danmcconnell1

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cheers!

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.

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.

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.

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?

I've cancelled via Amazon, will purchase via Steam like I usually do

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

Any luck this morning?

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.

Appreciate your response, I’m clearly a bit blind 🙂 thanks!

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?

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.

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.

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.

Champions League Final 2030 As we fly to the Italian capital of Rome to face Liverpool in the Champions League final, we are aware of the greatness that could be about to be achieved by this magnificent team. We've already won 6 trophies this season, however to retain the Champions League and therefore win 7 would be a feat unrivalled in footballing history. We will be facing Premier League rivals and title challengers until the final day Liverpool. They're familiar opponents for us at the tail end of big competitions as we beat them in the semi final of this competition last season as well as the semi final in the Club World Cup too back in July at the start of this mammoth season for us. Unbelievably, we came out on top and won a 2nd consecutive Champions League and a haul of 7 trophies in the same season, eclipsing all previous achievements in the history of football. To win the Club World Cup, Community Shield, UEFA Super Cup, Carabao Cup, FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League all within the same season is an historic achievement and testament to this incredible group of players. It was a poor match in truth, however a solitary Phil Foden goal, who had missed the final few weeks of the league season through injury therefore it was a risk to play him in this final so close to the upcoming World Cup too, was enough to win it for us. Haaland broke yet more records, setting a new average rating record in the Champions League of 8.5 over 11 appearances this time around. He also broke his own goal scoring record too, scoring 24 goals in the Champions League. Most strikers would be happy with that number across all competitions, Haaland scored that many in just 11 appearances in Europe's elite club competition. He also picked up 7 MOTM awards in the competition too, again breaking his own record of 5 set back in 2027. He won the Player of the Season award in the Champions League too, with 24 goals in 11 appearances with 1 assist and an average rating of 8.5. And there's his confirmation of yet another Golden Boot. Moving on from Erling Haaland, Josh Clark had a brilliant season in the Champions League, scoring 5 goals and picking up 3 assists in his 9 appearances with an average rating of 7.49, the Welsh youngster has played really well this season in all competitions despite limited game time, however he's someone I can rely on to do well for me. Despite winning the competitions, only Clark and Haaland were named in the Team of the Year. And to round off what's been the most outstanding season of all for Haaland, he was named the Forward of the Season in the Champions League as he ends this season with 56 appearances and an incredible 104 goals.

May 2030 With the domestic season coming to an end this month, we were hoping to continue our knack of getting results when it matters and achieve the most historic of season's by winning the last 3 trophies available to us. A perfect month meant that we won 2 more of the 3 trophies available to us, making it 6 out of 7 trophies for the campaign. We began with a big 5-0 win over West Ham at the Etihad to begin May, Haaland scoring yet another hat-rick while Foden managed the other 2. We then beat Bayern Munich 3-2 in the Champions League semi final 2nd leg to win the tie 4-3 on aggregate, Wirtz scoring our first while Haaland bagged another brace to send us through to the final where we'll face our title rivals Liverpool at the OIimpico in Rome. Just 3 days after beating Bayern in Germany, we thrashed Leicester back at the Etihad 4-0 thanks to goals by Sudakov and yes, again, another Haaland hat-rick. Another 4-0 win quickly followed away at Watford in our penultimate match of the season, this time the goals coming from Wirtz, Endick and Haaland with 2 at Vicarage Road. The FA Cup final was upon us next as we faced Wolves at Wembley and we beat them 3-2 in what was a thrilling final. Haaland scored a 20 minute hat-rick to see us race into a 3-0 lead and while Brennan Johnson and Pedro Neto goals made things difficult for us, we held on to our lead and lifted the FA Cup for the 10th time in the club's now illustrious history. Haaland's frankly ridiculous exploits in this competition this season saw him break a number of records, the first being a new average rating record of 9.38 from 5 FA Cup appearances in a season. He also managed 13 FA Cup goals this season, eclipsing the record previously set by Dominic Solanke back in 2027 when he scored 7. And finally, he won 4 MOTM awards in 5 appearances, breaking Lewis Brown's record of 3 set back in 2025. Going back to this month's results, the final day win over Leeds meant that we were, once again, Premier League champions for the 3rd time in 6 years. We thrashed Leeds 5-0 at Elland Road on the final day with Haaland scoring yet another hat-rick while Florian Wirtz and Bernardo Silva wrapped up the goal scoring for us. The title win meant that I entered England's Hall of Fame top 10 too with 9 trophies won in the space of 5 years with 2 different clubs. This doesn't include European successes though therefore as I've won both the Europa and Champions League, more broad Hall of Fame's will see me placed higher too. This is how the Premier League table finished, with us on top of the pile after an outstanding season. Haaland once again won the Golden Boot with an incredible 53 league goals this season with an average rating of 8.29 and 13 MOTM awards this time around. Haaland has played 7 seasons in England now with City and won the Golden Boot in all of them. He has had the most incredible of seasons and one that is unlikely to be repeated again any time soon. 55 appearances up to now with 104 goals scored is insane. He's scored 7 of his 9 penalties, registered 9 assists and picked up an insane 28 MOTM awards across all competitions. With one match still left to play this season, the Champions League final no less, there has been 10 matches in which he's scored just a hat-rick, 5 matches in which he's scored 4 goals and 1 other match in which he scored a magnificent 7, equating to a total of 17 hat-ricks in one season. These incredible exploits have seen him break the record for the highest average rating in a league season, up from the 8.07 record he set in 2027 to now 8.29 this season. He only made 31 league appearances too which makes the achievement even more impressive. Haaland inevitably wins Player of the Year, this being the 6th season and time in a row he's won that award. He also wins Player's Player of the Year too, again for the 6th time in a row and in his career. He wins another Premier League Golden Boot. And is of course named in the Team of the Year, alongside colleagues Garcia, Dias, Caicedo, Silva and Cole Palmer.

April 2030 We are now approaching the business end of the season and with another 3 titles all still to play for, we are in with a great chance of creating history and achieving footballing greatness. The month began with the visit of Brentford to the Etihad and we picked up another 3 points after a 5-2 win over the Bees, our goals being scored by Foden and another 4 for Haaland, exerting his superiority once again. Then came a more reserved 1-0 win away at Fulham 3 days later, Josh Clark scoring the all important goal with just 9 minutes left. We then welcomed Everton in the Champions League quarter final 1st leg at the Etihad and we fell 2-1 to the Toffees, Foden scoring for us either side of an Umeres double. Then came areguably the most disappointing result of the month, a goalless draw away at the struggling Nottingham Forest. We did however turn the Champions League quarter final around though, winning the match 1-0 thanks to a Florian Wirtz goal in the 90th minute to force extra time, however it finished 2-2 on aggregate forcing a penalty shoot out which we came out on top in, Fabio Miretti scoring the all important winning spot kick. Then came another match that was just as important in our pursuit of all 7 trophies this season, an FA Cup semi final at Wembley against Arsenal. It was a monumental effort to keep the Gunners at bay going into extra time again, just 4 days after a gruelling extra time period in the Champions League against Everton. However, going into extra time, I brought on Erling Haaland for Endrick who was the difference maker for us, scoring an extra time hat-rick to secure our place in the FA Cup final against Wolves back at Wembley next month. We then had another difficult match the following weekend as we welcomed my former club Newcastle to the Etihad in the Premier League, however the result shows it was far from a difficult match as we thrashed my former employers 4-1, our goals being scored by Foden, Clark and yet another double for Haaland. After knocking Everton in the quarter finals in the Champions League, that set up an enormous semi final against the mighty Bayern Munich. The first leg was at the Etihad and we drew 1-1 with the German giants, Haaland equalising for us after an early Kai Havertz goal for the visitors. With 4 Premier League matches remaining, we lead ahead of Liverpool by 2 points with 12 left to play for. We begin next month with a huge match against West Ham at the Etihad, a win for us would all but see off their challenge. The title is in our hands, only we can stop ourselves winning it now. We just need to do our jobs and ensure we don't let Liverpool back in. We of course have the Champions League semi final 2nd leg against Bayern at the Allianz Arena in Bavaria to play too and it's essentially 0-0 in that match as the first leg ended in a draw. Finally, we also have an FA Cup final to come as well against Wolves who've had a mediocre season in the league, however could top it off by not only ending our dream of 7 trophies in a season but by lifting silverware too. I was happy to win the Manager of the Month award with 3 wins from 4, my first time winning it this season.

March 2030 March brings 6 matches across 4 different competitions, including the final of the Carabao Cup. And it was a perfect month. We began with a 5-1 win over Portsmouth at the Etihad thanks to goals by Gomez, Clark, Caicedo and a double for Endrick which set up a quarter final later in the month away at Aston Villa. We then welcomed Southampton in our only Premier League match of the month and we thrashed Southampton 4-0 with goals coming from Foden, Haaland, Zaire-Emery and Endrick again. Then came the Last 16 1st leg against Copenhagen in the Champions League away in Denmark. We just about won this 1st leg despite the hosts opening the scoring through Marcus Thuram but Haaland and Endrick once again gave us a lead to take back to Manchester next week. Then, the biggest match of the month against Tottenham at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final. We were outstanding, particularly in the 1st half going 3-0 up thanks to goals by Foden within the opening minute then Haaland scoring 2 before the break. Dejan Kulusevski did pull one back for Spurs but a late Floran Wirtz goal secured our 4th trophy of the season and in doing so, broke a record for the amount of times the competition has been won in total. We were joint record winners alongside Liverpool with 9 before this triumph, however winning it again has seen us leapfrog the Reds now with 10 League Cups in our history, 8 of which have come within the last 16 years. After the Carabao Cup triumph, we welcomed Copenhagen back to the Etihad for the Champions League round of 16 2nd leg and managed to beat them convincingly on aggregate in the end with a 4-2 win on the night, ending the tie 6-3 on aggregate. Haaland and Clark both got 2 each to see us ease into the quarter finals where we will face Everton at home first and then on Merseyside. The final match of the month was another big one, this time in the FA Cup quarter final at Villa Park against Aston Villa. We ran out 4-1 winners to send us back to Wembley in the semi finals thanks to goals by Caicedo, Palmer and another Haaland double. With us only playing 1 match this month in the league, we've dropped to 4th however have confirmed Europa Conference League football at a minimum next season, however we do now have games in hand over Liverpool and Chelsea and still have to face leaders West Ham, so there'll be plenty of twists and turns before the season is over.

February 2030 After a very busy start to the new year, February calms down slightly, however isn't any less important in our pursuit or more silverware this season with some huge games coming up. We began February with a huge match in terms of the title race against current champions Liverpool at the Etihad. We managed to come out on top against the Reds thanks to 2 goals by Erling Haaland. Gomes did get one back for Liverpool however we held on for an important victory. We then welcomed Wolves 4 days later and put 4 past them as well, winning 4-1 thanks to goals by Sudakov, Gomez and another double for Haaland. Next up was the visit to Chesterfield in the FA Cup 4th round and our fringe side despatched of them with ease, winning 3-1 thanks to goals by Pulisic and another Haaland double to set up a 5th round tie at home to Portsmouth next month. The next match was back in the league this time as we travelled to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London. We beat Spurs convincingly with another 4-1 win, Haaland getting a hat-rick this time while Foden got the other for us in a dominant display. Our final 2 matches of the month were also again opposition from the capital, firstly came the visit of Chelsea to the Etihad in another big match in the title race in which the visitors won with ease on our patch beating us thanks to 2 early goals by Liel Abada resulting in a 2-0 win for them. We then travelled back to North London, this time to the Emirates to face Arsenal where we could only muster a goalless draw. We were top after the Liverpool win, however defeat to Chelsea saw them take over top spot and move us down to 2nd. The goalless draw against Arsenal didn't help our cause either as we are now 4 points behind Chelsea with 9 games to play. Haaland is once again dominating the goal scoring charts in the Premier League and is currently on 35 with an average rating of 8.02. He is also well clear with the most MOTM awards too with 9 to his name. Haaland has also claimed Player of the Month in the Premier League too with 7 goals in 5 matches and an average rating of 7.92. Sticking with Erling, he's having the season of his life. The season officially began on 24th June 2029, meaning the Club World Cup was in full swing at that time. He scored another 7 goals in that tournament after the first group stage match, meaning those numbers are included in this season's figures. He's played 39 matches, all of those were starts up to now, and has scored an incredible 70 goals already, as well as missing 2 of his 4 penalties taken. He has 5 assists too with 18 MOTM awards and just the 1 yellow card picked up, with an average rating across all competitions of 8.34 this season, he's just getting better and better with age. Now 29, and these are just league figures, he's scored 404 goals in 416 appearances in his incredible career to date, 293 of those goals have been for Manchester City, meaning he's 33 clear of Alan Shearer's record of 260 and 29 clear of Harry Kane's recently set record of 264. It's highly unlikely that this rate of goal scoring will be seen again any time soon in the Premier League, plus if he has the longevity of say, Ciro Immobile had for me, he could play for another 10 years!

January 2030 After a very busy December comes an even busier January with 9 matches to be played across 4 different competitions. The New Year couldn't have gotten off to a better start after a 5-1 demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford in the derby. We found ourselves 5-0 up after an hour thanks to 2 goals by Haaland, Rodri, Dias and Palmer with the others as we swept our biggest rivals aside. Then came the trip to Everton as we faced them for the 2nd time in as many weeks over the festive period. This time the home side beat us 2-1 despite us taking the lead through Foden, they fought back for an important win in their season. We got back to winning ways shortly after that though with the Carabao Cup semi final 1st leg win over West Ham at the Etihad. A 4-0 success was good enough to give us one foot in the final after goals by Pulisic with his 1st for the club and an outstanding hat-rick by the now veteran Bernardo Silva. Another local derby was afoot next up at the Etihad this time against Salford City in the 3rd round of the FA Cup and we beat them pretty easily with a fringe side out, Haaland scored a hat-rick after being given the chance to boost his goal tally which he took with aplomb and Endrick got the other. That win sets up a 4th round tie next month away at Chesterfield. The 2nd leg of the Carabao Cup semi final away at West Ham finished goalless to send us through to the final at Wembley against Tottenham after they beat Chelsea in their semi final. We then returned to Premier League duty with a trip to bottom club Huddersfield who'd recently sacked their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. We beat them easily with a 5-1 success in Yorkshire, Haaland and Lewis both got goals while Sudakov managed a brilliant hat-rick, his first for the club. Then came the biggest win of the month and one that all but confirmed a top 8 place in the Champions League League Phase as we beat AEK Athens 10-0 at the Etihad. Haaland managed 7 goals, Josh Clark got 2 and Wirtz got the other in what was a dominant display over the Greek side. Another goalless draw followed that, this time against struggling Sheffield United back in the Premier League which was a disappointing result considering we could have gone top with a win as both Chelsea and Liverpool lost earlier on that day. The final match of the month was again in the Champions League as we wrapped up the League Phase with a 6-1 win over Real Sociedad at the Etihad, again fielding a few fringe players due to having already qualified for the last 16. Endrick scored 5 while newbie Warren Zaire-Emery who I'll feature shortly, scored his 1st goal for the club too. The Premier League table is starting to get a lot tighter at the top with just 1 point separating the top 5 teams and just 3 separating the top 6, it's a wide open title race this year. We are of course in the Carabao Cup final which will be played at the beginning of March as we look for trophy number 4 of the season. We finished 2nd in the League Phase of the Champions League, our highest finish since I arrived at the club which means we bypass the Knockout Playoff round, so that's 2 less games we'll have to play this year as we go straight into the last 16 this season. Finally, the FA Cup 4th round see's us travel to Chesterfield in what should be another win and a 5th round appearance. Josip Sutalo left us this month to join Juventus in Serie A. He had been making noises about game time and potentially not renewing his contract which was up in 2031 so we beat him to the decision by offering him out. Juventus signed him for £53m which, as you can see by his value, was a cut price however it's still a good deal for a backup player for us. Juan Lambermont was the other 1st team defender to leave this month after joining Borussia Monchengladbach for £25m. He's a versatile player who can play anywhere at the back and has a £30m release clause to clubs in the Champions League, so this may well be a clause we look to activate as it's valid until 2032 if we decide he's developed well enough in the future. It's a shame to see him go but he needs game time and it's just not something I can offer him as regularly as he needs right now. The only player to join us this month, as mentioned previously, was Warren Zaire-Emery. He's signed from PSG for again, a cut price of £37.5m after he asked to leave the Parisians. As you can see, his value has eclipsed that fee already rising to a maximum of £64m following his very good start to life in Manchester, scoring 1 goal and assisting 4 in 7 appearances for us so far. He could certainly become a mainstay in our side for years to come if he can continue to develop as he is currently. Finally, we did recall a couple of youngsters from loan spells elsewhere, these include; Philip Rolfe has been a Brighton for the 1st half of this season down in the Championship however with the departures of both Lambermont and Sutalo felt like we needed some extra cover. He'll get his chances over the 2nd half of what is going to be a very busy end to the season. The other player to come back was Kaique Albas from Burnley. The full back has been performing well in the Championship again and we needed more cover at LB as Sergio Gomez has been playing well further forward this season so Gvardiol needs cover as he's had his injury troubles this season. The final piece of new this month, despite only signing a 1 year contract extension last month, Aymeric Laporte has decided to retire, calling to an end his 21 year career, citing he doesn't want to end his career at a lower level. He's been outstanding for Manchester City since joining back in 2017 and has been an important part of the club's huge success so it'll be sad to see him go, another one of the old guard that included the likes of Aguero and De Bruyne, however he'll be fondly remembered as a brilliant defender and one that'll go down in the history books. I really hope we can end the season with more trophies for him.