There and back to see how far it is

Thanks George, it was a fantastic season for the club, and thanks for catching the story up! I had considered leaving, but then it was pointed out to me by someone that I would have the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup this season for the first time, so I've decided to stay for the season and then see where that takes me.

July/August/September


Starting with the transfers, I added a couple of players on free transfers, but the main transfer in was Luke Shaw for £4.4m. He's been a player I enjoyed having at Manchester United, and when the opportunity arose to pick him up on the cheap I went for it. It also allowed me to cash in on Gianluca Sposato who had been competing at left back last season. Will Hughes arrived on a free transfer from Manchester City, another player who I had been looking at for some time. He is 29.

It was time to put more faith in the younger ones, so we sold a lot of players who had been in the first team for a number of years and raised a significant amount of money. At the close of the window, we had sold over £100m worth of players.


After a fairly straight forward pre-season, we didn't concede a goal until the opening game of the season against Sampdoria. We retained the Italian Super Cup with a win over Juventus, before goals from Toncheff and Rodriguez helped us overcome Sampdoria in our first game of the season.

Then came the big one, a chance for a new trophy, and a Will Hughes penalty just on the stroke of half time won us the European Super Cup! Just the Europa League and the Club World Cup outstanding for Roma now, but I don't mind missing out on the Europa League!

We followed that game with two 1-0 wins; James Rodriguez has recently been promoted to captain after the retirement of Cristiano Ronaldo, and scored the only goal against Inter, before youngster Maurizio Ghisla scored to overcome Torino.

After winning the Champions League last year, we finally had a fairly straight forward group, with Shakhtar, Dinamo and Schalke (again) in our group. We started in the Ukraine with a 3-2 win, before returning to previous form with a 1-0 win over Parma. Tony Butcher has been on loan from Arsenal for last season, and we extended it into this year. He is a decent player and can play on either wing or up front.

We ended the month with a routine 2-1 win over Cagliari, with youngster Birol Coskun continuing to impress. James Rodriguez added the second goal from the spot, before we drew 0-0 at home to Napoli in the final game of September.


Four points clear of Inter after six games is a good start, and it's pleasing to see that Juventus are 15th after a dreadful start. I hope they stay clear of us this season and make it a bit easier!

Italy Update

Two games in September, as we got another win against Sweden, before cruising past Kazakhstan:



Debutants in each game, and it was a great opportunity to test some of the younger members of the squad out. Roma player Brambilla scored his first international goal against Kazakhstan!

Thanks for reading!

October


We started October with a good win over Dinamo. An early own goal, and then the second from Massas meant that we had another clean sheet and dodged a potential banana skin. Massa has been pushing for a start and is repaying the faith already.

In the league we recorded good wins against Sassuolo and Catania; Sassuolo posed much more of a threat than in previous seasons, and a Frank Sautner goal was enough to give us a win, before doubles from Coskun and Butcher gave us a good win over Catania.

We then faced Schalke in the Champions League, and disappointingly the game finished goalless. I had hoped we could win the home tie to set us up for winning the group but we'll take it.

Bologna were next up in the league, with goals from Capradossi and Coskun gave us a comfortable 2-0 win to set us up with the Rome derby. Unfortunately we couldn't do enough to claim three points against our neighbours, as Charlie Hatzke rescued a point for us towards the end.


Top of the stack still, and we still haven't lost a game this season. 10 games in is a good marker, and we've looked fairly comfortable so far!

Thanks for reading...

November


Massa continued his good form in front of goal, with three goals in the first two games of November. Ghisla has also broken into the team and has scored goals this month too.

We started the month with a 2-1 win over Genoa, before a 3-3 draw in Germany with Schalke. The draw puts us top of the group, level on points with Schalke, but we have the better results against Schalke despite drawing 0-0 (home) and 3-3 (away).

The rest of the month couldn't have gone much better for us really, with four straight wins - all with clean sheets! We again faced Milan and Juventus back to back, with Ghisla scoring the only goal against Milan before we took our trip to Turin. It used to always result in a defeat, but a 90+2 minute penalty from Fusco won the game for us.

Fusco had singled himself out for the start of the season, demanding a move and when Tottenham offered £15m for him, I rejected it. He's worth so much more than that, but he wanted to leave and I stood firm. He's now withdrawn his request, and he is back in the first team squad.

We had two good home wins to round off the month, with Ji-Duk and Butcher scoring to give us a 2-0 win over Shakhtar and near enough giving us the group title, before Freire scored the only goal as we overcame Siena.

An amazing month, and some huge results!


14 games down; 12 wins and 2 draws is an incredible start to the season in anyone's book, so if we can maintain this for a sustained period of time, then we could have the title wrapped up in no time!

We've been fantastic at the back, conceding only 6 goals in the league in 14 games is brilliant! We've changed our system slightly this season to flood the midfield, and it is working a treat!

I am unsure why they are struggling, as they didn't really lose any players over the summer - if anything they have gotten stronger! But I won't question it, delighted they are not right on our tails! Thanks for commenting.

December


We've been all over the place this month, without a single home game! We started the month with a comfortable 2-0 win over Spezia, before travelling to Dinamo for our final Champions League game. We took an early lead, but couldn't capitalise - however Schalke also drew meaning we still topped the group.

Next, we were off to Mexico for the Club World Cup, where we comfortably dispatched Al-Sadd before facing River Plate in the final. We made light work of them too, and lifted the trophy:


Finally, we returned to Italy to travel to Atalanta. With many jaded players, we had to make changes, and somehow we came away with a 3-2 win. Not pretty, but it was a sensational month!


Still top of the league, and still undefeated as we take a seven point advantage into the new year. Juventus continue to struggle, but Inter and Milan have both stepped up to make up for the Old Lady stuttering. We still have a game in hand after the Club World Cup, so it would be great to make that a 10 point gap if we can!

Thanks for reading...

January


Another excellent month for us started with a 4-0 win over Livorno. It was great to see that a few of our youngsters were breaking into the side, and Coskun has looked really good since we added him to the squad over the summer. He scored twice against Livorno, with Butcher and Will Hughes completing the rout. We followed that up with a 3-1 win at Udinese, Coskun scoring again before an own goal and a neat finish from James Rodriguez wrapped things up.

We struggled through the Coppa Italia first round game with Livorno, with Rodriguez scoring in extra time to put us through. Butcher opened the scoring and an own goal should've seen us through but it wasn't to be. Back in league action, Butcher and Coskun shared the goals in a 3-1 win over Sampdoria, before we travelled to Juventus in the Coppa Quarter Final - which went all the way to penalties! Lady luck smiled on us, and we navigated through to the semi final. We wrapped the month up with two close wins, firstly beating Inter 2-1 at the San Siro - James Rodriguez scoring both - before Danilo Radaca gave us a 1-0 over Torino.


Undefeated season trundles on, and it's going really well. Seventeen points clear at the end of January is out of this world, so here is hoping we can keep it going!

Thanks for reading...

Again managed to build up a head of steam with this, so will post a quick update... thank you for the comments and continuing to follow my journey!

February


Butcher started the month in good form, and scored the only goal as we overcame Parma, before we travelled to Fiorentina in the semi final of the Coppa Italia, drawing the first leg 2-2. Convincing wins over Cagliari and Fiorentina in the second leg of the cup set us up for a good run in, before two goals from Coskun secured us two draws against Napoli and Lyon. We finished the month with a 3-0 win over Sassuolo.

March


We continued with another win, this time against Catania with another clean sheet as we won 2-0, and quickly followed that up with a 2-1 win over Bologna. Two goalless draws followed, as we struggled to overcome our city rivals, before we overcame Lyon in the knockout phase on goal difference against Lyon.

We got back to winning ways against Genoa, bfore a 2-2 draw at Milan. We finished the month with an excellent 1-0 win over Arsenal in the first leg of our Champions League quarter final.

April


What are these red arrows that have appeared? After overcoming Arsenal in the first leg, we met our old enemy Juventus with a late equaliser salvaging a point. A trip to the Emirates up next saw us lose our first game for some time - going through on away goals for the second tie running. We then drew at Siena before returning to winning ways against Fiorentina and Spezia.

The semi final draw wasn't kind to us, as we drew Barcelona. We lost 2-1 at the Nou Camp in the first leg, before returning to overcome Fiorentina 4-0 in the league. The second leg against Barca was much more fun, as we won 2-0 which put us into the final against Monaco.

May


A perfect May meant that we ended the season with the ultimate success! We beat Bologna in the Coppa Italia final, before cruising past Atalanta, Livorno and Udinese. This set us up with the final game of the season, the Champions League final against Monaco. After an exciting 90 minutes, Tony Butcher won the game for us in extra time and we had retained the Champions League title!

League Table


That was an easy season, and we won the league without any real challenge. Bologna managed to qualify for the Champions League, with Juventus finally getting their act together to finish sixth.

It was at this point that I decided to call time on my three seasons at Roma with the following trophies in tow:

• 4 x Serie A
• 4 x Coppa Italia
• 3 x Super Coppa
• 2 x Champions League
• 1 x European Super Cup
• 1 x Club World Cup

Where I will end up next remains to be seen, but I have decided to remove the Italian leagues from my saved game, and plan to stand down from the Italy job after the World Cup. I have kept the English, Spanish and German leagues open, with my plan to move to Spain next. Before I deactivated some leagues, I spotted the Ajax job had become available, but unfortunately I saw it too late and they had already offered the role to Ron Vlaar!
Miscellaneous


I am now the most successful English manager of all time, having 8 divisional titles, 11 domestic cups, and four other trophies.

World Cup round up will come next, before an announcement of where my career goes next... thanks for reading!