PaulHartman71

In the real timeline this was Man City's first ever Premier League title, but surely nobody could get back the 11 point gap on Liverpool? Nope Fabio Capello comes in and gives Liverpool their first title in 8 years, perhaps they will be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come. Terry Butcher came in at Aston Villa after Moyes was sacked and managed to get them up to 6th, with Man City finishing in the Top 4 for the second year in a row under Rafa Benitez. Luis Enrique came in at Chelsea, whilst David Moyes actually wound up at Tottenham to help them stay up after Bryan Robson got the sack. Paolo Maldini's Ipswich Town were relegated with the worst ever points total, with Palace and Wimbledon joining them in going down.

A disappointing exit at the Semi Final stage against Martin O'Neil's Man United in the FA Cup.

A fairly quiet January. Arouna Kone joins PSG, Man City sign Ivan Rakitic, Leeds bring in Troy Deeney and Werder Bremen sign Darren Bent. Steven Fletcher joins Nottingham Forest, Diego joins Liverpool, a young John Stones is snapped up by Southampton and Ilkay Gundogan joins Real Sociedad. Casemiro leaves Hibs for Newcastle, whilst Danny Welbeck leaves Man United for FC Groningen.

Yeah to be fair I feel like the image of the Queen in a wheelchair would be a powerful message/image for elderly, young and newly disabled people who struggle with people looking or judging them etc.

Obviously it’s not quite Putin levels of sitting on nukes etc but say you have Charles in a position where he’s not quite all there and has Boris or a Boris type figure lying or basically taking the **** out of him like Boris did to the Queen. What’s to say Charles doesn’t get really angry, has less of a filter and comes out publicly and says “you know what, the PM is a liar, he’s lied to me and he’s lying to you the people”. Now I’m not saying he’s going to try and get the PM the sack per se, but a momentarily lapse of judgment or anger etc and you’re in all sorts of problems. I think the Queen has been so good at doing and saying nothing for so long that people kind of take it for granted how “good” she is at doing nothing per se. Look at Philip as an example himself. In his old age he’d make even more inappropriate remarks or comments. It’s one thing when it’s the Queen’s eccentric/weird husband, but what happens if the King himself is coming out with dodgy off the cuff comments because he’s old and has no filter. I can possibly see William maybe deciding to be the last Monarch and not wanting his kids/grandchildren to have to go through all of it as well. Perhaps attitudes will have changed more in 30-40 years and it will be quietly got rid of.

Look at Putin as an example. The Queen in her defence has aged about as gracefully as can reasonably be expected of anyone, but Charles is what, 73? Potentially he lives as long as the Queen given the genes of his parents. What happens if he starts losing his marbles at 80? He’s wanted this position his whole life, even if he has got early onset dementia or something who’s making the decision to tell him to step down. If they insist on keeping the monarchy around they need to start safeguarding this kind of thing. The monarch plays an important role in state visits, signing off policies, governments etc, you shouldn’t have someone in their 90s in such a position of responsibility. Sure the Queen has always done the thing for the British people but what if Charles starts going rogue? He legitimately would have the power to start causing the sitting government problems if he wanted.

I just think personally the decision should’ve been taken out of her hands several years ago, definitely once Phillip died. If they insist on keeping the monarchy around forever which for political reasons they will unless Will and Kate become too woke for the right, then they should definitely put some kind of limit on like once a monarch hits retirement age in the UK they have to abdicate/retire etc.

I’m no fan of the royal family per se but I do find it quite grim how the last few years of her life have been made as miserable as possible by out of touch idiots in royal circles, the press and the establishment seemingly being unable to let an incredibly elderly woman just quietly abstain and retire.

Elsewhere, Man City did very well to top a group with Werder Bremen and the reigning champions Inter, who plunge into the UEFA Cup now. Monaco dropped down after United and Sociedad went through ahead of them, whilst Everton could only finish 3rd against Juve and Ajax. No surprises in Group D as Barca and Bayern progress. Fabio Capello won the UEFA Cup last season to get Liverpool into this competition, yet despite being unstoppable in the league they lost home and away to Terry Venables' Feyenoord side who pull off a huge upset to effectively knock them out back down to the UEFA Cup again. Porto are impressive to get through ahead of Dortmund, whilst Celtic finish 3rd to AC Milan and PSG. We've got Ajax in what should be an interesting tie against Hiddink's side. Porto and Valencia, Real Sociedad and City are both fairly even looking ties, whilst Real Madrid face Bayern, Bremen and Milan, and Terry Venables Feyenoord have a chance to cause another upset against an English side as they take on Man United. A mouth watering tie as Johan Cruyff's Napoli face his old side Barcelona, whilst PSG have Juve.

The story of the European Cup group stage was Cruyff's tricky Napoli side just not staying down. We drew both games and only finished ahead of them as we both beat Spartak and Brugge due to us having a better record across the two legs.

Halfway through the season and my oh my Fabio Capello has got Liverpool looking like an absolute danger this season A ridiculously good record sees us, Man United and Man City some way off and the title almost sewn up at Christmas. Of course it isn't over until it's over but my word a 12 point gap and goal difference at this stage as Liverpool have just been unplayable. Nearer the bottom of the table it's been a horror show from Ipswich who have picked up just 5 points all season under new manager Paolo Maldini. Newcastle have already sacked Sven and brought in former Bristol City manager Michael Thomas to try and turn things around. Whilst as you can see Aston Villa who for so long have been a Top 4/5 side under Martin O'Neil have dropped off massively under David Moyes, who has done so badly he has very recently been sacked (no replacement yet announced) as Villa are far closer to a shock relegation than getting back into the European Cup after finishing 5th last season.

Another early exit in the League Cup this year as Blackburn see off our second string at Ewood Park without much issue.

The season got off to a meh start as we lost the Charity Shield to Man United at Wembley quite comfortably.

United kicked off the Martin O'Neil era by bringing in Angel Di Maria from Udinese, they'll be hoping he does better in this timeline for them than he did in the last one. Charlton sign Aaron Lennon from Leeds, whilst Kieran Richardson moves to Nottingham Forest. Villa sign Balzaretti, whilst Papiss Cisse joins Blackburn and Jonny Evans signs for West Ham. Roma spend big to get in Sami Khedira from Marseille, whilst Man United add Pedro to their ranks after already signing Angel Di Maria. Carlos Tevez leaves Blackburn for Barcelona, whilst Luka Modric is snapped up by Real Madrid for a good value looking deal that could rise to £27M. Newcastle bring in Shaun Wright-Phillips, Thomas Hitzlsperger joins Capello's Liverpool, whilst Laurent Koscielny is signed by AC Milan. Niko Kranjcar leaves Spurs for Blackburn, Aston Villa sign Chris Eages and Wes Morgan joins Charlton. Scott Dann leaves Man United for Everton, as they bring in Nedum Onouha and Martin Caceres. Hatem Ben Arfa signs for Real Madrid as Chelsea fork out just over £8M to bring in Willian from Rangers. Dries Mertens signs for Everton, Andy Johnson joins Nottingham Forest and Fabrice Muamba swaps Rangers for Marseille. Rangers with a shock of the window as they sign a teenage Neymar from Santos, Gokhan Inler leaves Villa for Feyenoord, Shane Long signs for Lyon and Andres Guardado joins Udinese. Valencia snap up Fernando Llorente after selling Luis Fabiano to Chelsea. Jean II Makoun joins City, whilst Javier Hernandez signs for Barcelona after we only sold him last summer at a considerably lower price than that. Hulk leaves Juve for Sevilla, Eduardo joins Marseille, Miguel Veloso joins Lyon and Koke signs for Inter. Ciro Immobile joins Marseille, whilst Martin Demichelis is another who signs for Lyon and Cameron Jerome joins Blackburn.

A few departures this summer, Huntelaar was in the last year of his deal and leaves for Celtic, whilst Alex Song is snapped up by PSG, with Luke Freeman going to Coventry. Some loan deals as Fran Merida goes out to Espanyol, Barazite to West Brom, Ayling to Gillingham, Lansbury to Watford, Coquelin to Sheffield United and Afobe to Southend. Woj actually broke his foot just days into going to Porto and was ruled out at least 6 months so I've cancelled his loan and he'll spend his recovery time with us. Just the one signing this summer. Alex Song left but we have Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey to come in. I will need to get a new first team striker soon, but Henry is just at the end of his prime I think and can still easily start most games for us next season, so I've signed a sort of stop gap back-up striker in Ronaldo who was transfer listed by Barcelona after they replaced him with Benzema. He's not as good as he once was physically but still looks a handy player, worst case scenario he comes in and sells a few shirts

I am back after a year long absence from these parts (and playing FM in general tbf). This save will be played on the recent update of FM19. Inspired somewhat by ManUtd1's big journeyman I've had this idea for a save planned for a while. The aim of it is to win the Champions League with a team that hasn't won it before from "every" country in Europe. I say every with brackets as I won't be using any extra files on this save so I will "only" be doing it for the 34 countries available on the game. I guess I could do 35 if you include the Liechtenstein side, but I won't have to worry about making a decision on that for a very long time. As I often like to do on saves on FM I will start off with Arsenal and then work my way around the rest of Europe from there. I'll be starting the game with the top leagues from England, Spain, Germany and France all loaded, then will take one away and add another as I complete one. So when I win the CL with Arsenal I will take England off and add Italy, then take the next off and add Portugal, Turkey, Russia, etc and so on.