Lincoln City - attempting to take the final step

Planning on posting updates from my Lincoln City game which is quite a few years into the future. On another forum I've written up the previous two seasons so I'll be posting those two updates first and then a write up of the current season.

Not sure how much interest there will be as its probably a bit unusual to start a career update when quite a few seasons have already passed however the game for me has continued to be challenging whilst trying to build a team that can win the league.

Notes:

- Lincoln's highest ever league position before I joined was 5th in the second tier (Championship) although that was in 1901/02

- Two players joined whilst the club were in league 2 and ended up playing in the Premiership (goalkeeper and defensive midfielder)

- After winning promotion the biggest signing was 5.5m on George Sutton (AM) from MK Dons who is now the club captain.

This is the clubs progress so far:

2013/14 TSP 4th   FA trophy winners
2014/15 TSP 1st
2015/16 L2  9th
2016/17 L2  1st
2017/18 L1  11th
2018/19 L1  1st   Johnstone's Paint Trophy winners
2019/20 CH  2nd
2020/21 PR  12th
2021/22 PR  10th  League Cup winners
2022/23 PR  12th
2023/24 PR  7th   FA Cup runner up

Generally it seemed to take a season to adjust after each promotion and then the next season the team would be strong enough to win promotion. The only exception was in the Championship where I was able to sign a very good striker (Jose Angel Pozo) on a free transfer (had been on loan in league 1) who scored 44 goals in a single season. Since then the progress has slowed down. The League Cup win was a complete fluke against Tottenham and the season after the Euro Cup fixtures were a struggle.

Current facilities:

Board Expectations:

League - Top half finish

League Cup - Not important

FA Cup - 6th round

Euro Cup - Quarter Finals

Media expectation: 8th place

League

A great start saw us take 13 points from the first 5 matches but we never really reached the same level over the rest of the season. For most of the season the team were in the top 6 but in the last 4 weeks we dropped to 8th before moving back up to finish 7th. Frustratingly Chelsea won the league again after Arsenal and Man City had shared the lead for the majority of the season. David Moyes got sacked after nearly getting Norwich relegated.

Wins at home against Liverpool, Newcastle, Man United and a double over Chelsea were the highlights but there were some equally poor results. We lost 3-0 away to Wolves, 3-0 at home to Middlesborough, 5-2 away to Cardiff and 4-0 at West Brom and against those 4 teams we picked up just 1 point over the season. A couple of wins in those games and we could have finished fifth so clearly next season we need to do better in these type of matches.

Final League Table:

Fixtures:

League Cup

Very disappointing 1-0 defeat at home to Championship side Watford in the third round, our first match in the competition.

Euro Cup

Our first outing in this competition saw us go out in the 1st knockout round, this time we went one round better. We topped our relatively weak group and beat Besiktas in the first round but Bologna were too good in the 2nd round. We lost the first leg 4-2 at home and then drew 2-2 away so the home performance was disappointing. They did finish 2nd in Italy so it wasn't too embarrassing.

FA Cup

Last season we got to the final but got humiliated by Chelsea. This time round we went one better beating Man City 2-0 in the final. George Sutton was the hero scoring both goals whilst captaining the club. It did help that City had a player sent off just after the first goal. In the semi final we beat Liverpool 2-1 and beat Forest by the same scoreline in a replay (drew the first game at home 2-2).

My season goals:

Qualify for the EURO cup again - Success! Qualified via FA cup and league finish would have been good enough as well

Do better against the best sides - Success! Highlight was beating Chelsea home and away.

Finish higher in the league - Failure as we only matched last season's finish

Off season transfers

Its been a busy transfer window. My best defender had his head turned by Real Madrid in January and ended up being sold for 30 million at the end of the season. Several backup players were also sold with Skorput being the highlight. The only frustration is that lots of the transfers out are going to be paid in installments so I'm nearly 20 million in debt at the moment.

The big signings in were Akbulut (a 17 year old goalkeeper) and Eveleens (21 year old central defender to replace Ibanez). Moreau is just 14 but already has 1 gold star so he'll hopefully be amazing once he reaches 20.

Board Expectations for next season:

League: Euro Cup Qualification - Slightly scary that this was the minimum requirement

FA cup: Semi Finals - I think I will fail this

Euro Cup: 2nd round - Seems reasonable

League Cup: Not important - would like to do better than last season

Community Shield: Not important - yep

Media prediction: 5th

My goals:

Try and qualify for the Champions League or at least finish 5th.

Be more consistent in the league

Reach a quarter final in one of the cups

Board Expectations:

League - Euro Cup qualification

FA Cup - Semi Finals

Euro Cup - Semi Finals

League Cup - Not important

Community Shield - Not important

Media expectation: 5th place

Community Shield

Lost convincingly to Chelsea which wasn't a great start to the season. Happily no one cares (2-0)

League

The first couple of months of the season were not great but performances gradually improved and for 5 weeks in the middle of the season we were fourth. It probably wasn't a coincidence that we reached our highest point in the table when there were no European matches to play and few cup matches. Once those competitions resumed we couldn't keep up, slipping to 6th, briefly back up to 5th and then finishing the season in 6th. The final game of the season was a disappointing home defeat to Spurs.

The high point was probably beating Man City 5-2 in Manchester whilst 4-2 and 5-2 defeats at QPR and Hull were not pretty. Our only other win against the teams above us was against Liverpool but at least the losses weren't horrifically one sided.

Was nice to see someone stop Chelsea from winning a fifth straight title whilst West Brom, Norwich and Cardiff (tycoon) had disappointing seasons.

League table:

Fixtures:

League Cup

Much better than last season. Got to the semi finals after beating Ipswich (L1), Everton (Prem), West Brom (Prem) and then lost convincingly to Chelsea in both legs... I don't want to know how many goals one of their strikers has scored against my club (Neychev).

FA Cup

First two rounds were easy wins against Oxford and Blackburn, the fifth round was not so easy as we were drawn against Man City. The match was quite soon after we had beaten them in the league and maybe that was a factor as we ened up winning 3-0 which was probably one of our best results of the season. It didn't get any easier in 6th round when we were drawn against Arsenal and unfortunately we lost 2-3 to end our defence of the cup which was a little disappointing as we were at home.

Uefa Cup

For the first time we entered into the competition at the group stage and we comfortably qualified from a group with Vitesse, CSKA (Sofia) and Stromgodset. We finished level with Vitesse after losing 1-0 at home but topped the group on goal difference. After last year the knockout stage draw was kinder and the team made the most of it beating St Etienne 8-3 (agg) and Maritimo 5-2 (agg).

Next up was Gladbach in the Quarter Final. The first leg was a crazy 4-4 daw where we had led for basically the entire game only to be pegged back in the last 10 minutes. The home game had nearly as many goals but this time we won 3-2. The Semi Final against Benfica was a nervy affair. The first leg at home finished 0-0, then in the second leg we appeared to be cruising at 2-0, only to concede twice in the second half and set up an extremely tense last 15 minutes.

That meant a first ever cup final appearance in Europe and it wouldn't easy as we faced Manchester United who had beaten us twice in the league. Star winger Magallan scored in the first 15 minutes and then from them on both sides continued to create chances. Unfortunately in a repeat of the earlier rounds we conceded late on and the game eventually went to penalties. In extra time a central defender got injured which meant that we played the last 12 minutes with 10 men. Fortune was on our side in the penalty shoot out with Sutton once again proving his worth in a cup final by scoring the winning penalty to clinch the trophy.

The final:

Other

- The end of the season came just at the right time as Cathalina's injury left us with just 1 fit central defender.

- I sold a second defender to Real Madrid for 22.5m after the first week of the season. (he played 15 times for them whilst Ibanez played 39 times)

- The 5 signings for the first team all played well with the youth keeper making a lot of progress. Not sure if I'll be able to get Eveleens to sign a new contract.

- The U21 team won the group 1 league stage but lost to Spurs in the final.

- The club has 45 million in the bank after a successful season and lots of player sales however I've only been given 35 million to spend and the wage budget isn't as big as it has been.

- (edit) Liverpool lost their European Cup place after failing to meet the financial requirements which means that United are in the Champions League instead

Board Expectations:

League - Euro Cup qualification - Achieved just

FA Cup - Semi Finals - Nope

Euro Cup - Semi Finals - Yep

League Cup - Not important

Community Shield - Not important

Media expectation: 5th place

Goals for this season:

Try and qualify for the Champions League or at least finish 5th. - Slight failure

Be more consistent in the league - Probably although this goal was a bit too vague

Reach a quarter final in one of the cups - Success!

Board Expectations:

League - Euro Cup qualification

FA Cup - Semi Finals

Euro Cup - Semi Finals

League Cup - Not important

Super Cup - Be competitive

Media expectation: 5th place

League

The league campaign started well with a couple of wins that briefly took us top of the league. Up until December things continued to go well with a Champions League place looking possible although our results against the top sides were not great. Unfortunately at that point the wheels came off and I'm not really sure why as the tactics didn't change. It may just be that the initial bad run was compounded by then having to play Chelsa, United and Arsenal and a resurgent Everton.

We were still 8th but miles away from the title contenders.

Fixtures up till the middle of January:

If December was bad then the remainder of the season made up for it. Our run in form was W10 D4 L2 which took us back up the table and for the last three weeks of the season we were in fourth place. A disappointing home defeat to United on the final day of the season saw us drop down to 6th as United overtook us and so did Arsenal.

I did change the tactics that I played after the Man City game but not significantly. I'm happy that we at least matched the league position from last season and were closer to a champions league place but fell at the final hurdle.

Remaing fixtures:

Local rivals* Nottingham Forest qualified for the Champions League which adds to the feeling of a missed opportunity. Cardiff were in the Champions League places but collapsed towards the end of the season to miss out on Europe completely and I'm not sure what has happened to Spurs. They won the league in 2018.

* Hull are the only team listed as a rival from the premiership but I think Forest would be a rival as well particularly as their manager dislikes me.

League table:

League Cup

Played Chelsea in our first match and lost 4-1 at home. I did play a lot of reserves as the Euro cup fixtures force a league match to be two days before the League Cup third round.

FA Cup

Was expecting to go out in the fourth round when we were drawn against Chelsea but it turned out to be one of our best games of the season. Managed to reach the Semi Finals but Arsenal knocked us out once again. I think we are yet to beat Arsenal in any competition. Also got a needless red card in the last 5 minutes for a reckless challenge.

Euro Cup

The group stage was very similar to last season with a Dutch team as the main competition. As expected we qualified from the group but it wasn't quite as easy as it should have been and we failed to win the group on goal difference. I was expecting to go out in the first round when we were drawn against Sevilla but a strong first leg performance took us through easily.

The tie against PSV turned out to be the closest we got to going out as it took a late goal to rescue a draw at home. In the second leg they scored first but by half time we were leading 4-2. A late collapse saw the game finish 4-4 with PSV having a goal disallowed. Bizarrely the final was something of a non event as by half time we were 3-0 up.

Other

- Magallan (the star left winger) handed in a transfer request just before the United match and didn't play in the Uefa Cup. Frustrating as I had promised to sell him at the end of the season which I assumed would be after all the fixtures had been played.

- The U21 team won the group 1 league stage again but lost in the semi final this time.

- I had an interview with Real Madrid at the start of the season, and a second interview near the end. The second time I was successful but after a day of thinking it over I decided that I wanted to see if I could get Lincoln into the Champions League. Real Madrid were 6th at the time and ended up finishing 3rd. I would have been paid considerably more as Lincoln refuse to pay me more than 10.5k a week.

- Man City beat Hull 10-1 in a league match and retained the league title

- The top 5 in Italy were: Bologna, Roma, Sampdoria, Genoa and Chievo Verona. AC Milan came 6th

- Stuttgart overtook Bayern on the final day of the season to win the Bundesliga

- Atletico won La Liga to win their 10th title in 12 seasons.

- Wycombe were relegated from the Championship after surviving last season, Aston Villa are back in the Championship after winning the playoffs, Scunthorpe were relegated to the Conference whilst Preston and Shrewsbury (111 points!) and back in the football league.

Board Expectations:

League - Euro Cup qualification - Achieved but I would like to have done better

FA Cup - Semi Finals - Yep although the performance was disappointing

Euro Cup - Semi Finals - Retained the trophy

League Cup - Not important -Went out in the first round which I'm fine with

Super Cup - Be competitive - Surprisingly beat Man City 2-1 after going a goal down

Media expectation: 5th place - Failed again

Transfer Review

I sold two right backs (Parodi and Popo) one in each transfer window as Ibanez progressed well last season and I have two promising youth players.

The big transfer in was Silva who is our best central midfielder. The other big money signing was Mackie as a back up left back. I wouldn't have normally signed him however I needed a better backup and had to be a home grown player.

Abdi has turned out to be my first choice goalkeeper for the second half of the season and has better potential than the goalkeeper that I signed last season for 18.75m. He is slightly older though.

The biggest event of the off season was this:

Chelsea may not have won the title in the last two years but whilst Mourinho has been in charge Chelsea have always finished in the top 2. They've won the league 9 time, 5 European Cup titles, 4 FA Cup titles, 4 World Club titles, 3 Super Cup titles, 2 League Cup titles and the Community Shield 8 times in the period from 2013 till now. An extremely impressive record and I was very happy whenever I managed to avoid defeat against them. Montella has taken over at Chelsea and it will be interesting to see if they continue to be as dominant or whether they could struggle. If they do struggle then it gives us a better chance of finally getting into the Champions League.

Before the start of the season Chelsea were joint favourites with Man City to win the league so the bookies still expect them to do well.

Transfers

As mentioned in the previous update our star left winger (Magallan) handed in a transfer request with 2 games to go so the main priority would be to sell him and bring in a replacement. It was pretty disappointing to have to sell him as at 25 years old he should really be about to hit his best years and obviously the timing wasn't great as it might have made the difference in the game against United. It took most of June to eventually get an acceptable bid of 34.5m from Barcelona. I would have liked to get more but at least he didn't go to a direct rival and it was better than the previous bids of 24m that we had received.

I signed Julian Caicedo as his replacement for just 6.5m. I had almost signed him in January when Magallan first asked about leaving but decided against it as ultimately Magallan would have still been first choice. Could have signed an American winger instead who had better CA but the better PA swayed my judgement.

Other out goings in June:

Rial (MC/AM) 18.25m - He had been signed as a hot prospect but I think his injury proneness ultimately hindered his development. Was very happy to get 18.25m for a player that barely got any game time and was only still at the club because he had home grown status.

Four other players were brought in during June:

Dinenno de Cara MC/AM 5m - signed as a replacement for Rial. Has potential to be a star player but game time could be limited

Kushnir FW 0.65m - hot prospect, expecting to play him in the U21 team mainly this year

Rose AML 3m - Another great prospect. Only 14 so won't featuring in the first team any time soon.

Carrillo DC 3.6m - Will be first choice backup and likely to feature heavily in cup games. Could still develop into a very good player.

After those deals I was happy with the squad so wasn't really planning any further deals but that all changed in July when my assistant reminded me that five first team players contracts would expire at the end of the season (Sutton AM, Akbulut (GK), Costa (MF), Dugoni (AMR), Bruninho (MC/AM)). All of them wanted hefty pay rises that were barely justified in my eyes as I think only Dugoni would feature in a best 11. In the end I decided to give the first two new contracts and sell the others. I felt I had to give Sutton a new contract as it seemed gamey to try and sell the club captain whilst Akbulut is a very good keeper even if he isn't my first choice.

Further transfers out:

Costa MC 17.5m - third choice midfielder who wasn't going to improve and wanted insane wages.

Dugoni AMR 22m - Would have been first choice but was probably past his peak and wanted too much money

Bruninho MC 15m - Had a similar career to Rial and I wasn't willing to pay him 55k a week to sit on the bench

Further transfers in:

Malfeury AMR/L 10.5m - Signed as a replacement for Dugoni from Arsenal. Amusingly they ended up buying Dugoni so it was a straight swap. Almost certainly got the better deal as both have similar wages and similar CA but Malfleury can play on both wings and has better PA.

Paulista MC 7.75m - direct replacement for Costa. Might not be a long term signing

Goni 18.75m - the one signing that I regret really. I had money to burn so when my scouts said that he had 5 star PA and a low buyout clause I put in a bid without really thinking. Probably battling with Sutton to be second choice AM, if he does well then I might try to sell Sutton in January

As usual I went into the off season expecting to only make a few changes and ended up doing far more business. Not sure if I've adequately replaced Magallan but I've been able to keep everyone else that I wanted to. Our best defender did want to have a chat after a bid from PSG but I was able to convince him to back down. At the end of the transfer window I had received 107m in transfer payments whilst spending just 55.67m so it was an extremely profitable transfer window. I did nearly sell Akbulut after receiving a 40m bid from PSG (I negotiated several times) but by that point I really didn't need the extra money and he will be classed as home grown next season.

Pre season

Each season I've signed at least a couple of hot prospects. Some have been very successful like Cathalina (DC) and Pfieffer (FW) whilst others have been far less successful. This season I have a young right back and a central midfielder that I'm planning on giving a decent amount of game time to help boost their development. The midfielder below was signed in 2025 for 7.5m and currently has a 2 star CA so I'm hopeful that this could be his break through season.

Pre season

Last season we conceded far too many goals so in the off season I made some changes to the teams instructions that I'm hopeful will lead to an improvement this season as they are better suited to a CA approach. Previously I had been using the play wider and shorter passing instructions which had seemed sensible when I had great wingers but were probably counter productive. More detail in this thread: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/397085-Tactic-Improvements

The pre season friendlies generally went well although we were not playing against the best opposition and did struggle a lot in some matches.

The fixture list generator has not been kind to us this season. The first 5 league games see us playing 3 games against teams that finished above us, one against a team that finished on the same number of points as us (Liverpool) and the easiest match is against West Brom who beat us 4-1 last season in the same fixture. Will be happy with 6 points from those fixtures and then hopefully we can make up ground over the rest of the season. On the plus side Chelsea have a new manager so maybe its not so bad that we have to play them twice so early in the season.

This update covers the first half of the season up till the end of December

Board Expectations:

League - Euro Cup qualification

FA Cup - Semi Finals

Euro Cup - Semi Finals

League Cup - Not important

Super Cup - Be competitive

Media expectation: 5th place (8-1)

League so far

I had been concerned about the early season fixture list but bizarrely the team ended up producing their best run of results ever. The team won their first 11 competitive fixtures which was somewhat amazing considering that in our first fixture against Forest we were 2-0 down after 30 minutes. Some of the other results were not particularly convincing as against United and West Brom we could have easily dropped points. Local rivals Hull eventually ended our run with two second half goals to clinch a 2-0 win and from then on the performances were not great. 3 more wins did follow that defeat before a poor run in October saw us pick up just 2 points from 9 and lose our only game in Europe.

It seemed that counter attacking was no longer working as presumably the opposition were sitting back and denying us space so for the rest of the games I rotated through a few different tactics in an attempt to break down teams. In some matches it seems to have worked but the last four fixtures have not been convincing. Leicester haven't won a game all season and Southampton are bottom of the table so to only score 1 goal against each of them was very disappointing. The goal against Southampton came in the last 5 minutes so it could easily have been worse. The Newcastle defeat was probably to be expected as they are surprise challengers for the title this year.

For most of the season Newcastle, Man City and ourselves have been level but in the last few games Man City have opened up a gap whilst Man United have dropped back. Chelsea have had a terrible start to the season under their new manager however they do still occasionally destroy the opposition and have won the Club World Cup so I'm expecting them to climb up the table in the second half. Liverpool had a terrible start as well and were bottom when we played them but have recovered well since then.

The table:

Super Cup

For the first 90 minutes this felt like a repeat of last seasons final against Man City. Once again we conceded very early and equalised soon after with a goal from Sutton. Ivan gave us a second half lead and it looked like that would be enough until Chelsea equalised very late on. A second goal from Ivan in the second half of extra time meant that we avoided the lottery of penalties and retained the trophy. We had beaten Chelsea in the league so I would have been a little disappointed to lose against them a couple of weeks later.

League Cup

The competition isn't a priority but being knocked out by a Championship side was poor particularly when we were 2-1 up at half time.

Euro Cup

In midweek fixtures I've generally been playing an entirely different set of players who have performed well. The 1-0 defeat happened after we had already won the group and during the poor run of form in October. The knockout draw seems kind so should really be able to reach the quarter finals.

Other

Most of the summer transfers have been successful so far with both wingers putting in decent performances. The one exception has been the most expensive signing, Goni. The scouts initially said that he had 5 star PA, that dropped to 4.5 stars and now its on 2.5 stars. Since then I've rarely played him so he has asked to leave in January. Hopefully it will be possible to recoup most of the 18.75m. The backup right back also wants to leave as he was injured for a month and then complained that he wasn't playing enough. This is more of an issue as he is a home grown player. The youth player Moreau has been playing regularly in the midweek fixtures and has done well so far.

January Transfer Window

Goni (AM) was sold for 17.75m (a slight loss) whilst Spellman (DR) also left for 15m, both players were unhappy so the deals were sensible. Beltran (AML) also left for 22m. He was my backup winger so I was surprised to receive such a high bid for him from Leverkusen. With Beltran going I decided to bring in Jeff Castaneda in as a replacement for 10m. He is the American winger that I was considering signing in the summer and is an upgrade over Beltran.

League - part 2

The first half of the season went ridiculously well, the second half was not so good. For a while I kept on switching tactics to try and find something that worked but after the defeat against Cardiff I reverted back to the 4-5-1 CA tactic that had worked so well at the start of the season. Some of the results were probably down to bad timing as we played Chelsea and Cardiff in the middle of great runs but equally we dropped points to Everton and Norwich who were both struggling for points at the time. The second half of the Arsenal match felt like it represented our season, we raced into a 2-0 lead, then threw it away. The worst part was that Arsenal had a player sent off before they scored the winner.

The record for the second half of the season was 8 wins, 3 draws and 7 defeats which was just enough to keep ourselves ahead of a resurgent Chelsea and clinch 4th place. It helped a lot that Chelsea had a mini stumble with 10 games to go and clearly Newcastle had an even worse run in. Man City ended up winning their third title in a row with ease. For most of the second half of the season they had at least a 10 point gap. Further down the table Leicester made a valient effort to reach survival but it wasn't enough after such a bad start to the season.

Its great to have finally qualified for the Champions League as we finally get to play against the best teams in Europe but its a little disappointing that we couldn't hang on to third place. The extra money is nice as well as our current wage bill of 1.3m eats up the domestic TV money. At this point it would be nice if the club could build a new stadium but I think I have another 13 years to wait for that.

FA Cup

A decent away win against Fulham took us into the fifth round where we faced the runaway league leaders. To be honest I was surprised that the second leg went to extra time as I was expecting to lose comfortably based on our league form. Man City ended up winning the competition.

Euro Cup

Compared to last year the competition had a lot more established teams in the later stages so it was a pleasant surprise to be able to reach the final for the third year running. In the run to the final, the Galastaray and Forest home legs were our best performances whilst the team did their best to lose against Marseille in the second leg of the Semi Final.

In the final we faced PSG who won the French league with ease this season. I have no idea how they did so badly the previous season to end up in the Euro Cup. Our chances going into the match were hindered by having to play a youth right back (Selling Spellman may have been a mistake) and I played 3 or 4 players who had gotten us to the final rather than necessarily the best players. PSG raced into a 2-0 goal lead but a goal close to half time meant that we were still in with a chance. With 10 minutes to go one of our subs scored the equaliser to force extra time but PSG re asserted their dominance in the extra 30 minutes and ended up winning 4-2.

Board Expectations:

League - Euro Cup qualification - Went one better and finally qualified for the Champions League.

FA Cup - Semi Finals - Not this year

Euro Cup - Semi Finals - Reached the final but this time couldn't lift the trophy

League Cup - Not important - Lost in the fourth round.

Super Cup - Be competitive - Won it for a second year running. Our only trophy this season.

Media expectation: 5th place (8-1)

Its great to have finally beaten the media expectation and hopefully we can build on it next season. I do need to find a way to get more consistant performances in the league and our midweek European games will be more challenging. There is 80m in the bank so there is money to spend if I can find someone willing to move.

Other

FA Cup - Man City beat Man United 2-0

Champions League - Man City won 2-0 against Roma to complete a treble

League Cup - Chelsea won 2-0 against Liverpool

Championship - Spurs promoted as comfortable champions whilst Peterborough won the playoffs. Aston Villa were surprisingly relegated again.

Italy - Chievo Verona won the title ahead of Bologna, Roma, Genoa, Juventus and Sampdoria

Germany - Dortmund won the title ahead of Bayern, Schalke, Leverkusen, Hoffenheim, Stuttgart

France - PSG won the title ahead of Lille, Monaco

Spain - Real Madrid* won the title ahead of Atletico, Espanyol (Barcelona finished 9th)

*Makes me wonder what would have happened if I had taken the job. At the end of the season I received job offers from Chievo (Koeman retired) and Genoa but declined them both as I want to see how the champions league campaign goes next season.

Euro 2028

France lifted the trophy by beating Portugal 2-1 in the final. Two Lincoln players featured for France (Silva from the start and Malfleury as a late sub) so I was happy to see them win. Somewhat suprising to see Austria reach a semi final and Spain lost 5-1.

After the tournament I received three job offers from Spain, Italy and Croatia. Spain offered me 28.5kpw which was comfortably more than the other two nations and what Lincoln pay me so I decided to accept their offer. It helped that I have a player in the Spanish squad (Ibanez) and that Spain are ranked 41st in the world so it should be more of a challenge. Italy and Croatia are ranked 3rd and 4th in the world.

Recent results and fixtures:

The squad is decent and seem to have better players than Russia so I'm not sure why they have been doing so badly lately. Hopefully I'll be able to turn them around and not lose 5-1 to Belgium... In the World Cup group Russia are the biggest threat whilst Denmark are also ranked above us so qualification could be a bit of a struggle. On the plus side the first fixture couldn't be easier.