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danmcconnell1

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  1. The Euros got off to the perfect start for us as we beat Albania by a goal to nil in Leipzig thanks to Che Adams scoring for the first time in a major tournament for us. We followed that up with a goalless draw against Hungary in Hamburg, making it 2 clean sheets in a row to begin the tournament and 4 points picked up already. Our final opponents were Portugal, favourites to win the group and they showed it too, thrashing us 5-1 in Hamburg again. Ross Stewart scored for us, another player scoring their first major tournament goal. Our goal difference was the reason we finished as one of the best 3rd placed teams, meaning we would face a group winner in the round of 16, which incidentally would be Belgium. And we were outstanding in beating a very good Belgian side, the final chance of silverware really for many of the golden Belgian generation which still included the likes of Courtois, De Bruyne and Lukaku. Ross Stewart scored his 2nd and 3rd goals of this tournament off the bench late on in Gelsenkirchen to send us into the quarter finals where we will take on Denmark in the Olympic Stadium in the capital Berlin. One piece of bad news was an injury to captain John McGinn which would see him miss the remainder of the tournament. We didn't miss McGinn though as we continued our journey in the tournament with a win against the Danes after extra time. It was goalless after 90 minutes but we raced into a 2-0 lead at half time in extra time thanks to goals from Lewis Ferguson, his first at international level, and another for Ross Stewart, then youngster Tommy Conway also scored his first Scotland goal 4 minutes from time to make it 3-0. Jonas Wind did get one back for Denmark but it was far too little too late as we roared into the semi finals where we would take on Turkiye in Dortmund at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. The fairy tale continued for us as we thrashed the Turks in Dortmund. Scott McTominay got things underway in the 4th minute before Conway scored again to make it 2. Aaron Hickey scored his first international goal to make it 3-0 just past the half hour mark and we were cruising. Conway got a 2nd of the game and 3rd of the tournament to make it 4-0 early in the 2nd half which was enough for us to make it to a maiden European Championship final back at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in 3 days time where we would take on reigning champions and 2-time previous winners Italy. This time, the fairy tale came to it's most perfect end. A solitary Oli McBurnie headed goal 19 minutes from time was enough to beat the Italians in Berlin and send Scotland into a frenzy.
  2. The final month of the season began with another heavy defeat at Parkhead against Celtic, losing 4-0. Another defeat ensued as our poor end of season continued with a 2-0 defeat, this time at the hands of Hearts at Pittodrie. Our final win of the season came away at Ross County thanks to goals from McGrath, Miovski and Sokler. Then came the final day, at home to Rangers. We gave them a good game chasing them for most of it, going 2-0 down, getting back to 2-1, then 3-2 behind which is how it finished, McGrath and Rubezic with our goals. Celtic were crowned champions on the final day after an unbeaten league campaign. Rangers ran them to the course finishing just 2 points behind their biggest rivals in 2nd. We finished 3rd in what was, on the whole, a successful first season at Aberdeen which resulted in Europa League football again next season and lifting a trophy, the Viaplay Cup back in December, beating both Old Firm clubs in the semi final and final respectively. Here are our players stats for the campaign. Bojan Miovski ended the season as top scorer with 22 goals in 45 appearances. Duk scored 12, 11 for Sokler and Onomah scored an impressive 10 from midfield. James McGarry deserves a special mention too for his 7 goals in his first season at the club, generally from full back or left wing, he's done really well. Jamie McGrath has also done well this season, 9 goals and 13 assists to his name, he's been imperious from the spot too scoring all 4 spot kicks he was tasked with. On a final note, with 2 games left to play, we signed Julian Aude on a free following his release from LA Galaxy. The California based club signed Aude for £4m from Lanus and released him just over a year later and following an MLS save previously on FM24 I know he can become a good little player, so to come in for nothing was too good an opportunity not to explore. He's immediately now worth between £8.2m - £9.4m so could prove to be a very shrewd signing should be perform to the standard I know he can. We now go into the Euros with Scotland with the final squad still to be decided, we'll update once the tournament for us comes to an end.
  3. We got off to a good start in April making it back to back wins beating Livingston 2-1 thanks to goals from Miovski and a Palvara winner. Our final match before the league splits was a poor one, a 3-0 defeat at home to Dundee. The split then happened with us sitting in 3rd, meaning we're in the Championship Group. The first match after the split ended in defeat again, this time away to Hibs with Rubezic scoring our goal. 3rd place is ours. We can't be caught by Ross County and can't catch Rangers, so we've guaranteed Europa League football again next season in some capacity, beginning in the Playoff round based on coefficients as things stand. If I can lead Scotland to a decent Euros then that'll help the countries' coefficient, as well as this season's performances in the Europa League which will have also helped the coefficient going forward for future years, in turn making European qualification, more specifically the Champions League, a more achievable goal.
  4. My Scotland side faced Cameroon at Hampden in the first friendly of the internationals and we beat them 3-0 thanks to goals from Ryan Gauld and a brace for Ross Stewart. We welcomed Nigeria to the national stadium again 3 days later and beat them 1-0 thanks to another Gauld goal. Moving onto the Euros later this summer, our group has been drawn. We'll take on Albania, Hungary and seeded side Portugal. I'm confident of challenging for 2nd spot in this group, I definitely feel like we can beat Albania and Hungary, Portugal will be a challenge.
  5. March begins with convincing 4-0 win away at St Mirren thanks to Duk scoring within the opening minute and a Miovski hat-rick wrapping things up. Next was the much anticipated trip to northern Italy to face AC Milan at the San Siro. We did manage a goal to make it 2-1 thanks to James McGarry, however a 4-1 defeat all but sealed our fate. We did hold them to a goalless draw back at Pittodrie a week later which was a brilliant feat for us, however we went out of the Europa League at the last 16 stage. We travelled to Motherwell the following Monday night and could only manage a 2-2 draw, our goals coming from Miovski and McGarry. The month ended with arguably our closest competitor for 3rd place Ross County at Pittodrie and we beat them pretty easily 3-0. Clarkson, Miovski and Gartenmann all scored for us. We remain in 3rd in the Premiership, 14 points clear of 4th placed Ross County, but 13 behind 2nd placed Celtic, therefore as mentioned before it seems likely we'll be finishing there too.
  6. Firstly, there was no more transfer activity in or out of the club on deadline day. We began February with the visit of Celtic and lost 1-0 at Pittodrie. Just 3 days later we travelled to Glasgow to face the other Old Firm side Rangers at Ibrox and were demolished 5-0. Our cause wasn't helped when vice captain Nicky Devlin was sent off 5 minutes into the 2nd half. However, 4 wins from the next 4 matches have really helped get our season back on track after a rough patch at the beginning of the year. We responded well with a 3-1 victory over St. Johnstone away from home thanks to goals by Duk and a Josh Onomah brace. We then beat Hibs by the same scoreline back at Pittodrie the following weekend, Onomah with another taking his tally to 10 for the season, Miovski and McGrath getting the others. Nicky Devlin returned to the line up for the Kilmarnock match and scored the only goal in a 1-0 at Rugby Park. We ended the month facing St. Johnstone again and managed to beat them again, 2-1 this time. We fell behind but goals from Miovski and McGarry saw us home to make it 4 league wins in a row to end February. As mentioned previously, we've made 3rd place our home this season in the Premiership, the 12 points from the last 4 games have really helped solidify that position after Ross County were closing in for a little while, the gap was down to just 4 points after the defeat against Rangers. We've been drawn against one of the glamour sides in the last 16 of the Europa League, AC Milan. We travel to the San Siro next month before welcoming the Rossonneri back to Pittodrie a week later. I have no doubt we're not strong enough to be challenging for this competition, however I do believe we're amongst one of the strongest, if not the strongest last 16 line ups ever seen in the Europa League as the likes of Ajax, AC Milan, Liverpool and Bayern Munich are all competing for the title.
  7. We haven't got off to the best of starts in 2024 with just 1 point picked up in the league and we've also been knocked out of the Scottish Cup at the first attempt. We lost away in Dingwall against Ross County 3-2, Duncan and Sokler scoring our goals. We then had a warm weather training camp out in Qatar and beat Al-Sadd in a friendly while we were out there too. Unfortunately though, back at home, we lost away at Falkirk in the Scottish Cup 4th round 4-3, Clarkson, Sokler and Morris scored our goals in the defeat. We then had an 8 day break before our next league match away at Hearts where we salvaged a 94th minute equaliser to pick up a point. Shinnie, Miovski and a late McGrath penalty saw us leave with a share of the spoils. Still in 3rd place as we enter February, I have a feeling this may well be where we end up this season as Celtic have pulled well away and Rangers are 11 points ahead now too. They'll be difficult to catch this time around. The Europa League draws are yet to take place for the last 16 as the Playoff round is still to be played and we are of course out of the Scottish Cup now after defeat at Falkirk. With deadline day fast approaching there's still plenty of time for further transfer activity to potentially take place, however it's been a case of 1 in and 1 out in central midfield after Connor Barron was sold to Genoa for £1.3m. He was out of contract in the summer and the academy product had no interest in extending his deal with us so it made sense to cash in and get what we could for him in January. We replaced him with Josh Campbell in from Hibs. An initial fee of £650k which could reach £1m in total, I'm hoping he'll prove to be a capable replacement. Gueye was also sent to Belgian side Eupen on loan for the remainder of the season as he's not getting much game time here due to the good form of both Miovski and Sokler upfront. Duk is another who's expressed he won't be extending his deal with us, however he's under contract until 2025 so despite being open to offers for him, I will more than likely wait until the summer to look at letting him go, unless we receive a satisfactory offer between now and the end of this window. Any further transfer activity will be summarised next month.
  8. December was very busy for us with 9 matches in the space of 27 days. We began with a win away in the capital at Hibs, Miovski and Sokler with the goals there in a routine 2-0 win. Then just 3 days later we welcomed Kilmarnock to Pittodrie who gave us much more of a game, however we picked up the 3 points again thanks to a Duk hat-rick. Duk continued his purple patch with our goal in the 1-1 draw with Hearts before our final Europa League group stage match away to Young Boys. We did the double over the Swiss champions as Jamie McGrath scored the only goal on the stroke of half time from the penalty spot. Next up was the biggest game of the season by far as we took on Rangers back at Hampden in the Viaplay Cup final. Goalless at the break, goals from Duncan and Miovski before the hour mark gave us a lot to hold onto and despite Kemar Roofe getting one back for Rangers, we held on for our first piece of silverware for 9 years, dating back to when Aberdeen last won the League Cup. Within 6 months of arriving in Scotland, we've managed to pick up silverware, beating both Old Firm counterparts in doing so. The league was fast upon us again as we took on Livingston back at Pittodrie and managed a 1-0 win against them thanks to a Leighton Clarkson goal. The final match before Christmas saw us travel to face Dundee however we lost 3-2, just our 3rd league defeat of the season up to now. Goals from Shinnie and Duk were not enough to see us through. We recovered well though with a 3-0 win at home to Motherwell thanks to goals by McGrath, Duk again and Gartenmann. The year ended with the visit of St. Mirren who sit bottom of the Premiership, however we could only manage a 2-2 draw with them, in doing so dropping more points behind Rangers and Celtic. Goals from Sokler and Polvara were not enough to give us the 3 points to end the year on a high. Again we remain in 3rd in the Premiership behind the Old Firm, but if we were to win our game in hand over Celtic and Rangers were to lose theirs, we would be within 3 points of 2nd place and with plenty of football left to be played and also having beaten both Old Firm clubs in the cup, the race for the top 2 isn't over yet. The win in Switzerland confirmed our place at the top of our Europa League group which guarantees us a place in the last 16 and means we avoid the Playoff round in the new year, giving us a much needed midweek break over the fortnight where European football first returns in the new year. And of course, we won the Viaplay Cup against Rangers at Hampden, the club's first silverware for 9 years.
  9. November began with a comfortable 3-1 win in the trip to Motherwell thanks to goals by Barron and another late brace to win it by James McGarry, making it 4 in 3 for him. We then travelled to Hampden for the Viaplay Cup semi final against Celtic, a really big game for us and we managed to beat them by a solitary goal to nil scored by Slobodan Rubezic's first for the club to send us to the final against Rangers a week before Christmas back at Hampden. We then got a brilliant 2-2 draw at home to Villarreal whilst riding the crest of the wave after reaching the cup final, goals from Onomah and on loan defender Gartenman kept us in with a great chance of reaching the knockout stages of this years' Europa League. A trip to Parkhead followed and Celtic got their revenge for the semi final defeat a week earlier with a comfortable 3-0 win, we just didn't turn up in the 2nd half after keeping the scores level until half time. Another big match followed, a dress rehearsal for the final next month against Rangers at Pittodrie where the scores were honours even at 1-1. Duk scored a screamer for us, but we were up against it from the 2nd minute after Barron was sent off very early, so all in all we did well to keep the point. The final match of the month was at home against Slovan Bratislava in the Europa League. Our penultimate group stage match was another 3-1 win against them thanks to goals by Onomah, Gartenman again and Connor Barron. All of this means we remain in 3rd in the Premiership again, but Celtic and Rangers have extended their lead to 5 and 6 points respectively with Rangers at the top of the table after 13 matches played. We're unlucky in my opinion to have reached 10 points after 5 matches in our Europa League group to have not already at least guaranteed qualification, we go into our final group stage match next month away in Switzerland against Young Boys hoping to secure a top 2 place with at least a draw. We've been drawn against Falkirk in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup and will, of course, take on Rangers in the Viaplay Cup final 8 days before Christmas. 2 more wins ensued this month for the Scottish national side against Cyprus and Georgia, winning the former 4-1 thanks to goals by Luis Binks, Lawrence Shankland, Gilmour and Christie. We then beat Georgia in Tbilisi 1-0 thanks to a 90th minute goal by defender Jack Hendry. This means we finished runners up, just a point behind Spain and qualified for the Euros next summer.
  10. Just the one qualifier in October which was against Norway at Hampden, we easily beat them 3-0 thanks to goals by Adams, McKenna and Gauld. The friendly win a few days later in Tallin against Estonia thanks to goals by Brown and McTominay was also nice, however the sweeter news was to come. Norway beat Georgia and Spain thrashed Cyprus which meant both us and Spain now sat on 13 points and couldn't be caught with just 2 matches remaining. This means Scotland qualify for the Euros next summer with 2 games to spare and essentially have an extra month to prepare for this tournament. The 2 remaining qualifiers against Cyprus and Georgia will no doubt be an opportunity for some new faces to come into the squad and stake a claim for a place on the plane to Germany next summer.
  11. October got off to a fantastic start as mentioned before with the win against Swiss side Young Boys, but things got better with a big win back in the Scottish Premiership over St Johnstone, thrashing them 6-1 with goals from Sokler, Devlin, Onomah, McGrath, Hayes and Miovski to keep the pressure on the Old Firm. 6 days later we welcomed Dundee and managed a clean sheet plus another 3 goals in a 3-0 win, New Zealand international James McGarry with his first 2 goals for the club and Miovski keeping up his impressive form with another goal. Then came the visit of Spanish side Villarreal, a tough side for anyone. A solitary Gerard Moreno goal was enough for the visitors to come away from Pittodrie with the points, however we do remain top of the group, 1 point clear of El Submarino Amarillo. The final match of the month was the only away trip of October at Kilmarnock. We won by a goal to nil there scored by Jamie McGrath to make it 3 wins from 3 in October in the Premiership. Things are still looking pretty good in league terms, we remain in 3rd but just a point behind Celtic now after 10 matches and 2 behind leaders Rangers. We remain top of our Europa League group too despite the defeat at home to Villarreal, things could get interesting though as we play them again in Spain next and Young Boys take on Slovan Bratislava who they beat the same night we lost against Villarreal. Even if we were to finish 3rd in the group, it would still mean European football in the new year as we'd fall into the Europa Conference League Playoff Round which pits 2nd placed group stage sides against 3rd place Europa League group finishers, so plenty of reason for optimism if things don't quite go to plan for the remainder of this group stage campaign. The aim is Europa League knockout football in the new year though, obviously. The new format for European competitions kicks in next season, hopefully we'll be in one of the 3 competitions. Goals are still being shared around the team with 9 players now scoring at least 2 goals this season so far. Miovski is still the top scorer with 10 from his 14 appearances, Sokler has 6 from 13 and Josh Onomah has 5 from 10 starts.
  12. We are into early October and have lost just twice in all competitions up to now. My tenure began with a 1-0 win away at Livingston, striker Bojan Miovski scoring the only goal. We then followed that with my first home match in charge a week later against champions Celtic who we held to a goalless draw. Another trip to Livingston soon followed and this time we thrashed them 4-0 in the Viaplay Cup 2nd round, Ester Sokler scored twice within the opening 6 minutes whilst Connor Barron and Pape Habib Gueye scored their first goals of the new season to send us into the quarter finals where we would welcome Hibernian next month. We then welcomed Slavia Prague to Pittodrie for our Europa League Play Off 1st Leg but unfortunately lost 2-1, meaning we had to win in the Czech Republic next week to stand a chance of reaching the Europa League Group Stage, however even if we didn't, Europa Conference League Group Stage football would have been the alternative, which for a team of our size wouldn't necessarily have been a bad thing, however the Europa League is still the preference. We got back to domestic matters with a win away at St. Mirren. Jamie McGrath and Sokler scored our goals there. The month ended with the return leg against Slavia which we won 1-0 thanks to another Sokler goal in the 2nd half. This took the match to extra time where we couldn't be separated. We then went on to win the penalty shoot out thanks to an inspired goalkeeping performance from Kelle Roos, a name Derby fans may well be familiar with, who saved 2 of the 3 he faced as we won the shoot out 4-1. Into September, we began with a 1-1 draw at home to Hibs, new signing Josh Onomah scoring a 94th minute equaliser to extend our unbeaten start domestically. We then travelled to another one of the best of the rest clubs Hearts and managed a 2-1 win at Tynecastle, Duk and Ryan Duncan with the goals there. Our first Europa League Group Stage matched soon followed away in the Slovakian capital against Slovan Bratislava where we were brilliant in winning 3-1 thanks to goals by Miovski, Duk and Polvara. Back to league matters and a thumping win against Ross County back at Pittodrie, Onomah, captian Graeme Shinnie and a Miovski brace saw us pick up the 3 points with ease. Then came our 2nd meeting with Hibs this month, again at home but this time in the Viaplay Cup quarter final where we thrashed them 5-3, our goals being scored by Duk, Miovski, Polvara and a Josh Onomah brace to send us into the semi finals where we'll take on Celtic at Hampden in November. The final match of the month was against the other Old Firm club Rangers at Ibrox, however we fell to a 2-1 defeat there, our first domestic defeat of the campaign. October began with the visit of Swiss side Young Boys to Pittodrie. A Champions League club in the very recent past, Young Boys was a tough ask, however we were outstanding against the Swiss champions and pummelled them 4-1. Goals from Jonny Hayes, Connor Barron and another brace for Miovski saw us sitting pretty at the top of our group ahead of a tough double header home and away to Villarreal to come next. We currently sit 3rd in the Scottish Premiership after 7 matches played, 2 points behind Rangers and 5 behind Celtic who've started magnificently, only we have taken points from the Hoops so far. As mentioned previously, the 2 wins in Europe see us top of Group B, however the double header coming up to Villarreal may see that gap bridged, but we will still be top after match day 3 regardless. We haven't yet entered the Scottish Cup, that comes in the new year but are in the semi-finals of the Viaplay Cup where we'll take on Celtic at Hampden Park on 4/11. Just the one player in so far, that was the aforementioned Josh Onomah on a free following his release from Preston and he's had a great start, scoring 4 goals in 7 matches with 2 assists to boot. Top scorer so far is Bojan Miovski with 8 in 11 matches, but the goals have been shared around the team up to now with 6 different players all scoring 2 or more so far. Moving onto the national side, the European Championship qualifying had already got underway before my arrival, so I've taken charge of just the 2 matches so far. My tenure began with a home win against Georgia, Scott McTominay's brace and a Billy Gilmour penalty gave us the 3 points. We then travelled to the Bernabeu to face Spain. We gave them a very good game however their quality told and we lost 5-3, McGinn, Christie and Adams with our goals. We sit 2nd in Group A with Spain leading the group, however the big surprise is the poor performance of Norway in this group so far, not even Erling Haaland has been able to fire the Norwegians up the table so far. They are our next opponents in this group before we end the qualification campaign in November at home to Cyprus before a final trip to Georgia. The top 2 qualify automatically for Euro 2024 in Germany next summer and we've put ourselves in a very decent position to be there.
  13. Finding the motivation for a long term save in Scotland can be tricky, but the rewards can be big. There's only really a handful of clubs in any kind of position to be able to potentially challenge the duopoly that is Celtic and Rangers north of the border. One of those is Aberdeen FC. Founded in 1903, Aberdeen FC have a proud history both in Scotland and across the continent. The club have lifted the Scottish title 4 times, winning 3 of those 4 titles in a trophy laden spell under the great Sir Alex Ferguson between 1980 and 1986. The club have also won 7 Scottish Cup titles, 4 of which were won again by Sir Alex Ferguson back in the 80's. There have also been League Cup wins, 6 in total, the most recent of which was the clubs' most recent honour back in 2014. There was also European success back in the 1980's under Sir Alex Ferguson prior to his move to Manchester United. The UEFA Cup Winner's Cup of 1983 was won by a brilliant Aberdeen team who then went onto win the UEFA Super Cup later that year too. Aberdeen is on the east coast of Scotland and the club play their home matches at Pittodrie, with the stadium holding a capacity crowd of 20,866 punters on a match day. Aberdeen FC have played at the stadium since the club's inception back in 1903. It occasionally holds international fixtures for the Scottish national team who last played at Pittodrie back in 2017, a friendly fixture against Holland where the Scots lost 1-0. Speaking of the national side, I will be taking over from Steve Clarke and trying to harness the talent Scotland has to offer on the world stage and try to help us challenge for major honours in the future. The Scottish national side predominantly play their home matches at Hampden Park in Glasgow. It has a capacity of 51,866 and hosts all major domestic cup semi-finals and finals, therefore I'm obviously hoping my Aberdeen side will be playing there far more often than they have in the recent past. I have already begun this save and am into October, therefore will update up to there in due course.
  14. Have done exactly that. On the one hand, I've decimated my old club signing the perfect young LWB regen and CB regen, Archie Gray in midfield and am trying to bring in Nelson Weiper who was amazing for me at Blues too, scoring 34 goals in my final season at the club. On the other, I'll have the save lying in wait with my brilliant Blues team and see how things go at Real.
  15. I've only had one save so far on FM24 since the Beta with Birmingham City and I've had an absolute ball managing my team through to the beginning of the 2030/31 season. Achievements are as follows; 23/24 - Promotion to Premier League via playoffs 24/25 - 16th place finish, stayed up with 1 game remaining 25/26 - 14th place finish, stayed up with 3 games remaining 26/27 - 14th place finish - stayed up with 4 games remaining, also took over the England job 2026 summer following a poor World Cup. 27/28 - 7th place finish & FA Cup winners - Euro's semi finals with England 28/29 - 10th place finish & Europa League winners 29/30 - 5th place finish and Champions League quarter finalists - knocked out at last 16 of World Cup with England After 6 brilliant seasons at my club, Real Madrid have come calling with their insane transfer budget this summer of over £960m and over £8m per week wage budget too. I haven't been offered the job yet however am the overwhelming favourite and am expecting to be offered the job imminently. What would you do?
  16. I've cancelled via Amazon, will purchase via Steam like I usually do
  17. Had a very lengthy live chat with Amazon this morning. No help whatsoever, after almost an hour all I got was 'please wait 24 hours, you will receive code via email' I was then asked if there was anything else I needed help with, then cut off. Highly frustrating so will call when I get a chance
  18. Not had it yet no. Spoke to Amazon live chat who said it can take up to 4 hrs for the code to come through following the order. I ordered approx 6:30 and no code yet. Will more than likely chase in the morning if it hasn't come through though.
  19. Appreciate your response, I’m clearly a bit blind 🙂 thanks!
  20. Apologies if this has already been answered, however I have £60 sitting in my Amazon account waiting to be spent on something, so why not FM24? I’m not sure however whether I’ll get beta access if I were to buy the digital version via Amazon? Any ideas anyone?
  21. August 2030 After a successful start to the season in retaining the Community Shield with the win against Liverpool, I'm hoping to begin the new season with a bang and hopefully pick up another early trophy by also retaining the UEFA Super Cup too. We have had a brilliant start winning all but one of our matches so far, dropping points away at Brighton in our final match of the season but remaining unbeaten. We began the Premier League season with a 4-2 win away at St. Mary's against Southampton and despite falling behind twice, goals by Gvardiol, Sudakov and a Haaland double won it for us to give us a winning start. We did retain the UEFA Super Cup but after a very spirited performance by Aston Villa in Zagreb, Croatia. We won the game 5-3 after extra time which proves Villa were very good, however we just about had enough to beat them with Haaland scoring 4 while Rashford scored his first goal for the club too. We then faced Villa again just 3 days later in the Premier League at Villa Park and scored another 5 against them, conceding just the 1 this time in the league. Haaland was again outstanding scoring another 4 goals while Josh Clark scored the 5th and final goal in stoppage time. We welcomed Spurs in our next match back at the Etihad and continued our brilliant goal scoring form as we beat them 7-3, Haaland going one better this time in scoring 5 goals while Rashford managed his first Premier League goals with a brace too. Yet another high scoring encounter was next, however this time it was far more significant as we beat Liverpool 6-2 again at the Etihad. Liverpool's Kvaratskhelia gave them the lead within the opening minute, however we fought back with another Haaland masterclass as he bagged another hat-rick to continue his ridiculous start to the season while Rashford, Foden and Ruben Dias rounded off our goal scoring. Bowen scored a late goal for Liverpool to make the score line a little more respectable however it's a huge statement to beat them so heavily, even this early in the season. The final match of the month was away at Brighton however we dropped points this time as we could only manage a 2-2 draw with the Seagulls. Haaland and Foden put us 2-0 up and we were seemingly cruising however 2 Jackson Muleka goals restored parity and that's how it finished. We have had a great start and find ourselves back on top of the Premier League table early on after Haaland has absolutely torn most of his opponents apart so far this time around, scoring 15 goals in his opening 5 matches, triggering 2 of 3 goal clauses within his contract within the month, earning him an extra £3.2m in bonuses already this season. He needs another 5 goals to earn another £700k bonus. His average rating is already 9.28 so far this season and he has 4 MOTM awards already too. I won Manager of the Month and Haaland, unsurprisingly, won Player of the Month, however I forgot to get the screen shot! We now move onto the last of the transfer business done this summer. We let Heorhii Sudakov go after Newcastle offered £50m upfront for him in what I thought was a fair offer. He's been a good player for me over the last couple of seasons scoring some big goals however I want to start bringing through some younger players so need to make some room within the squad. He'll be missed but I'm confident others can step up now. The next player out was club icon and fan favourite Bernardo Silva. After 14 years at the club he won the lot and now aged 36, felt it's time for a new challenge to end his career. He's joined Rangers in Scotland for £8m which I feel is a fair deal despite his value going a fair bit higher following the move. He's had a great start up there scoring 2 in his first 2 appearances for them. The final man out may be a surprise to some after I confirmed he'd be retiring last season, however we managed to talk him round into staying on for at least 1 more year, however when Inter came in with a late offer for 36 year Aymeric, I felt it was in the interest of the club to cash in while we still could and allow him to get more game time in what may well be his final year. We've received £5m for the veteran. After the late departure of Laporte, I needed to replace him, so in comes Robim Devillaz from Atalanta for a fee of £60m which could rise to £73m. He's a versatile defender who can play in midfield too. I always wanted to sign Devillaz, however wasn't planning on doing so yet. The Laporte departure expedited this deal though so he comes in and will hopefully be a vital part of this team in the years to come with Ruben Dias ageing now, I really hope Devillaz and Rudloff could be a partnership for the ages and with them both aged just 21, there's no reason why this can't be the case.
  22. Pre-Season 2030 After what was of course a very busy summer again winning the World Cup with England, it was time to get back to our bread and butter with preparing for the new league season ahead and trying to defend all of our titles. Our friendlies went well, winning all but 2 matches which ended in draws. We did win another Community Shield too, once again against Liverpool, beating them 2-0 at Wembley thanks to goals by Haaland and Ruben Dias before half time. We have one more friendly to play against Real Madrid in another testimonial ahead of the new season. The first testimonial was for Rodri against Lyon, the 2nd aforementioned one is for Phil Foden against Real Madrid before the new Premier League season gets underway away at Southampton. We also have another UEFA Super Cup to look forward to after retaining the Champions League, this time we'll face fellow Premier League side Aston Villa after they won the Europa League last season, therefore guaranteeing Champions League football for themselves this time around too. We'll now move onto transfer business done so far this summer, starting with those leaving the club up to now. The first player to leave was backup goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu. His contract was up next summer and he'd already made noises about letting that deal come to an end therefore allowing him to leave for nothing, so it made sense to cash in on him now. Chelsea came in for him with a £33m offer which I was happy to accept. His value has skyrocketed which I don't believe to be accurate and I'm sure will come back down in the coming months. He did okay in tournaments for me over the years, particularly last season playing a starring role in goal in the Carabao Cup success and in the earlier rounds of the FA Cup too. In his 3 seasons back at the club he made 21 appearances, conceded 19 goals and kept 5 clean sheets. Next to leave permanently was Kamil Horoszkiewicz, who joines Augsburg in Germany for £12.5m He spent the last 3 seasons out on loan after we signed him in the summer of 2027 for nothing, however hasn't quite developed into the player we initially hoped, therefore making £12.5m profit was more than welcome. I'm sure he'll go on to be a solid defender however I don't believe he's going to be good enough for our level. Mitchell Turner is a player who came through our academy and has spent a lot of time out on loan at numerous affiliated clubs over the last few seasons but again, isn't quite the player we once hoped and aged 22 now he needs to go and find a home. He's joined Brighton for £8m. Rhys Davies is another player out of our academy who's not quite hit the heights some thought he would and again, with just a year left on his deal, it made sense to cash in this summer. He's joined WBA for £3.2m. Marco Sanchez to Real Madrid is a deal I didn't really want to do, especially considering his value now He joined us from Club America in 2028 and spent most of his City career out on loan in Mexico at Pumas and performed well, however as soon as reported interest from Real Madrid became public, Sanchez asked to leave. We ended up striking a deal with the Spanish giants worth £28m, so we did end up making over £22m on the player despite him not making a 1st team appearance for us. I don't usually make a note of loan deals, however 1st team defender Alessio Tomasoni has joined Atletico Madrid on loan for the season after helping us to all 7 trophies last season. He was an important back up player for us as he can play all across the back line, however the chance of regular 1st team football at a big club in Spain is a great opportunity for him to exert his excellence in a side and hopefully come back a stronger player for us next summer. We'll be keeping a close eye on his progress. We now move onto deals we've done to bring players into the club so far this summer. After speaking quietly about him earlier this summer thanks to his World Cup exploits, Tim-Sebastien Rudlof joined the club before the World Cup from Hoffenheim for a fee worth £68m which could rise by another £5m to £73m in total. He's a Rolls Royce of a defender and aged just 21, already has a goal and 17 caps to his name with Germany, that goal of course coming against my England side in the World Cup quarter final earlier this summer. I have no doubt he's going to be a fantastic addition to the side and could go onto become a club legend should his career take off like I hope it will. Due to the departure of number 2 goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, we needed a new backup goalkeeper, so up steps former City academy product James Trafford. He's joined from Leicester after impressing there and picking up 2 England caps under my stewardship for a fee of £15m which could rise to £15.75m over the course of his contract. It's a deal I'm ecstatic with as he'll occupy a homegrown slot for us, plus he's on less money per week than Bazunu was, so it's a win win for me. The final player to join so far this summer is a deal which has sent shockwaves not only around Manchester but around the world. After 16 years playing for Manchester United and over 460 appearances for the Red Devils, Marcus Rashford has swapped red for sky blue to join us here at the Etihad. Now, we have paid a premium for doing business with our biggest city rivals, Rashford was on the transfer list and United would have accepted bids as low as £19m from any other club I imagine, however we have ended up paying what could equate to a total of £55m, however, still aged just 32, Rashford is a star and deserves to be playing at the highest level, something Manchester United just cannot offer him and haven't been able to for many years now after multiple years of not qualifying for the Champions League. He'll be a great option for us, however we are absolutely stacked in forward positions now so may need to make some decisions as to possibly allowing some players to leave, whether that be on permanent deals or on loans.
  23. World Cup 2030 The 2030 World Cup will be held in Spain, the nation I used to manage a few years ago but for a poor European Championships 2 years ago. Following being sacked by them, I took over my own country, England. After an incredibly successful season with my club side Manchester City, winning all 7 trophies available to us this time around, what an achievement it would be to top it all of with a World Cup in the country that sacked me just 2 years ago. We prepared for the tournament with 2 friendlies before travelling to Spain, the first at Wembley against South Korea who we beat 4-1 thanks to goals by Rashford, Fullalove, Foden and Chalobah, before a trip to Austria on our way to sunny Spain who we also beat 3-0, time time thanks to goals by Elliott, Fullalove and Foden. We then travelled to our base just south of Madrid as we were using the training facilities of Getafe CF just outside the capital city. Our World Cup got underway with a 3-1 win over Iran in San Sebastien thanks to goals by Foden, Fullalove and Sancho. Abdi got a late goal back for Iran but we held on for the 3 points. Our 2nd and final group stage match was against Tunisia in the southern city of Malaga who we thrashed 4-0, this time thanks to goals by Abraham, Sterling, Mount and Gelhardt which saw us finish top of the group with a maximum 6 points, Iran finished 2nd as they beat Tunisia in their other game. After winning the group, that set up an 2nd round tie against Japan, to be played at San Memes in the northern city of Bilbao. We beat the Asian side pretty comfortably winning 2-0, our goals coming from Palmer and a Nishizawa OG which opened the scoring. Another win meant a 3rd round tie, this time against Belgium, our first European opponents at this World Cup at the Nuevo Mestalla in Valencia. We beat them 3-1 thanks to an early Foden goal which was cancelled out by my Manchester City man Ali Tas, however Tammy Abraham and Cole Palmer saw off the Belgians to send us into the quarter finals. Our opponents in the quarter finals were familiar in major tournaments, Germany. The old enemy. We travelled south again to the Olimpico in Sevilla with a spring in our steps and were right to do so as, despite needing extra time and penalties, we came out on top in what was quickly becoming a fantastic tournament for us. Rudloff, who'll become a familiar name in due course, opened the scoring for Germany early on with his first for his country however a late Mount penalty brought us level which is how it finished after extra time. We won the shoot out 7-6 in the end after 13 perfect penalties until Ramsdale saved one to send us into the semi finals against the hosts Spain, my former employers of course. The semi final was to be played at the Wanda Metropolitano, the home of Atletico Madrid in the capital and we were outstanding in it, despite the score line saying it was close. It was of course, it went to extra time, however how we didn't win the game at a canter I'll never know. Pedri gave the hosts the lead with a great strike, however their first of the match in the 17th minute but Harvey Elliott equalised for us early in the 2nd half, then just 5 minutes later Raheem Sterling gave us the lead. We peppered the Spain goal but couldn't find a 3rd and then the inevitable happened, Alejandro Garnacho scored to send the match to extra time. Luckily, Tammy Abraham saved his best form in this match for this period, scoring 2 goals before half time in the extra period to send us through to just our 2nd ever World Cup final. There was one piece of unfortunate news though as Rico Lewis, my Manchester City full back, was sent off shortly after half time in extra time so would miss the final. Speaking of the final, it was held at the Santiago Bernabeu, the home of Real Madrid in the capital city. On a sweltering day in the Spanish capital, we would be taking on Portugal, arguably Spain's biggest rivals. Fikayo Tomori gave us a relatively early lead with a header from a corner in the 15th minute which is how the first half finished. Jadon Sancho then scored with 18 minutes left to really send England fans into dreamland, however David Carmo did get one back for Portugal with 12 minutes to go to set up the most nervy of final 10 minutes or so. Luckily for us though, we held on for an historic 2nd World Cup win which rounded off the most perfect of season's for me personally. 8 trophies won for both club and country in the space of 12 months is no mean feat and may well never be repeated again. We have also now achieved England's highest ever world ranking, moving up to 1st in the rankings after the World Cup win. Despite winning the trophy, none of our players won any of the individual awards on offer at the World Cup. Pedri won Player of the Tournament, Mbappe won the Golden Boot and Rudloff, who again I'll come to in the near future, won Best Young Player. We did however get 3 players named in the Team of the Tournament with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fikayo Tomori and Jadon Sancho all named in it, the latter 2 our goal scorers in the final of course.
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