Ozza1996

Hello and welcome to the international journeyman on my own blogging site as I try and win every single major international tournament, and attempt to become the first manager to do it. I start with Australia, and this is the start of our World Cup qualifying journey, as we also attempt to finalise our squad for the Asian Cup. https://owenplaysfm.wordpress.com/2024/03/20/international-journeyman-fm24-australia-2023-fixtures/

I have started a brand new save on my own brand new website which I would love feedback on and for people to take a look at. I try and take my team Coventry City, back to the Premier League after the club missed out on penalties last season in the play off final losing to Luton Town. Come and meet the team, as most of this will be done twice daily. Please also leave feedback and let me know what signings you would make to improve the squad. https://owenplaysfm.wordpress.com/2024/02/21/play-up-sky-blues-a-coventry-city-story-fm24-part-1-welcome-to-the-club/

I'm actually from Desborough bud, I remember my first game going to see them as a lad was a 1-1 draw against Cogenhoe United

Thank you Blarney, I'm very excited to seeing what the response to this is. First update will be tomorrow, on a 2-month cycle, as I will aim to go through at least a couple of rounds in the FA Cup, and try and make a good start to the league. It'll be more interesting than the glory hunter my laptop didn't like haha.

Level 10 to the Prem - Desborough Town - Background Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is the start of a brand new long term save which will be similar to something I include on my brand new Twitch and YouTube channels next year. But we are going to take a team that plays in the county leagues on Football Manager, and make them one of the biggest clubs in the country, maybe even Europe or the World. That does seem a long way off, so let's take a look at the club I've decided to pick for this one club save. You can see the name of the team at the top, but I'm going to tell you more about Desborough Town Football Club. Desborough Town FC are a team based in the town of Desborough in Northamptonshire. Founded in 1896, Ar Tarn, as they are affectionately known, they joined Division One of the Northamptonshire League, now known as the United Counties League, a league they have never left. They have been champions of the league 9 times, but have never been able to be promoted. In recent years, they have struggled to stay away from the middle to the bottom of the table, and are struggling this season also. The club have also made the First Round of the FA Cup once in their history, as they were drawn at home to Doncaster Rovers in the 1926-27 season. The match was abandoned at home, but the FA decided to play the tie at Doncaster's ground, a move which would never have been made now. Ar Tarn went on to lose 3-0. The club play at the Waterworks Field on Braybrooke Road, so named as there is a water tower on the site, which you can see on a matchday. There is a clubhouse, which can be accessed during the match. In recent years, they've had to rebuild the clubhouse after a devastating fire in 2009 burned down the original one, including their trophy room and changing rooms. On a matchday, it's your traditional non league football club, with raffles, draws and a really well made matchday programme. Can we move Desborough Town from where they are at level 9, finally move the club away from this league, and take them all the way up to the top? The home town boy has taken over the football club that he's been to several times in his youth, aiming to make a difference and shoot the team up the leagues. The club play in what is now called the United Counties League Premier South, after a northern section was added a few years ago. Desborough are one of the few Northamptonshire based sides left in the league. Having taken off the key staff option to help me out, and making every club have decent backroom staff, it does mean Desborough Town has a director of football which is brilliant to see at the 9th tier of English football. As well as the UCL Premier South, we will play in the FA Cup from the Extra Preliminary Round, and play in the FA Vase, which is a competition for teams at step 5 of the non-league system and lower. One worrying sign for me is the fact the club cannot complete a best XI, despite me adding players based in nation, and add players to playable teams options. We will have to build a brand new team at the start of this save then, but at least this low down in England, you don't have a transfer window, so you can at least take in players whenever. But you also have to be wary of who you're letting go. The players you have now, may not necessarily stay around. The board's expectations for this season at least is to finish mid-table in the league, and be competitive in both cup competitions, so they're not expecting too much of us this season. As this is a one club save, and this is the one I aim to take me through FM24, I've got a long time to be getting through it, but I don't want to be in this team for far too long. The supporters are also expecting a mid table finish this season. Final Word: So this is the team I will be aiming to take from Level 9 to the top. I hope this grasps the interest, and I hope you continue sticking around like you did for the Glory Hunter finish that had an abrupt ending. I will properly start the save on Monday as I introduce you guys to the squad, the club and everything about it. I'm really excited to see what's coming up. I will try and make my updates shorter as well during this save, so I will see what I can do with that. Thank you, and I'll see you on Monday.

Glory Hunter Update Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what has happened, but my laptop has decided to ditch the save for me which isn't good at all. Unfortunately, that does mean I will have to end the career mode here but I will be starting a brand new save from this afternoon, where I'm going to attempt something different and new, and hopefully you'll follow me onto that save. I do apologise for it, and maybe it means I'll start updating it onto the cloud as well haha. But I hope to see you on my brand new save.

Glory Hunter - RB Leipzig and Spain - 2026-27 Season - November We have entered another month of high-stakes, highly competitive football as we take both RB Leipzig and Spain, and try to set some objectives for this month. I want to open up the gap at the top of the Bundesliga, before we head into a month where we have a match against Bayern Munich, a team that I think have the ability to close the gap on us. We also have two matches in the Conference League, and realising how many teams are in this competition, if we can at least confirm the minimum of a play off place, that'll make December and January relaxing in that competition at the very least. Don't forget, we don't have to win the Bundesliga this season as I have already done it in this save, but it would be a nice way to extend and make myself bigger for the teams around Europe who may be after Champions League titles. As for Spain, we have two away matches this month, including one against Germany. We should have beaten them at home, but in that one, it could be winner takes all, if we end up beating them away from home, we could make the semi-finals of the Nations League next Summer. Let's take a look at our club fixtures coming up. RB Leipzig November Fixtures: We travel away to relegation playoff-threaten Bochum, as we aim to extend the gap at the top to a potential 7 points depending on how Union Berlin do in their next game. We travel to Azerbaijan in the first midweek to face Neftci Baku in the Europa Conference League. After that match, we face Werder Bremen at home who are struggling at the bottom of the Bundesliga, and could be in danger of relegation. After the international break, we have a big match away at defending Champions, Bayern Munich, who have had a difficult time of it this season so far, and currently find themselves in 3rd place, but five points off us. Our final game of the month is away at Slovakian side, Spartak Trnava, where we will try and confirm a play off place. I'm proud of how far this team has come this season. Spain November Fixtures: As I said, we have two games this international break coming up as we travel to Hampden Park to play Scotland, who are in danger of being relegated, and finally we face a game that could be winner takes all in terms of qualifying for the semi-finals, as we face Germany away. Sunday 1st November 2026: Bochum 0-1 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) It wasn't a classic performance by us in this game unfortunately, but if you can get a result when not playing well, we saw that in our title winning season at Dortmund, that we can absolutely win a title with not the best performance. We defeated a charged up Bochum side 1-0, the only goal coming from a corner from the left by Raum, and Dragusin headed in at the near post, with the ball hitting the post before going in. It takes us 7 points clear now at the top of the Bundesliga, but everyone else has a game in hand. A good start to the month. After the game, Lois Openda, who was wanting to leave the club in the Summer, has signed a brand new 4-year contract, running until 2030. Spain Squad Announcement: I've only made one change from the last squad, Yeremy Pino of Manchester City replaces Marco Asensio of PSG. Thursday 5th November 2026: Neftci Baku 0-3 RB Leipzig (UEFA Europa Conference League League Phase) We made it three wins from three in the League Phase in Europe this season, with a ruthless 3-0 victory away at Azeri side Neftci Baku. The first goal came from a passing move after a throw-in on the left, Jashari received the ball and found Openda with a lofted ball with him running in from the right, and with a first time volley, found the top left corner expertly to give us the lead. Jashari set up the second goal as well, his corner from the left finding Benjamin Sesko's header at the near post. Sesko was dispossessed in the final minute, but that found Raum on the left, and his cross was deflected into his own goal by Yuri, as we took a win that took on top of the league phase. Sunday 8th November 2026: RB Leipzig 0-0 Werder Bremen (Bundesliga) Our first blank of the season as we drew 0-0 at home to Werder Bremen who clear themselves of danger for now. We had the chances to win this match, but unfortunately they had all the answers at the back, which also means that they had chances to win the match as well. Their best chances came from corners, with headers saved by Tobiasz throughout the game. We move 6 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, and we will take that lead into the final international break of the calendar year. We get through these matches, and we return with a big game against Bayern Munich. Thursday 12th November 2026: Scotland 1-1 Spain (UEFA Nations League A Group 2) We were fortunate to grab a point against Scotland, we were not hitting the target for most of the match. But as Germany also drew 1-1 with Poland, it will be a winner takes all match in Germany as we try and qualify for the group stage. If we beat Germany, we will go through on a head to head record. Billy Gilmour took a free-kick which went too far through the box. Ryan Christie picked it up, played it back to McKenna, who fired home into the corner to give a well-organised Scotland the lead. We didn't get our equaliser until the 96th minute. Ferran Torres made a run down the left, turned his man inside out, swung the ball back into the box, and Lamine Yamal met it at the far post to level the game up and save us from being eliminated from qualifying. As for Scotland and Poland, they play a match where the loser drops into League B. Sunday 15th November 2026: Germany 3-0 Spain (UEFA Nations League A Group 2) We've been knocked out of the Nations League as I decided to really go for it by turning to 4-2-4 during the game, but it backfired as Germany thrashed us all over the pitch, and we have to get better against the bigger nations. Ter Stegen played the ball forward for the first goal, Werner nodded back to Musiala, who played a through ball to Adeyemi, who fired into the top right corner to give the Germans the early advantage. Timo Werner made a run down the left, and he sent in a cross towards Beier, and he nodded home at the far post for 2-0. Kimmich took a corner from the left for the final goal, and Rudiger won the header at the far post, and the ball went in off the post to confound our misery. Final Nations League Table: Germany have qualified for the semi finals unbeaten, and they ended 6 points clear of us in second place as we end on 8 points after a disappointing performance in the group. Scotland survived relegation on the final day after winning in Poland, and Poland drop into League B. We will return with Spanish news, when we find out who we're playing in the European Championship qualifying, later in this update. Brahim Diaz Injured: One of our regulars, Brahim Diaz, will be out injured until after the Winter break as he has sprained knee ligaments and will be out of the team for 5-6 weeks after getting injured on international duty. We could have needed him to stay top heading into Christmas, despite the lead we currently have. Saturday 21st November 2026: Bayern Munich 3-0 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) Only our second defeat in 20 matches in charge in all competitions of RB Leipzig, and this was one I was sort of half expecting. We gave away a penalty early on in this game, but Tobiasz was up to the task of keeping it out, sending Mathys Tel's penalty wide for a corner. They took the lead after 9 minutes, Tobiasz punching a corner away only as far as the edge of the box. Sooner rather than later, the ball was back in the area, he saved Tel's shot at point blank range, but Musiala fired the ball into an empty net to give Bayern the lead. We held it at 1-0 until after half time, when they started to turn it up. Bayern Munich were keeping the ball around the centre circle, but then Goretzka played the ball down the right to Luiz Henrique, who ran into the box, and fired into the bottom left corner for 2-0. Mathys Tel ran the ball down the right for their third, the ball into the box finding Musiala's head perfectly, and he flew it into the top right hand corner to make it 3-0. We still hold a 3 point lead at the moment. Thursday 26th November 2026: Spartak Trnava 1-4 RB Leipzig (UEFA Europa Conference League League Phase) We booked our place in at least the play offs, and continued our 100% record at the top of the League Phase, as we thrashed Slovakian side Spartak Trnava 4-1. We played the ball down the right before finding Benjamin Sesko. He got dispossessed but Openda was there to tap in inside the six-yard box and give us the early lead. They equalised in the 14th minute. Mustafa had the ball on the right hand side, but no one was really defending that side of the area, so he played the ball into Duris, and he ran through on goal and fired inside the near post for 1-1. In the second half, we penetrated the left hand side again, and the ball fell to Openda in the box. His shot was blocked, and Seiwald fired a deflected shot from the edge of the box, which wrongfooted the keeper and we retook the lead. Simakan made a run down the right on 64 minutes, before playing it across the edge of the box, and Sesko turned and shot from the edge of the box for 3-1. Sesko then semi turned provider as his ball down the right found Facundo Torres, he rolled it along the box and Openda tapped home to round the victory off and we won the game 4-1. UEFA European Championship Qualifying Group Stage Draw: We have been drawn into Group D of the qualifying programme for UEFA Euro 2028, being held in Italy. We will face Hungary, Iceland, Moldova and Slovenia en route to the Euros, and we should be aiming to win the group fairly easily. Hungary would probably be up there with us. RB Leipzig November Results: We started our month with a well fought 1-0 away win over Bochum, before following that up with a convincing 3-0 away win at Neftci Baku in Europe. We then failed to score for the first time this season with a 0-0 draw against Werder Bremen, before following that one up after the international break with a 3-0 away defeat at Bayern Munich, making it our first defeat in 12 games. We finished off the month thrashing Spartak Trnava 4-1, although we didn't play in the final weekend of the month as everyone caught up. This is now the table. Bundesliga Table Update: Both RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich are locked on 29 points, but we're leading on goal difference. A further two points back on 27 are Borussia Dortmund, as this now threatens to become a three horse race this season. Eintracht Frankfurt sit 4th on 23 points. The good thing now, is that we only face the rest of the current top 4 at home. Union Berlin are fifth on 22, with FC Koln and Bayer Leverkusen locked on 21 points. Stuttgart are challenging for Europe in 8th on 20 points. The relegation battle looks tasty at the moment, Hertha Berlin and Bochum both sit on 8 points, but Hertha have a game in hand. Schalke and Werder Bremen both have 9 points at the moment, but once again Werder Bremen have a game in hand coming up. UEFA Europa Conference League Update: With only two matches remaining of this league phase, three teams have already confirmed at least a play off place, with RB Leipzig, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Aberdeen at least into the knockout playoff round. The teams completing the top 8 at the moment are Napoli, Samsunspor, Rapid Wien, Basel and Charleroi fighting to hold onto their place in the last 16 places in the table. It's very tight for the teams wanting to qualify for the top 24, with Rheindorf Altach, Shamrock Rovers, Spartak Trnava and Rakow all level on 4 points at the moment. Final Word: It's been a weird month in this save. Yes RB Leipzig are still top of the table, and still playing well in general, but now I'm not feeling as comfortable and confident as I once did, now teams have played their games in hand. It's now got to mustn't lose territory if we're seriously going to hold off both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund this season. In terms of Europe, we picked up 6 points this month, and will be the top ranked team in the competition if we're to win our final two matches in December. As for Spain, it wasn't the best two matches, with a final minute equaliser in Scotland, and then a humbling in Germany, but we do at least have a very winnable group in qualifying, which will begin in March. Thank you for joining me for this one, and next time, we head towards the Christmas period with a lead to protect in two competitions.

Glory Hunter - RB Leipzig and Spain - 2026-27 Season - October Welcome back to the Glory Hunter challenge, and we are going superbly well this season with RB Leipzig, sitting on top of the Bundesliga by a point ahead of Bayern Munich, but we are starting out with Spain this month, as the international break continues. I've never known such a long international break. I'm wondering with longer World Cups if it will be a thing of the future from 2026 onwards? I don't normally do international football, mainly because of the problems with no resting, and that is going to come into play unfortunately as we have two home games against Germany and Poland in the next two matches, only a few days apart. When we come back from the international break, I will show off the RB Leipzig fixtures coming up. It just helps me keep on top of everything. But for now, we've got two games as I said against both Germany and Poland at home, I'm changing the tactic for both of these games, and let's go into these Nations League matches. Saturday 3rd October 2026: Spain 2-2 Germany (UEFA Nations League A Group 2) Another game we arguably should have won as we had the chances and the xG, but unfortunately again, we dropped points, but this time, we held the group leaders to a 2-2 draw. Ansu Fati helped set up the first goal, he plays it in the middle to Ferran Torres, and he held off challenges to find an onrushing Nico Williams on the right, unmarked, and he fired across the goalkeeper into the bottom left corner for 1-0. Germany equalised 9 minutes later, Joshua Kimmich chipped a free-kick over the wall and found Wirtz in the box, and he hit it first time on the left foot volley to level it up for 1-1. Nico Williams had a second goal ruled out for offside, before we did take the lead on the stroke of half time. Asensio brought the ball forward from the half way line, with Ferran Torres running through the middle ahead of him, and he fired home into the top right corner for 2-1. Germany equalised about 10 minutes after half time. Jamal Musiala played the ball out to the left, and when they couldn't find a route through that way, Henrichs played it back to an unmarked Musiala on the edge of the box, and he swept home first time into the corner to share the spoils in this battle of giants. Tuesday 6th October 2026: Spain 5-0 Poland (UEFA Nations League A Group 2) We secured our revenge against Poland, as we were massively on top, didn't allow them to have a shot, and thrashed them 5-0 as they went down to ten men. Gumny was sent off for a second bookable offence in the first half as he handballed in the area as it resulted in a second yellow card. Oyarzabal fired home the subsequent penalty. We then went more attacking as we vowed to punish Poland. A ball aimed towards the box led to a second goal, as Fati laid off to Oyarzabal, who ran into the area to connect home into the bottom right corner for 2-0. A scramble in the area led to the third as Fati hit the post, then Yamal hit the post, before a scramble and a toe by Pedri rolled the ball over the line for 3-0. Asensio ran the ball from the middle to the left side of the box, near the byline, and he cut back for Guerra to fire high into the net for 4-0. We rounded off the victory in stoppage time, Pedro Porro's narrow angle shot being parried onto the head of Guerra as he nodded into an empty net for 5-0. UEFA Nations League A Group 2 Update: Germany lead the way at the end of this international break with only 2 games to go, sitting top on 10 points, their only dropped points being against us. We sit second and 3 points behind them on 7 points. We've broken away from both Scotland and Poland, who both sit on 3 points, Scotland ahead of Poland on head to head as they won 2-1 at Hampden Park. RB Leipzig October Fixtures: Heading back to club football, and we've got a busy month coming up with RB Leipzig, in the hope we can keep and extend our lead at some point, if someone does us a favour with Bayern Munich. We start at home to Freiburg who currently sit mid-table. A trip to Mainz follows, before we go to Stuttgart in 3 games we need to pick up 3 wins from. We then continue our European campaign at home to Finnish side, FC Haka, a game we ought to get a huge victory in, and we shouldn't need our first team for that one. We return from that European game with a home match against a decent Wolfsburg side. We then face Freiburg for the second time in the same month, this one being away from home in the DFB-Pokal, a competition we must win this season. We then finish the month away at Bochum. Sunday 11th October 2026: RB Leipzig 4-0 Freiburg (Bundesliga) Timo Werner led the way for the team as he scored all four goals in an absolute thrashing of Freiburg. Dragusin took the ball on the halfway line and he lofted the ball down the right for Brahim Diaz, who crossed the ball into the area and Timo Werner fired home from close range to open the scoring. Dani Olmo played the perfect through ball for the second goal, Timo Werner meeting the ball effortlessly, and Werner fired home to be on a hat trick inside 12 minutes for 2-0. Timo Werner completed his hat-trick on 64 minutes, firing home a penalty, sending the keeper the wrong way, coolly and calmly into the bottom right hand corner. Torres set up the fourth, his ball coming in from the left across the byline, and Werner was able to sweep it home for his and the team's fourth goal in this game. It's allowed us to open a three point gap as Bayern Munich lost to FC Koln. Cristoph Baumgartner Injured: Christoph Baumgartner has entered the physio's room just as it was emptying, as he has picked up a groin strain after jumping during training. It's less stressful as we did have 7 in there before the long international break, but he's been one of my regular starters this season, and he makes the team stronger. I really hope he comes back sooner rather than later. At the moment, it's for 3-4 weeks. Wednesday 14th October 2026: Mainz 05 1-5 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) The goals were shared around a little bit, as we hit 5 away at Mainz, as Benjamin Sesko got his first goals since coming back from injury. It took us 20 minutes to open the scoring, Benjamin Sesko converting from the penalty spot. Mainz did equalise shortly before half time. Volpato played the ball out left to Bakker, who went for the cross across the six-yard box, and Widmer was there at the back post to tap it over the line for 1-1. In the second half, we took control of this match. Olmo played the ball to Openda who ran towards the penalty area with the ball, and saw Ouedraogo making the run into the area down the left, and he fired into the far corner to make it 2-1 to us. 2 minutes later, when Openda played the ball to Dani Olmo on the right, he ran into the area and played it across the six yard box to Benjamin Sesko who got his second of the game to make it 3-1. They were reduced to 10 men on 76 minutes when Bakker got a second yellow card, and it made the job harder for the home side. Raum took a short corner to Olmo, he found Ouedraogo on the left side of the box, and he played it across to Jashari, and he swept it into the bottom right corner for 4-1. And then finally, Sesko played the ball to an unmarked Openda on the right side of the box, and he slid it past the keeper for 5-1. We open up a six-point lead at the top. Julian Aude Injury: Julian Aude twisted his ankle at one point during the game we've just played, and he will be out for the next 3-4 weeks, and I just hope it doesn't start stacking up. He was about to start playing more games as they became more congested, especially this month. Saturday 17th October 2026: Stuttgart 1-1 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) We dropped points for the first time since the opening day of the season, as we could only manage a 1-1 draw away at Stuttgart. Timo Werner won a header from a long kick away and that moved onto Sesko. After a couple of one-twos between them both, Werner was in the perfect position, and he fired it in at the near post to give us the lead inside the first minute. Stuttgart equalised from a delivery from the left, Fuhrich whipping the ball into the box from a free kick, and Atakan Karazor nodded it in at the back post to make it 1-1. Both teams had further chances, and Stuttgart were denied two penalties by VAR from clear cut decent tackles. But in the end, it's not a defeat, and our unbeaten league run is now at 8 matches. Thursday 22nd October 2026: RB Leipzig 6-1 FC Haka (UEFA Europa Conference League League Phase) An 11-minute hat-trick for Timo Werner started us on the way to a 6-1 win over Finnish side, FC Haka. Brahim Diaz won the ball at the back in the build up to the first goal, and set off Facundo Torres down the left, and he kept on running with the ball, finding Timo Werner in the box, and he lashed home from 2 yards out for 1-0. Timo Werner then doubled the advantage two minutes later with a powerful penalty into the top right corner for 2-0. A defensive calamity for FC Haka made it 3-0, as they failed to clear Ouedraogo's through ball, one defender fired it against the other, and it bounced favourably for Werner and he fired home for his hat trick. Wolf's throw in came back to him from Jashari, and he whipped a cross into the box, finding Ouedraogo at the far post to make it 4-0 after 26 minutes. We got a fifth on the stroke of half time. Torres's cross was blocked, as was Dragusin's shot, and the ball bundled it's way through to Ouedraogo who only had to steer it over the line for 5-0, and a very comfortable lead at half time. Haka got their consolation 6 minutes into the second half. Whyte's corner was eventually cleared away back to him. He played a pass along the floor into the area for Friberg, who swivelled and shot into the bottom left corner for 5-1. The final goal was set up by Brahim Diaz on the right, and he played it into the six-yard box for Torres to lash home to make it 6-1. Two wins from two in Europe and a great thumping result. Sunday 25th October 2026: RB Leipzig 2-0 Wolfsburg (Bundesliga) We picked up a routine 2-0 win over Wolfsburg as we moved on to 25 points after 10 games, only dropping 5 points so far this season. Raum received the ball from the middle on the left hand side, and he played it down the line for Facundo Torres to send a low cross into the box, and Benjamin Sesko fired home to give us the lead 6 minutes before half time. In the second half, Jashari received the ball in the middle, and found the run of Brahim Diaz from the right, one on one with the keeper, and he fired into the far corner to go 2-0 up and secure another three points, as we stamp our authority on the league. Wednesday 28th October 2026: Freiburg 1-3 RB Leipzig (DFB-Pokal Second Round) We booked our place in the third round of this year's DFB-Pokal, winning 3-1 away at fellow Bundesliga side Freiburg, in a game where in the second half, we just started to take it to them. We took the lead midway through the first half, a ball in the box from the right was cleared away to the left for Raum to swing a ball in and he found Sesko in the six-yard box to make it 1-0. Freiburg equalised in the 56th minute. A free kick forward from Gunter was played down the right to Amdouni, who swung it into the box for Gregoritsch to fire home from close range to make it 1-1. We took the game away from Freiburg in the last half an hour. Seiwald had the ball in the middle of the park, and played it forward to Dani Olmo, who found a running Lois Openda from the right, and he converted in the box to score his 8th goal in two games in this competition. Openda turned provider for the third, playing a low cross into Sesko who scored his second goal of the game with a half volley to finish off this game, and send us into the next round. DFB-Pokal Third Round Draw: We will play St. Pauli away in the third round of the DFB-Pokal, thankfully we managed to avoid the big guns left in the competition in Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, so we have chances to move forward in this competition thankfully. RB Leipzig October Results: We've gone another month without losing at all, and it started with a 4-0 thrashing of Freiburg, and then a 5-1 away thrashing of Mainz 05. We then stuttered to only a 1-1 draw away at Stuttgart, before thrashing Finnish side, FC Haka 6-1 in the Europa Conference League. We defeated Wolfsburg 2-0, and then we rounded out the month with a 3-1 win away at Freiburg in the DFB-Pokal Second Round. Bundesliga Table Update: This table looks nice and lovely. RB Leipzig have 25 points at this stage, 4 points clear of Eintracht Frankfurt, in second place, while Bayern Munich are third on 20 points. Union Berlin sit 4th on 19 points with a game in hand on everyone else around them, and both Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen sat on 18 points, just outside the Champions League positions. Stuttgart and FC Koln are just behind them, but neither of them are anywhere near their best form at the moment. Schalke sit bottom on 5 points, with Werder Bremen sat on 7 points, and Hertha Berlin and Bochum, who we play next, are currently sat on 8 points apiece. UEFA Europa Conference League Update: After everyone only playing one more game this month, 8 teams have maximum points from their opening 2 matches in Brighton & Hove Albion, FC Basel, RB Leipzig, Braga, FC Midtjylland, Neftci Baku, Charleroi and Aberdeen. There's still 4 matches to go though, and anything can change from this point onwards. Final Word: Another unbeaten month in both club and international football, as in the Nations League, my Spanish team sit second, just three points off Germany, which means November will be a huge month to see if we can make it to the finals tournament. With RB Leipzig, we have now opened up a 4 point lead at the top of the Bundesliga, to try and secure the club's second league title in 4 seasons, and we are currently unscathed in the Conference League and in the DFB-Pokal as this becomes as close to a perfect season as possible. To say I've found something unexpected that works for this team is amazing. Hopefully in the next month, we can book our last 16 spot in the Conference League and try and extend the points gap in the Bundesliga. It's been a good start to the season, let's hope it continues.

Glory Hunter - RB Leipzig and Spain - 2026-27 Season - September Welcome back to the Glory Hunter save, and we are in season 4 now, as we will head into our first international break this month, as we have to juggle managing both RB Leipzig and Spain. We start the month as we always start September, with transfer deadline day in Germany. We have a nice amount of money to kick things off on this day, as we currently have £32,000,000 in the transfer budget, and just under £3,000,000 a week on wage budget, and well over £500,000 to play with in that wage budget, so we definitely could make a couple of signings today, which I am looking forward to. If anything, it'll be just to bolster the squad. These are the fixtures heading into September with RB Leipzig. The Spain ones will be around when we go into the international break. RB Leipzig September Fixtures: We start this month with a home game against second-placed Union Berlin, who if we beat, we could climb into the top 2 at this early stage of the league season. We then have the return of Owen Coe to Signal Iduna Park as we play our old club, Borussia Dortmund, the team we made Bundesliga champions just two seasons ago. Our first Europa Conference League game in the proper competition is away in Croatia, as we take on Dinamo Zagreb, which I've already said is probably our toughest game out of the league phase. We end the month at home to Hertha Berlin, which we need to be aiming for three points from. Transfer Window Round-Up: It was a very quiet transfer deadline day, all of the players leaving are players that haven't appeared for me this season, or players that were in the Under 19 side. The biggest sales of the transfer window were Taylor Booth moving to Feyenoord, and Elias Jelert making the move to English Champions, Manchester City. We signed three players for decent money to be fair, Ardon Jashari, Julian Aude, and Kacper Tobiasz will all get decent playing time this season in the first team. I did almost forget to mention Xaver Schlager going to Real Madrid, and Maarten Vandevoordt going off to Wolfsburg over the Summer as well, but all in all, I'm happy with my squad, and let's see how we do as we move on. Christian Kouame to FC Porto: Christian Kouame has moved to Porto on transfer deadline day for £15,500,000. It was a last minute bid by the Portuguese giants, and I thought about it, but it is a good idea as when Benjamin Sesko comes back into the team, someone has to be dropped as Timo Werner will be in the team automatically alongside him, and that means one of the three that has started the season would have to sit out, and I'm sure he would be disappointed. Also, he's a nomadic striker so made a lot of moves, and it does seem like he doesn't stay at a club too long, but good luck to him this season. Amadou Haidara Injured: I have a third player out with a twisted ankle which is rather concerning at the moment. This time it's Amadou Haidara who has been starting in that central midfield triangle, so it's not great for us. He would have started against Union Berlin this weekend, and he will now be out for 3-4 weeks. Friday 4th September 2026: RB Leipzig 3-0 Union Berlin (Bundesliga) Our first game this month was a flawless 3-0 win at home to Union Berlin, which for the time being puts us top of the table on goals scored. We circled the Union penalty area early on to try and find the first goal, and via Torres, Werner, Raum and Zalazar, Brahim Diaz picked up the ball on the right, cut inside and fired into the roof of the net to give us the lead after 10 minutes. It was a smart move for 2-0, Zalazar with a free kick just outside the box, played it to his right for Brahim Diaz to take a touch and fire under the keeper from the edge of the box to double the advantage. Brahim Diaz had a couple of chances to complete his hat trick before he actually did. Timo Werner took the ball down the left touchline, before he curled the ball into the box, and up jumped Brahim Diaz to nod it home and complete his hat trick, and a clinical win. Great result here. Saturday 12th September 2026: Borussia Dortmund 0-1 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) Christoph Baumgartner celebrated his new 4-year contract at RB Leipzig by scoring the winner at my old stomping ground, as we beat Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park, by a goal in the 3rd minute before holding on for the rest of the game. Brahim Diaz took the ball down the right, he rolled it back to Holmgren Pedersen, and when he played it into the box from the corner of the area, Baumgartner hit it first time into the bottom left corner about 15 yards out, as we take home the win, and with Bayern Munich failing to win for the first time this season, we've now closed the gap at the top to one point off the champions. 4 wins in a row in the league now. Thursday 17th September 2026: Dinamo Zagreb 1-2 RB Leipzig (UEFA Europa Conference League League Phase) Our first game in the Conference League provided us with our first win of the League Phase, as we came from behind against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb. We had several chances to take the lead in the first half, including hitting the bar, but Dinamo Zagreb took the lead on a counter attack. They went straight through the team with direct forward passes, and Petkovic released Vidovic, and he was one-on-one with Tobiasz, and he hit it just outside the box into the roof of the net to give them the lead against the run of play. It took until the hour mark to level it up. Dani Olmo received the ball on the left after Baumgartner was dispossessed, and he played it into the six-yard box, where Yuri Alberto slid it under the keeper for 1-1. We went very attacking late on, and it resulted in picking up a late winner. Brahim Diaz went down the right and cut inside the box, where he played it across to Jashari, and he found Dani Olmo unmarked at the left hand post, and he slotted it home first time into the bottom right hand corner, and we take our first win in this competition. Timo Werner Injured: Unfortunately, Timo Werner picked up a pulled hamstring during this game, and he's going to be out for the next 2 weeks after pulling up against Dinamo Zagreb unfortunately. Sunday 20th September 2026: RB Leipzig 5-1 Hertha Berlin (Bundesliga) We concluded our club action this month with a massive 5-1 hammering of bottom club Hertha Berlin. We did lose two decent players during this game with both Zalazar and Facundo Torres being stricken through this game, and we'll see how bad it will be after this match update. Brahim Diaz received the ball on the right and played it into the area for Yuri Alberto, who fired the shot across the keeper into the bottom left hand corner to give us the lead. Facundo Torres doubled the advantage from the penalty spot to make it 2-0. Seiwald helped set up the third by rolling it forward to Dani Olmo, and he saw Yuri Alberto making a run into the box through the middle, and the latter fired into the net to make it game over before half time. Tabakovic started the move for Hertha's consolation, playing it to Koch, moving it on to Samassekou, and Tabakovic had continued his run through the middle, and connected with a lovely through ball, and he fired home for 3-1. We went up the other end and got our fourth straightaway. Facundo Torres' attempted cross from the left was deflected into his own goal by Jonjoe Kenny for 4-1. Schuldes, a 19 year old making his debut for the side at centre-back, played it through to Dani Olmo, and he found Brahim Diaz on the right. He cut inside the area, ran through on goal and slotted it across the keeper into the corner to put a cherry on top of the icing of the cake. Uruguayan Duo Injured: Both Facundo Torres and Rodrigo Zalazar picked up injuries in this match unfortunately and will be out for a period of time each. Torres pulled a calf muscle and will be out for the next 3 weeks, so he will be back just after the international break. As will Zalazar, as he picked up pulled ankle ligaments during the game as well, and he will be out for about 2 weeks while recovering. Jamie Schuldes Debut: Jamie Schuldes made his debut against Hertha Berlin in our 5-1 win as he came on basically to see what it's like in the first team. He's quite a pacy youngster which is strange for a centre-back for me, but at least he can recover quite quickly when caught out of position. We'll see how good he becomes, but he has at least made his debut. RB Leipzig September Results: We had a perfect month, and a month of green is always great to see. We comfortably won 3-0 at home against Union Berlin, which really continued a run of form we didn't know was going to make us this strong. We picked up a win away at my former club, Borussia Dortmund, which is always a great result when you go back to your former team, and the team you made champions the first time around. We followed that up with a 2-1 win away at Dinamo Zagreb, coming from behind and scoring an 87th minute winner. Then finally, we thrashed Hertha Berlin 5-1, when we just played them off the park and made them look amateur. Here's the table. Bundesliga Table Update: We've been here before guys and girls haven't we? RB Leipzig lead the way after 5 wins in a row following the first defeat of the season, and we're a point clear of Bayern Munich, who have dropped points in their last two matches. Eintracht Frankfurt are still unbeaten on 12 points in third, with FC Koln, Borussia Dortmund and Stuttgart on 11 points. Union Berlin sit seventh on 10. Hertha Berlin are bottom on 2 points, alongside Schalke, who are ahead of them on goal difference. Werder Bremen sit 3rd bottom on 3 points, with Hoffenheim just above them on 4 points. UEFA Europa Conference League Table Update: There's only been one game for everyone so far and we currently sit 9th, with Brighton top after a 6-0 win in their opening match. Spain Squad: My first international squad as Spain manager ahead of this extended international break, of which in this update, I'll be covering the opening two matches against Scotland and Poland. We've gone without a recognised centre-forward although we do have the great wonderkid Lamine Yamal in the squad who I will stick up front in most games. We've also got the likes of Ferran Torres who can play that role. Let's go ahead and start our Nations League campaign. Saturday 26th September 2026: Spain 3-0 Scotland (UEFA Nations League A Group 2) And we started that Nations League campaign with a thumping 3-0 defeat of Scotland at home, as we aim to at least get into the final stage of this competition just to get the appetite going. Balde ran the ball down the left midway through the first half, going round the Scottish back line, he swung the ball in, and there was Ferran Torres at the far post to get our campaign off to a flyer. We doubled the advantage four minutes later. Ansu Fati won the ball from Billy Gilmour after he gave away possession, and he ran through the defence which parted like the Red Sea, he was one-on-one with the keeper and converted easily to make it 2-0. Rodri rounded off the victory, receiving the ball from Balde on the edge of the box, and hitting it home with a first time shot deflected by Billy Gilmour. All in all, a good debut in international football. Tuesday 29th September 2026: Poland 1-0 Spain (UEFA Nations League A Group 2) Poland profited from our profligacy and poor checking down the line as we missed chance after chance, and then had two goals ruled out for offside as we lost to a Robert Lewandowski penalty in Poland. Both teams had goals ruled out for offside in the first 11 minutes, before Robert Lewandowski provided the killer blow after 20 minutes, firing the ball high into the middle of the net from the penalty spot. The first game I've lost all month for either club or country. It's a tournament the FA don't care about, but I care if I lose. I've changed up the narrow formation for the visit of Germany in the next few days. Spain September Results: So in our first two games as Spanish manager, we demolished Scotland 3-0 at home, and then lost a game we dominated against Poland 1-0. UEFA Nations League A Group B Update: Those results put us third after two matches, with Germany beating both Poland and Scotland handsomely, but we are only behind Poland on the head to head record, and they've got Scotland next and to be honest, I reckon they could lose to them as I think they may be the only team capable in this group of losing to Scotland. Final Word: Starting with RB Leipzig, we've had a flawless month this month and find ourselves on top of the Bundesliga at this early stage after a five match winning run which is incredible at this early stage in the season. I think we've found a system that works at the moment, something that will allow us to score goals, and to score those goals at the right time as we saw in Europe, and what we've seen with getting those goals in the last minutes of games in general. With Spain, it may take a little bit of time, but obviously being in League A of the Nations League, we've been thrown right in with top ranked teams, and it won't be like that when we're qualifying for the Euros in the second half of the season. This is going to be a good indicator of how we do against the bigger nations in Europe when it does come to 2028, and to be honest, apart from not scoring against Poland, we weren't that far off. I'm quite pleased with both my teams this month, and we're going to take both these runs of form going forward, and seeing how we do in October. We'll return with the second two matches of this extended international break. I'll see you then.

Glory Hunter - RB Leipzig and Spain - 2026-27 Season - August We are back for season 4 of this save, and this time we have two jobs!!!! The Spain job will become relevant as we get closer to September, but for now, we are back in the Bundesliga as a manager with our second club in Germany. RB Leipzig are probably the most hated club in Germany due to how they've risen up the leagues in real life, never mind now in game they have won the Bundesliga a couple of seasons ago. They made the Europa League final last season as we all know, and were a couple of penalty kicks away from being a Champions League club this season, and us not being interested. But, we do now have a Conference League to play for, which Napoli and Athletic Bilbao are both in. It will be tougher to win than what we may have thought, but we will have a look at this month's fixtures, without yet knowing who we will play in the Conference League qualifying round. August Fixtures: We begin our season away at Eintracht Stadtallendorf of the fifth-tier in the First Round of the DFB-Pokal, a match we really ought to win. Our first game back in the Bundesliga is away at Eintracht Frankfurt, a team I hate playing away from home. We then face our first leg in the Qualifying Round of the Conference League away from home, as we will face the winner of HJK Helsinki vs Slovan Bratislava. Then we're at home to newly-promoted FC Koln, followed by the second leg in Europe at home. Last but not least, we are away at the other promoted club, Schalke 04, in what is a reasonably nice start to the season. New First Team Player: I've decided to use our DFB-Pokal First Round match to give a debut to someone who we bought from the Indiana Fire in America, Patrick Villegas makes his senior debut for RB Leipzig in this match. We're not expected to be tested so I thought I'd give him the chance. His greens are impressive, as he has 18 aggression, 17 for determination and 16 for leadership, teamwork and stamina. Good tackling and technique is what you need from a defender just starting out. His acceleration and pace are also acceptable as well. It'll be interesting to see how he does. Saturday 8th August 2026: Eintracht Stadtallendorf 0-8 RB Leipzig (DFB-Pokal First Round) My first game in charge of RB Leipzig was as easy as I thought it would be, thrashing our fifth tier opposition 8-0 to book our place in the second round. We opened the scoring inside 8 minutes. Villegas had the ball in the left back position and lumped it clear for Openda to get onto on the left side of the area, and he lobbed it over the keeper to give us the early advantage. Openda then made it 2-0 from the penalty spot 10 minutes later. We made it 3-0 on the half hour. Perea played it to Booth in front of him, who found Holmgren Pedersen overlapping him on the right, and he played it into the six-yard box, for Openda to complete his hat trick after 30 minutes. Seiwald took a short corner to debutant Jashari, and they played it back and forth between each other, before Jashari played it left to Dani Olmo in the box, and he powered home at the keeper's near post for 4-0 before half time. The fifth was another passing play which found it's way to Olmo on the right side of the box, he squared it across the six yard box for Openda to grab his fourth. Stadtallendorf tried to clear the ball ahead of our sixth, but Villegas won a header finding Baumgartner, and he found Openda in the area, and he fired into the right hand corner for our sixth just after the hour. Seiwald had a corner from the right which the opposition failed to clear, and Baumgartner headed on to Openda, who completed his double hat-trick virtually on the line for 7-0. Dragusin had a goal ruled out for offside from a corner, but we would get our eighth through who else? Openda. Perea's long ball forward was misjudged by their keeper, the ball went past him, and Openda had the easiest tap in from 18 yards out for 8-0. Lois Openda wants to leave, but with scoring displays like that against lower teams, hopefully his happiness and confidence is up. Taylor Booth moves to Feyenoord: Taylor Booth has played his last match for RB Leipzig, the 25 year old American winger is moving to the Netherlands and to Feyenoord for £26,500,000. He's only spent one full season at the club after moving from PSG to RB Leipzig for £25,000,000 so we have made a little bit of profit on him. He only scored 5 goals and made 2 assists in 35 appearances, but 22 of those were off the bench. I thought with Feyenoord flirting around him, it'd be good for him to get that guaranteed first team football at the age he is, because with the talent we have, that wasn't necessarily going to happen. He was fantastic during pre-season though, and I wish him all the luck, and hoping this doesn't come back to bite me. UEFA Europa Conference League League Path Fourth Qualifying Round Draw: We now know who we will start our European campaign against this season, and we will face Finnish league leaders HJK Helsinki, with the first leg being away from home as we are the seeded team. We should be able to get through this tie fairly easily, and we should aim to start to prepare for life in the League Phase for this season. But, we can't get carried away. This team have already shown me they can be professional in simple games, and hopefully they can prove it again in this tie. The first leg will be after the first league match with Eintracht Frankfurt. DFB-Pokal Second Round Draw: Our second round tie in the DFB-Pokal is an all Bundesliga clash as we travel to Freiburg in what is a repeat of the 2022 final, and hopefully, we can get a similar result to that final, as RB Leipzig won it back then. The game will be played at the end of October. Saturday 15th August 2026: Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) Our first game back in the Bundesliga was the same old story back at Eintracht Frankfurt, as we lost 2-1 in what was a dismal second half performance, after an inspiring performance in the first half. Guerreiro took a corner from the right inswinging for Frankfurt, and the good ball was rewarded with a decent header from Gila as he put the home side 1-0 up after 15 minutes. We equalised less than ten minutes later, Facundo Torres had the ball down the left by the byline, and he played it into the area where Timo Werner managed to flick it beyond the keeper for 1-1 and his first of the season. A poor defensive mistake allowed Frankfurt to score what would prove to be the winner. Zirkzee had the ball in the middle of the park, and Baldanzi managed to break the offside trap, going off like a steam engine ahead of the defence, and he slotted home to give Frankfurt the lead after 53 minutes. They had the chance to make it more comfortable late on, but Cordano saved the spot kick from Karabec in added time. A poor start to the Bundesliga, but now the chance to take a bit of a breather, and maybe try something new. Thursday 20th August 2026: HJK Helsinki 1-4 RB Leipzig (UEFA Europa Conference League League Path Fourth Qualifying Round First Leg) We started our European season earlier than all the other German sides, as you have to actually go through qualifying in the Conference League to book your place in the League Phase, and we didn't waste time in this game, winning away at the Finnish leaders 4-1. Timo Werner opened the scoring from the penalty spot inside 6 minutes. From a Simakan throw-in, both he and Kouame played a couple of one-twos, before the latter made a run into the area from the right wing, advanced on goal, and fired the ball into the left hand corner for 2-0. Lois Openda picked up a serious looking injury before half time, which meant we had to bring Dani Olmo on, and he played a part in the third goal. His outswinging corner from the right, came off a HJK head, and Dragusin steered it home to give us a 3-0 lead, and breathing space. HJK got a goal back just 4 minutes later, Ollila had the ball on the left and swung it into the box, which Tanko brought down, and fired home past Cordano who had no chance for 3-1. We secured the first leg win once and for all in the 77th minute. Haidara had the ball down the right before playing forward to Seiwald in the area. He played a square ball into the box, and Dani Olmo fired home to pick up his second goal of the season, and ensure we come back to Germany with a handsome advantage. Lois Openda Injured: Lois Openda is now out for up to 4 weeks, which could result in him staying at the club for now, after he injured it sprinting during the game. If he does stick around, I really hope this doesn't lead to him causing trouble in the squad. That'll be something I keep an eye on. Oscar Perea to Werder Bremen on Loan: Obviously, I don't show off too many loans now as it is mainly to do with the youngsters, but I felt like I had to show this one as I want him to get match time in the Bundesliga, and unfortunately, Oscar Perea is a little way behind the others in his position, especially the way the wingers have started the season. He's going to Werder Bremen on loan, and they have also got an option to buy as well, in case he impresses them during the season. Julian Aude in from Red Bull Salzburg: The good thing about being part of a franchise when you're managing a team like RB Leipzig, is you can sign some decent youngsters like this from the other clubs. We've signed young Argentinian left-back Julian Aude from Red Bull Salzburg for £9,000,000. His determination is outstanding with a rating of 18. His agility is up at 16. He's also got a strong first touch at 15. He's got yellows across the board, he does seem to be a player with an even spread of attributes. Now it's time to see if we can ease him into the squad. Kacper Tobiasz from PSG: Kacper Tobiasz could be about to become our new number 1 here at RB Leipzig, we've signed the young Polish stopper from PSG for an initial £5,500,000. He made 5 appearances in Ligue 1 last season for the French champions, but is a little down the pecking order in the French capital, Gianluigi Donnarumma will be their keeper for a little while. A player like this can't go unnoticed. Just look at his stats. First of all, he can play the ball from the back and is your typical sweeper keeper. His kicking and passing stand out when you look at him, and his tendency to rush out can be scary, but I believe he can stand up to opposition strikers and be effective in those situations. His jumping reach is in the green, and so is his work rate, which is an 18 in his stats. I'm buzzing with this new signing. Sunday 23rd August 2026: RB Leipzig 1-0 FC Koln (Bundesliga) We took our first win in the Bundesliga this season, a 1-0 home win against newly-promoted FC Koln. The only goal came on the stroke of half time, Raum received the ball back from Baumgartner from his throw in, before releasing Facundo Torres in the box from the left, and Torres slotted home across the goalkeeper to make it 1-0, and to take our first win at home this season. We didn't really look like throwing it away, and we do now have a way of making the 4-3-3 work at the moment. Mario Wolf to make his debut: We've got another youth team player making the team today, as we have a 4-1 lead over HJK Helsinki and are very unlikely to lose it today. Mario Wolf is a young left back, who plays for the under 19s at the moment, but I've brought him up to the first team to try him out. He's strong with his tackling with a rating of 15. He's got a few 13s across the board as well. This is a good use of easier matches in European competition. As you don't have to register Under-21 players, you can use as many as you want, so if you have a problem with maybe home grown players or anything like that, you can use your youngsters to complete the team, or just to give them a chance. Thursday 27th August 2026: RB Leipzig 3-3 HJK Helsinki (RB Leipzig win 7-4 on aggregate) (UEFA Europa Conference League League Path Fourth Qualifying Round Second Leg) We made it through despite a topsy turvy game in the second leg, where I think we just became complacent. They took the lead after 22 minutes, Keskinen's shot in hit Dragusin as it was going wide and that diverted it in for 1-0. We equalised a few minutes later. A neat, sharp passing move meant Olmo could play it right to Torres, who cut inside and fired into the top left corner for 1-1. We took the lead after half-time, as a Holmgren Pedersen cross from the right was met on the head by Timo Werner at the far post for 2-1. A goal kick for them led to Kodes winning the ball in the air, and Tanko got his head to the ball about 20 yards out, but Cordano was miles off his line and the ball went rolling in for 2-2. Timo Werner then put us back in front from the penalty spot, before they equalised with five minutes to go. Ollila's cross from the left was nodded in at the far post by Kouassivi-Benissan, and we were pegged back once again. We did put the ball in the net in the 93rd minute, but Werner was denied his hat trick by running offside in the build up. Either way, we're through, and we're now going to see who we're playing in the league phase. UEFA Europa Conference League League Phase Draw: So in the Europa Conference League, you play 6 matches rather than 8, so they're all done by Christmas which is great to see. Our hardest game in my opinion, comes first, travelling to Dinamo Zagreb, who are normally in the other two competitions. We then have a home game against Finnish side FC Haka. In November, we'll play Neftci Baku of Azerbaijan, and Spartak Trnava or Slovakia both away from home. And finally in December, we finish with two home matches, against Royal Antwerp of Belgium, and Samsunspor of Turkey. Sunday 30th August 2026: Schalke 04 2-3 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) This game was unbelievable. We dominated the entire game, but 5 minutes of madness before half time left us 2-0 down to Schalke. Kevin Volland gave Schalke the lead after 37 minutes with his first goal for the club, putting us 1-0 down. As we had dominated the game up to this point, I thought we would have taken it in our stride and gone on to equalise. But to my surprise, the Gelsenkirchen based side went 2-0 up, five minutes later. Coulibaly ran the ball down the left hand side, sprinting to the byline, near the corner flag. He swung the ball into the area, and there was Pieringer at the back post to double the home side's advantage, and to put us in turmoil. Ouedraogo then got injured right at the start of the second half, which meant we brought Dani Olmo on later in the game. Thank the lord I did. Dani Olmo had a free-kick on the right wing, he swung it in and found Yuri Alberto at the far post, who nodded over the keeper to make it 2-1. We equalised just a minute later, Simakan ran down the right with Holmgren Pedersen on the underlap. He played it to him, and the right-back played the ball across the box, and it evaded everyone to fall to Kouame who fired home on the line to make it 2-2. We won the game with a minute of normal time to go. Timo Werner came on with 6 minutes to go, and received the ball on the halfway line from Olmo. He ran past 3 defenders, evading challenges until he ran into the area, and fired home into the top left hand corner to send our fans wild. What an important goal, and a great comeback this early in the season. Assan Ouedraogo injured: As for Assan Ouedraogo, unfortunately he is out for 3-4 weeks after twisting his ankle during the game, but he's been a real smart player so far at this club, and I'm sure he will be back stronger and fitter. Benjamin Sesko has signed a brand new contract, worth £135,000 a week for the next five years. He is currently out injured with a damaged achilles tendon, but he should be back for the middle of October, and I can't wait to start putting him in that side, for me he's probably better than Timo Werner and he's years younger as well. Being 23 years old, I'm hoping that he doesn't keep on getting injured and ruining his chances of a decent career. August Results: We've scored in every game this month as we've made a fairly decent start to the season. We thumped Eintracht Stadtallendorf 8-0, the fifth tier side being nowhere near us in this game. Openda scored 7 goals in this one. We lost our first Bundesliga game of the season to Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1, where we just weren't good enough. I made the system slightly more attacking, and the following game, we thrashed HJK Helsinki 4-1 in the Conference League. We defeated FC Koln 1-0, but dominated the game throughout, and then we drew against HJK Helsinki 3-3, to put us into the league phase. In the final game this month, we came from 2-0 down to defeat Schalke 3-2 away from home. Bundesliga Table Update: Our first look at the table this season, after the opening matches in August, and the champions Bayern Munich are the only team with a 100% record after three matches. Union Berlin sit second on 7 points, with Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig both starting really well, on 6 points apiece. There's a whole host of teams on 5 points, with Borussia Dortmund, Mainz, Wolfsburg, Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt all having a win and 2 draws. At the bottom, Hamburg and Hoffenheim have both lost their opening 3 matches at the start of this season, with Hertha Berlin sat on 1 point, Schalke on 2, and Augsburg, Freiburg and Werder Bremen all on 3 points. Final Word: It's been a satisfying start to the season in my time as RB Leipzig manager, 4th in the table after three games, not much oomph needed in the DFB-Pokal and we confirmed our place in the Conference League fairly easily as well. I can't complain with any results this month, apart from when we were 2-0 down to Schalke and I wondered what was going on, so I changed the personnel up slightly. I know we're not in it to win the Bundesliga, as we've already done it with Dortmund, but we've got to get that winning mentality going this season otherwise we could be in trouble. Our first games as an international manager comes up soon as we kick off our Nations League campaign. Obviously it's not very important, but if we can do well in a group of Germany, Poland and Scotland, I'll be buzzing. We've got to aim to get second at least in that one. That brings us to the end of August, I hope you're enjoying the save. I'll see you soon.

Glory Hunter - RB Leipzig - 2026-27 Season - Pre-Season Here we are then, our fourth pre-season in Germany, as we only spent half a season over in England to pick up the UEFA Europa League. Now I'm hoping the fans and the players have forgiven me this season, as I try and revive RB Leipzig after what was a dreadful season last season for the club. A couple of changes. I will announce new signings, but only when I know they will be first team players for the new season. I won't be providing full details of pre-season friendlies as well. Before the season starts, I will post the results and just give a brief account of what we did, like we do when we do the round-up at the end of every month. Here we go then. Season 4. Let's take a look at the season preview ahead of the new Bundesliga season. Season Preview: Bayern Munich won the title last season after a long barren spell, and they are the favourites obviously this season, at 4-9. Our former club, Borussia Dortmund are second favourites with us being third favourites for the title. Both the promoted clubs are actually expected to survive comfortably this season, with Schalke 04 being 15th, and FC Koln being 13th. The favourites to go down are Hertha Berlin, and Bochum automatically, with Hamburg favourites to be in the relegation play-off. We have two players in the dream XI which is great to see. Nicolas Seiwald is a tenacious defensive midfielder, which when you use that word, always sounds epic and hopefully he can be. And Dani Olmo is sat on the left hand side in that attacking position, but unfortunately, we haven't got the best striker. Apparently he's some joker from England called Henry Kane.... Oh sorry, Harry Kane. Friendly Fixtures: Right, someone in my backroom team are having a laugh. They've obviously said that they want to go to England. They couldn't have given us a game we're guaranteed to win though could they? We face four Premier League teams starting against the team we lost the Europa League final to, Aston Villa. We also have friendlies at Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool. I'm looking forward to playing these and I'll provide the updates later on. Xaver Schlager moves to Real Madrid: My first piece of business as RB Leipzig manager was to try and work out which first team players I could make some money on, just to boost up my transfer budget. Real Madrid had been circling around Austrian midfielder, Xaver Schlager, who's reaching the prime of his career, and had already spent four seasons at RB Leipzig, since moving from Wolfsburg in 2022. He had a strong season last season, averaging a 6.97 overall, with a 7.02 in the league. Real Madrid paid us £52,000,000 for him, with £30,000,000 of that going into our transfer budget. Willi Orban moves to Al-Qadsiah: Willi Orban has become the latest first team player to move on from RB Leipzig. I'm not the kind of person to move older players on all the time, like most other content creators, but I would say Willi Orban will be on the way down now after what has been a great career at RB Leipzig, as we do want to try and put a younger outlook on this squad. He's moved to his new club for £5,000,000, and he's been a wonderful servant to this football club. New International Job: We have managed to grab the Spain job after the World Cup, as they got knocked out in the quarter-final by Colombia which wasn't deemed acceptable. I feel like out of the offers I was given, this is the one that I feel we can win the international tournaments with. It's a great international job to kick my international career off with, and we will take a proper look at the team when the international break comes about. But we've now got our foot in when it comes to international experience. DFB-Pokal First Round Draw: Our first round tie in the DFB-Pokal this season should be a fairly easy task, against fifth-tier Eintracht Stadtallendorf. It's always difficult at a smaller stadium, but personally, we couldn't have hoped for a better start to the DFB-Pokal this season. Maarten Vandevoordt to Wolfsburg: I'm a little bit disappointed in the end this has happened, as I did try to keep Maarten around, purely for the fact I do now need to get a new number one goalkeeper. But he came from Genk in 2024, and properly had his first season last season in the league it looks like, as he only made 5 appearances in his first season. We've made over five times the amount on him than when the club bought him, earning us £24,000,000 from this sale, more than enough to buy a decent replacement for him. Ardon Jashiri in from Marseille: My first signing as RB Leipzig manager for the first team is 23-year-old Swiss midfielder, Ardon Jashiri, who has joined for £16,500,000 from Marseille after one season with the French club. He had a fairly decent season in France last season, averaging just short of 7.00. His determination, balance and strength are his strongest attributes at 16. His stamina is at a 15, but he's got several at 14 including crossing, dribbling, first touch and passing, all the stuff you need for a central midfielder. He's definitely someone I'm delighted to have around the squad, and we'll see what he's made of in the league this season. El Chadaille Bitshiabu to AZ Alkmaar: One player I was confused by when I arrived, El Chadaille Bitshiabu has left for AZ Alkmaar in Netherlands. He has played a handful of games for the first team, but I took a closer look at him and he struggled at Darmstadt on loan last season. It was better for us to sell up, and he's gone to AZ for £8,000,000. Justin Diehl Injured: One player who will be in and around the first team squad this season, Justin Diehl is the first player out with a serious injury, as he's twisted his ankle while turning, and will be out for about a month. It does look like he's been a squad player in recent years, but he is still only young, and I could bring him off the bench in several games this season. I hope it's not too detrimental to him. Elias Jelert Injured: Elias Jelert pulled his calf muscle in the pre-season match against Liverpool, which isn't great for him for the next 3 weeks, as Manchester City are keen on signing him and he's waiting for a work permit. Assuming that he's yet to have his medical with City, will that stop him from leaving immediately? We'll wait and see. Elias Jelert to Manchester City: It turns out it doesn't effect him at all, and Elias Jelert has moved to Manchester City for £20,500,000. At only 23 years old, he could morph into a decent quality right-back, and he can also play at left-back. I'm quite happy to let him go to City for that money, and also he could be useful to me down the line as he matures as well. We never know. UEFA Europa Conference League League Path Fourth Qualifying Round Draw: This is the only European competition where we would have to qualify for the tournament through the final qualifying round, and we will face a fairly straightforward tie against either HJK Helsinki or Slovan Bratislava. New Contracts Through The Summer: Mohamed Simakan was the first player to sign a new contract under my watch, as he signed a brand new five-year contract, earning £215,000 a week. Ever since the save started, his average rating hasn't gone below a 7.00 every season, and has grown into a strong centre-back in the league, giving the best a run for their money, and he's only 26. A few days later, Nicolas Seiwald signed a new contract lasting until 2031. He will earn £115,000 a week, and like Simakan above, he has grown into a consistent performer since arriving from sister club Red Bull Salzburg in 2023. Friendly Results: Our first match of pre-season was a repeat of the Europa League final against Aston Villa, and this time, I was on the other side of the dugout. We took the lead through Lois Openda in the 55th minute, but Saelemaekers equalised 7 minutes from time, for it to be another stalemate between the two sides. I added another friendly to the schedule as we hosted Espanyol, and we thrashed them 4-1, including a fantastic hat-trick from Taylor Booth. Oscar Perea added a fourth, and Espanyol got one back in added time at the end of the game. We followed that up with a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal. All the goals came in the first half of this one, Arsenal taking the early lead through Gabriel Jesus, but we levelled up a minute later through Oscar Perea. The Gunners won the match through Jesus, but we put in a top performance, and no shame in this defeat. In our penultimate friendly, we came back twice to beat Everton 3-2. Onana and James Garner from the penalty spot, sandwiched by a goal from Dragusin made it 2-1 to the Premier League side at half time. But in the second half, Facundo Torres and Baumgartner managed to get us over the line. Our final friendly of the Summer was at Anfield, as we travelled to Liverpool to lose 3-1. Goals in the first half from Diogo Jota and Trincao put Liverpool in the ascendancy before half time. Brahim Diaz then scored an own goal seconds into the second half in this one. We got one back from a mazy run and a great finish by Christian Kouame, but that's not the result we wanted to end proceedings in the Summer. Final Word: Pre-season is now officially over, and across the friendlies, we've had mixed results, and we've not had the most entertaining transfer window either. Ardon Jashiri is the only first team player we've brought in, but he does look like he will be a good fit in the squad. We've not lost players that will break the squad I suppose, obviously losing our first choice keeper wasn't great and we also lost Xaver Schlager to Real Madrid who I would have preferred to have kept around. But I'm not going to stop players from achieving their dreams. The start of the season will be shown tomorrow, as we attempt to win two trophies this season with RB Leipzig. Thank you for the support.

Glory Hunter - New Team - 2025-26 Season - June You join me this time as I look for a brand new club that I can take to Europa Conference League glory to try and get through this challenge. I'm hoping RB Leipzig will accept my application, and I will also apply for Lens. If we go to RB Leipzig, we can also complete Germany by potentially winning the DFB-Pokal which I have yet to win. There won't be too many updates on this one, as we shall fast forward before I get an interview. Let's see where we go to. Lens Interview: It's taken a little over two weeks, but our first interview is with the team that in game a couple of seasons ago, won the Ligue 1 title above PSG so they're a good side, but will be spending next season playing in the Conference League. Hopefully it's a good interview. You'll find out soon. RB Leipzig Interview: And the one that I really want so I can actually complete Germany, RB Leipzig will be the ones I reckon I can pick the Cup up with. Let's see how this one goes. As it stands Lens have come in for me so I am definitely getting a job, but let's see if I can get the one I want. We're Back in Germany!!!!! That's right. A month after beating them in the UEFA Europa League final, we are the brand new manager of RB Leipzig as we attempt to go and get the DFB-Pokal, and the UEFA Europa Conference League. They took my Aston Villa team close and I'm absolutely buzzing to be given the chance to put RB Leipzig back into the Champions League spots, and get our name on a couple of trophies, especially the one that keeps evading me, the DFB-Pokal. I am expecting this to be my only season in charge of RB Leipzig, as I intend to win the Cup and the Conference League this season, just to make sure they're both done early on, and so we can go all out for the bigger clubs, the giants so to speak, so we can win every league that's left. The next job now will be to try and get an international job. History: As you can see, during this save, RB Leipzig have won the Bundesliga, which was in our first season as Borussia Dortmund manager, they've twice won the DFB-Pokal in their history, and obviously narrowly missed out on the Europa League last season, losing out to Aston Villa on penalties at the end of last season. Best XI: As we join the club, this is my strongest XI and my strongest formation is apparently a 4-2-3-1, a formation we used at Aston Villa. The players should be familiar to us, as we have obviously been in this league already. Benjamin Sesko will be the man that we lean on to make sure we get the goals going this season, Dani Olmo is the main playmaker to be setting up those chances and goals. I will show you the full squad planner as we get into the club, and we can then see where we need to possibly make upgrades. Board Expectation: The board want us to play attacking, high-press football, which I have been accustomed to at both the clubs I've managed so far. Signing players under the age of 23 for the first team is also something I've really succeeded on at both Villa and Dortmund. They want us to challenge for the UEFA Europa Conference League, which I think we should be aiming to win. They want us to make the later stages of the DFB-Pokal and finally, they want us to qualify for the Champions League through the Bundesliga. Supporter Expectations: They're very much the same when it comes to the type of football they want the team to play, which is that high-tempo, attacking style. They also want us to play possession football, and if you look back, we're very good at clocking up the possession stats, win, lose or draw. Making the most of set pieces is a good one as well, I'd like to see us score more corners than what we already have done previously, which sounds crazy but it's very much true. Financial Update: We start off with just over £10,000,000 in the transfer budget so I can assure you now, we may have to make some moves on the out side of things. We also have just over £2,500,000 in the weekly wage budget as well, but the one thing that could happen is we get more in the next few weeks as contracts end, and that is what's going to happen. There will obviously be some loans coming back, but let's wait and see what happens with that. Squad Planner: This is a look at the squad planner and this is how the control possession looks. For me, we're going for a 4-2-4 anyway, so for now, I hope Sesko and Openda can help each other out up top, but failing that, we're going to need to look at more strikers. I wouldn't say we're struggling in numbers anywhere really, and it'll be the case to see where we can improve, and how we can improve the side. Does anyone need selling? If someone does need selling, who do I get rid of? Let's wait and see. Final Word: So that is my new team. We're back in the Bundesliga this season, with RB Leipzig, but this for me is my strongest case in winning the Europa Conference League. I'm not sure who's qualified from England, if anyone at all because no one did last season. I'm confident I can do something special this season with RB Leipzig. We maybe haven't got a completely household name side, and that may be something we work on. But I don't personally think they're a seventh place side from last season, and I think we can break back into the top 4, and potentially do something special in something. Thank you for the support, and join us in pre-season for season 4, as we attempt to do something incredible at RB Leipzig.

Glory Hunter - Aston Villa - 2025-26 Season - May Ladies and gentlemen, we have made it to the end of Season 3 in the Glory Hunter Challenge and we have one trophy still to play for this season in the UEFA Europa League. We lead Benfica 4-3 on aggregate after an enthralling first leg in which both sides didn't hold up and they weren't backwards in going forwards. The second leg will be already one of the most important matches in this save as we try to take this side through to a second European final in 2 seasons, after winning the Conference League last season. We also have to wrap up the Premier League season, and it will be interesting to see where we end up as the season reaches a conclusion. May Fixtures: Our final matches of the season are almost an exact replica of my first few matches in this job. We travel to Newcastle United in the first of these matches, followed by our second leg of the Europa League semi final against Benfica, a match where we are leading 4-3 on aggregate, and this time, we will have home advantage. Brighton & Hove Albion is our next match after that, before we face West Ham United at the London Stadium. If we make the Europa League final, it will be the game between West Ham and Bournemouth, before we end up playing against Bournemouth on the final day of the season. Sunday 3rd May 2026: Newcastle United 2-0 Aston Villa (Premier League) Never revert to the three at the back after you're so used to playing four at the back. I learned that quickly in this game as we were nowhere near playing well in this one, and we lost 2-0 to Zinedine Zidane's Newcastle United. Chalobah had the ball in the middle of the park, before he found Brais Mendez on the right hand side of the box. His ball in found Alexander Isak and he nodded in at the near post for 1-0. Sandro Tonali was instrumental in the second goal, as we were put to the sword. His original corner went back to him, played a one-two with Isak, ran into the area, found Bruno Guimaraes on the edge of the box, and he fired in off the bar just outside the area for the second goal of the game. We're going back to four at the back after this one, which we just didn't show up in. Thursday 7th May 2026: Aston Villa 3-3 Benfica (after extra time) (Aston Villa win 7-6 on aggregate) (UEFA Europa League Semi Final Second Leg) That one goal from the first leg that proved to be the difference in Lisbon, proved the difference here as we drew the game on the night, and won on aggregate 7-6 to set up a final date with RB Leipzig at Celtic Park. A Mings throw in to Kamara found Saelemaekers on the left side of the area. He turned and shot from 20 yards out into the top corner to give us the lead on the night. The equaliser came just before half time when David Neres played the ball into the box from the right, and Musa tapped in inside the six-yard box for 1-1. They then levelled the tie up on aggregate, Bah running down the right again, the ball being partially cleared to Neymar who slammed home inside the box to make it 2-1 to Benfica. We thought we'd won the tie on 78 minutes. Douglas Luiz's corner was headed home by Ezri Konsa at the near post for 2-2 on the night. But Benfica had different ideas, and took it to extra time. Neymar's corner found Silva at the far post to make it 3-2 to the Portuguese giants on the night, and making it 6-6 on aggregate. The final twist in this game came just before half time in extra time. Leon Bailey made a run down the right with the ball, running into the box, where he squared it to Diop, who from 8 yards out, slotted home into the corner, to give Aston Villa a second consecutive European final, and gave me my first in this save. UEFA Europa League Final: Confirmation that we will face a familiar foe in Glasgow on the 20th May, as we face RB Leipzig in the Europa League final, both teams looking for their first ever title in this competition. Leo Saca Making his Debut! I've decided to change up the team as obviously we went through extra-time against Benfica and it would have taken a toll on all the men out there. We've got a home game against Brighton, and young Moldovan international, Leo Saca, who we signed from Barcelona, is due to make his debut against Brighton & Hove Albion. Let's see how he does. Sunday 10th May 2026: Aston Villa 2-3 Brighton & Hove Albion (Premier League) Another defeat in the league makes it back to back this month after our second team mainly played this game, losing 3-2 at home to Brighton. After it ended 0-0 in the first half, we took the lead not long after half time. Philippe Coutinho set up the first goal, playing the ball through the defence, where Boniface beat the offside trap and fired into the top right corner for 1-0. Brighton scored a clever equaliser from a Christian Eriksen corner. He played the ball to the edge of the area where Joao Pedro was unmarked, and he fired home from the edge of the box to level it up. They took the lead just moments later, as Tete's cross was only partially cleared, Eriksen took it down, turned and shot into the top right corner to give the Seagulls the lead. We equalised with 20 minutes to go. Diop's ball from the left was played into Coutinho. His shot clattered into Ollie Watkins, and the ball bounced in off the latter to get us a fortunate equaliser. Brighton won it in the 79th minute. Julio Enciso ran with the ball down the right, and his ball into the box was saved by Scherpen, but it bounced in off Joao Pedro and they made it a double against us this season. Tyrone Mings has signed a new contract before we take on West Ham United this weekend, as he will stay for a further two years. Saturday 16th May 2026: West Ham United 3-0 Aston Villa (Premier League) This was an awful performance from start to finish, as West Ham United ripped us apart in the first 37 minutes, in our final game before the Europa League final. The first goal was an unfortunate own goal, as Jarrod Bowen's volley from the edge of the area, caught Ezri Konsa on the way through and the keeper was left stranded as it bounced off the bar and went in. Jarrod Bowen set up the second from a corner on the left, as Mavropanos rose highest for his first goal of the season. Samuel Edozie sent the ball out left to Zehnter, who's cross into the box was perfectly hit for Stamenic to run in and secure West Ham the three points before half time. We had our moments, hitting the post twice, but I'm worried ahead of Wednesday's Europa League final. We're going to be nowhere near RB Leipzig at this rate. Wednesday 20th May 2026: RB Leipzig 0-0 Aston Villa (after extra time) (Aston Villa win 5-3 on penalties) (UEFA Europa League Final) We picked up our first piece of European silverware in this save as we have won the UEFA Europa League with Aston Villa, winning on penalties after a hard fought 0-0 draw with RB Leipzig. We worked the subs and the penalty takers to our advantage, and both teams had great chances to win the game in 120 minutes. Martinez saved Yuri Alberto's penalty after every penalty was perfect, before up stepped the nervous Leon Bailey. He didn't seem very nervous as he converted, which means Aston Villa complete the set, and I get my first European trophy of the save. Finances for Transfer Window: After doing my job here, Aston Villa now have £64,000,000 in the transfer budget, and nearly £3,000,000 in wage budget. I don't like Aston Villa in real life, and this win may come back to bite me when I face them further down the line, but we absolutely deserved this. UEFA Europa League Player of the Season: A clean sweep of Aston Villa players in the player of the season for the Europa League. Jacob Ramsey won it with 6 goals and 6 assists in 13 matches, and he's joined by Alexis Saelemaekers in 2nd place, and Douglas Luiz in third place. UEFA Europa League Team of the Season: 7 players make the Europa League team of the season as well, with Emiliano Martinez, Ezri Konsa, Juan David Mosquera, Douglas Luiz, Boubacar Kamara, Alexis Saelemaekers, and Jacob Ramsey making it for Aston Villa. We absolutely dominated it this season, and I couldn't be happier. Sunday 24th May 2026: Aston Villa 3-1 AFC Bournemouth (Premier League) The final game of the season, and the final game for me as Aston Villa manager was a thumping 3-1 win over Bournemouth. Diop set up the first goal by bombing down the left and finding Boniface in the middle of the box for him to sweep home and to make it 1-0. Boniface scored the second with a thumping finish inside the box as he received the through ball from Tielemans perfectly, which left their keeper with no chance. Philippe Coutinho got his final goal before retirement as we made it 3-0. Mosquera, on the right, found Coutinho just outside the box, and he ran through the defence onto the left hand side of the box, before thumping it into the top corner at the near post to make it 3-0. In a game of great goals, Bournemouth got one right at the end. Kluivert, on the left side of the box, played it to the edge to Dasilva, and he played it across to Alex Scott, who took a touch into the area, and then fired it into the top right corner to get Bournemouth a consolation. May Results: We had a poor month until right at the very end, when we got two wins in a row technically. We lost 2-0 to Newcastle United at the start of the month, before we managed to get through Benfica after a 3-3 draw after extra time, which led us to win 7-6 on aggregate. We lost at home to Brighton 3-2, before losing 3-0 to West Ham the week of the Europa League final. But what a game for us that was. We drew 0-0 after extra time against RB Leipzig, and then won the final on a penalty shoot out, scoring all our penalties to win the Europa League. In our last game as the manager of this club, we beat Bournemouth 3-1 at Villa Park. Premier League Final Table: Manchester City won their sixth Premier League title in a row, beating out Liverpool by 5 points. Arsenal and Newcastle United ended up in the top 4 after brilliant seasons for them both. Tottenham Hotspur also won the FA Cup this season, although it looks like they'll be in the Champions League next season anyway. Manchester United were 6th this season, and Chelsea ended up 7th this season. Brighton may still get European football when all is said and done. And Europa League champions Aston Villa ended 9th, and they will be in the Champions League next season. All three teams that came up last season went straight back down, as Luton Town, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion had dismal seasons, and they return to the Championship. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Fulham and Southampton replace them for next season. Final Word: First of all, what a crazy season that was as we won the Europa League after a pretty average season across Borussia Dortmund and Aston Villa. The plan now is that I've resigned as Aston Villa manager, and I'm looking for a team that are currently in the Europa Conference League ahead of next season. RB Leipzig and Lens are the two teams looking for managers who are definitely in that competition at the moment, though if I find out they've been promoted up, I will leave them alone. But the aim now is to win the Europa Conference League and to get an international job so I can start that as soon as I possibly can. I'm absolutely buzzing to have won the Europa League, and now we go again with someone new next season. Who will that be? You'll find out in the next update, as we move onto Season 4.

I'm brand new to this so absolutely I will take this into account. I'm trying to iron out the problems before I start my own website for FM25, which I hope people will follow. Thank you for the feedback.

Glory Hunter - Aston Villa - 2025-26 Season - April We're now at the point in the season where we know roughly where everyone is going to finish this season, with us annoyingly enough being in 9th place, only a few points off a confirmed European spot. We have a tough start to this month, facing the top two in the Premier League, and obviously we will have both legs of our Europa League Quarter Final match-up. We know we need to have a better month than last month in the league although it will be a tough ask. Let's take a look at those fixtures. April Fixtures: We start things off this month with an away game at league leaders Manchester City, who are on their way to winning their sixth consecutive Premier League title. Any way to try and make the league not a farmer's league would be much appreciated, but it will be tough to grab a victory at the Etihad unfortunately. We go to Florence after that for the first leg of our tie in the Europa League at Fiorentina, before following that up with a home match against second-placed Liverpool, so it doesn't get any easier. We then will have a rocking Villa Park for that second leg against Fiorentina, before ending the month with a Monday night match across the Midlands to Nottingham Forest, and a home game against Brentford as we attempt to get a winning end to the month. Saturday 4th April 2026: Manchester City 2-1 Aston Villa (Premier League) After a similar match in the FA Cup Third Round, we lost in the very last stages of the match at the Etihad in another 2-1 defeat to the league leaders. Mosquera's throw in on the right was given back to him by Leon Bailey, but his pass into the box was poor, but so was the attempted clearance, as the players worked themselves into a passing move that ended with Boniface in the box, and he lashed into the top right corner to give us the lead. City equalised after 19 minutes, the poorest of passes and moves fell to Rodri in midfield, and his ball through the middle found Erling Haaland, who obviously fired home for 1-1. We lost the game in the 93rd minute. A Bernardo Silva run down the right ended up in a crossing position, and he played it across goal for Erling Haaland to fire home on the goal line, and cruelly steal a point away from us. Let's clear our minds, and hopefully go into the game with Fiorentina with some form of confidence for our performance. Boubacar Kamara Injured: Boubacar Kamara will miss the first leg against Fiorentina, and maybe also the Liverpool game next weekend as he picked up a twisted knee away at Manchester City. I'm glad it's not too long out at least. Thursday 9th April 2026: Fiorentina 0-0 Aston Villa (UEFA Europa League Quarter Final First Leg) Fiorentina were the better team on the night, but a fantastic defensive performance means we come back to Villa Park next week with a 0-0 draw. Fiorentina hit the post twice in this one, and did find the net through Beltran, but it was ruled out for offside. We held on despite loads of pressure from the Italian side, and Leon Bailey nearly won it at the death, but their keeper produced a stunning save to keep the scores level. Winner takes all in the second leg then, as we aim to make a first European semi final of the save. Sunday 12th April 2026: Aston Villa 3-2 Liverpool (Premier League) We came from behind to shock Liverpool here at Villa Park, beating the title challengers 3-2. A loose pass back from Diop found Darwin Nunez running through, rounding Martinez and rolling it home from the edge of the box for 1-0. To my surprise though, we equalised. Jacob Ramsey cleared the ball to the right to find McGinn on a counter attack, and he released Watkins who beat Liverpool's high line, and he didn't fluff the one-on-one, slotting it home to level the game up. Two minutes later, we took the lead. Ramsey again had the ball down the right, went to the byline where he played it back to Mosquera. His ball in the box found McGinn, who played it across to Diop and his deflected effort found the bottom right corner. McGinn effectively set up the third as well. He ran down the right, before playing it back to Douglas Luiz. I'm yet to make my mind up if it was a lofted pass or a shot, but Watkins got his head on it on the line for his second, and our third goal of the game. Mo Salah had a goal ruled out for offside, before Florian Wirtz got a late goal back for Liverpool. Darwin Nunez rolled it alongside him to Salah, who's deflected pass found Wirtz, and he fired it into the near post for 3-2. We held on though, and both McGinn and Watkins were incredible in this game. Premier League Team of the Week: 14th April 2026: Personally, I would have included John McGinn in the team of the week, but Ollie Watkins deserves his place after picking up two goals against Liverpool. Thursday 16th April 2026: Aston Villa 3-0 Fiorentina (Aston Villa win 3-0 on aggregate) (UEFA Europa League Quarter Final Second Leg) We booked our place in the UEFA Europa League Semi Final as we defeated Fiorentina 3-0 in the second leg. Ezri Konsa got the ball for Villa for the first, before playing it ahead of him to the right flank for Mosquera. He ran into the area, and his cross was saved, but the keeper's touch deflected onto Jacob Ramsey's shin and the ball rolled in to give us the lead for the first time in the tie. Pobega was sent off with a rash and dangerous foul from behind on Tyrone Mings, which made it almost impossible for the Italian side to get back into it. Diego Carlos had the ball in the middle of the Fiorentina half, before playing it out wide for Matty Cash. His cross was scrambled in the area, where Saelemaekers stuck out a leg to push it beyond the keeper, and to put the tie beyond all doubt for 2-0. Jacob Ramsey won a tackle in the middle for the final goal, and Ollie Watkins was just given clear space like he was against Liverpool, and for the second time in two games, he converted comfortably from that situation to move us into the semi final and make my first European semi final in game. UEFA Europa League Semi Final Draw: Our last game of the month will now be the first leg of our Europa League semi final, where we will travel to the Estadio de Luz in Lisbon, to face Benfica in what will be a tough tie. Coefficient Rankings: We could take advantage of this if we don't win the Europa League this season, as England is top of the coefficient ranking for the third season in a row. Spain replace Italy in the top two this season. Filip Marschall Injured: Our back-up goalkeeper is now out with a twisted ankle and will miss most of the rest of the season, after turning sharply in training. He was fairly decent while Martinez was out, and here's hoping he'll be back soon enough to potentially run in goal should we need him. Monday 20th April 2026: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Aston Villa (Premier League) We were only able to take a point away from the City Ground as we drew with Nottingham Forest 1-1 after being reduced to ten men towards the start of the second half. John McGinn played a ball into the box from the right at the start of the second half, but the keeper only parried it away as far as Kamara, who took a couple of touches to the left, and then struck it with his left foot into the top right corner, leaving their keeper grasping at thin air. John McGinn was sent off for a second yellow card, after I think handling the ball in the attacking penalty area. Unfortunately, we couldn't hold on until the end despite us having numerous chances to get the second. Their goal came from one of our corners which they managed to clear. Barcola ran down the left, got to the left flank near the area, played it into the box, and Awoniyi struck it home first time to level the game for Forest. Annoyed about the result and the red card, but we carry on. Saturday 25th April 2026: Aston Villa 0-0 Brentford (Premier League) This was just a boring game. We did go attacking in this one, but Brentford went defensive and the only time the ball hit the net was when Ollie Watkins struck in the first half, but he was about two yards offside. Unfortunately nothing much happened, and we only took a point for this one. We're dropping points here and there now, we've got to see what happens after the Europa League for me. If we win it, do I get a bigger job? Matty Cash Injured: Matty Cash has suffered a pulled groin during training unfortunately, which rules him out of the Semi Final First Leg away at Benfica, a vital player who we may have needed to get a result. We've got to hope the team aren't suffering so much as we head into this game. Thursday 30th April 2026: Benfica 3-4 Aston Villa (UEFA Europa League Semi Final First Leg) There was an absolute goal fest in Lisbon this evening, as both sides forgot about defending as we won this game 4-3. We took the lead early on. They had a throw in at the back but basically tossed it away, as a clearance fell to Douglas Luiz, who found Watkins in the box. He turned and shot into the right hand corner to give us the lead inside 6 minutes. 12 minutes later, Jacob Ramsey went on a run towards the area, before laying it off to Douglas Luiz, who played it into John McGinn. He turned his man, and shot into the left hand corner this time for 2-0. After 26 minutes, Benfica took a foot hold in this game. Neymar took a corner from the left, and Silva nodded home at the near post for 2-1. In the second half, the goalscoring didn't let up. We restored the two goal gap a few minutes after the restart. Saelemaekers went on a run down the left, and he played it back to Diego Carlos who had run into the area, took a touch, and fired into the right side of the goal superbly to make it 3-1. Douglas Luiz played a free-kick from the right into Jacob Ramsey, who saw Ollie Watkins running towards the area, and he slid it into the bottom right hand corner to make it 4-1. Then Benfica had a resurgence in the last half an hour. Angelino's cross from the left found Musa in the middle of the box, and he rose highest to make it 4-2. Bah then had the ball on the right with 6 minutes to go, he played it across to Musa, who found Angelino unmarked on the left side of the box, and he fired it home for 4-3. Musa did put the ball in the net late on to try and equalise for Benfica, but it was ruled offside, and we held on despite the late onslaught. John McGinn Injured: Unfortunately, John McGinn picked up an injury during the game in Portugal, and will be out for a month, and miss the second leg and most of the run in this season after twisting his ankle while sprinting. April Results: Here's a round up of this month's results then. We nearly took something from the Etihad after taking the lead there, but unfortunately ended up losing to an Erling Haaland brace, losing 2-1 away from home, but that was our only defeat of the month. We drew 0-0 with Fiorentina away from home in the Europa League Quarter Final. We then came back from behind against Liverpool to beat City's closest challengers 3-2 and pick up what should have been a massive league victory. We carried the form on into the next match with a 3-0 home win against Fiorentina to book our ticket to the semi final. Then followed a couple of annoying draws. We drew 1-1 with Nottingham Forest away from home after being reduced to 10 men, and then we drew 0-0 at home to Brentford in what was a nothing match. But the best game of the month was undoubtedly that 4-3 victory away at Benfica, to bring us a step closer to the Europa League final in Glasgow. Premier League Table Update: The gap at the top heading into the final month of the season is still one point, Manchester City on 77 to Liverpool's 76. Both Arsenal and Newcastle United are sitting on 71 points in those Champions League spots, with Manchester United only 3 points behind on 68 points. Chelsea sit sixth on 65 points, ahead of Tottenham on goal difference. We're 9th on 54 points. At the bottom, all three teams have gone down to the Championship, in what were the weakest three teams ever in Premier League football. Luton Town are on 10 points, Middlesbrough on 16 points, and West Brom on 17. The closest team to the drop zone, Leeds United, are a full 15 points above 18th. Final Word: Again, a bit of an indifferent month in the league season, as we have probably chucked away a decent chance of Europa League football through the league. We are one match away from the Europa League final, and you can see if we can do that in the next update as Benfica were properly coming back into it. When it comes to the Summer, it'll be a case of seeing if anyone comes in for us, maybe a bigger team perhaps, especially if we win the Europa League this season, as that will boost my profile up an unspeakable amount. Losing John McGinn for the last bit of the season is rather annoying, but he could be back for the Europa League final should we get there. It's been a dream European run though, and let's see what happens in May as we end the Premier League season, and see if we can get our first European trophy on the board. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you next time.

Glory Hunter - Aston Villa - 2025-26 Season - March Hello and welcome back to Aston Villa, where we have had a decent start to 2026. We've played 10 matches in all competitions so far this calendar year, and we've won 8 of them, which is a turnaround from where the club was before I joined. This month, we have our Europa League Round of 16 tie in a battle of Britain against Rangers, and a big game coming up as we try to get some form of European football through the league. I can't have both, so for example, I can't win the Europa League this season with Villa, and then win the Conference League with them next season as if we did the first one this year, we'd be in next season's Champions League. Let's see how it all goes down, and then see what happens after that. Here are the fixtures for this month. March Fixtures: Our matches this month kick off with the Monday night football against Middlesbrough at home, a match we really ought to win if we are to be taken seriously for Europe this season. Then it's a huge game in North London, as we take on Tottenham Hotspur in a European six-pointer (and yes, they're a thing). We then travel to Scotland for our European first leg against Rangers, before facing West Bromwich Albion at home in the Premier League. Finally, we will face Rangers at home in the second leg of that tie, before the final international break of the season. Premier League Manager of the Month for February: I came third in manager of the month to be featured in the top three for the first time. I trailed behind Mikel Arteta in first, and Jurgen Klopp in second, not bad company to be around if you ask me. Monday 2nd March 2026: Aston Villa 2-1 Middlesbrough (Premier League) We got back to winning ways this week, as we took a nice 3 points against relegation-threatened Middlesbrough. A Leon Bailey corner from the left found Pau Torres in the box, and his header from a couple of yards out gave us a 1-0 lead inside 17 minutes. Mosquera has the ball down the right after 68 minutes, and after a one-two with John McGinn, found a slide rule pass into the box for Watkins to sweep home and double our advantage. Middlesbrough got one back when McGree had the ball down the left. He swung it in, and Forss hit a superb left foot volley that Scherpen had no chance with for 2-1. We held on though, and went only a couple of points behind Tottenham. Premier League Team of the Week: 3rd February 2026: Juan David Mosquera gets into the team of the week after his performance the night before against Middlesbrough, mainly getting that assist for Watkins to settle the score. Saturday 7th March 2026: Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Aston Villa (Premier League) At the moment, it looks like we're going to have to win the Europa League to have a chance of being in Europe next season. We took the lead early on before losing 3-1 to Spurs. Leon Bailey intercepted a Tottenham clearance for our goal. He bombed it down the left flank before finding Watkins in the middle of the box, and he swept home past the keeper for 1-0. Tottenham equalised just after the half hour mark. Conor Gallagher found Schjelderup on the left, who played the ball inside the area towards Son, who held it up and passed it beyond Martinez for 1-1. Van de Ven had a corner for Tottenham in the 69th minute, which was cleared back towards him. He played it infield to Schjeldrup who ran into the area and his deflected pass across goal found Kulusevski at the far post to give the home side the lead. Van de Ven set up the third, with a ball in from the left which found Kulusevski leaping like a salmon for his second goal of the game and Tottenham's third. That damages any hopes of a higher finish in the Premier League than what was expected, and now we have to keep going against West Brom next week. But next, we turn our attentions to Europe. Ollie Watkins Injured: It just gets worse after that Tottenham game, as our main talisman, Ollie Watkins is going to be out injured for the next month or so with a twisted ankle picked up in training. It's not the most bruising end to the month, but we would have needed him to finish those games off I feel at this point. Thursday 12th March 2026: Rangers 1-5 Aston Villa (UEFA Europa League Round of 16 First Leg) We ripped Rangers apart at Ibrox after a slight scare before half time, as we swept aside the Scottish side 5-1. A corner opened up the scoring for us this evening, as one from the right was difficult for Rangers to deal with. We got into a game of head tennis, before Jacob Ramsey hit a volley from just inside the area into the right hand corner to give us the lead. Rangers got a corner themselves taken by Matondo, which again, we failed to clear. It fell to Matondo again, and Dujon Sterling hit it first time when given to him in the left hand corner for 1-1. We blew them apart after half time, by scoring again on the 54th minute. Leon Bailey ran down the right before playing a low cross into the box, which evaded everyone but Saelemaekers at the far post, and he tapped it home for 2-1. It was a third for us just moments later. Mings brought in a cross from the left which was cleared to the right for Mosquera, who swung it back into the box, and Connor Goldson virtually volleyed past his own keeper for 3-1. Ramsey had the ball on the left hand side, as Saelemaekers made his way into the box for the ball back, and he duly obliged when he did get the ball for 4-1, sweeping it into the right hand corner. Bailey had the ball again on the left hand side after a free kick was cleared. He found Ezri Konsa running through the middle of their half, and he took the ball, took a touch and scored a smashing goal from just outside the box which went straight through their sub keeper for 5-1. I think we can say we're through, but don' t think I'll be taking the second leg easily. Youth Intake: Again, they said excellent for youth intake this season. Unfortunately, FM lies again haha. We have top talents for the Under 18s potentially, what I've decided to do is not cover the youth teams so much about signings and stuff as it's not that sort of save for me. But if they come into the first team, you will meet them. Bjorn Fridriksson, Jonathan Doona, Adam Pilkington and Aron Bridge-Wilkinson have been recognised as the best players from the youth intake. Will they be used in the future? We will find out in due course. Sunday 15th March 2026: Aston Villa 1-1 West Bromwich Albion (Premier League) Out of another game we dominated, we were only able to pick up a 1-1 draw against local rivals West Bromwich Albion. A Philippe Coutinho corner found Ezri Konsa at the far post to nod home for 1-0. We gave away a penalty with 8 minutes remaining, and Jed Wallace stepped up to equalise for the Baggies. Dropping two points here is not the one I'm afraid. The players need to learn how to score in the league again. Premier League Team of the Week: 17th March 2026: Both Matty Cash and Ezri Konsa made their way into the team of the week this time around. Konsa scored our goal against West Brom, and Matty Cash was quite strong at the back against the Baggies. One thing that is ok to see, is Zach Steffen, the West Brom goalkeeper, in the team of the week, meaning he must have had a good game. Thursday 19th March 2026: Aston Villa 3-1 Rangers (Aston Villa win 8-2 on aggregate) (UEFA Europa League Round of 16 Second Leg) We completed our Round of 16 tie against Rangers very convincingly, as we won 3-1 on the night, which resulted in an 8-2 aggregate scoreline. With it being over from the first leg, we came out all guns blazing in the second leg. We scored our first from a fantastic counter attack, a ball forward to Saelemaekers when he was in the area, he laid it off to Jacob Ramsey, who ran through and fired home for 1-0 on the night. Boniface sent the ball wide right to Matty Cash, who cut it back to Boniface and he fired home into the bottom left corner from just inside the area for 2-0. Boniface turned provider for 3-0. He ran into the area, ran round the sides of the defence, got to the byline, and cut it across for Saelemaekers who got a well deserved goal on the line for 3-0. It then turned quiet until Matty Cash picked up an injury, which we will check the severity of in a moment. Rangers got a consolation 4 minutes from time. Rabbi Matondo took a corner from the left, and Carrillo got to it at the far post for 3-1. We're through to the quarter finals of the Europa League. Matty Cash Injured: Matty Cash picked up a groin strain during the Rangers second leg and will be out of action for both Poland and Aston Villa for a month. Gutted for him, but we must carry on. New Gate Receipts Record: Our Europa League quarter final match meant we got our highest gate receipts in game, beating a Leicester City FA Cup tie from earlier in the save game. We earned £825,000 from this match, which is great to see, it means more fans are turning up. UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final Opponents: We have been drawn out against Fiorentina in the UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final, and the second leg will be at home which gives us that slight advantage at least. Let's take a look at who we would face if we get through, and we will then officially have a passage to the final. We will face either Newcastle United or Benfica in the semi-finals of the Europa League, which means there's no chance of an all-English final. John McGinn New Contract: John McGinn has been fantastic so far in my time at the club, and his contract was due to run out this Summer, so we've signed the Scottish international on a brand new two-year contract which will last until the 2027-28 season. I'm very excited to see what he can do in the future. NXGN winner and Aston Villa Player in top 50: Lamine Yamal won the NXGN award this season with his team mate Darvich in second and Duranville took third place, one of our former players at Borussia Dortmund. We did have a player in there, although currently out on loan, as Omar Khedr was 37th place. March Results: So starting from the beginning of the month, we defeated Middlesbrough 2-1 at home in the Premier League, followed by a gutting 3-1 defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur. We won 5-1 at Rangers in the Europa League Round of 16 First Leg which virtually confirmed us as being through already. We then dropped points at home to local rivals West Bromwich Albion by giving a needless penalty in a 1-1 draw. Finally, we managed to beat Rangers 3-1 to confirm an 8-2 aggregate victory. Premier League Table Update: Manchester City have taken the lead at the top of the Premier League table, now one point clear of Liverpool who are second on 67 points. Arsenal and Manchester United complete the top four, but Newcastle United are only outside the Champions League spots on goal difference. Chelsea sit on 55 points, and Tottenham are 6 points off the top four on 53 points. We currently sit in 9th place on 49 points. Luton Town are now a massive 16 points off safety on 9 points with 8 matches to go. West Brom and Middlesbrough look down as well, on 14 and 15 points respectively. Final Word: We got to the Europa League quarter finals, after thrashing Rangers in that battle of Britiain clash, but in the league we decided to crash and burn after only picking up 4 points from three matches, despite the fact we held the lead in all three, including against Tottenham Hotspur away. I would say our main hope this season is to be to try and win the Europa League to get back into Europe, unless the European places are enough to drop down to 9th, which does happen. Here's hoping we can have a good run to the end of the season, but next month we do face the top 2 in the Premier League which could dent a chance of a top half finish. Let's hope that doesn't happen. Until next time, I hope you've enjoyed this month.

Glory Hunter - Aston Villa - 2025-26 Season - February Welcome back to the Glory Hunter Challenge. Keeping tabs on it, it is club 2, and season 3 of the save. We had a great January. We won 3 out of 3 in the Premier League, and we confirmed our last 16 place in the Europa League, which means we don't have to worry about any extra games this month. We were knocked out of the FA Cup, but I will add, it's no disgrace to lose to City. The aim is to do something special while in England, as we have three different titles to play for in this country. Whether it comes with Aston Villa or not remains to be seen. This month, two things happen off the bat. We have a game against Luton Town on February 1st to kick this month off, which we must be winning. Then on the back of that, we have Transfer Deadline Day, which obviously I'll play through, but nothing much is expected to happen. Let's take a look at this month's fixture list. February Fixtures: All our matches this month come from the Premier League, a good way of preserving a lot of our energy this month. We start off against rock-bottom Luton Town, who are seriously struggling after returning to the top flight after a year back in the Championship. We then face a big game in our bid to qualify for Europe through the league, as we head to Stamford Bridge and we take on 6th-placed Chelsea, also wanting a top four place this season. We then face 15th-placed Crystal Palace, who are probably safe from relegation already, and there will be nothing too much ambitious about them for the rest of the season. We finish the month with a trip to Elland Road, to play Leeds United, who despite their 17th spot at the moment, have a nice gap to the bottom three at the beginning of the month. Hugo Alba from Barcelona: We have a new young striker, a good young Spanish striker who has come through the ranks at Barcelona. He's only 19 years old, but has played twice for the Barcelona first team which showed they had some faith in him. We've decided to bring him to Aston Villa, and for now he will play for the Under 21s. We only signed him for £140,000 which could rise by an extra £40,000 which if he works out for the club, could be a shrewd move, and provide him with a future in England. I'm excited about this player. Sunday 1st February 2026: Aston Villa 4-1 Luton Town (Premier League) Our winning run in the Premier League continues as we made it 6-in-a-row, thrashing Luton Town 4-1, in a game where Emiliano Martinez sustained a broken finger. The opening goal didn't arrive until the start of the second half. Boniface picked up the ball down the left, but was tackled as the ball rolled to Moreno. He played it into Saelemaekers on the left side of the box, who rolled it into the middle for Leon Bailey, and the Jamaican tucked it into the corner to make it 1-0. Luton equalised five minutes later. Doughty picked up the ball in the middle of our half, and just kept on running, round the defence, into the box and to the byline. He pulled it back for Strefezza, and the Brazilian had the easy job of tapping it in for 1-1. Leon Bailey in effect, set up the second goal. His corner from the left was only partially cleared to Kamara, who's initial header was saved by Kaminski, but he managed to volley from the tightest of angles to make it 2-1. Matty Cash received the ball on the right hand side, and found Ollie Watkins running into the box, who managed to put it into the left corner for 3-1. We finished it off completely in the 98th minute. Diop was on left corner duties this time. He swung it in, and it was cleared to Diego Carlos who headed back to Moreno, who produced the strangest header of the football, so much so, it looped over everyone, and nestled into the bottom corner for 4-1. Our goal difference is back to 0, and we are now in the top half. Emiliano Martinez Injured: Emiliano Martinez was able to continue the game as he said he felt ok, but unfortunately, he will now be out for up to 6 weeks after sustaining that broken finger against Luton Town. I just hope our second choice keeper is up for the challenge. Trai-Varn Mulley to Wealdstone: One of our decent young prospects according to the coaching team, Trai-Varn Mulley is going to play for Wealdstone until the end of the season, and they see him as an important player for their side. They're currently 10th in the National League with the chance to go into the play-offs this season. He could be a good signing for the London-based outfit. Brodi Hughes to Grimsby Town: Another youngster who seems like he could make a difference for a team lower down the ladder, Brodi Hughes is going to League Two leaders Grimsby Town, to become most likely, their resident right-back for the rest of the season. It could be good for him to pick up a medal as long as Grimsby Town sustain their lead at the top of the fourth tier. Gabriel Moscardo to Borussia Dortmund: Our former club helping us out, while we help our former club out as well. Gabriel Moscardo has left Aston Villa, and will play for defending Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund. They've paid £28,000,000 for him as well, which helps out our finances out a treat as well, as we now have just over £35,000,000 to play with on Deadline Day, and potentially getting players sorted out for the Summer. He's been really strong for us, and I hope he enjoys it at Borussia Dortmund, like we did most of the time. Leo Saca from Barcelona: Leo Saca has joined the club from Barcelona. Another player we've taken from the Barcelona academy, who's decided he wants to come and live in Birmingham. He will turn out for the Under 21 side, and with him being a Moldovan full international, he has that quality that we need at the club. Iker Villar from Sevilla: Villar comes to Villa! OK, that was terrible, but this young striker doesn't seem to be. His composure and his off the ball rating at 20 years old is clear to see he's quality in tough matches. His dribbling, finishing and heading are also what you want for a striker of his age. His jumping reach isn't the best but I'm sure we can train him up on that. He's come in from Sevilla, where he has played a game for the first team. He also cost us £8,000,000 which may seem like a gamble, but again, we will watch how he progresses. Triston Rowe to Morecambe: Triston Rowe has gone to Morecambe on loan until the next transfer window. He's going to be a strong and important player at League Two level, and Morecambe are chasing a play-off place at the moment. Luka Lynch to Sutton United: Another young player from the lower age teams is off to League Two to get some experience in the first team. Sutton United have come in for Luka Lynch, a young central midfielder, and Sutton are placed precariously above the relegation places, so hopefully he can be the man to galvanise that team. Leonidas Stergiou from St Gallen: A player that we played against only last week, Leonidas Stergiou impressed me at the back for St Gallen, so I thought I would sign him from the Swiss outfit for £11,000,000. He's got decent physical attributes for a centre-back. His mentals are strong as well. His tackling is at a 14, and his first touch, marking and heading are strong and can only get better. I'm looking forward to having him about in my squad. Landry Farre from Barcelona: Another young defender who has come from the youth ranks at Barcelona, Landry Farre has come in for just £235,000. He's an exciting young talent, with loads of potential to improve as he develops further with us. His physicals and mentals are all respectable so far, and his technical attributes could be something we work on as well, with 11s and 12s across the board at the moment. Omar Khedr to Brest: Omar Khedr had people coming after him all over the place, and he's decided to move to Brest in France on loan until the end of the season. I'm not sure he'll get as many games as he could have done in the Championship, where there was also interest, but let's see how this helps his development. Lebo Mothiba to Vizela: The South African striker, Lebo Mothiba, is going out on loan to Vizela for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, he's not someone we need in the squad, but this could be the way forward for him to get a permanent transfer in the Summer, as Vizela have an option to buy, and they do have him as an important player. Landry Farre to Hull City: He has just arrived at the club from Barcelona, and he won't be getting any first team football with us for the rest of the season, but he will spend his opening months in England, in the Championship at Hull City. Players In: Just for clarification, these are all the players we got in during our first transfer window at the football club, including a new centre-back who will get a few games for the rest of the season in Leondias Stergiou from St Gallen. We also have brought in several players to be used in future Villa squads in seasons to come. Players Out: In return, here are the players we've sent away from the club. Three first team players who have had appearances this season, including Saud Abdulhamid, Felix Nmecha and Gabriel Moscardo leaving the club, the initial two on loan, and Moscardo off to Borussia Dortmund for £28,000,000. Premier League Team of the Week: 3rd February 2026: Alex Moreno gets into the team of the week this time around, after his top performance against Luton Town, topping it off with a goal at the death. Ezri Konsa New Contract: Ezri Konsa has signed a new four-year deal, keeping him at the football club until 2030. He scored my first goal as manager of Aston Villa in that match against Newcastle United, and he's definitely an important player in this team, he plays more often than not. He's worth £90,000 a week now, and I hope he goes on to prove that he deserves this contract. Saturday 7th February 2026: Chelsea 2-4 Aston Villa (Premier League) Our winning run in the Premier League continues as I stuck with the attacking formation against Chelsea, and managed to beat them 4-2. Mosquera helped open the scoring by taking the ball down the right and running into their half. He found Boniface who played a through ball through to John McGinn, who went one-on-one with Kobel, who used to play for my Borussia Dortmund side, and he curved it home around him for a 1-0 lead. They equalised through poor defensive decisions at the back for us. Ezri Konsa tried to play the ball back to Scherpen, who's deputising for Martinez while he's out, and Romelu Lukaku slotted home for an easy finish. We maintained our grip on the game as we approached half time. Douglas Luiz's ball for the second goal was intercepted at the back, but was rolled onto Jacob Ramsey, who fired it into the corner to give us a 2-1 lead. We doubled it before half-time. Douglas Luiz played a straightforward free-kick to McGinn, who was all on his own. He played it across goal, and Ezri Konsa ran in at the back post to tap home for 3-1. Chelsea got one back after 51 minutes. Paez ran down the left, before finding Joao Gomes in the box, who took a first time shot into the bottom right corner to give them hope. Despite the fact they kept going for that equaliser, we finished them off once and for all with 3 minutes to go of normal time. McGinn played the ball to Boniface and made a run, while Boniface found him with a ball over the top at the end of that run. He managed to slot it into the bottom corner to take home the victory and make it seven wins in a row in the league. Premier League Team of the Week: 10th February 2026 Both John McGinn and Victor Boniface are in the team of the week after their great individual performances against Chelsea, a game which helped us to have a decent crack at European football. Kjell Scherpen Injured: Kjell Scherpen, who replaced Emiliano Martinez after injury against Chelsea, is now out injured himself for up to two weeks after picking up a pulled thigh. Fortunately, he will be back sooner rather than later, but now it means that for a unprecedented occasion for me, my third choice goalkeeper, Filip Marschall, will play against Crystal Palace. Monday 16th February 2026: Aston Villa 3-1 Crystal Palace (Premier League) We made it eight Premier League victories in a row with a 3-1 defeat of Crystal Palace. A beautiful passing move from us allowed us to hurt Palace, all ending up with a scoop over the top from Ramsey to Ollie Watkins, who brought it down, and fired past Henderson for 1-0. Odsonne Edouard equalised from the penalty spot, sending Marschall the wrong way for 1-1. Douglas Luiz played the ball from the middle to the right towards Matty Cash, who held on to it for a second, but played it back to Douglas Luiz who tried the shot, saved by Henderson, but Ramsey was there to slot it away and give us the lead again for 2-1. We sealed the deal on 70 minutes, a floating ball from out left by Jacob Ramsey, found Ollie Watkins at the back post with the header and it went in off the post for 3-1. Ollie Watkins and Jacob Ramsey were incredible today, and we keep up the pressure on the top 7. Premier League Team of the Week: 17th February 2026 And both of those players make the team of the week, after pulling apart Crystal Palace at home. What a result, what a team since I've taken over. UEFA Europa League Round of 16 Draw: After obviously not having to play in the Europa League playoff round, we get a tie against Rangers in the Round of 16. The Scottish side overcame St Gallen 4-3 on aggregate, but now I see us cruising through this tie to be honest, unless the Scottish sides are now overpowered. Saturday 21st February 2026: Leeds United 1-0 Aston Villa (Premier League) We were very much nowhere near our normal selves in this game, as we fell to a 1-0 defeat against lowly Leeds United. The only goal came from a cross from the left by Sinisterra and Retegui was virtually on the line when he nodded it in for the only goal of the game to send Elland Road into raptures. We had a couple of chances throughout the game, but we were very much away from our usual standards, and it's a dent in our push for Europe. Our first defeat in nine matches, 1-0 to Leeds at full time. February Results: We had another good month with only one defeat again. We actually went on to get 8 league victories in a row before losing at the end of the month. We started the month by beating Luton Town 4-1, before humiliating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge 4-2. We followed that up with a 3-1 home win against Crystal Palace, before being humbled 1-0 away at Leeds United. Let's take a look at how that leaves us in the table. Premier League Table Update: Liverpool lead the way with 63 points, to Manchester City's 62 in what will be a fantastic title race. Arsenal aren't out of it either really, though they would need a miracle to get into the title race on 57 points. Newcastle United are in the final Champions League spot for now on 55 points. A further two points back are Manchester United, with Chelsea another two points back on 51 points, but are already in Europe next season after winning the Carabao Cup Final against Leicester City. Tottenham Hotspur have 50 points, with Brighton just behind them on 48. At the bottom of the table, Luton Town are on 9 points, and are dangerously close to breaking the Premier League record of 11 points unless they can improve. West Brom have 12 points, and Middlesbrough sit on 15, a massive 9 points behind Leeds United, who are closer to securing their survival. Final Word: Another good month on the pitch sits us in the top half, as we found out who we're playing in the Europa League as well. I aim to give Stergiou his debut at centre-back when we take on Middlesbrough in our next game, a match we must win to get over our previous defeat. We also face Tottenham next month away, but there's no reason we can't get a result after doing what we did to Chelsea. I'm confident we will end up in Europe next season, whether it's through the league, or by winning the Europa League. It's also in my plan to see which managers get sacked after the World Cup internationally, as we try to take our first job on that front. Thank you for sticking with me so far, and I'll see you for the March update.

Glory Hunter - Aston Villa - 2025-26 Season - January Welcome back to the save and it's now a brand new year as we welcome in 2026, and we have settled into the job here at Villa Park. We ended 2025 with 2 vital wins against both West Ham United and AFC Bournemouth, and left us within touching distance of the top half of the table. Can we extend that winning run to 3 or more in the league? We will find out very shortly as we do have a game being played on New Year's Day. We also start an FA Cup run at the weekend, and also we've got the UEFA Europa League continuing this month, as we try to confirm a top 8 place, and a place automatically in the Round of 16. Let's take a look at the fixtures as we open 2026. January Fixtures: We start things off at the brand new Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium, as we play Everton, in what I believe is Villa's first match ever at this stadium. We then travel to Manchester City in the FA Cup, in what I'm sure won't be a cup run this season. But again, you never know. We then have two back-to-back home matches in the Premier League, against Manchester United, and then a must-win match against Leicester City if we're going to be anywhere near Europe, as Leicester are chasing those places down as well. We then play two games away from home in the Premier League to finish the month, against Bodo/Glimt and St Gallen. Thursday 1st January 2026: Everton 2-3 Aston Villa (Premier League) We're gonna score one more than you! Well that's the way it feels anyway, as we won for the first time at Everton's new stadium, 3-2. Mosquera set the first goal up by sending a cross into the middle of the box. Jacob Ramsey headed the ball on, and found Tammy Abraham who managed to squeeze the ball under the keeper to give us a first-minute lead. Everton equalised after 12 minutes. A free kick on the left by Arthur Gudmundsson found Jarrad Branthwaite at the far post and he nodded it home for 1-1. We retook the lead after 19 minutes, when Kamara ran down the wing, his ball eventually found it's way to Douglas Luiz. His brilliant shot was deflected by Tammy Abraham, and it deceived the goalkeeper who put his weight the wrong side of the goal to make it 2-1. We doubled the advantage in the second half, with good football between Mosquera and Nmecha (who we have rejoined since selling him to Villa). Mosquera found McGinn, who in turn played it to Jacob Ramsey in the middle of the box, and his first time finish found the bottom corner, for a well-deserved goal for him. Everton got another one back with just 12 minutes remaining. Nakamura made a run down the left, beating three defenders as he ran to the byline and into the area, he played it across goal, and De Arrascaeta was there in the middle to give the Toffees some hope. But it wasn't to be, and we held on for our third win in a row. Sunday 4th January 2026: Manchester City 2-1 Aston Villa (The Emirates FA Cup Third Round) This game was a sickener. We stayed in it until the very last minute, but unfortunately the league leaders nicked it at the Etihad, and Manchester City go through to the Fourth Round. We took the lead in the 6th minute. Leon Bailey swung in the corner from the left, and Diego Carlos got to the ball at the far post to nod home for 1-0. We held the lead for 22 minutes, before City equalised. Gvardiol threw the ball into play, had it played back to him, and he found the cross into Alvarez, who rose above everyone to nod home for 1-1. It looked like we were going to take them back to Villa Park, until Jeremy Doku found a running Jack Grealish on the left, and played a lofted ball through to him, one-on-one with Martinez, and he chipped it over him to grab the last minute winner, and send us packing from this competition. Youri Tielemans Returns to the Club: Youri Tielemans was out on loan at Atletico Madrid and had only made 10 appearances for them. I decided he could be really good for the team at the moment, if we are pushing to make top four, and we ended his loan now for him to integrate back into the team. Philippe Coutinho Retires: Philippe Coutinho has decided to announce his retirement at the end of the season, those dates look like after the World Cup in America. He hasn't played for the club this season, and was more recently in Qatar playing for Al-Duhail. He was one of the great players back in the day, but he will retire with a bit of a lull at the end of his career. Premier League Team of the Week: 6th January 2026 Both Mosquera and Tammy Abraham make the team of the week after a great performance away at Everton in the Premier League, a result which gives us so much momentum heading into the next stage of the Premier League season. Marlon Blake from Minneapolis City: A young American forward has come to the club with a decent future. His natural fitness is at a 16, with his agility and his pace at a 15. His dribbling, finishing and technique also stands out at 14 which is great to see from a striker. They reckon he will be a decent Championship forward at the moment. Josh Feeney to QPR: Young centre-back Josh Feeney is moving to League One side, QPR until the end of the season, to get some decent first team football. He's been on loan at Plymouth and Coventry fairly recently, but will drop down a level from where he was playing for the London side. Tim Iroegbunam to Bristol City: Another young player going out on loan is 22-year-old midfielder, Tim Iroegbunam, as he has joined Bristol City, who currently ply their trade in Sky Bet Championship, and not only that, but they are currently in 7th place, and pushing for a play off place. I'd like to see Tim use this experience to try and be successful and get Bristol City over the line this season. Saturday 10th January 2026: Aston Villa 2-0 Manchester United (Premier League) A very dull game went our way as the only thing that made this game interesting was the final ten minutes, as we defeated Manchester United 2-0. A Douglas Luiz free kick from the right with 10 minutes to go found Pau Torres at the far post, and the centre-half got his first goal of the season. We then doubled the advantage with about a minute to go of normal time, as United failed to clear a Douglas Luiz corner. Tammy Abraham shot into the ground, but it was deflected onto the head of Pau Torres who nodded it home to win the game at Villa Park. Our second Premier League win of the new year, and hopefully the form can continue as we face Leicester City next. Rory Wilson to Leyton Orient: Our young Scottish striker, Rory Wilson, has agreed a loan deal with Leyton Orient of League One, as they fight their relegation battle. They say he will be a squad player, but for me, he should be expecting to start some games as he may be better than some of the strikers they've got. Premier League Team of the Week: 13th January 2026 Pau Torres put on a match winning performance against Manchester United, as he got 2 goals and kept Simeone's side out. Saturday 17th January 2026: Aston Villa 3-1 Leicester City (Premier League) Our third league win of the month came at home as West Midlands met East Midlands, with us defeating Leicester City 3-1. Poor play at the back from Leicester City allowed Tammy Abraham to intercept a back pass, and he put the ball into the corner from a narrow angle for 1-0. Leicester equalised in the 4th minute, as a ball over the top from Kristiansen found Soumare in the box, and he half-volleyed home to make it 1-1. Jacob Ramsey set up the second goal straight after half time. His first pass was blocked, but he tried again, and this time Abraham ran onto it, and he slotted into the bottom right corner to make it 2-1 to us. John McGinn sealed all three points just after the hour. An Alex Moreno free-kick was played straight to Kamara in the middle, who played it forward to McGinn. He cut inside, turned his man, ran into the area through the middle, and he slotted past the keeper to score an insane goal to make it 3-1. Five Wins In A Row: This is always great to see, and our attacking power is really being shown off at the moment, as we have now won 5 consecutive games both sides of the New Year. It seems to be the team are saying we're gonna score one more than you, and it seems to be working. Tammy Abraham Moves to Real Madrid: I tried to resist, but Abraham wasn't too happy I turned the first offer down. He has signed off with a flourish here at Aston Villa, as Real Madrid have paid £53,000,000 for the English forward, and we are going to take a look at our finances in a moment. This will mean Boniface and Watkins will probably be our forward two for now. Tammy deserves this move as he starts to hit his prime and he is a big loss for us. Hopefully we can bring someone decent in, and bring the squad together while they are left behind. Finances at the Club: Even after selling Tammy Abraham, we haven't got all the money in the world to get a decent replacement as I had to make an adjustment for the wage budget to not be in the red. We have £13,000,000 in the transfer budget, but our wage budget is now up to £2,800,000 after making a slight adjustment. Ben Broggio to Harrogate Town: We've sent another player out on loan until the end of the season, with our promising winger Ben Broggio, heading to League Two side Harrogate Town on loan until the end of the season. Premier League Team of the Week: 20th January 2026 Tammy Abraham's final performance for us gets him into the team of the week after his performance and two goals against Leicester City. Thank you Tammy. Ewan Simpson to Swindon Town: Ewan Simpson will spend the rest of his season in the Vanarama National League, as he moves to Swindon Town on loan in the middle of an intriguing promotion battle back into the EFL. Calum Moreland to Boreham Wood: Another youngster going off to the Vanarama National League, although at the moment, not a very exciting young player. Calum Moreland is going to Boreham Wood on loan until the end of the season. Sofiane Diop Injured: Sofiane Diop hasn't played much for me off the bench, but he is impactful off it. Unfortunately, his upper leg has taken an impact of a more horrible kind as he leaves training with a gashed leg. Thursday 22nd January 2026: Bodo/Glimt 1-4 Aston Villa (UEFA Europa League League Phase) My good start continues with a 4-1 win away at Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt. Bodo/Glimt's season starts in March, so obviously they didn't have a lot of match sharpness and that showed from as early as the 5th minute. Leon Bailey took the ball down the right wing for the first goal. He played it back to Ezri Konsa, who ran into the box, but was dispossessed. The ball rolled to Matty Cash, who took a touch, and hit the shot from inside the D and it hit the post and went in for 1-0. We doubled the advantage just 3 minutes later. Matty Cash started the move this time, playing it to Douglas Luiz, who played it on to Boniface. He turned his man from the middle, and managed to head out wide left. He played it back into the area, and in the middle to steer it home was Ollie Watkins, who slid it in for 2-0. Another passing move went from right to the middle. All resulting in Jacob Ramsey being found in the area, and he slotted it in for us to be 3-0 up inside 16 minutes. Bodo/Glimt got one back four minutes later. Bjorkan played a one-two from a throw-in, and when he played the cross from the left, up rose Ricardinho to power past the keeper, and to make it 3-1. The final goal was the perfect touch. Leon Bailey played a long scooped ball over the top of the defence, into Boniface who was in the box. He didn't need a second touch, as he slotted past the onrushing keeper first time, and we qualify for the Round of 16 with a game to spare. Diego Carlos to Palmeiras in the Summer: Diego Carlos' contract runs out in the Summer, so Brazilian club Palmeiras have decided to sign him at the end of his contract. He's done his job so far this season since I've been here, and if he wants to go back to Brazil, I'm not going to deny him the move home. The other offer was from Flamengo, so he was always going back to Brazil. Let's enjoy the last few months with him in the team. Thursday 29th January 2026: St Gallen 2-4 Aston Villa (UEFA Europa League League Phase) We completed our UEFA Europa League League Phase journey with a 4-2 win away at St Gallen of Switzerland, which left us second in the entire competition, and comfortably through to the last 16. St Gallen took a shock lead after 8 minutes. Witzig started the move down the left, playing a one-two with Okoroji, and he ran at the defence down the left, one-on-one with Martinez, and he slotted it into the far post for 1-0. We equalised 10 minutes later. Mings played the ball to Douglas Luiz, who played a nice tight pass ahead of him into Jacob Ramsey. Ramsey played it across the six-yard box and McGinn tucked it away at the right post for 1-1. We scored two goals in three minutes to take the game away from them. A Douglas Luiz corner from the right found Boniface at the near post, who headed straight at the keeper, but he couldn't keep it out and we made it 2-1. Two minutes later, McGinn sort of turned provider after a nice passing move found it's way to him, but he was barged off the ball. In came Mosquera from the right, and he slotted it into the far corner for 3-1. It was 3-2 after 50 minutes. Gortler played it wide right to von Moos, who played it back to him in the area. He took a touch to lose his man, and then fired past Martinez for 3-2. Mings and Ramsey then swapped passes before Ramsey hung a cross in the air from the left, and Leon Bailey found himself under it at the far post, to run out 4-2 winners and another strong forward performance. Saud Abdulhamid to Marseille: Our Saudi right back, Saud Abdulhamid has just completed a loan with the option to buy to Marseille in Ligue 1, after I couldn't find a place for him in the squad really for the rest of the season so it just frees it up a little bit. He's going there on loan until the end of the season, with Marseille potentially paying £10,000,000 in the Summer to have him full time. Felix Nmecha to Anderlecht: We've moved Felix Nmecha on again in this career mode, he must think I hate him. But he goes to Anderlecht until the end of the season, and again, the Belgian giants have the option to buy him in the Summer for £13,250,000. I do rate him, he's a quality player. But like at Dortmund, I just don't find him good enough as it stands to have him in the side. January Results: Our first full month as Aston Villa manager, and it was very impressive from this team. We started the month winning 3-2 away at Everton, before travelling to Manchester City and taking an early lead, but ultimately losing 2-1 to City in the FA Cup. We played Manchester United a week later at home, and beat them 2-0 with two late goals. We then beat Leicester 3-1 at home, before our run of two consecutive Europa League away games began with a 4-1 win at Bodo/Glimt, and then a week later, we won 4-2 away at St Gallen. Premier League Table Update: Liverpool have taken over the lead at the top of the Premier League on 54 points, a point clear of second-placed Manchester City. Both Newcastle and Arsenal have dropped off a little at the top, and they both sit on 45 points, with Manchester United and Chelsea both on 44 outside the top 4. Tottenham sit seventh on 40 points, although there are 5 teams within 4 points of them, in Brighton, Bournemouth, Leicester, Brentford and Aston Villa chasing down that final European spot. The bottom 3 are still cut adrift, with Luton on 8 points, West Brom on 10 and Middlesbrough on 12 points, with the Boro being 8 points adrift of safety. UEFA Europa League Update: The top 8 teams to qualify for the last 16 are as follows: Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Bayer Leverkusen, Lazio, Benfica, Nice, Fiorentina and Ajax. Those teams will have to wait and see who they'll get in the last 16, as all teams from 9th to 24th will be drawn together in the next few days. Spare a thought for Mura, as they end bottom of the league phase after losing all 8 games. Final Word: I've had a really good first full month at this club, and I never thought I'd say that as a Coventry City fan. Our only defeat was at the Etihad, which really is no disgrace, and we made it very easy for ourselves in the Europa League and the Premier League. The FA Cup will have to wait for next season. In terms of transfers done so far, we've not brought anyone major in, but Tammy Abraham moved to Real Madrid for over £50,000,000 but most of it has been brought in to sort out debts for the rest of the season. I don't think we will be bringing players in on deadline day, or first team players anyway, but we shall see. I will see you for the next update, as we find out who we will face in the last 16 of the Europa League, and we try and get closer to those European places in the Premier League. I hope you're enjoying it. Thank you for the support. I'll see you in February.

Glory Hunter - Aston Villa - 2025-26 Season - December Hello and welcome to the latest update. We haven't moved forwards any dates just yet, but our first game is coming up as Villa manager. As you know, we are currently sat in 13th place, but we're only 5 points off Europe with the places they've currently got, and we're only 6 points off 5th. I would say the top four may be out of reach, but we can certainly get back into Europe for next season. The other thing I can think that may be positive is if we weren't to get the Europa League this season, we could qualify for the Conference League and try and get the club's hands back on that for next season. But first things first, we must take a look and see who we have in our first few games, in the West Midlands. December Fixtures: So we have joined after the Ajax game, so far this month, we've beaten Nottingham Forest 3-1, won away at Brentford 2-0, and won 3-1 at home to Ajax in a result which has left Aston Villa in 4th in the Europa League League Phase. We have some tough matches coming up this month, as we start our tenure with a home game against third placed Newcastle United, followed by a trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal. We then go to Brighton, before the Christmas period features a game against West Ham on Boxing Day, followed by an away match at Bournemouth. Sunday 14th December 2025: Aston Villa 1-1 Newcastle United (Premier League) My first game as a manager in the Premier League and we had the lead for 67 minutes, but as Newcastle grew into this game, I just knew it wasn't going to be a first game win. The first goal for Villa under my management was from a corner, like so many were as manager of Borussia Dortmund. Douglas Luiz's corner was defended awfully by Newcastle, Lewis Miley seemingly nodding on to Ezri Konsa, who got my first goal back in England. Alexander Isak thought he'd equalised for Newcastle United but it was ruled out for offside. Unfortunately, that's where our good luck would dry up. Three minutes from time, Joe Willock found a reverse ball over his right shoulder to the left for Bruno Guimaraes to chest down, take a touch to cut inside, and his deflected effort deceived Martinez and made it 1-1. Premier League Team of the Week 16th December 2025: The team of the week is graced by one of my players for the first time in the Premier League, as Ezri Konsa scored the only goal for us against Newcastle United. He gets into the team of the week for this one. Wednesday 17th December 2025: Arsenal 3-0 Aston Villa (Premier League) The Emirates is a very tough place to get a result and it showed here as we were outplayed by Arsenal 3-0. The game was killed stone dead in two first half minutes. An Arsenal play from the middle found it's way to Odegaard, who found a pinpoint pass through to an on-running Bakayo Saka on the right, and he fired in off the post cutting in for 1-0. A minute later, we gave the ball away stupidly, and Kai Havertz played it short to Martinelli running forward on the left, and he fired it in off the right hand post for 2-0, leaving Martinez no chance. The final goal was a first goal for the club from Lucas Paqueta, hit from 25 yards out along the floor, and Martinez couldn't get there. 3-0 was the full time result. Saturday 20th December 2025: Brighton & Hove Albion 3-2 Aston Villa (Premier League) We lost our second game in our opening three games as Aston Villa manager, after we had an absolutely useless first half and lost 3-2 to Brighton. They were given a penalty for god knows what early on, and Joao Pedro fired home for 1-0. Their second goal came from a Christian Eriksen corner and he found Van Hecke rising at the near post for 2-0. They scored just after half time to really wrap the game up. Eriksen found Baleba, who saw Mitoma running through, untracked and unmarked, and he slotted into the bottom right hand corner for 3-0. Then Tammy Abraham started scoring. The first goal back came from a Mings cross into the box from the left, Bailey hit the post, and a Van Hecke clearance hit Abraham in the chest and it rebounded in for 3-1. We then made it 3-2 by scoring an absolute worldie. Tammy Abraham fired into the top left corner from 20 yards out and it was game on. A Jacob Ramsey equaliser was ruled out for offside though it really didn't look like it. We need to start picking results up though, so this decision doesn't backfire. Friday 26th December 2025: Aston Villa 4-2 West Ham United (Premier League) Our first win in our fourth game as Aston Villa manager, as we overcame a West Ham United side who have just sacked David Moyes, 4-2. Tyrone Mings was racing down the left hand side for the first goal. As his cross was blocked, Saelemaekers played the ball into the middle of the box, and John McGinn's shot was heavily deflected past the keeper for 1-0. Saelemaekers got on the score sheet himself next, Mosquera's throw in was played to Kamara on the right, who lofted it to the back post, and the aforementioned Saelemaekers found the bottom corner from the head for 2-0. We passed West Ham to death as we hit the third goal. The final ball ending with John McGinn, moving slightly forward to Ollie Watkins, and he fired into the roof of the net for 3-0. Watkins turned provider in the 56th minute, his scoop ball over the top went to Saelemaekers on the left who ran inside and fired into the bottom right hand corner for number four. West Ham got back into the game somewhat after 63 minutes. A free-kick near the half way line from Alvarez found Bergwijn on the left, who took the ball down and fired into the corner for 4-1. It was 4-2 with an unfortunate Alex Moreno own goal from a Luis Suarez (not that one) volley. Monday 29th December 2025: AFC Bournemouth 1-2 Aston Villa (Premier League) We picked up a vital three points away at Bournemouth, who are having a decent season sat in the top half. A goalless first half wasn't the perfect start to the game for either team, but it came alive in the second half. Leon Bailey swung a free-kick into the mixer which Mings got to. The first header was saved, but his second header found the back of the net, past the keeper for 1-0. A poor clearance from Bournemouth led to the second. Ramsey had it on the left and he swung it in low, where Victor Boniface met it on the volley and scored his fourth of the season for a 2-0 lead. Kerkez got one back for them with 9 minutes to go. Bournemouth started playing it in triangles before Kerkez received the ball 25 yards out, turned and shot across the ground into the bottom right hand corner to give them a chance. We held on though, and we've had a strong end to 2025. Gabriel Moscardo Injured: Unfortunately, Gabriel Moscardo twisted his ankle during the Bournemouth game, and is out for around the next 4 weeks. Premier League Team of the Week 30th December 2025: The final team of the week of the calendar year sees John McGinn and Alexis Saelemaekers get into the team of the week, after a very impressive Christmas period. North American XI 2025: Leon Bailey gets onto the left hand side of the North American team of the year. Another Award: Omar Khedr has won the African Young Footballer of the Year, and it's great to see the youngsters get the awards as well. December Results: So from when we've joined, our form has been inconsistent to say the least. We started off with that 1-1 draw against Newcastle United, before we fell to a crushing 3-0 defeat against Arsenal. We nearly secured a great comeback but fell short at Brighton, losing 3-2. We then took out that anger on West Ham, by beating them 4-2 after going 4-0 up early in the second half. And then, we picked up our first away win at the club, winning 2-1 away at Bournemouth. Premier League Table Update: Manchester City still lead the way on 43 points, but Newcastle United are keeping up the pressure on 40. Liverpool are a further point behind in 3rd, and then it's tight for the final top four spot, with Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal all on 38 points. Tottenham are in 7th on 37 points, only one point off the Champions League spots. Leicester are falling off in terms of the European spots. We're in 12th on 27 points. At the bottom, it's looking dire for the bottom 3. Both West Bromwich Albion and Luton Town are on 7 points, a full 10 points from safety. Middlesbrough are on 9, picking up their first win this month. Leeds look relatively safe at the moment. Final Word: I believe we've found an attacking system that works, but it leaves us exposed at the back and that's something I'm going to need to work on. Picking up two wins over the Christmas weekend really helped our chances of hopefully hanging on to a European place should we fail to win the Europa League. Speaking of that, we go back into that next month. As for me, I've not appeared in that competition since Season 1, and that was an abysmal showing. Two years later, can I go for the title? We've got Manchester City in the FA Cup Third Round, so I'm almost sort of treating it as if we're already out. I don't see us getting anything at the Etihad. It's been a decent first few weeks at Aston Villa. I'll be back for the January update as we move into 2026.

Glory Hunter - Aston Villa - Introduction Ladies and gentlemen, you will see I have changed the club name in my header for this save, and that's because in the last update, we left Germany and Borussia Dortmund after two and a half season following being knocked out by FC Koln in the DFB-Pokal. I looked across Europe for a new job. I was looking for a team who may be able to win a smaller European competition like the Europa League or the Conference League to get things started. I've found them. We're moving to England to manage the 1982 European Cup winners. Welcome to Aston Villa: We have been confirmed the new Aston Villa manager on a 2 and a half year deal until the end of the 2027-28 season. They are the current Europa Conference League holders, and are currently playing in the UEFA Europa League. If we can win that this season, Aston Villa will have won the three main current European trophies, and I'll get my first in this save. Best XI: One thing to take straight away is that we have Tammy Abraham at the club, in front of Nmecha who we sold to Villa last season, so I'm looking forward to being reunited with him. With Ramsey and McGinn on the wings, we have some familiar faces from the first season. Martinez is still the number one at Villa, so I don't see how they're struggling in the league so much. Saying that, they are on a recent winning run, so we do have something to hold on to and run on with. Board Expectations: Above are the board objectives in our first season and as we carry on at the club. They would like to do really well in both Europe and the FA Cup, and to finish mid-table in the Premier League. We will look at the Premier League table shortly, cause I think we could be able to do more than that. The club are currently 13th. Supporter Expectations: The fans want us to play attacking, entertaining football, which I think they can be rightly expecting, and that's what I will be going for. West Brom are bottom of the Premier League I believe, and both Birmingham and Wolves are in the Championship, so we should be better than our rivals. I do find the objective to become an established Premier League team a strange one, as they won't have been relegated in this save, and will have been in the Premier League and doing rather well in it since 2019. Youth Intake Preview: Aston Villa are well known for their youth academy, more recently players like Jack Grealish have come through it. We've apparently got a 5-star Youth Intake coming later in the season, with the best ones being central midfielders and strikers, so it's well worth having a look at them when they come through. Meet the Squad: I've sorted these in terms of star rating, because I would be here all day going through each individual member in the squad, and I do have work at 12pm in real life (This is being written at 9:40am). I'll show you the squad planner, and where we could be likely to improve. Squad Planner: To be honest, I would say I'll try and get another one in to cover at left-back, but all-in-all, we have a really decent team. Martinez obviously has the place in goal over anyone else, and will be my number one. We have three old men at left-back, so maybe during the January transfer window, and in the Summer as well, we may sign someone younger who could run down the wings, send players on the overlap. Tammy Abraham is also a great first choice striker to have, with Ollie Watkins just behind him and Vincent Boniface. Premier League Table: Manchester City currently lead the way at the top on 36 points, with Liverpool and Newcastle United chasing them on 33 points apiece. Manchester United sit fourth on 31 points. There's a tight race for 5th I guess, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City all within a point of each other. The three teams at the bottom seem to be getting cut adrift already, as West Brom, Middlesbrough and Luton Town are all struggling on 4, 5 and 6 points respectively. Final Word: We have made it over to England and I'm looking forward to being part of the future of Aston Villa. I do apologise it's so short, but I thought I would give an update as to what is going on. I hope you enjoy the move, and the action will start in the next update released tomorrow. I'll see you then.

Glory Hunter - Borussia Dortmund - 2025-26 Season - December I am back after a day away in terms of being with my family, so let's do this. We are hurtling towards the Winter break, and we go into this month on the back of an unreal month, in which we were almost perfect with 5 wins from 6, our only failure to win being a draw against Wolfsburg. We actually start this month in the DFB-Pokal, and don't forget, that's the one we're really chasing this season. We've got to make sure we stay in that past New Year, make sure we're in the top four for the winter break, and last but by no means least, make sure we go into January, not sweating so much in the Champions League. Shall we see who we're playing? December Fixtures: We start with a home tie against second-tier FC Koln in the DFB-Pokal Third Round, as we aim to really knuckle down our stance on this competition, and it's the only thing missing from my cabinet in Germany. Our first league match of the month is against mid-table Bayer Leverkusen, a team we've got a fairly decent record against in our time in charge of this great club. In the Champions League, we play Inter Milan, after just recently dispatching of their main rivals in our last game in this competition. We play Mainz, who are having a great first half to the season being in third. And then finally, we round things off away at Hamburg. Wednesday 3rd December 2025: Borussia Dortmund 0-1 FC Koln (DFB-Pokal Third Round) We are now out of the DFB-Pokal after losing 1-0 at home to second-tier FC Koln, which has led me to make a decision about my future within this save as I need to start winning more things. We did hit the bar three times in this one, we just couldn't finish our dinner today. Janitzek picked up the ball on the left hand side, he swung it into the box, and Luquinha was there in the middle with the header, to allow them to qualify for the next round. This does end our hopes of winning the DFB-Pokal this season, which does mean I've actually applied for a new job. It remains to see whether I get it. Here's what I've gone for. Aston Villa Job Application: Being a Coventry City fan in real life, it's absolute sacrilege to even attempt to go for the Villa job. They're in 16th in the Premier League after a dire start to the season, but they are currently in the Europa League, which with this club should be a winnable competition depending on who's in it, and they haven't yet started the FA Cup obviously, so although it would be sooner than I thought, we could be heading over to England. I'll let you know if we get the interview. Saturday 6th December 2025: Bayer Leverkusen 0-0 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) We probably had the best chance in this game, but unfortunately, we drew 0-0 away at Bayer Leverkusen, and there wasn't too much to write home about, despite some chances for both teams. We hit the bar again in this game, which leads me to think again we can't finish our dinner unfortunately. Something has to change for me. Youth Intake Preview: We do have an excellent intake apparently coming up, but don't forget, we had this last season, and I believe it only ended up being a good one. We will wait and see if indeed we are still here. Filipe Relvas Injured: Our injury record is getting slightly better at least, but Filipe Relvas gets the first bad one for a little while. He's managed to pull abdominal muscles while turning sharply in a training session, and unfortunately for him, he will be out for about two weeks. Julian Ryerson in Norwegian Team of the Year: Julian Ryerson has been recognised for his good work in defence in 2025, as he makes the players' team of the year in his homeland of Norway. Wednesday 10th December 2025: Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Inter Milan (UEFA Champions League League Phase) We lost our second consecutive game at home in all competitions by a single goal to nil, this time we couldn't complete the Milanese double. The only goal came from a free-kick. Dimarco's free kick hit the bar but Marcus Thuram headed the ball into the far corner to give Inter a massive win for them, and a very disappointing defeat for us. Cameron Archer Injured: Cameron Archer has now got injured unfortunately. He's only made one appearance so far this season with only a 6.40 rating, and now he's pulled his hamstring and won't be available for two weeks. December Results: It's been a shorter than expected month at Borussia Dortmund, as we lost 1-0 to FC Koln in the DFB-Pokal Third Round, followed by a 0-0 draw with Bayer Leverkusen. We then lost 1-0 at home to Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League. There's a reason why I've done this. We are leaving Borussia Dortmund. Aston Villa have approached me: Yes, we are moving to England, as we will become the new manager of Aston Villa on a 3-year deal, although I very much doubt we will be there that long. For me, this is a bit of a stop gap while we try and win the Europa League in this save. But, if I do get them to qualify for the Europa Conference League, we will participate in that to kill two birds with one stone. But it means we're saying goodbye to our first club. And what a ride it's been. Borussia Dortmund Final Stats: We managed 118 games at Borussia Dortmund, and we won one League title, in the second season. We won 53% of our games which is a good record. Let's look at how we leave them. Bundesliga Table As We Leave: As we finish our first spell in Germany, as we will have to come back later down the line, we do leave Borussia Dortmund in 7th after 14 games, on 23 points. I've taken this club as far as I can, and we won the Bundesliga, so to have that under my belt is incredible. Eintracht Frankfurt look like they're about to run away with it. Final Word as Borussia Dortmund Manager: My first ever club in this save has been a success. In our first season, we ended in the top four and we qualified for the Champions League. In the second season, we won a dream Bundesliga title in just my second season as a manager, and then I'm obviously leaving them in a European qualifying spot. But more recently, it's not happening unfortunately, and I think I was starting to lose the players. I'm thanking the players for their efforts, they've been incredible. The fans love the club, and so do I. They do have a special place in my heart. But we are moving to the city of Birmingham, and to the Premier League for the first time as we try to win every trophy across Europe. I will take a look and see how I can do with them, as there are three domestic trophies in England. This could be a longer stay in the country, not necessarily at the club. I'll see you next time, when we move to Aston Villa.

Glory Hunter - Borussia Dortmund - 2025-26 Season - November Welcome to November 2025, in the Glory Hunter Challenge Season 3. The last time you saw us, the only games we lost were both our Champions League matches against both Liverpool and Arsenal, we went unbeaten in the league albeit with 2 draws from those 3 matches, and we managed to dispatch of Schalke in the DFB-Pokal Second Round, while some of our top domestic rivals were knocked out. Let's have a look at the fixtures of this month, starting off with one of those bigger teams that were knocked out this midweek, followed by a winnable Champions League match we must take advantage of. November Fixtures: We have a complete opposite of last month, where we face 5 home matches out of the 6 altogether we play in November. We start things off with a home game against RB Leipzig, a game we must win to stand any chance of potentially making the Champions League next season at this early stage. That is followed up by the visit of Scottish champions Celtic, a game we have to win to make sure we qualify through the league phase of this year's Champions League. Our final game before the international break is away at Wolfsburg, before we face Greuther Furth for the first time in this save. A home game against 7-time Champions of Europe, AC Milan, is another game we need to take advantage of. Before we end November with the visit to Signal Iduna Park of Werder Bremen, a game we surely have to win. DFB-Pokal Third Round Draw: We have another home game to kick off December with, which will come later this week, as we face a home tie against 2. Bundesliga side, FC Koln, a team we're used to playing in league action, but they were relegated from the top flight last season. It'll be a game we ought to win, but will it be that straightforward? Saturday 1st November 2025: Borussia Dortmund 3-0 RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) Our dominance in this game was obvious in the second half, as three fairly simple goals won us the game 3-0 against RB Leipzig. A passing move started with Atubolu for the first goal, and ended up with Giovanni Reyna, running with the ball down the right, finding the space to cross into the box and on the head of Karim Adeyemi at the far post, who had a simple header for 1-0. Adeyemi then turned provider from his corner on the right, and Sebastian Haller needed the neck muscles to head over the keeper and into the corner for 2-0. Timo Werner put the ball in the net late on, but it was ruled out for offside. The third stemmed from a Bensebaini throw in on the left. He then eventually found Wolf on the byline in the box, saw Sabitzer running in, rolled it virtually along the goal line, and Sabitzer will never have an easier finish from a yard out. A huge 3 points, and all of a sudden, we have a massive boost up the table. Bundesliga Team of the Week: 4th November 2025 Karim Adeyemi got a goal and an assist against RB Leipzig, and that will easily slot him into the team of the week this time around. Tuesday 4th November 2025: Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Celtic (UEFA Champions League League Path) We picked up a messy 1-0 win against Celtic to pick up our first win in the Champions League this season. It wasn't the best of games and there weren't that many chances in the first half, before we were given a penalty shortly before half time. Sebastian Haller took the ball, and fired into the top right corner to pick up his 5th goal of the season, a goal which would see off the Scottish side. We did hit the post in the second half, but that was the closest we came to a second. An important result, and the confidence is booming after 3 wins in a row. Saturday 8th November 2025: Wolfsburg 1-1 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) We had the chances early on in this game, but it only ended up as a 1-1 draw which we really should have won to close the gap on the top four. They scored with a free-kick we just couldn't clear. It ended up with Zesiger running into the right hand side of the area, spotting Nmecha in the middle of the box, and he tapped home unmarked basically for 1-0. The equaliser was a major mistake from their keeper. Engels played an incredible ball over the top, which Moukoko picked up with a great chance, went round the keeper 25 yards out, and slotted the ball into the empty net for 1-1. It leaves us 5 points off the top four heading into the international break. Niclas Fullkrug Injured: Niclas Fullkrug, despite not playing much in the first team, has got injured again after picking up a damaged shoulder from probably showing off in the gym, and he will be out for 3 weeks. Saturday 22nd November 2025: Borussia Dortmund 3-0 Greuther Furth (Bundesliga) This game was relatively straightforward, as we beat relegation-threatened Greuther Furth 3-0. For the first goal, Haller had the ball in the middle of the attacking half. Finding Moukoko on the left, he found new signing Cristian Medina in the middle of the box and he swept home into the bottom left corner for his first goal for the club. Sebastian Haller converted a penalty for 2-0, to make the game safe. For the final goal, there was a game of pinball in the box, Kiwior going for a shot just outside the area. That's blocked, only as far as Moukoko on the left, who's cross box ball is saved by the keeper, but it leaves Medina a simple tap in for 3-0. Bundesliga Team of the Week: 25th November 2025 Cristian Medina goes into the team of the week for the first time, with his two goals putting him in the central attacking midfield position in the team. Wednesday 26th November 2025: Borussia Dortmund 1-0 AC Milan (UEFA Champions League League Phase) Against the run of play in this whole game, we overcame a good AC Milan side 1-0 at home. Karim Adeyemi was instrumental in the move that won us the match. He played a one-two with Joris Chotard, ran into the area from the left, ran towards the D before playing it forward to Julian Brandt. He turned past the defender, dropped his shoulder, and rolled it into the bottom right corner to win the game for us as we managed to hold on, and continue our hopes for a Champions League knockout place. Filip Bundgaard New Contract: He's not currently at the football club, but Filip Bundgaard now has a brand new contract, keeping him around until 2029. He will stay as a breakthrough prospect which I'm looking forward to seeing how he does. I want him to grow as a footballer, if anything so I can take him further down the line. Saturday 29th November 2025: Borussia Dortmund 3-0 Werder Bremen (Bundesliga) We took another win and that means we've won all our games this month as we climbed into the top 4 immediately after this game, defeating mid-table Werder Bremen 3-0. The first goal came from a corner that Bremen failed to clear, falling to Engels 4 yards out with the keeper nowhere to be seen. He turned and shot high into the roof of the net to give us the lead just before half time. We got the second goal after 52 minutes. Sabitzer found Moukoko on the right side of the area. He ran through, and fired home into the top left corner to make it 2-0. We finished it off after 66 minutes. A Sabitzer free-kick set up that third goal, with a Moukoko header hitting the bar, before falling back out to him perfectly, and he was able to rifle home for 3-0. November Results: This was my best month for a long time as we got motoring in our home matches, keeping 5 clean sheets in 5 home games. We started off with a thumping 3-0 win over RB Leipzig, before getting a 1-0 win over Celtic in the Champions League. We followed that up with a 1-1 draw away at Wolfsburg, with the only goal we've conceded all month. Greuther Furth were our next opponents, and we got a convincing 3-0 win over them, to give us the confidence to go and beat AC Milan 1-0 in the Champions League. We rounded off the month by beating Werder Bremen 3-0. A really strong month on the pitch. Let's look at those tables, starting with the Bundesliga. Bundesliga Table Update: Eintracht Frankfurt still lead the way, and have now moved onto 29 points, 5 points clear of the next best team, Augsburg, who sit on 24 points. Mainz have had a resurgence in form and sit 3rd on 23 points, ahead on goals scored of Bayern Munich also on 23. We've also had a massive resurgence recently, and we sit in fifth on 22 points, ahead on goal difference of RB Leipzig and one point clear of Wolfsburg in 7th on 21 points, but it's so tight at the moment, with Hoffenheim breathing down their necks. At the bottom, Borussia Monchengladbach are already cut adrift on 3 points, 7 points away from Greuther Furth who are second bottom on 10 points. Union Berlin currently occupy the relegation playoff place, with local rivals Hertha a point clear of them. UEFA Champions League Update: We're back on track in the Champions League, currently sitting in 15th after two 1-0 wins this month moving us up into at least a playoff place. Chelsea and Barcelona have at least confirmed a playoff place with 5 wins out of 5 so far in the league phase, and both sit at the top on 15 points. Final Word: What a great month that was. 5 home wins, 5 home clean sheets. OK, so we didn't win our only away game of the month, but we still got a point from that. Progress in the league as we knock on the door of the Champions League spots again. And progress in the Champions League itself as we may just have saved our European season. Not much else to go on. I will take this moment to say I won't be around on this save for a couple of days as me and my wife have family things to see to but I will be back on Wednesday to see if we can go into the winter break with progress in the DFB-Pokal and get results in everything else. Thanks for the support. I'll see you next time.

Glory Hunter - Borussia Dortmund - 2025-26 Season - October I'm still recovering from the roughest month I've had in a Football Manager career mode, and I've managed teams that have been in relegation battles. It's season 3, and we are really struggling in mid-table, and at a club like this, we've got to be aiming for Champions League football. I do want this to be my final season at Borussia Dortmund, but I don't want it to be through a sacking. Where do we go from here? How can we improve? We have a run of Champions League games coming up with some nicer Bundesliga matches, but I'm almost not looking forward to my next game, which will be played almost immediately. Let's take a look at those fixtures. October Fixtures: We have 6 games coming up this month, with five being away from home. We travel to Liverpool in the Champions League first of all, on a big night at Anfield, where we're going to try and keep the score respectable. Our first Bundesliga game of the month is away at Hertha Berlin, as we need to pick up maximum points this month in the league. We face a home game against Augsburg straight after the international break, followed by a trip to the Emirates that midweek. We then go to Borussia Monchengladbach, before finishing off with a DFB-Pokal Second Round fixture against Schalke. Wednesday 1st October 2025: Liverpool 2-0 Borussia Dortmund (UEFA Champions League League Phase) Our first defeat of the Champions League League Phase came in our second matchday, as two goals from Konate gave Liverpool a 2-0 win in this one. Both goals came from set pieces. Szoboszlai set them both up, the first one striking a free-kick from the right into the left side of the box. Konate rose highest, and it looped over Atubolu, and it gave the 6-time European Champions a first half lead. With just over 20 minutes to go, an outswinging corner from the Hungarian, found Konate at the near post this time. Same corner of the net, same result. It means we've come away from a slow start, and we drop outside the qualification spots. Saturday 4th October 2025: Hertha Berlin 1-1 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) We picked up a 1-1 draw away from home against Hertha Berlin in this game, coming back from a 1-0 deficit, by scoring a goal of the season contender with Giovanni Reyna. Dardai made a run down the left with Reese in attendance near him for the first. He played it into Reese, who crossed it into the box from near the byline. It evaded Dardai, but Azmoun was there to fire home into the roof of the net for 1-0. We equalised with an absolutely unbelievable goal from near enough 40 yards out. Moukoko played it short to Reyna in the middle of the park. He went on a small run, shifted it on to his right foot, spotted the keeper off his line, and then hit a 40 yard thunderbolt to level the game up for us, just his second of the season. It's not a win, but we avoided defeat at least. Bundesliga Team of The Week: 7th October 2025 Giovanni Reyna's unbelievable goal means he's got a very much well deserved team of the week place for this week, and our first appearance in the team since the 4-0 win over Stuttgart. That feels a long time ago. Samuel Bamba New Contract: Seen as an exciting young prospect, DR Congolese midfielder Samuel Bamba has signed a brand new four-year contract on £15,500 a week. I would say he's got slightly above average rating when it comes to his attributes, with his agility being his highest rated at 15. Flair and decisions are also good numbers for him, but if he can slightly improve on his passing, crossing, and his first touch, it would move him up the order in his position. Saturday 18th October 2025: Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Augsburg (Bundesliga) Our 100% record against Augsburg continues, as we defeated the third-placed side 1-0 thanks to a horrific mistake from their keeper. Cameron Archer played his first game for the club, but he didn't make much impact. The only goal was a major mistake by their goalkeeper as Augsburg passed it around at the back, but he gave it straight to Donyell Malen who was 25 yards from goal. With no-one guarding the net, it gave him the easiest finish possible, as we took three points for the first time since August. We climb into 7th place. Marius Wolf Injured: Marius Wolf picked up an injury during this game. It was only a pulled thigh, but he is now at least the only injury we've got at the club. He'll be out for just over a week. Tuesday 21st October 2025: Arsenal 2-1 Borussia Dortmund (UEFA Champions League League Phase) We had our second successive Champions League defeat in England as we lost 2-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. We couldn't get near Arsenal for most of the game. Every time we got the ball, they would bully us off it, which isn't good enough. The first goal came from Arsenal being patient, and organised. The ball came to Martinelli in the box, who had Nketiah to the right of him. He found him and Nketiah steered it home into the bottom left hand corner. Declan Rice basically set up the second goal, as he played it into Odegaard, with a fantastic reverse pass through to Martintelli. He had eyes for goal, and thumped it home for 2-0. We got a consolation with just under 15 minutes to go. A simple ball from the left from Ryerson found Malen at the far post, running in, jumping highest, and nodding it home for 2-1. But unfortunately, it wasn't to be enough. Saturday 25th October 2025: Borussia Monchengladbach 1-1 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) This was an annoying game as we could only get a 1-1 draw away at Borussia Monchengladbach. Sebastian Haller saw his penalty turned past the post in the first half as his recent drought goes on. The home side took the lead just before the hour mark in this one. Honorat picked up the ball down the right and ran past a couple of men, before his opportunity to cross, where in the middle, it was met in the 6-yard box by Cvancara and Borussia Monchengladbach took the lead. We equalised in the 92nd minute, when Fleck, who I promoted from the Under 19s for this game, played the ball through to Moukoko. He hit the bar, but in came Julian Brandt to fire home on the rebound on the volley for 1-1. Another poor result. We need to batter Schalke in the week. Bundesliga Team of the Week 28th October 2025: Julian Brandt saved our skin away at Borussia Monchengladbach, so he gets in the team of the week. Tuesday 28th October 2025: Schalke 04 1-3 Borussia Dortmund (DFB-Pokal Second Round) We went away to Schalke and won our local derby 3-1 to progress to the Third Round of the DFB-Pokal, the final tournament we need to win in Germany. Kiwior and Rothe exchanged passes down the left, leaving Rothe to whip it into the box, and Malen nodded it home to give us the early advantage. We made it 2-0 on 27 minutes, a Rothe corner from the right was nodded high into the air and played back by Relvas, back to Malen on the edge of the box, and he fired home, near the D for 2-0. Schalke got a consolation on 54 minutes. Sessa's ball through was deflected through to Yan Couto, who slid the ball into the bottom right corner for 2-1. We finished the game off as the game approached 90 minutes. Rothe's low ball in hit the defender, but a poor first touch allowed Haller to pounce and volley it in from close range for 3-1. Bayern Munich have been knocked out as well, so if we're going to win this competition so I can get out of Germany, it's got to be this year. October Results: We started October with a 2-0 loss to Liverpool in the Champions League, followed by a 1-1 draw away at Hertha Berlin in the league. A 1-0 win over Augsburg was a good result for our only home match of the month. We lost 2-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates, followed by a 1-1 draw away at Borussia Monchengladbach. But we ended the month with a fantastic, bruising 3-1 win over Schalke in the local derby. Bundesliga Table Update: Eintracht Frankfurt still hold the lead with 20 points from 9 matches this season. Bayern Munich are chasing them down on 19 points. In third are Augsburg with 18 points, followed by Wolfsburg sat in fourth on 17 points. RB Leipzig are only a point off them in 5th place, and then there's a three-way tie for 14 points, with Bayer Leverkusen, Mainz and Hamburg separated by goal difference. Borussia Monchengladbach sit bottom on 3 points, with both Berlin sides just ahead of them. Union have 6 points, and Hertha are in the relegation playoff spot on 8 points, behind on goal difference, Bochum and Greuther Furth. UEFA Champions League Update: We currently sit 28th in the Champions League at the moment, but with 5 matches to improve, and Celtic coming next, there is the opportunity for us to move up the table. The big 8 consist of Manchester City, Chelsea, Barcelona, Manchester United, Red Bull Salzburg, Real Madrid, Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain. Final Word: We're showing little signs of improvement at the moment, with a little unbeaten run in the Bundesliga. Our Champions League form needs to improve, but with two home games in there next month, there's the chance we can start moving up the table. That needs to happen when it comes to the league as well, at least get into the top four. I think we can win the Cup now, especially with some big sides being knocked out, in Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig. Eintracht Frankfurt are still in, but I'd like to see us get another decent draw in the third round before we get another challenging team. I hope you've enjoyed it, and hopefully we can improve enough to recover our season.

Glory Hunter - Borussia Dortmund - 2025-26 Season - September Welcome to September 2025, and we will jump straight in with Transfer Deadline Day. This window has been decent, we didn't really need to change too much in terms of personnel. We had to get a new goalkeeper, which we ended up getting a very good guy in Atubolu, and a decent second choice goalkeeper, but he is yet to make his debut. This month, we begin our very difficult Champions League run at home to Monaco, in a league phase where we must win all of our home games. We also have Der Klassiker after losing our first league match of the season, a game where we need to get revenge for the defeat at home in the Supercup, and also we must take full advantage of a slight tweak in the system which I'm using for the Bayern game in a 4-2-3-1. We will see how that works out. But here are the fixtures for this month. September Fixtures: There's only four matches this month coming up, but don't forget that at the start of this month, we have an international break for the World Cup qualifiers. We start the month on the 13th, like I said, at home against Bayern Munich in Der Klassiker, the first league meeting this season, and a game where we need to push on and put the Eintracht Frankfurt defeat behind us. Monaco then visit Signal Iduna Park in our first Champions League match of the season, and can we progress to the quarter finals again, or even further? We then travel to Union Berlin, before finishing the month at home to Freiburg. Flavius Daniliuc to Celta Vigo on Loan: Flavius Daniliuc only arrived last season, but he's only played 3 games for the team, and he's not going to get into it any time soon, because he's tenth on the list of centre-backs at the team to fit into the squad. At least at Celta Vigo, he can play top flight European football, and get some decent game time for the first time since leaving Roma. I hope I use him later on in FM24, because he was great in my Newcastle team in FM23, trying to get them to the top, especially in my early years. But he doesn't fit in the team for now, so he's off to Spain. Jamie Bynoe-Gittens New Contract: I do like Jamie Bynoe-Gittens as a concept in this football club, and he will rise up the ranks soon enough. I've seen no reason to doubt him and you never know what could happen with these players. I think it was only safe to give the young Englishman a new 5-year deal, worth £49,500 a week, with him staying until the end of the 2029-30 season. He seems to be happy enough with the promise of just being a squad player for now, so we'll keep it that way. But he will not be spending the rest of the season with us. Jamie Bynoe-Gittens to Valencia on Loan: As well as signing the new contract, he is going back out on loan to get some more first team football, playing in La Liga for Valencia. I will be keeping up to date with how he does for the team, and should it go well, I've put it in that he can be recalled should I need him. Warmed Omari to Freiburg on Loan with the potential to move: We've also sent Warmed Omari out on loan to fellow Bundesliga side, Freiburg. As a 25-year-old centre-back not getting into the team, we're not using him regularly and I'm quite happy that he has this potential move on the cards. With the potential future fee, overall we will make a profit having paid £9 million for him. We'll be getting £6.75 million straight off the bat, with two instalments of £9 million for one a year over two years. Transfers In Summary: Now the transfer window has reached the end, here are a full round-up of our signings ahead of this new season. We brought in two goalkeepers to make that not so much a problem now, in Noah Atubolu as our number one, and Mario De Luis as your typical bench warmer. Cameron Archer came in as an impact sub from Sheffield United for £16.5 million. Alexandre Penetra came in as our new right-back for just shy of £40 million, and finally we signed a new central midfielder from Boca Juniors, Cristian Medina coming in for £8.75 million. All in all, we spent a total of £90 million sorting out our team. Transfers Out Summary: So many players left the club this Summer, either on loan or permanently, and most of that was the dead wood that probably won't see the team this season. Overall, we said goodbye to three members of the team that won the title last season, to opportunities elsewhere in Europe. Gregor Kobel moved to Chelsea for £69 million, Felix Nmecha left for Aston Villa, and Salih Ozcan went back to his homeland to play for Galatasaray. When it comes to loans, Flavius Daniliuc, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Julien Duranville and so many more have gone to play top-flight football across Europe, some of them even in European competition to take in the experience for their future at the football club. Marcel Lotka goes to Braga on Loan: Marcel Lotka has secured himself a loan move now he's gone down the pecking order at the football club, and he has gone to join Braga with an option to buy him at the end of the loan. He looks like he will be an important player for them, possibly their number one in their Liga NOS campaign. Good luck to him, he's not a bad keeper, but was nowhere near being a number one for this team unfortunately. Oliwer Blaszczyk to Darmstadt: One of our youth team centre-backs is off to Darmstadt for £75,000, as he drops down a level to try and make it into the first team there in the near future. 2. Bundesliga seems like his level looking back over his report. Donyell Malen New Contract: Donyell Malen has had his contract extended through until 2030, picking up £99,000 a week, and I'm happy we've been able to retain him. In my first two seasons in charge, he had the same numbers with 8 goals and 2 assists, and it was his goals towards the end of last season that confirmed we would finish ahead of Bayern Munich at the top of the tree, especially with 5 goals in 3 games in the final month of the season. He is a match winner, a goalscorer and a team player, and he's the kind of influence we need around the club for this season and beyond. Cristian Medina Injury: Cristian Medina has got injured on international duty for Argentina, before he's even had the chance to play a match for us, in their World Cup qualifier against Venezuela. He will be out with sprained knee ligaments for the next 6-7 weeks. First Milestone: We've reached our 100th game of this save as Borussia Dortmund manager. In 100 games, we've been Champions League quarter-finalists, Bundesliga Champions, and we seem to be more attacking than ever before more often than not. I'm proud of the achievements thus far. Saturday 13th September 2025: Borussia Dortmund 0-2 Bayern Munich (Bundesliga) Our first home defeat of the season, and Bayern Munich have bragging rights again in this rivalry, as last season now appears to be an overachievement, and Bayern Munich are wanting to win the title for the first time in what for them is a barren spell. An extended spell of possession after half time, resulted in us giving the ball away which turned into Bayern Munich keeping the ball. Harry Kane had the ball through to Leon Goretzka, who in turn found Diaby and he managed to poke the ball past Atubolu to give them the lead. They then went 2-0. A Diaby ball in the box was cleared away only as far as Laimer on the edge of the box, outside the D, and he hit it first time into the bottom right hand corner. Two defeats in a row. I don't think we're going to be in a title race this season, but as the board have changed their expectations to Champions League qualification, we aim for that instead. Tom Rothe New Contract: Tom Rothe has signed a new contract, that keeps him at the club until at least 2030, with the option of another year. His wages have gone up to £36,000 a week and he's a squad player in his contract, but his corner taking has been unreal when he has been playing. He's great when it comes to set pieces, bombing up and down the wing. He's only 20 years old. I'm super happy he's decided to stay on. Tuesday 16th September 2025: Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Monaco (UEFA Champions League League Phase) We threw this game away, conceding a goal 6 minutes from time, as we were only able to settle for a point in our first Champions League match this season. Tom Rothe took a corner from the right, inswinging towards Relvas, whose initial header was saved, but he got his foot on the ball just and diverted it towards goal to give us the lead. Caio Henrique's initial corner for Monaco hit the first man ahead of the equaliser, but was only cleared as far as Minamino, who gave it back to the corner taker in the area, he took a touch and fired into the top corner to give the Ligue 1 side a precious point. Caleb Okoli Injured: Caleb Okoli has made 2 appearances this season, but he's not going to be playing in the next few weeks, as he's twisted his ankle turning sharply in training, which is horrid for him. Hopefully, he can recover from it fairly soon. Saturday 20th September 2025: Union Berlin 2-1 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) We've lost for the third league game in a row, which brings a lot of doubt into some of the players in this team. How can we go to this bad in just a few months? I knew I probably should have gone while my stock was as high as it was. Union Berlin took the lead from a corner, Schafer's corner finding Doekhi at the near post for his first goal of the season. Sebastian Haller was given an equaliser just before half-time, a Khedira back-pass was far too short, and Haller slotted it into the corner for 1-1. They found the winner on the hour mark. We cleared the first ball away but only as far as their midfield. Gosens had the ball on the left wing, before he crossed it in for Leweling at the back post, whose header hit the post and took an age to spin over the line for 2-1. I've not gone a month without winning a game yet in this save, I'm very worried about our poor form. Tom Rothe Injured: Tom Rothe got injured during this game, as he twisted his ankle while sprinting and is out for around the next month. Not happy at the moment at all. Saturday 27th September 2025: Borussia Dortmund 0-0 Freiburg (Bundesliga) September has been a dire month, the worst month in my time in charge of Borussia Dortmund, as we drew 0-0 against Freiburg. There were two highlights for this game, and that was it, although we had the chance in both. Only a boring 0-0 draw to cap an awful month on the pitch. September Results: How quickly football can do you dirty. Just months ago, we were Bundesliga champions. This month, we've forgotten how to win. We lost 2-0 to Bayern Munich in the first game of the month, and we didn't know how badly this could go, it just got worse. We then drew 1-1 against Monaco in the Champions League, which wasn't a bad result. But then we lost 2-1 away to Union Berlin, before picking up a dud 0-0 draw against Freiburg. Bundesliga Table Update: Eintracht Frankfurt lead the way after 6 matches, sitting on 15 points. Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg are only two points behind them, with Augsburg sat in fourth on 12 points. Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen both have 10 points apiece, with RB Leipzig sat in 7th on 9 points. At the bottom, Borussia Monchengladbach are already starting to fall adrift on 1 point. Hertha Berlin are 2nd bottom on 4 points, and both Greuther Furth and Union Berlin have 5 points, with Freiburg on 6 points. Champions League Update: We are currently sat in 24th place, but we have only played 1 game, which we managed to draw against Monaco. Final Word: It's been tough, so tough and it could be a thing to jump before I'm pushed to be honest. In the next few months, it may cross my mind to look through the other leagues and see if there are any big teams struggling, because I don't see us winning anything this season at this rate, and I never want to waste a season. If things don't improve in the next month, it will be a case in point of having that look. If you don't think I should, and that I should stick this season out, let me know, but this is a worse start than ever before. I hope you enjoyed my suffering, and I will be back next time.

Glory Hunter - Borussia Dortmund - 2025-26 Season - August Here we are, August 2025, and a brand new season, and a season where we will probably have everyone wanting to get us being champions. We have a new goalkeeper, we have a new back-up goalkeeper, but now we have to do without Marco Reus in the middle galvanising the team and pulling us forward. Where do we go from here? We must take the DFB-Pokal more seriously, and that's where some of the signings and the try-outs in pre-season have come from. Julien Duranville has definitely put himself forward into contention after scoring 3 goals in 2 pre-season games, which normally wouldn't count for a lot, but considering one of those games was against Porto, and he got two goals in that particular game, so it definitely brought my attention to him that little bit more. August Fixtures: We have six fixtures to kick off 2025-26, with 5 matches being competitive. We start away in Italy, against Bologna in our final pre-season friendly, and try and continue our 100% pre-season record. We then face the DFB-Pokal winners, Bayern Munich, in the traditional curtain-raiser between the League Champions and the Cup Winners, and yes, I will milk it every time. We then travel to Sandhausen of the third-tier, our affiliate club, but it doesn't matter who you have to play in the Cup, you must beat every single one. In our fourth game of the month, we finally begin our Bundesliga title defence away at Hoffenheim, before carrying on against Stuttgart, and finally, we finish at Eintracht Frankfurt, in what definitely could be a tough start to the season. Alexandre Penetra from AZ Alkmaar: We have a brand new starting right-back to kick this month off, as Alexandre Penetra signs from Dutch side AZ Alkmaar for £39.5 million, on a 5 year contract until the end of the 2029-30 season. He's better off playing in the full-back role in this team which is fine by me. He actually won the Eredivisie title with AZ Alkmaar just two seasons ago, a shock title win which took the Netherlands by storm. He's also got 2 caps for Portugal, where he started his career, coming from the Benfica academy. He's a strong leader, with both leadership and concentration up at 16. He can also play centre-back and will win balls in the box. His crossing is strong, and his acceleration, agility and just his physicals just in general are pretty good. I'm looking forward to putting him in the team. Saturday 2nd August 2025: Bologna 2-1 Borussia Dortmund (Pre-Season Friendly) A game that really only had the goals and not much else, despite our efforts on goal, ended up in a 2-1 away defeat in Bologna in our final pre-season match. Gulliksen and Ferguson exchanged passes, which led to the former running into the area. He hit the shot, but Lotka saved it, but unfortunately, Karlsson was lurking and popped it into an open goal. A Tom Rothe corner from the right found Filipe Relvas in the box in the 90th minute, and his header made it 1-1. Unfortunately, we didn't come out of pre-season unbeaten. Gulliksen set up the winner in the 92nd minute. An initial cross from the right was blocked, but he then rolled it along the floor into the box, picking up Duelund. He took a touch and swivelled it into the top corner to win the game 2-1. Two Injuries: A couple of injuries to update you with. Soumaila Coulibaly, who still hasn't played for me in three seasons, I noticed, is out for about two weeks with a pulled abdominal muscle. Our other injury is Mario De Luis being out for up to 4 weeks, although not our number 1 goalkeeper, I did plan on making him my number 2, which means Lotka will be on the bench for the next few weeks. CONCACAF Gold Cup Team of the Tournament: So obviously there was some sort of glitch, but for some reason, despite Giovanni Reyna having that injury that would have kept him out for the start of the season, and should have brought him home from this tournament, he still played in every game for USA, with the team making the final, but losing to Jamaica 2-1 in extra time. Giovanni Reyna made it into the team of the tournament, and hopefully will be on it when he comes back. Ryan Sessegnon on loan to Clermont Foot: I did sign him last season from Tottenham on a free, but he hasn't been good enough really to play for us regularly, and I decided he should be sent out on loan to keep him going. Clermont from France came in with the offer, and he will be playing there until the end of the season. Saturday 9th August 2025: Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Bayern Munich (DFL-Supercup) Our first competitive game, and it's clear we need to improve in defence after this result. We actually played really well... for the first five minutes. Tom Rothe set up the first goal of the game with a corner from the right, Sule rising up quickest to get the club's first goal of the season. Chotard gave Bayern Munich their equaliser, his pass back to Atubolu was short and Mathys Tel got his first of the game, by dinking the ball over our new keeper for 1-1. Bayern Munich took the lead just 6 minutes later. The ball was only cleared as far as Goretzka. He played the ball forward to Diaby, who ran through past the defence on the right, despite our best efforts, and he fired through the keeper's legs for 2-1. Diaby played a long ball from the right through to the middle of the area, and again Tel ran through with his man losing him, and he fired home effortlessly, to give Bayern a 3-1 lead at our place. That's how it finished, and it's clear we've got more to worry about than what we thought we did. Jamie Bynoe-Gittens is recalled: He could be important for the team going forward now, with his appearances for Wolfsburg helping him out at this level, so I'm going to see if he's ready for the first team squad, and see if he can do anything for the team as we look to defend our title and win everything we enter. Julian Rijkhoff to Mainz 05: One of our young strikers has gone to a fellow Bundesliga side in Mainz 05, and he should be able to get minutes there. It's literally just a case with most of these transfers and loans that they won't be playing for us in the first team, so I send them off/out to get first team football. Good luck to Julian. Wednesday 13th August 2025: Sandhausen 0-4 Borussia Dortmund (DFB-Pokal First Round) An injury to Sandhausen's goalkeeper must have stumped their confidence as we went on to score four unanswered goals in the second half, to complete a comprehensive victory, which sends us through to the second round. The first two goals were carbon copies of each other. Two passing moves of many passes just inside the Sandhausen half, both times found Duranville on the left, who slid it across both times, and on both those occasions, Steinbauer, a wonderful U19 striker, tapped it home into the bottom right hand corner for both 1-0 and 2-0. Bynoe-Gittens set up the third goal, running down the right, and keeping hold of the ball, until he found the head of Steinbauer and he nodded home to complete a hat-trick on his first team debut. Tom Rothe set up the fourth from a corner from the right, and at the near post was Filipe Relvas, who sealed the passage through to the second round. Almugera Kabar to Dordrecht on Loan: Another player classed as a decent young prospect, Almugera Kabar, is going out on loan to Dordrecht of the Netherlands for the rest of the season. Gustav Aabro to Sandhausen on Loan: I believe this is the first time we've sent someone to Sandhausen this season. Gustav Aabro is another decent young goalkeeper, but with two young goalkeepers already in our squad that have just joined the club, we might be ok for a few years now. DFB-Pokal Second Round Draw: And just when you thought we'd seen the back of this rivalry. Our second round match will be a tie away to local rivals, but now second-tier team, Schalke 04. I'll be looking forward to this match. Season Preview: So, the day has come where the season is about to get under way. But let's take a look and see where the media now think the teams will end. It's still Bayern Munich who are favourites to win the title for the first time since the 2022-23 season. We're expected to be in second place this season, but we were meant to be there last season and look what happened. RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen are favourites to get the two other Champions League spots, with Eintracht Frankfurt and Wolfsburg expected to make the Europa League spots, and Freiburg are predicted in 7th. Greuther Furth and Hertha Berlin are now the two favourites to get automatically relegated, and for the second season in a row, Bochum are down there, but again, as I said in the June update, look what happened last season. Sunday 17th August 2025: Hoffenheim 0-1 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) We started our title defence with a hard fought defensive performance at Hoffenheim, and we held on for a much earned win away from home against a really tough team to beat. It was a neat passing move starting with Adeyemi, who played it to his right to Julian Brandt, and Giovanni Reyna was set free inside the area, and he slotted home into the left hand corner for 1-0. That was after 11 minutes and for the rest of the game, Atubolu earned his stripes as he made some top saves to keep us in the lead. We got away with a potential Hoffenheim equaliser, but Beier was miles offside for the goal. We held on, and we get the opening day 3 points. A Couple off to Sandhausen: Two youngsters are going to ply their trade in the 3rd tier this season at our affiliate club, with both Nick Cherny and Charles Herrmann going to Sandhausen for the rest of the season. Soheil Lobe to Sandhausen on Loan: Another promising player is off to Sandhausen, Soheil Lobe going to the third-tier side. Fourth Player to Sandhausen: It's like they're going to have an entire team there at this rate, Tyler Meiser going out on loan to Sandhausen for the rest of the season. Arne Engels Injured: Little bit gutted about this one. I do allow my players to play in reserve matches if they need the fitness, and Arne Engels has picked up a torn hamstring, which will leave him out for 2 months after sprinting during one of these games. That's the risk footballers take, but a little bit gutted it's happened to a player I'm giving more of a chance this season. Salih Ozcan to Galatasaray: Salih Ozcan put in a transfer request with it looking like he wanted a return to Turkey as both Galatasaray and Fenerbahce came in for the Turkish international. In the end, it was Galatasaray taking him after paying £11,500,000 for his services. He will be missed but he goes back home with a Bundesliga title medal so hopefully he can build on that in the Turkish Super League. Saturday 23rd August 2025: Borussia Dortmund 4-0 Stuttgart (Bundesliga) Our first home game of the Bundesliga season sends us back on top of the league for now, as we thrashed Stuttgart 4-0 at Signal Iduna Park. Tom Rothe's delivery from the corner on the right was perfect again as he found Niclas Sule at the back post to get us on the mark in this game. Joris Chotard got his first goal for the club, after a move from the left led to Kiwior playing it in to Chotard, who turned, and shot low from the edge of the box for 2-0. Sebastian Haller opened his account for the season from the penalty spot, sending the keeper the wrong way as he powered into the top left corner. The final goal was a thing of beauty. Malen ran down the right but had nowhere to go, so played it back to Chotard. He saw Emre Can in the box, so lifted it up and Can caught it sweetly, first time, on the right foot volley as we took all three points in our first home league match of the season. Julien Duranville to Marseille on Loan: He was great in pre-season and it seemed like I was going to use him in the first team this season. But I looked back through my squad, and I really couldn't guarantee anything this season. I've sent him across to Ligue 1 though this time, so as not to humiliate us should we play him, and he will play for the French giants until the end of the season. Cristian Medina from Boca Juniors: For the first time in this save, we have signed someone from Argentina, and more specifically Boca Juniors. Cristian Medina is a 23-year-old centre midfielder, who can play as a playmaker of some form basically which is good to see. His vision is quality at a 16, and his physicals are strong with 16s for agility, natural fitness, and stamina. He's got the long shots going for him, his first touch is at a 14 as well to name but a few. He could definitely fill a hole in midfield, but saying that, we've got a lot of strong midfielders at the football club. But it gives me a good headache at least. Nicolas Steinbauer to WSG Tirol: He scored that great hat-trick on his professional debut for Borussia Dortmund, so obviously can score when he needs to. I've sent him out to WSG Tirol in Austria on loan until the end of the season, where he will try and score loads of goals in the Austrian Bundesliga. Bundesliga Team of the Week: 26th August 2025: We have players in the team of the week for the first time this season, with Atubolu, Sule, Chotard and Kiwior getting into it this week after being our best performers in that handsome 4-0 win against Stuttgart. UEFA Champions League League Phase Fixtures: I'm not being funny, that is a horrible set of fixtures in the Champions League. I know we're Champions of Germany, but you're literally meant to get easier teams aren't you? Or was I just dreaming? We start at home to Monaco which looks quite winnable compared to what we've got coming up. We have a double header in England, as we travel to both Liverpool and Arsenal back to back. We then face three games at home, as we kick off that run against Celtic, and then both Milan clubs are coming to Signal Iduna Park, as we face AC Milan first, and then finalists from last season, Inter Milan will come to Germany. We will then travel to San Sebastian to face Real Sociedad, and we finish things off against Shakhtar Donetsk away. Saturday 30th August 2025: Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) I did sort of say this would be the toughest of our opening three games this season, but it is always disappointing to lose a game with few highlights and few chances for both teams. It was a free-kick that undid us in the end. Guerreiro played the free-kick, and he very much floated it (it stayed in the air for eternity) but as the ball came down, Ahmedhodzic looped the ball over Atubolu with his head and that would end up winning the game for Frankfurt. Our first defeat of the season, and something we will have to get over quick. August Results: So we started this month with a 2-1 friendly defeat away at Bologna, before losing the Super Cup 3-1 to Bayern Munich after going 1-0 up. We just couldn't deal with Mathys Tel that day. We followed that up by comfortably getting through our DFB-Pokal First Round tie 4-0 against Sandhausen. Then, we started our Bundesliga title defence with back-to-back wins, starting with a 1-0 win at Hoffenheim, and a 4-0 home win over Stuttgart. We lost our final game of the month 1-0 to Eintracht Frankfurt. Here's the early table. Bundesliga Table Update: And in fact, it is Eintracht Frankfurt that have won their first three matches of the season, and are the only team to as well. Both Augsburg and Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten and both sit on 7 points. We lead a trio of teams early on with 6 points, alongside Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg, but ahead on goal difference. Greuther Furth are not enjoying their first season back at the top level so far, having lost their opening three. Borussia Monchengladbach are struggling as well, with 1 point from three matches, and already conceding 12 goals in the process. Both RB Leipzig and Union Berlin have 2 points. Final Word: That's it for the month of August then, and on the pitch, we've had a mixed start. Bayern Munich drew first blood against us, but we've made a reasonable start to the league season, and also made light work of the DFB-Pokal First Round. We must win that tournament to complete the German leg of the save. I'm happy with the signings we've made and it may be the end of my purchases, but we do have deadline day on the next update, coming out tomorrow, so never say never. Salih Ozcan leaving was a blow for us, but there was no point in trying to keep him around as he was causing trouble. But I would say, we've had a good Summer. When we come back, we have Bayern Munich in the league, and we also begin those tricky looking Champions League matches. I don't think we'll be top eight this season, but as long as we get at least 24th this time, it'll do me. See if we can do it this season. Thank you for the support. I'll see you next time.