TNSSO - Comments

30th October 2025

Now I may be the manager of Udinese these days, but I'm still winning awards for my time at Antwerp. My legacy in Belgium continues.

Serie A

Matchday 3

It was the debut of all debuts for new loan signing, Julian Rijkhoff as the youngster scored a hat trick and bagged an assist as well! You don't see many 10/10 performances at all, let alone on a player's debut and I can only hope it's a sign of things to come!

Serie A

Matchday 4

We concede for the first time in the league but it doesn't stop us going on to win the game comfortably. 4 wins from 4 as our perfect start continues.

Serie A

Matchday 5

Our 100% start to the season remains intact! We didn't have our shooting boots on at half time, so I made a couple of changed and introduced Kuol who's second half brace bagged the win.

Serie A

Matchday 6

Roma were always going to present us with my toughest challenge so far since taking over as Udinese manager, but we still managed to get a point from the game, largely in part to Gianluca Mancini's performance at centre back. He looked determined not to let his old team get the better of us.

Injury: 

Since his arrival at the club, Steven Berghuis has done well. He has 4 assists and 2 goals for us in his opening 7 games for the club, but we will now have to do without him for the next 6 weeks due to a knee injury picked up in training.

Serie A

Matchday 7

Genoa haven't had the best start to their league campaign (sitting 14th at kick off), so they would provide us with easier opposition than Roma did in our last game. It only took us 10 minutes to take full advantage of that as we raced into a 3 goal lead. The game was already over and we played the remaining 80 minutes without ever really getting out of 2nd gear.

Serie A

Matchday 8

Garang Kuol scored his 5th and 6th goals in his last 4 appearances and the in form striker's brace helped us on the way to another win! Top performance, top result!

Kuol is now leading the race for the Serie A golden boot. It's early days but the young striker is certainly making an impact for us this season and so far looking like a very tasty loan signing.

Serie A

Matchday 9

I'm extremely pleased with that! To grind out a draw away against one of the best teams in the country, with only 10 men for an hour of the game, is a fantastic result!

Serie A

Matchday 10

Another good performance and another win on the board. We're going strong right now.

Serie A

League Table

I still haven't lost as Udinese manager and 10 games into the season, we lead the division! Some strong starts all round though means we're not exactly running away with things at the moment and there are a whole host of big Italian sides sitting right up our arses and ready to capitilize if we hit a run of bad form. 

1st September 2025

Well this was a complete turn up for the books. A £30 million one year sponsorship deal! What a source of income...possibly the best deal I've ever seen!

Transfer News

As I continue to look to trim the squad, the latest player to leave is Mihailo Ristic who joins Sassuolo for £2.8 million.

Pre season has gone pretty well, although we did mostly play sides from the lower divisions so I wasn't expecting to lose any of these. The 15-0 drubbing of Trestina was a fun day for our attackers.

As we head into the new season, the bookies don't have us a million miles off the top sides in Serie A. AC Milan are the favourites to lift the title (they have won the last 4 so it would make it 5 in a row for them). Inter Milan have finished as runners up for the last 4 seasons as well, but Juventus and Napoli are expected to better them this year.

Coppa Italia Fanta

First Round

Before any league action though, my first competitive game in charge would be in the Coppa Italia. And I kick things off with a win against Serie B opposition. Scott McTominay had a really impressive debut for the club, playing the through ball for the first goal before tapping in from close range to score the 2nd.

As I came to register my squad for the Serie A campaign, I realised we have a huge problem. I have to register 8 players that have been trained in Italy for 3 years between their 15th & 18th birthdays...something I am severely lacking! I've therefore had to make some big ommissions from the squad and put some players up for sale...and when the funds come in, I'll almost certainly have to replace them with Italian players.

Transfer News: 

I have quite a lot of options in the wide areas so it made sense to lose a player that didn't help with the registration rules from this area. Benjamin Dominguez joins Cagliari for £3.2 millon.

Transfer News:

 Backup goalkeeper, Ivan Villar was next to go as he returns to his native homeland of Spain to join Mallorca for £1.5 million.

Serie A

Matchday 1

What a statement this was for the opening day of the season! We absolutely hammer Sassuolo, dominating them from the off! It was even sweeter from my point of view as the club hadn't beaten Sassuolo in their last 4 meetings.

Transfer News:

 With Ivan Villar leaving the club a week ago, I had been on the hunt for an Italian backup keeper. The man that comes in is Simone Ghidotti from Lens for a fee of £275k.

Transfer News:

 As I continue to work towards building a squad that works with the rules, Pascal Gros is the next player to leave the club as a casualty of the situation. Still, he is 34 now and I managed to bag £1.8 million from Nottingham Forest for him and get his £31k wages off the bill too, so this was a good deal.

Serie A

Matchday 2

Not as emphatic as the opening day, but another win nonetheless. Scott McTominay's excellent volley was the difference between the two sides.

Transfer News:

 On deadline day, I allowed my number 1 striker, Beto to leave the club. He doesn't help us with registration rules and although the striker I have my eyes on as his replacement doesn't either, I needed to sell a high profile player to raise funds to bring in those that will help the squad overall. Beto joins Brentford for a fee of £19.5 million.

Transfer News:

 £8.25 million of the Beto money was spent on a new Italian centre back as Gianluca Mancini joins us from Roma. We are not lacking in centre backs but I needed to bring in an Italian one as I plan to sell one of the non-Italians.

Transfer News:

 A new Italian midfielder then joins the club from Fiorentina - actually returning to the club after making 71 league appearances here in a previous spell. I spent the other half of the Beto money (£9 million) on Rolando Mandragora and the 28 year old centre mid is a really good addition to the team. We are building a really nice core of Italian players through the squad now.

Transfer News:

 With just 2 hours of the transfer window left, it was panic stations to find another striker. I had used all of the available transfer budget though, so could only really turn to the loan market. I'd expected to be able to sell a centre back but the offers I'd received were well under the values I was prepared to accept for any of my CBs. Julian Rijkhoff looks like a decent prospect from Dortmund though and both Werder Bremen and Bournemouth were both in for him on loan deals as well, so hopefully he can fill a void for us up front, until January at least when we can review.

So it's been a busy opening couple of months in my new job but as the transfer window closes, this is the state of the squad going into the rest of the season and although there are some concerns around the fact we don't have a top, top striker up front, I'm generally pretty happy.

28th July 2025

The finances of my new club are stable, although we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination. There is no money for me to spend on new players unless I make some sales first. However, I do have over £100k available in the wage budget...which is double the budget I ever had at Antwerp which will hopefully give me more scope to build a stronger side in the next couple years.

The reason that there is no money available is probably based on the fact the club have just spent £44 million on new players prior to me arriving!

Scott McTominay has come in, but the marquee signing is Thilo Kehrer from West Ham. The centre back was here on loan last year and that deal has obviously been made permanent.

Sales are likely too as I take a look at my squad...which is big! I also desperately need to improve a couple of positions so funds will be needed for that...we are clearly lacking a decent goalkeeper, but there is no denying that most positions can be improved.

One area we do seem to be strong in is defence. I already pointed out new signing Kehrer above, but even better than him is Jaka Bijol, who is possibly the best player in the whole team!

Whilst we do also have an impressive striker too in Portuguese front man, Beto! He hasn't got the greatest scoring record though averaging about 1 in 3.5 games for the club and I'll be looking to get a better return out of him than that!

After the success I had with it in Belgium, naturally I'll be looking to utilize the same base tactic here in Italy. As you'll see every player has a personalised role and instructions based on their strengths and weaknesses just as I did before.

Transfer News: 

The first player to leave is 34 year old Spanish full back, Lucas Vazquez, who joins Atlanta for £775k.

Transfer News:

 A few other minor sales followed all contributing to my transfer fund.

Transfer News:

 Then my first signing for the club...albeit a loan one. Garang Kuol was on loan at Gladbach last year and scored 10 goals in the Bundesliga. With that experience behind him, I'm hoping he can score a few more than that for us this season in Serie A. The 20 year old striker comes in for the season from Newcastle...just take a look at his devestating pace and acceleration...that could be a real weapon for us!

Transfer News:

 My first permanent signing was the new goalkeeper we so desperately needed. I was keen to add an Italian to the squad as we are lacking in our own nationality players, so the man I've brough in is Mattia Perin from Juventus. He is a considerable step up on the quality of keeper we had available and comes in for a fee of £2.4 million (I jiggled the budgets a little to make it happen).

Meanwhile, out in Belgium, Antwerp make a statement appointment to replace me as Erik ten Hag takes over as their new manager...although he has lost the first game of the season to Gent.

Transfer News: 

Two new arrivals at the club to boost the quality of the squad depth. With both players aged 33, they have only signed 1 year contracts but both should be able to assist us this year and help us achieve our goals. Renato Steffen can play anywhere down the left or right, so he offers a huge amount of versatility, whilst Steven Berghuis brings a wealth of experience with him and can bring an attacking threat.

10th July 2025

The Belgian league is continuing to rise in stature and the Jupiler Pro League is up to 8th in the European rankings.

Whilst our good performance in the Champions League last year has seen Antwerp rise to 27th, meaning we are now the highest ranked Belgian side in the continent.

And it is official...Antwerp do now top the Belgian football club rankings!

It would be fair to say my work here is done and I am now destined for bigger things in a tougher league maybe?! It would be fair to suggest I should test my managerial skills in another country after completing a double treble in Belgium?! With the Udinese job looming, it would be fair to suggest a move to Italy is on the cards?!

I've taken the job with the Italian club offering me a 3 year contract and virtually doubling my wages. I've also brought a whole load of my staff with me too!

I leave Antwerp with a sensational record of 125 wins from my 168 games in charge!

And my career trophy cabinet after my first job is pretty impressive after just 3 years in charge...

3x Jupiler Pro League

2x Croky Cup

2x Belgian Supercup

I also made it to 3rd place on the Belgium managerial hall of fame list!

And finally, I did make the favoured personnel list of the club!

But now we embark on the next chapter of my managerial journey. The Dacia Arena will be my new home!

And my new club have some fairly useful facilities...it took me three years to build Antwerp up to this level so it's nice to start my new job with comparable facilities from the off.

The biggest plus of my new supporter base is that they don't expect me to play direct football! Yay!!

In terms of my new employers, a top half finish in Serie A will suffice for my first season in charge, whilst working to grow the reputation of the club...something I have good experience of in Belgium.

Top half would certainly be an achievement based on the fact Udinese have well and truly become a bottom half side over the last 10-15 years.

So here we are, in Italy...let's see if we can replicate the success of what I achieved in Belgium! Looking forward to this!

END OF SEASON 2024/25 REVIEW

In the end the league was won easily...in fact it couldn't have been any easier as we dominated the competition for most of the season!

The Croky Cup was also retained this year and again we never really looked in doubt in any game throughout the competition.

The Supercup was won again as well, which rounded off a domestic treble for the second season in a row. Meanwhile in the Champions League we did ourselves proud and made it through the group stage. A win over Shakhtar in the playoff knockout was a good result before Manchester City proved a step too far. But we can be proud of our showing in the competition again this season.

Overall Squad Stats

The New Arrivals

The Best 11

Club Awards

League Awards

Not much change in the way of the supporter profile over the past season, although it's strange to lose social media followers after another successful season. The fans simply won't drop this idea of playing direct football!!!

The Commercials

Finances

The club is in a pretty stable position despite the large amount of debt that still needs paying back.

The board didn't exactly bless me with the biggest budgets for the Summer though, with only £6 million available to spend on new players!

But that might be down to the fact they are forking out £12 million on stadium upgrades. Initially the plan was to upgrade the seating by just under 3,000 but it seems those plans have been enhanced and we will now increase capacity by over 8,000!

2nd June 2025

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 34

Massive win in terms of the title race! Absolutely massive!

It leaves us a maximum of 2 wins away from winning our 3rd straight league title. However, things could be wrapped up sooner if we win our next match against Genk and Gent lose to Leuven.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 35

We had 20 shots at the Genk goal in this game, but only managed to score once! However, due to such a solid defensive display, that one goal was enough to take all the points.

Gent did win as well, which means we have to wait at least one more game to seal the title...it is now agonizingly close!

For now though, we turn our attentions to the Croky Cup Final against Cercle Brugge. With them currently playing out their final games in the relegation group of the top tier, we would naturally come into the game as favourites to lift the trophy for a second consecutive season, although I possibly would have expected us to be a shorter price with the bookies. We do have a few injuries going into the game though and this will give Cercle confidence they can win the game.

Croky Cup

Final

We were the much better team and fully deserved this result. Great to pick up another trophy and the second step towards second successive domestic treble is now complete! Now to go on and win the league title!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 36

At the first possible opportunity, we win the league title in emphatic fashion, thrashing a Mechelen side that looked miles off it compared to where we are at right now! An excellent performance!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 37

With the league wrapped up, it seems it's all about entertainment for our fans now as we play out an 8 goal thriller in our next game. It was another 3 points though.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 38

We well and truly are the entertainers offering up another 10 goals here in this one! 18 goals in our last two games is just madness, but nobody can deny they get good value for money coming to watch us play!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 39

A much more conventional win this time round! Nice to see that we haven't lost focus since winning the title and continued our good form afterwards.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 40

And we finished off the season with an easy win against the side that finished 2nd in the league. This result just goes to show how far we are ahead now of all the other Belgian clubs.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Table

Our most convincing title win yet sees us finish 22 points above our nearest rivals!

20th April 2025

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 28

It can't be underestimated just how good a win this was! USG came into this game 3rd in the table and on a 13 game unbeaten run, so to absolutely batter them the way we did was superb!

Champions League

Round of 16 Second Leg

A brave effort against one of the strongest teams in the world and losing 2-0 over two legs against City is nothing to be ashamed of!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 29

An easy win over the bottom side.

Youth Intake: 

This year's intake isn't terrible but it isn't amazing either. Possibilities for a couple of these to maybe play for the first team one day, but they won't be world class players.

Nand Bruneel is probably the most promising of the lot.

In terms of wonderkids, we have one making the list this season. Stanislas Mboyo is number 11!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 30

Our final game of the regular league format (before the split into the Championship Group) ends in a big victory. Nice to get some revenge over Standard who beat us earlier in the season.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

We absolutely ran away with the regular league campaign, a good 18 points clear at the top of the table!

Which means we carry a 9 point lead into the Championship Group stage and surely with 10 games remaining, this league title is very much ours to lose!

Injury: 

Unfortunately, top goalscorer Vincent Janssen won't play any more part this season and that is a gutting blow to take!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 31

We kick off the Championship Group stage with a draw, salvaged with the very last kick of the game!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 32

Great way to bounce back from the draw against Genk!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 33

A fantastic second half turnaround ensures another important win on the way to retaining our title.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Table

With 7 games remaining, we have a 10 point lead. Effectively, if we beat Gent in our next game and win one other game we pretty much have the title sealed!

12th March 2025

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 23

Club Brugge are still officially rated as the number 1 side in Belgium, but if results like this keep happening, they won't be for too much longer. An excellent result for us!

There is no denying we struggled in my early days as a manager, but over the past few games we have definitely turned the tables on them.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 24

Despite us going down to 10 men as early as the 4th minute, Westerlo couldn't capitilize on it and never posed a threat here as we still went on to win the game with relative ease.

Champions League

Knockout Playoff 1st Leg

A tight game out in Ukraine ends in a 0-0 draw, but I feel confident we can get the job done at home.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 25

Plenty of rotation for this one, but it didn't disrupt our momentum as we cruise to victory once again against a side that are overachieving this season (sitting 9th).

Champions League

Knockout Playoff 2nd Leg

We absolutely battered the Shakhtar goal for 90 minutes, having 28 shots! We only managed to score twice and late on I was hoping that all those missed chances weren't going to come back to haunt us. Luckily they didn't and we are through to the last 16 of the Champions League!!!

When you get to this stage, any draw is going to be difficult, but we will be really up against it against the mighty Manchester City!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 26

We were far from our best here, but got the result which has been a common theme for us this year. We've steamrollered a lot of sides and when we haven't been that good, we've consistently grinded out results.

Croky Cup

Semi Final 2nd Leg

Bringing a 3-1 lead from the 1st leg, it was widely expected we would progress to the final. And we did...easily...really easily! Never in doubt really was it!

Cercle Brugge await us in the final and we have to feel confident considering they have never beaten us since I've been manager.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 27

I made 10 changes to the starting lineup with the Man City game on the horizon only 3 days away. It definitely disrupted us and we were the worst we've been for a long time. However, again we pick up the result thanks to Yanis Rahmani's excellent free kick which curled around the wall and into the top corner from 25 yards.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

With 3 games to go before the table splits into the Championship Group, we are now 13 points clear at the top and absolutely flying! Only Gent remain anywhere near us as USG find themselves a massive 21 points off the pace back in 3rd. Meanwhile, Anderlecht are now in real danger of being drawn into the relegation group...could the giants actually go down this season?!

Champions League

Round of 16 First Leg

Now although we recognise just how much of a huge challenge it will be to go to Manchester and get a result, we have given ourselves the slimmest of chances of doing something amazing here by limiting City to only a 1 goal win at our place. We created chances of our own as well, so we have every reason to think we can score a goal against this lot!

5th February 2025

Croky Cup
Quarter Final

A good performance and a solid victory which sees us into the semi final of the Croky Cup. Fabian Rieder was unreal in central midfield today, controlling the game throughout, and deserved his goal at the end.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 20

What a result! It's not that we completely dominated them on the stats either...we were just incredibly clinical in front of goal, scoring 6 of our 9 shots!!

Champions League - Group Phase

Matchday 7

Well I wasn't expecting that! We had to ride a lot of Napoli pressure at times, but we defended superbly and up the other end managed to nick a couple of goals to take the win! This is another one of them massive European wins for us!!

Incredibly, that win not only guarantees us a place in the playoff round, but also gives us a shout of finishing in the top 8 and getting safe passage straight through to the last 16 of the competition! That is something I never expected!! Our final game is against Real Madrid who will leapfrog us if they beat us though, so we will be relying on some other teams to falter in that situation - with the way we have played in this competition though, we can't completely rule out getting a result against the Spanish giants, although I recognise how tough it will be to get anything at the Bernabeu.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 21

A much tighter game than I would have liked, but we got the win and that's the most important thing.

Facilities:

 Further upgrades to the youth recruitment system at the club now means we are at an excellent level!

Champions League - Group Phase

Matchday 8

It was always going to be a tough ask to get anything from this game and we were soundly beaten, only managing 3 shots in the entire game and finishing it with an xG of 0.06!!

That defeat saw us drop all the way down to 13th in the table. However, if you'd have offered me a place in the knockout playoff at the start of this campaign, I'd have bitten your hand off for it! We've done ourselves proud in the competition so far this year, winning 5 of our 8 matches! The English clubs dominated the top 8 positions with 4 of them going straight through to the last 16 and it's fair to say Aston Villa are becoming a very good side after winning the Europa League final against us last season. The biggest casualties from the competition at this stage are probably Napoli and RB Leipzig.

Transfer News:

 On deadline day, I still had £4.5 million left to spend and the main transfer I made was as much a commercial one than any other. Signing the number 1 Japanese goalkeeper has to improve our marketing in Asia for sure and Kosuke Nakamura is certainly good enough to challenge for a first team spit between the sticks as well. I met his minimum release clause of £3.2 million to sign him from Portimonense.

Transfer News: 

With a new goalkeeper coming in, it meant that one had to be moved on. However, I certainly didn't expect to get £6.5 million for him!! That's a result as Jean Butez leaves for Sassuolo.

Transfer News:

 It's all about the goalkeepers this window as I may have signed the club's future number 1 keeper as well. Lucas is only 18 years old and looks like a decent prospect. I've paid £1.3 million to sign him from Fluminense.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 22

After scoring two headed efforts from set pieces, centre back Bjorn Engels was handed the ball for the penalty early in the second half to complete a rare defender's hat trick! Anthony Valencia then added a 4th with a powerful effort from a tight angle to round off a comfortable win.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

We sit top of the division and 7 points clear of our nearest rivals, Gent, who look like the only team to be throwing down any sort of challenge so far this season! Once again, Anderlecht are a bitter disappointment, even with Vincent Kompany now back in charge at the club!

Croky Cup

Semi Final 1st Leg

It was a repeat of last year's final, but played over two legs at this stage of the competition this season. Thanks to a couple of late goals, we take a good advantage into the second leg at home too...is another cup final lurking for us?!

Meanwhile, in the Champions League, we will face Shakhtar in the Playoff Knockout Round and we have to feel that this is a very winnable tie for us!

Oh, and for anyone wondering why PSG are also 'blue' on this screen, it's becasue they are our parent club, although we haven't had a single player on loan from them in 3 years as none of their players want to come here, not even their youngsters.

12th January 2025

Transfer News: We kick off this update with a new signing. The window is not open yet, but Arthur is able to join as he was a free agent. And what a great player for us to pick up on a freebie as well. I'm not exactly in dire need of anymore central midfielders, but the opportunity to bring him in just couldn't be passed up!

Croky Cup

Sixth Round

Arthur went straight into the starting lineup to make his debut in our first venture into this year's Croky Cup, and within 8 minutes he had his first assist for the club as he put Anthony Valencia through on goal to score his 2nd goal of the season. It wasn't the greatest team performance overall though and we only just snuck through to the next round, relying on two Scott McKenna headed efforts from a corners late on.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 17

1st vs 2nd so this was a massive win for us in the title race!

Champions League - Group Phase

Matchday 6

With our last two games in the group phase being against Napoli and Real Madrid, I felt we had to win this game to stand a chance of qualifying for the next round, so I'm really chuffed with this one!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 18

Another big win over a club who are a potential threat to our title defence.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 19

Leuven have previously been a thorn in my side at times, but not today. A superb display of attacking first half football had this game over and put to bed before the break!

Croky Cup

Seventh Round

This was the tie that all the other teams in the competition wanted. 1st vs 2nd from the top tier. In a tightly contested fixture, it is us who progress to the next round as we claim a big scalp in our quest to retain the Belgian Cup.

As the calendar year comes to a close, it is awards season again and in 2024, we have picked up another three. Young Player of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year and Manager of the Year.

During my time at the club, Christopher Scott has never really ever been a first team regular, but he fills in at left wing and centre mid for me throughout the campaigns and always comes in a does a job for us. This season he has earned a bit more playing time and with 6 goal contributions in 11 games is starting to become an important player for us.

Transfer News: 

The January transfer window is now open and I have two players leaving the club on the first day of the new year. I didn't want to get rid of either player voluntarily, but neither of them wanted to remain at the club and with both their contracts expiring at the end of the season, I couldn't allow them to leave on free transfers so decided to cash in now. Sam Vines joins Rennes for a fee of £6.3 million, whilst Michel-Ange Balikwisha moves to England to join Everton in a deal worth £10 million.

Although I raised £16 million, only £6 million of it has been added to the transfer budget which is quite disappointing considering we now have over £30 million in the bank.

However, after speaking to the board, they did agree to bump the transfer budget up a little bit.

Transfer News:

 The first player I went and bought was Nigerian inside forward, Henry Onyekuru, from Olympiakos for just £2.3 million, which seems like an absolute steal at this point. His pace can wreak havoc in the Belgian league and he's a decent dribbler and finisher too...he will do just nicely for my left inside forward role!

Transfer News:

 More importantly though, Sam Vines needed replacing at left back. I was keen to do that with a Belgian player to help with the club's fulfilment rules in the league (we have to have 6 Belgian players or players at least trained in Belgium for 3 years before their 23rd birthday in the matchday squad). The man I have brought in is 25 year old, Daam Foulon. I tried to sign him in the Summer but he opted for Cadiz instead, but had failed to break into their team so I went in and activated his £4.3 million release clause to bring him back to Belgium.

We've been on our Winter break for the last couple of weeks, so a little friendly was in order to increase match sharpness before the competitive stuff starts up again. I think, based on this result, we are ready to go!

1st December 2024

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 12

Five goals, five different goalscorers, easy win, great day out for the fans!

One thing that is important as we continue to try to grow the stature of Antwerp FC is to build our worldwide reputation and that can be done by adding new affiliate clubs from around the world. We have now started that process with our new affiliation with Australian side, Western United.

Champions League - Group Phase
Matchday 3

Our first defeat in the competition this season comes at the hands of PSV. It's a disappointing one as I feel these are the sort of games we have to be winning if we want to progress to the knockout rounds.

We do still sit 7th after 3 games, but with games against Liverpool and AC Milan coming up, things are about to get real tough!

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 13

Back in the league it was business as usual though as we get the job done away at USG with a professional performance to bounce back from the PSV defeat.

And that makes it 8 straight wins in the league, with only a single goal conceded on that run as well!

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 14

I certainly didn't expect our winning run to come to an end against the side at the bottom of the league...and it didn't.

We have 6 stadium sellouts this season and our average attendance is about 98-99% of out capacity. I am therefore pleased that the board have agreed to my request to expand the stadium and we will soon have room to accomodate an extra 2800 fans.

Champions League - Group Phase
Matchday 4

Manuel Ugarte's sending off just before half time for Liverpool presented us with a real opportunity and we took full advantage of it! It didn't look like we would when Diaz put them ahead with only 13 minutes to go, but three late goals secured us a massive 3 points on the way to qualification!

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 15

Our winning streak came to an end away at Standard Liege. It shouldn't have done based on the fact we had 18 chances to their 8, but some complacency in front of goal cost us here. We now must bounce back from our first defeat in a while.

My profile in the world of football is clearly on the rise as I have clubs like Juventus now sniffing around me for the their vacant manager's job. For now though, I am happy at Antwerp and with the progress the club is making and reject the opportunity to sit down in front of the Italian club's board. Who knows where the future might take us though.

Injury: Viktor Fischer has made a decent enough start to the season and has 5 assists and 3 goals in all comps so far. However, he will now miss the next 2-3 months through injury :-(
 

Champions League - Group Phase
Matchday 5

I think most would have expected us to get battered at the San Siro, but that wasn't the case and we held our own against a club with a much bigger stature than us! Good effort from the lads and a decent performance that would have been good enough to beat lesser teams in the competition.

We're still 10th in the league phase and well in with a chance to finish in that top 24 and at least go through to the knock out playoff to make the last 16. I reckon if we can pick up one more win from our last three matches, it will be enough to see us through.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 16

We seem to be having a slight dip in form of late and a draw here is considered not good enough, especially after finding ourselves 2-0 in front so early on!

Jupiler Pro League
League Table

It's us and Gent that have opened up a small lead at the top of the division now as we pass the half way stage of the normal competition (before the split into the Championship Group). Club Brugge will be disappointed to be 10 points off the pace, whilst Anderlecht are struggling in the bottom half.​

6th October 2024

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 6

After losing back to back games, it was imperative that we got the win here at all costs!

I have no idea what this award is, but I won it!

A bit of Wikipedia was in order to find out what I had just won!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 7

It took us a while, but eventually we put the ball in the back of the net a couple of times to seal the points against newly promoted Kortrijk.

Facilities:

 Further improvements are taking place in the background of the football club and we have now upgraded our academy coaching to an excellent level.

Champions League - Group Phase

Matchday 1

This was the classic smash n grab win as Ajax were on top for the entire game. They had 27 shots at our goal without finding the net and we punished them for their inability to score, by scoring two of our five chances. Not pretty, but we will take it!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 8

Our schedule was about to get busy with three league games in six days and we kicked that off with a fantastic win to the team that is likely to be the biggest challengers to our title.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 9

Plenty of rotation was required for this one, but it didn't disrupt our flow and we beat Westerlo pretty comfortably. We sat on a 1-0 for a long time, but then 2 goals in 2 minutes with 15 remaining put the game to bed.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 10

Our busy week was rounded off with 3 wins from 3 as we thrash newly promoted Lommel.

Champions League - Group Phase

Matchday 2

This was always going to be one of our easier games on paper and was therefore a must win, so I'm pleased to have come through the game on the right end of the result. Wolfsburg, meanwhile, have lost their opening two and are bottom of the group phase.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 11

Charleroi have been a bit of a bogey team for us at times over the last couple of seasons and it looked like they could be again for a long time here, as they held us at bay for over an hour. But the last 20 minutes, we simply flipped a switch, turned on the style and romp to a big win in the end.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

Eleven games into the campaign and we sit at the top of the table. It took us a lot longer than this to get to the head of table last season and we went on to win the competition, so hopefully we can kick on from here and open up a decent lead.

One of the key players for us again this season is proving to be the ultra creative Marian Shved. He already has 12 assists in 11 games in all competitions! I always feared we would struggle to replace Calvin Stengs after that first season, but Shved has proven to be an incredible capture for us and I'm quickly falling in love with our very own little Ukranian.

29th August 2024

Pro League Supercup
Final

Just as we did last year, we kick off the season by winning the Supercup. An easy victory over Anderlecht who were only there by default anyway after we completed the league and cup double last season! A nice start!

The Supercup win has also seen me enter the top 10 in the Belgium manager's hall of fame.

After Toby Alderweireld's retirement, it was time to appoint a new club captain. The man I have opted for is the man who gradually took Alderweireld's place in the side last year. Bjorn Engels is one of our most experienced players now at 29 years old and I do love my captain being a centre back as well.

Transfer News:

 Laurit Krasniqi has been there as a backup for me over the last 2 seasons, but he isn't good enough for us anymore and the left back joins Famalicao in a deal worth £575k.

Facilities: 

Just a day before the new league campaign kicks off, the board agree to my request to improve the training facilities again. We are gradually building this club up!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 1

A rampant first half performance ensured an easy victory on the opening day of the new season. Cercle Brugge are the bookies pick for finish in 3rd place this year, so to beat them so comfortably is a statement of our intent to defend our title this year!

Transfer News:

 The only position I really felt we needed additional cover now was at centre back. I have spent £4 million to bring Scott McKenna here from Brighton as I think he is good enough to challenge for a starting place and I like the fact he can play with both feet, so can fit into either side of the centre back role for me.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 2

After a pretty dismal first half, the second period was much better with Ricardo Gomes coming off the bench to bag a brace and ensure we open our league account with back to back wins.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 3

Three wins from three, with a comfortable win over Genk. Four goals from four different goalscorers is always good!

The fact that we just thrashed Genk showed just how good a result it was, as they followed up that defeat with a ridiculous win over Anderlecht!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 4

This is one team we have struggled against in the past and again it proved to be the case here as we suffer our first defeat of the season!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 5

A really poor result considering we had already thrashed Anderlecht in the Supercup only a few weeks ago. We were in self destruct mode from the off and with 2 sending offs in the first half an hour, it was always going to make it near on impossible to get a result here!

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

After back to back defeats, we have 9 points from our opening 5 games. However, it's worth noting we only had 4 points at this stage last season and went on to win the title quite comfortable, so there's no need for panic.

Meanwhile, the fixtures for the Champions League are drawn and with these set of games ahead of us, we will do very well to qualify for the knockout stages!

16th July 2024

After our run in Europe that took us to the Europa League Final last year, I fully expect it to have put some of Europe's bigger clubs on high alert around some of our players and expect to receive numerous offers for key members of my squad this Summer. The first that came in was two offers in the region of £12.5 million for Alberto Moleiro, both of which were quickly rejected.

Only a couple of players were released at the end of their contracts this Summer, which should be significant in bringing the average age of the squad down as De Laet and Montoya are 35 and 33 years old respectively.

De Laet deserves a special mention after aking 139 league appearances for the club over the past 6 years and has been a big part of my back to back title winning squad.

Transfer News: My first two signings for the club this year are free transfers that were agreed on pre contract deals. The first is the versatile Italian defender, Lorenzo Venuti, who comes in from Fiorentina. He can play both right back and left back and will likely be an important squad rotation player for us.

Transfer News: The second freebie is Josh Brownhill who leaves Burnley to join us in Belgium. Valued at nearly £30 million, he is an excellent addition to our central midfield numbers for absolutely nothing! I think he'll play an important role for us!

Transfer News: It was already turning out to be a very frustrating window for us as we get to the 10th July and missed out on multiple players already with them opting to join other clubs around Europe. So I turned to the loan market to bolster our left back position and Prince Aning joins from Dortmund for the season ahead!

Despite our lack of movement in the transfer market so far, the bookies certainly aren't taking any risks with us this season and have us as favourites to win the title for the 3rd straight season! Five of our players also make up the media dream 11 this year as well!

Transfer News: Then there was an incoming transfer. 21 year old Irish centre back, Anselmo Garcia McNulty, joins the club from Wolfsburg for a fee of £3 million (with £1.2 mil paid up front). He is good enough to play as a squad rotation right away, but I'm hoping he develops into an important player for us over the next couple of years.

One area I haven't needed to even look at so far this Summer is my striker role. Ricardo Gomes scored more than 30 goals in all competitions last year and is this season's favourite to finish top goalscorer in the league!

Meanwhile, Fabian Rieder is expected to be the best player in the division this season!

Toby Alderweireld has now retired from football and it remains to be seen how much we will or will not miss his influence in the dressing room. He has played 54 times in the league under my management, leading the club to two league titles as my captain!

Apart from an expected defeat against PSG, pre season has all gone pretty smoothly and I feel suitably prepared for our upcoming Supercup game against Anderlecht!

Transfer News: One final piece of business before I sign off on this update. I needed a second right back in the squad and with the Belgain league rulings stating that I have to name no less than 6 players in every match day squad that were developed in Belgium for 3 years before their 23rd birthday, there needs to be a strong presence of Belgian players in the team. So I turned to OH Leuven's Casper De Norre and he joins us for £1.8 million. He has been their first choice for the last couple of seasons, so it also significantly weakens a rival by us bringhing him here.

​

END OF SEASON 2023/24 REVIEW

Another superb season of domestic football saw us complete the treble as we lift the Jupiler Pro League and Croky Cup trophies, along with the Supercup too! Boom!

In Europe, we did ourselves no shame at all in finishing 3rd in our group stage of the Champions League to Atletico and Dortmund. From there we dropped into the Europa League and surpassed all my expectations finishing runners up in the competition!

Overall Squad Stats

The Best 11

The New Arrivals

It's fair to say I was worried about having to replace Calvin Stengs at the end of last season, but Marian Shved has proven to be a more than adequate player to come in and get the goals and assists that Stengs left behind! He was so good that he actually got the league signing of the season!

Club Awards

League Awards

Whilst we are on the league awards, how in the actual **** did I not win the Manager of the Year this season after winning a domestic treble?!

The supporters have been spoilt with back to back titles and now expect it moving forward. I really wish they would drop this thing about playing direct football though as that isn't my style and never has been!

At least the board don't want to see that type of football and are in sync with my possession style of attacking play.

Commercials

Finances

Going into next season, the wage budget has been boosted by about £50k per week and there is £8 million to spend on new players.

The club's stature has risen significantly this season, moving up 80 places in the European club rankings! Antwerp are now a top 50 European side...last year we weren't even in the top 100!!

​

1st June 2024

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 38

Over the last 3 games of the season, with the title already wrapped up, it would just be about managing the player fitness and sharpness in the squad, ready for the Europa League Final at the end of the campaign. A defeat here, but it doesn't mean all that much so not too bothered.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 39

Anthony Gomes scored his 30th goal of the season in stoppage time to earn us a draw in Brugge. We were dominated for long periods of this match so we definitely nicked a point here.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 40

We finish off the season with a win, which was nice!

The two goals we scored against Genk took our league tally to 100 for the season and that is a new record!

So it was time for the big one! The Europa League final is upon us and fans and pundits alike have been voting for their likeliest outcome and it seems people are struggling to split the two sides. It surprises me as I thought Villa would be the favourites.

Lineups

Europa League

Final

It wasn't the dream end to the season we were hoping for as we were beaten in the final. We can't say Villa didn't deserve it as they were on top for most of the game and we struggled to cope with them at times. It looked for a while like we might get a smash n grab win after Yanis Rahmani put us 1-0 up in the 20th minute and we held on right round to the final 14 minutes of the game. However, Marcus Thuram is a quality player and 2 goals in 4 minutes from him turned the game on it's head and the trophy goes back to England.

We were seen as the biggest overachievers of the season in the competition and I could never have dreamed we would make the final when we dropped out of the Champions League.

Competition Awards

17th May 2024

We go into our first Croky Cup Final under my management as slight favourites to lift the trophy! But previous games against OH Leuven suggest this could go either way!

Croky Cup Final - Lineups
 

Croky Cup
Final

After an uninspiring first half from both sides, the second period was much better with both teams opening up a little as they pushed men forward looking for the win. It was a typically nervey affair and a closely fought game with the match stats looking very even on paper. As the game went on, it looked increasingly likely that the match might be settled by either a moment of magic or a set piece. In the end it was the latter, as Malick Thiaw rose at the back post on 71 minutes to head home from a corner to seal the Croky Cup for us in my second season in charge!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 35

This game came just 2 days after the cup final and we had the 2nd leg of our Europa Cup tie with Lazio just 2 games after this one, so I had no choice but to play a completely changed side in order to rest my best players. With 10 changes to the starting lineup and the fact we still managed to win shows just how good our strength in depth is this season! Impressive!

Anthony Valencia was our main creative threat against Anderlecht as he picked up the man of the match award. The 20 year old winger has gone a little under the radar this season as he doesn't stand out as one of the club's best players, but his 11 assists in 24 appearances in all competitions is a very decent return for the youngster.
 

Europa League
Semi Final 2nd Leg

The key here was going to be keeping Milinkovic-Savic quiet, so in my opposition instructions, I told the midfield to press onto him and go in hard as well. It works as we limited his creativity for the 90 minutes and he has a bit of a shocker. On the other hand, we were solid and disciplined in our performance and a 5th minute strike from close range for record signing, Fabian Rieder, was enough to see us into the final!!

I was really hoping for an all Belgian final, but Brugge couldn't quite get over the line and it is Aston Villa that await us in the final game of the competition!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 36

Back in the league, it was another win on the way to retaining our title! We now only need 1 point from our final 4 games to seal the Jupiler Pro League trophy for a second successive season!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 37

We only needed a point against USG, but we got all 3 in convincing fashion. The score might have only been 2-0 but on the balance of play and the chances created, we could easily have had 4 or 5 here.

Champions again and this is the first time in the club's history that we have ever won back to back titles!

Facilities: To celebrate our title win, the board agree to invest some more money into the club's youth recruitment.

​

2nd May 2024

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 29

It was 1st vs 2nd here and even though we suffered the sending off of Gaston Avila right on half time, we still went on to win this one with relative ease and I think Charleroi will be ****** that they couldn't offer more!

The best wonderkids in the world are announced and we have three current players in the top 50, although it's two really as Rico Henry isn't ours.

Unfortunately though, this year's youth intake was nothing to shout home about and there are no real prospects for the first team here.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 30

The final match of the regular season (before we split into the Championship Group) ends in a resounding victory over Cercle Brugge.

Before the league breaks into the Championship Group, this is how it finished up with us on top by 9 points.

Which means we carry a 5 point lead into the final stage of the competition (with everyone's points getting halved). It might be a tough ask for Club Brugge to win it, but I'd say any of the top 5 are in with a realistic shout with another 10 games to be played.
 

Europa League
Quarter Final 1st Leg

It was back to European action first though and an away trip to Spain! When Villarreal went 2-0 up inside the opening quarter of an hour, I feared we might be on the wrong end of a good hiding! However, my lads rallied well and a determined performance saw us claw our way back into the game and earn a draw which gives us a chance of going through! We were dominated at times, so will definitely need to play better at home to overcome our Spanish opponents, but we have a shot at least!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 31

This certainly wasn't the most convincing of performances but we got the job done and kick off the championship group stage with an away win!

Europa League
Quarter Final 2nd Leg

Fantastic showing from my lads again as we knock out a team that is definitely better than us on paper to make the last 4! On chances and possession, it was a closely contested football match, but we were a bit more clinical on the day and that made the difference!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 32

Our schedule is getting busier with us fighting for trophies on several fronts and with that comes more squad rotation, which ultimately cost us here. However, I can't be too disappointed as this is the first time we have lost in the league since 21st October...that's over 6 months ago!!!

I have got a bit of a striker issue for the last few weeks of the season in the fact that all responsibility is going to fall on the shoulders of Ricardo Gomes, as both Vincent Janssen and Michel-Ange Balikwisha have both picked up injuries! Not ideal at all!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 33

If we hadn't won this game, I'd have been seriously ******! We had over 30 shots at goal whilst Brugge only managed to muster up 4 chances in the whole game, but for a long time it didn't look like it was going to happen for us. In the end, we got the job done though with a couple of second half goals...big 3 points!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 34

It was 1st vs 2nd here as we faced off against our nearest pursuers! And an incredibly impressive win!!

Jupiler Pro League
Championship Group

That win over Genk saw Charleroi go ahead of them in the table, but it also meant we opened up a 7 point lead at the top of the table with just 6 games to go! Could we heading for back to back league titles?!

Europa League
Semi Final 1st Leg

In a frantic opening few minutes of the game, we took an early lead with a dream start as Ricardo Gomes was put through on goal and rounded the keeper before slotting into an open net. However, the formidable Milinkovic-Savic soon had Lazio in front just 7 minutes later and I wondered how we might respond to that. The answer was brilliantly and 11 minutes into the second half, a trademark powerful finish from Yanis Rahmani had us on level terms and we earn a draw in Italy that gives us every chance of making the final with the second leg on home turf!

However, it's going to be a manic busy finish to the season, as we have 8 games to play in the space of just 21 days!! And that all begins with the Croky Cup Final in just 3 days time!

​

22nd March 2024

Europa League
Knock Out Play Off Round 1st Leg

I said before that I felt Olympiakos were very beatable opposition for us and we will go out to Greece with a relatively commanding lead for the 2nd leg that should be enough to see us into the next round. Vincent Janssen seems to have hit a rich vein of form as he scores his 5th goal in his last 3 games.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 25

USG came into this one top of the league and on a 14 match unbeaten run, so to whack 6 goals past them is a very impressive result for us! And one that moves us above them and to the head of the table for the first time this season!

Europa League

Knock Out Play Off Round 2nd Leg

Nice and easy. Comfortably through to the next round as expected.

We will now take on The Hammers in the last 16 of the competition. Club Brugge continue to fly the Belgian flag alongside us in the competition and the further we can both go, the better it will be for our coefficient points.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 26

We haven't lost a league game for 4 and a half months and the last team to beat us in the competition was Oostende! But they couldn't repeat that feat here, even with us having to play nearly an hour with 10 men!

Croky Cup

Semi Final 2nd Leg

We kept our heads and composure to get the job done in the 2nd leg against Charleroi and make it through to our first Croky Cup Final under my management, where OH Leuven await us in May.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 27

Another easy win in the league ensures we open up a 4 point lead at the top! Vincent Janssen really has picked up his form in the second half of the season!

Europa League

Round Of 16 First Leg

It was really disappointing to take nothing from this game considering we had majority of the ball for most of the match, creating more chances than West Ham in the process as well. However, we didn't take our chances and thanks to a late Ings goal, we now have it all to do in London if we are to progress.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 28

I rested most of my better players for this one, with the second leg of the Europa League just days away. It meant this game was a lot closer than people might have expected, but we still managed to grind out the win and take another 3 points.

Europa League

Round Of 16 Second Leg

What a turnaround!!! West Ham got the late goal in the first leg and it was our turn here as an 89th minute winner from Gomes saw us complete an unlikely comeback and knock the London club out of the competition.

In the quarter finals, we face a tough draw against Villarreal. They have to be one of the favourites to win this thing out of the teams that are left.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

Things are shaping up pretty well now as we lead the pack by 4 points with 2 games of the regular season left before the league splits into the Championship Group where we will play the top 6 another two times. On top of that, we have a domestic cup final to look forward to and a quarter final in Europe! It could become a very memorable season!

18th February 2024

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 20

A very tight game that could have swung either way. Both sides took a point in the end and that was probably fair.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 21

It's easy to see why Sint-Truiden are bottom of the league. They were absolutely dreadful here and offered no resistance to our dominant display of attacking football. A nice hat trick for the in demand Jurgen Ekkelenkamp!

Transfer News:

 And that hat trick would be Ekkelenkamp's parting gift to the club as I have received an offer from Manchester City that I simply couldn't refuse. As he moves to England, the deal is worth a whopping £48.5 million which could rise to £52 million with add ons!!

I'm sorry to see my star central midfielder leave the club, but it was just a ridiculous fee for a club like us and couldn't be rejected!

That fee also sets a new Belgian national record for an outgoing transfer!

Despite the ridiculous fee though, only £13 million of it has been added to the transfer fund for me to go find a replacement!

Transfer News:

 It didn't take me long to bring someone in though. I've had my eye on Fabian Rieder for a while, but thought he might be out of our price range for some time. However, the Ekkelenkamp sale has allowed me to facilitate the move and he joins from Young Boys for £15.75 million, with £13 million paid up front! He's only 21 and already looks like a great player...there is no doubt he could be another player who might command a £50 million+ fee in the future!

And that's another Belgian national record broken too!

Transfer News:

 On transfer deadline day, I did also need to bring in a new backup goalkeeper as Jean Butez has picked up an injury that will keep him out for up to 3 months. Justin Heekeren joins us on loan from Schalke until the end of the season to fill that void.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 22

Never really in doubt this one, against the side in 15th place in the division.

Croky Cup

Semi Final 1st Leg

So we had drawn the cup holders in the semi final and they had home advantage in the first leg. Even with a league game against Club Brugge on the horizon, I fielded my strongest available team here (as it's no secret I want to win this cup this season) and it paid off as we took the advantage of a 2 goal lead back to our home ground!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 23

A massive game in the title race as 3rd played 4th and we just about edged it and take the 3 points on the day. Neither side looked full of confidence and both looked like they were trying not to lose rather than trying to win...that tactic favoured us in the end...just!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 24

Deinze have been gradually slipping down the table all season after a promising start and this result will assure their fans that they are in complete freefall and bang in trouble, unless they improve quickly. On the flip side, our fans went home with big smiles on their faces!

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

We keep on winning, but fair play to both USG and Charleroi who keep picking up results themselves and keeping us at bay in 3rd place for now! There is just 6 games of the regular season left now before the league splits...you'll notice that the league went from 18 to 16 teams this season and the Championship Group this year will be top 6 rather than top 4.

Meanwhile, the board will continue to focus on improving the facilities at the club at my request!

21st January 2024

Our first taste of the Croky Cup this season will be against RWDM. It's the same team we drew last year in the 7th round and played out an incredible 5-4 win against them....the fans might be hoping for just as entertaining a game, but I would like to get over the line a little more comfortably if I'm honest!

Croky Cup

Sixth Round

That's a lot more comprehensive against our lower league opposition this year. Much better for my heart rate!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 17

We haven't done that well against Standard in the past, drawing our last two meetings 0-0 with them, so this was a very pleasing result and confirms we have well and truly turned a corner this season now.

In the Europa League, we have been handed a very winnable draw in the Knock Out Play Off Round. Having recorded wins over Dortmund and Atletico this season, we have to fancy ourselves over two legs against Olympiakos!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 18

Back in domestic action for now though and we made light work of OH Leuven, who are having a shocker of a season down in 13th place, after finishing in the top 4 last year!

Croky Cup

Seventh Round

Our last game of 2023 was in the cup and we're comfortably through to the quarter final stage which is where we went out last season. We'll be looking to go a bit better than that this year though as I have the trophy in my sights.

On a personal level, I finish off the calendar year with a new 4 year contract at the club.

Facilities:

 With the bank balance looking at it's healthiest for a while after some Champions League football in the first half of this season, I asked the board to put some money into the club's facilities again.

Awards:

 As we turn from 2023 to 2024, it was time for the end of year awards and there was a Manager of the Year for me, whilst Calvin Stengs was so good last season that he picks up the Golden Boot winner (which isn't a top goalscorer award) even though he only played half the year in the country!

The January transfer window is now open, but without spending a penny we have a bolster to our attacking ranks. Viktor Fischer has been on loan at AIK for 2 seasons, but finally returns to the club and looks a decent enough player for us as well. He did alright out in Sweden scoring 21 times in 49 games and if he can bring that sort of form back here with him, I'll be happy.

Transfer News:

 An unexpected bid came in from Porto for central midfielder, Jurgen Ekkelenkamp, for an initial £23.5 million rising to over £30 mil! That's massive money for us, but he's one of my best players and I don't want to lose him, so reject the offer, although it will be a real test of my resolve if they come back with a much bigger one!

Unfortunately, it has now unsettled the player and after a meeting to try to convince him to stay, I might be fighting a losing battle! I have at least agreed with him that I'll only accept a bid if it is in excess of £52 million and I don't expect Porto to go that high!

Croky Cup

Quarter Final

After a couple of weeks off for the Winter break, we returned to action in the cup. It took less than 60 seconds for Vincent Janssen to put us in front here, but the 2nd goal didn't come until 4 minutes from time. Not entirely comfortable, but we are through to the semi final and have gone at least one step further than last season.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 19

Back in the league, it was another impressibe victory as well as we come out on top in a tightly contested game against Genk.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

We've moved up to 3rd now and quickly closing in on top placed USG, who are having a storming season to be fair! Anderlecht are doing much better this season and look like genuine contenders again, whilst Oostende look destined for the drop. 

12th December 2023

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 11

Absolute dog ****! We lose at home to the side at the bottom of the league who came into this game losing all 10 of their prior games! Failure to score again is what costs us after having 20 shots on goal without finding a single goal!

Champions League
Group Stage - Matchday 3

I needed a reaction to the poor result against Oostende, especially knowing that a win here could put us in a good position at the half way stage of the group. But we didn't get the result which was disappointing as we did have another 24 shots!!

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 12

A solid result which we had to work hard for. Ricardo Gomes hasn't been banging them in for fun so far this season but hopefully this brace will do him the world of good.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 13

Pretty routine this one. I never expected us to lose to Eupen and we made pretty light work of them, with Marian Shved starring with 2 goals and an assist.

Champions League
Group Stage - Matchday 4

What a result out in Serbia as we thrash Red Star on their own turf. Shved was again in top form as he shone with an impressive display.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 14

Charleroi came into this game at the top of the league, so a draw isn't the worst result in the world from our point of view. It was a pretty evenly contested game and probably the fairest result on the day.

Our next game would see us invite Atletico Madrid to the Bosuil Stadium, knowing that if we beat them we would knock them out of the competition and qualify for the knockout rounds. This is a position I never expected us to be in!!

Champions League
Group Stage - Matchday 5

We didn't get the result we wanted, but the scoreline hugely flatters Atletico as they scored from two corners in stoppage time to nick the win after what had been a very even 90 minutes. We can hold our heads high once again!

We still have an outside chance of getting through, but we have the daunting task of beating Dortmund whilst also now needing a favour from Red Star. On the plus side, we will at least drop into the Europa League as a consolation if things don't go our way.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 15

Cercle Brugge have to be one of the best improvers so far this year as they sit 4th after finishing 14th last season! Despite that, we dominated them here and this win saw us leapfrog them in the table!

Champions League
Group Stage - Matchday 6

This is genuinely the best single performance my team has given me since I took over the club. What a performance to beat one of Germany's giants in their own back yard and in such convincing fashion as well! I could not be prouder of my team right now!

It's such a shame for us that the result didn't see us through to the knockout stages as Atletico comfortably beat Red Star in the other game to go through as group winners in the end. We will drop down into the Europa League though and after beating the likes of Atletico and Dortmund in this very difficult group, we have no reason to fear anyone in that competition. It's also worth noting that no other 3rd placed team in the Champions League Group stage scored as many as 10 points and our tally would have been enough to finish 2nd and go through in three of the eight groups, so we can count ourselves a little unlucky to go out.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 16

After losing to Gent 3-2 on the opening day of the season, I was keen for us to get some redemption here. And in another mini goalfest, we did turn the tables and get the win I really wanted!

Jupiler Pro League
League Table

We continue climbing up the division and have lifted ourselves into the top 4 for the first time this season. We're only 5 points off the leaders now and very much in contention now to put up a defence of our title.​

10th October 2023

Champions League
Champions Path Playoff 2nd Leg

With a 4-0 lead from the first leg, I heavily rotated the side for this one and although we weren't anywhere near full strength, we still won in Romania as well and it will be Champions League group stage football for us this season!!

The group stage gives us a relatively tough draw, but then it's always going to be a tough one when you are 4th seeds in amongst Europe's elite. Group H was the one I really wanted as that would have given us a fighting chance, but then we will take Group E as it could have been an absolute nightmare to get groups A or G!!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 6

We are finally finding our best form and this result makes it 4 wins in a row in all competitions.

Transfer News:

 On deadline day, there was only one position I was particularly keen to strengthen. We are a little light at left back, so the loan signing of Manu Sanchez from Atletico Madrid is a good one to provide proper competition to Sam Vines for his place in the team.

At the end of the transfer window, this is the state of play with the squad I have until January at least.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 7

By the time Westerlo had their first shot of the game in the 49th minute which they scored from, we had already created and missed 14 chances of our own!! I thought it was going to be one of those days, but late on we eventually got the job done in a game where anything less than maximum points would have been unacceptable!

Champions League

Group Stage - Matchday 1

Even though we fall to defeat in our opening group game (which was expected anyway), I am proud of the effort from my lads here and we can actually feel a little sorry for ourselves that we came away with nothing after matching Dortmund in both possession and chances created statistics!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 8

After our poor start to the season, this was a must win game really against Brugge, so it was bitterly disappointing that we never showed up! We were terrible from start to finish and well beaten by a much better side!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 9

I demanded a much improved performance before kick off and I got it. 15 year old Stanislas Mboyo got the important first goal for us, with a banger from 25 yards!

Champions League

Group Stage - Matchday 2

Well I wasn't expecting that! What a ******* incredible performance in a game where I was expecting us to be on the wrong end of a hiding! Amazing stuff!

After two games in Group E, we actually sit inside the top 2! Don't get me wrong...I totally don't expect us to qualify from this group, but we've given ourselves half a chance at least, especially with our next two games being against Red Star!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 10

We brought the momentum of our Champions League win back home with us and record a really good victory here against the league leaders who had only lost once prior to this game. Marian Shved was put through on goal twice from through balls in the middle of the park and he expertly despatched of his two chances to seal the points.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

We are gradually moving up the table and getting closer to where we want to be. Only Charleroi have scored more goals than us now, but our defensive record is something that needs addressing as it's the worst in the top half.

28th August 2023

Transfer News: I don't need to improve multiple areas of the squad now, but I did need a player that can play down the right wing. I've turned to Shakhtar's Marian Shved as the replacement for Calvin Stengs who was here on loan last season. Shved is a decent finisher, but it's his passing ability and vision I am more impressed with and he could be a really good signing for us contributing with both goals and assists. I signed him for £4.6 million, which looks like a great piece of business as he is immediately worth almost three times that amount on joining.

Facilities:

 Althought I brought in a fair emount in transfer fees, only a small proportion of that money was made available for transfers, so instead I asked the board to invest some of it into the club.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 1

We were handed the same opening day fixture as last season (although we were at home last year). Last season we kicked things off with a 3-2 victory, but this season the scoreline was reversed and it's opening day defeat for us!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 2

Despite having 17 shots at goal in this game, we failed to find the back of the net and fail to win again. Not the start to our title defence I had hoped for.

The draw for the champions path playoff to the Champions League has pitted us against either CFR Cluj or Maccabi Haifa. We were the unseeded side, so will not be expected to go through against either opponent.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 3

Yet again our inability to put the ball in the back of the net overshadows the fact we were easily the dominant side in this game. Leuven punished us late on for our own shortcomings! We must do better!

Transfer News:

 Although my main issue seems to be in attack at the moment, I have taken the opportunity to sure up the defence a bit with the loan signing of Malick Thiaw. He comes in for the season from AC Milan.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 4

For **** sake! I'm getting the ******* ump now! AGAIN we dominate....AGAIN we have a **** load of shots...AGAIN we struggle to ******* score! AGAIN we are beaten!

Champions League

Champions Path Playoff 1st Leg

Well, from struggling to score in the league, to having an absolute rout in the Champions League and we have one foot in the group stage now! What a result, and hopefully one we can build on domestically too!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 5

That Champions League win seemed to have galvanised my team into action and at last we get our first league win of the season with a demolition job over Anderlecht!

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

A less than impressive start leaves us lingering all the way down in 13th position. But it's still early days yet and a decent run of 3 or 4 wins would easily see us shoot right up the table!

24th July 2023

It wasn't exactly a clearout this Summer as a few players are released from the club, but not many. The most notable name is Koji Miyoshi who played 18 times for me last season, but only managed 2 assists and an average rating of 6.68.

Transfer News:

 If I want to make signings this Summer, players would have to leave the club to raise funds. The first to go is 19 year old Pierre Dwomoh who joins RB Salzburg for £4.5 million. I'm hoping he doesn't progress to become awesome.

Transfer News: 

Another £1.2 million was raked in from Girona for Birger Verstraete who was on loan at Mechelen last year so won't be missed.

Transfer News:

 Alexis De Sart was out on loan last year as well and he will leave the club for Huesca for £550k.

Transfer News:

 And another one as Dorian Dessoleil leaves for Sint-Truiden for a fee of £675k.

Transfer News: 

Jelle Bataille only played 7 times for me last season and didn't perform that well when he did. So I was more than happy to get £2.4 million for him from Venezia.

Going into the new season, two of the players I signed last year are amongst the favourites to be the top goalscorers in this year's Jupiler Pro League.

Transfer News:

 I finally make my first signing of the Summer, albeit a loan one. 18 year old wonderkid, Rico Lewis, joins us on loan for the season from Man City and will likely take on the right back position as number 1 choice despite his young age.

Transfer News: 

Then came another sale. Michael Frey was on loan at Schalke last year and scored 13 times in the Bundesliga. There is no doubt he could have done a job for us, but he returned on £25k per week (which we can't really afford) and was demanding a new contract making him a star player and wanting us to double his wages. When I said no, he went into sulk mode, so it was time to leave and he joins Genk for £5.25 million.

We only had time to play four pre season friendlies this year as we will contest the Pro League Supercup. It's fair to say that every fixture in pre season was a bit of a goalfest and any fans that would have come out to see us would have enjoyed any of these games!

Pro League Supercup

Final

It's another trophy in the bag as we comfortably beat last season's Croky Cup winners here in the Supercup. There was only ever one side in this game that looked like they'd win it as we dominated proceedings for most of the 90 minutes. That young superstar, Mboyo, kicks off his season with a goal after coming off the bench to score a wonderful headed effort.

It's the first time in the club's history that we have lifted the trophy and although it might not mean that much in the grand scheme of things, it's great to kick off the season with a cup and it helps write my own legacy in the club's history books.

Looking forward to the season ahead and although we are the reigning champs, it is again Club Brugge that are the bookies favourites to lift the title this year. It's probably not surprising considering 7 of their players make up the media dream 11.

End of Season 2022/23 Review

Well I could only dream of a league title in my first season in charge of the club and we pulled it off! Now we just have to try to defend it and it's worth noting that Antwerp have never won back to back titles.

It would be nicer to go challenge for the Croky Cup next season too. This year we went out as soon as we met top tier opposition.

And it was really disappointing not to be playing European football this season after going out in the qualification stage...although it might have contributed to our league win.

New Arrivals

Overall Squad Stats

The Best 11

Club Awards

The bar has been set high in season 1 and because of it, the board now want to see us as regular winners of the league every season!

The supporter profile mimics the expectations of the board, with the fans now expectant of us finishing above Brugge at all costs. We've gained another 100k+ social media followers this year which is a significant rise!

League Awards

Commercials

Finances

As you can see, it's going to be hard to improve the squad this Summer with nothing left in the wage budget and a minimal transfer budget too. I do worry about the long term stability of the club, as my owners have just taken out another £19 million loan for the running of the club!

The Belgian Jupiler Pro League has moved up two places in the European rankings which has had a positive effect on our European qualification places. Future league winners will go straight into the group stage of the Champions League without needing to qualify!

Before we sign off for the end of the season, it's worth mentioning that this was a double championship winning season for us, as Young Reds (which is our U23 side) won the league in the 3rd tier as well. They have won promotion and will play just one level beneath the senior side next season. It should be great for player development for our youngsters to be playing at a decent level.

4th June 2023

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group
Matchday 35

We kick off the Championship Group with a comfortable win over the worst team in the group. With all due respect to Leuven, they look well out of their depth alongside us, Genk and Club Brugge and could be the whipping boys over these last few matches.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 36

Yanis Rahmani and Calvin Stengs have been immense all season down the wings for us and it was those two that completely blew away Genk here to move us within just one win over Club Brugge of the title!

In fact, Club Brugge were beaten at home by OH Leuven, which now leaves them 12 points behind us with just 4 games to play and we have a pretty hefty goal difference in our favour too. But basically, we are just a single point away from lifting the title in my first season in charge!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 37

A draw we needed...a draw we got and we are champions of Belgium! I am elated!!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 38

Our last 3 games were just a formality now and I would take the opportunity to hand some extra game time to some of the squad/fringe players. 8 changes to the starting lineup definitely disrupted our flow and we lose in a tightly contested game, but in all honesty I really don't care.

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 39

This game was all about 1 player. 15 year old Stanislas Mboyo made his debut, scored a goal and got man of the match! This kid could prove to be something very, very special!

The youngster has written his name in the history books, becoming the league's youngest ever player and youngest ever goalscorer!

Jupiler Pro League - Championship Group

Matchday 40

We finish the season with a bore draw away at Brugge.

I'm always looking for things to build on with my careers and one thing we have already here is our record against Brugge. We have played them 4 times this season and failed to beat them on any of those occasions...that's something that has to change, especially as I am sure they will come back at us strong next season to try to reclaim their title.

But for now, we will just revel in the fact we are champions of Belgium, by a pretty comfortable margin!

22nd April 2023

League Format: Now with only 18 teams in the league and effectively 4 matches left to play, it might look like we are just 1 win away from winning the title, but that isn't the case! What happens in Belgium is that the top 4 clubs go into a Championship Group, whilst 5th to 8th go into European Places Playoffs.

The European Places (5th-8th) basically all play each other twice and the one who eventually finishes 5th goes into the European Places Playoff Final.

Meanwhile, the top 4 in the Championship group also play each other twice to determine who wins the league and who qualifies for what European competitions the next season. I think the 4th placed team plays the top team from the other group (so effectively 4th vs 5th) in that European Places Playoff Final but I think this is dependent on who has already qualified for Europe or not (maybe through the cup).

It's worth noting that in both groups, I think all the teams have their point halved before you play each other again. So effectively, a 10 point lead at the top of the table could become only a 5 point lead going into this final set of games!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 31

2 goals in the first 5 minutes from Janssen made this look like it was going to be a romp! However, that wasn't the case and to be fair to our opponents, they rallied and made a game of it, although the damage was already done and we extend our winning streak to 6 games.

NXGN 2023: 

We have one player named on the list of top 50 wonderkids this season. 18 year old central midfielder, Arthur Vermeeren, who has made 15 league appearances for me this season and done alright when he has come into the team.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 32

Anderlecht have been incredibly poor this season and this game really just eclipsed how bad they are at the moment. They were never in this game and it was a lot easier for us than it should have been. Great to see new signing, Alberto Moleiro getting his first goal for the club - an easy tap in from a De Laet cross.

Youth Intake:

 This year's youth intake as an overall isn't as good as my head of youth development is suggesting and I don't agree that it is a golden generation.

However, I don't care about the overall when I'm getting an absolute gem like this. Stanislas Mboyo is 15 years old and is pretty much ready for the first team already! He could be an absolute superstar moving forward!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 33

Our penultimate game of the regular season was against our closest rivals and it was a case of defence wins the day as both sides look solid at the back, playing out a 0-0 draw.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 34

We finish the regular season in a completely uninspiring game against Liege. Both sides looked like they already had one eye on the Championship/European groups that we will now go into after this game.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

So the regular season finishes with us topping the table by an impressive 13 points over Club Brugge. OH Leuven sneak into 4th spot ahead of Gent on the final day.

The points are now halved and we enter the Championship group to see who will win the league title. There is pretty much no way OH Leuven can win from where they are and we have a 7 point lead with 6 games to play so it's definitely ours to lose!

14th March 2023

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 26

It was important to maintain our title challenge by getting straight back to winning ways here. And it was well deserved as well as we dominated the side sitting 17th in the table and staring relegation in the face!

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 27

I gave Ellis Simms a rare start up front after he had been performing well for our U23 side and the on loan youngster grabbed his opportunity with both hands as he bagged a brace.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 28

Calvin Stengs terrorised the Charleroi defence all afternoon and earns himself the match ball with his first hat trick for the club! Our defending wasn't great here as they managed to score twice from only 7 chances they created, but we had more than enough in attack to counter it.

Stengs has become my favourite player for sure, so it's such a shame he's not one of ours and is just here on loan from Nice. We're really going to miss him next year...he's been sensational this season with 11 goals and 13 assists in 21 league appearances.

And his recent form has earned him his 2nd Player of the Month award of the season.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 29

Although the scoreline was pretty standard, this was probably our most dominant performance of the entire season! Ricardo Gomes came back into the starting lineup and within 20 minutes, our top scorer had us in front! Then 16 minutes later, Krasniqi had his 1st of the season to kill the game off.

Jupiler Pro League

Matchday 30

This was a really odd game from our perspective. In the first half, we didn't create anything at all and only managed 2 shots from distance. But then it was like we woke up and in the 2nd half, we had 18 shots at the Eupen goal, scoring twice to take the points. Just not sure what was going on in that first period.

Jupiler Pro League

League Table

With another 5 wins in a row, we have stretched our lead at the top of the league to 10 points now! The gap between us and 5th is an incredible 21 points and most of the teams in the division this year have struggled to live with us!

Finances:

 Things might be going swimmingly on the pitch, but off it, this club seems to have real problems. Despite a takeover early in the season and what I though was a rebalancing of the finances, the club continues to hemirage money and again the bank balance is over £13 million in the red! It's not that we are overspending either as I am using about £90k less of the available weekly wage budget as well. I can only hope there is some sort of windfall in the Belgian league that comes at the end of the season to sort things out?!

5th February 2023

Transfer News: The January window is now open and the first player to leave is centre back Junior Pius. He hadn't made a single appearance for me all year, so it was only fair to let the lad leave to get some football. He joins OH Leuven for nothing.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 20

Oostende held us to a 1-1 draw earlier in the season and again they proved to be stiff opposition here. But this time, we just about got the better of them.

Croky Cup
Quarter Final

There will be no Croky Cup for us this year as we're knocked out by Genk. We were actually really bad here and never really threatened them...we scraped extra time to be fair and I'm not quite sure how. The better team won on the day and we can have no excuses.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 21

Another narrow win against a side that held us to a draw earlier in the season. Defensively we were brilliant here, which was lucky as our attacking play left a lot to be desired.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 22

Solid performance at home against a top half side. It's really good to see us record back to back wins after the disappointment of going out of the cup.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 23

Only 2 sides have beaten us in the league this year and one of them was OH Leuven earlier in the campaign. So it was nice to get a bit of revenge for that here!

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 24

We were totally dominant for the entire match, but it took us beyond an hour to finally get our noses in front. When we did, it never really looked in any doubt, even when they got one back late on.

Transfer News: Deadline day came and I didn't really feel like I needed anyone for the squad, but still kept my eye on my scout's recommendations as I had some transfer budget left to spend. They popped up with 19 year old Alberto Moleiro and he looks decent and could still improve further as well, so I spent £2.4 million to bring him to the club from Las Palmas.

Jupiler Pro League
Matchday 25

I think it's safe to say we've found our bogey team. Despite Seraing being bottom of the league, they have taken 4 points off us this season! Shocking from our perspective really!

Jupiler Pro League
League Table

Despite the shock defeat to Seraing, we maintain a 5 point lead at the top of the table and a 10 point lead over 3rd! Standard Liege have totally turned their season on it's head and gone from relegation battlers to challenging for the top 4 all of a sudden! Anderlecht continue to struggle though!