Very nice!

He is still doing it on the international stage too. 191 caps and 87 goals, not bad for someone that is about to turn 40!

Just had an awful offer to take over at Atletico Madrid. They offered me a transfer budget of £10,500 and a wage budget of about -£40,000. Obviously I rejected it.

January - May

I made just one signing in January. He can play anywhere across the back but is best suited to right back. Brought him in as Clyne is refusing a new contract and is leaving on a free in the summer. Kuhl is also doing the same thing which is really annoying as he has been one of my best players this season.




After that blip in December, things seemed to be back to normal in 2025. A defeat to Southampton in the league cup semi didn't matter because we went on to win the second leg and then the final against Man City. Thats four league cup wins in five years if I remember correctly. Our first meaningful defeat of the calendar year came at Huddersfield, just two weeks after we inflicted a first loss of the season on Man Utd. That defeat hadn't done too much damage because Man Utd were still within reach, but in March our season was ruined in three games. We lost our 2-1 advantage to PSG in the Champions League who went on to win 2-0 and knock us out in the first knockout round 3-2 on aggregate. In the following seven days, we lost to Southampton and Newcastle to put our title charge on the verge of ending. We did go on to win every league game after those losses, but sadly for us Man Utd were just too good. Another second place finish, although our points tally of 87 would've been enough to win the title last year.




The stats say its been our best league season, the final results say it still isn't good enough. Next season will be really difficult and its hard to see us getting near this level again. Clyne and Kuhl are off on frees, Ronaldo and Wilshere have retired and various others are on a decline now that they are in their thirties. I wonder if the board will even keep me around to have another crack at it next season.




As I have just mentioned, Cristiano Ronaldo has retired at the age of 40. He was awesome and only missed 10 league games in his three seasons at Boro. During his time here, he manged to get 47 goals and 28 assists with an average rating that grew every season. I did try and convince him to carry on playing but he refused. He has made the move into management but is yet to find a club.

I have also had another offer from Chelsea. Again it is a tempting one and although I thought I would leave if we didn't win the league this year, I am thinking about staying. When we were good last season, we were unstoppable. If I can eliminate some rough areas, then with the bulk of last seasons squad staying at the club I think we could push Man Utd a bit closer.

I rejected the Chelsea offer but then about a week later, I got an offer from Schalke. They are the reigning German champions and their previous manager Pep Guardiola has left to take the Chelsea job that I rejected.




I thought about it long and hard, but it the end I decided to have a crack at the Bundesliga. They have a decent squad and some excellent youth prospects coming through although they could really do with a full back on either side. Draxler is still at the club which is good and will continue to be the clubs captain.

One of the main factors in me leaving Middlesbrough was the finances. They were heading in the wrong direction very quickly. They got over £5m from Schalke to sign me and I may give them a bit more money by going back for a couple of players if we can get them. Two members of my backroom staff resigned when I left, so I will be looking to bring them with me. They are my assistant manager Steve Round and the head of youth development Alex Inglethorpe.



Hopefully one day i'll get the chance to go back to Boro, but for now I feel moving on to a new country will be a great challenge.

After my switch to Schalke, Middlesbrough waited just six days to bring a new gaffer in.



Pochettino had been the evens favourite to get the Schalke job, but obviously they approached me which left the door open for him to move to Boro. That ends an eleven year spell in charge of Spurs.

What's the Schalke wages like? I haven't got Germany loaded in my current game but I've noticed the wages for players in Germany in my current game are inflated beyond belief

Bayern have got some insane wages, but they seem to be the only ones. They've actually got more players on >£200k than we do at >£100k. At Schalke there are 12 players with wages of >£50k and just 3 that are over £100k. That seems pretty good for the reigning champions of Germany.

The Premier League is where all the madness is at though. Man Utd have got 22 players earning >£50k and Man City must be smoking some serious shit looking at the wages they're paying some of their players. Just one example, Icardi is on £300k and is only a backup striker.

Just played against Middlesbrough in a friendly. What a comeback!



3-0 and you fucked it up.

Good luck at Schalke mate, enjoyed this so far!

Thanks, its going well so far!

Oh Nathan, what a waste of five years you spent at Man City. This is a prime example that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. He had it all going for him when we had him at Boro, but then left to go and play 15 games in five seasons when City met his release clause.

The Champions League group stage draw has been made. Should go through although we have reigning champions PSG in our group who have won it two years in a row.

July - December

I started off life at Schalke by going back to Middlesbrough. We were in dire need of a left back so I signed Jeronimo from Boro for £9m. Stefan Trehkopf is a youngster with huge potential so to get him so cheap was great business. Obviously there are add-ons, but they only add about £5m if I remember correctly. The last signing was Flavio on a season long loan from Vasco.



Part of the Trehkopf deal was that he rejoined Furth on a season long loan. Three other decent youngsters left on loan with three more leaving permanently. These things don't show here, but Flavio had his loan terminated in October after playing just one game. He had decent attributes, but just wasn't good enough.




My competitive debut with Schalke would be in the German Supercup against Hamburg. It was a tough game but we managed to sneak out with a 2-1 win. One last friendly and a cup game against a lower league team followed before our league campaign got underway. Our start couldn't have been much better as we won our first four games scoring fifteen and conceding just twice. September and October weren't quite as good as that, but we only lost one game which was in the cup to Wolfsburg. November and December saw our form pick up again as we ended the first half of the season unbeaten in the league and Champions League.




Top of the league and unbeaten. Dream start to my Schalke career.




That win away at PSG meant we won the group and in theory should face an easier draw as a result.

January - May

We were still a bit light at the back so I brought in a promising 17 year old right back from Lyon and Matty Stone from Middlesbrough. The deal for Stone also included an option to buy at any time £3.6m.



No major transfers out, just some deadwood.




The start to the second half of the season was almost perfect. In fact from the resumption of the league in January to the start of April, we won twelve out of thirteen games, including both legs against Marseille in the Champions League 1st knockout round and a league game against Dortmund. The only non victory was a 4-2 loss to Stuttgart, our first league defeat of the season. After this, we could only draw agaisnt lowly Leverkusen and then very nearly went out in the Champions League to Shakhtar. Luckily for us, we won due to our away goal. This would set up a semi final against Inter later on. We responded to that loss by thumping Hamburg 4-0 but in our next game we lost in the league for the second time, again by a 4-2 scoreline but this time to Wolfsburg. Before that game a win would've guaranteed us the title, but because Stuttgart failed to win their game that meant we could no longer be caught and the Bundesliga title is ours!

One win in four isn't great form going into a Champions League semi final, but it didn't seem to matter as we managed to win 2-1 against both Inter and Frankfurt. The second leg saw the away goal rule come into action again. But sadly for us, it was to the benefit of Inter. They won the game 1-0 to go through thanks to their away goal in the first leg. Their winner in the second leg came in the 92nd minute... After that defeat, there was nothing to play for as we had already wrapped up the league and had no cup competitions to compete in.




The glorious sight of a Schalke victory! I finally got my first league win! Had it not been for a series of wins towards the end of the season, Bayern would've been about 9th/10th.

I've had more international offers, they seem to be the same three every season. I rejected them all.




In other news, the Champions League group stage has been drawn. We seem to play against PSG at some point every season.

2026 Summer Transfer Window

Not too much spent in the summer despite the board giving me a huge budget to play with. I did try with some big bids for a right back from Bayern, but they got me nowhere. They turned down £40m like it was nothing. I did also try to sign Kaya, who we had on loan last season, but Lyon didn't want to sell.

I bought Stone permanently after activating a buy clause in his loan deal and also signed Carter on a free from Middlesbrough. He will be a backup midfielder.

Indio is a decent young goalkeeper who also joined on a free.

China, from Brazil, will be a backup central defender with Stone although he has much more potential.

Lastly, I signed another keeper. Vermeersch is an 18 year old with big potential.




Plenty of players leaving the club, although the ones leaving permanently were deadwood. We managed to keep hold of all of our best players despite big interest for three of our back four.

Vermeersch has rejoined Club Brugge on loan for the season as part of his transfer. Indio has also left on loan for two seasons at Hoffenheim.

Stefan Trehkopf, who we signed last summer, will spend another season out on loan, this time at one of our partner clubs.

Mayer and Osei were decent youngsters, but neither were really good enough. Osei already wanted to leave last season and with Stone and China coming in, I though it was best to move him on now.

Just found this player at Man Utd. I'm glad I don't have to play against him! Both of these screenshots were taken 2nd January 2027, just thirteen days before he turns 27.




His career so far. What makes this so amazing is that he isn't even a striker or attacking midfielder

August - January

I got a bit carried away with this and kind of went a month too far. Anyway, we started the season off with another German Supercup win, this time with a 2-1 victory against Bayern. We cruised through the first cup game and won our opening two league games in similar fashion. After that though, almost our entire starting eleven became either injured or in need of a rest at the same time. As a result I had to play some of the reserves and we suffered. We lost games to our three main title rivals, Wolfsburg, Dortmund and Stuttgart while also losing both of our opening Champions League games. Things were looking a bit grim in Europe already.

The duration of our injured squad was causing us major selection problems from the Hamburg St. Pauli game on the 12th September through to the game against Hamburg on 21st November. Luckily we had managed to keep up a pretty good run of form in all competitions but our European hopes were hanging by a thread. The away game at PSG was the first time I had a fully fit squad to choose from after the injury crisis. Just in time, had we lost that game it would've been an exit into the Europa League, but we hung on for a 0-0 draw. Because of our thrashing at the hands of Valencia earlier in the season, we had to beat them 4-0 to steal 2nd place from them. To my disbelief, we actually went out there and did it, a 4-0 victory! We followed that up by thrashing Freiburg away who had only lost one game all season in all competitions. I played a reserve team in a 5-0 win over Frankfurt before we finished 2026 with a draw against Bayern.

2027 is going well so far although we have only played three competitive matches. The goal we conceded to Hamburg St. Pauli at the end of January was actually the first time we had conceded at home in a competitive game since the end of October. Lets hope the second half of the season lets us stay injury free!




Despite the injuries, we are still top of the league, nine points ahead of the next team.




Confirmation of our last gasp progression to the knockout round.

Winter Transfer Window

I made two signings in January. Rossi is a 17 year old attacking midfielder from Italy. Despite his age, he has already played over 60 league games in his career. He has the potential to be a world class player someday.

I also decided to bring in a right back. We didn't really have much cover there, although Amaral will probably be replacing our current right back in the starting eleven. I had previously gone in with an offer of £10m plus a backup keeper who wanted out, but he couldn't agree a deal with Shakhtar and the deal was off. I went back with just £9.5m and they actually accepted it. Even more remarkably Amaral and his agent asked for even less money the second time around too!




No major transfers out. Rossi will be staying at Genk on loan for 18 months as part of his transfer. The others were decent youngsters leaving to get some experience, apart from Laux who was the keeper that wouldn't leave for Shakhtar during my original attempts to sign Amaral.

I got a rather odd and totally unexpected opponent in the 1st knockout round in the Champions League.



I had a look at the Premier League table and they are currently top of the league, just ahead of Man Utd.

Brilliant career with Schalke so far JUST made it to top 2 in your group

Yeah, it had to be 4-0 for us to sneak into 2nd and we somehow did it! Huddersfield should be an easy win in the knockout round.

February - May

The second half of the season started very well. Huddersfield didn't provide much of a challenge in the Champions League as we hammered them 5-1 in the first leg. For the return game I played a rotated team and still managed to get a draw in England. Our league form remained pretty good, despite Stuttgart and Wolfsburg completing the double over us, we continued to extend our lead at the top of the table. That was largely down to a comprehensive 5-0 demolition of rivals Dortmund, who had stuck four past us earlier in the season.

Unfortunatly after that Dortmund game, we once again suffered an injury crisis and had eight players injured. That included top goalscorer Edson. Rather than bring in a backup striker, I decided to give the Schalke reserve team striker a run of games. Thankfully it worked as Boris Dahlmann scored three goals in his first three games, including a vital away goal at Juventus. We won the second leg to progress to the semi final against Lyon. After that though, we suffered two straight defeats which saw us crash out of the cup at the semi final stage. I played a reserve team against Halle before our Champions League semi with Lyon. Lyon though were too good for us and defeated us 4-0 over the two legs. They would go on to beat PSG in the final. Inbetween those losses to Lyon, we did successfully wrap up a second title in two seasons since my arrival by beating Freiburg 2-0. We finished the campaign with a nice 2-0 victory over Bayern.




Two straight titles for me in Germany! Bayern once again made a late charge to get a top 4 spot and in the end finished as our nearest challengers.



Unsure if I will stick around for a third season, but there doesn't seem to be any decent opportunities elsewhere. I am considering moving back to the Championship/lowly Premier League team and taking them on another Middlesbrough style rise.

Summer Transfer Window

Only one player coming in this summer although I did make several offers for numerous world class players. Its a big name player, but at 36 years old Eden Hazard isn't close to the player he once was. Brought him in as an experienced backup.



Plenty leaving Schalke, but as usual it was only deadwood. Bobson Carter didn't get as many games as I expected so I let him go to Huddersfield for £6m. Not bad for a player I signed on a free transfer.

Promising youngster, Stefan Trehkopf, will once again spend a season out on loan, this time at Young Boys.

Champions League Group Draw

We got a kind group in the Champions League draw. Celta and PSV were the worst teams in pots 2 and 3 so we should be topping this group.

July - December

We won the Supercup for a third year in a row before playing a final friendly and a cup game against a lower league team. Next up was our attempt to defend our title and win it for a third time in a row with our first league game being played against former affiliate club Heidenheim. Apart from a defeat away at Bayern, we won every league game to sit top of the league going into October. The Champions League didn't go anywhere near as good as i'd hoped as we suffered defeats home and away against Fenerbahce. Celta Vigo also battered us 4-1, just after we had lost 4-0 at Dortmund for the second season in a row. A few draws against teams we should've beaten and a loss to Wolfsburg means we are currently out of top spot, but not too far back from the leaders. We are also still in the cup going into 2028.




A few sub par performances has seen us lose a bit of ground, but that gap isn't too big. Its going to be tough, but we can do it!




For the second year in a row, we scraped through the group stage to finish second. We got away with it last year by getting an easy draw in the knockout round, lets hope it happens again this year.

Last year it was Huddersfield in the knockout round, this year we return to England again but it will be against a much tougher opponent.

January Transfer Window

After finding ourselves in third place going into the second half of the season, I decided to actually spend some money this season. Both of the new signings are talented, 23 year old Brazilians. They cost a lot but if I had waited another 12-24 months to sign them, I think their prices would've been out of our reach financially.

Renatinho is strongest up front but is also a very good AMR. He will be on the wing for now.

Carlinhos is natural in five different positions; ML, AML, MC, AMC, ST. The only one of those positions I don't use is ML so he will be a very useful player.




The only big name leaving in January was Eden Hazard. I didn't expect him to get too much game time but just two league games in the first half of the season wasn't enough. He was on £170k per week so it seemed like a good idea to get rid of him. I'm surprised he accepted the move to Wigan, they are currently fighting against relegation in the Premier League.

A couple good season there mate that I've just caught up on, progressing well once again!