danmcconnell1

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.

December 2029 Yet another festive season is upon us and we have ground to make up ahead of the most wonderful time of the year. We have been outstanding this month, dropping just 2 points in the league and winning all but one match whilst remaining unbeaten. The month began with a trip to Southampton where we won 2-1 thanks to goals by Haaland and Bernardo Silva after Kang In Lee equalised for the home side. We then beat Spurs convincingly at the Etihad 4-1 thanks to goals by Endrick, Clark and another double for Haaland. We then travelled to the Principality within France of Monaco where we turned around a half time deficit to win 2-1 with both goals being scored once again by Haaland. Then came our only dropped points this month as we travelled to Molineux to face Wolves. The match ended 1-1 with Haaland cancelling out Jan Thielmann's opener for the home side. 4 days later was our Carabao Cup quarter final against Arsenal which we came out on top of after a penalty shoot out against the Gunners. Haaland and Caicedo gave us a 2 goal advantage at the break but Martin Odegaard scored a double to claw Arsenal back into contention which is how it finished AET. Vitinha missed the vital penalty for Arsenal as he tried a Panenka which Bazunu was equal to in our goal. Our final 3 matches of the month were all in the Premier League either side of Christmas. We began with the visit of Everton to the Etihad who we beat easily 3-1, Haaland, Foden and Endrick with our goals before a trip to Brammall Lane to take on Sheffield United on Boxing Day. Haaland was once again in sparkling form and lit up the match scoring 4 goals. We finally welcomed Aston Villa to the Etihad as we looked for revenge after the drubbing they gave us earlier this season. We got our just rewards with a 4-2 win over Villa, our goals being scored by Haaland, Foden and a double for Florian Wirtz who later had to come off after picking up an injury. Our Premier League position looks a lot better despite remaining in 3rd, Newcastle topped the table last month and are now down in 4th so that shows how tight it is at the top currently and this run of results could stand us in good stead as we look forward into the new year. Our first match of 2030 is the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on New Year's Day so we'll be hoping to make it 9 unbeaten with a win against United. The Champions League League Phase is also looking healthy too with us currently sitting in 4th with just 2 matches remaining, we'll play them towards the end of January as we welcome both AEK Athens and Real Sociedad to the Etihad. We've been drawn against West Ham in the 2 legged Carabao Cup semi finals, the 1st leg will be at the Etihad with the 2nd at the London Stadium either side of our FA Cup 3rd round tie where we will face Salford City who are of course famously co-owned by a few members of the Class of '92 from Manchester United, so that could be a tasty tie to look forward to. The septuple is still on as we're well in the title race now and also into the Carabao Cup semi finals, so they'll both be our main focus in the short term, however I'd love to secure a top 8 position in the Champions League League Phase to avoid having to play 2 more matches in the Knockout Playoffs as a top 8 finish would confirm a last 16 place immediately in the Champions League, so that is also a priority. I'd say a minimum of 4 points from our final 2 matches in the League Phase should confirm that top 8 spot. I expect to beat Salford in the FA Cup and make it into the 4th round, however with the cup it can be difficult depending on the draw to rotate the squad. Erling Haaland once again wins the Ballon D'or, this year with 83 goals in 47 appearances, 4 assists and an average rating of 8.34. He was almost 100 voting points clear of runner up Kylian Mbappe and wins the award for the 4th time. He also wins the World Player of the Year award too, winning this award for the 6th time as well as the 5th year in a row. Garcia, Silva and Haaland were all named in the World Team of the Year too, with Foden named on the bench for that team as well. Moving onto the World Cup draw, it was made in mid-December for this summer's upcoming World Cup in Spain. The 2030 tournament will be the 2nd tournament in which 48 teams are involved divided into 16 groups of 3, meaning every team plays at least 2 matches. We've been drawn against both Iran and Tunisia, both opponents in group stages for England at previous World Cup's with Tunisia being England's opening opponent back in Russia in 2018 and Iran being England's opening opponent back in 2022 in Qatar also, so they'll both be relatively familiar opposition for us and I expect a maximum of 6 points against those 2 sides which would mean we'd top the group and progress into the 2nd round. We've scheduled 2 friendlies prior to the tournament too, the first being at home to South Korea before a trip to Austria before we touch base in Spain.

November 2029 With October being a relatively poor month by our standards, we really need to start picking up wins in the league to improve our league position. And that's what we did in all but 1 of our league matches. We began with a comfortable 2-0 win against, at the time, bottom club Nottingham Forest, beating them 2-0 thanks to goals by Sergio Gomez and Foden. We then travelled to the French Riviera to face Nice where were could only muster a 3-3 draw thanks to a stunning comeback by the home side. We were 3-0 up inside 25 minutes thanks to Caicedo and 2 for Endrick, however the home side fought back and equalised inside the final 5 minutes to steal a point. Things then continued to fall down for us as we lost 1-0 against my old side Newcastle on Tyneside, my former player Hudson-Odoi scoring the only goal. However we recovered well winning our final 3 matches of the month, starting with a 4-1 win over Fulham at the Etihad. This upturn in form coincided with the return from injury of Erling Haaland as he scored a hat-rick against Fulham with Eric Garcia scoring the other. Haaland then scored 4 to exert his superiority as the world's best player as we put 5 in total past Porto in the Champions League with Josh Clark scoring the other for us in a 5-2 win. Unfortunately though, Haaland did pick up another minor knock in that game after his 4th goal so missed the trip to Brentford, however it transpired that we didn't need him, but only just. Endrick scored another 2 for us to put us ahead but goals by Damsgaard and Guendouzi brought Brentford level. It took a 94th minute winner by substitute Fabio Miretti, a scream by the way, to win the game for us and end the month on a high. On the whole though this has been a good month with us now sitting in 3rd in the Premier League, up from 7th at the end of last month. We're also still in the automatic qualification places for the round of 16 in the Champions League, we haven't managed a top 8 finish in both of my Champions League campaigns with City up to now, so 2 less matches to play would be a bonus for us if we can remain in the top 8 at the end of the League Phase. We have also been drawn against Arsenal in the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup at the Etihad, a game which will be played a week before Christmas. While we've had a stuttering first 14 matches in the Premier League, we're still only 5 points away from leaders Chelsea, so there's still plenty of time left to make up that gap. Josh Clark had a good month picking up 2 assists in as many appearances in November which earned him the Young Player of the Month award in the Premier League with an average rating of 7.8. Finally, Fabio Miretti's stunning winner against Brentford in our final match of the month earned goal of the month too, told you it was a screamer! Our final World Cup qualifiers were played this month too, with a few big names like Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold being given a rest with qualification already secured and some unexpected names being given a game too like Kane Fullalove and Luca Vinten. We began with a 3-0 win away in Iceland thanks to goals by debutant Kane Fullalove, the Aston Villa striker who seems to love scoring against my Manchester City side and Harvey Elliott getting the other. The final qualifier was at home against Bosnia and this was, again, another convincing win for us. Fullalove was given another start ahead of Abraham and proved why he's a talent worth keeping an eye on ahead of the World Cup with a hat-rick this time, Sterling and Elliott again with the other goals. After winning all of our qualifiers, we of course finished top of the group on 24 points. The draw for the Group Stage of the World Cup takes place on 15th December so there's not long to wait until we find out who we'll be facing in Spain next summer. One other piece of news this month which certainly benefits my Manchester City side is the international retirement of Erling Haaland after Norway failed to qualify for the upcoming World Cup. Norway had qualified for the Euros in both 2024 and 2028 and the World Cup in 2026, however this failure has been the catalyst for him to decide to call it a day at the relatively young age of just 29.

October 2029 After a good September, I was hoping to continue this form heading into October in both the Premier and Champions Leagues respectively. Unfortunately, the good form, in the league at least, didn't continue this month. We began with the visit of Sporting in the Champions League and beat them convincingly 4-1 with Foden and Haaland both bagging a brace each. We then travelled to face Aston Villa that following weekend however were beaten heavily 5-1, Ruben Dias scoring our only goal when we were already 5-0 down. To compound our misery on what was a really poor day in Birmingham, we lost Erling Haaland to a knee injury that would keep him out for up to 6 weeks. The international break then came, which I'll get to in a moment. After the internationals, we recovered well with a comfortable 3-1 win over Huddersfield back at the Etihad, Endrick scoring 2 and Foden got the other. We then travelled to Germany to face Koln in the Champions League but were pegged back late on after substitute Miretti gave us the lead to pick up a point. We then travelled south to the capital to face Chelsea at the Bridge and were beaten there too thanks to goals by Kone and Gonzalez, Bernardo Silva got one back for us but we fell to another defeat in the league. The month ended with the visit of Burnley in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup and we beat them convincingly 4-1, goals coming from Endrick, Silva again and 2 for LB Gomez. We end the month down in 7th in the Premier League after 10 games played. There's still plenty of time to recover our position, however we need to start doing it quickly to ensure the gap which currently stands at 5 points doesn't get too much bigger. We also sit in 6th in the League Phase of the Champions League too, a nice position to be in after 3 matches played. We're yet to find out our Carabao Cup quarter final opponents as there are still games to be played in the 4th round. We managed to bring in another player this month, a player I have already signed on a free once already in the past in Christian Pulisic. He was released by Newcastle in the summer and initially I wasn't interested, however he was a decent option for me on Tyneside and with us being a little short of options out wide, a short term deal until the end of the season works well for us, plus it gives us the opportunity to see how things go when it comes to extending any potential further deals. The work being done to increase the capacity of the Etihad has finally been completed also, with the stadium now being able to hold 60,000. Moving onto England, we faced 2 more World Cup qualifiers this month. And we won both of them, in doing so confirming our place at next summer's World Cup in Spain. We began with a comfortable 4-1 over Wales at the Millennium Stadium thanks to a Tammy Abraham 4 goal haul. We then welcomed Moldova who we thrashed 8-0 in the game that officially confirmed our qualification. Joe Gelhardt, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka all scored 2 each, while Levi Colwill and Emile Smith-Rowe both scored their first international goals too. With 2 qualifiers left to play against Bosnia and Iceland, we top Group J and cannot be caught, therefore qualifying for the World Cup next summer with a couple of games to spare, we will be giving some younger talent a game in those final 2 qualifiers next month.

September 2029 September begins with the first international break of the season as we prepare to return to World Cup qualifying. We began the internationals with a win at Wembley against Iceland thanks to goals by Ben White, his first for England, Tammy Abraham and a brace for Raheem Sterling. 4 days later we travelled to Bosnia & Herzegovina for our final match of this window. Another win followed, this time 5-2 thanks to another Sterling goal, Declan Rice and a Tammy Abraham hat-rick this time. We have 4 qualifiers left to play before the qualification campaign comes to an end so being top after 4 matches when everybody else has played 5 is brilliant for us. We've beaten everyone put in front of us so far so can be confident in our chances of qualifying early for this World Cup. After the internationals, we go back to Premier League duty with Manchester City, as well as beginning both our Carabao Cup and Champions League campaigns. We have of course already touched upon the poor result against West Ham prior to the transfer window update, however following the international break we were brilliant. We came back with a win against Leeds at the Etihad, Haaland turning around a 1-0 deficit in the 2nd half to win the game for us with 2 goals against a club he has affinity for being born in the city. We then travelled to Catalonia to face Barcelona at the Camp Nou in our Champions League opener in the League Phase. We fell behind in the 63rd minute to a Pedri goal, but again Erling Haaland turned things around for us with an outstanding hat-rick in the final 25 minutes. We came back to England to face Leicester at the King Power back in the Premier League and demolished them 6-1. Haaland managed 4 this time with the other goals being scored by Bernardo Silva and youngster Regan Kilheeney. Another 6-1 win followed that, this time in the Carabao Cup 3rd round, the stage at which we were knocked out last season against Peterborough, this time beating Cardiff at the Etihad. Newbie Endrick gave us the lead but Ruben Colwill equalised for the Welsh side early in the 2nd half and it took us another 20 minutes or so to exert our superiority this time over the Championship side, scoring 5 goals in the final 25 minutes to win the game for us, those coming from Sudakov, 2 for Sergio Gomez, Rodri and Foden. The final match of the month was one of the biggest of the season against our local rivals Manchester United at our home ground the Etihad. We managed a slender 1-0 win thanks to a goal by talisman Erling Haaland in the 13th minute to give us the bragging rights once again. A good month all round for us has seen us move back into the top 4 in the Premier League, sitting in 4th with Villa, Chelsea and surprisingly West Ham above us who top the league after 7 matches. We're also up in 6th in the League Phase of the Champions League too thanks to that win over Barcelona. Finally we've been drawn at home to Burnley in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup in what is a very busy competitions screen for us this season as you can see. Finally, and rather unsurprisingly, Erling Haaland wins the Player of the Month award in the Premier League after scoring 8 goals in 4 matches with an average rating of 8.45. He really is the definition of a perfect striker, great in the air, ice cool in front of goal and has an eye for the spectacular from time to time too.

Ownership Update After months of speculation over the future ownership of the club and Sheikh Mansour reportedly looking to relinquish control of the club, there is finally an update. Former director Barry Fulton has now become club chairman, replacing Mansour. There are currently no plans for further investment into the club than what was already there, so I'm looking at this positively and hope that there will be no changes to future transfer or wage budgets going forward. This is a big step for the club after winning everything there is to win under the Sheikh, hopefully this success can continue long into the future.

August 2029 The first month of the league season is back and we are looking to wrestle the league title back from Liverpool this time around. Our first 4 Premier League games have been very up and down though. I've included the 1st match of September due to the transfer window not closing until the 3rd September this year, so we have an extra game to comment on so far. We began the league campaign away at Anfield in what was a huge game to get underway. Unfortunately though, the Reds got revenge for the Champions League and Club World Cup semis as well as the Community Shield defeats by beating us in the season opener convincingly 2-0. We got back to winning ways though a few days later in our first home match of the new league season, beating Arsenal 2-1 at the Etihad thanks to goals by Foden and Haaland after Smith-Rowe gave the visitors the lead. Then came a huge win at the Etihad again over Watford as we smashed them 7-2, Haaland getting a hat-rick, Wirtz scoring 2 while Palmer and Caicedo both got one each. The first match of September was away at West Ham who blew us away like the proverbial bubbles they famously sing about. We were 3-0 down at half time and despite Haaland getting one back for us early in the 2nd half we were well off it at the London Stadium. We now have an international break so my attention turns to England's World Cup qualifying next. We find ourselves down in 8th place after 4 matches this season, 2 wins and 2 defeats in what's been a stuttering start to our title challenge this season. Aston Villa are setting the early pace on goal difference ahead of Chelsea. Haaland's the joint 2nd top scorer so far in the league with 5 while Isak for Newcastle has started like a house on fire with 8 goals in 4 matches. The only other permanent outgoing this summer was Anthony Garrett who's joined Rangers in a deal worth £5.5m. We have negotiated a clause in the deal too that allows us to purchase Garrett back for £18m between September 2030 and September 2032, so we'll see whether he develops north of the border well enough to warrant activating that clause in the future. Staying with transfers, the only other player to join the club this summer is Vuk Vasiljevic from Radnicki in Serbia in a £1.1m deal, the young RB has the world at his feet and we've signed him for peanuts. He'll remain with his boyhood club after impressing there last season so will hopefully get more game time there this time around too before he comes back to us next summer.

UEFA Super Cup 2029 After winning last season's Champions League, this has set up a Super Cup final against Europa League winners Rangers. I won this competition with Newcastle back in 2026 after beating PSG in the final that year following our Europa League success, so I'd love to lift it again this time with City. The final was held in Goteborg in Sweden as we travelled to the Scandinavian country just 4 days after lifting the Community Shield in the hope of lifting a 3rd trophy of the season already, before a ball is even kicked in anger in the Premier League. We lifted our 3rd trophy of the campaign already with a convincing 5-2 win over the Scottish side. Haaland and Sudakov both scored early on for us before Haaland got his 2nd, then Palmer made it 4-0 before half time. Mkwanazi got one back for the Gers before the break but the damage was done before then for them, Palmer got another one just after the break and despite Jonas Wind getting a 2nd for Rangers, we held on for another trophy win, my 2nd UEFA Super Cup and again, the first in the club's history. We're now 3/7 for trophies won so far this season, I'm hoping to do a clean sweep domestically with the Premier League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup as well as retain our Champions League crown. Only 8 sides have ever retained the European Cup, or Champions League as it's known in the modern era, I'm hoping we can become number 9 in that regard.

Community Shield 2029 After winning the Premier League and FA Cup last season, Liverpool couldn't play themselves in the Community Shield, so rules state the Premier League runner up takes the place of the other side to contest the Community Shield in this event, so it was an opportunity to win another trophy and to try and retain our crown in this traditional curtain raiser. And that's exactly what we did, to win a 2nd trophy of the season already, without even playing a league game yet. Evanilson gave the Reds the lead early on at Wembley but 2 goals for Haaland and another for Foden all before half time gave us a 3-1 lead which is how the game finished after we held on despite a barrage of Liverpool attacks in the 2nd half. We're really starting to become a force in my opinion and I have strong hopes that we can lift every trophy we're competing for this season. We'll play in 7 competitions in total, 2 of which we've already won, so it's the perfect start to the new season.

Club World Cup 2029 The Club World Cup is here and it's another one I'd love to win seeing as it only comes around every 4 years. We have been drawn against ES Sahel of Tunisia and Velez from Argentina, so I'm confident we can get 2 wins on the board to begin with before the knockout stages begin. It's another tournament held in Spain, the 3rd in as many year's with last years Euros and next year's World Cup being there as part of a real footballing celebration in the home of the 2010 World Champions. Our first match was just outside Barcelona at the home of Espanyol, Estadio Cornella El Prat. As you can see we were brilliant in our opener, beating the Tunisian side 9-1 with goals coming from Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and Heorhii Sudakov while Cole Palmer and the very nearly retired Ciro Immobile both banged in hat-ricks to see the African sides off. Our 2nd group stage match against Velez was at the Nuevo Mestalla in Valencia and it was another comprehensive victory, this time 5-0 thanks to goals by Florian Wirtz and Haaland who scored 4. This set up a quarter final against Barcelona which would be played at the Santiago Bernabeu, the home of their bitter rivals Real Madrid. We came out on top after a penalty shoot out with the match finishing 1-1 after extra time, Englishman Harvey Elliott gave the Catalans the lead before Cole Palmer equalised for us. Florian Wirtz ended up scoring the decisive penalty to give us a 4-3 in the shoot out to set up a semi final against familiar semi final opponents for us recently, Liverpool. This time we stayed in Madrid but travelled across town to the Wanda Metropolitano, the home of Atletico Madrid. In what was a very entertaining game, we ran out 3-2 winners against the Reds thanks to goals by Andreas Schjelderup and a double for Haaland. Alexander-Arnold and Vidovic scored for Liverpool but Haaland's double was enough to help see us through to again, a familiar opponent of late in a major final, Paris Saint Germain. The final was back at the Bernabeu in Madrid, the home of Real, and it was another match billed as Haaland v Mbappe. Fortunately for us, Haaland came out on top as we beat PSG in what was another entertaining match which finished 4-3 to us. Foden, Palmer, Garcia and Haaland all scored for us as Tomas, Mbappe and Ugarte got goals for PSG however we held on for what was another historic win for us as we held aloft the Club World Cup for the first time in the club's history. In what is going to be a busy summer with not much down time for players of our calibre, it's important to get back down to business as our first pre-season friendly is just 3 days after this triumph. Haaland won the Golden Boot at the tournament, scoring 7 goals in 4 appearances with an average rating of 8.6. The Club World Cup Dream Team was littered with City players with the likes of Garcia, Dias, Gomez, Caicedo and Haaland all being named in the side. We also won the Fair Play award too after picking up just 3 bookings in the 5 matches played. We'll now move onto the outgoings so far this summer before the season gets underway. First to leave this summer was versatile full back Ridle Baku. He asked to leave the club after 5 years in Manchester, saying he felt like he'd achieved all he could with us and with his appearances dwindling last season I felt it was the right time to let him go. West Ham signed him for £23.5m. Next to leave was Joel Ndala who's joined French side Lyon for a fee of £6m. Once touted as a promising winger, Ndala spent time out on loan and in our first team in the not so recent past, however his progress has stalled over the last 12 months or so, therefore again I think it's a good time to let him go. The biggest departure so far this summer is Andreas Schjelderup to Bayern Munich for £57 which could rise to £72m. He's never quite hit the heights I'd hoped he would in his 2 year spell with us so I've decided to accept what I saw as a very fair offer for him. No doubt we could have got more, but I think it's still a good deal considering we've got back what we paid for him and potentially a fair bit more in the coming years too. We now move onto the arrivals so far this summer. First to join is Peruvian midfielder Christian Marquez from Cesar Vallejo in his homeland. He's a promising young midfielder and has been sent back to his boyhood club to continue his progress in an environment he finds familiar before he comes back to us at the end of January next year when we'll reassess his abilities. Next in is Josko Gvardiol who I'd been trying to sign for a while following signing him for Newcastle during my time there. We've had to shell out a mighty £150m upfront for him, however there are not further costs incurred in the deal, so to sign arguably the best defender in the world, despite the fee, is great for us. I'm really excited about having him with us and he will no doubt improve what was already a pretty decent defence. He's versatile too as he can play at CB and LB, the latter being a position I've wanted to improve upon for a while too. The final player to join us so far this summer is another I've worked with before and another I'd signed first time around for Newcastle in Endrick. Still aged just 23, I see him as the perfect replacement for the recently retired Ciro Immobile to provide back up to the main man Haaland, however this time Endrick has time on his side and will hopefully be a player for us for many years. He's somehow still only got 1 cap for Brazil, so I'm hoping more game time and goal scored with us will help him increase that tally for his national side. He's joined for an initial £59m but that could and probably will rise to £76m.

Nations League After a euphoric end to the season with Manchester City, it was now time to concentrate on what's going to be a very busy summer. Just under 3 weeks after the Champions League final success comes the Nations League semi final against Belgium, with the finals being held here in England for the first time. Our semi final is in Coventry, whilst the final will be at my home ground with Manchester City, the Etihad Stadium. Regardless of the result, we will play again a few days later, whether that be in the 3rd place playoff or the Nations League final. We got off to a brilliant start in our semi final thanks to Bukayo Saka's goal, but goals by De Ketelaere and Arthur Theate gave the Belgians the lead early in the 2nd half. Tammy Abraham then produced an outstanding hat-rick, filling the boots of the now retired Harry Kane brilliantly to win the semi final for us and send us into a final against Italy back at the Etihad in 3 days time. We named the same 11 for the final after they played so well against Belgium and we got off to a great start with Tammy Abraham giving us the lead with his 4th goal of these finals. Unfortunately though, in just the 33rd minute, a poor challenge by Jude Bellingham saw him receive his marching orders to leave us with 10 men for almost an hour. It took just 3 minutes for the Italians to take advantage of the extra man to equalise through Zaniolo, however we fought back in first half stoppage time and took the lead again thanks to a Fikayo Tomori header from a corner to go in at the break in the lead. However, 2 Federico Chiesa goals quite early in the 2nd half won it for the Italians and we have to wait for a maiden Nations League title, losing in the final for now the 2nd time. It is of course, disappointing not to have lifted the trophy, however there are far more pressing matters at hand with this England side, the first of which is qualification for the World Cup which resumes in September. Providing we do qualify, then of course next summer is the World Cup in Spain, the nation I formally managed, so it would be fantastic to do well there for me personally and show why it was a harsh decision to sack me. Next up this summer and beginning imminently is the Club World Cup which is being held, like seemingly all tournaments recently, in Spain yet again as somewhat of a warmup tournament for the main international event next year. There is a possibility that my squad with City may be depleted, however I'm unsure of the registration rules for the tournament right now, so things may change between now and the start of the tournament.

May 2026 May is the month where champions and crowned and those who finish in 2nd become the first to lose. We have high hopes for the Champions League, however hopes are dying for the Premier League. It was in fact, a very poor end to the season for us. We lost the 2nd leg of the Champions League semi final, however ran out winners after performing so admirably in the 1st leg over Liverpool. The 2nd leg was lit up by yet another Erling Haaland hat-rick. We then travelled to the capital to take on Brentford but could only manage a goalless draw, which meant with Liverpool beating Leeds later that day, they were crowned Premier League champions before our meeting the following midweek. Buoyed from winning the league just a few days prior, we travelled to Anfield for what we hoped would be a title decider, however was now essentially a dead rubber, and our performance showed that. We were shocking as we fell to a heavy 6-2 defeat, only goals by Silva and Immobile gave us anything to be positive about. Our final match of the Premier League season was away to my former club Newcastle and we only managed another draw, Sergio Gomez scoring for us off the bench to salvage a point to end the season. So here's how the Premier League table finished. Liverpool won it by 12 points in the end which flatters them a little considering how tight it was with 4 games left, however we crumbled and Liverpool took full advantage in the run in. Everton had a great season finishing 3rd in what was a very good season for the Merseyside clubs while Arsenal finished 4th. West Ham confirmed European football next season too with a 5th place finish. Leicester are in the Europa Conference League next season despite a poor campaign, however the Carabao Cup win means they'll play in Europe next time around. Aston Villa finished 6th however will be sweating ahead of the FA Cup final next weekend as Liverpool take on Spurs. If Spurs win it they'll qualify for the Europa League ahead of Villa, despite their poor performance in the league this season. As things stand, Newcastle, Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs won't be in European competition next season. Brighton, Crystal Palace and Blackburn all go down. A week after the conclusion of the Premier League season, Liverpool went onto win the FA Cup, meaning Aston Villa can now celebrate Europa League qualification for the upcoming season. Erling Haaland won yet another PFA Player of the Year after another outstanding season in the Premier League scoring 43 goals in 33 appearances and registering 1 assist too with an average rating of 7.92. He also won Player's Player of the Year again too. And the Golden Boot, finishing 25 clear of anybody else with 43 in total. As mentioned before, Haaland is close to breaking the Premier League goal scoring record now. Harry Kane holds the current record with 264 and will retire this summer aged 35, so the opportunity is there for Haaland to break the record early next season as he currently sits on 258, just 6 shy of Kane's record. Both Rodri and Haaland were named in the team of the season, however this year it was dominated by Liverpool's title winners. 13 days had passed since the end of the Premier League season as we prepared for the club's first Champions League final for 4 years since losing the 2025 final against Bayern Munich. The Champions League is the holy grail for this club, having not won it since Sheikh Mansour took over the club back in 2008, 21 years ago. Despite billions spent on players, infrastructure and staff in that time, 3 finals have come and gone where Manchester City have lost out in all of them, firstly back in 2021 against Chelsea, then in 2023 against Real Madrid and then finally, most recently, as mentioned above against Bayern in their own back yard back in 2025. This time around, we will face PSG. They themselves were subject to a Middle Eastern takeover back in 2011 and have spent similar sums, if not more in the time that has passed since. PSG are perennial winners of the French league title and have outstanding talent on their books, including the likes of Donnarumma in goal, Achraf Hakimi and of course, club legend Kylian Mbappe. We face PSG at the home of Borussia Dortmund, the newly named BVB Stadion Dortmund, formally known as Signal Iduna Park, in Germany. As we prepare for the final we received the bad news that Phil Foden would unfortunately miss this final due to a hernia picked up 6 days before the match, so he won't be fit and will be forced to miss out. However, we didn't need Phil for this one as we narrowly beat PSG 1-0 in Germany to win the Champions League for the 1st time in the club's history. Rodri gave away a penalty 9 minutes into the 2nd half which Kylian Mbappe took, however Ederson saved it brilliantly diving to his right to deny Mbappe to keep the scores level. Then approximately a quarter of an hour later, Erling Haaland was put clean through thanks to a wonderful ball played through to him by Florian Wirtz and when that happens, the outcome is inevitable. Haaland coolly slotted home for his 67th goal of the season in all competitions and the one that won the Champions League for the first time in the club's history on what was a momentous day. It was great to receive praise from my predecessor and club legend Vincent Kompany following the win too. More records have been broken by Haaland as he sets a new average rating record in the Champions League of 8.03. He's also broken Cristiano Ronaldo's record of 17 goals in one season in the Champions League. Not only has Haaland broken the record, he's eclipsed it by scoring 22 in the competition this season. He's also won the Player of the Season award in the Champions League too, scoring 22 goals in 15 matches, registering 1 assist with an average rating of 8.03. The Golden Boot was inevitable also. As was his place in the Champions League Team of the Season, alongside Sutalo, Garcia, Silva and Foden. Garcia won Defender of the Season while Silva won the award for the Midfielders, Haaland of course winning the Forward award.

April 2029 The penultimate month of the season could be make or break for us with the title race well and truly in full swing between us and Liverpool as well as Champions League quarter finals to play against Celtic. The month began with the 1st leg of the Champions League quarter final at the Etihad against the Scottish champions and we were dominant against Celtic, beating them 5-1 to all but secure a place in the semi finals before the 2nd leg. Foden, Rodri and a Haaland hat-rick gave us the big win, while Jota got one back for the Scottish side. We then returned to Premier League duty at the Etihad again, beating Leeds 3-1 to keep up the pressure on leaders Liverpool thanks to goals from Foden and another double for Haaland. Our trip to Glasgow for the 2nd leg of the Champions League quarter final ended in a 4-2 defeat on the night, however the 2 goals scored by again Foden and Haaland were enough to send us into the semi finals for the 2nd season in a row where we would face title rivals Liverpool. The Premier League was upon us quickly again with a trip to Southampton this time and another 3 points were gathered thanks to goals by Silva and Haaland this time as we beat the Saints 2-1 at St. Mary's. Then came the first of 3 meetings with Liverpool before the end of the season which could all be defining in both of our season's. This 1st meeting against them of the 3, and 2nd of the season, was in the Champions League semi final 1st leg at the Etihad and we were imperious in front of goal, thrashing the Reds 4-0 thanks to goals by Silva, Haaland, Miretti and Foden to wrap up a huge win and give us one foot in the final, we have to finish the job at Anfield in 6 days time. Before that though, in our final match of the month, we welcomed Chelsea to the Etihad in what would be a tough match, despite Chelsea having a poor season. And so it proved, Chelsea ran out 3-1 winners on our patch, despite us taking an early lead through Immobile who deputized for the tired Haaland ahead of the 2nd leg in 3 days time. Ansu Fati with a double turned it around for Chelsea before the veteran N'Golo Kante settled the visitors nerves with a late goal to put what could be the final nail in our title challenge. Due to that defeat against Chelsea, we're now reliant on Liverpool losing 2 of their last 3 matches, one of which is against us next month, to have any chance of retaining our title as we now sit 5 points behind the leaders. Haaland's form has been good again, adding another 3 goals to his total in the league which now sits at 43. Incidentally, Harry Kane broke Alan Shearer's Premier League scoring record of 260 goals earlier this season and now sits on 264. Haaland is 6 behind that for City on 258 and with the way he's been scoring, it's possible he could match or even break that record this season, if not early next time around. The most remarkable thing about this statistic for Haaland is Shearer played from the Premier League's inception in 1992 until circa 2005, so approximately 13 years to set his record, Kane has only ever played in the Premier League throughout his career, whereas Haaland is only just about to finish his 7th season in the Premier League, so to be on those numbers already is truly incredible. Here are his stats so far and I've highlighted his best season goal scoring wise which came in the 25/26 season, before my arrival where he scored 69 goals in all competitions that year. So far this season he has 63, so he could reach the 70 goal mark this time around if he keeps up his good form at the end of this season.

March 2029 We are approaching the business end of the season and with 2 competitions still left to play for, have plenty of optimism going into March. And we were right to be optimistic. We began the month with a 2-0 win in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford thanks to goals by Wirtz and Immobile. We then followed that up with a 2-2 draw in the 2nd leg of the Round of 16 in the Champions League against Milan, Bernardo Silva and McNamee scoring our goals to keep the Italians at arm's length. The international break followed the 3-2 win over Aston Villa in what was a thrilling end to that match, Haaland gave us the lead but we found ourselves 2-1 down with 8 minutes remaining before the now 39 year old Ciro Immobile came on to score 2 late goals to turn the game around and give us the points. Our final Premier League game of the month was away to bottom club Blackburn Rovers. We dealt with the with ease, winning 4-0 at Ewood Park thanks to goals by Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Haaland and Schjelderup. We remain in 2nd place and still 4 points behind leaders Liverpool. Haaland's now got 40 league goals, with a total of 55 in all competitions. Despite Haaland's brilliance, he's been outshone this month by Ciro Immobile, who's got 3 in 2 and an average rating of 7.7. And I won my 4th Manager of the Month award of the season, which is now my 3rd in 4 months. The first international break of the year was here in March too as qualification for the World Cup next year in Spain gets underway. We managed big wins over both Wales and Wembley and away in Moldova. Foden, Saka, Mount, Sterling and Kane all scored against the Welsh to give us a big win over one of our nearest rivals. We then travelled east to face Moldova where we were outstanding, scoring 10 goals thanks to a 5 goal haul for Sterling, Elliott also managed a hat-rick while there were others for Abraham and former City player Liam Delap, now of Bayern Munich who scored his 1st international goal. Unsurprisingly we top Group J after 2 matches, however this may change as we don't play another qualifier until September due to our involvement in the Nations League semi final in the summer against Belgium.

February 2029 February comes along with more important matches in both the Premier League and the Champions League, however we begin in the FA Cup. We travelled to my former club Newcastle for the FA Cup 4th round tie which we lost 3-2, goals by Immobile and Haaland weren't enough as 3 of my signings on Tyneside all scored, Pulisic, Hudson-Odoi and Bellingham to knock us out. We responded well in the Champions League however with a 6-2 win away in France against Rennes, Haaland scored 5 while Ben McNamee got the other for us. We then managed another 6, this time in the Premier League at home to Watford. Sudakov and Caicedo got one each while Silva and Haaland both managed a brace each. Another high-scoring encounter followed as we thrashed Rennes again in the 2nd leg in the Champions League, shipping 8 past them this time. Sudakov got a hat-rick, Silva another 2 while Palmer, Haaland and Wirtz all added to the total. Yet another high-scoring encounter followed at home against Arsenal as we lost 5-4. We were 4-1 down at half time and got it back to 4-4, all goals being scored by Haaland for us, but we conceded again and ended up on the losing side of this thriller. We did however end the month on a high with a good win back at the Etihad in the Champions League Last 16 against Milan as we beat them 3-1, our goals being scored by Caicedo, Palmer and a late one by Immobile. We ended the month still 2nd in the Premier League and are 4 points behind Liverpool with 9 games left to play, one of which is against them. Haaland is the top scorer in the Premier League by a mile, 22 clear of his nearest challenger Ivan Toney on 16. Haaland also has the highest average rating of 8.07 and the most MOTM awards with 9. Haaland has won the Player of the Month award too with 6 goals in 2 matches and an average rating of 9.25 in the 2 matches, however he was injured ahead of the Milan game so missed that and is likely to miss another 10 days or so.

January 2029 Another new year has arrived and with us in great form to end 2028, I'm hoping we can continue that form heading into 2029. We have remained unbeaten now since early December, beginning the new year with a 2-0 win over fellow title challengers Everton thanks to goals by Schjelderup and Sudakov. We then travelled to the capital twice in as many weeks, firstly for the FA Cup 3rd round tie against AFC Wimbledon, beating them 3-1 thanks to goals by Miretti with his first for the club, McNamee and Immobile from the spot. The next trip to South London was to Crystal Palace and another win came south of the Thames at Selhurst Park, winning 4-2 with all of our goals being scored by the enigmatic Erling Haaland. A much needed win followed that one back at home in the Champions League against Fenerbahce, beating them 5-2 thanks to goals by Rodri, Foden, Sudakov and another double for Haaland. We welcomed Fulham to the Etihad next back in the Premier League but could only manage a goalless draw. We did beat Bayer Leverkusen in our final League Phase match in the Champions League thanks to goals by Haaland, Palmer, McNamee and Immobile, before we ended the month with a comfortable 2-0 win over Wolves at Molineux back in the Premier League thanks to goals by Haaland and Palmer again. We remain just 3 points behind Liverpool, however that draw against Fulham would have bridged the gap to just 1 as Liverpool lost against my former employers Newcastle that same day in the early kick off so that was a blow for us. We ended up finishing 11th in the League Phase of the Champions League meaning we'd be playing in the Knockout Playoff round over 2 legs against Rennes of Ligue 1 in France. We'll also be travelling to St. James' Park for the FA Cup 4th round tie to face my former side Newcastle for a place in the 5th round. Erling Haaland again wins the Player of the Month award for the 2nd month in a row, scoring 5 goals in 4 matches with an average rating of 7.82. And finally, I win my 3rd Manager of the Month award of the season and second in a row after another impressive month for us. Before we move onto the January transfer business, there is some other news. I have signed a new deal in charge of City with my contract now ending in 2031 as opposed to 2030. Also, the club are expanding the capacity of the Etihad to 60,000, an increase of 6,600 seats. We now move onto those leaving the club before those that have joined. Mikel Gjelsvik has joined Hoffenheim in Germany for a fee of £17.5m. He's a player who's been out on loan at numerous affiliated clubs including NYCFC, Troyes and Nordsjaelland but never really made an impact in our first team nor was he going to, so for that money I was happy to do the deal. Jack Grealish's loan deal at Bristol City came to an end this month and he didn't accept the offer to stay there as he's moved to Spain to join Real Valladolid for a fee of £2.2m. With his contract expiring with us in the summer it made sense to move him on for something instead of nothing in 6 months time, plus it gets his wages off the bill too. We now move onto those joining us. The first was Florian Wirtz from Liverpool for a lowly fee of just £12.5 which in my opinion, for a player of his calibre is an absolute steal. He did okay at Liverpool, scoring 12 in 37 league appearances in the Premier League since joining in 2024, most of those goals coming in his first season, since then he's barely played due to injuries but he's over those now and I hope he can become a great rotation option for us going forward. Marco Sanchez is a youngster who's joined from Club America in Mexico for £5.75m and has immediately been sent back to Liga MX to play for Pumas. He's a talented CM who, like many others, I'm hoping can develop into a decent player. The final player in this month is Kaique Albas from Brazilian side CEA. He's joined for £16.75m, his release clause, and can player either side of the back 4. We have plenty of young full back options already however I'm hoping Albas can really develop into something special, those mental stats are what I like to see. Although not a signing per say, Aymeric Laporte's contract was due up at the end of the season and when, at the beginning of the month, I approached him to discuss a new deal I got the impression he was thinking about retirement due to him only wanting a staff role going forward, however 3 failed bids from title rivals Liverpool caused a change of heart by Aymeric and he's signed a new 1 year deal to stay with us at least for another season which I'm ecstatic about. His experience and know how is vital for us at the back alongside captain Ruben Dias.

December 2028 As we enter the final month of the year in poor form domestically, we really need Santa to bring us some early points before Christmas, as well as some late presents afterwards too! And that's exactly what we were given. Despite an iffy start with a goalless draw with Watford and another defeat in the Champions League away to Atletico Madrid, our league form picked up and then some. We beat Wolves 5-1 at the Etihad thanks to goals by Silva, Palmer and a Haaland hat-rick. We then beat Crystal Palace 6 days later again at home 2-1, goals coming from Haaland and Foden this time. We then beat Brighton, again at home that midweek 5-0 thanks to Foden and Haaland bagging 4 this time. Another win followed away at Leicester by a goal to nil, Cole Palmer getting that one. The Boxing Day win over West Ham back at the Etihad was pleasing, making it 5 wins in a row in the league thanks to goals by McNamee and Haaland getting another 2 before the final match of the year away to Tottenham, another match in which we dominated and made it 6 wins in as many matches, Josh Clark scored 2 off the bench while Haaland also got himself another brace. This month he's well and truly back to his best form after a poor run of matches in November not only for us but for him individually with a lack of goals, he's back to his goal scoring best this month. Our league position looks much healthier after a good recovery this month remaining unbeaten and picking up 19 points from a possible 21. We're just 4 points behind leaders Liverpool after 23 matches. Haaland is the top goal scorer in the Premier League with 27, 12 clear of anybody else. However, the Champions League League Phase isn't looking as healthy for us. We sit down in 21st place with just the top 8 automatically qualifying for the last 16, then from 9th place down to 24th playing in the 1st Knockout Stage, so we're cutting things fine as things stand. We have 2 more matches to play in the League Phase against Fenerbahce and Celtic both at the Etihad in January and with the form we're in, I'm hoping it can continue into 2029 and give us maximum points from our final 2 matches to give us a fighting chance and restore some pride in our performances in Europe after what's been a poor campaign so far this time around. Haaland has won another World Player of the Year award after 60 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions in the year 2028, averaging 7.79. It's the 5th time he's won this particular accolade and the 4th year in a row. Both Eric Garcia and Erling Haaland were also named in the World Team of the Year too. Moving onto the monthly accolades, Haaland won the Player of the Month award after an outstanding December where he scored 12 goals in 7 league appearances, averaging 8.16. Moises Caicedo also did well registering 3 assists with an average rating of 7.37 to finish runner up to Haaland for the award. And I was awarded Manager of the Month after 7 wins from 8 matches and remaining unbeaten throughout the festive month. It's the 2nd time I've been awarded this award this season after winning it back in August too.

November 2028 November saw us partake in the Premier League and Champions League action with us on the back of decent form, however we need to maintain it to ensure our title challenge gathers momentum ahead of the festive period. Unfortunately though, our form was very poor this month, culminating in no wins in the league and only one in the Champions League. That win came in Spain against Villarreal as we beat them 3-1, our goals being scored by McNamee with his first for the club and a Haaland double. We followed that up with a goalless draw in the Manchester derby against United at the Etihad, then a 1-1 draw away at Leeds, Immobile scoring a late equaliser for us. Another 1-1 draw followed, this time back at home in the Champions League against PSG, Sudakov gave us the lead but Enzo Fernandez equalised 3 minutes later for the Parisians. The Premier League was back in action a few days later as we travelled to Villa Park, a venue at which we lost last season in the league too as we fell 4-2 to Villa, Immobile scored 2 for us as we were outplayed. Another defeat followed at home this time against Liverpool at the end of November by 2 goals to 1, Silva scored our only goal in what was a barren month for star striker Haaland with no league goals and only 2 in the Champions League that came against Villarreal. We need to improve and very quickly. As mentioned in the last post, Brentford are having a fantastic season and have now leapfrogged us into 3rd place as we slip to 4th after a very poor month results wise. We're already 9 points adrift of leaders Everton too so have plenty of ground to make up in the months ahead. The final group matches of the Nations League took place this month too. We managed 2 more wins to dominate this group. As you can see, we named a few players on the fringes of the squad for these matches as well as some younger players too with the likes of Tino Livramento, Levi Colwill, Oliver Skipp, Michael Olise and Reull Walters who all appeared against France as we dispatched of them easily by 3 goals to nil. Tomori, Sancho and another debutant Ivan Toney all scored our goals. We then took part in a thriller against Denmark at Wembley, beating them 5-4 in the end. Bellingham and Saka both got one each while Tammy Abraham continued his great form in this Nations League campaign by scoring a 2nd hat-rick of the group stage. Things were hairy towards the end as the Danes rallied but we held on for an important victory to make it 6 from 6. We ended the group stage top of the group with 6 wins from 6 matches, 12 points clear of closest rivals France. I'm hoping this kind of dominance can continue going into World Cup qualifiers next year as well as the Nations League finals, we will face Belgium in our semi final. Finally, we found out our opponents for World Cup qualifying this month too, we will face Bosnia, Moldova, Wales and Iceland.

October 2028 After a poor month in the league last time out, we really needed to get back to winning ways to try and reclaim top spot in the Premier League, as well as improve our form in Europe. The league form was on the whole better, despite suffering defeat to high-flying Everton in our opener of the month, losing 2-1 on Merseyside, Haaland scoring our only goal. We followed that up with a good win back at the Etihad over Spurs, beating them 3-2 in a tight match. Rodri scored 2 brilliant goals in the first half before Sudakov scored what turned out to be the winner for us. We were then held away in Switzerland against Zurich 1-1 in an embarrassing night for us, a Ruben Dias OG in the 1st half had to be cancelled out by a Haaland goal in the 2nd, however we couldn't find a winner and our only match in the Champions League this month leaves us without a win. We did win our final 2 league matches this month though, beating Blackburn at home 6-1, Schjelderup and Josh Clark both getting one each while Immobile bagged 4 as he came in for the tired Haaland. We then travelled to the capital to face Fulham at Craven Cottage and beat them as well, this time 3-1 thanks to goals by Schjelderup and another 2 for Immobile. The defeat against Everton has hurt our league position as the 2 Merseyside clubs are battling it out for top spot currently with us sitting in 3rd 3 points behind the leaders. Brentford are having another great season and currently occupy 4th place. We're in serious danger of not qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League too as we sit in 23rd place on just 4 points after 3 matches played, we need to start picking up results and quickly in that competition. Finally, Rodri scored the goal of the month which was the 1st of his 2 that day against Tottenham. We were on international duty this month too with Nations League group matches to play. Our 100% record with England continues with 2 more wins coming this time in Copenhagen against the Danes, beating them 2-0 thanks to goals from Saka and Bellingham before another big win at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund against Germany as we thrashed them 3-1, our goals being scored by Joe Gomez and a double for Tammy Abraham who takes his tally to 5 in this Nations League already, all of which have come against Germany. The win over Germany has seen us qualify from Group 3 in Division A for the Nations League semi finals next summer already after just 4 matches. This means the final 2 matches against France and Denmark are essentially friendlies for us, so we may well see some younger players given their debuts for England as I like to look to the future and with very few friendlies played in the international calendar these days, it's difficult to find time to bed in those younger players at such a level against good opposition, so this is a great opportunity to do that.

September 2028 Our month begins with England duty and my first matches in charge of my own national team in the Nations League. My first match in charge was away in Paris against France and we prevailed by a solitary goal to nil scored by Bukayo Saka with around a quarter of an hour left in the match. My 2nd match, and first in charge of England at Wembley, was perfect. It was against arguably England's biggest rivals of all time, Germany, and we were outstanding. We thrashed them 6-2 thanks to a Tammy Abraham hat-rick, 2 goals for Mason Mount, who'd replaced the injured Jude Bellingham after the French game, all of this after Conor Gallagher had opened the scoring early on for us with just his 4th international goal. Our great start see's us top of our group ahead of both our first opponents and Denmark, the other side in our group. I'm confident after beating both France and Germany that we can beat Denmark with relative ease. After the international break, we went back to club duty with City. However, on the whole, the month was a poor one. We began with goalless draw in our first match back from international duty against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge before a trip to Bavaria to face Bayern Munich in our first match of this years Champions League. We were very poor in Germany though, losing 3-0. Another poor defeat followed as we travelled back to the capital, this time to face West Ham and found ourselves 4-0 down at half time. The 2nd half was better as Haaland scored 2 to score our first goals of the month, but a poor 1st half performance did the damage to us. If that performance wasn't embarrassing enough, more was to come. We travelled to Peterborough for the Carabao Cup 3rd round tie and we just couldn't find a way through the Championship side and eventually lost the forthcoming penalty shootout by 4 penalties to 3, dumping us out at the first hurdle. Although we fielded a side with a mix of youth and experience, I was shocked and very disappointed to go out in this manner. We had to respond back at the Etihad against Leicester City in our next match back in the Premier League, and luckily we did. We did still concede 3 goals which is worrying, however put 5 past the Foxes thanks to goals by Rodri, Sudakov and another Haaland hat-rick. We also needed a win in the Champions League League Phase after losing against Bayern in our opener as we welcomed Monaco in our first home match of this year's competition. We managed a slender 2-1 win over the side from the Principality, Haaland and Foden got our goals in that match. We have dropped down to 2nd in the Premier League with Liverpool taking over at the top, however we do have a game in hand which if we win would bring us level on points with the league leaders. We also sit in 13th in the League Phase of the Champions League after 1 win and 1 defeat in our opening 2 matches. We are also of course, unfortunately out of the Carabao Cup after that shocking defeat against Peterborough. Haaland again wins the Player of the Month award in the Premier League with 4 more goals in just 3 appearances. He also won goal of the month too, which was an outstanding goal against Leicester.