La Roja

Good luck against Brazil Surprised you put four past England.

Come on K3VO!

Great tournament so far

Cheers Johno I know, I was very surprised myself. I think getting the two early goals really knocked the stuffing out of England and from there on there was only ever going to be one winner. Hopefully we can beat Brazil



Cheers mate

We've been quite terrific so far and strolled to the final really.

As I predicted it went all the way to penalties against Brazil and thankfully we prevailed after some David De Gea brilliance. I think it was a fair result considering we just about edged this game and with the tournament we had it would have been very tough to have been denied on penalties. I'm not sure if I'll stick around now until the 2024 European Championships, but we'll see what happens. Strangely my manager reputation went from World Class to Continental after winning the biggest prize on offer in football, truly a strange turn of events that kind of bothers me.

13-12 on penalties in the World Cup final. Got to be the longest shootout in a final ever!

Did Muniain get the golden boot?

Very intense final But glad you came out as winners!

Felt like it went on forever and I don't think I'd any nails left at the end of it

Nah some German lad got it scoring 7 goals in 5 appearances, but De Gea did get the golden glove though



One of those on the edge of your seat games to be honest.

Delighted we managed to win in the end.

So I've made the decision to remain as La Roja manager for the foreseeable future. The 2024 European Championships takes place on home soil so it was definitely something that influenced my decision. The chance to win the biggest prize on offer in European international football in Spain would be pretty magical and that's what we'll work towards over the next 18 months. I have to say 2022 was a fantastic year for me personally and for Spanish football after our World Cup triumph in Qatar and our Nations League performance. We topped our group as expected, but comfortably beating Croatia and Denmark in both games with real swagger probably shocked a few people. We should have scored many more against Iran, but they somehow kept us out for the majority of the game.

A semi final date with 2020 European Championship winners Holland awaits next June in Valencia. Personally I think we're good enough to beat the Dutch and I'll be disappointed if we're not contesting the final against Germany or Italy. We'll face Japan and Montenegro in friendlies in March as final preparation for the clash with Holland.

Two wins from two and we head into the Holland game in June full of confidence.

I've been in charge for 24 games as La Roja boss and we remain unbeaten winning 21 of those 24 games in the process. In those games we've scored an impressive 60 goals and conceded just 9 times. When we face Holland I think we'll dominate possession, but only just beat them on the night maybe winning 1-0 or 2-1.

Good results, but surprise you needed an own goal to beat Iran

I was surprised as well that we only beat them 1-0.

We absolutely battered them and we should have scored much more.

As I expected we just about beat Holland in what was a tight contest. We dominated possession as you can see, but didn't create a clear cut chance until Diego Costa scored just two minutes after his introduction. That goal will probably earn him a start in the final. This result means we've qualified for the Nations League final for their third consecutive time and for what it's worth there's only been three editions of the Nations League. In the final we'll take on Germany who will provide the toughest task I've probably faced yet. They've a world class squad with no real weak links so I'm prepared for a tough game and it could potentially go all the way to penalties.

It's been a really long time since I suffered a defeat and this really does sting. To lose a final on home soil in such a close game is always an unpleasant experience and on another day it would be us and not Germany holding aloft the Nations League crown. We were edging the game before they got their penalty and when Thomas Muller accurately despatched from 12 yards it was always going to be tough to get back into the game. Unfortunately we were slack after the restart and Germany took full advantage as they doubled their lead and despite a long range wonder goal from Ballon d'Or winner Suso with 10 minutes remaining we couldn't find an equaliser to force extra time.

As hosts of Euro 2024 we qualify automatically and that meant playing a few friendlies. We easily beat Ghana before falling to a shock defeat at the hands of Nigeria. 4 clean sheets in a row following that mini disaster yielded 3 wins and 1 draw. Our next outing is against Tunisia in March before the draw for the group stages of Euro 2024 is made.

Euro 2024 is right around the corner and to be honest our preparations didn't quite go as to plan as I'd hoped. We started off in March by somehow not beating Tunisia in a game we absolutely dominated from start to finish. We then comfortably beat South Korea before we suffered a big defeat as a James Rodriguez inspired Columbia surprised everybody. A slender 1-0 win over Australia followed and to be honest I'm far from confident ahead of Euro 2024.

We've been drawn in a group that contains Germany, Greece and Romania, so whilst we should qualify it'll definitely be trickier than I would have liked. We may even have to settle for second place in the group as Germany are a formidable team on their day and could beat us if we're not at our best when we meet in our second group game.

Well we've qualified for the second round of Euro 2024, but my god it was far from convincing. We just about beat Greece in our opening Group A fixture as we somehow managed to let them back into the game twice despite dominating. A narrow loss to old foe Germany put pressure on us to perform and get a result against Romania in our remaining fixture. Things didn't go well as they took the lead and it wasn't until after the hour mark that Saul scored a stunning free kick to secure the draw that sent us through to the next round where we'll face Italy.

Our second round clash with fierce rivals Italy was probably the closest game I've had since I took over as manager of La Roja. Either side could have won it in normal time or extra time, but it finished 0-0 and it would be decided by penalties. What happened next was a first for me on any version of Football Manager.

Both sides converted penalty after penalty, 29 to be exact before David De Gea pulled off a top save to deny Luigi Gianni and book our place in the quarter finals of Euro 2024 where we'll face either France or Portugal.

Another marathon shootout and another win! Who is in the other semi?

The other quarter finals are Russia v Turkey, Serbia v Holland and Germany v Croatia.

If we can get by France or Portugal I feel the only team that can beat us is Germany.

A semi final with Turkey at the Nuevo Mestalla in Valencia awaits to decide who will face either Holland or Croatia in the final of Euro 2024. The dream of lifting the European Championship on home soil is still very much alive and I've a good feeling we may just do that at the Nou Camp on July 14th in front of 99,394 fans. France came into this game after battering our Iberian neighbours 6-1 and that made me very nervous prior to kick off. In the end though we should have won this game a lot more comfortably. We managed to break the deadlock in extra time when substitute Munir scored a wonder goal from over 25 yards out that left France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris with no chance.

WHAT A SEMI FINAL!! Honestly this had everything, so much drama and I'm grateful that we held on to be on the winning side of all that drama. Alvaro Morata was the hero as his brace booked a final showdown with Croatia at the Nou Camp to decide the winners of Euro 2024. I've already decided that I'll be staying on as the manager of La Roja regardless of the result in the final as I want one more crack at winning the Nations League.

Another winners medal to add to the collection after we deservedly beat Croatia. It looked like we were set for another penalty shootout until Iker Muniain came off the bench to break the deadlock with a stunning long range effort. We made the game safe in stoppage time as Suso made it 2-0 and Euro 2024 on home soil was a success.

We've qualified for the semi finals of the Nations League as you'd expect, although some mistakes in our remaining two games made it closer than it needed to be. We started off with a commanding 3-1 win over Scotland before a late goal from Nahuel Leiva sunk my country of birth in Dublin. The return fixture saw Ireland again put up a strong fight. In the end we got a late breakthrough but couldn't keep our heads and Patrick Bamford equalised a minute after we'd taken the lead. The same thing was to happen in Glasgow 4 days later as we took the lead against Scotland and should have been 1-0 to the good at half time. Instead we conceded and then in injury time Scotland snatched a very unlikely victory. In the end our head to head record against Ireland seen us finish top and we'll definitely need to improve when we meet Germany in the semi finals in Dortmund next June.

After more then 11 years at the Bernabeu well respected manager Carlo Ancelotti has retired.



That leaves Real Madrid without a manager heading into the 2025-2026 season and after applying for the job I've been offered an interview. A spokesperson for the club said they were very flattered by my interest which is a good sign I guess, but honestly you never know what will happen with a club like Real Madrid. Personally it would be fantastic to get back into day to day management and there's not many bigger places then the Bernabeu to do it.

Good luck with the interview

Would be brilliant if you managed to get the Madrid job. Is Ronaldo still going?

If you get Real Madrid job it'll be very interesting. !