Jay Mann - Journeyman (FM21)

Season One - 2020/21 - A Career Begins

On the 24th October 2020, Jay Mann finally realised his ambition of becoming a Football Manager, accepting a job offer from Welsh Tier Two side Port Talbot Town.  At that point Town were next to bottom in the Cymru South League, with a record of one win and nine losses from ten games played.  They were also out of both cup competitions, the Welsh FA & League Cups, having lost in the first round of both.  This was going to be some challenge…

Having reviewed the squad, Mann proceeded to bring in no less than 14 new players on free transfers between January and June, including the legendary Harry Owen (ask Loki Doki) from Cardiff Met Uni.  With these squad additions and a fairly solid tactic employed, Town improved greatly over the course of the second half of the season, eventually managing a 6th place finish (out of 16).  A promising start to Mann's career.

What would season 2021-22 have to offer?

Season Two - 2021/22 - First Silverware

Quite a lot as it turned out…

Further squad re-shaping took place in the summer of 2021, no money spent in fees but a good looking crop of youngsters released by professional clubs was brought in.

Remarkably, Mann's rebuilt, and ever evolving, squad finished as Champions of the Cymru South, thus claiming the only available promotion place.  Next season would be in the promised land of the Welsh JD Cymru Premier League!  

Both cup competitions saw good runs from Town too:

Nathaniel MG Welsh League Cup - Semi Final - Lost 1-4 to TNS

JD Welsh FA Cup - Quarter Final - Lost 3-4 AET to Penybont 

Personal honours came Mann's way too as he was named Manager of the Month three times and, ultimately, Cymru South Manager of the Year.

Season Three - 2022/23 - Tier One Football, a Cup Win, and Itchy Feet

Following the somewhat surprise promotion the previous season, it was no shock to see Port Talbot favoured for an instant return to the Cymru South.  However, as Melchett once said, “Au contraire, Blackadder!”.  

A summer spent bulking up and re-shaping the squad paid off, big style, as Town enjoyed an excellent start to life in the JD Cymru Premier Division, threatening the European places for a time, before fading badly down the stretch to finally finish in fifth position.  A none too bad first effort back in the top tier though.

The excellent results continued in the cup competitions, most especially in the Nathaniel MG Welsh League Cup, which the club won:

Nathaniel MG Welsh League Cup Final - Won 1-0 vs Connah's Quay

JD Welsh FA Cup - 4th Round - Lost 2-3 AET away at Bangor City

Personal honours came Mann's way once again too, as he was named JD Cymru Premier Division Manager of the Year.

As the season drew to a close and thoughts began to drift towards next season, Mann was beginning to think that he had taken Port Talbot Town as far as he could. What then would the future hold?

Season Four - 2023 - New Club, New Country, and a Relegation

Season 2023/24 began slowly for Port Talbot Town, enforcing Jay Mann's conviction that it was time to look elsewhere.  After a fairly short search, he secured himself a job in the Republic of Ireland's Premier Division, as manager of Drogheda United.

He resigned from Port Talbot on the 16th September 2023, with the team at that point in 7th place (out of 12) in the JD Welsh Premier Division.  Sadly, Town completely imploded following Mann's departure, ultimately finishing in 11th place and suffering relegation back to the Cymru South Division.  In a strange quirk of fate however, the Footballing Gods weren't to spare Mann himself from relegation that season either…

Leaving Wales for the fair shores of Ireland, Mann immediately took over at a Drogheda United side themselves battling relegation, and at that time sitting in 9th place out of 10 in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.  With the Irish football season being played out completely within a calendar year, the 2023 season had just 10 league games left to run.  The first of these under Mann's management was away at Finn Harps, the only side beneath United in the table.  An incredible 6-0 win for Mann and his new charges had everyone thinking that staying up was a real possibility.  Then reality hit…

Failing to win any of the remaining 9 games, Drogheda finished in 9th place, meaning that they would be involved in a two-legged Promotion/Relegation Play Off with the second placed team in the First Division.  This was Dublin based Shelbourne FC, who would host the first leg.  Earning a 1-1 draw, thanks to a 95th minute penalty, had Drogheda's hopes high with the home leg coming up in just 3 days time.  Hopes that were dashed in the 74th minute, with Shelbourne grabbing the only goal of the game to seal a 2-1 aggregate win and thus a swap of divisions with Drogheda.  Not the best start to life with a new club it had to be said, but Jay Mann was made of stern stuff and he resolved to bring United straight back up.

Season Five - 2024 - Bouncebackability

Jay Mann may have resolved to take Drogheda United straight back up to the Irish Premier Division, but resolving to do something, and then actually doing it, aren't always that easy.  However, 12 new players were brought in (10 on free transfers, the other 2 on loan) and indeed Mann was as good as his word, leading his team to a League of Ireland First Division winning points total of 56 (from 27 games, losing just 3), and finishing 6 clear of second placed Galway United.  Cup Final appearances in two competitions were also attained, though both were lost to Premier Division opposition:

Irish FA Cup - 1st Round - Lost 1-2 away to U.C.D

League of Ireland Cup Final - Lost 0-1 to Derry City

Leinster Senior Cup Final - Lost 6-7 on pens to Dundalk, following 1-1 AET draw (0-0 after 90 mins)

Mann was named as League of Ireland First Division Manager of the Year, and he also picked up two Manager of the Month awards enroute.

A fine season all round then, but how would United fare back up in the highest division?

Season Six - 2025 - Landlord, make mine a Double!

Having led Drogheda United back up to the Premier Division at the first time of asking, Jay Mann was under no illusions that his job for this season was simply to keep them there.  Ahead of the new season, seven new players were recruited, all on free transfers.  The most notable of these was former Real Zaragoza and Manchester United youngster Mateo Mejia, who had just been released by Norwich City. Hopes were high for the 5ft 11in Colombian striker, and his signing certainly paid off big time as he scored 27 goals across all competitions.

Those goals were pivotal in driving Drogheda to a quite incredible Premier League and FAI Cup double, with a further trophy, the Unite the Union Champions Cup, thrown in for good measure.  The latter competition was a two-legged affair, played between the Premier Division champions of Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The League title meant of course that United qualified for the Champions League, which they would enter at the First Qualifying Round stage.  That would not be until July 2026, by which time they would be over half way through the league season, due to the calendar year nature of Irish football.  In six seasons then, Jay Mann had gone from a total football managing novice, to leading a team into the Champions League.  Quite some achievement!

Cup competition summary:

Irish FA Cup Final - Won 1-0 vs St Pat's Athletic

Unite the Union Champions Cup Final - Won 5-3 on aggregate vs Cliftonville (Away 1-3, Home 4-0)

League of Ireland Cup - 2nd Round - Lost 1-2 AET away at Longford Town

Leinster Senior Cup - 4th Round - Lost 1-3 away at Shamrock Rovers

Mann was named as League of Ireland Premier Division Manager of the Year, and he also picked up one Manager of the Month award.

Now though, things were going to get really interesting…

Season Seven (Part One) - 2026 - One season, three European competitions?

As reigning Irish Premier Division Champions, Jay Mann knew that his team were now the prime target of everyone that they would play against in the league this season. After all, beating the Champions is a fine scalp for anybody.  With that in mind, and knowing that they were going to be involved in extra matches this season thanks to their European qualification, Mann signed a further six players for the squad, even spending money on one of them! £5K bringing in centre-back Emmanuel Bayiha from divisional rivals Shamrock Rovers.

The season was to begin with an appearance in the President's Cup, the annual curtain raiser between the previous season's league and cup winners.  An exciting game saw Drogheda lift yet another piece of siverware, with a Mateo Mejia hat-trick seeing them to a 3-2 win over Waterford.  Mejia still in the goals was a good sign, and in the early part of the season he was regularly on the scoresheet as Drogheda once again mounted a title challenge.  Until, in late May, disaster struck as United's goal-scoring talisman suffered an injury that was to keep him out for four months.  June ended with Drogheda lifting another cup in the shape of the Leinster Senior Cup, but with league form beginning to dip and European games just around the corner, the Summer months were set to be a real challenge.

Ah yes, Europe.  Starting out in the Champions League First Qualifying Round, Drogheda would go on to actually take part in all three European competitions that season, thanks to UEFA's curious policy of rewarding failure.  Any team knocked out of one competition would drop into it's junior partner, i.e. from the Champions League into the Europa League or from the Europa League into the Europa Conference League, rather than just being straight-out eliminated from Europe.  Strange perhaps, but Drogheda certainly profited from it.

European competition summary:

Champions League First Qualifying Round - Beat Universitatea Craiova of Romania 3-2 on aggregate (Home 2-0, Away 1-2)

Champions League Second Qualifying Round - Lost to Hammarby IF of Sweden 2-5 on aggregate (Away 1-2, Home 1-3)

Europa League Third Qualifying Round - Lost to FC Honka of Finland 1-2 on aggregate (Home 0-0, Away 1-2)

Europa Conference League Fourth Qualifying Round - Beat FK Suduva of Lithuania 3-0 on aggregate (Away 0-0, Home 3-0)

Qualified for Conference League Group Stage - Group G, finished 3rd - Opponents, Athletic Bilbao of Spain (Away 2-4, Home 0-2), FK Astana of Kazakhstan (Home 4-1, Away 0-2) & GS Apollon of Greece (Home 1-4, Away 0-3)

Domestically, Mejia returned too late to arrest United's slide down the table and they eventually finished in a disappointing 6th place.  

Cup wise, they won two (as described above) and made home exits from the other two:

Cup summary: 

President of Ireland's Cup Final - Won 3-2 vs Waterford

Leinster Senior Cup Final - Won 5-4 on pens vs Shamrock Rovers after 2-2 AET draw

Irish FA Cup - Quarter Final - Lost 0-1 at home to Shamrock Rovers

League of Ireland Cup - 2nd Round - Lost 1-2 at home to St Pat's Athletic

Mann won a single Manager of the Month during the season, but now that it was completed he was formulating ideas of moving on again.  Both of the clubs that he had managed so far had been semi-professional.  What would it be like to manage a full-time, professional side?

Season Seven (Part Two) - 2026/27 - Palermo Faith

Jay Mann resigned from Drogheda United on 7th November 2026.  It took almost three weeks for him to find employment again, getting his wish for a professional team in the shape of Italian Serie B side Palermo, who he signed up with on November 26th.  In keeping with both of his prior appointments though, the team that he joined were battling against relegation, at that point sitting 19th out of 20.  With four relegation places at the foot of the table, and 23 games left to go, Mann certainly had his work cut out for him once again.

Of the first six league games under Mann, Palermo failed to win any, drawing three and losing three (also going out of the Coppa Italia within that sequence).  Their first win under him did not come until 16th January 2027, a 4-1 mauling of Perugia.  Having seen what the team was crying out for, a goalscorer, Mann had entered the January transfer market for a former Palermo marksman, Kevin Cannavo. Brought in from divisional rivals Brescia for £50K, Cannavo, who had struggled for goals at both of his previous clubs, soon turned out to be a pivotal signing.  Opening his Palermo account with a debut brace in that win over Perugia, Cannavo's return to a former stomping ground seemed to rekindle something within him.  After scoring in each of his first four games back at the club where he had started his career (also having scored 12 in 34 when he returned for a loan spell back in 2021/22), he went on to score a total of 14 goals across the last 17 games of the season, lifting his side to a 16th place finish, and safety.  Or was it?

The rules of Serie B actually dictate that if the team finishing 16th, and thereby outside of the relegation places, are fewer than 5 points ahead of the team finishing in 17th place, then the two of them must take part in a two-legged Playout to see which of them is relegated. With only a single point separating Palermo from Chievo Verona, a Playout it was, Chievo hosting the first leg as the lower placed team. And what a Playout!

Palermo lost the away leg 2-3 and, trailing 0-2 at half-time in the return, were staring Serie C squarely in the face.  Somehow though, Mann galvanised his men for one last super effort, and miraculously they fought back to level the aggregate score up at 5-5, goals in the 66th, 83rd and 84th minutes taking this pulsating encounter into extra time.  The extra 30 minute period did not produce any further goals, so penalties were going to be needed to decide it.  Palermo made an ominous start to the shoot-out however, when ace goalscorer Cannavo (who had actually failed to net in either of the two legs) saw his opening kick saved.  Remarkably though, Chievo contrived to somehow miss all of their opening three kicks, Palermo settling down after Cannavo's miss to win the shoot-out 3-2 and thereby ensure a further season in Serie B. 

Heart-stopping stuff, but Mann clearly had something to work with here, and hopes were therefore high of making a better fist of things in Serie B next season.

Cup summary:

Coppa Italia - 4th Round - Lost 1-0 AET away to Hellas Verona

Season Eight - 2027/28 - Take Palermo up to Serie A?  Don't be Sicily!

Prior to beginning the new Serie B season, Jay Mann brought in six new players to Palermo. for a total net outlay of £200K.  Following last season's brush with relegation, could things be better this time around?  In a word, yes!

Having begun the season's competitive games with an early, Qualifying Rounds, exit from the Coppa Italia, Palermo started the new league season with a bang, losing just one of the first ten games. A four game sequence of 3 defeats and a draw in late October threatened to de-rail things, but with Kevin Cannavo again amongst the goals (netting 21 in all competitions) the ship was soon steadied. A very consistent run of form between November 2027 and April 2028 set the Rosanero up for a fine 3rd place finish, and with it an unexpected place in the promotion play-offs. 

First up would be a two-legged Semi-Final with 6th placed Frosinone, the first leg to be played away. A superb performance from Mann's team led to a 4-0 win (including two from Cannavo) and with it almost certainly a place in the Final.  A ‘back down to earth' 0-1 loss in the home leg helped to focus minds again, no bad thing with a two-legged Play-Off Final to come next against Reggina, conquerors of Empoli in their Semi-Final.

Having suffered a 0-2 defeat in the away leg, Palermo knew their task for the home fixture, in which a goal in each half gave them a 2-0 win for a 2-2 aggregate score. Ah, you are no doubt thinking, extra time then.  But remember, this is Italy where little is as clear cut as that!  No, Serie B rules at the top end of the table state that if the aggregate scores are level at the end of 90 minutes in the second leg, then the team that finished the higher of the two in the final league table are declared the winners, as the ‘highest seed’.  So with that, Palermo were on their way up to Serie A!  If there was a schedule (there wasn't!) then Palermo were certainly way ahead of it and would do very well indeed to avoid coming straight back down again.  More Mann magic would be required in season 2028/29.

Cup summary:

Coppa Italia - 2nd Qualifying Round - Lost 5-4 on pens away to Benevento after 3-3 AET draw

Season Nine - 2028/29 - Serie A and a flyaway Jay

Before the new season had even started, Palermo manager Jay Mann was already plotting a way out.  Taking a completely selfish view of things, he basically did not want his burgeoning reputation in the football world to be tarnished by Palermo's enevitable relegation back to Serie B.  The squad had done remarkbly well to gain promotion via the play-offs the previous season, but no-one was under any illusions that that had been a massive over-achievement and that the squad they had, and with only just under £3million having been spent on reinforcements, was nowhere near good enough for Serie A. The way the season turned out was exactly how Mann thought it would (see below for more detail) but even before September was out he had left Sicily for new horizons (also see below).

However, right at the beginning, the season of disaster that was to unfold for Palermo was not evident from the first few results. Thumping Serie B side Hellas Verona 5-2 in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Coppa Italia (four goals there from Kevin Cannavo) was followed by a decent performance in a 0-2 defeat away to AC Milan in the opening Serie A game.  The following fixture, at home to Napoli, ended with an amazing 3-1 win for the hosts but, remarkably, they were only to win one more game in the entire remaining season!

Whilst all this was going on, Mann had been working on his escape strategy.  Without being able to put his finger on exactly why, he had been keeping a very close eye on Swedish side Malmo.  The former giants of Swedish football, Malmo had last won the league title (the Allsvenskan) back in 2021, and in the current campaign (which was drawing to a close as the Swedish season is played out between February and November within a calendar year) they were mired in mid-table. Visions of grandeur perhaps, but Mann really fancied himself as being the one to restore Malmo to the top of the Swedish game.  Trouble was, their current manager was continuing to hang on. For now…

Then, on 10th September 2028, came the news Mann had been hoping for, Malmo's manager, Christian Jardler, had been sacked following a 0-1 home defeat against Orebro SK.  Rarely had a job application been submitted so quickly!  Without wishing to burn all his bridges however, he denied press questioning about him being in for the Malmo job, and also kept a close eye on the jobs market for any other interesting looking propositions. Then a week later came the offer of an interview with Malmo, which was held online (oh, the technology these days) and which, Mann thought, went well.  Then, silence…

What turned out to be Mann's last game in charge of Palermo was a 0-0 draw at home to Vicenza on 24th September.  The following day came a message from Malmo, they wanted to offer him the job, but there was a stumbling block.  They were unwilling to pay the level of compensation that Palermo were demanding, so could Mann do anything to make himself available?  He resigned from Palermo that same day.

After a very nervous couple of weeks waiting, the then out of work Mann was very relieved when, on 10th October, Malmo finally came through and finalised their job offer. Mann agreed to sign on the spot and immediately booked himself a flight to Sweden.  Malmo had three league games left in the 2028 season, and he wanted to make an early, and positive, impact.  That aim was achieved when his new side won two of those games, drawing the other, without conceding.  Malmo finsihed in 7th place (out of 16).

Jay Mann did have a tinge of regret at leaving Palermo the way he had, but at the same time he had personal ambitions in the game, and truly felt that he had now found exactly the right club to help him achieve those.  Friendly fixtures would begin in mid January 2029, and Mann could not wait!

Palermo summary, post Mann

To say that Palermo disintegrated following Mann's departure (in much the same way as Port Talbot had done when he left them) would be one of the understatements of the century.  From when Mann left on the 25th September, right through until a final day 0-6 spanking at Serie A Runners-Up Juventus, Palermo only managed one solitary win under new manager Michele Ferrara, a 2-1 success at Brescia in mid-February, with Kevin Cannavo scoring both goals. Cannavo finished as their leading goal scorer again, though he only managed eleven across all competitions. Needless to say, Palermo finished rock bottom of the 20 team Serie A, amassing a mere 13 points. 

Their overall record from the 38 league games was:  W2 D7 L29 F19 A75 Pts13

Season Ten - 2029 - Well, that's an improvement!

The break between seasons is quite long in Sweden, fixtures ending in November for one season, before the next starts competitively in February of the following year. This time around at least, Jay Mann found a lengthy break refreshing and, ultimately, very useful.   The Malmo squad he had inherited needed quite an overhaul, they had only finished 7th last season after all, and the board had given him a very healthy transfer budget with which to do so.  The break between seasons gave Jay plenty of time to review what he had, plus what, or rather who, he wanted and didn't want. 

The main transfer window in Sweden opens in mid-January, and runs through to the first week of April.  There is then a shorter window from mid-July to mid-August. By the time the January 2029 window opened, Mann had completed his shopping list.  By the end of the month he had spent £8.7million and brought in eight new players, all costing a fee bar one free transfer.  There was a failed attempt to sign Kevin Cannavo from Palermo, but whilst the club accepted Malmo's offer the player himself did not want to move to Sweden. The three biggest signings out of the eight made were Peter Runald, an attacking midfielder from IFK Goteborg for £3.5million, Max Christensson, a defensive minded midfielder from Helsingborgs IF for £2.3million, and striker Emil Johansson from Orebro SK for £1.2million.  Most of that outlay was then offset by an influx of Chinese money, club Henan Songshan paying £3million for midfielder Noah Shamoun, and then returning just over a week later to spend £5million on central defender Nemanja Simeunovic.  Mann was well happy, he had vastly strengthened the Malmo squad, and was not far off breaking even in doing so.

Playing, and winning, six friendlies set Malmo up nicely for the start of the 2029 competitive action. This was to be the group stage of the Swedish FA Cup (the Svenska Cupen) which opens up with eight groups of four teams, each playing each other once.  Only the top team from each group progresses, making the first knock-out round the Quarter Finals.  Curiously, the competition actually begins towards the end of the previous season, there being two knock-out rounds played (Allsvenskan teams entering at the second round stage) to decide who will compete in the group stage at the beginning of the following season.  Malmo won all three group games, to progress through to the Quarter Finals quite easily, wherein they recorded a 2-0 win at home to fellow Allsvenskan club Degerfors IF.  The draw for the Semi-Finals then pitted Malmo away against one of their main competitive rivals, and reigning Allsvenskan champions, Hammarby IF.  This would be a good measuring stick as to how Malmo now stood, with their new manager and re-vamped squad.

A full house crowd of 32,000, at Hammarby's Tele2 Arena, were treated to quite a spectacle, one that took extra time to decide.  Trailing by a single goal, Malmo scored in the 82nd and 85th minutes to put themselves within touching distance of the Final. Sadly, Hammarby conjured up a 92nd minute equalizer, before going on to win the tie 4-2 with a goal in each half of extra time.  Hammarby would ultimately lift the cup, beating fierce local rivals Djurgardens IF 2-0 in the final, before going on to take the 2029 Allsvenskan title too.

Running the league champions so close was a real boost for Mann and his men, and they made a superb start to the new league season off the back of it, losing just twice in their opening eighteen games.  One of those losses was a 0-1 reverse at Hammarby.  Clearly there was going to be quite the struggle to overcome this lot in the coming seasons!

Malmo would go on to lose just three more times before the end of the season, including a 0-0 draw in the return fixture with Hammarby, recording a fine 3rd placed finish.  That was good enough to qualify them for European football for the following season, in which they would compete in the Europa Conference League, starting out in the Second Qualifying Round.  They also successfully negotiated the Second Round of the Svenska Cupen, thus qualifying for next season's Group Stage, narrowly winning 2-1 at home to tier three side IFK Lidingo.

The next season would be a very interesting one, to say the least!

Season Eleven - 2030 - An unbeaten season!

Yes, Jay Mann led his Malmo FF team through the whole of the 2030 season unbeaten in any competition.  Granted they made an exit from Europe at the first time of asking, but that was on away goals after two draws, so still no matches were actually lost.

Following the previous season's 3rd place Allsvenskan finish, hopes were high of an even better campaign this time around, last season's double winning Hammarby IF not withstanding!.  Afforded the luxury of a warm weather training camp in Portugal at the end of January, Malmo put the finishing touches to their new season preparations.  Two new players of note had been signed in readiness, 21 year old right back Kalle Dolk coming in from Kalmar FF for a fee of £1.5million, and 20 year old striker Ivan Henriksen, a Danish youngster just released by rivals Hammarby IF.  As per usual, the competitive action would begin with the Svenska Cupen Group stage, followed by the Quarter and Semi Finals.

Malmo cruised through their group with 3 wins out of three, before 1-0 wins against Halmstads BK (home) and Degerfors IF (away) took them through to the Final.  This would not be played until the end of May though, by which time the league season would be nearly half way through.  Oh yes, and it would be against Hammarby IF, with the game scheduled to be played in their stadium!

At the time of the first league meeting between the two, on 15th May, Malmo were of course still unbeaten and Hammarby, who would be hosting this game, had lost just once.  A full-on encounter ended in a 1-1 draw, Peter Runald's late first-half penalty equalizer for Malmo giving them a point, and perhaps showing Hammarby that this season Malmo meant business!  That would be put to the test again only two weeks later when both sides returned to the Tele2 Arena to contest the Svenska Cupen Final.  In that game, Malmo made a poor start, falling behind after just six minutes, only for that man Runald to come up with a late first-half equalizer again. It was deadlock from there on in though, the game finishing 1-1 after extra time.  In the subsequent penalty shoot-out only one kick was missed, crucially by Hammarby. Young Serbian midfielder Luka Milojevic rammed home the winning kick (for a 5-4 scoreline) to scenes of absolute pandemonium in the away end and on the Malmo bench.  Hammarby had been taken down (just!) on their own patch, and Malmo had taken their cup off of them!  Would the league title now follow?

Next up for Malmo though was their entry into Europe.  The draw for the Second Qualifying Round of the Europa Conference League had pitted them against Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia, the first leg to be played in the Bulgarian capital.  A 0-0 draw there seemed to have set things up nicely for the home leg, played only a week later, but after 90 minutes of that game the score was again 0-0, meaning extra time would be played. Malmo fell behind in the 96th minute, and whilst they managed to equalize, through Emil Johansson in the 121st minute, it was not enough to stop them being eliminated on away goals.  Winning the Svenska Cupen meant that Malmo would be back in this competition and round next season, but Mann had more heady European heights in his mind. He now wanted the league title to be secured so that he could return to the Champions League.

An unbeaten run-in to the end of the season, featuring yet another 1-1 draw with Hammarby IF, saw Malmo indeed claim the league title. They did so setting a new league record points total of 70 (winning 20 of their 30 games) and finishing a massive 14 points clear of second placed Hammarby. A place in next season's Svenska Cupen Group Stage was secured too, with a 4-0 win at home to tier three side IFK Haninge in the Second Round.

Mann sent his men away for the between seasons break with the message that this was just the beginning.  Next season they would do this all over again, plus they would put on a much better showing in Europe.  Did they?  Watch this space…

Season Twelve (Part One) - 2031 - Title Number Two Please

In late January 2031, Jay Mann took his league and cup double winning Malmo FF squad to Cyprus, for a warm weather camp where they would begin plotting how they could repeat the previous season's successes.  Going unbeaten again for the whole season was highly unlikely, but challenging for honours and going further in Europe were the targets.

Transfer wise, January was a very busy month for both in and out goings.  Just under £4million was spent on three new players, whilst five went out.  Of the outs, two were released on frees, one went on loan, and two went to China for big money again (a total of £10.8million). The biggest sale was Finnish international centre-back Ville Hakala, who went to Guangzhou Evergrande for a fee of £7million,  Hakala had been signed from FC Honka in his homeland for £1million two years before, so Malmo made a hefty profit on him in that time. The other player heading to China was a defensive mid-fielder, the Spaniard Javier Serrano. Having joined from Las Palmas for a fee of £750K also two years previously, he now headed off to Henan Songshan for £3.8million.  The outlay of just under £4million went on:

Danish striker Matias Thogersen from Kalmar FF for £1.6million

Finnish international winger/attacking mid-fielder Marius Konkkola from Royal Antwerp for £1.3million

Norwegian defensive mid-fielder Bjorn Bjorna from Bodo/Glimt for £1million

Once again the season's competitive action kicked off with the opening phase of the Svenska Cupen, Malmo winning their group with the usual 3 wins out of 3. That set them up with a home Quarter Final versus fellow Allsvenskan side Kalmar FF, whom they brushed aside 5-1 with a hat-trick from Emil Johansson and a brace from new signing Konkkola. They relinquished their grip on this trophy in the Semi Final however, going down to a 0-1 defeat at IFK Norrkoping, the winner coming via a 90th minute penalty. Norrkoping would go on to have a Final to forget though come late May, losing 0-3 to Orebro SK.

The start to the new league campaign was somewhat unsteady too, the opening three games seeing a win, a draw, and a loss.  That loss, coming in the third game of the season, was a wholly unexpected 0-5 home drubbing by Halmstads BK. If ever a team had been given a wake up call, this was it!  Malmo slowly and surely got themselves back on track, though not before suffering two more surprise home defeats in May, 0-1 vs Orebro SK and 0-2 against Kalmar FF.  As the season rolled on into July there was some consternation that with the European fixtures shortly to begin, Malmo's now very good league form would suffer.  In fact the opposite was true and Malmo's splendid showing in the Champions League Qualifying Rounds, and subsequently the Group Stage of the Europa League, seemed to spur them on to even greater heights in the Allsvenskan. 

Apart from a potentially damaging wobble during October, the last full month of the season, Malmo went on to clinch a second successive Allsvenskan title, finishing eight points clear of Runners-Up Djurgardens IF, with great rivals Hammarby IF a further two points back in 3rd place.  The two games with Hammarby during the season had ended in a 0-0 draw away, with Malmo then enjoying a last day 2-0 win. Lifting the trophy that day too made the victory even sweeter.

The late season Svenska Cupen qualifying rounds for next season's Group Stage once again saw Malmo going through convincingly, tier three side Husqvarna FF being put to the sword in a 5-1 home mauling.

Malmo's European adventures are worthy of their own little section here, so please stand by for Part Two of season 2031. 

Season Twelve (Part Two) - 2031 - Play 14 games in Europe? That's almost half a league season!

Yes, such was the progress made by Jay Mann's Malmo FF in Europe in 2031 that they ended up playing almost half a league season's worth of fixtures (14 all told). Such a run provided quite the challenge to what wasn't the biggest of squads, but they coped with it admirably.

The first step on the path was a Champions League First Qualifying Round tie against KF Shkendija Tetovo from The Republic of North Macedonia. With the first leg being played in their own Eleda Stadion, Malmo were determined to make the most of home advantage. Something they did well and truly, winning 7-0 including a hat-trick from Emil Johansson. In the away leg, played just a week later, Malmo were even more clinical, running up an outstanding 11-0 win for an overall aggregate score of 18-0! That second leg featuring four goal returns for both Ivan Henriksen and Luka Milojevic.

Next up was a Second Qualifying Round tie against Romania's Universitatea Craiova, a team that Mann had already beaten in Champions League action a few years before, when in charge at Drogheda United. Having lost the first leg 0-1 away from home, Malmo made home advantage count again in the second leg, with an Emil Johansson brace helping them to a 3-1 win on the night, meaning a 3-2 success on aggregate.

The Third Qualifying Round saw them drawn against Eastern European opposition again, this time in the shape of Hungarian champions MTK Budapest. Playing away from home in the first leg again, Malmo came away with a hard fought 1-0 win, thanks to a 92nd minute red card for MTK's Gordan Presecki and a resultant penalty conversion by Peter Runald. The second leg was a tight, cagey, affair that ended in a goal-less draw. Enough to send Malmo through to the Play-Off round, 1-0 on aggregate.

Reaching the Play-Off Round now meant that Malmo had secured themselves a place in the Group Stage of a competition for definite.  The question was, which one would it be? Beat Celtic and they would be in the Champions League Groups, lose and it would be the Europa League. Sadly it was to be the latter of the two as, despite holding a 1-0 half-time lead at Celtic Park in the first leg, a rampant display from the home side in the second half saw them run in four un-answered goals. Malmo restored some pride in the second leg, winning 2-1, but their 3-5 aggregate defeat skittled them into the Europa League Groups.

In that competition they were drawn into Group H, alongside Swiss champions FC Basel, the champions from the Czech Republic, Slavia Prague, and finally, from the Netherlands, AZ Alkmaar. Opening up with a 0-1 loss in Basel, followed by a 1-1 draw in Prague and a goal-less home encounter with AZ wasn't the best of starts to the group, but Malmo turned their form around in the return games. The Allsvenskan league campaign had finished, with Malmo of course becoming champions, by the time the first of the remaining three group games came around, a match that resulted in an excellent 1-0 win away to AZ Alkmaar. Basel were then seen off 3-0 in Malmo, before a 1-1 draw away to Slavia Prague gave Mann and Co a second place finish and a place in the First Knockout Round.

That knockout round would not however take place until the following February, when Malmo would take on Sporting Clube de Portugal, with the first leg away from home. However, by the time Malmo made their exit from the competition against Sporting, losing 1-3 away and then 0-2 at home, Mann had gone, lured away by the chance to manage in one of Europe's biggest leagues. Bizarrely, he would take over at one of the clubs that he had just eliminiated from the Europa League.

Season Thirteen (Part One) - 2031/32 - Once more a new club and a new country

English manager Jay Mann, reflecting in January 2032 on his career to date, came to the conclusion that he had achieved his aim with Malmo FF, which had been to restore them to the top of the Swedish game, from the doldrums that they had been in when he had taken over. In just three full seasons with the club he had led them to two Allsvenskan league titles, a Svenska Cupen win, an unbeaten season, and a run to the knock-out stages of the Europa League. Job done!

Taking his current reputational standing into account, Mann felt that now was the right time to be testing his mettle in one of Europe's big leagues. He realsied that, club wise, the Euro giants would still be out of reach, but he felt that he could certainly take on, and do well at, a club from the chasing pack somewhere. With January still being very much ‘sacking season’ he knew that there would be several jobs of interest out there.

Having always had an interest in the Dutch top division, the Eredivisie, he was intrigued therefore to see two clubs from that league's ‘chasing pack’ currently available, FC Utrecht and AZ Alkmaar.  AZ he knew fairly well of course, his Malmo side having just eliminated them from the Europa League Group Stage, finishing second ahead of AZ in third, following a 0-0 home draw and a 1-0 away win over them. Applications were made to both, and interviews swiftly secured with them both too. FC Utrecht quickly offered him the job, stating he was the ideal candidate, but Mann delayed accepting as, having seen them up close and personal, he just had a feeling that AZ was more the right club for him.

AZ Alkmaar indeed came through with a job offer on 8th January 2032, having been without a manager since sacking Henning Berg on Christmas Eve. Mann instantly resigned from Malmo, and was in Alkmaar by the evening, keen to get started on what he saw as a fantastic opportunity for progression for both him and his new club. The Dutch league was in the midst of it's annual winter break at the time, though AZ had a friendly at home to German giants Bayern Munich arranged for only two days after Mann took over. The ‘match made in Heaven’ vibe that Mann had about him and his new club was certainly enforced in that game, AZ winning 3-0. The next match saw the re-commencement of the Eredivisie season, and a 4-0 home triumph over MVV Maastricht had AZ fans believing that their club was now seemingly in very safe hands, following the turmoil that had led to Berg's departure.

The AZ squad that Mann inherited was certainly a very good one, as their 3rd place Eredivisie finish the previous season showed. Foremost among the players Mann now had at his disposal was Croatian international striker Stipe Vekic. Vekic, signed for £18million from Hajduk Split two years previously, was an excellent finisher whose superb off the ball movement made him a threat anywhere in and around the box. The lively Croatian would go on to score 21 times in all competitions, from when Mann took over, quite literally leading from the front as AZ put together a great run of results during their new manager's first half a season in charge.

Another player that Mann had much confidence in as being a big part in his planned AZ revival was another international, Dutch goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro. Mann was somewhat taken aback then when, on transfer deadline day, February 2nd 2032, German club Hertha Berlin triggered the keepers' sizeable release clause fee of £50million! Incredible money for a club like AZ Alkmaar to receive, but with only hours of the window left Mann had very little time in which to spend it. There was in fact only time to get one deal through, and that was to plug the hole left by the departure of Owusu-Oduro. In a clever move, Mann went to Hertha Berlin and signed, for just £3million, their now displaced goalkeeper, the Faroe Islands' international stopper Hedin Johansen. So, with a transfer budget kitty of at least £47million in the bank for next season, what could Mann and his inherited squad achieve before the 2031-32 season was out?

Season Thirteen (Part Two) - 2031/32 - Question, how do you win fans and influence people? Answer, win a European Trophy

When Jay Mann took over at AZ Alkmaar, in January 2032, they were in inconsistent form in the league and, in Europe, had gone from the Champions League qualifying rounds, down into the Europa League Group Stage, and then further down into the Europa Conference League knock-out rounds. It was that inconsistancy and somewhat fall from grace in Europe that did for then manager Henning Berg, a 0-1 Christmas Eve loss at mid-table Willem II Tilburg proving to be the final straw for the Norwegian.

From when he took over, through to the end of the league campaign in May, Mann led his AZ team on a run in which they only lost twice in the Eredivisie, recording ten wins and four draws in their other games. That run meant that they would eventually finish in 4th place, enough to qualify for the following season's Europa League Group Stage. They were though 12 points behind eventual champions Ajax, showing the size of the gulf to be bridged if AZ themselves wanted to be title challengers in the near future.

In the KNVB Beker competition (the Dutch FA Cup), AZ went all the way through to the Final. Mann's first taste of action in this competition was a Third Round tie at home to MVV Masstricht, AZ needing extra -time to win through by a 3-2 scoreline. The next round was the Quarter Final stage and a visit to FC Twente, where AZ again secured a 3-2 extra-time win. In the Semi-Final AZ were drawn away again, this time at fellow Eredivisie side PEC Zwolle. After a goal-less 90 minutes, it was club legend Ro-Zangelo Daal who came up with the only goal of the game to book AZ's place in the Final against one of the Netherlands' three giants, PSV Eindhoven.

The Final itself, played in front of a full house of 51,177 at Feyenoord's De Kuip stadium, was a soon to be forgotten affair in which both teams struggled to really get going. Shiloh t'Zand's 18th minute strike was all it took for PSV to retain the Cup, having beaten FC Twente a year before.

Whilst all this excitement was going on in the league and cup however, Mann was leading AZ on quite the European adventure. Having been pushed into the Europa Conference League from the Europa League Group Stage by, effectively, Mann's then team Malmo FF, AZ began in the knock-out rounds with a two-legged tie against Russian Premier Liga side CSKA Moscow. With the first-leg at home, AZ could only obtain a 1-0 win to take with them to Moscow a week later, courtesy of Stipe Vekic's 69th minute goal. AZ's travelling band of just over 400 hardy supporters were treated to a backs to the wall type effort from their team, the subsequent goal-less draw enough to see their side through to the next round.

The Second Knock-Out round, the so-called ‘Round of 16’, saw AZ drawn against English Premier League side Arsenal, then going through an indifferent campaign. They had just lost 1-0 to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup Final, and were also about to suffer a disastrous collapse in the league too, going on to finish in a highly disappointing 8th place. AZ were able to use Arsenal's current disarray to their advantage, thumping them 3-0 at home in the first-leg thanks to a marvellous hat-trick from that man Vekic, before securing a fine 1-1 draw at The Emirates a week later, with Vekic on target again. 

Next up then, a Quarter Final tie with French side Lyon, AZ again to be at home in the first leg. In that home leg, played in front of a capacity 30,000 crowd at the AFAS Stadion, Stipe Vekic kept up his incredible run of European goal-scoring, netting the only goal of the game in the 43rd minute. The secong leg proved to be quite the game, Lyon's Ozan Kabak's 7th minute goal being the only one of the 90 minutes, meaning extra-time. Vekic (who else?) gave AZ a 94th minute equalizer, only for Lyon to re-take the lead on the night just 3 minutes later. Vekic scored again in the 107th minute, before Lyon again re-took the lead with just 7 minutes left to play. From there, AZ managed to hold on to a 2-3 scoreline on the night, meaning that they progressed to the Semi-Finals via the away goals rule.  A close run thing indeed.

Semi-Final; this time AZ were on the road for the first leg, a visit to Portugal to take on the mighty FC Porto. Ro-Zangelo Daal's 92nd minute header gave AZ hope for the second leg, meaning as it did that they had a potentially vital away goal from a 1-2 defeat. As it turned out, that away goal wasn't needed as AZ recovered from conceding an 8th minute penalty in their home leg to record a 3-1 win and, with it, a 4-3 win on aggregate that took them through to the Final. Vekic and Daal were again on the scoresheet.

And so, in his first season in charge, Jay Mann had taken AZ Alkmaar through to only the second Final of a European competiton in their history. In their only previous Final, way back in season 1980/81, they had been beaten 5-4 on aggregate by Ipswich Town in the then UEFA Cup (now the Europa League). Could AZ go one better this time around and claim European glory?

Europa Conference League Final, 23rd May 2032, Vasil Levski Stadium, Sofia, Bulgaria. AZ's opponents for the game were Spain's Celta Vigo,surprising conquerors of AC Milan in the Semi-Finals. In front of a capacity attendance of 43,358, not to mention several million watching on TV, AZ were indebted to two more goals in Europe from Stipe Vekic, both in the first half. Celta's Tahith Chong pulled a goal back for the Spaniard's in the 88th minute, but AZ held out to claim the club's first ever piece of European silverware, a magnificent achievement.

Stipe Vekic was almost single-handedly responsible for his clubs' Euro success, scoring as he did a remarkable 13 goals in 18 appearances. Mann had quite the goal-scorer in his midst here and, provided they could keep hold of him, AZ were surely destined to succeed further in the coming seasons. Moving to the Netherlands was already proving to be a great decision for Jay Mann and his growing list of trophies.  More were surely going to follow…

Season Fourteen - 2032/33 - Close, but no cigar

AZ Alkmaar and their manager Jay Mann were under no illusions that now they were a European trophy winner, they would be expected to keep on challenging for honours.  To that end, Mann and his scouting team had spent the summer fully evaluating the squad, something that Mann had not had time to do following his appointment mid-way through the previous season. The expected transfer fund riches were not forthcoming however, following the £50million sale of keeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro to Hertha Berlin back in January, but even so a total of £9million was spent on new players, with £22.25million re-couped through sales.

The three biggest squad strengthening moves saw £4.5million spent on Boca Juniors' exciting young striker Federico Seoane, £2miilion going to Lille for experienced Dutch midfielder Teun Koopmeiners, and £850K paid to Sampdoria for another Dutch player, strong centre-back Rick van Drongelen.  The biggest two sales saw Australian striker Billy Quinn join Brighton for £6.5million, whilst winger Jacobo Acosta moved to French side Bordeaux for £4.5million. Pleased with the overall look of the squad now, Mann was optimistic for what the new season would bring.

And what it brought, at least early on, was a quite disastrous start to the Eredivisie campaign, AZ winning just one of their opening 6 games. Somewhat bizarrely the one win was a major 3-1 success away at PSV Eindhoven, a hat-trick from Stipe Vekic doing all the damage. One of the two losses suffered was a 0-3 defeat at Ajax, who were clearly going to be the team to beat again this season, as of course they were most seasons. Nevertheless, that excellent win at PSV showed that the squad had promise, and that would be proven over the rest of the season as AZ lost just twice more, finishing as Runners-Up to Ajax. This time around though they only finished two points behind the Amsterdam giants, ten less than the previous season, and also managed to beat them, 3-2, in the home return league game. Wim Jansen (see below) and Vekic were both on target in that game.

In the KNVB Beker, AZ enjoyed a run to the Semi-Finals, where home side Ajax put paid to their hopes of a second successive Final appearance with a 2-1 come from behind victory. The undoubted highlight of their cup run though was AZ's stunning 8-0 home crushing of ADO Den Haag in the Quarter Final. That match featured an incredible goal scoring feat from young home-grown striker Wim Jansen, who hit the net no less then five times. Jansen had appeared briefly the previous season, scoring twice in two appearances, but this was the season when he truly broke through. His return of 17 goals in 29 overall appearances (over half of those from the bench) backed up Mann and his staffs' thoughts that they had someone truly special on their hands.

With Ajax having put paid to AZ's hopes of a trophy on the domestic front, only Europe remained as a chance for silverware. This was to be in the Europa League, where they would start out in the Group Stages. The draw for the competition saw AZ placed into Group D with three teams that they definitely considered to be beatable. First up was LASK Linz of Austria, followed by Swiss side St Gallen and last but not least Legia Warsaw of Poland. A beatable trio? Absolutely. 

AZ won the Group easily, not conceding in any of their six games. A 1-0 home win over LASK got things going, before two 2-0 wins, on the road against St Gallen and then at home to Legia, saw AZ setting a fast early pace. Two away 0-0 draws followed, at Legia and LASK, before a closing 2-0 win at home to St Gallen wrapped things up, AZ finishing on 14 points, 7 clear of LASK. As group winners, AZ qualified for the Second Knock-Out round, and that was where the wheels well and truly fell off of their European campaign for this season.

Drawn against England's Tottenham Hotspur, who had dropped into the Europa League from the Champions League Group Stage, and who had narrowly beaten Glasgow Rangers in the First Knock-Out round, AZ knew they were facing a stern test. And so it proved as, in the first leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, they conceded twice in the opening 18 minutes.  Spurs rattled in three more in the second half and AZ returned home from London on the wrong end of a chastening 0-5 scoreline. A goal-less draw at the AFAS Stadion a week later saw AZ eliminated 0-5 on aggregate, against a Spurs side that would go on to reach the Semi-Finals, themselves then losing on aggregate to eventual cup winners RB Leipzig. 

Despite not having given the trophy engravers any work this season, AZ Alkmaar and Jay Mann were pleased with their achievements in 2032/33. Mann won the Managers' Manager of the Year as recognition from his peers as to the job he had done, and thoughts now turned to doing even better in 2033/34.

Season Fifteen - 2033/34 - AZ Alkmaar, Kampionen!

Having run Ajax close in the previous season, the AZ Alkmaar board backed their English manager, Jay Mann, with a fair amount of transfer budget, in order to best position the squad for the upcoming season. In a very busy summer window, AZ laid out just under £60milliom on new players, whilst offsetting a large chunk of that expenditure with sales of around £55million. 

The main position of expenditure, and personnel changes, was in goal. Mann had never really been convinced by Faroe Islander Hedin Johansen between the sticks, and was happy when the chance came to move him on to Wolverhampton Wanderers for £12.5million. A replacement for Johansen, and a player that Mann had been tracking for some time, came in from Real Betis for a club record fee for AZ that still stands to this day. A huge fee of £32.5million, plus back-up 'keeper Bas Verelst, saw the experienced Mikki van Sas joining. Two centre-backs were also brought in for large fees, £9.5million securing the purchase of Jan Paul van Hecke from Marseille, whilst a further £10.5million saw Kay van Beukering arrive from fellow Eredivisie club SC Heerenveen. 

Besides the sale of Johansen, other major fee departures were German midfielder Marvin Muller to the Greek side Apollon for £10.5million, Russian centre-back Alexey Bugorskiy to the same club for £13.5million, and a Danish centre-back, Lars Lund, who Mann had really wanted to hold on to. The lure of playing in the English Premier League was too great though and, in the end, Lund forced a move to Burnley for £29.5million.

The season began with an invitation, as previous season Runners-up, to represent the Eredivisie in the annual Johan Cruijff Schaal match. The reason for the invite was that the match is played between the previous seasons' Eredivisie and KNVB Beker winners, both of which had been Ajax. The game was held in Ajax's own Amsterdam Arena, but AZ managed to quieten the partisan home crowd down, with Wim Jansen's 49th minute goal securing a morale boosting 1-0 victory. AZ hoped that with that they had laid down a marker for the new season.

And indeed they had.  Losing only five times in the league all season, with the first of those, 0-1 away at PSV, not coming until late October, AZ went on to win their first Eredivisie title since 2024. They finished 3 points ahead of Runners-Up PSV with, most surprisingly, Ajax finishing down in 4th place and 11 points adrift of the new champions. Both league fixtures against Ajax ended all square, 0-0 in Amsterdam and 1-1 in Alkmaar, meaning that, overall, AZ were unbeaten in three games against last seasons' dominant force.

There was to be no chance of AZ repeating Ajax's double win of the previous season however, as Mann's side suffered a dismal third round exit at mid-table tier-two side FC Dordrecht. A 12th minute penalty was all it took for AZ to be skittled out of the KNVB Beker for another season. European competition was to provide much better pickings however, with AZ enjoying a run from the Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League, into the Group Stage, from where a third-placed finish then saw them ‘drop’ into the Europa League First Knock-Out Round.

The Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League saw AZ overcome Russian opposition, in the shape of Dinamo Moscow, a 2-0 home win and a 1-2 away defeat seeing them through 3-2 on aggregate. In the Play-Off Round, Belgian side RSC Anderlecht provided stern opposition, but AZ were able to progress with a 90th minute winner in the home leg giving them a 1-0 victory to add to the 0-0 draw from the first leg. A place in the Group Stage, with all the potentail riches that could bring, was secured. Now AZ waited to see who they would be drawn with.

When the draw came around, AZ were handed a pretty tough looking group. Valencia, who would be crowned Spanish La Liga Champions that season, Italian giants AC Milan, and Bundesliga club RB Leipzig was a formidable trio to be selected alongside in Group B. Opening up with a 1-0 home win over Valencia, thanks to Jan Paul van Hecke's 19th minute strike, was a fine start to proceedings, and AZ followed that up with another 1-0 win, away to Leipzig (Teun Koopmeiners with a 58th minute penalty). A great start indeed, but next up was two games with AC Milan. A 0-1 defeat away from home was followed up two weeks later with a 1-1 draw in Alkmaar, with Stipe Vekic on target. Seven points out of twelve had AZ in contention for one of the top two group places that would bring qualification for the knock-out stages, but sadly they were found wanting in the final two games.

After a 0-2 defeat in Valencia, AZ went into the final fixture at home to Leipzig with everything still to play for. A hard-fought game ended in a goal-less draw however, which frustratingly meant that AZ finished in third place, behind AC Milan by virtue of goal difference alone (and by just a single goal at that). So it would be the knock-out stages of the Europa League then, and an opening tie against Sevilla of Spain. And what a tie it turned out to be…

Staging the first leg at their AFAS Stadion, AZ claimed a 2-1 win thanks to a brace from Vekic. Just a week later and the two teams met at Sevilla's Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan stadium for the pivotal second leg. After a goal-less first half, Sevilla went ahead in the 69th minute through Matias Arezo. That meant that Sevilla stood to go through on away goals as the game entered the final ten minutes. In the 83rd minute though, AZ scored through Federico Seoane (remember him?), putting them in front on aggregate by 3 goals to 2. They held that advantage for the remainder of the 90 minutes, then on into stoppage time until, in the 96th minute, Sevilla's Polish midfielder Pawel Dziewicki found the net from range to enforce extra-time. Neither side could find a breakthrough in the extra 30 minutes, so the tie would be decided on penalties. Sevilla missed their opening two kicks of the shoot-out however, handing the initiative to Alkmaar. AZ scored with their first four kicks, meaning a 4-2 victory and a place in the Second Knock-Out Round.

Italian Serie A side AS Roma were to be the opposition in this round, with AZ hosting the first leg. That game, played out in front of a full-house crowd of 30,000, saw AZ garner a slender lead to take to Rome the following week, Jan Paul van Hecke and Wim Jansen both scoring in the first half to give their side a 2-1 win. The away goal that they had conceded turned out to be decisive though, as Italian superstar Danielle Facci scored the only goal of the game in the Stadio Olimpico, confirming AZ's elimination in the Second Knock-Out Round for a second successive season.

All in all it had been a wonderful season for Jay Mann and his now Dutch League Champions (the poor cup exit to Dordrecht not withstanding), and for the second season running his achievements were rewarded with the Managers' Manager of the Year award. The trick now of course was to try and do it all over again.

Season Sixteen - 2034/35 - Kampionen Take Two

In preparation for their Eredivisie tital defence, AZ Alkmaar were once again pretty busy in the transfer market. Just under £40million was spent this time, with three quarters of that sum brought back in by sales. The two biggest fees paid out were the £16.5million spent on Hajduk Split's young centre-back Pjero Srzentic, and £11.5million, plus a player, to ADO Den Haag for Danish defensive midfielder Jack Fenger. The largest fee received was the £21million that Newcastle United paid for Dutch Under 21 international centre-back Collin Ravensbergen.

As Eredivisie champions, AZ were once again involved in the Johan Cruijff Schaal, beating cup winners Vitesse Arnhem 1-0 through Stipe Vekic's late strike. Having qualified for the Champions League Group Stage automatically, as league champions. AZ looked forward to being able to get their league defence up and running nice and early, with no European qualifiying rounds to get in the way. At least, that was the theory…

Starting out with two straight wins, the second of which was a 2-0 success at home to Feyenoord, was a nice solid start, but no-one was prepared for what came next. Whether it was complacency, or just other teams knowing what to expect, AZ lost a stunning five of their next six league games, scoring just six times in those matches. Sandwiched in amongst those fixtures was a further loss, 0-2 away to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League opener. All of a sudden October, and it's seven matches in three different competitions, was looking like a pivotal month for Jay Mann and his reigning Eredivisie champions.

Opening the month with the fifth of the losses suffered in that six game stretch, a 0-1 loss at home to PSV Eindhoven, AZ suddenly got things back on track, in a big way, as quickly as though someone had just thrown a switch marked ‘brilliant form’. Of the month's remaining six games, AZ won three, drew two (one of those a 2-2 draw at Ajax, keyed by a Stipe Vekic brace) and just one loss. Frustratingly, the one loss saw Alkmaar evicted from the KNVB Beker in the very first round. Having had the bad luck to be drawn away to Ajax, AZ couldn't repeat the feat of a few weeks earlier and went down to a 0-1 defeat. That cup defeat came on the very last day of October, and it was to be February 20th 2035 before AZ lost any kind of match again!

In the intervening months of November to January, AZ went on a quite spectacular run in the Eredivisie, winning twelve and drawing two out of fourteen games. That sequence included 2-0 wins at home to Ajax and away to Feyenoord, and laid the foundations for a successful title defence that had looked most unlikely back in September. As it turned out too, the win over Ajax was vital in securing the title, as AZ finished a mere two points clear of the resurgent Amsterdam club in the final table. The run of superb form throughout the closing months of 2034 also saw Alkmaar recovering from the opening European loss to Dortmund, to go unbeaten for the rest of their five remaining group games. They finished a fine second, to Dortmund, in Group A, thus securing a place in the First Knockout Round.

The draw for the Group Stage had handed AZ a pretty tough looking assignment as, as well as German giants Borussia Dortmund, they were drawn alongside French Ligue 1 Runners-Up Olympique Lyonnais, and the reigning Greek champions, AS PAOK Salonika. Opening up with the aforementioned 0-2 loss in Dortmund, AZ got their European campaign up and running on game week 2, winning 2-0 at home to PAOK thanks to a Stipe Vekic brace. Game week 3 saw Lyon visit the AFAS Stadion, where a full house of 30,000 saw Wim Jansen on target in a 1-1 draw. The return game with Lyon was played two weeks later, a wonderful performance from AZ taking them to a solid 2-0 victory with Vekic again on target. Another full house saw a 1-1 home draw with Dortmund in game week 5, before Alkmaar clinched qualification in week 6, winning 3-2 against PAOK in Greece thanks to a Stipe Vekic hat-trick. The excitement was palpable when it came time for the First Knockout Round draw, a pairing with Italian giants Juventus, winners of the last four Serie A titles, being AZ's reward.

As the lower ranked of the two teams, AZ were to host the first leg, doing so on 20th February 2035 in front of yet another full-house 30,000 attendance. An attendance that was about to witness one of the craziest European nights in many a long season!

Just 31 minutes gone, and a Stipe Vekic brace had AZ up by 2-0. By half-time it was 2-2, Juve hitting back in the 37th and 43rd minutes with goals from Gavi and Matthijs de Ligt respectively. On 57 minutes, Alex Main had AZ back in front, only for Gaguik Morel to level things up again eight minutes later. Gavi got his second of the game in the 70th minute, only for AZ to level things up this time through Wim Jansen's 76th minute strike. 4-4, 14 minutes to go. Could this crazy game see yet more goals? The answer for AZ was yes, unfortunately. Gavi completed his hat-trick in the 79th minute to put Juventus back in front, and there was still time for Morel to add his second, and Juve's sixth, with just five minutes left to play. When the dust finally settled on a truly epic encounter, the final score read; AZ Alkmaar 4 v Juventus 6.

Three weeks later, in Turin, the teams were at it again! Juventus built up a 2-0 lead by half-time in the second leg, the 8-4 aggregate score at that point surely killing off brave Alkmaar. As it turned out that lead was indeed enough, but only just. In a storming second-half display, AZ took the game to their hosts and, thanks to a marvellous hat-trick from Wim jansen, turned the game around to win it 3-2. Losing 7-8 on aggregate to a team like Juventus was most certainly no disgrace, and indeed was proof positive of the job Jay Mann was doing in turning the Red And Whites into a real force to be reckoned with. 

With the Eredivisie title wrapped up on the final day of the season with a 4-0 thumping of relegated TOP Oss (Vekic claiming yet another treble) the scene was set for AZ to launch their quest for a ‘three-peat’ in season 2035/36.

Season Seventeen - 2035/36 - Once. Twice. Three times? A Maybe

In fact for Jay Mann, and his AZ Alkmaar team, there was indeed a maybe about the Eredivisie title in season 2035/36, though ultimately they were able to claim a third successive title, losing just five times en route. The title wasn't clinched until the final day of the season however, when a 3-1 win at home to PEC Zwolle ensured that they finished two points clear of surprise package sc Heerenveen. Heerenveen themselves had put in a fine season, even beating AZ home and away, both by 1-0. Indeed it was only their 2-4 defeat at PSV Eindhoven on the seasons' penultimate weekend that allowed AZ to go past them (beating ADO Den Haag 2-0 that day) to set up the nerve wracking final day. It was in fact only that loss to PSV that stopped Heerenveen from winning what would have been their first ever Eredivisie title. On the last day, and whilst AZ were beating Den Haag, Heerenveen beat VVV Venlo 4-3, meaning that if they had beaten PSV the week before then they would have been champions, ahead of AZ, by a single point.

In the lead up to the season, AZ were pretty quiet in the transfer market, the only two incoming signings of note being the purchase of a young Dutch defensive midfielder, Henk Sambo, from the French side Rennes for £5.75million, whilst an up and coming young striker, Jeremiah Taylor, was brought in on loan from Manchester United to provide cover up front. In terms of sales, only the exit of centre-back Matt Lodge to Basel for £5million was worthy of mention.

The season started well for Alkmaar, the annual curtain raiser of the Johan Cruijff Schaal itself being won for a third straight season. This time around it was cup winners FC Twente Enschede that AZ defeated, a brace from Stipe Vekic giving tham a 2-0 win on home soil. Beginning the league campaign with a run of nine games without defeat, including a fine 1-0 win away to Ajax in week two, laid the foundations for AZ's eventual title win. However, in late October the club experienced not only a mixed start to their Champions League fixtures, but for the second season running they suffered a First Round KNVB Beker exit, this time at the hands of a tier two side.

SV Kozakken Boys, from the small town of Werkendam, were the providers of one of the greatest cup shocks in quite some time, beating AZ by one goal to nil, after extra time.  That match was one of four consecutive defeats for Jay Mann and his men, two league defeats (one of those at sc Heerenveen) and a Champions League loss suddenly throwing some doubt on their season. Recovery to win the league we now know about, but what of Alkmaar's European campaign?

The draw for the Champions League Group Stage put AZ into Group F, alongside a varied selection of other teams. First up were the previous season's Serie A runners-up Inter Milan. Then came Spanish side Athletic Bilbao, who qualified via a fourth place La Liga finish, and Tottenham Hotspur, who had qualified as Europa League winners the previous season. The hardest game of the six group games would undoubtedly be the away game with Inter, and that was given to AZ as their opening fixture. A 1-4 humbling in the San Siro, with Wim Jansen on target, got AZ's campaign off to a poor start.

Alkmaar managed to recover from that on matchday two however, Onur Dogan's 39th minute strike earning them a 1-0 win at home to Athletic Bilbao. Matchday three saw AZ visting North London, to take on Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where a goal in each half saw the home side triumph 2-0. The return game against Tottenham a fortnight later ended 0-0, and on matchday five an 84th minute equalizer from Wim Jansen earned a 1-1 draw at home to Inter. 

As matchday six came around, Inter and Tottenham had already clinched the two top spots in the group, and thus qualification for the knock-out stages, but the way the group had gone overall meant that AZ knew that if they could avoid defeat away to Bilbao, then they would finish third and go into the Europa League. Stipe Vekic put Alkmaar ahead in only the 4th minute and, although Bilbao got a second half equalizer the game finished all square at one apiece, and AZ were in to the Europa League First Knock-out Round.

There was a real mixed bag of teams in that first round, and AZ were lucky enough to avoid Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig, and were paired with the Swiss side St Gallen. AZ made the most of being at home in the first leg, Wim Jansen again among the scorers as they recorded an excellent 4-1 win. Alkmaar won 1-0 in Switzerland a week later, to complete a comfortable 5-1 aggregate victory. Their reward was a Second Round tie against Spain's Valencia, who had cantered through their Europa League group with six wins out of six. A tough looking prospect indeed.

AZ's home leg finished goal-less, meaning that a win or score draw in Spain would put them through. Sadly though, they fell behind in the opening minute of the second leg, and following Serbian winger Sreten Veselinovic, on loan from Real Madrid, getting himself a straight red card in the 70h minute, they conceded twice more late on to crash out 3-0 on aggregate.

Following that European exit, AZ won five and drew one of their final six Eredivisie games to claim the title, for the third season running combining that honour with a win in the Johan Cruijff Schaal. Jay Mann had therefore led his side to seven trophies in just four and a half seasons, the first of which had been the Europa Conference League back in 2031/32. Would more follow?

Season Eighteen (Part One) - 2036/37 - A Dynasty is building, and then…

Jay Mann and his AZ Alkmaar side had now won three consecutive Eredivisie titles, and were hungry for more. The traditional big three Dutch clubs, Ajax, Feyenoord, and PSV Eindhoven, had been well and truly displaced by an AZ team that had been galvanised, from virtually day one, by Mann's arrival from Malmo in Sweden. In his first half a season in charge, having joined in January 2032, Mann led AZ to a stunning win of the Europa Conference League, both his and Alkmaar's first ever European trophy. Three straight league titles then followed, with the Johan Cruijff Schaal also being won in each of those seasons.

So it was then that the AZ hierarchy handed Mann a pretty decent sized transfer fund, with the full intention of now staying at the top of Dutch football for as long as possible. The first transfer business of the summer window though was outward, with two sales bringing in just over £42million. First out was Argentinian striker Federico Seoane, who was sold back to Boca Juniors for £8.75million. Seoane had been bought from Boca for £4.5million a couple of seasons before, but had never truly settled in the Netherlands and his undoubted potential was never fulfilled. The biggest sale of the two though was goalkeeper Mikki van Sas's move to then English Premier League side Reading for £33.5million. AZ turned a profit on both players, and Mann now set about replacing both. He did so with a trio of Brazilians.

The first of the three was a highly promising young striker (though that had been said of Seoane too!), ‘Lucas’ Hopkins (he was part American), who was signed from Gremio for £12million. He was swiftly followed through the door by ‘Jean’ Santos da Silva, a goalkeeper brought in from Spanish side Almeria for £13.5million. The final part of the trio was a part Poilsh centre-back, ‘Joel’ Kucharski, who came in from Athletico Paranaense for £10.5million.

Competetive action commenced with yet another winning of the Johan Cruijff Schaal, FC Twente Enschede again the opposition as AZ strolled to a 3-0 victory. A comfortable enough opening day 2-0 win at home to De Graafschap got things going in the Eredivisie, only for Ajax to apply the brakes on AZ a week later with a 3-0 humbling in Amsterdam. Only two further Eredivisie defeats would follow between then and the end of November however, as AZ once again laid out their credentials as title challengers.

In European competition, AZ had again been handed a mixed bag in the Champions League, being drawn into Group F with Hertha Berlin from Germany, Portuguese giants Benfica, and the regular Ukrainian champions Shaktar Donetsk.  Opening their fixtures with two defeats, 0-2 in Berlin and 1-2 at home to Benfica, was not a good start for AZ, and when game three away to Shaktar ended goal-less, it was clear that reaching the knock-out rounds this season was once again going to be a tough ask. And so it proved, despite a much better showing in the three return games. Matchdays four and five saw AZ twice win 2-1 at home, first against Shaktar, then against Hertha. On the final matchday, all four teams could still clinch a top two place. Sadly for AZ though, their 0-0 draw away to group topping Benfica saw them lose out to second placed Hertha (themselves 3-2 winners over Shaktar) on goal difference, and by just a single goal at that. They finished one point ahead of the Ukrainians though, meaning that they would compete in the Europa League knock-out rounds come February. As events turned out though, their first knock-out round defeat by Switzerland's FC Basel would be made without Jay Mann.

The more a team is successful of course, especially a team like AZ Alkmaar, then the more their manager is looked upon with envious eyes. And in January 2037 this was most certainly the case with Jay Mann and his fine achievements with a Dutch team that was normally considered to be outside the top few sides in the Netherlands. Linked very strongly with the vacancy at Arsenal, before that job went to the American, Jesse Marsch, Mann was then head-hunted by one of Portugal's big three clubs, FC Porto. They had just lost their manager, Phillip Cocu, to the Wales national team, and were looking for someone of experience to lead them into the second half of a season in which they were challenging for the Liga Nos league title, as well as having reached the first knock-out round of the Champions League and the semi-finals of the Portuguese cup, the Taca de Portugal. And Jay Mann was that man.

Having not considered the prospect of leaving AZ Alkmaar at all up to that point, upon reflection Mann decided that he had perhaps taken them as far as he could, and that a chance to manage a club as huge as FC Porto might not come around again any time soon. Porto had after all won the European Cup/Champions League twice in their history, and that was a trophy that he now very much wanted to win at least once before his career was over. With a very heavy heart then, but none the less excited for the future, on 30th January 2037 Jay Mann left AZ Alkmaar and was immediately announced as the new manager of FC Porto.

The Jay Mann ‘effect’ still ran very deep in Alkmaar however, as not only did they go on to win the Eredivisie for a fourth straight time that season, but they also won it for a further three consecutive seasons after that. After a one season break they then won it twice more, thus proving, if there even was any doubt, that the Jay Mann dynasty truly was a ‘thing’ even after he had left. The type of standing that the club now had was something that FC Porto were now hoping to achieve under their new manager. 

Season Eighteen (Part Two) - 2036/37 - Any Porto in a storm

Late in the afternoon of 30th January 2037, Jay Mann arrived at his new club's stadium, the impressive 50,033 all-seater Estadio do Dragao. Just looking around the place, and having acquainted himself with both the club's history and the current playing staff on his laptop during the flight down from the Netherlands, Jay could not help but think that he had landed squarely on his feet in landing the job of managing FC Porto.

His predecessor, Dutchman Phillip Cocu, had walked out on the club two weeks previously to take up the job as manager of the Welsh national team. Cocu had been popular with the fans, having won two league titles and four domestic cups, of varying degree, in just under five years in charge, and they saw his defection to Wales as nothing short of a betrayal. The heavy rain falling on the city of Porto therefore wan't the only storm that Jay Mann walked into that day.

With a following day Premeira Liga game away at CS Maritimo, based in Funchal on the Atlantic island of Madeira coming up, Mann had to hot-foot it from the stadium back to the airport to catch yet another flight. It would be just a watching brief for him that day however, as he hadn't even met the players and staff at that point. A very quick introduction was made in the dressing room, then Mann took a seat in the stand to watch his new charges run out 3-1 winners. That result kept Porto firmly in second place in the league table, just behind the previous season's runners-up Benfica, and a handful of points ahead of the reigning champions, Sporting CP (Clube de Portugal).

Mann and his team arrived back on the mainland ready to immediately begin training and working together for the first time, though there was not much time before the next game, away against Arouca in the first leg of the Taca de Portugal (the equivalent of the FA Cup) semi-final. Thankfully Arouca was a very short trip, based as they are just to the north of Porto. Mann's first team selection was good enough to secure a 1-0 win. The second leg, played just a week later, saw Porto comfortably reach the final, winning 5-0. The final itself, to be played on the last day of May, would be against Sporting CP, who had slaughtered Academica 12-3 in their two-legged semi.

That final would not be the only one against Sporting CP that season either. The two teams had met just a week before Mann's arrival, in the final of the Portuguese league cup, the Taca da Liga. That match, played in front of a full-house 61,410 attendance at Benfica's Estadio da Luz, had seen Sporting claim the trophy with a 3-0 win, all three goals coming in the opening 18 minutes. Mann had watched and re-watched a video of that game, in preparation for an imminent league clash between the two.

That game, played in Sporting's Estadio Jose Alvalade Seculo XXI, was a pivotal fixture in a title race that was just entering the final straight, each team then having just 12 games left to play. And it was a game in which Jay Mann instantly endeared himself to the Porto fanbase, leading his side to a fine 1-0 win courtesy of Mexican striker Luis Miguel Yamin's 74th minute strike. In the following ten league games, Porto won 9 and drew 1, setting up an incredible last day clash away to Benfica. The two teams went into that game locked together on 86 points, with Benfica top with a four goal cushion in goal difference. Avoid defeat then, and the home side would be Premeira Liga champions for a 47th time. By comparison, Porto at that point had 33 league titles to their name. 

The Estadio da Luz was packed to the rafters that day, and the crowd were treated to a spectacle befitting the occasion. Luis Miguel Yamin put Porto in front on 18 minutes, but by half-time Benfica had levelled things up. Colombian centre-back Javier Martinez headed Porto back in front just four minutes into the second half, but again Benfica came back to level. Slovakian international Jozef Huk's 74th minute strike putting his side back within touching distance of the title, given that they only needed a draw. Then, to the absolute delight of the just over 3,000 fans in attendance, and thousands more watching on a big screen back in Porto, Mann's side snatched the title from Benfica's hands. Brazilian winger, and club icon, Tutinho scored with just ten minutes remaining, and Porto then withstood a Benfica tidal wave of attacks to claim the first silverware of the Jay Mann era. Incedible stuff!

After the fervour created by that amazing last day title win had eventually died down, Mann had to get his men back and focussed on football, as they still had the final of the Taca de Portugal against Sporting CP to play. That game, played two weeks after the final league game, was a damp squib for Porto after the excitement of previous weeks, and a 17th minute goal from a former Jay Mann player, the centre-back Lars Lund who had forced a transfer away from AZ Alkmaar, was all it took for Sporting to lift the trophy with a 1-0 win. A slightly disappointing end to the season perhaps, but for the fans the memory of stealing the title from under the noses of their great rivals, and on their own patch to boot, would live on for a very long time.

Of course, one of the reasons that Jay Mann had joined Porto was his ambition to win the Champions League. By the time he arrived they had already successfully qualified for the first knock-out round, having come second, to Italy's Inter Milan, in a Group A that had also included Germany's RB Leipzig and the Norwegian side Rosenborg.  Manchester United provided Porto's knock-out opposition and, over the two legs, proved much the stronger. United won the first leg in Porto 2-1, before completing the job at Old Trafford with a 4-1 mauling of Mann and his men.

All in all though, it had been a fine start to life at FC Porto for Jay Mann, with a league title secured in thrilling circumstances. Mann won the manager of the month award three times in that half a season too, to outline the instant impact he had had on Porto. And now, with a full summer in which to prepare for the next season, not to mention a transfer budget that at previous clubs he could only have dreamed of, the sky appeared to be the only limit.

Season Nineteen - 2037/38 - New club, first full season, domestic quadruple. Easy.

As good as FC Porto had been under Jay Mann during his first half-season in charge, having the full summer in which to fully review the squad led to quite a turnover of players as he sought to make it ‘his’ squad, and best position them for European as well as domestic honours. In all, £92million was spent on new recruits for the squad, though this was easily offset by £120million in sales. 

Two big sales got the ball rolling, with Northern Ireland international right-back Shane Keane joining Manchester City for £45million, whilst a right-sided wing-back/winger, Brazilian Luis Alberto, also moved to the English Premier Division, going to Southampton for £11.75million. Four other sales for large fees followed; a pair of Bosnian internationals, centre-back Ivan Hadzic and midfielder Aldin Mujagic joining Glasgow Rangers (£7.5million) and Leeds United (£13million respectively, Luxembourg international right-back Sven Braun went to Juventus for £26.5miilion, and back-up goalkeeer Harold Ramos (a Colombian) signed on for Glasgow Celtic in a deal that eventually netted Porto £14million. It's safe to say that Mann took a fair bit of criticism from some of the fans for the players that he let go, especially fan favourite Shane Keane, but by the time he had finished bringing in his targets the squad was much better rounded, and looking quite formidable.

In terms of the inward tranfers made, by far the most exciting, and ultimately successful, was Brazilian striker ‘Wenderson’ da Silva Castro, signed from English Premier League side Burnley for £31.5million. Wenderson only played for Porto for three seasons and, despite missing three months of the first season injured, scored 73 league goals in 79 league appearances. Definitely money well spent.

Other ‘ins’ of note were a Portuguese international centre-back, Ivo Bento, from Club Brugge for the same fee as Wenderson, plus Danish international centre-back Malte Andersen from FC Midtjylland for £7.5million, highly promising young Brazilian right-back Eduardo Luis from Flamengo for £13.5million, and experienced central midfielder Nicky Reid, on loan from Manchester United.

All of the above signings, bar Reid, were in place in time for the first challenge of the new season, the Supertaca. This annual season curtain raiser between the previous seasons' Premeira League champions and Taca de Portugal cup winners saw Porto taking on Sporting CP, the side that had denied them a league and cup double by beating them in the cup final. Porto got revenge for that cup final defeat, and laid down what they hoped would be a marker for the new season, with a hard-fought 2-1 win. Trophy number one ticked off.

Early season form was quite spectacular from Porto, with Wenderson regularly on the score-sheet. Of the opening 20 matches in the Primeira Liga, 18 were won and 2 drawn. The last of four league games in August saw Benfica beaten 2-0 in Porto, Wenderson netting the second goal, and when, two weeks later, he was on target again as Porto won 1-0 at home to Inter Milan in the opening Champions League Group game, it really began to look like this could be a very special season for the club. The next two Champions League games, at home to Hertha Berlin and away to Red Bull Salzburg, both ended 1-1, before November opened with a 1-0 win at home to Salzburg. Progress was being made in both domestic cups too, and it wasn't until 25th November that Porto suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 0-1 in the San Siro against Inter. They wouldn't lose again until 13th February.

Throughout December 2037 Porto played nine matches in all competitions, securing a place in the Champions League knock-out rounds when a goal-less draw in Berlin saw them finish second in Group A to Inter Milan. The final game of the year saw Porto continue their renewed dominance of Portuguese football, a goal from Wenderson grabbing them a 1-0 win away to Sporting CP.

There was no let-up in January either, with a further eight games being played. One of them, the Taca da Liga Final, seeing Porto lift their second trophy of the season. There was a potentially pivotal moment on the 13th though as Wenderson, having put his side in front away to Sporting Braga in the Sixth Round of the Taca de Portugal, suffered a broken foot in the first minute of extra time. His team managed to win through 2-1 without him, but post-match the news came through that he would most likely miss three months of action. Disaster…

Well for a lot of teams it would be a disaster, but such was the squad strength that Jay Mann had built up that, amazingly, Porto hardly missed a beat even without their ace goal-getter. Just three days after that game, Porto travelled to Benfica in the league, and Wenderson's replacement, Mexican striker Luis Miguel Yamin, netted in a 1-1 draw. The games were now coming thick and fast and, just a further three days later, Porto met Sporting Braga in cup action again, this time in the Semi-Finals of the Taca da Liga. In a match played at a neutral venue, Benfica's Estadio da Luz, Porto won 2-1 again, though without the need for extra-time this time. That result set up a Final against Benfica, who had had put out Sporting CP 3-1 in their Semi-Final, again at the Estadio da Luz.

In that Final, Porto's rapidly rising ‘wonderkid’, Portuguese attacking midfielder/inside forward Fabio Rocha, put his side ahead in only the 9th minute. Porto doubled their lead mid-way through the half, and despite Benfica pulling one back after 67 minutes held on to lift the cup for only the fourth time in their history. 

As the season moved into February, Porto won a two-legged Taca de Portugal Semi-Final, 1-0 on aggregate against Moreirense FC, before starting to plan for the upcoming Champions League First Knock-Out Round tie in which they had been drawn to play Jurgen Klopp's Barcelona. With a league game just four days before the home first-leg, and the league title already all but wrapped up, Mann sent a fully rotated team out for the away game at mid-table Portimonense SC. That move did not pay off however as Porto lost in the league for the first time that season, going down 0-1, before suffering a second consecutive defeat as a very strong Barca team won 2-1 in the Estadio do Dragao. A run of three straight league wins followed, before Porto made their European exit for another season, a crowd of just under 100,000 at the Camp Nou watching the home side win 3-1.

Before the league season reached it's successful climax, Porto completed a double over Sporting CP, winning 2-1 at home, before losing for only the second time in the whole league season, when visitors Moreirense FC recovered from Fabio Rocha's first minute goal to claim a 2-1 win. Bizarrely, the season ended with two games against mid-table FC Famalicao, Porto winning the first of those, in what was the final league game, 3-0 away from home with Rocha again on target. The two sides met again just a week later, the Estadio Nacional playing host to the Taca de Portugal Final. It was a match that Porto were never really threatened in, and Fabio Rocha was once again on target as his side lifted an incredible fourth trophy of the season, winning a largely one-sided encounter 3-1. Even in a history as storied as FC Porto's, rarely had there been a season to compare with this one. 

Manager Jay Mann had been in charge of the club for just a season and a half at that point, and yet had now won five trophies with them. He won the Manager of the Month award four times throughout the season and, to no-ones surprise, Manager of the Year too. Now of course, Porto were the big-guns that everyone would be trying to bring down next season and Mann was already planning to spend big again, in readiness.

Season Twenty - 2038/39 - Only Two Trophies? Slackers!

The money continued to flow both in and out of FC Porto during the summer transfer window of 2038, as Jay Mann looked to strengthen his quadruple winning team from the previous season ever further. By the time the window closed, at the end of August, transfer spending was pretty much even with £85million spent as against £89million brought in.

There were two major arrivals from the English Premier Division; Brazilian international right winger Lucas Huang was signed from Liverpool for £38.5million, whilst a further £30million was spent on Arsenal's Portuguese central midfielder Miguel Lopes. Three big sales saw Colombian striker Ronald Vargas join Napoli in a deal that, eventually, would net Porto £43.5million in fees and add-ons, whilst another Colombian, right back Bairon Garrrido, joined Wolverhampton Wanderers for £23.5million. The last of the trio saw Porto make a handsome profit on Brazilian right back Eduardo Luis. Signed only a year previously from Flamengo for £13.5million, Luis went to Newcastle United for £30million on deadline day.

The 2038/39 season's competetive action commenced, as usual, with the Supertaca. Against FC Famalicao, the team that Porto's final two games of the previous season had been against (the final league game followed by the Taca de Portugal Final) Mann's team were again successful. Having gone behind just after half-time, Porto levelled through a Wenderson penalty, before scoring twice more in extra time (through Wenderson again and new boy Lucas Huang) to claim the trophy with a 3-1 win.

The opening five league games saw Porto produce four wins and a draw, before a sudden run of three consecutive defeats, in three different competitions, gave them a bit of a shock. Firstly, in the Champions League's opening Group game, old foes Manchester United handed out a 3-0 drubbing at Old Trafford. That was followed by a 0-1 league defeat away to rivals Sporting CP, before another 0-1 defeat, at home to Sporting Braga, led to Porto's elimination from the Taca da Liga (as they finished second to Braga in the opening Group stage). Amazingly after that three game run of losses, Porto would only suffer defeat twice more in the entire remainder of the season, with both of those coming in the Champions League.

Porto's Champions League campaign saw them again qualify from the Group Stage in second place, behind Manchester United. After that opening defeat, Porto were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Dinamo Zagreb (Wenderson the scorer) before beating Standard Liege away and home, 3-1 and 4-1 respectively. Wenderson grabbed himself a hat-trick in the home game. Second place in the Group was already confirmed, even before a Wenderson brace gave them a 2-1 win in Zagreb to round out the fixtures. Once again though, the draw for the First Knock-Out round proved how important it often was to win your group. Finishing second means that you will be paired with a Group winner in the first round, and the previous two season's exits to Manchester United and then Barcelona were in everybody's minds when this time around Porto were drawn to play Paris St Germain. 

By the time the first leg of that tie came around, a 1-1 draw played out in Porto on the 15th February 2039, with Wenderson on target yet again, Porto had progressed through to the final of the Taca de Portugal for a third season running, and were tucked in just behind Sporting CP in the league table with nine games remaining. Just over a fortnight prior to the PSG first leg Porto had triumphed at home over Sporting CP, Wenderson with one of the goals in a 2-0 victory. That made it one win each against each other in the league, proving just how evenly matched the two of them were this season.

In the second leg against PSG, at the Parc de Princes, Porto made an awful start falling behind in only the third minute. They struggled to make any kind of headway against the dominant French side, and conceded a killing second goal in the 70th minute to lose 2-0 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate. In the next round, PSG themselves were knocked out, going down to eventual finalists Liverpool (beaten 3-2 by Jurgen Klopp's Barcelona!).

The final weekend of the league season saw Porto hosting mid-table Portimonense SC, trailing leaders Sporting SC by two points. Sporting themselves were also at home, to an Estoril Praia side that had only saved themselves from relegation the week before, and their 3-1 win in that game gave them the Primeira Liga title by four points. Porto had been unable to beat Portimonense, that game finishing goal-less with the visitors having a goal disallowed to boot. Porto finished the league season having lost just once, a statistic matched by title winners Sporting as of course they had each beaten each other, and having scored a whopping 93 goals whilst only conceding 11 (in 34 games). Third placed Benfica were 13 points behind.

Tenerife based side CS Maritimo, who had managed a fine 5th place finish in the league, provided the opposition in the final of the Taca de Portugal, played as usual at the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon. Porto pretty much dominated from start to finish in the final, winning 2-0 with goals from Lucas Huang and, of course, Wenderson, to retain the trophy. Wenderson finished the season having scored 39 times in 41 starts and 5 substitute appearances across all competitions, a quite outstanding achievement.

For Mann there were three Manager of the Month awards during the season and whilst he was shortlisted for the Manager of the Year too, he perhaps unsurprisingly lost out to the manager of Sporting SC. It had to be said though that, overall, things were going very well indeed for Jay Mann in Portugal, and he was very much enjoying managing FC Porto. Nevertheless, in his head he had a shortlist of clubs that would be the only ones that he would consider leaving for, but for now he was more than happy where he was.

Season Twenty One (Part One) - 2039/40 - Normal Service is Resumed

Jay Mann spent a lot of the summer of 2039 working with his staff on finding those missing bits of the puzzle that could get Porto through to the later stages of the Champions League. Having qualified for, but then gone out in, the First Knock-Out round in each of the last three seasons showed that as good as Porto now were, they still had catching up to do in terms of Europe's elite clubs. The three teams to have knocked Mann's side out were certainly all in that class, in Manchester United, Barcelona and Paris St Germain, and work was clearly still needed to reach their level.

So it was then that Porto first strengthened their attacking options, bringing in a young Uruguayan striker, Wilson Lemos, from the Swiss side Basel for £25million. Lemos had been at Basel for just two seasons, but his 30 goals in 52 games showed that he knew where the net was at least. The same day that Lemos arrived also saw Croatian left inside forward Toni Lagator brought in from Dinamo Zagreb for £21.5million. Lagator had been brought in specifically to take the place of Porto's wonderkid winger/inside forward Fabio Rocha, who was also a most able central midfielder, which was where Mann planned to use him now, alongside last season's signing, Miguel Lopes.  Just a few days after the signings of Lemos and Lagator, two players left the club for fees totalling more than had just been spent on those two. Mann was nothing if not a ‘book balancer’ whenever possible. Those two outs saw centre-back Javier Martinez join Leeds United for £37.5million, whilst right sided attacker or striker Pedro Oliveira, who had only ever been a squad player under Mann, left for Belgian club Standard Liege for a fee of £10million.

Mann was still scouting round for further new recruits when the season got underway with, as normal, the Supertaca. The win in that match, for a third straight season, was a significant one too as last season's Primeira Liga champions, Sporting CP, were taken apart by a rampant Porto. Having fallen behind in only the 11th minute, Mann's men fought back to lead by half-time, before adding two further goals in the second half, the second of which was a superb direct free-kick strike from 25 yards by Miguel Lopes, to run out 4-1 winners. To get such a morale boosting victory at that point proved crucial as, having failed to win the league the previous season, Porto were obliged to enter the Champions League at the Third Qualification Round stage.

Just three days after that Supertaca victory, the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven arrived in Porto for the first leg, Mann's side seeing them off by a 2-0 score-line with Rocha and new boy Lemos on target. The second leg, played exactly a week later, again saw Porto scoring twice, both from Wilson Lemos, as they claimed a 2-1 win and with it a place in the Playoff Round, 4-1 on aggregate. As it was shortly to turn out however, Fabio Rocha's goal in that first leg was to be his last for FC Porto (see below).

Porto now faced a two-legged Playoff tie with last season's Austrian Bundesliga runners-up Austria Wien, with the first leg to be played away from home. In what turned out to be a very drab affair, Porto came away 0-1 losers thanks to an own-goal by their Portuguese international centre-back Ivo Bento. Porto were much more like their normal selves in the second leg however, Lucas Huang's sixth minute strike setting them on their way to a 3-1 win, so 3-2 on aggregate, and a place in the Group Stage once again.

As well as the two qualifying rounds of the Champions League, the month of August also featured the first three games of the new Primeira Liga season, all of which Porto won, scoring 11 goals in the process. If there was one thing that Porto would most certainly not have a problem with in season 2039/40 it was scoring goals. In all they found the net an incredible 164 times across all competitions; 100 in the league, 40 in the three domestic cups, and 24 in the Champions League. They also went unbeaten between 13th September 2039 and 1st February 2040, a run of 28 games without loss, with 25 of those being wins. And all this was played out after Mann had had to re-invent his tactical plan in the last three days of the transfer window. All summer long he had worked on the idea that home-grown wonderkid Fabio Rocha would move infield, to play as the main creator in a central midfield pairing with veteran Miguel Lopes. Early signs for this pairing had been very promising, until the lure and the riches of the English Premier League came calling.

Of course there are always rumours and counter-rumours of clubs being interested in such-and-such a player, with most of that just ‘paper talk’ though, especially before and during transfer windows. There had been ‘noise' around Rocha for quite some time, with clubs including Barcelona and Inter Milan allegedly showing interest. It was English Premier League side Everton who came in big though when, on the 28th August, they presented Porto with an offer of £59million up front, with add-ons etc eventually leading to a total of £105million being paid (£30million of that in instalments during the coming season). Every player has his price they say, and Everton's offer proved just that, as the deal offered just ‘worked’ for everybody; both clubs, the player (and his agent!), and Jay Mann's transfer budget (if not his tactical plan). 

The timing of the sale did not leave Mann long to make any further signings of course and, in the end, just one player was brought in, Turkish side Genclerberligi's up and coming star right-winger Nedim Yaman. The fee for Turkish Under-21 international Yaman was £23million up front, with add-ons eventually taking that up to £29million in total.  As August ended then, Mann had available transfer funds simply burning a hole in his pocket. And he had his eyes on one player in particular…

See Part Two for the remainder of the season's results, and whether or not Mann ‘got his man’…

Season Twenty One (Part Two) - 2039/40 - Goals, goals, goals

The disappointment at losing Fabio Rocha seemed to hang over the club like a shroud. The fans were dismayed that he had been allowed to leave, but losing good young players to the biggest leagues from abroad, and especially to the English Premier Division, was just a fact of life for most Portuguese clubs. The fact was simply that the move was just too good for all concerned, especially financially. The total fee of £105million that Porto would eventually receive was incredible money, even for a club the size of FC Porto. And as always in football, life and games had to go on.

The effect of losing Rocha was definitely a factor in Porto's very slow start to September, as two draws in the league (1-1 at CS Maritimo and 2-2 at home to Benfica) sandwiched a loss in the opening Champions League Group game. That loss, away to Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg, had seen Porto surge into a 2-0 lead after just past the half-hour mark, only for them to concede three in the second half to slump to a 2-3 defeat. The other teams drawn in Group B alongside them were the German club RB Leipzig and French outfit LOSC Lille. A poor run of results to be sure, then something clicked.

As mentioned in part one, following the loss to Zenit on 13th September 2039 it was to be 1st February 2040 before Porto would lose again. As disappointing as September had started, it ended on a very high note. CS Maritimo were despatched 7-1 in a Taca da Liga group game (a Luis Miguel Yamin hat-trick keying that goal-fest) before a 2-0 win in the league away at Sporting Braga was followed by a 3-0 success at home to LOSC Lille on Champions League Gameday 2. 

All five games in October produced victories for Porto, with 20 goals scored in the process. The best result of the month saw Porto hosting RB Leipzig in the Champions League, going 2-0 up, then losing that lead, before goals in the last seven minutes from Luis Franco (a home-grown speedster of a left winger) and Wenderson gave them a fine 4-2 win. November featured six matches in all, producing four wins and two draws. Two of those wins came in the Champions League as first the return game with Leipzig ended 1-0 in Porto's favour, with Wilson Lemos on target in the 91st minute, before a 2-0 home win over Zenit saw Lemos scoring again.

The amazing run of results continued throughout December, with Porto winning all seven games played. Lille were toppled 2-0 in France, with Nedim Yaman scoring his first European goal for the club, before Sporting CP were comfortably seen off 3-0 in a home league game. Porto finished top of the pile in their Champions League group, with Leipzig also qualifying. The reward for Mann and his side was a First Knock-Out Round clash with the previous season's Premier League runners-up and FA Cup winners Manchester City. The first leg would be played in Manchester on 21st February. Before that of course came January and the opening of the month long transfer window. 

Only one player was brought in during that window, but it was the one that Mann had wanted back in August, but had not had time to make a move. That player was another striker, which may have seemed odd given Porto's prolific collective campaign in front of goal, but this one, Mann sensed, was going to be very special indeed. The wonderfully named Icelandic international Sigurbergur Hafsteinsson was that striker, and he was currently plying his trade in Greece with Apollon. The 26 year old Hafsteinsson had been bought by Apollon three years previously from Belgian side Club Brugge for £48.5million, but was up for sale now for just £7million. A ridiculous sum for a player who had cost so much money originally, and who had scored 53 league goals in 101 games for the Greeks. Nonetheless, Mann wasn't going to quibble at that asking price and Hafsteinsson duly arrived on 4th January.

Fixture wise, January saw six wins out of six for Porto, the second of which saw Sporting CP turfed out of the Taca de Portugal Sixth Round, 3-1 on their own patch. Wins four and five of the month saw Porto first beat Famalicao 2-0 in the semi-final of the Taca da Liga, with Hafsteinsson netting his first club goal, before lifting that trophy with a 3-1 win in the final against Santa Clara. Hafsteinsson was again on target in that game, alongside a Wenderson penalty and a further strike from Luis Franco. The month ended with an 8-0 dimantling of Gil Vicente, Wenderson's brace being overshadowed by four from Luis Miguel Yamin.

The goal from Wenderson in that Taca da Liga final was one of 20 that he scored in a quite remarkable run of goalscoring, strecthing from 10th December 2039 to 1st February 2040. Between those two dates, the Brazilian ace found the net in a quite incredible run of twelve successive games, including two hat-tricks and one four goal haul. Those 20 goals formed part of Wenderson's season total of 44 in all competitions, 5 more than he'd managed in the previous season.

For the team, such an unbeaten run could not last for ever of course, and February opened with a 2-3 defeat at home to Benfica in the first-leg of the Taca de Portugal semi-finals. Porto won the away second leg a week later by a 1-0 scoreline (Hafsteinsson) but that result and a 3-3 aggregate score saw Benfica progress to the Final on away goals. Benfica would go on to win the cup, defeating Gil Vicente in the Final. The biggest game of the month though would be the first leg of the  Champions League First Knock-Out Round away to Manchester City.

The game at the Etihad Stadium saw Porto employing a much more pragmatic approach than usual, a tactic that paid off as, despite City largely dominating proceedings, the game ended goal-less. Just three days later Wenderson was on target four times as Porto hit Estoril Praia for 7, before two consecutive 2-0 league wins to begin March set them up nicely for City's second leg visit to the Estadio do Dragao. A 50,033 full-house saw the teams play out a cagey and goal-less first half, before two goals in as many minutes, the first of which was a fine finish by Wenderson from Hafsteinsson's glorious through ball, put Porto in the driving seat. City substitute Sostehenes Jose, a Brazilian international striker, pulled one back in the 89th minute, but Porto held out to book a place in the Quarter Finals. The first-leg of that round would be the opening match of April, and Porto were, almost inevitably, drawn to play Manchester United once again.

Porto played hosts to the first-leg, hoping to make home advantage count as they sought to progress further than manager Mann had thus far managed in his career. As before however, their visitors proved too strong, with goals either side of half-time putting the Reds 2-0 up, before Wenderson managed to salvage something from the game with a close range header. As if to emphasize that Porto still had a ways to go in terms of challenging for Europe's biggest prize, United handed out a sound beating at Old Trafford, scoring twice in each half. That 4-0 win, and therefore 6-1 on aggregate, was a harsh lesson indeed for Mann and his players. United themselves went out to Barcelona in the semis, the Spaniards then losing to Juventus in the final.

The rest of April saw Porto play five league games, suffering their first defeats of the season in that competition, 0-2 at Santa Clara and 1-3 at Sporting CP, in that run of matches. The loss to Sporting left the gap between them and Porto at just five points, with two games each left to play. Sporting themselves had managed to reach the Champions League semi-finals, losing out to eventual winners Juventus 3-1 on aggregate, but their exertions in that competition did not affect them over the closing two league games as they won both. Thankfully for Jay Mann and FC Porto though they managed to do the same, clinching their third Primeira Liga title in four seasons with a final-day 2-1 win at Vitoria Guimaraes thanks to an own-goal and a strike from Sigurbergur Hafsteinsson. 

Season 2039/40 had been an epic one for FC Porto with 164 goals scored, three further trophies won, and an excellent run to the Champions League quarter finals. Could European glory be just around the corner? Four-times Manager of the Month Jay Mann was sincerely hoping so.

Summer 2040 - A Wanted Mann

The weekend after Jay Mann's FC Porto had clinched their third Primeira Liga title in four seasons under him, he travelled over to England to watch the FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Everton. For what was the first all Merseyside final for 51 years, his main reason for attending was to see two of his old players, Fabio Rocha and Alex Main, turn out for Everton. 

He had a secondary motive for being there too though, in that he was very intrigued to see what Liverpool were going to do, manager-wise, having just failed to qualify for the Champions League after only recording a fifth placed finish in the Premier League. The season before had seen the Reds actually reach the final, losing out 2-3 to Barcelona at Wembley, whilst in the season that was just coming to an end they had reached the First Knock-out Round, before again losing to Barca. Missing out on the senior European competition was a very big deal for a club like Liverpool.

Whilst Mann was immensely happy at Porto, and very pleased with the squad he had been allowed to build there, he was nevertheless disappointed with their ongoing failure to mount a serious challenege in the Champions League. They had managed to reach the First Knock-out Round in each of Mann's first three seasons in charge (losing to Manchester United, Barcelona and Paris St Germain), plus the Quarter Finals in the most recent campaign. The 6-1 aggregate thrashing handed out by Manchester United in that tie had weighed heavily on Mann though, and he was beginning to think that achieving his career ambition of winning the Champions League was not going to be possible with his current employers. He was now therefore developing the mindset that, with his managerial reputation now at such a high level, he could surely manage one of Europe's very biggest clubs, with a view to attaining a Champions League win.

With that in mind, already the previous summer Mann had submitted a job application with Barcelona, who were looking for a new manager following the retirement of Jurgen Klopp, Granted an interview, in what was a very hush-hush affair, he ultimately failed to land the job as Borussia Dortmund's Heiko Herrlich was selected instead. It was therefore with much intrigue then that Mann arrived at Wembley for that all-Merseyside final, and what a game he witnessed…

Somewhat disappointingly, for Mann anyway, Fabio Rocha was only on the bench for Everton.  Alex Main however, a Dutch international left winger who had broken through under Mann at AZ Alkmaar before later joing Everton for £53million, was in the starting line-up. As much as Mann wanted to see his two former charges impress, it was the quality of the Liverpool squad that really made him sit up and take notice. Whilst it was a squad featuring a fair number of older players, it was the sheer quality on offer to current, albeit now severely under pressure, manager Dejan Stankovic that Mann most envied.

One of those older players, legendary French international striker Armoo Briand, fired Liverpool ahead after just seven minutes and when, just seven further minutes later another older player, Argentinian Matias Saavedra, scored from the penalty spot, Everton were already fading from sight. By half-time the Cup was as good as Liverpool's, Briand scoring again on twenty-five minutes before German international winger David Steurer added a fourth just before the break. Everton introduced Rocha from the bench at half-time, but in truth there was nothing the Blues could now do to retrieve the situation, especially not once Briand had completed his hat-trick just before the hour mark. With a quarter of an hour left, Mann's former AZ Alkmaar player Alex Main netted a consolation for Everton, but it was ultimately worth little as Liverpool ran out 5-1 winners in one of the most one-sided finals seen in a long while.

Mann managed a brief chat with Rocha and Main after the game, before heading off to Heathrow for his filght back to Portugal. He had much to ponder on the 2 hours and 20 minutes flight, not least of which was a question as to what he had just seen. Had the Liverpool squad just made a statement to the club's owners as to how they were still all behind Stankovic? Or had their domination of Everton in fact been an advertisement to any prospective future manager? Mann was also unsure now as to whether Stankovic had just saved his job, or whether even a Cup Final victory over their great city rivals could not paper over the failure to finish in the Premier League's top four. 

The answer came just two days after the Cup Final, when Liverpool's Australian chairman Blake Gollan informed Stankovic that his employment was terminated forthwith. Dejan Stankovic had been in charge for just under five years, during which time he had won the Champions League, beating Chelsea on penalties (2-2 AET) back in May 2036, along with two Premier League titles (seasons 2035/36 and 2036/37) plus one FA and one Carabao Cup. That was as decent a record as any, and one that meant his name was almost immediately linked with several big clubs, despite the way things had ended at Liverpool for him. He did though remain out of work for six months, before being named as the new manager of Tottenham Hotspur in December 2040, following their sacking of Kelechi Iheanacho.

For Jay Mann of course this was big news, and he wasted no time in putting himself forward for the vacancy. Liverpool also made no secret of their interest in Mann, and by way of validation the overall feeling given over by the club's fans was that they would not say no either. An interview swiftly followed, and although FC Porto stated that they hoped Mann would stay they, as a club, knew what pull a club like Liverpool would be for any manager.

The saga dragged on for several weeks during late May and early June 2040, with names such as Luis Enrique and Diego Simeone being linked to the club as well as Mann's. Porto even offered a contract extension to Mann, which he turned down, as they really wanted to hold on to the man that had turned the club's fortunes around in such a big way. This determination to hold on to Mann threatened to cost him his chance with the Reds too, as the compensation fee demanded for his services was proving prohibitive to Liverpool. Ultimately, with Liverpool making it abundantly clear that Mann was the manager they wanted, on 27th June 2040 Jay Mann resigned as manager of FC Porto. 

Within hours, a press conference was called at Anfield whereupon Liverpool FC's new manager was announced. Having been a manager for twenty years now, and having in that time won 11 league titles and 18 cups and trophies of varying denominations, Jay Mann was now at a club that was considered one of Europe's, if not the World's, biggest. He only hoped it wouldn't prove to be too big for him…