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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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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?

I went from FM17 to FM21, as again I loved 17 so much (I had two epic Journeyman saves on it) that I didn't need a new game for those intervening years.  For me it's about enjoying the game version I have, rather than feeling the need to ‘upgrade’ each year, as long as it is still giving me what I want.  I watch several content creators, and could tell from them that FMs 22 & 23 weren't really much different/better than 21, plus I was loving it anyway so stuck with it.

It really does look like FM25 is going to suck too, so the chance to get 24 for free from Epic Games last month was too good to turn down.  As I mentioned earlier though, that version is on the back burner until I'm done with 21.  As I said too, if you are loving 24 as much as you say you are then stick with it!

If you like FM24 so much then there is nothing wrong with sticking with it.  I'm still playing FM21 because I love that version so much.

For the new game (whenever that comes out) I would not bother with FM25, just wait ‘til FM26 comes out and you can then watch content creators playing it to decide if it’s for you or not.  Personally, I'm waiting until FM27 as I have FM24 downloaded and ready to go, once I'm finally done with 21.

Can you tell us where we can download your superb 2d and 3d kits from please?  Also, where are your tactics available from?

Que?

If it's always the same date that the crash occurs on, have you tried holidaying past it?  That sometimes gets around it (in past FMs it did anyway).

7zip usually works well too, and is free.

When your wife walks out on you and you don't notice for two weeks.

Yes, ‘newgens’ are still very much a part of FM24.  They have to be to ensure that saves can go on for as long as the player wants them to.