The Impossible Rebuild

23rd June 2049

It's been 13 long years since Manchester United last lifted a trophy and since beating Bordeaux in the UEFA Europa League final in Turin things have gone from bad to worse. The club went into administration in July of 2041 and were relegated in April of 2044. The club managed to bounce back at the first attempt the following season, but a few years later the club are back flirting with relegation again, finishing 16th and just 7 points clear of the relegation zone.

The club are no longer amongst England's elite nor are they a force to be reckoned with in Europe.

It's been 41 years since they last won the UEFA Champions League in 2008, 36 years since they won the Premier League in 2013, 18 years since they won the FA Cup in 2031 and 26 years since they won the Carabao Cup in 2023. The club must now accept it needs a big rebuild if it's to have any hope of recapturing it's former glory days under former manager and club legend Sir Alex Ferguson.

Highly successful Spanish manager Garry Nacho has taken over at Old Trafford following the departure of Dannie Lower.

The 45-year-old Spaniard has plenty of experience in the Premier League after stints with Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur.

Nacho famously won back-to-back Premier League titles and 2 FA Cups during his spell at the London club before making the move to Spain to manage Real Madrid. He went on to enjoy incredible success with the Spanish giants as he won 9 La Liga titles in a row, 6 Copa del Reys, 5 Supercopas, 4 Uefa Super Cups, 2 FIFA Club World Cups and 5 UEFA Champions Leagues.

Can you send me the save file please? I'd love to give this a shot

It's a pretty big save file so I don't think it'll let me send it via a PM.

I'll look into uploading it on Mediafire or something this weekend.

SEASON 1 WRAP

27th May 2050

A big season of change at Old Trafford and a largely successful one too. On arrival at the club, it became pretty clear that the squad wasn't good enough to compete at this level and I guess that would have been obvious to anybody with eyes as the club almost suffered relegation in the previous season. There was a lot of movement in and out of the club as we sold £267 million worth of players and spent £95 million. The board only allocated 30% of transfer revenue so the job was made somewhat tougher with that restriction.

In terms of transfers our best was without doubt the signing of Rafael Barbosa for just £10 million. 10 goals and 11 assists in 29 league appearances was a fantastic return from the 21-year-old in his first season in the Premier League. 17 goals and 14 assists in 38 total appearances across all competitions saw the Portuguese player quickly become one of our key players and amongst the first names on the team sheet.

Another player that proved to be crucial to our performances this season was Spaniard Juanma Canete. 24 league goals and 7 assists in 36 Premier League games saw him almost win the golden boot, but he missed out on that individual award on virtue of playing more minutes than the eventual winner. His partnership with Barbosa, who usually played on the right wing, was at times irresistible and Manchester United fans will be hopeful of what the pair can produce together next season and beyond.

If you'd offered me an 8th placed finish at the beginning of the season I'd have done cartwheels. To have been expected to finish 13th-14th at the beginning of the season and having the board ask for only a mid-table finish it was clear how far this great club had fallen. We're obviously a long way off Chelsea and Arsenal at the summit of English football, but slow and steady wins the race and the first season of this rebuild has been a success. Thrown into the mix was a narrow semifinal exit to Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup and victory in the FA Cup final against Newcastle United, meaning we'll play UEFA Europa League football next season.

Interesting seeing a save start so far in the future. Will be following this

Will you be uploading the saved file later? please im eager to attempt this.

I've uploaded the file to MediaFire.

You'll just need to start and add a manager, good luck!!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/jt9ev01zfiq66g3/Manchester+United+-+The+Impossible+Rebuild+18th+May+2049.fm/file

Cheers mate!! I've been playing this save for over a year and started at Division 12 Falconwood and been to the dizzying heights of Champions League glory with Real Madrid. Been my favourite and best career without a doubt!!

So far so good thankfully at Old Trafford though.

Yeah mate!!

Here's the link to the MediaFire file. You'll just need to download and add your own manager at Manchester United. Good luck!!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/jt9ev01zfiq66g3/Manchester+United+-+The+Impossible+Rebuild+18th+May+2049.fm/file

SEASON 2 WRAP

20th May 2051

My second season at Old Trafford has come to an end and whilst I'm absolutely delighted there's also an element of what could have been. When I took over the club had narrowly missed out on being relegated from the Premier League, so the immediate future was all about ensuring we retained our Premier League status and built for the future. Finishing 8th in my first season and winning the FA Cup was far beyond the club objectives set by our board and chairman, our second season was no different. A stunning season in which we still had a very slim hope of winning the league on the final day, eventually finishing 3rd and securing UEFA Champions League football was far beyond the finish in the top half objective we'd been set.

In truth I'd have been happy with finishing 8th again, so finishing narrowly behind eventual champions Newcastle United was a great achievement. We also showed a massive improvement away from home against the bigger sides like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Wrexham. We won away to Arsenal, Liverpool, Wrexham and should have beaten Chelsea too. We lost away to Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspurs, but the former was an improvement on last years 5-0 hammering. In fact last season we'd lost 5-1 away to Chelsea, 4-1 away to Wrexham, 5-0 away to Newcastle United and 5-1 away to Arsenal, so there were massive improvements on the road against the bigger clubs in the league.

The disappointment is knowing that had we been a little bit more experienced or professional or lucky we'd have won the league. You see we conceded injury time equalizers in 4 games that cost us a total of 8 points. A 98th minute goal at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, followed by 3 injury time goals at Old Trafford, our home, which really is the punch in the gut. Nottingham Forest in the 93rd minute, West Ham in the 89th minute and Bristol City in the 92nd minute. The latter hurt tremendously too as we were 2-0 up but conceded in the 85th minute and 92nd minute to drop 2 very valuable points.

We also failed to beat West Brom away, that game finishing 0-0. I only mention that as West Brom were eventually relegated with a very low total of just 14 points and a -58 goal difference. Looking back on it we probably should have won the league, but we just dropped too many points and perhaps that's on me as a manager as our squad has an average age of about 23 years.

There was also silverware to be had as we beat Arsenal in the Community Shield at Wembley. We started poorly and found ourselves 2-0 down, but got a goal back before half time through Rafael Barbosa to change the momentum of the game. Star striker Juanma Canete then grabbed a brace with goals in the 58th and 78th minute which looked likely to seal the win in normal time. However, perhaps as a sign of things to come for the season we conceded deep into injury in the 97th minute. In the end though it didn't matter as we held our nerve to win 5-4 on penalties.

We finished the season as we started it with silverware as we beat Real Zaragoza 3-2 at the Gijon International Stadium in Gijon, Spain in the UEFA Europa League final. We'd beaten the Spanish side 3-0 away from home in the league phase of the competition but were behind 17 minutes into the contest. In truth our first half performance was poor, but it was clear that our CAM and LW weren't performing well and the Spanish sides 5-man defence with 2 defensive midfielders sitting in front of them was proving very effective.

Stephen Henderby and Nikola Markovic were introduced at half time and the pair would go on to play big roles in the outcome of the UEFA Europa League final. It was a proud moment to see brave tactical decisions pay off but also knowing that I'd got it right when the players were signed many months ago. Henderby could be a world class striker or attacking midfielder I signed not only because of his potential, but to help with domestic and continental squad registrations. The teenager was also a steal at £25 million and I'm still not sure why Crystal Palace let him go so cheaply. Markovic was signed on a free transfer after his contract with Serbian side Crvena Zvezda ran out, his 59 goals in 141 career appearances enough to suggest he could be a helpful option on the left wing, up front or in the central attacking midfield role.

This season saw us again sell to spend, with a little bit more spent compared to last season. A total of £159 million was spent, but we did offset that by bringing in £298 million in player sales. It was tough to say goodbye to Dmitry Voronov and Mitchell Milne as both players were important members of the first team squad and had performed well for me last season, but in the end they both wanted to leave the club, and the fees were almost in the realm of bids you just can't turn down when you're turning around decades of mismanagement. Georgie Aherne, Emilio Russo and Patricio del Angel all left for substantial sums of money too as we chased younger players for the future to replace Russo and Del Angel.

We had signed Jakob Gram, Marley Hairyes, Rivaldo Garizabalo, Mohammed Balogun and Navajo Profijt last season, but it was clear to continue our improvement on the pitch we'd need to let them go and replace them with better options.

In terms of players joining the club some other big mentions would be Aodh Giurgi, Andre Thompson, Bas Verheul , Jose Romero and Micha Kessels. I feel like all of them will be important first team players beyond this season and Thompson and Verheul in particular played a big part in the most successful defence in the Premier League.

SEASON 3 WRAP

24th June 2052

My third season at Old Trafford and we've finally ended our wait to lift the Premier League trophy. 39 years since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club as champions, we've once again reached the summit of English football. In true Manchester United fashion however, it wasn't done the easy way, to quote the legendary Manchester United boss, ‘’Football, bloody hell.''

Going into the final day of the season it appeared like our chances of being crowned champions were slim at best. We sat in 3rd place behind Chelsea and Crystal Palace who played Ipswich Town and Wrexham on the final day respectively. Ipswich Town were in the relegation battle, as were our opponents and fierce rivals Manchester City. The big issue was we sat 2 points Crystal Palace at the top of the table and level on points with Chelsea, but our goal difference was 7 less than Palace and 5 less than Chelsea. I went into the day knowing Wrexham who sat 6th could beat Crystal Palace, but it was going to be a big ask for Ipswich Town to turn up at Stamford Bridge and get something against Chelsea.

The day started in the worst possible fashion as Chelsea raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 14 minutes and it seemed our title hopes were extinguished. Things went from bad to worse a minute later when Manchester City took the lead against us to stun everybody inside Old Trafford.

Going into half time we had some hope as Wrexham went ahead against Crystal Palace, but we remained 1-0 down and Chelsea still held their 2-0 advantage. Just 6 minutes after the break news filtered through at Old Trafford that Ipswich had got a goal back and we were alive again, if only just. Things quickly changed as moments later our left back Marcel Dobre was shown a straight red card. We were a goal down, a man down and needed a miracle to see us crowned champions. The hallmark of any great side or champions is a never say die attitude and when Rafael Barbosa scored an equaliser courtesy of the Manchester City keeper practically passing it directly to him for a tap in into an empty net in the 66th minute we believed.

Just 3 minutes later Old Trafford erupted as Ipswich Town made it 2-2 at Stamford Bridge and suddenly, as it stood, we were a single goal, a single moment away from winning the Premier League title. As time ticked by, we pushed for that goal, things remained level at Stamford Bridge and Wrexham continued to lead Crystal Palace 1-0 at the SToK Racecourse.

THEN IT HAPPENED!!! The 81st minute, Rafael Barbosa, a player I'd signed in my first season at Old Trafford for just £10 million popped up to net his 24th league goal and 34th overall of the campaign to put us on the verge of winning the Premier League title. Our number 7 delivering like so many former players had done in that famous Manchester United jersey before him.

As time ticked by things became more and more nervous inside the ground, decades of pain almost over. In the 93rd minute French wonderkid Daniele Grossi, who had come off the bench in the 86th minute, grabbed his first ever goal for the club with a stunning left footed strike into the top left corner to ensure we'd done our job.

We'd played our part and now all we could do was wait as referee blew for full time. Seconds felt like years, but then news from Stamford Bridge, Chelsea 2-2 Ipswich Town, full time.

All eyes turned to the SToK Racecourse and moments later it was CONFIRMED!!

MANCHESTER UNITED ARE CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND ONCE AGAIN!! Full time, Wrexham 1-0 Crystal Palace.

We had further business to attend to as we'd booked our ticket in the UEFA Champions League final.

We would play Spanish giants Atletico Madrid in the final at the famous Olympiastadion in Berlin. We couldn't have asked for a better start as Nikola Markovic popped up to put us ahead after just 2 minutes. Things went from good to great 12 minutes later when our Premier League hero Rafael Barbosa popped up to make it 2-0.

We made it 3-0 in the 69th minute as Markovic got on the scoresheet again, but our joy was short lived as Atletico got one back almost immediately. There was nervous moments towards the end of the game and we looked like we might fall apart as the Spanish side again had the ball in the back of the net in injury time with enough time to mount a comeback left on the clock. In the end however VAR ruled the goal out for offside, and we were crowned CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE for the first time in 44 years.

What skin are you using mate?

This is the skin I'm using mate!

https://sortitoutsi.net/content/64067/wtcs-gold

SEASON 4 WRAP

6th July 2053

A fourth season at the helm of Manchester United has come and gone with much to be pleased about and a little bit to be disappointed over. It speaks volumes about where we are as a club now from when I took over that we have been so successful this season, yet there's more a feeling of what could have been instead of celebrating the actual success.

We started the season with the Community Shield game at Wembley against Crystal Palace. Without a doubt we should have won the game, but failure to take our chances left the door open for Palace to score late and secure the Community Shield. We made amends 4 days later when we beat Monaco 4-2 to claim a second successive UEFA Super Cup. We made it to the Carabo Cup Semi Final and somehow conceded twice deep into stoppage time to let Newcastle United back into the game. We had won the first leg 4-1 at Old Trafford and looked set to advance but would eventually crash out on penalties.

We won the Premier League title with a game to spare as we finished 11 points clear of Arsenal with the best attacking and defensive performances in the league. We only dropped 5 points at home as we lost 2-1 to Arsenal and drew 0-0 with Tottenham Hotspurs. We finished the domestic season by beating Wrexham in the FA Cup Final as Juanma Canete scored the only goal in a close fought contest.

The UEFA Champions League final was a night to forget in Bruges, not a fairytale at all as Levante scored early and held on for a narrow 1-0 win. In truth we were the better side for large parts of the game, but just couldn't find the equaliser. As we pushed forward searching for it and throwing caution to the wind Levante had a few chances to seal the win, but in truth after they scored they didn't look likely to add another. On another night we'd have got a goal and went on from there to claim our second successive European crown, but for now we must go away, lick our wounds and come back next season hoping to go one better.

The season ended with us finishing 3rd at the FIFA Club World Cup, beating Monaco 4-2 in the third-place playoff after we were disappointingly beaten 4-1 by Feyenoord in the Semi Final. A game that we again were the better side, but an early goal and two penalties really gave us no hope. On reflection winning the Premier League, UEFA Super Cup and FA Cup is another successful year and it's important not to get caught up in what could have been mentality. You can't win them all every single year.

There was some really big arrivals and big departures during the summer, the most notable being the Europa League and Champions League goalscoring hero Nikola Markovic who left for pastures new at Tottenham Hotspur for £43 million. I wasn't planning on selling the Serbian international, but after the arrival of Adam Duff during the summer, Markovic didn't want to stay. Captain Marko Brkic left for AC Milan for £60 million, as did striker Jose Romero for Juventus, whilst Harald Nouhoum joined PSG in a deal worth £48 million. Gennaro Sodini also departed, the Italian swapping England for Saudi Arabia as Al-Ittihad paid £40 million to sign him. Those 5 deals brought in over £250 million and we made sure to replace departing quality players with quality players.

We signed elite centre back Jacques Ndongala on a free transfer after his contract at FC Utrecht expired.

He immediately went into the first team squad replacing Harald Nouhoum. We did well to beat some of Europes other elite clubs to seal the deal for the defender and his experience and defensive ability should prove crucial in our pursuit of further Premier League and UEFA Champions League success.

We then spent £53 million to bring in Belgian international Santo Hilligsmann from Benfica.

The plan is to have Ndongala and Hilligsmann become the main centre back partnership for the next few years. 45 appearances in his debut season with 5 goals was a solid start from the 6'6 giant.

What I thought was going to be a signing for the future turned out to be a signing for right now. Sergio Farinos cost us just £9 million when leaving Mallorca for Manchester. He quickly became a key member of our first team squad, scoring 15 goals in all competitions and notching 10 assists in his 55 total appearances. He made his Spain international debut on the back of his great form and to date has 4 caps and 1 goal for his country. He was also named as the 2052 European Golden Boy at the age of 20 and I'm extremely excited to see how Farinos goes over the next few years.

I already mentioned that we had signed Adam Duff and that transfer was one of the main reasons Nikola Markovic had left for Tottenham Hotspurs. An £80 million deal was struck with Fulham and Duff, who came through the academy system at Fulham, signed a 5-year deal on £220,000 a week. We also have the option to extend that contract by 3 years if we wish to do so and there's a good chance Adam Duff will be at Old Trafford for a very long time.

Another impressive signing that had a very good debut season. Argentine international Gustavo Fabris joined from Boca in a deal worth just £17 million and had a very good season. He and Adam Duff are both competing for the left wing starting position, but Fabris offers us a lot of rotational options as he can play at CAM or ST and proved extremely valuable throughout the season. A world class player, with a fantastic attitude and at just 21 years of age he's one of many exciting players who may have a very long career at Old Trafford.

With the departure of Jose Romero the club moved swiftly to secure the signature of Morgan Colley. Born in Manchester and a product of the Manchester United academy, Colley had actually joined me at Real Madrid on a free transfer back in 2043.

Now almost 10 years later he returned to where it all began. Colley was fantastic in his first season back, scoring 18 times and assisting 19 times in 55 appearances in all competitions.

SEASON 5 WRAP

29th May 2054

At the end of my fifth season at Old Trafford I think it might be time to say the rebuild is all but complete. Another successful season on the pitch as we broke domestic records and became the most successful team in Premier League history. Winning the league title by a staggering 29 points ahead of rivals Manchester City is one thing, but we also broke their points record in doing so and wrote our season into the history books and our 33 victories in one season is also a new Premier League record.

We started the season with a convincing win over Arsenal in the Community Shield final as goals from Adam Duff and Martin Granados saw us claim more silverware.

Everything was going to plan as we won 3 games on the bounce to begin the Premier League but then came our wake up call. We were knocked out on penalties in third round of the Carabao Cup by EFL Championship side Plymouth. We were the better team, but we didn't take any of our chances and in the end our Carabao Cup exit was confirmed via spot kicks. In the end Arsenal would win the competition, but magically Plymouth made it all the way to Wembley after beating EFL League One side Carlisle United in the fourth round, EFL League One side Swansea City in the quarter final and Premier League powerhouse Wrexham in the last four.

Our UEFA Champions League campaign was one to forget as we crashed out in the round of 16 at the hands of fierce rivals Manchester City. I'm not sure what went wrong over the two legs, other than the obvious that we conceded 6 times. It's so rare we have poor results and performances so close together, but it just stings even more that it came against our Manchester rivals. In the end that's football, but mark my words, we'll be back in Europe.

Perhaps spurred on by our European exit we made no mistake in the league as we romped to our third consecutive Premier League title.

From our final 9 games we won 8 and drew 1, never conceding more than a single goal in a game and scoring 24 goals.

The only side to actually take points from us was Manchester City in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. We also managed to book our spot in our second consecutive FA Cup final after seeing off Fulham, Sheffield United, Southampton, Charlton Athletic and Aston Villa to book a date with Arsenal at Wembley. The final was another tight game, entertaining and tight, but thankfully we came out on the right side of the result. French international Daniele Grossi the hero, his 12th goal of the season securing us our second consecutive FA Cup final and a domestic treble of Community Shield, Premier League and FA Cup wins.

Our transfer business for the season was certainly different from the last few years with a lot less spending and a lot less player turnover. At the beginning of the season highly experienced pair Aaron King-Keeley and Eivind Leirvik Maalen joined on free transfers. Both players joined as 33-year-olds, but as top professionals they've barely lost a step since I had them both at Real Madrid. In the end come January both would leave, Maalen for Saudi Arabia and King-Keeley back to Spain to join Atletico. I feel like they'd helped our young midfield go to another level in the 6 months or so they'd been at Old Trafford and don't regret bringing the pair in as both joined on free transfers.

Daniel Ward, Dragos Oprea, Zoran Duric and Harlin Fara are all players that may or may not breakthrough at Old Trafford, only time will tell, but we will continue to sign young promising players who could either go on to become first team players here or elsewhere.

Our two biggest signings were promising Turkish international Metincan Kilickan and Tomas Gomez. Come the end of the season at just 21 years of age Metincan has 20 caps for his country and has emerged as my preferred choice in our defensive midfield role. Gomez, just 22, has also made the breakthrough at international level and has been capped by Argentina twice and has already scored his first goal for his country. Gomez was a signing that needed to be made in January as both Sergio Farinos and Raul Buil were out injured for about 2 months. That was going to leave us short in midfield, so Gomez was brought in for a steal at just under £9 million. His future is however uncertain as he wants to be a regular starter and with Henderby, Farinos, Buil and Grossi all here it's tough to see all 5 players remaining happy. A nice headache to have and a lot to ponder as a decision may need to be made to move someone on next season.