apps he scored 15 and got 10 assists but he only scored 6 league goals and 2 of those were penalties!!!! Luis Diaz, despite his heroics in the Champions League final, only scored 9 times.

As for Messi he scored 16 and assisted 14 which wasnt too bad but in all honesty my backup players like Elliott, Diogo Jota and Gakpo impressed me more.

A special shout out goes to Tyrick Mitchell my backup left back who in 20 starts plus 18 as sub scored twice but got 12 assists which was more goal actions than my first choice LB Andrew Robertson!!!

Right - where to next????​

 

[Klippybo]

SEASON 3 - 2024/25

I had high hopes that after the Euros a top job would open up for me but that didnt happen and in the end with just a week of the transfer window left the Celtic manager, Arne Slot, left the club to join Athletic Bilbao. Beggars cant be choosers so I went in for it and got the job with just 3 days of the transfer window left. I was back home in Scotland but much work was to be done.

When I took the job I was aware that this is the first of the "project clubs" where winning the Champions League will take multiple seasons of growth to get to the required level. I promised myself that I would only leave for 1 of 3 clubs - Bayern, Barcelona or Real Madrid.

The Celtic squad I inherited, despite only being 3 seasons into the game was unrecognisable. I inherited many foreign players. Some well known such as James Rodriguez, Morato and Talles Magno, some not so well known such as Arthur Cabral, Kristoffer Olsson, Ruben Sanchez and Victor Mollejo and some players well known in English circles like Dan Burn, Folarin Balogun, Tom Davies, Ola Aina, Chris Mepham, Omar Richards and Steffan Ortega.

There were hardly any Scottish players which both disappointed me and angered me so with just a couple of days of the window left I went shopping..............

--


TRANSFERS IN

First in was Lewis Ferguson from Bologna for a bargain £9m. He would be the key cog in CM. Josh Doig came in from Verona for £13m to play at LB while Jamie Hamilton was signed from Dundee United for £2.8m to be a backup CB. Finally Vincent Angelini came in on loan from Brentford as he was trained by Celtic to help meet registration rules for Europe.

That was my summer window business.

In January I further strengthened the side by signing yet another Scot, John McGinn from Aston Villa for just £1.8m as his contract was expiring. I then brought in 2 top notch foreigners. Firstly goalkeeper Luis Junior was signed from Flamengo for £11m as my director of football set that deal up. I had planned to replace Ortega in the summer but moved that decision forward a few months.

Then I paid £11.25m to bring in Tommaso Baldanzi from Empoli. He was just 21 when I signed him to compete for the AMC slot that Holm was in and he would prove to be key.

--

PLAYERS OUT

Immediately I got shot of Dan Burn, Oriol Romeu, Benji Siegrist and Marco Tilio.

Then in January Ortega, Oh Hyeon-Gyu, Omar Richards, Mackenzie Carse and Kobayashi all left.

--

We stormed to the league title as expected and only lost 2 games. We racked up 113 goals with Arthur Cabral, Balogun, Holm, Furuhashi and Talles Magno all getting into double figures. The biggest win was tough to take for me as my Scottish team Aberdeen were put to the sword and we trounced them 8-1. Hibs getting 2nd place may seem as a shock but the season before Ross County finished 2nd!!!!!

--

DOMESTIC CUPS

The league cup was won fairly easily. I didnt manage the match against Dunfermline but was in charge for the rest. In the final we won fairly comfortably with veteran James Rodriguez getting a rare chance in the spotlight and he scored the opening goal early on before Josh Doig scored his first goal for the club.

The Scottish Cup was a big disappointment as we lost to our bitter rivals Rangers in the semis. To rub salt into the wounds they ended up beating Aberdeen in the final. Grrrrrrr.

--

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Not bad. A second season in Glasgow was sealed when Man City comfortably knocked us out in the quarter-finals. To get to that stage was a decent achievement with this side so I was quite happy with that. Undoubtedly the highlight was our victory over Real Madrid in the group stage and thought that that was wasted in such a setting.

In the end Man City beat Bayern Munich to claim the trophy.

--

SQUAD

My standout player was Odin Thiago Holm who was immense. He scored 15 goals and claimed 19 assists and I had to reject bids of up to £40m for him. Arthur Cabral top scored with 23 goals while Balogun got 22. My 2 big Scottish signings, Ferguson and Doig, really excelled and performed brilliantly while Baldanzi made a decent impression too.

I went into the summer eager to reshape the squad to my liking so I could say that I had a squad of players that I had full confidence of.
​

 

[Klippybo]

SEASON 4 - 2025-26

Before I embarked on my 2nd season with Celtic I was in demand in Italy as all 3 possible clubs AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan offered me the job. Inter was the one that interested me the most but I felt that their squad needed too much work to turn them into Champions League winners. Granted they were still a lot stronger than my Celtic squad but I have to win it at some point with Celtic so why not stick with them?

Also I had promised myself that I would only leave to join Bayern, Barcelona or Real Madrid anyway.

--

PLAYERS IN

In all I spent £80m strengthening the side which is ridiculous for the Scottish League but nothing in terms of European footballs elite. That and the fact I sold players to the tune of almost £200m!!!!!!

As for the signings I paid Man City £21m for Marcos Leonardo. He was put on a bumper wage of £110,000 a week and at 23 he still had plenty of potential. He was just a squad filler when I signed him from City but now I was hoping to resurrect his career.

I was impressed that I managed to get Jeremy Doku for as little as £9m and I paid £7m to FC Zurich for a newgen AMR in Andreas Benschneider. Vancel Vejic was also a newgen and the Croatian CB cost me £4m. Marten Vandervoordt came in as a backup keeper for £1.8m.

I also signed a few Scots to increase the homegrown influence. Firstly Calvin Ramsay came in from VfB Stuttgart for £15m to fill the RB spot and I was then delighted to sign Billy Gilmour from Bayer Leverkusen for as little as £7m to compete for the CM spot.

I then (in hindsight) overpaid massively to bring in Lennon Miller from Motherwell for £9m but got a huge bargain when I got Ben Doak in on loan from Liverpool. He needed regular first team football to develop and that was what I was going to give him on the RW. Jack Hendry also returned to the club on a free transfer.

--

PLAYERS OUT

Thankyou Fulham!!!!! They were in the Championship but paid a mammoth £87.5m to bring in 2 of my backup players in Arthur Cabral (£41.5m) and Sead Haksabanovic (£46m)!!!! Absolutely bonkers!!!!

Talles Magno had a release clause which was ridiculously low at £21.5m which Brighton paid to get him. He didnt want to sign a new deal with me so I had no choice but to accept his departure. Ola Aina also went there for £14.25m.

Cameron Carter-Vickers went to Leeds for £16m, Tom Davies to Nottingham Forest for £14.25m, Alistair Johnston to Alaves for £9.25m while various players that were out on loan the previous season such as Reo Hatate, Miha Zajic and Eldan Civic recouped £13.6m in all.

That wasnt all!!! Matt O'Riley (£1.9m), Kristoffer Olsson (£5m), James Rodriguez (£1m) and Stephen Welsh (free) also left.

Then in January I sold Jack Hendry for £2.8m before I ****** up. I accepted Spurs offer of £20.5m for Ruben Sanchez my backup RB as the transfer window had closed. However the English one wasnt as it was still in the final hours of it and he left before I realised I couldnt sign a replacement. What happened next? Yep - Calvin Ramsay my first choice RB got injured!!!

--

Easy as pie. A staggering 125 goals were scored as we romped to the title by a whopping 28pts. We only lost one game - to Hearts - which ruined our chances of being undefeated in the domestic campaign. The highlight game for me was our 6-1 thrashing of Rangers in the first fixture of the league split where Folarin Balogun helped himself to 4 goals.

Balogun was our top scorer in the league with 29 goals in 23 starts and 7 sub apps. He did have a spell out injured but outperformed Marcos Leonardo who could only manage 9 league goals. Baldanzi (15), Holm and Furushashi (13) and Ben Doak (10) all got into double figures.

--

DOMESTIC CUPS

We retained the League Cup by thrashing Aberdeen 5-0 in the final which pained me slightly. Ross County were the team who troubled us most in the 2nd round as they took us to extra-time but we got the winner through Marcos Leonardo.

A domestic treble!!!! Rangers were our opponents in the final but we had it all but sewed up in the first half as we led 2-0 at half-time.

--

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

We were only good enough to reach the Round of 16 this year but it was still a good campaign overall if you ignore the 5-0 defeat by Arsenal. To go out to Napoli you would think would be kinda frustrating as they arent historically one of Italy's super teams but they were taken over by a tycoon and are easily the best Italian side. We ran them close but it was not to be.

Tommaso Baldanzi was our main man in this competition as he racked up 12 goals to win the top scorer award!!!!

Real Madrid beat PSG in the final.

--

SQUAD

Folarin Balogun top scored with 39 goals in all comps but Baldanzi ran him close with 33 as he was developing into a world class player. Despite playing in a deeper position this season Holm still had magnificent numbers with 15 goals and 21 assists while Ben Doak really excelled with 13 goals and 23 assists as he forced his way into the Scottish national team.

The special shoutout though goes to Calvin Ramsay as my RB scored 8 goals in all comps - 7 in the league - and he really developed as a player.​

 

[Klippybo]

SEASON 5 - 2026-27

It was with a heavy heart that I left Celtic but the board royally ****** me off towards the end of the previous season and so when the Bayern Munich job came up I packed my bags and off to Germany I went. Why was I ****** off? Well at the end of the January window I still had nearly £60m left in my transfer budget and when I got given my new budget it was only £25m yet we had nearly £100m in the bank!!!! I was furious. How could I expect to compete when the board were docking half my transfer kitty that I had saved up??

So Bayern it was and they had a squad good enough to win the Champions League anyway but just to make sure I went out and blew over £400m anyway!!!!!!

I inherited players such as Karim Adeyemi, Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz, Manuel Ugarte and Elia Caprile in addition to some of the usual Bayern players.

So this is who I blew my money on.............

--

PLAYERS IN

Fabian Rieder joined me from Arsenal for £93m and despite the staggering fee he was only going to be a backup CM!!!! Maximo Perrone also joined as a backup CM as he joined from Man City for £39m.

As ever I inherited a team with a distinct lack of homegrown talent so my other signings were all German. First up was my new keeper, Dennis Siemen, who I paid Tottenham £86m to bring him to Munich. He was young and bound to be the worlds best keeper in a few years time.

Then I broke a personal rule by signing a player from a future destination but Man Utd forced my hand as they bid the £79m release clause for Youssoufa Moukoko. I couldnt have that so I swooped and brought in one of the games best young strikers that will probably terrorise Europe for years.

Newgen defender Sebastian Blomer was signed from Schalke for £67m (what a player he looked like as an 18y/o) while LB Luka Netz was signed for £50m from Monchengladbach and Ansgar Knauff came in from Mainz for £34.5m - all 3 were signed as backups.

--

PLAYERS OUT

Now I wasnt handed £400m - it was actually about half that - so I recouped over £350m in player sales!!!! Some of the deals were already done like Pedro Goncalves to Juventus (£63m), Arsen Zakharyan to Chelsea (£22m) and Marcel Sabitzer to Newcastle (£20m).

As for my personal sales I got rid of Pavard to Real Madrid (£44m), Patrik Schick to Man Utd (£40m), Micky van de Ven to Napoli (£33m), Quinten Timber to RB Leipzig (£29.5m), Sadio Mane to Inter Milan (£25m) and then in January I sold Nahuen Perez to my old side Celtic (£22.5m).

One other departure I couldnt stop but my hand was forced. Tarek Buchmann was a young CB who looked immense but he wanted out of the club. I was going to make a first team pick but his mind was set and he ended up joining Freiburg for £55m.

--

I will get an undefeated season one day!!! Just the one defeat which came early on in the season against FC Augsburg. We won the league by 7pts but it could have been much more as we drew 4 of our last 7 games. The most dramatic game came against Freiburg where we won 7-5 with Moukoko scoring 5 goals in that game himself!!!

--

I am getting used to domestic domination lol. The double was won but by no means was it a walkover as we edged out Leipzig and Dortmund on our way to the final. In the end a Florian Witz goal was enough for us to claim the trophy against Eintracht Frankfurt.

--

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

3 down - 21 more to go lol. Like the domestic cup we were victorious but we didnt blast our way to victory and just edged out our opponents. In the final we faced Arsenal and Jamal Musiala popped up with the only goal of the game to give us the trophy and meant I was off to the job centre again!!!!

--

SQUAD

Moukoko top scored with 29 goals but my player of the season was Musiala who scored 15 and assisted 13 but he was on his way out as he wanted to leave the club when his contract ended so I agreed to sell him to Real Madrid for just £60m when the season ended. He left the club with the perfect leaving gift.

2 of my backup players excelled. Karim Adeyemi scored 20 goals in 17 starts and 26 sub apps while Gabriel Vidovic started 18 and made 25 sub apps and scored 15 goals including a run of 5 league games in a row where he scored coming off the bench!!!!!
​

 

[Klippybo]

SEASON 6 - 2027/28

Having left Bayern in the summer I was hoping to get back into work pretty quickly however that didnt happen. There were some big jobs available like Napoli and my favourite FM team Athletic Bilbao but they didnt appeal to me at that moment so I took the chance of staying unemployed. Well kinda as will be shown later.

In the end the Borussia Dortmund came up in December and I jumped at the chance. They were giving me a healthy transfer budget and despite themselves languishing in 11th place in the Bundesliga they were still in the German Cup and in the Champions League but the squad I inherited was nowhere near good enough to win that.

Some of the players I inherited were Lutharel Geertruida, Matheus Cunha, Hamed Traore, Renato Sanches, Francisco Trincao, Sergio Gomez and Datro Fofana. Unfortunately there was no Moukoko because I signed him for Bayern last season - I was regretting it instantly.

--

PLAYERS IN

In all I spent £150m to rescue the season. I immediately shelled out £60m to bring in one of my favourite FM23 players, Assan Ouedraogo, from Man Utd. He was transfer listed there and was on his way out so I snapped him up and he is German as well so that ticked all the boxes.

Newgen defender Timo Corti was good enough to get into the first team so he came in from Freiburg for £27.5m while another newgen Volodymyr Popov joined from Dynamo Kiev for £26m to compete for the LB spot.

I then signed 2 young German players who came through the ranks at Bayern. Eyup Aydin cost me £39.5m from Leverkusen while Noel Aseko Nkili joined from Bayern for £23m.

--

PLAYERS OUT

I took in a fair bit of money for just 3 players. Veteran German internationals Niklas Sule (Man Utd £30m) and Serge Gnabry (AS Roma £29.5m) were deals that I could not afford to turn down while Ramy Bensebaini joined Crystal Palace for £6.75m.

--

From 11th place to 3rd and Champions League qualification. It was a decent second half of the season as we only suffered 2 defeats since I took over as manager. In the end my record was 12 wins 4 draws and 2 defeats which shows how bad they were doing before I turned up!!!

--

We won the German Cup and in some style as we thumped FC Augsburg 5-0 in the final. We strolled the competition really but I didnt manage the team in the first 2 rounds admittedly.

--

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

WE ONLY WENT AND WON THE ****** THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took over with the final 2 group phase games to play and we won them to book our place in the next round. We edged out Atletico Madrid which was fair enough before we played Bayern. The Bayern team that I strengthened so much and who was romping to the title and was the holders. Yet we beat them in both legs - 5-4 at home and 2-1 away - to reach the quarter-finals. In the 2nd leg lady luck was on our side as we were 2up inside 10min thanks to an own goal and a penalty while they had a man sent-off and had a goal disallowed!!!!

I fancied our chances against RB Leipzig as they were having a poor season and we knocked them out to setup a tie with Liverpool and thats where I thought our run would end as they had signed Kylian Mbappe the season after I had left and were much better than us. We won the 1st leg though thanks to a late Traore goal and in the 2nd leg we defended manfully but were losing 1-0 when Matheus Cunha popped up to send us into the final.

We were to face the might of PSG but their side was nowhere near as stacked as I had expected. They had Alex Scott who I had signed for Man City and Nico Williams but other than that they had a load of players in their mid 30s and had Evan Ferguson leading the line - decent but not world class. Also the final was to be played in Germany - were never going to get a better chance.

We fell behind early on but Matheus Cunha quickly levelled and he put us in front shortly after the break. We just had to see the game out but Giovanni Reyna had other ideas as he smashed in a 3rd and the trophy was hours.

In truth I didnt enjoy managing Dortmund so I was overjoyed that we fluked the win. I suppose I have to win 24 Champions League trophies and an unlikely win was bound to pop up once or twice and this was definitely one. I think the main factor why I didnt enjoy managing them was that I was managing a squad that I had very little say over.

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SQUAD

I was only in charge for 6 months so the stats are slightly skewed. Matheus Cunha was top scorer with 37 goals and 12 of those came in the Champions League. Eddie Nketiah struck 22 times but they were the only ones who got into double figures. My £60m man Ouedraogo did well with 5 goals and 10 assists in just 24 games.

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SCOTLAND

At the beginning of 2027 when I was manager of Bayern Munich, Steve Clarke left the job as Scotland manager to take over at Chelsea so I jumped at the chance to manage my nation so I was technically still in a job when I left Bayern. I will post the results at the end of each calendar year so here are the results for 2027 - the first 2 fixtures I wasnt in charge of.

We qualified for the 2028 Euros by finishing 2nd in the group behind Germany. The Scotland team has a wealth of class at full backs with Ramsay, Hickey, Patterson, Doig, Robertson and Tierney while Ben Doak is a magnificent winger. Elsewhere in the team Gilmour and Ferguson are decent in midfield as are Turnbull or Lowry at AMC but there is a lack of strength and depth throughout the squad.

Alfie Bavidge is my main striker but he never gets a game at Villa but he is the best of a bad bunch (my good friend Mr Donald will shoot me for saying this) while I have been unsuccessful in trying to make Tino Livramento, Elliot Anderson, Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes into changing their nationalities. (Funny how all 4 play for Newcastle now and we turned Matt Ritchie Scottish too!!!)

David Turnbull scored 5 goals in the 8-1 win against the Faroe Islands and 2 games later scored a hat-trick in the friendly win over Egypt. Alfie Bavidge scored a hat-trick against Macedonia.​

 

[Klippybo]

SEASON 7 - 2028-29

After the Euros there was a managerial merry-go-round. Luis Enrique unfathomably left PSG to replace me at Borussia Dortmund so PSG went out and appointed Hani Flick who was managing...............Celtic!!! Now whether or not I left it too late to notice the job but for some reason I couldnt apply for the job so they appointed Stefano Pioli who had left Italy.

I was seriously ****** off but then there was a twist towards the end of August as Mikel Arteta left Arsenal to join Napoli and then Rino Gattuso left AC Milan to join the English side so I stepped up to the plate to manage AC Milan and add a 3rd language to my bow.

2 league games had already taken place and the transfer window was soon to end but I inherited a decent squad. De Ketelaere, Maignan, Hernandez, Leao, Calabria, Kalulu and Pulisic were all still there plus they had top notch youngsters in Warren Zaire-Emery, Giorgio Scalvini and Tommaso Baldanzi.

I had Baldanzi at Celtic where he excelled and Milan had bought him for £30m and he was now a regular for the national team so I was delighted to have him back at my disposal.

One player I wasnt happy to have however was my first choice striker - Darryl Dike!!!!! Needless to say he is on the players out screen.

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PLAYERS IN

I spent just under £60m before the summer window ended and I had to focus on bringing in a striker so I paid £33.5m to Man City for newgen Alejandro Cardona. I was putting all my faith in the 19y/o Colombian but he is a future world beater.

Lorenzo Colombo came in as backup striker for £15.75m and he also is trained at the club so helped for registration purposes too and Nicolo Rovella joined from Stuttgart for £7.5m and Tommaso Milanese came in on loan from Newcastle.

Then in January I needed to further boost my squad. I needed a new RB so spent £22m on Devyne Rensch of RB Leipzig and then I went to Man City and brought in Nicolo Zaniolo in on loan until the end of the season. I also brought in Thiago Almada to be my backup LW for £7.5m as he had an Italian passport.

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PLAYERS OUT

4 players. Kalvin Phillips went to Barcelona for £12.75m immediately but even more immediately Darryl Dike was loaned to Brentford. Victor Eletu left in January while I got £2.1m for Nikisa Delibasic who was immense for me in a save with Crvena Zvezda earlier in the year but he hadnt developed enough to be kept around.

--

What a season this was. We were up against big spending Napoli and they fought us tooth and nail all the way but in the end we won it with a game to go. We won 32 league fixtures and went on a 22 game unbeaten run which included 20 victories.

My new striker Cardona was a big hit as he scored 27 goals in the league with a hat-trick in his 2nd and 3rd game for the club but despite the amount of goals he could be anonymous in several games but he is young and can only get better. We beat both of the bottom 2 sides 7-1 at home.

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Another domestic double for me. We beat Fiorentina in the final 2-1 in a tight and nervy match but the performance that impressed me the most was our 5-1 thrashing of Napoli in the 2nd leg of the semis. We lost the first leg 3-2 away but blew them away at the San Siro.

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UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Another season in Milan beckons!!! My squad is far better than my Dortmund squad but luck was not on our side this time and in fact we knocked out my old side in the first knockout round but we were drawn against Real Madrid and they comfortably knocked us out and they went on to reach the final where they were humped 5-2 by Chelsea (not managed by Steve Clarke - Erik Ten Haag)

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SQUAD

Alejandro Cardona netted 35 goals in 46 starts in all comps which is pretty decent for a teenager at a new club in a new country. Rafael Leao chipped in with 23 from the LW while De Ketelaere and Pobega also reached double figures. Christian Pulisic was our main creator with 18 assists. As for Baldanzi he was my backup AMC and was mainly used as a sub so only got 7 goals.

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SCOTLAND

Euro 2028 was pretty standard. In the groups we lost to France, through away a 2 goal lead against Austria before thumping Ukraine to go through but we then faced Holland who thrashed us 5-2. We then went on to win our Nations League group to get promoted into the top tier.

--

So there you are we are up to date - well kind of as we are in September of the next season and spoiler alert I am still at AC Milan. I will still post at the end of each season but I will be able to give screenshots of signings and squad pics now rather than me just typing stuff.



​

 

[jackm67]

Great thread so far! With the 93m backup signing, I'm assuming his squad status wasn't back up for that fee? Although I suppose you don't need to worry about player happiness so much when you're planning to move on after a season or 2

 

[Lippo255]

Mate. This is gonna be one **** of a challenge! Can't wait to see your arrival in Serbia... Doing well so far though, GL man.

 

[Klippybo]

SEASON 8 - 2029-30

I went for it this season as I changed my transfer policy. Normally I pay every single transfer fee up front but this summer I made a few signings buy paying in instalments so I could take the squad to the next level. After all if I win the Champions League I wont care that I have financially crippled the club lol. In the end I spent £188m on transfers.

--

TRANSFERS

Zaire-Emery's loan was made permanent last season when he played 20 games so I was delighted with that permanent signing. Zaniolo also returned to the club on a permanent basis so in effect the squad wasnt strengthened with those signings. Roualt came in from Newcastle on a free and that was a magnificent coup as was the signing of Esposito who only cost £15.5m.

Plizzari came in as my backup keeper and to meet registration rules while the others were all regens with the exciting one being Leo Jourdan........

As for players out none of them were first choice picks and Darryl Dike finally found a new permanent home thankfully.

--

It wasnt even a contest! We only lost 2 games and both of those came at the end of the season with the title secured and I was playing my backups to rest my players for the Champions League games.

--

The domestic treble!!! We beat Fiorentina in the Supercoppa with Theo Fernandez scoring the winner and we struggled to win in the Coppa Italia too as we just edged out Sassuolo 1-0 AET with Lorenzo Colombo my reserve striker coming off the bench to score one of his three goals of the season.

In the semis v Udinese Buongiorno scored an own goal for us in both legs!!!

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UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE!!!!!!!

It wasnt pretty but we did it. We got through the group stage ok although we did lose to Man City and Man Utd away from home. We were then given the toughest draw against Barcelona but they were having a poor season and after sneaking a draw in the Nou Camp Alejandro Cardona fired in a hat-trick as we thumped them 4-1.

We then repeated the trick against Real Madrid with Cardona and Zaniolo grabbing 2 each and although we lost the 2nd leg we were through to the quarter-finals. Arsenal were next up and again we scored 4 in the San Siro to take charge of the tie and then our luck set in.

Firstly Benfica shocked PSG to reach the semis but while we lost the away leg we once again scored 4 at home to reach the final against Man Utd. In the final Man Utd (who have Tel, Endrick and an insane Spanish newgen forward) were all over us but then Ridle Baku got sent-off. We struggled against the 10 men however and they took us into extra-time but thankfully Theo Hernandez scored the winner and the cup was ours.

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SQUAD

These are my top appearance makers. Cardona scored 30 but actually had a disappointing season I thought as he went through a few drought periods. Zaniolo was shocking at the start of the season but came onto a game while Tommaso Baldanzi was magnificent. There are no words to describe Rafael Leao.

Here is a screenie of Alejandro Cardona, Leo Jourdan, Warren Zaire-Emery and Tommaso Baldanzi for you.

So I leave AC Milan with the World Cup just around the corner. Hopefully a few suitable vacancies will open up.

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SCOTLAND

 

[Klippybo]

Mate. This is gonna be one **** of a challenge! Can't wait to see your arrival in Serbia... Doing well so far though, GL man.

Thats actually the league I am looking forward to the most. Love a Crvena Zvezda save.

Them Benfica and Ajax

 

[Klippybo]

BENFICA HERE WE GO!!!!!!

I resigned as AC Milan manager but for the first time the club that I am leaving fought to keep me and offered to increase the transfer budget but alas the time had come for me to leave.

There wasnt a whole lot of openings. Gattuso left Arsenal to go back to AC Milan and Arteta left Napoli to go back to Arsenal! PSG approached me but then they appointed the Celtic manager Stefano Pioli and that was it - I was going back to Celtic.

We were in the final stages of the World Cup so I went through the interview process and they offered me the job but then I delayed it in the hope that a better job might become available in the World Cup. Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa did become available but I had no interest in that but then Germany appointed Roger Schmidt of Benfica and I jumped at the chance to move to Portugal.

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THE SQUAD I INHERIT

I am reunited with Eddie Nketiah who was with me at Dortmund and Ait-Nouri who was with me in my first season with AC Milan.

Roko Simic, Ricardo (newgen), and Joao Veloso are the players I am most excited about. Despite getting to the semis last season I feel that maybe only a handful of players will be here when we beat the Bela Guttmann curse and win the Champions League.

I have about £77m to spend on new players. I am disappointed about the lack of Portuguese players plus I am also saddened that so many top notch prospects are no longer here but on the other hand there are a couple of decent prospects in the system.

Next post will be at the end of the transfer window.

​

 

[Klippybo]

TRANSFER UPDATE

So the window has closed and I am reasonably happy with my transfer dealings although there was one deal that had a big effect on the squad and how I was planning things.

--

PLAYERS OUT

In all I took almost around £130m in transfer fees.

Eddie Nketiah never had a future here and he was the first to go for a fee of £21m to Nice while other veterans Denis Zakaria (Marseille) and Trevor Chalobah also left the club on loan.

Jose Cordoba left to join PSV for £19m, Simon Sahm joined Brighton for £11m and a squad filler who was never going to get a game left to go to Mexico for £8.25m.

However after 4 games and 4 goals for me I had to sell my star striker Roko Simic to Arsenal for £67m. I didnt want to sell him but I didnt want to keep an unhappy player and on deadline day I had to replace him.

--

TRANSFERS IN

I spent about £135m!!!!!!! Yet despite that I dont think we are significantly stronger than before lol.

First of all I needed a new RB so I went to Borussia Dortmund to bring in Ivan Fresneda for £13.75m. I actually signed him on a pre-contract for Dortmund but I left before he joined.

Next up I signed 3 CBs. Andre Amaro from Inter Milan for £10m, Guilherme Gaspar from Udinese for £11.75m and newgen Oscar Munoz from Univ.Catolica for £2.9m. The first 2 are Portuguese while Gaspar came through the Benfica academy as an added bonus.

Ivan Veldez is n 18y/o midfielder that I found playing for Velez Sarsfield for £6m. If I develop him correctly he should be a fine player.

I brought in a new left winger from VfB Stuttgart for £24.5m. Dario Cenci is lightning quick and at 23y/o he can still improve in a big way and I am expecting him to have an immediate impact on the side.

Finally upfront. Firstly I brought in a reserve striker called Yuriy Sorokin from Borussia Monchengladbach for £20m. Despite his name he is actually Portuguese (he can also play for Ukraine) and came through the ranks at Sporting. At 6ft 5" he could terrorise any defence and I expect him to impress.
​

Finally on deadline day I had to find a replacement for Simic. I found a Brazilian striker playing for Nice who I fancied but they were asking for silly money. So after checking my shortlist and players U19 I reset the search screen and saw this little beauty available for a reasonable price.............

I have managed to raid AC Milan and bring in their star striker Alejandro Cardona for just £47m!!! He scored 65 goals in just 2 seasons for me with Milan and considering he is just 21y/o he can still improve. If he can score that amount of goals in Italy he should be able to add a lot more in Portugal!!!!!

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OVERALL

The squad is decent enough but nowhere near good enough to win the Champions League. I still have around £60m to spend but will wait and see how we are in January and see how my players are playing before I decide on their futures. After what happened with me at Celtic if I dont spend it in January I am going to make sure I pre-arrange some deals so I have the pennies spent lol.​

 

[Klippybo]

JANUARY UPDATE

Things have been going pretty good with Benfica. We are top of the league (just) and are undefeated to boot, we are still in the domestic competitions and have been pulling up trees in Europe. Also there is some transfer news.

Regarding transfers I sold one of my backup AMCs who never got a game, 23 y/o Maximiliano Ortiz, to Tottenham Hotspur for £21.5m. To get that amount of money for him was insane and I snapped their hands off at that offer.

As for incomings I vowed to only bring in players that are either good enough to win the Champions League or with obvious potential to be good enough. The first deal was actually put in place by my director of football and that was the £14.5m signing of Alex Sandro from Atletico Mineiro. He is 24y/o and is already a full international with Brazil and is technically brilliant. He can still improve too which is exciting.

I signed this newgen for a pittance.

Finally I was forced to change goalkeepers. Alex Meret's contract was up at the end of the season and since he was 33y/o I knew I had to move him on so I put him up for sale and he joined Juventus for £10m. In his place I brought in Inigo Alvarez from Bayer Leverkusen for £29m and he will be a world beater. He is just 21y/o and has already been capped for Spain and he should be the no1 here for at least a decade.

We end the window with a transfer budget of £37m but the club are £37m in debt so I have to decide whether or not to blow the cash and plunge the club further into debt or be financially savvy.

--

--

If we had won our last game we would have finished in top spot. Our game against Olympiacos was just ******* stupid..........

And this was the top part of the table.

--

SCOTLAND

2030 was a decent year for the national team. We went into the World Cup eager to test ourselves and we acquitted ourselves well getting a respectable draw with Argentina to top the group. We then beat Venezuela before falling foul to Germany. Unfortunately England won the competition beating Holland 3-1 in the final.

We are in the top group of the nations league and did ok. We drew with France and Portugal at home and beat Greece home and away but we lost our away matches to the big 2 and finished 3rd in the group.

I have called time on the international careers of Liam Kelly, Andrew Robertson, Karlan Grant and Jacob Brown. Scott McTominay and Kieran Tierney will be with me until the Euros I think.​

 

[Klippybo]

2030-31 SEASON REVIEW

We had a hugely successful season as we won all the domestic trophies and were undefeated in all domestic competitions. However in Europe we didnt get the luck of the draw so fell short there.

I have a big summer ahead of me as several players will be leaving but I have a transfer budget of around £130m to spend so there is plenty of scope to bring in some top notch players.

--

Finally an undefeated league campaign!!!! Amazingly Alejandro Cardona scored in every game he played in apart from 2 and in 1 of those he went off injured in the first half!!!!

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DOMESTIC CUPS

We laboured our way to an Allianz Cup victory but in the Taca de Portugal we blew everyone away leading up to the final. Yuriy Sorokin scored 10 goals in the competition including 4 against Malveira and 5 against Fafe.

--

Sadly despite storming the group stage and being seeded for the draw we were paired alongside Real Madrid and they naturally proved to be too strong for us but the aim is to be closer to them next year!!!!

--

FIRST TEAM SQUAD

Some standout performers for sure. I have never had my backup striker be top scorer before but Yuriy Sorokin managed that feat here with 31 goals in all comps, just 10 coming in the league. Cardona was lethal up front, Joao Veloso was immense but Ricardo was the main man on the RW with 25 goals and 17 assists. I have already rejected bids of up to £80m for him.

​

 

[Klippybo]

2031-32 PRE-SEASON

I ventured into my 2nd season with Benfica eager to have a squad that was moulded to my liking and I have done just that spending just short of £200m on new players although I have recouped just about the same amount in player sales.

Here are my departures.

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PLAYERS OUT

Not on the list because they went to England and France early in the summer are Orkun Kokcu to Spurs (£35m), Fabiano Souza to Marseille (£18m), Tiago Gouveia to Leeds (£15.25m) and Jens Cajuste to Wolves (£12.5m).

There could have been more as Miguel Gutierrez rejected a £45m move to Nice while I also had bids for Sorokin, Ricardo and Fogeiro.

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PLAYERS IN

My new club record signing is Laurent Pause who will play on the LW. He impressed me when we came up against him playing for Dortmund last season. Rafael Luis and Inacio are 2 Portuguese internationals who will walk straight into the team while I raided South America for 7 of my other signings as there seems to be top notch players for cheap there.

Alfie Bavidge was signed just for Mr.Greaves/Stonecold/Darran lol. I texted him a pic of him languishing on a free and just signed him so he wouldnt start crying lol.

Here are some screenies of some of my new signings..............

 

[Klippybo]

JANUARY UPDATE

On the field everything is looking rosy. I am still undefeated domestically in Portugal and we sit pretty at the top of the league naturally while in the Champions League we progressed to the play-off round agonisingly missing out on the top 8 on goal difference.

Off the field the club is £110m in debt which is a bit of a worry.

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TRANSFERS OUT

1 out and 1 in. Out goes Alfie Bavidge to Stoke for £2.5m and in comes a Colombian newgen for a pittance.

--

--

--

We qualified for the Euros easily enough and top the group because we had the better of the Republic of Ireland on a head to head basis.​

 

[Klippybo]

2031-32 SEASON REVIEW

Its difficult to judge this season. Domestically I am still to be defeated in 2 seasons and therefore won everything there is to win but in Europe once again the draw screwed us over and we only managed to get to the play-off round. As the Champions League is our aim that was a tad disappointing.

Such as it is with a "project club" unless I fluke it like Dortmund I have to have faith in my youngsters improving and now I have the base of a super side I only need to add on or two players each year to get us there.

Having said that if the Barcelona or Real Madrid job becomes available I would jump ship in a heartbeat!

--

Total domination with a 19pt winning margin. We netted exactly 100 goals with Sokorin (28) and Cardona (22) being the top 2 marksmen in the league and I was impressed with my backups who got the final 5 league matches as they beat Sporting Lisbon 4-2 away.

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DOMESTIC CUPS

--

Disappointing in all. Throughout we never really hit our top form although when we went 2-0 up against Chelsea in the 2nd leg of our play-off round I thought a miraculous comeback was on the cards but it was not to be. When taking over Benfica I thought between 3-5 years we should be challenging with an eye to winning the Champions League would be a fair timeline so next season is no3...............

Real Madrid beat Napoli 2-0 in the final

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SQUAD

A few notable points. Cardona started off the season and was awful so Sorokin came in and couldnt stop scoring but then in the 2nd half of the season Cardona got in and then he couldnt stop scoring but in the end Sorokin won by 39 goals to 30. In my 34 league games there was only 4 when one of those 2 didnt score.

Ricardo was immense, Rodrigo Moraes was the surprise, Veloso was magnificent while Pause did well creatively but needs more goals

--

Thats another season done. Now I am off to the Euros with Scotland where we will play France, Austria and Turkey.​